Dragon Age: The Veilguard developer BioWare has released a new patch for the game and in the same breath suggested it’s basically done with it less than three months after launch.

As spotted by Eurogamer, Patch 5 includes just one quality-of-life improvement and a number of bug fixes, but it’s the wording from BioWare that suggests this is the final major patch Dragon Age: The Veilguard will get.

“Thank you all for playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard; we were so happy with the game’s stability at launch and hope you have enjoyed our Quality of Life patches since then,” BioWare said. “With the game being in a stable place, we are moving to monitor for any game-breaking bugs should those occur. Dareth shiral!”

Moving to monitor game-breaking bugs sounds like players shouldn’t expect any new content. And as Eurogamer points out, "dareth shiral" means "farewell" in Dragon Age's Elvish language.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard was the first new game in the fantasy RPG series in 10 years, but it came and went not with a bang but a whimper. Amid the launch BioWare confirmed Dragon Age: The Veilguard wouldn’t get any post-launch DLC, shocking fans who had hoped for expansions as previous Dragon Age games had received.

This week, publisher and owner EA admitted Dragon Age: The Veilguard had failed to meet sales expectations by a whopping 50%; it had expected three million players, but the game managed only 1.5 million.

There's been some smoke around Dragon Age: The Veilguard's struggles, such as it receiving a significant discount just a month after launch for Cyber Monday, and the departure of its director, Corinne Busche, from BioWare just last week. We've chronicled some of the game's development challenges already, including layoffs and the departure of several project leads at different stages.

Mass Effect 5 now appears to be BioWare’s focus, although it seems far, far away still. And what next for Dragon Age? Given how Dragon Age: The Veilguard went for EA, it seems the publisher will take some convincing to greenlight yet another sequel any time soon.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Dishonored 2 cost more to make than legendary role-playing game and fellow Bethesda title The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and struggled for sales, but it still saved developer Arkane according to a former employee.

Julien Eveillé, who worked in quality assurance on Dishonored 2 and as a designer on sequel Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, told PC Gamer that the game underperformed financially but saved Arkane by providing a "seal of quality" that "would maybe be considered the most refined games of the whole Bethesda catalogue."

Bethesda questioned the series' viability in the wake of disappointing sales of Dishonored 2 and Death of the Outsider, Eveillé said.

"It was a bit strange and weird. I think when Bethesda was looking at the numbers, they thought, 'Okay, Skyrim sold so much. And it cost less than Dishonored 2 to make.' So they were asking questions," he said.

"From an executive spend standpoint, it makes sense to ask those questions of, 'Why should we keep going with you?' But we knew that we had a kind of seal of quality protection, making what would maybe be considered the most refined games of the whole Bethesda catalogue."

This "kind of saved the studio," Eveillé added, noting that focusing on this kind of game instead of chasing trends like live service games was critical to the "future success of the studio." This pedigree continued on to Deathloop, deemed a masterpiece by IGN, and fans will surely hope the incoming Marvel's Blade will have that quality too.

This is a tale of two Arkanes, however, as Arkane Austin infamously went down that path of chasing trends when it developed Redfall as a live service title, though this was reportedly at the request of upper management and not the actual developers creating it.

Redfall launched without that Arkane "seal of quality" but instead with "bland missions, boneheaded enemies, and repeated technical problems," according to IGN's 4/10 review. Bethesda owner Microsoft later shut down the studio in a devastating round of lay offs.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

In early 2025, a Final Fantasy 14 mod sparked "stalking" fears amid reports it was able to scrape hidden player data, including details like character information, retainer information, any alternate characters linked to a Square Enix account, and much more.

The mod, named “Playerscope,” allows users to track specific player data of anyone in the vicinity of the person using it. This information is then sent to a centralized database managed by the mod author (no matter if you are looking at a specific player, or just happen to be around other players), and tracks information that players would usually not be permitted to see via in-game tools.

Specifically, the mod offers information on “Content ID” and “Account ID,” which can be used to track players across characters. This was done by manipulating the Content ID system introduced in the Dawntrail expansion, which in turn let players blacklist others across their service account and multiple characters.

The only way to prevent your account data being scraped by the tool is to join the private Discord channel for Playerscope and opt out. Theoretically, every single Final Fantasy 14 player who is not in the Discord channel is having their data scraped. Obviously this is a significant privacy risk, and the community has been vocal in its response: “the purpose is obvious, to stalk people” one commenter noted on Reddit.

Several weeks ago the mod author posted on Discord that the plugin was found on Github, which led to an explosion in popularity. Due to terms of service violations, Playerscope has now been removed from Github, but it was allegedly mirrored on similar websites Gittea and Gitflic. IGN has verified that a Playerscope repository no longer exists on either alternative platform. Theoretically, the mod could also still be circulating in private communities.

Star Trek has been around for so long now that, for the purposes of a listicle like this, it seems only fair to group the franchise’s output by era. You’ve got The Original Series period of the late ’60s, then there’s the movies featuring those old scientists, which then gave way to the Rick Berman era which started with Next Generation and ended with Enterprise, and then of course there’s the modern era of Parmount+ shows which began with Discovery in 2017.

And that’s what we’re discussing today, as the service formerly known as CBS All Access (remember that?) launches the first straight-to-streaming TV movie, Star Trek: Section 31 (which actually originated as a series). In less than eight years, the modern Trek brain trust has also created five new shows, two of which are animated, as well as a series of shorts known as, of course, Short Treks.

With the variety of approaches that these different projects have taken on – from straight sci-fi drama to comedy, animation, shorts, feature-length, and more – comparing them to one another is a bit tricky. There’s also the fact that a show can have good and bad seasons, so keep that in mind when looking at our rankings as we’ve taken a series’ entire run into account rather than just focused on a favorite run of episodes.

So with all that said, let’s make it so, engage, fly, blast off, punch it, or whatever else is your favorite thing to say while cosplaying as a Starfleet captain!

7. Star Trek: Section 31

Long in development as a series featuring (one of) Michelle Yeoh’s Star Trek: Discovery character(s), Section 31 eventually morphed into the first Star Trek TV movie after the pandemic disrupted the production schedule and Yeoh won an Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once. Starring Yeoh as former Emperor Philippa Georgiou, refugee from the dark Mirror Universe, the finished film seems to have lost its way during that long gestation period. There’s very little Star Trek to be found here; just look at the in-name-only Section 31 of it all, or the lack of any of the overarching themes that makes Gene Roddenberry’s franchise what it is. At the same time, what we do get often feels like an undercooked, 11-years-too-late riff on Guardians of the Galaxy’s freewheelin’ approach to outer space adventure. It’s a shame, because Yeoh deserves better, and direct-to-streaming Star Trek movies should be something that becomes a regular occurrence. After this debacle, that seems less likely, alas.

6. Star Trek: Short Treks

As with the concept of doing feature-length movies for the small screen, going in the other direction and producing a series of Star Trek shorts – Short Treks, as they were called – was another interesting approach to telling new stories in this universe. There were two seasons and a total of 10 shorts released between 2018 and 2020, and a couple of them are terrific. The standout is "Calypso," written by Pultizer-winning author Michael Chabon and, yes, based in part on the Calypso myth from The Odyssey. The short utilizes the Star Trek: Discovery sets to tell the story of Aldis Hodge’s lost seaman (OK, spaceman) who falls under the spell of a beautiful… computer. But often the shorts were hamstrung by their very nature – they were typically conceived to be cost-effective and utilize existing sets and costumes, and sometimes the stories didn’t quite prove to be worth telling. Still, it was a new and interesting format for Trek and certainly merits more installments if the Trek military-industrial complex is willing.

5. Star Trek: Picard

OK, Star Trek: Picard is one of those cases I mentioned earlier where the quality between seasons varies significantly. Looking at the overall three-season return of the almighty Jean-Luc Picard, it’s a fairly mixed affair. Season 1, with its no uniforms/no Starfleet for Picard mandate from Patrick Stewart, wasn’t awful but didn’t really land in any meaningful way. (It did turn our beloved admiral into an android, though!) Season 2 was awful, with a seemingly exhausted Stewart sleepwalking through much of the story in what appeared to be a budget-saving move to 2024 Los Angeles. And then Season 3 was a nostalgic delight, bringing back most of the original Next Generation crew for one (more) final adventure, and porting them into a modern TV landscape along the way with a more mature approach to their (and their next generation’s) ongoing stories. Of course, even the return of Riker, Crusher, et al. ran counter to the show’s initial mission statement, a sort of admission that what was there wasn’t working before the old crew came in to help save the day.

4. Star Trek: Discovery

The modern era started back in 2017 when we were introduced to Sonequa Martin-Green’s mutinous Starfleet officer Michael Burnham, along with the off-kilter crew of the USS Discovery. Star Trek: Discovery, like Picard, suffers from an uneven track record, but its first two seasons were pretty great, despite the creative upheaval that was happening behind the scenes with multiple showrunner changes. Setting Disco in the years immediately prior to The Original Series was a choice to be sure, as its 21st century depiction of future tech (among other things) seemed to break continuity with what we know of that time period. But ultimately none of that mattered. Season 1 felt new and exciting in multiple ways, from its unique depiction of the Klingons as truly alien, to the jump technology that powered the ship, to the core concept of centering the show on a character who was not in command. Indeed, Martin-Green was always the heart of Discovery, and while Season 2 continued to excel (it introduced us to Anson Mount’s version of Captain Pike, which of course eventually led to us getting the awesome Strange New Worlds as a spinoff), the show seemed to increasingly lose its way once the crew were sent to the far-off future at the start of Season 3. An over-reliance on mystery box story arcs and the loss of the angsty edge of the first couple of seasons eventually made Star Trek: Discovery too milquetoast for its own good.

3. Star Trek: Prodigy

The animated Star Trek: Prodigy is a kids show! So how could it be so high on this list? Well, it may be a kids show, but it’s also a really good Star Trek show. Designed to appeal to, obviously, the next generation of potential Trekkies, Prodigy is also a Star Trek: Voyager sequel. Not only does Kate Mulgrew return to the world of Starfleet as a holographic version of Captain Kathryn Janeway, but as the show progresses it becomes increasingly entwined in Voyager’s history. Along the way, some other Trek favorites of days past make appearances, but none of this ever distracts from Prodigy’s focus on its group of misfit kids who come from the far reaches of space, stumble upon an abandoned starship, and band together to… well, learn what it is to be a member of Starfleet. Which is to say, what it means to be a good person who does the right thing, even in times of extreme adversity. It’s about as Star Trek-ian a message as you can get, but the show is never heavy-handed about it. What a shame that this show only got two seasons, but it’s two seasons of often beautiful animation that are very rewatchable.

2. Star Trek: Lower Decks

More Star Trek animation at the top of this list! Unlike Prodigy, creator/showrunner Mike McMahan’s intensely nerdy Lower Decks isn’t a kids show, so to speak, but is very approachable for adults and younger viewers alike, not to mention for the Trek-curious. Told in a rapid-fire, I-need-to-rewind-this-and-put-on-the-subs style, the show depicts the exploits of Tawny Newsome’s Beckett Mariner and Jack Quaid’s Brad Boimler, a couple of ensigns aboard the USS Cerritos who get all of the grunt work and none of the glamour of the Picards and Janeways of the Starfleet world. The Lower Deckers and their friends also happen to be huge Star Trek geeks themselves, so the references that they let fly are frequently hilarious to fans, as well as Google-worthy. But the plots Mariner, Boimler and the rest find themselves in are usually true Trek stories of their own that just happen to be fun and funny. The show also hits a certain sweet spot for fans of ’90s-era Trek, as it’s set more or less in that same period. McMahan was smart enough to let his characters evolve and grow over the course of the show’s five-year run so that they didn’t feel stuck in the lower decks forever, unlike many of their (cough, Harry Kim, cough) predecessors. Lower Decks was a great instance of finding a new way to do Star Trek and do it well.

1. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

I mean, Captain Pike’s hair alone gets him to the number one spot, right?

Strange New Worlds came about as a result of fans’ enthusiasm for Anson Mount’s Pike, Ethan Peck’s Spock, and Rebecca Romijn’s Number One after they appeared in Season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery. It was an interesting situation from the beginning, because the three actors were of course recreating characters who had appeared in the very first Star Trek story ever, the original pilot for The Original Series from before William Shatner was even hired. By the time Mount and the others got their own spinoff, something had clicked with this group, as well as the new characters introduced as series regulars. Strange New Worlds looked at what the other modern Trek shows were doing and said, ‘You know what? We're going back to the old school.’ And in so doing, it seemed to find the wonder and amazement that Discovery and Picard had too often skipped over. Make no mistake: Strange New Worlds is thoroughly modern in its approach, and it’s also unburdened by that dreaded concept known as canon in that it will never sacrifice a good character arc just because it conflicts with an episode from 55 years ago. (That kind of thing can always be hand-waved away easily enough anyway.) But through its great and likable cast, its intriguing stories, and its often kick-ass action and visuals, Strange New Worlds is currently the true final frontier of modern Trek.

But what do you think? What’s your favorite of the current era of Star Trek projects? Let’s discuss in the comments!

Mortal Kombat 1’s big Conan the Barbarian update launched this week and with it came the arrival of a secret fight with Floyd, the pink ninja developer Ed Boon had been teasing for years. Not only that, but if you defeat Floyd you unlock cool exclusive rewards, including a coveted new stage.

But how exactly do you trigger the secret Floyd fight? Players are working together to try to crowdsource the answer. This community effort, led by Mortal Kombat modder and dataminer thethiny, has done much to unravel the mystery, but the exact process remains unknown.

Here’s what fans have worked out: a number of Floyd challenges must be completed before the fight with Floyd triggers. How many, no-one knows. Which challenges must be completed, and in which order? No-one knows that either. Worse, it appears different for each player. That’s not much help, is it?

What is helping is thethiny’s Google Doc that lists the various challenges players have discovered and the requirements for each. When you’ve completed a challenge the Floyd icon will pop up on the left of the screen and you’ll hear a guitar riff. Requirements include taunting four times in a match, winning without jumping, and winning using sweeps only. Some of these challenges can be completed using any character, some with certain characters only. 37 Floyd clues have been discovered so far. Maybe there are more!

It appears to be the case that you do not have to complete all 37 Floyd challenges to fight Floyd. It also appears to be the case that players have different “active” challenges, so there isn’t a single process fans can rely upon. It's all a bit confusing, but the best advice right now is to do as many of these challenges as you can, and eventually, hopefully, you'll fight Floyd.

Occasionally, Floyd himself will appear at the start of the match to give you a clue (klue?) to one of your active challenges. Thethiny's data suggests it can take hundreds of ladder matches to get one of these clues from Floyd to pop up. Players are working through all this right now, and some are spending a lot of time doing so. Some are trying to increase their chances by restarting matches, but that comes with the risk of missing the Floyd clue because they only appear at the end of the match.

What is clear is that the Floyd fight has breathed new life into Mortal Kombat 1. The new stage, the field seen in Mortal Kombat 1’s announcement trailer, is gorgeous, so the reward for all this effort is a good one. And Floyd himself is sparking a deeper dive as modders try to work out the details of his moveset and which characters from the Mortal Kombat games have inspired it. It’s just a whole lot of fun to be a part of and watch unfold.

Meanwhile, we’ve got the T-1000 guest character to look forward to, and potentially more DLC to come, although NetherRealm has yet to confirm that. Hopefully whatever happens, the developer will throw in more secret fights over time, perhaps with Mortal Kombat’s iconic Pit stage as a reward.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Cardy, Matt, and Wes are here to talk through January 2025's Xbox Developer Direct and the impressive quartet of games featured; Doom: The Dark Ages, South of Midnight, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Ninja Gaiden 4. Plus, there's also some time for some hands-on impressions of Assassin's Creed: Shadows thanks to Matt's sneaking and slashing around rural Japan.

Remember to send us your thoughts about all the new games, TV shows, and films you're enjoying or looking forward to: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.

IGN UK Podcast 784: Doom, Doom, Doom, Doom, I Want You in My Room

• IGN UK Podcast 783: The Switch 2 is Finally a Real Thing
• IGN UK Podcast 782: Squid Game and Jesse's Shocking KCD2 Playstyle
• IGN UK Podcast 781: The Big 2025 Movies and Games Preview
• IGN UK Podcast 780: The Alternative Game Awards 2024
• IGN UK Podcast 779: The Alternative Movie and TV Awards 2024

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi has said his previous comments on the nature of Cloud and Aerith's relationship were misinterpreted and that no member of Square Enix will comment officially on the character's relationship.

A December interview with Inverse quoted Hamaguchi as saying "Aerith has always been this sort of sisterly character pulling Cloud along and encouraging him," leading many fans to complain or question the director about the true nature of their relationship.

Final Fantasy 7, both the original and the first two games in its Remake Trilogy, has always portrayed Cloud's relationship with Aerith and Tifa rather vaguely. Player choice can influence their interactions, prompting things like a date with different characters depending on how the player, as Cloud, treats them. The "canon" relationship has long been debated.

Fans were therefore shocked when Hamaguchi appeared to have essentially dismissed Aerith as a romantic partner in his comments, though he has now told Automaton this was a misinterpretation and that he, nor anyone at Square Enix, would convey the nature of their characters' relationships beyond the game itself.

"As creators, we will continue to convey [the relationships between our characters] through our content," Hamagucho said. "For example, no one will make any official statements about who Cloud likes, who Aerith likes, and so on."

He added that the misunderstanding may have come from subtle differences in language and culture between his native Japanese and the article's publication in English.

This all comes as the modern retelling of Final Fantasy 7 hasn't concluded yet. More answers, or more questions, could emerge in the third and final part of the Remake Trilogy, though fans will be waiting a while for them as Square Enix doesn't hope to release it until 2027 at the earliest.

The story has now been wrapped up internally though, and Final Fantasy series producer Yoshinori Kitase previously said he's "sure fans will be satisfied with the final chapter."

In our 9/10 review of the last game, IGN said: "Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth impressively builds off of what Remake set in motion, both as a best-in-class action role playing game full of exciting challenges and an awe inspiring recreation of a world that has meant so much to so many for so long."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Fatal Fury 2 and two other Super Nintendo Entertainment System games have joined the Nintendo Switch Online library.

A trailer released by Nintendo, below, announced Fatal Fury 2, Sutte Hakkun, and Super Ninja Boy are all now available in the SNES collection.

Fatal Fury 2 arrived in 1992 as a fighting game sequel and introduced new characters Kim Kaphwan and Mai Shiranui. They joined the classic roster of fighters such as Terry Bogard and Big Bear to round out the roster to eight.

Three #SuperNES classic titles are now live for #NintendoSwitchOnline members!

☑️ Fatal Fury 2
☑️ Super Ninja Boy
☑️ Sutte Hakkun pic.twitter.com/zM0HZC2tuk

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) January 24, 2025

Sutte Hakkun, meanwhile, hasn't been released in English until now. This is side-scrolling puzzle game about gathering arinbow shards as a wee beastie called Hakkun.

Finally, the relatively ahead of its time Super Ninja Boy hits Nintendo Switch Online 34 years after its 1991 release. It blends role-playing game and with action elements as players control Jack and beat up baddies. It features multiplayer too, with a second player able to jump in at any time.

These games are available at no extra cost to users who have a Nintendo Switch Online membership and have purchased the Expansion Pass. Nintendo periodically adds a handful of classic titles to its myriad Switch Online libraries, which also includes games from the Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, and more.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Doom has always had a close relationship with metal music. Hearing one quick burst of any Doom soundtrack, or even just catching a quick glance at the series’ persistent demonic imagery, will tell you this. Its customary pile-up of flames, skulls, and devilish creatures is not far from what you’d see adorning any Iron Maiden stage, past or present. This relationship with the heavier side of music has progressed in step with the series’ gameplay, with both elements having reinvented themselves several times over the 30-plus-year journey of Doom. From its thrash beginnings, Doom has explored multiple metal sub-genres across the decades, progressing all the way to the present day with Doom: The Dark Ages and its crunching metalcore hammer blows.

Back in 1993, the original Doom’s driving soundtrack was influenced by the big metal bands of the late 80s and early 90s. Co-creator John Romero has freely discussed how the likes of Pantera and Alice in Chains were major influences, and this can be heard clearly across the score. “Untitled”, for instance, the track used for the E3M1: Hell Keep level, features a riff that’s nearly identical to that heard in Pantera’s “Mouth of War."

The wider Doom score borrows aspects of the thrash subgenre, recreating in digital form the likes of Metallica and Anthrax. This thudding sound propelled players through Mars’ narrow corridors, quickly getting them from a-to-b while sprinkling in demonic enemies just like Kirk Hammett would a guitar solo into any song possible. Thrash was fast, to the point, and hit between the ears with its urgency, much like Romero’s creation did with its shotgun and BFG when it burst onto the scene. Composer Bobby Prince’s soundtrack remains as timeless as the shooter it soundtracks, perfectly matching the rhythm of its unforgettable gunplay.

For over a decade, Doom and its music continued in a similar vein, harmonising the rate of its bullets with the speed of its shredding score. That was until 2004, when the experimental Doom 3 emerged from the darkness. This survival horror-inspired reinvention took risks, and not all of them were successful. A controversial flashlight mechanic that prevented you from shooting a gun while holding it was considered antithetical to Doom, and eventually removed by modders and a 2012 re-release, but no one could deny that Doom 3 was trying new things. A slower, more deliberate pace required a new sound, and so id Software sought out new inspiration.

Trent Reznor’s talents were reportedly sought out to orchestrate the entire sound design of Doom 3, but that plan never quite came to fruition, as explained to IGN by former Nine Inch Nails bandmate Chris Vrenna: “Well, way, way, way back when I was with 'Nails, you know, we worked on Quake. I know that Trent was involved with the project early on and then wasn't involved with it anymore”. In fact, it was to be Vrenna himself who would instead take over the reins with Clint Walsh to compose the threequel’s theme. Their approach mirrors “the thinking man’s” metal outfit, Tool. Doom 3’s main theme could practically be a bonus track on their 2001 masterpiece, Lateralus, its own snaking time signatures and off-kilter soundscape providing the perfect accompaniment to the horror shooter’s sci-fi facility.

While Doom 3 was a huge success for id Software and the best-selling game the studio had made so far, its survival horror-ish design is today considered something of an anomaly among its series peers. But that’s unsurprising; the early 2000s was a time when FPS games were going through an evolution, with Call of Duty and Halo arriving on the scene to usher in the era of the console shooter. It was only natural for Doom to morph and change alongside those titans. It was a similarly awkward time for metal music; for every stellar Slipknot and Deftones outing, the remains of the nu-metal blowup were haphazardly working things out. Artists like Limp Bizkit or Mudvayne would certainly have been interesting influences for Tweaker (Vrenna and Walsh’s band) to pick up on, to say the least, but their final Tool-ish direction was undoubtedly the right move. Doom 3 won’t go down as the classic artifact that Tool’s Lateralus has, but it certainly served as a worthy experiment with an unsettling soundtrack that fits its tone perfectly.

Following Doom 3, years passed with no sign of a new entry. Behind the scenes, the series went through an awkward period of development hell. After scrapping the Call of Duty-influenced Doom 4 project and starting afresh, id Software realised that its hallowed shooter needed a complete facelift, and that’s exactly what it got when it returned to stunning form in 2016. Directors Marty Stratton and Hugo Martin helmed the Slayer’s return to Mars, which fully embraced the momentum kickstarted back in ‘93. Shotguns clicked to the rhythm of the score’s chainsaw guitars, and bullets rattled from chainguns as quickly as the double bass pedal slammed down. Composer Mick Gordon layered sub-bass frequencies with white noise to create a quite literally heart-shaking soundtrack that even Meshuggah may have called a little bass-heavy.

Presenting itself as a playable djent (a progressive and rhythmically chugging metal subgenre) album that bounds along at irrepressible speed, Doom 2016 incorporated the desire for new extremes in both the shooter and metal worlds. It’s become one of the most celebrated video game scores, perhaps even eclipsing the original itself, so much so that it’s impossible to imagine playing Doom 2016 without it. The question is, once you’ve written something that sounds as good as BFG Division, where do you go from there?

Well, that’s where things got a little complicated. Gordon returned to compose the music for 2020’s Doom Eternal, but a series of messy back-and-forths with id Software resulted in a soundtrack that’s not all his. It’s unclear exactly what happened, with contradicting stories disagreeing on just how many of his mixes made the final cut. His fingerprints are clearly all over it, though, as the tracks feel like evolved versions of those that came four years previously with an even more modern edge. Eternal’s soundtrack leans further into metalcore, the prevailing metal genre of the late 2010s and early 2020s. It’s likely no coincidence that, around the time of Doom Eternal’s release, Gordon was also producing songs and albums for the genre’s big British names, Bring Me the Horizon and Architects.

Gordon’s production can certainly be heard in those bands’ mixes, especially in BMTH’s Post Human: Survival Horror (an album incidentally laden with video game references). But the sound of these bands has also found its way into Eternal’s score, especially its propensity for even more crushing breakdowns and added electronic splashes. It’s still undoubtedly heavy, but feels a little lighter when compared to its predecessor, something that is reflected in Eternal’s gameplay with its platforming and puzzle sections that sprinkle more experimental game design in between the punishing gunfights.

Doom 2016 is still my favourite Doom game. I appreciate the hell out of Eternal, but much like the metalcore bands that influenced its soundtrack, I prefer the rawer, less refined work they produced a few years previously. Architects’ album All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us, also from 2016, happens to be my favourite metal album of all time. It’s a crushing piece of work both sonically and lyrically, hitting a sweet spot much like Doom did in the same year with its landmark reinvention. Eternal, much like Architects’ more recent outings, is extremely good, and can never be faulted for taking risks, but just doesn’t hit me in quite the same way. Sometimes less is more, but I know many who hold Eternal in higher regard who would happily disagree.

Now, Doom: The Dark Ages finds itself in an intriguing spot. In the recent Xbox Developer Direct, we got a good look at how its refreshed combat changes things up in a fairly big way for the series. So, if history is anything to go by, it will need an appropriate soundtrack to sit alongside that brutality. We may have only heard snippets up until this point, but it appears that new composers Finishing Move (Borderlands 3 and The Callisto Protocol) are taking inspiration from metal both past and present, much like how The Dark Ages’ gameplay references the original Doom with new twists.

The Dark Ages plays at a slower pace than Eternal’s whiplash vertical platforming and arena slingshotting, instead arming you with a Captain America-like shield that encourages you to square up and barrel into enemies of all sizes. This face-first nature reflects the original Doom’s design which shuttled you through corridors and into gangs of enemies, but The Dark Ages take this philosophy and expands it a hundred-fold, arming you with 30-story high mechs and fire-breathing dragons.

Such combat requires a malleable soundtrack; something that can feel as heavy, if not heavier, than anything that has come before, but also light on its feet when you’re swooping around on a winged beast. The former can be found in the tracks of one of the most prominent heavy bands in the world right now, Knocked Loose. The seismic-sounding breakdowns and plunges into half-time heard in the background of the gameplay shown so far are only a guttural scream and a pig squeal away from the Kentucky natives’ output. But this is then combined with more traditional, almost thrash-like moments that echo the original 1993 Doom, and even earlier metal that borrows a lot lyrically from fantastical, satanic, and medieval inspirations.

We’re yet to fully understand the breadth of The Dark Ages’ gameplay suite, but I’m more than hopeful that id Software is building on everything that came prior, not just in the Doom series, but also from beyond its own walls. Mounting mythological creatures and piloting giant mechs are exciting additions that one wouldn’t necessarily expect from Doom - a traditionally “boots on the ground” shooter - but are welcome surprises nonetheless. Titanfall 2 appears to continue to influence campaign shooter design beyond its signature mobility and wall-running. In many ways, this shift parallels the evolution modern metal music has experienced in recent years, with experimentation within the genre proving fertile ground, whether that’s in a greater exploration of electronic, hip-hop, or hyperpop trappings that the likes of Bring Me the Horizon freely implement, or the grin-inducing reggaeton-like beat that powers Knocked Loose’s “Suffocate”.

It’s an exciting time for heavy music, and in turn an exciting time for Doom fans. The Dark Ages is shaping up to thrill in every area where the series has excelled over the years, but naturally, gunplay will always be king when it comes to an id Software shooter. In fact, if Doom was a packed-out arena metal concert, its combat would be centre stage, and its soundtrack would (somewhat confusingly) be the demonic set dressing. We’ve only had a small peek at what lies in store for us in both regards when it comes to Doom: The Dark Ages, but it’s safe to say I’m very excited to potentially have a new favourite metal album to play through in May.

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editorial Producer 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.

Both Blizzard Entertainment and Grinding Gear Games have declined to say whether they plan to ban accounts belonging to Elon Musk after the X/Twitter owner reportedly admitted to cheating, leading some fans to accuse the developers of undermining the integrity of their games.

Screenshots of a private conversation between Musk, the world’s richest man, and a YouTuber showed Musk’s admission of paying for account boosting in action RPGs Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2.

Account boosting is a form of cheating where a player logs into another player's account to raise (or boost) their rank to a higher tier and violates pretty much every live service video game’s terms of service. Blizzard’s end user licence agreement specifically warns players that account boosting or power-leveling, in exchange for payment, is prohibited.