Eurogamer

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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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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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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The Xbox Series X and S have a handy "Optimised for Xbox Series X/S games" filter.

This is something spotted by Xbox console preview users last month, and was just tweeted by Microsoft's Larry Hryb.

You can access the filter from the Games list.

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Valve has added a new Steam Playtest feature that lets developers easily invite players to test their games.

It means developers no longer have to bother with managing keys or external mailing lists, Valve said in an announcement on Steam. They control how many players get access, when they want to add more players, when to open testing and when to end it.

Existing tools such as demos and release-override beta Steam keys, which are already in use, will remain. Steam Playtest is an option in addition to these.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War takes up 40GB more space on next-gen consoles, Activision has announced.

Treyarch and Raven's first-person shooter weighs in at 95GB on PlayStation 4 and 93GB on Xbox One. On PlayStation 5 it's 133GB, and on Xbox Series X and S, it's 136GB.

Activision added console players can uninstall specific game mode packs, such as for Campaign or Zombies, to reduce the overall file size.

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Disc Room had me googling those funny spirograph shapes you sometimes get on bank notes. After a while, I guess, I don't see the discs anymore. I see the trajectories. The ways that some swoop, some follow, the ways that some advance and then slow and then boost off again. I close my eyes and there are these luminous spirograph trails in the darkness. Possible gaps in between them if I thread my way though. No discs, just movement, just arcs.

This game is compact and mysterious: I properly love it. On the one hand, it does exactly what it says it will. There are rooms and the rooms are filled with discs. The discs generally move about and if you come into contact with them you are very dead. It's a top down affair: left, right, up and down. Avoid the discs!

And then you die. And this is what Disc Room wants. You unlock new doors to new rooms by dying after having met specific criteria. Survive for five seconds, ten seconds, twenty. Succumb to every kind of disc available. Some of the criteria are really simple to understand. Sometimes it's easy to understand but very hard to achieve. Stay alive for twenty seconds in a certain number of rooms! Unlock more doors, and the connections between rooms grow. Sometimes the criteria is hard to understand! Mysteries. This game is a bit of a puzzle box.

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Kinetic Games, the one-person studio behind smash-hit co-op ghost hunting game Phasmophobia is 'reconsidering' its development plans - which had initially only called for a short early access period - as a result of the game's huge success.

Phasmophobia's developer, who goes by the name of Dknighter, released the horror game onto Steam back in September, but despite humble expectations for the project, it quickly proved a hit. "I was planning for the server capacity hitting a maximum of 500 players on launch day and it to drop off from there," Dknighter told IGN, "Now the game has over 2 million sales, with a player peak of around 90k"

Phasmophobia's meteoric rise has ultimately forced a bit of a rethink in terms of how development will proceed. "I was originally planning the early access to be short, where I just add a few more maps, ghost types and equipment," Dknighter explained, "However, due to the game's popularity, everyone's expectations are increased so I am going to have to reconsider my plans for the game's future."

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Door Kickers 2, the sequel to developer KillHouse Games' acclaimed SWAT-themed real-time tactics effort, has surprise-launched into Steam early access.

Door Kickers 2, subtitled Task Force North, was initially announced back in 2016 for a release that same year. However, the game soon slipped out of the spotlight, only re-emerging this February where a number of changes were revealed to be afoot for the sequel, including a shift from 2D to 3D and a switch in focus, with players now controlling a military squad in the Middle East, rather than the SWAT team of the original.

"True to the violent and dynamic nature of combat in the region," says Killhouse on Steam, "Door Kickers 2 models deadly threats and technologies such as booby traps, suicide bombers, RPGs and concealed insurgents - while handing you new toys such as Light Machine Guns for suppressive fire, drone reconnaissance, night vision goggles and wall breaching charges."

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Square Enix will soon be unleashing the interminably titled Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and ahead of its 4th December release, a substantial free demo is now available on all platforms.

Dragon Quest XI Definitive Edition (as I shall be referring to it from here on in, to save my fingers and your eyes) is, of course, a port of the game that released on Switch last year, which was, in turn, an expanded and enhanced version of 2017's Dragon Quest XI - a game that eventually made its way west via PlayStation 4 and PC in 2018.

The original release's tale of a young boy forced out of his idyllic existence to thwart an age-old evil was about as traditional a J-RPG offering as its sounds, albeit entirely charming, and frequently breathtaking its lavish presentation.

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Kalypso Media's remaster of developer Pyro Studios' much-loved WW2 real-time stealth-tactics classic Commandos 2 will be coming to Switch on 4th December.

Commandos 2 - HD Remaster, as Kalypso's spruce-up is officially known, initially released for PC in January, before making its way to Xbox One and PS4 in September. The core of the experience, as you'd hope, remains largely identical to Pyro Studios' notoriously challenging 2001 original, tasking players with leading a small team of WW2 soldiers - each with its own speciality, from sniper to demolitions expert - across a series of isometric stages in order to complete various open-ended sabotage and assassination missions.

Kalypso's remaster effort introduced the likes of graphical enhancements, reworked controls, a modernised UI, and an improved tutorial on PC, but was roundly criticised for removing key features - from multiple view panes to Commandos 2's entire multiplayer mode - while adding in an absolute mountain of bugs and performance issues at launch.

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Blizzard is clamping down on World of Warcraft multi-boxing.

Multi-boxing is a controversial method of farming online video games for resources that involves one user playing multiple accounts simultaneously. Blizzard is clamping down on one particular method of multi-boxing: using third-party software to "broadcast" your inputs across multiple clients. This key cloning software automatically mirrors a single keystroke or action across multiple versions of an MMO, thus letting the user gather materials and in-game gold at a game-breaking pace.

Players have used third-party software to multi-box in World of Warcraft for years, seemingly within the game's Terms of Service. All that has changed now, though. In a post on the World of Warcraft website, seemingly proclaimed by a watchful Malfurion from upon high, Blizzard announced its upcoming clampdown on third-party input broadcasting software.

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Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's big message with Yakuza: Like a Dragon, purposefully not called Yakuza 7, is that the yakuza need to evolve - both the real and the virtual ones. Accordingly, Like a Dragon makes a break from its past in both its story and systems, ironically enough by referencing Dragon Quest, an RPG renowned for taking a staunchly traditionalist approach with its latest instalment.

Our new hero is Kasuga Ichiban, an expressive, kind-hearted doofus unlucky enough to have been born at a soapland, a massage parlour and the closest Japan gets to a brothel. Kasuga isn't just a hero by his own designation, he's inherently good to the point of naivety, which isn't a good trait to have in his profession. In an echo of former Yakuza protagonist Kazuma Kiryu, his strong loyalty and belief in others lead him to go to prison for the patriarch of his yakuza family. When he gets out 18 years later, he's greeted with a bullet to the chest and dumped in the fictional district of Isezaki Ijincho in nearby Yokohama.

Eventually Ichiban will get entangled with the three crime syndicates that control Ijincho, but it's a long slog to that point. I can live with the long intro that's customary for the Yakuza franchise at this point, where you barely move your character five steps before there's another cut scene, but here you are in the double digit hours before the game has finished explaining every aspect of its new combat system, and it takes even longer before something akin to a plot begins to emerge.

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One of 2020's hottest items, Nintendo's Ring Fit Adventure game is in stock again and going at a discount if you have the right code! After flickering in-and-out of availability for the whole year, it's currently around and ready to go. Ring Fit is a phenomenal way to exercise indoors, a hybrid of adventure game and fitness routine that sees you battle kettle bells, weight-lifting crabs, and the buffest dragon you ever saw.

Those who buy the game from Currys/PC World can get five pounds off if they enter "FNDDGAME" at the checkout, bringing the price down to £59.99 total. It's a good deal considering the high demand around Ring Fit, as well as the fact that the game comes with a peripheral ring you need to clip the Joy-Cons into.

Currys haven't made it clear how long this offer will last, but considering how fast Ring Fits tend to disappear, we'd encourage grabbing it quickly before stocks vanish yet again.

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Ubisoft is investigating a potential Watch Dogs Legion source code leak.

Back in October, a ransomware gang called "Egregor" leaked data it claimed it had obtained from the internal networks of Crysis maker Crytek and Ubisoft.

Now, in a case of life imitating art, the source code for hacking adventure game Watch Dogs Legion has leaked online, and weighs in at 560GB.

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Someone once told me "if you like music, don't work in the music industry". After all, beyond the glamour, the fun, the creativity, the sex-drugs-and-rock-n-roll, it is a business. It's all about money.

Perhaps that's why so many video games focus on the end product. The Guitar and DJ Heros. The Singstars. The Dance Dance Revolutions. Here is a packaged version of fame that makes you feel like a star in your own living room. Music talent - arguably - not required.

And while that may be true of the music industry in some ways, what about a video game that requires not only musical knowledge but business knowledge too? A game to make you feel like the ultimate, all-powerful music mogul? (And no, I'm not talking about that Pop Idol game on PS2 with the terrifying Cel-shaded Simon Cowell )

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Expansive survival horror Days Gone is going to benefit from the extra power of the PlayStation 5, with Sony Bend's 2019 game running at dynamic 4K and up to 60fps on the soon-to-be-released console.

The news came via Sony Bend's official Twitter account, which also confirmed that PS4 saves would transfer to PS5 - which had been something of a grey area on the new machine, with some games supporting the feature while others, such as Yakuza: Like a Dragon, do not.

Days Gone came out way back in April last year - several worlds away, it now seems - and was a gorgeous romp through a zombie-infested Oregon that, for our reviewer Malindy, turned into a bit of a slog. Maybe the super-quick loading times on PS5 will help make it all a bit more palatable.

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Games Done Quick has unveiled the full schedule for its 2021 Awesome Games Done Quick charity speed-running event, which - as was the case with this year's Summer Games Done Quick - will adopt an entirely online format in reponse to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Awesome Games Done Quick 2021 will run from January 3rd to January 10th, with all money raised going to the Prevent Cancer Foundation. It'll feature more than 170 speedruns over the course of its seven-day runtime, offering the usual mix of mega-budget triple-A titles, smaller-scale indie offerings, retro classics, and occasional oddities.

A quick glance down the very long speedrun list offers up the likes of Supergiant Games' masterful dungeon runner Hades, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Capcom's cult classic horror treat Haunting Ground, Night in the Woods' rogue-like DemonTower mini-game, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, and plenty more.

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Gun Media is pulling the plug on asymmetric multiplayer horror Friday the 13th's dedicated servers later this month, and is delivering one final patch at the same time.

Friday the 13th: The Game had a rocky start back in 2017, with a litany of bugs and technical issues threatening to undermine what was an otherwise solidly entertaining - and commercially successful - horror experience. Despite improvements, Gun Media then fell foul of a lawsuit relating to ownership of the Friday the 13th license, at which point it announced it would no longer be developing new content for the game. Even so, the community has remained.

That rocky road, however, now appears to have reached something of an end; in a post on the official Friday the 13th: The Game forum, lead community developer Matt Shotcha confirmed that Gun Media will be 'decommissioning' the game's dedicated servers later this month, reverting back to the peer-to-peer networking favoured at launch.

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Developer Rebellion has released first gameplay footage of WW2 shooter sequel Sniper Elite 4 running on Switch, ahead of the port's release on 17th November.

Sniper Elite 4 picks up immediately after the events of its predecessor, this time taking the series' well-regarded third-person tactical shooting to Italy, 1943, where players can enjoy "sun-drenched Mediterranean coastal towns, ancient forests, mountain valleys, and colossal Nazi megastructures" - in-between bouts of Nazi busting, of course.

The end result is an experience Eurogamer's Martin Robinson enjoyed rather a lot when he reviewed it back in 2017. "Rebellion has folded in the essence of stealth greats such as Splinter Cell and Metal Gear while keeping the characterful flavour of Sniper Elite itself," he enthused, "and for the first time it's not necessary to make any excuses on its behalf. Sniper Elite 4 is a really good video game."

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If you've been excitedly anticipating the previously revealed remasters of developer Terminal Reality's so-so (but still, seemingly, fondly remembered) BloodRayne series, you're in luck; enhanced editions of BloodRayne 1 and 2 will be making their way to PC on 20th November.

The original BloodRayne launched back in 2002, introducing the world to half-vampire (and clothing deficient) femme fatale Rayne, as she embarked on a campy, globe-trotting adventure - very much in the third-person shooter mould - to obliterate supernatural forces. And also nazis.

A similarly styled sequel followed in 2004, and the series was revived in 2011, albeit this time as a side-scrolling action platformer, known as BloodRayne Betrayal. Uwe Boll also turned the games into a trilogy of "movies", but the less said about those the better.

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2020 is Pokémon Go's most lucrative year yet, with more than $1bn in player spending notched up over its first 10 months alone.

That's according to data from Sensor Tower, which tracks mobile spending across the iOS App Store and Google Play.

This year's revenues are already up 11 per cent on 2019 with two months still to go, and up 30 per cent when comparing this year's first 10 months alone.

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Microsoft is phasing out peer-to-peer (P2P) voice connections for Xbox party chat to beef up security.

Xbox engineer Bill Ridmann took to the Xbox One subreddit (thanks, PureXbox) to respond to a user who issued a warning to the new wave of Rainbow Six Siege Xbox players sparked by the competitive multiplayer shooter's arrival on Game Pass.

"With Rainbow Six Siege now on GamePass, here's a reminder to not accept random party invites!" redditor KinoTheMystic wrote.

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One of the trends we're seeing with this new generation of consoles is the arrival of visual updates for last generation games - basically, new features designed to take advantage of more powerful hardware. Gears 5 is one of the first titles revealed to be receiving this sort of update and along with upcoming story DLC, it feels almost like a soft relaunch. In the process, one of the best-looking games for Xbox One looks better than ever - it's basically a graphics and performance upgrade with some cool new features added in.

To get the basics out of the way first, Gears 5 retains the use of dynamic resolution scaling, but based on pixel counting a selection of shots, it seems to average out at around 1728p during gameplay, with full 2160p manifesting in less busy situations. Interestingly, the lower bounds is still 1080p - just as it was on Xbox One X - but it's extremely uncommon for resolution to hit this level. By comparison, Xbox One X could drop to near 1080p much more often.

The multiplayer mode is a little more aggressive with its dynamic resolution solution owing to its higher performance targets - yes, 120 frames per second is the target - but it still looks solid. Image quality was already good thanks to Unreal's temporal anti-aliasing implementation and it's improved here thanks to a higher average resolution. We don't yet have a Series S console but we were told that Gears 5 maxes out at 1440p on the high-end suggesting an average resolution somewhere between Xbox One and Xbox One X while still hitting the same frame-rate targets as Series X.

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Demon's Souls on PlayStation 5 has over 180 game help videos available via the interface.

The revelation comes from a new feature in the Washington Post, which interviewed Demon's Souls creative director Gavin Moore as part of a wider piece on the PS5.

According to the Post, each of these videos tell players how to complete portions of the remake of the infamously difficult PlayStation 3 classic in increasing levels of visibility.

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A Mass Effect N7 Day panel is set for this weekend - and fans are crossing their fingers for a reveal of the heavily-rumoured Mass Effect Trilogy remaster.

Rumours of a remaster were stoked when an Art of the Mass Effect Trilogy: Expanded Edition book popped up for pre-order in July. Sporting a 23rd February 2021 release date, this new book includes hundreds of never-before-seen works of art, according to its description on the likes of Amazon and elsewhere.

Now, Jennifer Hale, aka FemShep, tweeted to announce a panel to celebrate N7 Day set for 7pm UK time this Saturday, 7th November. What's interesting is the panel has many of the actors who played the characters of the Mass Effect crew, including Mark Meer (Male Shep), Steve Blum (Grunt), Kimberly Brooks (Ashley Williams), Raphael Sbarge (Kaidan Alenko), Courtenay Taylor (Jack), Alix Wilton Regan (Samantha Traynor), William Salyers (Mordin Solus), D.C. Douglas (Legion), and Ali Hillis (Liara T'Soni), as well as BioWare developers Karin Weekes and Patrick Weekes.

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FIFA 21's latest title update is out now, and it makes some welcome changes to the game.

The focus here is on fixing bugs, rather than making sweeping balance or gameplay changes. However, some tweaks have been made to the way FIFA 21 plays. For example, the patch has adjusted the referee logic in potential yellow card scenarios so that the likelihood of a yellow card being given is reduced. Given how often the FIFA 21 ref would dish out yellows, this is very much a good thing.

Elsewhere, EA has nerfed the Ball Roll to Scoop Turn skill move combination, so that it now requires a five star skill move rating to perform.

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With VR prices beginning to drop over the last few years even, as the technology gets more advanced, it's always nice to see those two things meet in the middle. That's why those in the UK should be able to get £20 off the bigger 256GB version of the new Oculus Quest 2, a VR headset designed to be used independently of a PC or console.

To get the deal, head to the Argos eBay page linked below, add the Quest to your basket and enter the code 'PRODUCT5' at checkout to take £20 off. Be quick though - the deal is for today only!

For the few who are unaware, most VR headsets need to be plugged into a larger device (such as a PS4 or your desktop). But the Quest is an exception. No more being tangled in wires or limited to whatever room you keep your computer in, the Quest doesn't even require sensors placed around the room. That doesn't mean you can't plug it into a computer for a more high-end experience, but it works perfectly well without one. The only time you'll need wires is to charge it up like any other portable device.

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Before we get going, I need to acknowledge something: the numerous misconduct allegations levelled at high profile Ubisoft employees. We know things have been tough and the company is certainly making all the right noises, but I feel strongly that reviews should, where possible, reflect on the culture in which games are created. Though I worry that art can't be divorced from the artist, at the same time, I appreciate that many hundreds of people contribute to Ubisoft's vast portfolio, and that their work shouldn't be overshadowed by the disgraceful conduct of a handful of people. It's a balance I'm still struggling with, to be honest, but it's hard to immerse yourself in a game that has seemingly come at such a cost to some. Here's hoping this is the last time a Ubisoft game comes with this caveat, eh?

The old adage says it's grim up North, but I'm not sure anything north of the M25 is as grim as Ubisoft's devastating vision of a broken, near-future London.

Half-Life 2: Episode 2's Little Rocket Man achievement - still one of the finest achievements ever created, if you ask me - is poised to become reality, as Valve's Gabe Newell prepares to launch a garden gnome into space for charity.

Little Rocket Man was a notoriously tricksy achievement to secure, forcing players to carry an entirely innocuous garden gnome - dubbed Gnome Chompski - from the start of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 to a rocket ship toward the end of the game.

It's the stuff of legend, in large part thanks to Chompski's casual disregard for the laws of physics - which would often, infuriatingly, result in the gnome's impromptu high-velocity launch from the back of your open-top vehicle whenever it reached speeds higher than single digits - and Newell will be commemorating it as part of a drive to raise money for the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit of children's hospital Starship, in Auckland, New Zealand.

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Developer Jasper Byrne's acclaimed indie horror Lone Survivor is getting a remake, complete with a brand-new scenario, and will be making its way to PC and Switch next year.

Lone Survivor initially launched back in 2012, combining distinctive 2D visuals with a thread of exploratory survival horror - in which players must stay alive and stave off madness in a world ravaged by a mutagenic infection - tonally reminiscent of Silent Hill, with a splash of woozy David-Lynch-like surrealism thrown in.

"Lone Survivor never once made me jump, nor did it especially disturb me, but I can't think of another game that's made my heart race quite so much upon opening a door," wrote Eurogamer contributor Lewis Denby back in 2012, "It achieves this primarily through some incredible sound design...but also through immaculate pacing, abject confusion, and some tremendous artistry crammed into the few pixels it possesses."

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Animal Farm, the video game adaptation of George Orwell's classic allegorical novella, is making its way to Steam and unspecified mobile devices on 10th December.

Orwell's Animal Farm, as the adaptation is officially titled, is the work of developer Nerial - the studio behind Tinder-inspired monarchy sim Reigns - and features writing by Failbetter's Emily Short and narration from Abubakar Salim, the voice of Bayek in Assassin's Creed: Origins.

Nerial describes its Animal Farm adaptation as a "narrative, choice-based adventure game that puts the player at the centre of an allegorical animal revolution", noting that players can influence critical events of Orwell's "story of absolute power and corruption" by choosing who they follow, and who is ignored or sidelined.

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With next-gen practically in smelling distance, Epic has unveiled a host of technical enhancements coming to Fortnite as a part of a free Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 update, including the ability to hop directly into a specific mode lobby on Sony's console.

As you'd imagine, many of Fortnite's next-gen enhancements are shared between Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, including 4K support at 60fps and what Epic is referring to as "dynamic visuals and physics". The latter will manifest as a "more dynamic and interactive world", including grass and trees that react to explosions, enhanced fluid simulations for smoke and liquid, plus all-new Storm and cloud effects.

Xbox Series S, meanwhile, will run "most" of these enhancements (Epic isn't being any more specific than that at the moment, unfortunately) at 1080p/60fps. Notably, all platforms will support 60fps during split-screen play, and will feature improved loading said to impact both texture loading and the time it takes players to get into a match.

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Call of Duty: Warzone will stick with its existing engine for the upcoming Black Ops Cold War integration, an Activision employee has said.

In a post on ResetEra, a user called ShutterMunster, who is verified on the site as an Activision art lead, stepped in to say "there will not be an engine shift for Warzone". Eurogamer has asked Activision for comment.

There had been speculation about whether Warzone would move over to the engine powering Black Ops Cold War after Activision confirmed Cold War's integration with Warzone kicks off in December 2020.

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Only a few days remain until players can drop into Apex Legends Season 7 for the first time, in a season that promises a glitzy new map, clubs, a new legend and the game's very first vehicles. But if you're struggling to wait until 4th November, then hopefully this gameplay footage will keep you going.

Following the release of an official gameplay trailer along with previews and interviews on Friday, those who attended the preview session are now allowed to share their footage: so you can take a look at mine in the compilation video below. In a pool full of professional Apex streamers and QA staff, I did my best, but thankfully Season 7 also has a map preview mode which allows you to roam around without fear of being shot. Which was very much needed.

Obviously, one of the most exciting new additions is new map Olympus, which was originally a Titanfall 3 concept before the artwork was used to inspire the map for Apex Legends. In Apex lore, Olympus once hosted the best minds in the Outlands until a major explosion forced everyone to abandon the city (it's also the home town of Lifeline and Octane, and the place where Revenant murdered Loba's parents). The map boasts ramps and roads for players to test the new Trident vehicles, and is packed with glamorous shopping centres and modern homes. There's also a Hadron Collider-style portal which pops you out into a massive dome of energy, which probably gives you a clue as to why the city was evacuated.

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Microsoft has confirmed the entertainment apps available on Xbox Series X and S at launch.

Apps already available on Xbox One will be available on Xbox Series X and S, Microsoft said. These include the likes of Netflix, Disney+, YouTube, Spotify, Sky Go, Now TV and Amazon Prime Video.

But also out on 10th November is the Apple TV app. That's for Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

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Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is a PlayStation 5 exclusive, Insomniac has confirmed.

The developer responded to a tweet from someone wondering whether the upcoming platformer will be released on the PlayStation 4 as well as the PS5. It's answer is unequivocal.

Given Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart's use of the PS5's fast loading to instantly teleport the player to new worlds, the game would probably have to be significantly reworked for PS4. But some had wondered about the exact nature of its exclusivity given recent revelations about other PS5 games, such as Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Horizon: Forbidden West, and Sackboy: A Big Adventure, which are also coming to PS4 when they were initially announced for PS5.

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Dirt has been many things in its lifetime, but here's a first: a mainline entry developed outside of Codemasters' Southam campus as its Cheshire studio takes point, giving us the series' trademark raucous off-roading through an all-new filter. The results are fascinating, if not always entirely convincing. With the Dirt Rally series picking up the more serious and sim-minded point-to-point action, Dirt 5 is a pure arcade racer, packed full of spectacle and a smattering of smart ideas, and while some parts ring a little hollow, others can still leave one hell of an impression.

It's a multidisciplinary racer, and a patchwork of different influences, but by far the biggest is Dirt 2 - that loudest, most raucous of Dirt games, with its music festival framework that the original Dirt 2 team would go on to develop further with the Forza Horizon series. In Dirt 5, that festival vibe pervades - you're given a customisable lanyard and access to a lattice of various events split over five chapters, all underscored by a light story headed up by Nolan North and Troy Baker.

Don't run away just yet, though. If it sounds a little off then it most definitely is, and if you were concerned that Dirt 5's initial announcement led with this bizarre little inclusion, I totally get it. So I'm pleased to say it's almost entirely inconsequential, confined to some light babbling in the background hosted by Donut Media's James Pumphrey and Nolan Sykes, with North and Baker making what amounts to cameos in a series of podcasts (there's a further cameo from W Series champion Jamie Chadwick, who does a sterling job of pretending to phone in from a festival in Nevada). It all builds to a showdown that can't help but feel a mite anti-climactic, though I'm more than okay with that.

Given the enormous amount of murder that takes place in the average Among Us game, I can't say its spaceships are particularly child-friendly, but apparently that's not enough to stop some crewmates from bringing their kids to work. One of the cosmetic items in Among Us is a mini crewmate pet that follows you around until you die - and will then sit sadly on the floor while you fly around as a ghost. As a result, some games end up littered with orphaned children after their parents have been murdered: but one Among Us fan decided to get creative and imagine a better future.

Unity developer Ahmad Creations has made a video showcasing an "adopt" mechanic for Among Us, which was created by partially remaking the game using the Unity engine. Ahmad Creations then added custom art and coding to get the adopt function to work - and then, of course, edited the final video together. The end result is a trail of little Among Us children, looking significantly happier than when they were abandoned on the cold Skeld floor.

"I hate to admit how long this took me to make", Ahmad Creations said in a hugely popular Reddit post sharing the video. Naturally, I asked how long it took to make.

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