Latest News - Page 1480

Bungie will start sharing more details on Destiny 2's development, including technical challenges and behind-the-scenes looks and discussions on iteration.

Curious about game development? Wonder how much effort and work goes into upkeeping a huge live service game? Introducing the Bungie Tech Blog, a new one-stop shop for Destiny 2's secret sauce. Bungie plans to reveal lots of interesting little tidbits on Destiny 2's dev process in the blog, ranging from design decisions to game mechanics and beyond.

The first blog entry focuses on rewards--which is admittedly one of the biggest pain points in the game--and in particular, how the team solved a particular Iron Banner bounty bug that prevented gamers from getting credit from kills. It's a pretty interesting look at what goes into squashing these kinds of bugs and how Bungie manages to keep all those plates spinning at once.

Mobile titan Zynga buys Torchlight developer Echtra Games to fuel new cross-platform gaming initiative.

Zynga, mostly known for social games like Words With Friends, plans to delve into the more mainstream gaming market. To help bring its ideas to life, Zynga purchased Echtra Games, who is known for the Torchlight series.

The deal is great for both parties. Echtra's latest game, Torchlight III, hasn't sold very well. With the backing of Zynga, Echtra can fuel new projects--including an upcoming RPG--and the social giant also benefits from the talent of a veteran studio. Echtra is led by Max Schaefer, one of the original heads of Blizzard North who had a hand in shaping the Diablo series, one of the most pivotal IPs in gaming history.

Blizzard confirms original Diablo II and Diablo II Lord of Destruction singleplayer saves can be imported into Diablo II Resurrected.

Holy grail hunters rejoice! Your existing D2 and D2 LoD singleplayer saves are compatible with the new Diablo II Resurrected remaster. Gamers can import their saves into the new remaster and pick up right where they left off.

When asked if original saves would be compatible with D2R, game producer Matthew Cederquist told IGN:

Yesterday, the Nintendo Switch turned four years old. The unique handheld-console hybrid has achieved thunderous success in this relatively small span of time.

The Switch is now four years old, roughly half-way into its lifecycle as Nintendo says. In a four-year span, the Switch has consistently become the best-selling system in the United States for months on end, breaking hardware (and software) sales milestones across the board. To celebrate the Switch's fourth birthday, we thought it prudent to take a closer look at its performance in the worldwide market.

After the dismal Wii U, the Switch is Nintendo's ultimate comeback story. The company has generated billions every year thanks to the lucrative Switch family (Nintendo made $9.9 billion in 2019 from the Switch). The secret of the system's success is that capitalizes on both the selling points of both the mega-popular Wii and 3DS handheld. Gamers have been tremendously receptive to the console-handheld's unique transforming form factor.

A new 4K-ready Switch model will release in 2021 with a refreshed OLED panel and 4K output for UHDTVs, sources tell Bloomberg. The system will also feature a dock upgrade.

Nintendo will release a new higher-end Switch handheld-console model this year to round out the billion-dollar platform family, production sources tell Bloomberg's Takashi Mochizuki. The new Switch will have three major improvements: Screen, resolution output, and a new dock.

The Switch will be upgraded from its current 6.2-inch LCD panel to a bigger 7-inch OLED screen, similar to the PlayStation Vita PCH 1000 series released by Sony. The new Switch's panel won't have a resolution upgrade and will stay at 720p as to preserve pixel density and maintain lower thermals.

A team of scientists from multiple different countries have finally confirmed the existence of an eye-catching space phenomenon.

The findings from the team of scientists were published in the journal Nature Communications back in February, and according to the results, the team was able to prove the existence of space plasma hurricanes. According to Mike Lockwood, a space scientist at the University of Reading and co-author of the study, "Until now, it was uncertain that space plasma hurricanes even existed, so to prove this with such a striking observation is incredible."

The researchers confirmed the existence of a space hurricane that was 1,000 km wide, which is about the same distance as driving from New York to Detroit. A space hurricane isn't like a hurricane on Earth but is somewhat similar in how it works. Instead of water, space hurricanes are a swirling mass of charged electrons, and according to Lockwood, they are created by "unusually large and rapid transfer of solar wind energy and charged particles into the Earth's upper atmosphere."

A security camera has captured a large meteor entering the atmosphere over southern Canada and the northern US.

According to Express.co.uk, witnesses that saw the meteor enter the atmosphere said that its tail was bright green, which is an indicator that the meteor contained iron and magnesium. When the meteor entered the atmosphere, it began to burn up its properties, which is what caused this reported green glow to appear.

The International Meteor Organisation (IMO) reported more than 300 people saying they saw a meteor, some of the reports stated that they saw the meteor hit land. AJ said, "I was surprised how large, bright and close to Earth it seemed. It was very clear and had a glowing burning appearance." Jenna said, "As it travelled over the Earth it looked like it was getting too close for comfort!" To watch a video of the meteor, check out this link here.

AMD has started teasing its DLSS competitor through LinusTechTips, where in their latest video (which features yours truly at the beginning) Linus explains that AMD will be launching their DLSS competitor on all platforms powered by the RDNA architecture.

NVIDIA's own Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology reached a new level when DLSS 2.0 arrived, where it helped GeForce RTX graphics card owners keep playable framerates in ray tracing games. Performance boosts in competitive games like Fortnite and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War make DLSS 2.0 a game changer for GeForce owners.

But it looks like AMD is preparing its new FidelityFX Super Resolution, which the company will reportedly make available across all platforms that are powered by the RDNA architecture. This means that AMD would be launching its DLSS competitor on not just Radeon RX graphics cards, but also Sony's PlayStation 5 and Microsoft's Xbox Series X/S consoles.

Vertigo Games today announced that its next VR title, After The Fall, would be launching this coming summer. And while a new game from the creator of Arizona Sunshine is exciting, it's a small detail in the press release that piqued my attention. It sounds like we have some VR headsets to look forward to soon.

Vertigo Games said that After The Fall would be available in summer 2021. As you may expect from Arizona Sunshine's creators, the game is set to launch on multiple VR platforms. Vertigo said it would support PlayStation VR and PC VR. But it's the next phrase that stood out. After the Fall is also coming to "yet to be announced VR platforms" this summer.

As of right now, we have no concrete information about any unannounced VR headsets coming down the pipeline, but there have been a handful of hints in recent months. In September, a benchmark test of an HTC headset with a Snapdragon XR2 processor leaked online. And just last week, Facebook Reality Labs hinted that a Quest Pro might be in the works.

Vertigo Games, the studio that created the smash hit Arizona Sunshine, is gearing up to release its next title. After the Fall, a post-apocalyptic co-op survival shooter is coming to VR platforms this summer.

From the name, you may expect that After the Fall is a sequel to Arizona Sunshine, but that's not the case. This is a completely new game with a completely different feel. Arizona Sunshine was a solo or co-op campaign set in a modern zombie-infested world. After the Fall is a fast-paced 4-player co-op game, like Left4Dead, set in a post-apocalyptic downtown LA overrun by undead creators called snowbreed.

Vertigo Games plans to support multiple VR platforms. The game will launch on PlayStation VR, PC VR, and "as yet unannounced headsets" with full cross-platform support between different platforms.

GALAX has unleashed its new GeForce RTX 3090 HOF (Hall of Fame) graphics cards to the, well probably 3 people on the planet that were able to buy them -- but one Chinese overclocker has slapped an insane 1000W custom BIOS on his card.

The custom GALAX GeForce RTX 3090 HOF graphics card was tuned and overclocked by Chinese YouTube channel 二斤自制, where there is a lengthy review you can read, too. The card was installed into an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X test bench with GALAX DDR4-4400MHz, a HOF 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD, and a high-end Corsair AX1500i PSU.

But where things go to another level is that a custom BIOS was flashed onto the GALAX GeForce RTX 3090 HOF, upping its stock 420W BIOS with what appears to be the custom XOC 1000W BIOS from EVGA and their GeForce RTX 3090 Kingpin graphics card.

Valve's most recent SteamVR survey results are out, and the new numbers show fantastic growth for Oculus's install base. Quest 2 is now the most used VR headset on the SteamVR platform.

Facebook released the Oculus Quest 2 headset in October 2020. Within its short five-month existence, the Quest 2 has eclipsed the install base of every other VR headset on the market, giving Oculus a commanding lead in headsets sold.

According to Valve's data, Quest 2 owners comprise 22.91% of all SteamVR users, while another 21.58% use a Rift S headset. Oculus also owns another 13.49%, with the original Rift, and Quest headsets added. All told, Oculus is responsible for 57.98% of all VR headsets used on Valve's platform.

id Software is re-releasing one of its iconic classics for a new generation of gamers to experience. But this time, it will be more immersive than ever. Doom 3 is coming to PlayStation VR at the end of the month.

Sony today revealed Doom 3: VR Edition, a PlayStation VR exclusive version of id Software's 16-year-old Doom title. The VR Edition is a remake of the entire Doom 3 game, including the two expansion packs; Resurrection of Evil and The Lost Mission.

This isn't the first time we've seen Doom 3 in VR. In January, a modded version of Doom 3 landed on the SideQuest marketplace, allowing you to play Doom 3 on the Oculus Quest. The PSVR version is an official port from the original developer, and as such, it received a bit of a graphics overhaul for the PSVR release. id improved the textures, shaders, and sound effects to take advantage of modern graphics advancements.

NVIDIA's own GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition was a popular card for its unique style, but now we have AXLE and its "custom" GeForce RTX 3090 CLASSIC graphics card that has a sticker on it.

We don't know if AXLE is allowed to customize the Founders Edition as I'm sure NVIDIA wouldn't allow that, so as VideoCardz points out and I will too -- this could be a mistake by AXLE. The listing itself is identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition but with a sticker on the fan (on both the front and the back).

I doubt that we'll even see AXLE release its GeForce RTX 3090 CLASSIC as NVIDIA itself, nor does anyone else around the world, have any significant numbers of GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition graphics cards laying around.

AMD has officially announced its new Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card, its new mid-range Navi 22-powered GeForce RTX 3060 Ti competitor that launches on March 18 starting from $479.

Inside, the new Radeon RX 6700 XT rocks the first outing of the Navi 22 GPU with 40 Compute Units, with the GPU base clock at 2321MHz, game clock of 2424MHz, and boost clock of up to 2581MHz. We're looking at single-precision compute performance of 13.2 TFLOPs -- console ass-kicking power.

AMD's new Radeon RX 6700 XT packs 12GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit memory bus with 384GB/sec of memory bandwidth. In reference form, the new Radeon RX 6700 XT uses an 8 + 6-pin PCIe power connector setup with a TDP of 230W.

It appears COVID-19 delay season has struck again, this time afflicting Capcom's latest mainline Resident Evil game.

Resident Evil 8 Village has been delayed from its original May 7 launch day to June 22, the latest April issue of Edge magazine says. The news was spotted on Twitter and could be a typo, or it could be a way to future-proof the printed materials ahead of an official Capcom announcement.

No details have been confirmed just yet and Capcom still lists the previously announced May 7 release date for RE8.

It was only a few weeks ago that NASA successfully landed its brand new rover on Mars. Perseverance has touched down and is snapping incredible images.

Engineers are currently running multiple tests for each of the instruments equipped to Perseverance. While these tests are being conducted, a close-by vehicle has snapped some sneaky shots of Perseverance.

The ESA-Roscosmos Trace Gas Orbiter, which is a satellite apart of the ExoMars mission between the ESA and Russian space agency, snapped some shots of Perseverance sitting in the Jezero Crater only days after it touched down. The descent of Perseverance was technical and required many different parts of discardable machinery to ensure it landed safely.

On February 18th, NASA successfully landed its Perseverance rover on Mars, and now the rover is sending back astonishing images of the barren Red Planet.

Mars has never been captured like it has in these images, and just last week, NASA released a few images that Perseverance snapped while performing instrument testing. The images were captured using the rover's Mastcam-Z camera system and show the barren 28-mile wide Jezero Crater where it landed.

Researchers believe that this crater was once home to a river delta billions of years ago, which has led researchers to think that microbial life still might remain there, hence rover landing in this location. Jim Bell, the principal investigator for the rover's Mastcam-Z instruments, said, "Mastcam-Z will be the main eyes of NASA's next Mars rover." For more information, check out this link here.

The new Diablo II Resurrected remaster will actually be separated into two test phases for multiplayer and singleplayer.

Everyone wants to jump back into Sanctuary and replay Diablo II Resurrected. Luckily, Blizzard is holding multiple technical alpha tests for the game, but we don't actually know when they'll take place or when invites are being sent out. But we do know there will be two tests: A singleplayer-only test that comes first, followed by a multiplayer test that stresses the new online Battle.net infrastructure.

"We're going to start with a single-player technical alpha, and then we'll have a second technical alpha after that, which is kind of multiplayer and stress testing," lead producer Chris Lena told PCGamesN.

A newly published Sony patent uses unique AR sensor technology to create controllers and peripherals out of everyday objects--including bananas.

Sony's new patent is rather bizarre and incredibly innovative. The patent is quite technical, but the gist of it is centered around VR/AR sensor device that essentially scans an object and uses machine learning not only to identify it, but use six-dimensional pose estimation to translate it into a peripheral. Theoretically this would allow gamers to use everyday household things like bananas to interact with and control video games.

FIG. 3 shows schematically an example of a video image of a banana being used as a video games controller;