Gaming News - Page 72

DOS_deck is a new way to play classic games released for the MS-DOS operating system on the Steam Deck or PC browser with a controller. The UI follows the look and feel of the Steam Deck interface. So far, there are several classic game demos (which used to be called Shareware) and even full games to check out - including the original Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Syndicate, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Epic Pinball, and more.

Playing classic DOS games on a modern PC or via a browser extension is not new. Still, the simple and elegant UI and integrated controller support make DOS-deck an awesome experience, even on a PC with Chrome or Edge. All controls are already mapped, and you can select games or return to the main menu with a controller.

For PC purists, default keyboard and mouse controls are also here. Getting DOS_deck working on a Windows PC doesn't require anything other than plugging in a controller, but getting it to run on a Steam Deck via Chrome or Edge requires a few steps to ensure the controller works properly.

In 2007, Valve released the iconic first-person mind-bending puzzler Portal. Set in the clinical Aperture Science Laboratories, it introduced the 'Portal Gun' to create one of this century's most innovative and memorable gaming experiences.

Portal was/is a groundbreaking technical and design achievement and something that has sparked continued interest thanks to the recent release of the path-traced Portal RTX mod for the GeForce RTX 40 Series of graphics cards. But what if you went the other way - and tried to port or get the game running on ancient hardware like 1996's Nintendo 64?

That's exactly what N64 expert and programmer James Lambert has been doing for years, recreating and building a working version of Valve's Portal for the Nintendo 64. Right now, a dozen test chambers are playable and working with fully functioning portals and physics.

Diablo IV's launch was a success, both critically and with players. Still, as a live service game as Blizzard's action RPG moved into its first Season - that praise and excitement slowly faded as many players began to tire of the repetitive and somewhat undercooked "end-game."

Season 2, or Season of Blood, which features a vampire theme, new activities, and vampire powers to wield, has seen the positive vibes and sentiment return to Sanctuary. In addition to being able to tackle and farm new bosses for specific gear, the team at Blizzard also sped up leveling so that getting up to Level 100 is now 40% faster.

And with the current Mother's Blessing week, with the massive 35% boost to both XP and Gold until November 27, there's no better time to jump into Diablo IV.

Roblox now ties Call of Duty in one of the most important metrics for interactive entertainment.

Roblox recently posted its Q3 earnings results, showing strong revenues of $713 million on the back of $840 million in net bookings. Outside of the earnings performance, Roblox also broke new ground on its engagement KPIs (key performance indicators), namely with the amount of people who used Roblox on a daily basis.

According to the report, Roblox had over 70 million DAUs (daily active users) throughout the 3-month period ending September 30, 2023. That puts Roblox directly up against Call of Duty, one of gaming's largest franchises.

Like most gamers, Valve's Gabe Newell also believes video games should emphasize fun over realism.

Half-Life just celebrated its 25th anniversary and Valve went all out for the momentous occasion with a feature-length Half-Life documentary and even making the old-school PC classic free to own for a limited time on Steam. The official Half-Life 25th anniversary documentary is filled with lore, history, and tidbits of the earliest days of Valve and of the sci-fi FPS itself.

The doc follows a lot of people who have worked at Valve, including small interviews with Valve founder Gabe Newell. These interviews are always a treat because of Newell's frank candor, and this documentary was no exception. Throughout the doc, Newell expressed his thoughts on fun vs realism, which is particularly interesting given Valve's high-precision VR physics system used in Half-Life Alyx.

In little over six years' time, Fortnite has become one of the best-earning video game franchises in history.

A new updated profile for ex-Epic Games exec Donald Mustard gives valuable data and insight on just how big Fortnite really is. According to the profile, Fortnite has made over $20 billion in revenues, a figure that rivals the top echelon of gaming breadwinners. For context, in just six years, Fortnite has made lifetime revenues that are impressively close to the $31 billion+ that Call of Duty has generated in 20 years.

"During his previous tenure as Chief Creative Officer of Epic Games, Donald's direction and guidance built Fortnite into a cultural phenomenon that currently boasts over 650 million players with over 20 billion dollars in revenue. Fortnite has more than 250 million average monthly players as of 2023 and 25 million players use Fortnite daily," reads Mustard's new profile on AGBO's website (AGBO is the Russo brothers' production company that worked on a myriad of projects).

In order to gain a foothold in gaming, Google once floated the idea of teaming up with Tencent to buy 100% of Epic Games.

Driven primarily by Stadia, Google once had a roaring flame of ambition to break into video games. The search giant made a big splash in gaming throughout 2018 with its now-defunct game streaming platform-and-storefront Stadia, and to help fortify its billion-dollar disruption, Google planned to invest more into content infrastructure. Google had originally eyed some high-profile deals for Stadia before eventually settling on opening its own first-party labels and entreating third-party publishers.

According to new findings in the Epic v Google trial, ex-Stadia lead Phil Harrison had proposed an interesting idea: What if Google could ally with Tencent and completely buy Epic Games' shares? This would help supercharge Google's position with co-ownership of Fortnite, which was practically the biggest game in the world in 2018 thanks to the battle royale's astronomically-high $5.5 billion in revenues.

With a crowdfunding early bird price of $699 USD, the AYANEO Slide is the latest PC gaming handheld from the company to feature the impressive Phoenix APU-tech from AMD - the Ryzen 7 7840U - with a max power consumption of 28W. What makes this handheld a little different from other AYANEO products and systems like the Steam Deck and ROG Ally is that the 6-inch 1080p IPS display is a "floating screen" that slides up to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard.

The official MSRP for the AYANEO Slide is $899 USD, so the competitive price point of $699 USD is limited to the crowdfunding period. Although the display panel technology is IPS over OLED, the specs are impressive.

In addition to the Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, the 368PPI pixel density, 400-nit brightness, and 100% sRGB color coverage should make for a wonderful display. On top of this, you've got the full keyboard, ergonomic design utilizing PC and glass fiber materials, plus gamer-friendly hall-sensing analog sticks and hall effect triggers.

Can you believe it has been 25 years since Valve released the original Half-Life, which was a game-changer in so many ways when it was released and has now just received a new update... yeah, there's new stuff from Valve for Half-Life. But, I think the best part of this is the awesome Half-Life 25th Anniversary Documentary, which you can watch below:

Valve has updated Half-Life with a nice refresh to the game, with some new features to boot. Valve has introduced a new graphics setting for Half-Life and some new content to make it fresh. The developer has updated the intro to Half-Life and squashed a few bugs in the game, too.

CD exclusives like Half-Life Uplink and Half-Life Further Data, on top of 4 new multiplayer maps, have been introduced into Half-Life. Better yet, Valve has also improved the UI for higher-resolution displays, thrown in official support for the Valve Steam Deck, and added controller support.

Monolith's upcoming Wonder Woman game will stay a singleplayer title and is not being morphed into a live service experience.

A bit ago, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav pledged to create more live service titles with an emphasis on engagement and monetization. The quarterly investors' call was actually filled with quite a bit of gaming info and insights, including WB Games' operating margins, and Zaslav expanded on the benefits of GaaS business models. So does that mean all future WB Games will have live services, not unlike EA's titles for a certain period? No, it doesn't.

A job listing on Monolith's website set off some potential alarms that the new Wonder Woman game would somehow turn into a live service game. The listing is specifically for the Wonder Woman game and says that "experience helping maintain a live software product or game" would be a "nice to have" from job candidates.