Gaming - Page 1030

E3 2016 - If you haven't heard about Obduction yet, and loved playing Myst in the 90s, then you'll want to quickly Google what 'Obduction' is, because it's going to be a huge game when it's released later this year.

NVIDIA's own GeForce website has detailed Obduction with some VR gameplay, and an interview with Rand Miller from Cyan. Obduction is only a month away, with a release date of July 26, with the game transporting players into an "all-new, real-time, first-person adventure filled with puzzles, exploration, and discovery, harking back to the themes and spirit of Cyan's previous titles".

Obduction will have both PC and Oculus Rift releases, with NVIDIA working with Cyan on the technology side of the game. Obduction will include support for the Pascal architecture, including Ansel, HDR, Simultaneous Multi-Projection, VR, HDR and more.

E3 2016 - Gears of War 4 will be shipping on both the Xbox One and Windows 10, with more details on the game being made available during E3 2016. One of these includes what resolution it'll run at on the Xbox One, and an unlocked frame rate on Windows 10.

Inquisitr talked with The Coalition's Technical Director, Michael Rayner, who said: "On the Xbox we're running at 30hz, 1080p for the campaign, 60hz, 1080p for multiplayer. On Windows 10, PC gamers will run as fast as your hardware will support. So you can lock it to your Vsync or your monitor refresh rate, or you can run it fully unlocked, you know, 120 frames or whatever your system can support. Because of the way the engine works, at the core it supports a variable time stamp. The way that the network updates happen between co-op [or] two players, we can have the PC game running at the higher frame rate against the Xbox One at a fixed frame rate. And everything works".

So there you have it, 1080p 30FPS on the Xbox One for the campaign, and 1080p 60FPS for the multiplayer side of things.

E3 2016 - Battlefield 1 is shaping up much better than I thought, with a new screenshot appearing on Twitter thanks to DANNYonPC.

The screenshot displays the customization menu of Battlefield 1, which has a bunch of details and information that players will have at their finger tips before beginning a mission. The customization options seem extensive, with plenty of information on tap.

When it comes to Battlefield 1's multiplayer reveal, gamers asked where the French army was... as they were one of the most important aspects of the Great War. Well, Julien Wera from DICE confirmed that the French army will be part of the main campaign, but they will be included in greater detail in some upcoming DLC.

E3 2016 - Sony had a smash hit with E3 2016, with a big push into PlayStation VR, a huge reveal of Resident Evil 7, and just so much more that I can't cram into a single news post. But we did just find out that Sony ran all of their E3 2016 content on the current-gen PlayStation 4 console.

This included the reveal of the awesome-looking God of War, Horizon: Zero Dawn (which wasn't running too well, IMO), The Last Guardian (finally!), Detroit: Become Human - which is from the makers of Heavy Rain, and Days Gone. PlayStation exec Andrew House said that the Neo is definitely on the way, adding: "It is intended to sit alongside and complement the standard PS4. We will be selling both [versions] through the life cycle".

PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida himself confirmed the E3 2016 games running on the current, standard PS4, where he tweeted: "everything is on a standard PS4". That's actually quite impressive, Sony - running all of these games on the current-gen PS4, and not the new Neo.

E3 2016 - Furthering its plan of integrating console and PC, Microsoft Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has made it known that keyboard and mouse support are on the way for Xbox One.

"I keep talking about it in the press and my platform team keeps shaking their head, because they... Truthfully in our dev kit modes now keyboard works, mouse support is a little bit further away," he said, explaining how Play Anywhere will work. "I say it because I know it's not years away, it's more like months away, but we don't have an exact date yet."

Spencer also said he hoped gamers would play PC-centric games on their console as a result of the support.

E3 2016 - Microsoft has been on a roll when it comes to hardware, announcing the new beefy Xbox Scorpio console with 6TFlops of performance - and ready for both 4K and VR gaming. But the company has just sliced the price of the Xbox One down by another $20, too.

Just two weeks ago Microsoft dropped the price of the Xbox One to $299, and now the company has done it again, dropping the price to just $279. The $299 promotion was for a "limited time" and by limited time, they must have meant - after that limited time, we'll just drop it lower than that, permanently. The basic 500GB Xbox One bundle is now $279, with Microsoft most likely dropping the price to remove any remaining inventory of the Xbox One before the refreshed, more powerful Xbox One S console drops later this year... for $299.

The new $279 price on the Xbox One runs through to October 1, but once the Xbox One S is out, you probably won't want to buy the current Xbox One. The Xbox One S is 40% smaller, has an internal power brick, supports 4K video, and HDR gaming.

E3 2016 - Sony is expected to deliver a bunch of new details about its 4K-ready PlayStation Neo (aka PS4K, PS4.5) at this year's Tokyo Game Show, with a finished console reveal at Paris Games Week.

Although Sony has officially confirmed the existence of its powerful new upgraded PlayStation 4K, the hot new system was entirely absent at the Japanese gaming giant's E3 2016. That was to be expected, of course, as Sony told us the PS4K wouldn't show up. But Sony doesn't plan to keep us in the dark for much longer: according to Macquarie Securities analyst Damian Thong, Sony will drop key details on its "hardcore" new PS4K at this year's Tokyo Game Show on September 19-20.

Sony will likely unveil key specifications of the console, possibly confirming the leaked specs (8-core Jaguar CPU at 2.1GHz, 8GB GDDR5 memory at 218GB/s, and a 14nm AMD Polaris GPU), and clear up any confusion surrounding the system--but the console won't show up. As for an actual unveiling of the finished PlayStation 4K console itself, renowned games insider Shinobi602 predicts Sony will debut the system at Paris Games Week on October 27. Shinobi has been accurate many times in the past, and was right on the mark when he said the PS4K would skip E3.

It may be a World War game, but developer DICE won't be including every relevant nation in Battlefield 1 multiplayer. British, German, Austro-Hungarian, Italian, Ottoman, and American forces are confirmed, leaving 21 nations by the wayside. Among those not included: France, which played a pivotal role in World War I.

DICE's Director of Product Strategy Julien Wera explained to French media the exclusion isn't a slight to the country, but rather a compliment in a way, as they want to give them full treatment in the form of DLC.

"The French army is present in the single player campaign," he said to Le Monde. "For multiplayer, the French army had such an important role in the first World War that we wanted to give them special treatment, which required more time, so it will be playable, but after the launch of the game in an expansion that will be dedicated to them."

E3 2016 - Microsoft announced its new super-powered Xbox Scorpio during E3 2016, with the new console being both 4K and VR-ready. Microsoft boss Phil Spencer said that the company could've shipped a next-gen Xbox this year, but it would not have been 4K-capable.

Spencer said during an interview with Eurogamer: "We could have done a new update this year. We actually looked at it. We went all the way to, we had the spec in front of us, should we ship something that's less than Scorpio this year, but in truth you can't do a true 4K console this year. And I just didn't think anything between what is effectively a 1080p console and the 4K console, like, from a consumer television standpoint there's nothing in the middle. So let's go focus on 4K and next year was the right year to do that".

He continued talking about the hardware inside of Scorpio, saying that it would not have been possible to have a true 4K-capable console with all of the right hardware this year. Spencer said: "Balance in the design of the system is really important. So when you think about the CPU and the GPU that are on the SOC, the optical disc drive and the speed of that, which we haven't talked about too much, but I'll just say that, the speed of RAM, all of these things when you're designing the system, making sure they're all in balance, so one piece doesn't get overpowered relative to the other, or you've got a lot of GPU but you're not able to feed all of the assets to it out of the RAM fast enough, all of those things were critical for us when thinking about the design. All of this is why we picked the design point we did of 4K and the date we did. Like I said, we looked at other designs that might be coming earlier, and we don't think they really delivered on a full point".

E3 2016 - With this year's E3 being one of the most exciting in recent years, Square Enix decided to tease some gameplay footage from the PC version of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

But ugh, the 'PC footage' was captured from the PC version of Mankind Divided, but with an Xbox controller. You can see it in the gameplay, where you can use 'X' to action something. Disappointing to see, as I would've loved to have seen true PC gameplay footage, on you know - the mouse and keyboard. At least the graphics look beyond awesome because it's powered by an actual AMD Radeon-powered gaming PC, but now I need mouse and keyboard gameplay footage!

E3 2016 - Microsoft's ultra-powerful Project Scorpio may be the first console to push into native 4K gaming.

Microsoft has made it clear that its new 4K-ready Project Scorpio console is a huge step forward, saying things like the console will sport "the highest res at the best frame rates without no compromises." We've speculated that the high-end Xbox Scorpio will be powered by "the most powerful console GPU ever" in a new semi-custom SoC based on AMD's powerful 14nm Polaris GPU and Zen CPU, and now Microsoft may have just confirmed native 4K gaming support for the console. This effectively means Microsoft is bringing enthusiast-grade console hardware to gamers, and for the first time we'll be getting a true next-gen console.

"Scorpio is for the person who's got a 4K television, who's really focused on 4K gaming. This is really a six teraflop console built to support 4K and the power of high fidelity VR. It's going to be a premium price over what we're selling [Xbox One S] for, and both of them will exist in the market at the same time. Scorpio is for your 4K gamer. And that's what we designed it for," Xbox division head Phil Spencer said in a recent interview with Eurogamer.

E3 2016 - After news broke out yesterday that the Xbox One S performs better than vanilla Xbox One consoles, Microsoft has jumped in to emphatically insist the Xbox One S hardware tweaks have absolutely zero impact on in-game performance.

Although the 40% smaller Xbox One S rocks GPU and CPU boosts from AMD's new semi-custom SoC, Microsoft says these tweaks are only for HDR support and will have "literally no impact" on in-game performance. Fergusson originally claimed the Xbox One S allowed smoother in-game frame rates and "reduced the resolution penalty" over current Xbox One systems.

"When we made changes to the box for 4K we unlocked a little bit more processing power to enable HDR. That's it. It's exactly the same architecture as the existing one," Xbox exec Albert Penello told Eurogamer. "To support HDR, we give people access to a little more CPU and GPU. That's it. It is so insignificant. I promise, it won't even show up. It will have no impact on games at all. Literally no impact. They will be identical. It's nothing, it is literally nothing.

E3 2016 - Nintendo has done it. They've revealed the official game trailer to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I don't want to write anymore and get in the way of you watching the trailer, so check it out below:

Nintendo explains The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in their YouTube description as: "Step into a world of discovery, exploration and adventure in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a boundary-breaking new game in the acclaimed series. Travel across fields, through forests and to mountain peaks as you discover what has become of the ruined kingdom of Hyrule in this stunning open-air adventure".

Nintendo has built a gigantic world for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which is 12 times the size than the world in Twilight Princess... incredible. Nintendo has said that if you see something in Breath of the Wild, you can reach it - thanks to Link's new abilities of jumping and climbing cliff faces and buildings. You can explore throughout the world, through plains, forests and mountains - and everything else your eye can see.

E3 2016 - A huge surprise during E3 2016 was the announcement of a new Spider-Man game exclusive to the PS4 made by Insomniac Games.

Sony teased the new Spider-Man game during its E3 2016 press conference, but then Insomniac Games official Twitter account confirmed they are indeed working on the game, exclusive to Sony's console. Insomniac took to the PlayStation Blog, where they said: "Spider-Man is one of the most iconic and well-known characters in the world, and we're thrilled to be given the responsibility to create a brand new, authentic Spider-Man story".

The developer also confirmed that Spider-Man is not based off of the new reboot of the movie, that Marvel now has huge influence in since Sony have thrown the franchise into the garbage for too long. Insomniac added: "This is a more seasoned Peter Parker who's more masterful at fighting big crime in New York City. At the same time, he's struggling to balance his absurdly chaotic personal life and career".

E3 2016 -- Despite its lack of a single-player campaign, I sunk probably 50 hours into the original Titanfall on Xbox One and PC. It was a successful first effort from Respawn Entertainment, combining the twitch gunplay of games like Call of Duty with just a taste of the massive mech power fantasy I've been craving since the original Xbox's MechAssault. I'll be honest though, the trailers for Titanfall 2 didn't get me too pumped up, but when I got my hands-on the sequel at EA Play during E3 this week, my tune changed significantly. From what I experienced, Titanfall 2 is notable improvement on the original's multiplayer, although we didn't get even a peek at the single player, offline campaign.

Our group (and I believe everyone else) played on PlayStation 4. As much as I preferred Titanfall on PC, it's a smart move to highlight Sony's system here because it was left out in the cold for the original Microsoft exclusive. Like the original, it's also tuned nicely for controller play, and Sony's console handled the action exceptionally well. Thus far in development, Titanfall 2 is running at a smooth 60fps (no slowdown detected even during moments littered with grunts and Titans) on a version of the Source engine that's been heavily modified since the original shooter. I know gang, I wish it used Frostbite too. Still, it looks noticeably better, although some indoor environments -- walls especially -- almost looked like muddy screen doors. We're still in unfinished territory though, so no judgment until it hits retail.

The multiplayer mode we played was Bounty Hunt, which tasks your team with taking down designated Titans by executing them up close, or by pulling off a rodeo takedown. I noticed something when I had the chance to score my first bounty: the rodeo process was more involved and took several seconds longer. That's because now you have to essentially break into the Titan's chassis and lob a grenade inside. You're not just destroying a mech, though, you're stealing health. Your pilot -- if he or she survives the move -- will escape with a battery that can be given to teammates to heal up their own Titans. That should facilitate a bit more teamwork -- even if no one's communicating.

Last week it came out that Blizzard was considering nerfing Overwatch's Widowmaker; turns out they decided to go ahead with it, as today's PC patch does just that.

There was a case to be made for nerfing a variety of different Widowmaker tools as well as damage levels; Blizzard has gone with a hit to non-headshot damage (down from 15 to 12) and now require you to wait for the unscoping animation to finish before scoping again (so no more CS-style flick shotting in rapid succession). Finally, her Infra-Sight ultimate now costs 10% more.

Explaining the changes, Blizzard says, "In the right hands, Widowmaker can often feel unstoppable -- even when just landing body shots instead of critical head shots. The changes to her alternate fire weaken body shot damage while leaving her headshot damage unchanged. Additionally, we felt her Ultimate ability, Infra-Sight, was coming up a little too frequently, especially considering its impact on the game."

E3 2016 - The huge reveal of Resident Evil 7 took place during Sony's E3 2016 press conference, with the announcement of PlayStation VR support. The entire game is playable on the PlayStation VR, and it looks awesome. The trailer is below, with screenshots under that.

Resident Evil 7 will launch in January 2017 for the PlayStation VR, but these screenshots are totally new, and they totally rock. Check them out.

E3 2016 -- "So who won E3?" It's one of the most common questions I see after Day 0 comes to a close. Day 0, of course, plays host to more press conferences than any sane game journalist can even attend. There's Microsoft, Ubisoft, the PC Gaming Show, and Sony. Thankfully EA moved theirs to Sunday this year (day -1?) along with Bethesda. E3 doesn't really begin on Tuesday. It kicks off on Sunday now with a metric ton of reveals and announcements and trailers to pick apart and analyze, because this industry is so massive it can't be contained to a single convention, much less a single day's worth of big news.

When people ask "who won E3" they're asking who had the best press conference. I'm sure several sites have already posted their winners and losers, criticizing EA for being so rigid and, frankly, a little boring. Maybe they're recording podcasts right now debating which executives had the best stage presence, whether or not Microsoft ran too long. Perhaps they're questioning why Sony didn't drop enough hard release dates.

As someone who's covered E3 in person since 2011, I've participated in that line of conversation. Hell, it's a fun debate. This year, though, something changed. I was able to step back, temporarily shed my "critic" skin, and just be a fan of video games.

E3 2016 - Microsoft's new Xbox One S is a fully-fledged console refresh with an extra hardware kick to improve in-game frame rates. And it actually plays Gears of War 4 better than original Xbox Ones.

The Xbox One S is not only 40% smaller than current Xbox One consoles, but it will actually play games better than its predecessor. The latest Xbox One S sports a tweaked GPU and CPU that's combined on a new semi-custom SoC from AMD, unlocking some pretty important performance jumps for the system. The Xbox One has had a problem with the age-old frame-rate vs resolution debacle, and games like Halo 5 and DOOM have had to stick with dynamic resolution in order to match inconsistent, sub-60FPS frame rates. The Xbox One S, on the other hand, will reduce those annoying frame rate drops during intense in-game sequences and smooth out one of the most daunting shortcomings of the Xbox One.

Rod Fergusson, who's creating Gears of War 4 with The Coalition, told Polygon that the Xbox One S will "provide a more consistent level of technical performance" thanks to the console's "additional raw GPU and CPU power."

E3 2016 - Beyond Good & Evil was a ridiculously fun game, but the sequel is still in development - and has been confirmed by Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot.

YouTube Live @ E3 host Geoff Keighley asked Guillemot about Beyond Good & Evil 2, with Guillemot replying: "It's still on the way. It's something at one point you will see, yes. It's difficult to say. Michel [Ancel] is working on it, but he's doing two games at the same time, he's doing Wild at the same time, it's coming along, but he has to spend more time on it so we can see it faster".