Latest News - Page 2072

Fortnite is in a constant state of flux for all the right reasons, with developer Epic Games planning some huge changes for the game on all platforms: PC, Xbox One, PS4, and iOS.

Epic has said that its fifth State of Development is a tease into future content, with changes to be made to controllers, quality of life improvements, more Limited Time modes, and a new Playground mode that will lets players respawn on the way. Starting with Playground, which is a new Limited Time mode that will load you into the Battle Royale map with more time to explore.

There are more resources, all treasure chests and ammo crates are on offer, and gulp... friendly fire is enabled, with immediate respawns. As for the controllers, Epic is taking the feedback about Builder Pro being inconsistent to heart, making huge improvements along the way.

Qualcomm has just unveiled its new Snapdragon 710 processor, which is a slight bump on the Snapdragon 700 series that the co many unveiled earlier in the year.

The new Snapdragon 710 is better than the mid-range Snapdragon 600 and 700 series designs, with Qualcomm touting double the AI performance compared to the Snapdragon 660. We have the X15 LTE modem and Spectra 250 image processor, lower on the tech tree than the flagship X20 modem and Spectra 280 processor inside of the Snapdragon 800 series.

As for the X15 modem we can expect up to 800Mbps over LTE, with the Snapdragon 710 including 10-bit color support as well as it being the first Qualcomm chip to support 4K HDR playback, a first for Snapdragon outside of the flagship 800 series.

Acer has just unveiled its new, and super-massive 17.3-inch gaming notebooks in the form of the new Predator Helios 500 range, which can pack the latest Core i9 processor from Intel.

The highest-end Predator Helius 500 can be configured with an Intel Core i9-8950HK, which is a 6C/12T chip from the Coffee Lake architecture, while NVIDIA backs the beefy CPU up with the GeForce GTX 1070. The CPU and GPU are cooled with Acer's own Dual AeroBlade 3D cooling system that packs all-metal fans that improve cooling, and opens up the floodgates for overclocking.

You can configure the gaming notebook with up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM, with Acer including an Intel Optane SSD as well as providing ports for PCIe SSDs. The 17.3-inch display comes in either 1080p or 4K, with up to 144Hz refresh with G-Sync for the 1080p option. There's a 2.1-channel audio system with a built-in subwoofer on offer, with Acer TrueHarmony and Waves MAXXAudio.

Big publishers are keen on tapping the battle royale trend in their own ways--just look at Activision with Call of Duty Black Ops 4--and apparently EA is no different.

Although pre-reveal Battlefield V rumors attached a battle royale mode to the upcoming WWII shooter, DICE didn't unveil their own unique spin on the popular gametype. The Battlefield V reveal event had no mention of a battle royale mode of any sort. Instead DICE opted to announce Tides of War, a huge new engagement-driven series of live events that rotate and take place in various theaters of war during WWII. But that doesn't mean the developers aren't actively experimenting and attempting to innovate the explosive sub-genre.

According to senior DICE producer Andreas Morrel, battle royale and the Battlefield series are natural mates.

Ubisoft will have a retinue of high-priority games in tow at their E3 2018 event.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 has been in development for quite some time. Following the game's triumphant unveiling at E3 2017, fans are eager to know more about the huge sprawling online-based prequel, especially given the massive ambition Ubisoft Montpelier envisions. The publisher will indeed showcase the sequel-that's-actually-a-prequel at their E3 venue along with a number of other big titles like The Division 2.

Here's Ubisoft's Michel Ancel on Beyond Good and Evil 2:

Sony has confirmed its new PlayStation 5 console is at least three years away.

The PS4 has had an amazing lifecycle so far with 79.4 million shipments worldwide, and the system will continue its long-standing run through 2021, Sony corporate recently said. In its new three-year play the company announced future plans for the PlayStation gaming division which are pretty much the same: hardware and software sales with stronger emphasis on subscriptions and engagement. But what about the PlayStation 5? Don't expect it any time soon.

We know Sony is working on the next console and that it may feature discrete graphics instead of an APU design. There's also a strong chance the PS5 will play existing PS4 games, too. Analysts predict the system could be out in 2020 or thereabouts but not any time sooner--there's really no rush, the experts say.

Sony may put more emphasis on portable gaming in its hardware ecosystem once more...but it may not manifest like you think.

Sony's PlayStation Vita has essentially been retired, but Nintendo's massive success with its Switch portable handheld-console hybrid has turned many heads. Despite the PS Vita's failure on the market, John Kodera, who leads Sony's massively lucrative gaming division, says portable gaming should be seen as a part of the PlayStation brand. Mr. Kodera also affirms that Sony is experimenting with new technologies and methods in the portable arena.

"In my opinion, rather than separating portable gaming from consoles, it's necessary to continue thinking of it (portable gaming) as one method to deliver more gaming experiences and exploring what our customers want from portable. We want to think about many options," SIE head John Kodera recently told journalists in a post-corporate press conference.

Sony has announced that the PlayStation 4's DualShock 4 gamepad is the best-selling controller of all time, when purely looking at dollar sales.

According to Sony's most recent NPD, the PlayStation 4 DualShock 4 controller has been deemed the all-time best-selling gamepad when just looking at dollar sales. This doesn't mean that the controller has sold the most units ever, this just means that Sony has singled out the standard black controller while not taking into account the other consoles controllers that its up against.

Here is the official statement from Sony, "the PlayStation 4 DualShock 4 Wireless Controller Black is now the all-time best-selling Gamepad in dollar sales."

Bandai Namco are celebrating the anniversary of Tekken 7 by gifting the title with a free DLC later this month.

Bandai has said that the DLC is going to be entirely cosmetic and will be bringing players six different costume sets, these will include the following: Story Mode Costume Set, the Aura Set, the Female Hairstyle Set, the New Japan Pro-Wrestling Set, the Kuma and Panda Set, and the Metallic Item Set.

The cosmetic DLC will be released to players on May 31st which is two days before the date of the titles one year anniversary. Players that wish to view the screenshots of the costumes in their entirety should visit the official Bandai Namco Twitter page here.

Rocksteady Studios is reportedly set to tease a new open world Superman game in the next week or two, with a full reveal coming next month at E3 2018.

The new rumor started on 4chan, with some movie/game sites picking it up and talking about it. Rocksteady Studios is reportedly the developer of the unnamed Superman game, coming in from their super successful Batman: Arkham games. The new Superman game would be powered by Unreal Engine 4 and will feature an open world Metropolis that is 3x bigger than the size of Arkham Knight.

Over the years developers have tried and utterly failed to make a good Superman game, with the most-known probably being Superman 64 on the Nintendo 64, which has been rated one of the worst games ever made. From the details above it sounds like it could be great, but I need to be sold on the "semi-destructible environments" in a freaking Superman game.

A new mod has surfaced for Chucklefish's Stardew Valley and instead of players enjoying taming their farms with their 4 others friends it is now possible to farm with on one big mega farm. With as many friends as you possibly can.

A modder going by the name of Armitxes, has uploaded a mod onto nexusmods which changes Stardew Valley's cabin limit (player limit) that is currently tied to everyones game. Players now have the choice of approaching the town's carpenter, Robin and continuing to build as many cabins as your heart desires.

One of the best features of this mod is the fact that not all players that desire to play on the same farm together have to install it. The mod only requires the host player to have it installed, making everyones lives just that much more easier. If you are interested in checking out the mod and starting up a mega farm with all of your friends visit the nexusmods website here and download it.

Jagex has taken to their community forums to announce the farewell of one of the longest running MMORPG's, RuneScape Classic will have its servers shutdown this August.

If you grew up during the early 2000's and was involved in gaming, you would of most likely heard of or played RuneScape one way or another. RuneScape Classic was first released back in 2001 and since then the game has gone through two evolutionary stages, evolving from RuneScape Classic to RuneScape 2 and then further evolving into RuneScape 3.

For players that have been apart of the RuneScape community since Classic, they will know that the farewell of the very old servers will be heartfelt moment. RuneScape Classic has not been supported by Jagex for the last couple of years, the developer has said that "the number of bugs is getting worse, and we're gradually seeing the game breaking. It's important to highlight these are bugs which we won't fix, most of them we can't fix due to the unsupported nature of the game."

Overwatch is one of the biggest games on the market right now, and one of my personal favorites (it's all I play at the moment) but what about a sequel to the super huge 6v6 shooter?

This is something GameSpot asked Blizzard during an interview, about the potential of Overwatch 2 to which Assistant Game Director Aaron Keller replied with: "I think at the core sitting here at the two-year anniversary, we've had a wildly successful 6v6 shooter game which has blown us away with how the community has responded to it. We dip our toes into different areas here and there with the Archives event and Junkenstein. But I think our focus is really on keeping the community engaged with the 6v6 shooter that we have on the live service".

Senior Game Producer Matthew Hawley also added: "Running a live service game takes a lot of work and I hope the community knows we have been committed to continually improving the game and creating content. What people might not realise is the team now is significantly bigger than what it was when we shipped the game, and we have put all of that into working on the live game and the new maps, heroes, and events like Anniversary. At least for the time being, [supporting Overwatch] is our focus right now, and we're excited to work on this game".

The original RAGE was powered by id Software's in-house idTech engine, but its sequel will be using the Avalanche engine which powered the Just Cause games.

RAGE was powered by the idTech 5 engine at the time, with the developer using their own engine for games like DOOM, but it seems that RAGE 2 won't be using idTech this time around. Avalanche Studio founder Christofer Sundberg tweeted to a fan who asked what engine RAGE 2 would be using, where he said: "It's Apex - Avalanche Open-World Engine".

It's a fitting engine considering that RAGE 2 is pushing for an open-world experience, and the Avalanche Engine powered games like Just Cause and Mad Max, both featuring large game worlds. RAGE 2 isn't coming until 2019, so we should expect some more details on its engine and graphics prowess during E3 2018 next month.

Acer has its Predator X27 gaming monitor up for pre-order for $1999, and now ASUS has joined the 4K 144Hz fray with pre-orders opening up for their upcoming ROG Swift PG27UQ monitor.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ is a 27-inch 4K monitor with the glorious 144Hz refresh rate, NVIDIA G-Sync technology, and DisplayHDR 1000 certification. ASUS uses the same AU Optronics panel, and is the first monitor of its kind to feature DisplayHDR 1000 certification, which provides true HDR support and full certification in terms of quality.

ASUS will have its native 3840 x 2160 resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, G-Sync technology, 1000cd/m2 peak brightness, LED backlight that dynamically controls 384 zones, and factory color calibration. ASUS also has 99% of the Adobe RGB coverage, and 97% DCI-P3. ASUS uses Quantum Dot like technology, life-like luminance, and cool light effects that are projected onto the desktop itself, all with an adjustable stand.

Ubisoft has outlined the PC system requirements for The Crew 2, while also announcing that the game will have support for steering wheels, 4K and 21:9 monitor support, mouse and keyboard support, multi-monitor support, and more.

The Crew 2 system requirements are quite low, with gamers needing an Intel Core i5-2400 or AMD FX-6100 processor with at least 8GB of RAM, and a relatively average GeForce GTX 660 or Radeon HD 7870 to run The Crew 2 at 1080p at 30FPS on low settings. If you want to run 1080p 30FPS on high settings, the GPU requirements are bumped to the GTX 760 and R9 270X.

If you want to game at 1080p 60FPS, Ubisoft recommends an Intel Core i5-4690K or Ryzen 5 1600 mixed with a beefier GTX 970 or GTX 1060, or the Radeon RX 470 minimum.

DICE has officially unveiled and shown off gameplay from Battlefield V, with more details coming out as the hours go past today. We now know that DICE teamed with NVIDIA for Battlefield V, after years and years and many Battlefield games that were optimized for Radeon as DICE used to work with AMD... until now.

Senior Producer at DICE, Andreas Morell, said in a press release: "With Battlefield V, we wanted to align with a partner who shares our passion for PC gaming. By combining our talented development team with NVIDIA's advanced gaming technologies and robust GeForce PC gaming platform, we're creating the most physical, immersive, and visually-striking way to experience Battlefield V".

NVIDIA chimed in, saying: "As the PC platform, we're helping the Battlefield V development team create the definitive PC experience. NVIDIA engineers are working with the Battlefield V developers at DICE to bring the best aspects of the GeForce gaming platform to bear for PC gamers, meaning GeForce Experience will deliver Game Ready drivers, Optimal Playable settings, and other NVIDIA-platform features for Battlefield V. In addition, we are working on integrating cutting-edge technologies, optimizing performance, and creating the definitive PC experience".

ASUS is giving away its best gaming monitor ever made, with the company making it super simple to win the ROG Swift PG27UQ, the new 4K 144Hz HDR G-Sync gaming monitor that you'll cry tears of joy over.

All you have to do is sign into their website with your social media account (Facebook or Twitter) and then create a post about why you need a ROG Swift PG27UQ using the #ROGSWIFTPG27UQ hashtag on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. ASUS makes it easy by letting you upload text, images, or video that then needs to be uploaded to their campaign page for you to be in the draw to win the insane ROG Swift PG27UQ.

There are plenty of other ASUS gaming goodies being given away, with the top prize requiring 10,000 participants to unlock the ROG Swift PG27UQ. There are lucky draw prizes that are kick ass on their own, such as the ASUS Strix Flare gaming keyboard, Gladius gaming mouse and Fusion 500 gaming headset.

EA's learned a whole lot from Battlefront II's PR nightmare controversy, and now the company seems to be heading towards a new layered strategy with Battlefield V.

Earlier today EA and DICE confirmed that Battlefield V's premium pass has been abolished. EA, like other publishers, typically monetizes its biggest games in a two-pronged approach: microtransactions in the form of, say, lootboxes and piecemeal one-off cosmetic skins, and macrotransactions, which typically include season passes like Battlefield's premium pass. So if EA is eliminating one prong, it strongly hints that the other prong will be sharpened to a fine point so as to skewer as much recurring revenue as possible. Given everything DICE's panel of devs said at today's Battlefield V reveal event we think that cosmetics will be monetized. This lines up with previous reports.

Here at TweakTown I talk a lot about engagement and how it has transformed the games industry--games are now longer, multi-year affairs with tons of in-game purchases and other options that provide millions--or in EA's case, billions--in revenue over time. Publishers not only use this money to fund free content updates--which is what EA is doing with Battlefield V--but also use that cash to fuel stronger development cycles, buffer earnings, and continually churn the wheelhouse of their business. There's just one big catch: it all depends on how the game is monetized. Lootboxes carry a strong stigma of gambling and after Battlefront II, EA is eager to push away from all that flak. And if there's one thing I learned from the reveal it's that Battlefield V is aiming hard at engagement.

EA and DICE today announced that Battlefield V won't have a premium pass-style macro-transaction revenue model.

Big publishers are always keen on finding new ways to boost engagement while not alienating a core sect of their fanbase. One of the best ways to splinter a millions-strong playerbase is by locking certain maps and modes behind a season pass or paid DLC structure, thus ensuring that free players are gated off from certain content. With Battlefield V, DICE's big new WWII-based shooter, EA has abolished the premium pass and will now even out the playing field.

"No, there's no more premium pass in this game. This means no more paying for maps, no more paying for modes. This is something the community has asked for and something the team really believes in. What we want is a game where people stay together, where they play the game together and get to go on this journey through World War II together," DICE's Ryan MacArthur said during the reveal event.