DOOM Eternal will be the first game to use id Tech 7 engine

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jan 27, 2020 7:30 PM CST

DOOM Eternal will be the first game to be powered by id Tech 7, with developer id Software talking about the game more before its launch on March 20. In a recent video interview with DOOM Eternal executive producer Marty Stratton, we find out a bunch more details -- check it out:

DOOM Eternal will be the first game to use id Tech 7 engine

At the 2:30 mark Stratton talks about DOOM Eternal's destruction, something that the new id Tech 7 engine will provide, as well as the team aiming for a target 60FPS in the game across all platforms. DOOM Eternal looks like the best-looking game id Software has ever made, and that is thanks to the use of the id Tech 7 engine.

Stratton adds: "The size of the world, the scope of the world, our levels are twice as big as they were in DOOM 2016. That was to really establish a sense of scale and epicness to DOOM Eternal. You know, one of the things that we established coming out of DOOM 2016 was that we really wanted to take players to places that they'd never seen before".

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Metro Exodus' final expansion takes us to irradiated Vladivostok

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jan 27, 2020 4:43 PM CST

Today 4A Games announced Sam's Story, the final major story expansion to Metro Exodus.

Metro Exodus' final expansion takes us to irradiated Vladivostok

The new DLC is set to release February 11, 2020 on all platforms, and stars ex-Marine Sam Branskill on his arduous journey back to post-apocalytpic US. The expansion takes players to the irradiated port city of Vladivostok, the terminus of the Trans-Siberian railroad that's roughly seven days from Moscow.

Across his journey, the devs say Sam will face intense trials that push his survival skills to their limits. No trailer or screenshots were released, but we should get some more info shortly.

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Doom Eternal won't have microtransactions, game director says

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jan 27, 2020 3:47 PM CST

Doom Eternal's grind-based replayability might be prime territory for monetization, but id Software confirms no microtransactions are included.

Doom Eternal won't have microtransactions, game director says

Doom Eternal is a pretty grindy and layered game with some distinct RPG systems. There's tons of upgrade paths to forge, mats to collect, and places to explore. These systems usually means live service games, which in turn usually means monetization. But that's not the case, and Eternal isn't a live game. Unlike Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Doom Eternal won't have any kind of storefront with in-game purchases.

The assertion comes directly from Doom Eternal game director Hugo Martin as a direct response to the supposed battle pass worries. Eternal has a very battle pass-esque XP progression system that unlocks various goods like icons and playsets, prompting worries. These worries were compounded by the Fortress of Doom's unlockable armor skin variants.

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Doom Eternal is basically an RPG with tons of upgrades and progression

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jan 27, 2020 2:51 PM CST

One of Doom Eternal's core themes is progression, and that means grinding crystals and other materials to beef up the Doom Slayer.

Doom Eternal is basically an RPG with tons of upgrades and progression

Doom Eternal isn't just a linear FPS game. It's meant to be played for a long time, and has deliberate systems in place designed to keep you grinding for materials to make Doom Slayer as powerful as possible. The game has all the trappings of a live service title, including massive replayability that's incentivized through power enhancements, just without the constantly online play and microtransactions.

A lot of these systems are very RPG-esque and borrow quite a bit from Bethesda's new focus on service games and its penchant for massively customizable role-playing titles. Let's make one thing clear: Doom Eternal is not a live service game, but it acts like one nonetheless. Doom Eternal's progression system has quite a few upgrade screens with tons of options, complete with a slew of material and tokens spent to ramp up passive and active stats of weapons, armor, and basic things like health and ammo.

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Atari is making video game hotel resorts with VR, arcades, and more

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jan 27, 2020 1:00 PM CST

Atari will soon merge gaming arcades with hotels across the United States, creating its own Atari-branded resorts that offer everything from classic gaming to VR.

Atari is making video game hotel resorts with VR, arcades, and more

Today Atari announced a rather interesting move: It's going to jump headfirst into the hotel business and bring video games along for the ride. The idea is pretty simple. Atari wants to make a place where you not only stay, but where you play too. The lodging will be an attraction complete with games, probably with retro old-school Atari arcades as well as the new Atari VCS consoles, AR/VR hardware, and sizable theaters to host specific esports events (this last part is critical and aims to make the hotels potential venues for big tournaments).

The first hotel will open in Phoenix, Arizona, and Atari plans to open eight locations across major cities including: Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, and San Jose. The venture is being spear-headed by Atari, strategy firm GSD Group, who specializes in revitalizing legacy brands, and True North Studio, an Arizona-based reality firm.

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Torchlight III revealed, buy to play with no microtransactions

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jan 27, 2020 11:59 AM CST

Today Arc Games announced Torchlight: Frontiers is now Torchlight III, a more traditional buy-to-play game with offline singleplayer and no in-game storefront.

Torchlight III revealed, buy to play with no microtransactions

Torchlight is back. Not the imitation Torchlight that tried to heavily monetize its audience and gear itself up to be another live service game, but the isometric grind-fest ARPG before the days of rampant in-game purchases. Under the new banner of Torchlight III, Arc Games is morphing Frontiers into an authentic sequel to the original games that goes back to the series' roots, complete with the linear act-based structure. It's also coming to Steam and won't be exclusive to the Arc launcher.

Once you buy Torchlight III, you own the full game. There's no storefront, no premium currency, and no cosmetics to buy. Offline singleplayer is also included, but any characters made offline can't be used for online play (likely due to the game's traditional mod support). The new classes (railmaster, dusk mage, and forge) and collectibles from the Frontier alpha tests are crossing over to the main game, but progression is getting massively overhauled.

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Jeff Bezos' now girlfriend might've leaked those marriage ending texts

Jak Connor | Business, Financial & Legal | Jan 27, 2020 5:06 AM CST

Jeff Bezos, the Amazon CEO, seems to be in a spot of hot water as of late, and the water doesn't seem to be getting any cooler anytime soon.

Jeff Bezos' now girlfriend might've leaked those marriage ending texts

Reports have come out from both The New York Times (NYT) and The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) about Bezos' leaked text messages that revealed the world's richest man was having an affair. Of course, with any 'leaked' text messages, the first question that was raised was - 'How did those text messages get leaked?' According to both the NYT and WSJ, Lauren Sanchez, the women who Bezos had an affair with, reportedly sent her brother the text messages, who then sold them off to the National Enquirer.

The reports state that Michael Sanchez (brother) received texts from his sister in 2018 that included flirtatious messages from Bezos and a shirtless photo of him. Bezos followed up with an "extortion and blackmail" accusation on Medium aimed towards the parent company of the National Enquirer, American Media. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are currently investigating the intent of the National Enquirer and if there is a basis for a blackmail or extortion case.

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Age of Empires III will be getting a Definitive Edition beta soon

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jan 27, 2020 4:21 AM CST

Age of Empires fans will have to prepare themselves for a new Definitive Edition, as news has just surfaced regarding the Age of Empires III Definitive Edition beta.

Age of Empires III will be getting a Definitive Edition beta soon

According to the official Age of Empires Twitter account, "THE TIME HAS COME" for the Age of Empires III Definitive Edition beta announcement. If you didn't know, the definitive edition for Age of Empires II has already been released, and it has been extremely well received by players. I can personally say after sinking some hours into it that the game is fantastic, and if Age of Empires III Definitive is anything like Age of Empires II Definitive Edition it should also be great.

The announcement reveals that within the next couple of weeks, a multiplayer beta test will be sent out to players who sign up for the beta. If you are interested in signing up for the coming beta test for Age of Empires III Definitive Edition, click this link here and follow the instructions. See you on the battlefield!

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Apple denies EU's request to move into unified mobile chargers

Jak Connor | Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones | Jan 27, 2020 3:24 AM CST

The European Union is pushing for smartphone manufacturers to voluntarily agree to one uniform smartphone charger. Apple doesn't think it needs to be involved and has denied their request.

Apple denies EU's request to move into unified mobile chargers

Samsung, Nokia, Huawei, LG and Apple all signed an agreement to unify mobile device chargers and since this voluntary agreement hasn't been fullied by some companies the EU are moving towards pushing it into law. The goal is to make it law that smartphone manufacturers will be required to use a standard charger when importing their products into the EU.

Companies such as Nokia, Samsung and LG don't really have a problem with this considering their chargers for their smartphones use a USB connection. Apple on the other hand is in a bit of a tight spot as they have their own proprietary Lightning cable for charging and data transfer. Apple's rebuttal against the EU is based on a study by Copenhagen Economics which found that if a common charger was created an enforced upon manufacturers that it would cost 1.5 billion euros.

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China's Chang'e-4 mission releases new high-res images Moon's surface

Jak Connor | Science, Space, Health & Robotics | Jan 27, 2020 2:42 AM CST

China's Chang'e-4 lunar mission rover has relayed some brand new images of the dark side of the Moon. These images are also high-resolution for viewers' pleasure.

China's Chang'e-4 mission releases new high-res images Moon's surface

China's Chang'e-4 lunar mission recently completed its first year on the lunar surface, and also earned the achievement of being the first rover to travel the longest distance on the dark side of the Moon. China's lunar rover is called Yutu 2, and it recently relayed a new data set back to officials on the ground. Within this data set was a bunch of new high-resolution images that let us take a great look at the surface of the dark side of the Moon.

The date was released online by the Ground Research and Application System (GRAS) on Monday, January 20th. Some of the locations the rover managed to take pictures of including the Von Karman Crater, which is the same spot the rover soft landed on last year. Doug Ellison, who is the engineering camera team lead for NASA's Curiosity rover mission on Mars, tweeted about the data drop, saying, "Oh my god - the data drop is incredible :O". Ellison created galley of the images, that can be found here.

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