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Metal Gear Solid Creator Hideo Kojima Is Skeptical About An All-Digital Future

Kojima Productions' founder and legendary game designer Hideo Kojima recently took to Twitter to express some of his concerns about an all-digital future. In the tweet, he states that digital ownership of any media can be taken away from consumers if an unprecedented event of a global scale occurs in the near future.

While the debate surrounding physical vs digital media has been raging increasingly, it's quite obvious that the future is looking to be more of the latter. Furthermore, the growing popularity of services like Netflix, PS Now, and Xbox Game Pass means that fans don't even have to own a digital copies of movies, music, book or games to access it.

Kojima Productions is currently hard at work on the upcoming Death Stranding: Director's Cut. Rumors have been doing the rounds regarding a potential partnership with Xbox, and legions of PlayStation fans even started a petition to cancel any such deal.

Halo Infinite's Xbox File Size Possibly Leaked – Rumor

343's upcoming Halo Infinite is one of the most highly-anticipated releases of this year, and it seems that the game's file size has been leaked. The leaker in question posted a picture of the game's listing on the Xbox store on Twitter, which shows that the file size is 97.24 GB.

However, the leaker hasn't mentioned about the console for which this file-size is listed for. Some have speculated that this is the Xbox Series X version, which means that fans on last-gen and Xbox Series S can expect marginally lower file sizes. A point to note here is that the information isn't confirmed yet, so best to take it with a grain of salt.

That being said, it's no surprise. Gears of War 4 and 5 have similarly huge file sizes, and so do the latest Forza Horizon games. Impressions for the latest Halo Infinite flight test have been largely positive, and fans are now clamoring more than ever for the latest in Master Chief's adventures.

High-Speed SSDs Can Improve PS5 Performance, Analysis Suggests

A recent analysis conducted by Digital Foundry suggests that upgrading the PS5's SSD can hold some noticeable implications for performance. Digital Foundry used a Samsung 980 Pro SSD in its suite of tests, which is obviously enough quite a bit faster than PS5's internal storage.

The tests reveal little to no impact on loading speeds and frame-rates in PS5 games, but PS4 games running in back-compat mode do benefit from this bump. Games with relatively long loading times such as The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 do benefit in a noticeable manner, and so do general transfer speeds across the board.

The PS5's latest beta firmware allows for expanding the storage using the additional M.2 SSD slot. Gigabyte, Seagate, and WD have revealed their PS5-compatible SSDs, which boast speeds around the same 7,000 MB/s mark as the Samsung 980 Pro. We recently compiled a list of the best SSDs to consider for the PS5, which you can check out below.

Intellivision Amico Delayed For The Third Time, Now Releasing By The End of The Year

Intellivision's upcoming console, the Amico has been delayed for the third time in a row now. In an email sent out to customers who pre-ordered the console, Intellivision revealed the information and later took to Twitter to share the news. The console is now expected to release by the end of the year.

This is the third delay in a row, and Intellivision originally planned to release the console in October of 2020. The manufacturer has cited reasons pertaining to unprecedented international component supply and logistics issues, which is quite obvious given that there is a global shortage of silicon and all-related hardware.

Intellivision currently has upwards of 10,000 pre-orders on the line. The Intellivison Amico is aimed at family-friendly fun and will feature fan-favorites like Earthworm Jim. The company seems to be aiming towards a very specific niche audience, and there is quite the chance that the company might be gearing up for a comeback with the Amico.

No Man's Sky Celebrates 5th Anniversary, Frontiers Update Teased

No Man's Sky is now five years old, having launched on August 8th 2016. It was fairly controversial at the time due to the numerous bugs and missing features like multiplayer. But over the years, Hello Games has released numerous free updates and improved it significantly. To celebrate the title's fifth anniversary, a new trailer has been released – check it out below.

At the end, the next big free update is also teased with "Frontiers." While no release window was provided outside of "coming soon," Hello Games founder Sean Murray did provide some more details on the PlayStation Blog. "In some ways it is just another update, but in other ways it's a missing piece of the sci-fi fantasy that we've always wanted to add, and very fitting for our fifth anniversary." Murray noted that there was "still a lot we want to try, so much we are still excited for" and this next step was not too far off.

More details on Frontiers will be provided "very soon" so it's just a matter of waiting. No Man's Sky is currently available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. Its last major update, Prisms, added a number of visual improvements to the title like Parallax Occlusion Mapping, screen space reflections, new interiors for space stations, DLSS support and much more. Learn more about it here.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice Has Been Optimized for Xbox Series X/S

Four years on from its original launch, Ninja Theory's excellent action-adventure title Hellblade: Senua's Saga has received a dedicated optimization for the Xbox Series X/S. It adds DirectX raytracing, boasts enriched visuals, and also features a resolution mode, among other bells and whistles. Check out its trailer below.

With little to no fanfare, this definitely comes as quite a surprise- but, as the meme goes, a welcome one. Hellblade was already an excellent-looking game back when it first came out, so the promise of an even more technically impressive version is a salivating one.

With Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 currently in the works but a ways off yet, this should serve as a nice appetizer. If you haven't yet played the first game, this should be the perfect excuse to give it a go. Read our review for the original release to see why you definitely should.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is also available on Xbox One, PS4, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

Humankind Will be Available Via Xbox Game Pass for PC on Day 1

First party Microsoft games being available via Xbox Game Pass on the day of launch has already been an unbelievably good deal for subscribers of the service, but more and more, we've been seeing major third party releases pledging immediate available through the service as well. Another upcoming game has now joined that ever-growing list.

It has been announced that Humankind will be available via Xbox Game Pass for PC when it launches later this month. Humankind, in case you are not aware, is Amplitude Studios and Sega's turn-based 4X strategy game inspired by the Civilization series, and has looked quite promising in all of its showings so far- definitely one for genre fans to keep an eye on. Its Game Pass availability should ensure that quite a few people will check it out.

A closed beta of the game is currently available to all those who pre-ordered it. Humankind launches in full for PC and Stadia on August 17.

Examining the Enduring Quality of GTA Online

Of all of the various triumphs of the last generation, few of them have proven to have legs as much as GTA Online. Sure, games like Fortnite, PUBG, and a few other online-focused experiences have panned out to be the juggernauts they were so clearly designed to be, but perhaps what's most impressive about GTA Online is that it ended up being a tangential companion experience to a single-player campaign that ended up being able to stand toe to toe with the absolute best of what online gaming has had to offer in this generation. Even more impressive, it's an online mode for a single player game that is nearly a decade old, having originally come out way back in 2013 on consoles that are now two generations back. You don't see that every day, and it's certainly a feat that you've got to hand it to Rockstar for being able to pull off. Even still, it's worth looking into just why that is. After all this time, why do gamers still love Grand Theft Auto Online so much?

The first and most obvious thing that Grand Theft Auto Online has going for it is the fact that it's built upon the Grand Theft Auto 5 engine which is a tried-and-true set of tools that Rockstar has used to create outstanding experiences for many years. This allows for a vast array of things to do, a staggering amount of detail to look at while doing them, and a game that runs pretty darn well all things considered. The draw distances are insane as you can see for miles from any ledge overlooking Los Santos, and while doing so it can be a bit crazy to think about how great it all still looks despite its age.

From that, we naturally have to talk about what is perhaps Grand Theft Auto Online's strongest asset; the absolutely insane variety of modes available to play and things to do. From cooperative heists, F1-style races, to wackier modes like "deadline" that put you in what is basically a Tron game where you race around and avoid hitting the ever-growing tail you leave behind without stopping. It all adds up to an experience that is so dauntingly vast with things to do, that it ultimately feels more like a platform of its own than a single game once you've really wrapped your mind around it all. The best part is that the modes are still getting updates and tweaks, and new stuff is still coming out after all this time, so GTA Online is very well-positioned to be a game that once you're hooked, it's basically impossible to become un-hooked.

This of course leads us to the next very important thing about GTA Online; it's an absolutely massive and super dedicated community. Any multiplayer focused video game obviously sinks or swims by how well it's able to garner a community of players. No matter what else is at play, no matter how great or horrible an online game is, it's success will ultimately be determined by its audience. Keeping in line with that, Grand Theft Auto Online's success is pretty much directly proportional to its ability to garner and maintain a massive audience of dedicated players. In Grand Theft Auto Online's case, it's not only created a massive audience, but it's created a massive audience that has also proven they are more than willing to shell out more of their hard-earned money for in-game items on a massive scale.

This, perhaps more than anything else, has shown the folks at Rockstar that this game is a true, one-in-a-generation success. The sheer amount of money and content that the Grand Theft Auto Online community has contributed to the experience is staggering by any reasonable measure. The game generated nearly a billion dollars in revenue for Rockstar in 2020 alone, which is still less than half of what Fortnite did, but to be even comparable to a behemoth like Fortnite is something worth commending. Especially for a game that is nearly ten years old and whose online functionality wasn't even its original selling point like it arguably is now. All in all, the community of GTA 5 is its lifeblood, and given the staggering amount of success they've found with this approach, there is little reason to think that this will change about the game any time soon. So when it's all said and done the community inside of Grand Theft Auto Online is far and away the most important part of why gamers love it so much and continue to flock to it in droves.

gta online

Of course, we can't talk about Grand Theft Auto without giving a mention to the insane amount of control and customization that it affords the players. Even today, with games that tout their customization and freedom as their main selling points, nothing has really come close to GTA 5. It's true that this has been a staple of the franchise for a long time. Changing your character's outfits, how they look, what sort of car they drive, what sort of house they live in, and even various parameters of multiple game modes are up for tweaking to the players' liking. This is not only a great aspect of GTA 5 in and of itself, but it's also something that leads to an almost infinite amount of replayability for the game's many modes. Playing through part of the game one way is fine but then you can do it again in an entirely different way and with an entirely different character or with an entirely different sort of vehicle which can completely change the experience from top to bottom. So when you really factor in the sheer amount of things to do in Grand Theft Auto Online and the sheer amount of ways to play all of those modes with all of the customization options in front of you it's hard to describe it as anything other than limitless. It might not literally be limitless but seeming that way is about as good, and GTA 5 does that in all the right ways.

There really is nothing on the market quite like Grand Theft Auto Online. From the staggering amount of things to do and wide array of ways to do them, it's an experience that just has to be played to be believed. No website article could ever really do the depth of the experience justice. You just need to dive in and see for yourself. While getting the amount of cash you need to really get to the good stuff can be a bit of a grind, especially if you're trying to avoid spending more real-world money in the game, the game provides such a gargantuan amount of things to do and ways to explore that you could just as well quit thinking about the grind and just have fun while the metrics your looking to fill ultimately take care of themselves. While you might not really get what Grand Theft Auto Online is all about by looking at it from the outside, once you dive in, it's impossible to not see why the game has stuck around and remained so relevant for so long.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 – A Look at the Fall and Recovery of DICE's Controversial Shooter

The story of the new Star Wars Battlefront games is really also part of a larger story; the story of Star Wars itself. The franchise has been through it all over the years, with massive ups and abysmal downs. This isn't unheard of for franchises as big as Star Wars, though. With movies, TV shows, comics and games spanning over several decades, you're bound to have a few stinkers. If you are even casually a fan of the Star Wars property then you are probably at least somewhat familiar with the franchise's dual-ability to hit the target just right for fans just as well as totally miss it, and the video games for Star Wars are no different in that regard.

The first Battlefront reboot game was underwhelming for sure, as it lacked content generally and didn't really delve into the strengths of the original Battlefront games like the massive battle scenes, variety of characters, and compelling single player campaign that made the game such a classic for its time. Instead, it felt like a shallow cash-in. Thankfully, part of the promise of Battlefront 2 was that it would address most of what was missing from the previous game. While it would make some meaningful strides in that direction, it would also cause a monumental calamity for the series, its publisher EA, and gaming as a whole that would go down in history as one of gaming biggest snafus of recent years. Even more interesting, the game would also recover and reshape its image in such a positive way, that it's now seeing a healthy resurgence in popularity that few games that stumble out of the gate get to experience.

Battlefront 2 was indeed an improvement upon the previous Battlefront reboot. It was a meatier game, a better looking game, and would actually have a decent campaign. More locations, more characters, and more vehicles than the last game was a noticeable nod to the fans who had been giving feedback to EA since the launch of the last game. The promise of Battlefront 2 was a good one, and after many felt like they had a positive experience with the beta, there was all the reason in the world to be excited for Battlefront 2's impending release. It really seemed like EA had learned their lesson from the last game and were doing their level best to put out a game that was finally worthy of the Star Wars name, or at least the Battlefront name.

The problem was that so much of the content that was teased to players was functionally out of reach for players who didn't have hundreds of hours to spare for the enormous amount of grinding that would be needed to even have a chance at the things they wanted. The game had an in-game currency that wouldn't be spent on the things wanted, but chances at those items through a gambling loot box system. Given the loot box mechanics and the insane amount of in-game currency needed to actually get anywhere, it was painfully obvious, right at the get go, that the game was purposefully and thoroughly designed around herding its players into spending actual money – and a lot of it – to get the things they wanted and play the game how they intended. This not only sparked outrage among the dedicated Star Wars fans who felt bamboozled by the bait and switch, but also normalized this practice arguably more than any game before or since, which is a sin that many gamers still don't forgive EA and DICE for. Perhaps rightly so.

The game would go on to get lambasted by the community at every turn. While the progression system was perhaps its most egregious error, the truth is, that was far from its only problem. Online play was not as reliable as many were led to believe it would be, the campaign was largely ho-hum, and the Clone Wars era was basically entirely missing from the game – with basically no representation with characters or locations.

A couple DLC expansions and re-balancing updates later, it seemed that EA was going in the right direction with the game, but dragging their feet at the same time. Small tweaks to the balancing of certain weapons and abilities were not really helpful in light of the games more foundational issues. Many gamers suspected that EA was milking the loot box progression system for as long as they possibly could, while other publishers were taking note of the practice and implementing their own versions of it. Thankfully, eventually, after months of criticism and legal challenges, a new progression system would be implemented in Battlefront 2 that would resemble the progression in similar, more straightforward games. You could upgrade what you wanted at your own pace and feel consistently rewarded for actually engaging with the game as opposed to grinding and blind luck.

star wars battlefront 2

The characters were all unlockable, and more expansions were released for free, including the "Night on Endor" update that would offer a very different flavor of the game that almost felt like a horror game at times. EA and DICE would keep the goods coming though. Soon, they would release new outfits from the classic films, maps, as well as new modes like the classic fan-favorite "extraction" mode and a compelling 2v2 "heroes vs villains" mode, as well as a lot more would come out for free, for all Battlefront 2 players. They would even release Clone Wars content like General Grievous and young Obi-Wan hero characters. Some much-needed improvements to the lightsaber combat making it far more fun to use would also drop. 2019 would be a great year for the game with even more heroes including Darth Maul, and an extremely fun capital supremacy mode. It would amount to quite a lot of content, that, had it been included at launch, probably could have saved the game a lot of its initial criticism, but as it stands, it went a long way towards repairing the damage done by the game's many initial blunders.

It's tough to say if Star Wars Battlefront 2 should be regarded as a success at this point. I suppose it is in a monetary sense, and it certainly is a success in terms of redemption, but there is no undoing what was one of the last generation's biggest missteps. That said, the redemption arc of the game is nothing to shake a stick at. Outside of perhaps, No Man's Sky, no other game has redeemed itself so thoroughly as Battlefront 2 in recent memory. While EA still certainly has a ways to go to repair its general reputation, which has been contributed to by multiple anti-consumer mistakes over the last many years, the resuscitation of Battlefront 2 should not go unnoticed. With EA also bring back Dead Space and likely working on a better Mass Effect game worth of that moniker, perhaps EA is finally turning over that new leaf that we've been hoping they would for so long.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Apex Legends – Seer Will Receive Balance Updates in Next Patch

With the release of Apex Legends' newest season, Emergence, the meta has been shaken up significantly with the introduction of Seer. The tracker is incredibly potent, capable of seeing through walls and detecting other players by their heartbeats. If that weren't enough, he can also interrupt actions.

In a recent Reddit AMA, developers at Respawn Entertainment fielded questions about Seer and whether he would be balanced appropriately. Gameplay engineer Travis Nordin responded that, "Seer has launched strong, which was the hope. He's also brought a lot of new gameplay elements to the game (HP bars, interrupt) which has driven a lot of discussion with players, which is great to see."

That being said, he's a bit "too strong" and the developer is looking to deploy some balance updates for him in an "upcoming patch." When asked if this patch would be deployed mid-season, Nordin said that it would be "sooner than that." Until then, the Seer meta will reign supreme so enjoy it while it lasts.

Aside from balance changes, Respawn is also working on key features like cross-progression and an update for Xbox Series X/S and PS5. While no ETA was provided for the latter, the former is slated to go live in 2022. For more details on the same, head here.