Ubisoft announces theme park in Malaysia, isn't limited to 30FPS

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Sep 7, 2015 6:06 PM CDT

In a very surprising move, Ubisoft has just announced that it is set to construct a massive 10,000-square-meter indoor theme park in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The theme park, according to Jean de Rivieres, Senior Vice President of Ubisoft Motion Pictures: "Ubisoft's intention for this park is to immerse people in reactive worlds where they can interact with each other and become the heroes of their own life-sized game. Ubisoft will produce all digital media for the rides, and help design guests' journey into the park to ensure the visitors' experience is at its best".

The studio is working with Malaysian theme park developer RSG, which will both run and own the mark. Ubisoft on the other hand, will have creative control over the park, which is expected to open its doors in 2020.

Continue reading: Ubisoft announces theme park in Malaysia, isn't limited to 30FPS (full post)

'The vast majority' of DX12 games in 2015/2016 are partnering with AMD

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Sep 7, 2015 5:14 AM CDT

It looks like AMD are confident in their position in the market, even with NVIDIA scooping up most of the discrete GPU market with 82% being GeForce products. But, AMD's position could be a good one with DX12 now out, and developers jumping into the new Windows 10 exclusive API.

AMD's Head of Global Technical Marketing, Robert Hallock, took to Reddit, where he said: "You will find that the vast majority of DX12 titles in 2015/2016 are partnering with AMD. Mantle taught the development world how to work with a low-level API, the consoles use AMD and low-level APIs, and now those seeds are bearing fruit".

Even though AMD can only talk about Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, which is one AAA game, and a benchmark in Ashes of the Singularity, it feels a bit rushed to have AMD claiming this. But, Hallock could be eluding to unannounced titles that we haven't heard about yet.

Continue reading: 'The vast majority' of DX12 games in 2015/2016 are partnering with AMD (full post)

Fake beta sign-up sites for Star Wars Battlefront start appearing

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Sep 7, 2015 3:42 AM CDT

Early next month, EA will unleash the Star Wars Battlefront beta, and while registration isn't open just yet, some people are scamming foaming-at-the-mouth gamers with fake beta sign-up sites.

Of course, these sites are just total traps, which has seen Electronic Arts Community Manager, Matthew Everett, taking to Reddit. Everett said: "Registration has not been made available yet. Do not be fooled by fake beta sign-up sites. Our beta registration will live on our official site here: starwars.ea.com. I will also be sure to post a link once it is available".

Star Wars Battlefront launches on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC on November 17 while the beta arrives sometime in "early October".

Continue reading: Fake beta sign-up sites for Star Wars Battlefront start appearing (full post)

Metal Gear Solid V PC disc only contains 8MB install file

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Sep 7, 2015 2:16 AM CDT

If you have bad internet and are thinking about buying a disc version of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain on PC, don't bother.

It looks like Konami has shipped retail PC DVD-ROMs of MGSV with only a single 8.8MB installer file, meaning you still have to download the full 20GB+ game via Steam. This is a pretty harsh roadblock to PC gamers with terrible internet speeds and one has to wonder why the Japanese publisher didn't just nix physical PC releases altogether.

While this is pretty frustrating, this kind of thing is nothing new. A lot of companies ship "physical" games with a download key to use on Origin, Steam, etc. Using this method the publishers are saving money packing in downloads via digital distribution networks like Steam rather than shipping the required 2-3 DVD discs required to fit the full game.

Continue reading: Metal Gear Solid V PC disc only contains 8MB install file (full post)

AMD's super-small Radeon R9 Nano can be used in Crossfire with Fury X

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Sep 7, 2015 1:00 AM CDT

We have had one of AMD's new Radeon R9 Nano cards for around a week now, and we've only just gotten into testing it after testing out 4-way Fury X cards in a bunch of different games and resolutions.

Well, we just so happened to throw our R9 Nano into our system and straight away went to GPU-z, which said it was an 'AMD Radeon R9 Fury series' video card. But what happens when you throw in the full-blown Radeon R9 Fury X in? It works in Crossfire with the R9 Nano, that's what. The same goes for the normal R9 Fury, which also works in Crossfire with the super-small R9 Nano.

We can't share performance numbers on the R9 Nano until later this week, but we think that our review is going to be something worth reading, that's for sure.

Continue reading: AMD's super-small Radeon R9 Nano can be used in Crossfire with Fury X (full post)

'Force Awakens' actor blasts 'ludicrous' secrecy

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Sep 7, 2015 12:12 AM CDT

Actor Anthony Daniels, the man who bought C-3PO to life in all six 'Star Wars' films has blasted the next entry in the franchise for its slavish occupation with secrecy. Speaking to The Guardian ahead of the release of the seventh 'Star Wars' film; the upcoming 'Force Awakens'.

"The secrecy has been beyond ludicrous.. For heaven's sake, it's a movie. When I got the script, it was typed in black on paper of the deepest red so you couldn't photocopy it. I got a hangover just reading it." Andrews continues, relaying a social media faux-pas which bristled representatives from new franchise owners Disney. "I said that I'd met so-and-so. An actor who plays a ... thing in the film. A character. Immediately I received a message from Disney: 'Remove the tweet! You're not allowed to say that!' Honestly. It's a kind of Kremlin attitude. Look, I know perfectly well not to tell you now what I'm giving you for a Christmas present because it would spoil the surprise. And these films are all about opening the box on Christmas Day."

'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' hits cinemas worldwide in 2D, 3D and IMAX screens starting from December 17th, 2015.

Continue reading: 'Force Awakens' actor blasts 'ludicrous' secrecy (full post)

Biggest 2015 box office failures revealed

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Sep 6, 2015 8:30 PM CDT

There were some great winners at the 2015 box office, with four films grossing over a billion dollars, including 'Jurassic World', 'Furious 7', 'Avengers: Age of Ultron'. But which films didn't make back enough bank? The Hollywood Reporter has tallied up the five biggest failures and they might surprise you.

Disney's 'Tomorrowland' is the number one failure, which looks like it will create a loss for the house of mouse to the tune of $120-$150 million, followed by 20th Century Fox's 'Fantastic Four' which didn't do so fantastically and which will cost the company between $80 and $100 million.

Sony's video game blowout 'Pixels' didn't entertain many, and will bathe in $75 million in losses, while the fun 'Man From U.N.C.L.E.' and 'Aloha' will generate $80 and $65 million in losses respectively.

Continue reading: Biggest 2015 box office failures revealed (full post)

This mod will unlock the 60FPS cap on Metal Gear Solid V's frame rate

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Sep 6, 2015 7:01 PM CDT

Now that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is out, some gamers are noticing that there's a 60FPS frame rate cap. While 60FPS is still a great achievement, especially in the age of 'next-gen' consoles, there are a plethora of 120Hz and 144Hz monitors that gamers want to see fully utilized.

Thanks to the users of the NeoGAF forums, with user 'Alo81', who has provided a guide on how to unlock the framerate on MGS V: The Phantom Pain. First you'll need this file, then to follow these instructions:

Continue reading: This mod will unlock the 60FPS cap on Metal Gear Solid V's frame rate (full post)

Acer teases new 4K monitor with 75Hz refresh rate and NVIDIA's G-Sync

Anthony Garreffa | Displays & Projectors | Sep 6, 2015 4:57 PM CDT

Acer didn't just unveil a new 35-inch 21:9 monitor with a 200Hz refresh rate, it also showed off a new 27-inch 4K monitor, too. Acer's new XB271HK will succeed the XB270HK, with the same 27-inch display size and 4K resolution, but bumps the specs up inside of the panel.

The new XB271HK is part of Acer's Predator XB1 lineup of monitors, featuring a ZeroFrame edge-to-edge design backed up by a 4K, IPS-based panel. It supports 100% of the sRGB color gamut for great color reproduction, but where the new XB271HK takes the cake from its predecessor is that it pumps out 4K at up to 75Hz with NVIDIA's G-Sync.

Acer's XB270HK had the same 4K resolution and G-Sync technology but was only capable of 60Hz, and while 75Hz doesn't sound like much, with G-Sync it's going to feel like quite the jump in refresh rate smoothness for gamers.

Continue reading: Acer teases new 4K monitor with 75Hz refresh rate and NVIDIA's G-Sync (full post)

Samsung teases DDR4 RAM at 6.4GHz for 2020 with 51.2GB/sec bandwidth

Derek Strickland | RAM | Sep 6, 2015 5:33 AM CDT

Samsung is already planning on the next memory grade beyond DDR4 and projects that it will be able to hit 32GB with base speeds of 6.4GHz by 2020.

With the mainstream adoption of DDR4 RAM fast approaching on the horizon, industry movers like Samsung are beginning to lay out the building blocks for the next memory standard. As technology continues to evolve at a blistering pace Samsung projects that the new SDRAM grade will manifest within the next five years and that prototypes will be unveiled as early as 2018.

At IDF 2015, Samsung laid out targeted performance values for the post-DDR4 solution. The findings project that next-gen DRAM should be able to hit speeds of up to 6.4Gb/s with a total memory bandwidth of up to 51.2GB/s. A sub-10nm form factor has been targeted for the memory IC.

Continue reading: Samsung teases DDR4 RAM at 6.4GHz for 2020 with 51.2GB/sec bandwidth (full post)