Latest News - Page 1653

Sony is finally revealing key PS5 specs and details today at 12pm EST in a livestream with Mark Cerny, complete with architectural info and much more.

The PS5's enigmatic mystery will be lifted today. The livestream with Cerny should uncover tons of tidbits about the system's software and hardware stack and we'll probably get perf numbers: 8K, 4K 60FPS, 1080p 120FPS, ray tracing, etc. And Cerny should explain how this kind of performance is possible on the system. And storage...hopefully we get info on storage too.

The stream should be roughly 52 minutes long so we could see some game reveals, a big reveal of the system's final consumer design, memory cards (yes, those are back now), and more. Kotaku's Jason Schreier, who has knowledge with the goings-on in the games industry, says spec-hunters will be disappointed. The PS5 may not hit the same TFLOP power as the Xbox Series X.

President Donald Trump has just announced that the United States will closing its border with Canada, where all "non-essential traffic" will be blocked over coronavirus.

The moves by President Trump closing the US-Canada border come barely 24 hours after the European Union agreed to close its external borders to non-citizens. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently made similar moves in Canada, where he considered closing Canada's border to non-citizens, while US citizens were exempt from that ban.

President Trump tweeted: "We will be, by mutual consent, temporarily closing our Northern Border with Canada to non-essential traffic. Trade will not be affected. Details to follow!" The story is breaking, and I will update it when more information is made available.

Former Facebook Creative Director, and veteran game creator, Mike Booth, will be moving over to Resolution Games as a member of its board of directors.

Booth has been in game development for quite some time now, starting his career back in college with a game called Nox and then moving onto to work on two legendary titles - Counter-Strike and Left 4 Dead under Turtle Rock Studios before being acquired by Valve. Booth also worked on a range of big titles such as Counter-Strike: Source, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Team Fortress 2, Command & Conquer: Generals, and Command & Conquer: Red Alert. Booth also spent some over at Facebook as the leader of the company's virtual reality ventures.

Resolution Games is known for creating titles such as Bait!, Acron: Attack of the Squirrels! and Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs. Booth touched on the transition to Resolution Games and said that "What drew me to Resolution Games is the team's passion and dedication to creating innovative and immersive game play in what's proving to be an incredibly powerful, yet still somewhat challenging technology".

The search for a coronavirus COVID-19 vaccine is probably the most-wanted thing on this planet right now, outside of toilet paper that is -- and don't worry, scientists are on top of it.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have said that their clinical trial of investigational vaccine for COVID-19 begins, with a new study kicking off in Seattle with local, healthy adult volunteers putting their arms up for a jab. A new Phase 1 "clinical trial evaluating an investigational vaccine designed to protect against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has begun at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) in Seattle", according to a new post on the NIH website.

The new COVID-19 vaccine trial will see 45 "healthy adult volunteers" that are aged between 18-55 years old, across the next 6 weeks, where the first "participant received the investigational vaccine today". The 6-week study will be evaluating "different doses of the experimental vaccine for safety and its ability to induce an immune response in participants".

Nokia has been chosen to deploy a 5G radio network for Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan, where it will deploy 5G technology in the Central and Southern Region of Taiwan.

Chunghwa Telecom has its eyes on becoming the 5G leader in Taiwan, and will be using Nokia's range of 5G radio technology to make it happen. Chunghwa Telecom will be the first in Taiwan with 5G connectivity, with the continued relationship between the companies extending back to 1973 -- right up to the next generation of 5G technology.

The rollout of 5G technology is already happening in Taiwan, and will be live for users to use in July -- aiming at high-end 4K video streaming and VR technology. Nokia will tap the huge array of Chunghwa Telecom's existing LTE install base with huge spectrum resources at its disposal, to launch a 5G non-standalone (NSA) using multiple bands -- where in the future it will expand on that with 5G standalone (SA).

We all know that coronavirus COVID-19 is wrecking havok on the world in multiple ways, but now we have an analyst who thinks it is the perfect time for Apple to acquire Disney. Yeah... Disney, and yeah... Apple.

Rosenblatt Securities Director Bernie McTernan has thought about what would happen if Apple were to acquire Disney, during a recent chat with Yahoo Finance. He had some interesting facts that he bought up, and with coronavirus COVID-19 bringing markets down and changing the way consumers consume content right now, Apple could make a big move on the board and acquire everything giant Apple.

Yahoo Finance talked about Apple having the ability to "possibly take advantage of those struggles" that Disney is going through right now, with Disney stock plummeting 40% in the last month alone.

Coronavirus COVID-19 is canceling and delaying things left right and center, and now the latest thing to be delayed is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's next DLC fighter.

The news has come from PushDustIn, who is known for translating Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Director Masahiro Sakurai's Famitsu column regarding the development of the game. According to PushDustIn, excerpts of Sakurai's next column have been leaked online, and from the translations, the upcoming announcement for the next DLC fighter has been "put on hold" due to COVID-19.

There's no doubt that the now global virus is drastically affecting multiple industries across the planet, and that means game development as well. So, this isn't that surprising considering studios such as CD Projekt Red have already told their workers to begin working from home, hindering game development process. The same will likely happen for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which will most likely push the expected completion date of Fighters Pass 2 back further.

Call of Duty: Warzone is off to a big start, with over 15 million players already joining in on the action.

Warzone is amassing extreme popularity in the battle royale genre, and to keep players enticed Infinity Ward and Activision have rolled out a new update. Inside of this update are numerous bug fixes that the community was no doubt complaining about, and an addition to being able to jump into Warzone completely solo.

Infinity Ward will no doubt contain rolling out updates that contain fixes for Warzone, as the game is still young and has a lot of distance still yet to go. One of the more notable bug fixes inside this update is that players who downed an enemy player will be rewarded with kills, instead of who killed the enemy player while they were down. If you are interested in checking out the full update notes, dot points have been provided in the entirety of this post, or a link to the official site can be found here.

It looks like things could go from (really) bad to unbelievably bad when it comes to the flow-on effects of coronavirus COVID-19.

Coronavirus could crash the entire US housing market causing trillions of dollars in damage, and affecting hundreds of millions of Americans. The latest data from Google Trends is a big indicator towards this, with Google searches of "unemployment benefits" shoot up.

As you can see from the Google Trends data on US-based users searches for "Unemployment Benefits" it has skyrocketed in the last week or so. But the issue is, it's not just searches for "unemployment benefits" that is concerning, because "can't pay rent" searches are surging, too.

Half-Life: Alyx is right around the corner, with Valve providing some details on when the game will begin pre-loading onto PCs, as well as when the game will unlock exactly.

Valve explained in a tweet that Half-Life: Alyx will begin pre-loading on March 20, while the game won't unlock for VR gamers until March 23 at 10AM PT / 1PM ET. This means we're only days away from its launch, with Half-Life: Alyx opening up the pre-loading flood gates the day DOOM Eternal drops on March 20.

More reading: I've written an extensive article titled 'Half-Life: Alyx Buyers Guide: PC Hardware & VR Headset Recommendations'. Check it out with recommendations on the PC hardware and VR headset required, and recommended by me, for Half-Life: Alyx.

NASA has been directly affected by COVID-19 coronavirus, with the US space agency having a staffer in Alabama testing positive for COVID-19.

This has forced NASA into a lockdown and pushing a mandatory work-from-home order, elevating the center to "Stage 3". This is NASA's internal label for a mandatory work-from-home order. The Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama is the NASA site affected, with all employees at the Alabama-based facility forced to work from home.

In a NASA press release, the US space agency explains that all staff will have "restricted access to the center until further notice". Stage 3 designation has NASA forcing its other facilities into a Stage 2 mandate, which means the US space agency "strongly encourages" employees to work from home, but it's not mandatory at this stage -- which is where Stage 3 comes in.

The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says that COVID-19 coronavirus, and the closures of countless schools worldwide, will have an affect on 776 million children.

UNESCO explains: "an unprecedented number of children, youth and adults are not attending schools or universities because of COVID-19". Governments in 100 countries have announced, or already implemented closures of schools -- where in 85 countries, schools nationwide have been completely closed, which has affected 776.7 million children.

There's no an updated list of digital education tools from UNESCO, something that includes digital learning management systems like ClassDojo and Google Classroom. There are also apps that have been designed for smart featurephones including KaiOS, and software with offline compatibility with Can't Wait to Learn, Kolibri, Rumie, and Ustad Mobile.

Warner Bros. has not only stopped production of The Batman, but the company has also just announced it has halted production of The Matrix 4.

The Matrix 4 has been shooting in San Francisco recently, where it just ended its required shooting in San Francisco and was going to begin in Berlin. But, because of the current panic over COVID-19 coronavirus, Warner Bros. has pulled the plug on production of The Matrix 4 for now.

The new travel restrictions put in place by the Trump administration between the US and Europe have ended these plans, for safety of all people above all. There's no details on when The Matrix 4 production will begin again, or whether the movie will be able to meet its May 21, 2021 release -- the same day as John Wick 4, which both star Keanu Reeves.

CD Projekt RED has just posted on their official Twitter account to update the world on the status of its much anticipated Cyberpunk 2077, amid all the COVID-19 coronavirus panic.

The developer explained: "Many of you are probably wondering how things are at CD PROJEKT RED and how COVID-19 influences out day-to-day operations. Here's a short update. Over the past week, we have been adapting to the situation and gradually rolling out preventative measures across our entire organization".

CDPR continues: "We've also been upgrading equipment & infrastructure and working towards enabling our employees to work remotely, from the safety of their homes. Today, as a result of that preparation, CD PROJEKT RED switches to full remote work for as long as it is needed. We think this will grant every team member the highest level of personal health safety. And while this all is a bit new to everyone, we are rising to the challenge and showing no signs of stopping in our effort to bring you some kick-ass role-playing action in September".

I'm surprised it took this long, but there is now an official "coronavirus mod" for Fallout: New Vegas, released by modder 'JotunYmir' and available right here.

The mod is called Immersive Coronavirus, and will see Fallout: New Vegas players needing to eat some Bat Soup to contract COVID-19 coronavirus. There's not much more to go along with the mod, as once you have it you simply need to survive it -- which isn't that hard by the looks of things.

I would rather see the infection of coronavirus changing the way you interact with the world at least, as it seems like a waste to be (what seems) the first "coronavirus mod" for a game. I'm sure Resident Evil is next, though.

Haven't picked up Doom Eternal yet? Don't own a Switch? Don't fret: The Steam Game Festival is coming back to save us from quarantine woes.

The Steam Game Festival is one of the best things Valve has ever done. Originally debuting last year as part of the The Game Awards 2019 showcase, the festival is basically a digital games convention where you can demo and play an assortment of games. Now it's coming back to help cure our COVID-19 quarantine woes.

Since so many indie devs missed the chance to demo their games at GDC, PAX East, and E3 2020, Valve and Geoff Keighley partnered up to host a kind of virtual games meetup. This time around Valve will offer over 40 games for Steam gamers to try out. They won't all be indies and expect some surprises thrown in there. Last time around we got to try the amazing System Shock remake from Nightdive Studios which looked and played incredibly well (here's hoping it's back for round 2).

Global entry! We have teamed up with SAPPHIRE to give away one of its PULSE RX 5600 XT 6GB GDDR6 video cards to one lucky winner.

The SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT offers incredible performance at the optimal budget for every gamer. With lightning fast GDDR6 memory and redefined display and media engines, the PULSE RX 5600 XT is the ideal graphics card for 1080p gamers. It is powered by AMD's extreme RDNA architecture, alongside our innovative Dual-X Cooling Technology which keeps the GPU, Memory and VRM components icy cool at low noise levels.

The all-aluminum backplate preserves the rigidity of the GPU and guarantees nothing bends, dust stays out and adds another level of passive cooling to dissipate heat. Pivotal SAPPHIRE features like the Quick Connect Fan, Dual Bios Support and Dual Ball Bearing Fans keep your GPU running smooth and stable. Take your gaming to the next level with the SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT as the beating heart of your PC!

Yesterday Microsoft pretty much revealed everything there is to know about the Xbox Series X, including specs, software architecture features, new SSD tech and memory cards, and amazing upscaling capabilities. Tomorrow Sony will do the same for the PS5.

Sony will reveal key information about the next-gen PS5 in a special live stream tomorrow hosted by system creator Mark Cerny, the company today announced. Cerny will "provide a deep dive into PS5's system architecture, and how it will shape the future of games."

We expect to see detailed info on PlayStation 5 specifications--Cerny should confirm RDNA 2 in the PS5's GPU, for instance--ray tracing capabilities, the ultra-fast SSD, and hopefully some game demos.

Uber is doing what it can to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, and it has recently announced its battle plan that is aimed at helping many restaurants.

Uber has announced that it will be launching daily marketing campaigns to push Uber Eats customers into purchasing food from local restaurants. On top of that, Uber has also said that it will waiver delivery fees from over 100,000 local restaurants in the United States and Canada. The goodness doesn't stop there, though. Uber will also be allowing restaurants to choose daily payments to Uber Eats instead of normal weekly payments.

There will also be 300,000 free meals that can be claimed by first responders and healthcare workers on Uber Eats. For workers that are currently participating in keeping local restaurants afloat, Uber is offering two weeks of pay to drivers and delivery people who have unfortunately tested positive for COVID-19. Uber also recommends that it's customers select the 'non-contact' delivery to minimize the chance of the virus spreading.

Ava Louise is a 22-year-old "clout-chaser" on social media, where she posted a video of her doing the "coronavirus challenge" which saw her licking a plane toilet seat. Yeah, I wish I was joking, but I'm not.

Louise completed the "coronavirus challenge" stunt and then has been slammed on social media across the world, with the video in question shared to TikTok and saw her licking a plane toilet seat. She captioned the 6-second video clip with: "Please [retweet] this so people can know how to properly be sanitary on the airplane".

She has 19,000 followers on TikTok and over 150,000 followers on Instagram. The video was posted on her personal Twitter on March 14. The reason for her doing the "coronavirus challenge" -- that would be clout. Yeah, she actually admitted that in a follow-up tweet: