Author Archives: Ryan McCaffrey

The first word that comes to mind having played around a dozen hours of Age of Empires 4’s stress test is “familiar.” In almost every way that matters, it’s more like a ground-up remake of Age of Empires 2 with modern graphics and a much better user experience, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are some small tweaks, like being able to hide units in forests. And the design of the four factions I played, at least on a macro level, reflect more modern sensibilities than Age 4’s august forebears. But, for better or for worse, Relic is clearly not taking a lot of chances to disrupt the basic formula here.

To be fair, the four playable factions in this build were among the most conventional in Age of Empires 4. The English, specifically, have been designed to feel the most familiar to legacy players. We haven’t yet been able to get our hands on the nomadic Mongols or the versatile Rus, which may mix things up a bit more like I was hoping.

Same Age, Different Empires

Out of the factions available, the Chinese were probably the most distinct and my overall favorite. Their support unit, the Imperial Official, can be used to passively increase your gold income by collecting taxes that slowly build up in all of your base structures, or by directly supervising specific buildings to increase their output. You’re limited to four at any given time, meaning it never became a micromanagement nightmare, and I really liked how I could take a very direct hand in how I used them, or just let them wander off and do their own thing. It’s a mechanic that rewards investing your attention, but doesn’t harshly punish you for forgetting it exists.

The Abbasids and the Holy Roman Empire both encourage making very dense urban cores. For the former, each building connected in an unbroken chain to your main tech center, the House of Wisdom, contributes to unlocking Golden Ages which boost your economy significantly. In the case of the latter, landmarks can be built that increase the durability of all structures in their radius and their town centers even have an Emergency Repair ability that will restore some health to nearby buildings without having to use villagers.

Stiff Upper Lip

In contrast, the English seem best suited to playing wide. Their longbowmen have increased range over other archers, their keeps act as a combination barracks, archery range, and stable, and units close to any of their defensive structures will get a temporary attack bonus any time an enemy comes within a certain radius of the structure. They definitely feel the most like a classic Age of Empires 2 faction, with a strong ability to project map control but nothing especially unique in terms of economic gameplay.

The army list for each faction is fairly small and straightforward, with a few types of melee infantry, a few different ranged troops (including gunpowder units in the capstone Imperial Age), cavalry, and a nice assortment of siege weapons. Each also has at least one unique unit, like the Chinese Zhuge Nu which trades the armor piercing of a regular crossbowman for higher rate of fire. There are some other minor differences, too. The English and Holy Roman Empire get access to heavy infantry earlier than the other factions, to model their Germanic style of shock warfare. But in exchange, the Abbasids can research the phalanx, making their spearmen more competitive against other types of infantry.

Not So Total War

When these units meet on the battlefield, it’s time to party like it’s 1999. You’re still limited to 200 population, split as you like between civilians and soldiers. Units are trained one at a time, with the exception of one late-game building for the HRE that can build five. This scale felt epic and compelling when I was a kid playing on a Pentium, but after decades of Total War, these battles often feel more like skirmishes. I found myself wishing that maybe they would have at least made the base military unit a squad of a few fighters rather than an individual, to give the illusion of greater grandeur. The graphics are definitely nice, but they’re not going to drop any jaws in this day and age – especially the unit models, which are just plainly underwhelming.

From what I’ve seen so far, how you feel about Age of Empires 4 is going to depend heavily on how interested you are in a very polished, faithful re-imagining of a 22-year-old RTS. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy myself. I definitely smiled as I pulled off an ambush using high ground or defended the Great Wall of China with fire and steel. And I don’t miss how bloated Age of Empires 3 seems in comparison, as it tried to cram in way too many ideas at once. But there’s very little that feels truly new here. Maybe when I get my hands on the Mongol hordes, all of that will change.

Following in the footsteps of games like Super Mario Run, wipEout Rush brings a fan-favorite gaming franchise in a way uniquely suited to the mobile platform. It will be released for both iOS and Android devices in early 2022. Check out the announcement trailer above and a gallery of screenshots below.

Publisher Rogue Games is aware that many fans still want to see a return on its original PlayStation platform. “If I want that visceral, immersive, intense racing experience, I’ll find it waiting on PlayStation,” said Rogue CEO Matt Casamassina. “But at the same time, we’re delighted that we could rethink wipEout for mobile with some fun new play mechanics and gorgeous visuals.

“We hope fans will come to it with an open mind because—although different—we’re proud to bring the wipEout franchise back into focus with a fresh take on the formula,” he continued. “And we’ve poured a lot of love into the presentation, which includes loads of iconic ships and tracks, a new comic book-inspired narrative, a fitting electronica soundtrack, and gorgeous visuals that run at 60 frames per second on modern hardware.”

wipEout Rush includes 60 ships from the original games as well as a single-player campaign featuring 12 championship cup races across five distinct environments. That campaign also includes comic book-influenced storytelling that will give more personality to the racers. And in one more nod to the originals, wipEout Rush features an original electronica soundtrack from veteran Sony musician Alastair Lyndsay.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Startup developer Clockwork Labs has announced Bitcraft, a “new kind of MMORPG” that emphasizes player cooperation and allows players to have a large amount of agency over the game world.

The PC MMO, which you can sign up to play the pre-alpha build at on the official Bitcraft website, features a mix of crafting, building, hunting, farming, trading, and exploration. It’s also got a unique art style, which you can see for yourself in the trailer above and the screenshot gallery below.

“BitCraft is an MMO community sandbox game which takes place in an enormous, fully editable, procedurally generated landscape all hosted in a single unsharded world, providing players with an unparalleled level of creativity and depth,” said Clockwork Labs cofounder Tyler Cloutier.

The developers promise “unparalleled freedom and long-term character progression which enables players to create their own stories and write the new history of this world.” Stay tuned for more on Bitcraft as development progresses.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Beloved original Xbox classic Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (aka KOTOR) is back as…a timed PlayStation 5 exclusive? We discuss the strange circumstances of this long-awaited revival, from the exclusivity deal to the developer behind it and more. Plus: we get psyched for Halo Infinite’s next multiplayer test flight, Grand Theft Auto 5’s next-gen edition gets delayed, and more!

Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our new YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 download of this week’s episode. For more awesome content, check out our Halo Infinite Flight performance preview, which does a deep-dive tech analysis on the still-in-development slice of Halo Infinite multiplayer:

Oh, and you can be featured on Unlocked by tweeting us a video Loot Box question! Tweet your question and tag Ryan at @DMC_Ryan!

For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X review, our Xbox Series S review, and our PS5 review.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is due out this Fall for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. It’s a Super Smash Bros.-like platform fighter, meaning that, like in Nintendo’s popular series, you’re trying to knock the other players off of the stage.

Today we’ve got four exclusive new gameplay videos for you, including a four-player brawl featuring TMNT’s Leonardo and April O’Neil as well as SpongeBob Squarepants and Patrick, as well as 1v1s with April vs. Nigel Thornberry from Rugrats and Catdog vs. The Loud House’s Lucy Loud, and a gameplay breakdown from one of the developers.

Without further adieu, here are the videos. Enjoy!

April vs. Nigel

Catdog vs. Lucy Loud

SpongeBob vs. Leonardo vs. April vs. Patrick

Gameplay Breakdown from One of the Developers

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.