Just ahead of Black Friday, some solid gaming deals are popping up. A 12-month subscription to PlayStation Plus is currently $40 on Amazon. It typically costs $60 and it’s a digital code, so you won’t have to wait for delivery. If you’re already a PS Plus member, it’s still worth checking out this deal, since you can stack additional subscriptions.

Buy PS Plus (1 year) at Amazon – $40

You’ll need a PS Plus membership to play most multiplayer games on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. There are exceptions for some free-to-play games, including Fortnite. In addition, members often get discounts on digital purchases through the PlayStation Store, as well as cloud storage and backups for game save files.

One of the major value adds of PS Plus is that players receive a mystery bag of a few games each month across PS4 and PS5. There are three extra PS VR games this month to mark the headset’s fifth anniversary. You’ll retain access to claimed PS Plus games as long as you maintain your subscription.

PS5 owners can take advantage of the PS Plus Collection too. It’s a selection of first-party and third-party PS4 games, some of which have been patched for better performance on PS5. The lineup includes God of War, Monster Hunter: World, Final Fantasy XV, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Ratchet & Clank, Days Gone, Battlefield 1, Batman: Arkham Knight, The Last Guardian, The Last of Us Remastered, Persona 5 and Resident Evil 7. The same rule applies: if your PS Plus subscription lapses, you won’t be able to play games you claimed through the collection.

Of course, given that this is the biggest shopping season of the year, there are discounts on games as well, and many of the better deals are for physical editions. You can find savings on PlayStation console exclusives like Deathloop ($30, usually $60), the director’s cut of Ghost of Tsushima on PS5 (down from $70 to $40), Demon’s Souls (also reduced by $30 to $40) and, in one of the bigger discounts, Returnal, which has dropped from $70 to $30.

There are good deals on multi-platform titles too, such as Eidos-Montreal’s surprisingly wonderful Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which is half off at $30 on all platforms. Hitman 3 and Resident Evil: Village are both less than half price at the minute at $20. Hades, which is widely regarded as one of the best games of 2020, is also $20 on all platforms.

Far Cry 6 is a third off at $40, and you can save on FIFA 22 as well. The latest edition of EA’s famed soccer series is $40 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S (it’s a digital code for the latter consoles), and $28 on PS4 and Xbox One.

The PS5 digital edition and Xbox Series X don’t have disc drives, so deals on physical games won’t mean much to owners of those consoles. However, it’s worth checking out the PlayStation and Xbox digital stores for Black Friday deals there too.

Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by visiting our deals homepage and following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter.

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Source: Engadget – Early Black Friday gaming deals include one year of PS Plus for

Sony made the best even better with this year’s WH-1000XM4 wireless headphones and they’re back on sale ahead of Black Friday. You can grab the cans for $248 right now, or more than $100 off their normal price. If you prefer earbuds, the WF-1000XM4 have been discounted for a bit and remain down to $248 as well.

Buy WH-1000XM4 at Amazon – $248Buy WH-1000XM4 at Best Buy – $248Buy WF-1000XM4 earbuds at Amazon – $248Buy WF-1000XM4 earbuds at Best Buy – $248

All of the key (and stellar) features of the previous WH-1000XM3 are in the latest headphones, but the new model has a few upgrades, too. The design is slightly sleeker and more comfortable, and you’ll get about 30 hours on a single charge so you can wear them for long stretches of time. Sound quality is great with punchy bass, and Sony’s 360 Reality Audio provides an immersive experience similar to that of Dolby Atmos. Active noise cancellation is also solid and, with Adaptive Sound Control enabled, the headphones will automatically adjust the level of noise cancellation based on your environment.

We also appreciate the addition of two new features: multi-device connectivity and Speak to Chat. The former allows you to connect the XM4 to a couple of devices at once, switching between them at will. The latter will automatically pause audio coming from the headphones when it detects you speaking. Most people will likely use the former feature more on a regular basis, but the latter is nice to have, too.

For those who prefer earbuds, you’ll get many similar features in the WF-1000XM4. These earned a score of 86 from us for their excellent sound quality and ANC, improved battery life and wireless charging case. They also have the same Speak-to-Chat feature that the headphones have, even if it can be a bit finicky sometimes. The ANC on these buds is noticeably better than that of their predecessors, and they also support 360 Reality Audio.

Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by visiting our deals homepage and following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter.

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Source: Engadget – Sony’s excellent WH-1000XM4 headphones are back down to 8

Samsung’s latest family of foldables is its best yet, but also its most expensive. Their high price tags can make it hard to be an early adopter without emptying your bank account. But Black Friday sales have come in clutch for the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and the Galaxy Z Fold 3 — both are on sale for record-low prices at Amazon right now. The Z Flip 3 is $150 off and down to $850 while the Z Fold 3 is $300 off and down to $1,500. Both also come with a free pair of Galaxy Buds 2 if you apply the promotional offer on the product page before checking out. If you’d rather order directly from Samsung, you can get the same deal on the Z Fold 3 there, but the Z Flip 3 costs an extra $50.

Buy Z Flip 3 at Amazon – $850Buy Z Flip 3 at Samsung – $900Buy Z Fold 3 at Amazon – $1,500Buy Z Fold 3 at Samsung – $1,500

Out of the two, the Z Flip 3 impressed us more, in part because Samsung fixed many of the problems found in its predecessor. While you’ll still notice a crease in its 6.7-inch AMOLED display, it’s not as noticeable as before, and the screen and the device overall seems more durable this time around. The handset doesn’t scratch as easily anymore and it’s IPX8 water resistant, too.

The main screen runs at 2,640 x 1,080 resolution and is lovely to use, and it supports up to 120Hz refresh rates. When folded, the 1.9-inch external screen displays short bits of information like the weather and calendar events, and it can be used to quickly access certain features like Samsung Pay. We also appreciate the new software features that Samsung built in that are foldable specific such as Flex Mode, which will show things like a a YouTube video on the top half of the display when the device is partially folded and the comments section on the bottom.

While the Z Flip 3 is both impressive and fairly practical, we found the Z Fold 3 to be remarkable but much less useful. It’s larger and heavier for one, and when closed, it’s narrower than most smartphones, which makes it a bit awkward. Its 7.6-inch AMOLED interior display provides an immersive experience and is more flexible than previous iterations, and we appreciate the S Pen support. But overall, it’s not the best smartphone nor the best small tablet. However, that might not matter to those who are super excited about owning a foldable — and these Black Friday sales make that reality a bit more accessible.

Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by visiting our deals homepage and following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter.

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Source: Engadget – Samsung’s Black Friday sale knocks up to 0 off foldables and includes free earbuds