Gaming News - Page 363

Alan Wake 2 is officially in development, and it's now a horror-survival game similar to Silent Hill.

Remedy announced Alan Wake 2 at The Game Awards, confirming a 2023 release date for the sequel. Details are slim, but we know it's a horror survival action game with dark, psychological overtones.

"We've been iterating on the concept, we've been a bit protective. We knew it was a pretty scary experience and we're convinced everyone is ready," Sam Lake said at the show. "We're definitely breaking new ground, it's our first ever survival-horror game. It's our take on the genre."

STALKER 2 is still months away but developer GSC Game World has teased 5 new screenshots from the game.

In the latest issue of PC Gamer magazine, we get some juicy new STALKER 2 screenshots, with the Unreal Engine 5-powered game looking mighty fine in the new stills. STALKER 2 isn't the first to use Unreal Engine 5, with Epic Games' own Fortnite recently receiving its UE5-based update.

The new screenshots show us that the world GSC Game World is building in STALKER 2 is much more colorful and full of nature, versus the barren wasteland of the original STALKER. We do get to see an anomaly to see, with a tunnel that gives me those eerie STALKER / Metro vibes.

Activision-Blizzard workers are close to forming the first-ever union for games developers in the United States.

The $128 billion games industry is at a crossroads. Workers are now collectively banding together in an effort to unionize against unfair practices and toxic workplace culture. The developers behind one of gaming's top-earners, Activision-Blizzard, are currently on a company-wide strike in protest of the allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment, and discrimination surrounding the company, and have expressed interest in unionization.

Reports from The Washington Post indicates that Activision-Blizzard worker unions could happen soon. Employee collective group A Better ABK is working with labor union Communication Workers of America (CWA) to disburse union authorization cards to developers in an effort to spark widespread interest and discussions. This could lead to a formal vote of unionization.

Microsoft's new Halo: The Endless trademark should also include a novel tie-in.

Halo: The Endless should be the name of a new Halo Infinite campaign DLC. Microsoft filed the trademark in June, and it's specifically classified as gaming software:

Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: downloadable game software; computer game software; video game software; computer game software for use with personal computers, home video game consoles, and arcade-based video game consoles; computer game software downloadable from a global computer network; digital media, namely, pre-recorded CD-ROMs, tapes, cartridges, digital video discs, digital versatile discs, DVDs, and high-definition digital discs featuring computer games and video games

Starfield's PC version will be available on at least three platforms: Steam, the Microsoft Store, and the Bethesda.net launcher.

Starfield's Steam page just went live today confirming that, yes, the game will be sold on the platform. This is great news for gamers who plan to mod and alter Starfield, considering modding games isn't too easy on Game Pass PC titles. The storefront page doesn't reveal any new information about the upcoming singleplayer space RPG, but it does further solidify the game's November 11, 2022 release date.

This really isn't much of a surprise. Microsoft has regularly released its first-party games on Steam in an effort to maximize sales and Bethesda's huge new RPG should be no different. Starfield is the biggest game Bethesda Game Studios has ever made, and merges science with techno-fantasy complete with interstellar exploration and new game mechanics.

Here's a guaranteed fix for the annoying gaming services glitch for Halo Infinite on Game Pass PC.

Having trouble booting up Halo Infinite via Game Pass on PC? Is the installer telling you to download Gaming Services but not actually giving you an option to do so? This step-by-step fix will get you back into that challenge grind in no time.

To get around the Gaming Services issue you simply need to reset the Halo Infinite app:

What if Nintendo recreated Zelda Ocarina of Time on the next-gen Switch Pro (Super Switch, Switch 4K)? It might look something like this.

Nintendo is working on a new higher-powered Switch capable of 4K performance gaming, but what kinds of upgrades can we expect? As more developers move to Unreal Engine 5 and harness the power of its new transformative Nanite geometry technology we might see some surprising higher-end games running on NVIDIA's Tegra SoCs.

YouTuber and Unreal Engine animator RwanLink gives us an idea of what could be possible for the Zelda franchise. The creator put together an amazing-looking The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time demo running on Unreal Engine that shows what a new OoT remake could look like from Nintendo.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla owners will soon have to re-download the entire game with a new content update.

Valhalla is getting a bunch of new expansions in 2022, and Ubisoft is taking measures to prevent the game from getting too big. Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which is already 95GB+ on PlayStation 5, is receiving a new data restructuring update that will reduce the file size on all platforms. The catch is that you have to re-download the entire game again.

"In order to continue supporting Assassin's Creed Valhalla with future content and game updates, Title Update 1.4.1 will require players to re-download the entire game as part of a data restructuring," Ubisoft said.

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick thinks NFTs can A) provide more value to in-game goods, and B) opening up a trade platform in games. But Zelnick is only interested if NFTs are "regulated and honest".

Right now gaming is at a crossroads. We're at yet another new frontier where publishers are jumping into crypto, the metaverse, and even NFTs. It's a Wild West situation and everyone's trying to establish something--Ubisoft, for example, has woven cosmetic armor/weapon skins into NFTs in its new Quartz platform and plans to sell NFTs and make money from NFT trades on third-party marketplaces. The NFT market is another microtransaction market and everyone wants a slice--EA, SEGA, Square Enix, and Ubisoft want in.

It looks like Take-Two Interactive could be on that list soon. We could see NFTs come to GTA Online and other big-name Rockstar titles, as well as NBA 2K, a series that has made billions from randomized in-game microtransaction packs. If, and only if, the market is well-regulated, fair, and non-speculative.

Third-party PlayStation 5 controllers are now coming to the market...but they're very expensive.

SCUF Gaming is the first company to bring third-party PlayStation 5 DualSense controllers to the gaming world, but there's just one catch: Their minimum retail price is nearly half of a PS5's $499 retail MSRP. SCUF has three PS5 controllers available that range in price, form, and function. The models include:

Each of the controllers features SCUF's patented four-paddle design for custom programming, and the most expensive controller, the Reflex FPS, actually replaces Sony's tactile triggers with their own Instant Trigger design, which is much more lightweight and provides "instant mouse-click" precision.