Bethesda has spent well over a decade working on its proprietary Creation Engine, which has powered all of its games since Skyrim. However, following the recent releases of Starfield and the remake of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, some fans have questioned the studio's commitment to this engine. In a new interview, former studio lead Dan Nanni explained that ditching Creation would impose significant costs on both the community and the development team.

As the games industry has increasingly converged on a small number of standard engines--Unreal Engine 5 chief among them--studios like Bethesda that maintain their own have become rare. Speaking to VideoGamer, Nanni explained that there are good reasons that Bethesda remains focused on Creation Engine. Chief among these is that Bethesda has built up an avid modding community, which has become particularly integral to the lifespan of Bethesda games and the studio's strategy toward long-term support.

While moving to UE5 would likely benefit some modders who are experienced in creating mods for other games, the Bethesda mod scene as a whole would likely take a big hit, Nanni explained. "You have a mod community and knows how to use your engine, that has built things for decades on the system that you are launching with," he stated. "You have to ask yourself, is it worth losing all of that knowledge? What do you gain from it? And there is no right answer... You just have to make a choice."

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Developer Rebellion's newest game, the survival FPS Atomfall, was a big success right away, it appears. The Game Business reports that the day-one Game Pass launch was "immediately profitable" and that Rebellion is now working on DLC for the game and considering a possible sequel or spin-off.

No sales numbers for Atomfall have been announced, but the game reached 1.5 million players right out of the gate, later climbing to 2 million. This amounted to Rebellion's "most successful launch" for any of its games going back 30+ years. The developer has not said how many copies the game has sold, however.

In addition to being available for Game Pass Ultimate subscribers on Xbox and PC, the game can be purchased outright for $60. It's also available on PS5.

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The Sonic the Hedgehog comic from IDW is introducing a new story arc this fall, positioning it as a jumping-on point for new readers. The story revolves around familiar characters and elements like Shadow and the Chaos Emeralds, while introducing a new locale for the gang to explore. The story arc, called "The Stage Is Set," starts in September.

The three-issue arc will start with Sonic the Hedgehog #81. After six of the seven Chaos Emeralds go missing, Sonic and Tails go on a frantic search for the seventh. That hunt leads them to Sequin, a luxurious city that happens to be in the midst of a massive carnival. They quickly discover they're not alone, however, as Shadow and Rouge are searching for the final emerald as well.

Sonic the Hedgehog issue 81 from IDWGallery

The announcement from IDW promises fan favorites along with a "new, adorable, acrobatic, totally not suspicious character." Both the main and alternate covers for issue #81 each show different looks at a character dressed like a harlequin jester--which makes enough sense for a citywide carnival. While this character is currently only in the comics, the IDW series has bled into the world of video games before--the Sonic Forces mobile game borrowed two of the comic series' original characters, Tangle and Whisper, in 2020.

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Nobody 2 director Timo Tjahjanto has revealed he wanted to make a movie based on 2007's Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, but it never went anywhere.

Posting on social media, Tjahjanto said he wrote a "short treatment" for a Kane and Lynch movie a few years ago. He said he envisioned Stranger Things star David Harbour and James Badge Dale for the leads.

However, like many projects in Hollywood, nothing ever came of this. "Never gotten anywhere," Tjahjanto said of the movie's prospects today (via GamesRadar).

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Infinity Nikki's latest seasonal update, which coincided with the free-to-play game coming to Steam, has been unpopular with fans, to the point where the developer has now had to issue an apology and offer compensation in the form of in-game currency.

Version 1.5 "Bubble Season" launched on April 29 and immediately introduced a number of bugs and issues to the game, Eurogamer reports. Players reportedly had issues with the game crashing or failing to load entirely, and also experienced issues with multiplayer gameplay.

Players also had complaints about the content introduced in Version 1.5, claiming that the developer was introducing more-aggressive monetization practices, and even retconning parts of Nikki's story in order to sell new outfits. The controversial update released on the same day Infinity Nikki launched on Steam, meaning the game's Steam reviews are currently mostly negative, with the reviews now a laundry list of players' frustrations with the direction of the game.

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The ongoing legal battle between Epic Games and Apple has fired up again recently after a district-court injunction led Epic to attempt to get Fortnite back on the US App Store for the first time in five years. Apple has since blocked the submission, and Epic is appealing to the court to uphold its injunction against Apple.

After Apple left the Fortnite submission unaddressed for over a week, it finally responded to Epic to block Fortnite's return in the US. Apple has said that it won't take action on the Fortnite submission "until after the Ninth Circuit rules on our pending request for a partial stay of the new injunction," a move Epic believes is in violation of the injunction itself. In response, Epic has filed a second Motion to Enforce Injunction with the California district court in question.

Epic Games managed to get Fortnite back on iPhones in Europe last year, thanks to the European Union's Digital Markets Act, but the game is currently offline again in the EU due to the ongoing drama with the US App Store.

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Earlier this month, Fortnite's Star Wars-themed Galactic Battle event reintroduced Darth Vader to the game with a twist. Thanks to an AI-generated voice based on the late James Earl Jones, players can speak to Darth Vader in real time and get the Dark Lord of the Sith to respond within certain limitations. Now SAG-AFTRA--the actors union which is currently engaged in a protracted voiceover performers strike against video game publishers, largely over the use of AI voices--has filed an unfair-labor-practice complaint against Epic Games for Fortnite's use of Darth Vader's AI voice.

Two years before Jones passed away in 2024, he retired as the voice of Darth Vader and signed a deal that allows an AI program to recreate his iconic voice in perpetuity. SAG-AFTRA's filing contends that the deal with Jones' estate doesn't extend to other voice actors who have portrayed Darth Vader in its filing with the National Labor Relations Board.

"We celebrate the right of our members and their estates to control the use of their digital replicas and welcome the use of new technologies to allow new generations to share in the enjoyment of those legacies and renowned roles," noted a SAG-AFTRA spokesperson via Deadline. "However, we must protect our right to bargain terms and conditions around uses of voice that replace the work of our members, including those who previously did the work of matching Darth Vader’s iconic rhythm and tone in video games."

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ManbaOne Wireless Controller (PC, Switch, Mobile)

$56 (was $70) for white | $60 for black

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One of the most popular Nintendo Switch and PC controllers sold by Amazon is on sale for a great price. The ManbaOne Wireless Controller, which released in March 2024, is up for grabs for $56 (was $70). This matches the lowest price yet for this pro-style controller with a built-in miniature display. Yes, the ManbaOne has a terrible name, but it's a pretty awesome controller that impressed us when we tested it last year. The white model shown below is eligible for the 20% discount, while the black version is slightly more expensive at $60.

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If the upcoming Lilo & Stitch live-action remake has you wanting to revisit the series, but you've already seen the original animated movie and its TV series spinoffs enough times, you might want to check out the official Lilo & Stitch manga series where Stitch winds up in feudal Japan and befriends and brutal samurai warlord. Yes, it's a real thing, and you can grab the entire series with the Stitch and the Samurai: The Complete Collection, which is on sale for $20.45 (was $22) at Amazon.

Stitch and the Samurai manga $20.45 (was $22)

Stitch and the Samurai is an official manga series by Hiroto Wada set in an alternate plotline where Stitch crash-lands in Sengoku-era Japan instead of modern-day Hawaii. The warlord Lord Yamato discovers Stitch and believes him to be a "blue tanuki" he can deploy in battle--only for the cute alien to slowly soften the samurai's stoic disposition. The full series is now available in a single 564-page hardcover omnibus, Stitch and the Samurai: The Complete Collection, for $20.45 (was $22). The series was previously published in three separate volumes, which are also available. Buying the paperback volumes separately is more expensive than the omnibus version, but their smaller format makes them much easier on your hands.

Stitch and the Samurai: The Complete Collection Stitch and the Samurai Volumes 1--3 Disney Manga featuring Stitch

Surprisingly, Stitch and the Samurai isn't the only Lilo and Stitch manga. The Stitch manga, illustrated by Yumi Tsukurino, sees the adorable superweapon travel to a Japanese island near Okinawa, where he befriends a young girl named Yuna who excels at karate, and wacky hijinks ensue. You can pick up the full series in a 352-page omnibus collection for just $12 (was $15). The two original separate volumes are also available for purchase. The series was followed up by two sequels, Best Friends Forever and the upcoming Best Food Forever. There's also the Disney manga series Magical Dance, which features Stitch and a few other characters from the House of Mouse helping aspiring performer Rin to realize her dream of becoming a dancer.

More Lilo & Stitch Manga

• Stitch! The Manga Collection -- $12 ($15)
• Stitch! Volume 1 -- $9.68 ($11)
• Stitch! Volume 2 -- $11
• Stitch! Best Friends Forever -- $10.22 ($11)
• Stitch! Best Food Forever -- $13 | Releases October 21
• Disney Manga: Magical Dance Volume 1 -- $11

Disney Manga: Stitch! The Manga Collection See More Lilo and Stich Manga Lilo and Stitch graphic novels

Over in the US, there have been quite a few Stitch graphic novels published as well. Last year saw the release of a new adventure set after the first film, written by one of the best talents to ever work on Marvel's Incredible Hulk, Greg Pak, and illustrated in vivid detail by Giulia Giacomino. This is a nice 104-page graphic novel for kids that you can pick up for $11.18 (was $13) and it follows Stitch as he takes on evil aliens and giant robots powered by his own DNA. The second volume is also out soon on July 8, and this storyline sees Lilo recruited by the Galactic Federation to be their go-to expert for animal control.

Lilo and Stitch: O'Hana Volume 1 Lilo and Stitch: O'Hana Volume 2 Agent Stitch books

On the prose side, there are also the kid-friendly books in the Agent Stitch book series. Written by Steve Behling and featuring illustrations by Arianna Rhea, these books revolve around Stitch investigating paranormal activities on Earth on behalf of the Galactic Federation. The first book sees Stitch travel to Paris to uncover the disappearance of one of the federation's best operatives, Cobra Bubbles, and rumors of snail-like aliens known as Snailiens, and the second book sees Stitch land in New York City to solve a missing persons case involving shape-shifting aliens. Book three shifts the action to Korea as Stitch teams up with K-Pop idols to aliens operating in the city of Seoul.

Agent Stitch: A Study in Slime Agent Stitch: The Trouble with Toothoids Agent Stitch: The Menace at the Mall Lilo and Stitch (4K) $41

As much fun as Lilo and Stitch's expanded adventures are, nothing beats the animated source material. Over 20 years later, Lilo and Stitch still holds up as one of Disney's best traditionally animated films, and you can grab it on 4K Blu-ray for $41. This edition includes 4K, Blu-ray, and digital download versions of the movie, plus a bunch of bonus features like a lesson on how to do a Hula dance, music videos, audio commentary, featurettes, and the cheeky promotional materials where Stitch "invaded" other Disney movies.

See at Amazon Nightmare Before Christmas manga

Disney also released manga based on its Nightmare Before Christmas film, so if you'd like a creepy tour of that movie in print format, you can pick this up right now. The 176-page full-color edition is available for $16 (was $20) through Amazon, and there's also the deluxe Collector's Edition that combines the entire Zero's Journey series into one full-color book. This one was originally priced at 450 when it was first released, but it's on sale for 50% off currently.

The Nightmare Before Christmas Manga

• Disney Manga: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas -- $16 ($20)
• Disney Manga: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas - Zero's Journey -- $25 ($50)

Beating the Ender Dragon in Minecraft technically marks the end of the game, as the credits will roll when you leave the area post-fight. However, there are several useful techniques and important mechanics that you need to know before you head into the fight with one of the strongest Minecraft mobs. Here's how to find the Ender Dragon, how to beat it, and the rewards you'll get for slaying it.

Table of Contents [hide]

• Items to bring to the fight

Items to bring to the fight

Before we get into the mechanics of the Ender Dragon fight, there are several items you should seek out and bring with you on the journey. You'll want to read our dedicated Minecraft The End guide for information on how to find The End and how to get there, but in terms of items that will be useful, we've got you covered.

You'll need three full stacks of scaffolding in order to reach the tops of the towers. You can bring normal blocks, but scaffolding allows you to go up and down at will, instead of relying on water buckets to break your fall from the top of the tower. If you're anything like me, you've failed at the water bucket trick too many times to count, so scaffolding is the safer option. Having said that, do bring a water bucket to protect yourself from the many Endermen that spawn in the fight arena.

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The Warden is one of the deadliest Minecraft mobs in the game, but it's actually not supposed to be treated like a boss. The best way to deal with the Minecraft Warden is to sneak around and avoid it, so that you can access valuable Ancient City loot. However, if you find yourself curious and wanting to look him in the eye, this guide will detail which Minecraft biomes to find him in, how to spawn him, and how to beat him if running away isn't as successful as you'd like it to be.

Table of Contents [hide]

• How to find the Warden

How to find the Warden

The Warden will spawn in Deep Dark caves, and you'll be able to tell if you're in an area where he can appear, as there'll be a lot of Sculk littering the ground and walls. Sculk is a deep midnight-blue block with flecks of electric blue. It starts off sparsely dotted around, but as the cave opens up, it becomes very dense and is joined by Sculk Sensors and Sculk Shriekers.

The Warden will rise out of the ground when triggered.

The Warden doesn't automatically spawn in these areas, though. Instead, a player needs to trigger four Sculk Shriekers. You'll know the Shrieker has been activated as blue sonar waves will be emitted from it. To trigger one, you need to directly step on a Sculk Sensor or cause a vibration by moving or interacting with something close to it. The sensor will then send a signal to the Shrieker, which will make a loud noise. After triggering the Shrieker, or any Shrieker, four times, a Warden will rise from the ground, and the surrounding area will get darker.

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Tokyo Xanadu eX+ for Nintendo Switch

$35 (was $50)

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Nintendo Switch owners can get rare discount on a 2024 RPG that is in short supply at major retailers. Tokyo Xanadu ex+, an expanded edition of the highly rated action-RPG from Nihon Falcom, is up for grabs for $35 (was $50), which is a new all-time best price. Published by Aksys Games, Tokyo Xanadu has only received a few discounts since its release on Nintendo Switch last July, and the game is sold out at multiple retailers.

Nihon Falcom is best known for its long-running Legend of Heroes and Ys series; if you like either of those franchises, you'll probably feel right at home with Tokyo Xanadu. Nihon Falcom games typically aren't available in physical edition for very long, which is worth keeping in mind if you planned on adding Tokyo Xanadu to your Switch collection.

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The Last of Us creative director Neil Druckmann has announced that he is currently working on another Naughty Dog title in addition to the recently revealed Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. Though we've known for some time that the studio is currently working on multiple projects--and that's excluding the recently canceled The Last of Us Online, to be clear--this is our first confirmation that Druckmann is involved in a game other than Intergalactic. Considering Druckmann has confirmed that he does have a concept for The Last of Us III and felt like there would probably be "one more chapter to the story," it seems entirely plausible that the second game could be a new entry in The Last of Us series.

Druckmann shared the big news on the Press X to Continue podcast (later reported on by VGC), stating: "There's another game that's being worked on at Naughty Dog where I'm in more of a producer role and I get to mentor, watch this other team, and give feedback and be the executive in the room. I enjoy all those roles, and the fact that I jump from one to the next makes my job very exciting and always feeling fresh. I’m never bored."

The creative director also clarified that he is currently working on Intergalactic alongside two other Naughty Dog directors, Matthew Gallant and Kurt Margenau, and co-writer Clair Carré. VGC noted this means that Naughty Dog still has two other prominent game directors who are currently unattached to any of its announced projects: Shaun Escayg (Uncharted: The Lost Legacy) and Anthony Newman (The Last of Us: Part II).

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Fortnite is in the middle of a Star Wars season, which has boasted a rapidly growing roster of heroes and villains from the sci-fi classic. However, one of the newest outfits is notably weird even by Fortnite standards: You can now play as Darth Jar Jar, but you'll need to grind a lot of XP to be able to buy the skin.

In a recent blog post, developer Epic Games announced a number of accessories for evil Jar Jar that are now available to purchase. These include a wrap, a pickaxe, a back bling, and the full outfit. However, these specific items are locked behind XP benchmarks, which players can earn in any Fortnite mode. To unlock the ability to buy all of the items, you'll need to amass 1,280,000 XP. Depending on how committed to grinding out XP you are and the modes you play, this will likely take at least several hours of gameplay to earn.

In addition, once you hit these XP benchmarks, you'll still have to shell out V-Bucks. In total, the Darth Jar Jar item set costs 3,200 V-Bucks (roughly $26); if you just want the outfit, that costs 1,500 V-Bucks (roughly $13).

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Nintendo has developed a reputation for defying expectations--for bucking industry trends and charting a distinct path from its competitors with wildly inventive games and consoles--which is why the Switch 2 feels almost disappointingly conservative at first glance. Rather than reinvent the wheel yet again with its newest system, the company has opted to take a more conventional approach when developing the platform, beefing up specs and augmenting the hardware with a few additional (though not exactly groundbreaking) features. But though it may not seem as outwardly surprising or disruptive as previous Nintendo systems, the Switch 2 consolidates nearly every console feature Nintendo has pioneered into one package, making it the culmination of the company's hardware experiments.

Every new feature the Switch 2 boasts can be traced back, in one form or another, to a previous Nintendo console. The system's built-in mic stands as a prime example. Nintendo has tinkered with adding microphones to its consoles since its earliest days as a game maker. The Famicom included a mic in one of its controllers; subsequent systems like the Nintendo 64 and GameCube received mic accessories for use with certain games; the DS and 3DS each had mics built right into their hardware; and the Wii U offered one through the GamePad. Most of these, however, were used primarily for gameplay purposes--such as barking commands in Nintendogs--rather than for communicating with other players.

The Switch 2's mic serves a different function. Though some titles like Super Mario Party Jamboree still use it for minigames, the mic is primarily meant to facilitate GameChat, the system's touted group-chat function. This, of course, is hardly a novel feature for a game console in this day and age; other platforms have offered voice chat for years, and even the original Switch allowed it (albeit in a roundabout way through the separate Switch Online smartphone app). GameChat, however, is intended to be a communal experience--more of a social hangout than a way to coordinate with others who are playing the same game. Building the microphone directly into the system rather than offering it as a separate headset opens GameChat up to everyone in the room, fostering a more casual atmosphere than the traditional approach to voice chat.

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Nintendo has provided a detailed overview of the official Switch 2 carrying case and what Switch 2 game cards look like.

In a new video posted on the Nintendo Today app, the company showed off the carrying case, which can store the console, two Joy-Con straps, and six game cards. In this video, we also get our closest look yet at Switch 2 game cards. While they look pretty similar in size and shape to original Switch cards, they are almost entirely bright red--making them immediately visually distinct from the slate-gray cards of the previous console. You can see the video via Bluesky user OatmealDome.

The carrying case, which goes for $40 on Nintendo's store, has a flip-down flap that appears to have snug slots to hold up to six games. It also has a zipper pocket, which is shown storing Joy-Con wrist straps.

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After nearly a decade in the works, the fan game Bionicle: Masks of Power has been shut down following a request from Lego.

To mark the end of the project, Team Kanohi, a group of fans who came together to build the "Bionicle game of [their] dreams," has released a "post-mortem" walkthrough of Masks of Power's last build. It was shaping up to be a stylish third-person action-adventure game featuring Lego's iconic masked ninjas, and it honestly looks awesome. Check the gameplay video out in the embed below.

In a letter to fans, Team Kanohi stated that it is unclear why, exactly, Lego decided to shut the game down now. As the team wrote, it had worked hard to follow Lego's terms around fair use of Bionicle assets. For instance, Team Kanohi never planned on charging players for the game, and it clearly labeled all of its websites and game pages with information about Masks of Power being a fan-made project.

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Xbox Game Studios Humble Bundle

Get 8 games for only $10 until May 24.

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Between The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered and Doom: The Dark Ages, 2025 is turning out to be a pretty good year for Xbox Game Studios. It's not the first time that we've seen a pretty stacked lineup of games for the brand, and if you're on PC, you can grab eight Xbox Game Studios PC games for only $10 from Humble Bundle right now. You'll want to be quick, though, because this deal expires on May 24. Each game here will be provided as a key that can be redeemed on your Steam account.

Xbox Game Studios Humble Bundle Get 8 games for only $10 until May 24. 3 Games for $5

• Broken Age
• Sunset Overdrive
• Battletoads

8 Games for $10

• Broken Age
• Sunset Overdrive
• Battletoads
• As Dusk Falls
• Wasteland 3
• Quantum Break
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps
• Age of Empires: Definitive Edition

See at Humble Bundle

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Warhammer: 40,000: Space Marine 2

$40 (was $70)

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It took over 10 years to arrive, but Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 didn’t disappoint. Taking place around two centuries after the first game, Space Marine 2 has you shooting and slicing your way through hordes of Tyranids--and it’s every bit as bloody and brutal as fans had hoped. Our Space Marine 2 review gave it an impressive 8/10, noting its frantic yet fluid combat system and jaw-dropping environmental design. And if you haven’t yet experienced the chaos, right now you can pick up the game for its lowest price ever.

Warhammer: 40,000: Space Marine 2 $40 (was $70)

Space Marine 2 is discounted to $40 (was $70) on both Xbox Series X and PS5. The deal is available at Amazon and Best Buy, though it’s unclear when the sale is slated to end. Note that this only applies to physical copies, as the digital copy sold at Best Buy is still full price. Select locations are eligible for same-day delivery when purchasing via Amazon, while Best Buy offers in-store pickup.

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Our Space Marine 2 review called it a “more-than-worthy successor to the 2011 original,” and a game that should appeal to not just Warhammer 40,000 fans, but anyone seeking an adrenaline-filled action game.

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Let's face it, once you get an Elytra in Minecraft you won't need four-legged companions to quickly traverse the map anymore, but that's tens of hours into your adventure unless you're speedrunning. Before then, Minecraft horses are invaluable, as they provide a faster way of traveling than sprinting and don't use as much of your nutrition. Horses can be found in the wild, tamed, bred, and can even wear armor. They've also got individual statistics, so if you want to put a few hours into breeding the perfect horse, we've got all you need to know.

Table of Contents [hide]

• Where to find horses

Where to find horses

Horses usually spawn in plains or savanna biomes in herds of between two and six. They can also be found in stables and pens in villages across any biome. They won't spawn anywhere with a light level of less than nine in Java or seven in Bedrock.

Minecraft horses come in several different colors

There are several variations of horses, ranging in color and pattern, and they can spawn as an adult or a foal. They come in white, buckskin, flaxen chestnut, bay, black, and dapple gray. Combined with the patterns available, there are 35 possible horse combinations to suit your preference.

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