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Grand Theft Auto V gets current-gen console boost in March

Rockstar Games has confirmed that the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions of Grand Theft Auto V and GTA Online will launch on March 15.

While the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of GTA V don’t seem to add anything in the way of new story content, the blog post revealing the new date explains how they will utilize the power of the new systems. Rockstar Games promises 4K resolution and 60 frames-per-second (fps) support, better draw distance, more detailed textures, HDR, ray tracing, better loading times, haptic feedback, and 3D audio.

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GTA Online will see the same improvements, and will also get a stand-alone release for those just interested in multiplayer. Rockstar Games will no longer require players to complete GTA V‘s prologue before accessing it, and it’s getting a reworked tutorial as well. On PS5 and Xbox Series X, Hao’s Special Works auto shop will be exclusively available, and will upgrade cars so they have “elite driving performance that takes full advantage of the upgraded power of new console hardware.”

Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S – Coming March 2022

The stand-alone version of GTA Online will be free on PS5 for the first three months. Rockstar Games also confirmed that players will be able to carry over GTA V and GTA Online progression to these next-gen systems with a “one-time migration.” 

These next-gen remasters were announced in June 2020 as the first reveal during Sony’s PS5 unveiling livestream. We have not seen much of the remasters since then, though. Last year, they were given a November 11 release date, but were eventually pushed to March 2022 because Rockstar thought the ports needed “a few additional months for polishing and fine-tuning.”

In its place, we got GTA: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition, remasters of three classic GTA games. Sadly, that collection came out buggy and rushed, as it was clearly forced to launch on the date GTA V abandoned. Now, all eyes are on these next-gen ports of GTA V to see if they also have technical issues at release, or if this delay was beneficial. 

GTA V and GTA Online will be released for PS5 and Xbox Series X on March 15, 2022. Oh, and GTA 6 was finally announced, too.

Editors' Recommendations

The Callisto Protocol is a confidently disgusting Dead Space spiritual successor
Jacob Lee aims a gun at an enemy in The Callisto Protocol

The Callisto Protocol is a spiritual successor to Dead Space, and it's not hiding that fact. From the unsettling aesthetics to the limb-slicing combat to the player’s HP being displayed on the main character’s body, it’s clear that Dead Space creator Glen Schofield is trying to capture lightning in a bottle twice with Striking Distance Studios' debut game.
The most surprising part? The team might have actually pulled it off.
Digital Trends played about an hour and a half of The Callisto Protocol on PS5, all of which took place within the game’s third chapter: Habitat. My adventure through a ruined water purification facility highlighted the strengths of the game’s visuals, sound design, and difficulty that make me fear for the protagonist's life in the same way I did for Isaac Clarke in the original Dead Space.
The Callisto Protocol - The Truth of Black Iron Trailer
Gross protocol 
In The Callisto Protocol, players try to escape the Black Iron Prison on Jupiter's Callisto moon after a mysterious alien force attacks, killing and destroying anything in its way. In the game’s third chapter, I was tasked with making my way through a water purification facility as I tried to get on a train to take me to another part of this doomed detention center. The narrative was light during this demo, mainly involving environmental storytelling and the occasional transmission from when the Black Iron Prison fell into chaos.
The main character of The Callisto Protocol, Jacob Lee, is portrayed by Josh Duhamel. The protagonist being a Hollywood star didn’t make too much of a difference during my demo, as the dialogue was minimal (he mostly just grunted or screamed). It’s hard to tell if Jacob will become as memorable or iconic as Isaac Clarke based on the time I've spent with him so far.
Even with some light narrative hooks, I felt motivated to complete my objectives and get off this moon because of how disgusting Black Iron Prison is. Really, it's downright gross. From visuals to sound design, everything in The Callisto Protocol is purposefully off-putting and icky. Dead Space’s influence in the creation of its world is evident, as I trekked through a primarily brown and dirty sci-fi facility with grotesque aliens that wanted nothing else but to slaughter me. Though I wouldn't use the word "pretty" to describe Black Iron Prison, I don't need that as a knock on its visual quality. On the contrary, it looks fantastic.

As I completed the objective, I had to trudge through lots of dirty and slimy water, blood and guts, and alien goo. The sound design is equally pulpy and visceral, as every squishy noise added to the unsettling ambiance. Even the PS5’s DualSense helps pump that up with detailed haptic feedback reflecting whatever my character was doing. While this isn’t a new concept by any means, this team executed it with the same confidence that helped spawn Dead Space, which is getting a remake soon.
Uncomfortably good 
The Callisto Protocol stresses you out through gameplay, as combat encounters can be quite challenging. Like in Dead Space, any aliens the player comes across are significantly stronger than Jacob Lee and can kill him quickly if you aren’t careful. Disabling enemies by shooting their limbs is just as important as landing the killing blow. If you run out of your limited ammo or the enemy gets too close, you’ll have to resort to melee combat.
Players can dodge and block attacks by pointing the control stick in the right direction during melee combat. I didn’t get the hang of this during my demo, but there’s clearly some unexplored depth there. Alternatively, players can use the GRP to pick up objects (or enemies) and throw them. Occasionally, you’ll encounter deadly machines you can throw enemies into, and these are some of the most satisfying power trip moments.
It’s just as easy for Jacob Lee to die. Ammo is scarce, melee combat requires precision, and the camera is so close to Jacob Lee’s back that it’s hard to deal with enemies that pop up behind you. The best encounters in the Dead Space series were about spacing and targeting the right limbs, and every The Callisto Protocol battle I fought was crafted with that same mentality. And if you do fail and die, you’re greeted with a hyper-visceral death scene, like Jacob Lee’s face getting torn off.

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Two years later, the PS5 could never live up to its performance promises
A PS5 standing on a table, with purple lights around it.

The seams of the PS5 and Xbox Series X are starting to crack. Over the past week, two games launched that challenged the status quo for performance on current-gen consoles: A Plague Tale Requiem and Gotham Knights. Unlike nearly all console releases since 2020, both games shipped locked at 30 frames per second (fps) without a performance mode.

In late 2020, when the Xbox Series X and PS5 debuted, the norm was that players could opt for a high resolution at 30 fps or sacrifice a bit of visual fidelity for a smooth 60 fps. Sony never explicitly said the PS5 would always deliver a smooth 60 fps (Microsoft hinted at it), but that has been the expectation over the past two years. That's changing, and the situation won't improve going forward, especially for these third-party releases.
Next-gen, aging

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No Man’s Sky 4.0’s difficulty options make the space game feel new again
No Man's Sky warp drive

You’d think space was the final frontier, but 2016’s spacefaring exploration sim No Man’s Sky seems to keep finding new ways to expand and improve its eye-watering collection of features. What began as a quiet trek through a galaxy comprised of over 18 quintillion lonely planets is now a far more comprehensive game with a more sophisticated suite of gameplay options, including frontier towns to run, outlaw space systems to smuggle goods through, multiplayer missions to complete alongside your friends, and a fully-fledged story campaign to follow at your own leisurely pace.

It’s also recently been updated to its fourth major iteration as of October 7. That’s when developer Hello Games unleashed the 4.0 update, also known as the Waypoint update, coinciding with the long-awaited Nintendo Switch release. As a result of the 4.0 update, long-term No Man’s Sky fans were once again treated to an impressive array of improvements, including boosts to visual fidelity, better legibility within menus, and a noteworthy overhaul to inventory management that also left some players momentarily disheartened.

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