Latest News - Page 1746

Ori and the Blind Forest developer Moon Studios has already outlined its next project, and it's an action RPG.

On the heels of injecting serious beauty into the Metroidvania sidescroller genre, Moon Studios says it wants to "revolutionize the action RPG genre." A new Senior Designer job listing outed the indie studio's next game:

The devs behind the first revealed PlayStation 5 game hype up the console's SSD, teasing an ultra-powerful solution that allows for massive freedom for developers.

With the new NMVe SSD tech found in next-gen consoles, developers can absolutely obliterate loading screens and push a new level of detail, immersion, and performance in their game worlds. Both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5's Navi-and-Zen 2 SoC are tailor-made to synergize with the SSD (much the same way their new desktop CPUs harness the might of PCIe 4.0 SSDs), leading to a new era of gaming. Games will load faster, gameplay itself will be much more repsonsive, and the experience will be dramatically changed as the game renders more seamlessly as you move through it. The idea is the SSD will massively accelerate the data transfer rate from storage to the CPU, GPU, and RAM, while also allowing for nifty tricks like VRAM buffering.

Both Sony and Microsoft have touted their respective SSD solutions, but developers are chiming in too. The devs behind Godfall, the first revealed PlayStation 5 exclusive, say they're impressed by the console's "exceptionally powerful SSD".

Valve has kicked off its annual Steam Winter Sale 2019, with thousands of games on discount and there's even some gaming required in the form of "Festivity Tokens" by completing Holiday Quests.

The Festivity Tokens can be used in the Holiday Market, where gamers can purchase Chat Stickers, Chat Room Effects, and the Steam Winter Sale Coupon. The quests will continue to grow in number throughout the Steam Winter Sale 2019, in which there are some great bargains to be had.

The likes of Mortal Kombat 11, Max Payne 3, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and Dark Souls 3 are all on sale -- as too is Stardew Valley, and Monster Hunter: World... just to name a few.

Motorola unveiled its new foldable Razr smartphone not too long ago now, and while it quickly built hype as it seems like one of the better-suited foldable smartphones, Motorola has now delayed the launch of the new Razr.

The reason? Oh, the demand was too strong. No, seriously -- that's what Motorola said to Bloomberg. Motorola told Bloomberg: "Motorola has decided to adjust Razr's presale and launch timing to better meet consumer demand. We are working to determine the appropriate quantity and schedule to ensure that more consumers have access to Razr at launch".

The original launch window for Motorola's foldable Razr smartphone was January, so we should expect a push into February or March 2020 for the Razr. Motorola won't want a repeat of Samsung's Galaxy Fold issues, so a bit more time in the oven for the Razr is a good idea -- especially when you're spending $1500 on it.

The new Oculus Link cable will turn your all-in-one Quest headset into a PC-powered HMD that can play all Rift games. There's just one catch: It's pretty expensive.

Oculus is now selling the Oculus Link cable and it comes in at a steep $80. That's pretty rough for a single cord, and is 20% of a Oculus Quest's MSRP. Luckily there's alternatives and you don't have to use the official Link cable. The Link software will "work with most high-quality USB 3 cables," the company says.

According to the specs, the Oculus Link cable is USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C with 5Gbps bandwidth, which is pretty standard for USB 3.0. You can simply use a basic USB Type-C cable that meets these specs even if it's not Type-C to Type-C and ends in a Type-A head.

343 Industries lays out the future of Halo on PC with new fixes, details, and updates.

343i is working on a number of fixes and improvements for Master Chief Collection on PC, namely with Reach. But everything's not coming all at once. Some things, like the audio issues, the big aim-assist vs KB&M controversy, online campaign co-op latency, and input lag issues are more immediate. 343i is even working on crouching fixes. Other things like cross-play are put on the back burner and aren't even in active development yet.

In a recent update, the studio details the current state of Reach on PC and gives a tentative roadmap of their upcoming plans. They're aware of the more important issues plaguing Reach on PC and are introducing some basic QoL improvements, along with more ways to earn XP to rank up.

Just like every year there is just an abundance of sales to go around, from electronics, PC hardware and of course games.

If you aren't done with sales, and want to snag some great titles at a discount, head on over to the PlayStation store now. There's currently over 1,000 titles that are all discounted, and while I'm not going to list every single title that is discounted, I will give you some great titles that I'd recommend you picking up.

I'd recommend picking up the following games while they are discounted; Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Death Stranding, Marvel's Spider-Man: Game of the Year Edition, STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order, The Outer Worlds, Resident Evil 2 Remake, God of War, Days Gone, Sekiro Shadows Die Twice, Control, Borderlands 3, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, Mortal Kombat 11 and Red Dead Redemption 2.

The time has finally come! Netflix has released the Witcher TV show onto their streaming platform and you don't have to wait for episodes either.

If you didn't know by now with all the headlines, as well as the social media posts, Netflx has just released the Witcher TV show on their platform. All eight episodes are available to watch right now and each of them are about an hour long each. So if you were planning on to binge the whole season, you can. Just put away about eight hours of your day and sit back and enjoy the show.

If you aren't caught up with Witcher news, check out the final trailer that was released about two weeks ago, it shows off some pretty awesome fight scenes as well as some cool cinema shots. On a positive note, Netflix has already greenlit season 2 of the Witcher, so after you have finished the first season, don't stress about there not being another one as its already on its way. If you need a link to the Witcher TV show, one can be found here.

This isn't the first time that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has decided to bring a fun game over to his line of Tesla vehicles. Cuphead is already playable, and after a new update, so will Stardew Valley.

According to Musk's official Twitter account, the Tesla holiday software update is currently being prepared, and to give Tesla owners a sneak preview of what it contains, and he's listed out some new features that will be added. Musk says that Stardew Valley, Lost Backgammon, and a few other things are on the list for the update.

Stardew Valley will join Cuphead in the Tesla Arcade, but what will come next? Stardew Valley and Cuphead are very suitable titles for being playable in a Tesla, but what title will be added next? I'd personally like to see Super Meat Boy, as I think it would be amusing to see Tesla owners sitting in their cars raging at their car's screen. Stardew Valley is also available on the Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android, Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

Facebook is reportedly working on its own operating system, in the hopes that sometime in the future it can pull back its reliance on Android. A new report from The Information says that the co-author of Windows NT, Mark Lucovsky, is leading the project.

We don't know how Facebook's own OS would work exactly, but we do know that Facvebook currently uses a modified version of Android to run its Oculus and Portal devices. Facebook's head of hardware, Andrew Bosworth, explains: "We really want to make sure the next generation has space for us. We don't think we can trust the marketplace or competitors to ensure that's the case. And so we're gonna do it ourselves".

Ficus Kirkpatrick, one of the bosses of Facebook's internal AR and VR departments, says that "it's possible" that future Facebook hardware won't rely on Android. Right now, Google has a nice stranglehold over Facebook's hardware, and Facebook sees that as a big issue, that it is now trying to resolve.

Apple is reportedly looking into launching its own satellites in an effort that would totally bypass wireless carriers here on Earth, according to the latest rumors.

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple has its own "secret team working on satellites and related wireless technology, striving to find new ways to beam data such as internet connectivity directly to its devices". This team has just over 10 people working on it so far, with Apple wanting to see their results "within five years".

Apple's satellite plans might fall out of the sky before they're even launched, with Bloomberg adding that Apple CEO Tim Cook is interested in the satellite project... but it could be scrapped as "a clear direction and use for satellites hasn't been finalized". I can see Apple blasting next-gen 5G and other data directly to its devices, bypassing wireless carriers -- but it's a lot easier saying that, than actually doing it -- and doing it to Apple's very high standards.

We know that both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles will have super-fast PCIe 4.0-based SSDs that will make loading screens a thing of the past... but now we have The Last of Us Part II's co-game director chiming in with another tease:

As you can see in the tweet above, Kurt Margenau was asked about loading screens to which he simply replied "what's a loading screen". This has to be a reference to the ridiculously fast next-gen consoles, with The Last of Us Part II being a PlayStation exclusive, the PlayStation 5 version of the game might not have loading screens... at all.

We know that a prototype PlayStation 5 console was referenced by Sony to launch Insomniac's Spider-Man in just 0.8 seconds, versus the suped-up PlayStation 4 Pro and its 8.1 seconds. I also wrote barely 24 hours ago that Jason Ronald -- the Xbox Partner Director of Program Management, said that the next-gen Xbox Series X will enable developers to "virtually eliminate" loading screens.

NVIDIA's next-generation Ampere GPU will be unveiled in 2020, powering a slew of new graphics cards that will span from the GeForce GTX/RTX series through to HPC/datacenter parts. We know Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Samsung are involved, but now we know to what capacity.

During GTC 2019 in China, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang addressed questions from the tech press over who will be building out most ogf the new 7nm GPUs in 2020 and beyond. Huang said that most of the 7nm GPU production will be done by TSMC while Samsung will only handling a small portion of 7nm GPU production for NVIDIA.

Huang also said that without TSMC and their advanced process technologies, NVIDIA would not have been so effective with power efficiency and performance of its 12nm-based GeForce RTX and Quadro RTX graphics cards, especially when put up against the latest 7nm node that AMD is using for its Navi GPU architecture and Radeon RX 5500 and RX 5700 series graphics cards.

Ubisoft just cancelled what could've been a major Destiny competitor from its Montreal studio.

A new unannounced project from Watch Dogs 2 developer Ubisoft Montreal was just cancelled, studio programmer Louis de Carufel confirmed today. The game, which had been in development for the last three years, was set in a brand new IP and could've been a Destiny-like shooter with live shared-world social multiplayer.

It may also have been one of the 9 AAA titles Ubisoft plans to ship by March 2022.

343 Industries is making steady progress on Halo: Combat Evolved's incoming Steam version.

Now that Halo: Reach has been unleashed on PC, next in line is Halo: CE, and work is well underway on the project. Today 343i dropped a new MCC PC dev update, outlining new features and tweaks coming to Reach while also teasing future games.

Right now Halo: CE is in a pre-alpha state across multiplayer and campaign. In its current iteration the game mirrors a lot of the performance targets of Reach, including 4K 60FPS with variable refresh rates as well as a unique progression system.

CD Projekt RED and Witcher series author Andrzej Sapkowski today signed a new agreement that satisfies both parties.

Back in 2018, Adrzej Sapkowski, the famed Polish author behind the Witcher books, demanded $16 million from CD Projekt RED in recompense for past Witcher game sales. Back in the early days of the Witcher games, Sapkowski originally sold the rights to his book series to CDPR for a pittance, a costly mistake for a franchise that's now sold over 40 million copies worldwide. So Sapkowski demanded more money.

Now CD Projekt RED and Sapkowski have reached an agreement. We don't know how much CDPR promised Sapkowski or what the exact terms are, but CD Projekt RED gets to keep the Witcher rights for new games and merchandise. A new Witcher has likely been in development for some time now, too.

There's a rumor floating around that Microsoft wants to buy CD Projekt RED. That's not going to happen for one simple reason: CDPR literally has no reason to sell.

Microsoft is buying up studios left and right to fill out its internal first-party brand. By picking up studios like inExile, Obsidian, and Ninja Theory, it's sent a clear message that it wants to prep its game-making foundries for its next-gen Xbox Series X console, and rightly so, because games sell consoles. In particular Microsoft wants to build up its RPG focus, and there's a rumor going around that it could buy some of the best RPG-makers on the planet at CD Projekt RED.

This isn't going to happen, and I'll break down some of the main reasons why. But the short gist is that CD Projekt RED is doing well and it has absolutely no reason to sell to Microsoft.

Bungie is still working on Destiny 3, and its brand new IP, but don't expect either of these projects any time soon.

Bungie isn't ready to move on to Destiny 3 just yet. Right now Bungie has one singular goal: To create a self-sustaining game with an over-arching storyline. It's a lot harder than you'd think but Shadowkeep and the subsequent free-to-play model has revitalized Destiny 2. Bungie is currently laser-focused on Destiny 2's new seasonal structure that'll lays the foundation for future games. In many ways, Destiny 2 is a practice run for the next game, a doorway to the IP's future.

In a recent interview with PCGamesN, Bungie's DeeJ says new projects are still a ways away.

Intel has secured yet another ex-AMD staffer, with Masooma Bhaiwala leaving AMD after over 15 years to help Intel and its discrete GPU products in 2020 and beyond.

Bhaiwala had a big hand in some of the semi-custom chips that AMD has made over the years, with these SoCs becoming a very important part of AMD's portfolio. Between Microsoft and Sony we have around 150 million Xbox One and PS4 sales, and then the upcoming (and very kick-ass) next-gen Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles will be continued success for AMD's semi-custom business.

Bhaiwala will be working inside of Intel's Graphics and Throughput Computing Hardware Engineering organization, which is a part of the Intel Architecture, Graphics and Software team that is run by ex-RTG boss Raja Koduri. Bhaiwala explained: "After 15+ amazing years at AMD, I have decided to take on a different opportunity... It was a truly fun ride, with an incredible team, during which we built some truly cool chips".

Information has been gathered by PreciseSecurity that reveals a list of the most commonly exploited applications in the third quarter of 2019.

According to PreciseSecurity, Microsoft Office solutions and applications are the most commonly exploited applications around the world. The data taken over the third quarter of 2019 shows that 72.85% of cyber exploits are done in Microsoft Office products.

The following software applications that come after Microsoft Office are: web browsers with 13.47%, Android with 9.09%, Java with 2.36%, Adobe Flash with 1.57%, and PDF with 0.66%. So, where are these cyber exploits coming from? PreciseSecurity traced the exploits back to five top countries. The United States with 79.16% of exploits, the Netherlands with 15.58%, Germany with 2.35%, France with 1.85%, and Russia with 1.05%. For more information about the exploits check out this link here.