The much-anticipated Pokémon game has finally arrived, and while it isn't perfect, it brings loads of new ideas to an already fun series. You can read our full Pokémon Legends: Arceus review for more details about gameplay and more. If you're just wondering how much time you'll end up sinking into the game itself, we can help break that down.

How Long to Beat Pokemon Legends: Arceus

So how long does it take to beat Pokémon Legends: Arceus? If you focus mostly on reaching the first credits without going out of your way to catch new Pokémon or take on side quests, our experts say you can likely beat the game with about 25 - 30 hours of playtime.

That being said, there is a lot more to do in Pokémon Legends: Arceus than just finishing the main missions.

How Much Time It Takes to Fully Complete the Game

According to our resident Pokémon Legends: Arceus experts, it takes quite a bit more time to reach the true end of the game and complete your Pokédex .

"The first 'act,' which takes you through Hisui's five regions and culminates in a boss battle showdown, took me about 30 hours to finish, albeit with considerable distracted wandering off the main path to do side quests and catch Pokémon. But the main story quest continues after the credits roll, and the lengthy collect-a-thon required to finish the absolute final tasks you're given can be a time-consuming one. In total, I took 64 hours to reach Legends: Arceus' actual conclusion, which included the requirement of catching every Pokémon and happened to coincide with (but did not require) finishing all side quests."

- Rebekah Valentine, Reviewer

"I'm not actually done yet, and definitely not close at all to reaching the true ending of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, but I currently have spent about 35 hours playing. I have reached every area, unlocked every rideable Pokémon, caught 106 Pokémon, and am on the last stretch of story missions before hitting the credits. I'm a Sixth Star Member, a title earned by completing Pokédex Research Tasks, which is higher than it needs to be to finish the first stretch of story. I'd definitely be done with the first act by now if I had focused on main missions considering they really are generally quite short if you race past wild Pokémon and on Wyrdeer and don't explore larger areas."

- Casey Defreitas, Guides Team

Like any game where exploration is encouraged, the amount of time it will take you to actually finish playing is entirely up to how you decide to play.

There is a lot to explore in Pokémon Legends: Arceus if you choose to stop to smell the Rosalinas and let yourself get distracted. While you may be able to finish the main story quickly, you'd have to miss out on many of the finer details to do so.

Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced it will acquire Destiny developer Bungie for $3.6 Billion.

GamesIndustry.Biz reports that following the deal, Bungie will be run as "an independent subsidiary" of SIE, and will remain a multiplatform studio with the option to "self-publish and reach players where they choose to play."

Bungie is best known as the creators of Halo but since becoming an independent studio have focused their efforts on Destiny, a live-service FPS RPG where players can explore the galaxy as Guardians of Light. The company is also working on a new IP.

"We've had a strong partnership with Bungie since the inception of the Destiny franchise, and I couldn't be more thrilled to officially welcome the studio to the PlayStation family," says SIE president CEO Jim Ryan.

In the official PlayStation Blog post, Ryan begins by confirming Bungie's independence. "I want to be very clear to the community that Bungie will remain an independent and multi-platform studio and publisher." Ryan also says that Bungie will "sit alongside the PlayStation Studios organization," where the two groups will collaborate.

PlayStation Studios will also gain access to Bungie's proprietary tools which can be used for PlayStation Studios teams, according to the blog.

In a separate blog post, Bungie detailed what the acquisition means for the company calling SIE, "a partner who unconditionally supports us in all we are and who wants to accelerate our vision to create generation-spanning entertainment, all while preserving the creative independent that beats in Bungie's heart."

Bungie reaffirms that it retains its ability to independently publish and develop games, even after the acquisition. And that it's committed to supporting games and communities "where they choose to play."

This is Sony's sixth acquisition since 2021, though most of its studio acquisitions have been studios with long histories with PlayStation, like BluePoint and Housemarque, or support teams and specialized studios like Nixxes and Valkyrie Entertainment.

While Destiny 2 has been heavily promoted alongside PlayStation, with exclusive bonuses for players on the system, Bungie's history is intertwined across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, and the company hopes to remain multi-platform after the deal.

This deal will also be scrutinized with Xbox which has recently been making major acquisitions across the industry while building up Xbox Game Studios. Xbox acquired Zenimax Media, including Bethesda Games bringing the Fallout and Elder Scrolls developer into the fold, and later announced it will acquire Activision Blizzard and the teams responsible for games like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.

With Sony acquiring Bungie, this new age of studio acquisitions only appears to be heating up as studios look to expand their portfolio of teams and franchises.

There is also the matter of Bungie's internal culture which IGN reported extensively on. Whether this acquisition will help guide the changes currently ongoing at the studio remains to be seen.

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

New footage of The Batman featuring Robert Pattinson has been posted online by director Matt Reeves after the scene leaked online last week.

The lengthy three-minute video — uploaded in 4K — shows Bruce Wayne (Pattinson) attending the funeral of Gotham City Mayor Don Mitchell Jr. (Rupert Penry-Jones).

The scene is instantly chilling and matches Reeves' description of The Batman being "almost a horror". But things take a turn for the worse as the Riddler (Paul Dano) attacks the church.

Many of you may have seen this scene from @TheBatman floating around online, so I decided to put it on my vimeo in 4k. #AdvanceTickets go on sale 2/10! In the meantime, hope you enjoy this sneak peak... #TheBatman comes out #OnlyInTheaters on March 4th!https://t.co/ZIA8RjHqen

— Matt Reeves (@mattreevesLA) January 30, 2022

Screams are heard outside before a car crashes through the entrance towards the crowd gathered at the funeral.

Gotham City Police's James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) demands the driver exit the car and out steps district attorney Gil Colson (Peter Sarsgaard) with his mouth duct-taped shut, a bomb strapped to his neck, and a letter on his chest reading "to the Batman".

Despite the eerie scene, The Batman is rated a PG-13 by the Classification and Rating Administration.

The film will also be the Dark Knight's lengthiest depiction on-screen with a total run-time of two hours and 55 minutes.

As the March 4 release date approaches, Reeves addressed the backlash regarding Pattinson's casting as the Batman. "There has been no actor, when his announcement that he was going to be playing Batman in one of the feature films was announced, that has not received a backlash," he said.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.

MLB: The Show 22 is coming to Nintendo Switch, and will feature cross-save, cross-play, and cross-progression across all consoles.

Announced during a reveal event, the Sony first-party game will now be playable on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and Switch. You'll be able to play and carry save data across all platforms by creating an MLB: The Show account. The game will once again hit Xbox Game Pass on launch day.

MLB: The Show arrived on Xbox for the first time last year, after MLB itself asked Sony San Diego to make the series multiplatform. This year's edition marks the first time the series has come to a Nintendo platform, and is the first portable version of the game since MLB: The Show on Vita in 2015.

Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels will be the cover athlete on the standard edition of this year's game. Collector's editions of the game will feature a different star, who is yet to be revealed.

The game is available to pre-order now, and will be released on April 5, 2022.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Activision Blizzard is currently facing serious ongoing allegations of harassment and mistreatment of marginalized workers. To learn more, please visit our timeline as well as our in-depth report on the subject.

The rumoured Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – expected to be the franchise's 2022 release – has reportedly entered an early alpha stage, with the game apparently being developed by 11 different studios.

Activison Blizzard has yet to confirm that a sequel to 2019's Modern Warfare will be released this year but several reports from September indicate this will be the case.

According to industry insider Tom Henderson, who first reported on Modern Warfare 2's existence, three Infinity Ward studios are working on the game alongside Treyarch, Activision, Raven, Sledgehammer, Demonware, High Moon Studios, Toys for Bob, and Beenox.

In a YouTube video (spotted by Dualshockers), Henderson said: "[The large number of studios involved] shouldn't be a massive cause for concern as the majority of these studios have had some involvement in the past couple of years for every single Call of Duty title. From everything that I've heard in regards to Modern Warfare 2 everything is running smoothly.

"A few developers even referred to the Modern Warfare 's current build as being in alpha. By all of my own accounts I think this is the earliest I have heard a Call of Duty title being in its alpha stage."

Henderson also said he's seen Modern Warfare 2 footage and "the game did look really well [into] its development stage."

The game will reportedly include a campaign featuring U.S. special forces fighting Colombian drug cartels and is internally codenamed Project Cortez.

IGN called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare "great", saying its "varied gameplay modes and excellent gunplay suggest the series is headed in a promising direction." The game also did well commercially, breaking multiple sales records when it released.

The upcoming release, if official, is not to be confused with the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 that released in 2009 and was remastered in 2020. Infinity Ward's 2019 Call of Duty rebooted the Modern Warfare franchise and the studio is at the helm again as per the franchise's three-year development cycle.

After news that Xbox plans to acquire Activision Blizzard, Call of Duty's 2022 entry would presumably bew one of the reported three entries in the series to be released as multiplatform games, after which Xbox could make the series a first-party exclusive. The timescale for that could be longer than expected, with reports that Activision may ditch annual releases of the series.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale

American McGee’s Alice is getting its very own TV show, and it's being created by David Hayter, writer of the original X-Men movie, and voice of Solid Snake.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hayter will write and showrun the upcoming video game adaptation, bringing the classic twisted Alice in Wonderland video game to TV.

“The American McGee’s Alice and Alice: Madness Returns game series is a ground-breaking reimagining of the classic tale,” said Hayter. “It takes you into the heart of a corrupted Wonderland and throws light into shadowy corners the world has never seen. I am beyond excited to bring this world of madness and wonder to a global audience.”

American McGee’s Alice was originally released in 2000 and told the story of Alice, a psychiatric patient traumatised by the death of her family who retreats into the fictional world of Wonderland.

IGN’s own review said: “Alice impresses and keeps impressing. It's really rare that you play a game that's just so consistently brilliant, and never falls to the "first level punch" only to peter out as you get more than halfway through the game. Alice will suck you in, and keep you interested through its entire elaborate journey.” The game was followed up with a sequel, Alice: Madness Returns in 2011.

As for the upcoming TV show, no broadcaster has been set just yet, but the show will be produced in partnership with Abandon Entertainment.

“David Hayter brings imagination, experience, and stealth sneaking skills gained through successful missions in film, TV, and video games – a unique combination sure to make this adventure into Wonderland a successful one for the franchise and the fans,” said series creator McGee. “I am excited to be working with him and know the Alice fans will welcome him with mad affection.”

Hayter himself is best known as the original voice of Solid Snake in the English language version of Metal Gear Solid. However, he has a history in screenwriting, penning the original X-Men movie, co-writing X2, and an early version of the Watchmen movie.

American McGee’s Alice was once tapped to head to the big screen, but development of the project faltered after a few years.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Elden Ring Hidetaka Miyazaki says that George R.R. Martin may be shocked with what he has done with a number of the characters that the Game of Thrones writer created for the game.

During a recent interview with Game Informer, Miyazaki spoke further about the mythological lore that Martin had created for Elden Ring, which sets up the world before its catastrophic Shattering event.

In explaining that the writer had conjured up a number of human characters for the game, Miyazaki then went on to state that the writer may be surprised to see what inhuman monsters From Software has created from the back of his initial concepts.

“When Martin wrote these characters, and when he provided that origin story, that mythos for the world of Elden Ring, these demigods were much closer to their original form, and maybe closer to human form back then, before the Shattering, before it all started," explains Miyazaki in the interview.

The Shattering is an event in Elden Ring's pre-game history. The game's location, The Lands Between, was once a kingdom blessed by the titular ring, and the Erdtree at its centre. However, a war known as The Shattering saw the ring broken, and the land's inhabitants transformed.

"So it was more up to us to interpret this and say, ‘how did they become such inhuman monsters," continued Miyazaki. "And how did the mad taint of the shattered shards of the Elden Ring and its power affect them?’ So that was our job to take these grand heroes and sort of misshape them and distort them into something they were not.”

“And I think if we get a chance to show Martin and if he gets a chance to see the game and see these characters, I think he might be a bit shocked. When he wrote them, he was really envisioning something a little bit more human, a little bit more traditional human drama and fantasy characters. So I hope he gets a kick out of that.”

Last week, From Software finally announced that Elden Ring has 'gone gold' prior to its upcoming February 25 release date. As part of a recent interview during the Taipei Game Show, Elden Ring producer Yasuhiro Kitao recently delved a little further into what fans can expect in terms of the game's length and replay value.

According to Kitao, fans should expect to be able to complete the game's main set of quests in around 30 hours. That being said, the producer did note that Elden Ring includes a New Game Plus option as well as dozens of additional hours of content that hardened players can sink their teeth into.

For more on Elden Ring, make sure to check out this article detailing how Hidetaka Miyazaki believes that more people will finish the game than other From Software titles, despite also stating that he doesn't necessarily think the game is any easier.

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

IGN can reveal that The Witcher's Gwent is becoming a new, single-player, standalone game, codenamed Project Golden Nekker and set to launch in 2022.

Project Golden Nekker is currently in development within CD Projekt Red’s Gwent team and aims to provide a “captivating single-player experience” different to previous versions of the digital card game.

Project Golden Nekker will be a completely standalone game, and won’t require players to own any other versions of Gwent to get the full experience.

Gwent was a fan-favourite minigame included in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but evolved into a standalone multiplayer game in 201. In turn, Gwent got its own spin-off two years later with the excellent The Witcher Tales: Thronebreaker.

Project Golden Nekker will be something else entirely according to Gwent Comms Lead Paweł Burza: “It’s not another Witcher Tales [game] but something different,” he said. “We’re aiming to provide a captivating single-player for players who prefer it over competitive multiplayer Gwent.”

Although this is the first time we've learned that it's an entirely new game, CD Projekt Red has been quietly teasing the project for several months, dropping hints on Gwent streams and community podcasts.

In a developer update streamed during Gwent World Masters #3 in December – the game’s esports finals – Game Director Vladimir Tortsov said an official reveal for the game is coming soon.

He said: “We want to announce stuff that we’re working on when the time is right," continuing, “I’m really excited about this project coming together and I hope you like it as much as I do.”

Tortsov also revealed new concept art for the game to go alongside the handful of images already teased, all of which can be viewed in the gallery above, along with a new image of “The Barbarian” that IGN can reveal for the first time.

Four of the images – The Barbarian, The Golden Nekker, Living Fire, and Fire Elemental – are in the style of Gwent cards, meaning this could be a first look at some of the playable units in Project Golden Nekker. The other two appear to be environment art of some kind, featuring a library (with a lurking Golden Nekker), and a marketplace.

When The Witcher Tales: Thronebreaker released, new cards in the standalone game were also added to the multiplayer version of Gwent, meaning these new cards will likely be added to that game as well.

The 2022 Gwent roadmap has already revealed that new cards are due to be released in April, July, October, and December, and every Witcher game has been released in either May or October in the past.

This means that, assuming the cards appear in Gwent: The Witcher Card Game alongside the new standalone game, it’s very possible that Project Golden Nekker will release in October 2022.

Ryan Dinsdale is a freelance writer for IGN.

PlayStation has announced that it will broadcast a Gran Turismo 7 State of Play on Wednesday, February 2.

The event will be shown on Twitch and YouTube, starting at 2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern / 10pm UK (that's February 3 at 9am AEDT).

Sony says the broadcast will include "30 minutes of new PS5 footage and gameplay details," and adds that it will cover modes and features in the upcoming driving simulator.

After a delay, Gran Turismo 7 will be released for PS5 and PS4 on March 4, 2022.

Creator Kazunori Yamauchi says the game will be "a title that connects the past to the present and to the future", aiming to bring together 25 years of the series' history into a single game. The game will feature returning features (the used car dealership, variable time and weather) and tracks (High Speed Ring and Trial Mountain) alongside its new inclusions.

It will also include a controversial always-online connection, but Yamauchi says that's to prevent cheating and allow for livery data to work properly.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Update (1/30/22) - The official trailer for the Halo TV series has been released ahead of its March 24, 2022, premiere date on Paramount+.

In the trailer, which you can see below, we catch a glimpse of not only Pablo Schreiber's Master Chief, but also our best look yet at the show's version of Jen Taylor's Cortana. Additionally, we see many of the Covenant enemies Chief and friends will be facing off against, including the Elites (Sangheili), Brutes (Jiralhanae), Jackals (Kig-Yar), and more.

Fans of the series will also notice an Energy Sword, what appears to be a Plasma Pistol, a Warthog, a Pelican, and more.

The original story follows.

Ahead of the reveal of its official trailer, the Halo TV series has been given a premiere date of March 24, 2022.

The announcement came as part of a teaser for the trailer that will air during the AFC Championship Game that will see the Cincinnati Bengals facing off against the Kansas City Chiefs for a chance to go to the Super Bowl.

We’re just getting started. Watch the #HaloTheSeries Official Trailer today during halftime at the AFC Championship Game on @CBS and @ParamountPlus.

pic.twitter.com/dER2sgbLkI

— Halo on Paramount+ (@HaloTheSeries) January 30, 2022

The premiere date can be heard around 0:53 and follows footage of both Master Chief and his fellow Spartans alongside clips of Chiefs and Bengals players.

Our first look at the Halo TV series was given at the Game Awards 2021, and we saw for the first time Pablo Schreiber's Master Chief in action. This show has been in development for some time now, but we only have a short time to wait to see its story unfold.

Speaking of which, the show's story will be separate from the games' canon. Despite that Jen Taylor will make the jump from games to the TV screen to once again voice the AI known as Cortana. Schreiber and Taylor will be joined by Danny Sapani's Jacob Keyes, Olive Gray's Miranda Keyes, Charlie Murphy's Makee, Yerin Ha's Quan Ah, Natascha McElhone's Catherine Halsey, Bokeem Woodbine's Soren-066, and 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.