PlayStation Plus prices will increase for new subscribers starting May 20, but depending on your subscription status, it might not be time to panic--yet. According to Sony, only "select" regions will be affected for now, and it blames "ongoing market conditions" for the increases.

So far, only monthly and three-month subscriptions are being affected, with new US subscribers facing an increase of $1 for a one-month PS Plus Essential subscription and a $3 increase for the three-month version of that subscription tier. For now, the annual subscription price to PS Plus remains unchanged.

Current subscribers will not pay extra--unless they reside in Turkey or India--but letting your subscription lapse and then rejoining PS Plus at a later date will result in you paying the higher rate. Overall, the new prices look like this:

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Imagine a Lego set that represents Batman 89, the Tim Burton classic that helped create the modern superhero blockbuster. Then imagine other sets that represent Batman Returns, Batman Begins, The Batman, and so on. You start breaking pieces apart from each set and piecing them back together. At first you can identify a chunk from one movie and distinguish it from another, but the more you mix, the more unrecognizable they become. Before long it's difficult to tell exactly where one begins and another ends. That's what it feels like to play Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, a game that litters its influences so liberally that the pastiche becomes its own reality. In the process, it recaptures the glory days of licensed Lego games by feeling, for the first time in a long time, fresh.

The freshness is what I kept coming back to throughout my time with Legacy of the Dark Knight. Like lots of people, I played Lego Star Wars: The Video Game, the 2005 Traveller's Tales game that established a house style for Lego games and began a flurry of licensed tie-ins. I loved it, and I spent countless hours plumbing its depths and unlocking every character. It was a simple game bursting with secrets to find as well as a playful take on a mythology that mattered to me.

Since then, though, the franchisification of licensed Lego became supercharged, to its detriment. At the height of its power there would be three or even four licensed Lego games released in a single year, and the series burned itself out. You can only find hidden doodads so many times. In recent years, Lego has seemed more cautious, producing more artsy takes like Lego Builder's Journey or Lego Voyagers, with far fewer licensed games. Against that backdrop, Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight feels like a statement of intent. With additional care and time, this is what a Lego game can be.

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Hopes that preorders for Grand Theft Auto 6 would start on Monday seem to have reached a dead end.

Some content creators in Best Buy's affiliate program claimed to receive emails indicating that GTA 6 preorders begin on May 18, and optimistic fans speculated that a third trailer for Rockstar's next blockbuster would drop at the same time. But such heresay seems to be a pipe dream, with an administrator in the (unofficial) GTA Forums claiming that a source in a European distribution company "confirmed there's no pre-orders," per IGN.

As of Monday morning, GTA 6 has yet to emerge on any major online retailer. Assuming that holds for the rest of the day, it'll end another chapter in the long wait for GTA 6, defined by the GTA fan base's restlessness and eagerness to grasp at straws. The latest rumors of GTA 6 preorders even boosted stock prices for Rockstar's parent company, Take-Two----leading to a drop Monday morning, which has since been recouped.

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HD-2D, the retro-cool art style spearheaded by Square Enix and imitated by many others, was originally built as a way to pay homage to classic Super NES-era role-playing games while also making them look distinctly modern. And to that end, it's been used exclusively for RPGs like the Octopath Traveler series and the Live A Live remake. The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, then, represents the next big evolution of this concept, showing that the art style can just as easily apply to other classic genres--this time, the top-down action-adventure game.

I played about two hours of The Adventures of Elliot in a demo that takes place about 3-4 hours into the game. At this point in the game, the main quest was to seek a magical shield, but I was given freedom to roam almost anywhere in the open world across two distinct time periods. Square Enix noted that this build of the game has incorporated some feedback from the public demo released last July--faster movement speed, a weapon-shortcut menu, and a selection of difficulty levels. The difficulty was set to Easy by default in my demo, but I switched it to Normal and kept it there without too much trouble.

On the topic of menu options, I should mention one more. Your fairy companion, Faie, is very chatty. Her voice is cloying, and she talks frequently, with an odd babytalk affect. It's a lot. Players of the 2025 demo must have given feedback on this too, because the build I played had a menu option devoted to Faie's chattiness. Her default is set to "Chatty" but you can switch her to "Reticent," which tones her down, a little. I played the majority of my demo with the default Chatty option but switched to Reticent to see the difference, and she still chimed in quite a bit. I have a high tolerance for these things but even I found Faie a little offputting, so I imagine some players will have a stronger reaction.

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The US Library of Congress has amassed numerous treasures deemed worthy of preservation over the years, and recently, the original Doom soundtrack has made the cut. Now sitting alongside other cultural artifacts that were added this year--like Beyonce's "Single Ladies" and Weezer's debut blue album--Robert Prince's Doom soundtrack is being honored for its part in ID Software's genre-defining first-person shooter.

As part of the selection criteria for the National Recording Registry, sound recordings need to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and can only be added 10 years after it was first created. The program has been running since 2002 following the creation of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, and the first 50 entries were officially announced in 2003.

So what Doom so special? According to the Library of Congress, Doom's soundtrack earned its place by being an "adrenaline-fueled soundtrack" produced during an era when video game composers had to deal with limitations of the time. "Prince composed the perfect riff-shredding accompaniment for the game's demon-slaying journey to hell and back," the Library said in a statement. "Taking advantage of his knowledge of MIDI, Prince even worked to ensure that the sound effects he created could cut through the music by assigning them to different MIDI frequencies."

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Following up a game as lauded as Disco Elysium would be an unenviable task for any developer, but especially one as fractured as ZA/UM. With many of the key creative minds behind the detective RPG separated from the studio following an ugly, and very public, legal dispute, it's up to those left behind to pick up the pieces. That's a lot of baggage to carry going into a brand-new, albeit familiar, game, so it's not surprising how ZA/UM has tried to distance itself from too many comparisons with its previous hit.

As a spy thriller, Zero Parades: For Dead Spies largely strikes a different tone than Disco Elysium. Aspects of it are still inescapably familiar, however, and it's this looming shadow--and sense of imitation--that prevents it from matching the same highs as its spiritual predecessor. Yet there are also enough fresh ideas for it to stand on its own two feet, even if its footing is slightly uneven and less creatively distinct.

Zero Parades' opening does little to quell the comparisons as you wake up on the floor of a small, dirty apartment. Hershel Wilk, codename Cascade, is here on an espionage mission. That's as much as both you and she know. The groggy spy was supposed to get more details from her mission partner, codenamed Pseudopod, but he's permanently indisposed--you find him unresponsive and sitting in a chair in his underwear, overlooking the city of Portofiro through the apartment's grimy first-floor windows. Rummaging through his pockets reveals an invoice for socks and a business card that simply reads, "All you need is a miracle." Figure out the rest on your own, agent.

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In the distant future, humanity faces its greatest threat: the Bydo Empire, a horrifying bio-mechanical life-form capable of corrupting and absorbing anything it touches. Although humans once created the Bydo as a weapon, the experiment spiraled out of control. Now the Bydo exist beyond normal space and continually attempt to invade human reality. After multiple wars and near-extinction events, the Bydo return once again - stronger, more adaptive, and far more aggressive. To counter this new invasion, the Earth Space Corps develops a cutting-edge fighter: the R-90 Ragnarok, a next-generation R-Type craft. Building on the legacy of R-Type Dimensions and R-Type Dimensions EX, Dimensions III has been completely re-envisioned with cutting-edge visuals and sounds, expanded gameplay modes, and a range of new features designed to deliver the most definitive modern edition of R-Type’s classic era.

Parsector is a 3D space flight game in which you play the role of a starship pilot at the outer rim of the galaxy. Begin the game in your own fighter ship, accept missions, mine space metal, and build your way up to a capital flagship. Along the journey of becoming a fleet admiral of privateers, you'll obliterate asteroids for precious resources, dodge an endless stream of Imperial blockade drones dropping out of warp, hijack an enemy cruiser, and maybe even put a few holes in a capital starship with your own personal railgun. Make daring runs on Imperial mining facilities, visit the local Star Sherriff to accept Bounties and Escort duties, and dock your ship at one of the Outer Rim's many Pit Stops to refuel and exchange goods. There's treasure and trouble behind every rock in these fields, so you're free to go where you want and do what you please; nobody will come and stop you.

CORSAIRS - BATTLE OF THE CARIBBEAN offers you a chance to live the true life of a pirate, with vast seas of possibilities awaiting you. It combines tactical combat with management-oriented gameplay, encouraging you to smartly manage your fleet and defend your trading positions. The game features an enhanced progression system, new types of soldiers, and an expanded campaign mode for a more immersive experience. Your journey will take you to the exotic islands of the Antilles, where you can discover hidden treasures, recruit new crew members, and fight for your nation's supremacy in the Caribbean.