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Gaming's biggest publishers to announce games at Gamescom
E3 2019 had a marked lack of gameplay footage, but Gamescom should change that.
Gaming's biggest players will reveal new games at Gamescom 2019, complete with world premiere gameplay footage. The list includes titans like EA, 2K Games, Bungie, Capcom, Square Enix, SEGA, Sony, Ubisoft, and Xbox Games Studios. Before we get too excited, we probably won't see every single publisher reveal a new game. And if so it won't be a huge AAA mega-hit.
If anything most of these publishers will show off new footage of their games, especially games that're coming out this year or early 2020. We're talking Watch Dogs Legion, Monster Hunter Iceborne, Respawn's Apex Legends and Jedi: Fallen Order, Borderlands 3, Final Fantasy VII: Remake, Death Stranding (hopefully more The Last of Us 2, though!) and of course Destiny 2's Shadowkeep expansion.
Continue reading: Gaming's biggest publishers to announce games at Gamescom (full post)
Of course Cyberpunk 2077 has NewGame+
Cyberpunk 2077 will have NewGame+, but that's always been pretty obvious from the start.
CD Projekt RED's new FPS RPG mashup is the biggest thing they've ever made. Built with a new RED Engine, Cyberpunk 2077 is a choice-driven experience built around freedom and immersion. And since it's singleplayer-driven, the only real engagement is replayability--being able to choose different paths or take on missions using different skills. It'll have many different ways to solve problems, take out enemies, complete missions, and even explore the multiple regions and reveal all the multiple endings. So NewGame+ is pretty much a given.
The studio recently confirmed Cyberpunk 2077 will have NewGame+ at some point, maybe not at launch, but it'll happen. Again this shouldn't really be a surprise. The huge scope of Cyberpunk 2077 says it's meant to last a long, long time and have a lasting legacy like The Witcher 3, complete with huge expansions.
Continue reading: Of course Cyberpunk 2077 has NewGame+ (full post)
Modern Warfare F2P battle royale might happen
While Infinity Ward hasn't specifically confirmed battle royale for the new Modern Warfare reboot, it's looking quite likely. But don't expect it at launch.
The new Modern Warfare is one of Activision's biggest investments since it started doubling-down on core franchises. The shooter will have a huge tail for post-release content that expands over time, as per usual, complete with monetization. That means plenty of opportunities for new game modes like a MW-specific battle royale. Now we have more clues that it could happen...eventually.
In a recent rapid-fire interview with Game Informer, Infinity Ward art director Joel Emslie hints the reboot could get BR of some sort. "We'll have to wait and see. I personally like the game mode," Emslie said with a knowing smile.
Continue reading: Modern Warfare F2P battle royale might happen (full post)
Borderlands 3 hits 1080p 60FPS or 4K 30FPS on PS4 Pro
PS4 Pro owners will be able to pick between better visuals or smooth 60FPS gunplay in Borderlands 3.
Sony's PS4 Pro isn't typically powerful enough to churn out native 4K gaming, let alone 4K 60FPS (the PS5 on the other hand...). Most PCs really can't handle that load either. So most big games have to choose between better performance at 60FPS or higher resolution with 3840x2160 resolution (usually checkerboard rendering, not native). And some like Borderlands 3 support both.
Gearbox confirms Borderlands 3 will run at 1080p 60FPS or 4K 30FPS on PS4 Pro, complete with HDR on FHD and UHD televisions. There was no mention of variable refresh rates for improved resolution, which is usually the trade off, but the 4K mode might see a few frame drops to ensure steady resolution. Gearbox also says Borderlands 3 will support the PS4 Pro's supersampling mode on 1080p HDTVs, which essentially raises image quality while typically dropping FPS.
Continue reading: Borderlands 3 hits 1080p 60FPS or 4K 30FPS on PS4 Pro (full post)
Modern Warfare's new Realism Mode turns off crosshairs, HUD
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has a new Realism Mode that completely wipes your HUD.
The new Modern Warfare reboot has an interesting setting that brings more frenetic chaos and tension to multiplayer. Dubbed Realism Mode, the setting basically turns off your HUD completely like the Blind skull from Halo. No ammo indicators. No crosshair. No radar unless you use a UAV. Just you, your gun's scope, and your reflexes. It's the ultimate test of skill and it sounds like tons of fun.
As someone who frequently plays shooters without the HUD to test my aim (and to take screenshots), Realism Mode seems tailor-made for gamers like me. It makes for more intense gameplay that requires strong teamwork, communication, and cohesion. From the looks of it fans absolutely love the idea of Realism Mode and are excited to try it out.
Continue reading: Modern Warfare's new Realism Mode turns off crosshairs, HUD (full post)
New Resident Evil game won't happen in 2019
Recent reports say Capcom is working on a new Resident Evil game and is recruiting playtesters for the new project. But don't expect it to release any time soon.
Capcom's new financial report strongly hints that a new Resident Evil game won't be released this fiscal year (April 2019 - March 2020). This isn't a surprise. We've already reported Monster Hunter World's Iceborne DLC will be Capcom's only major release this fiscal year. Capcom's release slate thinning is clearly an indication of gearing up for next-gen consoles, putting more effort into in-development games and prepping its proprietary RE Engine for PS5 and Project Scarlett. This is exciting as Capcom isn't one to rush out big games-instead it'll take its time to ramp up and eke out all of next-gen consoles' performance.
Now Capcom's FY2019 forecasts reinforce this prediction. The company plans to earn 85 billion yen this fiscal year, down 15% from last year. This is a sizable shrink given Monster Hunter World's Iceborne expansion, which is so big it's almost a sequel, and clearly indicates less big marquee titles (something Capcom has previously confirmed).
Continue reading: New Resident Evil game won't happen in 2019 (full post)
Police respond to shooting threat at San Francisco Twitch HQ
Mass shooting are currently all in the news at the moment as America experienced two separate events in the past week. Now, a shooter threat has been sent to Twitch HQ, and police have responded.
According to Business Insider's report, a shooter threat was sent to Twitch's San Francisco headquarters Wednesday morning. Twitch spoke out about this threat, saying "We were made aware of a threat against our San Francisco HQ on Tuesday, and have been working directly with law enforcement as they investigate. The safety and security of our employees is our top priority, and we are focused on ensuring this is resolved quickly and safely."
Luckily, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) responded efficiently and effectively, by conducting a search at Twitch's headquarters in the morning at 8:33 AM. The police also said that this threat was made over social media and that they would be following up on the matter promptly. SFPD public information Officer Adam Lobsinger gave a statement, saying "As of this moment we do not have an active threat".
Continue reading: Police respond to shooting threat at San Francisco Twitch HQ (full post)
Death Stranding NOT listed as PS4 exclusive, PC release?
One of the most anticipated games of this year is no doubt Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding, and while PS4 gamers cannot wait to get their hands-on the title, what about PC gamers?
Originally, Death Stranding's reveal was on PS4, but if you didn't know the first press release in December of 2015 stated the title is planned to come to PC as well as PS4. While there was no official announcement for a PC version, many fans just concentrated on the PS4 release which raised questions to whether a PC release was still planned or just a mistake in the press release.
In May of 2019, journalist Antonio Fucito stated that a PC release will happen at a later date and said this will happen because Death Stranding isn't listed as PS4 exclusive. Many fans were confused, as Death Stranding is in fact NOT listed as PS4 exclusive, but Hideo Kojima or Kojima Productions have never acknowledged a PC version exists or is coming. Just recently, there is more confirmation for Death Stranding not being a PS4 exclusive, as ResetEra user Vestan noticed that Death Stranding isn't present on the official PlayStation 4 exclusive page.
Continue reading: Death Stranding NOT listed as PS4 exclusive, PC release? (full post)
Game of Thrones writers lured to Netflix by 9 figure deal
Netflix is reportedly splashing cash around, and their most recent lure to their platform is no other than the writers for the legendary show, Game of Thrones.
A recent report coming out of Deadline has claimed that both David Benioff and D.B Weiss will be directing and produce some new shows and movies on Netflix's platform. Netflix's Ted Sarandos spoke to Deadline and said "They are a creative force and have delighted audiences worldwide with their epic storytelling. We can't wait to see what their imaginations will bring to our members."
According to Mashable, this deal was made is in the 9 figures range and if that rumor is correct, Netflix could of offered The Davids upwards of $100,000,000+. Honestly, that seems like an astronomical amount of money, and to be completely fair there has been no official documentation or statements regarding that figure, so I would certainly take that information with a hundred-million pinches of salt.
Continue reading: Game of Thrones writers lured to Netflix by 9 figure deal (full post)
39 ancient galaxies found, base universe knowledge shaken
What is the universe? That question is currently being answered by numerous persons across the planet and a recent discovery of 39 ancient galaxies could add to the equation of answering that very question.
According to some researchers out of Institute of Astronomy at the University of Tokyo, a recent discovery has been made using The Hubble Space Telescope and has shed some light on some light on some pretty big questions in this scientific field. The astronomers have found 39 ancient galaxies that were around during the first 2 billion years of the universe forming. Even though The Hubble Space Telescope unlocked better vision into the cosmos, it cannot see everything and according to Professor Kotaro Kohno, "The light from these galaxies is very faint, with long wavelengths invisible to our eyes and undetectable by Hubble."
The discovery of these galaxies has led researchers to believe they will be able to get a better understanding of how dark matter is connected to the supermassive blackholes that are at the center of each of these galaxies. Researcher, Tao Wang said "This is the first time that such a large population of massive galaxies was confirmed during the first 2 billion years of the 13.7-billion-year life of the universe. These were previously invisible to us. This finding contravenes current models for that period of cosmic evolution, and will help to add some details, which have been missing until now."
Continue reading: 39 ancient galaxies found, base universe knowledge shaken (full post)
Beefy Nintendo Switch console to have high-resolution screen
Nintendo is without a doubt launching their Nintendo Switch Lite Console, as good as that will be for the Big N, what about gamers who want higher-resolution screens with more frames?
Recent rumors are circling around about Nintendo sitting on a more beefy console, and according to the rumors from WSJ this console release is designed "to make the platform lifecycle long". The VP for Sharp, Katsuaki Nomura might have dropped a hint towards an upcoming Switch, he said that the IGZO panels made by Sharp are going to be bought by a video game client, which WSJ assumes to be Nintendo.
At the end of the day, Nintendo has only officially announced one additional console to the base Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo Switch Lite. However, it would not be surprising if Nintendo decided to try and compete at the higher-end of the market. If they did it would be filling a void for gamers who want to play games handheld at 1080p, at 60FPS.
Continue reading: Beefy Nintendo Switch console to have high-resolution screen (full post)
Disney will be rebooting 'Home Alone' & more for Disney+
Disney is gearing up for the release of their new video streaming platform and what better way to pull viewers to their platform than to reboot some childhood heartthrob franchises.
According to Bob Iger, Disney's chairman and CEO, Disney will be rebooting four franchises for Disney+ and the four franchises that are in the pipeline are; Cheaper By the Dozen, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Night at the Museum and Home Alone. It is unclear what these reboots will look like, but according to Iger they will be a "re-imagined" for a "new generation" of children.
This is some risky moves by Disney, as many of the franchises mentioned above are extremely close to people's hearts and messing with their format could splash back into Disney's face. Whether or not the reboots are good or not, when Disney launch their Disney+ streaming service they are going to be a force to be reckoned with. Netflix, Stan, Amazon Prime and all the other streaming platforms are going to be shaking in their boots at Disney's gargantuan library of content.
Continue reading: Disney will be rebooting 'Home Alone' & more for Disney+ (full post)
Twitter might let you snooze push notifications, live tests
A new feature could be coming to Twitter and that new feature will allow for users to choose to whether or not they want to snooze their push notifications.
Above we have Jane Manchun Wong, she has screenshotted her Twitter feed showcasing the "snooze notifications" options. From the screenshot we can see that Twitter is testing out this feature by allowing users to snooze their notifications for 1, 3 and 12 hours. The snooze option can be found in the top right and corner of the app, under the bell option.
Wong came across this new feature while going through the Twitter background code on her Android device, she has gone into further detail in her blog post which can be found here. It is unclear whether or not this option will be here to stay or Twitter is just monitoring its usage, but hopefully it does stay because I think this feature is very needed as other social media platforms allow for users to mute their notifications.
Continue reading: Twitter might let you snooze push notifications, live tests (full post)
NASA snap image of edge-on galaxy similar to our Milky Way
NASA has used their Spitzer Space Telescope to capture an image of a distant galaxy, with this image scientists can now attempt to gather a better understanding of this galaxy works even though it will be challenging due to its angle.
The galaxy is called NGC 5866 and from the image that due to the way the galaxy is positioned we can only see its outer edge. This means we can only see a extremely small fraction of what the galaxy actually contains. According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory new blog post, scientists are "Trying to learn about the history and shape of NGC 5866 is challenging due to its orientation. Our view of this galaxy is somewhat like our view of the Milky Way galaxy: Because Earth lies inside the Milky Way, we can see it only edge-on rather than face-on."
The blog post continues and says "But our proximity to the rest of the Milky Way has allowed astronomers to reconstruct what our galaxy would look like viewed face-on." A quick history lesson on the Spitzer Space Telescope: This space telescope has been in use for nearly 16 years now which is much longer than its initial mission time. According to NASA, they are planning on retiring the space telescope as it is only operational for a few hours a day since it requires huge amounts of time to recharge.
Continue reading: NASA snap image of edge-on galaxy similar to our Milky Way (full post)
Rockstar working on Bully 2 for PS5, Xbox Scarlett consoles
It looks like new rumors are firing up the hype train engines for Bully 2, with Bully 2-focused YouTube channel SWEGTA reporting from its 'insider source' at Rockstar Games that Bully 2 is being developed for next-gen hardware.
Bully 2 being developed for the next-gen Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Xbox Scarlett consoles is an exciting one, and more so when you considering ComicBook.com backed it up with their own sources. The rumors suggest that Rockstar's next game after its mega-successful Red Dead Redemption 2 will be Bully 2, and not Grand Theft Auto 6.
All the way back in April 2017 there was a tweet from Rockstar insider Yan2295 that said "Bully 2 was in development" and that it is the next game after RDR2. There's no official news on Bully 2 yet, especially compared to GTA 6, but as it happens we'll bring you updates on Rockstar's sequel.
Continue reading: Rockstar working on Bully 2 for PS5, Xbox Scarlett consoles (full post)
Samsung announces its new Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+ phones
Samsung has launched its new Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+ smartphones, but there were also a few surprises along the way, something that includes the Galaxy Book S -- the world's first with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx.
Both of the new Note 10 handsets feature Samsung's new Exynos 9825 SoC on the 7nm node, while the Note 10+ will have 5G support, and both have an "all-new" S-Pen stylus. The smaller Note 10 features a 6.3-inch display with a native 2280x1080, which is a lower resolution than the Note 9 from last year, but the larger Note 10+ packs a huge 6.8-inch display with a native 3040x1040 OLED panel.
Samsung's larger Galaxy Note 10+ doesn't just have a larger and higher-res display, but it features the Snapdragon X55 modem from Qualcomm for 5G connectivity, a quad-camera rig, and a huge 4500mAh battery. The smaller Note 10 has a much smaller 3500mAh battery, so the Note 10+ is definitely a huge upgrade in many areas.
Continue reading: Samsung announces its new Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+ phones (full post)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx powers Galaxy Book S
Samsung launched its new Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+ smartphones with a surprise announcement of the new Galaxy Book S, the company's new premium, ultra-portable laptop powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8cx platform.
The previous iterations in the Galaxy Book and Galaxy Book 2 were 2-in-1 designs, but Samsung has changed it up with the Galaxy Book S making it into an ultra-portable laptop. The big ticket here is that the Galaxy Book S is the first laptop powered by Qualcomm's exciting new Snapdragon 8cx, made on 7nm.
We have the Snapdragon 8cx and its 8-core CPU at up to 2.84GHz joined by 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM, either 256GB or 512GB SSD with up to 1TB thanks to a microSD slot. Samsung's new Galaxy Book S has a 13.3-inch 1080p touchscreen display, a 720p webcam, 2 x USB-C 3.1 ports, a microSD card reader, and 3.5mm audio jack.
Continue reading: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx powers Galaxy Book S (full post)
Call of Duty: Mobile pre-loaded on Galaxy Note 10, Note 10+
Samsung has just unveiled its new Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10+ smartphones, with the company teaming with Acitivsion to get Call of Duty: Mobile preloaded onto the phones.
Samsung isn't a stranger to preloading the most popular mobile games on the market on its phones, where in 2018 it launched the Galaxy Note 9 with Fortnite Mobile for Android. This time, Call of Duty: Mobile is in beta and will be out in the next few months both on Android, and iOS.
Call of Duty: Mobile is meant to be the next big thing in mobile gaming, and could dethrone PUBG but Fortnite? We'll have to wait and see. The problem Samsung is having is that Call of Duty: Mobile is available in Australia and Canada, but not the US right now.
Continue reading: Call of Duty: Mobile pre-loaded on Galaxy Note 10, Note 10+ (full post)
Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL to get 90Hz display, 6GB of RAM
ASUS, OnePlus and Razer are already up in the 90-120Hz refresh rate on their smartphones, but it looks like they will be joined by Google with its next wave of Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL smartphones.
According to "a reliable source" of 9to5Google, the new Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL smartphones will have 90Hz displays which Google will call 'Smooth Display'. We should expect the Pixel 4 to have a 5.7-inch Full HD+ display while a 6.3-inch Quad HD+ display will find a home in the Pixel 4 XL -- both will be OLED panels.
Google is expected to use Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chip, 6GB of RAM (in both) and will each come in 64GB and 128GB flavors in the US. Google will use the latest Android Q on the new Pixel 4 phones, somethign that I'm thoroughly enjoying the beta of on my Pixel 3 XL at the moment.
Continue reading: Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL to get 90Hz display, 6GB of RAM (full post)
SMI's PCIe 4.0 x4 SSD controller: up to 16TB at 6.5GB/sec
FMS 2019 - Silicon Motion has shown off its new SM2264 SSD controller at the Flash Memory Summit 2019 this week, with it being a new PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe 1.3 SSD controller that will power the new waves of super-fast NVMe SSDs arriving.
The new SM2264 controller has an 8-channel flash interface with up to 16TB, while sequential read speeds reach up to 6.5GB/sec and writes get up to 3.9GB/sec. The random read and write IOPS on the Silicon Motion SM2264 are at 700K IOPS, with the new SM2264 powered by the latest 9x-layer 3D TLC/QLD NAND flash.
Silicon Motion also had the new SM2267 controller, which is also a new PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe 1.3 SSD controller, but has a 4-channel flash interface and up to 8TB. The sequential read speeds on the SM2267 are up to 4GB/sec while the writes are at up to 3GB/sec. For random read and write IOPS we have 400K IOPS while it also use 9-layer 3D TLC/QLC NAND.
Continue reading: SMI's PCIe 4.0 x4 SSD controller: up to 16TB at 6.5GB/sec (full post)





















