Latest News - Page 1826

Ever wonder what it takes to make a games trailer? CD Projekt RED gives us a glimpse into the crazy, high-stress world of games development.

Cyberpunk 2077's E3 2019 trailer was probably the best cinematic footage I've seen in recent memory. The animations were absolutely superb, the graphics, visuals and lighting were immaculate, and the style is out of this world. One thing I kept thinking while watching was "how did they do this?" Now CDPR delivers a taste of the rigorous process with a new behind the scenes reel, complete with texture modelling, mo-cap, lighting effects, and the smallest tiniest details layered in to add that immersive flair.

The video is a clear illustration of Cyberpunk 2077's insane next-gen tech. It shows just how far CDPR has pushed its new proprietary Red Engine, and I fully expect the team to continue evolving its tech even further. Cyberpunk 2077 still has a long way before release in April 2020, after all.

EA will begin testing out its new cloud game streaming service sometime soon, complete with a closed technical test of four specific games: FIFA 19, Unraveled, Titanfall 2, and Need for Speed Rivals.

Today EA Chief Technology Officer Ken Moss announced that player testing of the new game streaming service will roll out soon. No exact dates were given but Moss says only four games will be supported. EA hopes to glean valuable feedback on streaming's most limiting factors, including latency and disruption, and confirms the service is powered by Amazon Web Services.

"I'm excited to share that we'll be taking an important step in this learning journey as we host an exclusive external trial for our players to experience games streamed through EA's cloud technology," Moss said.

Reports say Disney is selling its FoxNext gaming branch, which may interrupt development of the next big Aliens game.

Disney doesn't like making its own video games. The company instead opts to license major IPs and properties to publishers like EA (Star Wars) and Square Enix (Marvel's Avengers). Disney has repeatedly said it has no plans to publish its own games. Now it might be looking to sell more gaming divisions so it can lower investment costs and keep profits high.

Sources tell Bloomberg that Disney is planning to sell FoxNext, a FOX-based game development branch responsible for the Marvel Strike Force mobile game and an upcoming Aliens video game. FoxNext subsidiary Cold Iron Studios is currently making new Aliens AAA MMO shooter for consoles, and a sale could significantly disrupt, delay, or even cancel the ambitious-sounding title.

Control's new photo mode gets a release window, but it can't come soon enough.

Today Remedy revealed a roadmap for new Control content and features, including the long-awaited photo mode, two major expansions (one of which will crossover with Alan Wake), and a new gametype. I'm pretty excited about new mind-bending story arcs and ultra-bizarre environments...but I can't wait for an official way to take amazing in-game photos.

Control should've had some sort of photo mode integration at launch. It's one of the most beautiful games I've played and its insane macabre overtones, incredibly eerie architecture, and absolutely amazing ray tracing effects are just begging for cinematic capture options. But for some reason Remedy didn't pop in a mode at launch, and the game doesn't support NVIDIA's Ansel tech, which lets you freeze the game and swivel around and snap some insane photos.

Control is getting two major expansions, and the last one could set up an Alan Wake sequel.

Alan Wake should be coming back in 2020, but not as a new game. Instead the series will be blended directly with Control in a new crossover expansion that could be the beginnings of a new Alan Wake sequel. Remedy has wanted to make Alan Wake 2 for a while now, but Microsoft's exclusivity contract got in the way. They now 100% own the publishing and IP rights. Many of those sequel ideas found their way into Control, complete with direct lore tie-ins that underline a connected multiverse.

The new Control expansion is called AWE (short for Altered World Event) and should take us back to Bright Falls. Control explains that Alan Wake's weird supernatural experience was the result of an AWE triggered by an Object of Power, strange otherworldly objects that basically turn the world into a The Twilight Zone episode. The AWE expansion should open a gateway to Bright Falls and let Jesse jump right into Wake's nightmarish world of phantoms. Or better yet, let us become Wake for some nostalgic terror.

The day has come: GameStop announced during its Q2 earnings call that it is closing between 180-200 of its most 'under-performing' stores globally. The stores will be shut down between now, and the end of the year.

GameStop CFO James Bell was confident in the remaining 5700 stores worldwide, stating that 95% of them are profitable. He said: "While that is an impressive statistic, we have a clear opportunity to improve our overall profitability by de-densifying our chain".

Bell added: "That work is well underway. We are on track to close between 180 and 200 underperforming stores globally by the end of this fiscal year. And while these closures were more opportunistic, we are applying a more definitive, analytic approach, including profit levels and sales transferability, that we expect will yield a much larger tranche of closures over the coming 12 to 24 months".

AMD is preparing to launch its new Ryzen 9 3950X -- its flagship 16C/32T processor and the world's first 16-core gaming CPU that will boost up to 4.7GHz and offer 72MB of cache.

Now we have German retailer Digitec listing the chip with a release date of September 30, and what appears to be a placeholder price of 999 euros which works out to $1102 or so -- much more than the MSRP of $749.

AMD will have quite the gaming and multi-tasking chip on its hands with the Ryzen 9 3950X, offering a huge 16C/32T of CPU performance at 3.5GHz base clock and up to 4.7GHz boost -- the fastest for a Ryzen 3000 series CPU.

Apple has finally unveiled its new iPhone, moving away from roman numerals and making a move to one-up Samsung by naming the new iPhone as iPhone 11.

The new iPhone 11 family includes three variants: the normal iPhone 11, the higher-end iPhone 11 Pro, and the flagship iPhone 11 Pro Max. The iPhone 11 rocks a 6.1-inch display with the "toughest glass" on an iPhone yet, joined by a new dual-camera system on the back split into a 12MP wide-angle snapper and 12MP ultra-wide.

Apple says that the flash is 36% brighter, while it has a new night mode that taps adaptive bracketing for improved low-light shots. Front-facing camera wise the new iPhone 11 has a 12MP snapper (up from the 7MP snapper in previous-gen iPhones) which is capable of a crazy 4K 60FPS and slow-motion video.

It looks like the battle royale frenzy isn't stopping with giants like Apex Legends, PUBG, and Fortnite lapping it up -- but a surprising entry into the world of chicken dinners is here... Civilization VI.

2K Games and Firaxis have announced that a new free update is coming to Civilization VI dubbed Red Death, and introduces a new battle royale mode. In Red Death you will fight against 11 competitors to be the ultimate winner, and take your civilization from the decaying planet.

Nuclear warfare has all but destroyed the Earth leaving it inhabitable, and thus a red cloud of death (Red Death, geddit?!) is slowly killing everything. Just a single civilization can make it to the spaceship to leave the planet, but if you don't -- you die. Your chicken dinner is leaving Earth.

Razer has just unveiled its new iPhone case that will keep the just-announced iPhone 11 line of smartphones cool when gaming, as well as supporting its own in-house Razer Phone 2 gaming smartphone.

The new Arctech and Arctech Slim phone cases use a custom-developed Thermaprene material and perforations that keep 2018 and newer iPhones cool, inclduing the new iPhone 11 series.

Razer compares its new Arctech cases against the competition saying that the iPhone stays in its recommended temperature limits even after a huge two-hour gaming session, versus the competition case which gets hot after 20 minutes.

I don't even know what to say... so I'm just going to say it how it is: KFC is working on a dating simulator. The chicken giant has teamed with developer Psyop for the deliciously-named "I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Licking Good Dating Simulator".

KFC is in full control when it comes to the concept and the actual content of the Colonel Sanders dating simulator, something that is now on Steam and will be released in the coming weeks. What do you even do in I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Licking Good Dating Simulator, you ask?

Well, you will play a culinary student that is trying to win over the heart of a finger-licking good-looking younger version of the Colonel. I don't even know what to think about this right now, whether to run away from this or want to download it and play it when it comes out just to say that I did.

Apex Legends is getting a disc-based physical release on PS4 and Xbox One this October, complete with legendary skins for Bloodhound and Lifeline.

The new Apex Legends retail edition costs $20, and is split into two SKUs: one for Lifeline, and one for Bloodhoud. Each bundle sports a number of bonuses like 1,000 Apex Coins, a legendary character and weapon skin for Bloodhound or Lifeline, exclusive banners, and exclusive badges. Respawn was careful not to lock the skins themselves behind the retail version following the big Crown Collection fiasco.

Both editions are coming to PS4 and Xbox One with a disc-based SKU, whereas PC will ship with a box and a voucher code for Origin.

A squirrel monkey had a few accidents on a recent Sea of Thieves livestream, creating some rare hilarious moments for a Rare dev.

During a recent Sea of Thieves livestream focused around new pets coming to the game, the devs at Rare brought a wild squirrel monkey to add some tropical flavor to the mix. But the flavor wasn't very tasty and Antonio, the fuzzy tree-hopper, actually vomited and then pooped on Rare's Jon McFarlane on the stream. Rare acknowledged the mishap with a humorous update on the video's description: "Is that a real live monkey on Jon's shoulder? What could go wrong? Oh... yes, that could go wrong. Sorry Jon."

The moments are unfortunate, but also quite priceless. It's a warning to anyone bringing wild animals to a live broadcast. Anything can happen, including a big mess. At least Rare captured what owning a pet is really like. I wonder if Sea of Thieves' pets will do this too?

Apple Arcade is relatively cheap at $5 a month, and will launch with 100 exclusive games optimized for mobiles and Apple TV devices.

At the new iPhone event in Cupertino today, Apple revealed new details around its game subscription service Apple Arcade. The service is slated to launch September 19 on iOS 13 devices, and September 30 for iPads and Apple TVs. The Mac version will come later in October. The company boasts that Apple Arcade will have a huge 100 games that're all 100% exclusive to the service, including titles from publishers and developers like Square Enix, Ubisoft, PlatinumGames, SEGA, Konami, Disney, LEGO, and more.

All games can be played entirely offline (it's not game streaming like Stadia) and supports cross-saves across iOS, Mac, and Apple TV devices. Subscribers can share with up to six family members with the family sharing plan, too. Launch games include a new RPG from Square Enix, a Rayman platformer, a new Shantae game, and a Pac-Man battle royale. Some games even support Xbox and DualShock 4 controllers on specific devices.

Control's new FPS fix update is now live, but the patch is only out on PS4.

At launch, Control ran pretty bad on base PS4 and Xbox One consoles. The frame rates dropped as low as 10 FPS in some cases, making the game widely panned and damaging Remedy's overall image. The PS4 has a 100 million install base and it was absolutely critical the new IP ran smoothly at all times on the system...but Control simply pushed the bar too far (the game was obviously made for the full brunt of ray tracing on PC).

Now Remedy released a new digital patch to address the frame drops. The September Update is now available on PS4, bringing numerous optimizations like stability performance updates and FPS streamlining on all platforms. The update is scheduled to drop on Xbox One and PC sometime soon but there's no concrete release date yet.

All eyes have been on Tesla for years with its growing family of electric vehicles, but now Byton has joined the match with its first EV in the new M-Byte SUV -- and it feels like it's ripped right out of the future.

Byton has used an eye-catching 48-inch display built into the dash, as well as multiple control screens including one built-into the steering wheel itself.

Byton is touting 224 miles of WLPT range (less on EPA scale) from its 72 kWh version of the M-Byte, while the larger 95 kWh model with dual front/rear motors has up to 270 miles of WLPT range. The 72 kWh version has 270 horsepower, while the higher-end 95 kWh model packs 402 horsepower.

Samsung is close to re-launching its first foldable smartphone in the revised Galaxy Fold in the coming weeks, and now news is breaking that the company worked with Google on foldable apps for the Galaxy Fold.

Samsung worked with both Google and Android developers in order for "hundreds" of apps to be optimized for the Galaxy Fold, with the likes of Amazon Prime Video, Facebook, Spotify and Twitter all joining the fray. They are some of the largest apps in the world, so it's a big deal that they'll work on Samsung's new halo smartphone.

Also remember that Google has released Android 10 (formerly named Android Q) which has improved foldable phone support, but the Galaxy Fold won't launch with Android 10. We should expect a solid launch that will hopefully only improve moving into Android 10 and the Galaxy Fold 2 in 2020.

NVIDIA has just released its latest GeForce Game Ready drivers that include support and optimizations for huge new releases like Gears 5 and Borderlands 3, as well as the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare PC open beta.

The new GeForce 463.30 WHQL drivers are optimized for day-1 experiences in Gears 5 and Borderlands 3, but there are also other big games in The Surge 2, FIFA 20, and Code Vein all optimized in the new drivers. NVIDIA has also included support for 6 new G-SYNC Compatible displays, with the new displays including:

As for the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare PC open beta, that kicks off on September 19 and runs until the morning of September 23. There are more details on that here. NVIDIA promises that the full release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will have ray tracing, NVIDIA Adaptive Shading, and other NVIDIA technologies baked-in.

I've been expecting the flagship next-gen Xbox to be a beefier console than the PlayStation 5, but according to the latest on Xbox Scarlett it'll do one better -- it'll have dedicated ray tracing cores.

The news is coming directly from an interview between Gears 5 developer The Coalition, and GameSpot which interviewed technical art director Colin Penty about what's next for the Gears franchise. He talked about exciting new hardware the team will get to play with, especially the grunt under the hood of Scarlett.

Penty said: "We don't have anything to announce right now in terms of Gears with the new hardware--but I'm definitely super excited about what the new hardware could do. Having dedicated ray tracing cores is huge".

Google is in some hot water right now, with 50 state attorneys general (had to Google that, it is indeed attorneys general and not attorney generals) launching a new antitrust probe into Google.

The leader of the 50 strong AGs is Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has said the investigation will kick off looking into Google's advertising business, before it looks deeper into how the company operates itself. On the steps of the Supreme Court, Paxton said: "The facts will lead where the fact lead".

What happens from here? Well, the antitrust probe isn't a lawsuit just yet -- but if the company has broken US antitrust rules then Google could be broken up into smaller pieces. For example, YouTube has long been accused of censoring conservative voices, personalities, channels, and normal everyday people -- yet they can't be held accountable, yet.