Latest News - Page 1515

Crytek is apparently making Crysis Next, a F2P battle royale shooter set in the FPS series. Old reports suggest this project will be powered by Improbable's SpatialOS multiplayer engine.

Back in January 2019, Crytek confirmed they were working on a new online multiplayer game using Improbable's SpatialOS cloud infrastructure. SpatialOS is the same tech used to power gaming's first 1000-player battle royale game, and it's possible we could see Crysis Next push hundreds of players as well. Crytek's motivation is to integrate CryEngine into SpatialOS to help empower developers.

This new BR mode is likely a significant evolution of Crysis' original Warhead mode, mixed with live service elements and monetization. Crytek has pushed towards more competitive online-driven multiplayer games as of late with Warface and Hunt: Showdown, another PVP game that's built around SpatialOS. Before Crysis Remastered was announced we had originally predicted the new Crysis game could be a multiplayer-only experience of some sort.

Crytek hyped up but didn't really seem to hit any memorable home-run from Crysis Remastered, but the developer isn't just sitting on its hands right now.

According to a new job listing on the official Crytek website, they're hiring new staff for a new AAA game that is currently in-development. One of the new games is Crysis Next, which has been teased as a next-gen "free-to-play Battle Royale game where 100s of players collide in the fast-paced combat".

The job description teases: "Crysis Next is a free-to-play Battle Royale game where 100s of players collide in the fast-paced combat. Visual customisation, adaptive Nanosuit powers and visually spectacular combat in an immersive world create the ultimate live streaming experience".

Halo: Infinite's new controversial armor coating system will be the primary form of monetization in the game (which isn't a surprise).

Long ago, we predicted Halo: Infinite would be monetized with optional in-game cosmetic skins. According to 343i community manager John Junyszek, this microtransaction store will include vehicle/weapon skins and armor coatings--a new seven-layer color scheme system that's similar to Destiny's armor shaders.

"Although moving away from the old color system was a tough call, it has allowed us to go into greater detail and variation with armor color, materials, patterns, etc. You are going to look great in Halo Infinite," Junyszek said.

CD Projekt RED has one goal with Cyberpunk 2077: To make a generation-defining game of immense high quality. The studio is willing to do anything to achieve their goal--including delaying the game three separate times.

In a recent investor's call, CD Projekt RED business exec Michał Nowakowski said something interesting about Cyberpunk 2077's most recent delay. CDPR wants to maximize polish so the game shines bright enough to hit a 90+ Metacritic rating. CDPR has previously said Cyberpunk is "better than Witcher 3 in every way", a bold statement. Witcher 3 has a 90+ Metacritic rating and has significantly boosted CDPR's revenues every year since its 2015 launch.

"So, when it comes to Metacritic, we continuously aim at a 90+ game, so nothing has changed here; this remains the goal and, as Adam mentioned, this is actually the main reason for postponing the release," Nowakowski said.

Halo: Infinite's development seems more rocky now that studio head Chris Lee has left the project.

The next-big Halo game may be buckling under its larger-than-life ambitions. Halo: Infinite isn't just a game, but a platform that will put an end to all future numbered Halo sequels. It's also a FPS-RPG with live service drop-in co-op. This kind of game takes lots of work--and to make matters worse, 343i is crafting the game alongside the brand new Slipspace Engine. This complexity has led to a delay into 2021.

Infinite's issues have led to various departures from 343i. First, creative director Tim Longo left 343i in August 2019. Now studio head Chris Lee has moved on from Infinite as well, saying the the project is in good hands.

Although it's a launch PS5 game, Demon's Souls won't support ray-traced visuals due to resource allocation.

The PS5 is capable of pushing ray tracing thanks to its onboard Navi RDNA 2.0 GPU, but that doesn't mean every game will utilize it. Remember devs are in full control over how to use next-gen power. Some games can hit variable perf targets like 4K 60FPS, or 4K 30FPS, or 1080p 60FPS with ray traced effects--ray tracing typically comes with a specific performance cost that takes a bite out of resolution and FPS.

Next-gen boosts power significantly and gives devs more tools to work with, but resources are still limited. That's the case with Demon's Souls, which doesn't support ray tracing because of the performance hit. In short, Sony Japan Studio didn't enable ray tracing because it'd take away from other features.

If you think fleeting spirits are the scariest thing you'll ever face, you couldn't be more wrong. What scarier is someone you can't see or hear, peeking into your private browsing activities. And it happens so often that we take it for granted.

The thought of being unable to watch your favorite horror flicks due to online geo-restrictions is also daunting to some of you. The most dreadful of all is the constant fear of cyber theft while shopping online. It's a valid fear. But there's a way to address it. PureVPN is going to scare away all your worries with its most spooktacular Halloween treat ever. #SecureHalloweenWithPureVPN

PureVPN is the first-ever No-Log Certified VPN in the industry that has opted for an always-on audit. This means that the top auditing firm in the world, KPMG, can conduct a non-scheduled PureVPN audit without notice to ensure that we're keeping our promise that we never store your information ever and we're as private as we say we are. No other VPN company on the planet does this. None. That's some eerie good confidence and transparency!

DecaGear revealed that the DecaMove locomotion solution, which ships with the upcoming DecaGear 1 VR headset, will be available as a standalone product.

DecaGear recently revealed the DecaGear 1 VR headset, which features face and eye-tracking. DecaGear 1 also includes a tracking puck for your hips that allows you to control your movement orientation by rotating your hips.

Or Kuntzman, one of the company's founders, said that DecaMove would work with many headsets, including Valve Index, HP Reverb G2, and even Oculus Quest/Quest 2.

Elon Musk has his sights set on Mars with SpaceX leading the charge and pushing its Mars mission into the stratosphere. But what about the laws on the Red Planet, who makes them up? Who defines them, enforces them? It's a great question.

Musk plans a Mars colony that will not be ruled by any "Earth-based government", and that it will follow its own "self-governing principles". SpaceX will use its Starlink internet project to give those that colonize Mars access to internet services, and these people will not be forced into recognizing international law.

This is right out of the terms of service of SpaceX's Starlink internet project, where the government law section reads: "For services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship or other colonisation spacecraft, the parties recognise Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities".

On Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg told Facebook investors that the new Oculus Quest 2 is selling way faster than the old version. The CEO said that sales of Quest 2 have "surpassed expectations."

Facebook announced the Oculus Quest 2 standalone VR headset on September 16 at its annual Connect developer conference. The new headset, which sells for as little as $300, gives you everything you need to enjoy immersive VR experiences that you can move around in and interact with.

Facebook opened pre-orders for Quest 2 the day it revealed the hardware, and many people ordered one before the October 13 launch. Facebook never reveals unit sales, but Zuckerberg told his investors that 5x more people pre-ordered the Quest 2 than the original Quest headset, which is more than the company anticipated.

AMD have just provided a bunch more benchmark results for its new RDNA 2-based Radeon RX 6900 XT, Radeon RX 6800 XT, and Radeon RX 6800 graphics cards.

The new Big Navi cards were benched against NVIDIA's new Ampere-based GeForce RTX 3090 and GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards, with AMD running a suite of games at both 1440p and 4K. I've got the 4K benchmark results below -- if you want the 1440p results, check out AMD's official page on the Big Navi benchmarks.

Sony's PlayStation 5 launch is mere days away, and people are getting excited about the next-gen experiences that it brings. But one of the bigger features about the console is supposed to be backwards compatibility, but for PSVR players, it might not be as good as it seems.

Sony has said that its new console would play 99.9% of PS4 games, including almost all of the platform's virtual reality titles. The PlayStation VR headset is compatible with the PS5 console, but it recently came to light that the PS5's camera isn't compatible with the PSVR headset. Sony offers a free dongle that converts the PS4 camera to USB to make it work on PS5.

It turns out; the dongle requirement may have been a sign of the level of support the PSVR would get on PS5. A spokesperson for Sony told UploadVR that the PS5 versions of No Mans Sky and Hitman 3 would not include VR support, adding that the company has "not announced PS5 titles for PS VR." Sony considers the PSVR as a "backwards compatible device," not a PS5 accessory.

If you can find an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 or GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card in the world somewhere, you'll get a free copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX Call of Duty Bundle gives you Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Standard Edition, the Woods Operator Pack and Confrontation Weapons Pack. You will need to purchase the GeForce RTX 3080 or GeForce RTX 3090 through a specific retailer, which you can read up on here.

As for the promotion, it kicks off now and runs through to December 10, 2020 while the redemption period ends on January 11, 2021. The redemption instructions can be found here.

AMD revealed its new RDNA 2 architecture a few days ago, with the new Radeon RX 6900 XT leading up the Big Navi GPU charge on December 8 for $999. You can read everything you need to know about the Radeon RX 6900 XT right here.

But, will there be custom Radeon RX 6900 XT cards on offer -- that hasn't been confirmed, but new leaks suggest it could be happening. The custom designs of Radeon RX 6800 and Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics cards has been teased by ASUS and MSI so far... but nothing on the Radeon RX 6900 XT.

AMD is reportedly in talks with AIB partners on the possibility of custom Radeon RX 6900 XT designs, but from what I've heard the RX 6900 XT is an AMD exclusive with no custom designs. Think of it like the TITAN series cards from NVIDIA -- versus the TITAN-class GeForce RTX 3090, that dropped the TITAN name -- retained the huge 24GB framebuffer, and once it was a GeForce card then custom cards were unleashed.

Cyberpunk 2077 was delayed because CD Projekt RED has to optimize it on 9 different platforms, including current-gen hardware that poses 'unique challenges'. They want to avoid that with future games.

In a recent investor's call, CDPR co-CEO Adam Kicinski says the developer's upcoming projects will skip PS4 and Xbox One in favor of next-gen consoles. Considering CDPR takes 4-5 years to develop its games, this makes sense.

"We are releasing a game which is, to be honest, a next-gen game, and we're preparing it for fairly old machines, which poses certain unique challenges that won't occur in future projects - at least in the next one," Kicinski said in the call.

Ark: Survival Evolved is one of the few "wow" moments on the Xbox Series X, and the next-gen optimizations are a radical transformation from the base game.

Ark just got a major overhaul patch in preparation for the Xbox Series X, and in short, this is the way the game was meant to be played. The game shines on the Series X with massively improved shadows, lighting effects, draw distances--you name it and it simply looks better on the next-gen Xbox.

Gamers can now hit up to 4K 60FPS in-game, complete with significant overhauls in shadowing, HDR, post-processing effects, and tons of different settings that run on the Epic preset. Loading has also been boosted by 7-fold thanks to the Series X's high-speed 2.4GB/sec PCIe 4.0 SSD and DirectX 12-accelerated APIs.

Dutch courts at The Hague have ruled that unregulated lootboxes violate country-wide gambling laws. Now courts will punish Electronic Arts millions of Euros unless it removes lootboxes from FIFA Ultimate Team.

EA will face fines of up to 10 million Euros unless it pulls lootboxes from its FIFA games, city courts at The Hague, Netherlands have ruled. The case was initially sparked by regulatory body the KSA, who oversees all games of chance and gambling in the UK and Netherlands. The KSA investigated lootboxes in 2018 and found that EA's monetization tactic broke the country's gambling laws. In short, EA needs a license in order to sell lootboxes in its games. If it doesn't acquire one, it has to pull FUT packs from FIFA--a move that will put a dent in the company's billion dollar yearly revenues.

If EA doesn't remove the lootboxes nor acquire a license, then it can be fined up to 10 million Euros. The fine is technically for 5 million Euros, but it's doubled across EA's Swiss branch and the company's Redmond-based HQ in the United States.

Ubisoft has delayed both Far Cry 6 and Rainbow Six Quarantine to its FY2022 timeline, which lasts from April 1, 2021 - March 31, 2022.

Today Ubisoft confirmed two high-profile AAA games will skip its FY2021 slate: Far Cry 6 and Rainbow Six Quarantine have been backdated to an unspecified period. Both games were delayed due to coronavirus work-from-home measures that have disrupted development. Works are no longer making games in offices and must work remotely, which is tough to do for a global company like Ubisoft.

FY2021 was to be Ubisoft's most ambitious year for game releases, however the delays won't significantly impact expected yearly earnings. After the delays, Ubisoft now expects FY2021 net bookings to sit between 2.2 billion Euros (-6.8%) and 2.35 billion Euros (-11.3%). Operating income is expected to hit between 420 million Euros (+5%) and 520 million (-13.3%).

The upcoming PlayStation 5 is compatible with almost the entire back catalogue of PS4 games, including most PSVR titles, but the system won't launch with a new PSVR headset. The new console is compatible with the existing headset, but you will need a dongle to make it work.

If you're not familiar, the PlayStation 4 console featured a unique proprietary port for the PlayStation 4 camera required to run the PSVR. The new console, however, does not include that port, and the PS5 camera is not compatible with the VR headset.

Sony said you'll need an adaptor to make the PSVR work on the new console, and you'll need your existing PlayStation 4 Camera. The adaptor is a USB dongle with Sony's proprietary end on one side and a standard USB A plug on the other end. The adaptor supports SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps.

Activision has just dropped the latest and final Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War PC trailer, detailing the very best version of the game. Check it out in all of its 4K glory:

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will be on virtually all consoles including the next-gen PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles, but the PC version will be the most special. Uncapped frame rates, Ultra-wide and multi-monitor support, 4K ray traced graphics, and most importantly -- NVIDIA DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) support.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War drops on Battle.net for PC gamers, and available online and in physical form on consoles on November 13.