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Ghost of Yotei's latest update — patch 1.1 — has resulted in some pretty significant performance boosts. Analysed by our friends over at Digital Foundry, the update's introduction of VRR support is a win for all players, but it's an especially big deal on PS5 Pro. Just to recap, version 1.1 was headlined by the addition of New Game+ when it launched last week, but developer Sucker Punch also snuck in some juicy new graphical settings. A new 'Balanced' mode targets 40 frames-per-second, but really, it's the ability to uncap the game's frame rate that yields the most impressive results. The aforementioned Balanced mode, with ray tracing, manages to hover between its intended 40fps and a smooth 60fps on PS5 Pro, with the uncap toggle enabled. But even more impressive, the title's already excellent RT Pro mode jumps from 60fps to anywhere between 70 and 90fps, giving Atsu's adventure a seriously silky feel. Digital Foundry describes the jump as "incredible", given how well the open worlder performed to begin with. Meanwhile, if you decide to switch ray tracing off and just dive into the standard Performance, Balanced, and Quality modes with the frame rate uncapped, you'll be treated to a roughly 33% fps increase across the board. Oh, and on the base PS5, it's worth mentioning that Balanced can give you a very similar boost to what's available on PS5 Pro — as long as you're playing on a VRR-compatible 120Hz display. Uncapped, the frame rate can hit 60fps. Have you given Ghost of Yotei a shot since Update 1.1? Behold those beautiful frames in the comments section below.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is looking like the weakest-performing game in the series in quite some time, and new data from the European market sees that story continue. As reported by Chris Dring on The Game Business, citing digital and physical sales data from GSD, Black Ops 7 has been replaced at the top of the chart by EA Sports FC 26. This means a decline in sales for the first-person shooter, though it should be noted that this is fairly typical for the games market. Flanking it is Battlefield 6, which moves up a position from fourth to third, indicating an upward trend in sales. While raw numbers for the sales of Black Ops 7 have yet to be disclosed, this is just one more indication that things aren't going completely to plan for Activision's big FPS. Elsewhere on the chart, the top 10 sees It Takes Two return at number seven, and Red Dead Redemption 2 moves up to fifth, just above GTA 5. In terms of revenue rather than unit sales, EA Sports FC 26 is top dog there as well, while Sony games Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Ghost of Yotei show up in eighth and ninth respectively. European Top 10 Unit Sales (Week Ending 23rd November)EA Sports FC 26 (EA) Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 (Activision) Battlefield 6 (EA) Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros) Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar) Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar) It Takes Two (EA) Anno 117: Pax Romana (Ubisoft) NBA 2K26 (2K Games) Pokémon Legends: Z-A (Nintendo)* European Top Ten Revenue (Week Ending 23rd November)EA Sports FC 26 (EA) Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 (Activision) Battlefield 6 (EA) Anno 117: Pax Romana (Ubisoft) Pokémon Legends: Z-A (Nintendo)* NBA 2K26 (2K Games) F1 25 (EA) Spider-Man 2 (Sony) Ghost of Yotei (Sony) Kirby Air Riders (Nintendo)* *Digital sales data not available

One of the games you probably glossed over in our "games coming to Xbox next week" roundup over the weekend was Sleep Awake, which is a psychedelic horror game that's being developed by a brand-new studio. That studio is called "Eyes Out", and it's led by Spec Ops: The Line director Cory Davis, as well as the Nine Inch Nails guitarist (!) Robin Finck. If you haven't played it, Spec Ops: The Line is a very interesting shooter from the Xbox 360 era. Sleep Awake is a totally different genre to that game, of course, taking the form of an "immersive first-person psychedelic horror narrative experience that explores the realm between sleep and death". It looks suitably creepy and packed with puzzles, and the few previews that we've seen ahead of launch have seemed positive. Here's an example from PC Gamer: This sounds like one to keep an eye on, then! If you're interested, Sleep Awake releases on Tuesday, December 2nd for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, but it doesn't look like pre-orders will be live on the Xbox Store ahead of time. We'll throw some more details about the game along with screenshots below.

The Yakuza / Like A Dragon series has been one of the biggest surprises of the Switch 2 generation, with three games — 0, Kiwami 1, and Kiwami 2 — available on the platform already. In February next year, it'll be joined by the brand new Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties which is much more than a remake of Yakuza 3, says RGG Studio director Yokoyama Masayoshi. In an interview with GameWatch (translated by Automaton), Masayoshi-san has said that this remake "contains some major hints about the future direction of the series." "We haven't officially announce anything related to that yet," Masayoshi continues "But once you play it, I think you’ll get an idea, or rather, a pretty solid sense of what we intend to do with the series going forward.” Well, considering there are five more mainline games (not including spin-offs such as Judgment or Gaiden) set after Yakuza 3, that's a little surprising! Dark Ties is the major new content, but other changes may well be coming — Image: SEGA None of those are on Switch consoles either, and with Yakuza: Like A Dragon and Infinite Wealth both starring a different protagonist (though Kiryu does pop up, because of course he does), it certainly leaves us with some questions. Masayoshi also insists that the new story starring Yoshitaka Mine, Dark Ties, is "extremely shocking", stating that it's one of the "darkest" stories in the series' history: "if you think Yakuza Kiwami 3 is just a remake, you’d be hugely mistaken." Well, even without that little hint, it certainly sounds like a lot more than a rehash of the original PS3 release.

Between the brilliant TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind, retro beat-‘em-ups are enjoying a bit of renaissance. Marvel Cosmic Invasion is perhaps the highest profile effort yet, a sublimely presented four-player pixel art tribute to the arcade glory years, when smoky pool halls were ruled by the likes of Capcom’s The Punisher and, perhaps more pertinently here, Konami’s X-Men. In that sense, this outing harbors few surprises: you select from a roster of 15 superheroes and punch your way through 15 stages, each inspired by locations from across the larger Marvel Universe. Your ultimate objective? To take down insectoid Annihilus and his Cosmic Control Rod, in a plot that’s partly based on the Annihilation Wave storyline from the comic books. While the gameplay remains fairly familiar for the genre, its biggest twist is how it requires each player to select two superheroes, adding tag mechanics to the traditional button mashing mix. You can toggle freely between your characters at any time, or trigger team-ups which allow you to really lay the smackdown on your foes. This means, in a full four-player setup, there can be as many as eight superheroes on the screen. To support this, dev Tribute Games has prepared a fairly stacked launch day roster, which blends familiar faces like Spider-Man and Wolverine with lesser-known additions like Beta-Ray Bill and Cosmic Ghost Rider. While all of the characters ultimately have access to the same basic set of abilities, they handle pretty differently. She-Hulk is slower and more powerful than some of her peers, for example, while Storm and Silver Surfer have more potent aerial abilities. Each character has his or her own special moves, like Black Panther who can lob Vibranium spears at his opponents or Rocket Raccoon who wields an arsenal of explosives. You also build up Focus through landing attacks, which allows you to trigger a screen-clearing super move. Again, each of these is unique, like Captain America throwing his shield in a 360-degree circle or Phoenix filling the screen with flames. The animation work on some of the characters is exceptional, with Venom’s symbiote transformations particularly standing out, occasionally revealing a glimpse of conduit Eddie Brock behind his suit. And many of the levels are filled with Easter Eggs, whether it’s New York City and its various references to the Daily Bugle or the Savage Land with its pre-historic backdrops. We don’t want to spoil too much, but this is a whistle-stop tour through the Marvel universe, and there are some brilliant cameos which even the most casual of fans will appreciate. While the game is perfectly enjoyable in single player, it is built around online and local multiplayer first and foremost. Fortunately, in all formats it’s a drop-in/drop-out experience, so your friends and family can dip in and out as they please. Playing in a pre-release environment we haven’t been able to test out the online just yet, but we did spend time in local co-op and found the action more intense and over-the-top in this format. There are definite difficulty spikes in single player which you should be aware of, and while they’re not insurmountable, the whole game becomes much more manageable when you’ve got two or three partners by your side. We should also mention that you will also level up your superheroes the more you use them in the main campaign mode, and this adds additional HP and various other abilities and passives to their arsenal. In some instances, we found we were being punished for experimenting with new characters we hadn’t levelled up, but the game absolutely encourages replayability and its difficulty isn’t so high that you can’t beat levels with superheroes you’ve never tried before. Our biggest criticism of the game is how depth perception – a common issue for side-scrolling brawlers – is made more difficult by the increased emphasis on enemies who can fly here. Without referring to shadows – which can be difficult to pay attention to given the chaotic nature of what’s happening on the screen – we often found we would whiff on aerial attacks because we were either too shallow or deep into the stage. It’s not a major issue, but it can become frustrating when you air ball an enemy you thought you were perfectly lined up alongside, and it happened to us a lot across almost all of the game’s stages. Still, it’ll take you roughly three hours to beat the campaign on your first playthrough, but you are encouraged to replay all of the levels to fulfil challenge requirements which encourage you to use specific characters or play in a particular way. Once you’ve done this, you can invest any resources you’ve earned into the NAME HERE to unlock various character bios, color palette swaps, and even arcade modifiers. And yes, the latter pertains to a more traditional arcade mode, which actually condenses the runtime and sees you selecting between stages at key moments on your path towards the final face off with Annihilus. ConclusionMarvel Cosmic Invasion does little to surprise, but it executes excellently on its retro beat-‘em-up ambitions. Depth perception can be a problem, but we like how the tag-team format gives the game a bit more of a chaotic feel, especially during local and online co-op sessions. And we also appreciate how each superhero handles slightly differently, adding a lot of replay value to a brawler that already has a relatively robust content offering.

Yakuza Kiwami 3 will apparently feature "major hints" about where the Like a Dragon series is heading, despite being a PS5 and PS4 remake of a PS3 title. This is according to RGG Studio director Masayoshi Yokoyama, who isn't a stranger to saying stuff that'll make Yakuza fans sit up and take notice. "It contains some major hints about the future direction of the series," Yokoyama told GameWatch (as translated by Automaton). He continues: "We haven’t officially announced anything related to that yet. But once you play it, I think you’ll get an idea, or rather, a pretty solid sense of what we intend to do with the series going forward." Honestly, it's one hell of a quote, and it immediately makes us wonder if there's much more to Yakuza Kiwami 3 than meets the eye. Indeed, Yokoyama almost seems to double down on just how important Kiwami 3 is to the franchise, stating: "If you think Yakuza Kiwami 3 is just a remake, you’d be hugely mistaken." Now, again, Yokoyama has a bit of a history when it comes to hyping things up — it is part of his job as both a director and an executive producer, after all — but we don't think he'd be going this hard if there wasn't something more to Kiwami 3. We also need to remember that the remake bundles in a whole new expansion-like story called Dark Ties, where you play as Yakuza 3 antagonist Yoshitaka Mine. Yokoyama could, to some extent, be referring to Dark Ties' inclusion. So, could Kiwami 3 have new plot bits and pieces that tie into future games? Or maybe Yokoyama's on about gameplay-related mechanics and systems? It's impossible to say at this point, but the man clearly knows how to stir up interest. Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties is still set to release on the 12th February, but will you be booking a trip to Okinawa? Wear your best holiday shirt in the comments section below.

Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red might be teasing something for the game's imminent fifth anniversary. We've written about this before, but it wouldn't surprise us in the least if the company has plans. After all, third-party developer Virtuos is — as far as we know — still working on updates for the open world title, having helped create Patch 2.3 earlier in the year. Some fans have theorised that the team's been working on another big update ever since, and the game's fifth anniversary would obviously be the perfect time to release it. Anyway, this rumour's been reignited thanks to a new post from the official Cyberpunk 2077 account on social media. For a while now, the account has been pointing out character birthdays — but with its latest post, it actually highlights the aforementioned anniversary, which takes place next week, on the 10th December. Again, it's not hard to imagine CDPR having something up its sleeve for the occasion — and the company's always enjoyed posting cryptic teasers online. Do you have any hopes and dreams for Cyberpunk 2077's fifth anniversary? Try to forget that original PS4 release in the comments section below.

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, Sony's superhero fighting game, comes out sometime in 2026, but fans will be able to give it a try very soon with the second closed beta test. The closed beta will give you a chance to play the Arc System Works tag-team fighting game, but what are all the details? In this guide, we'll be going through everything you need to know, including start and end times, how to join, and plenty more. What Time Does the Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Beta Start? The Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls closed beta test takes place over the course of three days, and users will be able to play continuously over that time. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls' closed beta begins on Friday 5th December, and concludes on Sunday 7th December. The closed beta period starts at the following times: North America: 12am PST / 1am MST / 2am CST / 3am EST UK/Ire: 8am GMT Europe: 9am CET / 10am EET Asia/Oceania: 5pm JST / 4pm AWST / 7pm AEDT Your Local Time: 1am, Fri 5th Dec 2025 Mountain Standard Time The closed beta period ends at the following times: North America: 11:59pm (Sun) PST / 12:59am MST / 1:59am CST / 2:59am EST UK/Ire: 7:59am GMT Europe: 8:59am CET / 9:59am EET Asia/Oceania: 4:59pm JST / 3:59pm AWST / 6:59pm AEDT Your Local Time: 12:59am, Mon 8th Dec 2025 Mountain Standard Time How Do You Join the Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Beta?In order to get into the Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls closed beta, you need to have signed up to the PlayStation Beta Program, accessible through the link. Once you have registered, you may be invited to take part in beta tests, including Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls. Beta invites are being sent out in waves, but there's still a chance you may receive yours between now and the beta's start time, so keep checking your inbox for an invitation and further instructions. On What Platforms Is the Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Beta Playable?The Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls closed beta is available to play exclusively on PS5. What's Included in the Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Beta?The Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls closed beta features several playable characters to take into online and offline matches. CharactersThe following characters are available to play: Captain America Doctor Doom Ghost Rider Ms. Marvel Iron Man Spider-Man Starlord Storm StagesThere are three stages available in the beta: Marvel's New York Savage Land X-Mansion ModesHere's what you can get up to in the Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls closed beta: Online matches — available for the entire duration of the closed beta Offline matches vs. CPU — available from 5th-6th December Spectator mode Training tutorials Do You Need PS Plus to Play the Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Beta?No, you do not need a PS Plus membership in order to play the Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls closed beta test. However, you will need an active PSN account and internet connection to play.

The new version of Red Dead Redemption for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S will be with us on Tuesday, December 2nd, and it's already Tuesday in some countries right now, hence why we've got some early footage! It always seems to be Fuzion Xbox Testing on YouTube that gets to this kind of stuff earlier than anyone else, and they've already provided us with detailed early looks at both the Xbox Series X and Series S versions of RDR 1. On Xbox Series X, we can see that Red Dead Redemption is running at a resolution of 4K and delivers some nice visuals despite looking dated in some ways, while the frame rate seems to be a locked 60FPS. Ah, finally! It's very much the same story on Xbox Series S, with the game running at a native resolution of 1440p this time with visuals that are slightly downgraded but still perfectly fine as a result. Again, we seem to be looking at a locked 60FPS. For what it's worth, here's a look at a cutscene shot from the Xbox Series X version as well: It's no surprise that Red Dead Redemption is running well on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, but it's still a relief to see all the same - and now we can look forward to playing it for the rest of the week! Don't forget that the new version is free if you own the Xbox 360 release digitally, otherwise it has a 50% discount on the Xbox Store or you can grab it as part of the GTA+ membership. We'll leave you with Fuzion Xbox Testing's two videos of RDR1 down below:

Marvel Cosmic Invasion is kicking off December on Xbox Game Pass in a big way - and the new Marvel brawler is out now, which means early reviews are starting to trickle in for the newly-released Xbox title. So, we're going to gather up some of those early reviews down below for you take a look at. Spoiler alert; Marvel Cosmic Invasion sounds like it'll be a lot of fun on Xbox Game Pass! Console Creatures (9/10) TechRaptor (8.5/10) Nintendo Life (8/10) Push Square (8/10) GamesRadar (4/5) PlayStation Universe (7.5/10) At the time of writing, Marvel Cosmic Invasion has a score of 78 on Metacritic and a rating of 82 on OpenCritic; pretty good going for this one so far, then. The new Marvel beat-'em-up is now live on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, with two other titles arriving later this week!

Rockstar's new current-gen upgrade for Red Dead Redemption is starting to roll out in certain regions, and with the game now live in some parts of the world, we're seeing that this new version has a 50% launch discount on Xbox Series X|S. Available for seemingly the first two weeks after release, Red Dead Redemption has a half price offer right now. Here's how that's looking on the New Zealand store at the moment, with the upgrade expected to go live in other regions over the next few hours: Of course, we must note that existing owners of the Xbox 360 backwards compatible version will get this new upgrade for free anyway, so if you have that old version tied to your account, you'll be good to go when the upgrade launches in your region. This free version is only applicable to digital purchases though - physical owners won't be able to upgrade for free. So, if you have a disc version of Red Dead Redemption or are simply picking this one up on Xbox for the very first time, you can grab the game's current-gen upgrade at 50% off for the first two weeks of release (until roughly December 14th).

It’s been over three years since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge was released, and Tribute Games has been really busy. Stuffed like a return-trip suitcase, Marvel Cosmic Invasion’s enormous cast of heroes and villains is here united in a rapturous beat-'em-up fanfare. Its pixel art positively simmers, with beautifully rendered backgrounds, giant set-pieces, and solid, impressively animated sprites. And, in addition to primary antagonist Annihilus, nemeses like Galactus, Hela, and Thanos make sufficiently heavy-duty appearances. What’s particularly endearing is that the production feels wholly comic book. Its story mode, fleshed out with superbly rendered cutscenes and spot-on voice acting, really honours the source material. From Wolverine’s growl to Spider-Man’s quips, Venom’s brusque manner to Nova’s heroic fortitude, the exchanges really capture the Marvel feel. The slightly squat sprite styling works well, too, and the soundtrack is on-point throughout. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked) Outside of palette swap options, there are no Marvel movie elements here, and the roster is interestingly formed, teaming up the likes of Captain America and Iron Man with lesser-knowns like Beta Ray Bill and Phyla-Vell. In total, there are a whopping 15 playable characters, several of whom are unlocked during playthroughs. Any modern scrolling beat 'em up worth its salt requires a creative and dynamic combat system, and Cosmic Invasion rises to the challenge with a dual-character tag-team setup. In Story Mode, you choose a fresh duo each time you begin a stage, selecting your destination of choice via a bullet-pointed map that runs along branching paths. Certain stages need to be beaten before you can progress, and finishing a stage will level up your team with increased power and health. Story Mode also comes with a set of optional Challenges. These include tasks like defeating a set number of enemies with a specific move or finishing a boss with a specific character. The challenge list shows which heroes properly align with a stage’s cutscenes and narrative. Characters that are narratively required for each level have glowing boxes around them on the select screen, too, although that could be signposted better. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked) Arcade Mode operates in true linear fashion: your initial character choices remain fixed for the entire game, there’s no levelling up, and you’re restricted to a limited number of stages across optional routes. For many, this will be the most enjoyable way to play. The cast’s fighting properties are amazingly varied, with differing speeds and weights, and enough unique attack forms to make each one feel interesting. Some can fly with a double-jump tap, patrolling the air, while others, like Rocket Raccoon, dominate from range with heavy artillery. Each wields a basic tap combo, a double-tap rush attack, and a dodge or block that, when timed right, enacts a parry. Every character can charge a unique breakout move, and the 'X' button lets loose their special attack. The 'R' button is reserved for big, flashy supers, requiring a “Focus” energy that recharges while battling. Tag-teaming works entirely around the left trigger. Tapping switches characters, who can swing in and break you out of holds. You can also combine attacks, whereby pressing the trigger mid-combo will have your partner appear alongside you, dealing out extra blows. Interestingly, you can combine the tag function with different buttons, creating different partner effects like aerial dives or rushing slashes. All tag battling eats into your Focus energy, a point to consider if you’re trying to build a team super: a devastating dual attack engaged with 'ZL' and 'R' that requires maximum Focus for both characters. Cosmic Invasion is flashy and superbly slick, and mining all the little details is quite the adventure. There’s not much included in the rather threadbare tutorial, so it’s down to you to experiment, discovering which grabs can be turned into throws with D-pad combinations, and which characters have functions that respond to simultaneous button presses. The fastest hack here is to hit pause and read through your character’s movelist. In a world post-Absolum, Cosmic Invasion doesn’t quite land in the same way Shredder’s Revenge did. While it does get furiously heated, its pace does feel a tad slow overall. What's surprising, though, are the numerous oversights in the visual feedback department. The map points on Story Mode, for example, don’t change colour when you clear a stage or complete its challenges, and post-toilet break it can take a moment to recognise which you just did. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked) Tribute Games clearly aren’t fans of prominent combo counters either, which is a shame as Cosmic Invasion seems to be crying out for one. Here, the combo counter is small, tame, and seated inconspicuously beside your health bar. As such, your building of blows isn’t as rewarding, and, being a comic-book-themed game, classic onomatopoeia or “Dazzling!”, “Amazing!”, or “Super!” would have been the perfect way to celebrate combo milestones. The feedback element that really needs bolstering, though, surrounds the tag mechanic. With so many different usage combinations, some additional visual, aural, or haptic cues to delineate each state would have been helpful amidst the game’s flurrying pyrotechnics. For example, a short pad vibration upon engagement, and perhaps character colour flashes could give some idea of how much Focus energy is being consumed. And, as the tag function can be combined with different buttons for different dual attack types, some kind of visual feedback to articulate each state wouldn’t have gone amiss. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked) It’s not the end of the world, but your tag mechanics tend to get drowned out in the fighting stew, lacking a sense of tactility. For your mammoth dual super attack, too, any kind of wind-up effect or chime would have been welcome, just to let you know you’re primed to go. Additionally, recovering the secret green cubes hidden on each stage is so perfunctory it’s like a fart in the wind. There’s no indication it even has value, no message screaming “Cube Recovered!” or the like. In fact, it’s quite possible to pick one up accidentally without realising it. These aren’t criminal offences, and they certainly don’t diminish the effort involved. But anyone who understands arcade games knows that good feedback aspects can really elevate the experience. As such, while impressively deep with its dodging, parrying, and potential for wild mix-ups and tag-team juggling, Cosmic Invasion's combat doesn't feel quite as satisfying as something like Streets of Rage 4, the recent Absolum, or even Shredder’s Revenge, which was a touch more honed in the battling department. The more overt problem with Cosmic Invasion, though, is its difficulty balancing. Credit-feeding arcade games robs them of their value, largely because of their routine nature, and a lack of challenge has a similar effect. For some reason, Cosmic Invasion’s default Medium difficulty setting is a total cakewalk. Bosses, whose attack patterns are often thoughtfully designed, go down to first-attempt spamming in all but the last few stages. Health items are scattered all over, and being able to tag characters, regularly deploy super attacks, and regenerate not only Focus but your health too, actually makes the campaign a tad mundane. It’s much like the Marvel movies themselves in this respect: when there are no stakes, you start to switch off. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked) Now, there is a Hard Mode, but it isn’t available from the outset. Instead, you need to earn cubes to be spent on a hexagonal grid, unlocking additional character palettes and other in-game adjustments. For your information, you want to go right to the top middle of the hexagon and unlock that Hard Mode option, because frankly, it’s transformative. Playing Arcade Mode on Hard Difficulty suddenly makes Cosmic Invasion both reasonably challenging and, with it, far more interesting, requiring thought and skill over mindless button mashing. All aspects of your moveset take on genuine importance, with different enemies and situations demanding experimentation — and the dodge and parry become crucial. While, in my opinion, the default difficulty should have been set somewhere between Medium and Hard Mode — and that means Tribute Games didn’t quite get either quite right — Hard Mode is still the place to go lest things get boring. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked) Now, if you’re primarily here for the multiplayer aspect, all this challenge criticism goes out the window. With friends, it’s just a blast, even if the four-player is a little too chaotic, all things told. In terms of delivering campy Marvel magic, however, in which iconic superheroes smash iconic supervillains, Cosmic Invasion comes through with flying colours. ConclusionPure cartoon fun, and all the better for it, Tribute Games has not only totally honoured the source material, but delivered one of the best arcade Marvel games ever made. The aesthetic is beautiful, and the effort involved in creating such a varied cast of beat-'em-up protagonists is admirable. Yes, there are areas for improvement, and some of its combat-feedback oversights feel like missed opportunities. But if you primarily want multiplayer action, to unlock and grind and level up your cast, and to get knee-deep in Marvel mayhem, it’s right on the money. If you’re working through its single-player Story campaign, you’re likely to get bored before the end owing to its ease, but unlock Hard Difficulty and Cosmic Invasion becomes all it was destined to be.

We might have to wait a little while longer than expected until we can see Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition in its full glory on Switch 2, but the title is still popping up at games expos around the world, giving us plenty of opportunities to see it in action. The latest slice of hands-on time came from the Milan Games Week 2025, where 'Corey Da Flame' captured the over-the-shoulder footage found above (thanks, Nintenderos). It's the same opening section that we have seen played on Switch 2 a couple of times now, and off-screen recording is never the best way to get an idea of things from a performance perspective, but things seem... less tarnished than we were expecting. Okay, it's no PS5 build, but as far as talk of the Switch 2 version goes, it looks pretty darn fine. Our initial impressions of the game in handheld were rather rough, and while things certainly seemed to be a step in the right direction when getting our first look at the game in docked, the latest footage suggests that things are getting better still. Again, we won't know for sure until the full game comes our way at some point next year — and we don't only have over-the-shoulder footage to go off. At the time of writing, Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition is still hanging with a vague '2026' release window after FromSoftware decided to delay the port back in October.

Last Friday saw the broadcast of The Mario Kart World: Knockout Tour Streamer Showdown, sponsored by Nintendo and overseen by our friends at IGN Entertainment. Featuring 24 UK variety and gaming influencers, the event showcased Mario Kart World's Knockout Tour at its most chaotic. The selected streamers were split into six teams of four, and commemorative trophies were offered to the quartet that accumulated the most points throughout the competition. Clearly, much more than honour was at stake here. Hosted by IGN UK’s George Forsyth-Nash (aka Nash) and Outside Xtra’s Jane Douglas, The Mario Kart World: Knockout Tour Streamer Showdown also benefited from insights by Outside Xtra's Mike Channell and presenter Jules Hardy, both of whom were on hand to supply colour commentary and general Mario-related waffle. The final rankings — Image: IGN UK Some of the UK's biggest streamers took part, including TooBizyGaming, GetMadz, OwengeJuiceTV, KickThePj, InTheLittleWood, TheOrionSound and ReadySetBen. The event delivered a true masterclass in Mario Kart skills, but ultimately, it was the Orange Team (TheOrionSound, Solidarity, InTheLittleWood and Ravs) which emerged victorious, while the poor old Red Team came in last. Better luck next time, guys! If you caught the karting action and feel the need to demonstrate your own talents, then you can enter IGN UK's Streamer Showdown giveaway over on X, where a brand spanking new OLED TV is up for grabs. Entries close on 14th December, 2025, and are open to UK residents aged 18 and over (full T&Cs can be found here). If you want to revisit what happened, then head over to IGN UK's YouTube and Twitch channels – or you can watch the full stream below.