Cyberpunk 2077 won't have any loading screens

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jun 21, 2018 7:39 PM CDT

Cyberpunk 2077 is shaping up to be one of the biggest games in development, with developer CD Projekt Red teasing some exciting news.

Cyberpunk 2077 won't have any loading screens

Kyle Rowley, the associate design director for Cyberpunk 2077 was chatting with people on the official Discord server for the game, confirming it will have absolutely no loading screens. This is pretty damn mind blowing considering that it's an open-world game with a bunch of buildings you can enter.

Cyberpunk 2077 features a beautiful, dense world that is bigger than previous CDPR developed games like The Witcher series. To hear that there are no loading screens in Cyberpunk 2077 feels almost impossible at this stage, increasing the hype for this game a whole lot more.

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Remedy wants to make Alan Wake 2

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jun 21, 2018 7:04 PM CDT

What would Remedy be working on if it had total freedom? Maybe Alan Wake 2.

Remedy wants to make Alan Wake 2

Although Remedy is currently deep in developing Control (formerly P7) its ambitious new IP that blends Quantum Break with supernatural sci-horror, the studio says it wants to make a new Alan Wake game.

"So we own the Alan Wake IP, yes. I just want to say right away that it's very dear to us and close to our hearts. We all love Alan Wake at Remedy and I think all of us want to see a new Alan Wake game," Remedy's Mikael Kasurinen told DualShockers at E3 2018. "I just want to say that out loud. Unfortunately, I can't speak to it anymore than that. We'll see what happens with Alan Wake next but we all want to see it happen, absolutely."

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Cyberpunk 2077 uses next-gen engine technology

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jun 21, 2018 6:21 PM CDT

It's no secret that Cyberpunk 2077 is the most ambitious game CD Projekt RED has ever made, and that the game is running on next-level tech. But shortly after the game's E3 2018 trailer and subsequent gameplay demo the devs affirm they're aiming to push current-gen consoles to their limits.

Cyberpunk 2077 uses next-gen engine technology

With flying cars, a living, breathing city with real-time AI, deep RPG elements, and chaotic FPS action, Cyberpunk 2077 is sounding better by the minute. Everything we've seen and hear about the game so far has left quite an impression and rightly so: it's all powered by CD Projekt RED's newly evolved world-building engine technology, something that's been in development for quite some time. Sure, we've known Cyberpunk 2077 would use crazy high-end tech to achieve the devs' sci-fi vision, but actually seeing it is quite different. After all CDPR has been laboring for years on iterating and one-upping its games engine in an effort to outdo their prowess with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

According to CD Projekt RED CEO Marcin Iwinski the team is still trying to squeeze even more out of the engine to prepare for the game's mysterious release.

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PS4 gets $20 greatest hits label

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jun 21, 2018 5:24 PM CDT

Sony resurrects its Greatest Hits label for the PlayStation 4 age and discounts a ton of great games in the process.

PS4 gets $20 greatest hits label

As a kid growing up I loved Sony's Greatest Hits libraries, first with PlayStation and then PlayStation 2. Sure you got a green (or red) stripe on the side and your game box lost some authenticity, but waiting a while got you the same game for cheaper. Now more than four years into the current console life cycle, Sony is doing the same thing with PS4 games.

For some strange reason Sony changed the branding for its discounted PS4 games label: it's called "PlayStation Hits" instead of the familiar "Greatest Hits" that's been around from PS1 all the way to PS3. The games, which cost $19.99, include big names like Bloodborne, Uncharted 4, DOOM, Metal Gear Solid 5 and even Yakuza's 0 and Kiwami.

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Nintendo to keep using lootboxes to drive engagement

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jun 21, 2018 4:42 PM CDT

Despite having an online presence with the Wii, Wii U, and 3DS, Nintendo is still new to monetizing engagement via microtransactions. But it's something it wants to learn.

Nintendo to keep using lootboxes to drive engagement

Nintendo--like all hardware-makers with first-party games--understands the new frontier of online engagement. The company has pushed into season passes in games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild and has had success with its microtransaction-laden mobile games. But this is just the beginning and Nintendo probably won't stop rolling out randomized lootboxes. After all they're quite profitable: Fire Emblem Heroes (a mobile game with random lootbox-style purchases) raked in $295 million in its first year.

Despite the big pushback against these trends in the console realm, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime affirms that lootboxes will remain in the company's arsenal of engagement-driven monetization. "Loot boxes, broadly speaking, have gotten a bit of a bad rap. The game mechanic of buying something that you're not sure what's inside is as old as baseball cards," Fils-Aime told Bloomberg in a recent interview.

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Intel CEO resigns, CFO steps up to the 10nm plate

Anthony Garreffa | CPU, APU & Chipsets | Jun 21, 2018 9:33 AM CDT

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has made a shock exit from the company, resigning effective immediately after it was exposed he was involved in a "past consensual" relationship with an Intel employee.

Intel CEO resigns, CFO steps up to the 10nm plate

Krzanich is being replaced with Intel CFO Robert Swan, after Krzanich took position as CEO back in May 2013. He was tasked with shifting Intel from a PC-centric company to a silicon/data centered company, something he achieved in short time. Krzanich was also previously the COO and executive vice president of Intel after he joined the company in 1982.

Intel Chairman Andy Bryant said in an official statement: "The Board believes strongly in Intel's strategy and we are confident in Bob Swan's ability to lead the company as we conduct a robust search for our next CEO. Bob has been instrumental to the development and execution of Intel's strategy, and we know the company will continue to smoothly execute. We appreciate Brian's many contributions to Intel".

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Sony doesn't need to enable cross-play, why risk 1st place?

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jun 21, 2018 4:00 AM CDT

An analyst from MIDiA Research, Karol Severin has addressed why Sony feels as if they need to protect their user base from potential threats.

Sony doesn't need to enable cross-play, why risk 1st place?

The recent debuting of Fortnite to the Nintendo Switch has posed a question towards Sony as to why the company won't be allowing cross-play between platforms. Analyst Karol Severin, from MIDiA Research has addressed this question and said that from a business point of view Sony has made a strong choice here. According to Severin, "PlayStation has the largest console gaming ecosystem out there" as they are a single platform, "Microsoft owns two gaming platforms (Xbox and Windows)" so it makes more sense for them to have cross-play but how does Sony benefit from this relationship?

Xbox is quite far behind Sony in regards to active gamers on their platform, for Microsoft to harp on the 'cross-play' movement could simply just be a way for them to close to the gap between Sony's leading console. Unfortunately, Sony's standpoint is definitely not looking out for their players, but from a business point of view I can understand that Sony is looking to the future and seeing themselves still sitting as the number one console.

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Unity's amazing Book of the Dead tech demo launched

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jun 21, 2018 3:00 AM CDT

Unity has launched their brand new technology demo titled Book of the Dead, the demo showcases what is possible with using Unity 2018.

Unity's amazing Book of the Dead tech demo launched

Unity is promoting their new Scriptable Render Pipeline which has increased the customization abilities of the rendering architecture Unity can support. From the above demo released by Unity, we can see the photogrammetry-scanned real-world environments combined with Unity textures and high-quality scanned assets.

The Book of the Dead technology demo is a interactive story and if you are interested in downloading it and viewing the capabilities of the Unity Engine visit the official website here.

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Super Smash Bros Ultimate is the most tweeted E3 title

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jun 21, 2018 2:00 AM CDT

On Twitter's blog page, Rishi Chadha, the Head of Gaming Content Partnerships has written an E3 summary for the most popular tweets throughout the week.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate is the most tweeted E3 title

According to Chadha, during the week of E3 "there were nearly 15 million #E3 related Tweets" and the "highest spike in E3 conversation came during the Nintendo Direct press conference between 9-10 AM ET on June 12 with 890K Tweets."

The blogpost also reveals where the leading countries of these tweets came from, taking first place is the United States, then Japan, followed by the UK and then Spain and France. The blogpost also offers the most tweeted about companies/newly-announced games. Nintendo comes in at first, followed by Xbox and then Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was also the most talked about newly-announced title, beating Kingdom Hearts 3 and Fallout 76. If you are interested in reading the official blogpost from Twitter you can check it out here.

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Resident Evil 2 Remake, zero plans for Nintendo Switch debut

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jun 21, 2018 1:00 AM CDT

During Sony's E3 2018 presentation we saw that Resident Evil 2 was being remade, a gameplay trailer was displayed during the conference and it did not disappoint. What is disappointing though, Capcom currently has no plans on bringing the title to the Nintendo Switch.

Resident Evil 2 Remake, zero plans for Nintendo Switch debut

This information was confirmed by Capcom Brand Manager Mike Lunn during E3 2018. Lunn was asked if a Nintendo Switch iteration was planned, Lunn replied with "No, not at this time. We just wanted to focus on PS4, Xbox One, and PC at the moment."

This is not a permanent goal for Capcom, so Nintendo Switch users don't be upset quite just yet. Capcom has already brought Resident Evil 7 to the Nintendo Switch in the form of a cloud streaming service, we could see this very same form of cloud based streaming service for a Resident Evil 2 Remake later down the track.

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