Warhammer Vermintide 2 update 4.1 brings level and character fixes

Fatshark have launched a new title update for Warhammer: Vermintide 2, offering "a slew of fixes and a couple of tweaks".

The focus here is mainly on fixes specific issues surrounding certain character classes while patching up a handful of Vermintide 2 levels including Dark Omens, Garden of Morr, Old Haunts, and War Camp. For more details, see the patch notes below.

As Vermintide fans will know, there's typically a delay between PC and console updates. Fatshark are currently testing a new update for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One which will introduce the Outcast Engineer class.

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 Update 4.1 Patch Notes

FIXES & TWEAKS

  • Fixed the Grail Knight talent "Virtue of Knightly Temper" not giving temporary health when using "Lady's Wrath" when triggering an insta kill.

  • Fixed the Piston Power buff sticking around after swapping out the talent in the Keep.

  • Fixed a visual bug where it didn't look like players got all experience they should.

  • Fixed a visual bug where it looks like you gain extra levels quicker than you actually do.

  • Fixed the "Have at thee Varlet!" challenge not being able to be progressed without owning the Grail Knight DLC.

  • Fixed a glitch on the first frame of the Crossbow 'on-wield reload' animation.

  • Fixed an animation bug for the Repeating Handgun when reloading while firing the first quick shot.

  • Fixed an interaction between Bardin's Ale and Speed Potion's that could cause attack speed to be increased indefinitely.

  • Fixed crash on first startup for some players.

  • Fixed crash when client gets disconnected while being affected by a buff that grants invisibility.

  • Fixed Outcast Engineer's 'cranking talents' not being removed while swapping talents of the same row.

  • Fixed Grail Knight bots sometimes getting stuck in an ability stance when he tries to use it while players are disengaging from enemies.

  • Fixed some situations where the bullet trails from Outcast Engineer would originate from a fixed position in an environment and not from the player.

  • Fixed the fire rate of the Crank Gun ramping up if you quickly released the fire button on first shot and hold again.

  • Fixed the Masterwork Pistol triggering reload animations when picking up ammo.

  • Fixed the reload animation not playing if a ranged weapon is wielded with an empty clip.

  • Fixed the required number of headshots needed for Outcast Engineer's "Targeting Array" challenge. Previously this was 5 but is now 20 as intended.

  • Made Sienna's Abandon talent not be affected by damage reduction.

  • Fixed various miscellaneous crashes.

DARK OMENS

  • Fixed a spot where Bardin could space program his way out of the map.

  • Fixed an issue where players could spawn behind a point of no return.

  • We've added a failsafe so additional standard bearers will spawn if existing ones are killed before planting their banners until the requisite number of banners has been destroyed.

GARDEN OF MORR

  • Fixed a placement issue with a few enemy spawners.

  • Fixed a spot where bots had a tendency to yeet themselves off the map.

  • Fixed an out of bounds exploit.

  • Fixed so that Grandmother's Zingler's Bones is interactable in situations where it wasn't previously.

OLD HAUNTS

  • Fixed a softlock if you killed the Chaos Warrior prior to him opening the gate in the Gargoyle room. If this happens, the gates will open automatically after a short time.

  • Fixed a spot at the church where enemy pathing was squiffy.

  • Fixed a spot where bots could get stuck.

WAR CAMP

  • Added more spawners for hordes to spawn from.

  • Fixed a spot that bots would not traverse.

  • Fixed a spot that enemies would not navigate correctly.

  • Fixed a spot where players could get stuck.

  • Fixed a tent with no collision.

  • Fixed an out of bounds exploit.

  • Fixed some AI pathing issues.

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 struck true in our review, scoring an 8 out of 10. Here's what Tef had to say:

Vermintide 2's co-op battling is nice step forward over the original. It's gruelling at times, and that can sap the fun out when you're failing missions and not making progress, with the weighty combat, the additional sub-classes and a long and deep progression of difficulty and loot, there's plenty here for those that want to be in for the long haul.

We'll continue to see more Vermintide updates in future though Fatshark are now turning their focus towards the studio's upcoming game, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.

Source: Vermintide

Biomutant release set for this May across PS4, Xbox One and PC

THQ Nordic have at long last announced a hard release date for Biomutant, their long in development kung fu-infused action RPG. The game will be out for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on 25th May 2021. There's no bespoke support for next gen, it seems, but the game will obviously be supported on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S via each consoles built-in backward compatibility.

The game is an intriguing premise, set in a post-apocalyptic world where several animalistic tribes vie for supremacy as the Tree of Life starts to bleed from its roots and a plague ravages the lands. It's up to you to unite them or crush them, and you'll do so by taking your character and mutating them on the fly with attributes like Turtleform and Mucusbubble to help survive the dangers of the open world.

You will be guided through the world by a Storyteller that narrates the journey, but you will ultimately define how the story unfolds, and how you play and fight with the game's Kung Fu combat.

Announced back at Gamescom 2017 – THQ acquiring developer Experiment 101 shortly after – Biomutant has slipped off the radar several times over the three and a half years since then, briefly reappearing with some hint of news, only to disappear again for several more months or even a whole year.

It's most active year by far was 2018, with a positively energetic three gameplay videos, but then came the silence before it reemerged last June.

Three versions of the game will be available, with the standard edition accompanies by two special editions. The Atomic Edition features the game with a steelbook case, a 60x25x30cm diorama, a t-shirt, oversized 80x35cm mousepad, A1 size artwork on fabric, soundtrack and box. It will set you back an eye-watering £349.99 / €399.99.

The slightly more frugal among you might prefer the £109.99 /€119.99 Collector's Edition, which features the game, a figurine of the hero, and the same A1 artwork on fabric and soundtrack.

Source: press release

Animal Crossing: New Horizons January update adds Festivale – Super Mario event teased for March

Another free update is coming out for Animal Crossing: New Horizons on 28th January, bringing with it a bunch of new content, including the annual Festivale celebration.

Festivale takes place on 15th January, with Pavé the peacock turning up and bringing a new challenge to take on and set of rewards for you to earn.

Pavé will be boogieing away at your island's plaza come 15th January, and as with this event in previous games, will task you with running around the island and catching colourful features. You'll need to try and collect different colour features, sending Pavé into a manic dance-powered fugue state (and rewarding you with a bunch of new items to collect, including sparkly dresses and outfits, and some new bits and bobs with which to decorate your island and home.

But what's that? Another update is coming in March? And there's a Super Mario mushroom and star on the title card? It would seem that Nintendo are bringing their Mario 35th anniversary celebrations into Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Nintendo have been celebrating this anniversary since September last year, launching Mario games and holding Mario-based events up until 31st March 2021.

It's also worth remembering that March will mark the one year anniversary since Animal Crossing: New Horizons' own launch, with the game having been a simply huge escapist hit for Nintendo and the Switch during the first few months of the Covid-19 lockdowns last spring. Nintendo could easily commemorate that success on 20th March, but we'll have to wait and see what they have planned.

Source: YouTube

Animal Crossing Guides from TheSixthAxis

The Dark Pictures: Little Hope update makes it so you won't fall out of the world anymore

Several months after its release, Supermassive Games have released an update for their narrative horror game The Dark Pictures: LIttle Hope, hoping to smooth out some of the minor rough edges affecting some players.

The first official patch, it bumps the version number up to 1.04 on Steam, 1.05 on PlayStation and 1.0.05 on Xbox.

The general improvements look to improve character interactions and controls, and players with save data from Man of Medan will now have a different welcome from the Curator as well. However, the most entertaining bug fixed revolves around stopping the player from falling out of the world.

Personally, I'd have simply called that a feature, not a bug. I'm sure everyone has had a nightmare where they have the sensation of endlessly falling, so what would be more apt for a video game that seeks to tap into some of your more primal fears? Maybe Supermassive are just going to hold onto that one for a future VR project? Who knows!

Here's the full patch notes:

  • General improvements to character-object interaction
  • General improvements to character controls
  • General multiplayer stability fixes
  • Additional missing audio in localized voice-over
  • Players with a save data for Man of Medan will be welcomed differently by the Curator
  • Fixes issues where the player appears to fall out of the world

We had a great time playing through this spooky tale last year, with Tuffcub writing in out Little Hope Review:

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

Source: Bandai Namco

Scavengers Studio co-founder accused of abuse and toxicity – studio issues statement

Scavengers Studio, the company behind the now defunct battle royale Darwin Project and the upcoming PlayStatiion 5 exclusive Season, has had to respond today to allegations of abuse lodged against co-founder Simon Darveau (formerly of Spearhead Games and Ubisoft), and the toxic atmosphere enabled by co-founder Amélie Lamarche.

GamesIndustry.biz has reported on the allegations of nine current and former employees of the Montreal-based studio. A "boys' club" culture was permitted, with women saying they were degraded, infantilised and belittled by some of the male employees, including by Darveau, and sexist remarks being used to undercut their role in the studio. This included a ridiculous put down that a proposed feature to have Abby, the protagonist in Season, be able to play guitar "wasn't realistic" because it was too complicated for a woman. Whoever that was can just get in the bin.

This boiled over at a company party in January 2019, where Darveau was especially drunk and was seen inappropriately touching and groping at women employees. Two of these women left shortly afterwards, and it did prompt the studio to take action, bringing in an investigator (whose report wasn't made clear to employees), and deciding that alcohol at work events would be reduced, and Darveau would no longer be drinking at these events. He remains as co-owner and creative director at the studio, though the role of CEO has been handed to co-founder Amélie Lamarche.

In a statement to these allegations, Scavengers Studio said:

"Scavengers Studio appreciates that there have been situations during its rapid growth and takes the position that any type of harassment is unwelcomed and unacceptable and takes any complaints in this respect very seriously. You should note that Scavengers Studio has taken positive steps to look into its culture to see what aspects need to be adjusted.

"In early 2019, Simon Darveau was replaced as CEO by Lamarche who took full control of the company. As a new female CEO, Lamarche started to build a mid-management team composed of competent team members to continue to lead the company in its mission of creating new gaming experiences with very strong and innovative empathetic twists. The new management team has since then recreated a sense of calm and happiness in the workplace where talents are gathered around interesting and dynamic projects and where differences are embraced."

So let's talk about Lamarche, who is implicated through enabling this continuing toxicity. She founded the studio with Darveau, who was her romantic partner at the time. While there have been some HR hires in recent years, they have since left and Lamarche always had final say on how to deal with any issues and complaints. Obviously with many of the complaints sure to target Darveau or those he enables, there's a serious conflict of interest.

One damning quote said, "She gives this vibe of, 'I support women in games,' …but it's really not the case. There were a lot of circumstances at work where she should've said something and should've done something, like when Simon would make inappropriate jokes or yell at people, but she didn't."

Things did marginally improve following the events of early 2019, and they did put forth an anti-harassment policy – though apparently it's effectively a copy and paste of the standard Quebec government model and there's still some of the "boys' club" atmosphere that goes unchallenged.

In general there's also just plain toxicity with employees being taken into side-rooms to be shouted at (which the rest of the studio would hear), and now with working from home and conference calling the norm, shouting and arguments taking place in front of the assembled studio on the call.

As the studio has shifted focus from Darwin Project to Season, Darveau has now taken over the lead of the latter, apparently over the objections of those who laid the foundations for the project in pre-production, using the exclusivity deal struck with Sony to implement his vision for the game, and promising certain features like a larger world, quests and objective markers, which weren't in the game's design spec at the time.

"Now I don't even know what's been announced because it's so different from what we had planned," one person said. "I don't even recognize the game."

All told, it's another hugely disappointing tale to hear about a game studio where abuse and toxicity seems rife, especially when the next game their creating seems to be so very open-minded and progressive.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

Star Wars Battlefront 2 claimed more than 19 million times on Epic Store

We get it, everyone likes free stuff. Especially when that happens to be a complimentary copy of Star Wars Battlefront 2 with no strings attached (and the Celebration Edition, no less!).

Still, no one could have predicted just how many would jump on Epic's Battlefront 2 giveaway. According to the game's publisher EA, more than 19 million claimed a free copy between January 14th and January 21st.

It's a landmark feat to say the least. A month after the game's launch back in November 2017, EA reported that the sequel had sold 9 million copies, falling short of their 10 million forecast.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 Easy XP Farming Guide

Epic's seven day giveaway offered a free copy of the game to anyone via the Epic Games Store. Although 19 million is a lot of copies, we don't have exact figures to indicate Star Wars Battlefront 2's online player count and how that has been effected. That said, the influx of new players forced EA and DICE to take the game down for maintenance as they fought to increase server capacity.

Last year, Star Wars Battlefront 2 saw a major content drop with its Scarif update in April. This followed the previous Age of Rebellion update as well as cosmetic DLC for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Scarif was confirmed to be the game's final expansion. EA and DICE will continue to support the sequel through regular community events though fans shouldn't expect to see any new maps, modes, or playable characters added.

In other Star Wars gaming news, Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment (The Division) are working on Star Wars game after EA gave up exclusive rights to the license. Meanwhile, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order finally got a technical upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. We also received word of a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic sequel, too.

Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy Review

In 2019, Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout started a strong new chapter in the decades-running alchemy-themed Atelier JRPG series. A new creative team brought a fresh approach to the series, with Atelier Ryza introducing a charming new protagonist, a renewed narrative focus, and one of the most inventive RPG battle systems I've ever experienced. Atelier Ryza broke ground for the series in a lot of ways, and the changes paid off – it outsold every other entry in the series.

Typically, a new year brings us a new Atelier title with a completely different protagonist and setting that are only loosely tied to the events of the previous game. For the first time in series history, though, we've got a returning protagonist and a direct sequel in the form of this year's Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy.

A lot of what made the first Atelier Ryza so memorable was the all-too-relatable story of a group of young friends each trying to find themselves and discover their passions in life. Atelier Ryza 2 takes place three years after Ryza and her friends have wrapped up their soul-searching adventure, but this time the driving force behind Ryzas journey is just as relatable: stagnation. While most of her pals ended up leaving their small island home to pursue bigger and better things, Ryza stayed behind to continue training in alchemy. After years of the same small-town routine, though, she feels stuck. With no clear path forward, an opportunity presents itself as a local resident asks Ryza to investigate a strange gemstone that's been in his family for generations.

So Ryza sets out to the massive royal capital Ashra-am Baird to reunite with her friends and begin searching for answers to this gemstone mystery, while also grappling with how different life is in the big city. The Atelier series has often explored the idea of leaving familiar surroundings for new and incredibly unfamiliar ones, but Atelier Ryza 2 once again manages to mingle its anime fantasy story with all too realistic parallels to everyday life that make it so much more engaging. Ryza and her friends learn that money makes moves in the big city, and while a change of scenery can provide freedom and new experiences, it's also a test of who you are as a person and how you tackle being responsible for yourself for the first time ever.

Of course, mixed in with these realistic themes are the typical mystical mysteries and alchemic adventures the series is known for. Ryza and her friend Tao discover a handful of ancient ruins in the surrounding areas, with plenty of secrets to uncover within them. Hunting down these ancient mysteries is actually incorporated into the overworld exploration with a refreshing new Compass of Recollection tool. As you explore ruins, fighting enemies and gathering alchemy materials, you can also discover things like Memory Vestiges and Ruin Fragments that, when properly pieced together in your journal, will divulge information on what went down in each of these abandoned areas.

Hunting for memories adds a fresh new layer to environment exploration, but there are even more layers thanks to new environment exploration tools you can craft. Ropes that let you swing across gaps, underwater breathing devices, and even rideable creatures that let you dig for new types of materials all help Atelier Ryza 2 feel like a major step up from its predecessors. There was a taste of this in the previous game, when harvesting tools like axes and sickles allowed you to reap new types of materials from familiar harvesting spots, but hunting for ancient memories adds an archaeological spin to exploration that is so unlike anything else in the series. The new environment exploration tools help make every environment feel even more natural and fully realised.

You aren't just grabbing flowers and reading ghost diaries when you're out and about, you'll also be encountering plenty of enemies, and when you do, you're in for one of the most exciting forms of RPG combat I've ever experienced. Atelier Ryza introduced a fast and frenetic combat system that kept you on your toes at all times and things haven't changed much in the sequel.

Every character and creature in a battle acts as soon as their turn comes up in the progress bar, and as time rolls on or your team perform attacks, you accumulate AP that you can spend to dish out special attacks. You can swap between characters at will and, if you time things and save AP wisely, chain together lengthy onslaughts of attacks and abilities that leave your enemy absolutely flattened. It's not a significant change over the last game, but there are some slight improvements to how equipped items work, as well as a new system that lets you chain together special attacks if you have enough AP.

Alchemy in Atelier Ryza 2 also works similar to how it did in the previous game. Crafting a new item sees you plugging materials into a grid of connected spheres, with each sphere feeding into a certain property of the item and, if you explore far enough into the grid, unlocking new kinds of item recipes for you. There's a new skill point system that lets you spend points earned from alchemizing to unlock familiar recipes from the last game, but the recipe tree exploration will be how you unlock many new items in the end-game. For players who only engage with the alchemy moderately, it's a fluid and interesting experience, but the minor qualms and clunkiness that affected advanced alchemy from the first game persist in the sequel.

While combat and alchemy are pretty familiar and recognizable, it's worth mentioning the impressively updated visuals of Atelier Ryza 2. A lot of characters and environments, especially protagonist Ryza, sport sharper textures and softer shadows that are an impressive jump forward, even on PS4. Improved lighting effects, rippling surface water, and more environmental details add an astounding amount of depth to the experience that really stands out when you compare it to how the previous game looked. Of the many visual upgrades, the constant use of depth-of-field ends up being the only misfire – at times it adds some beauty to the scene, but it often ends up obscuring your surroundings a bit too much.

King Arthur: Knight's Tale Early Access – inventive turn-based tactics with the soul of Legacy of Kain

Are you one of the four people on the planet as ferociously invested in cult PS1 classic Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain as I? If so, I have riotous, alarming news: exploring the first few hours of King Arthur: Knight's Tale took me right back to those blocky, sprite-laden days in some very exciting ways.

There's a few immediate parallels. The isometric perspective, the dank crypts, the bloody swordplay. All superb, no doubt, but none baked my nostalgia muffins at such a scarily perfect temperature as Knight's Tale's voice acting and script. Just like Blood Omen, The tone is thick with fancy lad gloom and baroque, tights-wearing dread. Just like Blood Omen, endearing delivery and deft penmanship make it all very entertaining.

We'll start with the protagonist, Sir Mordred, whose chunky, spiked armour makes him look somewhere between a chaos space marine and a Todd McFarlane action figure. I watched the luxurious, dark fantasy intro cinematic, and I was 100% prepared for Mordred to choke a painfully edgy soliloquy out of a hideously scarred voicebox.

But no! He's well spoken and actually a bit sassy too. He calls the first enemy he meets "lad", which pleased me a great deal. He's not even particularly aggressive, just a bit sadistic and disdainful. He has a whiff of the stoic turbowanker about him, but he's eloquent about it. He's Kain, basically, but he's actually on my screen, rather than being lost to the deepest pits of development hell.

I am, admittedly, being unduly selfish with my praise here. King Arthur: Knight's Tale has more going for it than just appealing to own very specific personal nostalgia. The meat of the experience is turn-based combat which is more reminiscent of Divinity: Original Sin 2 to me. There's back stabs and opportunity attacks, armour points with squishy flesh health points underneath, and action points that can either be spent or converted for the next term. There's also a melee overwatch system which is, dare I say, neato.

It's solid enough, basically. It's made better by some Goldilocks-length attack animations that don't sacrifice any of their chunkiness either. So many turn based systems seem to overlook the importance of keeping things moving at a steady clip, and Knight's Tale really shines here. You can also fast forward through most of the animations, if you're a caffeine-addled hooligan with no appreciation for the finer things, like a big axe hitting a big man in big armour.

The game currently caps your party at level four, so even though the foundations are solid, there's no telling if and how the combat will evolve into something that stays entertaining for the long haul. We've seen games like Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle and Gears Tactics upend genre conventions in some fantastic ways, so I'm hoping the later stages of Knight's Tale throws some curve balls. You recruit a lady archer early on who looks like she's got the sort of abilities that let her chain kills together, so the foundations may well be there for some more complex action-chains later on. We'll see!

Missions themselves are CRPG-type isometric affairs where you bumble through maps, find treasure, trigger party conversations, and fight battles. Sometimes you find shrines that either help or hinder your party. There are also bonfires scattered about that restore health and armour. You can take a few healing items with you, but they're initially very limited and expensive, so managing party health over the course of an entire map is another concern.

Perhaps the aspect least explored in the current build is the town management, which lets you use the resources you get from missions to rebuild Camelot. Think Darkest Dungeon, with healers, shops, taverns and the like. There are some roguelike elements that aren't properly explained – permadeath and lack of manual save – and you seem to be able to use these buildings to heal wounded party members and recruit new ones. Again, the current build doesn't really do a great job of laying this out for you.

There's also a morality system which, at the risk of sounding like a broken record – or, uh, a ferociously mauled bard – is another victim of the vertical slice-nature of the current build. It's hard to get a real feel for how it affects things. The choices themselves seem fairly telegraphed, but there's also the option to roleplay through in-mission dialogue trees. The few decisions I made were relatively binary, but the writing seems to work hard to justify both paths, so it gets a nice biscuit anyway.

So, praise all around then, and I guess that means you should purchase it immediately, right? Well, maybe not. It took me a fair few restarts to actually make any progress, during which time I suffered a broken camera, broken progression, treasure chests not opening properly, and a few more bushels of assorted Early Access jank. When things did get going, it was generally smooth, but I can't fully recommend jumping in until the first round of big patches get rolled out. I also had some save issues, and I'm not sure how much this was down to intentional roguelike restrictions, and how much was just bugs and glitches. So, proceed with caution.

That aside though, did I mention how much King Arthur: Knight's Tale reminded me of PS1 classic Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain? Did I also mention that I love PS1 classic Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain? I might just end up loving King Arthur: Knight's Tale too.

Hitman 3 connection failed – can you play offline?

Our biggest gripe with Hitman 3 (and the reboot trilogy in general) is the need to connect to the game's online servers to access a number of key features.

During Hitman 3's launch week, players have experienced frustrating connection failed messages with servers occasionally going offline. Sadly, it's a common occurrence when it come to releasing a game that feature online multiplayer or requires an online connection.

If you've been playing Hitman 3 then there's a good chance you've been stopped in the middle of mission, an in-game notification informing you that you've been disconnected from the servers. Can you still play Hitman 3 offline? The short answer is yes, though it comes with a number of compromises. In a nutshell you can still play through every main mission though any career progress won't be saved.

Firstly, you won't receive a mission score when completing a level in Hitman. The summary screen won't display a star rating for your performance, nor will you earn any experience points.

Perhaps more crucially, playing offline will prevent you from completing challenges. This effectively stops you from gaining Mastery XP and means you won't be able to unlock new loadout options such as weapons, tools, hidden stashes, agency pickups, and starting locations.

When the Hitman 3 servers are offline, you also lose access to three of its biggest game modes. Sniper Assassin missions are unplayable, as are player-made Contracts. Although IO Interactive have yet to add any Elusive Targets to the game, these will also disappear if you encounter a connection failure.

Thankfully, going offline doesn't restrict your access to content from both Hitman and Hitman 2. You'll still be able to play any story mission and location from the trilogy (as long as you've already redeemed them in Hitman 3).

Hopefully IO Interactive will one day update Hitman 3 with a workaround though it seems unlikely for now.

Hitman 3 Guides & more from TheSixthAxis

Hitman 3 Guide – best loadout options

What makes the best in Hitman 3 loadout ultimately depends on what you are trying to achieve in a mission. Certain challenges will be much easier to complete if you bring the correct tools for the job with some gear/weapon combos being ideal for speed runs or attempting to clear a mission with a Silent Assassin ranking.

It's worth noting that there are some items that can only be accessed by adding them to your inventory during the planning phase of a mission. Many of these are weapons or pieces of gear are awarded to players for achieving a certain Mastery Rank in a location. It goes without saying that some of the Hitman trilogy's best loadout options require some Mastery grinding.

We've listed our go-to loadout options for playing Hitman 3, what they do, and where to unlock them.

Hitman 3 – best loadout options

Lockpick

Available straight off the bat and essential for your first run of a new location. Eliminates the time spent searching a map for keys or stealing them from unconscious guards. Using a lockpick is an illegal action so make sure no one's looking during the act.

Silenced Pistol

Where to unlock: Paris, Bangkok, Colorado, Hokkaido, Mumbai, Dartmoor, Berlin, Mendoza, Carpathian Mountains

Next to Agent 47's Fiber Wire, the Silverballer silenced pistol is another series icon. In the Hitman World of Assassination trilogy there are plenty of alternatives available and you'll want to unlock as soon as possible, preferably with the Steady Aim perk for improved accuracy.

Remote Explosive

Where to unlock: Paris, Marrakesh, Colorado, Hawke's Bay, Mumbai, Whittleton Creek, Berlin

There are several different flavours of explosive found throughout each level in the Hitman trilogy though remote explosives are the most reliable. Unlike environmental explosives such as canisters, you don't need to shoot them, only activate them with a trigger when a target is in range. Most explosive devices will cause alarm if they are spotted so hide them carefully, or use an alternate gadget such as the unsuspecting ICA Explosive Phone found in Bangkok. You can also get your hands on an RFID Triggered Explosive in Santa Fortuna. This will only explode when a tagged individual comes within range.

Remote Taser

Where to unlock: Miami, Santa Fortuna

Extremely useful, though only in very specific circumstances. Can be used as a convenient way of knocking out guards from a distance but is primarily used for quick electrocution kills – all you need to do is toss it into a pool of water where your target is standing. There are proximity taser devices also available.

Silent Sniper Rifle

Where to unlock: Colorado, Hokkaido, Isle of Sgail, Haven Island, Chongqing

The Hitman trilogy offers a wide arsenal of sniper rifles but to achieve the best results you'll likely warm towards those which have an attached suppressor. This may reduce the rifle's overall range but is essential for staying undetected. There are a handful of suppressed snipers up for grabs though the Hackl Leviathan is easily the best. Unlocked by hitting Mastery Rank 20 in Chongqing, it has five perks including bullet piercing, being able to slow time, a variable scope, and subsonic noise reduction.

Emetic Poison

There are three types of poison found in Hitman 3 and previous games, though emetic poison is our favourite. This allows you to manipulate the behaviour of any character, forcing them to locate the nearest bathroom or an isolated space for them to vomit. Ideal for singling out targets, disrupting guard patrols, or removing bodyguards. Poisoning a target will require patience, either tampering with food/drink or administering it via syringe. Unless you happen to have one of the following items in your loadout…

Sieker 1

Where to unlock: Haven Island

If you want the best Hitman 3 loadout then you'll need to book a trip to Haven Island. This idyllic resort one of the two DLC locations for Hitman 2 and aside from being a fantastic level, it comes tagged with some brilliant Mastery unlocks. The first of these is the Sieker 1, a pistol that can fire emetic poison darts. You only have a couple of shots though this is the easiest way of poisoning a target discreetly at range. Note that pistols can even be used while scaling ledges, making the Sieker 1 even more versatile.

Remote Emetic Gas Device

Where to unlock: Haven Island

With this device you can poison multiple targets at once which can be extremely useful. Detonated from afar using a trigger device, it will emit a cloud of gas, causing the same effect as your normal emetic poison. However, using this device will require practice. Not only will you need to learn its area of effect, you'll have to be smart when placing it as the gadget will draw attention from guards and other NPCs.

Key Hacker

Where to unlock: Colorado, Mumbai, Isle of Sgail, Chongqing

Certain locations (such as Hokkaido) will feature doors that have electronic locks. A key hacker, EMP device, or disposable scrambler can make short work of these without having to hunt around for the correct key cards or security clearance.

Titanium Crowbar

Where to unlock: Whittleton Creek

This one's pretty self-explanatory. Loading into a mission with a crowbar already in-hand can save you time searching for one. However, in levels where you already know the layout and item placements well, choose a different tool or weapon for this loadout slot.

Kalmer 2

Where to unlock: Mendoza

Another fairly straightforward additional to Agent 47's arsenal. A tranquiliser pistol that can put a target to sleep at medium range.

Hitman 3 Guides & more from TheSixthAxis

Brawl Chess Review

Brawl Chess sounds like it should be an aggressive take on the everlasting strategy classic, maybe filled with interactive cutscenes where a Bishop smashes the Queen to bits with his sceptre like it's the end of a Harry Potter film. Sadly, that's not the case. No offence to chess, but this is just chess and nothing more.

I think the main issue here is the marketing. The game is marketed as a kid friendly introduction into the world of chess, but the first thing I noticed was the complete lack of tutorials. For people that know how to play, this is obviously going to be fine. For newcomers, not so much. Imagine, an eight years old browsing the Switch store and coming across the cute cartoony graphics of Brawl Chess, or perhaps a parent seeing the same thing and figure it's a perfect introduction to game for their kid, only for them to get into it and be very confused as to how the game works.

You could argue that it's an opportunity for a parent to engage with their child over learning the game, but it remains a really strange omission when something like 51 Worldwide Games manages to include introductory videos and rules explanations for, well… 51 games, and has tutorials to explain chess in particular.

One thing that is handy is that when you select a piece, markers will appear telling you where you can move to. Despite being a solid inclusion, this doesn't make up for a lack of a proper tutorial for a game you really need to understand to be good at. If you already know chess, there's nothing new to learn in Brawl Chess, which is one saving grace, I suppose.

That said, there are some annoying restrictions in place that will hamper some of the veteran players out there. One example is managing to get a Pawn to the other side of the battlefield, seeing that Pawn automatically transformed into a Queen. This is fine in theory, because who doesn't want to do that? But certain specific scenarios can only be won with other promotions, so it would just be nice to have the option to turn it into a Knight, Rook or Bishop instead. The lack of advanced options here is an oversight.

The AI is at least consistent. There are five difficulty levels to choose from with 1 being the recommended level for beginners, and 5 for those who fancy a bit of The Queen's Gambit action.

If the AI is too much for you, there's the option for local multiplayer, which I'm always a champion of. Even better is the fact that it's simply done by detaching the Joy-Con, and away you go. There are different characters you can choose from, however, all but two are locked behind microtransactions, which is one of the most bizarre thing about Brawl Chess. Choosing a different character has no effect on the game whatsoever, they literally just serve as avatars that sit there while you play, and they don't come with any additional chess piece designs or unique mechanics. Sure, it would be controversial to fiddle with the rules of chess, but at the same time, it's poor form to charge for something that would be an unlockable in the vast majority of games.

The game is lacking in content as it is. Aside from just playing a game of chess there is nothing else which is really frustrating. A puzzle mode featuring a number of brain-teasing scenarios is fairly standard for chess video games, and can be found in rivals like Chess Ultra. There's also no online multiplayer option.

Really, the main selling point for Brawl Chess comes down to its cartoon aesthetic. Each piece has a quirky design which is fun to look at,  and will help newcomers tell the difference between pieces, some light animation and cartoon fight clouds as one piece takes another. At the same time I can't help but feel this is sending mixed messages, once again, trying to appeal to a younger audience, but doing nothing to help them truly understand the game. If you want a more 'standard' chess experience, you can switch over to a classic look for your pieces, but then there's better options out there if that's what you want.

Knights of the Old Republic remake reportedly in development, but not by EA

A remake of Knights of the Old Republic, one of the most celebrated games that has been created in the Star Wars universe, is reportedly in the works. Multiple sources have confirmed this to Star Wars podcast Bespin Bulletin, as well as being corroborated by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier.

Knights of the Old Republic was a hit RPG, set 4,000 years before the events of the Star Wars film series, depicting another galactic war between the Jedi and the Sith.

However, it's not known who is actually making the game. Bespin Bulletin said, "Amongst my digging, I heard there is a Knights of the Old Republic project in development somewhere. I talked to a couple of people, and I also found out that Jason Schreier said that it's not with EA, and we'll 'never guess' who the studio is that's making this game."

Following on from the resurrection of the Lucasfilm Games brand earlier this month, and the beginning of the end for EA's exclusive Star Wars licensing deal (due to conclude in 2023), we've seen a smattering of Lucasfilm-related announcements. First there was Bethesda teasing that Wolfenstein series developer MachineGames is developing an Indiana Jones game, and then it was announced that Ubisoft's Massive Entertainment, the creators of The Division, are working on a new Star Wars game.

Schreier's comments would seemingly rule out a revival at the series' original developer, BioWare – EA acquired BioWare in 2007, a few years after KOTOR was released in 2003. In fairness, BioWare is a very different company now to 18 years ago, and has an uphill struggle to restore their reputation with the next Dragon Age and Mass Effect games, after the high-profile disappointments of Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem. A third game would be pushing the studio's resources quite far.

Obsidian Entertainment created a well-received sequel, KOTOR 2: The Sith Lords, in 2004, and would surely be a fan favourite studio to handle a reboot, but now being owned by Microsoft and the exclusivity that would entail might be undesirable to Lucasfilm Games, especially when there's already the same question hanging over the Indiana Jones game given Bethesda's pending acquisition by Microsoft.

So who else would have the RPG chops to take on such a task? Well, while it would be a step outside their usual genre, I think the only logical candidate is another former Star Wars game developer: Rovio Entertainment of Angry Birds Star Wars fame.

(My actual guess is Larian Studios, BTW)

Source: Bespin Bulletin, Jason Schreier

Carto Review

The past year has been particularly busy for video games. With a new console generation, countless triple-A releases and the endless ongoing churn of games as a services releases, it can be hard for smaller, independent releases to stand out. Fortunately, every now and again a game like Carto comes along with a genuinely original concept that compels me to check it out.

Carto is a colourful, puzzle adventure game that tasks players with altering the world around them by changing a magical map. Playing as Carto, you travel the world and unlock new pathways by discovering new map pieces and arranging them in the correct order. This fantastic mechanic is backed up by a gorgeous world that sees protagonist Carto visit a number of unique islands.

The main bulk of gameplay is spent figuring out how to traverse the islands that Carto and her travelling companion visit. Using a map based on square grids, you can change and move blocks of the world to create new paths or layouts. Characters within the game world will provide hints on the whereabouts of items or people of interest you need to find, but then it's on you to figure out which way the map should sit.

You can unlock new areas of the map by placing your current tiles in the correct layout, or you can find new map pieces throughout the world. The act of placing the tiles and figuring out which way unlocks the path forward is a lot of fun. It's a simple mechanic that's executed masterfully.

What makes Carto's mechanic so fantastic is how it encourages players to make logical conclusions. One puzzle early on had me trying to make a forest out of three tiles using the outskirts of wooded areas on them. Place them correctly and you will unlock the woods at their centre. The game is filled with these great moments and it really makes you feel like you've been a bit of a clever clogs for solving them.

I've also got to commend the team for how well the mechanic fits in with gameplay. Switching from exploration to the map and back out feels seamless, especially considering you are often completely changing the layout of the world. I'd have liked to see a little more integration with the characters of the world, as they mostly seem pretty oblivious to their surroundings constantly changing places.

Visually Carto has a scrapbook-esque vibe to it with a pastel themed colour palette. Its bold visual design fits the cartography mechanic incredibly well, bringing each island you visit to life. There's also some brilliant visual design elements in Carto as well, with sounds visually represented on screen during puzzles and in-game events. It's a small touch that not only brings you closer to the world, but it's also a significant move for accessibility. The character designs are all colourful and cute, with sprites having an almost Pixar look about them.

It's just a disappointment that the narrative doesn't do more with the mechanic. While the character's and places you visit look great, it doesn't really explore how Carto's map could have affected these people. The narrative simply doesn't match up to the excellent world-shifting mechanic, which is a shame as an equally fantastic story would have elevated Carto into something really special. The game does also suffer with some repetititon in later areas, as it never fully explores the map shifting mechanics to their full potential.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity becomes best-selling Musou game

Japanese publisher Koei Tecmo have published their financial results for the third quarter of the fiscal year 2020, giving us a closer insight into how the company and its games have performed.

It's no surprise that Koei Tecmo's gaming sector saw the highest number of sales in this period, helping to drive year on year growth and set new records. Game sales for the quarter brought in the majority of income, racking up more than ¥41.4 million – that's 71.9% more than Q3 2019 (via Twinfinite).

Although impressive, these results hardly come as a surprise with Koei Tecmo reporting soaring profits earlier in 2020. One knock on effect the currently global pandemic was a sharp rise in the number of video game consoles and software being sold – however, there was a sharp decline in amusement revenues in tandem.

Some particular highlights picked out in the company's financial results include Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. The Legend of Zelda X Musou spinoff shipped a mighty 3.5 million copies, making it the best-selling Musou game of all time. For those unfamiliar with Musou, it is better known in the west as the Warriors series that includes Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, Warriors Orochi, and the myriad anime crossovers. What makes Age of Calamity's achievement all the more impressive is that it launched on one system, exclusively available on the Nintendo Switch.

Nioh 2 has also continued to do well, ahead of next month's PS5 re-release as part of the The Nioh Collection. The samurai sequel shipped an additional 200,000 copies in Q3 2020. Jason reviewed Nioh 2 back at launch, awarding it a magnificent 9/10:

Nioh 2 builds on the excellence of the original with a fistful of new twists and ideas, from new Yokai abilities to full-on co-op through the entire game. Nioh 2 might well be the best Soulslike that isn't a FromSoftware game, and it's easily one of my personal contenders for Game of the Year.

In the past few years, the publisher have launched a number of sequels including fighting game sequel, Dead or Alive 6, Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout, Atelier Dusk Trilogy Deluxe Pack, and Attack on Titan 2: Final Battle.

We know little about what Koei Tecmo have planned for 2021. Besides the aforementioned Nioh Collection, JRPG sequel Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy is launching this month.

As for Musou fans, they'll get their next fix soon with Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires. This strategy spinoff will hopefully steer the OG Musou series back on track following an experimental yet divisive foray into open-world gameplay with Dynasty Warriors 9.

Source: Koei Tecmo

Crash Bandicoot dev merges with Blizzard to work on Diablo 2 remake

Vicarious Visions, the celebrated Activision studio who triumphantly revived Crash Bandicoot in 2017, is no more. The team has now been merged into Blizzard Entertainment where they are rumoured to be working on a Diablo II remake.

As such, you will no longer see the Vicarious Visions name on Activision Blizzard games though the talented team have been absorbed rather than let go, maintaining their headquarters in Albany, New York. Meanwhile, studio head Jen Oneal has been promoted to vice president of development at Blizzard with Simon Ebejer stepping up as the new studio head, according to GameInudstry.biz.

The 200-strong crew that used to make up Vicarious Visions is now "fully dedicated to existing Blizzard games and initiatives", it was announced though it's unclear exactly what they are working on.

The persistent rumour is that Blizzard have a Diablo II remake in the pipeline. With Vicarious Visions having nailed two remakes back to back with both Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and last year's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, they appear to be an ideal fit for the project.

Bloomberg reporter, Jason Schreier, reports that this is indeed the case with Blizzard and Vicarious Visions having been previously working together before the merger. According to Schreier, Blizzard's own Team 1 were originally developing the Diablo II remake (referred to as Diablo II: Resurrected) but were subsequently removed from the project following the release of Wacraft III: Reforged.

Members of Team 1 met to discuss what had gone wrong. Internal Blizzard documents reviewed by Bloomberg pinpointed the game's failures on poor planning, miscommunication and a rushed release due to financial pressure from management, among other factors. For example, Blizzard announced the game in November 2018 and began taking pre-orders for 2019 without informing most of the development team beforehand, according to several people who worked on Warcraft III: Reforged.

This remake of the popular real-time strategy game was met with middling reviews, picking up a score of 6/10 when we played it at launch. Although one of the best story-driven RTS games out there, Blizzard's remake felt half-baked. Hopefully, with Vicarious Visions now among their ranks, the Diablo II remake will get the treatment it deserves.

Source: GameIndustry.biz, Bloomberg

Hitman 3 player speedruns Dubai level in 8 seconds

Like its two predecessors, Hitman 3 is a dense assassination sim – an expertly crafted series of sandboxes begging to be explored. In the days following launch, that's exactly what the Hitman community has been doing, searching every nook and cranny for experimental ways to kill.

In that time, players have posted incredible speedrun times for Dubai, Hitman 3's opening level, the fastest clocking in at just eight seconds.

World record contenders Goron, Wreak and Der_Lauch_Linus both used a similar setup and technique to achieve this crazy completion time. Seconds after spawning into Dubai via the elevator entrance, they take down targets Marcus Stuyvesant and Carl Ingram in rapid succession using 47's pistol before making a beeline back to the exit location.

As you can see from Goron's video, the targets are within shooting range for a few short moments as the mission begins, giving the players just enough time to kill them with two well placed headshots. A superb feat and no doubt one of the many confounding speedruns we'll see posted for Hitman 3.

We awarded Hitman 3 a triumphant 8 out 10 in our review at launch, here's what we had to say:

Charting the series' progress since that 2016 Paris debut has been a fascinating journey. IO have learned a lot over the past five years and that really shows in Hitman 3. It's a flashier, more fluid evolution of IO's original template – a rewarding conclusion to one of the most unique video game franchises around, and one we'll continue playing for many weeks and months to come.

IO Interactive's closing instalment in their World of Assassination trilogy has gone down well with reviewers, bagging an OpenCritic average of 86 to become one of 2021's earliest GOTY contenders. However, Hitman 3 hasn't enjoyed the steadiest of launches with a number of server outages. Some players have also reported issues when trying to import their Hitman career progress over from Hitman 2.

Hitman 3 Guides & more from TheSixthAxis

Omori Review

Every day, Omori wakes up in a room surrounded by white light, suffocatingly small and terrifyingly vast. Depression can make all spaces feel this way. Better get moving.

Every day, Omori meets his friends, and together they walk up the rainbow staircase. Past the talking snake, past the yellow cat with giant eyes, and through the tree stump into the Vast Forest.

Every day, Omori returns to white space.

With shades of Undertale and Earthbound, Omori is an RPG that flickers from idyllic to unnerving. From parks and picnic blankets to dark rooms where shadows shudder, nosebleed fierce. Hours in, I meet a talking leaf at a train station, whose burning hatred for bunny rabbits leads it to offer me blood money for each bun I beatdown in combat. On the train, I am plunged into darkness, as rows of the identical shadows that ride beside me each warn me with some variation on "This isn't home."

In the opening hours, I play Hide and Seek with Omori's friends in the park, getting to know every name and quirk. All is warm laughter, sung in the stream-of-consciousness hangout humour that the game will continue to do so well. Later, I play Hide and Seek by myself. Alone, dashing between mirrors that keep blinking out of reality, and surprising myself with fleeting, shocking proof of my own fading presence in a world I half knew wasn't real anymore.

Omori is often about fear, but you can ignore the 'Horror' and 'Psychological Horror' tags on Steam. The game is interwoven with strings of existentialism, but those threads are part of a big, comfy, colourful sweater of an RPG, albeit one spattered with pizza-sauce stains of impending dread. Omori is about trauma, but it's also about escape, recovery, reconciliation, and friendship. You'll spend most of your time in the brighter moments, even if you'll never quite shake the feeling of unease. Something often unspoken about self doubt is how it taints all your good memories. You're in them after all, being yourself, and ruining everything. Omori casts a melancholy shadow over its brighter moments, even as it maintains hopefulness in its worst.

Consistent through all of this is an imagination and care that makes so much of Omori feel handcrafted. It's patchwork in the way it constantly introduces new twists on its animation, UI, art style, audio, or combat. Whatever it needs to best create a scene, convey a feeling, or just surprise and delight the player with some unexpected glitch in its established rules. There are great moments of subtle comedy that rely on the player's experience with other games, but not out of parody – these aren't references, they're riffs on design language that use your own familiarity to toy with you. Later, Omori will use similar tricks to traumatise you. It's a lovely, clever detail in a game so thematically concerned with nostalgia.

There are so many unique animations that you'll see just once and so many sound effects or musical phrases that pop up from the soil of Omori's vast soundtrack, like a jubilant sunflower or doomsaying earthworm, then wriggle back away again, forever. Early on, you'll gain the ability to switch party leaders, with each friend having different tools for solving environmental puzzles. You reach one such puzzle, tag a friend in, and a hand-drawn Polaroid flashes up. I found myself suitably awed when I realised that there's a different picture for each friend tagging each other friend. The backgrounds change, too. A junkyard. A faraway planet. The insides of a giant whale.

I shouldn't need such reminders that games are made by people. None of us should, but it's tragically easy to forget until another report of crunch at studio X gets dropped into our laps. All games are made by people, but Omori has the kind of DIY fingerprints of a hand-labelled CD from your favourite punk band like no other recent game I can remember. One that constantly had me thinking that, heck, someone drew this. Someone sat at their synths and composed this. Someone stayed up late for years animating this. Someone dredged up a lifetime of memory, precious and awful, to write this.

All this might suggest a flipbook of disparate set pieces, but there's a solid, crunchy RPG with some vast, puzzle-filled dungeons and chapter-spanning side quests here as well. Exploration is draped in a light metroidvania form, where every fear Omori's friends help him overcome opens up more of the world. In combat, an elemental triangle of emotions act as both magic and status effects.

Minigames are scattered throughout the world, too. A pizza delivery dayjob that has you trying to decipher skittish pencil scrawls to find the correct addresses. A Tamagotchi/Pokemon game where you challenge other kid's 'Pet Rocks'. This, alongside multiple endings and secrets, can easily fill out an 18 hour story into a forty hour place to just hang. What I'm saying is: Omori is tangible. It's a little slow, but it's very playable. It doesn't forget that it's a video game.

There are content warnings at the start of the game, and they're worth paying attention too. Omori is a game about sunny days and self isolation, about friendship and death. A game about escapism, about crystallising nostalgia as a form of psychic self defence. You'll be taken to some pitch black places before the journey concludes, but the warmth at Omori's core means it never feels nihilistic. The breadcrumb trail leading to the final moments is so carefully spread that I was left with little doubt that this is a story about trauma, but it's a story dedicated to exploring trauma, rather than one that just uses trauma cynically. Put simply, Omori earns its difficult moments.

I believe it's useful for a reader to know a critic's biases when choosing a game. For example, I strongly believe that the most important piece of media ever created is the 'Omelette du fromage' episode of Dexter's Laboratory, and you should filter all my critical insights through this dazzling fractal of subjective truth.

More pertinently to Omori, here are some more of my biases. Experiences I've had, and things I've felt, that meant I connected with Omori more than you might. I have often felt made up of muted tones in a world full of people drawn in colour. Missing inner light, as if I was lacking something fundamental. I am often bombarded with memories I'd rather forget so powerfully that they can physically stop me in my tracks. I cannot enjoy many of what should be good memories because I'm in them, being myself, and ruining everything. Omori reminded me that most people probably feel like this occasionally. Omori is a sad game that made me smile a lot.

Creative Outlier Air V2 True Wireless Earbuds Review

With one of the few outdoor pastimes you can partake in right now being to go out for a walk or run, there's been a huge surge of interest in wireless earbuds and headphones. As people trek outside with some music or a podcast in tow, there's never been a better time to pick up a pair, and now Creative, one of most dependable audio specialists, has updated their already excellent Outlier Air true wireless earbuds with the V2 version. Right from the off, it's clear that if you're looking for an exceptional value pair of earbuds, it's well worth tracking them down.

In the box you'll find the pair earbuds that, as well as a charging case, cable and a batch of different eartips to help you find the right fit. I'd readily argue that the Outlier Air are one of the most attractive wireless earbuds out there, and the V2 is visually more or less identical. Black, curved units with a circular LED and a central button feature on both left and right-hand side, with the major change from the original being the switch from a physical button to capacitive touch. It's a very welcome update.

The original Outlier Air actually become my go-to pair of earbuds since I reviewed them back in 2019. The comfort, fit, and excellent battery life put them well ahead of various other earbuds I tried out, including the much more expensive pair of Beats I bought. The one downside as I spent longer with them was the buttons, which were firm enough that you found yourself more or less pressing the earbud into your ear canal when you wanted to skip a track. It wasn't particularly comfortable.

The new touch controls completely do away with that issue, and now you can gently tap away across each of them in a variety of ways to perform functions like volume control, skipping tracks, pause, play, or answering phone calls. The initial issue I found was memorising the number of taps you needed for the various functions – double taps for pause and play, triple to skip tracks – and how definite with your presses you needed to be, but once you've got it worked out you've got all of the main controls at your fingertips, and all without endangering your cochlea.

One of the major benefits of the original Outlier Air was their battery life, and that's been given a hefty bump with the V2, with the buds themselves capable of lasting 12 hours per charge, and the case capable of providing an additional 22 hours of charge for a total of 34 hours. In our testing, they certainly came very close to achieving those figures with an easy 11 and a quarter hours registered before the buds died, and that was likely with a higher number of button presses than you would regularly perform.

Popping the earbuds into place in their magnetic slots in the slide-out metal case is simple enough, even if you'll regularly pull at the wrong end of the case to open it up. It takes between 2 and 3 hours to fully recharge them depending on how run down they are, with LEDs at one end to show the charging status. The case itself takes a USB-C cable to recharge, and there's a USB-C to USB-A cable in the box if you don't already have ten of them lying around your house. The case might be a bit on the large size compared to some other options, but the increased battery life makes it more than worth it, and its metal build feels both premium and sturdy enough to chuck in your bag.

The other new addition to the Outlier Air V2 is Creative's SXFI technology which we've come across in most of their recent headsets, with the SXFI Gamer headset having one of the best implementations to date. That SXFI tech creates a virtual soundstage that is designed to give your audio an enhanced sense of space, much like Dolby Atmos and its ilk. SXFI has consistently proven to be amongst the best options out there, but its implementation in the Outlier Air V2 is somewhat confusing.

You'll need to nab the SXFI app from the Google Play or Apple App store, and then the first step is to take pictures of your ears while it creates a personalised audio profile for you. Once done you're all set to experience SXFI virtual surround, except that you soon discover it's only available natively in the SXFI app to play any audio files you have downloaded on your handset.

It's a bizarre thing to discover that the function doesn't work with third-party software like Spotify or Amazon Music, and I found that overall, the playback leaned towards the brighter end of the spectrum, losing much of the bottom end from nearly everything except the included SXFI demo track. I'm not sure quite what the problem is here, as I've found SXFI to be a reliable and worthwhile set-up elsewhere, but I don't think I'll ever use it again with the Outlier Air V2.

Despite the odd SXFI implementation, I love the Outlier Air V2's regular audio output. With a £75 price point, you're not going to find many true wireless earbuds that come close, and the pleasingly balanced audio lends itself well to music, movies and a spot of mobile gaming too. It's a perfect companion on a run, not only staying in place but continuously pumping well-rounded audio out.

It's something of a shame that the V2 didn't inherit the Air Gold's aptX HD capability, but you still have aptX and AAC alongside basic SBC encoding, so you'll get high-quality Bluetooth audio from pretty much anything out there. In particular, you'll get a decent combination of sound quality and low latency if you've got an aptX enabled device.

LinkedIn profile mentions Ghost of Tsushima PS5, quickly deletes it

Dave Molloy, Cinematic Creative Director at Sucker Punch, has a LinkedIn page on which he stated he was "presently working on the Ghost of Tsushima game for Sony PS5". That wording has now been removed in the last ten hours and the post now has rather more generic "Presently working on the Ghost of Tsushima game for Sony PlayStation".

A couple of things to consider, firstly Ghost of Tsushima already has a buttery smooth 60fps mode if you play the PlayStation 4 version of the game on PlayStation 5 but perhaps Sucker Punch are going to release a new patch which adds ray tracing, DualSense haptics, or some other PlayStation 5 specific feature. The Cinematic Director would probably be involved if they were tarting up the graphics, not so much if it's haptic feedback.

Sony could be working on a complete new build of the game for PlayStation 5, or perhaps this is one of the first signs we've seen on a sequel. Unfortunately there is no way to tell when Dave edited his profile, the PS5 mention could have been there for months and no one spotted it until now, but given the huge success of the game a sequel is almost certainly on the way.

Earlier this month there was some fantastic news for the small Japanese island the game is set on as fans helping to raise more than $260,000 to rebuild a sacred Tsushima shrine.

The island's scenic Watatsumi Shrine was heavily damaged during a typhoon last year. In response, priest Yuichi Hirayama took to Japanese online crowdfunding platform Campire for support last November, the campaign finishing at 27,103,882JPY, 540% more than its original goal. The work to repair Watatsumi Shrine is due to start in April and finish sometime in August.

What's next for Ghost of Tsushima?

Here's what Hirayama had to say about the campaign and the involvement of Ghost of Tsushima players (via VGC):

We have received a great deal of support from the players of the Ghost of Tsushima game set in Tsushima, and I feel that it is God's guidance.

Although a work of fiction, Ghost of Tsushima is based on real-world history with the Mongol invasion of Japan around 1268AD. If you want to learn more, we did a deep dive last year as part of our "Playing With History" series.

Looking at photos of Watatsumi Shrine, you'd swear they were punched up screenshots taken from Ghost of Tsushima. However the shrine – located in the central region of Tsushima island – doesn't appear in-game though you can find several landmarks, as outlined in this tourism guide.

Ghost of Tsushima Guides & more from TheSixthAxis

Ghost of Tsushima: Legends Guides & more from TheSixthAxis

Source: LinkedIn via ComicBook

Body of Evidence Review

Ever idly wondered about cleaning up evidence at a murder scene? My imagination spurred on by TV shows and films, I know I have. I always ask myself, would I do a good job? Would I miss anything? How low would I go in order to make a quick buck? Well, my curiosity was somewhat satiated with Body of Evidence, a murder clean up sim where you are the hero of the hour.

I would say it's a strange concept for a game, but given the last year or so, nothing surprises me anymore. Your character, Mark, is collecting tickets on a train one day when all of a sudden, he wakes up in an apartment covered in blood with a dead body stuffed in the bathtub. You don't get long before the cops arrive so it's down to you to hide the evidence and get rid of the body. From then on, Mark becomes a 'clean up man' for hire and it's up to you to save the day.

Each level has set objectives you need to complete in order to proceed, mainly involving getting rid of bodies and picking up the murder weapons. You get a score at the end of each level for picking up evidence and how much of the mess you manage to clean up. In early levels this is pretty simple. You find a simple scrubbing brush which gets rid of the blood and then it's just a case of grabbing the body and dragging it to the green square. Then, if anything like tables and chairs have been knocked over, you simply have to click on them to put them back in place like nothing has happened.

As levels proceed, new mechanics are introduced, adding new tools to help you with the job. A broom for sweeping glass, luminol for finding faded blood, and a flashlight for seeing in the dark. Even the disposing of bodies can get slightly creative with one level seeing you stuff a body into a barrel before pouring acid on top to melt it away.

Some levels are loaded with pop culture references like one situation that sees you go to a 'Soap Club,' where illegal underground fighting has got a man killed. There's even a man called Tyler who appears behind you at one point and tells you not to talk about Soap Club. The new mechanic here lets you use their brand of soap to give your cleaning power that extra omph to get rid of some of the tougher stains. I'm pretty sure the level where you melt the body in a barrel was a Breaking Bad reference, too.

After you have collected ten bodies, you have to go to The Lake which is apparently the easiest place to dump corpses. This part really kills the pace, as having to go back and forth to the van ten times takes around ten minutes. That's ten minutes of moving back and forwards, really slowly. It's not fun.

Speaking of things that aren't fun, the controls can be quite fiddly. Trying to scrub blood stains often becomes annoying when the cursor isn't quite in the right position, despite being right over the blood, and thus preventing you from actually cleaning up the blood before the time runs out. Picking up bodies is another problem; the game boasts realistic ragdoll physics which is great, but the body will often get stuck on the smallest of geometry and force you to drop it. Then, if you need to put the body in a barrel or a garbage chute, this is where the real problems occur. I had to retry one level multiple times because there was no way to neatly stuff the body in the barrel in time. I just wouldn't go in! Eventually, I got lucky, but man, it wasn't fun.

While the game was in its early stages, I went for 100% perfect ratings, getting a lot of satisfaction from making sure I got every piece of evidence and putting every chair and table straight, but as soon as things got a little complicated, the controls put me off trying. I found myself just wanting to get the levels done to move on, feeling burnt out after the first ten of the game's thirty levels. It's annoying, because I love the concept.

The drab looking levels doesn't help either. I get why it's styled like this, because trying to find bloodstains in a colourful environment would make playing this with a time limit impossible, but when you are just staring at browns and greys constantly, it does make shorter play sessions more appealing. I found I couldn't play it for more than an hour at a time without having to come away for extended periods. The bland colours and the janky controls just made me feel a bit odd – and that's nothing to do with all the murder! After playing with the Switch docked, I found handheld to be the better way to play, even though it looks the same in both modes.

The soundtrack is quite good at setting the tone. It's nothing too groundbreaking, but it definitely gives that 1930's jazz murder vibe. Instead of being a hit detective, you're on the other side of things as a clean up man.

Bitmap Books suspends EU shipping due to VAT issues caused by Brexit

Bitmap Books, the UK based publisher of retro gaming books, has announced it is temporarily suspending shipping of its products to the EU due to confusion over VAT rates following the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, aka Brexit. Previously, EU customers would pay the UK rate of VAT on books which is 0%, but now that the UK is no longer part of the EU those rates vary from nation to nation. Bitmap Books has stated that it, like many retailers, thought there would be some tariff free movement of goods under the Brexit deal. That is not the case and as the deal was last minute retailers have did not have the time to properly scrutinise it. In an email to customers, Bitmap Books wrote:

Traditionally, as an EU-based customer of ours, when you purchased one of our books, you paid the UK VAT rate for books, which is 0%. Now the UK is out of the EU, you will now have to pay your own countries rate of VAT for books. Luckily, most EU countries have a special VAT rate for books that is much lower than standard VAT. At the start of the year, when our customers within the EU started to receive customs bills, this was a complete surprise to us. Furthermore, the bills were inconsistent and in many cases, charging the wrong VAT rate.

We have therefore taken the decision to suspend all EU shipping until we can resolve this situation and let the dust settle. It's really chaotic out there within the delivery networks and we feel that this is the best option is to allow things to calm down. We have also started to get some random incorrect charges for European non-EU countries such as Switzerland, so have also suspended this service until we get clarity of why this is happening. 

Bitmap Books is now looking at alternative options for its EU based customers, including Delivered Duty Paid shipping. This format would mean that customers would see all custom fees at the point of purchase, and pay for it there and then. However, the company is still in discussion with delivery companies to establish this. Furthermore, Bitmap Books has confirmed that EU customers will be paying more for the products compared to pre-Brexit due to the additional charges. The company understands it will lose some customers as a result of this, but will work to make the increase in price as low as possible.

Source: Company Customer Email

Interview: Historian Ryan Lavelle on the historical research that helped build Assassin's Creed Valhalla

In my recent interview with Thierry Noel, historian and inspirational content advisor of the Editorial Research Unit on Assassin's Creed Valhalla, he explained to me that the way the development team were able to fill in the gaps of Viking history to create a believable game world was to consult with experts. That's all very well and good, I said to myself – garnering odd looks from my family around the dinner table – but how do even those experts fill the historical gaps? If we have very few historical records about the interactions between Vikings and Anglo-Saxons in 9th Century England, then surely that's it, right? We know what we know, how do we think we know something that happened without even knowing for sure it happened? Things were getting uncomfortably philosophical in my brain, so I decided to have a chat with Ryan Lavelle – Professor of Early Medieval History at the University of Winchester and consultant on Assassin's Creed Valhalla – to find out how you research a historical era when there's precious little record to research.

Ryan, I discovered, was an extremely affable chap, after briefly discussing our children's Lego collections and his penchant for guitar strumming, I thought I'd get stuck in with some questions. First off, being a historical consultant on Assassin's Creed Valhalla, what exactly did that entail? "My role was basically as a small cog in the big machine" Ryan humbly responded, "I came in at the inspiration stage when the team came to various locations associated with the Viking age, on this magical mystery tour they were doing from Norway, to York and then on to the Wessex league of the tour, where I was the go-to person for the King Alfred elements."

"I met with them at Stonehenge" Ryan continued, "and then went on to some other locations in Wessex. They were travelling in two minibuses – very nice minibuses actually – it was kind of a rolling seminar for two days. I was faced with lots of questions from different members of the team. "What would King Alfred be eating for his dinner" kind of thing. Then they headed off with that information and that inspiration. I gather that other experts were brought in at other stages to ask about language and things like that. My role was as the initial contact."

My journalistic intuition told me that I should follow-up this enquiry and ask "what would King Alfred actually eat for his tea"? But I got distracted and forgot, so we may never know the answer to that question. I really hope the answer would have been burnt griddle cakes. Man, how I want that legend to be true. Anyway, instead, I asked him what questions the development team were asking him during their magical mystery tour? "They were interested in things like life in the courts, questions about "what would a Witan be like?", the Anglo-Saxon council for example, lots of questions about King Alfred's life -". Wait a minute. My journalism sense started tingling. Here was the chance to ask if the burnt cake story was true! I blurted out an interruption to ask the most pressing question of the entire interview; "Is it true?" I stammered, vaguely incoherently, "did King Alfred really burn those cakes?"

Ryan responded with a laugh (though I like to think he was a little taken aback by my insightful questioning style); "Is it true? I like to think it was. It's a story that develops in the Anglo-Saxon period, so it's not something that was invented by the Victorians – though the Victorians love that story. It's something that was told within a couple of generations of Alfred's lifetime so there's a kind of currency to it. So it's recorded in an early medieval source basically." I'm taking that as a yes.

I suppose I should move on now and actually get into the nitty-gritty; how does a historian tell the history of a period in which there are so few written records? After all, there are so many possibilities of what could have happened, where do you even start? "I think you have to have a lot of information to be a historian of this period," Ryan told me, "there's a historian from Oxford University called James Campbell who died a few years ago, he was effectively eluding to the dangers of historians being quiet men with little imagination. The need to try to fill in those gaps of the possibilities, we have our reference points, we've got the dates, we've got some places, and we've got to try to fill in the landscape between."

"For me, working as a historian of early medieval England, we do have the doomsday book as a record. In the late 11th century the doomsday book provides a record of lots of different estates across England and the sizes of those estates and then if we cross-reference them back to the evidence of documents from the 9th and 10th century then we're able to piece things together. This must have been an important place, how many miles are there between this estate to the next, how many miles would it take to travel those distances. It then becomes possible to piece together the life of the court from that and the reference points of the landscape itself."

That must help with finding out about the elites who owned all these estates and were part of the court, but how do find out about everyone else? "Research is often on the elites, the political elites of court culture, the society of people who could get things written down about them. In some ways, a lot of what I research on are the ways that those with power held onto it and those without tried to contest that power. In some ways, I suppose the work I do is part of the problem. There is evidence of ordinary people in work, what ordinary people have to do. The doomsday book provides us with evidence of the lives of ordinary people and work they had to do and the very hierarchical nature of the society that people had to negotiate. I think there is evidence that the elite within society tried to keep the barriers up to prevent people from moving through society."

"In the later part of the Viking age," Ryan continued "there was a real concern that there would be social mobility due to people acting as Vikings within themselves. There was an archbishop of York in the early 11th century who complained that if a slave should become a Viking and should kill their master as a result of the upheaval from Viking attacks then what would happen to society? People wouldn't know their place. In some way, the Viking invasions created huge disorder but for some people, it may have created opportunities to be free as well."

So, to wrap up, I asked Ryan if there are any Anglo-Saxon stereotypes or myths that he hopes Assassin's Creed Valhalla will shatter for its players? "The idea of the Anglo-Saxons being this society of free peasant farmers, this peasant commonwealth, is this Victorian myth. And the idea that the army of Alfred would be setting out to war with their pitchforks against the Vikings was a bit of a myth. Looking at the representation of the armies of the West Saxons in AC Valhalla I didn't see any pitchforks! I hope they're a bit more on par with the Vikings in that sense. Warrior identity for many different groups in the early middle ages was something of an aristocratic identity. So the idea of armies consisting of peasants is a bit of a myth."

"I think the other thing" Ryan concluded, "is the diversity of many groups of people is important to bear in mind for the early middle ages. These are people that moved around to many different places. There's lots of different cultural influences travelling around in the early middle ages too."

Based on this fascinating research and insight, we can see why the game world of Assassins Creed Valhalla is often quite different from our expectations of this period of history. With every twist and turn of Valhalla's immense narrative and each step through its expansive world, we can see the influence of Ryan and his fellow historian's research, and it's part of why the Assassin's Creed franchise remains an unmissable and essential part of the gaming landscape.

Puzzle Quest 3 will be a free to play title launching this year

505 Games has confirmed the development of Puzzle Quest 3, and also stated that the third game in the mainline franchise will be a free to play title across multiple platforms including PC and mobile. Puzzle Quest 2 was released back in 2010 so people have been waiting for a while for this next game. In terms of story Puzzle Quest 3 will be set 500 years after the events of the first Puzzle Quest game, and will feature a 1v1 battle system in a 3D environment.

Steve Fawkner, CEO and Creative Lead at Infinity Plus Two, said:

"After an overwhelming demand from fans over the past decade for the next installment of Puzzle Quest, we're thrilled to finally reveal the development of Puzzle Quest 3. The vision for this latest project has been years in the making, and like any good Puzzle Quest game, it's a delicate balance of gameplay, story, and strategic puzzle-solving while introducing something unexpected that will appeal to both old and new fans. We can't wait to share PQ3."

Clive Robert, Head of Free-to-Play at 505 Games, said

"Puzzle Quest defined the puzzle-RPG genre, creating a beloved franchise with a rich heritage that continues to resonate with a player base of millions globally today. The work that Steve and his team have done to reintroduce the franchise as a F2P experience across multiple platforms will undoubtedly reinvent the puzzle genre once again. As a unified publishing and dev team, we've created a path for the franchise that puts the player first so we can best serve our growing community."

It has been stated that Puzzle Quest 3 will add new elements to the series, updating some of the features from the previous games, including the improved battle system.

Source: Press Release

I Saw Black Clouds is the next interactive thriller from Wales Interactive

Wales Interactive has announced its next interactive thriller and it is called I Saw Black Clouds. I Saw Black Clouds is a psychological and supernatural thriller that has come about from a partnership between Wales Interactive and Ghost Dog Films. The title has been confirmed for PC, Switch, PS4, and Xbox One with PS5 and Xbox Series X|S release coming at a later date, though with backwards compatibility you can still play the the PS4 and Xbox One versions on the new consoles.

The story of I Saw Black Clouds follows Kristina, played by Nicole O'Neill who has been in Penny Dreadful and Red Sparrow, as she returns home to learn the truth of her friend's death. Each choice made will lead to different outcomes as the title features a branching storyline, much like Wales Interactive's other interactive movies. Krisitina's personality is tracked through each choice with her honesty, strength, morality, tact and introspection all being tracked throughout. Features include:

  • Real-time Relationship Status Tracking that influences the story as you play.
  • Real-time Personality Trait Tracking that evolves based on your choices.
  • Unlockable features include a Skip Scene and Personality Assessment feature.
  • Featuring a Streamer Mode that pauses the choices for audience participation during live streams.

The last title from Wales Interactive was Maid of Sker, and in our review Steve wrote:

Maid of Sker is a great addition to the survival horror genre and offers a wonderfully intimate and local threat that takes its influences from Welsh folktales. Eschewing the combat and weaponry of many entries into the genre, its gameplay loop of sneaking and hiding proves compelling and successfully manages to keep you feeling in danger at all times. When you add in some excellent sound design and atmosphere you have a Victorian horror that deserves a rousing reception. There may not be a welcome in these valleys but this is one vacation that genre fans should have no reservations about taking.
Source: Press Release

Immortals Fenyx Rising and Blood of Zeus limited time event is currently live

Ubisoft and Netflix have come together to create a crossover quest in Immortals Fenyx Rising based on the Netflix show Blood of Zeus. This event is currently live and will be running until January 28th, and when it is over that is it. In this crossover event a new quest called "A Tribute to the Family" is available pitting Fenyx against two new creatures. Those are Chimera and Cerberus from Blood of Zeus. When the quest is completed players earn a new Eagle pendant, and other character items to customise Fenyx with.

Players also have the options to purchase weapons and character packs based on Blood of Zeus. These packs include themed skins for the sword, axe and bow. The character pack, includes Blood of Zeus–themed armour, helmet, wings, mount, and phoenix companion. Unlike the "A Tribute to the Family" quest these character packs will be available to buy at any time, so need to rush and panic buy the packs if you want the items in them. In our review for Immortals Fenyx Rising, I wrote:

Putting the obvious parallels to one side, Immortals Fenyx Rising is a thoroughly enjoyable game. The main character is very likeable, and the humour between the characters is great, while the Golden Isle looks fantastic and is filled with content without also feeling overwhelming. It takes a while for the combat to grow, and the end portion of the game drags on, but if you want a fun and compact open world game then Immortals Fenyx Rising is well worth playing.
You can read the full review here.
Source: Press Release

King of Fighters XV newest trailer focuses on Meitenkun

SNK Corporation has released a brand new trailer for King of Fighters XV, and the focus of it is the character Meitenkun.The footage shows the rather tired fighter unleash some powerful moves against his opponent while keeping his pillow close. The footage also gives a bit of a better look at the gameplay style of King of Fighters XV, compared to the previous trailer which gave quick looks at the characters K', Kyo Kusanagi, Leona, Shun'ei, Mai Shiranui, and Benimaru.

King of Fighters XV was first announced back at EVO 2019, right at the end of the final day of the fighting tournament. The last outing, King of Fighters XIV, released nearly three years ago and was a quiet success for the developer. At the time we handed it a 7/10, saying that "as a new entry in the series that pushes it into uncharted territory, King of Fighters XIV is an admirable effort. Boasting a huge roster, accessible action and smooth gameplay, there's a lot to like, but the mediocre transition to 3D and inconsistent netcode hold it back from greatness."

However, SNK went on to improve the whole experience, including releasing an enhanced graphics pack that made some much needed improvements to the visuals, as well as regular additions in the shape of costume packs and DLC characters. It'll be interesting to see what direction they go for with XV, especially in terms of graphics, as XIV's divisive move to 3D created technical challenges for the team as well as alienating some of their fans. Hopefully, King of Fighters XV will be a much better initial experience and give a better first impression than that of its predecessor.

King of Fighters XV is expected to release this year, but platforms are yet to be confirmed. SNK has stated there will be more information next week.

Source: YouTube

Something for the Weekend – 23/01/21

January and 2021 are starting to pick up a little momentum, with the release of Hitman 3, details on Resident Evil Village and more. With another frigid weekend, it's also another perfect reason (as if you needed one) to stay in side and play more games!

But first, our quick round up of the weekly goings on at TSA and around the games industry.

In the News This Week

Games in Review

The first big release of the year is here, so how does IO Interactive's trilogy-ending game Hitman 3 shape up? And what else is worth playing from our review slate?

And we had a single bit of gaming kit on the review bench as well:

Final VR3000 Gaming Earphones – 8/10

Featured Articles

With Resident Evil Village's stream, we had Reubenrank every Resident Evil spinoff game from worst to best, and thenrank every main Resident Evil  game from worst to bestas well.

I dove into Ride 4 on PlayStation 5, taking in the leap forward in terms of resolution and performance on the new generation of consoles, as well as analysing the multi-faceted, but rather subtle adaptive trigger and haptic feedback usage.

Miguel ventured into Everspace 2 in Early Access, calling it "the loot 'n shoot space game you need in your life," while Steve described Edge of Eternity as "the closest thing to a new Final Fantasy you'll play this year."

And with the lockdown still in full force, Dom took a look at how to stay fit in lockdown with Oculus Quest and VR gaming.

What We Played rounded things out, as usual, with Hitman 3, Warframe and Persona 5 Strikers.

Trailer Park

Resident Evil Village is out this May, here's the announcement trailer

Apex Legends Season 8 – Mayhem introduces Fuse on 2nd February

Squirrel surveillance game Nuts launches on PC and Switch next month

Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One FAQ reveals game length, cases and more about the open world detective game

Your Achievements

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

  • MrYd has had a packed weekend, with more Star Wars Squadrons and Hunt: Showdown sprinkled alongside finishing off The Last of Us Part II, and sneaking his way through Hitman 3 (and in PSVR!).
  • Watchful only had some time for a few short sessions in Destiny 2.
  • Having bought it months ago, willbuchanan played some Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney trilogy, and moved on to Far Cry New Dawn after finishing 5. He's also dusted off Everybody's Golf on Vita and is eyeing up what games he can play to go from 96 platinum trophies to 100. Any suggestions?
  • Recovering from a bout of flu, Crazy_Del opened up AC Valhalla on PS5 and snagged a second platinum trophy to go with his PS4 one, then blitzed Maneater on PS4 for another twofer platinum, and started the Mafia Trilogy. Flu didn't slow him down much, did it?
  • TSBonyman has enjoyed Yoku's Island Express and Unravel 2 after snapping them up in the sale.
  • And Andrewww has been working his way through Resident Evil 2 as Leon, and is already looking forward to replaying it with Claire.

And with all of that caught up on, I'll let you crack on with your weekends! Have fun at home, stay safe if and when you're not, and we'll see you next week.

Resident Evil – we rank every game from worst to best

The 25th Anniversary of Resident Evil is looming, Capcom's recent showcase stream giving us more details about the upcoming Resident Evil: Village as well as its free multiplayer add-on, Resident Evil Re:Verse, and more. This huge celebration inspired us to look back over the the series and rank every one of the Resident Evil games from worst to best.

Previously we ranked all of the Resident Evil spinoff titles, this article focused purely on those mainline/numbered instalments. We'll be charting the series from its 1996 debut all the way up to last year's Resident Evil 3 Remake. Let's begin…

14 – Resident Evil 6 | 2012

This one's an odd beast, Resi 6 split into four campaigns with each following a series veteran and their newcomer sidekicks. Some of these campaigns are… good. Let's be fair, the first half of Leon's is excellent, and the last third of Chris's is good too, but the overall package is lacklustre and the focus on action over horror was so unbearably blatant throughout. Perhaps its biggest contribution was forcing Capcom to perform a massive u-turn, steering the franchise back on track with Resident Evil 7.

13 – Resident Evil | 1996

Here it is, the beginning of a survival horror icon! It isn't that the original Resident Evil is bad – in fact I still jump in to play it from time to time – but it just cannot hold a candle to what followed thereafter. The first experience we had with the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team still holds strong today despite its wonky animations and wonkier dialogue. Resident Evil forged a legacy that cannot be taken down easily (unless you go for the head).

12 – Resident Evil Zero | 2002

The premise here was great, playing as one of the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team on their ill-fated mission before the mansion incident played out in the first game. But why did this have to be Rebecca? I love the character, don't get me wrong, but it makes zero sense that she lost so much competence between 0 and 1. Also, although the character switching mechanic was another good idea, it mostly led to frustration in practice. Billy deserves a comeback though.

11 – Resident Evil 5 | 2009

After the more action focused play brought to the series by RE4, the fifth main instalment dropped the pretence of horror entirely for something more akin to a blockbuster. Joining the intensely beefy Chris with new partner Sheva in Africa for some jolly co-op fun, Resident Evil 5 just didn't quite hit the mark, despite some fantastic moments of gameplay and story. Let's be honest though, if we were to re-order this list based on boulder punching, this would win. Fists down.

10 – Resident Evil: Revelations | 2012

It genuinely pained me to have to put this one so low on the list, because I love so much about it from the setting, to the characters, to the even more dumb than average RE story. Also, at the time this released, we had been starved of a true survival horror experience for some time. However, the attempt to splice together the more action-based latter games with the claustrophobic horror of the classics didn't quite work… this time.

9 – Resident Evil 3 Remake | 2020

Although this might not be the best of the remakes on this list, Resident Evil 3 still managed to be a tense and enjoyable romp through Raccoon City. Picking up after the original game with Jill Valentine, we get to play through her escape from the city once more with far more detail and scares. Nemesis is a legitimate and hounding threat here, and if only so much content hadn't been cut from the original, this remake would rank far higher.

8 – Resident Evil: Revelations 2 | 2015

The second in the Revelation series is, to be honest, a revelation. Taking the ideas of the first but adding excellently-realised co-op was an inspired decision, allowing the character duos tp compliment each other with strengths and weaknesses instead of their functionally being the same like with RE5. Also, the characters in this game were phenomenal, bringing back Claire and Barry and matching them with great newcomers. In fact, this game deserves this spot based on Moira Burton alone.

7 – Resident Evil – CODE: Veronica | 2000

Finally in the top half, and kicking off with this gem. The jump to PS2 brought Claire back for a ride through a prison facility owned by the reclusive Ashford family. There were a lot of improvements made for this game with fantastic lighting and an actually useful combat knife for once, but it had one huge drawback – Steve Burnside. This whiny cretin ruined almost every scene and moment he was included in and Claire deserved a far better companion.

6 – Resident Evil 3: Nemesis | 1999

The last of the original PlayStation trilogy and what a way to go out, acting as both a prequel and sequel to the events of Resident Evil 2. Back in the shoes (and comfortable skirt and jumper combo) of Jill Valentine as she makes her last escape from Raccoon City, all the while being pursued by the relentless Nemesis. This game was much alike the previous titles but with a neat little evade manoeuvre and ammo crafting thrown in. Exceptional polygonal scares.

5 – Resident Evil 4 | 2005

Here's where it all changed. I don't personally think this game is Miyazaki's magnum opus of the series (that comes later), but RE4 changed the trajectory of Resident Evil forever. Bringing back Leon, with a new smart attitude and a far better job, to essentially massacre an entire Spanish village and the surrounding areas. Resident Evil 4 was funny, tense, gory, and almost perfect in its execution. In fact, it's only flaws were having as many QTEs and the need to constantly babysit Ashley.

4 – Resident Evil 7: Biohazard | 2017

The beloved return to form for the series, bringing back the survival horror and switching to a first person perspective for added spooks. RE7 follows most unlucky man in the world, Ethan, as he attempts to find his lost wife on the dilapidated Baker Estate in rural Louisiana. Heavy on the scares, with a tremendously tense atmosphere and enough gore to please the Jigsaw Killer, Resident Evil 7 graduated with first class nopes from Big Nope University and we love it for it.

3 – Resident Evil 2 Remake | 2019

Being a fan of the original, my excitement matched other fan's when this was confirmed to be happening on a livestream back in 2015. Using the incredible RE Engine developed for RE7, we knew we were in for a treat and a treat we got. A visceral, brutal, disgusting treat. Changing just enough to keep veterans on their toes and turning Mr. X into a constant, stomping presence, this remake was an absolute triumph. However, it still isn't Capcom's best remake…

2 – Resident Evil Remake | 2002

…This is. A full ground up remake of the original title that improved on every facet of it, from the dialogue to visuals to gameplay. The jolly through the unnecessarily complex mansion has never been so fun or terrifying. Like the remake of 2, this game changed just enough to ruin a veteran's muscle memory. Resident Evil Remake is absolute masterclass in survival horror, Mikami's magnum opus, and possibly one of the best executed remakes of all time.

1 – Resident Evil 2 | 1998

The sequel to the hugely popular Resident Evil had to knock it out of the park to continue the franchise and oh boy did it. Shifting the action from a claustrophobic mansion to the wider city and RCPD Police Station, RE2 upped the ante in every way. Furthermore, it introduced us to Leon and Claire, two of the best characters in the whole franchise. This may be my bias coming through, but I honestly couldn't care less, this game is the perfect sequel and one of my favourite games of all time.

So that's the ranking of the mainline titles, what did you think? Where do you think the tall vampire lady simulator that is Resident Evil Village will rank among the series? Let us know in the comments.

Epic add sci-fi strategy sequel to their free games list

Epic Games are giving away a free copy of Galactic Civilizations III to everyone, from now until Thursday, January 28th 2021.

This follows on from last week's freebie, Star Wars: Battlefront II. The EA-published shooter sequel saw a huge influx of new players which led to a number of server issues.

Galactic Civilizations III may not be quite as an iconic name in the realm of sci-fi yet it promises a rich "4X" PC strategy experience. Here's the official blurb:

Build a civilization that will stand the test of time! Choose from dozens of unique races and make a name for yourself across the galaxy through diplomacy, espionage, technological advances, and more.

Next week, Epic will be adding indie favourite Dandara. You'll be able to get your hands on the game's beefed up Trials of Fear edition from next Thursday.

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

Epic Games store free games list

Game Name Dates Available
Star Wars Battlefront II January 14-21, 2021
Crying Suns January 7-14, 2021
Jurassic World: Evolution December 31, 2020-January 7, 2021
Torchlight II December 30
Solitairica December 29
Stranded Deep December 28
Night in the Woods December 27
My Time At Portia December 26
Darkest Dungeon December 25
Inside December 24
Tropico 5 December 23
Metro 2033 Redux December 22
Alien: Isolation December 21, 2020
Defense Grid: The Awakening December 20, 2020
The Long Dark December 19 , 2020
Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty December 18, 2020
Cities Skylines December 17, 2020
Pillars of Eternity December 10-17, 2020
Tyranny December 10-17, 2020
Cave Story+ December 3-10, 2020
MudRunner November 26-December 3, 2020
Elite: Dangerous November 19-26, 2020
The World Next Door November 19-26, 2020
The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia November 12-19, 2020
Dungeons 3 November 12-19, 2020
Wargame: Red Dragon November 5-12, 2020
Ghostbusters The Video Game – Remastered October 29-November 5, 2020
Blair Witch October 29-November 5, 2020
Layers of Fear 2 October 22-29, 2020
Costume Quest 2 October 22-29, 2020
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs October 15-22, 2020
Kingdom New Lands October 15-22, 2020
Rising Storm 2: Vietnam October 8-15, 2020
ABZU October 8-15, 2020
Pikuniku October 1-8, 2020
Rollercoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition September 24-October 1, 2020
Football Manager 2020 September 17-24, 2020
Watch Dogs 2 September 17-24, 2020
Stick It To The Man! September 17-24, 2020
Railway Empire September 10-17, 2020
Where The Water Tastes Like Wine September 10-17, 2020
Into The Breach September 3-10, 2020
Hitman August 27-September 3, 2020
Shadowrun Collection August 27-September 3, 2020
God's Trigger August 20-27, 2020
Enter the Gungeon August 20-27, 2020
The Alto Collection August 13-20, 2020
Remnant: From the Ashes August 13-20, 2020
A Total War Saga: Troy August 13-14, 2020
Wilmot's Warehouse August 6-13, 2020
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP July 30 – August 6, 2020
Barony July 30 – August 6, 2020
20XX July 30 – August 6, 2020
Next Up Hero July 23-30, 2020
Tacoma July 23-30, 2020
Torchlight II July 16-23, 2020
Lifeless Planet: Premier Edition July 9-16, 2020
The Escapists 2 July 9-16, 2020
Killing Floor 2 June 9-16, 2020
Hue July 2-9, 2020
Stranger Things 3 June 25-July 2, 2020
AER Memories of Old June 18-25, 2020
Ark: Survival Evolved June 11-18, 2020
Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection June 11-18, 2020
Overcooked June 4-11, 2020
Borderlands: The Handsome Collection May 28-June 4, 2020
Civilization VI May 21-28, 2020
Grand Theft Auto V May 14-21, 2020
Death Coming May 7-14, 2020
Crashlands April 30-May 7, 2020
Amnesia: The Dark Descent April 30-May 7, 2020
For the King April 23-30, 2020
Just Cause 4 April 16-23, 2020
Wheels of Aurelia April 16-23, 2020
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments April 9-16, 2020
Close to the Sun April 9-16, 2020
Gone Home April 2-9, 2020
Drawful 2 April 2-9, 2020
Hob April 2-9, 2020
Totally Reliable Delivery Service April 1-8, 2020
World War Z March 26-April 2, 2020
Torment x Punisher March 26-April 2, 2020
Figment March 26-April 2, 2020
Watch Dogs March 19-26, 2020
The Stanley Parable March 19-26, 2020
A Short Hike March 12-19, 2020
Mutazione March 12-19, 2020
Anodyne 2 March 12-19, 2020
Gonner March 5-12, 2020
Offworld Trading Company March 5-12, 2020
Inner Space February 27-March 5, 2020
Faeria February 20-27, 2020
Assassin's Creed Syndicate February 20-27, 2020
Aztez February 13-20, 2020
Kingdom Come: Deliverance February 13-20, 2020
Ticket to Ride February 6-13, 2020
Carcassonne February 6-13, 2020
Farming Simulator 19 January 30-February 6, 2020
The Bridge January 23-30, 2020
Horace January 16-23, 2020
Sundered: Eldritch Edition January 9-16, 2020
Darksiders Warmastered Edition January 1-9, 2020
Darksiders 2 Dethinitive Edition January 1-9, 2020
Steep January 1-9, 2020
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair December 31, 2019
Hello Neighbor December 30, 2019
The Talos Principle December 29, 2019
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun December 28, 2019
Hyper Light Drifter December 27, 2019
FTL: Faster Than Light December 26, 2019
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator December 25, 2019
Celeste December 24, 2019
Ape Out December 23, 2019
Little Inferno December 22, 2019
Superhot December 21, 2019
Towerfall Ascension December 20, 2019
Into the Breach December 19, 2019
The Wolf Among Us December 12-19, 2019
The Escapists December 12-19, 2019
Jotun: Valhalla Edition December 6-12, 2019
Rayman Legends November 29-December 6, 2019
Bad North November 21-29, 2019
The Messenger November 14-21, 2019
Ruiner November 7-14, 2019
Nuclear Throne November 7-14, 2019
Costume Quest October 31-November 7, 2019
Soma October 31-November 7, 2019
Layers of Fear October 24-October 31, 2019
Q.U.B.E.2 October 24-October 31, 2019
Alan Wake: American Nightmare October 17-24, 2019
Observer October 17-24, 2019
Surviving Mars October 10-17, 2019
Minit October 3-10, 2019
Metro 2033 Redux September 26-October 3, 2019
Everything September 26-October 3, 2019
Lego Batman Trilogy September 19-26, 2019
Batman: Arkham Collection September 19-26, 2019
Conarium September 12-19, 2019
ABZU September 5-12, 2019
The End is Nigh September 5-12, 2019
Celeste August 29-September 5, 2019
Inside August 29-September 5, 2019
Fez August 22-29, 2019
Hyper Light Drifter August 15-22, 2019
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden August 15-22, 2019
GNOG August 8-15, 2019
For Honor August 2-9, 2019
Alan Wake August 2-9, 2019
This War of Mine July 25-August 2, 2019
Moonlighter July 25-August 2, 2019
Limbo July 18-July 25, 2019
Torchlight July 11-18, 2019
Overcooked July 4-11, 2019
Last Day of June June 27-July 4, 2019
Rebel Galaxy June 20-27, 2019
Enter the Gungeon June 13-20, 2019
Kingdom: New Lands June 6-13, 2019
City of Brass May 30-6, 2019
Rime May 23-30, 2019
Stories Untold May 16-23, 2019
World of Goo May 2-16, 2019
Transistor April 18-May 2, 2019
The Witness April 4-18, 2019
Oxenfree March 21-April 4, 2019
Slime Rancher March 7-21, 2019
Thimbleweed Park February 21-March 7, 2019
Axiom Verge February 7-21, 2019
The Jackbox Party Pack January 24-February 7, 2019
What Remains of Edith Finch January 11-24, 2019
Super Meat Boy December 28, 2018-January 10, 2019
Subnautica December 12-27, 2018

If none of those games take your fancy then there are plenty of free-to-play alternatives and discounted titles also available on Epic. Some of our F2P faves are there including Rocket League, Dauntless, and of course, Fortnite.

Source: Epic Games

Update: Microsoft cancel Xbox Live Gold price hike, will remove requirement for free-to-play online games

Update 23/01: The swift backlash to Microsoft's announce Xbox Live Gold price hike has seen Microsoft reverse their position and actually make a change for the better. There will now be no change to the current price structure, as of last July, and in addition, you will no longer need Xbox Live Gold in order to play free-to-play games like Fortnite, Rocket League and others online. Microsoft will make the change in the coming months

This is a great U-turn following a serious misstep by the company. The move would have doubled the price of Xbox Live Gold per year, and while you still can't buy a 12 month subscription for $59.99 on the Microsoft Store, it's available at retail.

Here's their statement:

We messed up today and you were right to let us know. Connecting and playing with friends is a vital part of gaming and we failed to meet the expectations of players who count on it every day. As a result, we have decided not to change Xbox Live Gold pricing.

We're turning this moment into an opportunity to bring Xbox Live more in line with how we see the player at the center of their experience. For free-to-play games, you will no longer need an Xbox Live Gold membership to play those games on Xbox. We are working hard to deliver this change as soon as possible in the coming months.

If you are an Xbox Live Gold member already, you stay at your current price for renewal. New and existing members can continue to enjoy Xbox Live Gold for the same prices they pay today. In the US, $9.99 for 1-month, $24.99 for 3-months, $39.99 for 6-months and $59.99 for retail 12-months.

Thank you.

The original article follows:

Microsoft have announced a price hike for Xbox Live Gold, their subscription service which enables online multiplayer on Xbox consoles and also bundles in monthly free games with Games with Gold. The price hike is such that Xbox Live Gold will now cost you twice as much per year than PlayStation Plus.

The price of a 1 month Gold membership is increasing by $1 USD to $10.99, while a 3 month membership is jumping up by $5 USD to $29.99, and a 6 month option will be offered at a flat $59.99. This price hike will roll out to many countries around the world, but regional pricing has yet to be revealed.

There's a bit of a freeze for existing subscribers, thankfully, with 12-month and 6-month members able to renew at the current prices. You have 45 days after you receive an email and a message centre notification on Xbox before the changes come into effect for those subscribers.

Microsoft justify the change saying "In many markets, the price of Xbox Live Gold has not changed for years and in some markets, it hasn't changed for over 10 years."

However, all of this comes after Microsoft decided to remove the 12 month and 24 month subscription options from the Microsoft Store last summer. Up until that point the 12 month Xbox Live Gold subscription cost $59.99. Now, just half a year later, Microsoft will charge the same $59.99 for a 6 month subscription. They've effectively doubled the price for a large number of their users – as a get out, you can still pick up 12 month subscriptions at retail, but these could quite easily disappear.

That's especially galling when PlayStation Plus is still 1 month for $9.99, 3 months for $24.99 and 12 months for $59.99, offering an equivalent online service and arguably featuring better, more valuable selections of free games each month.

Of course, this is all a push to get more people to upsell to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which bundles in a large library of games together with online multiplayer for $14.99 per month – without multi-month discount bundles. You can still do a straight upgrade  from Live Gold to Game Pass Ultimate, converting an existing subscription 1:1 when signing up for Ultimate, with a limit of up to 3 years. It's a mightily appealing option, but then that's why Microsoft are being so aggressive with the price of Gold.

While Game Pass is often touted as being a fantastic deal for gamers, we've also got to be plain and to the point about the other half of Microsoft's business: Xbox Live Gold is now a very bad deal.

Source: Xbox