Latest News - Page 2439

Although the biggest selling point of the Assassin's Creed franchise is reliving past eras, the official feature-length movie adaptation will be mostly based in the present day.

As an AC fan, I never really cared for the present-day game segments. Sure they were important to set up the tone and storyline, but...they just felt like in the way and obtrusive. The real fun was wreaking havoc in Renaissance Italy, or 17th Century London. Sadly, it looks like the Assassin's Creed movie starring Michael Fassbender will have even more present-day scenes; the movie is "65% present and 35% past."

So the awesome-looking trailer we were shown isn't actually indicative of the final product. Most of the epic scenes were based in the past, showing rather amazing fighting scenes, parkour and other AC staples. Sure the movie still looks great, but knowing it'll have so much present-day content tampers my excitement.

Fallout 4's new Far Harbor DLC will be very much like a chilling horror movie, with a dark foggy atmosphere filled with lurking terrors.

Now that Far Harbor is in beta testing, some testers have revealed key features of the new DLC, revealing something quite surprising: Far Harbor is pretty haunting, with creepy atmospherics right out of John Carpenter's The Fog. Set on the cost of in post-apocalyptic Bar Harbor, Maine, the DLC features dangerously irradiated landscapes and skirling fog. A whole new breed of mutated monstrosities and slithering nasties are waiting in that fog, and players will fall prey to jump scares and an overwhelming sense of being hunted.

"It's kind of like a mix between Point Lookout and Dead Money," wrote on beta tester on Reddit. "It's incredibly unnerving to explore," says coldwave44. "Far Harbor is incredibly dark and foggy all the time, and you legitimately run the risk of being ambushed and murdered at any second. The enemies are really deadly too," writes another.

New job listings at id Software's Texas and Frankfurt offices might hint at a Quake reboot.

id Software's Doom reboot is a huge success, and the developer might be keen on resurrecting another classic FPS franchise: Quake. It's been some 9 years since the last Quake game--Quake Wars--released on PC, but it looks like id may be preparing a fresh Quake reboot akin to the new Doom game. The studio has no less than twelve open positions at is Texas office, including some pretty major roles like Lead Gameplay Programmer, Backend Server Programmer, and a Senior Lightning Artist. id Software Germany is also hiring for five positions, including a Senior Engine Programmer and a Senior Physics Programmer.

What makes these listings so eye-catching is that they outright mention Quake. "id Software is looking for a Senior Physics & Simulation Programmer to work as part of a development team on legendary id game properties like DOOM and QUAKE," reads one of the listings. Sure, this could be meaningless, but when we combine the small hint with the amount of open positions, it could indicate id is working on a brand new game.

Streaming set-top boxes will replace traditional games consoles, but only after another major hardware cycle, says Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot.

Ubisoft's CEO envisions a future where digital-only games are beamed directly to a "new type of hardware" akin to a set-top box, or an all-in-one console-inside-a-TV solution. "We expect there will be new consoles that are going to make this market continue to grow. We'll still have another generation of consoles before we have new types of hardware coming to the market," Guillemot said.

Bandwidth is a huge roadblock for digital game-streaming, and Guillemot admits that it'll take quite a bit of time before the new sans-console age hits its stride, especially with the slow internet ISPs are peddling. "We believe in streaming--it demands lots of bandwidth. We think it's going to grow. But today, with the types of games we have, it will still take a bit of time to be more popular."

Google is set to soon integrate shopping advertisements into its image searches on mobile.

"The most common feedback people have left with Google Images is, 'I like these products - how much do they cost and where can I buy them?'" says Google's VP of shopping Jon Alferness.

When you search for an image on your phone like say, couches, sponsored links with couch prices will show up. If you want more specific links, you can sort by colour, type, location, and store.

EA has confirmed a Battlefront sequel is happening, and that it'll tie into the new Star Wars films, but don't expect to see any Episode VIII references.

Battlefront 2 is slated to launch by March 31, 2017, and EA's CFO Blake Jorgensen affirmed the sequel will use content "from the new movies." But what movies? Everyone made the assumption Battlefront 2 would use Episode VIII as source material, possibly with a campaign focus, but there's a a big problem: Episode VIII doesn't release until December 2018, way after Battlefront 2's Q1 2017 launch deadline.

So where does this leave us? Battlefront 2 could use Rogue One as the source, since the movie is releasing this year, and of course Episode VII: The Force Awakens. But it couldn't be both, especially since Rogue One is based before Episode VII, so EA will have to make a major decision there. Whichever move is tied into Battlefront 2 could serve as the game's major campaign, too. From Jorgensen's words we can assume that DICE wants to focus on the new era of Star Wars for the sequel, just as the first Battlefront was tied into the original trilogy.

Multiple users have reported the recent WhatsApp Android beta included an option to initiate a video call. Although it's said most users couldn't actually activate it and it was later removed in an update, its very presence indicates a release is likely not far off.

Signs have been pointing to video calling coming to the popular chat app since at least December thanks to leaks and translation requests for "Video Call."

Audio calling came to WhatsApp last year. As with that feature launch, it's probable that video calling will be available only to a small number of users at first. To increase your chances, sign up for the beta program.

Peripheral maker Razer last year opened retail stores in the Phillipines and Thailand, and now it's about to open its first in the US.

The shop is just across the way from its global headquarters in San Francisco's Moscone Center. Boasting nearly 1,300 square feet and two stories, it features 20 demo stations for its peripherals, audio, and broadcast products, as well as a 16x9 foot video wall that streams gaming content that even onlookers from outside can see.

Razer will host weekly gaming events at the outlet and says customers are welcome to stay all day if they feel like it. By the sounds of it, they're going for an arcade vibe, which sounds great by us.

Overwatch's new CGI short delivers backstory on two of the game's warring characters--Genji and Hanzo.

Although Overwatch doesn't have a campaign mode per se, Blizzard is delivering important storylines through CGI trailers, and the first two have already made waves in the gaming community. The third CGI trailer, Dragons, delves into the brutal rivalry between the cyber-ninja Genji and the arrow-slinging Hanzo, tying neatly into a unique myth about twin dragons.

The video is quite touching and reveals quite a bit about Genji and Hanzo, and explains Hanzo's ultimate Dragonstrike ability. Overwatch is slated to drop on May 24 across PC, PS4 and Xbox One, and seeing as 9.7 million gamers played the beta, the shooter will become a huge AAA blockbuster.

Nintendo's new NX console won't be built around the x86 architecture and won't "blow away current consoles", according to an industry insider.

Inside sources have told industry soothesayer Emily Rogers that Nintendo's next-gen NX console won't be based on an x86 architecture like the PS4 and Xbox One. This folds neatly with our projections that the NX will be powered by a next-gen Pascal-based NVIDIA Tegra chip, especially since Tegra is ARM-based and not x86. Rogers also says that the NX won't be powered an AMD Polaris GPU derivative, calling the claims "wacky"

"After speaking to seven different people this week, I can say with confidence that this is false. NX is not using x86 architecture like PlayStation 4 and Xbox One," Rogers said in a recent blog post. "The NX has special, custom-made chips and the overall design of the hardware is very modern. The chips are industry leading because they are very modern chips, but having modern chips doesn't necessarily mean Nintendo is aiming to create the most powerful hardware on the market. Furthermore, any NX rumors on "Polaris chips" and "Polaris architecture" are all wacky. There's a good reason why those rumors are wacky."

Modder Naxshe is hard at work on making all of Final Fantasy X HD Remaster's cutscenes 60FPS with hex editing and "various other tricks", and you can enjoy the first fruits of his labour below. There is some skipping in the video, but Naxshe says this is due to his recording software, not the mod.

By comparison, here is the same scene in 30FPS.

It's going to be awhile before all of the scenes are 60FPS ready as Naxshe has to work on each individual scene, and of course there are a lot. But hey, that will be a good excuse to replay it for the millionth time.

With Sony beating Microsoft at the current-gen console race, Resident Evil developer Capcom has predicted that there will be over 100 million consoles sold by 2020.

Capcom CEO Kenzo Tsjimoto said during the company's recent earnings Q&A session: "Our perception of the home video game market is that it will continue to be active at the global level, as we believe the install base of major home video game consoles will break the 100 million unit mark in 2020".

Right now the "major home video game consoles" would be the Xbox One and PS4, with the Nintendo NX console - which is said to be powered by an NVIDIA Tegra processor, said to be revealed this year and released in 2017. Sony is months away from a new PlayStation device, and we all know Microsoft is cooking something up behind the scenes. There are alternate reports that claim there'll be over 109 million PS4s and Xbox One consoles sold by 2019, with the PS4 and new PlayStation beating out whatever Microsoft is throwing at them.

Depe Silver is mostly known for its big franchises like Saints Row and the Metro series, with the developer teasing it has a major announcement in store for E3 2016.

The next game should be a AAA sandbox-style experience, with Deep Silver's CTO Oles Shishkovstov saying during an interview before the release of Metro Redux: "less linear but still hugely story-driven". He added: "I will not go into details, but it requires some work from programmers as well. Also, we are improving graphics in very different aspects, like recently we did a physically-based global ambient occlusion (instead of local, like SSAO). But yes, we are fully PBR now for the next project. No more tuning knobs - at least for now".

How good would an open-world Metro game be?

Nintendo has some of the most iconic and appealing characters in pop culture, so it's understandable that they'd want to exploit those on the big screen. However, since the spectacular failure of 'Super Mario Bros.' in 1993, the Kyoto games maker has been understandably reticent to license them out. But this looks like it might soon change.

According to the Associated Press, the game studio are in talks with studios to explore potential partnerships in the very near future. Although it's not currently certain which characters could potentially be used, it's not a stretch to imagine that these could include heavy hitters such as the 'Super Mario' and 'Zelda' franchises.

Company spokesman Makoto Wakae said an announcement will be made in the future, but could "be a theater release or a DVD [release]."

I have no doubt that Cyberpunk 2077 is going to be one of the biggest games of our time, with CD Projekt Red putting blood, sweat and tears into its huge follow up to the iconic The Witcher series of games.

In a recent interview with Game Pressure, CD Projekt Red Kraków boss, John Mamais, said that they're hoping to push as much as they can into Cyberpunk 2077. Mamais said: "Well, we haven't slowed down much in the last 5 years, perhaps except for a few long weekends, some raucous team parties, and a few personal holidays ;). It's been The Witcher 2 straight to The Witcher 3 in parallel with Cyberpunk and then, after TW3 base game, straight onto 2 large expansions:Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. To realize our ambitions regarding Cyberpunk 2077 we need to scale the size of the team working on it which means from 300+ to 500+".

Cyberpunk 2077 is being developed by both of CD Projekt Red's studios, with the Warsaw and Krakow-based studios cranking 24/7 to get it to market. CDPR's Krakow-based studio is a big part of its future, with the company hoping that the studio will find its own identity, giving birth to a new AAA title in the future. Mamais added: "Kraków will play a critical role in that expansion and the intention is to grow that studio from 30 now to 100+ in the next year (representing about 20% of the dev team on CP). Kraków is already planned to work on some key areas of Cyberpunk. But it's part of the goal to build a studio with its own identity and to give the Kraków team ownership. Thereafter in Kraków it will be more and more growth and a new independent full AAA game conceived, pitched, and developed in Kraków".

We all know how exciting the world of VR is right now, but Payday developer Starbreeze AB has just announced it has joined forces with Acer for the StarVR VR HMD. Some of you might even remember Starbreeze teasing its interesting StarVR headset last year at E3, which featured a huge 5120x1440 display.

The two companies are going to work together on the design, manufacturing, promotion, marketing and sales of the StarVR HMD - for both the professional- and location-based entertainment market. Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson Klint explains: "Since our launch in June 2015, we have had an amazing start with StarVR. By partnering with Acer we shift gears yet again to firmly position us as the leader in top-end VR experiences. Acer is an excellent, experienced and prominent hardware partner that will accelerate us in realizing and producing a high-definition, high-fidelity VR headset. We've been working with a clear roadmap for our VR strategy from day one, and are now about to realize one of the first major collaborations we set out to achieve. The future for StarVR is now set and extremely exciting".

Acer Corporate President and CEO Jason Chen added: "Acer is thrilled to join forces with Starbreeze in bringing the StarVR head-mounted display to the market. We are devoting R&D resources across multiple aspects of the VR ecosystem for a coherent and high-quality experience, while just last month Acer announced powerful desktops and notebooks fully-ready for StarVR. Starbreeze and Acer share the same goal of delivering best-in-class VR applications, and we look forward to unlocking new VR possibilities together with this partnership".

It's been very quiet for Japan's Studio Ghibli animation house since the August 2014 announcement that they'd take a break from producing films, but it looks like the dry spell is about to come to an end.

In a collaboration with French Studios Why Not Productions, Why Not and Studio Ghibli under director Michael Dudok de Wit, Studio Ghibli are about to release 'The Red Turtle', a dialogue-free tale of a man lost at sea who must do battle a mysterious turtle.

'The Red Turtle' is set to have its world premiere this week at the Cannes Film Festival, before premiering in Japan in September 2016.

id Software seems to have hit a homerun with the new DOOM, but I'm loving the performance analysis side of things from sites like Gamers Nexus, and now Digital Foundry has tested the console version of the game.

Digital Foundry's testing was done on the Xbox One and PS4 versions of DOOM, with the PS4 version being the better of the two. DOOM runs at 1080p 60FPS on both the Xbox One and PS4, with Digital Foundry reporting that the Xbox One version of DOOM falls "well below" 1080p at times, but adds that "It's pretty simple to say that it looks and runs smoother on Sony's console. But the Xbox One version is no slouch, either".

DOOM allows gamers to tweak some graphics settings on the console, such as chromatic aberration, motion blur and even the field of view. Loading times on the consoles are actually pretty bad, with 10-15 seconds between some of the levels. Remember you need 5GB+ of VRAM to enable the 'Nightmare' graphics setting in DOOM... yeah.

The latest patch for Forza Motorsport 6: Apex is now out, with stability fixes, performance improvements, and more. The ability to disable VSync is now there, with the patch being auto downloaded from the Windows 10 store. Here's what to expect from the changelog:

Forza Motorsport 6: APEX - Update May 12th Changelog:

We've been hearing a fair bit about AMD's next-gen Polaris architecture and its unveiling during Computex 2016, especially the rumor that AIB partners won't be showing off Polaris-based video cards during the show... boo.

Well, according to the latest rumors, press from around the world are being invited to an event on June 1 where AMD will unveil the new Radeon 400 series based on the Polaris architecture. Polaris 10 will be powering the Radeon 400 series while Polaris 11 will be baked into the lower/mid-range parts. The Polaris 11 GPU is what we saw last year in Sonoma, which was compared against the GTX 950 using less than 85W of power.

Some of the rumors have AMD using Polaris 10 to power the Radeon 400 and have it hit the mid-range segment, priced at less than $299.