Category: Video Games

The Best PS5 SSD Deal Right Now: Get a 2TB for $107.99, 4TB for $224.99

SSD prices are trending upwards for 2024, but there are still some excellent deals to be found if you’re vigilant. For a limited time, Amazon is current offering this PS5 compatible HP FX900 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 solid state drive (SSD) for only $107.99. For the even more space hungry, the 4TB is also on sale for $224.99. You’ll need to supply your own heatsink, but you can easily get a PS5 heatsink for under $10. All of the other best PS5 SSDs cost $40 or more.

HP FX900 Pro 2TB SSD (PS5-Compatible) for $107.99

4TB for $224.99

The HP FX900 Pro meets all the requirements for your PS5 SSD upgrade. This is a PCIe Gen4 x4 SSD with an M.2 2280 form factor and transfer speeds of up to 7,400MB/s read and 6,800MB/s write which is well above the 5,500MB/s minimum threshold. It also makes an excellent boot drive for your gaming PC, especially with its 2TB storage capacity. If you go with the 4TB version, you might not even need a second drive.

The PS5 is an outstanding gaming console, but the 1TB SSD is a real bottleneck. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, for example, can exceed 200GB alone. NBA 2K23 weighs in at 150GB and even older games like God of War: Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West require 90GB of space. Future games like Grand Theft Auto VI will undoubtedly demand even more space. The advantage of a PS5 console over the Xbox Series X is that the SSD slot is not proprietary; you can install most third party PCIe Gen4 x4 SSDs as long as they are fast enough. Slower drives WILL work, but they may bottleneck the original SSD.

Willing to pay more for another brand? Check out all of the best PS5 SSD deals today.

With Bungie’s reboot of their ‘90s FPS a year away, free fan revival Classic Marathon wins the race onto Steam

Bungie’s reboot of their nineties pre-Halo debut shooter Marathon seems to be slowing down its pace a little in order to get across the finish line, with a change in director and a delay meaning the multiplayer-only loot-shooter reimagining of the FPS is now expected to arrive next year – or potentially even after that, according to recent reports.

Read more

Everything Announced at State of Unreal 2024: Amy Hennig Reveals Marvel 1043: Rise of Hydra, New Tools Coming to UEFN, and More

At GDC 2024, Epic held its State of Unreal event, unveiling the latest news and developments coming to Unreal Engine — specifically Unreal Engine 5 and Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN).

If you missed the event, here’s a quick rundown of everything announced during the 2024 State of Unreal presentation.

Amy Hennig Reveals Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra at State of Unreal

In an unexpected yet pleasant surprise, Amy Henig and Skydance Media started the show by unveiling Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, one of two projects Hennig has spearheaded since joining the studio.

Alongside a proper reveal of the game, we also learned that it would use Epic’s tech, most notably MetaHuman Animator, to provide more photorealistic facial animations. Last year, it was revealed that Ninja Theory was using this same technology in its upcoming game Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga.

Epic is Integrating MetaHuman to UEFN

As we previously mentioned, MetaHuman Animator is one of the tools part of MetaHuman, and Epic announced today that both MetaHuman Animator and MetaHuman Creator are coming to UEFN. Epic says integration will debut “at the end of April.”

With MetaHuman, UEFN creators can craft both photorealistic fictional characters and provide photorealistic facial animations using captured footage they obtained from an iPhone or a head-mounted camera.

Epic Will Launch a Fortnite Season Developed on UEFN Next Year

As part of its UEFN roadmap, Epic Games revealed that “by the end of 2025,” it will ship the first season of its widely popular free-to-play Battle Royale, made entirely using the level editor.

Beyond that surprise, Epic went into more detail about the UEFN roadmap and the new creator tools it will add this year. This includes confirmation that the highly-requested first-person camera setting will arrive in UEFN sometime this year.

Fortnite Creators Will Get Access to Elements From Rocket Racing, Fall Guys, and LEGO Assets

Epic continues expanding on the Fortnite creator economy by introducing new creative devices and race track templates. Specifically, the publisher revealed that Fortnite creators would be able to leverage elements from Rocket Racing, Fall Guys, and LEGO, allowing creators more ways to express their creativity while building unique experiences all within Fortnite.

Fortnite’s creator economy has continued to go strong since both it and UEFN launched roughly a year ago. Epic revealed that since then, it has paid more than $320 million to creators in the first year of engagement payouts and that creators have published over 80,000 UEFN islands.

Some New Details on Epic Games Store Mobile Version

We already knew that Epic Games was planning to release its digital storefront on mobile devices via the iOS App Store and Android’s Google Play later this year, thanks to the new EU legislation, the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Epic took time during today’s State of Unreal to share its plans. It touts that the Epic Games Store (EGS) will become the “first-ever game-focused, multi-platform store” that will work across Android, iOS, PC, and macOS. Epic further revealed that mobile developers would benefit “from the same fair terms” found on EGS with an 88/12 revenue share, in addition to other programs that allow you to keep 100% of the revenue earned from using your own payments for in-app purchases.

Epic also revealed that when this digital storefront releases, Fortnite will be brought back to mobile devices (EU only) after the mobile version of its popular battle royale was removed from the App Store and Google Play in 2020.

Dune: Awakening Gets a Deep Dive at the State of Unreal

Skydance Media was not the only game developer to attend the State of Unreal. Funcom also appeared to dive deeper into its upcoming open-world game Dune: Awakening.

It was previously revealed that Dune: Awakening was powered by Unreal Engine 5, but Funcom also elaborated further on how the Dune IP was leveraging Epic’s technologies. This includes Funcom sharing how Dune: Part 2 cinematographer Greig Fraser used Unreal Engine for planning and pre-production purposes for the film.

Unreal Engine 5.4’s Full Release Is Coming Next Month

Epic told IGN ahead of the presentation that while it has some ideas for Unreal Engine 6, we should not expect the next major iteration of its game engine anytime soon.

With that in mind, State of Unreal provided the latest update for the already impressive Unreal Engine 5, revealing that version 5.4 Preview 1 is launching today with a full release slated for “late April.”

Most notably, Epic says that “animation takes big strides forward,” thanks to Unreal Engine 5.4, confirming that it features Motion Matching, a streamlining but highly effective way for developers to animate characters. Epic revealed that Motion Matching has already been on full display via Fortnite, which has used It since Chapter 5 was released.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Upcoming Shooter ‘Otxo’ Channels ‘Hotline Miami’ In All The Right Ways

Guns up.

If you’re a fan of Hotline Miami and have been itching for something similar on Switch, then the upcoming top-down shooter Otxo (pronounced ‘oh-cho’, by the way) could be one to keep an eye on.

Launching on 28th March, 2024, Otxo features a pixel art visual approach with a black and white colour palette; apart from the incredibly bright, gruesome blood, of course. Utilising a roguelike structure in which you can gain upgrades by purchasing various beverages, you’ll be gunning down foes left and right with gameplay that isn’t too dissimilar from Hotline Miami itself.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

New Black Panther, Captain America Game From Amy Hennig Unveiled at State of Unreal 2024

We already knew that Amy Hennig, the award-winning writer and director behind games such as Jak 3 and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, was working on a narrative-driven Marvel game focused on Captain America and Black Panther. And today, we finally learned some new details, including its official title: Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra. It’ll arrive sometime in 2025.

The reveal was made at Epic’s State of Unreal 20024 showcase, where we saw a cinematic trailer featuring Captain America and Black Panther in 1940s Europe. We also learned that the game will not only be powered by Unreal Engine 5, but it will include MetaHuman Animator, the same facial animation tool that Ninja Theory will be using for its upcoming project Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga. MetaHuman Animator will allow any developer taking advantage of the tech to use an iPhone or stereo helmet-mounted camera to “reproduce any facial performance as high-fidelity animation” on its characters, providing more realistic facial animations.

We previously learned when the game was announced in late 2021 that Hennig would make an “original story” set in the Marvel universe. A year after its initial tease, a Disney and Marvel games showcase revealed that Hennig’s project would be set in WWII and would have an ensemble cast with four playable characters, including Steve Rogers / Captain America and Azzuri / Black Panther. We learned that this project would not feature co-op despite the four playable characters.

This is one of two projects that Hennig is spearheading, with the second being an untitled Star Wars project. While little is known about the game following its announcement nearly two years ago, last June, we learned that Dominic Robilliard, who was the director of the canceled project Star Wars 1313, was hired by Skydance Media to work on this new game.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Psst, one of Intel’s low-key best gaming CPUs is down to £108 for Amazon Spring Deal Days

While there are minor thrills to be had finding the very latest PC hardware in the Amazon Spring Deal Days sale, don’t underestimate the draw of an older favourite emerging with a new, knockdown price. So it is with the Intel Core i5-12400F: this was a great-value midranger when it was new, and now you get it at a true budget-tier price of £108.

Read more

At Least We Know What the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Remake Main Menu Looks Like

Konami has revealed the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater remake main menu as part of a new video series fronted by Solid Snake voice actor David Hayter.

The Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater remake, officially titled Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater (the Δ is pronounced ‘delta’), is set to bring “unprecedented new graphics” to Hideo Kojima’s 2004 sequel. The main menu screen, below, doesn’t reveal much, save a look at Snake Eater’s famous jungle environment. We also hear the classic Metal Gear Solid gun sound with a press of the start button.

Konami has revealed little of the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater remake save the announcement trailer and Unreal Engine 5-powered footage, and it has yet to announce a release date. However, in January, PlayStation listed the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake as a 2024 game in a trailer advertising various PlayStation 5 games coming out this year. It’s also coming to Xbox Series X and S and PC.

Announced in May 2023 after a series of rumors, Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater promises to be a faithful retelling of the original game and will implement the original voice acting that featured David Hayter.

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 review: an action RPG anecdote generator

You know when you remember a game really fondly and instead of ageing alongside you, it becomes more modern in memory? The Dragon’s Dogma 2 experience is, essentially, how I remember its predecessor Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen. To me, DD2 feels like a remaster of the first, except it looks nicer, is more expansive, and features some rejigs to things like your AI pals.

Not that any of this is a bad thing! In fact, DD2’s closeness to the original makes it just as much of a joy as the first, where your grand adventure isn’t only grander, it’s still at the whims of a world governed by chaotic physics and the passage of time. Quirks remain, for good and bad, but ultimately this is an RPG where you make travel plans and the game does it best to dash them. It never gets old.

Read more

YouTuber Says the Pokémon Company Copyright Struck Their 7-Year-Old Video Featuring Pokémon Modded Into COD Zombies

A hugely popular Call of Duty YouTuber has said their seven-year-old video featuring Pokémon modded into COD Zombies was hauled offline after The Pokémon Company issued a removal request.

NoahJ456, who has 5.21 million subscribers on YouTube, tweeted a warning to other content creators, advising that if their videos feature any sort of modded Pokémon content, “I would delete/unlist it ASAP.”

Tweeting a picture of the notice from YouTube, NoahJ456 said: “Just got a manual strike for a video I made seven years ago featuring Pokémon modded into COD Zombies. Two more strikes and my channel gets deleted.”

Replying to a user, NoahJ456 added: “They are technically within their rights to take this down, so unless they have a change of heart (lol) the strike will stay.”

It looks like The Pokémon Company is taking a renewed interest in content that shows Pokémon modded into other games after a modder showcased Pokémon in Palworld, the smash hit survival game dubbed ‘Pokémon with guns.’ Palworld features monsters called Pals, which some people have said “rip off” Pokémon. Indeed, the modder who put Pokémon into Palworld claimed “Nintendo has come for me” after a takedown of a tweet.

That creator, called Toasted Shoes, tweeted to say they felt responsible for the removal of NoahJ456’s video. “After the heat of Nintendo taking down my Palworld video I did a COD Zombies Pokemon video,” Toasted said. “My mindset was they wouldn’t take my video down since Noah and many others had made content on it in the past few years. However they still took action.

“I didn’t think they’d go scorched earth and I certainly didn’t think it would lead to a chain reaction of them punishing @NoahJ456 and every other creator. I am truly sorry that me being reckless may have played some part.

“Crazy that it took a month to go after everyone else but it seems they now have their sights set on other creators.”

IGN has asked The Pokémon Company for comment.

Last week, a former chief legal officer of The Pokémon Company shared a rare insight into its thinking behind fan project takedowns. Speaking to Aftermath, Don McGowan made clear that, at least during his time, The Pokémon Company didn’t actively seek out fan projects to shut down but only did so when they crossed a certain line.

“You don’t send a takedown right away,” McGowan said. “You wait to see if they get funded, for a Kickstarter or similar. If they get funded then that’s when you engage. No one likes suing fans.”

McGowan said he and the legal team at The Pokémon Company would typically only come across a project that used its copyright once it was raised in the press. “I would be sitting in my office minding my own business when someone from the company would send me a link to a news article, or I would stumble across it myself,” he said.

Despite this attitude, there are multiple examples of Pokémon fan projects that were issued a takedown notice, hauling them offline. In 2018, a popular fan-made creation tool players used to build their own Pokémon games bit the dust. In 2021, support for a Pokémon fan project called Pokémon Uranium ceased after nine years of development. And in 2022, The Pokémon Company removed almost all videos of a fan-made Pokémon hunting FPS that went viral on YouTube and social media.

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.