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Phil Spencer Seems To Be A Fan Of The PS5's DualSense Controller

Phil-Spencer

This year saw the unlikely launch of three next generation systems: two from Microsoft in the form of the Xbox Series X and Series S and one from Sony with the PS5. All saw their pros and their cons and as usual, the fanboys smelt that sweet and beautiful blood of a console wars born anew. But the boss of Xbox actually tipped his hat to the main competitor for one feature.

While the Xbox Series controller is largely the same as the Xbox One controller just with some minor tweaks (which plays into Microsoft's plans of backward and forward compatibility going into this generation), Sony went the other direction. The PS5's controller, dubbed the DualSense, was the most radical redesign for a PlayStation controller since the PS1 and has a lot of different new features such as adaptive triggers and haptic feedback, which is being implemented in various different ways in various different games.

Speaking with The Verge, Phil Spencer seems to be a fan of the new controller. He said he applauds what Sony did with the DualSense and thinks that everyone in the industry can take bits and pieces from each other, even calling back to the Wii having a major impact on Microsoft with their Kinect project.

"I applaud what they did with the controller, not actually for–well, I shouldn't say not for the specifics of the controller, but more than just the specifics of the controller," he said. "I think for all of us in the industry, we should learn from each other and the innovation that we all push on, whether it's distribution of business model like Game Pass, or controller tech, or the Wii back in the day, which clearly had an impact on us when we went off and did Kinect and Sony did the Move."

The DualSense is neat, and it'll be interesting to see if the features continue being used in third party games after this honeymoon launch period. If they do, it wouldn't be far-fetched to see Microsoft do their own thing with that tech in a Xbox Series controller redesign or a new Elite controller down the line.

Nioh Remastered – The Complete Edition On PS5 Will Get Photo Mode

The Nioh Collection

There have been a variety of different takes on the Souls formula of action RPGs over the years with maybe the most dynamic being Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja's Nioh. The series is now two games deep with a much stronger focus on systems and action than many others in the subgenre and both are getting full remasters for PS5 next year. Today we also got a small taste of a new feature for the first title.

On the official Japanese Twitter, it was announced that Nioh Remastered – The Complete Edition would get a photo mode. That was never added to the original PS4 or later PC release. As a bit of a tease we also got the first photo of it in action, which you can see below.

Nioh Remastered – The Complete Edition will release February 5th, 2021 for PS5. It will be available as both a standalone release or alongside The Nioh Collection that will collect both it and a remastered version of Nioh 2.

The Wonderful 101: Remastered Gets Huge Demo And Codes For Hidden Bayonetta Characters

the wonderful 101

It was 2013 when PlatinumGames and Nintendo teamed up to release The Wonderful 101 for the Wii U. The game was a unique action game that tried to combine several different elements of the action beat'em genre in a huge package. Unfortunately, it ended up being something of a flop, but got a second chance at life with a remastered version that came to several current consoles via crowdfunding and eventually a traditional retail release. Now, those who haven't experienced it can try out the frantic action title, along with some guests.

Today Platinum announced that a pretty huge demo was coming for the game, calling it the Wonder-Size Cadet Demo, which is said to have two hours of content, which probably covers a good portion of the game's first missions. If you already have the game or like the demo enough to buy it, they are also giving you codes for instant access to three hidden character from another Platinum franchise, Bayonetta. You can see codes for Wonder-Bayonetta, Wonder-Rodin and Wonder-Jeanne below. 

The Wonderful 101: Remastered is available now on PlayStation 4, Switch and PC. The Cade Demo is live now across all three platforms.

 

Xbox November Update Brings Game Pass Pre-Installs, Xbox Series X/S Dynamic Backgrounds, And More

xbox logo

November is just about over, and what a month it has been for gaming. We got the launch of not one, not two, but three new consoles. On the Microsoft side we got the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, which is apparently their biggest console launch ever. This month's big update is also heavy on new features for the new consoles.

As detailed via the official news site, November 2020's update will bring lots of new adjustments. While it's not all exclusive to the Series X/S, a lot of it is aimed that direction. For instance, this update will bring new dynamic backgrounds to give your new systems a sharp look, as well as tags for games that are optimized for Series X/S for easier searches and a new tag for the Auto HDR function that will let you know when a game is benefitting from the feature. Maybe the most interesting one for many is that you will now be able to pre-install certain titles from the Coming Soon list on Xbox Game Pass so you can get ahead of a game's release. You can read full details through here.

The Xbox November 2020 Update will be rolling to all Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S owners starting today.

The Good Life Gets New Publisher, Now Set For Summer 2021

The Good Life

It was last year when the legendary and quirky Japanese Director, Swery65, unveiled his next crowdfunded game, The Good Life. The game is a strange one about a mysterious England town claiming to be 'the happiest place on Earth' and a New York photographer who finds herself trapped there as she unravels a strange secret. Swery just finished up his last game, Deadly Premonition 2, which was…quite something, and now it seems we got a little more information on The Good Life.

It's been roughly a year now since we last heard any significant update on the title, but today it was announced the title was picked up by a new publishing partner, The Irregular Corporation. The company is a fairly new one, having been founded in 2016 and has published several smaller indie titles. Alongside the announcement came a new trailer, which you can see below.

The Good Life is now set to launch in Summer of 2021 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch and PC. As it stands there seems to be no native version planned for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, but the PS4 and Xbox One versions should be playable on their respective successors.

Immortals Fenyx Rising Review – Rising and Falling

Immortals Fenyx Rising has had an interesting journey en route to launch. Originally beginning development as an offshoot of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, over the course of the last year and a half, the game has gone through a delay, a mid-development overhaul, and even a name change. A mishmash of ideas taken from Assassin's Creed Odyssey itself and from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Immortals has certainly looked like an interesting prospect for a while- and though it certainly has a lot going for it, it's not a game without issues.

Set in the world of Greek mythology, Immortals Fenyx Rising sees you stepping into the shoes of a Greek warrior who is tasked with rescuing the Greek pantheon from the clutches of the evil Typhon in order to put a stop to the Titan's machinations. While you'd usually associate a Greek mythology setting with stories that take themselves all too seriously and are ripe with tragedies and violence galore, Immortals is a rather light-hearted game.

The duo of Zeus and Prometheus serve as narrators of the tale told in Immortals, with Prometheus taking the role of the eloquent poet who waxes lyrical and paints pictures with his words, and Zeus serving as the foil to his artistic tendencies by constantly butting in as the unreliable narrator and a treasure trove of jokes and quips. The two make a great pair, and inject a lot of charm and humour into the proceedings, with the interactions between them being a highlight in particular. Other characters are written with similar wit and irreverence as well, and on the whole, Immortals' storytelling feels very much like an animated show for audiences of all ages. That light-hearted tone is a great choice for the game, because even though the story in and of itself is nothing special, the charming and easygoing humour will keep you constantly engaged.

"Even though the story in and of itself is nothing special, the charming and easygoing humour will keep you constantly engaged."

What's really interesting about Immortals though – especially given the fact that it's an open world title made by Ubisoft – is its size, which strikes a solid balance between being excessively massive the way modern open world games so often tend to be, and being a bit too condensed in a misguided overcorrection. Immortals' world is still large and varied, but packed tightly and in a condensed manner, so that you never feel too overwhelmed by its proportions. It helps that as far as the art design is concerned, Immortals is absolutely gorgeous. It's full of bold, bright colours that are used liberally and, at times, almost in excess, making for a world that feels like a wonderful, child-like water colour painting.

Traversing that world is also usually rather enjoyable. In this area, Immortals borrows from Breath of the Wild heavily, with the trifecta of stamina management, climbing, and gliding working together to deliver a movement system that fans of Nintendo's 2017 masterpiece will be all too familiar with. Virtually every surface in the game you will come across is climbable, and combining that with jumping off of vantage points to glide across the land with your wings forms the backbone of how you move about the world. Like Breath of the Wild, climbing and gliding both deplete your stamina meter as well, and juggling all of those factors ensures that you're never on autopilot.

That said, though Immortals ticks all the boxes of a Breath of the Wild-style traversal system and is fun in its own right, it isn't quite as fun. For starters, your movement speed while you're gliding is slower than you'd expect, especially given the fact that you're literally flying with wings, which means the thrill of flight is somewhat muted. On top of that, simple platforming-focused actions like jumping, double-jumping, or even dodging don't feel as tight or as responsive as they should. Jumps feel a bit too floaty, while dodges have more weight to them than they should. These are not major problems by any means, but they do come together to dull the edges of Immortals' otherwise enjoyable traversal.

Then there's exploration, which – like traversal – has its pros and cons. Immortals' world is full of mini-dungeons to take on, chests to unlock, collectibles to hunt down, traversal challenges to tackle, puzzles to solve, and more, so there's no shortage of things to do on paper. Usually, these activities are fun to track as well, which is largely helped by the world's aforementioned condensed size and scope. That size, however, also acts as a bit of a double-edged sword.

immortals fenyx rising

"As far as the art design is concerned, Immortals is absolutely gorgeous. It's full of bold, bright colours that are used liberally and, at times, almost in excess, making for a world that feels like a wonderful, child-like water colour painting."

I mentioned earlier that Immortals borrows heavily from both Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Breath of the Wild, but it's also lacking some key elements that made exploration in both those games so much fun (and for very different reasons). Odyssey's world was brimming with quests and side quests to play through that usually entailed narrative-driven choices, while tearing through forts with either stealth or combat or a mixture of both was also incredibly addictive.

Immortals doesn't have that- exploration is more about tracking down resources and collectibles to level up your health, stamina, abilities, weapons, and armour similar to Breath of the Wild, which means that even though there are, of course, still quests and side quests to hunt down, they take a bit of a backseat to exploring the world. What made that resource hunting in Breath of the Wild so much fun, however, was its spectacular physics and chemistry engine, which made interacting with essentially everything in the world an absolute joy, and opened up countless permutations and combinations in its staggeringly emergent and systemic gameplay. Immortals doesn't have that either.

Put together, deficiencies in both those areas mean that Immortals ends up feeling like a pared back version of both, like a game that's trying to emulate the success of genre giants, but never really reaching those same heights for one reason or the other. Don't get me wrong, exploration is still fun, and there's a nice variety of activities on offer here, but I was never really as engaged or immersed in the game's world as I had hoped before starting it up that I would be.

Combat, gear, abilities, and progression all feel similarly derivative as well, yet not nearly as fleshed out as the games Immortals borrows from. Combat controls the exact same way as Odyssey, with light, heavy, and ranged attacks mapped to the shoulder buttons and triggers, and things such as perfect parries and perfect dodges opening up brief windows to let loose with flurries of attacks. There isn't a ton of variety on offer in terms of weapons and gear- though that part I actually don't mind too much, seeing as the game ends up putting more of an emphasis on making meaningful upgrades to the gear you already have rather than constantly bombarding you with new loot that ends up feeling disposable.

immortals fenyx rising

"Due to some deficiencies, Immortals ends up feeling like a game that's trying to emulate the success of genre giants, but never really reaching those same heights for one reason or the other."

By now you must be pretty tired of the constant Breath of the Wild comparisons – I sure am getting tired of having to make so many of them – but there's one other area where Immortals borrows from the Nintendo game liberally- the dungeons. Like the shrines in Breath of the Wild, Immortals' world is littered with several mini-dungeons, known here as the Vaults of Tartaros. Offering puzzles and combat challenges, each of these shrines Vaults task you with getting to their end point in different ways (with some also hiding secret chests with gear or cosmetics), and you're rewarded at the end with a Spirit Orb a lightning bolt from Zeus, which can be used to add chunks to your stamina bar.

I enjoyed most of the Vaults in Immortals, and puzzle design was largely solid, barring a few that felt either too frustrating or too opaque. What I did not enjoy was the fact that visually, they pretty much look the exact same- which, again, is something Breath of the Wild fans will be familiar with. For a game that's as diverse, vibrant, and beautiful in its open world as Immortals, the lack of visual variety and creative flair in these Vaults felt like a real letdown.

Though I have both good and bad things to say about most of Immortals, the one area that I think deserves absolute criticism is its technical issues. To be clear, these issues aren't related to performance or visuals. The frame rate is solid, load times are lightning-quick (I played on an Xbox Series X), and the game doesn't really suffer too much from things such as screen tearing, texture pop-in, or other bugs that Ubisoft open world games so often struggle with at launch.

But Immortals is very, very prone to crashing. In the time that I spent with the game, it felt like it was crashing once every couple of hours. One particular crash happened when I was making a manual save, at which point the game froze, forcing me to restart it. When I booted it up again, all my auto-saves from my previous play session had disappeared, the manual save I'd been trying to make had failed, and I essentially lost a good 2-3 hours of progress. Above all else, I hope Ubisoft focuses on these crashing issues with post-launch patches.

"Immortals is very, very prone to crashing. In the time that I spent with the game, it felt like it was crashing one every couple of hours."

All in all, Immortals Fenyx Rising is a decent effort by Ubisoft. It's much more condensed and tightly packed than the publisher's games have been over the last decade, its world is beautiful, and exploration and traversal, in spite of some issues, are largely fun. At the same time though, it also feels like a stripped back version of the games it tries to emulate, and with its technical issues, it unfortunately keeps getting in its own way.

Ubisoft has a bit of a history of fumbling their new IP debuts and their interesting ideas with inconsistent execution, but then striking home with second instalments that realize the full potential of those ideas- they did it with Assassin's Creed, they did it with Watch Dogs. I hope they do it with Immortals as well, because there's definitely something here that, if fostered properly, can turn into a winning formula. That might not be what it is in its current state, but I do hope to see Ubisoft taking another crack at this property, hopefully to do a better job with their second attempt.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox Series X.

Immortals Fenyx Rising Receives Launch Trailer and Deep Dive Video

immortals fenyx rising

Reviews have dropped for Ubisoft's Immortals Fenyx Rising, which is out in the next few days. Along with the release of the "Monster Hunt" Twitch extension, the publisher has not one but two trailers for the open world action adventure. The first is a launch trailer while the second is a deep dive video that goes into more detail about the setting and mechanics.

Long story short, you're Fenyx, a Greek soldier that ends up on the Golden Isle. The Pantheon has been reduced to nothing thanks to the might of Typhon, the Titan, so it's up to Fenyx to save the day. As an open world title, Immortals Fenyx Rising has drawn quite a few comparisons to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

The story is a lot more comedic though with Zeus and Prometheus serving as dual (and dueling) narrators so it's not a straight rip-off. Immortals Fenyx Rising is out on December 3rd for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Google Stadia and PC. Stay tuned for more details in the coming days.

DOOM Eternal on Switch Supports Gyroscopic Controls, BattleMode Confirmed

DOOM Eternal chainsaw

DOOM Eternal is coming to Switch next week and along with a new trailer showcasing gameplay, Bethesda also has a FAQ to answer any lingering questions. It confirms once more that the title won't have a physical edition "at this time" and can only be downloaded from the Nintendo eShop. Gyroscopic controls are also supported for both the Switch and Switch Lite though it can switched off.

BattleMode also makes the jump, offering a 2v1 multiplayer experience for players. If that weren't enough, The Ancient Gods – Part 1 is will also be coming to the Switch, albeit at a "later date." Perhaps the only slightly ambiguous detail is the game's storage size on Switch.

The FAQ states that it's 18.8 GB but has a "(TBD)" next to this, perhaps indicating that it could change ahead of time. Perhaps the day one patch will push the installation size slightly higher or lower. Regardless, DOOM Eternal is out on December 8th for the Switch. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

Genshin Impact Character Demo Highlights the Elegant Zhongli

Genshin Impact

Though miHoYo's Genshin Impact saw the release of update 1.1 earlier this month, the developer isn't shy about promoting the newest characters added. We've already seen Xinyan's rock and roll style but the latest character demo is more elegant. It stars Zhongli, the five-star Geo user. Check it out below.

Contracted by the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, Zhongli is all about order and fights to cleanse the harbor of Liyue. His abilities include Rain of Stone, which can deal six quick strikes normally and a path of spears when held down. Dominus Lapidis creates a Geo Construct that deals AoE damage and can also block attacks.

Planet Befall summons an enormous meteor which deals huge amounts of damage to foes and petrifies them, sealing their movement entirely. Given Zhongli's ranking, the chances of pulling him are very low. Nevertheless, if you get lucky, he can be quite the powerful fighter for one's team. Stay tuned for more details on Genshin Impact's next update in the coming weeks especially with the Dragonspine region coming in December.

PS5 Breaks Record for UK's Biggest Console Launch – Rumor

ps5

It's no secret that PlayStation 5 is a massive success. Sony outright confirmed that it was the company's biggest console launch ever and that demand was "unprecedented." However, it also seems that the next-gen console broke console launch records in the UK as well.

This is according to VideoGamesChronicle, which cites publishing sources that it spoke to. Launch sales have reportedly "far exceeded" the PS5 which sold a whopping 250,000 units in the first 48 hours. With the Xbox Series X/S reportedly selling about 155,000 units on its first day, this puts the PS5 at a significant advantage. Interestingly, it seems that sales for both could have been higher if there was more stock.

It also seems that the regular version of the PS5 was more popular than the digital version and made up two-thirds of launch sales in the UK. Most hardware sales were also via pre-orders so it should be interesting to see if both Microsoft and Sony can keep up the momentum heading into the new year. As always, stay tuned for more details on the same.