There's a fresh mode to try in Fortnite this week, thanks to another crossover with Epic Games' beloved Fall Guys beans.

Crown Jam will go live this Friday, January 23 and feature three-versus-three arcade action that blends elements of basketball and football with the usual Fall Guys obstacle-based chaos. There's even a touch of Rocket League in there too, as you zoom around an arena as a trio (albeit on foot), while attempting to score.

IGN has bean able to reveal the first gameplay footage of the mode today — catch a look at all the dodging, dashing and dashing action below as players attempt to yeet balls through hoops, and work up Hype along the way to unlock special abilities.

Participation in the mode will unlock Fortnite rewards such as a Jam Track and a pair of Back Blings. Over in Fall Guys, meanwhile, the Slam Dunk Costume will be available for free via the in-game shop in celebration.

It's been a little while since Epic Games added an all-new limited-time mode to Fortnite, which already juggles various permanent variants of its signature battle royale experience. Crown Jam will be playable until February 9, so you have just under a month to get yeeting.

Last night, Fortnite teased a beet-iful new collaboration with acclaimed comedy series The Office — more details of which are expected later this week.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Marvel and Jurassic World star Chris Pratt has hit out at Tilly Norwood, insisting the panic within Hollywood about the potential impact of AI “actors” is “bulls**t.”

Tilly Norwood is a viral AI-generated creation pushed as the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman. It was created by Eline Van der Velden, the founder of AI company Particle 6 Productions. Van der Velden sparked a backlash last year when she announcing new talent studio Xicoia, which Deadline reported was already in talks with a number of talent agents interested in signing Tilly Norwood.

The Hollywood community was quick to condemn Tilly Norwood and its creators, as well as warn producers against dealing with it. Scream’s Melissa Barrera wrote: "Hope all actors repped by the agent that does this, drop their a$. How gross, read the room.” Matilda’s Mara Wilson said: "Shame on these people. They have stolen the faces of hundreds of young women to make this AI ‘actress.’ They’re not creators. They’re identity thieves." The Fantastic Four’s Ralph Ineson, who played Galactus in the MCU movie, was more direct, posting “F**k off” on X / Twitter. The Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) ended up releasing a statement, warning producers against using “synthetic performers” without complying with its contractual obligations.

Now, while promoting his new movie, Mercy, Pratt insisted AI wasn’t coming for his job, despite the existence of AI "actors" like Tilly Norwood. “I don’t feel like someone’s gonna replace me that’s AI,” the 46-year-old actor behind the MCU’s Star-Lord, told Variety. “I heard this Tilly Norwood thing. I think that’s all bulls**t. I’ve never seen her in a movie. I don’t know who this b***h is. It’s all fake until it’s something.”

Pratt went on to describe AI is an “amazing tool” that would inevitably disrupt the movie industry by streamlining production and making it cheaper, but AI wouldn’t “replace the human soul.”

Last year, Van der Velden addressed the backlash to insist Tilly Norwood “is not a replacement for a human being.”

“To those who have expressed anger over the creation of my AI character, Tilly Norwood: she is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work — a piece of art,” Van der Velden said. “Like many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity.

“I see AI not as a replacement for people, but as a new tool, a new paintbrush. Just as animation, puppetry, or CGI opened fresh possibilities without taking away from live acting, AI offers another way to imagine and build stories. I’m an actor myself, and nothing — certainly not an AI character — can take away the craft or joy of human performance.

"Creating Tilly has been, for me, an act of imagination and craftmanship, not unlike drawing a character, writing a role or shaping a performance. It takes time, skill, and iteration to bring such a character to life. She represents experimentation, not substitution. Much of my work has always been about holding up a mirror to society through satire, and this is no different."

In November, Tilly’s creator, Eline van der Velden, was reported to be making a shortform AI-led series for The History Channel. But Tilly Norwood’s "acting career" thus far has failed to take off.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

On December 11, 2025, Highguard was revealed at The Game Awards. A PvP “raid shooter” from some of the creators behind Apex Legends and Titanfall, Highguard was admittedly somewhat of a surprise as the last reveal of Geoff Keighley’s show in December, which has typically been reserved for highly-anticipated, single-player games such as Naughty Dog’s next project, Intergalactic, or the next Mass Effect. Rather than a big-budget RPG, Highguard’s trailer displayed a multiplayer game rooted in a mix of fantasy and sci-fi, with SMG-wielding heroes riding horses into battle and magical spears hurled into grounded enemies by floating characters. “A new breed of shooter” flashed across the screen as its Overwatch-by-way-of-Concord action played out.

The online reaction to this trailer has not been kind. Type “Highguard” into YouTube, and you’ll be almost exclusively met with videos headlined something along the lines of “This Game is Cooked”, “It’s Worse Than We Thought!”, and “What Happened?”. What’s happened is that it hasn’t even been released yet. And so I’m here to state what I thought would be obvious: we should actually play games before we definitively decide if they’re good or bad.

I understand not being into the look of a game, but among the gaming community, it increasingly feels as if there’s now almost an underlying need for new releases to be bad if they’re not exactly what we want from one. I can’t help but feel this attitude is completely unhelpful in the long run, engineered with social media and ragebait content algorithms in mind rather than any kind of thoughtful analysis of what’s on show. Such willingness to dunk on a game for which we only have a single trailer and 10 screenshots displays a complete misunderstanding of (or intentional opposition to) “a rising tide lifts all boats” mentality when it comes to game development. More successful games are, ultimately, good for everyone, even if this specific one doesn’t meet your personal tastes.

Of course, it isn’t just the gameplay fuelling this fire, but the relative lack of noise from developer Wildlight Entertainment following its reveal. More than a month later, this teaser remains the only video on the game’s official YouTube channel which, at the time of writing, still only has 1,610 subscribers — somewhat odd for a game that received such a prized reveal slot on gaming’s biggest night of the year (a slot that, notably, the studio did not pay for – Geoff Keighley simply really liked the project a lot more than the wider gaming sphere seems to.) A similar situation can be seen on social media, where Highguard’s official X account is followed by just over 7,000 people and hasn’t posted since that December 12 announcement date. There are no details on characters, abilities, or maps. There’s not even an explanation of how this “new breed” of PvP works, which is unhelpful considering “raid shooter” is not a commonly recognised genre. Highguard itself may well not be bad, but the marketing promoting it certainly could be accused of being sub-par.

Perhaps the development team is aiming to recapture lightning in a bottle and recreate the overwhelmingly successful shadow drop that Apex Legends benefited from. Perhaps, when it arrives, we’ll all be hooked – afterall, it’s directed by Chad Grenier, one of the original Call of Duty designers whose credits include the first two Modern Warfare games, both Titanfalls, and Apex Legends, and he’s joined by multiple other veterans of hugely successful games. But prior success is not a guaranteed key to victory, and yes, perhaps the final product will end up being underwhelming. But even knowing that, it's disheartening to see that this failure has already been presumed by many online; a predetermined fate, if you will.

You may well feel that Highguard’s action doesn’t look like your cup of tea from the less than two minutes you’ve seen of it, and for all I know, once it launches on January 26, it may well struggle to find a substantial audience. But it's this immediate and complete writing off of a game that irks me somewhat.

I realise I’m largely swimming against a tide of minds that have been made up here. We all know that, on the internet in 2026, it’s much easier to tear something down than reinforce it with optimism. But I can’t help but feel that many of the same people gleefully rubbing their hands together at what looks like another underwhelming game in their eyes, will be the same bemoaning the fact that the games industry is in a difficult spot where layoffs and studio closures seemingly happen on a weekly basis, putting the creatives they admire out of work. If no one is attempting to make new experiences and at least try to deliver on the promise of a “new breed of shooter”, then we’re in a grim place, indeed.

Looking further ahead, Marathon will finally launch in March 2026. It’s been a rocky road for developer Bungie so far, with last year being full of beta tests that were met with little enthusiasm, and plagiarism allegations not helping the studio’s reputation at all. But to its credit, Bungie has been very quiet these last few months, working hard on a new version of the game that takes into account much of the feedback received from its burgeoning community. I, for one, am excited for it, despite not being overly interested in the extraction shooter genre. While many may already see (or, indeed, want to see) the writing on the wall amid hasty comparisons to Sony’s previous live-service shooter, Concord, I remain hopeful, largely due to believing in the shooter pedigree the Destiny developer is bringing to the project, much like the ex-Titanfall and Apex Legends team is carrying forward to Highguard.

Again, I’m by no means convinced that either of these games will be blockbuster hits, nor guarantee that they’ll be amazing shooters in their own right, but I at least want to give them a chance. Because if we’re not getting excited about games, what are we even doing here? “Never judge a book by its cover” is an age-old phrase, but one that seems as pertinent as ever. Maybe in 2026, it should be updated to “Never judge a game by its initial teaser and lack of marketing beats running up to launch”. A mouthful, sure, but we’ll never discover the next great game if we’ve endeavoured to kill it before it even arrives.

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.

The first Harry Potter film will get a fresh theatrical release this August, to celebrate its 25th anniversary.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (or the Philosopher's Stone, if you're British) originally launched in November 2021, kicking off an eight-movie franchise that earned more than $7.7 billion at the box office.

Now, 25 years later, Warner Bros. plans to make the most of its anniversary with a big screen re-release, commemorative merchandise and events at key Harry Potter locations.

While tickets are not yet on sale, Warner Bros. has said that fans should expect Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone screenings to take place globally from August 27 to September 3. In a press release release shared with IGN, word of re-releases for the franchise's other seven movies was also mentioned, with full details to follow.

All screenings of the first film will include 10 minutes of behind-the-scenes extras "not previously seen on the big screen" — though it's unclear yet exactly what these might be. Additionally, a Shared Reality version of the movie with supplemental visuals will be shown at Cosm venues in Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta and Detroit.

Warner Bros. clearly sees 2026 as a huge year to push its aging Harry Potter movies, with new 25th Anniversary merchandise and collaborations with a swathe of big name brands including Hallmark, Timex, Crocs and LEGO. Warner Bros. Studio Tour experiences in Tokyo and London will also be updated with new content.

The big screen adaptation of JK Rowling's book series ultimately concluded in 2011 with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. There are no current plans to adapt the franchise's stage play sequel story Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

This year being the 25th anniversary is timely, as it allows one final wring of nostalgia for the Harry Potter films before the franchise's big 2027 reboot. HBO's brand new Harry Potter TV show will debut at some point next year with a fresh cast, and a plan to adapt the seven-book series into at least seven seasons of television, released throughout the next decade.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

The creator of the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod CD Projekt recently hit with a DMCA strike has said people are now pirating it to “punish” him for breaking the developer’s terms of service.

Luke Ross, creator of the R.E.A.L. VR mods for games such as Elden Ring, Days Gone, and Far Cry, reportedly earns $20,000 a month through Patreon, which acts as a paywall for his work.

Ross extended his VR conversion framework to support Cyberpunk 2077 in February 2022. A few months later, he contacted CD Projekt to ask if the Polish studio was interested in turning the mod into an official port. It declined, Ross told IGN.

Then, on January 9, 2026, Patreon alerted Ross to CD Projekt's DMCA notice for the removal of the mod, which it had already taken down. "I had absolutely no say in the matter, because as is the norm in these cases (at least for Patreon), the Patreon team had already complied with the request and taken down my mod of their own initiative, making it inaccessible," Ross said.

Ross then got in touch with CD Projekt to, as he put it, "negotiate a mutually beneficial solution." CD Projekt then replied to say Ross needed to comply with its terms of service. "No negotiation, no comments on my proposals, no interest for instance in knowing how many of their users would be affected by the sudden removal."

The situation hit the headlines this week when Jan Rosner, VP, Business Development at CD Projekt Red, tweeted to say the company issued the DMCA strike because Cyberpunk VR was a paid mod, which violates its fan content guidelines.

“We never allow monetization of our IP without our direct permission and/or an agreement in place,” Rosner said. “We were in touch with Luke last week and informed him that he needs to make it free for everyone (with optional donations) or remove it.

“We are big fans of mods to our games — some of the work out there has been nothing short of amazing, including Luke’s mod for Cyberpunk 2077. We’d be happy to see it return as a free release. However, making a profit from our IP, in any form, always requires permission from CD Projekt Red.”

Ross responded to Rosner’s tweet to take issue with his work being characterized as fan content. Rather, Ross insisted, it is independent software and thus does not infringe on CD Projekt’s IP rights.

“I'm sorry but I don't believe you are within your rights in demanding that my software needs to be free,” Ross said. “It is not ‘derivative work’ or ‘fan content’: it supports a large number of games which were built upon different engines, and it contains absolutely zero code or assets from your IP. Saying that it infringes your IP rights is equivalent to maintaining for example that RivaTuner violates game publishers' copyrights because it intercepts the images the game is drawing on screen and it processes them in order to overlay its statistics.”

IGN followed up to ask Ross if he has plans to make the Cyberpunk VR mod free, thus complying with CD Projekt’s terms of service. Responding, Ross said that while he wouldn’t rule out doing so, it would be a lot of work.

“I do not rule out releasing the mod free for everyone,” he said. “But it would take time, because my software supports 40+ games and various completely different engines, which makes creating a version that specifically supports only Cyberpunk 2077 a non-trivial task. Also, the people who have voluntarily given their money to me in order to support my development efforts for the framework might not be happy about seeing the mod being given away all of a sudden to everyone just because I've been bullied into it.”

At this point, Ross said that making the mod free had become a moot point because people were now pirating it — and publishing abusive comments directed at him.

“Anyway, it's kind of become a moot point, because following to the unexpected DMCA strike, after the mod was forcibly removed from my Patreon, people afraid of losing VR support for their favorite games have started pirating and illegally exchanging the mod all over the Internet, brazenly saying that since I was not complying with CDPR's ToS, my work is now fair game and I should be punished by having it stolen. So in a sense CDPR already got what they wanted,” he said.

The following is a snippet of the response to the DMCA strike and Ross' comments about it.

“Ehhh, without the game the mod is useless. I’m glad some people have found ways to pirate his shitty mods, he deserves it,” one person said on social media.

“I’m currently working on transferring this guy's mod files to my PC. I’ll look through and do some tweaking, and then I’ll release his VR mod for Cyberpunk for free,” said another.

“What really bugs me is that instead of just releasing it for free and continuing development with donations, which Take-Two already allows and which would almost definitely still bring in the same money from the VR community, he chose to kill the mod entirely once he couldn’t sell it anymore,” added another. “That’s the part I don’t respect. He already made his money, he had options, and he still chose the nuclear one. End result is players lose the only real Cyberpunk VR experience, VR modding takes another hit, and publishers get painted as villains again even though this outcome was kind of obvious.”

The following is a comment posted on Ross’ Patreon page:

“Upon reading more about this case: they gave you a way to keep it alive, and you decided to be a greedy little bish about it so I'm cancelling my Patreon subscription to you and giving all your mods to anyone I know for free from now on (also there's places online to find all your mods immediately after release for free, I was choosing to pay you, but now you're being a dickhead so I'll just steal your mods from now on and tell everyone where to find them).

“You've made 20k a month for years, for modding these games — they're asking you to make ONE OF THEM free — for a game which is largely done updating and would be version locked.

“Really gross by CD Project Red, and by you — shows where your priorities are you greedy little proud man.”

It seems unlikely that CD Projekt will back down here, which leaves Ross with a decision to make: ditch the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod for good, or release it for free, as CD Projekt requests.

Ross restated to IGN that he is open to finding “creative solutions,” and that his work to make AAA games playable in VR fills a void, but he has yet to confirm plans to release the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod for free.

“I do not modify the content of the games, or try to sell an experience which is in competition with what the IP creators are producing,” he continued. “To play in VR you always need to own the original game, and the only thing that changes is that the experience is more immersive, visceral and memorable, which can only benefit the IP owners. In the end, when gamers are playing for example Cyberpunk in VR, they are not playing my mod. They are playing Cyberpunk, and loving it. How this could ever hurt the publisher and trigger free-or-kill reactions still baffles me.”

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

GameStop has said it has shut down a loophole that let its customers rack up store credit by continually trading in then rebuying a Nintendo Switch 2 console.

In a statement posted to social media, GameStop said it had been made aware of a YouTube video boasting of a "GameStop Infinite Money Glitch," and verified that the method had indeed been possible.

"By purchasing a Nintendo Switch 2 for $414.99 and then immediately trading it back in along with the purchase of a pre-owned game, a promotional bonus was triggered that increased the Switch 2 trade credit to $472.50," the company wrote. As demonstrated by YouTuber RJCmedia, this method could then be repeated over and over, potentially earning more than $50 profit in store credit each time.

The founder, director, producer, and writer behind indie title Fallen has responded to claims its reveal trailer was built using generative AI, confirming that it was a "tone pitch" with AI "placeholders [that] briefly escaped the context [they were] meant to live in."

After the Fallen reveal teaser debuted on IGN, commenters were quick to critique it, with one writing: "Woof. Any way to unreveal it?" and another saying: "can't wait to not touch this with a 10-foot pole."

"Are game companies even aware of how controversial using AI art is?" asked someone else in the comments. "Why can't [they] just read the room."

You can watch the trailer yourself below:

Now, creator Brooke Burgess has clarified that while there are AI "placeholders" in the trailer, the gameplay, environments, cinematics, and combat is "real, in-engine UE5.4 work" and "all writing is mine (no LLMs), all audio is bespoke, VO is from my colleague Kasper Michaels, and all creative support [and] implementation was done in close collaboration with my lead."

"I think most of the confusion boils down to context," Burgess told TheGamer. "What ended up being shared as an 'official trailer' was actually our early dev 'tone pitch,' i.e., a work-in-progress UE5 teaser designed for funding discussions.

"There are [AI-generated] placeholders in there, specifically some 2D test assets used to explore mood and presentation (for example, how 'lost souls' and fallen angels in the game might react when spoken to and judged, along with [work-in-progress] HUD elements). That material was never intended as final content, nor as a statement on how the shipped game would be made."

In a separate interview, Burgess told GamesIndustry.biz last week that he was not "waving the flag of AI by any stretch."

"I'm not going to sell my soul and be like, 'Yeah, I'll do it by myself, let me prompt this whole game into existence'," Burgess said. "No, I want to work with really talented people and make something cool. But if integrating it in a way that doesn't affect creativity, but helps to save a little bit of money and gets the game out there to people, and gives us a chance to make something cool and memorable, and then make something else after that — it's something I have to factor in."

He also revealed that "every" prospective publisher has asked how he intends to use AI to "save money."

"Every publisher I've talked to has brought up: 'So, have you thought about how AI might be able to save money on this?'" he added. "Almost all of them. They want to know that you're thinking about it, that you understand the potential."

Fallen is an "epic dark fantasy action adventure game" featuring an avenging angel sent to the depths of Hell for one purpose — "to judge every demon, lost soul, and fallen angel, and bring an end to the cycle of suffering once and for all!" We don't have a release date or even a release windows at this time, but it is expected to come to both PC and consoles.

Opinion on the use of AI in games continues to divide studios and their fans, with some vehemently against its use, while others claim it's an inevitable part of the future. Rockstar co-founder and former Grand Theft Auto writer Dan Houser recently likened AI to mad cow disease, but the CEO of Genvid — the company behind choose-your-own-adventure interactive series like Silent Hill Ascension — has claimed "consumers generally do not care" about generative AI in games, and stated that: "Gen Z loves AI slop."

EA CEO Andrew Wilson has said AI is "the very core of our business," and Square Enix recently implemented mass layoffs and reorganized, saying it needed to be "aggressive in applying AI." Dead Space creator Glen Schofield also recently detailed his plans to “fix” the industry in part via the use of generative AI in game development, and former God of War dev Meghan Morgan Juinio said: "... if we don’t embrace [AI], I think we’re selling ourselves short.”

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Arc Raiders developer Embark Studios has said players who spawn late don’t realize they “economically profit way more” than players who don’t.

In an interview with GamesRadar, design lead Virgil Watkins discussed the extraction shooter’s divisive late spawn system, which can see players join games with around 20 minutes left to go. The feeling from some is that this can be a frustrating experience because it gives late joiners less time to complete objectives, and there isn’t as much loot around. But Watkins suggested the data tells a different story.

“We 100% acknowledge the whole thing of, 'Man, I came in to do that trial and now I clearly don't have enough time to do that, and that sucks, so I'm just going to leave,' or whatever. That aspect is definitely not great,” Watkins admitted.

"But similar to the perception of free kits versus what they do, the perception around late joining and what it affords you has been quite interesting. Players are like, 'The loot's all gone,' or whatever else. But players who late join economically profit way more than people who aren't. The session, when they are fresh, does eventually get quieter, and very often they come across the remnants of fights or can maybe take out bigger drones or hit high-ticket areas more readily than other players. So that's been a very interesting thing to look at."

So what is the goal behind the late join system? According to Watkins, it helps mitigate deserted raids. Indeed, Embark distributes loot in such a way so “there should be plenty of stuff for players to do” even if they join late.

It will be interesting to see if Watkins’ explanation here turns sentiment on late spawns around. Since Arc Raiders’ explosive launch, its late spawn system has come under fire from some who feel it needs to be overhauled. There’s frustration on both sides, with those who have to face late spawns having been in a game from the start also expressing concern.

“It's crazy that my team can clear a section of Stella Montis, place traps near the popular entrances, and start looting... only to have a full team of three, heavy shield, volcano running players spawn 50 FEET AWAY from us in a random room in the corner of the area... spawning basically on top of us, at 15 MINUTES REMAINING,” said one fan last month. “There is no counter, there is no chance of winning, they bypassed our traps as they spawned in the room next to me.

“The ONLY players who should be spawning in five minutes into the raid or later are FREE LOADOUTS. Tarkov got that system down with the player Scavs, and it works very well. The initial spawn should be player loadouts only, then free loadouts come in at 25, 20, and 15 minutes remaining. Does that sound reasonable?

“I'm not crazy right? I've spawned literally on top of players who were looting and have gotten extremely unfair free kills because of it. Even reworking the spawning mechanic wont fix it, as you shouldn't have to worry about a random full geared 3-man at 15 minutes remaining after 5 minutes of silence after your team wiped out 12 players.

“Spawning in a 20 with gear sucks. Most of the PVP is gone, half the loot is already extracted. It sucks for everyone else too, they are low on meds, shields are nearly broken, and now 3-9 completely fresh, geared players have arrived at unexpected locations you just cleared.”

This week, Embark released a new patch for Arc Raiders that stamped out some infamous out-of-bounds exploits – but players said "rats" still live in the walls of Stella Montis. If this has tempted you into giving Arc Raiders a try, check out our guide to the best settings, find out what skills we recommend unlocking first, and see how to earn loot by delivering field depot crates... or you can just wait for the inevitable TV show or movie adaptation, although the team says it hasn't been swayed just yet.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Surprise! Nintendo has released an unexpected free update for Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, adding Dixie Kong and a new Turbo Attack mode for the game on both Switch and Switch 2.

The Switch 2 version of Donkey Kong Country Returns HD gets additional improvements, meanwhile, with improved loading times, higher resolution visuals, and the ability to play in co-op with a friend who doesn't have the game themselves via GameShare.

Swapping out Diddy Kong for Dixie allows you to benefit from her higher, further jumps. Turbo Attack, meanwhile, tasks you with clearing levels at breakneck speed and within a tough time limit. In other words, Nintendo seems to have added something here for both new players and veterans.

A free update is rolling into #DonkeyKong Country Returns HD!

Swing into action as Dixie Kong in both single-player and two-player local co-op, and race through high-speed versions of each level in Turbo Attack. Plus, players on #NintendoSwitch2 can enjoy enhanced resolution,… pic.twitter.com/k66mpkhaOC

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) January 21, 2026

While today's update has dropped out of the blue, Nintendo has been updating its many games originally released for Switch with fresh features, and improvements for those now playing on Switch 2. Some of these have included paid upgrades — such as last week's Animal Crossing: New Horizons update — while Donkey Kong Country Returns HD's new additions are free.

Today's full Donkey Kong Country Returns HD patch notes lie below.

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD: Ver. 1.1.0 (released January 20, 2026) patch notes:

The following updates have been made when playing the game on Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch:

• You can now play as Dixie Kong. Her action when jumping is different from when Diddy Kong jumps.
  • When playing alone, as you grab a barrel, you can switch between either Diddy Kong or Dixie Kong as the character that appears.
  • When playing with two people, P2 can switch between Diddy Kong or Dixie Kong by pressing the stick (the L Stick in the case of playing with both Joy-Con 2 or Joy-Con controllers) on the world map.
• A Turbo Attack mode where you can race through the stage at high speed has been added.
  • If you clear the course once, it will appear at the same time as the Time Attack mode.
  • If you can clear it within the time limit, you will acquire a turbo medal.
• Now supports Brazilian Portuguese language.
  • You can switch the language in the “Language” setting in the “System” menu of “System Settings.”
• Several other issues have been addressed and image quality enhancements have been made to improve the gameplay experience.

The following updates have been made when playing the game on Nintendo Switch 2:

• Now supports “GameShare (Local User).”
  • You can select “GameShare (Local User)” from “2 Players” on the game start screen or the menu screen of the world map.
• Optimized for the Nintendo Switch 2 display and high-resolution TVs for improved image quality.
• The loading time is now shorter.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Dragon Ball Genkidamatsuri will be held on January 25 as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the manga that kicked the franchise off in 1984. However, that’s not all. The free event (set to be livestreamed) this Sunday will bring fans exciting new announcements for a franchise whose future has been in limbo since the death of creator Akira Toriyama back in 2024. A new video game reveal has been confirmed.

The first Dragon Ball anime started in 1986, but it was Dragon Ball Z (1989-1996) that was many overseas fans’ entry point to the series and played a major role in popularizing Japanese anime abroad, especially in the U.S. At home, the influence of Dragon Ball could be felt in subsequent shonen series like One Piece, Naruto and Bleach. Dragon Ball is also known for its video games, letting players perform their favorite Saiyans’ flashy attacks. Almost every major console since the NES days has had at least one Dragon Ball game, even if not all of them made it outside Japan.

However, the future of Dragon Ball has been uncertain since the death of its creator, legendary manga artist Akira Toriyama (who is also known for his character design work for games like Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger). Toriyama passed away in 2024, leaving many saddened that we will never experience any new Son Goku adventures from the pen of the original creator.

Dragon Ball’s 40th anniversary event will not only celebrate the franchise’s iconic characters but will also reveal what’s next for Toriyama’s beloved creations. Dragon Ball Genkidamatsuri’s main event will be held at Makuhari Messe near Tokyo on January 25, 2026. The in-person event will feature several exhibitions, a whole host of merch booths, game areas and more. For those who can't make it, the main stage announcements, talk shows and performances will be livestreamed on YouTube by Toei Animation.

The event will kick off with some exclusive announcements from Son Goku’s Japanese VA Masako Nozawa and Dragon Ball series executive producer Akio Iyoku. It’s possible that this could be a new anime series or OVA. Dragon Ball Daima aired in Japan in 2024, but Toriyama’s death made it unclear whether the series would get a follow-up. Rumors of a Dragon Ball animated movie, set to release in 2027, have also been circulating around fan communities for a while, and Sunday’s event might finally show if there is any truth to this gossip. Given the international success of films from anime series like Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man in recent years, now could be a good time for a Dragon Ball movies announcement.

What we do know for certain is that Dragon Ball is getting a new video game, something that has been teased since late last year. At 11am (JST) on January 25, Dragon Ball games producer Masayuki Hirano, Sparking Zero! producer Jun Furutani and others are set to reveal the new game. The most recent games in the franchise are team fighting game Dragon Ball Sparking Zero! (which kamehameha’d onto consoles in 2024) and FTP mobile title Dragon Ball: Gekishin Squadra (2025). Although Sparking Zero! was praised upon release for its huge cast of over 180 playable characters (delivering a big nostalgia hit which truly allowed fans of even the most obscure characters to make their dream team), the game has unfortunately suffered with balancing issues, bugs and online mode instability.

Although many Dragon Ball titles have been fighting games, the series has also flirted with other genres such as strategic card games (2024’s Dragon Ball Super Card Game Fusion World), card-based RPGs (Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu on the DS) and even a MMORPG (2010’s Dragon Ball Online) in the past. It’s possible that the new game might explore a different genre (perhaps an open-world RPG?), or it could be a fighting game set in a different arc of Dragon Ball, possibly featuring the chibi cast of Dragon Ball Daima.

Sunday January 25 will certainly be a big day for Dragon Ball, and diehard fans won't want to miss the livestream.

Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.

This review contains spoilers for Fallout Season 2, Episode 6, “The Other Player,” which is available to stream now on Prime Video.

After Mr. House boldly predicted that there was “another player at the table” last week, it was inevitable that this week’s sixth episode of Fallout Season 2 – titled “The Other Player” – would lift the veil on who that mystery agent is. Naturally, fans had already put together an accurate guess: The Enclave, the faction of scientists that have been a major antagonist force across the Fallout games. But while that’s an exciting reveal, it arrives as part of a scattershot chapter that rapidly runs between storylines in an effort to re-spin this season’s many plates, add new pieces to the board, and shift the gears. It’s a transition episode that demands a little extra patience, and while it certainly achieves the heavy lifting it needs to, it does feel like a minor stumble after last week’s dramatic stunner.

Frances Turner was promoted to series regular this year, but across the first five episodes of the season there was no significant change to Barb’s position in the show, despite her direct involvement with Vault-Tec’s plans. That changes this week – she even gets her own title card! – with an episode that reveals why a dedicated family woman would be so keen to see her child’s future go up in a mushroom cloud. The pivotal scene, in which Michael Emerson returns as Dr. Wilzig, is an uncomfortable, claustrophobic minute. Trapped in an elevator, her family at metaphorical gunpoint, Barb has no choice but to agree to The Enclave’s demands and put the apocalypse into motion at that fateful board meeting. Turner, who conducts the scene almost entirely in silence, communicates Barb’s fear and reluctant submission through her eyes alone. It’s the true highlight of her tenure on the show so far.

I will admit that I’m slightly disappointed that Barb and Vault-Tec aren’t behind the bombs, if only because her villainous turn was so unexpected. The Enclave, on the other hand, is a predictable shadowy figure, but I’m willing to concede considering the faction’s fascist, power-hungry, destroy-everything-that’s-not-us nature makes it a more logical option. And this reveal doesn’t override Vault-Tec’s “annihilation in search of profit” plan, a perfect skewer of American capitalism, as for all we know the company will still go through with it, even if the strings are being pulled from elsewhere.

But what of Barb’s Cold Fusion deal with Mr. House? She pulls the diode out of a drugged Hank’s neck and, considering the episode's big reveal, it would seem that she and Cooper could now work together to foil those who want to tear them (and the world) apart. But we know House will eventually get his hands on Cold Fusion, if only because Vault-Tec has The Automated Man mind-control devices in its New Vegas vault, the tech that House offered in exchange for it. I expect there’s still more than a few twists left in Barb’s tale, and I’m excited to see how her actions will usher both House and The Enclave into the bigger picture.

Talking of The Automated Man devices, the curtain is finally pulled back on Hank’s “civillization” project: using House’s microchips to turn the wasteland’s entire population into polite, courteous, productive citizens – the very picture of an idealised Vault-Tec commercial. While this is an amusingly creepy and undeniably sinister agenda, it is a little… soft as far as this season’s reveals go. It’s certainly fitting that chirpy, family-first Hank’s evil plan would be to turn everyone as nice as all-American apple pie, but it’s too straightforward to be genuinely interesting. Perhaps all that will change when we learn just who Hank is truly working with – that thread from all the way back in Episode 1 is yet to be connected.

Much more fascinating in these scenes is Lucy. Holding Hank at knifepoint, she decides to take him back to Vault 33 to stand trial. In the face of all the violence she’s witnessed in the wasteland, she still abides by the rules of the society she was born into. Lucy has, of course, struggled to hold onto herself during her travels with The Ghoul, but it’s unclear if her reluctance to impose a harsher punishment on Hank is a case of her reclaiming her own morals, or emotional trauma causing her to default to Vault-Tec’s facsimile of pre-war societal norms. It’s most likely a bit of both – when faced with the NCR and Legion troopers who threaten to tear each other to pieces, she opts to turn on their control chips to halt the violence, despite understanding the technology is a fate more sinister than death. It’s clear that she struggles to do the right thing in a world that doesn’t abide by the simple rules of her vault.

It could be argued that Lucy’s actions here show a lack of growth. Despite all her new experiences, she’s still the naive woman from Vault 33. But that would be to ignore the emotional complexity of dealing with her own father. I expect there’s more to come here, and that, in time, Lucy will make the right choices. She did, of course, make the surprising decision to punch The Ghoul through a window after he betrayed her, and that was after she’d been cured of her drug addiction.

On the other side of that punch and now impaled on a lampost, The Ghoul once again uses a period of incapacitation to reflect on his own humanity, which is rapidly slipping away from him now he’s unable to take the drugs that prevent him from turning feral. The memory of his family is the only thing that anchors him to Cooper Howard, and it’s tragic to see him muttering the name of his daughter as he succumbs. Thankfully he has a savior in an unnamed hulking super mutant, yet another Fallout icon that fans have been waiting to see, voiced by none other than the games’ narrator, Ron Perlman.

The super mutant’s arrival is undeniably cool in concept, but there’s unfortunately not much to celebrate – he’s little more than a big green face atop a hulking mass of rags, and so isn’t a triumph of CGI and practical filmmaking in the same way as the deathclaws were. Nor is he particularly interesting, merely a prophetical mouthpiece announcing that a war with The Enclave is on the horizon. More interesting is the information we’re denied; the mutant is keen to work with The Ghoul – does he know our gunslinger by reputation, or did they know each other in former, more human lives? And with The Ghoul’s refusal to be recruited, what is the consequence for both himself and the wasteland’s upcoming conflict? I suspect The Ghoul will eventually have no choice to make a stand, but as to if Perlman’s mutant returns in a more satisfying role, that remains to be seen.

Finally, another disappointment: after interesting questions were finally posed about Vaults 32 and 33 in the previous two episodes, this week’s return to Reg’s Inbreeding Social Club and their reckless water guzzling feels like time wasted on a joke wearing thin rather than a funny catalyst for something bigger. That feeling may be eventually proven wrong as there are some breadcrumbs – Barb’s flashback reveals that Vault-Tec knew the water chips would fail, and so it seems like Vault 33 is at the mercy of an experiment. But breadcrumbs are not building blocks, and this storyline has greatly suffered from both not providing new bricks each week, and failing to build atop the very few it has delivered. Is this water shortage and the inevitable rioting it will cause connected to the Forced Evolutionary Virus experiment that Norm discovered last week? There’s no evidence of that this week, and there’s just two episodes left to do anything with that knowledge. I’m all for a slow burn, but the structure of this storyline is more akin to the showrunners constantly blowing out and relighting the fire, rather than letting it gently crackle.