Latest News - Page 1594

EA Motive's new Star Wars: Squadrons game has a ship class for every kind of player and they all play important roles in wide-scale star battles.

After many delays and lootbox controversies, EA is finally on the right track with Star Wars. EA Motive's new Squadrons game looks to be the definitive Star Wars galactic battle simulator, complete with first-person views, a singleplayer campaign, and tight controls right out of the classic Tie Fighter vs X-Wing PC game.

The ship selection goes way, way beyond simple fighters though with up to 8 ships that all afford their own strategic opportunities. There's fighters, bombers, interceptors, and support class ships that will make for frenetic and extremely tactical 5v5 online multiplayer battles and skirmishes. Star Wars: Squardons is a love letter to starfighting sims and the ships are the biggest part of EA Motive's huge dedication to the experience.

Microsoft's Project xCloud game streaming service will initially be powered by spare Xbox One S chips. But in 2021, the servers will get a big upgrade.

The new Project xCloud service is a big deal for Xbox. Gamers can wirelessly stream games to their consoles, PC, laptops, or phones without any downloads, all while keeping their entitlements, friends, and purchased content. But server power and latency is always a big concern. Luckily Microsoft has a plan to help smooth out those rough points.

According to The Verge's Tom Warren, who has a close ear to Microsoft's gaming plans, Project xCloud will get a huge upgrade in 2021. Microsoft will start putting in Xbox Series X motherboards into xCloud's server racks to belt out serious 4K gaming performance, complete with the powerful 7nm SoC with its 12TFLOP Navi RDNA 2 GPU, 8-core 3.8GHz, and 16GB of GDDR6 unified memory.

Netherealm joins the myriad of developers working on next-gen projects, and we could see a new Mortal Kombat or Injustice 3 announced for PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Mortal Kombat 11 Aftermath just released a bit ago, but Netherealm is already pushing forward into next-gen territory. WB Games is currently hiring a principal graphics engineer to help lay the visual framework for Netherealm's next-gen games. Unreal Engine 5 isn't specifically mentioned, but the future games are likely to use UE5's new high-end graphics and efficiency optimizations--both Injustice 2 and Mortal Kombat 11 are running on Unreal Engine 3.

"NetherRealm, a division of WB Games Inc., seeks a Principal Software Engineer - Graphics to drive the next generation console graphics vision for the Mortal Kombat and Injustice franchises," the listing reads.

The game no one asked for is now here, with developer Fancy + Punk releasing Coronavirus Quarantine Simulator on Steam. Fancy + Punk previously released Balconing Simulator, but now check out the trailer to Coronavirus Quarantine Simulator:

What exactly do you have to do in Coronavirus Quarantine Simulator? Well, the game is meant to "help you developer all your pandemic survival day-to-day skills" while enjoying yourself in Coronavirus Quarantine Simulator. How do you enjoy yourself in Coronavirus Quarantine Simulator exactly?

You can find Coronavirus Quarantine Simulator on the Steam store right here.

We have some new specs for NVIDIA's purported GeForce RTX 3090 to share with you this glorious weekend, with some truly monstrous specs coming from the RTX 3000 series.

The new leak is coming from 'KatCorgi' on Twitter, who is predicting the specs of three of NVIDIA's upcoming Ampere-based graphics cards. The first is the new TITAN RTX that would feature 24GB of GDDR6X at 17Gbps, the flagship GeForce RTX 3090 with 12GB of GDDR6X at 21Gbps (!!!) and the GeForce RTX 3080 with 10GB of GDDR6 at 19Gbps.

NVIDIA, at least according to these rumors, would cram a huge 5248 CUDA cores into the GeForce RTX 3090 -- which is not much of a cut down from the 5376 CUDA cores inside of the new Ampere-based TITAN RTX.

Anyone who has bought an Apple Mac computer knows that the machines are very expensive. Often a similar Windows machine will save hundreds of dollars compared to buying a Mac. However, Mac fans don't seem to mind spending the extra money, but everyone's up to save a little cash.

Apple has finally started accepting trade-ins of used Mac computers at Apple Stores and online in the United States. The savings vary depending on which device you are trading in and what version it is. One major caveat to the new trade offer is that Apple gives no firm price on what it would give you for a trade, and you have to send your device in without knowing how much you'll get.

Anyone who takes a Mac into an Apple Store will know what the offer is before they have to trade the device. Those buying online can send their Mac in using a prepaid shipping label or trade kit. Once the Mac is received, Apple will figure out how much it thinks the machine is worth and issue a credit accordingly in the form of a gift card or instant credit to spend in the Apple Store.

Amazon Web Services has launched a new device called the AWS Snowcone that it is billing as the newest and smallest member of the AWS Snow family of physical ads computing, and storage, and data transfer devices. The AWS Snowcone is aimed directly at rugged or disconnected environments.

The Snowcone weighs 4.5 pounds and features 8TB of internal storage. It's compact enough and rugged to make it usable in a variety of environments, including desktops, data centers, messenger bags, vehicles, and in conjunction with drones. Snowcone measures 9-inches long x 6-inches wide x 3-inches tall. The device enclosure is tamper-evident and tamper-resistant and uses a Trusted Platform Module to ensure security and full chain-of-custody for data.

The device encrypts data at rest and in transit using keys managed by the AWS Key Management Service, and the keys are never stored on the device. Snowcone features an E Ink shipping label designed to ensure that the device is sent to the correct address and to aid in tracking. Snowcone uses dual CPUs, 4GB memory, wired or wireless network access, and a USB-C power cord or an optional battery.

Cyberpunk 2077 is getting free next-gen upgrades on both PS5 and Xbox Series X, CD Projekt RED today confirmed.

CDPR just delayed Cyberpunk 2077 to November 19, 2020, the same month both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are expected to launch. This was a tactical delay on two fronts: First, it gives the team 3 more months to balance, polish, and overall synergize the game. Secondly, it allows CDPR to ride the huge next-gen console sales wave, which will help boost initial launch surges. This last point is quite important given how much CDPR has invested into Cyberpunk 2077.

So how exactly will this work? When Cyberpunk 2077 launches on November 19, it'll be fully backwards compatible on PS5 and Xbox Series X. The game won't launch with huge next-gen optimizations, though. It should be boosted thanks to both consoles' native performance boost modes which can raise resolution and FPS, but Cyberpunk 2077 won't fully play like a game built from the ground up for next-gen consoles at launch.

Apple has announced a special deal for students who purchase a Mac or iPad and use education pricing. The special deal will include free AirPods to go along with the device. Apple also notes that students can upgrade to the AirPods Pro if they want. The least expensive way to get the free AirPods is to buy the MacBook Air base version for $899.

That deal will get the AirPods with charging case for no additional money out of pocket. Students can upgrade to the AirPods with a wireless charging case for $40. Moving up to the AirPods Pro will cost an additional $90. The normal retail price for the basic AirPods is $159, AirPods with wireless charging cases $199, and AirPods Pro typically costs $249.

Other Apple devices that are eligible for the free AirPods deal include the 13-inch MacBook Pro starting at $1199, the 16-inch MacBook Pro starting at $2199, the iMac starting at $1049, and the iMac Pro starting at $4599. The back to school deal also includes savings of up to 20% on AppleCare+.

Grounded is a pleasant surprise of survival games, with the game coming from developer Obsidian -- who made The Outer Worlds and Fallout New Vegas. It's like a Pixar movie fused with the Rick Moranis 1989 classic 'Honey, I Shrunk the Kids'.

You play Grounded as a super-small teenager where you're the size of an ant, and have to survival the (literal) elements of a backyard. You will need to forge weapons, structures, hunt and gather -- as well as cook, food. You'll need to be careful to not be killed by an ant, or worse yet: a spider.

Oh, and just to add: spiders have their eyes glowing red in the dark during the day/night weather cycles, just to make it a little worse. Imagine a spider diving out at you from the grass, in the dark -- yikes.

There is a lot of discussion going on right now regarding the price of Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5 console -- will it be $399? Will it be $499? Could it cost $599?

Well, according to former Xbox executive Albert Penello, there is "no way" the PlayStation 5 will cost over $499. Penello tweeted out regarding the rumors of the PS5 being $600, where he said: "I believe in the saying "never say never". But I gotta say never. No way this console is over $499".

The latest on the price of the PlayStation 5 is from this leak, which points to a now-deleted listing on Amazon France. The listing teased a $499 price for the standard PlayStation 5, while the digital-only PS5 would be $399 -- both consoles launch November 20, 2020 according to this leak.

If you're patiently waiting for Microsoft's new Flight Simulator to release, then Thrustmaster has your back to drain your wallet ahead of its release.

Thrustmaster has just announced its new brand: Thrustmaster Civil Aviation (TCA) which has a slew of new hardware to ogle over. This includes a modular sidestick, dual thrust lever throttle with add-on modules, an Officer bundle, and a new metal desk clamp.

The company teamed with Airbus on the new Thrustmaster Civil Aviation range of products, where it is about as close as we've ever been to the look and feel of the Airbus A320 sidestick. The TCA Sidestick Airbus Edition mimics the look and feel of the Airbus A320's real sidestick.

We kinda knew it was happening, but now it's confirmed: Apex Legends crossplay is coming -- confirmed during EA Play 2020. Respawn also announced "Lost Treasures Collection" which is the new seasonal event for Apex Legends, check it out:

The new Lost Treasures Collection seasonal event changes Apex Legends up a bit, with core design modifications in the new limited-time game mode "Armed and Dangerous Evolved". This allows players to use a resurrection tool to pick up knocked-out teammates, as well as some wicked twists on players' abilities.

As for crossplay, Respawn and EA announced Apex Legends would have crossplay across all platforms -- this means that someone using EA Origin's launcher or Steam (yes, Apex is coming to Steam) can play together with their friends across the PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and even the Nintendo Switch.

ASUS is always pushing the boundaries of what is possible inside of a gaming smartphone, so the next-gen ROG Phone 3 should be no different -- right? Yep.

According to new leaks on the upcoming ASUS ROG Phone 3 we should expect Qualcomm's Snapdragon 865 to power it, but an overclocked SoC that will see the SoC clocked at a huge 3.09GHz -- up from the already fast 2.84GHz. It should be joined by a huge 16GB of RAM (!!!) and 512GB of storage.

As for the display, ASUS is tipped to use a 6.59-inch AMOLED display that should be FHD+, and I would be disappointed to see anything less than a 120Hz refresh rate. Even all of this, there's not much difference between the ROG Phone 2 and ROG Phone 3 -- but there will be small changes under the hood that give this iteration a nice boost of its predecessor.

EA just showed off a slew of its next-gen games during EA Play 2020, including a sneak peak at future games from BioWare, Criteron -- and even next-gen Battlefield games.

It seems as though we just got our first looks at Dragon Age 4 and what I'm hoping will be great this time around: Battlefield 6. We are getting a tease of what next-gen consoles and next-gen games can do, with the video below teasing an entire freaking building crumbling to the ground -- one of those "only in Battlefield" gameplay moments, I'd say.

The tease doesn't say or do much for Battlefield, but Laura Miele -- the Chief Studios Officer at EA, teases: "We're creating epic battles at a scale and fidelity unlike anything you've experienced before".

Microsoft still has its Xbox Series X cooking in the oven right now, but that hasn't stopped the team from sharing the boot-up sound to the Xbox Series X. Check it out:

The company used Twitter's new "voice notes" feature, with a calm noise that is longer than the boot-up sound on the normal Xbox One console. Microsoft tweeted right after, describing the Xbox Series X boot-up sound: "It's like a choir of gaming angels singing in your ears".

What about the competing console in Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5? How does that look and sound when the PS5 is booting up. The above tweet from Bob Hanson shows what Sony kinda (maybe accidentally, but I'm sure it wasn't an accident) revealed that during their recent Future of Gaming event.

It hasn't even been a month since Zack Snyder's Justice League was confirmed during Zack Snyder's own Man of Steel Watch Party -- yet here we are, with our first sneak peak at what should be one of, if not the biggest release of 2021: Zack Snyder's Justice League.

The clip opens with Diana Prince (Wonder Woman, played beautifully by Gal Gadot) exploring an underground cave, where a creepy (but awesome) voiceover from Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice).

Luthor says the bell has been rung, and "The bell's already been rung and they've heard it, out in the dark among the stars. Ding-dong. The God is dead".

Alright, which we've reached peak gaming people. During the recent Future of Gaming event held by Sony where they unveiled more details and games for the PlayStation 5, one of those new games was a game called Stray.

Stray is being developed by Blue Twelve and published by Annapurna Interactive, and has been in development for 5 years with just two people beginning the early work on Stray in 2015. The trailer above shows that Stray sees you playing a cat -- in 4K hopefully, with beautiful future sci-fi looks and a world where humans are gone -- we've been replaced by robots and cats.

If you've wanted a cat simulator then you've got it with Stray, where you will play the "role" of a smart cat that solves mysteries in what feels like a future version of Tokyo. You'll be joined by a robot friend called B12, where together you will solve mysteries inside of the futuristic city.

A new PS5 size comparison mock-up is making the rounds, but it's pretty inaccurate. The PS5 might be a skyscraper but it's not about to put the Burj Khalifa to shame.

Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5 is a chonky beast. Early size comparisons estimate the PS5 could be taller and bigger sideways than the footlocker-shaped Xbox Series X. It's pretty big but it's not that big...at least not as big as shown in these exaggerated new renders.

The latest size-ups are pretty much inaccurate due to one noticable flaw: the sizable discrepancy between the two consoles' front-facing USB ports. Standardized ports and disc-drive slots are used as reference scales by artists to create these mock-ups. So when one of these references is bigger or smaller than the other, it throws the entire thing off.

Guerrilla's new sci-fantasy sequel Horizon Forbidden West will be the first major first-party open-world exclusive to stress the PS5's SSD.

The PS5's 12-channel PCIe 4.0 SSD is revolutionary for pretty much every game. But open-world games like Horizon Forbidden West stand to tremendously benefit from the new custom storage tech. Thanks to the ultra-fast 5.5GB/sec transfer speeds, powerful compression tech, and ultra-tight OS optimizations, Guerrilla says its new Horizon sequel will have virtually no loading sequences as you play.

This includes everything from booting up the game to reloading a checkpoint, and most importantly, fast travel. The PS5 can simply blast textures, assets, and data to the CPU, GPU, and RAM memory pool at such a rapid pace that loading is pretty much obliterated. But it's not just about speed. The SSD also removes seek times altogether, and removes the need for duplicated assets. The PS5 is also incredibly efficient thanks to the massive synergy between the SoC, storage, RAM, and OS toolsets.