I had the chance to play Brenda Romero's new gangster game Empire of Sin for five hours the other day and learnt a number of things about it.

I learnt that it's a game about moving up and down through layers. That's why it's hard to call Empire of Sin any one thing. Sometimes it looks like an RPG, sometimes it looks like XCOM, sometimes it looks like Civilization, and I'm sure at one point it even looked like Monopoly, the view zoomed so far out the buildings looked like plastic miniatures. But I can't call it any one of those things because the charm lies in Empire of Sin being all of those things.

It's a game where at one moment you can be running your team around the streets, like you would in an RPG, ticking off quests in your journal, talking to characters, playing with character builds, swapping equipment out. And then in the next moment you can be up in the clouds looking down on the neighbourhood and mapping out your turf.

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AMD's Ryzen 5000 processors have finally arrived - and as you'll find in our Ryzen 5800X and 5900X review, they're damn good, finally challenging Intel for the gaming performance crown thanks to better single-core performance. Now that they're out, you might be wondering where to order them - and that's where this page comes in. We've rounded up all the retailers in the US and UK that have stock of the new CPUs, so you can get in and out with a new processor as quickly as possible.

So why are these processors so hotly anticipated? In short, it's because Intel processors have held an advantage in games for a long time, especially at 1080p where the CPU is often the bottleneck of the system. Ryzen processors have offered great value thanks to their low cost of entry and excellent multi-threaded performance, especially for content creation applications like video encoding or 3D rendering, but that strength hasn't translated into games. With Ryzen 5000, that weakness seems to have finally been solved, with the new CPUs often performing as well or better than Intel processors in a range of games at 1080p.

All that is to say that these processors are expected to be in high demand, so here's what you need to know - and the web pages you should probably bookmark!

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"Thank goodness you're finally getting rid of that", my flatmate said as I hunched over our TV cabinet, mid-way through the ceremonial process of changing out my Xbox One for the Series S. A little harsh on the poor old Xbox One, perhaps, but I could understand the sentiment. Demanding a large amount of horizontal space - and by this point in the generation struggling to keep up with more demanding titles - I'd begun to neglect it in favour of the bright RGB lights of PC gaming.

In its place now rests a compact white box, and an altogether different vision to what Microsoft presented at the start of the previous generation. The digital-only Xbox Series S is the smallest console Microsoft has ever produced, and probably the most affordable. Coming in at £249, it's even undercut the Nintendo Switch by £30. It's a staggeringly accessible gateway to next-gen gaming, all for £200 less than a Series X: but the question is whether you're willing to pay for it in a lower max resolution, reliance on digital downloads, and - crucially - only 364GB of usable space for games and apps. Perhaps more than anything, the Series S requires a shift in the way we consume our games, encouraging a high turnover of a few titles at a time rather than storing dozens away for a rainy day.

I'm by no means a hardware specialist (and I'll leave the in-depth performance analysis in the very capable hands of Digital Foundry), so like our Xbox Series X impressions written by Chris Tapsell, consider this more an account of what it's like to live with a Series S. And despite some concerns about storage, I will say this: the Series S has made me more excited for console gaming than I have been in a very long time.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered is set to bring the fan-favorite arcade racing game from 2010 to current-gen consoles, which features the franchise's famous chase-and-escape gameplay, albeit with a shinier coat of paint. Join Jeff Cork and me as we preview Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered and discuss how the game has been updated for consoles like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One!

Looking to hit the pavement and drive back onto the highway in your favorite sports car? Be sure to check out Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered when the video game launches on November 6 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

If you enjoyed this look at EA's upcoming remastered racing game, make sure to watch our recent previews with games like Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition on PlayStation 5, Astro's Playroom, or our thoughts on the Quick Resume feature of the Xbox Series X!

The Xbox Series X does not feel like the kind of machine we usually get at the start of a new generation, when we’re used to clean breaks with radical new hardware that basically starts our time with a PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo device over.

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We've loved AMD's Ryzen processors for their high core counts and excellent value, but they've had one major weakness since their first generation: worse gaming performance than Intel, due to slower single-core speeds. Each subsequent Ryzen release has narrowed the gap, but Intel has held onto the gaming crown with grim determination - until today. AMD's new Ryzen 5000 processor lineup has finally equalised with Intel when it comes to single-core performance, meaning this is the moment that Ryzen can earn our full-throated recommendation for gaming.

In this piece, we'll be reviewing the two Zen 3 chips we've received ahead of launch: the mid-range Ryzen 7 5800X and the high-end Ryzen 9 5900X. (The mainstream Ryzen 5 5600X and flagship Ryzen 9 5950X should be detailed in an upcoming review.)

Looking to upgrade your CPU? We've rounded up where to buy Ryzen 5000 in the US and UK.

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Following a transformative generation where Xbox recovered from a rocky start to deliver a successful, consumer-friendly approach, the gaming team at Microsoft is back with two consoles that do everything the Xbox One currently does, but better. Blazing fast load times, superb compatibility, and a ton of power combine with various quality-of-life adjustments to improve upon the Xbox One experience in noticeable ways. While an iterative approach may not give you the “wow” factor you expect when you power on your new console for the first time, the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S undeniably provide you the best way to enjoy your library of Xbox games.

Get ready for a makeover. The Demon's Souls character creator has 12 appearance categories with elements you can customize.

The post Demon’s Souls Character Creator Has ‘16 Million Permutations’ appeared first on Siliconera.

Sony revealed Demon’s Souls Remake’s character creator today and it looks like you can now play the game as an actual person.

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You’re naked, in the desert, with a grubby carrier bag at your feet. “What’s inside?” reads a note taped to it, in jaunty comic sans beneath a Hearthstone logo. You are just crouching to look, when you hear rustling. Ten paces away, an emaciated, dog-eyed wreck of a man is rummaging through a bag of his own, and you are struck with the sudden, brutal understanding that one of you must die here. You search the bag for a weapon, but find only nonsense: a broken tin opener, an onion on a string, a faded novelty telephone that looks just legally distinct from Garfield. And now, your opponent is advancing. He has a half-blunted Stanley knife in his hand, and a cringe of desperate, feral hope on his face. You are going to die.

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In its first two seasons, Fallout 76's battle passes have looked mostly the same. Some cosmetic decorations, some microtransaction currency, some boosts -- it's all a bunch of stuff that Fallout players want but don't necessarily need. Next season is going to raise the stakes a bit.

As part of a developer overview of the upcoming Steel Dawn expansion, Bethesda has confirmed that Season 3 will add allies to the list of rewards. There are two who are eligible to join your C.A.M.P. There's Solomon Hardy who's a Brotherhood of Steel medic, and there's Yasmin Chwdhury who's a chef. They're both permanent cast members for anyone who unlocks them.

Information about these allies was the rare detour from talking about everything to do with the upcoming Brotherhood of Steel-focused expansion. Let's bullet-point some of the major details:

Horizon has some of the flashiest abilities we’ve seen of any Apex Legends character. With her custom spacesuit and gravity-defying abilities, she has mastered the art of repositioning both her team and the enemy team to her advantage. Learn how to use each of her abilities to win fights with our Apex Legends Horizon guide below.

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FIFA 21 (PS4) | $40—70 | Amazon
FIFA 21 (Xbox One) | $40—70 | Amazon

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Good news, US gaming mouse hunters, the excellent Logitech G502 Hero is back down to its all-time low price of just $35 over at Best Buy right now, matching the price it was over Amazon Prime Day. Voted the RPS readers’ favourite gaming mouse of all time back in 2019, the G502 is a great all-round gaming mouse for the money, offering loads of customisable buttons and different weight options. It’s not the only bit of Logitech kit on sale, either, as their brilliant G203 Lightsync mouse is also down to a ridiculous $15, and their brilliant G432 headset is also a bargain $40 as well.

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Chop, slice, dice, and stir-fry your way to the top in Tabe Oja this month.

The post Make Tabe Oja’s Food Monsters Fight This Month appeared first on Siliconera.

Apart from nailing Demon's Souls' pretty new PS5 sheen, Bluepoint and SIE Japan Studio have gone to "great lengths to recreate every feature of the original game." When it comes to the character creator – the tool that lets us make horrible monster people and then hide their faces with helmets – the developers are adding "many more customization options than you'll remember from the PS3 game."

There are "up to 16 million permutations" for player-created characters, according to creative director Gavin Moore. The avatar examples posted today on the PlayStation Blog look surprisingly good, to the point where some of them don't immediately scream Souls, but I'm not complaining. Not at all.

The remake's heightened visuals carry over to the character creator, and with old and new settings to tweak, the highs are going to be higher – cooler than ever – and the lows are bound to be absurd.

Bring on the ugly-as-sin protagonists. I want to see a flood of posts on November 12.

The PlayStation Blog post also previewed a few screenshots taken from the all-new photo mode (it's similarly very pretty) and reiterated a cool detail: you can leave photo filters on in regular gameplay.

One filter adjusts the "brightness, contrast, and color levels to closely resemble those of the original PS3 game, for those who may prefer that classic look." It may not be perfect, but the effort shows.

First look: Demon's Souls character creator and Photo Mode [PlayStation Blog]

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today…well, you know how it’s been going. Ugh. And I’m playing Phantom Dust to try and think about something else for little stretches.

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Seiko will produce a watch based on Sol Badguy from Guilty Gear. It will be made to order and delivered in October 2021.

The post Guilty Gear Sol Badguy Watch Will Appear Next Year appeared first on Siliconera.

The Nintendo Switch is about a quarter away from catching the 3DS in lifetime sales.

The post Nintendo Switch Sales Reach 68.3 Million Units Worldwide appeared first on Siliconera.

Borderlands 3 is getting a fancy new DLC pack in a few days.

Okay so maybe it's not so fancy (it's some skill trees and a new mode), but it isn't abundantly clear how to access the Arms Race gametype at first: especially if you miss out on the quick prompt or your quest log is buried with unfinished jobs.

Here's how to find it on Sanctuary 3.

The global pandemic has meant that people are spending more time at home, playing more video games. Consequently, during the past six months, Nintendo has seen its profits jump by over 240 percent.

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If you’ve pre-ordered Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War digitally, you’ll be able to preload the game before it launches next Friday. While consoles can preload from today, for us PC folk it will begin on Tuesday the 10th at 6pm GMT (10am Pacific).

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We’ve already gotten to check out Dirt 5 on PS4 and we absolutely loved it. However, the game will also be making its way to the PS5 this month, and Codemasters has pushed out a video explaining how it’s making use of the new PS5 hardware.

You can check out the video for yourself down below:

In it, technical director David Springate explains how they’ve developed the game specifcally for the PS5 and the brand new DualSense controller. With the adaptive triggers, players will now be able to properly feel the resistance and traction that comes with driving across a range of different terrains. It sounds simple, but certainly adds a new layer of immersion to the game.

Springate also mentions that you’ll be able to enjoy enhanced audio just by plugging in a headset into the DualSense controller. Dirt 5 features a pretty impressive soundtrack that will only sound even better once you’re all plugged in and enjoying how immersive the entire experience is.

And, of course, you can also enjoy the game at 120 frames per second along with faster load times thanks to the PS5 hardware and built-in SSD.

Dirt 5 is now available on PC and consoles, and will be available as a launch title for the PS5.

A new Monster Hunter experience is on the horizon with Rise and more than Palicos, players can have a puppers companion as well with the Palamute. A new video from the Monster Hunter: Rise team shows off exactly how the pet customization works. 

The official Monster Hunter Twitter account shared the latest video to show off how the Palamute and Palico customization works in the upcoming game: 

Create your paw-fect companion in #MHRise!

Here's a quick glimpse at the Palamute, Palico and character creators. pic.twitter.com/FDVuRiM3j5

Apex Legends

has a cute new character, a lush new map and a cool vehicle now. Oh, and it’s on Steam, too. The battle royale’s seventh season, Ascension, launched last night, dropping players on Olympus. It’s a gorgeous city in the sky with wide open spaces that are ripe for chasing down enemy squads in Apex’s first vehicle, the Trident.

As well as all this, the Season 7 update brought with it the new Legend Horizon, a Club system, and a load of changes to the way the battle pass works – not good changes, unfortunately, because now it’s even grindier than it was before.

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Nintendo has recorded huge profits for 2020 and raised its financial forecasts for the year as it sold millions more Switch consoles, and tens of millions more copies of both new and evergreen games.

Super Mario 3D All-Stars has shifted 5.21m copies in just 12 days (Nintendo's sales data only runs up to 30th September) - a total number perhaps boosted by Nintendo's bizarre decision to remove it from sale at the end of March.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is now on an incredible 26m sales since launch in March - double the sales of predecessor New Leaf. Its enormous sales place it just behind the Switch's top-selling game and long-time evergreen seller Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which is now on 29m.

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In Japan, Sony won't sell the PlayStation 5 in shops due to coronavirus.

The Japanese PlayStation Blog made the announcement (thanks, Kotaku). In the post, Sony said the spread of coronavirus is still a concern, "and therefore, to protect customers, retailers, and staff, we have no plans to do events or sell the PS5 in-store when it goes on sale".

PS5 goes on sale on 12th November in Japan, and a week later in the UK. Sony said those in Japan with in-store PS5 pre-orders should contact shops to arrange an alternative.

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Login this November to receive plenty of useful items to help takedown those Elder Dragons.

The post Go Claim a Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Hunting Party Pack appeared first on Siliconera.

Ubisoft has teased the next operator heading to its twitchy multiplayer shooter Rainbow Six Siege. Arriving as part of the upcoming Operation: Neon Dawn event, Aruni will be the latest in a long line of  door-kickers to join Siege's expansive roster of counter-terrorist operatives.

Commander, it’s once again time to save the Earth – but this time you can do it from the comfort of your toilet seat. XCOM 2 today launched on iPhones, iPads, I don’t know anymore. The iOS release comes with all the DLC too, enough game to occupy your attention for potentially thousands of bowel movements. And I think technically you’re allowed to play phone games in other places too?

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Sega has sold off its arcade business due to coronavirus.

In a press release, parent company Sega Sammy Holdings Inc said it has sold the vast majority (85.1 per cent) of Sega Entertainment, its Japanese amusement business, to amusement machine company Genda.

Sega put the sale down to Covid-19, which has devastated its arcade business. Sega expects to record "extraordinary losses" from the transition.

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Combine job skills to create a well rounded party in Bravely Default II.

The post Bravely Default II Jobs and Characters Detailed appeared first on Siliconera.

We're so close to the next generation: but Nintendo doesn't care!

For them, "next-gen" arrived three years ago, but truthfully, Nintendo kind of skates around the idea of "generations" anyway. They do what they do, they (generally) sell a ton of consoles and first-party software, then they do their own thing yet again. The Switch has been executing that strategy to aplomb with strong hardware and software sales.

Speaking of software, this week sees the release of Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin and Fuser on November 10. The third-party support for the Switch continues, while Nintendo itself is gearing up for a major release soon enough with Age of Calamity on November 20. Soon!

Here's a full rundown of everything else:

When the PlayStation 5 launches this month, Sony won’t be selling the console in stores. Instead, launch day sales will only be online.

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Those early [cms-block] deals just keep on coming over at Amazon UK, and today you can nab a 250GB Crucial MX500 SSD for just £30. 250GB may not be large enough to hold many games, but it’s a great size for having as your main Windows drive, and the Crucial MX500 is one of the best budget SATA SSDs you can buy today, too. It’s the perfect combination – especially when this matches the cheapest price the 250GB MX500 has ever been, too.

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