Voxel-based Alterra in the works.

A publisher as big as Ubisoft always has a lot on the go at once, much of which is known, so it's always interesting to hear about something we weren't expecting. In a new report from Insider Gaming, it seems the company is hard at work on a game called Alterra.

Citing anonymous sources, the site claims the game shares much in common with Nintendo's Animal Crossing — each player has a home island inhabited by critters called Matterlings. You'll be able to visit other islands; each will be in a different biome and feature different Matterlings, resources, enemies, and so on.

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Pro-fessional opinions.

The PS5 Pro is almost three weeks old at the time of writing this article, having released on the 7th November — and we think it's time to weigh up our early thoughts on Sony's supercharged system.

At $700 / £700, the Pro's pricing still makes our eyes water, even though we've been playing games on the thing for the best part of a month. But has the console been able to justify its undeniably expensive price tag yet? That's a question we hope to answer with this Talking Point.

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Remaster, anyone?

At the time of writing this article, it just turned 12am in Japan — and that means Dragon Quest 8 is officially 20 years old. The PS2 RPG first launched on the 27th November, 2004 — but the West didn't get to experience this franchise-defining adventure until later.

Dragon Quest 8 dropped the following year in the US, but us poor Europeans had to wait until April 2006 to finally get our hands on the game.

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Rescue mission.

If you've ever played Lemmings and wanted to take a more hands-on approach, Moons of Darsalon may be worth a try. Coming to PS5 and PS4 on 6th February next year, the game has you playing as a little astronaut who must rescue all the others in each level.

When you find characters, they'll follow along behind you, and it's your job to get them all back to base safely. However, you're actively involved in this action platformer, needing to dispatch aliens, solve puzzles, and overcome obstacles. You'll also make use of large vehicles and blow holes in the destructible environments.

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As normal PS5 update goes live.

A new Alan Wake 2 update has been deployed today on PS5, though you won't find any PS5 Pro-specific enhancements in its patch notes. Remedy has said it needs more time to research "a few things on the Pro when it comes to improved performance" as the update available at the PS5 Pro's launch made the Performance Mode worse than it is on the base console.

Addressing the PS5 Pro performance issues, Remedy said on Twitter: "The PlayStation 5 update (1.200.005) does not contain anything PlayStation 5 Pro specific, but we wanted to acknowledge that we are seeing your feedback. We are still researching a few things on the Pro when it comes to improved performance. We'll keep you posted. As PS5 Pro support was a work of many months, it will take the team longer than a few weeks for changes and improvements."

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Under the sea.

Aquanaut’s Holiday, an oft-overlooked PlayStation deep-sea diving series, is one of this author’s all-time favourite franchises – so it’s exciting to see Subside poised for release on PSVR2.

This game promises unparalleled aquatic realism, as you plunge beneath the waves of a variety of biomes and interact with the wildlife. All of the sea creatures look meticulously rendered, and the game has a hyper-realistic look to it, which will surely pop on the PS5 headset’s display.

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Yes, Godzilla.

We’re days away from a gigantic concert event in Fortnite, concluding the current hip-hop themed Remix season. After that, a new arc will begin, with Chapter 6 Season 1: Hunters from 1st December.

As has been rumoured, this will have a Japanese theme, and the first look at the Battle Pass confirms Godzilla and Baymax will be playable characters. As we understand, Godzilla will be a skin, which is going to be crazy to see – especially when you equip him with some neat Nike kicks, eh?

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Deflect this.

Released for PC back in May, it feels like we've been waiting on Nine Sols for an age. The ridiculously highly-rated action platformer is supposed to be a genuine Game of the Year contender if you're into 2D adventures, and it finally arrives on PS5 and PS4 today (that's the 26th November, if you happen to be reading this article at a later date).

For what it's worth, we'll have a review of Nine Sols in the near future; it can be a challenging game, and we want to make sure that we've got a proper read on the title before delivering a verdict.

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Choose your weapon.

Helldivers 2 has done astonishingly well this year. It's comfortably one of the best-selling games of 2024, has a consistent rate of active users, and developer Arrowhead has demonstrated its commitment to the players with regular, meaningful post-launch updates.

While it's had its ups and downs, it's been a big success story, so it's no wonder we're seeing reports of a special DualSense controller to top it all off.

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Brought back down to Earth.

We all know Naughty Dog is beavering away at something, we just don't know what. Well, we know it'll be a single player game in the studio's usual style, with the developer committing to that after dropping its multiplayer The Last of Us title. But what is the Californian studio up to?

A clue from LinkedIn has appeared (spotted by Arktix), and it could very well reveal the title of the team's new IP. It would appear the game is known as Timeless Travel:

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Dino Crisis, Resident Evil for £8 / $10 each.

An update to Capcom listings on the PS Store has seen the publisher's two classic titles available via PS Plus Premium now up for purchase individually, outside of the subscription service. Previously locked behind the PS Plus Premium tier, you can now simply buy Dino Crisis and Resident Evil: Director's Cut for £7.99 / $9.99 each.

This helps to fix one of the few issues with the approach taken to PS Plus Premium by third-party publishers. Some will allow their classic games to be included in the high-end tier, but then it's not guaranteed whether they'll also be available for purchase separately. If you purchased the game on the same PSN account previously on PS3, though, you're always guaranteed access.

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Yes.

According to a reliable source, the PS5's premium controller, the DualSense Edge, as well as the Pulse Elite and Pulse Explore wireless headphones, will reportedly come in black. Sadly, images were not forthcoming; you'll just have to use your imagination with the above base DualSense Edge as a visual prompt. These edgier, but undeniably (probably) more stylish SKUs are expected to be announced within the month and could potentially prove a great Christmas present for the hardcore PlayStation fan in your life.

Word comes to us via our French connection, Dealabs, where the ever-watchful investigator billbil-kun revealed the news, learning from their sources that additional accessories are on the way. Our well-connected friend is confident enough to say these SKUs will be priced the same as the standard white set.

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In the 30 days since launch.

In further proof that we are living in a simulation, the Call of Duty series 2024 entry, Black Ops 6, is the biggest yet in the franchise's 21-year history. That's in terms of both sales and player engagement, with publisher Activision proudly crowing BO6 ranks #1 in terms of launch window hours and matches played.

Launching on 25th October, it's now been a full month, and it seems the community is absolutely loving this latest from lead studios Treyarch and Raven Software. There have been a couple of snafus, sure, but at least anecdotally, there are always a couple of friends playing these days, and it seems this is a fairly widespread occurrence these days

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What year is it?!

In news that might at first sound like a parody, developer Naughty Dog has cast The Last of Us lead, Troy Baker, in its untitled next PS5 game. Baker, who famously played grizzled dad Joel Miller in PlayStation's premiere series, was a natural pick, says Naughty Dog chief Neil Druckmann: "In a heartbeat, I would always work with Troy."

The news of the handsome leading man's casting comes to us from GQ, the leading handsome man magazine (thanks, IGN). The article is ostensibly about Baker taking on Harrison Ford's mantle as Indiana Jones, but there are a few brief asides. Having worked closely together for years, and with Baker being one of the video game industry's most prolific talents, it's apparently a natural choice, even if it does seem at odds with Druckmann's pledge not to be "the Last of Us studio" forever.

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Going to need another Bag of Holding.

Commanding a controlling majority of Larian Studios' shares, charismatic founder, CEO, and Baldur's Gate 3 director Swen Vincke can now likely buy all the armour he likes, maybe even a castle or two. While it should come as no surprise to learn that the masterful D&D sequel was huge for the plucky, independent Belgian studio, we never knew how big; until now, that is.

Taking advantage of the liberal tax laws in Ireland, Larian posted profits via a Dublin-based holding company (thanks, IGN). According to the paywalled Irish Independent, Larian enjoyed a whopping €249 million (approx $260.9 million) pre-tax profit for 2023. Revenue for the year was at €427 million (approx $447.5 million), before expenses. Everybody loves an underdog, but this is more of a rags-to-riches situation; contrast the above figures with Larian's financials from 2022: a loss of €214,000 ($224,100), with just €22.7 million ($23.7 million) in revenue.

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Sending out an SOS.

Silent Hill 2 is amongst the spookiest games ever made, and Bloober Team's excellent remake included some entirely new scares, with more being discovered all the time. Particularly attentive players have began to discern a pattern in the endless static on the TVs spread around town, with some even repeating legible messages in Morse code. Beware, major SPOILERS for both the original and the remade Silent Hill 2 to follow!

In the clip below, YouTuber Shiba demonstrates using the TVs in Brookhaven Hospital as an example (thanks, PC Gamer). A series of clicking sounds apparently translates in Morse Code to "again and", on repeat, forever. Another TV, in Wood Side Apartments, has also been translated as repeating: "Why did you do it, James?"

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Your 100% completion guide for Hogwarts Legacy.

In this Hogwarts Legacy guide, we'll provide a full walkthrough of the Main Quest and all Side Quests and Assignments, as well as reveal the locations of all Collectibles. In addition, our guide answers FAQs and offers some Help for a few of the more vague aspects and mechanics in the game. We'll also provide a selection of tips and tricks for beginners.

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Thanks, Fangamer.

Ape Escape is just one of the series synonymous with PlayStation — the PS1, in particular — and so it makes sense to see Fangamer celebrating the franchise as Sony's gaming brand approaches its 30th anniversary.

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Never 7 and Ever 17 finally launch outside of Japan.

Japanese game director Kotaro Uchikoshi is perhaps best known for the Zero Escape series and AI: The Somnium Files, but prior to that he worked on the Infinity series, as a writer and designer.

These games, spanning Never 7: The End of Infinity and Ever 17: The Out of Infinity, launched in the early 2000s and have retained cult-like status. They’ve been ported to various platforms, including the PSP, but outside of a PC version of Ever 17, have never really released outside of North America.

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