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PlayStation CEO says Sony has an eye on multiplayer/co-op

Jak Connor | Gaming | Feb 19, 2019 3:00 AM CST

There is absolutely no doubt that Sony take 1st place in terms of having exclusive titles on their platform, with big names such as God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn and Detroit: Become Human the publishing studio really has hit the nail on the head story game wise. But what of multiplayer?

PlayStation CEO says Sony has an eye on multiplayer/co-op

In a recent interview with Business Insider, PlayStation CEO, Shawn Layden was asked some questions regardining the weakness of Sony. Most shockingly was how honest and straightforward Layden was, and props to him for doing so as honesty at those high levels of position is very much respected. Layden said; "I think all those things we do [story-driven games] really well. What we don't do so much in is multiplayer."

Layden was asked a follow-up question whether he was referring to online multiplayer or local multiplayer (couch co-op), his response was this; "Couch co-op - I mean, that's a whole category I think the industry needs to look back at. We have that with sports titles, and some racing titles, but not with much else. And I think that speaks to the power of the internet on the one hand, but otherwise we might wanna revisit that to get more family engagement in the gaming experience."

Continue reading: PlayStation CEO says Sony has an eye on multiplayer/co-op (full post)

Netflix pull future 'The Punisher' & 'Jessica Jones' seasons

Jak Connor | Gaming | Feb 19, 2019 2:00 AM CST

Two of Marvels popular T.V shows on Netflix's platform 'The Punisher' and 'Jessica Jones' have had some quite unfortunate news announced.

Netflix pull future 'The Punisher' & 'Jessica Jones' seasons

According to a statement issued to Deadline, there will not be a third season of 'The Punisher' despite the second season just releasing on Netflix in January, 2019. Accompanied in this canceled deal between Marvel and Netflix is that Marvel's 'Jessica Jones' will be on its last season, the show will run its third season but that will be the final one.

Despite both of these popular shows having future seasons canceled, Netflix will still keep the shows on their service for subscribers to enjoy. It is unknown how long those show will stay on the platform, but we can imagine it would be enough time for people to enjoy it. Marvel's TV boss Jeph Loeb gave a statement on the decision, he said that Netflix was the one to drop each of the characters' shows and not Marvel, he further teased that Marvel is not done with characters and could still use them for future projects whether it be in TV or movies.

Continue reading: Netflix pull future 'The Punisher' & 'Jessica Jones' seasons (full post)

Nintendo to 'revive' a 'very officially cancelled' game

Jak Connor | Gaming | Feb 19, 2019 1:00 AM CST

Some new Nintendo rumors are kicking around the gaming websites as reporters have picked up on the story surrounding Game Informers Senior Editor, Imran Khan.

Nintendo to 'revive' a 'very officially cancelled' game

Khan was on the Kinda Funny Games podcast that ranged for almost an hour. Throughout the podcast everything that has been happening within the gaming industry was discussed and of course Nintendo's Direct was one of those topics. Since the podcast was held on February 13th before the official Direct was streamed, many of the questions posed to Khan were predictions for what we could see in the Direct.

When Khan was asked if he had any leaks or rumors regarding future Nintendo games, the Senior Editor replied with "Let me hint at something, I guess. This is a thing that I'm going to write up at some point as soon as I get some more sources on it. But there's a game that's thought to be dead that Nintendo's reviving, and it's not one that people would expect. It was very much a title that was dead and buried - very officially cancelled." Many Nintendo fans have speculated that what Khan was talking about was the recently announced Link's Awakening remaster, but I would disagree.

Continue reading: Nintendo to 'revive' a 'very officially cancelled' game (full post)

PlayStation VR changes will be 'dramatic' over next 10 years

Anthony Garreffa | Extended Reality (XR) | Feb 18, 2019 11:45 PM CST

Sony will begin ramping up towards its next-gen PlayStation 5 reveal later this year, which I'm sure will coincide with the reveal of a next-gen PlayStation VR 2.0 headset, but before we get to that point let's discuss the latest from Sony.

PlayStation VR changes will be 'dramatic' over next 10 years

In a new interview between Game Informer and Sony Network Entertainment International's Vice President and COO, Shawn Layden, we are beginning to receive information about the next 10 years of PSVR development. In the interview, Layden says the next 10 ye ars of PSVR development will be "dramatic", comparing the evolution of VR to the adoption of smartphones.

In the beginning, smartphones were expensive and didn't really have everything we needed in smartphones but over time they evolved into the how-do-we-live-without-them situation we find ourselves in today. Layden explained: "With PSVR, what I like about it... there have been very few times in my career - and I have been working in technology since the late '80s - when you get to be part of a truly 1.0 experience. The problem is nowadays, people's expectations and [attention] spans are so short. Now it's, 'Oh! PSVR, that's great! When is it going to be this size?"

Continue reading: PlayStation VR changes will be 'dramatic' over next 10 years (full post)

Apple rumored to be working on 31.6-inch 6K display

Anthony Garreffa | Displays | Feb 18, 2019 11:20 PM CST

For those of you who have been interested in technology long enough you'll remember that Apple used to be champions of high-end displays with their Cinema Display range of monitors, but then Apple went dead quiet on the monitor front... but that looks like it could change.

Apple rumored to be working on 31.6-inch 6K display

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo released a new investor note today that teased that the company could be getting back into the display business in a big way. Kuo says that Apple is reportedly working on a huge new 31.6-inch monitor that would rock an interesting, and surely high-quality 6K resolution. The new 6K3K monitor would sport a Mini LED-like backlight design that would give it "outstanding picture quality".

The last time Apple had a monitor on the market was all the way back in 2016 with its Thunderbolt Display, and since then the only thing that Apple has officially recommended is the 27-inch LG UltraFine 5K monitor. Stepping up to 6K will be a big deal, and it'll go beautifully with a new MacBook Pro that Apple will release this year that will also receive an injection of upgraded technology.

Continue reading: Apple rumored to be working on 31.6-inch 6K display (full post)

Metro Exodus dev talks ray tracing on next-gen consoles

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Feb 18, 2019 10:50 PM CST

Metro Exodus is one of the best-looking games of the last few years, with it smashing all of our GPUs in our benchmark test, and now developer 4A Games is talking about the technology behind the game and whether we'll see it in next-gen consoles.

Metro Exodus dev talks ray tracing on next-gen consoles

During an extensive interview with Digital Foundry, 4A Games talked about everything it put into the 4A Engine for Metro Exodus. The developer talked about the future of ray tracing on hardware that doesn't feature specific ray tracing cores (like the RT cores on NVIDIA's GeForce RTX graphics cards). The subject of next-gen consoles was talked about, with Rendering Programmer Ben Archard saying that fast compute cores are also another possibility.

Archard said: "It doesn't really matter - be it dedicated hardware or just enough compute power to do it in shader units, I believe it would be viable. For the current generation - yes, multiple solutions is the way to go. This is also a question of how long you support a parallel pipeline for legacy PC hardware. A GeForce GTX 1080 isn't an out of date card as far as someone who bought one last year is concerned. So, these cards take a few years to phase out and for RT to become fully mainstream to the point where you can just assume it. And obviously on current generation consoles we need to have the voxel GI solution in the engine alongside the new ray tracing solution. Ray tracing is the future of gaming, so the main focus is now on RT either way".

Continue reading: Metro Exodus dev talks ray tracing on next-gen consoles (full post)

Star Citizen dev says ray tracing is 'a massive headache'

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Feb 18, 2019 10:09 PM CST

Star Citizen is one of the most ambitious games ever made and its creator Chris Roberts is no fan of consoles and told TweakTown exclusive that he does "not care about consoles".

Star Citizen dev says ray tracing is 'a massive headache'

So much so that the game is a PC exclusive, but what about new GPU technology that has made its way onto graphics cards in the last 6 months, and will shape the future over the coming years like real-time ray tracing, etc. One of the Star Citizen forum members asked the developer "Do you, as I, believe that RTX tech will save you devs so much work farther along and look absolutely spanking?"

Cloud Imperium Games developer Ben Parry replied: "Not in the slightest. I expect, if we use it, it'll be a massive headache and time-sink but might give us some subtle improvements in looks or performance if we get it right". He added an explanation for what he meant by 'massive headache', replying with: "The added headache is that whatever we offered would have to be an "as well" feature rather than an "instead", developing a feature for a single manufacturer's top-end cards means also maintaining feature parity for everyone else's hardware. Personally I'd like to use it to make the shadows crispier".

Continue reading: Star Citizen dev says ray tracing is 'a massive headache' (full post)

Razer kills its PC game storefront

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Feb 18, 2019 9:27 PM CST

Razer will shutter its digital game storefront on February 28, and warns customers to retrieve their uPlay and Steam game keys.

Razer kills its PC game storefront

Now that the PC Game Store Wars have begun in earnest with giants like Epic Games and Discord battling it out against Steam, Razer has decided to retreat and shutter its game store. The PC-maker's store was kind of doomed to fail. Razer's game store was more of a reseller for uPlay and Steam games, and was a weird experiment mired in its tiered zVault rewards system. The idea was you bought games from Razer and got their own digital currency as a reward to spend on other stuff, including keyboards, mice, and even laptops.

But ultimately it didn't work too well. The company says it'll shut down the Razer Game Store as part of its new realignment plans, which pretty much says the store wasn't a success. Razer warns gamers to retrieve and use their game keys before the store closes, but doesn't outright say the keys will be invalid:

Continue reading: Razer kills its PC game storefront (full post)

Switch VR may happen via Google Cardboard-like Labo kits

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Feb 18, 2019 7:31 PM CST

Nintendo will use Labo cardboard kits as a way to make cheap VR headsets, a source tells Go Nintendo.

Switch VR may happen via Google Cardboard-like Labo kits

Nintendo has been experimenting with virtual reality for a while now. Patents filed in 2016 showed the Switch's tablet slotting into a HMD similar to mobile-based VR headsets like the Samsung Gear VR. Now sources say Nintendo will make a Google Cardboard-like accessory via its Labo kits for Switch VR capability.

This could work if the Labo kits are sturdy enough, but we're still a bit reticent about the whole idea. A Labo VR kit would be cost-effective and widely accessible on the Switch's huge 32 million install base, but it seems rather risky.

Continue reading: Switch VR may happen via Google Cardboard-like Labo kits (full post)

Anthem's loading times may be a big problem

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Feb 18, 2019 6:45 PM CST

Anthem's persistently long and numerous loading screens could be a big problem for the IP in the long run.

Anthem's loading times may be a big problem

Loading is a reality for any online-only game (or any game, really), but some titles handle it better than others. The major consensus is that Anthem's loading screens are long, cumbersome, and immersion-breaking. The game recently launched in early access on Origin/EA Access and Origin Access Premiere, and like the two previous demos, the game is plagued with arduous and frustrating loading that can last as long as multiple minutes.

Loading zones are everywhere in Anthem: its open-ended environments have lots of transition points, there's catch-up points that teleport you to your team, story and plot scenes require loading--pretty much everything you do outside of combat has some sort of wait time. This could end up pushing gamers away due to annoyances and frustrations at least in the short term. Remember engagement (and in effect, monetization) is extremely reliant on fun. If a game isn't fun, it won't properly engage its audience and earn money over time. Anthem's loading zones could be roadblocks that interrupt fun, and thus throw off the entire game's business model.

Continue reading: Anthem's loading times may be a big problem (full post)

Spider-Man developers thought the story wasn't funny enough

Jak Connor | Gaming | Feb 18, 2019 4:00 AM CST

During this week's D.I.C.E Summit 2019, Insomniac Games' Creative Director, Bryan Intihar was interviewed by CEO on Insomniac Games, Ted Price. The interview revealed some thoughts the developers had about Spider-Man before it was released.

Spider-Man developers thought the story wasn't funny enough

There is no doubt that Spider-Man was a massive hit on the PS4, Insomniac Games truly did out-do themselves from a developers stand-point but that doesn't mean there wasn't internal doubts before the release. Insomniac's Creative Director, Bryan Intihar expressed some of the developers doubts regarding the comical level of the games story. "When the story was still not totally there, I think there were concerns about 'was the story gonna be funny enough?' And do we have to add more humor? We knew more was coming, it just wasn't in the game yet, and I said 'no, we're gonna be totally fine'."

Intihar also mentioned that coming to the end of the shooting of Spider-Man, Sony allows the studio to reshoot some scenes to add some small qualities. "We had the story we wanted, then some things weren't there, but we actually went back and did some reshoots, and we actually found moments that were already in the game where we could literally just add a 15-second sequence to the end of a certain scene, or something at the beginning. That helped at the end of the day."

Continue reading: Spider-Man developers thought the story wasn't funny enough (full post)

Warner Bros. release teaser for Pokemon: Detective Pikachu

Jak Connor | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Feb 18, 2019 3:00 AM CST

Back at the beginning of November, we first heard about the upcoming Pokemon Detective Pikachu movie scheduled to hit theatres around the world on May 10th. Now, Warner Bros. has released a new teaser for the movie and it showcases some never before seen Pokemon.

Warner Bros. release teaser for Pokemon: Detective Pikachu

If you are unaware that their is live-action Pokemon movie currently in the works then here is some background on what you will be seeing. The Warner Bros. published movie will be following the story of 21-year old Tim who is looking for his missing dad when he encounters a Pikachu that can talk. Funnily enough, Tim is the only one who can hear Pokemon talk and after some quick bonding, Pikachu and Tim decide to team up to solve the missing persons case.

Warner Bros. has teased the release of Pokemon Detective Pikachu with a newly released trailer that can be seen above. From the trailer we can some great examples how certain Pokemon will be looking like if they were in real life, examples include - Bulbasaur and Mr. Mime. I can truly say that the CGI team that has worked on both the Pokmeon mentioned above have done some amazing work, as both Mr. Mime and Bulbasaur look absolutely fantastic on screen. I have provided screenshots in the entirety of this post for Mr. Mime and Bulbasaur.

Continue reading: Warner Bros. release teaser for Pokemon: Detective Pikachu (full post)

China sprouts the first life ever made on the Moons surface

Jak Connor | Science, Space, & Robotics | Feb 18, 2019 2:00 AM CST

China has solidified themselves in the human history books for being the first country to ever grow any biological life on the Moons surface.

China sprouts the first life ever made on the Moons surface

China recently launched their space mission titled 'Chang'e 4', the mission's goal was to land successfully on the far side of the moon to gather intelligence and perform tests that have never been done before. 'Chang'e 4' had a successful soft landing and within its cargo there was soil containing cotton and potato seeds, yeast and fruit fly eggs. Now, information has been relayed back to China from the craft with news that the cotton seeds have now grown buds, marking "the completion of humankind's first biological experiment on the Moon".

Why is this relevant and extremely important? Well, now that we have proof that biological life can begin growing in extremely different levels of gravity, future astronauts with goals of colonizing the moon now have the option of growing food naturally in controlled environments. This would be useful when the human race decides to start building infrastructure on the moon with the ultimate goal in mind of eventually using the moon as a space port to travel to and from Earth to Mars or surrounding planets.

Continue reading: China sprouts the first life ever made on the Moons surface (full post)

Zelda: Link's Awakening Switch & GameBoy comparison video

Jak Connor | Gaming | Feb 18, 2019 1:00 AM CST

At the end of the Nintendo Direct that was streamed last week, Nintendo revealed to us that they would be bringing out a remaster of a classic Zelda title, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.

Zelda: Link's Awakening Switch & GameBoy comparison video

While many die-hard Zelda fans were more than happy to see a remaster coming to fruition from Nintendo, some fans weren't convinced. To really showcase the graphical improvements that have been made to the game, GameXplain has thrown together a side-by-side comparison video which can be seen above.

From the above video, we can obviously see massive improvements in the games graphics, smoothness, shadows, character movement, viewing angles and much, much more. Overall, the comparison video perfectly showcases all the hard-work that Nintendo have gone through to bring to life this remaster. In the entirety of this post you will find the official announcement trailer from Nintendo. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is planned for release on the Nintendo Switch sometime throughout 2019.

Continue reading: Zelda: Link's Awakening Switch & GameBoy comparison video (full post)

Apex Legends mods have banned over 16,000 cheaters so far

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Feb 17, 2019 10:18 PM CST

Respawn has been busy banning cheaters in the massively popular battle royale surprise Apex Legends, with the team already taking down over 16,000 cheaters since the game launched on February 5.

Apex Legends mods have banned over 16,000 cheaters so far

Apex Legends in its current form doesn't have a feature where gamers can report hackers and cheaters, but a community manager said yesterday that Respawn "have heard your feedback about a report feature in the game" and that it's a "very good idea". There is a way that you can report people, where you'll need to report their offenders ID through this support website.

The game will have a second patch this week, but we don't know what to expect with the upcoming Apex Legends patch. Respawn will have to be on top of it all as Apex Legends' first season kicks off on March 1 and it'll need a sure fire way to have gamers reporting hackers and cheaters, and a permanent way of dealing with them, too.

Continue reading: Apex Legends mods have banned over 16,000 cheaters so far (full post)

Overwatch Monopoly, action figures are on their way

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Feb 17, 2019 9:31 PM CST

Blizzard may have laid off some 800 people last week, but that doesn't mean the Overwatch franchise is being left in the dark wtih the announcement of a bunch of toys and a Overwatch-themed Monopoly set that will launch this spring.

Overwatch Monopoly, action figures are on their way

Monopoly Overwatch Collector's Edition will cost $50 and will see Overwatch maps turned into properies, the cards are loot boxes, and player pieces will be of course... characters from the game. The collection of Overwatch action figures will include 9 of the characters, with it leading in a huge giant-sized fully poseable Reinhardt with an even larger Barrier Field.

Hasbro are the ones making the Overwatch toys, where the single-character kits will sell for $23 and include Lucio, Reaper, Sombra, and Tracer. If you want to spend a bit more, you'll have the huge $50 Reinhardt figure, or the dual-team Mercy and Pharah combo or Ana and Soldier 76 combo for $50, too.

Continue reading: Overwatch Monopoly, action figures are on their way (full post)

Samsung bows out of the Blu-ray player market in the US

Anthony Garreffa | Storage | Feb 17, 2019 8:34 PM CST

Well, it looks like Samsung is done with the entire Blu-ray market in the US with the company spokesperson confirming the news with both Forbes and CNET.

Samsung bows out of the Blu-ray player market in the US

Samsung is stopping production on its 1080p and 4K Blu-ray players, with a Samsung spokesperson telling CNET: "Samsung will no longer introduce new Blu-ray or 4K Blu-ray player models in the US market". We could expect new models to be introduced in the future in other markets, but for the most part Samsung is absolutely done with the Blu-ray player market in the US, and I'm sure eventually, globally.

It's a bad turn of events for both the physical Blu-ray market and Samsung, as the South Korean electronics giant was the first to market with a Blu-ray player in 2016. It shouldn't be surprising that Samsung is shifting away from making Blu-ray players as the physical media market has been dying for years now, and according to research company Nielsen, this has been a downwards trend for a while now.

Continue reading: Samsung bows out of the Blu-ray player market in the US (full post)

NVIDIA's gaming division bleeds out, revenues down 45%

Anthony Garreffa | Graphics Cards | Feb 17, 2019 7:47 PM CST

NVIDIA hasn't had the best time with its launch of the GeForce RTX series of graphics cards, which rode in on the tail end of the cryptocurrency market falling into a black hole. Well, things have just gotten worse.

NVIDIA's gaming division bleeds out, revenues down 45%

The company has just reported its fourth quarter and fiscal 2019 earnings, with a gigantic 45% year-over-year loss in gaming revenue. NVIDIA's quarter is down 24% in total, with gaming down 45% but professional visualization up 15%, datacenter revenue up 12% and automotive revenues up 34%. OEM and IP revenues dropped hard as well, down 36% for the quarter.

NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang said that the GeForce RTX launch is a historic one, as it was the first time in NVIDIA's history that it launched with only high-end models first. Normally we see the two higher-end models released with the Ti variant coming later, but this time it launched with the RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti out of the gate.

Continue reading: NVIDIA's gaming division bleeds out, revenues down 45% (full post)

AMD rumored to launch 7nm Navi GPUs on 7/7

Anthony Garreffa | Graphics Cards | Feb 17, 2019 5:55 PM CST

AMD is ready to take a proper swing at NVIDIA with its upcoming next-gen Navi GPUs, which were reportedly launching in July with the first rumors and then the new 'it's launching in October' rumor surfaced that seems to be squashed with yet another rumor.

AMD rumored to launch 7nm Navi GPUs on 7/7

The latest on Navi is that it will launch on July 7 which would see AMD using as many 7s as it can to launch Navi, with Navi coming on 7nm (one) and then the rumored 7/7 launch (two, three). If AMD launches a mid-range 'Navi 7' GPU there could be four 7s which would be quite the trick from AMD. The mid-range Navi GPUs will compete with NVIDIA's soon-to-be-released GeForce GTX 1160 Ti graphics card, and whatever other GTX 16 series cards that I'm sure will launch in the coming months.

It looks like AMD will launch its new Navi range of graphics cards during Computex 2019 alongside the second-gen Zen 2 architecture and Ryzen 3000 series of CPUs. It will be a big event for Team Red as they'll have a bunch of new products to launch that will have consumers and gamers alike excited.

Continue reading: AMD rumored to launch 7nm Navi GPUs on 7/7 (full post)

Get caught up in 'Girl in the Spider's Web' Blu-ray giveaway

Ben Gourlay | Contests & Giveaways | Feb 16, 2019 10:00 AM CST

Text: To celebrate the release of 'The Girl in the Spider's Web' on home video, we have ten Blu-ray copies of the season to give away thanks to our friends at Universal Sony Home Entertainment!

Get caught up in 'Girl in the Spider's Web' Blu-ray giveaway

A new Dragon Tattoo story comes to the screen starring Golden Globe winner Claire Foy ("The Crown") as Lisbeth Salander, the fierce, outcast vigilante defender from the acclaimed Millennium book series created by Stieg Larsson, in The Girl in the Spider's Web. A first-time adaptation of the recent global bestseller, the film is directed by Fede Alvarez, the director of 2016's breakout thriller Don't Breathe.

To go into the running to win a prize, post this article to your social media profiles, correctly answer the following question and send your postal address to ben at TweakTown dot com before the competition closes on February 22.

Continue reading: Get caught up in 'Girl in the Spider's Web' Blu-ray giveaway (full post)

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