Amid the success of the Fallout TV show, Fallout video games are enjoying a resurgence in popularity. The player boost is so significant that even NexusMods is struggling to cope.
The mod site issued a warning over the weekend that increased interest in Fallout mods had caused heavy network traffic, forcing it to deploy “extra resources” to cope. Explaining the situation, NexusMods namechecked the popularity of the Fallout TV show.
“We are experiencing much more traffic than usual due to the popularity of the Fallout TV series,” NexusMods said in a statement. “We have deployed extra resources where possible and we are monitoring the uptime and performance across the network. We have staff on call at all times to deal with any problems.
“Please do be aware that this extra traffic could cause a degraded experience across the website and our applications.”
Even now, April 22, the problem continues, with a “degraded performance” warning on-site.
Perhaps it’s no surprise to see NexusMods struggling given the increase in player numbers for everything from the original Fallout to the most recent release, Fallout 76. On Steam, which tracks concurrent player numbers, Fallout 4 has seen a significant increase, resulting in a peak concurrent player count of 164,190 over the weekend. Fallout 76, meanwhile, has hit its all-time peak on Valve’s platform, with 73,368 concurrents. The actual player numbers for Fallout games will be even higher, given their availability on multiple platforms, including Game Pass.
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 only that, but there’s been some huge sales on the Fallout franchise since the show hit our screens, and Fallout 76 is even free to download on Xbox and PC right now as well. With all that in mind, if you’re looking to play Fallout 4 again this week ready for the ‘next-gen’ update on April 25, here are all the best deals running right now for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.
While some of these aren’t as cheap as the game has been in recent weeks (Fallout 4 was $5 during the Steam FPS sale), it’s worth having an idea of the best prices at the moment in case a better deal does come along and you can act swiftly in order to secure it. Plus, Fallout 4 is also available on PS Plus Extra or Game Pass, so if you have either of those subscriptions the game is available to play at no extra cost.
If you’re after even more of the post-nuclear wasteland, consider checking out our Fallout partnership on the IGN Store; featuring Fallout hoodies, TV show merch, fully functional Pip-Boy replicas, and so much more.
The Fallout TV series arrived on Prime Video on April 10 when the streaming service dropped all eight episodes from the first season concurrently. Following its debut, the series has been met with overwhelmingly positive feedback from fans and critics — particularly those praising Goggins for his portrayal of the gunslinging Ghoul Cooper Howard. Since its release, Prime Video officially renewed Fallout for a second season.
With the show’s success, IGN recently caught up with Bethesda Game Studios executive Todd Howard and executive producer and director Jonathan Nolan for a wide-ranging, spoiler-filled interview. In it, Nolan alluded to his plans for the future of Fallout.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
Solving puzzles may happen in your daily life from various word puzzle games like Wordle, or through strategy-based games and puzzle books, but piecing together a physical puzzle is a great way to focus your brain, relax and unwind. As a hobby for all ages, there are hundreds of jigsaw puzzles to choose from these days. However, this list focuses on what we’ve found as the most challenging yet rewarding puzzles with adults in mind, and even included some 3D gems in the mix.
What’s even better is they come in a variety of different styles and designs once put together. Whether you want the finished product to reflect your favorite franchise, game, artwork, or a piece of beautiful scenery, there are puzzles for everyone to enjoy. The below list includes a nice range of sizes as well, from 1,000 pieces to a whopping 3,000 pieces, so you’ll still have quite the challenge when putting them together.
TLDR: The Best Puzzles for Adults
The Legend of Zelda Hyrule Map Jigsaw Puzzle
If The Legend of Zelda games are right up your alley, this is an excellent jigsaw puzzle to have in your collection. Coming in at 1,000 pieces, you can piece together a full map of Hyrule to have in your home. It has a fantastic antique style that’ll be great for showing off once it’s all put together. Frame it and keep it, or pass it on to the next puzzler in your life to do next!
The Mystic Maze Jigsaw Puzzle
Puzzles from the Magic Puzzle Company truly are magical. Not only does this puzzle, called The Mystic Maze, feature over 50 easter eggs for you to find, but it even has a surprise ending for after you’ve finished putting it together. It’s an exciting twist on the usual puzzle, and well worth picking up for your puzzle and games collection.
Marvel Mjolnir 3D Puzzle
If you’re looking for another unique puzzle, this 3D puzzle of Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, is a great twist on a usual puzzle. This model kit comes with 8 sheets of 87 pieces for you to use in order to put this iconic hammer together. It even comes with a stand so you can set it up and show it off once it’s all done, making it a great addition to any superhero collection.
Marvel Infinity Gauntlet 3D Puzzle
This is another 3D puzzle from the same company listed above and features another memorable Marvel item: The Infinity Gauntlet. This puzzle comes with a few more pieces than Mjolnir – 14 sheets with 142 pieces – but comes with a stand as well so you can set it up for display afterward. If you’re a Marvel fan, this is a great investment to have, especially if you enjoy collectibles.
Star Wars: Galactic Child Jigsaw Puzzle
This jigsaw puzzle is absolutely worth picking up if you’re a Star Wars fan. Coming in at 1,000 pieces, it features Grogu front and center in his little pod with a gorgeous cosmic background behind him. It also comes with a full-color bonus poster to help you with piecing together this Grogu puzzle perfectly. Other Star Wars fans in your life will want to borrow this puzzle when you’re done; unless of course, you want to keep it and frame it!
Marvel Spider-Verse Jigsaw Puzzle
Venture into the Spider-Verse with this excellent jigsaw puzzle from Buffalo Games. This 1,000 piece puzzle is a sight to behold, featuring Peter Parker, Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Ham, and many more Spideys. It even features some of his greatest enemies lurking around if you take a closer look. This Silver Select puzzle also comes in a giftable box with silver foil accents.
Phoenix Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle
Not only does this wooden puzzle look great once it’s all put together, but the pieces themselves also have unique shapes. You’ll find shapes of animals and nature items which are fun to spot as you admire the final pieced-together product. Our pick for this Phoenix jigsaw puzzle above comes with 200 pieces, but you can also grab a large version (290 pieces) or x-large version (680 pieces).
Stained Glass Flower Puzzle
This is another puzzle that’s well worth displaying after you’ve put it together. With 1,000 pieces in the box, this puzzle features a vibrant stained glass design with flowers blooming at the center. It’s a great one to work at slowly and appreciate the beautiful result once you’re all finished.
’80s Game Room Pop Culture Jigsaw Puzzle
Feeling nostalgic? This puzzle is ready to transport you back to the ’80s and ’90s, thanks to its retro style and assortment of pop culture references that you’ll be just as busy pointing out even after you’ve pieced it all together. It also comes with 1,000 pieces, so you’ll be able to spend plenty of time immersed in it.
Stranger Things Trilogy Jigsaw Puzzle
Season 5 of Stranger Things may not be premiering for a while yet, but there’s no better time to start rewatching the previous seasons, right? And while you’re doing that, you can work on this gigantic 2,000-piece Stranger Things puzzle that focuses on its first three seasons and features Eleven, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will, and Max. It’s a fantastic investment if you’re a Stranger Things fan, and one that’s sure to keep you busy for a while, too.
With Sunday here, the weekend is almost over—but there are so many great deals to check out before it ends. We’ve rounded up some of the best deals you can find this weekend, with everything games and technology included. The best deals for Sunday, April 21, include the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless Headset, HORI Split Pad Compact, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Super Mario RPG, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, Persona 3 Reload, and more.
Arctis Nova Pro Wireless Headset for $279.99
Amazon has the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro discounted by 20% to $279.99. While this is still expensive, the Nova Pro is one of the best gaming headsets on the market and normally starts at $349.99. The Nova Pro features Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) through four microphones placed around the headset. Additionally, you can customize your audio with the Sonar Software and Base Station.
HORI Split Pad Compact for $31.99
The HORI Split Pad Compact is one of the best ergonomic controllers you can buy for the Nintendo Switch. Attaching like standard Joy-Con, the Split Pad Compact slides onto each side of your Switch and immediately widens the console. This makes longer handheld play sessions much more comfortable and bearable over time, especially if you have larger hands. The Pac-Man model features all sorts of fun details to personalize your system.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage for $20
Woot currently has Assassin’s Creed Mirage available for only $19.99. Ubisoft looked to take the series back to its roots for this release with a classic setting and refreshed gameplay mechanics. You can expect an action title with plenty of stealth abilities to sneak around its map. If you’re an Assassin’s Creed fan who has felt burnt out with recent entries, Mirage is a refreshing change of pace. We gave the game an 8/10 in our review, stating the game is “a successful first step in returning to the stealthy style that launched this series.”
Persona 3 Reload for $39.99
Persona 3 Reload is one of the best RPGs of the year so far. This remake recreates one of the most praised Atlus titles ever, with loads of new quality-of-life and gameplay features. An all-new voice cast debuted with this release, and each cutscene was remade with new assets for higher quality. With the Episode Aigis -The Answer- DLC set for this Fall, now is a great time to jump in and experience Persona 3.
Save 40% Off Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Deluxe Edition
If you still haven’t purchased Granblue Fantasy: Relink yet, this deal is a great opportunity to do so! The Deluxe Edition includes quite a few extra items you don’t get in the standard edition of the game. For starters, an art book is included, which features character art and concept art from the title. You will also receive in-game DLC, including the Starter Item Pack, Character Color Packs, and an exclusive weapon. Additionally, a soundtrack CD and set of postcards are included.
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe for $39.99
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe is one of the biggest content packages available on Switch. There are over 160 courses available to choose from in the game, which makes for dozens of hours of fun to be had. While the premiere Nintendo Switch 2D Mario title is Super Mario Bros. Wonder, this package is an excellent pickup that any Switch owner should add to their collection.
Super Mario RPG for $44.80
The remake of Super Mario RPG is $5 off at Amazon right now, which is a great price for this classic title. If you’ve yet to either play the original or check out the remake, this is the perfect time to do so. Composer Yoko Shimimura returned to compose the remake’s original soundtrack, and each boss and environment has been expertly recrafted for the Nintendo Switch. It’s the perfect Mario title to check out if you’re looking for a fun title while awaiting Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door next month!
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 for $30
For just $30, you can own the first three Metal Gear Solid titles on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, or Nintendo Switch. This package also includes Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Prior to the Master Collection, there was no method to play the Metal Gear Solid titles on most modern consoles, but you can now experience Hideo Kojima’s series from the very beginning anywhere.
Payday 3: Collector’s Edition for $49.99
Payday 3 was released during a very busy Fall season of releases, which left it off many players’ radars. Woot currently has the Collector’s Edition of the game on sale for over 60% off, and it includes some very neat bonuses. First off, The Collector’s Mask is the key item included, which is a replica of the iconic Payday masks used in the game. There’s also a custom deck of cards, stickers, a membership letter to the Collector’s Club, and more included alongside a copy of the game.
Save $40 Off the Anker 60,000mAh Power Bank Station
This massive Anker power bank is on sale right now at Amazon. You can clip a $40 coupon to grab this item for $109.99, and it’s packed with tons of great features. With the 60,000mAh capacity, you can charge laptops, phones, and gaming devices simultaneously with ease. The built-in screen displays all relevant charging info you need to know, such as battery level, power distribution, and more. You can even recharge this power bank using solar energy.
Save 50% Off Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections
Amazon currently has the PlayStation 5 version of Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections on sale for $30. Originally priced at $59.99, this title has loads of content that any Naruto fan is sure to appreciate. Featuring the largest roster in any of the Storm games, there’s an endless amount of fun, customization, and experimentation to be had with the characters.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is a classic rags to riches tale, only about an entire army. I didn’t know what my team would end up looking like when I started recruiting dozens of unique characters – however, as more fighters joined my cause, from a two-faced healer with a brutish side to a magical girl with a hero complex, this unpredictable journey started to take shape. The scale of the story grew with every chapter, folding in more countries and people that would eventually turn my ragtag team into a proper battalion. That sizable cast and loads of side content can add fluff to the campaign, with half-baked elements like encounters that rely on RNG to drag things down a bit. But for anyone willing to hold out long enough, Hundred Heroes’ slow burn eventually lights into an impressive fire.
Hundred Heroes follows Nowa, a new recruit in a local army who has been tasked with cooperating with the larger empire’s special forces team. While that could have put him at odds with Seign, a rising talent that leads that team, what ensues instead is a bonding moment that sets the tone nicely for the entire campaign – that two opposing sides could find compromise rather than conflict. The story might feel like a typical hero’s journey at first, but as you peel back the layers, you’ll start to understand that there’s more to the main cast and why they fight for what they do.
Unlike its spin-off prequel, the hack-and-slash side-scroller Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, Hundred Heroes mainly operates as a turn-based RPG. You control a party of six characters that you can swap around before or after battle, each with their own stat distributions and abilities that set them apart from others. For example, Lian is a hard-hitting fighter with weak defenses, while Garr is a sturdy tank with decent offense but no magic. These are the types of pros and cons you need to think about when building a team, though Hundred Heroes will give you so many characters to choose from that you can completely ignore most of them. That’s fun mechanically, but it does mean some feel like they are there just to serve a temporary purpose in the plot.
Like the name “Hundred Heroes” might suggest, there are over a whopping 100 characters that either fill a role in your town or fight at your side. It’s a bit like Pokemon with soldiers, but there are different requirements for each one if you want to catch ‘em all. Some might join you immediately after you speak to them, whereas others could request that you come back after you get stronger. Some of these allies fight at your side, and others eventually run stores at the castle town that acts as your home base. Finding elusive recruits entertained me between story chapters, both as a way to gather valuable materials and learn more about the world.
Most of my team comps ended up being similar in the end.
Sometimes a chapter will put specific characters on your team for story reasons, which forces you to experiment with new allies. Some even have “Hero Combos” they can only use with certain teammates, which range from abilities that deal more damage than the two attackers would on their own to ones that can hit all enemies at once while buffing allies at the same time. The specific ability depends on the heroes, but I found that most of my team comps ended up being similar in the end. I generally used characters with high attack power to defeat tough enemies, enough survivability to resist strong attacks, and healing capabilities to keep the team alive, which made many of the most unique characters feel more like gimmicks than necessary tools.
You will likely find a steady team that serves your needs by the halfway point of the roughly 50-hour campaign, though you’re free to shake things up with other characters as you wish. There is no “exp share” mechanic that enables you to keep your benched characters at the same level as your traveling companions, but Hundred Heroes has a strange leveling system that enables weaker characters to quickly catch up to teammates when facing enemies at a much higher level than them. That means they can suddenly be on par with higher level teammates after just a few fights, which is a slightly confusing but appreciated touch that makes it easier to experiment if you want to.
Hundred Heroes also has a strategy RPG portion that appears after the central war in its story begins, mostly when facing enemy generals, where you control armies of soldiers on a grid-like map and command them to attack enemy legions. Major characters act as commanders with impactful special abilities like lowering enemy defenses or HP to secure an advantage before an invasion. My go-to strategy was ganging up on enemies to quickly lower their HP, forcing them to retreat, and then reallocating my armies somewhere else afterward. Events can even pop up during these battles, like enemy generals joining the fray or split second betrayals, which add spice to the mix but often make your tactical decisions more straightforward. While intimidating, I never had an issue operating on the fly.
You will also participate in “duels” during major plot points, usually with one main character facing a rival or antagonist. In these duels, you can choose to either attack to deal damage and raise a Tension gauge a little, or counter to take less damage from an attack and build a larger amount of Tension. The idea is to whittle down the enemy’s health enough to reach the Break marker on their HP bar, which lets you use a stronger Break attack to finish them off. Alternatively, maxing out the Tension gauge enables you to deal a similarly devastating blow.
Difficulty can sometimes be left up to chance rather than strategy.
However, whether the enemy attacks or counters is entirely up to chance, which can feel unfairly random. I’ve only won half of these duels as a result, and the others found ways to excuse my loss as part of the plot. By the end, I leaned toward constantly attacking to get a head start in damage, but even that is a simplistic strategy. Thankfully, it’s not a huge deal that these are left up to chance because there aren’t significant losses that would force you to restart a duel, but it’s still frustrating to lose based on a bad guess. That makes duels seem more like a story tool rather than an actual challenge.
Gimmicks can appear in the regular turn-based boss fights, too. Most of them worked as obstacles that I needed to plan around during battle, like setting aside one character to flip a switch for a secret weapon between turns. However, gimmicks based on random chance could increase a battle’s difficulty without adding any interesting strategy. One early fight encouraged me to pick between two hammers that could potentially deal three times the damage of one of my units to the boss. The boss popped up on either the left or right side, and only the hammer closest to it would be able to hit it. If you picked the wrong hammer, then you would waste one character’s turn and have to survive the fight for a longer amount of time. But similar to the duels, there doesn’t seem to be any way to tell which one is the right pick, which leaves the difficulty up to chance rather than any particular strategy.
Hundred Heroes’ campaign takes somewhere around 40-60 hours to complete, depending on how much time you spend recruiting characters, upgrading your castle, and playing minigames – including a top-spinning one called Beigoma that’s very reminiscent of Beyblades. Some of the side quests are easy to complete, like defeating specific enemies for drops that potential allies request before joining your party. Others feel like a never-ending mystery, like my quest to find a lucky fish for my fisherman friend. That said, the campaign doesn’t force you to complete any specific side quest – though it might encourage you to recruit a certain number of allies before advancing to the next chapter.
Despite eventually enjoying it, Hundred Heroes suffers from a slow start that initially holds it back. At the beginning, I was unimpressed with the amount of backtracking it took to get between destinations, especially with the random encounters that interrupted my journey. Hundred Heroes doesn’t clearly spell out the solution to every puzzle, either, so you sometimes need to pace through cities over and over before stumbling upon a solution. It took me 15 hours just to unlock fast travel, which I only found by chance while wandering the streets of one major city. At that point, things really started to open up, letting me satisfyingly teleport between towns to recruit new allies, but that amount of time is a lot to get through before a payout.
Still, it was worthwhile to see this thrilling tale of multiple countries fighting back against a tyrant, with a mixed bag of twists along the way. Some left me scratching my head wondering “why,” while others had me cheering from the sidelines. The big villain is one-dimensional in his lust for power and doesn’t leave much to play with in terms of motive, but the actions of the people around him are more compelling. Some characters struggle in interesting ways between obligations to their home country and a desire for justice, while others are bystanders only emboldened into action after watching the efforts of your passionate team.
While following an endearing troop of misfits and their quest to overthrow a corrupt ruler might sound like every other kingdom-based RPG, the balance between the personal struggles of its characters and the story of the overarching war was quite entertaining. Some parts of that tale feel weaker than others and suffer from a few pacing issues, like one major faction only coming to light as part of the overarching plot halfway through the campaign, but there’s enough build-up and loss that the victories always felt worth it. At the start, I felt like I was fighting in a stranger’s war – by the end, I was invested enough that I was eager to see them win.
Saturday is here, and that means the weekend has officially kicked off! We’ve rounded up some of the best deals you can find this weekend, with everything games and technology included. The best deals for Saturday, April 20, include the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless Headset, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Super Mario RPG, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, and more.
Arctis Nova Pro Wireless Headset for $279.99
Amazon has the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro discounted by 20% to $279.99. While this is still expensive, the Nova Pro is one of the best gaming headsets on the market and normally starts at $349.99. The Nova Pro features Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) through four microphones placed around the headset. Additionally, you can customize your audio with the Sonar Software and Base Station.
Save 40% Off Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Deluxe Edition
If you still haven’t purchased Granblue Fantasy: Relink yet, this deal is a great opportunity to do so! The Deluxe Edition includes quite a few extra items you don’t get in the standard edition of the game. For starters, an art book is included, which features character art and concept art from the title. You will also receive in-game DLC, including the Starter Item Pack, Character Color Packs, and an exclusive weapon. Additionally, a soundtrack CD and set of postcards are included.
Super Mario RPG for $44.80
The remake of Super Mario RPG is $5 off at Amazon right now, which is a great price for this classic title. If you’ve yet to either play the original or check out the remake, this is the perfect time to do so. Composer Yoko Shimimura returned to compose the remake’s original soundtrack, and each boss and environment has been expertly recrafted for the Nintendo Switch. It’s the perfect Mario title to check out if you’re looking for a fun title while awaiting Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door next month!
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 for $26.99
For just $26.99, you can own the first three Metal Gear Solid titles on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, or Nintendo Switch. This package also includes Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Prior to the Master Collection, there was no method to play the Metal Gear Solid titles on most modern consoles, but you can now experience Hideo Kojima’s series from the very beginning anywhere.
Payday 3: Collector’s Edition for $49.99
Payday 3 was released during a very busy Fall season of releases, which left it off many players’ radars. Woot currently has the Collector’s Edition of the game on sale for over 60% off, and it includes some very neat bonuses. First off, The Collector’s Mask is the key item included, which is a replica of the iconic Payday masks used in the game. There’s also a custom deck of cards, stickers, a membership letter to the Collector’s Club, and more included alongside a copy of the game.
Save 50% Off Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections
Amazon currently has the PlayStation 5 version of Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections on sale for $30. Originally priced at $59.99, this title has loads of content that any Naruto fan is sure to appreciate. Featuring the largest roster in any of the Storm games, there’s an endless amount of fun, customization, and experimentation to be had with the characters.
God of War Ragnarok for $39.99
Walmart still has 2022’s God of War Ragnarok on sale, and it is one of the best PS5 games you can pick up today. This action game acts as the sequel to 2018’s God of War, following Kratos and Atreus as Fimbulwinter looms. Ragnarok has only been on sale a few times, and this price matches the previous low we’ve seen. If you’ve yet to play through God of War, this is a great time to pick up Ragnarok at a discount and see why so many players love this series.
Horizon Forbidden West is one of the best-looking games on consoles, period – a statement that now extends to PC thanks to this port from Nixxes, the Sony-owned studio responsible for the recent PC ports of PlayStation games like Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. While this is a cross-generation game, the PS5 is where it pushes the fidelity needle most, so that’s what we’ll be using for the main console comparison. Compared to the PS5, this PC port loses none of the quality and, depending on the machine, can even exceed it. It also comes with one big and welcome improvement – Nixxes has added real-time render options via a transparent menu, a genius touch that aids PC market’s desire to fiddle, offering immediate and, most importantly, visual changes to the games rendering.
The Sky’s The Limit
The top end RTX 4090 can max all the sliders at native 4K. These choices, however, miss out on some of the best features and use of the hardware. The game ships with Guerrilla’s own TAA solution, but is complemented with all flavours of reconstructed image options – DLSS3, FSR2.2 and Intel’s XeSS are all available to upscale the image back to your target output. Comparing the PC best to the PS5’s best, we see very minor increases. Texture filtering can be pushed higher to 16x, with the PS5 hovering around 4 to 8x depending on the texture in question, along with very high shadows offering better filtering than PS5 in its Fidelity mode, as well as more objects in the shadow cascade.
This was confirmed in our chat with Nixxes, which you can read below. In addition, depth of field (DoF) can run cinematic quality during gameplay, and level of detail can see a miniscule increase with slightly fewer imposter sprites used. The most obvious leaps come in extended FoV which can see approximately 5% of an increase in performance on some machines. There’s also options for ultrawide monitors, including for the real time cinematics, although turning the black bars off can cause some issues as it extends the rendering range outside of the intended scope for the PS4 and PS5 versions the game was built around. Although the increases over PS5 may be frugal, our conversations with the developers helped explain some of reasons for this, as Michiel Roza (Principal Optimisation Programmer) details:
“In previous ports we converted and expanded on existing ray-tracing implementations. We’ve considered it for this title, but adding this from scratch to an open world game of this size with dozens of hours of cinematics would be a huge undertaking. It’s not just a technical implementation, it would require a full art pass on the dozens of hours of cutscenes. Besides, this title already looks great the way it is, and we didn’t really feel the need to change it.
We did improve on the shadows compared to PS5 on the Very High setting by increasing resolution and enhanced filtering and adding more detailed objects.
The AO in this game is already bleeding edge with multi-bounces and good denoising. We didn’t really feel the need to improve upon this. Plus, it was already performant enough even on mid-range hardware, meaning we didn’t need to have a lower quality option. For the very low end, there’s an option to turn it off.”
Wood For The Trees
Image Quality is next, and DLSS can offer improvements over the engine’s own TAA at 4K. The vast amount of sub-pixel foliage and thin edges of geometry can cause flicker and movement on PC. The PS5, in its 4K TAA Fidelity mode, is better than the PC’s setting here. Some of that comes down to the extra sample taps and output options consoles offer over PC drivers and APIs, but also the changes in textures and foliage which is subtly tweaked on PS5 and PS4, which you can see on the zoomed in shots. Bloom and volumetrics are also slightly reduced compared to the Fidelity mode, but are more subtle in comparison. DLSS Quality mode improves on this with stability and sharpness marginally better than the PS5 4K mode. Texture details and high frequency elements are close, but DLSS is slightly better. Not all aspects are improved with DLSS – screen space reflections use lower samples, causing blockier quality and resembling macroblocking on a video stream. As we move into the lower-resolution Performance mode on PS5, which also uses a checkerboard resolve, you can see these lower base pixel counts cause similar issues, meaning the RTX 4090 offers superior image quality and performance in its 4K DLSS quality mode.
FSR 2.2 and XeSS deliver good results, but both suffer in the foliage-heavy world compared to DLSS and the PS5 in both Fidelity mode and Performance mode. Of the two, XeSS is slightly better than FSR2 in reducing the fizzle and pixel popping that happens when occluded pixels are dis-occluded as things move. This can be seen when Aloy runs, as you can see the increased ghosting flicker around her arms and hair compared to other solutions in the zoomed in sections. Sharpness of image and small or distant objects also lose some of the clarity of the PS5 and DLSS quality modes, but in general they deliver similar image quality for significantly increased performance targets. After the game’s launch, Nvidia’s DLSS and Intels XeSS have been updated to version 3.7 and 1.3 respectively. Comparing new versus old, we can see both trade the sharpness of image for a slightly more stable one. Now we have subtly less fizzle under motion on both, but DLSS still improves over XeSS, retaining more texture detail and fewer dithered elements, as you can see in the zoomed in section on Aloy’s hair, hands and distance textures. Although better on sub-pixel shimmer, such as grass and leaves, it is a minor but welcome boost on both non the less. At the other end, DLSS ultra performance is far too unstable, and due to the high-frequency elements abundant in the game is a choice that should only be used by those desperate to lock at a target performance rate, and are willing to sacrifice image stability, clarity and quality.
The game scales well, within reason. The RTX 4050 can offer superior image quality, effects, and performance to the PS4 via my optimized settings using that same DLSS Auto mode at 1080p. We have increased foliage, shadow quality, textures, and other small areas which are obvious in comparisons. Below this is the Steam Deck, again using my optimized settings, which can target 30fps with a DRS TAA-based 900p on large screens or 800p on the device itself.
Using these comparisons, you can see that the Steam Deck loses out on depth of field, texture details, hair, screen space reflections, lighting, and other aspects versus the PS4 and the RTX 4050. It still delivers the lion’s share of the game’s quality, but you must use TAA and not FSR2, as that ruins the image when moving, both on a big screen and in your hands. Even then, the low base resolution and aggressive streaming stutters and dips can be quite obtrusive, making it hard to recommend in its current form. We managed to speak with Nixxes directly after putting this review together and I asked what challenges and changes the PC memory set-up raised for them. Principal Optimisation programmer Michiel Roza offered an insight into the specific features the PS5 offers and how the team had to adapt this on PC, which results in larger memory requirements over the console version for the same results as Michiel explains:-
“On PS5 we get feedback from the GPU to give us the exact mip(texture size) that we need. That, in combination with the fast SSD and quick loading times, will give the players a great experience.
“On PC, something similar is available called Sampler Feedback, however, this is more limited than the PS5 capabilities and it’s not available on all hardware that we support. We therefore decided to not use it at all, to give all users the best experience. This means we have to be a bit more conservative and load in a bit more texture mips than PS5 for the same fidelity. The user can choose to reduce texture quality if they feel that they want to reduce the memory footprint.
“An extra complication is that we need to upload textures to VRAM, meaning an extra step necessary after streaming in data, and there’s no guarantee that everything will fit in VRAM. This is not only due to different hardware – but also existing programs that are running, settings, driver versions etcetera.
“Our system will drop textures and buffers to system ram if we run out of VRAM, costing a bit of performance if you run out of VRAM, but it should still run at an acceptable frame rate without stuttering. This means the user can run at a higher fidelity than their VRAM would normally support, at the cost of performance. This means people can make a choice between fidelity and performance.”
Frames Of Fancy
All the reconstruction solutions offer increases over an equal native output, but Nvidia’s solution remains the best across the board. At the same 4K target on my RTX 4090 in the best Quality mode with a base 2560×1440 render, it can boost performance approximately 22% to 122fps over the native 4K TAA’s 100fps – perfect for those who have a 120Hz screen but still want to maintain 4K’s pristine quality. 4K DLSS Ultra Performance can net us 35% over native, but the hit to image quality is significant. This is where DLSS Frame Generation comes into play. Once enabled, we can now run the game at a perceived 150fps with image quality that is slightly better in some areas than DLSS Quality due to the extra taps it makes via the interpolated frames. That said, it can suffer more with fizzle and ghosting artifacts whenever new objects or pixels appear between rendered frames. This materializes as flicker and blocky outlines, but input latency is higher due to the buffered rendering this mode requires.
Pitting the PS5 against the RTX 4090 in their respective best modes, Balanced mode is a match for Fidelity mode requiring a 120Hz screen on PS5. The 4K DLSS Quality mode at maximum settings on the RTX 4090 is unsurprisingly a win for the Nvidia GPU, with it delivering almost three times the performance rate of the 4K PS5 Balanced mode here. In like-for-like combat and exploration scenes we can see an average read-out over 100fps on PC versus a close lock on the 40fps or 25ms target on the PS5. Both run consistent frame-times with this PC having minimal stutter and judder. The PS5 performance mode runs in the 60s and 70s, but this unlocked performance mode requires a VRR screen. The RTX 4090 can exceed PS5 in all of its modes, but of course that is not the case for the full PC market.
Coming Down To Earth
Our RTX 4050 gaming machine represents a good section of the PC market. Using my optimized settings, we can hit 60fps in addition to superior image quality and performance to the PS4 version. The PS4 delivers a good run at 30fps with it often hitting the required frame times throughout, but it can dip in some of the heavier sections and become memory bound at times. The RTX 4050 is not a fully locked 60fps, but it does achieve the required 16ms frame times more than 80% of the time, which results in a much smoother and more refined gameplay experience than the last generation console, though it can still dip in heavier bandwidth areas and real time cutscenes.
For the cost of additional latency, DLSS3 can be used to run the game at a perceived 80-95fps which can help fluidity on a 120Hz VRR capable screen. It also benefits, as all PCs do, from superior loading times compared to the PS4. The PS5 ‘just’ beats my 5800X3D CPU in the loading stakes, which is expected as the PC has to do a far larger amount of work during loading due the different architecture and lack of dedicated hardware decompression the PS5 offers, as Principal Lead programmer Patrick den Bekker explains:
“Loading on a PC requires some extra work compared to a PS5 console. First of all, there is no dedicated decompression hardware, we only use CPU decompression on this title and not any GPU decompression, because the current implementation of GPU decompression is not very efficient on the CPU. Meaning that we cannot easily decide on the fly (eg: only during loading/gameplay) if we want to use CPU or GPU decompression. As the game is mostly GPU bound, we did not want to add any GPU pressure during gameplay while streaming in new data.
Loading on a PC requires some extra work compared to a PS5 console.
“Second, we need to create (and upload) a lot of resources on the GPU which is quite expensive to do on a PC. Last, but not least, we also need to precompile PSOs during our loading screens to ensure they are ready when the rendering needs them, to avoid stutters during gameplay.
“Because of these things, loading can still be slower than on PS5 even if you have beefy hardware. Luckily, it can also be faster than the PS5 on the right hardware!”
In addition I noticed a few areas of textures and Aloy’s hair that were not quite as good as on PS5 and a few bugs with enemies clipping through floors during combat, such as a big snake battle. Although very minor, a few updates are still likely on the way from the team for all levels of PC hardware.
The Steam Deck is the weakest of the bunch, with it struggling in battles to keep even a limp grip on the required 33ms frame times, possibly being bandwidth bound at times even at low settings. That said, it can run slightly above the PS4 in some tested sections and real-time cutscenes, but this is often short lived or soon followed by bouts under the PS4 level. All things considered it does well running a console exclusive of this quality on mobile hardware under 16 watts. It may help having a PS4 baseline version with the relevant asset, texture, and geometry tweaks applied to aid its performance target. Which again Nixxes answered directly in our interview on the balance and benefits of using the PS5 version as the base as Patrick den Bekker explains:
“The PS4 and PS5 versions use fully separate data sets, for each specific console. On PC, we only wanted to install a single data set for the game and still be able to quickly switch between the different quality settings. We picked the highest quality version (PS5) and scaled it down using different settings to be able to fit a wide range of PCs. Some of these quality settings actually have the same result as the PS4 version, but other scale in a way that can be changed on the fly.”
This does help the RTX 4050 level greatly and even the Steam Deck can achieve a decent 30fps level. That said, you can often see GPU utilization dip from those noted streaming/memory tasks causing some stutter throughout play, along with image quality impacts due to DSR kicking in. This can cause enough of an issue for me to not recommend you buy it to play on the Steam Deck in its current form.
Summary
Nixxes has delivered another high-quality port to PC, on the back of Guerrilla’s exquisite PS5 version. The current PlayStation console offered a good selection of choice, with VRR players having the widest. The PC port loses none of that with pristine image quality, performance, fidelity and scalability. Running this visual quality from the Steam Deck (issues notwithstanding) and through the PC stack is testament to that effort. The effort put into memory and texture management in order to improve performance across varied PC hardware limitations and split memory pools demonstrates this is no quick port.
Sony has confirmed that LittleBigPlanet 3 servers on PlayStation 4 will remain offline “indefinitely” following troubles with the service from earlier this year.
The company updated fans on the bad news in an update on its website (via Delisted Games), explaining that the temporary server shutdown in January will now be in effect for the foreseeable future. It’s a decision that means millions of user-generated levels will no longer be accessible to new players. Sony cites “ongoing technical issues” as the reason for its choice to discontinue support.
Creation content that has been stored on players’ devices locally can still be accessed, with users also still free to create content and play it while disconnected from the servers. PlayStation also guides LittleBigPlanet fans to offline features should they wish to continue playing in some form.
As players eventually flock to new experiences, games have been known to lose connection to certain online features in the years following their releases. Lack of server access to the LittleBigPlanet games is an especially large blow, though, as they’re known for their endless ocean of player-generated content like levels and outfits. LittleBigPlanet 3 even allowed players to enjoy user-generated levels from the previous two entries.
PlayStation 3 players lost access to that content when Sony moved to shut down PS3 servers for LittleBigPlanet 1, 2, and 3 in 2021, and now, the PS4 version of the third game is suffering the same fate. With servers shutting down indefinitely, it means that there is no official way to see the content players have been creating since the original LittleBigPlanet launched in 2008. LittleBigPlanet 3 launched for PS3 and PS4 in 2014.
There’s no telling exactly how much user-generated content was pumped into the game since its release, but in February 2017, more than seven years ago, Sony boasted that the game featured more than 10 million levels. It’s unclear exactly how many were lost today.
Thankfully, LittleBigPlanet 3 isn’t completely unplayable without its servers. Although its now-lost library of content was its premiere offering, players can still download and enjoy its story mode, which, in our review, we estimate offers around seven-to-eight hours of fun. We gave Sumo Digital’s Sony installment a 6.8 upon its release, calling it a “a beautifully-designed game with a great creation toolkit, LittleBigPlanet 3 is let down by unimaginative co-op & bugs.”
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.
Though Fallout creator Tim Cain has not been involved in the series in over 20 years, he still keeps up with the franchise. Case in point, he recently shared his thoughts on the first season of Prime Video’s Fallout TV series.
In a new video posted on his YouTube channel, Cain spent nearly 13 minutes discussing his thoughts and impressions on the show’s first season. Right at the top, he says he likes the show before going on to “ramble” more about the specifics, including why he likes it so much.
“Everything feels like Fallout. It feels like Fallout,” he says. “That is hard to do, trust me. I know how hard that is to do. It’s easy to write post-apocalyptic stuff that doesn’t fit in the Fallout mold, and it would have been very easy for them to go off to be too silly accidentally, to have things that are like, ‘that’s not part of Fallout.’ But they didn’t.”
Cain also loved how much Fallout lore was present in the show, even admitting he missed a few things during his viewing. He appreciated that the show never added a narrator to explain everything to viewers, but noted that the lack of exposition and amount of lore drops might make it “a little harder to get into” for those who haven’t played the post-apocalyptic action RPG series.
He also praised the Prime Video series for its trio of main characters. Each, as he pointed out, “felt like different ways that a player character could be approaching the game.” Lucy represents the “nice character,” the player with high ethical standards. Maximus, meanwhile, represents a more neutral player, one focused on achieving their goals. The Ghoul, he said, serves the role of “the show’s murder hobo,” likely referring to the players who shoot first and ask questions later.
Cain went on to share his thoughts about the potential timeline issues presented in the series before the show’s executive producers, Jonathan Nolan, and Todd Howard, cleared the air. This is the second video Cain has published sharing his impressions on the Fallout TV series, following a video he uploaded roughly a week ago after attending the first season’s Hollywood premiere.
Cain created the series when he was employed at Interplay Entertainment, where he served in various roles, primarily as a designer for the first two Fallout games. However, Cain has not been directly involved in any of the games sinceFallout 2. He has shared some Fallout-centric videos on his YouTube channel. Some videos include him explainingcut content from the original Fallout, the biggest influences on the series, andwhy he left Fallout 2 early into its development cycle. While he largely doesn’t publicly share his thoughts on newer games, he did offer some about Fallout 3 during a 2010 interview.
Warning: The below story contains FULL SPOILERS for Fallout Season 1, which is now streaming on Prime Video.
Ever since Fallout Season 1 hit Prime Video, there’s been quite the debate over what some fans argued was a timeline discrepancy with Fallout: New Vegas. While Bethesda’s Todd Howard cleared all that up in a recent interview with IGN, original Fallout creator Tim Cain has also joined in on the theorizing fun, offering up his own speculation on what “The Fall of Shady Sands” could be referring to.
To give you the TLDR on what fans thought the conflict was: in short, in episode 6 of Fallout Season 1, fans spotted that “The Fall of Shady Sands” was written on a chalkboard, and that event happened in 2277. What got fans up in arms was the fact that, if Shady Sands was destroyed in 2277, that would essentially retcon New Vegas, since that’s four years before the events of that game.
Howard set the record straight in my recent interview with him, saying, “everything that happened in the previous games, including New Vegas, happened.” He further clarified that “the bomb falls just after the events of New Vegas.”
But Cain brings up a good point in his own review of the TV show, which he posted on YouTube earlier today: how do we know the timeline events, as written on a chalkboard, are even true?
“I know people are complaining about the dates being off. Well, you’re right! Maybe they are off! Maybe what was taught to the kids was wrong,” he says. “Maybe they were lying to the kids. They lied to the kids in Vault 33 about other things, why not lie about that? Or, maybe they’re off, but they don’t know they’re off? Just a few years either way.”
He goes on to point out that Fallout, as a series, has a long line of “unreliable narrators.”
“Maybe the dates in the games are off,” he says. “Maybe Fallout: New Vegas, some of the characters in that game, got the dates wrong. There’s no master calendar you can refer to… Fallout has a history in a lot of the games of having people tell you something that isn’t true.”
He’s not wrong, and spreading propaganda among the Vaults’ youth isn’t something you should ever put past Vault-Tec. Speaking of Vault-Tec, he also offers some theories about whether or not the corporation dropped the first nuclear bombs that ultimately led to society’s demise. Basically: Cain doesn’t think Vault-Tec shot first.
“Fallout has a history in a lot of the games of having people tell you something that isn’t true.
To support his theory, he points to what we saw in the season premiere of Fallout: Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins) with his daughter, Janey (Teagan Meredith), at a birthday party when the first nukes drop. As we learn in the season finale, Coop’s wife Barb (Frances Turner) was one of the high-up executives at Vault-Tec who were discussing the possibility of dropping the nukes.
“I don’t think they nuked first,” Cain says. “I really don’t think they did, because Barbara didn’t strike me as a stupid woman. Would she have sent her daughter to a birthday party on the day Vault-Tec was gunna nuke?”
“I think they were planning on nuking – it was one of their strategies that they were thinking about, which is enough to go, ‘wow, Vault-Tec is evil,’ ” he continues. “But I don’t think they nuked. I think they were a bit caught off guard too when nukes came in.”
Cain stresses that his theories are just that, and goes on to encourage fans to have fun spinning up ideas on the show as well, as long as it stays good-natured.
The good news is that we may actually get answers to some of these questions, given that Prime Video officially renewed Fallout for a second season yesterday. In the meantime, check out our review of Season 1, which we gave a 9/10.
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
