Turtle Rock Studios, the developer behind Back 4 Blood, has said that it has fixed an issue in the game that had been causing special zombies to spawn more frequently during runs than the developer intended.

If you've played Back 4 Blood, then you might have noticed that at times it can get a little hectic. This is especially true when playing some of the later levels of the campaign on higher difficulty settings. It can often feel like the game's special Ridden (that's Back 4 Blood's name for the undead) spawn in at overwhelming rates. As it turns out, Turtle Rock Studios has confirmed that this isn't intentional but instead as a result of a bug that's been causing special enemies to overspawn during runs.

The studio addressed the issue during its November 2021 developer update. "We found an issue where Specials would frequently duplicate their spawn cards, compounding as players progressed through levels," reads the update. "This would often result in an unfair amount of Specials overwhelming Cleaner teams."

After finding the issue, the developer says that it should be fixed as part of an update patch that went live earlier this week. While this should help to bring a bit more balance to the later stages of Back 4 Blood's campaign, the studio has also that it will continue to "dig into spawning issues to help further smooth out the experience" in later updates.

In addition to fixing the frequency of specials spawned into the game, this month's update for Back 4 Blood also made a number of other changes. As well as various general bug fixes and improvements, the studio says that it has listened to community feedback and implemented some highly requested quality of life updates to the game. Among those are the ability to disable in-game voice chat, unlocking all Cleaner characters from the start of the game, and unlocking all previous chapters after completing any campaign chapter.

Looking ahead, the studio recently published its upcoming roadmap for the game. While this month's focus will be on improving the overall gameplay of Back 4 Blood through major bug fixes and quality of life improvements, December will see new content added to the game by way of additional supply lines and a solo offline mode with campaign progression. The roadmap also confirmed that a number of additional features will be coming to the game throughout 2022 - including a new difficulty setting, co-op mode, and a wider selection of player cards.

Cleaners, the future is lookin' bright! Here's a roadmap of what's to come for Fort Hope. #Back4Blood pic.twitter.com/IHCvGqZXO0

— Back 4 Blood (@back4blood) November 8, 2021

For more on Back 4 Blood make sure to check out our review where we awarded the game an 8/10.

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

Wizards of the Coast and G4 announced today that the D&D developer and resurgent tech TV channel are teaming up to produce the first Actual Play series to air on cable television.

The series, called Dungeons & Dragons Presents: Invitation to Party, will premiere on G4TV later this month and feature a cast of recognizable faces from across the D&D/TRPG community.

With veteran TRPG storyteller, game designer, and Dungeon Master B. Dave Walters taking the seat behind the DM creen, the rest of the cast includes internet personality Kassem Gharaibeh (co-founder of Maker Studios), actress Fiona Nova, Indiana Black (perhaps best known as the LoL caster Froskurinn), and TV writer/actor Ify Nwadiwe (who D&D streaming fans may remember from Dimension 20's Bloodkeep mini-series).

The show will be broadcast live on G4's Twitch and YouTube channels on Friday nights, where viewers can interact with the cast and vote on potential story beats, NPCs, obstacles and other prompts for the players and DM to interact with. Taking a page out of improv shows from ages past, the series will also encourage the cast to step away from the table to actively play out character interactions in real time.

D&D Presents: Invitation to Party's inaugural live stream will be Friday, November 19, 2021 at 6pm ET / 3pm PT and will then be broadcast on G4TV the following Monday (Nov 22) at 9:30pm ET / 6:30pm PT.

Wizards of the Coast and G4 announced today that the D&D developer and resurgent tech TV channel are teaming up to produce the first Actual Play series to air on cable television.

The series, called Dungeons & Dragons Presents: Invitation to Party, will premiere on G4TV later this month and feature a cast of recognizable faces from across the D&D/TRPG community.

With veteran TRPG storyteller, game designer, and Dungeon Master B. Dave Walters taking the seat behind the DM creen, the rest of the cast includes internet personality Kassem Gharaibeh (co-founder of Maker Studios), actress Fiona Nova, Indiana Black (perhaps best known as the LoL caster Froskurinn), and TV writer/actor Ify Nwadiwe (who D&D streaming fans may remember from Dimension 20's Bloodkeep mini-series).

The show will be broadcast live on G4's Twitch and YouTube channels on Friday nights, where viewers can interact with the cast and vote on potential story beats, NPCs, obstacles and other prompts for the players and DM to interact with. Taking a page out of improv shows from ages past, the series will also encourage the cast to step away from the table to actively play out character interactions in real time.

D&D Presents: Invitation to Party's inaugural live stream will be Friday, November 19, 2021 at 6pm ET / 3pm PT and will then be broadcast on G4TV the following Monday (Nov 22) at 9:30pm ET / 6:30pm PT.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said that Forza Horizon 5 is Xbox Game Studios' biggest ever launch.

In a tweet, the studio head revealed the successful start for the latest installment of the racing series, stating that it had enjoyed the largest launch day for an Xbox Game Studios title ever.

We've invested for years in Xbox so more people can play. With 4.5+ million players so far across PC, cloud & console, Forza Horizon 5 shows that promise coming to life. Largest launch day for XGS game, peak concurrent 3x FH4 high. Thank you players & congrats to @WeArePlayground

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) November 10, 2021

Spencer's tweet reveals that Forza Horizon 5 has, within just days, reached 4.5 million players across PC, cloud, and console. He also noted that since launch, Forza Horizon 5 has seen a peak concurrent number of players three times higher than that of its predecessor Forza Horizon 4 - a factor that could be down to the growing popularity of Xbox Games Pass.

Playground Games' latest venture into the racing franchise takes place in a stunning open-world recreation of Mexico. As well as including a number of picturesque scenic routes and stunning vistas, the game also features a number of vibrant urban areas - and in true Forza Horizon fashion - a multitude of different terrains to get to grips with.

While Forza Horizon 5 has been popular with fans since its release, the game has also gained critical approval too. Critic reviews on Metacritic currently stand at 91 and 92 on PC and Xbox Series X respectively. In our own Horizon 5 review, we awarded the game a 10/10 stating that the game "is the result of a racing studio at the peak of its craft and the best open-world racing game available."

While Spencer's original comments state that the company has invested for years in Xbox so that more people can play games, Forza Horizon 5's accessibility options have also been praised for doing the same. Despite already including a number of accessibility features at launch to make the game more inclusive to players around the world, Xbox recently confirmed that there's more to come. A post-launch update for the game is expected to take place that will include an on-screen sign language interpreter, with both American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL).

For more on Forza Horizon 5, make sure to check out our dedicated IGN page for the game, where you can watch our Forza Horizon 5 performance review, and find out where every Barn Find is.

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

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said that Forza Horizon 5 is Xbox Game Studios' biggest ever launch.

In a tweet, the studio head revealed the successful start for the latest installment of the racing series, stating that it had enjoyed the largest launch day for an Xbox Game Studios title ever.

We've invested for years in Xbox so more people can play. With 4.5+ million players so far across PC, cloud & console, Forza Horizon 5 shows that promise coming to life. Largest launch day for XGS game, peak concurrent 3x FH4 high. Thank you players & congrats to @WeArePlayground

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) November 10, 2021

Spencer's tweet reveals that Forza Horizon 5 has, within just days, reached 4.5 million players across PC, cloud, and console. He also noted that since launch, Forza Horizon 5 has seen a peak concurrent number of players three times higher than that of its predecessor Forza Horizon 4 - a factor that could be down to the growing popularity of Xbox Games Pass.

Playground Games' latest venture into the racing franchise takes place in a stunning open-world recreation of Mexico. As well as including a number of picturesque scenic routes and stunning vistas, the game also features a number of vibrant urban areas - and in true Forza Horizon fashion - a multitude of different terrains to get to grips with.

While Forza Horizon 5 has been popular with fans since its release, the game has also gained critical approval too. Critic reviews on Metacritic currently stand at 91 and 92 on PC and Xbox Series X respectively. In our own Horizon 5 review, we awarded the game a 10/10 stating that the game "is the result of a racing studio at the peak of its craft and the best open-world racing game available."

While Spencer's original comments state that the company has invested for years in Xbox so that more people can play games, Forza Horizon 5's accessibility options have also been praised for doing the same. Despite already including a number of accessibility features at launch to make the game more inclusive to players around the world, Xbox recently confirmed that there's more to come. A post-launch update for the game is expected to take place that will include an on-screen sign language interpreter, with both American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL).

For more on Forza Horizon 5, make sure to check out our dedicated IGN page for the game, where you can watch our Forza Horizon 5 performance review, and find out where every Barn Find is.

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

Leonardo DiCaprio is in final talks to produce and star in a feature biopic about controversial cult leader Jim Jones, with Venom screenwriter Scott Rosenberg on board to pen the script.

According to Deadline, the film will chronicle the story of Jim Jones, the leader of the Peoples Temple religious group, who was responsible for orchestrating the mass suicide that claimed the lives of more than 900 people in November 1978 after he directed his followers based at the remote Jonestown settlement in Guyana to drink cyanide-laced punch.

The Jim Jones feature has reportedly been picked up by MGM in a preemptive situation that finds DiCaprio starring in the lead role as well as producing the picture alongside Jennifer Davisson under their Appian Way production banner. Rosenberg is also attached to the project as an executive producer, though no director has been confirmed at this time.

Over the course of his prolific career, DiCaprio has portrayed several real-life historical figures onscreen, with scene-stealing performances as former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, infamous aviation tycoon Howard Hughes, and cunning conman Frank Abagnale. The actor will next star in Adam McKay's Don't Look Up and Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon.

DiCaprio stars opposite Jennifer Lawrence in Don't Look Up, which follows two low-level astronomers who attempt, via a media tour, to warn mankind about an asteroid that will destroy Earth. Also starring Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Chris Evans, Jonah Hill, Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Rob Morgan, the film will premiere on Netflix on December 10.

While the cast is stacked for Netflix's Don't Look Up, this is actually DiCaprio's first film that will premiere exclusively on a streaming service after turning down many other roles. He is also starring in Killers of the Flower Moon alongside Robert De Niro, though, which is being funded by Apple and will hit theaters as well as streaming on Apple TV+.

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

Leonardo DiCaprio is in final talks to produce and star in a feature biopic about controversial cult leader Jim Jones, with Venom screenwriter Scott Rosenberg on board to pen the script.

According to Deadline, the film will chronicle the story of Jim Jones, the leader of the Peoples Temple religious group, who was responsible for orchestrating the mass suicide that claimed the lives of more than 900 people in November 1978 after he directed his followers based at the remote Jonestown settlement in Guyana to drink cyanide-laced punch.

The Jim Jones feature has reportedly been picked up by MGM in a preemptive situation that finds DiCaprio starring in the lead role as well as producing the picture alongside Jennifer Davisson under their Appian Way production banner. Rosenberg is also attached to the project as an executive producer, though no director has been confirmed at this time.

Over the course of his prolific career, DiCaprio has portrayed several real-life historical figures onscreen, with scene-stealing performances as former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, infamous aviation tycoon Howard Hughes, and cunning conman Frank Abagnale. The actor will next star in Adam McKay's Don't Look Up and Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon.

DiCaprio stars opposite Jennifer Lawrence in Don't Look Up, which follows two low-level astronomers who attempt, via a media tour, to warn mankind about an asteroid that will destroy Earth. Also starring Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Chris Evans, Jonah Hill, Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Rob Morgan, the film will premiere on Netflix on December 10.

While the cast is stacked for Netflix's Don't Look Up, this is actually DiCaprio's first film that will premiere exclusively on a streaming service after turning down many other roles. He is also starring in Killers of the Flower Moon alongside Robert De Niro, though, which is being funded by Apple and will hit theaters as well as streaming on Apple TV+.

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

Patrick Wren, former senior multiplayer designer on Halo Infinite, has joined Respawn Entertainment to work on a Star Wars game.

Revealing his new role on Twitter, Wren said “I am happy to announce that today is my first day on the Jedi team as a Senior Encounter Designer”. The ‘Jedi team’ would suggest that Wren is working on a sequel to Jedi: Fallen Order, which EA has previously confirmed to be the first game in a new franchise.

I am happy to announce that today is my first day on the Jedi team as a Senior Encounter Designer @Respawn. I am so excited to be back on Star Wars and work with this incredible team. pic.twitter.com/JItAkdB5xa

— Patrick Wren (@Witdarkstar) November 8, 2021

Wren also notes that he’s “excited to be back on Star Wars”, referring to his time working on Star Wars: First Assault, a game that was in development at LucasArts in 2013 but was cancelled as part of the Disney acquisition of the Star Wars brand.

Wren moves to Respawn Entertainment from his previous role at 343 Industries, where he worked first on Halo 5: Guardians and then on Halo Infinite. On Halo Infinite he acted as a senior multiplayer designer, but his new role sees him designing combat encounters for whatever unannounced game the Jedi team are currently working on.

Disney has teased a Star Wars video game announcement for December, and so it may be that we see what Respawn is working on soon. Its Star Wars and Apex Legends commitments unfortunately means that Respawn doesn’t have the resources to work on Titanfall 3, but it does means we'll be seeing more from the Jedi: Fallen Order series, a game we gave a glowing review.

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.

Patrick Wren, former senior multiplayer designer on Halo Infinite, has joined Respawn Entertainment to work on a Star Wars game.

Revealing his new role on Twitter, Wren said “I am happy to announce that today is my first day on the Jedi team as a Senior Encounter Designer”. The ‘Jedi team’ would suggest that Wren is working on a sequel to Jedi: Fallen Order, which EA has previously confirmed to be the first game in a new franchise.

I am happy to announce that today is my first day on the Jedi team as a Senior Encounter Designer @Respawn. I am so excited to be back on Star Wars and work with this incredible team. pic.twitter.com/JItAkdB5xa

— Patrick Wren (@Witdarkstar) November 8, 2021

Wren also notes that he’s “excited to be back on Star Wars”, referring to his time working on Star Wars: First Assault, a game that was in development at LucasArts in 2013 but was cancelled as part of the Disney acquisition of the Star Wars brand.

Wren moves to Respawn Entertainment from his previous role at 343 Industries, where he worked first on Halo 5: Guardians and then on Halo Infinite. On Halo Infinite he acted as a senior multiplayer designer, but his new role sees him designing combat encounters for whatever unannounced game the Jedi team are currently working on.

Disney has teased a Star Wars video game announcement for December, and so it may be that we see what Respawn is working on soon. Its Star Wars and Apex Legends commitments unfortunately means that Respawn doesn’t have the resources to work on Titanfall 3, but it does means we'll be seeing more from the Jedi: Fallen Order series, a game we gave a glowing review.

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.

Modders have managed to restore Mass Effect’s lost DLC pack, Pinnacle Station, and add it to the PC version of Mass Effect Legendary Edition.

Released on November 7 (N7 Day), the DLC was restored by the ME3Tweaks group, a team of modders that have worked on Mass Effect mods for years. Discussing the project in a blog post, modder Mgamerz noted that “This has been the most ambitious modding project I’ve taken on before, as it touched pretty much every aspect of design. We had to design multiple new custom classes, code a very complex porting pipeline, improve our tools to find assets easier, invent new debugging tools, and more.”

Pinnacle Station was originally released for the first Mass Effect game in 2009, and is a fairly simple combat simulator mode. Success in the simulator will unlock Shepard’s Apartment, a small home base. It was developed by Demiurge, who also ported Mass Effect to PC. The source code for Pinnacle Station has since been lost, hence why the PS3 and Legendary Edition versions of Mass Effect 1 do not include it. But the ME3Tweaks group have been able to use their tools to port the DLC from the original PC version of Mass Effect into the Legendary Edition.

In addition to simply getting the DLC running in Legendary Edition, the modding group has also put significant effort into making the DLC a better experience. Pinnacle Station originally had very little audio, with no music during combat, and so the modders have chosen tracks from the score that feel appropriate for each map. There has also been significant work put into difficulty scaling, as the original’s Volcano Hunt Insanity mode was overly punishing due to how quickly time would run out, and the Survival mode could be easily cheesed by simply not engaging enemies. Now, Volcano Hunt Insanity has been toned down by reducing the time decay awarded per kill, providing a little extra time to kill the required enemies before time runs out. Survival now forces enemies who haven’t been killed after 25 seconds to charge at you, which makes it a more interesting challenge.

A large variety of other fixes have been made, including reducing texture pop-in, fixed lighting, dialogue wheel glitches, and bugged character models. The team also discovered a large amount of cut content, which suggested that Pinnacle Station originally was meant to be a more story-heavy piece of DLC than it eventually became. While much of that content cannot be restored because it’s impossible to see the full script, the team has been able to restore some cut Turian bomber ships that were meant to fly across Ahern’s map. The team notes that there’s no audio feedback on these bombers, but they will try to improve this in future updates.

For more from Mass Effect Legendary Edition, check out our reviews of the first, second, and third games and how their remaster treatments fare, as well as the news that sales were “well above” expectations. If it’s the future of Mass Effect you’re interested in, then take a look at the poster that teases the future of the series.

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.