Latest News - Page 2528

Or maybe it's not concept art at all, but this render of the protagonist from Mass Effect: Andromeda in ZBrush is quite stunning. In fact, these shots that were posted to ZBrushCentral are modeled by Herbert Lowis from BioWare Montreal could be the real-deal, though they weren't posted by the artist at all.

"And our Pathfinder character model at Bioware Montreal... for Mass Effect Andromeda - Modelled By Herbert Lowis."

So just how did they make their way onto that site anyway? No matter how the shots made it to the forum, the models are definitetly the spitting image (with a whole lot more detail) of the hero we saw in the E3 2015 trailer of Mass Effect: Andromeda. It's him alright, and it follows similar design philosophy and style from the Mass Effect universe. And we'll be dammed if they don't look good.

The road to the release of The Division has been a long one, with acusations of a downgrade to the graphics to almost direct comparisons to Watch Dogs. But the wait is almost over, and you can start preloading the game today in anticipation of helping save Manhatten.

If you haven't already, you can start the process in a few hours, which began at 9am PT/12pm ET. After that, you just hae to wait for it to unlock on the 8th of March at 12:01am ET. Preloading can help save a lot of time when all you want to do is just get in and game. It's such a novel idea regardless of whether it's more useful for pre-orders or not. Just set it to download at night and then get right into the action.

Just remember that the beta was only a fraction of what should be available in the full game. We found ourselves quickly out of stuff to do once the small missions were done, and even the Dark Zone was sparse with action. Thankfully the whole idea of battling through a chaotic Manhatten and later unlocking other parts of New York is kind of exciting. The underlying cover-mechanics worked pretty well too. Check out our impressions of the beta test if you haven't already.

Sega is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog this year, and they're promising that we'll get some very exciting news to honor this milestone at a special panel being hosted at SXSW this year.

We've already heard the rumors of a special anniversary game that might make an appearance sometime this year, and there was a confirmation of a big-screen movie in the works as well. It's also not out of the question for them to take the blue blur in a completely different direction and announce a new, more modern take on the hedgehog.

The special Sonic the Hedgehog: 25 Year Anniversary panel will be held on the 19th of March 1t 3:30 CT/4:30 ET. "Join us as we celebrate the past and look to the future with breaking news and an inside glimpse at what fans can expect in this milestone year," Sega said in the official announcement. They'll have the original creators, developers and voice actors there to talk about Sonic and supposedly have something new to offer. We can't wait to find out just what that is.

Black Desert Online is now officially released. There's always that one MMO that seems to tug at your heart strings, and not just the emotional ones either. It draws you in with its art style, good looks and promise for a deep character driven experience. Then it slams some excellent hack n' slash combat with other MMO-centric, alternate life, mechanics. But in a way that doesn't force you to grind forever.

That's what Black Desert Online has done up until now, surprise you with the ease in which you can get into it but the whole wealth of opportunity that lays before you. It's an MMO for goodness sake, so of course there's an inherent grind, but they've made it a fun grind. And now it's officially out for everyone to enjoy.

And it's a technological marvel, something that takes you aback a bit when you realize it's made to accommodate a huge variety of hardware. But it looks great considering. Curoius about it? It's only $29.99 for the "Traveler's Package" that'll get you started.

An interesting, and very game-changing move to the way Valve deals with Steam game bundles is reportedly on the way, according to PCGamesN.

They report that in "official documentation given to developers and received by PCGN, Valve have outlined a redesign of Steam bundles so that they automatically give buyers that already own some of the products within a discount. This scales based on the number of products, and is already available on some bundles in the wild, though remains officially unannounced. This also has the knock-on effect of making sure that bundles are properly discounted when their components are on timed sales".

Valve's official explanation to developers, is something along the lines of: "With Steam Bundles, if a customer already [owns] some items in the Bundle, they will pay for and receive only the items not already in their account. This allows the best fans of your series or franchise to 'complete the set' and get a deal on the remaining items in the Bundle".

Now that Far Cry Primal is out and in the wild, people are pulling it apart - and finding where Ubisoft may have done something very, very sneaky. According to the findings being reported by Gamepressure, the map in Far Cry Primal "replicates the topography of the map in Far Cry 4", reports GameSpot.

According to a source close to Ubisoft, which Kotaku allegedly confirmed, the Far Cry Primal development team used Far Cry 4's heightmaps "as a basis for their game". If you check out the image above, it looks pretty damn close to what we saw in Far Cry 4.

Have you played Far Cry Primal yet? What do you think of the 'new' map in Primal? We have a PC performance analysis here, with some pretty good numbers on our various video cards, too.

AMD's new Radeon Technologies Group will be hosting an AMA on Reddit, where the company will talk about its Fury X2, plans for VR, DirectX 12 and so much more.

In the AMD subreddit, it was teased: "The first reddit AMD Q&A/AMA is happening soon. Right here. The Q&A is open to all topics dealing with anything under the Radeon Technologies Group (the Radeon division of AMD). Some big secrets could be unveiled this Thursday, so bring your best questions! Likely topics of discussion will most likely include Vulkan, FreeSync, GPUOpen, Polaris, Fury X2, VR, DirectX 12, and anything else you're curious about. Don't ask about Zen. It's still a super secret".

The AMA will take place right here, today (March 3) at 10AM-5PM central time.

Microsoft has gone crazy on gaming news in the last few days, with the near silent launch of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition - which is just so broken right now, as well as Killer Instinct Season 3 coming to the PC on March 29, and Forza 6 Apex launching on the PC this spring.

Well, during the press event in San Francisco, Remedy Entertainment's Production Director, Miloš Jeřábek teased some of the first details on the PC version of Quantum Break. He said: "The Windows 10 version is trying to use all the power from the PC machines. It will focus on the image quality even more than Xbox One, we're implementing 4K resolution, 60FPS, we are working on really cool graphical settings that will bump up the VFX, the shadow quality and the quality of volumetric lighting".

I'm scared that we will see Quantum Break not support multi-GPU setups because it will be an exclusive to the Windows Store, with Windows Store-based games not supporting SLI and Crossfire. Microsoft, get off your ass and fix that now, admit your mistakes (and make it very vocal) and never do it again, then - and only then, launch Quantum Break.

One of the things that excites me about AMD and its newly-formed Radeon Technologies Group, is that they're looking to the stars - especially when it comes to their next-gen Polaris architecture, and virtual reality. WCCFTech recently interviewed Guennadi Riguer, one of the lead software architects of LiquidVR. Before this, we had RTG boss Raja Koduri say that AMD wanted 16K @ 240Hz for "true immersion".

Riguer started off his talk with the site saying: "We at AMD are very passionate about graphics, VR with its high graphics demands is particularly exciting. However, VR is more than just pretty graphics. As a platform, it has the capacity to revolutionize how we interface with computers and provide a whole range of new experiences we haven't even imagined. Because of that we see VR as more than 'just another cool technology' and we firmly stand behind the efforts to bring immersive, unique experiences to Radeon users through continued innovation of LiquidVR".

The thing that piqued my interest, was that Riguer teased AMD is chasing 16K @ 144Hz... which is just completely crazy, but in a good way. He said: "LiquidVR is a set of technologies that has a very clear mission: to take maximum advantage of GPUs to enable rich and seamless content. As VR technology evolves, so will LiquidVR - we have a robust roadmap that will tackle a wide range of issues the industry already talks up as the next set of challenges we'll be facing. We believe that with LiquidVR, AMD has helped the industry to take a first big step in this wonderful new immersive world called virtual reality".

Android Auto -- the app that essentially ports your smartphone to your vehicle -- is now available as an update for select 2016 Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac vehicles from General Motors (click the links to find out if your model is included).

The update expands GM's Android Auto support to more than 30 US vehicles and 40 global vehicles, making it the biggest supporter of the app. To acquire it, you must visit your local dealer and request it, at which point a 30 minute install will take place.

Wells Fargo has been added to the list of banks supported Samsung Pay alongside US Bank, Chase, City, Bank of America, ACU, PNC, and a load of others, so now you don't have to switch banks just to use the service.

The entire list of Wells Fargo cards isn't supported as with some other banks, but the list is still quite long. See it here.

If you don't know about Samsung Pay, it works like Android Pay and Apple Pay in that it lets you pay for items securely with your phone, except it's compatible with nearly every card reader found in stores as opposed to just the newer ones.

Samsung has today announced its addition to the SSD market, the PM1633, being no less than a gigantic 15.36TB SSD designed for the enterprise storage market. Marked as the world's largest in its class, Samsung has packed some serious performance within.

Based on a 12Gb/s SAS interface and measuring in as a 2.5-inch form factor drive, this new product will further be released in 7.68TB, 3.84TB, 1.92TB, 960GB and 480GB editions. Boasting "random read and write speeds of up to 200,000 and 32,000 IOPS respectively," the recently issues press release also makes note of read and write speeds being boosted up to 1,200MB/s in this model.

This product release is said to be part of Samsung's plight to become more competitive in the SAS SSD market, helping completely overturn the use of hard disks in some server operations.

Actor Morgan Freeman single-handedly adds gravitas to nearly every role, with his buttery dulcet tones having become a comforting hallmark of quality. Now the actor has finally lent his million dollar vocals to a GPS app, drivers everywhere can be assured they're going the right way. Because Morgan Freeman says so.

According to Time, Freeman's voice is now available for the Google Navigation app Waze, in a tie-in for the 'Olympus Has Fallen' sequel, 'London has fallen'.

if this sounds like a pretty good deal, you'd best be advised to get in quick as Google say the promotion is strictly available for a limited time. Update the Waze app from the iTunes store or Google Play now.

The 1954 Japanese masterpiece 'Seven Samurai' directed by Akira Kurosawa frequently shows up in just about every best film of all time list, (currently enjoying the 19th spot on IMDB Top 250), which is a shame that the film's is not in the best condition owing to the fact that the original 35mm negative is missing. But that's all about to change as Japanese studio Toho embarks on a painstaking new restoration.

According to Kotaku, the studio has scanned a duplicate 35mm negative in 4K resolution and is digitally repairing over 60 years of damage, including scratches and film artefacts, as well as restoring the full opacity of the original black and white image which had faded in parts. The project is being supervised by Teruyo Nogami, one of the few remaining people alive today who worked on the film.

There's no current word on when the remastered film will be available, but it seems a pretty good candidate for the 4K Blu-ray format sometime in the near future.

Astronaut Scott Kelly returned from his year in space mission yesterday, which NASA is commemorating with a look at his achievements during the long voyage.

To say the least, it was a very social voyage, with Kelly hosting the first NASA TweetChat, Tumblr AnswerTime, and Reddit AMA from space. He also Instagrammed the whole time at the President's request. Obama was also sure to give him a warm welcome on his return home.

Non-social achievements for Kelly: harvesting lettuce and zinnia flowers in the VEGGIE facility, the latter of which will assist scientists for deep-space missions and the upcoming Mars mission.

A few slip-ups and accidentally leaks takes some of the mystery out of the infinitely procedural space sim No Man's Sky.

The last update we heard about No Man's Sky was an official June 2016 release date for PS4. Since then, the devs at Hello Games have been pretty much under the radar, busily hacking away at their ambitious project to ensure it's ready for the impending release. Thanks to a blunder from Sony, however, we know that the space sim indie will be priced as a full PS4 game at $59.99, and pre-orders may open up tomorrow.

If that wasn't enough, Amazon might have leaked the game's official release date. The online retailer sent an email to redditor ChaosZeroX saying that No Man's Sky will release on June 21, 2016.

DisplayPort 1.4 is now official, with the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) publishing their new DP1.4 standard. DisplayPort 1.4 allows for huge advantages over DP1.3, with higher resolutions and refresh rates supported.

DP1.4 will also make use of USB Type-C and Thunderbolt connectivity, which will allow smaller devices like laptops to make great use of the higher resolutions. DP1.4 includes 32.4GB/sec of bandwidth, which opens the flood gates to 8K @ 60Hz (with HDR Deep Color), and 4K @ 120Hz (with HDR Deep Color) as well as many other technologies. These include:

What does this mean for gamers? Well, AMD's upcoming Polaris architecture supports DisplayPort 1.3 - allowing for 8K resolution support at 60FPS, as well as 4K @ 120Hz with HDR enabled (and 4K @ 240Hz). NVIDIA will unveil their new Pascal-based architecture next month at their GPU Technology Conference.

Daedalic Entertainment is breaking into the console market with a delightful adventure game called Deponia Doomsday. As the name implies, the only endgame option is to blow up the world to save. There's just no other way.

The game utilizes hand-drawn 2D comic graphics, a very spicy and humorous dialog and melds that with a point and click type adventure game. Within the 20 or so hours of gameplay you'll come across some unique, oddball characters, all part of the actual story that's unfolding.

You're Rufus, and when you wake-up you find out that Elysium (the magnificent flying city) has fallen from the sky and a new species, the Fewlocks, have started taking over the ruins of the entire planet of Deponia, and of course there's only one choice. And you get travel through time to do it. Each decision you make in time will have consequences that echo through the other time periods that you'll get to see. And there's even going to be an alternate ending coming soon as well.

Kanye West was recently considering legal action against those pirating his new Life of Pablo album, which makes it all the more amusing to learn yesterday he too was pirating.

West accidentally outed himself on Twitter when he posted a screenshot of his browser to promote a Sufjan Steven song he was listening to; background tabs showed he had been searching Piratebay for a popular $200 music production program plugin called Serum. Even better, the plugin was developed by XferRecords, a company co-founded by fellow artist deadmau5.

Deadmau5 responded to the tweet with understandable anger, which West then retorted to with a series of bizarre "jokes" like the one below.

If you play Quantum Break on PC, you'll need a persistent internet connection to stream the game's live-action cutscenes. Xbox One players, on the other hand, get the option to download the videos.

Remedy Entertainment revealed that Quantum Break's cutscene segments won't be included on-disc, meaning the game could potentially be a nightmare for gamers with slow connections. Quantum Break is separated into four different acts, and as you beat each section, a live-action video segment will play depending on the actions and choices you made. Remedy says that they chose to stream the video remotely in order to cut down on hard drive and disc space, affirming that the live-action video segments will have a ton of different outcomes and permutations based on player's decisions.

"We have 40 different variations of the show in total where basically your choices get to make it evolve and change whether it's from a junction choice or we have these things called 'Quantum Ripples' which essentially unlocked sort of deleted scenes from the show," Quantum Break narrative designer Greg Louden told Game Informer.