Author: Game Infliction

A new PS5 system software beta has added Discord voice chat and Variable Refresh Rate support for 1440p displays, among a number of other upgrades.

Announced on the PlayStation Blog, the new system software is available for beta participants in the U.S., Canada, Japan, UK, Germany, and France. Its main feature is the addition of Discord voice chat, which allows cross-platform calls through the popular Discord system. Users will need to link their Discord and PlayStation Network accounts to use the service, and then begin a call on the Discord mobile app before transferring it to their console. It seems a little more fiddly than a standard PSN party, but will no doubt be very welcome to those who frequently play with friends who are on Xbox and PC.

The other headline feature of the beta update is Variable Refresh Rate support for 1440p resolution displays. This allows smoother visual performance when using a VR-compatible HDMI 2.1 display, provided the game supports Variable Refresh Rate. VRR can be enabled from your Screen and Video settings.

The new beta also provides a variety of smaller user experience-focused upgrades. These include the ability to share you screen directly from a friend’s profile card; a “Friends Who Play” tile that shows who on your friends list also plays the game you’re looking at; a new manual upload function for sending specific gameplay captures to the PS App; PS VR and PS VR2 filters for the game library; a new PS5 to PS5 data transfer function (available over Wi-Fi or LAN); and a notification pop-up for PS4 games that alerts you to any PS4 save game data you have in the cloud.

There’s also a limited U.S. and UK release for video capture voice commands. This allows users to say “Hey PlayStation, capture that” to save a video clip of gameplay. It’s the Xbox Kinect days all over again.

For more from the world of PlayStation, check out the games coming to PS Plus in February, as well as the news that the PS5 PS Plus Collection is being removed entirely later this year.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.

What should have been a celebration of a group clearing the most challenging possible content in Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker has turned into controversy, as the very first team to clear the latest FF14 raid has been accused of cheating.

Except…it’s also kind of not cheating? Depending on who you ask.

The gist is that last week, FF14 patch 6.31 released, including a new, super-hard version of an existing raid: The Omega Protocol. A typical race to be the first raid team in the world to clear it ensued, with a group called Unnamed_ taking the crown on Monday by posting screenshots of their victory. However, not long after, an unlisted video began to circulate showing one of their members using a mod to zoom the camera out much farther than it normally should be able to do, presumably to get a better view on the mechanics. There are also some less-obvious UI mods displayed in the video tracking various elements of the fight.

Per FF14’s terms of service, mods of any kind are not permitted in the game. Unnamed_ has since been disqualified from the race and had its kill revoked both in-game and by a popular logging site. Additionally, a lengthy statement was published on the official FF14 news board from FF14 director Naoki Yoshida, reiterating Square Enix’s stance on third-party tools (none whatsoever permitted) and that unspecified punishments would be enacted for using them. The post additionally condemns the recording and circulation of certain in-game cutscenes and other footage that isn’t intended to be recordable.

“The ultimate raid series is the most difficult battle content within FFXIV, and we release this content after testing that it can be cleared without the use of any third-party tools,” Yoshida wrote. “However, if the presumption is that this content will be tackled and cleared with the use of third-party tools, then any reason to develop high-difficulty battle content seems to be lost. It’s very difficult for me to understand as a gamer what the meaning behind using numerous third-party tools to compete to clear first would be.

“…If the illicit use of third-party tools is made clear through our investigations, I, at the very least, will not recognize that team as the true World First.”

If you’re unfamiliar with FF14, this reads like a game rightfully cracking down on cheaters, but the reality is much more complicated. Third-party tools, mods, add-ons, whatever you call them, are actually extremely common in MMORPGs with raid content, including FF14. A large portion of high-end players will use mods to track boss mechanics, customize their UI to be more helpful, or otherwise make the game more user-friendly. FF14 rival World of Warcraft, a game with similar “World First” races around its most difficult content, has an active high-end raiding scene where everyone publicly uses dozens of mods – if you’re not, you’re dragging the group down. While FF14’s scene isn’t quite that pronounced, it’s still not a secret in the community that many people playing at the top levels are using them. They’re just not broadcasting that use because, well, things like this keep happening.

But all that said, it’s also true that given the crackdown, it’s likely there are a number of teams trying to clear the content without using mods at all. Given the threat of punishment around it, it’s hard to say precisely how common mods are across FF14. So across the community, player reactions seem to be split between people who feel the ban was justified, and others frustrated that such a harsh punishment was doled out for something that they perceive as commonplace. Some are suggesting that while some mods (such as the aforementioned small UI tools) are fine, the camera zoom was what crossed the line. All told it’s a messy situation, unhelped by the fact that there aren’t actually any anti-cheat measures preventing this from happening.

While the community may likely never come to a consensus, modding in FF14 is likely to continue unless Square Enix’s crackdown grows more severe to the point of impacting regular players en masse. That said, having such a prize actively taken away is likely to discourage serious world first hopefuls from trying such a thing in the future.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Electronic Arts is currently in the midst of a slew of cancellations and closures, the latest being a previously unknown project code-named TFL or Titanfall Legends — a secret single-player game set in the Titanfall and Apex Legends universe. The news was first reported by Bloomberg.

Not much is known about Titanfall Legends save that it was reportedly directed by Mohammad Alavi, who served as a design on the Titanfall games among other projects. Alavi departed EA early last year.

The cancellation coincides with the closure of the mobile versions of Apex Legends and Battlefield, as well as the shuttering of Industrial Toys. According to Bloomberg, roughly 50 developers were affected by the Titanfall Legends’ cancellation. EA will reportedly try to place them in other positions within the company.

Titanfall’s last solo outing was in 2016. It initially sold poorly but subsequently gained a following thanks to its superb single-player shooter design.

“It’s rare that a sequel evolves on every part of the original concept so consistently for the better, but Titanfall 2 is that exception,” we wrote in our review at the time. “Its feelgood movement is the foundation for both the engaging action and platforming gameplay of its strong campaign and its over-the-top competitive multiplayer. With bolstered progression, customization, variety, and a fleshed-out story, Respawn has made good on its original vision with Titanfall 2. And bottom line, it’s just damn fun to play.”

It was succeeded by 2019’s Apex Legends, a battle royale that cut the mechs but retained the setting. Yesterday’s closure of Apex Legends Mobile, coming less than a year after its original release, was a surprise to observers, but EA hinted that it may return.

As for Titanfall, a proper sequel seems further away than ever.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.