CD Projekt Red has finished divulging the full details of Cyberpunk 2077's 2.5 update coming to home consoles and PC on October 22, 2026.

The update will feature a new questline that acts as a prologue to Cyberpunk: Edgerunners season 2, dual-wielding pistols, new Cyberware and cosmetic customization options, FOV sliders on consoles, mod support on consoles, and more.

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Additionally, Cyberpunk 2077 has just received Xbox Play Anywhere support, so it can be played on all platforms within the Xbox ecosystem, like Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and compatible handhelds like the Xbox Ally via Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Here are all the full details and patch notes for Cyberpunk 2077's 2.5 update.

Cyberpunk 2077 2.5 update — patch notes

• Edgerunners Content
  • Added a new side quest, Clampdown, set before the events of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2. To unlock it, complete The Heist and two gigs for Wakako, then wait for a message from her.
  • Added a new 5-piece gear set based on the character King, which can be obtained during the Clampdown side quest.
  • Added a new radio station, HKGN 102.0 FM, featuring a selection of tracks from the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners series.
    
• Show Off
  • A brand-new clothing collection has arrived in Night City! 5 new outfit sets can now be purchased from certain clothing vendors:
  • Maxiwear: available in Heywood, Arroyo, Little China
  • Jinguji: available in City Center
  • NetWatch: available in Kabuki, Japantown
  • IconAmerica: available in Pacifica, Badlands, Northside
  • And one more set that will hit Night City shelves just a little later...
  • The NUS Infiltrator clothing set can be now purchased from clothing vendors in Kabuki and Japantown.
  • 4 new TWINTONE skins for Quadra Turbo-R V-Tech are now available via Twitch Drops.
  • Some of the hairstyles that were previously exclusive to NPCs are now available for V. Please note that some hairstyles are available only to feminine or masculine body types.
  • Show off your chrome! You can now customize your hand cyberware. Equip your Mantis Blades, Gorilla Arms, Monowire or Projectile Launch System, and visit one of 5 Glamdocs (marked with a spray paint icon on the map) to give your implants a fresh, new look. Each Glamdoc is located in a unique shop, along with their own intro scene with voiceover and animations, and offers a unique catalog of cyberware skins with customizable colors.
  • Sometimes one gun just isn't enough. The new Double Trouble perk in the Cool tree (along with four auxiliary perks) introduces an entirely new playstyle, allowing you to dual-wield Pistols and Revolvers from the Power category.
  • Added frames from the Cyberpunk Trading Card Game to Photo Mode, allowing you to make your preem shots look like custom cards.
  • Added new poses in Photo Mode to show off your dual-wielding prowess.
    
• Mod the World
  • Added Cross-Platform Mod Support, powered by mod.io, a first step into cross-platform modding that allows you to easily browse and install a selection of player-created mods directly from the in-game menu. More mods will become available over time. The feature is available on PC, Mac, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 5 Pro and Xbox Series X|S.
    
• Upgrading the World
  • Welcome to Paradise! Added a new side quest that takes you on a journey to uncover a mystery and explore Night City on a guided tour narrated by Richard Night. It unlocks after completing The Heist and reaching level 15 Street Cred.
  • Added 12 new Minor Arcana Tarot Cards to discover across Night City. The Tarot menu now has separate sections for Major and Minor Arcana. The new tarot cards are part of a new side quest, an extension of Fool on the Hill, which activates after scanning any of the new cards. Collect them all to get a special reward.
    
• Quality of Life
  • Saves in the “Load Game” menu are now grouped by separate playthroughs.
  • Added item filters to apartment and vehicle stashes.
  • Modded saves in the "Load Game" menu are now marked with a dedicated icon. Please note that achievements and trophies cannot be earned while playing on console from a modded save file.
  • Added an FOV (Field Of View) slider on consoles.
  • Updated the selection of AMD FSR options. FSR 3 upscaling is no longer included, while FSR 2.1, FSR 4, and FSR 3.1 Frame Generation remain available.
  • Updated the CD PROJEKT RED Account connection, My Rewards and telemetry consent menus.
    
• Technology
  • Added support for DLSS 4.5, including up to 6X Multi Frame Generation or Dynamic Multi Frame Generation, and the 2nd Generation Transformer Model.
  • Added support for glasses-free 3D effects on compatible Samsung Odyssey 3D monitors, along with a Motion Comfort setting that lets you balance 3D depth and viewing comfort.
  • Added support for MetalFX Frame Interpolation and Denoising on Mac.
  • Added a toggle in settings for FSR Anti-Lag 2.
  • Introduced various performance optimizations, including improvements specifically for Ray Tracing and for PlayStation 5 Pro.
  • Improved HDR rendering to provide more accurate colors, brightness, and contrast on compatible displays.
    
• Fixes
  • Fixed an issue on Nintendo Switch 2 where saving the game could result in a "Save failed - insufficient space" error.
  • Fixed an issue where adjusting HDR settings on PlayStation 5 had no effect.
  • Things Done Changed - Fixed an issue where the Delamain cab could get stuck after crashing into another vehicle, blocking quest progression.
  • Fixed an issue where enabling Film Grain had no effect.
  • Fixed an issue where tagging enemies while scanning could also cause V to crouch or stand up when using certain control schemes.
  • Fixed an issue where controller settings for the Third-Person Camera were missing.
  • Fixed several typos in various languages.
  • Added various other fixes for features and content introduced since Patch 2.1.

Dual-wielding pistols and FOV sliders on consoles? Sign me up!

Overall, all these new features sound cool. My favorite aspects of this update are mowing down enemies while dual-wielding guns and the FOV slider that will allow me to adjust the game's first-person view so it won't feel so cramped and claustrophobic on Xbox anymore.

Of course, mod support so we can customize Cyberpunk 2077 however we like, and customizing my cybernetic upgrades' looks is pretty awesome too.

But what do you think? Is this update worth another playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077? Will it motivate you to play it for the first time if you haven't already, or have you decided to move on and wait for Cyberpunk 2077's sequel?

If you have any thoughts on the subject, please let us know in the comments, on Reddit, or in the poll.

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's full launch is imminent, but it's suddenly hit a technical roadblock that may hurt its chances of success with console gamers.

The developers of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 have announced on X that its Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 versions must run on monitors with Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) enabled for Performance Mode support while players engage with its campaign and DMZ modes.

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This requirement for VRR monitors will also be in effect for Call of Duty: Warzone with Season 1. If you do not have a monitor with VRR enabled and with least 120Hz refresh rates, the game's framerates in Performance Mode will be locked at 60Hz.

Asking players to get a different monitor days before launching your AAA game is certainly a "choice", and a very wrong one at that

This last-minute change won't affect you as much if you don't mind playing the single-player campaign at 60fps in Performance Mode or Resolution Mode for 4K resolutions to achieve greater cinematic immersion.

However, hardcore competitive Call of Duty fans who need as many frames as possible to reduce input lag during intense multiplayer matches or just smoother gameplay in general are beyond angry in the replies to this announcement on X.

I can hardly blame them for getting angry. Asking console players to get a different and expensive monitor if their current one (even if it has a 240Hz refresh rate) doesn't have VRR to achieve optimal performance just days before Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches on October 23, 2026, is just ridiculous, and they should've warned people months in advance.

What makes this worse is that gaming monitors have become more costly and rarer to find for gamers on a tight budget these days thanks to the worsening RAM Crisis.

Nonetheless, we're not going to leave our fellow console players hanging. So we've scoured the internet for some of the best gaming monitors with VRR to help you circumvent this last-minute requirement and enjoy this AAA blockbuster at its best on Xbox.

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

Final Fantasy fans on Xbox are eating good this month. Not only do we have the Final Fantasy Resonance (which I personally found to be amazing) coming out this week, but Microsoft has announced (via Xbox Wire) that Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is finally coming to Xbox Game Pass as part of its latest batch of new games.

The batch also includes some more niche titles like Planets Vs. Zombies: Replanted and The Séance of Blake Manor, but Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is the star of the show.

Here's the full list of games coming and leaving Xbox Game Pass for the second half of October 2026.

Games leaving Xbox Game Pass (October 31)

• Day of the Tentacle Remastered (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Dead Static Drive (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Deep Rock Galactic (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Full Throttle Remastered (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Grim Fandango Remastered (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Wartales (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Wildgate (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Games leaving Xbox Game Pass (November 10)

• Football Manager 26 (PC)
• Football Manager 26 – Console Edition (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Windows Central's take

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is an action-RPG reimagining of the classic 1990s JRPG, Final Fantasy VII, that tells the beginning of Cloud's journey to save his planet from destruction at the hands of the evil megacorp Shinra and the megalomaniacal Sephiroth.

While I prefer the PC version of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade for its hilarious mods featuring Darth Vader, I can't deny that it coming to Xbox Game Pass finally feels like a satisfying full-circle moment.

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We've gone from speculating about rumors of an Xbox version for years, to Square Enix announcing Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade's Xbox port while shadow-dropping Final Fantasy XVI's Xbox port, to making the entire Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy available on Xbox, and now this.

With its inclusion in Xbox Game Pass, Xbox fans will now have more ways to enjoy Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade's thrilling combat, complex characters, and in-depth story.

Plus, it will serve as a great appetizer for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's eventual inclusion in Xbox Game Pass and the epic finale of the FF7 Remake trilogy, Final Fantasy VII: Revelations, which will drop on April 8, 2027, for Xbox Series X|S (with Xbox Play Anywhere support), PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam.

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2026 saw the release of the familiar Dell XPS 13, a 'new' laptop designed to be the ultimate, affordable gateway for first-time PC users thanks to its respectable performance, long-lasting battery life, high-quality build, and general reliability.

The XPS 13's work-focused 16GB configuration normally sells for $999.99 at Dell, but Best Buy now has a cheaper alternative for $799.99, thanks to a limited-time 20% discount.

Why buy Dell XPS 13 laptop?

The new Dell XPS 13 has been making waves in the PC market for its shockingly high quality for an entry-level laptop.

Even our Windows laptop connoisseurs Zac Bowden and Cale Hunt were blown away by this laptop, with Cale calling it the "perfect starter PC" and Zac saying, "MacBook Neo's reign as the best deal in computing is well and truly over, all thanks to Dell".

They don't make those comments lightly because the Dell XPS 13 has plenty of features to help it live up to the hype and make it an easy recommendation for beginner PC users, students, and workers.

These include a strong battery life of nearly 15 hours per charge, a 13.4" 3K Touchscreen with 2560x1600 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate to provide crisp and detailed images and videos, and a solid, thin 0.5 inches thick chassis weighing in at 2.2lb for easy portability.

On top of that, the Dell XPS 13 has a solid and responsive keyboard, a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports to plug in useful accessories, an IR sensor for facial recognition, great-sounding speakers, Wi-Fi 7 support for faster and more stable internet connections, and decent performance for casual use and mid-level intensive workflows thanks to its Intel Core 5 Series 3 320 CPU and 16GB of RAM.

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The long-awaited second season of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners has arrived on Netflix, ready to take viewers on another dark journey through Night City filled with violence, introspection, and vengeance.

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To celebrate, CD Projekt Red has announced that it will update Cyberpunk 2077 this week, on October 22, 2026, with a new patch called the "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 Update (2.5)".

All CD Projekt Red has revealed about the 2.5 update thus far is that it will bring new gameplay features like Cyberware customization and a dual-wielding playstyle to Cyberpunk 2077.

As for the rest of the update's content, you will tune in to CD Projekt Red's REDStream via their official Twitch and YouTube channels and Steam on October 21, 2026, where the developers will unload more details regarding the "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 Update (2.5)."

Are you ready for one more journey into Night City with this update?

Honestly, it's kind of shocking that the player couldn't dual-wield weapons in Cyberpunk 2077 until this update got announced, especially when many characters in the game (including our good old pal, Jackie Wells) are able to.

The closest approximation we had for dual-wielding weapons until now was the Mantis Blade Cyberware upgrade that granted the use of robot Mantis arms to stab people with.

Hopefully this update means I can finally get to gun down enemies while dual-wielding submachine guns or bash Adam Smasher's head in while dual-wielding hammers.

Either way, I'm curious to see what Cyberpunk 2077's update will bring and how it will tie into Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 2.

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There have been few laptops that have completely blown us away with exceptional design, long battery life, and a smooth Windows experience quite like ASUS' Zenbook A14, and it saw a massive upgrade this year with a refresh outfitted with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite processor.

Normally, the ASUS Zenbook A14 with its $1,349.99 price tag can seem like a hard sell compared to its cheaper (yet very capable) Snapdragon X Plus predecessor (usually $939.00 — $969.99), and its premium-grade Zenbook A16 sibling with its powerful X2 Elite Extreme CPU ($1,599.99 — $1,899.99).

Thankfully, with this 26% discount, the Zenbook A14 with Snapdragon X2 Elite is now at a smarter price of $999.99 at Best Buy, compared its siblings.

Why buy the ASUS Zenbook A14?

For starters, ASUS' Zenbook A14 laptop with Snapdragon X2 Elite offers vastly superior performance for casual use and heavy workloads compared to its 2025 Snapdragon X Plus predecessor, while also outperforming Apple's M5 chip.

Additionally, this laptop also earned high praise from us for its exceptional battery life of 17 hours per charge, crisp 14-inch OLED display that runs at 1920x1200 resolution with a max refresh rate of 60Hz, and vast selection of USB4, HDMI 2.1, and USB-A ports.

Plus, this version of the ASUS Zenbook A14 laptop also has Wi-Fi 7 support for faster and more stable wireless internet connections.

So, if you're looking for a lightweight, compact Windows laptop that will make mincemeat out of CPU-heavy apps and workflows, then the ASUS Zenbook A14 laptop with the Snapdragon X2 Elite CPU will serve you well in the office or school.

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When I think of turn-based JRPGs where you explore vast worlds, Final Fantasy was once the first thing that came to mind. Yet for over two decades, Square Enix has deprived the Final Fantasy franchise of the gameplay style that made it a household name by taking it in an action-RPG direction with mixed degrees of success.

Over the years, I cynically grew to accept that Final Fantasy would never return to the classic turn-based gameplay style I loved and instead opted for Square Enix's other turn-based franchises like Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler.

That is, until this year, when Square Enix announced Final Fantasy Resonance. This game is the franchise's first HD-2D JRPG, and it aims to bring back the classic turn-based combat and open-world exploration gameplay that made retro fans like me love it in the first place.

It felt too good to be true at first, but after being impressed by Final Fantasy Resonance's playable demo, I decided to give the game a chance when I was given an opportunity to review it on Xbox Series X with a code provided by Square Enix.

After playing it for the past few weeks, I can confidently say that, despite some minor issues, Final Fantasy Resonance (available for $49.99 on the Xbox Store) is a heartwarming return to form that players who grew up on Final Fantasy's 16-bit and PlayStation One golden age should not miss out on.

Final Fantasy Resonance launches on October 22, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S (with Xbox Play Anywhere support), PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Windows and Steam.

This review was made possible thanks to an Xbox Series X code provided by Square Enix. The company had no input nor saw the contents of this review before publication.

Final Fantasy Resonance — Story, setting, art

Final Fantasy Resonance is a home console adaptation of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius’s first story arc, a 2015 free-to-play mobile game that was shut down in 2024.

Like its source material, Final Fantasy Resonance tells the story of Rain and Lasswell, two noble knights hailing from the kingdom of Grandshelt, and a mysterious girl with magical powers named Fina.

They're on a quest to save their world's life-giving crystals from being destroyed by a group of evil knights who call themselves the ‘Sworn Six’. These despicable knights have dark, vengeful goals that they seek to accomplish by any means, regardless of collateral damage or casualties.

The story of Final Fantasy Resonance is a fairly standard JRPG fantasy adventure laden with tropes and clichés that players experienced in the JRPG genre will see coming (although it did a couple of admittedly surprising twists).

The story also has a couple of annoying moments that disrupted the pacing, which could've been fixed if they played out as cutscenes instead of pointless boss fights, but I won't get too deep into that as it's very spoilery.

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However, these are minor quibbles, as Final Fantasy Resonance's story beats, lore, and action set pieces are well put together with satisfying dramatic payoffs. Not to mention, its story is refreshingly easy to understand and follow, which is a blessing because many modern Final Fantasy games tend to have needlessly convoluted plots.

Additionally, Final Fantasy Resonance does have moments where it actually managed to make me laugh as the game snuck in some cheeky jokes that will tickle the nostalgia funny bones of long-time Final Fantasy fans like me.

As for its characters, Final Fantasy Resonance does have a cast of interesting villains once you start to discover who they are underneath their armor. Its playable heroes are also competently written and likable, with some decent character development but nothing too thought-provoking.

What helps Final Fantasy Resonance's story and characters resonate with the player is its presentation. This is the first Final Fantasy game to use HD-2D graphics, and Square Enix spared no expense in making them look absolutely STUNNING.

The pixel-art character sprites and 3D models look so immaculately detailed and animated with their charming facial expressions and epic battle moves. The HD-2D art style gets even more lavishly detailed during cinematic cutscenes and in-game boss battles to create some magnificent works of digital art.

Final Fantasy Resonance's presentation elevates its story further with some respectable voice acting in both English and Japanese and an incredible soundtrack that's filled with extremely catchy tunes, epic battle themes, and emotional melodies.

Final Fantasy Resonance — Gameplay

The gameplay of Final Fantasy Resonance follows the classic formulae set by earlier Final Fantasy games. You travel across a world map, visiting towns for quests, gear, and lore, exploring dungeons to loot treasure, and fighting monsters and bosses in turn-based combat.

It starts very linear, but the game opens up fairly quickly with plenty of side-quests to complete, optional dungeons to explore, and hidden areas you can only find with a trusty airship.

You have no idea how much this game filled me with nostalgic joy riding in an airship and exploring a world map to find all its secrets again after being restricted to grounded corridors for decades in modern Final Fantasy games.

Its dungeons, however, are somewhat disappointing, as Final Fantasy Resonance took a quantity-over-quality approach. Many dungeons in this game are painfully short, as they feature two or three rooms with very basic puzzles to solve.

I would've liked these dungeons to be made in-depth, with more labyrinthine layouts so the player could get into more random encounters to stress-test their dungeon-crawling and resource-conservation skills like the older games.

Let's move to the main reason that made me want to play this game in the first place: turn-based combat.

Like the first ten mainline Final Fantasy games, Final Fantasy Resonance's turn-based combat system has your party take turns to defeat enemies using weapons and magic, while keeping each other alive with healing magic and restorative items.

The turn-based combat is simple at first, but Final Fantasy Resonance quickly adds lots of fun mechanics to improve its complexity as you progress, keeping it from becoming stale.

These mechanics include Limit Bursts, which allow you to unleash a player character's ultimate attack if their Limit Gauge gets filled in battle by either getting hurt or stunning enemies; summoning Espers in battle to aid you for a few turns and also depleting an enemy’s Stagger Gauge by hitting their elemental weakness to stun them for a turn.

Once you stagger all enemies at once, you will be rewarded with a free round of turns to batter the stunned enemies for extra damage without fear of retaliation, culminating in a devastating super-move performed by your Visions.

What are Visions, you may ask? Visions are spiritual manifestations of heroes from previous Final Fantasy games and Final Fantasy Resonance-exclusive heroes who grant the player characters powerful abilities and passive traits to help them excel in battle.

Some of these abilities include being able to stagger enemies more easily, protect the entire party from incoming damage, prevent incoming status effects, perform multiple actions in a single turn, and so much more.

I love the Visions system because it offers so much character-building potential on par with Final Fantasy's classic Job System from previous games.

You can use it to double down on a player character's inherent skills (like turning the main hero Rain into an unstoppable tank) or turn a character into a jack-of-all-trades fighter (like giving a healer character a damage-dealing Vision so they can hurt enemies and heal allies).

Experimenting with Visions to create the ultimate party and using their newfound powers to stun-lock challenging bosses before they got a single turn was so empowering and cathartic.

Yet after playing the game for 75 hours, I still felt like I was scratching the surface of what the Visions system can do, so I can't imagine what will happen once pro JRPG players get their hands on it.

Granted, level-grinding the Visions to gain all their abilities can be pretty tedious and repetitive. But it's so worth it in the end, especially when you hit Final Fantasy Resonance's late-game and post-game bosses because they do not mess around.

They hit fast and hard, have tons of health, and are hard to stagger (especially on Expert Mode). Plus, these endgame bosses will often require you to change your Vision builds to defeat them due to their varying strategies and countermeasures that will punish players for being too aggressive or too passive.

They're extremely tough but so satisfying to beat once you figure out their gimmicks and get the right Vision abilities equipped.

Final Fantasy Resonance — Conclusion

Overall, I was thoroughly astonished and surprised by how good Final Fantasy Resonance was.

It's a loving tribute to Final Fantasy's classic turn-based era that's able to stand on its own merits with addictive combat, an in-depth Vision system, and an entertaining story with decently written characters. Not to mention it has a great wealth of side-quests and difficult optional bosses to take on even after finishing the main campaign as icing on the cake.

If you're an old-school Final Fantasy fan who doesn't like the action-RPG direction the mainline Final Fantasy games have been taking, or just love turn-based JRPGs you can play on go via Xbox Play Anywhere, then I highly recommend not sleeping on Final Fantasy Resonance.

If this game is just based on Final Fantasy Brave Exvius's first story arc, then I hope Square Enix makes more adaptations of this mobile game so I can see the rest of its story arcs in full HD-2D glory.

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Black Friday is right around the corner, but that doesn't mean you have to wait for a discount on laptops if you need one to clear last-minute deadlines at work or get caught up before heading to school.

For example, the HP Omnibook X Flip 2-in-1, with its crisp 16-inch display, all-day battery, and next-gen performance, is currently on sale with a 25% discount for $1,199.99 at Best Buy.

Why buy the HP Omnibook X Flip 16" laptop?

This configuration of the HP Omnibook X Flip 2-in-1 is the total package when it comes to casual use and productivity efficiency thanks to its AMD Ryzen AI 7 445 CPU, 16GB RAM, and 1TB SSD, offering fast performance when running programs, transferring files, or simply booting up.

It also features a 16" 2K OLED Touchscreen that delivers vibrant colors with 100% DCI-P3 coverage for accurate colors and 120Hz adaptive refresh rates to deliver smooth visuals.

On top of that, the HP Omnibook X Flip features an NPU with 50 TOPS to help perform local AI tasks, a smart hybrid build that can swap between laptop, tent, reverse, and tablet modes, and a massive battery life of 15 hours before needing a recharge.

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is almost ready to leave early access as its October 23, 2026 full release rapidly approaches.

However, as with most AAA Xbox titles these days, it's going to take up a huge chunk of your console's storage space, as its campaign mode alone requires 137GB to install.

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While this isn't as extreme as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)'s 219GB requirement (without Warzone), it's still a massive number that will only get larger once Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 adds its multiplayer modes after leaving early access.

So, we've scoured the web for the best Xbox Series X|S storage expansion devices to help you fit Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 onto your Xbox Series X|S while leaving more for upcoming Xbox blockbusters like Grand Theft Auto 6.

Also note that when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches, you will be able to uninstall what you want to reclaim space. For example, you can uninstall the single-player campaign once you're done with it and still be able to play the game's multiplayer modes.

External hard drives

External hard drives allow you to store Xbox games and other forms of media like music and movies (depending on how you format) and transfer them to other platforms with ease via USB connections.

They can come in a variety of storage sizes (ranging from 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB), and they're more readily available compared to Xbox storage expansion cards.

Plus, they're cheaper than Xbox storage expansion cards. However, considering the constantly rising prices of tech thanks to the ongoing RAM crisis, there's no telling how long those external hard drives will be affordable.

Do note that you can’t play Xbox games directly from an external hard drive. You need to manually transfer games from the external hard drive onto an Xbox’s internal hard drive to play them.

Plug & Play expansion cards

Plug & Play expansion cards fit into an Xbox’s dedicated expansion card slot, so they can not only store games and play them directly from the card without the need for shuffling files onto the console's internal SSD.

They're also extremely compact, so they don't take up too much desk space compared to regular external hard drives.

However, Plug & Play expansion cards are rarer and more expensive than external hard drives. Plus, you can't reformat them to store and run other forms of media, as these Plug & Play expansion cards were designed only for Xbox consoles.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4

Our die-hard Call of Duty expert, Cole Martin, reviewed the campaign mode of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and judging by her reaction, it's shaping up to be a massive return to form for the series.

She calls the campaign a cinematic masterpiece for its stunning, cinematic presentation, captivating story, and thrilling gameplay filled with intense action set pieces and dramatic moments.

As for the quality of its multiplayer game modes like the much-anticipated DMZ, you will have to wait until the game launches later this week to find out, as it was unavailable during Cole Martin's review.

Needless to say, though, Call of Duty fans are about to eat good this holiday season just from the campaign alone.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is scheduled to launch on Xbox Series X|S (with Xbox Play Anywhere support), Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Windows and Steam on October 23, 2026.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's campaign mode is currently available to play in early access for players who pre-order the game's Standard or Vault Editions.

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