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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This is a raid.

Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream now has a confirmed 4th October release date on PS5, and it's set to take Sword Art Online games in a somewhat new direction. In case you missed the initial reveal, this is primarily an online co-op adventure, as groups of up to 20 characters can take part in raid-style battles.

Still, despite its focus on large-scale action, Fractured Daydream does have its own story, complete with a cast of recurring Sword Art Online characters. In fact, it sounds a lot like a crossover game, as it incorporates characters from a number of different seasons.

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Tanks very much.

If you're looking for a way to make Elden Ring easier, you may well be interested in thrusting shields — a new weapon type that's been introduced via Shadow of the Erdtree. Essentially, these shields let you attack and block at the same time, meaning that you don't have to worry about timing your strikes, because you're just tanking through incoming blows as you poke, poke, poke.

It sounds crazy on paper, but you should see it in practice. As demonstrated by @pirochanbanzai, thrusting shields can completely break the game's difficulty. In the below social media clip, they utilise one against an infamously tough DLC boss, and the results speak for themselves. All you have to do is hold down the block button while using the weapon's shield bash skill.

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Here we go again.

Another near-2,000 must-own PS5 and PS4 games have been discounted on the PS Store, with a bunch of acclaimed outings plunging to their lowest ever price points. Among their ranks, you’ll find Dragon Ball XenoVerse 2 for just £3.99 and the Deluxe Edition of Naruto x Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections for £43.49.

We’ve compiled some of the highlights below, and will add US pricing as and when it becomes available:

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Rubber hits the road.

The First Descendant has finally touched down, with the free-to-play looker now live on PS5 and PS4. Being a live game, players can look forward to regular content updates, additions, and plenty of cosmetic skins to play dress up in. Nexon has revealed just some of the stylish suits engaged Descendants can look forward to donning.

Managing a healthy day-one peak of 229,257 players on Steam alone, it looks like the graphically impressive game could have legs, provided there is plenty for players to tear into. On Twitter, The First Descendant account showed off a snippet of what players can expect, and you'd better believe it's chock-a-block with school uniforms and various anthropomorphic animal-themed outfits.

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Eyes on the prize.

Bare Butt Boxing is an incredibly fun-looking multiplayer brawler which is leaving Steam Early Access and coming to Switch and PC first, promised for PS5 and PS4 at a future date. The concept is a fairly simple one: mischievous and colourful aliens, entranced by the concept of bare-knuckle fisticuffs, land on Earth in order to host underground boxing bouts. Why do they choose not to wear pants while doing so? That aspect remains unclear.

According to developer Tuatara (thanks, Gematsu), players can collect item boxes to use special powers when fists fail, such as a powerful vacuum to suck up the competition or a temporary frenzied state to turn the tables on the opposition. All cosmetics are fully available for use in solo play and can be unlocked via coins for multiplayer matches, with (presumably) plenty of bottomless options for those looking to gain a potentially distracting competitive edge.

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"I simply wasn't called for this mission".

Terence Rotolo, the voice actor who lent his talents to the main playable character, Frank West, in the original Dead Rising, will not return for the recently-revealed Deluxe Remaster. Capcom announced that the enhanced rerelease would boast modernised visuals and run at a crisp 60 frames-per-second, but fans quickly noted that the main character's voice had changed, too.

Observed by PSLS, Twitter user FrankByDaylight shared rxysinister's successful slide into Rotolo's Instagram DMs, with the actor simply revealing that he was never approached to reprise the role. Rotolo seemed like he would have been up for the task, but Capcom, it seems, had another in mind for the role: "I've always been grateful for every opportunity to bring Frank to life. I simply wasn't called for this mission. The reasons are the producer's own."

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Death to gods.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is currently encircling fans of action RPGs and Soulslikes, preparing to storm the breach on 18th July on PS5. Developer A44 Games and publisher Kepler Interactive, with the assistance of IGN, have released a suitably stirring narrative trailer and an extensive look at gameplay.

Set in a world in which mortals wage perpetual war on the gods themselves, players will step into the boots of Nor Vanek, a soldier fighting to free humanity from this scourge. As the name implies, flintlock firearms will be essential in overcoming this eternal siege, as will the aid of a mysterious animal friend named, Enki, who will guide Nor in her endeavour.

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City of dreams.

Polish video game developer and publisher CD Projekt Red says its new Boston-based development studio will make the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 (codenamed Orion) more authentically American. While the decaying vision of the Cyberpunk future depicted is a relatively far cry from our reality, some players felt their immersion wasn't helped by CDPR's use of some distinctly European manhole covers (and even they were a bit off).

In the most recent episode of the AnsweRED podcast (spotted by Wccftech, thanks VGC), executive producer Dan Hernberg explained why capturing that spirit of Americana is so essential: "I think Cyberpunk is a uniquely American story. It's got a lot of punk energy, and an American wrote it, so it seems right to do it in America."

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Keep your mouth shut.

With A Quiet Place: Day One now out in cinemas worldwide, Remothered developer Stormind Games is capitalising on the IP's renewed interest with a fresh story trailer focusing on the video game spin-off A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead.

Viewable above, footage depicts action from both the day of the alien invasion and then more than three months later on day 105 as survivors quietly scavenge for aid and resources. "You play as Alex, an asthmatic college student trying to survive the end of the world with her boyfriend Martin," the IGN description reveals. The game is currently slated to come to PS5 later this year.

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More than 12 employees lose their job.

Surgent Studios, the team behind Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, has announced it's had to let go of "just over a dozen" workers in a round of layoffs. It was spotted by Game Developer that multiple former members of the developer were posting to LinkedIn about being let go, and now the news has been confirmed by the studio's Twitter account.

In a post, it said: "Unfortunately, Surgent has joined the growing number of games studios impacted by layoffs this year with just over a dozen people affected." It goes on to explain the developer "remains incredibly proud" of its work on the team's debut game and it's now focusing on supporting those who have lost their job and continued support of Tales of Kenzera: ZAU.

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As voted by you.

The second half of 2024 is fit to burst with new PS5 games. This is something that dawned on us after Summer Game Fest came to an end, and a slew of titles were granted release dates for later in the year. And so last week, we published a Talking Point in order to discuss our most anticipated PS5 games. In it, we asked the Push Square community to vote for their own picks, which has resulted in this very article.

A total of 6,605 votes were cast over the course of several days, spread across a frankly ridiculous 70 games. Each reader could vote for up to five titles of their choosing.

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All new content live now on PS5.

The first big XDefiant update since the online FPS' release in May has now landed on PS5, bringing with it a new faction themed around the Rainbow Six franchise, three more maps, another two modes, additional weapons, and Ranked Play.

All the new content is live now in-game, with the headline addition being the new GS Kommando faction. Inspired by the items you'd find in Siege, you can use shock wire, an Active Defense System that destroys enemy explosives, and finally, an ultimate ability that takes the form of a Flash Shield, which acts as mobile cover.

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Oathkeeper.

XSEED Games is bringing classic action RPG Ys: The Oath in Felghana back, complete with various enhancements on PS5 and PS4. The Oath in Felghana itself is a remake of 1989's Ys 3, and was released for the PSP all the way back in 2010.

However, a remastered version of the remake — titled Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana — just recently dropped in Japan, for PS5, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. It's this remaster that's now heading West, targeting a vague '2025' launch window.

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Everything you need to know before starting Final Fantasy 14.

Welcome to our beginner's guide for Final Fantasy 14. With Final Fantasy 14's latest expansion Dawntrail finally in the hands of eager players around the globe, there's never been a better time to finally take the leap and give Square Enix's acclaimed multiplayer RPG a go for yourself. But where do you even start with a game as massive as Final Fantasy 14?

We've created an overview of what Final Fantasy 14 is and the major differences and similarities it has to single player titles in the franchise as well as information on how the free trials and subscription payments work. We've put together some character creation help as well as a brief outline of what each class does, as well as a guide covering what you should do first once you actually start playing the game. Finally, we've even got a selection of ten tips and tricks to make your time with Final Fantasy 14 a little easier.

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Arrives later this month.

MultiVersus is about to gain another new character for its playable roster. Agent Smith has been confirmed for the game for a while, but this new trailer gives us our first look at how the character will play in WB Games' free fighter.

As with all the other characters in the game, Agent Smith looks to have a lot of references to his source material within his moveset. As well as using his hand-to-hand skills, he also makes use of pistols to attack opponents, and can even summon a clone of himself — his favourite trick from The Matrix Reloaded. You have to love his dodge animation too, which shows off his ability to dodge speeding bullets.

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Roll out.

Publisher Outright Games has announced Transformers: Galactic Trials, a new game starring everyone's favourite giant alien robots. It's a curious blend of genres, with the game's two halves dividing your time between arcade-style racing and third-person combat sequences with rogue-lite elements.

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Earn free outfits and weapons for launch.

Capcom is offering an extra incentive to play its newly launched Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess demo as finishing certain tasks will reward all players with items themed around the PS2 classic Okami at launch. The PS5, PS4 demo is available to download and play now, and you have got until the full game releases on 19th July 2024 to complete the special objectives that will unlock the items.

In "Mission 1", you must get one billion crystals to drop by defeating enemies. Doing so unlocks the Soh (Amaterasu) costume and Thunder Edge weapon from Okami. Then, in "Mission 2", you need to find 15 Lucky Mallets and take pictures of them to post in response to a tweet on the Kunitsu-Gami Twitter page. Completing this objective will unlock background music from Okami and the Yoshiro (Waka) costume. The bonus items will be delivered in-game once it fully launches in a few weeks if the objectives are completed.

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Major patch inbound.

WB Games' free-to-play platform fighter, MultiVersus, is imminently set to receive a huge game update, adding support for the latest playable character and making lots of adjustments and improvements. Agent Smith will be joining the fun this month, but there's plenty more to look forward to with this patch.

Agent Smith will go live for all players on 23rd July 2024, when you can purchase him using your Fighter Currency. However, he can be unlocked as early as 8th July if you complete enough Rifts in the 'Beat Rifts, Get Agent Smith Free' event.

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