For the past couple of decades, the official Olympics video games have starred Mario and Sonic and been exclusive to Nintendo devices. Not so, this year. Olympics Go! Paris 2024 is free-to-play and available for PC via the Epic Games Store.
Hear the curl of the monkey’s paw? Yeah, it’s a mobile game port with the touchscreen prompts seemingly still intact, and its publisher is also pushing a “commemorative Paris 2024 NFT Digital Pin collection”.
Xbox hardware sales are way down again in Microsoft’s Q4, while gaming content sales skyrocketed again thanks to the company’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard last year.
The company posted its earnings today, which included a report of hardware revenue down 42% year-over-year. Hardware sales saw a significant dip of 31% year-over-year last quarter as well, though sales were up slightly (3%) in Q2 thanks to a series of holiday discounts and promotions. But hardware was also down 7% prior to that in Q1, and yes, dropping steadily for several quarters prior to that too.
For what it’s worth, Xbox is far from the only console maker seeing dips in hardware sales. Everyone’s impacted, according to Circana’s most recent report. Xbox, Sony, and Nintendo all say “double-digit percentage declines” in May of 2024, and the Switch saw the most significant drop. This is likely reflective of the fact that all three consoles are on the back halves of their life cycles, and is reflective of fairly normal, cyclical industry trends. Xbox has already confirmed that a “next-gen” console is in the works, and has expressed plans to share more information about hardware of some sort around the holiday season.
Gaming revenue overall appears to be doing more than fine in terms of year-on-year comparisons, even setting quarterly records. This is largely due to the boost offered by the acquisition of Activision Blizzard – it wasn’t there to make money for the company last year, now it is, so the numbers have gone up. Gaming revenue was up 44% year-over-year, but with 48 points of net impact from the acquisition, this indicates that Xbox’s not-Activision-Blizzard-related business isn’t doing quiiiiite as well as it was last year. Xbox content and services revenue faired better, up 61% year-over-year, with 58 points of net impact from the acquisition.
Overall, Microsoft’s More Personal Computing division (which includes Xbox as well as other segments such as Windows) brought in $15.9 billion in revenue, up 14% year-over-year. Microsoft will hold its Q4 earnings call and field questions from investors and analysts shortly.
Earlier this month it was reported that Skibidi Toilet, the YouTube phenomenon, may be heading to film and television via director Michael Bay. Now Invisible Narratives, a production company co-owned by Bay, has apparently sent a DMCA takedown notice to Garry Newman, citing the large number of Skibidi Toilet games and assets advertised within Garry’s Mod.
Skibidi Toilet uses assets derived from Half-Life 2, however, and owes a lot to the Garry’s Mod machinima scene. And the animation’s original creator, best known as DaFuqBoom, is claiming innocence over the DMCA.
Brand new music remix shared by Sega.
Need to hear some excellent new music for the upcoming Sonic X Shadow Generations? Sega has you covered today, as the developer has shared a new remix from the upcoming game.
The new track is a remix of Kingdom Valley, one of Shadow’s levels from the much-maligned Sonic the Hedgehog (or Sonic 06 as it’s often referred to). While the quality of that game may be disparaged, almost everyone can agree that the music is absolutely phenomenal. And this new remix from Audissi Studios does a fantastic job at reimagining the track for the stage’s return in Sonic X Shadow Generations.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
The post Minecraft: The Tetris DLC Is On Rotation appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Some studios will spend years of development time and hundreds of millions of dollars chasing emotional, Hollywood-quality stories and realistic graphics, but the Earth Defense Force series proudly prefers to remain the most pure video game nonsense ever conceived. Don’t be fooled by the PS3-era graphics, atrocious voice acting, absurd story, and uneven technical performance of Earth Defense Force 6 – developer Sandlot knows exactly what it’s doing with this over-the-top satire that makes Helldivers 2 look highbrow by comparison. Like its predecessors, EDF6 leans into its rough edges and silly cooperative mayhem, prioritizing mindless fun above all else, and the result is yet another wonderfully amusing entry in the ongoing saga. But even going in with the right expectations, it’s not all sunshine and dismembered thoraxes, as this inadvisably long campaign has tons of repetition, plenty of levels that are more boring than amusing, and at times crosses the line from knowingly campy to just plain bad. Still, this giant insect-filled monster fest is more often than not a hilariously good time, and that’s something we could certainly use more of.
Earth Defense Force 6 is a goofy as heck cooperative third-person shooter that throws you and up to three friends into a version of our world under siege by aliens. Called the Primus, these primarily insectoid invaders are a grab bag of dorky monsters that range from generic flying drones, knockoff Godzilla kaiju, oversized evil Battletoads, massive spiders that jump everywhere, and more. Across the 80+ hours it took me to complete its 147 level main campaign, you’ll blast these low-res goons to bits using a growing arsenal of guns, rocket launchers, grenades, turrets, vehicles, and giant Gundam mechs, some of which feel great while others are experiments gone horribly wrong. Wrap all of this ridiculousness in some contentedly outdated graphics and a framerate that becomes unstable whenever your explosive shenanigans reach a fever pitch, and you’re in for an uproarious good time.
You’ll also bounce between four returning character classes: the Ranger, a standard soldier whose only advantage is that their weapons are the best around; the Wing Diver, a Valkyrie-like class whose jet-pack and wings give her unmatched mobility (offset by the fact that she’s killed by a light breeze); the Air Raider, an often second-fiddle support class who specializes in calling in massive bombing runs, relies on gadgets like drones to squish bugs, and can summon vehicles to deal serious damage; and the Fencer, a dual-wielding tank class who can absorb serious damage with a giant shield and smash things to bits in melee, but who is also quite difficult to play well. It might be a little milquetoast, but I favor the Ranger – it’s just hard to beat rocket launchers that can level cityscapes in a few seconds and assault rifles that plow through hundreds of aliens with ease.
While the stories in Earth Defense Force games have always been charming rubbish, EDF 6 sets a new bar with a tale that actively makes no sense at various points (even if, like me, you’re following along very closely and occasionally taking notes). It makes heavy use of time travel and has humanity losing the war against the Primus, only for you and the aliens to both go back in time to try again – but the good guys perplexingly make very little use of the knowledge gained in the previous timeline, so you’ll have to watch them slowly piece together what’s happening while you and your character are already miles ahead of the buffoons trying saving humanity.
Most of the time, this insanity is as amusing as you might hope, like when one part introduces giant frog enemies and says they’re “just like humans” without addressing the fact that they’re clearly frogs, then later introduces cliche humanoid gray martian enemies and describes them as “not humanoid.” Other times, though, it’s just painful, like one section where they explain the origins and biological breakdown of a flying dragon monster while making you fight it about five times in a row, reminiscent of a filler episode of Dragonball Z.
The extremely poorly written story is eclipsed in its dreadfulness only by the voice acting, which sounds like it was performed by some poor souls who were rejected by their local improv troupes and decided to give video game voices a try. One part nearly made me spit-take when a character says, in the most monotone voice imaginable, “you have no idea how relieved I am” – you’re right, my dude, I definitely do not. But between all of that cringey dialogue and senseless plot development, there’s a ton of joy. There is still plenty of the kind of bad-by-design silliness at which EDF excels, and the times where it manages to walk that line properly are a gift that keeps on giving.
Thankfully, the heart and soul of Earth Defense Force 6, its over-the-top combat against all manner of blurry foes, is actually a lot of fun – and oftentimes pretty darn challenging. Dodging, dashing, and flying out of the way as monsters, aliens, overgrown insects, and robots rock the screen (and threaten the framerate) is exactly the kind of action-packed madness I love about this series, and it’s never been done better than in this iteration. The fundamentals of that action may be almost identical to what we got a few games ago, but EDF6 adds a ton of weapons and new enemy types to the mix and then dreams up interesting scenarios to put you in, like one level where you’re defending a beach from an entire army of giant poisonous reptiles. Playing through on the normal difficulty can be challenging enough, especially if you don’t have a competent crew at your back, but it gets absolutely insane once you dial that up to the harder options. It requires an intense amount of grinding to get the requisite powerful weapons and armor to put up a fight, plus a team who absolutely knows what they’re doing. As with prior entries, combat’s simple setup and silly attitude don’t get in the way of being extremely entertaining and genuinely satisfying to overcome, and that can make it pretty hard to put down.
That said, some of the design decisions definitely go a step beyond janky fun and into being straight up obnoxious, like how if you’re killed and waiting to be revived by a teammate, you just have to sit there staring at your own corpse until they come to get you. There’s no option to watch what other players are doing if they aren’t standing right by you and no respawn timer, which is just plain boring. There are also a handful of maps you’ll find yourself running missions on quite a few times, and while the enemies and objectives are usually at least a little different, the lack of variety definitely grated on me at times. Also, you’re occasionally made to play some slower-paced, story-focused levels that are simply the worst, though they at least only show up at a few specific moments. This isn’t the kind of story that’s at all worth slowing down the pacing to tell, and those segments just absolutely waste your time in a campaign that’s already way longer than it probably should be.
Today Amazon is offering the recently released Crucial T500 2TB PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD with pre-installed heatsink for only $135.84. The Crucial T500 was released in October of 2023 and it is currently one of the top performing PCIe 4.0 SSDs on the market. This solid state drive works equally well as additional storage for your PS5 console or as a blazing fast boot drive for your gaming rig.
The T500 is Crucial’s newest flagship PCIe 4.0 SSD and replaces the P5 Plus. The T500 utilizes a Phison E25 controller with 232-layer Micron TLC NAND flash memory. It has proven to be one of the fastest SSDs on the market with sequential speeds of 7,300/6,800MB/s and random speeds of 1.15M/1.44M IOPs. It’s on par with other top-tier SSDs like the WD Black SN850X, the Samsung 990 Pro, and the SK Hynix P41 Platinum and it’s currently the least expensive of the bunch. It’s also backed by a 5 year warranty.
The Crucial T500 also makes for an excellent PS5 SSD. It fulfills all of Sony’s requirements, like a minimum read speed of 5,500MB/s and a PCI-Express Gen4x4 interface. A robust aluminum heatsink is also already pre-installed, so you don’t need to spend time and money installing one yourself.
If you’re looking for more SSD storage upgrade options for your PS5 console, check out our best PS5 SSD deals of 2024. There are even less expensive options if you’re not married to any brand.
Discounted delights.
Before the June Direct came along, we were starting to think that 2024 would be the year of remakes and remasters on Switch. We had Another Code: Recollection, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD already banked and that was before Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (releasing in 2025) was added to the pile. Sure, new titles like Echoes of Wisdom and Mario & Luigi: Brothership left things looking a little brighter, but, like it or not, as the Switch keeps chugging through its eighth year, Nintendo is clearly relying on the old faithful to tide us over until new hardware.
It’s no surprise, of course. Game development is no walk in the park, and despite the Switch’s undoubtedly impressive library, there are still a handful of classics that are yet to make the jump to the hybrid console *cough Wind Waker cough*. It’s the way that most Nintendo consoles go in their senior years, but these late-life lineups have historically been counterbalanced by a ‘Nintendo Selects’ range, a chance for owners to catch up on some of the console’s bestsellers at a reduced price.
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As I hurtled through the dry, ochre-toned wasteland of Toshara on the back of a rusty speeder, I quickly came to the realisation that Star Wars Outlaws could be the game I’ve always dreamed of. While there are timeless stories revolving around the plight of the Jedi and the Empire – the vast, colourful world of Star Wars always alluded to more beneath the hood and left me with one major question: what are the consequences of interstellar conflict for anyone that wasn’t born with magical powers?
During a recent preview event, I had the opportunity to play through two sections of the game for a full three hours – exploring a portion of its open world, and discovering a darker, more destitute setting where inhabitants must survive however they can. And it looks awesome.
Kay Vess, our protagonist, is a perfect example of a survivor in a war-torn galaxy. Star Wars Outlaws is set between the events of “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” and “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi”, and so Vader’s rule has rippled into even the most far-flung corners of the Galaxy Far, Far Away. On Toshara, a moon dominated by criminals, Kay is tasked with infiltrating the base of Gorak, a local kingpin. Stealth is key here, and as Kay, I deftly slip past meandering guards with an array of quiet takedowns at my disposal for anyone that spots me. Kay can also unlock additional abilities that’ll help – the Fast Talker ability offers a quick way to quickly yap your way out of a full-blown enemy showdown, for example.
What’s even better, is that Kay’s trusty companion Nix is also a handy tool, and can be commanded to create enemy distractions, attack if needed, or even collect a piece of loot that’s just out of reach. This is a mandatory stealth mission, but in the context of the plot it makes total sense – Kay isn’t here to go blasters blazing (this time), it’s a delicate mission that requires discretion. When things go awry, Kay ends up discovering information that is of use to Gorak, and is given a choice to tell him about it or keep it to herself.
This is where the power of choice and allegiances comes in. While playing, I was introduced to four different crime syndicates: Crimson Dawn, The Hutt Cartel, Ashiga Clan, and The Pyke Syndicate – each with their own designs on how to rule the underworld. Kay can foster good and bad reputations with each of the clans – having a good reputation will grant her privileged access to their districts and benefits. Having a negative reputation will make a syndicate less receptive, and even hostile in some cases.
Assisting one syndicate can affect how a different one feels about you too, so it pays to be cautious in who you align with. Gorak is aligned with the latter, and I chose to be generous with my information about a plot to overthrow him. I loved this element of decision-making; as a player, I’m not just on the rails of a pre-scripted story, but getting input in how the story plays out and how the world reacts to Kay, which feels great.
Once that exchange concluded, I stepped out onto the gritty, neon-soaked streets of Mirogana to explore freely. Here, you’ll find vendors offering new equipment, items, cosmetics for Kay that’ll offer new enhancements, and other goodies. The essence of a world ruled by crime is in full force here, characters around me spoke in hushed tones about objectionable schemes, while Empire guards slyly took bribes from enterprising scoundrels. All of this makes the settings of Star Wars Outlaws feel truly alive, and showcased the seedy underside of galaxy in all its questionable glory.
I was prompted to make several more reputation choices in the next few missions, the first coming at the end of a job for The Hutt Cartel. As Kay, I politely declined the request to double cross the Hutts and hand over my goods to Crimson Dawn, which resulted in a… less polite shootout with the clan’s double-crossing agent. Later, during a mission to upgrade Kay’s blaster, I was given the option to steal a necessary part from the Pyke Syndicate or Crimson Dawn, and, having already chosen to annoy the latter, opted to “liberate” the goods from their district. This variation in how to approach jobs and who to favour again plays magnificently into crafting your own version of the underworld, where allegiances can change in seconds and no one can be trusted.
From there, I set out to explore the arid deserts of Toshara in my first taste of Star Wars Outlaws‘ open world environments. I zoomed past several points of interest, including desert-beaten structures housing collectables, loot, or random events. Exploring those structures led me to a cache of Empire loot ripe for the taking, while another saw me stand off against a band of pirates raiding a homestead. Just like walking around Mirogana, veering offroad to take care of these tasks makes Toshara feel like a living, dynamic place – and of course, snagging a bit of loot is never a bad thing. Even in this select area, the environments felt stuffed with little things to do and secrets to discover.
Another section of my preview took me to the stars, quite literally, and put me at the helm of Kay’s ship. Engaging in a swift battle against some TIE Fighters felt pretty approachable off the bat, the controls were smooth, similar to those of Starfield, and the ship’s tracking module made short work of pesky enemy ships. After that, I landed on the frigid, icy shores of Kijimi, to look for a safecracker. Kijimi is ruled by The Ashiga Clan, but, just like on Toshara, The Crimson Dawn is looking to dethrone them.
I couldn’t resist a quick roam around Kijimi’s surroundings (and a few bets placed on the virtual Fathier Racing holo table situated in the bar) simply because these environments are absolutely stunning. Total care has gone in to make Toshara and Kimiji feel vibrant and authentic, and I can’t wait to see what other notable Star Wars locations look like.
But enough of looking at the buildings, there are several objectives at hand. Kay needs to win favour with the Ashiga Clan and their Queen, culminating in a mission to steal a mysterious relic. Having already made my way through a stealth mission back on Toshara, I opted for the most chaotic entrance possible, blasting guards and foes into oblivion in fierce firefights, while commanding Nix to attack anyone that proved to be more laserproof than expected. The blaster combat feels extremely satisfying – hits pack a punch, much like grenades, and the option to take out shields with ease or simply stun foes gave a breadth of options in how to clean up what became a pretty outrageous gunfight in the middle of a tranquil setting, which was extremely fun.
The choice that Star Wars Outlaws gives you to craft your own reputation as Kay’s unfolds feels excellent – and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to explore and immerse myself in both new and familiar locations from the Star Wars universe. However, quite uniquely, I’m seeing them from Kay’s nebulous perspective as a well-meaning outcast just doing her best to survive in an underworld brimming with duplicitous characters, and I can’t wait to play more. Thankfully, there’s not much longer to wait either – Star Wars Outlaws launches on Xbox Series X|S on August 30.
UBISOFT
action-adventure game and explore distinct locations across the galaxy, both iconic and new. Risk it all as scoundrel Kay Vess, seeking freedom and the means to start a new life. Fight, steal, and outwit your way through the galaxy’s crime syndicates as you join the galaxy’s most wanted.If you’re willing to take the risk, the galaxy is full of opportunity.
DISCOVER A GALAXY OF OPPORTUNITY
Explore distinct locations with bustling cities and cantinas. Race across sprawling outdoor landscapes on your speeder. Each location brings new adventures, unique challenges, and enticing rewards if you’re willing to take the risk.
EXPERIENCE AN ORIGINAL SCOUNDREL STORY
Live the high-stakes lifestyle of an outlaw. Turn any situation to your advantage with Nix by your side: fight with your blaster, overcome enemies with stealth and gadgets, or find the right moments to distract enemies and gain the upper hand.
EMBARK ON HIGH-STAKES MISSIONS
Take on high-risk, high-reward missions from the galaxy’s crime syndicates. Steal valuable goods, infiltrate secret locations, and outwit enemies as one of the galaxy’s most wanted. Every choice you make influences your ever-changing reputation.
JUMP INTO THE PILOT SEAT
Pilot your ship, the Trailblazer, as you engage in thrilling dogfights with the Empire and other foes. Find the right opportunities to chase, evade, and attack to get the upper hand.
The post Star Wars Outlaws Hands On: Choice and Consequence Rule in the Galaxy’s Underworld appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Ubisoft Massive is almost ready to let PS5 players become a notorious space scoundrel in the first open-world Star Wars game, coming to PS5 on August 30. Crash landing onto the lush yet dangerous moon of Toshara, I spent time as rookie rogue Kay Vess, meeting her little buddy Nix, discovering visual options inspired by the original trilogy, and taking jobs for crime syndicates.
Kay’s furry and all-too-cute partner Nix (“not a pet,” stresses his voice actor, Dee Bradley Baker) has already gained a dedicated and adoring following. Yes, the doe-eyed Merqaal is genuinely helpful, from distracting guards with cuteness (or causing explosions), and picking up weapons, to showing players interactive elements in the environment… but it’s Nix’s little touches that’ll win over fans across the galaxy.
Gain boosters for your speeder and Nix is forced to hang on for dear life, his little tail and hind legs flailing in the air. If you aim Kay’s blaster at him, he’ll impishly mimic being shot and roll over to play dead, causing Kay to chuckle and encourage his performance.
Outlaws executes open-world Star Wars with flair, delivering a rich and responsive environment that’s lively and joyful to explore. Floating fishing nets ripple in the wind. Broken starship detritus is scattered across lakes, mountains, and moisture farms. And yes, you can pet the… well, animals far more exotic than dogs, and even feed some of the fauna native to Toshara.
Ubisoft Massive has also created discoverable vista points where you can stop and watch beautiful-yet-deadly world go by. The scenic views are striking enough to encourage players to seek them all out.
The Star Wars Outlaws team knows it’s a big deal to set its game between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and has gone the extra parsecs to make it feel authentic to its source material.
To that end, you can select a special 21.9 cinematic mode that creates a widescreen effect and replicates the lenses Lucasfilm used when shooting Episodes 4 to 6. The result is a gritty, nostalgic visual grain with a modern-day high-definition punch.
Whether it’s overhearing the juiciest scoundrel scuttlebutt or hitting up gangland bosses for work, there are plenty of objectives to tackle across Outlaws.
One mission, New Tricks, involves hunting down an ion module for your blaster to disrupt some pesky electrical systems. The quest begins with a hunt for the right merchant, then spirals into an adventure through the bustling city of Mirogana and into the craggy wilds.
Meanwhile, a Hutt task demands you steal a client list, but at any time you can deviate from your current mission to sneak into an outpost, “slice” through encrypted info databases, race speeder bikes, infiltrate mysterious shelters, or help townsfolk repel gunslinging bandits (…or not. You’re an outlaw, after all).
Whether you’re eager to put your blaster to good use or prefer to venture across the Outer Rim, there are plenty of wretched hives of scum and villainy to explore when Star Wars Outlaws lands on PS5 August 30.
