Latest News - Page 1822

Soon GameStop will be a place where you play games and also buy them.

After years of falling sales and a crippling $500 million loss in 2018, GameStop is making big changes to its business. The company is restructuring its storefronts into gaming cafes with retro gaming, LAN play, and modern console gaming to keep consumers engaged. To pay for all this, GameStop is closing as many as 200 stores across the globe to fund these new expenditures.

Now GameStop teases what future stores could look like. In a recent Facebook post, a test store in Pryor, Oklahoma gave a quick run down of what gamers can expect from new redesigns.

NVIDIA continues its huge winning streak of offering the hottest games on the planet with its GeForce RTX series graphics cards, with games like Remedy's kick-ass Control and Wolfenstein: Young Blood.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is now added to that list with NVIDIA and Activision announcing the new GeForce RTX Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Bundle, where anyone who purchases an eligible GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, 2080 SUPER, 2080, 2070 SUPER, 2070, 2060 SUPER or 2060 GPU-equipped graphics card, laptop or desktop will receive a copy of the game.

Given that the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is the "one of the most anticipated first-person shooters in history" according to NVIDIA (and I tend to agree, it looks awesome and RTX is going to make it pop) -- this is a great deal. It means anyone buying an RTX-enabled card, laptop, or PC will receive one of the best-looking and most-fun games of the year.

Microsoft has taken to their official Xbox blog to talk about the success of Gears 5 and how it has broken launch records for Xbox Games Studios.

According to the blog post, Gears 5 saw three million players in its opening weekend and has set a new record for Xbox Games Pass with the "biggest launch week of any Xbox Game Studios title this generation". When comparing Gears of War 4 to Gears 5, the performance has "easily doubled" in the first week of launch and now Gears 5 has become the "most-played Xbox Game Studios title in its first week since 2012's Halo 4."

On PC, Gears 5 has tripled the performance of its predecessor, which has now bestowed the title on Gears 5 as the "biggest-ever launch for Xbox Game Pass for PC" and also Xbox Game Studios' "best-ever debut on Steam".

It just felt like a matter of time before Nintendo were going to officially announce their own SNES-styled Nintendo Switch controllers, and now here they are.

The news has come via the official Nintendo America Twitter page where the company has announced the brand new controllers. Following the Tweet, we head over to the website where it is detailed that purchasing will come in at $30 which will give you one Super Nintendo Entertainment System Controller and one USB cable. Orders will begin shipping on September 18th, 2019.

The whole idea of this controller release is to give gamers who are using the retro side of the Nintendo Switch Online service (required for the initial purchase of the controller) an excuse to pick up the controller their games were designed to be played with. Nintendo has also put a limit to the amount of controllers that can be purchased, as the website states that there is a "Limit four per Nintendo Account".

The long awaited launch of Dragon Quest XI S on the Nintendo Switch isn't almost upon us and as a surprise addition, Dragon Quest I-III will also be coming to the hand held console.

The announcement comes from the official Dragon Quest Twitter page who shared an image of the three titles with some of their respective game art. The image says that players will be able to "discover the three legendary RPGs that started it all!". The launch of these three older titles being on the same day as the latest Dragon Quest installment coming to Switch is clearly planned additional content for players who might want to eventually pick up the whole series on Switch.

In other news about Dragon Quest, 'Hero' who represents several of the different Dragon Quest protagonists has been invited to join Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and is currently available to purchase and play. Check out more about 'Hero', and his massive impact in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate scene here.

The first part of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare exclusively came to the PS4, but now that is over PC and Xbox One gamers can join in on the action. How about 32v32?

Infinity Ward has updated open beta players with a brand new message that says that players can expect a new game mode to be introduced to live beta testers starting on Saturday, September 21. The new game mode will be 32v32 game mode called Ground War and players will be jumping into some raw wide-spread action on a new map called Karst River Quarry.

The Infinity War message reads as follows: "Thank you for playing the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Beta! We hope you're enjoying everything we've shown you so far, but we aren't done yet! On Saturday, September 21, during weekend two of the Beta, we'll be taking your multiplayer experience to the next level. Taking place on a new map, Karst River Quarry, you'll get your hands-on 32v32 warfare in a new mode, Ground War."

There is an ever-growing amount of streaming platforms that are coming out and snatching up the rights to TV shows and movies. Netflix is one of these platforms and they have now got a new 5-year deal with one of the most successful sitcom TV shows of all time.

The new Netflix deal focuses in on Jerry Seinfeld's and Larry Davids 'Seinfeld' sitcom, which will feature all 180 episodes of the Emmy-Award winning show. The episodes will come to Netflix and be available worldwide starting sometime during 2021. At the moment, Seinfeld is currently available on Hulu where it has been since 2015.

Netflix will be losing the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe when Disney+ launches their goliath Disney IP-filled streaming platform. Netflix will also be losing Friends and The Office in the somewhat near future, so the company has to make some quick moves into picking up some culturally popular TV shows such Seinfeld, while also providing as much Netflix produced content as possible.

Twitch streamer Quqco has announced that she has been banned from Twitch for violating the websites streaming guidelines, her offense comes under "sexually suggestive content or activities".

The ban happened when Quqco did a weekend stream in a cosplay outfit, and dressed up as the Street Fighter character Chun-Li. As both PCGamer and Kotaku note, most casual Street Fighter fans know that Chun-Li's outfit features a high thigh-cut slit. Quqco also was aware of this and even "brought [the skirt] one size up to ensure that the slit wasn't too high."

Quqco mentioned to Kotaku that this ban was a targeted attack by "a group of trolls" who have previously reported her in mass. She said "I am immediately reported because I've been branded a thot". From the ban, non-followers and followers of Quqco have taken to Twitter to express their concerns with Twitch's power to pick and choose what content has broken their Terms of Service and why.

Google will be launching its next-gen Pixel 4 family of smartphones on October 15 according to media invites going around, with Google changing things up with its first 90Hz display on the new Pixel 4 phones.

The first member of the new Pixel 4 family will be the regular Pixel 4 with a 5.6-inch AMOLED screen and 2280 x 1080 resolution, while the larger Pixel 4 XL should rise up with a 6.2-inch AMOLED screen and 2960 x 1440p resolution. Both of these displays should feature a smooth 90Hz refresh rate.

Google will ship the new Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL (and any other members of the Pixel 4 family) with Android 10 as well as 6GB of RAM, and what should be a kick ass camera system. We're being told to expect a dual-camera rig with a 12-megapixel and 16-megapixel snapper on the back and Google's usual camera software magic on top.

Astronomers were going about their rounds in search for gravitational waves and stumbled across the biggest neutron star discovered to date.

The findings were published in Nature Astronomy and are from the National Science Foundation-funded NANOGrav Physics Frontiers Center. Astronomers at the West Virginia University were using the Green Bank Telescope in Pocahontas County to observe the star which has been titled J0740+6620.

J0740+6620 is a rapidly spinning pulsar star that harbors 2.17 times the mass of the Sun which is staggering 333,000 times the mass of the Earth. What is most interesting though is that this neutron star is only 20-30 kilometers across, breaching the known limits of how massive and compact a single object can be without converting itself into a black hole. For more information about the recently discovered neutron star, check out this article here.

Being an Astronaut is no walk in the park, there is numerous different tests you must pass before you strap on a space suit and get blasted off to a nearby planet or Moon.

One of these tests is being able to operate confidently in low-gravity, so NASA has begun their low-gravity simulation training in a huge water tank at the Johnson Space Center. Since the Moon has much less mass than Earth, its gravitational pull is considerably less than Earths. In fact the Moon's gravity is exactly 83.3% less than Earths, meaning that when on the Moon an objects weight is reduced to 16.6% of what it would be on Earth.

While training in a water tank in weighted suits isn't a one-to-one simulation of the gravitational change, its the best we can do as a human race for the time being. NASA has given a statement regarding the training, "NASA astronauts wear weighted vests and backpacks to simulate walking on the Moon, which has one-sixth the gravity of Earth. Astronauts Drew Feustel and Don Pettit are among those training in the massive pool, which is used primarily to train astronauts for spacewalks aboard the International Space Station."

We know it's coming -- but GIGABYTE, did you have to fire off the flares like this? Intel's next-gen Comet Lake (and still on 14nm) CPUs are on their way, and with it will come new 400-series motherboards.

GIGABYTE is preparing 8 new Z490 series motherboards, 10 different B460 motherboards, and 6 different H410 boards. We are to expect a bunch of them in full-sized ATX as well as right down to the micro-ATX offerings -- all supporting the first non-HEDT 10-core processors from Intel in the form of the new Comet Lake family of CPUs.

The new information is coming from GIGABYTE submitting its range of Z400-series motherboards to the Eurasian Economic Commission registration process.

OnePlus has teased that it will unveil its new OnePlus 7T smartphone on September 26, with a simultaneous India-based event and then off to Europe on October 10.

The new OnePlus 7T will have a 90Hz display, but other than that the event invitation is quiet. Inside, we should expect Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 855+ chip, out-of-the-box Android 10, faster charging, and more -- all gravy on that 90Hz display.

Around the back, the new OnePlus 7T is expected to catch up in the triple-camera department, a 3800mAh battery on the regular 7T while a larger 4085mAh battery is expected for the 7T Pro.

A super-hot new rumor -- if true, could change things in a big way. Microsoft is reportedly eyeing off custom AMD silicon for its next-gen Surface devices, after years of exclusively using Intel hardware in its Surface devices.

The next-gen Surface Laptop 2 could have AMD hardware inside, and would mark a large change for both Microsoft (to shift away from Intel) and for AMD (to have its tech good enough that Microsoft wants to use it in their products). It makes sense given that AMD is providing hardware to Microsoft for its next-gen Xbox Scarlett, too.

All of AMD's products it will provide Microsoft, be it for the Xbox Scarlett or next-gen Surface products, will be 7nm and use the Zen 2 CPU architecture and Navi GPU architecture.

Quantic Dream is hopefully not far out from the release of Detroit: Become Human on the PC, which will be an exclusive (and is available for pre-order now) on the Epic Games Store.

The official PC teaser trailer has been teased, with Quantic Dream teasing at the end of the video to subscribe to the official YouTube channel for Detroit: Become Human to see the world premiere of the new PC trailer -- that we presume is coming real soon.

The PC version of Detroit: Become Human is expected to be the best version of the game, previous a PS4 exclusive. Quantic Dream is using the Vulkan API, will require 4 GB of RAM and a low-end GTX 660 with 2GB of VRAM minimum. Of course the game scales on your hardware depending on the resolution and detail level, something I can't wait to check out when it drops.

Microsoft has just started the engines to the first public flight of its next-gen Flight Simulator game, with the developer announcing that the upcoming Tech Alpha release is now recruiting.

There's not much details apart from registration now being open, something you can sign up for right here -- but the team has promised "more information" on the goals and release timeline of the Tech Alpha on September 19.

After that on September 26, we'll see the preview of the Feature Discovery Series. For now, Microsoft will select people who get into the Flight Simulator's upcoming Tech Alpha, but upcoming alphas and betas of the game will be released where the public will get their hands-on it much easier.

We all know the world of Cyberpunk 2077 is going to be an interesting one, with developer CD Projekt RED removing genders from the game -- a move that has pushed the boundaries of character customization, but what about sex and romance?

Cyberpunk 2077 won't be limited to hetereosexual romances, as V you can romance and sleep with whoever is willing -- but you won't get down and dirty with Keanu Reeves. During the Tokyo Game Show, Cyberpunk 2077 level designer Max Pears told VGC said: "Keanu plays a crucial role in the game, but as for the option to romance him, I don't believe you can".

Pears added: "One of the things we've done to make sure the game addresses things a certain way is a lot of the time NPCs are just going to refer to you as 'V', because you won't be able to choose your name".

World of Tanks will be getting ray tracing technology for a tiny portion of its world, with developer Wargaming announcing it teamed with Intel to introduce ray tracing in World of Tanks.

Wargaming teamed with Intel on the ray tracing addition to World of Tanks, which won't require an NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics card -- in fact, any DX11-capable GPU will work. The entire game isn't being re-pained with ray tracing, but instead the "main actors" in the game are in higher-quality so that they have much more detail when the sun hits them.

The developer explains: "With the introduction of our Ray Tracing (RT) technology-developed at Wargaming with close collaboration with Intel-we can recreate the "main actors" of our game in higher quality; their smallest details will give super-realistic shadows when the sun hits them".

Google's new Stadia game-streaming service won't support native Android-powered TVs at launch, but functionality will be added in 2020.

Although it's touted as a revolutionary service that brings gaming to devices you already own, Stadia will only support three platforms at launch: PC and laptops via Chrome browsers, Chromecast for TVs, and Pixel 3 phones and above. Android-enabled televisions won't get Stadia support until after 2020, and even then it could require Android 11 R in order to run. You'll have to buy a Chromecast Ultra in order to play Stadia on an HDTV in 2019.

The news was passed along via a closed XDA Developers event that confirmed Stadia is coming to Android TVs in 2020. The service aims to take on consoles with a digital online-only subscription that gives players access to a games market. It's not an all-you-can-play type service, though, and gamers will have to buy games a la carte unless they buy into the Stadia Pro subscription. Then you get a free game a month plus sweeping discounts on the store.

All of Death Stranding's in-game world will be fully explorable and traversable, from deep valleys to high snow-capped mountains.

Death Stranding is a huge game. Players are on an expansive East-to-West trek across the continental United States, complete with rifts, valleys, mountains, rolling grassy fields, rivers, and even waterfalls. It's a world reclaimed by nature, a post-apocalyptic landscape with ruins mixed with high-tech futurism haunted by freaky phantom monsters--a veritable playground for interesting open-world antics.

But will it be condensed and limited? Or will we actually be able to go anywhere? Hideo Kojima says players can go anywhere they wish, whether it be zooming across the verdant grasslands on a high-speed motorbike, skimming along on a hoverboard, or taking a lazy day meandering and floating in a river.