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PS5's Download Queue Bug Now Has A Fix, Per Sony

ps5

As of yesterday, Sony has now launched their new console, the PS5, on a worldwide basis. It's an exciting time with new tech, new games and all kinds of new things to discovery. Unfortunately, just like the launch of most new tech, it hasn't been without issues. Both Sony and Microsoft have seen reported issues for their new systems. One of the nastier ones for Sony was a bug that would cancel out your download queue, essentially making it impossible to download updates for games. In some cases, you couldn't even upgrade a PS4 version of a title to its PS5 one for games that supported that. Well, it seems Sony has a fix now.

On the official support PlayStation Twitter, they posted steps to take if you've fallen victim to this bug. It's pretty simple, just make sure you download the latest firmware update and start your PS5 in safe mode then rebuild your database. That should do it. It's hard to gauge if this solution is working on a widespread basis, but IGN (who was one of the first to report on the bug) says that it's fixed the issue for those that had it on their staff.

If you're still suffering from this bug, try this out. Hopefully, it's a fix for everyone.

Sony Pays Rick And Morty To Shamelessly Sell You On The PS5

PS5 Logo

Sony managed to launch the PS5 this year despite a worldwide pandemic, and now it's time for celebration, and for the real marketing to begin. While PS5s are scarce right now, it won't always be that way, and you got to get people sold on the machine even if you can't sell it to them just yet. Today we got a neat little ad from a popular TV show to hopefully do just that.

A new ad popped up from Adult Swim that used the titular duo from their main show, Rick and Morty. In it Rick counts that nice bit of cash Sony slid their way as Morty sells you on the system's features. It's actually not the first time Sony has had some ads with the characters, as Death Stranding also got a Rick and Morty-themed commercial when it launched last year. Overall, this is pretty tame compared to the usual contents of the show, though there's a few bleeps toward the end, and well, it's not hard to use your imagination to figure out what was under them. Check it out below.

The PlayStation 5 is now available worldwide.

PS5 And Xbox Series S Make TIME's Best Inventions Of 2020 List

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2020 hasn't been a good year, that much is for sure. It's hard to say what 2021 will hold, whether it will be just 2020, part 2, or if it'll end up being better. Keep your fingers crossed for that vaccine, ya'll. Regardless, though, despite the struggles of a global pandemic, both Sony and Microsoft managed to launch brand new systems earlier this month, and TIME has a nod to both.

TIME magazine released their list for best 100 inventions of 2020. Sony's PS5 made the list with its biggest pluses being its use of the custom SSD as well as the unique tech in the DualSense such as the adaptive trigger and haptic feedback.

"At more than a foot tall and weighing in at just under 10 lb., the PlayStation 5 is among the largest video-game consoles ever made—Sony needed the room to support visually spectacular titles like Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Games load almost instantaneously, thanks to a solid-state hard drive. The graphics processor is almost 10 times faster than that of the PS 4, which allows for beautiful visuals, and a new controller is full of haptic feedback sensors that add a new dimension to play. When a character walks on sand, players feel the grit in the controller; when Spider-Man grips a subway car, players feel the train's rumble."

Microsoft wasn't left out, as the Xbox Series S also got a spot. It's near silent running, improved processing power from the Xbox One and affordable price point were its key listing points. Xbox Game Pass also got a shoutout.

"The Series S's secret weapon is Game Pass: a subscription service where new hits like Halo Infinite will appear the same day as their traditional release. And those games will look even sharper—the Series S ($299) can run high-resolution games at 120 frames per second, a 100% increase over its predecessor, the Xbox One. What's more, because there is no disc drive, the Series S operates almost silently, making it all the easier to concentrate on the action."

What's interesting here is that the Xbox Series X did not get a spot at all. There isn't even mention of the system in the Series S listing. That's rather odd considering they are essentially sister consoles, but most likely they didn't want Microsoft to burn two spots, and hey, it's their list after all.

The PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S and even the Series X are now available on a worldwide basis.

Sony Undecided As Of Yet On Expanding PlayStation Plus Collection

PlayStation Plus Collection

The PS5 is here, and well, there may not be a lot of next gen only games to play on it (like…3 maybe?), there's still a lot to play if you're willing to go back. For those who have PlayStation Plus, for instance, there's a select amount of titles you can get as part of the service, some of the biggest and best from the PS4 era, which even got a little extra right before the system launched. Will there be even more? Well, it seems Sony isn't sure just yet.

Doing his interview rounds, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan spoke with GQ and when asked about expanding the collection, he was upfront in saying he wasn't sure exactly where they were going with the collection. The main aim of it was for early adapters of the PS5 to be able and go back and miss the big titles they didn't get to. They'll have to see just how much use comes before dedicating more to it.

"Well, we're going to wait and see how the world receives the Plus Collection. You know, which games are played how much they're played before we make any decisions about that. We think it's potentially going to be a great user acquisition tool. Arguably if you never had a PS4 and you choose to buy a PS5 you basically get a PS4, right?"

The list of titles available in the Collection is already pretty solid, but more would be welcome. Ryan seemed to also hint some kind of answer to Xbox's Game Pass could be in the works, so it's not hard to see them attempting to grow this into something much more. We'll just have to wait and see how it develops.

Horizon Zero Dawn's PC Port Is Headed To GOG November 24

horizon zero dawn

It was quite a pleasant surprise when Sony and Guerilla Games announced that their latest title together, the open world adventure game Horizon Zero Dawn, would be coming to PC. It's rare that one of Sony's high profile first party titles makes the leap to PC. While it had some technical issues that are still being ironed out, it seems to have been successful. Now it'll have another PC storefront to land at.

As announced on the the official GOG Twitter, apparently the PC port of the game will be coming to the service next week. It's quite a surprise, because part of GOG's appeal is having full DRM-free versions of their games. Because of that, most major publishers skip GOG and the bulk of its sales are smaller titles as well as touched up older games. Either way, it'll be another way to experience one of Sony's best from last gen.

Horizon Zero Dawn is available now on PlayStation 4 and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store. The GOG version will release on November 24th. A sequel is also in the works, Horizon Forbidden West, that is planned to come in 2021 for the PS5 and PS4.

Cyberpunk 2077 – 4K and Ray-Tracing Requirements for PC Revealed

Cyberpunk 2077

As promised, CD Projekt RED has offered updated PC requirements for Cyberpunk 2077. Not much has changed about playing at 1080p resolution, save for High settings also working with a GeForce GTX 1660 Super or AMD Radeon RX 470. It's the 1440p/Ultra settings where things get interesting with an Nvidia RTX 2060 or AMD Radeon RX 5700XT being necessary.

For 2160p/Ultra, 16 GB of RAM along with an RTX 2080 Super, RTX 3070 or Radeon RX 6800 XT with 8 GB VRAM is necessary. Ray-tracing at 1080p and Medium settings is only slightly less stressful with 16 GB of RAM and an RTX 2060 with 6 GB VRAM required. For 1440p/Ultra settings with ray-tracing enabled, an Intel Core i7-6700 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB of RAM and an RTX 3070 8 GB are mandatory. And if you want to play at 2160p/Ultra with ray-tracing on, then you better have an RTX 3080 10 GB handy.

Regardless of your configuration, 70 GB of hard disc space is required with everything above the absolute minimum mandating a solid state drive. Cyberpunk 2077 is currently slated to release on December 10th for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Google Stadia. Check out some of the newest gameplay here and here.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War – Nuketown '84 Receives First Trailer, Out Next Week

Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War_01

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is out now but the journey for multiplayer fans has only just begun. On November 24th, Treyarch will add its first post-launch multiplayer map for free. And it's Nuketown '84, yet another remake of the beloved Nuketown map. Check it out its first trailer below.

Along with more a desert environment, the map also seemingly sports a kill counter (as denoted by its "population"). Fundamentally, there's a lot that's familiar from the two-story houses to the buses in the middle of the street. The question now is whether there's an Easter egg to cause the mannequins to come to life.

There's even more to come with Season 1 in December, starting with 2v2 Gunfight, additional multiplayer maps and modes, and new weapons incoming. One can also expect "new" Zombies modes and the Classified Warzone Experience. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is currently available for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5 and PC – check out our official review here.

Destiny 2: Beyond Light – Hotfix Re-Enables Witherhoard, Nerfs Shadebinder

Destiny 2 Beyond Light - Shadebinder_02

Bungie recently deployed hotfix 3.0.0.3 for Destiny 2: Beyond Light, fixing Witherhoard and patching an exploit with the Warlock's new Shadebinder Super that allowed for quickly killing raid bosses. The former was disabled after doing obscene amounts of damage-over-time and following this fix, can now be used again. Interestingly, the hotfix also contains some nerfs for the Shadebinder.

Penumbral Blast, the class's melee ability, has had its projectile speed reduced by 20 percent while its range has dropped from 28 meters to 16 meters. The Super, Winter's Wrath, now lasts 30 seconds instead of 24 seconds. Cold Snap seeker speed has also been reduced by 23 percent.

For the Crucible, the duration of freeze caused by Cold Snap has been reduced from 4.75 seconds to 1.35 seconds, which also applies to Penumbral Blast. The heavy attack from Winter's Wrath also won't affect players who haven't been frozen. Check out some of the other changes from the hotfix below and stay tuned for more details.

Destiny 2 Hotfix 3.0.0.3

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

Stasis

  • 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%.

Against Guardians:

  • 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.

Returnal Video Reveals New Gameplay Snippets

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Housemarque's Returnal is still quite a ways off, releasing next year for PS5. But some brief new gameplay footage has emerged courtesy of HouseCast, a videocast featuring the development team. Director Harry Krueger talks about the studio's previous titles like Resogun and how Returnal is its most ambitious game yet.

The footage sees the protagonist, a marooned space explorer, battling hostile wildlife on an alien world. Along with free aiming, there seems to be a kind of lock-on mechanic as well. Furthermore, it's possible to use a dash ability to quickly side-step danger, not unlike the studio's top-down shooter Nex Machina.

Returnal is exclusive to the PS5, targeting a release in the first half of 2021. Along with third person shooting, it also features numerous rogue-like elements such as a randomly generated world with each run, different upgrades and so on. Check out some more recent gameplay footage here and stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

Balan Wonderworld Trailer Gives a Brief Glimpse of its Underwater Chapter

Balan Wonderworld_02

Square Enix's Balan Wonderworld, being developed by a team led by the creators of Sonic the Hedgehog, has been looking like an exciting prospect since the moment it was first shown off, and in the lead-up to its launch, we've been getting frequent glimpses at the game and its colourful world.

In a new trailer, which you can see below, we get a brief look at one of the several worlds we'll be visiting in the upcoming platformer- an underwater environment, where the story will center around a young girl named Fiona, who has a love for all things aquatic. Take a look below.

Balan Wonderworld will see its story being divided into a dozen different tales to tell, each taking players to unique new locations and worlds, which will serve as a blend of the real and the fantastical.

Balan Wonderworld is due out on March 26, 2021 for the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. You can check out some real time gameplay footage through here.