Eurogamer

I'll admit, when Yakuza 7 was announced, the first mainline game in the franchise since Kazuma Kiryu's story concluded, I was highly sceptical. Any new protagonist would have big shoes to fill, after all. And then there's the fact that it's turn-based. There's a lot to take in.

Thankfully Yakuza 7 is a lot of fun, and is a loving tribute to JRPGs and many other games besides. It all begins not with new hero Ichiban Kasuga, but with a glimpse into the life of Masumi Arakawa, head of the Arakawa Clan, itself a small family under the Tojo Clan. Arakawa hasn't had it easy - among other things his son was left disabled after Masumi had to hide him in a train station locker (!) as an infant. In typical Yakuza fashion, Arakawa saves teenage Ichiban's life, who then swears fealty to him and later goes to prison in his stead.

When Ichiban gets out of prison in 2019, 18 years after his incarceration, the world has changed rapidly, but the biggest shock is probably that the Arakawa family has joined the Omi Alliance, famously the nemesis of the Tojo Clan Arakawa originally served. When Ichiban tries to demand an explanation from Arakawa, his former saviour shoots him.

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It's taken almost a year, but the group of volunteer developers and modders who have been quietly enhancing and improving the PC release of celebrated psychological horror, Silent Hill 2, have released a new update.

Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition is self-described as an ongoing project of enhancement packages that add various visual, audio, and bug improvements for the PC version of the game, such as implementing a modern widescreen camera, improving the display for higher resolutions, and removing several prominent audio bugs.

The most recent version - released earlier this week - sees newly-added features such as "soft shadows, self shadows, restored post-processing effects, continued controller support, and much more".

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The "exclusive worldwide third-party provider" deal for livestreaming between YouTube and Activision Blizzard is reportedly worth $160 million (£122m).

Activision Blizzard announced the deal with YouTube a few weeks ago, saying the "multi-year strategic relationship to power new player experiences" would see Google Cloud serve as the "preferred provider for Activision Blizzard's game hosting infrastructure", and YouTube as its "exclusive streaming partner worldwide", excluding China.

The details of the deal weren't specified at the time, but by comparison, a similar deal Activision struck with Twitch in 2018 was thought to be worth around $90 million.

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The Sonic the Hedgehog movie has generated over $100 million (£76.6m) on its opening weekend.

As reported by Comicbook, the success can be attributed to a number of fortuitous coincidences, not least the fact the movie debuted on Valentine's Day and benefited from a long-weekend as our friends Stateside celebrated Presidents' Day, during which it's thought to have clocked up $68m (£52m) at the box office.

The success can't just be attributed to that, though, as it's also thought to have generated $43m (£33m) worldwide, too. So we're all to blame, really.

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Sales of both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in the US are declining faster than expected, says an industry report.

In a report by market analysts NPD Group (thanks, VGC), US hardware spending was down 35 per cent in January 2020 when compared with the same period a year ago. Total spending across gaming as a whole - including hardware, software, accessories and game cards - was also lower year-over-year, dropping 26 per cent.

"An interesting takeaway from the US NPD report is that PS4 and XB1 hardware sales in Jan 2020 are considerably lower than PS3 and 360 were in Jan 2013," posited Niko Partners analyst, Daniel Ahmad. "Next-gen consoles are around the corner but both are declining sharper than expected. Switch continues to remain steady."

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Despite a myriad of issues, delays, and personnel changes, actor Tom Holland insists the script for the (hopefully?) upcoming Uncharted movies is "one of the best [he's] ever read".

"I read the newest draft of the script on the way over here and it's one of the best scripts I've ever read," Holland told IGN this week. "It really, really jumps off the page."

As Tom reported last month, Sony's increasingly-unlikely-looking Uncharted film has now lost its sixth director. Travis Knight, who previously helmed Transformers spin-off Bumblebee, was the latest to be named director of the project. That was back in October, after fifth director Dan Tractenberg quit last August.

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Our favourite 4K TV for HDR gaming, the 55-inch LG B9 OLED, has been discounted to £999 at PRC Direct, complete with a five year warranty. To get this sub-£1000 price, you'll need to use code 20FEB300 in the checkout for a healthy reduction of £300 off the listed cost.

This is the lowest price we've ever seen for this TV, equalling the best deal we saw back on Black Friday a few months back. For reference, this exactly model was selling for £1600 as recently as last autumn!

So why do Digital Foundry love LG OLEDs so much - and why did we name this one the best 4K TV for HDR gaming? Well, OLED televisions are renowned for their picture quality, with the organic LEDs inside capable of turning completely black instead of just very dark grey as you'd expect with an LED. That means the contrast between the lightest and darkest areas of the screen is nearly infinite, letting the TV look stunning in dark scenes - particularly in HDR.

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Activision has fixed an exploit that permitted Call of Duty: Modern Warfare players to use attachments they hadn't organically unlocked in the game.

In the brief patch notes (thanks, VG24/7), the developer also revealed it had addressed unspecified "exploit fixes on various maps and modes", made some - again, unspecified - changes to the backend, and fixed a bug that left some players' CDL filter active even after they'd joined a party without CDL filters.

Following an accidental data dump on the Call of Duty website last weekend, a new leak - this one from an official source via an Activision account on Xbox Live - confirmed Rust will be making an appearance in season two, along with three other multiplayer maps: Atlas Superstore, Bazaar, and Zhokov Boneyard.

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Isn't it about time we had a reboot of Electronic Arts' Road Rash franchise? Combining traditional racing with bike-to-bike violence, Road Rash was one of EA's most exciting titles back in the early 90s, making a fantastic debug on Sega Mega Drive before making the transition onto what were then the next generation consoles. However, before the series hit the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn, we got our first taste of how the series would evolve into an actual three-dimensional experience - in July 1994, Road Rash arrived on 3DO.

One of the first 'next-gen' consoles with 3D capabilities delivering games via optical disc, the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer is something of a curiosity. Similar to the MSX of yore, the 3DO Company put together what you might call a reference design that was available for licensing, with manufacturing heavyweights such as Panasonic, LG (then known as Goldstar) and Sanyo each delivering their own take on the hardware across the system's relatively short lifespan.

Out of the box, the 3DO's best video output was a 480i interlaced video signal delivered via S-Video - which is something of a problem in terms of image quality as the internal framebuffer was actually a more traditional 320x240, or 240p. That's where Black Dog Technology's 3DORGB mod comes into play. Piggy-backing onto the GPU, the 3DORGB bypasses the system's internal interpolation and brings the best quality progressive scan output to the fore.

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Following the reveal of Rainbow Six Siege's first season of Year 5, Void Edge, Ubisoft has revealed the next two operatives coming to the competitive shooter: Iana and Oryx.

While Jordan-born Oryx is the first operator that ships without a gadget, he'll compensate with two abilities, one that allows him to jump up through hatches and another, Remah Dash, with which he can dash-attack not just walls but enemies, too.

"Stable, sure, and predictable" Iana will be able to confuse foes with Replicator, a gadget that deploys a hologram that the player can directly control.

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It's weird how VR can make a familiar game feel like a completely new experience. For example, I've played GTA 5 many a time before and on multiple platforms, but looking at the world of Los Santos through the twin lenses of a VR headset allowed me to spot so many little details that I'd missed on previous visits.

The best way I've found to describe this phenomenon to non-VR users is to liken it to looking through a holiday brochure at photos of a resort you're planning on visiting. The resort looks beautiful from the pictures sure, and in your mind's eye you can easily picture yourself sat there by the side of the pool, sipping on a cocktail.

But those flat images are nothing compared to the feeling of actually being there in person, to stand by that pool and to see the size of it in three dimensions. To know the depth of it by peering over the edge into the water or to spot the little weeds or odd bits of wear and tear dotted around the paths that surround it because in the photos they masked by all the scenery.

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Nvidia has removed all Activision Blizzard games from its GeForce Now cloud subscription service following a "misunderstanding" with the developer/publisher.

While players participating in the closed beta were able to play Activision games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Overwatch as part of the service, founding members who signed up after the 90-day free trial went live on 4th February noticed that the games were quietly removed without explanation just a few days later.

In a comment to Bloomberg (thanks, PC Gamer), a Nvidia representative explained that while Activision had permitted its games to be part of beta test, the two companies had not discussed licensing terms beyond that beta. Consequently, Nvidia was forced to remove the titles, adding: "per their request, please be advised Activision Blizzard games will be removed from the service".

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Ed Annunziata loves the ocean.

"I can hear the waves right now!" he tells me from his home on the coast of Northern California. "I knew when I moved from New York that I needed to live by the ocean. I've always been enthralled by the dichotomy of its beauty and the dangers it harbors. What's more terrifying than something swimming from the darkness towards you? Yet, what's more gorgeous than a coral reef teeming with life?"

It's an idea reflected in Annuziata's games, most notably, Ecco, his beloved series about a dolphin fighting to save the ecosystem and his species from mysterious aliens and human oppression. It is often considered one of the first environmental ocean games, but even Ecco couldn't predict the threat that would be posed by plastic pollution.

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Microsoft's Elite Series 2 controller has been divisive. To its fans, the Elite is responsive, powerful and premium, the ultimate first-party controller, but its detractors can point to its high price and quality control issues to paint a different picture. That makes Sony's approach, almost diametrically opposite that of its rival, so refreshing. Rather than making an £160/$180 controller that only its most wealthy players can justify purchasing, Sony has created the £26/$30 Back Button Attachment, a snap-on device that adds the single most important feature of premium controllers - programmable rear buttons - to any standard DualShock 4 controller at an affordable price. We've been testing it for the past week ahead of its launch on February 14th, and we think Sony's approach has considerable merit.

Choice is everything in FTL: Faster Than Light, a game I've returned to recently and would now quite happily swear to never leave again. FTL is, above all, a game about deciding what to do. Where to travel, when to buy, what to shoot - even where your little crewmember stands, if you're lucky enough to have one spare. You can drill down to the most micro of micromanagements or the broadest, most profound of overarching concepts in FTL and it will always, always come back to it. Choice, choice, choice. But where its choices really stand out - and where FTL itself stands out, even all these years after release - is when it asks you to make those choices blind.

Developer Undead Labs has unveiled State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition, a thoroughly reworked and expanded version of its popular multiplayer zombie survival game that's heading to PC and Xbox One on Friday, 13th March.

State of Decay 2 didn't have the best of critical receptions when it launched in 2018, with Eurogamer contributor Edwin Evans-Thirwell calling it a "poor return on the scruffy promise of its predecessor". Even so, it drew the crowds, with Microsoft revealing a player base of around 5 million in last August, giving Undead Labs ample freedom to improve on its rocky launch.

State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition is the developer's most significant expansion yet, and will be available as a free update to all existing owners on Xbox One and PC, including those accessing it through Xbox Game Pass.

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Sony Pictures, which is already in the process of adapting Monster Hunter and Uncharted for the big screen, has a new video game movie in the works based on developer Smilegate Entertainment's massively popular free-to-play FPS CrossFire.

Although CrossFire isn't exactly a household name in the west, it's absolutely huge in China and Southeast Asia, having amassed over 650 million registered players since its initial launch in 2007, making it one of the most played PC games in the world. It's primarily known for its Counter-Strike-like competitive multiplayer mode, in which two teams - representing mercenary corporations Black List and Global Risk - race to complete different objective-based scenarios.

A new instalment, CrossFireX, is scheduled to arrive on Xbox One later this year, and Smilegate has drafted in Alan Wake and Control studio Remedy to create its single-player story campaign, which should help raise the series' profile in the west.

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Developer Batterystaple Games has unveiled 30XX, the slightly more pixel-y follow-up to its tremendously entertaining Mega Man-inspired procedural rogue-like, 20XX.

20XX, if you're unfamiliar, released for Xbox One, PS4, and Switch in 2018 (some four years after its Steam Early Access debut), and it's a bit of a good 'un. In essence, it's a modern reimagining of Capcom's classic Mega Man X formula, melding traditional platforming and procedurally generated rogue-like, for some endlessly re-playable hijinks.

Although the term "procedurally generated rogue-like" might cause a few eyes to roll back, it actually works incredibly well; 20XX's optionally co-operative run-and-gun action is satisfyingly tight, its two heroes feel pretty distinct, there're some great bosses, a dizzying array of abilities to shake-up each run, and the procedural generation, while a tad uneven, uses enough pre-designed level chunks to keep things interesting.

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UPDATE 6.45pm: Niantic has now updated its ticket pricing for Liverpool's Pokémon Go Safari Zone event.

"Previous advertising for Pokémon Gp Safari Zone Liverpool tickets didn't include the service fee and VAT costs," a Niantic spokesperson told Eurogamer this evening. "We're updating all ticket listings today.

"The ticket pricing is now listed as: '£21.60 for Early Access and £14.40 for General Admission. A £3.60 service fee will be added to each order (up to 4 tickets per order). The City Explorer Pass add-on is £9.60. All prices are inclusive of VAT.'"

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Control developer Remedy Entertainment has confirmed that it currently has three games in the works, two of which it's discussed previously - including its own spin on the live service model - and a third which remains a tantalising mystery.

The news comes via Remedy's latest financial report, in which CEO Tero Virtala revealed that the majority of the studio's 31.6 million euros revenue in 2019 was, unsurprisingly, generated by its superb paranormal shooter Control, alongside additional contributions from Alan Wake.

Looking to the future, Virtala re-confirmed that one team at Remedy is currently focussed on creating the two previously announced paid expansions for Control, with both due to release some time this year, and that three other teams are also working on their own projects.

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Marvel's Avengers is still over six months away, but you can take a peek at its leaked achievement list right now.

Trophy snooping site Exophase has scooped up the details - which include a few story spoilers. There's also lots of achievements for collecting lots of things.

Marvel's Avengers was, of course, originally due to launch much sooner - until it was slapped with a sizeable delay last month. It's now set to arrive on 4th September for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (and then, presumably, on PS5 and Xbox Series X down the line).

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With Half-Life: Alyx's release date now officially confirmed by Valve as 23rd March, it's a good time to be getting hold of a VR headset.

While that's potentially a huge investment for just one game, it's also an opportunity to get hold of the many other VR experiences already available. Just as well that there's currently a VR sale over on The Humble Store.

Being the most supportive of the technology, Bethesda arguably has the biggest showing here, with 50 per cent discounts on the following:

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Something that's always bothered me about the Pokémon games is that, despite their immense power and status, legendary Pokémon have always felt quite small. Sure, they're listed as being fairly large in the Pokédex - and the game's name literally means pocket monsters - but I've often wondered what they would look like as vast mythical creatures.

Thankfully, an artist has managed to make my dreams come true: and the paintings she's produced are simply stunning.

Created by 23-year-old independent artist Devin Elle Kurtz (also known as TamberElla), the digital paintings of Rayquaza, Giratina, Lugia, Palkia, Dialga, Kyogre and Groudon have been gaining a fair bit of attention on the internet over the past few days - and rightly so. The Pokémon are presented as massive creatures emerging from clouds, overshadowing entire cities, or troubling ships in a storm.

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Finally, some seven years after it first broke cover at 2013's PlayStation Meeting as it accompanied the unveiling of the PlayStation 4, Media Molecule's Dreams is here, its long and winding road concluding towards the tail-end of that particular console's life. Except it's not the end of Dreams, of course - it's the beginning of a project that will transform over time according to the community's needs and wants.

Talking about Dreams can be confusing like that, probably because we keep making the mistake of treating it like a regular video game. The more time you spend with it, though, the more you realise it isn't that at all - it's a whole new platform, a place to create and share and a dazzling toolkit that's already been put to fantastic use.

I'm still not entirely sure what it is, but I do know that the more time I spend with it the more I love it. I got the chance to sit down with Media Molecule's Alex Evans and Mark Healey as they celebrated the launch to talk about what's taken them so long, what's changed along the way and where they think Dreams might be heading.

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Over the last ten years, 4A Games has built a reputation for pushing technology to new heights - from the original, remarkable Metro 2033 to last year's Metro Exodus - an open world showcase with beautiful ray traced global illumination. However, the firm also enjoyed success with their current-gen Metro Redux remasters, and now those titles are available for Nintendo Switch. Yes, it's another Switch port we're tackling but this time, the original developer has taken point on bringing the games across and as it's 4A you know you're in for something special.

For those unfamiliar, the first two Metro games are first-person shooters set deep within the radiation ravaged Metro system beneath Moscow. With limited supplies, players make their way through the underground (occasionally venturing to the blasted surface) while dealing with a wide range of foes. Stealth, combat and storytelling are all part of the experience, with both games offering a unique atmosphere quite unlike anything else on the market. It's also the first time a Metro game has appeared on a Nintendo platform and it's also the debut for the franchise on what is essentially mobile hardware. On top of that, the port hasn't been handed off to a separate developer as is often the case - 4A rolled up its sleeves and dug in for this one, producing a fascinating piece of work.

The Sonic the Hedgehog movie is out in cinemas today, and to celebrate, there's a whole bunch of Super Sonic sales going on.

Leading the pack is the Sonic the Hedgehog Ultimate Sale on Steam. For £45.15, the Ultimate Bundle gives you all 19 items on sale, spanning much of the blue blur's history.

On the other hand, you might not want all of them - let's face it, there are a few stinkers in there too - so you can also pick and choose at the following prices:

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Five of the Best is a weekly series about the bits of games we overlook, those poor old things. I'm talking about crowds, potions, mountains, hands - things we barely notice at the time but can recall years later because they're so important to the overall memory of the game.

Now is the time to celebrate them - you and me both! I will share my memories but I'm just as eager to hear yours, so please share them in the comments below. We've had some great discussions in our other Five of the Best pieces.

Today: films about games! Or films heavily influenced by games and gaming. And note: the games themselves don't have to actually exist. That opens the remit up a bit, doesn't it? But the films have to exist otherwise this would be a very strange article indeed. Happy Friday!

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We may be having to wait a little longer for the Final Fantasy 7 Remake than expected, but Square Enix has released something to help tide us over, as the game's opening cinematic has arrived. It looks pretty snazzy, and you can check it out below:

Previous sneak peeks have given us a look inside the Honey Bee Inn, while Square Enix recently released details on the quest system. At this rate all that remains to be seen is the game - now due to arrive on 10th April following a short delay to add "final polish".

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After the release of a running-themed DLC back in January, the second expansion pack for Shenmue 3 is about to arrive, and this one's adding a bunch of quests.

Arriving on 18th February, Story Quest Pack promises "new quests full of mystery, intrigue and action", and will see Ryo "cross paths with a familiar face from the past, Shuqin Zhang, and quickly become embroiled in a new escapade where nothing is as it seems". That's about as vague as it can get, but at least there are a few screenshots.

If you want to pick up the DLC pack, it'll set you back £4.99 through either the Sony Store or Epic Games Store. Those who've already bought the Complete DLC Collection should see the new pack become available automatically on release day.

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High prices for PlayStation 5 parts have pushed up Sony's manufacturing costs for the console, a new Bloomberg report claims.

Each PS5 will cost around $450 (£345) to make, Bloomberg's sources said - which will affect the price it's then sold at to consumers.

Sony declined to comment on Bloomberg's article.

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When the 3DS died - and despite an impressive few years clinging on, I think it's now safe to say the beautifully eccentric handheld's time is finally up - alongside it died a certain type of game. Not exactly double-A so much as mid-budget and high concept, the 3DS was home to so many offbeat treats: things like Attack of the Friday Monsters, Crimson Shroud or Fantasy Life - all with lashings of charm and just as often spotty in execution, and all which came, one way or another, via Level-5.

Snack World is Level-5's latest, a multimedia assault akin to its hugely successful Yo-Kai Watch series that's also a manga, an anime and now this, a sizable action RPG that's finally made it westwards with The Dungeon Crawl - Gold. It places you in a sugar-sweet high fantasy world where you're joined by Chup, Mayonna, Béarnaise and several others in a series of bite-sized adventures as you level up and unearth new gear to equip and new togs to wear.

It's a world that's dizzyingly dense, the hub town of Tutti Frutti full of quest-givers and shops to peruse, the list of activities beyond the town's borders soon growing staggeringly long. You certainly can't fault Snack World when it comes to serving up content, nor can you find fault with the level of energy it puts into it all; this has all the noise, pizazz and high-pitched histrionics of the most upbeat anime, with an accompanying storm of weak jokes and puns that never quite land. Endearing? Maybe, though that depends entirely on your mindset and age. Snack World more often than not left me feeling like I was suffering through a hangover even though I'd not touched a drop the night before.

UPDATE 14/2/20: Pokémon Go developer Niantic has now detailed what you'll get raid-wise within the Safari Zone's City Explorer Pass, following Eurogamer's request for more information.

The 10 raids will be included in the price of the Pass - which helps justify its £8 cost. Every raid will be fixed for the weekend and offer one of: Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Lanturn (evolution of Liverpool's featured Pokémon Chinchou), the current Legendary Pokémon at the time of the event, the current EX Raid Pokémon, and four others yet to be announced of varying raid difficulties.

ORIGINAL STORY 12/2/20: Last month, Pokémon Go announced its first-ever UK Safari Zone event - to be held in Liverpool over a weekend in April.

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The Double-A Team is a feature series honouring the unpretentious, mid-budget, gimmicky commercial action games that no-one seems to make any more.

You can catch up with all of our Double-A Team pieces in our handy, spangly archive.

During Square-Enix's E3 2015 press conference, its US CEO Phil Rogers said he considered Just Cause a major franchise that can stand "side by side" with other "iconic" Square-Enix franchises.

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Earlier this week Bulletstorm developer People Can Fly unveiled a brand-new trailer for its co-operative sci-fi looter-shooter Outriders, and now, as promised, it's shared a choice selection of gameplay details and videos as part of a half-hour long livestream reveal.

On a fundamental level, it perhaps wasn't the most revelatory of unveilings for Outriders, with little shown to truly distinguish it from its peers; it's a "dark" third-person cover-based shooter set in a "brutal nightmarish world" that ticks all the usual lite-RPG boxes are far as classes, skill trees, customisation, and rarity based loot acquisition goes. That doesn't mean it's a bust though; it looks to have an interesting premise, a striking, surprisingly diverse planet to explore, and, of course, People Can Fly's undeniable expertise when it comes to gunplay.

Breaking all that down, Outriders tells the story of a group of mercenaries tasked with exploring Enoch, a lush, untouched planet chosen to be the site of a new human colonisation effort. Shortly after landing, however, the group encounters a mysterious signal, and, in attempting to trace its source, runs into a devastating storm known as the Anomaly. To escape its effects, the Outriders retreat into cryo-sleep, awakening 30 years later to an almost unrecognisable world.

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Twelve years after the launch of Half-Life 2: Episode 2, the near-unimaginable has happened; the next instalment in Valve's legendary series - VR-only shooter Half-Life: Alyx - finally has an actual, proper release date, and will be coming to Steam on 23rd March.

Half-Life: Alyx takes place between the original Half-Life and Half-Life 2, casting players as the latter's Alyx Vance as she mounts a secret resistance against the invading alien Combine.

It'll blend exploration, puzzles, combat, and story in the vein of the classic games, with each element designed to play to the strengths of VR. So far we've only seen snatches of the reportedly 15-hour experience in official and off-screen footage, but the combination of natural motion-based interactions - such as aiming, reloading, grenade-tossing, and door-opening - and wonderfully atmospheric environments certainly looks promising.

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It's been a bit of a wait, but CD Projekt's free-to-play Witcher-themed card-battler, Gwent, is finally heading to Android devices next month.

Gwent, if you're unfamiliar and merely clicked this story on a daredevil whim, began life as a tavern-based distraction within CD Projekt's masterful The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Two years later, it emerged as a standalone free-to-play game, radically reworked to introduce more tactical nuance and depth. Since then, it's received something of a reboot, and even an acclaimed story-driven solo spin-off known as Thronebreaker.

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If you're so enthusiastically eager to play Crystal Dynamics' upcoming Marvel Avengers game that you're struggling to resist the urge to to dash to the shops and slap down some cash, you might be interested to know that Square Enix has a dizzying array of pre-order bonuses planned, including access to its pre-launch beta.

Players that pre-order any version of the game (provided they're purchased through participating retailers, notes Square), can get involved in the planned, although still undated, Avengers beta. They'll also receive an exclusive nameplate and the Marvel Legacy Outfit Pack - featuring classic comic book looks for Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hulk, Iron Man, and Ms. Marvel, inspired by "moments from the comics that defined who each Super Hero was as they first embraced their powers to become the icons they are today."  

That's not quite the end of Square's big pre-order push, however; the standard physical edition of Marvel's Avengers will also include either a limited-edition pin set, patch set, steelbook, or digital comic book, depending where pre-orders are made, and there are additional bonuses exclusive to the PlayStation Store.

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Last year, Disney's share of the US film market managed to reach a record 35 per cent (thanks to its merger with Fox) - so I guess it's just as well the company's open to having game developers reimagine its franchises. That is a lot of IP.

Speaking at this year's 2020 DICE summit, Disney exec Sean Shoptaw said the company wants to empower game developers to do "really unique things" with its catalogue (via The Hollywood Reporter).

"We want to tap into the power of creatives across the industry."

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Final Fantasy 7 Remake includes a new quest system where you kill rats and find lost cats in exchange for rewards.

New screenshots from the game released today by publisher Square Enix and published by the PlayStation blog have shown off how it all looks.

Mercenary Quests can be picked up from people across Midgar and tracked via a new Quests menu. These will task you with helping merchants or townspeople with their problems, and can reward gil. Another type of mission, Battle Report quests, can be acquired from Shinra researcher Chadley. These will ask you to assess enemies and defeat them in differing ways in return for Materia.

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Fancy owning a slice of video game history? The infamous and ultra-rare PlayStation SNES prototype console dug up in 2015 has finally been put up for auction.

You'll need a decent chunk of change to make a bid, however. After a few hours on sale, the console is at $31k (£23k), and is likely to go much higher before the sale concludes on 27th February.

Nintendo and Sony's brief dalliance during the SNES-era is reasonably well documented - a romance between the two was on the cards with the intent of producing a disc-based console together - before the liason broke down and Sony struck out solo.

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