Author: Game Infliction

Silent Hill: The Short Message Passes 1 Million Downloads

Content Warning: The following article contains mentions of themes some readers may find distressing, including those of self-harm and suicide.

Silent Hill: The Short Message has surpassed one million downloads, publisher Konami has announced.

In a post on the Japanese Silent Hill X/Twitter account, Konami celebrated the milestone for the free-to-play Silent Hill spin-off. Confirmation The Short Message surpassed “over one million downloads” arrived in artwork depicting the creepy post-it notes appearing in the game.

The Short Message was revealed and released during Sony’s first PlayStation State of Play presentation of 2024 on January 31 and takes players to modern day Germany. Taking on the role of Anita, players explore a typically spooky house called The Villa from a first-person perspective, in what Konami described as an “experimental” taste of the wider Silent Hill franchise.

Despite receiving a surprise release during the PlayStation showcase, The Short Message’s existence wasn’t very well hidden. Myriad leaks gave fans a good idea of the plot, gameplay, and visuals, including one from the Australian ratings board which confirmed what it described as “an exploration-based psychological horror game”.

Also outlined in the ratings board description, The Short Message includes “strong suicide themes” and “horror violence”, though we won’t disclose those scenes here for the sake of sensitivity and spoilers.

The Short Message’s themes also bring to mind images leaked in May 2022 that were allegedly from a Silent Hill game. Though they were quickly taken down, the images showed a young woman and a single house being viewed from a first-person perspective, which is now confirmed to be The Short Message.

Suicide: If you are having suicidal thoughts, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline in the U.S. is available 24 hours a day at 1-800-273-8255. A list of international suicide hotlines can be found here.

#Drive Rally blends WRC seriousness with arcade cheer

In 2021 I went through a bit of a rally phase with WRC 9, as I discovered the joys of watching people play rally games beautifully. And as much as I enjoyed my brief stints with those semi-realistic rally games, I’ve since longed for more of a blend between a rally-er and a colourful arcade jaunt. For those seeking a similar swinging-the-back-out experience, I’d recommend giving #Drive Rally‘s demo a go. It might not be as colourful as I’d like, but it’s got lovely, errr, dirt feel?

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PS5 Update Improves DualSense Sounds, Adjusts Brightness of Power Indicator, and More

Sony has outlined a raft of new features and quality-of-life improvements for the PlayStation 5, out now in beta form and set to roll out for everyone in the coming months.

In a PlayStation Blog post, senior vice president of platform experience at Sony Interactive Entertainment Hideaki Nishino said the beta including these updates is limited to invited participants in the U.S., Canada, Japan, UK, Germany, and France, who’ll receive an email if chosen.

The update sees the DualSense controller get speaker audio enhancements, so it can produce higher volume sound which allows players to hear in-game sounds and voice chat audio more clearly, as well as improvements to the built-in microphone.

“The mic input quality on these controllers has been improved, courtesy of a new AI machine learning model,” Nishino said. “Background noise from button presses and game audio are suppressed, resulting in a better voice chat experience.”

Share screen interactions are also improved so players watching share screen in full screen mode can now use pointers and emoji reactions to interact with the host’s gameplay. “Viewers can move a pointer around, send a ping, or draw a line on the shared screen, allowing them to highlight certain objects or areas to guide the host player more accurately,” Nishino said.

Finally, players can now adjust the brightness of the PS5’s power indicator by going to Settings, System, Beep and Light, and then Brightness.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Echo Point Nova is an open world FPS with hoverboards, floating islands and sledgehammers

If you’ve been dreaming of a hyper-agile FPS set on the sky islands from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Echo Point Nova could be your jam. It casts you as a space pilot who crashlands on a floating archipelago planet during a research expedition. I’m not sure what you’re researching, exactly, but going by your character’s loadout, it’s the Science of Sick Moves.

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Nintendo Squeezes More Life Out of the Switch as Switch 2 Anticipation Builds

Nintendo is squeezing sales out of the seven year-old Switch, shifting 13.74 million units in the first nine months of the financial year, a 7.8% decline on the same period a year earlier. But it has revised its sales forecast for the current financial year up, predicting Switch sales of 15.5 million, up from the 15 million previously predicted.

Reporting its financials for the three months ending December 31, 2023, Nintendo said Switch exclusive Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the first side-scrolling Super Mario Bros. in almost 11 years, saw a “solid start” with sales of 11.96 million.

Sales continued to grow for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which is now up to an incredible 20.28 million units sold but some way off Breath of the Wild‘s 31.61 million sold. Pikmin 4 is now on 3.33 million units sold, and Super Mario RPG, which came out in November, reached 3.14 million units.

Boosted by the April release of the phenomenally successful The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe shifted another 6.79 million units. The kart racer is now up to an eye-watering 60.58 million sold, comfortably the best-selling Switch game and the best-selling kart racer of all time.

As for Switch, Nintendo said sales of the console “continued to be steady” in its seventh year since launch. The Switch is now up to 139.36 million units sold. It lags behind only the Nintendo DS and the PlayStation 2 in the best-selling consoles of all-time list. Indeed, the Switch has more annual playing users than ever before, with 122 million recorded during the 2023 calendar year.

Switch software sales totaled 163.95 million units (a decrease of 4.7% year-on-year) for the period. Nintendo reported a record net profit of 408 billion yen ($2.7 billion) for the April-December period.

“For hardware, by continuing to convey the appeal of Nintendo Switch, we try not only to put one system in every home, but several in every home, or even one for every person,” Nintendo said. “Another objective is to continually release new offerings so more consumers keep playing Nintendo Switch even longer and we can maximize hardware sales.”

Looking ahead, Nintendo will release Mario vs. Donkey Kong this month and Princess Peach:

Showtime! in March. Splatoon 3: Expansion Pass – Side Order, the second wave of paid add-on content for Splatoon 3, is due out this month.

Of course, expectations of an announcement of Switch 2 are sky high, with the console reportedly due out during the second half of 2024. One of the big unanswered questions is whether this next-gen console will be backwards compatible with the Switch. With 122 million Switch players in tow, is seems unlikely Nintendo will leave those accounts behind to start over.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Ultrafast shooter Tribes 3: Rivals gets a Steam Next Fest demo, is out in early access “soon”

The latest haul of Steam Next Fest demos is so vast that I initially missed Tribes 3: Rivals, a game I’ve been cautiously coveting, among them. While this high-speed FPS has been playable in a number of semi-open alpha tests already, trying it out is now as easy as sliding into its Steam page and hitting the big green demo download button.

The demo launch is accompanied by a shiny new trailer, showing more of Rivals’ skiing shenanigans, aurally satisfying airshots, and flag-throwing tricks that I will never, ever be able to successfully pull off in a real match. Also, a confirmation that it’s launching into early access, though there’s no date beyond “soon.”

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Elden Ring Mobile Game in Development, as Wait for DLC Continues

An Elden Ring mobile game is in development, but don’t hold your breath — it sounds like this one’s a while away.

Reuters reports that Tencent is working to adapt FromSoftware’s mega hit into a mobile game, but progress is described as “slow”.

Apparently Tencent wants the Elden Ring mobile game to work similarly to gacha game Genshin Impact, with a free-to-play business model supported by in-app purchases. But the design of Elden Ring, which is a single-player, premium action role-playing game, is “at odds” with Tencent’s vision.

News of an Elden Ring mobile game comes amid what fans hope is the imminent release of the hotly anticipated Elden Ring DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree. Various changes to the back end of Elden Ring’s entry in Steam suggest something is afoot. So far, however, both developer FromSoftware and publisher Bandai Namco have remained quiet.

As for Tencent, it appears to be struggling to create mobile game hits based on established PC and console games. Last week it emerged Tencent had canceled an unannounced Nier mobile game.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

PS5 beta adds DualSense controller sound enhancements and Share Screen interactions

As the new year kicks into high gear with an amazing slate of PS5 game releases like The Last of Us Part II Remastered, Tekken 8 and Helldivers 2, along with FINAL FANTASY VII Rebirth later this month, we’re pleased to roll out another PS5 system software beta today with a number of quality-of-life enhancements and new features.

While beta access is limited to invited participants in select countries*, we plan to release the update globally in the coming months. If you’re selected to participate in the beta, you’ll receive an email invitation today when it’s available to download. Some features available during the beta phase may not make it into the final version or may see significant changes.

Let’s jump in to the newly added features:

DualSense wireless controller built-in mic and speaker audio enhancements

We’ve updated the device software of the DualSense and DualSense Edge wireless controllers to improve their sound features.

  • Controller speaker enhancements. The controller speakers can now produce higher volume sound, allowing you to hear in-game sounds and voice chat audio more clearly.
  • Improved noise cancellation. The mic input quality on these controllers has been improved, courtesy of a new AI machine learning model. Background noise from button presses and game audio are suppressed, resulting in a better voice chat experience. Install the system software beta and update the controller device software to enjoy enhanced clarity of your voice chat audio when using the controller mic.
  • With this update, you may feel that the sounds coming from your controller speaker may sound louder. You can adjust the controller speaker volume from the control center.

Image of a white DualSense wireless controller on a white background

Share Screen Interactions

Players watching Share Screen in full screen mode can now use pointers and emoji reactions to interact with the host’s gameplay.

  • Viewers can move a pointer around, send a ping or draw a line on the shared screen, allowing them to highlight certain objects or areas to guide the host player more accurately.
  • Viewers can send emoji-based reactions to the host’s screen to visually encourage and celebrate gameplay actions.
  • Note: this feature is available by default but can be turned off by the host in the Share Screen settings. Both the host and the viewer must be participating in the beta to use this feature during the beta period.

PS5 UI screenshot showing pointers and emoji reaction on the The Last of Us Part II Remastered gameplay screen

Adjust Brightness of PS5 Power Indicator

You can now adjust the brightness of your PS5 console’s power indicator.

  • Go to [Settings] > [System] > [Beep and Light], and then select [Brightness].

PS5 UI screenshot showing PS5 console’s power indicator brightness options

A heartfelt thank you to our community for always providing valuable feedback and supporting our beta programs. We’re excited to hear your thoughts!

*PS5 beta access will be available to selected participants in the U.S., Canada, Japan, U.K., Germany and France (same countries as our last system software beta).

Microsoft To Share “Vision For The Future Of Xbox” Next Week

Following rumours about select Xbox games going multi-platform.

There have been industry rumours recently about Microsoft potentially bringing select games to competitor platforms and last weekend it escalated, with games media outlets and key figures claiming Xbox could potentially go “all in” on a new multi-platform model.

It’s got to the point now where Microsoft’s Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has issued a statement (via social media) and rather than deny anything, he’s mentioned how there’ll be a “business update” next week where Microsoft shares its “vision for the future of Xbox”.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com