biteho.com

Despite the recent next-gen console launches, the Nintendo Switch remains incredibly successful more than three years after its release. In fact, it’s only picking up steam, as recent sales figures have suggested. There are a lot of new Switch owners out there, and thankfully we’re entering the best time of year to buy games. Black Friday 2020 is inching closer, and there will be loads of great Nintendo Switch game deals, especially when it comes to first-party titles. Best Buy and GameStop have already revealed full Black Friday ads, and we expect Walmart, Target, and others to join the party with enticing Switch game deals, too. We’re tracking all of the best Nintendo Switch Black Friday game deals right here, and we’ll continue to add more Switch deals to this list as they are revealed.

Before we dive in, here’s a quick overview of Black Friday start dates for key retailers. While most of the Black Friday Switch deals shown below aren’t live just yet, some are available now, including Fire Emblem: Three Houses for $35, Yoshi’s Crafted World for $35, and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening for $40.

• GameStop: November 25-29
• Best Buy: November 22-29
• Walmart: November 25-29
• Target: November 22-28

$35 (was $60)

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is one of the best role-playing games on the Nintendo Switch. It features a deep and compelling story that is affected by your choices, and the turn-based tactical combat is as good as you’d expect in a Fire Emblem game. It’ll be on sale for $35, its lowest price yet, during Best Buy’s Black Friday sale.

$35 (was $60)

Yoshi’s Crafted World is an ideal platformer for young kids and the young at heart. The world is designed to look as if it was made out of cardboard, which adds an adorable and unique aesthetic to this vibrant world. Yoshi’s Crafted World can be played cooperatively with two players, too. It’ll be on sale for its best-ever price of $35.

$35 (was $60)

Splatoon 2 is one of the best online multiplayer games for Nintendo Switch. Armed with paint blasters, rollers, and other paint-applying tools, you compete in a variety of different game modes centered around covering the map (and your opponents) with your team’s color of paint. In addition to the competitive multiplayer, there is a fun co-op mode and single-player campaign that teaches you the ins and outs of Splatoon 2.

$40 (was $60)

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is a wonderful and charming remake of a Game Boy classic. It’s thoroughly old-school Zelda, with a top-down perspective and traditional dungeon progression. Nintendo added welcome quality-of-life improvements as well as a bevy of new secrets to uncover. Link’s Awakening is great for diehard Zelda fans and newcomers alike.

$35 (was $60)

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe compiles two of the Wii U’s best games in one awesome package. Brilliant level design, colorful visuals, and an abundance of content makes New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe a wonderful addition to any Switch game library. It features local co-op as well as numerous playable characters, a couple of which have helpful abilities that make it easier for young kids to find success.

One of the highlights of Avengers: Endgame was seeing Star-Lord and Thor interact. If you enjoyed watching the two lunkheads posture at each other, you’re in luck. Chris Pratt will appear in the upcoming movie Thor: Live & Thunder, reprising his Guardians of the Galaxy role, Variety reports.

Plot details are light–non-existent, really–but Avengers: Endgame saw Thor leaving Earth aboard the Guardians’ ship, the Benetar, after Thanos’ defeat. The movie implied that Thor would be hanging out with the Guardians for a bit; Thor both lost his homeland of Asgaard in Thor: Ragnarok and bequeathed his title as ruler to Valkyrie in Endgame, leaving him adrift.

Pratt joins the MCU’s other remaining Chris, Chris Hemsworth, along with Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie. Christian Bale is returning to the world of comic books as an un-named villain in the movie, too. The big news with Thor: Love & Thunder, though, is the return of Natalie Portman as Jane Foster. The actress is coming back to the MCU formally for the first time since Thor: The Dark World. Portman recorded “a little bit of voice-over” for her short scene in Avengers: Endgame, according to co-director Anthony Russo, but her appearance was re-used footage from The Dark World. In this film, Portman will wield Mjolnir, presumably re-telling some version of her arc as Thor in the comics. Director Taika Waititi returns, too, helming the follow-up to his well-liked take on the God of Thunder in Thor: Ragnarok.

Love & Thunder was initially set to come out in November 2021, but the delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic mean the movie is now aiming for February 2022.

There’s a lot to do in Destiny 2‘s Beyond Light expansion. While the campaign focuses on defeating the Fallen Kell Eramis and her House of Salvation underlings, it also pushes you to use Stasis, Destiny 2’s new power, and to fully unlock the potential of your new subclass. Once you’ve worked far enough through the story, you can start on your first Exotic quest, called The Stasis Prototype. It’ll send you on a lengthy mission to steal a Stasis-firing grenade launcher, Salvation’s Grip, from the Fallen and add it to your arsenal.

Here’s everything you need to know about unlocking Salvation’s Grip quickly and efficiently, so you can get on with the story of Beyond Light.

Complete The First Part Of The Beyond Light Campaign

First, play through the new story missions in Beyond Light. Fight through to defeat Eramis, continue with the Exo Stranger to unlock Stasis abilities, and clean up the Fallen on Europa to help Variks. This will take you a bit, but you’ll eventually unlock the Exotic pulse rifle No Time To Explain for your trouble, and start to earn different elements for your Stasis subclass.

Once you’ve progressed far enough that Eris Morn and the Drifter leave Europa and return to their previous spots, head to the Tower and meet the Drifter. He’ll introduce a plan to steal the Fallen’s Stasis-firing weapons. That’ll start you on the Exotic quest The Stasis Prototype.

Kill Captains And Servitors On Europa

Back on Europa, you’ll now need to gather intel from high-ranking Fallen–namely Servitors and Captains. You’ll need to dispatch 10 of each, but you can do so anywhere on Europa, so feel free to continue completing other objectives and just mop up the targets you need along the way. This is a more efficient approach to advancing than to try to hunt Servitors and Captains in particular, which can get pretty irritating.

If you are completing additional objectives, however, hold off on The Dark Priestess Empire Hunt from Variks, as you can use it to complete the next step in the quest.

Complete One Of Variks’s Empire Hunts

Once the campaign is complete and Eramis is defeated, returning to Variks gets you access to Empire Hunts, a series of special bounties that send you to defeat Eramis’s various lieutenants. If you haven’t completed The Dark Priestess quest as part of Variks’s missions, however, you can just knock that out now and count it for both his questline and The Stasis Prototype.

If you’ve already completed The Dark Priestess, you can buy another Empire Hunt bounty from Variks at a cost of 40 Herealways Pieces.

How To Get Herealways Pieces

Hearalways is a new currency for Europa, used to buy Sabotage and Empire Hunt bounties from Variks. Earn Hearlaways by completing Lost Sectors and Public Events and killing high-value targets on Europa, and defeating enemies with Stasis.

Kill Stasis-Affected Enemies

The next step is another simple but somewhat time-consuming one. You’ll just need to kill enemies that are affected by Stasis abilities, either slowed or frozen. Supers, melee abilities, and grenades will give enemies the debuffs, so just equip your Stasis subclass and go to town. This is another step best dealt with while advancing your other quests, as it doesn’t require you to do much but just take down enemies as normal.

Complete the Concealed Void Lost Sector And Meet Spider’s Associate

Now head for the Asterion Abyss area on Europa and make for the Lost Sector there, Concealed Void. Fight through and clear the Lost Sector and you’ll find one of Spider’s “associates” from the Tangled Shore waiting for you near the boss chest. Once you have it, head back to the Drifter for the final step.

Complete Stealing Stasis

Your last act is to complete a mission in Riis-Reborn, Europa’s Fallen city. You’ll see the banner marked on your map, which will then load you in on the city’s rooftops, where Ghost will (hilariously) walk you through what you have to do while giving his best Drifter impression. It’s a pretty straightforward mission, sending you into the depths of the Fallen stronghold to steal their prototype Stasis gun. Complete the mission to unlock Salvation’s Grip, which you’ll need for later Europa missions.

Where To Take Salvation’s Grip Next

Salvation’s Grip fires Stasis crystals that can freeze enemies, giving you some of the benefits of the Stasis subclass without needing the subclass equipped. It’ll freeze enemies solid, allowing you to shatter them or deal extra damage by blasting them while they’re frozen.

You’ll also need Salvation’s Grip for another quest line you’ll pick up from the Exo Stranger: Aspect of Stasis. This quest sends you back to Europa to destroy hidden objects called Entropic Shards, which look like small versions of the Cruxes of Darkness you’ve been communing with as part of the campaign.

Completing the Stranger’s quest gets you your first Aspect, a Stasis mod that gives your subclass new abilities. Check out our guide for a complete rundown on where to find the Entropic Shards once you have Salvation’s Grip, so you can get the most out of Stasis.

Now Playing: Destiny 2: Beyond Light – Official Launch Trailer

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

There’s much to praise about the remake of Demon’s Souls. It’s a remarkable technical showpiece for the PlayStation 5; a gripping gameplay experience that oscillates between exhilarating, nerve-wracking, and downright heartbreaking; and a faithful recreation of the seminal title that birthed the Souls-like subgenre. But developer Bluepoint’s greatest achievement is that it took something I’m intimately familiar with and made me feel like I was venturing into the unknown.

Fundamentally, Demon’s Souls for PS5 is what it has always been. Barring some small tweaks, the design of the game is identical to From Software’s original. The core mechanics are unchanged, the enemies are placed in the same positions and behave in the same ways, the devious tricks and traps are still there, ready to catch the unfamiliar off-guard.

And yet, while retreading a well-worn path through the kingdom of Boletaria, I find myself without the confidence I should have. I’m cautiously approaching basic enemies with my shield raised, knowing their every move and how to overcome them, but fearing them still. I stand paralyzed at the end of narrow stone tunnels ominously lit by flickering torches, knowing exactly what awaits in the darkness, but still needing to will myself forward. And as monstrous demons step into arenas in which I’ve bested them dozens of times, I begin to doubt my chances at victory once more.

Yes, Demon’s Souls is undoubtedly an impressive technical achievement. But what makes it special is how Bluepoint has applied its own creative vision to From Software’s original to remake the game not just as it was, but as it was meant to be, realizing its full potential. The result is a title that pays homage to From Software’s work, but at the same time stands as brilliant in its own right.

In breathing new life into Boletaria, Bluepoint has taken some artistic license with From Software’s work, for better or worse depending on your perspective. While the body of the game may look vastly different, its soul remains intact–I could feel as much as I stood in familiar places and absorbed the overwhelming amount of new details. As a result, it was as if I were experiencing the game all over again with a fresh pair of eyes, and in doing so, the emotions I felt on my first time through were stirred once more.

Stepping into The Nexus, the hub area for the game, felt like coming home, but what I once perceived to be an abandoned prison for the souls of wayward warriors now felt like a welcoming place of respite. Candles bathed the cold otherworldly architecture in a warm glow, statues were shrouded in brilliant, hopeful white light, and a fuller, richer version of the orchestral theme played to drive home the melancholic mood of the hidden temple.

Every facet of the environment is rich in detail, from the rippling water in the central pool to the intricate stone carvings and metal detailing on the archstones used to transport you to distant lands in search of demon’s souls. Even the people who occupy The Nexus have more detail, which in turn gives them greater depth. Stockpile Thomas, a forlorn figure who sits in a nook of The Nexus and offers to look after your excess items and equipment, tells his story in a way that wasn’t possible before. His wife and child were killed and his ineptitude in battle meant he was unable to save them. This is the first time in many hours of playing Demon’s Souls that I’ve been able to read the expressions on Thomas’s face, and the pain is visible as he recounts his tragic loss. His eyes look reddened and puffy, as if he’d just been crying.

Though their lines may be brief, the voices of these characters sound familiar–some have been re-recorded with the same actors, while others are new. The way Blacksmith Ed chastises you for not making use of his services, the Maiden in Black’s oft-repeated prayer whenever she uses her abilities to strengthen you, Patches’ insincerity as he tries to hide his deceitful nature–it all sounds right, and where new or tweaked writing and vocal performances appear, they still evoke the intended effect.

That is true of every area in the game. Each of the five archstones takes you to locales that are jaw-dropping visually and distinct atmospherically. The Boletarian Palace lies in ruin, with battlements barely standing or entirely destroyed. Mindless dreglings wander around, attacking you on-sight with a frenzy of sword swings ending in an exasperated sigh of exhaustion. This is a game that, in numerous ways, serves as a showcase for all of the PS5 signature features, and hearing Demon’s Souls is as gratifying as seeing and playing it. Thanks to the 3D audio through headphones, the heavy and threatening breathing of a Blue Eye Knight told me it was nearby before I could even see it. Buzzing flies and the ragged caws of pecking crows made the sight of a decaying horse carcass all the more unsightly. And as archers fired arrows, the sound of them whizzing by my ears revealed just how narrowly I had escaped.

Unlike Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro–From Software’s follow-up games–Demon’s Souls has a loose structure to progression. It encourages, and sometimes by way of insurmountable enemies, deadly bosses, and locked doors, forces you to travel to locations on other archstones until you are equipped to forge ahead again. This means it can be difficult to get comfortable with any location–it’s always ushering you toward dangerous unknowns, and Bluepoint’s technically and artistically stunning graphics mean each new area is an absolute joy to behold, as well as an anxiety-ridden nightmare to venture through even for veterans.

[Bluepoint’s Demon’s Souls remake is] a title that pays homage to From Software’s work, but at the same time stands as brilliant in its own right.

Crucially, in each location, the new effects, beautiful lighting, and gorgeous modeling never upend From Software’s intent and, in fact, create a truer representation of it. Advancement in technology and game design have given Bluepoint tools to do what From Software couldn’t on the PS3 back in 2009. The maze of tunnels in Stonefang feels even more claustrophobic and as you venture deeper, the rippling steam coming off lava makes the sweltering hot environment feel oppressive. The Valley of Defilement’s wet wooden scaffolding looks perilous to walk along, and torches burn bright blue, violently moving as if agitated by an unseen toxic gas–you feel gross just standing there.

Bosses are treated with the same kind of care, either true to the original or changed to more closely embody the spirit of it. The Vanguard looks less like one of those rubber Monsters In My Pocket toys from the ’90s and more like a disgusting demonic executioner. The Tower Knight looms above you, striking a presence that is both heroic and terrifying, and when it hurls a soul spear in your direction, the booming sound and the screen shake accompanied by the DualSense’s arresting vibration will make you think twice about stepping out into the open. The Flamelurker fight, because of how good the animation work is, made me feel like I was a matador trapped in a lava pit with a demonic flaming bull constantly bearing down on me. The thundering sound of its erratic movement coupled with the intense visual feedback turned it into a desperate, panicked battle for survival.

Technically, Demon’s Souls is astounding. On Performance Mode, it displays gorgeous visuals rendered at 1440p and upscaled to 4K at a consistent, smooth frame rate. Cinematic Mode runs at native 4K, but this seems to come at the cost of performance, as I found the frame rate to be much less consistent. I stuck to Performance Mode, and did so with the new offset camera view, which I found to frame the game in a more cinematic way. Features such as the ability to make the UI dynamically fade in and out do a great deal to improve immersion. There are also multiple graphical filters available, including the more muted, greener palette of the original PS3 release (although I think Bluepoint’s version, with its richness and vibrancy, should be the way you play the first time through). If it wasn’t clear, Demon’s Souls on PS5 is one of the best-looking and -sounding games I’ve ever played.

Outside of its presentation, Bluepoint has employed a defter touch. As mentioned previously, Demon’s Souls on PS5 plays very much the same, mechanically speaking. However, Bluepoint has clearly spent a great deal of effort on improving the feedback so everything is more impactful. There’s a weightiness and heft to the game that is communicated visually and through audio. Everything from movement to attacks, evasion, and even consuming items has a physicality to it. There’s a real sense of inertia and momentum as your blade cuts through the air, and noticeable resistance as it meets the steel of armor or the flesh of an enemy. Heavy weapons come crashing down in an incredibly satisfying way, and you’ll be thankful for your shield every time an enemy’s attack bounces off it. If you pick a magic-based build, you can send your spell off into the distance and watch as it travels, lighting up everything it passes before erupting like a little star going supernova.

Even though enemies haven’t changed as far as the kinds of attacks they do, when they use them, or how much health they possess, the visual feedback instills a greater sense of danger. You don’t want to get hit by things because it looks and sounds like they hurt, on top of actually taking massive chunks out of your health bar. The physicality now supports and reinforces the deliberate, methodical nature of Souls combat. And that’s what stripped me of some of my confidence; the difference in the way it feels–along with actually being a little rusty–has forced me to once again respect Demon’s Souls, because it is as ruthless as it has ever been, and in many cases more ruthless than the Souls games that followed it. New additions such as unique attack and finisher animations give weapons more of an identity then they had in the original, and landing ripostes is such a rush that you’ll want to try and parry every enemy.

But by sticking so closely to From Software’s framework, Bluepoint has also carried forward some of the more idiosyncratic aspects of the Demon’s Souls gameplay experience. Although World Tendency is explained a bit better and more readily visible to the player, that doesn’t make the underlying issues of it any better. It’s still, for all but the most learned players, quite obtuse as a concept. World Tendency can skew the state of the various locations towards white or black, depending on certain actions that you take or happen to you, though these aren’t ever explained. Most players will notice their health is capped while in Soul form and use an item to restore their human form to access the restricted pool, not knowing that dying in human form makes the world skew towards black tendency, where enemies hit harder. The idea of a player struggling, dying, and the game becoming harder as a result is suspect, but it is nonetheless intact in the remake.

Demon’s Souls for PS5 also features the same finicky multiplayer system that it had on PS3, and that From Software’s games continue to have. There are specific conditions that need to be met and items employed to enable jolly cooperation, but the information around this isn’t surfaced in a clear, visible way for newcomers to understand. It then falls on the player to figure it out through a frustrating process of trial and error, seek out guidance from someone in the know, or go hunting for information in a sea of forums and threads written around the 2009 version of the game.

But I can’t fault Bluepoint for leaving it untouched, warts and all. The studio is in the unenviable position of remaking one of the most beloved games of all time, which has an incredibly passionate and vocal fanbase. And what might seem like a reasonable change to one person could be an undermining of what makes the game unique, distinct, and memorable to another. While the dissonance between the game’s modern look and feel and some of the more outdated aspects of its design is noticeable, it doesn’t impact the experience significantly. Although I would have liked to see Bluepoint address the more obviously flawed elements, playing it safe and honoring the work and legacy of From Software and Demon’s Souls was the right move.

Quirks aside, Bluepoint’s remake is an unmitigated success. It is a technical tour de force and a true showpiece for the PS5 and the power of Sony’s next-generation console. But, more importantly, it’s also a creative marvel coming from a studio that is clearly showing the world it has its own voice. Bluepoint has taken From Software’s original game and expressed it in a richer and fuller way, and in doing so given me something I thought was impossible: the opportunity to relive the experience of falling in love with Souls games for the first time.

Multiplayer is the beating heart of the Call of Duty series, and while all the games maintain similarities in how they look, feel, and play, there are also a lot of small nuances, too. With Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, developer Treyarch makes some changes to the formula, like allowing for more weapon attachments or altering Scorestreaks. There are a lot of little things to learn along the way, as well as tried-and-true strategies that you’ll want to know if you’re new to the battlefield.

We’ve compiled 10 quick tips that can help you get into fighting shape if you’re new to Black Ops Cold War. CoD veterans probably won’t need a lot of these, but there are some new wrinkles to the series formula that are worth knowing about–such as an increased emphasis on sound and tweaks to how you can earn those powerful Scorestreaks. And if you’re new to CoD altogether, these are essential things you’ll want to keep in mind.

Check out the rest of our Black Ops Cold War coveratge: Catch up on the Black Ops story so far, see how the game links to Modern Warfare, find out how to open the locked door in the campaign’s safe house, learn how to solve the puzzles for the side mission Operation Chaos and Red Circus, and read our Black Ops Cold War review in progress.

Train With Bots

One of the easiest ways to up your game and get the hang of how things feel in Black Ops Cold War is to go through a few practice matches without any stakes. On the multiplayer Lobby screen, you’ll find an option toward the bottom that says “Vs. Bots.” That’s a match in which you’ll fight only computer-controlled enemies, with no records saved and no challenges unlocked.

Use the Bot mode to try out new weapons, mess with new loadouts, and get a feel for different maps. The more knowledge you have in a Call of Duty game, the more formidable you’ll be, so spending a little time in practice sessions can give you an edge when you go into unfamiliar locations or want to see about changing up your gear.

Stick With Your Teammates

This is an evergreen multiplayer tip, but worth reiterating nonetheless. It’s tempting to run off on your own, especially in a game as fast and furious as Call of Duty, but resist the urge. You’re much more deadly when you have a teammate or two backing you up. You can combine fire against enemies to drop them even more quickly than if you’re firing on your own, and they’ll often save your life in a fight you’d otherwise lose if you get caught by surprise. More sets of eyes and more guns are always better in any Call of Duty situation, so stay with your squad and back each other up and you’ll see results in the W column.

Don’t Worry (Too Much) About Dying

Black Ops Cold War brings back Scorestreaks (rather than Killstreaks), which means you don’t just have to drop a lot of other players or notch a lot of headshots to be useful to your team. Securing objectives can also help you unlock Scorestreak rewards to give you an edge in combat, allowing you to do things like call in spy planes or summon attack helicopters to aid your team.

And while you want to avoid getting killed as much as possible in a Cold War match, don’t worry about it too much if you have to die in support of your team. Scorestreaks don’t reset when you die–instead, they operate on cooldown timers so you can’t spam them too much. That means you can still be an effective addition to your squad even if your K/D ratio isn’t anything to brag about. Play carefully and play smart, and look for ways to contribute to your team that fit with your skills.

Listen For Footsteps

Sound design has leaped forward pretty significantly in the last few iterations of Call of Duty, and in Black Ops Cold War, you’ll want to listen closely while you’re on the battlefield. Sprinting makes a lot of noise in multiplayer matches, likely taking a page from Warzone, where using all your senses to identify enemies is essential. That means you can often hear a player long before you see them. If you can use them, headphones can seriously help you pinpoint an enemy’s location, but in general, try to use all your senses to anticipate attacks, not just your minimap.

Running Gives You Away

Along the same lines as the last tip, you’re going to want to work hard to control how much sound you make and whether it’s worth making it. If you go sprinting toward a spot you think is an enemy position, know that they’re going to hear you coming. Crouching, on the other hand, slows you down a lot but also lessens how much noise you make. Try to keep in mind how much information you’re giving to an enemy as you approach–if you think you’ve got a chance to get the drop on someone, don’t blow it by bounding up like a rhino to let them know they should expect you.

Shoot Down Spy Planes And Other Vehicles

Default Scorestreaks include spy planes and attack helicopters, both of which can seriously cramp a match if the enemy team starts firing them off all at the same time. As in most Call of Duty games, spy planes provide the enemy with your team’s location on their minimaps, while attack helicopters just fly down and shoot you. However, you can (and should) destroy these vehicles whenever possible.

This is the usual approach in Call of Duty, so you probably know this lesson, but small arms can damage flying vehicles, and launchers are even better. It’s worth having at least one loadout with a launcher in the secondary weapon position so you can knock down a pesky Scorestreak at a key moment. Destroying Scorestreak vehicles also scores points for you, helping you get to your Scorestreaks more quickly, so it’s worth taking a second to blind the enemy by knocking out their planes. If nobody else is handling the launcher duty, consider picking it up yourself.

Stick To Cover

Time-to-kill, the amount of time from when someone starts firing until the enemy they’re shooting goes down, is pretty low in Cold War, as in most Call of Duty games. You’ll also likely find that Cold War’s maps tend to have lots of lanes and avenues that allow you to catch sight of other players, or they of you. That means that Cold War’s maps have a lot of opportunities for ambushes, flanking maneuvers, and combat in general–and plenty of places from which you can get shot in the back.

It’s generally a good rule to limit your movements in the open on any given map. Stay low, stay behind cover, stick to the edges of areas, and try to put objects and walls between you and open ground. You want to cut down on the number of directions from which you’re easily spotted and shot, so that you at least have a chance to fight back before you’re picked off. Don’t give enemy players easy kills by walking through a big open room or across an open street unless you absolutely have to do so.

You Don’t Always Need To Aim Down Sights

Another evergreen Call of Duty tip, but a good one to remember, is that aiming down sights is slow. It’s good for fighting players at various ranges, but not good in a close-range panic situation. Taking the time to aim at close enemies is very likely to get you killed. A lot of guns are effective firing from the hip–especially fast-firing weapons and shotguns–but it’s really better to fire anything without using ADS if your opponent is within 10 feet or so. Try not to panic or to spray bullets wildly, but better to hit someone with quick-and-dirty fire than waste time trying to land headshots in an emergency.

Spend Time Figuring Out Your Loadouts

Call of Duty games have provided custom loadouts for a while now, but Black Ops Cold War changes up the formula slightly yet again. You can now equip more weapon attachments than ever before, to say nothing of the fact that weapons, perks, and equipment are all a little different from the last few iterations of the franchise. You’ll unlock the ability to create custom loadouts relatively quickly, and you should absolutely start messing around with them as early as you can to start finding equipment you’re comfortable with.

More than that, even Cold War’s smaller maps have little nuances that mean you’re not going to want to use the same dusty loadout every time you jump into a match. You’ll quickly find yourself in situations where a gun with more range will serve you better, or that you’re facing a team that struggles with speedy, close-range engagements. Have several loadouts that you’re comfortable with so that you can adapt to a situation, rather than repeating the same mistakes or getting beat in the same way. As mentioned, you can test out loadouts in the Vs. Bots mode, and you’ll be happy you did when you’re able to switch to a new equipment set on the fly and exploit your opponents’ weaknesses.

Health Stimshots Will Save You

The default Point Man loadout comes with a secondary piece of equipment you’ll want to get familiar with: the Stimshot. If you’re not the kind of fighter that relies on stun or smoke grenades in the heat of battle, consider switching out for the stimshot instead. You can use it in the middle of a fight after taking damage to instantly heal yourself, which can completely change the tenor of a battle. It’s great for trading fire with an enemy so you’re both hurt, ducking behind cover, and then healing up, allowing you to come out swinging at full strength while the other guy is expecting you to be a much softer target. Stimshots can save you in a lot of fights, especially if you’re a close-range run-and-gun fighter.

Now Playing: Black Ops Cold War Makes Me Want To Play Every Shooter On The PS5

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

In Yakuza: Like A Dragon, you have to worry about more than just yourself since managing the party is essential for getting through the game’s tougher fights. That means money plays a much bigger role than in previous Yakuza games–it’s not just about stocking up on Staminan Royale drinks anymore. You have to purchase weapons and gear for various party members to keep them well-equipped, and you’ll need to invest in the crafting workshop to unlock better gear.

More importantly, there’s a specific point late in the story that requires you to have three million yen on hand in order to progress. Yes, there’s a hard progress gate in Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Chapter 13), and if you haven’t had money on your mind, it’ll catch you off guard and leave you unexpectedly grinding away to get that cash mid-chapter. Here, I’ll outline the best and most efficient ways to make money throughout your journey.

Ichiban Confections, The Business Management Sim

I found that investing time into the business management minigame, first called Ichiban Confections, is pretty much essential. It’s introduced as part of the main story in Chapter 5, taking you through its backstory and basic mechanics, but afterward, you don’t necessarily have to worry about it as it becomes more of an optional venture.

But pay close attention to when its introduced since it’s also a tutorial, it’ll pay off big time (literally). Basically, you have to manage different properties (stores, restaurants, nightlife, etc.) by investing in them and hiring employees to work there. Certain businesses require employees with certain levels of skills, all of which is measured in the minigame’s menus.

The goal is for them to turn a profit every time you open them for business–once your employees and properties are set, then you watch the money roll in. Over time, you have to worry about employee salary and keeping them happy to make sure business runs smoothly.

You rake in money for the business accounts, but not your own pockets during these phases. Where you will make the big bucks for yourself is during shareholder meetings, which take place periodically.

Shareholder Meetings Means Big Bonuses

After several instances of opening businesses and raking in the dough, you’ll then be challenged to a regularly scheduled shareholder meeting. This acts as a separate minigame that can get pretty frantic. You basically have to race against a clock to argue against shareholders to convince them that the business is in good hands.

This boils down to having staff members on your panel to take care of the problem. Each staff member has a certain expertise, which is color-coded, and certain shareholders also have the same expertise with the same corresponding colors. When they begin to question you, break their argument with a staff member and then hammer away at them during the short window of time to drain their “health” bar. Matching the expertise color lets you rack up more damage and break their arguments faster.

However, each staff member consumes a limited resource (shown at the bottom of the screen) that only slowly recovers during the meeting. The challenge is making the most of these resources. You can also use the apologize mechanic that buys you time, does a bit of damage to the shareholders, and replenishes some of your resources. Time is limited as you have one minute and 30 seconds to earn as high a support percentage as possible.

Why am I outlining all of this? One, because it’s a bit overwhelming to handle all these mechanics at such a rapid pace without some guidance, and two, your success in the meetings puts money directly into your pockets. After each shareholder meeting, you’re rewarded with money–it’s not much early on, but the higher you make it up the capitalist food chain, the bigger the check will be.

Becoming Ichiban Holdings

If you can get a basic grasp of how both the business management and shareholder meetings work, you can quickly reach higher rankings and earn more money without sinking too much time into it or banging your head against its mechanics. Eventually, Ichiban Confections will become Ichiban Holdings, and the earnings will begin to skyrocket.

Each tier you climb up in the business chain, you can manage an extra property, but Ichiban Holdings has you playing with big bucks. The actual mechanics don’t change, but expectations get bigger and shareholder meetings get tougher. However, you’ll be pulling in bonus checks for yourself upwards of 600,000 yen or more per meeting, which will set you up nicely for earning the money necessary when the time comes. (Again, three million yen in Chapter 13, remember that.)

You should also be in a good position to gear up with the latest and strongest equipment and items, because the boss battles in these later chapters can be extremely challenging.

You can take this business management minigame as far as you want starting in Chapter 5, so you can be flushed with cash early on. Overall, it’d be wise to come back to it every now and then as you head into the late-game chapters to maintain a reasonable pace–unlike me who scrambled to build up Ichiban’s businesses right when I found out I needed that elusive three million yen.

Part-Time Hero, Full-Time Job

Chapter 5 just lays on a lot of good content–one of which is the Part-Time Hero side gig. It’s pretty simple–people around Yokohama are in distress and need help fending off bad dudes in fights or finding things around town. Locations for these jobs are marked around your map so they’re easy to find, and the phone menu shows the rewards for each job.

Early jobs as a part-time hero don’t yield that much cash, but better opportunities will start to open up the more you do it. The first set of these will get you about 5,000 to 10,000 yen, but will eventually turn into jobs that pay 50,000 yen and even 100,000 yen just for fighting off relatively easy enemies. While it might be the best option for earning that three million yen I keep mentioning, these part-time hero gigs are great for quick cash, especially in the early game; some decent gear and items will keep your party afloat.

Substories For The Plot (And Money)

The series’ signature substories are back, which are hilarious side quests that unlock great perks like summons in battle and additional in-game features. They also pay relatively well early on in the game, which can come in handy for gear and items.

The locations for substories are marked on your map with white quote bubbles, and once they’ve been initiated, the location to continue them are then marked with blue quote bubbles.

One good substory to do early once you get to Yokohama is the one that unlocks the pawn shop, which is located in the front of the store (it’s covered in trash at first). The pawn shop is the only spot in Yokohama that lets you sell items, and can net you some easy money fast.

Grinding The Combat Arena

Another good way to rack up money in the late-game is the combat arena that opens up in Chapter 12. Giving you its location would be a spoiler, but don’t worry, it’s introduced within the main story questline. You may not think much of it when it gets introduced, but it’s essential to take on the combat arena’s challenges–not just because it’s the best way to grind up levels, but its battles reward you fairly handsomely in yen.

The fights here aren’t too difficult if you have a good grasp of the combat system (which by Chapter 12, you probably do), though you will have to play smarter as you progress further in it. You can run through it as much as you’d like, and there are checkpoints after a certain number of fights where you can restart and grind through the more rewarding battles multiple times.

More Sweet Yakuza Content

For more on RGG Studio’s new game and first foray into RPGs, check out my Yakuza: Like a Dragon review. If you’re already playing and need a few pointers, be sure to read our Yakuza: Like a Dragon beginner’s guide. Becoming an RPG also comes with many intricacies in combat, so make sure you read through our Yakuza: Like a Dragon job guide that goes in-depth on which jobs are best in battle.

Now Playing: Yakuza: Like A Dragon Video Review

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Sackboy finally has a game to call his own. The smiley mascot for LittleBigPlanet and, occasionally, the PlayStation brand has always been treated as more of an icon than a character, a cutesy tabula rasa through which all video-game-related things are possible. In Sackboy: A Big Adventure, his purview is much more traditional. He’s a jumpman, a platformer in the tradition of Mario, Sonic, Crash, and all the other mascots that came before him. Sackboy, both the character and the game, rises to succeed the mascot platformer mantle well in many respects. Though its aesthetic often feels bland, its solid platforming makes for a worthy challenge.

Like many platformers, story is not Sackboy’s strong suit. You’re jumping around Craftverse, the world of LittleBigPlanet, to save it from a villainous jester doll called Vex. Though you’ll get a fairly steady stream of updates reminding you of Vex’s evil presence, there’s not much you need to know. You could say the story is a waste of Sackboy’s surprisingly compelling cuteness. On the other hand, you could argue that Sackboy’s cuteness keeps your interest in the game afloat, even without a compelling story.

Sackboy regularly evokes LittleBigPlanet’s arts-and-crafts visual aesthetic. Sometimes, the motif works well. There are great visual details in many of the levels, like hard-drawn cutouts of animals in the backgrounds or platforms made from stacks of books, which imply that the levels were set up in a child’s bedroom. More often, though, it leads to generic “imagination-world” design. Most of the enemies are multi-colored animals or blocks with cute but angry eyes. And, even with those craftsy details, the basic level settings–space, the jungle, under the sea–all feel vague.

While the visual design is generally uninspired, the art itself shows off the impressive technical capabilities of the PlayStation 5. The bright and colorful levels, full of spinning platforms, lasers, and all kinds of moving parts, make for a visual feast in 4K. The movements of the gracefully weaving camera feel notably smooth. Lasers and metallic surfaces–like ruby armored crabs–shine. It may not give Craftworld a strong sense of place, but the art looks adorable.

It also helps that the game has a great soundtrack to keep you moving. Each level’s catchy, upbeat track feels good to jump along to. Some of them feature riffs based on pop hits and classical scores you may recognize. I rarely take a moment to stop and just listen to game music, but I frequently found myself wanting to take these tracks in, either because they were songs I recognized or because they simply had me bouncing my head along.

Sackboy’s core competency, platforming, is quite strong. All the moves in Sackboy’s core arsenal–a jump with a secondary flutter, a punch, and a roll–all feel responsive and precise. Like the LittleBigPlanet games, Sackboy’s jump is a little floaty with a full button press, but having a flutter ability gives you more control over when and how you land. Despite its storybook appearance, Sackboy does feature sequences that present some significant challenges, particularly if you’re trying to collect every item along the way. But the levels are built around Sackboy’s particular jump, and the game’s demands are based around it.

Sackboy’s multi-faceted levels are the real stars, though. It feels like every part of each level serves up a new challenge, which keeps things fresh. Some areas are straightforward, pushing you to string together jumps as if you’re running an obstacle course. Other areas are more self-contained. In some levels, you’re forced to search a larger area for a set of hidden keys to advance. Some are built around items you find at the start of each level, like a boomerang, which allows you to hit enemies and collect items from afar, or anti-gravity boots, which let you float at the height of your jump for an extended period of time. There’s an incredible amount of variety within each level and from one level to the next.

Not every concept level works, though. Each world has a musical level, where all the elements of the world–enemies, platforms, and background objects–move in time with pop songs like “Uptown Funk,” which are playing, lyrics and all. It’s an interesting concept, but ultimately jarring. Different level elements move in time with different parts of the song, which made it hard to track at times. There’s a moment of recognition when each level starts, which is pretty neat, but that quickly falls away. By the end, the lyrics are so distracting that it can be difficult to keep track of everything going on. Obviously, this is in stark contrast with the standard soundtrack, which is impressive with and without a pop connection.

Sackboy is a hoarder’s platformer. Every level is chock-full of things to pick up: score bubbles, a LittleBigPlanet holdover; collectibells, which you use to buy costumes between levels; dreamer orbs, which you need to collect to unlock the final level of each world; and costume parts. Bounding through each level, you’re constantly grabbing items and scouring the levels for more. To find it all, you need to keep an eye out for alternate paths, extra spaces, and hidden rooms housing self-contained minigames and puzzles. At the end of each level, you’re given a trophy based on how many score bubbles you got. (It takes a picture of your Sackboy with the trophy. It’s cute.) While you can technically complete a level with very little, the expectation is that you will make an effort to find most, if not all, of it.

And lowering your score is the primary form of punishment. You start each level with five lives, which you lose by getting hit by enemies or falling in pits. When you lose a life, you lose a percentage of your score bubbles, making it harder to get a high score. When you lose all your lives, you have to start the level over. Having a limited number of lives is rarely an issue–even when you die frequently, extra lives start popping up frequently from enemies and breakable items the moment you lose one. The real impact is how it affects your score.

So the goal is to master each level, completing it with the highest possible score, collecting all the important items, and without losing a life. It seems fairly attainable at first, but by the halfway point in the game, Sackboy ramps up to offer a pretty significant challenge, even without the score chase. Mastering most levels should take a couple tries, and there’s always room for improvement. That said, the game kindly avoids penalizing less competitive completionists; other than score bubbles, once you acquire an item, you have it for good. Even the dreamer orbs and costume pieces you’ve acquired before dying mid-level count as acquired.

In addition to the standard levels, you can unlock short but extra challenging time trial levels that really push you to make every movement count. Even these levels feature a collectible-hunting component–most have clocks in the world that shave seconds off your time. Short and precise, these challenges feel very different from the long, winding campaign levels and give you the chance to mix things up if the standard flow ever starts to feel stale.

There are also optional co-op-only Teamwork levels, which feature puzzles that require a certain amount of coordination. (In the interest of full disclosure: I’m quarantining solo, so I’ve only played one of these, just to get a sense of how they work. I’ll say this: The puzzles are trickier when you’re holding two controllers at once.) You can also play the core Sackboy campaign multiplayer via local co-op all the way through with up to four players. Everyone plays as Sackboy, but with different outfits, so you can put that wardrobe to good use. According to Sony, cross-gen online multiplayer is coming later this year. Personally, I prefer to play platformers solo, so I didn’t see not having access to co-op as a real loss.

Sackboy is a solid platformer and, despite its rote art style, makes great use of the PS5’s enhanced visual and technical performance. It’s a fun little romp of a platformer, with lots of interesting moments. At times, the visual design can look a bit flat. Even in those moments, though, the tight controls and interesting level layouts create gameplay challenges that make those flaws easy to overlook.

In The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 3, Mando (Pedro Pascal) heads to Trask with The Child (aka Baby Yoda) and Frog Lady, where he finally finds more of his kind. We finally find out who WWE superstar Sasha Banks (credited as Mercedes Varnado) is playing on the show, and it turns out she’s part of Clan Kryze. Not only that, but she’s with Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff)! Bo-Katan calls Mando a Child of the Watch, basically confirming he was rescued by Death Watch as a child.

We learned exactly what these other Mandalorians were after and how they could help guide Mando to locate a Jedi on his journey to get The Child home. The episode was also full of Easter eggs and references to other corners of the Star Wars galaxy, like The Clone Wars and Rebels!

Demon’s Souls on PS5 is a full remake of the classic FromSoftware action-RPG that began the stoic and uncompromising trend of Souls-likes that we know of today. For those who experienced the dangers and threats within the kingdom of Boletaria in 2009, you’ll quickly find that the tough-as-nails gameplay and sense of anxiousness when exploring remains intact. However, for those who’ve never played a Souls game or who focused on the Dark Souls series or other iterations, you’ll quickly find that Demon’s Souls has a particularly sharp edge to it in areas you’d least expect. And most often, it leaves much of the finer details of its gameplay for you to uncover.

With the launch of the Demon’s Souls remake, we’ve put together some tips that will help make your opening hours a bit more manageable. If you want to read more on Demon’s Souls, check out our early review impressions of the full game from editor Tamoor Hussain.

Pick Your Starting Choices Carefully

Once you begin your journey, you’ll create your character and choose their starting class. While traditionally character classes have defined stats and skills, the classes of Demon’s Souls are merely a starting point for your journey. Once you begin collecting weapons and using the souls of fallen enemies to level up and amplify critical stats, you’re free to evolve your character in any way you see fit. So a humble barbarian has the means to evolve into a magic-wielding glass cannon by the game’s end.

Still, your choices here can have a significant impact on your chances of surviving. For beginners, the Knight, Soldier, Temple Knight, and Royal classes are solid picks as they cover all the bases for attack and defense, and have reliable weapons and armor to back them up. The Royal class, despite starting at level 1, has access to the powerful Soul Arrow, which can easily wipe out enemies from a distance. After you pick a starting class, you can also choose a starting item. A majority of these are one-time use items, so you’re better off picking something with a longer shelf life. We’d recommend picking the Providential Ring, which will increase Luck and raise the drop rates on healing items and crafting materials. In the early hours, this can be a massive boon for your survival.

Get To Know The Nexus, And Keep It Safe

After meeting your inevitable first death at the hands of the Vanguard Demon (or, if you manage to beat him, the Dragon God), you’ll find yourself whisked to the Nexus. This place will serve as your main hub, and it’s the one true safe haven in Demon’s Souls. In this location, you’ll get to meet the game’s key characters, merchants, and supporting allies who will offer you advice on how to proceed. While at the Nexus, you can upgrade your equipment and manage your inventory, which is excellent for improving your chances in the many locations you’ll explore. The upper levels of the Nexus also include an interesting take on player leaderboards, which keeps track of the online community’s standing in the game.

The Nexus’ most important character is The Maiden, who will help players level up with the collected souls. You’ll eventually have more characters enter the Nexus who can offer you new items, magic spells, and other insights on places to explore. Depending on your choices, though, you may set into motion events that can put your allies at risk. So if you meet someone who seems “sus” and wants to visit your place in the Nexus then maybe you shouldn’t ask them to come back to your only safe space. Always use your best judgment when it comes to new faces looking to journey to the Nexus.

Don’t Be Afraid To Explore Elsewhere

Unlike the Dark Souls series’ winding, interconnected levels, Demon’s Souls has five standalone worlds that are all tied to the Nexus. Inside the Nexus, you can travel to each location in the game from one of five Archstones. The places you’ll visit include the Boletarian Palace, the Stonefang Tunnel, the Valley of Defilement, the Tower of Latria, and the Shrine of Storms. After defeating the Phalanx boss in the Boletarian Palace, you’ll have access to each of the Archstones, giving you more freedom to explore the different realms.

It’s important to stress that you are not expected to complete each Archstone in a single run. Once you’ve defeated a boss in one realm and unlocked the next waypoint, you’ve essentially completed the first part of that realm. It’s a much better use of your time to head out to a new location and make progress there. While it’s possible to keep proceeding forward, you’ll quickly find that the monsters and enemies after a completed boss fight are much more challenging, so don’t be afraid to venture off to a new space if you feel like you’ve hit a wall in your progress.

Only Take What You Need

Inventory management is just as essential in Demon’s Souls as swordplay and carefully dodging traps in the environment. Each item and piece of gear in the game has a unique weight attached to it. Depending on your character’s endurance, you’ll find that items you have in your inventory will eventually begin to affect your character’s movement and what they can pick up. An inventory that hasn’t been managed can be especially troublesome when you find a valuable item but can’t pick it up when you need it.

With this in mind, you need to keep track of what your character has on them, even for smaller items like healing grass–which can add up. In the Nexus, you can talk with Stockpile Thomas to access the game’s storage boxes, allowing you to offload spare items, unused gear, and crafting materials. Early on, it’s best to ditch things you don’t need and place them inside. One fantastic quality-of-life improvement with the Demon’s Souls remake is that you can instantly send items to the storage box if your character’s weight limit has reached its limit. While this can still prevent you from using certain items at the moment, it does take the sting out of missing out on valuables forever.

Leave A Helpful Message Behind

A hallmark of the Souls games is their communication system, which players can use to leave helpful messages or vague notes in the environment for others to find. These notes can point out upcoming threats, offer insight on nearby items, or sometimes be used for nefarious purposes to lead players into a deadly trap. The remake of Demon’s Souls has the original’s messaging system intact, and given the incredibly harsh stakes in the opening hours, paying attention to these notes–while also using your best judgment–is key to survival.

Using the touchpad, you can select the option to leave a message based on a preset list of keywords. Besides being a great way to help fellow dungeoneers, it also allows you to get a sudden health boost if another player gives your message a positive affirmation. While its usefulness can be a bit situational, that boost can potentially be a massive help when exploring a lengthy dungeon. So be sure to take advantage of the message system when you can.

Know Your World Tendency

One of Demon’s Souls’ more intricate features is the world tendency system. Essentially, your actions and choices, which include defeating key characters, bosses, and even your instances of death, can shift the balance in various realms of Boletaria. The world tendency systems move between both white or black tendencies, and these shifting tendencies alter the way you explore dungeons and fight enemies. For instance, exploring dungeons with black world tendency will have more aggressive enemies and a larger frequency of enemy Black Phantoms invading your world. However, the black world tendency will also lead to higher drop rates for specific items, which adds some incentive to stick with the added challenge.

What made this feature such a strange system in the original was how vague it was to understand how things were shifting clearly. Thankfully, the remake makes the world tendency system a bit more evident with the inclusion of a new menu that shows off the balance of each realm and your character. Coming to grips with world tendency will not only make it easier for you to understand your current odds, but it will also allow you to understand how to tip the balance in your favor. In some cases, you may want to shift a particular realm to the black world tendency, which can open up a pathway to a hidden encounter. So the sooner you learn how the system works, the better you’ll understand how to pull the various threads holding the world together in Demon’s Souls.

Be Patient, And Always Be Prepared For A Fight

Despite its uncompromising approach to combat, Demon’s Souls is a largely fair game when it comes to each encounter and boss fight. The trick is understanding that you’ll need to think several steps ahead before you engage in a battle. More often than not, you’ll meet your end when fighting aggressive foes with wild attack patterns, falling into pits, or simply running too fast down a hallway and barrelling straight into a crowd of enemies. It’s never a pleasant sight to see a death, but each one is a learning opportunity.

The keys to overcoming the many challenges in Demon’s Souls are perseverance, patience, and understanding the threats you face. Combat is one of the core pillars of the game, and while the introduction will walk you through the various ins and outs of its standard attacks and defensive skills, sometimes it’s much better to let enemies wear themselves out with their attacks and then rush behind them for a backstab while they’re catching their breath. The moment-to-moment experience of playing Demon’s Souls can be tense and challenging, with countless outcomes for every move you make, so always take a second before an encounter to analyze what’s to come.