A great co-op game leaves you with a memorable shared experience, something you can reminisce with a friend about months or even years later. They can forge friendships, maybe test the limits of others, or even just bring people closer together. We love co-op games at IGN, which is why we wanted to take some time to put together this list of the top 10 cooperative games of all time.

Before we start though, a few caveats as we define what “co-op” means for this list. First, we wanted to focus on games that were truly built around that cooperative experience. This is a list of the top 10 cooperative games, not the 10 best games that happen to be playable cooperatively, which is why you’ll see a lot of games, or separate modes, that can only be played with two players. There are going to be a few that can be played solo, but these experiences are really defined by their cooperative versions. To make room for those games, we had to make some tough cuts, including Halo and Borderlands.

Also, to keep this from stepping on the toes of other genres, we’re omitting MMOs, MOBAs, and any games that are solely focused around competitive cooperative play. Rainbow Six Siege and the Battlefield games are amazing cooperative experiences for those on the same team, no doubt, but for this list, we want to highlight the games that bring people together to work towards a common goal that’s not simply “beat the other team.”.

With that said, here are the 10 best cooperative games of all time.

10. Splinter Cell Conviction

Even as a complementary mode to Splinter Cell: Conviction's main story, the co-op campaign absolutely shines as a thrilling and fun way to team up with a friend to eliminate tons of bad guys from the shadows. Set as a prologue to Sam Fisher’s story, you take on the roles of a US and Russian agent working together to stop a deadly black market sale, and can use the “Mark and Execute” mechanic in tandem to pull off some amazing, cinematic takedowns.

Communication is key when crouching through the dark, ratcheting up the tension as you split up to take different paths or protect your friend as they put themselves in a vulnerable situation, cleanly and quietly picking off interlopers as they try to attack your exposed partner. This surprisingly meaty campaign caps off with one of the most surprising and exhilarating endings to a co-op story ever, which may end up putting a slight strain on your friendship.

The one bummer is that servers were turned off in 2019, making it exceptionally hard to play in 2021. Just another reason why it's high time to bring both Splinter Cell and this incredible co-op mode back for all to play.

9. Overcooked 2

Overcooked became the foundation for a job-based co-op genre that has spawned many similarly frantic experiences, but there's a level of polish and iconic charm that keep us coming back to Overcooked specifically.

With the addition of the throwing mechanic in Overcooked 2, level design transformed from teetering on the edge of somewhat manageable to total, gleeful kitchen chaos. Story campaigns have chefs running back and forth between moving food trucks, pirate ships on the ocean, tossing food over active volcanoes and other varied locales that you wouldn’t normally plan to cook a plate of spaghetti at.

Nailing perfect coordination and understanding the fine-tuning of each kitchen's quirks is the key to going for perfect ratings, and it's truly a feat that only the most iron-willed chefs working in tandem can pull off.

8. Streets of Rage 4

Street of Rage 4 is anything but a nostalgia play, despite coming out over 15 years after the last entry in the series. This is one of the best beat-em-ups of all time, straight up, and it shines even brighter in co-op mode, and not just because you’ll have a much better chance to survive it’s challenging difficulty. More than anything else, what makes Streets of Rage such a great co-op game is its balance of approachability and depth.

It’s super easy to jump right in, adjust the difficulty and assists to your preference, and have a blast even with someone who doesn’t know all of the ins-and-outs of the franchise. But gather together a group of veterans who know how to really dig into Streets of Rage 4’s mechanical depth, and it’s even more fun to challenge yourself to get as far as you can, especially with the Mr. X Nightmare Survival mode DLC released after launch.

Whichever side of the fence you’re on, grab a metal pipe off the ground, an apple for health out of a trash can, and jump into one of the most fun co-op games around.

7. Divinity Original Sin 2

Much like its clear inspiration, Dungeons and Dragons, Divinity Original Sin 2 is a tremendously fun cooperative experience, but it does require finding the right partner or group to play with. After all, it’s an incredibly dense RPG with tons of dialogue, character customization options, and turn-based combat, but if you do find that right person or people willing to engage with its depth and commit to a full campaign much like you would with a D&D group, Divinity Original Sin 2 is an unforgettable co-op experience.

Every fight is its own cooperative puzzle where you must coordinate with your party, plan moves ahead, and make careful use of your own character's unique skills in order to overcome some truly tough battles. And just like a good D&D game, it’s all about exploring the story as a group, discovering how your choices impact the world, and working together to achieve your goals.

6. Monster Hunter World

Monster Hunter: World brilliantly retains its intricacy, difficulty, and sense of wonder through multiplayer. A great single-player experience is catapulted into the amazing category with fellow hunters in co-op. Whether on the hunt against a fantastic beast, or back at the hub just getting silly, sharing the exhilarating process of prepping for a difficult battle and barely making it by the skin of your teeth is one you have to experience with your pals, and not just your Palicos.

Admittedly, playing through the main story with friends can be a bit of a tedious task at times, but the story missions are just a ludicrously small fraction of the hundreds of hours of adventure Monster Hunter: World has to offer, especially when much of the “post-game” content is at its best when played in teams, like the intimidating Behemoth with recognizable MMO mechanics from the Final Fantasy 14 crossover, or the sincerely difficult arch-tempered Elder Dragons, and the most challenging of all, Fatalis.

Defeating these fiercest of foes with your bestest of buds will strengthen those bonds even more - or make you want to disown someone for not drinking their Armorskin. Either way, it’s a great time.

5. Left 4 Dead 2

The Left 4 Dead games drop players into what is essentially a video game version of the zombie movies 28 Days Later or Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake. That is, it’s you and some friends versus thousands of hungry and very fast zombies. And teamwork is essential if you want to survive the legions of the undead in this magic experience that developers have been trying to recapture ever since its debut.

Each campaign’s objectives will be much more achievable if all players work together, consistently communicate, and take on specific roles within the group. One of Left 4 Dead’s most genius inclusions is the A.I. director, which monitors your team’s progress and tones down — or ramps up — the difficulty based on how well you’re doing. If you’re doing too well, the A.I. Director can make success practically a nightmare, and having real human buddies at your side may just give you the edge you need to make it through.

Oh, and why Left 4 Dead 2 over the original? It’s got better Special Infected (the Jockey is a personal favorite), a better campaign, and Valve even ported over everything from L4D1 into the sequel...so you don’t even need the first game to experience all its fun.

4. Sea of Thieves

To those who have had dreams of donning a pirate's hat and setting sail on the salty waves in search of treasure and wonder, Sea of Thieves is the game for you. From following lore-filled Tall Tales that lead to valuable treasure or manning the 4-pirate vessel, The Galleon, to battle enemy ships on the water; a coordinated band of friends makes everything a lot more manageable, and fun, in this swashbuckling world.

Having your crew at your side when setting foot on islands of nautical baddies and delving into caves with powerful pirate captains is always optimal to assure a bountiful voyage. Hilarity can ensue at any moment with a collection of pirate items on hand like a banjo and hurdy-gurdy for sea shanty sing-alongs or a tankard for some booze-based camaraderie.

And for those who always hoped for a Pirates of the Caribbean video game, the Disney-collaborated Pirate’s Life storyline now available in Sea of Thieves makes these virtual high seas all the more alluring to explore. Savvy?

3. It Takes Two

If creativity was electricity, It Takes Two power an entire town. Hazelight Studios’ brilliant co-op-only adventure released just this year and yet it is so good that it clearly deserves a spot in the upper echelon of the all time great co-op games.

The key to It Takes Two’s success as a cooperative experience is that it always maintains its core as a co-op platformer, but with every new area, it changes up the rules, and how its two characters, Cody and May, must interact with each other. The result is a game that always feels fresh, and always encourages its co-op partners to figure out new ways of working together.

Just when it feels like the game has done everything it can with one mechanic, it moves on to a new one that’s just as fun as the last. And most importantly, everything is built around the idea of cooperating with your partner, as it literally cannot be played alone.

2. Rock Band 4

Guitar Hero may have started the plastic instrument trend, but when Rock Band came out, it turned it into a co-op phenomena, and while we could really put any of the Rock Band games here, we’re going with Rock Band 4 simply because it’s the most available one to play in 2021 and features years of iteration under its belt.

Rock Band is quite simply the ultimate four-player co-op experience for two key reasons: it’s a damn good rhythm and karaoke game first and foremost, regardless of what instrument you’re playing, with an expansive catalogue stretching across genres and eras. But secondly, there’s a unique social aspect to Rock Band that just isn’t present in any other game.

You can play Rock Band to achieve high scores and gold star every song on expert, but its most joyful version is one where you’re not worrying about any of that. Instead, the most important part is goofing off with your friends and pretending to be rock stars together, an experience Rock Band delivers in (ace of) spades. For those that continue to virtually rock, we salute you.

1. Portal 2

Portal 2 is one of the greatest puzzle games of all time, but what’s even more impressive about it is that, in addition to having that stellar single-player campaign, on top of that is, in our opinion, the best co-op experience of all time. It’s perfectly paced, brilliantly split up into multiple areas, each focusing on a different puzzle mechanic, and strikes just the right mix between tests of skill and tests of the mind.

The puzzles themselves are more complex than ever before, especially since you now have four portals to work with as opposed to the two in single-player mode, but they somehow never become frustrating because it’s always fun to experiment, piece together the puzzle bit by bit, and collaborate with your buddy whether through voice chat or the clever pinging system. Even 10 years later, there’s still nothing quite like playing Portal 2 with a friend.

And that’s our list! Like so many others, this was a very tough list to cull to just 10, with games like Resident Evil 5, Destiny 2, and the aforementioned Borderlands and Halo games just missing this list for one reason or another. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Employees of Activision Blizzard under the banner of the ABK Workers Alliance, with the support of the Communication Workers of America guild (CWA), have filed an unfair labor practice suit with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleging the company has engaged in union-busting and intimidation of workers.

In a press release sent out by the groups today, ABK Workers and CWA accuse Activision Blizzard of "using coercive tactics to attempt to prevent its employees from exercising their rights to stand together and demand a more equitable, sustainable, and diverse workplace."

"It is their right as workers to organize for a work environment free from abuse, discrimination and sexual harassments, and this right is protected by federal labor law," it continues.

The complaint itself alleges that Activision-Blizzard has threatened employees, told them they cannot discuss wages, hours, or working conditions, "maintained an overly broad social media policy" and then both engaged in surveillance and enforced its policy against employees who "engaged in protected concerted activity."

One anonymous employee reportedly told Vice that some of the more outspoken employees at the company had recently been told their work performance was not up to standards, despite it being good previously. Another said the company had recently been "hemorrhaging people" in the wake of the harassment lawsuit against Activision-Blizzard.

Said lawsuit was filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing earlier this year, alleging that Activision-Blizzard fostered a "frat boy" culture in which female employees were subjected to sexual harassments, unequal pay, and further unfair, discriminatory, and harassing treatment over the years.

The subsequent weeks saw an industry-wide outcry against the company's culture, including numerous current and former employees sharing their stories of mistreatment at the company on social media and with the press, and an employee walkout. The ABK Workers Alliance was formed during this time in response to the suit, with the purpose of demanding better from the company for its workers.

Activision Blizzard has since made some moves to address the issues, including the termination of a number of employees accused of bad behavior, the removal of in-game references to multiple people named in the suit and other accusations, the replacement of former Blizzard president J. Allen Brack with co-leaders Mike Ybarra and Jen Oneal, and just today the hiring of former Disney VP Julie Hodges as its new chief people officer.

However, ABK Workers say the company has not meaningfully addressed its published demands, which include new recruiting, hiring, interviewing, and promotion policies, publication of representative data on employee compensation, a third party audit of the company's HR, reporting processes, and executive staff, and an end to forced arbitration.

To the latter point, ABK Workers tweeted today that "if the NLRB rules in our favor, the ruling will be retroactive and we will set a precedent that no worker in the US can be intimidated out of talking about forced arbitration."

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

A modder has put the Super Mario 64 engine inside of Minecraft, creating a playable version of Mario in the game.

@pdxdylan posted on Twitter, showing off his work to get the polygonal plumber inside the blocky world of Minecraft. You can see Mario running around multiple biomes, showing off his triple jump, long jump, swimming, climbing, and more moves straight from the classic N64 title.

I'm working on a #Minecraft mod that runs the Super Mario 64 engine! It's very WIP right now but here's some highlights pic.twitter.com/QCfzl10ip0

— Dylan (@pdxdylan) September 13, 2021

IGN spoke to Dylan, who says he was inspired to make this project, simply because he knew it was possible, and that it would look a bit funny.

"I've done other work with Super Mario 64 before on other engines, but the thought of Mario in a completely different game intrigued me, so I decided to do it as a fun project," Dylan said. "I've always been into tinkering with games, figuring out how they work, and making mods for them."

Dylan says that this project was made possible by the n64decomp community, a group of fans and modders who reverse-engineered Super Mario 64 to decompile the source code. However, due to Nintendo's history of issuing cease and desist orders for fan projects, Dylan doesn't have any plans to release the Mario Minecraft mashup.

"I really do wish I could release it to the community. There's a lot of potential for this mod, especially ideas like players being able to build their own courses for Mario to run around in, or speedrunners trying to beat Minecraft as Mario in the quickest time," Dylan said. "However, due to Nintendo's strict enforcement on fan games and mods, I don't believe it will ever reach that point."

Dylan says his personal end goal is to make Minecraft playable from start to finish as Mario. In a follow-up tweet, he also said he'll continue posting videos of the project online, to keep giving the community glimpses of this fun mod.

Didn't expect this to gain traction so quickly so I should prob. clarify: Due to how Nintendo deals w/ Fan projects (DMCAing em) I sadly can't promise a download, either now or in the future. The most I can do now is post silly videos of what I do in-game with it

— Dylan (@pdxdylan) September 14, 2021

For more wacky Super Mario 64 mods, you can watch the gameplay of Peach's Castle as a playable level in GoldenEye 007. Or, for something Nintendo encourages you to build and modify yourself, check out the recently-revealed LEGO Super Mario 64 playset.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Ubisoft and Binge are teaming up for a live-action series adaptation of the popular Driver video game franchise.

GamesIndustry.biz reports that Driver is officially shifting gears and returning to screens as a live-action series that will "focus on undercover agent and ex-racecar driver John Tanner as he tries to take down a crime syndicate." The series will be released exclusively on Binge, a new streaming platform dedicated to delivering premium entertainment for gamers.

The Driver series will be produced by Ubisoft Film & Television's Vincent Talenti and Allan Ungar, who directed and co-wrote the Uncharted live-action fan film that took the internet by storm upon its release in 2018. Driver's executive producers also hail from Ubisoft Film & Television, with Jason Altman, Danielle Kreinik, and Genevieve Jones attached to the project.

"Our mission at Ubisoft is to bring our games to life in new and exciting ways and create content set in the world, culture and community of gaming," Kreinik said of the new series, per Deadline. "Working with Binge will allow us to bring a Driver series directly to the audience who is most passionate about seeing this franchise come to life."

"Having the opportunity to adapt Driver alongside the team at Ubisoft Film & Television is a dream come true," Ungar added following the project's announcement. "As longtime fans of the franchise, we're excited to deliver an original, premium and rich storytelling experience that will take fans and newcomers on a thrilling ride."

The first game of the Driver series was released for the PlayStation in 1999 and its runaway popularity fuelled five further main installments. IGN's review of 2011's Driver: San Francisco called it a "game-changing, eyebrow-raising idea" infused "with unparalleled variety and a ridiculous supernatural twist whilst staying true to its Seventies chase-movie roots."

The new Driver series adaptation joins a growing slate of Ubisoft TV and movie projects, including a live-action Assassin's Creed series for Netflix, a Beyond Good and Evil movie helmed by Detective Pikachu director Rob Letterman, and a movie based on The Division starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain.

Adele Ankers is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

After months of issues, the team responsible for the upkeep of LittleBigPlanet announced today that several games' servers have been shut down permanently.

In a tweet posted on the official LittleBigPlanet account, the development team confirmed that servers for the PS3 versions of LittleBigPlanet 1-3, as well as the PS Vita version of LittleBigPlanet, have been shut down permanently, citing a decision to ensure the game's "online environment remains safe."

The statement also notes that the developer has rolled out Game Update 1.27 for the PS4 version of LittleBigPlanet 3, which will remain playable online. The latest update restores the LittleBigPlanet online server to the PS4 game, meaning over 10,000,000 community levels are playable again. Those levels are inclusive of all content created for the entire mainline LittleBigPlanet series as the games are tethered together such that LittleBigPlanet 3 players can play any user-created levels, including ones from the first two games.

An update on the LittleBigPlanet server and online services: pic.twitter.com/vUrvHcZvIs

— Sackboy: A Big Adventure | LittleBigPlanet (@LittleBigPlanet) September 13, 2021

Despite that update, the news is a major blow for the LittleBigPlanet community with fans in the replies of the announcement tweet expressing sadness that they will not have the chance to play LittleBigPlanet 1 & 2 in the same way again. The server shutdown doesn't render the games totally unplayable – single player campaigns remain playable, and users can create their own levels, but they can no longer upload or download levels. Some fans have replied sharing memories they have of playing the games and creating their own levels.

For most of 2021, the LittleBigPlanet series has suffered significant server problems. In late April, the LittleBigPlanet Twitter account shared an update noting that the servers were being taken down to test out new security updates for the first game. Despiute briefly returning in late May, the servers would be disabled once more following ongoing attacks that included hackers posting offensive content in-game.

It appears the hackers have at least partially gotten their way, with the team forced to abandon work on earlier games in the series. Hopefully, this move means that efforts to protect the PS4 version of LittleBigPlanet 3 can be more focused, and that user-generated content can be preserved in at least one location.

Rockstar Games was one of the developers that presented a game during PlayStation’s much-anticipated showcase this week. But instead of a new game, Rockstar’s announcement was for Grand Theft Auto 5 and Grand Theft Auto Online coming to PlayStation 5 in 2022.

After nearly a decade of continued success and popularity, GTA’s fans are ready to move on and are letting Rockstar know it.

There’s no way rockstar released another trailer of GTA 5 😭😭 let the game rest pic.twitter.com/MlUqeNyndB

— shbz (@shbzz) September 9, 2021

With a shelf life that will eventually extend across three console generations and millions of sales under its belt, folks already know about GTA 5 and still play GTA Online in droves. But since being first released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles back in 2013, fans just don’t want to hear about GTA 5 anymore.

As of this writing, the latest GTA 5 and GTA Online Remastered trailer from the PlayStation Showcase has 32,000 dislikes compared to just 15,000 likes. A similar dislike-to-like ratio appears on the same trailer across different channels including Rockstar’s own official YouTube.

“Welcome back to Los Santos?” one commenter writes in the YouTube trailer on the official PlayStation channel. “No thanks. Been stuck there since 2013.”

The trailers advertising the re-release of an already massively successful game might sting less if the trailer didn’t highlight things like “Seamless character switching,” which is a feature of Grand Theft Auto 5 and not necessarily something new that’s only possible on the PlayStation 5.

Fans have also called out how the trailer highlights the improved graphics and enhanced gameplay. Without specific details, many say the visuals and gameplay look largely unchanged from existing versions of the game.

And though fans have been happy to celebrate GTA 5’s success, in the past year or so, the community has shifted focus towards a possible sequel, Grand Theft Auto 6. One fan even went so far as to crash a German game show to ask Rockstar on live TV where GTA 6 might be.

Unfortunately, Rockstar hasn't said much at all about a potential Grand Theft Auto 6. Rumors have suggested a sequel will not arrive until 2024 at the earliest, and Rockstar itself has undergone some changes after Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser left the company earlier this year.

GTA 5 pulling up to every game show for the last 7 years like: #PlayStationShowcase pic.twitter.com/dEfbmqqWtp

— Carlton Banks’ Burner Account (@banksburner25) September 9, 2021

With the hype cycle in full swing for the next GTA game, fans are now more than happy to take shots at GTA 5. After all, with 150 million units sold as of 2021, they’re punching way up.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Gameplay from a since-lost movie tie-in for Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 4 has seemingly resurfaced more than a decade after it was created.

Between the trailer release for the MCU's Spider-Man No Way Home and Insomniac Games announcing Spider-Man 2 at this month's PlayStation Showcase, everyone's favorite wall-crawler has taken center stage in recent weeks. However, in addition to newer editions of Spider-Man circulating the web, Obscure Gamers has leaked footage from what seems to be the game tie-in for Sam Raimi's scrapped Spider-Man 4 movie.

The footage, which was posted on Obscure Gamers YouTube channel, allegedly shows an early build copy of what could have been for Radical Entertainment's Spider-Man 4. Over eighteen minutes long, most of the clip features Spider-Man swinging casually around a relatively well-modeled build of New York City.

The city itself looks pretty complete compared to other features in the footage. According to Obscure Gamers, this is likely because the game was using a version of a map brought over from Prototype. In 2019, Wayne Dalton, a previous environment artist for Radical Entertainment, shared a range of screenshots and details from what he said was the canceled Spider-Man 4 that ended up becoming Prototype 2, adding to speculation that this would have been the case.

Spider-Man's web-swinging mechanics and some of his combat techniques are both shown off in the footage - both of which seem at first glance to be very similar to that of previous Spider-Man games in the Raimi tie-in series. One of the more surreal parts of the footage, however, come in the form of the footage's NPCs. Unfinished and untextured, citizens of Manhattan can be seen walking and driving around the streets as grey blob-like character models. In a few absurd clips throughout the footage, Spider-Man can be seen interacting with the blobs as they flock toward him before waving and cheering him through the city streets.

Despite few details being officially confirmed for Raimi's canceled Spider-Man 4, speculation at the time suggested that John Malkovich would have joined the cast to play Vulture. Earlier this year, leaked footage from YouTuber CyberSonic seemed to show off what might have been a final battle sequence between Spider-Man and Adrian Toomes in the movie.

Whilst Activision's previous addition to the franchise, Spider-Man 3, released to mediocre reviews, many fans would likely still be intrigued to see what could have been for a final fight scene between Spidey and the Vulture in a fourth movie tie-in title.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

September has officially become IGN’s Best Video Game of All Time Bracket Month, and that means we need YOU to help us decide which of the 64 games selected by IGN staff really are the very best.

Throughout the month, we’re tallying our followers’ votes across IGN.com (On the bottom of this page!), and IGN’s YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram accounts to determine which game is the actual best and is capable of beating all others in a March Madness-style bracket tournament. We’ve sorted these 64 games into four randomly selected groups, and we’ve then ranked those games in the groups by what we believe are the best of the best.

We’ve included games from all systems and generations, and we really wanted to try to pick many of the most beloved games from all different types of genres. While voting officially begins tomorrow, September 10, you can get a headstart by voting in all of the first round's 32 matchups on the bottom of this page. The polls will close at the end of the day on September 11, and voting for the second round, which will see the 32 games with the top vote counts moving forward, will begin on Tuesday, September 14. The full schedule is as follows;

• Friday, September 10 - Round of 64 Voting Begins
• Tuesday, September 14 - Round of 32 Voting Begins
• Thursday, September 16 - Round of 16 Voting Begins
• Monday, September 20 - Round of 8 Voting Begins
• Thursday, September 23 - Round of 4 Voting Begins
• Monday, September 27 - Round of 2 Voting Begins
• Wednesday, September 29 - Winner Declared!

Now onto the first round. We’ve decided to call the groups by their #1 seed, so we will begin on the top left of the bracket with The Red Dead Redemption Group. While Rockstar’s legendary western took the top spot, there are some big challengers it will have to beat to make it to the next round. Not only will it have to secure victory over the likes of Journey, Chrono Trigger, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, but it will have to contend with the ever-growing popularity of Fortnite.

Oh, did we forget to mention it also has to beat World of Warcraft, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and the multiplayer classic title Goldeneye 007 for Nintendo 64? That’s a tough one.

The bottom left of the bracket is The Portal 2 Bracket, and it also includes some timeless classics like 2018’s God of War, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - aka the game that has been on everything including Amazon Alexa.

Sid Meier’s Civilization IV, which is perhaps the most iconic “one… more… turn…” game, also stands tall in this round alongside BioShock, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Inside, and Minecraft - the game that has sold over 200 million copies worldwide.

The top right of the bracket is The Super Mario World Bracket and that classic SNES title made it to the top of IGN’s Top 100 games of all time list and starts off on top of this bracket in this tournament. There are some other big Nintendo games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Pokemon Yellow, and Super Mario 64, so it does have its work cut out for it.

It will also have to compete with the likes of The Last of Us, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Halo 2, and Grand Theft Auto V - which itself has sold over 150 million copies worldwide.

Lastly, we have The Super Metroid Bracket, which is another legendary game from Nintendo taking one of the top spots of this list. Not only will it have to potentially face off against other Metroidvanias like Metroid Prime and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but it won’t be able to take the crown if it can’t beat The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Final Fantasy 7, Bloodborne, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Tetris.

Remember, you only have until September 11 to cast your votes below or on IGN’s YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram accounts for this first round, so be sure to choose carefully and let us know which game you think will claim the ultimate prize and why you chose the games you chose in the comments below!

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

We've gotten our first look at Grand Theft Auto 5 as a PS5 game.

Seen in action at today's PlayStation Showcase event, the PS5 remaster of Grand Theft Auto 5 will see Michael, Franklin, and Trevor back on the streets of Los Santos, and looking better than ever. The new trailer also points to a March 2022 release date, a delay from the previously-announced November 11, 2021 date.

When it arrives with an upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, it will mark the third generation of consoles GTA 5 has been released on. The upgrade applies to both the single player game, and GTA Online. Before that, we're also expecting to see surprises related to the 20th anniversary of GTA 3 on October 22.

Sony is reportedly planning to revive the Twisted Metal video game series seemingly alongside the franchise's upcoming TV show.

In a recent video on Giant Bomb, GamesBeat's Jeff Grubb said he's heard that a Twisted Metal revival is in the works, but it still may be a ways off. VGC reports that they've also heard a new Twisted Metal game is on the way.

A Twisted Metal TV show was confirmed back in 2019. It's one project in a larger push from Sony to turn more of its IP into movies and television shows.

Shawn Layden, who was Chairman of SIE Worldwide Studios at the time, said, "We looked at what Marvel has done in taking the world of comic books and making it into the biggest thing in the film world. It would be a lofty goal to say we’re following in their footsteps, but certainly we’re taking inspiration from that." Layden has since left Sony, but the strategy appears to remain intact.

Other projects currently in the works include The Last of Us TV show on HBO, the Uncharted movie starring Tom Holland, and a Ghost of Tsushima movie from the director of John Wick.

There hasn't been a mainline game in the series since 2012's Twisted Metal reboot. Around the same time, there was word of a Twisted Metal movie that never came to fruition. However, we thought the game was 'amazing' in our Twisted Metal review, saying, "Like its predecessor from more than 15 years ago, Twisted Metal celebrates an eccentric kind of action that shoves fun down the collective throat of the gaming masses."

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Marvel’s The Mandarin has had a convoluted history from terror mastermind to international bogeyman and, most recently, as the virtually immortal leader of the criminal organization in Marvel’s newest hit, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Yes, this character has been around in some form or another since the very start of the MCU.

But it’s been a confusing and winding road for The Mandarin, a.k.a. Wenwu, so let’s trace his path from the beginning…

The MCU’s First Villain… Sort of

Let’s start at the beginning, because in many ways the Mandarin helped launch the MCU.

In 2008’s Iron Man, a faction of the terrorist group the Ten Rings is behind the abduction of Tony Stark in Afghanistan. We learn later in the film that it was Stark’s partner and mentor Obadiah Stane who engineered the entire thing, but it was the Ten Rings who carried it out.

We didn’t get an actual reference to the Mandarin in the first Iron Man or in the sequel. However, in 2010’s Iron Man 2 Mickey Rourke’s Ivan Vanko gets his forged documents from a shady member of the Ten Rings. It makes sense, given that Jon Favreau, who directed the first two Iron Man movies, has said he wanted the Mandarin to appear in what he had intended to be his Tony Stark trilogy. Favreau knew that the Mandarin in the comics was considered Iron Man’s arch-foe, but he was equally aware of the character’s problematic and racially-insensitive origins. He also seemed concerned with how to meld the character’s supernatural powers – the ten rings are mystical, otherworldly entities – with the tech-based reality his Iron Man films were grounded in.

Regardless, the Mandarin did show up in director Shane Black’s Iron Man 3. Well, kind of. This is where things start to get weird...

Meet The Mandarin!?

In the 2013 threequel Iron Man 3, the Mandarin was a looming villain that had America on edge with his pervasive broadcasts and terrifying messages. Except, it was all a smokescreen, a “custom-made terror threat” as Tony Stark put it. The Mandarin was actually failed actor Trevor Slattery (Sir Ben Kingsley), hired by Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian, the founder of Advanced Idea Mechanics, or A.I.M. for short.

Killian used this evil think tank to distort the myth of the Mandarin in order to manipulate the pathology of Western Civilization. At first, the terrorist attack concept was a ruse to cover up the flaws of his experimental Extremis regenerative program -- it’s a pretty big flaw, since it causes its patients to blow up! But Killian soon realized it’s easier to rule behind the scenes, so he created a face of terror… the Mandarin.

Shane Black’s decision to make the Mandarin almost a punchline in the film was controversial to say the least. Some diehard comics fans were upset; others thought it was ingenious. But as Kevin Feige explained to IGN back in 2014, just because the Mandarin in Iron Man 3 turned out to be Trevor Slattery, it didn’t mean the real villain didn’t exist.

“That’s one of the reasons we wanted to do the fun short that Drew Pearce wrote and directed,” Feige said then.

Killian had based his Mandarin “avatar” on the real stories he had heard about a mysterious mastermind who was behind all sorts of acts of terror. And the short film Feige mentioned, “All Hail the King,” clarified once and for all that the Mandarin did exist within the MCU -- and that he was a legitimate force to be reckoned with.

In the Marvel One-Shot, a member of the Ten Rings organization poses as a documentary filmmaker and lets poor, clueless Slattery in on a little secret: The Mandarin does exist, and he’s not too happy to find out some washed-up thespian has been impersonating him. The film ends with Slattery being taken out of prison, presumably to his death at the hands of the real Mandarin. (Of course, we’d eventually learn in Shang-Chi that the hapless Trevor wound up living as a prisoner of Wenwu’s, where the former thespian avoided execution by performing for the Ten Rings.)

Aside from a deleted scene in Ant-Man in which a prospective client of Darren Cross’ Yellowjacket tech is sporting a Ten Rings tattoo, there were no other mentions of the Ten Rings in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for another half-dozen years… until the real McCoy finally made his debut.

Wenwu in Shang-Chi: The Real Boss

In Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Tony Leung’s Xu Wenwu is revealed to be the head of a shadowy international network dating back to the Middle Ages. The Mandarin is just one of the names given to him over the centuries. Due to the power embedded in the mysterious ten rings he possesses, Wenwu is virtually immortal, and his Ten Rings organization – named for his rings of power -- has become an almost shadow government, dominating and manipulating global events to its advantage.

During a dinner scene with his children, Shang-Chi and Xu Xialing, Wenwu specifically references the “false Mandarin” episode as he reveals one of the many names he’s been assigned over his long life.

“He appropriated Ten Rings, my Ten Rings, but because he didn’t know my real name… do you know what name he chose? The Mandarin. He gave his figurehead the name of a chicken dish.”

The inclusion of this scene is notable for more than just confirmation that Shang-Chi is the son of the infamous villain. It’s also a subtle repudiation of the racist elements embedded in the character’s original depiction. As mentioned earlier, the desire to import one of Marvel Comics’ key villains to the movies had been there from the beginning, but the filmmakers had to figure out a way to adapt him while also removing his offensive characteristics. Having the character himself point this out was a quite effective way to do it.

In a larger sense, that was also part of the challenge with bringing Shang-Chi to the MCU. The original comic book series that made Shang-Chi a sensation to fans of a certain age was a Bronze Age piece of pulp and spy fare mixed with martial arts. Created by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin, The Hands of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu was a bold series featuring some of the best art of the era by artists like Gene Day and Mike Zeck. It is also horribly dated in some ways by some of the stereotypes it presents, the most prominent being Shang-Chi’s father, Fu Manchu. The character, created by novelist Sax Rohmer, was an evil scientist who was emblematic of the “Yellow Menace” trope common in 20th century fiction. There was no way to bring that character into the present-day MCU.

By erasing Fu Manchu from the picture, director Destin Daniel Cretton and screenwriters Dave Callaham and Andrew Lanham built an antagonist in Wenwu who was a layered, complex character, a mythic figure who is also allowed a dynamic with his son that is at the heart of the movie.

By taking this path, Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings allowed for the real Mandarin to finally take his place as one of the best and most fascinating villains in the MCU.

What do you think of the way the Mandarin was handled in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings? Let's discuss in the comments!

Billionaire and former Walmart executive Marc Lore has shared his vision for a new city in America, that will cost $400 billion to build.

CNN reports that the new city, called Telosa, is being designed to be a sustainable metropolis located in a desert somewhere in the U.S. Right now, city planners are considering Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, and Texas.

Every idea starts with a tiny seed. #CityofTelosa #NewCity #CityoftheFuture @CityofTelosa @ArcherAviation pic.twitter.com/MwJV4grkky

— Marc Lore (@MarcLore) September 3, 2021

The city's layout is intended to allow residents to get to work, school, or anything else they may need within 15 minutes. The goal is for Telosa to be eco-friendly, with sustainable energy and water. At the center of it all is the Equitism Tower, a skyscraper designed to be, "a beacon for the city."

The plan says the city will eventually grow to 150,000 acres, supporting 5 million people. That stage, however, is at least 40 years away. The first phase would apparently take 10-20 years to achieve, and will support 1 million people in the city.

Today, Bloomberg @business revealed @CityofTelosa: a vision of @BjarkeIngels and @MarcLore for a new city in America that sets a global standard for urban living, expands human potential, and becomes a blueprint for future generations. Learn more here: https://t.co/VD4tpZSgtf pic.twitter.com/lvPXkuWiMH

— BIG (@BIGstertweets) September 1, 2021

The city may evoke memories of BioShock's Rapture, the large, underwater utopia designed to help society flourish. However, the proponents of Telosa say their goal isn't to create a utopia, but rather to stay focused on what is possible.

Speaking of Rapture, the upcoming BioShock 4 seemingly won't take place in either Rapture or BioShock Infinite's Columbia, according to job listings for the game. If Telosa makes you want to dive back into the world of Rapture, you can follow IGN's BioShock walkthrough every step of the way.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Take-Two Interactive is suing the creators of reverse-engineered Grand Theft Auto 3 and Grand Theft Auto Vice City fan projects.

This news comes by way of VideoGamesChronicle, which reports that the lawsuit was filed in California and names 14 programmers who were working on the project. IGN reported back in February that this project had received a DMCA takedown from Take-Two, the parent company of Rockstar Games.

The lawsuit claims that the people on the project "are well aware that they do not possess the right to copy, adapt, or distribute derivative GTA source code, or the audiovisual elements of the games, and that doing so constitutes copyright infringement," according to VGC.

It's important to note that the team isn't actually using GTA 3 or Vice City source code — they instead recreated it using newer coding languages. This project doesn't contain any Rockstar assets, either, so players that wish to use this reverse-engineered source code will actually need to have their own copy of GTA 3 or Vice City to create a port of the games using this code.

However, as Take-Two's lawsuit notes, the company is suing the creators behind the project for distributing "derivative GTA source code."

Take-Two claims that the project, more formally known as Re3 or ReVC on GitHub, is causing "irreparable harm to Take-Two," both in terms of copyright infringement and in terms of the fact that now technically anybody can create their own version of GTA 3 or Vice City using the reverse-engineered code.

VGC notes that in the lawsuit, Take-Two says it tried to remove the project from GitHub where it was being distributed. According to Take-Two, three of the project's programmers "knowingly filed bad faith counter-notifications that materially misrepresented the legality of their content, apparently claiming that because they allegedly 'reverse-engineered' the games' source code, they somehow cannot be liable for copyright infringement."

It seems that this will be the central argument of the case: does reverse-engineering a source code count as copyright infringement? Only time will tell for now.

Read about how the team behind the reverse-engineered source code had their project taken down back in February and then read about how Rockstar might be working on a Grand Theft Auto remastered trilogy after that.

Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Welcoooome to Nintendo Voice Chat! Sonic takes center stage this week, as the panel discusses IGN's Sonic Colors Ultimate review, as well as the best 3D Sonic games in the series. Join host Casey DeFreitas, reviewer Mitchell Saltzman, Sonic superfan Logan Plant, and the wonderful Brian Altano, as they take a look at some of the Blue Blur's most divisive outings. And, it's the start of a new recurring segment on NVC! The Nintendo 64 turns 25 this month, so we're putting together a lineup of the games we'd want to see on a theoretical N64 Classic Edition. Plus, stick around to hear about the first new GBA game in 13 years, more impressions of No More Heroes 3, and more.

Timecodes!

• 00:00:00 Sonic Colors Ultimate discussion
• 00:22:22 Big Brain Academy is back

• 00:29:00 Picking the N64 Classic lineup
• 00:40:40 More news
• 00:58:45 What we're playing

NVC is available on your preferred platforms!

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You can also Download NVC 576 Directly Here

You can listen to NVC on your preferred platform every Thursday at 3pm PT/6pm ET. Have a question for Question Block? Write to us at nvc@ign.com and we may pick your question! Also, make sure to join the Nintendo Voice Chat Podcast Forums on Facebook. We're all pretty active there and often pull Question Block questions and comments straight from the community.

Logan Plant is the Production Assistant for NVC. You can find him on Twitter at @LoganJPlant.

A new month and a new batch of games coming to different services. PlayStation announced its September 2021 PS Plus lineup, and now Xbox has announced what games are coming to Xbox Game Pass this month also.

Leading the charge on September 2 is Craftopia, an ID@Xbox game about living on a small island by hanging out, fighting bosses, crafting items, really whatever you want. Or if you want to try out something completely different, Final Fantasy 13 is also heading to Xbox Game Pass for both console and PC.

Square Enix’s RPG has something of a mixed reputation, but it’s undeniably one of the best-looking Final Fantasy games even over a decade after it was first released in 2009. There are also new indie releases coming out day-and-date this month including Surgeon Simulator 2 and The Artful Escape.

What's Coming to Xbox Game Pass in September 2021

• Craftopia (Cloud, Console, and PC) ID@Xbox - September 2

• Final Fantasy XIII (Console and PC) - September 2

• Signs of the Sojourner (Cloud, Console, and PC) - September 2

• Surgeon Simulator 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC) ID@Xbox - September 2

• Crown Trick (Console and PC) ID@Xbox - September 7

• Breathedge (Cloud, Console, and PC) ID@Xbox - September 9

• Nuclear Throne (Console and PC) ID@Xbox - September 9

• The Artful Escape (Console and PC) ID@Xbox -September 9

Here's What's Leaving Xbox Game Pass in September 2021

• Red Dead Online (Cloud and Console) - September 13

• Company of Heroes 2 (PC) - September 15

• Disgaea 4 (PC) - September 15

• Forza Motorsport 7 (Cloud, Console, and PC) - September 15

• Hotshot Racing (Cloud and Console) - September 15

• The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics (Cloud, Console, and PC) - September 15

• Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales (Cloud and Console) - September 15

If you missed it, a bunch of Quake games including the newly announced Quake Remaster also went up on Xbox Game Pass in August. The collection was announced at, where else? Quakecon.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Star Wars video games have been around nearly as long as the iconic film series has, letting players journey to a galaxy far, far away for decades. Some have tried to recreate the movies, others have offered new stories set somewhere in the canon of the Skywalker Saga, and others still have carved out their own corners of the galaxy.

There’s certainly no shortage of games to choose from, but we’ve tapped into the Force and whittled down the list to what we consider the 10 best Star Wars games of all time.

These entries stretch across console generations, genres, and stories, but they’ve all captivated us in their own way.

Read this list, you should.

10. Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (SNES, 1994)

Super Return of the Jedi is one of the best Star Wars games made, particularly for earlier generation consoles. Its debut on Super Nintendo systems in 1994 offered a fitting end to the Super Star Wars saga, which loosely adapted the original trilogy.

Return of the Jedi, in particular, delivered an incredible soundtrack, which hearing it now is an instant hit of nostalgia, especially for anyone who spent their youth trying to beat those pesky boss levels.

The characters from the films were fun to play as, the levels had a moderate but rewarding platforming difficulty, and the weapons offered a rare unique variety of type and power.

Super Return of the Jedi remains one of the best film adaptations in the last 25+ years, and certainly one of the best Star Wars games around.

9. Star Wars Dark Forces (1995, MS-DOS, MAC)

When you think of '90s first-person shooters, Doom and Quake are often the most recognizable ones, for obvious reasons. Yet Star Wars: Dark Forces is another first-person shooter among the best to come out during that decade.

While it lacked a multiplayer feature, Dark Forces more than made up for it with solid graphics for the time and superb level design that provided a good challenge throughout. It also introduced Star Wars fans to Kyle Katarn, a major character in Star Wars video games for years to come.

8. Star Wars: Battlefront II (2005, PS2, Xbox, PC, PSP)

2005’s Star Wars: Battlefront II took the foundations of the first Battlefront—specifically the Battlefield-inspired multiplayer -and added an engaging single-player story mode on top of that solid bedrock. It’s something the budding franchise didn’t need, yet still pulled off surprisingly well.

Its story is told from the perspective of a clone trooper (voiced by Jango Fett himself, Temura Morrison) fighting in the Republic’s 501st Legion against Seperatist forces. Battlefront II’s matches have the same feature set as the first Battlefront, but with a few notable additions:

- Playable Heroes like Darth Vader and Prequel-era Obi-Wan, and Space Assault, arguably the best of the multiplayer modes.

- In Space Assault, two teams assault the opposing faction’s capital ship via starfighters until key systems are knocked out. It’s similar to Battlefield 2142’s Titan mode, but with Star Wars ships. And it’s a lot of fun.

7. Star Wars: Republic Commando (2005, Xbox, PC)

Star Wars: Republic Commando is another Star Wars shooter from 2005 that is worth your time. While most people probably think of Jedi and space combat when Star Wars comes to mind, Republic Commando changes the pace, offering military-style combat that puts the troopers of the Clone Wars front and center. Although the multiplayer leaves a lot to be desired, the crown jewel of Republic Commando is the single-player campaign.

Assuming the role of a clone squad leader, using squad commands to direct your fellow troopers is fun and rewarding, thanks to the good squadmate AI that really adds a lot of fun and keeps things fresh as you run through missions.

While the Clones have, of course, been thrust into the spotlight in TV animated series like The Clone Wars and The Bad Batch, Republic Commando is one of the best examples of how to apply their stories to a game.

6. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019, PC, PS4, Xbox One)

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is one of the best single-player Star Wars games to come out in recent memory. Set five years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, players control Padawan Cal Kestis, one of the last surviving Jedi following Order 66, as he traverses across the galaxy attempting to complete his training and rebuild the Jedi Order.

While the Soulsborne-esque combat can be challenging, it’s a rewarding system to master with the energetic and fast-paced lightsaber and Force combat.

There’s also clearly a Metroidvania influence at work, but it’s put to great effect in allowing you to explore a host of planets, unlock customization options for Cal, your lightsaber, and one of the sweetest droids around, BD-1.

Jedi: Fallen Order is hopefully just the start of a new franchise, but it’s an incredible beginning.

5. Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2: Rogue Leader (GameCube)

Rogue Leader was a showcase for the Gamecube at release, and it’s easy to see why. More than its visuals, however, the second Rogue Squadron boasted one of the finest renditions of the famous Trench Run ever to be featured in a video game.

Compared to its more complicated cousin TIE Fighter, Rogue Leader is an unrepentant arcade game, pitting you against waves of TIEs in a variety of familiar Star Wars settings in a robust package that also included bonus ships and missions, allowing you to fly everything from the Millennium Falcon to the Naboo N-1 Fighter.

It's a complete Star Wars nerd experience, serving as both one of the best Star Wars games ever and one of the best GameCube games. We’d love a proper re-release now, thank you.

4. Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast (2002, PC, OS X, GameCube, Xbox)

While Star Wars: Dark Forces introduced us to the scrappy antihero Kyle Katarn, and Jedi Knight saw him embrace the Force, Jedi Outcast is where Katarn really shined.

Jedi Outcast still gave you a plethora of weapons to wield and sprawling levels to explore that the series had come to be known for, but nothing quite compared to its lightsaber combat at the time, thanks to its inclusion of many Force-infused Sith determined to stop you on your quest.

Chaining together force powers with three different lightsabers stances made every single encounter feel intense - and nothing was quite as satisfying as seeing the slowed down 360 degree camera spin after cutting an opponent’s arm off.

Even facing off against regular stormtroopers never got old, thanks to the ability to freely force choke and fling enemy troopers off a cliff on a whim.

Come back Kyle Katarn, we miss you!

3. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (2007, Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS)

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is a compilation of the first six episodes in the Skywalker Saga, representing two great LEGO games in one.

LEGO games are great for both young and old fans alike, and the LEGO Star Wars games exemplify this, with goofy retellings of the original Star Wars stories and a ton of replayability thanks to the many collectibles players can scour a galaxy far, far away for.

TT Games has applied its LEGO formula, and expanded on it, with a number of different franchises, but the developers struck gold with the design of the LEGO Star Wars games, which offered a blueprint for years to come.

While Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is releasing soon, we still find a lot of charm in Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, and not just because of the gibberish the characters speak in cutscenes.

2. Star Wars: TIE Fighter (1994, Microsoft Windows, DOS, Macintosh, Classic Mac OS)

TIE Fighter is still the best game about the Empire ever made. The sequel to X-wing, it casts you as a TIE pilot who has to navigate Imperial intrigue while shooting down many, many X-wings, Y-wings, and Z-95 Headhunters.

Boasting a surprisingly strong story spanning much of the original trilogy, few flight simulators do a better job of mixing complex mechanics with accessible arcade gameplay as TIE Fighter does. More importantly, it gave us the TIE Defender -- the hot rod of the TIE lineup.

So many Star Wars games cast you in the role of the Empire only to cop out and let your character see the light. TIE Fighter embraces the Empire for the nefarious villains they are, and it's better for it.

1. Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic (2003, Xbox, PC)

And of course, no list of the best Star Wars games could be complete without mentioning Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Set thousands of years before the events of the movies, Knights of the Old Republic was something extraordinary as it provided fans of the franchise a completely different look at the Star Wars universe.

While other games on the list certainly added depth to the Star Wars lore, Knights of the Old Republic fully immerses you in this fictional universe with rich additions to what we knew of the galaxy at the time.

Nothing has quite delivered on the promise of being a Jedi traversing the galaxy going on an epic space adventure that is filled to the brim with memorable locations, quests, and interesting characters quite like KOTOR.

And that is why, nearly 20 years later, Knights of the Old Republic is remembered not only as a gold standard for the RPG genre, but also as a highpoint in Star Wars video games.

Those are our picks for the 10 best Star Wars games of all time. Did you agree with the list, or think we’re a bunch of scruffy headed nerf herders? Let us know what Star Wars games are your favorites.

A new AI tool called StyleCLIP allows you to turn images into realistic faces, so we thought it'd be fun to see what some of our favorite video game, TV, and movie characters would look like in the real world.

Take a look at our full gallery below, to see realistic imaginations of Kratos, Sephiroth, and yes, Handsome Squidward from Spongebob.

StyleCLIP is part of the recent wave of AI tools that let you do all sorts of things to alter photos. A deeper explanation can be found here, with StyleCLIP being described as "essentially Photoshop driven by text, with all the good, bad, and chaos that entails." Neat.

If you want to try it for yourself, you can download the StyleCLIP program. Thanks to Corridor Crew for the idea!

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Konami is phasing out online support for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and Metal Gear Online on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 beginning today.

A post on Konami's website says that Metal Gear Solid V's purchase system on PS3 and 360 are shutting down. All DLC for Metal Gear Online will no longer be available for purchase beginning on November 30.

The full shutdown of online play won't happen until May 31, 2022. Konami does confirm, of course, that the main game will still be playable offline on the impacted systems.

Metal Gear Solid V includes two multiplayer modes. One is Metal Gear Online, a PvP mode that supports up to 16 players hunting each other down with the game's stealth and espionage mechanics across three game modes. The other is an online version of the game's base-building feature, which can be used to get items and money for the main game.

The Phantom Pain released back in 2015. At the time, IGN called it a masterpiece in our Metal Gear Solid 5 review, saying, "The Phantom Pain doesn’t just respect my intelligence as a player, it expects it of me, putting it in a league that few others occupy."

The Phantom Pain was the last game Hideo Kojima worked on with Konami before parting ways with the company. The Director's Cut of his latest game, Death Stranding, is due out on PlayStation 5 this year. The legendary creator is also writing a book about his creative process.

As for other players still making use of their PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the PS3 and 360 are losing GTA Online on December 16 of this year. This lines up closely with GTA V's launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Chinese developer and publisher NetEase is reportedly in "final negotiations" with Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi to hire him away from Sega, where he's been since 1989.

According to a report from Bloomberg, at NetEase Nagoshi would be expected to build a new team and develop brand new games for the company, though the final contract and any details about his job role have yet to be set in stone.

NetEase is already a gaming superpower in China thanks to mobile games like the Westward Journey series, Cyber Hunter, Identity V, and Knives Out (no relation to the film), as well as its partnership with Activision-Blizzard to run World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Starcraft 2 in the country.

However, it is still looking to expand its global notoriety and gain more hits outside of China, especially amidst a growing crackdown on gaming time for minors in China that became even more stringent today.

As Tokyo-based analyst, Serkan Toto, of Kantan Games put it to Bloomberg, companies like NetEase and Tencent are especially interested in acquiring Japanese talent to accomplish these goals. "Tencent and NetEase have been speaking to just about all publicly traded studios here and are actively courting some privately held developers, too. They both feel pressure to make headway in Japan, especially since game regulations in their home market are becoming increasingly restrictive," Toto said.

Nagoshi has been with Sega since the very early days of arcade titles, with his first credit at the company being as a designer on Virtua Racing. He went on to be the producer and director for the Monkey Ball series, before heading up Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and leading the creation of the Yakuza franchise.

The most recent Yakuza game, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, was especially notable for taking the series from an action beat-em-up to a turn-based RPG, whose bold steps we applauded despite its struggles to maintain balance. A sequel to Yakuza spin-off Judgment, entitled Lost Judgment, is planned for next month.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Microsoft has announced that the Games with Gold for September 2021 include Warhammer: Chaosbane, Mulaka, Zone of the Enders HD Collection, and Samurai Shodown II.

As detailed on Xbox Wire, all Xbox Live Gold members and those with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will be able to play these games as soon as they are available, beginning with Warhammer: Chaosbane and Zone of the Enders HD Collection on September 1.

Warhammer: Chaosbane will be available on Games with Gold from September 1-30 and is an action-RPG with four classes to choose from and a mission to save a "world ravaged by war and dominated by magic." It is the first hack-and-slash game in the Warhammer universe and supports co-op locally and online.

In our Warhammer: Chaosbane review, we said that it "can stand proudly alongside some of the best games that have used the foreboding, Gothic Old World as a setting."

Zone of the Enders HD Collection is an Xbox 360 backward compatibility title and includes both Zone of the Enders and Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner. For those unaware, Hideo Kojima was a producer on both games. It will be part of Games with Gold from September 1-15.

In our Zone of the Enders HD Collection review, we said that "these aerial brawlers cleaned up nicely ten years later. Both Zone of the Enders titles do interesting things, but The 2nd Runner is a forgotten classic that holds up unquestionably better than the first game in the series."

Mulaka will be available from September 16 - October 15 and is an action-adventure game that is based on the indigenous culture of the Tarahumara people of Mexico. Players will become a local shaman named Sukurúame and will need to use the power of the demigods while solving puzzles defeating foes in a land "inspired by real Sierra locations."

Samurai Shodown II is another Xbox 360 backward compatibility title that will join Games with Gold from September 16-30 and follows the release of 2019's Samurai Shodown. This game allows you to utilize the Rage System and Weapon Breaking Attack features to battle 15 playable fighters in weapon-based combat.

In our Samurai Shodown II review, we said, "I wouldn't go so far as to say that this sequel is far and away superior to the original, as I find nostalgia to be much more of a positive factor for Samurai Shodown I than it is for this less well-known follow-up. But loyal fans of the franchise will often point to Samurai Shodown II as the best in the series, citing flaws and mistakes introduced in later sequels."

While you wait for these games to arrive, don't forget that Darksiders 3, Yooka-Laylee, and Garou: Mark of the Wolves are still available as part of August 2021's Games with Gold.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.