Anthem apparently won't follow Destiny's expansion model and carve up story content and fracture the playerbase: future story DLC will be free. Plus BioWare touches upon the game's post-story content.

As a live service game it only makes sense that Anthem won't have a season pass. Post-launch content will be funded by cosmetic-only microtransactions--lootboxes won't be in Anthem--rather than paid macrotransactions (expansions, passes, etc) and will include various endgame activities called Elder Content. Anthem's Elder Content umbrella enfolds numerous things to do when players finish the story, such as Strongholds, a high-level 4-player event that doles out strong gear, as well as rotating seasonal content to keep users engaged.

In a PAX West 2018 panel BioWare devs touched on Anthem's endgame:

BioWare explains why Anthem's two-choice conversation system is quite condensed and how it can potentially affect gameplay and NPC relationships.

In many ways Anthem aims to redefine BioWare games. Mostly known for rich singleplayer RPGs with expansive dialogue, Anthem is an action-based online multiplayer game that scraps Mass Effect's conversation wheel in favor of a more streamlined binary system. Gamers will only be able to pick two dialog options when talking to NPCs, but the studio says Fort Tarsis--the home to all mission-doling agents and NPCs--will change based on your decisions.

Game flow is one of the major reasons for Anthem's diminished dialog choice. BioWare says it wants to give action-oriented players a means of moving forward without necessarily being overwhelmed by conversation (as a live game it's important players are continually engaged and that BioWare caters to all sorts of fans).

We've known for a while now that BioWare is working on a new Dragon Age game, and sources tell Kotaku's Jason Schreier that it'll have live service elements. And there's evidence a new Mass Effect is in early planning stages. Now at a recent PAX West 2018 panel key BioWare devs assert that Anthem's online infrastructure could power certain storytelling elements in its future games--including new Dragon Age and Mass Effect titles.

Now that BioWare has put insurmountable effort into Anthem's online framework and live game infrastructure, the studio sees that its other franchises could benefit from a similar online path, at least when it comes to continuing story and lore.

Future Dragon Age and Mass Effect games could be quite different from what gamers are used to in this respect (and possibly in a good way). Thanks to a live game approach, which would require gamers to be online versus playing offline, BioWare could examine data and ensure post-launch DLC and stories are tailor-made to how gamers play and how much progress they've made with certain characters.

Final Fantasy XIV just got a lot more popular with a big influx of players, Square Enix has announced.

Few games have experienced a dramatic turnaround as Final Fantasy XIV. The MMORPG started out messy and alienated many core fans, but through countless hours of crunching, guidance, and player-driven feedback, Square Enix completely evolved the project. As of now the game remains one of the best (if not the best) MMOs on the market today, and with some 14 million users, it has the numbers to back it up.

Ahead of its fifth anniversary celebration, Final Fantasy XIV has now topped 14 million registered players. This milestone saw a whopping 4 million players join Eorzea in 2018 alone. Beloved game director and savior of Eorzea Naoki Yoshida had this to say about the achievement:

AMD has itself teased its upcoming next generation CPU and GPU architectures on the new 7nm node, with a press release teasing that AMD's "next major milestone is the introduction of our upcoming 7nm product portfolio, including the initial products with our second generation "Zen 2" CPU core and our new "Navi" GPU architecture".

We already know that AMD worked closely with Sony on the Navi GPU architecture for the next-gen PlayStation 5 console, but now AMD is officially talking about the Navi architecture filling out its 7nm portfolio and making a point that its one of their next major milestones in the family. AMD is a little cryptic and throwing some people off by saying that their first 7nm GPU will launch "later this year" with some thinking it'll be Navi, but this will be their Vega 20 GPU.

Interestingly, we see AMD has "already taped out multiple 7nm products at TSMC" which include not just the 7nm GPU, but their first 7nm server CPU that will be launched in 2019. AMD adds: "Our work with TSMC on their 7nm node has gone very well and we have seen excellent results from early silicon. To streamline our development and align our investments closely with each of our foundry partner's investments, today we are announcing we intend to focus the breadth of our 7nm product portfolio on TSMC's industry-leading 7nm process".

Microsoft is ramping up to the launch of Shadow of the Tomb Raider by unveiling a new custom Xbox One X console, with an awesome trailer to show it off - the attention to detail is stunning, with it being one of the best-looking consoles of its generation.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics worked with Microsoft on the custom Xbox One X console, with Head of Studio at Eidos-Montreal saying: "Shadow of the Tomb Raider will challenge Lara Croft in new and unexpected ways. Our team has created a diverse set of skills, combat techniques and equipment for players to master, and they'll certainly need them".

Don't think it'll be cheap as the custom Shadow of the Tomb Raider Xbox One X console is currently on auction on eBay for a current bid of $7600, and I'm sure it'll go up. 100% of the sale of the beautiful piece of technology will benefit the Best Friends Animal Society, which is a "leading national animal welfare organization dedicated to ending the killing of dogs and cats in America's shelters".

The newly released open world survival game SCUM has had its developer release a new patch for the title, the update adds anticheat code, fixes memory leak issues and much more.

Gamespires, the developers behind SCUM have debuted a brand new patch to SCUM. Within this patch, server admin controls have been added, sentries have been slightly nerfed, disabled chat and mic icon while in single-player and anti-cheat code has been implemented. It should be noted that any exploits will be counted as cheating and result in a bannable offense if detected.

If you are interested in checking out the official SCUM Steam listing, a link can be found here. In other news about SCUM, just within the first 24 hours of release SCUM already managed to sell a whopping 250,000 copies, if you want to catch up on that story, visit it here.

As Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle reaches its one year anniversary from its release date, Ubisoft has unveiled some essential statistics and facts players have compiled together throughout playing.

According to the official Rabbids Twitter account, Ubisoft are celebrating the one year anniversary for Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. Through this celebration Ubisoft has released some "essential statistics, facts of your adventure and more." An example of the statistics, is that players have traveled 674 million kilometers within the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario was the most chosen Team Leader and Rabbid Yoshi dealt the most damage.

Also in celebration of the Mario + Rabbids achievement, Creative Director of Ubisoft Milan, Davide Soliani said that he would shave his beard if Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle ever reached 2 million copies sold, fans are now holding the Director to his word. A fan replied to Soliani's Tweet about the newly released statistics, here is what was said "While we are talking about numbers? Didn't you once say that you would shave of your beard if mario + rabbids would reach 2 million sales? Because I think it might have hit that target Davide......." Soliani replied with "Btw, I did." If you are interested in checking out the official Ubisoft post on their forums, that can be visited here. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle is exclusively available on the Nintendo Switch.

Binding of Issac players have no doubt heard about the Repentance DLC that is currently on the way, this DLC has now been deemed the final DLC by game developer Edmund McMillen.

A Twitter post has revealed that Edmund McMillen, The Binding of Issac developer has decided that Repentance is the final DLC (for real this time) for The Binding of Issac. For those that don't know, Repentance is a coming paid DLC that will feature a new soundtrack, new cutscenes, more story and "+ a ton more content that will make you sh*t your butts!"

It is unknown when Repentance will be released but what we do know is that the DLC will be published by Nicalis and that McMillen is currently working with modder FixItVinh on including the Antibirth mod as apart of the games canon story. This also includes the games soundtracks as well. McMillen answered a question regarding who would be doing the new tracks, here is what he had to say "we are going with Planet Ridiculon 100% so it all feels cohesive and part of the official game." The full details for the DLC will be announced at a much later date.

So you can't wait to get your hands-on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate just like every other fighting gamer, well you are in luck because Best Buy have announced Super Smash Bros. Ultimate weekend events for anyone to try the upcoming title.

Best Buy have announced that they will be featuring Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournaments every weekend for an entire month. The events will begin on the 8th of September and will roll over until the 7th of October. These events will give future players of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate a chance to get hands-on with the title before it releases on December 7th.

Best Buy released a statement, here is what they had to say regarding the events: "Here is your chance to play this highly anticipated game from Nintendo before it launches on Friday, December 7. Choose one of the many new characters or play as one of your favorite returning characters. Early access gameplay and prizes will be available only at select Best Buy locations. You could be one of the first to play Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on Nintendo Switch."

Over the weekend, Eminem surprised not only the entire rap game but anyone close to the genre with a brand new album. The album is focussed on anyone that disliked the artists' previous album "Revival", included within the album is a song that features samples from Square Enixs' Kingdom Hearts.

According to an interview with Rolling Stone, Eminem was asked what sample is featured on the track "Good Guy (feat. Jessie Reyez)" and the artist replied with "That's me doing my video game thing. Kingdom Hearts. It's a Japanese video game, and that's the theme song from it." It appears that Eminem is a very big fan of Kingdom Hearts' melodies and loved it so much that he deemed the melodies "It's one of the dopest melodies I've ever heard."

The artist continued by explaining how he went about sampling the video games' melody, here is what he had to say "Filtered it, did some chops, did some processing to it. I basically made it unrecognizable, but I know they would have still found it. That's why we had to deal with the clearance. But when I do anything I try to make it to where it's not fully recognizable." If you are wondering if this is the first time a Kingdom Hearts melody has been featured in a rap song, it is not. J Cole released Dollar And A Dream III which happened to have Kingdom Hearts II's Darkness of the Unknown behind the lyrics.

Gamers will have at least three different ways to try BioWare's big new multiplayer game ahead of launch, the developers have confirmed.

BioWare will be hosting at multiple phases of technical testing ahead of Anthem's February release, including alpha and beta tests alongside a polished VIP demo slice that sits closer to the finished product's quality. The Anthem demo launches February 1, 2019 on all platforms but you'll have to pay to access it. PS4 gamers who pre-order get in, alongside EA Access and Origin Access subscribers on Xbox One and PC. Origin Access Premiere subscribers get both demo and full game access.

"The demo is a demo. It's not a tech test, it's not a beta that comes out three weeks before the game where 'your feedback' - like, no, it's 'this is the game and we hope you love it,' and at that point that's really what we're showing," BioWare's Mike Gamble said in a PAX West 2018 panel.

Doom II was released all the way back in 1995 and there has been a secret that nobody has found... until now. Daikatana developer (who remembers that hot mess of a game) John Romero smashed up a tweet congratulating someone for finding a secret in Doom II that has remained unsolved since 1995.

Zero Master discovered the secret on Map 15 of Doom II, where a teleporter would be shown as a secret, but wouldn't trigger the secret itself. Why? Because a bug stopped the player from setting it off, a few secret herbs and spices needed to be used... which after reading it, sound ridiculous.

Thankfully there weren't any 100% completion notifications and achievements to unlock in games from the 90s, else we would've been driven mad. In order to complete the secret on Map 15 of Doom II, you had to have an enemy knock you into it... you couldn't just press the button. Unbelievable, but also awesome - 24 years on.

Can you believe it... Google released their first web browser 10 years ago now, with Chrome being a "fresh take on the browser" in 2008. Fast forward to today, and it's the most popular browser.

Internet Explorer was a thorn in internet users' sides, and for some people they might not even know that Chrome launched as a Windows-only beta app, but Google eventually ported it over to both Linus and macOS in 2009.

Google strapped together the Apple WebKit rendering engine and Mozilla's Firefox to build Chrome, with Google at the time not being so evil, and made Chrome's source code available to all through their Chromium project.

The developers at Epic Games must not sleep or even go to the bathroom, as there's a huge new Fortnite update around the corner called High Stakes, and it adds a bunch of exciting stuff to the beyond-popular game.

Fortnite's new update will include a brand new event called High Stakes, something that will add a new outfit and four new masks as you can see in the above photo. The High Stakes update will roll out with a new Limited Time Mode called Getaway, something that Epic will be showing off during their PAX West stream on Twitch today.

Expect a bunch of new challenges in the High Stakes event, which I'm sure will follow its theme of heists and gambling which will be an interesting twist on the usual flair of Fortnite.

Right now everything you see on the internet about the upcoming GeForce RTX 20 series should be taken with a mountain of salt, as no one on the planet outside of NVIDIA and their AIB partners have drivers to make the new GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 work.

VideoCardz is reporting that the new GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is up to 35% faster (in its current form, expect more) in 3DMark Time Spy over the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. Everyone is expecting this weak 10-15% jump over the GTX 1080 Ti to the RTX 2080 Ti, yet we have no working driver outside of NVIDIA right now so no one knows exactly what to expect.

NDAs have been signed and no proper games were displayed outside of Battlefield V, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Metro Exodus and a few more in Cologne, Germany for the GeForce Gaming Celebration and unveiling of the new RTX 20 series cards.

The Diablo III port on Nintendo Switch will be compatible with amiibos, but details on the exact unlocks and figurines remain scant.

A Blizzard rep recently confirmed to Shacknews that amiibos can be used in Diablo III's Switch flavor, but we're unsure how this will pan out. Since the ARPG has Zelda cross-overs with the Ganondorf skin and the Master Sword it's likely we'll see even more Nintendo characters and gear show up in-game, possibly even Mario cosmetics. At the very least we should see more Zelda amiibo compatibility arise in D3.

It'd be interesting to see Diablo amiibos show up in stores, but this is doubtful given the game's mature themes. I'd love to see a Prime Evil Diablo mini-fig that's somehow compatible with, say, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate but that could be a little too...demonic for the Nintendo brand.

BioWare's big PAX West presence was all about its new IP Anthem, and now we have a better idea of how the story and NPCs will affect gameplay.

In many ways Anthem is a shift from the RPG singleplayer games BioWare is best known for. The new IP is an action-based online game that aims at delivering a persistent yet evolving world for players to experience alongside engaging co-op combat. But what about the story? Anthem won't be like Mass Effect or Dragon Age, but BioWare promises a story where actions have consequences--and a story you can enjoy with friends.

"The world narrative advances for your whole team. Together you'll confront countless enemies--those who threaten to take control over the Anthem as well as ancient beasts," BioWare said in a new Anthem trailer from PAX West. "You'll get further in our world by taking on explosive missions offered by agents who need your help. These missions take you deep into the heart of Anthem, while also developing the personal stories of each agent."

With Artifact on the way and Steam's issues somewhat shored up, Valve should start ramping up investment in a new slate of games. Could one of them be Half-Life 3?

We've known for a while now that Valve plans to make new games. Back in March, Gabe Newell made a surprising announcement that the Half-Life developer has multiple new projects in the works: "Artifact is the first of several games that are going to be coming from us. Hooray! Valve's going to start shipping games again." Following a big site redesign in May, Valve reminded everyone that new games are in dev and some of them are top secret affairs: "We have some new games in the works, too. A couple have been announced, while others remain top secret."

Now Valve's Brandon Reinhart, who's working as a programmer on the new Artifact card game, reiterates this point. In a recent interview with IGN Reinhart said that now that Valve has ironed out key features and issues on Steam as well as panned out a roadmap for Artifact, the company can (and will) focus back on games.

After three years of development, Capcom's new Resident Evil 2 Remake is coming along quite nicely.

REmake 2 looks to be the definitive Resident Evil game, not just because it's based on perhaps the best RE game of all time, but because it looks so damn good. All the footage I've seen so far shows Capcom has made huge strides with its proprietary in-house RE Engine; the Resident Evil 2 remake is fluid, smooth, and oh-so-gorey. Everything from character animations and real-time zombie reactions to lighting and physics effects have all been honed and sharpened to a fine point.

Now thanks to Capcom's UK Community Manager we're gifted with a huge 42 minutes of gameplay footage from an early build of the game. The video shows the beginning of RE2 and takes us through the infamous Raccoon City Police Department, which has been infested with undead terrors. We also get to see some interesting zombie killing animations (their heads will actually deform when you shoot them!) and some classic puzzles to boot.