Flying high.

Rogue Flight’s thumbnail is doing the game a disservice. We’d glossed over this trailer for Truant Pixel’s newest title, assuming it was another lousy low-effort indie shmup. It’s actually an After Burner or Star Fox-style affair with an 80s anime aesthetic, reminiscent of Space Adventure Cobra or Battle of the Planets – it looks cool.

The game will actually feature Japanese voice talent from prestige shows such as Sailor Moon, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Gundam – but there will be an English dub as well if you prefer.

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State of play.

It’s been another utterly insane week in PlayStation, and so we’re desperate for a rest. Unfortunately, there’s no rest for the wicked, as this weekend will be all about the Tokyo Game Show. Hopefully we still find time to relax with our favourite games.

Aaron Bayne

A new week, a new season of The Finals. This season me and my squad are going for ranked, but this weekend will act as a warmup on some World Tour. Regardless, the grind is on.

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Warming up.

The reaction to the PS5 Pro’s announcement bordered on apocalyptic. While system architect Mark Cerny did a decent job of introducing the device, the $700/£700 price point triggered an obscene backlash. At the time, just 9.7% of you said you would pre-order the console in a Push Square poll. That’s a dire result for a website filled with enthusiasts.

Since then, opinion does appear to have softened, however. Make no mistake, there’s still a vocal contingent who don’t believe there’s a point to the platform, but in the aftermath of pre-orders going live, 39% say they have plumped up for the platform. That’s quite a dramatic swing when compared to the initial reaction.

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Sit tight.

In hindsight, Ubisoft should have delayed Assassin’s Creed Shadows earlier and pushed Star Wars Outlaws into the open worlder’s November release slot. That would have given both teams plenty of time to polish up their titles, and perhaps we’d be looking at a less dire situation for the French publisher.

Still, the damage has been done, and now comes the recovery mission. After a soft launch, the firm’s said it’s committed to growing Star Wars Outlaws’ sales through the holiday period, and thus it’s released a roadmap of upcoming fixes. The first update, due 3rd October, will crush a bunch of bugs – while its 24th October patch will incorporate various quality of life improvements.

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Well, duh.

Physint is the next big game from Hideo Kojima, developed in partnership with PlayStation and Sony Pictures. Speaking as part of an interview with Variety, the iconic Japanese director explained how he increasingly sees movies and interactive entertainment as interchangeable – and hinted that, while the aforementioned espionage title will “take some time to complete”, it may end up being a movie and a game.

“I’m trying to make with people in filmmaking and industries outside of games,” he revealed. “So, we may do a movie adaptation at the same time, but we will see. The assets are digital and can be used either way.”

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Go Pro.

Earlier this week, Sony opened up PS5 Pro pre-orders through its PlayStation Direct store, ahead of pre-orders at participating retailers going live on the 10th October. Here in the UK, it took roughly four or five hours for the first wave of standard PS5 Pros to sell out — but the 30th Anniversary edition was gone in just a couple of minutes.

It's been a similar story with pre-orders in the US, although Sony seems to be staggering its stock across both regions. This means that pre-orders are being taken in waves, as mentioned, as opposed to the console just selling out completely from day one.

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A game with sol.

Publisher and developer Red Candle Games has at last announced a console release date for its picturesque action platformer, Nine Sols. After launching earlier this year on PC to rave reviews, the side-scrolling metroidvania will be making its way to PS5 and PS4 on 26th November, 2024.

Self-described as a "Sekiro-lite" game, Nine Sols has you exploring a world under the rule of the titular nine sols, inspired by eastern mythology, Taoism, and sci-fi for a unique look. Its hand-drawn art style looks fantastic, and the combat looks suitably challenging too. It's looking pretty promising in this trailer, so we're looking forward to checking this one out.

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Update out on 9th October.

Genshin Impact’s character designs are always on point, but they don’t really get much cooler than Natlan newcomer Xilonen – a musical master forger with rollerblades. Like many of her regional counterparts, there’s a big emphasis on traversal with this character, and she can use her wheeled shoes to skate up cliff-faces, reducing the emphasis on stamina draining climbing.

She’s also got a pretty interesting kit. Effectively, pairing her with different partners will enable her to reduce the elemental resistance of her opponents. So, for example, if you have a Hydro member in your party, then using them in conjunction with Xilonen will enable you to reduce the Hydo resistance of your foe. This is consistent across all elements.

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Our survey says...

Jackbox Games has made a billion Party Packs, each compiling a bunch of fun party games to play with friends and family. Now, though, its latest game announcement is something a little different; The Jackbox Survey Scramble is all about discovering answers to countless questions from people across the globe.

The above trailer provides the general gist. Everyone contributes answers to a vast database, and across four modes, you need to submit answers you believe will fit the bill. For example, Hilo tasks you with finding the most and least popular answers to varied questions and categories, such as sandwich ingredients or one-word cat names. Speed has you guessing as many answers from the list as possible against the clock; Bounce has you controlling a paddle sat on a scale from most to least popular, knocking a ball back to your opponent; and Squares is all about finding the right answers in order to complete a line on a grid.

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Pass the parcel.

We've been quietly looking forward to Parcel Corps for ages, but it unfortunately missed its original release date of 3rd September. Now, publisher Secret Mode and developer Billy Goat Entertainment have revealed a new date, and it's exactly one month later on 3rd October, 2024. The news comes via a brief new trailer.

For those out of the loop, Parcel Corps is a game in which you play a bike courier, cycling around a sizeable city making deliveries for your clients. You can think of it sort of like a combo of Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio; you'll do better if your deliveries are swift, and you can find all kinds of shortcuts in the environment — if you can use clever tricks and manoeuvres to reach them.

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He's worried he may Push Square instead.

A video clip of Xbox boss Phil Spencer at the Tokyo Game Show has gone viral after he jokingly complained about the position of the b:X button on the DualSense controller. “The b:X button’s in the wrong place,” he laughed. “b:X is supposed to be over there.” He then pointed to the position of the b:Square button, which is obviously where it exists on the Xbox controller.

Sony would probably respond that the b:X button technically isn’t even pronounced ‘ecks’ like the letter, but is in fact the ‘cross’ button – they are shapes, after all. This line of thinking hurts our heads.

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Love is in the air.

First-person PS5 and PS4 romance game Venus Vacation Prism will see you dating the cast of Dead or Alive, in an all-new experience scheduled to release early next year. While this is unlikely to launch in the West, its Asian edition will feature full English subtitles, much like Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Fortune on PS4 and PS Vita. Games on both the PS5 and PS4 are region-free.

There’ll be six ladies to date in total, with Misaki the first to be announced. Subsequent characters will be announced in the lead up to launch, with the next trailer scheduled for 7th October.

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Lots to see and do.

Sony’s presence at Tokyo Game Show is important because the platform holder’s generally been skipping conventions. It did appear at ChinaJoy in Shanghai earlier in the year, and now it’s at the Makuhari Messe, showing off games like Astro Bot, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater.

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Farm fresh.

Farming Simulator has always had European and North American maps, but developer Giants Software will be expanding upon the variety with an Asian-inspired environment in new game, Farming Simulator 25. Announced at Tokyo Game Show, this appears to be loosely inspired by a variety of countries, including Japan and China.

Of course, the key thing is that it brings new gameplay possibilities: “With two types of rice, specialised equipment for planting and harvesting, and water buffalo roaming the corrals, the newly unveiled map is the ideal playground to showcase the new farming technology added to the game.”

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There's a touch of Gravity Rush, too.

It may not have the PS Studios ident, but make no mistake, veteran director Keiichiro Toyama’s upcoming Slitterhead is every bit the spiritual successor to Siren. The ex-Japan Studio man’s debut independent projects builds on the idea of Sightjacking, introducing a possession-style system which allows you to hop between the bodies of different NPCs.

This actually makes for some fascinating gameplay possibilities, and there’s a pinch of Gravity Rush in this Tokyo Game Show demo, as we see how traversal works using the body hopping mechanics. The system is also used during combat; hopping from one person to another works a little like a dodge, as you cycle through disposable human flesh.

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A different kinda tush.

Update: The new patch for Shift Up’s console debut Stellar Blade incorporates some new graphical features, some of which give protagonist Eve’s body physics a boost. The Korean developer outlined the full list of improvements in a post on social media earlier today.

Fans have since been testing out the results:

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PlayStation 5 Professional.

Sony has announced numerous PS5 games that'll be receiving a PS5 Pro update to take advantage of the new hardware, but many more have been discovered thanks to the PS Store. A new tag on the digital storefront flags whether a game will be PS5 Pro Enhanced, and there are lots of additional titles on top of what's been officially confirmed.

Over on the PS5 subreddit, a list of every title has been compiled, and we've checked each one for ourselves to ensure they are listed as PS5 Pro Enhanced on PS Store. They are indeed, with some big name titles in the mix, including (but not limited to):

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"The most civilized game in the galaxy".

While the future of the Guillemot family business remains unclear, those who picked up Star Wars Outlaws have earned a glimmer of hope. While sales were soft, Ubisoft pledged it's "fully mobilised to swiftly implement a series of updates to polish and improve" the game. The first piece of post-story DLC has been dated, with players getting better acquainted with that old rogue, Lando Calrissian, on 21st November.

This outing, called Wild Card, will see protagonist Kay Vess infiltrate a high-stakes Sabacc tournament (thanks, Eurogamer). Ubisoft teases that Vess will "cross paths with the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian. She soon learns that another game is being played."

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Guillemot family under siege.

With the company's stock price approaching subterranean levels, it feels like something major is about to give over at Ubisoft. Blows have been raining down in the form of Star Wars Outlaws not meeting expectations, Assassin's Creed Shadows being hit with a hefty delay, calls for CEO Yves Guillemot’s resignation, and the Board of Directors-ordered internal company review; just about the last thing the brothers Guillemot need now is a labour strike, and there is a revolutionary feeling in the air. Try to guess what's just been called for by France's biggest video game union.

As reported by IGN, Le Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo (STJV) has called for all staff at Ubisoft's French holdings to down tools and strike. This move follows a breakdown in negotiations regarding a return to work order and ongoing pay disputes. Ubisoft management has mandated all staff return to the office for three days a week, which STJV says is ridiculous after the pivot workers just did:

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