With next-gen consoles come new hardware standards. For the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, one of the new features is HDMI 2.1 support. But what exactly makes HDMI 2.1 different, and is it worth buying a new TV for?
In this video, Jean-Luc Seipke breaks down everything you need to know about HDMI 2.1, such as the improvements to color and HDR it offers. Most significant to gaming will be the ability to output 4K at 120fps, and we touch on some of the titles that have been confirmed to support it for next-gen.
If you’re interested in buying a TV with HDMI 2.1, check out our roundup of the best 4K TVs for PS5 and Xbox Series X. And if you’re just as excited for new consoles as we are, then check out our weekly show Generation Next, where every Friday our PS5 and Xbox Series X/S experts breakdown the latest news and everything you need to know about the new consoles.
This beta, which will include VIP Escort, Combined Arms: Assault, and Fireteam: Dirty Bomb playlists–as well as the new Cartel map–will feature some more granular differences, too. Treyarch, the developer behind Cold War’s multiplayer, has extensively detailed the differences between the alpha and beta for Cold War, noting every change made based on player feedback.
There have been multiple changes to the way characters move, for instance, with more animations and various tweaks to speed, penalities, and field of view during different types of movement. Here’s the complete list of movement changes.
Core Movement
Integrated updated locomotion animations and systems for walking, jogging, and sprinting.
Slightly increased acceleration when moving from a standstill.
Sprinting
Reduced or removed several sprint penalties that could leave the player in a state of reduced sprint speed. This results in more opportunities to use the Sprint Takeoff feature for a quick burst of speed when initiating a sprint.
Increased the time it takes to ramp down from maximum to minimum sprint speed for a smoother change of speed. This also slightly increases the time at which a player sprints at a faster pace.
Slightly adjusted camera bob during sprint to better align with updated movement animations.
Disabled Field of View increase when sprinting. This should provide a smoother in-game view and prevent a “floating camera” feeling when sprinting.
Sliding
Slightly reduced slide speed.
Increased the minimum amount of time a player must sprint before sliding to better align with time to reach max sprint speed. This means a player cannot immediately trigger a slide from a near-standstill.
Addressed an issue that allowed players to cancel a slide without the appropriate slowdown. We will continue to monitor and investigate any slide-cancel exploits.
In guns, one of the major changes is that aim assist for snipers on controllers has been brought back. This has not been the case since Black Ops II, but their heightened relevance to Cold War’s multiplayer made this necessary. Here are the changes to weapons and Gunsmith.
Gunsmith
Added a more detailed breakdown of statistics for each attachment, explaining in detail how each attachment influences its weapon’s stats.
Moved the Gunsmith UI button closer to the weapon for easier access.
Recoil and Firing Animations
Added new weapon recoil systems and firing animations with a comprehensive tuning pass for a revamped weapon firing feel on every weapon for both hip-fire and ADS.
Reworked and rebalanced all recoil patterns, impacting weapon balance and mastery across the board.
Full touch-up pass on animations across all weapons based on feedback.
Aim Down Sights (ADS)
Added new ADS weapon rendering technology for more realistic ADS perspective.
Smoothed out all ADS in/out transitions.
General Weapon Tuning
Made tuning changes to Alpha weapons that overperformed or underperformed, including increases to AK-74u recoil and ADS time, increasing LMG ammo capacity, and more.
Attachment Tuning
Full attachment balance pass to ensure all attachments stay relevant and balanced.
Sniper Rifles
Added aim assist on snipers for controller users for cross-platform balancing.
Several precision-aiming adjustments to help the sniping experience feel more fluid.
Sniper glint now displays more often and more reliably to help players understand when they are in danger.
Adjusted ADS time on sniper rifles.
Sniper rifles now requires higher hits on the body for one-hit eliminations (for example, upper chest instead of stomach, or upper arm instead of lower arm).
Frag Grenades
Reduced the fuse time on the Frag Grenade for Beta. Throw speed adjustments are targeted for launch.
Meanwhile, the Scorestreak system has been changed so that rewards require more points to activate in several modes, so as to “reduce Scorestreak spam and make Scorestreaks more rewarding.” Various improvements to visual and sound design have been made, too, alongside many other changes and additions. It’s worth checking out the full list for more information.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will release on November 13 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, and Xbox One. You can figure out which version is for you with GameSpot’s preorder guide.
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Along with its stylish spaceship exterior, the PS5 is bringing a lot of cool new features into this generation of gaming.
The DualSense controller alone is packing in a bunch of interesting new features, taking immersion a step forward with its haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, not to mention the welcome addition of a built-in microphone. These are all features that games like Astro’s Playroom, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Arkane’s Deathloop will be taking full advantage of.
Controller aside, there’s also new emphasis on its Tempest 3D AudioTech, which the PS5’s Pulse 3D wireless headset are built especially for. Developers like Capcom are excited to use spatial sound to emphasize the horror of Resident Evil Village. Now you’ll be able to hear a werewolf breathing heavily behind as you run for your life. Lovely.
Beyond the gameplay immersion, there’s also a lot going on under the hood of the PS5 too, like its new cooling system, or its ability to take full advantage of an SSD for improved load times. There’s a lot, so in this video we’re taking a look at seven of the coolest features Sony is bringing to the table with the PlayStation 5.
Super Mario Bros. 35 marks something of a historic moment for the multitalented plumber. In Mario’s extensive past, there have been plenty of multiplayer games, but many of these come in the form of sporting spin-offs or asynchronous multiplayer where you take turns attempting levels. Even the likes of New Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario 3D World–both of which feature competitive elements–ultimately revolve around a shared goal of completing levels together as the main objective. This is where Super Mario Bros. 35 stands out; Mario’s latest in a long line of entries is the first time you compete synchronously against other players on traditional platforming courses. It’s a significant achievement both in and of itself and as an online multiplayer experience, even if there can be a few dull moments.
In the vein of fellow Nintendo Switch Online release Tetris 99, Super Mario Bros. 35 has you compete against up to 34 others simultaneously to be the last Mario standing, playing levels from the original NES Super Mario Bros. Like Tetris 99, your play area takes up the center of the screen while everyone else’s concurrent games form a surrounding border, allowing you to glance at opponents’ progress as you jump your way through course 1-1 and beyond. Essentially, the main two factors separating Super Mario Bros. 35 and Super Mario Bros. is the pressure of competition, plus a lot more enemies to navigate.
As is the case with most of Mario’s platforming adventures, running out of time or dying are your only two methods of failure. However, there are no extra lives to be had here, only one chance per round to become the only Mario remaining. In your quest to be the number one mustachioed Italian man, you disrupt other players by defeating enemies, who will then be sent over to other courses. Additionally, taking another note from Tetris 99’s playbook, you can select who to send those Goombas and Koopas to or let a preset choose–such as who has the least time remaining or anyone who’s actively targeting you.
Causing chaos by sending waves of baddies to competitors is fiendishly fun, knowing you’re inconveniencing them at every step. It also forces you to approach these familiar Mushroom Kingdom levels in tangibly different ways. Instead of speeding through and trying to slide down the end flagpole in record time, you’re thinking about what approach will actively cause others to slip up in response. This means trying to take down Hammer Bros. as opposed to running straight past them and trying to make Piranha Plants pop up in tricky locations. On the receiving end, it’s brutal encountering a rogue Bowser–or any wave of minions in a tight space, for that matter.
As tricky as facing off against several Bowsers in a random course can be, it’s a great way of refreshing decades-old content to make it feel like a new challenge all over again. Similar to how seeking out opponent fodder changes your course approach, dealing with different enemies in unfamiliar environments creates variety in a way perhaps only the Mario Maker games have done previously. These unique challenges alter each course’s rhythm, warping your sense of muscle memory and course layout knowledge to intelligently generate a slightly different experience each time you jump into Super Mario Bros. 35.
In the absence of extra lives, Super Mario Bros. 35 finds an alternative use for coins in the form of random item power-ups. As soon as you collect 20 coins, you can press X to bank them in return for an item decided by fate. This could be a Mushroom or Fire Flower power-up, the limited invincibility-inducing Star, or a POW Block that clears the screen of enemies. While the random allocation of items puts you at the whims of chance, you create your own luck to a degree by collecting enough coins to have multiple rolls of the metaphorical ? Block.
From many angles, Super Mario Bros. 35 is a very different beast to the many Mario platformers you know and love–which is simultaneously a strength and a weakness. Survivability reigns supreme over speed, which often rewards slower play to the detriment of excitement, particularly during each round’s final moments.
The beginning to middle stages of each round are by far the most exhilarating as you dash through courses while dodging the many nefarious characters invading your game. Ironically, Super Mario Bros. 35 slows down significantly when the music speeds up to signal that only five players remain, and even more so when it becomes a duel against the sole other Mario standing between you and victory. This is because it’s often best to play conservatively, focusing on just trying to survive rather than be aggressive. Although some one-on-one battles I had were tense and exciting standoffs where we both took risks, the majority of my wins came from dull, drawn-out attritional affairs where instead of feeling like I had won, it felt more like my opponent had lost. These final showdowns drag due to the fact that courses keep randomly cycling through with no end in sight–playing through 1-1 yet again doesn’t make for a grandstand finish. Unlike other games occupying the battle royale space, Super Mario Bros. 35 lacks a definitive tiebreaker element that increases the stakes in order to encourage aggressive play and make late-game moments more exciting.
While much of Super Mario Bros. 35’s variety is inherent due to its online multiplayer nature, there are a couple of other game modes to try your hand at–albeit with some caveats. 35-Player Battle is the main mode but throws up an early confusion. Supposedly, you cast a vote to determine the course everyone starts on–at least that’s what the official Nintendo website says. In practice, pretty much every 35-Player Battle I played started on 1-1, which contributes to the game’s pacing problem because things start off so leisurely. Special Battle, the other main mode, imposes unique conditions such as starting on a particular course or everyone beginning with 35 coins or a particular item. This mode encourages more aggressive play largely due to greater course variation, as starting on later courses before everyone has accumulated masses of coins whittles down the field much faster. Unfortunately, Special Battle is a limited-time mode, only available to play during specified time periods, meaning you’re stuck with 35-Player Battle most of the time.
Adding to the frustration in course variety is how Super Mario Bros. 35 makes unlocking new courses needlessly slow. To be able to vote for a wider range of courses or hone your skills in practice mode, you need to have beaten the course in either 35-Player Battle or Special Battle. However, because courses cycle through randomly and repeat so frequently, you’re never guaranteed the opportunity to unlock anything each round. Super Mario Bros. 35 does employ a ranking system where you unlock different player icons by leveling up, and coins accumulated each round can be spent on beginning the next round with a power-up–but they aren’t particularly enticing incentives.
Super Mario Bros. 35 does offer other avenues to feel like you’ve achieved something, though. After winning your first round, Coin Challenge unlocks, showing you your highest coin count in a win and assigns a rank based on where you sit among other players. It’s cool that Coin Challenge displays historical data too, providing an incentive to return each week to best your previous efforts and rise up the leaderboard. Additionally, Super Mario Bros. 35 tracks and charts many different statistics, including total wins, players knocked out, and how many of each enemy you’ve defeated. This data is a neat little extra that gives a bit more meaning to each round.
Although I can only judge Super Mario Bros. 35 on how it plays right now, it feels like it has a strong, scalable base, much like how Tetris 99 felt at launch. Super Mario Bros. 35’s availability will supposedly be limited, however–at the time of writing the game will only be available until March 31, 2021. The reasons why are a bit of a mystery, but as things stand it seems like there’s plenty of potential for the game to grow into something bigger with subsequent updates and in-game events.
Delivering precisely what is advertised, Super Mario Bros. 35 delivers on familiar 2D platforming with an all-new competitive twist. Playing against 34 other Marios at once is a wonderful type of mayhem, as is facing off against hordes of enemies. However, early course repetition and late-game lulls slightly temper this Mushroom Kingdom celebration of Mario’s 35 years.
Mafia: Definitive Edition, the recent PS4/Xbox One/PC remake of Mafia, has received its first major post-launch update, and it includes a new visual mode. Update 1.03 adds Noir Mode, which turns Mafia into a black and white game, complete with film grain. In the words of the press release, this mode aims to “accentuate the game’s Prohibition Era aesthetic.”
Of course, Mafia is not a particularly “noir” story–and on an aesthetic level, it’s borrowing far more from Scorsese’s Goodfellas than Scorsese’s black-and-white Raging Bull. But if you want to experience Mafia as though it were a period piece from the ’30s or ’40s, or just pretend that the original game’s 2002 release was a much longer time ago, this is a good way to do that.
Mafia: Definitive Edition with Noir Mode turned on
New HUD options are now available, too. You can now switch the main objective markers on the game world, and the enemy markers on your mini-map, on or off. You can also turn off navigation instructions, and even enable a minimal HUD option to ditch the map, speedometer, and objective text.
New content has been added to Free Ride mode, too, but 2K isn’t sharing details, hoping players will discover these additions for themselves. However, some cryptic italics on their update notes indicate that races and taxi fares have been added.
A few fixes have also been applied to the game:
Addressed a reported issue that sometimes prevented the correct vehicles from unlocking in the player garage upon completion of the optional Lucas Bertone missions. Players who have completed these missions should find the correct vehicles in their garage the next time they start the game.
Addressed a reported concern that a special assassination animation sometimes wasn’t triggering correctly during the mission “The Saint and The Sinner.”
Addressed a reported concern that certain cinematics would occasionally show a black screen.
Mafia: Definitive Edition earned a 6/10 in GameSpot’s review. “The archaic and repetitive combat hasn’t evolved since Mafia II was released in 2010, and the years since have dated it even more,” wrote reviewer Richard Wakeling. “Mafia: Definitive Edition might be an improvement on the original game, but its modernisation stops short of the mark, resulting in an uneven game that squanders its enticing potential.”
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is adding a useful ping system to all of its multiplayer modes. Warzone already had the ping system, but this will be the first time it has appeared in regular Call of Duty multiplayer.
“For the first time in Black Ops Multiplayer, we’re adding a locational Ping system as a feature across all MP modes, allowing you to ping objectives, loot, locations, and enemies for your teammates during a match.” Treyarch wrote on its official site. “From Team Deathmatch to Fireteam: Dirty Bomb, you can use the Ping system to communicate non-verbally with your teammates for increased coordination.”
Ping systems have become increasingly popular after Respawn brought it to Apex Legends. It lets players communicate with button presses instead of voice chat. Call of Duty: Warzone and Fortnite added it after Respawn received praise for the feature.
The ping system is mapped to the D-pad on controllers and bound to Z on keyboards in Black Ops Cold War, although it can be remapped in the gameplay settings menu. This new ping system could help squads communicate and avoid getting killed by a single shot.
Treyarch is also adding a Field of View (FOV) slider to all platforms. An FOV slider–a setting that lets you change your perspective–is already in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, although it’s not available for consoles. It gives PC players better vision when playing against console players–now everyone will have the same options, which is optimal for cross-play between platforms.
After debuting on PC via the Epic Games Store in October 2019 and then making its way onto PlayStation 4 back in May, action strategy game John Wick Hex is coming to PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One on December 4.
Directed by Mike Bithell, John Wick Hex blends deep strategy with the trademark action of the film trilogy that stars Keanu Reeves as the deadly assassin and noted dog lover.
An ESRB listing for the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch versions of the game was first spotted in April, although Bithell and the game’s publisher, Good Shepherd Entertainment, didn’t confirm at the time that it was headed to other consoles.
Not just an authentic exploration of the split-second life-or-death decision-making that the titular hitman makes between shootouts involving multiple enemies, the game also boasts a cinematic pedigree as the editor of the last John Wick film, 2019’s Chapter 3: Parabellum, provided feedback on Hex’s gameplay mechanics.
GameSpot awarded the game an 8/10 in our original John Wick Hex review, with critic Alessandro Barbosa saying, “It’s a slick and well-oiled game that succeeds in giving you a new, engrossing way to experience John Wick and its signature brand of chaotic action.”
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Though delayed several months by the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon Prime Day 2020 is set to run a full 48 hours again this year starting next week on Tuesday, October 13. As usual, Amazon’s biggest competitors have started to announce major sales of their own to compete with Amazon’s yearly blowout sale for Prime members, and with the holiday shopping season coming up fast, it’ll be a great opportunity to save some serious cash on games, tech, and more.
As of right now, we’ve only learned about a few of the Prime Day-adjacent sales happening next week, and we’ve detailed what we know about them below. We expect to add more stores to this list in the coming days, as we also saw competing sales from Best Buy, Ebay, GameStop, and Fanatical last year. In the meantime, catch up on the latest Amazon Prime Day 2020 details, including early deals available now, tips for getting the best discounts, and more.
Walmart is getting the jump on Amazon by launching its big sale a couple of days before Prime Day. Walmart’s “Big Save” event kicks off this coming Sunday, October 11 at 4 PM PT / 7 PM ET and runs through Thursday, October 15, ending a day after Prime Day. The Walmart sale will bring steep discounts across all of its categories, including games and electronics. Though we don’t know most of what will be on sale, Walmart did tease a few upcoming discounts, including Super Mario Party for $40, the JVC 55-inch 4K Roku Smart TV for $248, and the Roku Ultra LT streaming device for $69. Walmart promised “Black Friday-like savings” during the Big Save event, so it’ll be worth checking out what games, accessories, and more are on sale.
Target’s annual Deal Days sale overlaps directly with Amazon Prime Day on October 13 and 14, and it marks the beginning of Target’s holiday shopping season, the retailer said in a press release. The sale will feature online discounts on hundreds of thousands of items, more than double the number of deals last year. The vast majority of deals will be available with contactless Drive Up or Order Pickup if you want to pick up your order that day, and many of them will be eligible for same-day delivery as well–no membership required.
Early deals are starting to go live at Target, just as they have at Amazon, though the pickings are currently slim. The best deals, according to Target, will only be available to Target Circle members, the retailer’s free loyalty program, so you may want to sign up for that before Target Deal Days starts.
Newegg’s Fantastech sale is coming back this year to compete with Amazon Prime Day and offer steep discounts on tech and electronics. A countdown is live on Newegg’s website for the sale, which begins October 13 at midnight PT / 3 AM ET. The sale page doesn’t say how long the sale will last, but it’ll likely run through October 14 to span a full 48 hours as it has in the past. As with other sales on this list, no membership is required to shop the Fantastech sale. If you’re a PC gamer, you’ll definitely want to check this one out, as Newegg tends to offer some of the best deals on graphics cards, SSDs, gaming desks, ergonomic chairs, and more.
One of Rainbow Six Siege‘s most infamous operators is getting a major revamp, and Ubisoft has now detailed what and when to expect the rework. Tachanka has been a regular subject of memes, but he has a few new tools to make sure he’s no longer the butt of jokes among the other operators.
Tachanka’s rework comes in two key areas: a new primary weapon, and a new primary gadget. His turret is no longer locked down to the floor, but he still packs a lot of power with the DP27 LMG. Now he’ll carry it around with him, giving him more mobility. He’s still slow, but his portable LMG can be used to cut through soft walls easily and deal heavy damage.
He also gets a second new tool, the Shumikha launcher. This grenade launcher can be used to launch fire grenades which will suppress entry points with a temporary fire effect. One round can shut down a single door, and you can quickly pivot to others for multiple entry points. Plus the grenades bounce, so you don’t necessarily need a line-of-sight to an entry point or enemy.
Tachanka is still slow, and Ubisoft says he’s still best as a backline anchor role. It also suggested he’s a good alternative to operators like Smoke.
The reworked Tachanka will be available on the PC test server starting Thursday, October 8. He’ll go live for all players and platforms sometime during the Operation Shadow Legacy season, which is currently live.
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Apex Legends’ latest update made many changes to the game, including adjusting the cooldown on Pathfinder’s tactical ability and adding cross-play. However, one change in particular has resulted in a lot of controversy: Respawn’s decision to adjust Wraith’s iconic Naruto run to a more standard run animation.
“This patch, we’re introducing a new set of sprint animations for Wraith,” the patch notes read in part. “These are much more upright and expose a larger area of her body to gunfire. Now we know her old sprint was iconic and we hate to see it go as well, but we believe this is the best way by far of bringing her in line without having to hit her abilities again. Depending on what we see after these animations go live, we may even be able to put some power back into her abilities (no promises though).”
This shift was designed to bring Wraith’s pick-rate down to acceptable levels without further nerfing her Legend abilities. However, some fans are quite upset about the change. One Redditor suggests just making Wraith taller rather than adjusting the animation. A particularly popular post sees Wraith Naruto-running around Apex’s shooting range in third-person as a tribute. Another compares the changed animation to a power-walking competitor.
Obviously, players who specialize a certain character aren’t going to be happy with any nerf–especially for a particularly popular legend like Wraith. We’ll have to see if this change truly does even the odds against the edgy Wraith mains of the world, or if she will remain the most popular Legend in high-level play regardless.
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