Earning a Platinum trophy is a strange kind of achievement. It carries no material reward and exists outside the game itself, yet for a certain kind of player the completion percentage at the bottom of a profile is a record worth keeping. This ongoing series looks back at the games that finally pushed a Platinum over the line. Entry number 39 is Stray, and the date achieved was 23rd July 2022. The writer describes it as probably the only game they have ever speedran for a trophy, which says something about how a single dangling objective can reshape the way you play. Stray is an unusual candidate for that kind of behaviour. It is a game built around atmosphere as much as challenge, following a stray cat through a densely detailed, neon-lit world. Its appeal lies in mood, exploration and the small, tactile details of moving like an animal, rather than in the combat... Read More
The release calendar does not slow down for long, and the week of the 19th to the 25th of October is shaping up to be a busy one for PlayStation owners. By the current count, more than 35 games are due across PS5 and PS Plus, which is a lot even by the standards of a crowded autumn. Leading the pack is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, easily the biggest name on the list. The modern warfare sub-series has been one of the franchise’s most reliable draws, and a new entry is always going to dominate the conversation in the week it arrives. If you would rather not wait for the official launch, the campaign can already be experienced in early access, which gives eager players a head start on the story before the wider release. It is not a solo act. Final Fantasy Resonance brings a very different flavour to the schedule,... Read More
Console pricing has rarely been a comfortable subject, and the next generation looks set to make the conversation harder still. According to the latest discussion, all expectations of the PS6 debuting at an acceptable price point seem to be diminishing daily, and the reason is not anything Sony has done wrong. The culprit is the broader economy, and specifically the way artificial intelligence has reshaped demand for computing components. This is described as a challenging economy disrupted by AI’s dominance over computing parts. Data centres built to train and run AI models consume enormous quantities of memory, storage and silicon, and that appetite competes directly with the supply that consumer hardware depends on. When demand for a component outpaces supply, prices rise, and manufacturers prioritise the customers willing to pay the most. Consumer electronics sit far down that queue, which pushes up the cost of building a games console. A machine that might once... Read More
Not every game gets a second life, but a survival sim that launched on Xbox One is about to receive one this holiday season. A free upgrade for Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is on the way, and it is set to transform the experience on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S on December 8th. For the uninitiated, Ancestors is a survival game with an unusual premise. It casts the player not as a soldier or a hero but as an early hominid, tasked with surviving a hostile prehistoric world and, over time, guiding a lineage forward. It is often described as a creature transformation simulator, because progress is measured in evolutionary leaps rather than levels or loot. That structure makes it a natural fit for a technical overhaul. Survival games lean heavily on atmosphere, and atmosphere depends on dense environments, convincing lighting and believable wildlife. A version rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5 has... Read More
The Xbox Series S has always been the odd one out in this console generation. A smaller, cheaper, all-digital machine, it occupies a position the industry had not really tested at this scale before, and it has been argued about since the day it was revealed. Ever since the Xbox Series S made its debut nearly six years prior, individuals have been theorising that it could impede the sector and eventually become overly challenging to develop for in the later phases of the console lifecycle. The concern was never really about the console itself. It was about the idea of a fixed lower specification that every game must also run on, and what that might mean for ambition elsewhere. Now that the generation is drawing toward its later stages, that argument can finally be judged against reality rather than prediction. The picture is more complicated than either side expected. Some games have clearly been... Read More
The Call of Duty cycle has a rhythm to it, and we are right at the point where the first real signal arrives. The campaign for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is now officially accessible in early access for anyone who pre-ordered the game digitally, which means the earliest impressions are beginning to appear. Early access campaigns have become a familiar part of the modern release schedule. By opening the single-player portion ahead of the full launch, publishers give the most committed players something to do while building buzz before the multiplayer side goes live. It also means the first wave of reviews and impressions lands well before most people have their hands on the game. That creates an unusual situation for anyone trying to make a decision. The feedback arriving now comes from a specific group, and it reflects the experience of people who were invested enough to buy in advance. With... Read More
Remasters of licensed games from the early 2000s have become a surprisingly reliable corner of the industry, and the latest candidate has surfaced in an unexpected way. Ahead of an expected reveal at the ID@Xbox Showcase next week, online detectives have uncovered an official Xbox Store page for Shrek 2 Remastered. Store pages are frequently how unannounced games leak. They appear early, often with placeholder details, and the fact that this one is live suggests an announcement is close rather than hypothetical. The listing states that the game is set to arrive on Xbox Series X and S. The page also discloses that it is in the works by Aspyr Media. Aspyr has become a familiar name in the remaster space, known for bringing older titles to modern hardware, which gives this project a degree of credibility beyond a simple store listing. For anyone who missed it the first time, Shrek 2 was a... Read More