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Nintendo has released their E3 2019 schedule and according to the announcement the Big N will be holding a Nintendo Direct to show off some titles as well make some major fun available in its booth.

Nintendo has taken to their official website to detail their plans for E3 2019. According to the post, Nintendo will be holding their E3 Direct at 9 a.m. PT on June 11. The presentation will be live streamed for Nintendo fans around the globe, and will focus primarily on software and more so what games Nintendo Switch owners can expect throughout 2019.

Nintendo will also be conducting their classic Nintendo Treehouse: Live at the Nintendo Booth. This live stream will give players a chance to jump into a technical analysis of some select Nintendo games with some Nintendo staff. Nintendo will also be hosting a Super Smash Bros Ultimate and Splatoon 2 tournament on Saturday, June 8th at The Theater, Ace Hotel, Los Angeles. If you are interested in anymore information for Nintendo's E3 presence, check out the official press release from the company here.

Crytek has updated its roadmap detailing what we can expect from the upcoming releases of CRYENGINE 5.6 and 5.7, with the upcoming CRYENGINE 5.6 providing some new features and support but the future v5.7 and v5.8 of CRYENGINE are sounding delicious.

The big take away from here is the memory footprint reduction and CPU optimization, so we can hopefully expect improved support for high-core-count CPUs like the new AMD Ryzen and Intel Core CPUs. Remember the new Zen 2 processors are around the corner and expected to debut with 8C/16T chips that should see support in CRYENGINE 5.6 when it drops.

Crytek's improvements into CRYENGINE 5.7 is where things get interesting, as we'll see a bunch of new features and improvements to the engine including improved VR support, DX12 and Vulkan API support, as well as support for ray tracing. But then CRYENGINE 5.8 knocks it up a few notches offering support for multi-GPU setups in DX12, and so much more. The graphics and rendering part of Crytek's R&D (CRYENGINE 5.8 and above) is a gigantic list that makes the improvements coming to CRYENGINE 5.6 and 5.76 pale in comparison.

The billionaire founder of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, just unveiled a new giant lunar landing vehicle that was created by Blue Origin, his own rocket company. The new lander is called Blue Moon and comes in varying sizes and will take different payloads to the moon.

Blue Moon is the first step in what would turn into what Blue Origin calls a "sustained human presence" on the moon. Bezos said at the event: "This is an incredible vehicle, and it's going to the moon". The comapny has received multiple grants from NASA adding up into the millions in its mission to create critical lunar lander systems.

Bezos unveiled its new Blue Moon landers that have been designed to carry robotic and infrastructure payloads to the moon, with payloads weighing up to 7 tons (6.5 metric tonnes). The larger variant will, in Blue Moon's words, return Americans to the moon by 2024. Blue Moon explains: "the larger variant of Blue Moon has been designed to land an ascent vehicle that will allow us to return Americans to the moon by 2024".

Sony is slowly talking about the next-gen PlayStation 5 more and more, with a Sony spokesperson talking with the Official PlayStation Magazine with a tease on the next-gen storage inside of the PS5.

The spokesperson said: "An ultra-high-speed SSD is the key to our next generation. Our vision is to make loading screens a thing of the past, enabling creators to build new and unique gameplay experiences". The ultra-high-speed SSD is something PlayStation architect Mark Cerny touched on during the PS5 reveal with Wired, where he demonstrated the PS4 version of Spider-Man loading in less than 0.8 seconds on a PS5 dev kit compared to 15 seconds on the PS4.

At the time, Cerny said: "The raw read speed is important, but so are the details of the I/O [input-output] mechanisms and the software stack that we put on top of them. I got a PlayStation 4 Pro and then I put in a SSD that cost as much as the PlayStation 4 Pro-it might be one-third faster".

Tencent has had to make some pretty radical changes to PUBG Mobile to keep the Chinese overlords happy, with a total makeover applied to its game including a name change to something that sounds ridiculous: Game for Peace.

Game for Peace is a new anti-terrorism-themed game approved by the Chinese government, with developer Tencent explaining Game for Peace as a tactical shooting game made in-house that "pays tribute to the blue sky warriors that guard our country's airspace", referencing the Chinese air force. The new game is virtually identical to PUBG Mobile, it just looks worse - it has similar gameplay, graphics, design, and background. It's virtually identical, but with some hilarious changes.

First, you can't kill people in Game for Peace (the word 'Peace' would be pretty useless if there was killing, right?) which is outright stupid in what is essentially a Chinese government approved version of PUBG. Game for Peace lets you shoot people but they don't bleed, some blue/green electricity-style blob comes out of them until they hit the ground. But don't worry they don't die, they get up and wave goodbye to you.

CD PROJEKT RED has opened the doors to its merchandise store (in Europe at first, the US is coming soon) which you can take a look at here, with a bunch of awesome merch for their games including Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher, and more.

Even though Cyberpunk 2077 is still a while away from release, CDPR has some merch for the game but there is definitely more for The Witcher, but that is a franchise of games versus a single game that isn't even out yet. I would expect more Cyberpunk 2077 merch as time goes on, and hopefully as the game is better detailed at E3 2019 next month.

There's even an awesome 12-inch hand-painted polystone figure depicts Geralt of Rivia as a Ronin monster hunter. It looks seriously freaking cool and costs around $250.

With a new bill, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley wants to outlaw lootboxes in games that target minors. But regulatory boards like the Entertainment Software Association argue in defense of the monetization tactic.

Lootboxes, live services, and monetization have changed games considerably over the last decade. Instead of one-off experiences that you play, beat, and move on from, publishers create ongoing experiences built to artificially extend playtime and offer paid shortcuts to reduce time spent--or in some cases, reduce the stress incurred from repeated play. These tactics have fueled the $137 billion games industry for years and years, but their digital reign is being challenged.

Many governments like Belgium and now even Germany are taking action against lootboxes. There's a reason for this: they can lead to problematic gambling, as found in a recent North American study. But the Entertainment Software Association, which includes members from gaming's biggest publishers like EA and Activision-Blizzard, reiterates that lootboxes aren't gambling.

RAGE 2 is like a psychedelic post-apocalyptic nightmare that goes over the top at every turn.

RAGE 2 is coming out next week, and to mark the occasion Bethesda dropped a new launch trailer that celebrates the weirdly-hypnotic insanity the game offers. The footage shows a electrically-charged sampling of everything from bizarre NPCs to hilariously overpowered abilities that turn enemies into glorified fish in barrels. There's uncomfortable nudity, giant hulking boss monstrosities warped by radiation, interesting sci-tech apocalyptic-punk cities, and crazy death races to boot.

Read Also: RAGE 2 looks like a Ubisoft game, and it needs multiplayer

Like The Division 2, Ghost Recon: Breakpoint will be skipping Steam when it releases this October.

Ubisoft was one of the first major publishers to sign a deal to bring its games onto the Epic Games Store, and promised more of its key AAA titles would arrive on Epic's digital market rather than Steam. The motivation is quite clear: Ubisoft is chasing the sizable 88% of revenue it gets to keep from every Epic Store sale.

Now with its latest Ghost Recon sequel, Breakpoint, Ubisoft is making good on its promise that other "select titles" would arrive on the Epic Store. While browsing the game's pre-order page I noticed that only two options were listed for PC, the Epic Store, and the Ubisoft Store. Steam was predictably not included in platform selection.

Ubisoft is keen on morphing its key franchises into RPG-esque experiences for maximum longevity, and the latest Ghost Recon will be its next experiment.

Today Ubisoft announced Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, a sequel to Wildlands starring Nomad Team and Cole D. Walker as the main antagonist. Set in the backdrop of Auroa Island, a huge testing ground for Skell Technologies latest biome experiments, advanced weaponry, and a 1980s high-tech John Berkey wonderland, the game has evolved past its original tactical co-op limits. Breakpoint will have key survival elements found in other games, requiring players to manage stamina by eating food and drinking water to traverse steep cliffs or snowbanks.

Breakpoint also introduces a new injury system that's separate from damage infliction. When injured, players will move more slowly or react worse in specific situations--which is probably even worse when your stamina is down, too--and healing requires specific materials. Just another big live service hook to extend the playtime and make things more dynamic.

Zotac is hosting the trade show's very first charity tournament at Computex 2019, complete with big-name streamers.

Today tech giant Zotac announced the grand finals of its big esports League of Legends Fight For Charity tournament will be held during its Zotac Cup event at Computex. Popular League of Legends pros like Voyboy, Kaypea, Coolife, Zong Guan, and Hao Kai will be battling it out for $100,000 in charity funds on May 28 through June 1. Donations raised by viewers and all the proceeds will go to groups like the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Gaming-Aid, Mercy Malaysia, Oaktree Foundation, and Esports Foundation US.

The biggest names in PC gaming are sponsoring and helping out with the event, including NVIDIA, Huya, Intel, Logitech, ViewSonic, Cougar, and Battelfy.

Starbreeze is in trouble. Its financial woes continue to worsen following the huge sales miss of Overkill's The Walking Dead and subsequent cancellation on gaming's biggest console platforms. Starbreeze has filed for reconstruction, a form of bankruptcy protection, and is now seeking financial aid to keep itself afloat.

To stay alive, Starbreeze has cut away everything that didn't make it money and will now focus exclusively on games. The publisher currently has one sure-fire bet with the Payday IP, and it plans to hold onto the series for dear life as it's rocked by big quarterly losses. The gaming focus has narrowed all the way down to to Starbreeze's only money-maker, Payday, and the company will bank hard on the IP for its future--a future that seems quite bleak indeed.

"We are in a challenging situation. I stand united with the entire Starbreeze team in the efforts to get the business in order. We have a very strong asset in Payday, which is the foundation upon which we will build Starbreeze future," said acting Starbreeze CEO Michael Nermark in a recent Q1'2019 financial report.

Nintendo has announced that three more NES titles will be added to the Nintendo Switch Online library of NES games. These new NES games will be Donkey Kong Jr., VS. Excitebike and Clu Clu Land.

This addition of these three new games has pushed the libraries total number of games to 40. Donkey Kong Jr., VS. Excitebike and Clu Clu Land will be joining the selection of other online enhanced NES titles such as Super Mario Bros. 3, Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda. While it is cool that Nintendo are adding classic golden aged gaming titles such as the ones listed above to the Switch Online library, many fans are begging the company to skip over them and steam roll straight into SNES titles.

The Nintendo Switch Online community has been quite divided on subscription, some users have said that "It's a bit of a disappointment that it's only nes games at present, and the majority of gamers that were not even born around these original releases are going to struggle to get into them." I can certainly agree with this point, many Nintendo Switch users will be late twenties and below, which is a little out of the age range for the release of the NES.

Mel Gibson will be stepping into the shoes of Santa Clause in an upcoming independent action comedy titled 'Fatman'. Fortitude is taking the helm on international sales and will be presenting the project at the Cannes Film Festival.

The premise of Fatman, described by Variety is a "rowdy, unorthodox Santa Claus who is fighting his business decline - while a neglected and precocious 12-year-old hires a hitman to kill Santa after receiving a lump of coal in his stocking." The film will be produced by Brandon James of Rough House, Lisa Wolofsky of Skywolf and Nadine de Barros of Fortitude. David Gordon Green, Danny McBride and Jody Hill will also be checking in as Executive Producers.

Fatman's script has been developed by the director team of Ian and Eshom Nelms. Here is what they had to say about the project; "This rowdy Santa tale is a film we've been excited to make for some time and we're thrilled to have equally passionate partners in Rough House and Fortitude who carry the same fire!" Quite the enthusiasm, and a truly eyebrow raising idea for a movie as it has certainly sparked my attention. Mostly just because the idea of Mel Gibson playing an upset strange Santa Claus just seems like a movie I wouldn't pass up on watching. Fatman is scheduled to begin filming early 2020 with a location based in Canada.

Avengers: Endgame is gearing up to be one of the highest grossing movies of all time, but what about stream plays? Disney has said that Avengers: Endgame will be available on their Disney+ streaming platform from December 11th onwards.

During the Disney Corporation Q2 2019 earnings call yesterday, Disney announced that Avengers: Endgame has successfully passed a total of $2 billion ticket sales in just 11 days. Endgame has even knocked off Titanic for the second hight grossing movie of all time, it clocked in a staggering $1.2 billion in just the opening weekend.

Avengers: Endgame will also be available on Disney's new Disney+ streaming platform which is slated to launch this November. Disney will include their entire movie library for just $6.99, more information can be found about that here. Disney+ will also have all 30 seasons of The Simpsons, as well as a new planned Loki and Star War series. If you would like a breakdown of Diseny+ and Disney's aim as a company check out this link here.

Some great news has come out for app developers at the recent Google I/O 2019 event. Google will be debuting a new API that allows for apps to be updated in real-time.

This new API that Google is soon releasing to beta members has been titled 'In-app Updates API' and will give developers two options to choose from. The first "is a full-screen experience for critical updates when you expect the user to wait for the update to be applied immediately". While the second is a "flexible update, which means the user can keep using the app while the update is downloaded. You can completely customize the update flow so it feels like part of your app."

At the moment this new Android API has been handed down to select developers for testing, and will soon be rolled out to a much larger audience of developers. I would expect that the social media giants such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat etc will already be implementing this software into their apps. So once the API becomes widely available to all developers I would expect an update to be rolled by these companies shortly afterward. If you would like to see a GIF of what the updates look like on a phone, visit this link here.

Leading up to the release of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum in cinemas we have a new officially-licensed John Wick game that is titled John Wick Hex. Combine strategy with John Wick skill in serving death and you get John Wick Hex.

John Wick Hex has been created by Mike Bithell, who developed the critically acclaimed titles Thomas Was Alone and Volume. John Wick Hex has also been officially announced by both Lionsgate and Good Shepherd. Meaning, a license of the John Wick IP was approved for Bithell, which I think is pretty awesome considering Bithell is an indie dev with a creatively unique spin on game development. Within the description of the above video, John Wick Hex has been described as "John Wick Hex is fight-choreographed chess brought to life as a video game, capturing the series' signature gun fu style while expanding its story universe."

The description continues, Players must choose every action and attack they make, while considering their immediate cost and consequences. Every move in John Wick Hex feels like a scene from the movies, and every fight contributes to your progress on the job and requires precise strategic thinking." John Wick Hex is a turn-based strategy game, so XCOM or Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden players will be loving life with this announcement. For players who haven't played either of those games, take a leap into a new genre and see what you think. Expand those gaming horizons!

Intel has been promising 10nm for quite a while now and while it has shipped some 10nm CPUs into the market, those numbers have been small, until now. The company is promising that its 10nm mobile Ice Lake CPUs will begin shipping in larger numbers starting in June.

The company will have its 10nm mobile CPUs packing a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor and GPU performance that is doubled over current 8th-gen mobile Intel CPUs while AI receives 3x the power. The new 10nm Intel CPUs will help the company better compete with new mobile AMD Ryzen processors hitting the market, and the big gorilla in the room suddenly with Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered Always Connected PCs with up to and over 20 hours of battery life with 4G and soon, 5G connectivity.

We can expect 10nm CPUs from Intel next year, as well as new GPU designs in the Xe-based graphics cards in the second half of 2020. The company will be dabbling in 10nm with new CPUs, GPUs, server processors and specialized parts for AI like Nervana.

AMD is about to launch its next-gen Zen 2-based range of Ryzen 3000 series on the new 7nm node, but what is its competitor up to? The latest rumor on the next-gen Comet Lake S-based processors is that they won't work with current-gen motherboards, as they'll require a new socket.

The latest leaks were found inside of the new Intel server chipset driver, with the listing mentioning the 400-series chipset and 495-series chipset, both of which are totally new. The 10th generation Core processors in the form of the Comet Lake-S range look to be arriving on LGA 1151 V3, which will require a new motherboard and hence, new chipsets to support them. This means the 10th gen Core CPUs will not be backwards compatible.

The new Comet Lake-S family of processors should arrive in 4/6/8/10-core SKUs all on the same 14nm node that Intel has been stuck on for many years now, but we should expect higher clock speeds on the 10th gen CPUs. We should see them deployed sometime in Q1 2020 alongside the new 400-series motherboards. Computex 2019 is right around the corner, so we'll see what Intel does there.

If you thought Minecraft looked good with ray tracing-style effects through path tracing, have a look at what the new ReShade mod for Crysis does when it adds in some beautiful ray-traced Global Illumination.

Digital Foundry did a break down in the video above, with the new ReShade mod adding ray-traced Global Illumination in Crysis. Pascal Gilcher is the developer behind the ReShade mode where he explained about his new Crysis mod: "I'm working hard on a ray traced Global Illumination method for ReShade. This means you can have GI as drop-in in every game you want, with a few clicks. Work on such a feature started over a year ago, I posted some screenshots on the ReShade forums but eventually discarded it, due to other projects having more priority".

The new ReShade mod for Crysis can be supported on the ReShade Patreon for $20 tier, for die hard Crysis fans who want an injection of graphics into the still-great looking game.