It feels wise that Exoprimal, a game that opens with a futuristic weather forecast that suggests the foreseeable future will be cloudy with a chance of raptors, doesn’t spend a lot of time explaining itself. At its core, if you’ve played a Gears of War Horde mode session, or a few rounds of Destiny 2’s Gambit, then you’ll likely feel at home with what a round of this reptile blaster has to offer. In its first very limited closed playtest, Exoprimal shows a solid foundation for a PvPvE shooter, and if it sticks with its strengths like the time attack-style objective racing and interesting class design, it could be well worth sinking your teeth into.

The meat of a round of Exoprimal sees a team of five running through a stage, stopping at points to complete small sub-objectives, all of them involving shooting dinosaurs that are falling out of singularities in the sky. Usually this means you need to kill a certain amount of them before moving on, or protect a static location or object from them for a period of time. It’s not just waves of speedy raptors chomping at your heels either. As levels progress, so do the variety of dinos that appear. The demo didn’t reveal too much of its hand here, but there were occasional flying pteranodons and neosaurs, mutated bipedal baddies that can shoot projectiles or explode when you get near them. The enemy mixes were dynamic enough that progressive waves weren’t just a cake walk.

Enemy teams are doing the same thing as you, but concurrently. An opaque overlay of them can be seen between objectives, giving you a hint of where they are on the list in comparison to you. This indirect PvP was a great bit of tension that reminded me of a ghost car in a racing game, constantly motivating your squad to pick up the pace and find any opportunity to shave off a couple of seconds. Occasionally, you can even directly affect the enemy team's progress, summoning a large, player-controlled dinosaur and throwing it in their way to wreck shop.

Your weapon of choice for mass dinosaur slaying are exosuits – Iron Man-style armor each with their own role and suite of abilities. Of the ten suits teased in the opening cinematic, just four were available to play during the test. Zephyr and Deadeye deal heavy damage in melee and ranged, respectively. The beefy Roadblock uses a big shield and a taunt to make himself the center of attention in a dino swarm. Witchdoctor stuns the prehistoric pests in close range and can heal and shield your party. I tended to favor the latter two, but one of the real strengths of Exoprimal’s combat is that you can switch between them at any time, readjusting the squad based on the objective in front of you. Defending a VTOL aircraft while it spools up as raptor waves pour in from multiple directions might require more than one tank, whereas one giant triceratops boss stomping around a city block demands a more damage-heavy crew.

If it was just a class-based horde-mode time-chasing shooter, I’d say we’re on track for something potentially great here. Unfortunately, every round ends with a final objective that puts both teams on the same map to duke it out in point-capture or escort-type missions, culminating in a grating PvP experience that I dreaded every time it came up. The escort mission, Data Key Security, makes your team baby a slowly moving objective as it reaches an end point. It moves at a snail’s pace as you defend it from onslaughts of dinosaurs and, eventually, enemy players. These usually end in boring firefights down a narrow alley, with either side either playing peekaboo from behind the objective, or running kamikaze into the enemy squad as melee classes. This at least still felt like it involved dinosaurs, though, whereas the point capture Energy Drain objective tasked the teams to run around the map collecting points and killing enemy players seemingly abandoning the entire reptile concept altogether. And in general, as of this test, exosuits seem poorly balanced for combat with each other. Witchdoctor felt especially useless, as the damage from any of the assault classes was so overwhelming that healing was more of a formality than a viable means of keeping the team in a fight.

Even with a very limited variety of maps and objectives, the parts of each contest that didn’t involve shooting at the other team were fun and furious. I'm eager to see new maps, try on new exosuits, and blast through new types of scaly monstrosities in the future. I'm not so eager to trade fire with other exosuits in mediocre, paint-by-numbers PvP, though.

Sony has announced a new reward points programme called PlayStation Stars that will allow players to earn points with real cash value.

Announced on the PlayStation Blog, the loyalty programme will begin later this year (though Sony didn't say when exactly) and will be free to sign up to. Players will be able to complete objectives – with some as simple as playing a game once a month – to earn points that can be later redeemed on the PlayStation Store or for other rewards.

The catalogue of items " may include PSN wallet funds and select PlayStation Store products," and members of PlayStation Plus will also receive points for purchasing items on the store, similar to the My Nintendo programme on Switch.

Outside of PlayStation Store related rewards, users can also earn "digital collectibles" that are "digital representations of things PlayStation fans enjoy, including figurines of beloved and iconic characters from games and other forms of entertainment, as well as cherished devices that tap into Sony’s history of innovation."

Additionally, according to The Washington Post, the first player to get the Platinum trophy in certain games will receive an extra special award, which no one else can get. It's not clear exactly how this will work – there's mention of it being within a local time zone, so it could be a territory race for the Platinum rather than a global one – but PlayStation has promised it will crack down on any attempts to get the rewards through fraudulent means.

New collectibles will be added regularly, with Sony stating that some will be particularly rare and something for players to continuously work towards.

The programme will mark another upgrade to Sony's digital offerings as it recently introduced new PlayStation Plus tiers. While the basic tier is more or less the same as the previous PlayStation Plus, the middle and most expensive tiers offer hundreds of extra games in a service similar to Xbox Game Pass.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Rumbleverse, the Fortnite meets pro wrestling Battle Royale game, will be released next month on August 11, for PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series, and PC through the Epic Games Store.

The free-to-play, 40-person Battle Royale will feature a battle pass too, but its Season 1 doesn't start until a week after launch on August 18. Iron Galaxy Studios has not announced pricing for the battle pass but, given that Fortnite's Epic Games is also publishing Rumbleverse, it will likely cost around $10 for the standard version.

A new trailer (below) was released alongside the release date announcement, showcasing some of the wackiest moments from Rumbleverse's network tests.

"Rumbleverse has been a passion project for us and a real testament to the skills and experience of our team,” said Iron Galaxy co-CEO Adam Boyes. "We can’t wait to see everyone pour into Grapital City and discover the singular joy of suplexing a friend off a skyscraper."

The game was first announced in December last year and was originally expected to be released in February. The studio later delayed the game indefinitely but eventually settled on this new August release date.

In our preview of the game, IGN said: "With a unique angle, a familiar but visually appealing cartoony art-style, and more wrasslin’ than you can shake a steel chair at, Rumbleverse seems primed to be a legitimate new contender in the competitive battle royale genre."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Tengen Uzui is now available in Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles as the first DLC fighter in the Character Pass.

Though Uzui is also available as a standalone purchase, publisher SEGA is putting the Character Pass on sale to celebrate the launch. A free DLC stage, the Entertainment District, is also being released today to celebrate Uzui coming to the game, referencing his introduction in the Demon Slayer anime. Those who purchase Uzui will also receive a set of profile photos and quotes.

Also being released across all platforms today is the Kimetsu Academy Summer Uniforms pack, which was previously only available on Nintendo Switch. Players on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S, and PC via Steam can now purchase the DLC outfits for $4.99.

As Uzui is just the first DLC character available in Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles, joined by six other characters released across five packs by the end of 2022. These include: Nezuko Kamado, (Advanced Demon Form), Tanjiro Kamado (Entertainment District), Zenitsu Agatsuma (Entertainment District), Inosuke Hashibira (Entertainment District), Daki, and Gyutaro.

The additional characters will help address a flaring issue in the game, as in our 7/10 review, IGN said: "Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles is a fighter that balances depth and accessibility well, but it’s hamstrung by an inconsistent story mode and a slim roster."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

The Gray Man is in theaters on July 15, 2022, and will stream on Netflix on July 22.

With an all-star cast led by Ryan Gosling as a CIA hitman on the run, The Gray Man builds itself using the spare parts and superficial flourishes of much better action films. It’s a serviceable impression directed by Joe & Anthony Russo, who, along with co-writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, were responsible for a huge chunk of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (most recently, Avengers: Endgame). But where the MCU is often criticized for its lack of discernible style, The Gray Man is a product of too many conflicting approaches with no unifying vision — not unlike their previous effort, the Tom Holland-fronted Cherry — resulting in a spy movie mish-mash that takes far too long to be enjoyable.

Based on the novel series by Mark Greaney (a frequent collaborator of the late Tom Clancy), The Gray Man is Netflix’s latest shot at a first installment in a hopeful franchise (see also: The Old Guard). The streaming giant reportedly cut the Russos a mammoth check of $200 million, but this investment is rarely reflected by the film’s flimsy, textureless appearance that makes exotic locations feel cheap, and complicated fight scenes seem hastily strung together. At its center is a tale where nearly every character feels cut whole-cloth from a spy movie parody, speaking in broad espionage terminology alone, and rarely exhibiting an ounce of humanity. There is perhaps one major exception — or an attempt at such — in the form of Chris Evans’ suave, sociopathic private sector hitman Lloyd Hansen, who chases Gosling’s character, codenamed Sierra Six, across much of the 129-minute runtime. But Evans’ role ends up too blinkered in its adherence to “type,” and too singular in its attempts to project tongue-in-cheek villainy, to leave a lasting impression.

A brief prologue set in 2003 depicts Six’s recruitment from a jail cell by agency operative Donald “Fitz” Fitzroy (a de-aged Billy Bob Thornton), before the film skips forward 18 years, with Six caught in the middle of a Bangkok hit where things don’t feel quite right. Assisted by field agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas, in a less layered version of her role in No Time To Die), and questionably ruthless instructions by ruthless his new boss, the young hot-shot Denny Carmichael (Bridgerton’s Regé-Jean Page), Six does things his own way and creates a ruckus at a flashy nightclub, leading to a barely comprehensible fist-fight with his target, which ends with him acquiring secret data that threatens the Agency’s operations.

What follows takes its cues from Skyfall, the Bourne Trilogy, a few Missions: Impossible, and even John Wick, but it never manages to create a character or action sequence as memorable as any of its inspirations. Gosling, while he spearheads the film’s quippy, self-effacing dialog — oh yes, The Gray Man is particularly Marvel-esque in this regard — is largely left adrift by a script that doesn’t so much as give Six a discernible personality trait, let alone a real objective beyond surviving militarized attack number X, before making his way to Asian or European location number Y in anticipation of the next big sequence. Attempts are made to give him something of a heart, by introducing the complication of Fitz’s kidnapped niece (Julia Butters) — whose history with Six is revealed through a lengthy and awkwardly structured flashback that stops the movie dead; The Gray Man loves its time jumps! — but Six isn’t so much a person as he is an amalgam of cinematic ideas, none of which are given the requisite breathing room. The title is explained as a reference to his morality, but the film’s moral dimensions are so swiftly smoothed over as to be completely moot.

The majority of the cast is similarly shackled by the edit’s need to zip from scene to scene without a lasting human moment. De Armas isn’t so much doe-eyed as she is a deer in the headlights; she’s a more than capable actress, but she struggles here to so much as spin a questioning glance from the story’s abyss. Even poor Jessica Henwick, who plays Carmichael’s second in command, is saddled only with occasional objections and observations about Hansen’s destructive methods, in order to give the film the appearance of conscience or dilemma — the CIA needs to assassinate people the “right” way, quietly and legally; how brave — until The Gray Man recalls that Henwick may be useful in some potential sequel, granting her a last-second usefulness that only serves to rob tension from existing scenes.

Evans’ Hansen is touted as a sociopath, but he’s less intimidating than Dear Evan Hansen; perhaps Evans is too straightforward a performer, or perhaps there was little provided by the writers and directors for him to tap into, with regards to the character’s diabolical villainy. The contrast between his vicious M.O. and his loafers and designer casual-wear comes off as aggressively plain rather than intriguing, given the broad nothingness of his demeanor. What’s more, the film actually features a superior example of this archetype, albeit briefly, in the form of a character called “Lone Wolf,” one of the many John Wick-esque assassins set loose by Hansen in his contracted pursuit of Six. Lone Wolf is played by Indian actor Dhanush, a superstar in Tamil cinema, and while he only features in a handful of scenes (and his only recognizable trait is a vaguely orientalist idea of “honor”), his combination of patterned suit and graceful movements during his fight scenes captures the kind of harmonious clash between cruelty and style the film so desperately wants from Evans.

Speaking of style, The Gray Man makes it crystal clear that the Russos’ copy-paste visual approach is unworkable. Their Bourne-esque quick cuts for hand-to-hand combat lack visceral impact. Their occasional riffing on John Wick’s gun-fu provides occasional clarity, but even in their most legible medium and wide shots, there’s no sense of composition to draw the eye, and little by way of lighting and color to accentuate mood (comparing the film’s title to its muddy color grading would almost be too easy). The brothers even add drone shots to their repertoire, but seemingly at random. Where Michael Bay’s Ambulance used drones to turn a chase into a four-dimensional roller coaster, the Russos simply deploy the technology for the occasional establishing shot, or as connective tissue when they can’t figure out how to move from one part of a fight scene to another.

Eventually, The Gray Man morphs into a watchable, mid-2000s thriller — the kind you’d rent on DVD because the cover featured crosshairs, redacted documents, and maybe a wilting American flag — but by the time it gets there, so much breath is wasted on creating non-characters that its last-minute attempts at emotional intimacy have no legs left to stand on. It’s a movie about nothing and no one in particular, and it isn’t even pretty to look at.