Latest News - Page 2017

Sony is shifting towards expansive VR games now that the PSVR install base is filling out, aiming to bring more interactivity to the platform.

Rather than grand, sweeping adventures, PSVR games started off as "small, passive experiences" akin to old-time arcade games. This has considerably changed since the headset's 2016 launch, and we now have massive RPG adventures like Skyrim VR and even Dark Eclipse, the platform's first-ever VR MOBA. Sony says this trend will only gain momentum as the PSVR matures. The headset has now sold 3 million units worldwide, but the attach rate remains quite small compared to the PS4's 82.2 million install base. Sony isn't about to give up on VR, however.

"Titles with deeper gaming will continue to increase in the future," Sony's Shuhei Yoshida said in a recent PlayStation Blog post. "Users will not want a short experience, they will want to have a game to play for a longer time. Based on such expectations, I came up with the strategy of making full-scale games of larger scale in the 2nd and 3rd year."

Konami confirms that Symphony of the Night and Rondo of Blood are coming to the PS4 in an affordable collection.

On the heels of a recent ESRB rating, Konami today announced the Castlevania Requiem collection which includes two of the best gothic sidescrollers ever made. The bundle includes the labyrithine PS1 classic Symphony of the Night, which introduced strong RPG aspects to the series, and Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, a more classic survive-or-die whip-cracking affair. One of the best parts is the price: the collection is only $19.99 at launch, but you can pre-order it for $16.99 today.

Both games are coming to the PS4 with enhanced features like HD and 4K upscaled visuals (playing old-school games on a modern TV isn't always great), multiple rendering options, and trophies. Remote Play and full DualShock 4 support is also in.

Oculus announces Oculus Quest, a new standalone VR headset platform built from its Santa Cruz prototype.

With its new wireless Oculus Quest headset, Facebook aims to break many of VR's biggest hurdles including price and accessibility. The Quest tracks your movements and the environment around you with 6DoF (six degrees of freedom) sensors, is totally self-contained and doesn't require any extra hardware like a phone or a PC graphics card to operate, and comes with wireless Touch controllers for input. The platform is intended to sit between the lower-end Oculus Go and the higher-end Rift.

Spec details are still light, but we do know Oculus Quest's panels have 1600x1400 per-eye resolution, 64GB of storage, and built-in audio. Exact processing power, system memory, and other internal hardware features weren't revealed.

Sony bends to massive community criticism and pressure by opening the PS4 ecosystem to cross-play support.

In a surprising move that propels Sony towards a more open-ended and forward-thinking game plan, PS4 gamers will soon be able to play games with friends across other consoles and platforms. This enhanced cross-play strategy will manifest first with Fortnite, and the PS4 will be cross-playable with every platform the game is available on, even iOS and Android. Sony will also reverse its draconian decision to lock progression and content with a PSN account, effectively shedding the chains that bound and frustrated millions of console gamers.

"Following a comprehensive evaluation process, SIE has identified a path toward supporting cross-platform features for select third party content," Sony Interactive Entertainment President John Kodera said today.

Nintendo offers a six-month grace period for cloud saves if your Switch Online subscription lapses.

A bit ago we reported troubling news that Nintendo could delete cloud save backups when your Switch Online sub ends. At the time Nintendo said this would only happen after an "extended period" following inactive subscriptions, but now it clarifies users will have 180 days to refresh access to their online saves. This is the same period Sony offers with its PlayStation Plus cloud uploads.

"If a Nintendo Switch Online membership expires, users won't be able to access their Save Data Cloud backups. However, Nintendo will allow users who resubscribe within 180 days to access their previous Save Data Cloud backups," a Nintendo rep told IGN.

Slocap and Devolver Digital, the developer and publisher respectively have released a brand new free DLC for their online melee brawler, Absolver. The expansion is titled Absolver: Downfall and will be completely free to anyone that already owns a copy of the original Absolver.

The DLC will be packing a punch with the amount of content it will be bringing players. A new mode has been added and it has been titled 'Downfall PVE mode' and will be "available in the Combat Trials menu to all players that reached the Absolver rank." Players can choose between a solo experience or online cooperative play, the mission is "collecting Gleam from Prospects infected by Arcell." This will then result in players having the option to "unlock new items in the Essence Shop, as well as the Faejin Combat Style."

The new DLC also adds a new combat style titled, the Faejin Combat Style. This new combat style has been "inspired by Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do" and combines both defensive techniques and offensive techniques to produce powerful fluid strikes. "The new approach is a complex style for experienced Absolvers, featuring different defensive abilities that depend on both input and stances. Faejin has 26 attacks for bare hands and wargloves, alongside 15 sword attacks." The Absolver: Downfall DLC is currently live, jump into the action and test your luck.

A recent interview revealed in the Official Xbox Magazine (November 2018, issue 169), information regarding the brand new NPC interaction system found in Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2.

From the interview we learn that players' actions throughout the world will directly influence the mindsets and relationships of the gang members that will be with him when he returns to camp. Rockstars Imran Sarwar, Director of Design on Red Dead Redemption 2 said "We had to upgrade all of our gameplay and AI systems so that the gang members were smarter and equipped with better memories, so that they would respond naturally to Arthur and invite him into conversations."

Sarwar continued and said that the aspiration of wanting to implement the ideas of a memory system for NPC's "led to the creation of the interaction system that exists for the entire world." According to Sarwar, players will experience this brand new interaction system across all NPC's, this means whether it's a "shopkeeper, a lawman or a passing rider - you can interact with them in a variety of ways without ever drawing a gun, and those options will be contextual based on what kind of person they might be and the situation you're in." Sarwar finishes up by saying that this is a "huge leap forward and immerses you in the world in a way that we have never been able to do before RDR2." Red Dead Redemption 2 comes onto Xbox One and PS4 on October 26th.

A recent announcement from Anthem's BioWare has confirmed that the title has successfully reached the 'alpha' phase in its development process, the team has now entirely moved onto bug fixing and testing.

According to a recent blog post by Casey Hudson, BioWare's General Manager, Anthem has successfully reached the massive milestone of the 'alpha' phase. The blog post reads as follows: "Last week, the Anthem team passed its Alpha milestone - meaning that every part of the game is in, and functioning." This is great news for the development team, but now that the game has reached Alpha the bug fixing will now be underway.

The blog post continues and Hudson explains that now that the team has put all the important pieces into the game "we can move almost entirely to bug-fixing, testing, and tuning - which will be an incredible amount of work on a game this big." At the moment the demo for Anthem has been scheduled for release on February 1st, it will only be available to those players who decided to pre-order the game, or to EA Access members. The full release for Anthem is planned for February 22nd on the PS4, Xbox One and PC. For further information visit the official Anthem website here.

As we are about to move onto the release date for Ubisoft's newest installment in the Assassin's Creed franchise, a brand new launch trailer has debuted onto the Ubisoft YouTube Channel. Defy prophecy and choose your fate in Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Players that decide to pick up Assassin' Creed Odyssey will be faced with difficult decisions. Each choice made throughout the storyline of Assassin's Creed Odyssey may or may not be detrimental to the final outcome. "Depending on what you answer, it may lead to an entire quest line down the road. We've taken the approach where we don't tell you you're about to make an important choice. We tell you at the beginning to be careful about the choices you make because they may have - we don't promise anything - an impact."

Ubisoft has said that this iteration of Assassin's Creed Odyssey has been deemed the "true 2.0 version of Assassin's Creed." This has been achieved by the developer concentrating on bringing meaning to everything within the world. "We've tried to make everything make sense in the life of a mercenary. It's there for you, it's built around this character and it's there to add value." Assassin's Creed Odyssey will be launching on October 5th for the PS4, Xbox One and PC. For further information visit the official Assassin's Creed Odyssey website here.

AMD has had a stellar two years since the hype and then real launch of Ryzen early last year, and now a new report from DigiTimes teases that Team Red could secure a huge chunk of CPU market with the site saying AMD could claw up to 30% of the CPU market by Q4 2018.

DigiTimes' source said: "AMD has drastically changed its foundry strategy, loosening ties with Globalfoundries and contracting TSMC to fabricate its GPUs, server and PC processors on 7nm process. The policy change has sent AMD share prices rallying all the way since mid-2018 amid market expectations for better chip yield rates and performances as well as normal shipments to customers".

AMD is in a perfect position right now because Intel has been struggling for YEARS now trying to get its 10nm node off the ground, something that was meant to happen in 2015 and won't be happening until this time in 2019. DigiTimes report continues, saying that motherboard partners in ASUS, GIGABYTE and MSI "have ramped up production and shipments of devices fitted with AMD processors, driving up the chipmaker's share of the desktop processor market to over 20% in the third quarter. The company is very likely to see the figure further rebound to the level of 30% again".

There are plenty of custom GeForce RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards that are announced, available to buy, on their way, or coming very soon... but one of which isn't here yet are the custom GIGABYTE and AORUS branded cards, something we're now seeing for the first time and man do they look GOOD.

GIGABYTE has started teasing its upcoming AORUS GeForce RTX 2080 XTREME 8G graphics card on social media, so now we know it rocks a gorgeous triple-fan Windforce cooler. We have huge 100mm fans, direct heat pipes, and 12+2 power phases. On the back, GIGABYTE is using a metal backplate with an AORUS logo that has RGB lighting.

One thing that GIGABYTE has done differently to other AIB partners with its upcoming AORUS GeForce RTX 2080 XTREME 8G is that it has 7 display outputs... 5 of which can be used at once. We have 3 x DisplayPort 1.4, 3 x HDMI 2.0b, and 1 x USB-C with VirtualLink.

NVIDIA has launched its two higher-end RTX graphics cards with both the GeForce RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti released, but the RTX 2080 Ti isn't being made available for another week or so for consumers. The company has now come out and announced an October 17 launch for its GeForce RTX 2070.

The upcoming GeForce RTX 2070 graphics card uses the Turing TU106 GPU, TU106 features 10.8 billion transistors, 2304 CUDA cores, 288 Tensor Cores, and 36 RT Cores. The transistor count on TU106 is much greater than its Pascal counterpart in the GP104, with the new TU106 GPU featuring 10.8 billion transistors versus the 7.2 billion inside of GP104.

TU106 has 3 x GPCs, 36 SMs, and 8 x 32-bit memory controllers (for a 256-bit memory bus, the same as the RTX 2080). NVIDIA's new TU106G GPU sees each GPC with a raster unit and 6 x TPCs, with each TPC packing a PolyMorph Engine and 2 x SMs. Each of the SMs inside of TU106 will, like TU102 and TU104, feature the new RT Core for ray tracing. Each SM packs 64 CUDA cores, 256KB register file, 96KB L1 data cache/shared memory cache, and 4 x texture units.

Developer Bad Habit has released the launch trailer for 'Marble It Up!', a high-speed puzzle platformer title that is planned exclusively for a launch on the Nintendo Switch.

From the trailer we can see that players will be required to adjust to jumping, bouncing, speed boosting through many different and unique courses. Each of the levels will be equipped with numerous obstacles, some being moving platforms, slippery surfaces, sharp corner and even other marbles that are on the tracks.

The title will contain 40 visually striking maps and will run at a smooth 60FPS on the Nintendo Switch. The title is planned for release on the handheld console in the NA region on September 29th and will be available for $19.99. For further information regarding the title, visit the official Nintendo Switch website listing for it here.

A brand new trailer has been released onto the Nintendo UK YouTube Channel, the trailer is titled 'Keep Calm' as it is aimed at future Dark Souls: Remastered players for the Nintendo Switch.

The trailer has been released ahead of the titles launch which has been planned for October 19th. Nintendo Switch players should prepare to do their best in terms of keeping calm while playing Dark Souls Remastered portably. Bandai just finished their networking testing for Dark Souls: Remastered on the Nintendo Switch, the testing ranged from September 21st from September 23rd.

The Nintendo Switch version of Dark Souls: Remastered will be releasing with a 'Solaire of Astora' amiibo support, when used it will unlock the "Praise the Sun" emote within the game. Dark Souls: Remastered in scheduled for release on the Nintendo Switch on October 19th, for further information regarding the title, visit the official listing on the Nintendo website here. Dark Souls: Remastered is also currently available on PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Just last week I reported on Android 17 being rumored to be on the way to Dragon Ball FighterZ's roster. Now, Bandai Namco has officially confirmed that 17 is here and he has even got his own character trailer.

We first heard about Android 17 coming to Dragon Ball FighterZ through the latest release of V-Jump, the reveal showcased to us that Android 17 would be arriving as a DLC character. The press release from Bandai gives a short backstory on Android 17, here is what was released "During his initial introduction into the DRAGON BALL universe, Android 17 was known to be a reckless anarchist, a trouble maker, and a real heel. After experiencing death and being brought back to life by Shenron, his brush with great-beyond caused Android 17 to take-on a life of peace and obscurity."

According to the description on the Android 17 YouTube video, "DLC 4 for DRAGON BALL FighterZ is coming soon!" Android 17 will cost players $5. Currently, Dragon Ball FighterZ is available for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. The Nintendo Switch version will have Android 17 available to it and will be released on September 28th. For further information regarding the title, visit the official Dragon Ball FighterZ website here.

As we are just a day out from Stunlock Studios' Battlerite Royale mode going live, the official launch trailer for the title has been released.

The video has been released onto the Battlerite YouTube Channel and displays to potential players exactly what is going to be in store for them if they decide to jump into the arena and test their luck. Players will be able to pick between a selection of unique heroes, each either their different respective abilities and mechanics.

The same battle royale principles will apply, players will have to gather loot and consumables to survive the battle. The press release reads as follows: "In Battlerite Royale players skydive from the back of a wyvern and land on Talon Island to explore the lush and colourful surroundings, stumbling upon a variety of items and intriguing consumables such as barrel disques, rocket boots and bear traps. During fast-paced cutthroat matches players rely on vigilance and quick wits, utilizing the treasured collectibles to overthrow opposing players, grab their loot and ultimately be the last one standing." If you are interested in Battlerite Royale, visit the official Steam page here.

The official launch trailer for Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has been released, it certainly is odd that the company has decided to release their launch trailer some weeks ahead of the titles official release date. Nonetheless though, here is its!

We are about 3 and a bit weeks out from release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Treyarch and Activision must of felt the need to tap all gamers on the shoulder to remind them about their launch. For those that don't know, Black Ops 4 won't have a singleplayer mode, instead the developers have concentrated their efforts towards Zombies, traditional multiplayer modes and their new battle royale mode, Blackout.

After playing around in the Blackout mode when the beta was live I can say that from my perspective Treyarch has done quite a good job on the game mode. I felt as if I was in a much faster paced battle royale experience, I noticed this when i landed for the first time, there was guns and loot everywhere which gave me the thought that these games are actually meant to be shortened, instead of the elongated PUBG or Fortnite matches. Those were just my personal first impressions, hopefully improvements have been made since the beta has gone down. 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.

A story has been blowing up on social media over the weekend with a Swiss Super League match taking place between Young Boys and FC Basel, where the match was interrupted with fans protesting the increased influence of eSports on Swiss football teams.

Hundreds of fans from both teams interrupted the match for a full two minutes, with huge anti-eSports banners being held up. The first of which was a massive pause button, while the other one said "scheiss eSports" which when translated, is "f*** eSports". PS4 controllers were also thrown onto the field, with 'f*** eSports' written on them.

Most professional sports clubs (not just football) are looking at expanding, if they haven't already, into the world of eSports. There are professional players making millions with 10s if not millions of times more fans online with Twitch streams and the like, with entire eSports teams dominating the world. Basel (one of the teams on the ground during the match) has an eSports division for FIFA.

Intel must be in full panic mode with all-systems-go right now, first their 10nm node production is in shambles - expected in 2015, delayed through to late-2019, their CEO recently left in a tornado of drama, and AMD has been kicking their ass up and down the street with Ryzen, Threadripper, and EPYC.

This doesn't mean that Intel's current flock of 14nm++ CPUs are not in high demand, because they are - so much so that Intel is having to ramp up 14nm production just to keep up. Furthermore, Intel is having to do this because the new 9000-series led by the flagship Core i9-9900K are right around the corner, so Intel is ramping production of its 14nm CPUs at their new facility in Vietnam.

Intel is expected to unveil their new Core i9-9900K, Core i7-9700K, and Core i5-9600K (as well as others) next month. The company has said: "In order to ensure a continuous supply of the Intel Processors listed in the "Products Affected" Table below, Intel will be adding an additional manufacturing site for Test/Finished Goods. The new site is located in Vietnam. The new manufacturing site has been certified equivalent (form, fit, function, and reliability) for the affected products and technologies of this change".

AMD refreshed the Polaris 10 GPU a couple of months ago when we exclusively revealed the Radeon RX 500X series was going out to OEMs with the Polaris 20 GPU inside, but now there's rumors that AMD will refresh the refresh with the purported Polaris 30.

The rumors have started on Chiphell and we haven't confirmed them with any AMD sources, but Polaris 30 will reportedly be made on the 12nm process compared to the 14nm node that AMD used on the Polaris 10/20 and Vega 10 GPUs. The rumors are hot, stating that AMD could launch the 'new' Polaris 30-based graphics cards as soon as next month, ahead of the new Vega 20 GPUs made on 7nm.

We are being told to expect a 15% performance improvement over the RX 500 series, which should be enough to get the purported Radeon RX 680 (that's what I'll call it for now) to be getting close to GeForce GTX 1070 Ti and GTX 1080 performance. Hell, it'll start competing with the Radeon RX Vega 56 and 64 at that point, which won't be good for AMD unless Vega is discontinued - which it should be at this stage.