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PS5 pre-orders – where to get the new PlayStation 5 in the US, Target pre-orders available now

Hot on the heels of the PlayStation 5's launch date and pricing announcement – 12th November and $499 / $399 in the US – pre-orders have already quickly started going live and just as quickly going out of stock. Don't worry though, while stocks will be limited, there should be plenty of possibilities coming for you to pre-order in the US.

Here's the update on what we know and where you can keep an eye on. We'll be updating this page with more information as we find out more:

PS5 Pre-Orders

Target – Target has both the disc version and the digital version of the PS5 available now! Get them while they're hot!

Upcoming Pre-Orders

Amazon.com – There's no sign of any pre-orders still available from Amazon at the moment, though you can set up an email alert if more become available. You still able to grab all the peripherals though, so if you fancy a Dualsense or the 3D Pulse headset it might be worth doing that now.

Best Buy – Best Buy has a Coming Soon sign here for consoles, while you can still pre-order all the launch games and peripherals for the moment.

Sold Out Pre-Orders

Sony – The consoles are currently unavailable, but PS Plus members can order anything else and it's guaranteed for launch day

Walmart – The pre-order buttons have been completely removed here, so no indication that there will be more.

Sam's Club – There were briefly pre-orders here, but they've swiftly disappeared again.

 

It's been a hectic 24 hours for PlayStation fans, with the build up to the PlayStation 5 showcase, the announcement of the console's price and launch date, a bunch of new game announcements including Final Fantasy XVI,

We also discovered that Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Horizon Forbidden West and Sackboy A Big Adventure are all to be cross-gen releases that come to PlayStation 4 as well as PlayStation 5. Meanwhile the PlayStation Plus Collection gives a free library of PS4 games for PS Plus subscribers on PS5.

Oh, and next-gen games from Sony are going to get more expensive… Bear that in mind when deciding which version of the PS5 you're going to get!

More PlayStation 5 News:

 

Xbox Series X|S pre-orders go live next Tuesday, participating retailers listed

Microsoft have announced the pre-orders for the Xbox Series X|S console will go live in a week's time on Thursday 22nd September at 8AM BST. It seems all the retailers will go live at the same time rather than the staggered approach that was taken for PlayStation 5. Participating retailers are:

  • AO.com
  • Amazon
  • Argos
  • Currys PC World
  • GAME
  • John Lewis & Partners
  • Microsoft Store
  • ShopTo.net
  • SimplyGames
  • Smyths Toys
  • Tesco
  • Very.co.uk

Microsoft are giving everyone plenty of warning so they are not caught off guard, Sony have been criticised for saying they would give plenty of notice before pre-orders go live but many retailers had sold out by the time people were even aware the console was up for sale.

The next-generation will get started with the Xbox Series X and the Series S set to launch on the 10th November 2020. The Series X will retail for £449 or $499, while the Series S weighs in at £249 or $299. There will also be a 24-month subscription offer bundling a console, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and EA Play together starting from an exceedingly tempting $24.99 / £20.99 per month for Series S, and $34.99 / £28.99 per month for Series X.

The Xbox Series S is the smallest Xbox console yet, 60% smaller than the Xbox Series X, but coming with reduced power as well. It sports an 8-Core Zen 2 CPU, but this is clocked at 3.6Ghz or 3.4Ghz with SMT, putting it 200Mhz shy of the bigger console. That's paired with a 20 CU RDNA 2 GPU at 1.565Ghz, which produces 4 TFLOPS of power. There's also 10GB of GDDR6 RAM, with 8GB at 224GB/s (roughly half the speed of the Series X) and 2GB at a much, much lower 56GB/s on the Series S to cater for system processes. The 512GB SSD is an exact match for the speed of the Series X, and the console will take the same 1TB expansion card SSDs.

It's now been confirmed by Microsoft, the Series S will not run the Xbox One X enhanced versions of games, and will instead revert to the base Xbox One S versions of the game. Even so, it will still make a step forward over the base Xbox One, able to steady or improve frame rates, dynamic resolutions and implement system level tweaks on texture filtering and Auto HDR.

Source: Twitter

Disintegration multiplayer servers will be shut down in November, five months after launch

Private Division and V1 Interactive's Disintegration was only released back in June, but the two companies have announced that the game's multiplayer servers will be shut down on November 17th. That means the servers will have been live for a total of five months. Private Division and V1 Interactive confirmed this is due to a lack of player interest which means it is not feasible to pay the costs to keep the servers for Disintegration running. The in game store has been taken offline already. The full statement is below.

We have made the difficult decision to remove Disintegration's multiplayer modes from the game across all platforms. This will be done in phases over the coming months, starting today with the removal of the in-game store, and will conclude on November 17th with the full removal of multiplayer. The single player campaign will remain fully playable moving forward.

From both the development team at V1 Interactive and publishing group at Private Division, we stand by the creative risks taken to launch such a unique, genre-bending game created by this small but talented and passionate team. While our player base showed interest in the single player campaign, the game unfortunately struggled to build a significant audience necessary for a compelling multiplayer experience. After weighing options, we have collectively made the decision to sunset the multiplayer support.

We believe the video game industry needs constant innovation, and we will continue to take risks, follow creative visions, and support new ideas.

To everyone who has played Disintegration: we thank you.

In our review for Disintegration, Dom wrote:

Disintegration is a game of, and about, duality. It manages to feel like a throwback while it's fresh genre melding brings it straight into the present. It's an occasionally lifeless, mechanically sound construct, but everything about it has heart. It's a double A game, the likes of which we don't often see anymore, and it's one of the most unique and consistently enjoyable sci-fi shooters of recent years.
You can read the full review here.

Balan Wonderworld release date has been confirmed for March 2021

Square Enix has announced the release date for the 3D platformer Balan Wonderworld, and it will be available from March 26th, 2021. Balan Wonderland will be available on PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Switch. The game is being developed by Balan Company and that studio is being led by Sonic The Hedgehog  franchise creator Yuji Naka, and Naoto Ohshima who is the character designer behind Sonic. This is the first time the two have worked together in 20 years. The new trailer showcases the newly confirmed multiplayer aspect of Balan Wonderworld, which allow two player local co-op.

The official description can be read below:

Twelve different tales await players in the bizarre and imaginary land of Wonderworld. As the star of the show you can use powers from 80 different costumes while exploring labyrinth stages, filled with a myriad of tricks and traps to get to the heart of each story. As you journey through this land between fantasy and reality, you must find a way to bring balance to others and yourself.

Players will have to traverse Wonderworld and help to restore it by getting rid of Negati, which are the manifestations of emotions such as worry. Balan Wonderworld also feature over 80 costumes and each costume has powers to assist in the adventure. These include Pumpkin Puncher outfit that lets players smash through obstacles blocking pathways to the Air Cat costume that allows players to walk in mid-air for a certain amount of time.

Source: Press Release

SnowRunner update 1.11 improves wheel support

Focus Home and Saber Interactive have hauled out a new game patch for their popular Spintires sequel, SnowRunner.

Following on from last month's major SnowRunner update – which dropped a truckload of new free and paid DLC content – version 1.11 is much lighter, making some requested fixes while also improving the compatibility of various racing wheels. You can read the full patch notes further down.

Last month, Saber Interactive brought a close to the first part of the post-launch season pass DLC labelled Phase One: Search & Rescue. Split into two halves, this add-on content included new vehicles as well as two new maps, missions, and other extras.

The studio currently has plans for four phases, all of which are included with the SnowRunner season pass. The second phase, Explore & Expand, will then be followed by another dubbed Locate & Deliver, before the fourth and final unnamed expansion.

Snowrunner Patch Notes 1.11

General

  • In Co-op, fixed kicks from the game after watchtower unlocks, contracts completion
  • Additional fixes for co-op on a LAN
  • Fixed bug where trailers' fuel capacity wasn't displayed according to the selected metric system
  • Fixed a bug when snorkel functionality for Royal BM17 depended on the installed bumper
  • Fixed incorrect collision and behavior of International Transtar 4070A with Trapezium bumper and Fuel Tank attached (or other heavy loads)

Wheels

  • Added Logitech True Force Wheel G923 support for PC, Xbox One and PS4
  • Fixed conflicts between using D-pad and moving camera using Logitech G920, Logitech G923
  • Fixed bug when gears binds were not saved when exiting the game
  • Fixed bug when Clutch Pedal didn't work with TX Racing Wheel Leather Edition
  • Fixed winch not working when using Logitech G Saitek Farm Controller

Saber also recently confirmed that SnowRunner mods will be coming to the console versions of the game. For more on SnowRunner, make sure you read our 9/10 review – here's a snippet:

SnowRunner is a game thoroughly, single-mindedly, in love with the open road. It just happens that it's the kind of love that's bred by getting that road so thoroughly under your nails, you occasionally have to wonder whether it's actually hate. Care, attention and time will show that SnowRunner is a passion project worth putting the extra mile in for.

Source: SnowRunner

Life Is Strange 2: Episode 1 is now free permanently

Square Enix has announced that it has made Life Is Strange 2: Episode 1 is now free permanently. According to Square Enix the first episode is about three hours long, so plenty of time to draw you in the series. Episode 1 starts the journey of the two brothers Sean and Daniel Diaz, who run away from home after an accident. Along with running away the brothers have to deal with Daniel's discovered power of telekinesis.

Life Is Strange Episode 1 is free on PS4, PC, and Xbox One. The download links are below:

In our review for Life Is Strange Episode 1, Stefan wrote:

Following on from Max and Chloe's time-twisting adventure was always going to be a tricky task, but Dontnod have pulled it off with aplomb in Life Is Strange 2's first episode. Sean and Daniel's relationship, the tragedy that sends them on the run, the contrasting people that they meet and the supernatural twists on a modern day drama all come together in wonderful fashion.

You can read the Life Is Strange Episode 1 review here.

Source: Press Release

Godfall has gone gold and it will be a PS5 launch title

Counterplay Games has confirmed that Godfall has gone gold, and that the looter slasher will be a PS5 launch title. That means Godfall will be available on November 12th in places such as North America and Japan for PC and PS5, while those in the rest of the world will have to wait until November 19th for the PS5 version of the game. Pre-orders for Godfall recently went live on the Epic Games Store, and will eventually be available for PS5 with all of the same bonuses.

The three different versions that are available to pre-order are:

All pre-orders will also get a Godfall Starter Pack and that includes the Chrome Silvermane, Phoenix and Greyhawk skin cosmetic variants; a yellow Typhon variant; and, Borderlands' Zer0's sword. The footage shown above is not the first time we have seen Godfall running on PS5. Last month, an extended look at Godfall's PS5 gameplay was shown. Prior to that, Counterplay confirmed that Godfall would not have microtransactions and nor it would it be a games as a service title.

Set in an high fantasy world, there are five realms of Apeiron to venture through in Godfall and, which have been split between Fire, Water, Air, Earth, and Spirit. Through the game, there's definitely been some influence and crossover from looter shooters and action RPGs, with a main goal being to find loot and continually upgrade your character build. However, that will not be the only factor in how well you do in battle. There's also plenty of Dark Souls to see in the combat, with tense battles that require positioning and timing to succeed, though it emphasises offence over defence. If you dominate the combat space, you'll be much more likely to succeed.

Source: Press Release/Twitter

Empire of Sin's mobster sim hits the streets in December

Romero Games' prohibition era crime empire sim game Empire of Sin has had a hot new release date confirmed. The game will be coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC and Mac on 1st December.

Set in 1920's Chicago, you build up a criminal empire to call your own, balancing management with wading into turn-based tactical battles as you seek to dominate the neighbourhood. It's a deeply systemic game, with lots of depth to the characters you can recruit and their relationships. You can set people up, manipulate your enemies and chart your rise up to rule the underworld of the city.

Originally planned for a release back in spring, the game was delayed in February until this autumn. It's obviously slipped just a little bit further – I'm sure we can blame you-know-what for that – and is now out this winter. Perfect to get you in the mood for tramping around The Windy City, smuggling bootleg booze, setting up brothels and more under the nose of the law.

While the game is only coming to current-gen platforms, don't forget that it will be 100% playable on the upcoming next-gen consoles. Both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S feature extensive support for backward compatibility to the current machines.

Source: Twitter

Hades Review

Since launching into Early Access two years ago, Hades has grown from being an excellent roguelite with a surprisingly touching story and beautiful art and sound design into being, well, still an excellent roguelite, but now with even more content and a surprisingly heartbreaking story. It's the kind of constant improvement that shows off just how good Early Access can be when done right, and the end result is that Hades might just be one of the most exceptional roguelites around.

Hades tells the story of Zagreus, son of the titular god of the underworld. It tells this story through small conversations you come across in the down periods between bouts of intense isometric action. The story is perhaps the most remarkable thing about Hades because I've played a lot of roguelites and I've never come across one that tells a story quite as well as this one does.

Now, if you follow Supergiant, that might not be much of a surprise. They debuted with Bastion, which had an excellent and innovative way of telling its story, then came Transistor, which was a little more straight-forward but not less enticing, while Pyre made up a whole new sport and got you invested in all of its characters as you played. The story being good in Hades probably isn't that surprising, but as a roguelite, it's kind of a first.

It's also impossible to really discuss without spoiling things, but suffice to say that it's been a joy to see how each update has expanded the story and the satisfying ending that you can now work toward earning. This requires multiple successful runs through the game, but you'll know when you've seen the last of it when you get there, I promise.

This story is all wrapped around Hades' compelling action gameplay. You dodge, use a basic attack, a charge attack, a special attack, and a magic attack. The dodge is a constant, the weapon attacks are all based on which of the six weapons you've got equipped, and the magic attack is dictated by whichever god you've decided to cosy up to.

You see, outside of the permanent upgrades you can unlock, the vast majority of your power-ups come in the form of boons offered to you by the gods of Olympus. While each of the gods offers basic improvements to your stats, they also specialise in some kind of status effect or alteration. Zeus, for example, is all about lightning. Ares, the one true god of war, gets two effects, one called Doom which does heavy damage a short while after you've hit something, and the other called a Blade Rift, which basically summons spinning swords in set places.

Because of this, your build is going to be absurdly fluid and will be vastly different from run to run. It helps that each of the weapons also feels completely different too. My personal favourite is Malphon, a pair of gloves that lets you punch and Flash Kick your way through everything. If that sounds a little vanilla to you though, you could always go for the Exagryph, which is basically a machine gun.

You get special rewards for using each of these weapons and beating the bosses as you make your way up to the surface, and each of those rewards unlocks some other kind of permanent progression. It's all just very clever, and you can even build your relationship with each of the characters you meet to learn more about both them and yourself.

The enemies and bosses themselves are kind of a joy to fight. I say kind of because some of them are hellishly difficult (hur hur). You even get variants of some of the bosses to keep things interesting, and again, this often feeds back into the evolving story.

The whole thing is wrapped in the Supergiant's typically gorgeous visuals and stunning music. One thing that this game does that they've not done before is to make sure that nearly everyone you meet is as hot as Hell. That's not a necessity in a game, but it's always nice when it's there. There's also some serious chemistry between Zagreus and Thanatos, but I've yet to reach the end of that little plotline…

PS5 pre-orders – Argos goes live after midnight tonight, Amazon UK, ShopTo & others out of stock

Hot on the heels of the PlayStation 5's launch date and pricing announcement – 19th November and £449 / £359 here in the UK – pre-orders have already quickly started going live and just as quickly going out of stock. Don't worry though, while stocks will be limited, there are still plenty of possibilities coming for you to pre-order in the UK.

Here's the update on what we know and where you can keep an eye on. We'll be updating this page with more information as we find out more:

PS5 Pre-Orders

Upcoming Pre-Orders

  • Argos – Argos' pre-orders will be opening up at midnight tonight! (Thanks Unterred). This will be the last of the major retailers from this first batch of pre-order stock.
    Update: Actually, @ArgosHelpers are saying it might not quite be midnight, but the wee hours. Also, note that full payment will be taken when you place your order.
  • SimplyGames – Pre-orders are still in the "Register for Interest" phase.
  • John Lewis – You can't even register your interest, but their site seems to indicate that they will be getting some stock.
  • CoolShop – Has listings for PS5 but nothing on sale yet.
  • Box.co.uk – Nothing live, you can register your interest.
  • Carphonewarehouse – Register your interest, nothing on sale.

Out of Stock

  • ShopTo – Despite seemingly indicating that these are available, the pages for both versions of PS5 now show that they are out of stock.
  • Amazon UK – Amazon UK's PS5 pre-orders are 'currently unavailable', but Amazon's email encouraged people to keep checking back through the day, but both standard and Digital Edition consoles have been listed and gone out of stock. Accessories will be made available through the day, and while the console may quickly go out of stock.
    If and when Amazon pre-orders return, we heard some people struggled to reach the page on mobile and via their apps. Try Amazon via a desktop or laptop or by requesting the desktop site on your phone. However, Amazon do have DualSense controllers available.
  • AO.com – Standard PS5 and PS5 Digital Editions are both now sold out.
  • Currys PC World – Pre-orders seem to now be out of stock. If they return, you will require to pay a non-refundable £5 deposit.
  • GAME – Pre-orders went up overnight and are seemingly now out of stock. Check here for any restocks. In-store pre-orders are live from 8AM today, so long as you put down a £10 deposit.
  • Smyths Toys – Pre-orders went up overnight and are seemingly now out of stock for consoles. Some accessories are still available.
  • Very – Very's pre-orders are out of stock. If they return, then beware: Very takes payment at the time of order, not at the time of dispatch.

It's been a hectic 24 hours for PlayStation fans, with the build up to the PlayStation 5 showcase, the announcement of the console's price and launch date, a bunch of new game announcements including Final Fantasy XVI,

We also discovered that Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Horizon Forbidden West and Sackboy A Big Adventure are all to be cross-gen releases that come to PlayStation 4 as well as PlayStation 5. Meanwhile the PlayStation Plus Collection gives a free library of PS4 games for PS Plus subscribers on PS5.

Oh, and next-gen games from Sony are going to get more expensive… Bear that in mind when deciding which version of the PS5 you're going to get!

More PlayStation 5 News:

Fitness Boxing 2, Sniper Elite 4 & more announced for Switch in Nintendo Direct Mini

Nintendo's mini Direct stream was packed with new announcements and quick updates on a bevy of games coming to Nintendo Switch. Here's a post to catch you up on everything that happened, from a pair of new Monster Hunter games, to Disgaea 6, Sniper Elite 4, Ori the Will of the Wisps and plenty more. All are coming to Nintendo Switch either today, or sometime over the next year.

Monster Hunter Rise and Stories 2: Wings of Ruin announced for Nintendo Switch

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise comes to Nintendo Switch on 4th December. Here's a Japanese trailer…

Disgaea 6: Defiance of Desting will be out exclusively for Nintendo Switch in Summer 2021

Empire of Sin will be out on 1st December

Sniper Elite 4 is coming to Switch this winter

The Long Dark is out today for Switch
PGA Tour 2K21 is getting a physical Switch release on 25th September
Hades from Supergiant Games is out today for Switch and PC
Rune Factory 5 is due out in 2021
And Balan Wonderworld was dated for 26th March.

And finally, Ori and the Will of the Wisps comes to Nintendo Switch today!

Phew! Quite a lot to pack into that… and then there was the Monster Hunter Direct that followed.

Monster Hunter Direct – 9.17.2020

Ori and the Will of the Wisps comes to Nintendo Switch today!

Following in the footsteps of the original game, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is making the leap from Xbox One and PC exclusivity over to Nintendo Switch. Oh, and it's out today!

The game on Xbox One and PC is an absolute classic, taking the Metroidvania trappings of the original and stepping boldly in a new, more combative direction. We weren't short of praise for its original release back in March:

Ori and the Will of the Wisps builds on its predecessor's near-perfect Metroidvania platforming and grows the concept to wonderful effect. A game that's as much about rebirth, hope and wonder as it is death and decay, Will of the Wisps is a beautiful, enchanting piece of fantasy, and an instant classic.

See our full review here.

In addition to the new game, Moon Studios have teamed up withm8bit to produce a gorgeous looking collector's edition. It brings together both games with physical game boxes, with versions for Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Windows 10, shipping in December and costing an eyewatering $149.99.

The Collector's Edition features:

  • Premium "Transforming" display box with glow-in-the-dark finish
  • Majestic stained glass-style art piece
  • "The Flora & Fauna of Ori" field guide
  • Sketchbook zine featuring rarely seen production art
  • Collectible art card set
  • Hard enamel glow-in-the-dark pin
  • Digital downloads of both titles' soundtracks, composed by Gareth Coker
  • Physical editions of Ori and the Will of the Wisps and Ori and the Blind Forest, featuring exclusive, reversible cover art

Source: press release

Monster Hunter Rise and Stories 2: Wings of Ruin announced for Nintendo Switch

Two new Monster Hunter game is on the way for Nintendo Switch owners, with Capcom revealing Monster Hunter Rise and Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin.

Monster Hunter Rise is set 50 years on from the last monster-filled calamity in the world, and you now have to venture forth once more to do battle in order to save Kamura Village. Monsters revealed include Aknosom, Tetranadon, Great Izuchi and the brand new monster Magnamalo that is the game's flagship beastie.

Expect plenty of Monster hunting action and four player co-op through the game, but it's described as "a brand new take", with new elements like the Wirebug hunting tool, so you can zip around the sky like you're in a bad Spider-Man game, and the ability to enlist Palicoes, as well as the new  hunting partners Palamutes and rideable Canyne. You'll be able to have both Palamute and Palico alongside when playing solo, but can only pick one if you're in multiplayer.

Monster Hunter Rise will be out on 26th March 2021.

If you're a bit of a MH head, then you'll likely be tempted by the special Digital Deluxe Edition or physical Collector's Edition of Monster Hunter Rise. The digital Deluxe Edition nets you some bonus in-game content such as a "Kamurai" full layered armor set, exclusive gestures, and cosmetic items, while the Collector's Editionwill contain everything from the Deluxe Edition, in addition to physical items including a monster icon sticker pack, Kamura mark enamel pin and an amiibo figure of Magnamalo, the flagship monster featured in the game.

Alongside that is Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin. With anime graphics and a bigger focus on narrative, it follows in the footsteps of the first Stories game with its RPG gameplay. You take the role of a young Monster Rider who can use a Kinship Stone to bond with monsters and then enhance your combined abilities.

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is coming out in summer 2021.

Source: press release

Dauntless update 1.37 adds new Behemoth, story Missions

Having completely overhauled Ramsgate in the last major Dauntless update, developer Phoenix Labs are ploughing ahead with another spicy content drop.

Dauntless update 1.37 will be arriving today on consoles (that's 1.4.0 for PC players) and with it comes new game modes, a new Hunt Pass, and a fearsome new Behemoth.

We go into more detail here on what's coming in Untamed Wilds though Slayers can expect story-focused "Missions" which will grant access to the Terra Escalation mode. Prove yourself here and you will get a shot at fighting the Agarus, farming this plant-like Behemoth for new weapons and armour.

See below for the full contents of Dauntless update 1.37.

Dauntless 1.4.0 (Console Version) 1.37 Update Patch Notes

New Defence Cell: Parasitic. Parasitic delays a portion of damage taken and instead deals it over time. While you take delayed damage, you also gain lifesteal, allowing you a chance to steal HP back and stay on your feet. Parasitic only applies to damage that takes 10% or more of your max health.

New poison effect. Poison is a new status effect that deals damage over time. Players will take damage while standing in poison pools and become inflicted with the "Poisoned" status effect once their poison meter is filled. Watch out for green ooze! Despite rumours, it will not mutate you into a crime-fighting turtle.

New limited-time tonic recipes. Granny's Antidote will clear the new poison effect, and Granny's Heartbreaker tonic will increase critical strike chance and damage by 25%.

New story quests. 9 news quests are launching with Untamed Wilds. Progress through these to learn more about Arbourhome and the Agarus threat!

COSMETICS

Aether trail lantern effects. Transmog your lantern with the Breath of Life or the Spark of Genius skins to leave vibrant aether effects in your wake when launching from jump vents.

WEAPONS

WAR PIKE
Stamina drains more consistently during the war pike's final light attack.

The load ammo button press should now feel faster.

The timing window for inputting the fifth light attack on the Piercing Flurry combo should feel easier and more forgiving.

War pike combos now progress consistently across light and heavy attacks and align with their in-game explanation. For example:

Old: L1 πŸ – L2 πŸ – H1 πŸ – L1πŸ – L2 πŸ – H1 πŸ – L5
New: L1 πŸ – L2 πŸ – H1 πŸ – L3 πŸ –L4 πŸ – H2 πŸ – L5

CHAIN BLADES
Fixed a bug where players couldn't execute the Blade Spin combo.

Fixed a bug where the Blade Spin combo didn't end when the player ran out of stamina.

REPEATERS
Added the Ferocious Prism to repeaters: Periodically become enraged, dealing +5/10/15% damage and becoming immune to stagger. Taking damage will cause you to enrage faster.

Legendary repeater barrels no longer have a short delay before they begin firing.

Legendary repeater light attacks now work while mounting Behemoths.

AXE
Fixed an issue where the final hit of Flight of Ruin didn't hit targets that were very low to the ground. This was most noticeable on staggered Behemoths.

MISCELLANEOUS

AoE attacks (e.g. Pangar weapons' frost brand Unique Effect) can now hit multiple Behemoth body parts at once. Let 'em have it, Slayers!

Dauntless guides & more from TheSixthAxis

For those wanting to know more about the new Hunt Pass, we'll be posting a full list of tiers and rewards soon.

Source: Dauntless

With PS5 exclusives on PS4, did Sony just prove Xbox right?

Sometimes it's nice to have a bit of validation that you're on the right path, that your plans for the future make a bit of sense. Sony and Microsoft are fierce rivals for your free time, and despite the regular love-ins on social media they're constantly trying to one up each other with most powerful consoles, new exclusives, or special bonuses. It's this that had the two companies originally paint two very different pictures of what the next generation and the future of gaming could look like.

Funnily enough, Sony have now plainly validated what Microsoft is trying to do with the Xbox Series X and S, Xbox Game Pass and cross-generational gaming.

Wow, wow, wow… They did what now?

Despite months of saying otherwise, it turns out that Sony are actually in favour of cross-generational game releases for their first party games. Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Sackboy: A Big Adventure and Horizon Forbidden West are all coming to PlayStation 4 as well as PlayStation 5 when they launch, and that's a major turn out for the books when viewed through the lens of what PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan was saying earlier this year.

In a quote that is now being thrown back in his face by so many people (alongside the whole pre-order heads up thing), Ryan told GamesIndustry.biz back in May that "We have always said that we believe in generations. We believe that when you go to all the trouble of creating a next-gen console, that it should include features and benefits that the previous generation does not include. […] We are thinking that it is time to give the PlayStation community something new, something different, that can really only be enjoyed on PS5."

You would have been forgiven for thinking that this statement followed by the June PlayStation 5 reveal event meant that all Sony's first party titles would be PS5 exclusives. Sure, we could take it with a pinch of salt that Spider-Man: Miles Morales, a game being built on the foundations of the PS4 hit, would be focussing on visual finery more than pushing the SSD to its absolute limits with dimension hopping antics, and that Sackboy: A Big Adventure was an exclusive to tempt families and could lean on DualSense tricks, but Horizon Forbidden West looked and sounded every bit the next-gen exclusive that would push the PS5 as hard as possible.

Of the three, it's Horizon Forbidden West that really validates Microsoft's decision to support cross-gen gaming for the start of the new generation. It turns out that where there's a will to cater to the current generation, there's a way to do that while also making use of the power of the next as well. Can we maybe accept that cross-gen isn't necessarily anathema to providing a next-gen gaming experience on newer hardware?

Ryan's comments and the way that this shaped the narrative of the next generation this summer now seems like an attempt to gain a quick victory over Microsoft, and it's come at the cost of riling up the partisan fans and maybe even adding to the latent toxicity that can be found on the internet.

Now, obviously Microsoft aren't perfect and they also deserve criticism for their own failings. They've done anything but stick the landing as they try to put their cross-gen plan into action. Their Xbox Series X showcase was quite ironically full of pure next-gen exclusives that must be at least a year away from the console's launch, and their marquee title Halo: Infinite was still disappointing as a supposed visual showcase of the console's raw power. However, just because a game has to support the current generation does not mean that developers cannot also extract major advantages from next generation hardware. Demon's Souls is a remake of a PS3 game, and I don't hear anyone complaining about that game's design being held back, instead it's praise for how far Bluepoint are pushing its visuals.

The follow up to Sony's stream last night also validated another side of Microsoft's next-generation plan: the cost. Next gen is going to be expensive, and Sony revealed that they will be joining Activision and 2K Games in raising the cost of their biggest first party titles, settling on $69.99 / £69.99 / €79.99 for their most premium games. Add to that the price of the next generation consoles that, while more reasonable than some might have feared a month or two ago, is still a significant cost for many gamers to consider this Christmas or next year.

Where they are getting is spot on, though, is with trying their hardest to bring the cost of the next generation down as much as possible. The Xbox Series S comes in at the price point of a current gen console, there's also the All Access purchase plans that puts both consoles more within reach of those on a budget, and Microsoft's commitment to putting their own first party games into Xbox Game Pass is looking like better and better value as time goes on.

The appeal of Game Pass will come down to actually being able to fill the service with enough new and compelling games, and the pressure is now on for Xbox Game Studios to deliver. It might be a few years away before they can truly deliver a string of blockbusters, but even a single big game could be enough. It's difficult to argue that subscribing to Game Pass for £8 or £11 a month to play the next Forza and also getting access to over a hundred other games is bad value for consumers, especially when Gran Turismo 7 on its own will now set you back £70 on day one. I know GT holds a special place in a lot of people's hearts, but… that's a hell of a deal.

Sony's Jim Ryan sat down for another interview with GamesIndustry.biz overnight saying, "We have had this conversation before — we are not going to go down the road of putting new releases titles into a subscription model. These games cost many millions of dollars, well over $100 million, to develop. We just don't see that as sustainable."

For Sony it might not make sense when they see Spider-Man selling 9 million copies in the space of 3 months – that'd be $540 million gross at RRP – The Last of Us Part II passing 4 million in 3 days,  and each new first party release and IP setting records. You do also have to wonder if a single subscription like Xbox Game Pass can truly provide enough cash to feed the churn of game development at Microsoft. They've themselves admitted that it's not currently a real money-maker for the company just yet, but they've also been able to state numerous times that their subscribers typically go on to play more games and spend more money outside of the subscription. We don't know their absolute sales and performance, but it's not like their first party games aren't able to swoop to the top of Steam's charts whenever they're released.

Sony are clearly seeing the appeal of Game Pass and responding in their own way with the PlayStation Plus Collection, a range of PS4 games as a free bonus to PS5 owning PS Plus subscribers. Put that alongside PS Now, and outside of having their games entering their subscription services day and date, Sony are tentatively following the same kind of path as Microsoft.

After months of posturing and a handful of half-truths, it turns out that Sony's vision for how the next generation comes to be isn't all that dissimilar to Microsoft's. Now we just have to wait and see who can do it better.

The PlayStation Plus Double Discount Sale is now on

Sony have once again rolled out the PlayStation Plus Double Discount sale in which a bunch of games have the prices slashed and, if you have PlayStation Plus ,you get double the savings. There's no blog post about it this time but thankfully HUKD have the details, the sale runs until September 2nd.

Take a look below then head over to the PlayStation Store and search for the game.

  • 101 Ways To Die – £3.99 (50% off)
  • Aer — Memories Of Old – £3.95 (67% off)
  • Agents Of Mayhem – £4.79 (70% off) / £3.19 Plus (80% off)
  • Agents Of Mayhem — Total Mayhem Bundle – £7.49 (70% off) / £4.99 Plus (80% off)
  • Air Conflicts: Double Pack – £10.49 (70% off)
  • Air Conflicts: Pacific Carriers — PlayStation 4 Edition – £7.19 (55% off)
  • Alekhine's Gun – £2.39 (85% off)
  • Arc Of Alchemist – £11.99 (60% off)
  • Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection – £5.59 (65% off)
  • Arise: A Simple Story – £10.39 (35% off)
  • Assassin's Creed III Remastered – £15.99 (47% off)
  • Assassin's Creed Origins – £12.99 (74% off)
  • Assassin's Creed Rogue Remastered – £12.99 (48% off)
  • Azur Lane: Crosswave – £17.99 (60% off)
  • Batman: Arkham Knight Premium Edition – £11.98 (73% off)
  • Batman: Arkham VR – £7.99 (50% off)
  • Bear With Me: The Complete Collection – £4.79 (60% off)
  • Bear With Me: The Lost Robots – £1.59 (60% off)
  • Beast Quest – £3.74 (85% off)
  • Bee Simulator – £15.99 (54% off) / £14.24 Plus (59% off)
  • Bioshock 2 Remastered – £11.99 (25% off)
  • Bioshock Remastered – £11.99 (25% off)
  • Black Clover: Quartet Knights – £12.98 (73% off)
  • Blackguards 2 – £6.39 (60% off)
  • Borderlands: The Handsome Collection – £8.74 (75% off)
  • Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition – £6.99 (80% off) / £5.24 Plus (85% off)
  • Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition Duke Nukem Bundle – £9.39 (80% off) / £7.04 Plus (85% off)
  • The Caligula Effect: Overdose – £17.99 (60% off)
  • Canis Canem Edit – £7.19 (40% off)
  • Castlevania Anniversary Collection – £5.59 (65% off)
  • Castlevania Requiem: Symphony Of The Night And Rondo Of Blood – £5.59 (65% off)
  • Chaos On Deponia – £3.79 (62% off)
  • Clustertruck – £3.59 (70% off)
  • Contra Anniversary Collection – £5.59 (65% off)
  • Contra: Rogue Corps – £11.09 (70% off)
  • Curious Expedition – £10.19 (15% off)
  • Dakar 18 – £5.99 (70% off)
  • Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls – £3.99 (84% off)
  • The Dark Eye Bundle – £13.99 (60% off)
  • Dark Souls: Remastered – £12.99 (63% off)
  • Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition – £8.24 (67% off)
  • Darksiders III – £15.99 (68% off)
  • Darksiders Warmastered Edition – £3.99 (75% off)
  • Date A Live: Rio Reincarnation – £12.49 (50% off)
  • Dead Alliance – £3.74 (85% off)
  • Dead Alliance: Multiplayer Edition – £2.39 (85% off)
  • Deadlight: Director's Cut – £6.49 (50% off)
  • Death End Request – £12.49 (50% off)
  • Defense Grid 2 – £2.99 (80% off)
  • Degrees Of Separation – £2.39 (85% off)
  • Deponia – £3.79 (62% off)
  • Deponia Collection – £13.19 (60% off)
  • Deponia Doomsday – £3.79 (62% off)
  • Destroy All Humans! – £3.99 (75% off) / £2.39 Plus (85% off)
  • Destroy All Humans! 2 – £3.99 (75% off) / £2.39 Plus (85% off)
  • Devil May Cry 5 (With Red Orbs) – £15.99 (52% off)
  • Devil May Cry HD Collection – £12.49 (50% off)
  • Diablo III: Eternal Collection – £15.99 (71% off)
  • Dick Wilde – £4.19 (65% off) / £2.99 Plus (75% off)
  • Dick Wilde 2 – £7.19 (55% off) / £5.59 Plus (65% off)
  • Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth — Hacker's Memory – £9.98 (78% off)
  • Dirt Rally 2.0 — Game Of The Year Edition – £15.99 (70% off)
  • Disgaea 1 Complete – £17.99 (60% off)
  • Disgaea 5 Complete Bundle – £17.49 (50% off)
  • The Division 2 — Standard Edition – £8.98 (64% off)
  • Doctor Who: The Edge Of Time – £10.99 (45% off) / £8.99 Plus (55% off)
  • Doom VFR – £5.99 (70% off)
  • Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 – £7.99 (50% off)
  • Dragon Star Varnir – £14.99 (50% off)
  • Dreamfall Chapters – £6.39 (60% off)
  • Duke Nukem 3D: 20Th Anniversary World Tour – £3.19 (80% off)
  • Dungeons 2 – £6.24 (75% off)
  • Dungeons 3 – £12.49 (50% off)
  • Dying Light – £12.24 (65% off)
  • Edna And Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes – £3.99 (75% off)
  • Edna And Harvey: The Breakout – Anniversary Edition – £11.99 (25% off)
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR – £15.99 (67% off)
  • Elite Dangerous – £7.99 (60% off)
  • Elite Dangerous: Deluxe Edition – £11.99 (73% off)
  • Espire 1: VR Operative – £12.49 (50% off)
  • Everyday Heroes Bundle – £11.59 (60% off)
  • The Evil Within – £4.79 (70% off)
  • The Evil Within 2 – £15.99 (54% off)
  • Extinction – £3.74 (85% off)
  • Extinction: Deluxe Edition – £5.24 (85% off)
  • F1 2020 — Deluxe Schumacher Edition – £42.24 (35% off)
  • F1 2020 — Seventy Edition – £35.74 (35% off)
  • Fade To Silence – £12.49 (50% off)
  • Fallout 4 – £7.99 (50% off)
  • Far Cry New Dawn – £12.99 (68% off)
  • Felix The Reaper – £5.99 (70% off)
  • Fia European Truck Racing Championship – £15.99 (68% off)
  • Firefighters – The Simulation – £8.74 (65% off)
  • Firefighters: Airport Fire Department – £7.99 (60% off)
  • Forestry 2017 — The Simulation – £4.79 (70% off)
  • Gauntlet: Slayer Edition – £3.99 (75% off)
  • The Giants Bundle – £12.49 (50% off)
  • God Eater 3 – £15.98 (68% off)
  • God's Trigger – £4.19 (65% off)
  • Goodbye Deponia – £3.79 (62% off)
  • Grand Theft Auto III – £7.19 (40% off)
  • Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – £8.03 (33% off)
  • Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – £14.49 (50% off)
  • Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – £7.19 (40% off)
  • Graveyard Keeper – £7.99 (50% off)
  • Graveyard Keeper Collector's Edition – £11.24 (55% off)
  • Grid Ultimate Edition – £15.99 (71% off)
  • Hasbro Family Fun Pack – £7.49 (70% off)
  • Hasbro Family Fun Pack — Super Edition – £11.99 (76% off)
  • Hellfront: Honeymoon – £1.99 (75% off)
  • Hello Neighbor – £6.24 (75% off)
  • Hello Neighbor Bundle – £12.49 (75% off)
  • Hello Neighbor Hide And Seek – £7.49 (75% off)
  • Homefront: The Revolution – £4.79 (70% off) / £3.19 Plus (80% off)
  • Homefront: The Revolution 'Freedom Fighter' Bundle – £10.49 (70% off) / £6.99 Plus (80% off)
  • How To Survive 2 – £4.79 (60% off)
  • Hunting Simulator – £11.24 (75% off) / £8.99 Plus (80% off)
  • Injustice 2 — Standard Edition – £12.99 (19% off)
  • Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition – £8.98 (82% off)
  • Intruders: Hide And Seek – £3.99 (75% off)
  • It's Quiz Time – £9.59 (40% off)
  • Joe Dever's Lone Wolf Console Edition – £5.99 (50% off)
  • Jurassic World Evolution – £12.99 (65% off)
  • Jurassic World Evolution Deluxe Edition – £15.99 (67% off)
  • Ken Follett's The Pillars Of The Earth – £10.49 (70% off)
  • Killing Floor 2 – £8.24 (67% off)
  • Killing Floor: Incursion – £7.99 (50% off)
  • The King Of Fighters XIV – £7.99 (50% off) / £6.39 Plus (60% off)
  • The King Of Fighters XIV — Special Anniversary Edition – £12.24 (65% off) / £8.74 Plus (75% off)
  • Kona – £2.39 (80% off)
  • Kona VR Bundle – £4.79 (70% off)
  • L. A. Noire – £15.98 (54% off)
  • Labyrinth Of Refrain: Coven Of Dusk – £17.99 (60% off)
  • La-Mulana – £7.91 (34% off)
  • La-Mulana 2 – £13.99 (30% off)
  • Lapis X Labyrinth – £8.24 (67% off)
  • Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham Premium Edition – £12.98 (48% off)
  • Lego DC Super-Villains Deluxe Edition – £15.50 (74% off)
  • Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 Deluxe Edition – £14.99 (73% off)
  • The Lego Movie 2 Videogame – £15.74 (55% off)
  • The Lego Movie Videogame – £10.49 (70% off)
  • Lego The Incredibles – £14.39 (70% off)
  • Lichdom: Battlemage – £1.34 (85% off)
  • Life Is Strange: Before The Storm Complete Season – £2.79 (80% off)
  • Life Is Strange: Before The Storm Deluxe Edition – £3.99 (80% off)
  • Little Nightmares Complete Edition – £5.99 (75% off)
  • Loading Human: Chapter 1 – £3.74 (85% off)
  • Lonely Mountains: Downhill – £11.99 (25% off)
  • The Long Journey Home – £10.49 (70% off)
  • The Lost Child – £14.84 (67% off)
  • Manhunt – £7.19 (40% off)
  • Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite — Deluxe Edition – £14.99 (70% off)
  • Memories Of Mars – £11.19 (30% off) / £9.59 Plus (40% off)
  • Metal Gear Survive – £6.99 (80% off)
  • Metal Max Xeno – £10.49 (70% off)
  • Metro 2033 Redux – £4.79 (70% off)
  • Metro Redux – £7.49 (70% off)
  • Metro: Last Light Redux – £4.79 (70% off)
  • Mighty No. 9 – £3.99 (75% off)
  • Monster Jam Steel Titans – £15.99 (54% off)
  • Moons Of Madness – £14.99 (40% off)
  • Mortal Kombat X – £7.99 (50% off)
  • Mountain Rescue Simulator – £9.99 (60% off)
  • Mx Vs. Atv Supercross Encore – £7.49 (70% off)
  • Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Legacy – £11.99 (75% off)
  • Naruto To Boruto: Shinobi Striker – £15.98 (68% off)
  • Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch Remastered – £15.99 (60% off)
  • Ninjin: Clash Of Carrots – £3.99 (50% off)
  • Nioh – Complete Edition – £12.94 (63% off)
  • One Piece Burning Blood — Gold Edition – £11.98 (82% off)
  • One Piece World Seeker – £15.99 (71% off)
  • Override: Mech City Brawl – £3.74 (85% off)
  • Override: Mech City Brawl — Super Charged Mega Edition – £4.49 (85% off)
  • Payday 2 — Crimewave Edition — The Big Score Game Bundle – £6.74 (85% off)
  • Portal Knights – £6.39 (60% off)
  • Professional Construction — The Simulation – £7.99 (60% off)
  • Project Cars 2 – £8.99 (81% off)
  • Project Highrise: Architect's Edition – £9.99 (60% off)
  • Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness – £14.84 (67% off)
  • Pure Farming 2018 – £8.74 (65% off)
  • Pure Farming 2018 Digital Deluxe Edition – £12.24 (65% off)
  • Puyo Puyo Tetris – £6.39 (60% off) / £4.79 Plus (70% off)
  • Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-Tered – £7.49 (70% off)
  • Risen 3: Titan Lords — Enhanced Edition – £3.99 (75% off)
  • Road Rage – £2.39 (85% off)
  • Saints Row IV: Re-Elected – £3.99 (75% off)
  • Saints Row IV: Re-Elected And Gat Out Of Hell – £6.24 (75% off)
  • Saints Row: Gat Out Of Hell – £3.99 (75% off)
  • Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun – £8.99 (80% off)
  • Shadow Tactics: Game + Theme – £9.89 (78% off)
  • Shadows: Awakening – £9.99 (60% off)
  • Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter – £3.99 (75% off) / £2.39 Plus (85% off)
  • Silence – £7.49 (70% off)
  • Skyhill – £3.19 (80% off)
  • Slime Rancher – £7.99 (50% off) / £6.39 Plus (60% off)
  • Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts – £15.98 (54% off)
  • Soulcalibur Ⅵ – £15.98 (71% off)
  • South Park: The Stick Of Truth – £12.99 (48% off)
  • South Park: The Stick Of Truth + The Fractured But Whole – £15.99 (68% off)
  • Space Blaze – £7.99 (50% off)
  • Space Hulk: Deathwing — Enhanced Edition – £9.99 (60% off)
  • Space Hulk: Tactics – £6.24 (75% off)
  • Speedrunners – £3.19 (60% off)
  • Speedrunners Deluxe Bundle – £5.59 (60% off)
  • State Of Mind – £6.99 (80% off)
  • Street Fighter 30Th Anniversary Collection – £12.99 (48% off)
  • Sudden Strike 4 – £9.99 (60% off)
  • Super Dodgeball Beats – £5.39 (55% off) / £4.19 Plus (65% off)
  • Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD – £15.98 (54% off)
  • Super Neptunia Rpg – £12.49 (50% off)
  • Surf World Series – £7.19 (40% off)
  • Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet – £12.98 (63% off)
  • Tales Of Berseria – £8.99 (44% off)
  • Tennis World Tour – £6.99 (80% off)
  • Tetraminos – £1.99 (75% off)
  • Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales – £7.99 (50% off)
  • Titan Quest – £12.49 (50% off)
  • Tom Clancy's The Division Gold Edition – £7.99 (80% off)
  • Torment: Tides Of Numenera – £8.99 (80% off)
  • Totally Reliable Delivery Service – £7.79 (35% off)
  • Totally Reliable Delivery Service Deluxe Edition – £11.39 (40% off)
  • Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince – £7.49 (70% off)
  • Troll And I – £2.99 (85% off)
  • Tropico 5 – £6.99 (65% off)
  • Tropico 5 — Complete Collection – £10.49 (65% off)
  • Underworld Ascendant – £12.49 (50% off)
  • Uno – £3.99 (50% off)
  • Utawarerumono: Deception And Truth Bundle – £11.24 (75% off)
  • Utawarerumono: Mask Of Deception – £7.49 (70% off)
  • Utawarerumono: Mask Of Truth – £7.49 (70% off)
  • Valhalla Hills — Definitive Edition – £6.39 (60% off)
  • Vikings — Wolves Of Midgard – £19.19 (60% off)
  • Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor — Martyr – £8.99 (74% off)
  • Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor — Martyr | Imperium Edition – £11.99 (75% off)
  • Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor — Martyr Complete Upgrade Pack – £9.89 (70% off)
  • Warhammer: Chaosbane – £15.99 (68% off)
  • The Warriors – £7.19 (40% off)
  • We Happy Few – £9.99 (80% off)
  • We Happy Few Digital Deluxe – £12.99 (80% off)
  • We Happy Few Season Pass – £3.99 (80% off)
  • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Game Of The Year Edition – £10.49 (70% off)
  • Wolfenstein: The New Order – £4.49 (70% off)
  • Wolfenstein: The Old Blood – £4.49 (70% off)
  • World Of Simulators Bundle – £13.99 (65% off)
  • WRC 5 Esports Edition – £3.19 (80% off) / £2.39 Plus (85% off)
  • WRC 6 Fia World Rally Championship – £3.19 (80% off) / £2.39 Plus (85% off)
  • WRC 8 Fia World Rally Championship – £15.99 (68% off) / £13.49 Plus (73% off)
  • Xcom 2 – £11.24 (75% off)
  • Zone Of The Enders: The 2Nd Runner — Mars – £11.24 (55% off)

Source: HUKD

The Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War open alpha: How to get it, when it starts, and more

During last night's PlayStation 5 showcase we saw footage from the PS5 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and then were surprised by the news that an open alpha test will begin this weekend exclusively on PlayStation 4.

You will be able to pre-load the alpha from the PlayStation Store today, September 17th,  at the following times:

  • 8:00 AM PDT
  • 10:00 AM CDT
  • 11:00 AM EDT
  • 4:00 PM BST

Preload links are now live:

You then have just over twenty-fours hours to wait until you can start playing, with the alpha running from September 18th to the 20th, starting at the following times.

  • 10:00 AM PDT
  • 12:00 PM CDT
  • 1:00 PM EDT
  • 6:00 PM BST

The download will be a fairly reasonable 25gb so make sure you have enough free space on your PS4 hard drive. Activision have said that at least two modes will be available, 6v6 mode and  12v12, the new Combined Arms – Domination mode.

As this is a PlayStation exclusive alpha it will not have cross play, but PC and Xbox owners will be getting a beta later on in the year. A PS4 exclusive beta beta window kicks off on 8th October for those who pre-order the game digitally, before all PS4 players can take part on 10th October. The beta then opens on all platforms from 15th-19th October.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will feature cross-generational, cross-progression and cross-platform multiplayer, uniting all platforms in a fundamental way.

Deniable Operations are what Treyarch say unify their globe-trotting game and its multiplayer. Each location has a story to it, with those seen in the trailer include Miami, the North Atlantic, Angola, Moscow and the Ural Mountains, each of which leans on vehicles in some way, whether it's tanks, boats, jetskis, helicopters or more.

Classic game modes like Team Deathmatch, Domination and Search and Destroy will be there, as will the return of Domination, but there's also new game modes:

  • VIP Escort – a 6v6 objective-based mode where you try to escort one of the players, the designated VIP player – who's equipped with a fancy pistol, spy plane for intel and smoke grenade – needs to reach one of two exfiltration sites, or you wipe out the other team.
  • Combined Arms – a 12v12 battle that brings vehicular warfare into the mix.

  • Fireteam – a new 40-player category of Black Ops Multiplayer with up to 10 teams of four. The first available Fireteam game type is called Dirty Bomb, with more details planned for a later time.

PlayStation 5 reveals are not done, "some really cool" user experience features are still to come

PlayStation head honcho Jim Ryan has teased more surprises to come for the PlayStation 5, specifically with the user experience – the home screen, share features and the like.

"We haven't shown yet any of the user experience of the PS5, and there's some really cool stuff to come on that," he told GI.Biz. "Within that, as the PS5 feature set becomes more sticky, and the way people make games are becoming more clever, more interesting… there will be opportunities for greater engagement, and greater time spent on the platform."

One of the biggest changes in the new console is the replacement to the DualShock 4's Share button. Now marked with an 'upward honk' – a fan on three short lines that are about as abstract as icons on game controllers can get – this is now the "Create" button. You could argue that the Share button has already become as much about creation as it is sharing. Released in April 2014, half a year after the PS4 came out, SHAREfactory would let you take video clips and photos captured on the console, cut them together, add filters, transitions, music and more, and then upload your creation online. It's an additional piece of software that lives separately to the Share button on PS4, but fold that into what the new Create button offers as standard, and suddenly the meaning of the button has been amplified.

Similarly, developers have also adapted to take advantage of what the Share button offered, integrating photo modes into their games that let you freeze the game, position the camera, play with lighting effects, focus, aperture and even character positioning and facial expressions. To say that photo modes have been insanely popular is an understatement, but they're rarely integrated into games on day one. Whether it was inFamous: Second Son, Horizon Zero Dawn, Death Stranding or God of War, most of Sony's first party studios have patched in photo modes as a secondary consideration months after release.

It's also possible that streaming will get a boost. At present when you stream you have to use the standard PlayStation blue layout, its very static and archaic compared to what you can see on Twitch these days, they have fancy overlays, notifications popping up, and all sorts of extra features.

Hopefully we will not have to wait long to see what Sony have created themselves.

Source: GI.Biz

Sony: Putting new games on a subscription service like Game Pass "doesn't make any sense"

Sony's Jim Ryan has said The PlayStation Plus Collection, one of the big surprises from last night, is not meant to be a competitor to the Xbox Games Pass.

"For us, having a catalogue of games is not something that defines a platform," Ryan told GI.Biz whilst discussing the PlayStation Plus Collection. "Our pitch, as you've heard, is 'new games, great games.' We have had this conversation before — we are not going to go down the road of putting new releases titles into a subscription model. These games cost many millions of dollars, well over $100 million, to develop. We just don't see that as sustainable."

"We want to make the games bigger and better, and hopefully at some stage more persistent," he added. "So putting those into a subscription model on day one, for us, just doesn't make any sense. For others in a different situation, it might well make sense, but for us it doesn't. We want to expand and grow our existing ecosystem, and putting new games into a subscription model just doesn't sit with that."

Sony already has an equivalent to Games Pass, PlayStation Now features hundreds of games that are playable on PlayStation 4 and PC, if games were to appear anywhere on day one it would be there but it seems that is unlikely to happen either.

Here are the firsts games that will appear on the PlayStation Plus Collection

  • God of War
  • The Last of Us: Remastered
  • Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
  • Battlefield 1
  • Monster Hunter World
  • Fallout 4
  • Final Fantasy XV
  • The Last Guardian
  • Ratchet and Clank
  • Infamous: Second Son
  • Days Gone
  • Bloodborne
  • Detroit: Become Human
  • Batman Arkham Knight
  • Mortal Kombat X
  • Persona 5
  • Until Dawn
  • Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Source: GI.Biz

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is coming out for PC VR headsets in December

Respawn Entertainment and EA have announced that their WW2 VR shooter Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond will be out on 11th December 2020.

The game has been developed in partnership with Oculus and Facebook, and so will be available for Oculus Rift via the Oculus Store, but is also coming to Steam with OpenVR support and cross-platform play. That's important for the various multiplayer modes, with more details coming between now and launch.

In the meantime, we can revisit the single player story trailer from the end of August.

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond drops you into the role of an Allied agent of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), going on a tour of duty across Europe. The cinematic story will take place across three acts, starting off with a collaboration with the French Resistance, then diving into the fray on D-Day, and finally dismantling the Nazi's secret weapons programmes. Through the campaign, it's now been revealed that you'll have a veteran sergeant and a British medic as your companions, while there will also be appearances from classic Medal of Honor characters Manon Batiste and Dr. Gronke.

Being built from the ground up for VR, there won't be any cutscenes, with everything in the game witnessed through your eyes. Respawn are looking to tap into the immersive properties of the world, letting you catch grenades out of the air, pick up and throw pans at enemy soldiers, throw knives, jump out of planes and so much more.

The game will feature both a single player campaign and multiplayer modes, but Vince Zampella opened the video explaining how grounded in real experiences it is (though obviously sensationalised). It will also give you the opportunity to sit down in VR with WWII veterans and survivors to hear them tell the first-hand stories that they brought back from one of the most tumultuous periods in our history.

Source: press release

The Nintendo 3DS has been discontinued, ending Nintendo's dual screen era

The Nintendo 3DS is being put to rest by Nintendo, with the company marking all models of the 3DS as "out of production" on their Japanese website and removing the handheld's front page of their US site. It still has a place on the UK site, but it's no longer for sale from Nintendo's direct store.

It's a quiet end for a console that played a major role in helping Nintendo survive the last decade, and brings and end to the era of dual screen gaming from the Japanese manufacturer, an era that lasted 16 years.

Announced in 2010 and released in 2011, the Nintendo 3DS was nowhere near as big a hit as the Nintendo DS that preceded it, but it still sold tens of millions of units that propped up the company as it floundered in the home console market with the Wii U. In both cases, the console naming and lack of clarity over how much it would improve the gaming experience dampened excitement and sales, but the 3DS and its many variants and upgrades still sold 75 million units worldwide and more than 384 million games.

Nintendo supported the handheld well through its life, even extending support into its twilight years of 2018 and 2019 with games like Luigi's Mansion remake, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker and WarioWare Gold all lifting games from Nintendo's back catalogue and massaging them onto the console.

Of course, it's been clear ever since 2017 that Nintendo would shift their focus to the Nintendo Switch – all those above games came as a bit of a surprise, truth be told – with Nintendo's hybrid console selling like hotcakes right from the off. The Switch has been such a success, with over 61 million consoles shipped by this summer. If it continues at the pace Nintendo expect it to, it will surpass the 3DS' lifetime sales sometime in 2021.

The company now has a true handheld console to fully replace the 3DS in the form of the Nintendo Switch Lite, its lower price point and smaller form factor potentially appealing to families looking for a console for children.

via The Verge

The Saviour's Gang Review

Brand new games do not usually launch for just £3.99, and it's even more rare for games to feature Jesus texting Satan and his dad… who is a pigeon for some reason. As improbable as all of this sounds, that is exactly what happened last week when The Saviour's Gang landed on PlayStation 4, almost a year after it launched on PC. I decided to take a gamble and spend some of the £10 credit Sony had given me recently, mostly because I was curious about the game. Turns out it's not half bad.

The Python-esque intro explains that, after being crucified, Jesus – or more precisely The Saviour – couldn't actually get in to heaven and must now guide worshippers to the promised land. What that actually means is that you get to control a white circle which the worshippers follow with devoted adoration, winding your way through a series of levels. To make things a little more difficult, the almighty God pigeon has decided to place circular saws, rockfalls, Indiana Jones style rolling boulders, and clouds of poisonous gas in your way. How very Old Testament.

You begin each level with a small number of worshippers who follow your commands in a loose group. They have no free will, so if you point them in the direction of a circular saw you will soon see their blood splattered across the screen. They're also quite dumb, the more worshippers you have the more difficult it is for them to sneak past the dangers as they don't run in a straight line but as a group. Slipping between large, pointy sticks is much harder when Denise at the back is insisting on social distancing and lagging behind everyone else.

If you do lose your followers, each level has a golden chalice that can be found which resurrects some of their numbers, and there are other collectables which do.., something. The game has no text to explain what they are for, or indeed what the power ups do, but you can still go and spend souls on them in Satan's shop.

While the wandering / mass murder is going on, God, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Satan, and various other religious icons have a Whatsapp group chat on the side of the screen complete with gifs. It's a bit odd, and while some of the jokes land, it's very hard to read what is going on whilst also trying not get your worshippers spiked on very pointy sticks. Your followers also get to see the light (quite literally) once a level when you appear as a floating, glowing human shape in the level and spout lines directly lifted from the Bible.

As you progress through the levels, the way to enlightenment becomes more convoluted and you have to start back tracking, flicking switches and pushing boxes around, but that's about it. Learn the patterns, avoid the pointy things, chuckle at some bants, collect the doodahs, finish the level. The game is shallower than a Kardashian at a photo-shoot, although it it does have three difficulty levels if you want to make things a bit more murderous.

Rogue Company teases new night map for future update

It looks like Rogue Company will be getting a new night time map as part of a future update.

First Watch Games have posted a teaser for Lockdown, a new arena set in the heart of the Venezuelan jungle.

This new Rogue Company map looks as though it will feature a mix of colonial fortress architecture outfitted with modern barricades, cover points, ziplines, and other high tech features.

Currently, the competitive online shooter has eight maps, Lockdown bringing the total to nine when it drops. However, First Watch Games have yet to announce when it will be added to the game.

Last week, Rogue Company was updated to version 1.30, rolling out some minor changes:

Rogue Company Update 1.30 Patch Notes

  • Players should no longer become immune to damage in Demolition mode

  • Fixed an issue that was preventing players from reconnecting to a match after a crash or disconnect

  • Fixed an issue where players could become stuck as a Rogue regardless of who they selected in the match

  • Players should no longer be able to place the bomb inside of walls and other unintended objects

  • Fixed an issue where the Redeem Code screen would remain on screen when clicking other parts of the menu or Store.

We went hands-on with Rogue Company when it entered closed beta on consoles a couple of months back. It seems that even in 2020, years after Overwatch first entered the scene, the hero shooter genre is still going strong. Amazon's Crucible might have been an unfortunate flop though Riot Games have struck gold with Valorant, Hi-Rez providing their own superb alternative to a typically impenetrable brand of FPS. Here's what we thought:

In short, Rogue Company should definitely be on your radar. It offers a slightly more accessible gateway into this brutal shooter subgenre, but manages to do so without losing any of its strategic depth. Early access is now available when purchasing one of the three founder's packs though Hi-Rez have confirmed that Rogue Company will be free-to-play at launch.

Rogue Company will be rolling out new features and content as it approaches full release. For more on that, check out the Rogue Company roadmap.

Source: Twitter

Remnant: From the Ashes update 1.20 makes weapon and bug fixes

Gunfire Games and Perfect World Entertainment have rolled out a new hotfix for their popular roleplaying shooter hybrid, Remnant: From the Ashes.

Hotfix 250802 is live now on PC with a shopping list of minor changes. For those playing on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, this will appear as update version 1.20.

The new patch remedies some of the issues the Remnant player community have flagged while re-balancing the stats on certain weapons.

Remnant: From the Ashes saw a sudden surge in players recently – more than 10 million Epic Games Store users claimed it for free via the company's weekly giveaway.

We recently chatted with Gunfire Games about the newest (and final) DLC expansion for Remnant, Subject 2923.

Here are the patch notes in full:

General
Life Steal (Leech Ember, Nightmare Spiral, Riven, Tentacle Shot, etc…)

  1. Life Steal is no longer impacted by Triage.

Flop & Unarmed Damage

  1. Reworked how Flop Damage is calculated.

Corrosion Effect

  1. Reduced total stacks of Corrosion from 6 to 5 (25% total debuff).

Achievement: Hard Bargain

  1. Implemented a fix for Hard Bargain to properly trigger.

Survival Mode

  1. Prevented Burden rings from appearing on corpses (still purchasable at vendor).

Miscellaneous

  1. Fixed crash when interacting with a World Stone while equipped with Undying Mod and Labyrinth Armor.

  2. Updated performance across the board.

  3. Dozens of various bug fixes.

Trinkets
Stone of Balance

  1. Reduced Ranged/Melee Damage bonus from 15%/15% to 12%/12%.

Vulcan's Detonator

  1. Increased Burning damage Scalar from 10% per level 20% per weapon level that applies it.

  2. Fixed damage scaling to work when proc'ed by summons.

Ring of the Unclean

  1. Changed to +100% bonus Unarmed Damage (200% total) and +300% Flop Damage (400% total).

Five-Fingered Ring

  1. Changed to 25% Unarmed Melee, 25% Unarmed Crit Damage, 20% Crit Chance.

Restriction Cord

  1. Fixed a UI issue causing the wrong information to be relayed to the UI.

Polished Whetstone

  1. Reduced Crit Damage bonus from 50% to 35%.

Black Cat Band

  1. Increased the invulnerability window from 0.5s to 1.5s.

Scavengers Ring

  1. Added new bonus of +10% Ranged and Mod Damage when player collects Scrap, Iron, or Ammo.

Butcher's Fetish

  1. Increased Crit Chance 10% to 15%.

  2. Increased Crit Damage from 20% to 25%.

Devouring Loop

  1. Reduced proc chance from 6% to 5%.

Evoker's Seal

  1. Increased the Mod Power refund from 10% to 15%.

Burden of the Gambler

  1. The "Burden" can no longer be avoided via Exploiter and Hangman's Memento.

Burden of the Follower

  1. Increased the Fire Rate "Burden" from 25% to 35%.

Armor
Cultist

  1. Blood Pact Set Bonus: Increased duration bonuses from 15/30/60% to 30/60/100%.

Akari

  1. Opportunist Set Bonus: Buff (from perfect dodging) is no longer removed upon taking damage.

Warlord

  1. Deathwish Set Bonus: Deathwish can no-longer kill player (leaves player at 1 HP).

  2. Deathwish Set Bonus: Reduced 3-PC damage buff from 40% to 35%.

Twisted

  1. Reduced stack removal on damage from 5 to 1.

Scavenger

  1. Reduced stack removal on damage from 5 to 1.

  2. Reworked buff timer to remove only 1 stack when timer expires instead of all stacks.

Elder

  1. Believer Set Bonus: Adjusted buff behavior when removing armor pieces.

Mods
Cold Spear

  1. Fixed an issue that caused Cold Spear to display improperly when switching it between weapons.

Weapons
Machine Pistol

  1. Updated text to better reflect functionality (no actual functionality change).

Hive Cannon | Hive Shot

  1. Primary Fire no longer applies 1x Corrosion Stack.

  2. Hive Shot: Projectile (impact) no longer applies 1x Corrosion Stack.

  3. Hive Shot: AOE now applies Corrosion at a quicker rate.

Curse of the Jungle God | Tentacle Shot

  1. Tentacle Shot: Increased the baseline regen per hit from 1.25 to 4.5 to compensate for loss of Triage.

Spitfire | Flamethrower

  1. Flamethrower: Fixed a bug causing Flame Puddles to deal incorrect (considerably low) damage.

Fusion Rifle

  1. Fusion Cannon: Reduced pre-fire delay from 0.6s to 0.35s.

  2. Fusion Cannon: Fixed an issue causing the beam to fire in incorrect directions.

Traits
Vaccine

  1. Trait Level 0 no longer stops you from getting debuff build-up.

MISC
Wasteland Goodboy

  1. Informed Wasteland (Very) Goodboy about the amount of community love he has been garnering.

Source: Reddit

PS5 pre-order scalpers already selling console for over £1500

Just minutes after UK retailers went live with PlayStation 5 pre-orders, crafty scalpers are already looking to cash-in.

With GAME UK and Amazon having almost instantly sold out of PS5s this morning, some gamers looking to secure the new PlayStation for its November launch are no shifting into panic mode.

Meanwhile, scalpers who have managed to confirm their pre-orders (or not, chances are there will be plenty of scammers out there too) are starting to list their consoles.

We'll no doubt see plenty of PS5s crop up on eBay in the coming weeks, but here's a quick look at some of the listings being posted this morning following the pre-order rush.

As you can see, there are already several consoles priced at over £1,000 with one scalper asking for an extortionate £1,599 (at the time of writing).

With some UK retailers still showing stock or opening their pre-order tomorrow – and with others taking registrations – there's still time to get a PS5 without dealing with scalpers or re-sellers. We have a list of retailers here and their current PS5 pre-order status.

For those confused about the pricing and launch details of the PlayStation 5, we've got you covered. Sony's next-gen system will finally be touching down on here in the UK on November 19th. You may have seen a November 12th release date but this applies to Japan, the US, New Zealand, and other territories.

As for the price, expect to £449.99 for the full fat version of the PS5, complete with 4K UHD Blu-Ray Drive. Meanwhile, the digital discless version is priced lower at £359.99.

Here are the hardware specifications for the new console!

CPU 8 Zen 2 Cores @ 3.5Ghz w/ SMT (variable)
GPU 10.28 TFLOPS – 36 CUs @ 2.26Ghz (variable)
Memory 16 GB GDDR6 (448GB/s)
Internal Storage 825 GB Custom NVME SSD
I/O Throughput 5.5 GB/s (Raw), 8-9 GB/s (Compressed)
Expandable Storage Approved M.2 third party SSDs in dedicated expansion bay
External Storage USB External HDD Support for PS4 games
Optical Dirve Ultra HD Blu-ray, up to 100GB/disc
Video Output HDMI 2.1 – Up to 4K at 120Hz, 8K, VRR
Audio Tempest Engine 3D audio

 

Will you be picking up a PS5 at launch and if so which version are you going to buy?

PlayStation 5 launches on November 19th in the UK for £450 / £360 – here's everything you need to know

Sony have officially confirmed the PlayStation 5 will launch on November 19th in the UK and will cost £449.99 for the version with a 4K UHD Blu-ray drive and £359.99 for the digital edition. Pre-orders will go live as soon as tomorrow!

We're getting the console slightly later than some other territories. The US, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea can get their hands on the console on November 12th. In other territories the console will cost $499.99 / €499.99 /  ¥ 49,980 for the disc version and $399.99 / €399.99 /  ¥ 39,980.

More PlayStation 5 News:

Here are the hardware specifications for the new console!

CPU 8 Zen 2 Cores @ 3.5Ghz w/ SMT (variable)
GPU 10.28 TFLOPS – 36 CUs @ 2.26Ghz (variable)
Memory 16 GB GDDR6 (448GB/s)
Internal Storage 825 GB Custom NVME SSD
I/O Throughput 5.5 GB/s (Raw), 8-9 GB/s (Compressed)
Expandable Storage Approved M.2 third party SSDs in dedicated expansion bay
External Storage USB External HDD Support for PS4 games
Optical Dirve Ultra HD Blu-ray, up to 100GB/disc
Video Output HDMI 2.1 – Up to 4K at 120Hz, 8K, VRR
Audio Tempest Engine 3D audio

 

Sony have confirmed that the "overwhelming majority of the 4,000+ PS4 titles" will play on the PlayStation 5, although some of them may need to be patched by the creators. Here's more from Sony:

With all of the amazing games in PS4's catalog, we've devoted significant efforts to enable our fans to play their favorites on PS5. We believe that the overwhelming majority of the 4,000+ PS4 titles will be playable on PS5.

We're expecting backward compatible titles will run at a boosted frequency on PS5 so that they can benefit from higher or more stable frame rates and potentially higher resolutions.

"Whether it's backwards compatibility or the possibility of cross-generational play, we'll be able to transition that community to next-gen," SIE president Jim Ryan told CNET. "It won't be a binary choice about whether you have to be either on PlayStation 4 or next-gen to continue your friendship."

Sony have also mandated that all PS4 games published after 13th July must run on PlayStation 5. It's unlikely PlayStation 1,2 or 3 games will run natively on the console, since Sony has the PlayStation Now streaming service for those.

The first TV spot for the PlayStation 5 has also arrived with Sony tring to describe to people what it will feel like to play games on their next-gen console, wrapping together things like 3D audio, haptic feedback and adaptive triggers.

It's quite a high concept video, showing a woman adventuring in a weird and mysterious world. The opening line says, "Welcome to a world where you can feel more," and this is a key part of Sony's pitch for the next generation. The DualSense controller features adaptive triggers to relay different pressures to your fingers, while more advanced haptic feedback is to be incorporated to add more nuance compared to the rumble motors found in the DualShock 4. 3D audio with advanced HRTF processing to simulate different ear shapes will also aim to make audio more immersive and spatial, regardless of whether you're hearing sound from a TV, set of headphones or an existing surround sound set up.

Here are some of the games confirmed for PlayStation 5:

Demon's Souls Remake is not coming to PC and other consoles, confirmed as PlayStation 5 exclusive

Earlier this evening Sony showed a trailer for the Demon's Souls Remake and it ended with the text "Not available on other consoles for a limited time. Also available on PC", so it is a timed exclusive and on also PC, right?

Well as it turns out, no.

Sony has told Kotaku that the trailer was a mistake and attributed the incorrect information to "human error", confirming that Demon's Souls will be exclusive to the PlayStation 5.

The full Demon's Souls description reads:

From JAPAN Studio and Bluepoint Games comes a remake of the PlayStation classic, Demon's Souls. This remake invites players to experience the original brutal challenge, completely rebuilt from the ground up and masterfully enhanced with a new "Fractured Mode." In addition to beautiful shadow effects and ray tracing, players can choose between two graphics modes while playing: one focused on fidelity, and one focused on frame rate. Coming to PlayStation 5.

Way back in 2010 when Demon's Souls released for PS3, DJ-Katy wrote the review and said:

Demon's Souls is a very good game. It's not a fabulous game. On the one hand, it's hard to recommend to anyone who isn't a hardcore RPG fan or who doesn't have a mountain of patience at their disposal. On the other hand, Demon's Souls rarely puts a foot wrong – the game mechanics are tough but fair. If you learn from your mistakes, you will progress. You don't die from random issues or problems with the game itself, only your own error as a rule. Really, all this means is that it's a return to the old days when dieing in a game meant losing all your stuff and having to start the level again. It's just that the levels are very, very long.

You can read the full classic Demon's Souls review here.

Source: Kotaku

[UPDATE] You can pre-order your PlayStation 5 NOW at GAME, link here!

UPDATE: Oh dear, they sold out very quickly!

Original story below…

It appears UK retailer GAME couldn't wait all of 25 minutes until tomorrow rolls round and have open pre-orders for the PlayStation 5 right now!  There's a bunch of bundles available as well which pack in cameras, extra controllers, headsets, chargers, and even the new remote.

Earlier this evening Sony said that PlayStation 5 pre-orders will open tomorrow at selected retailers, you can grab yours from game by clicking this link. 

Sony have officially confirmed the PlayStation 5 will launch on November 19th in the UK and will cost £449.99 for the version with a 4K UHD Blu-ray drive and £359.99 for the digital edition.

We're getting the console slightly later than some other territories. The US, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea can get their hands on the console on November 12th. In other territories the console will cost $499.99 / €499.99 /  ¥ 49,980 for the disc version and $399.99 / €399.99 /  ¥ 39,980.

Here are the hardware specifications for the new console!

CPU 8 Zen 2 Cores @ 3.5Ghz w/ SMT (variable)
GPU 10.28 TFLOPS – 36 CUs @ 2.26Ghz (variable)
Memory 16 GB GDDR6 (448GB/s)
Internal Storage 825 GB Custom NVME SSD
I/O Throughput 5.5 GB/s (Raw), 8-9 GB/s (Compressed)
Expandable Storage Approved M.2 third party SSDs in dedicated expansion bay
External Storage USB External HDD Support for PS4 games
Optical Dirve Ultra HD Blu-ray, up to 100GB/disc
Video Output HDMI 2.1 – Up to 4K at 120Hz, 8K, VRR
Audio Tempest Engine 3D audio

 

More PlayStation 5 News:

Here are some of the games confirmed for PlayStation 5:

Prices for PS5 launch games revealed, you may want to rethink buying the digital only console

The prices for the Sony produced PlayStation 5 launch games have been revealed and, well, ouch. Let's start with the good news, as previously announced everyone gets Astro's Playroom for free, it is installed on the hard drive of the PlayStation 5 when you buy it.

Here are the prices for the other games.

  • Astro's Playroom (Japan Studio) – pre-installed on PS5
  • Demon's Souls (Bluepoint Games / Japan Studio) – £69.99 / US$69.99 / ¥7,900 / €79.99 (RRP)
  • Destruction AllStars (Lucid Games / XDEV) – £69.99 / US$69.99 / ¥7,900 / €79.99 (RRP)
  • Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Insomniac Games) – £51.99 / US$49.99 / ¥5,900 / €59.99  (RRP)
  • Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition (Insomniac Games) – £69.99 / US$69.99 / ¥7,900 / €79.99 (RRP)
  • Sackboy A Big Adventure (Sumo Digital / XDEV) – £59.99 / US$59.99 / ¥6,900 / €69.99 ( (RRP)

That means a PS5 with a 4K blu-ray drive and Demon's Souls will cost you £569.98 at RRP, or £429.98 is you got for the all digital disc free PlayStation 5.

However, you may want to carefully think about buying the all digital version of the console as new games always launch on the PlayStation store at the RRP. Amazon and other retailers who offer the disc versions often cut the price by around £8. That means if you buy ten or so PS5 games over the course of the consoles lifetime you've already saved the money you would have kept if you bought the digital version of the console.

At the moment Amazon are selling the PS5 version of Assassin's Creed Valhalla for £51.99, the same price as the PS4 version. The Ubisoft Store and PlayStation Store are both offering the same game on PS4 for £59.99 as a digital download.

Physical media also goes on sale a lot quicker than digital, in the last generation we've seen games have £10 wiped off their price the week after launch, and some such as Fallout 76 have plummeted to almost to a quarter of the RRP less than a month after they were released. You can also trade in physical media, saving yourself more cash.

It's obvious that both Microsoft and Sony want us to switch to digital distribution but until they start pricing digital games in the same manner as physical media many people will stay with discs. We ran a Twitter poll last week and over 70% of respondents said they were getting a PS5 with a disc drive and only 15.4% were buying the digital version.

 

More PlayStation 5 News:

 

 

Horizon Forbidden West and Sackboy A Big Adventure are also coming to PS4 with free upgrades to PS5

Sony have confirmed that three of the games previously assumed to be next-gen PlayStation 5 exclusives are also actually coming to PlayStation 4. Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Sackboy A Big Adventure, and Horizon Forbidden West will all be cross-gen releases, coming to PS4 as well as PS5.

All three will also offer free upgrades from PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5, whether you buy digitally or physically.

Sony write on their blog:

While these three games were designed to take advantage of PS5 and its unique next-gen features like the ultra-high-speed SSD and DualSense controller, PS4 owners will also be able to enjoy these experiences when they launch. The PS4 digital versions of launch games include a free upgrade on both PS5 consoles, while the PS4 disc versions of these games include a free upgrade on the PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-Ray disc drive.

It's a major turn of events, with Sony having been shouting from the rooftops about the importance of their first party games being designed to fully take advantage of the next generation hardware, while Microsoft have been sticking to their guns about their first party games bridging the divide between platforms – much to the derision of many fans and pundits.

Still, this decision is a great move for consumers facing up to the high cost of joining the next generation. While the digital version of the PlayStation 5 is $399 and £359, that comes with needing to accept that digital games tend to stick to RRP for longer, and those RRPs are rising for the next generation. Sony's own first party titles will now cost up to $69.99 / £69.99, including the Demon's Souls remake and Destruction AllStars at launch. Potentially saving money in the long run with a more expensive console featuring a disc drive means that you're paying $499 / £449 up front, something which a lot of people might struggle to do.

Games that bridge the generations will allow Sony to continue to sell millions of copies of their most highly anticipated titles, regardless of how the global economic situation and the rising cost of gaming affects next-gen adoption.

Source: PS Blog