Gaming - Page 1027

Nintendo's new Investor Relations meeting was a hotbed for tips and info on the company's immediate future, including its new NX console. According to a very specific response from Nintendo research exec Genyo Takeda, the Japanese console-maker is more focused on creating amazing gaming experiences than it is squeezing out the most from hardware.

When asked how Nintendo plans to offset the rising costs of games development, Takeda replied by saying: "We're using increases in productivity to make an appeal with the greatness of games instead of [hardware] performance." Now remember that Takeda is talking about games development rather than overall console performance, but it still gives us an idea where the company's priorities are. And if you ask me, they're right where they should be.

On the other hand, Takeda's words match up with Nintendo America President Reggie Fils-Aime who recently said the NX "isn't about the specs, it's about the content," strongly hinting gamers will have some quality titles on the NX.

Warner Bros. can't catch a break with the Batman Arkham series, with the new Batman: Return to Arkham game delayed. It was set to arrive on the PS4 and Xbox One as a HD collection of titles, but the company needs more time with the game in order to "deliver a polished Batman Arkham game experience".

The company explained in a statement: "After reviewing the progress of the project, the team at WB Games has decided to delay the release of Batman: Return to Arkham to give the team at Virtuous Games additional time to deliver a polished Batman Arkham game experience. We do not have a release date yet and will be sure to communicate that once we are sure the game will be ready. We know this is disappointing news, but we feel the extra time will allow the team to create the best gaming experience for our fans".

It's disappointing to see, but it's good that Warner Bros. has learnt its lesson in releasing Batman Arkham games when they're not ready. If you remember the release of the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight last year, was riddled with bugs - which most likely forced WB's hand in delaying Return to Arkham. There's no new release date just yet, but when Warner Bros. does provide it, we'll let you guys know.

Overwatch's Competitive Mode looks to be going public today, following last week's beta test. The news was discovered by one French-speaking European player who noticed a new set of patch notes dated for today in the Battle.net client, although it doesn't appear the patch itself has gone out anywhere just yet.

Competitive Mode in Overwatch means rankings and seasons for those interested in a challenge and seeing where they stand on a global stage, as well as golden weapons and other rewards.

Other changes in the patch include another Widowmaker nerf (her ultimate callout can now be heard globally), improved performance, removal of the "avoid player" option (which was borking matchmaking and causing great players to have to wait ages to get into a game), and various bug fixes, among other changes.

The System Shock reboot (yes, it's a fully-fledged reboot now, not a remaster) has ignited nostalgic fire in the hearts of PC gamers everywhere, and now we get our first glimpse of the beloved cyberpunk thriller in action.

Recreating something like System Shock is quite a delicate endeavor. Considering the original was part of many gamers' youths and solidified an entire genre of PC gaming, you damn well better not mess up the reboot. From what we've seen so far Night Dive Studios has nothing to worry about. Powered by the flexible Unity engine, System Shock reboot looks fabulously authentic in every regard, representing a love letter to the landmark first-person cult hit. It's clear that Night Dive cares about the game and I only expect it to get even better with time.

The System Shock reboot will be funded via Kickstarter campaign, which actually kicks off today at 12PM PST / 3PM EST. Unlike a good portion of Kickstarter campaigns Night Dive is giving everyone a chance to play a working System Shock demo before pledging support, which is a huge plus for everyone. The System Shock demo will go live on Steam, GoG, and the Humble Store alongside the Kickstarter campaign.

After three years of development, SureAI has made every Skyrim modder's dream a reality: they've built an entirely new standalone RPG with Bethesda's Skyrim modding tools. Introducing Enderal, a completely fresh adventure meticulously crafted with the Skyrim CK.

Enderal is one of the few total conversion mods that have actually been finished, and is set to arrive in July. Like any other mod, Enderal is free, but the total conversion experience will mirror the content of a fully-fledged AAA game with up to 100 hours of gameplay. Enderal features a massive new world with unique characters, lore, storyline, new voice-overs, original music, and even new gameplay mechanics. And it even has a flying airship! Enderal also takes players outside of the frosty climes of Skyrim, adding in new areas like tropical oases.

This isn't SureAI's first total conversion rodeo, either. The team was responsible for the mega-popular Nehrim: At Fate's Edge transformation mod built on the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion engine. In fact, Enderal is actually a sequel to Nehrim and is set in the same mythical world and continues the storyline set forth by the original while offering new landmasses and continents to explore.

Earlier tonight we reported on Battlefield 1 rocking DX12 abilities, but with EA and DICE not confirming anything right now, it's hard to know what's going on.

Well, we've just had an industry insider tell us that EA is working closer than ever with AMD, and that we should expect "DX12 fireworks". Now if the words "DX12 fireworks" don't excite you, I don't know what else will.

The inclusion of both Asynchronous Compute and DX12 is going to make Battlefield 1 one of the best looking games of the year - and AMD is sitting pretty with its new Radeon RX 480 which is launching in less than 48 hours. AMD has committed to Async Compute since the beginning, and has been sitting at the DX12 table since day one too, so it'll be interesting to see how the performance fares on the $199 card when it launches.

Now that there's plenty of Battlefield 1 alpha gameplay footage, we're finding out little nuggets of information on EA DICE's latest first-person shooter. Now we know to expect DirectX 12 support, which is something that DICE is working on right now.

The option has been found in Battlefield 1's settings, where DX12 can be toggled on or off, meaning DX11 is enabled by default. DigitalFoundry recently played around with the PC version of Battlefield 1, cranking it up to 1440p with maxed out settings on NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 1080 with 100% resolution scaling, which works out to be around 5K or so - and it was running smooth - which is impressive.

DigitalFoundry reported that the resolution slider works differently, with the native resolution on the slider now set at 50%. They added: "So by bumping the game up to 100% on a 1440p display, we are effect[ive]ly rendering at 2880p, or 5K".

Microsoft affirms that it doesn't want to confuse or frustrate gamers with its new Xbox trio gameplan, but it's already happened. Many gamers are asking themselves "why buy an Xbox One?" when they know Project Scorpio is coming next year, and that goes double now that most Xbox games will be playable on Windows 10 PCs.

"We're trying to shift the culture and put the power of when to upgrade in the hands of gamers, as opposed to it being driven by technology or a corporate initiative," Shannon Loftis, head of publishing at Microsoft Game Studios, told Associated Press. "I hope that we don't frustrate gamers. We're responding to them. The feedback we've received is that they want more choices."

It's true that Microsoft has completely revolutionized the console gaming world by giving players more hardware choice than they've ever had before. By Holiday 2017, there will be three differently tiered Xbox consoles on the market: the entry-level Xbox One, the sleeker, smaller Xbox One S that supports 4K Blu ray playback and HDR, and the "monster" Project Scorpio, a native 4K gaming console that promises enthusiast-grade performance. But Microsoft's new vision may be betrayed by the behaviors instilled and taught to consumers over the decades of one-console cycles.

Apart from revealing a March 2017 release window, Nintendo has been quite silent about its new NX console. Now legendary Zelda and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto reveals the reasoning behind this long-standing silence, and it all has to do with a "new idea."

"In terms of NX, there's an idea that we're working on. That's why we can't share anything at this point, and I don't want to comment on the other companies. If it was just a matter of following advancements in technology, things would be coming out a lot quicker," Shigeru Miyamoto told the Associated Press.

Miyamoto's words echoes those of Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima, who said that the NX represents "a new way of thinking" about consoles. But what is this new idea and new way of thinking? Based on tons of past rumors, patents, and insider info, we've been able to take a lot of the mystery out of the NX, especially its unique features.

For the first time in nearly four years, League of Legends is not number one in the Korean PC bang (LAN center) rankings, according to League analyst Monte Cristo. As of this week, it stands high above the competition at 27.86%, but is topped by Overwatch at 30.36%.

The remaining games on the list are (roughly translated) Sudden Attack, Fifa Online 3, Dungeon Fighter, Starcraft, Lineage, Blade & Soul, Diablo 3, and Aion.

Overwatch has become a bonafide hit worldwide with 10 million total sales at last count, and excellent communication and patches from developer Blizzard has further encouraged its success. Meanwhile, League remains a juggernaut, but a significant portion of its player base has grown discontent with Riot's gameplay changes and lack of reception to feedback in recent times.

EA is currently holding a closed multiplayer alpha test for Battlefield 1, and gamers are already testing out specific interactions and experimenting with all of the weapons, vehicles, and explosive WW1 mayhem.

Ever wonder who whens when two players bayonet charge one another in Battlefield 1? What's the deal with mustard gas? Can you kill players with medic syringes? How close do you have to be to a grenade for it to kill you? YouTuber jackfrags goes mythbusting in the closed Battlefield 1 alpha test to answer a bunch of these questions and generally play around with the game, seeing what works and what doesn't.

Check below for a quick bullet list of everything we've learned from the footage, including the full list of grenade types, gasmask/gas interactions, bayonet charges, and much, much more. Also remember that the game is still in its alpha state, so a lot could change from now until release. The info below is based on the current unfinished alpha build.

There's Fallout 4 settlements, and then there's this absolutely incredible cityscape that brings to mind Blade Runner's sci-fi neon flair.

As someone who's spent a good chunk of time building in Fallout 4's settlement editor, I always love looking at the amazing things that other survivors have built. Quite often it's a fascinating experience, especially when the would-be architects employ the use of dozens of mods to fabricate whole post-apocalyptic cities that utterly smash Bethesda's vanilla flair. Fallout 4 user grod4L's amazing Sanctuary City is one of these creations.

Amazing post-apocalyptic architect grod4L didn't use the GECK to build his brilliantly-lit Blade Runner-esque Sanctuary City; he only used existing Fallout 4 PC mods and the in-game editor. The best part is that grod4L plans to release the huge Blade Runner-style city as a save file on Nexus Mods, but only when all of Fallout 4's DLC are available. This will happen probably in September, the modder affirms.

Resident Evil 7 was one of the larger reveals at E3 2016, with Capcom taking in influences from current horror games, and even the surprising P.T. and other similar games.

But during an interview with Capcom Unity, Producer Masachika Kawata and director Kōshi Nakanishi talked about some of the changes that Resident Evil 7 will offer. Starting off, Resident Evil 7 is not a reboot, with Nakanishi explaining: "It's not a reboot and we're not throwing away the series' canonical storyline. It's the new numbered title in the series and it's a sequel to the existing mainline series titles. After I say that and you try the demo, you may say "Really?", because it looks nothing like any of that, but trust me. We need to have a bit of mystery in survival horror, so we're trying to make you wonder when you play it how could this possibly be connected? That's part of the appeal".

The first-person perspective is going to be interesting, with Kawata continuing: "Both myself and the director, Mr. Nakanishi, felt if we want people to experience horror and experience it in the most direct, visceral way possible, then literally putting yourself in the position of seeing what the character sees is the best way to do that and so it was our motivation for the first-person camera change". Nakanishi chimed in with the big change with Resident Evil 7's first-person perspective, adding: "Of course it's a big change, so first we got a prototype working and we put first-person in place and we wanted to see if we could make Resident Evil work in first person. As soon as we had it up and running we were really confident that this was the way to move forward. We were really happy with the way that Resident Evil feels in first person".

Titan Books is publishing a four-part Mass Effect novel series that sheds light on the mysterious events between Commander Shepard's original adventures and the new Mass Effect: Andromeda.

BioWare has made it clear that Mass Effect: Andromeda isn't directly connected to the original trilogy, despite being set in the same universe. The sequel is a brand new game set after the original trilogy, complete with its own new cast of characters, a new protagonist named Ryder, and a completely overhauled tone. But that doesn't mean there's not a ton of events to explore in between the two games--and as tradition dictates, this story will be told in book form. Renowned sci-fi writer N. K. Jemisin will pen the four-part Mass Effect: Andromeda novels, with the first one, ME: Andromeda - Initiative, releasing this August.

"Titan will publish four unmissable Mass Effect novels, sure to appeal to the game's huge number of fans. The novels will act as prequel and sequels to the events in the games and will become part of the overarching Mass Effect saga. They will focus on key characters and answer the many questions fans have been asking," reads the announcement from Titan Books.

During Sonic's official 25 year anniversary celebration, Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka announced a new Sonic the Hedgehog game is coming in 2017.

Over the last few years, Sonic has fallen from grace with a batch of truly awkward and terrible games--releases like Sonic Boom alienated the fanbase and pushed gamers away from the once-might franchise. Now Sega promises to turn everything around and put a "huge emphasis on quality" on new Sonic games, starting with Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice and the new 2017 Sonic game.

"Sega is really - as of this last year - putting a huge emphasis on quality. One of the things about Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice is that we held the title for a year, which is not something Sega has traditionally done, but this focus on quality is really about trying to take Sonic back to where it used to be," said Sega Chief brand officer Ivo Gerscovich.

A new trademark for Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild adds even more credence that the Nintendo NX's games are on cartridges instead of discs.

Some time ago we reported that the Nintendo NX might use game cartridges instead of discs, almost akin to a 3DS handheld. This info was gleaned from a patent, but patents don't always reflect final products. Thanks to the clever sleuthing of NeoGAF user Aetheerios, Nintendo might have inadvertently confirmed the patent information.

A new trademark for Zelda Breath of the Wild, which is releasing simultaneously on the NX and the Wii U, clearly lists "video game cartridges" as a game distribution medium. Now this is actually pretty interesting, given how Nintendo's classified its games thus far. For reference, Nintendo only marks its 3DS games as cartridges games, whereas Wii U-only games are only listed as disc-based. Since Zelda Breath of the Wild is launching on both the NX and Wii U, it lists both cartridges and discs: disc for Wii U, leaving cartridges for the NX.

No Man's Sky creator and developer Sean Murray gives an update on the progress of the game, promising that the cogs of the intergalactic universe-making machine that is Hello Games is running smoothly.

Ever since No Man's Sky got delayed to August 9, gamers have been avidly looking forward to scraps and snippets from the massive star-hopping sim. After all, it's not everyday that a small team of less than 10 developers attempts to peel back the rim of the universe for millions of gamers. No Man's Sky wasn't at E3 2016, but Sean Murray has delivered a new update on what's happening with the game, and affirms that this universe is pretty special. In fact, it's bigger than you ever imagined.

"I've said it before, but No Man's Sky is the hardest thing I've ever worked on. It's even bigger than you can imagine. This is a type of game that hasn't been attempted before, by a smaller team than anyone would expect, under an intense amount of expectation," Murray said.

Epic sends word that their venerable Unreal Engine was the graphics engine powering 80 games at this year's E3. I only saw about 25 games at E3 2016. Hell, I probably won't have time to play 80 games over the next 2 years, so this stands out as an impressive number.

There are the AAA behemoths you'd expect, such as Gears of War 4 and Tekken 7, but there are also VR games like Batman: Arkham VR, Everest VR, Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin, and VR Sports Challenge. There's indie games like the excellent Absolver from new studio SloClap (comprised of Ubisoft Montreal vets), or the stunning, beautiful Obduction from the team behind Myst.

But what has been most interesting to watch is Unreal Engine's increasing presence in media other than games. There are excellent short VR films like The Rose and & I and Henry for Oculus Rift. NASA is using it. Hollywood is using it. And in February Epic reported 1.4 million registered developers using the creation tool. Clearly they've seen quite an uptick in developer interest since making Unreal Engine free, and it's starting to show.

With 10 million players, Blizzard's Overwatch is unquestionably a resounding success. There's just one thing that's been keeping certain PC gaming enthusiasts from enjoying the shooter to its fullest capacity: lack of ultrawide monitor support. Thankfully, Blizzard has confirmed they're already working on it and the update is targeted for July.

A very heated forum thread over at the Battle.net forums has been persuading Blizzard to add 21:9 resolutions, and Blizzard veteran Jeff Kaplan responded just a few hours ago with the good news: "We're working on this now. ETA late July -- give or take," Kaplan replied.

There's been an outpouring of complaints toward Blizzard over the lack of Ultrawide support -- probably due to the sheer number of players and the fact that it was present in at least one of the Betas -- and it's great to see the developers listening and responding proactively to the community. I just dove into the word of curved Ultrawides myself, with Acer's Predator Z35 G-Sync monitor, and there's no going back for me!

There's been tons of rumors about Nintendo's new NX console flying around the last few months, and the Japanese games titan has opted for a course of devout secrecy when it comes to the NX. Thanks to industry insiders we've been able to piece together speculations about the console--but one renowned insider says gamers might be in for quite a shock when the NX hits, and it might not be a good one.

Noteworthy games industry insider lherre has it on good authority the NX might not live up to the hype. "I'm sure a lot of people will be shocked by the new Nintendo NX, and I think not in a good way. But we will see," Iherre wrote in a recent NeoGAF post. But what exactly does this mean? How will the NX fall short? TweakTown was exclusively told by our reputable sources that the Nintendo NX is powered by NVIDIA's 16nm Pascal-based Tegra chip, so it shouldn't lack for power. Reports also say devs can easily port Xbox One and PS4 games to the NX, so it should be flexible.

Iherre goes on to iterate his point, saying that sources told him "almost nobody" was working with the NX console outside of Japan. Essentially Western devs might not have access to the NX yet, meaning third-party launch games might be slim. "No specifics but different sources told me a different scenario about it. I think the main concern about it or my impression is that 'almost nobody' is working with it outside japan. I imagine there will be a good support there. Well, that's not shocking. And I heard a lot of crazy rumors, you won't believe some of them."