Activision and Treyarch have been creating hype for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and its exciting new battle royale mode 'Blackout' so it makes sense that some more hype is being created for Battlefield V with a tease of the developer working on bigger maps.

DICE Lead Multiplayer Designer Valerian Noghin has taken to Twitter showing off new images of the large map 'Hamada' which Noghin says has a "distance of just over 1500m from Attacker's HQ to the Defenders' final 5th sector". The image is a work-in-progress shot, so keep in mind that Hamada could change a little between now and then since-delayed release of Battlefield V.

Jeff Gagne, who is the Level Designer on the game tweeted that DICE is also making big maps as well. His tweet added:

CD PROJEKT RED has detailed some more information about its upcoming beyond ambitious game Cyberpunk 2077, which will be a bigger game than anything else the developer has worked on before, including The Witcher series.

Cyberpunk 2077 will feature some slick new first-person gameplay mixed with a next-gen RPG look and style and some interesting gameplay mechanics, but CDPR isn't all about visuals and the feel, underneath Cyberpunk 2077 will feature an in-depth, organic world. In the latest EDGE magazine release, CDPR details Cyberpunk 2077's quests and the story itself.

CDPR said: "We want to make sure that all of them are up to the standards of the main quest - that there's nothing that feels like filler, just something to do while waiting for the next quest, or to get more money to buy the next thing. We don't really like to do that. We want to make sure that every quest feels like a complete story in and of itself".

ASUS has just unveiled a bunch of graphics cards that will fill out its GeForce RTX 2070 family, with ROG STRIX, DUAL, and TURBO branded cards all unveiled. There's no GPU clocks just yet, but we'll know that in the coming days anyway.

ASUS has seven GeForce RTX 2070 graphics cards in total across the three brands, with three SKUs each of the ROG STRIX and DUAL cards while there's a single RTX 2070 TURBO. We are looking at triple-fan coolers on the ROG STRIX cards, dual-fan coolers on the DUAL series and a single blower-style fan on the new TURBO graphics card from ASUS.

The new RTX 2070 ROG STRIX cards

Coca-Cola is looking into cannabis-infused drinks, a new market that they could quickly dominate with the legalization of marijuana spreading throughout the world, except in Australia where Reefer Madness plays 24/7 in all government offices.

BNN Bloomberg reports that Coca-Cola is "in talks" with Canadian marijuana producer Aurora Cannabis, with Coca-Cola spokesman Kent Landers telling Bloomberg News: "Along with many others in the beverage industry, we are closely watching the growth of non-psychoactive CBD as an ingredient in functional wellness beverages around the world. The space is evolving quickly. No decisions have been made at this time". The two companies are in "serious talks" with each other according to the sources. The cannabis-infused drink would "ease inflammation, pain, and cramping".

Aurora spokeswoman Heather MacGregor told BNN Bloomberg that the company is looking at the infused-beverage market and has plans for products in that market, but wouldn't comment on the purported deal with Coca-Cola. MacGregor said: "As a rule, we do not discuss business development initiatives until they are finalized, however we have a responsibility to our shareholders to give proper consideration to all relevant opportunities that are presented".

There's a reason the PC is the best gaming platform on the market: game developers don't need to downgrade their graphcis post-release because the game doesn't run so well. PC gamers know they need to buy a beefier graphics card, more RAM or a better CPU if the game isn't running well. It's pretty easy. But now PUBG on the Xbox One X is being downgraded, because it runs like crap.

PUBG Corp. explains that the Xbox One X version of the battle royale smash hit is getting some "temporary graphical downgrades" because of the frame rate drops that are plaguing Xbox One X gamers trying to get themselves a warm chicken dinner. PUBG will continue to pump away at the same resolution and texture detail on the Xbox One X, but a bunch of graphical effects are being watered down to maintain a better average FPS. The developer explains the hotfix will be "toning down many of the graphical settings" on the Xbox One X.

What graphical effects will be watered down in PUBG on the Xbox One X? We're looking at shadow quality (both dynamic/static) being lowered, while multiple post-processing effects will be culled. Motion blur is getting disabled, Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) is being decreased, depth of field and lens fare are being disabled while Eyes Adaption Quality is being decreased, with PUBG Corp. explaining that as "This is the time it takes for your eyes to adapt to the dark when you go from a bright to dark place".

Update: 343i confirms Halo 6 won't have real-money lootboxes.

In a move that surprises absolutely no one, 343 Industries and Microsoft may infuse REQ packs into Halo 6.

When I saw Halo 6 (aka Halo: Infinite) I thought two things: "please don't mess this up" and "what about microtransactions?" Microsoft loves--I repeat loves--to monetize engagement, which pretty much means all first-party games will have some microtransaction hook. Halo 5's awful REQ packs, which are lootboxes with random rewards like skins and actual items that can be bought with real money, have made Microsoft millions upon millions. In fact, REQ packs made a lot more money than Bungie's traditional Halo map packs.

Ubisoft is using blockchain technology to create randomized in-game areas, which could dramatically affect its future games. But it also plans to reward gamers with a special currency that can be traded for cryptocurrency, signalling a potential new monetization method.

Ubisoft is one of the major publishers experimenting with new tech like blockchain, AI, and cloud infrastructures to power its video games. The studio opened the Strategic Innovations Lab to tinker with blockchain and other fledgling tech, and now we have a glimpse into what the team has been working on.

Introducing HashCraft, a new Minecraft-esque game that uses blockchain for procedural generation as well as rewarding players with digital currency. Using blockchain, Ubisoft is can secure players' worlds and create a network of community-hosted environments that can't be hacked or taken down by the publisher. In exchange for uploading their worlds, Ubisoft will dole out a premium currency that can be traded for bitcoin or other cryptocurrency. This could very well end up being a new form of monetization for Ubisoft, a company whose digital-first strategy puts strong emphasis in microtransactions, subscriptions, DLC, and other online purchases.

Rockstar peels back the wrapper on its ambitious adaptation of the 1899 Western frontier, showing gamers what kinds of areas they can explore in Red Dead Redemption II.

Red Dead Redemption II is by far the biggest game Rockstar has ever made. Built from the ground up for the current console gen and made specifically to tap the power of Xbox One X and PlayStation 4 Pro, the game is a dramatic prequel that chronicles the demise of outlaws and the fall of the Dutch Van Der Linde gang.

But along the way players will get to explore a vast, living and breathing world set during the turn of the 20th century. In a very real sense we'll all be digital time travelers as we explore a slice of life frozen in time for our enjoyment, taking in sights like civilized cities with trollies to rolling plains and desert hardpan as well as boggy, gator-ridden swamps. Now Rockstar gives us a peek at what kinds of areas and locales we'll be able to visit in their upcoming magnum opus.

Global entry! We have teamed up with Toshiba to give away a selection of awesome 240GB SSDs to a total of six readers.

Up for grabs, we have 2x Toshiba OCZ TR200 240GB SSDs, 2x Toshiba XS700 240GB SSDs, and 2x Toshiba RC100 240GB SSDs. In total, there will be six different winners who are randomly drawn to win one of the six drives on offer.

How to Win

An announcement featured on the Nintendo website has revealed that Mario Tennis Aces players will have cloud storage available to them after the planned update scheduled for September 19th.

Update titled 2.0.0 will be bringing players a bunch of new online multiplayer features. This update will allow for players' tournament records to be saved onto the cloud storage which in turn will highly benefit players that have multiple Nintendo Switch systems. An example would be if a player had more than one system and decided to switch over to their other system, instead of removing the SD card the player can simply log into their Nintendo Online account and jump straight back into where they left off.

The update also brings some balancing changes to each of the characters, the characters that have been tweaked by this update are the following: Donkey Kong, Daisy, Blooper, Wario, Spike, Toad, Waluigi, Peach, Luigi, Diddy Kong, Rosalina and Boo. Update 2.0.0 is planned for release on September 19th, for further details about the patch notes please visit the official Nintendo website here.

Ever wondered what it would be like to play a Telltale Game on the Nintendo Switch? Well, your curiosity will soon be subsided as Telltale Games has announced that Batman: The Enemy Within is coming to the handheld console.

For those that don't know Telltales Batman: The Enemy Within, players will be set against of Batman's most classic villains, The Riddler. The title will put players in the shoes of Bruce Wayne as he attempts to stop the returning from terrorizing the city of Gotham. Players will have to choose which allies to side with throughout the title to stop The Riddler and the even bigger crisis which is unraveling behind the scenes, some will deceive you and some may not, who will you decide?

Telltale Games has announced that this title will be making its way to the Nintendo Switch at the beginning of October. According to the Twitter post, Batman: The Enemy Within will be arriving on both the Nintendo America and Nintendo Europe eShops on Tuesday, October 2nd. For further information regarding Batman: The Enemy Within, visit the official Telltale Games website here.

The just passing Nintendo Direct showcased the coming NES games to Nintendo Switch Online. Players will have the option of picking up some classic NES Joy-Cons to tackle these games, but they can only be used for those NES titles, nothing else.

Nintendo have decided to lock away their Nintendo Entertainment System controllers behind their coming Nintendo Switch Online service. The controllers will come in at a price of $60 and with a year of Nintendo Switch Online at $20 the total cost will be $80. According to Nintendo AU's website, the " Nintendo Entertainment System Controllers can only be used while detached from the Nintendo Switch system, and only to play NES - Nintendo Switch Online games. Nintendo Entertainment System Controllers can be charged by attaching to the Nintendo Switch system.""

The choice of pay walls here are interesting, from what I have seen I have the community feels quite divided in terms of how to feel about this. I can see both sides of the problem, the restriction of the controllers behind the Nintendo Switch Online service does't really give us much of a choice, but when looking at the value for money, $20 for an entire year of membership is hard to pass up.

The impending release date of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is just around the corner and as fighters from around the globe gear up for the release recent news has surfaced regarding the amount of stages that will be included within the game.

In the recent release of Coro Coro, a Japanese monthly manga magazine published by Shogakukan, a entire page dedicated to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate reveals the title will feature 108 stages in total. The news surfaced from Source Gaming, the YouTube Channel broke the story which has not been confirmed to be true or false from Nintendo as of yet, so don't take this news as gospel.

Originally, Masahiro Sakurai did say that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will feature a "total of stages is 103", this number is different from the one seen in the magazine so either this could be an error on the magazines part or Nintendo are yet to reveal a further 5 more stages. In other news about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, a Smash Ultimate bundle has been announced, if you happened to miss that news visit that here. If you also happened to miss the recent announcement of Isabelle from Animal Crossing joining the Smash Ultimate roster, check that out here.

Intel is ever-so-close to releasing its new flagship Core i9-9900K processor, the first 8C/16T processor from the company, and it will launch with the new Z390-series motherboards that we're beginning to see more and more of.

The company will be launching three new 9000-series parts in the coming weeks, with the Core i9-9900K, Core i7-9700K, and Core i5-9600K that will all work on existing Z300-series motherboards, as well as the upcoming Z390 boards that will launch with the new CPUs. If you want to overclock the hell out of these next-gen K-series parts, you'll need the Z370 or Z390 motherboards to squeeze all that you can from the Coffee Lake refresh.

Intel is expected to unveil the new 9000-series processors next month with a joint launch of the Z390 family of boards.

First it was the kids, and now its the adults that are affected by Epic Games smash hit battle royale game, Fortnite. According to Divorce Online, close to 5% of divorce petitions in 2018 had Fortnite and other games as grounds for divorce.

Fortnite is home to over 125 million players, with millions of gamers playing at once no matter the time zone you're in. Divorce Online, which is one of the largest filers for divorce petitions in the UK, Fortnite is a big problem. The company explains: "These numbers equate to roughly 5 percent of the 4,665 petitions we have handled since the beginning of the year and as one of the largest filers of divorce petitions in the UK is a pretty good indicator".

There have been over 200 divorce petitions in the UK alone over Fortnite addiction, so if we include the number of divorces resulting from Fortnite addiction from other countries, these numbers could swell quite large.

Microsoft's current service-oriented strategy isn't going anywhere, and gaming will continue being strongly engaged and monetized over time.

Xbox is no longer a console, but a service. Bound with Xbox LIVE, Xbox now has inter-connected features and services that span both Xbox One consoles and Windows 10 PCs--and soon even smartphones via streaming. Even as Xbox hardware ebbs and wanes, the company is able to stabilize with a strong and multifaceted monetization strategy, whether it be game sales on Xbox LIVE, in-game purchases in first-party games, or advertising via Mixer. And of course there's Game Pass, a new evolution in how gamers consumer and pay for video game subscriptions.

This business model is working quite well for Microsoft and shows no signs of stopping. Company CFO Amy Hood remarks that community and interaction is important to successfully engage users, and thus monetize them over a longer period.

Alongside major publishers like Capcom and Ubisoft, Nintendo is doing something very interesting in Japan...but it may not take off worldwide.

It's no surprise that most new games can't run on the Nintendo Switch's lower-end Tegra X1 hardware. Devs and publishers are then required to port their games over to the platform--look at the new Diablo III, for instance--which takes time and investment. But what if they could just stream the games directly to a player, effectively making a gaming-on-demand service complete with a rental option? That's what Nintendo is doing in Japan and it totally reminds us of those weird old-school paygated consoles you'd find in hotels.

Capcom was the first to sign up for this experiment with Resident Evil 7 cloud edition, which essentially acted as a subscription of sorts. You paid $18 for 180 days of access to the game to play at your leisure. Now Ubisoft is enlisting its new Assassin's Creed: Odyssey into this weird streaming strategy. Announced during the recent Nintendo Direct, the cloud edition of Odyssey will cost about $75 for two years of access, or about $6.50 per day.

Boss Key's ill-fated shooter might've been off-the-walls, but now it's just off life support.

Lawbreakers is now officially dead. Nearly four months after Boss Key's closure, Lawbreaker's online servers have been shut down, severing the online-only multiplayer game from its mortal coil.

"Lawbreakers servers are officially closed for good," ex Lawbreakers senior environmental artist Josh Rife said on Twitter. "Hardest development, and best game I ever shipped. If you played it, thank you."

Fortnite will be exempt from the Switch Online's paygate, Nintendo has confirmed.

The Nintendo Switch's new $20 a year premium online service will essentially mimic PS Plus and Xbox LIVE in key ways: not only does it require gamers to subscribe to play online in key games like Splatoon 2, it gives access to free NES games. But not every game will require an active sub to play online; one of the biggest games on the planet has skirted the clampdown.

"Beginning September 18, 2018, a Nintendo Switch Online membership is required to participate in co-op and competitive online features for many first- and third-party Nintendo Switch games, including Splatoon 2, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, ARMS, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Some games, such as Fortnite, can be played online without a Nintendo Switch membership," reads a recent Switch Online FAQ.

Bethesda isn't coy about Fallout 76: it's a live service game that's meant to be played for many years. But how long will it last? Hopefully the West Virginia apocalypse will be a gift that keeps on giving.

When publishers make an online-based game they hope it'll last forever and ever. Sure it takes lots of strategic planning and tweaking to keep players satisfied playing (and paying for) new content, either inadvertently via microtransactions or directly via subscriptions. Fallout 76 is no different in this regard. The online-only Fallout has been in development alongside Fallout 4 and represents a big leap for Bethesda Game Studios--for the first time the Fallout franchise will be truly alive and the studio will learn a ton from this experiment. And there's an even bigger opportunity to rake in cash to fund future big-budget games like Starfield and the distant Elder Scrolls VI.

Bethesda essentially wants to keep engaging players with new content in a more controlled-revenue environment. Rather than depending on mods to keep a game like, say, Skyrim alive, the studio wants to keep it alive themselves with new content while making recurring revenue in the process. The longer players are engaged, the longer the studio has an opportunity to make money after the initial sale. In short: Fallout 76 should last a long, long time.