Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition announced by Nightdive Studios

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Mar 13, 2020 8:28 PM CDT

Blade Runner was a classic game on the PC when it was released back in 1997, requiring some nightmare specs at the time -- and now we can expect a remastered edition.

Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition announced by Nightdive Studios

The developers at Nightdive Studios have been busy with making classic games like System Shock and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter in remastered goodness, and now it is time for Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition. Nightdive has teamed with film company Alcon Entertainment for the remaster.

Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition will be powered by the KEX Engine, with Nightdive CEO Stephen Kick explaining that the graphics engine will help "elevate the gaming experience in a way you've never seen before" while keeping the work that Westwood Studios did with Blade Runner in terms of their vision and gameplay.

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You can donate your CPU and GPU power to help cure coronavirus

If you want to use the power inside of your GPU and CPU at home to help researchers find a cure for COVID-19 / coronavirus, then Folding@Home is where you'll want to go.

You can donate your CPU and GPU power to help cure coronavirus

Folding@Home is a distributed computing project spearheaded by Stanford University, and has been around for what feels like forever. Instead of a single gigantic supercomputer, the premise of Folding@Home will use regular computers owned by regular people, building the computing power up into a single, much more powerful force -- towards a single effort, which in this case is coronavirus.

Your unused computational resources from your CPU and graphics card/s can be used to help researchers that are working on understanding the structures of potential drug targets for 2019-nCoV (COVID-19 / coronavirus) that will help "aid in the design of new therapies".

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Bill Gates steps down from Microsoft board, will focus on philanthropy

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Mar 13, 2020 7:19 PM CDT

Bill Gates has just announced he is stepping down from the board of directors at Microsoft, with co-founder and ex-CEO of the company pushing more into his philanthropic efforts.

Bill Gates steps down from Microsoft board, will focus on philanthropy

Back in 2008, Gates walked away from his full-time position at Microsoft in order to pursue his philanthropy wishes, but has now stepped down from the board of directors in a similar way. In a press release over the news, it stated Gates will "dedicate more time to his philanthropic efforts".

Bill Gates will stay on with Microsoft as a "technology advisor" to the current CEO, Satya Nadella.

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PlatinumGames reveals new next-gen games engine

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Mar 13, 2020 5:45 PM CDT

Today PlatinumGames announced a new proprietary games engine that will help developers streamline their workflows on next-gen games.

PlatinumGames reveals new next-gen games engine

Now that PlatinumGames is a developer-publisher that owns its IPs, it's time the company create a new future-proofed games engine for the new console generation. The new games engine, dubbed the PlatinumEngine (name not finalized), is being made from scratch. The engine has been in development for the past two years and has many goals, including high res graphics, but it's mostly focused on simplifying development.

"Our goal with this new engine is to reduce, as much as we can, the amount of effort that goes into game development. The idea is to take all the unnecessary work away from our game development teams," said R&D group leader Tsuyoshi Odera.

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343i may discuss Halo: Infinite matchmaking system at GDC 2020

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Mar 13, 2020 4:47 PM CDT

343 Industries could reveal bits and pieces about Halo: Infinite's matchmaking system during two multiplayer-focused GDC 2020 talks.

343i may discuss Halo: Infinite matchmaking system at GDC 2020

343 Industries engagement lead Josh Menke will hold two developer talks during the new GDC 2020 Twitch livestreams. The first, which goes live on Tuesday, March 17 at 12PM PST, focuses on the lessons the studio learned when developing Halo 5's multiplayer. Expect a deep dive on Halo 5's matchmaking infrastructure, probably including TrueSkill 2 optimizations and discussions, and maybe even hints or brief tidbits on Halo: Infinite's systems.

"What should matchmaking worry most about? Latency? Skill? Streaks? Wait time? There are several commonly held best practices on how to matchmake for engagement across the industry, some of which contradict each other, but little to no data-driven evidence to support them. The following will show how to effectively test matchmaking approaches and show real examples and data from a popular first-person shooter. The results show that not all practices are actually important, while others are critical."

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Square Enix teases big next-gen PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X games

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Mar 13, 2020 12:07 PM CDT

The games industry's biggest publishers are gearing up projects for next-gen PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles, and Square Enix in particular teases big things for the systems.

Square Enix teases big next-gen PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X games

Next-gen is an exciting time for the industry. Every developer is eager to show off new games to push the boundaries of what's possible. Devs want to take advantage of the PS5's and Xbox Series X's raw power, flexibility, and new feature sets like variable rate shading, ray tracing, and 120FPS gaming. Square Enix will be among these devs and the company has some big games set for 2020 and beyond.

In a Tweet revealing its plans to host a digital-based E3 stream, the Final Fantasy dev says their 2020 and next-gen lineups are "stronger than ever," asserting there's more next-gen games in the works that haven't been revealed yet.

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PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X to be delayed past 2020, analyst predicts

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Mar 13, 2020 10:46 AM CDT

The PS5 and Xbox Series X are likely to be delayed outside of 2020 due to coronavirus disruption, analyst firm DFC Intelligence predicts.

PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X to be delayed past 2020, analyst predicts

Analyst firm DFC Intelligence just sent out an email newsblast that updates their 2020 gaming hardware forecast to reflect the world's current economic disruption. The firm expects COVID-19 to force Microsoft and Sony to delay their next-gen systems in 2021 as critical supply and manufacturing chains are disrupted. These predictions reflect the delay prediction I made in February.

"The conclusion is that coronavirus is likely to have a major short-term impact on the delivery of both systems. There is a strong likelihood one or both systems will not make a 2020 launch. If the systems do launch supply will likely be constrained and initial pricing could be higher than expected," the firm wrote in the email.

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Naughty Dog is 'no longer the best,' animator hospitalized from crunch

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Mar 13, 2020 9:16 AM CDT

One ex-Naughty Dog animator exposes just how intense the studio's crunch can get, including hospitalizations from overwork.

Naughty Dog is 'no longer the best,' animator hospitalized from crunch

The games industry is kind of like a vampire that drains those who work in it. Many studios suffer from hostile work environments with fatigue runs rampant. To get a game shipped, developers have to work months of ruthless crunch time, leading to mental and physical breakdowns, emotional outbursts, and general malaise and depression. Naughty Dog is one such studio.

In an eye-opening expose, sources tell Kotaku's Jason Schreier about Naughty Dog's culture of crunch. It's a brutal one. The general consensus among workers is a simple question: "How long can we keep doing this?" Crunch takes a serious human cost, and making games often requires prolonged periods of overwork. Those amazing AAA interactive experiences that blow us away demand sacrifice from the all-mighty Crunch God. Developers have to give up their time, their soul, and their minds for the billion-dollar games industry.

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Call of Duty: Warzone to go 200 players matches and 4/5 player squads

Jak Connor | Gaming | Mar 13, 2020 4:20 AM CDT

If you thought 150-player matches in Call of Duty: Warzone was big, then you are about to get a big shock as that number will soon be increasing.

Call of Duty: Warzone to go 200 players matches and 4/5 player squads

Call of Duty: Warzone currently has one of the bigger battle royales with 150 players dropping into one map to wreak havoc on each other. But what if 150 isn't enough? Do we want more players? The answer comes from the developers of the game, Infinity Ward, and they certainly do want more players as they are planning on upping the anti very soon. According to Infinity Ward co-head, Patrick Kelly, soon players will be experiencing matches with 200 players.

Kelly spoke to USA Today, and said the following "Actually, I can tell you we are already playing with 200 players. We are going to release that a little bit later." On top of adding more players to a single match, Kelly also reveals that the development team is also testing larger squads. Here's what he said, "I can tell you we have four-and five-player squads we are already playing with. But we want to launch with something we know works really well and we have tested to the nines and then play around with these different team sizes."

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Here's why Call of Duty: Warzone's file size is so absurdly large

Jak Connor | Gaming | Mar 13, 2020 3:41 AM CDT

If you are into battle royales, then you have most likely heard about Call of Duty's newest installment into the genre -- Call of Duty: Warzone.

Here's why Call of Duty: Warzone's file size is so absurdly large

If you have already heard about it and are wanting to jump into the action, then I must tell you to be prepared for a large download. The standalone Warzone client weighs in at anywhere between 80gb - 100gb, depending on your platform. The download can be smaller than that if you already have Call of Duty Modern Warfare installed as Modern Warfare shares some of the same assets as Warzone. But why is the new mode so large in general?

According to Production Director, Paul Haile who works at Infinity Ward, the developers for Call of Duty Modern Warfare and Warzone, the reason behind the file size being so large is because its "just a tone of content". Haile went into more detail behind why the file is so large, and partially blamed the size on Infinity Ward's production pipeline. Here's the full quote, "And also in this case since Warzone shares progression with MW every weapon and character asset from MP needs to also work in Warzone. Our pipeline isn't perfect but even if it was it's still a mountain of data to ship."

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