Starting June 4, three new games will be available to subscribers to free in the form of Dotemu’s acclaimed beat ’em up Streets of Rage 4, Yuke’s and THQ Nordic’s wrestling game AEW: Fight Forever, and Purple Lamp and THQ Nordic’s 3D platformer SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake.

All three games will be available to subscribers of all three tiers – PS Plus Essential, Extra, and Premium – starting June 4. Meanwhile, EA Sports FC 24, which was on offer in May as well, will remain available to subscribers for free into much of June as well- until June 18, to be specific.

That, of course, means that subscribers have until June 3 to redeem last month’s games.

Alongside the release of Swerve to the Beach, AEW: Fight Forever has also gotten a new free DLC, titled Freebie 4 da Fans. The free DLC brings with it 10 new in-ring attires and 5 new music tracks that players can enjoy in the game. The free DLC, while out now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, will be coming to Nintendo Switch tomorrow.

AEW: Fight Forever – Swerve to the Beach is available as a standalone DLC priced at $9.99, or as part of the game’s third Season Pass, priced at $16.99. Season Pass 3 of AEW: Fight Forever will feature a new beach-side ring, 3 new wrestlers, 33 new move-sets, 42 new skins and attire options, and 11 new music tracks.

AEW: Fight Forever – Swerve to the Beach is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.

The DLC, dubbed Dynamite Featuring The Acclaimed, is the first of three planned DLCs part of the game’s second season pass, and is out now on all platforms except for the Nintendo Switch. On its own, Dynamite Featuring The Acclaimed is priced at $11.99. The entire second season pass is also available, priced at $59.99.

Since its release earlier this year, AEW: Fight Forever has gone through a host of content releases as part of its first season pass. Content part of the season pass include the FTR: Revival Pack, the Limitless Bunny Bundle, and the Hookhausen: Very Handsome, Very Evil Pack.

AEW: Fight Forever is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review.

Alongside bringing The Bunny and Keith Lee to AEW: Fight Forever, the DLC also brings with it two new minigames—MJF Car Thrash, and Sloth Sling.

In a recent update, AEW: Fight Forever had released a free new game mode titled Stadium Stampede. The game mode, inspired by battle royale games, throws thirty players together in a massive arena where they can make use of various weapons and wrestling moves to eliminate one another.

The game mode is named after a match type performed in AEW shows, with the most recent one having taken place recently.

AEW: Fight Forever is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. For more details about the game, read our review.

The Stadium Stampede mode will be available to all AEW: Fight Forever for free, and will pit players playing as their favourite pro-wrestlers against 29 other players. The match type will take place in a large football stadium, and will feature multiple different areas with wide variety in available weapons and types of zones to wrestle in.

Players can eliminate each other by performing wrestling moves to wear their opponents down, with the match ending when there’s only one wrestler standing. Stadium Stampede will also feature other battle royale gameplay conventions, including a shrinking playing field.

The match type is based on a real match type performed twice during the life of All Elite Wrestling shows, with a third one coming up at an upcoming event.

AEW: Fight Forever is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. For more details about the game, check out our review.

BREAKING NEWS: #AEWFightForever players will be available to download and play STADIUM STAMPEDE BATTLE ROYALE MODE within the next 24 HOURS! pic.twitter.com/HxHXSLJX1L

— AEW Games (@AEWGames) August 23, 2023

Redfall

Initial reveals of Redfall didn’t look terrible. The lighting, shadows and overall mood that Arkane Lyon was going for looked intriguing and could have made for intriguing supernatural action. Things took a turn when it was confirmed not to launch with a 60 FPS Performance Mode on Xbox Series X/S.

Nothing could have prepared us for the actual game, though, with its broken animations, lackluster facial animations, terrible effects, pop-in, bland world with lifeless textures and overall lack of polish. The 30 FPS mode wasn’t the worst on Xbox Series X, but the motion blur still isn’t ideal. Having no animated cutscenes throughout the game feels like the cherry on top of this dumpster fire of a presentation.

AEW: Fight Forever

When AEW: Fight Forever was announced, it was hyped as paying homage to WWF No Mercy on the Nintendo 64. You can feel that with the perspective and some of the idle animations. However, it also feels like it wants to be a major wrestling title with its price without doing the appropriate groundwork with its mechanics, animations, features and much more.

The animations during actual combat look and feel incredibly janky. Some wrestlers barely resemble their real-life counterparts, and the glitches and bugs, like wrestlers clipping into the environment or phasing through ladders, are just terrible. The fact that so much work went into nonsensical mini-games rather than polishing the overall presentation – like having full entrances, fleshing out Road to Elite or improving the character creator – says a lot about the overall focus.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum

On the one hand, you have to feel bad for Daedalic Entertainment. It probably wanted to make an adventure game and explore different avenues for the legendary character, like the moral choices between Smeagol and Gollum. However, unlike Deponia, it went with an action-adventure focus in full 3D. It also focused on some of the least interesting parts of Gollum’s life imaginable, like spending time in prison guiding a bird and then, get this, guiding a fellow prisoner.

Throughout all of this, the facial animations, texture quality, environments, and so on look horrible. The performance is also horrid with all the glitches, clipping and whatnot. If priced lower, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum may not have received much blowback. Unfortunately, at $60, with day one DLC costing extra, it just looks so much more awful.

Crime Boss: Rockay City

When you’re watching glitzy, edited trailers for it, Crime Boss: Rockay City looks decent. The lighting and shadows aren’t the worst, and sometimes, the city seems to come alive due to multiple light sources. On closer inspection, the textures on environments, characters and weapons look off.

The enemies animate in such a rudimentary manner. All NPCs suffer from almost no facial animations, and the big-name Hollywood actors fare only slightly better, looking uncanny at best and wooden at worst. One could forgive this if the script was better or the gameplay was compelling, but alas.

Ravenbound

Ravenbound could have done something with its lore and presentation. Not many games dip into Scandinavian folklore with its dark themes and whimsical yet terrifying creatures. Unfortunately, it seems that developer Systemic Reaction’s reach exceeded its grasp. The massive open world feels dull and lifeless with the same enemy camps and the same-looking enemies with the same limited animations (right down to the same telltale charge before an attack).

Texture quality in the environments and on models is poor, while Ravenbound’s performance was very iffy at launch (visibility during rain while activating Ravensight was non-existent). All in all, its mid-tier presentation needs a lot of work and polish.

Wanted: Dead

Wanted: Dead is a game that badly wants to emulate the look and design of sixth-generation console titles. Which is fine, but it didn’t need to look this poor. The textures on characters and environments already look pretty average, but outside of finishers, the character models animate stiffly with little by way of facial animations. There’s a constant jank to it all, but at least it’s over-the-top and crazy, right?

It feels like the same problem as AEW: Fight Forever – that developer Soleil wanted to make a throwback title instead of polishing the presentation but slapped a “homage to the classics” label on it to excuse the same. “It’s supposed to look like this, you see!” Regardless, the overall result is awful, even with the random wackiness.

Farming Simulator 23

It should be reiterated – when I saw the critics panning this game, I had to do a double take because Farming Simulator is generally well-liked. Farming Simulator 22 sold over 1.5 million copies in its first week and has 94 percent positive user reviews on Steam. So how did we get here? Farming Simulator 23 didn’t release on Xbox, PlayStation and PC like other platforms.

It arrived on iOS and Android and was ported to Nintendo Switch. The production values are not up to par, and the overall scale, sense of freedom and feature set also suffer from this paring down. The worst part? Despite looking so middling, it runs terribly on Nintendo Switch.

Redemption Reapers

Considering the experience of Adglobe and Binary Haze Interactive on the stunning Ender Lilies, the shift to a more realistic style for Redemption Reapers is somewhat puzzling. Given the post-apocalyptic nature of this medieval world, the gritty monotone visuals make sense, but they still feel overly washed out at times. While the cinematics look decent, the environments look extremely dull.

Character models also feel low-res, with animations that could have been better. It’s harsh, I know, especially since it doesn’t have the biggest budget, but even Harvestella from Live Wire (who also worked on Ender Lilies) looks better.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

It’s not that the aesthetic of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is bad. Team Ninja has always done good with its action hack-and-slash titles (except maybe Stranger of Paradise in terms of fidelity), and Wo Long’s showcase of Romance of the Three Kingdoms is quite good. Unfortunately, it’s weighed down by dull textures, lackluster facial animations outside of cutscenes and average-looking environments.

Its fidelity is probably on par with Nioh 2, which isn’t terrible, but considering the latter is a 2020 title originally exclusively for PS4, you’d expect some improvements at this point. Of course, the fact that Wo Long continues to have performance issues on PC also doesn’t help.

Greyhill Incident

Once again, when viewing the Greyhill Incident in trailers, it appears to be a low-budget B-movie-style game that could offer some fun and decent visuals. However, you’re exposed to wooden animations and awful character models during gameplay. The facial animations fare worse – the little grey aliens have very little, not even when taking damage or getting shot in the head.

Expected, but still lame, as their bored walking animations make you ponder their existence instead of feeling threatened. At the same time, while it does offer some interesting lighting and shadows, Greyhill Incident piles on the motion blur and washed-out textures. On the bright side, at least it’s true to the name with all the “grey” you’ll see.

Aubrey Edwards

One of two of the simplest unlocks of the set, Aubrey Edwards is right there in the in-game shop. Navigate to the Main Menu, to the Shop tab, then More Items. The referee/wrestler Aubrey can be had for a mere 20K charge in Credits, which is easy enough to grind with daily and weekly challenges.

Mr. Brodie Lee

In a counter-intuitive process, unlocking the late Brodie Lee involves first losing the Casino Battle Royale as quickly as possible, and then winning every subsequent match. Once you reach the juncture in the “Go Sightseeing” storyline where John Silver invites you to the Dark Order, you can be sure you are on the right path towards unlocking Brodie Lee. Agree to the offer. Continue on and defeat Brodie himself to unlock him in the Shop tab for an additional 30K cost in Credits.

Cody Rhodes

The other no brainer unlock, Cody Rhodes is available in the in-game hop at the outset. He can be unlocked for a measly 10K charge in Credits.

Owen Hart

One of the greats from the 90s, the late Owen Hart requires quite the grind to unlock. One hundred Exhibition Matches of any type must be played, and on top of that there is a 50K Credit cost in the Shop tab. While this may seem daunting, Exhibition Matches are a legitimate farm for Credits as it is, so you will be killing two birds with one stone. The monotony of it all may be what gets you down, so consider doing this over several days to avoid burnout. Any wrestler can be used, and difficulty is irrelevant as well.

Paul Wight aka the “Big Show”

Another somewhat convoluted unlock, just like Mr. Brodie Lee, Paul is unlocked via the Road to Elite mode. In this elaborate storyline, you need to lose every single match until you arrive at the storyline “Who’s Ribbing Me?” Turns out it was Paul, and you will have to defeat him with a tight time limit. Doing so only unlocks the purchase option in the Shop tab, where Paul Wight can be bought for a 30K cost in Credits.

That is every single currently known hidden wrestler in AEW Fight Forever.

Challenges

As with most games these days, AEW will entice you to load up the game everyday with daily challenges. Weekly challenges also exist, for players with busy schedules. The latter confers a fairly large amount of Credits for relatively painless tasks. Dailies are valued at less than a grand, but still worth it, especially if done dutifully every single day. A third type of Challenge are just normal incentive-based tasks that are one-time only, but offer a heavy Credit injection into your finances.

Exhibition Match

Of all the modes in AEW, this one may be the most lucrative for Credit farming. Additionally, there is a Challenge involving participation in 100 Exhibition matches in order to unlock Owen Hart, providing the opportunity to both grind for money and an unlock simultaneously. 5-star finishes will gain you the most Credits for your efforts, so try to accomplish these using signature moves, weapons, and whatever else you have at your disposal.

Grind Other Modes

It might help to break up the monotony of Exhibition with the other modes such as Tag Team and Casino Battle Royale. Check out the badges and minigames, make a custom wrestler, and try Road to Elite, rather than hard grind towards wrestler unlocks.

That is everything there is to know about farming Credits in AEW Fight Forever.

The the short teaser is light on details, it does give us quite a look at the battle royale game mode, titled Stadium Stampede. The game mode will have players join a match taking place in a large football stadium with 29 other players.

Players can eliminate each other by performing wrestling moves and wearing their opponents down, until there is only one wrestler standing. The game mode also makes use of other battle royale genre conventions, like a shrinking playing field, as well as seemingly-randomised weapon placement.

The Stadium Stampede mode is named after a similar match type that has taken place in AEW shows. However, the original matches involved two teams wrestling around the stadium, rather than a 30-wrestler free-for-all.

AEW: Fight Forever is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. For more details, check out our review.

Original Story:

Gfk’s UK physical sales charts aren’t available yet, but some stats are available courtesy of GamesIndustry’s Christopher Dring. He revealed on Twitter that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is back at the top spot, unseating Final Fantasy 16.

Physical sales for the Nintendo Switch title are up 18 percent, while Final Fantasy 16’s sales dropped by 78 percent. The latter saw a weaker opening in the UK than Final Fantasy 15, though it was ahead of Dead Island 2 and Diablo 4. Square Enix has since announced over three million worldwide shipments and digital sales in the RPG’s launch week.

Among the new titles debuting is AEW: Fight Forever, which entered the charts in third place and sold 40 percent less than WWE 2K23. Not terrible, considering it’s the first officially licensed title from All Elite Wrestling. Meanwhile, Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life debuted in seventh place.

Zelda (sales up 18%) is back at No.1 in the UK boxed charts, replacing Final Fantasy (down 78%). AEW is the highest new entry at No.3 (sales 40% lower than WWE 2K23, not bad).

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is at No.7.

I fully intend to get both of those at some point

— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) July 2, 2023