The third State of Play showcase of 2024 just took place and brought some major announcements with it. Throughout this 30-plus minute show, Sony and its third-party partners showcased over 20 games coming to PlayStation 5 and PSVR2 in the coming months. We got a new look at PS5 games like Lego Horizon Adventures and Monster Hunter Wilds, as well as some exciting new announcements such as Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered , which was leaked by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), and the Ghost of Tsushima sequel Ghost of Yōtei.
We also got to see some more games that will run on PS5 Pro hardware (its set to release this November). September’s State of Play was a big one PlayStation fans, so there’s a lot to keep track of. To help, we’ve rounded up everything announced during this State of Play.
To kick off the State of Play, we learned that Team Asobi’s critical darling Astro Bot will be getting a significant update. It will add five new online speedrun levels and 10 new bots based on games like Helldivers 2 and Stellar Blade. This new content for Astro Bot will be entirely free and launch sometime this fall on the PS5.
Palworld launched on PC and Xbox Series X/S and became a viral success early this year. That happened because the game had the cute creature-collecting elements of Pokemon, but was also extremely violent, like most survival games. In fact, it may be a little too similar to Pokemon, as Nintendo and The Pokemon Company are suing developer Pocketpair. That’s not stopping them from bringing Palworld to more platforms, as it surprise launched on PS5 during tonight’s State of Play.
Monster Hunter Wilds got a new trailer during this State of Play. It showed us some more story cutscenes, a new jungle-like biome, and some threatening new monsters that players will have to fight in the game, like the White Wraith. We also saw Felynes in action in Monster Hunter Wilds for the first time. Most importantly, we finally got a release date for this long-awaited Capcom game. Monster Hunter Wilds will be released on February 28, 2025.
Lego Horizon Adventures was revealed in June, but still had no release date. That finally changed today as a new trailer confirmed that Lego Horizon Adventures will be released for PC, PS5, and Nintendo Switch on November 14. That lines up with a previously leaked release date for the title. Its new trailer reaffirmed the core concept of the game: it is a kid-friendly, Lego-fied reimagining of the story of Horizon Zero Dawn that isn’t afraid to break canon with costumes based on other PlayStation characters like Sackboy or Ratchet & Clank.
Earlier in the month, an ESRB listing revealed the existence of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. Following in the footsteps of similar treatments for the two The Last of Us games, this is a refurbishment of a bestselling PS4 game for Sony’s current platform. The reveal trailer highlights the improved visuals and over 10 hours of rerecorded dialogue. Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered will be released on October 31, which is much sooner than expected. It will be available across PS5 and PC and will only cost $10 for those who own the original.
To close out the show, Sucker Punch Productions surprised us by revealing Ghost of Yōtei, a sequel to 2020’s critically acclaimed Ghost of Tsushima. It follows a new “ghost” named Atsu, and takes place around Mount Yōtei in Northern Japan. It also takes place in 1603, which is hundreds of years after Ghost of Tsushima, which is known for its gorgeous vistas and industry-leading visuals. Ghost of Yōtei is shaping up to be very much the same. It will be released exclusively for PS5 sometime in 2025.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.