Until Dawn PS5 and PC Remake Suffers a Rough Launch

Sony’s Until Dawn remake for PlayStation 5 and PC is having a rough launch, with not just technical issues but low player numbers too.

The remake of the 2015 horror game — which comes with updated graphics, technical improvements, and minor story changes — launched October 4 with a full price tag of $59.99 and no cheaper upgrade option for those who own the original.

This seemingly wasn’t too appealing for PC players, as Until Dawn has debuted to a peak concurrent player count of just 2,607 players on Steam, according to tracking website SteamDB. Other single-player PlayStation games performed much better when making the jump to PC, with Ghost of Tsushima reaching 77,154 concurrent players, God of War reaching 73,529, and Spider-Man reaching 66,436 on Valve’s platform. Until Dawn’s Steam launch is the worst Sony debut on Steam since the ill-fated Concord and Sackboy: A Big Adventure.

This small player base is reporting myriad issues too. Until Dawn currently has a “mixed” user review rating on Steam with just 69% of reviews being positive. The review deemed most helpful recommends the game but complains about the required PlayStation Network account, poor optimisation, music changes from the original, bugs, and poor controls at times.

Other reviews also comment on ray tracing and DLSS not working alongside graphical issues which “destroy immersion.” Others comment on the full price tag for the originally nine-year-old game and it still launching with issues.

Developer Ballistic Moon, which suffered a “significant” round of lay-offs even before the Until Dawn remake launched, has acknowledged the problems in an post released today, October 8. “We understand that some of you may have encountered some technical issues or bugs, and we’d love to hear from you so we can address these concerns,” it said.

“We are also aware of a couple of recurring issues, such as HDR and AMD FSR frame generation settings not functioning as intended, and issues with save/load. We hear you and we’re actively testing fixes for these issues (and more). We will provide further information with our next patch update.”

Issues are not exclusive to the PC version of the game, however. The tech experts at Digital Foundry noted that the PS5 version has frame pacing or frame ordering issues, 30 frames per second and 1440p output with significant aliasing on high contrast edges, and break up when there’s motion on-screen.

Ballistic Moon has at least said updates are coming, but these may be too little, too late for those who’ve already spent $59.99 on the remake. No release dates or windows have been shared for these fixes.

Until Dawn fans otherwise got a kick out of story changes in the remake (when it all leaked ahead of launch) with some even thinking a sequel is on the way. The universe is expanding elsewhere too, as filming wrapped on the Until Dawn movie adaptation earlier in October.

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

Traveller’s Hymn is a free open-world grid-based RPG, and it’s out today

Traveller’s Hymn is a top-down, grid-based, open-world adventure game (and breathe), set in a dark fantasy land. The tileset is lovely, as are the little dialogue boxes and menus and the gentle bob of your backpack-ridden character as they walk. Basically, it looks like it’s worth everyone’s time, particularly because there’s one big twist here – it’s entirely free.

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Random: More Retro Mario Figurines Live To Fight Another Day Thanks To 3D Scanning

Super Mario Bros. 2’s in the spotlight this time.

We have highlighted the wonderful scanning work of @KeshiCorner a couple of times now on Nintendo Life. This is the retro enthusiast who managed to preserve classic Zelda and Mario rubber “Keshi” figurines through the magic of 3D scanning and now they are back with a new collection.

It’s a 1993 range of Super Mario Bros. 2 figures that are stealing the spotlight this time, with five new designs featuring Birdo, Shy Guy, Ninji, Mouser and Wart. As was the case with Keshi Corner’s previous collections, these figures would be a difficult find today, but their 3D scans are now available on the Internet Archive for home printing or more general preservation.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Amazon Hails Success of MMO Throne and Liberty After 3 Million Players in a Week

Throne and Liberty, the free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by NCSoft and published by Amazon Games, has seen more than three million players in just a week.

Originally billed as a Lineage sequel, Throne and Liberty is an MMO with PvE and PvP set in a dynamic and seamless world. It suffered numerous delays over the course of a development cycle spanning several years.

Throne and Liberty finally launched on October 1 across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S, and soon proved a hit on Steam with an impressive player concurrent peak of 336,300. That’s enough to make Throne and Liberty one of the most-played games on Valve’s platform right now. Neither Sony nor Microsoft make player numbers public.

Amazon added that Throne and Liberty players had amassed 24 million hours in the game, with more than 11 million hours watched on Twitch.

“Bringing Throne and Liberty to players around the world has been a huge shared undertaking by our team and our friends at NCSoft, and we’re so pleased to see the results as players join the game,” said Christoph Hartmann, VP, Amazon Games.

“We’re only getting started, and we have a series of updates planned including our first castle siege coming soon.”

Throne and Liberty’s early performance is all the more impressive in light of its ‘mixed’ user review rating on Steam, with most of the negative reviews about server issues and the typical monetization you get from these sorts of F2P MMOs. IGN’s impressions of Throne and Liberty during its beta said the game “is fun but doesn’t do enough to stand out.”

For Amazon Games, Throne and Liberty’s success comes as it continues to support its own developed MMO, New World, and Smilegate’s action role-playing game Lost Ark, which it published in 2022. Amazon is also publishing Crystal Dynamics’ next Tomb Raider game, and has a The Lord of the Rings MMORPG in the works, among other projects.

In August, Hartmann told IGN the Lord of the rings MMO was “still early,” and the next Tomb Raider a “huge, huge task.”

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.

Bloated game installs stuffing your SSD? The 4TB Crucial P3 Plus is up to 42% off for Prime Big Deal Days

One of the more compelling arguments for gaming graphics degrowth is that all those extreme-fidelity moss textures and Master Chief helmet dents are producing some horrifically engorged installation sizes. That’s a recipe for an SSD upgrade, and if it’s space you’re after, then Amazon Prime Big Deal Days has the 4TB Crucial P3 Plus on some big discounts. It’s down from £250 to just £192 in the UK, and down from $360 to $210 in the US.

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The Best SSD for Gaming Is on Sale for Prime Day

For October Prime Day, Amazon is offering an excellent deal on the best gaming SSD. Right now you can get the blazing fast Samsung 990 Pro 2TB PCIe 4.0 M.2 solid state drive (SSD) for only $139.99. This is the lowest price we’ve seen this year and $10 less than the previous Prime Day deal back in July. 4TB and 1TB models are also on sale. The 990 Pro is still considered one of the fastest PCIe 4.0 SSDs on the market. It’s also compatible with the PlayStation 5 console right out of the box, especially since it’s pre-equipped with a low-profile heatsink.

Prime Day Deal: Samsung 990 Pro PS5 SSD with Heatsink

The 990 Pro is the successor to the venerable 980 Pro and is Samsung’s flagship SSD. The 990 Pro has been updated with Samsung’s newest Pascal controller and 7th gen TLC NAND flash chips which are manufactured in-house. It boasts sequential speeds of 7,450MB/s read and 6,900MB/s write and random speeds of 1400K read and 1550K IOPS write, which is up to 50% faster per watt than the 980 Pro. This is absolutely the best boot drive you can get for your gaming PC, especially since 2TB is currently the best compromise between capacity and price point.

For console gamers, the Samsung 990 Pro also happens to be one of the best SSDs for the PlayStation 5. In fact, performance-wise, it’s overkill since the stock PS5 SSD only has speeds of up to 5,600MB/s. This 990 Pro comes pre-equipped with a low-profile aluminum heatsink that’s guaranteed to fit in both the PS5 and PS5 Slim consoles. It also back by a 5 year warranty; by the time your warranty runs out, you might have already moved onto the PS6.

If you want to compare this deal with other PlayStation 5 compatible options, here’s a list of our favorite PS5 SSDs. If you’re looking for deals on other PS5 accessories, check out the best PS5 deals going on right now (we update it often). If you don’t yet own a PS5 console, you’re in luck. The PS5 Slim is currently on sale for Prime Day, and Sony recently announced a more powerful PS5 Pro that is currently up for preorder and ships out next month. For all other deals, head over to our Prime Day megapost to see our cherry-picked list of the best deals we’ve found.

Are October Prime Day Deals as good as Black Friday?

Although Black Friday is still the overall best time to buy just about anything every year, October Prime Day is just as good as Black Friday for many different items. Amazon’s own devices that are currently on sale likely won’t go much lower in price. The same goes for most of the deals we’ve featured on this list, which are at some of their lowest prices of the year so far. If you are unsure whether or not you’re getting a good deal on anything, you can reference specific products on the CamelCamelCamel website to see historical Amazon pricing.

More Prime Day Deals on Console Storage Upgrades

Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn’t hunting for deals for other people at work, he’s hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

Combo Critters is a free, crunchy creature collecting deck builder from the Shotgun King devs

Tiny deck builder Combo Critters exhibits the winning combination common to both small games and radical breakfast cereals – it’s very crunchy, but also bright, sugary and moreish. If Thaddius Cornflakes had recommended struggling families play Combo Critters instead of eating Cookie Crisp for dinner, I imagine the backlash would have far more reserved. Cookie Crisp tastes like like someone poured Splenda on a packing peanut fished out from a puddle. Combo Critters, though? Pretty tasty, and also free from Itch here.

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LEGO Horizon Adventures Estimated Switch File Size Seemingly Revealed

Clear up some blocks.

Aloy’s new game LEGO Horizon Adventures is out on the Switch this month, and if you’re planning on downloading this game, you might be curious to know just how much space it will take up.

According to an official Switch eShop listing, you’ll need around 5.9GB of free space on your system to install it. The file size of the game doesn’t appear to have been revealed for the PlayStation, but the Steam listing says the PC version requires around 30GB of storage.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Super Mario Party Jamboree In-Store Demo Added To Nintendo Kiosks (US)

Try before you party.

Ahead of the launch of Super Mario Party Jamboree later this month on 17th October 2024, it’s been revealed a demo of the game has been added to in-store Nintendo kiosks across the US.

This demo is available at select GameStop, Best Buy and Target, and allows you to party for 10 minutes in total. As highlighted by Nintendo Wire, you’ll be able to try out two game modes: the Koopathlon and Minigame Bay. Here’s a bit more about them:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Amazon Drops the Price on This 1TB Micro SDXC Card, Perfect for Your Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck

Here’s your chance to get one of the best Micro SD cards for your Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch. As part of the October Prime Day Event, Amazon is offering a 1TB TeamGroup Pro Plus Micro SDXC card for only $59.99. Besides being compatible with gaming handhelds, the Pro Plus has a faster speed rating than most Micro SDXC cards in this price range and would make an excellent card for 4K action cameras and DSLRs.

1TB TeamGroup Pro Plus Micro SDXC Card for $59.99

The Nintendo Switch and Switch OLED have 32GB and 64GB of internal storage, respectively, some of it reserved for the OS. To give you an idea of how paltry those capacities are, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom uses up 16GB and Breath of the Wild about 13.5GB. If bought digitally, those two games alone would take up all of your internal storage on the OG Switch console. If there’s any one Switch accessory that we think is absolutely required, it’s a high-capacity memory card.

The Steam Deck is equally space constrained. Although it starts out with more base storage (64GB to 512GB), Steam games can easily take up far more space than that base storage. For example, the best games to play on Steam Deck take up over 60GB each. Even if you opted for the 512GB model, you’re going to run out of space sooner than you think. For more information, check out our Steam Deck review or, for that matter, our ASUS ROG Ally review.

The TeamGroup Pro Plus card offers an extra 1TB of storage on top of your base capacity. It’s compatible with virtually any device that accepts the Micro SDXC card standard including the Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, and the ASUS ROG Ally for that matter. The Pro Plus is a U3 A2 V30 rated card with read speeds of up to 160MB/s and write speeds of up to 110MB/s, which means it is faster than most Micro SDXC cards at its price point. That makes it a good option for devices with hefty transfer requirements, like 4K action cameras and DSLR cameras.

This is easily one of the best Steam Deck deals and Nintendo Switch deals available for October Prime Day, and absolutely worth considering if you find yourself short on space all too often. For more deals, check out our definitive Prime Day article for current news on everything related to the upcoming October Prime Day Sales event, including what deals to expect and whether or not you should wait for Black Friday.

Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn’t hunting for deals for other people at work, he’s hunting for deals for himself during his free time.