Latest News - Page 1687

The Turbo Grafx 16 mini won't release this month as planned thanks to coronavirus supply chain disruption.

Konami's foray into the mini-console craze has been pushed back to an undetermined timeframe. The company today announced both its Turbo Grafx 16 and PC Engine micro-consoles have been delayed indefinitely thanks to the new worldwide COVID-19 health risk.

"Regarding the TurboGrafx-16 mini console and its peripheral accessories, the manufacturing and shipping facilities in China have encountered an unavoidable suspension due to the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. As a result, the delivery of all TurboGrafx-16 mini products, which was originally scheduled for March 19th, 2020, will be delayed until further notice.

If chill cyberwave music was made into a video game, it'd look a lot like this new indie Cloudpunk.

Cloudpunk might be industry's new ultimate palate cleanser. You know what I mean. Every gamer has a palate cleanser; it's one of those games you play to just kind of zone out to. Those small, simplistic slices of gaming you play to basically detoxify yourself from the insane pressures of Call of Duty or Apex Legends. I think for a lot of people mobile games are palate cleansers, but for dedicated gamers, titles like Minecraft or even No Man's Sky fit the bill nicely.

Cloudpunk, a new indie from indie studio Ion Lands, is one such game. It's a serene sci-fi sim that really underlines the simple things in 20xx life, and floating by its mesmerizing future cities inside your hovercar inspires a kind of cybernetic zen. A new gameplay trailer had an interesting calming effect on me, proving that sometimes you just want to zoom around in your Fifth Element cab and make deliveries.

Developers won't have to make two separate hardware-specific optimizations for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. The new generation-defining feature is easily scalable for developers.

Next-gen consoles have been built from the ground up to empower developers. A big part of that power is versatile and flexible dev tools, APIs, and OS-driven software stacks that make everything much more efficient for developers. These pieces are critical as devs learn the new hardware and also scale their older games to run better on next-gen systems. Remember, current-gen and next-gen will overlap, and devs will release games on both generations at the same time.

Luckily, ray tracing is something that devs won't have to sweat too much. AMD's new RDNA 2 architecture, which supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing, is unified across platforms and lets devs easily translate ray tracing features from one console to the next. This is huge for devs making multi-platform games (a segment that comprises the bulk of the entire industry) on both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

A new job listing for Avalanche Software seeks a lighting wizard for a "soon to be announced AAA title," and it's probably that new Harry Potter game.

According to a job listing filed just yesterday, WB Games is gearing up for a big game reveal. Since it's Avalanche's game, we expect it to be the new Wizarding World RPG. "Avalanche Software, a WB Games studio, seeks a Lighting Technical Artist to work closely with a talented group of artists and engineers on an exciting, soon to be announced AAA title," reads the listing.

"The Lighting Technical Artist will work closely with a team to create visually stunning lighting and ambiance for real-world settings and will contribute to the overall aesthetic beauty of the game. The successful candidate will work to create and optimize UE4 light setups in addition to working with our proprietary time of day lighting system"

When researchers look out into the vastness of space, there are many mysteries to be solved, but one, in particular, has puzzled researchers for quite some time.

That mystery is dark matter. Dark matter cannot be observed directly, but researchers know that its there due to how other objects in the cosmos react to its gravity. Unfortunately, researchers have been strapped for answers when it comes to explaining the origin of dark matter and the role it played and is still playing in the creation of the universe. A new study conducted by researchers located at the University of New York may have answered these head-scratching questions.

The researchers explain that dark matter's secret might be located in a specific type of particle called d-star hexaquark. Researchers who worked on the paper say that these d-star hexaquarks might've been in extremely high quantities at the time of the Big Bang. They also state that they may have formed together to become a fifth state of matter known as Bose-Einstein condensate as they cooled. According to Professor Daniel Watts of the University of York, "The origin of dark matter in the universe is one of the biggest questions in science and one that, until now, has drawn a blank."

AMD talked about its next-gen Zen 3 architecture during its recent Financial Analyst Day, which will be followed up by the Zen 4 architecture the year after.

AMD has promised that its Zen 3 architecture be introduced later this year, while consumer CPUs powered by the Zen 3 architecture will arrive in March 2021. After that, we can expect the Zen 4 architecture in 2022, where I presume we'll see them introduced sometime in 2021 after Zen 3 has been firmly planted into our hearts.

The new Zen 3 processors will arrive as next-gen Ryzen 4000 series CPUs and on the 7nm node, while the Zen 4-based Ryzen 5000 series CPUs will arrive on the newer, and smaller 5nm process. We should expect a pretty big increase in performance with the new Zen 3 architecture, unlike the upgrades over the Zen architecture with the new Zen 2 architecture.

AMD has finally talked about its next generation "Big Navi" graphics cards, which from now on in will be called RDNA 2 or "Navi 2X" -- I kinda liked the name Big Navi, though. AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su did say that AMD was preparing Big Navi to compete with NVIDIA, as the high-end GPU market is "very important" to the company.

During its recent Financial Analyst Day, AMD came out swinging talking about its warpath against its competitors in Intel and NVIDIA -- where it revealed that its next-gen discrete graphics cards will be based on the RDNA 2 architecture.

The company is referring to RDNA 2 as "Navi 2X" which will arrive on the 7nm node, but it also teased RDNA 3 or "Navi 3X" on an "Advanced Node", too. RDNA 3 / Navi 3X should be on the 7nm+ node, or the 5nm node -- something I'm going to need to clarify.

Gamers absolutely love cross-play support for their titles, as it opens up a whole new realm of enjoyment when gamers can enjoy the game they love with people from other platforms.

It's even better when gamers can share save files between platforms as well. Well, that's exactly what Gearbox Software is giving Borderlands 3 players, according to the developers' recent announcement. Gearbox says that when players launch Borderlands 3 on Steam for the first time, and on Epic after installing a brand new patch, they will be prompted with a "PC Cross-Play" screen.

This prompt will give players the option to enable/disable cross-play between these platforms. If a player chooses to enable cross-play, he/she will be able to queue up with fellow gamers on the other platform. I think the 'disabling' part is quite self-explanatory. On top of that juicy cross-play goodness, PC players will be able to transfer save data between Steam and the Epic Games Store. This means players won't have to worry about starting all over again if they decide to jump platform. Side note - Gearbox does warn players who decide to do this have a risk of loosing their save files. So backups will be necessary if this is what you want to do.

While Microsoft's Flight Simulator is still in its alpha phase, that hasn't stopped the game from looking simply gorgeous.

In the entirety of this article, you will find a fresh set of screenshots reinforcing how incredible Flight Simulator looks. The screenshots show off next-gen graphics in the form of environments, airplanes, cities, landscapes, and more. If you didn't know, Microsoft's Flight Simulator will have dynamic seasons. This means as players are flying around the game world they will experience what it's like to operate a vehicle while having to deal with seasonal weather difficulties such as rain, snow, heat, and more.

Microsoft Flight Simulator will also use real-time weather data, which means if a storm is happening in your area, players will be able to take a plane and fly right into to see what happens. On top of that incredible technology, Microsoft is introducing an amazingly realistic world, as seen in the screenshots. At the moment, there isn't a release date in place for Microsoft's Flight Simulator, but as soon as there is one, I will be sure to update you in a follow-up post.

The world of streaming is getting very, very interesting as big-name streamers are being fought over by streaming platforms.

As other companies begin to slowly build their streaming platforms, they have been poaching streamers from Twitch. A couple that spring to mind at Ninja, and Shroud who have both gone over to Microsoft's Mixer. Another streamer that could be mentioned is the biggest Super Smash Bros. streamer, ZeRo, who has now gone over to Facebook Gaming. As you can see, Twitch is losing some of its biggest players when it comes to streaming, so they have now decided to consolidate.

Most, if not all, of these streamers that have left Twitch, have been offered big paychecks or even bigger opportunities over at respective platforms. As business people, it would be silly to not test the waters over a competing platform, as more growth could come to fruition out of nowhere. Twitch now wants to offer streamers the same kind of opportunities to stay on its platform, and a great example of that is Pokimane, who recently announced that her feet are firmly planted in the world of Twitch streaming. Check out the above video to find out why.

Yesterday, NASA announced that they would be revealing the official name for their Mars rover, and now that its live-stream is complete, we know what to call Curiosity's successor.

If you haven't been following along with the naming process, NASA took to the public, and more specifically, school children from the years of kindergarten to year 12 to figure out a name for the new Mars rover. The rover's name was decided by an essay contest. Participants across the country were required to write an essay detailing why they believed NASA's new rover should be named whatever name they chose.

Those 28,000 essays were then voted on by 4,700 volunteer judges, and that 28,000 was boiled down to just 155. From there, judges then managed to get the 155 down to just nine finalists, then those finalists were voted on by the public. The winner was the seventh-grader Alexander Mather from lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia. Mather chose "Perseverance" for the rover's new name, and has also been invited to watch the launch of the rover this Summer from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

AMD knocked Intel for a six with its 7nm node in 2019, but don't worry -- Intel has a plan up its sleeve, it just won't be able to get there until 2022 or so.

Intel CFO George Davis said during a recent conference that Intel's 10nm productivity will be less than its 22nm and 14nm nodes. But don't worry, as there is a good side to this as Intel plans to hit process parity in late 2011 with its 7nm node, while making a "stronger" process node than AMD.

Intel is aiming for 2022 where it'll have process leadership again, as it has promised 5nm chips without the +++ attached to them, at least at first. Intel says that it will be shifting from 10nm to 7nm, which is a total shocker (sarcasm) and that the jump down from 7nm to 5nm will most likely hurt Intel's gross margin, but the process leadership must be worth it for Intel to do this.

Gears of War 5 will have next-gen enhancements on Xbox Series X, possibly with new features like ray tracing, 120FPS support, and even 8K resolution gaming.

Phil Spencer recently took a trip to Gears of War developer The Coalition to check out a new upgraded version of Gears 5, confirming the game will be boosted on the next-gen Xbox Series X. This isn't a surprise though. Microsoft recently announced that all of its first-party studios would upgrade their games on the Xbox SX through Smart Delivery, a new content delivery pipeline that transports enhancement patches online.

The Tweet was vague and the image is fuzzy, and there's lots of enhancement possibilities here. The Xbox Series X's new tightly synergized 7nm SoC offers a wealth of potential optimizations including boosted frame rates, variable refresh rates and variable rate shading, and ray tracing for improved lighting and visuals. Given AMD's recent presentation, the most likely upgrade is ray tracing.

In a rather bizarre but not surprising move, Nintendo has teamed up with Levi's to make officially branded Super Mario clothes.

Levi's is making Mario jeans, shirts, jackets, scarves, and hats, complete with a stylish flair right out of the video game series. Some of the articles in the Super Mario x Levi's collab are bright, colorful, and extremely eye-catching, especially the jacket that comes packed with a ton of old-school Mario characters.

This cross-brand promotion will turn fans into walking advertisements for Nintendo with a stylish flair to boot. It's a great way to increase visibility, especially during this year's vital Olympics in Tokyo. Nintendo is also opening its Universal theme part attraction, Super Mario World, in Japan this year.

Microsoft could unveil its cheaper next-gen Xbox console pretty soon, offering a new mid-gen refresh at launch instead of years down the line.

Ever since 2018 there's been rumors of two next-gen Xbox consoles launching in 2020, not one. The two consoles would include the monstrous 12TFLOP Xbox Series X, which will be an expensive enthusiast solution that hits 8K resolution and delivers 120FPS, and a lower-end, cheaper system codenamed Lockhart with a dramatically reduced 4TFLOP GPU that targets 1440p 60FPS. Gamers have dubbed the cheaper model as the Xbox Series S because it's basically the Xbox One S of the next generation.

Now there's rumblings that Microsoft could pull the curtain off of Lockhart (aka Xbox Series S) quite soon. Sources tell Dealer Gaming, a YouTube and gaming personality that keeps a close eye on Xbox, that the cheaper next-gen Xbox will be announced momentarily. It's possible Microsoft wants to formally unveil Lockhart ahead of E3 2020 to avoid mixed messaging at the event.

Sucker Punch's new stylish cinematic samurai game Ghost of Tsushima releases on June 26, 2020, Sony today announced.

The Ghost of Tsushima's revenge-fueled quest is coming in just four months, and will bring with it yet another superlative showcase of Sony's first-party power. Today Sucker Punch revealed a June 2020 release date and also dropped an incredible trailer that sets a somber, bloody, and ultimately captivating tone for the game.

Most of the footage was cinematic sequences--the facial animations are amazing--but there was some gameplay thrown in there too. Ghost of Tsushima reminds me a lot of a clunkier version of a samurai Tenchu, complete with engrossing dialog sequences. The title looks to be an experience rather than a simple game.

After the coronavirus is tamed, video game publishers could switch to digital-only streams and avoid costly events and expos altogether. Video might kill the expo star.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) is disrupting every major industry right now, especially tech and gaming, and at critical advertising and networking points. Almost every major trade show has been cancelled or transformed into a digital-only affair. So far the response has been to adapt or suffer from the disruption. Predictably, the companies have chosen the former. Everyone still has products, content, and ideas to sell to consumers.

The virus is transforming whole industries who are shifting--albeit temporarily--to a more fluid online communications model. Companies will simply hold online streams to reach viewers, gamers, consumers, investors, and analysts directly. With this strategy, companies hit two birds with one stone. First, they avoid possible coronavirus exposure, and secondly and most importantly, they keep costs down.

NASA's Curiosity has been putting in some work for researchers for quite some time, and now the rover has just made another record - this time in the photography field.

The above image was taken using Curiosity's Mast Camera, or MastCam for short and is comprised of over 1,000 images. The images were snapped back during Thanksgiving 2019, and throughout the following months, they were carefully pieced together to form what we are looking at now. The images resolution is an astounding 1.8 billion pixels, and the place on Mars that we are looking at is called Glen Torridon. Glen Torridon is a region on the side of Mount Sharp.

So how long did this image take to capture? Curiosity spent 6.5 hours over the course of four separate days moving around to take individual shots of the landscape. According to Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, "While many on our team were at home enjoying turkey, Curiosity produced this feast for the eyes. This is the first time during the mission we've dedicated our operations to a stereo 360-degree panorama."

It's always a shock when any Apple products go on sale, but the occurrence of an Apple product being on sale is quite a rare one.

So, when an Apple product does go on sale, it's always worth a mention so Apple users can take advantage of it. Today, Amazon has discounted the extremely popular Apple AirPods. The discount brings the Apple AirPods down from $159 to $130, which is $29.02 discount or 18%. While this might not initially sound like a lot, this is a decent discount for an Apple product.

If you are unsure of the Apple AirPods and don't know if they will be a good purchase, here's a quick breakdown of what they are capable of. The Apple AirPods are extremely easy to use, as they simply connect to your iPhone via Bluetooth. When connected, the Apple AirPods allows users to have wireless phone calls, music listening, Siri functions, and much more. The Apple AirPods also come with a wireless charging case that stores charges for the AirPods. If you are interested in checking out the Apple AirPod sale, head on over to this link here for the discount.

If you loved Resident Evil 2 Remake, then I'm sure you are excited for Resident Evil 3 Remake. Today, GameSpot released a 26-minute gameplay video revealing some of the games best features.

The above video has been released onto the GameSpot Gameplay YouTube Channel and features Capcom's UK Community Manager Kat as she plays and commentates over some Resident Evil 3 Remake gameplay. It should be noted that out of the entire 26 minutes, there are no spoilers to the game's story, and that the whole purpose of the video to highlight some of the game's core mechanics such as the dodging system and combat.

Throughout the video, we get a long in-depth look at what Capcom has done to overhaul Resident Evil 3, and it looks simply gorgeous. Capcom has taken no steps backward in reviving Resident Evil 3 in comparison to the work they put in for the Resident Evil 2 Remake. The demo for Resident Evil 3 Remake is expected to release sometime this month. The full release for the title is scheduled in for April 3rd, 2020, and it will be coming to the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.