Spider-Man: Miles Morales – Here’s What Comes in Each Edition

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is set to release for PS4 and PS5 on November 12, making it a PS5 launch title (see it on Amazon). The game takes place a year after the events of the original Spider-Man, with Miles Morales getting caught up in a war between the evil energy corporation Roxxon and the Underground, a criminal army led by the supervillain The Tinkerer.

The fighting mechanics and gameplay look fairly similar to the 2018 original, with lots of swinging through the city and agile pounding on bad guys. And while it’s not quite a full sequel, it is a stand-alone game that’s bigger than you’d expect from an expansion. That explains the $49.99 price for the standard edition.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales comes in two editions and is up for preorder right now at a number of retailers. Here’s everything you need to know to lock in your preorder.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales Standard Edition

miles-moralesPS4 (includes free PS5 upgrade)

PS5

The standard edition just comes with the new Miles Morales game. Note that anyone who buys the PS4 version of Spider-Man: Miles Morales will get a free PS5 upgrade if you buy a PS5 console in the future. So if you’re not planning to pick up a PS5 at launch, this is the version to get.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition

miles-morales2PS5

The only difference between this and the standard edition is that the ultimate edition also includes Spider-Man Remastered. That’s the entire original game, updated for PS5.

Note that the game will require at least 50GB of hard drive space for the standard edition, or 105GB for the ultimate edition. For more information, check out our in-depth look at the story of Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and check out the gameplay trailer below.

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We have a lot more preorder guides for you below. Anyone with a PS5 preorder may want to take a look at Cyberpunk 2077, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and other games with free PS5 upgrades.

Other Preorder Guides

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Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4 Save Files Won’t Work With The PS5 Remaster

If you purchase the Ultimate Edition of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales to get Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on the PS5, you won’t be able to transfer a save from the PS4 version of the game.

Marvel’s Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games revealed the news on Twitter, as well as providing more details about how the remastered version of the 2018 game will work in a series of replies to fan queries.

If you plan to continue from where you left off on the PS4, you’re out of luck, as it looks like the two games will be separate entities, meaning your current-gen save won’t be compatible. However, this does mean that Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered will offer a separate trophy list, which is great news if you’re a Platinum hunter keen to replay the game on PS5.

Insomniac also confirmed that Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered won’t receive a physical release, and will only be available as a download voucher or a digital download, depending on which version of the Ultimate Edition of Spider-Man: Miles Morales you purchase.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a PS5 launch game, swinging into action on November 12 in the US, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea and November 19 everywhere else. The game is also coming to PS4 with a ‘next-gen upgrade path’ for players who make the jump to next-gen later down the line.

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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

 

How Age Of Empires 3: Definitive Edition Is Fixing Representation Of First Nations Civilizations

Age Of Empires III: Definitive Edition is releasing on October 15, and the game’s development blog has been sharing more about what fans can expect from the re-release. One of these blogs included an interview with Anthony Brave, who worked on the game as a consultant and writer to fix AOE3’s often problematic depictions of Native American civilizations in its WarChiefs expansion.

“A key focus of our work at World’s Edge is to authentically represent the cultures and peoples that we depict in our games,” the blog explains. “In creating Age III: DE, we realized that we weren’t upholding that value as well as we could regarding the Indigenous North American cultures represented. So we set out to fix that: working directly with tribal consultants to respectfully and accurately capture the uniqueness of their peoples, history, and cultures.”

The changes made for the Definitive Edition extend to the very names of the First Nations civilizations, but also involve changes to how they play and progress through the game, as well as a full re-write of the Shadow storyline. “Before we started working on the DE with our Native American and First Nations consultants, we didn’t know that the names Sioux and Iroquois were given to them by European settlers,” developer World’s Edge explained. “So we have changed those civ names in the DE to their Indigenous names–Lakota (Sioux) and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois).”

“To be honest: there were times playing [Age of Empires 3] as a Lakota guy that felt pretty cringey,” Brave says of the original game. “For example, the Fire Pit is pretty bad—not to mention the skulls on spikes at, like, all Indigenous villages in the main game. The mining was just nonsensical for Native people, too.”

In response to Brave’s feedback, mining has been swapped out for those civilizations for a Tribal Marketplace, giving First Nations civilizations an alternative way to gather Coin. The Fire Pit was another feature that needed to be completely re-worked, according to Brave.

“The Fire Pit works magically in that having people dance around a fire somehow gives warriors on the battlefield more power,” Brave explains. “On the other hand, the Western people get power through logical means: like the development of technology or increasing their capacity for war by developing their forts. This perpetuates the old, tired ‘savage vs civilized’ dichotomy.”

The Fire Pit will now be replaced by the Community Plaza, a building where villagers can work together to create upgrades for the civilization. World’s Edge also removed the Nature Friendship ability, which is based on a trope that Brave says “seems particularly prevalent in video games to the point where it seems like if there is a Native character in a video game, that character must have animal powers.”

Brave also rewrote the Shadow plotline, which he talks about in detail in the full interview on World’s Edge’s website. More studios are now turning to cultural consultants when including Indigenous people in their games, though Brave also recommends curious players to check out wholly Indigenous-made games such as When Rivers Were Trails, Thunderbird Strike, Umurangi Generation, Terra Nova, and Never Alone.

Now Playing: Age of Empires III: Definitive Trailer | Gamescom 2020

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Incredible Cyberpunk Photography Game Umurangi Generation Announces Switch Port And DLC

Umurangi Generation, one of 2020’s slightly under-the-radar gems, is coming to Switch. What’s more, owners of the game on PC will be able to expand their experience with a new DLC pack, titled Macro.

Umurangi Generation is a cyberpunk photography game, set in a low-fi world that glows red and is rife with corruption. It was inspired, in part, by Australian bushfires and numerous current world events. It’ll come to Switch before the end of the year.

A first-look trailer for the DLC was shown during a stream by indie publisher Playism. There will be new equipment to unlock, and you can now glide about with rollerblades, taking photos of new targets.

The trailer also features a nod to GameSpot’s review: the game received a 9/10.

The DLC will release on November 7 for PC, and cost $10. A Switch release date has not been announced.

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RTX 3080 Amazon Alerts Are Sending Buyers To $5000 Listings

Due to what Nvidia called “unprecedented demand” for its new RTX 3080 cards, the first release sold out before most consumers could even get a look in, with store pages slammed by bots buying up stock for resellers. Now, customers who signed up for Amazon’s in-stock alerts for the graphics card are instead being sent to overpriced listings selling the RTX 3080 at prices up to $5000, as reported by The Verge.

Amazon’s stock alerts allow customers to sign up for email notifications, letting them know when stock becomes available for an out-of-stock item. Normally useful for in-demand items, in this case users who’ve signed up for alerts are being sent to listings of up to $5000, many times the card’s recommended retail price of $700.

The new Nvidia release has been so messy that the company has apologized for it, promising to ship new stock to retailers “every day,” and saying that it has been “doing everything humanly possible, including manually reviewing orders, to get these cards in the hands of legitimate customers.”

Some frustrated would-be buyers have taken matters into their own hands, with one Reddit post describing a frustrated Nvidia customer writing a bot that would inflate scalpers’ GTX 3080 listings to unattainable prices, with no intent to purchase.

GameSpot’s review of the 3080 concluded that the new card is currently your best option for 4K gaming, if you can get your hands on one, though a bit of overkill for other situations. “The RTX 3080 is an incredible card but just make sure it’s something that you’ll actually get the most out of.”

Now Playing: Which Nvidia 30 Series Card Is Right For You? (RTX 3090, 3080, and 3070)

Monster Hunter Rise Will Have Free Post-Launch Content And Is Targeting 30FPS

Monster Hunter Rise has been revealed as the next Monster Hunter game for Switch, and unlike Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate it’s been built from the ground up for Nintendo’s hybrid portable. The initial announcement trailer (below) gave us a look at the new game, but now more information has come to light.

YouTube Monster Hunter superfan Arekkz has spoken to Capcom community manager “Socks” about the upcoming game, and he’s dug up some new details on the Switch exclusive. Socks talks about what fans can expect, including information about post-launch content and some information about its engine and performance.

You can watch a summary of Arekkz’s Q&A below–it seems that the actual interview was not recorded or usable, though, so it’s a recitation of the information he received.

From his interview, Arekkz learned that Rise won’t be an open world game, but it will build on the exploration mechanics in Monster Hunter World, meaning that monsters and hunters can travel between different regions during gameplay without any loading screens. As the game’s name suggests, there will be a greater element of verticality in the level design here than in previous Monster Hunter games.

The game will also, Socks confirmed, receive post-launch support, meaning that there will be new content added after launch. There are no details available yet, as the developer is focused on getting the game complete, but the aim is to keep players coming back for a long time.

Arekkz was also able to confirm that the game is running on the RE Engine–the same engine as Resident Evil 7–and that it is targeting a 30fps frame rate. This is the same frame rate players experienced in the console versions of Monster Hunter World.

Monster Hunter Rise will release on March 26, 2021. Check out GameSpot’s preorder guide to see all the different editions and bonuses.

Now Playing: Monster Hunter Rise – Official Announcement Trailer

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Madden 21’s Next Big Patch Is Coming Soon, Here’s What We Know So Far

A new update for Madden NFL 21 is coming very soon, and it sounds like a big one. The Madden Ultimate Team database Muthead recently discovered the patch notes for the latest update through Good Morning Madden, and it promises updates across gameplay, Ultimate Team, Franchise, the Yard, and more.

Perhaps one of the more notable fixes in the update focuses on the kick meter. As many players have discovered, including GameSpot’s own reviewer, the kick meter tends to glitch out during field goal kicks, leading to a frustrating experience. This new patch should address this by some means. You can see a synopsis of the patch notes in the images below, while the changelog should be available when the update hits.

Muthead reported that the patch should launch at around 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET on Tuesday, September 22. This will be Madden 21’s fourth major title update.

Madden NFL 21 has proven to be a big sales success so far, becoming the No. 1 overall best-selling game in the US for August 2020. In fact, this was the 21st year in a row that a Madden NFL game has been the best-seller in its release month.

Madden NFL 21 is coming to the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X/S, and people can get a free upgrade to the next-gen edition via EA’s Dual Entitlement program.

Now Playing: Madden NFL 21 Video Review

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$70 Prices On Next-Gen Games Won’t Hurt Sales, Analyst Says

The price of top-end AAA games is going up for the first time in over a decade, increasing by $10 from the $60 standard that has been in place since the Xbox 360 and PS3 generation. NPD analyst Mat Piscatella says that gamers will pay $70, if not happily, due to the demand for next-gen games.

Piscatella broached the subject on the Virtual Economy podcast last weekend, as reported by Gamesindustry.biz. “Game prices have stayed the same since 2005, when Call of Duty 2 first went to $59.99 on Xbox 360 and we’ve basically stayed there ever since,” he explained. “Now, a lot of people will say a rise in base prices for the higher tier, premium games is needed to offset development costs, inflation or whatever, and all those arguments seem to fall flat. But what doesn’t fall flat is that for some of these premium games, if the $10 increase was implemented, people would happily pay it.”

Various industry figures have spoken about the increased cost of next-gen production throughout the new consoles’ release cycles. Back in June, Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan warned that more technologically demanding games would “become slightly more human intensive and capital intensive to produce,” but the new norm in game pricing wasn’t revealed until 2K Sports announced its next-gen edition of NBA 2K21 for $70.

Piscatella doesn’t assume gamers are going to welcome the price increase, of course. “They might grumble about it,” he predicted. “But they would certainly pay it. The price sensitivity, particularly on day-one, suggests that.”

He also suggested that prices would go back down if players balked at the new prices enough to impact sales figures, echoing an earlier statement from Xbox head Phil Spencer on game pricing. “As an industry, we can price things whatever we want to price them, and the customer will decide what the right price is for them,” Spencer said in a July interview.

Pricing and dates for the next-gen consoles have now also been locked in. Check out everything you need to know about preorders for the Xbox Series X and Series S and the two versions of the PS5.

Now Playing: PS5 Showcase Livestream

LOTR Studio Weta Digital Launches Investigation Into Toxic Workplace Claims

Founded by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk in 1993 to create the digital effects for Heavenly Creatures, Weta Digital is perhaps best known for its work on Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now, the New Zealand studio is coming under fire for an allegedly toxic and sexist workplace culture, triggering the launch of an independent investigation.

Allegations about Weta Digital’s workplace culture have emerged due to a months-long investigation by local news team TVNZ. New Zealand’s workplace relations minister Andrew Little has spoken up on the allegations, urging the company to carry out an independent review of the claims.

The stories from current and former staff include a culture of sharing pornographic imagery among the workplace, with staffers describing explicit mailing lists hosted on Weta Digital’s own intranet. “There was a tradition at the time called Porn Friday,” one employee told TVNZ anonymously. “Every Friday staff members would email round porn images to the whole team.”

Though the pornographic mailing lists were eventually shut down by the company, workers say the move resulted in backlash from those who benefited from that culture.

There are also allegations of sexual harassment and bullying, which wasn’t taken seriously by management–or in some cases were perpetuated by members of management.

“It’s a known fact that the film industry treats its workers like s***,” one former employee said. “Weta Digital is no exception. They work people until they burn out or quit. The culture is a mixture of boys club mentality, bullying gone wild, and casual sexism … I wouldn’t recommend anyone work there.”

In an official statement, Weta Digital has said that the allegations “do not reflect the Weta Digital of today.” A statement sent to The Guardian added that “the owners have commissioned a QC (Queen’s Counsel) to carry out an independent review.”

A separate investigation is already underway at Weta Workshop, the branch of the Weta Group responsible for physical props, costumes, and practical effects. The investigation at Weta Workshop is being carried out by Hive Consulting.

The Emmys Sees Record Low TV Viewers, But That’s Not Unexpected

Sunday’s all-virtual Emmy awards were not a hit for the TV audience, the final viewer count has confirmed. The 2020 awards attracted a total of 6.1 million viewers on ABC, down from 6.9 million when it aired on Fox last year, as reported by The Wrap.

This year’s numbers are part of a continuing downward trend, however–this year saw a decline of 29% on last year’s numbers, while last year also saw a 32% drop from the previous year. The show still attracted relatively big numbers for ABC, representing the channel’s largest audience on a Sunday since an episode of American Idol on April 5.

While the TV numbers were less than encouraging, this year’s Emmys were a hit on social media, seeing a total of 11.9 million social interactions for an increase of 108% from last year. The show’s isolation-based gags may have helped with that, including a team of tuxedo hazmat-suited people who were charged with hand delivering trophies to the winners–and apparently gloating at the losers.

For a full list of the 2020 awards winners, check out our list here. Or for the short version–the big winners of the night were Watchmen, Schitt’s Creek and Succession, with each taking home plenty of awards in their respective categories. The night also saw Zendaya become the youngest person to win best actress in a drama series for her role in Euphoria.

Now Playing: Watchmen – Official Teaser Trailer