Here’s how the Prey console demos stacked up next to each other

If you’re picking up Prey on console, here’s which one’s best.

Prey is out this week, and if you’re a console player, you should take a gander at Digital Foundry‘s graphics and frame-rate comparison test so that you can all argue with one another over whose life is going to be irreparably affected by the results.

The game runs at 1080p on PS4 and 900p on Xbox One. The demo didn’t have PS4 Pro support, so we’ll have to wait until release to see how that version compares. The console versions may look almost identical, but there were issues with input latency on the PS4.

This was addressed on a NeoGAF thread by Bethesda’s community lead.

“To address input lag, the fix within the final release in the game changes the raw input curve on the PS4 controller to be more responsive at the low end, and to tweak responsiveness to the center point on the controller (narrowing the dead zone.). The net result is faster/more responsive movement.”

Some thread posts also cited audio issues, which are also going to be fixed prior to release.

From a performance standpoint, the game ran at a solid 30fps. The Xbox One was almost on par with the exception of one particular area that resulted in a funny five minutes.

Watch the video for a more in-depth break down.

Let us know how you got on with the demo and whether you’ll be grabbing a copy of Prey when it releases this week for PC, PS4, and Xbox One on May 5.

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Assassin’s Creed creator paints an unpleasant picture of life at Ubisoft in new interview

Assassin’s Creed is a blockbuster franchise, but running the ship wasn’t all sunshine and lollipops, apparently.

Assassin’s Creed creator Patrice Désilets has given a new interview, in which he seems to be describing his time at Ubisoft and reasons for leaving the mega-publisher.

Speaking to Gameology, as transcribed by Gamespot, Désilets describes a situation in which he stuck being the public face of a franchise he’d lost control of, having to talk up decisions he didn’t agree with.

“My biggest struggle with being in an organization is that I was the guy doing interviews like what we’re doing right now, and I had to come up with political lying,” he said.

“I would receive comments and decisions made by other people and not me, because it’s all about compromising when you’re in a big organization somehow.

“And as my role, the creative director, it’s tough to live by the decisions of others, when being in front of the camera or Skype. And I said I’m not a really good liar so I can’t do it anymore.”

It’s really hard not to speculate on what Désilets is hinting at; what decisions were handed down from Ubisoft’s leadership that he didn’t want to implement? Multiplayer? Annual sequels? Constant expansion of content? The gradual erosion of the original Assassin’s Creed’s mechanics to end at a generic action-adventure? Certainly the series has had a bit of a design-by committee feel for a few years which resulted in it losing its place as one of the industry’s premiere IPs.

Désilets also said he came to realise that by working on “a really big franchise”, he was just making money “for other people and they don’t really care about you”.

“So I said, enough. if I do another Assassin’s Creed at least it would be for me and my guys and also for Quebec and for my people in Montreal.”

It’s been seven years since Désilets first left Ubisoft. He first signed with THQ, but when the publisher collapsed Ubisoft snapped up Désilets’s team and projects. The creative director then went indie, sued Ubisoft for the rights to 1666: Amsterdam, and is currently working on a new project called Ancestors.

1666: Amsterdam is on hold while Ancestors is under development, but may be resurrected. It looked a lot like Assassin’s Creed, which may be why Ubisoft was keen to shut it down.

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Death Stranding is “going pretty well” says Kojima, but still no word on when you’ll actually get your hands on it

Death Stranding, the highly anticipated next game from the creator of Metal Gear Solid, is at the picking tables stage. This’ll make sense in a minute.

Death Stranding came up during Hideo Kojima’s appearance at the Tribeca Games Festival this weekend – unsurprisingly, since we’re all agog to know more.

As reported by Engadget, Kojima said Death Stranding is “going pretty well” when asked about development progress.

Kojima Productions has “the general plan for the project” and a plot, apparently, and is testing various systems; it sounds like he meant both technical and gameplay-related. In other words, Death Stranding is still in the relatively early stages, with lots to lock down.

To illustrate the project’s timing, Kojima said if Death Stranding was a restaurant, he’d be choosing tables and planning menus. Okay.

Kojima had lots to say on various topics and you should hit the link above for more, but the bit I found most interesting was his comment on using famous actors in games, a strategy he embraced for Metal Gear Solid 5 Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain with Kiefer Sutherland, and continued in PT with Norman Reedus. Reedus also returns for Death Stranding, which features Mads Mikkelsen as the villain and director Guillermo del Toro in a smaller role.

“By bringing in actors, they do some things that I don’t imagine,” Kojima explained of this new trend in his work. “That alone makes the world bigger, there’s something happening on the stage.” Apparently this creates more realistic characters than the Death Stranding crew could build with imagination and CG alone.

It’s probably the closest we’ll ever get for a decent explanation as to why Kojima ditched beloved Metal Gear Solid voice actor David Hayter in favour of a bigger Hollywood name.

Death Stranding has an advantage over Metal Gear Solid in that it’s a new IP, so we have no expectations for Kojima to upset – although I have a feeling those who go in expecting a military stealth action game may be in for a bit of a shock, despite Kojima’s insistence that it will feel familiar to third-person action fans.

Death Stranding is coming to PS4. Nobody knows when. Probably not in 2017.

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Mass Effect Andromeda guide: Making an Impression – Architect Boss and Gas or Water

Mass Effect Andromeda throws a massive challenge at you, and we’re not talking about that boss fight.

After following Mass Effect Andromeda‘s critical mission path for long enough to clear the radiation on Eos, return to the massive starting planet for a chance to pick up some interesting side quests, including Making an Impression, which involves a great boss fight and a tough decision.

Find more tips, tricks and explanations in our Mass Effect Andromeda guide and walkthrough.

This quest has you investigating unusual seismic activity on behalf of the new settlers of the Andromeda Initiative. Head to the settlement of Prodromos to collect the quest from some of your colonist scientists, then follow your waypoint to a location in the Sawtooth Plateau. Place your seismic hammer and battle the Remnant it attracts.

This is the pattern for a little while, so with one hammer placed, head southwest to the next waypoint location to drop the second one. Again, you’ll have to battle a bunch of Remnant. So far so good, right?

Water or Gas? Making an Impression’s big story choice

As you head for the third waypoint you should spot a tent and some camping gear, and Ryder or a squad mate will comment on it. The objective changes to “investigate the strangers”.

Unfortunately this bit of the game is bugged, and the NPCs don’t always appear. If there’s nobody at the waypoint, fast travel away and then drive back, which should make them respawn. If necessary, leave Eos altogether and come back to the surface; that should make them show up. Reloading a save sometimes helps, too.

After speaking to the strangers, you’ll see there are now two waypoints right next to each other amongst some Remnant ruins. You have a choice here:

• Place the drill to mine gas, which you can trade to the exiles for water, while harming the environment.
• Drill for water and potentially destroy the exile settlement downstream.

The good news is: this choice doesn’t matter at all. Absolutely nothing seems to change in the game no matter what you do. The choice might be saved for a sequel or DLC, however, so keep that in mind; it seems weird that we find out there’s a whole other settlement on Eos we’ve never heard of, or hear of again, right?

In either case, head to the next waypoint, but be ready for a big fight before you drop the fifth seismic hammer. Make sure you have a mid to long range weapon with you if you normally use a shotgun or melee. You can change your loadout at the nearby forward station (and you can use it to replenish your shields if things get nasty in a moment).

Architect boss battle: tips for killing the giant remnant

This big three-legged thing is called an Architect, and it is here to teach you two valuable lessons. One, Mass Effect Andromeda is not a cover shooter. Two, you probably should buy every Cobra RPG consumable you see, as they speed up these battles considerably.

Once you know what you’re doing, this battle isn’t difficult – just tiresome, because the Architect is a bullet sponge. Assuming you want to 100% Andromeda, you’ll need to fight about half a dozen of these guys, so we’d better talk about how to do it.

The Architect has three major attacks:

• The first attack is a standard automatic gun which fires a brief but powerful barrage at you. The projectiles don’t penetrate cover, but they’re so slow moving that you can avoid them just by using your jumpjets to strafe around the Architect. That means you can keep firing the whole time; don’t bother hunkering down behind cover.

• The second attack is a small cluster of bombs, which detonate after a short fuse tick down. The Architect can easily lob these behind cover, so hiding won’t help you here, either.

• The third attack is a huge beam of energy that hits hard and leaves a briefly persistent area of effect on the ground. This attack penetrates cover so your only escape is to get out of the way. Before the beam fires, its area of effect is lit up in a red glow.

Architect battles loop through multiple phases:

• Passive
  The Architect may fire at you but cannot be harmed in any way. Usually only occurs just after moving or at the start of a battle.
• Leg conductors exposed
  Vents open on the Architect’s legs. Shoot them.
• Head conductors exposed
  After you do enough damage to an Architect’s legs, it opens its mouth. Shoot it in the mouth.
• Add phase
  After enough damage or time passes in a leg or head phase, the Architect will lean over and appear to vomit. It cannot be damaged during this phase. This summons Remnant adds. You must clear all the adds, while dodging the Architect’s continued attacks, before another damage phase will commence.
• Moving
  After you destroy a leg, or perhaps when the total Architect damage reaches a certain threshold, it will move. It doesn’t go very far. Follow it, but also use the time to restock your ammo if there are crates handy.
• Downed
  Once the Architect’s legs and head conductors have been destroyed, it falls to the ground. Ryder must rush up and interface with it to end the battle for good.

The easiest way we found to battle the Architect was just to fire at it with an assault rifle while bouncing from left to right and back again, shooting off damaging powers when possible. This allows you to dodge its attacks with ease, and when the mouth opens, you can lob in a cobra RPG to quickly end that phase. Defeat the adds as soon as possible; their tendency to distract you from dodging the Architect’s attacks are the real danger in the battle.

Vanguards should be careful about using Biotic Charge on the Architect to set off combos; while it’s safe enough on the legs if you’re quick at getting back into cover, going for the mouth is a poor idea; you can end up smacked with a massive attack in mid-air.

After you win, scan the architect’s body for research data, loot the reward chest nearby, and don’t forget to check in on it in orbit next time you visit the planet via the Galaxy Map. You can nab the research points on the Galaxy Map if you miss them the first time, too.

To complete Making an Impression, return to Prodromos and hand in the quest. Keep an eye out for Architects on other landable planets; there’s one in each of the major locations, as well as – well, that would be spoiling.

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Mass Effect Andromeda protestors problem: resolving the Sleeping Dragons quest

Protesters are making a fuss in Mass Effect Andromeda. Good on them for exercising their democratic rights. Let’s see what we can do to help.

Find more tips, tricks and explanations in our Mass Effect Andromeda guide and walkthrough.

Some time after you set up your first outpost in Mass Effect Andromeda, you’ll have to face the consequences of your decision to go for scientific or military – although this quest occurs regardless of your choice, so whatever.

To start the quest, head to the Nexus and you’ll either hear about or run right into a group of protestors. Look for them near hydroponics in the Docking Bay area; they’re hard to miss.

Thanks, Alienware!

Brenna is playing Mass Effect Andromeda on an Alienware 17 with a GX 1070, kindly loaned, at her request, by Alienware Australia’s PR representative.

It’s a pretty short quest but here’s what you have to do. Speak with the protestors to learn why they’re upset, and agree to investigate the matter for them. With that done, take the tram to Operations and speak to Kandros, choosing the “stasis protestors” dialogue option. This triggers a dialogue scene with you and all the Nexus directors where you can discuss your options and decide whether to give in to the protestors or find another way to settle their dispute.

The fate of the protestors

There are two ways to end the quest. Here’s how each plays out:

• Tell the directors there’s a “whole planet” and that “the protestors are right”, then authorise the revival of their families from Addison’s office. Speak with Rhys to end the mission.
• Agree with the directors that you can’t just revive people willy-nilly, then return to hydroponics and confront the protestors. Ask Rhys what his mother would think of his behaviour to disperse the crowd calmly and end the quest.

There are no further story or gameplay consequences to either choice, and nobody every mentions it ever again, so do what you think is right here. Mass Effect Andromeda is all about trusting your gut and forging your own unique story, over the course of, ooh, at least six decision points.

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Mass Effect Andromeda guide: what to do about the Mind of Voeld AI in Uncovering the Past

Mass Effect Andromeda offers visitors to Voeld a heck of a decision to make.

Voeld is one of Mass Effect Andromeda‘s most hazardous locations, and it boasts a killer collection of quests.

One of these is Uncovering the Past, a secondary quest that unlocks after you complete the priority op Remove the Heart on Voeld. It presents you with one of the few decision points that feel especially meaningful – and even get jotted down in your codex, which makes us think this one might come back to bite us in DLC.

Find more tips, tricks and explanations in our Mass Effect Andromeda guide and walkthrough.

Unlike most of the choices in Mass Effect Andromeda, what you do on Voeld matters a little bit, as it shapes what happens in the game’s final mission sequence. Let’s talk through it.

After collecting the Uncovering the Past quest, head to the indicated waypoint, which should be free from shields thanks to your efforts to liberate Voeld during Remove the Heart. Watch out for the turrets as you murder the Kett between you and the entrance to the ice cave.

Make your way from heat lamp to heat lamp – Voeld is fun, isn’t it? – as you fight your way into the cave. Unlock the three cages as you go, freeing the Angaran prisoners. Make sure you explore this area thoroughly as there are chests in side rooms – and because you need to kill every Kett to proceed.

Thanks, Alienware!

Brenna is playing Mass Effect Andromeda on an Alienware 17 with a GX 1070, kindly loaned, at her request, by Alienware Australia’s PR representative.

Speaking to the prisoners reveals the caves hold some deep dark secret of Voeld. They’ll explain you can blow the door up with explosives. (Before you do, head down the tunnel leading directly away from the waypoint and scan the room for an ancient artifact; this will help you finish a side quest and maybe do some extra romancing.)

Approach the indicated door and scan it, so that the objective changes to “clear the blast zone”; you then just need to run away and get into the indicated until the door blows up. Return to the now open doorway to penetrate the mysterious ruins beneath the surface of Voeld.

Voeld key decisions

Down in the ruins you find an AI called The Mind of Voeld which is in a very bad mood. No matter how the dialogue plays out, you end up with a choice:

• Kill the Mind of Voeld. The Angaran prisoners are saved.
• Preserve the Mind of Voeld. The Angaran prisoners are killed.

If you choose to preserve the Mind of Voeld, it asks you to keep it, opening up a second choice:

• Keep the Mind of Voeld, which has no known consequences.
• Give the Mind of Voeld to the Angara, who will then provide additional support during the game’s final mission.

To be honest, the difference between these outcomes is really slim; you definitely don’t need the Angaran’s extra help during the final mission. Go with your gut on this one, as with everything in Mass Effect Andromeda. If there are any wrong choices, we didn’t find them.

There doesn’t seem to be anything else to do in this huge area unfortunately, so trek back through the ruins and caves to the Tempest when you’re ready. We really hope this area and choice turn up in add-on content.

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