Walmart is currently offering a PlayStation 5 Slim Disc Edition Console bundled with the Spider-Man 2 game for only $449 shipped. This was the same deal we saw back during Black Friday, but it’s currently unavailable everywhere else. Some merchants have the PS5 console for $450, but doesn’t include the game.
PS5 Slim Spider-Man 2 Disc Edition Console for $449
The PS5 Slim was release in November 2023. Compared to the original PlayStation 5 console, it’s 30% smaller in volume and 18% lighter. The design is a bit different too; the console is now clad in four separate cover panels, the two top halves are glossy white and the bottom halves are matte like the original. The specs under the hood are identical. Like the original PS5, the PS5 Slim can be upgraded with an M.2 SSD. A horizontal stand is included. You’d have to buy a vertical stand separately, however you might not need it because the PS5 Slim can stand on its own.
The best thing about this new PS5 Slim bundle is that you get a copy of the Spider-Man 2 game for free. This is an excellent PS5 exclusive and we gave it an 8/10 in our review.
Looking for more deals on accessorie sand games? Check out the best PS5 deals today.
Earlier this week, I had the chance to go hands-on with LEGO Horizon Adventures. Alongside all my other praise for this game, I really loved the immense level of detail put into making each and every LEGO brick component. That’s not a coincidence, either, as it turns out the entire world is made out of individual bricks in a way that could apparently be reconstructed in real life from actual physical LEGO sets.
Speaking to me at Summer Game Fest Play Days over the weekend, Guerrilla Games narrative director James Windeler told me about how this strange collaboration between Guerrilla and LEGO came about. Guerrilla had originally prototyped Horizon: Zero Dawn’s robot dinosaurs in DUPLO and had a lot of interest in model building. The team wanted to make something more lighthearted for its next project. And then there was that LEGO Tallneck collaboration from a few years back. On the LEGO side, LEGO really liked that the Horizon games had bright colors and optimistic themes, as well as a relatively inclusive fanbase. Put it all together, and it’s no wonder the two companies came to an understanding.
Most LEGO games up to now have been made by what is now called TT Games, but TT isn’t involved with this one. Instead, co-development group Studio Gobo and LEGO are working with Guerrilla Games, which itself has assembled a team including a number of individuals who worked on the original Zero Dawn. Windeler tells me many of them have had kids since Zero Dawn released, and those kids are now reaching an age where their parents want to play video games with them. Hence, Horizon Adventures’ co-op feature.
But a different team also means different approaches and capabilities, and for Guerrilla in particular that meant really sweating the LEGO details. Windeler says the team wanted Horizon Adventures to feel like a “playable LEGO movie,” and notes that every single asset in the game is “built from an individual [LEGO] brick.”
“It’s designed by master builders,” he says. “All of these things, from the coolest elements of Horizon, the majestic nature, the machines, the characters, they’re all following the rules of physical LEGO. So even though they’re made as digital assets, you could build them technically out of physical sets…And it also extends to the animation style and the way that the characters move in the game. There’s this kind of stop-motion of all of the characters. Yeah, it’s like a toy. ‘Toyetic’ was a word that was thrown around a lot as a target, and it’s the idea that you’re playing potentially with your own figurines.”
What Windeler is describing certainly showed in my hands-on time with the game. I pointed out that when characters fall off a high ledge, they humorously plop down flat like a LEGO shoved off a shelf. Then they quickly pop back up and trot off again with the jerky motions of a child walking a LEGO character around on a play mat. There are other little nods like that to the overall feel of playing with LEGOs – for instance, when I rescued some Nora villagers in my demo, there were a few generic LEGO people mixed in with the Horizon-themed costumes. What was that about?
“When you’re a kid, when you’re playing LEGO, with LEGO, you’re not necessarily building this completely unified world,” Windeler explains. “You’re using the LEGO that you have from your set.” Fair enough.
Windeler can’t comment on whether or not the very real buildability of LEGO Horizon Adventures means more LEGO Horizon sets are on the way, nor can he speak for whether or not other PlayStation IP will get LEGO games. He does tell me that LEGO Horizon Adventures’ story is about seven to eight hours long, and will have a replayable element at the end that will allow players to revisit regions they’d previously visited and unlock more customizations and other things. As Windeler told me, Horizon Adventures isn’t supposed to be a 20+ hour adventure the way Horizon: Zero Dawn was. It’s loosely based on Zero Dawn, but it’s meant to be digestible for everyone – not just ten hours of in-jokes for existing fans of Horizon.
“There’s tons of nods, and I mentioned iconic scenes that we’ve reinterpreted that will be recognizable and hopefully joyful to a fan of the series, but at the same time, we want people to come in who have no Horizon knowledge.”
God of War Ragnarok is officially coming to PC on September 19, and if you’re looking to play the game on release day, this is the best deal available. God of War Ragnarok is down to $49.79 via Fanatical using code FANATICAL17. The trusted Steam code seller has slashed the price of the upcoming release, with over $10 off the list price of $59.99.
This is one of the best PC gaming deals right now, and well worth considering. God of War: Ragnarok continues the stories of Kratos and his now teenage son, Atreus. The sequel was praised as an enthralling spectacle on its release, earning a 10 in IGN’s review.
“Impeccable writing, pitch-perfect performances, knockout action – it’s a complete work of art from top to bottom. Reflecting its core themes, it’s everything a sequel should be: respectful of its legendary lineage, but not afraid to take it to exciting new places,” we wrote at the time. “God of War Ragnarok is an almighty achievement and creates a new high that makes many of its peers look positively mortal by comparison.”
If you’re wondering what Xbox has going on at the moment following an exciting Xbox showcase, we have plenty of offers in our roundup of the best Xbox deals. You can score a Series X at a discount right now and there are quite a few Xbox controllers on sale that are worth checking out.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
Did you like Astro’s Playroom? I sure did. In fact, the meanest thing I can say about it is that there wasn’t enough of it – I finished its five levels and final boss battle within a single evening. But as if in response to my hunger for more of PlayStation’s newest mascot, developer Team Asobi has opened the floodgates in Astro Bot, a game that looks to be everything I loved about the Playroom, but galaxies more of it.
I played a 45-minute demo of Astro Bot at Summer Game Fest Play Days over the weekend, and what a blast it was! What Astro’s Playroom got right, and what Astro Bot continues to absolutely nail, is making it wildly fun to just run around and be Astro. Everything is tuned precisely to feel just right: his movement speed, his jumping height and distance, the exact way he smashes little crates and zaps enemies with feet lasers, the density of obstacles in my path and the exact way each stage follows a linear path but branches and loops back on itself to allow room for secrets. Running through a single level in Astro Bot clicks my brain cells into a flow state where I am constantly moving and always have an objective in mind, but don’t feel overwhelmed by my options. I love smashing stuff; I love jumping over stuff; I love bouncing off stuff.
Where Astro’s Playroom had five major levels themed loosely around PlayStation 5 components, Astro Bot sends our little hero cruising through space atop a giant DualSense controller, hopping from planet to planet in search of his lost bot buddies. I’m told Astro Bot has around 80 levels to visit, all bursting with hidden bots, puzzle pieces, boss battles, goofy power-ups, coins, and little challenges leading to delightful secrets.
I saw five levels in my playthrough. One, a lush area with clear pools, pink flamingos, and rolling green hills in the distance, was full of water-based mechanics. I swam through little reefs of colorful fish, slid down a giant water slide, and unzipped giant water bubbles to unleash the flood inside. There, Astro could inflate like a little robot bubble to drift quickly up to higher areas, a skill especially useful underwater. In another level themed around a construction zone, Astro flung paint around to uncover hidden platforms, sucked up metal items with giant magnets, and equipped some kind of dog jetpack to zoom across long distances his usual hover wouldn’t normally clear.
Another level centered around a boss fight with a giant octopus wearing boxing gloves. To compensate, I got ahold of a pair of my own frog-themed gloves that let Astro punch enemies at a distance and swing like a monkey from certain overhangs. Another (wildly minor) criticism I had of Astro’s Playroom was that some of its power-up/vehicle sections frustrated me due to cumbersome movement mechanics as they tried to showcase the PS5’s unique features. Freed from that obligation, Astro Bot is better able to focus on giving me new toys that are just pure fun to use. Quick, solid, alternating punches using R1 and R2 made me feel like I was Goku-fighting the octopus, and I sent him packing.
The final two stages I tried were special challenge levels designed to test my platforming abilities. One of them tested my ability to dodge rapidly spinning enemies on crumbling platforms, while another forced me to execute sections of tricky jumps in limited periods of time. I managed to finish both in the demo time allotted, though not without some struggle on the first one. It’s hard to gauge just from these two stages how high the difficulty of Astro Bot’s platforming will eventually scale. But what pleased me the most about them was how the fast respawn time and overall brevity of the stages made trying again and again and again so easy and enjoyable. I found myself thinking, “Just one more try,” more than once, only to try two, three, ten more times. There was a moment toward the end of the demo where I stopped, looked around, and realized everyone else had left the room already. Just one more try…and I nailed it.
And yes, Astro Bot looks to be a nostalgia-fest. Sure, when compared to Playroom, I think Astro Bot seems a bit more focused on being an excellent platformer rather than reveling in PlayStation history. But that’s to its benefit – levels like the watery/flamingo one don’t need to have references to Bloodborne every two feet to keep me happy. Rather, Astro Bot’s PlayStation celebration largely resides with the bots I’m rescuing through each level, some of whom are dressed up like favorites such as Ratchet, Rivet, PaRappa, and more. And I have reason to suspect fans of PlayStation’s biggest franchises might be well-rewarded for finishing certain levels. When I beat the octopus, for instance, I rescued a bot pair clad as Kratos and Atreus, who then flew off to an icy-looking planet I couldn’t access in the demo. If my reading is right, we might be in for a full-blown God of War-themed level in the full game, and perhaps more besides.
When Team Asobi first started making the Astro games, it was easy for me to mentally make a shorthand comparison of their work to Nintendo’s long history of platformers. Both have similar throughlines, especially with how the two make games that feel like touchable, experimental toys and how both emphasize playfulness, joy, and surprise. But I’m pretty well convinced Team Asobi is beyond chasing Nintendo’s pedigree. Built on the foundation of Astro’s Playroom, Astro Bot seemed poised to elevate the Astro games into a league all their own, if they weren’t there already. You’re telling me they’ve got 80 levels of what I just played? Sign me up to fly with Astro and crew.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
We’re fast approaching the sixth year of Fallout 76 and although the popular action RPG has received dozens of additions so far, it could be argued that the upcoming Skyline Valley update will be the most impactful of them all, at least from what I’ve seen of it so far.
From the first-of-its-kind map expansion to the ability to finally play as a Ghoul in 2025, here’s six exciting updates coming soon for all you vault dwellers to enjoy.
Appalachia is Getting Bigger
Fallout 76 has previously expanded its scope with new locations like 2022’s The Pitt Expedition and last year’s trip to Atlantic City. But unlike Expeditions, which take you to entirely different locations, Skyline Valley’s more seamless map extension approach means this is the very first time in six years that the core region is being expanded, spreading south into the Shenandoah region.
“We [knew] that there was a skirt around the whole map of unused space,” says Fallout 76’s Creative Director, Jon Rush. “And we wanted to do a region expansion for a while. We wanted to make it impactful and really tie it into the story, so [Skyline Valley] just felt like the right time and place.”
Previous Expeditions have been very isolated experiences, lacking maps or any real exploration opportunities outside of their specific questlines. Skyline Valley gives wastlanders the first chance to continue their 76 experience in new locations that are part of the main world map.
“There are very pointed reasons for going on the Expeditions [with] specific things you’re trying to get,” says Rush. “So we wanted an in-world place where [players] could adventure and explore. Camp builders can make new camps [here] and people can come up with their own new stories.”
20 New Points of Interest
Skyline Valley isn’t just a side quest. With the map expansion comes 20 new points of interest for players to explore, with some such as Mary’s Rock Tunnel, Rapidan Camp, and Skyline Drive being based on real-world Shenandoah locations.
There are also new factions, quests, and activities coming to the expansion, including a new event called ‘Dangerous Pastimes’ that tasks you as a storm chaser trying to power up a giant lightning rod and hopefully kick off an electrical light show.
A Brand New Vault to Explore
Hardcore Fallout 76 fans will be no stranger to Vault 63, a bunker that has remained mysteriously closed since launch. Skyline Valley will finally open its giant mechanical door for the first time and let players discover what’s hidden inside.
“Why [has] that Vault 63 door been closed for so long?” asks Rush, hinting that the answers are soon to be discovered. “It has drawn so much intrigue and mystery [with fans], ‘What’s going on back there? There’s something.’”
A lot of the true nature of Vault 63 is still a mystery, but what we do know is that Skyline Valley will trigger an incident that finally exposes Vault 63 to the wasteland, catapulting its once-sealed door across Appalachia. As for what’s inside, we know Vault 63 wasn’t completed before the bombs dropped, and so all of its residents were soaked in radiation and turned into (albeit quite content) ghouls. Their leader, Hugo Stolz, looks slightly different, though. Hugo is (at least cosmetically) one of the brand-new enemy types coming with the Skyline Valley update called The Lost.
The Lost
The Lost are former denizens of Vault 63 who now live out their days as electrified, almost feral ghouls.
“The Lost dwell in their own skewed reality,” explains Rush. “[They’re] unable to communicate outside to others and will defend themselves against all outsiders.”
Why they’re electrified and why Hugo’s mind hasn’t deteriorated like the rest of his kin is still yet to be explained. But what we do know is that The Lost will regularly roam the Skyline Valley region once Vault 63 is exposed, and are very much the main fodder you’ll have to deal with. They act almost feral-like, with a focused impulsion to hunt you down and swing their melee weapons in your direction.
The Lost aren’t the only new enemy types coming to Skyline Valley, though.
Storm Goliaths
We’ve only seen some short glimpses so far, but the Storm Goliaths are three giant, raging robots that appear to harness bad weather and weaponise it directly into your face.
“[Storm Goliaths are] a trio of super-sized robo-brains built by the great minds of Vault 63,” shares Rush, letting on that Vault 63 contains a bevy of bad ideas that have now been unleashed into Appalachia.
But it’s not just technical monstrosities you’ll have to tangle with. Skyline Valley continues the tradition of irradiated mutations, with a particular new highlight being the Thrasher; a weird, cow-sized mutant turkey hybrid that now roams the hills of Shenandoah.
In a later update coming in 2025, though, you won’t just be fighting radiated nightmares, you’ll become one.
Play as a Ghoul
For the first time ever, Fallout 76 will give level 50+ players the chance to don the leathery, noseless skin of a ghoul. According to Rush, this is significantly more than a cosmetic appearance.
“If you’re a ghoul, you’re obviously not too concerned about radiation,” he says. “Radiation can actually heal you as a ghoul. It will also be positioned to have other very striking benefits as well, punctuated a bit more by dozens of ghoul-specific perk cards that we’re going to be adding.”
Rush explains that the key to ensuring playing as a ghoul was far more than a cosmetic experience was realising how it could alter the gameplay for experienced players.
“Most players wear power armour to get away from radiation. As a ghoul, you wouldn’t want to wear power armour, because [you want the radiation], right? ” explains Rush. “So that encourages a playstyle that doesn’t [need] power armour and frees up a ton of perk points that can be used in a bunch of different other ways.”
Playing as a ghoul will disrupt the meta for Fallout 76, changing the way players optimise their character and encouraging further, unprecedented experimentation. It’s clearly something that the team at Bethesda have had in their minds for a while, but It feels like no coincidence that this is arriving hot on the heels of Walton Goggins’ The Ghoul in the extremely successful Amazon Prime Video show. With the popularity around ghouls never being higher, it makes sense that fans of the show would want to live out their irradiated fantasies in Fallout 76.
Rush also all but confirmed a gameplay mechanic is directly inspired by the show. Fallout on Prime established rules for how a ghoul maintains lucidity, via copious amounts of the drug-like remedy that prevents a downward spiral into the zombie-like, feral status. When asked if regularly drinking the mysterious concoction would be used as a gameplay survival feature he simply replied “Possibly” while maintaining a smile that would make a Vault Boy proud.
For more from the Appalachian wasteland, why not check out our documentary about the weird and wonderful community that still plays Fallout 76, including roleplaying cannibals, a Shakespeare troupe and a full-time courier service.
Lies of P is one of the more memorable Soulslike games in recent years, as well as a fascinating take on the classic novel The Adventures of Pinocchio. In other words, it’s a perfect choice as the latest entry in Dark Horse’s ever-growing lineup of video game-themed art books.
IGN can exclusively reveal the cover art and first details for The Art of Lies of P. Check out the cover below:
The Art of Lies of P is a hardcover book that offers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the game, featuring 224 pages of concept art and creator commentary from the employees at ROUND8 Studios.
“When we decided to make an art book for Lies of P, we knew we wanted to create something that served as a thank you to our fans while giving a behind-the-scenes peek at the development process for the game,” said Jiwon Choi, Director of Lies of P, in a statement. “The team at Dark Horse Books took our vision for ‘The Art of Lies of P’ and is crafting something that is truly vibrant and speaks to the love and effort from the team at ROUND8 Studios. We hope it brings joy to our Lies of P community!”
The Art of Lies of P is priced at $49.99 and will be released in bookstores on November 12 and comic shops on November 13.
In IGN’s Lies of P review, Travis Northup scored the game an 8 out of 10, writing, “Lies of P might not branch out particularly far from its soulslike inspiration, but like a marionette controlled by a skilled puppet master, it plays the part extremely well in a wonderfully dark fantasy world. It must be said that its uneven difficulty didn’t always make me feel like an underdog, especially when playing as a brawny, overpowered version of Pinocchio with a massive weapon, and combat pigeonholed me into a specific playstyle while the levels are less open and twisting than most. But with an awesome weapon crafting system, some really memorable boss fights, and one of the better stories we’ve seen in this genre, I can enthusiastically recommend you spend your time hanging out with Gepetto and friends. If you’ve been waiting for a Bloodborne remaster or sequel that may never come, Lies of P is the next best thing.”
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Posting to X/Twitter, modder Craneo showcased a retro version of The Dark Ages’ saw shield being used in the opening level of Doom 2 on PC. The mod replaces the original game’s chainsaw with the new shieldsaw, but this isn’t just a re-skin. In an effort to truly replicate what we saw in The Dark Ages’ trailer, Craneo’s modded saw not only cuts through enemies, but can also be thrown into distant foes and used to defend against damage.
This work arrived in quicker than quick time: Craneo posted the video of the mod to X/Twitter barely 12 hours after the trailer for Doom: The Dark Ages had debuted as part of the Xbox Games Showcase. Minutes later the .wad file for the mod was also posted.
While developed quickly, the mod seems built on smart logic. The defend ability likely triggers a temporary use of Doom’s godmode cheat to negate incoming damage – a skill the game’s original chainsaw certainly doesn’t have. As for the throw, it requires a little tinkering in the sourceport options, but it’s an effective weapon in the OG Doom’s confined corridors, especially because it can ricochet. This version of the shield sadly can’t boomerang back to you, though, so you’ll need to stay alive long enough to pick it back up.
2023 and 2024 have shown that 2TB PS5 SSD upgrades are actually worth the price. In 2022, prices for 1TB PS5 SSDs averaged around $150, whereas 2TB SSDs hovered closer to $300. Now, we’re seeing 1TB SSDs trickle below the $70 price point and 2TB SSDs can drop to around $100 or sometimes even lower if there’s a good sale. It’s worth noting, though, that you can’t use any old SSD and expect it to perform well on the PS5 console. You’ll want to pick up a PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 solid-state drive with at least a 5,500MB/s read speed to match the PS5’s internal drive.
TL;DR – The Best 2TB PS5 SSD Deals Right Now
Note that Sony recommends a heatsink attached to your SSD and not all SSDs listed here have pre-installed heatsinks. For the ones that do, we’ll be sure to mention it. For the ones that don’t, all you have to do is purchase your own heatsink (like this one for $9) and install it yourself. For our top recommended picks for 2024, check out our full breakdown for the Best PS5 SSDs.
Adata Legend 960 Max 2TB SSD with Heatsink for $129.99
This deal is exclusive to Amazon Prime members, but is well worth taking advantage of before it’s gone. The 2TB Adata Legend 960 Max is marked down to just $129.99, and alongside fast read/write speeds, it also comes with a preinstalled heatsink so it’ll be ready to use in your PS5 right away.
Silicon Power 2TB XS70 SSD with Built-in PS5 Heatsink for $143.99
This SSD offers 2TB of storage, excellent read and write speeds (read speeds of up to 7,300MB/s and write speeds up to 6,800MB/s), and a built-in heatsink all at a fantastic price. It’s currently available for $143.99 on Amazon, 20% off its MSRP of $179.99, so well worth picking up for your PS5.
WD_Black 2TB SN850X SSD for $148.75
Right now, Amazon has the WD_Black 2TB SN850X SSD available for just $148.75. Normally priced at $189.99, this 2TB SSD features speeds up to 7,300MB/s to ensure your games load as fast as possible. This model will work with PS5, but you will need to purchase a heatsink to go with it (which you can do here for just $9).
This is another 2TB SSD deal that’s well worth taking advantage of. This option from XPG has dropped 29% in price, from $209.99 to $149.99, but you’ll have to grab a heatsink to go with it as well (which you can do here for $9). This SSD has read and write speeds of 7400/6800MB/s as well.
WD_BLACK PS5 4TB SSD for $309.99 at Amazon
This is a great deal for those looking to maximize their PS5’s storage. For a limited time only, this PS5 4TB SSD is available at Amazon for just $309.99 (see here). Normally, it has an MSRP of $699.99, but nowadays, this and many other 4TB SSDs have been sitting around $280-$300 recently. You’ll also have to grab a heatsink to go with it (which you can do here for $9).
2024 Crucial T705 2TB SSD for $294.99
This is the newest model from Crucial and it already has an excellent discount on Amazon. For a limited time, you can get 26% off this SSD, bringing it down to $294.99 from $399.99. It’s well worth the investment as well, as it offers crazy good sequential read/write speeds up to 14,500/12,700MB/s. If you feel the need for speed, this SSD will certainly get you there.
Samsung 990 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 SSD for $169.99
The Samsung 990 Pro is an excellentSSD for your PS5. From a purely performance perspective, it’s overkill; the stock SSD in your PS5 will be the limiting factor. You’ll want to pick up a PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 solid state drive with a rated 5,500MB/s read speed to match the PS5’s internal drive and the 990 Pro is much faster. This one does not come with a heatsink, though, so you’ll need to invest in one.
Crucial T500 2TB SSD with Heatsink for $169.99
Amazon is offering a nice deal at the moment on the Crucial T500 2TB SSD, which is discounted down to $169.99. This SSD has a heatsink all ready to go, so you can install it right away in your PS5, and even offers excellent read/write speeds of 7,400/7,000MB/s.
What if the SSD Doesn’t Include a Heatsink?
Sony recommends you install an SSD that has an attached heatsink. If the SSD you purchase doesn’t include one, it’s simple enough to buy one for $9 on Amazon and add it yourself. Most of these heatsinks are just attached using an adhesive like thermal tape.
Budget to Best: PS5 SSDs
There may be other SSD deals out there, but these are the PS5 SSDs we’ve tried ourselves and highly recommend. They also double up as outstanding boot drives for your gaming PC, in case you don’t need additional storage for your PS5 console.
How To Install a New PS5 SSD
It’s extremely easy! Removing the case cover is completely toolless. In fact, the only screw you have to remove is the one that keeps the cover for the SSD bay in place. You don’t even put it back when you’re done. Sony has a quick and easy YouTube video guide.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.
There certainly weren’t many flaws to shine a shaky flashlight beam on in Alan Wake II, but one thing I did lament in 2023’s excellent survival horror sequel was the total absence of Night Springs episodes on the in-game televisions. These quirky, Twilight Zone-inspired tales were a consistent joy to discover in Alan Wake’s original 2010 adventure, so to find them seemingly off the air as though they were the casualties of some sort of in-game writers’ strike was a touch disappointing. The good news is that the series has returned in a now fully-playable form thanks to the Alan Wake II: Night Springs DLC, which serves up three standalone stories that take us back to the small town of Bright Falls and beyond. They’re admittedly a little on the short side since I was able to knock all three episodes over in a single two-hour sitting, but I certainly had a blast with these twisted new nightmares while they lasted.
Night Springs’ first episode, Number One Fan, is definitely both the goofiest and goriest in the collection, allowing us to play as obsessive Alan Wake fan Rose Marigold as she waits tables in Bright Falls’ Oh Deer Diner. This action-heavy installment begins with Rose topping up coffee cups and clearing away pie crumb-covered plates, but she’s soon compelled to blaze a trail through a bloodthirsty mob after she’s sent an SOS from Alan Wake himself, who’s apparently been kidnapped. How does she receive this request for help? Via an unexpected transmission through the puckered maw of one of those wall-mounted Big Mouth Billy Bass singing fishes that thousands of disappointed dads unwrapped on Fathers Day in the year 2000. Yep, things in Night Springs are enjoyably off-kilter almost from the very outset.
Number One Fan completely strips the survival component out of Alan Wake II by strapping a fully automatic shotgun to Rose’s shoulder and lining the pockets of her apron with an almost limitless supply of shells. The whole episode takes place during the magic hour shortly before sunset so none of the enemies are cloaked in shadowy shields, and therefore there’s no need to burn the darkness away with a battery-hungry flashlight before you can dispatch them. Instead, the combat in Number One Fan swaps the series’ signature light-based fights for more high tempo running and gunning. Although its crunchy gunplay may be more straightforward, it still manages to be an ultra violent delight thanks to the campy ‘50s rock music that propels it and the cutesy quips that Rose spouts with each axe-wielding maniac she mulches – like she’s a pump-action-toting Princess Peach. Night Springs’ first episode kicks the collection off with a concussive sequence of skull-shattering bangs in Rose’s relentlessly entertaining and revved up rescue mission.
Night Springs’ first episode kicks the collection off with a concussive sequence of skull-shattering bangs.
Guest Side Story
The second episode, North Star, slows the pace down considerably as you plunge into the inkiest depths of darkness you’d expect from an Alan Wake adventure. I was initially thrilled to step back into the shoes of Jesse Faden from Control here, however my enthusiasm took a bit of a hit when I realised that she hadn’t brought her amazing shape-shifting gun and spectacular suite of superpowers from the 2019 action epic along with her. Still, this midnight stalk through the creepy Coffee World theme park featured in Alan Wake II’s main campaign successfully ratchets up the tension after the comparatively carefree murder spree of the previous episode, arming Jesse with a flashlight and regular, non-transforming pistol as she is pit against the same spooky silhouettes that had me nervously shooting at shadows in last year’s game.
North Star is also the more puzzle-oriented of the episodes featured here, and I enjoyed cracking keypad codes and manipulating the mechanical controls of a ferris wheel during this brief investigation into the mysterious disappearance of Jesse’s brother. Still, I can’t help but feel that of the three episodes included in Night Springs, this second one is the least remarkable. It fails to leverage the jaw-dropping skill set of its guest star, and a lot of what transpires in it feels like well-made but fairly standard survival horror fare. This whole second episode effectively went down like a hot beverage from the Coffee World concession stand – stimulating enough, but it also left me with a slightly bitter taste in my mouth.
Serling Silver
Thankfully, Night Springs’ third and final episode, Time Breaker, is the best and boldest of the bunch and rounds out this collection in the most mind-bendingly meta way possible. Here we’re cast as the real-world actor Shawn Ashmore, who we find reprising his role as Sheriff Breaker from Alan Wake II in a brand new game being directed by developer Remedy Entertainment’s creative director, Sam Lake. During a break in production and after a hilarious moment with Lake giving an extremely self-aware and exhaustingly acronym-heavy explanation of his new game’s plot, Ashmore is blinked into another time and space by Night Springs’ Rod Serling stand-in and multiversal maestro, Mr. Door.
What follows is a surreal string of sequences through ominous forest paths and disorientating hotel corridor loops, psychedelically shifting from the monochrome presentation of early television to the vivid colours of comic book paneling that seem to intentionally mirror Remedy’s past work on the Max Payne series. To say anything more would be to spoil too much, but there are some excellent story surprises and left-turn level designs to be found here that rival the most outside-of-the-box moments from the main Alan Wake II campaign, and it meant that Night Springs finished on a thoroughly hypnotic high note that left me wanting more.
Action game aficionados have been well-fed in the recent past with games like Stellar Blade and Sekiro, but based on a new hands-on gameplay demo at Summer Games Fest, it looks like Phantom Blade 0 will stand up with the leaders in the genre.
Aside from a short tutorial, the demo does not take much time setting things up, preferring to leap right into the action. The main character, Soul, is given two main weapons to switch between at first: a pair of short swords and one longer katana. This switching mechanic does not just change playstyle and reach, but allows Soul to regain their stamina bar immediately to continue their combo and scratch away at the enemy lifebar.
In addition to these offensive weapons, the protagonist is given defensive options in the form of both parries and dodges. As per action game tradition, parries break down the enemy’s wearwithal to open them up for a combo opportunity. Dodges, meanwhile, help you avoid enemy attacks that either cannot be parried or might be too difficult to try.
Phantom Blade 0 has more in common with something like Ninja Gaiden Black than games on the From Software spectrum
Where this comes into play is PBZ’s playstyle. Approaching it more like a Souls game is absolute folly, as that patience-driven, opportunity-seizing gameplay will end up earning a quick and unnecessary death to enemies that will get to those opportunities first. Instead, Phantom Blade Zero rewards a hyper-aggressive playstyle in order to make those defensive options shine.
Meanwhile, enemies are largely made up of warriors of similar size to Soul, suffering very little in the way of knockback to individual attacks. Combos with the pair of short swords will not stop an enemy intent on hurting Soul from completing their attack, but constantly hammering them with it will chip away as you switch weapons, dodge, and parry a path to victory. In this way, Phantom Blade 0 has more in common with something like Ninja Gaiden Black than games on the From Software spectrum, putting an emphasis on relentless attacks to outclass Soul’s opponents.
The art style is described by the developers at S-Game as “China Punk,” taking classical Chinese mythos and environments and combining them with modern sensibilities. The technical prowess on display so far indicates that PBZ will be able to reach those lofty goals with the final version and impress on a visual level.
The Summer Games Fest demo I played featured three small sections with increasingly difficult bosses. In the first, a cliffside fort featuring some warriors and archers needed to be defeated in order to move on. There are a number of options for taking them out, including using one Soul’s projectile weapons like a bow or a big handheld dragon mouth laser. Footholds and paths can also lead up to them, preventing Soul from being buffeted by arrows any further.
Huangxing presents the hardest battle of the demo by being aggressive, having wildly damaging attacks, and being hard to predict.
Defeating the boss, Tie Sha the Frenzy, is the first real test of skill in the demo and it demands a degree of understanding the parrying concept before moving on. Proper dodging and parrying can take care of Tie Sha quickly, but slipping up might make the battle more difficult to regain the momentum.
After Tie Sha, the demo moves Soul to another level where he encounters the second boss fight available: the alliteratively named Commander Cleave. This larger boss unsurprisingly wields a cleaver sword that tears through Soul’s defenses, so proper timing is paramount. He also has a fair bit of health and defensive options of his own, making him feel like the first real skill test of the demo.
Upon defeating Commander Cleave, the final challenge is presented: a one-on-one fight against Huangxing, the Sunken Pillar of Kunlun. Huangxing presents the hardest battle of the demo by being aggressive, having wildly damaging attacks, and being hard to predict. His one-hit kill, a move where he swings a basket around and lands it on Soul’s head to decapitate him, can only be avoided by staggering him with heavy weapons or leaping off a pillar in the room to dodge it.
The best way to stagger him turned out to be using a weapon received from Commander Cleave, his trademark cleaver, and start comboing Huangxing with the knives and switching to the cleaver for a big transitional hit. Beating the hulking warrior is not easy, but it is definitely satisfying.
What wasn’t in the demo, though, was any level design. Dropping directly into combat areas and bosses meant there was no space to look around and figure out the structure between fights. While Phantom Blade Zero absolutely nails its controls and the fighting feels fast and frantic, the unknown questions still leave more puzzle pieces to be filled in. Based on what has been shown so far, however, S-Game’s newest action offering is swinging for the fences and has a good chance of succeeding.
