Eurogamer

It's something of a DF Direct special this week, as regular co-host Alex Battaglia is joined by two insightful guests, longtime games journalist Sam 'samred' Machkovech of Ars Technica and streaming expert Addie of the YouTube channel EposVox.

The trio tackle the week's news - including the first substantive details on the hotly anticipated Spider-Man Remastered PC port from Insomniac and Nixxes. Elsewhere in PS-adjacent news, The Last Of Us Part 1 has had some footage leaked - and 'no gameplay enhancements' is the description provided. Do the team still have high hopes for the remaster, or does this dampen the mood somewhat?

Meanwhile, it's a good week for PC news, as in addition to the Spider-Man news, Activision has appeared on Steam as an official publisher - a reversal from the previous strategy that saw Call of Duty games distributed via the Blizzard launcher. Some classic PC titles are also available for free via Xbox Insider. John Romero is in the headlines too, heading up development of a new FPS, while Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 was recently confirmed to be still under development at an unnamed studio, following its near-cancellation last year.

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UPDATE 8.05pm: Following the premature reveal of Apex Legends' next playable character earlier today, developer Respawn has now made it official. Apex Legends' 14th Season will usher in the scope-wielding Vantage - real name Mara - who gets her animated introduction in the new Stories from the Outlands video below.

Survive, as the video is officially titled, tells Vantage's backstory, picking up as she stumbles across the remains of the mysterious GDS Vantage while out hunting on her snowy home world of Págos. As her curiosity increases, and ignoring her mother's warnings to leave well alone, she one day descends into the Vantage's cavernous wreckage, where she discovers the truth - that it's a prison ship and her mother was its captive.

One failed escape later, Mara, accompanied by her new bat-like companion Echo, is trapped and on the brink of death - so her mother (wrongfully convicted, Respawn notes elsewhere) does the only thing she can, giving up her freedom by alerting the authorities to her whereabouts in the hope they can help.

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New Star Wars toys, including one for Respawn's upcoming release Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, were unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend.

While this on its own is not all that newsworthy, what makes these upcoming releases by Hasbro more interesting is that they give us all a look at Cal Kestis' new, and therefore older, image. This includes some impressively-manicured facial furniture.

Cal's beard is groomed impeccably on the soon-to-be-released model, making me wonder how he got such a close shave. Perhaps he took cutthroat shaving to the extreme and used his lightsaber for the job? Who can say, but he has certainly grown up since the events of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

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Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann has shut down a report by prominent Fortnite leakers that a The Last of Us crossover is on the cards.

Last week, several high-profile Fortnite leakers spread word that the game's stars Joel and Ellie would be joining Epic's infamous battle royale.

But Druckmann has now poured cold water on the claims, calling them "false rumours".

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You're likely aware of those little Funko Pop! models which line the walls of comic book stores and supermarkets across the country. Funko has taken many of our beloved gaming heroes (as well as characters from other media) and given them a small-framed but massive-headed makeover. I, myself, have a Lara Croft one as part of my ever-growing Tomb Raider collection of 'stuff'.

Well, soon we will be seeing these diminutive, top-heavy, figurines in a whole new light, as a new partnership between Funko and Jon Burton's 10.10 Games studio was announced at San Diego Comic-Con. This collaboration promises us "AAA video games" that will eventually head our way.

You can watch the trailer - which features a guitar-loving and crown-wearing Funko called Freddy - for it all below.

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A new update for Xbox Game Pass gem PowerWash Simulator has fixed the game's multiplayer issues, its developer has said.

A 3.5GB update was made available for the game earlier today, Eurogamer spotted. Now, developer Futurlab has confirmed this patch is designed to alleviate the game's Xbox crash issues.

Last week, Futurlab offered an unusual tip to avoid multiplayer crashes - to stop looking at the sun. Apparently, issues with the game's lens flare visuals were at fault. (It's also just good advice in general.)

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No, Bayonetta 3's Naive Angel Mode isn't in response to Nintendo asking Platinum to cover up the titular witch.

The game's creator Hideki Kamiya took to Twitter to dispute fan theories on the new mode that removes nudity from the game.

If anything, Nintendo actually wanted her Link outfit in previous games to be more revealing.

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A new update for Xbox Series X/S speeds up the consoles' cold boot time by cutting the length of the startup logo animation.

Five seconds are saved with the launch of a new, faster Xbox logo, which whooshes on and off your screen in around four seconds rather than nine.

Xbox Insiders with access to Microsoft's most up-to-date Xbox Series X/S system update are able to see the faster boot logo in action now, The Verge noticed. The change will roll out to all users over time.

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Many, myself included, have been longing for the chance to roam around the palatial (if dangerous) lands of Breath of the Wild's Hyrule with a friend by our side for some time now. However, it is traditionally a single player experience.

Well, that is, until you get the modding community involved.

Yes, a new mod developed by Kirbymimi finally brings a split screen multiplayer experience to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The mod adds double the Links, double the fire power and, perhaps, double the fun.

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Stray has been out for almost a week, and inevitably the internet is modding the game's playable cat-racter. Here's some PC mods we've spotted that will give you paws for thought.

If you're a dog person, you can play as a cute French bulldog puppy thanks to modder crubino. The Happy Puppy mod even changes most of the meows into woofs, and crubino hopes to add more to it, including customisation of the puppy's fur. As a cat person, I think that's barking mad...

Modder hibrietas provides a modern staple for mods, the Jason mod. Taken from the infamous mall scene in Heavy Rain, meowing is replaced with "a pleading call to find your lost son, you terrible father".

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Among Us developer Innersloth has detailed some of the upcoming fixes and additions headed to its smash hit social game in the not-too-distant future.

These changes will come separately and (it sounds like) ahead of the game's next big feature update, which is set to add Hide 'n' Seek gameplay later in 2022.

Before that, handy features such as the ability to change the map in the lobby settings without having to leave and restart a new game will be added.

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The co-op mode in Halo Infinite won't have online matchmaking.

Players of the recent beta noticed matchmaking wasn't available, but Xbox has confirmed to GamesRadar the feature won't be in the final release.

"Online matchmaking will not be available with final co-op," said an Xbox representative. "We encourage you to continue to use the Halo LFG and the new Discord voice call feature on Xbox to find players to party up with as you continue playing the beta."

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Development on Ubisoft's Roller Champions will reportedly be wound down following its third season.

The free-to-play sports game was released in May this year, but just months later will seemingly be canned.

That's according to Giant Bomb journalist Jeff Grubb speaking on the Xbox Era podcast: "Roller Champions is gonna be cancelled after Season 3," he said, reading out a message from a source.

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We may be getting to see more of Cal Kestis sooner than first assumed.

That's according to Twitter account PlayStation Game Size, which revealed Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was listed as releasing in "Early March 2023" on PlayStation Network's internal database.

The game's PlayStation store page has since been updated, though, and now reads "date to be determined", so watch this space.

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Ubisoft is now reportedly targeting a 2023 release window for its next Assassin's Creed game, which is expected to be a smaller, stealth-focused edition of the series.

Codenamed Rift (though likely not its final title), this is the Baghdad-focused project which originally began life as a Valhalla expansion. It has since grown its own fully-fledged project, albeit tighter in scope than other recent, sprawling Assassin's Creed entries.

Originally reported to arrive later this year (though still to be officially announced by Ubisoft itself), Bloomberg has now stated that Rift will arrive in either May or June 2023.

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Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has leaked a week before its release date.

It's officially due out on 29th July on Nintendo's Switch, but already some players have got their hands on copies and are leaking spoilers across the internet.

What's more, a ROM of the entire game has leaked, making the game playable on the Steam Deck.

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Despite Halo Infinite being unsupported on Steam Deck due to "anti-cheat", by using a new driver one owner has managed to get Master Chief's latest outing up and running on the portable PC.

Sharing some gameplay on reddit, DanTheBloke (via exputer) explained that the latest update to Proton GE has allowed them to get online play for Halo Infinite working on their Steam Deck through the beta SteamOS.

DanTheBloke does say gameplay "can be a little janky" and there is "some clipping audio at times". Regardless though, it is definitely still playable, as you can see for yourself below.

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When I saw Crowns & Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit, I immediately thought it was some sort of Sims-like game, with its bright, colourful palette and inviting, simple gameplay. And although the gameplay is indeed a simple, point-and-click adventure, it’s packaged so charmingly that I found it difficult to resist.

The game begins at a computer screen (like most of our days) in sunny Chicago, where Milda, while customising her character in a game called Crown Kingdom, receives news that her grandfather in Lithuania has passed away, and she’s been named the inheritor of his property there. After stepping away from the desk, we’re introduced to the game’s mechanics: hold the mouse’s scroll button to highlight points of interest in that particular environment, and left-click to interact with one of them. There’s also your phone and inventory in the top corner.

At this particular moment, your friend Dana is putting on a little art exhibition downtown to woo a potential investor. Dana’s both supportive and intrigued, and promises to fund your trip abroad if she secures the advance. After interacting with the nearby girl scout at the lemonade stand and the blues musician, you’re quickly on your way.

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Wonderful indie hit Papers, Please is coming to mobile phones - nearly a decade after it launched first on PC.

Creator Lucas Pope, who went on to create the equally brilliant Return of the Obra Dinn, announced the mobile version of Papers, Please over the weekend with a 5th August release date.

In Papers, Please you play as a border control agent for a fictional Eastern Bloc country, and must balance formal immigration checks with the emotional guilt-trip of turning away the starving and needy.

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Tactics Ogre: Reborn - one of the worst-kept secrets in video games - launches on 11th November on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, according to a fresh leak.

Gematsu reports the release date and more information about the unannounced remaster was revealed via listings on PlayStation Store price tracking website PS Deals (PS5, PS4).

As Gematsu points out, PS Deals is a PlayStation-focused website, so other platform releases are possible.

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Welcome to the third part in the biggest DF Retro episode we've ever produced - a year-by-year look at how 1080p gaming fared on the PlayStation 3. Launched in 2007 touting its then-exclusive HDMI digital interface, Sony layered full HD gaming on top of its Cell processor and RSX 'Reality Synthesizer' as key selling points for its third generation console. Of course, we all know how that turned out - both Sony and Microsoft machines routinely ran the most advanced titles at sub-720p resolutions, often with questionable performance, so what happened to the 1080p dream?

In the first two parts of John Linneman's investigation, we've covered off the first four years of the Triple's lifecycle and moving into 2010, the overall fortunes of the PlayStation 3 continued to improve. The platform holder released - what was then - the most advanced motion controller in the console space, backed up by experiments with stereoscopic 3D, which turned out to be a short-lived but still formidable pairing. Combined with a strong E3 showing, PS3 was looking good.

However, it's fair to say that it was a fallow year for 1080p gaming on the system, with only Scott Pilgrim Saves The World's razor-sharp pixel art upscaling, Castle Crashers and Soldner X2's 3D/FMV stylings accommodating full HD output - alongside a wonderful Monkey Island remaster.

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Almost as many years have passed since The Last Guardian's release as there were in the wait for Fumito Ueda's much-delayed masterpiece following its 2009 reveal, and the biggest surprise after all that time is how quickly it was forgotten. Perhaps the anticipation was much of the appeal for so many, or maybe video game audiences are fickle like that - fixating on something then tossing it aside with the indifference of a young cat presented with a new toy.

It's a small shame, really, because while it might have been impossible for The Last Guardian to live up all that hype, it managed to live up to my own lofty expectations; chiefly that it would find its place in the lineage of Ueda's previous games, matching the majesty and icy magic of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Somewhat spectacularly, it's done more than that, and with six years of distance I'm fairly comfortable saying The Last Guardian is my favourite of the lot.

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Death. "The greatest of all human blessings" according to Socrates, "a very dull and dreary affair" to W. Somerset Maugham, and "always around the corner" as observed by Carter Burwell. But, ultimately, the inevitability of all living beings. It is the one experience that is guaranteed and that the human brain will never truly know fully: both accepted and incomparably frightening.

Death has been explored in countless mediums since humanity first began to explore artistic expression and creation, often drawing on commonly recognised beliefs or customs and the representation of the soul. In gaming, the act of death and being dead has often been utilised as a theme, a conclusion, a key plot element, or a shocking twist. And games that explore the state of being dead, while adding original tweaks, even now still tend to veer towards spirits, ghosts, and similarly ethereal beings. This was certainly the go-to in the '90s during the growth of 3D gaming, following that commonly recognised imagery. Particular cultures were rarely explored. Until 1998, when Tim Schafer's second solo venture crossed over and hit the stores.

AMD's FSR 2.0 image upscaling technology has been a hot topic in the PC gaming space recently, as it recently went open source and was quickly hacked into a wide range of games by community modders. Unlike rival Nvidia's DLSS, AMD's tech is available on essentially all modern graphics cards and therefore offers some tempting opportunities to boost frame-rates on a wide range of machines, from high-end desktop PCs to the Steam Deck.

To get a better sense of how and why FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 was developed, and where the technology will go from here, we spoke to the head of the FSR 2.0 project, Nicolas Thibieroz, whose full title is director of game engineering at AMD. We last spoke with Nicolas back in 2021 after FSR 1.0 launched, leaving us plenty of recent developments - and future plans - to talk about.

This interview was conducted online and recorded on video, but a written transcript is available below. Note that both questions and answers have been edited lightly for readability. Enjoy!

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I once chased someone across a B&Q car park because of a power washer. It was when I worked there - I wouldn't chase someone now! Maybe if there was a sale... But no. I was standing by the tills when I saw someone leg it back through the entrance with a large power-washer box. Inspired by my macho colleague Russell - "Russ" - who had recently chased a shoplifter and tackled them into a hedge, I shot through the exit doors and across the car park after them.

The thing is, I hadn't really thought it through. I didn't know what I'd do if I caught up with them - politely ask them to give it back? I'm not sure I actually fancied diving into a hedge. To make matters worse, they were running towards a car with other people inside. What was I supposed to do about them?

But so intimidating must my visage have been - maybe I run like a charging rhino - that by the time I got near, they had dropped the power-washer, jumped in their getaway car and taken off, doing me a massive favour in the process. I returned to the store a hero - even Russ looked impressed.

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It's been a fair while since developer SCS Software revealed American Truck Simulator's next destination would be Montana, but now, following regular progress reports on its blog, the studio has given us our best look yet at the forthcoming expansion, sharing a scenic 30-minute drive across the state in a lengthy new gameplay video.

Montana, which was confirmed to be in development last November, will be American Truck Simulator's tenth explorable state, joining California and Nevada (both of which were included at launch in 2016), alongside DLC additions Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming.

Setting the scene for its new expansion on Steam, SCS explains, "Montana is a gateway to Glacier and Yellowstone - two crown jewels of the national park system - and is home to glistening glacial lakes, snow-capped mountain peaks, blue-ribbon trout streams, and mighty Missouri, Yellowstone, and Flathead Rivers."

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Gotham Knights, the upcoming game where you play as a bunch of Batman's sidekicks, will get a six-issue comic book prequel starring the Dark Knight himself.

The upcoming prequel comic, titled as Gotham Knights - Gilded City, focuses on Batman as he attempts to quell the spread of a rage-inducing virus infecting Gotham City (thanks, PopVerse).

This case is being billed as Batman's final mission before his apparently very much permanent demise, so there's likely some interesting backstory here relevant to the game.

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We've known for a while that knockabout battle royale game Fall Guys would be bringing back its ludicrous Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles outfits this August, but a new leak has indicated there may be considerably more to next month's Sonic collaboration, with leakers having uncovered a new stage inspired the hedgehog's classic Green Hill Zone.

A bean-ised Sonic the Hedgehog costume initially appeared in Fall Guys all the way back in October 2020, and Knuckles made his in-store debut in November the following year. Fall Guys then continued on its merry Sonic-free way, but last month's Sonic Central livestream brought news that both character cosmetics would be returning to the game this August - as a sort of duel hoorah for Fall Guys' recent free-to-play launch and Sonic's 30th birthday - bringing with them a newcomer in the form of Tails.

That seemed to be as far developer Mediatonic and Sega planned to take their latest collaboration, but players started to suspect their might be more to come around a week ago, when a screenshot looking an awful lot like a new Green Hill Zone stage was spotted as appearing (presumably unintentionally) as part of Fall Guys' 'up next' stage select screen.

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Saints Row is back, in a 2022 reboot that sees developer Volition bring the series up to date with an enhanced in-house engine. Come its August 23rd release, we'll be able see how all consoles stack up, including PS5, Series X and last-gen machines - but today is all about our hands-on experience with an early PC build running on an RTX 3080 machine. Going in, we wanted to know how the PC version looked, running at 4K with settings maxed, and what hints we could find about what the Series X and PS5 versions that have yet to be revealed - including RT support. Let's dig in and see what's on show so far.

Right away, materials, lighting and physics in Volition's latest are a huge leap in quality over previous Saints Row games. Gone are the flat, simplistic shaders for skin and clothing present in the last Saints Row release from 2013, now replaced with more realistically lit materials. In fact, regardless of how you craft your character - and there's boundless possibilities here - there's always a respectable baseline level for model quality. Likewise for the environment, texture quality is sharp, tapping into the 10GB VRAM of our RTX 3080 here comfortably. All round, world detail level is already clearly more befitting of a project meant for a PS5 and Series X release. Getting into the action itself, car headlights are punctuated by a striking volumetric effect, adding streaks of light and adding a satisfying sense of depth to the scene. Object physics also impress right away, with set piece moments strewn with TNT producing a huge payoff as barrels split open and bridges collapse.

Following reports earlier this year that Ubisoft was in the early stages of developing a sequel to its enjoyable Greek-mythology-themed open-world adventure Immortals Fenyx Rising, new claims have surfaced suggesting this may in fact be a spin-off, rather than a full-blown sequel, and one given a new Hawaiian Polynesian theme.

The original Immortals Fenyx Rising, which released in 2020, followed the adventures of the titular Fenyx after being washed ashore on the colourful Golden Isle, home to a pantheon of Greek mythology inspired gods. What followed was a generally enjoyable blend of open-world exploration, platforming, combat, and puzzling - all narrated by the perpetually bickering twosome of Prometheus and Zeus - whose biggest flaw (aside from its rather exhaustingly stuff-saturated map) was its over-familiarity.

"Blame Covid, blame budgets, blame Ubisoft, blame the paradoxically thrifty, endlessly repurposing way the publisher makes all its huge, expansive, generous games," Christian Donlan wrote in his review, "but Immortals never really finds its own voice until the very end."

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Neopets has suffered a serious data breach, resulting in personal information such as email addresses and passwords from over 69m accounts being leaked.

Users are now being urged to change their password for Neopets and any sites that use their Neopets password.

On Wednesday, community site Jellyneo revealed that Neopets is actively being hacked.

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Well look who we've got on Weekly today: it's Ian Higton all the way over from YouTube land, where everyone communicates in video. He's here to talk about virtual reality as often as he can, as well as tell us about changes on the Eurogamer video team. Aoife, if you didn't know, is off on maternity leave. Good luck, Aoife!

Also joining me today is guides editor Lottie Lynn who reviewed the game everyone's meowing about: Stray. Have you and your pet played it yet?

Meanwhile, I talk more about the other big game that came out last week, As Dusk Falls, which I really liked, and we dig into Valheim 'a few years later' following Emma's State of the Game piece about it.

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For many, TwitchCon Amsterdam was a chance for the streaming community to meet each other, chat with brands, and watch some esports tournaments - notably Twitch Rivals.

But it was the event's drag showcase that was really the talk of the convention. Capping off the first day, the TwitchCon Drag Showcase was the first event of its kind and saw over 60,000 people watching in the centre's Glitch Theatre and streaming online - many of whom had never seen a drag show before.

Not only was the drag showcase the epicentre of LGBT+ representation at the convention, it was an opportunity to highlight the diversity of talent on Twitch. There's far more to the platform than just playing video games, even if that's done in makeup and a wig.

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A social media post believed to mock Chinese president Xi Jinping was behind the last-minute delay to Diablo Immortal in China, a report has suggested.

This contrasts with the official reasoning given by Chinese developer and publisher NetEase in June, which said it was holding back the game's launch for "content enhancement".

NetEase declined to comment when contacted by Eurogamer.

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Nintendo has detailed its incoming update for Switch Sports, which will be available from 26th July.

This update will bring several new additions to the game, including leg strap accessory support and fresh volleyball moves.

Firstly, once this update goes live, you will be able to use the game's leg strap accessory in both four-on-four and one-on-one football matches. For those yet to get their hands on this bit of kit, you can purchase one through the My Nintendo Store.

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Guerrilla will switch off the online servers for some of its Killzone games next month.

On 12th August, online features for Killzone: Mercenary, Killzone Shadow Fall (including Intercept Mode) and RIGS: Mechanised Combat League will be shut down.

Single player modes will still be available.

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As we reported earlier, Naughty Dog has unveiled a new trailer offering a closer look at The Last of Us Part 1 for the PlayStation 5 - and specifically showing a first official look at how the series' highly-praised accessibility features will be presented in the remake.

"We've really tried to push the frontier of accessibility on this game," stated game director Matthew Gallant, showcasing Part 1's new audio description setting - a first for a game on PlayStation. "Every single accessibility option we offer, that's a barrier removed for someone."

You can see the full breakdown for yourself below.

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Square Enix are releasing a new Cloud Strife action figure wearing one of the dresses from the Wall Market section of Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

And this one doesn't come with an NFT.

Priced at $194.99 on the Square Enix store, it's available to pre-order now with a release date of July 2023.

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The Epic Game Store has no plans to change its current policy of allowing NFT games, company boss Tim Sweeney has said, in comments which follow Minecraft maker Mojang's anti-NFT statement earlier this week.

Speaking on Twitter, Sweeney re-iterated Epic's previous stance that the company would not block games that include NFTs based on that issue alone.

"Developers should be free to decide how to build their games, and you are free to decide whether to play them," Sweeney wrote, "I believe stores and operating system makers shouldn't interfere by forcing their views onto others. We definitely won't."

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Console hardware sales have tumbled in Europe this year due to continuing stock shortages.

Just over 2m consoles have been sold across Europe this year (excluding major markets of the UK and Germany), which represents a 21 percent drop year-on-year, reports GamesIndustry.biz.

In particular, PS5 sales have dropped almost 44 percent for the first half of this year, although it remains the second most popular console across the region.

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