What Works (And Doesn't Work) In Today's PS4 Firmware Update

If your PlayStation 4 looks a little different today, that’s because your machine probably updated overnight with firmware 3.00. While it’s a system update less sweeping than its version number implies, and the launch hasn’t been without hiccups and oversights, it comes with some pretty nifty new features.

Here are the full patch notes for firmware 3.0, by the way.

Cosmetically, not much has changed. This isn’t an overhaul that’ll have you reaching for your glasses. It still looks like the PS4 you booted up yesterday.

While it’s still early days, the newly added communities feature, found by heading over to the friends tab, is likely to change your PSN experience the most. Some games have clan features, but communities lets this happen on a grander scale. Having trouble finding Destiny partners for patrolling Mars? Want access to a larger pool of players without booking an enormous list of friends?

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The problem right now, unfortunately, is finding the right group. There’s no search functionality, which means discoverability is a pain in the ass. 

If you’re hoping to find a specific group, there are two (crappy) options:

• Scroll through the most popular groups and hope it’s listed there.
• Find a PSN account already in the group, look them up, and shuffle over.

It’s not a great experience, and it’s unclear when or if search is coming. When asked to comment, Sony only confirmed search was not part of the update.

The ability to post messages and announcements, however, should help connect players in a way that was previously relegated to email, Skype, Twitter, etc.

Making a community is super easy, too. It only takes a few minutes.

There were reports earlier of people having trouble making groups, though.

I had no such problem, which makes me think this was the result of everyone rushing to make groups the moment the firmware went live. It seems fine now.

While reading about how the firmware was going over with PlayStation owners, I stumbled into complaints about how Sony had apparently removed the ability to stream music off a USB stick. While Sony confirmed the UPS Player App has been discontinued, the functionality isn’t gone, forcing everyone into buying a Spotify subscription. Instead, playing music off USB has been moved over to the Media Player app, which after opening, you manage by tapping the PS button.

redditor frank26080115 even pointed out how to make it work, step-by-step:

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It’s easy to miss one of the subtler additions to the interface, too. By opening the PlayStation Plus icon in the upper left-hand corner, there’s now a section dedicated to laying out what’s happening on Sony’s paid service that monthand managing what you’ve downloaded from it over the past few years.

And given I’m going to spending more time online, thanks to Destiny getting rad, I’m psyched about some of the other social features that Sony’s worked into this update. Notably, I’m digging the ability to create friend groups, useful when you wanna chat with folks playing the games you’re regularly booting up. It’s nice enough to point out which conversations you’ve already had, if you’ve already been shoehorning this functionality into the PS4’s messaging service.

There are some weird growing pains with this update right now, too. If you load up the events hub, meant to provide players with an easy way to track community events in select multiplayer games, it takes a long ass time to load.

Does it look herky jerky? Well, that’s what it’s like on my PS4.

The updated Live on PlayStation app is also having difficulty categorizing which games are being streamed, too, resulting in games getting listed multiple times.

1 TB Fallout 4 Xbox One Bundle Announced

$400 system launches in November; also comes with free copy of Fallout 3.

Microsoft's final new Xbox One bundle announcement this week is themed a round Fallout. The company on Friday announced a package that comes with a 1 TB system and copies of Fallout 4and Fallout 3. The $400 system launches in November alongside Bethesda's post-apocalyptic role-playing game.

As announced previously, Fallout 3 will be playable on Xbox One by way of backwards compatibility.

This new Xbox One bundle is the sixth that Microsoft announced this week. Click through the links below to see the other five.

• Xbox One Lego Bundle
• Xbox One Rise of the Tomb Raider Bundle
• Xbox One Gears of War, Rare Replay, Ori and the Blind Forest Bundle
• White Xbox One Gears of War Bundle
• Xbox One Kinect Bundle

These six packages add to Microsoft's already-extensive lineup of bundles themed around popular games. Others currently available include those for Madden NFL 16, FIFA 16, Forza Motorsport 6, and Gears of War Ultimate Edition. In addition, Microsoft will release the Xbox One Elite Bundle in November, while a Halo 5: Guardians system will debut alongside the game later this month.

This bundle is just one part of Microsoft's partnership with Bethesda for Fallout 4. The game's PC mods will come first to Xbox One, before shipping later for PlayStation 4. Fallout 4 launches November 10 across Xbox One, PS4, and PC. For more, check out this deep dive video about how Bethesda created the game.

NEED FOR SPEED NO LIMITS OUT NOW

Need for Speed: No Limits, the first original Need for Speed game built exclusively for mobile devices, is available today via the App Store and Google Play. Developed by Melbourne, Australia-based Firemonkeys, the studio responsible for the Real Racing series, Need for Speed: No Limits is free to download.

EA explains the game will begin with 900 race events, 100 player levels, 38 race courses, 30 licensed vehicles, and over 10 game modes. It also features “hundreds of parts and body kits” from the likes of Rocket Bunny, 6666 Customs, and others. Like Firemonkeys’ Real Racing 3, the game will also reportedly grow over time.

Need for Speed: No Limits was released earlier this year in the Netherlands and Taiwan but is now available worldwide.

JUST CAUSE 3 MAP ONE OF THE BIGGEST EVER IN GAMING

The setting for Just Cause 3, the fictional island of Medici in the Mediterranean Sea, is over 400 square miles, according to the game's developer Avalanche Studios.

"I think we still have one of the biggest maps ever," said game director Roland Lesterlin. The island will be comprised of 3 major regions. Region 1 is described as a "medley of wealthy and poor towns" with agricultural areas. Region 2 is dotted with military bases and "very poor fishing towns."

Region 3 is a heavily forested, mountainous wilderness region. "It's sort of our Game of Thrones," art director Zach Schlappi said.

The environment for the game grew out of two factors. "We started off thinking about what the gameplay was, who Rico was," Lesterlin said. This led to what he calls a "very vertical" environment. The developers wanted a map that allowed for Rico to get "very quickly into the air," and the Mediterranean setting grew out of that desire for verticality.

Avalanche thought about which locations on Earth have 100 meter cliffs and crystal blue water. Medici is an amalgam of different Mediterranean locations.

As part of the marketing leading up to the release of Just Cause 3, Square Enix is giving away an island to whoever comes out on top of the game's leaderboard after the first 90 days following its release. While the island's location isn't known, if it follows the game's setting, a prize located in the Mediterranean seems possible, but at an estimated value of $50,000 USD, not very likely or nearly as large as Medici.

BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT PC VERSION RETURNS TO SALE IN LATE OCTOBER

Warner Bros. has announced its intention to return the troubled PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight to sale at the end of October.

A post on the game's Steam page also confirms all the additional downloadable content that's been released for the console versions of the game will also be available at that time should you wish to purchase it.

An interim patch for the game was released in September, designed to fix a host of issues plaguing the game. This update was originally meant to be available in August.

The game was pulled from sale on the platform shortly after widespread reports of performance problems and missing graphical features arose when the game launched last month. Developer Rocksteady Studios acknowledged the issues at the time and pledged that it's working with its development teams, Nvidia, and AMD to resolve them.

Preview: Rise of the Tomb Raider could be Lara's best

The 2013 revamp of Tomb Raider initially angered many fans of the original Ms Croft, despite the fact that the last few games in the series, were bad. They had struggled to find purpose, to define Lara as a character, to offer anything beyond more raiding of tombs and increasingly dry British sarcasm from the hero herself.

In the years since the original Tomb Raider(and, more importantly, Tomb Raider 2) on the PlayStation established Croft as a gaming icon, the series had been outdone at its own archaeological action adventure game by Naughty Dog's Uncharted. When it came time for that 2013 Tomb Raider, it was little surprise that developers Crystal Dynamics took some inspiration from the very series Lara's earlier incarnation had herself inspired.

Like Uncharted's Nathan Drake, modern Lara was -- and, in Rise of the Tomb Raider, continues to be -- a complex, more fully realised character. She's a realistic figure, physically and emotionally, not a cartoon. After her rebooted origin saw her trapped on the cursed island of Yamatai, growing from eager but naive archaeology student into a hardened survivor, Rise delves into what motivates her now.

The answer is truth. Lara is determined to reveal what took place on Yamatai to the world, but a cover-up orchestrated by a shadowy organisation known as Trinity has turned the gutter press against her, rubbishing both her claims and the research of her father before her. And, if Trinity has locked down the Yamatai incident, well, she'll just find another lost civilisation and reveal that to the world.

There's a newspaper we see in a flashback early on in Rise, headlined "ANOTHER CRAZY CROFT". It's just a brief glimpse in the background, but it perfectly defines this new Lara. She has something to prove, and no power on Earth will stop her. But it also reveals the harsher side of the life she's being drawn into, where that push for the truth alienates her friends in the comfortable world.

Rise of the Tomb Raider $30 Season Pass outed on Amazon

Another mystery pass

It seems as if every Season Pass these days is a mystery pass. That is to say -- you probably shouldn't buy it until you know what's in it.

Having said that, Rise of the Tomb Raider is the next game in a long line of AAA titles to get one, and it'll cost you $30. What's in it? Naturally, we have no idea. If I had to guess, it would be several single player campaigns, one of which is meaty and may last five hours, and the rest of it will be peppered with items and gear that will be useless after a few hours of play.

I feel like I'm in the ballpark here.

Xbox Live Experiencing Issues on Xbox One

Xbox Live Experiencing Issues on Xbox One [UPDATE: It's Fixed]

"Hey Xbox members, are you having issues signing in to Xbox Live? We are aware of this and are working hard to get it resolved ASAP!" reads an update posted on the Xbox Live status page at 1:23 PM PDT on October 1. "Thank you for being patient in the meantime. We'll post another update when more information becomes available."

The same sentiment is shared in a tweet from the Xbox Support account. Neither offers a timetable for when the service will be back online, but we'll keep an eye on the situation and report back with any new details.

What To Make Of Assassin's Creed Syndicate, One Month Out

Less than a month from release, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is likely to be judged as much on its own merits as on how well its publisher listened to fan discontent about the flagship series and what it’s been willing to change. Companion apps are out. Platform-exclusive DLC is back. The overall plan for the game and its various add-on components is nearly as complex as it has ever been and shows that Ubisoft is largely moving full steam ahead.

Syndicate will be out soon and is deep into its preview hype cycle. Several reporters and YouTubers recently got a look at two missions from the 19th century London-set game and have been posting written and video impressions. Fan sites, the AC subreddit and YouTube channels are filling up with possible Trophy/Achievement lists and speculation about whether the game will have a substantial section set in the modern day, a series staple all but dropped in Unity to mixed reaction.

The game will finally come out on October 23 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. The differentiating factors this year appear to be the setting, the GTA-style system for stealing and driving horse-drawn carriages, the swappable twin protagonists, Jacob and Evie, and the Batman-style rope-launcher that is used for grappling up buildings and tightroping between them. It played well at E3, but, really, they always do.It’s impossible to know in advance of release how good the game will be—or if it’s another clunker like Unity—but it is possible to at least look at how Ubisoft is setting it up and where the publisher’s priorities seem to be.The fact that Syndicate is even coming out this year is a signal that Ubisoft remains aggressive about the franchise, though the disappearance of two other planned Assassin’s Creed spin-off games suggests the company might be dialing back a tad. Some fans and critics—including some of us at Kotaku—have suggested that Ubisoft needs to give the AC series a year off, but that’s not happening this year. For any other series, Ubisoft’s 2015 plans forAssassin’s Creed including the release of at least two new games in the series would in fact seem like overdrive; these plans are restrained only in contrast to what has come before.

So far this year Ubisoft has released the AC Unity expansion Dead Kings in January and the sidescroller Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China in April. Both were unremarkable. The latter was supposed to have started a new 2D trilogy and be followed by games set in India and Russia. Both of those games have been slated for 2015 but we haven’t heard anything about either since June and neither has a release date. Presumably Ubisoft wants all AC fans’ eyes onSyndicate for now.

Dead Kings was released for free to all Unity players, as part of Ubisoft’s attempt to recover from an overly ambitious 2014. Ubisoft had begun 2014 with its sails full from the warm response to 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flagreleased an incredible four major Assassin’s Creed projects: a remake of the portable Assassin’s Creed Liberation, a well-received ACIV expansion calledFreedom Cry, and two massive fall games, the calamitous Unity for Xbox One, PS4 and PC and the excellent, unsung Assassin’s Creed Rogue for Xbox 360 and PS3. Then they stumbled. Unity slipped from October to November, was slammed by critics (the only AC game to get a “No” from Kotaku) and was such a creative disappointment and glitchy technical mess that an apologetic Ubisoft decided it would offer Dead Kings as a consolation bonus.

Late last year, Ubisoft was loosening up its add-on Assassin’s Creed content as a make-good to disgruntled series fans, but this year they’re back to chopping it up to maximize sales opportunities. Warning: what follows might seem like a maze. Don’t get lost!

Ubisoft has already announced a slew of DLC for Syndicate including a 20-years-later paid expansion involving Jack the Ripper.

The Resident Evil 2 remake is happening

The Resident Evil 2 remake is happening

Capcom is moving ahead with a remake of 1998's Resident Evil 2, the company announced in a video posted to the series' official YouTube channel today.

"Thank you for your great support on this Resident Evil 2 Remake Project," said Yoshiaki "H" Hirabayashi, who will be the producer on the remake at Capcom R&D Division 1. "Thanks to your incredible passion and support, the project has finally been approved for development!"

The Resident Evil 2 remake appeared to be finding support within Capcom late last month, shortly after the company asked fans for their thoughts about the idea. Hirabayashi said July 31 that he had presented the "basic concept" to his boss.

Capcom will take fan feedback into account in developing the remake, and will endeavor to provide updates about the project directly to fans, said Hirabayashi, sporting a "WE DO IT!" T-shirt. The company did not specify platforms or a release window for theResident Evil 2 remaster.

Hirabayashi added that there won't be any news regarding Resident Evil 2's remake for a while, but in the meantime, fans of the franchise can look forward to Capcom's remake of 2002's Resident Evil 0, which is set for release next year.

The remake strategy appears to be working for Capcom. The company released a modern update to the original Resident Evil in January, and had sold more than 1 million copies of it worldwide as of late April.

Now we can update our Resident Evil 2 timeline:

• Jan. 14, 2003: GameCube owners, heretofore treated to the very first Resident Evil remake and the entirely new Resident Evil 0, express disappointment in the straight PS1 port of Resident Evil 2.
• 2003 to 2015: The collective world expresses disappointment in the absence of a remastered version of Resident Evil 2.
• July 31, 2015: Less than two days after asking fans if they were (still) interested in a remake of the survival horror classic, a conveniently pre-existing ideas document makes it into the hands of a "boss" at Capcom.
• Aug. 12, 2015: Less than two weeks after saying it was considering a Resident Evil 2 remake, Capcom confirms it's going ahead with the project.

Correction: This article originally referred to a "straight PS2 port of Resident Evil 2" in the timeline. The GameCube version of Resident Evil 2 was a port of the PlayStation original. We've edited the story to reflect this.

If you haven’t upgraded to PS4 or Xbox One yet, you’re about to be left behind

The most difficult decision that a modern console gamer has to make it when to upgrade to the new generation. I know, it’s not exactly a life-altering decision, but it’s typically not a cheap one, so some carefully considerations must be made ahead of time.

Although tens of millions have already made the leap, there are still plenty of gamers who are squeezing every last drop out of their PS3s and Xbox 360s, but it’s looking like the beginning of the end for the former generation.

RELATED: Microsoft is going to unveil five Xbox One bundles next week ahead of the holidays

Late last week, Activision announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 on PS3 and Xbox 360 will not include the full campaign that will be featured in the PS4, Xbox One and PC versions of the game. Instead, PS3 and 360 owners will be restricted to Multiplayer and Zombies gameplay.

According to the studio: “The ambitious scope of the 1-4 player coop Campaign design of the PS4, Xbox One and PC versions could not be faithfully recreated on old generation hardware.”

In order to give PS3 and 360 owners a worthwhile online experience, the campaign had to be cut altogether. As restitution, Activision is including a free copy of the original Black Ops, but will that satisfy the fans?

Regardless of whether or not the inclusion of a free game makes up for a downgraded package, it’s clear that the new generation is becoming a priority for developers and publishers, even more so than it was this time last year.

Just a few weeks ago, Rockstar Games revealed a new update for Grand Theft Auto V that would add Freemode Events to the open world of the game’s online mode. But there was something else about this update that made it unique — it was the first to miss the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game.

Here’s what Rockstar told Mashable about the next-gen exclusivity of the update:

The Freemode Events update will be the first to come to PS4, Xbox One, and PC only. We managed to pack in two years worth of free updates onto the older platforms, but after the release of Heists we started to run into some very real memory constraints. We knew moving forward that the game’s online performance could be in jeopardy if we continued to pile in new content. But after some creative programming, we were able to deliver the two-part Ill-Gotten Gains update.

Moving forward, we knew that we could not make any more meaningful updates without putting the stability of the entire game at risk. By focusing on the opportunity with these newer platforms, it will allow us to do some exciting stuff in the future, and the Freemode Events update is just the beginning.

Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto, two of the biggest franchises in the world of gaming, are leaving the PS3 and the 360 behind. If you’ve been waiting for the right time to update, this holiday season might be it.