New PS4 Freebie For PS Plus Members Available Now

This month’s free PS Plus games are now available, but those aren’t the only freebies Plus subscribers can get right now. Those who claimed the 2D shoot-’em-up Mercenary Kings when it was free on PS Plus can now upgrade to the game’s Reloaded Edition for no cost.

Mercenary Kings originally launched for PlayStation 4 back in 2014 and was part of the PlayStation Plus Instant Game Collection, allowing PS Plus subscribers to download the title for free immediately on its release. The Reloaded Edition arrived earlier this month and introduced two additional characters, new guns and knives to craft, and an assortment of gameplay improvements.

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If you downloaded Mercenary Kings when it was first available on PS Plus, you can snag the free upgrade here. The Reloaded Edition also supports Cross-Buy and comes with a version for Vita. You can learn more about the Metal Slug-inspired shooter in our original Mercenary Kings review.

February’s batch of free PS Plus games rolled out earlier this week and is headlined by Knack and Rime for PS4. In addition to those, PS Plus members can now get the 2D platformer Spelunker HD, the turn-based RPG Mugen Souls Z, and the tactical RPG Grand Kingdom. One of January’s PS Plus titles, the PSVR shooter Starblood Arena, is also still available to claim until March 6.

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PUBG’s Chinese Mobile Games Are Now in Early Access

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds mobile games were announced last year after Tencent won the exclusive rights to PUBG in China. The two games – Army Attack and Exhilarating Battlefield – have had 75 million players pre-register between them, and have just entered early access – topping the country’s iOS charts.

The news comes via industry analyst Danial Ahmad on Reset Era and Twitter. As well as localising the main game for China, Tencent developed the two mobile games that focus on land, sea, and air battles in Army Attack, and a mobile version of the main game with Exhilarating Battlefield.

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Battalion 1944 May Be the Old-School WWII Shooter You’ve Been Waiting For

There’s something distinct about the way the original Call of Duty and its first sequel captured the relentless chaos of war and distilled it down to reflex-based twitch shooting. Battalion 1944, for better and for worse, is pretty much exactly that.

I think I lasted maybe 10 seconds into my first match before getting headshot from across the map by someone I couldn’t see. Many of the battlegrounds feature long stretches of open space or tight corners that open up into tiny arena bunkers and courtyards. Even the forest-based maps included spots with no trees specifically to foster lining up the best shot. The layouts being designed this way certainly encourage a healthy amount of gunfire, but they sometimes funnel people towards each other so quickly I barely had time to breathe before I was waiting to respawn again.

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Dragon Ball FighterZ Producer Will Be a Competitor in EVO 2017

Dragon Ball FighterZ producer Tomoko Hiroki has announced she will compete at this year’s EVO 2018 tournament, which includes the Bandi Namco fighting game in its roster. The produced made the revelation on the Dragon Ball FighterZ EVO announcement video, adding “Practice a lot!,” she said, “Because I will enter the tournament.”

Dragon Ball FighterZ is one of the new titles to make its debut at the tournament this year, alongside the currently unreleased BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle. King of Fighters 14 didn’t make the cut and neither did series regular Marvel vs. Capcom with last year’s Infinite. DC’s heroes and villains will step in instead, in the form of Injustice 2.

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Metroid Prime 4 Reportedly in Development at Bandai Namco

Bandai Namco is rumoured be working on Metroid Prime 4 for Switch, according to reports. Earlier this week, Bandai Namco was reported to be working on Ridge Racer 8 and an unannounced first-person shooter game, both of which are Switch exclusives according to the resume of a Bandai Namco developer on LinkedIn. Now it looks like that FPS game might well be Metroid Prime 4, according to “multiple sources.”

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Every Upcoming Star Wars Movie

With the first trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story dropping this past Monday, and news breaking of Game of Thrones’ David Benioff and D. B. Weiss developing their own new series of Star Wars films, it’s time to get the full rundown on all the Star Wars movies on the horizon.

From scoundrels to Jedi masters to bounty hunters, we’ve cooked up a list featuring all the upcoming Star Wars projects. While some are locked and others are just strong rumors, one thing’s for sure – there are passionate plans in the works to give us A LOT of Star Wars, whether it’s a story centered on a known beloved character or an entirely new cosmic adventure.

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9 Things We Want From God Of War PS4

The upcoming PlayStation 4-exclusive God of War is shaping up to be one of the most exciting games of 2018. Much of the game’s appeal comes from how much it seems to go against the series’ established mold: The story is more personal and subdued, and the action is complex, yet less over-the-top violent. While the game looks incredibly promising, we’ve still got a few ideas about what it needs to do to surpass its predecessors. Here are nine things we want from God of War.

God of War is set to release on April 20 for PS4, in three special editions for the game—the Collector’s Edition, the Stonemason Edition, and the Digital Deluxe Edition—jam-packed special physical and digital bonuses. For a look at how God of War is shaping up, watch the game’s latest story trailer. And if you’d like more insight on the game’s development, read our in-depth interview with God of War director Cory Barlog.

If you’re eager to see what the other exclusives on PS4 are, then check out our in-depth gallery covering all of the biggest PS4 exclusives coming in 2018. You can also look at our galleries detailing Xbox One exclusives, PC exclusives, and Switch exclusives.

He-Man Movie Reboot Runs Into Trouble, Loses Its Director

The big-screen reboot of the classic cartoon and toy line Masters of the Universe has lost its director. In December, it was reported that Man of Steel and The Dark Knight writer David S. Goyer was in talks to helm the movie, which has been in development for many years. But according to Variety, he now stepped away from the project.

The site states that Goyer has left the Masters of the Universe reboot because of “other commitments.” Goyer was already involved with writing the movie and had delivered a draft of the script last fall. Variety reports that the studio was so impressed with it that it asked him to also direct, but this will no longer happen.

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Goyer was the second director to be associated to the project, following Terminator: Salvation’s McG, who was briefly attached in 2016. In August 2015, it was reported that Thor writer Christopher Yost was working on the script, but it is unknown what stage this reached. The film is currently scheduled for a 2019 release.

Mattel launched the Masters of the Universe toy line in 1982, creating a mythology about the conflict between good and evil on the planet of Eternia. A cartoon based on the property, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, ran for two years, in addition to a comic book series, a spin-off animation called She-Ra: Princess of Power, and a number of video games.

In 1987, Cannon Films produced a live-action movie version, starring Dolph Lundgren as muscle-bound hero He-Man. By that point, however, the popularity of Masters of the Universe was in decline, and the toys were discontinued the following year. Subsequent attempts to revive the franchise included a new toy line and a short-lived second animated series in the early 2000s.

In related news, the first trailer for one of Goyer’s other projects, the Superman prequel show Krypton, was released in December. The show takes a look at life on Superman’s home planet before its destruction, and it is set to premiere on SyFy later 2018.

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New Monster Hunter World Update Out On PS4 And Xbox One; Here Are The Patch Notes

A new update for Monster Hunter World has arrived. Capcom has launched the patch on both PS4 (version 1.05) and Xbox One (1.0.0.10), and it resolves some of the issues that have plagued the multiplayer experience. It also makes some balance changes–hopefully you weren’t too reliant on Slicing ammo.

The balance changes deal exclusively with the ammo used by two of the ranged weapon types. With the Light Bowgun and Heavy Bowgun, Normal ammo (1/2/3), Pierce ammo (1/2/3), and non-Dragon elemental ammo have all received an unspecified damage increase. However, Slicing ammo’s power has been decreased, and it should have less of an effect if it happens to hit another player. In a further nerf to Slicing ammo, players can now carry a maximum of 30 Slashberries on them at a time. If you were carrying more than that before installing the update, you’ll be able to use any extras before the new limit is imposed.

As for the Squad problems on PS4, Capcom says it’s addressed the issue where Squad features would be rendered inaccessible and players would be told, “Failed to retrieve squad information. Please wait and try again.” Unfortunately, Capcom says that players who created a Squad and were affected by this will have lost any Squad data. As a result, they’ll need to recreate their Squad (essentially the game’s equivalent of clans). Additionally, Capcom has dealt with a bug that allowed non-Squad members to join a Squad session without an invite, as well as one where Squad members were unable to do so.

Monster Hunter World’s Xbox One version hasn’t been without its own issues related to online play. Unfortunately, the problems with matchmaking aren’t addressed here, with Capcom stating, “Our development team is also working tirelessly on pinpointing the issues with matchmaking on Xbox One. We apologize for the delay and appreciate your continued patience and support as we track down and solve these issues.”

Capcom’s advice to players who can’t successful use matchmaking is to try getting online through a different means. It says, “You may still be able to create online lobbies, join others’ lobbies via ‘Filter Search,’ ‘Invite a Friend,’ connect via Xbox One LFG, or join hunts by using the ‘Respond to SOS’ feature.” Adjusting your settings to get your NAT type set to Open at the system level can also help.

The remainder of the patch deals with some other nagging issues, such as a quest not being available to players when it should be. It also fixes a problem that made it so the 5 Million Celebration Item Pack was not claimable. To give those players more time to grab it, it will now be available through February 22.

You can check out the full patch notes here. PS4 players have now run out of time to acquire the first Horizon: Zero Dawn gear, but more is on the way, as are Street Fighter V and Mega Man items.

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Monster Hunter World Patch Fixes Squad Issues and Matchmaking

Monster Hunter World has had some matchmaking issues on Xbox One since launch, which the developers promised to look into after complaints were raised. Both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions have had an update to fix squad and matchmaking, as well as ironing out additional kinks on PS4. Three new event quests have also gone live.

Capcom posted the patch notes for both consoles on its blog, and while it looks like there’s still some work to be done to root out the niggles in Xbox One’s matchmaking, it’s advised a workaround for now and recommended players check their NAT settings, as the issue has resolved itself for some people after setting their NAT connection to ‘open’.

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