The 42nd Golden Joystick Awards will be streamed live next month, and it's set to be hosted by voice actor Ben Starr.

Starr, known for voicing Final Fantasy 16 protagonist Clive Rosfield and Prometheus in Hades 2, is set to be joined by a host of guest presenters. These include Neil Newbon (Astarion in Baldur's Gate 3), Patricia Summersett (Princess Zelda in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom), Alex McKenna (Sadie Adler in Red Dead Redemption 2), and Abubakar Salim (Bayek in Assassin's Creed Origins and director of Tales of Kenzera: Zau).

On the upcoming awards ceremony, taking place on November 21, Starr had this to say: "I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be your guide to this year’s Golden Joystick Awards. We’ll be celebrating the greatest games of the past 12 months - but more importantly, the talented teams of people who made them possible. 

"Tune in for an evening of fashionable festivities, where you can expect special guests, showmanship, and plenty of silly jokes. See you soon, and if you haven’t already, get your votes in now!"

This year's Golden Joystick Awards will feature 19 separate categories including Best Storytelling, Best Indie Game, Best Soundtrack, Best Lead Performer, and Best Gaming Hardware. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Astro Bot are leading the charge with five nominations apiece, whereas Helldivers 2 and Balatro put on a strong showing with four and three nominations respectively.

You'll be able to watch the 42nd Golden Joystick Awards live on November 21 via YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, X / Twitter, and Steam. TechRadar Gaming as well as GamesRadar and PC Gamer will also be livestreaming the event.

Be sure to get your own votes in over at GamesRadar's dedicated Golden Joystick Awards page, too! You can vote right now and voting closes on Friday, November 1 at 4pm PDT / 7pm EDT / 11pm GMT.

You might also like...

• This new limited edition Audeze Maxwell gaming headset has an Xbox green aesthetic
• Call of Duty Black Ops 6 release times - everything we know
• Microsoft reveals a new Xbox Wireless Headset featuring a raft of upgrades

The once-unknown developer behind Mario & Luigi: Brothership has been revealed.

That's according to 'Nintendeal' over on X / Twitter, who shared a screenshot showing the intellectual property information of the game, which was discovered after some players received their physical copy early, ahead of its November 7 launch.

The information provided seems to confirm that the developer of the upcoming Nintendo Switch game is Acquire, the studio behind the critically acclaimed Octopath Traveler and Octopath Traveler 2.

It's unclear why Nintendo has kept its co-developer of Brothership under wraps, but the reveal is certainly a surprise to some.

"Well that's a curveball. A good curveball though," said one user on Reddit. "Don't think Acquire was on anybody's radar as a possibility, but they sure know how to make an RPG [role-playing game]."

"A pleasant surprise, they definitely know how to make good RPGs," said another Redditor.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership was announced this summer and is the first new entry in the series in almost nine years. After the series' original developer Alpha Dream went bankrupt in 2019, there have been discussions about who the new developer could be.

Brothership will see the iconic, titular brothers return in an all-new platforming adventure featuring turn-based combat, and both side-scrolling and vertical challenges as they explore a number of islands.

During the game's unveiling, Nintendo executive Shinya Takahashi called the game a "seafaring adventure", which will include "evolved Bros moves" between Mario and Luigi.

TechRadar had the chance to preview Mario & Luigi: Brothership at an event hosted by Nintendo earlier this month. After playing just over an hour of the game, Managing Editor Josephine Watson called it "a glorious return to form for a beloved series", while combat "feels finessed".

You might also like...

• Nintendo Switch 2: everything we know about a potential Switch successor
• The cheapest Nintendo Switch bundles and deals in October 2024
• Microsoft reveals a new Xbox Wireless Headset featuring a raft of upgrades

Microsoft has officially unveiled its new, enhanced Xbox Wireless Headset.

Earlier this month, the reliable data miner 'billbil-kun' reported that the company was gearing up to launch a more expensive headset in November that would be called the "Xbox Wireless Headset Refresh".

Though not exactly correct in name, we now have confirmation that the new Xbox Wireless Headset is a "refreshed version" of the original hardware and it's available now worldwide for $109.99 / £99.99 / AU$163.56.

This all-black headset costs $10 more than the original and features an entire array of new enhancements, including Dolby Atmos support. This delivers "immersive, spatial audio that brings games to life in vivid detail" and "transforms your audio experience by revealing depth, clarity, and details like never before".

"With built-in support for Dolby Atmos, Windows Sonic, and DTS Headphone:X, you can experience sound with stunning precision, allowing you to pinpoint every footstep, explosion, or whisper," Microsoft said in its announcement post.

While the headset has also received a new updated, sleek design, other functions have also been improved. This includes voice isolation for clearer communication while gaming, as well as the auto-mute.

With the headset's Bluetooth 5.3, users can now directly pair their device with Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PC, and mobile devices with seamless transitioning, while also boasting Qualcomm S5 Gen 2 technology, allowing ultra-low latency wireless connectivity for smoother, uninterrupted gameplay.

Battery life has also been upgraded, offering up to 20 hours of playtime on a single charge.

You might also like...

• The next Naughty Dog game will reportedly have "a lot of player freedom"
• Alan Wake 2 is PS5 Pro enhanced, will feature upgraded versions of Quality and Performance mode
• Microsoft is expanding its research division, wants feedback from studios that don't make games for Xbox

Naughty's Dog's unannounced game will reportedly focus on "player freedom".

According to MinnMax founder Ben Hanson during the latest episode of The MinnMax Show, a source "very in the know, who worked on the game" said that fans "aren't ready" for the studio's next project" and that it will feature "a lot of player freedom" (via VGC).

"The tone was like, you are all not ready for how amazing this thing is going to be, and the tone was - I’m not going to say the game that they referenced to compare it to because I don’t want people to be like, MinnMax said it was going to be exactly like this - but they compared it to a game with a lot of player freedom," Hanson said.

When asked if the game in question was Hitman, which has an incredible amount of player freedom, Hanson said it wasn't.

At this time, Naughty Dog hasn't officially announced its next title. The studio, which is perhaps best known for the Uncharted and The Last of Us series, is famous for keeping its development plans under wraps until it's ready.

However, earlier this year Naughty Dog's co-president Neil Druckmann confirmed that "multiple single-player" projects are in development at the studio, saying "I promise you, we will not be The Last of Us studio forever".

Last year, Druckmann also said that he'd like the team to focus less on cutscenes and a "traditional narrative" in future projects.

"I’m more recently intrigued by stuff like Elden Ring and Inside, that don’t rely as much on traditional narrative to tell a story," Druckmann said in an interview with The Washington Post.

"I think some of the best storytelling in The Last of Us - yes, a lot of it is in the cinematics - but a lot of it is in the gameplay, and moving around a space, and understanding a history of a space by just looking at it and examining it. To me that, right now, is some of the best joy I get out of games - [those] that trust their audience to figure things out, that don’t hold their hand. That’s the stuff I’m really intrigued by going forward."

In December 2023, Naughty Dog canceled its The Last of Us Online game after concerns that it would impact the studio’s future single-player games, a project that was reportedly in development for four years.

You might also like...

• The PS5 Pro patch for The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is now live
• Upcoming games 2024 for console and PC
• Best PS5 games 2024 - top PlayStation 5 titles to play right now

Remedy has revealed the PS5 Pro enhancements for Alan Wake 2.

In a new blog post, the developer confirmed that it will take "full advantage" of the recently announced PS5 Pro to enhance its 2023 horror game further.

For starters, Alan Wake 2's Quality and Performance modes will be upgraded for the mid-generation console and will utilize Sony's upscaling method, PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR).

The PS5 Pro Quality mode will be 30fps and feature ray tracing reflections, as well as have an output resolution of 4K.

Meanwhile, the Performance mode won't feature ray tracing but will allow 60fps and an output resolution of 4K, and will target approximately the same image quality (render) settings as the base PS5's Quality mode.

"The Performance Mode on the PS5 Pro features significantly higher output resolution and has more visual detail compared to the base PS5," Remedy said. "The overall image stability, fog, volumetric lighting, and shadow accuracy have been improved on the Pro."

Remedy shared its process in upgrading Alan Wake 2 for the PS5 Pro, explaining that increasing the rendering resolution was among the easiest routes to improve image quality. It also experimented by upgrading the 60fps Performance mode output from 1440p to 4k and adding PSSR, which "positively impacted image crispness and stability under motion."

"Increasing the internal rendering resolution consumes a lot of processing power, no matter how powerful your hardware is," the team explained. "However, in our experiments, even putting all the added power to increased rendering resolution provided a barely noticeable difference in the output image or its quality. Adding more pixels to gain visual quality is not straightforward with the new AI-based upscaling methods."

The studio said that since Alan Wake 2 is "visually incredibly detailed and rich", it was a "tough fit for ray tracing, especially compared to our previous game, Control".

Still, the studio welcomed the challenge of upgrading the game for PS5 Pro, saying, "With ray traced effects, the detail of the world in Alan Wake 2 can be observed even more accurately than before on the console, and the image is more stable in complex lighting situations."

"We've always wanted to bring cutting-edge visuals to our games, but everything is always a balancing act between the frame rate, visual quality, technical and hardware constraints, development resources and what we wish to artistically achieve with the game," Remedy added.

The team went on to talk about the benefits of ray tracing but said that it "comes with a cost" since "each ray must be traced, and its hit evaluated and shaded".

"In a game like Alan Wake 2, its complex light-material interactions and rich environments can make tracing, shading, and denoising even a single ray tracing effect too expensive to justify the cost depending on the hardware," it said.

"Geometrically Alan Wake 2 is a very dense game. The usage of a GPU-driven rendering pipeline and its fine-grained culling with the skinning ran on GPU made it possible to create densely populated forest scenes with layers and layers of foliage and trees encountered during Saga’s gameplay segments taking place in the lush environments of the Pacific North-West."

Alan Wake 2 is one of the best horror games you can play on PS5 right now, and its second expansion, titled The Lake House, launches today.

You might also like...

• PS5 Pro pre-order guide: the latest and best places to find stock
• PS5 Pro specs: how powerful the new PlayStation 5 console is, and how it compares to the PS5
• Unity 6 will allow developers to create games more quickly and efficiently, and it's now available worldwide

Forget that official Xbox handheld that's phased in and out of the rumor mill over the past year; a modder has now beaten the company to it.

Over on X / Twitter, woodworker and hardware engineer Redherring32 has built a portable version of the original Xbox console - the one that was first released all the way back in 2001. Its creator says that it "isn't a PC handheld, it isn't emulation, this is a real motherboard from a real Xbox."

Redherring32 goes on to explains that the handheld features a 480p display and USB-C play and charge support. Wireless Xbox Live functionality is also planned via the addition of WiFi 6. That'd certainly give it some parity with the best handheld games consoles available today.

In followup posts, Redherring32 explains that this original Xbox handheld build "is a first of its kind." They attach screenshots of the trimmed-down motherboard and many more of the inner hardware workings that make the device tick. Said trimming was a process the modder claims to have had to learn from scratch, taking them a little over four months to complete just that one part of it.

And while this original Xbox handheld isn't going to be put into mass production - which is a crying shame given how awesome it looks - Redherring32 says "everything will be open source in the coming weeks," including URLs to GitHub and BitBuilt pages for the PCBs and an Xbox trimming guide so that folks at home can attempt to make an Xbox handheld of their own. 

The modder concludes by saying they're working on a showcase video for the handheld that should also include gameplay. Certainly keep an eye out for that if - like me - you're particularly nostalgic about the best retro games consoles like the original Xbox and are keen to see what its software would look like running on a bespoke handheld device.

You might also like...

• Black Friday Xbox deals 2024 - what to expect as we approach the sales period
• The Black Myth: Wukong physical release is coming "very soon"
• Nintendo Switch Online Playtest Program participants leak contents early and it appears to be a collaborative MMO

The Nintendo Switch Online Playtest Program seems to be for a cooperative MMO where you work with others to develop a planet. It also doesn't seem to be related in any way to the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2, as we initially speculated.

Participants who were accepted during the application phase have now received access to a Nintendo Switch app containing information on the playtest, which officially begins on October 23.

X / Twitter user Ethan_ThisGuy appears to have been the first to post screenshots of the app, in a reply to a Wario64 update on the playtest. The user's screenshots have since been deleted, but user Nintendo Prime was able to salvage them.

We have three screenshots to peruse here, with each being accompanied by some text that goes some way to describing what kind of game this is going to be. The first screenshots details an area known as the Dev Core, where players can socialize with one another, as well as "level up your character, get items you will need for your journey" and more.

The main drive of the game - which is unnamed at the time of writing - seems to be a massive collaborative project between players. "In this game, the goal is to work with others to fully 'develop' a massive, expansive planet by utilizing creativity and farmed resources," another screenshot reveals. "As you progress across the planet, you'll discover new lands, enemies, and resources that will become essential to your journey."

To develop the planet together, players will individually work on their own Beacon Zones. Another screenshot demonstrates the higher a beacon is placed in a zone, the wider its reach becomes. Presumably, this will allow players to travel further out into the world and eventually connect with other Beacon Zones and thus, more players. It's all a bit Death Stranding, isn't it?

There's little else to go off right now, but if you were lucky enough to be selected for the playtest, you'll be able to start playing from October 23 until November 5. You'll also need 2.2GB of storage space on your Nintendo Switch console. Here's hoping the next Nintendo Direct - whenever that may be - sheds some more light on this very interesting project.

You might also like...

• Dbrand has returned with new Darkplates 2.0 - bespoke face plates you can put on your PS5 Slim
• Former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden says relying on blockbuster games is "a death sentence"
• Microsoft finally remembered to make another Xbox Series X wrap and the latest is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 themed

Electronics accessory maker Dbrand has just released Darkplates 2.0 - its updated version of the original model of PS5 face plates, this time for PS5 Slim consoles.

Darkplates 2.0 ditches the four-plate setup of the PS5 Slim, consolidating that into just two plates - one for each side. They come in a sleek black finish and even feature circular vents on each side allowing air to pass through easier. This should help the console run cooler overall.

Darkplates 2.0 are now available to buy from Dbrand's store page. There are versions for both the standard PS5 Slim as well as the Digital Edition, both coming in at $69.95 (though they're currently at a $10 discount). A magnetic stand can be added to your purchase for $10 extra, as well as a middle skin (ranging from $24.95 to $49.90) and even light strips (from $11.95 to $19.95 depending on the complexity of the pattern). Overall, you could be paying anywhere between $69.95 and $100.85 (outside of the discount period) based on your choices.

Wave 1 stock is shipping now, with further waves releasing in November, December, and January. So if you're interested, there seems to be plenty of time and stock if you're looking to purchase what might be a huge improvement over the PS5 Slim's base faceplates.

And as you might expect from Dbrand, the website isn't short of venomous jabs at Sony. "Do you think oxygen can pass through a 3mm panel of uninterrupted plastic?" the site's product description reads. "If you answered 'no,' congratulations: you're qualified to be our next (and only) Fan Scientist."

If you're unfamiliar with it, Dbrand was initially sent a cease-and-desist from Sony a few years back. The company was required to "promptly and permanently cease" production of the original Darkplates. For Darkplates 2.0, Dbrand insists it's not encroaching on any patent infringements, so the accessory could be here to stay this time around.

You might also like...

• Former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden says relying on blockbuster games is "a death sentence"
• Pre-orders for the reimagined N64, the Analogue 3D, go live next week
• Unity 6 will allow developers to create games more quickly and efficiently, and it's now available worldwide

Ex-PlayStation executive Shawn Layden has shared his perspective on the current state of the games industry.

During a conversation at Gamescom Asia (via GamesIndustry.biz) with Raw Fury co-founder and chief publishing officer Gordon Van Dyke, Layden talked about the disappearance of AA studios and the negative impact it's had on the industry.

According to the former executive, who spent 30 years at Sony, there used to be more time spent looking at games than asking about a studio's "monetization scheme" or "recurrent revenue plan". He explained that he used to ask simple questions about a game along the lines of "Is it fun?" or "Are we having a good time", and if the answer was yes, the project would be greenlit.

"You didn't worry so much about the end piece, for better or for worse," Layden said. "Of course back then you didn't make a game for millions [of] dollars. So your risk tolerance was fairly high.

"Today, the entry costs for making a AAA game is in triple digit millions now. I think naturally, risk tolerance drops. And you're [looking] at sequels, you're looking at copycats, because the finance guys who draw the line say, 'Well, if Fortnite made this much money in this amount of time, my Fortnite knockoff can make this in that amount of time.' We're seeing a collapse of creativity in games today [with] studio consolidation and the high cost of production."

Van Dyke later asked Layden whether indie games can be a "beacon of hope" with the loss of AA studios and amid the current monetization trends in the industry.

To this Layden agreed, saying in the business there are blockbuster games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto, and then there are the indie titles, but "that middle layer that used to be where Interplay, Gremlin, Ocean, THQ, all those companies, made their money... That middle piece is gone."

"If you [can become] AAA, you survive, or if you do something interesting in the indie space, you could," Layden said. "But AA is gone. I think that's a threat to the ecosystem if you will. So I'm looking at indie stuff… With the advent of technologies, like the latest Unreal Engine or what Unity can give you, I think we can all say that the standard quality of video games is pretty high now compared to ten years ago."

Layden said that thanks to advancements in tools, games have now increased in quality unlike 10 years ago, adding, "Now if we can just get a bit more interest and excitement and exposure for these lower budget, but super creative and super unusual [type] of games... I'd like to see more of that," he said. "Because if we're just going to rely on the blockbusters to get us through, I think that's a death sentence."

According to Layden, AA has a "natural niche" among the blockbuster titles and indie games, and that is to bring "the new thing" instead of "a dollar store version of God of War".

"If you're going to pitch me your AA game, and in the first two pages of your deck is your monetisation and revenue, subscription scheme, I'm out. Your first page has to be 'This game needs to be made and here's why'," he said.

"I want to see that fire, I don't want to see 'here's the chief accountant on the team that's going to explain to you the [game's monetisation]'."

You might also like...

• Pre-orders for the reimagined N64, the Analogue 3D, go live next week
• Unity 6 will allow developers to create games more quickly and efficiently, and it's now available worldwide
• Rare boss Craig Duncan to take over as Xbox Game Studios' head in November

Analogue has announced that pre-orders for its reimagined Nintendo 64 console, the Analogue 3D, will open next week.

The company shared the news in a lengthy blog post where it shared even more details about the Analogue 3D, including its specifications, the first images of the system, and its price.

A black and white version of the Analogue 3D will be available to pre-order and both will be priced at $249.99 (around £192.33) Controllers, designed by 8bitdo, will be sold separately from the console and will cost $39.99 (around £30.99).

Pre-orders will open on October 21 at 8am PDT / 11am EST / 4pm BST. The system was originally slated for a 2024 launch, but Analogue has confirmed it will now launch early next year in Q1 2025.

The Analogue 3D is a modernized take on the N64 featuring 4K resolution that will upscale the console's classic games. Analogue calls it "the greatest multiplayer system of all time" and is 100 per cent compatible with every original N64 title ever made.

It's also region-free, features Bluetooth, dual-band Wifi, four original-style controller ports, and an SD card slot, and requires no emulation.

"Analogue 3D represents a milestone in video game preservation," Analogue said. "It’s not just a reimagining of the N64 - it’s the first fully compatible, hardware-accurate recreation, fully compatible with the entire N64 game library.

"After nearly four years of dedicated FPGA engineering, Analogue 3D overcomes the limitations of software emulation—no input lag, no graphic or audio inaccuracies, no timing or frame rate problems. This is the N64, perfected and true to its core."

You might also like...

• Unity 6 will allow developers to create games more quickly and efficiently, and it's now available worldwide
• Diablo 4 fans, feast your eyes on iam8bit's exclusive vinyl collection
• Rare boss Craig Duncan to take over as Xbox Game Studios' head in November

If you're looking to play Black Ops 6 right when it launches on October 25, you'll want to have the game preloaded. This means knowing when the download goes live, and how big the file size is so you can make room. From what we played of the beta, Black Ops 6 certainly has a chance of ending up on our best FPS games list by the end of the year, so we'll certainly be preloading it as soon as possible.

Black Ops 6 is right around the corner, having already wowed players who jumped in to try out beta with its new movement mechanics and fast-paced combat. You'll be able to play on Game Pass this time as well, meaning that if you're a subscriber, you can jump in at no extra cost.

Here's everything you need to know about the Black Ops 6 preload, including when it goes live, as well as the file size on PC and consoles. We now have an exact time for when the preload goes live, so you can start clearing space for what is, predictably, quite a sizeable download.

Black Ops 6 preload release date

The Black Ops 6 preload goes live on October 21 at 9AM PT / 12PM ET / 5PM BST on all platforms. You'll be able to download the whole package at this point, including Multiplayer, Campaign, and Zombies ahead of the game's launch on October 25. For specific launch times, check out the infographic embedded above.

Black Ops 6 file size

Black Ops 6's file size has now been revealed - but only for PC. According to the released PC Specs, which you can see embedded above, you'll need to save 102GB for the download. This will likely include Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies. You'll need to reserve extra space for Warzone. Once we hear about the file sizes on console, we'll update this section.

You Might Also Like...

• Modern Warfare 3 review
• Best crossplay games
• Warzone mobile review

Unity has announced that Unity 6, the latest version of its cross-platform game engine, is now available worldwide.

Unity 6 can be downloaded here, and is the company's "most stable and best-performing version of Unity" yet that has been built, tested, and refined in partnership with game developers around the world.

According to Unity, the updated software will allow developers to create games much faster and more efficiently than ever before and comes with new features like end-to-end multiplayer workflows, tools that target the mobile web, alongside new graphics capabilities that move workloads from the CPU to the GPU, improving CPU performance by up to 4X in internal.

Unity has also shared its plans for the engine post-launch, confirming that it will be "dedicating long-term product and engineering resources to Unity 6" to enhance features and add new functionality, while continuing stability.

"We are relentlessly focused on delivering tools to help game developers build games more quickly and efficiently while also facilitating innovation," said Matt Bromberg, President and CEO of Unity. "We’re going to do everything we can to ensure that Unity 6 is at the heart of game development for years to come."

Alongside the launch of Unity 6, the company has also introduced some brand-new learning resources for developers, like Time Ghost, the latest Unity Originals real-time cinematic demo which includes advancements in environment building and character design, as well as Megacity Metro, a demo that showcases how to build a 100+ player cross-platform multiplayer game.

"Unity 6 gives our global multi-functional team the stability and scalability we need. The improved performance combined with features like the new WebGPU graphics API and the seamless live services integration make our workflow much more efficient and our production quality top-tier,” said Josh Loveridge, managing director of Stratton Studios.

"It's been a game-changer while developing PGA TOUR Rise. We’ve truly been able to push the boundaries of creativity at every step of the development pipeline."

You might also like...

• Rare boss Craig Duncan to take over as Xbox Game Studios' head in November
• PlayStation: The Concert is a new video game music show coming in 2025, and will feature famous scores from Sony's most iconic games like The Last of Us and God of War
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Modern Warfare 3, and Warzone are coming to Xbox Cloud Gaming next week