Resident Evil 4 VR came out last year to rave reviews from fans and critics (we gave five stars in our write-up ) but nearly everyone playing it had one question: where’s The Mercenaries mode?

Well, developer Armature Studio finally has an answer. As announced at the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase The Mercenaries mode is available right now as a free update to the game on the Meta Quest 2 .

Much like the original, players are tasked with taking out as many Ganados as possible before time runs out, though the VR game mode has a few new tricks up its sleeve that even longtime fans won’t recognize.

For starters, there are 20 new Challenges to test your skills against. Plus new online leaderboards will let you see how you shape up against the rest of the Resident Evil 4 VR player base.

Completing challenges won’t just help you claim the rankings, you’ll also unlock various in-game rewards. This includes a Big Head mode, a Classic Horror mode that turns everything black and white, and golden skins for your suite of weapons.

Best of all, every single reward can be used in both The Mercenaries mode and the main game’s campaign.

Our Take: Resident Evil 4 VR is incredible

If you haven’t played Resident Evil 4 VR yet and you have a Quest 2 what are you doing? Whether you’re a fan of the classic horror title already or are completely new to the Resident Evil franchise this is a must-play VR title .

Armature Studio has perfectly recreated the classic Capcom title in VR, and in doing so developed the best way to play Resident Evil 4. The first-person environments are terrifying to explore as you never know where your next enemy is hiding.

The action side of things is just as incredible. As you take on hordes of enemies by expertly manipulating your weapon arsenal (thanks to the game's fluid yet immersive controls), you can’t help but feel just as badass as Leon Kennedy himself.

With The Mercenaries mode now added - introducing a load of free new content - there are even fewer reasons not to give one of the best Quest 2 games a try as soon as you can.

The Minecraft movie still exists, and stars... Jason Momoa?

Yes, there's still supposed to be a Minecraft movie, and as difficult as it is to imagine a voxel Jason Momoa, we may be seeing him as Steve .

It feels like a Mad Libs that came off the shelf already scribbled in, but the well goes deeper. Warner Bros is behind the film, and they've got the director of Napoleon Dynamite, Jared Hess, helming the movie, just in case you wondered what the style might be like.

The questions are already overflowing: will the movie go for a realistic look, or stick to Minecraft's cubic roots? Will it take itself seriously like World of Warcraft did, or will we be seeing a Minecraft-themed take on Nacho Libre humor?

The opportunities for absolute disaster seem to outweigh the ones for a surprisingly deep and meaningful movie. Possibly even on par with other legendary video game movies .

The best outcome is likely something akin to the original Lego Movie, which combined reverence for (plastic) blocks with visual flair and a competently told story about creativity and sharing. This sort of approach might be the most logical, as well, since Momoa has already done some acting, both in-person and voice-only, as Aquaman, while Hess has been attached to a couple of animated projects recently.

It's also entirely possible that a Free Guy-styled live-action movie comes out of it. If we all get to see Jason Momoa beating up blocks with a pixel pickaxe, it will be worth the price of admission, even with the second and third mortgages for popcorn and milk duds.

Garmin takes on Fitbit with new budget-friendly Vivosmart 5 fitness tracker

Garmin has unveiled a new budget-friendly fitness tracker, the Vivosmart 5, to help you keep track of your everyday activity if you're not interested in investing in a fully-fledged running watch .

The new fitness tracker is a successor to the Garmin Vivosmart 4 , which landed in September 2019, and Garmin has chosen to focus on improving accessibility rather than loading up new fitness monitoring tools, and the Vivosmart 5's main upgrade is a new, bigger touchscreen that should be much easier to read and operate.

There's also an upgraded heart rate sensor (with optional low and high heart rate alerts), plus advanced sleep tracking. Like its predecessor, the Vivosmart 5 has an SpO2 sensor to monitor blood oxygen saturation, all-day stress tracking (calculated using changes in heart rate variability), and a Body Battery score that allows you to see how much energy you have throughout the day and plan your time accordingly.

Track your workouts

The Vivosmart 5 offers a range of fitness tracking modes for both indoor and outdoor activities, though walkers, runners and cyclists should be aware that it doesn't have its own GPS module. Instead, it relies on a Bluetooth connection to your phone to track your whereabouts, so you won't be able to leave your handset at home if you want to track your pace and route.

This type of tracking (known as connected GPS) also tends to be a little less accurate than on-board GPS, though that's unlikely to be too problematic for recreational activities.

A new tool that casual users are more likely to appreciate is the ability to send an emergency alert to a trusted contact by pressing and holding the button on the side of the Vivoactive 5's case. Your contact will receive a text message complete with location data so they can find you if you run into difficulty; a thoughtfully designed feature Garmin has integrated into all of its recent devices, and one that Fitbit has yet to match.

The Vivosmart 5 is on sale now direct from Garmin for $149.99 / £129.99 (about AU$200). That's a little more than the Vivosmart 4, which cost $129.99 / £119.99 / AU$199 when it arrived in 20198, but it's not a big increase considering the rising cost of energy and components.

For comparison, the Fitbit Inspire 2 is currently priced at $99.95 / £89.99 / AU$149.95, but works best when used together with a Fitbit Premium subscription, which will set you back an additional $9.99 / £7.99 / AU$15.49 per month once the free trial period is over.

Analysis: competition is coming

The Garmin Vivosmart 5 is a good-looking fitness tracker, but it could soon face some stiff new competition. Details of three upcoming devices were recently discovered in the install files for the official Fitbit mobile app, and we have reason to suspect that one of these may be the forthcoming Fitbit Inspire 3 .

We don't know much about the device so far, but it looks as though the new entry-level device may feature the same bright color OLED display as last year's Fitbit Luxe . That could make it a more tempting prospect than the Vivosmart 5 for those who find a monochrome screen less appealing.

However, we suspect there won't be too many differences inside the case. The Inspire 3 is also unlikely to have its own GPS module in order to keep the cost down and differentiate it from the Fitbit Luxe, and we're not anticipating it'll have the stress-monitoring EDA (electrodermal activity) sensor of the Fitbit Charge 5 either.

We'll bring you a full comparison of the Garmin Vivosmart 5 and Fitbit Inspire 3 once we've been hands-on with both devices, so stick with TechRadar if you're thinking of picking up a new fitness tracker this year.