Separate Ways was always just a tacked-on bonus for the PS2 version of Resident Evil 4, a mode that gave that port something to call its own. It made its way to almost every rerelease after, but never stood out and, unlike the base game, was merely a one-off distraction. A disposable and forgettable extra campaign like this wouldn’t make a worthy expansion. This remake of Separate Ways is not at all a haphazard collection of recycled scenarios, but is instead a complete reimagining that addresses its past failures and now stands right alongside the base campaign. 

Separate Ways is able to escape the notion of being an unnecessary extra by having its own story with cutscenes and new areas. Ada’s journey overlaps with Leon’s in some ways — which is natural for a parallel plotline — but being able to run through slightly different stages gives Separate Ways its own identity. These new places also build out the world and show how Ada could keep an eye on Leon without him seeing. 

Capcom, more importantly, uses these original places to set up original encounters. Like the base game, there are very few straightforward battles; there’s almost always some sort of hook. One section may have players blasting bugs hiding under the water, while another has them shooting infected armor sets in a cramped room as errant crossbow shots pour in. 

Some are scary, a few are packed with action, and others find a happy medium, all of which demonstrate Resident Evil 4’s incredible variety. A few of them are even remixed sections from the 2005 game that didn’t make their way into the remake, once again showing Capcom’s ability to cleverly subvert expectations. Many of these callbacks fit more naturally here, too, and give Ada some of the climactic fights she lacked in the original Separate Ways.

Ada moves and shoots just as fluidly as Leon, but has one advantage over him: her grapple gun. This tool gives players the means to zoom over to a faraway enemy and fan kick them and their nearby buddies or zip to designated grappling points. The added utility makes Ada a little more agile, but doesn’t ratchet up the intensity too much or make Separate Ways too easy. Not every encounter is littered with grappling points, either, so it’s a novel mechanic that doesn’t get overused or skew the game’s delicate balance. 

Separate Ways is also able to have a more clean difficulty curve because it’s now possible to upgrade Ada’s arsenal. It’s seemingly a small touch, but it gives players reasons to explore and seek treasure and lets them grow in power alongside their foes. Resident Evil 4’s upgrade economy has always been one of its strengths, so its absence in the first Separate Ways contributed to its shallow nature. Combined with its own set of unlockables, Separate Ways is now a more complete experience that thoroughly understands that simply putting Ada in the same levels as Leon is not enough. Emulating Resident Evil 4’s success is much more complex, and the upgrade loop and suite of unlockables are vital pieces of that puzzle.

A more complete narrative presentation is yet another way this remade expansion excels over its source material. Whereas boring voiceover narration and jarring cuts attempted to stitch together a separate story out of existing content in the original, Separate Ways now has its own set of cutscenes that organically lead from one place to another. It’s a more cohesive tale that uses these additional scenes to further explore Ada’s relationship with Wesker and Luis. And even though Ada’s monotone voice acting still drags it down, her added personal stakes to the story give it more nuance and also efficiently set up its most tense boss fight that has multiple thrilling phases.

Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways DLC Review: Final Verdict

Separate Ways is no longer a superfluous extra because of all of these astute changes. With its focus on replayability, upgrades, and unique encounters, this expansion more deeply understands what makes Resident Evil 4 Resident Evil 4 and has all the unpredictability of the remake. But unlike the remake, Capcom couldn’t just maintain the essence of what was already there because the original Separate Ways was so underwhelming. Instead, it deftly rebuilt Ada’s side story and turned it into an integral part of the Resident Evil 4 remake.

Disclaimer: This Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways DLC review is based on a PS5 copy provided by the publisher. Played on version 1.100.000.

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Attempting to walk back controversial changes made to its fee structure, Unity clarified new runtime fees for titles using the popular game engine. The changes to the Unity Runtime Fee come on the heels of a new pricing structure that some developers claimed could force them out of business.

Unity announces changes to its controversial Runtime Fee policy for creators using the engine

As spotted by Wario64 on Twitter, Unity has issued a public statement on its blog outlining changes coming to the Unity Runtime Fee in response to the recent backlash.

The statement, written by Unity Create head Marc Whitten and posted on the official Unity blog, begins with an apology to the development community. Stating that it “should have spoken with more of you” and incorporated user feedback before implementing the new Runtime Fee, Whitten claims that the company wants to continue supporting creators who use the Unity engine in their titles.

Under the new terms, developers using Unity Personal will no longer be subjected to a Runtime Fee and will see the revenue and funding limits raised from $100,000 to $200,000. They will also no longer be required to use the “Made With Unity” splash screen on their titles and won’t be subject to fees unless their game earns over $1 million in trailing 12-month revenue. This is likely to come as welcome new to smaller developers, over a dozen of which led a protest against Unity last week by shutting off Unity Ads in their titles.

Users of Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise will also see changes to the Runtime Fee for their projects. Under the new rules, the Runtime Fee policy will only apply to projects made with the next LTS version of Unity, expected to arrive in 2024. Games that are already shipped or are still in development won’t be required to pay the new Runtime Fee unless they upgrade the title to a newer version of the engine.

Unity’s FAQ page for the new licensing rules also reveals that the company has abandoned changes that would have seen developers charged for each install of their game. Developers will now self-report their user numbers and can decide between paying a 2.5% revenue share to Unity or an amount “based on the number of new people engaging with your game each month.”

While these changes may not diffuse all of the anger directed towards Unity CEO John Riccitiello in recent weeks, they represent a significant improvement from the earlier Runtime Fee policy.     

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Just a day after launch, Payday 3 servers are down as player demand has caused them to crash on all platforms. Since yesterday’s launch on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, the game has been riddled with matchmaking issues that have seen many players left sitting in their safehouse.

The Payday 3 team is “working hard” to restore server functionality

Earlier this afternoon, developer PLAION reported another increase in matchmaking issues. A few minutes later, it became clear that all platforms were unable to matchmake and they were “working hard to restore functionality.”

Matchmaking issues began shortly after Payday 3 launched. After the developer deployed some fixes for the initial issues, the team declared the game open for business earlier this morning. Unfortunately, the issues have reared their ugly heads again. As Payday 3 doesn’t have an offline mode, it leaves everyone unable to rob banks and art galleries, although the most frustrated players are those who were able to start heists but have found themselves unable to escape as the servers disconnected, as demonstrated by Reddit user b1sakher.

The server issues have reopened the debate about online-only games. Despite also being a live service game, the game’s predecessor, Payday 2, had an offline mode that allowed players to take on the heists single-handedly and many players are calling for a return of that option. In fact, one PC player is already working on a mod that will add an offline mode for players on that platform, but there’s no ETA on its arrival and PS5 players will miss out, of course.

It’s too early to tell whether the matchmaking issues will be a short or long term problem, and even whether they will get in the way of the planned schedule of post-launch content. Starting later this year, there are four add-ons planned to be released through Fall 2024.

The post Payday 3 Servers Down Again After Rocky Launch appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

A new NHL 24 trailer is out, this time detailing some of the bigger changes coming to Hockey Ultimate Team, or HUT, the card-collecting game within the game.

What’s new in NHL 24’s HUT?

The latest NHL 24 trailer is another deep dive from developer EA Sports and details some of the biggest changes to the mode, including the inclusion of HUT Moments. Much like their name suggests, HUT Moments will allow players to play through some of the most historic moments in hockey. The mode replaces HUT Challenges, which was the previous mode in HUT.

Similar to HUT Challenges, HUT Moments will let players earn rewards for their team by playing through them. Alongside the new moments mode, EA Sports is also tweaking how players can track objectives thanks to the Objectives 2.0 system.

This new tracking system helps make it easier to know what objectives might need to be completed in a game or for any other progress, and will be displayed in game when progress is made.

Another big change to the game comes in its shared economy. Thanks to NHL 24 featuring cross-platform play, EA Sports has also decided to make HUT’s marketplace cross-platform as well. This means that players on any platform will have access to the same in-game marketplace for cards, which theoretically should make finding fairly priced players easier.

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Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 actor Yuri Lowenthal has had it with players complaining about Peter Parker’s (now-not-so) new face. The character was recast while remastering Spider-Man PS4, which ended up being quite an unpopular change.

Yuri Lowenthal on his performance as Peter Parker in Spider-Man 2

Speaking to ComicBook.com, Lowenthal said that the new visual didn’t impact his performance, and he personally wouldn’t have cared if his character looked like a “goblin” instead. While he understood why the change didn’t go down well with some fans, Lowenthal says it’s time to move on.

“The one positive thing I take away from this experience is that people connected emotionally so hard and so deeply in the first game that they’re mad when they feel that person changes,” Lowenthal said. “I can only be so mad about that because it worked, not the change thing, but you connected with the character which is great. Now, get over it!”

Lowenthal previously told ComingSoon.net that his character’s visual is just one piece of the puzzle. While seeing what his character looks like does somewhat influence how he performs, there’s a lot more to it than that. “So I think that visual part is an important part to creating the character, but it’s only one piece, and one piece that I sometimes don’t get,” Lowenthal said.

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Insomniac Games has shed some light on Marvel’s Spider-Man 2‘s fall damage feature, which was recently discovered at a hands-on preview event. We wondered why fall damage wasn’t mentioned in any of the recent previews until YouTube Caboose mentioned it, and it turns out the feature wasn’t turned on for anyone to notice.

Spider-Man 2’s fall damage is turned off by default

Senior Programming Director Doug Sheahan provided a statement to IGN confirming that fall damage has indeed been added to Spider-Man 2, but it’s an optional feature that’s turned off by default. That explains why Caboose only noticed it while he was messing around with the game’s various settings.

“Something we’re seeing more and more of is that players like to be able to customize their experience,” Sheahan told IGN. “For those players, we added the ability to enable fall damage (fall damage defaults to Off) and even let people tweak how swinging feels with our Swing Steering Assist setting. We hope players who enjoy a deep dive into the details have fun experimenting.”

Insomniac hasn’t explained how the Swing Steering Assist setting works, and Community Manager James Stevenson had a coy response when quizzed about it on Twitter.

The post Insomniac Explains Spider-Man 2 PS5’s Fall Damage Feature appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

From the publisher that brought us Kerbal Space Program comes Tales of the Shire, a “heart-warming” game set in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy world. The title is set to launch on PC and console sometime in 2024.

Described as “cozy”

Developed by TV, film, and game studio Wētā Workshop, and published by Private Division, not much is known about Tales of the Shire. A brief teaser trailer was released but doesn’t reveal anything beyond its rather snug aesthetic, as a woman is seen sketching in her notebook.

The game will be set in Middle-Earth as part of the Lord of the Rings universe, but there don’t appear to be any details about the story so far. A press release says it will be “fully revealed next year.”

All we really know at this stage is that a pleasant and rather restful “Hobbit life awaits.” You can follow the game on social media to stay up-to-date.

In terms of platforms, we don’t know that either. We know it’s coming to PC, but we can also expect it to be released on current-gen consoles, possibly even previous-gen. However, that’s just speculation on our part.

By far one of the most influential fantasy franchises of all time, The Lord of the Rings has been a dense source for video game adaptations. While the majority of titles typically focus on action and/or the original books/movies, Tales of the Shire sounds like it may be offering something a little different.

No doubt additional information will be inbound soon, so we’ll hopefully be able to reveal more as time goes on.

The post Cozy Lord of the Rings Game Tales of the Shire Coming 2024 appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Steamforged Games has announced Horizon Forbidden West: Seeds of Rebellion board game in collaboration with Guerrilla Games. The companies are working closely to craft an “official story” that’s set before Aloy’s arrival in the Forbidden West.

Horizon Forbidden West board game will land on Kickstarter in November

Steamforged plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to fund the project. The board game is designed for 1-4 players and promises a “fully cooperative, narrative-driven experience.”

Alongside a new narrative, Seeds of Rebellion will feature new machines, exploration, a new cooperative stealth system, and a bunch of new abilities. The board game will be backward compatible with Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game via a compatibility pack that will be free for returning Kickstarter backers. A synopsis reads:

In the distant lands of a far-future Earth, colossal machines rule and humans exist in pre-industrial tribes. Your adventure will take you to the majestic yet deadly Forbidden West, before Aloy’s arrival. Much of this frontier is the territory of the warlike Tenakth. Though the tribe is currently united under the great Chief Hekarro, a rebellion is fomenting in the dark corners of this mysterious place. This potential insurrection threatens the hard-won, fragile peace between the Tenakth’s three clans.

You and your fellow Marshals must uncover, investigate, and fight this threat before unnecessary blood is shed and the fate of the Clan Lands is changed for generations to come. Along the way, you’ll explore the vibrant world, earn powerful equipment, and undertake life-or-death quests, testing your skills against an ever-present menace: the deadly, ever-evolving machines.

Will you fall to the spear, the claw, or the toxic blight? Or will you rise against the odds together and unravel the untold mysteries of the Forbidden West?

Horizon Forbidden West: Seeds of Rebellion’s Kickstarter campaign will launch on November 21, 2023.

The post Horizon Forbidden West Board Game Announced, Features Official Story appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Nacon has announced a new Revolution 5 Pro controller for the PS5 and PS4. The officially licensed controller will launch in October with the same price tag as Sony’s own DualSense Edge.

Nacon Revolution 5 Pro PS5, PS4 controller details

Revolution 5 Pro features Hall Effect technology for precision gaming, with joysticks and triggers that promise “a very long service life.” In a press release, Nacon said that the controller has been designed to allow players to repair and replace key components with ease.

Revolution 5 Pro targets the competitive gaming market with extensive customization. Its battery life is up to 10 hours and it can connect to wireless headsets via Bluetooth as well as wired headsets via its 3.5mm jack. The controller will cost $199.90.

Key features include:

• Over 60 customization options
• 10 hours of autonomy
• Equipped with trigger blockers
• Wireless and wired
• Designed with premium materials

“The Revolution 5 Pro combines the best of our expertise, technological innovation and ergonomics,” said Yannick Allaert, Nacon’s head of accessories division. “I want to thank Sony Interactive Entertainment, our long-time partner, who has enabled us to develop this product in the best way possible.”

A specific release date for Nacon Revolution 5 Pro has yet to be announced.

The post Nacon Revolution 5 Pro Controller Announced for PS5, PS4 appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Xbox chief Phil Spencer told the court in a recent hearing that if Microsoft‘s gaming division doesn’t significantly grow beyond the console, it may end up exiting the games business altogether, leaving PlayStation with no rival. Spencer’s deposition was recently made public and sheds more light on Microsoft’s push into mobile and PC.

Microsoft-Activision deal goes beyond PlayStation vs. Xbox console wars

It’s no secret that Microsoft’s console business has been in the doldrums for a while. Even the Xbox Series X|S is currently behind Xbox One’s sales on a time-aligned basis. As a result, Microsoft has been pushing Xbox Game Pass on PC and console and has repeatedly said that it wants to make a splash in the mobile market.

Explaining an internal company chart about the future of Microsoft’s gaming business, Spencer told the court that he can “fairly safely say that if we do not make more progress than this off of console, we would exit the gaming business.”

Spencer added that if Microsoft doesn’t succeed in the mobile and PC gaming business, he would not advocate for the company to go back to a closed device like Xbox. “If we don’t gain a foothold on mobile, there’s really no future for us, in Microsoft investment in gaming,” Spencer reiterated.

Spencer also revealed that one of the first questions Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella asked him when they met was why the company was still in the gaming business after difficult years. Spencer is of the view that acquiring Activision Blizzard King will be the gaming division’s saving grace.

The post Microsoft Considering Leaving Games If It Doesn’t Significantly Grow Beyond Console appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.