After hearing the good news today about the PlayStation 5's backward compatibility plan for PS4 games – in short: almost everything will work on the new console – we're now left to think about which of our PS4 games will be particularly well-suited for PS5. Ghost of Tsushima is in that conversation.

According to Sucker Punch Productions, PS5 players will be able to benefit from "frame rates up to 60FPS" in Ghost of Tsushima using the Game Boost feature. They'll also get even faster load times.

PS5 owners playing with Game Boost will see an extra option to allow frame rates up to 60FPS, and while loading speeds on the PS4 are already great, just wait until you see them on the PS5!

— Ghost of Tsushima 🎮 OUT NOW (@SuckerPunchProd) October 9, 2020

"Select PS4 titles will see increased loading speeds on the PS5 console, and will also leverage Game Boost, offering improved or more stable frame rates," Sony explained today in a blog post. "Some titles with unlocked frame rates or dynamic resolution up to 4K may see higher fidelity."

Ernest Cline’s secretive sequel arrives in November

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Today Square Enix broadcasted the second part of the 60th Final Fantasy XIV Letter from the Producer Live and shared information about a spiffy feature and the fan festivals

The developers announced Explorer Mode, which will allow players to freely explore dungeons that they have previously cleared.

In the beginning, only dungeons from the 5.x series will be included but more will be added in the future.

The dungeons in explorer mode will not have any enemies and all obstacles will be cleared.

Mount, minions, and fashion accessories will be allowed during these excursions, while striking dummies will be placeable to enable actions.

Limit breaks will also be available and you’ll be able to select between rank 1, 2, and 3.

Basically, this is going to be a roleplayers’ dream and please those who enjoy in-game photography with the gpose feature.

Below you can see screenshots taken using this mode, which will come in 5.4 alongside the features announced earlier today.

Big changes are coming to the PlayStation Store on web and mobile this month.

Sony has sent emails - seen and verified by Eurogamer - to its development partners that warn the PlayStation Store on web and mobile will stop selling PlayStation 3, PSP or Vita games as part of a refresh ahead of the release of the PlayStation 5 in November.

The PlayStation Store on web and mobile will also stop selling PS4 apps, themes and avatars, and the content from your existing wishlist will be removed.

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Monster Hunter Rise and Cyberpunk 2077 also won awards from major Japanese gaming media.

The post TGS Media Awards 2020 Public Poll Won By Genshin Impact appeared first on Siliconera.

For those that don’t know, The PC Gaming Weekspot is a live, weekly video podcast that myself and my former VidBud Matthew Castle do every Monday evening over on the Rock Paper Shotgun YouTube channel. It’s a recap of the last seven days in PC gaming, with chat on the latest news, as well as some reviews on the latest games. But there’s one segment we do during The Weekspot that’s grown into a monster. A monster that I think you’d like, which is why I want to share it with you.

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Amid the new Festival of the Lost celebration in Destiny 2, Bungie recently shared a new development in Destiny 2's New Light experience: a completely overhauled new player onboarding process.

Bungie shared some concerns recently that brand new players, some of which who have never played a looter shooter before, are becoming overwhelmed by the pacing of the game. I can easily see that, because by their own admission, you basically get one level to really get your bearings, then it's off to the races. That's changing later this year.

On November 10, alongside of the new update, Destiny 2 will be getting a special NPC that will assist players in learning the ropes. "Shaw Han" will be wandering around the Cosmodrome wasteland and will accompany you for the "first few missions." These new quests will allow you to learn more about the loot system, as well as multiple weapon types, the UI and even things like quest collection and completion.

Bungie says that the goal is to fully educate players on the various facets of Destiny 2 before they are on their own in The Tower: the game's hub zone. They also are banking hard on the nostalgia factor of the Cosmodrome itself, which will feature areas from the original Destiny. Ah, it feels like just yesterday I was playing the alpha, then discovering the loot cave, then grinding out the Vault of Glass for raid gear.

Time flies! Now new players can forge their own memories by jumping into Destiny 2: this game needed something like this for a while.

Xbox Series X backwards compatibility is shaping up to be an absolute home run based on our testing so far - yes, every title we've looked at so far seems to hit their performance target when 30fps or 60fps caps are in place, games using dynamic resolution scaling can show clear improvements, while we're looking at anything up to a 2x multiplier in GPU performance in games with unlocked frame-rates. On top of that, there's an image quality bonus too: texture filtering is improved via enforced 16x anisotropic filtering. Loading time improvements are also significantly improved - and that's the focus for this follow-up coverage.

You see, there's one disadvantage to the next-gen dream. Storage space on the internal solid state drive is at a premium - Xbox Series X ships with 802 useable gigs on the 1TB drive. On the one hand, that's actually an improvement over the 781GB of Xbox One X's 1TB HDD (my theory: Microsoft uses its hardware decompression engines to reduce the OS footprint, the console decompressing system files on demand). On the other, with the 1TB plug-in expansion drive priced at £220/$220, fast storage for next-gen titles comes at a price premium.

Nintendo of America has announced that Splatoon 2 will be getting a Splatoween event that brings back an old Splatfest from the grave. Players will be able to participate in a spooky Halloween Splatfest that pits team treat against team trick. Which team will you choose? It’s a hard choice, for sure!

The Splatfest will kick off on Oct. 30 and will run through the weekend until Nov. 1 at 2 pm PT. If you’re not planning on going outside to celebrate Halloween this year, playing a couple of matches with your best friends in Splatoon 2 will be a great alternative.

You don’t have to worry about finding a costume or stress about the potential cavities due to all of the sugar-filled candy that can easily come into your hands.

The satisfaction of a job well done

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Outriders developer People Can Fly has announced that its sci-fi co-op shooter will be slightly delayed from its original December 2020 release date and will instead launch on February 2 for current and next-gen systems. In a blog post, community manager Toby Palm explained that the COVID-19 pandemic had affected development on Outriders, but that the core game had been completed.

"COVID-19 has certainly affected our operations over the past months, but the teams have all worked extremely hard to adapt to changing circumstances," Palm explained. "While the core game is now in a largely complete state, our testing operations were unfortunately among the most affected by the work-process-restructuring caused by the novel coronavirus. To that end, we need a bit more time to get it right and ensure that the Outriders experience will be as smooth and issue-free as it possibly can be when we launch."

Want a better look at NieR Replicant's world? Here are screenshots of familiar places that might look a bit better than before.

The post NieR Replicant Screenshots Show How the World Looks Now appeared first on Siliconera.

Xbox Series X and Series S are launching in just over a month, and Microsoft has put out the first ad for the new hardware. The Xbox Series X and Series S ad is light on the gameplay imagery and instead sells the Xbox as a gateway to fantasia. It features Academy Award-nominated actor Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, Black Panther).

In the ad titled "Us Dreamers," a young man comes home, puts on his headset, and is transported to a variety of locales. Those include hovering over a Viking naval battle, facing some kind of monstrous world-eater, and becoming/meeting Master Chief, who then grows larger than the planet he's standing on. This may have been in production before Halo Infinite, which was to be the Series X's big launch game, was delayed into 2021.

The accompanying tweet emphasizes the "dream" aspect, though it leans less on psychedelia and more on "blazing fast speeds" and "high visual fidelity with higher frame rates."

Bloober Team has narrowed the holiday release window for The Medium down to its final release date: December 10, 2020. The dual-reality psychological horror game will be playable on PC – through Steam, the Epic Games Store, and the Microsoft Store – and also Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

Having been burned by launch-window console games before, for me – and I hope this doesn't sound too reductive – The Medium has fallen into that weird gray area where I can't tell if it stands out because it's an early next-gen game or because it's just inherently that compelling on its own. A little of both, maybe? The spirit-world premise is promising, and they've got Akira Yamaoka, so I'm feeling hopeful.

One thing I am sure about: the price. It's nice to see this game launch at "only" $50 when higher-profile games are coming out of the gate at $70. I'm sure it'll find an audience beyond Bloober Team's base.

Cloud Imperium’s space-em-up MMO, Star Citizen, has got a new alpha build for players to muck around in, with changes that’ll let you do more PvP. The Alpha 3.11 High Impact update is doing away with a load of the game’s safe Armistice Zones, and is adding new spaceships, as well as a Halloween event running throughout October. It doesn’t end there though, because on top of all that they’ve released a little teaser trailer for the upcoming singleplayer story game, Squadron 42, as well.

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Ahead of Prime Day 2020, Amazon has unveiled a portion of the deals shoppers can take advantage of during the annual blowout sale. The list of deals includes some noteworthy Nintendo Switch discounts and a bunch of Amazon devices for low prices. Prime Day 2020 kicks off October 13 at midnight PT / 3 AM ET, so it won't be long before you can start saving big on a wide assortment of gaming, tech, and entertainment products.

On the gaming front, Amazon has only revealed deals pertaining to the Nintendo Switch. Shoppers can save 36% on a bundle including a 12-month Nintendo Switch Online family membership and a SanDisk 128GB microSD card. Amazon didn't provide specifics, but we assume the microSD card is the officially branded Nintendo model. If that's the case, you'll be able to grab this bundle for $44.80, down from $70.

You'll also be able to save up to 33% on select Nintendo Switch games. No specific game deals were provided, but we expect this to include first-party Switch titles for $40--this would line up with previous Prime Day/Black Friday pricing for Nintendo's lineup of $60 exclusives.

Microsoft will bring Xbox Game Pass to iOS devices by implementing a "direct browser-based solution," according to leaked comments from Xbox chief Phil Spencer. ...

People will be able to play the PS4 version of #FFXIV on the PS5, and there will be some benefits to doing so.

The post FFXIV PS5 Backward Compatibility Confirmed and Detailed appeared first on Siliconera.

Today Microsoft released a new trailer of its upcoming next-gen consoles, the Xbox Series X and Series S.

The trailer is titled “Us Dreamers” and marks the launch of the “Power Your Dreams” campaign.

It stars “Get Out” and “Black Panther” actor Daniel Kaluuya and a new song by by Labrinth titled “No Ordinary.”

True to its title, it certainly looks quite dreamy. It will be broadcasted during Sunday Night Football on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2020 within the Minnesota Vikings vs. Seattle Seahawks match.

You can check it out below.

This is how Microsoft describes it.

Star Wars Squadrons is out and it’s fulfilling the dream of hopping into some of the galaxy’s most iconic ships and blowing stuff up. There have been countless ships seen in Star Wars across the films, TV shows, games and more, so many that it can be difficult to keep track of.

This 10-question quiz will test your knowledge from all across the eras and various mediums of Star Wars. Think you’ve got what it takes?

When you’ve mastered this quiz, check out many more like it here.

The online shop is also able to ship merchandise from .hack and CyberConnect2's other IPs to most countries.

The post CyberConnect2 Opens CC2 Store International Selling .hack Merchandise appeared first on Siliconera.

We're knee-deep in October, and already people are starting to feel those creepy Halloween vibes. Such is the case with Splatoon 2 hosts Pearl and Marina, who are set to do battle once again in the Nintendo Switch shooter.

Nintendo has announced the coming of another classic splatfest, which will see the community duke it out over the Halloween tradition of "Trick or Treat." Of course, the mischievous Pearl will be standing firmly in the corner of Team Trick, while her more happy-go-lucky pal Marina will captain Team Treat.

Players will pick their preference before engaging in multicoloured warfare over the course of the weekend, with the winning team being decided by three points earned via Normal Play, Pro Play, and a public vote. Back in 2018, Marina's Team Treat took the win by capturing both play points, despite losing the public vote. Will this year tell a different tale?

The Halloween splatfest goes live the weekend of October 30. Stay Off the Hook.

Starting out Destiny 2 as a new player is a bit of a mess at the moment. You’re almost immediately thrown into a huge solar system full of weird economies and esoteric systems, left to muddle through years of old content. Bungie plans to change that next month with a completely new tutorial experience.

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The mockumentary will hit Hulu on Oct. 15

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From the southern Feldip Hills to the barren waste of the Wilderness, Gielinor, RuneScape's setting, is home to a collection of countries and kingdoms, within which lie cities and towns, many hiding dungeons beneath their streets. Beyond the borders of these settlements you can find ancient ruins, ghast infested swamps, a portal for interplanetary travel and even a spa. Yet, the more you explore the world of RuneScape, the more you'll start to notice that something is slightly wrong with Gielinor's geography.

How does climbing Ice Mountain, a peak so high that it's the only place in Asgarnia always covered in snow, take less than 30 seconds? Why do characters act like certain towns are miles apart, but, when you undertake the journey, it takes five minutes by foot? Most of all - how is Lumbridge, the quintessential country town (goblin problem aside), literally a short walking distance away from the Kharidian Desert?

I don't need my geography GCSE to tell me that something isn't quite right here. Thankfully, the RuneScape community has an answer in the form of scale theory and, before you ask, it has nothing to do with that flat earth - sorry, flat Gielinor - nonsense.

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Developer Blooper Team has today revealed that its upcoming next-gen psychological horror game, The Medium, is set to launch Dec. 10 for Xbox Series X and PC via both Steam and The Epic Game Store for $49.99.

The news comes by way of an eerie teaser trailer that forebodes the arrival of what so far looks like a particularly unsettling horror experience fans of the genre will appreciate.

For the uninitiated, The Medium is a third-person horror experience in which players take control of Marianne, a psychic detective known as a seeking to uncover the strange secrets of an abandoned communist resort.

It features a unique mechanic dubbed “dual-reality” gameplay as its protagonist traverses two separate plains of existence to aid her investigation. But something wicked lurks in this second, shadowy realm; players will have to deal with a monster named The Maw, calling on Marianne’s special powers escape its clutches.

Notably, the game’s score is composed by Akira Yamaoka of Silent Hill fame, with support from Layers of Fear composer Arkadiusz Reikowski. Part of today’s announcement includes the free giveaway of a track from the score, which you can download via Steam here.

Blooper Team is best known for its excellent horror adventure game The Observer, which Twinfinite reviewed back in 2017.

Digimon Survive is still listed as a 2020 release, but another delay is looking likely.

The post Digimon Survive Producer Habumon Comments on a Possible Delay From Its 2020 Window appeared first on Siliconera.

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Last year, I had this to say about FIFA 19’s gameplay on Nintendo Switch:

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is set to bust the whole lore framework of Breath of the Wild wide open.

While a lot of folks expected it to be another hack and slash first and foremost, it seems like Omega Force and Nintendo are really going all-out in terms of providing extra depth to the Hyrule that was introduced to us in 2017. The first major tidbit that's come out of a recent Treehouse stream? Link is from Hateno Village.

Okay, so astute Breath of the Wild fans (the ones that read the compendium books) probably already assumed this. In fact, in the Creating a Champion tome, it was specifically mentioned that Link is "not of nobility," and "may have been" from Hateno Village. The idea of Link coming from a small town and becoming Zelda's most trusted knight would certainly fit with Link's noble origins in most of the series. You can hear the Treehouse bit on Hateno village here, roughly 12:20 in.

The other implication, of course, that people are now wrestling with: Link probably had to buy-back his own house in Hateno! Folks may remember a similar thing happening to Bilbo Baggins at the end of The Hobbit. But in the realm of Hyrule, waiting 100 years to start demolishing someone's house seems like it's the right amount of time.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (3 Months) | $25 | Eneba | Promo code FORZ7ISHERE

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Today Square Enix broadcasted the first part of the 60th Final Fantasy XIV Letter from the Producer Live, focusing on the next major update, numbered 5.4.

Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida and Global Community Producer Toshio Murouchi provided a lot of information about the upcoming update.

Yet, before we move on to the next big one, Yoshida-san talked about 5.35 and showcased the equipment we can get in the Bozjan Southern Front battlefield.

Inkle's Jon Ingold and Tom Kail discuss the influence of Arthurian legend on the studio's new strategy narrative game Pendragon. ...

While Destiny 2 welcomed a whole lot of new players when it went free-to-play last October, it didn’t do much more than open the door and gesture broadly in the direction of a 100-person party raging across every room of the house. New players are dropped in at the deep end, and it’s not fun. So it’s good to hear more of Bungie’s plans for a friendlier new player experience in the zone where Destiny began, the Cosmodrome.

Bungie have (mostly) good news for veteran players too, revealing plans to overhaul armour mod slots to be less of a faffy mess.

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Boncare Infrared Thermometer | $17 | Amazon | Use Code 584QOUMU

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