Gaming News - Page 86

Rockstar Games is expanding its GTA+ subscription to include mobile games.

GTA+ is essentially Rockstar Games' own personal publisher-specific Game Pass subscription. The service was originally created to supplement GTA Online content by offering a slew of bonuses and extras, but recently expanded to include classic games.

Users who pay $5.99 per month will now get access to a handful of Rockstar titles across consoles and mobile, complete with a cyclic catalog that rotates games in and out on a specific timed basis.

Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer confirms that Activision-Blizzard games won't start showing up on Xbox Game Pass until 2024.

Microsoft has closed its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, so why hasn't a bunch of classic Call of Duty games been added to the Xbox Game Pass subscription? The answer is pretty simple: Migrating and incorporating that much content into Xbox Game Pass takes time and work, and Microsoft simply wasn't prepared.

In a recent Xbox podcast interview, Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer says that the 11th hour regulatory approval process didn't give neither Microsoft nor Activision enough time to ready a high-level multi-game integration onto Game Pass. That means there's no surprise launch of Activision games planned for Game Pass, and Activision's previous 2024 schedule was accurate.

Blizzard's Diablo IV, one of the biggest games of 2023, is now available on Steam - the second Blizzard Entertainment game to make up the jump from Battle.net. The first is the free-to-play Overwatch, which also recently jumped to Steam. And just like Blizzard's popular hero shooter, Diablo IV's arrival on Valve's platform is being review-bombed.

Naturally, these "reviews" are based on very little play time on Steam. However, there are fans of the game who have put in hundreds of hours on Battle.net coming to Valve's platform to praise the game - and the new Season of Blood, which introduces a lot of new content and features close to 40 pages of Patch Notes covering balance updates and quality of life fixes based on community feedback.

Diablo IV's community review rating is sitting on "Mixed," much of the negativity seems to be pointed towards Blizzard as a development studio, the Activision side of Activision Blizzard, and the company's love of microtransactions. Plus, many take aim at Diablo IV's 'live service game' aspects.

Spider-Man 2 is due out for the PS5 in just two days now, and as you may be aware, there's a day-one patch for the game - and Insomniac has just shared some new info about it on X (formerly Twitter).

While we don't get to see any release notes, the tweet (spotted by Wccftech) reminds us that those who have plumped for a digital copy of Spider-Man 2 will get the version 1.001.002 patch included with the pre-load, so there's nothing to worry about on that score. They'll be good to go with the fully patched game from the off.

Those who have bought a disc copy, though, will want to download the update on launch day to get the "best experience" of the game.

Nintendo has revealed what Hogwarts Legacy will look like when it's running on the Nintendo Switch, only weeks out from the title's launch.

There are undoubtedly many Nintendo Switch gamers who want to get their hands on Hogwarts Legacy when it releases on the handheld console on November 14. However, some gamers may want to check out what the title looks like before making a purchase, as there are major expected graphical downgrades to get a game such as Hogwarts Legacy running on the Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo has taken to its website to share six screenshots of in-game, and it's immediately clear there have been some big graphical downgrades. It should be noted that the Nintendo Switch version of Hogwarts Legacy was announced back in March 2022, and unlike the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions, which only suffered a short delay, the Nintendo Switch version has been delayed more than a year.

Over the past several weeks, there have been a few different rumors surrounding Nintendo's next-generation console, which is presumably the "Nintendo Switch 2".

Previous rumors about the Nintendo Switch 2 were very positive as they pointed to a significant performance that can be linked to the console purportedly being powered by an Ampere-based NVIDIA GPU that will enable DLSS. The performance hike would make the Nintendo Switch 2 comparable to the PS4 and Xbox One. It was only yesterday a Nintendo patent surfaced online that resembled a console design that looked like a complete step backward, as it didn't include Joy-Con controllers, only has one joystick, four front-facing buttons, and two shoulder buttons.

Now, another rumor is making the rounds, and it can be traced back to the XboxEra podcast, where co-host Nick Baker shared some information acquired from an unnamed source seemingly familiar with Nintendo's next console. The rumor is that there will be two versions of the Nintendo Switch 2 - one capable of playing Switch games and another that can't. So, if this rumor is true, Nintendo will be releasing one console that comes with backward compatibility and one that won't. Likely through one Switch 2 having cartridges and the other being purely digital.

A week before the game comes out, Free Range Games has released the opening cinematic for its newest upcoming survival game - The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria.

The opening cinematic is narrated by the iconic John Rhys-Davies, who is known for his role as Gimli, son of Gloin from Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. The actor is reprising his role of Gimli within Free Range Games' newest survival game as Rhys-Davis takes on Lord Gimli Lockbearer, who has sent out a letter to all the realms of dwarves living scattered in Middle-Earth after the destruction of the One Ring that marked the end of the Third Age.

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is set in the Fourth Age of Middle-Earth, and is the only survival crafting game that has taken on such a challenge. Rhys-Davies will explain more about how he was involved in the Return to Moria on the Nerd of the Rings YouTube channel, check out that video below. From the opening cinematic, we can gather that Gimli has requested the dwarves take back the greatest city of the dwarves, founded by Durin - Moria.

Alan Wake 2 isn't too far away and will act as what could end up being the best-looking game on the PC this year with the very latest of NVIDIA's visual technologies like DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction, ray tracing, path tracing, and more on the GeForce RTX 40 series GPU owners playing the game.

But, before Alan Wake 2 is here, developer Remedy Entertainment has decided to do something a little daring with its marketing, and very "meta" of them considering the theme of Alan Wake itself. Epic Games and Remedy Entertainment have just announced Alan Wake: Flashback, a Fortnite experience that "reimagines Remedy Entertainment's iconic story".

Alan Wake: Flashback is available inside of Fortnite right now, using island code: 3426-5561-3374.

A new report from the Wall Street Journal has revealed Netflix's motivation to move further into gaming by expanding its offerings of mobile games both based and not based on hit TV shows.

Netflix hasn't been quiet about its motivation to get into the gaming market, as it wasn't long ago that it announced it will be bringing Netflix subscribers direct access to a selection of games users can download and play on their smart TVs and computers. Additionally, the company announced it was going to be releasing a dedicated controller app that would turn an iOS device into a controller that can then be used to interact with games played on smart TVs.

Netflix already offers more than 70 games on its platforms, and according to the report from the WSJ, it will be expanding its library with games based on hit TV shows. The idea behind creating games based on hit TV shows would be to maintain interest in the show between seasons and ultimately maintain as many active Netflix subscriptions as possible.

There have been many rumors surrounding Nintendo's next-generation console, speculatively named "Nintendo Switch 2", and now we have a new patent to dive into that may very well be the first-ever look at what Nintendo's expected to launch next.

Previously, rumors surrounding the Nintendo Switch 2 have suggested Nintendo's next-generation console will be powered by an Ampere-based NVIDIA chip that will come with support for DLSS, making the performance comparable to the PS4 and Xbox One. Now, a patent that was filed in 2022 and published in October 2023 has given some insight into what the new console could look like design-wise.

The above image suggests that the new console won't feature Nintendo's Joy-Con controllers and will only have one joystick on the lefthand side of the screen. Additionally, the patent indicates it will feature four buttons on the right-hand side of the screen and two shoulder buttons at the top of the console. Furthermore, the home button is located at the bottom of the device, which is also home to the USB port, speakers, and a button dedicated to capturing gameplay recordings.