Previously available for PC and Xbox platforms, Deep Rock Galactic is a co-op first person shooter that sees space Dwarves venturing to hostile planets and excavating materials. Areas are procedurally generated and rife with deadly monsters, each with their own unique strengths and weaknesses. PlayStation players will have access to the full game along with Season 1 and its free Battle Pass (Season 2 arrives in March/April 2022).

DiRT 5 is Codemasters’ most recent entry in the franchise and features 10 locations from around the world with more than 70 routes, numerous vehicle types and four-player split-screen support. Persona 5 Strikers is a spin-off of Atlus’s acclaimed RPG with the Phantom Thieves venturing to and liberating mysterious Jails in Japan. It offers action RPG-esque, Musou elements but is still a compelling story.

Check out Deep Rock Galactic’s PS4/PS5 launch trailer below to see the game in action.

Apparently, the PS Plus free games for January 2022 will include DiRT 5, the latest entry in Codemasters’ racing series. There’s also Deep Rock Galactic, the co-op mining FPS, which recently shifted to a seasonal model for post-launch content, and will be seeing its PlayStation launch in January. Finally, there’s Persona 5 Strikers, last year’s direct action RPG follow-up to the acclaimed 2017 JRPG Persona 5.

When compared to PS Plus offerings for previous months, Sony seems to be starting the next year on a high note, with all three games being stellar hits of their own genres.

Of course, the elephant in the room is Project Spartacus, which will reportedly be combining PS Now and PS Plus to compete against Game Pass– we’re definitely excited to hear more about that in a more official capacity, so here’s hoping.

Speaking of which, Career is receiving a whopping 27 new events with each car class being featured. Four new off-road vehicles – the Bentley Continental GT Ice Race Car, Armada Rock Racer, Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport Baja Concept and Rezvani Tank – are also being added. There are also two new Sponsors – Toblerone and Power Maxed, each providing unique liveries to earn. This is in addition to the new patterns, stickers and lanyards.

New objects are also being added to Create mode as part of the Parts Unknown Playgrounds update and can be used for events like Gate Crasher, Playgrounds and Smash Attack. A location for Area 51 when designing custom arenas is also provided. Five new Achievements/Trophies are being added along with enhanced haptic feedback with the DualSense and 3D audio support on the PS5.

The Super Size Content Pack will be included with the Amplified and Year One Edition but can be purchased standalone. Stay tuned for more detailed patch notes when the pack goes live.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. Cross-play should be the standard for multi-platform games. In a better world, every game would launch with it. Well, Codemasters, the developers of the excellent DiRT 5, are bringing us a little closer to that perfect world with their latest update, which will cross-platform multiplayer to the game.

Since the update’s biggest addition is cross-platform play, you might be wondering why it’s called Red Bull Revolution. Well, the update adds a lot of other stuff, too, including several Red Bull liveries for your cars and an archway for Playground mode. In addition, Codemasters is adding new weather features. You will now be able to make tracks wet and low on grip and also race in stormy conditions.

The update also introduces ghost laps in time trial mode. Ghost laps are a pretty common feature in racing games, so it’s ice to see Codemasters add it here. Players will be able to see several kinds of lap ghosts: the fastest on record, the global closest to your best, the closest to you on your friends list, and your personal best.

The update is scheduled to release tomorrow., May 11th.

Even though the year is still pretty fresh, it’s been quite a big one already for Codemasters. The European company was acquired in full by Electronic Arts, after a bidding war between them and Take-Two Interactive. Who knows how that will go, but either way, the company still produces a lot of racing games. One of those was last year’s DiRT 5, a game we were a big fan of. Those with Xbox consoles can also get a free taste this weekend.

It was announced that DiRT 5 would be totally free to play for those who subscribe to Xbox Live Gold, which also obviously includes those who partake in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The game features off road racing with over 70 unique courses that cover all types of weather and road conditions.

DiRT 5 is available on Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One where it will be playable for free this weekend, and it’s also available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and PC.

It’s been another hard week for most people, no doubt. Those who are lucky enough to not have to work on the weekend use it as a time to relax and rewind, and one of the best ways to do that is by playing some video games. This weekend will also give you a chance to play two different types of games free of charge on your PC.

From today until the beginning of next week, you’ll be able to try out DiRT 5 on Steam. The game is the latest in the off road based racing simulator. If you’re interested in a different type of drive, more of a drive to take a ball to its respective basket, NBA 2K21 is also free on the service. It’s also the newest entry in 2K’s flagship sports title. Both titles are also on sale if you decide they are to your liking.

Both DiRT 5 and NBA 2K21 will be free to download and try out up until March 8th. You can check out DiRT 5‘s Steam page through here, and NBA 2K21 through here.

Microsoft has unveiled its next round of titles coming to Xbox Game Pass for PC, console and the cloud. On February 18th, Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire – Ultimate Edition, which includes the base game and all of its DLC, will be available on console and the cloud. Code Vein for PC and Wreckfest for all three platforms goes live on the same day.

Arcade classic Killer Queen Black becomes available for consoles and the cloud on February 23rd. Codemasters’ DiRT 5 will follow on all three platforms on February 25th alongside massive space exploration title Elite Dangerous for consoles. Superhot: Mind Control Delete goes live on February 25th for PC subscribers.

Xbox Game Pass has added titles like Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age, The Falconeer, Project Winter and Wolfenstein: Youngblood thus far in February. It should be interesting to see if any other titles will close out the remaining few days of month. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

Electronic Arts has confirmed that it reached an agreement to acquire Codemasters. The deal is for $1.2 billion with the latter’s shareholders receiving approximately $7.98 per ordinary share. EA’s offer comes at the last minute when Codemasters was initially slated to be acquired by Take Two Interactive for £750 million (roughly $980 billion).

Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson stated that, “We believe there is a deeply compelling opportunity in bringing together Codemasters and Electronic Arts to create amazing and innovative new racing games for fans. Our industry is growing, the racing category is growing, and together we will be positioned to lead in a new era of racing entertainment. We have admired Codemasters’ creative talent and high-quality games for many years.

“With the full leverage of EA’s technology, platform expertise, and global reach, this combination will allow us to grow our existing franchises and deliver more industry-defining racing experiences to a global fan base. We are pleased that both our Boards of Directors are recommending this transaction, and we look forward to welcoming such an exciting and talented team to the Electronic Arts family.”

The publisher also believes that Codemasters’ expertise with the Formula One, DiRT and other franchises along with EA’s Need for Speed and EA Sports brands will enable “our teams to innovate further.” It also believes that it can “accelerate” the developer’s performance with its “deep expertise in live services operations, game analytics and technology.” Resources like localization, art and motion capture, quality verification will also be made available to Codemasters from EA’s side. Of course, having the global publishing and marketing resources of EA is also expected to help expand the market for the developer’s titles.

The acquisition is expected to be done by Q1 2021, unless another publisher swoops in to stake its own claim (cue Microsoft with the last second run-in). It seems unlikely but stay tuned for more details on that front regardless.

Codemasters’ DiRT 5 has received some decent critical acclaim on release but there have also been some nagging issues with it. Key among these is an issue with High Frame Rate Mode, which allows for playing at 120Hz. Simply put, it doesn’t work as intended but the development team is working on fixing this in an update.

Technical director David Springate didn’t state when the patch would arrive but he did confirm that the issue doesn’t pop up in Photo Mode. He also apologized to Xbox Series X owners and promised to have the issue resolved quickly. Since playing at 120Hz is one of the key appeals of playing on next-gen consoles, the importance of the issue is understandable.

Last week also saw a major update for the game that added V-Sync to PS4 and PS5 while fixing a host of other issues. Expect other fixes in the coming weeks and more content via the game’s Year One Upgrade pack. DiRT 5 is currently available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC with the Google Stadia version coming next year.

"High Frame Rate Mode" (this is the 120hz mode) – this doesn't happen in the 60hz modes as John said in the video.
Also, this issue won't appear in photo mode.
Thanks for the hard work John! Happy to report, this issue will be fixed in a coming patch.

— David Springate (@davidspringate) November 22, 2020

https://twitter.com/davidspringate/status/1330544790237310978

Console launches have tended to be something on the barren side in the past, but this go around it seemed like there was a ton of things to choose from (though ironically, the machines themselves seem like they were more scarce than ever before). One of those was DiRT 5, the latest entry in the off-road racing series. The game came out across multiple platforms, and was well-received. That includes the PS5, but it seems as if the developer still wants to do some tweaks.

In a lengthy interview with GameOnDaily, Technical Director David Springate revealed that they still have some fine tuning to do on the PS5 version. They’ve already done some fiddling with the adaptive triggers with the last update, but it seems they aren’t too happy with the haptic feedback. Oddly enough, he says no feedback that they’ve gotten from players have been negative, it seems to just be something they internally aren’t happy with it.

“I’ve seen a lot of people say ‘I want to pick up DiRT 5 on PS5 because of the haptics’. It’s really interesting to me because I’ve seen a lot of people I hang out with on various forums, and I hang out in the DiRT 5 Discord, I’ve seen a lot of people say they really like the PS5 haptics. We’re not happy with it, so we’re going to be revisiting our haptics, even though I’ve not seen anybody say I hate the haptics in DiRT 5, but we are not happy with it so we’re going to go back and redo it.”

DiRT 5 is available now PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PC and Stadia. You can read our review of the game through here.