Control Ultimate Edition will be available from February on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S

Remedy has confirmed that Control Ultimate Edition will be available from February 2nd on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. That release date is for the digital release, while the physical release will follow a month later on March 2nd. Alongside this news, Remedy released a clip of Control running on PS5, showing both the Performance mode and Graphics mode. In Performance mode Control will run at 60fps while in Graphics mode that will go down to 30fps but include ray tracing.

Control Ultimate Edition is already available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. This version of the game includes all of the DLC content from the expansion pass including The Foundation and AWE. The Control Ultimate Edition release was announced back in August and immediately courted controversy as it was revealed that buying this new version of the game would be the only way to get an upgrade to the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X for no extra cost. This being despite there being no difference in content between the Deluxe Edition and the Ultimate Edition, aside from the free next gen upgrade. 505 Games came back and tried to explain why they had to create a new version and could not offer either free or paid upgrades, but this only really stirred up the hornets nest further.

Either way, the game is fantastic. In our Control review, I wrote:

Control is one of the best story-focused single player games in years. Its unique mix of surrealism, sci-fi and mystery draws you in, but doesn't give everything away, and the combat is fantastically varied and provides just enough challenge. A culmination of everything that went before, Control is Remedy's magnum opus.

Source: Twitter

Snowrunner Patch 11 finally brings mods to console

Saber Interactive and Focus Home Interactive have pulled the trigger on their latest Snowrunner update, finally enabling mod support on consoles.

Those who have been playing on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (as well as PS5 and Xbox Series X|S via backwards compatibility) can now access a catalogue of player created (and curated) content including new vehicles, maps, and other add-ons.

Powered by mod.io, there have been more than 5 million downloads already with 3 new mods to explore every day. According to Saber Interactive, more than 30% of PC players use mods to enhance their Snowrunner experience.

Modding the console versions is incredibly straightforward. Players simply need to jump into Snowrunner then browse the mod library for anything that takes their fancy. After subscribing to mods from the list, they can then be activated when you next play.

Snowrunner Patch 11 also ushers in a number of fixes and improvements as outlined in the changelog below.

Snowrunner Patch 11 Update Notes

General:

Mods are now available on consoles
Added alternative controls scheme for CAT TH357 forklift that allows fork manipulation while driving
Fixed a bug where the player was able to complete cabin delivery just by hovering the cabin over the unloading zone
Fixed a bug where the icon of the disassembling building did not appear on the minimap if another player opened it in a coop session
Fixed a bug where in coop session guests got disconnected when someone drives near disassembling building at levels of Yukon region
Fixed incorrect number of cabins that players need to deliver to complete contracts in the Yukon region

Maps:

Removed second unloading zone in the Power Line Maintenance objective in Yukon region
Various bug fixes and improvements for Yukon maps

Vehicles:

Fixed a bug where some arrows on the dashboard of the 'KRS 58 "Bandit"' truck passed through dashboard texture while driving
Fixed a bug where mirrors of the 'KRS 58 "Bandit"' truck were visibly reeling in the cockpit camera mode while driving
Articulated trucks (CAT 745C and Azov 4220 Antarctic) steering force was slightly buffed
Improved engine sound loop for Cat Th357

UI:

Fixed a bug where materials were not completely displayed in the player profile for the Order Master Supreme
Added info pop up for Storage zones on a minimap
Fixed a bug where players were unable to focus the camera on an objective and could not view what the mission objectives are without activating them
Fixed a bug where players were unable to move added destination point on the map

Source: Press Release

Game of the Year 2020 – Best Multiplayer Game

While there's several staples of multiplayer gaming that seem to remain consistent year in, year out, 2020 and its unique… challenges have provided fertile soil for new and inventive multiplayer games to flourish.

This summer in particular saw several games coming almost out of nowhere to become Twitch and YouTube sensations, and more fun, social types of multiplayer coming to the fore (both new and old). Then there's the battle royale genre, which continues to rumble in the background, a handful of new challengers emerging to Fortnite's crown.

This year's winner, though? Well, it combines the two.

As soon as it was announced, I had a feeling I was going to love Fall Guys. The cute and cuddly visuals and the daft shenanigans of Total Wipeout and Takeshi's Castle, all to the tune of the current Big Thing in video games, the Battle Royale. It was instantly appealing the first time I got to go hands on at Gamescom, and it was a delight to see my slight fears of it being a lightly obscure release laid to rest by its barnstorming launch.

Of course, it was helped along the way by being bundled into PlayStation Plus, but it was sensationally successful on Steam as well, and Mediatonic had to scramble to shore up their servers, patch out issues and ease their way into the typical seasonal content drops that we see so often in games these days.

Is it perfect? No. Are the waits between rounds a bit too long? Maybe. Is it a whole lot of fun that captured the imaginations of millions over the summer? Absolutely.

Fall Guys is our deserved winner of Best Multiplayer Game 2020.

Runner up – Call of Duty: Warzone

Call of Duty: Warzone might feel like it came out about three years ago, but it actually only arrived back in March. Merely calling it a free to play Battle Royale spin-off feels almost like it's being undersold, as it builds on the shooting mechanics and graphics of 2019's Modern Warfare. As a result the controls feel tight and responsive and the game looks gorgeous.

More importantly, it brought its own twists to the battle royale genre. The Gulag, where defeated players face off one on one and the winner goes back into the match, and the ability to buy squad mates back into the game were excellent additions. You could even argue that the battle royale mode isn't even the best one; personally I'm partial to Plunder, where you run around collecting cash and putting it in helicopters that tend to attract nearby enemies.

Since March, Warzone has gone through all kinds of modes and additions, such as the Halloween update that had defeated players respawning as undead, and it's even just been updated to integrate into the recently released Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War. The main gameplay remains the same, however. It's tense and strategic, and playing in a squad is one of the best multiplayer experiences I've had this year.

– Gareth C

Runner up – Phasmaphobia

In recent years, we've seen a subgenre of multiplayer horror games carve a niche out for itself in the industry. Most of them follow the lead of competitive killer games like Dead by Daylight and infuse high-intensity objective focused competition with spooky sights and sounds, but what makes Phasmophobia so special (aside from the gut-dropping terror of the VR support) is the fact that it takes such a wildly different approach to horror multiplayer.

As a purely cooperative, slow-paced ghost hunting experience, it delivers on healthy scares while also creating a gameplay environment that naturally gives way to horror tropes like losing sight of your friends in a massive abandoned school or having yourself locked into a bathroom by ghosts as soon as you say "I bet there aren't any ghosts here." It's an entirely unique multiplayer horror experience that paves the way for more slow and sophisticated horror experiences like it in the future.

– Miguel M

Special Mention – Among Us

The tricky business with online-focused games, especially during awards season, is that the year a game came out in might not align with the year it actually takes off and finds an audience. Plenty of games may establish their audience or find their footing a year or two into release, but it's incredibly rare for an under the radar indie game made by 3 people to come out in 2018, only to suddenly explode in popularity and become a global phenomenon in 2020.

Among Us isn't just a popular indie game that is well known by regular gamers, it is a pop culture hit that kids in middle school and grandparents in retirement homes alike are playing. While its 2018 release date means it isn't in line to win any awards (except for Best Ongoing where it was a runner up), it's impossible not to acknowledge the fact that 2020 has, without a doubt, been the year for Among Us.

– Miguel M

Honourable Mentions (in alphabetical order)

Cake Bash
Deep Rock Galactic
Destiny 2: Beyond Light

To catch up on the Game of the Year awards we've handed out so far, here's a handy list:

What was your personal favourite of the year? Let us know in the comments below, and make sure to stick with us through the rest of this month as we tick our categories off one by one. Our next category? Best Gameplay!

Godfall update 2.3.15 lands as devs reveal DLC roadmap

With the dust slowly starting to settle following Sony's launch of the PlayStation 5, we're learning more about what the Godfall developers have planned for their melee-heavy launch title.

Counterplay Games revealed a new update for the game (which is available to play on PC too, via the Epic Games Store) bringing it version 2.3.15. This patch comes tagged with various fixes and quality of life improvements including the ability to mass salvage unwanted loot alongside changes to "input buffering".

Looking further ahead, the studio also laid out their Godfall content roadmap. In early 2021, there's a new "Primal Content Update" coming which will then be followed later in the year by Godfall's first paid expansion. If you purchased either the Ascended or Deluxe version of Godfall, you will gain immediate access to this.

Sadly, Godfall didn't do too much to impress us at launch. While it had some interesting ideas in its approach to combat, the dull structure and heavy recycling of content made it a tough game to slog through. Anyway, here are those latest patch notes.

Godfall Update 2.3.15 Patch Notes

General – All Platforms

Mass Salvage is now in the game!
- Players can now tag gear with a Salvage or Favorite mark
- Gear currently equipped on a Valorplate continue to be Locked
- Gear with a Favorite or Locked tag cannot be salvaged
- Gear with a Salvage tag will be disassembled when you choose to "Salvage All"
Solved an issue where Amulets, Rings, Charms, and Augments' Secondary traits were not increasing when upgraded to Rank 3.
Solved an issue where Secondary Traits would not upgrade properly when upgrading the item to Rank 5.
Solved various issues that could cause hitches and stuttering.
Included reminder name text on Tower of Trial icons.
Included a Field of View slider.
Solved an issue with input buffering where buttons held (ex: Weapon Technique, Blocking) would not register properly.
Increased the windows of opportunity to buffer the use of a lifestone during combat animations.
Updated the way the game handles Input Buffering – read more from our Developer Commentary, posted as a reply at the end of the patch notes!
Improved framerate issues when using an Archon Fury that summons Sentinels.
Solved an issue where Archon Fury damage effects were not accurately displaying the correct values.
Solved an issue where Lunara's AoE Grab would cancel the player's Archon Fury early.
Certain boss encounters were updated – read more details about this after the Developer Commentary!
Improved Weapon Technique HUD to include a visual flourish when a bar is full.
Increased tracking/rotation on all weapons.
Shoutout to all the Greatsword users who were having a hard time landing hits where they aimed.
Solved an issue that allowed enemies to parry a player's Weapon Technique attacks.
Solved an issue where Light and Heavy Timing Attacks were dealing incorrect (and lower) damage.
- Light and Heavy Timing Attacks were dealing the same damage as the weapon's Light Attack
- Damage for the timing attacks now correctly scales with its corresponding attack and its +20% bonus
- Example Numbers: LA = 100, LTA = 120. HA = 150, HTA = 180
  Where previously, all (Light and Heavy) Timing Attacks dealt 100.
Solved an issue where the game could crash when attempting to use Weapon Techniques while doing a Charged Heavy Attack.
Updated the Rank 3 Finesse Skill to allow players to throw projectiles with every quick turn.
- Previously the Quickturn attack would only trigger when the stagger effect was off cooldown.
- Now every Quickturn will throw daggers regardless if the stagger effect is available (and apply stagger when off cooldown).
Solved an issue where leveling up would not fill Weapon Technique or reset Shield Cooldowns.
Solved an issue where players could get knocked down when performing a Weapon Technique
Solved an issue where Leaping Shield Bash scaled off Might (instead of Spirit) when performed using your Secondary Weapon.
Solved an issue where using the Longsword's Northern Technique during a level up would make the HUD permanently disappear.
Solved an issue where spamming attacks during a Longsword's Southern Technique could bypass the Timing Attack window.
Solved an issue where the Dual Blades Charged Heavy Attacks would not trigger reliably.
Solved an issue where the final hits of the Dual Blades Charged Heavy attack would not register.
Solved an issue where Polearm Heavy Timing Attacks would not benefit from the Timing Attack Skill's Rank 5 damage bonus.
Solved an issue where Polearm Heavy Timing Attacks would not trigger Soulshatter damage.
Solved an issue where the Polearm's Heavy Timing Attack would not consume Rampage to deal +500% damage.
Included colored health states on a player's name tag for multiplayer.
This also includes a flash indicator for whenever a player is hit.
Solved a multiplayer issue where abandoning a Dreamstone activity as a follower would create a placeholder mission in their holomap.
Solved a multiplayer issue where voice lines could overlap for party members during cutscene transitions.
Solved an issue in multiplayer Tower of Trials where attempting to open a locked chest with insufficient keys would prevent the player from interacting with other objects on the same floor.
Solved an issue in multiplayer where a player could lose the use of their Interaction Button when trying to open a chest at the same time as another player
Solved an issue in multiplayer where Solaris' shield bar would appear full to someone who died despite whatever damage the shield sustained.
Solved an issue in multiplayer when fighting Solaris shield bar would not update until it was fully broken or recharged.
Solved an issue in multiplayer where button prompts would linger after completion if the player spammed the interaction key.
Solved an issue in multiplayer where dodging Lunara's AoE Grab would cause the player to levitate in the dodge's direction.
Solved an issue in multiplayer where the loot was capped at Tier 40 in certain game modes instead of scaling to the missions tier.
Solved various multiplayer crash issues due to desyncs.
Updated Dreamstone Boss Gauntlets to withhold loot until the final midboss is defeated.
Adjusted the animations for Kraven's "stop" cycles.
Adjusted the animations for Sunflare Ravager's Takedown finisher so it doesn't dramatically ragdoll after death.
Adjusted the animations for the Shield so it will snap in place after blocking a heavy hit.
Adjusted the animations to the Arcing Shield Throw to include more body/shoulder weight behind the throw.
Adjusted the animations to the Longsword light attack combo so it feels less floaty.
Adjusted the animations to the Vargul Warrior's "battle cry" and "walk" cycles.
Adjusted the animations to various Abyssian enemies suffering from stutters in their "walk" cycles.
Removed the 250ms animation delay on equipment hover. Traits will now display immediately when the stat card is pulled up.
Solved an animation issue where getting grabbed by Zamora while near her sides would cause the player to float (instead of being in her hand).
Solved an animation issue where Grieves Sunsteel's Hammer would swing wildly when he places it down to throw a fireball.
Solved an animation issue where Grieves Sunsteel's Lava Bucket would sway unrealistically during his Takedown animation.
Solved an animation issue where Nyak Adepts would appear to slide instead of walk properly.
Solved an issue in multiplayer where sometimes blocking a regular attack could lock the player in a repeating blocking animation loop.
Solved an issue that would cause all enemies of a group to animate in sync.
Solved an issue where immediately after placing a banner, the player is unable to animation cancel anything.
Solved an issue where the level up animation would cancel other animations and reset the camera location.
Improved Navmesh and spawn logic to prevent immobilized or otherwise nonresponsive enemies.
Improved visual guidance from Spirit Vision for Free Roam activities.
- Red bonus objective beams have increased in size
- A new particle effect was included to guide players to the nearest beam
Included a confirmation screen when attempting to exit the game.
Included a confirmation screen when attempting to reset the Skill Grid.
Included a press-and-hold key safety when attempting to abandon a Dreamstone.
Included a prompt at the end of a Hunt Mission which allows players to choose between Free Roam or Return to Sanctum.
Included some emissive VFX to help inform players about objects of importance (such as Switches).
Increased player pickup radius responsiveness while sprinting (to avoid backtracking).
Increased the turn radius allowed during Super Sprint before breaking. Enjoy speedrunning through the realms!
Increased the amount of health on the Training Dummy.
Removed player collision from NPC summons.
Removed the "I CANNOT BE STOPPED" line from Macros' dialogue options while he's below 40% health to prevent ironic death quotes.
(You will fall, and you will fail Macros!)
Removed the press-and-hold interaction for gathering nodes so they can be collected with one button press.
Solved an issue in Free Roam where the Timing Posts from Chest Puzzle events could spawn on multiple floors if they were located inside a building.
Solved an issue in multiplayer where the second hit of the Polearm's light combo would not deal damage if performed too quickly.
Solved an issue where "Full Health" effects (like those found on the Red Dragon Tail Polearm) would not function properly.
Solved an issue where a crash could occur when fighting Sunflare Ravager during the Shrine of the Godsmith mission.
Solved an issue where adjacent augment bonuses were not displaying on the other augments' stat cards.
Solved an issue where ailment UI timers on the player (such as Burning) would continue to run while paused.
Previously, you could pause the game to cause the debuff timer to expire despite it continuing to run for its intended duration.
Solved an issue where Ascendant versions of mid-bosses were dropping an increased amount of health globules.
Solved an issue where Azure Enclave would be inaccessible (through an inactive phase node) when entering Free Roam after playing a Hunt Mission in Floating Remnant.
Solved an issue where base and upgraded items rewarded the same amount of Electrum if salvaged.
Solved an issue where boss music would continue to play after the boss has been defeated.
Solved an issue where bosses would not show their Takedown interaction if they were breached beforehand.
Solved an issue where cinematics could double render character models.
Solved an issue where clearing enemies quickly with high latency could cause objectives not to appear.
Solved an issue where cloth weapon attachments would malfunction when re-entering a boss arena after dying.
Solved an issue where Cursed Chests could produce a blinding light in the Water Realm.
Solved an issue where Dreamstone versions of Solaris and Macros would not play unique combat music when engaged.
Solved an issue where dying to Phalanxar in the Tutorial could respawn you too far, and sometimes stuck in the air.
Solved an issue where elevator prompts could fail to appear, preventing further progression.
Solved an issue where enemy weapons would not disintegrate properly with their owners leaving residual VFX.
Solved an issue where Gilden Commander's mist wall would not fill to fit the arena's entrance.
Solved an issue where items without a fixed element could roll Secondary Traits of a different element when Enchanted.
Solved an issue where leveling up removed the VFX from loot on the ground.
Solved an issue where low tiered enemies could clash break with you, disrupting the combat flow.
Solved an issue where Lunara's orbs are not rendered properly.
Solved an issue where opening the Difficulty Menu would always highlight Easy Difficulty.
It will now highlight the currently set difficulty when opening the Difficulty Menu.
Solved an issue where placeholder geometry could be found under certain Valorplates furs.
Solved an issue where placing a banner could be canceled midway to proc traits from items while conserving the cooldown of the banner.
Solved an issue where player spawned projectiles (ex: from gear) would take strange flight patterns to reach their targets.
Solved an issue where players could attack and defeat Zenun during his rescue mission.
Solved an issue where players would jump to phase nodes they stood under instead of their targeted phase node.
Solved an issue where players could experience a considerable hitch when first opening the door to Exalted Lunara
Solved an issue where Polearms could be thrown to destroy targets through sealed doors, preventing further progression.
Solved an issue where purchasing all ranks of a skill caused some max rank skills to be partially reset on the next launch of the game.
Solved an issue where resources (other than Electrum) would not be summed up as a single item in the loot feed.
Other resources will now show only once in your loot feed for their total amount acquired, just like Electrum.
Solved an issue where Sunflare Orbs could sometimes spawn outside safe zones, becoming inaccessible.
Solved an issue where Sunflare Ravager would not play its unique music when engaged in the Air Realm Gauntlet.
Solved an issue where the "X% Health Recovery while your health is below 25%" boons were providing the same amount of recovery.
Previously, the 65/88/112% health recovery boons all gave 75% instead of what was described.
Solved an issue where the number of heal charges the Falcius Diarchs had would reset if they lost player aggro.
Solved an issue where the Brightness slider could not be moved to the left completely.
Solved an issue where the floating text "RECOVERY" would display over specific chests.
Solved an issue where the Leaping Shield Bash would not trigger Soulshatter damage.
Solved an issue where the player could be locked in an intangible state after performing a parry.
Solved an issue where the player could suddenly stop as soon as they enter Super Sprint.
Solved an issue where the Polarity Attack HUD would not update correctly after player death.
Solved an issue where the Rampage VFX weapon trails would not behave properly.
- If a weapon was swapped, the offhand that did not trigger Rampage would not adopt the VFX weapon trails.
- If the original weapon remained sheathed after Rampage expired, it would retain the VFX permanently.
Solved an issue where the Resistance skill node displayed an incorrect amount of Resistances granted by each Rank.
Solved an issue where treasure chests could respawn when party members drop out of the party.
Solved an issue where Vargul Champions may have no Takedown prompts, preventing further progression.
Solved an issue where Zamora's cloth physics would go crazy and spaz out.
Solved an issue with the environmental wind strength not applying properly during the tutorial.
Solved an issue with the Lashing Reflection (Augment) where the damage increase was not applying at all.
Solved an issue with the Rank 5 Weakpoint Skill where the shockwave produced would reapplying damage modifiers, resulting in astronomical numbers.
- Previously, the Shockwave would deal 50% of the original damage and stack on all modifiers (include weak point damage) again.
- Now the Weakpoint Shockwave will correctly package 50% of the original hit's total and only apply that damage as intended.
Solved various disappearing environment pieces due to LOD and/or View Distance drawing issues.
Solved various environment collision issues across the realms.
Solved various issues and glitches with boss introduction cinematics.
Solved various issues with missing VFX indicators on loot pickups.
Solved various issues with text strings not being translated from English to their appropriate language.
Solved various spelling and grammatical issues in several languages.
Solved various waypoint pathing issues that would briefly point players in the wrong direction during missions.
Solved various waypoint pathing issues that would point players to the furthest objective/enemy instead of the closest one.
Updated the Equipment screen to have Gear Comparison on by default.
You can still toggle this option to view the weapon model.
Updated the holomap to include the currently selected difficulty.
Updated the Macros encounter so he can no longer preemptively channel corruption and stun players before they engage with him after they die.
Updated the previously confusing Rampage UI gauge – it will now appear in the player's weapon UI.
Updated the SFX tied to spending skill points on the skill grid.
Updated the Skill Grid descriptions to match the player's current/custom keybindings (instead of the default keys).
Updated the UI to display what materials were obtained from gear salvage.

PlayStation 5 Only

Solved an issue in multiplayer where accepting an invite on the Title Screen did not automatically transition the player into the game.
Solved an issue where all audio would be lost when resuming the game from Rest Mode.
Solved an issue where starting the game without an internet connection and then reconnecting would cause the player to load with a different character (if they own multiple characters).

PC Only

Included a Salvage shortcut for the keyboard (bound to Spacebar).
Included a Sprint Toggle option for mouse and keyboard.
Solved an issue where highlighting different augments with a controller and the mouse would render two stat cards at the same time.
Solved an issue where pressing the Escape key would close all the menus instead of backing out of the current sub-menu.
Solved an issue where stat cards would not update when navigating with arrow keys or the gamepad left stick after clicking back into the game window with a mouse.
Solved an issue where the Windowed Fullscreen setting was showing the wrong resolution.
Solved various issues where the incorrect mouse button icons are displayed in menus.
Updated mouse button RMB/LMB icons to better display the target button clicked.

Source: Gearbox

PS5 scalpers targeted as UK politicians call for new legislation

The scarcity of PlayStation 5 consoles in the UK (and other parts of the world) has been a recurring news story in the build up to its mid-November launch. If failing to secure a PS5 via pre-order wasn't frustrating enough, prospective console owners have been left enraged by scalpers looking to flog them at a much higher price on marketplaces such as eBay, Facebook, and Gumtree.

A debate surrounding the act of scalping – and, more crucially, the use of bots to automatically order consoles and other expensive tech – has been called for by a number of UK Members of Parliament (MPs).

In a nutshell, they wish to block "the resale of gaming consoles and computer components at prices greatly above Manufacturer's Recommended Retail Price", to "[deny] unscrupulous vendors the chance to make themselves vast profits at the expense of genuine gamers and computer users, while also deterring fraudulent cybercriminal activity," reports VGC.

In their motion, these MPs also wish to outlaw the use of automated bots which have been employed by individual scalpers and syndicates to jump retail queues. They propose legislation that mimics that surrounding the resale of concert and event tickets.

While much of the focus has been on the PS5 launch, scalpers have also targeted Microsoft's Xbox Series X|S consoles. Even in September, when the PlayStation 5 pre-orders had just gone live, scalpers were attempted to sell their reserved console for as much as £1,500.

With more consoles coming into stock soon, scalpers will start to peel away from these new consoles but there have been many gamers (as well as their family and friends) having missed out on getting a PS5 in time for Christmas.

Source: VGC

PlayStation 5 Guides and more from TheSixthAxis

For Honor Frost Wind Parade Christmas event live

Ubisoft Montreal are beckoning warriors far and wide to come and join in some festive frolicking. Hot on the heels of For Honor's Year 4 Season 4 update, players can now take part in the time limited "Frost Wind Parade" Christmas event.

From now until January 7th, For Honor players have access to a winter themed game mode dubbed "Ice Brawlers". Unlike your convention head-on duels, these take place upon the frozen wastes of Valkenheim where your footing is just as important as your blocks, parries, and combos. The sheet of ice you battle on will have chunk break off and sink into the water, making these clashes all the more tense.

During this time, all players have a chance to scavenge festive loot for their heroes after each match played. If you swing by the in-game store then you can also browse plenty of skins and other cosmetics, including a comical candy cane execution.

Is For Honor still worth playing in 2020?

Another fun feature is the removal of all rank and file NPCs from Breach and Dominion. Instead of battling against Knights, Vikings, and Samurai you'll hack and slash hordes of elves and snowmen.

Earlier this month, Ubisoft launched their Y4S4 For Honor update dubbed "Mayhem". Headlining the latest season is new hero, Gryphon, a haggard mercenary who carries a deadly bardiche axe into battle. Of course, Ubisoft have been rolling out fixes and changes elsewhere throughout the game.

Currently, four heroes have entered the "Testing Grounds" including the Nobushi, Warden, Peacekeeper, and Shugoki. What this means is that they've been reworked to help balance the For Honor meta though feedback from the player community will determine whether these changes will stay.

Going into 2021, we have no solid confirmation as to what Ubisoft have planned for their flagship fighting game. It's likely that we'll get a For Honor Year 5 though this will likely be focused on hero reworks as opposed to adding more content but we'll have to wait and see.

Source: For Honor

YesterMorrow Review

Video game characters should really learn not to hold parties, festivals, or celebrations of any type. Long before the DJ has started incomprehensibly shouting down his microphone whilst playing Livin' on a Prayer, you can be certain the party will have been ruined by the invasion of an evil army of some sort. This is the exact situation that kicks off YesterMorrow – thankfully, there's no sign of a mumbling DJ – when the Celebration of Light festival is brought an an unceremonious halt due to some naughty shadow monsters. It's up to Yui to set off on an adventure to save her family and her village before it's too late.

YesterMorrow is a retro inspired 2D platformer, one that has some basic Metroidvania tendencies. There's very little re-treading of levels however, this is mostly about just getting from A to B to C, solving some puzzles and besting a few bosses on the way. The game's storyline is as generic as they come; an ancient order, forgotten prophecies, and shadow enemies. You've heard it many times before.

Fortunately, YesterMorrow is not a narrative adventure and developers Bitmap Galaxy seem happy enough for the player to skip through every cutscene. That's because this is a precision platformer, the story playing second fiddle to the player needing to get their tiny bundle of cute pixels safely past the spiders, pit traps and quick sand that litters their path. With this remit in mind, YesterMorrow proves itself fairly adept.

Controls are mostly tight and responsive, Yui rolling and leaping with grace and ease. There are some exceptions though, as wall climbing and rope clambering are both unnecessarily fussy and needlessly finicky, both in terms of control and timing. Yui would often frustratingly falls to the beginning of a lengthy platforming section despite my best efforts. I never threw my controller in disgust and rage quit, but it was a close run thing on occasion.

Yui unlocks very few offensive abilities for fighting against 'shadows'. Whilst you can kill them, the animals that they are controlling remain present and dangerous, so you can never be entirely rid of enemies. Instead, the focus is very much on evasion. It's a compelling gameplay loop, each section offering a host of obstacles for the player to overcome.

The game does an excellent job of sign posting, deftly cuing you in on where you need to get to, then it's just up to you to successfully pull off the necessary thumb gymnastics to beat the inspired level design. There's real satisfaction to be had in stringing together Yui's moves, the designers challenging the player to utilise all the abilities they've unlocked up until that point. Many of these platforming sections have demanding timing, even early on in the game. Fortunately, there are usually plentiful quick save spots to prevent painful back tracking – throwing you right back into the bit you were stuck on with minimal fuss.

If only I could say that were the case consistently throughout the game. Unfortunately there's some hair pulling, teeth gnashing and deeply irritating sections further into proceedings. These inexplicably forego the generous quick save structure and throw you back to the very beginning of a section upon death or failure to reach a platform. Add to this some of the aforementioned control quirks and it's safe to say, at those points in time, I did not like YesterMorrow very much.

Speaking of time, you'll be travelling through a lot of it, both as teenage Yui and kid Yui. Through plot reasons too forgettable to go into here, Yui ends up in two separate timelines. One precedes the attack of the shadow monsters, the other occurs in the apocalyptic world that follows. Time travelling is a device successfully used in numerous video games but here, curiously, it feels a little of an afterthought.

This isn't Guacamelee! 2, where you can switch between the worlds of life and death at will, instead travelling through time requires you to reach specific portals. As such, the mechanic is underexplored and fails to provide engaging puzzles. Instead it's just a case of meet obstacle, find time portal, travel through time, discover obstacle has disappeared. Then do it all again. The game so clearly points when and where you should travel through time, that it rids itself of any sense of exploration or discovery that a good time travelling mechanic can bring to proceedings.

Elsewhere this really is platforming by numbers, entirely serviceable but never standout. Visuals are soft, whimsical and well animated. The only issues their painterly quality creates is that environmental hazards don't stand out and and are too difficult to spot. This only serves to heighten issues of irritation as Yui falls to her demise… again. Boss Battles are well structured, but often overstay their welcome. You'll figure out how to beat the boss, only to be hampered by having to carry out the same process a few too many times.

The areas of the world you explore are predominantly themed around the most cliched environments in all of video games – a forest, a lake, a desert and ice realm – and the abilities and skills you unlock are as standard as they come as well. Double jumps, dashes and stomps all work as expected, but again this samey quality serves to reinforce the striking sense of 'I've played this all many, many times before. There's nothing particularly wrong with competent unoriginality, other than, for me, it engenders little to no excitement in playing the game.

Cyberpunk 2077 removed from the PlayStation Store, full refunds available to those who purchased it

Sony have taken the unusual, nigh on unprecedented, move of removing Cyberpunk 2077 for sale from the PlayStation Store and are offering refunds to anyone who purchased the game.

"SIE strives to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction, therefore we will begin to offer a full refund for all gamers who have purchased Cyberpunk 2077 via PlayStation Store. SIE will also be removing Cyberpunk 2077 from PlayStation Store until further notice," reads a new page on PlayStation.com.

"Once we have confirmed that you purchased Cyberpunk 2077 via PlayStation Store, we will begin processing your refund. Please note that completion of the refund may vary based on your payment method and financial institution."

CD Projekt RED recently suggested unsatisfied players should request a refund from Sony but there are strict rules on when you can get a refund on goods purchased via the PlayStation Store.

If you have started to download or stream the purchased content, you will not be eligible for a refund unless the content is faulty.

Many posts on Reddit and Twitter have shown that Sony were refusing to issue refunds as the customer had already played the game and instead was telling them to wait for a patch in February next year. It seems CDPR have talked to Sony and asked them to relax the rule as the following statement was issued by CDPR to investors:

The Management Board of CD PROJEKT SA with its seat in Warsaw (hereinafter the "Company") publishes the decision of Sony Interactive Entertainment (hereinafter "SIE") to remove the digital version of Cyberpunk 2077 from sale from PlayStation Store until further notice. The decision was made after the Company's consultations with SIE representatives regarding the possibility of returning the game to people who purchased it in a digital version via PlayStation Store and would like to return it.

This was also confirmed in a tweet from the Cyberpunk account.

Important Update for @PlayStation Users pic.twitter.com/fCB4z74M3z

— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) December 18, 2020

The game will remain on sale for PlayStation in physical form and it will continue to receive patches and will no doubt return to the PlayStation store, but no date has been set. The announcement has had a devastating effect on CDPR's share price.

https://t.co/ep2j6IR0P2 pic.twitter.com/xIJPCBi3nT

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) December 18, 2020

Congratulations to Microsoft, who have managed, without spending a single dollar, to get a timed digital exclusive for their consoles!

UPDATE: The game is staying on the Xbox Store. ""We are not in such discussions with Microsoft at the moment," Adam Kicinski said in a statement to Reuters. This is almost certainly because Microsoft have a promotional deal with CDPR, including a Cyberpunk branded console and the Xbox logo at the end of all Cyberpunk 2077 adverts.

Source: Sony / CDPR

LS15P Wireless Gaming Headset review

A good pair of headphones will change the way you play video games. The problem is finding a good pair that meets all your requirements without breaking the bank. Unfortunately, the delta between quality and price can sometimes be vast.

At £99.99, the LucidSound LS15s aren't exactly budget. The question is, if you're going to spend that much money, are you getting the biggest sounding bang for your buck, or are you better off picking up a £30 headset and a new game for your next-gen console?

The LS15s come in two flavours — the LS15X, for the latest generation of Xbox consoles, and the LS15P, which is what we're looking at today. If you figured out Lucid's cunning naming scheme, you'll have figured out that this version is designed for PlayStation consoles, but the truth is it works with pretty much anything that has a USB port.

First things first, the LS15P looks like a nice headset. With its sleek matte black finish and its soft black faux leather earcups, it's exactly what you'd expect and want from a pair of cans. Interestingly, despite being wireless, there are no fiddly switches that stick out from the side of the earcups, giving them a really flush feel.

It's also great to note that the earcups swivel, not only helping you to find the perfect fit, but ensuring that the headset can lie completely flat when you're not using it. This feature is always welcome, especially if space is at a premium where you're living.

The earcups house pretty standard 50mm speakers and, at 272g or 285g with the flexible mic attached, the memory foam band at the top doesn't need to do any heavy lifting. That's fortunate because the padding isn't the most generous I've seen — any heavier and you'd quickly feel the plastic pressing down on the top of your skull. Even so, when coupled with the memory foam earcups, I must say that these are pretty comfortable, even after several hours of continual use while wearing glasses.

They're fairly snug and certainly pass the wiggle test, but not the head banging test – if I put on some Audioslave and turn the volume up, the headset is going flying.

Unfortunately, the LS15P's sleek, space-saving design is at complete odds with the wireless dongle, which is ginormous. This is a bit of a double-edged sword for the LS15P — on one hand, you're never going to lose it, and if it's just stuck in the back of your PlayStation, it's of little consequence how large it is. However, the LS15Ps also claim to be designed for PC and mobile. If you've ever dropped a laptop with a massive USB dongle sticking out of it, this will raise the hackles at the back of your neck.

If you're wondering how you're supposed to combine the USB dongle with your mobile, then well done for thinking ahead. You obviously can't — you need a 3.5mm aux cable to plug your phone into the headset. Since this is sold separately, and stops this from being a wireless headset, we're not going to entertain that idea.

Returning to the lack of visible controls, there are two obvious buttons that will immediately catch your eye: the power and EQ buttons. Holding either will trigger an extremely American voice prompt telling you that your headset is now on, or that you're on either 'signature sound', 'bass boost' or 'No EQ' modes.

To my ear, these EQ settings did very little. Playing through Spider-Man: Miles Morales, there was clear audio through each of them, but the difference was slight. Signature sound was slightly crisper than the others, while I had to put on a song with already heavy bass and really listen to notice the bass boost.

What's far more interesting are the controls that you can't see. The volume and mute controls are cleverly hidden on the ear cups — the ring around the left cup rotates to change the audio volume, with the mute accessible by clicking in the plate with the LucidSound logo. Similarly, the right cup ring changes the chat volume (on PC only) and clicking in the logo mutes the mic.

It's unfortunate that the chat volume control isn't supported on the console that these were apparently designed for, and that the volume control doesn't work on PC (instead, for some reason, you need to use the chat volume control). This is just a questionable design choice, making the headset needlessly complicated.

Equally, it's a shame that when you mute the headset, the American lady loudly tells you that she's muting stuff. It's not the instantaneous mute you'd hope for at the push of a button.

The detachable microphone has some decent flexibility to it and doesn't slowly spring back like you might see with some cheaper headsets. Audio comes over clearly without too much ambient noise, and the red ring that lights up when you've muted yourself is certainly handy. All in all, it's a perfectly decent boom mic — it's just a shame that the sunken port design means it's a bit fiddly to plug in without taking the headset off.

Saving the best for last, the LS15P has excellent battery life. I went a week and a half on the initial charge, far exceeding the 15 hours' battery life we're told to expect. What's even better is that I started a stopwatch when the lady living in the headphones gave me my first low-battery warning. It lasted another two and a half hours before I gave up and turned the headset off myself. If you're put off by the idea of headphone batteries running flat, this may well be the headset for you.

Sephiroth is now the strongest fighter in Smash Bros.

At The Game Awards, fans of Smash Bros. had a pretty big announcement drop into our laps, namely the reveal of the next fighter joining as part of Fighters Pass Vol.2 – brooding mama's boy and Final Fantasy mega villain, Sephiroth. It was met with an admittedly mixed response but left me thinking about something. Something that I haven't seen anyone else mention or speak about.

Sephiroth is now canonically the most powerful character in Smash.

Stay with me, because I have a reasoning for this, but we have to go back to the beginning and the story mode of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for it. The World of Light mode opens, as I'm sure you will remember, with the combined cast of the game fighting together against impossible odds during the invasion of an army of Master Hands, led by the evil entity Galeem.

It turns out that the Master Hands were a redundant addition to their arsenal, as Galeem is arguably the most powerful entity in Smash Bros. history. They unleashed a devastating array of beams that vaporise the entire roster, except for the precious pink marshmallow Kirby, who only really escaped owing to his speed and because Sakurai loves him like his own son.

This began a quest to rescue the entire roster from Galeem's control, and then combining their efforts to eradicate the mysterious being for good. There's a few other things such as a twin evil entity and other such nonsense in the story, but that's the heart of it. However, something in the Sephiroth trailer overturns the prospect of Galeem being the most powerful force in this universe.

As he makes his grand debut, Sephiroth cleaves through the angelic abomination with a single slice of his Masamune and turns the entire army of Master Hands to dust. This is after several of the roster, including DLC fighters like the Hero of Dragon Quest and Richter Belmont, are literally brought to their knees again (or for the first time, it's hard to nail down a stable timeline for this game) by the invading forces of Galeem.

Our favourite son of Jenova then proceeds to "bring despair to Smash" and beat down on several of what could be considered the strongest characters in the game, making easy work of powerful fighters such as consistently top-tier Bayonetta and, erm, Greninja. Before turning his attention to Mario in one of the greatest fake outs in Smash Bros., impaling the portly plumber on his blade through a strap on his dungarees.

The truth is that he saved the roster from annihilation by Galeem's "Mega Vaporiser Lasers" (the official name, so I'm told), which were in the process of being charged up. Instead of this being an act of mercy, however, it was instead a means to bring his own devastation down upon them in the form of frenzied sword slashes, dark orb explosions, and glorious swishes of his magnificent hair.

All I'm saying is if it took the combined power of the entire base game roster to take down Galeem in the World of Light, it's going to take more than a simple upgraded Omnislash to dispatch Sephiroth, no matter how pretty it may be. Also, let's not forget that not only was he still standing after this attack, but he ascended to his Safer (read: god-like) form at the end of the trailer, no doubt increasing his power still further above his "One Winged Angel" form.

Not only this, but he isn't even the "real" Sephiroth if we're taking all the Advent Children lines and visuals in mind. This version is – SPOILERS, by the way – the possession of Kadaj by the spirit of Sephiroth. So, he's not even the actual Lifestream-bothering villain and yet he is still powerful enough to bully Galeem.

So, in short if you needed a TLDR, here's my reasoning for Sephiroth being the most powerful character in Smash Bros. Ultimate canon:

Sephiroth destroys a baddie it took the entire base Smash roster to defeat.
He did the above without exerting himself at all.
He then proceeded to lay waste to the roster too.
He has ANOTHER two forms above his base form.
Sephiroth has simply glorious hair.
This isn't even the real Sephiroth.

We're due a guide today about the character and how he will play in the game from Sakurai himself, which you can watch here at 10pm GMT, but honestly, I have no idea how they will top this. Sephiroth now stands as the most powerful entity in this game beyond doubt, and short of adding an actual god to the game, I'm unsure how he could possibly be canonically defeated.

Unless, wait …

Make it happen Nintendo, you cowards.

Among Us is coming to Xbox consoles & Xbox Game Pass in 2021

Microsoft and developer Innersloth have confirmed that indie sensation Among Us will be coming to Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S in 2021. Oh, and not only that, but it will also be a part of Xbox Game Pass for console when it arrives.

HEY UH YEAH SO

@XboxGamePassPC – out now!!
Among Us on @Xbox consoles in 2021!!

xbox, we cannot wait for you all to join us as crewmates. you can hold our hand as we go into electrical together.

all info: https://t.co/1fro4e4fb0 https://t.co/fWY7fL9TPx

— Among Us (@AmongUsGame) December 17, 2020

The announcement comes just as the game is inducted into the Xbox Game Pass for PC library, and two days after it was hot dropped onto Nintendo Switch. There's no word about PlayStation at the moment, but surely it's only a matter of time before it arrives on Sony's platform as well. Of course, there could be a timed exclusivity deal in effect here, but there's no mention of exclusivity either. We'll just have to wait and see.

Among Us has been one of the indie hits of the summer, despite actually having released all the way back in 2018. The game was discovered by Twitch streamers, with its paranoia-infused multiplayer making for a lot of fun and plenty of cross-channel collaborations. It helps that the game's really cheap at just £4.

The game is built for 4-10 players, with one or more players being an "imposter", and alien interloper who has to try and murder their way through the other players as they try to complete tasks. As murdered bodies are discovered, players report them and call a group meeting to bicker, accuse, and potentially kick someone out of an airlock.

Just last week at The Game Awards, they revealed the upcoming Airship map, before this week's surprise announcements and Switch release.

I dove into the Nintendo Switch release this week, pondering what it could mean for the game's future and the problems that Innersloth need to figure out before they can really bring the game to PlayStation or Xbox consoles. There's a few, such as how chat works in the game. I wrote:

Given how much buzz there is surrounding Among Us, it's no surprise that Innersloth have sought to bring it to console, and Nintendo Switch is by far and away the most logical first platform for them to tackle. That said, they've clearly got their work cut out for them to make it truly feel like a first class citizen on the platform, ironing out the kinks and figuring out how best to translate the game to PlayStation and Xbox.

It certainly sounds like they're well on their way to figuring it out!

Source: Xbox

Epic Games Store Holiday Sale 2020 brings back the endless £10/$10/€10 coupons

Epic have kicked off the Holiday Sale 2020 on the Epic Games Store, offering a wide range of saves across the library of games they sell, giving away 15 free games through the second half of December, and bringing back the endless £10 / $10 / €10 coupons to save even more on any games you decide to buy.

Say what you want about Epic, but they sure know how to splash all that Fortnite cash around!

So, what do I mean by endless £10 / $10 / €10 coupons? Well, I mean literally that. Once claimed, you can use the £10 / $10 / €10 coupon against any qualifying game over £13.99 / $14.99 / €14.99 across the store – It cannot be redeemed against DLC or pre-orders, though. Not only that, but you'll then receive another £10 / $10 / €10 coupon. So if a game is cut to £20.99, like Star Wars Squadrons is, the effective price is actually just £10.99. Bargain!

Make sure to head to the following link to log in and collect your coupon before trying to make any purchases:

Epic Games Store £10 coupon

Alternatively, you can claim one of the free games that Epic are giving away. The company are throwing out games every single day, starting off with the fantastic Cities: Skylines. If you do that, the coupon will be added to your account and automatically applied for purchases of eligible games and add-ons. These can be games in the sale as well as released games without discounts, like the newly released Cyberpunk 2077 (which isn't too bad to play on a PC).

The Holiday Sale runs from now until 4PM GMT 7th January, and (unlike last time) any unused coupons will expire at that point.

Here's a list of some of the games in the sale – head here to skim the full catalogue – and remember… there's an extra £10 off most of these.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure multiplayer update is now live with cross-save and cross-play support

Sackboy: A Big Adventure has been updated with support for online multiplayer across PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, finally letting you team up with chums from across the internet to tackle the platforming adventure together.

Online multiplayer supports up to four players at once, building on the local co-op that was available from launch. It was something sidelined at the last minute by Sony, just a week before the game's release, as Sumo Digital raced to get the game ready to arrive alongside the PlayStation 5.

The update also brings with it support fro PS4-PS5 cross-play, bridging the generations of this cross-generational release, and if you started playing on the PS4 and have since snagged a shiny new PS5 (or have one wrapped up for Christmas), you can now transfer your progress from PS4 to PS5.

To do this, you need to load up Sackboy: A Big Adventure's PS4 version, select Extras in the pause menu and then follow the instructions it provides.

The update to version 1.003 weighs in at a slightly chunky 3.16GB on PlayStation 5, though that's obviously tiny by modern standards. We'll add the patch notes to this article if we find them.

Behind only Astro's Playroom, Sackboy: A Big Adventure was the main family friendly release that came out alongside the PS5. Of course, it (and Spider-Man: Miles Morales) was a cross-gen release hoping to reach as many families as possible this winter with all the charms of the main LittleBigPlanet series.

It breaks out of LBP's side-scrolling platforming in favour of more 3D platforming with a real focus on multiplayer through the open level design and wider camera angle – this made the lack of online play a real downer originally. While charming and often wonderfully fun and inventive, it wasn't our favourite PS5 launch title. For our Sackboy: A Big Adventure review, I wrote:

Sackboy: A Big Adventure starts off slow, feeling like a hollow reflection of the franchise, but eventually grows into its new 3D platforming elements. It's at its best when it blends the new with the old, when there's power-ups, side-scrolling and a meaningful challenge, but it takes a bit too long to get it together.

Source: PS Blog

Dauntless adds festive PvP modes, "second migration" Slayer rewards

Dauntless developer Phoenix Labs are getting into the festive spirit with their newest game update for the online action RPG.

Patch 1.5.1 is now live across all versions of the game including PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC (as well as PS5 and Xbox Series X|S), adding time-limited seasonal content to the game alongside a shopping list of changes and improvements.

From now until January 4th you can enlist in one of two unique new game modes. Hunting Grounds: Snowball Fight and Snowforts are both available allowing Slayers to participate in some festive PvP fun.

This new update also makes quality of life changes hot on the heels of Dauntless Reforged. This huge reshuffling of the monster hunting RPG has completely changed how you interact with the game's content, stepping away from individual fights to bigger arenas known as Hunting Ground. You can read our review of Dauntless Reforged for more details.

Additionally, Phoenix Labs have confirmed a "second migration" for those transitioning between Dauntless and Dauntless Reforged. In a nutshell, veteran players can expect more resources to fill ut the new Slayer's Path skill tree while also having more "aetherhearts" – items used to supercharge your weapons and armour.

Dauntless Update 1.5.1 Patch Notes

BEHEMOTHS

Fixed a bug where Boreuses would put up their ice shields before spawning minions.

Fixed a bug where Hellion volcanoes would target players outside of their combat area on Hunting Grounds.

Improved performance during Embermane encounters.

Fixed a bug where the camera would flip upside down after a Malkarion tried to eat a Slayer.

Fixed a bug where Pangar heads would stretch.

Fixed a bug where a Riftstalker's murder palace wouldn't vanish after it fled.

Torgadoro grapple sync attacks can no longer down a player, activate the "From the Ashes" amp, and then kill the player again. Once is enough, Torg…

Koshais no longer vanish during the Melting Point island event.

Slaying Behemoths below your weapon level now provides less XP, but slaying Behemoths above your weapon level now provides more XP. Pick on someone your own size… or bigger.
Fixed a bug where Behemoths were not providing rams when slain.

WEAPONS

Prisms can now be power surged.
Fixed a bug where the Standard Barrel couldn't be power surged.
Repeaters barrels will no longer show a power score of zero when viewed on the loadout screen.
Repeaters barrels will no longer be listed as "Tier 0."
Moved the combo exit window a little earlier in the shooting animation to allow Slayers to dodge sooner.
Fixed a bug where holding the attack button while at zero ammo would reload the repeaters but stop shooting.
Fixed a bug where players couldn't see the Twin Suns tab on the repeaters screen while they were equipped.
Fixed a bug where the Dynamic Carbine barrel was overpowered when power surged.

Fixed an issue where the war pike was out of position when unsheathed on Slayers using Body Style 2.

QUALITY OF LIFE

Added an option to mark all content notifications as read. You can find it under the Gameplay section of the Options menu.
Changed floating XP numbers to include the word "XP." Example: You will now see "+150 XP" instead of "+150."
Supply crates now stick around much longer after being placed.
Added timers to island event chests in the Hunting Grounds. You can now see how much time is left before they disappear.
Removed platinum skip options for "First Warden's Bryjind (II)" and "The 'Mane Attraction (II)" rumour quests.

BUG FIXES

The compass now correctly reveals Behemoths when a flare is used in their combat area.
Fixed a bug where Linnea would spawn halfway inside of a cliff. Ouch.
Fixed a bug where using supply crates while shocked would remove the crate.
Fixed a bug where island event chests were difficult to interact with if other players were nearby.
Fixed a bug where the Swarmageddon island event was not spawning swarms. That's like its one job.
Fixed a few cases of infinite fall loops.
Fixed numerous cases of floating environment elements such as bushes and rocks.
Fixed a few gaps in island geometry to prevent falling through the map.
Fixed some areas on Hunting Grounds islands that lacked detail and appeared low-res.
Fixed an issue where supply crates would fall through the map.
Fixed a bug where island event icons were showing up during hunt arrival animations.
Linnea has been given a nameplate.

Merit and ram costs are now consistent for weapon mod and weapon special nodes.
Optimized the Slayer's Path screen to improve performance; it now opens faster.
The first Escalation node incorrectly referred to "Easy Escalation" — this doesn't exist and has been changed to "Normal Escalation."
Island node descriptions now list the Behemoths that appear on those islands.
Unlocked grenades for players who had them unlocked prior to 1.5.0.
Made it easier to select nodes on Nintendo Switch.
Fixed a bug where the assault tonic's duration bonus from Slayer's Path wasn't working.
Fixed a bug where stamina regeneration levels showed "1" at every level instead of increasing with each node unlock.
You can now see your current balance of merits and rams on the Slayer's Path screen.
Moved the "Claim" button to better fit the UI.

Fixed a bug where the glider's second node in the Slayer's Path had better stats than the final node. The second node's performance has been tuned down and the final node's performance has been improved.
Polished player model and animations while gliding.
Glider stamina meter no longer remains on screen if you exit out of gliding immediately after deploying your glider.
Fixed a bug where if a player deployed their glider a second time in one gliding session (without touching the ground in between), the stamina meter wouldn't appear.

Fixed a bug where a Slayer's hair and clothes would flap wildly when previewing their character in store menus.
The Mechaetheric Technovisor now glows while its wearer is standing still.
Expanded dye regions for the Frostwarden armour set.

Fixed a bug where players were unable to view or accept early game quests after updating to 1.5.0.
Fixed a bug where Lady Luck would refer to the "Bright Shadows" quest, which no longer exists.
Fixed a bug where dealing less than 20% damage to a Behemoth would still complete that objective in "First Warden's Bryjind" and "A Strange and Interesting Behemoth" quests.
Quests and rumours that require Slayers to take "less than X damage" before killing a Behemoth no longer take prior combat encounters into account.
Fixed a bug where interrupting a Koshai did not count toward the objective in "The 'Mane Attraction (III)" rumour quest.
Threat and power levels displayed for "Spore Problems" and "Far and Away" now display 11/375 to correctly match the level/power of the actual Behemoths spawned.

Fixed a bug where players would receive lantern-focused bounties before they had unlocked lanterns.
Fixed a bug where the Discipline cell didn't reduce the player's health bar total on the Training Grounds.
Fixed a bug where the transfusion grenade's healing orbs would seek out the wrong targets.
Fixed a bug where players would take more damage after chugging bulwark tonics.
Fixed a bug where assault tonics no longer had the correct cooldown.
Fixed a bug where revive icons for downed Slayers were visible when they were offscreen, but disappeared when they were in frame.

Reduced the amount of data being sent to the game to reduce timeouts, disconnects, and a number of other related issues.

Added reforge ranks to weapon menu icons on the weapon crafting screen.
Fixed various typos, incorrect descriptions, incorrect terminology, and missing text.
Fixed some cases of missing localization.
Fixed various cases of text breaking out of text boxes.
Fixed a handful of errors in the crafting menu, including incorrect power sorting, unhideable prompts, overlapping elements, and cut-off text.
Fixed a bug where players were still receiving party invite notifications after invites were set to blocked.
Fixed a bug where the quest tracker would sometimes vanish.
Fixed unclearable Journal notification breadcrumbs in Discoveries.
Removed the Elite Hunt Pass purchase button from island event and Behemoth loot screens in the Hunting Grounds.
Damage objective progress is now showing correctly for "The 'Mane Attraction (VI)" and "A Strange and Interesting Behemoth (VI)."
Fixed an issue where purchasing an Elite Hunt Pass played the upgrade animation twice in quick succession.
Removed the countdown to the daily bounty token.
Fixed a bug where loading screens would change the game's aspect ratio.
Fixed a bug where the pointer icon would become huge after unlocking a quest-directed node on the Slayer's Path.
Fixed a bug where the Hunt Pass experience icon was using the Hunt Pass daily collectibles icon.
Fixed a bug where a broken rewards and break parts guide could show up while returning to Ramsgate.
Crafting and Equipment menus now correctly show the button prompts to activate legendary weapon abilities, where appropriate.
Fixed a bug where the escape key would not close tutorial slates.
Selecting "View How to Unlock" for the Clearsky Glider in the Personality menu no longer takes players to a random Slayer's Path node.
Fixed a bug where the revive UI was visible during island arrivals.
Fixed a bug where the text above Rosk's head was replaced with white squares.
Emotes can now be set immediately after purchasing them from the Personality menu.
Fixed a bug where some bounty cards were showing old icons for Hunt Pass XP.
The "Claim Bounty" button is now correctly aligned with the surrounding UI.
Rosk now has the weapon overview as the last option in his dialogue window instead of the first.
Fixed an issue where the Sparkforge had no compass icon, making it hard to find.
Power surged gear will now read as Tier 6 in the equipment details tab instead of displaying its original tier.
Armour in crafting menus is now sorted by resistance.
Removed references to old quests in Escalation text.
Fixed a bug where the former Hunt Pass Chronicles section was missing from the Journal.
Fixed a bug where players could not scroll right on loot screens.

Fixed a bug where a Behemoth's flee audio would play in the Hunting Grounds.
Fixed a bug where the music in Hunting Grounds was way too loud. We apologize to your ears.
Fixed a bug where audio cues wouldn't play when holding down the craft button.
Fixed long pauses between Behemoth music during island events.
Reduced the volume of environmental sounds in Hunting Grounds.
Lowered the shocknado (yes, that's what we call it) audio during combat.

Fixed a bug where Tragic Echo's effect would end and players could still move if they had mounted a Behemoth.
Pulled back the camera on gliders in the store.
Fixed a bug where players were stretching when performing a dodge roll.
Fixed a bug where characters were always looking to one side. We will never know what they were truly seeing.
Fixed a bug where the Daily Login Core was granting double the intended number of patrol keys.
Fixed a bug where the Gone Fishing emote's fishing pole appeared out of place for one frame during its preview. That one frame annoyed an animator so much that it had to be fixed.

Source: Dauntless

Overwatch 2 details coming at BlizzCon Online in February 2021

If you've been wondering about Overwatch 2, you're definitely not alone, as Blizzard have been practically silent about the pseudo sequel to their hugely popular hero shooter for the past year. Jeff Kaplan (from the Overwatch team) has now revealed that an update on the game's development will be coming at BlizzCon Online in February.

BlizzCon Online is the delayed annual conference and fan fest that Blizzard have held in the autumn almost every year since 2005. The 2020 edition was cancelled because of (you guessed it) COVID-19, with Blizzard deciding bring next year's event forward to compensate. It will now be held 19-20th February 2021.

In the latest Overwatch development update, Kaplan said what many people suspected: they're holding off on revealing anything more about Overwatch 2 until BlizzCon.

Speaking about a new map coming to Overwatch, he said, "I know a lot of you weren't expecting this to be coming. As you know, our big focus is Overwatch 2, which we will be talking about more in February with BlizzCon Online coming up."

"Can't wait to talk to you more about Overwatch 2, can't wait to show you more with Overwatch 2. We know it's been too long, we know we've been quiet, and we still have a ways to go, just to manage expectations. But we're working extremely hard, we want this game to be great for you, both the live game and the upcoming sequel."

Don't expect the game to come out any time soon, though. It's still quite a way away.

The new map, Kanezaka, came directly from Blizzard's push to expand the Overwatch team that's working on Overwatch 2. One of the new hires was being inducted into the team's tools and design ethos, tasked with coming up with a map to demo their skills. It was so good that the rest of the team wanted to spin it out into a full production and release it for the current game. It has a cat cafe, which instantly makes it better than any other map in the game.

Overwatch 2 was announced at last year's BlizzCon, as an unusual sequel-cum-expansion to the existing game. Overwatch 2 will be backward compatible with Overwatch with heroes, balance, maps and other competitive multiplayer content. To put it another way, Blizzard are adding all the new competitive content to keep the original game in lockstep. So what's new? Well, a major expansion of the PvE co-op content, going beyond seasonal events to really flesh out the game's playable story.

Overwatch update 3.02 live with Winter Wonderland event

Blizzard Entertainment have rolled out their latest update for popular hero shooter, Overwatch, just before wrapping for 2020.

Headlining this chunky patch is the Winter Wonderland 2020 event, complete with a slew of unlockable cosmetic items (including Conductor Reinhardt, Ice Empress Moira, and Penguin Mei) as well as time limited game mode dubbed Freezethaw Elimination.

Overwatch update 3.02 also introduces the new Priority Pass system to help with matchmaking queues. This is mainly aimed at Damage role players who have been struggling with queue waiting times. You can now select the "Flex" option while matchmaking, earning Priority Passes when you win matches, helping put you closer to front of the queue when matchmaking. For a full breakdown of the new Overwatch update, see the full changelog below.

Overwatch Update 3.02 Patch Notes

GENERAL UPDATES

New Feature: Priority Pass

In an effort to help address the population imbalance between Tank, Support, and Damage roles, and the longer queue times that Damage players often encounter due to this imbalance, we're introducing the new Priority Pass feature. Players can earn Priority Passes by choosing Flex when they queue, with more passes earned for wins than for losses. Use a Priority Pass to decrease queue time for a role currently experiencing higher traffic.

Priority Passes may not be used when playing a group of 5 or more. Since we try to pair large parties against other large parties, and parties this large already contain a good balance of roles, we do not anticipate that using a Priority Pass would actually reduce queue times. As such, we don't want players to waste their passes if this wouldn't have a noticeable effect towards the feature's goal.

Feature Update: Replay Viewer Custom Spectator Options

We have added a new options menu to the Replay Viewer, accessible via the Media Controls. Our goal is to give our players more control over how the Replay Viewer looks and behaves in order to navigate replays more easily, as well as make awesome content! These additional settings include the ability to independently toggle UI elements, modify player outline strength, disable objective capture sounds, and adjust the spectator camera behavior. We've also added 0.75x and 1.75x playback speeds to give you finer control.

New Options:

Team 1 Banner
Team 1 Heroes
Team 2 Banner
Team 2 Heroes
Status Messages
Playback Indicators
Game Mode Specific HUD
Kill Feed
Player Names
Player Health Bars
Player Outline Strength
First-Person Health
First-Person Ultimate Meter
First-Person Ability and Weapon Info
First-Person Crosshair
First-Person Hero HUD
First-Person Activity Feed
Objective Capture Sounds
Time Skip Interval Length
FOV Change Per Zoom
FOV Interpolation Rate
Maximum Free Camera FOV

General

Mix of game sounds has been adjusted to give third person footsteps more prominence

WORKSHOP UPDATES

New Workshop Features

[PC-Only] Inspector Log File

When the setting Enable Workshop Inspector Log File [PC-ONLY] is enabled, any log entries written to the Inspector Log will be written out to a local file on disk. When the custom game ends (or if you disconnect), the current log file will close. A new log file will be opened each time you are in a new custom game that writes out a log line via Log To Inspector.

New Workshop Values

String Slice

BUG FIXES

General

Fixed a bug that caused the health display for heroes with a small amount of damage to appear at full health
Fixed a bug that caused the "Default to Friends" option on the competitive leaderboards to not persist between game sessions
Fixed a bug that caused the "Leave as Group" option while leaving games to not persist between game sessions
Fixed a bug with Role Queue Beta season stats displaying the same ratings for all roles
Fixed a bug that allowed some damage-over-time abilities to charge certain heroes' ultimate abilities during the duration of their activated ultimate ability
Fixed a bug that caused pain exertion sounds to not trigger properly

Maps

Eichenwalde

Fixed a bug that caused broken Castle doors to disappear from the game client after a player respawn

Ilios

Fixed a bug that allowed players to land on an unintended map location

Temple of Anubis

Fixed a bug that caused the first capture point to have a higher capture point volume than intended

Heroes

Baptiste

Fixed a bug that resulted in his left forearm animating incorrectly during his Scout emote

D.Va

Fixed a bug that would allow D.Va to use Call Mech immediately after ejecting from her mech in rare conditions

Echo

Fixed a bug that caused her hero portrait to reflect a cloned unit during end of round flows of PvE game modes
Fixed a bug that would cause her to become stuck in the previous spawn point

Sigma

Fixed a bug with his Medal victory pose that would cause him to clip into allies during specific victory lineups

Sombra

Fixed a bug with Sombra's hair animation not appearing correctly during her "Hacked" victory pose

Widowmaker

Fixed a bug that caused her to spawn with an abnormal amount of health

Wrecking Ball

Fixed a bug that caused the length of his grapple ability to be shorter than normal
Fixed a bug that caused the camera to appear beneath the ground if Wrecking Ball shifts into ball mode while his model is still loading

Source: Overwatch

Assassin's Creed Valhalla sneaks in XP boost microtransaction

With Assassin's Creed Valhalla players getting stuck into the newly added Yule Festival seasonal event, Ubisoft have snuck in a divisive microtransaction.

If you swing by Valhalla's in-game store you can discover a variety of optional premium items such as cosmetics for Eivor. Following the recent Assassin's Creed Valhalla 1.1.0 update, there's a new store item under the utility category, offering players a permanent 50% increase in the experience points they earn.

This paid-for cheat is priced at $10 – for an extra five bucks you can add a 50% money increase to that XP boost. Purchasing this item will boost your earnings for all characters tied to your save data, Ubisoft confirming that the standard XP and money gain rates have not been modified to entice players into buying those boosts.

Here's what they had to say to Game Informer when quizzed about the microtransaction:

As more and more post-launch content becomes available, we want to give the option to players to advance their progression. Utilities allow players who lack the time to fully explore the world of Assassin's Creed Valhalla to be able to acquire the game's best gear, as well as other items, by accelerating their progress. For instance, these players can purchase maps that uncover some interesting locations in the world, but would still have to visit and play them to get their rewards.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla will expanded post-launch with expansions taking us to Ireland and even Paris. It's likely this will be high-level content, so this kind of time-saving boost certainly has its appeal to players.

However, the question remains: why not make the XP boost a free option instead of something AC fans have to pay for? Sadly, this move doesn't come as a complete surprise – Odyssey offered the exact same boost back when it launched two years ago.

With Assassin's Creed Valhalla marking another positive step for the series, it's a shame to see this kind of money grabbing practice. If Santa hasn't finished writing up his naughty list, we'd say there's room for one more name…

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla guides & more from TheSixthAxis

Black Ops Cold War multiplayer Free Access Week starts today

In the run up to Christmas, Activision are holding a Free Access Week for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's multiplayer, highlighting the Season One content that launched just yesterday.

Starting today, Thursday 17th December, at 6PM GMT and running until Thursday 24th December, at 6PM GMT, you'll be able to a selection of maps, modes and playlists from the game without paying a penny (except for needing PS+ or Xbox Live Gold for online multiplayer).

The week is split into two, 'Stage 1' from Thursday to Monday featuring Team Deathmatch, Domination, 2v2 Gunfight, the Nuketown Holiday 24/7 Playlist and the Raid the Mall Playlist.

Then, from Monday until the week ends on Thursday, players will also have access to Prop Hunt, Combined Arms Hardpoint and Fireteam Dirty Bomb, in addition to the modes from the first few days.

The promotional week isn't just there to lure in new players, but also get existing players to play some more. From 18th to 21st December, you can get double XP for all operators and double weapon bonuses as well. Then from Tuesday 22nd December through to 6PM GMT on Monday 28th December, you'll get Double Battle Pass XP.

Just to make things a bit more confusing, the Double Battle Pass XP only applies to BOCW from 22nd-25th December, and then both BOCW and Warzone from 2th to 28th December.

You got all that?

Cool.

After a last minute delay of 6 days, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Warzone kicked off Season One yesterday. For Black Ops Cold War, it saw the return of 2v2 Gunfight, a new Fireteam map as Raid returned from Black Ops II, and new Zombies modes. For Warzone, this was the update saw popular battle royale spin-off would now tie in with Black Ops instead of Modern Warfare, getting the Alcatraz map to play on, adding 30 BOCW weapons into the mix and shaking up how the Gulag system works.

In our review for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Nick wrote:

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is a decent entry in the series, but it feels like it doesn't quite know what it wants to be. The campaign is full of underused ideas, while the multiplayer misses some of the magical charm of Modern Warfare, opting for faster paced aggressive battles which just don't feel as satisfying. While still enjoyable, Black Ops Cold War fails to recapture the magic of Black Ops 1 and 2.

You can read the full review here.

Source: Activision

Game of the Year 2020 – Best Ongoing Game

There's all manner of games out there in terms of length, from short two hour experiences and six hour cinematic campaigns, through to sprawling RPGs that will take you closer to 100 hours before you see the end. Then there are those games that just keep going and going and going, like they're a Duracell Bunny (or Energizer Bunny if you're American).

I am, of course, referring to the so-called 'live' game, the game where developers keep on plugging away, adding regular content drops, responding directly to the community's demands and giving them more and more things to do. Your MMOs, your looter shooters, your battle royales and other seasonal multiplayer games. These games don't always stick (arguably, they won't more often than not), but when they do, they can keep players occupied for years.

Our winner shouldn't be much of a surprise, to be honest – you may get a sense of deja vu here – with a developer that has been been knocking it out of the park with meaningful updates that have gone far beyond their original vision for the game.

No Man's Sky has been on a long road since its disappointing launch four years ago, with Hello Games having spent most of the intervening time "fixing" the game to say the least. Just last year they added whole new gameplay systems, online multiplayer and VR support, and they've shown no signs of slowing down. 2020 has seen the addition of mech suits, living ships, and Hello Games navigated the often tricky waters of cross-platform multiplayer with relative ease, but that's small stuff compared to the update that released in September.

Titled 'Origins', this huge update changed the fundamentals of how planets are procedurally generated, allowing players to explore planets full of mountains that are kilometers tall and oceans of unnerving depth, not to mention apparently doubling the diversity of the animals and plants you encounter as well. There's even giant worms! Then there's the next-gen update, bringing No Man's Sky to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S style with a graphical upgrade that's so stunning in the trailer it almost looks like a sequel.

With all of this in mind, No Man's Sky gets the uniquely rare honour of winning Best Ongoing Game two years in a row.

– Gareth C

Runner Up – Among Us

Among Us came hot on the heels of Fall Guys in a summer of discovery and sudden flashes of viral popularity amongst game streamers. Though practically unheard of until 2020 – this was a game that seemingly hadn't stuck that landing – Among Us came out in 2018, pitching a number of crew members in a tense battle of wits in order to survive and root out the Imposter.

Reminiscent of The Thing, one or more players are Imposters, seeking to murder the other crew members before they can complete all of their tasks. However, Imposters can only kill infrequently and can easily be voted out if discovered. The key to the game is really the oppressive silence as regular crew members go about their tasks, before bickering and trying to weed out the deceitful players once a murder has been discovered.

Innersloth had actually been starting work on Among Us 2 when their original game caught fire, and they had to suddenly pivot first to simply get the server capacity to handle the sudden jump in players, and then deciding to ditch the sequel in favour of continuing to support the original. Since then, they've set out a roadmap of new features and content (including a new map revealed at The Game Awards), and we're keen to see them really follow through.

Runner Up – Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne continues to surprise us. Following on last year, when it won the very same accolade, the enormous DLC expansion has resolutely stood its ground as the gift that keeps on giving. We've all been eagerly awaiting the next Monster Hunter game, coming to the Nintendo Switch in 2021, but the constant trickle of excellent new content has been very warmly received.

On top of all the other free content Capcom just gave away for the Iceborne expansion, the game has received no fewer than five title updates, bringing with it a slew of new monsters to hunt, weapons and armour to turn them into, and a series of seasonal festivals to keep you engaged at every turn.

– Nic B

Honourable mentions (in alphabetical order)

Dauntless
Destiny 2
Rocket League

Game & Watch Super Mario Bros. Review

To say that Nintendo know their business would be the grossest understatement. Their canny non-conformity to gaming trends and immortalised roster of characters mean that even when everyone thinks they've gone insane – and occasionally they have – they still ultimately come out on top. Yet, for all their idiosyncratic decisions, they are still a company that plays to the crowd, and as that crowd includes many somewhat older fans who've been with them since the 80s.

Following on from the NES and SNES Mini consoles, Nintendo are trying to make this Christmas portable. Their handheld line up obviously features the Switch and Switch Lite, but it now also extends to a brand new Game & Watch; Nintendo's classic, and original, series of LCD games. For Nintendo fans of a certain age, it's a nostalgia bomb that's going to blow you back to 1985, but as you'd expect, it's not as straightforward as all that.

In terms of form factor, you've probably forgotten how big or small a Game & Watch was because your hands are now much bigger. In the here and now, a Game & Watch is a surprisingly dinky little thing. Its memory-tickling dark red and metallic gold casing will have you thinking of a simpler time where all you wore was denim, and roller skates were the primary form of transportation. If you ever had one of these when you were a kid, you will adore it.

The old Game & Watch were a purely LCD affair. Starting with Ball (or the more questionably named Toss-Up if you're over in the US) and taking in some of their most iconic characters in their earliest incarnations, they were the top tier of the proto-handheld gaming world. They were, to all intents and purposes, my first gaming platform, and the scratchy bleeps and bloops they emitted are etched on my psyche forever.

This 2020 re-release is a considerably more modern iteration, even if the games hidden inside it are still unequivocally retro. It boasts a clear and compact colour LCD screen, and alongside the system's original Ball, Nintendo have seen fit to add in the original NES version of Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels. These are games that, if you're a certain age or a dyed-in-the-wool Nintendo fan, you'll have probably come across before, but never in quite this fashion.

The unit is rechargeable via USB-C, and there's a neat little power button squirrelled away on the right-hand side. Marvellously it saves your state, so no matter where you are when you stop playing, whether that's with multiple balls in the air, or as you leap past a Koopa Trooper, you can drop straight back in to where you were.

The Game and Watch stylings have had an upgrade on the control front, with this remade version now hosting a NES-style D-Pad alongside an A and a B button. There's then a trio of selection buttons, with Game swapping between the three game choices, Time turning the unit into a handy little clock, and a Pause/Set button that also lets you change the volume and the brightness. It's all very neat, well thought out and exactly what you'd expect from Nintendo.

It is about as perfect a stocking filler as you could find for that family member who simply can't get enough of Nintendo. If you had one of the original Game & Watch handhelds as a kid there's every chance that the amount of joy this will give you could overwhelm you on the 25th of December, but it's possible that all that happiness could be somewhat short-lived.

Top of the issues is likely to be the fact that this is a £40 novelty, containing games you may well have played so many times you can make it through them without having to look at that bright, colourful screen. Secondly, a Game and Watch was a comfy enough thing to grip when you were seven, but as an adult you'll find yourself carefully cradling it between your fingers. It's not uncomfortable per se, but it's a long way from being ergonomic.

Hades updated with cross-save for PC & Switch

Supergiant Games' Hades has been earning plaudits left, right and centre, but there's been one long promised and much requested feature that it's been missing: cross-save. The team have been working on it since launch and now, with an update to the game on Nintendo Switch, Hades supports cross-save between PC and Switch.

The update also rolls in the post-launch improvements that have been made on the PC version of the game.

Hermes is here with some good news: Our Cross-Saves update for HADES is out now on Nintendo Switch!

Please read the in-game Help & Info section for details. This update also includes various other improvements from our post-launch PC patches. #HadesGame #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/UgwBRQsUOo

— Supergiant Games (@SupergiantGames) December 16, 2020

While the game is a roguelite, there's a deep story woven into it and progression that players will no doubt want to keep. Those tempted into double-dipping and buying the game on both Switch and PC can now take their progress with them.

Supergiant do warn that you'll want jump through the hurdle of ensuring that your save data is in a different slot on the game, however.

Please be sure that your progress is in different save slots between PC and Switch! Instructions on how to move your PC saves to a different slot are in the Help & Info section on Switch (you just rename the save file).

— Supergiant Games (@SupergiantGames) December 16, 2020

Hades is easily one of the most highly regarded games of 2020, with a great critical reception that's seen it appear in more than a few Game of the Year lists and awards. Hades tells the story of Zagreus, son of the titular god of the underworld, fighting time and again to try and escape, with each defeat sending him right back to the start to try again.

After two long years in Early Access on Steam, the game launched in September for PC and Nintendo Switch, with the hybrid console getting some preferential treatment over the home consoles. That led many to wonder…

Will Hades come to PS4 and Xbox One?

We awarded it a simply sublime 10/10, and you can catch more of Jason's words in our Hades review.

"Hades is one of the best roguelites of all-time. It's a phenomenal achievement in story telling, gameplay, and an absolute treat for both your eyes and ears. It's astounding, and it's always been fairly astounding through Early Access, but this final release cements it as one of the greats. If you like roguelites, and even if you don't, you should probably get in on this as soon as you can."

Source: Twitter

Visage Review

For a game that was never released outside of a delisted tech demo, PT has had a massive influence on the horror gaming scene. It could even be argued that the cancellation of Silent Hills and demo removal directly added to a desire for a game that will never see the light of day. Since PT's removal there have been many titles that have attempted to offer its mix of domesticity and terror, ranging from shot for shot remakes to original takes on its themes. Unfortunately these have mostly been either disappointing or not much more than demos themselves.

With Visage, however, we finally have a full-length game experience that promises to expand on everything that PT offered. How did my time facing terror shape up?

Visage begins in the most shocking way imaginable, opening with a cutscene showing (in first person) your player character shooting their family and then themselves, before cutting to a later shot of them lurching zombie-like towards the door that leads to the rest of the house. It's a harrowing opening that will only be explained by finishing the game, but even then it is deliberately left somewhat ambiguous. It's obvious right from the off that Visage is not a game for the faint hearted. This is a game that focuses on some very dark and disturbing content so player discretion is seriously advised. If it sounds like your kind of game, though, make yourself comfortable and read on.

The majority of Visage takes place in a single house, though this takes a number of forms as the game develops. Getting to know your way around is the most crucial first step as it is not long before your exploration is haunted by deadly enemies. The house is a well designed environment, with a maze like basement that proves particularly challenging to navigate when you are rushing. I initially felt the lack of a map was an oversight, but it does mean that you are forced into learning your way around rather than following icons.

Graphically the rooms and contents are full of detail and everything looks good, although on first loading up I had to correct the auto-detect to get a more appropriate resolution (an RTX2060 playing at 640 x 480 is a horror that I wasn't prepared for). Much of the time your surroundings will be in darkness and Visage makes good use of lighting to build its atmosphere.

As is often the case with horror games, the audio is where Visage really stands out. Combining it with digital 7.1 positional audio was as terrifying as it was impressive. Being able to quickly locate the direction of strange bumps and groans really added to the experience, even if it often wasn't enough to save me. Visage opens up with a warning that it is a difficult game requiring careful resource management and, while resources didn't really seem an issue, I certainly died plenty of times.

In a manner highly reminiscent of Amnesia, you must make use of whatever light sources you can find. Sometimes this is simply turning on light switches and lamps, but it also takes the form of lighters, candles and a torch (flashlight for US readers). Candles are effective when left in place, while the fuel in the lighters is limited. Being left in the dark rapidly decreases your sanity and leaves you open to increased attacks from the supernatural forces. There are pills to collect that can help you to replenish your sanity and it is crucial that you always have these on hand.

Inventory management is a mixed bag here. You have four slots for usable items, as well as your two hands. At first I found myself using pills in hand when I didn't intend to due to the fact that they are mapped to the same mouse button as investigating things in the environment. This did become less frequent once I adjusted, but it was still an annoyance. There are also occasional two-handed objects that require you to put away any light source to use, but these are generally restricted to specific story moments or puzzles.

Progression through the horrors of Visage is linear to a point, but you can choose which chapters to play in which order. Each one is activated by interacting with an object in the house and the game clearly warns you when you are about to begin one. There are four chapters in the released version with the fourth being a scavenger-hunt of sorts only available once you have finished the first three. The first two are very effective ghost stories set in the house, although the second really suffers from a lack of clarity as to how to proceed. You unlock a series of mysterious mirrors that you have to travel through in a set order, but there is far too much trial and error involved in working this out. The third chapter is by far the weakest, most of it taking place in a local hospital and involving some particularly frustrating stealth mechanics.

Amazon Prime Gaming has free Fall Guys crowns and a costume, plus new free games for Christmas

Amazon Prime Gaming has a bunch of new free loot available to help celebrate the launch of Fall Guys Season 3. Log on to Prime Gaming and you will be able to claim three crowns and a natty Winter Warmer costume, described as "the snowy peak of Blunderdome fashion." The free crowns should help you unlock other costumes in the game.

The service will also be giving away extra free games this festive season with Yooka-Laylee, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, and couch co-op cooking game Overcooked available to claim on Christmas Eve.

Those games are for PC only, but console owners can still claim the Fall Guys loot and a bunch of other extra bobbins as well. At the time of writing you can also pick up the Unchained Exotic Gear bundle for Destiny 2, which includes an emote, a sparrow, and a ship, an exclusive Carolingian Dynasty Gear Pack for Assassin's Creed Valhalla, a free Breton horse of your choice for Red Dead Online, and the Fenyx Shivering Character Pack for Immortals Fenyx Rising.

There are also helmets for Star Wars: Squadrons, the Thatcher Operator set for Rainbow Six Siege, and – frankly I have no idea how this works – The Boy's 'Queen Maeve' kit for World of Tanks.

Fall Guys has been a huge success and we awarded the game an excellent 8 our of 10 in our review earlier this year.

Full of cute and cuddly jelly beans bumbling into each other in a race for the crown, Fall Guys is just about the most wholesome battle royale imaginable, and a whole lot of fun.

Fall Guys was made available for free on PlayStation Plus back in August and quickly became it's most-downloaded complimentary game. It was a massive hit on PC as well, though, selling millions of copies and becoming a staggering success for Mediatonic.

Source: Press release

CD Projekt storefront GOG heel turns over release of Devotion, after "many messages from gamers"

CD Projekt are in the headlines once again, but this time it's not the company's CD Projekt Red development studio and the calamitous release of Cyberpunk 2077, but rather their digital storefront GOG.com that's getting them a bad rep.

Just hours after Red Candle Games announced that horror game Devotion would be released on GOG.com, the online store has changed their mind, citing "many messages from gamers". Digging into the game's troubled history, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that this is GOG bowing to pressure, either from the Chinese government, Chinese gamers, or a combination of the two.

Hello friends, we want to share with you– Red Candle will publish #還願Devotion on Dec 18 on GOG.https://t.co/dlC6qzBiHx

The content and the price of the re-release remains the same, for $16.99 / €13.99

Thank you for your trust and support. We wish you a happy end of the year pic.twitter.com/peVPd7cyVo

— redcandlegames (@redcandlegames) December 16, 2020

Earlier today, it was announced that the game Devotion is coming to GOG. After receiving many messages from gamers, we have decided not to list the game in our store.

— GOG.COM (@GOGcom) December 16, 2020

Devotion was first released in 2019, with Taiwanese developer Red Candle having their game published by Chinese publisher Indievent. Unfortunately, it was rather short-lived as the game was pulled from Steam shortly after its release in February, and the Chinese government decided to remove Indievent's business license. What could they have possibly done that was so bad that the government shut them down?

Well, the game featured a poster that compared Chinese President Xi Jinping to Winnie the Pooh, a comparison that he seems to be rather self conscious about, and calling him a moron. It's a political meme that is censored in China.

The developers went silent for several months, despite having made changes and apologised in the immediate wake of the incident, but it was then discovered in July last year that Indievent's business license was revoked, though the incident was not mentioned as a reason (though we're 99.9999999% certain that it was). Red Candle returned to Twitter to issue a statement and shoulder the blame for the incident. They noted that the game would not be re-released in the near term future and that they were not taking any profits from the game during its short time on sale, with the hope that those who objected to the game's unintentional use of a politically charged poster can eventually see the game in its original light.

The re-release (obviously without any posters demeaning Winnie the Pooh's good reputation), was announced this morning, and then summarily cancelled a little over five hours later by GOG.com. While it might have been a move intended to appease any audience they have in China (which is a huge and growing market for video games), it's backfiring in the western world. It's certainly not a very cyberpunk of them to do so, anyway.

Epic giving away 15 free games starting tomorrow

Epic are gearing up for Christmas, announcing that their store holiday sale will be kicking off tomorrow on December 17th, promising savings of up to 75%.

On top of that they will be giving away 15 free games spread across two weeks. You have 24 hours to claim each game and add them to your library during the giveaway event.

Epic have yet to reveal which games they will be adding to their free games list. However, judging by the quality of recent freebies, there will definitely be a few big surprises.

Until tomorrow afternoon, anyone with an Epic account can sign into the store (via client or browser) to redeem a pair of meaty RPG favourites: Pillars of Eternity: Definitive Edition and Tyranny: Gold Edition.

You can check the full list of free Epic games below, complete with dates of availability, and reviews plucked from our archive.

Epic Games store free games list

Game Name	Dates Available
Pillars of Eternity	December 10-17, 2020
Tyranny	December 10-17, 2020
Cave Story+	December 3-10, 2020
MudRunner	November 26-December 3, 2020
Elite: Dangerous	November 19-26, 2020
The World Next Door	November 19-26, 2020
The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia	November 12-19, 2020
Dungeons 3	November 12-19, 2020
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 Reforged, Rogue Company, and more.

Source: Epic Games

Cyberpunk 2077 Review in Progress

It simply isn't possible to enjoy the privilege of a cold first impression of Cyberpunk 2077. After eight years of development, well over a year of frenetic marketing, and facile pre-launch discussion beaten to within an inch of its life, this is a game that's been stamped onto the gaming community's collective conscious through controversy, questionable company decisions, and its promise of unparalleled adventure through a hedonistic depiction of Night City.

I won't be the first to point out the fact that this is a game built on the foundations of a dated historical genre, and I'm not the last to define it as an experience born from a Gen-X perspective, thanks to its roots in the Cyberpunk 2020 tabletop RPG. Dragging cyberpunk into the realms of 21st-century AAA game development is a foregone conclusion, and as a result, V's Night City is tinted by a very specific rose-colored set of mirrorshades.

Night City has an enormous reach and it's an absolute pleasure to jump on a bike and ride it from one end to the other – janky traffic AI aside. The city is undoubtedly far more of a main character than either V or Johnny Silverhand. One of my greatest pleasures in the game was a series of side quests involving the sentient Delamain cab company, trying to reunite the fragments of a fractured AI personality. It wasn't just a charming bit of writing, but a welcome reprieve from the constant hustle of the street kid campaign I'd chosen, featuring a nice little cameo from Portal's GLADoS. Night City at its best meant gunning it out to the Badlands at sunrise with my radio set to Royal Blue FM, a lovely bebop/old-school jazz addition to the lineup of hard rock/EDM stations.

But after over twenty-five hours in the game on PlayStation 4 Pro, most of the experience has been painfully, almost predictably generic – this is, of course, aside from the veritable cornucopia of bugs that have plagued its launch.

Cyberpunk 2077 ticks all the boxes for an AAA title. It's got a lot to do, and a lot of places to do it in, and for a certain subset of people with the right hardware, it's a visual feast. For a game styled as an immersive playground, it's incredibly frustrating to be so consistently and frequently jarred out of that experience by relentless glitches.

There were relatively harmless Bethesda-level derps like watching NPCs levitate their drinks with the backs of their hands and people floating in the air. There was a relentless bug that forced me to slow-RP walk until I rebooted the game, a bug where quests glitched out until I rebooted the game, a bug where scripted sequences wouldn't load until I rebooted the game… you get the idea. An NPC cycled through canned flavor lines during a particularly sobering play-on-rails segment. "Pick it up, okay?" she repeated as I embarked on a high-stakes rescue mission at Arasaka HQ that ended in tragedy. There were also smaller inconsistencies like Mayor Rhyne's death plastered all over the news but the radio anchor still discussing his next term.

Hacking follows the tried-and-true matrix system that felt marginally more rewarding in Shadowrun, and even though I initially built myself out as a netrunner/tech, the baseline quickhacks didn't feel like a worthy investment. Reboot optics were useful for the mandatory stealth portions, but a spray-and-pray approach seems more in line with the street kid bravado and determination to make a name for themselves in the city. Combat feels appropriately chaotic given the context of Night City's burgeoning criminal culture, and even with all the other options – stealth, hacking, etc. – nine times out of ten, the game leans hard on fighting your way out of a situation.

What 2077 does well is expand on its roots from Mike Pondsmith's original creation, which is unabashedly style-over-substance and belongs squarely in its decade of birth for a reason. I've written at length on the historical nature of cyberpunk as a genre, and while there's nothing particularly sacred about it, 2077 has taken a very particular set of historical aesthetics and social paradigms and watered them down into something as puerile as it is comfortably, mind-numbingly addictive. Do I want to collect all the cars? Do I need all the clothes (I definitely don't need the "BURN CORPO SHIT" pants)? Not really, but there are a million other things V can do to kill time and make easy money from finding tarot graffiti around the city or checking in on a troubled neighbour, and generally working on their street cred. The glory of making a name for oneself in Night City is the main thrust of the game and it never lets you forget that.

The game's treatment of gender and culture is, unsurprisingly, not great, which isn't news for anyone who's paid attention to CDPR's botched portrayals of transgender people, especially the in-game ad for 'Chromanticore' (which is still, of course, plastered all over Night City). For all of cyberpunk's association with transhumanism, this is a game for kids who still get their kicks from seeing a dildo. Sure, sex is supposed to be ubiquitous in the future, but 2077's hypersexualized cuddle puddle isn't even interesting, and for the trans community, it's just plain demeaning. Boiling it down to a choice between penis or vagina is the most insipid take on future transhumanist possibilities ever, but 2077 would have you believe you're on Mr Toad's Wild Ride.

Then there's good old Takemura, the Ghost of Cyberpunk that nobody wanted. The cryptic eastern riddles that he sends V are probably meant to be satire, but CDPR probably aren't the right folks to pull that off well. The Alt Cunningham treatment is also a fairly tired trope, as a ghost in the machine and wronged ex rolled into one easy way out. I'm not even sure whether I'm on board with Keanu Reeves' Johnny Silverhand – he's found the magic formula for just the right amount of abrasiveness and swagger while still remaining very much a background fixture in V's landscape.

2077 so far isn't terrible, but it definitely deserved more time in the oven. For consoles, maybe it deserved to build a whole new oven from scratch. I'm living for the small lowkey moments where V actually gets to explore their heritage in Heywood, providing a nice slice of humanity that departs from the baseline adolescence of the gameworld. V's relationships with characters like Judy and Misty are some of the stronger moments of writing and character development, but are these small moments enough?

As someone with a lifelong soft spot for the medium-specific charm of video game glitches, Cyberpunk 2077's botched launch just ain't it. Even overlooking the rushed rollout, after an eternity of being bludgeoned in the face with hyperbole, running through 2077 so far feels like five different games stitched together into an entertaining, passably decent, generic behemoth. It also goes without saying that CDPR's poor labor practices make a laughable parallel with cyberpunk's roots in the rise of neoliberalism.

Pondsmith has talked at length about how 2020 and 2077 aren't meant to be prophecies, but cautionary tales, but CDPR isn't quite the right studio to pull off a cautionary tale of this scope. I'm not sure whether dumping more hours in will yield a better takeaway, but here's hoping for more.

Paranoid, a psychological horror game from Madmind Studios, has a new trailer

Madmind Studios, the team that brought us the somewhat questionable Agony, have a new game on the horizon and it's called Paranoid. It's a first-person survival horror set in the 1980's that "combines an extensive, psychological story with dynamic and brutal combat."

The trailer shows Patrick, the protagonist, struggling with voices in head that affect his behaviour and are leading him on a dark path. Please note that this trailer is NSFW for the few remaining souls who are not stuck in their own living rooms hunched over a laptop.

Here's some more blurb:

The game tells the story of Patrick Calman, a 31-year-old man who has lost his entire family under mysterious circumstances. His parents died violently, and his sister went suddenly missing. Trauma associated with the loss of his loved ones destroyed Patrick's psyche. His own apartment became his prison.

One day Patrick gets a call, and the voice on the phone seems to belong to his sister. Thirteen years after the disappearance, she announces her comeback. To learn the truth about everything, Patrick will have to leave his secluded life, exposing himself to horrible experiences that will put him on the verge of madness.

Key features:

A dynamic and brutal combat system

Raytracing and 4k support

A constant struggle between paranoia and reality

Terrifying opponents

Drug abusing gameplay mechanics

A deep plot combining psychological horror with action and survival

A disturbing atmosphere that combines psychosis and surrealism

Realistic visual setting

Three endings depending on the style of the player's gameplay

Cinematic cutscenes

Patrick suffers from mental illness, a topic that must be delicately handled and I hope Madmind Studios are being sensitive. However, as Agony featured first person rape and babies being eaten, I am a little worried as to what Paranoid will turn out to be. As you can see from the trailer, there are already boobs-a-plenty in the game.

The game has no release date but is available to wishlist on Steam.

Source: Press release

Game of the Year 2020 – Best Remaster/Remake

As we near the end of the year, it's time to kick off our Game of the Year awards, diving into over a dozen different categories to celebrate the best of what we've seen since the start of 2020.

The last few years in particular have seen the trend of quick remasters that do a minor sprucing up of a game's visuals making way for full blown remakes of older classics. Publishers have been more than happy to mine the nostalgia that people felt for games like Crash Bandicoot (our 2017 winner) or Resident Evil 2 (our 2019 winner), but the developers have then gone the extra mile to actually make them. There's a difficult balancing act beyond simply making the graphics anew, as they judge if the gameplay still holds up for modern gamers, and where to make changes, improvements, additions.

In development for the last five years, but having been constantly demanded by fans for the last fifteen, our winner is…

How do you go about remaking one of the most beloved video games of all time? Well, you probably don't start by ramping up expectations with a graphical tech demo that you have no actual intention of following up on. It might have been a PR faux pas through the PlayStation 3 era, but the PS3 tech demo Square teased us with way back in 2005 only proved that the demand was there for a full on remake of Final Fantasy VII.

Even then, Square Enix were true to their word that this would be a vast project to undertake, not content with simply rebuilding the game's graphics, but also deciding to delve in and expand upon the underlying story and character relations. It's expanding the game to the point that this is being broken up into multiple parts, allowing Square Enix to flesh out ideas and areas that maybe weren't so fully formed in the original. It might not have been strictly necessary (and some of the changes are a little divisive), but it largely works.

Turn-based battles still have their place in the JRPG genre (hello, Dragon Quest XI) yet Square decided to shelve these for the Final Fantasy VII Remake. The combat here still has elements from that original ATB system though flows more dynamically, packing in just as much tactical nuance while admittedly looking way flashier. On the whole, this is a staggering remake and hopefully – now with the foundations in place – we won't have to wait as long for Square to deliver the next instalment.

Demon's Souls – Runner Up

Definitely revered as more of a cult classic compared to Final Fantasy VII, Demon's Souls is the precursor to one of gaming's most celebrated franchises. However, at the time of its original launch on the PlayStation 3 back in 2009 it was the definition of niche, gaining popularity through word of mouth as RPG die-hards chased down imported copies.

Demon's Souls is just as obtuse and unfriendly as it was all those years ago, Sony and the remaster… masters at Bluepoint Games thinking it would be the perfect launch game for the PS5. In some ways it is, showing off the console's raw power while also proving that Sony aren't just pandering to mainstream audiences. Although some purists have taken issue with some of Bluepoint's visuals upgrades, this remake perfectly mirrors FromSoftware's brutal fantasy RPG from its gruesome tome down to the fluid combat and oodles of character customisation options.

– Jim H

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 – Runner Up

Tony Hawks Pro Skater has been one sports franchise that's managed to ride the swiftly changing half-pipe of popularity. While Activision tried to refresh the first game in 2012 with Pro Skater HD, it wasn't the hallowed return that fans had been yearning for, but this year's Tony Hawks 1+2 was thankfully exactly what they'd been hoping for.

Drawing together the first two games in the series, this time around the visuals were given a full current-gen buffing, the soundtrack was given a suitably Hawks-ish update, and it stuffed the roster with every skater you could possibly want to smush into every obstacle out there. Add in a host of accessibility options and an enhanced endgame and you can see why this earned one of our hallowed 10/10s.

– Dom L

Honourable Mentions (in alphabetical order)

Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition
Resident Evil 3
Spider-Man Remastered

What was your personal favourite of the year? Let us know in the comments below, and make sure to stick with us through the rest of this month as we tick our categories off one by one.

Hunt: Showdown 1.16 update drops ahead of "Blood & Ice" event

Crytek have released a new update for Hunt: Showdown for PC and consoles, bringing all editions of the game up to version 1.4.8.

Those on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (as well as PS5 and Xbox Series X|S via backwards viability) will see the patch appear as update 1.16.

Hunt: Showdown players should expect a number of key additions and changes to the popular multiplayer bounty hunting game. These include new and revised weapons as well as adjustments to the game's maps with new items to pick up and vantage points to scout out.

Blood & Ice | Teaser pic.twitter.com/y2cdNrO6ZP

— Hunt: Showdown (@HuntShowdown) December 15, 2020

You can catch the full 1.4.8 patch notes down below. The Hunt: Showdown community will also want to keep their ears to the ground for today's developer livestream. This will go live at 13:30PM UK time with details on the festive "Blood & Ice" in-game event.

Hunt: Showdown Update 1.4.8 Patch Notes

Highlights

Additional Looting Options: This update brings a new looting opportunity to keep an out for on your treks through the Bayou. As with everything loot/ammo related in hunt, the "rule of two" applies to these new items.

The following items are now scattered throughout the world:

Envelopes that can contain one of the following:
- 1000 Hunter XP.
- 500 Bloodline XP.
- 3-6 Upgrade points.
Small bags:
- <25 Hunt dollars.
- <3 Blood Bonds.

Trait charms:
- These items will instantly unlock a random trait for your Hunter.

Blueprints:
- These items will unlock the next available item unlock available for the currently equipped item (e.g holding a weak vitality shot while collecting the blueprint will unlock weak stamina shot.)
Gun oil (cosmetic only):
- Oil that will clean your currently equipped weapon.
Meatheads:
- Trait charms have a chance to drop from killing Meatheads.

Developer Note:

Looting in Hunt has always been an exciting experience. Whether it is desperately looting a dead hunter for extra supplies or trying to sneak those thousands of Hunt Dollars out while using a budget loadout, the action has always evoked the primary emotions that Hunt is built around. With this addition, we have 2 aims:

We want to add more value to the specific Hunters you use when ranking up (improve the risk/reward balance that we have always tried to keep prevalent in Hunt: Showdown).
Allow for more opportunities to explore the map and ensure there are benefits to doing so.

Additional traits have been available in quickplay for a while, but we wanted to find a good way to tie acquiring traits in to Bounty Hunt and we feel this is a good way to achieve that goal. The main difference in bounty hunt is that the charm drop shows which trait will be unlocked, so you can decide if you want to collect it, unlike in quickplay where the traits are randomly given for investigating clues. Each charm will contain a different trait, so it is up to you if you want to take one or leave it to your partner(s) ("rule of two" applies to trait charms also). This method also means that meatheads are a much more worthwhile investment in terms of time vs reward.

These new ways of levelling your hunters will mostly benefit new and low rank/newly prestiged players, as many of the traits will not be available to purchase at that early stage.

Watch Towers: A new addition to the landscape of the Bayou; Watch towers have now been added in several locations.

Hunters will have a chance to find supplies such as ammo/ health or weapons at the watch towers, though it will contain less than you find at the regular supply points.
Make sure to check the top of the tower when you pass by as there will always be something to find.

Lawson Delta:

Watch tower added on top of the Bunker between Sweetbell Flower and Fort Carmick

Stillwater Bayou:

Watch tower added in the swamp between Pitching Crematorium and Lockbay Docks.
Watch tower added to the hillslope north of Healing Waters.

Hunting towers:

Hunting towers have also received an upgrade. Hunters will have a chance to find either an ammo box, health station or weapon in the tower.

New Weapon Variants

Winfield M1873 Musket-Bayonet

An elongated variant of the Winfield M1873 with a Bayonet and a slightly larger magazine
Holds an extra +2 rounds in the elongated tube magazine
Levering shoots at a slightly reduced rate of fire than other Winfield M1873 rifles

Nagant M1895 Officer Carbine Deadeye

An Officer Carbine variant with a Deadeye scope.
Reduced shoulder aim accuracy due to the mounted scope.
Recoil is harder to control in ADS due to increased zoom.

New Legendary Weapons

Vagrant

Legendary Winfield M1873C Silencer
A vagrant known as the tin-man rattled around the city with a large bag of cans, harmless until a malicious Hunter threw them into the bay. Able to save but a few, he decorated his Winfield M1873C Silencer with the remainder, and set out for revenge – silent as a whisper.

Death Letter

Legendary M1895 Nagant Officer Brawler
Death pens no warning of His coming, and for Hunters and soldiers alike, the sound of gunfire is the only correspondence foretelling their demise. This Nagant's personalized engraving appears to reference an old Civil War ballad written by one who would later become a Hunter – delivering his own dark tidings with each deadly shot, death incarnate.

DeSalle's Silence

Legendary Sparks LRR Silencer
The favored Sparks LRR of the elder DeSalle brother, a man whose business ventures would not have been as successful without the occasional enforced silence.

Gunplay

Concertina bomb

Explosion delay decreased to ~0.5s (previously ~1.5s).

Melee changes – Hatchet, Talon, Heavy Knife & Machete

Slightly changed the attack angle of the Hatchet and Talon attachments to ensure hits are more reliable.
Slightly changed the attack angle of the Heavy knife to ensure hits are more reliable.
Slightly changed the angle of the normal attack for the Machete to ensure hits are more reliable.

Officer Carbine

Slightly Increased the recoil of the Nagant Officer Carbine.

Antidote shots

Antidote shots no longer reduces the damage taken from poison-based attacks (e.g spider bounce, stings from the Hive Swarms
Poison cloud damage remains unchanged and will reduce damage by 100%

Developer note:

Up until now, if you were attacked by the spider or a hive while an antidote shot was active, the physical damage that was caused was also reduced. We felt that this was a little unbalanced especially in instances like the spider frenzy, which made it possible to tank the spider far more effectively than intended so with this change, the physical damage will from attacks such as these will be applied as normal while still ensuring you remain poison free after an interaction with a spider or Hive.

Aim Assist (Consoles Only)

Increased aim assist strength for Water Devils

Hunter

Trait Rework: Ghoul

New description: "Killing grunts at close range restores a small amount of health".
Radius of 25m, similar to Necromancer and Serpent traits.
Health will be granted only if you instigate the damage, you do not have to land the killing blow to benefit from the health gain.
Restores 5hp per kill.
Price increased to 7 points (this is subject to change based on test server feedback).

Developer note:

In our opinion, Ghoul is a trait that has a lot of untapped potential (as well as a low pick rate) and could use some attention. We wanted to ensure that the trait remains true to its theme of replenishing health from the dead, however we wanted to make it less situational. In the past, players could only benefit from it if they dared to loot a hunter in combat, but in most instances that was not the main goal of looting in a fight (the main goal usually getting another consumable or tool charge to benefit the fight).

We wanted to turn the Ghoul trait into something that is more versatile and offer it as a more of a tactical option through any stage of the game. The trait can now help to preserve your health items for the important PVP fights later in the round and as a result should help hunters be less reliant on searching for health stations throughout the match.

Interaction Outlines

Option added to the menu to allow you to customize the highlighting outlines of interactable items (doors, windows, etc.)
This option does not alter the UI prompts from showing in the top right corner of the screen when in range of an interactable object.

The options are as follows:

All: Current behaviour – all interactable object are outlined frequently.
None: Turn of fall outlines for interactable objects and partner outlines.
Exclude Door and windows: Similar to "all", but doors and windows will no longer be highlighted (does not affect other interactable objects)

Developer note:

This change is meant to address two long standing requests from the community. Some have wanted to remove more UI elements from the game to be able to record cinematic content more efficiently.

For others, it has always been hard to track opponents behind doors or windows in certain lighting conditions. We understand that our veterans know where every accessible door and window are so we want to provide them with the option to forfeit interaction highlights for a better overview of what is going on behind the doors/windows.

Bounty Hunt

Banishing a Boss

Initiating the banishing process with now restore all lost health chunks as well as replenishing all your health.

Developer note:

Previously, it was unclear to a lot of players as to what was restored by the banishing process. To remove some of the ambiguity that came from using different health chunk set-ups we have made it so that all health chunks are restored, and your health pool is refilled. So, if your team starts the banish, you are in back in the fight – no questions asked!

Dark Sight Boost

Investigating a clue while carrying a bounty token will now restore 1 second of Dark Sight Boost. We hope this will encourage Hunters to be more inclined to run the gauntlet if there is a second target.

Extraction Points

Changes made to ensure that all extraction points will not spawn next to each other. One extraction point will always be at least 500m away from the other two.

Developer note:

We like challenging rounds as much as the next person, but we must acknowledge that certain randomly generated elements in the game such as the location of extraction points, can lead to unfavorable situations for those that want to focus on objective play.

With this change, we want to eliminate one of the most extreme cases that limits potential exit strategies. The available extractions may still be in roughly the same area, however, setting the distance of one to at least 500m will give better options to extract so that you may live to die another day.

Leaderboard

Player will be shown on the leaderboard only if they meet all those conditions:
- Logged in within the last 30 days.
- Have at least 100 kills in Quickplay or 100 Kills or Assist in Bounty Hunt.
- Didn't opt out from showing their stats publicly.
- Not banned.
- Played at least 50 hours.

MetaUnlock Rank Changes

Duster is now available at Rank 1 (previously Rank 20).
Spyglass is now available at Rank 1 (previously Rank 24).
Machete is now available at rank 24 (previously Rank 12).
Nagant M1895 Officer is now available at Rank 12 (previously Rank 36).
Winfield M1873 is now available at Rank 20 (previously Rank 42).

Developer note:

In preparation for update 1.5, we are moving around some items so that we can evenly distribute the unlocks before adding the new unique Winfield M1876 and M1887 that were teased in our most recent blog post. In addition to this, some items have been moved to Rank1 to allow for more variety in the early levels and more choice when it comes to selecting preferred melee tools.

The Nagant officer family now unlocks shortly after the Caldwell Pax, which give players more choice when it comes to assembling balanced loadouts as well as adding more quality weapons around those ranks rather than having a focus on the quantity of weapons available (example combining single shot rifles or shotguns with a rapid-fire handgun and vice versa). The same applies to the Winfield, which is now sitting between the Martini Henry and Sparks LRR unlocks.

Faster Progression: XP Overspill for Equipment Unlocks

XP earned during a mission with any piece of equipment will now overspill into the next unlock within that equipment family.

Developer note:

Due to some technical issues. The experience from the last hit, that resulted in the death of an AI would not carry over (overspill) into the next unlock, but all XP after this was applied as normal. This has now been resolved and any overspill XP will be applied correctly going forward.

e.g. player requires 10 XP to unlock the Romero handcannon. Killing a Hive grants 20 XP, which will unlock the weapon and open the next unlock gate, but that extra 10 XP was lost.

Store

Price updates

Nagant Officer Carbine is now $155 (previously $80)

New Weapons added

Added Nagant Officer Carbine Deadeye for $211
Added Winfield Musket-Bayonet for $137
New Legendary Weapons added
Added Legendary Winfield M1873c Silencer "Vagrant" for 200 Blood Bonds
Added Legendary Nagant Officer "Death Letter" for 200 Blood Bonds
Added Legendary Sparks LRR Silencer "DeSalle's Silence" for 400 Blood Bonds

Roster

Added new possible name variations for Hunter recruits

Miscellaneous

Tweaked a calculation tied to the texture streaming memory budget to improve the game's performance.
Improvements made to the overall game stability and fixed multiple issues that was causing a memory leak with the renderer.
The "Rank" text has been replaced by a dedicated icon on the Lobby screen
A new icon representing the Traits was added onto the trait selection bottom bar in the Roster and Upgrade pages.

Bug Fixes (PC and Console)

Fixed an issue with the pathfinding for some AI that could become stuck on corners (Meathead, Butcher, Grunts).
Fixed an issue that resulted in caged dogs not taking damage from a burning player.
Fixed an issue that meant players could receive damage from caged dogs while standing directly beside the cage.
Fixed an issue that resulted in crows and ducks reacting incorrectly to the sounds of the Silenced Spark LRR as if it were the regular Sparks LRR.

Misc

Fixed an issue where deployable items such as the Bear Trap could be placed on concertina wire.
Static (unlit) lanterns will now make a sound when shattered.
Choke bombs will now extinguish Alert trip mine flares.
Fixed an issue where lanterns in boxes were difficult to interact with.
Fixed an issue that resulted in Decoy fuses not being resupplied while having the Decoy resupply trait.
Fixed an issue where explosions would not influence farm bells (ding!)
Fixed an inconsistency in the exhausted state melee damage for the Mosin Nagant Obrex variants.
Fixed a crash that could potentially occur when shutting down the game.
Fixed an issue that could result in being attacked by an immolator during the "waiting for players" stage when spawning in South-East Lawson Delta. (they just wanted a hug!)
Fixed a rendering issue where certain geometry would flicker in an out at specific points in Healing Waters Church.
Fixed an issue where players could become stuck on some bunkbeds in Wolfshead Arsenal (no sleeping on the hunt!)
Fixed an issue that could cause a player to become stuck at a hut by the river near Arden Parish.
Fixed a spot in Catfish where hunters could become stuck.
Fixed an issue where a hunter could vault through a roof in Sweetbell Flour.
Fixed an issue where AI would pop in too close to a Hunter in Fort Carmick.
Fixed a number of issues that resulted in not being able to pick up hammers and axes.

Known Issues (PC and Console)

New "+" symbols will appear in the store and news after a game restart, even if no new items are available.
In some cases, on the recruitment page, an insanely high amount of hunter dollars will be displayed in the "hire" section. This is purely visual and is only visible when no recruits are present.
When purchasing a DLC that contains 2 Hunters, the 2nd legendary hunter pop up will not be displayed.
A butcher extinguished with a choke bomb can still set you on fire with the final death swing (so don't get too close).
In some cases, the spider frenzy will end if you leave the boss area.
In some cases, weapons can disappear through the floor after swapping with another weapon.
Some buttons in the store can disappear when selecting different filter options.
It is possible to dismiss all hunters.
Depending on the sprinting state, you may encounter some inconsistencies with movement speed while stopping bleeding/fire.
Some LoD transitions are delayed.
In certain cases, where there is a slowdown between client and backend, it is possible to reshuffle a number of times, in these cases you will use more blood bonda than intended.
In some rare cases, the extraction icon will show the incorrect message (such as being revived in the extraction while spectating, the revived player may still see "Your partner is down, Revive them!". This is purely visual and the timer will count down as normal.
In some cases, when at rank 100, the value of bloodline XP in the game summary may show double what was earned.
Incorrect ammo reserve details can sometimes be shown when looting a weapon.
In rare cases, the concertina wire will not damage players.
ELO arrows are not displayed in the killcard if the player that killed you has their stats are hidden.
In some cases, shooting at birds from a distance will not cause them to fly away.
Whisper indicator will stop once the Assassin has been killed.
Duster melee chaining may not work as intended after several melee attacks.
Any lootable weapon that spawns in the tutorial is not kept when leaving the mission.
When using Gunsligner, melee cannot be used during weapon preparation.
When using Gunslinger, chained (repeated) shots are less reliable.
When using Gunslinger, cancelling a reload can result in extra inputs needed to get back to ADS.
Disconnecting from the game while interacting from a metal gate will cause the action to continue.
Switiching firemodes while dual weilding the Lemat does not return you to the correct stance and continues to play the audio loop.
The Butcher will not stop its attack when extinguished by a choke bomb.
Thrown world axes will not damage hive swarms, but will bounce off them.
Buy button on the sole survivor page will show an incorrect value if no survivors are available.
Weapons sway may increase when landing after a jump.
Spectator mode: Clues may appear with a pink glow outside of Darksight.
Picking up a weapon can sometimes result in the weapon not being shown (showing as empty handed) if you move to far during the interaction phase. Switching the weapon again should resolve this.

Known issues (Console Only)

In some cases, you may encounter a freeze/stall during the start of a Trial.
There may be a drop of 3-4fps when exiting Darksight.
AI are less responsive in comparison to the PC version.
Pop up does not appear correctly when linking your account to be awarded 5000 hunt dollars.
The "sell all" function will also sell the selected items that are currently equipped to your hunter in the roster/equipment screen.
In some cases, you may encounter some inconsistencies in button behaviour when buying something in the roster/equipment screen.
Some text for the controller shortcuts may be cut off while in the lobby screen.

Source: Reddit

Among Us on Switch is a solid port, but there's work to be done before it can join PlayStation and Xbox

From relative obscurity to becoming one of the many hyped up reveals during The Game Awards, Among Us has come a very long way in a very short space of time. Released in 2018, its big break came in August of this year as numerous streamers latched onto the game's innate watchability, and before developer InnerSloth knew it, their servers were falling over as people rushed to group up with their friends and then stab each other in the back.

Available for Android, iOS and Windows for the last two years, the game has now made the jump across to Nintendo Switch. Could it soon be coming to PlayStation and Xbox as well?

Well, we'll get to that, but first: what is Among Us?

Essentially, the game is based on the social deduction game Werewolf, where you have a group of players, one of whom is seeking to covertly kill the rest while avoiding suspicion. Instead of having everyone sat round in a circle, Among Us gives all of the players tasks to complete, while the imposter(s) have to go around pretending to perform tasks and sneaking in a little murder every now and then.

It all comes to a head when a body is discovered or if someone calls a meeting to reveal some suspicious behaviour. Players debate, they interrogate, they lie, obstruct and can then vote to kick someone out or wait, if they haven't narrowed down a suspect just yet. It's a great video game adaptation, playing off social interactions exceptionally well, and a deserved (belated) success for InnerSloth.

Originally created for smartphone, the jump to Nintendo Switch is almost effortless. Roaming the map is as intuitive as it's ever been, and you have both button and touch screen support for the little task mini-games that pop up.

That said, it also feels quite rough in ways that will be both familiar to players on other platforms and new to the Switch version. The main menu, for example, includes buttons and links that will take you to Facebook or Twitter… or they would if the Switch had a web browser and didn't just flat out crash….

The Nintendo Switch release also highlights one of the continued weaknesses of the game for me: the lack of built in communication tools. While much of the game plays out in relative silence, the meetings are hives of back and forth interrogation if you play in person or use something like Discord to have a group voice chat. In-game, all you have is text chat, which can be fine, but basically just boils down to players stating a colour in the interest of time. That depends on the group you're playing with, obviously, and the game is by far best played with friends with voice, as opposed to text chat with a group of strangers.

The Switch fits in with the current workarounds quite neatly, to be honest. To put it in another, slightly more brutal way, the frankly dumb lack of a built in microphone on the Switch and the nigh on useless mobile app as a substitute for system-level voice chat and parties all mean people would be resorting to Discord and other set ups anyway.

You do still have text chat, but the pop-up keyboard on Switch covers the game entirely, meaning you cannot see the chat, and I've always found touchscreen text input on Switch oddly detached compared to smartphones and tablets.

If the game is to come to PlayStation or Xbox any time soon, it would need a rethink of the communications options. Voice chat would really need to be integrated – though PSN and Xbox Live both have robust party systems, in-game chat could automate the muting and unmuting for meetings – and a system of quick communications to relay information without a keyboard. It's sure to be a big task, and why the ports to other consoles have only ever been in consideration.

Given how much buzz there is surrounding Among Us, it's no surprise that InnerSloth have sought to bring it to console, and Nintendo Switch is by far and away the most logical first platform for them to tackle. That said, they've clearly got their work cut out for them to make it truly feel like a first class citizen on the platform, ironing out the kinks and figuring out how best to translate the game to PlayStation and Xbox.

Pages

Snowrunner Patch 11 Update Notes

Runner up – Call of Duty: Warzone

Runner up – Phasmaphobia

Special Mention – Among Us

Honourable Mentions (in alphabetical order)

General – All Platforms

PlayStation 5 Only

PC Only

PlayStation 5 Guides and more from TheSixthAxis

Is For Honor still worth playing in 2020?

Dauntless Update 1.5.1 Patch Notes

BEHEMOTHS

WEAPONS

QUALITY OF LIFE

BUG FIXES

Overwatch Update 3.02 Patch Notes

GENERAL UPDATES

WORKSHOP UPDATES

BUG FIXES

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla guides & more from TheSixthAxis

Runner Up – Among Us

Runner Up – Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

Will Hades come to PS4 and Xbox One?

Epic Games store free games list

Demon's Souls – Runner Up

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 – Runner Up

Honourable Mentions (in alphabetical order)

Hunt: Showdown Update 1.4.8 Patch Notes

Highlights

Gunplay

Bug Fixes (PC and Console)

Known Issues (PC and Console)