Less than 18 months after it was first rolled out, Tesla is allegedly pulling Steam support from its vehicles.
Back in December 2022, Tesla confirmed games like Cuphead, Sonic, and Cyberpunk 2077 could be played as part of a native beta Steam app in the company's S and X models.
Now, according to Electrek, the company is seemingly reversing that decision.
Capcom is once again remaking Resident Evil 1.
That's according to noted horror genre leaker Dusk Golem and survival horror YouTuber Biohazard Declassified, both of whom have stepped up this weekend with rumours that Capcom is looking to breathe new life into the game that started it all, the very first Resident Evil.
Biohazard Declassified says they received an anonymous email that claims the game – with the working title, Biohazard: Resident Evil 1 – will be slower paced than RE2 Remake, feature a "different this person camera", and explore RE1's lore "further".
Palworld developer Pocketpair wants you to know it's been hard at work developing some "long-awaited features" that we "don't want to miss".
In a statement posted to social media, the Palworld team teased that the viral game will be stopping by at next month's Summer Game Fest with "a LOT of exciting things to reveal".
As for what those things will be? Sadly, Pocketpair has been taciturn ever since, but the tease about "long-awaited features" has a lot of fans speculating, hoping for a myriad of announcements, from a fix to the fall-through-the-floor issue that's plaguing some Xbox players, to possible variants of Pals – as teased in the accompanying image above – to news that a PS5 release is finally on the way.
A dataminer thinks they've stumbled upon the release date for Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero.
Poking around in publisher Bandai Namco's website, SergioM3R claims they found evidence that the next Dragon Ball game will drop on 1st October, 2024.
As detailed in the video above, SergioM3R has "found a place containing the release dates for a lot of Bandai Namco games", and the list seems to include the release dates of both confirmed and unconfirmed titles not via a third party, but via "Bandai Namco's own official data".
A cookbook featuring over 50 recipes inspired by Stardew Valley is now available.
The recipe guide – which includes step-by-step instructions for delectable delights like Strange Bun and Seafoam Pudding – is written in collaboration with Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone and features "photos, appearances from Stardew Valley’s characters, and delightful illustrations".
"Welcome to Stardew Valley, where each season brings a new crop of bountiful food to make for friends and family," teases the blurb. "From farm staples like veggies, fruit, milk, and eggs to foraged mushrooms and berries to fresh fish, there's always something delicious to put on the table.
The live-action adaptation of The Legend of Zelda is being developed in "as closest possible collaboration" with the "true genius" of Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto.
In an interview with Deadline, as spotted by The Gamer, Sony Motion Pictures Group chair Tom Rothman stressed the importance of "big IP movies" for the company, asserting that "The Legend of Zelda is going to be huge for us".
"He’s a true genius in that world, and it’s really his strong vision that is motivating it," Rothman said of Miyamoto. "He created it and understands it thoroughly. You only [have] to look at the results of Super Mario Brothers to see.
It's been a long time since I played the original Prey from Human Head Studios, but I still vividly remember so much of it thanks to how groundbreaking the gravity-defying, portal-hopping gameplay was at the time. There were so many mind-blowing moments as you followed protagonist Tommy Tawodi on the search for his girlfriend Jen through the gigantic and often very goopy interior of an alien space craft. The way the game played with the very concept of 3D space and even your sense of scale was epic to say the least, but how does this all transfer to VR? How does it feel to jump through portals and walk up walls when you're fully immersed in the experience?
Well, that's what I'm investigating in this week's episode of VR Corner, as I finally take Prey's flat screen to VR mod for a spin on the Quest 3. This standalone mod, which was created by a modder named Luboš who utilised some of Team Beef's VR code for Doom3Quest has been available to download on Sidequest for over a year now. Handily, it includes a free demo of the first 90 minutes of the game with the download. This means you can try it out to see if your stomach can handle all the gravity flipping action, even if you don't own the full game.
Featuring full VR controller aiming and roomscale, Prey VR runs fairly well as a standalone app on the Quest 3. As you'll see in the video however, there are a few perfomance issues here and there. Whilst rare, lower framerates are sometimes noticable when looking through large portals that appear in big rooms and, for some reason, especially when Tommy is in spirit form during the spirit-walking tutorial. Other than that there's a few minor graphical hiccups surrounding the portals themselves but it's all forgiveable when you're confronted by the majesty of the rest of the experience.
FromSoft has dropped a new tease about the "fearsome foes of unfathomable power" that await us when Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree drops next month.
The image – which is about as hard to describe as the creature will inevitably be to beat – shows a muscular being with horned, uh, tendril things, a cracked golden mask for a face, and long grey hair flowing out of its right eye socket.
I love Uatu, the Watcher. I love to reference him in conversations. I like to use him in elaborate Marvel-themed analogies when winning arguments. I love to put him in articles, although he often gets edited out. Uatu is one of my favourite Marvel characters. I am Uatu 4 Life.
Now, if you play Marvel Snap, the collectible card game based on Marvel's heroes, you'll know that there's an Uatu card in there. He's interesting, too. Uatu comes with one cost, two power, and when he's in your deck he reveals the right-most location to you at the start so you can plan ahead a little. Uatu's one of the first cards people generally get to play with, and he speaks in a cool voice when you use him, and the reveal effect is nice and dramatic. But there's a problem. He's not a junk card, but he's a card you should probably move past pretty early on in most cases. There are better cards out there that do more useful things and give you a bit more bang in the early game.
Here is my specific problem, though. As an Uatu mega-fan, I am never going to not use him. And this means that my deck basically has one fewer functional slots than most people's decks. Call it fan tax: a seat is always reserved for Uatu, and so my other cards have to work around him.
Assassin's Creed Shadows pre-orders are "looking very strong".
That's according to notable – and often accurate – leaker Tom Henderson, who claims that "no one in the know [at Ubisoft] is disappointed" with the number of pre-orders the highly-anticipated action-RPG has secured so far.
"Assassin's Creed Shadows pre-orders are looking very strong," Henderson said in his full, if brief, statement on Twitter/X. "I don't have the exact numbers yet, but no one in the know is disappointed with them."
Star Citizen is free to play until 29th May 2024.
The free play period – timed to mark Invictus Launch Week 2954 – enables players to download and play the game for free during the event and "test pilot all 87 military vehicles for a limited time", with all ships available to test drive for the final three days of the show. You can also expect "surprise reveals" throughout the week, too.
"A variety of collaborative in-game events designed in the spirit of 'One Empire', and how each citizen’s individual contributions help create humanity's unrivaled power of unity that has taken it beyond the stars, showcase the might of the UEE Navy and invites citizens to explore the vessels that keep the ‘verse safe," Cloud Imperium Games teases.
Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone says he's "not too concerned with the pressure" of releasing Haunted Chocolatier, saying, "it's better to have a delayed game that's actually good than a bad game that's on time".
In an interview about his plans for Stardew Valley's following its recent 1.6 update, Barone said that he doesn't feel pressured to create a follow-up game, stating: "It's a game that I'm deciding to make. I don't need to make it".
"[Fan expectation] definitely puts pressure on me," Barone told Aftermath. "But it's better to have a delayed game that's actually good than a bad game that's on time. When it's ready, that's when I'll release it. I'm not too concerned with the pressure. I don't feel like I owe anyone anything when it comes to Haunted Chocolatier. It's a game that I'm deciding to make. I don't need to make it.
Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut is PlayStation's fourth-biggest launch on Steam in terms of concurrent players.
As noted by SteamDB, the highly anticipated PC port has had more simultaneous players than several notable Sony games since its launch on Thursday, 16th May, boasting a concurrent record of 61,453 at the time of writing.
Only Helldivers 2, God of War, and Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered sport higher concurrent stats at 458,709, 73,529, and 66,436 players, respectively.
Year three, at least, and I continue to play Dark Souls very, very slowly. Actually, that's not true. Sometimes I play in frantic bursts. At others I let it lie for months and months with no progress at all. I'm still relatively early on, deep in a dungeon that looks like the inside of someone's ear, about to fight a spidery boss. In Souls terms, I'm nowhere, a total novice. Yet I never would have gotten this far if it wasn't for bonfires.
Bonfires in Dark Souls are fascinating. In a game filled with incredibly good ideas, they may be my favourite incredibly good idea. They're actually at the heart of everything I love: I love the fact that in these games you move a little lens of available health around an incredibly deadly environment, always feeling like you're making progress, but simultaneously feeling like you're over-extending yourself. It's why progress feels so illicit: I got this far, but I'm sure I'm about to die in amongst all the new things I'm seeing. Bonfires are at the heart of that system, because they provide the base you return to, they provide the network of bases, like handholds on the game's rugged cliff face.
I love the way the environment interlocks, too: the way you'll head off upwards or downwards, see some incredible stuff, and feel thoroughly lost. But you trust the game and you know that if you keep going far enough, if you follow a trail with sufficient patience, it will inevitably oxbow in some fascinating way and bring you back to where you started, but facing in the other direction. Magic! Absolutely magic, if you ask me, and guess what: bonfires are at the heart of all that too. In a game of loops and snarls and dangerous tangles, they provide clear junction points, a moment to rest and say: ah, I'm here. I'm somewhere.
In news that should be of no surprise to anyone given Fortnite's all-consuming nature, post-apocalyptic RPG series Fallout will soon be making an appearance in the battle royale game.
Fallout is, of course, currently enjoying a bit of a renaissance thanks to Amazon's recent live-action TV adaptation, making it a prime target for the popularity vampire that is Fortnite.
Fortnite's impending Fallout collaboration was teased on its official X account, where a winky face and thumbs-up emoji (squint a bit and it could be Vault Boy) accompanied an image of someone in T-60 power armour staring pensively out of frame amid clouds of belching smoke.
Endless Legend, the superb fantasy 4X game from developer Amplitude Studios, is currently free to download and keep on Steam - and there's still almost a week to claim it.
Amplitude - which has also developed the likes of Endless Space, Dungeons of the Endless, and Humankind - released Endless Legend back in 2014. It quickly drew praise for its fantasy flavoured Civ-style strategy - enlivened by some smart twists on the formula and its highly distinctive factions - mixed with a heavy dollop of lore.
If you're still a stranger to Endless Legend's action some ten years after its release, and the above description has set your strategy nubbin a-tingling, you can permanently add it to your Steam library for the princely sum of zero money right now. And don't panic if you're currently indisposed: the offer runs until next Thursday, 23rd May.
A final update is on its way to Redfall after all.
Following the news Microsoft was closing a number of Bethesda studios including Redfall developer Arkane Austin, it was reported the team was working on DLC and updates - including an offline mode - until very recently.
A new post on X, however, states the update is still on the way. "Thank you all for your supportive messages," it reads. "We are working to release our final update, Game Update 4, that brings revamped Neighbourhood and Nest systems, Single Player Pausing, Offline Mode, and more. We'll provide additional details soon. Thank you all."
Microsoft plans to launch this year's Call of Duty via Xbox Game Pass for the first time, in a first for the franchise.
That's according to The Wall St Journal, which today reported that Microsoft had now made the decision ahead of the game's formal unveiling next month.
While Xbox has always brought new first-party games to Xbox Game Pass on day one, and Activision Blizzard is now a Microsoft first-party publisher following the completion of its $68.7bn takeover, there had still been a question mark over whether Call of Duty would be included.
Fortnite players were last night treated to a mini live event, as the battle royale capped off its current Greek god season, and set up a grittier, heavy metal-infused new season to come.
The event seemed to show a moment of revenge from the now-felled Greek god Zeus, as his statue charged up the map's enormous Pandora's Box and unleashed a new threat to the Island.
The action began at 7pm UK time when, for the third day running, Zeus' giant statue atop Mount Olympus began glowing with light. In-game combat was temporarily paused as the statue raised its sword aloft and red lightning shot upwards - and then came crashing down onto Pandora's Box.
Microsoft is adding the ability to pre-download game updates before their scheduled release.
The feature, which is already available on PlayStation, allows you to download hefty game updates days before their release. Then, when the update is formally released, the update simply installs - meaning less wait time to get playing.
Microsoft has begun rolling out the feature to those in the Alpha ring of Xbox Insider testers, before it filters down to more people and eventually becomes public in the coming weeks.
Creative Assembly is reportedly working on three new Total War games, including an officially licensed Star Wars game.
The news comes from DualShockers, which has reported as of October 2023 Total War: Star Wars was one of three games in development at the studio.
The studio's most recent game was Total War: Pharaoh, but a Star Wars game would see it return to the more fantastical settings of Total War: Warhammer and (to an extent) Total War: Three Kingdoms.
There's a lot of good stuff out this week. For starters, Indika looks weird and fascinating, while Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, the latest from the geniuses at Simogo, promises to tie my brain into bows for the next few months: more on that game soon. Either of these would be an ideal game of the week. But then Danny DeVito entered the picture, with the hopeful suggestion that he would be playing Wario in a new Mario movie. And after that there was only one game - one game, and, simultaneously, hundreds.
(Quick aside here: Danny DeVito is probably up there with my favourite directors. He has never missed. But also, Throw Momma from the Train is a legit classic and a case study in how to creatively update Hitchcock. Please give it a(nother) watch soon. It's a Midnight Run-tier movie. "This is like Fred Flintstone's car wash!")
I remember being slightly freaked out by Wario when I first saw him as a kid. I think it was an advert for Mario Land on the Game Boy, and this digital Wario popped out at the end of the ad and properly did a number on me. Scroll forward, though, and his appearance on the GBA in the form of the first WarioWare game marks one of the most joyous moments in all of gaming.
Fae Farm and Dauntless developer Phoenix Labs is undergoing a significant restructure, cancelling all other projects and laying off around 140 staff.
The studio shared the news in a LinkedIn post, stating that after a "long period of evaluating how to navigate our economic environment, we have had to significantly restructure the company to pave a path for a strong future."
The statement does not specify how many staff are affected by layoffs, but principal engineer Kris Morness posted "about 140" people have been impacted. What's more, one of the cancelled projects includes a game set to be announced in a month's time.
Hades 2 creative director Greg Kasavin said the game will be in early access "at least through the end of this year".
The much-anticipated rogue-lite sequel released into early access on PC on 6th May, though it's unknown when the game will be fully released.
Speaking to PC Gamer in the wake of the game's first patch, Kasavin detailed Supergiant's plans for the foreseeable future.
Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've been playing over the past few days. This week, we look up at the sky, with our eyes and through our phones; we live out our fantasies as a tiny fire trying to find their way home; and we find the best cat game you have probably never heard of.
What have you been playing?
If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.
Valve's next game is an Overwatch-style third-person hero shooter named Deadlock, a new report has stated.
Details have emerged from an ongoing closed alpha playtest of the game, which veteran Valve reporter Tyler McVicker said currently has "hundreds" of people playing, ahead of an imminent public announcement for the project.
Competitive gaming YouTubers have also now been invited to try the build - and perhaps inevitably, it looks like someone has decided to break their NDA.
Rockstar's GTA 5 has now sold over 200m copies.
This news, said Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, exceeded the company's forecast. By its previous financial report, GTA 5 had sold 195m copies - so that's another 5m copies since February.
"We are thrilled that more than a decade after their initial releases, Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online grew their audience size by an incredible 35 percent and 23 percent, respectively, for the full year," said Zelnick.
Wayfinder, the free-to-play online action-RPG from Darksiders: Genesis developer Airship Syndicate, has been reworked and reannounced as a single-player paid title following Warframe studio Digital Extremes' decision to hand back publishing rights late last year.
Wayfinder released into early access last August as an online fantasy action-RPG with a free-to-play monetisation model similar to Warframe. This initial version combined small-scale dungeon crawling for up to three players with larger open zones accommodating 30-40 players.
However, after a difficult year - Wayfinder amassed thousands of negative Steam reviews at launch as it battled with servers issues, then faced uncertainty after Digital Extremes closed its publishing arm and handed the rights back to Airship - it's now received a significant overhaul.
Take-Two Interactive chief exexutive officer Strauss Zelnick has claimed the publisher has not shut down OlliOlli developer Roll7 and Kerbal Space Program 2 studio Intercept Games, despite reports and evidence to the contrary earlier this month.
Word of Intercept Games' demise - and the loss 70 jobs at the studio - came via a Washington state closure notice submitted by Take-Two itself, and was corroborated by affected employees on social media. Later, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reported Roll7's closure after reviewing an internal email breaking the news to Take-Two staff.
It's somewhat surprising, then, that Take-Two Interactive boss Strauss Zelnick is claiming, in conversation with IGN's Rebekah Valentine, "We didn't shutter those studios."
2K Games is poised to reveal the next game in one of its "biggest and most beloved" franchises, with the grand unveiling set to happen in June.
More specifically, the big reveal is scheduled for Friday, 7th June, and will take place during Geoff Keighley's big Summer Game Fest live event.
News of 2K's impending reveal came via Summer Game Fest's official social media account, but details remain vague. It offered no hints as to what might be coming, leaving everyone to speculate what, exactly, that "biggest and most beloved" franchises could be.
Rockstar Games and publisher Take-Two Interactive have narrowed GTA 6's release window from the previously announced "2025" to "fall" of next year.
Take-Two shared the news during its Q4 2024 earnings report, saying it was "highly confident that Rockstar Games will deliver an unparalleled entertainment experience".
"Our expectations for the commercial impact of the title continue to increase", it added, noting it expects to see "tremendous growth" in net bookings over the next three years.
US rapper Doja Cat has fired off a series of social media posts blasting "horrible" and "garbage" Fortnite players who use the game's powerful (many would say over-powered) Chains of Hades weapon.
The Grammy Award-winning artist, whose hits include Say So, Paint the Town Red and Kiss Me More, posted a series of messages complaining about the Fortnite weapon in quick succession yesterday. A warning: Doja Cat uses extremely strong language which we reproduce below.
For the uninitiated, the Chains of Hades are a Greek god-themed whip weapon available this season with two uses: yoinking far-off players towards you, then following up with a blistering series of close-up swipes. They are really annoying... unless it's you using them.
Activision has announced a new game development studio opened in Poland named Elsewhere Entertainment.
Based in Warsaw with additional resources in the US, the studio is developing a "new narrative-based and genre-defining AAA franchise".
It's the second Activision studio in the country after the Krakow-based Infinity Ward Poland and, while this is its public unveiling, it's already been working on its first project.
I'm in a bit of an odd position when it comes to the idea of building a computer for gaming. Having written about computer hardware for years, I'd like to think I've got a good handle on what the best components are for the job. However, I've never actually built a PC, despite wanting to for years. After years of using an older HP Envy machine with quite dated components, I decided it was time for a change, and that I wanted a do-it-all gaming PC that would last me as long as this previous option has.
A combination of excitement and inexperience meant I ended up going a tad overkill - and that became an eye-opening experience, given it instilled a lot more fear into to me get things right. Building a high-spec rig as your first ever isn't the easiest, given the overarching thought of cost in your mind when building, and how any mistake could be a costly one.
Still, I feel I learned a lot along the way, as theory ran up against reality, and I hope you find my chronicle useful - or at least interesting! Scroll along to read the piece from front to back, or use the links below to jump ahead to the build, benchmarks and final learnings.
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Epic Games has announced its Mega Sale 2024, which begins today and offers a free game each week. The offer kicks off with Dragon Age: Inquisition - Game of the Year Edition, which you can nab from the Epic Games Store now.
The offer of BioWare's brilliant RPG is well-timed, ahead of the long-awaited Dragon Age: Dreadwolf finally arriving later this year. Expect to see more of that very soon.
In the meantime, the Epic Mega Sale runs from now until 13th June with tons of discounts, including a 20% saving on last year's excellent Alan Wake 2, down to £32.
It looks like PS2 game Star Wars: The Clone Wars will join PS Plus next month.
As spotted by PlayStation Store price tracker PS Deals (thanks Gematsu), the game will release on 11th June and will likely be part of the next wave of classics available to Premium subscribers.
This version of the game will include new modern features, including up-rendering, rewind and quick save functions, and custom video filters.
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Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Danny DeVito has been asked whether he'd take on the role of Wario in a Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel, after having been suggested for the role by Luigi voice actor Charlie Day and Mario performer Chris Pratt.
Day, who co-stars with DeVito in Always Sunny in Philadelphia, previously told Digital Spy he wanted the actor to take on the role of Mario's moustache-twirling, nose-picking nemesis in a future film.
Now, DeVito has been asked whether he'd accept the offer and, seemingly unwittingly, has replied with the perfect money-grabbing Wario response.
Toys for Bob has updated its website with a new logo, leading to fan speculation of new Crash Bandicoot or Spyro games.
The website now leads to a black page with just a new central logo of a Tiki mask in purple. What could it mean?
Toys for Bob is, of course, most notably the developer behind Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time and the Spyro Reignited Trilogy. The Tiki mask would hint at Crash, while the purple colour would indicate Spyro.
Ubisoft will now focus on open world and live service games, as it invests in AI to assist development.
The strategy was outlined in the company's latest financial report, which claims record annual sales - in particular for the Rainbow Six and Assassin's Creed franchises.
The company's next games slot neatly into this strategy: namely Star Wars Outlaws, the newly-revealed Assassin's Creed Shadows, and free-to-play shooter XDefiant.
UPDATE 2.15pm UK: Ubisoft has now acknowledged the need to connect online to first install Assassin's Creed Shadows in a statement posted to its social media account on X, though has reiterated that the full game itself is, after being installed, playable entirely offline.
"We wanted to share some early information on the upcoming launch of Assassin's Creed Shadows, following some questions we've noticed in the community," Ubisoft wrote. "Assassin's Creed Shadows will not require a mandatory connection at all times. An online connection will be needed to install the game, but you will be able to play the entire journey offline, and explore Japan without any online connection."
ORIGINAL STORY 10.50am UK: Assassin's Creed Shadows is the latest Ubisoft blockbuster to warn players they'll need an online connection when first installing the game - despite the fact it is otherwise an offline title.
It's finally happened. I've made it to the moon.
Back at the start of the year, we collectively wrote a piece about our gaming resolutions. Usually resolutions are made to be repeated every year and never achieved - but not this time. I said I planned to get up to date in Final Fantasy 14. I'm determined to make that happen.
And so now, in my quest to whip through the Eorzean adventure before the release of Dawntrail next month, I have finally made it to Endwalker. At long last, it's clicked.
Absurd Ventures, the media company established by Rockstar Games co-founder and creative director Dan Houser following his departure from the Grand Theft Auto developer in 2020, is working on an "open world action-adventure".
Absurd Ventures was formally unveiled last June, with a mission statement of "building narrative worlds, creating characters, and writing stories for a diverse variety of genres" across mediums including of live-action, animation, games, books, graphic novels, and scripted podcasts.
November bought news of Absurd Ventures' first two projects, American Caper and A Better Paradise. At the time the company referred to them as two "universes" that would begin as a graphic novel and podcast respectively before expanding across a "wide range of formats and platforms". Both are due to release at some point this year.
Ubisoft has cancelled its upcoming free-to-play shooter The Division Heartland, as it moves to refocus its resources on "bigger opportunities".
The Division Heartland was announced for PC and consoles back in May 2021, when it was original set to launch within a vague "2021-22" release window. Since then, it's resurfaced intermittently, and an open beta last summer - followed by a Taiwanese ratings board sighting - seemed to suggest a launch was finally drawing near.
However, three years after Heartland's unveiling, Ubisoft has now officially called time on the still-unreleased project. "After careful consideration, we have made the tough call to halt development on Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland, effective immediately," the publisher wrote in a statement announcing the news (thanks IGN).
A fresh report into the inner workings of Microsoft and the influence of its top boss Satya Nadella has shed new light on the pressure for Xbox to release more of its games on rival platforms in a bid to boost profits.
Windows Central states that the plan to launch more Xbox games on PlayStation and Nintendo consoles, an operation dubbed "Latitude", has sparked "debate and unease" within the company at whether the move makes sense.
Publicly, Xbox has suggested it is testing the waters with the four games launched so far - multiplatform titles that could benefit from more players, like Sea of Thieves and Grounded, as well as smaller titles that have already reached the majority of their likely audience on Xbox, like Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment.
Ubisoft has revealed a first proper look at Assassin's Creed Shadows, and detailed the game's dual protagonists. Both characters appear front and centre in the game's new cinematic trailer (gameplay will follow next month, Ubisoft says) and on the game's cover, with each offering a markedly different play style.
Today's trailer opens on Naoe, a female shinobi, as she crosses paths with Yasuke, the historical figure depicted here as a powerful samurai. Initially, it seems, the two are adversaries - but the pair soon find common ground. By the end of the trailer, Naoe is wearing the Assassin's Creed series' iconic Hidden Blade weapon - and both appear to be at least allied with the Assassins.
For those catching up, or who've avoided the leaks, Assassin's Creed Shadows will launch on 15th November for PC (via the Ubisoft Store and the Epic Game Store) Mac, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, with three days early access for those with Ubisoft+ or who buy a pricier collector's edition. Development is led by Ubisoft Quebec, the team behind 2015's Syndicate and 2018's Odyssey, with no less than 15 other Ubisoft studios in support roles, including Japanese teams in Osaka and Tokyo.
Following a flurry of pre-announcement leaks, Ubisoft has shared first official details of its feudal Japan-set Assassin's Creed Shadows - including confirmation of its 15th November release date and information on its various "premium" editions, a physical collector's edition, and a season pass giving access to two post-launch expansions and an exclusive quest.
Assassin's Creed Shadows, a full-scale series entry following last year's smaller-scale Assassin's Creed Mirage, was confirmed to be in the works back in September 2022 (albeit under the title Codename Red) and comes from Ubisoft Quebec, the studio behind 2018's lovable Assassin's Creed Odyssey. As previously rumoured, it'll feature two protagonists: a female ninja, Naoe, and Yasuke, a male samurai based on a real historical figure.
As part of today's reveal event, Ubisoft has given a first tease of Assassin's Creed Shadows in a moody new cinematic story trailer, alongside various other bits of pre-launch information. For starters, there's that season pass, which'll provide access to two post-launch expansions and an exclusive quest line available from launch day - none of which have been detailed so far.
Bethesda's Starfield was generally a well-regarded RPG, but the game's 30fps target on consoles was the subject of some controversy. The game's massive scope arguably justified that 30fps refresh rate, with only high-end PCs capable of hitting 60fps and higher, but now Bethesda has changed course and opened the floodgates on Xbox Series X consoles following significant optimisation work. Players can now independently select performance and visuals modes at arbitrary frame-rates. How exactly do these new combinations fare, and is 60fps really a possibility after it was explicitly ruled out before?
Starfield presents players with a pretty dazzling array of options at first glance. We have two key modes - visuals and performance - along with display targets for 30fps, 40fps, 60fps, and uncapped frame-rates, with different availability depending on your display type and system settings. Plus, there's an on/off toggle for v-sync, allowing for lower input lag at the expense of screen tearing.
Let's start by untangling the visuals and performance modes. Beyond making for different-looking procedurally generated terrain, there's consistently more ground clutter in the visuals mode with more shrubs, small rocks, grass and other incidental details, especially at a distance. I also noticed that some distant objects use lower LODs in the performance mode at a distance, and some texture mips are higher resolution in the visuals mode. More significantly, the visuals mode uses higher resolution cubemaps for refections, providing a noticeable improvement to detail and clarity. Neither mode gives especially convincing results with a flat reflective at point-blank range, but undulating water or rougher metals can look quite passable.
Sony has announced its PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium games for May, with Rockstar's acclaimed cowboy epic Red Dead Redemption 2 leading the charge.
The latest batch of additions for PlayStation Plus Extra subscribers will be available to download from 21st May, and are as follows:
In case any of those are new to you, that's Rockstar's well-received open-world cowboy sequel (which follows the recent PlayStation release of its predecessor), a Sims 4 expansion, Deceive Inc's multiplayer "social stealth and subterfuge", cooperative first-person heist shooting in Crime Boss: Rockay City, and real-time strategy city-building via The Settlers: New Allies.
Final Fantasy 14 is getting an official TTRPG, but it's already sold out and set to receive a second print run.
The tabletop game based on the MMORPG was announced last September and is based on the base game A Realm Reborn, allowing players to take on the role of a pre-made Warrior, White Mage, Dragoon or Black Mage, or make their own character from scratch.
Its release is later this month, but already sold out and with a second print coming due to popular demand (thanks Dicebreaker).
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