Author: Trafficblast

Janelle Monae Joins Knives Out 2

Singer Janelle Monáe (Homecoming) has joined the excitingly and suddenly growing cast of Knives Out 2, which now appears to be in full force ramping up pre-production. The addition was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, but little is still known about what roles the ensemble will all be taking on or the movie’s plot.

In addition to Monáe, Dave Bautista (Army of the Dead) and Edward Norton (Fight Club) are among the earliest of what’s expected to be many casting announcements, based on the 2019 movie that kicked off the new franchise. Knives Out 2 currently has no set release date, but is expected to begin production in Greece sometime this summer.

Like the first installment, the movie will see Daniel Craig play master detective Benoit Blanc–with an inexplicable southern accent–solving a mystery where there’s a large pool of potential suspects. The original Knives Out starred Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Plummer, Michael Shannon, and Toni Collette.

Netflix recently secured a deal with writer-director Rian Johnson for both Knives Out 2 and 3 for a staggering $400 million, which means eventually there will also be similar announcements for an upcoming third movie. In addition to working with Netflix, Johnson is also developing Poker Face, a 10-episode mystery series for Peacock that will star Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll).

Sony Boss Jim Ryan Says PlayStation 5 Production Is “Ramping Up Over The Summer”

Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan has acknowledged the PlayStation 5’s continued absence from store shelves, laying out his plans to fix the shortage as the year progresses.

In an interview with Wired about the new console–which has sold 7.8 million units since March 31 despite the shortage–Ryan spoke about the steps being taken to mitigate the shortfall. “We’re working as hard as we can to ameliorate that situation,” Ryan says. “We see production ramping up over the summer and certainly into the second half of the year, and we would hope to see some sort of return to normality in terms of the balance between supply and demand during that period.”

Now Playing: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart – The Final Preview

The lack of PlayStation 5s on the market has not hurt the console’s performance when compared to its predecessor, however. The Wired article mentions that according to Sony, from the November launch to the end of March, PS5 owners have spent 81 percent more time on the console than early PS4 owners did during its first months on the market in 2013-2014. Sony also notes an 11 percent rise in software sales between the PS5 and PS4 in that same period of time.

The PlayStation 5’s momentum will only continue with Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart launching on June 11 and both Horizon Forbidden West and the next God of War also on the way. In fact, PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst has confirmed 25 first-party PS5 games are in development, with around half of them being entirely new IP.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Amazon Boss Talks Lord Of The Rings TV Show’s Huge Season One Budget

Amazon is reportedly spending $465 million to produce the first season of its Lord of the Rings TV show, making it one of the most expensive TV shows in history. Even if the figure is not that high, as some have suggested, Amazon is undoubtedly paying a lot of money to produce the show. Amazon Studios boss Jennifer Salke has now spoken about the huge price tag, saying–perhaps jokingly to an extent–that the show needs to attract “a lot” of viewers for the investment to be worth it.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter (via Collider), Salke said the entertainment market these days is “crazy.” She cited Netflix’s recent move to pay $469 million for the two Knives Out sequels as an example of this. For Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show, Salke said Amazon’s investment covers a “full season of a huge world-building show,” which incurs a major cost.

Salke said the $465 million budget for The Lord of the Rings season one makes for a good headline for people to latch onto, but she reminded people that this money is being spent to “sustain the whole series.”

“The number is a sexy headline or a crazy headline that’s fun to click on, but that is really building the infrastructure of what will sustain the whole series,” she said.

Salke remarked that “it is a crazy world” out there for executives looking to sign projects as it relates to their cost, and The Lord of the Rings is no different. She said The Lord of the Rings needs to draw a major audience on Amazon, and she’s confident that it’ll work out.

“There’s a lot of wooing and we have to make decisions on where we want to stretch and where we want to draw the line. As for how many people need to watch Lord of the Rings? A lot. (Laughs.) A giant, global audience needs to show up to it as appointment television, and we are pretty confident that that will happen,” she said.

Amazon is said to have paid $250 million just for the rights to make The Lord of the Rings TV show, and Jeff Bezos–a fan of high fantasy–was reportedly directly involved in the negotiations. The show is currently filming in New Zealand, and the local government is giving Amazon a rebate of more than $100 million to film there.

Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show is set in the Second Age, but we still don’t know anything about the story or characters. To date, Amazon has not released any footage for the show, nor do we know when it’s scheduled to release. It will be on Amazon Prime.

In other Lord of the Rings news, Amazon recently canceled its Lord of the Rings MMO due in part to a reported contract dispute.

Mass Effect 3’s Multiplayer Mode Could Return If There’s Demand For It

It turns out that Mass Effect 3’s online multiplayer experience could make some kind of return in the future, according to Mass Effect: Legendary Edition‘s project director.

In an interview with GameSpot sister site CNET, project director Mac Walters was asked if the still-active Mass Effect 3 online multiplayer offering would come back in some capacity. Walters didn’t deliver a straight answer but said it depends on the reception the Legendary Edition receives and if there’s a demand for multiplayer.

Now Playing: Mass Effect Legendary Edition – Official Remastered Comparison Trailer

“I would never say no to that,” Walters said. “We want to see what kind of reception the Legendary Edition gets and what the demand for the multiplayer is. And then we’ll ask ourselves if we have the resources and time to bring it up to the quality level we and fans want.”

This echoes a similar sentiment from earlier this year, in which Walters confirmed that multiplayer would be cut from Mass Effect: Legendary Edition so developer BioWare could focus on overhauling the single-player experience.

Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer was praised at the time for its squad-based, cooperative action and integration into the game’s overarching narrative.

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition launches on May 14 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, as well as PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S via backward compatibility. It’s currently discounted on Amazon, so be sure to check out our Mass Effect: Legendary Edition preorder guide to learn about the available bonuses and our preloading guide to find out when Mass Effect: Legendary Edition can be downloaded.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Metalocalypse, And The Venture Bros Movies Are Coming

Adult Swim has greenlit and will be producing three new movies based on its original hit series Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Metalocalypse, and The Venture Bros. According to a release, the movies will be released globally on Blu-ray and DVD and on TVOD (transactional video on demand) services for a 90-day exclusive window, followed by premieres on HBO Max and Adult Swim. No release dates for any of the films have been announced.

“Leveraging the power of WarnerMedia allows us to deliver original content to our amazingly dedicated and not-shy fans, while also giving our talented series creators an opportunity to tell stories in new and interesting ways,” said Michael Ouweleen, president of Adult Swim.

The fact that each of these series is coming back in any form is both incredibly exciting and unexpected–but the biggest shock may go to The Venture Bros., which was canceled last September. The long-running series had Season 7 air in 2018, which unceremoniously ended a run that began with the pilot episode’s release in 2003. It had been a couple more years since anything was last heard about either Aqua Teen Hunger Force or Metalocalypse, which were both canceled in 2015.

Brief synopses for each film were also included in the release, which are as follows:

  • Metalocalypse: The power-hungry TRIBUNAL unveils their secret and deadly “Falconback Project” as the world grows in embattled chaos and the menacing Doomstar breaches the Earth’s atmosphere while the mysterious and twisted dissent of a band member threatens the future of Dethklok. Picking up directly after the heroic rescue of Toki Wartooth: Can Dethklok choose between their egos and the greater good of the world to embark on a gauntlet of dangers that will try their very souls and finally write the song that will be their salvation?
  • The Venture Bros.: Doc’s latest invention will either bankrupt the Ventures or launch them to new heights, as Hank searches for himself, Dean searches for Hank, The Monarch searches for answers, and a mysterious woman from their pasts threatens to bring their entire world crashing down on them.
  • Aqua Teen Hunger Force: A continuation of the hit animated series, fans will find out what happens next with Frylock, Meatwad and Master Shake, who consider themselves crime fighters, but the truth is they never fight crime.

As of this writing, it’s unclear if these movies are intended to give each series the intended finale each creative team intended to provide for their canceled series, or might leave the door open to further sequels.

PlayStation Studios Has Over 25 PS5 Games In Development, Sony Boss Says

PlayStation fans have a lot of new games in their future according to PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst. The Guerrilla Games co-founder, speaking for an interview with Wired, says that there are over 25 PS5 games in development within the group, and half of them are brand new IP.

When asked about the types of games in development–aside from known titles like Horizon Forbidden West and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart–Hulst said there is “an incredible amount of variety originating from different regions.” No specific new titles were mentioned, but the piece goes on to reference Ember Lab’s Kena: Bridge of Spirits and the unannounced game from Jade Raymond’s new Haven Studios as two examples.

Now Playing: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart – The Final Preview

Ember Lab is also working on its second game according to co-founder Josh Grier, who mentions the solid state drive inside the PS5 as something the team wants to capitalize on. “I know for sure we haven’t fully taken advantage of how actually fast it is,” Grier says in the Wired piece. “We were getting a lot of benefits of it being just out-of-the-box better. But I think you can push it even more.”

The article also mentions that Horizon Forbidden West is still slated for 2021, while also giving a small preview of how the game utilizes the DualSense controller’s haptic feedback. According to Guerrilla’s studio head Angie Smets, “if you want to take a stealth approach to a combat situation and you dive into long grass, you can feel those long grass leaves.”

The PlayStation 5’s lineup of exclusive games since launch has included some critically acclaimed titles, including Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Demon’s Souls, and most recently Returnal from Housemarque. Next for the console is the aforementioned Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart on June 11, though that is the last known release date for a first-party PlayStation title as of this writing.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Scarlet Nexus Demo Coming To Xbox Consoles First Later This Month

A demo for Scarlet Nexus, Bandai Namco’s upcoming anime action-RPG, goes live on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S on May 21, a month before its June 25 launch.

The game’s Twitter account shared the news, stating the demo will hit Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S first. There’s no word on whether the demo will hit PC or PlayStation consoles, how long the demo will remain active for, or if progress will carry over to the full game. Further, it’s unclear how much of Scarlet Nexus will be playable when the demo drops later this month.

Now Playing: 11 Minutes of Scarlet Nexus Preview Gameplay

We’ve reached out to Bandai Namco for clarification and will update this post if we hear back.

Scarlet Nexus is a third-person action game in the same vein other Bandai Namco action-RPGs like Code Vein. In a preview after playing about three hours (through the Parsec streaming platform), GameSpot editor Michael Higham walked away impressed but looking for more before being convinced of the game’s potential.

“When reflecting on my short time with Scarlet Nexus, I see potential for a high-quality action game with slick anime-stylings, even if I feel like I’ve seen something like this before,” Higham said. “However, it’s the smaller gripes that accumulate and leave me reluctant to wholly embrace the game right now.”

Scarlet Nexus launches on June 25 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Check out our Scarlet Nexus preorder guide to learn about the available bonuses. Elsewhere, Funimation is developing a spin-off anime series that debuts on June 25 as well.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Control Studio Remedy Confirms It Now Has Six Games In Development

Control developer Remedy Entertainment has provided some insight into what it’s working on right now, and this includes a brand-new game that the studio is keeping under wraps. In total, Remedy has now six games in the works that we know about.

As part of Remedy’s latest earnings report, the company said nearly all of the developers who worked on Control have now shifted to “other Remedy projects.” One of these is a “new, exciting early-phase project.”

Now Playing: Control: Expansion 2 AWE – Announcement Trailer

CEO Tero Virtala was asked on an earnings call if this game was separate from any of Remedy’s previously announced new games, and he confirmed that it is. “Yes, we have a new project, but it is in very, very early stages. Nothing more to expand on that,” he said, as reported by IGN.

This is now the sixth game that Remedy has confirmed it’s working on. The other projects include the single-player modes for Crossfire X and Crossfire HD. Additionally, Remedy is making two games with Epic Games, including a AAA title that will move into full production soon and a “smaller-scale” title that is now in “full production mode.” Both are said to be set in the Alan Wake/Control universes.

Additionally, Remedy is making a free-to-play co-op game called Vanguard that is still in the early stages. Remedy said Vanguard’s development is progressing “at a good pace,” with internal playtesting happening now and plans to expand the external closed tests soon.

To support all of these projects, Remedy also confirmed in its earnings report that it now employs 281 people, which is an increase compared to last year. Remedy added that it is testing new ways to find talent to join the studio.

Overall, Remedy posted revenue of €8.1. million, which is up 3.4%, while total profit was €900,000, which compares to €1.1 million last year.

“Remedy Entertainment as a company, and our games specifically, are progressing according to our plans. We have a strong cash position, and our global market continues its rapid growth. Supported by all this, we have now started to implement the next phase of our strategy to reach ambitious long-term growth objectives,” the studio said.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Best PS4 Racing Games For 2021

The best PS4 racing games span numerous sub-genres, from simulation and arcade to cart racers and extreme sports. Whether you’re a car enthusiast who wants to tinker with the smallest of details to perfect your style of racing or you simply want to drive fast (and maybe get into some exciting crashes), there’s a wide range of racing games on PS4 that are well worth checking out. While all of the racing games on this list are for PS4, you can play them on PS5 too thanks to backwards compatibility. Note that our picks for the best PS4 racing games are listed in alphabetical order, not ranked.

For more PlayStation game suggestions, make sure to take a look at our roundups of the best PS4 games, best PS5 games so far, and best split-screen PS4 games. We also have lists dedicated to other platforms, including best Xbox One games, best Xbox Series X games so far, best Nintendo Switch games, and best PC games to play in 2021.

Absolute Drift is more about precision than speed. As the name suggests, the goal here is to master the art of drifting through more than 30 levels scattered across five differentiated areas. Played from a top-down perspective with minimalistic visuals, Absolute Drift is mechanically sound and quite relaxing. The electronic music that plays in the background adds to the zen-like experience that Absolute Drift offers. If you’re looking for a more mellow racing game to chill out with, Absolute Drift is a great choice.

With heaps of spectacular crashes, ridiculous stunts, and a wide assortment of exciting game modes, the Burnout series is one of the best arcade racing franchises ever made. While it’s been more than a decade since a new mainline Burnout game released, Burnout Paradise Remastered still plays like a dream. The open-world racing game received updated visuals and performance on PS4, and it comes with all of the game’s post-launch DLC. Whether you’re playing solo or online with friends, Burnout Paradise Remastered offers a constantly invigorating racing experience. There’s plenty of varied objectives to tackle in Burnout Paradise Remastered, but you can also make your own fun and see what kind of havoc you can create.

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled blends nostalgia with modernity to create a sound cart racer that will make you at least a little less sad that Mario Kart isn’t on PlayStation. While it’s a remaster of the original game, it also pulls from other entries in the series while adding modern flourishes and new content to keep the experience fresh. Crash Team Racing has some of the best track designs in the cart racing sub-genre, and it makes great use of these across its single-player adventure and various competitive multiplayer modes. This is a racing game that’s great for both adults looking to relive their childhoods and kids who are zipping onto the track for the first time.

See our Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled review.

Endlessly exhilarating, Descenders is a mountain biking game with an emphasis on speed and stunts. With tight controls and a wonderfully designed physics system, Descenders’ moment-to-moment action is top-notch. Where Descenders truly stands out, though, is in its world design. Randomly generated worlds aren’t common at all in the racing genre, and Descenders uses this feature to take it to big heights. From forests and barren wastelands to human-made tracks and more, Descenders’ environments come to life (and blur by you in an instant) each time you start your descent. Descenders has tremendous replay value thanks to the randomly generated worlds, and thankfully the loop never tires.

Dirt 5 brought the series back to its pure arcade roots, offering a racing experience that’s casual enough for newcomers to dive in and enjoy while also retaining enough depth to keep things interesting for the long haul. It has a cool dynamic weather system that actively changes how you have to approach each race and an excellent mix of tracks to burn rubber on throughout its lengthy career mode. You can also create your own tracks in the new Playgrounds mode, which is a cool inclusion that adds to the level of variety available in Dirt 5. If you like speeding around in fast cars but don’t want to get into the nitty gritty details of vehicle performance, Dirt 5 lets you hit the ground running and never lets up from its enthusiastic and friendly tone.

See our Dirt 5 review.

If you’re looking for a rally racing sim that aims for realism, look no further than Dirt Rally 2.0. It’s essentially the opposite experience of Dirt 5. Made for rally enthusiasts, this off-road racer has a unique handling system that mimics the unexpected conditions you’d find while moving at blazing speeds across bumpy terrain. With a huge variety of rally cars and great customization features, gearheads can fine-tune their rides to fit their preferred play style. Dirt Rally 2.0 uses the FIA World Rallycross championship as its foundation, offering eight official circuits as well as tracks across numerous continents.

F1 2020 offers the most authentic Formula One experience in the series to date, mainly because of its new mode dubbed My Team. Just like the real deal, My Team lets you create and manage a Formula One team from the ground up, giving you total control over everything from your team colors to training facilities and so much more. F1 2020 doesn’t abandon its traditional career mode; it exists separately, giving players a lavish amount of solo content to choose from. And if you’re interested in racing with friends, F1 2020 brings back split-screen racing to go alongside the online multiplayer mode. Though designed with realism in mind, F1 2020 has a great casual driving mode that makes it a stellar Formula One game for beginners as well.

Though Gran Turismo Sport felt limited on content at launch, it has expanded significantly over the years to offer a more well-rounded Gran Turismo experience. While it’s still not a full-fledged mainline game, GT Sport packs enough content under the hood to keep you playing until Gran Turismo 7 finally launches. Gran Turismo Sport is almost solely focused on competitive online races, with rotating competitions available all the time. It still looks and handles like a Gran Turismo racing sim, which is to say it’s superb. With over 300 cars and 80 tracks, GT Sport offers a ton of variety. And if you’re not much of a competitive racer, a more traditional single-player campaign is available as well. Still, this is a racing sim that largely focuses on competition. If you want to test your skills, GT Sport is as refined and compelling as racing sims get.

See our Gran Turismo Sport review.

Inspired by old-school arcade racers and console games like Out Run and Top Gear, Horizon Chase Turbo is fueled by nostalgia. What you see is what you get here. Colorful but rudimentary visuals yank you back to the arcade, and the emphasis on pure speed with whippy handling makes Horizon Chase Turbo feel authentic. 3D car models racing against 16-bit backdrops gives it a unique look that is shown off brilliantly across the game’s more than 100 tracks. While you can enjoy the various cup series solo, Horizon Chase Turbo really hits its stride when playing split-screen multiplayer with three friends or trying to beat your buddy’s best time on a tricky track.

MotoGP 2021 is the latest game in the long-running bike racing series. If you’ve played recent entries in the franchise, MotoGP 2021 doesn’t do much to move the needle, but it’s still your best bet if you prefer two-wheel racing over four wheels. A robust campaign mode lets you either create your own team or join a real-life MotoGP squad. For longtime fans, MotoGP 2021 is a treat, as it features 120-plus riders. The track list is relatively small, but each one is intricately designed and the moment-to-moment racing offers a superb challenge that encourages you to really get to know your bike, the tracks, and your competitors.

Need for Speed Heat is mostly a return to form for a series that had been falling into mediocrity for years. Like many games in the franchise, Need for Speed Heat has its own unique hook. As a street racer, you compete during official competitions when the sun is up. Once the sun sets, things get much more risky. You can compete in illegal street races and try to avoid less than savory cops who don’t just want to bust you–they want to steal from you by any means necessary. Heat also has a well-implemented drift system that feels more realistic than the simplistic overall car handling, which adds another layer to races. Great customization features help you optimize your rides to your liking, too. Heat is at its best during the thrill of the chase, and luckily, there’s plenty of that here.

See our Need for Speed Heat review.

Project Cars 2 is a grueling racing sim designed for enthusiasts who prefer realism over fast-paced action. The handling system was influenced by input from real race car drivers, which makes it quite demanding. While playing with a controller is serviceable, Project Cars 2 really hits its stride when playing with a racing wheel. In terms of authentic feel, you’d be hard-pressed to find a racing game that tops Project Cars 2 when driving with a wheel. The level of realism extends to the 24-hour day cycles and dynamic weather and surface conditions, which are unparalleled in the genre. Project Cars 2 is chock-full of intricately designed tracks and more than 180 rides, ranging from sports cars to IndyCars to rallycross.

See our Project Cars 2 review.

Team Sonic Racing is Sega’s answer to Mario Kart, and while it doesn’t have the depth and polish of the Mario Kart franchise, it is still a ton of fun. Team Sonic Racing has a solid foundation thanks to great cart controls that are responsive and easy to grasp and a wide range of cool tracks filled with Sonic trappings. With three different classes of drivers that have their own unique racing styles and an emphasis on playing as a unit, Team Sonic Racing adds its own flavor to the cart racing genre.

See our Team Sonic Racing review.

The Crew 2 is one of the weirdest racing games on this list, purely because it never really decides what it wants to be. In this case, that’s a good thing. The Crew 2 is a consistently surprising open-world game that features cars of all types, boats, planes, and motorcycles–all of which you can cycle through instantly. Fly off a bridge in a car and land in a boat. Soar past skyscrapers in a jet and switch to a muscle car that plummets out of the sky. The Crew 2 gives you free reign over how you approach its rather wild premise. The open-world map, which is a scaled version of the United States, is gorgeous to explore. The many dedicated races and objectives help show off The Crew 2’s myriad of approaches from getting from point A to point B.

See our The Crew 2 review.

Trackmania Turbo is different from most of the games on this list. Rather than beating your opponents on the track, your goal is to beat the track itself. The campaign has more than 200 courses scattered throughout four unique environments. Each time you start your engine, it’s a race against the clock in an effort to beat the best time. This is pure arcade racing across some seriously zany tracks, each of which tests your skills and teaches you something new about how to approach the objective at hand. Trackmania Turbo also has a cool track creator that lets you make your courses or randomly generate tracks that can be uploaded to the servers for others to play.

See our Trackmania Turbo review.

Trials Fusion is an always compelling and often hilarious physics-based motorcycle game filled with absurd tracks that keep the action interesting throughout. While you can play local multiplayer races with up to four players, Trials Fusion is primarily a game about besting times and scores, whether that be preset track times or your friends’ best scores. Trials Fusion could be aptly described as “touchy,” because it’s easy to get greedy and wipe out. It doesn’t try to be realistic, but the adherence to this wacky physics system is ultimately what makes Trials Fusion so fun to play. Despite the fact you’re maneuvering across a 2D plane, Trials Fusion has plenty of depth and rewards those who stick around to really master the physics and the elaborately designed tracks. While there’s a steep learning curve, you can make your own tracks using a robust course creator.

See our Trials Fusion review.

Though it’s unclear if we’ll ever get a new Wipeout game, PlayStation users can still enjoy some of the best the series has to offer in the Wipeout Omega Collection. The compilation contains three anti-gravity racers: Wipeout HD, Wipeout HD Fury, and Wipeout 2048. All three games show a different side of Wipeout, which helps them complement each other in fun ways. Wipeout HD, of course, is classic anti-gravity racing on futuristic tracks. For a more action-packed experience, Wipeout HD Fury injects more combat into the mix. Meanwhile, Wipeout 2048 is a prequel taking place before the technologically advanced tracks were developed, which means you’re racing across natural environments. The three experiences add up to create a special collection that is a whole lot of fun whether you’re playing solo or against friends.

See our Wipeout Omega Collection review.

A spiritual successor to the popular FlatOut series, Wreckfest is a demolition derby game oozing with style. As the name suggests, there’s a lot of collisions and pileups in Wreckfest. The physics and crash systems are top-notch, offering exhilarating spectacles of carnage. Between Wreckfest’s traditional races and demolition derby crash fests, there’s a ton of differentiated content to enjoy. Each vehicle in Wreckfest has a different handling system and general feel, and you can also use an in-depth customization system to fundamentally change how your vehicles perform. Wreckfest’s PS5 update releases in June, but PlayStation Plus subscribers can grab the game’s upgraded version for free already this month.

See our Wreckfest review.

Xbox Series X|S Now Has The Original Xbox Animated Background

The original Xbox animation, with all of its neon-green-and-black vibes, has returned to the Xbox Series X|S. It’s now been added to the current generation of Xbox consoles as a dynamic background.

The new dynamic background is a much higher-resolution version of the laser-green orb, and it’s a free addition as part of the latest Xbox system update. Of course, the original Xbox interface doesn’t come over–no surprise changes to the Xbox Series X|S dashboard–but it’s nonetheless a nice gesture to Xbox nostalgia from Microsoft. Let’s hope that one day Microsoft will let us relive the glory days of the original Xbox’s lava lamp startup animation, as well. You can see video of the dynamic background in action in the embed below, via The Verge.

In addition to this surprise dynamic background and the Motes dynamic background, the latest Xbox Series X|S update brought a number of welcome changes to the Xbox Series X|S user experience. Most notably, it addresses user complaints about the performance of the Quick Resume feature. Following the update, Quick Resume should be, well, quicker and more reliable.

The update also adds a passthrough audio option, letting you switch on a setting that’ll improve audio quality in media apps if you have an external sound system. Finally, it also adds some functionality to parental controls, enabling parents to block multiplayer modes on a title-by-title basis.