Latest News - Page 2375

Smartphones, including the iPhone, almost entirely replaced the MP3 players, but Apple's iPod earned its place in history because it forever changed the world of music.

Steve Jobs introduced the iPod at a very humble presentation on this day, October 23rd, 15 years ago. The iPod, which had 5GB of storage and allowed you to carry a thousand songs in your pocket, along with iTunes, started a revolution in the way we buy music and movies.

The first iPod was the size of a deck of cards, with an aluminum back and plastic front end. It had a rather modest screen compared to today's standards, and its price was $399 for a 5GB model, FireWire port included.

ARK: Survival Evolved has been updated, with developer Studio Wildcard releasing update v248 that includes new dinosaurs, new mechanics and features, and now ARK: Survival Evolved features procedurally generated maps - and that's a big deal.

The biggest change to ARK is the inclusion of procedurally generated maps, that will be randomly generated for the user - all on top of the massive worlds that are created. ARK: Survival Evolved players can choose from various landscape options, where they can tweak the heights of mountains, the depths of valleys, and the number of lakes, oceans and rivers - as well as the biomes that they want, and so much more.

There are also new creatures to be scared of, with the prey-grabbing Kaprosuchus, the boulder-throwing Chalicotherium, and the oxygen-giving Diplocaulus - all making appearances in the v248 update for ARK: Survival Evolved. Here's what the v248 update for ARK: Survival Evolved includes:

AT&T has struck a deal to acquire Time Warner, with the merger mounting towards over $80 billion. The news has been reported by the likes of The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and Bloomberg, and has the deal reportedly ballooning out to $85 billion, once it's all done and dusted.

If the deal is inked, AT&T will find itself owning HBO, Warner Bros. Entertainment, and CNN - these companies own some of the biggest entertainment and media companies under their respective umbrellas. HBO has the rights to shows like Game of Thrones, while Warner Bros. has Batman, Superman, the upcoming Wonder Woman and Justice League movies, and so much more. Now AT&T will own them, so could we expect some big changes in the way AT&T stream media to their wireless customers?

What I'd like to be right now: a fly on the wall of the likes of Netflix, and AT&T's competitors - as well as other media and entertainment companies. This $80 billion deal is mammoth, and it'll have big waves for the entire industry.

Shadow Warrior 2 has been one of the best releases on PC in 2016 so far, with developer Flying Wild Hog releasing their third patch for the PC version of Shadow Warrior 2 since it released last week.

The new update includes shadow and geometry flickering issues, optimizes shadow rendering performance, and defaults the GPU to the dedicated graphics card, and not the integrated GPU on your CPU (if you've got one). The new patch also includes some performance improvements to the cooperative side of the game, with FWG providing a bunch of cooperative network bandwidth usage optimizations, and new Photomode fixes.

There are also some new balance and gameplay changes, and the usual general gameplay and UI improvements. The full patch 1.1.3.0 changelog:

We're beginning to find out more concrete details on the technical specifications of Sony's upcoming PS4 Pro console, with PlayStation Chief Architect Mark Cerny explaining some of what Sony has done inside of their new console.

Cerny said there are two chips in the PS4 Pro, which lets it play older PS4 games - but when you install the PS4 Pro game, both of the chips work together. Since Sony tapped AMD's new Polaris architecture for the PS4 Pro, is there some CrossFire magic going on?

He explains: "We doubled the GPU size by essentially placing it next to a mirrored version of itself, sort of like the wings of a butterfly. That gives us an extremely clean way to support the existing 700 titles. We just turn off half the GPU and run it at something quite close to the original GPU".

It looks like developer Battlestate Games has been busy with completely changing Escape of Tarkov, their new hardcore story-driven MMOFPS game that has been in a state of constant change since the developer started on it.

It's been in closed Alpha form for a while now, but the studio is continuing its work on large-scale online testing and performance optimization. The team has made massive upgrades to the graphics in Escape from Tarkov, which looks positively awesome.

The team has said that they have made "significant engine changes", teasing: "

It's no doubt that Nintendo is blowing up the gaming scene as we speak with their release of the latest next-gen console: Nintendo Switch. Though let's not forget that the 3DS is still out there making headlines. Nintendo-America has recently unveiled their new Special Edition: Lime Green 3DS XL.

The console is now available as an Amazon exclusive for the US market, and comes with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System classic Super Mario World pre-installed. Customers will need to buy an AC Adapter (sold separately) but if already owners of the Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, or Nintendo 2DS can use those adaptors as the system is compatible.

The Special Edition: Lime Green New Nintendo 3DS XL is now available to buy from the US & CAD Amazon website ranging from $199.99 - $239.99 depending on what region customers live in.

Love roguelites and/or board games? Always wanted to see a Final Fantasy Tactics game with Vikings? Enjoy a bout of Chess here and there? You'll want to check out Iron Tides, an interesting looking indie that wraps up all of these themes and more.

Iron Tides is a promising looking indie that features a nice mashup of traditional game mechanics including roguelike, survival, and turn-based tactical strategy.

The indie has a Norse theme, and revolves around players exploring an endless sea in search of plunder, battles, and, of course, resources like food to survive. The combat looks pretty interesting and borrows from Final Fantasy Tactics' grid turn-based fighting system, as well as a unique character upgrade system with randomly generated class customizations.

We're hearing so much news about Sony's upcoming PS4 Pro console, but did you know that The Last Guardian has finally gone gold?!

Team Ico has been working on The Last Guardian since 2007, with the first tease of the game taking place during E3 2009... teased with a 2011 release window. Well, the team obviously missed 2011 by half a decade, as they switched development on The Last Guardian from the PS3 to the PS4, with some of the team leaving Sony in 2011.

Fumito Ueda and other developers within Team Ico left Sony in 2011, but Ueda continued on as Director and Creative Consultant for Sony's Japan Studio, taking care of the technical and programming side of The Last Guardian.

Bethesda is having one heck of a week between gameplay trailers and releases, it gets even better with the latest drop in game sales.

Top seller "Fallout" will have its prices slashed up to 66% off across Sony PlayStation 4, Microsoft Xbox One, and PC platforms. Both base games, DLC and season pass versions will be included in the sale via the official Steam website.

Prices for selected titles:

According to Sony, developers make very little effort to enable enhancements like 1080p 60FPS or super-sampled graphics in old PS4 games on the new PlayStation 4 Pro.

One of the biggest selling points of Sony's new 4K-ready PlayStation 4 Pro is that it's fully backward compatible with all existing PS4 games, and can even provide performance and graphical boosts for current PS4 titles with Forward Compatibility updates.

We had originally worried that these Forward Compatibility upgrades would possibly quite an involved process, but Sony says that it's incredibly easy and only takes "a fraction of a percent" of the original game's development efforts.

UK publisher PQube revealed the trailer for arcade-style racing game "Moto Racer 4, exciting fans of the franchise. Moto Racer 4 is being developed by Microids, and published by Microids & Artefacts Studios has sold over 7 million copies throughout the globe.

No surprise with it's previous sales history, gamers are anticipating the release in the next coming weeks when it drops on November 4, 2016.

The game will involve:

Nintendo's next-gen Switch console has been making headlines all over the gaming industry in the last 48 hours. Bethesda's smash hit game "Skyrim" was amongst several titles featured in the console's footage release... but fans may be disappointed to know that the game hasn't actually been scheduled for launch on the Switch platform.

In a statement made by a Bethesda spokesperson, issued that whilst they were happy to work with Nintendo on the reveal trailer, they weren't ready to confirm any games for the Switch just yet. The Bethesda rep said: "While we are not confirming any specific titles at this time, we are pleased to announce our partnership with Nintendo and support of the Switch. We look forward to revealing specific games and details in the future."

But like all things media related it's not uncommon for a third party to create a little bit of controversy for the hype of a new release. It's not to say we won't ever see Skyrim on Nintendo Switch, it just means for now, news regarding Skyrim's specific release has not yet been officially confirmed.

Blizzard Entertainment recently announced via their Twitter page, that a new communication application has made its way to gaming desktops.

The new voice chat service aka Battle.net desktop app, is now available for download. Battle.net will give players the ability to chat across all titles developed by Blizzard. No longer will gamers have to go through a third party chat such as TeamSpeak or Skype. The download is very simple, once the user installs the latest of the app, a notice will let them know that voice chat can be enabled. Players then create a channel for themselves and customize their options.

For those who have still yet to download the Battle.net app, Blizzard is allowing a one time login to access where users will remain logged in for up to 30 days, making the process much easier.

NVIDIA has unleashed its new GeForce 375.57 WHQL drivers, optimized for the just-released Battlefield 1 and the upcoming Titanfall 2, as well as Civilization VI, and more. You can grab the new GeForce 375.57 WHQL drivers right here.

The new GeForce 375.57 WHQL drivers also add an SLI profile for Lineage Eternal: Twilight Resistance, and new 3D profiles for Titanfall 2 and Civilization VI. Some of the flickering issues in Mirror's Edge Catalyst on Ansel have been fixed, and the system crashes and signal lost problems that users were experiencing when they changed the refresh rate from 144Hz to 240Hz on their BenQ ZOWIE gaming monitors.

Here's the full changelog on the GeForce 375.57 WHQL drivers:

Sony announced its new PlayStation 4 Pro console earlier this month, but since the unveiling event Sony has added 1GB of RAM to the PS4 Pro.

During an interview with Lead System Architect Mark Cerny and IGN, it was revealed that Sony has added 1GB of DRAM into the PS4 Pro, with the 1GB of DRAM being much slower than the 8GB GDDR5 RAM in the normal PS4. He said: "We felt games needed a little more memory, about 10 percent more, so we added about 1GB of slow, conventional DRAM to the console".

The additional RAM will also be used to store background applications for multi-tasking in your games, instead of reserving some of the unified GDDR5 RAM that it used for the OS and games. The new PS4 Pro will cost $400 and launch on November 10 with a 1TB HDD and remember, no 4K Blu-ray player. For that, you'd have to buy Sony's competitor in the Xbox One S.

Last month publisher FDG Entertainment released their adaptation of a Zelda inspired themed game 'Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas' for Xbox One and the PlayStation 4. In just a few short weeks, the game skyrocketed with popularity as it has gone on to sell over a million units between the two gaming platforms alone.

The success was enough to motivate more versions for additional consoles, in an announcement recently made by the developer. Android and PlayStation Vita have now been added to the list, along with a "Nintendo Console".

The official statement made by the company reads: "After the successful launch of Oceanhorn on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, the game managed to top 1 Million units sold across all platforms. Oceanhorn is currently available on iPhone and iPad, Apple TV, PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Xbox. The game will be ported to even more platforms soon - including Android, PlayStation Vita and a Nintendo console."

The smash hit PopCap game "Plants Vs Zombies" has now entered the CCG genre. Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes is available now for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices as a free download via in-app purchases from Google Play or the Apple Store.

The new title combines PvZ's traditional lane-based gameplay with the addition of a collectible card structure. Zombies can play cards at the top of each lane, whereas Plants get the bottom of the lanes. The cards will cost energy to play therefore, the sun will be assigned to the Plants and Brains for the Zombies.

The game includes competitive modes that allows players to battle against one another. It will also feature a single-player campaign with 400 levels that can assist in earning new cards as they progress throughout the game.

Celebrating birthdays just got even better with Europe's Nintendo "Just for You" promotion starting October 2016. The info for this offer comes direct online from "Nintendo Insider" just yesterday via the Nintendo website.

The special allows a 30% discount for selected Wii U and Nintendo 3DS games at the Nintendo eShop for those birthday boys and girls. To obtain this promotion, users will have to register for a Nintendo Account and have selected to receive the promotion emails from Nintendo, then link their account to their Nintendo Network ID.

Selected titles can be bought directly from the Nintendo website or within the Just for You section on the Nintendo eShop. All games available for this promotion are listed on Nintendo's website.

Long before Guitar Hero: Metallica made its debut in March 2009, Kotaku revealed in 2011 of another band-themed game that unfortunately didn't go anywhere. The title, named after one of Metallica's songs: 'Damage Inc.' never saw the light of day. The track was scheduled for 2005, but never reached store shelves.

The team at PtoPOnline recently published an extended gameplay trailer showing off the content and style of the game in more detail. Damage Inc was designed to be a post-apocalyptic vehicular-combat-action themed concept with a somewhat Mad Max influence jammed into the mix of it all. The video demo provides an incomplete version of the concept art by artist, Calum Alexander Watt and game extras for what was originally developed for Sony PlayStation 2, and eventually Xbox and PC.

Whilst the rumors for a comeback were spreading around the gaming industry to see it launch on the Sony PSP, that fizzled as well with any hopes of a return. It seems that the heavy metal band wasn't set out for making anything other than great music!