If you’re a fan of a challenge and yearn for a setting other than the fantasy one found in Demon’s Souls, Team Ninja will soon release remastered versions of both Nioh and Nioh 2 on PS5, with the game’s sequel also making its way to PC for the first time.
The Nioh Collection is a new all-in-one edition for the samurai action game, and it launches for PS5 on February 5, 2021. The bundle will feature both Nioh and Nioh 2 Remastered, which will include all the DLC from both titles. The remaster will also touch up the game’s visuals and add new options for 4K and up to 120fps gameplay on supported displays.
If you’ve already been enjoying Nioh 2, you’ll be happy to know that your purchase on PS4 entitles you to a free upgrade on PS5. This applies to the base game and any DLC you’ve purchased, too. The original Nioh will not be eligible for the same, with Nioh Remastered available as a separate purchase on PS5. Additionally, Nioh 2 and Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition will not be available for purchase separately on PS5, so you either need to buy its respective PS4 edition or the full Nioh Collection.
Nioh 2 is also finally coming to PC, with Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition launching on Steam on February 5, 2021 too. This version will support the same 4K and 144Hz as the original Nioh, as well as HDR and widescreen resolutions. PC players will also get an exclusive “Valve Helmet” with their purchase. If you’ve been meaning to get into the series, the first Nioh is on sale for 70% off during the current Steam Sale, which ends on November 20.
Just before these new versions drop, Team Ninja is also releasing the third and final piece of DLC for Nioh 2 on PS4. The First Samurai will drop on December 17, introducing new enemies and challenges that Team Ninja says are the most challenging it has ever designed. A new difficulty mode will also be included to provide a punishing new way for veteran Nioh 2 players to enjoy.
Nioh 2 is an exceptional action game, with tight combat and mission designs that let it stand shoulder-to-shoulder with From Software’s Dark Souls series. In our Nioh 2 review, critic Mike Epstein wrote, “Though it sometimes feels like a curse as you play, it is a testament that Nioh 2 successfully grabs and holds your complete attention so close for so long.”
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The PlayStation 5 controller is easily one of the more impressive pieces of technology that comes with Sony’s next-gen console. It has a number of advanced features built into it, such as adaptive triggers, more sophisticated haptic feedback, and its own internal microphone. One feature that the controller doesn’t have though is a default mute state, something users might want to change for the sake of privacy and security.
Doing so is easy enough, as there are two paths you can take. One mutes your controller quickly until you switch it off, the other is a more permanent solution.
How to quickly mute your PS5 controller
PS5 microphone mute button
Just press the button above the PlayStation icon and it’ll be set to mute until you press it again or switch the console and controller off. You’ll also know that you’ve enabled the mute function as the PS5 informs you when the function has been activated.
How to mute your PS5 controller for longer
First you’ll need to navigate to the PS5 settings menu, which can be found in the top right corner and is represented as a cog icon. From there, make your way down to the “Sound” menu, and then select the “Microphone” option.
Select the option “Microphone status when logged in” and you’ll be able to toggle the microphone to be muted on default whenever you power your PS5 console on.
With that option organized, you’ll never have to worry about your online team picking up any unnecessary background noise or music whenever you start a game.
For more PS5 guides, you can see how easy it is to switch the orientation of the device. For more on the new console, you can check out our PS5 review and keep an eye on our PS5 order guide to see when more stock will be available.
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YouTube Premium subscribers are eligible for a damn good freebie–but only if they were already signed up to the service before the promotion was announced. Subscribers in the UK, Europe, Canada, and the US will be able to redeem the Stadia Premiere Edition bundle, according to an article by Android Central.
The Stadia Premiere Edition bundle is normally priced at $100, and comes with a Chromecast Ultra and a white Stadia Controller. YouTube Premium subscribers in eligible regions will be able to grab one of these for free. The offer should pop up for subscribers once they open their YouTube app, though you can also manually check if you’re eligible at this link.
You won’t be able to sign up to YouTube Premium just to grab this bundle, however–a screenshot shared on Twitter shows that the giveaway is only eligible to people who were subscribed before November 6, 2020.
Like other similar promotions, the offer may only be open while stocks of the Stadia bundle last, though Google may continue to open up the freebie to other regions where Stadia is available.
While the Premiere Edition bundle is designed for streaming games to a TV, the Stadia controller is a lot more versatile now, with updates this year adding wireless connectivity with laptops and PCs, and more recently Android devices.
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The third episode of The Mandalorian Season 2 introduced some interesting new twists and turns for the story, and sent Mando and Baby Yoda on the road to a fan-favorite Star Wars character who will hopefully show up soon.
Warning: If you haven’t seen Season 2, Episode 3 of The Mandalorian, titled “Chapter 11: The Heiress,” you should stop reading now. We’re going to get into heavy spoilers.
In this episode, Mando finally found more of his kind, which not only tied the show to other Star Wars properties, but propelled the story forward as we learned exactly what these other Mandalorians were after and how they could help guide Mando on his journey to get The Child home.
The episode was also jam-packed with Easter eggs and references to other corners of the Star Wars galaxy. Take a look below at the ones we found, then sound off in the comments with the moments, scenes, and Easter eggs you noticed. Then, make sure to check out our Easter Egg deep dives for the first two episodes of Season 2, The Marshal and The Passenger.
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1. Dank Farrik
Once again, Mando throws out his favorite line. We still don’t know what it means, but another character says it later in the episode.
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2. It’s a trap
Trask has its fair share of different alien species, including a bunch of Mon Calamari. For Star Wars fans, the most notable of this particular species was Admiral Ackbar, who appeared in multiple movies. They were also heavily featured in The Clone Wars.
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3. AT-AT’s have many uses
It certainly looks like an old Imperial AT-AT has been repurposed into the crane that pulls the Razor Crest out of the water. After the fall of the Empire, something had to be done with everything the evil order left behind.
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4. Quarren
Trask is also full of Quarren. These squid-like species are also native to Mon Cala, where they coexisted with the Mon Calamari. They have previously appeared on screen in Return of the Jedi, Episode II, Episode III, and The Clone Wars.
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5. Sasha Banks in a cloak
We knew she was cast this season, but this was the first official appearance of WWE Smackdown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks on the show. Thankfully, it didn’t take long to learn a lot more about her character.
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6. Mamacore
While this episode featured some familiar alien species, this one might be new to the Star Wars franchise. The beast swallowed The Child whole, which is kinda funny given that it’s called a “mama”core and technically had a baby inside of it. That didn’t last long, though.
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7. Clan Kryze
This is one of the most exciting developments on The Mandalorian yet. Clan Kryze–or what’s left of them–was introduced, which explained Banks’ character and tied deeply into Star Wars lore. The leader of the crew was Bo-Katan, played by Battlestar Galactica alum Katee Sackhoff. Sackhoff also voiced the part of Bo-Katan on Clone Wars.
Banks, who is credited by her real name Mercedes Varnado, played Koska Reeves. That character seems to be new to Star Wars lore, though there was a female captain in the Rebel Alliance named Reeves, who was mentioned in a Star Wars roleplaying adventure feature in a 1994 issue of the magazine Valkyrie.
Lastly, Axe Woves, played by Simon Kassianides, seems to be another new addition to the lore. He also speaks the least of the three new Mandalorians.
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8. The Watch
Bo-Katan calls Mando a Child of the Watch, and explains that The Watch was a cult of religious zealots that followed the Way of the Mandalore. If we had to guess, she’s referring to the Death Watch, a splinter group of Mandalorians that opposed the Mandalorian government–which was led by Satine of Clan Kryze at the time.
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9. Imperial Officer Titus Welliver
This Imperial officer is played by actor Titus Welliver, who you may recognize from shows like Sons of Anarchy and The Good Wife, or as the Man in Black from Lost.
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10. Long live the Empire
In the first appearance of Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) this season, the character appears as a hologram and utters the words “Long live the Empire.” At that point, the officer played by Welliver attempts to crash his ship, killing everyone on board, for the good of what’s left of the Empire.
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11. Thermal detonators
In a last ditch effort to reach the cockpit of the ship, Mando walks straight into a firefight and tosses a pair of thermal detonators to blow up what’s left of the storm troopers. Unlike the ones at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, these weren’t filled with Sprite.
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12. Bo-Katan wants the Darksaber
Bo-Katan is looking for the Darksaber, which is currently in the hands of Moff Gideon as we saw in the Season 1 finale. In Star Wars Rebels, Bo-Katan accepted the Darksaber from Clan Wren, took the mantle of leader, and united several Mandalorian clans.
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13. Ahsoka Tano
It’s been reported for months, but now we know it’s happening. In Mando’s final scene (for now) with Bo-Katan, she sends him off in search of the Jedi Ahsoka Tano. She’s given him a location to search her out and he’s on his way. That doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll see Ahsoka in the next episode of the series, but our fingers are crossed.
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Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company
While a number of industries have gone into decline in 2020 due to the global pandemic, gaming has taken off, as people largely stuck at home look for ways to occupy themselves. New data from NPD looking at the July to September period shows record spending on games, the highest ever in US history.
Spending on games, hardware, consoles, and all their various accessories reached $11.2 billion in the quarter, an increase of 24% on the same period last year. $10.4 billion of that was on software and content alone, with mobile spending and subscriptions seeing a particularly notable increase.
In terms of the content that drove this record-breaking quarter, surprise indie hit Among Us sits comfortably among a number of larger AAA releases including NBA 2K21, Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, and Ghost of Tsushima, as well as older favorites including Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Fortnite, and Minecraft. Despite performing worse than expected for Square Enix, Marvel’s Avengers still got a look in the list too.
“We can anticipate another record-breaking quarter in Q4,” said analyst said Mat Piscatella. “In large part due to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles entering the market with one of the fastest-selling consoles in U.S. history, the Nintendo Switch.”
The next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles have already been incredibly popular, selling out almost as soon as they became available. Despite having been in the market for over three years the Nintendo Switch is also continuing to sell well, with October seeing a huge month of sales for the hybrid console.
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Sony’s PlayStation 5 is out now, and it features a whole suite of games that show off what’s to come with the next-generation of 4K media and gaming. In addition to new releases like Demon’s Souls, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Astro’s Playroom, the PS5 also supports an extensive list of PS4 games available for backwards compatible play. Simply put, the PS5 at launch does not have a shortage of games to play and download. However, with an extensive library of games, most of which are continuing the trend of games with large files sizes, you’ll have to be a bit more mindful about managing your data.
The PS5 comes with a 825GB SSD for storage, about 667GB of which is free for you to use. With the growing size of games like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War–which sits around 200GB–the available real estate in your PS5 can quickly fill up. That’s a problem, because PS5 games must be installed to the internal drive, and cannot be moved to external storage. (Backwards-compatible games can be stored and played externally.) Currently, you cannot expand your internal storage at this time, but Sony has stated that PS5 owners will be able to sometime in the future. With this issue in mind, we wanted to offer some tips on how best to optimize and maximize your storage space for your new PlayStation 5.
PS5 Storage Tips
Prioritize The Games You Want To Keep: One of the crucial things you’ll need to do with your next-gen console is keep an eye on your available storage space. It’s never fun purchasing a new game and then discovering that you lack the open storage to download it. Every game you have in your library will take up space in your console’s SSD, and this also includes game discs that will need to load data onto your drive. While you may have the urge to download all your most wanted games at once, it’s best to focus on the essentials. You will always have access to purchased games in your account library, so even when you delete the game from your drive, you can still download it again later if you want to revisit the game.
Turn Off Auto Updates: Another solid tip is to go into your system settings and disable the auto-update features. Generally, updates for your current set of installed games will be downloaded automatically to your drive when your console is online. These include games you may have finished or may not get back to anytime soon. To optimize space, be sure to switch this off and focus on downloading updates for games you want to play regularly.
Turn Off Trophy Videos: One interesting change that came with the PlayStation’s Trophy system is that the PS5 will now save a clip of the exact moment you earn a Trophy. By default, the PS5 will automatically save quick videos of every Trophy you unlock in a game. This innovation can be great for those who want to save a particular moment. However, these video files will add up over time, resulting in a bulky media folder filled with videos of you earning all sorts of Trophies–even the minor ones that don’t require much effort. To save on space, we’d highly recommend disabling this feature outright. If you do want to save a moment when you earn a Trophy, then the PS5’s upgraded share button will allow you to save video files capturing several minutes from your recent gameplay session. So once something exciting happens, just tap the share button and the moment will be saved as a video. It’s always good to keep an eye out for the growing size of your media folder. So every once in a while, it would be a good idea to start clearing out old videos that are taking up too much space.
The PlayStation 5 features a 825 GB SSD at launch. Sony has stated that there will be plans for adding options to expand storage in the future.
Use An External Storage Device: The PS5’s sophisticated SSD is an impressive storage device, and it also shows off the speed in next-gen loading times. You may be tempted to load everything onto the SSD, but you can also play backwards compatible games via an external drive. Plugged in through a USB, you can download PS4 games straight onto an external device and play them from there (though your load times will vary depending on the drive you’re using).
Look Before You Download: The PS5 line-up includes a set of games that are available for the PS4 as well. Along with letting PS4 users experience some of the latest games, these cross-gen titles also allow players to carry their progress to the PS5. However, a surprising quirk that comes from this is that it’s possible to download PS4 and PS5 versions of the same game simultaneously on your next-gen console. According to GameSpot staff, this happened after selecting the “download all” option when trying to load the games onto our hard drives. When this happens, you’ll take up far more storage space than you intended. To avoid this from happening to you, download the games you purchased straight from your library instead.
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Both the Xbox Series X and Series S are out now, and each console offers a solid entry point into the next generation of gaming. At launch, the new Xbox consoles lean heavily into the existing library of games from the Xbox library, along with new releases like Yakuza: Like A Dragon, Gears Tactics, and Dirt 5. The new consoles also support the fantastic Game Pass service, which allows users to play through some of the greatest hits from Xbox’s history.
The breadth of games is impressive; however, this also brings attention to the Xbox Series X and Series S’s available storage space. With the Series X outfitted with a 1TB SSD for storage and the Series S having a 512GB SSD, you’ll likely run into the issue of insufficient storage space for your console once you begin downloading games (particularly because they only allow you to use 802GB and 364GB, respectively). While there is an option to purchase an expansion card that adds an additional 1TB of space, it sits at the pricey cost $220–almost the same retail cost of a Series S. With the rise of game file sizes venturing further into the 100GB-plus range, you’ll quickly find out that storage management will be a constant work in progress in this new generation. So with that, here are some tips on how to best organize and save space for your new Xbox console.
Xbox Series X|S Storage Tips
Prioritize The Games You Want To Keep: One of the crucial things you’ll need to do with your next-gen console is to keep an eye out for your available storage space. It’s never fun purchasing a new game and then discovering that you lack the open storage to download it. Every game you have in your library will take up space in your console’s SSD, and this also includes game discs that will need to load data onto your drive. While you may have the urge to download all your most wanted games at once, it’s best to focus on the essentials. You will always have access to purchased games in your account library, so even when you delete the game from your drive, you can still download it again later if you want to revisit the game.
Turn Off Auto Updates: Another solid tip is to go into your system settings and disable the auto-update features. Generally, updates for your current set of installed games will be downloaded automatically to your drive when your console is connected online. These include games you may have finished or may not get back to anytime soon. To optimize space, be sure to switch this off and focus on downloading updates for games you want to play regularly.
Rely On An External Device For Backwards Compatibility: The Xbox Series X|S can use an external drive to store games. However, it will only allow games to be played from Xbox One and previous generations. No games exclusive to the Xbox Series X|S (including Xbox One games with X|S enhancement updates) can be played from an external drive, although you can temporarily store X|S games on one. That will allow you to avoid the need to redownload games you would otherwise have to delete from the internal drive. As such, using an external drive on the Xbox Series X|S can be a reliable way to easily manage storage space. With the vast library of games from the Game Pass service, having an external drive as your dedicated backward compatibility space can be worthwhile. You can still enjoy Quick Resume in supported games and benefit from improved loading times (depending on the drive you’re using).
The Xbox Series X – 802GB usable storage space / The Xbox Series X – 364GB usable storage space.
Reduce The Size Of Saved Media: Another solid way to save on storage space is to adjust the file sizes for your saved media. With the 4K HDR support on Xbox Series X, it can be easy to pile up a massive amount of gameplay videos with large file sizes. You can adjust the size of screenshots and video clips to be 1080p to keep the file size down in the settings.
Some Games Are Just Smaller On Xbox Series S: This is not so much a tip, but rather a reminder that if you’re using the Xbox Series S that some games will have reduced install sizes since developers can choose to leave out 4K assets. For example, Sea of Thieves is 17GB on the Series S, but 46GB on the Series X. Others won’t be as drastic, but Gears 5 shrinks to 55GB down from 72GB and Forza Horizon 4 stands at 71 GB down from 85GB. Differences will vary between games, and although it may not make up for the smaller SSD, it’s a nice perk to help keep a bit more room on the system.
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After playing Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s campaign twice, Kallie Plagge gives her first impressions of just the game’s main story. Activision’s first person shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is now available on Xbox One, PS4, PC, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PS5. You can read Kallie Plagge’s review in progress of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War on GameSpot:
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War returns to the story of the original Black Ops from 10 years ago, continuing to fill in the timeline between what happened in the 1960s in the original and the huge time skip to 2025 in Black Ops II. Set in 1981, Cold War again features major Black Ops protagonists Alex Mason and Frank Woods, while adding a new team of spies working to stop a Soviet operative called Perseus from doing a lot of bad things.
The series has a lot of narrative twists that can be tricky to follow, so we’re running down all the story you might not remember after a decade to help you follow along in Cold War. The game makes a few key references to past characters and events, so you’ll want to know exactly what went down as you work with a new squad to stop the Soviet Union, save the western world, and engage in all kinds of spy shenanigans.
Black Ops – All About The Brainwashing
The main thing to remember about the original Black Ops is the brainwashing. There was a lot going on in that game, but at its simplest, it’s a story about programming and counter-programming as Mason fights against the ideas that have been placed in his head by nefarious actors. Mason is in Cuba taking part in the Bay of Pigs, a real-life botched operation to train Cuban exiles and land them back in Cuba to overthrow Castro. In Black Ops, Mason tries to assassinate Castro, only for Russian soldiers to capture him.
Mason is taken to the Soviet labor camp Vorkuta, where Russian Major General Nikita Dragovich heads up a program to brainwash him into becoming a sleeper agent who they can send back to the U.S. to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. The pre-programmed trigger is to be broadcast off of a ship called Rusalka through a series of mysterious numbers.
Mason ends up being very resistant to the brainwashing program and at one point is given up as a failure. That’s when Victor Reznov, who fought for Russia during World War II and was betrayed by Dragovich, makes his move. He messes with Mason’s programming and sends him to kill his own rivals, which include Dragovich, his lieutenant Victor Kravchenko, and former Nazi scientist Freidrich Steiner.
After that, Mason escapes Vorkuta during a prison riot, aided by Reznov, and heads back to the U.S. He returns to his military service, but Reznov’s programming mostly works–Mason eventually kills Dragovich and Steiner while working with the CIA to stop Dragovich’s plan to execute an attack using deadly Nova-6 gas. When his programming is discovered, the CIA tries to undo the brainwashing, but it’s heavily implied the Russian influence on Mason leads him to have some hand in the assassination of Kennedy. It’s also revealed that Reznov likely never made it out of Vorkuta, despite Mason seeing him throughout the game; Reznov was apparently all in Mason’s head after he left Russia.
Though Dragovich’s plans are scuttled, Black Ops also leaves the situation up in the air. Sleeper agents from Dragovich’s program are still in the U.S., and while the Nova-6 plot has been stopped, some of the threat remains. There are a few other loose ends from Black Ops, as well, including Kravchenko. He survived Mason in Black Ops and we know he makes it through the ’80s, thanks to the story of Black Ops II.
Cold War – Remember The ’80s
That brings us to Cold War, which picks up in 1981. This is after Frank Woods, presumed dead in Black Ops, resurfaces–he was captured in Vietnam and taken to the POW camp known as the Hanoi Prison for several years. After his release, he rejoined Mason, serving as his “anchor to reality” because Mason is still affected by the numbers program even after its destruction. The pair continue to work with Jason Hudson, their CIA handler from Black Ops, who is now also operating with Russell Adler, one of the main characters in Cold War.
The new chapter in the Black Ops series picks up right after the Iran hostage crisis and the inauguration of Ronald Reagan as president. Adler is hunting Perseus, a shadowy Russian agent whose trail Adler has been on since Vietnam. New intel related to the hostage crisis suggests Perseus is planning a big attack against the West, so Hudson charges Adler with forming a new spy team to find it and stop it, with Mason and Woods serving as on-the-ground operatives.
That’s everything you need to know about the Black Ops series to follow along in Cold War. There is one more interesting tidbit, however–Cold War broadens the story by including a connection to Modern Warfare, as well.
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