Xbox One S gameplay 'identically the same' as Xbox One, says Microsoft

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jun 15, 2016 6:34 AM CDT

E3 2016 - After news broke out yesterday that the Xbox One S performs better than vanilla Xbox One consoles, Microsoft has jumped in to emphatically insist the Xbox One S hardware tweaks have absolutely zero impact on in-game performance.

Xbox One S gameplay 'identically the same' as Xbox One, says Microsoft

Although the 40% smaller Xbox One S rocks GPU and CPU boosts from AMD's new semi-custom SoC, Microsoft says these tweaks are only for HDR support and will have "literally no impact" on in-game performance. Fergusson originally claimed the Xbox One S allowed smoother in-game frame rates and "reduced the resolution penalty" over current Xbox One systems.

"When we made changes to the box for 4K we unlocked a little bit more processing power to enable HDR. That's it. It's exactly the same architecture as the existing one," Xbox exec Albert Penello told Eurogamer. "To support HDR, we give people access to a little more CPU and GPU. That's it. It is so insignificant. I promise, it won't even show up. It will have no impact on games at all. Literally no impact. They will be identical. It's nothing, it is literally nothing.

Continue reading: Xbox One S gameplay 'identically the same' as Xbox One, says Microsoft (full post)

Nintendo outs official The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild trailer

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jun 15, 2016 5:48 AM CDT

E3 2016 - Nintendo has done it. They've revealed the official game trailer to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I don't want to write anymore and get in the way of you watching the trailer, so check it out below:

Nintendo explains The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in their YouTube description as: "Step into a world of discovery, exploration and adventure in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a boundary-breaking new game in the acclaimed series. Travel across fields, through forests and to mountain peaks as you discover what has become of the ruined kingdom of Hyrule in this stunning open-air adventure".

Nintendo has built a gigantic world for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which is 12 times the size than the world in Twilight Princess... incredible. Nintendo has said that if you see something in Breath of the Wild, you can reach it - thanks to Link's new abilities of jumping and climbing cliff faces and buildings. You can explore throughout the world, through plains, forests and mountains - and everything else your eye can see.

Continue reading: Nintendo outs official The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild trailer (full post)

Radeon RX 480 scores 6.3 in Steam VR benchmark, thrashes R9 380

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Jun 15, 2016 3:49 AM CDT

E3 2016 - With more details now available on AMD's range of Radeon RX series cards, we've stumbled across some Steam VR benchmark results on the Radeon RX 480, which scores just 6.3 in the Steam VR benchmark.

How does 6.3 on the Steam VR benchmark stack up? Well, considering the Radeon R9 390 scores around the same, AMD are positioning themselves incredibly well for VR. The Radeon R9 380 in comparison scores only 3.6, so AMD are comparing the RX 480 against it, and it really shines. The RX 480 should deliver R9 390 level performance, with it being compared to the HBM1-based R9 Nano in a recent story of ours, with the RX 480 set to consume 100W of power and run at 60C under load.

Continue reading: Radeon RX 480 scores 6.3 in Steam VR benchmark, thrashes R9 380 (full post)

Microsoft confirms it's not working on its own VR headset... just yet

E3 2016 - The E3 2016 madness continues, with Microsoft admitting it's not working on its own VR headset right now, as it's "not focused on an first party VR hardware device right now".

The news comes directly from Xbox boss himself Phil Spencer, during an interview with Wired he added that the company hopes to "enable many hardware manufacturers to make progress there". It's still very interesting to see Microsoft not attempt to make its own VR headset, and let other companies come in and have their headsets work on the Xbox. But hey, it makes sense on the other hand, because Microsoft owns Windows, and Windows wants to be everywhere, right?

Microsoft is better being open like this, than being a closed book and not allowing any VR headsets to work on the Xbox but their own. The Xbox Scorpio is a beast, with 6TFlops of performance compared to the 1.32TFlops of the Xbox One. It's also powered by a 14nm FinFET design provided by AMD, with AMD also having an SoC inside of the new Xbox One S console.

Continue reading: Microsoft confirms it's not working on its own VR headset... just yet (full post)

AMD Radeon RX 480 has 2304 cores, Radeon RX 460 has 1024 cores

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Jun 15, 2016 12:25 AM CDT

We've just reported on the AMD Radeon RX 480 consuming just 100W of power, and running at 60C under gaming load, with the Polaris 10-based card keeping up with, and beating the HBM1-based Radeon R9 Nano. Not too bad for $199, right? Well, now we have more details on not just the Polaris 10 GPU, but the Polaris 11 GPU which will be powering the lower-end cards.

Starting with the Polaris 10, we have 2304 stream processors all clocked at 1266MHz, with the Polaris 10 powering both the RX 480 and RX 470 cards. The RX 480 is going to be a beast of a card, offering R9 Nano/GTX 980 levels of performance with 4GB/8GB variants ($199/$229 for the reference models). It'll be great for 1080p and 1440p gaming, as well as VR gaming - with FreeSync support, and DisplayPort 1.3/1.4 (and HDR, too).

The Polaris 11 GPU will power the lower-end, eSports-aimed RX 460 card, which will feature 1024 stream processors, with no GPU clock speed numbers confirmed just yet. We know that there will be 2GB and 4GB models of the RX 460 offered, with a 128-bit memory bus and memory bandwidth of somewhere around 112GB/sec. The RX 460 features a pretty damn good 2.8x performance per watt improvement over the previous GCN cards like the Radeon R7 360. The Radeon RX 460 will also have a TDP of only 75W, so you don't need to use a PCIe power connector - which is going to be awesome for gamers who don't have a huge budget in terms of money, and power consumption/bills.

Continue reading: AMD Radeon RX 480 has 2304 cores, Radeon RX 460 has 1024 cores (full post)

'Stargate' director talks big screen reboot

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Jun 14, 2016 11:57 PM CDT

With the final cut of the much anticipated 'Independence Day' sequel 'Resurgence' delivered and waiting release next week, director Roland Emmerich has now turned his attention towards the film which skyrocketed his career in 1994 - 'Stargate'.

Taking reader questions for Empire Online, AlmightyPopcorn (probably not a real name) asked which if any elements from the TV show 'Stargate SG-1' would be adapted for his sequel reboot, to which the director responded: "Elements of it will flow into the reboot, definitely. The amount of characters, for instance. It's not a two-hander like the first one with James Spader and Kurt Russell, this time it's a bigger group. Yes, there's still the James Spader character and the Kurt Russell character, but other people are equally important. James and Kurt won't come back - maybe as cameos - it'll be a younger cast."

So there you have it - probably not much.

Continue reading: 'Stargate' director talks big screen reboot (full post)

AMD Radeon RX 480 reportedly runs at 60C under load, draws around 100W

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Jun 14, 2016 11:28 PM CDT

We've already seen leaked benchmarks on AMD's Radeon RX 480 where it beat the GeForce GTX 980, but now we have some more information to share - GPU clock speeds, temperature under load, and even the power consumption of AMD's new Polaris-based video card. AMD just unveiled the new RX 470 and RX 460 cards during E3, with pricing to follow on those cards shortly.

The Radeon RX 480 will arrive in both 4GB and 8GB variants, with the RX 480 4GB version costing $199 - and we can exclusively reveal the 8GB version will cost $229 according to our industry insiders. The partner cards will cost more obviously, but they'll have better coolers and higher clock speeds. Both of the RX 480 offerings will feature a base clock speed of 1080MHz, while it will boost up to around 1266MHz out of the box.

Under typical gaming loads, the RX 480 reportedly consumes around 100W of power, hitting 60C on an open-air test bench. The reference design incldues a single 6-pin PCIe power connector, and together with the PCIe 3.0 x16 port consumes up to 150W of power. Custom cards will include an additional PCIe power connector, while the "beast mode" AIB cards will feature a single 6-pin or single 8-pin depending on the card. But how is the performance?

Continue reading: AMD Radeon RX 480 reportedly runs at 60C under load, draws around 100W (full post)

Marvel teams with Insomniac Games on Spider-Man, exclusive to the PS4

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jun 14, 2016 9:51 PM CDT

E3 2016 - A huge surprise during E3 2016 was the announcement of a new Spider-Man game exclusive to the PS4 made by Insomniac Games.

Sony teased the new Spider-Man game during its E3 2016 press conference, but then Insomniac Games official Twitter account confirmed they are indeed working on the game, exclusive to Sony's console. Insomniac took to the PlayStation Blog, where they said: "Spider-Man is one of the most iconic and well-known characters in the world, and we're thrilled to be given the responsibility to create a brand new, authentic Spider-Man story".

The developer also confirmed that Spider-Man is not based off of the new reboot of the movie, that Marvel now has huge influence in since Sony have thrown the franchise into the garbage for too long. Insomniac added: "This is a more seasoned Peter Parker who's more masterful at fighting big crime in New York City. At the same time, he's struggling to balance his absurdly chaotic personal life and career".

Continue reading: Marvel teams with Insomniac Games on Spider-Man, exclusive to the PS4 (full post)

Hands-on impressions of Titanfall 2 multiplayer on PlayStation 4

Jason Evangelho | Gaming | Jun 14, 2016 12:10 PM CDT

E3 2016 -- Despite its lack of a single-player campaign, I sunk probably 50 hours into the original Titanfall on Xbox One and PC. It was a successful first effort from Respawn Entertainment, combining the twitch gunplay of games like Call of Duty with just a taste of the massive mech power fantasy I've been craving since the original Xbox's MechAssault. I'll be honest though, the trailers for Titanfall 2 didn't get me too pumped up, but when I got my hands-on the sequel at EA Play during E3 this week, my tune changed significantly. From what I experienced, Titanfall 2 is notable improvement on the original's multiplayer, although we didn't get even a peek at the single player, offline campaign.

Our group (and I believe everyone else) played on PlayStation 4. As much as I preferred Titanfall on PC, it's a smart move to highlight Sony's system here because it was left out in the cold for the original Microsoft exclusive. Like the original, it's also tuned nicely for controller play, and Sony's console handled the action exceptionally well. Thus far in development, Titanfall 2 is running at a smooth 60fps (no slowdown detected even during moments littered with grunts and Titans) on a version of the Source engine that's been heavily modified since the original shooter. I know gang, I wish it used Frostbite too. Still, it looks noticeably better, although some indoor environments -- walls especially -- almost looked like muddy screen doors. We're still in unfinished territory though, so no judgment until it hits retail.

The multiplayer mode we played was Bounty Hunt, which tasks your team with taking down designated Titans by executing them up close, or by pulling off a rodeo takedown. I noticed something when I had the chance to score my first bounty: the rodeo process was more involved and took several seconds longer. That's because now you have to essentially break into the Titan's chassis and lob a grenade inside. You're not just destroying a mech, though, you're stealing health. Your pilot -- if he or she survives the move -- will escape with a battery that can be given to teammates to heal up their own Titans. That should facilitate a bit more teamwork -- even if no one's communicating.

Continue reading: Hands-on impressions of Titanfall 2 multiplayer on PlayStation 4 (full post)

Overwatch patch nerfs Widowmaker and McCree

Sean Ridgeley | Gaming | Jun 14, 2016 11:49 AM CDT

Last week it came out that Blizzard was considering nerfing Overwatch's Widowmaker; turns out they decided to go ahead with it, as today's PC patch does just that.

Overwatch patch nerfs Widowmaker and McCree

There was a case to be made for nerfing a variety of different Widowmaker tools as well as damage levels; Blizzard has gone with a hit to non-headshot damage (down from 15 to 12) and now require you to wait for the unscoping animation to finish before scoping again (so no more CS-style flick shotting in rapid succession). Finally, her Infra-Sight ultimate now costs 10% more.

Explaining the changes, Blizzard says, "In the right hands, Widowmaker can often feel unstoppable -- even when just landing body shots instead of critical head shots. The changes to her alternate fire weaken body shot damage while leaving her headshot damage unchanged. Additionally, we felt her Ultimate ability, Infra-Sight, was coming up a little too frequently, especially considering its impact on the game."

Continue reading: Overwatch patch nerfs Widowmaker and McCree (full post)