Perfection is, as they say, in the eye of the beholder. In the case of Stardew Valley, however, only one beholder really matters, and that is the game’s developer, Eric Barone, who has set very stringent criteria as to what constitutes a perfect game. Progress towards a “perfect” playthrough can be tracked via the perfection meter found in the Walnut Room on Ginger Island.
To fill it up, you’ll have to spend countless hours slaying monsters, finding collectibles, growing crops, and generally being an outstanding, problem-solving member of the community. Put in the time and effort to achieve perfection, and you’ll be rewarded with access to a part of the map known as The Summit, where you’re treated to a heartwarming cutscene with your loved one of choice, before being presented with a parade of every animal and character in the game. As its name suggests, reaching The Summit could be considered the pinacle achievement of a Stardew Valley playthrough, a fitting reward that is gated behind tens of hours worth of digital sweat.
Or, you be a monster, and skip all of the effort to take the easy way to the summit by using an exploit to glitch out of bounds, and navigate to the endgame section of the map. Thankfully, Barone is well aware of this particular dirty trick, but rather than patching out the exploit for 1.6, the developer instead opted to introduce a cutscene to the game, which punishes players for accessing The Summit without achieving perfection.
Reddit users like Snail51 caught the cutscene shortly after release, which we here at IGN have captured as well. If you don’t mind suffering the wrath of Mister Qi, you can watch a walkthrough below (which also includes the cutscene itself if you don’t want to go through all that).
“Well, well, well, look who ‘made it to the summit,” taunts Mister Qi, against the backdrop of a glitching sky. “Thought you were really clever, didn’t you?” The NPC then chides the player further for cheating the system, before calling them “despicablee,” and lunging forwards as the screen fades to black.
The player then comes to in the hospital, only to be told that Harvey had been forced to perform “emergency surgery” on them after they were found “unconscious” and “battered.” Harvey then charges the player 500g for medical expenses, because he isn’t running a charity thank you very much.
Since the cutscene obviously didn’t appear in the extensive list of changes following the release of 1.6, we have no idea what other surprises might be waiting for other players who look to game the system. Regardless, those hoping to get to The Summit the honest way would do well to consult IGN’s comprehensive Stardew Valley Wiki, and to check out our page detailing everything that you need to know about the 1.6 update.
Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer
The first autobiography I ever read was I Had a Hammer, the memoir by the legendary Hank Aaron. In it, he talks about growing up too poor to have any baseball equipment, so he had to swing sticks at bottlecaps. The fact that he would go from these humble beginnings, through the segregation era, and on to become Major League Baseball’s all-time home run king astounded me; his story is so much of what makes baseball so romantic. The way that MLB The Show, Sony San Diego’s annual baseball simulation, captures this is remarkable. The respect for the history and love of The Game fuel its best parts. While it swings and misses on a few odd choices, there is no doubt that MLB The Show 24 is yet another great entry in arguably the best sports gaming franchise running today.
The pure gameplay of The Show has taken no steps backward from last year’s excellent standard. Multiple control and difficulty options do a good job giving you the ability to tailor the experience to your preference, with more complex settings like Zone Hitting rewarding the higher skill level with greater influence over what happens. It also still looks and sounds great, with a solid television-style presentation, and the feeling of a “perfect-perfect” hit never gets old. The updated lighting system in particular has the action looking more vibrant and lifelike than ever.
Baseball is an ever-changing sport, and the way The Show keeps up with that is pretty impressive. Whether it’s the pitch clock, rules around shifts, or two-way players (a la Shohei Ohtani) it seems like there are always new wrinkles to keep up with, and this year is no different. Slightly larger bases were added in real-world MLB, and those are implemented in The Show 24. New rules around pickoff attempts were added, with new pitcher animations to work around them. It’s this commitment to authenticity that continues to make MLB The Show stand out.
My favorite new addition, though, is the Impact Plays. Great defense is a hallmark of real-life baseball, and adding a focus on diving or leaping catches, difficult throws, and scooping challenging hops does a good job of reinforcing that. Impact Plays are possible anytime you are locked as an individual ballplayer, like in Road to The Show. If an opportunity for a spectacular play arises, time slows down and a fast quick time event takes place. How you perform here determines the success of the play. They look spectacular, and it feels great to pull off an all-out dive and throw to rob a hit from a batter.
The new slow motion Impact Plays look spectacular.
I just wish Impact Plays would happen more frequently. Often, the Moments in Diamond Dynasty mode and the chapters in Storylines focus almost exclusively on getting hits or pitching innings over and over again, largely ignoring the defensive aspects of baseball. These plays make a few appearances, but not nearly enough. Not further integrating great fielding is a missed opportunity to alleviate some of the staleness that comes with grinding these Moments out.
The Storylines were a highlight in last year’s edition, and this year continues that trend with The Negro Leagues season 2. At launch there are four stories, with more set to arrive in forthcoming updates. Brilliantly produced videos, narrated by the charismatic president of the Negro League Museum Bob Kendrik, tell the stories of some of baseballs most legendary players, many of whom never had the opportunity to play in the MLB. Kendrick’s youthful enthusiasm when he talks about a skinny teenager who swings his bat with a backwards grip that would go on to become Hank Aaron, maybe the greatest baseball player of all time, is so easy to get caught up in, and does a great job capturing the magic and history of baseball.
A second, separate Storyline track was added for this year, and focuses on legendary Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. The concept is solid: you play through key moments of his career, preceded with commentary from Jeter himself, with highlights and clips in a well-presented package. It’s a bit odd focusing once again on The Captain after he had his own special edition of The Show last year, but hearing Jeter talk about growing up as a Yankees fan and what his experience was like being called up to the big leagues is a neat idea.
The problem is his story, and that of the Yankees from that era, isn’t very interesting. This history of a team that won three straight World Series – four in five years – has no adversity, nothing to overcome. That’s true of Jeter himself as well. His suspect defensive skills were more than made up for by incredible hitting ability and his performance in clutch moments, and his place in the pro baseball Hall of Fame was secured many years before he retired. Combine that with a notably drama-free off-the-field persona, and you end up with no ups and downs, no hardship. It’s the only time playing MLB The Show where I felt bored.
Highlighting Jeter is an odd choice in a sport so full of amazing stories.
It’s an odd choice in a game as full of amazing stories as baseball. We just as easily could have played through the eyes of Mike Piazza, a 62nd-round pick who became the lowest-drafted player to reach the Hall of Fame. Or Ichiro, coming over as the first Japanese position player, and paving the way for others with his legendary career. What about the Red Sox overcoming a curse dating back to Babe Ruth? I hope Sony San Diego sticks with the storyline idea – it’s a great concept that just needs a better story to tell.
Road to Everyone’s Show
For the first time, women are playable in MLB The Show 24. That’s a big update (mirroring what we’ve seen in NBA 2K, FIFA, and NHL in recent years) and it’s implemented pretty well overall. The highlight is Toni Stone, who appears as part of the Negro Leagues storylines as the first female professional baseball player. She has the same fanfare of her male contemporaries, and I found her story of grit and determination compelling.
You can also create women characters for Road to The Show, the single-player campaign where you play as a prospect working your way up to the big league. New hairstyles, body types, and the option to add makeup if I so chose to wear are all integrated seamlessly. The woman I created was a power-hitting infielder, and I was pleased to see that the video packages and story in Road to The Show were different for her, and embraced the historical achievement that it would be for a woman to be drafted. Considerations like a private changing room are accounted for, and a nice touch of authenticity.
The quality did leave a bit to be desired overall, however. The various story-based cutscenes all playing out via text stood out in a series that has traditionally been largely narrated. It veered too close to something like Superstar mode in Madden, which isn’t a compliment.
The other big addition to Road to The Show is the Draft Combine. This lets your created player demonstrate their skills in front of scouts, and hopefully move up to the coveted top pick. It’s a cool spectacle, and I like that it grades your performance as you go. However unlike other sports games it doesn’t seem like it affects your player’s attributes, and given the fact that you can select which team drafts you instead of the other way around, it’s hard to feel like it actually matters.
Playing historical moments to unlock notable cards is as satisfying as ever.
Diamond Dynasty, the card-collecting-meets-squad-building mode, is largely unchanged from MLB The Show 23, which is mostly fine. It still plays great, card packs full of players are awarded freely and often and are a lot of fun to open, and the mix of single-player and multiplayer options caters as well to multiple play styles, as it always has. Playing out historical moments to unlock particularly notable cards, then taking those into games is fun, and as satisfying as ever.
Last year saw the implementation of Sets and Seasons in Diamond Dynasty, which made higher-rated cards more accessible, but many of them were only usable in competitive modes during a two-season window. This year that formula has been adjusted: cards are only active for a single season, but the seasons are now longer. They also reduced the number of top-rated cards that are available at the start of a season. That’s a good change, because so much of the fun in this mode is the steady climb from a low-rated team to a juggernaut squad.
Still, the seasonal model in general has its share of issues. For instance, it’s hard to stay motivated to chase a great card for your team when it has an expiration date. There are wildcard slots that will allow you to carry a few outdated cards, but having to decide which favorite players can no longer take the field is a bitter pill to swallow. It was because of this that last year ended up being the fastest I’ve jumped off of Diamond Dynasty and, while I’m hopeful that this year will be different, I remain skeptical.
The Franchise and March to October modes are back and similar to previous years. This is where you take control of your favorite team in hopes of leading them to the promised land of a World Series. They remain solid as ever, and offer the usual range of control from “automate everything” to “I want to live in spreadsheets.” As someone in the latter category I particularly appreciate that Sony San Diego has added the Prospect Promotion Incentive, which rewards MLB teams with draft picks for playing top prospects. Deciding strategically whether to keep a player in the Minors for contract reasons, or to take advantage of their skills and the additional draft pick is a nice new wrinkle.
The best new addition, though, is the Custom Game Entry. This is a setting that allows you to let your team simulate games until certain conditions are met, in which case you take control. 162 games is a lot to play, so I set myself to only come in during the 9th inning in especially high-leverage situations, like a save opportunity with runners on base, or a chance for a walk-off victory. It’s a fantastic feature that lets me focus on team management most of the time, but be the deciding factor in the 20-30 games that make the difference between a first-place finish and missing the playoffs.
Today Amazon is offering the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P wireless gaming headset for only $127.99. That’s a nearly 30% discount and the best price we’ve seen for the Arctis Nova 7 series headset so far this year. We deemed the Arctis Nova 7P as the best wireless PS5 gaming headset of 2024.
A quick note on compatibility. The Nova 7P is compatible with the PS5, PS4, and PC consoles. You will need to the the Nova 7X model for the Xbox console, although unfortunately it’s not on sale right now.
SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P Gaming Headset for $127.99
The SteelSeries Arcis Nova 7P is the latest successor to the highly rated Arctis 7 series of headsets. It’s every bit as good as its predecessor but with some welcome upgrades like a USB Type-C charging port, a longer battery life (38 hours vs 30 hours), simultaneous wireless and Bluetooth connectivity, and multi-platform compatibility. PC gamers also have access to the SteelSeries GG app, which opens up a whole suite of customization for your audio. You can tailor your audio settings independently for each game. If that’s too much for you, there are presets for specific games that are actually tailor-made by the game developers.
Other than that, the Nova Arctis is largely similar to the original Arctis. That’s not a bad thing because the Arctis 7 happens to be Steelseries’ most successful gaming headset ever. This headset has significantly better build quality over the official $100 Xbox wireless headset. If you want an even better wireless headset, in our opinion you’d have to step all the way up to something like the Nova 7 Pro, whose $350 price point puts you in a completely different bracket altogether.
SSD prices are trending upwards for 2024, but there are still some excellent deals to be found if you’re vigilant. For a limited time, Amazon is current offering this PS5 compatible HP FX900 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 solid state drive (SSD) for only $107.99. For the even more space hungry, the 4TB is also on sale for $224.99. You’ll need to supply your own heatsink, but you can easily get a PS5 heatsink for under $10. All of the other best PS5 SSDs cost $40 or more.
HP FX900 Pro 2TB SSD (PS5-Compatible) for $107.99
4TB for $224.99
The HP FX900 Pro meets all the requirements for your PS5 SSD upgrade. This is a PCIe Gen4 x4 SSD with an M.2 2280 form factor and transfer speeds of up to 7,400MB/s read and 6,800MB/s write which is well above the 5,500MB/s minimum threshold. It also makes an excellent boot drive for your gaming PC, especially with its 2TB storage capacity. If you go with the 4TB version, you might not even need a second drive.
The PS5 is an outstanding gaming console, but the 1TB SSD is a real bottleneck. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, for example, can exceed 200GB alone. NBA 2K23 weighs in at 150GB and even older games like God of War: Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West require 90GB of space. Future games like Grand Theft Auto VI will undoubtedly demand even more space. The advantage of a PS5 console over the Xbox Series X is that the SSD slot is not proprietary; you can install most third party PCIe Gen4 x4 SSDs as long as they are fast enough. Slower drives WILL work, but they may bottleneck the original SSD.
At GDC 2024, Epic held its State of Unreal event, unveiling the latest news and developments coming to Unreal Engine — specifically Unreal Engine 5 and Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN).
If you missed the event, here’s a quick rundown of everything announced during the 2024 State of Unreal presentation.
Amy Hennig Reveals Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra at State of Unreal
In an unexpected yet pleasant surprise, Amy Henig and Skydance Media started the show by unveiling Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, one of two projects Hennig has spearheaded since joining the studio.
Alongside a proper reveal of the game, we also learned that it would use Epic’s tech, most notably MetaHuman Animator, to provide more photorealistic facial animations. Last year, it was revealed that Ninja Theory was using this same technology in its upcoming game Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga.
Epic is Integrating MetaHuman to UEFN
As we previously mentioned, MetaHuman Animator is one of the tools part of MetaHuman, and Epic announced today that both MetaHuman Animator and MetaHuman Creator are coming to UEFN. Epic says integration will debut “at the end of April.”
With MetaHuman, UEFN creators can craft both photorealistic fictional characters and provide photorealistic facial animations using captured footage they obtained from an iPhone or a head-mounted camera.
Epic Will Launch a Fortnite Season Developed on UEFN Next Year
As part of its UEFN roadmap, Epic Games revealed that “by the end of 2025,” it will ship the first season of its widely popular free-to-play Battle Royale, made entirely using the level editor.
Beyond that surprise, Epic went into more detail about the UEFN roadmap and the new creator tools it will add this year. This includes confirmation that the highly-requested first-person camera setting will arrive in UEFN sometime this year.
Fortnite Creators Will Get Access to Elements From Rocket Racing, Fall Guys, and LEGO Assets
Epic continues expanding on the Fortnite creator economy by introducing new creative devices and race track templates. Specifically, the publisher revealed that Fortnite creators would be able to leverage elements from Rocket Racing, Fall Guys, and LEGO, allowing creators more ways to express their creativity while building unique experiences all within Fortnite.
Fortnite’s creator economy has continued to go strong since both it and UEFN launched roughly a year ago. Epic revealed that since then, it has paid more than $320 million to creators in the first year of engagement payouts and that creators have published over 80,000 UEFN islands.
Some New Details on Epic Games Store Mobile Version
We already knew that Epic Games was planning to release its digital storefront on mobile devices via the iOS App Store and Android’s Google Play later this year, thanks to the new EU legislation, the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Epic took time during today’s State of Unreal to share its plans. It touts that the Epic Games Store (EGS) will become the “first-ever game-focused, multi-platform store” that will work across Android, iOS, PC, and macOS. Epic further revealed that mobile developers would benefit “from the same fair terms” found on EGS with an 88/12 revenue share, in addition to other programs that allow you to keep 100% of the revenue earned from using your own payments for in-app purchases.
Dune: Awakening Gets a Deep Dive at the State of Unreal
Skydance Media was not the only game developer to attend the State of Unreal. Funcom also appeared to dive deeper into its upcoming open-world game Dune: Awakening.
It was previously revealed that Dune: Awakening was powered by Unreal Engine 5, but Funcom also elaborated further on how the Dune IP was leveraging Epic’s technologies. This includes Funcom sharing how Dune: Part 2 cinematographer Greig Fraser used Unreal Engine for planning and pre-production purposes for the film.
Unreal Engine 5.4’s Full Release Is Coming Next Month
Epic told IGN ahead of the presentation that while it has some ideas for Unreal Engine 6, we should not expect the next major iteration of its game engine anytime soon.
With that in mind, State of Unreal provided the latest update for the already impressive Unreal Engine 5, revealing that version 5.4 Preview 1 is launching today with a full release slated for “late April.”
Most notably, Epic says that “animation takes big strides forward,” thanks to Unreal Engine 5.4, confirming that it features Motion Matching, a streamlining but highly effective way for developers to animate characters. Epic revealed that Motion Matching has already been on full display via Fortnite, which has used It since Chapter 5 was released.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
We already knew that Amy Hennig, the award-winning writer and director behind games such as Jak 3 and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, was working on a narrative-driven Marvel game focused on Captain America and Black Panther. And today, we finally learned some new details, including its official title:Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra. It’ll arrive sometime in 2025.
The reveal was made at Epic’s State of Unreal 20024 showcase, where we saw a cinematic trailer featuring Captain America and Black Panther in 1940s Europe. We also learned that the game will not only be powered by Unreal Engine 5, but it will include MetaHuman Animator, the same facial animation tool that Ninja Theory will be using for its upcoming project Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga. MetaHuman Animator will allow any developer taking advantage of the tech to use an iPhone or stereo helmet-mounted camera to “reproduce any facial performance as high-fidelity animation” on its characters, providing more realistic facial animations.
We previously learned when the game was announced in late 2021 that Hennig would make an “original story” set in the Marvel universe. A year after its initial tease, a Disney and Marvel games showcase revealed that Hennig’s project would be set in WWII and would have an ensemble cast with four playable characters, including Steve Rogers / Captain America and Azzuri / Black Panther. We learned that this project would not feature co-op despite the four playable characters.
This is one of two projects that Hennig is spearheading, with the second being an untitled Star Wars project. While little is known about the game following its announcement nearly two years ago, last June, we learned that Dominic Robilliard, who was the director of the canceled project Star Wars 1313, was hired by Skydance Media to work on this new game.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
The Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater remake, officially titled Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater (the Δ is pronounced ‘delta’), is set to bring “unprecedented new graphics” to Hideo Kojima’s 2004 sequel. The main menu screen, below, doesn’t reveal much, save a look at Snake Eater’s famous jungle environment. We also hear the classic Metal Gear Solid gun sound with a press of the start button.
Please don’t tell anyone…
(But I played the opening of #MGSDelta up to the bridge scene the other day.)
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.
A hugely popular Call of Duty YouTuber has said their seven-year-old video featuring Pokémon modded into COD Zombies was hauled offline after The Pokémon Company issued a removal request.
NoahJ456, who has 5.21 million subscribers on YouTube, tweeted a warning to other content creators, advising that if their videos feature any sort of modded Pokémon content, “I would delete/unlist it ASAP.”
Tweeting a picture of the notice from YouTube, NoahJ456 said: “Just got a manual strike for a video I made seven years ago featuring Pokémon modded into COD Zombies. Two more strikes and my channel gets deleted.”
WARNING TO ALL CONTENT CREATORS!
If your videos feature any sort of modded Pokemon content, I would delete/unlist it ASAP.
Just got a manual strike for a video I made 7 years ago featuring Pokemon modded into COD Zombies.
Replying to a user, NoahJ456 added: “They are technically within their rights to take this down, so unless they have a change of heart (lol) the strike will stay.”
It looks like The Pokémon Company is taking a renewed interest in content that shows Pokémon modded into other games after a modder showcased Pokémon in Palworld, the smash hit survival game dubbed ‘Pokémon with guns.’ Palworld features monsters called Pals, which some people have said “rip off” Pokémon. Indeed, the modder who put Pokémon into Palworld claimed “Nintendo has come for me” after a takedown of a tweet.
That creator, called Toasted Shoes, tweeted to say they felt responsible for the removal of NoahJ456’s video. “After the heat of Nintendo taking down my Palworld video I did a COD Zombies Pokemon video,” Toasted said. “My mindset was they wouldn’t take my video down since Noah and many others had made content on it in the past few years. However they still took action.
“I didn’t think they’d go scorched earth and I certainly didn’t think it would lead to a chain reaction of them punishing @NoahJ456 and every other creator. I am truly sorry that me being reckless may have played some part.
“Crazy that it took a month to go after everyone else but it seems they now have their sights set on other creators.”
IGN has asked The Pokémon Company for comment.
Last week, a former chief legal officer of The Pokémon Company shared a rare insight into its thinking behind fan project takedowns. Speaking to Aftermath, Don McGowan made clear that, at least during his time, The Pokémon Company didn’t actively seek out fan projects to shut down but only did so when they crossed a certain line.
“You don’t send a takedown right away,” McGowan said. “You wait to see if they get funded, for a Kickstarter or similar. If they get funded then that’s when you engage. No one likes suing fans.”
McGowan said he and the legal team at The Pokémon Company would typically only come across a project that used its copyright once it was raised in the press. “I would be sitting in my office minding my own business when someone from the company would send me a link to a news article, or I would stumble across it myself,” he said.
Despite this attitude, there are multiple examples of Pokémon fan projects that were issued a takedown notice, hauling them offline. In 2018, a popular fan-made creation tool players used to build their own Pokémon games bit the dust. In 2021, support for a Pokémon fan project called Pokémon Uranium ceased after nine years of development. And in 2022, The Pokémon Company removed almost all videos of a fan-made Pokémon hunting FPS that went viral on YouTube and social media.
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.
This week, the PS5 Pro specs leak, also verified by IGN, revealed the power of the console Sony reportedly plans to release during the fourth quarter of 2024.
The PS5 Pro CPU is said to be identical to the standard PS5’s CPU but with a ‘High CPU Frequency Mode’, which amounts to a 10% increase to 3.85GHz. The GPU enables faster rendering and higher quality ray tracing powered by 33.5 teraflops. The standard PS5 offers 10.28 teraflops. However, a direct PS5 to PS5 Pro comparison would work out at around 10.28 vs 16 to 17 teraflops.
The release of the PS5 Pro is thought to be particularly enticing in the context of the 2025 release of GTA 6, which is set to boost the video game market beyond developer Rockstar Games and parent company Take-Two.
But according to Digital Foundry founder Rich Leadbetter, speaking in the latest episode of DF Direct, the PS5 Pro’s CPU means GTA 6 will probably run at 30fps, assuming GTA 6 runs at 30fps on the standard PS5. Given no GTA game has launched with a 60fps option, this one seems nailed on.
According to Leadbetter, if GTA 6 runs at 30fps on PS5, it’ll run at 30fps on PS5 Pro barring some kind of programming miracle, because the CPU handles simulation, and the PS5 Pro’s CPU only increases performance by 10%. In the unlikely event GTA 6 has a 60fps mode on PS5, it’ll run at 60fps on PS5 Pro.
While the PS5 Pro’s CPU looks like a modest improvement, the PS5 Pro is much better than the PS5 at rendering, according to Digital Foundry. PS5 Pro, Digital Foundry predicts, is capable of upscaling 1080p older PS5 games to 4K via its upscaling/antialiasing solution PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution Upscaling), if the developer chooses to support the tech with a patch.
Digital Foundry says PS5 Pro will retain the same 16GB of GDDR6 memory as the standard PS5, but has an extra 1.2GB of system RAM for developers.
Last month, analysts signaled that Sony is “likely” to release the PS5 Pro later in 2024. Sony has form when it comes to releasing a Pro version of its consoles. The PS4 Pro, for example, launched in November 2016, three years after the PS4 came out. A PS5 Pro launch this November would come four years after the PS5 launched in November 2020.
Sony has revised its PS5 sales forecast for the current financial year, down from its lofty target of 25 million consoles sold to 21 million. This comes despite a year-on-year increase in PS5 sales for the holiday 2023 quarter, from 7.1 million sold to 8.2 million.
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.
Rockstar has issued a surprise title update for Red Dead Redemption 2 — its first for nearly two years — which makes a number of improvements and fixes for the game, but it does not add the update the community desperately wants.
Red Dead Redemption 2 Title Update 1.32, out now for the game across PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, includes improvements for FSR (now updated to FSR 2.2), support for HDR10, and a fix for an infamous Red Dead Online glitch that caused the game to freeze when entering stables.
However, the title update does not add 60 frames per second to Red Dead Redemption 2 on consoles, perhaps the most-wanted update in all of video games.
In September, the explosive FTC vs Xbox leak sent shockwaves throughout the Red Dead Redemption community after a Red Dead Redemption 2 next-gen update was found listed by a Microsoft executive in a planning email.
In an email chain between Microsoft executives dated May 2022 is a list of third-party games earmarked as potential day-and-date Game Pass titles. One of the games mentioned is Red Dead Redemption 2 “D&D for gen9”, which Microsoft expected to come out during the second quarter of its 2023 financial year (October to December 2022).
“Gen9” refers to the ninth generation of consoles, aka the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S. Rockstar has yet to announce a next-gen update for Red Dead Redemption 2, despite the many calls from fans.
Then, in October, Rockstar quietly patched its Red Dead Redemption port to add a 60 frames per second toggle to the game on PlayStation 5 via backwards compatibility, which made Rockstar’s 2010 open-world western was officially playable at 60fps for the first time.
Red Dead Redemption 2 launched in 2018 on PS4 and Xbox One and in 2019 on PC, and is considered by some to be Rockstar’s greatest game. Fans have criticized Rockstar for a lack of meaningful updates in favor of support for GTA Online, but Red Dead Redemption 2 remains hugely popular, selling over 61 million copies to date.
Red Dead Redemption 2 Title Update 1.32 patch notes:
General Stability Fixes and Improvements
Red Dead Online General Fixes
Fixed an issue that resulted in Naturalist samples not being counted toward Daily Challenges
Fixed an issue in Dead of Night that resulted in Night Stalkers being able to collect the Night Stalker mask
Fixed an issue that resulted in ambient vehicles not appearing in certain content
Fixed an issue that resulted in Free Roam Missions not launching
Improved an issue that resulted in players becoming stuck when entering the stables
Improved an issue that resulted in players being unable to summon horses and wagons
Voice Chat now defaults to Off
Game Stability and Performance
Fixed various issues that could result in a crash
Game Stability and Performance (PC)
Fixed various issues that would result in the game crashing or failing to launch
Fixed an issue that resulted in Offline Mode not working due to Windows 11 updates
Fixed an issue that resulted in crashes after reporting other players
Fixed issues that resulted in Offline Mode not working correctly
Added support for HDR10+ GAMING, this will automatically set game graphics in HDR for HDR10+ GAMING displays on compatible graphics cards and monitors connected via HDMI
Updated AMD Fidelity Super Resolution (FSR) libraries to version 2.2
Fixed an issue that resulted in 3200×2400 resolution being unavailable
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.
