First!

After what feels like an age of alpha and beta testing periods, The First Descendant has finally arrived on PS5. This free-to-play looter shooter is a little bit like a third-person Destiny, but instead of creating your own protagonist, you select playable heroes from a roster. Each of them is equipped with their own specialisations and abilities, and of course, if you want to bypass the grind, you can cough up real cash to unlock more of them.

In fact, The First Descendant's microtransactions are already a hot topic. Especially expensive in-game purchases have been highlighted, with comparisons to long-standing titles like Warframe proving to be pretty damning for the new kid on the block.

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Bandai Namco! Atlus! SEGA! NISA!

Anime Expo 2024 is happening in Los Angeles this weekend (starting on Thursday the 4th July), and it should actually be a pretty important event when it comes to gaming. Numerous Japanese publishers will be present — including Atlus, Bandai Namco, and SEGA — and most of them are hosting their own panels and exhibition booths. It's incredibly likely that we'll get a bunch of announcements over the next few days.

Now, naturally, anime games will be the sole focus of said announcements, but we're still talking about a wide range of projects here. From Metaphor: ReFantazio — which has its own panel on Friday — to the usual suspects like Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero and Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream, there's a lot to look out for.

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Horizon Zero Adaptations.

A new report from Rolling Stone claims that the TV adaptation of Horizon Zero Dawn is "no longer moving forward".

The news comes as part of a wider story concerning showrunner Steve Blackman; he has been accused of toxic behaviour by several anonymous sources who have worked with him on the show The Umbrella Academy. Projects that Blackman is attached to — one of them being PlayStation Productions and Netflix's Horizon adaptation — have subsequently been shelved. That's according to reporter Cheyenne Roundtree in a follow-up to the main story:

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To Erd is human.

Bandai Namco and FromSoftware have just released a new game update for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, available to download and install now on PS5 and PS4. Version 1.12.3, as it's called, is largely aimed at tweaking the balance of certain weapons and attacks, mostly nerfing some overpowered abilities.

In PvP, the Swift Slash skill has had its damage and damage animation decreased. Meanwhile, balance adjustments have been made to the Carian Sorcery Sword, and the throwing attack range of the Smithscript Dagger and Smithscript Cirque has been increased.

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Four-year absence is over.

PlayStation will officially return to the Tokyo Games Show this year after being announced as part of the 731 company-strong list of exhibitors for the event. This is said to be the most exhibitors the Japanese expo has ever had, with a total of 3,190 booths showcasing the latest games and accessories both within Japan and overseas.

The last time Sony had a presence at TGS, it signed up for three days of livestreaming focusing on various PS4 titles releasing around the time. The biggest was a Death Stranding demo, which was complemented by in-depth looks at other games such as Final Fantasy VII Remake, Nioh 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Yakuza: Like a Dragon. It hasn't announced any plans for 2024 yet besides the fact it'll be there at the show.

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Hollow victory.

Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail developer HoYoverse’s next big thing, the uber-stylish urban fantasy RPG Zenless Zone Zero, is playable for free on PS5 right now. The game, which weighs in at a little under 50GB, sees you assume the role of a so-called Proxy, as you deploy a colourful cast of collectible Agents into Hollows to investigate all sorts of aggressive threats.

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Cool party!

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League's Season 2 roadmap has been revealed, and it includes a playable character who deserves her due. Nora Fries, better known as Mrs. Freeze, has been confirmed to be coming to the game, no doubt with some scores to settle, and will join the festivities alongside all kinds of cosmetic goodies from 11th July.

While Mrs. Freeze is undoubtedly the big ticket, dedicated players can look forward to additional narrative drama in Episode 3: Frozen Hearts and Episode 4: Winter, which will serve as the mid-season update. There's an Elseworlds Mayhem map, new Infamy sets and Notorious gear, additional shop items, and a battle pass to blast through if that wasn't enough for you. We'll be interested to see how this latest character iteration is received, although the 1997 Batman & Robin depiction will always hold a special place in our hearts.

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Full throttle.

In the grim darkness of the 41st Millenium, few weapons are more iconic than the chainsword, the preferred melee weapon of the Imperium of Man. Inelegant but brutally effective (especially in the hands of an eight-foot-tall genetically enhanced super soldier wearing a suit of powered armour), the fearsome chainsword is the star of a short spotlight trailer for the upcoming Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, where players will undoubtedly find plenty of opportunities to do the Emperor's bloody work.

The chainsword has a bit of Final Fantasy VIII's gunblade about it in that it's a cool but wildly impractical weapon if you think too hard about it. In Space Marine 2, players will use the gory gadget to rip and tear armour from Xenos and heretics alike, and it can be used to create openings with the game's take on a perfect parry, setting enemies up for a blood-drenched finisher. We'll be hoping for the appearance of the even more outrageous Eviscerator two-handed variant, capable of bisecting just about anything with legs (or tank treads).

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The Final Fantasy.

Hironobu Sakaguchi, the storied developer and "Father of Final Fantasy," has no interest in returning to work on the series he helped make a household name. He also does not want to know how games in the franchise are made now, feeling that it would impact his enjoyment of playing future entries.

Speaking to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier (thanks, GameSpot), Sakaguchi explained that he views himself as a consumer now and that knowing how the sausage is made would affect the joy he takes in playing one entry specifically: "If I take on the Final Fantasy brand again, I don’t know if I’ll be able to genuinely enjoy Final Fantasy XIV as much."

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I'm still scanning three.

Polish developer Teyon had something of a hit with its last effort, RoboCop: Rogue City, which became publisher Nacon's best-ever launch. The studio is looking to augment its development team further, with multiple job listings now open for an unannounced new action RPG, currently in development for PC and console.

That's according to Teyon's recruitment page, which GamePressure noted (thanks, PSU). Precious little can be gleaned from the page itself, but we know it will be developed on Unreal Engine 5 and that the company is offering the successful candidates the opportunity to "work from an early stage on a very interesting project backed by a major publisher."

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A full resource to mastering New Eridu City.

Zenless Zone Zero is Chinese developer HoYoverse's latest major multiformat gacha game, following on from Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. Available from 4th July on PS5, PC, and mobile, the company describes the outing as an urban fantasy RPG with action-oriented gameplay.

In this Zenless Zone Zero guide, we'll outline many of the gameplay concepts, introduce all of the playable characters and suggest some optimal builds, and detail the various currencies and concepts you'll need to understand in order to eke the most out of your adventure.

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That's no moon...

Helldivers 2's intergalactic conflict continues to rage on, and an opportunity to secure something truly decisive has arisen. Having recently saved stranded and sick children and succeeded in sucking an entire planet into a black hole, the latest Major Order directs players to defend the planet of X45, where plans for a "powerful interplanetary battle station" have been unearthed.

Over on Reddit, players are preparing to take the plunge, warily noting Super Earth's assurances that "radiation levels abated to completely safe levels" before diving in (thanks, VG247). The Automatons are aware of these plans and have launched an assault on the Ymir sector, so Helldivers must dig in until SEAF forces can be deployed in sufficient numbers to secure the site.

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Releases next year on consoles.

We were won over by #DRIVE Rally when we first saw it at the tail end of last year, and it looks better each time it shows up. This arcade rally racing game has a fun style to it, and looks like it'll be a lot of fun to play, judging by this new gameplay trailer.

You'll be able to choose from various characterful co-drivers and fully customise your car, then drive it through various tracks on different terrains. The driving looks to be much more forgiving than the likes of EA Sports WRC, and we're here for the 90s vibes too.

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Most priced at £28 / $29.

Sony has today announced a new line of collectible PlayStation figurines based on some of its most popular franchises, like Horizon, God of War, and Ghost of Tsushima. Collectively, they create The Shapes Collection from Spin Master, and are designed to be affordable. The first is a six-inch figure of Aloy from Horizon Forbidden West; pre-orders are live now at PlayStation Gear with a view to shipping in mid-August. It costs £48 / $50.

You will be able to customise Aloy with 12 accessories like face paint and different head and hand configurations. Also available to pre-order now and shipping in September are figures for God of War protagonists Kratos and Atreus, Ghost of Tsushima lead Jin Sakai, and Varl from Horizon. All four of these figurines cost £28.80 / $29.99 each. You can view them through this link.

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Work on 1.0 version now complete.

Star Wars Outlaws has gone gold almost two months ahead of its PS5 release date of 30th August 2024, Ubisoft today confirmed. This means work on the 1.0 version of the open world title is now complete and can be pressed to physical discs while Massive Entertainment prepares a day one patch and post-launch DLC.

The official Star Wars Outlaws Twitter account added: "Our team can't wait for you to start exploring the Outer Rim and living the life of a scoundrel — August 30 can't come soon enough!" If you pre-order either the Gold Edition or Ultimate Edition, you'll be able to play three days early, from 27th August 2024.

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New game mode called Outbreak.

EA DICE has announced a new limited-time event for Battlefield 2042 that's themed entirely around 2023's PS5 remake of Dead Space. Available from Tuesday next week until 16th July 2024, a new Outbreak mode will test your teammates' FPS skills and "human resilience and resourcefulness against a new and relentless enemy all while trying to escape the Boreas laboratory". It sounds a lot like an extraction mode you'd find in Rainbow Six: Extraction, as its name suggests.

For taking part, you can unlock rewards like a weapon charm, player card background, and a tag. There's also a premium bundle you can buy for 2,200 Battlefield Coins which includes a Marked Man legendary specialist outfit, three legendary weapon skins, and more.

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Star Wars! Madden! Concord!

Things are starting to get pretty busy on the old games front, with lots of new releases headed our way over the next couple of months.

As always, we've been busy putting together a list of some particularly noteworthy physical releases headed to PlayStation 5 over the next few weeks, as well as a larger selection of games that could well be worth a look too. Have a browse below and let us know if you decide to treat yourself to anything in the comments.

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Getting warmer.

A new Dragon's Dogma 2 update dropped last week, promising performance improvements on PS5. The action RPG has suffered from an unruly frame rate since launch, and although Capcom did start cleaning things up with patch 1.050 just a week after the game's launch, this latest update arrives over three months later — and it still doesn't allow for a smooth 60 frames-per-second.

But to be fair, the new patch does make some clear improvements, as reported by Digital Foundry. To start with, disabling ray tracing no longer has such a noticeable impact on the game's visuals, with better ambient occlusion. Basically, the shading on objects looks better overall, as it could get slightly blurry before this update.

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3-2-1 Chicago.

Rocket Racing, the actually-pretty-good arcade racing mode within Fortnite, now has some NASCAR content. Yes, the American motorsport is officially represented in Epic's metaverse thanks to a collaboration with developer Karta, and it's playable in the game right now.

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