Latest News - Page 2453

E3 2016 - Microsoft announced its new super-powered Xbox Scorpio during E3 2016, with the new console being both 4K and VR-ready. Microsoft boss Phil Spencer said that the company could've shipped a next-gen Xbox this year, but it would not have been 4K-capable.

Spencer said during an interview with Eurogamer: "We could have done a new update this year. We actually looked at it. We went all the way to, we had the spec in front of us, should we ship something that's less than Scorpio this year, but in truth you can't do a true 4K console this year. And I just didn't think anything between what is effectively a 1080p console and the 4K console, like, from a consumer television standpoint there's nothing in the middle. So let's go focus on 4K and next year was the right year to do that".

He continued talking about the hardware inside of Scorpio, saying that it would not have been possible to have a true 4K-capable console with all of the right hardware this year. Spencer said: "Balance in the design of the system is really important. So when you think about the CPU and the GPU that are on the SOC, the optical disc drive and the speed of that, which we haven't talked about too much, but I'll just say that, the speed of RAM, all of these things when you're designing the system, making sure they're all in balance, so one piece doesn't get overpowered relative to the other, or you've got a lot of GPU but you're not able to feed all of the assets to it out of the RAM fast enough, all of those things were critical for us when thinking about the design. All of this is why we picked the design point we did of 4K and the date we did. Like I said, we looked at other designs that might be coming earlier, and we don't think they really delivered on a full point".

E3 2016 - With this year's E3 being one of the most exciting in recent years, Square Enix decided to tease some gameplay footage from the PC version of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

But ugh, the 'PC footage' was captured from the PC version of Mankind Divided, but with an Xbox controller. You can see it in the gameplay, where you can use 'X' to action something. Disappointing to see, as I would've loved to have seen true PC gameplay footage, on you know - the mouse and keyboard. At least the graphics look beyond awesome because it's powered by an actual AMD Radeon-powered gaming PC, but now I need mouse and keyboard gameplay footage!

E3 2016 - When Microsoft announced the Xbox Scorpio, I have to admit, I was a little shocked. I didn't expect the company to pump that much horsepower into a console, with 6TFlops of performance - compared to the piddly little 1.32TFlops offered on the current-gen Xbox One console. Microsoft's Xbox Scorpio console is 4K-ready, and waiting for VR gaming, too.

During an interview with Wired, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said that Microsoft wants to "enable many hardware manufacturers to make progress there", in regards to VR. He said that HTC could have their Vive headset, and others like Oculus with their Rift headset, have it work on the Xbox Scorpio. This is great news, and I'm actually proud of Microsoft for this, as the reason is because the company is "not focused on a first party VR hardware device right now".

Spencer said that the PC is the best place for VR right now, saying: "The best place for VR innovation is the PC. I think developers should still go focus on the PC, because I think that's a great place to innovate. What we're doing... is we're able to take some of the PC innovation that we see... and bring it to the console space, to enable those magical experiences on Scorpio when it launches".

E3 2016 - Microsoft's ultra-powerful Project Scorpio may be the first console to push into native 4K gaming.

Microsoft has made it clear that its new 4K-ready Project Scorpio console is a huge step forward, saying things like the console will sport "the highest res at the best frame rates without no compromises." We've speculated that the high-end Xbox Scorpio will be powered by "the most powerful console GPU ever" in a new semi-custom SoC based on AMD's powerful 14nm Polaris GPU and Zen CPU, and now Microsoft may have just confirmed native 4K gaming support for the console. This effectively means Microsoft is bringing enthusiast-grade console hardware to gamers, and for the first time we'll be getting a true next-gen console.

"Scorpio is for the person who's got a 4K television, who's really focused on 4K gaming. This is really a six teraflop console built to support 4K and the power of high fidelity VR. It's going to be a premium price over what we're selling [Xbox One S] for, and both of them will exist in the market at the same time. Scorpio is for your 4K gamer. And that's what we designed it for," Xbox division head Phil Spencer said in a recent interview with Eurogamer.

It wasn't long ago when we found out that AMD's new Radeon RX 480 would run at 60C under load, drawing just 100W. Well, now we have the PCB shots of both the Radeon RX 480 and RX 470, and they're a sight to behold.

The Radeon RX 480 and RX 470 are shorter cards with a single PCIe power connector, and 4 x display outputs consisting of 3 x DP 1.3/1.4 HDR ports and a single HDMI 2.0 port. We're expecting 2304 stream processors on the RX 480, and both a 4GB version that will cost $199, and the 8GB version set at $229. All three of the Radeon RX series cards are based on the new Polaris architecture, baked onto the 14nm FinFET process from GlobalFoundries.

E3 2016 - After news broke out yesterday that the Xbox One S performs better than vanilla Xbox One consoles, Microsoft has jumped in to emphatically insist the Xbox One S hardware tweaks have absolutely zero impact on in-game performance.

Although the 40% smaller Xbox One S rocks GPU and CPU boosts from AMD's new semi-custom SoC, Microsoft says these tweaks are only for HDR support and will have "literally no impact" on in-game performance. Fergusson originally claimed the Xbox One S allowed smoother in-game frame rates and "reduced the resolution penalty" over current Xbox One systems.

"When we made changes to the box for 4K we unlocked a little bit more processing power to enable HDR. That's it. It's exactly the same architecture as the existing one," Xbox exec Albert Penello told Eurogamer. "To support HDR, we give people access to a little more CPU and GPU. That's it. It is so insignificant. I promise, it won't even show up. It will have no impact on games at all. Literally no impact. They will be identical. It's nothing, it is literally nothing.

E3 2016 - Nintendo has done it. They've revealed the official game trailer to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I don't want to write anymore and get in the way of you watching the trailer, so check it out below:

Nintendo explains The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in their YouTube description as: "Step into a world of discovery, exploration and adventure in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a boundary-breaking new game in the acclaimed series. Travel across fields, through forests and to mountain peaks as you discover what has become of the ruined kingdom of Hyrule in this stunning open-air adventure".

Nintendo has built a gigantic world for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which is 12 times the size than the world in Twilight Princess... incredible. Nintendo has said that if you see something in Breath of the Wild, you can reach it - thanks to Link's new abilities of jumping and climbing cliff faces and buildings. You can explore throughout the world, through plains, forests and mountains - and everything else your eye can see.

E3 2016 - With more details now available on AMD's range of Radeon RX series cards, we've stumbled across some Steam VR benchmark results on the Radeon RX 480, which scores just 6.3 in the Steam VR benchmark.

How does 6.3 on the Steam VR benchmark stack up? Well, considering the Radeon R9 390 scores around the same, AMD are positioning themselves incredibly well for VR. The Radeon R9 380 in comparison scores only 3.6, so AMD are comparing the RX 480 against it, and it really shines. The RX 480 should deliver R9 390 level performance, with it being compared to the HBM1-based R9 Nano in a recent story of ours, with the RX 480 set to consume 100W of power and run at 60C under load.

E3 2016 - The E3 2016 madness continues, with Microsoft admitting it's not working on its own VR headset right now, as it's "not focused on an first party VR hardware device right now".

The news comes directly from Xbox boss himself Phil Spencer, during an interview with Wired he added that the company hopes to "enable many hardware manufacturers to make progress there". It's still very interesting to see Microsoft not attempt to make its own VR headset, and let other companies come in and have their headsets work on the Xbox. But hey, it makes sense on the other hand, because Microsoft owns Windows, and Windows wants to be everywhere, right?

Microsoft is better being open like this, than being a closed book and not allowing any VR headsets to work on the Xbox but their own. The Xbox Scorpio is a beast, with 6TFlops of performance compared to the 1.32TFlops of the Xbox One. It's also powered by a 14nm FinFET design provided by AMD, with AMD also having an SoC inside of the new Xbox One S console.

We've just reported on the AMD Radeon RX 480 consuming just 100W of power, and running at 60C under gaming load, with the Polaris 10-based card keeping up with, and beating the HBM1-based Radeon R9 Nano. Not too bad for $199, right? Well, now we have more details on not just the Polaris 10 GPU, but the Polaris 11 GPU which will be powering the lower-end cards.

Starting with the Polaris 10, we have 2304 stream processors all clocked at 1266MHz, with the Polaris 10 powering both the RX 480 and RX 470 cards. The RX 480 is going to be a beast of a card, offering R9 Nano/GTX 980 levels of performance with 4GB/8GB variants ($199/$229 for the reference models). It'll be great for 1080p and 1440p gaming, as well as VR gaming - with FreeSync support, and DisplayPort 1.3/1.4 (and HDR, too).

The Polaris 11 GPU will power the lower-end, eSports-aimed RX 460 card, which will feature 1024 stream processors, with no GPU clock speed numbers confirmed just yet. We know that there will be 2GB and 4GB models of the RX 460 offered, with a 128-bit memory bus and memory bandwidth of somewhere around 112GB/sec. The RX 460 features a pretty damn good 2.8x performance per watt improvement over the previous GCN cards like the Radeon R7 360. The Radeon RX 460 will also have a TDP of only 75W, so you don't need to use a PCIe power connector - which is going to be awesome for gamers who don't have a huge budget in terms of money, and power consumption/bills.

With the final cut of the much anticipated 'Independence Day' sequel 'Resurgence' delivered and waiting release next week, director Roland Emmerich has now turned his attention towards the film which skyrocketed his career in 1994 - 'Stargate'.

Taking reader questions for Empire Online, AlmightyPopcorn (probably not a real name) asked which if any elements from the TV show 'Stargate SG-1' would be adapted for his sequel reboot, to which the director responded: "Elements of it will flow into the reboot, definitely. The amount of characters, for instance. It's not a two-hander like the first one with James Spader and Kurt Russell, this time it's a bigger group. Yes, there's still the James Spader character and the Kurt Russell character, but other people are equally important. James and Kurt won't come back - maybe as cameos - it'll be a younger cast."

So there you have it - probably not much.

We've already seen leaked benchmarks on AMD's Radeon RX 480 where it beat the GeForce GTX 980, but now we have some more information to share - GPU clock speeds, temperature under load, and even the power consumption of AMD's new Polaris-based video card. AMD just unveiled the new RX 470 and RX 460 cards during E3, with pricing to follow on those cards shortly.

The Radeon RX 480 will arrive in both 4GB and 8GB variants, with the RX 480 4GB version costing $199 - and we can exclusively reveal the 8GB version will cost $229 according to our industry insiders. The partner cards will cost more obviously, but they'll have better coolers and higher clock speeds. Both of the RX 480 offerings will feature a base clock speed of 1080MHz, while it will boost up to around 1266MHz out of the box.

Under typical gaming loads, the RX 480 reportedly consumes around 100W of power, hitting 60C on an open-air test bench. The reference design incldues a single 6-pin PCIe power connector, and together with the PCIe 3.0 x16 port consumes up to 150W of power. Custom cards will include an additional PCIe power connector, while the "beast mode" AIB cards will feature a single 6-pin or single 8-pin depending on the card. But how is the performance?

E3 2016 - A huge surprise during E3 2016 was the announcement of a new Spider-Man game exclusive to the PS4 made by Insomniac Games.

Sony teased the new Spider-Man game during its E3 2016 press conference, but then Insomniac Games official Twitter account confirmed they are indeed working on the game, exclusive to Sony's console. Insomniac took to the PlayStation Blog, where they said: "Spider-Man is one of the most iconic and well-known characters in the world, and we're thrilled to be given the responsibility to create a brand new, authentic Spider-Man story".

The developer also confirmed that Spider-Man is not based off of the new reboot of the movie, that Marvel now has huge influence in since Sony have thrown the franchise into the garbage for too long. Insomniac added: "This is a more seasoned Peter Parker who's more masterful at fighting big crime in New York City. At the same time, he's struggling to balance his absurdly chaotic personal life and career".

E3 2016 -- Despite its lack of a single-player campaign, I sunk probably 50 hours into the original Titanfall on Xbox One and PC. It was a successful first effort from Respawn Entertainment, combining the twitch gunplay of games like Call of Duty with just a taste of the massive mech power fantasy I've been craving since the original Xbox's MechAssault. I'll be honest though, the trailers for Titanfall 2 didn't get me too pumped up, but when I got my hands-on the sequel at EA Play during E3 this week, my tune changed significantly. From what I experienced, Titanfall 2 is notable improvement on the original's multiplayer, although we didn't get even a peek at the single player, offline campaign.

Our group (and I believe everyone else) played on PlayStation 4. As much as I preferred Titanfall on PC, it's a smart move to highlight Sony's system here because it was left out in the cold for the original Microsoft exclusive. Like the original, it's also tuned nicely for controller play, and Sony's console handled the action exceptionally well. Thus far in development, Titanfall 2 is running at a smooth 60fps (no slowdown detected even during moments littered with grunts and Titans) on a version of the Source engine that's been heavily modified since the original shooter. I know gang, I wish it used Frostbite too. Still, it looks noticeably better, although some indoor environments -- walls especially -- almost looked like muddy screen doors. We're still in unfinished territory though, so no judgment until it hits retail.

The multiplayer mode we played was Bounty Hunt, which tasks your team with taking down designated Titans by executing them up close, or by pulling off a rodeo takedown. I noticed something when I had the chance to score my first bounty: the rodeo process was more involved and took several seconds longer. That's because now you have to essentially break into the Titan's chassis and lob a grenade inside. You're not just destroying a mech, though, you're stealing health. Your pilot -- if he or she survives the move -- will escape with a battery that can be given to teammates to heal up their own Titans. That should facilitate a bit more teamwork -- even if no one's communicating.

Last week it came out that Blizzard was considering nerfing Overwatch's Widowmaker; turns out they decided to go ahead with it, as today's PC patch does just that.

There was a case to be made for nerfing a variety of different Widowmaker tools as well as damage levels; Blizzard has gone with a hit to non-headshot damage (down from 15 to 12) and now require you to wait for the unscoping animation to finish before scoping again (so no more CS-style flick shotting in rapid succession). Finally, her Infra-Sight ultimate now costs 10% more.

Explaining the changes, Blizzard says, "In the right hands, Widowmaker can often feel unstoppable -- even when just landing body shots instead of critical head shots. The changes to her alternate fire weaken body shot damage while leaving her headshot damage unchanged. Additionally, we felt her Ultimate ability, Infra-Sight, was coming up a little too frequently, especially considering its impact on the game."

E3 2016 - The huge reveal of Resident Evil 7 took place during Sony's E3 2016 press conference, with the announcement of PlayStation VR support. The entire game is playable on the PlayStation VR, and it looks awesome. The trailer is below, with screenshots under that.

Resident Evil 7 will launch in January 2017 for the PlayStation VR, but these screenshots are totally new, and they totally rock. Check them out.

E3 2016 - Pool Nation VR is definitely one of the most interesting games I've seen in a long time, with it hitting the #10 spot on Steam's 10 bestselling games right now.

The game launched on the HTC Vive yesterday, and is currently discounted down to $16.99, with no sales figures provided at this time. This is the first time a VR exclusive game has hit the Top Sellers list on Steam, with the latest numbers on the recent Steam sale indicating there are around 50,000 HTC Vive units out there right now, with a 72-hour ordering system now in place. Considering the $799 price tag, gamers don't seem to mind coughing it up to play on something so transformative as the Vive.

Pool Nation VR is a billiard simulator - which is hard to believe, but it plays incredibly well on the HTC Vive. There are other games like it, but nothing identical - you can even pick up the random beer bottles hanging around and throw them around - you know, just like you would in real life?

E3 2016 -- "So who won E3?" It's one of the most common questions I see after Day 0 comes to a close. Day 0, of course, plays host to more press conferences than any sane game journalist can even attend. There's Microsoft, Ubisoft, the PC Gaming Show, and Sony. Thankfully EA moved theirs to Sunday this year (day -1?) along with Bethesda. E3 doesn't really begin on Tuesday. It kicks off on Sunday now with a metric ton of reveals and announcements and trailers to pick apart and analyze, because this industry is so massive it can't be contained to a single convention, much less a single day's worth of big news.

When people ask "who won E3" they're asking who had the best press conference. I'm sure several sites have already posted their winners and losers, criticizing EA for being so rigid and, frankly, a little boring. Maybe they're recording podcasts right now debating which executives had the best stage presence, whether or not Microsoft ran too long. Perhaps they're questioning why Sony didn't drop enough hard release dates.

As someone who's covered E3 in person since 2011, I've participated in that line of conversation. Hell, it's a fun debate. This year, though, something changed. I was able to step back, temporarily shed my "critic" skin, and just be a fan of video games.

E3 2016 - Microsoft's new Xbox One S is a fully-fledged console refresh with an extra hardware kick to improve in-game frame rates. And it actually plays Gears of War 4 better than original Xbox Ones.

The Xbox One S is not only 40% smaller than current Xbox One consoles, but it will actually play games better than its predecessor. The latest Xbox One S sports a tweaked GPU and CPU that's combined on a new semi-custom SoC from AMD, unlocking some pretty important performance jumps for the system. The Xbox One has had a problem with the age-old frame-rate vs resolution debacle, and games like Halo 5 and DOOM have had to stick with dynamic resolution in order to match inconsistent, sub-60FPS frame rates. The Xbox One S, on the other hand, will reduce those annoying frame rate drops during intense in-game sequences and smooth out one of the most daunting shortcomings of the Xbox One.

Rod Fergusson, who's creating Gears of War 4 with The Coalition, told Polygon that the Xbox One S will "provide a more consistent level of technical performance" thanks to the console's "additional raw GPU and CPU power."

E3 2016 - Beyond Good & Evil was a ridiculously fun game, but the sequel is still in development - and has been confirmed by Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot.

YouTube Live @ E3 host Geoff Keighley asked Guillemot about Beyond Good & Evil 2, with Guillemot replying: "It's still on the way. It's something at one point you will see, yes. It's difficult to say. Michel [Ancel] is working on it, but he's doing two games at the same time, he's doing Wild at the same time, it's coming along, but he has to spend more time on it so we can see it faster".