Pre-ordering the game for either PlayStation 4 or Xbox One will cost players £69.99. That’s a hefty £10 increase from the asking for price for the franchise’s last title: Vanguard. The price rise is explained by the fact players are now forced to purchase the “Cross-Gen Bundle,” which includes both the last-gen and current-gen versions of the game. Previous titles including Black Ops Cold War and Vanguard included a standalone last-gen version at a reduced cost....

The small QA (quality assurance) team at Blizzard Albany first anounced its intent to unionise back in July this year. The team now becomes the second group of testers within Activision Blizzard to successfully do so, following the similarly long-running push by QA staff at Call of Duty studio Raven Software. The Blizzard Albany bunch had faced pushback from Activision bosses who argued against the process going ahead, claiming it would be unfair to those outside the QA team within the wider studio....

This will be the first time Alan Wake has ever been available for PlayStation, something Remedy told Eurogamer back in 2019 it was now free to do after regaining its rights to the franchise from Microsoft. Alan Wake Remastered will include both its original DLC chapters, The Signal and The Writer, plus new director commentary from Sam Lake and spruced up 4K visuals. This isn’t the first we’ve heard of a return for Alan Wake (the game and the character!...

Xbox Games Xbox controllers There’s plenty more gaming deals to come and we’ll be adding more here as we spot them. We’re also sharing lots of gaming and tech deals over on Twitter @jelly_deals, so make sure to go give us a follow.

First up, the number of new mobile chips that debuted in the 40-minute conference was kind of insane. AMD announced 13 new processors, including 10 models with current-gen Zen 3 designs and three with last-gen Zen 2 chips instead, with the latter mostly at the bottom end of the lineup and costing less. Like last year’s Ryzen 4000 chips, the new processors are split into high performance (‘H’) and ultra-thin-friendly (‘U’) designs, with six or eight cores in the vast majority....

While we’ve seen techniques similar to FSR 2.0 in the console space for many years, the quality is such that it can rightfully take its place amongst the most recent second generation upscalers, such as Unreal Engine’s Temporal Super Resolution (TSR), as seen in UE5. While the likes of DLSS 1.0, checkerboard rendering, and older forms of TAA upscaling aim to produce native-like image quality at roughly half the internal resolution, FSR 2....

Texas will be American Truck Simulator’s 11th explorable state, joining California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. It was confirmed to be in development last March, but SCS warned the expansion could be a long time coming given the sheer effort required to bring one of the US’ largest states into the game. However, with Texas’ arrival now less than a week away, SCS has given us our best look yet at the expansion’s numerous familiar sights - its newly released launch trailer featuring the likes of Austin, Houston, and a whole lot of countryside....

This update will prep your island for Festivale, a colourful carnival-themed event set for February. Festivale itself takes place on 15th February, when fabulous peacock Pavé will be in town and dance in exchange for rainbow feathers. Before then, new carnival costumes will be available from 1st February via the Able Sisters, and you’ll be able to buy a set of new reactions from Nook’s Cranny. Nook Shopping will also get a selection of other seasonal items throughout January and February themed around Valentine’s Day, Lunar New Year and Big Game Celebration....

During this event, you can collect a number of New Year’s items that will help you celebrate midnight in style. First, however, it’s a good idea to know the start time for the New Year’s Countdown, so you don’t miss out on all the fun. On this page: From 5am - the daily island reset time - on December 31st, you’ll be able to find Tom Nook and Isabelle standing outside Residential Services next to a timer counting down the final hours of the year....

Details of the new season, which Respawn is calling Eclipse, are a little light at present, but the developer’s newly launched Season 15 webpage promises a new map - said to be lie “in Boreas’ shadow” - as well as a new gifting feature, enabling players to purchase and send cosmetic items to their friends. For now, though, the focus is very much on new hero Catalyst, real name Tressa Smith, described as a “experienced terraformer and defensive conjurer [who] uses her remarkable control of ferrofluid to manipulate the battlefield....

She not only comes packed with an array ofskins, but also a new batch of abilities to shake the battlefield, mainly involving the use of her signature throwable weapon. These, alongside other qualities, make her an interesting option for offensive players. This page outlines Ash abilities and cooldowns in Apex Legends Season 11, as well as all Ash skins that had a debut during launch. On this page: Below you’ll find an overview of all Ash abilities and cooldowns at a glance:...

Kings Canyon has, of course, been around since Apex Legends’ launch back in 2019, and Season 14’s extensive overhaul aims to improve some of the ageing map’s more troublesome issues. Before we get to the mechanical stuff though, there’s perhaps the most immediately obvious change - upgraded lighting and a new skybox, both intended to make for a “more immersive, vibrant environment”. In terms of gameplay changes though, there’s the new Relic point of interest, which is designed to help create a little bit more breathing space on the map in the early to mid game so squad battles are less likely to be interrupted by third parties....

Publisher Dotemu and developer Tribute Games announced the retro-styled beat ’em-up launches on Nintendo Switch and PC in 2022. April’s debut was featured within a new trailer, below: Here’s the official blurb: “Sporting her iconic yellow jumpsuit and trusty reporting gear, April unleashes flurries of hits against the Foot Clan’s devious soldiers via new gameplay. Her agility and far-reaching slide kicks help her close in on targets quickly, and she once again proves the turtles can rely on her unwavering support, even through slices of pizza....

All three of these are interlinked, and with some patience and a strong dose of luck, allow you some desirable skins and exclusive melee weapons in battle. You get Battlepacks in two ways - by purchasing with Scrap and from a drop once a match has been completed. The chances of you receiving one at the end of a match is random; we’ve heard some players not getting any for a number of hours, while we got our first at the end of our second match, so it’s a case of keeping playing until they start landing in your lap....

A form of heavy, specially kitted-out super-soldier, the Elite classes are potentially game-winning when deployed correctly, but can just as much be completely ineffectual when played by someone without much experience or direction. With that in mind we’ll be taking you through everything you need to know about each class, including full details of their loadouts, weapons, playstyles, and counters below. The Elite units are obtained via pickups, which spawn periodically on the map, appearing as a special weapon inside a long rectangular wooden crate....

From there, you need to spend War Bonds to use them, which is where things get a little tricker - below we explain how the currency works, how to spend them, and at what point every weapon unlocks by class then rank. While you can view every Battlefield 1 weapon from the game’s main menu, this isn’t where you spend your War Bonds and start unlocking items. Instead, when you are playing a match, customise your loadout to see the weapons you can unlock....

Indie keyboard makers have been making 60 percent keyboards for the enthusiast crowd for years, but now the bigger brands are starting to get involved - the Razers, Corsairs and Logitechs of the world. If you wanted to see what the fuss is about with these smaller boards without losing creature comforts like synchronised RGB lighting and well-developed software packages, this is a great time to jump aboard the mini keyboard bandwagon....

This update went live over the weekend, and also added an in-game account linking option. However, despite being labelled as a “quality of life” update, this move by publisher 2K has left some fans unhappy, with several stating the game is now broken. “Valve definitely needs to implement a new policy that prevents publishers from screwing over Steam players by putting it anti-consumer BS years after a game launches or releasing ‘updates’ that fundamentally break the game (on linux in this case) and add features that have zero benefit to the player and are solely intended for data mining and advertising,” wrote one user....

Following the arrival of Activision Blizzard’s new chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer Kristen Hines last month, Blizzard has welcomed Jessica Martinez as its “first Vice President, Head of Culture.” Martinez’s arrival will mark “part of [Blizzard’s] ongoing initiative to create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace culture where people at every level can learn, grow and bring their most creative selves to their work,” Blizzard says. Martinez adds, “making the values of our connections show up in what we do is how we bring humanity back to business....

Nintendo will fully unveil this update during a special presentation to be broadcast in October (at a date still to be confirmed). A quick teaser shown during tonight’s Nintendo Direct showed Brewster’s Roost cafe will open up in your island’s museum. Back in July, Nintendo said it hasn’t forgotten Animal Crossing: New Horizons, despite free updates to the game slowing to a trickle over the past few months. Animal Crossing: New Horizons launched to stratospheric sales, and quickly became Nintendo Switch’s second-biggest game ever behind the evergreen Mario Kart 8 Deluxe....