Daily Briefing: Wednesday 15th December

Keanu Reeves may have just outed a small CD Projekt Red marketing lie

Okay, this is a bit of a weird one but it'll still be fun to bring up because actor Keanu Reeves may have just exposed a bit of a fib on CD Projekt Red's part. Reeves is currently on the press circuit for the upcoming Matrix: Resurrections but interviews have spanned a whole range of topics beyond that, namely video games and more specifically Cyberpunk 2077. When asked whether he has played Cyberpunk 2077 Reeves, who played Johnny Silverhand in CDPR's maligned epic, replied "no, I mean I’ve seen demonstrations, but I’ve never played it."

• No big deal, right? Reeves also said that he doesn't play games generally and he probably already has too much going on with the whole not ageing thing. What is interesting about this is the fact that CD Projekt Red told their investors last year that Reeves had played the game and loved it. In an earnings call last November, CDPR president and join-CEO Adam Kiciński was asked what Keanu Reeves thought of the then-upcoming title. Kiciński replied,"he played the game. But as far as I know haven’t finished yet. So — but definitely, he played the game and he loves it.” It's more than a little embarrassing for CDPR, who only recently entered settlement talks with all the investors suing them for...lying about Cyberpunk 2077. Yikes.

You can try PlayStation Plus online multiplayer for free this weekend

Like all the other big console manufacturers, Sony charge a monthly subscription to play premium multiplayer games online though, also like the other big console manufacturers, free-to-play multiplayer games like Fortnite or Rocket League don't require a subscription. PlayStation Plus pretty pricy, as well, with an annual subscription costing in and around $60 in the US, though getting a few games for free each month goes a long way toward sweetening the deal. You can play for free this weekend (December 18th and 19th) so whether you're sitting on a pile of untried multiplayer modes or just haven't wanted to pay out for the subscription without trying it first, now's your chance.

• It's a pretty neat little offer from Sony because, though F2P weekends are a pretty common occurrence for premium multiplayer titles, they're normally made available on a per-title basis rather than for a whole console ecosystem. Call of Duty Vanguard are holding a free trial event this week, as well, but publisher Activision Blizzard are in charge of that, for instance. It's perhaps a little hard to determine how much appeal lies in an offer of this size, though, because surely any PlayStation players with even a little interest in multiplayer will already have a subscription on the go? At any rate, can't complain about free stuff!

Back 4 Blood's next big update launches this week

Turtle Rock's cooperative zombie shooter is getting a big patch tomorrow, Thursday December 16th, which is set to add quite a lot of stuff to the game. The main addition is the game's new offline campaign with its own suite of progression mechanics, which should do a lot to win over the group of fans who were disappointed that Back 4 Blood didn't have anything like that at launch. Playing offline essentially meant playing in a little progression-less bubble, which wasn't ideal.

• Elsewhere, the free expansion will also add a new card type in Burn cards. These can be played in safe rooms to apply temporary benefits like money boosts, increasing healing, greater status effect resistances and the like. There are also just more cards coming to the game, overall, which will likely offer a bit of a refresh to the tried and tested combinations. The update will also bring a suite of the usual bug fixes, balances changes, and other general improvements to help tighten up the game. Happy Zombie-Killing Christmas.