Eurogamer

A video has emerged showing Spider-Man: Miles Morales loading in just seven seconds on a PlayStation 5.

That's from pressing play on the PS5 home screen to the game's main menu popping up. From there, loading a save and getting back into the game itself takes just under two seconds.

The origin of the low quality video is unclear, although it was posted to reddit over the weekend and has already seen nearly 4m views on Imgur. EDIT: It looks like it's Norwegian.

Read more

Shops are this morning scrambling to work out how to sell next-gen consoles during the impending second lockdown.

The new four-week lockdown comes into force in England from Thursday. The Xbox Series X and S goes on sale on 10th November, with the PlayStation 5 following on 19th.

According to the new rules, non-essential shops must close to the public, but they are allowed to stay open for deliveries and to offer a click-and-collect service.

Read more

Shiny hunting is a task only the most dedicated Pokémon players dare undertake. Shiny Pokémon are an incredibly rare phenomenon, identical to their regular counterparts in all but colour. In pre-internet times, they were nothing more than a playground myth, but nowadays self-confessed "shiny hunters" spend hundreds of hours hatching eggs to the extent they even have representation in the anime.

As with all things, many dedicated players livestream their hunts to legions of avid fans. Tony Olabode, better known on Twitch and YouTube as Saiyan4414, is one such streamer. He mostly hunts legendary Pokémon, which involves resetting the game after encountering the Pokémon for hours on end, because each time there is a 1/4000 chance for it to be shiny. It's a test of patience for any player, but for Tony, it's also a test of skill. Tony is partially sighted, so while he can see some shapes, he struggles to read the game's text and make out colours - especially when a shiny Pokémon doesn't look that different from its regular counterpart.

So, he shiny hunts by sound. When a shiny Pokémon appears, it sparkles and glows. However, most players won't notice that these sparkles also let out a unique noise. That's what Tony is listening for, and that's how he knows if he's found a shiny Pokémon or not.

Read more

Perhaps in anticipation of all the Black Friday sales on their way, John Lewis have lowered the price of Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Switch down to a very reasonable £36.99. Considering that New Horizons was one of 2020's biggest games, isn't exactly old, and that Nintendo hates lowering its prices, this might be the best price we see on it for the foreseeable future.

New Horizons took the world by storm back in March with its dependable gameplay and lovable characters, in which players build and maintain their own little island community in real time. If you ever needed a nice escape to get through long holidays or winter nights, this would be it.

John Lewis haven't made it clear how long this deal will last for, but it's worth grabbing because it seems unlikely you'll get a copy for a significantly lower price at any time in the immediate future.

Read more

Sharkmob has revealed a new type of Vampire: The Masquerade game - and it's going to be a battle royale.

In a new update on the developer's website outlining its upcoming projects, the studio teased two additional "highly ambitious, AAA quality projects" as well as the new battle royale, which it says will be "a thrilling take on a cult classic IP".

"Experience the next thrilling evolution of Battle Royale multiplayer action games set in the cult classic Vampire: The Masquerade universe where vampire sects are at war across the streets and rooftops of Prague," a game description says (thanks, PCGN). "Choose your playstyle, go solo or together, battling rivals and the hostile Entity who's hellbent on exterminating all vampires. Use your supernatural powers, weapons and blood to become stronger in order to hunt, fight and survive the night."

Read more

Modus has dropped a new teaser for its next-gen psychological horror game, In Sound Mind.

Halloween may be over for another year, but don't let that stop you getting in on bonus spooky stuff - the new trailer also coincides with the release of a playable demo on Steam.

"Discover where the monsters truly reside," the video description teases, before inviting players to jump in with a link to the Steam demo (thanks, GamesRadar+).

Read more

A company selling custom PS5 faceplates has been forced to cancel pre-orders and remove its products following legal action from Sony.

As reported by our friends at VGC, "PlateStation5.com" had already been required to rebrand following a complaint from Sony that accused the company name's of infringing its trademark.

Now, however, the complaint has gone further, with Sony's lawyers telling the firm that Sony's intellectual property "extended to the faceplates", and that if the company continued to sell and distribute them in any country, it "would end up in court".

Read more

UPDATE: While our initial focus was on the current-gen console versions of Watch Dogs: Legion, we've also spent time looking at the PC version too with Digital Foundry's PC specialist Alex Battaglia taking a good hard look at a hugely demanding game - a title that challenges mid-range rigs even without ray tracing enabled.

In this extended video, you'll get to see how the ray tracing features work, how they scale and how much of an impact they have on overall performance. You'll also get to see how much of an accelerant Nvidia's excellent DLSS implementation is for this title, plus we take a look at the settings available, how the key presets scale, and come up with our optimised settings for the best bang for the buck experience. It'll certainly be interesting to see how the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 versions compare to what's on offer here, and how performant they are by comparison.

Original story: Have we reached that time in the console generation where the machines start to show their limits - when developers are eagerly looking forward to the next generation? Back in 2013, prior to the release of Xbox One and PlayStation 4, titles emerged that clearly pushed too far, often resulting in poor performance. There's a decent argument that this is the case for Watch Dogs - at least on the standard vanilla Xbox One S. It's a technologically ambitious game that clearly has some performance issues, even with the arrival of a new patch. So, to what extent does the PlayStation 4 improve matters and can the enhanced machines clear up the issues? Or is this game so ambitious, we should wait to play it on PS5 and Xbox Series X?

ArenaNet has confirmed its MMO Guild Wars 2's release on Steam has been indefinitely delayed.

ArenaNet first revealed Guild Wars 2 would be making its way to Steam back in August. Originally scheduled for release in November, the plan was to release alongside its Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire expansions.

Now, however, the Steam release has been "put on hold for the time being", with no revised release window detailed.

Read more

CD Projekt Red has seen its share price tumble since reports of mandatory six-day workweeks and another Cyberpunk 2077 delay came to light.

Though it was valued at £5.2bn ($6.8 billion) in January 2020, this had raised to £6.1bn ($8 billion) in February following the release of the acclaimed The Witcher 3 on Nintendo Switch - sending its sales rocketing by 500 per cent - and the success of its Netflix show. It's market cap eventually peaked at £7.4bn ($9.6bn) in August, with individual shares selling for £90 ($116.50).

Now, however, CD Projekt Red's share price has tumbled to around £65 ($85), which is a fall of around 25 per cent (thanks, GI.biz), knocking almost £2 billion from its market cap, the lowest value the company has been since April 2020.

Read more

World of Warcraft's upcoming expansion, Shadowlands, has secured more pre-sales than any other in the game's sixteen-year history.

"We've seen unprecedented engagement trends since the [World of Warcraft] subscriber base doubled following the launch of Classic last year," Activision Blizzard CEO, Bobby Kotick, said on a recent earnings call (thanks, PC Gamer). "Pre-sales of the upcoming Shadowlands expansion are the highest we've seen at this stage ahead of any release."

"Franchise engagement is at its highest level for this stage ahead of an expansion in a decade," said Activision Blizzard COO Daniel Alegre, with Kotick adding that World of Warcraft generates "over $1 billion" in annual net bookings, alongside its FPS series, Call of Duty.

Read more

Sony has confirmed a Demon's Soul soundtrack will release on 26th November 2020.

At first, the score - which has been rerecorded for the remake - will only be available digitally, but it's thought that CD and vinyl versions will also go on sale in December.

To celebrate the news, Sony also released a brief behind-the-scenes video that shows how the score was recorded with a 75-piece orchestra and 40-person choir.

Read more

I thought the nigh on 20 years I waited for Shenmue 3 was approaching some sort of record, but this - this is something else. Jetboard Joust, which just hit Steam late last week, is a sequel to the ZX Spectrum's Skateboard Joust, released way, way back in 1988. It's fair to say, though, that there weren't quite so many people waiting with bated breath for this particular follow-up.

"Yeah, it was a bit crap," admits Skateboard Joust's developer James Closs tells me some 30 plus years later. "I mean, that's part of the reason I started doing this - it was a bit of a joke, because Skateboard Joust was not very good."

Skateboard Joust was made back when James was 16. He had never played Joust, the game from which it took some inspiration, but had seen a screenshot once. He'd never ridden a skateboard but knew it was all the rage, so he fashioned a game to capitalise on the trend. Back then the term granny bait used to be bandied around - a game designed to trick people into buying their grandchildren. By James' own admission, Skateboard Joust could well have fit the term.

Read more

Another developer has delayed its planned December game to avoid getting crushed by Cyberpunk.

When CD Projekt delayed Cyberpunk to 10th December to sort out issues with the current-gen version of the game, Path of Exile developer Grinding Gear Games moved its action RPG's next big expansion from 11th December to January 2021.

Now, Rockfish Games has followed suit, delaying space looter shooter Everspace 2's early access launch from mid-December to January 2021 to avoid the behemoth that is Cyberpunk.

Read more

Hitman 3 requires the PlayStation 4 version to play on PSVR - even on PlayStation 5, it has been revealed.

It's a similar deal with No Man's Sky, UploadVR reports.

It means if you buy the PS5 versions of Hitman 3 or No Man's Sky, you don't get access to either game's PSVR support in the PS4 versions. This is because PSVR works as a backwards compatible device. Sony told UploadVR it has yet to announce PS5 titles for PSVR.

Read more

The next game in the The Dark Pictures Anthology is House of Ashes, a new teaser trailer has revealed.

The House of Ashes trailer is hidden at the end of Little Hope, the second game in Supermassive Games' The Dark Pictures Anthology. YouTube channel RabidRetrospectGames has the clip:

It looks like House of Ashes is set in a desert. This isn't confirmed yet, but it also looks like the main character is played by Ashley Tisdale from High School Musical.

Read more

Ruined King, the League of Legends-set RPG announced a little while back, now has a broad release window of "early 2021" for Switch, PS4, Xbox One, Steam and the Epic Games Store. There are free upgrades for those that own it on PS4 or Xbox One to the PS5 and Xbox Series S/X versions respectively, which are coming "soon thereafter".

Developed by Airship Syndicate, the studio behind Battle Chasers and the pleasant surprise that was Darksiders: Genesis, Ruined King is being published under the Riot Forge moniker - a kind of in-house publishing arm from Riot Games, specifically targeting "completable" games in the LoL universe, developed by other, non-Riot studios.

It's a turn-based RPG (separate to the other RPG-looking game Riot teased last year as 'Project F'), and single-player only, meaning no co-op or anything of the like. There are six playable characters, all champions from League of Legends - Miss Fortune, Braum, Illaoi, Yasuo, Ahri and Pyke, for those familiar with the MOBA - who you'll add to your group along the way and rotate in and out of a party of three. And it's set in Bilgewater and The Shadow Isles, which are two regions - an argey-bargey piratey one and a spooky underworld one - in the LoL world of Runeterra. Here's a fancy new trailer giving it a tease:

Read more

All it took was an innocuous tweet from From Software about Elden Ring, one of the most anticipated role-playing games in development, to set fans off.

It's fair to say there hasn't been much news on Elden Ring, From Software's collaboration with A Song of Ice and Fire author George R. R. Martin, since it was announced at E3 2019 with the trailer, below.

Since then, From Software fans have hoped for new information at every possible juncture, but alas, nothing.

Read more

Capcom has released six minutes of new Monster Hunter Rise gameplay.

The video, below, gives us a brief overview of the flow of a hunt, wielding a Great Sword and with two Palamutes. The target is the bird wyvern Aknosom, in the Shrine Ruins. "Aknosom is a tricky foe," Capcom said, "but thankfully, the Great Sword has a few new tricks up its sleeve."

Monster Hunter Rise is the Nintendo Switch exclusive entry in the hugely successful series, due out on 26th March 2021.

Read more

It's an exhilarating time to play games. The Xbox Series X and PS5! The next generation of consoles is almost in our hands! It's time to say goodbye to loading screens and hello to fun new possibilities.

New consoles have historically meant new controllers, though. As a disabled gamer with accessibility requirements, the news of a next-generation controller creates fear and uncertainty, and these emotions are echoed by many disabled gamers. I've experienced this fear during the previous generation's move to the Dualshock 4. For a while, I thought my only option was to hang up my gaming gloves. But in fact, that was when I discovered the gaming accessibility community and realised that the gaming industry was working to become more inclusive.

And it has. This generation has given us games with ground-breaking accessibility settings like Gears 5, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and The Last of Us 2. And now, these next-gen consoles will be the first generation where accessibility thinking is truly present from the start, ready for game developers to innovate further.

Read more

Black Mesa, the stellar remake of the original Half-Life, has just plopped its previously teased Definitive Edition update, intended to further improve the Version 1.0 release, into public beta.

Developed by Crowbar Collective, Black Mesa - which started out as a fan project before shifting to a Valve-sanctioned commercial release - finally got its full launch back in February, five years after entering Steam early access and a whopping 16 years after development began.

Writing at the time of Black Mesa's release, Crowbar described Version 1.0 as "the best, most polished, and most fun version of the game yet", but had already announced plans to revisit certain parts of the experience post-launch for polishing and improvement.

Read more

As October prepares to conclude in a flurry of socially distanced shrieks and spooks, Sony returns with another batch of additions to its PlayStation Now subscription service, this time including the likes of Rage 2, Injustice 2, and F1 2020.

Rage 2, of course, is Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios' open-world take on id Software's 2010 post-apocalyptic FPS. Avalanche's neon-flecked sequel comes packed with "plenty of balls-to-the-wall action and beautifully distressed setpieces", as Eurogamer contributor Vikki Blake put it in her review, even if its blandly implemented open-world lets the side down a little.

"Superficially, it clutters the map and makes it feel like you've plenty to do," said Vikki, "but you'll soon learn that they're chiefly repetitive tasks and as satisfying as Rage 2's combat is, it's surprising how quickly it'll grow stale - particularly as the vehicular combat isn't quite as satisfying as the devastation of your shotgun."

Read more

India is waving goodbye to PUBG Mobile today after a ban on the game came into effect.

PUBG Mobile was one of 118 apps banned by India's Information and Technology Ministry in September, but users were still able to play the game - until today.

The ban on PUBG Mobile and other apps comes amid growing tension between China and India. A border clash between China and India in early June sparked a boycott of Chinese products in the country, and the Indian government promptly banned hundreds of apps linked to China, citing security concerns.

Read more

Genshin Impact gets its first big update in November, developer miHoYo has announced.

The 1.1 update, dubbed A New Star Approaches, comes out 11th November 2020 on PC, Android, iOS and PlayStation 4, and adds new stories, characters, a seasonal event and a reputation system to the breakout free-to-play open world action RPG.

Meanwhile, miHoYo confirmed Genshin Impact will be playable on PlayStation 5 via backwards compatibility, with "improved graphics" and faster load times.

Read more

It's hard to believe it's been four years since Titanfall 2 was released, but that's the milestone Respawn's beloved sci-fi shooter hit on Wednesday this week. Since 2016 things have been pretty quiet on the mainline Titanfall front, with much of Respawn's efforts channeled into spin-off Apex Legends: a game that emerged from tests for a battle royale mode in Titanfall 3, and which has since achieved a huge amount of success in its own right. But it seems the Titanfall sequel is continuing to influence the development of Apex Legends, as it turns out upcoming map Olympus was initially conceived for Titanfall 3.

Season 7 of Apex Legends is bringing a raft of major changes to the game - most notably new astrophysicist legend Horizon, community clubs, the game's first-ever vehicles and floating city-in-the-clouds Olympus. The new map really is the main draw here, designed with verticality and vehicles in mind, and stuffed with the sort of opulent architecture you'd expect to find in one of the richest cities in the Titanfall universe. And although work on creating Olympus for Apex Legends began in Spring 2019, the idea itself is far older.

"At one point, there was a Titanfall 3 in the works after we launched Titanfall 2," game director Chad Grenier told me in an interview. "And Olympus wasn't called Olympus at the time, but that style of map was something that we were exploring for the next Titanfall game.

Gears Pop! closes down in April 2021, Microsoft has announced.

The mobile real-time strategy game, developed by Fall Guys maker Mediatonic, launched in August 2019 as a spin-off from the main Gears of War series. It's got Funko Pop!-stylised characters. Our Christian Donlan called Gears Pop! "Clash Royale with a bit of Stormbound chucked in".

Microsoft announced Gears Pop! at E3 2018 alongside Gears 5 and Gears Tactics as part of a significant push of the franchise into new genres. The Coalition's Gears 5 launched on PC and Xbox One in September 2019, and is set to enjoy a boost from its next-gen optimisation in November. Splash Damage's Gears Tactics came out April 2020 on PC, and launches on consoles alongside the Xbox Series X. Clearly, Gears Pop! hasn't taken off.

Read more

Here's another Warhammer game to add to the pile: Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall is a VR-only action-adventure RPG.

It's from Carbon Studio, the developer of The Wizards. The teaser is below.

Here's the official blurb: "Set in the Age of Sigmar universe, Tempestfall begins following the Necroquake. From the domain of Nagash and across all the Realms, Nighthaunt forces are rising. A specially assembled retinue of Stormcast Eternals embarks on a quest to investigate a new threat to the Mortal Realms. Side by side with these elite soldiers, you must explore the dread-filled realm of Shyish and battle your way through the Nighthaunt in a quest to protect the Forces of Order from a sinister plot.

Read more

PlayStation 5 launch title Spider-Man Miles Morales includes the incredibly cool spidey suit from the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movie.

Not only is the suit's design the same, it is animated to look the same in motion as well. Seriously, just look at it:

But - of course, there's always a but - it is listed as a pre-order bonus. The above gameplay trailer's YouTube description confirms it as "a pre-order bonus", while on Twitter, Marvel described it as a "launch day bonus".

Read more

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will begin integrating with Warzone in December, Activision has said.

Speaking during an investor call last night, Activision's chief operating officer Daniel Alegre said this integration kicks off with Black Ops Cold War's first season. Black Ops Cold War comes out on 13th November.

It is unclear exactly how Black Ops Cold War will work within Warzone, but we do know all new Black Ops Cold War weapons and operators you unlock will be usable in both Black Ops (as you'd expect) and Warzone. Content within the Black Ops battle pass, as well as new Black Ops store content, will also work across Black Ops and Warzone.

Read more

PlayStation boss Jim Ryan has said he believes in the potential of virtual reality for video games - but also that the technology to really make it "meaningful" is still years away.

Speaking to the Washington Post [paywall], Ryan reflected on the current PlayStation VR headset as a way Sony had gained "experience" in developing VR games and hardware. But it also sounded like we shouldn't expect a new PSVR model anytime very soon.

"I think we're more than a few minutes from the future of VR," Ryan said. "PlayStation believes in VR. Sony believes in VR, and we definitely believe at some point in the future, VR will represent a meaningful component of interactive entertainment. Will it be this year? No. Will it be next year? No. But will it come at some stage? We believe that.

Read more

The 55-inch Samsung Q80T, our favourite non-OLED TV for 4K gaming, is available for £879 from Very today with code R37XN, compared to its street price of £1099. That's the best price we've ever seen on this TV by a good £220, making it incredible value. The 65-inch model has also been discounted, dropping from £1499 to £1199, a reduction of £300.

The Q80T ticks all the boxes for next-gen gaming on PS5, Xbox Series X or PC. You get a 4K screen with 120Hz refresh rate, HDMI 2.1 support (including gaming features like VRR and ALLM), great contrast (4000:1), excellent colour accuracy and very low input lag (10ms at 60Hz, 5ms at 120Hz). As the Q80T uses a VA QLED panel, it's also immune to the burn-in that can put some people off OLEDs. All in all, it's a great set and our top non-OLED pick for gaming.

The Q80T sits at a good spot within Samsung's lineup too, as it costs only a bit more than the Q70T but boasts better brightness, contrast and viewing angles thanks to its Full Array Local Dimming feature. The Q90T, the next model up, gets brighter still and handles gradients better, but this set costs significantly more and doesn't have any new features compared to the Q80T.

Read more

Sony has announced the accessibility features of the PlayStation 5, confirming you can turn off the DualSense's haptic feedback and adaptive triggers.

In a post on the SIE (Sony Interactive Entertainment) website, the company confirmed you can reduce or disable the force of haptic feedback and adaptive triggers on the DualSense wireless controller.

The DualSense's haptic feedback and adaptive triggers are pitched as two of the PS5's more significant new features (Digital Foundry's John Linneman is certainly impressed). The tech locks down the triggers when your weapon gets jammed in Arkane's upcoming immersive sim Deathloop, simulates the fatigue of the athletes on the court when playing NBA 2K21 (as players get more tired, you get more resistance when pushing on the sprint trigger), and the controller even imitates the feeling of spider-sense in Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

Read more

It's fair to say I didn't love the base versions of Pokémon Sword and Shield. They suffer on a few fronts, from a world that still seems empty and oddly shallow, a lack of the series' essential, trademark dungeons, or any sense of surprise or mystery. There are clear gaps in world and story alike, and having now lived with Dynamax Raids, the generation's staple feature and Sword and Shield's endgame crux, I can safely say they're an absolute drag. With a bit of distance, it's clear this generation needed more time.

The Crown Tundra isn't a total panacea - really, it can't be - but it is an improvement, and in places quite a dramatic one. Taken in isolation, it makes for probably the best Pokémon experience in a couple of years. Put together with the rest of Sword and Shield, including the other expansion, Isle of Armor, it's also illustrative of how great they could have been.

Like The Isle of Armor, The Crown Tundra expansion has you arrive, misty-eyed by train, at a new slice of the world, with some typically eccentric characters awaiting and a typically quirky, new species-driven main story to work through at your own discretion. Again, it takes place in a Wild Area-esque open world, meaning a free camera and free sense of exploration, and again the design of that open world takes some considerable steps of improvement upon the last.

Read more

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War takes up to 250GB of drive space on PC at launch, Activision has confirmed.

That's if you want the full game installed, running at the Ultra RTX specification. This means running the game at a high fps in 4K resolution with ray tracing.

Run the game at any specification lower than that, and you're looking at 175GB of drive space.

Read more

Sony will pay almost $1bn to acquire Crunchyroll, the hugely-popular anime-streaming service available through both Xbox and PlayStation consoles.

The PlayStation maker is in final negotiations to seal the deal with a $957m bid and is the only company in the running, Nikkei Asia reports.

Sony already owns anime service Funanimation, which has a million subscribers, though this is dwarfed by Crunchyroll's three million subscribers and whopping 70m free members.

Read more

Wow. Now that was a week, wasn't it? We had a last-minute delay to Cyberpunk, more controversy over CD Projekt and crunch, a last-minute delay to Destruction AllStars, embargo lifts for the unboxing of the Xbox Series X, S and PlayStation 5, the exit of the director of Halo Infinite from the troubled project, and for the first time a clear idea of how big third party games will run on the next-gen consoles.

Loads to talk about then during this week's Eurogamer next-gen news cast! As usual, I'm joined by news editor Tom Phillips and reporter Emma Kent to discuss the week's news - and there's a lot to get through. It's a packed show!

Which console features from yesteryear are you super fond of? Given that there are new machines out soon - and given that it's almost Halloween - we thought we would spend the week picking and choosing our favourite elements from our favourite consoles and stitching together our perfect Frankenstein's Console. Inevitably it's going to look a bit like that car Homer Simpson designed, and equally inevitably it's going to say Giga Power Pro-Gear Spec when you boot it up. Anyway - join us! And have a think about what your own Frankenstein's Console might look like. If you dare...

It's fair to say that I care about switches more than most people. As long as it turns the thing on and off, what does it matter? My friends, it matters a great deal. Power switches are commands. They are points of contact (literally, in a circuit - or at least they used to be, but I'll get to that). They are bridges between worlds; they are the most fundamental connection between the human world and the electronic one. They bring the electronic world to life.

A lady used to love painting but now she works downstairs in a coffee shop and looks miserable. Somehow, art faded from her world. But what if she were to rediscover it? What if, through some benevolent stroke of fate, a reminder from her past were to drop out of the sky in front of her? Would it spark a recovery? Would she find love again?

Two boys are lonely. One has a father who shouts and smashes things and makes his mother scared. Another has a mother who shouts at him for playing music. They live in the same block but they have never met, and now as men, they sit alone. What if you could bring them together? What if you could go back in time and, through some benevolent stroke of fate, ensure they were both on their balconies at the same time and noticed each other? Could it spark a love between friends that would last forever?

This is Love. It's a game about exploring the lives of people who share an apartment block, a game about playing around with time. And it's a game about sometimes delivering the fateful nudge two people need in order for their paths to cross. Really, it's a game about helping people find love.

Read more

Xbox Games with Gold soldiers onward in November with four new offerings, this time in the form of Aragami, Swimsanity, Full Spectrum Warrior, and Lego Indiana Jones.

First up is developer Lince Works' stylish supernatural stealth game Aragami, which follows the titular undead assassin, armed with the ability to manipulate shadows, as he attempts to thwart the Army of Light. Aragami comes to Games with Gold in its Shadow Edition guise - which bundles up the Xbox One base game and its Nightfall expansion - and is available to download between 1st November and 30th November.

Pandemics Studios' acclaimed 2004 action-strategy effort Full Spectrum Warrior is this month's original Xbox offering, and can be downloaded from 1st November to 15th November, and that's followed by the Xbox 360 version of Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures.

Read more

Those looking for some spooky treats to spice up this imminent Halloween weekend would do well to point their mouse fingers in the direction of the Epic Store, where The Blair Witch and Ghostbusters video games are both currently free to download and keep.

That's two pleasingly ghoulish offerings, albeit at completely opposite ends of the spooky scale. The Blair Witch, for instance, is where you'll want to go for a more traditional horror fix, taking developer Bloober Team's distinctive brand of surreal, spatially impossible first-person horror and transplanting it deep into the Black Hills forest of Burkittsville, Maryland.

The ensuing adventure, which sees former police officer Ellis Lynch - and his dog Bullet - joining the hunt for a missing boy, is a fascinating, frequently effective, if rather uneven endeavour.

Read more