Eurogamer

Continuing our PlayStation 5 review process, Digital Foundry today presents a guided tour of the excellent new user interface, exploring the menu system and new functionality - and it was during the recording of this video that a couple of inconvenient issues came to light. The big one is this: right now, there seems to be no way of copying PS5 games away from the main system storage, presenting problems when the SSD is full. In this scenario, the only way to install new games is to delete old ones, meaning that to play them again you'll need to re-download them - deleting other installed PS5 games in the process. PlayStation 4 games installed to PS5 are not affected - these can be moved off to external USB storage.

In common with the Xbox Series consoles, next generation games for PS5 can only be run from internal storage (or the 1TB expansion card, in the case of the Microsoft consoles) and thus far, Sony has not whitelisted any third-party M.2 NVMe drives for extra solid state drive space. However, the difference here is Xbox consoles allow for all games old and new to be archived off to external storage. You can't run next-gen games from there, but at least you can shuttle the titles to and from internal storage without having to re-download them. This does not appear to be a viable solution for PS5.

There was a time when a new PlayStation console and a new WipEout game went hand-in-hand. Those days are gone. Sony Liverpool is no more, and WipEout feels forgotten.

But at least we have a real life WipEout supercar!

This is the first BAC Mono R supercar delivered by Briggs Automotive Company (BAC) to a European customer, and it's finished with a WipEout livery that rekindles memories of PlayStation's iconic anti-grav racing series.

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Square Enix has posted its latest financial results, and it doesn't look great for Marvel's Avengers.

The Japanese company announced its financial figures for the six month period to 30th September 2020, and while revenues and profits were up versus the same weak period in 2019 (Square Enix released Final Fantasy 7 remake earlier in 2020), the quarter during which Marvel's Avengers released saw a £36m loss.

The part of Square Enix's business we're concerned with here is called "Digital Entertainment－HD Games".

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Sega is asking for 650 staff to take voluntary redundancy amid financial woes.

Executives at the Japanese company have also taken a pay cut as they struggle to cope with the impact of coronavirus.

This week we reported on Sega's sale of its arcade business, driven by uncertainty brought on by Covid-19.

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UPDATE: As expected, BioWare has announced the remaster of the Mass Effect trilogy. It's called Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Not expected, though, BioWare has announced a brand new Mass Effect game is in development.

ORIGINAL STORY: BioWare is expected to announce a remaster of the Mass Effect trilogy later today.

Various press, including Eurogamer news editor Tom Phillips, took to social media yesterday to say Mass Effect fans should keep an eye on the BioWare blog this afternoon.

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Activision and Sony have been heavily criticised by Call of Duty fans over "anti-consumer" Black Ops Cold War PlayStation exclusivity.

Yesterday it emerged that PlayStation 4 and 5 players of Treyarch and Raven's first-person shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War get two extra create a class slots, extra tier skips, extra weapon XP and exclusive double XP events.

The Battle Pass Bundle Bonus, as it's called, gives PlayStation players who buy the $20 Battle Pass Bundle an additional five tier skips - that makes for a total of 25 tier skips.

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Fans of American Truck Simulator's wonderfully chilled trundling will have a whole new state to explore next Thursday, 12th November, with the arrival of developer SCS' Colorado expansion.

Colorado will mark the seventh state to be added to American Truck Simulator since its launch in 2016 - following on from Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Idaho - and opens up myriad new routes for long-distance haulers (and landscape oglers) to enjoy across SCS' own take on the Centennial State.

As with American Truck Simulator's other states, it's not an exact recreation, but rather an attempt to distill the essence of Colorado down into a space expansive enough to feel appropriately sweeping, but not so big it takes forever to go anywhere or achieve anything.

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Grand Theft Auto and Borderlands publisher Take-Two Interactive is currently in talks to acquire Codemasters, the UK publisher and developer responsible for the likes of Dirt and F1.

As reported by VGC, Take-Two - which already owns publishing labels 2K, Rockstar Games, and Private Division - announced it had made a non-binding proposal to acquire Codemasters' entire share capital in an internal statement released earlier today.

Should Take-Two decide to proceed with the offer once confirmatory due diligence is complete and other conditions have been met, Codemasters says its board intends to unanimously recommend that its shareholders accept the deal.

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LittleBigPlanet spin-off Sackboy: A Big Adventure will no longer include its previously announced online multiplayer when it launches on PlayStation 5 and PS4 later this month, and the functionality is now due to be added at a later date.

Writing in a post on the PlayStation Blog, Sackboy: A Big Adventure developer Sumo Digital said it had made the "difficult decision" to delay the game's multiplayer support as it needs "a little more time to get it right so you can enjoy it to the fullest with your friends and family".

As such, it now anticipates that the colourful 3D platformer's online functionality - which offers co-op play for up to four players - will arrive via a patch "by end of 2020". This update will also implement cross-generation multiplayer support between PS4 and PS5, alongside game transfers between the two consoles.

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This is it. After months of waiting, we're finally in possession of the realisation of Sony's vision for the next generation of console gaming. PlayStation 5 features cutting-edge AMD CPU and graphics technology combined with ultra-fast solid state storage, ground-breaking innovations in the user interface, a revolutionary controller and, of course, 3D audio. The promise is enticing and by and large, the end product delivers. We've only had just over a week with final hardware, but from my perspective, PlayStation 5 is a home run.

It starts with a press of the power button, eliciting the same ping as PS4 - but the similarity from one console generation to the next ends there. From a cold boot, PlayStation 5 is ready for use in less than 14 seconds (halve that if you're coming back from Rest Mode) and right off the bat, you're good to go. Yes, there's a system software update to download - but it's not mandatory and you're free to examine Sony's early UI if you want to. It's certainly a treat visually, rendering at native 4K with precision text, artwork and iconography. In many ways, I'm reminded of the utility of the PlayStation 4 front end and the pristine, high-end feel of the PS3's particle-heavy XMB. Sony's vision of delivering the next generation of gaming entertainment is perfectly encapsulated in a UI that feels futuristic and deluxe, and polished to the nth degree. The fact that everything is presented in high dynamic range adds to the quality of the presentation.

Layers of Fear and Observer developer Bloober Team has delayed its upcoming third-person psychological horror The Medium, which will now make its way to Xbox Series X/S and PC on 28th January next year, rather than its originally announced release date of 10th December.

The Medium casts players as the psychically gifted Marianne - a woman haunted by visions of a child's murder - who travels to an abandoned hotel resort in a bid to find answers to her years of torment. Its third-person, semi-fixed camera perspective is a first for Bloober, and is at least in part-inspired by legendary horror series Silent Hill, with the studio even calling on composer Akira Yamaoka to contribute to the soundtrack.

In a statement posted to Twitter, Bloober explained it had made the decision to delay The Medium's release "after careful thought and consideration". According to the developer, "it wasn't an easy choice to make", but ultimately felt like the right move given "the Covid-19 situation in Poland", as well as the "current schedule of other games on the market".

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Back in October, Capcom released Monster Hunter World's final content update, marking the end of two years' post-launch support, spanning both the core game and Iceborne expansion. Now, however, the developer has revealed what fans can expect from the game here on out.

In a new tweet on the official Monster Hunter Twitter feed, Capcom explained it will be launching a new Monster Hunter World: Iceborne update, known as version 15.10, in early December. This will adjust the Safi'jiiva Red Dragon Siege battle so it properly scales for one or two Hunters, but more notably sees Monster Hunter World's wealth of limited-time content being folded into the game on a more permanent basis.

Capcom says players will be able to access "virtually all" event quests, and that its seasonal Astera/Seliana Festivals will rotate every two weeks.

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Season 7 of Apex Legends landed earlier this week with a new map, legend and vehicles, and while most of the new content seems to be going down well with players, one thing definitely hasn't - and that's the updated battle pass system.

Respawn decided to overhaul the system in an effort to make it "more streamlined and rewarding" for Season 7, but players have expressed frustration with the pass, arguing the new system has turned the battle pass into a real grind. In the face of these complaints, it seems Respawn has tweaked the battle pass to make earning rewards a little easier - yet not everyone is satisfied.

As explained in the official Respawn blog post, Season 7 changed the challenge rewards from CP to stars. Each star is worth a tenth of a battle pass level, and once the meter is full it rewards a level and then resets. But players took issue with the sheer amount of XP required to earn a star, which initially needed 10k XP, meaning a battle pass level was worth 50k XP (without doing challenges). The loss of weekly recurring challenges for completing dailies has removed further chances to earn battle pass levels, and players say challenges are now much harder, with far worse rewards. Respawning five squadmates in Season 6 would have earned a battle pass level, for instance, but you now must respawn 15 teammates for two stars - effectively 20 per cent of a battle pass level.

I wasn't sure it would make it but King Arthur: Knight's Tale has reached its £115,000 Kickstarter goal, and with five days to spare.

King Arthur: Knight's Tale is the dark fantasy XCOM-alike I wrote about in October, made by Van Helsing developer NeoCore Games.

It's the one where you play as Mordred and have to stop Arthur's dark forces from ravaging the lands. Yes, the roles are reversed. You see, after you killed each other, in the legend as everyone knows it, Arthur somehow came back from the dead with an evil army, so the Lady of the Lake thought oh well let's get Mordred involved again too.

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What a week! We've just had two big embargoes lifted: the PlayStation 5 review embargo, and the Xbox Series X and S review embargo. Oh yeah, and we've got review embargoes for Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Astro's Playroom. Finally, the gloves are off and we can talk freely about the next-generation!

That's exactly what Eurogamer news editor Tom Phillips, Eurogamer reporter Emma Kent and myself do in the video below, the fourth in our weekly next-gen news cast show. Emma talks about the Xbox Series S (her impressions are on the site now), Tom talks about the Xbox Series X (Digital Foundry's review is live now), and I discuss the PS5 (Digital Foundry's PS5 review is live now).

Meanwhile, we discuss Insomniac's PS5 launch title Spider-Man: Miles Morales (here's Martin's review), pack-in game Astro's Playroom (Martin again with the review), as well as all the rest of the week's next-gen news - including how you won't be able to queue up outside a shop to buy one of the fancy new consoles.

If Astro's Playroom presents a look at some of the more novel appeals of the PlayStation 5, Miles Morales is a decent example of another draw of the new generation - it's about taking a game you know well and making it look better, run smoother and get you into the action as quick as you can load up a blockbuster movie on Netflix. It's about presenting a more seamless brand of entertainment, and if you want a breezy thrill there are few better candidates than Insomniac's take on Spider-Man.

2018's Marvel's Spider-Man was a truly lovely thing, a superhero game that felt refreshingly different. Yes, it cribbed much of the fundamentals from the Arkham series, but just as Rocksteady's devotion to the Dark Knight lent those games a giddy edge, here Insomniac's affection for a different flavour of comic book classic shone through. A lightness of touch and a certain goofiness embodied Spider-Man's charm - here was something earnest and optimistic rather than dark and brooding.

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales inherits all that - rather than a full-on sequel this is an expansion that's, well, expansive, with a run-time not too much shorter than the original - and adds a little more besides. Having nailed so many of the fundamentals last time round, Insomniac has been afforded the opportunity to build upon the original in ways that further explore the character of Spider-Man. And it really helps that the person under the mask is Miles Morales.

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It's one of the most crucial components of the PlayStation 5 experience - and yet right up until today's review embargo, we knew so little about it. Just how good is the backwards compatibility feature in the new console? Are we getting the same experience on legacy titles, including their performance limitations? Or is the news more positive: does PlayStation 5 mirror Xbox Series X's remarkable ability to dramatically improve existing games? Today, the mystery is finally solved and there's good news: PlayStation 5 backwards compatibility is excellent.

While there's the sense that it is a little rough around the edges in some scenarios and doesn't enjoy the full range of bonus extras Microsoft lavishes on Series X, PlayStation 5 has got it where it counts. If a game runs with an unlocked frame-rate or has the option to disengage a 30fps cap, you get the same transformative experience that you get on Xbox Series X. In fact, for reasons we'll go into later, the performance multiplier is actually higher when stacking up PS5 vs PS4 Pro against Series X vs One X. On top of that, there's the same revelatory increase in CPU performance too, meaning that the often lacklustre 'high frame-rate' modes seen in many PS4 Pro games now all lock to 60 frames per second.

Where do you find the heart of a new piece of hardware? Thankfully, Sony's included it on the hard-drive of every PlayStation 5 it's shipping: Astro's Playroom is a pre-installed 3D platformer that puts the console and its DualSense controller through their paces, and plenty more besides. It's a thing of spark and wit, and quite possibly the best 3D platformer I've played outside of Nintendo's own efforts.

If you've played PlayStation VR's Astro Bot: Rescue Mission, you may well have seen this coming. This is another Sony Japan Studio joint, headed up by French designer Nicolas Doucet, and it inherits an awful lot from the delightful little 2018 game. Captain Astro returns, Aibo's distant cousin serving as an affable lead loaded with a jetpack-enabled double-jump and always ready with a gleeful wave to camera. Like the best platform characters, he's buoyant with his own inner life even before you've pressed a button - leave the controller alone and Astro will whip out a Vita or a PlayStation VR unit and play happily by themselves.

Released in 2018, Marvel's Spider-Man stands as one of the most impressive games of the PlayStation 4 generation. With a huge, detailed environment, gloriously detailed characters and top-tier post processing effects, in combination with superb, well-balanced gameplay, Insomniac demonstrated once again why it's one of the most talented, ambitious studios around. And somehow, with Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the developer not only has to top it, but to provide a next-generation vision for PlayStation 5, while at the same time also delivering a PlayStation 4 rendition of the game. The odds seem insurmountable - but rest assured, Miles Morales delivers.

It begins with the simple act of launching the game. Once you clear menu screen animations, loading times are a mere four seconds - an astonishingly short space of time. In fact, the UI transition adds three seconds further to the count. This is so fast that it rivals any cartridge-based system from the past. We've had optical discs and spinning platter drives limiting the speed of consoles for more than two decades, but with the arrival of a fast SSD in the PS5, we're witnessing the end of waiting - or at least, that's the hope, and Spider-Man: Miles Morales highlights what's possible. By comparison, the original PS4 Spider-Man took over 30 seconds to load.

I know what you're sat there thinking: when is the new Battlefield game coming out? Oh you weren't? Well nevermind, you're here now.

The new Battlefield game is coming out in holiday 2021, also known as the Christmas shopping period, which probably means November.

"DICE is creating our next Battlefield game with never before seen scale," said CEO Andrew Wilson during an earnings call overnight (transcript by Seeking Alpha).

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Godfall is a six-month timed PS5 console exclusive, Sony has confirmed.

Godfall's PS5 launch trailer was published overnight, and at the end it reveals the particle effect-heavy looter RPG will remain a PS5 console exclusive until 21st May 2021.

Godfall, developed by Counterplay Games and published by Gearbox, launches alongside the PS5 on 12th November and is also out then on PC via the Epic Games store. Godfall costs £70 on PS5, and £50 on PC.

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Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order becomes available as part of the EA Play subscription next week on 10th November, which is not so coincidentally the launch day of Xbox Series S/X.

Microsoft recently announced it would wrap EA Play within its own Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, meaning anyone with a subscription to that will be able to play Jedi Fallen Order on their new console next week. The official date for this all to go live is also 10th November.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate costs £10.99-a-month, although you can get the first month for £1. This also includes Xbox Live Gold.

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Okay. Let's get this out of the way: the Mortal Kombat 11 Mileena gameplay video is not for the faint of heart. I mean, all the Mortal Kombat 11 gameplay videos are not for the faint of heart. But this one... well...

NetherRealm showcased the return of fan-favourite fighter Mileena for the first time. For the uninitiated, Mileena is the product of Shang Tsung's cloning experiments, a fusion of Tarkatan blood and Edenian physiology, making her a sort of Baraka crossed with Kitana character.

In Mortal Kombat 11, she uses her trademark sai to stab stab stab, her sharpened claws to claw claw claw, and her teeth to tear tear tear her enemies apart.

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Remedy has delayed its upcoming next-gen version of Control: Ultimate Edition to early 2021.

"We want the final quality of the game to be awesome, and so we need a bit more time to work on it," Remedy said via Twitter today. "Thank you for your understanding and patience!"

You'll still be able to play Control: Ultimate Edition on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X this year via backwards compatibility (just like the regular version of Control, of course) but Ultimate Edition owners will have to wait a little longer for the next-gen version they've paid for.

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As we get closer to Black Friday 2020, FIFA 21 has started going cheap on Amazon UK - or more specifically, the Ultimate and Champions editions, enhanced versions of the games that come bundled with numerous extras to help you leap into the game quicker than normal. There's also a slightly-discounted bundle, which allows you to buy the regular version packaged with a spare PS4 controller.

FIFA games are something of a timeless classic when it comes to two-controllers-on-a-couch gameplay, letting players battle for championships in person or online. FIFA 21 is no different, though it also includes a more developed system for building and managing your team between matches, aiming to be a full footballing simulation.

PlayStation 4

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UPDATE: The game's creative director, Nate Simpson, clarified Kerbal Space Program 2 will be released in 2022.

Simpson shared the target in a letter to the community about the delay on the game's forum.

"Gonna rip the band-aid off fast here: Kerbal Space Program 2 will release in 2022 instead of fall 2021. I know this is frustrating, especially considering that this isn't the first time we've adjusted our schedule," he wrote.

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Dicebreaker Recommends is a series of monthly board game, RPG and other tabletop recommendations from our friends at our sibling site, Dicebreaker.

A criticism sometimes levelled at board games in comparison to video games and their tabletop cousin, the pen-and-paper RPG, is that they lack variety. It's only natural - with the people around the table handling the rules and pieces in place of code or the limitless human imagination, keeping the possibilities short enough to fit on a player reference card is necessary to avoid turning game night into six hours of administrative work.

This means many board games specialise in doing one or two things, and how well you perform them round after round becomes the grading factor for your final score. Pandemic? Move and remove cubes. Catan? Trade and build. Literally any dungeon-crawler? Move X squares, roll Y dice. There are some exceptions, but these tend to edge back into that foreboding territory of "two hours to learn, 12 hours to play" - your Twilight Imperiums, Campaign for North Africas, Game of Thrones: The Board Gameses. Few board games find the sweet spot between breadth and depth.

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It's a veritable jamboree of next-gen news tonight, and now developer Digital Extremes has revealed the various PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S enhancements coming to celebrated free-to-play space shooter Warframe "this year" and "later" respectively.

On the basic fidelity front, Warframe's next-gen update will deliver "up to" 4K resolution and 60fps on Xbox Series X/S and PS5, and Digital Extremes is also promising "drastically improved" loading times. However, the sexier updates come in the form of a game-wide "texture remaster", which is said to add increased levels of detail and colour, and will reduce required hard-drive space in the process. Additionally, Warframe will receive swish new dynamic lighting through its Enhanced Renderer.

"From the neon underbelly of Fortuna, to our newest landscape on the Infested moon of Deimos," says Digital Extremes, "there's no better place to see the stunning differences. The light from the sun now casts long shadows through the trees, foliage creates dynamic shadows as you stalk through it, and the reflections of the dense Cetus market can be seen across your Warframe as you stroll through."

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With Xbox Series X/S and PS5 both set to begin their long-awaited journeys out into the wild next week, EA has detailed the next-gen enhancements coming to its biggest current-gen titles - including Apex Legends, Star Wars: Squadrons - via backward-compatibility on launch day.

Star Wars: Squadrons will, for instance, support variable refresh rates and offer the choice between better visuals and better performance on Xbox Series X/S. The former mode features an improved lighting model and runs up to 1440p at 60fps on the Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X ramps that up to 2160p at 60fps. Performance Mode, meanwhile, offers 1440p at 120fps and up to 2160p at 120fps respectively. PlayStation 5 will include improved lighting "at the same resolution and framerate as on the PS4 Pro".

The next-gen news is a little brisker for Apex Legends, which will see a "performance boost up to 1440p". EA does note, however, that "more formal enhancements" for Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 are planned to arrive next year.

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Call of Duty: Warzone, Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War are all getting a cross-title Prestige system of sorts.

Season One of Black Ops Cold War, which starts in December, brings universal and synchronised player progression that works between Black Ops Cold War, Modern Warfare, and Warzone.

The Black Ops Cold War progression is similar to Modern Warfare's and incorporates a Prestige system, Activision said.

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Sony has shared fresh details on Destruction AllStars, developer Lucid Games' PS5-exclusive multiplayer driving romp, and tossed in a new gameplay trailer for good measure.

Destruction AllStars had initially been pencilled in as a PS5 launch title, but was delayed last month for release in February 2021, when it will be given away to PlayStation Plus subscribers. Despite its relative imminence, however, details have remained rather thin on the ground.

Now, though, in a PlayStation Blog post, Lucid Games has shared a new Destruction Allstars gameplay trailer, alongside word on the four game modes set to be included at launch - titled Mayhem, Carnado, Stockpile, and Gridfall - which will be playable solo, in a team with AI, or with friends and rivals in online multiplayer.

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With PS5 looming on the horizon like some giant obelisk which might also struggle to fit under your TV, the floodgates are now open and news around Sony's console continues to emerge, including official re-confirmation that SSD storage expansion won't be supported at launch.

PlayStation 5 will, of course, include a lightning-fast 825GB solid-state drive on release, and Sony has previously confirmed owners will be able to expand that SSD storage space via the console's dedicated internal M.2 slot.

However, speaking to The Verge, Sony has reiterated a point made by lead PlayStation system architect Mark Cerny earlier this year, confirming that PS5's M.2 slot will be disabled out of the box on launch day, and that it won't be activated for players until a "future update". USB external storage support, suited to the likes of PS4 titles, will be available on day one, however.

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Phogs!, an indie puzzle platformer featuring a dog with two heads, will finally be releasd on 3rd December.

That's for Nintendo Switch, Steam, Stadia, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and through backwards compatibility on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X.

As previously announced, Phogs! will launch straight onto Xbox Game Pass on both console and PC. Otherwise, it'll be priced at $25 (about £20).

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Demon's Souls fans know all too well the struggles of attempting to create anything other than a weirdly misshapen humanoid lump of a protagonist in the game's distinctly no-frill characters creator - but a new look at developer Bluepoint's PS5 remake has revealed the days of endless Dead-eyed McRubberfaces will soon be no more.

While Demon's Souls medieval-inspired aesthetic inevitably means there are plenty of times player characters will be entirely ensconced in heavy armour, there are enough less-all-consuming equipment and armour options that a decent character creator does make a lot of sense. And Bluepoint's offering in the Demon's Souls remake is said to be flexible enough to allow for 16 million character permutations.

"We've added many more customisation options than you'll remember from the PS3 game, and also worked hard to ensure there is a satisfying variety possible for those who wish to tinker with every slider," it explains in a new PlayStation blog post. "With the number of total synchronous online players in an instance increased to six, standing out will mean so much more."

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Here's the dilemma: your boss is getting a kind of lifetime achievement award and you've been asked to contribute to a video montage bigging them up. Shouldn't be hard. But what do you wear? That's the issue.

Go smart? No, too formal, these are video games we're talking about. But you want to keep some kind of professionalism about you. You are the managing director of Bethesda Game Studios after all.

Got it! You'll go on-brand. You've got that T-shirt, remember? New owner Microsoft will love it - that Phil Spencer, he's all about a well-placed tee. It's a win-win. You can look professional while promoting your new game Starfield at the same time. Bin-go. What could possibly go wrong?

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Sony has announced all day-of launch PlayStation 5 sales will be online only, globally.

It comes after Sony announced it will not sell the PS5 in stores in Japan.

Sony took the decision due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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It's a strange feeling to be reviewing Xbox Series X after a preview period which essentially blew the doors open on so much of the experience. We know that Series X offers a generational leap over Xbox One and One X in so many respects: the CPU upgrade is so pronounced we couldn't measure it in backwards compatibility gaming tests, the graphics boost is a creditable 2x over One X (without even factoring in architectural advances) with more than an 8x multiplier over the One S. Combined with the fast SSD, Xbox Series X excels in delivering a lag-free console experience to the extent that returning to the current-gen machines feels undesirable, to say the least. We're not quite back to the plug-and-play ethos that defined the early games consoles, but this is a healthy step in the right direction.

Desirability as a concept may be difficult to attach to the Series X itself though: it's a black rectangular cuboid - a box with little in the way of X - with few distinguishing features bar the green-accented, perforated exhaust port at the top. The thing is, it works. Series X sits next to your TV discreetly, intentionally non-intrusive from its looks to it acoustics. Clearly designed to be stood vertically, the console may be somewhat wide, but its footprint remains manageable - if not exactly media-cabinet-friendly. Series X also works resting on its side, but oddly, it seems to lose much of its unassuming nature when horizontal. It just looks rather weird.

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.