Latest News - Page 1874

The original Master Chief Collection was a total mess at launch. 343 Industries simply bit off more than it could chew by cramming four Halo games in one, leading to terrible matchmaking and insanely long downloads. Now the same could happen on PC...just in a different way.

The more 343i talks about The Master Chief Collection on PC, the less excited I get about the project. The initial thrill of re-living old Halo games on a high-end, responsive platform wears thin as the reality of game dev, Microsoft, 343i's history, and other factors hit home. I have some serious doubts it can be pulled off without delays and lots of complications.

The scope of the collection seems to get more and more ambitious over time, and I remember what happened with the original Xbox One version. The devs who notoriously botched the first Halo collection are making huge promises with the PC version, including full optimizations across the board in games that were never really designed for PCs to begin with, expansive GPU hardware support, uncapped frame rates, etc. The implication is that the original five Halo games will look, play, and overall be better on PC.

If you were hoping to play Halo Reach's campaign beta on PC...we've got some bad news. You probably didn't get in.

A bit ago we got some details wrong about the Halo Reach PC campaign beta test. 343 Industries said they'd have a "small public flight" were players could try a Reach mission. We thought this meant the mission itself would be small, not the pool of people let in, and reported that every Halo Insider could get access. We also thought there were two tests being held: a closed-off multiplayer one, and a public and open campaign test.

We were wrong: the multiplayer beta isn't happening yet, and the campaign beta is closed off to nearly everyone who applied. The first Halo: The Master Chief Collection's "flight" test on PC let in less than 1,000 people.

Toshiba and Western Digital were hit with a 13-minute power outage on June 15, and we're now looking at somewhere between 6-15 exabytes of NAND flash being affected. The companies are expecting to swing into standard manufacturing rates sometime in mid-July, a couple of weeks from now.

First off we have Toshiba with a reported 6-9 exabytes in NAND flash gone, while WD announced it lost nearly 6 exabytes of NAND flash during the power outage. The big problem is that 35% of the world's NAND flash production is made in the joint manufacturing facilities of Toshiba and WD in Yokkaichi, Japan. So this small 13-minute power outage will have huge flow on effects for global markets, and will surely change SSD pricing going forward.

Q3 and Q4 orders have been settled and paid for, so we could expect small price increases in the meantime before larger prices are seen in 2020.

You knew it was coming... surely... well, it's here anyway -- Tetris Royale is exactly what you think it is, a 100-person battle royale match in Tetris. You

The Tetris Company has teamed with N3TWORK for Tetris Royale which is coming to both iOS and Android, and is the debut title that the companies have signed a multi-year agreement on, with Tetris Royale the first out of the gate. As for the game, Tetris Royale will see you doing your thing rotating and stacking Tetrominos and clearing lines like a boss.

But... in Tetris Royale you're competing against 99 other players throughout your matches every season. Like other battle royale games there will be daily challenges that will see you getting customization options for the game, boosters, and power ups. THere's also a single-player mode if you don't want to battle it out with 99 others at once, with a Marathon solo mode.

Apple designer Jony Ive has announced he's leaving the company to form his own, with LoveFrom's first client being Apple... of course. Ive has been the design lead behind most of Apple's iconic products, even down to its huge 'spaceship' Apple Park campus.

Ive designed the iPod, Mac, iPhone -- pretty much everything we know from Apple, and was put into a higher role once Steve Jobs returned to Apple back in 1997. He's also infamous for his slow-and-seductive voiceovers talking about Apple devices, something I could only half take seriously. In an interview with the Financial Times, Ive explained: "After nearly 30 years and countless projects, I am most proud of the lasting work we have done to create a design team, process and culture at Apple that is without peer. Today it is stronger, more vibrant and more talented than at any point in Apple's history".

He continued: "The team will certainly thrive under the excellent leadership of Evans, Alan and Jeff, who have been among my closest collaborators. I have the utmost confidence in my designer colleagues at Apple, who remain my closest friends, and I look forward to working with them for many years to come".

Google's new game streaming service Stadia isn't just a subscription. It's a brand new platform like the PlayStation Store or Steam that'll sell full-priced games.

Stadia could change gaming forever. It's an accessible service that beams games wirelessly to your phone, laptop, desktop, or TV, alleviating the need for console or PC hardware. But substantial trade offs and a somewhat confusing business model could hold Stadia back for years to come. Now Google's Phil Harrison says users will have to pay full price for new games on Stadia (which really isn't a surprise).

In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Stadia evangelist Phil Harrison said subscribers shouldn't expect discounts. Stadia will sell games a la carte on a digital storefront, and they should be the exact same price as other platforms like Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Publishers will ultimately set the price and Google could make exclusive deals...but on the whole expect to pay $59.99 a piece.

Like most game studios, Blizzard's humble beginnings were built on the backs of crunch. The company simply wouldn't be what it is without the long hours and tireless dedication.

Blizzard Entertainment wasn't always a titan of the industry. In 1991, Blizzard was a scrappy underdog who hit it big with Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, then rolled out hits like Diablo, Starcraft, and the massively lucrative World of Warcraft, which changed gaming forever. All of these projects were made possible by developers who worked excessive schedules. According to Mike Morhaime, co-founder and ex-Blizzard president, the studio simply wouldn't be the same without crunch.

"Blizzard has definitely evolved around crunch. In our early days we crunched crazy hours to get the games done. I think if you're a small studio, you're living or dying by the success of the next project, it takes a lot of superhuman effort. Or at least it did for us," Morhaime told Eurogamer at a recent Gamelab event.

At a recent Valve Index launch meeting, Gabe Newell gave a glimmer of hope for Half-Life 3...but he didn't sound super confident.

Valve could make Half-Life 3 someday, according to GabeN, but that day probably won't happen any time soon. At a meet-up for its new proprietary Index VR headset, Gabe made a joke that simultaneously excites and disappoints Half-Life hopefuls. The Valve co-founder talked about games iteration, and how one project is a stepping-stone for the next. In this way, it's implied the Index VR hardware could fuel innovation for Half-Life 3.

"So Half Life lead us to Half-Life 2. Source led to Source 2. Experiments we did with Team Fortress 2 enabled us to build DOTA. Artifact is the reason we're able to do Underlords," Newell said. "And so maybe someday the number 2 will lead us to that shiny integer glowing on a mountain some place. We'll just have to see."

Time to show off your sexy cyborg cosplay skills--CD Projekt RED is hosting an official Cyberpunk 2077 cosplay contest with a $40,000 prize pool.

Cosplay is a kind of microcosm of gaming. It's a celebration of characters, themes, and experiences that go way past the digital medium, bringing creations to the real-world. It's an amazing world with a thriving community of talented, ardent players. It's also one of the best ways to market a game and keep people engaged, and CD Projekt RED's new cosplay contest both celebrates the community and bringing awareness to its biggest game yet.

The Cyberpunk 2077 cosplay event is open to everyone around the world, and fans can enter in one of two ways: digitally, by sending in their photos and creations via the contest website, or by showing up at five events across the globe like gamescom, PAX West, and Paris Games Week.

If you believe that games are best enjoyed sitting next to who you are playing with in real-life then I encourage you to dive into Josef Fares' A Way Out. Once you have done that, mentally prepare for his next game.

Josef Fares is the director of the development studio Hazelight Studios, and in a recent interview Fares teased what the new project is going to look like. According to the interview with VG247, Fares says that there won't be A Way Out 2 but instead there will be another story-driven multiplayer experience that will test players patience with its vast array of mechanics.

Fares says "What I can say is it's not A Way Out 2, But if you look at Brothers, A Way Out, and the next game, you will see it's the same studio that makes the game. But it will be something completely, totally different and it will be way more focused on trying to make the mechanics a part of the game. [...] I believe there's a lot of potential in telling great stories for more than one person. If you look at the movies today, when we look at them we look at them together, we experience stories together. I believe that multiplayer story games are underestimated - there's a lot of potential there that I'd like to explore."

PC players now have the opportunity to jump into Quantic Dream's demo of their upcoming title, Beyond: Two Souls. Can your psyche take this kind of action?

The above trailer has been released onto the Quantic Dream YouTube Channel and gives us a quick introduction into what players can expect to see in Beyond: Two Souls. Beyond: Two Souls features some quite popular and good actors such as Ellen Page and William DaFoe. Gameplay wise, Beyond: Two Souls will follow the story of Jodie Holmes who has been born with a connection to a mysterious entity and has powerful inhuman abilities.

Players will be immersed within the psychological struggle of Holmes and how she interacts with the world and people around her. She will deal with extraordinary challenges, imminent dangers, heavy loss of friends/family and most importantly her own path of self-discovery. Beyond: Two Souls will be released on July 22nd, for those who wish to download the demo a link can be found here.

The release of CD Projekt RED's Cyberpunk 2077 is set for April next year, so until then gamers can enjoy some high capacity required games on their consoles/PC. But when Cyberpunk releases, some space might have to be made.

According to a listing on the European PlayStation Store, Cyberpunk 2077's install requirement will weigh in on the more hefty side of things. The European PlayStation Store has listed the title and the required minimum space to download it sits at 80GB. Before players jump up in their seats, keep in mind that this number could merely be a placeholder and not the final official size.

The reason for thinking this could be a placeholder is due to CD Projekt RED not being finished with development. Meaning the game could either increase in size or could possibly shrink. A good frame of reference is CD Projekt RED's 2015 title, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. That game comes in with a 50GB minimum space requirement and that world is massive in both size and diversity. Cyberpunk 2077 will be much bigger than The Witcher 3 so I'd expect we could probably see the minimum space requirement exceed that of 80GB and perhaps even push towards the 100GB mark.

Yesterday I reported on some news surrounding PlatinumGames' ASTRAL CHAIN title reportedly being developed as apart of a trilogy of games. That news has now been confirmed to be incorrect.

First off, the original news about ASTRAL CHAIN being the first game in a trilogy of titles came from IGN Netherlands. IGN Netherlands reported that PlatinumGames' Takahisa Taura said that if ASTRAL CHAIN was a commercial success that two more titles would follow. It turns out that this was a complete misinterpretation, and nothing has been suggested as such.

Takahisa Taura has recently cleared up the confusion through Twitter and IGN Japan where he denied the claim of a possible trilogy and reaffirmed what he actually meant. Here is his updated statement: "The article mistakenly reported that "Astral Chain is developed as the first part of a trilogy". What I actually said, and nothing more, is how in my mind I think about many things when developing Astral Chain, to the point that it could get expanded with 2 other games or more."

Season 2 for Apex Legends is not that far away from release, and today we should be getting some official trailers to get fans excited for the future. Luckily for us, those trailers have leaked early.

The first trailer which can be found here shows a cinematic introduction into the new season which has been titled 'Battle Charge'. We see an unknown character (Crypto) hack into a tower to cause a massive electro magnet explosion. The explosion seems to have triggered the inhabitants of the island to begin invading, while also causing some larger level destruction to areas players would be familiar with.

The second trailer which can be found here shows a gameplay approach to the new season. We see new weapons, an invading leviathan, a quick demonstration of the new legend Wats, captured flyers, new skins and animations for characters. Season 2 is gearing up to be quite the update for Apex Legends and being a players of the game myself I can that I truly am impressed and excited for the coming update.

ASUS is about to launch 33 different SKUs of GeForce RTX SUPER graphics cards, but GIGABYTE has its Taiwanese competitor beat with an insane 69 different SKUs coming in the next few months.

GIGABYTE's more extensive list of GeForce RTX SUPER graphics cards is a little more interesting as the company is going to be launching a Mini-ITX range of GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER and RTX 2060 SUPER cards. These Mini-ITX cards will be small but hella powerful as the RTX 2060 SUPER and RTX 2070 SUPER are great upgrades on what the current models are, and will fit into small form factor (SFF) gaming rigs.

The flagship AORUS RTX SUPER range will include RTX 2080/2070/2060 models, while the GAMING RTX SUPER brand will also host all three SUPER models, the TURBO range will only pack RTX 2080 SUPER and RTX 2070 SUPER versions. GIGABYTE's popular WINDFORCE range will have RTX 2080/2070/2060 SUPER models, the Mini-ITX range only has RTX 2070/2060 SUPER, while the 'other models' include two additional RTX 2060 SUPER SKUs.

As we get closer to the official launch of NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER and GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER graphics cards, we're finding out more and more from AIB partners like ASUS and GIGABYTE.

ASUS looks to have a huge 33 different SKUs of the GeForce RTX SUPER series, with custom versions of the RTX 2080 SUPER, RTX 2070 SUPER, and RTX 2060 SUPER all in the pipeline. We're looking at the ROG STRIX RTX 2080 SUPER being the flagship model in the RTX 2080 SUPER range (which is coming later this month) while the RTX 2060 SUPER and RTX 2070 SUPER will both have their own ROG STRIX custom models available very soon.

The company will be launching ROG STRIX, DUAL, TUF3, TURBO, and PHOENIX variants of the GeForce RTX SUPER series, with the PHOENIX limited to just the RTX 2060 SUPER, and a single TURBO model of the RTX 2080 SUPER (as well as a TURBO model of the RTX 2060/2070 SUPER, too).

We all know Intel is suffering in the resurgence from AMD in its Ryzen CPUs, but its upcoming Ryzen 3000 series based on the next-gen Zen 2 architecture and 7nm process are going to hurt Intel even more.

Fast forward to now and we have a post on an employee-only portal called "AMD competitive profile: Where we go toe-to-toe, why they are resurgent, which chips of ours beat theirs". The post was written by Walden Kirsch and is part of "the latest in a Circuit News series on Intel's major competitors". Kirsch noted that AMD's recent strategic re-focus on high-performance desktop, datacenter and server markets.

AMD championing towards the new 7nm node with TSMC has helped in a big way, but Kirsch also notes the public wins of cloud systems, next-gen Zen 2, and more that will "amplify near-term competitive challenge from AMD". AMD sees competitive threads from 7nm-based EPYC Rome CPUs for the server and datacenter markets while Matisse will mop up the desktop CPUs under the Ryzen 3000 series.

Nintendo continues to hint more classic games from other platforms are coming to Switch Online.

Switch Online works because of two reasons: it's super cheap at $20 a year, and it offers free NES games (it helps cloud saves are held ransom, too). That last part is why most people subscribe. Now Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa says games from platforms like SNES and N64 could come to the service's retro lineup. But there might be a catch: users might have to pay extra for platforms beyond NES, which is something we actually predicted a while back.

At Nintendo's recent annual shareholders meeting, Mr. Furukawa said new platforms would be an extension of Switch Online, which could imply a paid add-on component. He also hints a Virtual Console a la carte storefront could come to the Switch.

First it was reborn on PC and consoles. Now Final Fantasy XIV will be reborn on the small screen.

Today Sony Pictures Television announced Final Fantasy XIV, one of the best MMORPGs ever made, will be adapted into a television series. The show will have live-action characters while delivering a new original story set in the fantastical world of Eorzea, and touches upon the game's major themes of corruption, mysticism and sorcery, and a realm full of exotic cultures fending off harsh imperial rule.

"Inspired directly by the world and characters of the title's fourteenth installment, the project will embrace the bold and genre-bending sensibilities of the revered and long-running FINAL FANTASY series as it explores the struggle between magic and technology in a quest to bring peace to a land in conflict," reads a press release.

If Cyberpunk 2077 weren't a first-person game, it'd lose a lot of its magnitude and immersive impact. It just wouldn't work.

Cyberpunk 2077 aims to be the most dynamic, immersive, and choice-driven game CD Projekt RED has ever made. It's all about making decisions that ripple through a gritty sci-fi metropolis, defining who you are, what you do, and where you go. This huge dynamic scope is a big reason why Cyberpunk 2077 is a first-person shooter instead of a third-person game like The Witcher; CDPR doesn't just want you to play as V., but become the mercenary cyborg. Seeing through V.'s eyes is a big part of that.

According to senior level designer Miles Tost, Cyberpunk 2077 just wouldn't work as a third-person game. "This is exactly why we have the whole first-person thing in there, right? For us as a studio of storytellers, it's almost like a natural evolution of how we make an immersive narrative or how we get you to be immersed within the story," Tost said in a recent Q&A session on Tumblr.