Gaming News - Page 1

We've all heard about swatting over the years, where someone online swats someone -- the process of faking an emergency call to the police, who descend on the victim's house thinking they're about to, or have just killed someone.

It's happened again, where this time a 60-year-old grandfather was killed in Bethpage, Tennesse -- all for his @tennessee Twitter handle. A bunch of minors in the US and UK used Discord to mobilize, swatting Mark Herring who died in April 2020, collapsing to the ground having a heart attack when the police showed up at his door.

The minors simply wanted his @tennessee handle on Twitter, a "rare username worth thousands of dollars". Herring's granddaughter Corinna Fitch, explained that then-minor Shane Sonderman was part of a criminal campaign to force Herring to provide his username, and then Sonderman posted his full address and personal details onto Discord.

Respawn's next game will apparently be another singleplayer adventure title, and it may be separate from Jedi: Fallen Order 2.

Respawn put up a few new job listings for its incubation team that confirms a new singleplayer adventure game is in the works. So what exactly is Respawn working on? We don't know for sure, but it could be a new IP. Here's what we know.

Studio creative director Mohammed Alavi shared a few incubation job pages on Twitter that confirmed the game is in early pre-production phases. Respawn describes its incubation team as a small and compact group of specialists that have a lot more freedom to shape a new game--in other words this project isn't coming out any time soon.

The jobs are:

• Lead Technical Game Designer
• Senior Level Designer
• Senior Technical Game Designer
• Senior Combat Designer

2K Games releases screenshots of NBA 2K22's next-gen visuals on PlayStation 5, showing high-end realism and effects.

Take-Two and 2K Games have promised big things from this year's NBA 2K game, including a bunch of new modes and impressive in-game performance. NBA 2K22 will be best on next-gen consoles thanks to new optimizations like ultra-fast loading, 4K visuals and textures and lighting systems, and exclusive game modes.

In a recent update post 2K Games outlines what to expect from NBA 2K22 while also showing what all-stars like Candace Parker, Luka Doncic, Dirk Nowitzki and the Washington Wizards' Rui Hachimura look like in-game.

Eight years after launch, GTA Online continues breaking records and shows no signs of slowing down.

GTA Online's new Los Santos Tuners is the latest record-breaking update. Rockstar confirms Los Santos Tuners has added more players than any other update, even the recent Cayo Perico Heist. This shows the massive power of GTA Online's player onboarding, retention, and return rate, all thanks to the massive 140 million game sales install base. Rockstar has proven time and time again that gamers will show up for all GTA Online content updates.

Los Santos Tuners added "more players joined GTA Online for the launch of Los Santos Tuners than any update ever!"Rockstar said on Twitter. The devs are adding 250,000 GTA cash to everyone's accounts as a thank you.

After nearly three years on the market, Fallout 76 is finally getting some semblance of mod support.

Fallout just isn't Fallout without mods. In fact, Bethesda Game Studios RPGs simply aren't the same without mods. In tandem with the creation kit and console commands, you can do anything in Fallout. That's really why I think Fallout 76 failed; it restricted player freedom by removing all mod support and tried to monetize the things that were previously free, like new skins, custom base designs, etc. Now Bethesda is injecting some of the basic principles that mods offered into Fallout 76--freedom, customization, and fun.

Fallout 76's new Fallout Worlds feature is basically Fallout 76 custom games. It's sort of like mods without the total control previous BGS games offer. Essentially Bethesda lets you create or access game instances with custom parameters--infinite ammo, infinite AP, extra loot, etc.

DICE is only getting a one-month headstart on Battlefield 2042's open beta playtesting.

At the recent EA Play Live showcase, DICE and EA confirm that Battlefield 2042's open beta testing will start sometime in September. Anyone who pre-orders any edition of the game will get early access alongside EA Play subscribers, but an official date hasn't been revealed. The beta will be held on PC, next-gen consoles, and PS4 and Xbox One systems.

DICE hasn't discussed its beta plans in detail just yet. The devs will hold a closed technical preview throughout the end of July to help pave the way for the beta. Expect a plethora of modes and features from the final game to be missing and we expect this to be a significant undertaking given the game's huge 128-player warfare. It's unknown if Conquest or even the new Battlefield Portal custom games mode will be available during the beta.

Halo Infinite's beta test is rolling out in a series of technical previews and "flights," and the first one could start as soon as next weekend.

343 Industries reveals more details about Halo Infinite's anticipated testing phases, confirming the first technical preview might kick off next weekend if everything goes well. That being said, the first testing phase is focused on AI, bots, and the new Academy mode, which focuses on drills and training. PVP won't be part of the first test. You'll be playing against AI-controlled bots instead.

"That said, we've been given the okay to say our first Bot-focused technical preview could happen as soon as next weekend. Prior to the flight starting, we're planning a live stream where we'll dive into the actual build and walk through nearly every facet of the technical preview,"343i said in a new Halo Waypoint post.

The new Dead Space remake won't have any loading screens or microtransactions, the developers at EA Motive confirm.

EA Motive is exhuming Dead Space's grave, but instead of resurrecting a zombified corpse, the team is creating a whole new monster. The devs are building the Dead Space remake from the ground up on DICE's new next-gen Frostbite engine, which allows high-end optimizations like ray-traced reflections, 3D spatial audio, and eliminating loading zones via super-fast SSDs.

Motive Studios plans to leverage the engine and hardware to create the ultimate immersive horror experience. The end goal is to create a game you can't pull away and complete it in one sitting. This is a big departure for Electronic Arts, a company that makes billions every year on never-ending monetized online games, and clearly underlines the publisher's shift towards singleplayer games.

EA makes most of its yearly revenues from monetized sports juggernauts like FIFA and Madden NFL, but the publisher is starting to shift back towards singleplayer experiences.

Following the breakout success of games like Jedi: Fallen Order, and with established online anchors like FIFA, Madden, Apex, and Battlefield established, Electronic Arts now seems more open to singleplayer games. While the publisher's billion-dollar live games offerings aren't going anywhere, EA is now diversifying its portfolio across a spectrum of experiences. Live services no longer seem to be required for all of its games.

The publisher has a number of singleplayer-driven games currently in development, including a Dead Space remake. This one is actually a big example of EA's turnaround. EA Motive, the team behind the Dead Space remake, says they want to make a game so immersive that players will complete it in one sitting. EA typically never wants gamers to complete its games this fast--EA's $7-billion business is centered around never-ending play, engagement, and player retention.

It's happening. Dead Space is coming back as a full remake for next-gen console and PC hardware.

Today EA confirmed Dead Space is getting reborn with an ambitious new reboot. The remake has been built from the ground up in DICE's new next-gen Frostbite engine, so expect incredible 4K visuals, high frame rates, impressive lighting and shadow effects, and dramatically improved physics. EA Motive, the team behind Battle

The Dead Space franchise made a huge impact on the survival horror genre when it was released 12 years ago, and I came to Motive as a fan first to specifically work on this game," said Phillippe Ducharme, Senior Producer of Dead Space. "We have a passionate team at Motive who are approaching this remake as a love letter to the franchise. Going back to the original and having the opportunity to do so on next-gen consoles excited everyone on the team. As we look to modernize the game, we've reached out to dedicated fans and invited them to provide us with feedback since the early stages of production to deliver the Dead Space game they want and for new players to enjoy as well."

"Fans will experience an improved story, characters, gameplay mechanics and more as they fight to survive a living nightmare aboard the desolate mining starship, the USG Ishimura, all while uncovering the dreadful mystery of what happened to the slaughtered crew and ship," reads a press release.