Development studio Odyssey Interactive has announced that it is working on a prototype combining Smash Bros-style platform fighting with 40-player battle royale gameplay. What’s more, it is releasing this prototype to the public (thanks, Eurogamer).
Byte Breakers, as the dev is currently calling it, initially looks a lot like Smash when it first appears in the above reveal trailer. But, as the screen gets bigger, you’ll see that this is a fair amount larger than anything we’ve seen in Nintendo’s beloved fighting series to date. Forget a brawl, this is an all-out battle.
Helldivers, when you’re on the warfront, emptying magazines into hordes of Terminids, do you ever feel like you’re a space bug exterminator? I know I do and that’s why I’m really excited to tell you about our next Warbond*: Chemical Agents! This one has some seriously deadly toys.
I’ll start with everyone’s favorite part of a Warbond: the offensive gear. The first thing a Terminid exterminator needs is a good, high-pressure sprayer. The TX-41 Sterilizer is the tool of the trade, ready to spray down the threat with chemical gas.
A literal spray and pray with the TX-41 Sterilizer.
And in case the bugs got behind you, don’t worry–your gassy little pal the AX/TX-13 “Guard Dog” Dog Breath won’t let them get the drop on you before it hoses them down with its corrosive gas sprayer. If there’s still some standing after the stratagems are done, hit ‘em with the G-4 Gas grenade. Cover the whole area in a cloud of noxious fumes, Helldiver!
The AX/TX-13 “Guard Dog” Dog Breath gassed up and ready to go.
Adding stratagem variants to Warbonds is new with Chemical Agents, but our designers felt that since gas is a crowd control tool, it made more sense to release stratagems and let Helldivers choose the primary weapons they love the most. Not only that, but this is bringing some serious variety to Chemical Agents that we hope players will enjoy.
Breathe easy in the AF-02 Haz-Master armor.
Now let’s talk drip. The exterminators of Super Earth have access to some killer threads in Chemical Agents. Firstly, these armors have the Advanced Filtration passive, which gives the player resistance to the gas clouds they’ll be generating with their new toys, including the toxic cloud put off by the Orbital Gas Strike stratagem. The AF-50 Noxious Ranger is a lightweight armor, best paired with the Standard of Safe Distance cape. If you really want to go full on with your protective gear, you’ve got the medium AF-02 Haz-Master and the matching Patient Zero’s Remembrance cape. Each set also has a coordinating player card to match the capes.
The AF-50 Noxious Ranger can survive in the fumes.
Our players have been asking for more emotes, and the ones included with Chemical Agents are some of our best yet. Want to know how to tell a joke in Helldivers 2 with your microphone off? Use the co-emote Natural Gas Extraction of course. See if you can convince your whole squad to pull your finger. And once you all get back to your ship, they can express their disgust with the Ew victory pose.
I said pull my finger, Helldiver!
We’re adding another set of patterns for your Hellpods, Pelican-1, and exosuit in Mustard–not the kind that goes on a hot dog either–this is the deadly kind. If at any point your squad wanders into your toxic cloud, you can use the new utility P-11 Stim Pistol to give them a minor heal from a safe distance.
The friendliest of friendly fire: the P-11 Stim Pistol.
Finally, if you want to really lean into the role, Chemical Agents includes a new player title–Expert Exterminator.
That’s everything, Helldivers. This could be a whole new theme for your squad as the galaxy’s elite peacekeepers and pest destroyers. Gas up for Chemical Agents, releasing September 19.
Download the image
*Requires base game, paid purchase of Super Credits, and game progression to unlock.
Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt has finally added AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 with Frame Generation to the PC version of the game.
Patch 2.13 for Cyberpunk 2077 and expansion Phantom Liberty is being rolled out now on PC only (patch notes are below), but despite the version mismatch between PC and console, cross-progression will still function properly.
AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 (FSR3) combines image upscaling with frame generation technologies to generate high resolution frames at fast frame-rates. You can enable it in Settings → Graphics in the Quick Preset section, CD Projekt explained in a post on its website.
There’s also a separate setting to enable FSR Frame Generation. Note that FSR Frame Generation can only be used when AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 upscaling is enabled.
Fans were left questioning whether the promised update would ever arrive after the developer told investors its Cyberpunk 2077 team had migrated elsewhere following the release of what was assumed to be the final update in version 2.12.
“We’ve decided to keep support for both FSR 2.1 and FSR 3 to give players the flexibility to choose their preferred setting for visual quality and performance,” CD Projekt explained. “This allows them to experiment and find what fits their gaming style best.”
Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty update 2.13 patch notes:
Added support for AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 with Frame Generation. More information can be found in this article on the Support website.
Added support for Intel Xe Super Sampling 1.3.
It will now be possible to enable both DLAA and DLSS Ray Reconstruction at the same time.
Added a new “Utilities” tab in Settings and moved HDD Mode, Hybrid CPU Utilization and AMD Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) options there.
Other stability and visual fixes.
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.
Not enough Microsoft jobs have been splayed and flayed atop the Altar of Growth, so High Priest Spencer must once again perform the Rite of Strategic Repositioning. According to a leaked memo, Microsoft are laying off around 650 people “to organize our business for long term success”. This is the same Microsoft that parted with around 1900 employees in January, and the same Microsoft that washed their hands of around 10,000 staff in January 2023, all in the name of shoring up the business for future prosperity. That “long term success” is certainly taking its sweet time. Or at least, it is if you’re one of the poor saps in the trenches of, in this case, “corporate and supporting functions”.
Thieves are once again targeting the Pokémon Trading Card Game, with a duo in Japan allegedly making off with $70,000 worth after asking staff which ones were valuable.
As reported by NHK and translated by ComicBook, a Pokémon TCG store in Osaka was allegedly broken into at 3:30am while a pair of employees were closing up. The perpetrators tied the workers up and demanded not the Pokémon cards themselves, but insight into which ones were worth taking.
Pokémon card thefts are on the rise given how valuable some cards are (the rarest sold in 2022 for more than $5 million), but as tens of thousands of individual cards exist, not to mention countless copies of most of them, it can be hard to differentiate between the good cardboard and the bad cardboard.
Sometimes we play video games to plunder the silty depths of our emotions, sometimes we play them to sharpen our wits and try the alchemy of engrossing systems, sometimes we play them to mud-wrestle with questions of power and responsibility, and sometimes we just want to wear cool sunglasses, have big arms, and fly around hitting stuff very hard.
Payday 3 director Miodrag Kovačević is stepping down following a disastrous first year for the live service heist shooter.
Developer Starbreeze Entertainment posted on X/Twitter to announce the change in management, saying Kovačević will work as a designer on Payday 3 instead. Lead producer Andreas Penninger and global brand director Almir Listo will act as the “creative force” behind the game “in the interim,” though the long term future of Payday 3’s leadership remains hazy.
“Going into year two, [Kovačević] will be stepping away from his role as game director and focusing his efforts as a designer elsewhere in the project,” the post said.
“In the interim, while researching and planning year two, [Penninger] and [Listo] will be the creative force behind the upcoming updates we hope you keep enjoying and playing. Thank you for your continued support. We salute you.”
Payday 3 launched in September 2023 to strong player numbers that quickly withered away, due to server issues that forced then Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren to apologize. “We are so sorry that the infrastructure didn’t hold up as expected, and although it’s impossible to prepare for every scenario — we should be able to do better,” he said before leaving the company.
Every man has his breaking point, and mine is the DP motion, aka the D-pad input used to perform Ken’s Shoryuken uppercut in Street Fighter, and moves like it in other fighting games. I’ve never been able to perform it consistently. It’s one of many moderately fiddly moves – written down for posterity in a small tear-stained journal I keep sorrowfully beneath my pillow – which have walled me out of enjoying fighting games, much as I love thinking about them.
That wall grows ever higher as I age and my digits turn to dust and my dreams of launching Ryu like a sack of potatoes fade into the twilight. Still, at least I can still play and have fun with shooters, right? All you have to do in shooters is press a button once to make stuff go boom. Wait, Nightmare Operator, what are you doing? Nightmare Operator, no!
We are mere hours away from Splatoon 3‘s “biggest Splatfest yet” as the Grand Festival is finally set to kick off tomorrow (or today, for those in North America).
This 72-hour-long event pits the Splatlands’ biggest musical icons against each other in a battle over “Which is the most important to you?“, with the Squid Sisters’ Team Past facing off against Off The Hook’s Team Present and Deep Cut’s Team Future.
Today, we’re happy to announce a new PS5 system software update that introduces a number of new features, including:
Welcome hub: a new personalized space with customizable widgets and backgrounds in your PS5 home screen. Welcome hub is a reimagined version of the Explore tab, which was previously only available in the U.S. It will roll out globally over the next few weeks, starting today for select players in the U.S.
Party share: the ability to share party voice chat links on messaging and social media apps will roll out globally in the coming weeks.
Additionally, thanks to support from our beta participants, the following features that were tested in our latest PS5 beta will be released globally, starting today:
Personalized 3D audio profiles for headphones and earbuds
Adjust Remote Play settings per user and choose who is allowed to connect to your PS5 console using Remote Play
Adaptive charging for your controllers (available for the slimmer PS5 model and PS5 Pro when it’s available)
Aside from adaptive charging for your controllers, all PS5 system update features mentioned in this blog post are available for all PS5 models. Let’s take a deeper look at what’s included in this update:
Newly announced features
Welcome hub (phased release)
We are introducing a new personalized space in your PS5 home screen called Welcome hub – a dedicated space you can customize with widgets, allowing you to see information at a glance before you begin your gaming sessions. For players in the U.S, Welcome hub will replace the current Explore tab with enhanced customizability and an upgraded user experience.
You can easily customize your Welcome hub by selecting from a variety of widgets*, including console storage, battery levels for accessories, online friends, trophies, and many more. Use presets to quickly change your layout, and simply select and arrange a variety of widgets as you see fit. You can change the size of your widgets, expanding or shrinking them to give more focus to the features that are most important to you.
In addition, you can also change your Welcome hub’s background. Choose from a range of designs, including some with cool animated effects, or pick out a screenshot from your own Media Gallery for a truly personal touch.
Welcome hub will become available to select users in the U.S. starting later today. We will gradually expand support in other regions over the coming weeks, starting with players in Japan, followed by select countries in Europe, and finally releasing worldwide.
Party Share (phased release)
In the next few weeks, we’ll also add the ability for you to share party voice chat links on any messaging or social media app. This will allow you to invite a friend whom you’re chatting with on any messaging app to join your party voice chat, even if you haven’t added them to your friends list on PlayStation Network.
To create a party link, open the voice chat card in the Control Center on PS5, select [Invite Players], then click [Share Party link] to generate a scannable QR code. Recipients can open the link on their mobile device and seamlessly join the party on their PS5 or from PlayStation App.
In the coming weeks, we will also release an update for PlayStation App which will allow you to similarly generate a shareable party link from your mobile device.
PS5 beta features rolling out globally today
Here’s a closer look at some of the PS5 beta features that are rolling out globally today, including personalized 3D audio profiles for headphones and earbuds, the ability to enable Remote Play access for individual users, and adaptive charging for your controllers.
Personalized 3D audio profiles for headphones and earbuds
In this generation, 3D audio is one of the key ways that creators have enhanced the immersive quality of games. As individuals, we all hear sounds differently based on the size and shape of our head, ears, and ear canals.
We’re pleased to introduce a feature that lets your PS5 console create a personalized 3D audio profile just for you. With a set of headphones or earbuds, you can run through a set of sound quality tests to analyze a vast number of factors to create an audio profile that best fits your hearing characteristics. For example, your personalized 3D audio profile may enable you to better sense the positions of characters and objects in a game world more clearly than before, making the experience more immersive.**
To create a personalized 3D audio profile for your headphones or earbuds, go to [Settings] > [Sound] > [3D Audio (Headphones)] on your PS5 console, and follow the steps displayed on the screen. Your audio profile will be saved on your PS5 per user, and you can also still select from 3D audio presets like before.
This feature builds on the 3D audio enhancements we’ve introduced to PS5 since launch, including 3D audio support for built-in TV speakers and support for compatible Dolby Atmos-enabled audio devices. These features give you additional options to immerse yourself more deeply in the rich variety of soundscapes in PS5 games, powered by Tempest 3D AudioTech.
PS5’s Tempest 3D AudioTech was tested and refined using audio rig setups like the one depicted here, featuring PS Blog’s very own Sid Shuman.
Enable Remote Play for individual users
You can now adjust Remote Play settings per user and choose who is allowed to connect to your PS5 console using Remote Play. So, if your friends or family members come over and sign in to your PS5 console with their account for PlayStation Network, you can easily modify who can continue to access your PS5 console using Remote Play when they leave.
To adjust these settings, go to [Settings] > [System] > [Remote Play] > [Enable Remote Play], and choose which user you want to enable access to your PS5 console through Remote Play.
Adaptive charging for the DualSense wireless controller, DualSense Edge wireless controller, PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers, and Access controller is now available for the slimmer PS5 model, when the console is in rest mode (and will also be available for PS5 Pro when it launches).*** Adaptive charging helps save power by adjusting the length of time that power is supplied to your controller based on its battery level.
To use adaptive charging, go to [Settings] > [System] > [Power Saving] > [Features Available in Rest Mode], and then select [Supply Power to USB Ports] > [Adaptive]. After your PS5 enters rest mode, if a controller isn’t connected, the power supply to the USB port will stop after a certain period of time.
We will continue to enhance your gaming and social experiences on PS5 by listening to community feedback on features and improvements. Let us know which features you’re most excited to try!
*Widget availability may vary by region. **Personalized 3D audio profiles are not supported during PS5 cloud game streaming. 3D audio is not supported during Remote Play. ***Adaptive charging works with the DualSense wireless controller, DualSense Edge wireless controller, PS VR2 Sense controllers, and Access controller when connected to the USB Type-C port on the slimmer PS5 console (CFI-2000 model group – slim) or PS5 Pro, using the USB Type-C cable included with your PS5. PlayStation Portal remote player does not support adaptive charging.
