Fallout 4 Next-Gen Update Rolling Out Now

The Fallout 4 next-gen update is rolling out now.

The hotly anticipated next-gen update is available for Fallout 4 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, alongside an update for the PC version of Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic open-world RPG.

On PS5, the new native version of Fallout 4 (1.000.001) weighs in at 56.503 GB, according to early reports.

The next-gen update includes native applications for the consoles, Performance mode and Quality mode settings, as well as stability improvements and fixes. This means the game will be playable up to 60 frames per second and with an increased resolution.

Elsewhere, Fallout 4 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One also gets a free update with stability improvements, and login and quest fixes. And finally, a free Fallout 4 update for PC adds widescreen and ultra-widescreen support, as well as fixes to Creation Kit and a variety of quest updates.

Players with PC versions of Fallout 4 on Steam, the Microsoft Store, and GOG will receive stability, mod, and bug fixes. Fallout 4 will also be sold on the Epic Games Store, and will be Steam Deck verified.

Fallout 4 next-gen update, PC update, and last-gen update patch notes:

New Creation Club Content Free for Everyone

Enclave Remnants

Some say the past is a scar, cut across the skin of the Commonwealth. Others believe it’s a scab clotted over an unhealed wound. Those who fought the Enclave, and those who serve them subscribe to the latter. And when the scab is broken the flag of this old-world cabal will once more stand at full mast. Unless of course, you stop them first. Features the classic Enclave Colonel uniform and over a dozen workshop items! If you have other Enclave creations installed, some of these troops may use this equipment against you!

(Quest “Echoes of the Past” starts on the road north of Saugus Ironworks.)

Armor and Weapon bundle

  • X-02 Power Armor
  • Hellfire Power Armor
  • Heavy Incinerator
  • Tesla Cannon
  • Enclave Weapon Skins
  • Enclave Armor Skins

Makeshift Weapon Pack

Whether it be grenades or piggy banks, there’s no shortage of objects you can transform into murderous projectiles with this collection of unique weapons. Included are two grenade launchers, a Nail Gun, Baseball Launcher, Saw Blade launcher, and piggy bank based weaponry.

(Quest “When Pigs Fly” starts at a merchant workshop northwest of Greenetech Genetics.)

Halloween Workshop

On the eve of the end, the New England Technocrat Society has thrown a spooky Halloween gala for anyone with the nerve to attend. Drop in on this fa-boo-lous pumpkin-lit soiree replete with witches, cauldrons, and ghouls, and unlock 38 new spine-tingling Halloween props to decorate your settlement! Includes new wearables, such as the iconic De-Capitalist helmet!

(Quest “All Hallow’s Eve” starts by tuning into the Mysterious Signal on your Pip-Boy.)

Changes and New Features

  • Native PS5 and Xbox Series applications. Includes performance and quality mode options.
  • Performance mode: 60 FPS target, 4k resolution, standard settings, relying on dynamic resolution scaling.
  • Quality mode: 30 FPS*, 4k resolution, ultra settings, should not require dynamic resolution scaling.

When connected to a 120Hz display, Quality mode will target 40 FPS.

When connected to a 1440p display, the title will run at 1440p resolution at 60 FPS w/ ultra settings regardless of rendering mode

  • Release on Epic Store.
  • Widescreen and Ultra-widescreen support.
  • Steam Deck Verified
  • Added ā€œInstalled Contentā€ menu.

Bug Fixes

  • Resolved issues preventing Japanese and Chinese users from connecting to Bethesda.net (this restores access to Mods).
  • Resolved issue preventing save data from properly loading during the prologue.
  • Resolved issue that could prevent the Vault 111 Door from opening on new games.
  • Resolved issue that could prevent the quest ā€œGo Homeā€ from advancing.
  • Resolved issue that could result in Codsworth being broken on the ground after fast traveling.
  • Resolved issue with mipmaps in DLC.
  • Resolved issue that could result in a softlock when in dialogue with Prestson Garvey.
  • Resolved issue preventing autosaves while fast traveling in Power Armor.
  • Fixed issue where text would occasionally disappear in the Creation Club menu.
  • Resolved issues with text formatting in the credits in Japanese and Chinese.
  • Resolved issue causing the camera to fail when leaving furniture after an extended time.
  • Fixed issue that could misplace quest markers while the VR Workshop Creation was installed alongside Automatron.
  • Resolved issue with player movement in some underwater areas at Thicket Excavations.
  • Resolved issue that could cause corruption within the Settlement system resulting in wrong resource counts and/or destroyed settlements.
  • Resolved issue where the ā€œLevel Upā€ notification would display even if there was not a level up available.
  • Fixed some flickering in Vault 111.
  • Stability improvements.

PC Only

Resolved issue preventing saves being made under Windows Usernames with Cyrillic, Chinese, or Japanese characters.

PlayStation Only

  • Resolved issue that could keep the Pip-Boy light on when reading holotapes.
  • Resolved issue that could prompt users to free up 0kb worth of space when attempting to save even if space was available.
  • Fixed crash that could occur while loading a save that was made immediately before dying.
  • Resolved issue that would prevent Codsworth from checking on Shaun in the intro.

Xbox Only

  • Resolved issue where users would not always be returned to the main menu after signing out of their profile.
  • Resolved crash that could occur if the player had unlocked all perks.
  • Fixed lighting issue that could occur during Airship Down.
  • Encountering a BNET error will now return you to the main menu instead of asking you to log in again.
  • Resolved issue that could result in significant drop in frame rate when a Gas Canister is ignited by a Molotov Cocktail.
  • Addressed some visual artifacts that could occur when dynamic resolution was triggered.

Creation Kit

  • Removed non-functional ā€œHot Loadā€ button.
  • Removed non-functional ā€œMaterial Editorā€ button.
  • Editor IDs longer than 99 characters will no longer crash the editor.
  • Resolved crash that could occur while viewing a quest’s Objectives tab.
  • Resolved hang that could occur while adding a reference to a layer.

Fallout 4 launched in 2015 across PC, PS4, and Xbox One, generating $750 million in revenue. In the near decade since, Fallout 4 has continued to be one of the top-played games on Steam, with a huge number of mods keeping the experience fresh for players. The next-gen update is well-timed, given it arrives following the release of the Fallout TV show’s first season.

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.

You Probably Don’t Have to Worry About Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s Incredibly Complicated Cut Content

The allegedly cut ending of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which was set to make the series’ already incredibly complicated meta story even more complex, is probably nothing to worry about according to Ubisoft.

As reported by Eurogamer, a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” from Mirage art director Jean-Luc Sala saw one fan essentially ask if cut content found through a datamine was canon to the larger Assassin’s Creed story.

“All we can say is that what’s not in your playthrough does not exist,” Sala said, suggesting the cut content was cut for a reason and therefore bears no impact on the Assassin’s Creed stories that have actually been released. He followed up with a winking emoji, however, perhaps just to leave fans a little on edge.

The cut content was thought to be a tease for Assassin’s Creed Hexe, the upcoming spooky-looking entry seemingly connected to witchcraft. Mirage, like most games in the franchise, features minor connections to the modern day meta story, but this cut tease pointed to the distant future for the first time.

Players could pick up on a conversation that takes place between two Animus Operators (the Animus being the machine that sends people’s consciousness back in time), in which they refer to the 21st century as “ancient history.”

What makes the cutscene even more complicated, and a little eerie, is that it shows Mirage protagonist Basim’s eagle flying from what appears to be Mirage’s normal map into the desert to a technological tower of some kind, suggesting the game may not be set in 9th century Baghdad as suggested.

But this “does not exist” according to Sala, as it didn’t actually make it into the final game, so fans will just have to wait and see if Assassin’s Creed goes in that direction down the line.

“All we can say is that what’s not in your playthrough does not exist.

There are opportunities for Ubisoft to take the franchise in a different direction, of course, as two upcoming entries — the aforementioned Hexe and a feudal Japan-set Assassin’s Creed Red — are already confirmed to be in development, and will both be sheltered under the Assassin’s Creed Infinity umbrella, a new platform acting as a series hub.

Details are still slim about all three of these projects, but one employee listed the highly anticipated Red as a 2024 game.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage launched October 5, 2023 as a smaller-scale entry that returns players to the series’ roots through slower-paced, stealth-based gameplay, veering away from the role-playing game foundations of the recent trilogy of Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla.

In our 8/10 review, IGN said: “Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s back-to-basics approach is a successful first step in returning to the stealthy style that launched this series.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Video Game-Starved Titanfall Fans Call Netflix Sci-Fi Film Atlas a ‘Titanfall Movie at Home’

Netflix has released a trailer for its upcoming Jennifer Lopez starring sci-fi film Atlas and fans of the Titanfall video game franchise are noticing a lot of similarities between the two.

The two minute trailer shows off Lopez’s Atlas Shepard fleeing from certain death in a giant mech akin to those seen in Titanfall, or more specifically its sequel, which was the first to feature a campaign. While this concept wasn’t necessarily new at the time of Titanfall 2’s release either, fans have spotted “pretty glaring” callouts to the game.

Reddit user dravacotron pointed these out. A line in the trailer for the Netflix film sees the mech Smith tell pilot Atlas that “my primary protocol is to keep you alive”. Titanfall 2’s scene where the pilot properly meets the mech has the line: “Protocol 3: Protect the pilot.”

Another of the more iconic scenes from Titanfall 2 sees mech BT tell pilot Jack Cooper to trust it before hurling him across an enormous gap, and the Atlas trailer showcases a similar line: “This won’t work if you don’t trust me.”

The film is otherwise about a growing bond between mech and pilot who are both thrust into unexpected territory on a dangerous alien world, which is the general plot of Titanfall 2 as well.

“I’m roughly 70% sure this was a rejected Titanfall script,” said LapsedVerneGagKnee. “It literally looks like a parody. How did they even manage that?,” asked sunboy4224. Agiantgrunt referenced the famous meme: “Mom can we have Titanfall movie. We have Titanfall movie at home.”

It literally looks like a parody. How did they even manage that?

Titanfall fans have been desperate for another entry in the practically dormant franchise ever since Titanfall 2 released in 2016. Popular battle royale Apex Legends is set in the same universe but doesn’t feature nearly as much of the story and lore the second game is remembered so fondly for.

In our 9/10 review, IGN said: “A long-awaited single-player campaign puts Titanfall 2’s feelgood mobility onto a sprawling platforming playground.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

How Did Moldaver Survive for Over 200 Years in Fallout? Fans Have Theories

The Fallout TV show has sparked a number of fan theories. There’s speculation about the Snake Oil Salesman’s mysterious serum, for example. Some believe the Brotherhood of Steel’s airship confirms one of two Fallout 4 endings as canon. And let’s not forget the theory that the Fallout TV show’s biggest bombshell may in fact be a misdirection.

As the speculation about what’s in store for fans with the already confirmed Fallout Season 2, as well as its impact on Fallout canon, a fresh debate has emerged: which of the main characters are synths?

Warning: spoilers for Fallout Season 1 and Fallout 4 follow.

Fans of the Fallout video games have noticed the Fallout TV show fails to include a number of iconic creatures, characters, and factions from the series. That’s understandable, given the showrunners had a lot of world-building to do for newcomers in Season 1 and only so much time to do it in. Adding to this absent mix are the synths from Fallout 4, which takes place nine years earlier than Season 1, in 2287.

Synths are synthetic humanoids built by the Institute, one of Fallout 4’s main factions. Newer models are almost indistinguishable from humans, and, in Fallout 4, replace residents of the Commonwealth as part of espionage tactics. While Fallout 4 is set in what’s left of the city of Boston and the surrounding Massachusetts region following the nuclear war of 2077, it’s conceivable that synths made their way to the west coast of the United States, although it’s a long journey across the wasteland.

If so, we may be seeing synths hidden in plain sight during Fallout Season 1. Indeed, some believe that Moldaver, the mysterious (and apparently deceased) leader of this part of the wasteland’s New California Republic, who has somehow survived the nuclear apocalypse and for 200 years afterward despite displaying no signs of ghoulish behavior, is a synth.

ā€œMark this post, it will either be revealed that the one that passed of her was just a clone/synth copy not the original or maybe she is a type of ghoul and was slowly healing pretending she had passed,ā€ X / Twitter user @fatedwanderer84 said.

Indeed, Sarita Choudhury, who portrays Lee Moldaver in Fallout, has teased the character’s return in Season 2 despite her apparent death at the end of Season 1. In a recent interview with Nerdist, Choudhury was asked to explain how Moldaver survived. She replied: “I can’t, but I like your predictions, and you can figure stuff out, I think. But again, it’s in line with the fact that she’s a scientist. The fact that she created cold fusion makes me think she can figure out how to live.”

That tease is in-line with the theory that Moldaver is a synth or clone of Miss Williams, the pre-war name of the character depicted in flashback scenes. But some believe other characters could be a synth, too, including Hank, Maximus, and even Lucy.

The idea of synths and / or the Institute being around during the events of the Fallout TV show sparks further lore questions. Fans are already wondering which Fallout 4 ending the show considers to be canon, given it looks like the Brotherhood of Steel airship we see on-screen is the Prydwen from Fallout 4. Does The Institute still exist by the time the Fallout TV show starts? The showrunners and Bethesda development chief Todd Howard have confirmed all previous Fallout games are canon, as is the show, but none of the canon endings from the games are necessarily taken on board. Fallout Season 2 will, of course, answer some of these questions and pose more.

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.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Has Done So Well Capcom Is Paying Out More Money to Shareholders

Capcom has announced plans to pay out more money to its shareholders after the breakout success of Dragon’s Dogma 2.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a big hit for Capcom, selling 2.5 million copies across PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S in just 11 days. The sprawling action role-playing game went on sale on March 22, and Capcom announced Dragon’s Dogma 2 had passed 2.5 million sold on April 2. Total Dragon’s Dogma franchise sales have now exceeded 10 million units, Capcom added.

To put Dragon’s Dogma 2’s sales into context, it took the first Dragon’s Dogma game a month to sell 1.05 million units after it went on sale at the end of May 2012, a tally Capcom declared a success at the time.

Now, Capcom has revised its full-year earnings forecast and its dividend forecast for the financial year ending March 31, 2024. Sales, profits, and earnings per share all all revised up in single digit percentages versus the previous forecast, Capcom said.

Explaining the revision, Capcom namechecked Street Fighter 6, which has sold three million copies since going on sale in June 2023, and Dragon’s Dogma 2, which the company said ā€œhas performed favorably.ā€ Sales for Capcom’s back catalog titles also grew. Here’s the statement:

ā€œIn our core Digital Contents business, in addition to Street Fighter 6, the latest title in the Street Fighter series, being met with broad acclaim globally, Dragon’s Dogma 2 was released in the fourth quarter and has performed favorably. Further, sales grew for catalog titles consisting primarily of past titles from major series due to their steady popularity. Altogether, this has led us to expect earnings for this business to exceed our plan.

ā€œAs a result, we expect net sales, operating income, ordinary income, and net income attributable to owners of the parent to all outperform our previously announced forecast.ā€

“Dragon’s Dogma 2 was released in the fourth quarter and has performed favorably.

It’s certainly good times for Capcom, whose games typically enjoy critical acclaim and commercial success. Despite a controversy over microtransactions and a backlash to the game’s performance, particularly on PC, Dragon’s Dogma 2 saw the biggest launch for a single-player Capcom game on Steam, with an impressive 228,585 peak concurrents. Capcom has surveyed Dragon’s Dogma 2 players about their experience with the game, as well as potential DLC. Given Dragon’s Dogma 2’s sales success, it seems more meaningful DLC is an inevitability.

As for the future, Capcom is working on the next big Monster Hunter game, Monster Hunter Wilds, and new Resident Evil games.

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.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Patch Nerfs Dragonsplague, Gives Infected Pawns Glowing Eyes

Capcom has released a new update for its open-world fantasy game Dragon’s Dogma 2 that nerfs the dragonsplague, among other things.

Dragon’s Dogma’s pesky dragonsplague illness turns pawns murderous but only exhibited a few subtle symptoms up to now (modders had already made things really obvious for PC players by sticking a big number on the follower’s forehead).

The title update, out now across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S, reduces the infection frequency of dragonsplague and adjusts the signs of pawns infected with dragonsplague to be more noticeable. For example, when infected, glowing eyes will be more noticeable, Capcom said in the patch notes.

Elsewhere, there are adjustments to pawn behavior and dialogue, including a reduction in the frequency of some pawn dialogue lines. However, this patch does not make any performance improvements to the game. Following the release of Dragon’s Dogma 2 in March, players experienced inconsistent framerate performance, particularly on PC. Whereas games like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth gives players a Performance or Graphics mode option — prioritizing either a consistent framerate or increased graphical output — Dragon’s Dogma 2 only has one visual mode across all consoles. Check out IGN’s Dragon’s Dogma 2 Performance Review – PS5 vs Xbox Series X/S vs PC, for more.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 arrived more than a decade after its predecessor and proved a monster hit for publisher Capcom despite controversy, selling 2.5 million units in 11 days amid microtransaction and the performance complaints.

In our 8/10 review, IGN said: “More of a redo than a sequel, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a strange and wonderful action-RPG that bolsters the original’s strengths without addressing its weaknesses.”

Dragon’s Dogma 2 April 25, 2024 Title Update patch notes

Reducing the infection frequency of dragonsplague and adjusting the signs of Pawns infected with dragonsplague to be more noticeable.

  • For example, when infected, glowing eyes will be more noticeable.

Adding the option to zoom in on the faces of the Arisen and Pawns in the status screen, shops, etc.

Fixing some issues and implementing adjustments related to the mini map.

  • Treasure chests that have already been acquired won’t be displayed on the mini map.

Adjustments to Pawns’ behavior and dialogue.

  • Fixing issues where occasionally the player couldn’t high five Pawns.
  • Fixing issues where Pawns wouldn’t start guiding after offering to guide.
  • Making Pawns less likely to fall off cliffs.
  • Reducing the frequency of some Pawn dialogue lines.
  • Improving Pawn lines to better match circumstances.
  • Fixing some issues where Pawns stop speaking outside of combat.
  • Fixing some issues where the Main Pawn speaks support Pawn’s dialogue.
  • Making Pawns more likely to aid the Arisen if the Arisen commands them to help while being held by enemies.
  • Reducing the frequency of Pawns offering to be hired by the player while in the field.

Fixing issues where sometimes escort quests are considered failed when accessing Character Edit or other specific situations.

Fixing issues where the player could be jailed when fighting monsters in town.

Fixing some crashes and freezes in specific circumstances.

Miscellaneous bug fixes.

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.

Garry’s Mod Removing All Nintendo Content From Steam Workshop After Takedown Request

The developer of Garry’s Mod has announced it is in the process of removing all Nintendo-related content from Steam Workshop after receiving a takedown request from Nintendo.

In a posting to Steam, Facepunch Studios confirmed the takedowns were in fact legitimate – perhaps in contrast to previous takedowns this year thought to be sent by a fraudster. Facepunch added that the request was “fair enough” given that the content does belong to Nintendo, but noted that the process would take time as “we have 20 years of uploads to go through.”

“If you want to help us by deleting your Nintendo related uploads and never uploading them again, that would help us a lot,” Facepunch wrote.

Nintendo has historically been extremely protective of its owned content, having in the last year issued legal challenges to Palworld Pokemon mods, a popular Switch emulator, and a Nintendo 64 Portal revival that used the official Nintendo 64 SDK. So Nintendo asking (well, demanding, really) for Nintendo-related content to be taken out of a goofy sandbox game isn’t shocking.

What’s a bit more surprising is how long it took Nintendo to actually do anything about it. Twenty years is a long time to let mods like this one that lets you fill the world with gun-toting Marios or this one that turns Waluigi into a weapon go unremarked upon! It’s not like this has been some well-kept secret, either. Garry’s Mod’s whole deal is letting people, well, mod it. You’re supposed to throw a bunch of weird characters and items and ideas together in its sandbox and make goofy scenarios. That’s what’s made it such popular streaming and video fodder.

Searching for “Mario” in Steam Workshop for Garry’s Mod at the time of this post brings up over 5,500 entries alone, and Luigi listings are at over 1,200. “Zelda” brings up 800. “Kirby” gets 739. “Waluigi” has 286! This is a gold mine we’re losing, here!

Regardless of what prompted Nintendo to start caring about this now, care they do – so say goodbye to making jumpscare horror games starring Kirby in Garry’s Mod. IGN has reached out to Nintendo for comment.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Manor Lords Dev Explained Why The Price Hasn’t Been Revealed: ‘It’s a Bit Complex’

Manor Lords brings its in-depth medieval city-building to early access in just two days, so publisher Hooded Horse took the time to explain why it hasn’t announced pricing information yet.

While many players would’ve expected to see some sort of update by now, it’s still not clear how much Manor Lords will actually cost to purchase. Hooded Horse CEO Tim Bender explained why fans have been left waiting in a Reddit post. He explains that the issue is a matter of managing expectations.

ā€œManor Lords, like all other games on Steam, will not have one price,ā€ he says. ā€œIt will have regional prices that distribute across the world. These aren’t just different currencies — there are large regions of the world where Steam uses US Dollar pricing but in a different way.ā€

He continues: ā€œFor example, parts of Southeast Asia, many CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) regions, Turkey, many Middle Eastern countries, Argentina, many South American countries…all have prices in US Dollars but different from that of the US in order to provide some help for local customers be able to afford the game given the prices and wages in their country (though inflation is making that more and more difficult when local currency cannot be used).ā€

Hooded Horse says these examples are why it wants to stray from announcing price before launch arrives. If the US price were to be announced before Manor Lords launches, players in other territories may fear that they won’t be able to afford it. The company worries that too many potential buyers would ā€œlose hope and feel the game won’t be affordable in their countryā€ even if it was to attach disclaimers to a price announcement.

However, this is only one of a few major concerns Hooded Horse has tied to pre-release price announcements. Bender also references the company’s fear of scammers that may try to take advantage of excited fans who want to pre-order Manor Lords.

ā€œThey don’t have any keys, and they aren’t going to be getting any from us,ā€ he says. ā€œBut they are attempting to capitalize on the hype, and, despite our stance that we are NOT doing pre-orders because we don’t want to take your money until after release, they are claiming to take pre-orders for key sales. They have no idea what the price will be, so they are taking their wild guesses and probably figuring they can get a key through some questionable means later (or just leave the customer not getting what they paid for if not perhaps). We don’t want players to get scammed or cheated by such sites, and giving them a definite price to plan around would probably just increase their proliferation and marketing of these ā€˜pre-orders’.ā€

Hooded Horse doesn’t want Manor Lords players worried about what the price will be, as the post explains that it has ā€œnever done AAA pricing on a gameā€ and has no plans to start. Furthermore, Bender reminds that, in the past, it has offered launch discounts that range from 10-25% for the first few weeks.

ā€œWe’re not trying to squeeze every last dollar out of people, we won’t be putting up 5 editions with a spreadsheet needed to understand them or locking up content into Day 1 DLC or any of that crap,ā€ Bender adds. ā€œThere’s going to be a fair price there at launch with a fair discount.ā€

Manor Lords is Slavic Magic’s highly-anticipated medieval city management game. Despite what many had started to believe, it’s not an RPG or a Total War competitor but instead a grounded city-building strategy experience that aims to give fans an immersive world to play in. We reviewed the early access build and gave it a 7/10, saying, ā€œManor Lords is a gorgeous medieval city-builder that kept me occupied for hours building my perfect, cozy hamlets, but it definitely feels very early in its Early Access development.ā€

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.

The Arzopa 15″ 1080p USB Type-C Monitor Is $60.79 for Amazon Prime Members (Switch and Steam Deck Compatible)

Amazon is offering an excellent deal on this Arzopa 15″ 1080p USB Type-C portable monitor. It’s normally $129.99, but Amazon Prime members can get it right now for $60.79 shipped after a 20% off clippable coupon. That’s the best price we’ve ever seen for this particular model, and the lowest price compared to other legit 15″ USB Type-C monitors on Amazon. This is a great portable display for your Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, or ASUS ROG Ally gaming handheld.

Note: You will need to be logged into your Amazon Prime account to see these prices.

Arzopa S1 15″ 1080p USB-C Portable Monitor for $60.79

Amazon Prime member exclusive

This 15″ 1080p monitor works as a secondary display for your laptop, tablet, phone, gaming console, or pretty much any device that has either a USB or HDMI output. If your device has a USB Type-C output with Power Delivery, than you may only need a single USB Type-C cable (included) for both power and data. If your USB Type-C output doesn’t support Power Delivery, then a USB Type-A to Type-C cable is also included for additional power. If your don’t have a USB Type-C port at all, an HDMI cable is included, however you will need to supply your own USB wall charger to provide power to the display.

The monitor is designed to be portable. It weighs only 1.3 pounds and measures 0.3″ thin. It sports a sturdy metal frame and even includes a smart cover that doubles as a stand. The 15″ display boasts a 1920×1080 resolution with 60Hz refresh rate, an IPS panel that offers respectable viewing angles and color gamut, and an anti-glare matte surface. It even has built in speakers.

Because this monitor can connect via USB or HDMI, it supports a lot more devices than your typical monitor. You won’t need to install any app or drivers, either. It’s definitely worth the price if you want an inexpensive second screen to boost your productivity without weighing you down.

Upgrade to the Arzopa Z1FC 16″ 144Hz Monitor for $99.99

Amazon Prime member exclusive

The higher end Arzopa Z1FC is also on sale at Amazon. It’s normally $169.99 but a $50 clippable coupon drops the price to only $119.992. The Z1FC’s upgrades include a larger display (16.1″ vs 15.6″), a higher refresh rate (144Hz vs 60Hz), and a 100% sRGB color gamut. The larger display and better color reproduction makes it a nice upgrade for Switch and Steam Deck gamers, however because the Z1 uses a bit more power than the S1, you’ll need to keep the Z1 plugged into a wall charger since neither gaming system can power the monitor by itself. This monitor is a perfect complement for PC and laptop gamers who will be able to take advantage of the 144Hz refresh rate. I have this monitor and can confirm that the image quality is great. It’s also extremely thin and lightweight, with a nice solid metal chassis. The little flip out stand works well and retracts out of the way when not in use.

An Excellent Portable Monitor for Your Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck Gaming Console

This monitor works quite well with both the Steam Deck or Switch consoles. I’d recommend using the wall charger to power the monitor, otherwise you’ll be draining the gaming system pretty quickly (you can use the one provided with your Steam Deck or Switch console). The 1080p and 60Hz specs on the monitor is more than good enough, since neither the Switch nor the Steam Deck supports refresh rates higher than 60Hz. If you’re looking for other USB monitor options, check out our picks for the best portable monitors of 2024.

Looking for more deals of Switch and Steam Deck accessories?

Stellar Blade Performance Review

Today we’re looking at Stellar Blade, the new PS5-exclusive action-adventure game from Korean studio Shift Up. Starting at the main menu we have three modes, and from a player perspective, they are nigh on perfect. Each does what it states: Resolution mode focuses on the highest pixel counts, Performance mode targets the smoothest and highest performance, while the best, and default, is the Balanced mode that aims to provide the best compromise of both.

The differences are small – in side-by-side comparisons, the only changes I noticed are that depth of field and screen space reflections are of a slighter lower quality in Performance mode, with the focal depth being shallower in Balanced and Resolution mode. Additionally, the hair quality of the main character Eve, as well as other characters, is also reduced, specifically in real-time cinematics, as you move from Resolution mode down to Balanced and then Performance. Aside from this, the biggest changes are frame time, resolution, and thus texture sampling. Resolution mode is capped at 30fps and appears to target a full 3840×2160 with dynamic resolution scaling (DRS) possible but not necessary. Performance runs at 60fps targeting 2560×1440, and again DRS is possible but no counts were found below this. Both modes use a spatial upscale, which could be Unreal Engine’s own TAAu spatial pass or AMD’s FSR1. This results in some instability in the image on thin elements and oblique textures to the camera.

The best image stability comes from Balanced mode.

Surprising for some, the best image stability comes from Balanced mode, which also targets 60fps and a 3840×2160 ceiling. It uses a temporal reconstruction pass which may be Unreal’s own TAAu solution or FSR2. This looks to be dynamic, or at least, reconstructed from a 2880×1620 to 1920×1080 base, which again demonstrates why pixel counts are not that important. You can see in the video that thin edges, specular highlights, light sources, volumetrics, and certainly hair is far more dithered, noisy and unstable in Performance mode, and even Resolution mode, as compared to Balanced mode. This does come at the cost of the required pixel blends that soften high-frequency details in textures and such, but here the trade off is worth it – in normal play, this mode looks close enough to Resolution mode at a higher framerate to not be worth the cost of dropping to 30fps. This is due to Resolution mode having great per-object motion blur, but the fast locomotion and action, along with input latency impact, can take a while to acclimatise to. Due to the game’s reliance on fast timing-based combat, this is a high cost, for me, over the small image reduction balanced costs.

Performance Modes Compared

When it comes to performance, as I stated, these modes are nigh on perfect. The Resolution mode is, from all my tests and almost completing the entire game, a fully locked and perfectly paced 30fps. Running through the world, climbing buildings, or fighting hulking genetic monsters, the game holds a flat line on the required 33ms and thus 30fps readout. Likewise, the Performance mode runs an equally locked 16ms frame time target giving us a locked 60fps. From my long sessions of play and testing, I could not find any areas that cause a deviation from that target at all. Even if they did, it would likely be single frame dips into 33ms, but this never happened in my performance captures.

Balanced is the only mode that can fall below the designed 60fps rate, with it often hovering into the mid 50s during play. Vitally, it always keeps within the next refresh cycle of 33ms when it does, giving us a small but noticeable level of micro judder during exploring and combat. The worst case was the high 40s when heavy alpha and particle effects had filled the screen, hammering bandwidth and fill rate, but these instances are very brief. Anyone with a variable refresh rate (VRR) monitor or TV will have a much smoother time as the game is often just shy of the 16ms frametime required. The PS5 supports a 48-120Hz range in its VRR mode, and these dips often fall within a 20-25ms frametime, making them end up feeling as smooth as the Performance mode, but with better image quality and the best input latency, which is vital for cutting through the trouble in style.

Size and Scale

Stellar Blade is big in all aspects: large levels, a vast cast of characters, and tons of enemies, locales, and hulking bosses with which to do battle. What starts as a linear combat/exploration game opens up and out significantly, and as you continue through this derelict and desolate world you see a wide variety of beauty. From the sun bleached beach of the start through crumbling Greek-like cities, underwater tunnels, lush green outskirts, and the dense town of Xion, you will see some gorgeous sights throughout your playtime.

Powered with Epic’s Unreal Engine 4, it is an impressive looking game with strong visuals, lighting, and cinematography. Character models are a highlight, with Eve herself being front and center, with soft and fleshy skin tones and long, physics-based hair – a key character trait which folds, self collides and moves with grace with Eve’s motion. Animations are fast and fluid, and expand with a wide variety of moves, weapons, skills and outfits. All characters have an equally high-construction quality, with soft sub-surface scattering on skin, deep parallax eyes, and a good balance of polygon count bolstered with texture and normal map details. A big reason for the human-like quality is that many of the characters are based on digital scans of real people, which alongside the brilliant physically-based lighting and material systems provides a borderline photorealistic look – but with just enough artistic change and ethereal design to never stray into the uncanny valley.

The Naytiba enemies are equally lavished with effort and style, with general cannon fodder having a mutated but organic style. You have spider-like robots, mutant hermit crabs, horse-meets-hammerheads, and giant pyramid head fleshy bosses galore. The animation and fluidity of all the enemies is a big reason why things often look the best during gameplay. As you slash, flip, slide, and topple colossi throughout the game, everything feels as alive and physical as you do.

Adding to this is the brilliant use of lights, shadows, alpha, and particle effects. Whenever you block an attack, slice into an enemy, or teleport behind a beasty, you are greeted with GPU-accelerated particles, via splatters across the floor and even yourself. Enemies can also dish out the effects with liquid projectiles flying across the screen, splatting and spreading on the floor or clouding the air with a poisonous haze temporally.

Underwater the sense of depth and light propagation is very good, with a clear split of above and below the sealine helping make these sections atmospheric. The use of post effects is again central to the look and feel, and a high quality per-pixel motion blur is included, which works well across the three modes. High quality sprite-sampled bokeh depth of field is used during gameplay and the real time cinematics. This aids the high CGI quality these sections have, making them look close to offline renders at times due to the composition and consistency. They are also used to focus your gaze on important areas or frame the shot as per standard cinematography ques, and though some of these are longer than I personally liked, it helps drive the story and character development well – in between all the butt kicking.

That said, not everything is roses in this garden, as the scale of the game and high quality it achieves can be contrasted by some weaker aspects. Textures, as a whole, are good but not great, with some lower-quality mips used on incidental objects and walls, causing them to lack much detail. Colour schemes can be a little too beige in some of the city sections, and the dreaded yellow painter man has run ahead of you to clearly mark the path forward. Although I understand the benefits this offers, it does, in my opinion, become redundant on the exploration aspect to have these yellow breadcrumbs rather than using light, design and architecture to draw you through. The issue is not exclusive to this game, but I must say it felt at odds with Stellar Blade’s otherwise focused art design.

Animation of characters outside of action can be a little wooden and, ironically, robotic, with some sections having very stiff movement and limited facial expressions, which can vary from great to ok depending on the scene. Sound is also very good, but the voice acting on some scenes and over reliance on the same combat sound bites of Eve can become repetitive a few hours in. More variety here would go a long way. Polygon counts can also be low with some signs of the old, cross-generation base the game started with. Similarly, some sections of volumetric light and water surface effects are not always up to the same high standard. Most of these are small complaints though, and they do not distract from a vast, enjoyable, skill-based and above all, gorgeous-looking game that delivers on its aims.

Summary

For a brand new studio, Shift Up has certainly lived up to its name. The quality, variety, scope, and size on offer is exemplary for such a small studio. It has grasped and overcome the challenges of Unreal Engine and not fallen afoul of any of the common streaming stutter or performance hiccups that can blight other teams. The choice of performance modes is commendable, with options available for those who prefer a locked 30 or 60 fps, as well as a balance for those that want the apple and the branch along with it. As a PS5 exclusive it will likely be a game that has legs far beyond the final credits, offering up a visual and gameplay experience that is quite welcome in the gaming garden.