The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes PS5 Download Size Will be Just Over 30 GB

The third game in Bandai Namco and Supermassive Games' anthology of horror adventure games, The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes, is launching less than two months from now, and ahead of its imminent launch, new details on the game have begun to emerge- such as how heavy its download will be, for instance.

Over on Twitter, the page @PlaystationSize reports that House of Ashes will have a download size of 30.015 GB on the PS5- though this will be without any patches the game may receive on launch date (which it probably will, as most games tend to do these days). It's also reported that pre-loading for the game will go live on October 20, a couple of days before release.

We can probably expect the game's size to be in a similar range on other consoles and on PC, though it's possible that the final file size will likely be lighter on the PS5 than other systems, thanks to the console's decompression.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes launches on October 22 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Former PlayStation Boss Has "No Idea" What Happened to Deep Down

Remember Deep Down? Capcom may have completely forgotten about it, but a lot of people do remember the game that never was. First unveiled as a PS4 exclusive way back in 2013, the promising-looking dungeon crawler immediately generated a lot of buzz, but time went on and updates and news on the game eventually fizzled out. Now, it's a game that basically doesn't exist (even though it officially hasn't been cancelled).

So what happened to it? Well, even some people who should know don't know at all. Speaking with Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, former Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shawn Layden was asked what happened to Deep Down, to which his response was a brief silence, followed by him saying, "I have no idea."

Over a year ago, it was claimed in reports that Deep Down had actually progressed pretty far in its development before it was eventually shelved. Interestingly enough, back in 2019, Capcom said that they still hadn't completely given up on the property, what with the trademark still being registered. Read more on that through here.

God of War: Ragnarok Will Supposedly Have Around 40 Hours of Content – Rumour

God of War (2018) was already the longest game in the series, with a main story that was at least twice as long as its predecessors and plenty of side content to dive into. God of War: Ragnarok (or whatever it ends up being called) will be expected to be bigger and better, same as any other sequel, and it's possible that it could be making a significant leap in terms of how much content it has on offer.

David Jaffe, the creator of God of War, recently uploaded a video to his YouTube channel in which he claims that based on what he's heard, the upcoming sequel will have 40 hours of gameplay, though he isn't sure if that's what the average play time will be or if it's for 100% completion.

"I'm hearing from people in the know that that game is 40 hours," Jaffe said. "They're aiming for 40 hours of gameplay. I don't know if that's a 100% Platinum Trophy completion, or if that's average play time."

Of course, this isn't guaranteed to happen. "Is it guaranteed? No," Jaffe added. "Things get cut, things get added. But what I can you right now- 40 hours of gameplay is what they're shooting for for the new God of War."

An average completion time of 40 hours would be a major increase from God of War (2018), which lasted around 20-25 hours. Then again, if the 40 hours being mentioned here are for 100% completion, then that would pretty much put Ragnarok in the same range as the 2018 game.

In the same video, Jaffe also said that the upcoming PlayStation Showcase will have plenty of announcements and updates for "traditional, great first party" PlayStation content. Read more on that through here.

God of War: Ragnarok is also expected to be shown at the event, according to leaks.

People Will "Lose Their Minds" – God of War Creator on Upcoming PlayStation Showcase Announcements

With the PlayStation Showcase coming up in just a few days, excitement within the PlayStation fanbase is continuing to ramp up, with the expectation being that Sony will be making plenty of major announcements and sharing new updates during the 40-minute show. And according to David Jaffe, creator of God of War and Twisted Metal, it's going to be a packed show indeed.

Jaffe recently took to Twitter to share that he has recently found out about a new PlayStation game (which he doesn't name) that is going to be revealed soon- and when it is, according to Jaffe, people will "lost their ****ing minds."

In a separate video he uploaded to his YouTube channel afterwards, even though he didn't name any games, he said that based on what he knows, those who are expecting "the traditional, great first-party PlayStation" won't be disappointed with what Sony shows off during the event. "That's going to be there with flying colours and I'm so excited to see the people's response to it," he said (transcribed by VGC).

Since the announcement of the PlayStation Showcase, some leaks and rumours have emerged for games that might possibly be shown off at the show, with the likes of God of War: Ragnarok, a new inFamous, and Forspoken all having been mentioned.

We will, of course, be keeping a close eye on everything that may or may not be announced at the event, so stay tuned for continued updates.

"Forspoken Content Pending," Actor Teases

When it comes to upcoming Square Enix games, most eyes are on Final Fantasy 16 right now. But that's not the only upcoming major PS5 exclusive from the Japanese publisher. Luminous Productions' Forspoken is also currently in the works and slated for a launch some time next year- and it's possible that we might be seeing more of it soon.

Ella Balinska, who is playing protagonist Frey Holland in Forspoken, recently uploaded a picture on Instagram that was accompanied with the caption "Forspoken content pending…" Of course, with the PlayStation Showcase coming up on September 9, it's entirely possible that we get to see more of Square Enix's game in action, and possibly even learn about a narrower launch window.

Square Enix is going to have a livestream during Tokyo Game Show later this month as well, but according to their schedule, they don't plan on showcasing Forspoken there, with the focus primarily being on Project Triangle Strategy, Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin, and Final Fantasy 14, among others.

We'll keep an eye out for any new details on when we might possibly be seeing Forspoken next, so stay tuned.

Final Fantasy 16 and Shin Megami Tensei 5 Top Famitsu Most Wanted Charts

Though Bandai Namco's upcoming action RPG Tales of Arise has largely dominated Famitsu's charts for the most highly anticipated upcoming games, recent weeks have seen it shifting around a little bit. A couple of weeks ago, Final Fantasy 16 climbed to the top, before promptly being displaced again. Now, however, Shin Megami Tensei 5 has claimed the No. 1 spot, with Final Fantasy 16 following behind in second place and trailing by just two votes.

Tales of Arise is in third place- more specifically, its PS4 version. The game's PS5 version is also in the charts, taking the eighth spot. Of course, collectively, the votes for both versions would mean that Tales of Arise would still top the charts.

Meanwhile, the rest of the top 10 continues to be dominated by upcoming Switch exclusives, including the likes of Bayonetta 3, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, Splatoon 3, Metroid Dread, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's unnamed sequel.

You can check out the full top 10 below. All votes were cast by Famitsu readers between August 5 and August 18.

1. [NSW] Shin Megami Tensei 5 – 763 votes
2. [PS5] Final Fantasy 16 – 761 votes
3. [PS4] Tales of Arise – 731 votes
4. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 – 590 votes
5. [NSW] Bayonetta 3 – 572 votes
6. [NSW] Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl – 438 votes
7. [NSW] Splatoon 3 – 350 votes
8. [PS5] Tales of Arise – 288 votes
9. [PS4] Super Robot Wars 30 – 286 votes
10. [NSW] Metroid Dread – 279 votes

[Via Nintendo Everything]

New inFamous Game Could Possibly be Announced at PlayStation Showcase – Rumour

Sucker Punch has always been known for making great games, from Sly Cooper to inFamous, but with Ghost of Tsushima, the developer has enjoyed far greater critical and commercial success than it did with any of its previous games. Logic would suggest that the developer will immediately be moving on to a Ghost of Tsushima sequel, but it's possible that one of their older properties could be coming back as well.

Xbox Era co-founder Nick Baker – who's had a rather solid track record with leaks, including PlayStation-related ones – recently took to Twitter and said that inFamous could be making a return at the PlayStation Showcase on September 9. Baker does emphasize that he couldn't confirm this himself and that you should take this with a grain of salt for now, so keep that in mind.

Another new inFamous game would please a lot of people, but if it does happen, it will be interesting to see if it's something that Sucker Punch is doing before it moves on to the next Ghost of Tsushima game or if inFamous has been handed off to an external studio.

PlayStation Showcase isn't far away, so we'll know for sure soon enough. Baker has previously also claimed that the next God of War will finally be shown off at the event as well- read more on that through here.

Death Stranding Director's Cut – Final Trailer Now Seemingly Coming on September 9

Death Stranding Director's Cut will be launching later this month, but before that happens, Hideo Kojima has a little bit more of the extended re-release to show. He's been working on a final trailer of the game for some time, and previously confirmed that the trailer would release on September 8. Now, however, it seems it has been (slightly) delayed.

On his Instagram page, Kojima uploaded an image that states Death Stranding Director's Cut's final trailer will be shown on September 9, which means it will most likely debut during the PlayStation Showcase. That said, around the same time, Kojima also posted a different picture on his Twitter page that says the trailer will come on September 8. So… who knows what's going on with this. It would make sense for the trailer to be shown during the big PS5 showcase, so there's that.

Death Stranding Director's Cut launches for PS5 on September 24. Recently, actor Norman Reedus suggested that a sequel was also being negotiated- read more on that through here.

PS5 Games Could Cost $200 Million to Make, Incentivizing Less Risky Projects, ex-PlayStation Boss Predicts

Developing video games is much costlier today than it used to be a decade ago, and it looks unlikely that that curve will stop rising anytime soon. As developer get access to better technologies and larger audiences and push for progressively larger and more ambitious games, the cost for actually developing them continues to rise as well. And according to Shawn Layden – former Sony Worldwide Studios boss who left PlayStation a couple of years ago – predicts that that is going to continue in the coming years.

Speaking with Bloomberg, Layden said that in his experience, development cost "seems to double in cost every platform", with all the major PS4 exclusives having had budgets of $100 million. According to him, the cost of developing a PS5 game will likely go up to $200 million.

Layden also noted that as development costs continue to inflate, developers and publishers will be incentivized to stick with projects with fewer risks involved, like sequels. He said: "If we can't stop the cost curve from going up, all we can do is try to de-risk it. That puts you in a place where you're incentivized toward sequels."

You don't need to look too hard at the things that have happened even in the past year that indicate such a shift in Sony's strategy. Earlier this year, reports emerged that Sony was shifting focus away from smaller, more experimental games and would instead focus primarily on big-budget AAA blockbusters, which tend to sell a lot more. A couple of months ago, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan also stated that Sony's internal studios would focus on AAA development, with smaller games coming from partnerships with external studios. Read more on that through here.

WRC 10 Review – Rally Cry

There's something incredibly special about the World Rally Championship. For as many real-life racing leagues or driving games that exist, the WRC is certainly one of the most interesting, unique ways to get behind the wheel. I love the idea that whether it's on a true track or just along a path in a jungle, it fulfills that dream of long, dangerous drives where you need to have mastered the craft to finish, much less succeed. Developer Kylotonn has done the tough deed of bringing the real-life WRC to your living room with steady upgrades over the past few installments since taking over the WRC franchise, and while WRC 10 isn't as comprehensively new as it is an incremental upgrade over last year's game, it still offers the most fine-tuned package the series has seen and rivals some of the best licensed racing games on the market.

"While WRC 10 isn't as comprehensively new as it is an incremental upgrade over last year's game, it still offers the most fine-tuned package the series has seen and rivals some of the best licensed racing games on the market."

The core of WRC lies in the gameplay, where tuning your car to match the track, terrain, and conditions ahead of you can not only make or break your ability to beat a record or win a race, but your ability to finish the track at all. Every turn is a dangerous balance between drifting, stopping, or accelerating, and even straightaways aren't always perfectly safe. Becoming familiar with the ways cars handle is vital to your success, and WRC 10's upgrades on the handling front are mostly smaller changes, making the cars feel that much more varied and forcing you to make more precise decisions regarding turning, accelerating, and what risks you're willing to take. The decisions translate to the car setup as well, which requires you to actively consider what you'll be facing during your race, especially as you decide which tires to fit for your car. If you're on a normal gravel course on a sunny day, hard gravel tires will do the trick, but try to bring those tires on a night with a blizzard and you'll hit every wall the course has to offer or go flying off a mountainside.

Damage has gotten a slight precision upgrade, too, though it's hard to tell such a difference when the damage goes to such a small level. There are multiple areas of your car that you can damage that go deeper than the normal car quadrants. If you crash head-first into barriers too often, then you might lose your headlights or, in a worst case scenario, destroy your engine, but if you drive too much on the edge of a mountain, you might lose one side of your tires and struggle with turning. The precision with both damage and driving does sometimes undermine itself, as it doesn't always make total sense which part of your car was damaged or why you didn't make a certain turn, but I'll forgive it for the moments where you spin a perfect drift and catch a turn without a hitch.

What really makes the WRC series as a whole, and WRC 10 is no exception, is the amount of content it has to offer. While with other racing games there's a tendency to want to run the same courses over and over, there are so many different tracks here that it's forgivable if you completely forget how a certain track is laid out by the time you come back to it. Among the new tracks this year are Croatia, Estonia, and Spain, each of which just adds to the amount of variety and enjoyability that the game offers. The tracks are all gorgeous, too, whether it's raining, bright and sunny, or dimly lit. Of course, the tracks aren't static either, and they change dramatically when certain weather and day-night effects come into play, each of which is much more impressive on the next-gen consoles than in past games. There really isn't a way to run out of content in WRC 10 at all, since you'll always be working to perfect a course with any number of combinations of tires, weather, or light.

WRC 10

"What really makes the WRC series as a whole, and WRC 10 is no exception, is the amount of content it has to offer."

Career Mode is the key way the WRC series has structured its gameplay over the past few years, and this year's career is mostly similar to last year's with a few upgrades. The basic structure of the Career is that you are a rally driver that manages every aspect of your team, from the off-track team management and R&D to the on-track racing and repairs. Every month, there are four time slots that are used for a single activity, from a rally to team building or even resting. There are some nuances to these aspects, such as the fatigue of certain team members that requires you to rest, but I wouldn't say it's as detailed off the track as something like F1's MyTeam mode. On the track, though, races are even more complicated than normal, since you have to manage repair time for each part of your car between races. You don't have the time or money to repair everything at once, so you sometimes have to make tough decisions to, say, leave your headlights at risk in favor of fixing your engine. All in all, the Career Mode is easily the best and most comprehensive way to play, giving you the best opportunity to see everything the game has to offer in one place.

The biggest new addition to this year's entry is the Anniversary Mode, which you can experience either in the standalone mode or as single events in the Career. These races cover some of the most famous events and vehicles from the history of the sport to celebrate its 50th anniversary, including the Acropolis in Greece, the first WRC race. These races are special in their own right, since the game does a good job of making them feel like they're historical events. They only unlock sequentially when you beat certain times, though, and the times are both very long and frustratingly strict. I had multiple races that had limits pushing 7 minutes that I missed by less than 10 seconds, and doing the entire race again is a little more stressful than it's worth. That said, these races are enjoyable for what they are, but I wouldn't go out of my way to prioritize this mode long-term over a Career.

On the technical front, the game benefits strongly from next-generation consoles both in presentation and performance. Klyotonn clearly put a lot of effort into sound upgrades, as the sound is much more dynamic and precise than ever before. Cars look beautiful as well, especially when you see them up close in the livery, though the character models from the crowds leave a bit more to be desired. Load times are impressive, too, as long races load in just a matter of seconds and cause almost no framerate drops or visual glitches.

WRC 10

"On the technical front, the game benefits strongly from next-generation consoles both in presentation and performance."

As compared to past versions of the WRC franchise, WRC 10 doesn't add an incredible amount. Its Anniversary Mode is a great new place to see the history of the sport, and some of the tweaks are welcomed, but I don't see it as a huge upgrade over last year. As it compares to other racing games, though, anyone looking for that feeling of rallying, especially requiring pinpoint precision and dynamic car changes, has another fantastic experience built for them, and anyone who hasn't experienced the series before can jump into the best game in the series so far and find the best long-distance rally package on the market.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox Series X.