Gaming - Page 1011

Most gamers are pumping in some serious hours into the Battlefield 1 open beta, and I'm sure Blizzard are seeing a dip in Overwatch players - so the second season of Competitive Play begins early, for PC and Xbox One gamers at least.

Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan confirmed that Competitive Mode's second season has started early, where he said: "Yes. Season 2 is now live on PC", after it was meant to start on September 6. There's a new skill rating system, the removal of Sudden Death, and the return of tier-based rankings, reports Polygon.

The PS4 version of Overwatch will have the new season of Competitive Play start on September 6.

Much to the frustration of the collective gaming world, Nintendo still hasn't announced their new NX console/handheld hybrid, instead taking time to show some new 3DS games. Here's the gist of what today's new 3DS-centric Nintendo Direct was all about.

Rather than pull a fast one and surprise everyone with a NX reveal, Nintendo showed off some new games coming to its 3DS handheld via a Nintendo Direct newsblast.

3DS game announcements include Mario Maker, a new 3DS Pikmin game, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword releasing on Wii U, Yoshi's Wooly World coming to 3DS, some Pokemon Sun and Moon tidbits, new Amiibos including special 30th anniversary Zelda figures (8-bit Zelda!) and seven new Amiibos to be used with Mario Party Star Rush, a new Nindies Summer Jam promo starting with 3DS indie Axiom Verge, and a ton of trailers on 2017 games like Dragon Quest VIII and Square Enix's interesting looking new RPG Ever Oasis.

Konami has officially unveiled Metal Gear Solid V: The Definitive Experience, which includes both Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and all of their associated DLC content. Not only that, but Metal Gear Online and its expansion, Cloaked in Silence are included, but the legendary Chapter 3 isn't, unfortunately.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Definitive Experience will include a bunch of content, and will launch on the PC, PS4 and Xbox One on October 11 for $49.99. There will also be a Steam version of the game, but there's no word on pricing or a release date just yet.

As for what comes in Metal Gear Solid V: The Definitive Experience, here's what to expect:

The same Foxconn worker who sketched out Sony's new upgraded 4K-ready PlayStation 4 "Neo" is back with even more alleged designs of Sony's new console.

An anonymous Foxconn worker's PS4 "Neo" sketches have gone viral, with just about every media outlet under the sun reporting on the leaks. The sketches prompted a number of console mock-ups, and now the Foxconn employee has stepped in to correct the diagrams and give us even more info on the new PlayStation 4's design. For reference, Foxconn is a Taiwanese manufacturer that creates games consoles, handhelds and smartphones--it's made Sony's PlayStation consoles and is currently making the PS4 Neo and Nintendo's new NX, so it's highly likely these reports are correct.

According to the employee, the PlayStation 4 "Neo" is much heavier than the original PS4 (about 4.5kg or 10 pounds) and "stacked in three tiers" like a sandwich, likely to help with heat dissipation.

Sony's new higher-end 4K-ready PlayStation 4 "Neo" will cost $450 says a source inside the console's manufacturing facility.

Remember that Foxconn worker who sketched what Sony's PS4 "Neo" console looks like? After the sketches went viral, that same source is now back with even more potential info on one of the PS4K's most important aspects: cost. The employee says that the new upgraded PS4 will run 3,000 Chinese Yeun which equates to $450 USD, falling in line with accidentally-revealed Amazon console price listings.

Atul Goyal, managing director at investment banking firm Jefferies & Company, predicts that Sony's new PS4 "Neo" will cost $399. In Sony's official PS4K confirmation interview, Sony Interactive Entertainment President Andrew House said that the new "hardcore" PS4 would be "more expensive than the current $350 version."

A PlayStation France blog post seems to hint that Sony's new 4K-ready PlayStation 4 "Neo" console will launch sometime in 2016.

(Photo: A mock-up of Sony's PS4 Neo by Peter Segura based on leaked sketches)

We know that Sony will almost certainly unveil its new upgraded and high-end PS4 model (PS4 Neo, PS4K, PS4.5) during its special PlayStation Meeting just six days away, but there's still some doubt whether or not the PS4 "Neo," which reportedly offers 4K game upscaling and native 1080p 60FPS thanks to GPU upgrades, will arrive this year. PlayStation France might've just inadvertently spilled the beans with its new blog post, which promises that everyone will see the "future of games" during the event.

Just recently Mojang have announced developer 4J Studio, will be offering another free mini-game for Minecraft users. The freebie is for PlayStation 3 & 4, Xbox One, and Xbox 360. Tumble, is available now for gamers to play, with the download set to see Wii U owners later this week. The addition of a new Battle Map will also be amongst the changes as the free download is for console editions only.

For those unfamilar with the game, the idea of Tumble is to challenge other opponents (up to eight players), with the intention to knock one another into the lava by destroying the blocks from underneath their feet. The new Minecraft mini-game levels are generated randomly, some players will have multiple levels to battle on and others will have the exhilarating thrill of hazardous features, such as Slime and TNT blocks.

Mojang have created two variants of Tumble available for Minecraft enthusiasts. One style equips players with the standard snowballs to throw at enemy blocks, whilst the other provides players with the famous shovel to dig at opponents. Scoring is simple, the winner left standing after the best of 3 rounds claims the title.

BioWare is working on a new unannounced IP outside of existing franchises and series, and it will be revealed soon according to EA.

Although everyone in the gaming sphere is looking forward to BioWare's new Mass Effect: Andromeda RPG, the studio is also working on something completely brand new. We've gleaned lots of evidence from EA financials and past coverage suggesting that BioWare's new IP might be an action game instead of an RPG, and we also know that it will have extensive online capabilities.

"We've been very open about the fact that Bioware is working on a new IP, and we'll get to talk about that in the not too distant future," EA studios exec Patrick Soderlund said in an interview with Games Industry Biz.

No Man's Sky has been an utter mess since its launch, and things aren't getting better - even with the various patches that Hello Games have been putting out, they can't put the fires out surrounding the game fast enough.

We previously reported that Valve were allowing refunds on No Man's Sky for gamers that had pumped over 40 hours into it, even though Steam refunds are only applicable for games that have had less than 2 hours of play time, and refunded within 14 days of purchase.

Well, Valve has released a new statement, saying that there will be "no special exemptions available" for No Man's Sky refunds. It seems that Valve has received so many refund requests,m that it has had to put a notice on the Steam page for No Man's Sky, explaining that there are no special exemptions for Hello Games' failure of a game.

An anonymous developer potentially leaks new Nintendo NX details, this time allegedly revealing the dimensions and overall look of the handheld's devkit.

On the heels of the NX share button reports, an anonymous developer has told Let's Play Video Games some fresh info regarding the NX's devkits, more specifically the overall size of the handheld and its detachable controllers as well as a rough schematic of how it looks. Note that this design isn't exactly surprising as it can be seen in Nintendo's initial patents.

"As others already said, it's a hybrid console with detachable controllers that have a split D-Pad, A, B, X, Y, and a camera / share button. However, something I believe none of them have mentioned is the size of the current dev kit.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is getting patched fast on the PC, with Eidos Montreal pushing out another patch that addresses various issues gamers have been having since launch.

There aren't any notable performance improvements with the new patch, but the mouse sensitivity issues have been ironed out, and 'various issues' with 21:9 setups have also been fixed. The patch for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided will roll out soon, but in the meantime here's a list of everything that has been fixed in the new patch:

Eidos Montreal notes: "While we expect this patch to be an improvement for everyone, if you do have trouble with this patch and prefer to stay on older versions, we have made a Beta available on Steam, v1.0_build 524.6 and v2.0_build 524.7, that can be used to switch back to previous versions".

Maybe you like to play games all at once instead of in chunks or maybe you're just a cheapskate. Either way, The Witcher 3: Game of the Year Edition launches today with all DLC in tow, including two huge expansions, all-in-one neat package and for about $50.

As I've mentioned before, even just the vanilla game contains an enormous amount of content even by RPG standards, so if you decide to pick it up, you're getting a ridiculous amount of playtime (roughly 150 hours) for your dough, and with no real filler either. Oh, and many don't hesitate to say it's the best game of all time, period, so that helps.

The Witcher 3: Game of the Year Edition is available now via GOG.

Square Enix's new Final Fantasy 15 RPG won't be in full HD at all times on consoles, instead using dynamic resolution scaling to drop res to hit specific frame targets. But even with resolution drops both PS4 and Xbox One are struggling to maintain 30FPS.

Final Fantasy 15 game director Hajime Tabata says that the game currently runs with dynamic resolution PS4 and Xbox One in order to balance resolution and frame rates. Tabata confirmed that Sony's PS4 runs between 900p and 1080p and is "close" to hitting its targeted 30FPS, even with scaling. As is the norm, Microsoft's Xbox One fares worse with the scaling, dropping as low as 765p and only as high as 900p to hit a "close approximation" of 30FPS. So that means even with the scaling both consoles can't even maintain a steady 30FPS.

PS4 and Xbox One gamers are no stranger to dynamic scaling. Thanks to both consoles' outdated GPU and CPU tech, just about every game released this generation uses some form of resolution scaling in order to hit a specific FPS target. Even if a game is advertised as 1080p, if it uses dynamic resolution scaling, the game will drop below 1080p to maintain frame rates and reduce lag. It's not exactly an exact science either, leading to some less-than-smooth experiences across a ton of console games.

New rumors indicate Nintendo's next-gen NX handheld/console hybrid will have a split D-pad and a dedicated share button, and we have evidence to corroborate both claims.

Instead of using the traditional D-pad found on all DS handhelds and most controllers, the Nintendo NX's detachable controllers will use a D-pad split into four different sections--much like Sony's original PSP. That's according to an anonymous source per Let's Play Videogames.

The idea for this is simple: since the NX tablet's handheld has two detachable on either end, the logic is that each controller can be used by two people and that the split D-pad will mimic the A X B Y face buttons while a circle-pad style analog stick is used for movement.

No Man's Sky continues to get patched, and it's almost like the game is procedurally generated or fixed... queue laugh track. Hello Games has updated No Man's Sky to v1.07 on both the PS4 and PC, with a huge list of fixes and improvements.

The previous v1.06 patch for the game fixed around 90% of the crash problems in the PS4 version of No Man's Sky, while the new patch should fix more of those issues, and others that have been plaguing gamers since the release of NMS. Reddit user SithSandwich has compiled a list of improvements after he updated his PS4 copy to v1.07:

Getting Stuck in the world

Dear Overwatch:

Just because Battlefield 1 is here and I'm paying attention to it, it doesn't mean I don't still love you. We're just taking some time apart to see other people, and find ourselves. You still mean so much to me, and I can't wait to come back and play my regulars like Lucio and Soldier 76.

I promise that I'll be back, I'm only going to be gone for a week or so, with Battlefield 1 leaving me on September 8. You'll have my undivided attention then, through to October when I might need to go away again. It's just a coincidence that Battlefield 1 is back in town then, but I promise the charge to my credit card for dinner is just a meeting between business acquaintances and that the smell of another game's perfume is just the fresh smell of PCB from my new motherboard.

The Battlefield 1 open beta is now available for those who are Battlefield Insiders, but if you're not, the open beta kicks off on August 31 for the PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

We're downloading the Battlefield 1 open beta right now, and it's 7.1GB. We've been hearing the same 7GB or so size for the PS4 and Xbox One versions, too. The Battlefield 1 open beta isn't a representation of the full game, so expect the game to be much bigger than the open beta.

We'll be having some performance articles on Battlefield 1 in the coming days - what do you want to see first? GTX 1080 or RX 480 results?

eSports gaming giant ESL has just signed a two-year deal with Yahoo Esports, something that will see the two working together on streaming, tournaments, and the associated sponsorship opportunities, reports GamesIndustry.biz.

ESL's Nik Adams explains: "ESL in a unique position to be able to offer access to some of the world's best esports competition, and having a partner like Yahoo Esports means we won't only reach a broader audience with a supreme quality broadcast, but also deliver exclusive editorial content for esports fans worldwide. Yahoo Esports is a fantastic partner to team up with for the broadcast and coverage of our key events, and we are looking forward to working with them on new and exciting content for our viewers".

Yahoo Esports is relatively young in the eSports game, forming in March to cover gigantic games like League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Street Fighter V and Heroes of the Storm.

Mark your calendars for September 7, which is when Apple will be unveiling its new iPhone and Sony to finally unveil its PS4 Neo console. It's going to be a huge day, with both media events happening within hours of one another.

Sony will unveil its PlayStation Neo console, as well as the PS4 Slim in New York City while Apple will be unveiling its new iPhone 7, and most likely the new Apple Watch. Apple is first, with its event kicking off at 10AM PT / 1PM ET, while Sony's event begins at 12PM PT / 3PM ET.

We will be covering both announcements, so be sure to tune in for the iPhone 7 and PS4 Neo/PS4 Slim news on September 7!

Microsoft has already teased its Xbox Scorpio in a big way, but Sony is still keeping its PS4 Neo console refresh behind closed doors - on the flip side, EA's Chief Competition Officer, Peter Moore, is saying great things about the Xbox Scorpio and PS4 Neo consoles.

During an interview with IGN recently, Moore said that the hardware revisions were "absolutely" a good thing for the industry, as they're extending console generations by refreshing the hardware in the middle of the cycle. Moore continued: "I think Sony and Microsoft have done this incredibly well. They have taken what they needed to do... to keep the platform fresh for technology that's moving faster than the archaic nature of a 10-year piece of hardware cycle".

Moore confirmed that EA is working on games for both the "monster" Project Scorpio Xbox and PS4 Neo consoles, with the next-gen games taking advantage of the vastly improved hardware inside of the consoles. Moore said that EA's studios "love what they're seeing right now" with the new hardware.