Gearbox development chief Randy Pitchford has said the inbound Borderlands 4 Day 1 patch “does a lot,” amid concern about the performance of the looter shooter.

Pitchford responded to concern about Borderlands 4’s pre-release performance on PC from some users on X / Twitter, confirming not only that there’s a Day 1 patch on the way, but that it sounds pretty much essential to play the game.

Borderlands 4 has an official release date of September 12 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, with the Nintendo Switch 2 launch following shortly after. Fans will be keen to jump in as soon as possible, making the Day 1 patch an early hoop to jump through.

Despite the Day 1 patch, playing Borderlands 4 on older hardware won't miraculously unlock "buttery smooth performance," Pitchford added. It should be expected that Borderlands 4 is “unplayable” if you’re trying to use a PC below min-spec, he said, and, generally, playing new AAA games on older hardware won't achieve impressive results.

Here’s the comment in full:

The Day 1 patch does a lot! That said, the expectation for using a below min-spec machine should be that the game is unplayable. That the game runs at all on your system is a miracle. That you can get 55 - 60 fps out of heavy combat is actually incredible given how the engine and what's going on under the hood. Your specification doesn't indicate if you're on SDD or HDD, but that could also explain some of the hitching. It's a big, bold, new, seamless world and I'm sorry to say that older hardware may not provide buttery smooth performance for the latest gen AAA games, as has always been the case since the dawn of PC gaming.

A significant portion of the PC gaming audience play on low-end hardware. Indeed, just last month the developers of Battlefield 6 told Eurogamer they saw a "substantial number" of open beta players on or around the minimum recommended specs, with a number of users even playing below the minimum spec.

While you wait for Borderlands 4 to launch, be sure to check out IGN’s recent interview with narrative director Sam Winkler, lead writer Taylor Clark, and managing director of narrative properties Lin Joyce to learn more about why the team decided to create a more grounded story this time around.

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.

Best Buy has dropped the 2TB WD Black C50 Xbox Series Expansion SSD Card to just $149.99 with free shipping. That’s $30 under its previous all-time low at $179.99 (according to CamelCamelCamel), half off the $300 list price, and a full $100 cheaper than Amazon right now.

At this price, it almost feels like a mistake. You’re getting double the storage for only $20 more than the 1TB card, making this a no-brainer if you’ve been waiting to expand your Xbox’s storage, with the best possible tech, and without overspending.

A Nintendo console modder who refused to shut down his business despite warnings from Nintendo — and who then defended the ensuing lawsuit without a lawyer — has been ordered to pay $2 million.

In July 2024, Michigan resident Ryan Daly was accused by Nintendo of running Modded Hardware, a company that sold modified Switch consoles, pirated games, and piracy-enabling devices such as the MIG Switch.

Despite a prior warning from Nintendo that asked Daly to cease his operations, the modder persisted — and it was this point that a lawsuit was filed against him. In October last year, it was revealed that Daly had decided to fight the case himself, without legal representation, while denying wrongdoing and listing off a string of defenses for his other actions.

Nearly a year on and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Nintendo has now won the case — and in a judgment dated September 5, Daly has been ordered to pay $2 million in damages and accept a permanent injunction from any future piracy-enabling activities.

The court found that Daly, who did indeed run Modded Hardware, sold piracy-enabling devices, hacked consoles and mod chips that caused Nintendo of America "significant and irreparable harm", and which allowed for pirate copies of Nintendo games to be created, distributed and played "on a massive scale." Documentation also shows that Daly did indeed continue to defend the case without further legal representation.

Nintendo's victory is only the latest in a long line of lawsuits from the company that continue to make examples out of those who pirate its games — such as Gary Bowser, an employee of a company that sold anti-piracy devices, who served time in jail and was ordered to pay $14.5m, a debt he's said he will now repay for the rest of his life.

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

MachineGames seemingly hasn't finished with its Wolfenstein series just yet.

While it's been over half a decade since we last punched a Nazi in Wolfenstein: Youngblood, studio head Jerk Gustafsson has hinted the team would very much like to go back to the Wolfenstein universe to tie up BJ Blazkowicz's story.

While both Youngblood and the 2019 VR title Cyberpilot touched on the wider Blazkowicz family's fortunes, we haven't actually played as series stalwart Blazkowicz since 2017's The New Colossus. And it's BJ's story that seems to intrigue Gustafsson most — in fact, it seems Blazkowicz's story was always meant to be told in three parts.

In a new interview with Noclip, Gustafsson said the team had "always seen [BJ's story] as a trilogy," adding: "That journey for BJ, even during those first weeks at [id Software], when we mapped out New Order — we still had the plan for at least [BJ], what would happen in the second one and what would happen in the third one.

"I think that's important to say, because⁠ — at least, I hope ⁠— we're not done with Wolfenstein yet. We have a story to tell," he added (thanks, PC Gamer).

The last Wolfenstein game was 2019's Wolftenstein: Youngblood, Set in 1980, 19 years after BJ Blazkowicz ignited the second American Revolution, it introduced the next Blazkowicz generation to the fight against the Nazis. In IGN's review, we awarded it a middling 6.5, calling it "aggressively okay."

MachineGames' latest offering, however, was Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which secured 9/10.

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.

Cast your mind back to December 2024, and the release of the debut trailer for 28 Years Later. Fans thought they spotted Cillian Murphy, star of Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, briefly appear as an emaciated zombie in the promo.

A brief shot in the trailer shows an incredibly skinny zombie rising up from the ground. The Oppenheimer star was listed as executive producer of 28 Years Later, with one Sony executive teasing his appearance “in a surprising way and in a way that grows.” Murphy had hit the headlines for his punishing diet while playing Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s billion dollar biopic, a role he lost significant weight for. So fans saw this zombie, whose face looked a bit like Murphy’s, and put two and two together. They weren’t the only ones — the press wondered if it was Murphy, too.

Orlando Bloom doesn't want anyone else playing The Lord of the Rings elf Legolas, should the character return in Andy Serkis' upcoming Middle-earth movie The Hunt for Gollum.

While Legolas' involvement in the film is still to be confirmed, Bloom has said that if the character does appear, he'd "hate to see" another actor take on the role instead.

"Listen, I'd hate to see anyone else play Legolas, you know what I mean?" Bloom told Today, via EW. "What are they going to do? Are they going to put somebody else in as Legolas? With AI they can do anything these days!"

Set between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, The Hunt for Gollum will chronicle various characters' search for Serkis' loin cloth-wearing creature, who knows the location of the series' all-important ring.

During this period, both Gandalf and Aragorn seek the former hobbit in order to stop the ring from falling into Sauron's fiery hands. Indeed, a scene from this time period is even shown very briefly in Fellowship of the Ring, where the words "Baggins" and "Shire" are extracted from Gollum via torture.

Last month, Gandalf actor Ian McKellen surprised fans by confirming his character would somehow return for the film, presumably with McKellen himself once again in the role. Frodo will also appear, McKellen revealed, while standing on stage with Elijah Wood.

Despite a healthy 'Mostly Positive' review score on Steam and a concurrent user count high enough to make a AAA game blush with envy, Hollow Knight: Silksong's Chinese players are seemingly less impressed by the highly-anticipated sequel.

While the Steam user review rating from players experiencing the game in English, French, German, and Polish are 'Very Positive,' and Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian reviews are 'Overwhelmingly Positive,' players using simplified Chinese have brought the score down to 'Mostly Negative' for that language, chiefly because of issues with the translation.

After tens of thousands of Chinese players left negative reviews, dragging Silksong's overall Steam user review rating down to 76% positive, Team Cherry's Matthew Griffin acknowledged the problem on X/Twitter, writing: "To our Chinese speaking fans: We appreciate you letting us know about quality issues with the current Simplified Chinese translation of Hollow Knight: Silksong. We'll be working to improve the translation over the coming weeks. Thanks for your feedback and support."

So, what's the issue? "The current Silksong [Chinese] translation reads like a Wuxia novel instead of conveying the game’s tone," said one player. "This isn’t about effort, but about taste and direction, and speaking from experience likely can’t be fixed without replacing the translator." Another said: "can you imagine as a Chinese, I need to play the game by switching in English to understand [the] translation."

"Native Chinese speaker here. The translation uses awkwardly archaic wording that makes a lot of the content unintelligible," added someone else. "I’m talking about word salad type of situation. On top of the anachronistic pretentiousness, it’s downright gibberish at times."

Neither Griffin nor Team Cherry has yet confirmed when a patch is coming, but at least we know the developer is aware of the issue and is looking to fix it "over the coming weeks."

We're having a great time with what we've played so far, however. In IGN's Hollow Knight: Silksong review-in-progress, we wrote: "I could keep digging into more early observations, but honestly I just can’t wait to stop typing this so I can dive back in [...] But so far Silksong is exactly what I want from a sequel like this: it’s not completely reinventing the wheel or messing with all the things that made the first game so incredible, but it’s also not resting on its laurels. No part of it feels untouched, and as far as I can tell right now, it somehow feels even better for it."

But amid the excitement over Team Cherry’s long awaited sequel is a debate within the community about whether the game is too hard — perhaps even unfairly so. Now, Silksong players are trying to help out those who have quit the game because they're finding it too difficult by pointing to mods that make it much easier.

Thankfully, IGN is here to help. Here's how to unlock and use the map, how to get Rosary Beads, Achievements and Trophies list, and our ever expanding Silksong Interactive Map. Also, you may need the Bell Beast boss fight guide. It's a hard one!

Be sure to stay up-to-date with all the latest from IGN by clicking here and setting IGN as a preferred source in Google.

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.

Nintendo doesn't really need to create new franchises, a former developer has said, explaining that the company can simply wrap its fresh gameplay ideas into one of the many beloved video game series it owns already.

Speaking to Bloomberg, programmer Ken Watanabe said Nintendo doesn't "really fuss over" which of its big franchises a fun new gameplay mechanic might end up in. And, with so many existing series to chose from, there's little need to come up with more.

"New franchises haven't come out simply because there's no real need to make them," Watanabe said. "When Nintendo wants to do something new, it's basically about the gameplay mechanics first — about creating a new way to play."

At Nintendo, Watanabe worked on Super Mario Bros. Wii, Pikmin 3 and Splatoon — one of the company's biggest new franchises of its modern era. But even the first Splatoon is now a decade old.

"As for the skin or the wrapper, they don't really fuss over it," Watanabe continued. "They just pick whatever fits that new gameplay best."

Nintendo's long list of existing IP certainly seems expansive and beloved enough to support this. Why make a new spaceship combat series when it's been years since the last Star Fox? Why create a fresh arcade racer when you could make a new F-Zero? (Though, let's be real, Nintendo is never making a new, fully fledged F-Zero.)

Nintendo already has most genres covered, and existing fans waiting with baited breath for the next entries in series such as Animal Crossing, Pikmin and Fire Emblem. It makes sense that, if Nintendo did have new gameplay ideas for existing genres, it could just co-opt one of its existing series too.

Take the upcoming Splatoon Raiders, for example, which Nintendo has described as "the first Splatoon series spin-off." It looks set to focus on a specific hero character and potentially feature more adventure-led gameplay than its quick-fire shooting predecessors. Could this have been a new IP instead? Maybe, but spinning it off from the hugely popular Splatoon means it instantly appeals to an existing fanbase and has better brand recognition.

Nintendo hasn't completely ditched the idea of new franchises, of course — though it's fair to say that the company tests fewer new IPs now than it once did. Nintendo's most recent new idea was the just-released Drag x Drive, its wheelchair basketball game that utilised the Switch 2's motion controls. It's hard to see how that could have fitted into an existing franchise — though maybe plonking Mario and friends into its arenas might have helped.

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

Hollow Knight: Silksong is one of the biggest launches of the year, hitting huge player concurrent numbers on Steam alongside a positive reception from critics. But amid the excitement over Team Cherry’s long awaited sequel is a debate within the community about whether the game is too hard — perhaps even unfairly so. So it comes as no surprise to see Silksong’s early days mods dominated by those which make the game easier.

Over the weekend, we reported on how some Silksong players were expressing criticism across social media, subreddits, Discords, and Steam reviews about the game’s difficulty scaling and brutal runbacks. There’s even one very early miniboss causing a lot of players a whole heap of trouble, too.

“Is it just me, or are some of the things that make Silksong ‘difficult’ just cruel?” wondered redditor Machi-Ato. “The game has artificially inflated difficulty and playtime due to overtuned numbers and menial tasks/runback,” reads a post on Steam.

Now, some players are saying their criticism of the difficulty and Silksong generally shouldn’t instantly be dismissed as “hate,” and those “git gud” comments should stop. Others are countering that suggestion by saying it’s perfectly reasonable to suggest players soldier on. This one is showing no sign of slowing down, that’s for sure.

Best Hollow Knight: Silksong mods a week after launch

A cursory glance at Silksong’s NexusMods page shows a number of mods that make the game easier to play at the top of the download chart. For example, Xiaohai’s ShowDamage HealthBar, which displays enemy health bars and damage numbers when attacking enemies in the game, has been downloaded 16,200 times already. Baiker’s No Double Damage, which prevents enemies and normal bosses hits from dealing more than one mask of damage, has been downloaded 15,100 times.

Meanwhile, LordGregory’s Always Have Compass Effect, which always shows the player's position on the map, has been downloaded 13,500 times. The same modder's Always Have Magnet Effect (Pulls Shards Too), which always makes rosaries/shards magnet to the player, has seen 11,100 downloads so far. All this in just a few days after Silksong’s launch on September 4.

I've installed 2 #Silksong mods to not go crazy

- No double damage, cause that's just crazy
- Unlimited Rosaries... cause I just got to a point where they're used like "Ink Ribbons"!!! pic.twitter.com/XHbAQIQVPa

— Marauderz (@marauderz) September 7, 2025

You get the idea. Silksong mods are tapping into the game’s difficulty, making it easier to work through at least on PC. And it’s there, in online communities for the game, that fans are suggesting players who are struggling with the game give mods a shot.

For example, redditor mckant posted an interesting thread, upvoted 3,600 times, about how their wife had quit Silksong “for good” due to the difficulty.

“My wife is a massive hk fan and has been waiting for silksong to come out for years,” mckant explained. “She is not the most skilled of players but she was able to complete hk and enjoy her time. Silksong, instead, is breaking her apart. She has spent three days fighting Moorwing without beating it and she’s dropping the game for good. I hope she’ll pick it back up sometime but it’s sad to see all the anticipation die out like this.

“I am loving the game and I am having a blast with it but I have come to the realization that this game is extremely punishing to lower skilled players who still make up a sizable share of the fanbase.

“I think that this disconnect is very concerning and explains why so many people are complaining about the game’s difficulty. It feels like Team Cherry doesn’t understand that much of the appeal of hk wasn’t the challenge it offered but also the lore, the exploration, and buildcrafting (and so on).

“These are all aspects of Silksong that are, effectively, gatekept by an arbitrary difficulty barrier. I have seen many people here on reddit saying to git gud but don’t think that discourse about the game’s difficulty should be handwaved so easily. If nothing about it is done, I think that a lot of ‘casual’ fans will be inevitably estranged from the game.”

In response, in among posts debating not just Silksong’s difficulty, but how it’s difficult, fans are suggesting mods will save the day, particularly that No Double Damage mod.

“If she is playing on PC, check out some of the Nexus Mods for the game that make it easier,” suggested Lermatroid. “For example there is No Double Damage which makes all attacks only do one mask of damage!”

“I'm a masochist but saving this link to share with people,” replied Please_Not__Again. “Every basic enemy has no business doing double damage.” Of course, console players are out of luck, leaving them to battle Silksong without the aid of mods.

Thankfully, IGN is here to help. Here's how to unlock and use the map, how to get Rosary Beads, Achievements and Trophies list, and our ever expanding Silksong Interactive Map. Also, you may need the Bell Beast boss fight guide. It's a hard one!

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.

While Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has helped push developer Saber Interactive to another level, it already had a monster hit under its belt: World War Z.

World War Z is a co-op third-person shooter developed and published by Saber in 2019 as a loosely based adaptation of the 2006 novel World War Z, and set in the same universe as the 2013 Brad Pitt blockbuster.

Saber used its Swarm Engine to render large hordes of zombies in World War Z, and again but with Tyranids in last year’s Space Marine 2. The technology is being used once again for Saber’s 2026 release, John Carpenter's Toxic Commando.

In an interview with IGN at gamescom 2025, Saber development chief Tim Willits said 30 million people had played World War Z since launch, which is a remarkable milestone for any game. But, he thinks its popularity might have influenced some decisions made in Hollywood, too.

Last month, The Hollywood Reporter said Paramount had three franchises it planned to prioritize when it came to movies: Top Gun 3, Star Trek, and World War Z. World War Z was the biggest surprise here, given it’s been over a decade since the movie came out. So why is Paramount interested in making a follow-up?

Enter Saber’s World War Z. Willits said it was his feeling (he hasn’t been told this is the case in an official capacity) that the enduring success of the World War Z video game over the last six years has directly contributed to Paramount’s desire to revive the franchise in movie terms.

“30 million people have played that game. Isn't that crazy? 30 million unique people,” Willits began. “They have not told me this — I'll probably get in trouble! — they have not told me this, but maybe IGN put this on Instagram, that there's talk at Paramount about making another World War Z. Again, they have not told me this, but I'm pretty sure it’s because of that game.

“They have not told me this. I'm guessing!” Willits continued. “30 million people. That's f***ing ridiculous! I saw that [the Paramount news] and I was like, ‘Oh that’s gotta be us.’”

Of course, this isn't the first time an effort to make World War Z 2 was started. World War Z was a commercial success upon its release in 2013, grossing over $540 million worldwide at the box office (it was Pitt's highest-grossing film before the recently released F1 movie overtook it).

Paramount confirmed its plans to make a sequel shortly after, but planning turned patchy after Marc Foster, director of the first film, announced that he would not be returning to helm the second feature.

There was a further shake-up that resulted in David Fincher signing on as J.A. Bayona's replacement in the director's chair. However, the sequel never pulled together as Paramount decided to halt pre-production in 2019, reportedly due to budget issues and a lack of momentum, even though production was supposed to begin that year.

In 2023, Fincher likened his scrapped World War Z sequel to HBO's The Last of Us TV adaptation, saying he was glad his movie didn't make it beyond pre-production. Fincher told GQ that there were some notable similarities between his Brad Pitt-fronted follow-up film to World War Z and the HBO adaptation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us, so much so that he was left feeling happy his project never came together because he felt the other had "more real estate" to tackle the same topics.

"It was a little like The Last of Us," Fincher said, teasing what he had planned for the World War Z sequel. "I'm glad that we didn't do what we were doing because The Last of Us has a lot more real estate to explore the same stuff. In our title sequence, we were going to use the little parasite... they used it in their title sequence and in that wonderful opening with the Dick Cavett, David Frost-style talk show."