Hot on the heels of a new full-sized Sonic game in Sonic Superstars, the Apple Arcade exclusive Sonic Dream Team might not look like it has much to offer at first. It only has a dozen levels, and all you get control-wise are a D-pad and two buttons. For some, the fact that it’s only available on Apple devices (at least for the time being) is a non-starter all its own. But despite all that, Sonic Dream Team more than manages to justify its existence – in fact, its superb level design and bite-sized missions make it one of the most fun, creative, and enjoyable 3D platformers I’ve played in a long time.

Sonic Dream Team’s story kicks off when Dr. Eggman finds a device that brings his dreams into reality. This is obviously bad news for reality, so it’s up to Sonic and friends to work their way through four dream worlds and defeat him. Unfortunately the story is forgettable, lifelessly told through voiceover on top of still images, like a radio play accompanied by comic book panels. But even with its brief runtime, taking me around five or six hours to reach 100% completion, the levels between those cutscenes pack in more delights than many much larger games.

Each world is visually striking, with its own distinct set of enemies and interactive elements. That ranges from the Scrambled Shores, a tropical area filled with giant inflatable structures, to the Dream Factory, which has conveyor belts and pistons set over lava pits. I especially liked the third world, Nightmare Maze, which is like a colorful take on an M.C. Escher drawing, with shifting gravity that lets you run up the walls and onto the ceiling, reaching new areas in mind-bending ways. It’s the only world that really takes advantage of the dream concept, making it something of a missed opportunity that the other three are fairly standard Sonic settings. And unlike many other Sonic games, the music is auditory wallpaper at best and a repetitive annoyance at worst.

Each world is made up of only three levels, for a grand total of 12 in the entire campaign. While that may sound like a skimpy offering, they are all big, open playgrounds to run around, with plenty of offshoots and distinct areas to discover that break up the usual platforming – be that a room that’s all rails and pits or a long spinning tube wrapped in thorns you have to sprint over. That makes every one of them a joy to zip through and explore.

Movement is fast and smooth, so running through the world feels fantastic. Levels are filled with various routes you can take that have rails and springboards to fling you forward, keeping your momentum going as you leap between platforms and bounce off enemies. You could still misjudge a jump or bungle an obstacle's timing, but unlike some Sonic games, you’ll rarely ram into a blockade or spike wall designed to stop you from blazing ahead. Even when you do run out of rings or fall into a pit, Sonic Dream Team’s checkpoints are forgiving, so you'll never lose much progress.

You only start out with Sonic and Amy as playable characters, but you’ll unlock two other pairs as you progress, each of which gives you access to a new ability unique to them. Sonic and Amy’s ability lets you zip through strings of floating rings that take you wherever the path leads, high or low; Tails and Cream can both fly briefly, and most levels have floating yellow hoops that replenish that ability mid-air; finally, Knuckles and Rouge can climb certain walls. All of these powers are fun to use, opening up new paths and opportunities in the levels depending on who you’re playing as.

Unlocking new levels requires you to collect a certain number of orbs, but you’ll never have enough to progress after playing the previous level just once. This means you constantly have to replay levels you’ve already beaten – that can be a major source of frustration in some games, but thankfully it’s not a problem at all in Sonic Dream Team. In fact, I actually loved replaying levels because of the way missions work, which make them function more like a Super Mario Galaxy stage than a typical Sonic world.

You start every level by selecting a mission that will reward you with an orb upon completion. Each level has seven missions, the first of which generally asks you to simply go through the whole level to unlock the exit. You can explore and collect items at your own pace during this first mission, but others are timed, making you excitingly speedrun the level. Other missions drop you in a walled-off section of a level and have you collect “orb shards” that are scattered around, asking you to slow down and explore intricately designed areas you might otherwise miss as you speed through the environment.

Getting access to new characters also unlocks additional missions in previous levels that make use of their specific abilities, giving you a good reason to revisit them later on. For instance, you might have to collect an orb that’s waiting at the top of a wall only Knuckles or Rouge can climb. The excellent level design and those diverse mission requirements work together to make Sonic Dream Team a blast to play even with its seemingly limited number of stages. I was never frustrated to have to dip back into a level to complete another mission, as they always felt fresh and fun each time I went back.

Capping off each world is a boss encounter, which are all cleverly conceived but feel undercooked in practice. For instance, the first boss is a huge inflatable crab, like a balloon animal, so you have to pop its various body parts to defeat it. That’s a delightful concept and a great idea for a silly boss battle — but the crab only takes four hits to beat, so the fight is over before you know it. It just feels anticlimactic, and the same goes for most of the other bosses.

This being an Apple Arcade game, you can play it on most Apple devices. The touchscreen controls work fine on iPhone – it’s not as precise as using a physical controller (which you can also do), but it’s perfectly serviceable. On iPad, however, I found the buttons spaced too far apart for comfort, and touch controls in general started to let me down as I got to some harder missions later on. My favorite configuration was using an Xbox controller connected to a MacBook Air, which bucks any mobile assumptions by making it look and play just like a console game. The larger display also helps, because sometimes the camera pulls back for a wide view, making your character nearly microscopic on a phone display. Your save also syncs via iCloud, so you can pick up and play on any Apple device you have lying around, which is super convenient.

Fortnite’s Rocket Racing is a brand-new arcade racer that tests your driving skills with gravity defying mechanics. Developed by Psyonix, creators of Rocket League, Rocket Racing captures the same competitive feel, just on a racetrack. Here’s how Rocket Racing plays as a competitive racing game and what to expect from content and cosmetics in the future.

Movement Mechanics

Rocket Racing isn’t your typical car racing game where you just have to optimize your turns and drifts. Along with classic race mechanics, you have to pay attention to your surroundings so you can break some rules and find new alternative paths to cross the finish line first. Picture more Mario Kart-esque and less Forza Motorsport.

Using the Air Dodge move, you can simply flick your thumbstick to leave your current road surface and stick to the ceiling or walls. You’ll need to do this to avoid oncoming obstacles or to grab a speed boost that’s on the ceiling.

You can also use your thrusters to fly and float through the air not just during ramp jumps. This can help you find some cheeky near out-of-bounds raceway to zoom on but just note that jumping and flying slows down your acceleration.

Racing on a surface is the best way to gain speed since that’s what fills your boost meter. Drifting on turns will earn you more charge for turbo boosts which, once filled, allows you to thrust forward for a good moment and gets you an extra burst of speed at the end of the boost. You can hold onto three turbo charges at once.

Drifting around turns fills your turbo meter faster but you can also manually hit the drift button. When you hit a turn in Rocket Racing, you’ll automatically drift slightly to fit the curve. If you hit the drift button, you’ll get a much harsher turn and drift around corners to get more of a speed boost after coming out into the straightaway.

At the start of races, if you manage to hit the accelerate button right on the fourth green light, you’ll get a slight to massive starting boost. The percentage of your boost is dependent on your timing, so be sure to keep your finger on the button so you can get at least 80% or above for that starting acceleration.

Car Customization

Alongside its tight controls, Rocket Racing also features a staggering amount of customization. This is the first time you’re really able to fully customize a vehicle in Fortnite. You can change your car’s body and secondary colors, add decals, and even change the look of the wheels. And, the best part? The customizations you have for the cars in Rocket Racing will transfer to Battle Royale. Neat!

Maps and Ranked Mode

At the moment, there are 26 racetracks with more coming every month. Currently, there are three biomes from the Fortnite ecosystem: Canyon, Forest, Jungle.

Aside from a casual mode, where you can play any maps you want with up to 12 racers in your party and lobby, there’s a ranked mode that lets you test your skills as an agile driver. In ranked, you’ll face off against three other people, meaning each race only has four total players.

As you climb in ranks, the maps will get harder and harder and cycle from the easier smaller maps to the harder bigger tracks. Depending on the size of the maps, you’ll have to complete three to five laps to finish a race.

While it’s recommended that you play with a controller, you can still use your keyboard and mouse if you insist. I just personally found the controls to be much smoother on controllers! Rocket Racing is available now on Fortnite on all platforms, current and last-gen (PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch).

Stella is a Video Producer, Host, and Editor at IGN. Her gameplay focus is on competitive FPS games and she's previously reviewed Apex Legends, Hyper Scape, Halo Infinite Multiplayer, and Battlefield 2042. She regularly hosts and shoutcasts competitive Apex Legends and Halo Infinite tournaments when she isn't streaming on her Twitch channel after work outs. You can follow her on Twitter @ParallaxStella.

During Gamescom 2018 in Cologne, Germany, NVIDIA announced that ray tracing–a graphics technique capable of rendering special effects on par with motion pictures–was finally coming to video games. The event also marked the introduction of the concept of AI for gaming with the introduction of Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS).

And right now, there are over 500 games and applications that take advantage of any combination of these features! NVIDIA is kicking off an RTX 500 celebration for reaching this milestone. Celebrate this benchmark with NVIDIA by following the GeForce social channels on X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, YouTube TikTok, or Reddit, Discord and other social media platforms.

We have our own list of games that make excellent use of RTX technologies. From the top:

5. Minecraft with RTX

Unless you've been living in a cave on Mars with your fingers stuck in your ears since 2011, you know all about Mojang's enormously popular sandbox-style game. But Minecraft isn't just popular for its endless creative potential, but also for the big, chunky blocks that give the game a distinct visual style.

You wouldn't think Minecraft's simple blocks wouldn't benefit from ray tracing, but NVIDIA proves everyone wrong. Minecraft feels like the progenitor to the RTX-OFF and RTX-ON graphical fidelity comparison, and for good reason. You can see there's a clear upgrade.

Minecraft with RTX debuted in 2020 with full ray tracing (also known as path tracing), meaning all the lights in the game benefit from ray tracing. A lot of people were surprised at how much the implementation of full ray tracing transformed the game. Ray tracing lets you witness beautiful effects like rays of light bursting through cloud cover, but the upgrade to Minecraft.

RTX isn't just visual. Diving into Minecraft RTX's caves and mines means navigating through an unsettlingly realistic darkness. This makes Minecraft a much more intense game, and it's a good example of a mainstream audience getting to see how ray tracing can enhance games.

4. Metro Exodus

Metro Exodus is another example of a marquee AAA game that was transformed by ray tracing integration. Metro Exodus originally launched with ray traced global illumination in 2019, making it one of the first games to use ray tracing effects. This visual beast of a game underwent a complete overhaul with the re-release of the game in 2020. Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition features a reworked method of global illumination that also adds new RT effects.

Metro Exodus is already a creepy game in its vanilla state, but the Enhanced Edition's use of RTX tech ramps up the fear factor with creepy shadows that seem to dance around you when you spark any kind of light. It makes the haunted tundra that much more chilling, and it's just one example of how ray traced lighting can add so much to a video game.

3. Control

Our third example of games that make especially good use of RTX technology is Control by Remedy Entertainment. In August 2019, Control became the first game to combine multiple RTX lighting effects such as reflections, shadows, and indirect diffuse lighting. It's no wonder people still regard this supernatural, avant-garde shooter as one of the best-looking games of all time.

Control became the first game to combine multiple RTX lighting effects such as, ray-traced indirect diffuse lighting, shadows, and reflective surfaces.That's why the Oldest House will always feel creepy enough to sweep you away from reality.

2. Alan Wake 2

Speaking of Remedy Entertainment, Alan Wake 2 continues the studio’s relationship with NVIDIA’s RTX implementation through use of ray traced EVERYTHING along with serving as a launch vehicle for DLSS 3.5 – the latest iteration of DLSS that uses a technique known as ray reconstruction, a new AI model that creates higher quality ray-traced images for intensive ray-traced games and apps.

Alan Wake 2 is a dark game, both narratively and mechanically. Remedy makes expert use of RTX technology to carpet Alan Wake's misadventure with thick darkness that contrasts perfectly with whatever small bits of light Alan Wake can manage to hold onto.

1. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

When Cyberpunk 2077 was first released in 2020, it was a visual feast that pushed computers to their limits with its cutting-edge implementation of ray traced lighting and DLSS 2. Then in January 2023, developer CD Projekt Red updated Cyberpunk 2077 to feature DLSS 3 with Frame Generation, further using AI to accelerate and stabilize framerates. And thanks to the continued efforts of developer CDPR, Cyberpunk’s new expansion, Phantom Liberty, levels up the game’s graphical fidelity further with Full RT and DLSS 3.5 with Ray Reconstruction which further improved RT quality on all RTX GPUs.

Like all the entries in this list, Phantom Liberty makes full use of its overhauled ray traced lighting by way of its secret agent storyline that sees the main character V get recruited by the New United States of America to uncover a plot that could change the course of history forever. Phantom Liberty revolves around stealth, so stick to the shadows and light up the dark mysteries that envelope characters with backstories filled to the brim with various shades of gray.

And that's just five out of over 500 titles that make great use of RTX features. What are your picks? How do you plan on celebrating RTX 500? Let us know in the comments and stay tuned to IGN.com for more on all things NVIDIA.

Today during The Game Awards, Square Enix made a surprise appearance with a new trailer for Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth showing off a brand new theme song, and even more anticipated moments from the next chapter in the story.

Frankly, this feels like an abundance of riches given that we've already seen quite a lot of Rebirth. A Red XIII-narrated trailer in November gave us tons of new details, and we got a hands-on preview of the game back in the fall. In fact, at this point, we're just ready for the game to be out already. Still, the new trailer did a good job of juxtaposing the concern at the heart of Rebirth: will the future actually change? Square Enix has been toying with us on this point for a while, by reintroducing Crisis Core protagonist (and presumably, at the time of FF7, deceased) Zack Fair.

Everything's leading up to the big question at the heart of Rebirth: will Aerith re-die the most notorious video game death of all time? Or, if she can survive, can the world survive with her? Big questions for Final Fantasy 7 to grapple with in a multi-part remake that might change everything.

Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth is planned for release soon - on February 29, 2024, and will be exclusive to PlayStation at launch. We're pretty stoked for it, given that our reviewer said its precessor, Final Fantasy 7: Remake, "delivered on letting me relive (part of) a classic in stupendous fashion, while also standing as a great RPG all its own."

To catch up on everything else going on at The Game Awards tonight, you can read our roundup of everything announced here, and keep track of all the award winners right here.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

In an unexpected twist, Sega announced that it has new games from the Jet Set Radio, Shinobi, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, and Crazy Taxi franchises currently in development.

While no release dates were given, the fact that these franchises are getting new games is huge news! Especially for Jet Set Radio fans, who have wished for years that Sega would release a follow-up game as the most recent release was Jet Set Radio Future which was released in 2002 for the original Xbox.

The announcement comes as a surprise, though Sega has been open about working on reboots for some of its franchises in the past. In 2021, during a financial results presentation, the company unveiled a list of IPs in its vault that it was looking to bring back. Among them were several games that have been remade, such as The House of the Dead. Recieved a new entry within the last few years, like Streets of Rage 4. Or, like we saw tonight, are finally getting a new game.

However, the most interesting part about the announcement is that Sega teased more new games were being developed. With many in the fandom wishing for Sega to release a new entry in its fighting game series Virtua Fighter, as the last installment was released back in 2006, only time will tell what else Sega has up its sleeve.

For more on The Game Awards, check out everything revealed so far and our roundup of every winner for each category.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

In a thoroughly surprising announcement, World of Goo 2 is coming sometime next year, it was announced during Thursday's The Game Awards.

The news comes 15 years after the original was released, so it's a bit of a shock, but not an entirely unwelcome one. The sequel hails from 2D Boy and Tomorrow Corporation, the same indie developer and publisher behind the first game.

The sequel got a quick reveal trailer as well as a 2024 release year, but no release date beyond that.

World of Goo 2 also launched a website with the announcement, although it didn't give us too much more information other than it's "the biggest game we've ever made." That's a lot of goo.

The first game hit the Nintendo Wii and Windows in 2008, with the physics-based puzzle game quickly garnering a big fanbase. It had a pretty simple but addictive premise, as players used small blobs of goo to help them reach goal points. IGN gave the original a 9/10, calling it a "an amazing downloadable PC game that you simply must buy."

And while a sequel's been a long time coming, World of Goo got various other releases throughout the years, including one for Nintendo Switch in 2017.

Developing...

Motion Twin, the indie developer behind the critically acclaimed roguelike 2D game Dead Cells, has announced its next project, Windblown, at the 2023 Game Awards.

Alongside unveiling its next project, Motion Twin also shared the first trailer, which delivers fast-paced action, an eye-catching transition from an anime-esque cutscene that cuts to 3D gameplay, and an emphasis on co-op play.

"We were craving a lightning-fast combat roguelite, but it simply didn't exist," the Motion Twin team explained in a press release. "So, we rolled up our sleeves and crafted the game we yearned for; one that lets us dive into the action on our own, and with friends, whenever the mood (or too much pain) strikes!"

According to Motion Twin, Windblown will have players assuming the role of Leapers, a group of warriors fighting to protect their home from a "gigantic and deadly Vortex and its Sentinel minions." You can endure the "tough, but always fair" gameplay by yourself or have up to three friends play with you via online co-op.

Windblown is launching in Steam Early Access sometime next year. For more, check out everything revealed at The Game Awards so far and our roundup of every winner for each category.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

The Game Awards 2023 is underway right now, and we’re expecting a night full of video game recognition and, of course, reveals. Geoff Keighley’s annual December show has been home to some big game announcements, and we’re expecting no different tonight.

This year, we should get some news regarding Baldur’s Gate 3’s Xbox release date, an update on Metaphor: ReFantazio, and a potential “major announcement” from Xbox. And, there are sure to be plenty of surprises in store. So keep refreshing this page throughout the night to get updates on everything announced at The Game Awards 2023 as it happens live.

If you want to tune in for yourself, make sure to check out our article on how to watch The Game Awards 2023 and what to expect. Read on to see everything announced at The Game Awards 2023 so far.

Free God of War Ragnarok DLC Is Out Next Week

PlayStation came to The Game Awards in a big way with a free DLC expansion for God of War Ragnarok. Titled Valhalla, it's out next week, and it takes elements of the roguelite genre and infuses it with God of War combat. The DLC is a free download coming on December 12, 2023.

Hellblade: Senua's Saga Gets a Lengthy Musical Performance and Trailer

We got another lengthy look at Hellblade 2, but no release date beyond its previously confirmed window of sometime in 2024. Still, the gameplay trailer showed off a gorgeous look at the upcoming sequel.

Josef Fares’ Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Is Getting a Remake

Josef Fares is the creative lead on co-op games like It Takes Two and A Way Out, and now his first big game is getting a remake. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on February 28, 2024. The original game is unique because you control two characters at the same time with each control stick, creating for a solo co-op experience.

Rise of the Golden Idol Revealed

We got a look at Rise of the Golden Idol, the followup to the indie hit The Case of the Golden Idol. It's coming to Steam, PS5, PS4, Xbox, and Switch.

Supernatural Action Adventure Usual June Revealed

We got a look at Usual June, a supernatural-looking action adventure with a cel shaded art style. It's coming sometime in 2025.

Daniel Mullins' Next Game Is Pony Island 2: Panda Circus

We got our first look at Pony Island 2: Panda Circus, which showed off the creepy atmosphere featured in Daniel Mullins' new upcoming game.

Harmonium: The Musical

We got a look at Harmonium: The Musical, an upcoming musical platformer adventure coming to Xbox Game Pass.

Dead Cells Studio Motion Twin Reveals Windblown

Windblown is the next game from Motion Twin, the team behind the acclaimed 2D roguelike Dead Cells. Windblown has an emphasis on co-op gameplay, with fast-paced action, and gorgeous anime-esque cutscenes. Motion Twin said it was craving a lightning-fast combat roguelite, but it didn’t exist. So, they started development on Windblown!

Thrasher Announced from the Developer of Thumper

Indie dev Drool showed off Thrasher, which looks to be cut from the same cloth as their previous game, Thumper. Flashy colors, thumping music, and lots of action was shown off in the reveal trailer. It's coming to PC sometime next year.

World of Goo 2 Revealed

We got a reveal trailer for the sequel to World of Goo, the physics-based puzzle game from 2008.

Arknights: Endfield Is Coming to PlayStation 5

BioWare Veterans Reveal New RPG

A team of ex-BioWare developers have revealed their new sci-fi RPG. It’s called Exodus, and it’s in development at Archetype Entertainment. The trailer revealed that players will take the role of the Traveler, exploring the universe while avoiding enemies known as Celestials.

Big Walk Is the Next Game From Untitled Goose Game Developer

We got a look at the next game from House House, the team behind Untitled Goose Game. The trailer showed the game's super strange atmosphere with its spherical protagonists. The game is coming sometime in 2025.

The Game Awards' favorite personality, Josef Fares, was back again this year to announce a new project. But it's not a brand new game, as many may have expected. Rather, it's a remake of his very first directed project that kicked off his notoriety for emotionally impactful, cooperative play. Yup, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is getting a remake.

If you're unfamiliar with Brothers, it's a pretty incredible indie darling from 2013 that follows an older and younger brother on a journey to obtain medicine for their ailing father. While Fares' other games, A Way Out and It Takes Two focus on cooperative play between two people, the original Brothers was a single-player game where one person controlled both brothers simultaneously, leading to some really clever puzzle-solving.

This remake of Brothers is entirely rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5, and according to publisher 505 Games will "remain faithful to the original game." There is one big addition though: while you can still play Brothers single-player as it was originally released, a new local co-op mode will allow two players to each control one of the brothers.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake is being developed by Avantgarden, the Italian studio behind Last Day of June and Murasaki Baby. It's coming to PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC via Steam, Epic, and GOG on February 28, 2024. It's definitely one to revisit, especially if you didn't play it in 2013. At the time, we called it "a unique twin-stick adventure brimming with imagination" in our original review.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

LEGO Fortnite is out now and it’s a brand new survival crafting game built in the world of Fortnite in LEGO style. Everything in the game is procedurally generated for each world you create and it’s even built in Unreal Engine 5 using Chaos physics and destruction to break LEGO bricks apart just like in real life.

This play experience is a new long term partnership between Epic Games and the LEGO Group that is speciailzing in a new open world game to let players of all ages build their own worlds with LEGO bricks digitally.

Niels B Christiansen, CEO of The LEGO Group, said, "Our partnership with Epic Games is

focused on developing digital play experiences that are designed to be fun and safe, and have

the potential to bridge the worlds of physical and digital play to inspire kids. Together with Epic

Games, we are building digital worlds designed with kids in mind from the outset - we hope

other creators and brands are inspired to do the same."

Turning over to gameplay, here's everything you need to know before diving into the survival crafting game, LEGO Fortnite.

Creating a World

In LEGO Fortnite, you can invite up to 8 friends total for each world. You can choose between creating a sandbox world (where you don’t have to farm for resources or worry about survival mechanics) or survival (where you have to manage your character and find resources).

If you share the world’s key with your friends, they can access it even when you’re offline. You can also have multiple worlds created at once. There are over 1,200 existing Fortnite skins that will become LEGO-ified when you select one to enter LEGO Fortnite with100 special emotes for LEGO.

How to Survive

When you drop into your new procedurally generated world, you’ll have to pick up some rocks and wood so you can get your first crafting recipes. You’ll have a helpful NPC to give you tips if you want when starting out as well.

Keep an eye on your status as you explore though, since you’ll need to eat regularly to maintain hunger and make fires if you get cold and alternatively cool off if you’re overheated.

The mechanics in LEGO Fortnite work similarly to Fortnite Battle Royale with sprinting being attached to an energy meter. Don’t try and swim with a depleted energy bar because you will drown and get thrown back to shore. There’s a new dodge mechanic that lets you get a little more reactive in fights as well.

You can go out and collect berries, gather wood, and even fight NPCs camped up around the world to get weapons, food, and other various items when you kill them. If you die adventuring, don’t worry, your backpack will be marked on the map and you’ll respawn at your specified respawn location. If you die getting to your backpack, you’ll be able to get both of them when you’re back since backpacks don’t expire and will stay on the map.

If you need crafting materials from animals or food items, being kinder to animals gives you better loot than just killing them outright. You can pet animals to get items like milk from cows, eggs from chickens, and wool from lambs. You can kill them to get meat but you’ll get more from keeping them around alive..

Also, you can collect fertilizer from all animals. The fertilizer can be used to farm with!. You can plant various seeds to get different types of crops that you can then cook and eat. You can eat food to heal and even get special status effects that’ll keep you surviving longer in harsher conditions – so food is extremely important to focus on when playing LEGO Fortnite.

There are caves to explore that are basically small to large dungeons that can contain rare resources, but be cautious, as those caves will usually contain some high-threat monsters.. Make sure to craft weapons like shortswords, longswords, bows, and shields to help keep you safe against enemies.

Instead of gaining armor or health through traditional leveling, you’ll instead craft different charms to increase your stats. For example, crafting the Health charm, you guessed it, boosts your max health.

Building

The building in LEGO Fortnite is completely different from the normal modes. The new physics lets you build LEGO creations just like in the real world so you can build things by using whole blueprints or piece by piece.

Along with creating various buildings and homes, you can also decorate your home and surroundings with decorations that make things feel more cozy.

You can build an entire Village system and upgrade it to get NPCs to come live with you and help you build, forage, cook, and do other tasks around the Village. Upgrading your village gets you more NPC living capacities, perks, and new recipes for builds and furniture.

The things you can create in LEGO Fortnite feel almost limitless. Once you unlock more resources and process those materials, you can build vehicles like cars, boats, airships, and you can even make an entire railroad system. Anything that you can build in real life with LEGOs you can in the game.

LEGO Fortnite is available to play for free on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC today. For more in-depth tips and tricks for LEGO Fortnite, be sure to check out our IGN Guides page for the most up to date information.

Stella is a Video Producer, Host, and Editor at IGN. Her gameplay focus is on competitive FPS games and she's previously reviewed Apex Legends, Hyper Scape, Halo Infinite Multiplayer, and Battlefield 2042. She regularly hosts and shoutcasts competitive Apex Legends and Halo Infinite tournaments when she isn't streaming on her Twitch channel after work outs. You can follow her on Twitter @ParallaxStella.

The highly anticipated LEGO Fortnite has received its first gameplay trailer alongside its launch today, December 7.

The trailer, below, reveals how the brick-building gameplay blends with Fortnite's battle royale. The trailer didn't show any player versus player action though, instead focusing on the building, survival, and cooperative elements.

The mode appears to be exactly what it says on the tin: Fortnite gameplay in a LEGO style. LEGO minifigure skins explore the Fortnite map, destroying trees and boulders to gain resources to then build as normal, except in the style of LEGO bricks.

Building takes on a more permanent role in the mode, however, with various intricate and extravagant models being shown off in the trailer. Survival elements featured too, as players will seemingly be left bricking it as night falls and all sorts of spooky beasties appear.

Wolves, skeletons, and angry dragon-looking bosses all appear in the trailer, all made up of LEGO bricks. Even Fortnite's iconic loot llama makes an appearance in the LEGO style.

The gameplay trailer blurb offers more details: "Explore vast, open worlds where the magic of LEGO building and Fortnite collide. ​​​​Collect food and resources, craft items​, build shelter and battle enemies solo or​ team up​ with up to seven friends.

"​Get creative in building and ​customizing​​​ your ultimate home base​ using LEGO elements collected from the world around you​, then recruit villagers to gather materials and help survive the night. Gear up and drop into deep caves in search of rare resources and hidden areas.

"Find the ultimate survival crafting LEGO adventure in Fortnite! The journey is only just beginning with new world building, gameplay features, and more LEGO Style Outfits arriving in updates starting early 2024."

Regular Fortnite has otherwise just switched to Chapter 5 Season 1, which has a lot to prove given the popularity of its predecessor, the OG Update, which saw 44.7 million players log on in a single day in what Epic Games described as "the biggest day in Fortnite's history".

It will also follow a wave of controversy as Epic Games implemented then disabled age restricted cosmetics, with players criticising it as one of the "worst updates" in Fortnite history.

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

Last year’s addictive monster-slaying game, Vampire Survivors, is collaborating with Among Us for a new DLC called Emergency Meeting that is set to drop on December 18, 2023.

Developer Poncle announced the latest addition to its indie hit as part of today’s Day of the Devs presentation, revealing the new content with a trailer. It’s a pretty meaty video that debuts new animation that features bosses and imposters alike, and if you stay tuned to the end, you’ll even catch a glimpse of some Crewmate gameplay.

PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X | S players can expect Vampire Survivors: Emergency Meeting to drop on that December 18 date. However, Nintendo Switch and mobile will have to wait a bit longer. Poncle apologizes for the delay and only promises to release the other versions “soon.”

The team shared more about the indie meet-up project in an FAQ on its website. As might’ve noticed in the trailer, Vampire Survivors: Emergency Meeting adds nine characters, 15 weapons, 20 in-game unlocks, and of course, a new stage based on the world of Among Us. Moreover, Poncle promises to include “a ton of references and elements” from the party game property, adding that players unfamiliar with it can still have a good time regardless.

“No realm or plane of reality is off limits in the universe of Vampire Survivors, so for this one we're off to the Polus Replica,” Poncle describes. “How did the cast of Vampire Survivors get there? That's not the question, but we can assure you the gravity is fine, nobody will float off, and the prefab structures are perfectly safe. We can't make any promises to prevent sabotage or suspect goings on during gameplay, however.”

Crossover events like Vampire Survivors: Emergency Meeting can provide interesting opportunities to blend popular franchises together. However, the fun sometimes comes at a price.

“When entering licensing territory, all businesses, especially large ones, have different guidelines and conditions to follow in order to make a collaboration happen,” Poncle says. “This means that in most cases collab DLCs will be more expensive than normal.”

However, the Vampire Survivors team adds that they’re working on more for the future, too: “We are also trying to be cheeky and find ways to make certain collabs to be available to everyone for free though, finger crossed we manage to get there!”

While there are no new achievements in Vampire Survivors: Emergency Meeting, there will be six new music tracks to jam to.

“We're friends with the wonderful Among Us developers, Innersloth, we had a little chat about the concept of doing a collaborative DLC, did a bunch of paperwork, then a bunch of development work, and the rest is history that you'll be able to play soon.”

In our Vampire Survivors 1.0 review, we praised Poncle’s concoction of simplistic gameplay and smorgasbord of tools, adding that it managed to suck away “over a hundred hours” of our time. More recently players were treated to update 1.8, which add more roguelike content to keep monster hunters coming back.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.

I’ve never seen Kingdom, the Netflix K-drama that zombie-filled action-RPG Kingdom: The Blood is based on, so I can’t speak to how accurately the game adapts its characters and settings. But based on my limited-time hands-on preview, I can confidently say that as a melee-focused brawler, the high potential for customization and personalization in combat and quick pick-up-and-playability makes a strong first impression. However, with bothersome mobile game design galore and a real lack of challenge in the single-player campaign, it’s hard to know how much of a bite you could really take out of the experience.

After a tutorial fight and some account-creation digital paperwork, I was dropped into what would be an all-too-familiar layout of quests to track, blinking icons on a map, and lots of quick explanations about the various sorts of currencies you can earn by completing objectives. As a free-to-play game enjoyer myself, this wasn’t really a shock, but it did make understanding the best way to start engaging with the various modes and menus pretty daunting. I had some handy starting advice via PR tour guides, but I could see a brand-new player just ignore all of this completely.

Luckily, jumping into the single-player quests and chopping your way through the hordes is pretty simple. You have a special attack, which is a heavy blow that costs chi to use, and a basic attack that does less damage, is free, and actually restores chi when you connect with it. Stringing these basic attacks together in short combos punctuated by a special attack changes the latter. So instead of the big swinging chop you get from using it by itself, it could become a spinning kick that knocks enemies over. Some combos also make a burst attack available, which usually is a flashier technique that does more damage, but comes at the cost of a different resource called spirit. It's cool that different combos give you access to different tools for different combat scenarios, but in the single-player portion of my demo that spanned across four stages, I never needed to do much more than spam attacks and dodge defensively.

Between stages of a level, you select one of three options for gaining resources from the fallen. You can choose to prioritize health or “souls” to drop from your enemies, or a balanced mix of both. Between rooms, you spend these souls on roguelite-style buffs, but the only ones available were different percentages of temporary attack buffs or pretty redundant healing bundles. There's certainly an opportunity to flesh out this part, as it feels very undercooked and had no real noticeable impact on my playthroughs so far.

I encountered two types of enemies: the much-advertised zombies and regular human soldiers. The zombies live up to their reputation of being mindless, as they were extremely predictable and easy to rout. In bigger groups they seemed to be slightly more of a threat since their lunging grab was tough to get away from or interrupt, yet could grab you clean out of a combo from any angle. But they never did so much damage that I had to worry. Boss undead had a few more tricks up their sleeves, like spitting blood at me and going through rage cycles where they become tough to stop for a limited time, but I can’t imagine anyone with some action game experience struggling through any of the early game. Regular soldiers, though more dynamic in their offense, were barely a threat either.

The most potential for depth is in the skills menu, where you can customize passive stat boosts but also equip new basic, special, and burst attacks. Not a lot of these were available during my time, but the concept alone had me thinking about all the possibilities. Tailoring your moveset for your task ahead, or developing a compatible set of moves to make a playstyle your own could really elevate a game like this and it’s what I am the most interested to learn more about in the future.

Where I found this potential to be most realized within the limitations of the demo was the 1v1 PvP mode, Clash. Me and my opponent, each playing different characters and me equipping new secondary abilities, had a tense back and forth looking for the right points in each other’s attack patterns to counter strike. Even if we played the same character with a different assortment of attacks, I imagine we would have a lot to learn on the fly about one another, and that quick tactical thinking is a hallmark of good competitive fighting gameplay. The other co-op mode, Raid, pits a team of four against a big computer controlled boss with a wide array of powerful attacks. This was above and beyond the most difficult part of my time with Kingdom, but it’s hard to know how any of that translates to the co-op experience as a whole.

If you love the Netflix show that Kingdom: The Blood is based on and are clamoring for literally anything that will return you to that setting, then I see no harm in taking this bloody action-RPG for a spin. Diehard sword-slingers may find themselves wanting more of a challenge from the single-player campaign as it stands, as just about everything that slices, stabs, and bites at you are pushovers. But the opportunity for customization in all of your various attack styles, and how that enhances the overall PvP experience, might keep this adventure out of the grave long enough to convert you.

Solid Snake, the recurring protagonist of the Metal Gear franchise, is making his Fortnite debut as a bonus skin offered in the Chapter 5, Season 1 Battle Pass. But rather than being greeted with excitement, Kotaku reports the hunky assassin is a sore subject among players who noticed the absence of his once-thick booty.

Staring at a fictional character's rear-end sounds creepy. Actually, it is creepy. But to be fair, Snake's skin-tight body suit makes it fairly easy to spot the difference in his character design across games. Plus, we're not going to deny that he's ruggedly handsome — ass and all.

One fan took to X to express disapproval of the character's new look: "this is awful where is his ass? solid snake does not breathe thru his nose actually his lungs are located in his ass and if he has a small butt it means his lungs are being crushed and he is being asphyxiated and slowly dying. this is snake abuse."

this is awful where is his ass? solid snake does not breathe thru his nose actually his lungs are located in his ass and if he has a small butt it means his lungs are being crushed and he is being asphyxiated and slowly dying. this is snake abuse pic.twitter.com/tnNWTMOA4Q

— otacon (@otasuneku) December 3, 2023

"screaming [sic] and yelling and throwing up because they gave fortnite solid snake a flat ass which is deeply antithetical to everything hideo kojima stands for," a fellow player wrote. "disgusting. [sic]"

screaming and yelling and throwing up because they gave fortnite solid snake a flat ass which is deeply antithetical to everything hideo kojima stands for. disgusting. pic.twitter.com/pyUyDR3sM4

— gender ikari (@slayerfest1999) December 3, 2023

In a cruel twist of fate, Epic Games also released a skin for Family Guy's Peter Griffin in the newest Battle Pass — and he's absolutely ripped. It's almost like Snake got a reverse "BBL" (Brazilian Butt Lift), where all of the fat in his derrière was transferred to Peter's hulking biceps.

"Buff Peter Griffin, Solid Snake with no ass, Fortnite should NOT be allowed to cook right now," a dissatisfied player posted on X.

Buff Peter Griffin, Solid Snake with no ass, Fortnite should NOT be allowed to cook right now.

— JC ➡️ @supernintendo.bsky.social (@Supernintendo) December 4, 2023

Other Fortnite players have theorized similarly crude ways in which Solid Snake's ass was removed. One X user posted a cartoon drawing that depicts the character getting his butt cheeks sanded off while strapped to a table.

solid snake https://t.co/izKAWuz1F0 pic.twitter.com/5AJYgwmLr4

— Mr. Ryan. (@M1STERRYAN) December 4, 2023

But this isn't the first time Snake's volumptuous rump has been nerfed by game devs. When Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was released in 2018, players were equally quick to point out the character's newfound pancake-ass.

"They already nerfed snake," a user posted on Twitter at the time, along with an up-close comparison of Snake's backside between the Wii and the Nintendo Switch versions of the popular fighting game.

they already nerfed snake

smh pic.twitter.com/khKUpEM8Np

— Iron Pineapple (@IronPineapple_) June 13, 2018

More recently, another user posted an updated visual of the character's gradual ass-flattening process with a caption that reads: "we have to get solid snake out of the multiverse. if he shows up in another game his ass is gonna be fully concave. every time he meets ryu from street fighter he has less cake."

we have to get solid snake out of the multiverse. if he shows up in another game his ass is gonna be fully concave. every time he meets ryu from street fighter he has less cake. pic.twitter.com/Lr5SxRnPs1

— Topher Florence (@topherflorence) December 3, 2023

Several other in-game skins have also had their asses flattened by Epic Games, including Omni-Man, Captain America and Doomguy, according to Kotaku. It seems like they just can't handle the booty.

According to GameRant, the sans-booty version of Solid Snake can be unlocked by players who have completed the relevant challenges on Jan. 23 — 51 days from the start of this season's Battle Pass.

Katie Reul is a freelance writer at IGN

If you like survival games, and touching stories, I have something for you. To celebrate Undying leaving Early Access and entering 1.0, you can grab a key for this third-person survival horror game on Steam starting on December 7th, 2023 as part of IGN Plus.

IGN Plus Monthly Game: Undying

Undying is a zombie survival horror game which follows the tale of Anling and her son, Cody, as they struggle to survive in a zombie-infested area after Anling has been bitten. Manage your sleep, stress, and health to stave off turning and take every opportunity to teach Cody how to survive.

From fighting off zombies to salvaging survival resources and repairing items, he'll need to know as much as he can to survive and carry more of the burden as Anling fades away. Will you try to shoulder the burden yourself, or give him opportunities in which he can succeed or fail? Will you be able to comfort him in the face of the horrors of the zombie apocalypse? Which explanations will you choose to help him understand betrayal by other survivors? Your choices will shape the person he becomes, and your likelihood of survival.

Undying Developer Interview - Kun Wang (Producer of Undying & Vanimals Founder) & Jin Chan Yum Wai (Game Director)

For this interview, I spoke with Kun and Jin about their survival horror game, Undying. Taking on contract work to keep the studio afloat, balancing Early Access audience expectations with their own artistic instincts, and even Jin getting stuck in Australia due to the pandemic, the team has been on a long journey. What originally started as a gift for Kun's 8-year-old son, inspired by The Walking Dead, has blossomed into an anticipated survival experience which carves out a unique space in the genre.

The team met with Diablo's David Brevik, who suggested the 'stress/fatigue/injury-induced zombie infection progression' system Undying now has, which adds a greatly increased sense of urgency to the game, and the team also included multiple difficulty settings to ensure that people who want to enjoy this survival game more casually can still do so.

I hope you enjoy the game, and this excerpt from our interview. Cheers!

Brian: What inspired the team to make Undying?

Kun: For over a decade, I always dreamed to make a game like [The Walking Dead]. Like that world. But I thought that if I do make some game like that I'm probably not going to make it look similar like [people] killing zombies, or using like badass weapons, or against other [people]. So I'm thinking something very different, very contradictory. That means the player can be very weak, versus the very fierce wild environment outside. [An] apocalypse.

So at the very beginning, I thought about a woman, wounded. And she wakes up in the ruined relic and [remembers] she had a child, and [is] looking for her child. That's how we started with this idea. And when we seriously started thinking about how the project could be, we figure that that will make the game too lonely. Like, one woman as the main character, looking for her child. So we decided to bring her child from the very beginning with her, but the idea of them get bitten by a zombie is was not changed at all. So that was where, 'Undying,' the original idea, came from.

Brian: One thing I think is interesting, and I don't remember seeing elsewhere, is tying how long you have until you turn to how tired you are. Thinking back [on other zombie media], it seems like once you get bit, a timer starts and at the end of that timer, it doesn't really matter what you're doing, you're turning. And so I thought it was interesting that [in Undying] if you're really stressed, hurt, or weak, you're gonna turn faster, so you've got to take care of yourself and make sure you're getting rest, so you can stave this off.

Jin: Yeah, obviously we wanted to you to be able to play it for a while. So we were trying to figure out how... Maybe each of us actually think of it differently. The way I think is... you don't turn until you're dead. So sort of like you can treat an infected bite from a dog, you can be really sick for a while. So that's played into it. So, as Anling gets tired, her body metabolism isn't going so well and she starts turning more... So using [an element from The Walking Dead] as inspiration, a little bit, but knowing that after she's been bitten, she's sick but you can manage it for a while. So I think that was what we did. And we tried to keep that rule the same, amongst even the NPCs that get killed... Once they die, that's when they actually turn.

And then obviously, there's a little element of Anling's love for Cody is what's holding it back a little bit. But yeah, it was a good mechanism that we came up with to be able to have the turning process be slower and give Anling time. I actually did pitch... we talked about this at the very beginning, and I actually pitched to Kun. 'Maybe we make it a couple of days, and then she dies, and the game takes place over a couple of days.' Because a lot can happen in a couple of days. We went back and forth with 'what's more fun?' I think, ultimately, that made more sense with a narrative game where we told a strict storyline. And so for this one, this was the option we came up with.

Kun: Yeah, and also, the mother's dying, and the kid is growing. So they they need time. It needs time to get rolling.

Jin: Yeah, we also thought [about] those things that people talk about the mother's strength when their kids are in danger, like mother's lifting cars and stuff like that. So that was an element of it as well.

Brian: Is there anything that each of you would tell players, who are about to jump into Undying for the first time?

Jin: For me, I would say take it slow and soak stuff in. There's a lot of cool stories that we've hidden throughout the world. It's quite detailed. We're so proud of all the work of the artists have done... So I would say take your time. You know, we have that 'easy mode' for a reason, so don't feel like you need to rush it. And, for those [dialogue option] answers, just be true to what you think you want to answer.

Kun: I will say, [get] ready to be a good mother. [Kun laughs]. So most recently, I'm thinking we can have this new feature added into the full release, that we call the 'common wall' or 'Cody wall,' [where] people can leave one sentence to their mother. We encourage them to do that. So most of time, you'll probably feel awkward to say something very emotional to your mom.

But now in the game, you can say that, and people will watch it. So this is like a common wall in the game. There's something we're thinking to add, and the base tech is already there. The whole game is a single player game, until you enter into the wall UI, [then] the game is an online game. But that's just one minor corner of the game. But in general, this is what I'm thinking; by playing Undying, no matter how much they beat the game... I would like to [raise] your internal love, or memory of the time that you were with your mother. I think it's across language, across culture, across ages. I think it's eternal, and universal. That's what I wanted to tell the player.

What Is IGN Plus?

IGN Plus is IGN’s membership program for IGN fans and gamers. You can try it for just $1 for 30 days to see if it’s for you. As an IGN Plus member you get:

• No third party ads across all of IGN
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• Access to free game codes and DLC each month (Recent titles include: American Hero, Enclave HD, Antonball Deluxe, KarmaZoo, & more)
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• And much more!

Brian Barnett writes reviews, guides, features, & more for IGN & GameSpot. You can get your fix of his antics on YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Bluesky, & Backloggd, & check out his fantastic video game talk show, The Platformers, on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

Stardew Valley creator Erik ‘Concerned Ape’ Barone has taken to X/Twitter to give fans a progress report on the RPG's highly anticipated 1.6 update, and to shed light on his motivation for continuing to work on the popular 2016 farming sim over seven years after it came out.

“A ton of progress on 1.6 last month, it's (self-imposed) extreme crunch mode, nose to the grindstone (raw nose) mode,” said Barone in a recent post. “Here's one of the many additions in 1.6. Keeping mostly everything secret.”

An accompanying screenshot revealed that a new storage chest, which can hold almost twice the amount of materials/items as a regular chest, will be coming to the game as part of the 1.6 update. Sadly, the new post didn’t give any concrete info on when the new content will drop, but Barone’s wording indicates that he has entered the final stage of the update’s development.

A ton of progress on 1.6 last month, it's (self-imposed) extreme crunch mode, nose to the grindstone (raw nose) mode. Heres' one of the many additions in 1.6. Keeping mostly everything secret pic.twitter.com/cFT3Nks8z0

— ConcernedApe (@ConcernedApe) December 1, 2023

The brief post quickly garnered over 130,000 likes, and was met with an outpouring of support from the community, including one curious fan who asked Barone what made him want to keep working on Stardew Valley after so many years.

“Many things, including that so many people are still playing it, and many new people every day, I want it to be the best it can be, It will never be perfect but I feel an urge to keep improving it,” replied Barone. “Up to this point its been my life's work and I care a lot about it.”

The 1.6 update is set to bring a host of new features to Stardew Valley, including new festivals, items, stories, secrets, a new farm type, along with eight-player PC multiplayer support, over 100 lines of new dialogue, and fresh late game content.

Recent months have also seen Barone tease screenshots of his upcoming title, The Haunted Chocolatier, which is set to “channel the energy of the Moon'' relative to Stardew Valley’s Sun. The developer also indicated in a recent interview with IGN that he would be open to creating a Stardew Valley movie adaptation, should the right parters - namely Studio Ghibli or David Lynch - be interested in such a project.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer

The Fortnite team has confirmed that Fortnite OG and the original map will be returning in 2024 as the "OG season far exceeded our expectations."

The exciting news was shared by Fortnite's account on X/Twitter and it teased that we we can expect to jump back in to the map that first welcomed us into the Battle Royale game back in 2017 next year.

"Ngl the OG season far exceeded our expectations," Fortnite's account wrote "So much so that we’d like to bring it back… *opens 2024 roadmap doc* In the meantime, see you on the Battle Bus."

This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise as the love for Fortnite OG was overwhelming and saw Fortnite have its 'biggest day' ever with over 44.7 million players jumping in to take a trip down memory lane.

This weekend has also been big for Fortnite, as it recently had its Big Bang event that welcomed us into Fortnite Chapter 5: Underground. Not only did this dimension-hopping adventure treat us to Eminem performing a concert, but it also introduced us to new LEGO, racing, and music games head to Fortnite next week.

As for Fortnite Chapter 5: Underground, this newest season will come with a ton of changes and additions, including a new island, a train that goes all across the map, weapon mods, over 1,200 LEGO Style outfits, bosses, a new Battle Pass with Peter Griffin and Solid Snake, and much more.

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.

Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 1: Underground has arrived and it comes with a ton of changes and additions, including a new island, a train that goes all across the map, weapon mods, over 1,200 LEGO Style outfits, bosses, a new Battle Pass with Peter Griffin and Solid Snake, and much more.

This new chapter in Fortnite is all about taking the fight to 'The Society' by joining 'The Underground.' You must do all you can to not only take down a group of bosses led by Valeria, but also rescue our beloved Peely from their clutches. Oh, and if you thought Valeria was tough, wait until you go against Family Guy's Peter Griffin, who is amazingly also a boss alongside Oscar, Nisha, and Montague.

Defeating bosses will gain you a Society Medallion, and this item can regenerate your shield as long as its in your inventory. The more medallions you have, the faster your shield will regenerate. Be careful though, as the more medallions you have, the more percise the radius of your exact location will be to your enemies.

As for the new map these bosses call home, some of the new POIs include the classy Ritzy Riviera marina, the abandoned Rebel's Roost mansion, the Grand Station at Reckless Railways, the high alpine Hazy Hillside village, the elaborate Grand Glacier Hotel, and much more.

Speaking of Grand Station at Reckless Railways, this is just one stop of the new train that will be able to take players to different parts of the new island. However, don't think it will always be a peaceful trainride as battles can and will happen aboard, so stay ready!

LEGO, Racing, and Music Games Alongside The Big Bang Battle Pass With Peter Griffin and Solid Snake

Some of the biggest new additions to Fortnite were introduced in The Big Bang event that led into the start of Chapter 5: Underground, and they include LEGO Fortnite, Rocket Racking, and Fortnite Festival.

These are new games that will live inside Fortnite and will give players brand-new experiences to enjoy alone or with friends. LEGO Fortnite is the first of these and is a survival crafting game that will become available on December 7.

As if that wasn't enough, over 1,200 existing Outfits will now have a LEGO Style in addition to their regular Fortnite Style, and these can be used in all upcoming LEGO experiences inside the game. The Outfits will be added to your Locker automatically and will be gifted to you at no extra charge. Certain Emotes will also get the LEGO treatment.

Your locker just got a whole lot bigger.

LEGO Styles of your favorite Fortnite Outfits have arrived, with even more coming in future updates. pic.twitter.com/ItYRV1ILZj

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) December 3, 2023

Rocket Racing is up next and it will serve as a new racing game from Rocket League developer Psyonix when it is released on December 8. Lastly, Fortnite Festival will arrive on December 9 and is being built by Guitar Hero and Rock Band's Harmonix. This new game lets you take the stage and perform songs from the most popular artists in the world, and Fortnite Festival Season 1 will kick off with The Weeknd as the Music Icon.

While it's always great to have more ways to play Fortnite, these new games will also earn you XP in The Big Bang Battle Pass. This new Battle Pass will cost you 950 V-Bucks, but you will be able to earn 1,500 V-Bucks back by completing it.

You will also auto-unlock the Hope Outfit and will be able to progress and earn Outfits of all the bosses, including Peter Griffin. While he won't be available at launch, Solid Snake will also join The Big Bang Battle Pass in the future.

This is Freakin' Sweet! pic.twitter.com/g3a3HP4dr5

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) December 3, 2023

Fortnite Chapter 5: Underground Also Adds Weapon Mods, Car Styles, Ballistic Shields, and More

There is so much more coming in Fortnite Chapter 5: Underground, and one of the biggest items is the Mod Benches. These allow you to add mods to weapons in exchange for Bars that reduce recoil, increase mag capacity, and more.

Many weapons you pick up will already come modded, as Uncommon ones will have one mod, Rare will have two, Epic will have three, and Legendary will have four. If you don't love the mods equipped on a certain weapon, you can head to a Mod Bench to exchange them for Bars.

Cars are also getting a cosmetic boost as a new Cars section has been added to the Locker that will now store Car Bodies, Decals, and Wheels. All players will be gifted the OEM Wheel from Rocket League, and Rocket League players can also unlock the Octane, Cyclone, Jager 619, or Lamborghini Huracan STO Car Bodies if they have them in the game.

More Car Bodies will be added in the Fortnite Shop, and you can rest easy that these will grant no competitive advantage to players. The Big Bang Battle Pass will also include a Scorpion Car Body.

Other new additions to Fortnite include the Ballistic Shield that can be used alongside a pistol, a Grapple Blade that can send you flying to a surface or another player to then attack, a Cluster Clinger that explodes and pops out smaller explosives, and a FlowBerry that will recover Shield and grant a low-gravity effect to you and nearby teammates.

Medkits and Shield Potions will now start restoring you immediately, and you can now move slowly while they restore. Reviving and Rebooting are also being adjusted as the timers will only slow down instead of hard reset if you get out of range.

Match Quests will replace Daily Quests and give you more control over what missions you want to pursue during each match, improved animations are coming with Motion Matching, Procedural Layering, and Physics Based Animation, walls built for players will have a plank that can propel players upward, and more.

Lastly, a new Grandeur Trailsmasher SUV will let players go off-roading and such new weapons will become available like the Hammer Pump Shotgun, Frenzy Auto Shotgun, Nemesis AR, Striker AR, Thunder Burst SMG, Hyper SMG, Reaper Sniper Rifle, and Ranger Pistol.

This new Fortnite chapter is a big one, and it follows Fortnite's 'biggest day' ever thanks to Fortnite OG that saw over 44.7 million players jump in. For more, be sure to check out our full playthrough of The Big Bang event so you can be ready for all the goodness to come in Fortnite.

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.

Fortnite's The Big Bang event has officially arrived and it served as not only an epic dimension-hopping adventure that featured a performance by Eminem, but it introduced new LEGO, Rocket League-like racing, and Guitar Hero/Rock Band-like music games headed to Fortnite.

The event began when a meteor struck the map and collided with The Zero Point. This opened up a tear in space and time that took you and everything else around you through multiple realities or dimensions.

You enter a LEGO Fortnite world where you and your team become LEGO characters and tour the world on a glider. In it, you see LEGO people building, a monstrous dragon attacking a castle, a bustling town, and so much more. Everything is made out of LEGO and the terrain is gorgeous. The ray tracing effects are in full effect and create a mesmerizing glow and it made us with we could stay longer.

Luckily, this was actually a tease for the upcoming LEGO Fortnite survival crafting game headed to Fortnite on December 7. We don't know too much about the game mode yet, but this glimpse has us very excited.

The adventure is building ✨#LEGOFortnite launches in Fortnite on December 7, 2023. pic.twitter.com/rHofGkstk5

— LEGO Fortnite (@LEGOFortnite) December 2, 2023

If that wasn't bonkers enough, you're also dropped on top of a car in the middle of a race where Rocket League-looking cars are zipping around a track that looks like it might take place within a Fortnite map. You're given prompts at various moments that give you limited control over the vehicle but provide a sneak peek at how the gameplay mechanics will ultimately function. Drift, boost, thrusters, air dodge, and turbo were all on display, and though control was limited it was fun while it lasted.

This new game will be called Rocket Racing and it is being built by Rocket League developer Psyonix and will debut on December 8.

Know no limits.#RocketRacing launches in Fortnite on December 8th, 2023. pic.twitter.com/OR9hWvZptt

— Rocket Racing (@RocketRacing) December 2, 2023

Lastly, you and your squad are dropped into a music universe where Eminem appears and performs a mini-concert – similar to the Travis Scott event a few years ago. However, halfway through he grows into Godzilla proportions as, fittingly, Godzilla featuring Juice WRLD kicks in. New to this experience is a music game where, just like in Guitar Hero or Rock Band, you're made to tap buttons in time to one of Eminem's songs.

Fortnite Festival will be the new music game that this experience introduced us to, and it will let you and/or your friends perform on stage with "hit music by their favorite artists." Guitar Hero and Rock Band's Harmonix is the team behind this, and it will debut on December 9 with The Weeknd being the Music Icon for Fortnite Festival Season 1.

Get ready to take your stage 🎙️🎸✨#FortniteFestival launches in Fortnite on December 9, 2023. pic.twitter.com/Cn41XRyBdY

— FNFestival (@FNFestival) December 2, 2023

The Big Bang event then ended with you looking upon all these new dimensions and waiting before you and your team can once again visit these exciting worlds.

All of these festivities are leading up to the big debut of Fortnite Chapter 5: Underground, which will also see the addition of the long-awaited Peter Griffin and Solid Snake skins, a new island, weapon mods, a new train that will ride across the map, and much more.

Oh, and if you missed the event and are reading this on December 2, Fortnite is hosting "two more showings of the Big Bang after the 2pm ET show. Be sure to check back here or follow Fortnite's Twitter to see when these new showings will be.

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.

LEGO Fortnite is a brand new survival crafting game that is set to arrive in Fortnite on December 7, 2023, and it is the first play experience from the long term partnership between Epic Games and The LEGO Group.

While details are still a bit scarce, it was revealed that, "Within LEGO Fortnite, players can explore vast, open worlds where the magic of LEGO building and Fortnite collide. Designed for people of all ages to enjoy together, the game will encourage creativity, experimentation and collaboration through play."

Get ready for an all new survival crafting adventure! 🦙 #LEGOFortnite launches in Fortnite on December 7
Find out more: https://t.co/hpbGoNQXF7 pic.twitter.com/NrFuqngonW

— LEGO (@LEGO_Group) December 2, 2023

Epic Games and The LEGO Group announced their partnership back in 2022, and the goal is to "shape the future of the metaverse and make it fun and safe for all."

The partnership is governed by three principles, and all three were agreed upon by both Epic Games and The LEGO Group:

• Protect children's right to play by making safety and wellbeing a priority.
• Safeguard children's privacy by putting their best interests first.
• Empower children and adults with tools that give them control over their digital experience.

This news arrives just after Fortnite's 'The Big Bang' event kicked off that will welcome us into Fortnite Chapter 5: Underground, which will also see the addition of the long-awaited Peter Griffin and Solid Snake skins, a new island, weapon mods, a new train that will ride across the map, and much more.

For more, check out Eminem in Fortnite, how it recently had its biggest day ever thanks to Fortnite OG, and watch us build the 2023 LEGO Advent Calendars for Harry Potter, Avengers, and Star Wars.