Gaming - Page 1004

We're now less than 30 days away from the release of Battlefield 1, after its major debut during E3 this year, and you can get into the game early - if you want.

EA Access members get 10 hours of game time with Battlefield 1 starting on October 13, and have to use those 10 hours wisely until the official release 5 days later on October 18 for Early Enlister Deluxe Edition, and then October 21 for everyone else. There will be both single-player and multiplayer, five maps to play on with Conquest mode, with progress carrying onto the full game. If you play the 10 hours through, you'll receive a Battlepack when Battlefield 1 launches on October 18.

The two missions included in the October 13 early release of Battlefield 1 are 'Storm of Steel' and 'Through Mud and Blood', but I think it'll be the multiplayer side of BF1 that has everyone talking. I played it as much as I could and fell in love with it, it was the only game that pulled me away from my Overwatch obsession.

One of our biggest stories for the year was that No Man's Sky had bombed, and dropped 78% of its playerbase in the first week of its launch. Well, things have gotten far worse since then.

GitHyp has data that shows No Man's Sky has plummeted to just 1000 players per house, and now experiencing peaks of just 2000 players per hour. This is a massive 94% drop, an achievement Hello Games only needed 42 days to complete. It took 42 days for No Man's Sky to go from the #3 most played game on Steam, right down the ladder to #132.

Hello Games founder Sean Murray hasn't been active on his Twitter since No Man's Sky launched on August 18, and Hello Games have been much quieter than normal post-release - which should really come as no surprise at this point.

System requirements for Resident Evil 7 are here, and they're fairly high. For 1080p and 30 FPS, you'll need an i5 4460 and a GTX 760/R7 260X, while for 1080p and 60 FPS, you'll need an i7 3770 and a GTX 960/R9 280X.

Capcom notes the game is still in development and requirements could change, but this should be more or less what to expect when the January launch rolls around.

The full list can be found below.

Nintendo has been eyeing down a March 2017 release for its next-gen codename NX console, which we broke the news on that it would be a Pascal-based Tegra design all the way back in May. The latest on Nintendo NX is from Emily Rogers, who had an update on NX that said:

Right now, this is what we're expecting:

Respawn Entertainment have released more details on their upcoming mech-powered game Titanfall 2, which will now be launching on the PC alongside the Xbox One and PS4 versions on October 28.

The developer has released the official PC system requirements for Titanfall 2, with some high-end hardware required for Ultra details at 4K in order to hit 60FPS. Titanfall 2 Producer Drew McCoy said the minimum specifications of the Core i3-3600t or equivalent, 8GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 2GB/AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB would run 1600x900 with most details enabled, at 60FPS.

Respawn also said that the PC version of Titanfall 2 will take advantage of the high-end monitors with 120/144Hz refresh rates, while gamepad support with multiple configurations and sensitivity options are on the table, as well as an anti-cheat system and more.

ESL is stepping up its broadcasting game, with its upcoming ESL One New York Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament to be the first eSports event livestreamed in VR.

The battle will take place on October 1-2, with those tuning in with virtual reality able to feel like they're watching the CS:GO tournament in the Barclays Center, or from in-game viewpoints of the action with an awesome first-person point of view off to the side. You'll be able to look around in 360 degrees thanks to VR, but you won't be able to choose specific locations to watch from.

A broadcaster will be selecting the viewing points, just how regular games are broadcasted. Sliver.tv is the company handling the VR broadcast, which will play on all VR platforms: iOS, Android, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and the Gear VR. You'll need to watch the games through the Sliver.tv app, or the Sliver.tv website.

Dark Souls III's Ashes of Ariandel expansion has a new game trailer trending right now. Released only hours ago, publisher Bandai Namco titled the video: "Divert Thine Eyes" and is available to watch below:

The trailer showcases character abilities such as the use of fire to vanquish enemies as well as trademark combat fighting styles, famous to Dark Souls gamers. It also gives viewers a chance to see the type of scenery and map surroundings in which they will be playing on.

In addition, the Ashes of Ariandel expansion pack includes updated weapons, exclusive armor and new-age magical elements, all of which have not been seen in previous games.

Publisher Bandai Namco announced recently that Dragon Ball Fusions will arrive on Nintendo 3DS in the US on December 13 and Europe on February 17, 2017.

At a press release delivered by the company, the following statement was given: "Use the Nintendo 3DS' camera to take pictures with friends and fuse them with Dragon Ball characters or trade special moves with nearby players."

Dragon Ball Fusions will contain more changes from previous editions with the most obvious being released as an RPG. Players will also be given the ability to create their own custom avatar, in addition to building their own team of warriors. The game will obtain a multiplayer feature and as stated in the quote, will fuse fighters together in order create an all-new character.

The classic Rock Band game has recently been under pressure, with complaints from players regarding the quality of artists and songs chosen for the game's set list. Developer Harmonix, in attempts to fix the issues, have announced a new Rock Band 4 DLC, titled: Ozzfest meets Knotfest 2016 Pack.

The Ozzy Osbourne, Slipknot and Megadeth themed expansion pack, provides players with more difficult but classic, rock songs from all three bands. It can purchased for $5.49 as a pack, or $1.99 if purchased individually via the Harmonix website.

The expansion contains songs "Dystopia" by Megadeth, "Road to Nowhere" by Ozzy Osbourne, and "The Devil In I" by Slipknot. It will be avaliable for PS4 and Xbox One and are now available on the Xbox One and PS4.

Pokemon Company CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara lends even more credence that Nintendo's mysterious new NX system will be a handheld console hybrid.

Pokemon exec Ishihara already confirmed that Pokemon games will be coming to the NX, and it's highly likely that the studio has access to a Nintendo NX devkit. While Ishihara doesn't outright reveal key details about the NX, he does lend even more affirmation that the NX will be a cross between a handheld and a console.

"The NX is trying to change the concept of what it means to be a home console device or a hand-held device. We will make games for the NX," Ishihara said in an interview with Wall Street Journal's Takashi Mochizuki.

Microsoft will give developers the freedom to choose how to leverage Project Scorpio's 6TFLOPs of "monster" GPU power, including enhancements for HDTVs like 1080p 60FPS, as well as u native 4K at 30FPS, 4K upscaled 60FPS--or all three.

A bit ago Microsoft confirmed that Project Scorpio will be capable of rendering games in native 4K, and its first-party games would all support native 3840 x 2160 resolution. Now Redmond has stepped in to say that native 4K won't be a requirement for all developers and games--just their first-party studios and titles--and that devs will have tons of options and choices on how to best utilize Project Scorpio's higher-end hardware.

"When we thought about what spec we wanted for Scorpio, we were very clear we wanted developers to take their Xbox One engines and render them in native, true 4K. That was why we picked the number, that's why we have the memory bandwidth we have, that's why we have the teraflops we have, because it's what we heard from game developers was required to achieve native 4K," said Xbox exec Albert Penello in an interview with Eurogamer.

UPDATE: Webdush Securities analyst Michael Pachter claims that his quotes were severely misrepresented in the Daily Star interview, and has given the following statement to Tech Raptor to clarify:

"I am a PC gamer, I like PC gamers, and I merely referred to them as insular. I in no way intended to call them out as 'deplorables', and I think that the reporter overstepped the bounds of propriety in making it appear that I said such a thing with venom. In any case, I've given THOUSANDS of interviews without offending an entire group of people, and somehow this guy ended up with a "gotcha" moment. It's time to move on."

Original story is as follows.

Battle.net, the name of Blizzard's online multiplayer service, is no longer called "Battle.net".

Blizzard has made the strange decision to re-name one of PC gaming's most iconic online services in a confusing bid to make things more easily understandable. The Activision-owned publisher won't be calling their online service "Battle.net" any more, and will instead refer to it as "Blizzard tech." At the time of writing, the Battle.net address is still up and the service is still called the same.

Why the company would choose to forgo decades of an instantly recognizable and iconic name still isn't clear to me, and I'm actually concerned about this move--ever since Blizzard moved from the awesome Battle.net servers that powered Diablo 2, Starcraft and Warcraft to the horrible lobby-less "Bnet 2.0" system, I understood how Activision's meddling would affect the future of Blizzard. Now more than ever it seems I was right on the money.

Patch notes for Star Wars Battlefront: Death Star are now available, with the expansion now live for season pass holders and will be avaliable to everyone on October 4.

This DLC expansion feature is fully packed with five additional Death Star-themed maps, a new Battle Station game mode, and character updates such as Chewbacca and Bossk.

Alongside of maps and characters, the Death Star expansion provides the exclusive upgrade of hero vehicles and armory. The TL-50 Heavy Repeater and the K-16 Bryar Pistol blasters, are amongst some of featured weapons. Whilst two new Star Cards, Luke Skywalker's famous Red Five and the TIE Advanced X1 are also new addtions to the pack.

CEO of The Pokemon Company, Tsunekazu Ishihara, has confirmed that they will be developing Pokémon games for the anticipated new, next-generation Nintendo NX console.

During an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Ishihara confirmed the information regarding Pokémon Nintendo NX games to be true, putting all rumors to rest. The affiliation between the two companies has allowed Nintendo to obtain the licensing agreement to Pokémon characters, adding to the evidence that NX will see Pokémon games in the future.

However, it's unclear at this point in time as to whether or not the Pokémon games will be brand new adventures, or simple upgrades from the previous original seen on older generation platforms.

Microsoft has just released a new Minecraft Favourites Xbox One S bundle pack. The game themed offer is available now from Microsoft's official Xbox website and comes with a 500GB Xbox One S console, alongside a digital copy of Minecraft: Xbox One Edition and a wireless controller.

The bundle will set customers back $300, and will also include numerous DLC packs, character skins, updated maps and more! Those who purchase the Xbox One S console bundle will also be given a fee download code for Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta, and a 14-day Xbox Live Gold trial membership.

North America can purchase the Favourites bundle now, whilst Europe will see release on October 11, and Australia and New Zealand on November 1.

UPDATE: Forza Horizon 3 can run with an uncapped frame rate beyond 60FPS on PC if you switch V-Sync off. So, uh - just don't look at the original article!

Forza Horizon 3 launches in the next few hours on the Xbox One and PC simultaneously and the PC version of the game is locked at 60FPS. There's no reason for a frame rate cap in games these days, and especially not from big developers like this with the backing of Microsoft Studios - you know, a subsidiary of Microsoft that made Windows and owns Xbox.

Microsoft has been for years attempting at winning back PC gamers, and with one of their biggest launches of the year in Forza Horizon 3, a brand exclusive to Microsoft's platforms: Xbox and PC, with an even bigger stake in the market with Windows not just being for gamers. Although, Microsoft is pushing Windows 10 onto gamers in a big way with lots of promises from a much more improved API in DirectX 12, but they're gimping nearly every single game in some way.

Ever since Pokemon GO was released, people have been injuring themselves by not looking where they're going - with people even dying while playing, and now someone in New York City was mugged while he was playing, and live streamed the entire thing.

RickeyBot was walking through Central Park in New York where he was attacked from behind, and his live stream you could hear Rickey pleading with the attacker, before the camera moves and we see the criminal run off with his device, which was still streaming.

While the mugger had the phone, people in Rickey's live chat were saying whether they should call the police, how to record the stream, and if anyone knows if the thief had been caught. The stream eventually goes dark, without us knowing the outcome of the mugger. Rickey himself is okay, taking some damage to his jaw - forcing him to drink through a straw for a few days.

2K Games is thankfully listening to PC gamers that the PC port of the recent BioShock remasters is a pile of crap, with the studio taking to the Steam forums detailing their plans for an upcoming patch.

The company is working on an FOV slider, improved mouse controls, support for 21:9 displays, and "general stability improvement to reduce instances of game crashes". The complete list is a little more detailed:

NVIDIA is giving away a free copy of Gears of War 4 with its higher-end GeForce GTX 10-series GPUs.

For a limited time, if you buy an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080, GTX 1070, or a notebook rocking either GPU, you'll get a free PC copy of Gears of War 4. Microsoft has confirmed that Gears of War 4 supports a huge plethora of enthusiast-level features like 4K resolution, 21:9 aspect ratios, performance bumps with DirectX 12, unlocked frame rates, a massive helping of tweakable settings, FreeSync and G-Sync support, and more. In order to leverage the game's full potential and play Gears of War 4 in 4K, Microsoft recommends a GeForce GTX 1080. Sadly the GeForce GTX 1060 isn't included in the promotion.

Oddly enough, we have reports that a single GeForce GTX 1080 isn't enough to run Gears of War 4 in 4K at "Insane" graphics, but the GTX 1080 handled 1440p 60FPS just fine in the same Insane preset.