Category: Techradar

  • These mega cheap Nintendo Switch deals expire today – unless they sell out first

    It can be a bit of a nightmare chasing Nintendo Switch deals around Black Friday, as the deals come in thick and fast while the best ones selling out early on. But there’s no need to worry if you didn’t find one over the weekend or on Cyber Monday, as we’ve found some super cheap deals on brand new consoles from reputable stores on eBay.

    Actually, the prices are even better than we saw at the weekend, but you’ll have to be quick as the coupon code that produces the magic prices expires at 23:59 tonight. 

    The promotional eBay voucher code knocks 15% off a huge range of items, with a minimum spend of £20 and a maximum discount of £50. We’ve been able to do some proper damage to Nintendo Switch prices on the highlighted deals below. We’ve included a longer list of other applicable categories you may want to use the voucher on elsewhere around eBay too at the bottom of this page. Not after a Switch? We’ve found some cracking discounts on PS4 prices and Xbox One bundles too.

    Nintendo Switch deals

    And you might be tempted to check out the remaining Cyber Monday deals that are still going. Want more options, then check out our roundups of the other best Nintendo Switch deals and PS4 deals.

    Powered by WPeMatico

  • Final day to get the cheapest Xbox One deals of the year

    This is the last day to take advantage of the fantastic 15% off voucher code at eBay and it’s well worth a look as it’s produced the cheapest Xbox One deals and Xbox One X bundles in the UK right now. But only until 23:59 tonight, or until stocks last.

    Just enter the voucher code ‘PRESENTS’ at the checkout and you can save 15% on a range of Xbox One products including the consoles and controllers. There’s a minimum spend of £20 and a maximum discount and the code can only be used once.

    You don’t have to use it on Xbox One items, other console deals are covered too, actually. There’s a whole bunch of categories you can browse through, but we’ve picked out the finest eBay Xbox One deals for you below. All our picks are brand new, unused and sold by reputable gaming retailers we’ve been buying from for years. We’ve also found some mega eBay discounts on Nintendo Switch prices and PS4 deals too.  

    Xbox One deals

    And you might be tempted to check out the remaining Cyber Monday deals that are still going. Want more options, then check out our roundups of the best Nintendo Switch deals and PS4 deals.

    Powered by WPeMatico

  • Fallout 76 refund policy could land Bethesda in hot water

    Fallout 76 refund policy could land Bethesda in hot water

    Fallout 76 has had a… rocky launch, to say the least.

    Bethesda’s spin-off entry takes the bestselling Fallout franchise into the world of online cooperative multiplayer. Whether or not you think it was a worthwhile venture may be up to you, though limp sales and pretty immediate price-drops suggest Bethesda’s online gamble isn’t paying off.

    To add salt to the wound, there are a growing number of players seeking refunds for the game’s consistent glitches and bugs.

    Launch day patches are becoming the norm with AAA releases, though Fallout 76’s 47GB download file is a huge amount of data to thrust on players’ hard drives, and certainly didn’t fix all the issues players are having: controls being disabled, enemies glitching out of view, or being dropped from the server entirely.

    According to GameSpot, US law firm Migliaccio & Rathod is in the early days of preparing to take legal action against Bethesda, on behalf of players who haven’t received a refund as requested for what the firm calls an “unplayable experience”.

    While it’s relatively easy to refund games on Steam, Fallout 76 (PC version) was released through the Bethesda.net website, whose official refund policy seems to exclude everything but unopened games. Some players seem to be getting their cash back after contacting the publisher (see this thread on Reddit), but there are enough who aren’t for a legal case to be possible.

    Fallout 76

    Radioactive bugs

    Single-player Fallout games are infamous for their recognizable bugs and glitches, usually seeing Wasteland enemies warping in and out of view, or NPCs hovering in mid-air above the furniture. 

    Online play, however, can be a lot more demanding for a game engine – and cause more problems for players. Online play requires low latency and seamless synchronisation between different consoles; if anyone is bugging out mid-battle it sortof ruins the fun for everyone.

    Of course, these things often turn around: the likes of No Man’s Sky and Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls Online were maligned at launch, but managed to hold onto a player base through regular updates and fixes to improve the experience on offer. 

    Via GameSpot

    Powered by WPeMatico

  • The best Xbox One X prices, bundles and sales in Australia (December 2018)

    UPDATE: Not only is our top deal one of the best Xbox One X bundles we’ve ever seen as far as price is concerned, with 3 Battlefield games included, it also comes with a download code for Gears of War 4. Get it while it’s hot! Want the console on its own? Well, we have an unbeatable deal for that, too!

    At E3 2017, Microsoft officially unveiled what was formerly known as Project Scorpio — the Xbox One X. This is the full 4K HDR upgrade from Microsoft that fans of the original Xbox One consoles have been waiting for, not to mention newcomers to the platform.

    This is the place where we answer any questions you may have about what exactly the new Xbox One X is capable of – its specs, price, and release date have all been covered here – and ultimately, whether or not you should buy it.

    Often, the best place to order your console is from the Microsoft store directly for $649, as most retailers are offering it for that same RRP, but aren’t likely to have as much stock as the company’s own store.

    We’ll also be keeping track of any deals and bundles that pop up, so be sure to come back and visit every now and then if you’re waiting for a bargain — we’re sure to have one if there is one to be had. 

    And, of course, if you’re wondering what to play on this new beast, we’ve had a thorough look at the best Xbox One X games available, and which ones will really shine with Microsoft’s latest powerhouse.

    The best Xbox One X bundles:

    The latest Xbox One X deals:

    Here’s our list of the best Xbox One X prices and deals out at the moment, updated live.

    Why should I buy an Xbox One X?

    While not technically a ‘next-gen’ console, the Xbox One X is still a powerful upgrade over the current Xbox One lineup. To simplify things, it’s more aligned with Sony’s PS4 Pro than it is anything else. The target audience of both consoles are gamers with a 4K HDR TV who want to squeeze the best graphical performance possible out of their favoured console. For those gamers without a 4K TV, there will be modest performance boosts although it’s likely not worth the upgrade if you don’t have a 4K HDR TV.

    We’re told that the Xbox One X won’t necessarily have any exclusive games released for it, and as far as we know all Xbox One titles will still work with it, so exclusivity and compatbility and reason enough alone to ditch your Xbox One S.

    The Xbox One X is making bold claims about true native 4K gaming though with its upcoming titles and if you have a 4K TV with High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology, the Xbox One X is ready to seriously impress with the likes of Forza Motorsport 7, Metro: Exodus and Anthem set to be true jaw-droppers in the graphics department.

    What is the Xbox One X price?

    Although it’s steep, the price conversion from the US didn’t hit us nearly as hard as it normally would. The Xbox One X will cost $649 in Australia while the US will pay $499. 

    Where can I order an Xbox One X?

    As is to be expected, all the usual suspects in the gaming retail business have the console in stock, although each and every one is offering the new Xbox One X for the same price.

    With that in mind, you may as well order your console from The Microsoft Store for $649 as there’s a better chance they’ll have a bigger stock allocation, given it’s the company’s own store.

    What if I don’t care about 4K or want to save money?

    Well, the good news is that the standard Xbox One S is a fantastic games console and you’ll likely be able to get one with a few games for less than $300 over at our Xbox One deals page.

    Powered by WPeMatico

  • Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC: will we see a PC release?

    Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC: will we see a PC release?

    Will we ever see Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC? Rockstar’s open-world Western game Red Dead Redemption 2 launched to huge acclaim in late October, with a newly-launched online mode now in beta alongside the epic-sized single-player campaign. So far, however, the game is only available on Xbox One and PS4. 

    While that’s not exactly a restrictive release, committed PC players have been left twiddling their thumbs in the vague hope of a PC port coming down the line. 

    Players hungry for a high-spec or 4K experience can opt to play the game on the PS4 Pro or Xbox One X, but there’s nothing quite like a souped-up PC rig to bring out the finer details and see what Rockstar’s game engine can really do.

    So if you don’t have a console from Sony or Microsoft, what are your prospects for getting your hands on Read Dead 2 any time soon? We’ve run through all the latest rumors pointing to a PC release, and made our best guess as to when we’d expect it to land.

    Red Dead Redemption 2

    Will we see Red Dead 2 on PC?

    Rumors kicked off in mid-October about a possible Red Dead 2 PC release, after the online retailer MediaMarkt listed a PC version of the game on its website, with a placeholder date of December 31, 2019. The listing has since been pulled, however.

    Things heated up again after a LinkedIn profile for a Rockstar employee appeared to list credits as a programmer on the PC version of the game – though this, again, was amended after the media attention that attracted.

    The firmest clues we have appeared when Rockstar released a mobile / tablet companion app alongside the new Red Dead game, mainly as a hub for viewing in-game stats, journal entries, and map locations (see image below).

    Red Dead Redemption 2 companion app

    Red Dead Redemption 2 companion app

    Some savvy data-mining, though, contained references to PC-quality graphics settings – shadow quality, grass rendering, and the like – as well as lines explicitly naming PC, such as ‘PARAM_companionAutoConnectIpPC’ or ‘CommandIsPcVersion(void)’. You can see the full list on Rockstar Intel.

    There’s also a reference to ‘Oculus’, which can only really refer to VR capability for the game. Given the option to play the entire game in an immersive first-person perspective, virtual reality would be a natural fit – and Red Dead 2 VR would be most at home on a dedicated Oculus or PC-bound headset.

    Red Dead Redemption 2

    Red Dead Redemption 2: ripe for VR?

    Red Dead 2 on PC: release date

    So when could we see Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC? At this point Rockstar is unlikely to make an announcement before the end of 2018. If anything, an announcement in January could be a savvy move to keep up interest in the new year.

    While 2010’s Red Dead Redemption never came to PC, previous Rockstar games like GTA IV or GTA V both took around six months to make the jump to PC after their initial console launch. So that means we could be looking at an April/May 2019 launch date this time around.

    Given the scale of the the open-world game, it’s not wholly surprising for a PC port to follow a few months after – it takes a lot of work to get the game running on different systems. But the longer PC gamers have to wait, the less likely they are to maintain their anticipation. 

    And if the game gets delayed too long, it may end up competing with CD Projekt Red’s similarly open-world Cyberpunk 2077, which is expected to release in early 2019. Sure, the open plains of Rockstar’s Western seem a world away from a neon Blade Runner-esque dystopia – but gamers only have so much time on their hands, and both developers are unlikely to want to be competing directly.

    Powered by WPeMatico

  • Steam Sale 2018: all the best deals and PC games on the Steam marketplace

    Steam Sale 2018: all the best deals and PC games on the Steam marketplace

    Let’s face it, if you’re a PC gamer, there are too many games to play and not enough money in our wallets to buy everything that catches your eye. That is, unless you manage to catch the right discounts in the Steam Sale.

    The Steam marketplace has a massive library of PC titles, and, like a lot of other online retailers – Amazon comes to mind – runs ongoing sales and deals on countless games throughout the year. The biggest savings, however, are to be had in Steam’s seasonal sales.

    We just saw the end of the weeklong Steam Autumn Sale 2018, timed to coincide with the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales bonanza. As per, we saw a wide array of discounts across the PC platform’s library of titles, on everything from indie darlings to AAA tentpoles. 

    The next big sale will be the Steam Winter Sale 2018, commencing on December 20 on the Steam Store. While there are always a smattering of 20-40% price cuts, you’ll also find a good number of half-price or 75% on certain games and franchises, while 90% savings aren’t unheard of either – and are often the best ways to get your hands on a lot of add-on or DLC content bundled in for no extra cost.

    In the meantime, this guide will run you through how to get the best out of the Steam Sales throughout the year – and the best deals and game discounts in the Steam Winter Sale when it arrives.

    Steam Winter Sale 2018 dates

    The Steam Winter Sale will go live on December 20 at 9:55am BST / 1:55am PST / 4:55 EST / 8:55pm AEDT and will run until January 3 at 10:05am BST / 2:05am PST / 5:55am EST / 9:05pm AEDT. 

    If you can’t wait til then, Steam will be running regular daily and weekly sales throughout December as usual.

    How to get the best deals in the Steam Winter Sale 2018

    Whichever way you approach a particular Steam Sale, you’re guaranteed to have the chance to pick up some top gaming titles at great prices. 

    Finding bargains isn’t too difficult, but there are a few techniques and tricks that are worth using if you want to get the most out of the sales.

    • Use your Steam Wishlist: Fill it up with all the games you’re interested in picking up, and you’ll be alerted the moment they go on sale, and by how much.
    • Bundles are great: Publishers often pull their titles together in sale mega-packs, ramping up the savings to even greater heights. If there’s a suite of titles from a publisher like Square Enix or Activision that you’ve never played before, this is the best – and cheapest – way to bag them all at once. As you’d imagine, the value diminishes if you’ve already got a few bundled titles in your library.
    • Highlighted deals are where the real savings are: The majority of the Steam store back-catalogue will get some sort of price cut, but it’s the ‘Highlighted’ deals (the ones promoted on the Steam front splash page) that tend to be more heavily discounted. These are the ones where you may fall into impulse-buy territory. Which leads us on to our next tip…
    • Only buy what you’ll actually play right away: Once those 75% off signs start floating around, you’re going to want to break open the piggy-bank. But the Steam Sales of yesteryear have proved that our desire for overflowing game libraries leaves us with more titles than we could ever humanly play. Save some cash, and only grab the ones you’re really going to play – keep in mind that if you wait a while, the games will almost certainly get cheaper as they get older.
    • Use this browser extension: Want to make sure you’re getting a good deal? Use the Enhanced Steam browser extension. This gives you a historical look at the price of all Steam games, letting you see just how many pennies have been saved.

    Steam Winter Sale 2018

    The best Steam Sale deals of days gone by

    Gone but not forgotten, here’s our collection of all the best deals we’ve seen in days gone by. Use them as a point of reference for what you should be expecting – or, you know, lament the ones that got away.

    Borderlands: The Handsome Collection: This Borderlands bundle packed in a huge amount of content for an almost unheard-of 94% discount. Sure, some of that content was filler – costume packs, small add-on quests and the like, alongside larger expansions and the full Borderlands 2 and Pre-Sequel games – but boy did you get your money’s worth. 

    Tomb Raider franchise: The iconic explorer has seen a huge transformation since her debut outing in ’96, moving from polygonal poster-girl to complex, conflicted heroine. And with 70-90% discounts across the entire platforming series, this was the perfect time to join her on that journey… 

    Left 4 Dead 2: Valve’s cooperative zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2 pits four survivors against the undead horde, and has an absolute blast doing it. With procedurally-altered campaigns, too, the game is smart enough to vary the challenge depending on how (and how well) you play. And at 90% off RRP, it was basically free…

    Shadow of Mordor bundle: Perhaps the definitive Lord of the Rings video game, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was lauded on release for its stellar combat, open-world action, and an intelligent Nemesis system that. If 50 Game of the Year awards weren’t enough to convince you, a hefty 70% discount on the Shadow of Mordor/Shadow of War bundle certainly should have been.

    The Witcher 3: Inarguably the game of 2015, The Witcher 3 is also now widely considered the best RPG of all time. A sprawling dark fantasy epic, it’s a beautiful game, and one that’s a great showpiece for your souped-up gaming PC too.

    And, with the Game of the Year Edition being heavily discounted in the Steam Summer Sale, it was a fantastic way to jump into this monumental game, and get all of its DLC at a discount too.

    Steam Winter Sale 2018

    What games will be in the Steam Winter Sale 2018?

    First off, you shouldn’t expect brand-new games to get the really steep discounts that have become synonymous with the Steam sales. You may see a 5%, or even 10% discount on games that have been recent big hits, but if they’re still new enough to be spinning money without needing a price cut, don’t expect that to change now that the sale is here.

    But, with the exception of the newer titles, pretty much the entire store receives a 25% discount, if not higher, with a select few seeing a massive 90% off the list price. While the store now highlights what Valve considers the best deals, it’s worth noting that flash and community sales are no longer in the mix, so feel free to pick a title on sale when you like – its discounted price will stand for the duration of the sale.

    Of course, there are other gaming stores out there, and it’s worth checking their wares too, to see if you can’t bag an even bigger bargain elsewhere. GOG.com is a great place to start, and if you’re platform-agnostic and looking for multi-platform titles, keep an eye on the PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Deals with Gold offers, too.

    Powered by WPeMatico

  • This 15% off ebay voucher means it's not too late to bag a cheap PS4 or Nintendo Switch deal – but you'll need to be fast

    Just because Black Friday is behind us, doesn’t mean you’ve missed your chance to get a great Nintendo Switch deal or discounted PS4 bundle. Neither of those consoles saw any spectacular Black Friday discounting – you could even say they were pretty poor considering some of the deals we’ve seen in the past.

    So naturally we’re super pleased to see some fresh deals today over on ebay via a fantastic 15% off almost everything discount code. You can use this code on 20 different categories at ebay as long as it costs £20 or more – but we’ve picked out a couple of suggested games console deals.

    First up we’ve got a sub-£200 offer for a new PS4 Slim with FIFA 19. And there’s also a fantastic discount on the Special Pokemon Let’s Go! Pikachu Nintendo Switch console for just under £285 – that’s a massive discount too. Or if you just want a Switch on its own, we’ve got you covered.

    The ebay discount code you need to use at checkout is: PRESENTS. There’s a minimum spend of £20 and a maximum discount of £50. And it can only be used once per person.

    The code expires Thursday 29th November at 23:59. There’s not a chance that these console deals will still be in stock by then though! We’ve highlighted the best PS4 and Switch deals below to use the code on and also linked to the other categories you where you can use the ebay voucher code.

    And you might be tempted to check out the remaining Cyber Monday deals that are still going. Want more options, then check out our roundups of the best Nintendo Switch deals and PS4 deals.

    Powered by WPeMatico

  • Nintendo Switch killer on the way? Sony patents new game cartridge tech

    Nintendo Switch killer on the way? Sony patents new game cartridge tech

    Having created the compact disc, and steered the gaming world away from cartridges to that format, it now looks like Sony could be embracing the cartridge once again.

    As first spotted by German technology outlet TechTastic, Sony has patented a new cartridge format for storing video games. The patent went through official channels in South Korea last year, and was published by the Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service (KIPRIS) earlier this month.

    Sony’s filing includes very little information about the product itself, but plenty of imagery that’s quite telling.

    The patent application is blatantly titled ‘Electronic Game Cartridge’, and depicts something that looks like a cross between a classic PlayStation memory card and a Nintendo Switch game cartridge. We’re not sure what the hole toward the top is for, and that connection port seems awfully proprietary.

    It’s all a little confusing, as this is assumed to be a video game storage format. Every cartridge product used to store game data within the past several years has been metal contact-based, as with SD cards. This port suggests a different method of transmitting data, looking something like HDMI or the classic 40-pin iPhone port.

    Sony electronic game cartridge

    Image credit: TechTastic

    Connecting the dots

    It’s hard to avoid making a connection between this new Sony patent and a previous one. Back in early 2017, the company published a patent for a handheld game console that looked awfully similar to the Nintendo Switch.

    Now, we see a patent for a video game storage format, one that’s solid state and therefore can take a tumble, and which is ideal for a portable console.

    Plus, while we’ve noted the apparently retrograde nature of Sony’s move to create a new cartridge-based game storage medium, it’s not as if Sony is new to the format – the ill-fated PlayStation Vita employed flash-based media for its games.

    There’s no way of knowing whether Sony intends to deliver on these patents, but it does seem like the company has spent considerable time and money at least investigating the possibility of re-entering the handheld gaming arena.

    Here’s hoping that Sony’s thirst for revenge drives it to develop a compelling handheld gaming option – because the Vita was actually pretty fantastic where it counted.

    Via Tom’s Guide

    Powered by WPeMatico

  • How did Sony get the PlayStation Classic so terribly wrong?

    How did Sony get the PlayStation Classic so terribly wrong?

    The launch date of the PlayStation Classic is fast approaching, perfectly timed for the holiday season, when it will ostensibly drown us in wistful memories of gaming past. Nostalgia is a powerful resource, after all – as shown by the sellout success of Nintendo’s NES Classic and SNES Classic mini-consoles.

    But look a little closer at Sony’s offering, and it looks like a fudge job, compiled well after Sony decided to jump on the nostalgia bandwagon. It’s as if Sony was dead set on offering something in the mini-console market before actually checking whether it had anything to offer – which, as it turns out, is not all that much.

    Getting games to market

    Before we pick out more specific examples from the PlayStation Classic line-up, it’s worth a general comparison via our sister site, GamesRadar. Cross-referencing the PS1 Classic’s 20 games with GR’s list of the 25 best PS1 games, the PS1 Classic has five titles that make the cut: Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy VII, Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee, Tekken 3 and Ridge Racer Type 4. 

    The SNES Classic’s 21-game roster, meanwhile, has a whopping 19 games in GamesRadar’s 25 best SNES games – which doesn’t even take into account the never-before released Star Fox 2 that comes bundled in with the console; a tasteful bonus for those who buy into the console’s nostalgic 90s throwback.

    Tekken 3

    Tekken 3 (1997)

    Cynics may dismiss mini-consoles as a gimmick, a false collection of software that could be easily emulated without the fuss around a controlled hardware release. But a lineup of 21 mostly all-time-classic SNES games at $4 / £3 / AU$6 a pop, complete with a lovingly designed replica of the console to tap into those joyous childhood memories, represents fine value for money.

    So how did the PS1 Classic end up fronted by such a ragtag lineup? Did Rayman and Mr. Driller at some point displace Crash and Spyro as PS1 mascots? Is Cool Boarders 2 really the snow-capped peak of PS1 sports games? 

    Part of the problem is that one of the selling points that made the original PlayStation such a maverick, edgy console in the 90s has come back to haunt the Classic. 

    The PS1 was the first console to really exploit all that extra capacity afforded by the CD medium (no offence to the Sega CD and Atari Jaguar CD), defining itself by the licensed music blaring out of its best games. 

    PlayStation Classic controller

    PlayStation Classic controller

    Sony’s 90s-era console was a perfect synchronicity of marketing – aimed firmly at ravey, rebellious teens – and product, which actually reflected the branding. Unlike, say, Nintendo’s attempt in the same era to give itself a more punky image

    Classics like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Wipeout and Gran Turismo – all of which should’ve been shoe-ins for the PS1 Classic – would’ve therefore faced impossible licensing obstacles to make it over.

    Crash and burn

    Of course, the elephants in the room are Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. With two of the console’s most recognisable, nostalgia-saturated mascots have recently received successful remasters courtesy of Activision, which has owned the IPs since 2008, it’s likely that the publisher wanted to keep the precious currency of ‘Nostalgia Feels’ to itself. 

    With the Spyro Reignited Trilogy and the PS1 Classic coming out so close together, the publisher may not have wanted a low-polygon version of the purple dragon flitting around and taking attention away from the remastered one. 

    Spyro Reignited Trilogy (2018)

    Spyro Reignited Trilogy (2018)

    Perhaps Sony thought that gamers’ desire to replay the original Crash and Spyro would’ve been obviated by the glossy remasters. That would’ve been a big mistake, overlooking (or wilfully ignoring) the fact that people buy into mini consoles specifically for the retro feel of old favorites, without the spit-and-polish of modern, high-definition graphics.

    The same excuses can’t be applied to the absence of Sony’s own IP Ape Escape, but the classic platformer would have required Sony to upgrade the controllers to DualShocks – extra manufacturing costs that Sony evidently didn’t want to splash out.

    Unless there actually is nostalgic value to the awkwardness of playing 3D games using a d-pad? The only memories it brings back for me are those of chafed inner thumb joints. A neat innovation here would’ve been to offer compatibility with the fundamentally-similar DualShock 4 controller, but perhaps in-built Bluetooth would’ve been too much of an expense given that even the games list feels awfully scrimpy.

    Nintendo understands that a mini-console needs to capture the types of games that console was renowned for. The original PS1 was where survival horror and JRPGs really came to life, using the crisp soundtracks and economical 3D graphics (aided by those lovely pre-rendered backgrounds) to immerse us like never before.

    Yet both these genres are poorly represented on the PS1 Classic. 

    Wild Arms (1996)

    Wild Arms (1996)

    Sony came to an understanding with Square Enix over Wild Arms and Final Fantasy VII – a marquee title that’s synonymous with the console and a vital marketing tool. But when it came out in 1997, Final Fantasy VII marked the beginning of a JRPG golden age on the PS1, driven mostly by Squaresoft (now Square Enix). 

    Square’s catalog alone had games like Xenogears, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy IX, Legend of Mana, Chrono Cross and Vagrant Story, yet all Sony obtained from the publisher was the most recognisable – if not necessarily the best – game in this illustrious chain. 

    It’s interesting to note that another Square RPG, SaGa Frontier, is coming to the Japanese PS1 Classic. Despite not being terribly well rated, this game was a huge hit in Japan at the time, indicating that marketing was perhaps a stronger factor than quality when curating this lineup.

    Survival horror is another omission, fronted by Resident Evil: Director’s Cut and nothing else. Attempts to bring Resident Evil 2 may have run aground due to the upcoming remake, but the original is on a technical level the weakest of the lot. It’s not unwelcome, but would have worked better as a novel accompaniment to more polished titles like Resident Evil 3, Capcom’s other survival horror classic Dino Crisis, or the eternally unsettling Silent Hill. 

    Resident Evil: Director’s Cut

    Resident Evil: Director’s Cut (1997)

    The Japanese PS1 Classic at least gets RPG-horror hybrid Parasite Eve (also from Square Enix); a great game based on a bestselling Japanese novel that failed to gain much traction in Western markets.

    While we’re in Capcom’s catalog, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo makes the cut, which makes you wonder why one of greatest fighting games of all time, Super Street Fighter Alpha 3, didn’t make it to the PS1 Classic as well. Maybe Capcom didn’t want to license it out so soon after including it in the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, but that doesn’t hold up too well when you consider that the SNES Classic managed to get its hands on Super Street Fighter II Turbo.

    An incomplete legacy collection

    The PS1 Classic’s lineup is one shaped by lost licenses, conflicts of interest with publishers, and what seem like lazy missteps. The included iterations of Twisted Metal and Grand Theft Auto aren’t the strongest PS1 offerings in their respective series, while the notoriously shoddy port of the original Rainbow Six looks like filler, carried by brand recognition alone. 

    Maybe I’d feel differently if I had the PS1 Classic in front of me, hypnotized by that deep, synthesized whir as the PS logo appeared on my screen for the first time. But really that’s just a nostalgia trigger, like the physical console itself and its arcane controllers; empty symbols that don’t recreate the quality of gaming they once stood for.

    PlayStation Classic

    Sony isn’t entirely to blame, and it may also be a hint that procuring stellar game lineups for these mini-consoles will get harder the more recent the console. From the PS1 onwards, licensing became common practice, and third-party publishers and developers played a bigger part in shaping console game libraries. 

    The N64 Classic, for example, may struggle procuring Rare games like Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark and Goldeneye. The current rage for remastering games from earlier 3D eras, too, is sure to impact publishers’ decisions on whether they want to dish the originals out to these mini-console packages. 

    The PS1 Classic’s struggles are compounded by a lack of upscaling beyond 720p, and the unavoidable fact that even its few classic games are from that pioneering 3D era that simply hasn’t aged as well as the 16-bit generation before it or the 128-bit era (PS2) after. 

    While Sony’s troubles putting this together are appreciable, the product they’ve released to market is still a poor simulacrum of the original console, and one that fails to grasp what made the PS1 so special. It feels destined to succeed, even if it deserves to fail. The latter scenario would at least lead to more diligence on Sony’s part when the inevitable PS2 mini-console rolls around.

    Powered by WPeMatico

  • Red Dead Online early access arrives: here's what to expect from online play

    Red Dead Online early access arrives: here's what to expect from online play

    The early access of Red Dead Online is kicking off this week. But with such a massive open-world to explore in Red Dead Redemption 2‘s single-player story, why should you be excited about the game’s online mode?

    Rockstar’s open-world Western game, a prequel to 2010’s Red Dead Redemption, was released to wide critical acclaim and is basically all anyone in our office – or yours, probably – has been talking about for weeks.

    While you might expect an online mode to be live from the game’s launch, it makes sense for Rockstar to want you to focus on the main story – and boy is there a lot of it – before waltzing into a less narrative-driven multiplayer experience in Red Dead Online.

    [Update: Red Dead Online beta has now launched, although it’s rolling out at different times depending on when you picked up the game – and which version you’ve been playing. 

    Rockstar is rewarding those who bought Red Dead 2: Ultimate Edition with access from Tuesday 27 November, while those who started playing the regular version of the game in the first few days come next on November 28 and 29. Everyone else has the saloon doors opened to them on Friday 30 November. Check below for exact details.]

    Red Dead Online

    Rockstar has proved itself at converting a massive single-player game into a lively online experience, as shown in the launch of GTA Online in 2013, which has become almost as massive a phenomenon as the mainline GTA V game it spun off from.

    So what can you expect from Red Dead Online, and when does the beta actually start?

    Cut to the chase

    • What is Red Dead Online? The online component of Rockstar’s open-world Western
    • What can I play it on? PS4 or Xbox One
    • When can I play it? The beta launches November 26-30, depending on when you played the game and what edition. Full release is expected some time in 2019

    Red Dead Online beta access

    Yes, Rockstar are easing in with a Red Dead Online beta – the company warns to expect “turbulence” at launch while optimizes the gameplay – but it’s a public beta, and we’re going to get our first good look at what this means very soon.

    Originally we were given a rough beta launch window of late November, that anyone with a PS4 or Xbox One copy of the game would be able to access. We’ve since learned via GamesRadar more precise dates, with the beta rolling out first to priority players – those who bought the Red Dead Redemption 2: Ultimate Edition and those who started playing in the first few days after release.

    We have the exact rollout schedule below, and are expecting a full launch of Red Dead Online to come some time in early 2019.

    Beta release schedule

    • Red Dead Redemption 2: Ultimate Edition owners – Tuesday 27 November
    • Started playing on October 26 – Wednesday 28 November
    • Started playing October 27-29 – Thursday 29 November
    • All Red Dead Redemption 2 owners – Friday 30 November

    Red Dead Redemption 2

    Red Dead Online multiplayer

    So what does Red Dead Redemption 2 Online look like? 

    An official announcement for the online service read: “Using the gameplay of the upcoming Red Dead Redemption 2 as a foundation, Red Dead Online will be ready to be explored alone or with friends, and will also feature constant updates and adjustments to grow and evolve this experience for all players.”

    There’s not much else to go on until we all start getting access this week, other than the online mode from Rockstar’s other massive open-world property. If Red Dead Online is anything like GTA Online, we’re going to see targeted quests and missions in an alternative game world, with freer customization and actions without the same long-term narrative consequences. 

    Playing with friends or matchmaking with strangers is a given, though we could see servers restricting player numbers below GTA Online’s 30 for a more curated feel.

    We imagine Red Dead Online will stay comparatively grounded, and not veer too much from the central game experience. We can envisage saloons where you play poker and start fights with other players, and we can see quickly descend into bottle-over-the-head chaos.

    The option of challenging players to quick-fire duels, or pulling heists and train robberies with your posse – with new missions like these added with regular updates – is likely to form a big part of the appeal too.

    Red Dead Online: what we want to see

    Character customization

    Red Dead Redemption 2’s protagonist Arthur Morgan already allows an immense level of detail in how he dresses and styles his appearance. Opening up a character creation tool for Red Dead Online seems like a natural step, meaning you can make a cowboy avatar that truly feels like you. The option to play as a woman seems like a no-brainer, too.

    All the minigames

    We definitely hope the minigames will be playable online with your friends – card games, knife games, drinking games, and all that other wholesome fun you cowboys get up to.

    Red Dead Redemption 2

    A slow, slow pace

    One of the things we love about Read Dead Redemption 2 is the thoughtful pace – so we’re hoping the online mode doesn’t go too octane for the rustic cowboy setting. We want to take a slow trot to the saloon before beating our friends at poker, or lying in the undergrowth while we wait to rob an incoming train – not a 6v6 deathmatch on flaming ponies.

    Maybe some zombies though

    Okay, as much as we love the core Read Dead experience, the last game’s Undead Nightmare DLC was a fantastic adventure in its own right, raising the dead in what felt like a serious Western blended with a camp horror movie. It was too good an experiment not to resurrect this time around – we hope.

    Cross-platform play

    We haven’t seen cross-platform play for a Rockstar game before, though the CEO Strauss Zelnick has been open about his desire to overcome traditional console distinctions for online play. 

    We’d love to see PS4 and Xbox One owners play together in Red Dead Online’s wild west, though Sony have also proven themselves a stickler on this point in the past – even if it eventually succumbed to pressure on Fortnite cross-platform play.

    Powered by WPeMatico