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Rainbow Six Siege Year 5 Season 4 now live with free next-gen upgrade

Breach charges at the ready, Operators. The prep phase is over and Rainbow Six Siege is now officially available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

As we've previously reported, a free next-gen upgrade is available to anyone that currently owns a copy of Rainbow Six Siege. All you need to do is log into the account originally used to purchased Siege, then find the correct upgrade/version.

Here's what players on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S can expect from this beefed up version of the popular Tom Clancy shooter:

  • 4K resolution (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X) / 1080p (Xbox Series S)
  • 120 fps (PlayStation5, Xbox Series X)
  • DualSense™ wireless controller capabilities for even deeper immersion (PlayStation 5)
  • Activities support for the most popular playlists so players can dive into the game faster (PlayStation 5)

The following features are also being implemented for an enhanced next-gen experience on all platforms:

  • Better accessibility (readability options, text to speech and speech to text)
  • Quick start (optimised login flow, streamlined intro sequence)
  • Ubisoft Connect overlay

Alongside this PS5 and Xbox Series X|S launch, Ubisoft have also kicked off their new season for Rainbow Six Siege. Year 5 Season 4 "Neon Dawn" is now underway.

The two highlights of Neon Dawn include Aruni and the new map rework for Skyscraper. Aruni is the game's first Thai Operator who brings an interesting defensive gadget into play – the Surya Gate. She also has a bionic arm which can pack quite the punch. A new animated trailer was released today, introducing her to roster.

 

Here's what else Ubisoft is bringing in Rainbow Six Siege Y5S4:

  • New Operator – Aruni
  • New Gadget – Surya Gate
  • Skyscraper map rework
  • Hibana X-KAIROS update
  • Echo Yokai drone update
  • Jäger Active Defense System update
  • Reduced runout timers
  • Improved Gadget on Gadget interactions
  • Sixth Guardian charity initiative
  • Vigil, Zofia, Dokka, Nomad, Kaid, Wamai and Kali Operator price reductions

Source: Press Release

Fall Guys update 1.12 stumbles out ahead of Season 3

As we wait for news on Fall Guys Season 3, game developers Mediatonic have released a new update for their hugely popular battle royale beanfest.

Fall Guys update 1.12 is available to download now on PlayStation 4 and PC (as well as PS5, via backwards compatibility). You'll need to have this latest patch installed in order to hop online and join matches.

Sadly, this new version of the game doesn't seem to bring on any notable features or fixes. Mediatonic have yet to post their Fall Guys 1.12 patch notes and you won't find a changelog via the PS4 system menu.

Hopefully we'll get the lowdown on exactly what's been added to Fall Guys but for now we'd assume it's just some simple fixes around the edges to help with stability and performance.

Of course, 1.12 is a stepping stone for what comes next. Fall Guys Season 3 is on the way and, after decrypting Mediatonic's jigsaw puzzle teaser for their upcoming season, it looks like we'll be taking a walk (well, more of a tumble) through a winter wonderland.

In the meantime Fall Guys Season 2 is slowly ticking down as players continue to enjoyed its newly added clutch of medieval-themed game modes. It appears as though we'll get a proper look at the next season at The Game Awards. Hopefully we may hear more about whether Fall Guys will be coming to other platforms too including Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. A next-gen upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S seems unnecessary but could be on the cards.

Fall Guys didn't quite manage to grab our top prize but walked away with an excellent 8 our of 10 in Stefan's review. Here's how he summed up his time with the game:

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.

Twin Mirror Review

Following the massive success of the Life is Strange games, and the positive critical reception to Tell Me Why, Dontnod have established themselves as a developer with a rich pedigree in narrative adventures. Combining beautiful visuals with a low-fi indie mentality, mature storytelling, and well curated soundtracks, their games have also taken over the episodic mantle from Telltale.

Twin Mirrors breaks the mould in two major ways: it is the first self-published Dontnod game (in partnership with Bandai Namco) and it abandons the episodic approach in favour of an all-in-one format. It also introduces a generic American dude as the protagonist, although he does have inner turmoil and angst.

You play as Sam Riggs, an investigative journalist who is returning to his home town of Basswood following the tragic death of his former best friend, Nick. Although the official account is that Nick died in a car accident, it soon becomes apparent that all is not what it seems in Basswood. The opening scenes of Twin Mirror revolve around Sam's reception and the early suspicions about Nick's death. These do a great job in establishing the various characters and their history with Sam, but after the game's opening, I was surprised to discover that almost no other substantial characters were introduced later. That being said, the relatively small cast does help to cement the claustrophobic feel of a small town in which everybody knows everybody else's business.

The town of Basswood is well realised and everything has a convincing run-down look, while the environments you can wander around are detailed and do a good job of making it easy to spot interactive objects even before the button prompts are revealed.

The characters are also impressively detailed – Dontnod are clearly on an upward trend here – and the voice acting it consistently strong throughout a very dialogue heavy game, though it does slip into the uncanny valley with some of the lip syncing. There's even a 13 year old girl who doesn't come across as a stereotypical brat.

My only issue here is that many of the characters don't really grow or have noticeable arcs, they just occupy standard NPC territory. Conversations also feel almost automatic, with there often being no real change in the reaction, regardless of which option you choose. As a result, the only real reason for making different choices seems to be personal roleplaying.

 

The overall style of the game can best be described as cinematic. Stripped down to its bare essentials, there is little more to do here than move between conversations with occasional rudimentary search puzzles in the various locations. Yes, you have Sam's imaginary version of himself offering advice – his alter-ego is far more clean cut and socially comfortable – but what this leads to often feels like binary alternatives rather than branching choices. This basic description isn't entirely fair, as the narrative focus ensures that you don't really notice the mechanics whilst playing. To its credit this is not an epic tale of world ending peril, but instead a far more personal and intimate story of a troubled man trying to do the right thing in the face of painful memories and a hostile environment. It is this story setting that I found the most interesting part.

You soon find out that Sam was forced to leave his home town due to the fallout from a hard-hitting exposé on malpractice at the local mine. This may not sound like the most exciting of backstories, but the representation of a small town facing extinction in the face of the closure of its main source of employment feels like a vital and topical setting. Whilst you are clearly meant to sympathise with Sam throughout, the game doesn't present the grudge-bearing locals as simple baddies, but more as victims of the wider economic situation. As for the baddies, the game skilfully offers up a number of red herrings and misdirections that will keep you guessing until the very end. This is a real plus in terms of the narrative, but I was left with the feeling that my actions had very little impact on the story that was being told.

The main new gameplay mechanic to Dontnod's formula is the introduction of Sam's Mind Palace. Sam is able to reconstruct moments and replay them, or even predict them in later puzzles, to ascertain the truth of what happened. Whilst this isn't a new idea, and will be familiar to any fans of the Frogwares Sherlock Holmes and Cthulhu titles, this is by far the most polished iteration I've seen. This polish is welcome, but doesn't really hide the fact that you are mainly looking for the various interactive points in the environment and then putting them in the correct order in a fancy setting. There is one later section that takes place in the mind palace that felt far more innovative and interesting, and it's a shame Dontnod don't make more use of this.

While there are alternative endings and paths to take, these boil down to just slightly different conversation lines or heavily signposted binary choices. To be honest, I felt that the path I took gave me the result that was most appropriate to my view of the characters and I don't really have much incentive, aside from achievements, to go back through and choose a different option. In that regard, perhaps it perfectly achieved its goal.

Microsoft Flight Simulator VR update will be a free upgrade coming out in time for Christmas

Asobo Studio have a Christmas present planned for all the fans and players of Microsoft Flight Simulator, announcing that the virtual reality update will launch on 23rd December, and that it will support far more than the one specific VR headset that had previously been announced.

While originally intended to be an exclusive for the HP Reverd G2 headset, Asobo Studio's Martial Bossard said in the announcement stream that "We are going to open the VR for everyone. Everybody will get access to VR now, and when I say everybody […] it will also be open to all devices, including the Oculus family, Valve family, really every family of headset are going to be supported there."

That's a fantastic change compared to what was previously quite a restrictive sounding plan. Additionally, they detailed that the game will be fully in VR, so you won't have to remove the headset at any point when playing. This includes the pre-flight menu system.

VR support will be added as part of Sim Update 2, which changes and enhances many aspects of the flight simulation itself. The first Sim Update, for exmaple, modified how the A320 behaved, tweaked Live Weather, ironed out autopilot issues and more.

The late December update sees Asobo settling into a monthly cadence and alternative approach to the game's continued support. The end of November saw them release World Update 2, which went over the whole of the United States and made numerous hand-crafted adjustments to the Ai generated terrain that the game shipped with.  December will see Sim Update 2, and following that, World Update 3 will arrive on 28th January and add more detail and gameplay to the UK's many landmarks. Here's hoping they can capture this island in all its post-Brexity glory… or whatever.

While there's a steady trickle of information, such as Asobo planning to add replay functionality in 2021, multi-screen support within the next two years, and flyable helicopters for 2022, there's still no word on when the game will arrive on Xbox consoles.

The expectation there is that Asobo will have to modify the core of their game engine to support DirectX 12 and make better use of multiple CPU cores, but who knows when that technical hurdle will be overcome.

via Polygon

Worms Rumble Guide – 7 essential tips & tricks for winning

Worms Rumble is releasing today on PS4, PS5, and PC, and is one of December 2020's free PlayStation Plus games. Far from the turn-based tactical Worms of old, Rumble is a real time multiplayer action shooter with backflips, wall jumping, and rolling by scrunching yourself up into a tiny worm ball.

You can read our preview of our time with the beta here, but basically it's a lot of predictably hectic and explosive fun. You should have no trouble finding a game – not only is Worms Rumble free to those with a PlayStation Plus subscription, this console version will have PC cross-platform play enabled too!

Don't worry if you didn't manage to get some time in with the Worms Rumble beta. We're on hand to give out some useful tips and tricks to help lock down some early wins.

Worms Rumble Tips & Tricks

Keep Moving

The most important thing to keep in mind when playing Worms Rumble is, much like most multiplayer games, that you should almost never stand still. You are an easy target when you're on the floor not just because you're not moving, but because you'll get caught in the splash damage of poorly aimed explosives that would otherwise have missed. You have a few options to avoid incoming fire, so always remember to keep jumping, backflipping, and most importantly…

Keep Rolling

Rolling is fast and makes you a smaller target in Worms Rumble. Naturally it helps you get around the map quicker and dodge attacks, but you can also use it to escape from a fight that isn't going your way or, better yet, quickly enter a fight to clean up some enemies that have already taken damage. Just keep an eye on the stamina meter to make sure you don't run out whilst you're charging towards your target as this can often end in an embarrassing death. Of course, a big part of having to keep moving most of the time is that you need to…

Know When to Stop

The majority of your time in Worms Rumble is going to be spent running, rolling, and jumping, but there will be times where standing still can actually work a treat. The most satisfying kills are when you spot someone coming around a corner, plant your worm feet(?) and take them out with a few well aimed shots. You're more accurate when you're standing still, but you're more vulnerable, so consider the risk versus the reward – if they're carrying a giant rocket launcher then it's time to scarper!

Start Swinging

When you've got sentry guns, sheep, and bazookas going off all around you it's easy to forget the humble length of wood that is your baseball bat. You might not be able to hit worms into the stratosphere to home run music or skim them across water, but you definitely can use it to finish them off instead of reloading. Even better, if you time it right you can deflect grenades, but you'll still have to provide the home run music yourself. You don't want to rely on your bat entirely though, though, so you're going to want to…

Get Guns

Guns are pretty important when it comes to shooting other players in Worms Rumble, so you're going to want to pick some up. You spawn with one, sure, but the best guns are usually found within each level and if you pick it up it gives you two advantages: first, it means you now have a bigger, often more powerful gun; and second, it means someone else doesn't have a big gun, because you've got it.

Try to remember where weapons spawn on a level and check for them on your way to your next fight. You should keep an eye on your ammunition as well. If you're between fights and you stumble upon a perfectly good, unused gun, it might be worth switching so you're back at full ammo. Whilst you're there, maybe you should…

Get Everything Else Too

Other pickups include grenades and movement abilities like the grappling hook or jetpack. In Worms Rumble grenades can be invaluable for various reasons, like bouncing them around corners or into a little nook an enemy is hiding in, or simply for devastating a room full of worms with a banana bomb or holy hand grenade.

Jetpacks and grappling hooks are incredibly useful not just for getting around much more quickly, but because you're a much harder target when you're hovering above someone carpet bombing them with rockets, or swinging around like Tarzan with a rocket launcher. On top of that, they're really great fun, but like anything else, to use them to their fullest potential you've really just got to…

Be Devious

You should know how your weapon works – if it's a shotgun, don't start combat by shooting someone with it from a distance, try to get closer before you open fire and give yourself away. Worms Rumble gives you plenty of opportunities to ambush and otherwise surprise enemies, the biggest of which are the areas on each map that are covered until you enter them. You could jump out yourself with a shotgun, lay a sentry or two to surprise some unsuspecting invertebrate, or use them to sneak around and flank an enemy.

Are there a few worms fighting? Maybe let them damage each other a bit and throw a few grenades in rather than barging in, guns blazing, and drawing fire. Even better, pretend you're Batman by dropping some explosives and then ninja roping right out of a door, leaving only explosions and tiny worm screams behind. You get points for style – not from the game, from me, I give you points for style.

And there you go, there's seven tips and tricks – with these and a little practice, you should be well on your way to winning in Worms Rumble.

King of Seas is a swaggering piratical adventure with more than a few twists

Avast, me hearty bowls of soup! That's a pirate saying, right? Sure it is. Everyone knows it, because everyone loves pirates. Despite this, the last few years in pirate-flavoured gaming have been less a mighty haul of shining gems, more the last few dregs of rum in a dusty bottle. Sure, we've had Sea of Thieves and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, not to mention the criminally overlooked Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, but you don't need to know which way starboard is to see that a handful of games does not a genre make.

But wait, what's that on the horizon swaggering its way into port? Do ships swagger? Should ships swagger? Who cares! King of Seas is here. Well, it will be in 2021.

There are two approaches to pirate games, but really they're two sides of the same doubloon. One is all grubby and covered in bloody fingerprints, chronicling all the gritty stabbings, shooting and horrific flesh-eating maladies that sailors face. The other is shined to add a bit off sparkle, strap an adorable parrot to your shoulder and deal with a loveable, Saturday morning cartoon style of piracy. Loveable scamps that might still condemn dozens of merchant ships to a watery grave, but do it in a charming way. King of Seas is very much the second kind. This fantasy world is inviting and sunny, packed with outlandish characters and supernatural intrigue.

The closest immediate analogue to its isometric sailing would be Sid Meier's classic Pirates!, although it's actually quite a different barrel of biscuits. There seems to be far fewer RPG and simulation elements, for one. You can still dock in ports to trade and purchase goods like repair kits, as well as replenish your crew, but it seems less focused on simulation than it is on simplified seafaring and immediate, arcade ship combat.

At least, that's my impression from the 45 minutes the preview build was limited to – some elements seemed streamlined to be shown off, preventing me from getting a real feel for how some elements might end up. A simplified ship economy, for instance, meant I could switch out my starting sloop for any ship in the game at the cost of one gold. It was a blast to rule the waves in a huge frigate so early, but it did mean I never really got a good feel for how economics and upgrades would factor into the final game. That, or these shipwrights are really underselling themselves.

One thing the build did capture was how both sailing and combat play out. Manoeuvring, though a little slow on occasion, is handled with real detail. It would have been easy to have the ships handle like, say, a micro-machine car, but the control of your ship feels very much dependent on factors like weather and momentum. There's three levels of speed, decided by how many sails you put up, and you have to plan a few moments ahead to steer. It's still got that nice, immediate feel that you'd want, but manages to give the impression that you're very much at the mercy of the elements, rather than taking the easy way out and giving your boat some sort of invisible engine.

Success in combat also requires forethought. You'll need to take your momentum, projectile speed, and firing arcs into consideration. It feels, for lack of a better word, very analogue in its approach, as if you're shouting commands at a tiny digital crew that have a bit of a mind of their own, and need to physically haul ropes and pulleys around to achieve anything. There's three standard types of ammunition, and each ship has three different 'health' bars to match. There's a different type of shot each for taking out sails, crew, and hull. Taking down sails, for example, will mean whatever merchant ships you're currently raiding will have some serious trouble getting away, while going for the hull will just sink them outright.

It's not all realism, though. I was given a front-mounted flamethrower a few missions in, and came up against poison-blasting buccaneers. There were even a few ghost ships! The sea itself is peppered with wrecks to scavenge, collectibles, explosive barrels, and the occasional kraken tentacle, so it isn't just a case of slogging over endless procedurally generated blue waves between ports, either.

Short though my demo was, it really is a pleasant place to spend an afternoon, with all its popping colours, jaunty tunes, and promises of decks to swab and buckles to swash down the line. The ocean is certainly calling, although whether or not this charming pirate adventure can crown itself the King, we'll have to wait and see.

Xbox November update adds more dynamic themes on Series X|S, Game Pass pre-installs & more

Following on from their next-gen overhaul of the Xbox visual design in October, Microsoft have made a few more tweaks to the unified Xbox Experience now that the Xbox Series X and Series S are out in the wild.

The November update was pushed live for all users yesterday (so that it could still just about be November), bringing more dynamic themes for Xbox Series X|S users to choose from, adding icons for X|S optimised games and Auto HDR, and expanding the ability to pre-install games you don't own to work through Xbox Game Pass.

Xbox Series X|S debuted dynamic backgrounds for the system's home menu for the first time, with a neat wave effect that runs behind the various games and apps you have on the home screen. Now there's several other options including some colourful Spotlight blurs (none of which look good in my opinion), a ripple effect that will line up behind your most recent game, and a cool slowly shifting background with a single stripe of your chosen UI colour. Nothing groundbreaking, but the options are nice to have and Microsoft can hopefully come up with some more inventive and attractive options in future.

Already added with the console's day one update, Series X|S optimised games have an X|S icon on their entries in the game library, so you know which games are updated and enhanced for the new systems. You can also filter your library to only show optimised titles.

Additionally, it could be a little tricky to figure out which games Auto HDR has been enabled for. Now, if you press the Xbox button and bring up the Guide, an Auto HDR marker will appear in the top right corner to let you know.

The Achievements section of the Guide has been replaced with a Game Activity section, which still functions to show you your achievements, but also quickly links to friends who are playing games, Looking for Group, Events and the Club page for your current game.

Setting up a new Xbox console for a whole family will be a little easier, thanks to the Xbox app now tapping into the Xbox Family Settings app to let you draw all connected users within a family together onto the system at once. No more logging in one at a time.

And finally, while you've been able to install any and every game to your console via the Xbox app since its October relaunch, regardless of whether you own it or not, eager Xbox Game Pass beavers can now use that functionality on the console itself. The Xbox Game Pass section will now let you pre-install upcoming additions to the subscription service. Not everything will be included in this, but you'll still be able to queue them up to install as soon as they're ready.

Source: Xbox

Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer is a "standalone product", next gen cross-save confirmed

CD Projeckt RED have been talking about the forthcoming multiplayer component for Cyberpunk 2077 and it seems it's going to be much bigger than anyone expected.

"It's a separate dedicated production, a big production. And we plan – we think about it as a standalone product," said Joint CEO at CD Projekt Red, Adam Kiciński. "Obviously, it's not entirely standalone as it comes from the universe of Cyberpunk and is very much related to the concept of single player Cyberpunk we – I came up with. But from our perspective, it's — is another independent production and independent team of people works on it."

"I mean, it's not the moment to talk about any business model for multiplayer," he added, suggesting this was because they wanted "to avoid any fast in our gaming community." I assume that's a translation issue by Seeking Alpha and perhaps meant to say they want avoid panic or controversy, which, as they are not talking about the business model, sounds like there may be a battle pass or some sort of paid DLC.

During the call Kiciński confirmed on two occasions that the multiplayer would be discussed further before March 2021. CD Projekt publishing head Michal Nowakowski had previously said that "2021 appears unlikely as a release date for the Cyberpunk multiplayer".

In other CyberPunk 2077 news it has been confirmed that you will be able to use your PS4 saves on PS5, and likewise Xbox One saves on your Xbox Series X|S. On Xbox, Smart Delivery will allow you to continue playing the game on Xbox Series X/S from where you've left off on the Xbox One, but PS4 owners will have to use the PlayStation Plus cloud save feature or move the saves manually.

CD Projekt Red recently released a video featuring gameplay captured on both PlayStation 4 Pro and PlayStation 5.

As in the Xbox gameplay reveal, this video switches between PS4 Pro and playing on PS5 via backward compatibility, though the majority is spent on the older console before capping things off with the PS5 at the end.

Cyberpunk 2077 will be out for Xbox One, PS4 and PC on 10th December. It will be playable on Xbox Series X | S at that point – the consoles coming out on 10th November – and on PlayStation 5 on November 11th/19th, but again, full on next-gen enhancements will not be there on day one.

Source: SeekingAlpha

Crimzon Clover: World EXplosion Review

Since its initial release in 2011, indie Japanese shoot 'em up Crimzon Clover: World EXplosion has been re-released on several different platforms, now coming to grace the Nintendo Switch. While there may be reservations regarding the performance of a bullet hell shooter on Switch, I can tell you right out the gate that this release delivers a rock solid shmup experience.

As is the norm with the genre, Crimzon Clover puts players in control of a sci-fi airship tasked with blitzing through waves of enemy ships and machinery. There's a standard automatic blaster weapon and a secondary lock-on weapon, and you'll be trying to dodge incoming enemy fire while blasting away. What sets Crimzon Clover's gameplay apart is the Break feature – a decidedly clever mechanic that has large ramifications in regards to how it shapes a player's approach to the game.

With Break, the player can gain access to a selection of enhancements depending on how much progress has been made in filling the Break gauge overall. Once you hit the halfway mark, the player can activate Break, which clears the screen of oncoming threats momentarily, imbues the ship with more significant firepower, and increases the amount of score gained for the duration of Break's activation. Filling the gauge fully before activation will grant the player even more of a boost in firepower and score.

This feature simultaneously lowers the skill floor while heightening the skill ceiling. Less experienced players will rely on using Break in its weaker form as a way to quickly inflict more damage on the enemy, and potentially empty the screen of oncoming projectiles, but more experienced players will be incentivised to wait for the higher level of Break to maximise their score potential.

Giving rookie players even more of an advantage is the Bomb system, which also relies on partially filling the Break gauge. It doesn't take long to amass enough points to earn a screen-clearing Bomb, however the cost of Bomb's increases after each subsequent use, meaning that each potential Bomb use is met with a split-second decision between getting an instant screen clear, or trying to preserve their use for a more essential moment. The Break mechanic is a genius way to imbue Crimzon Clover's gameplay with an additional layer of strategy without diminishing the immediate simplicity that makes the shmup genre so appealing.

Another crease to the gameplay is the aforementioned overall score. While it's entirely possible to brute force Crimzon Clover, with the game giving the player unlimited continue options after they lose all of their lives in a run, continuing the game resets the score back to zero. The challenge of Crimzon Clover doesn't come from reaching the end of the five stages, but attempting to reach a point of mastery where the game can be finished without the use of a single continue. This becomes further incentivised by the content locked behind the defeat of the stage five boss without using a continue.

There's a substantial range of different gameplay options with three different versions to choose from, and within those versions are an additional four modes, with the self-explanatory nature of most of the variations keeping things simple. The Arrange version, which offers some modifications in the gameplay and the functionality of Break, feels somewhat superfluous, only really serving to infatuate those who want to stomp through the stages and hit a higher score than they typically would. The Novice and Arcade versions are where the intended experience is found, with the former acting as a great gateway for newcomers to the genre, and the Arcade version delivering the game's core challenge.

Arcade version is definitely one for those who have plenty of shmup experience. While the first stage starts with some pretty manageable foes, the intensity quickly ramps up, and by the end of the second stage the screen will start to become progressively more filled with a daunting number of bullets and lasers to tightly manoeuvre around. Unlimited mode – an even harder modifier – ups the density of foes and projectiles to almost comical absurdity, and provides a challenge that will take ample practice to overcome with confidence.

The game's performance on Switch never dips, maintaining a wondrously stable frame-rate despite the chaos that can kick off on screen at any given time. All of the visual noise that erupts from the projectiles, the explosions, and the stars that burst out of enemies can work to the game's detriment though, with the player-controlled ship easily being lost amongst the insanity, leading to a few infuriating moments where you lose track of your place in the action, leading to a swift death. This becomes even more apparent in handheld mode, which can feel borderline incomprehensible in the later stages. There's certainly admiration to be found in Crimzon Clover's shameless spectacle, but when it fogs up the clarity of the tight gameplay it can feel like a slight liability.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla update fixes Xbox Series X performance, but makes sacrifices to match the PS5

Assassin's Creed Valhalla was one of a few cross-platform and cross-generational games that performed worse on Xbox Series X than on PlayStation 5. Now a fresh analysis by Digital Foundry of the game's 1.04 patch shows that Ubisoft have steadied the game's imperfect frame rate, but at a slight cost in high intensity scenarios.

At launch, AC Valhalla was plagued with screen-tearing on Xbox Series X, despite using a dynamic resolution on all platforms in order to try and meet the target frame rate. On PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, the target was 60fps for both systems, but the PS5 was able to hold onto that frame rate much more consistently, even if it too had some moments of tearing.

Update 1.04 for AC Valhalla has brought a number of changes, improvements and options for players. Digital Foundry have found that performance mode on PS5 is nigh on identical to before, with only minor performance deviations and a dynamic resolution that bottoms out at 1440p and tops out at around 1728p. After the update, Xbox Series X still has the same upper threshold, but can now drop down to 1188p in the most extreme situations. This grater variability leads to a slightly better performance level on Series X that PS5 now.

Hopefully Ubisoft work to optimise the game further over coming updates to iron out any remaining kinks and also improve performance in general.

However, across all the new consoles, there's now the option of prioritising performance with 60fps, or quality with a 30fps frame rate. The latter option on PS5 and XSX locks the game to a perfect 30fps and runs at a full, native 4K. The choice is now yours.

It's a pretty easy choice on Xbox Series S, in my opinion. The game on this lower-powered console launched with a 30fps frame limit and a dynamic resolution between 1080p and 1440p. This was criticised by players, but the reason is pretty clear now that you can enable a performance mode. While you get a 60fps target, it's not as steady as on the more powerful consoles and the dynamic resolution drops down to 720p. It's there if you want it, though.

All in all, it seems to be a good step forward for Microsoft's consoles, and addresses a seeming lack of optimisation that third party developers have put into the Xbox Series systems for launch. Microsoft have addresses this over the last week, saying they are working with developers to improve performance (and match what the PS5 is managing), but it's clear that something is a little bit off at the moment. A few potential factors have been mooted, from the final dev kits reaching developers later on that PS5, to the XSX being a bit more powerful so developers not optimising as much for it, or the simple business factor that the PS5 is expected to sell more than Xbox, and so that would be the priority. That's obviously all speculation, but when Microsoft have touted the Series X as the more powerful console, that needs to be backed up.

Source: Digital Foundry

New Crash Bandicoot game potentially teased in Crash 4

Following the launch of Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time earlier this year, fans have been theorising what comes next for gaming's marsupial mascot.

Could Activision be considering a sequel for Crash Team Racing in a similar vein to Crash 4? A Crash Bash revival, maybe? A Crash/Spyro crossover could also be the cards too.

One Crash 4 completionist has potentially unearthed our very first glimpse at the next game in the Crashverse. Twitter user kimmotman posted a video, reportedly showcasing a hidden Easter egg that only unlocks upon hitting 106% completion.

Those who have played Crash Bandicoot 4 will know that there's a CRT television in the first level, Rude Awakening. Hitting this chunky TV will change the on-screen image, cycling between the four games in the Crash Bandicoot series. A cool nostalgic nod for fans.

However, the video above shows another image that appears after the Crash 4 logo.

Naturally, this has prompted many to think this is our first look at what comes next for Crash Bandicoot. The logo doesn't give much away – it's a Wumpa fruit circled by two flares, one orange, one blue.

With this in mind, Crash fans have been picking apart a video recently uploaded to the official Crash Bandicoot Twitter account. It's a fun twist on one of Uncharted 4's best moments, with Crash and Coco playing a section from Naughty Dog's masterful sequel.

A banner behind our two heroes reads "Wumpa League" which has us thinking that the next Crash game could be multiplayer focused with a competitive edge. With The Game Awards taking place next week, there's a chance Crash could make a surprise appearance for sure.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time bagged a decent 7 out of 10 in our review – here's what Steve had to say:

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time really is the definitive Crash game. Toys For Bob have taken all the series' trademarks, refined them into a challenging and polished experience and given us tons of levels to play and secrets to hunt for. There's new characters to play as and masks that shake up the gameplay when they appear, but Crash 4 is the same old Bandicoot who's learnt a few new tricks.

Source: Twitter (@kimmotman)

Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate is a great jumping on point for a new generation of console

Mortal Kombat 11 is the game that keeps on giving, coming back one more time in its ultimate form: Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate.

The cross-generational release marks the debut of the game on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with the base game receiving a free upgrade to support the new consoles, and MK11 Ultimate coming in as a catch all GOTY-style release that encompasses everything released so far, barring a few paid costume packs. Adding to the base game, the first Kombat Pack, and the Aftermath story expansion, the main addition for Ultimate is Kombat Pack 2, starring Rain, Mileena and John freaking Rambo!

Breaking the rules of not repeating your DLC, Rain returns for the second time as a DLC character, and he doesn't disappoint. As the name would suggest, he has a menagerie of water-based moves to help him murder his foes. If you've ever seen a water jet cut things then you'll get the idea of what this can entail.

He feels very fluid to play (pun intended), either kicking his opponents off screen to have them appear behind so he can continue a combo, or turning into a giant ball of water and rolling into unsuspecting foes. One of his finishers also randomly pays homage to Queen's album, Queen II. It is nice to see Rain's backstory fleshed out a little more in 11, because he was relegated to just being a ninja recolour previously. Now, he is the Prince of Edenia, a rightly deserved title.

Mileena is a character that's almost too good to not be in an Mortal Kombat game. Her absence from the main roster was a curious one, but it's good to see her here. She is as brutal as ever, utilising her deadly sai and taking every opportunity she can to use that lovely set of teeth she has. They're all the better to bite her opponents faces off.

I really like her move set, but it was slightly frustrating that a lot of her immediately useful combos only used one of her moves, the Ball Roll. I feel with time and experimentation she has the potential to be a go-to, top tier character with a great mix up game. It's going to take time for people to get good with her, though.

Her finisher, Spinning Out of Control, is probably my favourite of the new batch. It has Mileena turn herself into a spinning death wheel and go all Sonic the Hedgehog on her opponent, slicing them in twain in the most brutal way possible, posing for victory with viscera hanging off her. OK, so Sonic doesn't go quite that far, but you get the idea.

Finally, we have Rambo as a guest character. Yes, John bloody Rambo, who's voiced by Sly Stallone himself! It's actually quite risky business adding guest characters to fighting games, because it's a 50/50 toss up whether or not they will feel at home in the universe they've been plonked into. Thankfully, Rambo actually feels alright.

He's got some really cool thematic moves that really make you feel like a jungle survivor – he can set claymores, spike traps and pull M60s that are hidden in foliage in order to bring the pain to his foes. The customisation options are a little on the weak side, but then again, you probably just want Rambo with his shirt off, right?

Of course, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate also marked debut of the game on the new generation of console – as already mentioned, owners of Mortal Kombat 11 on PS4 and Xbox One also get free upgrades for the base game. Playing on PlayStation 5, there's a nice shiny 4K coat that makes each bone snap look that little bit better. The frame rate looks just as snappy as you'd want them and the loading times… man, the loading time are just so much better. Getting into fights is so quick now, I can't imagine going back to waiting thirty seconds to a minute to get into a match.

Another cool bonus is the ability to do Krossplay, now. This allows players to fight each other online whether you're on PlayStation or Xbox, though only in online Kasual lobbies. I personally didn't come across any issues here, fighting many opponents on different platforms. It's important for fighters to maintain consistency online and it doesn't disappoint.

If you are jumping from one generation to the next, your progress will also partially carry over, letting you take all items you've earned in your inventory and any rewards you won. So that big wardrobe you've been building? Yep, you get to keep it. NetherRealm haven't built a in a way for this to work between console families, though, so if you are going from an Xbox One to PS5, you will not get to keep anything. Everything else, like story modes etc, will have to be completed again, but at least you get a new set of Trophies or Achievements to earn.

As time goes on, the deal gets sweeter and it's great for people just starting out with MK11. If you already own it, the asking price for Kombat Pack 2 is fairly reasonable for the three new characters, so there's no real losers here. Well, unless you are taking a Fatality, that is. But still, as a full package, MK11 Ultimate is the ultimate version of this game and is definitely worth your time.

Nintendo Switch firmware 11.0.0 is out, adds new features, details here!

Nintendo have released the latest update for the Nintendo Switch and along with the usual stability bobbins there are a couple of new features that you may find useful. Once you have updated you will be able to prioritize downloads, so you won't have to wait for a patch for an existing game to finish downloading before you can start downloading something else. You can also transfer screenshots and videos to smart devices and your PC. 

Here are the full patch notes:

Ver. 11.0.0 (Released November 30, 2020)

Nintendo Switch Online was added to the HOME Menu.

A new feature that automatically downloads backed up save data was added to the Save Data Cloud.

  • When using software with the same Nintendo Account linked to multiple systems, save data backed up from one console will automatically be downloaded to your other system(s).
    *To use this feature, it must be enabled under System Settings > Data Management > Save Data Cloud.
    *Save data will not be downloaded automatically unless save data for that software exists on the console. The first time only, users must download the save data manually.
    *A Nintendo Switch Online membership is required to use the Save Data Cloud service.

A new Trending feature was added to the User Page.

  • Users can check what software their friends are playing or have started playing recently.
    Information will not be displayed for friends who have their online status set to display to no one.

Users can now transfer screenshots and videos from Album to their smart devices.

  • Users can wirelessly connect their smart devices to Nintendo Switch to transfer the screenshots and videos saved within their Album.
  • For screenshots, users can transfer a maximum of 10 screenshots and 1 video capture at once.
    *To connect, users must use their smart device to scan the QR Code displayed on the Nintendo Switch screen.
    For more information, please refer to the Nintendo Support website.

A new Copy to a Computer via USB Connection feature was added under System Settings > Data Management > Manage Screenshots and Videos.

  • Users can use a USB cable to connect Nintendo Switch to their computers to copy the screenshots and videos saved under Album.
    * A USB charging cable [model HAC-010] or a USB-IF certified USB cable that supports data transfer is required to connect to a computer.
    For more information, please refer to the Nintendo Support website.
    * Connection via the Nintendo Switch dock is not supported. Please connect the Nintendo Switch system directly to the computer.

Users can now select what download to prioritize when there are multiple downloads in progress.

  • When there are multiple software, update data, or downloadable content downloads in progress, users can now select which they want to download first.
  • You can set this under Download Options by selecting the icon for the software you want to download first on the HOME Menu.

User icons were added.

  • 12 user icons that commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Super Mario Bros. series were added.

Users can now name preset button mappings with the Change Button Mapping feature.

Brazilian Portuguese was added as a supported language.

  • When users set their region to the Americas and their language to Português, the language used on the HOME Menu and in certain software will be displayed in Brazilian Portuguese.

Several issues were fixed, and usability and stability were improved.

Source: Nintendo

XIII Remake has been patched, includes bug fixes and game improvements

When the XIII Remake was released the reception for the return of the first person shooter was not good. Players and fans of the original XIII have reported numerous issues with the XIII remake, and by all accounts the game is currently not worth the money. The issues are so prevalent and the outcry widespread that Microids issued an apology about the state of  the game

They have now released a new patch for the game which is now live on PC and PS4  and should be coming soon for Xbox One. "This patch fixes some of the issues you may have encountered since the beginning of your adventure," say Microids, "The teams are working relentlessly to provide you with regular patches to improved playing experience."

Rather than list everything that has been fixed we have a summary of issues that have been patched,

  • Weapon improvements (balancing, animations, tweaks, notably on ADS on machine guns, some audio)
  • Better Gameplay experience : AI bugs where enemy would not react, in-game objective markers, UI glitches, new narrative sequences, more user-friendly pickups, achievements tweaks, various bugs related to checkpoints and potential blockers
  • Art debugging and improvements (various collision and occlusion bugs, optimization, animation glitches, a lot of polish in levels – adding VFX, light, etc..)
  • Notable fixes on users feedbacks : mouse sensitivity, weapons animations and sounds (partially)

If you missed it you can read the apology from Microids below,

The highly anticipated remake of XIII, awaited by many fans, came out earlier this week. Unfortunately, players expectations have not been met by the launch version and we hear loud and clear the legitimate criticism and disappointment.

First and foremost, we would like to offer our most sincere apologies for the game's technical issues. In its present state, XIII does not meet our quality standards and we fully understand players' frustrations. The pandemic has impacted the game's production on many levels. Pivoting to home working for the teams has added unexpected delays in the development schedule and the QA process. We hoped we would be able to provide a Day One patch fixing all the issues but the development of this update is taking more time than expected.

Source: Microids

Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War patch increases weapon XP rates

Treyarch has released a new patch for Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War and this addresses the earn rate for weapons XP. Treyarch has confirmed this will be available in multiplayer and zombies. There has also been a fix applied to Nuketown '84 to close off an exploit where players could leave the bounds of the map. Those who use the Napalm Burst Ammo Mod should also now see consistency with the amount of XP awarded using it.

GLOBAL

Progression

  • Increased Weapon XP earn rates for both Multiplayer and Zombies.

ZOMBIES

Progression

  • Addressed an issue that was causing lower-than-targeted Weapon XP in solo matches and in later rounds.
  • Addressed an issue where the Napalm Burst Ammo Mod wasn't consistently awarding Weapon XP when equipped.

MULTIPLAYER

Maps

  • Nuketown '84
    • Closed an out-of-bounds gap that allowed players to stay alive outside of the playable space.

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: Treyarch

DOOM Eternal will release on Switch next week

Nintendo and id Software have confirmed that DOOM Eternal will be releasing on the Switch next week, December 8th to be precise. The release will come through the Nintendo eShop for now, with a physical release date yet to be confirmed. Those who purchase DOOM Eternal before December 22nd will get DOOM 64 and the Rip & Tear pack. That pack will include the DOOT Revenant Skin to use in Battlemode, Cultist Base Master Level which is a mix of the campaign level, and Throwback Shotgun Weapon Skin.

The Nintendo Switch version of DOOM Eternal will motion aiming using the gyro controls, and can be used at the same time as using the control stick. The game includes language support for English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean.

In our review for DOOM Eternal, Miguel wrote:

Doom Eternal doesn't just set the bar, it breaks it. Many of the best games of the FPS genre do what has already been done, and can do it really, really well, but Doom Eternal does what no other game has done before, crafting a fast-paced power fantasy that sets your brain cells on fire. It's an addictive exploration of the mythic Doomslayer character that delivers hours of blood-drenched fun, dozens of memorable collectibles, and a fan-pleasing story book-ended with gorgeous worlds and unforgettable music. Doom Eternal is a ripping, tearing masterpiece.
You can read the full  DOOM Eternal review here.
Source: YouTube

SoulCalibur VI's final character for Season Pass 2 is Hwang

Bandai Namco has announced that the final character for SoulCalibur VI's second season pass will be the swordsman Hwang, who has not been an official playable character since SoulCalibur III. If you do not have the season pass you will be able to buy Hwang as an individual character. He will be available from December 2nd. Hwang follows Setsuka who was released for SoulCalibur VI back in August. A trailer showing gameplay of Hwang can be viewed below.

Sword-y fighting game SoulCalibur VI launched in 2018 for PS4, Xbox One and PC, reviving the dormant sword-y fighting game series with a few tweaks and changes to its popular formula. Version 2.00 was a big overhaul of the game's balance, introducing new moves for all characters, adding new combos and ways to overcome sticky situations.

Two new battle mechanics were also added:

  • The Soul Attack, a strengthened strike that can turn the tide of a battle.
  • The Resist Impact, the ultimate defense move capable of repelling any attack including the currently unblockable ones.

In our review for SoulCalibur VI, Dom wrote:

SoulCalibur VI is a fantastic looking entry in the series, but beyond that feels like something of a missed opportunity. The core combat remains as vibrant, weighty and enjoyable as ever, but the Reversal Edge adds in an element of chance that feels at odds with what most fighting games set out to achieve. The two interminably dull story modes don't help either, with players left to rely on the the straightforward arcade and online modes for their kicks.

You can read the full SoulCalibur VI review here.

Source: Bandai Namco

No Man's Sky Next Generation Update 3.13 is out, here are the patch notes

Hello Games have released a new patch for No Man's Sky Next Gen, and that patch will roll out on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and rather oddly as it's very much last generation, Xbox One, today. Here are the patch notes.

Patch Notes
  • Fixed an issue that could cause shared bases to fail to download correctly for other players.
  • Fixed an issue that caused some NPC starships to appear overly large while playing in multiplayer.
  • Increased the quicksilver reward given for completing the daily mission at the Nexus.
  • Added an option on all platforms that allows players to customise the strength of pad rumble.
  • Added an option on PlayStation 5 that allows players to customise the strength of the trigger feedback.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause some lighting scenarios to be overly bright on next-gen consoles.
  • Fixed an issue that could caused random gaps to appear in the terrain on startup, and reduced the frequency of blocky and mismatched terrain textures generally.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause some planetary props to be invisible until looked at directly.
  • Fixed an issue that caused inconsistencies in the numbering when viewing customisation options.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause part of the tutorial to occur on an inappropriate planet.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause base parts to hover when constructed atop of decals.
  • Critical markers (such as the ship and any active missions) are not faded with distance when viewed in the Analysis Visor.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause some photography missions to fail to recognise when players were on the correct planet.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause camera shake to persist after warping.
  • Fixed an issue that caused fireworks not to detonate correctly.
  • Fixed a rare issue that could prevent the tutorial from working correctly if players started on volcanic biomes.
  • Fixed a number of issues with overly-loud base props.
  • Fixed a number of issues with photo mode on PlayStation 5.
  • Fixed a number of text and display issues with PlayStation 5 activities.
  • Fixed an issue that could occasionally cause incorrect differences in rock distribution between Ultra and other planetary quality settings.
  • Fixed an issue that caused the atmosphere on some weird planets to be overly dusty.
  • Fixed an issue affecting the placement of props on the terrain.
  • Introduced a performance optimisation related to moving foliage.
  • Introduced a small optimisation to terrain rendering.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash when transferring items to/from other players on Xbox.
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when predatory creatures bite something.
  • Fixed a rare crash that could be caused when entering the galaxy map with a large number of active missions.
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when landing on a derelict freighter in multiplayer.
  • Fixed a rare crash that could occur on projectile impacts.
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when scanning.
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when using weapons with non-standard muzzle flash colours.
  • Fixed a number of memory-related crashes.
  • Fixed a rare crash that could occur when getting in the starship.

Source: NoMansSky.com

Final Fantasy XIV Patch 5.4 release date confirmed, titled "Futures Rewritten"

Square Enix have announced the release date for the upcoming Final Fantasy Patch 5.4, dubbed "Futures Rewritten".

This newest update for the popular Final Fantasy MMO will be dropping next week on December 8th, 2020 and, like the many patches before it, wheels out plenty of new content for fans to play through together.

As expected, Final Fantasy Patch 5.4 introduces new story quests as well as additional content in the forms of a new raid, dungeon, trials, and much more. You can catch a more detailed list of what's being added below.

Final Fantasy XIV Patch 5.4 Futures Rewritten Content

  • Main Scenario Quests
  • Eden's Promise Raids
  • New Dungeon – Matoya's Relict
  • Chronicles of a New Era – The Sorrow of Werlyt
  • New Trial – Castrum Marinum
  • Save the Queen – Past to Rest
  • New Large-scale Battle – Delubrum Reginae
  • Blue Mage Update
  • Ishgardian Restoration Updates
  • New Unreal Trial
  • Skysteel Tool Update
  • Treasure Hunt Update
  • Ocean Fishing Update
  • Triple Triad Update
  • Doman Mahjong Update
  • Explorer Mode
  • Performance Update
  • New Game+ Update

Of course, there will be plenty of smaller updates worked into this latest FF14 update. Expect Square Enix to post a comprehensive breakdown in their patch notes on December 8th.

Final Fantasy XIV Patch 5.4 will take players into 2021 where they can expect more announcements. Fans won't have to wait long for a major announcement it seems…

Whatever these "cool things" Square has planned for their February reveal are, it won't stop the Final Fantasy XIV community from furiously speculating over the game's rumoured fourth expansion.

Square have delivered a new expansion every two years since the game's launch with Heavensward in 2015, Stormblood in 2017, and Shadowbringers in 2019.

Source: Final Fantasy XIV

Immortals Fenyx Rising Review

Let us get the obvious out of the way: Immortals Fenyx Rising has some similarities to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You can climb almost every surface and you have wings to glide on, both of which use stamina, there are vaults in place of shrines, and there are a lot of puzzles to solve out in the wild. However, Immortals: Fenyx Rising is a much more focused experience that uses its base of Greek mythology to present a fun and at times humourous experience.

The tale of Fenyx begins as he or she is washed upon the Golden Isle, which was by the legendary inventor Daedalus as a home for the Greek gods, demigods, and some humans. It is not a good time to be visiting though, as Typhon, the son of the titan Gaea who was imprisoned by Zeus, has escaped and is out to take his revenge. His invasion of the Golden Isle has seen the gods Athena, Ares, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus being overpowered to the point that Zeus turns to Prometheus for help. The entire story is narrated by Prometheus with Zeus chipping in, and this narrator relationship offers some good humour while giving a crash course in Greek mythology.

The Golden Isle is split into different regions, each the domain of one of the gods. Fenyx must find the essence of the fallen gods and restore them back to power. The regions cover different biomes, from lush grasslands to arid desert and cold mountainous climes. While these areas look quite large, the map is not so big that travelling around it becomes overwhelming, and this is helped in part with the amount of content there is to discover.

Much like Ubisoft's other open world games there are a lot of side content to tackle if you fancy taking a break from the main path of the story. A plethora of Vaults transport Fenyx to Tartaros to solve puzzles and fight enemies, the rewards for doing so typically being weapon or armour skins, and a bolt of Zeus' lightning. Along with Ambrosia found in the world you can use these resources to improve Fenyx's health and stamina. The difficulty of each vault is rated out of three, and vary in length. Some can be tackled in a few minutes while others will take much longer due to the multi-faceted aspect of them. The puzzles themselves vary between moving balls to sockets, stacking weights, killing enemies, and tracing a path using arrows.

Outside of the Vaults there are heroic challenges such as Odysseus's arrow challenges where you have to thread arrows through an obstacle course, or navigation challenges to tackle within a time limit. There are also a number of treasures to simply find though exploring. Some will be sitting in the world, others will be guarded by monsters, and others will require puzzles to be completed to grab them. Not to mention you can tame mounts across the world, allowing you to traverse the ground faster.

A big part of Immortals Fenyx Rising is the combat. Early on in the game it can be a challenge as Fenyx is weak and does not have a lot of stamina to fight, but as you unlocks godly powers and abilities are upgraded the combat becomes much more satisfying. Soon enough you will be dodging enemy swipes, performing hits in the air, and stringing together lengthy combos.

You need to keep an eye on your stamina, with godly powers consuming a lot of it, but certain armours will grant stamina and health bonuses, while others will make attacks more powerful. As you gather resources in the world you will also be able to upgrade the power of Fenyx's sword, axe, and bow as well as their armour.

You have some decent customisation options for Fenyx from the basics of skin and hair colour/styles, tattoos, choosing their gender, and whether their voice is masculine or feminine. If you can get bored of how your character looks, you can also change their appearance at any time after the prologue mission.

Immortals Fenyx Rising was not without issue while playing on Xbox Series X. There were a few occasions where the game would freeze, most notably during a cutscene when trying to upgrade my potion capacity. This forced me to restart the game, but Ubisoft will doubtless patch the game to address niggling issues. A bigger problem is that some of the vaults and pacing toward the end of the game feels drawn out. The last vault slowed things down so much, when all you want to do at that point is to get to the final boss battle.

Interview: Jeffrey Yohalem discusses the myths and comedy that made Immortals Fenyx Rising

What would modern media be like without the Greek Myths? It would be whole lot less fun, that's for certain. From Children's books, to TV shows, films and video games, the media we consume is inundated with the distinctive presence of these larger than life mythological personalities.

Indeed, the (mis)adventures of Zeus, Hera, Poseidon et al. have been told and retold in our cultural stories for millennia. Just in the last five years alone we've seen numerous reimagining's of Ancient Greek mythology in the video game world – which leads to a question, is a fresh take on the myths even possible? Ubisoft Quebec seem to think so and have put their money where there mouth is, creating Immortals Fenyx Rising, a comedic action adventure cram packed with Greek Mythology.

With the game out later this week – and our Immortals Fenyx Rising review is live right here – it's a perfect time to chat with the the narrative director and lead writer on the project, Jeffrey Yohalem. We talk all things mythological, but first, that fresh take, is it possible? How do you make something so old, new? Especially when so many people have been there and told the story before you?

"I knew what other people had done," Jeffrey told me. "I think I probably consciously didn't want to do what they had done, but also the lens that I had chosen to examine this all through was humour. I already knew that was a pretty fresh take. Taking the myths and looking at them through the lens of something like 'Robin Hood Men in Tights', 'Princess Bride' or 'Naked Gun', I felt like that was new." Well, Jeffrey, you just listed three of my favourite comedies of all time there – if you had my curiosity before, now you really have my attention.

For those who've already played the demo of Immortals Fenyx Rising on Google Stadia, I'm sure you've come away pleasantly surprised with just how funny the game is. Genuinely laugh-out-loud funny. A feat in and of itself, even more impressive when you consider that humour and action adventure games rarely go hand in hand. Key to the appeal are the divine double-act of Zeus and Prometheus. Ostensibly the narrators, these two bickering gods are much more than that. They bring plentiful silliness, occasional slapstick, big chuckles and an improvisational lightness of touch that feels remarkably original.

"They feel like the original odd couple" Jeffrey explained, "they were cousins and Prometheus fought beside Zeus in the war against the Titans and then Prometheus goes off and steals fire for the humans and Zeus was very unhappy with that. So he has Prometheus chained to the mountain and has this eagle pecking his liver for all eternity. Now Zeus needs Prometheus' help after doing that to him. They have this old friendship which has really soured and now they need to work together. The comedy of that forced relationship really propels you through the open world."

It really does. Zeus, in particular, appears to be making up the story as he goes along, adding extra events to heighten the drama or lobbing different beasties into the fray, seemingly just for the sheer hell of it. I wondered, was this freestyling plot a nod to the original myths primarily being of an oratory tradition?

"Yeah, it's both that" Jeffrey replied, "and also that in a game a lot of times the main character talks to themselves, which is a little awkward. Here you have two characters commenting on everything the player does. You basically have these interactive narrators following you around and cracking jokes about what you're doing, and that felt very good.

"Also, as you said, the oral tradition, the idea here is that the story of Fenyx is contained in a lost poem, which told the story of the battle between the Titans and Zeus. That would have been a spoken poem, but we don't know what the contents of it were as they've been lost to time."

This seems a wonderful idea. No longer do I need to listen to my player character banging on about how "I can't carry any more". It drives me crazy. You're already carrying enough weapons to arm a small country and so much ammo that you could build a staircase to the moon with it, what difference are two glass jars going to make?

"I got to do jokes about those moments too" said Jeffrey, who had interrupted my inner monologue, but let's not be too harsh – my ranting really wasn't going anywhere. "It's a lot of fun to examine video games from the perspective of the Ancient Greek gods. That kind of anachronism was fun."

Okay, so we've got humour and we've got a pair of bickering narrators doing their best to emulate the leads in a buddy cop movie. Were there any issues with, when it came to making these character likeable, the fact that both the gods and heroes of Greek mythology could be so thoroughly unlikeable? When a supposed paragon of heroism like the legendary Theseus also enjoyed dabbling in a spot of kidnapping, are you going to have trouble getting the audience on their side? Is the answer just to hide those negative traits and behaviours?

"No, quite the opposite" Jeffrey suggested. "I feel like a lot of modern retellings just brush the more problematic aspects of mythology or the most twisted behaviour of the gods under the rug. Because this is a comedy I wanted to bring those elements to the forefront and examine them from a modern perspective. I felt that all of these things that were problems in fact speak to our current political climate and who we are as human beings on social media.

"Right now our heroes are being shown on camera all the time. We see them being selfish, we see them being clumsy falling down stairs, we see them making all kinds of mistakes. At the same time everyone is under such pressure to curate their Instagram story to have the perfect relationship, the perfect food, the perfect house, there's all this pressure to be perfect, but it's also increasingly impossible to be perfect."

Jeffrey continued, "I feel like mythology is the perfect lens to examine that. The Greek's believed in balance where what makes us human and makes us complete are both our strengths and weaknesses."

And what do these unpalatable aspects of Greek Mythology tell us about the past? That the denizens of Athens were a bit pervy perhaps? "The funny thing is that most of the incredibly weird gratuitous stuff is Roman. A lot of the incest, a lot of the rape, is from Roman additions to the material. Nowadays you'd look at the Roman's views of sexuality and violence as pretty unhealty, whereas the Greeks were more balanced and healthy."

So, what have the Romans ever done for us? Made teaching mythology in Primary Schools much more difficult than it would otherwise have been, it seems.

I thought I'd best wrap things up and that led me to my final question for Jeffrey. The original Greek myths are the primary source for the inspiration behind Immortals Fenyx Rising, that means the storylines that infuse the game are over two millennia old. Did Jeffrey ever have any concerns that these stories would no longer be relevant to a modern audience? Was there a need to freshen the stories up and significantly change them?

"No, the humour is sort of modern but again it's all based on stuff that's there in the original myths. A lot of it is just bringing to the forefront some ideas or concepts that were present in the myths but that a lot of very serous mythological work tries to paper over because it doesn't fit with modern sensibilities. When you really look at the content of these stories, what happened in them, the reactions, there's all this comedic gold in there. When you do a comedy you can examine all that, rather than just adhere to it mindlessly. I think the texts were rich with the opportunities to talk about the failure of human beings and the weirdness about our behaviour in the past and the present." What could be more relevant than that?

Thank you to Jeffrey for taking the time out to talk with us during the Immortals Fenyx Rising Virtual Press Event – you can also catch our Immortals Fenyx Rising review. Immortals Fenyx Rising will be released on December 3rd for Stadia, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. So, everything basically!

Empire of Sin Review in Progress

Technically speaking, Empire of Sin is currently a bit of a mess, but like a chalk outline in a cordoned-off crime scene, it's the sort of mess that's very difficult to tear yourself away from. Part Crusader Kings grand strategy, part XCOM, part RPG, no-one could accuse this Prohibition-era empire sim of not stacking the chips high when it comes to creativity, raw ambition, and a real love for systemic gameplay. I just can't help feeling Romero Games have poured out a glass of hooch before it's fully fermented.

I've spent around 17 hours with the game on standard difficulty, and during that time, some incredible highlights have been dulled by a nagging feeling that things aren't quite working as intended. Rivals frequently make stupid combat descisions, so a lot of fights effectively play themselves, while the nemesis-style character interactions the game is capable of occur rarely and sporadically. Enemy factions are too passive, not expanding aggressively, or even making use of many of the game's (admirably extensive) diplomacy features.

Bumping the difficulty up to hard certainly improves the feel of the AI – strategy veterans should definitely lean toward a higher difficulty – but encountering several broken quests has me believing the problems aren't simply down to the AI on standard difficulty and are, at least in part, technical.

A few crashes I can let slip, but I've played more than one quest that forced me to load an old save and make different story choices because the other route is broken and stops me progressing. It leaves a sour taste, like someone took a wee in my whiskey stills.

One quest shut down all my breweries for a month for narrative reasons, but then wouldn't let me open them again once I'd finished, effectively crashing my economy. Throw lost progress from corrupted autosaves, crashes, and animation quirks into the brew, and I was thinking of going teetotal.

There's a few real issues that feel like very deliberate design decisions, too. The lack of a Total War style combat auto-resolve – a fairly standard strategy feature for strategy hybrids such as this – means a lot of time is spent fighting simple, grindy battles when you're mopping up after a war with a rival gang. Being able to pause and warp around instantly to anywhere on the map also makes ambushing foes far too easy, and makes upgrading racket defence feel a little pointless. There's no way to speed up time, either, leading to periods of thumb twiddling, baseball bat polishing nothingness.

This all stings like salt in a switchblade slash, because when Empire of Sin works, it really does feel like it has the makings of a classic. The voice acting, ambience, moody streets, writing, and the soundtrack are all phenomenal. The more difficult fights are also incredibly engaging, especially when the unique traits of your recruited mobsters start popping off in unexpected ways.

The ambient character interactions are great, too. Crew members will refuse to target friends and loved ones if you happen to end up fighting them, they'll fall in and out of love and get jealous, they'll sometimes rebel if you don't promote them enough. There are personal quests, story quests, and ambient quests, often filling up the space between the strategy meta-game. There's some dynamite design here, it just feels like most of the shipment got damp somewhere in storage. It feels muzzled, uneven, and generally like it's not quite working as it was designed to.

But hey, first you get the money, then you get the power, then you release like, ten patches and a couple of DLCs to get the game where it should be, as the cynical mantra surrounding unpolished games goes. And here's the thing: I'm not just eager for things to get fixed so I know whether to recommend the game, I'm eager for the game to get patched because I'm excited to play a lot more of it. That has to mean something.

I've been playing with the 'Day One' patch installed on PC – due to certification, this will released as a 'Day Seven' patch on 9th December for PS4 and Xbox One, and on 15th December on Switch – but the next update  is expected in January to bundle in fixes for known issues and tweaks for those highlighted through player feedback.

If you take one thing away from this review in progress, it's that you might want to treat Empire of Sin like you would an early access title for now. Everyone's got their own personal tolerance for bugs, just as everyone has their own personal tolerance for bathtub-brewed moonshine. There's definitely a good time to be had in Chicago's foggy, bloody, liquor-drenched streets, but there are big, noticeable, sort of heartbreaking flaws here as well.

Pop back soon for a full review, capiche?

BBC's Watchdog is investigating Amazon's disappeared PS5 deliveries

While the vast majority of PS5 deliveries will have likely arrived as intended on the console's UK launch on 19th November, the internet was flooded with reports of Amazon deliveries not arriving as intended. Some consoles were seemingly swapped out for other goods, ranging from cat litter through to kitchen appliances, while others were simply marked as delivered when they hadn't been.

Now BBC's consumer affairs show Watchdog TV show is investigating the matter, as discussed in a pun-laden segment on The One Show last week. Presenter Matt Allwright, who's also known for Rogue Traders, Fake Britain and other consumer-focussed shows, joked about some of the items that people had received instead of their consoles, before ending with a call for people to get in touch at watchdog@bbc.co.uk

In the wake of numerous accusations of disappearing or swapped PS5s, Amazon promised to "put it right" for their customers.

In response to the claims, Amazon issued a statement to VGC saying, "We're all about making our customers happy, and that hasn't happened for a small proportion of these orders. We're really sorry about that and are investigating exactly what's happened. We're reaching out to every customer who's had a problem and made us aware so we can put it right. Anyone who has had an issue with any order can contact our customer services team for help."

However, since then, it's seemed that "putting it right" has boiled down to offering gradually increasing gift card values depending on how much people have kicked up a fuss, but not promise to prioritise customers for new stock that is coming in. Some missed deliveries have been resolved, with our writer Nic B seeing his console labelled as "handed to resident" on the 19th, and then showing up several days later.

Others haven't been as lucky, or have had to push Amazon into a proper response. When confronted with definitive proof of a delivery driver's skullduggery, the parent of an expecting child having to drive to the Amazon depot and speak to the manager, a driver was fired by the company. One driver.

The whole matter puts the reputation of Amazon's delivery network at stake – in fairness, their reputation is predominately for working their employees to the extreme while paying them as little as possible – with the allegations suggesting issues that run through Amazon's supply chain, both within their warehouses where items are picked and with their network of delivery drivers.

Source: The One Show via VGC 

Why Yakuza: Like a Dragon's English dub is such a triumph for the series

As a fan of Japanese games, one of the first things I'll always do first is go into the settings and switch the audio to Japanese, or sigh with dismay when I discover that there's only English audio available. Listening to the original language has always been important for immersing me in a story, especially when it's a game as Japanese as the Yakuza series.

I'm especially reminded of the early days of voice overs in games. For Western audiences, the dodgy dubs of Hong Kong martial arts films or Japanese RPGs, might have given these exotic products a hilarious endearing quality. As an Asian person myself, I end up feeling even more embarrassed having these botched recordings trampling over any intended pathos especially at a time games were getting more realistic.

So it's been a huge surprise that for Yakuza: Like a Dragon, I decided to take a leap in with the English audio, which has completely changed my mind on the matter. Atlus' job on localisation has been among some of the best in the industry but this really is their masterpiece, not just with the text but bringing it to life in one of the best dubs I've ever experienced in any medium.

Of course, Sega also did a great job with last year's Judgment which could be considered a test run, since it was a spin-off that introduced completely new characters but still in the Yakuza universe. This was also following the soft reboot of the series, since Yakuza 0 and the Kiwami remakes that were responsible for giving a previously niche series much wider attention to Western audiences. Back then, I had asked Yakuza's localisation producer Scott Strichart some questions about the decision to dub Judgment in order to reach an even wider audience.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon Guide – Find collectables, unlock job skills, and get quick XP

"I don't think a lot of our core fanbase really realizes how many people pass on playing Yakuza because they have to read subtitles," he says. "That's not a slight against anyone, it's just how they play, whether that's because they're balancing other tasks while they play video games or they're the type that just wants to be able to get up and get a snack during a cutscene, you know?"

Audience exposure to foreign language media has also improved tremendously over the past decade, especially with platforms like Netflix, but Strichart still believes there's a huge gulf when expecting any media in a foreign language to truly permeate an English-speaking culture. And when the latest Yakuza game is actively going up against holiday blockbusters like Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, it has to step up if it wants to be more than just the dark horse cult title.

What the dub gets right immediately is the lip sync, either by ensuring the lines and the experienced voice over cast's delivery matches the Japanese during pre-rendered cutscenes or by having the developers re-animate lip flaps for the English audio. When these games luxuriate in lengthy dramatic cutscenes with huge close-ups, that detail matters, and the excellent results here make a mockery of the so-called authentic 'Kurosawa mode' in Ghost of Tsushima.

There's also of course the incredible cast themselves, some which you might recognise from plenty of other Atlus releases but working at the top of their game. The Yakuza games are often highlighted for their absurd moments but that also risks giving a very narrow backward take of 'weird Japan' when the reality is they've always struck a balance between surreal silliness and heavy melodrama. This dub captures these tones faithfully, making you laugh out loud during its comical moments and at the brink of tears when Ichiban's completely overwhelmed with passion and emotion.

Part of that faithfulness could also be attributed to some appropriate casting for its major roles, even if that's not usually expected for a dub, where you're already replacing audio from another language in the first place. Yet Yakuza is also grounded in realism unlike say an anime production, so I think it's significant that quite a few of the lead roles in Like a Dragon are played by Asian actors, including Kaiji Tang in the starring role, Greg Chun (Judgment), Will Yun Lee (Sleeping Dogs), as well as the legendary George Takei, who brings a real gravitas to patriarch Masumi Arakwa, one of the most fascinating antagonists in the series' history. Kudos to Sega for giving these talented actors the spotlight during the game's promotion worthy of any Nolan North or Troy Baker.

I also have to commend them for going the extra mile and actually translating the karaoke songs into English. Those who played the recent Yakuza remasters will have seen the option to play these mini-games with translated lyrics already but to have its cast also belt out these tunes in English is quite another level.

More importantly is that, regardless of your view on subtitles or dubs, you have the choice to pick whichever you prefer. Having dual audio has thankfully been more common in all of Sega and Atlus' games, especially as storage limits are no longer a concern. Diehard fans who want the original audio don't have to feel short-changed with being forced to only have English, whereas those who don't want to have to read subtitles also don't have to just make do with a poor quality dub. Fans of subs are even better catered to since there are also two English subtitles, one for the English audio, while another more accurately translates the original Japanese.

Naturally, the next hurdle is whether Sega can aim to have the localisation done in conjunction with development so that we get to a point where future Yakuza games have a simultaneous release, which Strichart has stated is a goal from an interview in Inverse. On the other hand, I also wonder whether they might also have an opportunity to look back.

I actually went back to play the original PS2 game this year, and quite honestly, the dub wasn't half bad. Voice-acting has certainly improved a great deal since then but if you were to compare it to say Shenmue, it's a damn sight better. If Sega want the series to reach a wider audience, as well as putting Yakuza 0, Kiwami and Kiwami 2 on Game Pass, perhaps the next step would be to patch in an English dub for these games too. Doing this retrospectively is arguably too costly, though for anyone who's finished the latest game, getting the cast for it isn't out of question either. It's something I would have balked at in the past, but based on the standard achieved in Like a Dragon's localisation, my ears are open at such a prospect.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon Guides & more from TheSixthAxis

PlayStation Store End of Year deals start with up to 70% off Death Stranding, Assassin's Creed, God of War & much more

Sony have kicked off a set of 'End of Year' deals on the PlayStation Store, offering up to 70% off a wide range of games available digitally.

Despite the successful launch of the PlayStation 5, major exclusives like The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima and circumstance leading to a boom in engagement with the PlayStation brand and platforms in general, Sony seem to be pretty keen to wave goodbye to 2020. They've gone straight from Black Friday to the 'End of Year' sale, seemingly skipping past previous promotions like 12 Deals of Christmas to just get on with it.

It's worth noting that the Black Friday sale is still on, and ends today on 30th November. It includes 2020 PlayStation 4 blockbusters The Last of Us Part II for £31.34 and Ghost of Tsushima for £39.04, or there's Star Wars Squadrons for £21.69, Resident Evil 3 Remake for just £16.49, and so, so much more. There's a few games in there with free PS5 upgrades as well, including Watch Dogs Legion, No Man's Sky, FIFA 21, WRC 9 and Borderlands 3.

For the End of Year sale there's plenty of big games on offer, which you can browse on the PlayStation Store. We don't have a full list, but here's what Sony have featured on the first page of the store and some highlights from beyond:

  • Death Stranding – £15.99 (71%)
  • God of War Digital Deluxe Edition – £15.99 (36%)
  • Ratchet & Clank – £7.99 (50%)
  • Dead by Daylight: Special Edition (PS4 & PS5) – £9.99 (60%)
  • Assassin's Creed Origins – £10.99 (78%)
  • Red Dead Redemption 2: Special Edition – £26.24 (65%)
  • Mortal Kombat X – £7.99 (50%)
  • Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty: Complete Edition – $5.09 (70%)
  • Assassin's Creed Odyssey – £15.39 (72%)
  • House Flipper – £12.99 (35%)
  • Monster Hunter World – £11.99 (25%)
  • Monster Hunter World: Iceborne – £16.74 (33%)
  • F1 2019 – £8.99 (80%)
  • Dark Souls III Deluxe Edition – £13.74 (75%)
  • Uncharted: The Lose Legacy – £7.99 (50%)
  • The Crew 2 Deluxe Edition – £11.99 (75%)
  • Resident Evil 2 Deluxe Edition – £17.99 (60%)
  • Alien Isolation – The Collection – £9.59 (80%)
  • Need for Speed – £3.99 (75%)
  • Divinity: Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition – £19.99 (60%)
  • Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 – £7.99 (50%)
  • WWE 2K Battlegrounds Digital Deluxe Edition – £24.74 (45%)
  • Far Cry 4 Gold Edition – £13.49 (70%)
  • Metro Exodus Gold Edition – £18.54 (65%)
  • MediEvil – £12.49 (50%)
  • The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan – £8.99 (64%)
  • Need for Speed Rivals – £2.71 (83%)
  • Need for Speed Payback – £7.49 (70%)
  • Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition – £3.74 (85%)
  • Dragon Ball FighterZ – £7.67 (84%)
  • LA Noire – £17.49 (50%)
  • Bloodborne – £10.39 (35%)
  • Predator: Hunting Grounds Digital Deluxe Edition – £29.99 (40%)
  • The Surge 1 & 2 Dual Pack – £16.99 (66%)
  • Dirt Rally + PSVR Bundle – £4.99 (80%)
  • Doom VFR – £9.99 (50%)
  • Peaky Blinders: Mastermind – £7.99
  • Shenmue III: Digital Deluxe Edition – £20.99 (70%)
  • Valkyria Chronicles Remastered – £4.79 (70%)
  • Ticket To Ride – £5.59 (65%)
  • Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition – £2.39 (85%)
  • Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered – £8.99 (78%)
  • Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration – £4.99 (80%)

Source: PS Store

Shut In Review

There's an unwritten rule here at TheSixthAxis that unnecessary mentions of the whole pandemic situation will be mercilessly cut from reviews by our erstwhile editor. With Shut In, however, the experience of playing is so inextricably tied up with whole notion of lockdown that I hope to get a free pass for this article. [I'll allow it – Ed.]

Shut In has a more internalised focus than a government's imposition of lockdown, as it is mainly concerned with the effect of serious mental health conditions on your character's ability to actually leave his house. The game's release is a billed as a deliberate imaginative attempt to engage with Covid-19 which offers the potential for a huge potential audience. The bleak and dark nature of the game's humour, however, perhaps means that it will remain a more niche title.

This is a totally lo-fi experience. The graphics are deliberately simplistic and pixel-based. The sharp edges and relative lack of refinement and clarity work well to represent the way in which your character views the world. Everything looks normal enough, but the visuals are indistinct enough to give your surroundings a necessary sense of unease and claustrophobia. This makes Shut In a rare case where the aesthetics are key to the gameplay rather than a display of faux nostalgia.

The game is essentially an old school point and click adventure, albeit with a controller friendly approach. Finding items and using them in the correct room allows you to progress, but there are a huge number of tricks and traps that will swiftly show you the Game Over screen. Even horrible death isn't an escape, though, as you always wake up the next day to try and probably fail again. This seemingly unending cycle of entrapment and failure speaks both to the lockdown experience and more specifically to the nature of depression and anxiety. As a sufferer of these conditions myself, I recognised the symptoms being played with, although they are taken to their logical extremes here.

Your opening tasks are eerily reminiscent of the way that these conditions can make you feel. Simply getting dressed, washing, and cleaning your teeth are things that should be practically automatic, but when your brain chemicals are misfiring they can become the equivalent of gaming achievements – chores that occupy your whole being and genuinely feel like they are too much to cope with. In Shut In these simple tasks are made difficult by the surreal behaviour of your house, a location which feels like an antagonist at times, and the immediacy of horrible death. When the game asks you if you want to just stay in bed, it really can feel like the best option.

As is usually the case for this kind of adventure game, a large proportion of the puzzles are relatively trial and error in nature as they rely on you scouring the screen for interactive objects and areas before then working out which item to use. Getting a puzzle wrong usually results in a witty line of dialogue in this genre, but with this game any mistake is fatal – what constitutes a mistake may not always be that obvious.

Many of the puzzles depend on the game blurring reality and hallucination. Doors disappear or are replaced with chalk outlines, everyday objects become deathtraps, and even kitchen cupboards can become portals to alternative versions of your home. The oppressive and claustrophobic effect of this is hugely effective, whilst also suiting the small size of the game's environment. This intense location is surprisingly packed with things to do, with many interactions being missable in a successful playthrough. This offers some welcome replayability, but the resonance of the themes with my own conditions mean that I have not ventured back.

Where the game becomes more of a tough sell, though, is through the level of dark humour it uses. This mostly takes the form of the narrative text delighting in tormenting your character or relishing your failure. I accept that this works as a metaphor for the interior voice that so often manifests as one's struggles with mental health issues, but it does come awfully close to outright ridicule at times. This isn't necessarily a deal-breaker, but it's worth bearing in mind if you come to the game expecting a sympathetic treatment. I think the idea is to make day to day activities feel like a challenge – living with mental illness is the Dark Souls of lives – but at times the separation between the narrative voice and the game was unclear.

Epic are giving away this all-time indie classic next week

It doesn't matter that Christmas is just around the corner, Epic always seem to be in the giving mood. Next Thursday the Fortnite creators will be adding one of the greatest indie classics of all time to their extensive catalogue of free games.

Cave Story+ is an amped up version of the brilliant 2004 original which was developed by Daisuke Amaya. With enhanced HD visuals and extra content, Cave Story is one game retro/indie fans will want to add to their Epic Games library.

Whenever discussing Cave Story, it's always worth mentioning the controversy surrounding Nicalis who are responsible for its more modern iterations. They have been dogged in shutting down Cave Story fan projects despite the original game (and its assets) being completely free for the indie community.

This week we saw MudRunner added to the Epic Games Store. This popular truck simulator is a precursor to one of our favourite games of 2020, Snowrunner, tasking players with rescues and deliveries while combating rough terrain.

Below we've published the full list of Epic free games, complete with their availability dates and review links.

Epic Games store free games list

Game Name Dates Available
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, Rogue Company, and more.

Source: Epic Games

SaGa Frontier Remastered announced for PS4, Switch, PC and mobile

Square Enix has dropped a surprise announcement today by revealing SaGa Frontier Remastered, a remaster of the original 1998 PlayStation title. The game will be released on PS4, Switch, PC via Steam, Android, and iOS. The target release window is Summer 2021. The remaster will allow players to play as Fuse who becomes a playable character. SaGa Frontier Remastered will expand on the original game too with more features and events to experience.

With the Free-Form Scenario System players can choose to play as any of the eight characters, with each one having their own story and aims. That means there will be plenty of replay options to discover the story of each character. The SaGa series span off from the Final Fantasy series. SaGa Frontier was the first of the SaGa games to be released outside of Japan, followed by SaGa Frontier 2 a couple of years later. There were a few other new SaGa games released in the early 2000's. SaGa: Scarlet Grace was then the new entry a decade later releasing in 2016 for Vita. The Romancing SaGa games have been remastered over the last few years and released worldwide too.

Source: YouTube

Something for the Weekend – 28/11/20

As England enters its last weekend of lockdown (but not really), there's plenty to get up to this weekend while remaining safely inside. From Formula 1 to Rugby, there's loads of sport to watch on TV, but who could forget about the new consoles that are providing us with some great games to enjoy? Oh, and maybe you're doing some bargain hunting online?

Let me know what you're planning to get up to below, but not before we take a glance at the past seven days on TSA:

In the News This Week

And are you wondering what freebies you can grab with your online subs next week?

Games in Review

Here's what was in our review list this week:

And we had one hardware review for our readers looking for a new controller, plus something a little different:

Featured Articles

From our features, Reuben explored why it's time for The Legend of Zelda to give us a Female Link, while Jim asked, which Call of Duty is better between Cold War and Modern Warfare?

Elsewhere, Mahin turned their attention to R.U.S.E, the real-time strategy game, and spoke to three players about what still brings them back to the game a decade on from launch.

Finally, What We Played was packed full, and included Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Demon's Souls & COD Black Ops Cold War.

Trailer Park

Cyberpunk 2077 PS4 Pro and PS5 gameplay revealed

Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 4 is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X & everything else

Rainbow Six Siege next-gen trailers confirms PS5 Xbox Series X|S release date

Red Dead Online standalone edition announced

Your Achievements

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

  • Crazy_Del's 500th Platinum, and first on PS5 was Miles Morales. That was swiftly followed by Astro's Playroom, MK11, Spiderman Remastered, Cencept Destruction, Watchdogs Legion, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Seven Platinum's in a week has to be a record!
  • willbuchanan has been playing more Far Cry 5, and also found someone to help mop up the multiplayer trophies.
  • Andrewww called AstroBot "truly excellent", and is looking forward to returning to Demon's Souls.

Have a good weekend and I'll see you again soon!

What We Played #477 – Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Demon's Souls & COD Black Ops Cold War

It feels like everyone is ploughing through the new-gen releases this week, as more and more people I know have popped the Astro's Playroom platinum, and seen off the Miles Morales story. I've been too busy to play all that much this week, but I did clear every artefact and find every jigsaw piece in Astro so I don't have too far to go there. Otherwise I've played some Sackboy with my sons, and they – and I – love it. It's been a nice and chilled game to get together and play, and the music is fantastic!

Steve was the first to drop in this week, and he's had a quieter one too, having been on the 'GaaS' grind of grading/marking papers taking precedent. "I've managed a couple of hours of the intense Visage – review to come – which is a genuine nerve-shredder. Also put a lot of commuting time into Wordament on Android and, despite the cool games I really want to play on Switch, working through the nostalgically retro Goblin's Sword. Hoping to get stuck into Twin Mirror later after the last batch of papers."

Meanwhile, Reuben has been having a great one, tucking into the usual suspects of Final Fantasy XIV and Hades, alongside Miles Morales, finishing Astro's Playroom, ploughing through more of Tears of Avia (review incoming), and getting all emotional over Ori and the Will of the Wisps (as you will too when you play it).

Jason has been playing some Rocket League for a change of pace and has achieved Diamond rank in 3s now, saying it's "a big old step up from my peak of Silver last season. Other than that I've been playing some stuff I'm not allowed to talk about. Exciting."

After his launch day woes with Amazon, Nic B's PS5 miraculously turned up letting him smash through Astro to start the week, "which is fantastic." He then picked up Miles Morales and still had time for the odd game of Magic. Aran is reviewing Immortals Fenyx Rising, but that's all we can tell you for now.

Jim has mostly been playing Demon's Souls this week, "slowly chipping away as I improve my character build and fell one boss at a time. It's a phenomenally obtuse RPG and I'd be very interested to know how it's done – sales wise – considering how it's not very casual friendly. I've also been hopping between the superb Dirt 5 and Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. In the latter, I've gone exploring my home county of Oxfordshire for loot while crossing off even more of Valhalla's quirky side missions."

Gareth has been playing Chicken Police for review and Watch Dogs Legion of fun. "The latter is taking absolutely ages because I keep distracted by side missions and real life. Found a man holding a cone just walking around Westminster the other day, not sure what he was planning."

Miguel has been messing around a bunch in Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, saying "it's got an AMAZING story campaign but the multiplayer has been super addictive too! I've also been playing a lil Animal Crossing, some Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memories, aaand a little Noita"

And to round things out, Tuffcub has played Destiny 2 and "Hot Beardy Men Do Manly Stuff (aka Assassin's Creed Valhalla)", while Tef has been playing a bunch of things off and on, including Dirt 5, AC Valhalla, Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5 and more. He's also terraforming Mars in Per Aspera for a review next week.

Now it's your turn, what have you played?