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At Sony’s CES 2022 press conference, we finally got some important details about PlayStation VR2, the company’s next-gen VR headset.

PSVR2 pricing, release date, and even what the headset actually looks like remain a mystery, but Sony shared plenty of information on the specifications powering its second virtual reality headset.

To better understand what we can expect from the PSVR2, let’s take a look at the specs, dig into some standout features, and compare what’s on the way to the Oculus Quest 2, the Valve Index, and the original PSVR.

According to an industry analyst, Mario Kart 9 is currently in "active development", will have a new racing twist, and could be teased this year.

The speculation surrounding the game comes from Tokyo-based industry analyst Dr. Serkan Toto, who when writing his predictions for the upcoming year for Gamesindustry.biz, said that a new entry in the beloved racing series is on the way.

"I am aware Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still selling very well on the Nintendo Switch, but Mario Kart 9 is in active development," he said before saying that Nintendo "could tease" their next entry of the franchise this year.

What's more, Toto also stated that Mario Kart 9 may launch with a "new twist". New Mario Kart games regularly include twists on the karting formula, from Double Dash's two-character karts, to Mario Kart 8's anti-gravity sections.

While the analyst refrained from adding further, that hasn't stopped fans on social media from speculating as to what the twist might be. From theories suggesting that the next installment could bring in a range of stars from other franchises to others routing for an F1-centric take to the popular series, the community has done a good job so far at offering up its suggestions toward a potential upcoming reveal.

Members of a hacking group creating cheats for PUBG Mobile have been ordered to pay $10 million in damages – which PUBG's developers say they'll reinvest into anti-cheat technology.

As detailed in a press release, federal courts in the US and Germany recently ruled in favor of PUBG Mobile publishers Tencent Games and Krafton in a lawsuit launched against members of a hacking group known for creating and distributing cheats within the game.

As part of the ruling, the defendants have been ordered to pay the publishers around $10 million USD in damages. In addition, the group has also been ordered to provide details pertaining to how they were able to exploit the game in the first place and are under strict instructions to cease any future illegal activities involving game cheating.

In a statement following the legal victory, Tencent Games PUBG Mobile Producer Rick Li spoke about the importance of the ruling within the game's online community. “Millions of players worldwide enjoy PUBG Mobile and we will ensure a level playing field for everyone. Sadly, the actions of hacker groups undermine the fairness of the game. These Judgements send a clear message that we will not tolerate cheating in PUBG Mobile," he said.

Krafton's Head of PUBG Mobile Product Development Minu Lee added that the publishers will continue to monitor the state of the game going forward. “Fun and fairness is the bedrock of the PUBG Mobile experience and cheating in any form will not be tolerated," said Lee. "As such, we will continue enforcing our IP rights with unwavering resolve against any who seek to tarnish or misuse them.”

Question Games – which was founded in part by ex-BioShock developers who went on to create The Magic Circle and The Blackout Club – is working on a new South Park game.

As spotted by Eurogamer, Question has posted a job advert for a lead level designer to help make "a new video game set in the world of South Park." It's not clear if this is to assist on the South Park game previously announced to be in development at South Park Studios, or is a separate game entirely. We've contacted South Park Studios and Question for comment.

Question is an interesting match for the long-running comedy show – aside from its developers' history on beloved games including Thief, BioShock, and the most recent South Park RPGs, the studio's own Magic Circle was a satirical look inside the game development process. Given The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole's own metatextual approach to gaming genres and comedy, it makes for a potentially very nice fit.

Question's own vision is to "draw on a long history of games with strong central narratives & diverse player-enabling systems with the goal of attempting to create new experiences in the same vein, but on a smaller scale."

The moderation team behind Battlefield 2042's subreddit has warned fans that they will not hesitate to shut down the space for a period of time if the level of toxicity on the feed continues to mount. The announcement comes only a month after the r/Halo subreddit declared its own temporary lockdown following similar toxic behaviour from some members of its community.

As reported by PC Gamer, the warning from the r/Battlefield2042 moderation team seemingly comes after a wealth of angry responses were aimed in backlash to now-deleted tweets posted on Twitter by EA Global Comms Director Andy McNamara.

McNamara's tweets appear to have been made in response to the Battlefield community after it criticized DICE for a lack of communication and further improvements to the game throughout the latter part of December - during a period of vacation for a number of staff at the studio.

"Back to work today, check Reddit & Twitter and Battlefield fans are pissed we didn't do enough updates or communication over the holiday break," said McNamara. "Guys, people gotta rest. We have things in motion but we have to figure out what is possible [...] Let us get back from break and get back to work. Love you guys but these expectations are brutal. The things you want take time to scope, design, and execute."

After a year of silence, Amazon is opening the vault on some details for the upcoming Fallout TV series. In a new report, we've learned that the series based on the post-apocalyptic RPG is set to begin production later this year.

Deadline reported the production time and revealed Jonathan Nolan is set to direct the series premiere. Nolan is the co-creator of HBO's Westworld, which shares some similar dystopian themes with the world of Fallout.

Additionally, Captain Marvel Writer Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Portlandia and Silicon Valley's Graham Wagner will serve as the series showrunners. There is still no word on the cast or the plot for the Fallout show.

The Fallout TV series was first announced in 2020, with Nolan and Joy attached to the project. We also know that Fallout developers Bethesda Game Studios will be involved with the show, and series director Todd Howard is on board as an executive producer.

Fallout is an RPG video game franchise that takes place in the aftermath of a nuclear war. The franchise started as an isometric RPG series, but Bethesda transformed it into a first-person RPG juggernaut after acquiring the IP in 2007.

Fallout's unique take on Americana and Bethesda's bold first-person interpretation of the series has made it one of the most popular and beloved western RPG franchises.

Welcoooome to 2022! This year could be a big one for Nintendo, and the NVC crew is back to preview the exciting months ahead. Join Seth Macy, Peer Schneider, Kat Bailey, and Casey DeFreitas as they break down the most exciting games scheduled for Switch this year. From Pokemon Legends: Arceus, to the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, tune in to hear the panel's thoughts on 2022's lineup.

Timecodes:

• 00:00:00 - Welcome!
• 00:02:10 - Pokemon Legends Arceus
• 00:15:21 - Splatoon 3
• 00:22:12 - Bayonetta 3
• 00:25:21 - Bayonetta’s Makeup… Evolution…?
• 00:30:23 - Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• 00:35:10 - Thoughts on Breath of the Wild 2
• 00:44:19 - Predictions for Nintendo in 2022
• 01:00:20 - What We’re Playing & Outro

Linktree!

For an easy way to find NVC on your favorite platform, check out our NVC Linktree!

You can also Download NVC 593 Directly Here

You can listen to NVC on your preferred platform every Thursday at 3pm PT/6pm ET. Have a question for Question Block? Write to us at nvc@ign.com and we may pick your question! Also, make sure to join the Nintendo Voice Chat Podcast Forums on Facebook. We're all pretty active there and often pull Question Block questions and comments straight from the community.

Logan Plant is the Production Assistant for NVC. You can find him on Twitter at @LoganJPlant.

According to users following Genshin Impact's new 2.4 update, players can no longer claim Battle Pass rewards on other platforms if the pass was originally bought on PlayStation.

Genshin Impact supports cross-save between PlayStation and PC, and before this update, the cross-save feature included Battle Pass rewards. So players on PC and mobile could redeem Battle Pass rewards even if their accounts were created on PlayStation.

Now, however, those players will need to redeem those rewards through PlayStation Network. When trying to claim Battle Pass rewards, players will be met with a message that says "Unable to collect using the current platform. Please use the platform on which you made the purchase."

Cross-save PlayStation players got screw by miHoYo... pic.twitter.com/jsw1lHypYc

— Genshin Impact Guides (@WorldOfTeyvat) January 5, 2022

A Genshin Impact guides Twitter account @WorldofTeyvat provided a video going through the game's Battle Pass and the process of claiming rewards. The user used to play Genshin Impact on PlayStation, and when the game's cross-save feature launched, they migrated their account over to PC.

Dead By Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive has announced it will remove a set of cosmetics for its "Cannibal" character (inspired by 1974's Texas Chainsaw Massacre's Leatherface) after Black players complained they were being used for racist harassment.

The cosmetics which were introduced several years ago, include a set of unlockable skins for the Cannibal that changes the "face" of his victim that he wears on his head, much like Leatherface's signature calling card. The skins reference the original four survivor characters that players could choose from, one of whom was a Black woman named Claudette.

Black Dead By Daylight players flagged that enemy players would frequently target them for harassment while wearing the Claudette Cannibal skin.

"Members of the community have shared their experiences with people targeting and harassing them while using some of these masks," Behaviour Interactive said in a blog post. "These reports were disheartening to hear, and we absolutely condemn this behaviour. We are not comfortable having these masks in the game when they are used as a tool to spread hate."

Behaviour Interactive will compensate players who unlocked the skins with 6,000 Iridescent Shards, the in-game currency used to unlock cosmetics.

As Mass Effect and Dragon Age fans anxiously await concrete details about the new games currently in production, developer BioWare has provided a brief development update for both projects, along with a tease that will keep Mass Effect fans busy for a while.

In a new blog post about the state of BioWare, General Manager Gary McKay provided brief updates on both of its highly-anticipated RPG sequels, while also addressing the toll the pandemic has taken on development.

"And of course, we remain hard at work on the next iterations of Dragon Age and Mass Effect," McKay said. "I’m seeing some incredible work from both teams."

For Mass Effect fans, McKay encouraged players to take a look at the most recent poster revealed for the game.

"If you’re curious about Mass Effect, I’d encourage you to take a look at the poster we released on N7 Day," McKay said. "If you look closely, there are a handful of hidden treats; by my count, there are at least five surprises, all of which point to an amazing future in the Mass Effect universe."

ANVIL: Vault Breakers is a multiplayer, co-op, top-down, sci-fi, roguelike action shooter that has you exploring multiple galaxies in search for relics that will help humanity not only survive, but prosper.

While the full release of ANVIL: Vault Breakers is still some time away, the game has officially entered Early Access on PC and Xbox Game Preview on Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One and it invites players into its world to become one of the 12 Breakers and find the greatest treasures the universe has to offer.

In celebration of its Early Access launch, we’ve partnered up with Action Square Co. to share five things you need to know about ANVIL: Vault Breakers, from what dangers and treasures await players to how death will only make you stronger.

ANVIL: Vault Breakers Is Available on Steam and Xbox Game Pass, and There Is a Demo!

ANVIL: Vault Breakers is currently available on Steam (PC), Xbox One, or Xbox Series X/S for $24.99 USD and those who purchase now will be able to lock in the price before it is potentially raised with the addition of new content.

If you are a subscriber of Xbox Game Pass, you can install the Game Preview of ANVIL: Vault Breaker at no additional cost and check out all of its action for yourself right now. If you don’t have Xbox Game Pass, there is a demo on Steam that allows you to try before you buy.

Being put on the naughty list might lead to Christmas being cancelled, but for video game NPCs and players alike, it seems that a simple bug can at least lead to it being delayed. At least that's the case for Assassin's Creed Valhalla's Yule-themed update, which is still yet to arrive for some players in the game.

Konami has announced the launch of an NFT collection to commemorate the 35th anniversary of Castlevania.

The "KONAMI MEMORIAL NFT" collection features 14 unique artworks from the Castlevania series in celebration of the iconic franchise's 35th anniversary, though it actually comes a few months on from the milestone date in September. The complete collection will be available for the worldwide auction on OpenSea (a popular online marketplace for NFTs) from January 12.

Konami's official website offers a preview of the digital items that are going up for sale at the Castlevania 35th anniversary auction, including NFTs (non-fungible tokens) consisting of "game scenes, background music (BGM), and newly drawn visuals" from the series' rich history, which spans back to 1986 when the franchise's first console title was released.

In perhaps one of the more absurd stories to kick off 2022, the Pope has just watched a circus perform, set to music from Undertale.

As spotted by fans on Twitter (and reported by The Gamer), the Pope appears to have started the new year the right way by watching a group of circus performers put on a display to the sound of Undertale's 'Megalovania'.

For context, each week Pope Francis holds a General Audience. Often attended by groups of pilgrims, the Pope uses the event to impart his benedictions to those present in a number of different languages before sometimes also hosting performers to entertain his guests. While these performances vary and come in a range of varieties, the most recent featured a sllightly bemusing display by a group of circus performers who executed a routine to the backing of Sans' theme from Undertale.

This year just started and we already have the insanity of Megalovania being performed in front of the Pope. pic.twitter.com/QBxGtl9v1c

— Ultima | #вʟм (@UltimaShadowX) January 6, 2022

As can be seen in the tweet above, the whole thing comes off a little jarring. Between performers juggling objects in a multitude of ways, a short trip out by a red-dressed unicyclist, and a member of the group positioned upside down on a chair twirling a large baton between their feet, it's not like there wasn't plenty to keep the audiences attention held.

High-profile FIFA Ultimate Team traders are being targeted by hackers who are draining their accounts of FIFA points and in-game currency.

A number of the most prolific FIFA Ultimate Team traders have taken to Twitter to not only reveal that they have been hacked, but also complain about EA’s handling of the issue.

Woke up this morning to see my account has also been hacked :) what a lovely start to 2022

— FG (@fut_fg) January 2, 2022

It appears many of the top 100 traders have been targeted, including current top Ultimate Team trader on PlayStation, FUT Donkey. The hackers are seemingly taking player gamertags from the in-game FIFA leader boards, and using this to file a support ticket with EA in an effort to gain access to the account. By pretending to be the account holder, hackers have been able to successfully persuade EA to hand over the associated email address and a reset password link, enabling the hacker to then rinse the trader’s account of currency.

People spam the livechat asking to change my account details until some incompetent advisor finally gave them the account pic.twitter.com/jqOoKKcv6s

Charles Martinet, the voice actor behind a whole host of characters from the Super Mario franchise including the likes of Luigi, Wario, and of course Mario himself, says that he falls asleep and dreams as the series' signature character.

During an interview with Retro Gamer, the voice actor spoke about a number of topics, including how he came to land the role, his experiences as a voice actor, and his time working on the Netflix documentary High Score. However, when asked how he prepares for a recording session with Nintendo, Martinet's answer seemed to perfectly capture his love and dedication to the characters that he has so successfully brought to life.

"These characters for me are always there," explains Martinet. "I mean, I dream as Mario, flying over these lakes or over the ocean, in the moonlight, a little bit Galaxy-esque. And I sometimes dream in 2D. If I wake up in the morning and I'm having a lousy day, I'm like [Wario growl]. These voices are just alive in me, along with [sings the Super Mario Bros start jingle] [Mario] Go! So, there's not a lot of preparation [for Nintendo]."

In addition to speaking about how he prepares for each session, Martinet also explained that his roles across different games for Nintendo would vary in terms of the time commitment and the approach to scheduling that the company would take.

Update 1/7 10 am PT: Jeff Ross followed up his Tweet thread by appearing on Twisted Metal director David Jaffe's livestream to explain how the 8 million sales figure for Days Gone might not be entirely accurate, or at the very least, official.

As reported by PushSquare, Ross says the source of the sales numbers was from a Trophy data tracking site called Gamestat. During the conversation, Ross revealed that when he was at Bend Studios and saw Days Gone sold 5 million copies, the Trophy data was at 5.8 million. And since he no longer has access to Sony's official figures since leaving the company, Ross based the 8 million sales figures from trophy trackers and the "telemetry data."

"I think [Gamestat] still has the data archived," Ross said according to GameInformer. "Based off the 8 million mark, it matched our telemetry and so I'm like, 'good enough.' So maybe it was 7.7 [million]-ish, maybe it was 8.2 [million]-ish, I don't know."

So while Ross has previously found trophy data to be ballpark figures for sales, they are not wholly accurate compared to Sony's official 8 million sales announcement for Ghost of Tsushima.

Original Story: Days Gone director Jeff Ross says that the game outsold Ghost of Tsushima, but that it was still treated like a disappointment by studio management.

January was already looking to be a solid month for Xbox Game Pass, with Mass Effect Legendary Edition coming to the service, but now subscribers can look forward to a brand new title as well. Microsoft and Ubisoft have announced that Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction is coming to Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass on day one.

The Rainbow Six PvE spinoff is coming to Game Pass on January 20, the same day it releases on Xbox Series X|S, PS5/PS4, Stadia, and PC. Ubisoft is pricing Rainbow Six Extraction at a budget price point of $39.99 for players who plan to buy the game.

Extraction is also introducing a cross-play Buddy Pass, where every copy of the game comes with two passes to invite friends to play for free for 14 days.

Rainbow Six Extraction is a co-op PvE first-person shooter, where you can work with up to two other players to take down an alien enemy called the Archeans. The game was originally titled Rainbow Six Quarantine when it was announced at E3 2019. Ubisoft temporarily changed the name to Rainbow Six Parasite, before finally settling on Extraction with the game's re-reveal last summer. In addition to the new title, Game Pass subscribers can also access Rainbow Six Siege, Extraction's PvP counterpart, beginning January 20.

Drinkbox Studios' new game Nobody Saves the World is a unique action-RPG that lets players take on the role of, well, Nobody, and transform into a host of different, wacky forms. And it's only a couple of weeks away from being released.

The Guacamelee! developers announced that Nobody Saves the World will arrive on Jan. 18 for Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, Windows, and Steam for $24.99. It will also be available via Xbox Game Pass on both Xbox and PC, so subscribers can hop in on day one to the action, which can be played either solo or in online co-op.

Additionally, Nobody Saves the World's soundtrack by Sword and Sworcery composer Jim Guthrie will be available on Steam and streaming platforms the same day as Nobody launches.

IGN went hands-on with Nobody Saves the World early last year and found it retained Drinkbox's penchant for charming, hilarious writing and world-building while delivering a unique approach to RPG progression in its varied world.

Since then, we've learned a bit more about how players will combine and use the powers of Nobody's many forms, Drinkbox's approach to choosing and building out these forms, and more.

Nobody will also be Drinkbox's first online co-op game, though past games from the studio did have local multiplayer. Co-op will be playable with other players in the same platform ecosystem.

Resident Evil: Code Veronica is set to receive its very own fan-made remake – aping the Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes of recent years – and aims to launch later this year.

As spotted by Eurogamer, the developers behind the project announced the 2022 release of their fan-made remake on Twitter where they showed off a trailer for the game (in the tweet, below):

#ResidentEvil #CodeVeronicaRemake (Fan Remake) is coming in 2022 🧟‍♀️
Watch the Trailer now 🗡
Full video ▶️ https://t.co/4EStQ5ElXG#REBHFun #ResidentEvilCodeVeronica pic.twitter.com/NH6tupc4Ji

Activision Blizzard is currently facing serious ongoing allegations of harassment and mistreatment of marginalized workers. To learn more, please visit our timeline as well as our in-depth report on the subject.

Activision has filed a lawsuit in the Central District of California against cheat distributor EngineOwning.

As spotted by The Verge, Activision filed its lawsuit against EngineOwning on January 4 as part of a wider push to limit and shut down software that allows players to cheat in Call of Duty: Warzone and other games released by the publisher.

In the lawsuit, EngineOwning is described as a "commercial online business enterprise consisting of a German business entity and numerous individuals" and is accused of engaging in the "development, sale, distribution, marketing, and exploitation of a portfolio of malicious cheats and hacks for popular online multiplayer games."

A new partnership between Xbox and nail polish brand OPI is set to launch that will allow you to unlock in-game skins for both Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 that match your real-life cosmetics.

Announced on the Xbox Blog, the OPI x Xbox collection includes twelve different nail polish hues, and launches today at Ulta.com as well as in-store at Ulta, while launching on February 1 globally at various retailers. Buying the polishes from select (and as-yet-unannounced) retailers will also give you access to color-matched cosmetic items for both Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5, which will seemingly allow players to change their armor and car paint job to match the color of their nails.

During Sony's CES 2022 press conference, the company announced new information from its PlayStation division. This includes new information on the PSVR 2 as well as a new Horizon VR game being developed exclusively for the next-gen headset.

Horizon Call of the Mountain is a new game co-developed by Guerrilla and Firesprite, a UK game developer primarily focused on VR games and recently acquired by Sony.

This will be an original game built specifically for the PSVR 2 and according to the PS Blog post will allow players "to go deeper in the world of Horizon."

While no release date was shared, the YouTube description did share some additional insight on the game, noting that Horizon Call of the Mountain will "embrace a new level of immersion in a unique experience, designed to push hardware technology, innovation, and gameplay."

During its CES 2022 press conference, Sony shared new details on its upcoming successor to the PSVR, confirming that the PSVR 2 is the official name of the next-gen head-mounted display.

During the press conference, Sony dropped a lot of new information on the highly anticipated headset. This includes the name of the controllers, officially called the Sense Controllers, which will offer things such as haptic feedback, a trademark feature available in the DualSense controller.

The latest PS Blog post notes that the PSVR 2 will feature an OLED display with a 2000 x 2040 per eye panel resolution. The headset will also support 90Hz and 120Hz, with a field of view of approximately 110 degrees.

Sony also notes that the PSVR 2 will include 4 cameras on the headset and a controller-tracking IR camera for per eye tracking. "Your movements and the direction you look at are reflected in-game without the need for an external camera," Sony notes in the blog post.

If your home arcade is lacking a classic fighting game cabinet, you're in luck. At-home arcade machine maker Arcade1Up has revealed its first full-sized arcade cabinet as part of its CES 2022 announcements, featuring Rare's classic fighting game, Killer Instinct.

The machines tout a larger 19-inch screen, as opposed to the 17-inch display in Arcade1Up's other offerings. The machine will launch this summer, and you can take a look for yourself below.

Killer Instinct is a 1-on-1 fighting game series developed by Rare, and originally released in arcades in 1994. The original also game to SNES and Gameboy in the 90s, and it most recently came to Xbox One in 2013 alongside Microsoft Studios' 2013 reboot of the series.

This cabinet comes with the arcade versions of Killer Instinct 1 and 2, as well as three versions of Battletoads: arcade, 8-bit, and 16-bit. Plus, the cabinet supports online multiplayer with built-in Wifi.

Happy New Year! Xbox Game Pass gets 2022 started in a big way - by dropping the entirety of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition onto Game Pass. We discuss the legendary RPG series, the importance of its presence on Game Pass, and more. Plus: what we played over the holiday break (hint: Halo Infinite multiplayer), Tencent's stealthy infiltration of the games industry, and more!

Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our new YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 download of this week's episode. For more awesome content, check out our latest IGN Unfiltered interview, where Joseph Staten – one of Halo's original creators and now the head of creative on Halo Infinite – discusses his fascinating career:

Oh, and you can be featured on Unlocked by tweeting us a video Loot Box question! Tweet your question and tag Ryan at @DMC_Ryan!

For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X review, our Xbox Series S review, and our PS5 review.

CES is the largest consumer tech trade show. With many companies across the industry attending to announce new products or concepts, new GPUs are among one of the most anticipated things people hope to see during the event.

With AMD and Nvidia both announcing the next iterations in its Radeon RX 6000 and GeForce RTX 30 series, respectively, and Intel soon to enter the GPU battle, here's a roundup of every graphics card announced at CES 2022.

AMD

The main attraction from AMD in terms of GPUs is its new entry-level GPU, the Radeon RX 6500 XT graphics card, which will release on January 19. AMD prices the GPU at $199, but with an ongoing chip shortage and a previous track record of third-party GPU makers such as MSI increasing the street price, these GPUs may be hard to find and more expensive than what its debut price is slated.

The Radeon RX 6500 XT, like others in the RX 6000 series, features RDNA 2 graphical architecture, and the lower-end GPU model aims to run the latest titles at 1080p on the highest settings.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was a groundbreaking game for many reasons, but one feature that may go unnoticed by many players is the green, blowing grass that sweeps across Hyrule. Well, it turns out that same grass caused a lot of problems for the developers of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.

Age of Calamity is a Musou-style spinoff of Breath of the Wild, developed by Koei Tecmo. The game launched in late 2020, and it tells a story of what happened in Hyrule 100 years before the events of Breath of the Wild.

Because the spinoff takes place in the same world as Breath of the Wild, Koei Tecmo had to recreate many of the same locations, including Hyrule Field.

In an interview with the Japanese gaming magazine Nintendo Dream (translated by Nintendo Everything), some of the lead developers on Age of Calamity say creating the grass in Hyrule Field took hundreds of employees over half of the development time of the game.

"That grass took ages," Art Director Yuu Oohoshi said. "It took about half of development time to finishing touching up the grass in the game. We really struggled to recreate the atmosphere of Hyrule Field."

Oohoshi says the team wanted to focus on the Hyrule Field because the mission was at the beginning of the game, and Koei Tecmo wanted to stun players. The developers even had to ask Nintendo's Zelda dev team for assistance.

Halo Infinite multiplayer's Fracture: Tenrai event returns today, so Spartans once again have a chance to earn the samurai-themed Yoroi Armor Core and its many add-ons. Following player feedback, the event looks a little different this time, as developer 343 Industries has addressed some of the early criticisms with more progression changes.

On Halo Waypoint, 343 detailed the event's new adjustments. The event is still designed to be completed throughout Season 1, rather than all at once, but players can now earn 10 rewards per week whereas before rewards capped out at 7.

And the biggest change is the event now guarantees that players always have at least one event-specific challenge in their challenge rotation, opposed to the event's first run-through, where there was no such guarantee.

When the event originally appeared in November, players had issues with Fracture: Tenrai's gated progression and padded event pass, mostly over how someone could play for hours without seeing a single event-related challenge appear in your rotation.

343 also added 11 new cosmetic items to the event, replacing the XP and Challenge Boosts that were originally available in the event pass. 343 says it hopes these changes give players more reason to invest time into the event. The Fracture: Tenrai will last from today until January 11, and will keep returning periodically throughout the remainder of the season.

Death Stranding Director's Cut is officially heading to PC in Spring 2022, publisher 505 Games announced today.

The PC port of Death Stranding has also been confirmed to be among the first games to support Intel's XeSS supersampling technology, allowing PC gamers to have their rigs produce better performance in the game without additional horsepower. Though no additional information has been shared outside of support for Intel's XeSS, though given the game is slated to launch this Spring, we might not have to wait that long to get more information on what to expect from the PC port of Death Stranding Director's Cut.

This will mark the second time Death Stranding has been ported to PC, as the original version was previously released on PC in July 2020, seeing a release on both Steam and the Epic Games Store. That version was the first to receive Half-Life and Cyberpunk 2077 crossover content before it made its way onto the PS5 version by way of the Director's Cut.

We already knew that Intel plans to enter the GPU market and take on AMD and Nvidia. And today, the CPU maker shared new information on its endeavors into this new market, specifically more information on its supersampling technology as part of its CES 2022 announcements.

As announced in August, Intel Arc graphics will include things such as hardware-based ray tracing, and Xe Super Sampling Tech (XeSS). XeSS, like AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) and Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), allow GPUs that support any of the three that allow more mileage from your PC rigs without working harder.

Intel also confirmed XeSS support on its upcoming GPUs and you'll get better performance from PCs outfitted with an Intel Arc series GPU and a compatible Intel Core CPU, such as the recently released Alder Lake (12th Gen) processors.

Ahead of Intel's first generation of Arc GPUs launching, the company also shared information on upcoming support for its XeSS supersampling tech. Intel confirmed that Death Stranding Director's Cut for PC will be among the first games to support the tech. Several studios, including Ubisoft, IO Interactive, 505 Games, Kojima Productions, and PUBG Studios, have also committed to integrating the supersampling tech into its games.

Following a teaser on Twitter, AMD has announced a slew of new products in conjunction with CES 2022, which kicks off on Wednesday. This includes the seventh gaming desktop graphics card in its RX 6000 series, the RX 6500 XT, which releases later this month.

The RX 6500 XT features a 2.6Ghz game clock, with 16 compute units and ray accelerators, and an infinity cache of 16MB. Like the RX 6600 XT and RX 6600 graphics cards, AMD's latest GPU is marketed as a graphics card that can run the highest settings at a 1080p resolution.

AMD touts that the RX 6500 XT can perform up to 1.6 times better on the highest 1080p settings than Nvidia's GTX 1650 and its own RX 570 GPU (pictured below). Though, AMD did not share any data on how it stacks up to Nvidia's RTX 2060, which recently saw a re-release in an attempt to circumvent the supply strain issues surrounding the RTX 30 series, though even the RTX 2060 is still hard to find itself.

A deleted mid-credits cutscene for Halo Infinite has seemingly been unearthed by dataminers – and fans are trying to work out what it could mean for the future of the story (if anything).

As shared on YouTube, Gamecheat13 posted the cutscene, which was seemingly meant to play out after the end of the game's single-player campaign, but before the post-credits scene that made it into the final version.

While the deleted scene may no longer be a part of Halo Infinite's future story plans, this could potentially be considered a spoiler. Proceed with caution!

Deleted #HaloInfinite mid-credits cutscene has been uncovered! 👀 What are your thoughts about this?

(Via: Alpha Archive on Youtube https://t.co/ohVpnG8hCS) pic.twitter.com/RiszTdUi7J

— Quest Status (@QuestStatus) December 30, 2021

During the short clip, the cinematic shows pilot Fernando Esparza asleep at the helm of the Pelican before being swiftly awakened by an incoming signal. Upon hearing the call to action, a stunned-looking Esparza calls in Master Chief to share the discovery. "Chief," says the pilot, "you're not going to believe this."

Finding a 4K TV to perfectly complement the latest consoles can still be a challenge with the hurdles of HDMI 2.1 and variable refresh rate (VRR) support, but Sony’s latest slate of TVs seem perfect for the Xbox Series X and especially the PS5.

First off, at CES 2022 Sony promised all its new 2022 televisions will support VRR right out of the box, meaning you’ll be able to enjoy constantly smooth frame rates with either console. Sony recently put out a new update for its current and new TVs that allows the PS5 to detect which TV you’re using and automatically sets the HDR settings – no more having to move finicky brightness and darkness sliders.

Of course, beyond software features, Sony has plenty of new actual hardware in the form of new TVs. Sony’s new flagship A95K Series exclusively features a new QD OLED panel in which each individual diode no longer relies on a white subpixel to provide luminance. Instead, Sony has applied a layer of quantum dots that absorbs light from the OLEDs and scatters it in various directions, and that in turn improves the viewing angles.

Another result of this new XR Triluminos Max technology is that no colors are washed out by a white element in the OLED panel. Sony claims users can expect 200% more color compared to other competing TV sets.

Sonic Frontiers was originally meant to launch last year to celebrate the Sonic series' 30th anniversary, but Sega decided to delay its arrival in order to improve the game.

News of the game's belated arrival comes as part of Sega's recent December investor Q&A, where the company discussed the upcoming release of Sonic Frontiers among a number of other focal points.

When asked whether or not Sonic Frontiers would be an open-world kind of concept, Sega explained that fans would need to wait a little longer for further details, however, the publisher was keen to state that it won't be compromising on quality when it comes to the game's release.

"Originally it was planned to be released on this year, the 30th anniversary of Sonic," explained Sega in its response, "but we have postponed the release for a year in order to further brush up the quality.

"Not only for this title, but during the development phase, we have been steadily conducting analysis to improve the quality of the title before release, such as introducing game testing based on external evaluations, and I have a feeling that it will become a good game and have high expectations for it."

Xbox Game Pass is getting another stellar lineup of games in January of 2022, including a big headliner, Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Bioware's critically acclaimed space-opera will be available for console and PC users as part of EA Play, which is included alongside Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, or PC Game Pass memberships.

That's not all, however, as Xbox and Ubisoft have just announced that Rainbow Six Extraction will hit Game Pass on day one of release, January 20, 2022. While this won't be everything coming to Game Pass in January, as Xbox tends to announce a second wave of games in the latter parts of every month, this is certainly a decent start to the year.

Rainbow Six Extraction is Coming Day One to Xbox Game Pass

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction is set to release on January 20, and will now launch on Xbox Game Pass on the same day for console and PC Game Pass users.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition is Coming to Xbox Game Pass

Mass Effect Legendary Edition is headlining the new Xbox Game Pass entries for January 2022, with the complete saga hitting the service on January 6 for console and PC Game Pass users.

The Legendary Edition includes all includes the single-player content from each of the three games, Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3, alongside over 40 DLC expansions from each as well.

Activision Blizzard is currently facing serious ongoing allegations of harassment and mistreatment of marginalized workers. To learn more, please visit our timeline as well as our in-depth report on the subject.

A Call of Duty Warzone skin has accidentally allowed players to turn almost completely invisible. The issue has arisen during a period where developer Raven's quality assurance team is on strike, and Activision Blizzard leadership reportedly hasn't responded to the department's concerns.

As reported by CharlieIntel, the Awoken skin for Call of Duty character Francis (unlocked at Level 100 of the current Battle Pass) has launched with a glitch that, at certain distances, turns players completely invisible, aside from a glowing orange mask. By its nature, the glitch is granting players using the skin an unfair advantage in the game, with some branding it an accidental 'pay-to-win' mechanic.

You can see footage of the issue below:

Warzone es lo mejor del mundo… skin invisible pic.twitter.com/hZpQvbDJaL

SwitchBuddy is an app that makes it much easier to transfer screenshots and videos from your Nintendo Switch to mobile devices.

Created by Czech developer Filip Němeček and available for both Apple and Android devices, the mobile app helps to speed up the way that Switch players can export images from the console. According to a press release, Němeček says that he decided to create the app after becoming "frustrated by the clumsy process" involved in transferring images from Switch to phone.

It's a brand new year, and that means we've got a whole new set of deals to check out already. There's plenty to look forward to in 2022, like Elden Ring, Horizon Forbidden West, and Dying Light 2 (and that's just in February). For now, here are all the best deals in the UK we could find.

One of the best discounts today is on Pokemon Legends Arceus, with preorders now down to just £38.24 with code ARCEUS15 at Currys. New PS5 DualSense controllers are also available to preorder at Amazon, with Starlight Blue and Nova Pink both shipping by January 14. We've also got discounts on the perfect PS5 SSDs, Xbox consoles, copies of Halo Infinite, OLED TVs, and more. Check out our favourites below.

TL;DR - Our Favourite Deals Right Now

Switch OLED In Stock in the UK

Absolute Best PS5 SSDs on Sale in the UK

With Heatsink

Without Heatsink

Best PS5 Heatsink Deals

PlayStation has announced six new games for PlayStation Now, including Mortal Kombat 11 and Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age. The games will join PS Now's library tomorrow, January 4, and the full list of additions is as follows:

• Mortal Kombat 11
• Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age
• Fury Unleashed
• Unturned
• Super Time Force Ultra
• Kerbal Space Program: Enhanced Edition

Mortal Kombat 11 released back in 2019, and we called it amazing in our Mortal Kombat 11 review, saying, "It’s a rare fighting game that hits just about every note as strongly as Mortal Kombat 11 does."

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is a well-received entry in Square Enix's long-running RPG juggernaut franchise. This title is known for its gambit system, that allows the player to better control their characters' moves in combat. We called the game great, saying, "Final Fantasy XII’s relatable roleplaying adventure has aged remarkably well, and The Zodiac Age remaster improves it further in meaningful ways."