Gaming - Page 1013

Steam gamers are ejecting escape pods from No Man's Sky crashing ship, likely due the game's notorious over-hyped and underwhelming content.

When it launched just weeks ago, No Man's Sky peaked at an incredible 212,620 simultaneous users, making it the biggest Steam release of 2016 in concurrent players. Since then the game has been bleeding players left and right.

According to SteamSpy and SteamDB, just two weeks later after its launch, No Man's Sky's concurrent Steam playerbase has dropped by 90% to just 19,336 players. Just four days ago we reported on a 78% drop in No Man's Sky Steam gamers, and it will be interesting to see how many more players jump ship in the coming weeks.

The launch of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided hasn't been too good on the PC, with a slew of issues including the usual crashes, poor optimization, and bad mouse acceleration that can't be disabled in the menu. Nixxes is usually on point when it comes to porting games to the PC, but it seems Mankind Divided isn't one of those.

Thankfully, developer Eidos Montreal is on the ball, pushing out a patch for the game bringing it to v1.0 built 534.7, which fixes the following:

Performance wise, Eidos Montreal adds that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is pretty demanding on your hardware, and that you begin the game on High detail preset with MSAA disabled. Remember there's a DX12 patch on the way that will improve the PC side of things, but we'll have to wait and test that soon. I'm currently benchmarking a bunch of my graphics cards right now, so we'll have some performance numbers to share with you soon.

No Man's Sky sales might be tanking in both the US and in the UK, but there are mods out that improve some of the weaker aspects of the game. LowFlight can be downloaded here.

LowFlight is a free mod for No Man's Sky that provides a few new and improved features, such as the ability to travel underwater, and it provides a greater range of movement within your starship. LowFlight developer Hytek says there are three parts of the mod: "It lets starships get low to the ground and go underwater, as well as allowing pilots to look in any direction while in the cockpit. These are all much unlike the base No Man's Sky, where the starship is forced to land when it drops below a certain altitude; flying underwater is completely out of bounds too," reports Polygon.

Ships will continue to take damage if you crash into the terrain, so don't think that the LowFlight mod will save you, but there are gamers who are saying that LowFlight is a major game-changer for No Man's Sky, which is saying a lot considering how broken and unfulfilling the game is to most people. To see our take on the procedural space sim, check out our official No Man's Sky review.

Battlefield 1 looks to have some of the most immersive dynamic weather in a game yet, but from all of the gameplay footage we've seen so far, it's from just two maps in the game. The reason it feels like we've seen more, is that the setting and time of the day are making a big difference, splashed with the improved dynamic weather technology.

DICE used the dynamic weather effects in maps like Paracel Storm or Gulf of Oman in Battlefield 4, but the weather effects have been amplified to every multiplayer map in Battlefield 1. The developer has said that the dynamic weather feature will change the way a map feels and plays, using something that is outside of the players control. Imagine running through a map in Battlefield 1 with dense fog, which would affect the long term vision of a sniper - alternatively, low visibility also makes it harder for gun battles, leaving BF1 gamers turning to melee attacks.

Other dynamic weather effects like rain forcing pilots to get closer to the ground to spot their enemies, will making the on-foot troops vision blurred from the rain and graphical effects. Birds will fly away when the wind swirls up, and rain will drop onto weapons, armor and more. DICE wrote in their developer blog: "The western front has more heavy rain, and we make sure the fog in the trench wars has more density, and feels close to the ground. Up in the Alps in the Italian campaign, there's a sense of low fog in the valley, and if you move up to the mountain tops you get rid of the fog. You can even see the fog below you".

Details regarding the Premium Pass for Battlefield 1 have surfaced on the Xbox Store and Origin, indicating a similar setup to recent Battlefield games.

The base game will cost you the usual $60, while Premium will go for $50. For your money, you'll get (over time) four expansion packs (one themed around Russia) which will include 16 maps, new modes, Elite classes (akin to heroes in Battlefront e.g. flamethrower guy), 20 new weapons, 14 Battlepacks, exclusive dog tags, and more.

Each expansion will be available two weeks early to Premium members. The first -- titled They Shall Not Pass -- is themed around the French army, and will launch in March.

The sequel to Larian's beloved CPRG, Divinity Original Sin 2, is coming to Steam's early access on September 15. For now the game's early access will stay exclusive to Steam, but it may come to GOG soon after.

Larian Studios is bringing Divinity Original Sin 2 to Steam's early access, offering a sample of the game's first act and the arena mode. The early access portion will be free to all Kickstarter backers, but for everyone else it'll cost $45, but remember this gets you a copy of the final game too. Larian says that early access codes will be sent out to Kickstarter backers sometime next week, but you'll want to check their new blog post for important info on how to redeem your code (we've also included the info below).

"We are incredibly excited to announce that you'll get your first taste of Divinity: Original Sin 2 on the 15th of September. We're giving all Kickstarter backers access to the first act of the game: Fort Joy," the devs announced on their blog.

Installation 01, the ambitious fan-made project that aims to bring a quality modern Halo game to PC, has made some amazing progress so far.

The creators of Installation 01, the fan-made Halo PC game, have released a brand new ViDoc that shows just how far the team has come in the past few months, and the results are absolutely stunning. Installation 01 isn't officially licensed from Microsoft, it's being made by a dedicated team of 30+ developers and fans, but that doesn't mean the game is ramshackle: the footage shows rather impressive 3D modeling work, physics programming, smooth animations, lighting effects, and pretty much everything else you'd expect from an actual AAA experience. The team has even done their own mocap work for Installation 01--that's some serious dedication.

The free Installation 01 Halo game aims to mix "all the best from existing Halo games", offering campaign, online multiplayer, Firefight modes, Forge, custom games, and maybe even a theater mode. Installation 01 will have full-scale maps (both original Halo maps and new ones) with vehicles and classic Halo weapons, completely with varying playlists like Big Team Battle, Multi-Team, Team Deathmatch and so on.

Mafia 3 is getting closer to release, with its October 7 launch looming closer and now developer Hangar 13 is detailing more on the detailed soundtrack from the game.

Mafia 3 will feature over 100 incensed songs from the 1960s, breathing life into the fictional New Bordeaux, where era-appropriate cars and fashion are on display. The entire soundtrack to Mafia 3 can be listened to right now on this Pandora playlist, while the game will include its original score composed by Jesse Harlin and Jim Booney, and will be heard during firefights, cutscenes and other story-based moments. The score includes 26 songs that will be available for digital purchase separately later.

If you buy Mafia 3's Collector's Edition, you'll receive the score and a sampling of the soundtrack on a 180 gram vinyl. Here are song of the included tracks in the Mafia 3 soundtrack:

Sony will introduce key PlayStation, PS2, and PS3 games to PC by bringing its super unpopular PlayStation Now service to the platform.

Remember when I said that Sony really wants to bolster its subscription services? Well, Sony is finally breaking down the console vs PC barrier by bringing some of its landmark exclusives to its competitor's Windows PC world...albeit in a cloud-streaming, subscription-based service. Remember that Sony will soon let you Remote Play PS4 games on your PC, not unlike Microsoft's Xbox-to-PC game streaming.

PlayStation Now will soon be available for PC, Sony wrote in a PlayStation Blog post, but in order to play you'll likely need to shell out $24.99 for the new DualShock USB Adapter and a brand new 3-4 DualShock controller. I highly doubt Sony will let anyone use Xbox 360 or even mouse/keyboard for PS Now (if they're going to bring PS to PC, Sony's gonna do it on their own terms).

The mess that is No Man's Sky continues to find its way into the headlines, this time with sales in the UK plummeting by 81% in its second week on the market. The game has taken a 78% decline in sales in the US recently, too.

No Man's Sky has been replaced by F1 2016 in the UK Charts, with F1 2016's first week sales down by around 32% compared to F1 2015. Keep in mind that the UK Charts only track the games that are sold at retail, and not digital sales. So, this would be mostly the PS4 version of the game, which is still pretty big considering Sony was pushing it pre-release. See what we thought of No Man's Sky in our official review. As for the top 10 games in the UK right now, here's the list:

From all of the videos we've seen on Resident Evil 7: Biohazard that we've seen so far, most of them have not had much combat in them at all. Well, fans of Resident Evil are a little worried, so Resident Evil 7 producer Masachika Kawata has said that there will definitely be combat in the game.

Kawata talked with Metro GameCentral, where he revealed: "Combat is obviously something that's really important in a Resident Evil game, we're just kind of showing a little bit at a time with different aspects. Beginning Hour was really just the feeling of atmosphere and exploration, which is another classic Resident Evil element, and now you've been able to see a little bit more of the fear of escape from an enemy. And also we've had a little bit of puzzle element in it".

He continued: "So we're taking it one step at a time here. Some people have got the impression that combat is missing from this game, because of the content we've shown so far, but actually combat is definitely in there. The main character is not one of these gun-toting heroes that we've sort of gone towards in the recent entries. It's very much a normal person, a normal guy who's put in an extreme situation and has to survive. And we're going to be showing off some more around that, but for the time being we haven't got around to that yet. But rest assured we know what people want from Resident Evil: it's exploration, puzzle-solving, managing limited resources, and combat in a horrifying situation. And you know, we're gonna get there".

25 years ago today, Nintendo released one of the best consoles ever made: the legendary Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In celebration of this momentous occasion, I thought I'd take you back to the past and recount seven of my favorite SNES games of all time.

With the NES, Nintendo revived the legendary video game crash of 1984 and ushered in the golden age of console gaming. With the SNES, however, the company smashed our wildest expectations and gave way to an era of splendor, wonder, and amazement. I still remember my first time playing Donkey Kong Country on my brother's console, instantly being pulled into the whimsical--yet sometimes sadistic--tropical world of platforming apes. But once I got my own SNES I was introduced to the love of my gaming life: retro RPGs.

The SNES delivered some of the best JRPGs in existence, many of which are still enjoyed to this day. A good portion of these games--like Chrono Trigger--pushed forth new mechanics that are still being used by developers in modern games, showing just how ahead of their time these games were. Below I have a quick list of seven of my favorite SNES games of all time, but be forewarned, it's quite RPG heavy.

Xbox Australia has recently announced their latest in gaming fashion for customers with the Xbox Onesie. The gaming attire will be available in either black or white with the release of the newest Xbox One S (500GB or 1TB) console. For those who already experienced the comfy one-piece know that they are perfect for lounging around the house or gaming for hours on end.

The hot new piece is available for men and women with sizings to fit all, with the design being a one of a kind Xbox exclusive. This onesie isn't like your regular pajamas with a couple of pockets and a standard zip, Microsoft has completely packed their Xbox onesie full of useful features. For gaming convenience the pockets are larger to fit your Xbox controller and remotes, with an enlarged arm pouch for easy access to your smartphone.

No one likes to get hot or cold when in the middle of a long game session, so Microsoft made it easy for gamers by catering for all temperatures and seasons with roll able sleeves and pants . When it comes to those edge of the seat moments and it's getting intense, no one wants to slip up with any sort of mistake, don't fear - the Xbox onesie has forearm grips to prevent slipping anywhere in your seat. The extra large hood has room for larger gaming headsets and eyewear, with a fancy customized gamer tag embroidery making it more personalized for you.

Sony's new slimmer, thinner and cheaper PlayStation 4 "Slim" model gets unboxed ahead of its release.

Now that we know Sony's new PS4 Slim has been confirmed as authentic, it's time to see what the new console looks like right out of the box. YouTuber ZRZ is one of the few gamers who acquired an early PS4 Slim console from an unknown source, and has shared an unboxing video of the new system. In case you're still skeptical, ZRZ hooks the PS4 Slim to a TV and boots it up, showing the same sequence as the Eurogamer confirmation.

The PS4 Slim isn't actually a separate system, but a same-specced PS4 in a smaller chassis with a few features shaved off. The new thinner, slimmer refresh will replace the current thicker PS4 model and will be sold simply as "PlayStation 4" rather than a "PS4 Slim" variant. Sony is expected to discontinue the launch PS4s in favor of the new cheaper--yet uglier--model. So the new model is an earnest console refresh and resembles how the slim PS2 replaced the fatter launch PS2's ages ago.

NVIDIA has been forging forward with Ansel, announcing that a third game now supports their immersive screenshot-taking software, with The Witness joining the Ansel ranks.

The Witness now has Ansel support courtesy of a patch released for the game, and a new NVIDIA driver, which allows Ansel users to fly around The Witness in free camera mode, and more. You can also use post-process filters for your screenshots, 360-degree screenshots for more immersion - especially on Facebook, and super resolution (which is still in beta).

If you haven't heard of The Witness yet, the Steam page for the game describes it as "You wake up, alone, on a strange island full of puzzles that will challenge and surprise you".

Gamescom 2016 - The hype surrounding the upcoming Project Scorpio and PlayStation 4 Neo consoles is hitting new heights, having EA executive vice president Patrick Söderlund compare it to Sega's late Mega CD upgrade from 1991.

During an interview with Game Informer at Gamescom, Söderlund said: "We haven't seen this whole idea of upgrading since the Mega CD in 1991 or something. At the time, that might not have worked, but this is different. I can only comment to what's been announced by Microsoft, the whole idea of keeping the ecosystem intact and scaleable is right. If you get in later in the cycle, you can get a Scorpio or you can upgrade to it".

He continued, after making his Sega CD comment, adding: "It's an interesting, smart approach, and we'll see how well it works. It's something that we as a company are 100 percent behind. I got super excited when I saw what they are working on, and without giving you any information, the same is true of Sony. In general, this is a good thing".

Grand Theft Auto V, Overwatch and Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens were the top three best-selling games in the US for July 2016, according to the latest monthly sales report from NPD Group.

Overwatch was #1 last month but decided to play switcheroo with GTA V, but keep in mind that digital PC sales of Overwatch aren't included in these numbers. Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens used its force powers to stay in #3. NPD Group's data also has the Xbox One outselling the PS4 in the US last month, the first time that Microsoft has beat Sony in the hardware wars since October. NPD analyst Sam Naji explains: "After 33 months since the launches of the PS4 and the Xbox One, the combined cumulative hardware sales for these two consoles exceed the sales of their predecessors by 41 percent at the same point of their lifecycles".

The best-selling game system for July 2016? Nintendo's 3DS, which the Japanese giant credits the "widespread positive public reception" for Pokemon GO - yeah, where's that now, guys? As for the full list of the best-selling games in the US for July 2016:

Gamers across the world were disappointed when they heard Allison Road was suddenly cancelled, especially after a successful Kickstarter and publishing deal. Well, there's some light at the end of the tunnel, as Allison Road is in development once more.

Allison Road creator Christian Kesler took to Facebook, where he said: "I took a bit of time off Allison Road, went back to work and had a good look at all the stuff that had been done up to that point. I started making a few changes to the story, a few scribbles here and there, some layout tests and before I knew it it sort of organically picked up pace".

Team 17 still serves as the publisher on Allison Road, while Lillith Ltd. will continue developing the game. Kesler told Polygon that Allison Road won't return to Kickstarter, and instead development is "slower than before" with Kesler financing the game himself at the moment. He added: "Actually I'm working freelance jobs to earn money to finance development. Thankfully everyone who helped me up to this point was very supportive along the way and kept things affordable for me. And I'm very grateful for that!"

UPDATE: The new DualShock 4 controller doesn't have two lightbars after all. It's just the same LED lightbar that's pulsing through a new slit in the touchpad. Your controller batteries are safe!

Sony will be discontinuing current PS4 models in favor of a cheaper, thinner (and uglier) PS4 "Slim" model which apparently comes with a new DualShock 4 controller.

The new smaller, thinner and cheaper PS4 "Slim" has been officially confirmed by Eurogamer. The PS4 Slim isn't going to side alongside current PS4 consoles--it's going to replace it as your typical console refresh, according to WSJ sources. But that's not all that's going to be replaced: the new PS4 model with allegedly come with a new DualShock 4 controller design, and YouTuber ZRZ has apparently gotten ahold of the new PS4 Slim controller to reveal some rather perplexing new changes.

Destiny's base game could go free-to-play, according to listings from the official Xbox Store.

It looks like Destiny's vanilla, non-DLC base game may be going free: the base version has disappeared from the PlayStation Store, and is marked as free on the Xbox Store, with only The Taken King bundle offered for purchase.

Considering how important Destiny's DLC are to the game, it makes a lot of sense for the base game to go free-to-play. In all honesty the base game is basically a demo anyway. Sure you have a decent amount of content at your perusal, but if you really want to progress, you'll have to shell out for the add-ons. Hell, it was like this way back when the base game actually cost money, too.