Gaming News - Page 1

ASUS is going to bring out a 2024 take on its ROG Ally handheld, or that's the gossip on the grapevine - but it's clear that this won't be some kind of sequel.

Rather than a ROG Ally 2, ASUS will push out a ROG Ally 2024 which is essentially the same device we already have, but with one important change - the fix for the much-aired SD card problems.

If you missed this saga somehow, the SD card reader on the ROG Ally is basically a ticking timebomb, eventually destined to fail (and maybe take your card with it, when it does).

In February, Microsoft confirmed that four first-party titles were making their way over to PlayStation, which was the company's first batch of tester titles, to see how Xbox games would perform on Sony's console.

Around this time, rumors suggested that Microsoft was going to lead with massive heavyweight, system-seller titles such as Gears of War, Starfield, and Halo, but it was later confirmed the first games to make it over to the PlayStation from Xbox would be Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Grounded, and Sea of Thieves. Xbox's Phil Spencer described the transfer as an experiment and said at the time it didn't mean that other first-party Xbox titles would be coming to PlayStation.

However, Spencer said, "I don't think we should, as an industry, ever rule out a game going to any other platform. We're focused on these four games and learning from the experience. I don't want to create a false expectation on those other platforms that this is somehow the first four to get over the dam and then the dam's going to open and everything else is coming. That's not the plan today."

Orcs Must Die 3 is a different spin on tower defense that ticks some boxes - including having a top-notch name - and if you've always been half-tempted to take the plunge, now you've got no excuse.

We express this possibility of temptation because it applies very definitely to us - we've been meaning to pick up this game for some time (before the third instalment came out, in fact). And now that it's free on the Epic Games Store, we'll be doing exactly that.

Actually, hang on. Back in a moment...

A Nintendo dataminer has discovered within the latest version of the NintendoWare Bezel Engine supports frame rates of up to 240 frames-per-second (FPS).

This engine is used by Nintendo and third parties in select games, and the discovery of gameplay supporting up to 240 FPS has led to some theorizing that Nintendo's next console will be able to achieve framerates above 60FPS, which is the maximum the current Nintendo Switch is capable of producing. Notably, the dataminer wrote "this only applies to games that enable the variable frame rate mode".

The discovery of 240FPS support doesn't mean all future Nintendo games will be able to achieve 240FPS in gameplay; in fact, it's incredibly unlikely that Nintendo's next console will even have the horsepower to hit such a framerate unless at an expensive cost of resolution - likely far below 720p. However, what it does mean is there is room for the possibility of 40FPS, or even 120Hz modes that have already been seen in other consoles such as the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Helldivers 2 publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that all new Helldivers 2 players will need to connect their Steam account to a PlayStation Network account to access the game.

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) took to the Helldivers 2 Steam blog with an update explaining that a technical issue at the game's launch forced SIE into making linking Steam and a PSN account optional, but that will now change. As of May 6, new Helldivers 2 players on Steam will be forced to link to a PSN account, and if they don't have one, they will be required to make one. Helldivers 2 won't be accessible if they don't.

According to SIE, linking a Steam and PSN account "plays a critical role in protecting our players and upholding the values of safety and security provided on PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games." Additionally, SIE wrote that linking the two accounts is the main way to "protect players from griefing and abuse" by banning players that are participating in that kind of behavior. Additionally, banned players will be able to appeal.

Helldivers II is estimated to be the best-selling release of 2024 so far.

The Verhoeven-inspired squad shooter Helldivers II is doing some heavy lifting for Sony. According to the latest updates from analyst firm Circana, it's the top-selling game in the United States so far in 2024. The game is so popular that either the PlayStation 5 or the Steam version are the best-sellers of the year in the region for their respective platforms.

Helldivers II was the best-selling game of March 2024, and also topped the charts for its debut month of February 2024 as well.

Hardware sales are down across all platforms, not just Xbox.

A few days ago, Microsoft announced that Xbox hardware sales were down -31% to $430 million, the lowest point of the Xbox Series generation. It's not just Xbox, though. All of the Big 3--Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox--saw console sales dips in the United States.

According to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, U.S. spending on gaming hardware was down by 32% in March 2024, and sales were also down a sizable 24% across the entire Q1 period.

For those who are NVIDIA GeForce Now subscribers, but haven't got the streaming service up and running on their Steam Deck yet, because it seems like too much hassle perhaps - here's some good news.

NVIDIA has gone ahead and made the process of getting GeForce Now working on Valve's handheld a good deal easier.

As detailed in the latest GeForce Now Thursday update, NVIDIA has released an installation script that takes care of everything.

Bethesda Game Studios, the studio behind mainline entries in the Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises, focuses primarily on one game at a time, switching between franchises. However, with the studio spending several years building its epic sci-fi RPG Starfield, it's been over a decade since we got The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and close to a decade since the launch of Fallout 4.

With the success of the Fallout TV show on Amazon Prime, Fallout 4 is currently one of the most played games on PC and consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. However, With Bethesda Game Studios shifting its focus toward The Elder Scrolls 6 before tackling Fallout 5, it could be a decade before we see a new Fallout game - and years before The Elder Scrolls 6 is done and ready to ship.

Speaking with Kinda Funny Games, Bethesda Game Studios head and Skyrim and Starfield game director Todd Howard is fully aware of the long gap between entries in these iconic and popular franchises - and is looking to rectify it.

Tactical FPS Gray Zone Warfare has launched into Early Access on Steam. Even though it currently has a 'Mixed' user review rating, the general sentiment is that the game is on track to live up to its potential as an open-world shooter focused on realism. The good news for GeForce RTX 40 Series owners is that performance is boosted thanks to DLSS 3 Frame Generation support.

DLSS 3 makes it 60+ FPS playable in 4K using the 'Epic' quality preset on everything from the GeForce RTX 4070 to the RTX 4090 using DLSS 'Performance' mode with Frame Gen enabled. For those wanting triple-digit GeForce RTX 4070 performance, dropping the resolution to 1440p sees 81 FPS turn into 111 FPS.

This week, third-person space combat action RPG Everspace 2 is also getting DLSS 3 support. The game just got a massive Incursions Update for all players, introducing new content and migrating it from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5.3.