Latest News - Page 2014

We are not very far out from the release of Treyarchs Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and ahead of the games launch the developer has decided to try and keep the hype train pushing forward by teasing a brand new map coming to the game.

From the short trailer which has been released onto the Treyarch Studios Twitter page, we can see that Morocco is a desert-themed map and perhaps may just be the first desert-themed map we have seen for Black Ops 4. Last week, we saw the official Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 launch trailer and now if you go back through the video at around 39 seconds we can see our newly released Morocco map. The footage is quite brief but it is better than nothing.

The other video released onto the Twitter page gives us a look at another map called "Summit." The map is based in the "The snowy research facility of Summit" and was originally from Black Ops 1. The developers have gone over the map and have spruced it up for its debut in Black Ops 4. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will be released on the PS4, Xbox One and PC on October 12th. For further information, visit the official Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 website here.

Ubisoft is about to launch their newest installment into the Assassin's Creed franchise, Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Buyers of the gold edition and above will receive the game three days before the games official launch, not before a classic day 1 patch though.

Just yesterday I gave a detailed breakdown of each of the purchasing options Ubisoft was giving fans for the upcoming Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Out of the four options that were available, the Gold Edition and the Ultimate Edition gave players the option of playing Odyssey on the 2nd of October, three days before the titles official release date on October 5th. Visit the full breakdown of each of the options here.

After all of the early bird buyers grabbed their copies and jumped into the game, Ubisoft has decided to roll out a day 1 patch for the title. Coming in at 1.5GB we can see fixes for gameplay, qualitative improvements and technical improvements implemented into the title. Some of the fixes include fixing "many "game breakers" that could happen in specific conditions." For more information regarding the patch notes, visit the official Ubisoft website post here.

Just last month we saw the release of Insomniac Games' PS4 exclusive title, Marvels Spider-Man. The title was a hit success and gained so much traction sales wise that it has now beaten the likes of Far Cry 5 despite Ubisofts title being released onto multiple platforms.

Spider-Man was released back on September 7th exclusively for the PS4, the title took off in the form of sales which has now pushed it to new heights resulting in the domination of a very popular Ubisoft title. To give a good comparison, Far Cry 5 was released 6 months ago and also debuted to the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. The game has also been on sale and has had a plethora of time to get out into gamers hands, yet it still cannot compete against the popularity of Spider-Man.

According to Games Industry biz, "The arrival of FIFA means that Spider-Man drops to No.2 for the week. Sony's game is now the second best-selling game of the year as it has overtaken Far Cry 5 in just four weeks. It's an impressive achievement for the PS4 title, as it is only available on one platform (admittedly, the UK's most popular console)." Both Far Cry 5 and Spider-Man have been released, Far Cry 5 is available on the PS4, Xbox One and PC. Spider-Man is exclusively available on the PS4.

Did you think Minecraft was dead? Or on its way out due to Fortnite's massive popularity? Well, you are mistaken as the classic title still beats Epic Games' hit success in monthly players by a considerable margin. There is also no sequel planned because of this.

Since Minecraft has been around for so long, many players of the game that have been dedicated have wondered if now owner of the game Microsoft, is going to bring a sequel to players. According to Microsoft's Minecraft boss Helen Chiang, this is not going to happen as she believes that choosing to create a sequel "always fractures the community."

At the moment, Epic Games' Fortnite currently has around about 78.3 million monthly players, this is a massive amount of gamers but it is still not enough to beat the likes of Minecraft. According to the Minecraft website the game has more than 91 million monthly active players, putting it much further ahead than Fortnite. This massive playerbase is a the reason why Minecraft officials have deferred away from creating a sequel, they are concentrating on keeping their players in the one place and not dividing them.

Well known around the planet as the man who couldn't play a better Deadpool if he tried, Ryan Reynolds will soon be taking on another role. This time around though he will be hanging up the Deadpool costume and diving into the position of an non-playable-character or NPC who realizes he is in a video game.

According to the recent announcement, the movie is a sci-fi action-comedy and is being organized by 20th Century Fox. The current plans are that Reynolds is meant to be starring in the film which will be directed by none other than Shawn Levy. Levy is known for directing other 20th century titles such as Night at the Museum and also being a executive producer of the hit Netflix series, Stranger Things.

Writing wise, reports have said that the movie which is titled 'Free Guy' is going to be written by Matt Lieberman. Lieberman will be bringing to life Reynolds' character who has become sentient in the game that he is trapped in, he realizes that his creators are eventually going to be shutting down his game and in turn his world so he sets out to stop them.

Intel is expected to unveil its first ever 8C/16T processor this month, with the Core i9-9900K looking like it'll be the best CPU for gaming ever made. But you can't make a great CPU without some awesome packaging, right?!

A new listing on Amazon shows off some never-before-seen packaging for an Intel Core i9 processor with a very small '9th gen' at the top, and the listing itself showing 8C/16T at up to 5GHz. We can also see it has Hyper-Threading technology enabled (hence the 16-threaded part), 16MB of cache and of course it has the ability to be overclocked since it's a K-series processor.

The box, if real, looks ridiculously good and could give AMD a run for their money with the awesome packaging for the second-gen Ryzen Threadripper CPUs. The listing has the purported Core i9-9900K costing $580, which is a stark difference to the rumored price of $480 from my post on the 9900K yesterday.

NVIDIA has opened up the pre-orders of the new Quadro RTX 5000 and RTX 6000 graphics cards in the US, while the flagship Quadro RTX 8000 isn't available for pre-orders right now and once it does, it'll sell for a huge $10,000.

Quadro RTX 5000 costs $2300 while the Quadro RTX 6000 costs $6300 and there are vast differences between them, with the RTX 5000 packing the TU104 GPU while the RTX 6000 and RTX 8000 have the TU102 GPU. One of the large differences between the Quadro RTX 5000 and RTX 6000 is that there is 16GB of GDDR6 is on the RTX 5000 while the RTX 6000 packs 24GB of GDDR6.

If you want to pre-order NVIDIA's new Quadro RTX 5000 or RTX 6000 graphics cards, you can do that here.

You can't even buy a new GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card right now, and while you can get the RTX 2080 it's something I wouldn't recommend over the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. That isn't stopping companies from unveiling their custom NVLink bridges, with ASUS unveiling the new ROG-NVLink bridge.

As you can see, ASUS has put some amazing design work into the ROG-NVLink bridge. There's not much to work with, and while NVIDIA's stock NVLink bridge looks good, ASUS takes it to another level.

ASUS has their new ROG-NVLink bridge in both 3- and 4-slot for bigger motherboards as well as Aura Sync technology with its RGB lighting.

Rockstar's Wild West prequel-sequel lets you sling your irons in first person, and the latest RDR2 trailer shows what this will be like.

Like GTA V, Red Dead Redemption 2 will feature a first-person view mode to add new depth to the experience. Essentially we'll all be desperado outlaws gunning down lawmen, bandits, and even civilians with wanton freedom as the game transforms into a FPS. The trailer sequences show some enthralling and visceral shooting action where enemies jump out behind corners. Quick reflexes are key, especially since recoil is a big hindrance--especially while riding on a trusty steed. And yes, we can even stay in first-person while riding on horseback and blast baddies from our saddles.

Rockstar's latest trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2 shows how much effort was put into the Western prequel, and how it will organically blend cinematics and gameplay together for a compelling experience.

Back in the day cutscenes used to interrupt the flow of a game. Sometimes this was welcomed, other times it was frustrating and you just wanted to get back into the groove. But today games like Red Dead Redemption 2 seamlessly merge the two together; not only do you feel like you're playing a cinematic experience due to the visuals and immersive content during gameplay, but the sequences themselves naturally fold into story mission progression, heists, and other activities in real-time similar to GTA V.

The new Red Dead Redemption 2 trailer not only exemplifies this blending but also highlights some of the more scoundrel-y things Arthur and his band of ne'er-do-wells can do in the 1889 frontier. Naturally a iron-toting gang wouldn't be worth its salt if robberies weren't on the docket, and make no mistake, you'll do plenty of robbing (and probably killing) in your carnage-fueled adventure. I'm guessing there's certain things we can't control about Arthur--like his outlaw nature--even if we choose leniency and a path that swings more towards good than all-out mayhem.

Google will test out its new game streaming service with Ubisoft's big new Assassin's Creed game.

The industry is moving towards game streaming. Big names like EA, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony are either using it or plan to use it to make AAA games more accessible--and as a means of making recurring subscription dollars. In a few years we'll be able to play big-name games on all devices using remote servers without having download tons of data, and Google is keen on getting in on the action.

Google today announced its new Project Stream service which aims to "push the limits of streaming technology" by streaming games at up to 1080p 60FPS right from the Chrome browser. The service will stream to both desktops and laptops. Google will use Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed: Odyssey to stress test the service, and you can sign up here for a chance to get in. If you do get in, you'll be able to play Odyssey in Chrome completely free (barring a few hiccups or two).

We knew Assassin's Creed: Odyssey would be monetized with optional in-game microtransactions, and now we get a closer look at what the huge ancient Greece adventure will offer in its storefront.

Ubisoft is always looking for ways to monetize its games. Ever keen on infusing live services into all of its titles, the publisher has found a way to successfully use RPG mechanics like grinding for materials or randomized RNG-based loot as an avenue for paid shortcuts. Like its forebear Origins, Odyssey has a lot of these options available for purchase, including time-savers like permanent EXP boosts alongside outright purchasing unique gear that affects gameplay.

The EXP boost is the most interesting. Reviews say Odyssey's third act requires lots of grinding and level-up preparation to conquer. Gamers who spend the 1000 Helix Credits (roughly $10) on the EXP boost have a clear advantage here, hinting that the game may be artificially grindy in a bid to do two things: keep players playing (the more you play the more likely you are to buy microtransactions), and of course incentivizing players to buy boosts to circumvent the time wall.

After the release of the Shenmue Re-masters SEGA officials have come out and said that they will be watching fans reactions for their support and taking it into account for their decision regarding a Nintendo Switch Shenmue port.

In a recent interview with 4Gamer, both SEGA officials and original creators of the Shenmue series Hiroji Noguchi and Eigo Kasahara spoke out about the franchise coming to the Nintendo Switch. From the conversation it can be said that both officials support the idea of Shenmue coming to the Nintendo Switch and will heavily consider the construction or adaptation of a port.

Here is what Noguchi and Kasahara had to say when asked about the idea: "Personally I think it would be nice to play Shenmue on Switch everywhere ... (laughs)" said Noguchi. Kasahara continued and says "I do not know if it can be done, but I take note of the views of the supporters. Even if answering this request, I would like to consider it." Judging from what Kasahara has said, if fans want a Nintendo Switch port of the classic series then they will need to show their support for it, if enough community cries are heard then SEGA will most likely jump straight on the task for Switch players. I will be sure to update you if anymore information regarding a Shenmue port is released.

A recent tweet from Rockstars official Twitter account has reveled that the company will be releasing some brand new Red Dead Redemption 2 gameplay footage tomorrow.

Rockstar released the first installment of gameplay footage for their upcoming just a few weeks back, now the developer and publisher have decided to keep that hype train rolling by giving fans a new gameplay trailer sometime tomorrow. The gameplay video will no doubt give us a more in-depth look at the "living world" that Rockstar has managed to create within Red Dead Redemption 2.

If you haven't already seen, Red Dead Redemption 2 will feature dynamic horses that can be carried by the player, visit that story here. In other news about Red Dead Redemption 2, the PS4 Pro bundle has been unveiled and it showcases the title will 105GB of HDD space, check that out here. Red Dead Redemption 2 will be launched on October 26th on the PS4 and Xbox One.

CD Projekt RED's Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales has had the first 24 minutes of gameplay footage released, below you will find the video released in its entirety.

The first 24 minutes found on the Entertainium YouTube Channel will show lovers of the Witcher a brand new addition to the Witcher universe. For those that don't know Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is an RPG title that is a narrative-driven exploration game using the quite popular mini-card game Gwent. Developers CD Projekt RED have said that Thronebreaker will take an average of around 30 hours to complete for the player and will also have a multitude of ending, 20 different ending to be specific.

Since the popularity of the card game Gwent has risen quite considerably and that the release of Thronebreaker will only be an addition to that, I'd agree with Comicbook when they say that Gwent will soon be making its way to mobile platforms. It makes complete sense and it would be naive to say that CD Projekt RED hasn't even considered the idea even though they have not mentioned anything of the fact. Perhaps after the release of Thronebreaker we could see the developer announcing the mini-card game coming to the mobile platforms, maybe even the Nintendo Switch. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales will be released on October 23rd for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Leading into the Assassin's Creed Odyssey launch from Ubisoft there is multiple purchasing options for customers. In total there are 4 options, let's check out what Ubisoft are offering customers in the Ultimate, Gold, Deluxe & Standard editions.

Ubisoft has chosen to give potential players of Assassin's Creed Odyssey multiple purchasing options, these pre-ordering options on the Uplay US store for digital downloads are the following, Standard Edition: $54.99, Deluxe Edition: $79.99, Gold Edition: $99.99 and the Ultimate Edition for $119.99.

Each of the unique packages will feature different bonus content, a big example of this bonus content is the fact that Ubisoft will be giving exclusive access to Odyssey three days before the official launch. Players that choose to purchase the Gold and Ultimate Edition of the game will receive access to the title on October 2nd, deluxe and standard edition will players will have to wait until the official release date of October 5th. Below I have complied each of the packages and their bonuses, I have also visited the official Ubisoft store and compiled the bonuses from the two Spartan and Collectors editions. Store websites such as Green Man Gaming, G2A and Steam have also been detailed and provided.

Odyssey, Ubisoft's upcoming next installment in the Assassin's Creed franchise is about to release and ahead of the titles debut a Nintendo Switch trailer has launched. Assassin's Creed Odyssey will be streamed from the cloud on the handheld console.

The first time we saw Ubisoft's Asssasin's Creed franchise head on over to a Nintendo console was with Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag back in 2013. Now, we will be getting the latest installment in the franchise, Odyssey will be coming in the form a "Cloud Version" and will be streamed to the Nintendo Switch.

At the moment there is only a Japanese trailer for the cloud version of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which suggest that there will only be a Japanese release for Ubisoft's title on the Switch. On a side note, Capcom's Resident Evil 7 is also getting the same treatment with the title coming to the Nintendo Switch, check that out here. Assassin's Creed Odyssey will be launching for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC on October 5th.

Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford was hustled for almost $3 million from a previous personal assistant.

According to the Dallas News, Gearbox president Randy Pitchford was robbed of millions by former personal assistant John Wright Martin over a period of many years. The crimes started in 2015 when Wright started charging thousands of dollars to Pitchford's business account for non-work related expenses. These included lavish apparel, resort stays, and more. By 2016 the charges became more severe.

The newspaper goes on to say Martin owes the Pitchfords nearly $3 million. Multiple cases are still open against Martin and he's yet to be caught by police.

AMD has absolutely dominated the HEDT market with the introduction of its second-gen Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX, offering a massive 32C/64T in a time when then market leader Intel could only reach 28C/56T. Right now, AMD is the king of multi-threaded CPUs and Intel can't match it, and even with next-gen X599 it won't get there.

The latest rumor on the new X599 chipset is that Intel's new push into HEDT will be split into two: X599 for the ultimate in HEDT, while there could be a new Z399 chipset that is definitely going to be confused with X399 from AMD. At this point if Intel do this, their CPU marketing department needs a slap across the wrist. We can't have the introduction of a new Z399 chipset when AMD has almost come out of nowhere with its dominance with Ryzen, and have their X399 chipset in motherboards right now.

Z399 is being introduced with the 'X' removed in place of a 'Z' as Intel is not branding this as "extreme" like the higher-end LGA3647 chipset, with Z399 reportedly being a new LGA2066 platform. TPU thinks Intel could release new 22/24-core CPUs on the Z399 platform while X599 is used to power next-gen 24/26/28-core CPUs under the Skylake-X processor family. Intel's next-gen 28C/56T processor on X599 will be their flagship CPU, competing directly against AMD's Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX which sports 32C/64T on the X399 chipset.

AMD is preparing its third-gen Ryzen CPU family that will be a true next-gen Zen 2 CPU core, with the original Zen architecture powering both the Ryzen 1000 and Ryzen 2000 series processors. According to a forum post on HardOCP by '_mockingbird', Radeon Technologies Group has "just received its first Zen 2 sample (to optimize for) and it's really impressive".

RTG is a weird place for the very first Zen 2 CPU engineering sample to go, but the posted said in a reply "Zen team brought the processor over so that the RTG teams can make changes to the video card's drivers that make them work better with the processor". This is good news for gamers as it would hopefully mean AMD is keen to see just how their next-gen Zen 2 architecture is holding up with gaming on a prototype Ryzen 3000 series CPU.

The test rig was using a custom motherboard with an AMD logo on it, with the HardOCP forum member saying the "Zen team is being awfully secretive, that's for sure". I'm not surprised given it's an unreleased CPU. The poster added: "It crashes all the time. Some of the tests have to be run multiple times because they crashed before finishing". This isn't uncommon: the first prototype of a new processor, with a heavily tuned architecture, on a totally new 7nm node process... crashes happen.