• PlayStation age verification has begun rolling out for users in the UK and Ireland
• As part of the UK's Online Safety Act (OSA), age verification will be mandatory in June
• Many communication features will be unavailable if the user doesn't verify their age

Sony has begun rolling out PlayStation age verification for users in the UK and Ireland.

The age verification process, which is part of the UK's Online Safety Act (OSA), is currently optional, but will be mandatory starting June 2026, according to the FAQ.

Sony is asking players to complete the process to avoid interruptions later this year and keep access to PlayStation communication features like text and voice chat, messaging, Discord voice chat, streaming features, broadcasting to YouTube and Twitch, joining parties or group sessions, and other in-game user-generated content (UGC).

It explained that some games offer their own communication tools or UGC features, and if age verification is not completed, certain features will be unavailable.

"Because each title is designed differently, the specific features affected may vary by game," Sony said. "As titles update their implementations over time, additional in-game features may become restricted for users who have not verified their age.

Players have reacted to the new change, with one Reddit user saying, "Sony making age verification mandatory for core PlayStation social features feels like a preview of where the internet is heading."

Others have said they shouldn't have to verify their age if they've owned their account for more than 18 years, with some suggesting that if a purchase was made with a credit card, Sony should automatically know the user is an adult.

TechRadar Gaming's own Managing Editor, Rob Dwiar, received an email alerting him to the age verification. In case you haven't received yours yet, it reads:

"Verify your age to keep using communication features. At Sony Interactive Entertainment, we are committed to creating safe, age-appropriate experiences for players and families while respecting privacy and giving players and parents meaningful control over their gaming experience.

"As part of our compliance with global regulations, you'll need to verify your age later this year to continue using PlayStation communication features, such as messages and voice chat. You will still be able to access other PlayStation services, like games, trophies, and the Store, if you do not verify your age."

A QR is also attached to the email, prompting users to scan and follow the steps to verify their age.

Sony is using Yoti for age verification, the same service Microsoft uses for Xbox after introducing the mandatory feature last year. A government-issued ID, a facial scan for estimated age, and a mobile provider check can all be used to verify the user's age.

You can verify now or scan the QR code on the FAQ to get started if you haven't received an email yet.

• A character model for Rockstar Games' canceled game, Agent, has been found
• A dataminer discovered the mode within GTA 5's leaked source code
• The character model appears to be a remix of GTA 4's Niko Bellic

A fan has discovered what appears to be the early model for the main character for Rockstar Games' canceled project, Agent.

In 2023, the source code for GTA 5 was leaked, leading to all sorts of discoveries over the years, but this week, a fan shared a new discovery that shines some light on Rockstar's PS3 spy game Agent, which never saw the light of day.

User XanaBax shared their findings on the GTA Forum (thanks, Kotaku), which included assets and character models for an unknown character, suggesting that one in particular was the main character of Agent.

XanaBax explained that three of the four models were from GTA V and weren’t related to Agent, but suspects the fourth, which shows a man wearing army fatigues, wasn't a GTA 5 asset.

The dataminer claims the model was buried within a folder titled 'Jimmy', which was reportedly the codename for Agent and was also under the hierarchy list labeled 'Player', suggesting that this character was the playable protagonist.

The filename also included the mention of "NorthRig", which could be Rockstar North, the studio that was originally developing the game.

What's more, it appears that the character is a kind of remix of Grand Theft Auto 4's Niko Bellic. XanaBax explained that "some parts of the model are taken from/edited versions of Niko Bellic" and the head model "has more or less the same UV map (excluding the hairline)."

The boots pictured are Niko's boots, and the camo pants are an edited version of Niko's.

The model has never been used in GTA 5 or GTA Online, and XanaBax claims it has a 2009 date attached, which would be two years after Agent was first mentioned by Rockstar.

"Agent takes players on a paranoid journey into the world of counter-intelligence, espionage and political assassinations during the height of the Cold War at the end of the 1970s," Rockstar teased at the time.

The project was first teased at E3 2007 in partnership with Sony, but was officially announced at E3 2009. The game was slated to release in 2010, but after a long period of radio silence, the trademark finally expired, and in 2021, Agent‘s official website was taken down.

A former Rockstar developer shared that both Agent and GTA 5 were being developed simultaneously, but more resources and people were eventually moved onto GTA 5, leading to Agent's apparent cancellation.

In other related news, fans have uncovered a collection of hidden Grand Theft Auto 4 assets on a second-hand Xbox 360 that turned out to be a Rockstar Games development kit.

• Naughty Dog head Neil Druckmann has teased the future of The Last of Us
• In a throwback Instagram post, the developer shared the first sketches of characters Joel and Ellie from 2003
• Druckmann also referred to a "few stops that remain on the road ahead"

Naughty Dog studio head and The Last of Us director Neil Druckman has seemingly teased the future of the PlayStation series.

In a recent Instagram post, Druckmann shared a post that read, "Cleaning out the garage today and stumbled on my original sketches from 2003 for a game pitch about a man, his surrogate daughter, and a trek across a broken America."

The director included the sketches, which early early renditions of Joel and Ellie years before they came to life in Naughty Dog's The Last of Us for the PlayStation 3.

The now-beloved post-apocalyptic game went on to be the studio's biggest, critically acclaimed title, and later received an equally acclaimed sequel in 2020 with The Last of Us: Part 2.

However, it's the rest of Druckmann's post that has fans speculating on the future of the series.

"Been a wild journey," he added. "Grateful for every part of it, especially the few stops that remain on the road ahead."

Could Druckmann be teasing The Last of Us Part 3? Yet another update for The Last of Us Part 1 and Part 2 for current-gen consoles? We'll have to wait and see.

Naughty Dog typically announces new content and news on its annual Last of Us Day, which is held on September 28, and other major reveals during Sony's State of Play showcases.

Druckmann also announced last year that he was stepping away as co-showrunner on HBO's The Last of Us series following season 2, but will remain involved at a "high level", so there's always a possibility the developer is talking about the television adaptation in his post.

Druckmann touched on the possibility of The Last of Us Part 3 rumors, saying, "the only thing I would say is don’t bet on there being more of 'Last of Us.' This could be it." However, the director's statement contradicted what he'd previously said about the potential of there being "one more chapter to this story".

During the Grounded 2: Making of The Last of Us Part 2 documentary, Druckmann spoke on the series finality, saying, "If we never get to do it again, this is a fine ending point. Last bite of the apple, the story's done."

He also mentioned that he has a "concept" that could be "as exciting" as both The Last of Us games, adding, "I've been just thinking about it, 'is there a concept there?' And for now years, I haven't been able to find that concept."

For now, Naughty Dog is working on its new single-player game in development for the PS5, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

• Support for the Netflix streaming app will be removed from the PS3 soon
• Users of the 19-year-old console are receiving messages when they boot up the app
• Netflix will be removed from the PS3 on March 2, 2026

After 16 years of support, Netflix is being removed from the PlayStation 3 on March 2, 2026, as spotted by IGN.

In case you didn't know - because I certainly didn't - Netflix was made available on the PS3 back in 2009 via a Blu-ray disc before the native app was later added to the console in 2010.

For 16 years, users who still used their PS3 were able to enjoy their favorite shows on the streaming service, but unfortunately, the Netflix app will be removed next month.

Users who try to boot up the app are presented with a message that reads, "Unfortunately, Netflix will no longer be available on this device after March 2, 2026."

The reaction from those who still use the 19-year-old console to this is disappointing, with many upset that they can no longer use their PS3 to watch Netflix content on a 4:3 native display.

"Welp, there goes the last way to watch Netflix natively in 4:3," one user said on the PS3 subreddit. "I imagine im one of like 10 people bummed by this haha. Netflix ps3 has been so convenient for watching old shows on a CRT in 4:3 without the black bars on the sides. glad I got to use it while I still can and at least they gave a heads up haha."

Another responded, saying, "TIL that Netflix was still on ps3." You and me both.

"I’m actually impressed it was still supported. I would have thought they dropped the ps3 years ago," another user said.

One Redditor pointed out that Amazon Prime Video is still supported, but now that Netflix has been phased out of older generation hardware, how long with that last?

• PSN has just recovered from a 24-hour outage
• Sony says the downtime was caused by an “operational issue” with network services
• Compensation is 5 free days of service for PlayStation Plus members

Sony has informed us of the compensation that PlayStation owners – well, PlayStation Plus members – will receive due to the major outage that struck PSN this weekend, which is thankfully now in the rearview mirror.

The PlayStation Network outage ran for 24 hours in the end, blotting out Saturday online gaming sessions across the globe (or Friday night in some places).

Finally, we were given a reason for the service dropping out, namely an “operational issue” with network services as explained by the PlayStation North American support account on X.

The post on the social media outlet also apologized and gave us details on the compensation that’s going to be provided: “All PlayStation Plus members will automatically receive an additional 5 days of service.”

Not so smooth operator

Predictably, there’s quite a bit of unhappiness around the response here. Just a cursory glance through the replies to the announcement from Sony support gives you a good flavor of the disgruntled gamers out there. The main theme is ‘just five days, what about a month?’ – or ‘why aren’t you giving us a free game instead?’

Okay, the latter is pushing it, but I must agree that five days feels like, how can I put this tactfully… a minimal gesture?

I think Sony could have done better than that in mitigating what was clearly a lot of bad feeling from the broad PlayStation community around this weekend-spoiling (for some) outage.

Heck, even non-PlayStation gamers are chipping in on X and saying this feels stingy from Sony.

It’s worth noting that far from everyone has received the five-day bonus yet, and it’s likely in the pipeline for many.

Communication breakdown

The other frustrating element during this PSN outage was the lack of any communication as to what was going on from Sony.

Everything was down – all PlayStation services on the status dashboard, which was nothing but red lights – and yet not a peep was heard from official channels about the cause (or suspected fault), or an estimated delivery time for the fix to the PlayStation Network.

In some ways, that’ll doubtless have been about the fear of getting something else wrong – giving false hope of a ‘fix soon’ that then doesn’t appear, and which only makes PlayStation owners angrier – but still, it wasn’t a good situation.

The final verdict emerging as just an “operational issue” is not much of a reason, either, and that term feels very vague. Yes, apparently it was a large spanner in the works with the network infrastructure somewhere – but what kind of gremlin was crawling about in there? A little more of a clue wouldn’t hurt, in terms of: how did this happen, and how might Sony guard against this in the future?

In fairness, a fuller explanation could be coming shortly. And service downtime happens – it’s inevitable, of course. But I feel it’s clear enough that the response during the outage, and this final outcome and compensation, could – and should – have been better from Sony.

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• PlayStation Network has been down for just over 12 hours
• While the outage appeared to settle after an initial spike, it has worsened again in the last few hours
• We don't yet have an official cause or ETA for when PSN will get back to normal

Editor's note: The PSN outage now appears to be over. You can get the latest info on our PlayStation Network outage live blog.

The PlayStation Network has been down for just over 12 hours at this point, in what appears to be a major outage, and one that’s still very much ongoing, sadly.

Based on reports from Downdetector there was a huge spike of complaints initially, peaking at over 14,000 reports, and that appeared to settle down somewhat – notably without being completely resolved – before another smaller peak has been hit, and sustained, over the last few hours.

Those wanting to grab a weekend session of Call of Duty on PlayStation, or whatever their preferred online poison, may find that tricky right now.

Some users are telling us that they are successfully getting onto PSN, but there are plenty of other reports on X from gamers who can’t log in – and the official status looks, shall we say, shaky.

An unfortunate array of red lights

According to the PlayStation North American support account on X, “some users might be currently experiencing issues with PSN,” but there are no further details given, or any idea of an ETA for a fix here.

That post on X just points to the PlayStation Network service status dashboard, which currently displays a rather worrying array of red lights.

There are reported sign-in issues for PSN, and we’re advised: “You might have difficulty signing in or creating an account for PlayStation Network. We’re working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.”

The red flag in the ‘Gaming and social’ part of the dashboard notes: “You might have difficulty launching games, apps or network features.” Again, a resolution is promised ASAP, but as you’re probably aware, these are boilerplate messages. It’s not like Sony wouldn’t be working to fix this quickly, is it?

For now, though, we remain rather in the dark at to any causes, but given that the red lights extend beyond PSN gaming and log ins, to also encompass the PlayStation Store, as well as PlayStation Video and Direct, this is looking like it might be a thorny one. Particularly given the prolonged nature of the outage so far.

We’ll keep a close eye on the situation and update this story if we hear anything more concrete from PlayStation support. But about all gamers can do right now is keep their fingers firmly crossed that this doesn’t turn out to be as complex as some of the indicators here are suggesting – and just keep trying to log in.

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• PlayStation Classics porters Implicit Conversions is "dreaming about" PS3 emulation - potentially for PS5
• That's according to the developer's roadmap
• PS3 games are currently only available via cloud streaming on PS5

Retro game port developer Implicit Conversions appears to be looking into proper PS3 emulation - likely for the PlayStation Classics collection available via PS Plus on PS5.

That's according to the developer's roadmap which was spotted over at the r/GamingLeaksandRumours subreddit (via VGC).

The Trello-esque roadmap has a section on the far left labeled 'Dreaming About' and this is where we see a card for the "Researching and prototyping the possibility of a PlayStation 3 emulator package for Syrup." Syrup being the developer's own emulation engine with which it brings classic games to modern hardware.

As it stands, PS3 games are playable on PS5, but only via cloud game streaming. This often leads to a less than optimal play experience especially for folk without speedy internet connections. At present, it is the only Sony console generation that doesn't have some form of native support on PS5, as PS4 and a collection of PS1 and PS2 games can be downloaded on the system.

It's a shame, too, as there's no shortage of excellent PS3 games that remain exclusive to the console without any form of re-release. That includes Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Motorstorm, Resistance: Fall of Man, Tokyo Jungle and - one of my personal faves - Ridge Racer 7.

Just to keep expectations in check, we shouldn't be expecting PS3 emulation on PS5 anytime soon. Implicit Conversions has it in a unique 'dreaming about' tab separate from an 'in progress' tab on its roadmap which means the tech likely isn't in active development.

Still, the fact the roadmap is available for public viewing is a bit of a silver lining in all this. It does at least show that those responsible for porting classic games to modern hardware do have PS3 emulation on the radar, and they're likely aware of the demand. It probably won't happen for a good few years, though.

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Black Friday PS Plus deals are always one of the most desired discounts that we PlayStation gamers want every year. And right now, these deals at Amazon might well be the best we get this year.

Getting right to it, Amazon Prime members can save 10 percent on a range of PlayStation gift cards from $10 all the way up to $250.

These discounts are particularly good as early Black Friday PS5 deals given that they can immediately become Black Friday PS Plus deals if you use the credit to stock up on the membership. A $75 card, for example, now priced at $67.50 at Amazon, will get you almost a full year's worth of PS Plus Essential.

This gift card deal will also cover you for the cost of a full-price game as well if that's what you're after. Going even bigger, if you wanted to save 10 percent on a year's worth of PS Plus Premium, then you can almost do that in one hit with the discounted $150 PS gift card now going for $135 at Amazon.

Those are only a couple of ideas, and you'll find links to each level of card below. Remember though, you'll have to be an Amazon Prime member to get access to these deals - luckily you may well be eligible for a 30-day free trial so that's definitely worth checking out.

Today's best early Black Friday PS Plus deals

If you're not an Amazon Prime member, or in the US, then check out our auto-updating price-finding tech below as it will show you the latest lowest prices on PlayStation Gift Cards wherever you are in the world.

Octopus Arcade Stick: two-minute review

The Octopus Arcade Stick is a versatile fight stick that provides an excellent gaming experience for fighting game fans with exceptional compatibility across a range of platforms. The arcade-grade joystick and buttons from Sanwa benefit from a durable, aerospace-grade aluminum shell.

Indeed, in practice, using it does feel exactly like stepping into the ring on a brawler at your local arcade (minus the beer-soaked cabinets of course). Buttons are responsive and the joystick reliably moves with precision and purpose as you’d expect from a Sanwa stick, always snapping back correctly ready for the next combo, block, or evasion. If Sanwa doesn’t fit your playstyle, then the supplied stick and buttons are easily swapped out for alternatives.

It’s the sheer number of supported consoles and platforms that truly impresses here. Where other contenders for best fight stick can tie players into a single or limited ecosystem, the Octopus Arcade Stick is compatible with over twenty platforms out of the box. Everything from the Mega Drive and SNES, to the entire PlayStation home console family, to PC and even several niche consoles play nicely with TR Fight Stick’s debut behemoth.

Achieving this versatility does require additional cables though, with an array of 2m leads available directly from TR Fight Stick to suit consoles that feature proprietary controller connections that predate the USB standards of today. The included USB-C cable will still provide ample platform coverage across PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Switch, Xbox 360, PlayStation Classic, MegaDrive Mini, NeoGeo Mini, Astro City Mini, MiSTer FPGA, RetroPie, and other Raspberry Pi apps, plus X-Input devices.

While the Octopus Arcade Stick is happy to throw down on a range of systems, it’s clear that it was designed with Sega’s Dreamcast as its champion. The Octopus’ secret weapon is one strictly for fans of Sega’s final home console, and appears as a built-in virtual VMU (Visual Memory Unit) switcher, with a capacity for ten individual VMUs, providing easy access to more save data slots than even the most prolific Dreamcast player will ever need. 

The Octopus Arcade Stick even includes an LCD screen at the top of the unit, allowing you to see at a glance which VMU they’re using and enjoy the little animations, mimicking their appearance on the original Dreamcast VMUs. Soul Calibur fans rejoice as tiny, pixelated Ivy is alive and well.

Serious players also tend to be serious about their fight stick aesthetics, and the Octopus doesn’t disappoint here either with customization options for faceplate designs and layouts, including options to switch from the standard Sega 2P layout to Viewlix, Noir, or HitBox faceplates. Accessing the innards of the Octopus is straightforward, with the rear aluminum plate easily removed by loosening the seven Phillips head screws.

Octopus Arcade Stick: Price and availability

• List price: $399.00 / £297.24 / AU$576.06
• Premium pricing…
• …but early adopters can bag one of the first batch of units for $299

The Octopus Arcade Stick is currently only available from TR Fight Stick’s official store page. The list price of $399.00, roughly £297.24 or AU$576.06 in the UK and Australia respectively, means that the Octopus Arcade Stick comes in as one of the pricier arcade sticks on the market today, costing more than an Xbox Series S or a Nintendo Switch OLED. 

While that ticket price may cause some to flinch, remember that the Octopus Arcade Stick’s wide array of compatible consoles and platforms could remove the need for additional peripherals and provide additional value to players wishing to use fight sticks on multiple systems. Even those looking for a fight stick for a single platform should feel confident in their purchase as the quality on display in the Octopus is stellar.

Mercifully, those aforementioned additional cables carry a reasonable $14.99 price tag so won’t break the bank for players looking to wield the Octopus on older systems.

The Octopus Arcade Stick is scheduled to launch sometime in October, and early adopters can snap up a unit in either black or white for $299 while TR Fight Stick’s initial stocks last.

Octopus Arcade Stick: Specs

Octopus Arcade Stick: Design and features

• Striking visuals with a range of changeable faceplates
• Fantastic build quality with high-end materials
• Bulky and heavy

Probably the first thing that’ll catch your eye on the Octopus Fight Stick is the artwork. TR Fight Stick has produced a series of faceplates, dubbed ‘OctoPlates’, allowing users to change the appearance of their arcade sticks. The majority of the OctoPlates include artwork featuring the titular cephalopod in a number of graphic styles, with designs inspired by everything from street graffiti to Grecian mosaics. If tentacles aren’t your thing, however, there is also a transparent OctoPlate which shows off the units’ inner workings, and even a limited edition plate featuring Ryo Hazuki from Dreamcast classic Shenmue.

There’s no avoiding the octopus in the room though, no matter how it's dressed, the Octopus Fight Stick is a hefty unit. The chassis size is a significant increase over the prototype I tested back at the start of the year, measuring almost 17.7in / 45cm across its width and 10.2 / 26cm deep. After opening the back of the unit to inspect modification options, I gleamed that there exists plenty of free space internally, meaning that TR Fight Stick could potentially slim this design down without greatly impacting its overall visage. 

It's not just the size of the Octopus either, but the weight, that may dissuade some would-be buyers. Tipping the scales at around 7.7lbs / 3.5kg, the Octopus Arcade Stick definitely falls into the heavyweight category alongside other sticks such as the Nacon Daija and the Victrix Pro FS. Personally, I don’t mind the weight resting on my lap during a gaming session, as it feels secure and unlikely to move around during play, however, its weight may be off-putting to some.

Octopus Arcade Stick: Performance

• Exceptionally responsive buttons and stick
• Switching between platforms is a little fiddly yet forgivable
• Fantastic for arcade games and retro titles as well including a well-implemented turbo function

When you’re in the heat of battle the last thing you want to worry about is an unresponsive controller, and the Octopus Arcade Stick uppercuts those concerns into oblivion. The sturdy metal case eliminates any flex you might experience with a plastic shell, with the buttons and stick feeling purposeful and reliable during heated online exchanges. 

A far cry from ‘the claw’ I often use when playing the best fighting games with something like one of the best PC controllers, the Octopus’ size affords a comfortable space for players to rest their wrists during gameplay, with the ergonomic layout putting every button at my fingertips, ready to engage at a moment’s notice. I found using the Octopus left me feeling less fatigued following a long play session, no doubt thanks to not needing to unnaturally wrap my digits around a pad.

The joystick offers similarly high levels of responsiveness, with dashes, blocks, and circle movements all feeling immediate while delivering that satisfying clicky feedback one only gets with an arcade stick. Special moves quickly become second nature and the experience of inputting button and directional sequences truly captures that arcade machine feeling.

The majority of my review time was spent online in Tekken 8 on PS5, however, I was pleasantly surprised to see how easy it was to move between the various platforms the Octopus Arcade Stick supports.

TR Fight Stick provided me with a range of cables, allowing me to connect to all manner of systems. Plugging the fight stick into each one for the first time does require a bit of dexterity though. The first step is to connect the cable to the console or PC, before holding either a single-button or a two-button combo while inserting the other end of the cable into the Octopus Arcade Stick. It’s not the most elegant of methods for connecting, but with so many platforms supported it feels like TR Fight Stick has achieved a relatively painless process.

Similarly, the VMU switching on Dreamcast is vastly improved from the prototype model I’ve tested previously. Flicking between memory cards on Dreamcast now requires you to hold a single, dedicated button labeled ‘VMU’ before flicking the joystick left or right, whereas the prototype required me to contort my fingers unnaturally and enter a sequence of prompts to achieve the same thing.

All initialization fumbling is quickly forgotten however once you’ve booted up your game of choice. A handy rocker switch on the unit's far side allows you to quickly toggle the joystick function between left and right analog sticks or a d-pad input, making navigating menus a breeze. Whether playing on PlayStation, PC, Mega Drive, Dreamcast, or Switch, the button and stick inputs remained sharp and responsive, with no noticeable lag present at all.

As a big retro-head, I was keen to take the Octopus Arcade Stick out of its natural brawler habitat and throw some stone-cold classics its way. Far from a one-genre master, the Octopus delivered a fantastic gaming experience across puzzle games like Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine on the Mega Drive and even excelled on the challenging platforming of Disney’s Aladdin. The Octopus’ performance in the latter even led to me reaching the penultimate level of the game in a single life, something I’ve never achieved on a control pad. 

Should you buy the Octopus Arcade Stick?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider...

If you’re in the market for a premium fight stick but not completely sold on the Octopus then here are two other similar arcade sticks for your consideration. It’s worth highlighting however the list of compatible platforms on these alternatives is much smaller than the Octopus Arcade Stick, however, that may not be an issue if you’re only looking to play on modern PlayStation or PC hardware.

How I tested the Octopus Arcade Stick

• Tested for a week on PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, PS5, PC, Mega Drive, Dreamcast, and Nintendo Switch
• Tested with multiple beat ‘em ups, arcade and retro titles
• Competed in online tournaments

As somebody who indulges in online battles of Tekken 8 daily, I replaced my PS5 DualSense Wireless Controller with the Octopus Arcade Stick for the duration of my week-long review period, clocking in roughly ten hours of ranked, online gameplay in Namco Bandai’s seminal beat ‘em up. I’ve also become accustomed to entering PS5 tournaments in Tekken 8 so again used the Octopus Fight Stick for my daily humbling with some of the best players on the platform.

I also explored Tekken’s history on PlayStation using the Octopus, connecting the unit to my PS1, PS2, PS3, and PS4. I also took this opportunity to play an hour or so of the wonderful Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, fighting through various arcade modes and in the online lobbies. 

Moving away from PlayStation, I took several of my favorite Mega Drive classics for a spin during my regular retro game day. In addition to the aforementioned Mean Bean Machine and Aladdin, I used the Octopus Arcade Stick to play through the first half of Sonic 2 and hopped my way through to Pizza Planet in Toy Story.

I tested Nintendo’s platforming pedigree next, firing up several classic titles from the Mario series on Switch before diving headlong into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for some competitive local multiplayer with my partner and friends.

Those same friends kindly provided me with a Dreamcast and some games, including a copy of Soul Calibur, so I could put the Octopus’ VMU features through its paces.

Lastly, on the PC side of things, I enjoyed bouts of Killer Instinct and Multiversus, before throwing myself back into Cuphead and making generous use of the Octopus’ turbo functions.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed October 2024

Don't lose hope, Metal Gear fans! Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots may still come to PC and current-gen consoles. 

Last year, Konami released the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, featuring the first five games in the popular action-stealth franchise, including Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

Ever since, fans have been eager for the studio to re-release Kojima Productions' Metal Gear Solid 4 next, which has lived on the PlayStation 3 since its launch in 2008. 

They're also hoping for a Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2, considering the fact that they discovered placeholder buttons for Metal Gear Solid 4, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker on the official website in June last year.

Now, in a new interview with IGN, Konami producer Noriaki Okamura has strongly suggested that the company is planning to do just that. 

"We definitely are aware of this situation with MGS4," Okamura said, when asked whether Metal Gear Solid 4 could potentially see a modern release. 

"Unfortunately we can't really say too much at the moment with Vol. 1 containing MGS 1-3 dot dot dot… you can probably connect the dots!

"Right now we still are internally concerned about what we should be doing for the future of the series. So sorry, we can't really reveal anything at the moment. But stay tuned!"

Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 is currently available to play on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S, which means that a potential Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 could see Metal Gear Solid 4 make its multi-platform jump for the first time in 16 years. 

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EA has announced that it will be delisting three Battlefield games from select digital storefronts later this month.

In a recent post shared to X / Twitter and spotted by Eurogamer, the publisher confirmed that as of Wednesday, July 31 it will be removing Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, and Battlefield: Hardline from sale on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This means users will no longer be able to purchase the titles from the digital storefronts or the extra related content, such as downloadable content (DLC) or any other add-ons.

What's more, online services for Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, and Hardline on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are also scheduled to end on November 7, 2024. 

"While the online components of these titles close for these platforms, if you own the game, you will still be able to play the single-player component," EA explained. 

The publisher also noted that Battlefield 3 will still be playable on PC, and that Battlefield 4 and Hardline will be playable on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, saying that the announcement "does not affect these titles and platforms".

Although EA didn't offer a reason behind the delisting, it did comment on its official help site that, "some games go away for legal reasons, or because players are asking for resources elsewhere" adding, that "there comes a time in every game's lifecycle when it makes sense for us to remove it from online stores. We refer to this process as 'sunsetting'."

Elsewhere, Dice has announced a brand-new Battlefield 2042 collaboration with Dead Space. The limited-time crossover event will introduce a new mode called Outbreak inspired by the horror series and is set to begin on July 9, with free rewards to earn.

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PlayStation Network (PSN) is still struggling right now. As of 06.30am PT / 9.30am ET / 2.30pm BST it looks like we are still having problems playing games and using social aspects of PSN. 

The outage earlier today had lasted hours but looked to be recovering a short while ago - now it seems problems persist and there are still issues with game streaming in particular on PS5.

Is PSN down?

Yes, PSN appears down and has been for many hours according to users across the globe. According to the official PlayStation Network service status page "some services are experiencing issues".

As you can see from the snapshot below, it's only the 'Gaming and social' section of the network that's currently affected (at time of writing), with PlayStation stating that "You might have difficulty launching games, apps or network features. We're working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience."

For example, you can still make account changes, access the PS Store, or use PlayStation Direct; perfect if you are still contemplating a PS5 Pro pre-order or checking on the PS5 30th Anniversary DualSense pre-order, or wider PlayStation 30th Anniversary Collection pre-order situations.

There has been no word from Sony on what caused it or the timeframe for a fix - but we will update this page as and when that comes.

What happened the last time PSN was down?

The last major outage occurred at 11:15 EDT / 16:15 BST on July 1, 2024 and affected PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PS Vita, and web services across the board.

The issues then also seemed to be global hitting locations around the world with status reports saying that it was affecting the US and UK, while users on social media in Japan, Spain, Germany, and France were all also posting about issues.

PlayStation's official service status page said that account management, gaming and social, PlayStation Video, and the PlayStation Store had all been affected and that 'some services are experiencing issues.'

As you can see from a snapshot below of the official PlayStation Network Service Status page, it did not look good, with issues affecting all facets of the ecosystem.

As to what caused the outage, we're not sure, but can report that it was fixed after just couple of hours.

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Sadly, it has been an entire decade since the last Godzilla game. To rub salt in the wound, not only has it disappointingly been a full ten years, but it’s also impossible to get a hold of the last title. Appropriately titled ‘Godzilla’ (who would’ve guessed), the 2014 fighting-meets-action-adventure game is nigh-on impossible to find. Launching exclusively on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, the game has been delisted from online storefronts, and physical copies are pulling in extortionate prices, so you’re all out of luck unless you’ve got a pretty penny put aside for this exact reason. 

I can’t help but find it strange that ten years have passed since the last Godzilla game considering the amount of games featuring towering creatures we've seen in recent years. Wild Hearts and Monster Hunter Rise send you out on the hunt for such beasts, while Elden Ring features many larger-than-life fantastical creatures that you have to face off against. So why haven’t we seen one of the most iconic gargantuan critters for a decade?

Frankly, as someone who just wants to be a huge chaos-wreaking lizard, I think it’s about time we started thinking about what a future Godzilla video game could look like. Given the release and success of TV's Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and Godzilla Minus One, which has quickly climbed the ranks as the highest-grossing Japanese Godzilla movie in the US, there’s never been a better time to open the doors to players who just want to see what life would be like if you were the god of all lizards. 

Beat 'em up  

Godzilla (2014) puts you into the titular creature's shoes (scales? talons?) and challenges you to destroy certain stages by laying waste to maps with your brute force. Be it through atomic breath, a swift swing of the tail, or just flailing your gigantic arms and hoping a skyscraper is reduced to rubble. You rampage through 10 areas and destroy G-Energy Generators while destroying everything in your path. But, it’s not always smooth sailing - obviously, since who wouldn’t react to a giant monster storming through their home city - and there are multiple things in the way to stop you. 

These obstacles are precisely what would make a great Godzilla game ten years on. Suppose you were given the role of a civilian desperately trying to stop the destruction rather than playing as Godzilla. In that case, you’d need a very tough defense, whether that’s human or kaiju like Mothra, a giant moth who frequently helps mankind rather than fighting against them, or Baragon, another reptilian kaiju who is fairly well-versed in fighting against Godzilla - it’s not like the universe is in short supply of alternative creatures to help the battle. In Godzilla (2014), other kaiju would occasionally crop up to fight against Godzilla in a boss battle-like format. They weren’t challenging fights at the best of times, but they still shook things up from the ‘destroy all’ content of the rest of the game. 

In addition to this, the King of the Monsters mode from the 2014 game also pits you against various kaiju in a 2D fighting game-like style. This element of beat-'em-up combat would be essential for a new game if one were to ever come to fruition. It’s one thing using your brute strength for pure destruction, but putting yourself to the test against a beast of similar capabilities would let you feel just how savage large-scale attacks can be, all while allowing you to battle as other creatures rather than just sticking with the titular lizard. We've seen some of the best fighting games over the last few years, with Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1, so it would be a great chance for another to be thrown into the mix even though its roster would be slightly less humanoid. 

Batten down the hatches 

Implementing a tower defense system could be another great way to show both sides of the story. Elements of tower defense would be a great way to implement tactical mechanics and offer an additional leg for the game to stand on. If I could have my way with creating this system, I’d draw a lot of inspiration from Monster Hunter Rise and the Rampage sequences, which have you preparing the village for oncoming attacks from hoards of monsters by building up artillery, and getting fellow fighters ready for impact. 

Entire cities could be prepared in a top-down real-time strategy (RTS) format, planting weapons atop skyscrapers and preparing fleets of helicopters and jets ready to face off against whatever behemoth or monster has decided to swing by. In an ideal world, this could also be a gateway for a multiplayer game, with one player preparing for an oncoming attack and the other taking the role of a monster ready to annihilate whatever is in their path which would make for a great strategy game if you wanted to stray from the traditional beat-em-up formula. 

I don’t have the skills to make a game myself, and my wishful thinking alone isn’t enough to bring a new Godzilla game to life. But if there were any plans to reintroduce everyone's favorite (or at least my favorite) giant lizard into the video gaming world, then I’d love to sit in on the planning meetings and throw my two cents in - or just be a fly on the wall. At the end of the day, I just want to be the big lizard, and, after ten years, I’m done asking nicely. 

Our guide to the best RPGs may be of interest to anyone looking for a new title to sink their time into. However, we’ve also got a list of all the best single-player games if you need more unmissable adventures to bolster your library.   

Having begun my full first playthrough of Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA 5) on PlayStation 5 recently, I’ve been having a great time with the story and characters - particularly the world of Los Santos - but I am having a rough time navigating it. In the most literal sense, GTA 5’s default control scheme sucks and Rockstar needs to abandon it for GTA 6.

Revisiting GTA in 2024 does really feel strange control-wise, particularly when it comes to the matchups between buttons and actions. This is bad from a more modern point of view, but also from an accessibility perspective, given that you can often need spider-like hands to use all the necessary controls.

As a result, Rockstar needs to rethink its default control scheme to drag it in line with largely accepted norms and also to ensure more folks can enjoy its next blockbuster adventure. 

A bit of a reach

Heading it right off at the top: I know that such complaints can usually be offset by games offering alternative control schemes. And, of course, many modern games will let you remap every button individually to your own preferences, which is awesome. However, a default control scheme heavily implies that it's a developer-approved and recommended layout - and one that many players will stick with and learn how to use.

Starting more generally: who is advocating for tapping X (or A on Xbox controllers) repeatedly to have your character run? It’s not even a hold, or toggle - it’s an active control to keep engaging with, thus permanently tying up one digit. In the face of a simple push-down on the left thumbstick, I can’t believe that Rockstar has stuck by this method. In the same way, how was putting ‘change camera and perspective’ on the touchpad signed off on PS4 and PS5? Everyone knows the touchpad is for maps - GTA 5’s is buried in the options button.

Elsewhere, and from a slightly more accessibility-focused point of view, it gets really messy when it comes to driving and shooting. Having to accelerate with R2, cover the brakes on L2, while also trying to press L1 to aim and use R1 to shoot the gun, and manipulate both sticks to steer the car and move the camera felt incredibly unwieldy and busy. On the rare occasion where the inputs did go well (by accident), I felt like I was playing a Rachmaninoff piano concerto, with all the stress and complexity you might expect. In short, I simply couldn’t interact with all the necessary controls, so I ditched the shooting and just rammed the car I was chasing. After this, I had to change the control layout to a different non-GTA style, so to speak, to better enjoy the game.

I have talked about my own personal accessibility needs before, such as in my PlayStation Access controller review. It's button functions and layouts like this that are some of the most troublesome for folks like me. Reaching around the back of the controller is often the most tricky part of playing games, so demanding that all four rear buttons be used simultaneously is incredibly tough for those with deficiencies or even just smaller hands. 

Not just a relic from the past

This deployment of multiple shoulder buttons all at once just about gets a pass in Red Dead Redemption 2 as it was used only for navigating menus, which I could just about manage. But for something as active as car chases and shooting simultaneously, it really is a horrible configuration.

Looking at Red Dead Redemption 2 does reveal more about Rockstar’s attachment to the control scheme - there’s some evolution of the layout by the time of Arthur Morgan’s Western adventure released in 2018, but a bunch of the same actions remain. This proves that GTA 5’s is not a relic of the past or because of any limitations of the PS3/Xbox 360 generation - it’s clearly something Rockstar sees value in and at least wanted to stick with over the past decade.

However, you can see that Rockstar didn’t necessarily agree that such controls were outdated, as Red Dead Redemption 2 featured some similarities: tapping X to sprint was still a thing as was clicking L3 to go into stealth/crouched mode, and so on.

Odd or irregular controls are not something exclusive to Rockstar. In one of my favorite series, The Last of Us, you have to hold L1 to sprint - far away from what many would consider default or natural (it’s L3 to sprint, by modern standards). We make exceptions such as this of course, but I’d wager a majority of folks will instinctively try L3 to sprint or X to jump whenever they start games.

While some ground needs to be ceded based on the demands of the game, surely there’s a means for Rockstar to make a new control scheme that's both more in line with modern arrangements and more accessible as a result. To go against the grain again when GTA 6 comes out in 2025 would be to fly in the face of what the vast majority of players are now used to and naturally gravitate toward. It'll force people to play a certain way, and there’s no need for such gatekeeping in the 2020s.

I’m aware that any control scheme Rockstar decides to implement for GTA 6 probably won’t matter much to most players, and it’ll largely be adopted with no questions asked. However, I do hope the developer is at least considering a more modernized default control scheme. This would be a huge win on the accessibility front while also taking many of the frustrations out of controlling a Rockstar protagonist.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is going to be one of the most anticipated PS5 games and Xbox Series X games of 2025, so ensure you have one of the best PS5 controllers or the best Xbox controllers to play it with. 

Dark Souls 2's PS3 and Xbox 360 versions will have their servers taken permanently offline next year.

The news was confirmed by the official Dark Souls Twitter account, which stated the 2014 game's servers will be offline as of March 31, 2024. Players on PS3 and Xbox 360 will be warned of this via an in-game message and, it can of course still be played fully offline.

The Twitter account also confirmed that servers for the game's PC version, as well as for the PS4 and Xbox One's Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin, will remain online for players to continue enjoying co-op, PvP, and other online elements such as covenant interactions and leaving messages for others. And yes, this version of the game is backward compatible on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles.

While it's likely that Dark Souls 2's online user base is relatively minuscule on PS3 and Xbox 360 these days, it's nevertheless a shame to see the game's oldest servers come to a permanent end. Especially so for players who don't own more up-to-date systems or simply prefer the base game before the Scholar of the First Sin version's divisive changes.

Dark Souls 2 is largely considered to be the black sheep of the Souls trilogy. And to an extent that's true, as it features relatively linear and uninteresting level design and a rather bland art direction when compared to the games that bookend the trilogy.

That being said, Dark Souls 2 has arguably the most fun and interesting online environment of the three. Its massive weapon variety has led to a thriving PvP scene, even a decade on from its original release. So it'll be a shame to see that go, even if it's for consoles that are about as old as the game itself.

Interested in playing more Dark Souls-inspired titles? You may want to check out our list of the best soulslike games to see what developers beyond FromSoftware are doing with the popular subgenre.

PS Plus is a fantastic way to continue making the most of your PS5. For a new console owner, it can be a great way to pick up some games you may not initially think to grab while you get set up. Still, it can be a pretty confusing space to navigate the PS Plus Tiers and levels of membership if you don’t really understand the service, and whether or not it’s worth investigating. 

Similar to Xbox Game Pass, PS Plus offers players a subscription-based service that offers several perks to enhance their experience with the console, including the ability to stream games via the Cloud, and also a pretty hefty list of PS Plus free games that are included in the subscription fee. 

However, there are several PS Plus tiers to choose from, each offering various perks, so it’s worth doing some research into what each tier offers, how much you should expect to be paying for them, and whether or not you can find any PS Plus deals, We’ve broken it down so you’ll know exactly what to expect from PS Plus and can start making a decision as to which tier is worth investing in for you.

PS Plus Tiers - explainer

There are three tiers to get to grips with when it comes to a PS Plus subscription and you will want to know the benefits of all to guarantee a worthy investment. Each of the tiers offers a variety of perks, including access to some of the best PS5 games and best PS4 games, but as you can imagine the price begins to climb depending on which tier you settle on. To make the information more digestible, we’ve broken down each tier and detailed exactly what they offer you.  

As of September 6, the three tiers of PS Plus have increased in price for 12-month subscriptions, which is why it’s more important than ever to know which service exactly you’re paying for. Although the monthly subscription has remained the same, the increase in 12-month subscriptions is incredibly important to note since it’s still the best way to save money on your subscription despite the price increase. 

When subscribing to your desired service, you will be asked whether you wish to pay monthly, quarterly, or yearly, and while it states how much you will be charged as you initiate a subscription, it’s nice to know before you go in just how much money you should expect to spend.

A notable shift, however, is the method of paying for PS Plus. Whereas there used to be dedicated, pre-loaded PS Plus cards and codes, you now have to buy PS Store credit separately in order to add to your PS account balance, to then buy PS Plus subscriptions. It essentially added another step or layer and removed those dedicated cards from the equation. For clarity, we’ve detailed the breakdown of each tier and their individual charges below as well as given some quick fire links to PS credit that should cover each annual cost.

PS Plus Tiers - Essential

The PS Plus Essential tier is the most basic of the bunch and is a pretty straight reskin of the PS Plus service prior to the introduction of tiers. It's simple but it remains the most affordable and still offers a number of perks worth considering if you need something a little more out of your console.

• Online multiplayer access
• Monthly downloadable games (usually three)
• Exclusive discounts
• Cloud storage for game saves

In terms of price, the PS Plus Essential tier is the lowest financial commitment of the bunch. It's not much different per month than subscribing to Xbox Game Pass, and when you factor in the perks listed above, it starts to pay for itself. Plus, if you've been subscribed to PS Plus prior to the introduction of tiers, you'll already be familiar with the benefits and value this level offers.  

• $9.99 monthly / $24.99 quarterly / $79.99 yearly
• £6.99 monthly / £19.99 quarterly / £59.99 yearly
• AU$11.95 monthly / AU$33.95 quarterly / AU$95.95 yearly

PS Plus Tiers - Extra

The Extra Tier features all the perks from the Essential tier, but is a little step up, offering a larger catalogue of games for you to jump into to give it that extra little bit of edge. It's slightly more expensive but is well worth considering if you immediately want to access more content on your console.  

• Provides all the benefits from the Essential tier
• Adds a catalogue of up to 400 PS4 and PS5 games – including blockbuster hits from PlayStation Studios catalogue and third-party partners

On paper, it doesn't seem like the Extra tier is that big of a step up in comparison to the PS Plus Essential tier, but it does offer a more in-depth catalog of games to sift through from the get-go rather than only limiting what you get to a couple of games per month. Its content is reflected within its price, which only slightly increases from the base tier, but it's still worth considering if you want a little more bang for your buck. 

• $14.99 monthly / $39.99 quarterly / $134.99 yearly
• £10.99 monthly / £31.99 quarterly / £99.99 yearly 
• AU$18 monthly / AU$54.95 quarterly / AU$169.95 yearly

PS Plus Tiers - Premium

For someone who uses the PS5 as their primary console, the Premium PS Plus tier ticks all the boxes. It offers all the features from the above tiers while still building upon it and offers even more. Of course, due to just how much it includes, you should expect to pay slightly more for the service, but you'll be getting your money's worth within its high-quality offerings. 

• Provides all the benefits from Essential and Extra tiers
• A catalog of beloved classic games available that can be streamed (on a PS5, PS4, or PC) or downloaded from the original PlayStation, PS2, and PSP generations.
• Time-limited game trials
• Up to 340 additional games to the library
• PS3 games available via cloud streaming

The PS Plus Premium Tier marks where things start to become slightly more expensive, and although it feels like a more significant investment, you are making the very most out of the service alongside your console as a whole. For subscribers based in New Zealand and Australia, a separate service titled PS Plus Deluxe takes the role of PS Plus Premium. More details on this can be found in the section below the following prices.

• $17.99 monthly / $49.99 quarterly / $159.99 yearly
• £13.49 monthly / £39.99 quarterly / £119.99 yearly 

PS Plus Tiers - Deluxe

In addition to these three central tiers, there is a “PS Plus Deluxe” tier which is regionally exclusive to Australia and New Zealand since Cloud Gaming is not supported. This tier essentially contains the same features as the Essential and the Extra tier combined, while also offering a catalog of classic PlayStation, PS2, and PSP games alongside some limited-time game trials. 

The price of this tier is essentially the AUD/NZD value of the PS Plus Premium tier, so you won't be paying any more or any less than those subscribed to Premium, and you'll still have access to most of the same perks minus the ability to stream via the Cloud. The price breakdown for PS Plus Deluxe is below: 

• AU$21.95 monthly / AU$63 quarterly / AU$154.95 yearly
• NZ$27.95 monthly / NZ$82.95 quarterly / NZ$250.95 yearly

PS Plus tiers - FAQs

Which PS Plus tier or membership is the best value?

This is a superb question and likely comes down to the amount of time you personally can commit to playing games and whether a PS5 or PS4 is your main (perhaps sole) platform.

While the Premium tier offers the most 'stuff', we think you'd need a whole lot of time to commit to it all and get the most out of it - and you'd need to be a big fan of the PS1 and classic games that Sony has put on there (which has had a middling reaction from the fanbase, generally). If you have a long-term interest in PlayStation games, however, this might well represent great value for money.

At the other end of spectrum, if you only manage to play a small handful of games every month and need to get online to play casually with buddies, then its hard to look past and not recommend sticking with the Essential membership. It's the simplest one and gets you all you need.

The Extra tier could be a sweet spot for many though - especially those without
existing, burgeoning PS4 and PS5 game libraries. The access that the Extra tier gives you to hundreds of PS4 and PS5 games is a brilliant selling-point of the middle-tier and might offer exceptional value if you can dedicate time to games.

Sony has announced that subscription prices of its PlayStation Plus service will increase in a matter of days, with all three tiers getting various - but not insignificant - price hikes.

The increase was announced in an official blog post revealing September's free games. The price jump will affect all regions, though each will be affected differently,  and will come into effect from September 6, 2023 - next week.

For quick fire reference, here's how much the PS Plus subscription tiers currently cost for one year of each:

• PlayStation Plus Essential: $59.99 / £49.99 / €59.99
• PlayStation Plus Extra: $99.99 / £83.99 / €99.99
• Play Station Plus Premium: $119.99 / £99.99 / €119.99

And here's what the 12-month prices are going to be come September 6:

• PlayStation Plus Essential: $79.99 / £59.99 / €71.99
• PlayStation Plus Extra: $134.99 / £99.99 / €125.99
• PlayStation Plus Premium: $159.99 / £119.99 / €151.99

Thus, these are pretty sizeable changes, however, you look at it, with some levels' prices rising to be that of the one that was previously above them. A complete re-categorization of prices and services. Or, from a percentage perspective, this represents a 33% increase in the US, and around a 20% increase for those in the UK and Europe. 

If you're already a 12-month subscriber, you're safe until November 6, 2023, but everyone else will be affected on and from September 6 - be that additional subscriptions, upgrading, or downgrading.

Sony has confirmed that the 12-month options will still represent better value than stacking smaller subscriptions, for example. Still, there was no word on any extra benefits of changes to the tiers, despite Adam Michel, Director, Content Acquisition & Changes at SIE, adding in the blog post that "This price adjustment will enable us to continue bringing high-quality games and value-added benefits to your PlayStation Plus subscription service." 

As a result of the price change, it's a great time to see if there are any PlayStation Plus deals and check out what the latest PlayStation Plus free games are.

Stephen Kick, the CEO of Nightdive Studios and director of the 2023 System Shock remake, has hinted on Twitter that the studio may be looking to remaster and port the 2007 first-person shooter The Darkness over to PC. 

As PCGamesN reports, responding to a tweet which pleaded, “somebody please remaster and port [The Darkness] to PC sometime”, Kick wrote: “IT’S ON THE LIST.” This has sent fans of the PS3/Xbox 360 title wild, although it’s not clear at the time of writing what this so-called list actually means for the game.

Nightdive Studios is well known for its modern remasters of older games - this year’s System Shock remake aside, the studio previously developed 2020’s Doom 64, as well as Shadow Man: Remastered and Forsaken Remastered, just to name a few. As such, it’d be hardly surprising if the studio’s attention was turned to The Darkness, which was originally developed by Starbreeze Studios. 

However, whether Kick’s tweet simply reveals Nightdive’s interest in the title or confirms that something is officially in the works is another matter - without a trailer or tweet from the Nightdive Studios Twitter account, it seems safer to assume the former for now.

For those unfamiliar, The Darkness is based on Top Cow Productions’ comic book series (which has the same name) and follows the exploits of Jackie Estacado, who awakens to an ancient force that has been passed down through his bloodline after he’s targeted for assassination by the Don of the Franchetti crime family. It received generally highly positive reviews when it was first released, and also got a sequel in 2012 which was developed by Digital Extremes and did come to PC. 

Although Kick’s tweet is certainly promising for fans of the FPS, be sure to hype responsibly.

For some spicy new game recommendations, be sure to take a look at our selection of the best FPS games, as well as the best PC games available to play now. You can also check out the most exciting upcoming games in our roundups of new PS5 games and new Xbox Series X games. 

Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear series has topped over 60 million sales worldwide. 

That's despite the fact that developer/publisher Konami hasn't released a mainline Metal Gear game since 2018, and its last numbered instalment was released almost a decade ago now back in 2015. 

That hasn't stopped players from indulging in the series' stellar back catalog, however. As spotted by VGChartz, the last time Konami provided us with sales data, we were told the series – which launched back in 1987 – had collectively shifted 57.7m by the end of September 2021, and 59.3m copies by the close of November 2022.

According to a recent update to the publisher's corporate site, that figure sits at 60 million sales as of June 2023. That means Konami's tentpole franchise has sold around 700,000 units in just the last seven months... despite lying dormant for half a decade. 

Will there ever be a Metal Gear Solid 6? Even though we've had no official word, it seems unlikely that Konami will abandon one of its most beloved – and profitable – properties. The upcoming Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake clearly shows that Konami isn't done with the ironic franchise, with or without Hideo Kojima.

That said, the series is in a difficult spot at the moment, not least because its last major release, Metal Gear Survive – the first Metal Gear game developed without series creator Hideo Kojima at the helm – currently sits with a 1.4 user score on Metacritic.

For more Metal Gear information, here's everything we know so far about Metal Gear Solid 6. And even though we don't have a sixth instalment confirmed to be on the way, don't forget that Konami's own website may have recently indicated that Metal Gear Solid may finally be coming to another platform (or several) that isn't the PlayStation 3.

ICYMI, after months of speculation, Konami finally revealed that The Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Volume 1 would be coming to Nintendo Switch alongside PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. And yes, the Switch release will boast the same games as other modern platforms: Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. It's expected to release on October 24, 2023.

Sony 's latest firmware update stops players from transferring PS3 games to the PS Vita – but it's not all bad news.

Initially released earlier this month on May 11, some users reported they could no longer transfer games between the PS3 to the PS Vita. At first, console owners seemed to think it was a bug. However, as spotted on ResetEra (via Siliconera), Sony issued an official notice which was widely missed, confirming this removal was actually intended.

Thankfully, this won't affect your ability to download games directly onto the PS3 or PS Vita. And players can still transfer downloaded games and save data from a PC using the Content Manager Assistant, which works on both Windows and Mac. 

However, if you still wish to download games directly onto the PS3 or Vita, you'll need to set up a 2-step verification on PlayStation Network. That's been a requirement for several years, likely due to the aging nature of both consoles' infrastructure. You'll need to enter a 'Device Setup Password' rather than your normal password, all of which can be managed from your PSN account security settings.

Support continues fading

It's not exactly surprising that Sony keeps winding down support for its older consoles. Last year it attempted to shut down the digital stores for PS3, Vita, and PSP, the clearest sign yet that it was finally ready to retire these aging machines. However, thanks to a vocal fanbase pushing for game preservation, it later backtracked on that commitment.

Even so, it's hard to understand Sony's reasoning for this particular decision, and the timing is certainly odd. Why it would choose to remove transfer functionality between the PS3 and Vita now, despite keeping support for PC transfers alive, we don't know. It goes without saying that there's some behind-the-scenes explanation Sony doesn't want to make public, we just have no idea what.

Sure, most players have moved onto newer systems like the PS4 and PS5, but it's a shame for those who still use the devices.

• PS1 and PSP games are getting new features on the revamped PS Plus

Ubisoft has shut down online multiplayer for 90 games, including Rayman Legends on PC, and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 on Xbox One. 

The announcement on Ubisoft’s website lists the full 90 games affected, which span a range of platforms such as PS3, Wii U, Xbox 360, and even the ill-fated OnLive cloud gaming service. These titles will no longer feature online multiplayer, but offline features for each game will remain available.

The server shutdown means that in-game news and play statistics for these Ubisoft games will also be disabled from now on. And any title that used Ubisoft Connect services will no longer let players earn Units and complete Challenges.

While there’s an argument to make that many of the titles are old at this point – along with the platforms included – backward compatibility means that a number of these games will now no longer be fully complete if players revisit them. Several of the affected games can be played on Xbox One, like Just Dance for instance, but won't have online support anymore.

Here’s the full list of Ubisoft games that no longer have online multiplayer support:

Another blow to video game preservation

Seeing so many Ubisoft games lose online support is concerning, especially as there will be people out there who were still playing these games. While it's easy to understand why a publisher makes these types of decisions – hosting and maintaining servers isn't free – it's still disappointing nonetheless.

Thankfully, we've seen a resurgence in recent years to preserve video games via backward compatibility. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have all been guilty of abandoning the old for the new, but there's definitely been a clear shift to do more to ensure that older titles can still be played and enjoyed by a new generation of players.

Microsoft, in particular, has led the way with its Xbox backward compatibility program, while Sony will soon offer access to its older titles via its new PS Plus subscription service. Nintendo has taken a similar route, granting Nintendo Switch Online subscribers access to hundreds of NES and SNES games, while those who subscribe to the Expansion Pack tier can play N64 and Sega Genesis games.

In an ideal world, no game would ever need to lose features, nor would gamers need specific hardware to enjoy them. Unfortunately, though, we expect to see more games lose online functionality in the years to come, and more digital storefronts will likely close down.

• Nintendo Switch Online is ready to rival PS Plus and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

Backward compatibility in games has been something I've been a proponent of since the PlayStation 2 introduced the feature in 2000. You could load up almost any PlayStation 1 game, and play it as normal.

But as times changed and technology became more refined, playing back-catalogs of titles on Sony's platforms increasingly felt more of an afterthought.

This is why the new PS Plus service fills me with hope, with just a hint of trepidation. The idea of being able to play Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider, Gex, and more on a PS5 has tempted me to finally consider grabbing the console.

But Sony is already making it difficult for users like me with the new tiers that it's offering, and it makes me wonder if Sony should already look to simplify the new service before its launch in June.

Call 140.85

When I first saw the rumors of Project Spartacus, I was excited. Microsoft has had a fantastic backward-compatibility program for Xbox, and while Nintendo got off to a shaky start with its Switch Online service, playing F-Zero X online is worth its price alone for me.

But Sony has always been bizarrely hesitant to offer its back catalog to new users. Back when the PlayStation 3 was released in 2007, you could pop in a PS1 or PS2 disk, and play as normal. But later models would regress this to just PS1 games, and while some other PS2 games would be available in the store, they would be very few and far between.

As it stood with PS4 and PS5, your only hope was to ask developers for remasters to arrive, as there was no chance of seeing re-releases of PS1 and PS2 games for the systems.

Many gamers in the 90s, myself included, grew up on a PlayStation, and many in my age group have kids who they're trying to introduce to retro classics in between  Fortnite matches on the Nintendo Switch.

Yet, many have been unable to share some of their favorite games from their own childhood because of Sony's approach to its PS1 and PS2-era titles. Its CEO, Jim Ryan, continually dismissed the games because they're old, an opinion that has felt like a big misstep the whole time.

I would chat to friends, both offline and on Twitter, about how we'd love to play certain games like Wipeout 2097 again on a PS5, hoping Sony might one day reconsider its stance.

But there finally looks to be a change of heart, perhaps in response to what Microsoft and Nintendo have done in this area of nostalgia.

Just one tier for retro gaming

However, Sony is in danger of already confusing its users before the service has gone live. There's three tiers, with the highest, called PlayStation Plus Premium, priced at $17.99 / £13.49, with Australian pricing yet to be confirmed. This is the only tier that will let you play Sony's games from the PS1 and PS2 eras.

To pay a monthly price, or a higher one if you choose to pay yearly, for access to Sony's back catalog in just one tier, says to me that the company still has a way to go before it recognizes how important retro gaming is.

There's also the question of the classic games that previous PS3 owners, myself included, had bought back in the day. From Ape Escape to Ridge Racer, if they're not able to be converted into free downloadable purchases from looking at our previous purchase history, Sony could have another job on its hands to justify its actions.

Finally, there's been no list as yet as to what games will be included in this plan. Its blog post spoke of 340 additional games to this tier, but while I hope this includes rare classics like Evil Zone, Rosco McQueen, B-movie, and Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles, there's a chance it could be filled up with much more forgettable games from the past.

So am I happy with the announcement? Almost. It's a silent acknowledgment from Sony that this should have been on its consoles as far back as the PlayStation 4. It's great that there are almost 400 classic games getting their chance in the spotlight again.

But I'm also feeling much trepidation from it. 

Playing F-Zero with friends online through the Switch has me hoping that we'll get something similar for this service as well. But with only one tier that allows you to play these games, it looks greedy from Sony's point of view, and the method of playing games from past eras has changed now. We want a mix of the old games, but with today's features, much like what Xbox and Nintendo Switch offer.

Sony has a lot to prove here. It has to prove that it's committed to preserving a catalog that defined the PlayStation to start with. It has to prove that it's listening to its userbase, and it definitely has to prove that this isn't a one-time service. Once the PlayStation 6 arrives, we should see this service continue to be offered regardless, and not as an afterthought.

But right now, as it stands, I'm happy that something is being done at least, and I'm sure once the list of 400 games comes out, I'll be checking stores for available PS5 stock whenever I can.

• Our pick of the best offers on PS5 consoles so far

The prices of several PS3 games have appeared on the PS5 store, leading fans to speculate that backward compatibility for some PlayStation titles is on the way.

PS3 games listed on the PS5 store usually redirect players to the trial page of PlayStation Now, Sony’s cloud subscription service that lets you stream older titles on the latest generation of hardware.

However, fans have spotted some PS3 games listed on the store with new price tags in place of the PlayStation Now logo, including two games from the Prince of Persia series and Dead or Alive 5 (thanks, VGC).

The games can’t actually be purchased, although they can be added to your storefront wishlist. The new prices might suggest where the PS5 store, PlayStation Now, and the future of PS3 games are headed.

Analysis: is greater backward compatibility likely? 

The sudden appearance of PS3 game price tags has many speculating, and hoping, that PS3 games will be available for purchase on the PS5 store in the near future. While Sony hasn't confirmed anything yet, an overhaul to the PS5’s backward compatibility isn’t out of the question, given the wider changes coming to its adjacent PlayStation services.

Last week, it was reported that PS5 system architect Mark Cerny filed a patent suggesting the backward compatibility of the console would be extended, and that PlayStation Now subscription cards were being removed from sale in UK and US retail stores.

Add to that Bloomberg’s report from December that Sony is preparing to combine PlayStation Now and PlayStation Plus into an Xbox Game Pass-style service, codenamed Spartacus. Offering several subscription tiers, the highest is rumored to let players stream a library of classic PS1, PS2, and PS3 games.

Those reports indicate PlayStation Now is reaching the end of its lifespan, as Sony prepares to sunset the subscription service for its successor. These unexpected price tags seen on the PS5 store recently might be the early signs of that change.

Extending the backward compatibility of the PS5 wouldn’t go amiss with fans, with players always keen to return to their favorite titles of past generations. While the PS5 can run the vast majority of PS4 games, its incompatibility with older generational titles is something of a sticking point.

Currently, the only way to play PS2 and PS3 games on Sony’s latest console is to stream them through PlayStation Now. A subscription service that only offers a handful of older titles, many players who are keen to dig into older games are understandably more attracted to the Xbox Series X, which lets you play Xbox One, Xbox 360, and original Xbox releases right out of the box, without needing to subscribe to any additional service.

If Sony is keen to match the backward compatibility of its main rival, adding PS3 games for purchase on the PS5 store would be a welcome step.

Dig further into Xbox's backward compatibility journey in TRG's interview with Series X development chief Jason Ronald.

• PS5 vs PS5 Digital Edition: what's the difference?

Sony's controversial PS3 and Vita store closures won't happen as planned, according to the company's PlayStation Blog. This sudden reversal won't spare its PSP store from being closed, however. 

"Recently, we notified players that PlayStation Store for PS3 and PS Vita devices was planned to end this summer," said Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan. "Upon further reflection, however, it’s clear that we made the wrong decision here. So today I’m happy to say that we will be keeping the PlayStation Store operational for PS3 and PS Vita devices."

Ryan continues by explaining the initial decision was decided due to a "number of factors" and that he's glad a solution has been found to "continue operations."

"Thank you for sharing your feedback with us – we’re always listening and appreciate the support from our PlayStation community," Ryan says in closing.

• PS5 vs Xbox Series X: Which should you buy?
• Where to buy a PS5
• Best PS5 games available right now

Changing courses with criticism 

The move to close the PS3 and Vita storefronts, preventing further purchases, came as a surprise even to some developers who were in the middle of working on new Vita games.

The web stores are still closed, so if you want to buy any games on these two platforms, you'll need to boot up the device and use the system storefront. The PSP store will still be closing on July 2, so you should continue grabbing any games there that you don't want to miss out on.

Looking ahead to newer PlayStation releases, some upcoming PS5 titles for 2021 include Housemarque's Returnal and Insomniac Games' Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart.

• Ghost of Tsushima dev is seemingly making a PS5 multiplayer game
• Why not upgrade your PS3 hard drive for a fun project with an old console?

PlayStation Now (often referred to as PS Now) came a long way from its rather sketchy beginnings. While the debate as to whether it trumps Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass is one thing, it's a far more temping proposition than it ever was before. 

Back in 2012, Sony bought the then-barely-known cloud gaming service, GaiKai, for a cool $380 million (£242 million, AU$518). The decision was met with tepid excitement and heaps of skepticism, most of which was understandable.

The big question was this: could cloud gaming really work, particularly when so many companies had tried and failed before? The pricing was also a concern: how much would PS Now have to cost so that both consumers and developers get a fair deal?

In the years since, PlayStation Now grew in range and in quality. Broadband speeds have improved considerably, and continue to rise, which means that no one doubted how PlayStation Now was now a more realistic option for many.

Thanks to a download feature, users could finally play PS4 and PS2 titles natively, instead of over the cloud. The service also butted heads with Xbox Game Pass, which offers game download 'rentals' rather than trying to live-stream games over the cloud. However, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate now includes Xbox Cloud Gaming, which lets you stream a library of titles from any mobile device, PC, and Xbox consoles.

PlayStation Now

What is PlayStation Now?

PlayStation Now was a digital game-streaming service from Sony, which has now been replaced by a revamped PS Plus. Simply put, you'd pay Sony a monthly subscription fee, which means you can access a Netflix-style library of over 800 titles. You could pick-and-choose what you play, and could either download a title for a more native experience or stream select games over the internet. 

You used to be able to 'rent' games individually for one-off payments in a similar way, but it's now the subscription or nothing.

For a long time, PlayStation Now was exclusive to the PS4 console, but it later got extended to work on Windows PCs and PS5 as well. The selection of games is getting better and better all the time, too. Most are from the PS3 era, but PS2 games are also included – even if PS Vita games no longer are.

PS Now: design and interface

Once you pick a game, the service would connect you to a remote server that will host your session. A few moments later and the game would be up and running. 

From there, it was up to you to navigate the respective title's own menu, settings, controls, and the like. The service didn't magically remaster old titles, though, so especially for older games like Ico or Rogue Galaxy, the visual quality largely depended on how well your television upscales low-resolution content.

If you set up a streaming session, that meant there was no need to download the game – though you can now do just that for the PS4 and PS2 libraries on the service. If you'd rather temporarily save a game to your hard drive and plough through it offline than rely on the strength of your broadband connection, the option was there.

PlayStation Now's interface was incredibly simplistic, maybe overly so. After you get past the paywall titles are separated into categories with featured titles, usually grouped by genre, at the top.

Scrolling down, you'll find more discrete categories, like 2D fighting games or JRPGs, for example. There are about a dozen categories to pick from, with some titles appearing in multiple categories.

After you pick a game from the list and play it for the first time, the game would appear on the home screen so that you could easily pick it up again in the future.

There was a time that we hoped, perhaps somewhat naively, that PlayStation Now would be the Netflix of video game streaming. The hope was that we could shell out our cash and access any game on the service forever – so long as we didn't let our subscription lapse.

PlayStation Now hasn't quite unfolded that way. That's not to say that the service was bad, mind you. It was just... different. All a streaming video service has to do is push content from a server to your console. It needs to know when you pause, obviously, but other than a few small commands, the service doesn't really take any input.

That need to always be listening for commands and interpreting them in real time is what makes a service like PlayStation Now a nightmare to code. For you, this point can mean the difference between lag-free gameplay and an unplayable experience.

PS Now: game library

At last count, PlayStation Now had more than 800 games available to stream, and many of them – PS4 and PS2 titles – are available to download. They range in value and prestige from some of the must-play games of the last generation, like The Last of Us, to small indie darlings, to some completely forgettable, bargain bin fodder.

But the decent titles are worth the price of entry, though it's worth bearing in mind they tend to change every few months. Games like Saints Row 3, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Darksiders and Catherine are all up for grabs, while Sony provides a few platform exclusives, like Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and Ratchet and Clank, that are excellent as well. Not to mention the Batman Arkham trilogy, Until Dawn, Borderlands, Bioshock: Infinite, and Ultra Street Fighter IV.

In addition, PlayStation Now offered PC players the chance to play Bloodborne for the first time – as the title has always been a PlayStation exclusive. Of course, you won't be able to download it to your PC, but can stream it via the cloud. 

Sadly, not every game is worthwhile: some of the hundreds of games are clearance pile fodder, and have been for the past few years. I don't know anyone lining up to play Heavy Fire: Shattered Spear or Jimmie Johnson's Anything with Wheels, and while I'm sure someone really enjoys Wheel of Fortune and Frogger HD, it's not me. But the variety offered here should be enough to please a diverse set of tastes.

That offering has certainly improved over time: just like Sony's PlayStation Plus subscription, which offers a handful of free games for download each month, PS Now treads the line between desirable games and those that are just about going out of fashion.

Unlike Xbox Game Pass, it doesn't offer the latest AAA games, but it does offer a convenient way to access a library of old titles that are either hard to get hold of, or just a way to test titles without a market-price barrier.

PS Now: pricing

PlayStation Now could offer the biggest and best games from the company's 20-year foray into game consoles, but if the pricing isn't right, none of it will matter. Knowing full well that prices and dollar signs are what sinks ships, pricing is one area that Sony has given special attention to over the last year of PlayStation Now's existence.

In October 2019, Sony slashed the pricing from $19.99/£12.99 per month to $9.99/£8.99 per month. For US gamers, that's a half-price difference, while UK players would have still been saving a neat £48 over the course of the year. You also had the option to pay quarterly at $24.99/£22.99, down from $44.99, or annually for $59.99/£49.99 down from $99.99/£84.99.

What's most notable about this, though, isn't just the saving, but how it drags down the price to match Microsoft's competing Xbox Games Pass service, which costs $9.99/£7.99 per month. In the beginning, there was the option to rent games as needed from the PlayStation Now store, rather than pay a monthly subscription fee. That option was later ditched, so it's the subscription fee or nothing.

In the images below you can see how it used to work. A table of three games: one PS3 game, one PSN game, and one more recent PS4 game that display not only the difference in price over each time period, but the difference between games from different platforms as well.

Where we saw PlayStation Now finding some traction is with gamers supplementing their PS4 experience with what essentially amount to rentals – or, crazier users giving up their physical media collection completely.

This depends largely on how quickly publishers get on board with game-streaming as a way to play. But, in a perfect world in which games launch simultaneously on retail and PS Now, you could be playing the week's biggest games without leaving your couch for your subscription fee. This hasn't transpired yet, however. 

It's a shame we didn't seen a joint membership option for both PS Plus and PS Now before the PS Plus revap, given the accumulated monthly fees are likely to prevent high uptake. If the choice is between a cost-effective way to play online on the one hand – and receive a couple of free old games each month, too – and a streaming service with numerous connection issues that's twice the price on the other, which one would you choose?

PS Now: stream quality

Another area that could have used some sprucing up at the time is the streaming quality, although it slowly improved. Not only did games take 30 to 45 seconds to load up, but any hiccup in the connection completely derails gameplay.

While Sony recommended connection speeds of 5Mbps, it's not until 10 to 15Mbps that you'd truly reach the promised land of uninterrupted gameplay. And for more demanding AAA games like Bloodborne or Batman: Arkham City, you'd want all the connection speed you could get to make the most out of your play session.

If you leave this review with one piece advice, it should be this: use an Ethernet cable instead of the system's Wi-Fi. A lost connection to your router will boot you from the game whether you've saved 10 seconds ago or 10 minutes ago. (We got booted from games multiple times due to a bad connection.)

When we first tested the service, we found pretty much everything except low-intensity platforming games like Braid would cause at least infrequent jitters. The busier the screen, the harder it will be, but the work Sony has put into the service over the last year meant any issues streaming Bloodborne – 27.19GB to download, for context – were really quite negligible.

But no matter how good you think your internet speed is, we still recommend you take advantage of the seven-day free trial before committing yourself long term to the streaming platform.

PS Now: what we liked

As promised, Sony delivers a slew of games. Picking which one of the 800-plus games to download first is a difficult decision, and the library continues to grow. it effectively functions as an emulator for old games too, nicely circumventing the console's lack of backwards compatibility. 

But don't treat this like the end-all, be-all choice – because streaming doesn't take up any space on your hard drive and there's zero download time, you can jump from one game to the next to your heart's content.

Ideally, that means taking advantage of the reasonably priced subscription program, even if it's only for the seven-day trial period. It's not that we're opposed to shelling out for content a la carte, but you need to use caution and good judgement before you rent games that you could've bought outright for less.

PS Now: what we disliked

It would've been great to escape the slog of buying games and returning them for half their value, but that doesn't seem possible with PlayStation Now in its current state. Publishers haven't taken to the idea of putting their latest wares on the service, instead opting to put up classics of varying quality.

The other major problem is that, depending on the strength of your connection, every once in awhile, lag can derail your perfect stream in a first-person shooter or send you careening into a wall in a driving game. Worst of all, if you get booted from your game, you can say goodbye to all the progress you made since your last save.

PS Now: verdict

As a platform, it's now defunct but PlayStation Now had vastly improved since launch. There were just 80 games on it in the beginning, after all, and nothing like the download option players will find for PS4 and PS2 games now. The complete switch to a subscription option makes joining a simpler decision too.

At the time, we believed whether you should subscribe to PlayStation Now came down to two questions: do you mind games that are a few years old and, more importantly, can you put up with small periods of imprecise controls in exchange for a massive, 800-plus game library?

If your answer was no to either of those, then we said you might want to press pause on your subscription until more third-party game makers get on-board or Sony at least fronts more recent first-party games on the subscription side of the service. If PS Now doesn't have the games you want to play, why would you bother?

PlayStation Now didn't have the pulling power or steady drip-feed of must-play games to make it as attractive a proposition as the Netflix service it has eyes on emulating. Given the expanded library of titles and new download options for PS4 and PS2 titles, we recommended it for those confident in their internet speeds – at least for as long as it takes to work through the titles you actually want.

PS Now: recent updates

Unfortunately, as mentioned above, PlayStation Now is no longer an active subscription being offered. Following rumors that Sony was planning a competitor to Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass, the company unveiled a revamped PS Plus subscription service last April, which gradually began rolling out worldwide in June.

What Sony has done is essentially merge PS Now into PS Plus, and the new subscription feature three tiers called PlayStation Plus Essential, PlayStation Plus Extra, and PlayStation Plus Premium. If you had the old PS Plus subscription, that'll equate to the Essential tier, and pricing will remain the same. 

However, Extra offers an additional catalog of games, while Premium expands this and includes streaming for original PlayStation, PS2, PS3, and PS4 games. For territories with cloud streaming, PlayStation Plus Deluxe is available instead for a lower cost.

• The best PS4 games: the essential PS4 releases to play

Sony has announced that it will close the PlayStation Store on PS3, Vita and PSP stores later this year. Once they go dark, players will no longer be able to make digital purchases or buy any DLC on each of the respective platforms.

The PS3 and PSP’s stores will officially close on July 2, while the PS Vita store will shut down on August 27. After these dates, you'll be able to re-download and play previously purchased games and video or redeem games via codes and PlayStation Plus vouchers, but you won't be able to purchase a game digitally.

According to a PlayStation FAQ where the changes were announced, after those dates you'll no longer be able to add funds through those systems – but any money in your wallet will carryover onto the PS4 or PS5.

• PS5 vs Xbox Series X: the two consoles compared
• Best PS5 games: don't miss these titles
• Where to buy PS5: all the retailers checked

Tick tock

Even though Sony ended PS3 production four years ago, the console sold 87 million units during its 11 years on the market, which means players will have had over a decade to build up a library of titles. 

The PSP and Vita represents Sony’s foray into the handheld market, and while the PSP was deemed a relative success, shifting 81 million units since its March 2005 release, the Vita didn’t fare so well and was widely considered a failure. So much so, that Sony all but pulled support for the handheld after only a few years on sale. 

With Microsoft committed to letting Xbox gamers play original Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One games on Xbox Series X and Series S consoles, it’s disappointing to see Sony removing one of the only avenues left to purchase its back catalog. It also brings up the age old debate of digital storefronts, and what happens when they’re taken offline for good.

• Opinion: Xbox Series S is now a real threat to PS5

There's been an abundance of leaked PS5 dev kit images swirling around the internet in recent months, clarifying that the next-gen console is out in the wild and being utilized by developers. 

However, there's something a bit odd about the PS5 images that we've been seeing. They don't quite look in line with Sony's previous PlayStation consoles, in terms of design. In fact, the bulky, V-shaped box is almost alien-like in its appearance. 

This has led us to believe that the PS5 dev kit we're seeing images of, is not the final PS5 design we'll be seeing come the console's launch in late 2020. This is usually the case when it comes to console dev kits: the final product doesn't quite look like the leaked images we see before release.

Want proof? We've rounded up images of some key PlayStation dev kits, and the final launched product, so we can assess the key changes in design and how Sony is maybe going about things differently with the PlayStation 5.

• PS5 vs Xbox Series X: what we know so far
• Xbox Series X: release date, specs, design and launch titles for the new Xbox
• Best PS4 games: the most essential PlayStation 4 releases

PlayStation 

Often the original PlayStation's dev kit is credited as being the blue version of the console. It was, but it was one of several. There were actually several PlayStation dev kits created, with the blue version's purpose being for debugging near the final stages of development. 

But we're going to focus on the original PlayStation prototype: the MW.3. We know that this prototype isn't technically a dev kit (as its hardware differed from the final console's release), but it was sent out to a few developers. Although, these were mostly first-party developers like SN Systems.

The reason we're focusing on the MW.3? It somewhat resembles the images of the PS5 dev kit that have been circulated and we think that this showcases just how much the design of a console can change. 

Quite clearly the MW.3 box looks nothing like the PlayStation that launched. It's big, bulky, with a little screen and a few ports on the front, similar to the PS5 dev kit images we've seen floating about.

The PlayStation that launched was much smaller, flatter and had a totally different design. 

PlayStation 2

The PlayStation 2 dev kit was a chonky machine. It essentially looked like a PS2 Slim stacked on top of a PS2, but the design itself wasn't too far off the final product - much like the blue version of the original PlayStation. 

The PlayStation 2 that actually released in 2000 was considerably slimmer, but the design was pretty much the same as the dev kit - except streamlined a little more. It was arguably the PlayStation dev kit that looked closest to the launched console.

PlayStation 3

The PlayStation 3 is probably the PlayStation console that's design changed the most from its dev kit. The PS3 dev kit looked like VCR: a large black box with lots of ports, buttons and two HDDs (one for the operating system and the other for Blu-ray). 

We now know that the PlayStation 3 console that released in 2006 looked absolutely nothing like this. Sure, much of the hardware was the same (with some omissions) but, in terms of design, the PS3 was much sleeker - sporting a more futuristic look than we had seen in PlayStation consoles before.

The multitude of buttons and ports were streamlined down while, understandably, the HDD was tucked away behind the casing. We're hoping the PS5 represents a similar difference between dev kit and slicker, finished machine. 

We've no doubt that Sony has got the PS5 design decided upon and, alongside practicality issues, it may be the gaming monolith is waiting as long as possible to disclose the console's final look out of fear of modern leak culture.

PlayStation 4

Finally we come to Sony's most recent PlayStation console (excluding the PS4 Pro), the PlayStation 4.

Like with the PS3, there's a big difference in terms of design between the PS4 dev kit and the final PS4 product, released in 2013.

It seems the company has moved away from releasing dev kits which strongly resemble the final console. Whether that's to give developers more time to work on more hardware-intensive games, to prevent design leaks, or simply a case of not having the final design complete yet, is up for debate, but our guess is it's a mixture of all of the above alongside cost. 

The differences between the PS4 dev kit and the released console are pretty obvious. For one, like many of the other dev kits on this list, this one is a massive machine reminiscent of the original Xbox or a heavy-duty briefcase.

At the front there's a disc drive and some buttons and ports, which were eventually lessened with the console's final release. The PS4 was much less military-looking, and considerably smaller, as if someone had sawed down the edges of the dev kit to unearth a tidier alternative. 

But there's no way that looking at that dev kit that we could have imagined what Sony had planned for the released console.

PlayStation 5

Which brings us onto the PlayStation 5. Again, this dev kit is burly and very alien-looking, and even sports a V-shaped design - no doubt to mark the '5' in PS5.

However, as history has proven, released consoles very rarely look anything like their dev kits. Dev kits are built for testing so they need to be robust and perform as the final console would (in most cases), but there's no need for them to look like the final iteration.

We're still nearly a year away from launch, so it's possible Sony is still polishing off the design and final features of its next-generation console. Finally, Sony will be wary of leaks - just look how many times the PS5 dev kit has been shown on the internet. It's a smart move to hold off on any sort of design reveal for now.

So, what we're saying is that you shouldn't expect the PS5 to look like the dev kit images. It may share some elements, but we're expecting something that's otherwise very different, that you can imagine sitting under your TV for the next five years.

• PlayStation ends the decade in victory – and the PS5 feels like a sure thing

Sony has announced that PlayStation 4 users will finally be able to change their PlayStation Network Online ID. 

According to a blog post by Sony's Social Media Director, Sid Shuman, the "online ID change feature on PSN is officially launching to all PlayStation 4 owners later today".

• Read our Sony PS4 review
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You'll also be able to change your online ID via a web browser later today (April 10 for the US and April 11 for Europe) – you'll simply need to sign in to your PlayStation Network account to do so. The feature appears to be set for release worldwide, but Sony hasn't announced official pricing in Australia yet. 

Sony says that "the change can only be made through a PS4 system or web browser", so you won't be able to do it on a PS3 or the now discontinued PS Vita. 

Potential issues

Sony says that the first time you change your ID the service is free, but after that you will need to pay $9.99 / £7.99 (around AU$15), unless you are PlayStation Plus member, in which case it will cost you $4.99 / £3.99 (around AU$7).

Not all games will support the online ID change feature. Sony says while "all PS4 games originally published on or after April 1, 2018 have been developed to support the online ID change feature", it found an instance where a game "did not fully support the feature" during its beta preview program last year. 

Sony also warns that there are a few issues that could arise as a result of changing your online ID, saying you could "lose progress within games, including game saved data, leaderboard data, and progress towards Trophies".

For this reason, the company has released a list of tested games that definitely support online ID changes, and says that reverting back to your old ID should resolve most issues that arise.

• Happy birthday PlayStation 4: the best games from each of its six years

We've found one of the best ways to keep your hands warm in winter is to exercise your fingers using a controller as a prop... or, if you really must, you can actually play some videogames for reals. To help you with the latter idea, the PlayStation Store’s annual Winter sale is back.

This year, that includes up to 60% off on hundreds of games across the PS4, PS3, PS VR and PS Vita platforms — and as always, if you've got a PlayStation Plus membership, you'll often get to save even more.

• Read more: PlayStation VR review

While Assassin’s Creed Origins for $47.95 (less than half its regular price) is a darn good deal in our books, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Game of the Year Edition for just $24.95 is bonkers cheap for the amount of hours of joy it provides.

Then there’s the Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, comprising the first three games in the series, that’s also on sale for $24.95. That’s a 42% saving, and if you happen to be a PS Plus member, you can get it for just $20.15.

And, frankly, if you haven't bought Grand Theft Auto V by now, it's not going to get much cheaper than $28.95 – enjoy it as a warm-up to Red Dead Redemption 2 releasing later this year.

You can check out all the games on offer on the PlayStation Store, which also includes DLCs and expansion passes for many popular titles.

• PS4 Pro vs PS4: What's the difference?

Last week a pretty substantial price hike hit the UK’s PlayStation Plus service, mirroring a similar increase that hit the service’s US customers last year. 

Sony didn't announce any changes to the service alongside the price change, but could bundling in a PlayStation Now subscription be an option for Sony to explore to make the service better value?

Price increases are, at a certain point, inevitable. Inflation slowly increases the price of doing business for a company, and at a certain point the prices they charge will need to go up to compensate for it. 

But with PlayStation Plus’s features remaining exactly the same, the service looks like it’s about to offer much worse value for money come the end of August (when the price hike takes effect). 

The solution: PlayStation Now?

Meanwhile, PlayStation Now has proved less and less of a focus for Sony over the years. After it was initially announced as a means to play PlayStation 3 games on the PS4, the service has since transitioned away from this backwards compatibility focus. 

Instead the service now appears to be aimed at allowing non-PlayStation owners to play PlayStation games, as evidenced by the addition of PS4 games to the service.

Meanwhile Microsoft’s own backwards compatibility efforts have gone from strength to strength. Numerous Xbox 360 games have been made backwards compatible on the Xbox One, and at E3 the company announced that original Xbox games would be joining them. 

Sony’s streaming solution is never going to match the quality of playing games locally (which the Xbox One allows), so why not treat the service like a PS Plus extra rather than a dedicated service?

Paying a monthly subscription to stream games is a tough sell when you own a console that can play games locally, but having it as a PS Plus extra would build goodwill, and might lead to people trying out PS4 games before purchasing them outright in order to play them locally. 

However, much though we might like it to happen the chances of it actually doing so are slim. Sony would have announced it alongside the price increase if they had any intention of doing so.

So for now it looks like we’re just going to have to buckle up and deal with the price increase without getting any additional goodies. 

• Of course, you could always stock up on cheap PS Plus membership now before the prices increase... 

Nintendo has announced that it’s taking gamers on another trip down memory lane with the release of the SNES Mini. 

With this compact plug-and-play console, fans will be able to play 20 of their favorite titles from the Super Nintendo era of gaming. One bonus title that’s been announced for the console, however, is the never-before-released Star Fox 2. 

Star Fox 2 was a highly-anticipated sequel for the SNES and it remains one of Nintendo’s most high-profile cancellations even now. The game got fairly far into the development process but as graphical advances on Sega’s Saturn and Sony’s PlayStation consoles emerged, Nintendo worried that the game’s increasingly old-gen 3D would look bad if compared to the next-gen 3D graphics. 

As a result, the game was cancelled and instead fans got Star Fox 64 on the more powerful Nintendo 64 console in 1997. The game was close enough to completion when it was cancelled that various playable ROMs have leaked online over the years, but we still never got to see the final version.  

Now, more than 20 years after we thought we’d seen the last of it, Star Fox 2 is getting its time in the sun. Here are some more games we’d love to see this happen to in the future. 

Silent Hills was an exciting proposition. It was going to be the next and possibly most terrifying game in the Silent Hill franchise, helmed by industry legend Hideo Kojima in collaboration with acclaimed director Guillermo Del Toro. It even had a famous actor, Norman Reedus, lined up to play the lead. It was going to be the cinematic horror game we’d dreamed of and excitement was piqued when its terrifying Playable Teaser took the gaming world by storm. 

Unfortunately, the game was cancelled in April 2016. After rumors began circulating that Kojima was planning to leave Konami, it was confirmed that the project would not be going ahead. To add insult to injury, PT was then pulled from the PlayStation Store. Sob.

Fable Legends is a relatively recent loss and as a result the wound is still pretty raw. We’re big fans of the Fable franchise, from its magical world, its atmosphere of adventure and its highly individual sense of humor. 

Though we have to admit we hoped for Fable 4, we were perfectly prepared to return to Albion in Fable Legends after it was revealed at E3 in 2015. 

It may not have been what we wanted but it had a promising premise – free-to-play multiplayer that saw you and three friends (or three AI characters) team up to complete quests and objectives while other playing teams tried to stop you. 

It’s been rumored that even the Fable development team at Lionhead would have preferred to create Fable 4 rather than Fable Legends which means it’s likely the game got off to a bad start. 

After four years of development and $75 million were spent, the game was suddenly cancelled by Microsoft. To make matters even worse only a few weeks later Lionhead Studios closed down. Whether we’ll see the Fable franchise return is uncertain but we’ll always remember it fondly. 

We’re not short of excellent Star Wars games – think Knights of the Old Republic and Battlefront. But we’re almost certain we have been deprived of another one when Star Wars 1313 was cancelled.

Unveiled during E3 2012, the game was set to follow the story of Boba Fett, allowing players to bounty hunt their way around the city of 1313 on Coruscant. Slick, fast paced combat, and cover based blaster fights were just a few of the promised features that had us salivating. 

With Star Wars 1313 it looked like LucasArts was making a Star Wars game with adults in mind.

Sadly, when Disney acquired the Star Wars universe they shut down LucasArts, which subsequently ended development of Star Wars 1313. Rumor on the street, however, is that Disney still own the rights for 1313. A new hope?

Fez 2, announced in 2013, was to be the sequel to the stylish indie darling platformer, Fez. The game was created by developer Polytron and is often cited as the inspiration for many other popular indie titles such as Monument Valley.

Only one month after its reveal, however, the game was abruptly cancelled by Polytron’s founder Phil Fish. Following a Twitter argument between Phil Fish and a journalist who had criticized him, Fish announced both the game’s cancellation and his exit from the video game industry, something that came as a surprise even to his own company. 

Think what you want about the direction the films have taken, but Pirates of the Caribbean is a franchise with a universe that’s always had great video game potential. 

Armada of the Damned was announced to be in development by Propaganda Games for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC during E3 2009.

The game was going to take players into a timeline before the events of the first film and would follow a pirate captain called James Sterling. Not much was revealed other than this, but the game was going to be open world, choice-driven, independent from the films and include RPG elements, real-time combat and weapon customization. 

Unfortunately, in 2010, just over a year after its E3 reveal Disney Interactive Studios announced that it was restructuring and Armada of the Damned’s development team was laid off. The game was cancelled. 

It’s a shame this pirate adventure never got to raise its colors as the success of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag proves there’s an appetite for an open world pirate adventure. Hopefully this year’s big pirate games from E3, Skull and Bones and Sea of Thieves, will fill the hole that remains in the helm of the genre. 

Mega Man Legends 3 was a game that many wanted to see added to the Mega Man spin-off series lineup. The game would have seen players control two new characters, Aero and Barrett, who would have teamed up with more familiar series characters to save Mega Man Volnutt from Elysium. To make the game an even more exciting prospect it was helmed by the series creator Keiji Inafune.

It wasn’t to be, though. Inafune left Capcom in 2010 and though development was attempted without him, Capcom cancelled the game the next year with the reason that it just wasn’t good enough to go into full production. 

Since the cancellation a petition has garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures in the hopes that it’d be released but Capcom has been firm in its decision. You have to give them credit for their commitment to quality control. 

If things had gone according to plan, Scalebound would have been a huge exclusive Xbox IP that would have been released this very year. That’s no longer the case.

Developed by Platinum Games, Scalebound was going to be a third-person RPG in which players would take control of Drew on his journey through the world of Draconis, accompanied by his AI-controlled dragon called Thuban. 

Players would have been able to use a combination of weapons and the help of Thuban to defeat monsters in the game world. The cinematic footage that was shown for the game at E3 made it look stunning, with an interesting modern twist on dragons (creatures which traditionally feature in medieval fantasy timelines).

Sadly, after a delayed release it was announced in January 2017 that the game was cancelled. As yet there’s been no official confirmation as to why. 

Okay so we have Nathan Drake and Lara Croft, but let’s not pretend we wouldn’t relish the opportunity to play as Indiana Jones. Sure, there have been Indiana Jones games before but the one we really wanted, Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings for PS3 and Xbox 360, never came to be. 

Though it eventually released for older  consoles including the Wii and PS2, we wanted it on the latest available generation, LucasArts! With the story collaborated on by George Lucas himself! An early look at the game as it was being built for HD consoles was a tantalizing tease of what eventually would never be released.

Sadly, due to severe quality issues, the project was cancelled in early 2009. At least we have these screenshots to show us what we missed out on. 

Aliens: Crucible is a particularly painful cancellation. After the disappointing Aliens: Colonial Marines was released, footage from the game that could have been (Aliens: Crucible) emerged. 

The RPG-style game looked excellent and essentially appeared to be a Knights of the Old Republic inspired game set in the Aliens universe. To make matters worse, boss of developer Obsidian, Feargus Urquhart, revealed that the game was ready for release when it was cancelled. 

What happened, then? Apparently Sega took a moment in 2010 to “Carefully consider the type of Aliens games to release” and opted for Colonial Marines in the belief it would be more profitable. Considering how close this game must have been to completion we think it might be our best shot in this list for a Star Fox 2 moment. 

Clash together Sherlock Holmes and Batman and you’ll arrive at a concept similar to Gotham by Gaslight. The idea for this game was drawn from a one-shot comic story of the same name which saw a Victorian-era Bruce Wayne take on Jack the Ripper who was apparently on tour in Gotham City. 

Day 1 Studios, the developer behind F.E.A.R, planned to make the game for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and even created a prototype for which there’s footage online. 

Unfortunately, after an unsuccessful pitch to THQ, Day 1 couldn’t find a publisher which is a great shame. The game lives on in the form of Gaslight Batman who’s one of the champions of the 2015 DC game Infinite Crisis alongside Gaslight Joker and Catwoman. 

Before I grab you by the arm and drag you into my flux capacitor-equipped Mario Kart for this week’s Throwback Thursday column, I’d like to offer an apology for my absence last week. I do have a good excuse, though: I was attending E3 where I was focusing so much on the future of games I didn’t get a moment to go hands on with the past.

Lately, though, the future of games seems to involve a lot of nostalgic nods to days gone by. 

This year Microsoft announced it was extending backwards compatibility to original Xbox titles, Nintendo revealed the classic Metroid series would be making its way to the Switch and Sony unveiled a trailer for a PlayStation 4 remake of Shadow of the Colossus. 

That weird sound you heard during PlayStation’s E3 livestream? Yeah, it wasn’t a breeze – it was my sharp intake of breath. Colossus is my bae.

Return of the remake

I first played Shadow of the Colossus when it was released on PlayStation 2 2006, not long after I’d completed ICO which I’d unearthed in my local library’s rental section. Since its first release Shadow of the Colossus has been remastered for PlayStation 3 with improved HD resolution and some added PlayStation Network features.

The PlayStation 4 version promises to be a complete remake; though the game content will be the same it will apparently have entirely new assets and updated, modern controls.

Even though I knew I adored Shadow of the Colossus overall, my memories of the game’s specifics had become pretty vague. So on my return from E3 I decided to pull out my PS2 copy and see just how much a PS4 remake is needed. 

First things first, if any game deserves an Ultra HD update it’s Shadow of the Colossus. To be honest, anything that comes from the minds of Team Ico should be in 4K but Shadow of the Colossus is especially deserving. 

It may be minimalist but, boy, is it stunning and I really can’t wait to pore over every little detail in 4K. Plus, HDR support will be incredible in a game that makes such effective use of light and shadow. 

Changing views

One of my favorite things about writing this column is that it gives me an excuse to jump back into games I haven’t played in years without feeling any guilt about my growing pile of unplayed brand new games (also known as my Smaug pile). 

It’s amazing how much your view of a game can change purely because you yourself have changed and this was something that I found especially apparent when revisiting Shadow of the Colossus.  

When I first played Shadow of the Colossus nearly a decade ago I very much took it at face value – its visual and narrative simplicity, to me, indicated that it was a simple but enjoyable game overall. 

I was playing a hero, tasked with taking down evil giant monsters to rescue a beautiful princess. A classic tale, almost like an ancient myth. Of course, myths tend to be more than just stories.

Tale as old as time

This time my view was very different. This time it was apparent to me that Shadow of the Colossus isn’t a tale of heroism; it’s a tale of grief. More than that, it’s a tale of the inability to overcome grief and the dangers of that.

I still see Shadow of the Colossus as a beautiful puzzle not-quite platformer that stands apart from other games by virtue of its visuals and innovative gameplay and combat. However, I also now see it as a game that manages to intricately weave complex but universal human emotions into an epic, unearthly tale and somehow give me a greater understanding of them. 

Basically, it got better, though there's a chance my mind has been ruined by an English degree that forced me to critically analyse things that potentially aren’t even there. 

If you’re not familiar with it, the game follows a protagonist called Wander. Wander comes to the Forbidden Land on the back of his horse, Agro, with a sword in hand and the lifeless body of the beautiful Mono. He seeks out a powerful being who can return Mono’s soul to her body and bring her back to life. 

The being, Dormin, tells Wander that first he must hunt down and defeat 16 Colossi across the land, but warns that Wander will have to pay a heavy price for what he wants. 

“It doesn’t matter,” replies Wander.

This tells you everything you need to know. Wander is not driven by any kind of traditional heroism or self-interest, he just can’t let go of Mono and will do anything to see her returned to life. 

The fact that after each Colossus defeat you’re returned to Mono’s side to see her lifeless body is good indication Dormin knows Wander’s inability to cope with loss is his manipulable weakness.

Not all those who wander are lost

Grief is an isolating, self-destructive and often desperate emotional state and all of this is reflected perfectly in Shadow of the Colossus’ world, character actions and the game controls themselves. We don't need any more words than "it doesn't matter."

Like Ico before it and The Last Guardian after it, Shadow of the Colossus doesn’t have much in the way of direct storytelling but it really doesn’t need it. Most of the story is told through action and environment which is as refreshing now as it was when the game was first released. It’s a lesson in ‘show don’t tell’.

Really, anything other than the game’s haunting, and far from overused, soundtrack would feel out of place in the world. Any excessive use of human voice, no matter how pleasant its tone, would ruin the innate melody of the game and ground it in a way that would undermine its sense of scale and universality. 

The Forbidden Lands are huge, open and beautifully bare. You’re not going to encounter any NPCs here – it’s just you, your horse and your determination. The sense of loneliness this world manages to convey is sometimes overwhelming to the point that you’re thankful when the soundtrack begins to swell because it means you’re approaching something else even if it’s not someone else. 

Though it’s often said you never forget the first time you see a Colossus in the game, I think the first time you bring one to the ground is more striking because it’s really not as satisfying as you expect it to be. 

They’re some of the greatest boss battles in gaming because each encounter is unique and forces you to think, but across each fight there’s an underlying sense of scurrying desperation as you cling to these monsters and hope they don’t throw you off before you can locate their weak points. 

The fact that some of them don’t even engage you in battle until you try to kill them really takes any sense of victory out of the defeat. In fact, as you move through each Colossus you only feel a growing sense of dread that you’re doing the wrong thing (because you totally are). 

The game’s controls are often criticized for being clumsy and unintuitive and it’s said that they’ll be improved for the remake. Though they're sometimes problematic I hope they don't change too much because these controls also convey Wander’s grief and desperation in a way words couldn’t. 

The fact that you have to hold down R1 to cling to a ledge rather than just tap it; the almost hesitant implications of having to press O twice to raise and swing your sword when fighting the Colossus; every action in Shadow of the Colossus feels very deliberate because of its controls, which only makes its ending more impactful and sad. 

There’s even a scene towards the end of the game which gives you control of Wander seemingly only to make it clear how out of your control things have become. 

Aggravating Agro

That said, I can’t really defend Agro’s AI and I can’t wait to see it improved. That horse is still as hopeless as I remembered and I can only assume Agro is short for aggravation because ugh. And although I appreciate the cinematic camera angles, they’re sometimes more of a hindrance than anything else. 

Returning to Shadow of the Colossus has been a genuinely rewarding experience for me and although it’s possible that I’ve simply emotionally projected onto the game, the fact that I’ve been able to do so quite so easily speaks volumes for a game that barely speaks itself. 

Now that E3 has physically drained me and Shadow of the Colossus has turned on the emotional tap I think it’s time to bring this column to a close before I slump over the keyboard.

The less we could all think about how the destructive nature of being unable to let go of the things we’ve lost plays into this column overall would be just great, thanks. 

• Emma Boyle is taking a look back at games gone by (some of them older than she is.) Follow her time traveling adventures in her weekly Throwback Thursday column. Got any games you like to see her try? Let her know on Twitter @emmbo_

Time to pour one out for Sony's PlayStation 3 – the last-generation console from the Japanese gaming giants is being put out to pasture.

Gaming website Gematsu, with information via Japanese site Games Talk, has discovered Sony's plan to end production of the PS4's predecessor.

The 500GB standard model is the last remaining PS3 in production in Japan, but a listing on the Sony site now stated that "shipments are scheduled to end soon."

A good innings

It may have played second-fiddle to the Xbox 360 during the last console generation, but the PS3 still enjoyed a lengthy shelf life, first going on sale in November 2006. Sony has always stated that it works to ten-year life cycles for its machines, so the news of production coming to halt should come as no surprise.

Though the specific cut-off date has yet to be revealed, a tweet from a gaming shop in Fukuoka would suggest that the lights go off in March.

Those enjoying playing with their PS3 consoles shouldn't panic – the end of production doesn't mean your PlayStation will suddenly cease to work. However, it does start a countdown clock of sorts when it comes to support for the machine – with production lines switching off, Sony will inevitably be winding down updates for the PS3, which may eventually have ramifications for online services and digital downloads. 

As for picking up a new PS3, that'll become increasingly difficult, potentially putting a premium price on second-hand PlayStation 3 consoles.

• Time to make the jump to PS4? Here's this month's cheapest PS4 deals

Sony announced today that it's pulling support of its PlayStation Now streaming service for all legacy Sony devices - including the PS3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation TV - as well as certain TVs and Blu-ray players.

PlayStation Now, which lets subscribers stream over 450 PS3 games without needing a game disc, will soon be supported only on the PS4 and recently added Windows PC.

In an official blog post, Sony says it pared down supported devices to concentrate on those two platforms, saying it will "further develop and improve the user experience" in the process.

Sony notes any current saved data can be accessed from the cloud on both PS4 and Windows PC, ensuring any hours spent climbing the towers in Catherine or battling mythical beasts in God of War III won't go to waste.

The devices losing PS Now support

Specifically, Sony will first stop PS Now support for 2016 models of its Bravia TVs on April 1. The following devices will have service discontinued later this summer, on August 15:

• PlayStation 3
• PlayStation Vita
• PlayStation TV
• All 2013, 2014, 2015 Sony Bravia TV models
• All Sony Blu-ray player models
• All Samsung TV models

Sony urges those who use these devices as their primary system for PS Now to disable any auto-renewal features in their accounts so they aren't charged for the service after the devices are dropped.

PS Now currently uses one- or three-month subscription intervals for customers, meaning most have time to cancel the service before Sony drops support for their device. 

As for those who may have purchased a three-month extension and will cross over the April 1 date for 2016 Sony Bravia TVs, we've asked Sony about the potential for refunds - as well as any additional compensation to all users affected - and will update this story if we hear anything.

• Could GameCube games be coming to the Nintendo Switch?

Each month, a new range of free downloadable games becomes available to North American, European and Australian PlayStation Plus subscribers, with titles across PS3, PS4 and PS Vita.

We suggest you grab these games while they're free, as you'll then be able to play them as long as you have an active Plus subscription.

As the free games are refreshed monthly, we've taken the liberty of keeping you updated on the titles that are being offered.

Here are your free PlayStation Plus games for February 2017, which will be available to download from February 7 until the end of the month.

February's free game lineup

LittleBigPlanet 3 (PS4) – Sackboy is back! Only this time, he's brought some friends along for his latest adventure. Not interested in pre-made levels? Then why not create your own? 

Not a Hero (PS4) – From the makers of OlliOlli comes Not a Hero, a pixelated, shooter that has you violently dispatching members of the criminal underworld. Think of it like a side-scrolling Hotline Miami.

Starwhal (PS3 / cross buy with PS4) – a hilarious couch-multiplayer classic, the retro-styled Starwhal lets you and your friends partake in an epic Narwhal battle in space. Use your huge tusk to barge into your opponents – that is, if the game's deliberately wonky controls will let you!

Anna — Extended Edition (PS3) – A psychological horror game set in a sawmill in the Italian hills, you must gather clues and solve a number puzzles in order to unlock the main character's dark past.

Ninja Senki DX (PS Vita / cross buy with PS4) – A retro NES-style game in the vein of Mega Man, Ninja Senki DX has you running, jumping and shooting your way through a number of ninja-themed level in order to complete lead character Hayate's quest for revenge.

TorqueL (PS Vita / cross buy with PS4) – Navigate your way through 50 chambers in this indie physics-based puzzler that see's travel around inside a square with different colours on each side.  

For a discounted PlayStation Plus subscription, be sure to check out the PlayStation Plus deals at CDKeys.com.

Join us next month as we update you on March's free PlayStation Plus games!

A six-year-old lawsuit between Sony and Linux users has finally come to a close, resulting in Sony agreeing to pay PlayStation 3 owners a sum for removing the open-source OS from its console.

The hubbub started back in March of 2010, when Sony removed the ability to install outside operating systems on the PS3. The company cited security and piracy concerns as the reason for changing its stance, according to Ars Technica.

This stirred up owners running Linux on their PlayStations at the time, since keeping their OS meant being unable to access any other online features like connecting to the PlayStation Network, playing multiplayer games, and downloading firmware or patches until the feature-killing update was installed.

While the deal has yet to receive final approval by a judge, Sony has agreed to pay out cold, hard cash to any PS3 owners who feel they got a raw deal by having third-party OS functionality taken away from their machine.

That sounds like me! What do I get?!

As per the settlement, Sony will pay a sum of $55 to any owner of a PS3 manufactured between November of 2006 to September to 2009 that included the "Other OS feature," and can prove they lost use of Linux thanks to Sony's update.

For those juuust outside those parameters, a smaller $9 entitlement will be granted for any and all PS3 owners who can claim that their console "lost value and/or desired functionality" by the lack of the Other OS feature.

For some, the amount of money might be less that the trouble is worth, but the settlement is still a big win for Linux users, as well as anyone really big on the idea of keeping control of a console's features up to the consumer.

If nothing else, nine bucks could still snag a Chipotle burrito or a good game like BioShock through PSN, so we aren't complaining.

• Still want to get your game on with Linux? This is how.

Unless you own a specific model of Samsung Smart TV or Sony Android TV, the streaming app Presto had only previously been available on television screens via Chromecast and the recently launched Telstra TV.

Well, that’s changed, with the surprise appearance of the Presto app for PS3 and PS4 on the PlayStation store overnight.

The addition of Presto to the PS3 and PS4’s app library makes Sony’s consoles the only devices that can play all four Australian SVOD services, having already provided access to Netflix, Quickflix and Stan.

This edges previous title holder Telstra TV out of the top spot, as the rebadged Roku 2 lacks Quickflix access.

If you are a Presto subscriber, it’s worth noting that you’ll likely have to log into your account on the Presto website and sort your registered devices out in order to use the app on your PS3 and PS4 consoles.

• Thinking of signing up? Check out techradar’s in-depth Presto review

Over the last year and a half, AnimeLab has become Australia’s premier destination for streaming Japanimation, with new episodes of all your favourite shows added and simulcast direct from Japan every week.

Now, the service has gotten even better, with the announcement that subscribers can now stream AnimeLab on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 consoles.

The service, which was previously only available to stream on desktop computers and iOS and Android devices, joins Stan as another huge and recent SVOD win for PlayStation.

Tokyo Ghouls rejoice!

AnimeLab launched its Premium subscription service in May this year, allowing users to watch the service’s enormous back catalogue in both English and Japanese with subtitles, and at resolutions of up to 1080p for AU$6.95 a month.

Free subscribers will also be able to stream AnimeLab on their PlayStation consoles, however they’ll only get to watch a limited selection of shows and will have to contend with pre-roll advertisements, a maximum resolution of 480p and one week delays on simulcasts.

Don’t like the sound of that but not sure you want to subscribe? Well, you should probably check out the service’s free 30-day trial to see if AnimeLab Premium is right for you.

• Not an anime fan? Check out what the other streaming services have to offer

If there’s one feature Stan users have been crying out for since the launch of the streaming service, it’s the ability to watch and browse its content from their gaming consoles.

Now, Stan has taken an enormous step in the right direction, announcing a partnership with Sony Computer Entertainment Australia that will see a native Stan app arrive on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 consoles on October 8.

Existing Stan subscribers will be able to simply login to Stan’s PS3 and PS4 apps while new users will have to visit Stan’s site to sign up for a 30-day free trial.

Stan up and take a bow

The announcement comes just in time for the release of Stan’s first original series, No Activity, the highly-anticipated October 31 premiere of the cult horror-comedy series, Ash vs. Evil Dead, and the entire series of Friends, which was added to the service late last month.

To celebrate the momentous occasion, Stan and PlayStation have also announced that any customer who spends $30 or more on a PlayStation product at participating retailers, including JB HiFi, Target, Big W, EB Games and the PlayStation store, will receive a bonus one-off three-month subscription to Stan.

Though Stan’s PlayStation apps are set to arrive tomorrow, there is currently no word on when the service will arrive on Xbox consoles, Wii U or smart TVs.

• The 25 best shows on Stan

If you're a gamer who doesn't know who Nolan North is, we can guarantee you've heard him. The ubiquitous voice actor has appeared in dozens of games over the years, adopting countless accents and tones. But perhaps he's best known for doing his own voice as Nathan Drake, the hero of Naughty Dog's Uncharted series.

In just under six months' time, we'll finally get our hands on the eagerly anticipated Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, but before then we've a chance to refresh ourselves of the story so far. Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, which includes the PS3 Uncharted trilogy, will launch on the PlayStation 4 on October 7.

Not only does Nolan do some amazing voices, he's also witnessed the videogame industry rise to bigger-than-Hollywood status. So we chatted to him about how capturing Uncharted has changed over the years, why people are wrong about Batman's Penguin, and how he approached overwriting Peter Dinklage in Destiny.

You've done a bit of TV work over the years. How much does the experience differ with performance capture?

For most games you don't have to learn your lines. It's nice to be familiar with them, but for a lot of games you're in a booth alone and you're reading your script. With Uncharted it's a lot different. Uncharted is more like doing live action than it is doing any of the other games. This was one of the first and the biggest to employ motion capture - or performance capture as they call it now - which is like saying 'I don't live in the nice neighbourhood, I live adjacent to it' [laughs].

So performance capture, motion capture, whatever you want to call it, is very much like theatre, where I started. It's minimum props, it's all imagination, working with your fellow actor to make that virtual world that no one can see at the time, to come to life. Because you're literally working in an open empty space, and the animators and the geniuses at the developing office, they make that world around you come alive. So you just have to employ your imagination. I've said before, it's a lot like when you see little kids playing. They never stop to go 'Ok, where was the boat again?' And when you get into that spirit, good things happen.

How has the performance capture process changed over the course of the Uncharted series?

In Drake's Fortune, the first game on the PS3, the developers, the programmers, the artists, they were all working on how much of that processing unit that they could tap out of it. And by the third game, same machine, the effects and everything were so much better. To be perfectly honest, it's way above my pay grade. These people are smarter than I'll ever live to be. So when we look at what Uncharted 4 is going to do on the PS4, I've seen some pretty amazing tests with the reality in the eyes and the face, and the way they've mapped my face for Drake. These little wrinkles in my cheek are in his face now.

In the first Uncharted there's a scene were Elaine and Drake run and jump into a jeep and drive away and then it gets stuck and it's about to fall off the back of a cliff. For that scene they brought in a jeep that was the same colour as that, I think they'd rented it for $800 for the day. And it was full of mouse poop and it smelled and it was all metal, it was just an old metal jeep. And it was banged up and bruised, I remember Emily had a pretty good bruise on her leg somewhere. By Uncharted 2 they just took blocks. They realised we don't need an actual jeep, just blocks. But it looked kind of like a jeep.

By Uncharted 3 there were just two chairs and a steering wheel because you don't need anything but where we're going to sit. So it got paired down. It was great for me to be able to do that with a jeep and understand but then see how it can be paired down. New actors would come in to work with us and be like "So... these chairs are a jeep?".

Do you ever get to do any of the stunts?

They won't let me do the big stunts. For the first couple of games I wanted to but I realised that there are jobs for people who are special at their jobs, and stunt people are those people. We have a guy I just worked with, Reuben Langdon, who covered me on a lot of that stuff, he was the guy that did all the Drake hanging out of the airplane. And they had him on a wire holding onto a bar, and someone was pulling a wire that was attached to him that would lift his legs up, in a pulley system, and another that would pull him side to side. He was literally just holding on with his hands all day long, and with these Popeye forearms.

As much as I would have liked to do that, I think the only think I've ever done stunt wise was jump from a truck to a truck, which is literally just jumping off and grabbing onto a bar and hanging on. Which is the coolest thing I'll ever do.

And what's the silliest you've ever felt on set?

When don't I feel silly in a motion capture scene? [laughs] It's not the most flattering thing. The silliest, off the top of my head, was Uncharted 3 on the horses because it was just a block again with a saddle, but you couldn't move. We did a first test where you had to bounce like you're on a horse and then the programmer said "no, no, no" - again, the geniuses had figured out a way to make my body move the way the horse moved.

But the first few tests, there I am bouncing and bouncing, and famously I had to do one full minute of that movement and they started pumping the My Little Pony music as loud as they could through the studio, but I couldn't stop. They weren't capturing my face at the time so I was just laughing and cursing them out, but pretending to ride a fake horse in front of a group of people in a motion capture suit. That's a topper.

In some games you've provided more than one voice. How do you decide which is right for each character?

My favourite way is that they bring animation of the character that they're looking to do. You sit with the director and producers and talk about what they're looking for, and the sky's the limit. It's one of my favourite things because if you handed me a character we could kind of get together and [starts doing voices]. And you play with the range.

Sometimes my favourite thing to do is draw on the opposites so if it looks like a big burly guy, give him a voice [raises pitch] like up here. I call it the David Beckham effect - brilliantly handsome, but you just don't expect his voice to be as falsetto as it is.

How did you approach overwriting Peter Dinklage's lines in Destiny, as Ghost?

We went in with the producers and all the people at bungie and they said "we're looking for something different, we want X, Y and Z" and we actually did a full four hour session just auditioning the different voices like "well what about this" and "what about this" until we found a nice comfortable place they liked. The most difficult thing about that re-recording was that the original material, in my opinion, wasn't written as strongly as the newer stuff. And some of the lines that Peter had to say, they're really hard to make them work.

But I think people saw with the release of the Taken King, they really bumped the level up. And it gradually got better, but I know it got a lot of knocks for it when it first came out - the story and some of the writing, not all of it, but some of it was, you know, not quite where they wanted it to be. And hopefully it will only get better. I have a 12 year old who loves Destiny so I'm well invested. I have to do well or I'll never hear the end of it.

And what new challenges has Uncharted 4 brought?

Working with Troy Baker, the biggest challenge every day [laughs] It's painful. Every day it's painful. No, he's great, everyone's been great. It's kind of the same thing, though we moved to a newer stage, which was exciting. But no, If you're not in your groove by the fourth iteration you should be looking for something else.

How close are you to finishing recording?

I know I should be done with stuff by the end of the year, and I know it's a March 2016 release. So that's pushing it for them, but we should be done soon.

Have you captured more footage this time around compared to previous games?

Yes. I think this should break some records, we've captured quite a bit. I would be guessing at the amount of cinematics, but it's well over two hours I think. Please don't have that in headlines tomorrow [laughs].

Of every character you've ever voiced, which has been your favourite?

I've always really liked the Penguin from Batman just because as gravelly as it sounds, it's actually a very very comfortable place for my voice. And then to do that odd Americanised cockney accent, which is on purpose - everybody should know it's not supposed to be perfect because Oswald Cobblepot's parents weren't British, he was just brought here and raised here. I hate when people get upset and are like "it's not proper" and I'm like "It's not supposed to be".

It came at a time when people were saying "Nolan north is always doing the same voice" and then Rocksteady came along and said "Hey we think you can do this". But that came along at a time when it was still insane to be able to do something like that there. He's kind of a caricature of a villain. It's not like David from The Last of Us, it's more of a slightly cartoony character.

Are there any voices you wish you could have done, or would like to do?

No. I should probably think about this more but the voiceover community is a small tribe. I've always loved Wolverine, I won't even audition as wolverine because Steve Blum killed Wolverine, and he always does. I think the licence plate on his car is 'Snikt'. That's not a joke, I really think so. Fred Tatasciore has always done the Hulk, and I've been very fortunate to play some pretty cool characters. Everybody always says "You should take a shot at Batman" but there have been so many voices for Batman I kind of think "ehh". And so many have been right to so many people. I also like doing the Deadpool stuff because it's complete non-sequitur ridiculous, crazy stuff.

How did you decide that your regular voice was the one for Nathan Drake?

The first audition for Nathan Drake I walked in thinking it was just a game and I was going to do my voice. And then the director and producers, Amy Hennig, Gordon Hunt, there were all these people in the room. And normally when you audition, when not from your home, you're in a stand and everyone's behind the glass. And they came in they explained the character, and then they closed the door. But they were standing there and I just go "Are you going to stay here" and they're like "Yeah, yeah feel free to move around the room and everything" and I went "What?". I had no idea what it was. I didn't know it was performance capture or anything. They said "Use this space" which was about six by six metres, not much space to use.

And for some reason I got the callback, and at the callback - I should have asked - but I didn't know it was performance capture until I got that. And oddly enough when you audition for something like that there'll be a reader, somebody who will read with you and they'll read with everybody that comes through. That day it was this girl who was a graduate student at UCLA, was Emily Rose. At one point someone finally just went "Why doesn't she do this?" because she was great.

I remember, I think I did a somersault and I rolled and I slid behind a chair, and I slid too far and I hit something and I felt like an idiot doing it, and I think that's what made Drake someone you could relate to, because I wasn't the slickest, I'm not a gymnast or anything, but I looked like that everyman, that John McClane from Die Hard. He'll get the job done but it won't be pretty and he'll laugh at himself.

Check out the video below in which Nolan talks about The Last of Us, the Uncharted recording process, and finding the vulnerability in each character he voices. Oh, and we also made him bring back the voices of some old-school characters - enjoy.

Is Bioware acting as the harbinger of doom for the last-gen consoles? The Dragon Age: Inquisition developer has announced any future DLC for the open world fantasy fest will only appear on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

There is no more content coming for the Xbox 360 or PS3 versions.

Sound the claxons, ring the alarms, bring out your dead. The new age of consoles has now truly arrived, relegating the last-gen machines to the gaming scrap heap.

We're already into a stage where it's mostly only the iterative sporting titles which are producing new versions for the older consoles, with big budget franchises, like Assassin's Creed and Fallout, only coming to the current-gen machines.

But you know it's truly the end when an existing last-gen title gets support cut for future content releases. Imagine what would happen if Rockstar announced the same thing for the surely-incoming DLC episodes for GTA V…

It's not all totally doom and gloom though.

If you did start out playing Dragon Age: Inquisition on either PS3 or Xbox 360 you can now migrate your original save from the last-gen consoles onto the current gen version for either PS4 or Xbox One.

That will allow you to carry your adventure from where you left off without having to start again from scratch. It will also let you migrate your previously purchased DLC content onto your new console too so you don't have to re-buy anything you've already picked up.

Bioware has all the necessary info here if you want to shift your adventure over.

• Check out the best games for Xbox One and PS4

Sony has confirmed it is to launch the Vue TV streaming service in Q1 2015, meaning US PS4 and PS3 owners will be able to try it out soon.

PlayStation Vue is a TV streaming service that'll give you access to shows from plenty of big networks, including Viacom, CBS, Fox and NBC.

The service has launched as a Beta already, with 75 channel partnerships in tow, but it'll open up properly in the US over the next few months.

Like PlayStation Now, Vue will start up first in the US before, fingers crossed, coming to other territories later in the year. Sony has given us no word on this, though.

Room with a Vue

Vue is interesting because it's a little different to services like Netflix. It offers access to its channels as broadcast, and thee-day catch-up for each.

The benefit is obvious: you can get channels you'd normally have to sign up to a long contract for, without the commitment. However, as yet Sony has not announced any pricing plans for PlayStation Vue.

PlayStation Vue will initially be available on PS3 and PS4, although back in November when the service was first announced, Sony detailed its intention to bring Vue to handheld devices including iPads too.

• Hands on with PlayStation Now
• Compare this with the other best streaming services around right now

PlayStation Vue is the new cloud-based streaming service from Sony designed to offer an internet-only TV package as a replacement for cable or satellite.

The service will be available this month initially as a beta for selected PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 owners in the US. From there, Sony says it will roll out fully to the two consoles before it arrives on iPad and other handheld devices.

Sony currently has about 75 channels signed up for the beta through partnerships with the likes of CBS, Fox and NBC. The service will let you view live, on-demand and catch-up TV, as well as give you the ability to tag and save favourite shows.

State of the 'Station

The user interface has been developed to work with Sony's DualShock controllers although there's been no mention of whether the handheld PS Vita will also be compatible.

It looks as if the service will only be available in the US next year to begin with but could launch in the UK at a later date. TechRadar approached Sony Entertainment UK for clarification on this point and we were told: "We have nothing to announce about international expansion."

Offering PlayStation Vue as an accompaniment to its consoles is a smart way for Sony to grow adoption. Historically, the PlayStation brand has helped grow format use, from DVD with the PS2 to Blu-ray with the PS3.

"This is an opportunity, in my view, to fulfil a longer goal of transforming what was in the past a dedicated game device into a proper entertainment hub," the chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment, Andrew House, told Bloomberg Businessweek.

• Read our comprehensive PlayStation 4 review right here.

What did PlayStation Home ever do to you? Nothing - but that doesn't mean you'll be sorry to see it go.

The PlayStation 3 social hub that let users spend real money on pointless crap for no reason will finally shut down on March 31, 2015, according to PlayStation Senior Community Manager Paul Sullivan.

Sullivan posted in the official PlayStation forums that the trickle of new PS Home content will cease on November 12, existing content will no longer be available to download in the US and Canada as of December 3, and the platform will shut down for good next year.

In addition, some form of new content will be released just before Sony flips the switch for good "as a token of our tremendous gratitude to the community," Sullivan said.

Fly away, Home

He blames the loss of Home on "a shifting landscape," which is to say, no particular reason besides that it was useless.

"PlayStation Home has been serving the PS3 community since December 2008," Sullivan said. "During that time, tens of millions of users around the world have grown the social gaming platform into a thriving community of creative and enthusiastic gamers."

That's one way to look at it. Another is that PS Home was Sony's weird attempt to port Second Life to the PS3, but with more ads. Hopefully you didn't spend too much money on it.

Now let's just pray Sony doesn't try to recreate the experiment on PS4.

We've asked Sony for more insight into the decision to pull home, and the company didn't have much to add except a thank you to "all of our fans for their support of the PlayStation Home platform over the years."

• PS4 vs Xbox One: which is better?

Many were left annoyed over the weekend after the Sony PlayStation Network went down due to claimed scheduled maintenance, but it has since been confirmed the outage was down to a DDos hacker attack.

The PlayStation Network went down over the weekend. After initially claiming it was down to scheduled maintenance in a standard "nothing to see here" PR move, Sony admitted it was the work of hackers in a PlayStation Blog post.

"The networks were taken offline due to a distributed denial of service attack. We have seen no evidence of any intrusion to the network and no evidence of any unauthorized access to users' personal information," the post explains.

After the news that the outage was a hackers' hack job, there was some concern that a whopping 53 million people's personal data could have been compromised by the attack.

However, it now seems like the cause of all the drama was a brute force Ddos attack rather than something even more sinister.

A DDos attack is where a server is bombarded with requests in order to bring it down and, in this case, make it unavailable to those scores of poor 14 year-olds who want nothing more than to harmlessly shoot a few people in the head on their PS4s of a weekend.

Cold blooded

The group that has claimed responsibility for the attack is known as Lizard Group, and it has reportedly been causing all sorts of bother over the weekend.

It also launched DDos attacks against battle.net, the server engine that powers World of Warcraft, Xbox Live and apparently even called a bomb threat on the plane of Sony Online Presiedent John Smedley, which was subsequently diverted for security reasons.

After seemingly being down for all of Sunday 24 August, PSN seems to be back online – we just checked – if performing a little slower than normal.

The PlayStation Twitter account has advised that the service is back online, but suggests "you may experience slowness or login issues as the network stabilizes."

via TechCrunch

When Microsoft announced its Xbox One and Xbox 360 consoles had won exclusive rights to the next Tomb Raider game, it was heralded as a lift that may help the firm reel in the PS4's next-gen lead.

However, it appears Microsoft's dibs on Rise of the Tomb Raider, expected during the 2015 holiday season, won't be permanent.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Xbox chief Phil Spencer confirmed Microsoft's exclusive was for 'a duration' rather than for entire life-cycle of Square Enix's next Lara Croft adventure.

The admission, which was expected to a certain degree, opens the door for Rise of the Tomb Raider to come to the Sony PS3, PS4 and Windows once the as-yet-undetermined period of exclusivity has ended.

No fake outs

Spencer said: "Yes, the deal has a duration. I didn't buy it. I don't own the franchise.

He had earlier laid it out thus: "I have Tomb Raider shipping next holiday exclusively on Xbox. It is Xbox 360 and Xbox One. I'm not trying to fake anybody out in terms of where this thing is. What they do with the franchise in the long run is not mine. I don't control it. So all I can talk about is the deal I have. I don't know where else Tomb Raider goes."

Spencer refused to confirm how long the exclusivity will last, but for those fans accusing Tomb Raider publisher Square Enix and developer Crystal Dynamics of selling out to Microsoft, you can now rest easy.

It seems the next installment of Tomb Raider will reach your gaming system ... eventually.

• The white Xbox One will be available to buy in October

Via Forbes

Next-generation consoles aren't backward compatible, so gamers have had to keep their older systems plugged in order to play games like The Last of Us and Grand Theft Auto 5.

The Last of Us Remastered for PS4 released this week to help alleviate this messy dilemma within our media cabinets. There's one less reason to cling onto that old PS3 hardware.

• Buy Last of Us Remastered PS4 today at Amazon.

Developer Naughty Dog didn't just port the original game to the new system. It enhanced the critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic adventure of characters Joel and Ellie.

This has inspired a new debate among early adopters of Sony's new gaming platform: Is The Last of Us Remastered for PS4 worth the upgrade?

We talked to Naughty Dog programmers Jason Gregory and Christian Gyrling to get a rundown of what has changed in a year's time.

1. Graphics resolution is now 1080p

The Last of Us Remastered bumps up the horizontal lines from a competent 720p resolution to an even better 1080p. The game gets the full HD treatment it deserves on your television.

Textures, shadows and draw distance benefit from this higher resolution. The all-important mood-setting lighting effects for a survival horror game like this have has also been tweaked.

Changes have been made down to the tiniest details, as there are more freckles on Ellie's face. Just as important is what you don't see; fewer pop-ins of trees in the distance make the experience less jarring.

Naughty Dog says that it targeted 1080p from the very beginning of this re-release while uprezzing everything without completely re-authoring the graphics.

2. Moves at a steady 60 frames per second

The Last of Us Remastered not only looks crisper with its higher resolution, it actually moves better thanks to a steady 60 frames per second.

At first, there was an internal debate within Naughty Dog whether or not to stick with the lower 30 frames per second or reach for the silkier 60 frames per second.

However, the team's fears of running into the soap opera effect that's often associated with the higher frame count were assuaged when seeing the game in action.

3. There's a 30fps lock for purists

The Last of Us Remastered is just as cinematic at 60fps on PS4, but for purists Naughty Dog added a 30fps lock within the game's menu.

They stressed that this decision to include the 30fps lock feature was made early on before the new engine was created and it was not the result of trouble keeping to 60fps.

A side-by-side video comparison of the PS4 vs PS3 versions confirms just that. There are few noticeable dips in the frame rate.

4. Gameplay is more functional

The higher resolution and frame count of The Last of Us Remastered combine to make the gameplay a little smoother this time around.

It's not a dramatic difference, so the game and AI do remain true to the original. But now there are fewer distractions like pop-ins and better texture detail.

This makes a big difference in multiplayer. Fast battles with AI and especially humans are now less blurry and benefit from better anti-aliasing and the 60 frames per second.

Things feel more responsive and there's slightly more detail. It may be the difference between seeing that guy hiding behind a corner wall and having to respawn.

5. Takes advantage of DualShock 4 features

The Last of Us for PS4 took advantage of the new system's gamepad, which includes a touchpad and built-in speaker.

Yes, the DualShock 4 not only feels better in the hand, it helps this game function better too.

The touchpad is used to slip into Joel's backpack and open up the crafting menu, which feels more intuitive compared to reaching for the archaic select button.

The speaker within the DualShock 4 also serves as a more natural way of listening to the recordings found in-game - an idea we first saw with Killzone Shadow Fall last year.

To be even more consistent with PS4 games, the new controller switches the aiming and weapon firing from L1 and R1 to L2 and R2. This too can be reset in the menu.

Finally, the light bar changes colors based on health, though we all know the real reason the DualShock 4 light bar is important to the future of PS4: Project Morpheus.

6. Photo Mode

Showing off why The Last of Us Remastered is something your friends really need to get around to playing is even easier thanks to the all-new Photo Mode.

Borrowed from Infamous: Second Son on PS4, this feature is triggered by the L3 button (clicking the left thumbstick in) when Photo Mode is enabled in the main menu.

It pauses the gameplay and lets you adjust the camera for all sorts of angles and focus points.

You know those impossible pre-release magazine screenshots we always see before games release? Now you can tilt and rotate the perspective to re-create that effect.

Photo Mode will also appear to the Instagram generation with a variety of filters, frames and vignettes before pressing the controller's Share button to upload it.

7. DLC included in the price

There's no need to spring for the already-released The Last of Us downloadable content in picking up the Remastered version on PS4. Most of the DLC is already included.

Here, the single-player Left Behind expansion and the multiplayer Abandoned Territories and Reclaimed Territories map packs give you more for your money.

It should keep you busy until the fourth and final Factions DLC arrives on both PS3 and PS4 later this year.

8. Bonuses: commentary and difficulty

Maybe you've played through The Last of Us a year ago and bought into the DLC already. For super fans, the Remastered version features in-game commentary.

During the game's rich cinematics, you'll hear creative director Neil Druckmann and the voice actors Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson talk about the game and its development.

You may also want to go through the game again in Grounded mode, is a difficulty that came to the PS3 version earlier this year as DLC. It drops the HUD while adding harder AI.

9. Remote Play is here natively

The Last of Us Remastered is no longer limited to the PS4 thanks to Sony's decision to make the "remote play" feature mandatory among games on its next-gen console.

It wirelessly beams the game from the PS4 to PlayStation Vita, giving you the ability to roam with the post-apocalyptic adventure.

PlayStation Now, currently in beta, also makes this possible on Sony's handheld system but the streaming service uses the PS3 version of the game. The Remastered edition is the one you want.

10. The Last of Us Remastered at a discount

The biggest resistance to buying the PS4 version of The Last of Us is paying the higher price. However, Sony has softened the blow while adding value to the game.

In the UK, the PS4 version costs £38.00 while a new copy of the PS3 edition is £21.85. But that doesn't factor in extras like the DLC.

In the US, the PS4 version costs just shy of $50, cheaper than the launch price of games on the new console. The PS3 version is $27.99.

Going a step further, some retailers like GameStop are offering up to 50% off The Last of Us Remastered when you turn in your PS3 copy of the game.

Finally, Sony is porting over the Season Pass for everyone who bought into the DLC based on the subscription. Multiplayer stats are reset on PS4, but the content you bought is thankfully not.

There's enough here to want to opt for The Last of Us Remastered on PS4 vs PS3. Its 1080p 60fps graphics and included downloadable content benefit new gamers who haven't played it the most.

Even better, it benefits Naughty Dog as the team develops Uncharted 4: A Thief's End with a little PS4 experience under its belt.

• Read our PS4 vs Xbox One comparison to see which is better

Sony's PlayStation Now service, which a select number of PS3 gamers have been enjoying for a short while, will be made available to all US and Canadian PS4 owners starting July 31 (psst, that's today).

But while it's going public, PS Now will still be in open beta for now as Sony tests the new cloud service.

For the uninitiated, PS Now allows players to stream games to their PS4 with around 100 PS3 titles to pick from, with more to be added regularly. The lack of PS4 backwards compatibility sparked a lot of frustration among gamers back when the console was announced, so this is one way of appeasing those disgruntled players.

In a new blog post, Sony confirmed we'll be also be getting cloud saves, tropies, and rental period that start at four hours ($3) and go through to 90 days ($15), all of which are renewable if you want to keep playing.

Now for some, later for others

PS Now senior director Jack Buser confirmed that Sony's also working on a subscription option (a la EA Access, which Sony doesn't think is good value for money).

"In addition, we've heard you loud and clear for an update on a PS Now subscription option and want to reassure you that we are working on it. We think PS Now represents the next step toward the future of gaming and we're excited to have the PlayStation Nation come along with us on the beginning of this journey."

Jack Buser confirmed in a comment that the service will "soon be coming to PS3, PS Vita, PlayStation TV and select 2014 Sony TVs".

As for the rest of us, we won't see PlayStation Now in our home territories for a while longer - the service is expected to hit the UK in the first quarter of 2015.

• Hands on: PlayStation Now review

One of the leading brands in the video gaming headset business is getting a jump on this week's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) by introducing new cans targeted at owners of Sony's latest console.

Turtle Beach (registration required) today announced a handful of new PS4 and PS3 headsets making their debut at this year's E3 convention in Los Angeles, including a pair powered by ear-shattering DTS Headphone:X 7.1 surround sound.

With a range of surround sound modes for games, movies or music, Elite 800 features active noise cancellation along with DTS for what the company calls an "immersive audio experience" that marks a first for console gaming headsets, part of a deal with Sony announced earlier this year.

Whether listening to music or taking phone calls, the $300 (UK£189, about AU$321) headset is capable of being controlled via Bluetooth by a mobile app for up to 15 hours of playing time on a single charge through a low-profile, magnetic charging stand.

The wait begins

DTS Headphone:X 7.1 surround sound also powers the Elite Tournament Audio Controller (pricing TBA), which allows Dolby AC3 decoding and complete control of an audio mix for PS4, PS3, Xbox 360 or PCs and Macs.

Turtle Beach is also launching the $100 (UK£63, about AU$107) Ear Force Stealth 400, a lightweight wireless stereo gaming headset, and the $60 (UK£40, about AU$64) Ear Force P12, an amplified headset that works directly with a single USB connection to PS4.

Gamers who purchase any Turtle Beach headsets will have the opportunity to enroll in the company's Elite Membership Program, which offers discounts, extended warranties and early access to the latest product information.

Aside from Ear Force P12 which launches globally on July 10, all of the manufacturer's E3 products will land in retail stores sometime during the second half of this year, at which point Turtle Beach Chief Executive Officer Juergen Stark promises "a whole new game for PlayStation console owners."

• Check out our full review of the PS4

Expectant Sony PS4 owners in the United States who registered for the PlayStation Now private beta could be enjoying

PS3

game streaming from tomorrow when the service goes live.

In a blog post, the gaming giant said customers who pre-registered to take part in the beta should be on the watch for voucher codes in their inboxes ahead of the Tuesday launch.

The PlayStation Now streaming service, which promises to bring access to previous generation games on multiple connected devices via the cloud, has been available on PS3 since the end of January.

The pending launch represents the first time PS4 owners will be able to play the previous generation's games on their new console.

No news on Euro launch

The platform is powered by Sony-owned Gaikai and will eventually bring game streaming to the PS3, PS4 and PS Vita, as well as Sony's PS Vita TV set-top box, Bravia televisions and Xperia smartphones.

The company is yet to announce plans for a European launch and is yet to confirm whether games will be available to stream a la carte or as part of a Netflix-style, all-you-can-eat subscription package.

Sony did confirm plans to extend the private beta to more PS3 owners, who've so far racked up 5,000 hours of game time on the platform.

• Read more about the PS4 in our review

Via Polygon