Beyond

It’s the holidays, which means spending time with loved ones, and probably getting into an argument with them too. So, we’re deciding on Beyond’s Top 10 PlayStation Games Ever, but we’re doing it in a stupid, convoluted way that will result in a list that no one, including us, agrees with entirely. Spoiler alert: this was an excuse to talk about some games we love for an hour. Hopefully we name at...

We sure do have a lot more games to look forward to than we did a week ago, huh? The Game Awards had quite a few big reveals, especially for PlayStation fans thanks to Naughty Dog finally letting the equally poorly behaved cat out of the bag and showing off Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, the first brand new IP since The Last of Us. Considering it’s been well over a decade since that was unvei...

Some of the last big games of 2024 have finally dropped, including the open-world dress-up game Infinity Nikki, which is currently a PS5 console exclusive, and Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, which is currently Xbox console-exclusive, but which will be hitting PS5 next year. Both of these games are great in their own ways, and they’re each doing some new things that make them fun in ways we we...

Between Nintendo Switch’s impending successor, Valve’s Steam Deck and its ilk, and Phil Spencer casually announcing an Xbox handheld is in development, portable gaming is in the midst of a revival. If recent rumors are to be believed, Sony will soon be following suit. So, what can be learned not just from the success of current handheld devices, but also Sony’s previous ventures into the pocket-si...

Have you ever been asked by your family during the holidays what a Kingdom Hearts is or why Solid Snake is in fact, not a snake? This week we answer those questions and many more in this very special holiday episode of Podcast Beyond. We also talk about why younger gamers aren't familiar with Metal Gear Solid anymore, why Brian is glad he bought a bad Unicorn video game, Max's emails to his mom ab...

Following the announcement of The Game Awards 2024 nominees for overall game of the year, the big debate right now is should Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion be eligible? Yes, it’s great, but Elden Ring won this award in 2022, and not only is Erdtree not playable without the base game, it requires a substantial amount of amount of legwork (and a big of eggwork) to even access. Aside fr...

In a recent investor call, Sony’s finance and IR chief Sadahiko Hayakawa announced that we should expect a major first party single-player game release at least once a year from the 2025 fiscal year onward, which is awesome news! However, aside form Ghost of Yotei, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach and Insomniac and Marvel’s Wolverine, that leaves lots of room for speculation about which of PlayStat...

The PlayStation 5 Pro has finally arrived (or arrives very shortly) and we’ve got IGN’s reviewer Michael Higham joining us to break down how much of an improvement this mid-gen hardware refresh actually is, from enhanced performance modes to PSSR upscaling, Sony has definitely released a powerful machine, but it might not be enough of a leap to justify its pricetag. In other news, Wolverine’s crea...

Call of Duty is here and we’re enjoying it! In fact IGN gave it great scores across the board so far with a 9 on the Campaign where you get to take pictures of Bill Clinton, and an 8 for the Multiplayer which feels pretty fun this year, Zombies hasn’t been scored yet but we talk about it a lot because Jada is having a great time with it full of Zombie raves, Bowling parties and other zany easter e...

It’s true! The remake of the 2011 game heaps on a ton of new content that makes it one of Jada’s favorite entries in the series to date, as indicated by her 9 out of 10 review score. How can SEGA and Team Sonic keep this momentum going with future games? Meanwhile, Insomniac is hard at work at something, but that something isn’t story DLC for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and maybe that’s okay? At the ve...

Tis the season… No, the OTHER season. That’s right, it’s that time of year when everything is covered with bats and skeletons and fake cobwebs and other macabre and ghoulish decor. So, we took the opportunity to reach out to our listeners and have them share the stuff in video games that’s terrified, creeped out, haunted, startled, or otherwise scared the crap out of them. It’s an excuse to talk a...

Wow! That episode title uses a lot of words to list just three games, but those three games are all some of this year’s most anticipated releases. We’ve all gotten to delve into Silent Hill 2’s long-awaited remake courtesy of Layers of Fear studio Bloober Team, Persona and Shin Megami Tensei developers ATLUS’ brand new JPRG, Metaphor Re:Fantazio, and Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero, which is basically...

The limited edition 30th Anniversary PlayStation 5 hardware that was announced last week went up for pre-order, and statistically speaking, you probably weren’t able to get one. On top of maybe TOO limited quantities of the very cool retro-style versions of the PlayStation 5, PS5 Pro, PlayStation portal and both DualSense and DualSense Edge, the whole online pre-order system turned out to be somet...

The latest PlayStation State of Play happened, and the Beyond crew broke down the biggest PS5 news and trailers from the event. There were various PlayStation 5 titles revealed, the biggest one showcased was Ghost of Yotei, which takes place in 1603 and is releasing in 2025. PlayStation is releasing various remasters, like Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 and 2 Remastered, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastere...

Now that the dust has settled on the PlayStation 5 Pro’s underwhelming reveal and overwhelming price tag, let’s actually discuss what it would take to get us seriously interested. Sure, Grand Theft Auto 6 at 4K 60FPS would be nice, but is it realistic? Will Rockstar save that for the inevitable PS6 version? We read some of the Beyond community’s thoughts on the matter. Speaking of PlayStation 6, w...

After months of leaks and rumors, Sony finally revealed the PlayStation 5’s mid-gen refresh, the PS5 Pro. The 8-minute technical presentation from Mark Cerny spent its first three minutes singing the base PS5’s praises, and then highlighted the “big three” improvements the new model boastsl: a larger GPU, advanced ray tracing, and AI-driven upscaling. This new tech was showcased in a montage of si...

Astro Bot is finally here, and surprise! It’s awesome! Simon Cardy joins us to discuss his review of Team Asobi’s full-sized follow-up to Astro’s Playroom, which is a rock-solid 3D platformer jam-packed with references, easter eggs and playful nods to thirty years of PlayStation history. We do our best to avoid spoiling any of the fun surprises, but really, it’s impossible to spoil the best part o...

We’re back to our normally scheduled Beyond program, and would you look at that! A few massive games came out for us to talk about. Star Wars Outlaws is full of high highs and low lows, and as much as we were hoping this would be Watch Dogs with Womp Rats or “Assassin’s Greedo,” its game design cherry picks mechanics from the Ubisoft’s stealthy open-world action adventure formula in odd ways. Stil...

Beyond and hello! Welcome to a very special gamescom edition of IGN’s weekly PlayStation show. This week, a whole bunch of the IGN team is in Germany covering the show, including Max, Brian, and our producer Nick, so putting together a regular Beyond episode was a little tricky. Instead, we’ve pulled together a bunch of our interviews about upcoming PlayStation games. We kick things off with India...

This week, it was announced that Stellar Blade sold a million copies, which has us optimistic we’ll see a sequel to ShiftUp’s much-discussed hack and slash. Something we definitely won’t be seeing is a PlayStation presence at gamescom 2024, which definitely doesn’t have us feeling particularly optimistic about Concord, the multiplayer FPS that Sony’s publishing that same week. A massive video game...

This week, we’re joined by the wonderful Jared Petty, formerly of IGN, currently of Limited Run Games, to talk about (among other things) Tomba! Special Edition. Who is this pink-haired feral child, and why is he biting all those pigs? We had questions, and Jared had some answers. Plus, Jada ventured into No Man’s Sky in VR and was very impressed, further highlighting just how much Hello Games man...

This week, Jada makes her return to the hosting chair along with Taylor Lyles, Cam “Final Mix” Hawkins, and Kevin Diaz to talk about the biggest games coming out of China Joy 2024 and Sony’s China Hero Project. Ganes like Lost Soul Aside, Exiledge, AI Limit and many more that are building momentum as we get closer to their releases. We also talk about other games that showed up at China Joy 2024 n...

This week, we’ve got plenty to talk about. Jada just reviewed Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, the open-world souls-like action RPG from the studio behind Ashen. She breaks down the combat, both ranged and melee, as well as traversal, how the world is laid out, and the novel approach of earning bonus experience by chaining together combos. We also delve into bosses, as well as what’s up with that lit...

Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is one of the more expansive expansions in recent memory, which has just pondering what exactly the sweet spot is for add-ons to games we love. Is waiting two years for a $40 expansion to a $70 game better than waiting five or six years for a full sequel? Regularly updated live-service games like Destiny 2 and Final Fantasy XIV have no trouble keeping existin...

Capcom had a few surprises for us with this week’s Next showcase, including the full reveal of Dead Rising: Deluxe Remaster, the second time the 2006 survival-action-horror game has gotten a fresh coat of paint. Apparently a deluxe remaster is a little more involved that your run-of-the-mill HD upscale, but not quite on the same level of a remake, like Capcom’s recent Resident Evil do-overs. Whate...