Latest News - Page 1854

Two years after its original release, Tekken 7 is getting another season pass with extra content.

When Tekken 7 released in 2017, I noticed a lot of characters were missing. Turns out Bandai Namco cut a few characters out to sell them later on as DLC in $25 season passes or $5-8 purchases. Now we're getting a third season pass that packs in four new characters and some free extra features.

Two of the characters were revealed at EVO 2019: Zafina, probably the best Tekken character ever, is coming in September, and Leroy Smith, a new hip martial arts master will rock the roster in Winter 2019. The most exciting news isn't the characters, though. Bandai Namco is fully updating every single playable fighter with a host of new moves, adding a new dimension to the game itself.

In the wake of recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, Washington has once again taken aim at violent video games, especially first-person shooters like Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Rainbow Six.

Despite multiple studies showing violent video games don't lead to real-world violence, U.S. President Donald Trump and other politicians call for tighter control and regulation on visceral interactive media.

"We must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace," U.S. President Donald Trump said in a recent address to the nation. "It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence. We must stop or substantially reduce this and it has to begin immediately. We have to seek real bi-partisan solutions."

Halo: Infinite will look and play best on Project Scarlett and PC, 343 Industries says, and we'll see some 'special tricks' being used on the enthusiast platforms.

In a recent interview with YouTuber Blackmist523, 343i exec Frank O'Connor says that Halo 6 (aka Halo: Infinite) is aiming at powerful hardware and will be optimized for Scarlett and PC.

"Obviously the special citizen will be Scarlett and we've worked with that hardware team to make sure the game shows up amazingly on it. We work with them to make sure that we know how to make the game look amazing on it. It will also look incredible on Xbox One. And it will also be for PC for the first time, day and day so that's exciting for us too.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare progression and saves may not migrate across multiple platforms at release.

One of Modern Warfare's biggest features is cross-play. Gamers across PS4, Xbox One, and PC will be able to play together right at launch, which is absolutely huge for engagement levels. But there's one potential fly in the ointment: saves may not freely transfer and may be bound to a specific platform or account. This means your multiplayer progress and campaign saves may be locked to each individual platform--get to max rank in PS4 and you may have to start from scratch on PC.

Cross-play is no small feat and Infinity Ward is still busily working on the intricate logistics of gaming's Big Three playing together. Cross-saves are still in the works too, but haven't been explicitly confirmed by the studio. When asked about cross-platform progression, Modern Warfare multiplayer designer Joe Cecot said: "Still figuring this out. More info to come in the future!"

Notorious for gaming the system, billion-dollar publishers like Activision-Blizzard have a new trend to thwart microtransaction scrutiny: delay them post-release.

Pretty much every big game nowadays has microtransactions--especially ones from EA, Activision-Blizzard, Ubisoft, and Take-Two Interactive. Despite this knowledge (something I continually warn gamers of), publishers like to obfuscate info by promising free updates and content. But they don't always relay the price of the content, and are starting to use bait-and-switch tactics to avoid release controversy.

A recent Jimquisition video reminded me of this tactic, and Sterling does a good job articulating what's happening. The whole idea is to set the stage for monetization at release, but only launch microtransactions post-launch. That way reviewers won't remark on it in their reviews, which can make or break a game. The reviews leading up to release are critical for a game's sales. Nobody wants another Battlefront II lootbox fiasco on their hands.

The Entertainment Software Association accidentally doxxed over 2,000 games journalists.

The ESA just messed up big time. The company, which puts on the annual E3 show every year, was responsible for a mass leaking of key games media. The ESA accidentally published a document listing contact info of some 2,000 registered media. The information, which included personal mobile numbers and addresses of journalists, was made public and freely available on the E3 Expo website. This huge breach in trust in one of the tightest-knit industries on the planet could be a killing blow to E3.

With big players like Sony and EA missing E3, the trade show is already on shaky ground. Journalists are already pushed away now that E3 is open to the public. The jeopardization of their personal info is pretty much the straw that broke the camel's back, and the ESA will likely see far less media registration for E3 2020, a critical event that sets the stage for the next-gen console generation.

Shaun The Sheep is one of the many childhood favorite characters of the 2000's, and recent news regarding our furry friend revolves around him completing his space training in preparation for a new coming movie.

The movie is called "Farmageddon" and its plot will center around an alien called Lu-La who has crash landed near Shaun's home at Moss Bottom Farm. Shaun recently completed his astronaut training last week in a special flight that simulates what micro-gravity would be like on Earth.

According to the European Space Agency (ESA) who assisted in the training of Shaun, "The flight was intended to prepare Shaun for his role as a space traveller in his new film. It offered him insight into the rigorous training that all astronauts have before their missions" In conclusion, Jan Worner, the director-general of the ESA said "We are very happy to have helped Shaun in his big space adventure". Shaun The Sheep will be launched in theaters in Germany on Sept 26th, Oct 16th in France and Oct 18th in the UK.

A French inventor has managed to cross the entirety of the English Channel using his recently completed jet-powered hoverboard.

The French inventor is named Franky Zapata, and in the above video we can see him getting into his jet-powered hoverboard deemed "Flyboard Air". The board uses five small jet engines and just like most jet engines, they chug fuel. This means that Zapata had to stop at a boat in the middle of the channel to refuel his board.

According to Reuters, Zapata managed to make it 35 kilometers (21 miles), starting at Sangatte, France and landing at Saint Margaret's Bay in Dover, England. "For the last five to six kilometers I just really enjoyed it. Whether this is a historic event or not, I'm not the one to decide that, time will tell." said Zapata. Zapata has been working on the hoverboard machine for the last three years, but this isn't his only project, Zapata is also working on flying cars.

A new study on the impact craters found on Mars' surface has suggested that if the planet once harbored water, then it could have experienced a "mega-tsunami" that shaped the planet.

The new study has analyzed a meteor crater called Lomonosov, this crater is 75 miles deep and is the same height as the estimated depth of the ocean. This crater also strongly resembles similar marine impact sights on Earth, which has led scientists to believe that a specific impact site might of resulted in "mega-tsunami" that plowed across Mars' surface.

It should be noted that the scientists do caution that there is no definitive proof that Mars once contained water, or better yet, oceans much like ours billions of years ago. They say that more data would be required to be able to confirm that, but if that is true and the Lomonsov theory lines up with new found data, then scientists could truly be onto something in regards to the history of our neighboring red planet.

If you didn't know, there is currently a Halo TV series in the works and to go along with legendary character Master Chief, Microsoft's Cortana AI has been casted

According to a recent announcement, Natascha McElhone who is known for her role in Ronin and Californiacation will be portraying the extremely well known AI, Cortana as well as Dr. Catherine Halsey who created the Spartan super-soilders like Master Chief. Other actors to join McElhone are; Fargo's Bokeem Woodbine as Soren-066, Shabana Azmi as Office of Naval Intelligence head Admiral Margaret Parangosky

More actors that have been casted are; Avengers: Age of Ultron's Bentley Kalu, The Witcher's Natasha Culzac and Catastrophe's Kate Kennedy. The Halo TV series won't be going into production until later this year, and is expected to go to air sometime within the first quarter of 2021. Halo fans around the world will have to wait patiently for this one.

If you didn't know, Amazon are planning on implementing a drone delivery service that would allow for Amazon buyers to receive their goods in 30 minutes or less.

While that might seem like a far-fetched idea, the reality of it arriving in the US has just taken a few more steps closer to being real. According to an announcement by the Federal Aviation Administration, a massively significant milestone in drone flight has just been reached. Reuters reports that the The University of Alaska has just completed the first FAA-approved "beyond line of sight" drone flight this week.

Why is this milestone so significant? Until now, drones were under a law of "line of sight" which requires drone operators be in vision of their drone at all times. Irish Automation is a company who makes collision avoidance software for drones, this software was used by the University of Alaska in their test and was approved by the FAA. Alexander Harmsen, CEO of Iris Automation spoke out about this achievement, saying "This is the first time detect and avoid technology is approved by an aviation authority as reliable enough to allow for BVLOS [beyond visual line of sight] drone operations".

League of Legends developer Riot Games is cooking up their very own fighting game that will soon hit the scene. The news was confirmed at this years EVO and marks the first game outside of League of Legends for Riot.

EVO, the biggest fighting game tournament in the world is currently being held in Las Vegas and during the many streams Riot Employee and EVO founder, Tom Cannon took to stream to reveal some news. According to Cannon, he can confirm what has been called the "worst kept secret in the universe", that Riot Games is currently working on their very own fighting game that will no doubt be set in the universe of League of Legends. While Riot Games hasn't officially confirmed it will be within the universe of League of Legends, its hard to believe that it won't be.

A quick history lesson, back in 2011 Tom Cannon and his brother Tony created their own development studio called Radiant Entertainment and developed a game called Rising Thunder. In 2016, Riot Games decided to acquire Radiant Entertainment and since then it has been assumed that they have been working on this untitled fighting game for Riot. A Riot Games representative spoke to IGN about the announcement and said "We're working hard to create a game truly worthy of the vibrant fighting game community and are making progress, but still have a long way to go before we're ready to share more details."

The El Paso shooting that happened over the weekend truly rocked the world as at least 20 people were killed in what has been called a 'White Nationalist' hate crime.

8Chan has been targeted by people around the globe and deemed a 'hate' spreading website and a means of a megaphone for the gunman who shot dead at least 20 innocent people in El Paso, Texas. The gunman openly said on 8Chan that "In general, I support the Christchurch shooter and his manifesto." After the events of El Paso, the decision by Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare is to remove their security protection services to the website which would ultimately render 8Chan vulnerable to DDoS attacks (distributed denial of service).

Cloudfare has removed their services to 8Chan to seperate themselves from the tragic events of El Paso. At the moment it is unclear whether or not 8Chan will acquire a new security service to protect the website, or if any security service is willing to step up to the plate and take the heat. 8Chan's founder surprisingly thanked Cloudfare for their separation, saying "Finally this nightmare may have an end." In conclusion, Prince says "Unfortunately the action we take today won't fix hate online. It will almost certainly not even remove 8chan from the Internet. But it is the right thing to do."

There is an asteroid floating around out in space called that has been estimated to be worth $700 quintillion, if NASA retrieves this asteroid and divided it up with the population everyone would receive about $93 billion each.

While that isn't NASA's plan at all, they will still be visiting the asteroid and much sooner than you might think. Originally the asteroid was found back in 1852 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis, and NASA now will be going to '16 Psyche' to investigate its properties. Considering the size of 16 Psyche, and the properties which are 95% metals (iron and nickel), NASA won't be traveling to the asteroid for its insane value but instead for a great comparison of its composition versus Earths.

Scientists believe that since the asteroids composition is very similar to that of Earths, we could learn some brand new information about how our own core works, or some new information about how planets are formed. When purely speaking about monetary value, some companies have already formed and are concentrating on building the infrastructure of space mining. Companies such as EuroSun Mining are looking towards the space economy which Morgan Stanley has estimated to $350 billion today, but by 2040 jumps to $2.7 trillion.

Quake II RTX is getting some improved graphics thanks to modders, with Team Blur Games releasing a bunch of high polygon items and objects that can be used in Quake II source ports... this includes Quake II RTX.

Team Blur Games has updated the 3D models for both the Armor Shard and StimPack, as well as teasing some work-in-progress models for both the Barrels, and Key Pass. There are improved weapon models being worked on by other modders, but we don't know if they'll be baked into the RTX-powered version of the game.

If you want to check out the first high polygon items and models for Quake II RTX then you can grab them here.

It looks like Ubisoft isn't the only one putting some love into the PC version of its upcoming game Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint, but Activision and Beenox (the team working on the PC version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare) are, too.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will support uncapped FPS, rock an FOV slider, and include HDR (as well as much more) on the PC. We can also expect some advanced mouse settings (gotta have that) and a new Realism Mode that should keep hardcore fans happy.

Remember that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will also roll out with a single-player mode, and we can't forget the undeniably gorgeous ray tracing technology. There'll also be cross-platform gaming allowed, so PC gamers can play with Xbox One friends at launch which is going to be a very big deal indeed. Those PC gamers won't have friends after they kick their console gaming friends' asses, that's why.

I can't believe it has taken until the end of 2019 to get here, but we're nearly here -- in a world where YouTube allows video downloads at 1080p, at least with YouTube Premium.

Android Police were the ones to first spot the update, with multiple sources then confirming that the 1080p video download feature will be coming out to "most Premium markets" soon, as well as more features in the near future.

The limitation has been at 720p for a while, but the uprgade to 1080p is a big one (and hopefully 4K doesn't take this long). You'll need to have a YouTube Premium subscription in order to get 1080p downloads, but it should be enough... right? Or do you think it should be all resolutions, right now?

Epic Games just finished up the Fortnite World Cup, where a 16-year old took home $3 million in his victorious game... but did you think that was it for Fortnite in 2019? Think again.

The Fortnite Champion Series (formally known as the Championship Series) kicks off on August 17, which will see teams of 3 fighting through their respective regions for five weeks of matches. This will include a bunch of weekend main events, Cash Cups -- as well as solos on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and then trios on Fridays.

Whoever comes out on top will battle with other regional teams on September 20-23, with each event rolling out with its own prize pool and "millions of dollars" up for grabs in the Fortnite Championship Series.

It looks like we're witnessing the start of a new style of graphics cards from Chinese manufacturer Yeston, with some pretty-in-pink custom Radeon RX 5700 series cards.

These cards will have their specific niche market to drive into, but the new Yeston Radeon RX 5700 XT Game Master is one of the cutest graphics cards ever, while underneath it is based on the reference design from AMD. We have higher boost GPU clocks of up to 1905MHz, but the same everything else down the line.

What Yeston is doing here is branching out from the vast range of custom graphics cards on the market, and appealing directly to female gamers and livestreamers. The female livestream audience and also gamers, is absolutely huge across Asia -- far larger than the US and other countries.

Intel will be launching its new Xe graphics cards in 2020 and we should expect the first one out of the gate to impress, but it won't dethrone NVIDIA or AMD overnight. The latest hype over the weekend was a crazy $200 price that was simply a mistranslation.

Yeah, there is no $200 graphics card coming that will beat the $1000+ GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. Sorry guys. In a recent interview with now ex-RTG boss Raja Koduri, where he said: "Not everybody will buy a $500-$600 card, but there are enough people buying those too - so that's a great market". The original story saw a mistranslation from Koduri by a Russian YouTube channel, which saw Koduri purportedly say Intel is aiming at the $200 mainstream market with its first Xe GPU. Yeah, no.

He continued: "So the strategy we're taking is we're not really worried about the performance range, the cost range and all because eventually our architecture as I've publicly said, has to hit from mainstream, which starts even around $100, all the way to Data Center-class graphics with HBM memories and all, which will be expensive".