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Here’s How Red That New PS5 Controller Color Is
Red, as everyone knows, is the best primary color, so it was extremely exciting to hear PlayStation announce a new Cosmic Red colored PS5 controller last month (along with a Midnight Black variant). The two new PS5 controller colors–which officially came out today–landed on our desks recently, so we snapped a few pics to see just how vibrant that new red is in the real-world (the Midnight Black one is, suffice it to say, pretty sleek and cool. But it is, at the end of the day, not red.)
As you can see from the images below, Cosmic Red in a living room setting turns out to look a little more magenta, but it’s a pleasing if not altogether striking shade. The brightness is certainly muted compared to the PS4’s Magma Red color (also shown below), but the new Cosmic Red certainly still stands out. For further comparison, I also took pictures of the new red controller with other red objects, but it was also likely done just so I could show off some neat things around my house.
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Here’s how PlayStation describes the two new color variants: “Midnight Black features two subtly different shades of black with light grey detailing to reflect how we view space through the night sky, and Cosmic Red offers a striking black and red design inspired by the unique vivid shades of red found throughout the cosmos,” PlayStation’s Isabelle Tomatis said on the PlayStation Blog.
Both new controllers are available to order now through multiple retailers, with the Cosmic Red controller costing $5 more than Midnight Black (on account of the redness, one would assume). You can order it online from retailers such as Best Buy and GameStop.
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.
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Fallout 76 Is Free On Xbox Right Now With Double XP
Xbox and Bethesda have announced that Fallout 76 will be completely free on Xbox and PC for the entire E3 week. Get out your acoustic guitar and call John Denver, it’s time to take the country roads home to West Virginia.
Live now through June 16, players can download the full Fallout 76 game on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC free of charge. The game will also be heavily discounted all week long for those who choose to join permanently, with progress from the free trial carrying over to the full game after purchase.
The free week of Fallout 76 features double XP throughout the entire trial and includes a chance to test the game’s Scrapbox and Survival Tent memberships through a special in-game item. In order to access the pass trial, the official blog post for the announcements tells players to “head to the Atomic Shop to claim the free Fallout 1st Limited Preview ‘item,’ then unlock the Scrapbox from the Shop’s Fallout 1st page, and head in-game to try out both features.”
Players who decide to visit West Virginia for the first time through this trial can reference a handy Fallout 76 Newcomer’s Guide on Fallout.com, which offers early mission walkthroughs and general tips for the wasteland’s newest citizens.
Fallout 76 is a first-person shooter MMORPG set in West Virginia during the post-nuclear apocalypse. The game originally launched in October 2018, and was recently updated via the Locked and Loaded update in late April 2021.
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Hackers Obtain 700GB Of EA’s Data And Source Code Using Stolen Cookies – Report
Publisher EA has been breached by a crew of hackers who stole 780GB of game data, according to a Motherboard report. The stolen data reportedly includes FIFA 21 source code and tools from the Frostbite engine, although EA says no player data was taken. A subsequent report states the hackers used company credentials purchased online to trick IT support members into thinking they were employees.
According to the initial report, the hackers have access to not just FIFA 21‘s source code but also the code for its matchmaking servers. And in addition to Frostbite engine tools, the hackers claim to have stolen proprietary EA frameworks and software development kits that streamline game making.
A source with access to the forums where the hackers posted the stolen data showed Motherboard screenshots of messages written by the culprits, with one that read you have “full capability of exploiting on all EA services” once inside EA’s corporate networks.
In a follow-up Motherboard report, representatives for the hackers explained exactly how they got EA’s data. It started by first buying stolen cookies belonging to employees for $10 and, in a perturbing cyber-body-snatcher kind of way, used those to pose as these individuals in the company’s official Slack channels. The hackers then requested a multifactor authentication token to gain access to EA’s corporate networks after telling IT support they “lost” their phones. This was apparently successful twice, and led to access to EA’s network and the ensuing theft.
An EA representative said the company is investigating the incident but assured fans that “no player data was accessed.” The representative also said the company has improved its security infrastructure to prevent this from happening again and is in the process of working with law enforcement to dig into it.
“We are investigating a recent incident of intrusion into our network where a limited amount of game source code and related tools were stolen,” the spokesperson said. “No player data was accessed, and we have no reason to believe there is any risk to player privacy. Following the incident, we’ve already made security improvements and do not expect an impact on our games or our business. We are actively working with law enforcement officials and other experts as part of this ongoing criminal investigation.”
We’ve reached out to EA for an additional comment on the hackers’ methods and will update this post if we hear back.
According to Motherboard, the hackers are also holding onto documents on things like PlayStation VR, how EA creates virtual crowds in titles such as FIFA, and information on AI in games. In total, the hackers claim to have 780GB of EA data and are reportedly looking to sell it on online hacker forums.
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Kena Bridge Of Spirits Preview
Action-adventure game Kena: Bridge of Spirits mixes a bunch of inspirations, from the combat of The Legend of Zelda to the storytelling sensibilities of Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon. We recently got a chance to play about an hour of Ember Lab’s new title, and came away struck by how well it balances its ideas, and just how cute its little black mascots, the Rot, really are.
Protagonist Kena is a spirit guide, and hergoal throughout the game is to discover what happened to a village where a calamity has taken place. Corruption infects the land around the village and the spirits of some of its inhabitants are trapped, unable to move on, and becoming corrupted, too. In our playthrough, we went in search of a spirit named Taro, searching for relics to uncover his memories, learn what happened to him, and finally, summon him to help him cross over.
The Rot, the little black creatures who follow you around, are a big part of the gameplay experience. You find them in the world, and the more you have, the more powerful they become. You can use them to solve puzzles, move objects to clear paths, and repair shrines and statues to help restore the village and its surroundings. But the Rot also help you fight, attacking and distracting enemies and powering up your attacks. The Rot are your constant companions, and represent how Ember Lab is looking to tell Kena’s story through gameplay and the connections you make with characters, both friendly and not-so-friendly, along the way.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is headed to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC this August.
Kena: Bridge Of Spirits Is All About Connections With Your Friends–And Your Enemies
Don’t be fooled by the exceeding cuteness of the Rot, the tiny black spirits that hang out with you in Kena: Bridge of Spirits. Though they sport big eyes, hilarious hats, and a goofy demeanor, those little creatures can be dangerous in a fight–especially in big groups. Luckily, they’re on your side.
GameSpot recently got a chance to spend about an hour playing an early portion of Kena: Bridge of Spirits, venturing into the world surrounding a central village that has been beset by calamity. As Kena, a Spirit Guide, you’re working to find out what happened at the village and to help some of its inhabitants’ restless spirits to move on. The catch is, some kind of corruption has infected the area around the village and the spirits themselves, so venturing into the wilderness finds you battling twisted enemies constructed of wood and plants.
Luckily, the Rot is there to help. The little folks are spirits of decay that inhabit the world, renewing life and restoring balance by recycling things that have died. You can find Rot all over the place, often hidden under rocks or secreted in corners, and the more of them you add to your group, the more powerful they become.
Kena wields a staff imbued with her Spirit Guide powers, and when you run into these enemies and fight them, it’s your primary weapon. Combat feels pretty similar to what you’d expect from other action-adventure games, like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, with Kena sporting a fast, light melee attack, and a heavier swing she can charge up. She can also dodge attacks with a quick roll or block and parry attacks with an energy shield, leaving foes reeling and open. But it’s the integration of the Rot into fights that sets Kena apart.
In combat, you can dispatch the Rot to help you against enemies, often distracting and disabling them, or to interact with objects on the battlefield that can give you an advantage, like special flowers that heal Kena. The Rot also help you to destroy “hearts” of corruption on the battlefield, which allow you to drive back the pestilence infecting the world, and to stop new enemies from spawning.
Those interactions are usually done with a single button, so you’re usually not trying to control the Rot as their own entity while also running around and fighting as Kena. But the Rot aren’t always up for a fight–they’re pretty small, after all, and not particularly strong when they’re not working together. So to pep them up, you need to fight enemies yourself to fill a Courage gauge; when it’s full, the Rot feel comfortable enough to jump into the battle with you, opening up their actions.
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You can dispatch the Rot to do certain things while you fight, and as you level up in the game, you can find different ways to use their abilities. Fighting and exploring the world earns you Karma, which you can spend on new abilities and upgrades for Kena, and these include different Rot attacks that can use the little guys in cool ways. As we played, we unlocked the Rot Hammer ability, in which the Rot swirl around Kena’s staff so she can bring it down in one big powerful slam.
But even out of combat, the Rot are an essential part of Kena’s journey. You might find objects blocking your way, and often, you’ll need to send the Rot to clear the path. Throughout the forests surrounding the village, you’ll find things like damaged shrines and knocked-over statues, but with the Rot’s help, you can repair those things. Fixing them gives you more Karma, so it’s worth exploring the environment and leaving the main path so that you can find new things to interact with.
“A lot of the gameplay… it kind of helped just form that connection with the player organically.”
A theme of restoration and repair runs throughout the gameplay and the story, linking the two together. As we climbed a mountain and explored the area, we found places where the Rot could move statues to solve puzzles, or join them together in a droplet of water to form a sort of spirit amoeba that could move objects and even water plants to restore them. It all helps the Rot to quickly become your constant, amiable companions, popping up on ledges as you’re jumping and climbing to encourage you, or swimming along behind you when you jump into a body of water. Their presence is one way through which developer Ember Lab looks to tell the game’s story and bring players into its world, co-founders Mike and Josh Grier explained in an interview with GameSpot.
“A lot of the gameplay, especially with the Rot because they’re used so much, it kind of helped just form that connection with the player organically,” Mike, the studio’s chief creative officer, said. “That was something that we kind of knew what we wanted to do with that, but that’s something we had to figure out as we’re in development quite a lot.”
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Much of the game seems to be about making those character-driven connections. Though Ember Lab’s background is in animation–it first gained some fame with a short animated film set in the world of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask–Ember’s chief operating officer, Josh, said that the game isn’t brimming with cinematic cutscenes (though we did see a few of those hands-off moments in our time with it). Part of the reason for that was keeping the game’s scope reasonable, because animating cutscenes can require a lot of work, and Ember is a small studio with only about 15 core members. But part of it is because the developers looked to tell Kena’s story through moments of gameplay and interaction, like in using the Rot.
Kena’s goal of helping spirits move on is largely about uncovering their story and finding ways to connect with them. In our hands-on, we set out to find the spirit of a village named Taro, and to do that, we had to try to find relics of his to summon him. Those relics contain some of Taro’s memories, revealing the tragic story of what happened to him. But we also spent time with his relatives, learning more about him along the way.
Mike said one of the inspirations the team drew on for the game was the Akira Kurosawa film Rashomon, which provides different points of view on the same events. In Kena, you’re uncovering the story of what happened to the village by revealing the tales of the people who were there, and hearing the perspectives of the people who knew them.
“I think that we thought that we would have to have these really meaty ending cutscenes to really sell the story, but I think, because it’s the pace of the game, it allowed us to be a little bit more conservative and just let your experiences with the characters throughout gameplay really inform a lot of the stuff that you learn about Taro towards the end,” Josh said. “You just have a lot more time.”
That’s not to say there aren’t cutscenes; Ember Lab took a few opportunities during our playthrough to move the story forward with cinematic moments in which Kena learned more about her abilities as a spirit guide, such as when she learns to turn her staff into a spectral bow, opening up new abilities in fights and new ways to traverse and interact with the environment. It was a handy ability, because we soon needed it for some battles with tougher enemies, either to snipe spirits fighting from trees, or to nail weak points on big, tough wooden knights.
A lot of these battles, especially against mini-boss creatures, take on the feeling of a combat puzzle, in which you need to find ways to block and parry enemies with precise timing, nail their weak points, and utilize the rot to disable them. One fight against a creature called Kappa saw the spirit disappearing into the ground before summoning smaller enemies to fight for him. The only way to really do any damage was to use the Rot to hold Kappa in place, so that Kena could lay into him with her strong attacks.
“f you’re doing your job well as a spirit guide, this is all about the spirit that you’re helping, and helping them let go.”
And combat can get pretty tough, it seems, despite the easygoing look of the game. Enemies are fast and deadly, and your timing with parries and dodges needs to be well-honed to keep from getting rolled by them. Utilizing the Rot well, knowing the scope of the battlefield, and finding ways to keep enemies off-balance are all essential. Mike and Josh said the difficulty can go higher if you want it to, adding elements like losing Courage when you take damage, which makes it tougher to use the Rot to distract enemies or heal yourself, but it can also be made easier to keep players who would rather just focus on the story from getting overwhelmed.
Ultimately, though, fighting the corruption and beating back enemy spirits is about freeing Taro from the blight so the spirit can move on, and from the sounds of things, you’re really doing that by forming a connection with him. The game might look bright and the Rot might be cute, but there’s an element of sadness and tragedy that pervades throughout.
“If you’re doing your job well as a spirit guide, this is all about the spirit that you’re helping, and helping them let go,” Josh said. “So you do have to form a personal connection with them to understand what’s wrong with them, but then ultimately, you’re saying goodbye to them…. You build relationships with all the spirits that you help on the way because at some point to complete your mission, you have to let them go. And I think that kind of bittersweet ending was a goal, inspiration for us as well.”
What seems to make Kena: Bridge of Spirits stand out, though, is the way it blends a lot of different approaches and ideas. It has gameplay reminiscent of a lot of favorites, such as Zelda’s combat, the climbing and environmental exploration of something like Uncharted or Tomb Raider, and the ability to unlock new portions of its map in a bit of a metroidvania way. Its storytelling draws on inspirations from the likes of film and the works of animation studios such as Pixar. But in our time with the game, we found that the mixture of those things elevated the individual parts to make the world of Kena a deep and fascinating one–and worthy of exploring further.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is slated to release on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC in August.
Save On Guilty Gear Strive, Battlefield 2042, And More In Weekend PC Games Sale
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.
Green Man Gaming’s weekend deals including a preorder discount on Battlefield 2042, credit rebate on Guilty Gear Strive, and more.
Fresh off its world premiere announcement, Battlefield 2042 preorders are already being discounted as part of Green Man Gaming’s weekend deals. Preorders for EA and DICE’s new first-person multiplayer shooter are 12% off across all three editions, with the standard edition available for $53, the Gold edition available for $79, and the Ultimate edition on sale for just under $100.
The Battlefield 2042 preorder deals are the cornerstone of an EA publisher sale, with It Takes Two, Star Wars: Squadrons, and Command and Conquer: Remastered among the EA games also receiving discounts. Note that these PC deals redeem on Origin.
Other weekend deals at GMG include a credit rebate for those who purchase Guilty Gear Strive, getting you $12 credit when you buy the standard or Deluxe edition, and a Team17 publisher sale with discounts on Blasphemous, Neon Abyss, My Time At Portia, and more.
Battlefield 2042 preorder deals
More weekend game deals
Amazon Prime Day 2021 News & Deals
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Call Of Duty Season 4 Gets New Zombies Details Teased By Treyarch
Treyarch tweeted two teasers today for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War‘s upcoming Zombies content for the Season 4 update on June 17, and these brief images give a good idea of what to expect for the start of Season 4.
The first teaser shows the region-warping animation from the Zombies Outbreak mode, and this gives players the first look of Season 4’s new Outbreak map. The clip only shows a glimpse of the area, but this is the new Zoo location in the Ural Mountains. A few potential locations were possible given the Ural Mountains map leak, but now Zoo is seemingly confirmed for the start of Season 4.
Treyarch’s second tweet reveals that the prologue to the next round-based Zombies map will begin on June 17. The image in the shows a strange device, and it’s caption says, “W. The Defectors Are En Route. We Must Move To Extract. -R.”
This is almost certainly announcing that the upcoming Outbreak Easter egg quest will begin on June 17, which the developers previously addressed would be coming to set up the narrative for Season 4’s next round-based map. There’s no release date for the next round-based survival map, but it will likely arrive with the mid-season update.
Activision also released a new cinematic trailer for Black Ops Cold War and Warzone, potentially teasing that Season 4 is about to heat things up with the return of the brainwashing “Numbers program” from the Black Ops storyline.
We’ll be updating all the details for Call of Duty’s Season 4, as new information should be revealed for Black Ops Cold War and Warzone’s updates in Activision’s weekly blog post on Monday, June 14.
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Fallout 76 is Ditching Its Battle Royale Mode
Bethesda Game Studios has announced that it will be terminating play for Fallout 76’s Nuclear Winter battle royale mode in September, as it looks to increase support for other game modes in the multiplayer Fallout title.
Per the latest Inside the Vault blog, the reasoning for the decision to shut down Nuclear Winter mainly comes from the mode seemingly losing players over time as they preferred to explore other game modes. The full statement from Bethesda is below:
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“When we first introduced Nuclear Winter, we were thrilled to watch so many players from our community, as well as many newcomers, dive head first into our take on the ruthless last-player-standing Battle Royale genre. Over time, however, we’ve seen the vast majority of players prefer to explore other aspects of the game. It has also become tougher to put full Nuclear Winter lobbies together without also making sacrifices on match wait times.
“Additionally, we’ve found it challenging to provide meaningful updates for Nuclear Winter, while also developing and supporting exciting new content for Adventure Mode in recent and upcoming updates. With all of this in mind, we are currently planning to sunset Nuclear Winter Mode in an update coming this September.”
Whilst this news will obviously be disappointing for those players that enjoyed the Nuclear Winter mode in the game, Bethesda did also tease new game modes that might replace Nuclear Winter that will be announced, “a little later this year, we will release details on how we plan to offer players even more ways to play Fallout 76”.
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Veteran players of the Nuclear Winter mode won’t lose out entirely though, as they will find themselves rewarded through in-game items like Perk Coins: “When Nuclear Winter goes offline, we’re going to fill your characters’ pockets with Perk Coins, which can be used to upgrade your Legendary Perks in Adventure Mode. Each character will receive 6 Perk Coins per Overseer Rank they achieved, up to a maximum of 600, as well as 1 Perk Coin for each Overseer Ticket they earned, up to a max of 200. All players who completed at least one Nuclear Winter match will also receive a Nuclear Winter themed Pennant for their C.A.M.P.s”.
Fallout 76 has suffered a rocky development process, launching with ample bugs and technical problems, and added a ludicrous subscription service, but has still retained a dedicated player base. Yet despite the closure of the Nuclear Winter mode in September, Bethesda has made it clear in this blog that they plan to continue to support Fallout 76 for many years to come. It’s worth remembering that Bethesda will be part of Microsoft’s E3 show, so we might hear some more of what’s coming up for Fallout 76 at that conference. For all the latest news on all things E3, stay tuned to IGN.
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Liam Wiseman is a Freelance News Writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @liamthewiseman
The Elden Ring Subreddit’s New Hero Is a Little Walking Pot
When Elden Ring finally, finally showed off gameplay, there are a few things you probably could have guessed would be in it. Giant, screaming, multi-limbed kings, whispering hooded figures, a dragon the size of a supermarket – check, check, check. But surely, no one could have foreseen little walking pots – and that surprise has led the famously exuberant Elden Ring subreddit to claim the creatures as their own.
After waiting two years for gameplay – and inventing their own game along the way – you’d have expected the subreddit to be a swathe of gameplay breakdowns and clue gathering 12 hours later. And yes, there’s a bit of that – but there’s also a hell of a lot of praise for the pot guys.
Having appeared in less than a second of video footage, and a screenshot (below), the Pot Lads, or Vaseboys, or Urnbros, have immediately garnered memes, fanart and unofficial mascot status in the group.
Wild-Capuccino sums up the general response: “I love them so much!” JetStream0509 agrees: “Fromsoft once again proves that they are the best in the biz when it comes to enemy design.” And BrotherCataract has thought a step beyond that first reaction: “If the funny little vase gremlins turn out to be annoying enemies I don’t know what I’ll do”
Of course, the fanart soon followed, with some lovely takes on the creatures now beginning to fill the subreddit.
It’s not just their bizarre cuteness that’s excited fans – they also speak to some FromSoftware gameplay staples. “I don’t know why he hyped me so much. More mimic-like enemies, it will be so greatly frustrating,” wrote Verystrangeperson. “Go to roll through some vases and one of these f**kers grabs you and holds you inside it to take a bite then hertz your ass. The devs know we like rolling,” added Fallentitan98.
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We shouldn’t have to wait too long to find out exactly how heartbreaking or satisfying it’ll be to destroy Elden Ring’s potpeople population, with the game now set for a January 21, 2022 release date. We learned a lot more about the game yesterday, too – from its weather to dynamic weather to its different location types across a seamless open world.
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