Ryan McCaffrey

Survival games like DayZ or Rust remain hard to beat, but Duckside presents an interesting challenger. Developed by tinyBuild Riga in Unreal Engine 5 with producers from Hello Neighbor, Duckside is a new persistent open-world survival game where ducks have become combat-trained. Taking the fight to both humans and fellow mallards, I recently went hands-on with the beta. So far, it's a quacking good time.

As she digs through her attic in search of an outfit for the ball, titular heroine Nikki is thrown headlong into adventure when she finds an enchanted red and purple glittering dress in a wardrobe. Dancing with the dress, it suddenly pulls her and her talking cat-like pet/BFF Momo into a fantastical, mysterious realm. There, in the bowels of a crumbling castle, Nikki meets a cursed goddess named Ena the Curator, who grants Nikki with the Heart of Infinity and all its powers, sending her to Miraland and tasking her with reviving all the Miracle Outfits to save the world from evil. It’s like The Wizard of Oz meets Final Fantasy meets Paris Fashion Week, with a healthy sprinkling of Gravity Rush and The Neverending Story for good measure.

The protagonist of Dungeons of Hinterberg is at a crossroads in her life. Feeling burnt out by her big city job, Luisa travels to the easygoing town of Hinterberg, Austria, to check out the sights, cut loose in the social scene, and try her hand at monster slaying to score some sweet loot. Dungeons of Hinterberg is what you get when you combine the cozy vibes of a Persona-style social-sim RPG with the sprawling adventure of The Legend of Zelda – and all wrapped in a charming package that strikes a chord for those longing for a break.

Star Wars: Hunters, the upcoming free-to-play PvP arena combat multiplayer game for Nintendo Switch and mobile platforms, will be released next week, on June 4. This week, though, IGN has a total of five exclusive trailers coming your way from the next major Star Wars game.