Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix’s action roleplaying mashup of Square Enix, Disney, and Pixar characters, is coming to PC for the first time. The series will be available as an Epic Store exclusive on March 30th, the company announced today.
Titles include Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 Remix — enhanced versions of Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 — Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind, Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory. Although the series has spanned a variety of platforms, from its beginnings as a PlayStation title to its arrival on Xbox consoles and handhelds for many of the series’ spinoffs, it has never made the leap to PC.
The series follows Sora as he travels with companions Donald Duck and Goofy through worlds based on Disney classics. Kingdom Hearts III, which acts as the conclusion to Sora’s adventure, launched for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2019.
Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 Remix is available for $49.99, while the other three games are $59.99.
(Pocket-lint) – The Xbox Series X and Series S are here at last – Microsoft’s two answers to the next-gen question, bringing 4K gaming in the case of the bigger box and lower-res value from the smaller option.
Xbox Series X vs Xbox Series S: What’s the difference?
They’re both great in their own ways but, of course, a games console isn’t anything without games to play on it. We’ve gathered together the very best titles for the next-gen Xboxes right here, a tight and carefully-curated list of your very best options.
Many of these are also available on the Xbox One in its many incarnations, but they’ll all play at their best on the new hardware.
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Gears 5
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The Xbox team has been making a big hoopla about the upgrade it’s brought to Gears 5 for next-gen, and it’s fair to say the results are super impressive. You get 120 FPS action on both consoles (if your TV can handle it), which makes for hyper-smooth gameplay in competitive modes.
The visuals are also pin-sharp and the upgrade compared to the Xbox One version is noticeable throughout. Best of all, you’ll get this great shooter included on Game Pass, meaning you can get into it for no additional cost. It’s well worth checking out, especially if you’re new to the series.
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
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Valhalla is finally here – the latest big Assassin’s Creed game plays absolutely stunningly on Series X and S, with smooth frame rates and gorgeous visuals. The game’s sprawling map is superb fun to explore, while the SSDs in the Series S and X make for much-improved loading times.
You play as the Viking Eivor, coming from Norway to stake a claim to England, and fighting off the perennial threat of evil Templars the whole way, with a great cast of characters to meet while you do so.
Dirt 5
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The first racing game to release with next-gen consoles in mind during its development, Dirt 5 does a great job of summoning the energy that made the series so popular. It’s raucous fun with an emphasis on accessibility, although you can make its driving pretty in-depth if you fancy.
It looks super sharp on the new hardware and runs at blistering frame rates to give you total control and to slim reaction times down to almost nothing, while lighting and reflections also look sumptuous. It’s a great way to scratch that racing itch.
FIFA 21
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As far as sports games go, there’s only one for us – FIFA does the same trick every year, and sometimes we’d like a bit more revolution than evolution, but it’s still a tried-and-tested game at this point, iterating carefully to add even more precision.
Now there’s been a free next-gen upgrade, too, to let you take advantage of quicker load times and smoother performance on your new hardware, so it’s definitely a superior experience.
Hitman 3
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The final game in the World of Assassination trilogy, Hitman 3 is a fitting conclusion to a hugely impressive modern update of the Hitman series. Once again you’ll play as Agent 47, stalking through intricate and immaculately-designed levels to off your targets one by one.
It’s amazing fun, and the perfect way to scratch that itch for some stealth. It looks beautiful on next-gen, as well, making it the perfect pairing with a new Xbox.
Call of Duty: Warzone
The battle royale of the moment is Warzone, a behemoth that finally makes the Call of Duty franchise a proper player in the genre. It’s totally free to play, and while it might hog plenty of space on your hard drive, it’s well worth it for a brutal, addictive formula.
On next-gen, you’ll notice smoother frame rates and much-improved loading times, and there’s loads more content to come down the line, so there’s no wrong time to pick it up and try it out.
Red Dead Redemption 2
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Another game that benefits massively from the SSD in the new consoles is Red Dead Redemption 2, which has some absolutely agonizing loading times on older hardware. This is shortened hugely by the new tech, a worthy improvement on its own, but that’s also added to better visual performance.
It makes it a superb way to play one of the defining games of recent years, a huge sprawling cowboy epic set in what might be the most lushly-detailed open world ever created in a game. It’s a stunning monument to developer Rockstar’s abilities.
Control Ultimate Edition
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One of the most surprising and impressive games of the last generation has been re-released with a huge graphical upgrade for Series X and S, bringing ray tracing and the option of 60FPS play, and smoothing out performance hugely.
That means it’s the perfect time to pick up this supernatural shooter whether you’ve enjoyed playing through its mindbending story before or not. Trust us, by the time it ends you’ll have seen and done things you’ve never experienced in a game before.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection
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Of course, when you think Xbox you think Halo, and while Infinite has been delayed and won’t appear for a little while, we can still enjoy all that came before. The Master Chief Collection is a curated and upgraded selection of historic Halo titles and plays like a dream on the Series S and X.
You can play through classics like Halo: Reach or the original trilogy with high frame rates and resolutions, and even enjoy their more vintage multiplayer offerings. It’s a must-download for anyone with a Game Pass membership.
Fortnite
Fortnite is impossible to ignore, and maintains a huge place in our wider culture – it’s just so enduringly popular, with good reason. Its battle royale options are as fast-paced and fun as ever, and upgraded resolution and visuals make the Series X version particularly attractive, with new physics and 60 FPS gameplay making for smooth and gorgeous fun.
With an ever-deepening tie to the Marvel universe bearing fruit, there’s no sign of the content letting up, either, so you should definitely give it a try if you’ve never sampled its unique delights.
Forza Horizon 4
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Our final pick goes to a stellar racing game from the last console generation, the excellent and Xbox-exclusive Forza Horizon 4, which still looks completely beautiful and plays like a dream on the two new consoles. It’s a superb arcade racer with a delightful rendering of the UK in compact open-world format.
You’ll take part in all sorts of races across many terrain types, and you can dial up the difficulty, or make it more accessible, in countless thoughtful ways. Online racing makes it even more long-lasting as a pleasurable virtual space in which to spend some time.
Starting at $329, Apple’s most affordable iPad model comes at a very attractive price — but if you have been holding off in the hopes of buying it at an even better price, your patience has paid off. At Amazon and Walmart (in select colors), you can buy a 32GB model for $299; you can also get it for $300 at Best Buy. This is the lowest price we have seen for this model to date. If you need a little bit more storage, you can grab the 128GB model at Best Buy for $380.
While its design looks similar to its predecessor, the 2020 iPad model features a faster A12 Bionic processor.
Over at OnePlus’ website, now until February 17th, the company has a few discounts going. Most notably, you can grab an unlocked OnePlus 8 Pro with 12GB of RAM 256GB of storage for $799 ($200 off). If you buy the phone directly from the OnePlus website, you will also receive an Urban backpack at no additional cost.
OnePlus 8 Pro
$799
$999
21% off
Prices taken at time of publishing.
OnePlus’ current flagship smartphone has a 6.78-inch 3168 x 1440 screen and a 120Hz refresh rate.
$799
at OnePlus
Ori and the Blind Forest and its sequel, the Will of the Wisps, are 2D Metroidvania platformer titles known for their stunning visuals. Both games are available on Microsoft’s subscription service, Xbox Game Pass. If you don’t have a subscription or want to own the games in your digital library, you can grab Ori: The Collection for $12 at the Microsoft Store — that’s roughly $24 off its usual price of $35. The compilation includes both titles and is compatible with the Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X / S.
Ori: The Collection
$12
$35
68% off
Prices taken at time of publishing.
A compilation featuring copies of Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps.
$12
at Microsoft
Sling TV, Dish’s streaming service, recently increased its price to $35 per month. If you are interested in trying the service with no strings attached, Sling TV new customers free viewing between 5PM ET and midnight until February 14th. No credit card is required.
Additionally, if you’re a new customer and want to continue using the service, Sling TV is offering a $25 discount on the first month if you decide to purchase a Sling Orange or Blue package. Alternatively, you can choose an option to receive an AirTV Mini at no additional cost if you shell out $35 in your first month.
HyperX delivers a headset that’s meant to roll out of the box and into service. The Cloud Revolver offers 7.1 surround sound for gaming and wide soundscape, and listening to music is a great experience. But the price tag is a stumbling block for what you get in the box.
For
Great audio clarity
Steel lends it fantastic build quality
Solid sound out-of-the-box
Against
Very few audio tweaking options
Can make ears a little warm
Expensive for the offering
The HyperX Cloud Revolver + 7.1 gets some things right in its quest to compete among the best gaming headsets. Compared to some of its other offerings, like the HyperX Cloud II Wireless, the Cloud Revolver + 7.1 offers more and higher quality memory foam, as well as firm steel. And despite the smaller drivers, HyperX promises a stronger, more robust sound scape on the Cloud Revolver 7.1 than some of its other offerings.
But at $150, this is an odd product. Although it’s wired, it’s the same price as the Cloud II Wireless, which offers similar features, like virtual 7.1 surround sound and a detachable noise-cancelling microphone.
The Cloud Revolver + 7.1 comes with an audio-boosting digital signal processor (DSP) via a handy USB sound card that also provides audio controls and virtual 7.1 surround sound. But it’s surround sound and audio in general isn’t tweak-friendly, keeping the package simple but hard to perfect.
HyperX Cloud Revolver + 7.1 Specs
Driver Type
50mm neodymium
Impedance
32 Ohms
Frequency Response
10 Hz-23.2 KHz
Microphone Type
Detachable condenser noise-cancelling
Connectivity
USB Type-A or 3.5mm
Weight
Headset-only: 0.83 pounds (375g)
Headset, mic, cable: 1 pound (452g)
Cords
6.67 feet (2.03m) USB-A cable and 7.1 dongle
3.33 feet (1m) 3.5mm
Lighting
None
Software
HyperX Ngenuity (Beta)
Design and Comfort
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The HyperX Cloud Revolver + 7.1 is an update of an older design: the original HyperX Cloud Revolver released in 2016. The general build remains the same, though HyperX has removed all the color from the overall design. While the original was black matte plastic and steel with red HyperX red highlights, the 2021 edition saps all the color. Instead, the highlights are in a simple, understated white. There’s no RGB on this headset, just crisp, clean black and white.
A single piece of steel runs across the entire headband from ear cup to ear cup. Not only is that the most striking part of the design, it also provides stability. Underneath that steel band is an adjustable smaller band that sits on top of your head. That band is made of leatherette and memory foam, providing a smooth cushion for the Cloud Revolver + 7.1 to rest upon.
The ear cups themselves are pretty hefty, with a design that looks like speakers on the outside flanked by the steel fins of the headband. On the inside of the ear cups, you’ll find more leatherette and memory foam. There’s more foam here than in some of HyperX’s cheaper headset models. There are no controls on the ear cups—no volume roller or mute button here—but there is a 3.5mm jack for the detachable microphone. The mic itself is flexible but can’t be slid into a position where it’s out of your face and lacks any indicator for when it’s muted.
All told, while it’s not the lightest headset I’ve tested, the Cloud Revolver + 7.1 feels pretty good. The headset itself is 0.83 pounds (375g), but the distribution of weight is fantastic. It sits light on the top of your head, and any clamping pressure around the ears is lessened by the memory foam pads. I have a pretty big head though, and I get the feeling it might be too roomy for those with tiny heads—the metal band is around 9 inches across, and the gap between the earcup pads is around 6-6.5 inches. There’s also not a ton of twist in ear cups, and for long sessions I could feel the insides getting a little warm.
The Cloud Revolver is a fully-wired headset. There’s a braided cable that runs from the left ear cup that cannot be detached. It’s around 3.33 feet (1m) in length, ending in a 3.5mm jack. HyperX only specs the headset to work with PC and PS4, but with the 3.5mm connection it should work with an Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4 (PS4) and PlayStation 5 (PS5).
Then there’s the USB sound card. It has a 3.5mm jack for plugging in the headset and ends in a USB Type-A connector for use with your PC. With the box, you get boosted audio via a digital signal processing sound card, as well as the ability to use virtual 7.1 surround sound. This plugs into your PC, PS4, or PS5. On the sound card dongle, you’ll find volume controls for the headset and microphone, a mute button on the side and a big button for activating the 7.1 surround sound capabilities. The mute button and 7.1 button both light up, letting you know which mode you’re in for each feature. The dongle also has a clip on the back for attaching to your shirt or pants to keep it in handy.
Cloud Revolver + 7.1 Audio Performance
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HyperX markets the Cloud Revolver + 7.1 as a “studio-grade” headset. It has 50mm drivers, in line with most of its competition, but sports a larger frequency range than most. The can stretches from 10 Hz to 23.2 kHz, giving it an edge on both ends against some in this price range. That means a relatively wide soundscape.
There is one problem though. This headset utilizes HyperX’s own version of virtual 7.1 surround sound. There’s no tweaking and no equalizer available in HyperX’s software suite. And there’s no support for something like DTS Headphone:X or Dolby surround. HyperX’s 7.1 utilizes Windows Sonic on PC for any tweaks; the problem I have is that while Windows Sonic is great for positioning, I find the overall audio quality and available settings are far better on DTS Headphone:X or Dolby. The company did have a version of this headset that had Dolby support, the Cloud Revolver S, but that product doesn’t look like it’s being produced anymore. The headset we’re reviewing is essentially a non-Dolby rebrand of the S.
I loaded up Hitman 3; One of the new levels in this entry in the series, Berlin, is an excellent test with 7.1 on. The level takes place in an underground club hidden in a derelict power plant. Voices came through on the headset clearly, from the correct virtual channels with no distortion. The real test was below though. As you round the stairs into the club proper, there’s loud, booming techno music playing, with a good meaty bass beat to it. Even among the cacophony, Hitman 3 is still great about allowing you to hear audio dialog that may point to future assassinations. It’s a pretty chaotic scene in terms of sound, especially with the ebb and flow of the techno as you move around the environment, and the Cloud Revolver + 7.1 handled it well.
The Cloud Revolver + 7.1 is only guaranteed to work with PC and PS4, as per HyperX. But my PS5 recognized it immediately in sound devices when I plugged it in via USB. I didn’t have any sound initially, leading me to assume it didn’t work, but the trick with the Cloud Revolver + 7.1 is the audio controls on the dongle work independently of the system volume. You can have the system volume up, but the dongle volume down, and hear nothing.
Playing Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, I found the system’s 3D audio worked well with the Cloud Revolver + 7.1. Walking around the city to get a feel of the directional sound, I could walk around a running car and clearly hear the engine humming along from the correct direction.
In terms of clarity, I could hear every thwip of the web-shooters alongside the whipping winds, the low bass beat of the soundtrack and even J. Jonah Jameson’s annoying radio broadcast. However, I did notice a little loss of clarity in the highs, with strings in the ambient soundtrack blending a bit with some of the city’s sounds.
The first music track I tried on the headset was Jason Derulo’s “Lifestyle.” It works well as a test case because of the transition from the early parts of the song. You have the thrumming of the bass guitar contrasted with Derulo’s vocals, which are then joined by accompaniment and staccato claps. Once the chunky bass in the chorus comes in, the song is playing on nearly every level. It’s got a little bit of everything.
Listening to the track on the Cloud Revolver + 7.1 allowed me to test the difference in the standard stereo versus the 7.1 surround. In stereo, there was wonderful differentiation and clarity between the different parts of the song. The wider soundscape really showed up to play. Switching to surround sound, it was clear that HyperX’s solution pushes the mids back, really playing up the highs and lows.
Across few other tracks, I actually found aspects of the music that was missing in my day-to-day headset. Gfriend’s “Labyrinth” had a sort of alternating high xylophone-style sound in the background of the chorus I never noticed before. And the understated low piano in the bridge of Clean Bandit’s “Higher” was suddenly apparent. There’s just an excellent amount of separation and clarity to the overall sound on this headset. It’s probably one of the better music listening experiences at this price point.
Microphone
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The microphone on the Cloud Revolver + 7.1 is a unidirectional condenser mic that you can detach from the headset. My recordings sounded pretty good, though they came across a little warm overall. Vocal clarity was pretty good, but there was still audible popping.
Noise cancellation, meanwhile, was decent. The headset took care of a good amount of environmental sound. There was someone mowing the lawn outside of my apartment, for example, and that wasn’t in the recording much. My local television noise also didn’t come through on recordings.
The boom mic is flexible, allowing for decent placement in front of your mouth. I also actually prefer having the mic mute on the dongle because it means you’re not getting a noise in your recording trying to mute your mic.
HyperX specs the Cloud Revolver + 7.1’s mic for a frequency response of 50 Hz – 7.7 kHz.
Software
HyperX has beta software, NGenuity, that works with many of its gaming peripherals, including some headsets. The Cloud Revolver + 7.1, however, is not meant to work with any software. Instead, HyperX targets this at users who want a simple plug-and-play package. But those who like to tweak their audio or want to address any perceived weaknesses in the Cloud Revolver + 7.1’s performance is out of luck.
If you want to do any virtual speaker positioning regarding the 7.1 surround sound, you can use the standard Windows menus via Windows Sonic.
Bottom Line
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With the Cloud Revolver + 7.1, HyperX has crafted cans with great build quality, effective virtual 7.1 surround sound support, a nice wide soundscape and versatility through its two connection options (3.5mm or USB Type-A).It also delivers one of the better music-listening experiences I’ve had in the $150 price range.
However, the virtual 7.1 surround sound here is a step down from the immersive feel and customization options premium competitors, like Dolby, offer. And HyperX’s lack of audio tweaking options means you’re essentially stuck with what you get out of the box. The company could gain some ground simply by fixing that.
There are more customizable options with advanced surround sound for less. As of writing, Logitech Pro X is about $20 cheaper than our review focus, and you get DTS Headphone X 2.0 support, an extensive audio equalizer and Blue microphone audio tweaks via Logitech software. The Razer BlackShark V2 offers THX Spatial Audio for a whopping $50 less. And that’s all before you even get into wireless headset options, which are pretty price-competitive these days.
Sure, I might love listening to music on the Cloud Revolver + 7.1, but a gaming headset is more than that. And frankly, HyperX is still behind the competition in terms of bells-and-whistles.
But if you’re not into tweaking and just want something that offers decent virtual surround sound and covers a wide range of frequencies out of the box while sitting comfortably on your noggin, the Cloud Revolver + 7.1 is worth a look.
We already knew a remake for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was in the works, and it was supposed to come out next month. But if you are waiting to play this long-awaited remake, you will have to wait a little while longer as the game has been delayed indefinitely, Ubisoft announced on Twitter today.
Ubisoft Pune, the India-based studio tasked with remaking one of the most popular entries in the series, said the reason for delaying the game again was to ensure it receives extra development time that will allow the team to “deliver a remake that feels fresh while remaining faithful to the original.”
This is the second time Ubisoft has pushed back the release date for The Sands of Time remake. Originally, the company planned to release the game on PC, PS4, and Xbox One on January 21st, when it was revealed last September. Ubisoft would then delay the game to March 18th, attributing the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason for delaying the title.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake is not the only Ubisoft title delayed in recent months due to the pandemic. In October, Ubisoft announced that Far Cry 6 and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Quarantine would be delayed into the 2021 fiscal year, meaning both aforementioned titles are slated to launch sometime between April 2021 and March 2022.
The Pinnacle Station, a training facility added to the first Mass Effect, won’t appear in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition alongside over 40 other pieces of downloadable content. Game Informer reportsthat the Pinnacle Station, created by Demiurge Studios for the first game, can’t be salvaged due to data corruption.
Legendary Edition repackages the original trilogy and all of its previously released content with new features and a major graphical overhaul. Speaking to Game Informer, game director Mac Walters said that trying to save the DLC was an “emotional roller coaster” that included reaching out to Demiurge and trying to obtain backups. Source code from the developer was corrupted. The original code source code has also been notoriously lost, which kept PlayStation 3 players from experiencing it when the game arrived on the platform.
Re-creating the DLC would have taken six months with “most” of Legendary Edition’s team, Walters said. “I wish we could do it. Honestly, just because this is meant to be everything that the team ever created, brought together again — all the single-player content. And so, leaving it all on the cutting-room floor, it was heartbreaking.”
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition will launch on May 14th on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
We already knew Sony’s beloved sports exclusive MLB The Show would release on “additional consoles” as early as 2021. Today, Sony announced that MLB The Show 21 will release on April 20th on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X / S.
This is the first entry in the MLB The Show series that will release on Microsoft’s home consoles, but Sony isn’t just offering the game on the Xbox for the first time. MLB The Show 21 will also support full cross-platform progression, cross-saves, and online multiplayer between PlayStation and Xbox consoles.
MLB The Show launches day and date on PS4 and PS5 with cross-platform play on @Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) February 1, 2021
Similar to other cross-gen titles like Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War, Madden NFL 21, and NBA 2K21, MLB The Show 21 will retail for different prices, depending on which version you buy. If you get the Standard Edition on PS4 or Xbox One, it will cost $60. On PS5 or Xbox Series X / S, it’ll cost $70, though.
If you purchase the Standard Edition on last-gen (PS4 or Xbox One) and upgrade to a next-gen console, you won’t be able to upgrade your copy of the game to the PS5 or Xbox Series X / S version. However, Sony’s FAQ page revealed that if you buy the Collector’s Edition of MLB The Show 21,you’ll receive both the current and next-gen versions of the game.
Sony also announced three different Collector’s Editions for MLB The Show 21: the Jackie Robinson Edition ($85), Digital Deluxe Edition ($100), and the Jackie Robinson Deluxe Edition ($100). Each version includes both a current-gen copy of the game (on disc, for the physical editions) and a redeemable code for a digital next-gen copy of the game. More importantly, the Collector’s Editions will launch four days early on April 16th.
MLB The Show21 is a huge win for Xbox owners. In the past, if you wanted a good baseball game, you needed a PlayStation console to play one. In recent years, RBI Baseball served as an alternative to Xbox players, but by splitting its focus between arcade and simulation styles, it’s never been a true contender to MLB The Show.
Updated 02/03/21 10:20AM ET: Included information and pricing for the Collector’s Editions.
Although the Mass Effect trilogy allowed players to create their own Shepard, the game had limited options for making non-white characters. Environment and character director Kevin Meek told The Verge that improving options for people of color was one of its top priorities when it came to Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, an upcoming remastered collection. “If you have type 4 hair or a really dark skin tone or if that’s the Shepard you wanted to play as, you just did not really have that option in the original Mass Effect,” Meek said.
Legendary Edition packages all three games with all of their corresponding DLC. Although the game won’t add new story content, it does overhaul its graphics and expand some gameplay elements to make them more modern. In returning to the series, BioWare had an opportunity to fix its shortcomings in the game’s original design. “There are certain hairstyles that just don’t work, especially for the female Shepards,” Meek said. “There was very little there that supported that at all. There was long flowing hair options, you can color it black, but those didn’t really work.” The team began by making a list of hairstyles it was missing, then working out textures. “You can’t put a really tight, really clean buzzed cut with shiny, shiny hair,” Meek said by way of example.
In deciding which hairstyles to incorporate into a modernized game set in the future, the developers aimed for more “timeless” options. “The difference between style and fashion,” Meek said. Part of the improvements to the game’s fade hairstyles, for example, includes “sci-fi futuristic patterns” buzzed into the sides. “You don’t want to grab people’s attention, you just want it to fit within the Mass Effect universe.”
In addition to new hairstyles, skin tones, and more, the game is also improving on its “iconic” FemShep — a player-voted model that didn’t appear until the trilogy’s final installment. The canon character model’s late inclusion was “really limiting” for many players. “It’s pretty unfair for the people playing as females, you go through all of these moments throughout Mass Effect 1 and 2 and then you get to Mass Effect 3 and you’re just given this choice of do you want to continue with your Shepard, or do you want to switch your visuals completely,” Meek said.
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition will launch May 14th on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Remastering a series like Mass Effect — not quite a full remake of the trilogy, but more substantial than a port — is a thorny task. It requires work on all three games and dozens of downloadable content packs. There are fan expectations, from players who want to see a beloved universe preserved to those who are still salty about how it all ended. As Mac Walters, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition project director, put it: “We talk about it sort of like we were restoring a beautiful, beloved car. But then it quickly turned into sure, if that car had been buried in cement, and every time you tried to clear off some of the cement you were worried about dinging the paint, or ripping off a mirror.”
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, coming May 14th for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and backwards-compatible with current consoles, packages the Shepard trilogy into one game. That includes over 40 DLC packs released during the series’s run, as well as Mass Effect 3’s extended cut. The game’s story will stay intact, including its controversial ending. Speaking about the extended cut of Mass Effect 3, Walters referred again to developers caught in a cycle of always wanting to fix one last thing. “The extended cut was really that opportunity for us to add a little bit more love and a little bit more context around the ending,” he said.
The first Mass Effect game launched in 2007, and the final game came out in 2012. There are more than a few elements of the game that are dated. “The opportunity now to be able to go back with all of those lessons learned and with all of the advancements … [has] been a dream for me,” Walters, a longtime developer on the original series, said. That includes returning to familiar characters and worlds. “You don’t often get a chance to revisit a lot of these things.”
When it comes to making games, Walters said that developers have to learn to eventually let go. “You have to kind of say we’re done with the game and we’re moving on.” With Mass Effect being a trilogy, the team was able to take that “developer angst” and use it for the next game. “Over the course of three games, we were fortunate enough to sort of build on that and really bring the game and the franchise kind of to where we saw it in our minds’ eye at the very beginning.”
In the new remaster, all three entries can be accessed from a single menu, with players able to start from any game they choose. The tweaks range from a more convenient, comical ability to skip through elevator rides faster to overhauling the look of entire levels like Eden Prime, the very first world players are introduced to in Mass Effect 1. “Ultimately what this was about was bringing this forward onto the current gen and for future generations as well, with the kind of fidelity and taking off some of the edges that people would expect with that,” Walters said.
The changes throughout the series, especially in the first game, are hard to miss. In a presentation offering a direct comparison, characters who previously had curious features — eyelashes like spider legs or potato-shaped heads — now look sleek. Game textures, a well-known buggy feature of Mass Effect 1, in particular, have been fixed to actually resemble the materials they’re meant to be. The team has apparently squashed hundreds of bugs that stuck around throughout the original trilogy.
“It wasn’t that long ago that if you made a very expansive, large playbox kind of game, you could be excused for all sorts of bugs,” Walters told The Verge in a separate interview, reflecting on the memeable nature of bugs these days. “They expect a lot. They expect us to do our jobs, and part of our jobs is shipping a game to quality, bug-free as much as possible.”
But it’s not always so simple. Walters compares it to trying to take a family photo with every relative, plus their pets. “You can imagine that you’re gonna take about 1,000 photos near the end, and one of them’s going to work. That’s the one you ship, and it’s as close as possible.” But look closely, and you start to see that someone has their eyes closed. And in the photos before and after, someone’s passed out in the background. “There’s a lot of challenge there, but no excuse,” Walters said. “I think the expectation from fans more and more is that you ship a quality game period.
As for whether he enjoys all of those memes? “It’s funny if it’s someone else’s bug,” Walters said.
When the enhanced remake of the Mass Effect trilogy arrives, it won’t include multiplayer. According to longtime Mass Effect developer Mac Walters, the team would have had to put in an immense amount of effort to bring the feature to the Legendary Edition. “At some point we had to draw a line,” the project director said in a briefing about the game. “We’ve talked about doing the remaster for some time now, and at least at one point in time everything was on the table.”
BioWare introduced multiplayer to the final installment of the trilogy, Mass Effect 3. Although “these aren’t insurmountable challenges,” Walters said, they would have required focus on features outside of the single-player experience: how to incorporate crossplay or what to do with people who still play Mass Effect’s multiplayer today. “How do we honor that, how do we bring them in, can we somehow bridge that gap,” he said.
When the game launched in 2012, multiplayer served a narrative purpose as well. The game’s ending is partly dependent on the player’s “galactic readiness,” a combination of factors like player choice, resources, and success in competitive matches; a high readiness level helps usher in the game’s top-tier endings.
Speaking with The Verge, Walters said the game has been rebalanced. Not only is multiplayer removed as a factor, but players who choose to skip directly to Mass Effect 3 without playing previous games won’t be penalized. “It is intended to get those best endings, or the higher tier endings — I won’t say which one is best or worst — but obviously playing will be easier,” he said. “We just basically took that section out and redistributed.”
Although some players might be disappointed by the game’s missing multiplayer, Walters said that, ultimately, it came down to creating the best-possible cohesive story experience. “The overall Mass Effect Legendary Edition is a better representation of the original trilogy because we’re able to focus on those single-player moments.”
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition will launch May 14th on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
(Pocket-lint) – The rise of Amazon Music Unlimited has gone hand-in-hand with the explosion in the use of Amazon Echo speakers and Alexa, its digital assistant. It integrates seamlessly with Echo devices, while also working just like any other streaming service on your phone and other devices.
Spotify is probably the first service you think of when you think of music streaming – it’s been around the longest, integrates with loads of services, and has some very clever features.
But which service is best for you – Amazon Music or Spotify? We’ve looked at the features of both, how much Spotify and Amazon Music cost, and how you can access them to help you make your ultimate decision: Spotify or Amazon Music Unlimited?
Want to check out other options such as Apple Music or Tidal?
Amazon Music Unlimited vs Spotify: Prices compared
Amazon Music Unlimited is available with several different pricing tiers available. To help you get to grips with Amazon Music Unlimited and to decide if it’s the right service for you, Amazon offers a 30-day free trial.
If you don’t subscribe to Amazon Prime, a Music Unlimited membership will cost you £9.99/$9.99 a month, but if you do have a Prime account then you’ll only pay £7.99/£7.99 a month or £79/$79 for the whole year.
Subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited UK
Subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited US
Amazon also offers a membership for £3.99/$3.99 a month but you can only stream music through the Echo speaker or Echo Dot. Note that you can only use the £3.99 month Echo membership on a single Echo device and it can’t be transferred. If you have multiple Echo devices in your home and want to use Amazon Music Unlimited with all of them, you’ll need a regular individual membership. There’s also a Student membership at $4.99.
A Family membership is available for £14.99/$14.99 a month for up to 6 family members or £149/$149 for a year.
Spotify has a much simpler pricing structure with just three tiers: a free, ad-supported tier and a Premium tier that costs £9.99/$9.99 month. Again, there’s a 30-day free trial.
Spotify also offers offer a family subscription plan which costs £14.99/$14.99 month for you and up to five family members. Each member gets their own personal account.
Students can also get a discounted membership for just £4.99, but they have to sign up through UniDays or NUS Extra.
Sign up for Spotify
Amazon Music Unlimited vs Spotify: Devices
While Amazon Music can be played on a wide range of devices, it’s in connectivity that Spotify has a killer feature – Spotify Connect. And even though Amazon now has Alexa Cast – enabling you to cast to a variety of Alexa or Bluetooth devices from within the Music Unlimited app – it’s not quite as flexible as Spotify Connect.
Spotify Connect enables you to control what is playing on any Spotify Connect device or Spotify app, from any other. That means you can use your desktop app to control Spotify on your Echo, you can pause it on your phone, find something else and play that on your PC instead. Each app gets to control the music wherever it’s playing.
Amazon Music Unlimited is accessible through the Amazon Music app. The app can be downloaded on iOS and Android devices, as well as Mac and PC. You can also access it through a Web player in your browser and through the company’s Echo devices and Fire tablets. You can also play music through a Sonos multi-room system or Roku media streamer.
Amazon has also said that select BMW and Mini cars are Amazon Music-enabled and provide access to the service through its infotainment system when connected to a smartphone.
Spotify is available almost everywhere, there’s an app for iOS, Android, PC and Mac but is available via Spotify Connect on a list of devices that’s almost too long to put here. You can get a Spotify app on select TVs from Panasonic, LG, Sony, Samsung, B&O and Philips while Spotify works with stacks of audio products including those from Bose, Sonos, Onkyo, Denon, Yamaha, Pionner, Naim, Libratone and Revo.
A wide range of car manufacturers, as well as Uber, have either built-in access via Spotify Connect, Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. The Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox One have apps for Spotify, along with Google Chromecast and Chromecast Audio. Check out this full list of Spotify Connect Devices.
We’ve mentioned both on Amazon Echo devices – while Amazon Music is slightly better integrated, Spotify plays natively too, so there isn’t a huge difference in experience.
And, naturally, you can always stream either from your phone to a Bluetooth speaker or another Bluetooth-enabled device.
Amazon Music Unlimited vs Spotify: Which offers better sound?
Amazon hasn’t revealed the streaming bitrate quality of its library, but we’d have a guess and say it will be 320kbps as this would put it on par with Spotify.
Spotify reserves 320kbps streaming for its Premium tier. It’s called “extreme quality” on mobile. If you use the free tier and listen on a mobile, you can choose between 96kbps normal quality or 160kbps high quality. The same 160kbps streams are called standard quality on a computer.
However, Amazon also offers a premium tier called Amazon Music HD, which unlocks lossless music at a higher quality, for audiophiles. It’s pricier, and has a more limited library, but is a great way to get higher-quality audio, so that’s a major leg-up over Spotify for now.
What is Spotify Spotlight and how does the new format work?
Amazon Music Unlimited vs Spotify: Other features
Radio
Both Amazon Music Unlimited and Spotify offer personalised radio stations based on artists and tracks you like.
Both have mood-based playlists and a list of auto-generated stations and you can also choose to start a station based on an artist or song you’re currently listening to. These can also be accessed on Echo devices.
Playlists
Both services will let you create your own custom playlists you can then share with friends, or you can save curated ones to your collection.
Discovery
Amazon’s Music app and the web player have a recommended section which serves up albums and playlists that it things you’ll like based on your listening habits. The Music app itself has had a major redesign, and now claims to make music discovery easier than ever before.
Spotify meanwhile has a feature called Discover Weekly, which is an automatically curated playlist of songs that it thinks you’ll like based on your listening habits. It’s updated every Monday morning and from our experience, we’ve always liked what we’ve heard.
Assistant
Because of the integration with Echo devices, Amazon Music Unlimited can be used with Alexa. You can ask Alexa all manner of questions to get the music you want, such as “play music for a dinner party” or “play Britney Spears greatest hits” and so on.
Spotify has no built-in assistant as such, but can be controlled with Alexa or Google Assistant – so you can simply ask for the music you want “on Spotify” and it will play.
Offline
Both Amazon Music Unlimited and Spotify offer offline playback. Amazon offers it as standard but you can only download songs from Spotify if you subscribe to the Premium tier.
Amazon Music Unlimited vs Spotify: Which is best?
If you already have an Amazon Prime membership and you’ve bought an Echo speaker or Echo Dot, paying just £3.99 a month makes it incredibly worthwhile if you just want playback on your Echo – certainly cheaper than paying for a full Spotify subscription. And the cheaper price for Prime members mean Amazon Music Unlimited is a no-brainer if you already have a Prime membership.
Subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited UK
Subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited US
But if you aren’t within the Amazon ecosystem already then Spotify is our pick. Spotify is available almost everywhere and offers a free tier. It’s worth noting that while the free tier still lets you listen to Spotify’s entire music catalogue, it does come with some limitations on where and how you can play your music, restricting downloads and so on.
It helps that Spotify is incredibly easy to use, sounds good and has some incredibly useful music discovery features. We also rate Spotify Connect – it’s the best system if you have a range of different speaker types.
Sign up for Spotify
Also why not check out these Spotify tips and tricks, if you want to level up your experience.
Writing by Max Langridge and Dan Grabham. Editing by Max Freeman-Mills.
There’s a new Cyberpunk 2077 patch making the rounds, and the sole reason for its existence is to fix the bugs introduced from the previous patch.
When CD Projekt Red released patch 1.0 for Cyberpunk 2077, it broke a critical mission in the game, introducing a game-breaking bug. During the quest “Down on the Street,” those with Cyberpunk 2077 version 1.06 save data and then updated to patch 1.1 had noticed that the dialogue options were missing during the “Wait For Takemura’s Call” segment. This prohibited game progression and, as you can imagine, frustrated those making their way through the game. This bug affected all versions of the game.
Hotfix 1.11 is available on PC, consoles and Stadia!This update restores item randomization and fixes a bug which affected some users’ holocall with Takemura in Down on the Street quest.Details: https://t.co/SsVYRGfdha pic.twitter.com/TAQmRilNxqJanuary 28, 2021
While hotfix 1.11 was released to fix the game-breaking bug, the item randomization was rolled back to pre-patch 1.1 as well. Visit CD Projekt Red’s website for more info for a full list of changes.
Before installing this hotfix, make sure you have enough space to do so. Multiple users have reported that at least 60GB of space is needed during the installation process for the game’s GOG version. In comparison, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions need at least 15GB free to install the update.
At this point, I’m just waiting to see what else happens. Fingers crossed that this hotfix 1.11 doesn’t introduce any other unforeseen issues.
Cyberpunk 2077 is now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Google Stadia worldwide.
(Pocket-lint) – With more and more laptops and devices being equipped with flash memory, that often means it becomes too expensive to get a good amount of storage built-in.
And, with so many more of us travelling around for work, working from home or needing to use more than one machine, it’s more important than ever to have an external drive of sorts.
Thankfully, there’s a lot of them around. And most of the portable options are small enough to go in a pocket.
There’s both SSD (solid state) and HDD (more traditional style hard-drive), with the former being a bit more expensive, but also faster, smaller and more portable. They’re also more likely to last you a long time because there are no moving parts. For editing movies and photos on an external drive, nothing really gets the job done like an SSD.
SSD vs HDD: What’s the difference between flash storage and traditional hard drives?
SSDs – Small and speedy
We’ve tested each of the following, using each of them to edit 4K video footage in Final Cut Pro, keeping the original files on the external drive, and each of them performed really well, with no real frame-drop issues, slow export or render times. So, regardless of which of the following you get, you’ll enjoy the speediness and efficiency.
Judging them based on portability, design, performance and value for money, here are our top picks.
How to improve your gaming performance with blazing-fast NVMe SSDs
Our top external drive recommendation
Pocket-lint
Samsung T7 Touch
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The Samsung T7 Touch is the latest in ultra-fast portable drives from Samsung that joins our list and replaces our previous favourite – the T5. With the T7 Touch, Samsung has taken the brilliant foundations of the previous drive and improved upon them. Not only is the transfer speed of the T7 almost double that of the T5 (at up to 1,050 MB/s) but it’s also interesting in other ways too.
This is a drive that’s designed to blur the lines between professional and personal use with the inclusion of AES 256-bit hardware data encryption and a fingerprint sensor/password setup. It includes both USB type-C-to-C, USB type-C-to-A cables in the box and software for Mac, PC and Android phones too. Using that software you can set a secure password and scan your fingerprints to secure the drive so no one else can access it. Plugged in without scanning it simply won’t show any files on the drive.
You also have the option of registering as many as four different fingerprints, meaning you can scan your preferred fingers or give access to family or team members with ease.
All this is rounded off in a durable, aesthetically pleasing aluminium housing with a nifty “Motion LED” light around the fingerprint reader. The T7 Touch is a brilliant balance of speed, portability and security that we love and are sure you will too.
Pocket-lint
WD_Black P10
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The WD_Black P10 is one of several variants of external SSDs Western Digitial has designed specifically for gamers. This drive comes with a robust, snazzy-looking housing that includes an aluminium top for passive cooling goodness. It’s available in several size formats and offers extra space for your games.
An external drive like this is a brilliantly simple way to upgrade your storage space for more games without messing about with internals. We’ve written before on how to upgrade your PS4 and Xbox One using this sort of drive and the WD_Black range is an awesome option. The bonus of the P10 is it’s plug and play. We used it on PC, installing a multitude of Steam games, then booting them straight from the drive with reasonable speed. The P10 isn’t the fastest of the line-up (that honour goes to the P50) but it is a brilliant balance of speed, size and value for money.
If you want something faster, the P50 is a niftier option with a rear/write speed of 1980MB/s and USB SuperSpeed 20Gbps too. While if you need insane amounts of space there’s the D10 which offers up to 12 TBs of storage space and can hold as many as 200 games.
Pocket-lint
Seagate FireCuda gaming SSD
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Gamers love RGB and speed. At least that’s what Seagate seems to be saying with this external FireCuda Gaming SSD. A drive in a solid, robust casing that’s rubber backed and sports a customisable RGB lighting strip.
This is a compact drive you could easily slip in your pocket, but it’s also a great looking bit of kit with up to 2TB storage space and as much as 2,000MB/s max speed with USB 3.2 gen 2×2 tech.
Fast, fabulous and a fantastic addition to your gaming setup.
Pocket-lint
ADATA SE800 External Solid State Drive
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The ADATA SE800 is a compact, lightweight, blazingly fast portable SSD. This is an external drive that comes in a uber-snazzy looking protective shell that looks like it’s made of brushed aluminium. That shell is also IP-68 rated, meaning that (as long as it is properly sealed) it’s waterproof, dustproof and shockproof too. So your data is safe if you happen to take a soaking while carrying it or accidentally drop it into a small body water – the bath, a puddle, a river, the toilet. We’re not here to judge.
This drive isn’t just about looks and waterproofing though, it’s also a powerhouse. Thanks to USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C connectivity, it’s able to transfer data at speeds of up to 1,0000MB/s making it one of the fastest drives on this list. It comes bundled with both a USB 3.2 Type-C to C cable and USB 3.2 Type-C to A cable meaning it will also connect to basically anything you own with ease too.
Pocket-lint
Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD
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Testing the transfer speeds from our MacBook Pro desktop to the Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD, we got virtually identical results to the Samsung. The same 9.3GB collection of files was transferred in 20.66 seconds, and the discrepancy easily ignorable, and probably explained by the pace of human reaction, rather than the speed of the transfer itself.
So performance is essentially as good, but there’s one real reason you might want this over the Samsung: design. Not only is the Sandisk (somehow) considerably smaller and lighter than the T5, but it’s also got some water and dust resistance.
You can’t submerge it, but it’ll survive the odd accidental splash. As a bonus, it also has a handy little cutout in the corner to feed a carabiner through so you can attach it to your keys if you want to.
Pocket-lint
Gtech G-Drive Mobile SSD
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The G-Drive Mobile SSD is taller and thicker than either the Samsung T5 or Sandisk Extreme SSDs, but what it lacks (slightly) in portability, it more than makes up for in durability. Its external surfaces are covered in a shock-absorbing plastic/rubber material, ensuring that it can survive falls up to three metres. What’s more, it has IP67 rated water and dust resistance, which means it can survive in up to one metre of water for up to 30 minutes. As a bonus, you also get a limited five-year warranty as standard.
You don’t really lose out on performance either, with Gtech claiming up to 560MB/s transfer speeds. Testing using the same selection of files, the G-Drive Mobile SSD took 24.4 seconds to transfer. We tested it a few times just to be sure, and it was consistently around four to five seconds slower than the previous two drives, despite claiming faster top speeds. Still, it’s hardly slow, just not quite as fast as the T5 or Sandisk Extreme.
Pocket-lint
Samsung X5 Thunderbolt drive
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If you want a stupendously fast external drive, look no further. The Samsung X5 is it, featuring sequential read speeds up to 2,800MB/s and sequential write speeds up to 2,300MB/s. Using the same 9.3GB collection of seven video files, we tested the transfer speeds and were blown away. Those same files that take 20-25 seconds on the previously mentioned drives took less than 6.5 seconds on the Samsung X5.
You may be wondering, why with those speeds is it not our top recommendation? Two simple reasons: it is pretty expensive, and it only achieves those speeds if you use a Thunderbolt 3 port on your Mac/Laptop. If you can afford it, and you have TB3 ports on your computer, it’s well worth it. It’s so ridiculously fast.
Taking a different approach to the T5, Samsung clad the X5 in plastic, but in the form that looks more like the outer shell of a sports car than an external drive. What’s more, inside it has a protection guard built from magnesium and a heat sink to ensure the NVMe SSD inside is kept at a temperature below 45 degrees C.
All of this innovation and design comes at a cost, both literally in terms of cash outlay and in portability. It’s not exactly huge, but it’s three times heavier than the Samsung T5, and considerably taller, wider and thicker. Still, it’s not difficult to carry around and comfortably fits in a pocket.
Pocket-lint
LaCie Rugged SSD
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As SSD standards go, the LaCie is big and bulky but – as the name suggests – it’s very durable. It can survive drops up to 2 metres, and conforms to Military Standard 810-F. It’s recognisable instantly too, thanks to its bright orange chunky, texturised silicone outer casing that absorbs all the shocks and bumps you can throw its way.
Don’t confuse its chunky, hefty looks for slow pace though. It’s just as speedy as most of the others on this list, thanks to that SSD storage. Using our same selection of video files, it transferred them in around 20.2 seconds, bringing it up to speed with the Samsung T5 and SanDisk options.
As a bonus, for those who still have computers rocking the old style Thunderbolt port, it has one of those connectors built into the unit, wrapped around safely in the rubber sleeve.
Pocket-lint
Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Slim
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As external HDDs go, the Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Slim has a lot going for it. It’s attractive, covered in a dimpled sheet of aluminium and – as the name suggests – it’s really slim.
It’s compatible with both Windows and mac OS, and is very affordable compared to the SSDs in the list above. While the speeds aren’t quite fast enough for live editing of RAW photos or 4K video, the transfer speeds are reasonable. We got those same video files as we’ve been using previously, dragged them across, and they’d written to the drive in around 1min 18 seconds.
Pocket-lint
Toshiba Canvio Basics Portable HD
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If you’re looking for really great value for money, the Toshiba Canvio Basics is one way to go. It’s compatible with USB 3.0, so it’s not a snail, and it’s compatible with Xbox and PS4, although it is formatted to NTFS for Windows machines, rather than the system Mac uses. It can be reformatted to work with Mac, however, or you can download plugins to make your Mac read NTFS-formatted drives.
In our file transfer test, it was slightly faster than the Seagate Backup Plus, but not by much. The 9.3GB collection of videos transferred across in around 1min 12 seconds.
Writing by Cam Bunton. Editing by Max Freeman-Mills.
Microsoft’s Xbox consoles can finally play YouTube videos in HDR. That includes both the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, and the last-generation Xbox One X.
If you want to check that what you’re seeing is in HDR, pull up the “stats for nerds” option on the video in question, and it’ll show you the details.
HDR stands for high dynamic range. It makes for a greater difference between light and dark parts of the picture, with more levels of granularity in between. The result should be a better image with more depth.
The Xbox Series X and Series S support HDR on streaming services like Netflix and Disney+, so YouTube is in good company. Google promised the feature on Microsoft’s consoles as long ago as 2017, so it’s been a long time coming.
The PS4 also supports HDR YouTube videos, but its successor, the PS5, doesn’t yet. Maybe this is the motivation Sony needs.
You can read more about the Xbox update on the YouTube Help site.
MORE:
Console face-off: PS5 vs Xbox Series X: which is better?
CD Projekt Red has released its first Cyberpunk 2077 patch of 2021, bringing a slew of stability improvements and bug fixes for all platforms. This is the first of two updates that CD Projekt Red promised towards the end of 2020. However, it’s definitely not the massive patch that many were expecting and it isn’t the magic “fix everything” update that many were hoping for.
Patch 1.1 is out on PC, consoles and Stadia!In this update, which lays the groundwork for the upcoming patches, we focused on various stability improvements and bugfixes. List of changes: https://t.co/NlSEKjsax7 pic.twitter.com/WjLcD0SaZkJanuary 22, 2021
“In this update, we focused on various stability improvements, which you can find outlined in the patch notes below. We will continue this work in patch 1.2 and other upcoming updates. At the same time, we will keep fixing the bugs you encounter and listening to your feedback on how to improve the overall game experience.”
You can read the full list of patch notes by heading over to the Cyberpunk 2077 website. However, it’s worth pointing out a couple of key points. First are the PlayStation-specific updates that address the rampant crashing on the PlayStation 4 while also providing some much needed PlayStation 4 optimization that addresses the crowds on the PS4 Pro and PlayStation 5. The Xbox wasn’t left out as CD Projekt Red has done some optimization to memory utilization, which is sorely needed. Even the Stadia version gets some love, though nothing appears to help the title’s performance.
This update weighs in at roughly 5.4GB on Steam and considerably smaller at 1.1GB on GOG. While the patch is a step in the right direction, it still doesn’t address the number of outstanding issues, such as the buggy AI, missing content, and a large number of quests that are still broken. Here’s hoping that the upcoming patch 1.2 will address those concerns and more.
Following the initial blockbuster sales of Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red faced a massive backlash due to performance issues that impacted gameplay on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the PC. This eventually led to refunds being offered to consumers not happy with the title’s performance, prompting PlayStation to remove the title from its PlayStation Online and Xbox to apply a warning to anyone looking forward to purchasing the game. The company is also facing multiple lawsuits from investors who felt misled by CD Projekt Red.
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