PS5 Pro: 50+ enhanced games available at launch November 7

On November 7 PlayStation 5 Pro unleashes a new era of impressive visuals. The console enables graphical enhancements like advanced ray tracing, PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, and silky smooth framerates of 60hz or 120hz through an upgraded GPU (depending on your TV). 

Of course, crackling new power means little without immersive games to get lost in. This list is a sample of more than 50 games boasting PS5 Pro enhancements at launch, with many more to follow. 

  • Alan Wake 2
  • Albatroz
  • Apex Legends
  • Arma Reforger
  • Assassin’s Creed Mirage
  • Baldur’s Gate 3
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
  • EA Sports College Football 25
  • Dead Island 2
  • Demon’s Souls
  • Diablo IV
  • Dragon Age: The Veilguard
  • Dragon’s Dogma 2
  • Dying Light 2 Reloaded Edition
  • EA Sports FC 25
  • Enlisted
  • F1 24
  • Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
  • Fortnite
  • God of War Ragnarök
  • Hogwarts Legacy
  • Horizon Forbidden West
  • Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered
  • Kayak VR: Mirage
  • Lies of P
  • Madden NFL 25
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
  • Naraka: Bladepoint
  • NBA2K 25
  • No Man’s Sky
  • Palworld
  • Paladin’s Passage
  • Planet Coaster 2
  • Professional Spirits Baseball 2024-2025
  • Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
  • Resident Evil 4
  • Resident Evil Village
  • Rise of the Ronin
  • Rogue Flight 
  • Star Wars: Jedi Survivor
  • Star Wars: Outlaws
  • Stellar Blade
  • Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown
  • The Callisto Protocol
  • The Crew Motorfest
  • The Finals
  • The First Descendant 
  • The Last of Us Part I
  • The Last of Us Part II Remastered
  • Until Dawn
  • War Thunder
  • Warframe
  • World of Warships: Legends

To learn more about PS5 Pro, head to playstation.com. What will be the first game you play on PS5 Pro?

Microsoft Confirms Xbox Game Pass Wave 1 November 2024 Lineup

Microsoft has confirmed the Xbox Game Pass November 2024 Wave 1 lineup, which includes Metal Slug Tactics, Goat Simulator Remastered, and lots of StarCraft.

First up, on November 5, Metal Slug Tactics (Cloud, Console, and PC) hits Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass as a day one launch. “Metal Slug is making an explosive return!” reads the official blurb. “Dive into this dynamic tactical RPG with a roguelite thrill and experience the iconic run’n’gun action of the original series, redefined. Grab your weapons, assemble your squad, and conquer the battlefield to defeat the infamous Rebel Army.”

November 5 is also a big day for Blizzard’s StarCraft as more Activision games enter Game Pass following Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of the company last year. StarCraft: Remastered (PC) and StarCraft II: Campaign Collection (PC) both hit Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass on November 5, which should help boost interest in the classic sci-fi real-time strategy games.

November 6 is a stacked day for Game Pass, with four games entering Game Pass Standard: Go Mecha Ball (Console); Harold Halibut (Xbox Series X|S); The Rewinder (Console); and Turnip Boy Robs a Bank (Console).

Moving on to November 7, and we have the day one launch of Goat Simulator Remastered (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) into Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. “The GOAT is baaa-ck!” reads the official blurb. “Lick, flip, and headbutt your way across a chaotic sandbox world where you make the rules. Enjoy wacky physics, upgraded graphics, and DLC classics in one neat package. It’s time to grab life by the horns and set out on an adventure!”

Sticking with the day one releases, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) hits Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass on November 19. “From Xbox Game Studios and Asobo Studios, pursue your aviation career with dynamically generated missions, compete against other pilots, and explore the most detailed digital twin of the world to date. Set out on your global adventure with our largest fleet of aircraft as Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 takes simulation to new heights of authenticity and realism. Pre-install today to answer the call on day one!”

Xbox Game Pass November 2024 Wave 1 lineup:

  • Metal Slug Tactics (Cloud, Console, and PC) – November 5
    Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
  • StarCraft: Remastered (PC) – November 5
    Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
  • StarCraft II: Campaign Collection (PC) – November 5
    Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
  • Go Mecha Ball (Console) – November 6
    Now with Game Pass Standard
  • Harold Halibut (Xbox Series X|S) – November 6
    Now with Game Pass Standard
  • The Rewinder (Console) – November 6
    Now with Game Pass Standard
  • Turnip Boy Robs a Bank (Console) – November 6
    Now with Game Pass Standard
  • Goat Simulator Remastered (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – November 7
    Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
  • Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – November 19
    Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass

As always, a number of games leave Game Pass this month.

Games leaving Game Pass on November 15, 2024:

  • Dicey Dungeons (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Dungeons 4 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Goat Simulator (PC)
  • Like a Dragon: Ishin! (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Persona 5 Tactica (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Somerville (Cloud, Console, and PC)

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.

We’ve learned the hard way that ganging up on Deadlock doesn’t make it more digestible

The mystery surrounding Deadlock, Valve’s work-in-progress MOBA shooter, has largely evaporated. Its freely extendable invite system is about as effective at controlling player headcount as a disinterested football steward, meaning pretty much anyone with a clued-in Steam friend can get in and start poking around its secrets. And yet, being a lane-pushing wizard fighter in the Dota 2 vein, it’s already a vast tangle of interplaying abilities, items, strats, and often unspoken rules, of the kind that even experienced gankists will take hundreds of hours to learn. It’s been too much for poor Brendy, at any rate.

Still, Brendy is but one man. What if we had but four men, working in tandem to crush lanes and flatten Patrons just as Gabe intended? To find out if Deadlock is indeed more comprehensible as a team sport, Graham, Ed, Ollie, and James joined forces, promptly getting fucked up yet emerging from the warlock hospital with a deeper understanding of its workings. Or, at least, if anyone would keep playing.

Read more

Early Dragon Age: The Veilguard Mods Improve Performance, Add Character Presets, and Remove All the Purple

Dragon Age: The Veilguard isn’t even a week old, but the mods are coming in thick and fast. In these early days, the most popular on Nexus Mods revolve around performance improvements on PC and various character presets, and there’s even one that strips the purple from the game to make it look more like a dark fantasy RPG.

Let’s start with the latter. Vktrfly’s Dark Fantasy Look-Up Table (LUT) mod is a reshade that aims to remove the purple/magenta elements from the game and give it “a darker, more atmospheric look.”

Ever since BioWare unveiled The Veilguard gameplay, fans have debated its art style, with some lamenting the developer’s decision to go for a heavily stylized, almost cartoony look compared to the more gritty, realistic prior games in the series. The Veilguard, with its smooth, purple-hued visuals, is certainly at the opposite end of the Dragon Age art style spectrum, with 2009’s Origins heavy on mud and blood-drenched medieval fantasy and Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition occupying a place somewhere in between.

But the most popular mod so far is ChemBoy1’s Anti-Stutter – Performance Enhancer – High CPU and Disk Priority – DATV mod, which enables high CPU and disk priority for the Dragon Age: The Veilguard executable. This can help with performance on weaker CPUs and slower disks, and helps reduce stuttering on all CPU and disks, ChemBoy1 said.

Also high on the most downloaded mods list is Nyctaginae’s preset and sliders for their Rook (Veilguard’s customizable main character), Ayse de Riva, a female mage and elf Antivan Crow (“Based on my OC of 15+ years, hope you like her!”).

Expect more elaborate mods to release as modders get to grips with The Veilguard. We’ve seen the likes of Larian and CD Projekt release official mod tools for Baldur’s Gate 3 and The Witcher 3 respectively, which have unlocked an explosion in each game’s modding scene. Perhaps at some point down the line, BioWare will do the same for Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

And that might be important in keeping the game alive, given BioWare has indicated it has no plans to release DLC for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, with the developer now turning its attention to Mass Effect 5.

In the meantime, fans are busy digging into BioWare’s latest RPG after Dragon Age’s release on Thursday, propelling it to new highs for an EA game on Steam. They have plenty to find even without DLC — estimates on IGN sister site HowLongToBeat suggest that it can take upwards of 88 hours to complete the main story while doing sidequests.

For more, check out our guide to the major choices in Dragon Age: The Veilguard as well as our complete romance guide.

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.

The Forever Winter devs answer complaints about water scarcity… by adding thieves who invade your HQ and steal your water

When nightmarish sci-fi extraction shooter The Forever Winter launched into early access in September it was somewhat messy. Bugs and maddening enemy spawns diminished the tension of being a fleshy human scavenger in a mech battlefield. But one feature annoyed some players much more – fresh water. See, you need to keep your headquarters stocked with water, as it gets steadily used by your settlement’s inhabitants. The catch being that this water diminishes even while you’re not playing the game. If it runs out completely, then everything you’ve collected gets wiped. The developers have listened to complaints about this most Farmville of mechanics, and they’ve answered in an interesting way. Water thieves! Now, on top of the usual downward trickle, burglars will come to steal your H2O as well.

It’s not as bad as it sounds.

Read more

It’s Early Days, but Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket Already Looks Like a Smash Hit

Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket launched on October 30, and already there are signs it’s going to be a massive hit.

Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket is a mobile version of the Pokémon TCG for iOS and Android, developed by Creatures and DeNA and published by The Pokémon Company. Players swipe to open virtual packs of Pokémon trading cards, with “immersive cards” leaping into the world of the card’s illustration.

Players can open two booster packs every day at no cost, including cards with nostalgic illustrations as well as new cards only found in the app. But they must pay to open more, and it’s this mechanic that’s helping the money to roll in.

According to estimates from Appmagic reported on by mobilegamer.biz, Pokémon TCG Pocket is earning around $3 million a day, making over $12 million in just four days. That’s more than the eternally popular Pokémon Go is currently making on app stores, according to estimates ($1 million every day). If Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket keeps that revenue pace up, it’ll make over $1 billion a year.

Appmagic said most of the money Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket is making comes from Japan, then the U.S., followed by Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, New Zealand, and France. Officially, Pokémon TCG Pocket passed 10 million downloads on November 2, but Appmagic estimates it’s now over 12 million.

Of course, Pokémon TCG Pocket will need to see explosive growth to reach the height of Pokémon Go’s glory days, but it does look like all involved will be pleased with this start. The success comes at a troubling time for The Pokémon Company – in August Pokémon video game developer Game Freak suffered a significant data breach that saw 2,606 cases of current, former, and contract employee names and email addresses accessed. The Pokémon Company has also joined forces with Nintendo to sue Palworld developer Pocketpair over “multiple” patent infringements.

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.

Review: Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Switch) – Easily The Best Mario & Luigi RPG Yet

Gonna get yourself connected.

As the very first Mario & Luigi RPG to be released on a full-fat home console, we’ve been champing at the bit to discover whether or not Nintendo would capitalise on the extra grunt of the Switch to serve us up the biggest and best turn-based Bros. romp yet in the form of Mario & Luigi: Brothership.

We had some concerns during our preview. As much as we love the new graphical stylings and flashy additions to the series’ core combat, early areas were rather small-scale and not quite as challenging or inventive as we’d been prepping for. However! Fear not intrepid explorers, for more alluring high-seas hijinks, as it turns out, were waiting just around the corner. They have corners at sea, right?

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Will Nerf a Perk So Overpowered Some Call It a Wallhack

Treyarch has confirmed plans to nerf Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Recon perk after a backlash from players since the game’s launch last week.

The Recon 3-perk bonus lets players see enemies through walls for a short time after respawn, as well as add a HUD edge flash when an enemy is outside your view, and you leave no death skulls when killing enemies. To activate the Recon bonus, you must equip three Recon perks, for example Ghost, Engineer, and Vigilance.

It’s the seeing enemies through walls bit of the Recon perk that has sparked much debate within the Call of Duty community, with some even calling it a wallhack. Black Ops 6’s competitive multiplayer is played out on mostly small, close quarters maps with frequent dying and respawning, and being able to see enemies through walls on respawn, however briefly, provides a significant advantage.

This advantage is so significant that Recon’s 3-perk bonus is seen as essential to remain competitive, which means perks from the Enforcer and Strategist categories are being left behind. And with the addition of the hugely popular Nuketown map last week the power of Recon was exacerbated. This is a tight map often filled with chaotic death, so having most players running around with Recon means it’s very difficult to stay alive for any significant amount of time.

Over the weekend, with dissatisfaction at Recon reaching a head, Faze content creator Swagg called on Treyarch to nerf Recon, and associate director Matt Scronce answered the call with the simple: “Incoming.”

While we don’t have any details yet, Scronce’s message has already sparked a positive response from Black Ops 6 players who’ve blamed Recon for having a miserable experience with Multiplayer. The hope is the change comes in sooner rather than later, with Season 1 set to launch November 14.

If you’re jumping into Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 multiplayer, check out our Essential Multiplayer Tips and Tricks to help you get started. We’ve also got a full weapons list, a guide to all multiplayer maps and game modes, and details on how to unlock all Black Ops 6 operators.

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.

It’s never too early in the week to play 4D minigolf

I didn’t sleep last night for entirely self-inflicted reasons and my brain feels like that one accursed hoover bag you refuse to empty, because there is no way of doing so that won’t turn the neighbourhood into Silent Hill. I need to avoid any complicated write-ups, or my brain will detonate similarly and paint north London grey.

Ah, a minigolf game! I think I can just about hack the concept of minigolf, on this most desperate of Mondays. It is golf but mini. Bonzai golf. Digestible! Intuitive! Why, I’ve managed to write 100 words without even looking at the Steam page. Let’s do so now. Wait a minute, this isn’t minigolf. It’s Mini Mini Golf Golf. What is Mini Mini Golf Golf? “Destabilize the present and plunge into a neon psychohistory of a bizarre entity in distress,” the Steam page explains. “This is not a game about minigolf.” It is too late to flee.

Read more

Thysiastery is an anime Legend Of Grimrock, and you can attack the dinosaur merchants if you’re a complete monster

One of my lesser quality tests for an RPG is whether the shopkeepers complain at you for not buying anything. Grumpy shopkeepers, good RPG. This most specific of litmus tests has served me well, although I must admit that I’d happily upgrade it to ‘shopkeepers you can attack’, would that not disqualify 99% of games. But not turn based dungeon crawler Thysiastery, it turns out. This “dungeon crawler RPG featuring traditional roguelike and turn-based gameplay” apparently trusts you enough to let you recklessly batter its friendly wandering lizard merchants. You’d be a monster for it, of course, but it’s nice to have options.

Read more