PS5 Shipments From Back-end Firms Have Begun Alleges New Report

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2020 has been quite the year as we slowly come to its end. A global pandemic largely brought the world to a standstill for several months, and several regions are still trying to figure out ways to recover. Because of that many things got canceled and delayed, and there was some concern that the launch of the next generation consoles would be pushed into 2021. But both Sony and Microsoft have held firm in holiday 2020, and in Sony's case, it seems pretty likely at this point.

According to a new report from DigiTimes, Taiwanese based backend companies have begun their PS5 shipments. The two companies they reference are ASE Technology and Greatek Electronics. ASE provides semiconductor manufacturing and testing services while Greatek provides integrated circuit assembly. This also tracks with AMD who say that the competent they've manufactured for Sony's system is also set to ship on schedule.

It was recently reported that Sony doubled their hardware production request up to 10 million units by December, so while this falls in the rumor category, it seems likely enough. Though how plentiful stock will be in the beginning is anyone's guess, it definitely seems Sony will have their system on the shelves by this holiday.

Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition To Add Dan, Oro, Rose And Akira Kazama; New Roadmap Revealed

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Earlier this year, we got the surprise announcement that Street Fighter 5 would be getting a fifth season. By and large, people assumed support for the game would wind up with the fourth season, but if recent rumors are to be believed, Street Fighter 6 is still a ways off. And today we know almost all of what the next season will bring throughout the next year.

In a stream from Capcom earlier today they revealed four of the five new characters to come to the game. Dan, a classic comic relief character, Oro, a much requested character from Street Fighter 3, Rose, a popular character from the Alpha and SF4 series, and the biggest surprise of all in Akira Kazama from the long defunct Rival Schools series. Alongside those reveals, they had a roadmap, which you can see below, showing that this support will run all of the way up to Fall of next year. With the new characters will come new costumes, maps and mechanics.

Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition is available now on PlayStation 4 and PC. The first character will be Dan who will arrive Winter 2020. There is also a fifth character to the season, but they were not revealed.

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Street Fighter 6 Was Due Out Next Year, But Got Delayed Due To Development Troubles – Rumour

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When Capcom announced earlier this year that Street Fighter 5 would be receiving a new season pass, many people were taken by surprise. As a game that first launched in 2016, Street Fighter 5 is pretty old by this point, and most were expecting that its successor would be announced soon, especially with speculation about the same arising late last year.

Now, new information coming from known insider Aesthetic Gamer (or Dusk Golem) may have shed some light on what exactly went on behind the scenes. According to Dusk Golem, Street Fighter 6 was originally supposed to launch in 2021, but after receiving criticism internally and during testing, the game got pushed back, with Yoshinori Ono – who was supposedly the game's director – being taken off the project. Street Fighter 5's unexpected season pass was apparently a way for Capcom to buy time for additional development of the next entry in the series.

Allegedly, Street Fighter 6 was being built around a "team" mechanic of some sort that wasn't working out very well. The project is now being led by a new director (Dusk Golem doesn't mention her name), who is apparently "doing wonders" with its new direction.

As with all leaks coming from unverified channels, it's best to take this one with a grain of salt. AestheticGames does have a pretty solid track record – specially with Capcom – and this would explain plenty of things. Again, though, don't take this as gospel.

We'll keep you updated as this story develops (if it does), so stay tuned.

No Changes Being Made To Xbox Live Gold, Microsoft Says

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Microsoft has been making some significant changes ahead of the launch of Xbox Series X, and as we prepare to move ahead into the next console generation, there's been talk of more changes still to come. Recently, for instance, there have been reports that have suggested that Microsoft will be discontinuing Xbox Live Gold and dropping paid multiplayer as a thing altogether. Just earlier today, in fact, we reported on an update to the Xbox Services Agreement that seemingly pointed to that same thing.

Now, however, Microsoft have come forward and poured cold water on the hopes of multiplayer paywalls on Xbox going away. In a statement to VGC regarding the aforementioned change and the rumours regarding Xbox Live Gold going away, a Microsoft spokesperson said that currently, no changes are being planned for the subscription service.

"The update to 'Xbox online service' in the Microsoft Services Agreement refers to the underlying Xbox service that includes features like cross-saves and friend requests," the Microsoft spokesperson said. "This language update is intended to distinguish that underlying service, and the paid Xbox Live Gold subscription. There are no changes being made to the experience of the service or Xbox Live Gold."

Microsoft might still end up making the changes to Xbox Live Gold that recent rumours have suggested they will make, but as far this change to the service agreement is concerned, the two seem to be unrelated. That said, the language here – which says there are "no changes being made" – doesn't instill a lot of confidence.

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout Had Over 1.5 Million Players in First 24 Hours

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Mediatonic's battle royale-esque Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout recently released for PC and PS4. It was even offered for free to PlayStation Plus subscribers this month. Whether it was due to word of mouth or the fun premise, the party game has seen tons of traffic. The developer reported more than 1.5 million new players within the first 24 hours alone.

Server problems plagued the game's initial launch but things should be much more stable now. Mediatonic is currently listening to feedback and ideas from fans along with working on the first patch. It said that it was "super grateful to everyone who's supported so far!"

Published by Devolver Digital, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout sees 60 bean-shaped players participating in a number of different wacky obstacle courses. These include jumping over beams, navigating constantly shifting rings and much more. More and more players are eliminated with each subsequent round until only a handful are left to compete for the crown (which can be used to purchase new cosmetics).

Stay tuned for more details on player numbers and patches in the coming days.

Darksiders: Genesis, Final Fantasy 7 Coming to Xbox Game Pass in August

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With August kicking off, the latest slate of Xbox Game Pass titles has been announced. It begins with Darksiders: Genesis and The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan coming to Xbox Game Pass for consoles tomorrow. It Lurks Below, UnderMine, Xeno Crisis and Trailmakers will also be available tomorrow for both console and PC subscribers.

On August 13th, Final Fantasy 7 will be accessible for Xbox Game Pass for console and PC. This isn't the recent Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which is timed exclusive for PS4 until April 2021, but the classic RPG still holds up till this day. Check it out in stellar HD visuals next week.

Of course, new games arriving means old games are leaving. On August 14th, Devil May Cry 5 will leave Xbox Game Pass for console while Space Hulk: Tactics and Where the Water Tastes Like Wine will be gone for PC subscribers. Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Yoku's Island Express will become unavailable for subscribers on both platforms.

Pikmin 3 Deluxe Announced, Launches October 30

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The previously leaked Pikmin 3 Deluxe has been officially launched for the Nintendo Switch. The strategy title, which originally launched on the Wii U back in 2013, will be coming to the Switch in enhanced form later this year in October.

Pikmin 3 Deluxe will come with various additional features and new content. In addition to the base game and all the DLC that was released for it, the package will also include new difficulty options, and also allow players to play through the campaign in local co-op. Meanwhile, new side-story missions featuring Olimar and Louie have also been added in.

Other new features have been confirmed as well. Players can now make use of lock-on targeting, while the game now also has optional hints to allow for a more relaxed pace. Another new feature added in the deluxe release is the Piklopedia, which will contain information on creature you meet throughout the game, and also dole out badges for completing challenges.

Pikmin 3 Deluxe launches for the Switch on October 30. You can check out its announcement trailer below.

Black PS5 DualSense Images Have Leaked Online

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The PS5's DualSense is a pretty interesting departure from the stock DualShock controllers we've been getting with each new PlayStation consoles over the years, thanks to its new name, a new primarily-white theming, and its unique features, such as haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. So far, we've only seen the controller in white, which is the default colour, but it seems images showing a black variant of the DualSense have also leaked online.

Originating on the True-Gaming forums, the images have now appeared on Twitter as well (you can view them below), and show the black controller from several angles, while also showing its specific dimensions and comparing its size with the standard white DualSense. The images look real enough, but there's every chance that these are not representative of the final product (or even that they're real), so tread with caution for now.

Sony have previously said that they will eventually be talking about additional colour options of the PS5 and the DualSense, and it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that black variants will be available for both.

Recently, Sony uploaded 360 degree views of confirmed PS5 accessories, including the DualSense. Check them out through here. It has also been confirmed that players will not be able to play PS5 games using the DualShock 4 controller.

Pillars of Eternity 3 Will Happen Only if Obsidian Are Excited About Making it, Says Series Director

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The first Pillars of Eternity was an extremely important game for Obsidian Entertainment. Not only was it universally well-received, it was also a huge success for the then-independent developer, pulling them from the brink of bankruptcy. Now, though, Obsidian is a Microsoft first party studio, and though their upcoming Avowed is set in the same world as the Pillars of Eternity series, questions about whether there will ever be a third Pillars game have been asked often.

According to Josh Sawyer, director of both Pillars games – who recently confirmed that he's working on a new unannounced project – whether or not a Pillars of Eternity 3 ever gets made depends on several factors, the most important of which is whether or not Obsidian would be excited about making it.

"I don't think the fans need to convince me/Obsidian/MS of anything," Sawyer wrote in a Tumblr post. "Your support is always heard and appreciated. I think that we need to believe that if we try to make a game in this style again, the existing fans will enjoy it, new players will enjoy it, and ex-fans who were disappointed by Pillars 1 and/or 2 will come back to it. On top of all that, we need to be excited about making it.  "

Sawyer added that the Pillars of Eternity team had also been burned out on the property after having worked on the two games – and the second one's DLC – back to back.

"Even devs who really enjoy working in the Pillars universe were burned out after the end of Deadfire, especially if they went on to work on the DLCs," he said. "To put in all of that work and have the game limp over the finish line, sales-wise, doesn't get people jazzed up about rolling on to a sequel."

He added: "Ultimately I think this is a matter if internal will and belief rather than something that requires external validation."

In November 2019, Obsidian said that Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire's sales were relatively low, and that if they were to return to the property for another game, they would have to "re-examine the entire format of the game."

As for Avowed, there's no word yet on when the first person fantasy RPG will be out, but a recent leak suggested that the game would be releasing between late 2022 and early 2023. Read more on that through here.

Marvel's Avengers Beta Impressions: Our 6 Big Takeaways from Our Time With It

Based on one of the biggest media properties in the world and first teased back in 2017, Marvel's Avengers is a game the industry has been acutely aware and curious about for a while now. In less than a month from now, Avengers will be out on shelves and in the hands of players around the world, but before that, all throughout this month, many are going to be dipping their toes in the water throughout its beta period. Over the last few days, I've had the chance to jump into that beta and spend several hours with the game. Here, I'll be talking about my six big takeaways after my time with the Marvel's Avengers beta.

These are not my final thoughts by any means, and there's so much of the game I haven't played, but based on what I have played, my impressions so far are… mixed.

COMBAT IS FUN… BUT NOT WITH ALL CHARACTERS

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Given the fact that Marvel's Avengers will be launching with six different playable characters, Crystal Dynamics had a pretty monumental task on their hands as they sought to bring each of these six to life in satisfactory fashion. Yes, that entails their portrayals in the game's story – and I'll be talking about that in a bit as well – but the trickier task was to make each of them feel unique and fun in terms of gameplay. No one can fault the developers for a lack of effort, that's for sure. Each character moves differently, fights differently, has unique abilities, unique progression trees, unique gear. A lot of work has gone into making each of them feel unique and have depth. And some of them are a lot of fun to play as… but by that same token, others aren't.

The one that stood out to me was definitely Ms. Marvel. Her hits land with weight and feel punchy when going up against enemies face-to-face. When enemies are far away, she can stretch her limbs and punch them from a distance by using the left trigger to aim and the right trigger to attack. Her powers also give her interesting traversal mechanics, allowing her to stretch out her hands and grab distant ledges to pull herself up, or grab pipes or bars that are high up to swing across large gaps and chasms, almost like a Spider-Man with rubbery hands instead of sticky webs. Her ultimate ability, Embiggen, allows her to expand in size (as the name suggests) and beat now-diminutive enemies to a pulp. Moving around battle arenas and fighting enemies as Ms. Marvel is definitely the most fun out of all the Avengers.

Black Widow is also a highlight. She can move about very quickly, which gives all of her actions a lot of immediacy, while switching between shooting enemies with her pistols from range and using her fists and feet when fighting them up close during combat also sets her apart from any of the other characters. Some of her abilities – such as being able to go invisible for a period of time to catch enemies off-guard – also stand out. I enjoyed playing as Captain America as well, though it should be said that I only got to spend a few minutes with him in the prologue section, so I don't have enough to go on to form a proper opinion on his gameplay right now.

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Thor and Iron Man are inconsistent. Both have flight controls during combat, and flight can be hit-or-miss with both. In tight spaces, controlling flight can be a bit of a nightmare, and particularly with Iron Man, having to contend with precise aiming while also controlling flight didn't feel as good as I had hoped. Outside of flight, they're both much better, but Iron Man does stand out, mostly because of he's better suited to tackling both melee and ranged combat on more or less equal footing. Sure, Thor can throw his hammer at enemies from a distance as well, but Iron Man definitely has a wider range of attacks on that front, which gives him more utility.

Hulk feels the most disappointing of them all. You'd think that in a game that is as focused on combat as Marvel's Avengers is, a character like the Incredible Hulk – who is all about the combat – would be the star of the show… but that isn't the case. His movement feels slow and lumbering, often to the point of being inaccurate and unresponsive, and while watching him smash anything and everything in his path is instantly gratifying at first, eventually it starts feeling a little repetitive, and combat as him becomes sort of button mash-y.

That, in fact, leads me to my next point.

COMBAT THREATENS TO BE A BIT TOO BUTTON MASH-Y

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As I mentioned, this is definitely more of an issue with the Hulk – maybe because of his very nature as a character – than anyone else, but it does pervade the combat to varying degrees with all of them. The highlights with each character – in terms of raw combat itself – are the ultimate abilities, which are as fun to pull off as they are to witness, without exception. But by definition, these abilities can only be pulled off once in a while, and in the time that you don't have access to those, you rely on your light and heavy attacks. Pulling off combos is surely a lot of fun – more so with some characters than others – and unlocking more skills and combat moves – which I'll get to in a bit – does help with injecting variety into the combat – but things can feel a bit too same-y every now and then nonetheless. It definitely doesn't help that many of the missions put too much of their focus on combat.

Something that helps stave off the feeling of repetition brought on by occasionally button mash-y combat is enjoyable traversal, but this, too, is something that varies on a character-to-character basis. You'll remember that I mentioned Ms. Marvel and Black Widow being my favourite characters to play as, and that's because they're the most fun to move around as, the former because of the enjoyable traversal her stretchy arms enable, and the latter because she's so quick and agile and feels so responsive. I mentioned that my impressions on Iron Man and Thor were mixed, and it's no coincidence that the biggest issues I had with both were flight controls, especially with Iron Man, who relies on flight much more than Thor does.  And again, it's no coincidence that slow and lumbering Hulk was my least favourite character to play as.

SKILL TREES AND PROGRESSION SEEM PROMISING

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If not for the skill trees, combat in Avengers would surely feel significantly more button mash-y. Each character has three unique pages of skill trees, and though the beta only gave access to one page per each character, that was still enough to improve combat noticeably. Characters level up and gain skill points as they do, which you then use to unlock unique moves and combat abilities from their skill trees, and I found myself quite invested in this particular aspect of progression, perhaps even more than the loot (again, I'll get to that in just a bit).

It's hard to go into too much detail here unless I start describing the exact moves you can unlock with each character. What I can tell you is that they inject much-needed variety into the combat, and they also give you plenty of options to pick and choose from based on how you like to play. If you like to go big with the Hulk's hard-hitting attacks that you have to charge up before unleashing them – which definitely has a risk-reward factor – you can unlock skills to make those more effective.

If you like using Ms. Marvel's ranged moves, you can unlock skills that allow her to make follow-up attacks and make her deadlier from a distance. And this was just from one skill page- the full game has two more full pages for all the Avengers, so it's safe to say that I'm optimistic about what the game's progression will have to offer on this front. This is something that facilitates combo-based combat, which – given the sheer variety on offer based on how each character is so unique from all the others – makes it one of the game's most promising aspects.

But, of course, for better or for worse, skill trees are definitely not the primary means of upgrading your characters in Avengers. Which brings me to my next point…

THE LOOT IS EXTENSIVE… BUT IT FEELS INCONGRUOUS

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One of Marvel's Avengers' most controversial aspects if the fact that it's being built as a gear-driven game, with many saying that the decision to have an Avengers game chasing the Destiny crowd feels incongruous with the nature of the property. That's something I still feel after the time I've spent with the game.

That's not to say the loot feels unnecessary. This game isn't lacking in terms of the gear you can outfit your Avengers with, and it certainly does throw a lot of options into the mix with the various enhancements and benefits all the gear pieces can bring, while the fact that each gear piece can also be individually upgraded a certain amount of times also gives you even more control over progression.

It just feels a bit too… excessive? I'm not talking about how much gear you get. Loot drops and leveling have been accelerated in the beta, so I can't say for sure yet how this in particular will turn out in the final game. But every time you enter a menu, you get a deluge of gear pieces to choose from. Each kind of gear piece is upgraded using a different currency. Different gear pieces can have different effects, from increasing your chances of landing a more powerful finisher in a combo to increasing a certain type of elemental damage. Equipping more powerful gear increases your Power Level, but you also have to keep an eye on individual facets, like your melee rating, or your ranged rating, and so on. It's all a bit much, and it's not what I want to be doing in an Avengers game.

Does it make sense for Iron Man to be decking out his suit with different kinds of gear to finetune his abilities? Absolutely. Does it make sense for Ms. Marvel to be doing that? I'm not so sure. It just feels at odds with what an Avengers game should be about. I realize that this point in particular will probably be highly subjective, and a well implemented and well-balanced gear system might be enough to outweigh that incongruity, but based on my time with the beta, I personally am not too sure about that.

THE CHIMERA IS A COOL HUB LOCATION

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Between missions, you'll be spending your time in a decommissioned helicarrier called the Chimera, which will serve as the game's central hub. You'll be spending all your downtime here, you'll return to this ship after all of your missions, you'll select your next mission from the War Table on the bridge- this is basically the place you'll call home over the course of your adventure. And as a Mass Effect fanatic who dreams about the Normandy in his sleep, I instantly fell in love with the Chimera.

There's plenty of different rooms in the ship that will slowly open up overtime, which means this is an environment you can explore quite a bit. There's things to interact with, collectibles to find, characters to talk to, and while my experience with all of this was limited owing to the fact that I was, after all, playing a beta, it still made me excited about what it will be like in the full game, where it'll have much greater room to change and expand overtime, and hopefully give me more of a reason to explore the ship and all of its quarters.

By definition, this isn't going to be a major, major part of the game, but it's one that I'm quite excited to see more of.

THE STORY SEEMS PROMISING

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For many, the story will be the biggest reason to play Marvel's Avengers. Crystal Dynamics have the privilege of working with a legendary media property, full of universally beloved and popular characters, and so many years of storytelling to pull from and be inspired by. Telling a good story that resonates with players and portraying these characters properly is one of the most important tasks for this game. Thankfully, from what I've seen in the beta, they're on the right track.

I don't have a full picture yet, of course. I haven't seen a lot of the main story – only some sections from the opening hours of the game – and even then, the beta has taken out some cinematics and sections to preserve spoilers. But Marvel's Avengers seems to be doing a good job of bringing these characters to life. Their personalities seem as well fleshed out as they should be, performances from the actors are all hitting the right notes, and the interactions between them are all hinting at some great narrative moments.

It remains to be seen how well this will turn out in the full game, and how well the narrative will stick the landing over the course of a much longer experience, but based on what I've seen in the beta, I'm optimistic.