PlayStation Plus is a necessity for most PS4 players these days. The premium membership is the only way to enjoy online multiplayer for many games, and it also grants subscribers access to exclusive discounts and two free PS4 games every month. While its regular price tag isn't exactly cheap--a yearlong membership sells for $60--a limited-time deal at Newegg will let you snag 12 months of PS Plus for only $43. Whether you're looking to renew, extend your membership, or try out PS Plus for the first time, this is an excellent opportunity to do so.To claim the deal, just head over to Newegg. The listing still says $60, but just add the membership to your cart. During checkout, apply promo code EMCTEUT29 to see the $17 slashed off the price. You'll receive your new PS Plus code via email. As a reminder, you can stack PS Plus memberships if you'd like to extend your current subscription at a discount, but there's a limit of two codes per customer for this deal. This particular offer ends Monday, September 16.Get 12 months of PS Plus for $43 at NeweggThis month's PS Plus free games are Batman: Arkham Knight and Darksiders III. PlayStation Plus members can claim both games free from the PlayStation Store now through September 30. In the meantime, be sure to check out more of the best PS4 deals available this month, including a PS4 Pro bundle with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and For Honor: Marching Fire Edition for $400.Info from Gamespot.com

Apple's September keynote revealed a wealth of new details about the company's upcoming gaming subscription service, Apple Arcade. During the presentation, Apple announced Arcade's pricing and showed off a couple of titles coming exclusively to the service, and we learned of a few others in a press release following the event--including one from Square Enix.The publisher is releasing a new RPG on Apple Arcade called Various Daylife. Perhaps unsurprisingly given its strange title, the game is developed by the team behind Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler. Few details were revealed about the game, but here is the synopsis from Apple's press release:"Various Daylife, from Square Enix, is a brand-new RPG from the creators of Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler. In the year 211 of the Imperial Era, players explore a newly discovered continent while living life to the fullest in the city of Erebia."Square Enix's new game Various DaylifeWe don't know much else about the game beyond that, but the press release also includes a screenshot of the game, which shows off what appears to be a traditional turn-based battle against a pack of wolf-like monsters. You can take a look at the screenshot above.Apple Arcade launches later this month, on September 19. The service will cost $5 per month, but you'll be able to try out one month for free. With the service, you'll get unlimited access to more than 100 exclusive games, with additional titles joining the catalog every month, including new entries in a number of beloved series such as Shantae and the Seven Sirens, ChuChu Rocket Universe, and Exit the Gungeon. You can see all the confirmed games for Apple Arcade so far in our gallery.A ton of other news came out from this month's Apple keynote, including the reveal of the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro. You can catch up on all the biggest announcements from the presentation below. Apple Event News Apple iPhone 11 And 11 Pro Details And Prices Revealed Apple Arcade Price, Release Date Revealed Apple iPad 7th Generation Announced Apple TV+ Price And Release Date Revealed Every Game Confirmed For Apple Arcade So Far Info from Gamespot.com

EA has announced that Respawn's Titanfall-themed battle royale game, Apex Legends, is getting two physical editions. One is themed after Bloodhound and the other after Lifeline, and both include exclusive content.The Apex Legends Bloodhound Edition is themed after the devil, including a legendary skin for the recon character, called The Intimidator, that makes them look like a demon. The edition includes a demon-themed banner for Bloodhound that's called Feeling Impish, a legendary Wrath Bringer skin for the Prowler submachine gun, and the Tormentor badge. If you're feeling a bit more angelic, you can instead get the Apex Legends Lifeline Edition. This version includes a legendary skin for Lifeline called Guardian Angel (which looks really cool), a legendary Chooser of the Slain skin for the Flatline assault rifle, and a Lifeline Winged Guardian banner and Angel Struck badge.Both physical versions of Apex Legends also include 1,000 Apex Coins--one of the three in-game currencies. Apex Coins can be used to buy a variety of items, though their main purpose is the purchase of new Legends if you don't have enough Legend Tokens. The starting roster of Apex Legends only includes six characters. You need to purchase Caustic, Mirage, Octane, and Wattson--each of which cost 750 Apex Coins / 12,000 Legend Tokens. Apex Coins can also be used to purchase loot boxes (100 each), the seasonal battle pass (950 each season), battle pass levels (150 each), or items from the in-game store.Apex Legends Bloodhound Edition and Lifeline Edition each go for $20. You can buy the physical version of the game for Xbox One, PS4, or PC. With the exception of the Apex Coins, all of the content in each physical edition is exclusive to their respective versions, so if you want those awesome-looking legendary skins you'll need to buy a physical copy of Apex Legends. The physical editions are scheduled to release on October 18, which is probably around the time Apex Legends Season 3 begins--and likely when the hacker Crypto and anti-Titan Charge Rifle are added to the battle royale game.In GameSpot's Apex Legends review, Phil Hornshaw wrote, "Apex Legends is a mix of smart shooter ideas that makes for a competitive, team-based game that gets at all the best parts of battle royale while addressing a lot of the weaknesses. Respawn's intense focus on team play makes Apex more than just a worthy addition to the genre; it's an indicator of where battle royale should go in the future."Info from Gamespot.com

Even the most mundane, everyday things can seem full of mystery and adventure when you're a kid. Especially when you have a like-minded friend to bounce ideas off and encourage your flights of fancy. Knights & Bikes channels this familiar childhood experience in a knock-about co-operative (but you can still play it solo) adventure that remains endlessly charming even when its core mechanics don't join in the fun.Nessa is a stowaway on a boat that's just docked at the holiday island home of Demelza. Quickly, the two girls meet and, in that way only children can do, become firm friends almost instantly. Nessa is slightly older and seemingly orphaned; Demelza lives in the island's caravan park run by her single dad, who is struggling to keep the business afloat. The pair seize the opportunity to escape into each other's imaginations, setting off on a grand adventure to recover the island's legendary buried treasure and, Demelza hopes, use it to reverse her father's financial misfortune. The girls may have a treasure map to guide them, but things aren't quite so straightforward as realizing X marks the spot. Getting around town is a challenge. Nessa and Demelza can run--and if you hold down the run button they'll do that thing kids do where they spread their arms like wings and yell "Vrrrrrrrmmmm!" like they're a plane arcing through the air--but it's often not entirely clear where they ought to be running to. Luckily, Demelza's pet goose, Honkers, has a good nose for direction and will run off in the right direction, honking his little heart out if the girls fall behind. Oh, and don't worry, you can absolutely pet the goose.Early on Nessa and Demelza procure the eponymous bikes which allow them to zip around the island much faster than on foot. The bikes can be upgraded, too, with all kinds of handlebar grips, paint jobs, spoke decorations, and so on. All of these are purely cosmetic, save for one--a particular set of wheels that lets the girls traverse pools of mud that would otherwise be blocking their progress. Cycling around the island is hugely entertaining in itself, not because it's especially interesting to navigate the many crisscrossing paths connecting the handful of major points of interest, but because the presentation does such a great job of capturing the carefree abandon these girls are feeling. You mash to pedal and build up momentum then hold down the button for a short burst of extra speed, all the while the girls are hooting and howling and, it must be said, not necessarily obeying strict road safety procedures.Their adventure takes them from the caravan park to a mini golf course that doubles as the site of some historical battle to a maze-like scrapyard that transforms into a terrifying dungeon with seemingly no way out; to a hiking trail through the woods that twists and turns back in on itself in the manner of other more famous Lost Woods. Every step of the way the girls imbue the world with unwarranted but understandable wonder. The history book the local librarian is reading is obviously full of clues to the whereabouts of the treasure. That old man with a beard is very probably a wizard. And, clearly, every stroke of misfortune they encounter is a sign of the horrible curse afflicting the island. It's all great fun. The (probably) consensual hallucinations of the two girls are for the most part light and breezy and carry them headlong into one thrilling scrape after another. Their humour is infectious and their bonds of friendship, forged so fast in the fire of fantasy, are never in doubt. They're both such superbly written characters, flinging one-liners at each other and building upon the other's latest witty invention. And they're vividly expressive, each new close-up of their comically contorted faces frozen in shock, disgust, awe or sly realization will never fail to bring a smile to your lips.Where Knights & Bikes falters is in the moment to moment, the rote combat and light puzzling that knits together its seat-of-the-pants dash through childhood curiosity. Each girl finds three pieces of gear over the course of the game and these are used to both fend off enemies and negotiate numerous environmental puzzles. Nessa's water bombs, for example, can be thrown to deal damage to enemies, extinguish fires (and do extra damage to fire-based enemies) and, when splatted into a puddle on the ground, conduct electricity.But combat is mostly trivial. Enemies aren't especially hard to defeat and the girls can heal each other (via a cute high-five) as long as they have enough of the bandages that drop in consistently plentiful amounts. Combat has the same knock-about energy that infuses the rest of the game, so it's sort of fun to button-mash your way through. But it's never interesting enough to look forward to. The puzzles fare slightly better. There were a few occasions where I had to pause for a minute to think about what I needed to do next to progress. And I always enjoyed watching the next nonsensical triggered event play out after solving a puzzle even if I wasn't always sure what I was trying to accomplish. Most of the time I just chuckled and wondered what was going to happen next.Remarkably, for a game clearly designed for two-player cooperative play (locally or online), it works well when played solo. Here, you can switch between the two girls whenever you wish and the capable AI will assume control of the other. In combat, the AI controlled girl will use her abilities effectively and, even more impressively, when required to help solve a puzzle she'll smartly move to the right spot and perform whatever is necessary. Even if you don't have a co-op partner, you're not really missing out on much.Knights & Bikes was created by a small team featuring several people who worked on LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway, and you can feel that all these games share a similar creative vision. There's a kind of wide-eyed, rough and tumble spirit of adventure running through all three games that is hard to resist. Knights & Bikes is a wonderfully warm, effortlessly inviting experience that'll make you feel young again. Info from Gamespot.com

During Apple's September showcase, the company announced the price and release date details for Apple Arcade. It also took some time to show off a handful of games coming to the subscription service. But curiously, the company left a lot more unmentioned, including some in big franchises and from notable publishers.During the keynote, the company gave stage time to Frogger, Shinsekai Into The Depths, and Sayonara Wild Hearts from Konami, Capcom, and Annapurna, respectively. But then, a press release accompanying the keynote rattled off an additional 11 games that were nowhere to be seen during the presentation. Those include a new Chu-Chu Rocket puzzle game, a follow-up to Enter the Gungeon, another Shantae from WayForward, and a new game from the Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler team at Square Enix. You can see the full list with official descriptions below. Apple Event News Apple iPhone 11 And 11 Pro Details And Prices Revealed Apple Arcade Price, Release Date Revealed Apple iPad 7th Generation Announced Apple TV+ Price And Release Date Revealed Every Game Confirmed For Apple Arcade So Far It's not clear how Apple chose which games to highlight. The company may have chosen games that it felt would appeal to a wide audience tuning in for more general Apple hardware news. Still, the company devoted almost twice as much time to the iPhone 11 Pro camera alone, so it's a puzzling choice not to show a larger chunk of the Apple Arcade lineup.Apple Arcade is launching on September 19, and will cost $5 for a family plan. You can also sign up for a free trial month to test out the service.Ballistic Baseball from Gameloft, is an action-packed arcade baseball game that captures the intense battle between pitcher and batter in live head-to-head multiplayer matches.ChuChu Rocket! Universe explodes as Sega launches the beloved ChuChus into a universe of strange and wonderful planets with over 100 mind-bending puzzles.In Exit the Gungeon from Devolver, players must escape a collapsing hell dungeon as increasingly perilous obstacles and opponents stand in their way.Pac-Man Party Royale from Bandai Namco, is a brand-new arcade experience featuring a four-player Battle Mode where the last PAC-MAN standing winsIn Rayman Mini from Ubisoft, Rayman has been reduced to the size of an ant! Players use insects, mushrooms and plants to run through the world as quickly as possible or try over and over again to achieve the perfect score.In Shantae and the Seven Sirens from WayForward, players explore a vast sunken city and battle the Seven Sirens in the Half-Genie’s most thrilling adventure yet.Skate City from Snowman brings the heart and soul of street skating to life with multi-touch controls as city streets become the ultimate skater playground.Steven Universe: Unleash the Light, is an original Cartoon Network game, co-written by Rebecca Sugar, where players pick their favorite characters, choose which Gems are in their party, unlock awesome new abilities and equip alternate costumes in the ultimate mobile role-playing game (RPG).Super Impossible Road from Rogue Games, is a futuristic, high-speed racing game where players master hairpin turns on courses that twist and coil over beautiful galactic backdrops.In The Enchanted World from Noodlecake, players help a young fairy piece together a magical world torn apart by dark forces.Various Daylife from Square Enix, is a brand-new RPG from the creators of “Bravely Default” and “Octopath Traveler.” In the year 211 of the Imperial Era, players explore a newly discovered continent while living life to the fullest in the city of Erebia.Info from Gamespot.com

Borderlands 3 was first announced in April of this year, and now we're just days from its official release date: September 13. The new first-person shooter from Gearbox Software will launch on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, with the latter version exclusive to the Epic Games Store until April 2020.If you can't wait to get your hands on Borderlands 3 this weekend, here's a way to save yourself some money if you're purchasing for PS4 or Xbox One. According to deals site Cheap Ass Gamer, Walmart stores will be selling Borderlands 3 for $49.94 rather than $60 on release, a growing trend we've seen with other recent games like Astral Chain and Fire Emblem: Three Houses. You'll have to physically go to your nearest Walmart store to take advantage of this offer; it doesn't appear to be available online.Pre-Order: Borderlands 3 (PS4/X1) & $10 Amazon Credit $59.99 via Amazon (Prime Eligible). Game Will Also be $49.94 On Release Day via Wal-Mart. https://t.co/GQ7m1qAQVc pic.twitter.com/OJPIQpJ6E6 — Cheap Ass Gamer (@videogamedeals) September 8, 2019Alternatively, Amazon and Best Buy shoppers can get $10 reward credit if they pre-order Borderlands 3. At Amazon, this offer is exclusive to Prime members, while Best Buy's deal is available to My Best Buy members (you can sign up for free). Borderlands 3's other pre-order bonuses include a gold weapon trinket and gold weapon skins for all guns in the game. You can read more about the game's various editions and what they contain in our Borderlands 3 pre-order guide.See Borderlands 3 at AmazonSee Borderlands 3 at Best BuyThe game earned an 8/10 in our Borderlands 3 review for its unique enemies and environments, new Vault Hunters bringing a variety of playstyles, and strategic weapon builds, although GameSpot's Jordan Ramée did take issue with the game's bullet-sponge bosses and disappointing villains. "Borderlands 3 has a few stumbling blocks when it comes to bosses, but these fights are overshadowed by the game's rewarding gunplay and over-the-top humor," he wrote."The game's character-driven narrative acts as a satisfying finale for the loot-shooter franchise, and the new mechanics and features--especially the reworked skill trees and weapon manufacturer effects--give you plenty of agency in how you want to play through it. If you've never been a fan of the franchise, it's unlikely Borderlands 3 does enough things differently to change your mind, as the game best excels at continuing what the series has always done: deliver a humorous tall tale of misfits looting and shooting their way to heroism."Info from Gamespot.com

Monster Hunter World's first paid expansion, Iceborne, is now available on PS4 and Xbox One. Our review has now been finalized after a brief stint as a review in progress. For more, check out our Iceborne tips guide.Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is more of the same, glorious slog for everyone who's ever been taken down by a fire-breathing facsimile of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and thought, "I can't wait to do that 50 times over." The franchise has always rewarded those willing to put in the hard yards, and Iceborne is no exception. It adds more of what set the base game aside from its predecessors without feeling overcrowded, even if its narrative could have used a little more work.Monster Hunter World was an exercise in refinement upon its release in early 2018. Not only did it manage to simplify a franchise-wide burgeoning quest system, but it also had a very successful stab at creating an open-world ecosystem absolutely teeming with things to do and colossal monsters who want to hunt you. Best of all, these changes never overwhelmed--the new mission and upgrade systems that were introduced were relatively straightforward to grasp, all whilst leaving room for experienced hunters to master them.Screenshot provided by CapcomSince the game’s launch, the game has seen a steady drip-feed of DLC content in the form of in-game events. Many of these follow the formula of transplanting something fearsome into an already familiar environment--the Witcher 3 crossover saw a Leshenn loom large in the Ancient Forest, and the Final Fantasy XIV collaboration had you running for cover when Behemoth reared its head. The design philosophy behind Monster Hunter World: Iceborne takes a similar approach in implementing that sort of content, though on a larger scale; it uses touchstones in the form of storied foes and familiar locations to build upon the robust ecosystem of the base game to deliver an experience that will test your mettle without breaking you.Iceborne is all about building on existing foundations. This is most evident in the narrative that has been spun out in the wake of the base game’s single-player campaign. Monster Hunter World was notable for introducing a clear-cut, story-based incentive to throw yourself against the biggest and baddest beasts out there. Iceborne takes a slightly crooked step forward by spinning a story that revolves not around you, but around your Handler.Shortly after the successes of dealing with the base game’s Elder Dragon predicament, a mass migration event shakes the recovering ecosystem of Astera and prompts you to investigate. What comes next is a tale of family legacies, mysterious scales, and your Handler embarking on her own personal quest. To shift the focus of a story from the protagonist to what is essentially a side character is a bold one--for all the aid and assistance that the Handler gives in Monster Hunter World, she’s still fundamentally a living, breathing quest board. Monster Hunter World players will no doubt have become attached to her over the course of their travels, but is that attachment is deep enough to shoulder a full expansion’s narrative conceit? Not quite.Screenshot provided by CapcomAs soon as you’re introduced to the latest curveball about Iceborne’s new signature location, Hoarfrost Reach, and how that intersects rather conveniently with your Handler’s past, you’re immediately whisked back to lands and territories from the base game to cull a couple of monsters that have gotten too big for their boots. It’s not exactly narrative whiplash, but it’s certainly not as compelling as it would have been had we been the ones to follow the Handler from the first step of her journey to the new lands of Iceborne.That said, revisiting those familiar locations early on to take down new and improved versions of killer dinosaurs that you’ve faced before is one of the most compelling parts of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. As with the DLC strategy, the building blocks of the expansion are steeped in elements that existing players are already acquainted with. You’ll cut your teeth on monsters like the Nightshade Paolumu--a variant on the oversized flying squirrel encountered early on in the base game, though this time with the lethal ability to put unsuspecting hunters to sleep. The expansion arguably doesn’t open up until you’ve also vanquished the Viper Tobi-Kadachi--a souped-up version of its cousin from the Ancient Forest, albeit with poisonous projectiles and a bite that’s much more dangerous than its hiss.The changes that Iceborne makes in the form of these variant breeds has a twofold effect: First, they provide you with a motivation to form new strategies to slice and dice their way to the next story beat. Secondly, they’re just distinct enough in terms of attack patterns and additional elemental considerations that you never really feel like you’re just fighting a reskin of something that you made mincemeat out of 80 hours ago. It's as if there's been a concerted effort to balance the difficulty of what many fans might rightfully view as the second coming of the coveted “G-Rank” in this latest iteration of Monster Hunter.Screenshot provided by CapcomDespite some focus on iterating established systems, there are innovations introduced in Iceborne that truly set it apart from its predecessor. Brand-new monsters and the implementation of legacy series favourites like Nargacuga look and feel impressive thanks to all the new ways monsters can interact with other beasts and the various locations. But more importantly, there is a library’s worth of new weapon moves for you to take advantage of.Charge Axe users can now cancel into a particularly fun multi-directional attack when caught unawares, and Gunlance users no longer have to worry about running out of ammo in an emergency before getting to use their new signature move that is, quite literally, explosive. Hunting Horn users have also had their ability to do damage buffed, with the addition of a new move that lets you stick your horn in the ground and spin it like some kind of demented Beyblade to catch whatever’s charging towards you off guard. That’s just a few new examples, but overall these additions seem to be informed by the dual precepts of style and lethality.However, the biggest quality-of-life addition has been something called the Clutch Claw--every hunter can use this alongside their primary weapon to grapple onto their foe and, depending on what other sharp object is equipped, do anything from steering a rampaging wyvern into a rock face to weakening a specific part of its body that needs to be lopped off.Screenshot provided by CapcomUsing the Clutch Claw is by no means compulsory, so it fits in that nice niche where it can make your hunts a little bit easier or a little bit more exhilarating in equal turns. But you're not forced to use it to feel like you're getting your money’s worth if, say, you’re a veteran player trying to do your own version of Nuzlocke rules but with items. However, having the option and ability to scale up the side of a monster after landing a savvy shot with the Clutch Claw feels ridiculously satisfying, and so does driving a beast to its doom in the many treacherous terrain pitfalls that dot the newest, snow-covered region of Hoarfrost Reach.That new, frosty landscape is beautiful and treacherous in equal measure. With new foes, more verticality than the Coral Highlands, and frozen terrain that can crack and send you plunging to your death, it really is a sight to behold. More than ever, it feels like the environment can be turned against you; some monsters will uproot trees and throw them at you, while the wrong move on cracked ice can mean certain death.By that measure, however, there are also more opportunities to get the jump on your enemies, especially with the Clutch Claw giving you the ability to walk them into vine traps, blinding light, and more. Having a grasp of every bit of the map is integral to truly mastering what Iceborne has to throw at you, and it’s incredibly satisfying when everything suddenly clicks and you go from the hunted to the hunter leading their prey to a painful trap that attempts to even the scales.Screenshot provided by CapcomBeing dropped into this intricately-designed location as a relatively new player may be overwhelming, but no matter your experience level, joining up with other hunters and picking your way through this icy dens of beasts together is incredibly rewarding in its own way. Iceborne benefits from the matchmaking improvements introduced since the release of the base game, which have made it relatively seamless on console to find fellow hunters--no more messing about with PlayStation parties and friends lists--and dropping into a party to help friends tackle these fearsome monsters is easy.Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is at its best when you’re fighting tooth and nail against something that you know could crush you within its teeth in a second, even though this might feel like it came at the expense of a more interesting narrative. Nothing is quite as good as the biting chill cutting through the furs of your armor, the shrill cry of your Palico as it comes to your aid, and the wind roaring in your ears as you latch onto a beast’s flank and climb up its side while it bucks and roars.This expansion is rife with moments like that; all of the tweaking and the improvements feel like they were done with the excellent building blocks of Monster Hunter World in mind, which means that getting to the meat of the matter is quicker and more satisfying than ever. There’s no more fussing about with new systems or worrying about ruffling the feathers of hardcore fans with a direction change in the series; those teething problems have already come and gone. Iceborne is a confident step into the future of the franchise, and it's hard not to think about what might come next.Info from Gamespot.com

Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot arrives in a little over a month, but players will soon have a chance to try it out ahead of its release. Activision is hosting a Modern Warfare open beta beginning this week on PS4, and if you're eager to jump in, the beta client is now available to preload on Sony's console.The first Modern Warfare open beta session takes place on PS4 from September 14-16. However, if you've pre-ordered any edition of the game, you'll be able to access the beta early on September 12 and 13. If you pre-ordered the game digitally, you can now grab the beta client from the PlayStation Store and preload it ahead of the first session; if you reserved a physical copy, you'll receive a beta code via email. The client is a hefty download, weighing in at 27.52 GB.The next Modern Warfare beta session begins on September 19. On that date, Xbox One and PC players who've pre-ordered the game (in addition to all PS4 players, whether or not you've pre-ordered it) will be able to participate in the beta. Finally, on September 21, the beta will expand to all PS4, Xbox One, and PC players until September 23.The second beta session is notable because it gives players their first chance to try out cross-play in Modern Warfare. This year's Call of Duty game is one of a small (but growing) handful of titles that support the feature, allowing players to play with each other across PS4, Xbox One, and PC. You can read more details in our Modern Warfare beta roundup. You also have a chance to win a code for the beta in GameSpot's Modern Warfare beta giveaway.Call of Duty: Modern Warfare launches on October 25. Unlike last year's entry in the series, Black Ops 4, it will feature a traditional campaign; however, it probably won't have a battle royale mode. If you're interested in securing a copy, be sure to check out our Call of Duty: Modern Warfare pre-order guide.Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Beta DetailsPS4 Exclusive Beta DatesSeptember 12-23 (Early Access, PS4)September 14-16 (Open beta, PS4)Cross-Play Beta DatesSeptember 19-20 (Early access, PC and Xbox One; open beta, PS4)September 21-23 (Open beta, PS4, Xbox One, and PC)Info from Gamespot.com

The Creature has laid out a dozen traps, all of which can only be deactivated by the glowing ball carefully balanced on the tip of my sword. At a glance, I can tell it's going to take an impressive display of geometry to bounce the ball into every target before an approaching laser cuts me in half. The Creature threatens that a worthless piece of trash like me has no place in its mountain before it disappears back into the shadows with a haughty growl, convinced that at least one of its pinball death machines will stop me. Unfortunately for me, this time around, it's right, and the Creature smugly returns to pick my limp body off the floor and throw it out of its well. After muttering a few curses under my breath, I pick myself up, restructure my loadout, and head back into the monster's home.In Creature in the Well, you play as BOT-C, a robotic engineer tasked with maintaining a weather machine that's built into a mountain and designed to dispel the constant sandstorms that blanket the town of Mirage. Angry at the townsfolk for encroaching on its home and "worshiping" a machine for protection against the storms, the Creature that lives in the town well breaks the contraption. You set out to undo the damage only to learn that the Creature has filled the caverns of its home with deadly traps to stop you.Developer Flight School Studio refers to Creature in the Well as a "pinbrawler," a term coined by the studio to describe a top-down hack-and-slash dungeon crawler that utilizes pinball-inspired mechanics. It just so happens that the Creature's traps transform every room in the mountain into a giant pinball machine, allowing you to siphon energy from the bumper-like nodes that power the Creature's inventions by flipping balls into them. The energy you absorb can be used to unlock doors that lead further into the mountain.This fairly straightforward concept of hitting balls into bumpers evolves into more difficult puzzles as you delve into the areas beyond the first dungeon. Additional concepts are introduced at a steady pace, building new types of enjoyable challenges on what the game has already established so you're not blindsided by whatever you're up against next. Early on, the game only really tasks you with learning how to bank your shot, presenting puzzles where you need to angle the ball off of walls to hit nodes in a certain order. But then Creature in the Well starts adding cannons that shoot at you, lasers that disintegrate you, and other types of threats that need to be deactivated or dodged while you're also trying to position for your next shot.Few of the challenges in Creature in the Well are an equal combination of pinball and hack-and-slash. Instead, they fluctuate between the two to curate welcome variety in its dungeon-crawler gameplay. One room may not have a ball for you to use so you'll need to time your attack and use a shot from an enemy cannon as your ball, for instance, while another may task you with figuring out how it's possible to hit every node in a room within a specific time limit. Most of these challenges lean into the hack-and-slash inspirations and are more enjoyable as a result--largely because the flurry of frantically dashing between enemy traps as you try to calculate the trajectory of all the balls bouncing around the room produces the same thrill as battling your way through a difficult mob in a typical dungeon crawler.The pinball-focused rooms are designed to be a test of your intellect, but none of them are overly difficult. As a result, they mostly just stand out in stark contrast to the more plentiful hack-and-slash rooms as the handful of moments in Creature in the Well when the action slows down. They're still good, but Creature in the Well is just better as a pinball-inspired action game than a geometry-focused puzzle one, as its hack-and-slash mechanics better lend themselves to quickly overcoming obstacles through good reaction and precision instead of repeated trial-and-error. Though Creature in the Well does occasionally repeat puzzles, these duplicates rarely show up and they're typically only after the game has given you a chance to expand your arsenal or encouraged you to learn a new strategy. Tackling these recurrent puzzles with newfound efficiency each time helps reinforce that you are getting better (plus, it's really fun).Creature in the Well doesn't have much in the way of tutorials, but the game is fairly well-structured and teaches you most of what you need to know without exposition. The game never tells you that each room is optional, for example, but it provides enough opportunities at the start of the first dungeon to earn a surplus of energy so that you can try opening a few doors in the early areas without completing every puzzle. Likewise, almost as if it assumes most players will try, regardless, to complete every room at the start of the game anyway, Creature in the Well hides its first secret area relatively early in its campaign so that you learn hidden doors are only revealed by fully completing puzzles in certain rooms. In this way, you absorb enough of the basics to beat the campaign, but a few of the game's aspects that help alleviate some of its tougher challenges could have used additional explanation.The game doesn't tell you how to heal in the hub area after dying, for instance, and it doesn't explicitly reveal what BOT-C's core upgrades actually do. Without this knowledge, moments of Creature in the Well can, at times, feel frustratingly stacked against you, though it thankfully never gets to the point where the disadvantage feels impossibly unfair. And it's likely you'll eventually stumble into these mechanics and features before Creature in the Well's story is through. However, these things--that there's a pool of water in the hub you can bathe in to replenish your health and that core upgrades allow you to pull off more powerful strikes that siphon off extra node energy--feel like crucial information. Learning the purpose of the core upgrades, specifically, helped alleviate most of the struggle I was having with the late-game dungeons.There's an excellent diversity to each tool's effect--most of which seem inspired by traditional dungeon crawler powers and weapons--allowing for various playstyles.These dungeons are each structured around certain thematic challenges. To help you better respond to a dungeon's specific test, every one contains a tool designed to handle its threats. For example, the Lockdown Systems mostly contains rooms with nodes that move or require you to strike balls through a tiny opening. This area hides the Dual Blades, twin swords that help you make precision and long-distance shots by revealing a ball's travel path, allowing you to course correct before you even swing. Every tool is fun to experiment with, and it's exciting to discover how you might use a new one. And though each tool is designed for its specific dungeon, their special abilities can be reapplied in different ways to overcome the challenges found in other areas. You're thus encouraged to return to dungeons you didn't fully complete to see if the new tools you've acquired can help you solve any lingering optional puzzles you previously couldn't get past.Every tool is divided into one of two categories, charge and strike, and you can equip one of each to combine their special effects and build different loadouts for BOT-C. I most enjoyed pairing the aforementioned Dual Blades with the Focus Hammer, a strike tool that allows you to slow down time, to transform BOT-C into a sniper-like fighter. There's an excellent diversity to each tool's effect--most of which seem inspired by traditional dungeon crawler powers and weapons--allowing for various playstyles.The best moments to test out these different playstyles are in Creature in the Well's boss battles--each located at the end of a dungeon and all of which see you go up against the titular Creature. Each battle sees the Creature throw several waves of challenges at you that you must complete in a single run, with each consisting of a culmination of more difficult variations of the puzzles seen in that particular dungeon--further encouraging you to fully explore every area and experiment with multiple tool loadouts in each one. The boss battles are fast-paced and demand a higher level of tactical awareness than the rest of the game, as the Creature will also just randomly outright attack you as you're trying to hit the nodes scattered throughout the arena. Whereas most of the dungeons allow you the time to dissect how a problem can be solved, the boss battles force you into piecing together the solution on the fly.Though the abrupt change in pace between the slower dungeon puzzles and faster boss battles can be a little flustering, learning the different patterns of the Creature and overcoming them are gratifying challenges that require both careful aim and situational cognizance. Beating each boss rewards you with more dungeons to explore--and thus new challenges to tackle and tools to find--as well as lore-focused texts that further flesh out Creature in the Well's history. Though most of this lore isn't compelling enough to regularly be a fulfilling reward, the promise of more dungeons and new weapons eases away that disappointment.Both Creature in the Well's dungeons and boss battles are also improved via the portrayal of its antagonist. The Creature is terrifying, largely because you never actually see the entirety of it or learn its motivations. From start to finish, the Creature is a pair of glowing eyes and skeletal arms, most of its body covered in shadow. It growls, taunts, and even threatens you, but it never reveals what it is, remaining this demonic-like enigma that refuses to be understood or stopped. The Creature appears at seemingly random points in every dungeon, watching you from just out of your reach and cultivating this paranoia that it doesn't even have a physical form for you to fight. So when you do actually win and manage to push the Creature back a little further into the mountain, the battle feels hard-won, a boss fight on par with one in a traditional dungeon crawler.Creature in the Well manages to inject the geometry-focused experience of pinball into the frenzied gameplay loop of a dungeon crawler to craft a unique puzzle action game. On occasion, the game's hands-off approach to conveying information is a hindrance, but the well-structured dungeons and monstrous antagonist more than make up for it--producing an engaging hack-and-slash experience that allows for satisfying experimentation.Info from Gamespot.com

The Xbox One's latest set of game deals is a good one, with the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2 and Resident Evil 2 headlining the lot. In fact, many games from the Resident Evil series are discounted, and if you're a Gold subscriber there are even more deals for you to choose from.Red Dead Redemption 2 is currently $36 USD / $48 CAD / £36 for Xbox Live Gold subscribers. Unfortunately, there is no discount for non-subscribers. Battlefield 5, on the other hand, is discounted to $19.80 USD / $26.40 CAD / £19.80 for everyone. The Resident Evil series' deals are also available to all. Resident Evil 2 leads with the discounted price of $36 USD / $48 CAD / £36.Red Dead Redemption 2 - $36 USD / $48 CAD / £36Battlefield 5 - $19.80 USD / $26.40 CAD / £19.80Resident Evil 0 - $8 USD / $10.40 CAD / £6.40Resident Evil - $8 USD / $10.40 CAD / £6.40Resident Evil 2 - $36 USD / $48 CAD / £36Resident Evil 4 - $8 USD / $10.40 CAD / £6.40Resident Evil 5 - $8 USD / $10.40 CAD / £6.40Resident Evil 6 - $8 USD / $10.40 CAD / £6.40Resident Evil 7 Biohazard - $15 USD / $20.25 CAD / £12Resident Evil Revelations - $8 USD / $10.40 CAD / £6.40Resident Evil Revelations 2 - $12 USD / $16 CAD / £10Xbox is also holding a Double Discounts with Gold and Ultimate sale. All of the games included in this sale are discounted for regular Xbox users, but if you're subscribed to Gold or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you'll be able to save up to 50% more until September 16. This includes games like Cuphead, Rocket League, and Overcooked. You can see all of our favourite deals in the list below. All of the prices shown include the extra discount for Gold members.Cuphead - $16 USD / $20.80 CAD / £13.40Rocket League - $12 USD / $16 CAD / £9.80Overcooked - $5.60 USD / $5.60 CAD / £4.20Gang Beasts - $15 USD / $15 CAD / £12Full Metal Furies - $6 USD / $7.80 CAD / £5Guacamelee! STCE - $3.75 USD / $3.75 CAD / £2.80Kingdom: Two Crowns - $14 USD / $14 CAD / £11.20Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime - $6 USD / $6 CAD / £4.80Nidhogg 2 - $7.50 USD / $7.50 CAD / £6Road Redemption - $10 USD / $10 CAD / £8Tricky Towers - $7.50 USD / $7.50 CAD / £6Info from Gamespot.com

Credit: ActivisionThe Call of Duty: Modern Warfare beta test kicks off this week and we partnered with Activision to give away 500 codes to our readers. The winners will get a sneak peak of the new collection of maps and modes before the official release on Oct. 25.To enter, read our official rules, accept our terms and conditions and fill out the form below. Get additional entries by following us on social media to increase your chances of winning! If you are having trouble viewing the entry form please click here.Remember to check your email on Monday Sept. 16th because we will be sending the codes to all winners around 10 a.m. PT. The beta of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Multiplayer will be available for PS4, Xbox One and PC from Sept. 19 through 20 only.Head to our comments and let us know what is your favorite mode and why. Good luck! Info from Gamespot.com

Entertainment giant Disney is reportedly taking another big step away from in-house game development. According to sources speaking to financial publication Bloomberg, Disney is planning to sell the game developer/publisher FoxNext, which it picked up through the acquisition of Fox earlier this year.The site reports that different Disney executives, including direct-to-consumer boss Kevin Mayer, considered keeping FoxNext. However, Disney CEO Bob Iger reportedly shut that down, and it was ultimately decided to sell FoxNext. Officially, Disney had no comment.FoxNext was founded in 2017 with the aim of handling Fox's video game, virtual reality, augmented reality, and theme park endeavors. In 2018, FoxNext announced it was working on a new Alien shooter with a team made up of people who worked on BioShock, Borderlands, and Star Trek: Online.In terms of games that FoxNext has already released, the company worked with Aftershock Studios on the mobile game Marvel Strike Force; it was released in March 2018. Earlier in 2019, FoxNext announced it created an program to fund the development of indie games; the first of these was the gravity-based puzzle game Etherborn.If Disney does decide to sell FoxNext, that would be little surprise given that the House of Mouse has been moving away from internal game development for a long time already. In 2016, Disney shut down the Disney Infinity toys-to-life series and closed developer Avalanche Software in the process.Before that, Disney closed down Tron Evolution studio Propaganda Games, which was working on Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned before its cancellation. Disney also owned the game developer Black Rock Studios that made the excellent racing games Pure and Split/Second before it shut down that studio, too. Disney also developed the Epic Mickey video games with Warren Spector's Junction Point Studios, but the company ended the franchise and closed the developer in 2013.Bungie founder Alex Seropian was heading up Disney's gaming business before he left to form a mobile game studio called Industrial Toys that EA later acquired.During an earnings call earlier this year, Iger talked about Disney's rocky history with game development and publishing."Over the years we've tried our hand in self-publishing, we've bought companies, we've sold companies, we've bought developers, we've closed developers. And we've found over the years that we haven't been particularly good at the self-publishing side, but we've been great at the licensing side which obviously doesn't require that much allocation of capital," Iger said.One of Disney's video game licensees is EA, which signed a 10-year deal with the company to make Star Wars games. Iger said these licensing arrangements have been a positive for EA on the video game side, and you can expect them to continue in the future.There is no word as of yet regarding potential buyers for FoxNext, if Disney is indeed selling the company. Keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest. Info from Gamespot.com

Borderlands 3 is almost here. Gearbox's next big looter-shooter arrives on September 13 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Like previous entries in the series, the music is one of its standout features. Music has been very important to the series from the beginning (the opening sequence in Borderlands 1 might have been the first time you heard "Ain't No Rest For The Wicked"), and this theme continues with Borderlands 3.GameSpot recently had the opportunity to interview Borderlands 3 composer Jesper Kyd, who spoke to us about many different topics. Having already worked on Borderlands 1 and 2, as well as the Pre-Sequel and Claptastic Voyage, Kyd expanded on the challenges of making new music in a series he's familiar with, as well as what it was like working with Gearbox, how the music ties together with Borderlands 3, bringing players to multiple planets outside of Pandora this time around.Kyd also told us more about how Borderlands 3 makes use of a "deep interactive music system" that, through some backend wizardry and randomness, allows the game's music to sound slightly different each time you play. Additionally, he explained that, at a high level, he wanted to try new things and break from some of the series tradition, while he also described the score as the "most varied" one he's ever made for the Borderlands series."I knew right away the last thing I wanted to do was add the predictable swampy slide guitar on all the music. It just felt too pedestrian for Borderlands 3, it wasn't out-there enough," he said.You can see the full review below. Kyd also composed the music for games in the Hitman, Assassin's Creed, Darksiders, and State of Decay franchises.For lots more on the upcoming Borderlands 3 launch, check out GameSpot's roundup that covers the pre-load details, region unlock times, PC specs, and more. If you're looking to pick up the game, you can check out GameSpot's extended pre-order guide to learn more about what's available.GameSpot's Borderlands 3 review scored the looter-shooter an 8/10. "Borderlands 3 has a few stumbling blocks when it comes to bosses, but these fights are overshadowed by the game's rewarding gunplay and over-the-top humor," reviewer Jordan Ramee said.Jesper Kyd Having worked on previous Borderlands games in the past, can you talk about the challenge of coming up with new ideas for a series you're already familiar with?After working on Borderlands 1 and 2, the last Borderlands games I scored were The Pre-Sequel and Claptastic Voyage, which were both science fiction-inspired scores mixed with the distinct feel of Borderlands. With Borderlands 3 we are back to Pandora as well as visiting new worlds such as the Eden-6 planet, which is the planet I scored. Scoring a brand-new addition to the Borderlands universe has been very exciting to work on. Eden-6 is a planet covered in swamplands and thick vegetation, so it was a very different writing experience from scoring the previous four Borderlands games I worked on. It is also the most varied Borderlands score I have written."Eden-6 is a planet covered in swamplands and thick vegetation, so it was a very different writing experience from scoring the previous four Borderlands games I worked on." -- Jesper KydWhat kind of notes did Gearbox give you as it relates to the music they wanted?They were looking for the music to help make Eden-6 sound unique from the other planets, yet at the same time help define this new unexplored world as a location that belongs in the Borderlands universe. I remember writing one of the cues that opens with a slow atmospheric guitar solo, a la Pink Floyd, and when I talked about this to the Gearbox audio director Raison Varner he mentioned the team was 100% on board with such ideas. The score I wrote doesn't draw inspiration from any film or game soundtracks, the direction goes much further than that. Naturally the score also needed to support areas such as marshlands and wetlands and this is often mixed up with a high-tech mood, since advanced technology is ever-present.How much collaboration was there between yourself and the team at Gearbox?I worked closely with the audio department at Gearbox, specifically Raison Varner. We talked a lot about the different worlds I was working on and he really encouraged me to bring a lot of creativity to the writing. Borderlands is a perfect playground for me to let loose musically and after working on all the previous games and helping to establish the Borderlands sound, I was able to use a lot of my knowledge of the universe and creative energy to help push things much further this time around. That's the great thing about returning to franchises; since you have already established the sound you can now invest time in pushing that sound further into new territories."Adding lots of melodies to the exploration music is something I felt would fit very well with this gameplay type. This is what I feel ties all my music together." -- Jesper KydBorderlands 3 is such a sprawling game with so many different locations, characters, and moments--is there a connective tissue of a kind that ties your music together?That's a great observation. I feel my main menu music is a good example of the dynamic type of music I wrote for Borderlands 3. I really focused on adding a lot of melody to my writing. When playing games myself, my favorite musical moments are often those based on melody and this is something I talked a lot to Gearbox about and they loved that idea. Borderlands is such a high-octane experience, even when just exploring the maps, there is a ton of variation and entertainment throughout. So adding lots of melodies to the exploration music is something I felt would fit very well with this gameplay type. This is what I feel ties all my music together.When you set out to make the music for Borderlands 3, what themes and tones did you want to highlight or accentuate? What kind of instrumentation were you looking to use?I knew right away the last thing I wanted to do was add the predictable swampy slide guitar on all the music. It just felt too pedestrian for Borderlands 3, it wasn't out-there enough. We are on an alien planet after all! So I pursued other ideas. There is a track called "Exploring The Dormant Ship" where I play a big Russian zither as well as some really warped pianos through a space echo; this really helped us realize that we could move way beyond just slide guitars and other more traditional bayou instrumentations. I then recorded a lot of vocal parts for the action part of this cue, which helps give the world a more immersive depth and richness of life.I recently had the opportunity to play Borderlands 3 during a preview session. That dub-step boss was a musical treat; can you talk about how that all came together and what you were setting out to do with it? The way it uses music is so fascinating.Great! I love that you noticed that. I wrote 10 minutes of end boss music to make all that come together like that. I had this idea of making the end boss music for Eden-6 something that really stands out with an atmosphere that lifts you up. I am a huge fan of boss battles and I'm fascinated with how games use boss music; Japanese games perform these types of gameplay moments especially well. Gearbox was onboard with this approach but when we put it in the game we all realized that we needed something different to set it up before we could give people this crazy melodic lift in spirits.To make that transition work I wrote a track for the boss battle that's really heavy and bombastic before introducing such a shift in uplifting mood. So if you ace this epic boss battle right away you'll move on faster and the game will take you to the next world. But if you take longer in battle the game rewards you with a new level of atmosphere which gives you a feel of rising hope, that you can overcome this challenge. On the album, that track is called “Tranquility Achieved”."Borderlands 3 features a really deep interactive music system with many layers and modular pieces that are randomly put together in-game, so the music sounds a bit different every time you play the game." -- Jesper KydI've read that you're challenging yourself to experiment with new sounds for Borderlands 3. What does this mean?Well, I am always looking at new ways to break the mold of what is expected and then take things further or go in a totally different unexpected direction that really rewards the gamers as well as fitting the game perfectly. There are so many interesting things that can only be done in the games medium and following the path of scoring games more traditionally is a lost opportunity, since I feel we have an opportunity to create something unique or surprising.For example, once you finally make it to the end part of Eden-6, the music track “Treasures Of The Vault” starts with a set of upbeat motivational combat cues, to get the fun factor going out in full force. It's like a reward for the game player while at the same time reminding you that you are finally here, that this is what you have been looking for, now fight and go claim your reward. These types of ideas are important to me as a gamer and I always think like a gamer when scoring video games. I really have to give credit to Gearbox and Raison Varner for allowing my creativity to run wild during the making of this score.What else should people know about the soundtrack for Borderlands 3?Borderlands 3 features a really deep interactive music system with many layers and modular pieces that are randomly put together in-game, so the music sounds a bit different every time you play the game. In addition to a more unique playing experience, this results in some really interesting soundtrack versions of the music. For example, there are exploration tracks on the soundtrack such as “Enter Floodmoor Basin” which are over nine minutes in duration as well as action music tracks such as “Treasures Of The Vault” which is an eight-minute piece. And these pieces of music never repeat any parts or themes but keep moving forward and developing. So it’s progressive in structure. The soundtrack, which also features music by co-composers Michael McCann, Finishing Move and Raison Varner, is almost six hours long and there’s a vinyl release on the way as well!Info from Gamespot.com

Erica never lets you feel at ease for long. In one scene, a character teaches Erica how to play a song on the piano--you're encouraged to memorize the cute little melody and try to perform the correct timing. But just when you start playing along, somebody suddenly starts coughing up blood everywhere, it's messy and gross, everyone starts screaming, and the vibe is killed. In Erica you have to treasure those sweet breaks before they're swiftly swiped from your hands and replaced with a solid helping of worry, stress, and a side of confusion.A fully filmed playable thriller in which the titular character is on a mission to help solve a murder case that she has strange family ties to, Erica utilizes some subtle yet effective film-inspired techniques--like match on action and screen wipes triggered by touchpad interactions--to tell its enigmatic tale. To progress each scene, you choose dialogue options and make various adventure game-like actions. The game bounces back and forth in time between Erica's childhood with her father to the mess that is modern-day life, in which she has to move to a strange hospital her late parents helped create for her own safety.Erica, played by real-life actor Holly Earl, is a relatable, if malleable, protagonist. Earl regularly looks like she's bewildered or uncomfortable, exactly how you feel as a viewer in most of the situations. She seems thoughtful and patient, but other than that there isn't too much of a set personality for her. You decide through your in-game choices if she's more passive or aggressive or unhelpful during the case, and because of the high stakes murder circumstances, switching her attitude and approach never feels abrupt nor out of character. Even if you spend most of the game being rude, you can be friendly to someone and it doesn't feel weird. Your reactions, and in turn Erica's, are likely to change frequently during a playthrough every time new information pops up, objectives change, and new, incredibly peculiar characters enter the picture.Somehow, every new character you meet is more suspicious than the last. Everyone talks to you like they just poisoned the food you're eating. There's a sequence in the courtyard where you can choose a girl to hang out with and get to know better, and right after you pick a possible pal to spend the afternoon with, the head of the hospital says, "Just remember that some of the girls here… Uh... They can be quite manipulative," and just walks away. The guy is nowhere to be found after that, and you're left sitting there wondering why would he say that--and before you know it, you're overthinking every interaction because you don't know which person he was insinuating was going to manipulate you. All of the secrets, ulterior motives, and Erica's own faulty memory cause for some very intriguing "Trust nobody, not even yourself" gameplay.Perpetual disorientation is the central feeling of Erica, and it's what keeps you searching for the truth no matter how many crooked obstacles stand in your way. The plot is ever-changing and chaotic; you're attempting to solve a crime by talking to a plethora of weirdos in an unfamiliar, creepy place while having stifling flashbacks of your messed-up childhood. There's so many forces clashing and intense situations going on that you find yourself yearning to make sense of even the smallest mystery just to feel grounded. There was a time where Erica was being gaslit by a character and I ended up shaking my fist and yelling "She's not crazy, you're just lying!" at my TV--but even though that character annoyed me I kept listening to them in case they accidentally dropped a small hint to steer me in the right direction, and they did. Erica is a striking example of a whodunit that's heightened by its enthralling characters, shady occult science, and recollections of previous trauma.From the overall murder case to smaller questions like what kind of hospital you're staying at, there are a number of mysteries weaving together concurrently throughout Erica. It's easy to miss context that's vital to understanding the full picture. You might get an answer to a question that's been burning in your mind for the last half hour, but that answer could be a truth that presents new pathways to choose from or a lie that leads you astray. That mystery management is exciting and makes every experience with the game its own curious, isolated thriller molded by whatever answers and stories you care about at the time.You can use either a DualShock 4 controller or a companion phone app to play Erica; the latter is smooth and seamless for the most part, while the former is bogged down by a clunky implementation of touchpad controls and is the far less preferable option. As you move through the narrative, you alternate between selecting which areas to explore, choosing dialogue options like "contempt" or "desperation," and performing no-stakes everyday actions like cleaning the fog from a mirror or turning on the sink. Potential actions are shown as silhouettes on-screen, and there's also a mock trajectory of where to swipe your hand on your phone if you're using the app. The inputs are all done by small, comfortable hand swipes, not extending to the full horizontal or vertical reach of the screen.Most actions are intuitive, and you feel like you know where to swipe and what you can do before the game even tells you. There's a moment where you and a detective walk up to an empty reception desk that has a bell sitting on it, for example. I lit up when I saw it and I started tapping on the screen a bunch--Erica didn't hesitate to mimic my actions in her world and ding away, so much so that the detective swatted her hand off of it because he got annoyed. The straightforward motions make navigating trouble-free, and being able to quickly deduce what moves you can make adds a connection to the moment-to-moment gameplay. It keeps your focus on the important things, like figuring out what the heck is going on in the story.Choices and quick-time events happen every 30 seconds or so, which may sound overwhelming, but it isn't so in practice. Most of the time, they aren't high pressure actions; they're a chain of a few choices, and those chunks are separated by longer cutscenes every so often. They do eventually get mundane and feel unnecessary, especially if you choose to use the DualShock 4, though. The game is controlled entirely with touch, and while the swipes are supposed to be a convenience for your hands, it's difficult to perform them on the small DualShock touchpad without your fingers slipping off or hitting the joysticks. There were also a few occasions where the companion app was slightly unresponsive, which is something that can have game-changing consequences if it happens at a critical moment. It takes a second to get back into the game's rhythm after there's a blip in the controls. They're small things, but those shortcomings pull you out of what is otherwise a really engrossing experience.In general, the filmic elements are integrated so carefully that it's a genuine and mostly calculated mix of two mediums. Erica is in the middle of game and movie, and a lot of small mechanics add up to show that. For example, the character Erica is an artist, and there's a scene fairly early on where you can flip through the pages of her artbook. Looking through a character's personal items is a common feature in interactive adventure games, but the detail that went into shooting the natural angles of each flip makes it an even more intimate way of gaining insight into who the character is. Outside of the footage itself, all of the trophy pop-ups are paused until you complete the game, which goes a long way to keep you from getting distracted. It's a small, fitting touch for a game that values story so much.Perpetual disorientation is the central feeling of Erica, and it's what keeps you searching for the truth no matter how many crooked obstacles stand in your way.There are also some sneaking situations that are made better by the film aspect. There are always conversations happening behind closed doors, and because you have so many questions that you need answered, sometimes you have to be a weirdo and eavesdrop on people. If you peek out for too long or open the door too fast, they'll see you, stop their conversation, and share an awkward glance with you. Because it's footage of actual peoples' facial expressions, it makes you cringe a little more--and that is one of the most high-tension fail states I can imagine.The whole time, the game marinates you in a constant anxious energy that fuels a curiosity for the dodgy, mysterious world that you're influencing. Some scenes you're just holding a book or a photo and staring at it for details, but since it's paired with an insidious sting it transforms what would be a normal occasion into bitter dread. There are flashbacks, dreams, and abnormal things happening frequently; oftentimes you're forced to decide on the one secret you want to uncover the most and drop the others. Should you pick up the phone that's been ringing in the lobby or check out that weird ghost thing in the hallway? There are some decisions that are straight-up difficult--high-stakes ones where, in the bottom of your heart, you don't know what the right thing to do is, but you know you have to do something. Those times will have you wishing that this game was just a movie, but Erica is more than that.Erica has a strong, fleshed-out narrative full of twists and turns that each bring their own unique piece to the story. Its cryptic tone is carried through the audio, visuals, and writing; it never lets you relax. Sometimes weird controls jolt you out, but there is an abundance of enticing threads to follow, and it's a treat to be able to mold your own adventure out of it. Using a combination of crisp cinematography and FMV-specific game mechanics, Erica never fails to hook you into its haunting, mysterious world.Info from Gamespot.com

Three years after release, the universe of No Man's Sky continues to evolve. With each expansion, I spend weeks as a blissful wanderer, seeing an already vast universe become more populous, more beautiful, more capable of sustaining a home for anyone who dared to voyage within it. Beyond, however, is no mere evolution and refinement. It feels like No Man's Sky approaching its final form, having shed a great deal of what was previously limiting and restrictive. But there’s one new factor specifically that makes the update live up to its name: No Man’s Sky is now a VR title. And it is utterly breathtaking.It is breathtaking right away, waking up for the first time completely immersed in an alien world literally no one else has ever seen. Everything has a new fascination: the way the flora moves and shifts under harsh weather, the way the ground is pockmarked and windswept, the vast, unknowable vistas stretching across toxic interstellar perdition. It’s all beautiful before you even make the first flight into space.An incredible amount of additional work has gone into making inhabiting that Exo-Suit even more of an experience. On PS4, you can play in 2D or VR with the DualShock, something that also gives you a Smooth turning option, but two PlayStation Moves are the real way to go. With the Move, your Multi-Tool is strapped to your back, ready to be whipped out more like in Blood & Truth than an ever-present floating gun like in most VR titles. The Analysis visor has you pressing the wand to the side of your head, like you’re Cyclops preparing to fire an Optic Blast. Getting in and out of your ship involves physically pulling the handles, and escaping from a hairy situation with sentinels or the local wildlife with that lightning quick motion adds an even greater layer of tension. Best of all, the menus are mapped to a little hologram in your hands that activates when you point at it. It’s a simple and intuitive implementation of such an elaborate and persistent mechanic.Still, even with the new perspective and tools at your disposal, it should be said upfront that at its core, No Man’s Sky: Beyond is still, well, No Man’s Sky. Whether you’re in VR or not, many of the early mundanities of the game remain. You have to repair your broken ship, gather a specific resource, create fuel, drop a refiner, and so on. Beyond, however, brings varying kindnesses that welcome you to a new universe instead of prodding you into space with a stick. The UI holds your hand, telling you exactly why you’re collecting these things, what it is you’re trying to do, and exactly how to find what you need. Once you’ve found everything, having an expanded inventory and an absurd amount of space to hold items--each block can hold thousands now--means mining constantly in your travels is worthwhile. There’s always something you can use later, and you have the space to contain it. The game is much more patient and generous with the breadcrumbs that teach you how to play, guiding you into the stratosphere not only painlessly but purposefully.That extends into the rest of the game once the tutorials stop and the training wheels are all the way off. All of the larger narrative pieces from the previous updates feel organically woven into Beyond. Dialogue and instructions from one mission from the Atlas Path may be rewritten or tweaked to reference Artemis or some new action you can take in Beyond. Direct links have been made where the next logical step in your current mission involves learning more alien language instead of just trying to get your next cell to warp to the next galaxy. The missions and their objectives have a synergy now, where lines of dialogue and specific mission objectives weave narrative strands together. It’s a bit of minor housekeeping No Man's Sky has needed for a while now. The overarching subtle tale of both exploration and acceptance in the great unknown remains, but it also has quite a bit more meaning now that it’s not your sole purpose in the universe.When your only task was just to keep hopping from galaxy to galaxy towards the center, there was plenty to see and take in, but you couldn’t really live in the universe because you were so busy trying to survive. The Atlas Path asked some big, existential questions, sure. Artemis helped with that a great deal, giving you an Other to truly work towards understanding and fathoming at least one small mystery of the universe with. But there’s a huge difference between looking at a vast wilderness from a hypothetical distance and trying to figure out the very real challenge of laying down roots there. The latter is a much more fundamental part of Beyond’s gameplay loop. It’s the difference between Next telling you that yes, now you can build bases and here’s how, versus those bases being more of a necessity to sustainably start traversing the universe. The way menus and options are streamlined for you in Beyond make it easier to create, leave, and return to a place of solace and safety, and to depend on a planet, your base, and the resources within. It’s a much stronger experience, and the undercurrent of humanism running throughout the Atlas Path lands much harder as a result. Beyond’s biggest improvements are all in favor of fostering that relationship between players and the universe around them, and that includes its people, playable and non-playable.No Man’s Sky has long had one of the more positive and welcoming online communities in the gaming landscape, and there was always the worry that removing the barriers between players would invite the worst elements of online play into what’s typically a place of zen. This is far from the case.The new Anomaly, summonable to any galaxy at any time, is no longer a sparse, glorified save space, but a bustling 16-player hub of activity, full of greetings, proud ship captains, aliens who look upon you with curious eyes, and players more than happy to bring you to the worlds they call home. Just like the first spoken line of the game, so much of the Anomaly’s layout, from its menus to the way it presents the current state of the area, is about reminding you that you’re never fully alone out there. Beyond has made it so much easier to find allies to either assist in their mission or share what you have from your own inventory. Everything you pick up and mine may have a price, but the game quite often reminds you via the descriptions that those items can also be given to others. Clicking an item while on the Anomaly gives you a list of everyone in range that you might possibly hand it off to. Checking mission boards reminds you there are people who may be looking for the same thing you are, and when it’s the other way around, the request shows up in the lower left. During my time with the update, there were good Samaritans everywhere in the Anomaly, giving out extra rare items to whoever wandered into range.That’s a rather huge and heartening factor, not just because you can now jump in and help strangers shoot things down and collect loot, but because it creates a strong sense of community in what was previously a fairly lonely adventure. The Anomaly feels like the petri dish for No Man’s Sky to develop an actual culture, a place of cooks, pilots, space frontiersmen, and traders looking for the next big score. It feels alive and connected in all the ways the game used to feel isolated and cold. And it does so without overshadowing the fundamental element of peaceful solo exploration if you so desire. That new emphasis on connection is never so obtrusive that it prevents you from performing one simple task or speaking to one specific NPC and leaving, but it also doesn’t feel arduous to connect with another human being the way it did before this update.There's still some legwork involved, though. While joining games and having others join yours is a quick and simple matter (and much less finicky than it was in Next) players can occasionally spawn on drastically different locations on the same planet. That said, searching for stranded partners wound up being a weirdly fun adventure all its own.A much bigger caveat is that for a new player to party up with friends, they still have to get out into space on their own, which makes sense. There's a lot of ways for someone who doesn't know what they're doing to irrevocably screw up a galaxy by accident, or waste a resource, or piss off a planet's Sentinels, or ruin your relationship with a species of animals. The tutorials do important work of not just showing you how to play the game, but respect the game. If you want to give a partner some of your resources, you can. But if an objective given by the game tells you to build something, giving them the exact item the game wants won’t clear that objective. That’s a limitation the game is all the better for keeping in place. Choosing to assist someone can’t be the same as beating the game with or for them. If you’re with someone, you’re there for the experience. That’s not all necessarily new for a multiplayer experience, but it does feel rare when the game is pushing you to connect with other people for what tend to be for more mercenary reasons.For my part, I remained a solitary player, only choosing to put down sparing roots on the most beautiful worlds and never building more than I needed. I’m very much a city boy in real life. In No Man’s Sky, I’m a happy recluse with 40 acres and a species of chubby elephantine space mules I named Horace. I’ve been harvesting eggs and milk from the animals on the strawberry-pink and white world I’ve been calling home for the past year or so. Even as the universe got bigger, I would go to the Anomaly to trade, buy new ships, and hang out with aliens, but home remains solitary. So few of the self-sufficient agrarian aspects of my little home were even possible in previous updates. Beyond has made me feel more empowered to sustain that life, have a place to return to and maintain, and make improving it for the laid-back alien assistants who reside with me much easier to accomplish.The larger technical problems with Beyond come down to problems with VR platforms in general. Despite the visual beauty, my time with the Oculus version was plagued with flaws and odd bugs and glitches. By comparison, the PSVR version caters to performance. Frame rate and gameplay are pristine there, but at the cost of clarity, especially when it comes to the various screen displays in-game. In addition, the PSVR’s old nemesis, the camera drift, rears its ugly head here, and the Recenter VR Camera option in the Pause menu does less to solve it than it should. As of this writing, however, there have been additional patches every few days, and more and more of these bugs vanish with each one.These tiny frustrations utterly dissolve away in flight, however. No Man’s Sky’s most consistently powerful experience of seamless space travel nearly reduced me to tears as the upper atmosphere melted away into the silence and deep wonder of the galaxy. It’s the kind of thing I dreamt of as a kid. As part of an expanding experience and seemingly impossibly ever-larger universe, No Man’s Sky continues to deliver on the promise of being a space traveler--and VR assists in making it a more immersive experience.The drastic improvements made to No Man’s Sky in its Beyond expansion are the new gold standard for how to gracefully cope with a game’s flaws post-release. The game laid the foundation with its release, but it took Beyond to elevate it into something magnificent. Successfully transitioning to VR is a creative victory on its own, but realizing just how full and vibrant and rewarding an experience this game has now become is almost poignant. Beyond represents the courage of convictions, a concept that has not only met the lofty expectations it set forth, but transcended them.Info from Gamespot.com