Cyberpunk 2077 has just released its latest patch, 1.23 for PC, consoles and Stadia. Among the usual mix of fixes, it makes clear that CD Projekt Red is continuing to work on making the game perform better on consoles.

Announced on the Cyberpunk 2077 website, patch 1.23 includes “various console CPU optimizations.” While detail’s lacking, CPU optimizations could help everything from frame rate to calculations made to improve the game’s simulation. Whatever those changes, it’s clear that the developers are continuing to work on the game’s general performance on last-gen consoles, or in backwards compatibility on new-gen consoles.

That’s particularly important in light of the game’s return to the PlayStation Store on June 21. Six months after being removed from the service, Sony clearly now sees the game as stable enough for sale on its store – but still made a point of telling users with original PS4 units that they will “continue to experience performance issues with the PS4 edition while CD Projekt Red continues to improve stability across all platforms.” Hopefully, patches like this will go some way towards remedying that problem.

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Other headlines among the 1.23 patch notes (which you can read below) include improvements that should stop identical NPCs spawning in the same area, multiple crash fixes across all platforms, and fixes for issues that affect 17 different quests.

Here are the patch notes, in full:

Cyberpunk 2077 1.23 Patch Notes

Quests & Open World

Space Oddity

• Fixed an issue where the “Open the package” objective could change location.

Gig: Family Matters

• Fixed an issue where Juliet’s car could disappear on sight after completing the quest.
• Fixed a streaming issue in Juliet’s house.
• Fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to enter Juliet’s house if the player didn’t meet either of the Attribute requirements.

The Heist

• Fixed an issue where Jackie could go through glass.
• Fixed an issue preventing some guards from attacking the player.
• Fixed an issue where the “Search the Arasaka officer” objective could remain active after fulfilling it.
• Fixed an issue where the mech didn’t spawn in the lobby.
• Fixed an issue where some Arasaka guards could clip through the door.
• Fixed an issue where some guards could spawn on player’s sight.
• Fixed an issue where Arasaka officer’s body could be unaccessible, making the player unable to loot the shard and blocking progression.

The Nomad

• Removed unnecessary button prompts.

The Hunt

• The news segment in the shard from River will now properly play audio.

The Beast in Me

• Fixed an issue where progression could be blocked if the player left Claire after the Santo Domingo race too early.

Queen of the Highway

• Fixed an issue where the Basilisk could clip through some of the trees.

Down on the Street

• Fixed an issue where there were no quest-related dialogue options when talking to Wakako.

Forward to Death

• Smoke and dust will no longer flicker when riding the Basilisk.

Gig: Goodbye, Night City

• Fixed an issue where progression could get blocked after rescuing Bruce if the player called Delamain.

Path of Glory

• Fixed an issue where V could get stuck in the AV if they stood at the landing spot before it arrived.

Gig: No Fixers

• Fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to open the door to Dakota’s garage at the end of the quest.
• Fixed an issue where Iris could teleport instead of walking.

Gig: Getting Warmer…

• Fixed an issue where fixer’s car could drive straight through the intersection instead of turning right.
• Fixed an issue where the prompt to use the coolant on 8ug8ear could still be selected while plugging her out, which could break the animation.
• Fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to pick up 8ug8ear.
• Fixed an issue where NPCs could spawn underground, blocking progression.

Gig: Many Ways to Skin a Cat

• Fixed an issue where notifications from Regina regarding this gig could appear during The Heist.
• Fixed an issue where it was possible to connect to the computer after failing the quest by destroying the van, which resulted in player getting stuck.
• Fixed an issue where progression could get stuck on the “Go to the Revere Courier Servies facilities” objective.

Cyberpsycho Sighting: Where the Bodies Hit the Floor

• Fixed an issue where after collecting the information the next objective to send it to Regina wouldn’t appear.

Cyberpsycho Sighting: On Deaf Ears

• Fixed an issue where after collecting the information the next objective to send it to Regina wouldn’t appear.

I Fought the Law

• Fixed an issue where River wouldn’t be present at the meeting spot before entering Red Queen’s Race.

Gameplay

Fixed an issue where after killing a NPC and stealing their car, their body could get stuck in the car.

Adam Smasher will no longer receive damage during animations between his attack phases.

Fixed an issue where dropping a NPC’s body caused too much destruction.

Cataresist cyberware should now work properly.

Visual

Fixed Johnny’s spectral appearance in various quests.

Fixed various issues related to clipping in NPCs’ clothes.

Fixed appearance of rocks in the Badlands.

The Pickup

• Fixed an issue where one of the Maelstromers was T-posing.

Stability and performance

Numerous crash fixes in animations, UI, scene, physics and gameplay systems.

Memory optimizations and memory management improvements in various systems (reducing the number of crashes).

Various console CPU optimizations.

Memory and I/O improvement leading to fewer instances of NPCs with identical appearances spawning in the same area, and to improved streaming.

PC-specific

Fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to click the upgrade button while playing with 1280×720 resolution.

Fixed an issue where toggling the Windowed and Fullscreen modes with Alt+Enter made the game appear unresponsive.

[Steam] Changing language settings to default will now set it to the language of the Steam client.

A popup message asking to verify integrity of game data will now be displayed when incomplete or corrupted game data is detected.

Xbox-specific

Fixed an issue where signing out during a scene fade-out could result in the game being partially unresponsive.

Fixed an issue where the Pause Menu would open again on its own if the Xbox guide and the Pause Menu were closed in quick succession.

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EA Sports PGA Tour‘s Career Mode is starting to look pretty ambitious, with the inclusion of all four golfing Majors, as well as a host of amateur events. A new update on the game has confirmed that amateur events including the U.S. Amateur Championship will make a showing in the game, while The Country Club course in Brookline will be playable for its first ever appearance in a video game.

While PGA Tour boasts being the only game to feature all four Majors, the amateur events are just as important to its Career Mode. “Winning the 2015 U.S. Amateur Championship was a highlight of my early career that helped propel my game forward, ultimately winning the 2020 U.S. Open Championship,” said pro golfer Bryson DeChambeau. “I’m a big video game fan, and EA SPORTS bringing not only the U.S Open but also amateur golf events, is very exciting, especially given how important they are to golfers growing their career.”

Despite the range of tournaments available to play, it’s clear PGA Tour is still centered around the U.S. Open, which an EA press release describes as “the toughest major in golf.” The game will include the Torrey Pines course, which is hosting this year’s U.S. Open, as well as next year’s host, The Country Club. The newly added course will be rendered in the game with the help of new aerial scanning technology.

EA Sports PGA Tour is due out in Spring 2022, with EA promising more information on the game to be released in line with this summer’s biggest golfing events.

While the sniper rifle is standard issue in almost every first-person shooter, few games manage to capture the challenge and coldblooded thrills of being an actual expert marksman. At its best, Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 does a good job of satisfying the desire to splatter bad guy brains with a buzzer-beating bullet from way downtown – but it all too quickly unravels into an average action game the moment your cover is blown.  

In Contracts 2 you slip on the augmented reality equipped mask of Raven, a super soldier in possession of steady aim and a penchant for a particularly deadly form of social distancing. Raven may be a newcomer to the series, but his mission will be eminently familiar to anyone who played the previous game since it centres around yet another tale of international espionage and political upheaval, told very loosely by forgettable flurries of mugshots and confidential documents that put the ‘brief’ into pre-mission briefings. 

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The mission structure, however, is slightly different to that of 2020’s Contracts. Whereas the last game presented you with a series of sandboxes to sneak around in, Contracts 2 brings some welcome variety by alternating between two traditional open mission areas and three concentrated ‘long shot’ contracts. The latter restrict your movement to smaller maps, such as the top of a mountain range, but task you with eliminating targets that are in some instances over a thousand metres beyond your perimeter. I found these long distance executions to be the strongest sections of Contracts 2. Zeroing your scope, adjusting your aim for wind and bullet drop and then nailing a headshot in another postal code remains thrilling long after the novelty of the skull-shattering slow-mo gore shots has worn off, but the annoyingly accurate return fire from humble enemy assault rifles at such long ranges admittedly shatters the sense of realism somewhat. 

Poor Patrol

Enemy soldiers might be blessed with supernatural levels of precision, but their actual smarts aren’t nearly as sharp. At times they show some signs of tactical nous, by tossing a smoke grenade to mask their movements or bombing your last known position with a mortar strike in the more open areas, for example. But mostly they’re far too easily dispatched, either with a long range headshot or, should you miss and therefore raise an alarm, by simply hiding in the nearest bush with a silenced pistol and calmly picking them off as they form an orderly queue like it’s all-you-can-eat night at the Hot Lead buffet. 

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Since I only faced the same handful of recycled enemy types over the course of Contracts 2’s 12-hour campaign, I found myself becoming increasingly cavalier with my infiltration methods because I knew that no matter how many CCTV cameras or automated gun turrets were alerted to my presence I could always fall back on the old conga line of carnage method to reduce each area’s enemy numbers down to zero. This gave each objective an air of predictability, and it didn’t help that the bulk of Contracts 2’s key targets and optional bounties lack the flexibility and flair of the more devious assassinations in Io Interactive’s Hitman series in order to make them each feel unique. I certainly didn’t go in expecting to be able to disguise myself as a sad clown or sushi chef, but I do wish there were more interesting ways to snuff out each mark. It’s effectively just spot the target, shoot the target, and move on to the next. 

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There are also non-assassination objectives in most levels, typically involving the planting of explosives to sabotage stockpiles of enemy weaponry or the uploading of viruses into mainframe computers. Much of this is pretty stock standard, although I did enjoy the rare occasions I was able to use my sniper skills for non-lethal means, like when I had to take out three sets of revolving gears situated around a massive satellite antenna. The fact that these gears seemed to be exposed for no other reason than to be specifically shot at by a meddling sniper did seem a little contrived, but I was happy to forgive it in a Death Star exhaust port design flaw sort of way.

Scope for Improvement

Speaking of design flaws, Contracts 2 features a skill tree for Raven along with an expandable arsenal of rifles, sidearms, and gadgets, but it all feels decidedly non-essential given that the missions don’t really scale in difficulty nor do they feature any objectives that demand experimentation with alternative weapon loadouts. Aside from adding silencers to my weapons early on, I actually forgot about the progression system entirely until I got to the very last mission, at which point I just spent all the cash and skill points I’d racked up in one go purely for the sake of it. Some of it would have been useful in retrospect, such as the motorised gadget that allows you to use ziplines in reverse, but the bulk of the health and armour upgrades I was very easily able to do without.  

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This largely unnecessary upgrade system also makes the optional level challenges seem redundant for anyone who isn’t an absolute completionist. There are cash and skill point bonuses to be earned for killing five enemy snipers with melee attacks or eliminating a key target without raising an alarm, but I wasn’t compelled to retry any objectives in order to complete these challenges both because I didn’t need the rewards and also because none of them seemed particularly imaginative. There’s clearly been a lot of work put into each of Contracts 2’s settings, particularly in the massive Mount Kuamar map that stretches from mountainous forest areas down to multiple levels of a subterranean, Bond villain-like lair, but I passed through all of it once, never to return again.

With its fifth anniversary on the way, No Man’s Sky is still building and improving on its impressive intergalactic world. Earlier in June Hello Games released the ambitious Prisms Update, which added furry creatures and flying pets for the first time. The latest update 3.53 is a smaller hotfix, mopping up some of the issues created by Prisms.

The biggest addition in the new patch is what Hello Games describes as “improved ship explosion effect during space combat.” The other major changes in the update are all fixes for issues in Prisms’ new content–such as bugs around how furry creatures are displayed.

While the list of fixes in this patch is pretty concise, Hello Games has encouraged players to keep reporting new bug through Zendesk or console crash reporting so they can be fixed by the development team.

Patch Notes

• Fixed an issue that could cause some furry creatures to be missing the hologram effect when on the Space Anomaly.
• Improved ship explosion effect during space combat.
• Fixed an issue that could cause stars to appear closer than they should in VR.
• Fixed a rare crash related to bases.

With No Man’s Sky turning five years old in August, it’s likely players can expect more surprises in the lead up to the anniversary date. The game recently hosted a surprise crossover with Mass Effect to mark the release of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, where No Man’s Sky players could unlock the iconic Normandy SR1 ship for their fleet.

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The way that MCU movies framed Black Widow back in the days of Iron Man 2 and Marvel’s The Avengers and the way we look at her now, a decade later, are very different. With Black Widow less than a month away, star Scarlett Johansson is looking back at the character’s evolution in a new interview with Collider.

“You look back at Iron Man 2 and while it was really fun and had a lot of great moments in it, the character is so sexualized, you know?” Johansson said. “Really talked about like she’s a piece of something, like a possession or a thing or whatever, like a piece of ass, really. And even Tony refers to her as something like that at one point.”

“[Tony] at one point calls her a piece of meat and maybe at that time that actually felt like a compliment. Because my thinking was different,” Johansson continued. “Now people, young girls, are getting a much more positive message, but it’s been incredible to be a part of that shift and be able to come out the other side and be a part of that old story, but also progress, evolve. I think it’s pretty cool.”

Johansson also talks about Black Widow’s objectification as it pertains to the character’s internal development.

“I think actually Natasha uses her sexuality as a means to feel, sort of manipulate a situation and then be coquettish and sly, and then she’s going to take your legs out, right? She’s going to be seductive in this way, and that’s her power; her power’s in her sexuality, and then that changed over time, right?” Johansson said. “Her strength was actually her vulnerability. In Endgame she sacrifices herself out of love. She saves her friend, she saves everyone. And I think just being in that kind of headspace and being able to make taht decision, that selfless act, is so incredibly powerful.”

The interview is long and Johansson talks about a variety of topics, so it’s worth a read in addition to these tidbits. Tickets for Black Widow are on sale ahead of its theatrical debut on on July 9, when it also hits Disney+ Premier Access. In the meantime, read up on what the director had to say about her inspirations going into the movie and what Black Widow will look like in IMAX. Don’t forget to check out the latest trailer, either.

DC Comics and Lego have been close for years, with the two brands coming together to create four games and a dozen direct-to-video movies and shows. One of the biggest productions from the two companies, though, was the 2017 Lego Batman Movie. We won’t be getting a sequel, though, and it comes down to rights, Collider reports.

“Because Lego has left Warner Bros. and is now over at Universal (as of April 2020), there probably won’t be a Lego Batman sequel, unfortunately. I’m so sorry to say that, but I don’t think they’ll be making a Lego Batman 2,” said Lego Batman Movie director Chris McKay. In other words for the movie to happen, Warner Bros. would have to let Universal make a movie with their most profitable character–the one they’re too conservative to make even a sex joke with, let alone trust someone else with a whole movie. Alternatively, Universal would have to let Warner Bros. make a Lego movie despite the studio’s exclusive deal.

The movie was in the early stages when the changeover happened. According to McKay, none other than Dan Harmon, creator of NBC’s Community and Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty, was writing the film with Michael Waldron.

It was “a story about Batman’s relationship to the Justice League now, as well as formative moments of the Justice League then,” McKay said, along with developing Batman’s relationship with Superman. The film was meant to be about friendship and change, McKay said.

“It was about how hard it is to change. To commit to change. To stay on the new road you’ve carved for yourself,” he said. Movies like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse had also influenced Warner Bros. to give the writers more room to take Batman seriously in the Lego context.

While Lego Batman 2 isn’t happening, Matt Reeves’ film, The Batman, has finished filming. We’ve seen just a couple teasers for the movie, but we’re already picking them apart for all the Easter eggs we can find. The Batman is currently scheduled to release on March 4, 2022.

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Werewolves Within will have a limited theatrical release on June 25 and will be available on VOD on July 2.

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Loosely based on Ubisoft’s multiplayer VR game from 2016, Werewolves Within borrows the social deduction elements from that party game to present a silly, suspenseful “whodunnit” horror-comedy. Tonally, the film doesn’t hit every comedy beat it’s aiming for, as the lines between parody and satire get blurred, but overall it’s a fierce fun time.

A blinding snowstorm and debilitating blackout trap a small group of bickering New Englanders in a remote cabin. Fueled by paranoia and ulterior motives, the gossipy gang must figure out who among them might secretly be a snarly, ravenous werewolf bent on killing and devouring the rest. That is if werewolves are even a real thing and it’s not just the work of a psycho faking wolf attacks. On paper, it’s a promising premise rife with opportunity for violent blunders and lethal misunderstandings.

And for the most part, Werewolves Within delivers, but occasionally it falls just short of huge laughs. It’s good, but there’s an even funnier film buried beneath this one. Or an even scarier one. Perhaps director Josh Ruben felt leaning too far in one direction would undercut the scares or the laughs, but trying to balance both evenly winds up taking a bite out of the final product.

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Veep’s Sam Richardson (who also serves as executive producer) and Other Space’s Milana Vayntrub headline a goofy ensemble featuring Michaela Watkins (The Unicorn), Cheyenne Jackson (American Horror Story), Michael Chernus (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Catherine Curtin (Stranger Things), and more, each sort of representing a niche crackpot category of rustic small-town living.

As bucolic Beaverfield’s new park ranger, Finn, Richardson gets to be our eyes for the film’s first act, embodying a do-right doofus in all the wonderful ways Richardson can while Vayntrub’s friendly, flirty mail carrier, Cecily, catches him up on all the local gossip. Richardson and Vayntrub possess top-notch banter chops, and their characters are the least cartoonish, so the film plays at its strongest whenever they’re anchoring a scene. And Richardson is very good at reacting to absurdities in a way that makes them feel grounded and germane, be they character eccentricities or surprise atrocities.

The murder mystery element of Werewolves Within, which at times runs like Knives Out and at other times like Hot Fuzz, carries a lot of the movie, allowing the story to stretch to the point where you as the viewer may even begin to doubt whether or not there is an actual werewolf stalking the cast. The film very much utilizes the idea that the true monsters may reside inside us and that when human survival instinct kicks in, logic and empathy quickly exit. It does it so well that the ending could have gone either way and it would have still worked just fine.

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As far as the breadth of characters goes, some operate as if they’re in different movies from one another, and a few feel as if they’re in a different story than Finn and Cecily. It’s this imbalance, where the film can’t seem to decide if it’s lampooning certain archetypes or lovingly embracing them, that Werewolves Within trips up a bit. Michaela Watkins is great, but sometimes her crafting-obsessed Antifa-fearing Fur Mama, Trish, clashes too much with the drier, more deadpan humor also working.

Werewolves Within is a nice breather in a summer filled with more horror movies than usual (due to 2020’s mass delays). It’s cool and cutely cruel while also tossing in a clever twist or two. As a movie adaptation of a game, there’s not much here that necessarily tethers it to the Ubisoft game, nor are there ample Easter Eggs or hidden references, but that works out for the best.

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After an astonishingly successful box office run during a sluggish time for movie theaters, Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train is about to head to streaming. Funimation has announced that the hit film will stream exclusively on its platform, starting on June 22 in the United States and Canada and on June 23 in Australia and New Zealand.

Funimation will make Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train available in both its English dub and its original Japanese dub with English subtitles.

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The announcement comes at the tail-end of a spectacular North American theatrical run for the R-rated anime. The film has earned over $48 million in the United States and Canada since its debut on April 23. Along with having the highest grossing foreign language debut in U.S. box office history with $34.1 million, Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train has become the highest-grossing anime film of all time worldwide, topping $500 million. Spirited Away sits at a distant second with a $395.58 million gross. Additionally, Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train is also the highest-grossing film in Japanese box office history.

“Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train has been a runaway success since it opened last year, galvanizing fans and attracting a whole new generation to anime,” said Asa Suehira, Chief Content Officer for Funimation Global Group. “With the addition of the movie, fans can take a deep dive into the franchise watching the first season of the television series, three special television episodes and now the feature-length film from their homes or on the go.”

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In our review of Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train, IGN gave the film a 7, saying that “jaw-dropping visuals alone make [the movie] well worth a watch, even if the film stumbles a bit at the climax.” For more about Demon Slayer, read about how the new movie sets the stage for Season 2 of the main series.

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J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.