New Among Us map to be revealed at The Game Awards
A new map of murderous shenanigans is coming to to cult hit Among Us is on the way, with developer Innersloth teasing a shot of what looks like a space ship command bridge and promising a full reveal at The Game Awards on 10th December.
Take a look:
Welcome to the official Among Us Twitter
Get all the news, peeks, and fun shenanigans here and become a part of the crew.
Here's a special look at the NEW Among Us map! (For your eyes only!!) (Don't show the impostors!!) pic.twitter.com/FrCkK7ZcnI
— Among Us (@AmongUsGame) November 18, 2020
The new map was previously discussed in an updated roadmap for the game:
New Map. We're hard at work on a new map (It's Henry Stickmin themed!). This map is currently looking bigger than Polus! The map will contain plenty of new tasks and will be available for free to all players!
Among Us has been one of the indie hits of the summer, despite actually having released all the way back in 2018. The game was discovered by Twitch streamers, with its paranoia-infused multiplayer making for a lot of fun and plenty of cross-channel collaborations. It helps that the game's really cheap at just £4.
The game is built for 4-10 players, with one or more players being an "imposter", and alien interloper who has to try and murder their way through the other players as they try to complete tasks. As murdered bodies are discovered, players report them and call a group meeting to bicker, accuse, and potentially kick someone out of an airlock. There's tons of options to customise lobbies and tweak settings to balance the game for your group,
In response to the sudden boom in popularity in August, Innersloth set back to work on their now very popular game. It had achieved moderate popularity originally, allowing them to start working on a sequel, but they decided to instead cancel the sequel and put more resources into supporting their now huge audience.
So, if you're a keen imposter or a mildly fearful human just wanting to complete their tasks, make sure to keep an eye out on what's next for the game at The Game Awards in December.
Source: Twitter
With PS5 UK stock sold out, scalpers look to make a profit
It should come as no surprise that, just hours after the PS5 became available in the United Kingdom, scalpers have been flogging their consoles only for a quick bit of money.
With the PS5 completely sold out in most shops and online outlets, buyers have been left searching the internet in hopes of getting one of Sony's new consoles. Throughout launch day we were keeping track of available PS5 stock in the UK with retailers selling out almost instantly including Amazon.
Having managed to successfully secure their pre-orders, scalpers have been quick to respond to the PS5 shortage, taking to online marketplaces such as eBay, Gumtree, Depop, and Facebook to peddle their PlayStation at a premium price.
For those unaware, "scalping" is when people get hold of rare items (usually via pre-order) then sell them at launch for profit, hoping that there will be a shortage. We've seen this happen countless times in the world of gaming when it comes to consoles, and video game special editions.
20201110143642
A mass of PS5 consoles have appeared on eBay overnight with some chancers asking in excess of £10,000 with prices averaging at around £700 for the PS5 Digital Edition and £750-800 for the PS5 Disc Edition. With many of these consoles being available for cash in hand via local collection, many scalpers also appear to flouting the UK's lockdown laws for some fast cash.
On top of having to pay more for a PS5 console, desperate gamers will also need to be aware of the pitfalls when buying from private sellers online. We'd strongly recommend waiting for a restock.
Keep an eye on Stock Informer which tracks retailers that have consoles. Good luck!
PlayStation 5 Guides and more from TheSixthAxis
- PlayStation 5 Console Review
- DualSense Controller Review
- Astro's Playroom Review
- Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales Review
- PS5 Guide – What are Accolades and how to earn them
- PS5 Activity Cards and how they work
- PS5 Trophies – what new features to expect
Xbox exclusive shooter CrossfireX has been delayed to 2021
CrossfireX is the latest to announce that it's being pushed back from a somewhat optimistic and constantly narrowing 2020 release window to sometime in 2021.
As is usual for game delay announcements, it's been done via a text image posted on Twitter.
An important announcement regarding #CrossfireX's development: pic.twitter.com/8L1qzgcHvw
— CrossfireX (@PlayCrossfireX) November 19, 2020
They write:
After much deliberation, and in consideration of the challenges faced by the Smilegate development team due to COVID-19, we have made the difficult decision to delay the release of CrossfireX to 2021.
Moving our release will allow us to deliver the Crossfire experience on console our team set out to create. We'll have more to share in the future.
CrossfireX is the console oriented follow up to the hugely popular PC original, which has managed to amass a staggering 650 million players. It features two warring PMC factions, the Global Risk and Black List, and it's their globetrotting escapades that a single player campaign created by Remedy Entertainment will tell. That, however, is an additional project alongside the main multiplayer that is in development at Smilegate in Korea. In fact, the single player will be part of a "premium battle pass" at its launch.
The first gameplay teaser for CrossfireX came at XO19 last year, following on from the E3 2019 announcement. At the time it was only confirmed for Xbox One, but with mention of "Xbox consoles" plural, it teased that the game would be coming natively to Xbox Series X (which was still codenamed Project Scarlett at the time).
CrossfireX is coming as a timed exclusive to Xbox One and Xbox Series X – a "console launch exclusive" as revealed during the Xbox Games Showcase. The multiplayer will be free-to-play, with Remedy's single player story campaign sold separately.
We got a behind the scenes look at a mission from the CrossfireX single player campaign and the work that Remedy have done with their first first person shooter, twisting their Northlight engine to a new use. You can read some of our thoughts and impressions, alongside input from the game's creators in our CrossfireX campaign preview.
Source: Twitter
Far Cry 6 will be out in May, according to the Microsoft Store
It's not the first time, and it won't be the last that a store page online lets slip the planned release date of a game. This time around it's the delayed Far Cry 6, with the Microsoft Store page claiming that the game will now be releasing on 26th May 2021.
Far Cry 6 will be out for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Google Stadia and Amazon Luna. As with Ubisoft's other upcoming games, you will get free cross-generation ownership from Xbox One to Xbox Series X via Smart Delivery and from PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5.
The game was officially announced back in July's Ubisoft Forward event, initially with a release date set for February 2021. However, Far Cry 6 and Rainbow Six Quarantine were both delayed from this financial year in October, with Ubisoft citing the difficulties of working through the pandemic as the reasoning.
The game will feature Giancarlo Esposito, who's best known for his role in Breaking Bad, as the main villain. He's the dictatorial El Presidente of the war-torn tropical paradise of Yara. Esposito's character, Anton Castillo, rules this land with an iron fist, attempting to restore it to its former glory as a guerrilla revolution rages in the modern day. He hopes that his son, Diego, will follow in his footsteps.
You obviously don't play as either of these characters, but rather as Dani Rojas, a Yaran who's rising up against the oppressive regime. The game also takes part in a city for the first time, with Esperanza providing an urban setting for the war to take in as you fight for territory and to depose Anton from his seat of power.
There's plenty of weapons, vehicles and animal companions promised, but by far the best of them all is going to be Chorizo, a vicious little sausage dog!
Source: Microsoft Store via VGC
Bubble Bobble 4 Friends: The Baron is Back Review
In October 1987 a teenage Tuffcub rushed to WHSmith's, cash in hand, to buy the latest game for the ZX Spectrum, a conversion of the Taito arcade smash Bubble Bobble. Over hundreds of hours in the following months my next door neighbour and I played the game constantly, uncovering the many secrets and slowly getting closer to level 100, the end of the game. Bubble Bobble was, and remains to this day, incredibly addictive with fast paced gameplay as you race to complete the level before the Baron Von Blubba, or "The Grok" as we called him, appeared on the screen and mercilessly hunted down Bub and Bob.
Suffice to say I love Bubble Bobble. I have the arcade port on my PS3 and PS4 and a cuddly Bub on a shelf above my consoles, so I was very excited to get my hands on Bubble Bobble 4 Friends. The Baron is back and the good news it has all the classic elements of Bubble Bobble. The bad news is that things have also been changed.
The gameplay remains very similar; you play as Bub, Bob, or one of two new characters and jump around platforms, capturing enemies by blowing bubbles at enemies. Once encased in the bubble, the enemies and any other bubbles you blow float around screen following wind patterns. You can then burst the bubbles to kill the enemies, but the idea is the pop more than one at a time to create a chain and get a higher score.
New for Bubble Bobble 4 Friends is the ability to crouch, which lets you slip between small gaps, and auto jumping on bubbles. In other words, when you jump on a bubble it won't pop, you bounce merrily on top of it and you have to push down to pop the bubbles. This changes a key element from the original, making the game much easier. The power ups are roughly the same, but instead of appearing in the level as you play, you get them be completing a set of ten levels and then equip one at time. You also get a very limited supply of each power up to use and can only gain extra use by killing enemies, meaning that I barely used them.
The game is more like a traditional platformer rather than an arcade title, as levels require you to follow a set path to reach all the enemies. However, the level design is also very confusing. You can now only jump through certain platforms, and the game introduces spikes later on which will, of course, pop bubbles. Fooled you! Bubbles actually happily float straight through spikes, and they only kill cute green dinosaurs and their friends. Enemy patterns are also pretty basic, as many of the bad guys just stay completely still and wait for you to bubble them.
There's more to annoying Bubble Bobble fans: The classic music is only played on the first few levels not during the entire game, and despite the full title of the game being Bubble Bobble 4 Friends: The Baron is Back, Baron Von Blubba is nowhere to be seen. As I write this review, I have had the game running for 50 minutes and left Bub standing still, but the Baron has yet to make an appearance and chase me off screen.
Complete a set of ten levels and you get a boss battle, a nod to Bubble Symphony, the arcade sequel. For most of these, it's just a case of avoiding the boss, waiting until they are worn out and then attacking them with enough bubbles until you pop them. The game as a whole is very easy and you can swish the fifty levels in just over an hour. The one exception is the boss fight at the end of level four, which is much, much harder than any other level in the game for some reason and fires over a dozen fast moving enemies across the screen along with the boss itself.
One you've complete the fifty levels you can unlock a hard mode with remixed version of the levels, but while they are more challenging, they're still not really that difficult. If you fail a level three times you also get the option to play and complete the level in invincible mode so the enemies can't hurt you. You also unlock a mini arcade cabinet on which you can play the original 1986 arcade game, and that will take you much, much longer to finish than 4 Friends.
As the name suggests, you can play the game with up to four chums in couch co-op, and as with most games adding friends does make it a lot more fun. The game suddenly becomes more frantic and feels more like the original, and if you're feeling particularly mean you can mess up another player's plans with a well timed bubble.
The Xbox Black Friday sale is now on
Microsoft have got their Black Friday sale and offers going, both with digital discounts online and some smaller discounts promised for physical goods as well.
If you were even vaguely hoping to see Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S on sale, then you're kidding yourself – good luck finding stock in the first place! Instead, Microsoft are cutting £20 from the ERP of the Xbox One S from 22nd November through to the end of the year, making it a rather disappointing £229.99. A bit better is that they're cutting £10 off the Xbox One controller price and £8 from the Xbox Series X|S controller, so you can get an extra pad for a bit cheaper.
The real savings are to be had digitally. In the US you can get 40% off when buying three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – it'll be $27 instead of $45 – and in the UK if you snag a three-month Xbox Game Pass for PC subscription for £23.99/€29.99, you'll get a Sea of Thieves "Parrot Starter Bundle" for free. Ultimate perks currently include a 30-day trial for Disney+, by the way.
Then there's just the massive Black Friday sale on the Xbox store. Running from now until 3rd December, there's over 750 Xbox One games and DLC expansions on sale and, if you aren't just playing through Game Pass, that includes Forza Horizon 4 for 50% off at £27.49, Gears 5 with 75% off at just £8.74, PUBG down to just £3.74, Ori and the Will of the Wisps for £12.49, and much more.
Here is the full list of games and their percentage discounts.
Source: Xbox
Cardpocalypse is a love letter to lunchtimes spent playing cards while growing up. Whether Pokémon or Magic was your playground poison, this is a game that takes you back to the good old days.
The year is 1993. You're a kid in a new school. Your name is Jess and you love the TV show Mega Mutant Power Pets. Everything in Cardpocalypse is centred around this show. Even the opening of the game has a Saturday morning cartoon style intro theme, which tells you in no uncertain terms that "school has gone insane".
This is where we pick up the game. On your first day at your new school, you bond with sone other kids over your mutual love of the show, your new friends give you some cards, and you pick up the basics of the game. Unfortunately, you then get the game banned for everyone at the school and everyone immediately hates you. Yay.
Over the next five days, as you meet other kids, form allegiances, trade cards and battle your frenemies, you get better cards and better at the game, just like when we were kids.
Mechanically, the game plays like a stripped down version of Magic the Gathering's Commander format. While Magic five colours, Cardopcalype has four — one for each of the game's four animal factions – and your choice of commander will decide the colour identity of the deck you then build. You can't have purple cards in a green deck, for example.
From there, we have the usual similarities — Deathtouch has become Lethal, Goad has become Defender, etc. Basically, if you play Magic, you'll already know the most of the game mechanics here.
Where the game diverges is how you win each match. Each champion starts with 30 life and an ability. The aim is get the opposing champion down to zero life. However, as soon as they hit the half-way mark, they go mega. This powers them up, granting both a triggered ability and a more powerful passive.
As you learn the ropes and what each champion can do, you'll also find a surprising amount of gameplay depth on offer. Eventually you get to modify the cards yourself, using crayons and stickers to the best of your childish ability, turning this homage to a youth well spent into a game-design class for dummies.
Towards the end of the game, you even get the ability to change the rules, making everyone start with more resources, or making all cards with a certain mechanic cost more or less. Making rule changes is very important if you're to take down the big bad at the end of the week — a supernatural enemy which is bringing the game to life around you.
There's also the everyday school life aspect of the game — doing missions for your fellow kids (annoy X or beat Y at a game) to unlock new card rewards. These missions are a bit repetitive at times, requiring a lot of effort on your part, but they're worth it for that sweet, sweet cardboard. Even when they feel a bit much, they're saved by the quality writing, references and jokes.
So all in all, Cardpocalypse is an excellent premise backed up by some fantastic gameplay. It really feels like the devs were trying to capture the spirit of youth as we all got into cardboard crack behind the bike shed, and they've done an admirable job. The way that each champion has a theme tune which plays when you acquire their card, and the way the kids energetically sing when you finish a mission for them will almost certainly put a smile on your face.
I also love the way they've made the main character's disability — being wheelchair bound — a core part of the game. Jess can't use stairs and she shrugs off comments from the other kids who range from simply curious (asking if they can have a go in the chair) to mean (calling you a cyborg). The game is as diverse as it is good, and the game is excellent.
Cardpocalypse isn't all sunshine and rainbows, and there are a couple of issues which hold the game back, making some parts of it extremely frustrating. In a couple of matches I had bugs where end-of-turn effects didn't end, making the opponent significantly more powerful than they ought to be. In Magic speak, imagine if Threaten was actually In Bolas's Clutches, but it actually just cost U. Yeah, that's broken.
In other places, including in boss fights, the game bugged, making me watch the entire pre-fight conversation again before having to fight the boss again. That's pretty egregious as far as bugs go.
There's also a major gameplay flaw which would help improve the card-game gameplay, and that's having a graveyard for cards which have been used/killed. When the opponent casts something, you only see it for a second before it is gone forever, along with one of your creatures, leaving you wondering if this is another bug or if the card is supposed to work that way. It's a small change that would really improve quality of life through the game.
Last but not least, we have the recently released DLC — the 'Out of time' end-game pack which sees Jess trapped in a time loop. It should have come with a spoiler warning, as I loaded this up before beating the main game, but alas. Still, Out of Time is some great end-game content in that it strips you of your cards and gives you a unique 'Neutral Champion' which allows you to use cards of all colours in your deck, like a WUBRG Commander in Magic. Your Champion is a weakling that, by all rights, shouldn't exist, but has a unique upgrade tree which allows you to build it into the right card for your play style. It's a cool idea which is fairly well executed. The only issue is that time loops can be extremely repetitive and boring to play through, which means this DLC will not be for everyone.
Watch the new five minute Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay trailer here
CD Projekt RED have released a new five minute trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 which explains the story, upgrades, and many other elements to the game. Check it out.
While the game does look amazing the upcoming release has been soured by reports of months of crunch leading to the games release. Back in March CD Projekt "more humane" approach to crunch and that it would not be mandatory, but later in the year it was revealed that had changed and that employees were required by the company to work six days a week to get the game finished.
The game was delayed back at the end of October an additional three weeks, with company bosses Adam Badowski and Marcin Iwinski explaining, "The biggest challenge for us right now is shipping the game on current-gen, next-gen and PC at the same time, which requires us to prepare and test 9 versions of it (Xbox One/X, compatibility on Xbox Series S|X, PS4/Pro, compatibility on PS5, PC, Stadia)… while working from home."
During the recent Cyberpunk 2077 Night City Wire the senior quest designer on the game, Patrick K. Mills, said the following.
"The difference between a completionist run and a main story run… we do know that the main story run in Cyberpunk 2077 is slightly shorter than The Witcher 3 because we got a lot of complaints about Witcher 3's main story just being too long."
"Looking at the metrics, you see tremendous numbers of people played through that game really far, but never made it to the end. We want you to see the full story, so we did shorten the main story, but we have lots to do, and in terms of a completionist campaign, I just don't have that number," he added.
Cyberpunk 2077 will be out for Xbox One, PS4 and PC on 10th December, it will be playable on Xbox Series X | S and PS5 but full on next-gen enhancements will not be there on day one.
Source: YouTube
Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm Review
Having been one of the highest profile titles on Apple Arcade, Oceanhorn 2 has been around for a little while now, but it's apt that it's now out on Nintendo Switch. This is, after all, a series that takes clear influence (to put it generously) from the Legend of Zelda series.
The first Oceanhorn was a bit of a sleeper hit, taking aspects of Zelda and applying it to a well designed isometric flooded world. Knights of the Lost Realm is billed clearly as Oceanhorn 2 but is in fact a prequel, and one that takes place a thousand years before the events of the first game. This complete disregard for the logic and chronology of reality is not entirely new in games, but this is perhaps the most blatant example in a while. Still, how does the Zelda-alike fare on the home of its illustrious inspiration?
First up, Oceanhorn is a lovely looking game, and one that feels like a tribute to both Wind Waker and Skyward Sword. The bright and colourful environments are impressively detailed with a surprisingly long draw distance and relatively little pop-in. Admittedly I was playing on a Switch Lite so it is possible that these may be more noticeable on the big screen, but the visual design really nails the Zelda vibe. In this, as with so many other aspects, though, the line between tribute and outright copy is a fine one indeed.
The storyline of Knights of the Lost Realm is standard Zelda fare. Your Hero, an unnamed Link cosplayer, must work alongside champions from other areas of Gaia to return three Emblems to their rightful locations and power the Great Core beneath the capital city. To be honest, this plot is mostly irrelevant and just serves to link (ha) your journey together.
As with Zelda, the overall battle against a big bad is delayed by a series of glorified fetch quests that take you through various dungeons, each containing an essential item or power-up. In this sense, Oceanhorn 2 is arguably a truer sequel to the series than the open world Breath of the Wild. The supporting characters are fine, with perfectly adequate voice acting, but are certainly not as memorable as genre highlights like Xenoblade Chronicles.
At first you'll be equipped with nothing but your trusty sword, but this is soon joined by a shield and the versatile Caster gun, which acts as both ranged weapon and elemental magic purveyor. You'll also unlock bombs and a hookshot as you progress, and start putting it all to use for solving puzzles with switches, lever and buttons. The Caster gun leads to some of the game's more involved puzzles, with some memorable electricity and ice related head-scratchers. Again, this all reads like I'm describing a classic Zelda adventure, because that is exactly how it feels.
The environments are clearly and easy to navigate, with only a few roadblocks where I couldn't make out what I needed to do (some of these were admittedly due to forgetting basic elemental properties). That isn't to say that Oceanhorn 2 is an easy game though, as there are a few quite fiendish moments that really force you to make full use of your equipment.
Combat is pretty frequent and is mostly fairly straightforward. You can start off by shooting from afar, quickly zoom to your enemies using your hookshot, and then pull out your sword and shield for good old-school action RPG battling. The lack of a lock-on feature is a bit annoying, but something I quickly got used to. A little more of an issue is that you have to map your shield to the same face button as your items, which makes for some fiddly moments. This makes cool combinations of items unwieldy and results in you relying on prod and roll techniques for the most part. The Caster gun's elemental spells are always available, however, and freezing or burning your enemies is a great way to give yourself an edge.
Boss battles are present and correct, mostly taking the form of mobile environmental puzzles rather than twitchy combat encounters, which leads to some lengthy sections of doing no damage until you work out the enemy's weak spot. These aren't always that obvious (until they've been exposed), which is a refreshing change of pace to most video games. Unfortunately, the less memorable bosses were the two final ones, which undermined the narrative climax of the game. Given its role as a prequel, it'll come as no surprise to hear that the ending is inconclusive, although it has been modified since the original Apple Arcade release.
Destiny 2 hotfix 3.0.0.3 is out, nerfs the Warlock Stasis super, details here
Bungie have released a hotfix for Destiny 2: Beyond Light and it looks like those who found Stasis way to overpowered have got their wish as it's been nerfed, with extra nerfs for the Crucible and attacking Guardians in Gambit. On the plus side, Witherhoard is back in action.
Here are the notes, Stasis Warlocks are not going to be happy…
COMBAT
WEAPONS
- Fixed an issue where the Coriolis Force Fusion Rifle was getting more ammo than intended from ammo bricks.
- Fixed an issue where the Witherhoard damage debuff wasn't being removed properly.
-
- Witherhoard has now been re-enabled.
-
ABILITIES
- Fixed exploits with the Warlock Shadebinder Super.
- Stasis breakout damage reduced (110->90hp).
-
- Adjusted the curve that reduces breakout damage using Resilience.
- Increased the damage reduction effect Resilience has so that higher tiers of Resilience are more valuable.
- Caps out at 90 Resilience.
-
- Penumbral Blast (Stasis Warlock melee) projectile speed reduced by 20%.
- Penumbral Blast (Stasis Warlock melee) range reduced (was 28m now 16m).
- Winter's Wrath (Stasis Warlock Super) duration reduced (was 30s now 24s).
- Winter's Wrath light attack (Stasis Warlock Super) cost reduced (was 5% per burst, now 4.5% per burst).
- Cold Snap seeker speed reduced by 23%.
- Cold Snap freeze duration lowered (was 4.75s now 1.35s).
- Ice Flare Bolts freeze duration lowered (was 4.75s now 1.35s).
- Penumbral Blast (Stasis Warlock melee) freeze duration lowered (was 4.75s now 1.35s).
- Winter's Wrath heavy attack (Stasis Warlock Super) no longer affects players who are not encased.
GAMEPLAY AND INVESTMENT
REWARDS
- Fixed an issue where Pinnacle rewards were not dropping at the correct Power.
- Fixed an issue where several repeatable bounties were providing more XP than intended.
ACTIVITIES
- Fixed an issue on Exodus Crash where the Spider Tank wasn't spawning.
-
- Exodus Crash has been re-enabled.
-
GENERAL
- Fixed an issue that was causing ARUGULA errors.
- Fixed an issue where Fragment pursuits were purchasable with a full inventory.
Source: Bungie
Marvel's Avengers Kate Bishop DLC launches in December
The latest Marvel's Avengers War Table video has been released giving us a deep dive into the first DLC character, Kate Bishop, AKA the other Hawkeye. She'll debut in the Operation Taking Aim story that continues on directly from the end of the main game. The Operation will launch on 8th December.
Kate Bishop is an interesting character, the protege of Clint Barton (Hawkeye), who has disappeared off the face of the Earth. In Operation Taking Aim, Kate returns to the fore with a single-minded mission to find Hawkeye and bring him back… from an alternate timeline. In the process, maybe she can do something about the continuing menace that is AIM and the Super Adaptoid, an enemy that can copy all of the Avengers' . It all plays out in a story arc, similar to a comic book or TV show in conception.
Voiced by Ashly Burch, Kate Bishop primarily wields a bow and arrow, but has her own distinct abilities compared to Clint. In particular, she can pull out a sword for close combat and uses repurposed AIM tech to teleport around the place.
Blink lets her double jump, air dash and more, while Quantum Shift lets her "parry" to teleport behind enemies. She can upgrade her bow with things like Razor Arrows in a three shot combo, there's Scatter Shot Arrows for crowd control, Explosive Arrows to deal stagger damage, and Smokescreen Arrows to stun and cloud enemies.
Decoy is her Support Heroic ability to spawn a holographic version of herself that shoots arrows of quantum energy. After Image then lets you swap places with a decoy and deal a burst of area damage. Her Warp Arrow heroic teleports across long distances and trigger an explosion that lifts enemies into the air – this can be upgraded to a Worm Hole for allies to use.
Finally, her Ultimate is Quantum Overdrive, which provides unlimited energy to power her bow with explosive Quantum energy.
Following on from Kate's introduction, Hawkeye himself will return in Operation Future Imperfect.
For more on Marvel's Avengers read our day one review as well as our handy guide loaded with tips for beginners. The game is out now for PS4, Xbox One and PC, with PS5 and Xbox Series X|S support now planned for 2021 after a bit of a delay, with free upgrades for players.
Source: press release
As the new console generation launches, Bloober Team has made its first offering to the gods of horror gaming. While The Medium promises a spooky trek into twinned realities, it's not the company's first next-gen game. That honour instead goes to one of the developer's prior releases: Observer.
Observer: System Redux is both a remaster and a bit of an expansion of the original game that came out in 2017, boasting overhauled graphics, improved gameplay sequences, and some brand new content. While Bloober Team has changed some things, the actual experience still packs a punch.
You are Daniel Lazarski, played by the late Rutger Hauer, an Observer for the KPD. Daniel is kitted out with augmentations such as a bio scanner, tech scanner, night vision, and what is called the Dream Eater. This last piece of equipment allows you to hook up to the neural networks of other people and experience their memories, and it comes in particularly useful while scouring an apartment block for clues about Daniel's missing son. Unfortunately, these apartments hold more than their fair share of disturbing and horrifying situations. These augmentations also don't always work smoothly requiring you to take pills to reduce strain on them and Daniel's mental faculties.
Observer: System Redux is part exploration title and part detective story. You gets stuck in the apartment building soon after entering with a lockdown occurring, which happens in this world if there is a threat of the nanophage virus – how topical. So you gets to work searching for Daniel's son, but never really see anyone else aside from Janus the caretaker. Instead, the way you interacts with the majority of the building's inhabitants are through their intercoms. By talking to these people, you learns things about the building and the desperate situation of the residents, giving clues as to how this dystopian future of 2084 functions.
Some of the apartments are open though, filled with clues for either the main case or a number of side cases. Observer System Redux has three new side cases, so even those who played the original will find a reason to come back.
While exploring and using the Dream Eater to jack into people's neural connections, things start to enter the state of psychological horror and thriller. Wandering through these memories is not a nice nostalgia trip, instead letting you relive someone else's horrifying moments and twisted abstract concepts. Television sets that float like balloons and laugh like children, forests with trees made of cables, offices and corridors patrolled by a cybernetic looking Big Daddy type character that will kill you, and those are some of the tamer memory pieces.
Every one of these sequences has some interactive elements, but the main point is to find your way through the maze of memories using the environmental clues. A lot of the tension arises from never knowing what to expect next. One moment you could be wandering down a corridor and the next you are hearing voices while things shift around you quickly. It gets to a point where it becomes difficult to ascertain what is real and what is not, as the impact of reading other's memories hits Daniel.
Observer System Redux looks stunning on the Xbox Series X. The rundown cyberpunk environment of the apartment block and the memory sequences all shine in their own way, with the smallest details rendered really nicely. The soundwork transfers over well too with the noise keeping you edge while the voice acting, especially Rutger Hauer's, is very good. The characters get across the feeling something is not right and that they are tired of how life has turned out.
The game is not without a few issues. In some areas there were moments where interacting with objects was not particularly smooth, with the prompt only appearing at certain angles and in one instance not appearing at all. While work has been done to make some of the dream eater sections more streamlined, there were also moments where what to do next was not clear, leading to a slowdown of progress.
IO Interactive announce Project 007 – They're making a James Bond game!
Hitman developer IO Interactive have revealed their new game, Project 007. That's right, they're making a James Bond game!
There's precious few other details about this project, with a simple and effective teaser to announce the project, as you can see here.
IOI have also teased that this will be an origin story for the world's most famous spy.
No platforms have been confirmed by name, but it will be made "for modern systems and platforms," and is using IOI's in house Glacier engine. In other words, we can expect it for PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, and depending on how deep into development the company are, possibly PS4 and Xbox One as well. We'll just have to wait and see, but the game is already in active development at IOI's offices in Copenhagen and Malmö.
"It's true that once in a while, the stars do align in our industry," said Hakan Abrak, CEO of IO Interactive, "Creating an original Bond game is a monumental undertaking and I truly believe that IO Interactive, working closely with our creative partners at EON and MGM, can deliver something extremely special for our players and communities. Our passionate team is excited to unleash their creativity into the iconic James Bond universe and craft the most ambitious game in the history of our studio."
Honestly, this seems like a pretty much perfect match of developer and game title, with IO Interactive best known for the Hitman series, in which a very smartly dressed assassin mingles through increasingly large and complex worlds and crowds, aiming to reach their target and then get out as sneakily as possible.
Speaking of which, IOI are putting the finishing touches to the final entry in their World of Assassination Hitman trilogy that started back in 2016. Hitman 3 will be out in January for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC and Stadia. The game will also have VR support for the first time, exclusively for PlayStation VR, which will allow you to import and go back to all the levels from Hitman and Hitman 2 as well. However, for those picking up PS5s this holiday, there's some question marks about how that will work. PSVR seems to only be supported via backward compatibility, so you might have to install the PS4 version of the game to play PSVR… Cool.
Source: press release
Treyarch nerf the MP5 Submachine Gun Alpha in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
Players have been calling out for a major nerf of the MP5 (AKA Submachine Gun Alpha) in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, and Treyarch have relented, dropping the damage range by a whopping 33% and fiddling with the initial recoil.
#BlackOpsColdWar update: We've reduced the base effective damage range by 33% and adjusted the initial recoil for Submachine Gun Alpha.
Now get out there and try the other four!
— Treyarch Studios (@Treyarch) November 18, 2020
The problem stemmed from the fact that it unlocked at just Level 4, meaning that pretty much anyone could equip the weapon in their loadout and dramatically outperform the other four SMGs in the game. It could then be improved further with attachments, such as a 10.8″ Paratrooper barrel to increase damage, Foregrip to tame the recoil, Fast Mag for rapid reloading and more.
With the nerf, other SMGs in the game should hopefully become more relevant. The Milano 821 (Bravo) is unlocked at level 13 and has higher damage and lower recoil, the AK-47u (Charlie) unlocks at level 19 with a high firing rate, KSP 45 (Delta) at level 37 with a more precise burst fire mode, and Bullfrong (Echo) rounds things out at level 43, with a huge 50 bullet magazine and longer effective range.
Treyarch had previously said that they would not be making any balance changes to the game until December, but the MP5 seems to have been a special enough situation to get them to act now, and then reconsider its balance in a wider update next month.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is the latest game in the series led by developer Treyarch, with Raven Software alongside. It's a tighter than usual turnaround for the company, coming just two years after Black Ops 4 was released, and in some ways it shows. In our Black Ops Cold War review, Nick said:
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is a decent entry in the series, but it feels like it doesn't quite know what it wants to be. The campaign is full of underused ideas, while the multiplayer misses some of the magical charm of Modern Warfare, opting for faster paced aggressive battles which just don't feel as satisfying. While still enjoyable, Black Ops Cold War fails to recapture the magic of Black Ops 1 and 2.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is out now for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC.
Source: Twitter
New PS5 owners – Follows these two tips to reduce issues with your console
PlayStation 5 is out in the UK! Hurrah! However, our American chums have had there consoles for a week and have been reporting a couple of problems which in the most severe cases leading to bricked consoles, and in others a complete factory reset.
There's no official word from Sony about these issues or when they will be fixed – the first PS5 system update earlier this week doesn't seem to have helped things – so in the meantime we recommend the following tips.
Download Queue Bug – What's going wrong, and how to fix it?
There seems to be an issue with games that have both a PS4 and PS5 version. If you try and download these titles, such as Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War or Mortal Kombat 11, you will get both the PS4 and PS5 versions in your download queue, but only the PS4 version will download, leaving the PS5 version hanging.
The only known solution once affected is to do a full factory reset of the console, which wipes everything and you will have to start from scratch. To avoid the issues in the first place, the only safe option seems to be not to download games that have both PS4 and PS5 versions and wait until Sony fix the problem.
PS5 Rest Mode Issues – How to avoid HDD and rest mode crashes
There have been many reports of the PlayStation 5 rest mode causing issues with the consoles, sometimes forcing people to rescan and repair their PS5 hard drives and in a few cases that has failed and the console has been bricked.
To stop your PS5 going in to rest mode go to the Settings menu on the console, the navigate to Power Saving and then Set Time Until PS5 Enters Rest Mode. From here select "Don't Put in Rest Mode".
PlayStation 5 Guides and more from TheSixthAxis
- PlayStation 5 Console Review
- DualSense Controller Review
- Astro's Playroom Review
- Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales Review
- PS5 Guide – What are Accolades and how to earn them
- PS5 Activity Cards and how they work
- PS5 Trophies – what new features to expect
Dirt 5's DualSense haptic feedback will be redone on PS5
Codemasters are going to revisit Dirt 5's implementation of haptic feedback on PlayStation 5 and DualSense, as revealed by Technical Director David Springate.
Speaking during the GameOnDaily live stream, he revealed that they were not happy with how the haptics were currently implemented and would strive to improve them further.
He said (as transcribed by Wccftech):
I've seen a lot of people say 'I want to pick up Dirt 5 on PS5 because of the haptics. It's really interesting to me because I've seen a lot of people I hang out with on various forums, and I hang out in the Dirt 5 Discord…I've seen a lot of people say they really like the PS5 haptics. We're not happy with it, so we're going to be revisiting our haptics, even though I've not seen anybody say I hate the haptics in Dirt 5, we are not happy with it so we're going to go back and redo it.
That's great to hear, because in our opinion, the actual haptics available in Dirt 5 are relatively lacking in finesse. Comparing Dirt 5 to WRC 9 and their use of the DualSense over the weekend, I felt that Dirt 5's implementation was a little odd. There's great feedback in the adaptive triggers as the accelerator going loose when drifting, but that's thanks to the accelerator being very heavy and textured to start with. Similarly, the use of the actual haptics is lacking in nuance and feels quite one note in its pulses of vibration, not having the varying strengths that I found in WRC 9.
Dirt 5 update 1.04 was released on Monday, noting "Further refinements to the use of DualSense adaptive triggers." We've yet to go back to try this out, but it sounds like Codemasters aren't done yet, anyway.
Haptics or not, Dirt 5 is a great shift back toward arcade racing for the series. Tom said in our PS4 Dirt 5 review:
DIRT 5 strips away the more serious elements of the franchise and puts all its eggs in one, arcade cabinet shaped, basket. At times a riot, in other areas a little repetitive and lacking in finesse, it nevertheless delivers on the concept of an adrenaline-fueled off-road racer. It's a game that makes you sit forward in your seat and savour the joys of jumping a Dakar Rally Peugeot 3008 over a ravine.
Source: GameOnDaily via Wccftech
Worms Rumble manages to turn Worms into an action game
Worms Rumble is quite the departure from the usual brand of chaos that the series is known for. In most Worms games, teams take turns to try and usually fail spectacularly to blow up the other teams' worms, but Rumble takes all the trappings of invertebrate warfare and twists it into a fast-paced multiplayer shooter. It doesn't exactly feel like Worms, but it's still pretty good.
Instead of taking charge of a whole team, Worms Rumble has you controlling a single worm in a multiplayer match with 31 others, all of you running, shooting, and dodging around a pretty large map all at once. Your worm can now also scrunch itself into a ball and roll around Samus from Metroid-style to get around a little quicker and jump a little further, and there's also wall jumping skills for reaching high places without the use of a grappling hook. You're quite a bit more manoeuvrable than you might expect and this is good news considering you now need to aim and avoid incoming gunfire, and Worms weapons in real time are incredibly dangerous.
A ton of fan favourites return from previous Worms games, such as a sheep launcher, banana bombs, shotguns, and the trusty bazooka, but there are a few new additions too. One launcher fires a volley of rockets that just turns any room into fiery, wormy death, or an assault rifle, which is also kinda fun, I guess. You spawn with a weapon, but anything particularly explode-y needs to be found in the map, as well as grenades and utilities like the jetpack and grappling hook to help you get around even quicker. Crucially, the weapons all handle differently, so if you expect your shotgun will handle like a hand cannon, you're probably going to die.
As mentioned, it doesn't really feels like a Worms game. In fact, it feels a lot like Crash Commando, which isn't exactly a bad thing because I loved Crash Commando. It helps that Worms Rumble is also a lot of fun. When you're in the thick of things and fighting off people from multiple sides with banana bombs and a sheep launcher it's hilarious, but it plays well too. You can pull off some pretty impressive shots, often whilst dodging sheep and balls of plasma, and it becomes very satisfying once you get used to rolling around to maintain momentum while also sending rockets in the direction of your enemies. The maps have plenty of areas that are covered until you enter them, so you can pop out and ambush unsuspecting enemy as they're entering the area blind.
It all looks and sounds like you'd expect from the series, with a 2.5D aesthetic and some nicely detailed 3D backgrounds. When four players meet and all cause different explosives at each other, the difficulty seeing what's actually happening is curiously mitigated by how entertaining watching everyone explode was, especially with no frame rate drops on PS4.
Worms Rumble goes all in on customisation and unlockables, so you can tweak the look of your worm and guns with various paint jobs. You can also choose between some of the usual Worms voices for both your worm and the game announcer.
It isn't perfect though. There are some really lengthy loading times on PS4, to the point where I almost restarted the game once or twice because I thought something had gone wrong. The maps in the game are also quite large, which means you can to spend a lot of time running across a map looking for someone to shoot. Sometimes you immediately get exploded when you get there and have to do it again.
Worms Rumble is shaping up to be a pretty fun multiplayer shooter. There aren't many (any?) games where you can jetpack above a bunch of warring worms and rain banana bombs on them, or drop a holy hand grenade on an enemy and grappling hook out of the door. When you're in the thick of things the game is hectic and hilarious, but more importantly, it's satisfying to play as well. Coming out for PS5, PS4 and PC on 1st December, this has a lot of promise, so long as you're not here for the turn-based sort of mayhem.
UPDATE: PS5 Launch Day: Where to buy a PlayStation 5 today in the UK
It's PlayStation 5 launch day and if you have already secured a pre-order we wish you the very best of luck and hope it arrives on time. If you did not then a number of retailers have said they will have stock at some point today so you might get lucky, but stocks will be very limited.
Please remember that no matter where you are in the UK, under lockdown in England or footloose and fancy free in Wales, all PS5 sales will only be online, do not go to your local retailer they will not have any consoles on the shelves.
We will try and keep this page up to date as and when retailers announce they have stock, but here's what we know so far along with those important links.
Update 10am –Curry's go live has been postponed until "later today" due a to what we can only describe as 'a massive cock up'. Some customers were allowed to order before 9am, their orders are now being cancelled, more info here. ShopTo have some stock but like many of the retailers below their website has crashed.
Update 10:25am – Very stock is now live for the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Digital Edition.
Update 11.08am – Currys PC World's website has completely crashed. Very is now out of stock.
Update: 12.22pm – Amazon should have gone live but there seems to be a delay, keep hammering that F5 key. Currys PC World have now said "There will be no PS5s available to buy today."
Update: 12.27pm – John Lewis now out of stock, ShopTo have removed the console from their website so they seem to have sold out. GameByte have now confirmed they have no stock.
Update 1.05pm – Amazon went live, and sold out in seconds. That was pretty much your last hope for today, you may like to keep an eye on Currys PC World to see when they finally sort their mess out.
Update 3.12pm – We hear that Asda may have some stock at some point today, but no further details.
- Argos – Confirmed no stock on sale today.
- Asda – May have some stock later today. nothing confirmed
- AO – PS5 page removed so no stock available.
- Amazon PlayStation 5 (disc version) – Sold out in seconds. No stock left.
- Amazon PlayStation 5 (digital version) – Sold out in seconds. No stock left.
- Box – Confirmed no stock on sale today.
- BT / EE – Seemingly now out of stock on EE
- Currys PC World – Managed to mess things up royally, as a result "There will be no PS5s available to buy today" but they may have some in the coming days.
- GAME – All stock sold out.
- Gamebyte – Confirmed no stock on sale today.
- Go2Games – No information.
- Hughes Direct – Has the option to buy the console but crashes when you add it to your basket.
- John Lewis – All stock sold out.
- ShopTo – Appears to have sold out.
- Smyths Toys – Confirmed no stock on sale today.
- The Game Collection – No information.
- Very – Stock has sold out.
You may also like to keep an eye on Stock Informer which tracks retailers that have consoles, although the website is very slow. Good luck!
PlayStation 5 Guides and more from TheSixthAxis
- PlayStation 5 Console Review
- DualSense Controller Review
- Astro's Playroom Review
- Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales Review
- PS5 Guide – What are Accolades and how to earn them
- PS5 Activity Cards and how they work
- PS5 Trophies – what new features to expect
Ghost of Tsushima update 1.16 patch notes, read 'em here!
Sucker Punch have updated Ghost of Tsushima with a small patch that fixes a couple of issues with the multiplayer portion of the game. Here are the notes:
Ghost of Tsushima Update 1.16 Patch Notes
- Makes adjustments to Resolve gains in Ghost of Tsushima: Legends
- Fixes an issue with melee and ranged Resolve gain perks
- Improvements to various Legends bug and crash fixes
- General bug fixes and improvements
Ghost of Tsushima has now sold more than 5 million copies on PlayStation 4, Sony have confirmed. Herman Hulst, Head of PlayStation Worldwide Studios and former Guerrilla Games Director, made the announcement via Twitter, adding another interesting statistic.
#GhostofTsusima is our fastest-selling first party original PS4 game with more than 5 million copies sold since its debut in July. What an incredible achievement by @SuckerPunchProd!
— Hermen Hulst (@hermenhulst) November 12, 2020
In our review, we scored Ghost of Tsushima a fantastic 8 out of 10:
Ghost of Tsushima is an artistic triumph, capturing a real cinematic feel through its visuals, immersive world and soundtrack. However, Jin is a serviceable main character and he and his journey to save Tsushima is often overshadowed by secondary characters and smaller, more personal stories found in the side quests. Throw in some formulaic missions and an awkward user interface, and Ghost of Tsushima is at times more style than substance.
In the months since launch, Ghost of Tsushima has received numerous game updates, adding features such as New Game+ and, of course, the Ghost of Tsushima: Legends multiplayer which we've admittedly fallen in love with. A massive congratulations to Sucker Punch – we can't wait to see what they create next for PS5.
Ghost of Tsushima Guides & more from TheSixthAxis
- Ghost of Tsushima review
- The real world history behind Ghost of Tsushima
- Is Ghost of Tsushima historically accurate? We ask a samurai expert
- Where to find the grappling hook in Ghost of Tsushima
- Ghost of Tsushima Samurai techniques upgrade guide
- Ghost of Tsushima Ghost techniques upgrade guide
- Ghost of Tsushima collectibles guide – using the Traveler's Attire
Ghost of Tsushima: Legends Guides & more from TheSixthAxis
- Ghost of Tsushima: Legends – how to survive Gyozen's Curse
- Ghost of Tsushima: Legends – Gear & XP farming guide
- Ghost of Tsushima: Legends – all Legendary Items
- Ghost of Tsushima: Legends – find Oni Treasure and Gyozen's Lost Scrolls
- Ghost of Tsushima: Legends – 7 tips & tricks for beginners
- Ghost of Tsushima: Legends – Ronin class guide
- Ghost of Tsushima: Legends – Assassin class guide
- Ghost of Tsushima: Legends – Samurai class guide
- Ghost of Tsushima: Legends – Hunter class guide
- Ghost of Tsushima: Legends – how to beat the Tengu crow demons
Source: TwistedVoxel
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Thanksgiving & Christmas update is live – here's the patch notes
Animal Crossing is all set for the festive season, with update 1.6.0 out now to sprinkle the game with new events, costumes, and more for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I mean… "Turkey Day" and "Toy Day".
Turkey Day is on 26th November this year, with a cooking themed game event, before Toy Day takes over on 1st December and runs through to Toy Day itself on 24th November. There's also some New Year's stuff planned to close out the year in style.
There's also a good step forward for inclusivity, with a set of new hairstyles available that drawn from African and Africa-American hair styles.
Anyone thinking of upgrading their Nintendo Switch or adding a new Switch to their family this Christmas will now be able to spread the Animal Crossing love. A new feature for transferring save data between systems has been added, and tools are being made available so that you can either transfer a particular resident or a whole island to a different system.
Here's the full patch notes:
Ver. 1.6.0 (Released November 19, 2020)
The software has been updated if you see "Ver. 1.6.0" in the upper-right corner of the title screen.
General updates
- Two seasonal events, Turkey Day and Toy Day, have been added.
- Residents can visit Resident Services to put in a request to increase the capacity of their home storage.
- Luna can now offer random dream destinations by selecting the "Surprise me" option.
- A new feature for transferring save data between different systems has been added.
- This feature only transfers save data for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. When necessary, please use the Nintendo Switch "Transfer Your User Data" feature as well. Learn more about save data transfer here.
- The following content has also been added:
- Additional Nook Miles redemption items.
- Additional limited-time seasonal items from Nook Shopping.
- Additional DIY recipes that use seasonal materials.
- Additional Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp collaboration item.
Fixed issues
- Other adjustments and corrections were made to improve the game play experience.
Source: Nintendo
Currys PC World cancelling PS5 orders taken before 9am today day due to administrative error
I hate to repeat myself but this is going swimmingly isn't it? It turns out that Currys PC World let customers grab a PlayStation 5 before they should have gone on sale at 9am and are now in the process of cancelling those orders, issuing refunds, and putting the stock back on sale. They state they will be refunding customers within 24-48 hours.
Unfortunately due to an error on our site we were allowing customer to check out the PS5 before they went live at 9am. Due to this we have had to cancel orders and the funds will be released back to you. Please accept my apologies
This would explain this Tweet from the main Currys PC World account.
Important Announcement
Our 9am go live for the PS5 is unfortunately on hold. We're really sorry as we know a lot of you are really excited to get your hands on the PS5, we are hoping that it will go live later today.
Keep your eyes peeled on our page for more updates
— Currys PC World (@curryspcworld) November 19, 2020
This is the latest in a long line of cock ups from retailers across the globe during the launch of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series XS. Yesterday, GAME warned that UK customers with a PS5 pre-order might not get their console on launch day, blaming delivery service Yodel. However, Yodel have hit back and denied it is their fault, issuing their own statement.
Yodel does not work directly with GAME. Our client is GFS, a fulfilment business who work in partnership with GAME. We have been consistently clear on the order volumes we are able to carry for them and it is deeply disappointing that Yodel's name has been incorrectly used in an email to customers on the status of orders. There are currently no delays within our network, and any issues regarding delivery capacity is a matter for GFS and not Yodel.
The safe, secure and timely delivery of each of these parcels is our utmost priority, and we are committed to ensuring customers receive the excellent service which we stand for.
PlayStation 5 Guides and more from TheSixthAxis
- PlayStation 5 Console Review
- DualSense Controller Review
- Astro's Playroom Review
- Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales Review
- PS5 Guide – What are Accolades and how to earn them
- PS5 Activity Cards and how they work
- PS5 Trophies – what new features to expect
Source: Twitter
Currys PC World will have PlayStation 5s for sale online from tomorrow morning, details here
UPDATE: For a full list of UK retailers who may have PS5 consoles on sale, click here!
Currys have delayed the PS5 stock go live
Our 9am go live for the PS5 is unfortunately on hold. We're really sorry as we know a lot of you are really excited to get your hands on the PS5, we are hoping that it will go live later today.
Keep your eyes peeled on our page for more updates
— Currys PC World (@curryspcworld) November 19, 2020
Original story below..
UK retailer Currys PC World have announced they will have PlayStation 5 consoles on sale tomorrow, November 19th, at 9am. Like all other retailers the sales will be online only, so you need to head over to currys.co.uk tomorrow morning and hammer that F5 button.
Please remember, the PS5 console will be available to order ONLINE ONLY from 9am tomorrow. No units will be available for in-store purchase on Thursday 19th November, please continue to check back online for further updates.
BT has also announced that it's customers have a chance of purchasing a PlayStation 5 console tomorrow You will need to log into your MyBT account and from there you should see the links to the consoles when they are available. You might also be able to pick one up from Amazon UK using the links below.
One place you probably should avoid buying from is GAME. The retailer has messaged customers this evening stating that due to the demand on delivery networks there could be delays.
Initially, GAME were using Royal Mail and DPD as couriers but then added Yodel and it is consoles that are being delivered by Yodel that may not arrive on time. Now, you may remember that in September GAME started levying a £10 delivery charge for people who pre-ordered a new console. As of right now, refunds for that delivery charge have not been mentioned.
Apologies if you have already ordered a PS5 or frankly just don't care about them, TSA is going to be bit chaotic the next twenty four hours, but this only happens once every eight years so bear with us!
Source: Twitter
PlayStation 5 Guides and more from TheSixthAxis
- PlayStation 5 Console Review
- DualSense Controller Review
- Astro's Playroom Review
- Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales Review
- PS5 Guide – What are Accolades and how to earn them
- PS5 Activity Cards and how they work
- PS5 Trophies – what new features to expect
BT and EE Customers may be able to buy a PlayStation 5 on launch day, details here
UPDATE: For a full list of UK retailers who may have PS5 consoles on sale, click here!
BT has announced that it's customers, and those of EE, have a chance of purchasing a PlayStation 5 console tomorrow, November 19th, launch day. You will need to log into your MyBT account and from there you should see the links to the consoles when they are available.
BT have not announced when the consoles will go on sale, or how many they have, but they are sure to sell out very quickly.
"By making PS5 available to our BT broadband and EE mobile customers, we're able to offer them the very latest experiences in gaming. When combining the PS5 with the ultra responsive, super-fast connectivity that BT Full Fibre delivers, customers really will enjoy an amazing gaming experience," said Alistair Wilson, Director of Devices and Partnerships, BT's Consumer Division.
If you don't have any luck with BT then Amazon UK will have a limited amount of PlayStation 5 consoles available on for sale on launch day. Both the digital and disc versions will be on sale and the should go live at 12pm GMT.
The links you need are:
Those over in the US with an Xbox Series X|S preorder had the worst deal as Amazon are suggesting the console might not arrive until the start of 2021.
We're contacting you with an update regarding your order of Xbox Series X. We expect to ship your console in the coming weeks as we receive more inventory in November and December. At this time, we anticipate that you will receive your Xbox Series X by 12/31 or before. We are making every effort to get it to you as soon as possible and apologize for any inconvenience
Over here the UK the delays seem to be shorter but people are still miffed that Amazon have moved the delivery date at such short notice, with many having taking the day off to accept the delivery including industry professionals.
Source: TrustedReviews
PlayStation 5 Guides and more from TheSixthAxis
- PlayStation 5 Console Review
- DualSense Controller Review
- Astro's Playroom Review
- Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales Review
- PS5 Guide – What are Accolades and how to earn them
- PS5 Activity Cards and how they work
- PS5 Trophies – what new features to expect
[Update] GAME warn that PS5 pre-orders are not guaranteed for release day delivery
It seems that people who pre-ordered their PS5s from GAME may not all get their consoles on release day. The retailer has messaged customers this evening stating that due to the demand on delivery networks there could be delays.
Now, you may remember that in September GAME started levying a £10 delivery charge for people who pre-ordered a new console. As of right now, refunds for that delivery charge have not been mentioned. The statement from GAME is below.
Hi Customer,
Thank you for ordering a PlayStation 5 with GAME. We wanted to let you know that our teams have been working hard over the past few weeks to prepare you o der for you. Due to the volume of PlayStation 5's in the UK market and the size of the product, the launch has led to UK wide delivery challenges for all Retailers and Couriers. Our aim has always been to ensure that as many orders arrive on time for release day as possible therefore, we have had to secure multiple couriers to help try to achieve this.
However, for reasons beyond the control of GAME, YODEL have informed us today (18th November ) that not all orders due to be delivered by them will be delivered on release day. This is due to capacity issues in their delivery network and may mean that your tracking information is not fully updated until Friday. You will receive tracking information later today to the email address that you placed your order with and can click through the link to see the status of your order. Please continue to check your email Inbox and Junk/Spam folders for delivery updates directly from YODEL. We would like to apologise for any disappointment that this may cause you but we can assure you that your console is packed and ready to be delivered by one of our couriers.
The news has been blowing up on Twitter, with user Obiadekenobi getting in touch with us. We have seen other instances of this delivery delay message being sent out. We have contacted GAME for a statement regarding refunds, and will update when we hear from the company.
Update: Yodel has released a statement on the matter.
"Yodel does not work directly with GAME. Our client is GFS, a fulfilment business who work in partnership with GAME. We have been consistently clear on the order volumes we are able to carry for them and it is deeply disappointing that Yodel's name has been incorrectly used in an email to customers on the status of orders. There are currently no delays within our network, and any issues regarding delivery capacity is a matter for GFS and not Yodel.
The safe, secure and timely delivery of each of these parcels is our utmost priority, and we are committed to ensuring customers receive the excellent service which we stand for."
Source: Twitter
Star Wars: Squadrons will be getting two new content drops, including map and fighters
A few weeks ago, EA Motive announced that it was unlikely that Star Wars: Squadrons would be getting new content. What a difference a few weeks can make then, right? Today, EA has announced there will not be one but two content drops for Star Wars: Squadrons over the next two months. The first drop will arrive in update 3.0 on November 25th and that will bring the new map Fostar Haven, which players will recognise from the first prologue mission in the game's campaign. The map will be available in Fleet Battles and the Dogfight mode. The update will also add four new components.
Those four components will include a Boost Extension Kit which gives the Starfighters an additional boost that will then charge up. The second component will be Ion Rockets to take down shields, the third will be Prototype Piercing Torpedoes that are effective against Capital ships and Flagships. These torpedoes will ignore the shields of these ships though do less overall damage than other weapons. The U-Wing and TIE Reaper will get the Anti-Material Rocket Turret. This will not attack Starfighters but instead target subsystems on the bigger ships.
Then in December update 4.0 will drop. This update will add two more starfighters into Star Wars: Squadrons. On the New Republic side that new fighter is the B-Wing, which will be classed as a bomber. On the Empire's side the TIE Defender which will be a fighter class. In addition, December's update will be adding Custom Matches. In these matches players will be able to modify things like hull/shield/damage modifiers, capital ship health, and the starfighters that can be used. Players will be able to use any of the seven maps in both Dogfights and Fleet Battles.
In our review for Star Wars: Squadrons, Dom wrote:
DayZ update 1.10 release date and next-gen upgrade confirmed
DayZ developer Bohemia Interactive have announced that update 1.10 will be released tomorrow across all versions of the game including PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The studio also confirmed DayZ's next-gen improvements on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S via backwards compatibility.
Having been previously available via DayZ's Experimental Update program on PC and Xbox One, the fixes and gameplay changes made in 1.10 will go live in latest build tomorrow.
Dear survivors
The wait is coming to an end. The #DayZ update 1.10 will be released tomorrow afternoon (CET) on all platforms.There will be no wipes of the official servers.
Patchnotes will be provided tomorrow.
Thank you for your support!pic.twitter.com/pfZscORa6w
— DayZ
New items, mechanics, and crafting materials will be added to DayZ as part of the new update. Here's a quick rundown of what new content to expect in patch 1.10:
- You can now break the players lower leg, damage is applied by falling or brute force (walking/fighting with a broken leg will result in shock damage)
- Added the Signal Pistol and its ammunition (in various colors)
- Added crafted Tanned Leather using Garden Lime
- Added crafted Leather Backpack
- Added crafted Improvised Shelter
- Added localization for Brazilian-Portuguese
- Added the crafted Splint
- Added Tarp (material)
- Added the ability to replace ruined parts of tents (entrance-/window-covers) with tarp
- Added the Pipe Wrench
- You can now repair a damaged car engine with the Pipe Wrench
- You can now repair parts of the vehicle chassis with an Epoxy Putty
- Clothing items now have an indicator for their insulation value
- Exposure to wind will make your character freeze more (forests can provide cover)
- Food decays over time
- Items dry up over-time when put on the ground or in a cargo space on the ground (proximity to a fireplace is no longer required, but the area of a fireplace dries items faster)
- Items cool down over-time in the player's inventory and on the ground
- Added a heat buffer to supply an overtime heat bonus to the thermal comfort of the player character (you receive a temporary heat bonus after spending time near a fireplace)
- Added a smoking slot to several types of fireplaces, used to dry meat
- Added additional coastline details between Storozh (prison island) and Ostrog, making the sea traversal easier and more interesting (Chernarus)
- Punching now deals damage to gloves and can cause bleeding to bare hands
- Added a visual effect to increasing shock damage (both reflecting getting hit, and current state)
- Added damage when jumping out of a running vehicle (also including a chance for broken legs and death)
- New visual heat haze effect for the fireplace, flare, road flare and torch lights
For a more detailed log of changes, you can find them here. These will hopefully be condensed when Bohemia Interactive publish the official DayZ update 1.10 patch notes.
Consoles players will no doubt be wondering what the devs are planning for DayZ on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Bohemia have confirmed that the popular sandbox survival game will be available via backwards compatible on both systems for those who already own a copy of DayZ. They haven't announced a specific update for these new consoles though according to Bohemia, there's a noticeable improvement in general performance including a more steady framerate.
Source: Twitter (@DayZ), DayZ Forums
Rainbow Six Siege Tachanka rework update is here with sexy new Elite Skin
Ubisoft have launched a new update for Rainbow Six Siege today, deploying their long-awaited operator rework for Tachanka.
Originally teased earlier this year, the Tachanka rework hit the Siege test server but is now ready for release on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It's a significant update for the Spetsnaz juggernaut and one that sees his static turret removed from the game in favour of something a lot more dynamic.
Since Rainbow Six Siege launched back in December 2015, Tachanka has rolled into every online skirmish with his mounted RP-46 Degtyaryov Machine Gun. Although pretty powerful, using this turret would leave players standing still and exposed to incoming fire. Even after Ubisoft attached a ballistics shield to the RP-46, it didn't help Tachanka's competitive viability much.
As of today, Tachanka will now carry the RP-46 LMG as his primary weapon (or the 9x19VSN sub). His gadget is now the Shumikha incendiary grenade launcher which can launch fire-spewing projectiles, igniting small areas. You'll have ten grenades in total, split between two clips of five.
To celebrate the Tachanka rework, there's a new elite skin available for this OG Rainbow Six Siege Operator. Siege players will be left lusting after the Russian beefcake once they get their hands on the topless Slava Korolyu" ("Glory to The King") skin.
In other Siege news, Ubisoft recently unveiled their next upcoming season. Year 5 Season 4 doesn't have a release date as of yet though it expected to launch some time in December. Thai Operator Aruni will be headlining Y5S4 along with her defensive Surya Gate gadget and the Skyscraper map rework. You can find more details in our preview but for now, here's a quick checklist of what's coming.
Rainbow Six Siege Y5S4 Summary
- New Operator – Aruni
- New Gadget – Surya Gate
- Skyscraper map rework
- Hibana X-KAIROS update
- Echo Yokai drone update
- Jäger Active Defense System update
- Reduced runout timers
- Improved Gadget on Gadget interactions
- Sixth Guardian charity initiative
- Vigil, Zofia, Dokka, Nomad, Kaid, Wamai and Kali Operator price reductions
Source: Press Release
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Review
Let's all be honest with ourselves, the most interesting part of the story of Breath of the Wild was the Calamity. This unavoidable disaster destroyed the kingdom 100 years ago and left Princess Zelda in a war of magical attrition to stop Calamity Ganon fully claiming the world. It was also an event that was only seen through flashbacks and fragmented information to the point of frustration.
As we patiently wait for the sequel to Breath of the Wild, Nintendo have decided to link us to the past, allowing the player to live through this era with Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. In fact, it literally begins during the build up to the Calamity as Zelda and her chosen knight Link embark from Hyrule Castle to enlist the aid of the four Champions of the Hyrulian tribes, and their Divine Beasts, to defeat the encroaching evil.
You combat the Calamity by hacking your way through familiar enemies across battlefields set in and around recognisable scenes from the original title. All the trimmings from musou genre are here: hordes of foes; an excessive KO counter; long, devastating combos; challenging boss encounters; even a host of challenge missions to test your skills with the game.
Each character has their own play style within the musou framework, so can execute combos combining normal and strong attacks, with a devastating special available when you have the bar filled. The intrigue comes from each character's unique ability, all of which are pinned to one button, and can be interwoven into the combat or used to utterly change the flow of it.
These range from Impa's symbol ability, which creates clones to replicate Impa's attacks to devastating effect, to Revali's gale ability allowing him to remain in the air and granting the use of an entirely separate combo tree. These make all of the characters feel completely different, unlike the first Hyrule Warriors, but the standardised control set makes switching seamless.
Link is more unique still, with multiple movesets being linked to him depending on the weapon he has equipped. Harking to the source material, Link's resourcefulness knows no bounds with swords, clubs, spears and even soup ladles all at his disposal. Equipping different weapon types will dramatically change how to use him, and also give different unique abilities.
Returning from Breath of the Wild are the Sheikah runes, which also add an extra dimension to the combat. Unlike that game, where the tools were unwieldy to use, the runes fit into far more seamlessly. Whenever the slate is available, you can use any of the four to affect all enemies around you, or to exploit weaknesses of bosses and captains to make them vulnerable.
The interesting thing is, while the characters all have access to the Sheikah slate, each one will use the abilities in different ways. For instance Link will simply throw a few Remote Bombs, but Zelda will summon a little Remote Bomb tank that the player has skuttle around flinging bombs everywhere. There's a lot to learn about characters this time around.
Here lies one of the best improvements of Age of Calamity over both Hyrule Warriors and Breath of the Wild. Not only are the main enemies so enjoyable to dispatch, but variety of the combat mechanics makes the stronger foes challenging. It gives you a large amount of options, whether capitalising on their telegraphed weaknesses or simply using your skills strategically.
The flexibility in the combat this time around is astonishing, pulling in the ingenuity of combat in Breath of the Wild but structuring it just enough to not overwhelm the player during the frantic battles. This perfect blend of styles is a testament to how closely the Zelda team worked with the Warriors team on this title, and something that can be seen in every facet of the game.
However, hack and slash isn't your only option this time around, as the four Divine Beasts are at your disposal in their own encounters. These giant behemoths are exactly as fun to pilot as you could have imagined from their original appearances. Vah Ruta, for instance, can fire ice shards into the thousands of enemies or swing its trunk to destroy all obstacles and scenery around you.
Another improvement in the spin-off series is how you progress and enhance your characters. All of the excessive menus of the first Hyrule Warriors are gone, with everything taking place on the world map instead. Increasing combos, adding hearts, levelling characters and the like is all done through quests on the map and you can complete them simply by gathering resources during gameplay.
This includes cooking! Throughout the world map there will be little missions shaped like pots you need to gather resources to complete. Once completed, you unlock that recipe to whip up before missions, which can then give you such effects as additional damage or elemental resistance. Let me tell you, these are basically essential to success at times.
The map also has one more great little feature in the time-saving Sheikah Sensor. This allows the highlighting of particular missions you're trying to find the resources for, which will then point out precisely where to find them. Activating it will drop neon green circles around the location and if this is a shop, it even highlights the item in green in the shop menu.
Needless to say this is yet another improvement on the last title, when you had to somehow remember which resources you needed for each Badge or other character upgrade.
If you do fancy a couple of menus though, there's a few galleries for refreshing the player on practically everything in the game. From here you can rewatch all of the cutscenes again, find character bios, listen to music, or read descriptions of every completed quest. As the cutscenes in particular are breathtaking, this is a great feature.
All of this isn't to say that the game is flawless, and it does have a few minor issues blocking it from being perfect. The multiplayer is activated through a single button press on the map, but while it's incredibly easy to start, you might regret it. The otherwise smooth frame rate really tanks in multiplayer. It's better when your characters are separate but when together the action really slows down. Not ideal.
Then there's the camera, which falls prey to a lot of the problems that a lot of 3D games do, getting caught on scenery and not adequately locking on to powerful enemies, to give a couple of examples. These are very minor gripes in the grand scheme of things, but really do hamper the enjoyment of what is a frenetic and fun game.
One thing for certain is that Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is absolutely gorgeous. Taking heavy pointers from Breath of the Wild again, all of the flair of the art style has carried over with everything having the ancient stone and neon blue effects thrown in. The character and world design is superb, truly looking and feeling like part of the universe.
The sound design also brings across the quirks from its source material, with all the chimes and noises being reproduced, and the excellent voice acting for all the characters brings some levity to all of the story beats, with Link having his best vocal performance yet. Just kidding folks, it's just a bunch of "hyahs" again, as it always is.
Finally, the fantastic soundtrack has to be highlighted. Not only does this spin-off title actually have music, unlike large swathes of Breath of the Wild, but every track is absolutely superb. Aesthetically, this is an incredibly strong package, and one that it's hard to find fault with. All of the slight touches of the game combine to create something simultaneously familiar and refreshing.
Snowrunner update for Season 2 live with Patch 10
Saber Interactive have released their long-awaited Snowrunner Season 2 update for PC and consoles, adding a wealth of free and premium content to the terrain-traversing sim.
Headlining Patch 10 is the second phase of Snowrunner's season pass titled "Season 2: Explore & Expand". However, the developers have worked in a number of general fixes and improvements.
Those who own the season pass can expect new maps and vehicles – this content pack can also be purchased separately on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
- SnowRunner – full vehicle list & stats
- SnowRunner guide – 9 beginners tips to get you started
- SnowRunner Review
- Does SnowRunner have cross-play online multiplayer?
Here's what to expect from the new DLC:
Season 2 brings two new maps set in Canada's Yukon wilderness, filled with snow-blanketed valleys, treacherous rivers and dangerous mud banks, featuring missions that allow for more creative gameplay than ever. Expand your operations into this new frontier, gathering raw materials and using the brand new cargo crafting mechanic to build a huge processing plant from scratch. Three new vehicles join the vehicle roster, including the CAT 770G: the biggest truck in the franchise yet. Current vehicles can also be customised even further, with new exclusive skins, hood ornaments and exterior stickers.
Phase 3 of the Snowrunner season pass does not yet have a release date though we do have a title – "Locate & Deliver".
Snowrunner Season 2 Update Patch Notes
Patch Notes:
Major Content
- [DLC] Brand new region Yukon with two maps
- [DLC] New trucks
- CAT TH357D
- CAT 770G
- KRS 58 "Bandit"
- [DLC] Exclusive skin for International Scout 800
- [DLC] Exclusive skin for International Loadstar 1700
- New contracts in Alaska and Taymyr
- New customization options
- Two new trials
General changes
- Added an option to secure trucks to trailers that are suitable for truck transportation
- Added additional sounds for ramp activation
- Fixed a bug where if after completing the "Working stiff" objective player sold a Caterpillar 745C it was no longer available in the store
- Reworked honk sound for Ank MK 38
- Fixed a bug where crane anchors were extended if the player tilted his truck while driving
- Tweaked Azov 64131's center of mass
- Fixed a bug where trigger zones of destination points that are placed on bridges were not displayed in-game
- Fixed a bug where the player did not receive trial rewards if he completed trials before creating a new campaign
Maps
- Added collision for Tuloma and Kandra Battery Canon on Imandra.
- The fence around the aerodrome on Imandra is now displayed on the minimap
- Fixed a bug where landmarks of buildings before and after construction were mixed up on the minimap on Drowned Lands and Zimnegorsk, Taymyr
Mods
- Added an in-game mods browser from mod.io
- Added regional modding plugin
- Supported co-op on modded maps
- Supported auto-refund for mod trucks that were purchased in-game player but were removed from mod.io afterward
- Added indication of the intersection of objects in the editor
- Supported localization for map mods
- Fixed issues with sound packing for trucks
- Fixed a bug when the dev menu was activated in custom scenarios on the second launch
- Mod creators are now able to choose if they want or not to have a dev menu available on PC
UI
- Fixed a bug where the mouse cursor was stuck on the top left of the screen when restarting an objective
- Supported warning message if the player is going to fail one of the contest conditions
- Moved Trials menu to the main menu
- Fixed a bug where the cursor on a minimap was wobbling if there were several objects under it
- Fixed a bug where markers of a quest item positions in "Star in the Sky" remained on screen after the player restarted the contract
- Fixed a bug where the yellow cargo marker did not appear after using the metal detector during the 'The Star in the Sky' contract
Co-op
- Supported sync of weather conditions in co-op
- Fixed bug where after disconnecting from a co-op game the player was unable to create his own co-op game until the application was restarted
Options
- Added an option to disable the truck driver model in cockpit view
- Added an option to limit FPS in-game (30/60/unlimited)
- Fixed bug where target display was not saved when leaving and relaunching the game (for players with two monitors)
- Added option to enable/disable KSIVA
- Added option to enable/disable motion blur
Render
- Improved visual for waves, caused by a truck driving in the water
- Improved terrain textures between mud and water in Zimnegorsk, Rift, White Valley
- Improved wheel tracks on ice patches
- Improved trees reflections in the water
Wheels
- Further improvements for G923 True Force Feedback on PC, Xbox One, and Playstation 4
- Supported vibrotactile effects setting for G923
- Added an option to calibrate brake pedal force
- Supported Fanatec wheels on consoles
Consoles
- Added additional video settings:
- Motion blur
- Sharpening
- Film grain
- FOV
Source: Focus Home Forums
Koch acquire Shadow Warrior developer Flying Wild Hog
Koch Media has announced their agreement to acquire Polish developer Flying Wild Hog, best known for their revived Shadow Warrior franchise. The studio will continue to act as an independent company within the Koch Media family, meaning that their existing deals for Shadow Warrior 3 to be published by Devolver Digital, and their action-RPG IP in development for Jagex, and a still unannounced title in partnership with Focus Home Interactive will continue
Michal Szustak, CEO Flying Wild Hog Studios said, "We are absolutely thrilled that Flying Wild Hog will be joining Koch Media and the Embracer family. […] We fell in love with Embracer's vision to build an alliance of diverse and talented studios who keep their independence and creative freedom. It's an incredibly compelling opportunity which is why we're delighted by this partnership and what it holds for our future."
It all sounds wonderful and rosy, when put like that, but it's another clutch of eggs being dropped into an ever-expanding basket. Here we see the sticky tendrils of Embracer Group extending once more, the holding company formerly known as THQ Nordic which fully owns… THQ Nordic the publisher and Koch Media, Saber Interactive, Coffee Stain, Amplifier Game Invest, and Quantic Lab.
It's a truly vast empire of game publishers and game developers. It means that Flying Wild Hog are now in the same game development and publishing web as Metro developer 4A Games (owned by Saber Interactive), Darksiders developer Gunfire Games (owned by THQ Nordic the publisher), Little Nightmares developer Tarsier Studios (part of Amplifier Game Invest), and on and on.
So it's yet another video game company acquisition, with seemingly anything and everything up for sale right now. A number of other already gigantic companies have recently announced or concluded other major acquisitions, including Microsoft acquiring Bethesda parent company Zenimax, and Codemasters agreeing to a buyout by Take-Two.
Source: press release