Gaming
A big update for the PS5 adds voice chat on Discord, VRR at 1440p, and a lot more
Sony just put out the latest update for the PS5 system software. If you keep track of the version number, the current one is 23.01-07.00.00. What, though, does this 1.1GB update do? As it turns out, quite a lot. This is the official release of the firmware that has been in beta for a while. It adds support for Discord and makes a lot of other improvements.
As was already said, the most important thing here is the integration of Discord. Once you’ve linked your PSN and Discord accounts, you’ll be able to start a voice chat on Discord and join it on your PS5, which is a convenient way to talk to friends who don’t have a PS5.
People with a 1440p screen can now turn on VRR to smooth out any choppy parts of the image. Game hubs now show the amount of time spent playing, the percentage of overall progress, and a “Friends Who Play” tile that lets you see who has a game and who is currently online. We moved and changed the Trophy activity card to make it easier to use.
The screen reader feature, Game Base, and game library have also been updated. Oh, and the DualSense, DualSense Edge, and PSVR2 Sense controllers can all get software updates as well. Also, with this PS5 update, you will be able to update the software on your controllers wirelessly. In the US and UK, a preview adds commands that let you save video clips of gameplay to the Voice Command feature.
Check out the PS Blog for more information and to see the full list of changes. Do you want to know what the latest PS5 firmware has to offer? Tell us in the comments section below.
What’s new in this update to the system software
- 1440p video output has been expanded on PS5.
- VRR (variable refresh rate) is now supported for 1440p resolution.
- More modes and HDMI devices are now supported. To check if your HDMI device supports this, go to Settings > Screen and Video > Video Output > Test 1440p Output.
- You can now transfer data between PS5 consoles.
- Easily transfer all of your PS5 data to another PS5. This process doesn’t remove or modify your data on your original PS5.
- You can now join Discord voice chats on your PS5.
- Link your Discord account to your account for PlayStation Network. Use the Discord app on your mobile device or computer to get a Discord voice chat going on PS5. You can also let your Discord friends see when you’re online and what you’re playing.
- Voice Command now supports using your voice to save video clips of your gameplay.
- Say “Hey PlayStation, capture that!” to save a video clip of your recent gameplay. The default duration saved is based on your settings.
- You can also save a specific duration of your gameplay, from 15 seconds to 60 minutes. For example, to save 5 minutes, say “Hey PlayStation, capture the last 5 minutes”.
- Say “Hey PlayStation, start recording” to manually start a new gameplay recording. You can then say “Hey PlayStation, stop recording” to end the recording and save the video clip.
- Currently, Voice Command (Preview) is only available in English for players with accounts for PlayStation Network in the US and UK.
Other new additions
- The following improvements have been made to the screen reader feature:
- The screen reader now gives more detailed guidance when navigating the console. It will now tell you which direction you can move from the currently selected component, as well as your current position in a component with multiple items.
- When using the screen reader in the web browser, you’ll now see borders around the section that’s being read aloud.
- The screen reader was updated to correctly read aloud certain key terms.
- The following features have been added to game hubs:
- Every game will have a timer on the game hub tracking total time played.
- Game progress will also be displayed for games that have a minimum number of story activities.
- A Friends Who Play tile has been added.
- You can see which of your friends own the game and who is currently online.
- By selecting the tile, you can see what your friends are doing, and you can also access your friends’ profile where you’ll be given more interaction options.
- The trophy tile has been moved and updated so it’s easier to access and displays your trophy progress.
- Competitive multiplayer cards can be displayed full screen. By selecting Start Activity, you’ll be taken straight to that match. The prominent placement and size of the card makes it an easy option for multiplayer.
- The following update has been made to the cross play feature:
- In game session cards of cross play games, you can now see the members who are playing on other platforms.
- The following features have been added to Game Base:
- You can now send a Share Screen request or start sharing your screen with a friend, directly from their profile.
- Select the Share Screen icon on your friend’s profile.
- You can also send a Share Screen request to your friend from PlayStation App.
- On the voice chat card, a joinable icon will be displayed for party members playing a game you can join. You can join the game directly by selecting the player and then selecting Join Game from the menu.
- Friends that are active on PlayStation App will now show up as online on your friends list.
- You can now send a Share Screen request or start sharing your screen with a friend, directly from their profile.
- We made the following improvement in game library:
- You can decide the default sort order for games within gamelists.
- Use filters in your library to easily find PS VR- and PS VR2-compatible games.
- The following settings have been added to game presets:
- You can set your preferences to manage who can join and who can invite other players to multiplayer sessions you’ve created for supported games. Go to Settings > Saved Data and Game/App Settings > Game Presets > Online Multiplayer Sessions, and select your preferences in Who Can Join and Who Can Invite.
- When downloading or installing a game, the way your saved data is checked has been changed.
- If it’s a PS4 game and you have no saved data in console storage, you’ll now be notified if PS4 saved data is available in cloud storage.
- If it’s a PS5 game that can use PS4 saved data, and you have no saved data in console storage, you’ll now be notified if PS4 saved data is available in cloud storage.
- To download your saved data from cloud storage, press the PS button to expand the notification and then select Download PS4 Saved Data.
- You can now select which Media Gallery files to manually upload to Captures on PlayStation App. Existing content policies still apply.
- The following changes have been made to the on-screen keyboard:
- When you start entering characters, suggestions appear at the top of the on-screen keyboard. If you press the R1 button, instead of entering the first suggestion, you’ll now just select it. To enter the selected suggestion, press the X button.
- If you see learned suggestions that you want the console to forget, you can delete them from the options menu.
- (Only for Japanese keyboard) The suggestions that appear while entering characters are now shown in both half-width and full-width characters.
- Unicode 15.0 emoji can now be displayed.
- The time required for performing integrity checks on downloaded data has been greatly reduced. This process is done while the Copying… label is displayed on the downloaded item in the Downloads/Uploads control in the control centre.
- The way installed games are started has been changed.
- If your PS5 has the download version of a game that you haven’t purchased (such as those that other users on your PS5 have purchased), and if you have the disc version, you can now play the installed download version by inserting the disc (without installing the disc version).
- Similarly, if you’ve installed a game using the disc, and you’ve purchased the download version of the game, you can now play the installed disc version of the game without inserting the disc.
- The hint system has been expanded to display a list of objectives if the game provides them. Select any objective to see a more detailed video or text hint.
- You can now view and manage your authorised apps in Settings.
- Authorised apps are third-party apps and services that you’ve linked your account for PlayStation Network to. When using an authorised app, you give permission to share your account data with that app.
- To view and manage your authorised apps, go to Settings > Users and Accounts > Authorised Apps.
- We’ve updated the device software for DualSense wireless controller, DualSense Edge wireless controller and PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers.
- The update will improve stability.
- You can now update the DualSense wireless controller device software with a wireless connection.
- If you have trouble updating the device software wirelessly, connect your controller to your PS5 using the USB cable to update it. You’ll be able to update wirelessly for the next update.
- DualSense Edge wireless controller and PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers already support wireless updates for the device software. This update isn’t required for performing wireless updates for these controllers.
- The following issues or problems have been resolved:
- An error dialogue message that gave misleading information referring to parental control restrictions when using the web browser was fixed.
- An update was made to address an issue causing some IPS LCD monitors to flicker when VRR (variable refresh rate) is turned on. This update may help solve this issue on these monitors.
Gaming
Ubisoft says that future Assassin’s Creed games will need more time to be made
As Assassin’s Creed Shadows is about to sneak up on people in November, Ubisoft says that the time between developing games needs to be longer to find the “right balance.” Shadows has been in development for four years, longer than any other game in the series up to this point. That includes the huge open-world epics Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
Shadows lead producer Karl Onnée (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz) says that the latest AC game took 25% longer to make than Valhalla. He says this is necessary to keep the quality of the series that it is known for: “It’s always a balance between time and costs, but the more time you have, the more you can iterate.” You can speed up a project by adding more people to it, but that doesn’t give you more time to make changes.
Onnée says this has as much to do with immersion and aesthetics as it does with fixing bugs and smoothing out pixels. This is because the development team needs time to learn about each new historical setting: “We are trying to make a game that is as real as possible.” We’re proud of it, and the process took a long time. In feudal Japan, building a house is very different from building a house in France or England in the Middle Ages. As an artist, you need to learn where to put things in a feudal Japanese home. For example, food might not belong there. Get all the information you need and learn it. That process takes a long time.”
You’ll have to wait a little longer for Ubisoft to work on each game. Are you okay with that? In what part of Shadows are you now? Is it interesting to you? Leave a comment below and let us know.
Gaming
You can now pre-order Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP on PS5
You can now pre-order Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP, a remaster that Dragami Games and Capcom both created. You can now pre-order the PS5 game on the PS Store for $44.99 or £39.99. If you have PS Plus, you can get an extra 10% off the price.
The company put out a new trailer with about three minutes of gameplay to mark the start of the pre-order period. Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP is a remaster of Grasshopper Manufacture’s crazy action game from 2012. You play as Juliet, a high school student who fights off waves of zombies.
The remaster adds RePOP mode, an alternative mode that swaps out the blood and gore for fun visual effects. It also adds a bunch of other features and improvements that make the game better overall. You can expect the graphics and sound to be better as well.
The game will now come out on September 12, 2024, instead of September 12, 2024. Are you excited to get back to this? Please cheer us on in the section below.
Gaming
This Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 zombies trailer is way too expensive
Is there really anyone who is following the story of Call of Duty’s zombie mode? We’ve known about the story in a vague way for a while, but we couldn’t tell you anything about it. It looks like the “Dark Aether” story will continue in Black Ops 6, but we don’t really know what that means.
For those of you who care, here is the official blurb with some background: “Requiem, led by the CIA, finally closed the last-dimensional portal, sending its inhabitants back to the nightmare world known as the Dark Aether, after two years of fighting zombie outbreaks around the world during the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War timeline.”
Wait, there’s more! “Agent Samantha Maxis gave her life to seal this weird dimension from the inside out.” Even worse things were to come: senior staff members of Requiem were arrested without a reason by the Project Director, who turned out to be Edward Richtofen.
Black Ops 6 will take place about five years later, and it looks like it will show more about Richtofen’s goals and motivations. The most important thing is that you will probably be shooting an unimaginable number of zombies in the head. This week, on August 8, there will be a full reveal of the gameplay, so keep an eye out for that.
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