Officially unveiled during the recent Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase and arriving this Autumn, the PowerWash Simulator Shrek Special Pack allows you to:

“Wash away your worries and live happily ever after to the soothing sounds of high-pressure water, carefully ridding nostalgic locations from villainous muck! In this hero’s journey, players will clean up the grime covering five iconic maps from the Shrek Universe, including Shrek's Swamp, Dragon's Lair and three other unrevealed locations.”

Though no price has been officially confirmed, all prior paid crossover DLCs for the game have cost £6.50 – so expect it to be in the same ballpark.

Despite the last mainline Shrek film releasing all the way back in 2010, the character and series remains as popular to this day thanks in part to Shrek himself achieving meme status – and so this collab could be PowerWash Simulator’s biggest yet.

KitGuru says: What did you think of the Nintendo Direct? What was your favourite announcement? What other crossovers would you like to see PowerWash Simulator go ahead with? Let us know down below.

Officially unveiled during the recent Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase (though coming to all platforms), Tetris Forever is a compilation title developed by retro specialists Digital Eclipse featuring “more than 15 different classic Tetris games while exploring the history of the series through over an hour of all-new documentary footage.”

No release date for the game has been given, though it is stated to arrive sometime this year – so hopefully we will hear more from it soon.

Alongside this, Nintendo also revealed that the classic NES Tetris title (arguably one of the two most iconic versions of the game) is coming to the Nintendo Switch Online service later this Winter.

Over the past 40 years there have been countless versions and variants of Tetris, yet the fundamentals always stay the same. It is not surprising to see that almost half a century later, Tetris is still as celebrated as ever.

KitGuru says: What did you think of the Nintendo Direct? What was your most hyped announcement? What’s your favourite version of Tetris? Let us know down below.

Announced during the most recent Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, Yakuza Kiwami is a remake of the 2005 PS2 game in which you as Kazuma Kiryu:

“Take the fall for a murder and emerge from prison 10 years later to yakuza clans on the brink of a war that hurtles you on an intense journey of love, humanity, and betrayal, fueled by your fists and unyielding resolve, set against a bustling red-light district in modern day Japan.”

Yakuza Kiwami ran at 1080p 60fps on the original PS4, and so it will be interesting to see whether the team at RGG studio have been able to maintain such a resolution/performance on the much more modest Nintendo Switch.

The trailer itself seems to indicate as much, but we will have to wait and see. Yakuza Kiwami comes to the Nintendo Switch on the 24th of October.

KitGuru says: What did you think of the Partner Showcase? What was your favourite announcement? Do you prefer Yakuza 1 or 0? Let us know down below.

Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria was first announced in 2022 as part of an Epic Games reveal event. It eventually released on PS5 and PC via Epic Games in October 2023, sandwiched between a few of the biggest releases of last year. Now, around 10 months later, the game is landing on both Xbox Series X/S and Steam.

The release isn't the only noteworthy thing here though. The game, which is the first ever to be set in the 4th Age of Middle-Earth, has also received a massive new update, known as the ‘Golden Update', which crams in a ton of new content and a new game mode.

As part of the Steam launch, the game is being discounted for a limited time, bringing the price down to around £17. Throughout the game, you and your band of dwarves will travel deep into the Moria mines, gathering materials, crafting and collecting special artefacts. With the latest update, you can also play the new Sandbox mode, which encourages more nonlinear gameplay, with more varied map layouts and random elements.

The new update also includes new weapons, armour sets and building objects so you can flesh out your Dwarven fortress.

KitGuru Says: If you're a fan of LOTR, this may be worth checking out, although some of the gameplay I've seen does look a little janky.

Square Enix announced today that Foamstars will be going free-to-play starting on the 4th of October, just eight months on from the game's initial launch.

Anyone who purchased the game will be getting a ‘Legacy Gift' to try and smooth over the transition. This legacy gift will include a set of 12 exclusive skins, a ‘Legacy' player title and an exclusive slide board design.

As the game will soon be free-to-play, players on PS4 and PS5 will also no longer need an active PS+ subscription to play the game online, matching Sony's policy for other free titles, like Genshin Impact, Fortnite and others.

Unfortunately, there is no word on Foamstars coming to other platforms. While the PS4 and PS5 combined have a massive user-base, Square Enix would surely benefit from reaching players on other platforms, like PC. Fortunately, this is something the company will be focusing on more with future major releases, to the point where we may get the next mainline Final Fantasy game on PC at launch, rather than a year or so later.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: As someone who really enjoyed Splatoon on the Switch, I would be down to try this if it came to PC. For now though, the game remains PlayStation-only, but perhaps the switch to free-to-play will revitalise the player base a bit. 

The official trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has dropped today, giving us our first proper look at the film. If you've ever played the first level of Sonic Adventure 2, or even the Shadow the Hedgehog videogame, then you will immediately recognise elements, with Shadow escaping a secret lab and looking to take some rage out on the world. However, in a twist, it seems that series' villain, Dr. Robotnik, won't be siding with Shadow in this movie and will instead help Sonic and his friends.

All of the main actors from the previous films will be reprising their roles, including Idris Elba as the voice of Knuckles. Keanu Reeves is stepping in to voice Shadow. We don't hear too many lines of Shadow dialogue, but in the short snippets we do hear, Keanu continues to sound exactly like himself, so if you were expecting a bit more range, I'm not convinced you'll find it in this performance.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will hit cinemas on the 20th of December this year.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: The first two Sonic movies were surprisingly enjoyable, so I'll be looking forward to seeing a third. I am a bit disappointed at the lack of Chaos so far though. Sonic Adventure was my favourite game growing up, so a Chaos and Chaos Emerald-centred storyline would be right up my alley. 

After a number of leaks, Valve has decided to give up on keeping Deadlock quiet and has lifted all restrictions on talking about the game and sharing footage. However, Valve does also stress that the game is in ‘early development' so it is unlikely to see a full release this year.

As of now, there are almost 60,000 players currently playing the game and over the weekend, the total concurrent player count peaked at over 89,000. It would seem that Deadlock completely stole thunder from Sony's Concord launch, despite Valve's game being in an early alpha stage.

While Deadlock is in alpha, it is running very well and looks pretty good in its current state. Even the art used as placeholder looks pretty good, but Valve will no doubt give the game a fresh coat of paint when it comes time to launch.

While the floodgates have opened, Deadlock still requires an invite to play. Fortunately, anyone already in the test can send out invites to their friends, and the Deadlock subreddit has a thread dedicated to inviting people to the game, so if you want access at this point, it isn't hard to obtain.

For those who don't know, Deadlock is Valve's latest multiplayer shooter. This time around, we're getting a MOBA-infused hero shooter with new unique characters. It is a very different flavour to Team Fortress 2, Dota 2 and Counter-Strike.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Have you gained access to Deadlock already? What do you think of the game so far?

During the most recent episode of the Game Mess Mornings Podcast, known industry insider Jeff Grubb spoke on the current state of the PS5 Pro, saying:

“Last I heard, this thing [PS5 Pro] is still coming out this year. And more recently what I've heard is there is probably going to be a State of Play, a Sony PlayStation State of Play – not a Showcase – a State of Play, at the end; by the end of September.”

As mentioned, the discussion surrounding the PS5 Pro has been heating up recently, with further evidence of its imminence including a secret PS5 Pro mode which was recently added to No Man’s Sky.

If a State of Play is indeed coming sometime next month, then hopefully we will officially hear about the PS5 Pro then. We won’t have to wait too long to find out.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: Are you interested in the PS5 Pro? What do you expect to see at the State of Play? What one feature would sway you to get a PS5 Pro? Let us know down below.

Making the announcement on Twitter, the official Nintendo UK page shared the following: “Join us…August 27th at 15:00 (UK time), for an #IndieWorld Showcase followed by a #NintendoDirect: Partner Showcase! The livestream, featuring both presentations back-to-back, will be roughly 40 minutes in total.”

As expected, the company made sure to note that “there will be no mention of the #NintendoSwitch successor during either of these presentations.”

Despite not being a General Direct, having two smaller showcases back-to-back does seem to suggest that we could be getting a couple neat announcements. Hollow Knight: Silksong perhaps?

KitGuru says: Are you looking forward to the showcase? How likely is Silksong to be there? What do you think the biggest announcement will be? Let us know down below.

As reported by known leaker Tom Henderson, “The PlayStation Portal was very successful and [Sony] are paying very close attention to the current handheld market.”

As mentioned by Henderson, the PlayStation Portal has been a surprise hit, with the remote play powered handheld exceeding PlayStation’s expectations – and is even the no.1 best selling gaming accessory of the year so far.

Beyond this, the overwhelming success of the Nintendo Switch as well as the positive energy surrounding PC handhelds such as the Steam Deck clearly shows that there is still a market for portable gaming. Hopefully Sony is indeed listening.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: Would you want Sony to give handhelds another go? What did you think of the PS Vita? What’s your favourite gaming handheld of all time? Let us know down below.

With a Metacritic and Opencritic score of 77, Star Wars Outlaws lands neatly in line with many of Ubisoft’s releases in recent years. Similarly, the game appears to fall into many of those same trappings, including “simple stealth, repetitive combat, and a few too many bugs at launch.”

While perhaps not the warmest of receptions, Star Wars Outlaws still has a long journey ahead of it, with a Season Pass already announced and unveiled – showing off its post-launch DLC including two story packs and a couple cosmetic bundles.

That said, launch day bugs aside, it is unlikely that Ubisoft will be able to fix many of the issues associated with the game via updates/patches – not without some serious reworking.

Still, what matters most is what fans and players think of the game, and so we will have to wait and see how Outlaws is received when it officially launches later this week.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: Have you read any reviews yet? Has it put a damper on your excitement? What are you hoping to get from the game? Let us know down below.

Concord and Helldivers 2 are two multiplayer-focused titles priced at £34.99 and were released on PC and PS5. While Helldivers 2 quickly amassed over 400,000 players on Steam and achieved notable success, Concord has struggled to generate the same level of enthusiasm, as seen by the data from SteamDB.

Several factors contributed to Concord's underwhelming launch. The competitive nature of the hero shooter genre, dominated by free-to-play juggernauts like Overwatch 2 and Valorant (and possibly the upcoming Marvel Rivals), posed a significant challenge. Despite being in development for over eight years, Concord failed to offer anything innovative to set it apart in such a fiercely contested market.

Although Concord has received mostly positive Steam reviews, boasting a 73% approval rating, the limited number of reviews, approximately 500, indicates low player engagement. Furthermore, the game faced additional challenges as it debuted on the same day Valve pulled the curtain on Deadlock, the developer's upcoming MOBA shooter.

Despite the rocky start, the developers remain optimistic about Concord's prospects for recovery. However, the road ahead appears challenging with intense competition and a saturated market.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think went wrong with Concord for it to have such a low player count? Should the developers consider a pivot to a Free to Play model to keep up with similar shooters on the market? 

Olden Era is positioned as a prequel to the fantasy saga, offering players a non-linear campaign that delves into the series' origins. The game is set in the continent of Jadame, a location previously mentioned but never before explored in the franchise. Promising a vibrant and dynamic fantasy world with wonders and perils, the Olden Era invites players to construct an empire and engage in tactical battles with heroes and mythical creatures.

The game will introduce distinct factions, biomes, and creatures, all portrayed in a refreshed visual style reminiscent of the series' original art. Additionally, new combat mechanics will be introduced, including active abilities for heroes and creatures, a faction-based perk system, and more. Ubisoft has unveiled five identified factions, with a sixth yet to be disclosed. These factions include Temple (the original Knights), Necropolis (Undead and Vampires), Sylvan (representing the Forces of Nature and Fey Folks), Dungeon (Dark Elves and Underground Creatures), and Hive (insectoids corrupted by Demons).

Among the game's other features are improved AI and difficulty levels, three game modes (solo, co-op, and multiplayer), a random map generator, and in-game editing tools that enable players to share their creations. Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era is scheduled for release in Q2 2025, with an early access phase on Steam for PC.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru says: Are you a fan of the series? Are you interested in the Olden Era?

The Zone is powered by the Ryzen 7 8840U, the same silicon found in the Ryzen Z1 and Ryzen 7040 series. Although there are slight differences in NPU performance (or is absent), the underlying architecture for all these chips is Zen 4 and RDNA 3 (Radeon 780M). Power profiles, thermal characteristics, and clock rates are still expected to influence performance.

According to the listings gathered by VideoCardz, the Zone has started appearing in various European countries, including Germany (CaseKing), the UK (Scan), and Poland (X-Kom), priced at €849/£849/zł3,899, respectively. These prices are comparable to the ROG Ally X, which is priced similarly in the same regions.

Based on the Caseking listing, we can expect the Zone to be available on September 12th. However, the Polish store anticipates it will be available on September 23rd. All three retailers are accepting pre-orders.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru says: Interested in getting a gaming handheld? Would you consider the Zotac Zone or go for something cheaper?

Making the announcement on Twitter, the team behind Black Myth: Wukong – Game Science – announced that the title has “sold 10 million copies across all platforms. (Data as of 21:00 Beijing time, August 23, 2024),” adding “Thanks to all players worldwide for your support and love.”

While it may seem as though Black Myth: Wukong blew up out of nowhere, the game has been in the back of many players’ minds ever since it was first revealed back in 2020.

Additionally, being developed by a Chinese studio, the game has proven to be a major hit in its country of origin, with reports stating that “Sony Group Corp. ran a sales promotion for its PlayStation 5 in China for the week around Wukong’s launch and saw stores sell out of the console.”

With Black Myth: Wukong becoming one of the fastest selling games of all time in a 3 day period (surpassing Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy), it’ll be interesting to see just how much more the game will grow over the course of the rest of the year.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: Are you one of the 10 million players? What do you think of Black Myth: Wukong? Will it become the best selling game of 2024? Let us know down below.

In an interview conducted by IGN, Amazon Games boss Christoph Hartmann sat down to discuss all manner of topics, ranging from the company’s upcoming Lord of the Rings MMO to their recent acquisition of the Tomb Raider IP.

Perhaps most interesting however was Hartmann’s opinions on the rise of generative AI as a replacement for various aspects of game development, saying in response to a question on the current SAG-AFTRA voice actors strike relating to AI:

“When we talk about AI, first of all, hopefully it will help us to have new gameplay ideas, which has nothing to do with taking work away from anyone. And especially for games, we don't really have acting… The majority of the team sits in programming and that's not going to go away because that's all about innovation. If it takes something, it will be really the boring parts.”

Hartmann continued, “I think what could be super helpful is localization. Right now, we're localizing our game into a certain set of languages. Basically, does it commercially make sense to have it in a language, yes or no? Having AI actually will help us.”

Beyond the baffling statement that games “don’t really have acting,” Hartmann’s claimed benefits for AI would still take away a whole sector of the game development industry – that being localisation – while likely doing a terrible job at it. The full, and lengthy, interview can be found HERE.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this statement? Will Hartmann be compelled to respond? Does generative AI belong in game development? Let us know down below.

Breaking down the game:

Black Myth: Wukong is based on the famous Chinese story, Journey to the West, which has been adapted plenty of times in the past in various forms of media. Ninja Theory's ‘Enslaved: Odyssey to the West', was loosely based on the story. Akira Toriyama credited Journey to the West as part of his inspiration for Dragon Ball. Goku's name, Son Goku, is the Japanese pronunciation for Sun Wukong. Wukong is also the reason Goku fought with a staff, flew around on a magical cloud and had a monkey tail. These are just a couple of notable examples, but there are far more out there.

Like God of War, Black Myth: Wukong stars a magical being who has found himself on bad terms with the gods of the realm. While God of War is more focused on Greek and Norse mythology, Black Myth: Wukong is firmly based in Chinese mythology, with lots of Buddhist themes and a wide cast of characters. As someone who has always had an interest in ancient mythology, I was hooked by the premise pretty quickly and while some of the broad concepts are similar, the characters and fights feel fresh, with lots of anthropomorphic designs and grand-scale boss fights against all kinds of powerful deities.

There are some similarities to Souls like games. There are multiple paths to explore, secret bosses and shrines to find throughout the world, which act as save/respawn points. The game also has Souls-style boss fights, many of which will take multiple attempts to beat, but it is nowhere near as high a difficulty level and that primarily comes down to how agile your character is compared to the Souls games. It is far more like God of War, with its combination of exploration and storytelling. While many Souls games have passive storytelling, with lore drip-fed through environmental exploration, Black Myth: Wukong takes on a ‘show don't tell approach', with plenty of high-quality cutscenes and character interactions. You can't really play this game and ignore or miss the story in the same way you can in a Souls game, as so much of your character growth is tied to the trials and tribulations you face along the journey, and the characters you meet – akin to Kratos in God of War (2018), but with less of a stern attitude.

Sun Wukong is a fun character to play as, there is a playfulness to his personality, and it shines through in the way Wukong moves in battle. It is a similar marriage between combat utility and character that Insomniac achieved with Spider-Man. Wukong is very spry and athletic, leading to lots of spectacle moments in the heat of battle, whether you are going up against a massive boss or a lesser Yaoguai. While you start off with a basic spell and move-set, you can greatly expand your abilities through levelling up and spending ‘Sparks'. Certain abilities are locked behind a level cap or can't be unlocked until a certain point in the story, so you'll build up your powers one step at a time until you truly feel like the Monkey King.

The game features three distinct stances: smash, pillar, and thrust. Each stance comes with its own unique set of upgrades that players can unlock as they progress through the game. The stances primarily influence the heavy attacks, while your light attack combo will remain consistent across all three stances. Each stance seems to be geared towards helping in different situations. The Thrust stance is great for quickly closing gaps on the battlefield and catching enemies off-guard with a dashing heavy attack, which can be good for keeping up the offense against fast-moving bosses. The Smash stance is the basic stance that you start off the game with and is serviceable for most situations, with a combo that ends with you slamming the staff down in a hammer motion. The Pillar stance is my favourite and allows you to extend the staff to dodge ground attacks, and swing on the staff to hit multiple enemies at once, before leaping back and charging in for one big sweeping attack. During my time with the game so far, this is the stance that I have had the easiest time with.

You can further customise your combat with various spells. The first spell you obtain, Immobilize, is one of the most useful in the game, allowing you to instantly lock an enemy in place, even bosses, to get a quick flurry of attacks in, or to create a break in the fight for healing. Later on, you'll also have access to Cloud Step, a quick dash move that turns you invisible and distracts enemies with a decoy. You can exit your invisible form at any time with a hard-hitting attack that will knock enemies back. A Pluck of Many is another extremely useful spell, allowing you to summon clones to overwhelm enemies. If you've ever watched Naruto, it is essentially the Shadow Clone Jutsu, and like in Naruto, this ability can be quite overpowered in a lot of situations. As this game has no parry function, only allowing for quick dodges to avoid hits, Rock Solid is an ability that many will likely find useful. With this spell, you can momentarily turn to stone to deflect attacks and with some upgrades, deflecting an attack with Rock Solid will allow you to counterattack for big damage.

You also have access to a number of transformations. With your magical gourd, you can not only heal but also absorb the essence of a number of creatures in the game, some of which are obtained as part of the story, while others are obtained through level exploration.

Gear is not a huge focus of this game, but there is room to play around if you are looking to focus on a specific ability. You'll have the option to craft new gear sets, usually after a pivotal boss fight, and typically, the gear you craft has benefits for the ability you unlock for defeating the boss. For instance, defeating the Tiger in Chapter 2 will net you new gear that empowers the Rock Solid ability. The annoying thing I have found is that with the way each new gear set and ability is presented to you, you'll often feel like you have to switch to the newer gear due to the higher defensive rating, even if you have little need for the ability buff it provides. For instance, you'll obtain gear that buffs the Rock Solid spell shortly after unlocking it. This new gear set had higher defensive stats than my previous gear. However, I prefer using Cloud Step and had committed a number of resources into its upgrade tree, taking away the excitement from obtaining the new gear. I simply don't enjoy playing with Rock Solid as it doesn't fit with my shifty, speedy playstyle, but I didn't have any other high level gear that truly fit with my play style, creating a bit of a split between the way the game was guiding me to play and the way I actually wanted to play.

The good news is if you do prefer Rock Solid over Cloud Step, then you can respec your character at any time from a shrine, refunding all of your skill points to reassign. If you run into a boss that is giving you real trouble, then I would suggest going back to a shrine, playing around with some other abilities that might be more useful for the fight, practising a bit in the area before the boss and then going back in for the battle.

While I do love the combat in Black Myth: Wukong and the many, many boss fights, some of which are secret bosses that take a little extra effort to unlock, there are some issues. At launch, the camera can occasionally get stuck in awkward positions, particularly against large bosses, and sometimes you'll see hits not landing on bosses properly, seemingly due to hitboxes that don't quite match the visual representation of the boss. For me, this was particularly noticeable with one large, but skinny boss early on in Chapter 3. This will no doubt be cleaned up in future patches, but it is far from game breaking and the fights rarely have truly ‘unfair' moments.

PC Performance and Visuals:

Touching on PC performance and graphics, I have played the game both natively on my gaming PC, equipped with an RTX 4080 graphics card and Ryzen 9 5900X CPU, as well as on my Steam Deck via GeForce Now Ultimate, Nvidia's cloud gaming service powered by RTX 4080 GPUs. On my main PC, I run the game with the Cinematic graphics preset, DLSS 3 with Frame Generation ON, and Ray-Tracing turned all the way up. With these settings, I can easily run the game above 60FPS, usually around the 90FPS mark. However, in some later areas of the game, I have encountered a few more frame drops and stutters, so it can dip. Fortunately, as this is an Unreal Engine 5 game with support for Lumen lighting, you can switch off ray-tracing and still have a similar lighting effect driven through software. This will save you a ton of performance as ray-tracing effects are expensive to run, even on today's high-end hardware. I would recommend switching off ray-tracing if you have issues with DLSS 3 Frame Generation. I personally always use DLSS whenever its available and have become very used to it and rarely have issues with latency, although I'll occasionally spot the odd visual issue. However, others swear against Frame Generation and its latency effect. Unfortunately, Frame Generation is the only way to get this game running above 60FPS with ray-tracing ramped up.

Speaking of odd visual issues, I will say that sometimes with DLSS 3, the fog in this game can display pixelated artifacts from time to time and you'll also notice shimmering on Wukong's hair. This isn't noticeable in the heat of battle, but if you are standing still to scope out an area and turn the camera, it becomes very noticeable. I'm hoping this is something that can be improved in later patches, as this is not an entirely uncommon issue with DLSS-supported games and has been fixed in many other titles.

The game itself looks incredible. It is a true graphical showcase and looks fantastic on PC with all of the visual eye-candy turned up. Even at lower graphics presets, the game still looks great and there is a level of scalability here that means you can turn settings all the way down to run natively on a Steam Deck at 30FPS. With that in mind, even if you don't have the most up to date hardware, as long as you've put together your gaming PC sometime since 2016, you should be able to find a combination of graphics settings that works well for you.

I have also been highly impressed by how well the game runs via GeForce Now. Using the Linux beta version of GFN on my Steam Deck, I had the game set to Cinematic settings with RT and Frame Generation OFF, and the game capped at 60FPS to match the refresh rate of the Steam Deck display, as the Steam Deck does not have Variable Refresh Rate. My reasoning behind switching RT off here is simply due to the resolution and screen size of the Deck display – if I were playing on GeForce Now with a larger, higher-resolution display, then I would have played with RT switched on and it would have worked perfectly fine, as it does when streaming Cyberpunk 2077 on the Psycho preset. While I have had trouble with cloud gaming on certain devices, like a phone or tablet, on the Steam Deck, GeForce Now runs as perfectly as it does on my PC. The service has made great strides since I first began testing GeForce Cloud Gaming a decade ago. Nowadays, latency and control issues have been ironed out entirely and the visual presentation of the game displays no artifacts. At this point, GeForce Now Ultimate is so close to playing a natively installed game that I question if any of us should be spending thousands on our own gaming PCs nowadays, on top of the electricity cost for running high-end PC hardware.

With the game capped at 60FPS on the Steam Deck, you eliminate many instances of frame drops and get a very smooth experience, the kind of rock-solid performance that we typically associate with console games, but streamed over the cloud, without cooking your Steam Deck APU. I don't have the greatest WiFi in the world either, while I do get Gigabit speeds over Ethernet, my standard Virgin Media WiFi access points only manage around 20% of that speed, which is more than enough to stream a game nowadays. I don't know how Nvidia has done it, but many of the issues I have with other cloud services just aren't present here with GeForce Now Ultimate.

Should you buy Black Myth: Wukong?

Black Myth: Wukong is an exceptionally well-crafted game for a newer game studio like Game Science. There are some bugs here and there, but I haven't encountered anything game breaking, nor have I had the game crash on me in my 25ish hours of playtime so far. If you are highly skilled at action games, then you may be able to breeze through the story, but if you are more like me and spend a lot of time gaming across different genres, then you will find a good level of challenge here and you will get that same feeling of triumph and relief when finally toppling a major boss. Don't be afraid to go back to an area and grind a little if you are struggling. Sometimes, a few extra skill points can make all the difference. Speaking of grinding, the game is very respectful of the player's time, with level-ups being easy to obtain and you won't lose any XP upon death.

If you were expecting a really tough Souls-like game, you may be disappointed with Black Myth: Wukong as while it shares some similarities with those types of games, it is far more of a story-driven cinematic title. It doesn't have the same level of exploration as something like Elden Ring, as it has far more linear pathways in its level design, but you will want to look around in each level as there are secrets to discover, including easy to miss upgrades and special items and the occasional side-quest. Each area of the game also has its own secret boss and unlocking it will require that you explore each area thoroughly. It can be frustrating at times, as the game is so visually dense that spotting some pathways can be difficult and you'll often mistake pieces of the environment as pathways only to hit an invisible wall.

If you can look past that and simply want a fun new game to play with an interesting premise based in Asian mythology, and some of the coolest boss fights ever made, you should absolutely pick this game up. It is very beginner-friendly for an action game, just pay attention, make good use of all your abilities – even outside of boss fights, and if you have to, take fights slow so you can get comfortable with when to back away and create distance, and when to go ham on the combos. Finishing the game will likely take over 30 hours, but a veteran of the melee-action genre will be able to cut that down considerably by simply avoiding death and restarts.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Have any of you picked up Black Myth: Wukong already? What do you think of the game so far?

In response to the success of the most recent multiplatform title to miss launching on Xbox due to the Series S – Black Myth: Wukong – Del Walker, a video game artist who has worked across the industry (including at Naughty Dog; Rocksteady and Respawn Entertainment) had this to say:

“I wish the Series S never existed, man. So annoying to optimize for that console – I expect we'll unfortunately see more game launches get skipped by Xbox in the future,” adding that “I just DO NOT like having to optimize current gen games for that console and I wish it never existed. Xbox Series X is an amazing piece of hardware though; fantastic console.”

Offering a bit more on the specifics, Walker added, “I wish people understood it's NOT about the game. It's just annoying to make a high end game with complex Ai, VFX, Advanced Physics, Multi-threading Optimization, Particle Systems, Dynamic Memory Demands, etc etc then chop all that out so it also plays the SAME on an Xbox S.”

As mentioned, quite a few games now have either skipped the Xbox or arrived later due to the Series S, with the most notable being Baldur’s Gate 3 and the aforementioned Black Myth: Wukong.

While the Xbox Series S may have seemed like a good idea at the time, it appears as though the system has run into quite a few unintended issues.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of the Series S? Is it holding the generation back? Let us know down below.

According to Wccftech, many separate parties claimed during Gamescom that the PlayStation 5 Pro is indeed real and will likely be unveiled soon, with the Italian website ‘Multiplayer’ revealing claims from one dev that their team had delayed their game due to the upcoming launch of the PS5 Pro – a sentiment echoed by another separate dev team.

In total, it seems a bunch of different developers of different sizes all confirmed to different publications that they were either aware of or are currently working with the PS5 Pro – all-but-confirming its imminent announcement.

Of course, the existence of the PS5 Pro was evident, with the likes of Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky having already gotten a secret PS5 Pro graphics setting.

With so much talk surrounding the PS5 Pro, its announcement has to be mere months – if not weeks – away. We will have to wait and see.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of all the PS5 Pro talk? Are you at all interested in the console? When do you think it’ll be officially unveiled? Let us know down below.

Back in March, Steam reached a new record of current users, with over 36.3 million players online all at once. As has been the case for a while now, the total number of concurrents has continued to steadily rise – reaching yet another record of 36.9 million back in June.

Once again, the service has now outdone itself, reaching a total of 37 million concurrent users for the first time ever (37,266,324 to be specific according to SteamDB).

Of course, peak concurrents is just one way to observe Steam’s success. That said, when looking at average monthly player counts, the service is no slouch either, with nearly 27 million players on average over the past 30 days.

Being able to publicly see just how much Steam is continuing to grow more than a decade on from its launch is interesting for multiple reasons – including pure curiosity. It likely won’t be long before the platform hits 40 million concurrents.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: Were you using Steam during its peak yesterday? What game were you playing? How long do you think it’ll take to hit 40 million? Let us know down below.

The upcoming Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster represents first appearance of the IP since 2016’s Dead Rising 4, with Capcom claiming that this marks just the beginning of their revitalisation of older franchises, saying in an interview with IGN:

“Capcom would like to continue to bring back many of its IPs” adding that “In hopes of expanding upon the Dead Rising series in the future, we’d first like to put effort into promoting Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster and share its appeal with fans around the world.”

Just some of Capcom’s various properties which have not seen a proper new entry in a while include Onimusha; Dino Crisis; Marvel vs Capcom; Mega Man’s many spin-offs and Bionic Commando – to name a few.

It’ll be interesting to see which franchises Capcom decides are worth another go. We will have to wait and see. The full interview can be found HERE.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Capcom currently? Are they playing it safe with their current IP output? What dormant/dead Capcom series would you like to see revived? Let us know down below.

Back when Bethesda began really showcasing Starfield, it made statements that it chose to limit the game to 30FPS in order to dial things up on the graphics/visuals front. Then months after launch, Bethesda changed its mind and added a 60FPS mode, a mode that has very little impact on the visual presentation of the game but makes a huge impact in playability and responsiveness.

Now, Obsidian Art Director, Matt Hansen, has echoed similar statements on the Iron Lords podcast, stating that the team was “targeting 30 frames per second” from an early stage, adding that “you don't necessarily need 60 frames” for a “first-person , single-player” game. According to Hansen, the frame rate sacrifice allowed the team to “get a lot juicer with VFX and lighting”.

I would argue that single-player games benefit from higher frame rates just as much as multiplayer games. I would also make the argument that the higher frame rate is almost imperative for a first-person game, more so than a third-person title, as you have a smaller field of view.

For now, it appears that Avowed will only offer a 30FPS mode at launch. However, as we saw with Redfall and Starfield, that could very well change within the first year of release. Those of us playing on PC should be able to play the game without any frame rate cap at all.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: For many, 30FPS is an unacceptable level of performance due to factors like jitter/stutter and the direct impact it has over the feel of the game. Sure, you can get the frame pacing smoothed out, but 30FPS is always going to feel worse than 60FPS and I don't think there is a single example in all of videogames where a game felt smoother and more responsive at a lower frame rate. 

Making the announcement on their blog, the team at Asobo Studios unveiled the latest World Update, saying:

“Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, collectively known as DACH (Deutschland, Austria, Confoederatio Helvetica), offer an incredibly diverse array of landscapes and architecture to explore. Highlights include the Swiss Alps, mountain lakes, expansive forests, historic castles and cathedrals, and modern architectural feats. The Microsoft Flight Simulator team partnered with Bing Maps, Vexcel Imaging, Maxar Technologies, Gaya Simulations, and Orbx Simulation Systems to bring these countries to the Microsoft Flight Simulator world in all-new ways.”

The update is a rather meaty one, bringing with it a revamp of 10 cities (Linz, Salzburg, and Vienna in Austria; Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Hanau, Karow, and Potsdam in Germany as well as Bern and Zurich in Switzerland) – with the remainder of region also getting a welcome albeit smaller boost in visuals.

Beyond this, the update includes 116 new points of interest (42 in Germany, 38 in Austria, and 36 in Switzerland) as well as 3 new handcrafted airports: Austria’s Salzburg Airport (LOWS), Germany’s Munich Airport (EDDM), and Bern Airport (LSZB) in Switzerland.

Last but not least, the update brings with it 9 additional activities in the form of three discovery flights, three landing challenges, and three bush trips. Microsoft Flight Simulator World Update XVII is available right now.

KitGuru says: What do you think of MSFS’ post-launch support? Are you excited for MSFS 2024? What cities/countries are still needing an overhaul? Let us know your thoughts down below.

In going to Steamdb, it can be seen that Tales of Kenzera: ZAU recently received a small update which “Removed 3rd-Party DRM – Denuvo Anti-tamper.”

Considering the fact that the game just released a few months ago back in April, EA removing DENUVO from Tales of Kenzera: ZAU relatively early is a welcome move.

For the uninitiated, major video game releases are typically front loaded sales-wise, with a large portion of the game’s revenue being amassed from pre-orders and day-one sales – leading publishers to feel as though they need to protect these early sales through DRM such as DENUVO.

DENUVO in particular has historically been the cause of many issues, both performance and graphics related and so its removal only serves to benefit the gaming experience overall.

That said, despite being published by EA, Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is a small project from a small team, and so the inclusion of DENUVO at all was a curious one. Still, its removal is more than welcome.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Tales of Kenzera: ZAU? Why do you think EA bothered with DRM? Does DRM in games affect you? Let us know down below.

Making the announcement via an official reveal trailer, the team at Striking Distance Studios officially unveiled project Birdseye as [REDACTED]: “A fast-action isometric roguelike [in which] a shadowy agent watches Black Iron Prison spiral into chaos. As one of the last guards, fight through monsters, rivals, and reanimated corpses of your fellow guards to escape the penitentiary alive.”

For the uninitiated, Black Iron is described as “a state-of-the-art penitentiary located on Jupiter’s icy moon Callisto” which has been overrun by infected inmates. Of course, fans of the studio’s prior work will be familiar with the setting, as [REDACTED] appears to be set in the same world as The Callisto Protocol.

There is still much to learn about the game, but luckily, those waiting won’t have to do so for long, as the game is set to launch on the 31st of October – just in time for Halloween.

KitGuru says: What do you think of the trailer? Are you interested in [REDACTED]? Did Striking Distance Studios punch too far above their weight with the first game? Let us know down below.

Making the announcement on Twitter, the official Steam Deck page shared the following:

“Good morning! We’ve just shipped a new feature on Steam that shows when a customer review was written by someone who played primarily on Steam Deck. Keep an eye out for the Deck icon to see how these players reviewed the game, and let us know what you think!”

With the increase in adoption of the Steam Deck it makes a great deal of sense for Deck users to be highlighted as such in reviews – especially as it allows for a more informed purchase. Hopefully Valve continues to cook at this current pace.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this latest feature? Will you find it useful? What’s been your favourite new change to Steam this year so far? Let us know down below.

While Gearbox announced that it was working on Borderlands 4 quite some time ago, this is the first time we've had anything substantial to look at. The minute-and-a-half trailer shows off Lilith's firehawk symbol, before a meteor shower reigns down on an unnamed planet.

The trailer gives off a more realistic art style compared to the comic-bookish graphics found in the previous games. Whether or not this is a hint at a more grounded take on the Borderlands universe still remains to be seen.

We'll see much more of Borderlands 4 next year, as the game is slated to release in 2025 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: At this point, I think I'm done with the Borderlands series unless this new instalment can genuinely bring something fresh and new to the table. Are you looking forward to Borderlands 4? Are you invested in the story at all, or do you just enjoy the gameplay?

At Gamescom this week, the Batman: Arkham Shadow gameplay trailer finally dropped. While the game was announced months ago with a teaser image, this is our first look at the game in action:

As the trailer shows, we'll be using various gadgets, mixed with hand-to-hand combat to take down enemies on our search for Gotham's Rat King and his cult. As this is a VR game, motion controls are going to be heavily relied on here, so if you don't have much space to play, you'll want to be extra careful to avoid punching a wall, or a TV.

For now, Batman: Arkham Shadow is an exclusive for the Quest 3 VR headset, but we'll keep our fingers crossed for a wider release that includes more PC VR platforms and headsets in the future.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: My Quest 3 has sat in a cupboard for months so it will be nice to finally have a reason to jump back into VR. However, I'll be waiting to see the full scope of the game relative to its price first, especially after Batman: Arkham VR turned out to be nothing more than a tech demo. 

Mafia: The Old Country is a prequel, set years before the events of the first game. This is essentially an origin story, exploring the earliest days of organised crime mobs in Italy.

While the announcement trailer is very short, it is accompanied by a written description that teases the game a bit further:

“Uncover the origins of organized crime in Mafia: The Old Country, a gritty mob story set in the brutal underworld of 1900s Sicily. Fight to survive in this dangerous and unforgiving era, with action brought to life by the authentic realism and rich storytelling that the critically acclaimed Mafia series is known for.”

Mafia: The Old Country will return in December 2024, likely as part of The Game Awards, for a ‘closer look'. Developed with Unreal Engine 5, the game is currently planned to be released in 2025.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While I didn't enjoy Mafia 3 much, I am very excited to see a new game in the series with a fresh setting. Are you looking forward to this prequel, or are you holding off for a true Mafia 4?

After titles like Halo Infinite and Starfield failed to move the needle for Xbox hardware sales this generation, Microsoft has been exploring a new multi-platform strategy. This kicked off earlier this year, with the release of Sea of Thieves, Hi-Fi Rush, Grounded and Pentiment on PS5. Now, the strategy is extending to some of Microsoft's bigger titles, starting with Indiana Jones.

During the Xbox @ Gamescom broadcast this week, Phil Spencer brought up the multiplatform situation, saying: “We run a business, and that's definitely true inside of Microsoft. The bar is high for us in terms of the delivery we have to give back to the company, because we get a level of support from the company”.

Reading between the lines, it seems that at this stage, Microsoft has invested so much money into Xbox through studio acquisitions, that it needs to begin delivering on that investment. As Xbox consoles aren't exactly booming, they need to find those customers elsewhere, which means we will see more Xbox games on PS5.

This is very in-line with the policies put into place by Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, back when he first took over the company. Microsoft doubled down on software and ditched hardware projects like Windows Phone, instead choosing to supply software and services on platforms like Android and iOS to ‘meet customers where they are'. A similar trend is now happening with Xbox. Tens of billions of dollars have been funnelled into Microsoft's gaming division over the past five years, and that comes with the expectation of sales growth, even if it means sacrifices.

Phil Spencer added that “there's a lot of pressure on the industry” right now, so he expects other publishers to begin changing up  “some of the traditional ways that games are built and distributed”.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Do you think Xbox consoles have much of a future, or do you think Xbox will transition into being a games publishing force after this current generation?