Steam’s Big Picture mode on PC will now adopt the specially designed Steam Deck UI.

Valve has announced that its newest update to Big Picture mode will bring the Steam Deck’s UI to PC and is available now for testing.

“We are preparing to update Big Picture mode with the new interface we designed for Steam Deck, and today we’re making it available for testing,” they revealed. “This update has been a long time coming, and we’re very excited to start gathering community feedback.”

The controller-first interface was designed especially for the Steam Deck, but its integration into Steam makes sense – providing greater brand recognition between the Steam Deck and the Steam library on PC.

And it happens to be a pretty decent interface, too.

“This controller-first interface was designed for Steam Deck in handheld and docked mode, and is perfect for all the scenarios Big Picture mode currently handles,” they confirmed.

The new Big Picture mode includes:

• New Home Screen that highlights recent games and what’s news in your library.
• New Universal Search that lets you search through your Library, Store, and Friends list.
• New Controller Configurator that’s designed to let you choose new configurations and layouts with ease.
• Optimised Stead Store for controller navigation.
• Updated in-game overlay giving access to achievements and guides.
• New System menu for quick navigation to different parts of the new UI.
• New Quick Access Menu that lets you access notifications. Friends list, quick settings, and more.

According to Valve, the team is “still polishing rough edges” so the new version of Big Picture is currently offered through Steam’s beta program.

Instructions for trying out the new Big Picture mode can be found here.

IGN’S Steam Deck review gave it 7/10 and said: “When the Steam Deck is living up to its promises, it's absolutely incredible. Playing GTA 5, God of War, and other modern games on the go is an absolute joy, and the hardware and controls feel good to hold even though it’s a big chubby boy of a handheld. It seriously impressed me with how nice some demanding modern games look on its 7-inch screen. But those dizzying highs are all too often snapped away by insurmountable compatibility issues with SteamOS and installing Windows to get around those comes with its own set of problems. I’ve lost count of how often I’ve been left frustrated and annoyed to have to troubleshoot issues when trying to play a game for the first time.”

Want to read more about the Steam Deck? Check out the record-breaking number of Steam users last weekend as well as how to skip the Steam Deck’s opening movie.

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

You want games? Good news. Today, we got new looks at an absolute deluge of games via the MIX Next event, combined with a Publisher Spotlight event and Black Voices in Gaming. Between the three, we saw somewhere close to 100 games - if you haven't seen the entire presentation, give it a look, as there's likely something in there to appeal to every taste, genre, and fanbase.

For our part, there were ten games that really stood out between the three presentations, and we opted to highlight them below. If you're just looking for a quick, broad look at some of the truly standout stuff from the last few hours, look no further. Here are our ten favorite games from MIX Next 2022:

Paper Cut Mansion

One of the most instantaneously striking games from this entire showcase was Paper Cut Mansion, a haunted house roguelite. You play as a detective named Toby exploring the house to gather evidence to solve a mystery, fighting off enemies in top-down combat with permadeath and solving logic puzzles as you go. Paper Cut Mansion looks to be visually stunning, with the entire world - you, your enemies, the house, all the furniture, everything - made of paper, looking like highly detailed paper dolls and models. I want to play this just for the aesthetic vibes alone, and considering it's out today on Xbox and PC via Steam, Epic, and GOG, this might be the perfect haunted Halloween adventure.

Wavetale

One of my favorite genres of post-apocalyptic game is "the world was destroyed and all that's left are sky islands," but I didn't realize until I saw Wavetale how few versions of that actually involve a giant ocean instead of the sky. Wind Waker? Sea of Solitude maybe? That might be it.

Anyway, the trailer's slowly rolling motions of skating across ocean waves to soothing music immediately drew me into this 3D adventure and platformer (its other trailers are no slouches either). I want to become that beautiful waverunner, Sigrid, who armed with a net must defeat "an old nemesis" to save the citizens of her archipelago.

Ocean skating aside, I'm also really into the surge of games in this showcase more generally that are reexploring what 3D platforming might look like now that we have better technology and everything doesn't have to look like Banjo-Kazooie. Wavetale is coming out on December 12 on Switch, PS5, PS4, Xbox, and PC via Steam. There's a demo available on Steam now too, if you like.

Farewell North

No longer content to ask if we can pet the dog, Farewell North is instead asking the question, "Can you play as the dog?" Obviously, you can and do. Specifically, you're a collie traveling with its human through a series of Scotland-inspired islands that have been deprived of their color, which you'll restore as you go. It's full of perspective puzzles and hidden objects, with puzzles you'll have to solve using your unique canine abilities while your human interacts with the world using their own, very human tools.

Peaceful as it looks, Farewell North is a story about grief and how people deal with loss. You'll be restoring the human's memories and returning color to a black and white world, but you're also seeing it all through the eyes of a dog as it helps the person it loves learn to say goodbye. I'm here for the cute dog, but I anticipate staying for the emotional catharsis. Farewell North doesn't have a release date currently, but there's a demo on Steam right now.

Shumi Come Home

When I mentioned Wavetale above, I talked about how excited I was to see more games hearkening back to the good old classic 3D platforming era without necessarily leaning into their visual and level structure. Shumi Come Home, on the other hand, absolutely does that. It's a cute, nature-filled platformer about a little dude (Shumi, a sentient mushroom) trying to find its way home through a world that's far too big for it. It's immediately charming, with a very straightforward retroness to it that makes me immediately nostalgic for Donkey Kong's Fungi Forest — but how I remember it looking, not how it actually looked. Charming, whimsical, perfect for autumn (even though it's not out until the spring).

Specifically, Shumi Come Home is planned for release in spring 2023 on PC and Switch.

Schim

I've actually played a few minutes of Schim already, in a demo at Play Days earlier this year. But every time I see it, I am drawn in again by the wonderful puzzling concept of playing a funny little shadow frog that can only move within the shadows of objects, jumping from one to the next as he tries to track down the person he is the shadow of. It immediately lends itself to a distinctive visual style, and forces an uncommon perspective on otherwise mundane settings like a street corner, or a park.

The latest Schim trailer announces that it's "feature complete," with the team now focused on designing more levels. One feature this presentation showed off was the ability to change a level's color palette, acting as an accessibility feature for colorblind players as well as a fun way to customize levels as you play. You can take a look at the tool now at a website, too: schim.art

Schim is coming to PlayStation and PC via itch.io and Steam, and you can request access to a playtest via Steam right now.

Moonstone Island

Sure, I'm a sucker for cute, cozy games, but nothing grabbed me as strongly in the MIX showcase as Moonstone Island. It's a darling little life sim following an alchemist who, per their village tradition, must spend a year away from home to train their alchemy. While on Moonstone Island, they'll tame nature spirits, make friends, explore, and build a home as they restore the island. And es, there's romance and farming too!

But apart from just the cute critters, Moonstone Island is also a deckbuilding RPG of sorts with turn-based battles pitting your befriended spirits against enemies. The battle shown in the trailer was both adorable and had a somewhat Earthbound-y feel to it, given that the player was fighting using spirits of a lamp and a coffee cup on their team.

A lot was packed into the short trailer, and I'm curious to see how all Moonstone Island's systems end up interlocking and working together to make a full adventure. It's planned for release next year on Switch and PC.

My Work Is Not Yet Done

Trailer CW: Suicide, disturbing imagery

Hey, uh, what the heck??? What did I just watch?

My Work Is Not Yet Done was, of all the trailers in this showcase, the one that told me the least about what was actually going on in the game it represented. It also was the one that most made me want to learn more. Per its Steam page, I've figured out that it's a narrative-driven investigative horror game following a person named Avery. As the last member of an expedition to a remote wilderness, she tries to track down the source of a weird transmission as the landscape and reality shift around her. I'm not sure if there's any relation to the Thomas Ligotti short story collection of the same name about corporate workplaces, but given they're both horror-related, it's probable there's some throughline.

Again per its Steam page, My Work Is Not Yet Done is about "exploring the imbrication and dissolution of human identities/meanings within uncanny wilderness." I don't fully know what that means! That entire trailer was deeply upsetting! I also want to play this game! It's coming to PC via Steam at an unannounced later date.

Spiderheck

Now for something completely different. Spiderheck is a party game, a physics-based brawler where everyone is a spider with a lazer sword. That sentence alone sounds, to me, extremely cool, and the gameplay seems to bear that out. It's a bit reminscent of Heave-Ho in terms of the ways the spiders seem to move and swing about their environment, but instead of leapin over your friends to get to the finish line, you're pummeling them with lazer weapons, both melee and guns. It's the kind of silly party game that seems prone to devolve into a lot of drunken, good-natured yelling with the right crowd, good for local couch play or online hangouts over Discord. It's out now on Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC via Epic Games Store and Steam.

Sucker for Love: First Date

This hilarious dating sim had me with the spot-on classic anime opening trailer, complete with "(Excited eldritch noises)". But the gameplay afterward looks like a blast — it's a visual novel, sure, but aside from chatting up your Lovecraftian hunnies, you're also performing dark rituals to summon them in the first place and keep them happy: closing the curtains, lighting the candles, saying the right words to bring them forth from the dark and make their ancient and precocious whims come true.

At the moment, there are three tentacled evil ladies to spend time with across three chapters, as the game's been out since January, but there's a sequel on the way called Date to Die For coming up soon, possibly even this year.

One Beat Min

Every time I think I've seen it all with rhythm games, something comes along and blows me away again. This time, it was One Beat Min, a rhythm game about beatboxing where players battle one another by challenging them to copy their beats back. The result is a fast-paced back and forth of four-button combos (at least in the trailer we just saw) where one player challenges, the other copies, then challenges back, and so forth. It combines typical rhythm game components like button matching and, you know, rhythm, with creativity in making something your opponent won't copy, and reading that same opponent and reacting quickly to them. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of details out about One Beat Min just yet, so we don't know what platforms to expect it on or when it might be out. Hopefully we get to see more soon.

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

Alec Baldwin and his fellow Rust producers could face charges following an investigation into the death of cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins.

Although filming is due to resume in January 2023, the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office has today submitted its investigation to prosecutors for consideration.

“[The DA’s office] will now begin a thorough review of the information and evidence to make a thoughtful, timely decision about whether to bring charges,” said a spokesperson for District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies in a statement (via Variety).

Halyna died on October 21, 2021, while filming Rust as the result of an on-set firearms incident.

According to initial reports, a prop Colt .45 was accidentally loaded with live ammunition – a fatal mistake when the gun discharged, killing Hutchins and injuring the film’s director, Joel Souza.

Shortly after the incident, it was revealed that Baldwin had been in possession of the firearm when it was discharged. However, Baldwin has since claimed that he did not pull the trigger.

Santa Fe investigators have reportedly focused on Hannah Gutierrez-Reed – the film’s armorer, who seems to have loaded the weapon with the live round.

The District Attorney has since applied for funding for up to four criminal trials in this case.

Additionally, the DA’s office issued a statement last Friday, on the anniversary of Hutchins’ death, stating that she “remains committed to pursuing justice for the victims, and getting answers for the community.”

Baldwin insists that he “didn’t pull the trigger” of the firearm that killed Hutchins.

“No no no, I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them, never," Baldwin told ABC's George Stephanopoulos when asked whether he'd pulled the trigger. “Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn't even supposed to be on the property.”

He also shared that he has been told that it’s unlikely he will face charges for the incident.

“No one is above the law and every victim deserves justice,” said spokesperson, Heather Brewer from the office of DA Carmack-Altwies.

Rust is a western set in 1880s Kansas, written by Baldwin himself. It tells the story of an outlaw, Harland Rust (Baldwin), who becomes a fugitive along with his thirteen-year-old grandson (Brady Noon) after rescuing him from being hanged after he’s sentenced to death for murder.

Over a year after the incident, this is the first sign that local law enforcement will bring charges.

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

Community star Joe McHale was reduced to tears by the upcoming film script.

During an interview with The Wrap, McHale revealed that he “cried like a baby” during the Community film’s first table read.

“You know that I’m sarcastic about literally f***ing everything but there will be tears,” he said. “We did that table read during the pandemic and I cried like a baby afterwards and I’m not joking.”

After years of rumors and speculation, it was announced last month that Community is finally getting a movie.

Of course, it’s been on the cards for some time. Creator Dan Harmon has been saying that the film “will happen” since 2016, with regular updates suggesting the film is on its way over the years. Most recently, Harmon revealed that he pitched a Community movie back in August… and it looks as though Peacock finally took him up on the idea.

“We announced it. Peacock is paying for it,” said McHale. “Thank you, Peacock. So yeah, it’s happening and everybody’s back.”

Much of the original cast will be returning for the movie with McHale himself, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash, and Ken Jeon.

“Everyone thinks that what I say is joking, but it is like being with — it really is like a family reunion but without a-holes,” he continued. Notably, Chevy Chase won’t be back following his character’s death in the Season 5 episode, “Basic Intergluteal Numismatics”.

“Because you know, you go to a family you, and you’re like, ‘Ugh, there’s that one cousin of mine. He smells,’” said McHale. “So anyway, we’re really — I can’t wait. Yeah, that’s all I can say.”

Community creator Dan Harmon is writing the movie and is also on board as executive producer, but no director has been locked in as yet. McHale, Andrew Guest, Russ Krasnoff, and Gary Foster are also on board as executive producers.

Want to read more about Community? Check out the biggest challenge to making a Community movie as well as Donald Glover’s off-the-cuff pitch for the film.

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

Halloween is always a good excuse to dive into some new vampire stories, and Ricardo Delgado's Dracula of Transylvania is a great choice for anyone craving a unique take on the iconic horror character. Fresh off the release of the illustrated novel, Delgado is giving readers a much closer look at this visually stunning horror universe with a companion book called The Art of Dracula of Transylvania.

With The Art of Dracula of Transylvania currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter, IGN can exclusively debut several pages from the book. Check them out in the slideshow gallery below:

The idea behind Dracula of Transylvania is that, while most contemporary Dracula tales tend to paint him as a tragic loner, this story veers sharply in the other direction and depicts him as a terrifying force of nature. When solicitor Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania to help Dracula close his real estate purchase, Harker is confronted with nothing less than the literal Son of Satan.

The Art of Dracula of Transylvania delves far deeper into this horror universe. Delgado, a Hollywood storyboard artist whose work includes Apollo 13, Wall-E and Avatar: The Last Airbender, has compiled several hundred pages of character designs and other artwork showcasing the many monsters that populate this world. The book includes extensive annotations and creator commentary, along with a foreword by writer/director Donald F. Glut and an introduction by film historian Gary D. Rhodes.

“Dracula of Transylvania is a stunning work from Ricardo. He created a rich new Transylvania, and we felt that the artwork in his illustrated novel just wasn’t enough,” said Clover Press' Publisher Hank Kanalz in a statement. “When we were chatting with Ricardo about his next project with us, he revealed he had a few more pieces he hadn’t shared. A few meaning well over 150 additional pieces — so we knew we had to follow up with this art collection.”

The Kickstarter for Art of Dracula of Transylvania is live until November 9, 2022 and has already met its funding goal. Backers can choose between digital and hardcover versions of the book itself, with higher pledge tiers including extra bonuses like stickers, pins and even original artwork. The book is expected to ship in February 2023.

You can still pick up the original Dracula of Transylvania hardcover book, and a new softcover edition will also be released in February 2023 alongside the art book.

In other horror news, you can read the entire first issue of Hellboy: The Silver Lantern Club for free on IGN.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Warner Bros. Montreal has laid out issues it's looking to address in future Gotham Knights patches, including performance issues for players on PC and console.

In a thread on the game's official Twitter, the team said it wanted to outline some changes it expects to put into the live game, as well as give a general timeline for incoming patches. Those playing on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S can expect a patch by "the end of the week," that will address "needed fixes" that have come to light since Gotham Knights' launch last week.

Broadly, Warner Bros. Montreal says it's aware of PC and console players experiencing performance challenges and is working on a patch to improve overall performance, specifically noting frame rate stability on consoles. This follows controversy earlier this month where it was confirmed Gotham Knights would only run at 30fps on console, with no option for a higher frame rate performance mode to maintain an “untethered co-op experience.”

The latest patch for PC players went live yesterday, October 26, and alongside general bug fixes, also addressed crashing during the Harley Quinn Hospital Boss Fight. As of this writing, the studio is also investigating a compatibility issue with Nvidia Ansel.

Performance aside, Gotham Knights has a fair share of issues, with IGN’s review citing “poor combat, a transparently predictable mystery, and grueling progression” as drawbacks in the co-op Bat Family game.

Kenneth Shepard is a writer covering games, entertainment, and queerness all around the internet. Find him on Twitter at @shepardcdr, and listen to his biweekly video game retrospective podcast Normandy FM, which is currently covering Cyberpunk 2077.

PlayStation’s London Studio, known for its work on peripheral games like EyeToy and Wonderbook, is working on an untitled co-op game set in a fantasy version of its home city.

In a lengthy interview with GameIndustry.biz, Co-Studio Head Stuart Whyte explained the studio is proud of its experimental history working with peripherals and virtual reality, but wanted to explore new challenges for its upcoming project.

“We definitely wanted to try something a little bit different, and I think this new project really channels our 'brave' value and allows us to push ourselves on the 'curious' front, too,” Whyte says. “It's an exciting future, it really is."

Co-studio head Tara Saunders says the fantasy game is being developed specifically for PlayStation 5, and will include themes of "bringing fantasical and magical elements and intersecting that with familiar worlds," such as its fantasy version of London.

London Studio clarified it's not making another VR game, but is still using some tools from its previous VR work, such as its internal Soho Engine, during development.

The studio’s most recent game, Blood and Truth, was released for the PlayStation VR in 2019, which IGN’s review described as “a great example of what PSVR can accomplish with a fun, engrossing blockbuster story.” Prior to this, London Studio also released PlayStation VR Worlds, which launched alongside the virtual reality headset in 2016. But it sounds like the studio is leaving outside peripherals behind for the time being with this new project.

Kenneth Shepard is a writer covering games, entertainment, and queerness all around the internet. Find him on Twitter at @shepardcdr, and listen to his biweekly video game retrospective podcast Normandy FM, which is currently covering Cyberpunk 2077.

Digital Eclipse - the developer behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection and many other retro compilations - has surprise released a new game for Halloween, and you can even get it for free.

Candy Creeps is a 1 or 2-player retro, arcade-like platformer that sees you taking on the Pumpking, who has stolen a whole neighborhood's candy and can only be stoppped by some well-placed head stomps, Mario Bros. style.

It marks the first release in a new Digital Eclipse Arcade line, "a series of all-new games inspired by classic '80s arcade vibes."

"Play as Elma and Harper, two tweens who may or may not have inadvertently summoned the evil Pumpking, who has swiped the whole neighborhood's Halloween candy and hidden it inside his army of tiny, adorable decorative gourds," reads a press release. "Smash the pumpkins to find candy, then chow down. Once you're turbo-charged with sugar, transform into a costume-clad avenger and bash the Pumpking until he explodes! Master four unique levels and go for a high score in one- and two-player modes."

Out today for PC, Candy Creeps is available for $4.99 USD on Itch.io, but you can get it for free by signing up to the Digital Eclipse mailing list by October 31.

Candy Creeps is the start of a new project for Digital Eclipse, which has made its name creating well-received retro collections for the likes of Mega Man, Blizzard, Disney, and more. Digital Eclipse Arcade will be "a series of throwback games made for the Digital Eclipse community... a celebration of pure arcade gameplay."

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.

The developers behind Moonbreaker have completely overhauled its Early Access business model to remove all microtransactions and monetization from the game.

Developer Unknown Worlds detailed the game's first major content update, dubbed "Zax's Story," in a post on Moonbreaker's Steam page. The newly-released patch features a ton of community-driven changes to gameplay, such as the removal of monetization, which means the in-game store is getting disabled and in-game currencies are being withdrawn.

"We've been reading and evaluating everything you've suggested on our Discord and Nolt board – which already helped to guide our decision to remove Cargo Run Contracts from Moonbreaker – and have been diligently reviewing every area of the game," Unknown Worlds said in the post, addressing the changes they're making to better reflect Early Access goals.

As such, Pulsars will no longer be available and all Pulsar purchases will be automatically refunded via Steam, while Founder's Pack Pulsars will be replaced with a new Zax and Slopper Skin. Blanks and Merits will be replaced with Sparks, which can be used to upgrade a Unit's Rarity, but all Units will now be unlocked with the base game, putting an end to Booster Boxes.

The developer added an FAQ-style section at the end of the blog post in the hopes of answering any questions that players might have in relation to the update, as they also "made some balance changes to Astra, as well as adjusted a handful of ship assist, removed some of the randomness in the game, and much more," based on ongoing Early Access feedback.

IGN's Matt Purslow raised concerns over the game's loot box-fulled microtransaction system in his Moonbreaker Early Access review. He said it "tarnished the experience," but now the update has brought about these changes, we can get back to playing the "fun and approachable skirmish game" that puts "an emphasis on smart turn-by-turn tactics."

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

The Callisto Protocol has been completely canceled in Japan following a dispute between developer Striking Distance Studios and the Japanese ratings board.

As reported by PC Gamer, Striking Distance announced on Twitter that the current version of The Callisto Protocol - a particularly gory and violent horror game from Dead Space creator Glen Schofield - cannot pass Japan's Computer Entertainment Rating Organisation (CERO) in its current form, and altering the game would remove from its vision.

The two sides are therefore at a standstill, as CERO won't give the game a rating before its content is changed, and Striking Distance won't change it. Neither company explained what about the game was deemed to be an issue.

pic.twitter.com/fXtsIY4Fz3

— The Callisto Protocol (@CallistoGameJP) October 26, 2022

"The Callisto Protocol's Japanese version has been discontinued. At present, it cannot pass the CERO rating," Striking Distance said in the tweet, adding that changing The Callisto Protocol will "not provide the experience players expect".

Those who preordered the game will be given full refunds but, without importing it from another region, won't have any way to play the game they were looking forward to.

The Callisto Protocol arrives on December 2 for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, a release date that forced Striking Distance to crunch for in September. Schofield tweeted that he was proud for his team working six to seven days a week, though quickly apologised and has admitted he "messed up".

In a preview of the game, IGN said: "While it's undeniable that The Callisto Protocol has Dead Space vibes, it’s the small factors that suggest it could feel more of its own design and not just a fourth Dead Space by a different name."

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