The Hearthstone team today announced a hugely exciting set of updates. Let me just bullet point it out for you to give you an idea of the scope, and then we'll dive into the details:

- The Death Knight class is being added to Hearthstone and has impressively varied gameplay thanks to a Blood/Frost/Undead rune system and corpse mechanic. It will have 68 cards at launch.

- Alongside the new class will be a new expansion - March of the Lich King, which is rooted in Warcraft lore and is based around the Lich King's Scourge attacking the Blood Elves of Silvermoon City. It will introduce a new keyword - Manathirst.

- Undead is a new minion type debuting with the set, and hundreds of legacy cards have also been tagged as Undead. Many minions are now dual-type too.

- Hearthstone is getting its first neutral spell - The Sunwell. Not only that, if you log into the game now you'll get it for free.

- Starting now and going through to the release of March of the Lich King (on December 6), the entire Knights of the Frozen Throne set (originally released in 2017 and the first expansion to feature hero cards) has been added back to the Standard format.

- Signature cards are being introduced to Hearthstone, which have alternate expansion-specific art.

Okay, let's go over the above in more detail.

The Death Knight Class & Runes

The Death Knight is only the second new class that's been added to Hearthstone beyond the initial nine, and the team has really gone all-in to represent the myriad of ways there are to play Death Knight in World of Warcraft. At the core of its identity is the new rune system, which allows players to specialise in three different areas: Blood, Frost and Unholy.

When building a Death Knight deck, players have three rune slots they can fill, and most - but not all - Death Knight class cards have a rune requirement on them. If you're triple Frost, for instance, you can include cards with one, two and three Frost runes on them, but can't include any Blood or Unholy cards. On the other hand, if you include Frost cards with only one and two rune requirements, your third rune slot can be Blood or Unholy, allowing you to splash in certain cards from one of those other alignments.

It's an involved new system, allowing for ten different combinations: BBB, FFF, UUU, BBU, BBF, FFB, FFU, UUB, UUF and BFU. Each of the three alignments, as you'd expect, has different strengths, weaknesses and play styles. Blood DKs are the control option, with huge minions, health manipulation and lifesteal. Frost DKs are all about spell synergies, direct damage, mana manipulation and some freeze. Unholy DKs, meanwhile, swarm their enemies with armies of the undead, so are aggressive, go wide, buff minions and are the masters of Corpses (which we'll get to shortly).

When Death Knight launches, the first thing you'll do is play through the class' Prologue, which tells the story of Arthas Menethil as he goes down his dark path and faces off against major Warcraft figures like Uthar, Sylvanas, Illidan and Mal'Ganis. The Prologue serves as an introduction to the Death Knight's mechanics and once you finish it the class is unlocked and you get the 32 Core cards and three starter decks. (The DK Core set, incidentally, is nearly twice the size of the other classes, and will continue to be that large in the future.)

Death Knights will launch with a total of 68 cards, which is 50% larger than Demon Hunter, which had 45 on release. Beyond the Core set, the Path of Arthas bundle will have 26 cards (the same number the other classes have received through expansions and mini-sets this year) and will come with three "advanced" decks. That bundle can be purchased separately, but it's also included in the March of the Lich King pre-order Mega Bundle. And finally, Death Knights will have ten class cards in the new expansion, just like the other classes.

It's a lot, but the Hearthstone team's goal is to ensure that there are enough cards for each of the specialisations to have a viable deck or two, so no matter how you want to play your DK, you'll be able to do so. Now, let's talk Corpses.

Ghoul Charge, Corpses and the Undead

Death Knights are all about raising the dead, and this aspect of the class is reflected in both its hero power and in its use of Corpses. Corpses are an additional resource that Death Knights can call upon. A Corpse is added to the tally (shown beneath the mana bar) any time a friendly minion dies (although there are some exceptions), and then there are cards that spend those Corpses - generally for some bonus effect.

Crucially, generating Corpses is built into the hero power, which is called Ghoul Charge and summons a 1/1 ghoul with charge that dies at end of turn. Essentially it's a one damage ping, but also a guaranteed Corpse. A specialisation like Unholy also has a number of Corpse generating cards, all of which tie into the strategy of choosing which runes to utilise - perhaps you add in a single Unholy alongside two Blood to ensure you have enough Corpses to activate Blood's Corpse spenders?

To really cement this use of the undead, Hearthstone is also officially adding Undead as a minion type. And not just that, there will be Undead synergy ("If a friendly Undead died after your last turn...") baked into the March of the Lich King set. Many of the new Undead are also Reborn (two Corpses for the price of one!), and the Undead change is retroactive, so hundreds of old cards have been freshly classified as Undead. Cards can now have two types too, so Patches the Pirate, for instance, is now both a Pirate and a Demon.

March of the Lich King

Hearthstone has delved more into classic Warcraft settings and characters over the last few years, and the new expansion, March of the Lich King, very much continues that trend. Set at the start of the second Scourge war (i.e. the events of Wrath of the Lich King), March of the Lich King is centred around Silvermoon City under siege, with half the classes aligned with the Scourge (Death Knight, Warlock, Priest, Shaman, Rogue and Druid), and half with Silvermoon and the Blood Elves (Hunter, Paladin, Warrior, Mage and Demon Hunter).

Each group of classes has shared themes. The Scourge classes, for instance, are concerned with the Undead, so Priests are raising the dead (small minions, don't worry) and Warlocks are using soul magic. These classes have other interesting things going on. Rogue, for instance, is crafting concoctions, while the Nerubian link for Druids is back.

The Blood Elves of Silvermoon, meanwhile, have a (sometimes unhealthy) reliance on magical power, and that's reflected in their unifying mechanic - Manathirst. Cards with Manathirst gain a bonus effect if you have the requisite amount of mana. They don't spend the mana, they just get better at a certain point in the game. In terms of specific classes, the Mages belong to the Magisters and are masters of arcane magic, the Blood Knights are darker, more vengeful Paladins who have bent the light to their will by force, and the Fel Blood Elves are Demon Hunters and fel-addled outcasts.

Signature Cards

Signature cards will also debut with March of the Lich King. These are a new cosmetic type of card featuring alternate art in an expansion-specific style and with a card frame that showcases the full art. 18 March of the Lich King cards will have a signature variant (15 of these are legendaries) and they come as a rare drop in card packs and are not craftable. Along with this, golden packs will be upgraded to "Signature Golden Packs" that have a "high chance" of including signature cards. Golden packs can be directly purchased now too.

The Knights of the Frozen Throne Return!

Back in 2017, Hearthstone asked the question - what if each of its (then nine) classes became Death Knights? The result was the introduction of hero cards and the Knights of the Frozen Throne set. It's one of the most popular expansions Hearthstone has ever had, and the ideal set to bring back to the Standard format leading into the introduction of the Death Knight class... which is exactly what Team 5 is doing with the Knights of Hallow's End event.

If you log into Hearthstone now, you'll discover all the Knights of the Frozen Cards have been added to your collection - they've become part of the Core set and will hang around until the launch of March of the Lich King. The hero cards are certainly memorable - some verging on infamous - but will they be any good in 2022? It's going to be a lot of fun finding out.

That's not the only thing you'll discover if you log into Hearthstone today. You'll also get Hearthstone's very first neutral spell, The Sunwell, for free. It has a very interesting effect, and will be entertaining to play with, even if it doesn't wind up being all that strong.

Lastly, March of the Lich King will be released on December 6 in NA (so, December 7 in ANZ/Asia Pacific), and pre-order bundles are now live, so be sure to check out the details. For now, be sure to check out our Designing Death Knight video and our feature in which we go deep into the development of the new class with Team 5.

Cam Shea has been playing Hearthstone since beta and went behind the scenes of the Demon Hunter development process back in 2019/2020. When he's not playing games he's mixing records.

A senior writer on Horizon: Forbidden West has left Guerrilla Games to join Playground and work on the upcoming Xbox exclusive Fable reboot.

As reported by Eurogamer, Andrew Walsh announced on LinkedIn that he was leaving the world of PlayStation to start work on its rival Xbox's upcoming fantasy game developed by the Forza Horizon studio.

This won't be Walsh's first foray into Fable, however, as he previously served as narrative lead on the cancelled co-op spin-off game Fable Legends, working at the now defunct Lionhead Studios from 2013 to 2015.

Walsh had most recently served as associate narrative director on the PlayStation VR 2's Horizon: Call of the Mountain, but has a long-running career in video game writing. He's previously worked on Watch Dogs Legion, The Division 2, Shadow of the Beast, and more.

It's still unknown when fans can expect to see more of the legendary fantasy franchise, but it's certainly been a long wait so far, given Fable for Xbox Series X was officially announced more than two years ago in July 2020.

Xbox has shared that it's being developed using the Forza Engine and that the game will mark "a new beginning" for the Fable franchise, but has remained tight-lipped otherwise.

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

A senior writer on Horizon: Forbidden West has left Guerrilla Games to join Playground and work on the upcoming Xbox exclusive Fable reboot.

As reported by Eurogamer, Andrew Walsh announced on LinkedIn that he was leaving the world of PlayStation to start work on its rival Xbox's upcoming fantasy game developed by the Forza Horizon studio.

This won't be Walsh's first foray into Fable, however, as he previously served as narrative lead on the cancelled co-op spin-off game Fable Legends, working at the now defunct Lionhead Studios from 2013 to 2015.

Walsh had most recently served as associate narrative director on the PlayStation VR 2's Horizon: Call of the Mountain, but has a long-running career in video game writing. He's previously worked on Watch Dogs Legion, The Division 2, Shadow of the Beast, and more.

It's still unknown when fans can expect to see more of the legendary fantasy franchise, but it's certainly been a long wait so far, given Fable for Xbox Series X was officially announced more than two years ago in July 2020.

Xbox has shared that it's being developed using the Forza Engine and that the game will mark "a new beginning" for the Fable franchise, but has remained tight-lipped otherwise.

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

Actor Justin Long has revealed that Vince Vaughn has a plan for Dodgeball 2, but Ben Stiller might need some convincing.

Speaking with ComicBook.com, Long, who starred in 2004's Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story alongside Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller, revealed that Vaughn has come up with a "funny idea" for a sequel but Stiller seems to be dodging, ducking, dipping, diving, and dodging the pitch, given that the original movie was released 18 years ago, in 2004.

"Vince had been telling me that he has this great idea for a sequel," Long said, noting that he would "love" to return for a second round. "I hope that it ends up happening, but I think Ben is a little, what he told me on that podcast was that he's a little trepidatious about doing a sequel to something so beloved, something that people enjoy so much that.

"It's very risky, you don't wanna s*** on the original, you want something just as good," he added. "I think he's a little wary of that, of trying to recreate something that was very specific to that time, but I hope he comes around on it. Vince is a very convincing person, so I'm just hoping Vince can convince him with his idea. It's a funny idea, I don't wanna say what it is."

While Stiller is understandably hesitant about returning for a sequel, Long indicated that there still might be a chance they can get him back in the game. Of particular significance, Long spoke fondly of a 2017 charity event that reunited the cast — recalling Stiller's enthusiasm for Dodgeball and his character in the movie, offering a glimmer of hope for a future reprisal.

"I know Ben loves Dodgeball and loves that character," he said. "I remember how much fun he had playing it. He was always laughing. When we got together years later to do a little mini reunion for this charity and Ben put on the mustache again, I remember him talking about how how happy it made him playing White Goodman again and how much fun that character was."

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story made more than $160 million worldwide on a reported budget of $20 million, but Stiller's qualms over a sequel might stem from his experience on Zoolander 2. The follow-up to the 2001 film bombed at the box office and earned nine Razzie nominations, including two for Stiller in the Worst Actor and Worst Director categories.

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

Actor Justin Long has revealed that Vince Vaughn has a plan for Dodgeball 2, but Ben Stiller might need some convincing.

Speaking with ComicBook.com, Long, who starred in 2004's Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story alongside Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller, revealed that Vaughn has come up with a "funny idea" for a sequel but Stiller seems to be dodging, ducking, dipping, diving, and dodging the pitch, given that the original movie was released 18 years ago, in 2004.

"Vince had been telling me that he has this great idea for a sequel," Long said, noting that he would "love" to return for a second round. "I hope that it ends up happening, but I think Ben is a little, what he told me on that podcast was that he's a little trepidatious about doing a sequel to something so beloved, something that people enjoy so much that.

"It's very risky, you don't wanna s*** on the original, you want something just as good," he added. "I think he's a little wary of that, of trying to recreate something that was very specific to that time, but I hope he comes around on it. Vince is a very convincing person, so I'm just hoping Vince can convince him with his idea. It's a funny idea, I don't wanna say what it is."

While Stiller is understandably hesitant about returning for a sequel, Long indicated that there still might be a chance they can get him back in the game. Of particular significance, Long spoke fondly of a 2017 charity event that reunited the cast — recalling Stiller's enthusiasm for Dodgeball and his character in the movie, offering a glimmer of hope for a future reprisal.

"I know Ben loves Dodgeball and loves that character," he said. "I remember how much fun he had playing it. He was always laughing. When we got together years later to do a little mini reunion for this charity and Ben put on the mustache again, I remember him talking about how how happy it made him playing White Goodman again and how much fun that character was."

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story made more than $160 million worldwide on a reported budget of $20 million, but Stiller's qualms over a sequel might stem from his experience on Zoolander 2. The follow-up to the 2001 film bombed at the box office and earned nine Razzie nominations, including two for Stiller in the Worst Actor and Worst Director categories.

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

The marketing for God of War: Ragnarok is ramping up ahead of next week's release, and the latest trailer features appearances from three big celebrity names.

In the new "All Parents Can Relate" video (which you can watch above!), Ben Stiller, LeBron James, and John Travolta are all attending a counseling session with their kids. Stiller steals the show, dressed up just like God of War's Kratos, saying "The God of War dynamic plays out in every parent-child relationship. When that clicked for me, I picked up my Leviathan Axe, and felt truly close to my son for the very first time."

Stiller and Travolta bond over the fact that they lay in bed awake at night thinking about Kratos, causing Travolta's daughter to lean in and tell her dad he's "being too thirsty" for the God of War. Other highlights include Stiller helping LeBron and his son reach a "LeBreakthrough" in their relationship, and Travolta's daughter bluntly telling her dad "you're old and you're bald." Many viewers in the YouTube comments are now clamoring for a Ben Stiller DLC skin for Kratos in God of War Ragnarok.

If you're as obsessed with Kratos as Ben Stiller apparently is, you're in luck, as we're just over a week out from the release of God of War Ragnarok. While you wait over the next week, check out our God of War impressions and our spoiler-free Ragnarok Q&A. Plus, you can figure out what performance settings you want to try out first. Just be careful, because Ragnarok spoilers are already out there on the internet.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

The marketing for God of War: Ragnarok is ramping up ahead of next week's release, and the latest trailer features appearances from three big celebrity names.

In the new "All Parents Can Relate" video (which you can watch above!), Ben Stiller, LeBron James, and John Travolta are all attending a counseling session with their kids. Stiller steals the show, dressed up just like God of War's Kratos, saying "The God of War dynamic plays out in every parent-child relationship. When that clicked for me, I picked up my Leviathan Axe, and felt truly close to my son for the very first time."

Stiller and Travolta bond over the fact that they lay in bed awake at night thinking about Kratos, causing Travolta's daughter to lean in and tell her dad he's "being too thirsty" for the God of War. Other highlights include Stiller helping LeBron and his son reach a "LeBreakthrough" in their relationship, and Travolta's daughter bluntly telling her dad "you're old and you're bald." Many viewers in the YouTube comments are now clamoring for a Ben Stiller DLC skin for Kratos in God of War Ragnarok.

If you're as obsessed with Kratos as Ben Stiller apparently is, you're in luck, as we're just over a week out from the release of God of War Ragnarok. While you wait over the next week, check out our God of War impressions and our spoiler-free Ragnarok Q&A. Plus, you can figure out what performance settings you want to try out first. Just be careful, because Ragnarok spoilers are already out there on the internet.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

The upcoming Final Fantasy Trading Card Game set, Resurgence of Power, will soon release this year on December 9. The new booster set is packed full of fan favorites from Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 8, and Final Fantasy 13 just to name a few. Speaking of Final Fantasy 13, we have an exclusive reveal of the newest Lightning card, one of the rarest cards in the set. Take a look in all its glory:

The new dual-color Lightning is a crazy strong card costing a measly two crystal power or mana. If you're running a lightning and water deck or cards that can play two cost cards for free, this Lightning will fit in just perfectly. First off, she has Haste which allows her to attack the same turn she was played. Paired with her enter-the-field ability, not only are you leaving room to deal direct damage to your opponent but you also draw a new card. With her power being 7000 as well, she's stronger than the average of her cost type.

To top it all off, she has a secondary ability where she can be summoned back from the Break Zone or discard pile. There is a lot of discard removal in the current meta with the likes of Exdeath or Mist Dragon, but you can activate this to save your Lighting and gain a body on the field again. This is really a great card, and I wouldn't be surprised if Lightning returns to dominate the meta in this next set.

Three rare variants and more

In addition to this exclusive Lightning card, here are some of the rarest cards in the set and maybe the entire card game:

The three variants are from Final Fantasy 7 including Aerith, Sephiroth, and Cloud. Some of these new cards include variants featuring the iconic art of Yoshitaka Amano. In addition, the upcoming set is introducing a new type of rare collectible card, the Special Card. For the Final Fantasy 7 25th Anniversary Celebration, the new Special Card will be a Full Art Foil Yuffie with a gold stamped signature from Tetsuya Nomura. Here's a closer look:

This will be one of the card game's biggest collector's items yet. Rounding the last of the featured cards is Sonon as we see him from Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade. This is Resurgence of Power's box topper which means it comes with every booster box that you buy. Sonon is a good defensive card that can be played on your opponent's turn with Back Attack. A great addition to a Final Fantasy 7 deck or a lightning and earth deck.

Resurgence of Power is the 18th set adding 130 standard cards, plus 170 premium cards featuring 28 sweet, full-art card designs plus the one Yuffie Special Card.

For more Final Fantasy, be sure to check out what we learned from the newest Final Fantasy 16 trailer and the full card list from the last FFTCG Booster Set, Rebellion's Call.

Mike Mamon is a writer at IGN.

The upcoming Final Fantasy Trading Card Game set, Resurgence of Power, will soon release this year on December 9. The new booster set is packed full of fan favorites from Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 8, and Final Fantasy 13 just to name a few. Speaking of Final Fantasy 13, we have an exclusive reveal of the newest Lightning card, one of the rarest cards in the set. Take a look in all its glory:

The new dual-color Lightning is a crazy strong card costing a measly two crystal power or mana. If you're running a lightning and water deck or cards that can play two cost cards for free, this Lightning will fit in just perfectly. First off, she has Haste which allows her to attack the same turn she was played. Paired with her enter-the-field ability, not only are you leaving room to deal direct damage to your opponent but you also draw a new card. With her power being 7000 as well, she's stronger than the average of her cost type.

To top it all off, she has a secondary ability where she can be summoned back from the Break Zone or discard pile. There is a lot of discard removal in the current meta with the likes of Exdeath or Mist Dragon, but you can activate this to save your Lighting and gain a body on the field again. This is really a great card, and I wouldn't be surprised if Lightning returns to dominate the meta in this next set.

Three rare variants and more

In addition to this exclusive Lightning card, here are some of the rarest cards in the set and maybe the entire card game:

The three variants are from Final Fantasy 7 including Aerith, Sephiroth, and Cloud. Some of these new cards include variants featuring the iconic art of Yoshitaka Amano. In addition, the upcoming set is introducing a new type of rare collectible card, the Special Card. For the Final Fantasy 7 25th Anniversary Celebration, the new Special Card will be a Full Art Foil Yuffie with a gold stamped signature from Tetsuya Nomura. Here's a closer look:

This will be one of the card game's biggest collector's items yet. Rounding the last of the featured cards is Sonon as we see him from Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade. This is Resurgence of Power's box topper which means it comes with every booster box that you buy. Sonon is a good defensive card that can be played on your opponent's turn with Back Attack. A great addition to a Final Fantasy 7 deck or a lightning and earth deck.

Resurgence of Power is the 18th set adding 130 standard cards, plus 170 premium cards featuring 28 sweet, full-art card designs plus the one Yuffie Special Card.

For more Final Fantasy, be sure to check out what we learned from the newest Final Fantasy 16 trailer and the full card list from the last FFTCG Booster Set, Rebellion's Call.

Mike Mamon is a writer at IGN.

While Gears of War has always been connected to the Xbox brand, the series was created by Epic Games as an exclusive. And though the series eventually found its way to Microsoft's first-party portfolio, lead designer Cliff Bleszinski shared his thoughts on the sale.

IGN sat down with Bleszinski for a new episode of Unfiltered and found out how the game director felt when it was announced that Epic Games would sell the franchise to Microsoft in 2014. This was two years after Bleszinski left Epic Games in 2012.

"I honestly think once Lee Perry [Gameplay Designer, Gears of War 2], myself, and Rod Ferguson [Producer, Gears of War] left, I believe that Epic didn't really know what to do with the franchise," Bleszinski tells IGN. He further believes the sale helped Epic fund its future ventures and growth.

"They hadn't shipped a game in a while. The [Unreal] engine was doing rather well, but they were growing and they probably needed the income even though they really didn't know what to do with the future of the franchise."

Bleszinski also says that following the sale, the only person to call him about it was Xbox's Phil Spencer. "As much as I loved Tim and Mark [Rein, VP of Epic Games] and we're still in touch, but when the IP was sold to Microsoft the only phone call I got was from Phil Spencer. Right? And that's Phil. Phil is, as they say, a gentleman and a scholar."

After Microsoft acquired the Gears of War franchise from Epic, the development of the games was handed over to The Coalition, an Xbox Game Studios team in Canada. Under The Coalition, the team developed Gears of War 4 and Gears 5.

Epic Games has since charted a new path in the post-Gears of War years, primarily with the global hit Fortnite. Epic is also continuing to develop the next-gen game engine, Unreal Engine 5, which coincidentally The Coalition is using for its next game.

Bleszinski did share his thoughts on the new games on Unfiltered as well, saying that he doesn't feel the new games have the same "heart" the original trilogy has.

"I will say about the latest ones is that at the end of one of the recent ones, they made the player choose between which character lives and dies. And I'm like, 'Dude, really?' We committed to Dom dying. We committed to Maria being killed.'" The Coalition may have painted itself into a narrative "corner" according to Bleszinski.

For more on Bleszinski and his new book, 'Control Freak: My Epic Adventure Making Video Games," check out IGN Unfiltered.