Players will be able to download the full game and jump in with access to all of the content up through the Stormblood expansion. However, the catch is that you will need a fresh, new account to create a trial character. You won't be able to log in with your pre-existing account with a lapsed subscription and begin the free trial.

If you do create a new account to take advantage of the free trial, you likely won't be disappointed, as it covers a vast amount of content now with two expansions included. Of course, if you are playing on Xbox, you also need to make sure you have Xbox Live to play online. Xbox Live still exists, but it is now part of the Game Pass Core and Ultimate subscriptions.

Final Fantasy 14 will fully launch on Xbox as soon as the beta ends. Then, Xbox gamers will get day-one access to the next expansion for the game, Dawntrail, which is launching later this year.

KitGuru Says: I may have to give this a test as I would like to give Final Fantasy 14 another go at some point. Will any of you be checking out the Xbox beta? 

Gabriel Amatangelo (Game Director), Paweł Sasko (Associate Game Director), Igor Sarzyński (Creative Director), Andrzej Stopa (Cinematic Director), Kacper Niepokólczycki (Environment Art Director), Sarah Grümmer (Acting Lead Quest Designer) and Kacper Kościeński (Engineering Director) are all working on Project Orion right now, after wrapping up work on Cyberpunk 2077 and its Phantom Liberty expansion.

New additions to the team include Dan Hernberg as Executive Producer. He previously worked in management roles at Panic Button and Blizzard, and also worked on projects like Apex Legends and New World. Ryan Barnard will be the Design Director, after previously working at IO Interactive and Ubisoft. Alan Villani will be the engineering director and previously worked on the Mortal Kombat games.

Anna Megill, who's credits include Control (Remedy), Dishonored (Arkane), Fable (Playground Games) and Guild Wars 2 (ArenaNet). She will be the lead writer for the next Cyberpunk game. Joining Anna will be Alexander Freed, who previously wrote on BioWare titles, and also worked at Obsidian, DICE, Wizards of the Coast and FoxNext.

CD Projekt Red is currently hiring for various positions at its new Boston and Vancouver-based studios. The Cyberpunk sequel is still in the early stages, so it will be quite some time before we really get to see it in action.

KitGuru Says: The Cyberpunk sequel is under way. What do you want to see in a new Cyberpunk game? When all is said and done, Cyberpunk 2077 ended up delivering on all fronts to me by the time Phantom Liberty rolled out. However, the life path prologue has always been a sore point. I hope a sequel could truly deliver on the Life Path concept. 

Elden Ring first launched in early 2022 and has remained in gaming discussions ever since. It won many GOTY awards and many are looking forward to returning to the game for the upcoming expansion. Aside from new main game content, an Elden Ring mobile version is reportedly in development, according to Reuters.

According to the report, a small team is currently working on the mobile version and progress is said to have been ‘slow', so it could be a long time before we see this. It is also claimed that Tencent is behind this version of the game and is looking to make it a free to play experience with microtransactions. This essentially flies in the face of what fans have come to respect From Software for. All of the Souls games are praised for being complete, highly replayable experiences. A free to play version with microtransactions has the potential to be very iffy.

We'll have to wait and see where this goes but it is worth noting that Tencent has also abandoned plenty of projects and given that progress on this idea is going slow, it could end up being cancelled before it ever becomes an official thing. However, I think it is also worth noting that perhaps Reuters doesn't have the expertise to frame this properly, as a mobile version of Elden Ring is very different from a new game set in the Elden Ring universe with different characters, story and gameplay.

KitGuru Says: This would have to be a spin-off rather than an attempt to recreate the game for low-power devices, with microtransactions forced in. That is perhaps the only way this could feasibly work but I still don't think it is the best idea. Then again, it might stand a better chance in certain markets. 

Stormgate managed to raise over $2.2 million in crowdfunding last year, making it the most successful gaming Kickstarter of 2023. Unlike many other Kickstarter projects, we're getting a pretty swift turnaround here, with Stormgate launching this year. A demo is currently freely available on Steam as part of Steam Next Fest, and it already features DLSS 2 and DLSS 3 in its demo form and will fully launch with both features in place later this year.

The Inquisitor is a new game, offering a story-driven, dark fantasy adventure, set in an alternate version of reality inspired by the book series of the same name. The game comes out on the 8th of February and will feature DLSS 2.

Aside from that, DLSS 3 and DLSS 2 is available in Call of Duty: Warzone, which enters Season 2 tomorrow. Atomic Heart, another DLSS-supported title, is also getting a new expansion this week.

KitGuru Says: Are any of you planning on trying Stormgate this week now that the demo is available? 

Last month's Game Pass additions were headlined by Resident Evil 2 Remake. This month, we're getting Resident Evil 3 Remake. Beyond that, EA's Madden 24 will now be available through EA Play, which is included with all Game Pass Ultimate and Game Pass for PC subscriptions.

The full list of games joining Game Pass over the next couple of weeks can be found below:

• Train Sim World 4 (Cloud, Console and PC) – February 7th
• Madden NFL 24 (Console and PC) – February 8th
• Resident Evil 3 (Cloud, Console and PC) – February 13th
• A Little To The Left (Cloud, Console and PC) – February 14th
• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Cloud, Console and PC) – February 14th
• PlateUp! (Cloud, Console and PC) – February 15th
• Return to Grace (Cloud, Console and PC) – February 20th

On the 15th of February, two games will leave Game Pass, including Galactic Civilizations III (PC) and Opus: Echo of Starsong (Cloud, Console and PC).

KitGuru Says: What do you all think of this month's Game Pass additions?

If you are the type of person that would play through the cinematic Call of Duty campaign each year, you may be disappointed in future releases. According to Insider Gaming, Activision is going to 'embrace' open world COD campaigns moving forward, starting with Black Ops Gulf War.

Apparently, some linear missions will be integrated, so perhaps the developers will look towards something like Halo Infinite, which did have a nice mix of open-world/linear missions through its single-player campaign, although this did also lead to a lot of very similar looking levels, so differentiation will be key.

The report states that the new open world campaign will play out more like a Far Cry game, rather than a typical Call of Duty single-player experience. Players will be able to use vehicles and fast travel to get around the map and you'll have a squad with you, so you won't be wandering the open world completely alone.

We'll no doubt see more leaks on this in the months ahead, with Black Ops Gulf War planned to release in late 2024.

KitGuru Says: We've known that Activision has wanted to stop producing expensive cinematic COD campaigns for a while. It is one of the primary reasons Black Ops 4 was multiplayer-only. Now, I worry we're heading towards a future where the campaign is included as a token addition, and the lack of interest from players will then be used to kill off COD's campaign mode once and for all. 

In recent weeks, there have been whispers about certain Xbox games releasing on other consoles, like the PS5 and Nintendo Switch. At first, it sounded like it would just be the likes of Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves, opening these games up to a wider player base. It was also claimed that Microsoft would address this strategy shift in the Spring as part of a new set of announcements.

Over the weekend, the scope of this strategy changed significantly. Now, it is being rumoured that even Xbox's biggest franchises will be going multi-platform, with games like Starfield and Indiana Jones to arrive on PS5. As we already know, the biggest Activision Blizzard titles will also remain multi-platform, something that Microsoft announced prior to acquiring the company in late 2023.

Xbox-focused podcaster, xCloudTimdog, who has relationships with a number of Xbox employees and executives, summarised a lot of this in a recent video, sharing that Xbox missed its hardware sales targets in late 2023, despite holiday season discounts. This in turn has led to the CFO wanting to switch strategies and bring more games to competing consoles. Exactly how this would help Xbox hardware sales is entirely unclear and for now, it sounds like Microsoft does indeed plan to continue selling consoles, even with major games potentially becoming available on other platforms.

Why would you buy an Xbox still if all of their games are available elsewhere? Well, odds are Sony isn't going to allow Game Pass on PlayStation, so that will be Microsoft's big draw. Buy the console with no exclusive games and use Game Pass to play the latest titles at a cheaper cost, versus buying them at £70 a pop on PS5. The other pillar here would be Play Anywhere, allowing games to be played across both Xbox and PC for those who like to switch between devices.

Many Xbox fans have already flooded forums and social media with complaints about this. A poll conducted by WindowsCentral's Jez Corden shows that the majority of fans are no longer confident investing in the Xbox ecosystem given the rumours swirling around over the weekend. The poll has almost 40,000 votes, which is a very significant sample size. The message seems clear, most of the ‘core' gamers would rather own a PS5 if they are going to get to play Xbox games there anyway. This way, you get the best of both worlds, with access to Xbox games, as well as the PlayStation exclusives that launch exclusively on the console. However, as I'll explain further down in this article, I don't think PlayStation consoles as we know them today are going to last forever either.

If Microsoft really is throwing in the towel on exclusives and going multiplatform, then Xbox hardware makes little sense unless it is licensed out. Like the Steam Machines of old, perhaps Microsoft will pursue a licensing model in which partners make their own Xbox systems at different performance/price levels and load it with an OS that boots into a gaming-focused UI that works well with a controller.

With all of these issues in mind, it would seem that Xbox may transform itself in a similar fashion to SEGA. Once upon a time, SEGA was one of the biggest games console makers, but with tough competition from PlayStation and Nintendo, the company decided to ditch hardware entirely, instead opting to focus all of its efforts on creating games for the most popular systems. Nowadays, SEGA is one of the biggest multi-platform publishers around.

Would this be the best move for Microsoft as a whole? Historically, Microsoft has always been a software-focused company and when Satya Nadella took over the company as CEO, he also directed a new focus on services too. This has led to things like Microsoft Azure and Office 365, which have been hugely successful for Microsoft. By dropping hardware from the equation and switching to multi-platform game development and publishing, Microsoft would stand to make a lot of money and would start to reap the rewards pretty swiftly. After all, there are a significant number of customers on PlayStation who have never owned an Xbox and may have never even played Halo or Gears of War.

Going by the PS4's install base, that's well over 100 million new customers to sell games to. Sony will get its platform cut, but Microsoft may be able to negotiate better terms to get it below 30%, as we know some publishers have managed to do exactly that, including Activision Blizzard.

Additionally, this change in strategy could also open the door for Microsoft to acquire more studios in the future without raising red flags at regulators. One of the key arguments used by the FTC against the Microsoft-Activision merger is that Microsoft could leverage IP like Call of Duty to run Sony out of business by making content exclusive. If there is no Xbox and there are no exclusives, then it may be able to get away with even more high-profile studio acquisitions.

However, losing one of the pillars of the console market could also have major downsides. Microsoft has managed to push Sony into offering a better subscription service, and was also instrumental in forcing Sony's hand in allowing features like cross-play and cross-save in games. Without a major third console in the market, Sony would have more market power than it already has. The company has never been shy about throwing its weight around, as we saw with the Sony-led shift towards £70 games on new-gen consoles. While some publishers held out for a while, eventually, everyone began charging Sony's new standard price for games and this has had an effect on PC game pricing too.

Sony could also backtrack on its multi-platform efforts and go back to releasing full exclusives, as there would no longer be a competing Xbox. I think this scenario is unlikely though, as many Xbox gamers may opt to go to PC instead, a sensible move due to concerns around game preservation and continued access to your library.

While the gut reaction to this news is to wonder why, especially given Microsoft's investment in studios over the past several years, I actually think this is a smart move. We are moving towards a future where locked-down console hardware that sells at a loss no longer makes sense.

Creating games is becoming increasingly expensive and when you add on overhead for covering hardware losses, having a PC-focused games market simply makes more sense. Let the likes of AMD, Intel and Nvidia worry about hardware instead and focus on shipping polished software that can be accessed locally on a PC, or on any device via the cloud.

I believe this is where the gaming market is heading. Sony has already realised it needs to get on board with multi-platform releases to reach a wider audience and has been investing in cloud for well over a decade. If Microsoft goes down this path and sees huge gains, Sony will likely follow. There is no reason a PC can't play Xbox or PlayStation games. There's no reason you can't license out that brand name to a company like Corsair and turn the Corsair One mini-PC into a ‘PlayStation' or an ‘Xbox', complete with a special full-screen UI designed for a TV and controller that displays your library and different stores/launchers.

I understand concerns around game optimisation here, as developers tend to squeeze as much performance as possible out of consoles. However, if there are no consoles and we're all gaming on PC, or a PC in the cloud, then developers will have to focus all efforts on optimisation and scalability to reach the broadest amount of players. To help avoid issues with players buying games they can't feasibly run on the hardware they have, a store page warning can be added to let a player know that their PC might not be able to run a game reliably, before pointing them to the hardware requirements section. Additionally, a cloud streaming option can be offered as part of a continued ‘PlayStation+' or ‘Xbox Game Pass Ultimate' subscription. This cloud streaming option could also pop up if a user runs out of local storage space, or it could be offered once a game starts installing, so you can jump in faster while the game installs locally.

In this scenario, we as consumers would be in greater control of our hardware, we would have greater access to games and the god-forsaken console war would finally come to an end. It would mark a generational shift in how the games market functions but I think it is the shift that makes the most sense.

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KitGuru Says: A lot of people have been quick to balk at the idea of Xbox games going multi-platform, but the fact is, PlayStation gamers will buy them, as will Nintendo gamers, which would be a win for the Microsoft Gaming business. I doubt Sony wants to keep making locked-down, loss-leading consoles forever either. Let's just get this over with and go back to PC gaming. 

Metro: Awakening is an origin story, putting players in the shoes of Serdar, a doctor in the Metro tunnels, searching for medication to treat his wife's illness. The search begins in the tunnels beneath Moscow, with players having to be careful to avoid or fight through mutants. Something that will jump out to fans of the books and games is the fact that author Dmitry Glukhovsky penned the narrative for Metro: Awakening, so it won't feel like an out-of-place spin-off and should be a meaningful single-player Metro adventure.

While the game was first announced as part of a Sony State of Play stream, Metro: Awakening will not be exclusive to the PlayStation VR2 platform, it will be playable across Steam VR, the Meta Quest platform, as well as PlayStation VR2.

The game doesn't have a final release date yet but it is due to come out later this year. The game is being developed by Vertigo Games, the studio that also produced Arizona Sunshine.

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KitGuru Says: Metro seems like a perfect fit for a VR game. I'm expecting the playthrough to be very tense, similarly to Half-Life: Alyx. Will any of you be picking up Metro: Awakening when it drops later this year?

The big news here is that Blizzard games are now joining GeForce Now, in keeping with Microsoft's agreement to bring Activision Blizzard titles to competing game streaming services. We're kicking things off with Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2, but other titles should eventually make it over. We'll still have to wait and see if a game as massive as World of Warcraft ever makes it over. Perhaps we'll see something around that later in the year as Blizzard gears up for the next expansion, which will kick off a multi-year story arc for WoW players.

The games joining GeForce Now this week include:

• Bang-On Balls: Chronicles
• Diablo IV
• Overwatch 2
• RAGE 2

Later in the month, players can expect to see Skull and Bones, Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance, Star Wars: Dark Forces Remastered, Tales of Arise, The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series and more.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: What do you all think of Nvidia's latest GeForce Now additions? What other Blizzard games would you like to see join the library?

The Tempest GP2711 arrives at the top of the list, with a £429.99 price tag. For that money, you get a 27-inch Mini LED display with 1440p resolution, a 165Hz refresh rate and impressive colour accuracy of 99% sRGB and 95% DCI-P3.

The GM2711S is a cheaper alternative, offering a 27-inch IPS panel instead with 180Hz refresh rate for £264.99. At this price, it makes for a solid option for those looking to finally move on from 1080p, or simply need to replace an ageing 1440p monitor. This monitor uses Cooler Master's new Advanced Reflectionless Technology, a unique surface process combined with a multi-layer coating to reduce glare from ambient light.

Finally, we have the new GM340CWQ2, a 34-inch Ultrwide Quantum Dot display with a curved VA panel with 1440p resolution. You'll get a maximum 165Hz refresh rate, making it ideal for gaming, and you'll have plenty of extra screen space for multitasking too when you need to get some work done. This monitor will hit the market with a £379.99 price tag.

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KitGuru Says: What do you think of Cooler Master's new monitors? Are you thinking about picking one up?

Nvidia has now launched a new 6GB version of the RTX 3050, coming in at a cheaper price point than the current 8GB model. However, there are some other key differences aside from VRAM capacity. For starters, the memory runs on a narrower 96-bit bus, a step back from the 128-bit bus on the RTX 3050 8GB. This lowers bandwidth to 168 GB/s versus 224 GB/s.

The RTX 3050 6GB also has fewer CUDA cores than the standard RTX 3050 8GB, dropping from 2560 CUDA cores to 2304 cores, clock speeds are also dialled back from a 1777MHz boost speed to 1470MHz. The power limit has also dropped from 130W to 70W, as pointed out by VideoCardz, as the 6GB model does not ship with an additional PCIe power connector.

European retailer, Mindfactory, already has a few RTX 3050 6GB listings live, with prices starting at €185, so we're likely going to see $180/£180 prices in the US and UK.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: With the RTX 3050 seemingly continuing to live on, do you think we'll ever see an entry-level RTX 4050 GPU? 

If you never had the opportunity to play Until Dawn on PS4, you'll seen be able to pick it up in new and improved form on PC or PS5. The remake was officially announced last night and we already have a decent amount of insight into some of the bigger changes on the way.

The original game played out like a slasher film, with fixed camera angles that in some ways helped maintain suspense during scenes. The remake will drop this in favour of a third-person camera, something that could end up being slightly controversial but we'll have to wait and see what it plays like for ourselves.

The game will also include new interactions and an expanded narrative that aims to dive deeper into certain emotional connections and flesh out the characters a bit more.

The Until Dawn remake is being developed by Ballistic Moon rather than Supermassive Games. It is being made with Unreal Engine 5.

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KitGuru Says: I loved the original Until Dawn and have often thought about replaying it. We'll be hearing more about this remake later this year, so hopefully we'll get some release date news at that point. 

On the 6th of February, Sony will go live with State of Play once again, this time with a show entirely focused on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. We're promised an “extensive look” at the game. During Sony's Final Fantasy 16-focused State of Play last year, we were treated to an early demo of the game. With Final Fantasy VII Rebirth being another major PS5 exclusive, we may see something similar happen here.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is launching as a PS5 exclusive, much like the first game, Final Fantasy VII Remake. The original Remake was exclusive to Sony's PlayStation platform for around two years before finally making its way to PC, but even then, it ended up launching as an Epic Games Store exclusive, a move that is rarely popular as the majority of PC gamers prefer to use Steam. While the game did end up coming to PC, it did not make its way over to Xbox.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will hopefully have a quicker turnaround when it comes to launching on other platforms. Expanding its platform support to boost sales is going to be a focus for Square Enix this year and we're already seeing it begin to come to fruition with the announcements of Final Fantasy 14 and Visions of Mana for Xbox.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Final Fantasy VII Remake ended up being my favourite game in the franchise, in large part thanks to its new combat system. With Rebirth, we'll be exploring even more of the map, going beyond Midgar, which will certainly be a big hook for long-time fans moving into the sequel. 

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach doesn't have a final release date yet, but it is scheduled to come out next year. While we still have quite the wait ahead, there is a lengthy new trailer, spanning 10 minutes of what appears to be in-game footage, so the team is certainly making good progress.

Aside from catching up with some old characters, like Sam Porter Bridges, once again played by Norman Reedus, we also get a look at some new characters, including the new character played by actress Elle Fanning, who was teased as a newcomer to the Death Stranding sequel in a short video shared by Kojima last year.

Given how lengthy this trailer was, I'd be willing to bet that this will be a first-half of 2025 title rather than a late 2025 one, but we'll have to wait and see. Kojima Productions is very busy at the moment, juggling multiple game projects and cross media efforts.

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KitGuru Says: What did you all think of the new Death Stranding 2 trailer? Will you be returning to this series next year or did you get your fill with the first game? 

Foamstars was announced during a PlayStation Showcase last year as one of Sony's major upcoming live service games for PS5. While Nintendo's shooter, Splatoon, has players running around with paint guns, Square Enix's Foamstars replaces this with colourful foam and takes on more of an anime aesthetic. The game will be launching day-one into PS+, likely in hopes of attracting millions of players swiftly, just as Rocket League did back in the day.

The second game joining the PS+ Essential library this month is Rollerdrome, a highly-praised indie game from Roll7, combining fast movement and fluid motion with visceral combat. It is a shooter-skater hybrid and is pretty unique in the shooter space.

The final game coming to PS+ this month is Steelrising, a PS5-only title set in an alternate history verion of Paris, in which the French Revolution was suppressed by a robotic army.

Subscribers will get a bonus perk this month too, with a new Fall Guys Icons Pack, offering skins for characters like Ratchet, Clank and Aloy. If you happen to be a PS+ Premium or Deluxe member, you'll also get access to a two-hour free trial for Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

All of these new PS+ games and perks will be available to claim starting on the 6th of February.

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KitGuru Says: What do you all think of the February PS+ line-up?

Shapeshifter Games is founded by former Volition veterans. The new studio won't be embarking on any solo projects just yet, beginning life as a co-development studio. The team's first project is already on the books too – they'll be teaming up with InXile Entertainment to help produce their next big RPG, Clockwork Revolution.

It turns out this has been in the works for quite some time already. In its own statement, InXile noted that after Volition closed, some of their team, plus some Xbox leads, flew to Illinois, where Volition was based, and began discussing the idea of co-developing on their new game.

Clockwork Revolution is a big game for InXile, moving on from the CRPG genre the studio is primarily known for. Clockwork Revolution in many ways appears to be a next-gen successor to BioShock Infinite, set in a Steampunk world that carries a similar vibe to the city in BioShock Infinite.

Clockwork Revolution was announced last year but we do not have a release date yet. The game will be launching for PC and Xbox Series X/S when it does eventually arrive.

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KitGuru Says: Microsoft has worked with co-development studios on many projects over the years. The other big on-going example of this is Perfect Dark, which has Crystal Dynamics on-board as a support studio. 

With the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft's gaming business is now one of the biggest in the industry, solidifying its position in the market moving forward. The impact of Activision releases like Call of Duty can already be observed in Microsoft's earnings report, with Microsoft gaming revenue jumping up to over $7 billion for the previous quarter.

Importantly, if Microsoft's gaming division can keep this momentum going, then it may eclipse Windows earnings moving forward. For comparison, Windows earned $5.26 billion USD over the last quarter, although gaming still falls behind some of Microsoft's other major software areas, as Office and Cloud Services still brought in the most, generating just shy of $24 billion for the quarter.

Year on Year, Microsoft gaming grew by a massive 61 percent in revenue and Microsoft has seen a significant increase in active users for its gaming services too. Unfortunately, all of that success couldn't put a stop to the layoffs, which are now taking place across various Xbox studios, including teams at Activision Blizzard.

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KitGuru Says: The Activision Blizzard acquisition is already paying off. In a few months time, we should also begin to see the impact Activision Blizzard titles can have on services like Game Pass, which has yet to receive support from Microsoft's newly owned studios. However, games like Call of Duty are expected to land on the service later this year. 

With the launch of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, CD Projekt Red warned that the game would become more demanding and would make good use of high core-count CPUs. With the new Cyberpunk 2077 2.11 update, CD Projekt Red has now added a hybrid CPU utilisation setting, designed for ‘hybrid' processors that use both high-power Performance Cores alongside low-power Efficiency Cores.

Intel's latest desktop processors fall into this category. The Hybrid CPU Utilisation setting will be set to Auto by default, allowing the operating system to determine how to distribute threads. If you have a CPU with P-Cores and E-Cores, then you can customise this by switching the game to “Prioritize P-Cores”. The setting can be found under Gameplay – Performance in the menus.

The patch does far more than this though, with CD Projekt Red sharing a lengthy list of bug fixes and other improvements. The full patch notes can be found HERE.

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KitGuru Says: Do you have a ‘hybrid' CPU in your system? Have you tried Cyberpunk 2077's new setting to see if there is a performance improvement?

Rocksteady has announced that after roughly eight hours of downtime for the game during the early access period, the studio will be gifting all Digital Deluxe edition owners of the game with 2000 LuthorCoins, which is worth just under £20 if you were to buy the currency pack.

As a ‘live service' game, Suicide Squad does have microtransactions but from what I've played so far, they aren't super unreasonable and seem to be priced a bit better than some of the cosmetics you see on sale for Call of Duty or Overwatch 2. You still won't be able to buy much with 2000 LuthorCoins, but you should at the very least be able to get one or two premium cosmetic skins, and if there's nothing on the store that catches your eye right now, you can hold onto them and see what arrives on the store later in the year.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is out now for those who pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition. The game launches for all, including base-game buyers, on the 2nd of February, for PC, Xbox Series X/S and PS5.

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KitGuru Says: I've actually been pleasantly surprised by Suicide Squad so far in terms of its campaign story, but I'm still unsure on the open-world elements and some of the mechanics. I'll be spending a bit more time with the game over the next few days so stay tuned for a review. 

The latest Game Ready driver from Nvidia delivers optimisations for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which launches with support for DLSS 2, DLAA and ray-tracing. Unfortunately, it does not include DLSS 3, which would help a bit as the frame rate can get a tad choppy even on an RTX 4080 – stay tuned for more on that in the coming days as I'm currently working my way through the game for impressions.

The latest driver also brings optimisations for Enshrouded, a recent indie hit, which also launches with ray-tracing and DLSS 2. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (Yakuza 8) is also on the way and will ship with DLSS 3, with the latest driver from Nvidia adding support for the game.

TEKKEN 8 is the final highlight for this latest Game Ready driver. The latest fighting game in the long-running franchise will launch with DLSS 2, which should help a wider range of GPUs achieve a locked 60FPS with the settings cranked up.

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KitGuru Says: Have you downloaded the latest GeForce driver? 

Asus and Noctua have been partnering on some graphics cards for a couple of years now but the 4080 Super variant seems to have the beefiest cooler yet, utilising Noctua's battle-tested and highly-praised NF-A12x25 120mm fans, alongside a chunky heatsink.

The big selling point of a Noctua-cooled graphics card is the lack of noise. Noctua is well known for having some of the quietest cooling fans on the market. Due to the cooling performance, Asus was also able to squeeze a bit more out of the GPU, delivering an extra 90Hz out of the box compared to Nvidia's Founders Edition model.

We don't have an exact launch date yet, or a final price but the original RTX 4080 Noctua Edition did sell for $1649. As pointed out by Videocardz, the RTX 4080 Super does have a lower MSRP than the original RTX 4080, so we may end up seeing this version hitting the market at a similar or slightly lower price.

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KitGuru Says: The Asus x Noctua graphics cards have impressed but they do come with a price premium attached. Would you want to pick up a Noctua-cooled graphics card? 

These processors were first announced at CES earlier this month, alongside new Ryzen 5000 series processors and the RX 7600 XT graphics card. For a quick rundown of the Ryzen 8000G series specifications, see the table below:

There will also be a Ryzen 3 8300G processor with 4C/8T but this particular chip is not launching alongside the Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 models, which are available starting today.

Looking around, a number of UK retailers already have stock for these processors. A Ryzen 7 8700G will set you back just under £310 from OCUK, Amazon, Scan or eBuyer. The Ryzen 5 8600G will cost £218.99 and the Ryzen 5 8500G is priced at £169.99 here in the UK.

If you aren't looking to build your own DIY PC, then these chips can also be found in a range of pre-built PCs starting from today. At PC Specialist, a trio of new pre-built systems are already available featuring Ryzen 8000G processors, with prices starting at £710. The PCSpecialist PBA CRAFT ULTRA system has also been updated with the Ryzen 8700G as a configuration option.

The Ryzen 7 8700G and the Ryzen 5 8600G are the standouts here, thanks to the inclusion of an NPU, allowing these chips to accelerate AI workloads, an increasing area of focus for chip makers at the moment. Alongside this, you'll get Radeon 700M series graphics, so you'll benefit from AMD's exclusive features like Fluid Motion Frames and be able to play games at 1080p without an additional GPU.

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KitGuru Says: What do you all think of AMD's new APUs? Are you considering picking one up?

In an interview with Variety, WB Discovery's CEO of global streaming and gaming, JB Perrette, explained that the new goal is to turn games into a recurring source of revenue, rather than relying on a big hit once every few years. The goal is to ensure that gaming is “always on” and with live service games like Destiny 2 succeeding, WB thinks it can leverage its own franchises to achieve similar business goals.

WB does have a pretty solid line-up of IP to achieve something like this, with rights to the entire DC Universe, as well as hits like Game of Thrones and Harry Potter.

WB's new strategy is kicking off this week with the launch of Rocksteady's Suicide Squad game. Apparently, Monolith Productions' upcoming Wonder Woman game may not be a live-service title but all recent comments from WB Discovery executives indicate otherwise.

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KitGuru Says: We'll have to wait and see what WB's next major big-budget game will be but for now, the publisher finally gets to test the waters with Suicide Squad, which goes live for Deluxe Edition pre-order customers today. 

Normandy Crew armour sets are coming to Destiny 2 on the 13th of February. The crossover will include some free content for players, including an Enhanced Defence Ghost Shell, an Alliance Scout Frigate Ship and an Alliance Drop Ship Sparrow. The actual main armour sets themselves will still need to be purchased.

Join the Normandy crew.

Inspired by Commander Shepard, Garrus Vakarian, Liara T'Soni, and more from the Systems Alliance, arriving via mass relay in Destiny 2 on Feb. 13. pic.twitter.com/h47SeZ7T46

— Destiny 2 (@DestinyTheGame) January 30, 2024

In the tweet, we get a quick look at the new armour sets, with Commander Shepard's N7 armour featuring prominently on a Titan guardian, with Liara's armour featuring on a Warlock and the Garrus-inspired set for Hunters.

The new Destiny 2 x Mass Effect DLC will be dropping in just two weeks time.

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KitGuru Says: What do you think of Bungie's new crossover armour sets for Destiny 2? Is there a particular franchise that you would like to see melded with the Destiny universe? 

As spotted by Eurogamer, the Steam Store listing for Spec Ops: The Line has now been updated with a notice to say that the game is no longer available for purchase. The game, which was developed by Yager and published by 2K Games, had previously been available without issue and the delisting has come without warning, so we're unsure exactly what occurred behind the scenes here.

Spec Ops: The Line does have a particularly brutal story and is one of the more intense war-set games to be released. Still, the game received plenty of praise for its release back in 2012.

While the game may no longer be available through an official store like Steam, PC keys can still be found for sale on various sites, so the game is still technically available without resorting to piracy.

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KitGuru Says: Older games are often delisted due to expiring music licenses, so that could play a role here. Hopefully 2K Games or Yager Studios can provide an update later this week. 

According to video game researcher, Kurakasis, who has had a fairly good track record in 2023, Sega's new Sonic game is set to be titled Sonic X Shadow Generations. It may still end up being a Sonic Generations remaster, but with some fresh new levels thrown in featuring the fan favourite antagonist turned anti-hero, Shadow the Hedgehog.

Unfortunately, there is not much more substance to this rumour. No images or videos have leaked, nor have any finer details about the game. Given that this project initially leaked as a Sonic Generations remaster, I would wager that it will feature levels from the original game, alongside newly created levels to spice things up and get fans to jump back in.

Sony's State of Play stream will go live tomorrow at 10PM GMT. If these rumours hold weight, we should see the game announced during that stream.

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KitGuru Says: Sonic Generations was the last game in the series that I truly fell in love with. I wouldn't be super excited for a standard remaster, but a new Generations game featuring new levels with Shadow would be a much better outcome. Hopefully all will be made clear during Sony's stream tomorrow evening. 

While Microsoft has had some big day-one games on Game Pass, it is not a miracle worker and many highly anticipated games have mistakenly gone live for pre-order on Xbox with the Game Pass tag. In the past, this exact same thing has happened with games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur's Gate 3.

Given that the Game Pass tag is frequently mistakenly included on store pages for new games, usually around the time they first go live, it seemed unlikely from the get go that Visions of Mana was a secret Game Pass title. Typically if a game is coming to Game Pass, Microsoft has that deal ready to announce alongside news of the game's launch. Game Pass was not once mentioned during the Visions of Mana section of the Developer Direct.

Now in a statement to Eurogamer, Xbox has confirmed that the Game Pass tag was indeed an error. Visions of Mana will be launching on Xbox, but it won't be a day-one title for Game Pass. That doesn't rule out the possibility of the game joining the service at a future point in time.

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KitGuru Says: We see these kind of rumours pretty regularly and they rarely ever pan out. Perhaps at some point in 2024, Microsoft will finally put some kind of review system in place to ensure these tags don't mistakenly appear on new games so often, leading to unnecessary rumours. 

While this Deus Ex game was still in pre-production and unannounced, it has come to light that the project had been in development for around two years and was due to go into full production in 2024. However, it is also worth noting that Elias Toufexis, the voice actor for Adam Jensen, has confirmed that he had not yet been contacted about the project, speculating that perhaps Jensen would not feature in this iteration.

If they had been working on a #DeusEx for two years, and they still hadn’t contacted me, there’s a good chance it wasn’t a Jensen story anyway.

I’m more pissed for all the people getting laid off. This industry is fucked with this stuff.

— ᴇʟɪᴀꜱ ᴛᴏᴜꜰᴇxɪꜱ (@EliasToufexis) January 29, 2024

Adam Jensen became the face of the Deus Ex franchise with the release of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Jensen's story continues in the sequel, Mankind Divided, but unfortunately due to various constraints, a good chunk of story planned for Mankind Divided did not make it into the final product, leaving fans waiting for a potential third game to wrap up a trilogy.

In a statement, Eidos has now confirmed that it is also undergoing layoffs, with around 97 people spread across multiple teams set to be ousted from their job, continuing a long line of games industry layoffs across various studios and publishers over the past year.

At this point, the future of the Deus Ex franchise is uncertain. Embracer Group acquired Eidos Montreal along with the Deus Ex IP back in 2022, alongside Crystal Dynamics and the Tomb Raider IP. There is already a new Tomb Raider game in the works, but it is unclear what Eidos will move on to next.

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KitGuru Says: As a huge Deus Ex fan, this news has been nothing short of disappointing. Still, if Eidos hasn't been working on a follow-up to Mankind Divided, perhaps now they can regroup and give it some consideration, as there is clear fan demand for a return to Jensen's story. 

Embracer Group acquired both Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal, along with the Tomb Raider and Deus EX IPs from Square Enix in 2022. At the time, Eidos was said to be working on a new Deus Ex game, while Crystal Dynamics is moving forward with a new Tomb Raider game, which is being published by Amazon Games in collaboration with Embracer.

Now, according to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, the new Deus Ex game that Eidos had been working on has now been cancelled. The game had not yet been announced and was set to go into full production this year.

Unfortunately, it looks like this game will no longer be coming out, likely due to projected costs and the number of years it would take to reach release. This unfortunately means that Deus Ex fans will have to wait even longer to return to the series. At this rate, it wouldn't be surprising to see a Deus Ex Remake in lieu of a brand new game to test the waters for the franchise moving forward.

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KitGuru Says: I loved both Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided but unfortunately, the latter did feel incomplete. Now, we may not see a new Deus Ex game until the end of the decade if Embracer does decide to invest properly into the Deus Ex IP. 

Half-Life translated very well to the VR format thanks to the game's timeless FPS gameplay, mixed in with some new puzzle and stealth sections to mix things up. Metro falls in a similar category, with fantastic FPS gunplay and a thrilling setting that can truly come to life in virtual reality.

According to Insider Gaming, the Metro VR game will be titled Metro Awakening, which will have players going through a dream sequence, similar to the ones seen throughout Metro 2033, followed by our main protagonist waking up in the base of operations, where we'll meet our cast of characters and set out on what should be a terrifying journey through the metro tunnels, with occasional excursions to the apocalyptic surface.

This game is rumoured to be getting revealed at a Sony State of Play stream, so it could very well be an exclusive for PlayStation VR2 headsets at launch. That stream should be happening later this week, so we won't have to wait long to get official details if these rumours hold weight.

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KitGuru Says: Like Half-Life, I can see Metro being absolutely incredible in VR. If it can come close to the story-telling and gameplay quality of Half-Life: Alyx, then it would be huge amongst VR gamers.