New PlayStation 5 slim model revealed!
A new slimmer PS5, with a detachable disc drive that was leaked months ago.
Sony has finally revealed their first slim model. The new PlayStation 5 design is supposed to be over 30 percent smaller, and 18 to 24 percent lighter. If you wondered if console covers were dead, they are making new ones specifically for the newer model, which will be available starting sometime in early 2024. The starting cover colors will come in all-matte black, volcanic red, cobalt blue, and sterling silver. They will start at 54.99 US dollars.
The biggest new feature of this model is the detachable disc drive, that you can now buy for the new digital PS5 model. It comes in at an $80 price point, which would be great if they didn’t increase the price of the digital PS5 by 50 US dollars. It’s a very interesting decision by Sony, as it’s not worth it to buy the digital model and the disc drive over just buying the disc model. It’ll cost you 30 more dollars in the long run if you decide to buy a detachable disc drive later, so why would anyone not just fork over another 50 dollars to buy the disc model? The digital PS5 at 450 dollars is now competing against the Xbox Series S which regularly goes for under 300.
Ultimately it’s a great convenience that we can now easily replace our disc drive if it were to go bad, but it’s a shame they increased the price of the digital PlayStation 5. It has been nearly 3 years and we have yet to see a price drop for the PlayStation 5 console, instead, we see them raising it. The PlayStation 4 launched at 400 US dollars and saw a price cut 2 years later. It now costs nearly 700 dollars to buy a new console and a yearly subscription to game online. You have to ask yourself, why not build a PC?
Starfield update adds Field of View slider!
The latest update to Starfield is small but adds an FOV slider to all platforms.
The highlight of the new update is the additional field of view slider. Starfield is a shooter and most if not all shooters have an FOV slider, so it’s a welcome edition. Strangely this update is super small and not what I expected. They only fixed one quest issue, and sadly it’s not an issue that I’m currently facing.
I’ve run into a few oddities in Starfield since launch, including a side quest not being completable in New Atlantis. Luckily it’s not that important and just a side quest. There are also countless bugs I’ve run into in Akila City, one of them being a weird NPC bug that stops your companion from following you, another being a glitch where there was a side quest that took way longer than it should have due to the NPC not going where he was supposed to, and finally a super long save time bug that only happened to me in while I was in Akila.
Starfield 1.7.36 Update - Fixes and Improvements
General
- FOV: Sliders are now available in Settings that allow players using first person or third person to adjust their FOV.
Performance and Stability
- [PC ONLY] Improved stability for Intel Arc GPUs.
- Various additional stability and performance improvements.
Quest
- Echoes of the Past: Addressed an issue where tunneling creatures could pick a location that would prevent progression.
Alan Wake 2 getting free DLC sometime after launch
Remedy plans to release Alan Wake 2 DLC for free!
Good news for those looking to play Alan Wake 2, the director Sam Lake confirmed in an interview that the game will receive a “pretty significant” free DLC after launch to anyone who owns the game. He also said we would hear more about it after the launch. As a fan of the first Alan Wake game, I can’t wait to see how Alan Wake 2 holds up after waiting so long for a sequel, and I also can’t wait to hear more about this “pretty significant” free DLC. Not to mention the game already has two confirmed expansions set to release later under the titles: Night Springs Expansion and Lake House Expansion. Stay in the loop for when more details arrive!
Activision Blizzard officially joins Xbox
Microsoft has finally completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
In what can simply be described as a long and hard-fought battle, Microsoft has gained the approval from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority to finalize the largest video game acquisition in history for $69 billion. For those that don’t know, immediately after announcing their intent to acquire the Call of Duty publisher, various government agencies began protesting the merger with the UK arguing it would affect the future of cloud gaming. While many thought this argument was bizarre due to the current state of cloud gaming, Microsoft was forced to give up its cloud licensing rights for Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft for the next 10 years to gain the CMA’s approval.
After the acquisition was completed, the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, welcomed the Studios at Activision Blizzard to Team Xbox with recognition of how much they have impacted players across the globe. It was also revealed that beginning immediately, Activision Blizzard games will be available in the European Economic Area via cloud streaming to abide by the commitment that was made to the European Commission. One final piece of information Xbox revealed is that works started to bring Activision, Blizzard, and King games to Game Pass in the coming months.
While many PlayStation players might not see any positives from this merger, as someone who mostly plays on PC I can see several changes to look forward to. For one, since first-party digital purchases on Xbox carry over to PC, we could be looking at many of our older digital purchases gaining new life on PC. Of course, we’ve not heard any information in regards to Xbox’s plans but this one I’m looking forward to the possibility of. Another positive change is the potential for Xbox to resurrect older Activision franchises that have been left to rot due to the popularity of Call of Duty taking up most of Activision’s manpower. I would love for some more Tony Hawk remakes or even a new entry in the series!
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