Gaming News - Page 1

Yesterday, Microsoft and Activision formally unveiled Call of Duty Black Ops 6 to gamers, but this sequel brings some big changes.

Black Ops 6 will require always-online internet connectivity in order to play, Activision has confirmed. This includes all modes of play, even the campaign. The publisher was careful to say that both PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass Core are required for online multiplayer, but the campaign can be played without these subscriptions.

The reason? Treyarch's new game uses texture streaming tech to handle Black Ops 6's in-game assets, which are indubitably large--The game clocks in at 300GB worth of data (that's over 1/3rd of a stock PS5 SSD).

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will require an absolutely bonkers amount of SSD space on the Xbox Series X/S consoles, requiring a huge 309.8GB of storage.

The news comes from an early spotting of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on the Xbox Store, showing that it requires exactly 309.8GB of space. Frankly, I'm not surprised... we saw a few years ago that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was consuming 200GB+ and then 250GB+ on the PC before some changes were made, but now we're talking about 300GB... one-third of the 1TB SSD inside of the Xbox Series X/S consoles.

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is out on the PC early today, with a new PC demo being posted to Steam and playable through to June 17 at 10AM Pacific Time. Check it out:

NACON and KT Racing announced the release date of Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown last week, where it'll hit the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles and PC on September 12. We now have the PC system requirements, which are very hefty if you plan on playing the game at 4K 60FPS.

The portable PC gaming handheld has exploded in recent times, beginning with the Steam Deck from Valve and Windows-based follow ups like the ROG Ally from ASUS. Teases ahead of Computex 2024, the ZOTAC ZONE was given a full reveal on the show floor, and it's a slick little unit - thanks in part to the vibrant and tasty 7-inch AMOLED display.

Outside of the 120 Hz 800-nits of brightness OLED goodness, the ZOTAC ZONE is powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 8840U processor, which features integrated Radeon 780M graphics. This processor and the 7840U have given rise to several new Windows gaming handhelds. Other specs for the ZOTAC ZONE include 16GB of LPDDR5X memory and a full-sized M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 SSD slot that will feature at least 512GB of storage capacity.

Running Windows 11, the battery capacity of 48.5 Wh is not as high as the new flagship ROG Ally X from ASUS, but it should deliver longevity similar to the original. PRice-wise, ZOTAC is targeting around $799 USD for the handheld, so it won't be cheap, with a planned September 2024 launch.

It wouldn't be Computex time if noblechairs wasn't here to show off its latest gaming chairs, with the company detailing its best-sellers, upcoming releases, and special sneak peeks at what's coming in the near future.

The noblechairs LEGEND gaming chair is the "Best Gaming Chair" title winner of the European Hardware Awards 2023, with a special high-tech PU leather that's produced in Germany. It's breathable without perforation, and is available in black, red, or white.

Some of noblechairs' best sellers include the HERO ST TX which has a soft breathable fabric of anthracite color, perfectly complementing any setting. It retails for an MSRP of $549. There's also the EPIC Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One, which features a special high-tech PU leather also produced in Germany, and it breathable without perforation.

THUNDERX3 is one of the top 5 gaming chair brands by sales in the world, and at Computex 2024, the company has announced the launch of a new premium mech chair, and motorized steel desk at the Pro Gamersware (PGW) booth this year.

THUNDERX3 already has the CORE series chairs on the market, but now the company has announced its new FLEX Pro Mesh Chair, the latest premium chair model with breathability and self-adjusting customizability at the forefront of its mesh design. Here are some of the major features of THUNDERX3's new FLEX Pro Mesh Chair:

Not only that, but we've also got the new THUNDERX3 LAB-X Motor Desk, which is a new heavy-duty motorized steel desk with modular brackets for specializing different parts of your desk for different functions. Here's some of the major features of THUNDERX3's new LAB-X Motor Desk:

ASUS has officially announced the ROG Ally X, an updated, refined, and more powerful version of its Windows PC gaming handheld that debuted last year. The big hardware revisions boost performance outside of the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor, which remains unchanged. And it begins with double the battery capacity to an impressive 80 Wh.

The ROG Ally X will ship with 24GB of LPDDR5X-7500 memory, which is not only larger in capacity but also faster. ASUS notes that as the Ryzen SoC with RDNA graphics shares the same pool of memory as the full system, the increased capacity and speed deliver better GPU performance when gaming.

Storage is also getting an upgrade, with 1TB of SSD available using the common M.2 2280 form factor found in gaming desktops. This offers an easy and more affordable upgrade path for gamers who need to install several Call of Duty-sized titles. The motherboard has been redesigned to accommodate the change in the storage form factor, a philosophy that applies to the entire handheld.

In a new interview with Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, we get to find out about the PC version of GTA 6... but we're also teased with GTA 7, which is probably another 10+ years away.

The interview took place during the TD Cowen 52nd Annual Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, the host of TD Cowen estimated that since its launch, GTA V has made $10 billion in bookings. Zelnick agreed, saying it was close, adding it's "simple math," and then into GTA 6.

Zelnick was asked: "When you think about GTA VI and what you've seen they're working on, are you confident that this franchise can take another leap forward in terms of its revenue and its reach?" In response, the Take-Two CEO said: "The world is a different place than when we did launch GTA V. What came before at that point was IV, we had some downloadable add-on content, there was no online version".

The GeForce Rewards program is part of the GeForce Experience and NVIDIA App (which is still in Beta), and on June 4, if you log in, you'll be able to redeem three months of PC Game Pass. This is the Windows PC version of the popular Xbox Game Pass subscription service, which offers gamers access to a library of over 130 games to download and play.

PC Game Pass includes all first-party Xbox games, including the recently released Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, which looks incredible when running on a high-end GeForce rig. You've also got access to hits like Starfield, Forza Motorsport, Palworld, and more.

This free PC Game Pass access deal also applies to GeForce NOW subscribers, NVIDIA's cloud gaming platform that lets you stream PC games to any device with low latency and up to GeForce RTX 4080 levels of visual fiedlity. The PC Game Pass GeForce Reward starts on June 4, and here's how you claim it.

DLSS Ray Reconstruction, supported by all GeForce RTX GPUs, improves the image quality of ray-traced reflections and lighting with AI. The technology will be available in Star Wars Outlaws, which launches on August 30th. It adds detail and delivers a crisper image.

This is going to be a treat for Star Wars fans with GeForce RTX hardware, as the game features a range of RT effects, including ray-traced reflections, ray-traced shadows, NVIDIA RTX Direct Illumination (RTXDI), and ray-traced global illumination. The game looks stunning with max settings and DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction, improving the image quality.

Star Wars Outlaws supports the entire line-up of in-game RTX technologies, including NVIDIA DLSS 3 Frame Generation (this is limited to the GeForce RTX 40 Series) and NVIDIA Reflex latency reduction. Plus, it will launch into GeForce NOW with GeForce NOW Ultimate subscribers getting access to all high-end RT visual features, including DLSS 3.5.