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[UPDATED]English Lockdown 2: What will happen to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S pre-orders?

England is about to enter a second lockdown in an effort to curb the growing number of cases of Coronavirus Covid-19. This is of course designed to save lives, and to prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed, and as such it's something that absolutely must be done. However, along with a host of questions and worries it creates for households around the country, it will have gamers wondering about what will happen to any PS5 or Xbox Series X|S pre-orders that have been made from a high street store, whether that's at GAME, Argos, Smyths Toys, or another retailer.

There are a number of variables here, beginning with the fact that some game retailers considered themselves essential retail during the first lockdown and remained open. We can all grudgingly agree that they're not essential, even if we consider them to be so, and the chances of GAME or someone else using a loophole like this probably won't last very long.

Smyths ran click and collect services during the first lockdown so they may restart that service. However, if there are hundreds of consoles at pre-ordered at each store then there may still be problems assigning enough time slots on launch day. GAME have also run a click and collect service.

Argos customers may have the best luck as many Argos stores are located in Sainsbury's supermarkets. Any pre-orders at branches that are closed could be shifted to the ones that are open in Sainsburys.

The stores may also shift preorders to delivery, though there's already going to be an almighty strain on delivery services through that period to begin with, with even further issues brought on by a second lockdown. There's very little chance that anyone with an in-store order will receive their console on day one, as the console pre-orders that were already in place for delivery will have all of the capacity booked up.

Combine that with the fact that the new consoles are huge and take up way more space than any previous generation, means fewer will fit on each van. It might be the case that you will receive it within a week, if you're lucky. If it's GAME, they've also started charging an extra £10 for delivery, so you might receive it, but it will cost you more.

The third, and worst option, is that you simply won't be able to get your console until the lockdown lifts, most likely according to news sources on the 1st of December. A lockdown means lockdown, and game consoles aren't particularly important in the scheme of things. The only option will be to pick one up in a supermarket, but as we've recently seen in Wales, non-essential items were removed from sale. They might receive their stock but not be allowed to sell it to you. Given that pre-orders for both consoles are sold out everywhere, it looks impossible to move it a different retailer.

We've reached out to GAME, Smyths Toys and Argos for comment.

UPDATE: Smyths have tweeted the following:

Hi there. We are constantly monitoring the current situation and restrictions. Rest assure if changes are made we will be in touch via text or email with all customers with preorders with instructions and arrangements

— @AskSmythsToys (@AskSmythsToys) October 31, 2020

The PlayStation 5 versions of PS4 games do not support PSVR

PlayStation VR is turning in to a bit a of a mess on PlayStation 5, the new PS5 camera does not work with PSVR and it's now been revealed that PS5 versions of current PS4 games will not support PlayStation VR.

A Sony representative said "We have not announced PS5 titles for PS VR," who also indicated that Hitman 3's VR mode would only be playable via the PS4 version of the game. That mode will have to be played via backward compatibility on PS5, and will mean that even if you take advantage of the free PS5 upgrade, you'll need to keep the PS4 version installed as well for VR. You'll obviously also want the PS5 version installed to get the fancier graphics when playing on your standard TV.

Ubisoft sowed more confusion yesterday when they announced that PSVR titles Star Trek Bridge Crew and Werewolves Within would not be compatible with PS5 but then retracted the statement citing "inaccuracies".

Sony's Shuhei Yoshida has tweeted pictures giving us our first look at the PlayStation 5 camera adaptor that will let you use your PlayStation 4 camera on your new console. You need the adaptor if you are going to be using PlayStation VR on PS5 as the new PS5 camera does not work with PSVR – a very silly decision by Sony.

The adaptor is going to take up on the USB ports on the console, and since another one is used by the PSVR headset that's half of the four ports on the console taken by PSVR. The PS5 has three USB-A ports, one on the front of the console and two on the back, and one USB-C port on the front.

The launch of the PlayStation 5 camera adaptor did not go well with the site failing to register Capturs and details, but everything seems to be working now and you can get yours by heading to the PlayStation website.

The PlayStation 5 camera adaptor might be the only bit of kit you are getting in the near future if you were planning to pick up your console from a high street retailer, the UK seems to be heading to Lockdown 2: Electric Booglaloo which means GAME and other stores will be closed when the PlayStation 5, and indeed the Xbox Series X, launch.

Source: UploadVR

Ruined King: A League of Legends Story heads to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and current gen in 2021

Riot Forge has announced that the single player RPG Ruined King: A League of Legends Story will be released in early 2021 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC via Steam and Epic, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch. The game is being developed by Airship Syndicate. Riot Forge also confirmed that players who buy the PS4 and Xbox One versions will get a free upgrade to the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions respectively.

League of Legends has a large roster of Champions but not all of them will be appearing in Ruined King: A League of Legends Story. Instead, the confirmed Champions are Miss Fortune, Illaoi, Pyke Yasuo, Braum and Ahri. There is very little information on what to expect with the official description reading:

Ruined King is a narrative driven turn-based RPG centered around the unlikely partnership between some familiar faces as they work together for the benefit of all Runeterra. This is Riot's first foray into a completable, interactive experience that will allow players (like yourselves) to experience Runeterra in new ways.

Ruined King: A League of Legends Story was the first announced title from Riot Games' publishing arm Riot Forge. Under this label Riot Games will provide all of the necessary support to studios regarding League lore and allow the studios to base games upon established stories or go further and add new stories to the universe which will be canon. Riot Games will also help handle localisation, marketing, and provide voice-over talent. Developers that work with Riot Forge won't be limited when it comes to platforms with PC, consoles, and mobile all areas in which League of Legend games will be published.

Source: Riot Forge

Ubisoft retract the statement that stated some of their games would not be backwards compatible on PS5

Yesterday Ubisoft revealed that eight of their PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR titles will not work on PlayStation 5 via backward compatibility. The biggest of the bunch is Assassin's Creed Syndicate, but select PSVR titles will also not work. The listed games were:

Assassin's Creed Syndicate
Assassin's Creed Chronicles Trilogy Pack
Assassin's Creed Chronicles India
Assassin's Creed Chronicles China
Assassin's Creed Chronicles Russia
Risk
Star Trek Bridge Crew
Werewolves Within
Space Junkies

However, Ubisoft have now removed the post citing inaccuracies.

We have pulled the Ubisoft Connect article and forum post regarding backwards compatibility for the time being as there may be inaccuracies involving the Ubisoft titles that will be playable on PS5.

By contrast, Ubisoft have stated definitively that all of their games released for Xbox One will be compatible with Xbox Series X|S, which lines up with Microsoft's quite definitive statements on the matter.

The reason for the incompatibility is not known, but the rest of Ubisoft's back catalogue will work just fine, and they also highlight a number of games that will have bespoke cross-progression support through Ubisoft Connect.

You'll be able to take your game progression (but not microtransactions) with you in the following games:

Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, PC, Stadia and Amazon Luna
Immortals Fenyx Rising: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Nintendo Switch, PC, Stadia and Amazon Luna
Riders Republic: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, PC, Stadia and Amazon Luna
Hyper Scape: already deployed on Xbox One, PlayStation®4 and PC

While there will be console family cross-progression for Watch Dogs: Legion and Rainbow Six Siege (when its next gen version is released) And they also curiously highlight that games like For Honor (which is receiving a next-gen graphical upgrade), The Division 2, The Crew 2, and the yet to be released Just Dance 2021 and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake will also have console family cross-progression, which to my understanding should "just work" through regular backward compatibility.

Source: Gematsu

Something for the Weekend – 31/10/20

October has whizzed by, meaning we are tantalisingly close to the next gen consoles launch. In fact, some of the lucky staff at TSA Towers have got their hands on the new consoles already!

You can expect plenty more news and opinion in the near future, but for now let's recap what happened this week, with plenty of Halloween spooky times to be found if you're looking for them.

In the News This Week

And here are everyone's free games for November:

Games in Review

It was another strong week for the reviews, proving that this generation is ending on a high:

Ghostrunner – PS4, XBO, PC, NSW – 9/10
Pacer – PS4, XBO, PC – 9/10
Family – PC – 9/10
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope – PS4, XBO, PC – 9/10
Watch Dogs Legion – PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, PC – 8/10
Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty Nintendo Switch – NSW – 8/10
Pikmin 3 Deluxe – NSW – 7/10
ScourgeBringer – XBO, NSW, PC, Mac – 7/10
G.I. Joe Operation Blackout – PS4, XBO, PC, NSW – 6/10
9 Monkeys of Shaolin – PS4, XBO, PC, NSW – 6/10
Blair Witch: Oculus Quest Edition VR – Oculus Quest – 6/10
Little Witch Academia VR Broom Racing – Oculus Quest – 5/10
Double Pug Switch – NSW – 4/10

Featured Articles

Let's start the previews with Stefan unboxing our Xbox Series X and sharing his thoughts on the "obelisk". It looks better in the flesh don't you think? [It's not fleshy – Ed.]

Meanwhile, Jim shared his first PS5 experience with Astro's Playroom, which he said does a marvellous job of "easing you into the PS5 ecosystem while celebrating the PlayStation's long legacy".

Of course, it's the #PlayStation5 – we're just setting up and will be diving into Astro's Playroom very soon! (strangely large hand for scale) #PS5 pic.twitter.com/Vm6XsiWFiL

— TheSixthAxis (@TheSixthAxis) October 27, 2020

From the current generation, Stefan looked at Season 7 of Apex Legions. Aside from a new map, this season also adds a new vehicle, the hovercar, and a new legend to play, making it one of the biggest updates yet.

And as we're bracing ourselves for a second lockdown, Tom shared how Dark Souls, Twitch, and Discord helped him survive the first one.

Last up, What We Played included Watch Dogs Legion, Little Hope & Yakuza Like a Dragon.

Trailer Park

Watch fives minutes of Demon's Souls PS5 gameplay here

Spider-Man: Miles Morales – Into the Spider-Verse suit revealed with 10 minutes of new gameplay

Your Achievements

Here's what you in our community has been up to this week:

MrYd says "more of the same", which includes grinding away in Genshin Impact, plenty of Star Wars Squadrons, No Man's Sky and introduced his niece to Minecraft VR!
Another week another platinum for Crazy Del, who added Astro Bot and LittleBIGPlanet (PSP) to his collection. In addition, he also spent time on Squadrons and Diablo III
And last up, hornet1990 finished off the Horizon Zero Dawn story!

Well that's it for this week, I'll see you again soon!

Epic confirm first free game for November 2020

With Epic Games having given away of glut of ghostly games to celebrate Halloween, things are returning back to normal next week with the publisher announcing the next title to enter its freebie catalogue.

From November 5th through to November 12th, those with an Epic Games Store account can claim a free copy of Wargame: Red Dragon, a Cold War era RTS currently sitting on a Metacritic average of 78.

Until next Thursday you still have time to grab a pair of recently released games including Ghostbusters The Video Game – Remastered and Blair Witch. For the full list of free Epic games, keep reading.

Epic Games store free game list

Game Name	Dates Available
Wargame: Red Dragon	November 5-12, 2020
Ghostbusters The Video Game – Remastered	October 29-November 5, 2020
Blair Witch	October 29-November 5, 2020
Layers of Fear 2	October 22-29, 2020
Costume Quest 2	October 22-29, 2020
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs	October 15-22, 2020
Kingdom New Lands	October 15-22, 2020
Rising Storm 2: Vietnam	October 8-15, 2020
ABZU	October 8-15, 2020
Pikuniku	October 1-8, 2020
Rollercoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition	September 24-October 1, 2020
Football Manager 2020	September 17-24, 2020
Watch Dogs 2	September 17-24, 2020
Stick It To The Man!	September 17-24, 2020
Railway Empire	September 10-17, 2020
Where The Water Tastes Like Wine	September 10-17, 2020
Into The Breach	September 3-10, 2020
Hitman	August 27-September 3, 2020
Shadowrun Collection	August 27-September 3, 2020
God's Trigger	August 20-27, 2020
Enter the Gungeon	August 20-27, 2020
The Alto Collection	August 13-20, 2020
Remnant: From the Ashes	August 13-20, 2020
A Total War Saga: Troy	August 13-14, 2020
Wilmot's Warehouse	August 6-13, 2020
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP	July 30 – August 6, 2020
Barony	July 30 – August 6, 2020
20XX	July 30 – August 6, 2020
Next Up Hero	July 23-30, 2020
Tacoma	July 23-30, 2020
Torchlight II	July 16-23, 2020
Lifeless Planet: Premier Edition	July 9-16, 2020
The Escapists 2	July 9-16, 2020
Killing Floor 2	June 9-16, 2020
Hue	July 2-9, 2020
Stranger Things 3	June 25-July 2, 2020
AER Memories of Old	June 18-25, 2020
Ark: Survival Evolved	June 11-18, 2020
Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection	June 11-18, 2020
Overcooked	June 4-11, 2020
Borderlands: The Handsome Collection	May 28-June 4, 2020
Civilization VI	May 21-28, 2020
Grand Theft Auto V	May 14-21, 2020
Death Coming	May 7-14, 2020
Crashlands	April 30-May 7, 2020
Amnesia: The Dark Descent	April 30-May 7, 2020
For the King	April 23-30, 2020
Just Cause 4	April 16-23, 2020
Wheels of Aurelia	April 16-23, 2020
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments	April 9-16, 2020
Close to the Sun	April 9-16, 2020
Gone Home	April 2-9, 2020
Drawful 2	April 2-9, 2020
Hob	April 2-9, 2020
Totally Reliable Delivery Service	April 1-8, 2020
World War Z	March 26-April 2, 2020
Torment x Punisher	March 26-April 2, 2020
Figment	March 26-April 2, 2020
Watch Dogs	March 19-26, 2020
The Stanley Parable	March 19-26, 2020
A Short Hike	March 12-19, 2020
Mutazione	March 12-19, 2020
Anodyne 2	March 12-19, 2020
Gonner	March 5-12, 2020
Offworld Trading Company	March 5-12, 2020
Inner Space	February 27-March 5, 2020
Faeria	February 20-27, 2020
Assassin's Creed Syndicate	February 20-27, 2020
Aztez	February 13-20, 2020
Kingdom Come: Deliverance	February 13-20, 2020
Ticket to Ride	February 6-13, 2020
Carcassonne	February 6-13, 2020
Farming Simulator 19	January 30-February 6, 2020
The Bridge	January 23-30, 2020
Horace	January 16-23, 2020
Sundered: Eldritch Edition	January 9-16, 2020
Darksiders Warmastered Edition	January 1-9, 2020
Darksiders 2 Dethinitive Edition	January 1-9, 2020
Steep	January 1-9, 2020
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair	December 31, 2019
Hello Neighbor	December 30, 2019
The Talos Principle	December 29, 2019
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun	December 28, 2019
Hyper Light Drifter	December 27, 2019
FTL: Faster Than Light	December 26, 2019
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator	December 25, 2019
Celeste	December 24, 2019
Ape Out	December 23, 2019
Little Inferno	December 22, 2019
Superhot	December 21, 2019
Towerfall Ascension	December 20, 2019
Into the Breach	December 19, 2019
The Wolf Among Us	December 12-19, 2019
The Escapists	December 12-19, 2019
Jotun: Valhalla Edition	December 6-12, 2019
Rayman Legends	November 29-December 6, 2019
Bad North	November 21-29, 2019
The Messenger	November 14-21, 2019
Ruiner	November 7-14, 2019
Nuclear Throne	November 7-14, 2019
Costume Quest	October 31-November 7, 2019
Soma	October 31-November 7, 2019
Layers of Fear	October 24-October 31, 2019
Q.U.B.E.2	October 24-October 31, 2019
Alan Wake: American Nightmare	October 17-24, 2019
Observer	October 17-24, 2019
Surviving Mars	October 10-17, 2019
Minit	October 3-10, 2019
Metro 2033 Redux	September 26-October 3, 2019
Everything	September 26-October 3, 2019
Lego Batman Trilogy	September 19-26, 2019
Batman: Arkham Collection	September 19-26, 2019
Conarium	September 12-19, 2019
ABZU	September 5-12, 2019
The End is Nigh	September 5-12, 2019
Celeste	August 29-September 5, 2019
Inside	August 29-September 5, 2019
Fez	August 22-29, 2019
Hyper Light Drifter	August 15-22, 2019
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden	August 15-22, 2019
GNOG	August 8-15, 2019
For Honor	August 2-9, 2019
Alan Wake	August 2-9, 2019
This War of Mine	July 25-August 2, 2019
Moonlighter	July 25-August 2, 2019
Limbo	July 18-July 25, 2019
Torchlight	July 11-18, 2019
Overcooked	July 4-11, 2019
Last Day of June	June 27-July 4, 2019
Rebel Galaxy	June 20-27, 2019
Enter the Gungeon	June 13-20, 2019
Kingdom: New Lands	June 6-13, 2019
City of Brass	May 30-6, 2019
Rime	May 23-30, 2019
Stories Untold	May 16-23, 2019
World of Goo	May 2-16, 2019
Transistor	April 18-May 2, 2019
The Witness	April 4-18, 2019
Oxenfree	March 21-April 4, 2019
Slime Rancher	March 7-21, 2019
Thimbleweed Park	February 21-March 7, 2019
Axiom Verge	February 7-21, 2019
The Jackbox Party Pack	January 24-February 7, 2019
What Remains of Edith Finch	January 11-24, 2019
Super Meat Boy	December 28, 2018-January 10, 2019
Subnautica	December 12-27, 2018

The Epic Games Store also hosts a growing number of online free-to-play hits including Fortnite, as well as Rocket League, Dauntless, Rogue Company, and more.

Source: Epic Games

Dead By Daylight 2020 Review

When Dead By Daylight originally launched on consoles back in mid 2017, it didn't leave the best impression. With Friday the 13th: The Game having released just weeks before, and with a glut of similar multiplayer horror games in the pipeline, it was easy to pass over Dead By Daylight.

However, in the months and years since launch it has become something of a juggernaut, boasting a sizeable fan cult while collaborating with some of the biggest names in horror movie history, from Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street to Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Scream. 2020 even saw a surprise crossover with Silent Hill featuring Pyramid Head, Cheryl Mason, and Midwich Elementary School.

It's true that developer Behaviour Interactive have succeeded in courting some huge licenses though Dead By Daylight is – at its core – the same game it was back in 2017. Each match hosts five players with one as the killer and the other four working together to thwart them. This is done by powering 5 of the 7 generators scattered around each map (or "Realm") before making a beeline for two possible exits.

Playing as a survivor can look a bit dull at first. You'll likely spend a large portion of each match interacting with the same mini game as you try to power the generators. There really isn't a lot you can do when being mercilessly hunted by a killer, so it can be pretty frustrating to watch your character get downed then strung up on a hook like a piece of meat just moments into a match. This is how the killer wins – by incapacitating players then skewering them on sacrificial barbs for The Entity to come and claim.

It should come as no shock that Dead By Daylight is more enjoyable when donning the often iconic mantle of its killers. The original roster has greatly expanded with each character having their own unique perks and abilities despite inheriting the same basic actions and attacks. Stalking the map and terrorising the other players never gets old, slashing them down, and baiting them as they come to revive fallen teammates. The only downside here is the queueing times to play as the killer – even with cross-play now enabled, you're looking at several minutes to find a game.

The way Dead By Daylight is designed will seem skewed in the killer's favour at first. However, as you learn more about their weaknesses/limitations and the devious tricks survivors can play on their stalkers, the playing field starts to balance out. A well coordinated team can run circles around the killer and leave them feeling like a slapstick slasher from a horror parody.

It's these mind games that make Dead By Daylight a delight to play over and over, combined with a more rewarding progression system than what was available at launch. Archives, Tomes, and Ranked Play – along with constant quality of life improvements – have kept the Dead By Daylight community active as they eagerly await the arrival of each new Chapter.

It has to be said that, even now, the game isn't much of a looker. Environments are fairly drab and lack the same sense of character Behaviour Interactive have worked into their killers, each one based on familiar horror tropes such as murderous clowns and chainsaw-wielding hillbillies. With a next-gen version of Dead By Daylight having already been confirmed, a major visual update is also said to be in the works.

Here's a look at the PlayStation 5 camera adaptor and details of how to get one

Sony recently revealed the accessibility options that will be built into the PlayStation 5 system software at launch, taking the already broad options available for the PlayStation 4 and expanding them further.

Text to speech, inverting colours, custom button assignments and more are present, but the PS5 will also offer voice dictation through the DualSense controller or other connected microphone, a Screen Reader feature to speak on-screen text, and text to speech for party chats. There will also be colour correction to allow users to adjust colours on a system level, and the ability to set presets that supporting games can load up automatically as they launch.

Obviously, this also extends to the DualSense controller as well, with the PS5 letting you reduce or completely disable the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers built into the controller, just as you can turn the rumble feature off for the DualShock 4 on PS4.

Source: Twitter

How Dark Souls, Twitch, and Discord helped me survive lockdown

Polish-British sociologist and philosopher Zygmunt Bauman once said that 'Community is like a big family,' a statement which hits incredibly close to home for me in one of the most difficult years of my life. Fortunately, a small Twitch community composed of streamers, gamers and mostly Scottish people has provided a sense of community I've sorely missed in 2020.

This time last year, we knew 2020 was going to be a challenging year for us. My partner was six months pregnant with twins, and we were expecting their delivery in the early part of this year. Adapting to being a new parent is difficult, so we were both mentally preparing for the challenges of raising twins. What we didn't expect though was COVID-19, a virus that spread across the world causing a global pandemic and a record-breaking recession.

In what should have been our first year of being parents, we were thrust into lockdown. I soon found myself furloughed. Instead of being able to focus on fatherhood, I felt consumed with anxiety. How am I going to support our family? What happens at the other side of this pandemic? Will I have a career to come back to? While I know my story is far from one of the worst, it's been a difficult year.

Around the start of lockdown, a friend of mine started streaming the Dark Souls series. Each day at 2pm, he would start streaming to what was initially a group of up to 20 people, but this grew in time. During furlough, this streaming schedule gave me the kind of structure that I missed while being out of work and it also provided a social element to my day, something I had missed after working in an office for four years.

There's something special about the Dark Souls series that draws people in. This is a game in which every playthrough feels personal and special, and watching someone else experience it is genuinely a delight. It might be the shared pain of failing a boss for the 30th time, or the sense of community elation upon the boss's death on the 31st, but I think Dark Souls is easy for people to gravitate towards because people are instantly invested based on how arduous a journey it is. It was enough for me, a person who doesn't typically watch Twitch streams, to invest the following months watching on a daily basis.

It would appear I wasn't alone in venturing towards Twitch for some semblance of a social life and structure. From the start of lockdown in April, Twitch and many other online platforms experienced an unprecedented amount of growth. Livestream viewership across Twitch Facebook YouTube rose by a huge 45% year-on-year between last April and March 2020 with a 99% increase compared to the previous before that. With much of the world going into lockdown at the beginning of spring, it's clear that people were flocking to online streams to find a brief escape from reality.

As the community grew around my Souls streaming friend, he decided it was time to create a Discord channel. His Discord community features everything from music to art, through to a channel specifically dedicated to Paradise Killer – which is a great game. More than that though, it provided an opportunity for the community to communicate outside of streaming hours. Rather than having brief chats during a stream, we were now sharing our favourite music, films and food with one another. This is a distinct group of people who have all come together over our friendship/ fandom of a particular individual, but I think it stretches further than that. This is a group of people who have seen a drastic change in the way they live, and this community provides a home away from home and some kind of escape from the dredges of coronavirus life.

Sometime through July, I was told that my position was at risk of redundancy. This was a business I'd spent four years of my life working at, and it devastated me. It wasn't a decision I wanted to make, but it was one I felt was best for my mental health. Throughout that time, I went to the Discord channel for their support and guidance. This is primarily a group of people around the same age as me, all skilled and developing in their careers and people I felt could provide the safe space I needed to vent. Their support and words of kindness at that time kept me focused and stopped me falling into an episode of anxiety, something that would have likely happened had I not started watching those streams in April.

I think my journey with Twitch and the vast growth of online streaming perhaps hints to a future where many more of our social interactions are based online rather than in a physical space. Not only is it safer in a world gripped by COVID, but it's also much more affordable. Visiting a pub with your friends is great, but you can get the same interaction spending time on Twitch together watching a movie or playing Twitch Sings.

Twitch and gaming in particular are not the only digital industries to see an increase in engagement this year. When Formula 1 moved from physical to digital competitions in the light of delaying the season, its YouTube channel saw a staggering increase of 2.16 million subscribers and an increase of 1,551,059,508 video views (based on Social Blade data) compared to the previous year. There's been a clear shift throughout COVID, with more people turning to different platforms for entertainment and socialisation.

Social media and the act of communicating online are often painted as a harbinger of negative mental health, and while some aspects of that are certainly true, I think we need to understand the positive effects it had and has continued to have throughout lockdown. Friends and families are spending time together online across the country, we're collectively finding new ways to stay entertained and more than ever before, we need to appreciate the arts and creative individuals who provide this entertainment and interaction we've so sorely needed during one of the most isolating years of our lives.

This is not how I had intended to end this, but Rishi Sunak's recent comments calling for 'creative industries' to adapt to new jobs made me think about how important creators have been in this lockdown. While my friend may not work as a Twitch streamer full-time, it's him and other online creators who provided the community and family that so many people needed.

So to you @FizzyJoose and the entire Discord community, thank you for making this terrible year ever so slightly more bearable.

House of Ashes revealed as the next game in The Dark Pictures Anthology

The next game in The Dark Pictures Anthology has been revealed, previous titles have explored ghost ships and spooky woods, this time we're heading in to the desert and dark caves. The game is titled House of Ashes and the teaser begins with soldiers shooting something off screen before moving on to a a woman, who looks rather like Ashley Tisdale, being spooked in a cave.

The video has been captured from the end of The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope, and is also teased as a premonition in the game, and a third tease can be spotted when you first meet The Curator. In that scene he takes a book from a shelf, and it it seems to be a series of four books. The first has a ship, representing Man of Medan, on the spine and the second book, the one selected by the Curator has the stick figure from Little Hope. The third book seems to have a crescent of some sort on it, perhaps a moon, or something more stylised.

YouTube comments seem to think that the game is going to involve Pazuzu and the demons of the underworld in the Arabian Desert in Iraq. No formats have been revealed but we would expect PlayStation, Xbox, and PC as usual.

Little Hope is out today and scored an impressive 9/10 in our review.

"If there was ever a time to sit down with some friends and play a scary game, it's Halloween 2020," said our reviewer. "Little Hope fits the bill perfectly The annoyances found in Man of Medan have been almost completely removed leaving a spooky tale with jump scares to giggle about, heart racing action, and tonnes of atmosphere. For £25 Little Hope is an absolute steal and highly recommended."

You should listen to that chap, talks some sense he does.

[UPDATE] Leaked video shows Spider-Man: Miles Morales loading blisteringly fast on a PlayStation 5

It appears someone on YouTube has s got a PlayStation 5 and Spider-Man: Miles Morales early and posted a video – in 480p no less – showing just how fast the game loads. In short, blimmin' fast, pity the artists who design loading screens as they don't have a job anymore.

~~Check out the video below before Sony take it down.~~

~~Well that got removed rather quickly, let's see how long this one on Twitter stays up.~~

Nope, that went as well, here's another one.

DUDE the load times for Spider-Man Miles Morales are INSANELY FAST on PS5 (keep in mind this is from a cold boot too) pic.twitter.com/8ZbfnqdsOK

— wept (@WeptReach) October 30, 2020

Earlier today Insomniac Games revealed the Into the Spider-Verse suit, styled after the suit worn by the Miles Morales Spider-Man in the 2018 animated film. The suit will be a launch day bonus for those pre-ordering the game, though will be unlockable through other means.

Impressively, Insomniac have gone the extra mile to, not only capture the lithe, cartoony style of the character from the film, but also to animate him like the film character. One of the key elements that ran through the film was the clashing visual styles as different Spider-Man characters from across the Spider-Verse were drawn together. It pitched Miles Morales as the novice character having to learn his trade on the fly, and this was in part represented by halving the rate at which he animated in comparison to the more experienced Spider-characters. You can definitely see some of that in play here.

Having originally been revealed during the June PlayStation 5 showcase, Sony announced in September also revealed that Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a cross-gen game, coming to both PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, with an upgrade path to next-gen. It was a surprising turn of events, considering the tone of Sony's statements about their first party games over the past half year, but a welcome one for those unable to upgrade at this time to be able to still enjoy some of Sony's upcoming games.

It's also coming in an Ultimate Edition bundle for the next-gen console, which will feature a thoroughly revised and remastered version of the original Marvel's Spider-Man which, among other things, gives Peter Parker a new face.

In our review of the original game, Gareth wrote:

Marvel's Spider-Man does a spectacular job of making you feel like the ultimate Spider-Man. From swinging through the city at high speed to fighting off legions of enemies by zipping between them and pulling them into the air, its gameplay looks like a scene from the films. It's remarkably well realised in terms of its world, design, and even technically, with short loading times and a rock solid framerate even on the base PlayStation 4. If Spider-Man is your thing then this is an essential purchase.

You can read the full review here.

Plate Station has had to change its name and remove PS5 imagery following Sony complaint

Earlier this week, it came to light that a third party company going by the name the Plate Station was selling custom face plates for the PS5. Now, the company has been forced to change its name and take off all pictures of the PS5 from its site after Sony issued a complaint about the company's name and the site name which was PlateStation5.com. The site is now called Customize My Plates and generic pictures are used to show colours it is selling. On top of that the site has stated it has sold out of all of its products for the time being.

The prices for each one are £32/€34.95/$39.99. According to the site's FAQ the company will be shipping the plates from November 12th and delivery should take 5-7 days. The FAQ confirms that the plates will not have the PS logo on them as these are third party plates. The FAQ also states that purchasers cannot mix and match colours at ordering, as the sets come in one colour each. The matte black edition will only be available until the end of 2020, but if the company sees high demand then more will be released. The reason for the pictures being renders and not actual photos of the product is because the prototypes are being created, but Plate Station states that it will be releasing images soon.

In terms of the PS5 warranty, the Plate Station states that changing the plates should not impact any warranty players have with Sony for the PS5 as the plates are removable and can be changed. It makes sense because it is likely Sony will release their own plates eventually for PS5 owners to purchase. The Plate Station is based in the UK but the plates themselves are being manufactured in China.

UPDATE: Customize My Plays, nee Plate Station, have posted the following message.

Hey!

You might've noticed that our website was out of action for a short while yesterday. We had to make some changes but we're back up now!

You can now find us at customizemyplates.com. Same plates, same team, different name :)

If you placed an order via our previous domain, this is unaffected and your order number remains the same. But if you want your order confirmation to be resent, please let us know and we'd be happy to do that!

We set out on this mission to customize and enhance your gaming experience, which we are still 100% committed to, but we want to make sure we do so in a way that doesn't infringe upon any trademarks or patents. For this reason we've started working with some great people to ensure our products are safe, compliant, and most importantly manufactured to the highest possible standards.

Due to this we expect there to be small delays in shipping. We're still aiming to move forward with production in the next few weeks, but depending on when you ordered you should expect around a 3-week delay. We will of course continue to keep you in the loop and let you know of any updates, and otherwise once your plates are processed and shipped you will receive a notification.

We look forward to shipping out your plates really soon, but of course if wish to cancel your order and get a full refund let us know and we'll process that right away.

If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to contact our customer support at hello@customizemyplates.com.

Source: VGC

NBA 2K21 will have a WNBA MyPlayer experience, confirms 2K

2K has confirmed that NBA 2K21 will have a WNBA MyPlayer experience so players can do a whole career from start to finish in the WNBA. That experience is called The W. The WNBA had a bit of a presence in NBA 2K20 but this will be the first time it gets this attention in the series. To mark this announcement 2K has released a brand new gameplay trailer showing snippets of The W including player customisation and gameplay.

The description for the new trailer reads:

Greatly expanding on the WNBA experience introduced last year, The W is the first-ever WNBA MyPLAYER experience for the NBA 2K franchise. NBA 2K21 Next Gen players will be able to create their own fully customizable WNBA player and take her through a pro career featuring all 12 WNBA teams. Players can also go head-to-head in The W Online featuring intense 3v3 MyPLAYER competition!

Recently, NBA 2K21 courted controversy in an all-too-familiar fashion this week, as gamers found themselves confronted with unskippable adverts while NBA 2K21 loaded in a match, framed as part of a TV broadcast-style pre-game show. A statement was released soon after which said:

As many are aware, in recent years ads have been integrated into 2KTV segments. Yesterday's 2KTV ad placement impacted our players' experience in a way we didn't intend, as these ads are not meant to run as part of the pre-game introduction.

This will be fixed in future episodes.

Thanks for your continued feedback

2K were also the first to announce a price hike for their game series while heading to the next generation, and decided not to offer players an upgrade path from the current generation, paid or otherwise. Instead, the only way to get the next-gen upgrade included with your current-gen game was to buy the Mamba Forever edition at £84.99. It should be acknowledged that the next-gen version has been rebuilt from the ground up and offers significant changes to the game's visuals, animation, presentation, and more. 2K might have to work a little bit harder to integrate adverts when loading screens will be so much shorter, though.

NBA 2K21 is out now for PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC and Stadia. It's coming to Xbox Series X|S on 10th November, and PlayStation 5 on 12th or 19th November depending on your region.

Source: YouTube

Genshin Impact 1.1 trailer teases what will be coming next

MiHoYo has released a new teaser trailer related the Genshin Impact with this footage showcasing what new features will be coming to the game in update 1.1. That includes the new characters Tartaglia, Zhongli, Xinyan, and Diona. Tartaglia wields ice powers, Zhongli has fire on his side as does Xinyan, and Diona appears to have ice powers too. MiHoYo were are going to release more details overnight. The teaser trailer ends with the phase A New Star Approaches. You can watch the teaser below.

In our review for Genshin Impact, Miguel wrote:

Genshin Impact needs to be played to be believed. This is an addictive open-world adventure with gorgeous art and unique combat…and it's free! The character designs are sharp and beautiful, while the pastel-style world itself is full of jaw-dropping colour and natural vistas…and it's free! Sure, there's the admittedly stingy gacha system, but if you just want an immersive and peaceful world to climb and fly around in for hours, then Genshin Impact is for you.

You can read the full review for Genshin Impact here.

Source: YouTube

Some of Ubisoft's PS4 and PSVR games won't run on PS5, including Assassin's Creed

Ubisoft have revealed that eight of their PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR titles will not work on PlayStation 5 via backward compatibility. The biggest of the bunch is Assassin's Creed Syndicate, but there will be sad PSVR headset sounds for the likes of Star Trek Bridge Crew as well.

The games are:

Assassin's Creed Syndicate
Assassin's Creed Chronicles Trilogy Pack
Assassin's Creed Chronicles India
Assassin's Creed Chronicles China
Assassin's Creed Chronicles Russia
Risk
Star Trek Bridge Crew
Werewolves Within
Space Junkies

This is despite Sony providing a list of ten games that did not list these Ubisoft titles as being incompatible with the PS5.

You'll be able to take your game progression (but not microtransactions) with you in the following games:

Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, PC, Stadia and Amazon Luna
Immortals Fenyx Rising: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Nintendo Switch, PC, Stadia and Amazon Luna
Riders Republic: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, PC, Stadia and Amazon Luna
Hyper Scape: already deployed on Xbox One, PlayStation®4 and PC

So… Ubisoft have managed to make backward compatibility all a bit murky and confusing again with weirdly defined boundaries and categories, and, of course, a bunch of games that they've decided to leave behind to the sands of time…. but only on PS5.

Source: Ubisoft

Praey For The Gods is coming to PS5 and PS4 in early 2021

It was way back in 2016 when we last saw something major about Praey For The Gods, though then it was Prey for the Gods, from No Matter Studio. Back then it was expected the game would be released in 2017 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Well, No Matter has now broken its silence to confirm that Praey For The Gods will be released in early 2021. and that it will be released on PS4 and PS5. The game has been available in an early access state on PC.

Praey For The Gods will run at 30fps on PS4 and at 60fps with improved graphics on the PS5, including full shadows, high res textures. The studio has confirmed that people who buy the PS4 version will get a free upgrade to PS5. The PS5 version will take advantage of the DualSense controller with players being able to feel the tension of the bowstring and the feeling of snow crunching underfoot. The studio has stated that it is taking its time to find different ways that the DualSense can be used for Praey For The Gods.

Praey For The Gods has taken inspiration from Shadow of the Colossus. The player will have to destroy the giant creatures that roam the land in an effort to bring an end to the unending winter that has plagued the land. It seems to save the world you have to destroy the very ones that are tasked with protecting it.

Source: PS Blog

Final Fantasy XVI world and character details revealed by Square Enix

Back in September, Square Enix revealed Final Fantasy XVI for PS5 (maybe PC). Now a lot more details about the world and characters of Final Fantasy XVI have been confirmed, with medieval styled world embracing its past while offering something different. The world of Final Fantasy XVI is called Valisthea and it is a land covered in Mothercrystals that release aether and allow people to use magicks. Around each Mothercrystal different nations have risen. They have co-existed but now a Blight is going across the land and shattering the peace that was plentiful.

There are six realms in Valisthea and they are The Grand Duchy of Rosaria, The Holy Empire of Sanbreque, The Kingdom of Waloed, The Dhalmekian Republic, The Iron Kingdom, and The Crystalline Dominion. Descriptions of each realm can be found below.

The Grand Duchy of Rosaria – Long ago, a group of small independent provinces in western Valisthea found strength in unity, and formed the Grand Duchy of Rosaria. After years of relative prosperity, the duchy now finds itself threatened by the spread of the Blight—a threat that, left unchecked, would doubtless usher the realm to ruin. Rosaria draws its aether from Drake's Breath, a Mothercrystal situated on a volcanic island off the coast. The Dominant of the Phoenix, Eikon of Fire, is enthroned as Archduke when they come of age.

The Holy Empire of Sanbreque – Sanbreque is the largest theocratic force in Valisthea. The Empire's holy capital Oriflamme is built around Drake's Head, the Mothercrystal that blesses the surrounding provinces with abundant aether. The people happily take advantage of this, living in comfort and security under the watchful gaze of the Holy Emperor, whom they worship as the living incarnation of the one true deity. The Dominant of [Unknown] serves as the empire's champion, taking to the field in times of war to rout its enemies.

The Kingdom of Waloed – Waloed claims the entirety of Ash, the eastern half of Valisthea, as its dominion. The kingdom's control of the continent has oft been tested by the orcs and other beastmen who make their home there, but the current ruler of the realm—Dominant of [Unknown]—has succeeded in quelling their rebellions. Using the power of the kingdom's Mothercrystal, Drake's Spine, this new king has built up a mighty army, with which he now seeks to test the borders of his neighbors.

The Dhalmekian Republic – The Dhalmekian Republic is made up of five states, from which the members of its ruling parliament are drawn. Its Mothercrystal, Drake's Fang, is half-hidden in the heart of a mountain range—the republic's control over it, and its aether, securing the obedience of the large part of southern Valisthea. The Dominant of Titan, Eikon of Earth, is installed as a special advisor to parliament and has a significant say in its decision-making.

The Iron Kingdom – A small group of islands off the coast of Storm, the western half of Valisthea's twin realms. Here the Crystalline Orthodox, an extreme faith that worships crystals, reigns supreme. The Iron Kingdom controls Drake's Breath, the Mothercrystal that sits at the heart of one of their islands—long a source of contention with neighboring Rosaria. Isolated and aloof from the mainland nations, the Ironblood speak their own language. Orthodox doctrine judges Dominants to be unholy abominations, and any unlucky enough to be born on the islands are executed.

The Crystalline Dominian – The Crystalline Dominion sits at the heart of Valisthea, built around the tallest of all the Mothercrystals, Drake's Tail. Many bloody battles were fought for control of this small plot of land due to its strategic importance, till the warring realms finally agreed to an armistice. As part of the peace treaty, the islands around Drake's Tail became an autonomous dominion led by a council of representatives from the surrounding nations—each realm enjoying equal claim to the Mothercrystal's blessing. No Dominant makes their home there.

The Dominants that are mentioned in each realm's description are men and women who can control creatures called Eikons, which are similar to Summons. One of those Dominants is Joshua Rosfield, the second son of the Archduke of Rosaria. The Eikon he controls is the fire bird the Phoenix and he is not really a fighter. The fighter is Clive Rosfield who is Joshua's older brother. After winning a tournament Clive becomes the First Shield of Rosaria, the protector of the Dominant. A tragedy shakes Clive's life and sets in motion the events of the game. The third character to be revealed is Jill Warrick, a ward of Rosaria. She was taken from the Northern Territories so peace could be established between the regions, and she has been raised alongside the Rosfield brothers.

It could be a while before we see a full release, with Director Hiroshi Takai adding, "It may still be some time before we can get it into your hands. However, I promise it will be worth the wait!"

Source: Final Fantasy XVI official site

What We Played #473 – Watch Dogs Legion, Little Hope & Yakuza Like a Dragon

Time has now slowed to a crawl. The new consoles are further away than ever. So close, and yet, so unfairly far. Still, I suppose we have PS4s, Xbox Ones, PCs, Stadia and Switches to keep us going. Ho Hum. Still, I've had lots of fun playing the Immortals Fenyx Rising demo a number of times, as well as making a start on Watch Dogs Legion, putting more time back in on Breath of the Wild (it's the best Zelda game by the way Jason), and speeding through crazy tracks in Pacer.

Tuffcub was first up this week and he's been playing The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope, telling us "it's fab". Meanwhile Thomas Harrison-Lord has been playing GT Sport again as the PS5 nears, as he's hoping we hear something more about GT7 soon.

Our second Tom of the week, Thomas Hughes has played lots of Ghostrunner "which is probably one of the best PC game's this year and I'm also now playing Yakuza: Like a Dragon ahead of its release next month, but more on that soon!"

Nick P has been playing Ghost of Tsushima's Legends Mode, saying "It's a surprisingly nice addition to my GOTY. Great value considering it's free. I've also finally managed to jump back on TLOU2 which is still slow going. Lot's of being sneaky for five minutes before resorting to YEETING myself into fights."

All about the punchy-game review train, Ade finishing off 9 Monkeys of Shaolin, which was "sadly a little meh". Now he's on with Monster Prom XXL, Asterix and Obelix Romeastered, and Cobra Kai… phew!

Nic B has also been playing Watch Dogs Legion; "I must say I'm underwhelmed by how poorly optimised it is. Hopefully the PS5 version will fix the load times and last night's update fill fix the bugs we've all seen". Other than that, he's played Magic (because obviously he's payed Magic) and dabbled with Cardpocalypse, a CCG set in a primary school, telling us "Full review to come, but suffice to say it's a pretty decent game, all round."

Also under the review cosh is Steve, with Batbarian, Oceanhorn 2, Battle Hunters, and Blair Witch VR, while he's played Mummy Demastered and the incredible Sayonara Wild Hearts for fun.

Reuben has put in time on ScourgeBringer and If Found… for review. Besides that it's been a lot of Genshin Impact "because everyone have blazed ahead of me in this game, and played a bit of Dino Crisis 2 for the podcast I co-host, which he's not overly keen on (the game, not the podcast).

Aran has been playing more Yakuza 4. "Got a few more chapters to get through and I've liked the story. Think I prefer it to Yakuza 3. Also played I Am Dead for review which I found very enjoyable too."

Gareth has played Cloudpunk and a bit of Damsel, both for review. Meanwhile Jason, other than being silly and thinking Majora's. Mask is the best Zelda game, has been playing more Rocket League "where I continue to be bad but marginally less bad than I was last week. I've also been playing Apex Legends again and have even been not doing as terribly at that either."

Jim has played more Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, telling us "I think my Ronin is just about ready for the first raid – having loads of fun with this mode but getting weary that I still haven't finished the single player campaign. Also dabbled in some more Final Fantasy VI." Oh, and he's got a PS5 as part of our next-gen review train – read his thoughts on Astro's Playroom and the DualSense here.

Miguel reviewed Watch Dogs Legion for us last weekend, before sinking into more 13 Sentinels, "which is definitely easily my game of the year". He also played some Apex, a little Predator Hunting Grounds, that new Devolver joint Disc Room, and hopped into the Crash Bandicoot remasters on a whim. "I also played Animal Crossing on my birthday and got very emotional about the in-game birthday festivities."

And finally, Tef has played a little bit of Watch Dogs Legion, just pootling around "Landan" in a futuristic car. He picked a 60yo Jamaican chap as his first DedSec recruit, simply because he's also called Stefan. He also got an advanced look at the next season of Apex Legends. Beside that? Well, he's got both a PS5 and an Xbox Series X, and has started on the journey to review both these next-gen consoles. More on that very, very soon.

Apex Legends Season 7 turns Olympus into a warzone with hovercars and black holes

Spinning off a battle royale from the Titanfall series, it was only a matter of time before vehicles came to Apex Legends… but Season 7's new mode of transport doesn't come with its own pair of legs, nor does it have arms, a gun or an AI core. Enter the Trident Hovercar.

The name tells you everything you need to know about this vehicle. A trident is a three-pronged spear, alluding to the three seats of the Trident, allowing for one driver and two passengers on either side of the vehicles body. but where a spear is a deadly weapon, the Trident is more passive and has been tuned by Respawn to fill a very particular role.

They describe is as a "rotation tool", giving players more and better ways to quickly get around the map and pick a different path through to the next ring, defusing some of the pressures of dropping to the edges of a map at the start of a game. That is its one and only purpose. You can't use it as an offensive battering ram, as it will simply float over anyone you try to run down, and while you can fire from the side of the vehicle, it also makes you and your squad a bigger target.

While you can still try to snipe out the driver, any bullets hitting the Trident itself sees the damage distributed evenly between its passengers. In other words, you can blast away at it and still feel like you're doing good damage to its occupants, as I found when stranded on my own while a Trident team floated around nearby. There's the animation time needed to get in and out, making the use of a Trident something you really need to consider and not really a way to gang rush a location.

It's a vehicle that comes with an awful lot of caveats, but there are still advantages to it. You can prop Rampart's turret on top of it, Gibraltar's shield dome, and even Caustic's gas traps (basically just for the memes, per Respawn), giving you some additional offensive and defensive options. Respawn have clearly been very cautious in their approach to adding vehicles, seeing how big an impact they can have on the pace, flow and meta of other battle royale games. Oh, and you can only find the Trident on the new map.

Season 7 sees the addition of Olympus to Apex Legends, a third map to live alongside World's Edge and Kings Canyon. This map is set on an abandoned floating city, a once opulent paradise that has been abandoned after a Phase rift ripped through a research facility built into one part of the map. Characters like Octane and Lifeline have connections to the city, as well as Loba and Revenant, with the Reverie Lounge restaurant where Loba's parents were murdered featured atop a skyscraper by Bonsai Plaza.

What's fascinating is how Respawn have constructed this to really give it an individual visual style. It has a real artificial style to it thanks to all the open spaces being built out of polygonal terrain, triangular slices of grassy greenery stuck together, all contrasting with the rounded, flowing design of the buildings dotted around the map. It's all very sci-fi and very different feeling to the game's first two maps, but it's also surprisingly open. You might expect a floating city to be efficient and flat, but there's still plenty of diversity to be found here with big elevation changes and hills to climb up or slide down, and there's large ramps that help keep things feeling open even as your funnelled through to a location. It's quite clear that all of this has been designed with the Trident in mind.

As you would expect, there's also plenty of different locations that will be easily identifiable and become fan favourite drop points. The aforementioned Bonsai Plaza is an example of the opulent lives that could play out on Olympus, but then there's the docked Arcadia Cruiser that you can go inside and bunker down with defensive Legends, while the Rift that has torn through the research campus and turned it into a big destroyed crater. There's still buildings around it which could act as intriguing defensive points in a tense fight.

That rift also ties into another of the key ways of getting around the map. The Phase Runner connects a trio of locations together – the rift is one end of this network – throwing you into the phase dimension similar to Wraith's smaller portals. The key difference is that you will still take ring damage.

There's a lot to get used to with the new map and the new vehicle, and so Respawn have created the Olympus Preview. This will be a limited time mode running for the first two weeks of Season 7, and the first damage-free sandbox mode that Apex has seen. Essentially, it's a testbed for players to dive in, explore and try things out. You'll have a faster moving ring to funnel you through the map quicker, and there will be three rounds with fresh drops to cut out a bit of matchmaking waiting.

It should also be a great way to play around with Horizon, the new Legend in the game. With a thick Scottish accent, her back story is tied to the rift and the crisis that saw Olympus abandoned, as she sought a solution to an energy crisis that (through a little light backstabbing) saw her trapped on the event horizon of a black hole for 87 years – do you get her name now?

All of this ties into her abilities. As an astrophysicist and astronaut, her space suit gives her increased air control and softer landings that preserve more momentum compared to other characters. Her tactical ability is then a Gravity Lift, which lifts players up and lets them exit the lift at any point, a crucial difference to the simple jump pad that Octane can throw down, but with the same effect of increasing vertical mobility.

Finally, her Ultimate is a mini Black Hole created by Newt, her robot companion. Similar to the Gravity Star in Titanfall 2, it pulls players in, dragging them out of cover and potentially exposing them to your gunfire. The key here is balance, with people caught in the gravity well able to drag themselves back out of it, and the difference of the battle royale format making its use and timing more crucial. Respawn will no doubt analyse and tweak how the Black Hole is used to ensure it's balanced.

Elsewhere there's also tweaks to how battle pass challenges are highlighted, showing you the next thing coming up, as well as a new Clubs system that you can create or join to try and find a little in-game community. Oh, and Crossplay is coming out of beta in Season 7 as well.

More ways to team up (and across platforms), a new hero, a striking new map, the game's first vehicle and more. Season 7 – Horizon adds up to one of the biggest seasonal updates to Apex Legends yet.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales – Into the Spider-Verse suit revealed with 10 minutes of new gameplay

One of the hottest games coming out in the next month is sure to be Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4. A spin-off and continuation of the hit Marvel's Spider-Man, the game sees the Afro-Latino superhero step into the spotlight, and just as with Insomniac Games' first foray into licensed superhero games, they're paying homage to the character's background and history through unlockable suits for Miles to wear.

Today they've revealed the Into the Spider-Verse suit, styled after the suit worn by the Miles Morales Spider-Man in the 2018 animated film. The suit will be a launch day bonus for those pre-ordering the game, though will be unlockable through other means.

Having originally been revealed during the June PlayStation 5 showcase, Sony announced in September also revealed that Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a cross-gen game, coming to both PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, with an upgrade path to next-gen. It was a surprising turn of events, considering the tone of Sony's statements about their first party games over the past half year, but a welcome one for those unable to upgrade at this time to be able to still enjoy some of Sony's upcoming games.

In our review of the original game, Gareth wrote:

You can read the full review here.

Source: YouTube

Prodeus promises rippin' and roarin' FPS action

Like many things throughout human history, video games go in cycles. Trends that were once huge fall to the wayside before eventually returning to the limelight years down the line. The first person genre is a great example of this. Born from the arena-crawling adventures of old-school shooters like Doom and Quake, the world of first-person shooters eventually shifted toward games focused on corridor shoot-outs, tactical cover, regenerating health, and multiplayer warfare.

The health-pickups and tank-life strafing of classic shooters seemed like they were dead and gone, but time keeps circle strafing. the last few years have seen blockbusters like the Doom reboots and smaller titles like Ion Fury or Dusk reviving that original style of shooter action. Now, we've got a game that lies somewhere in the middle of indie pixel love-letters and big-budget 3D advancements in the form of Prodeus, the latest and greatest in arena-shooter action.

At a glance, Prodeus looks like a sharply rendered modern 3D shooter, with plenty of gorgeous lighting effects, powerful particles and juicy blood splatters. On closer inspection, though, a second layer to the aesthetic reveals itself. Environments are made up of chunky assets and primitive shapes that would feel right at home on the earliest PC games. While your protagonist's hands and the weapons held in them look sharp and smooth, distant enemies have a pixelated filter over them that emulates the sprites of old. Even the animations of almost everything in the game move at a chunky pace that replicates the robotic movements of the old-school FPS. If you're not a fan, you can turn these effects down significantly.

Combining old-school and new-school design elements like this leads to one of the most visually interesting shooters I've seen in a while. Prodeus manages to capture the feeling of it's inspirations flawlessly, but also packs in the sort of visual flair that wouldn't have been possible back then. Not only that, but the addictive music from now Doom Eternal DLC composer Andrew Hulshult kept me hyped up the entire time I played.

The closed beta for Prodeus presents three brief but impressive levels to dig into. The first is a short and sweet introductory environment, but the second is a massive and sprawling complex requiring you to track down two key cards in order to unlock the exit. This level gives you a thorough tour of the sights and sounds of Prodeus, throwing five different enemy types and five different weapons at you as you navigate a labyrnthian complex that took me just over 20 minutes to get through. There are loads of secrets to find, with one weapon being hidden behind an easily missable jumping challenge.

You're given an AutoMap to help you navigate the level if you get lost or need to track down items you've missed, but of all the well realized design elements of Prodeus, this map is the one sore point. It's slow to navigate, but more importantly, the way it ends up being rendered makes it hard to read exactly how each room connects together. I tried using it a few times, but between the dark rooms blending together and a lack of a map legend, I simply gave up on it.

Even without a map, though, I had a blast making my way through this level. If you're coming into this game from a fast-moving shooter like Doom Eternal, don't expect nearly as many enhanced movement options. You've got a single jump and a sprint button… and that's it. There's still plenty of speed and fluidity to the movement of the game, but combat encounters end up being focused more on careful strafes and sprinting to dodge attacks or taking advantage of the environment to avoid a swift death. The third map of the closed beta presents you with a short and sweet target-shooting speed trial that illustrates just how fast and relentless you can be in Prodeus if you need to be.

Prodeus is a promising FPS that is packed full of love and respect for the shooters of yore. Plenty of love letters to the classic Doom and Quake lift their art style and make a game that both looks and feels like it could've come from that time. Prodeus feels like a game of that era, but it looks far sharper than any of those titles ever could. Feeding a more modern aesthetic into old-school shooter gameplay feels like a killer recipe for success, so I'm hoping the rest of the campaign is just as addictive when the game hits Early Access on November 10th.

PS5 accessibility settings let you turn off DualSense haptics and adaptive triggers

Sony have detailed the accessibility options that will be built into the PlayStation 5 system software at launch, taking the already broad options available for the PlayStation 4 and expanding them further.

Of course, PlayStation 5 games will be best experienced with the DualSense and all it offers, but if you can turn those features off… well, why can't we use the DualShock 4 for PlayStation 5 games again?

Sony stated back in August that the DualShock 4 and other PlayStation 4 peripherals can all be used with the PlayStation 5, they will only work for backward compatible titles. This cuts off not just the DualShock 4 from new games, but also all of the expensive licensed pro controllers that many users have bought to up their game in clutch multiplayer moments.

"We believe that PS5 games should take advantage of the new capabilities and features we're bringing to the platform, including the features of DualSense wireless controller," said Isabelle Tomatis, from PlayStation VR, Peripherals Marketing and Licensing in the August blog post. The question is, if you can turn off all those features, why can't you knowingly opt to use a DualShock 4 in those situations? It would certainly help lessen the sticker shock of needing to buy multiple controllers for local multiplayer games like Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Overcooked! All You Can Eat, or Dirt 5's split-screen.

PlayStation 5 buyers will potentially have to keep several PS4 era accessories hanging around for the next few years anyway. The new PS5 camera is seemingly not compatible with PS4 games that use a camera, meaning that you need the PlayStation Camera for PSVR to work, with games potentially relying on the DualShock 4's light bar for tracking, and in order to use Move controllers with Dreams when playing in PS5 backward compatibility. You'll need to apply for a free camera adapter, since the old PS4 camera used a proprietary connector.

This is in stark contrast to Xbox. Admittedly, the new Xbox Series X|S controller has none of the new haptic tricks and adaptive trigger advancements of the DualSense, but still modifies the inner workings to try and reduce the controller latency for inputs. Despite this, Microsoft are maintaining full compatibility with Xbox One peripherals on Xbox Series.

You'd ruddy well hope so when Microsot are still pushing out limited edition controllers in the old design!

Source: Sony

Wingspan Review

Wingspan is the latest modern board game hit to find itself taking flight in a digital form on Steam. We recently previewed Root, another example of this trend, but where Root is a war game directly focused on attacking and defeating your enemies, Wingspan is a far calmer experience.

In Wingspan, players take the role of ornithologists and bird experts, looking to attract different species of birds into their personal habitats. In game terms, this means drawing and playing bird cards into your tableau to earn points and benefit from their abilities. In order to do this, you'll need to collect food resources for your birds to eat, as well as having them lay eggs that are traded in to attract even more birds.

While that might not be the sexiest explanation of a game's mechanics – and I wouldn't blame you for wondering what Wingspan even has to offer if you haven't played the physical implementation – it's a game that is more than the sum of its parts. This is particularly evident in the sights and sounds of Wingspan, which really draw you into this awe-inspiring aviary.

The art through the game has an amazing watercolour style, but there are subtle animations that really bring it to life. Whether it's the gentle swaying of the grass or a Warbler softly twittering, these little details do a lot of heavy lifting with such minimal motion. In spite of this beauty, the user interface can get a little cluttered, especially when trying to figure out how well your opponents are doing.

This is only a small complaint, though, as the lovely artwork on display is often worth the minor inconvenience. This beauty is also accompanied by a serene soundtrack of soft piano and tranquil strings that feels more like a spa experience than anything. There are even narrated bird names and facts about each species that play when a bird is slotted into one of your habitats – what more could you ask for?

Of course, visuals alone didn't get Wingspan's physical game to the top 20 of BoardGameGeek's IMDB-style ranking, nor did it land them the top spot on BGG's Family games list; Wingspan is a great game in its own right.

Each of the three habitats that you can place birds into (Forest, Grasslands, Wetlands) is tied to one of the three main actions you can take on your turn. This creates an incredible symbiosis as every bird you collect increases the power of that habitat's action, which makes it easier to play more birds in turn.

Pretty soon, you'll have an explosion of cards and resources, but Wingspan also has a brilliant flow to it; you'll have four rounds to build your birdy engine, and by the final round it will be truly singing. Each subsequent round is slightly shorter than the last, though, which leads to a wonderful power balance as you're fighting to build the best engine you can before time runs out.

Every game will have a moment where your priorities need to shift from making your engine better to focusing on the points that will win you the game, and figuring out exactly when that moment is can become a fascinating puzzle in itself. Each round also has a bonus objective to score you additional points, with two variations of play that can increase or decrease player interaction as you see fit.

The flip side of the decreasing round length, however, is that games of Wingspan can end just as you feel like you're hitting your stride. This seems to be prevalent in the "Euro" style of board games, possibly to keep you coming back time and time again to try and achieve that perfect game that's always just out of reach. While this pattern of ending a game just before it feels complete does allow savvy players to capitalise on a good start, it can also mean bad starts leave you adrift from the pack.

The digital adaptation of Wingspan mitigates this with the ability to end games at will and swiftly jump straight into another one. Having multiple AI difficulties also helps, but the two multiplayer options will provide the real challenge; Real Time mode gives you a limit of five minutes per turn – far more than you'll usually need – while Asynchronous gives everyone a leisurely 24 hours to complete their turn.

This really capitalizes on the turn-based nature of Wingspan, and while I don't see myself playing long asynchronous games online, I think this is the perfect option for an older generation of gamer. Many of us have parents and relatives that enjoy playing Scrabble or Chess online, and if they have even a passing interest in birds or nature, then Wingspan might just be the perfect holiday gift for them.

EA will be fined €500K every week in the Netherlands until FIFA's Ultimate Team Packs are removed from the game

The Netherlands Gaming Authority has ruled that the FIFA's Ultimate Team Packs are a breach of there gambling laws. EA argued that as the packs have no value outside the game and they cannot be exchanged for cash they were not breaching the rules, but this was dismissed by the Judge.

EA have three weeks to take the packs out of the game if they are to avoid any fines and have said they are "disappointed" in the decision.

We do not believe that our products and services violate gambling laws in any way. We are appealing this decision and trying to avoid a situation that will impact the ability of Dutch players to play FIFA Ultimate Team in full.

Belgium was one of the first countries to ban loot boxes which caused Nintendo to close down two of its mobile titles in the country, EA removing FIFA Points from sale, Blizzard removing the option to buy loot boxes with real money, and 2K turning off the option to buy packs in NBA 2K. There has been a growing number of governments that have begun focusing on the impact of loot boxes with both Australia and the US among those nations.

Here the UK the House of Lords has issued a report on the subject of loot boxes in videogames, and has concluded that loot boxes should be classed as gambling. The report also states that this classification should happen immediately. In June the UK's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport put out a call for evidence as it continued to investigate whether loot boxes should be considered gambling. Back in September 2019, the DCMS recommended that loot boxes get classed as gambling but no legislation as been passed to incorporate those recommendations. In the report and a statement accompanying it the House of Lords said:

"If a product looks like gambling and feels like gambling, it should be regulated as gambling…The government must act immediately to bring loot boxes within the remit of gambling legislation and regulation."

Source: Nu.Nl via VGC

Far Cry 6 and Rainbow Six: Quarantine both delayed until after March 2021

Ubisoft have just had an earnings call and Ubisoft chief financial officer Frédérick Duguet has revealed that both Far Cry 6 and Rainbow Six: Quarantine have been delayed until at least April 1st 2021, no new date has been given for either title but they should be out by the end of March 2022.

Despite having moved Far Cry 6 and Rainbow Six Quarantine to 2021-22 to leverage their full potential in the context of production challenges caused by COVID-19, our new non-IFRS operating income targets for 2020-21 remain within the boundaries we set back in May. Being able to maximize the long term value of our IPs while at the same time maintaining solid financial targets highlights the increasing recurring nature of our revenues, the strength of our portfolio of franchises, confidence in our holiday season release slate, and current supportive industry dynamics.

That's a lot of financial waffle, but it basically translates to 'we're making a shed load of cash at the moment so we can afford to delay these games'.

Far Cry 6 was officially announced in a Ubisoft Forward event back in July and was orginally scheduled for February 2021, coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Stadia, and PC via Epic Games and Uplay. 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 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.

Rainbow Six Quarantine had already been delayed and was set to release before the end of this year having originally been revealed as part of Ubisoft's E3 2019 lineup. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Quarantine is a 3-player squad-based survival FPS being developed by an entirely new team at Ubisoft Montreal, led by game director Bio Jade. The Rainbow Six operators will face off against a mysterious threat infecting human hosts and their surroundings, and there's definitely a bit of zombie outbreak about everything that looks to be going on.

Source: Venturebeat

November's Games with Gold includes Aragami & Full Spectrum Warrior

Microsoft are bringing one of the classic original Xbox games out of retirement for November's Games with Gold selection. Full Spectrum Warrior will be joined by Lego Indiana Jones in the pair of backward compatible games, while Aragami: Shadow Edition and Swimsanity! will fill out the Xbox One spots.

Admittedly it's not the most exciting of line ups as Microsoft hope to embrace a new era of gamer with the launch fo the Xbox Series X|S on the 10th November. Even so, Full Spectrum Warrior was a game that was generally well regarded on the Xbox, and something that I've been curious to check out for a long, long time.

We reviewed Aragami back in 2016, with Miguel scoring it 6/10:

You can see the passion and care put into Aragami from a mile away. Everything about the game shows a love for the stealth genre and the games that made the genre so great. Unfortunately, it isn't until you get up close and start to play the game that you also see all the cracks. Aragami has a lot going for it, but it also has a lot going against it, and those issues keep a good game from being a great game.

Meanwhile, Swimsanity launched in early August across PS4, Xbox One, Switch and PC. It's described as "a multiplayer underwater shooter with action-packed co-op and versus game modes."

Aragami: Shadow Edition – 1st to 30th November
Swimsanity! – 16th November to 15th December
Full Spectrum Warrior (Xbox BC) – 1st to 15th November
Lego Indiana Jones (Xbox 360 BC) – 16th to 30th November

And you can still grab three of the four games from October's selection of spookiness

Slayaway Camp: Butcher's Cut – 1st to 31st October
Maid of Sker – 16th October to 15th November
Costume Quest (Xbox 360 BC) – 16th to 31st October

Source: Xbox

Every game playable on Xbox One will play on Xbox Series X|S on day one (except for Kinect)

Microsoft have confirmed quite definitively that every game that's playable on Xbox One will also be playable on Xbox Series X|S on the day of launch. That includes all the Xbox and Xbox 360 games that were made available through backward compatibility, with only the few games that require Kinect being incompatible.

After 500K+ hours of testing, we're are excited to share that all Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One games playable on Xbox One today, except for the handful that require Kinect, will be available – and look and play better – on Xbox Series X|S at launch.

— Jason Ronald (@jronald) October 28, 2020

It's an impressive feat, and backs up Microsoft's statements of intent from all the way back at E3 2019 when the Series X was still known as Project Scarlett. That announcement came as Microsoft ended their backward compatibility programme for Xbox One to focus on ensuring universal support for the upcoming console, capping off the already impressive work that they had done in making previous generations compatible on Xbox One and then enhancing several titles in select ways on Xbox One X.

You can see all the Xbox and Xbox 360 games that are compatible here.

Xbox Series X will play all of these games at their highest possible resolutions and frame rates, enabling whatever Xbox One X enhancements were intended. The Xbox Series S, meanwhile, will play and enhance games to the maximum that was possible on the Xbox One S, again stabilising frame rates and dynamic resolutions.

Those enhancement efforts are continuing on Xbox Series X|S. Microsoft have stated that developers can go back and add new performance targets for the newer consoles with just "three lines of code", which is admittedly a bit hyperbolic. Still, there's other initiatives, such as Auto HDR using machine learning to add HDR to games that weren't designed for the expanded dynamic range, which is actually enabled by default unless Microsoft identify unintended consequences to the technique.

More selectively, Microsoft are also able to double the frame rates of backward compatible games, jumping form 30fps to 60fps, or from 60fps to 120fps. This is much trickier to do, and so being applied on a case-by-case basis, but has already been demonstrated with Fallout 4 hitting 60fps on Xbox Series S.

Over on the PlayStation 5 side of things, Sony have been able to state near universal backward compatibility support, with just 10 games that were found not to work on PS5. As with Xbox, the PS5 will use its additional power to boost game resolutions and frame rates up to their programmed limits for PS4 or PS4 Pro. This means that God of War can play at 60fps in its performance mode, while Ghost of Tsushima seems to have a dedicated graphics mode for PS5 to play at 60fps, double what the PS4 Pro's modes allow.

Source: Twitter

Watch fives minutes of Demon's Souls PS5 gameplay here

Sony have released a second gameplay trailer from the stunning looking Demon's Souls remake for PlayStation 5. A launch title and exclusive for Sony's next-gen console, Demon's Souls will be out on 12th November in the US and select other regions, and 19th November in most other parts of the world, including the UK.

There's plenty of battling through the cramped confines of this trailer, contrasting with the gameplay that was shown in the first gameplay trailer that Sony released last month. Also in contrast to that trailer, the player looked like they knew a bit more of what they needed to do when facing off against the boss characters in the game – this makes sense, since that trailer was set at the beginning of the game.

The second trailer journeys to Stonefang, one of the five different realms of Demon's Souls, where caverns of molten lava light up the weapon forges. Here, you'll face off against the Armored Spider and Flamelurker, both of which feature in the trailer.

What many will take away from it, just as with previous trailers, is just how impressive the game in its grandest moments, really showing off what the PS5 is capable of, and the mastery of Bluepoint in remaking classic titles.

Check out the first gameplay trailer here:

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

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

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

Source: YouTube, PS Blog

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope Review

'Twas a dark and stormy night…. No really, it was, the wind was hollowing and the rain was lashing against the windows as I sat down to play the latest instalment in Supermassive's The Dark Pictures Anthology. With the lights turned off, the surround sound on, and a friend on hand to play the game in Movie Night mode, I had the perfect conditions to enjoy a spooky story.

This time we are heading in to a dark forest, home to the town of Little Hope, a seemingly abandoned settlement with a dark past. A bus accident leaves a college professor and his four students stranded on the dark road in to town, the mist swirling and forcing them forward. It's a classic horror setting very much like Silent Hill, but with a good dollop of The Blair Witch Project and Cabin in the Woods thrown in for good measure. I don't want to spoil any of the story but suffice to say swatting up on the Salem Witch Trials may help – Season One of the 'Unobscured' podcast is a good listen.

The characters you get to control are Taylor (Caitlyn Sponheimer), Daniel (Kyle Bailey), Angela (Ellen David), professor John (Alex Ivanovici), and Hollywood star Will Poulter as Andrew. I found the Man of Medan cast were an annoying bunch and quite hard to relate to, and although the Little Hope team have their quirks and rough edges, they mostly act like normal, likeable human beings and you will be rooting for all of them to survive.

Ahead of them lie.. things. Honestly, as with most horror games or movies, it's really best if you go in to the game not knowing anything about it, and thankfully the trailers don't spoil the plot and there's a really good twist at the end which, unlike in Medan, I did not see coming.

There are plenty of jump scares and things going bump in the night, and once again the sound design is excellent with creaks and howls putting the player on edge. The Movie Night mode works particularly well; having a friend to talk to and unravel the mystery together is a brilliant idea, but if you don't have a chum to sit next to you on the sofa and enjoy the scares you can also play online.

When I reviewed Man of Medan I had a number of criticism, one of which was the ponderous slow start to the story, something Little Hope quickly rectifies with shadowy figures and a lot of gory deaths. In fact, Little Hope improves on Man of Medan in almost every aspect. It is paced better, the frame rate is more stable on PS4 Pro and the annoying loading screens that broke the tension in the first game are almost non existent. The writing could still do with a little more tweaking – our five protagonists still accept that something supernatural is going far too readily – but this time they do acknowledge horror movie tropes. When John suggests the team split up Taylor is quick to point out that never ends well in films.

Nothing much has changed in terms of how you actually play, though. There's a lot of walking about with a flashlight exploring forests and decaying buildings, all the time picking up clues as to what is going on. As before, pictures and postcards can give you premonitions, glimpses of dangers that may lay ahead, and quick time events return for the action sequences, as do sections where you hide and have to tap a button in time with your heart rate. These are much more forgiving than the first game and are less likely to an instant death.

Also returning is Pip Torrens, the mysterious Curator who critiques your progress and may offer a hint by way of a line from a famous book. As the game progresses we get to learn a little more about him with clues about who he is – I have a feeling there will be a big reveal when the anthology ends. Torrens plays him with delicious gusto, a raised eyebrow or a sly smile hinting as to what is to come, and he's easily one my favourite characters to be found in a video game. Keep an eye out the very first time you meet him as there's a blink-and-you'll-miss it tease of the next two games in the anthology.

Little Hope is a stunningly good looking game, bordering on photorealistic at times. The graphical fidelity, obscure camera angles, and anamorphic format place your right in the middle of a horror movie. That said it's not an out-and-out fright fest. It's very much on the Nightmare on Elm Street end of the spectrum with jump scares and gore, but you end up having a good giggle straight after rather than constantly being on edge and checking behind the sofa for ghosts every five minutes.

A play through lasts around seven hours, so long enough to split over two evenings. As before, you can play with a friend online or go it alone if you are feeling brave. There are a lot of collectables and secrets to discover on repeated plays, as I barely found a fifth of them on my first go and thought I was being thorough. You're also going to need multiple plays through to uncover the full story, and you'll get a different experience once you're armed with the knowledge of what is going on. You also unlock the Curator's cut after your first completion, giving you a slightly different version of the story with new scenes.

Blair Witch: Oculus Quest Edition VR Review

Just over a year after its initial release, Bloober Team's Blair Witch has finally made its long awaited jump to virtual reality. I enjoyed the original version, but was critical of the short running time and its failure to really push the more interesting aspects of its puzzles and setting. The VR version is billed as an entirely new version redesigned from the ground up for VR, so I was excited to strap on my headset and check it out.

Would the result be a horror story for the right or wrong reasons? Dim the lights, check the windows and doors are locked and join me for a suitably spooky Halloween review.

For the moment, Blair Witch VR is exclusive to Oculus Quest with only vague plans to make it more widely available. This is, of course, perfectly timed to coincide with the release of Facebook's shiny new headset, the Oculus Quest 2, but my playthrough was on the original Quest, losing out on some enhanced visuals that include a more realistic dog and more convincing foliage. Such improvements would be welcome as the downshift in graphics from the original to this is striking.

Graphically, the flatscreen version wasn't quite cutting edge but it offered a detailed and claustrophobic gameworld with more than enough fidelity to get across the sense of place. The Quest version is an altogether more impressionistic vision. Textures and resolution are redesigned to fit the limitations of the standalone headset and this felt hugely jarring at first. Fortunately, the innate immersiveness of the VR format soon kicked in and I adjusted.

While the short running time was one of my main criticisms of the original game, VR is well suited to more compact experiences. That being said, I was surprised to discover that the playing time has been cut down even further for this version. Bloober Team have spoken about deliberately condensing the gameworld to minimise the amount of travelling through the forest as they felt that this didn't work as successfully in VR. While this may be true, the result is an environment that feels unnaturally confined and the sense of being lost in the woods is replaced with something that often comes across more like a forest-themed escape room. The woods were always an uncanny space that wrapped around and lead you back to where you started, but this makes the level design more linear.

The storyline of the original is kept intact, as are the main story beats. You play as Ellis, a troubled veteran suffering from PTSD who finds himself lost in the forest whilst searching for a missing boy, Peter. Accompanied by your loyal support dog, Bullet, as well as a handful of 90s gadgets (Nokia phone, handheld camcorder and walkie-talkie) you must face your fears and survive the dangers of the forest while trying to get closer to the mystery at the heart of the forest.

The Blair Witch setting is more context than plot, although she does make occasional audio appearances. The PTSD aspects take an important social issue and represent it in mostly sensitive fashion through Ellis' wartime hallucinations. These episodes, in particular, were hugely effective in VR despite the visual downgrade, and felt more essential than they did in the original version.

Navigating the world offers up a range of VR control options. You can choose to manually move using the Touch controllers or to teleport, with direction either being controlled by your head movement or the right-hand analogue stick. There are also options for seated or standing gaming with the necessary height adjustments. I opted for manual movement with head direction and found this to work pretty well for me. The alternatives are welcome, as everyone's comfort level for VR will be different. I did struggle to set up the height for seated play and either towered over or couldn't reach the table in the game's main menu, but had no problems with standing mode.

As well as the amount of movement being cut back, the puzzles have been redesigned with VR in mind. The tactile immersion of opening doors and pulling levers still feels novel to me, but it is a shame that the changes mainly involve simplifying or removing puzzles. As an example, in the original you have to rearrange fuses to get a car's headlights to switch on. Here, this was simply removed and the process was automated. I can understand the desire to avoid more fiddly operations, but again, the result is a more linear and directed experience. The most interesting mechanic, freezing or rewinding time using the camcorder, is retained and works brilliantly in VR.

While it didn't take me long to adjust to the lower resolution and graphical downgrades, the same can't be said of the slew of immersion breaking glitches. Most of these were minor – Bullet clipping into the scenery was always a bit unpleasant – but I did encounter a couple more serious bugs that stopped progress. Chapter 5, in particular, refused to trigger properly until I loaded an older save. Having played the original, I knew roughly what I needed to do, so likely picked up on this being a glitch quicker than a first time player would.

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