Genshin Impact PS5 Upgrade, 1.5 Update Release On April 28

Genshin Impact‘s 1.5 version update Beneath the Light of Jaeite and PS5 upgrade will launch on April 28, developer Mihoyo has announced. As shown in a new trailer detailing the upcoming content, version 1.5 will add a new Trounce Domain, boss enemy, characters, and a fancy teapot.

Version 1.5 will also give players a chance to continue the hangout story with Noelle and Diona, the bartender of The Cat’s Tail in Mondstadt. Eula, a Spindrift Knight from Mondstadt, and Yanfei, a legal adviser from Liyue Harbor, are being added to the game as new playable characters.

Eula is a five-star character, a claymore-user, bearer of a Cryo Vision, as well the Captain of the Knights of Favonius Reconnaissance Company.

Eula
Eula

Her elemental skill, Icetide Vortex, increases her resistance to interruption and her defense when she deals Cryo damage, while her elemental burst attack creates an area of effect Cryo damage to nearby enemies and spawns a Lightfall Sword that further increases her resistance to interruption.

Yanfei
Yanfei

Yanfei is a half-human and half-illuminated beast from Liyue and will be available as a four-star Pyro-using catalyst-wielder. She can create Scarlet Seals with her normal attack, which provides a stackable buff that decreases Yanfei’s Stamina consumption and can be consumed to increase the power and range of her charged attacks.

No Caption Provided

New enemies include Azhdaha, the Lord of Vishaps. This beast can change the environment of the battlefield in its Trounce Domain, which players can explore in pursuit of weekly rewards if they survive the encounter with the beast. A new boss-level Cryo Hypostasis has also been discovered in Dragonspine, and players must also be wary of the Abyss Lector: Violet Lightning that prefers to use ranged attacks and has Electro and Hydro-powered attacks in its arsenal.

No Caption Provided

On a more relaxing note, players now have a chance to get their hands on a Serenitea Pot from Madame Ping, which will allow them to enter a new realm and build their dream home. As the owner of the Serenitea Pot, players will be prompted to choose from several realm styles such as Floating Abode, Emerald Peak, and Cool Isle to build their home away from home, each one featuring a Mondstadt- or Liyue-style building with several indoor rooms.

No Caption Provided

Remodeling will require discovering various furnishing blueprints around Teyvat, and the more furnishings you make, the more Trust resources you can earn from Tubby the teapot spirit. Once your Trust Rank is high enough, Tubby will help you switch realm layouts if you’re interested in a new design.

On a technical level, gameplay optimizations include double the amount of Companionship XP for gameplay completed in co-op mode, new seasonal challenges, and upcoming events that will be detailed at a later date. The PS5 version of Genshin Impact that will arrive with Version 1.5 comes with 4K resolution, enhanced textures, and faster loading times.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Resident Evil Village Resolution And Frame Rates For Consoles Revealed

Resident Evil Village doesn’t just look like one of the spookiest new entries in the long-running franchise, it also appears to be capable of delivering a few jump scares with impressive visuals. Arriving on a variety of console platforms as well as PC in May, Capcom has shared a list of the resolutions and frame rates you can expect depending on your console and chosen graphics settings.

For the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of the game, players will be able to explore Castle Dimitrescu and the surrounding village in 900p on the base model consoles. The Xbox One version of the game will run at 30fps according to Capcom, while the standard PS4 version is capable of reaching 45fps. For those with an Xbox One X or PlayStation 4 Pro, both consoles feature more significant gains depending on the mode you choose to play Resident Evil Village in.

A performance mode on both consoles will max the game out at 1080p running at 60fps, while the high resolution mode increases the resolution to 4K at the cost of the frame rate which will be capped to 30fps.

Current-gen hardware further increases the graphical quality of the game, with the standard experience being a 4K HDR picture running at 60fps on both PS5 and Xbox Series X. With ray tracing turned on, both consoles run the game at 45fps. As for the Xbox Series S, it’ll be capable of producing a 1440p HDR gaming experience at 45fps or 1440p HDR at 30fps when ray tracing is turned on. While the 45fps frame rate is unusual, Xbox Series X|S owners may be able to use VRR to improve the experience if they have a compatible display.

You can see the full list below:

Resident Evil Village output resolutions and frame rates

PS4

  • 900p at 45fps

PS4 Pro

  • 1080p at 60fps
  • High resolution mode – 4K at 30fps

PS5

  • 4K HDR at 60fps
  • Ray tracing on – 4K HDR at 45fps

Xbox One

  • 900p at 30fps

Xbox One X

  • 1080p at 60fps
  • High resolution mode – 4K at 30fps

Xbox Series X

  • 4K HDR at 60fps
  • Ray tracing on – 4K HDR at 45fps

Xbox Series S

  • 1440p HDR at 45fps
  • Ray tracing on – 1440p HDR at 30fps

Stadia

  • 1080p at 60fps or upscaled to dynamic resolution 4K running at 60fps

This week’s Resident Evil showcase from Capcom had plenty of new information to share on the franchise, including details on the game’s series of time-limited demos the return of The Mercenaries arcade shooter mode, a crossover event with Dead By Daylight, and a virtual reality version of Resident Evil 4 coming to Oculus Quest 2. Additionally, more Resident Evil Village demos are on the way.

For more info, check out our Resident Evil Village preorder guide.

Now Playing: Resident Evil Village Trailer | Resident Evil Showcase

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

The Elder Scrolls Online Will Let You Buy Loot Box Items Without Real Money Soon

The Elder Scrolls Online is making a big change that could hint at how Bethesda approaches microtransactions in its games now that it’s a Microsoft subsidiary. Items available in loot boxes will soon also be available without having to spend any real money.

ZeniMax Online Studios made this known in a new update post (via Eurogamer) that previews content coming in a mid-June update, so you will have to wait a little longer before trying it out. A system called Endeavors will allow you to complete daily and weekly quests to earn rewards, including Seals of Endeavor that can be spent on any Crown Crate items currently in the game.

Tasks include stealing items, crafting or selling items, defeating enemies, harvesting resources, and several other quest types.

“For the first time in The Elder Scrolls Online, you can acquire these highly sought-after items via gameplay in addition to finding them within crates,” the developer said.

The amount you get will vary depending on the quests you completed, as well as the day, and any items you get through Seals of Endeavor cannot then be converted into gems–these are normally offered if you get a duplicate Crown Crate item.

You can see all the Crown Crate items available via Seals from the Crown Store menu, and when each day is over, daily Endeavors will be reset and the new ones will be activated.

The announcement comes just about one month after regulators approved Microsoft’s purchase of Bethesda parent company ZeniMax, bringing it into the Xbox Game Studios family.

With Xbox Game Pass such a large part of the company’s plans, offering more value in a now-first-party game seems like a logical decision. As Eurogamer pointed out, it also appears that Microsoft’s first-party studio loot box policy required the change anyway.

The Elder Scrolls Online is available now on PC, Stadia, Xbox One, and PS4. It will also be available natively on Xbox Series X|S and PS5 beginning this June, just in time for the Blackwood expansion.

Now Playing: The Elder Scrolls Online: Flames of Ambition Gameplay Trailer

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Square Enix Says It’s Not For Sale Amid Acquisition Reports

Despite a recent Bloomberg Japan report that claims companies are interested in acquiring Square Enix, the publisher is not pursuing such a deal. That’s according to Square Enix itself, which has responded to the report to say it has not received any acquisition offers.

“Bloomberg has reported today that there is interest from several buyers to acquire Square Enix,” the company said. “However, this report is not based on any announcement by Square Enix Holdings Co. Ltd. We do not consider selling off the company or any of its businesses, nor have we received any offer from any third party to acquire the company or any part of its business.”

The Bloomberg story didn’t mention which companies were interested in purchasing Square Enix. And although Square Enix’s statement states that no offers have been made, it doesn’t rule out the possibility that companies are indeed interested in buying the company.

Buying such a large company would require a significant investment, which certainly limits any potential buyers if Square Enix did show interest. In addition to its well-known role-playing games like Final Fantasy, Square Enix also owns Tomb Raider, Drakengard and Nier, Life is Strange, and classic shooter series from its subsidiary company Taito. Previously, it also owned Hitman, but IO Interactive spun off to become independent several years ago and took the rights with it.

Square Enix’s next game, Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139.., is due to release on April 23 for PC, Xbox One, and PS4. Nier Automata, which released back in 2017, was a surprise commercial hit for the company and also helped save developer Platinum Games.

Now Playing: NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… – Official Barren Temple Gameplay

Dora Milaje Take Center Stage In New Falcon And The Winter Soldier Video

The Dora Milaje, the Wakandan royal guard, are not to be trifled with, and we all knew when they appeared in last week’s episode of Falcon and the Winter Soldier that an explosive battle was on the way. Ahead of Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s penultimate episode, Marvel Studios has released a featurette spotlighting Wakanda’s fiercest warriors.

The video looks to director Kari Skogland, as well as stars Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/Falcon), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier), Florence Kasumba (Ayo), and Wyatt Russel (John Walker/new Captain America), for their thoughts on the fighters.

“When we show up, you don’t know how many are around,” Kasuma says, speaking to the guards’ identical uniforms and looks combined with their strategic prowess in intentionally concealing their numbers.

“[Walker] realizes how vulnerable he is,” Skogland says in the video. While this battle alone likely didn’t push Walker to take the Super Soldier serum, there’s no doubt that the thrashing he took at the hands of the Dora Milaje shook him to his core. Walker strolls in with a condescending line about pointy sticks and soon finds himself on his back and then with his shield stuck to the table, himself taken out of action for the moment.

Last week’s episode of Falcon and the Winter Soldier ended on a very dark shot, and we’ll see the fallout of that this Friday when Episode 5 airs on Disney+. Ahead of that, make sure to refresh your memory with our Episode 4 Recap, and check out our Easter egg list to make sure you don’t miss a thing.

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Will Have A Photo Mode

Looks like we’ll not only have enhanced graphics for Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, but we’ll be able to capture our favorite moments from the remaster too, as the collection is launching with a photo mode feature.

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition project director Mac Walters tweeted that the upcoming remaster will have a photo mode. “If you love taking photos (and you love Mass Effect), you can thank [technical design director Brenon Holmes]–photo mode was his passion project,” Walters said in a follow-up tweet.

Though Walters did not go into detail about everything included in the photo mode, you can see a few of the settings in the tweet embedded above. Looks like you’ll be able to adjust the camera mode, including a “Free” setting where you’ll likely be able to freely move the camera around the current space.

Additionally, you can adjust the degree of the camera’s tilt and focal length. Given that the picture in the tweet is in black and white, it’s likely safe to assume you can adjust the color of the image as well.

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition will launch for Xbox One, PS4, and PC on May 14. The game will also be playable on Xbox Series X|S and PS5 via backwards compatibility. The collection adds more than enhanced graphics and character models to the trilogy of games, it also makes quality-of-life improvements to the original Mass Effect’s gameplay to better hold up by modern day standards.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Why Hood: Outlaws & Legends Is PvPvE

Hood: Outlaws & Legends is an upcoming Robin Hood-inspired PvPvE game where two teams of four players face off on the same heist. You don’t often see too many player-versus-player-versus-environment games, where players face off against each other and computer-controlled characters. I caught up with Hood game director Andrew Willans to ask why the team is opting for a PvPvE experience as opposed to a more traditional PvP or PvE one.

As it turns out, developer Sumo Digital initially brainstormed PvP and PvE concepts for Hood. In the end, both had their shortcomings and the studio found a good balance combining the gameplay loops of the two. “The initial concept was far more PvE-focused, and while it would have been fun to take that journey, it’s also quite costly,” Willans said. “When you look at doing PvE, even if you do co-op PvE, there’s a certain element of linearity to the narrative and storytelling that’s required.”

Willans said that the team behind Hood is quite small, and thus not able to deliver on the same level of linear PvE storytelling that, as examples he provided, Naughty Dog or Santa Monica Studio managed to achieve with games like The Last of Us and God of War. That gave Sumo Digital the nudge to go for a PvP game that tells its story through a morality system, environmental details, and collectibles.

“We’ve done a lot of multiplayer games and we definitely thought we had more to say in the multiplayer space with fantasy,” Willans said. “We actually started off with traditional PvP. So one of the early designs had a team of four players that represented the Outlaws, the heroes, and then the other four players would take the part of the State, the bad guys, who are now the AI in the game. So it would almost be like an attack and defend; you hold the castle while this enemy team of outlaws tries to get in and steal the loot.”

The studio ultimately scrapped this idea because it was basically capture the flag, a multiplayer game mode that players had seen many times before and thus not a likely candidate for upholding an entire game. Additionally, Sumo Digital had trouble with balancing the two teams in terms of respawns–should the defenders be able to respawn multiple times to combat the outlaws’ unique and powerful abilities, for instance?

“So that kind of set us down a path of asking, ‘What would it look like if there were two teams–if it was just rival gangs facing off, but both have the same objective?'” Willans said. “And that’s kind of where we found the magic in terms of the game mode design. Obviously there was a huge amount of work with that; setting up the AI systems so that they’re robust enough to give you that friction, setting up stealth.”

According to Willans, stealth was actually the team’s “biggest challenge.” There are three teams in Hood: your team, the opposing team of players, and the computer-controlled guards that are led by the Sheriff. All those teams need to react in different ways when stealth is broken. “Throughout the years, we’ve been taught that the red exclamation mark in stealth games means, ‘Holy shit, you’ve caused a mess and you’re going to have to deal with it,” Willans said. “But what does that look like if I set it off and you’re on my team? What do you see? Who’s the AI going to chase?”

No Caption Provided

Gallery

He continued: “So it was definitely a significant investment in terms of design and balancing to get all of those systems right, but I think it was the right thing for us to do. It was the right journey to follow, because it’s something which is quite unique about this. You know, the idea of two teams competing to do the same heist at the same time, and the AI really gives us those glory moments.”

Those glory moments are achieved because the Sheriff and his guards aren’t exactly pushovers, so it feels like an accomplishment when you overcome them. The other team of players is the bigger of the two threats, but the NPCs can wreck your day if your team isn’t smart about how to either efficiently deal with them or stealthily sneak past them. As Willans puts it, “They will kick your ass.”

Hood: Outlaws & Legends is scheduled to launch for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Xbox One, PS4, and PC on May 10, though you can get three days of early access and start playing on May 7 by preordering the game. On PS5, Hood will have DualSense enhancements.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Aquaman 2 Gains Game of Thrones’ Pilou Asbaek – Report

After decades of being DC Comics’ running joke, Aquaman is truly big money thanks to Jason Momoa. DC is gearing up for the inevitable Aquaman 2, and one of the first new faces is Pilou Asbaek, according to Deadline.

Asbaek is best known for his portrayal of Euron Greyjoy in HBO’s Game of Thrones series. News of his casting Aquaman 2 comes via anonymous sources, and there’s no word right now what role Asbaek will play in the film.

Aquaman 2 will once again star Jason Momoa in the titular role, and horror director James Wan will return to direct the sequel. David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, who wrote both Aquaman and The Conjuring 2 for Wan, will also write Aquaman 2.

Aquaman made $1.14 billion at the worldwide box office, putting Aquaman in the running alongside characters like Iron Man and Guardians of the Galaxy for “character we definitely didn’t expect to be so profitable. Aquaman 2 is currently scheduled to hit theaters on December 16, 2022. Momoa was most recently seen in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and we’ll see him next in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune this fall.

Now We Know Why Tingle Appears So Much in Wind Waker

Tingle seems to love the ocean. How else to explain his steady presence in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, where the peculiar sprite continually pops up to aid (or hamper) Link’s quest with items like the Tingle Tuner? Heck, he even has his very own island.

In today’s sprawling interview with IGN, which you should absolutely go read, outgoing developer Takaya Imamura explained Tingle’s outsized presence in Wind Waker.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2013/09/17/the-legend-of-zelda-wind-waker-hd-video-review”]

“I was helping out on The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker when it was still in its planning phase, but at the same time I was working on Star Fox Adventures with Rare, and I ended up having to focus on the latter,” Imamura explained, laughing. “So If you ever wondered why Tingle appears so often in Wind Waker, now you know why.”

Tingle had already appeared in Majora’s Mask and Oracle of Ages, but his stint in Wind Waker seemed to cement him in Zelda lore. He went on to appear in several more games, including Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland for the Nintendo, which never made it to North America.

Imamura was Tingle’s main creator, and it’s become a big part of his legacy. Indeed, when Imamura announced his retirement earlier this year, many sites referred to him as “Tingle’s Creator” first despite having a large hand on games ranging from Star Fox 64 to F-Zero GX.

Tingle himself remains a fairly divisive figure among North American fandom. Here at IGN, we hated him enough that we ran a “Die, Tingle, Die! Die!” campaign back in 2004. In Japan, though, he is said to have garnered a cult following, with Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland producer Kensuke Tanabe expressing interest in one day making another Tingle game.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=every-ign-zelda-review-score&captions=true”]

“I know that people cannot stand Tingle. But to me, that challenge is: Could I take this character that is so reviled in the West and just [do] a complete turnaround and make him a beloved, fun character? The idea of that really just gets me going. I know we have made a Tingle game in the past, but maybe at some point down the road,” Tanabe told GamesBeat in 2013.

Tingle’s most recent appearance was in Hyrule Warriors, where he appeared in the Majora’s Mask DLC pack. His costume was also available via DLC in Breath of the Wild.

As for Imamura, he’s now departed the company where he spent more than 30 years working alongside giants like Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata. He is now a professor at the International Professional University of Technology in Osaka, where he is teaching CG animation and video game development and is currently working on a manga.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Kat Bailey is a Senior Editor at IGN. She really has nothing against Tingle.