Author: Trafficblast

Death Stranding – Opening Cinematic

The time has finally come: Death Stranding is available now and you can finally play Kojima Productions’ mysterious open-world game. By now, you’ve probably seen quite a bit of the game courtesy of the many trailers shown over the years. However, we promise you, that’s just the start of the Death Stranding experience. The journey is full of twists and turns, and you can be sure you won’t see a lot of it coming.

In the video above you can watch the opening moments of Death Stranding–the calm before the storm as it were. You’ll be introduced to main character Sam Porter Bridges and also the weird and wild world of a post-Death Stranding America. You’ll also get a feel for what the game involves and what the overall goal that you, as Sam, will pursue.

GameSpot’s Death Stranding review awarded it a 9/10. “Death Stranding is a hard game to absorb,” said Kallie Plagge. “There are many intertwining threads to its plot, and silly names, corny moments, and heavy exposition belie an otherwise very simple message. That comes through much more clearly in the game’s more mundane moments, when you find a desperately-needed ladder left behind by another player or receive a letter from an NPC thanking you for your efforts.

“It’s positive without ignoring pain; in fact, it argues in both its story and its gameplay that adversity itself is what makes things worth doing and life worth living. It’s a game that requires patience, compassion, and love, and it’s also one we really need right now.”

Death Stranding – What An Explosive Voidout Looks Like

In the world of Death Stranding, dying leaves a lasting impression–it causes an event called Voidout, where the dead body explodes like a bomb and leaves a massive crater. It’s why most weapons are non-lethal.

Of course, the BTs don’t care; they’ll kill you without pause. And if they do, you will explode. Don’t believe us? Check out the video above; it showcases exactly what happens when a BT ends your life and causes a Voidout. Although it looks cool, the crater cannot be traversed–leaving a roadblock on your map that you’ll have to circumnavigate every time you’re travelling in that direction. It’s not that big of a detour, but it’s a little annoying.

In GameSpot’s Death Stranding review, Kallie Plagge wrote, “Death Stranding is a hard game to absorb. There are many intertwining threads to its plot, and silly names, corny moments, and heavy exposition belie an otherwise very simple message. That comes through much more clearly in the game’s more mundane moments, when you find a desperately-needed ladder left behind by another player or receive a letter from an NPC thanking you for your efforts. It’s positive without ignoring pain; in fact, it argues in both its story and its gameplay that adversity itself is what makes things worth doing and life worth living. It’s a game that requires patience, compassion, and love, and it’s also one we really need right now.”

Death Stranding – Trailers VS Game Release Cinematics

Sometimes early teasers and trailers for video games don’t reflect the final product. In extreme cases it’s night and day, but usually the differences are minor–either a small change the studio decided to make in the midst of development or alterations to hide a detail that would spoil the game. There are actually quite a few differences between the trailers and gameplay for Death Stranding–about 10 minutes worth.

In the video above, we showcase several of the key differences between what was shown in Death Stranding’s E3 2016 reveal trailer (our very first look at the game) and the actual cutscenes seen in the final product that was released over three years later. There are graphical differences, obviously, but there are less significant changes between the two as well. In the scene where Sam Bridges wakes up on the beach, crawls to his BB, and begins to cradle it, for example, the handcuff that links him to his infant companion changes arms between the trailer and the game. In the trailer, Sam wears it on his left, while in the game it’s on his right. The scene is longer in the trailer version as well.

In GameSpot’s Death Stranding review, Kallie Plagge wrote, “Death Stranding is a hard game to absorb. There are many intertwining threads to its plot, and silly names, corny moments, and heavy exposition belie an otherwise very simple message. That comes through much more clearly in the game’s more mundane moments, when you find a desperately-needed ladder left behind by another player or receive a letter from an NPC thanking you for your efforts. It’s positive without ignoring pain; in fact, it argues in both its story and its gameplay that adversity itself is what makes things worth doing and life worth living. It’s a game that requires patience, compassion, and love, and it’s also one we really need right now.”

What to Expect From Death Stranding’s First 10 Hours

It is no secret at this point that Death Stranding is a divisive game. Some have found central its cross-country walking and inventory-management mechanics frustrating, some have found them mediative and rewarding. What people seem to agree on, however, is that it takes things slowly in its first 10 hours, to the point that what Death Stranding actually is is still something of a mystery until it settles into more of a rhythm in its third act. If you’re confused as to what to expect during these ten hours, we’ve rounded up our unique experiences with them below to alleviate – or exacerbate! – any concerns.

Having previously never played more than a few hours of a Hideo Kojima game, I really had no idea what to expect of my first 10 hours in Death Stranding. They were a mixture of plenty of cutscenes and much slower-paced gameplay than I was expecting. But I reveled in that slowness, and I think it’s worth setting those expectations for what you might jump into. Because Sam Bridges has relatively few options in his arsenal at the start of Death Stranding, making a package delivery comes down to his ability to walk over rough terrain. The challenge is the journey, but so is the reward — after my first run or two, I loved taking a slow approach to plotting a best path from Point A to B, and then dealing with whatever curveballs the terrain, or BTs, threw my way. It’s slow, meditative, and not something that’s going to thrill you quite from the jump. Sidequest deliveries start to open up pretty early, but I’d advise against jumping on them at first — though I’ve spent most of my subsequent 40 hours with the game on those side deliveries, doing them at the start can be a bit too punishing. Death Stranding offers a slow trickle of new tools and mechanics that make those deliveries easier and, for me, more fun. – Jonathon Dornbush

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The Best Black Friday Gaming Deals on Nintendo, PlayStationn and Xbox

Welcome to IGN’s Black Friday gaming deals page, your source for all the best gaming deals you can get in the UK this month. We will be updating this page with the best Black Friday gaming deals as soon as they come out, so bookmark this page and check back more than once.

Black Friday isn’t far away, and it’s likely this will be the last time either the Xbox One or PS4 will be the centre of attention.

With the anticipated release of the new Xbox and PS5 in late 2020, next year’s Black Friday will have a dramatic shift in focus for retailers. However, we can still expect Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Xbox One to feature heavily in the upcoming sales for this year.

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Nintendo Announces Black Friday 2019 Switch Deals: Games, Joy-Cons, And More

The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.

Even though Black Friday 2019 is happening quite late in the month this year–November 29–that hasn’t stopped countless retailers from releasing their Black Friday ads already. Stores like Microsoft, Best Buy, and Target have already released full sneak peeks at their selection of deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and now Nintendo has announced its official Black Friday Switch deals–at least, the first round of them. While only four offers have been revealed, Nintendo’s Black Friday page asks visitors to “check back soon for more deals,” implying more limited-time offers will be added closer to the event itself.

First up is an assortment of Nintendo Switch games. Normally sold for $60, the following games will be available for $40 (33% off) at Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Target, and Walmart starting Wednesday, November 27:

While Nintendo’s page says these games will be available for $40, Target’s Black Friday ad claims the store will offer The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Tennis Aces, and Super Mario Odyssey for only $30 each as limited-time doorbuster deals. Also, please note that more games may be on sale as well, but the Nintendo website only confirms the above titles. Finally, if you prefer to buy games digitally, the Nintendo Eshop’s deals will likely be revealed at a later date.

Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controllers are also getting a discount during Black Friday. Normally sold for $80 a pair, you’ll be able to pick up a new pair of either gray or neon red and blue Joy-Cons for $60 (25% off). This offer will be available at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target starting Wednesday, November 27.

For those who play Pokemon Go or the Pokemon: Let’s Go Switch games, the Poke Ball Plus is a handy accessory for storing and catching Pokemon. It also comes with Mew, a mythical Pokemon that you can transfer into Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu or Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee. Normally sold for $50, the Poke Ball Plus will be on sale for just $20 (60% off) at Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Target, and Walmart starting Thursday, November 28.

Finally, if you were hoping for a price drop on the Nintendo Switch itself, you might be out of luck. Nintendo is offering the Switch bundled with a free digital copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for its full price of $300. If you have a good memory, you might recall this is the exact same bundle offered during Black Friday 2018. The difference this year, however, is that an upgraded Switch model with better battery life has since been released, but this particular bundle includes the original model without that improvement.

That said, if you’re interested in Mario Kart and don’t mind forgoing the extra battery life, this is still a solid deal. While not included in Nintendo’s Black Friday game deals, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe usually goes for around $50 on Amazon and elsewhere, so you’re saving a good wad of cash on this bundle. The console deal will be available at Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Target, and Walmart starting Thursday, November 28.

Nintendo’s Black Friday 2019 deals

  • Select Nintendo Switch games — $40 ($60)
  • Joy-Con controllers (Gray, Neon Red and Blue) — $60 ($80)
  • Poke Ball Plus accessory — $20 ($50)
  • Nintendo Switch with free copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe — $300

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Sony Wants To Transition Players To PS5 Faster

The PlayStation 4 has been a huge success for Sony, recently becoming the second-best selling console ever–only behind the PlayStation 2. Sony is looking to segue that into success for its next generation. New PlayStation boss Jim Ryan says the company’s main goal is to move the community from the current generation to the PlayStation 5 more quickly.

Referencing the success of the PS4, Ryan told GI.biz about leveraging the strong brand to the next gen.

“These are gamers who are networked and sticky and engaged and passionate about PlayStation to an extent that we’ve not seen in previous generations,” he said. “As we move towards the next-generation in 2020, one of our tasks–probably our main task–is to take that community and transition it from PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5, and at a scale and pace that we’ve never delivered on before.”

It’s unclear how Sony plans to move players along to the new console or if this will impact its stated plans of releasing games cross-platform. Ryan went on to point out that developers and publishers have given good feedback on the development tools.

“One thing that makes me particularly optimistic that what we’re hearing from developers and publishers, is the ease in which they are able to get code running on PlayStation 5 is way beyond any experience they’ve had on any other PlayStation platform.”

This comes as Sony reshuffles its management to prepare for the next generation, which includes a more globalized strategy. For more on Sony’s next console, check out everything we know about the PlayStation 5.

Now Playing: Horizon Zero Dawn 2 Could Be A PS5 Game – GS News Update

PSA: Death Stranding Save Files Take Up A Lot Of PS4 Hard Drive Space

With the latest updates installed, Death Stranding requires just over 49 GB of free space on your PS4, but you might want to make sure you leave some extra room for your save files, too. With a save system that intentionally catalogs dozens of auto-saves, it certainly caught us off guard when the save folder climbed to hundreds of megabytes–close to 900 MB, for some of us at GameSpot. In addition to eating up potentially precious storage space, this can also make transferring your lot of saves to the cloud an unusually lengthy process.

When compared to other PS4 save-file folders, it was unusual to find examples that breached the 100 MB mark, though there are certainly games that do. No game, however, based on sorting through numerous GameSpot staff PS4 profiles, came close to Death Stranding’s lofty sum.

When asked about the state of the save system, Sony confirmed that it is behaving as planned, so don’t expect this to change anytime soon. Thankfully, if your hard drive is in need of a little breathing room, you always have the option of going in to manually delete any auto-saves you wish. In doing so, its possible to cut the folder down to roughly 15 MB. Just keep in mind that number will steadily creep up as you play–playing through the opening mission brought the save folder up to 54 MB, for example. If you must, make a habit of deleting excess files often to keep this folder in check.

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Death Stranding is now officially released in some regions. If you’re starting off and find that you need some advice on where to go and how to accomplish certain tasks, or if you want to answer questions about things like vehicles, weapons, and believe it or not, how to best walk in Death Stranding, head over to our Death Stranding Walkthrough, Guides, and Tips page for all of that guidance and more.

Now Playing: 9 Essential Starter Tips For Death Stranding

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