Gaming - Page 1037

Three more games have made it to the Xbox One via Backwards Compatibility. Halo Wars, Soul Calibur II and King of Fighter '98, all available to buy and download now in the dedicated Xbox 360 backwards compatible store that you can access through the Xbox One.

Halo Wars was actually available last week through it's now officially joining the lineup with the new announcement by Major Nelson. From early reports, performance seems to be on par or better than their last generation counterparts, which is a releif given the strange performance issues inherent early on.

The list of backwards compatible games continues to become larger and larger with no sign that they'll be slowing anytime soon. This is actually the third announcement of new games in two weeks, adding up to a total of 140 games thus far. Red Dead Redemption, a game that would likely please fans and critics alike, continues to be missing despite having been unintentionally revealed last month. Microsoft is in talks with all major publishers and developers about bringing on board as many games as possible, so even if your favorite game isn't quite listed yet, it might be in the near future.

CRYENGINE V was revealed during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco earlier this month, but now we're seeing some benchmarks comparing CRYENGINE V against CRYENGINE 3 - as well as DX11 vs. DX12 tests. First, the CRYENGINE V vs. CRYENGINE 3 benchmark.

This comparison shows that CRYENGINE V is much more efficient, by around 20%. Not too bad considering there's nothing different in hardware, with an older NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti being used. The second video we have embedded below is testing CRYENGINE V with DirectX 12, against DX11. Check it out below:

Reports are surfacing that CRYENGINE V doesn't run so well on AMD hardware when using DX12 mode, but I'm sure that this will change in the near future.

Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan has made it known that console and PC players alike have nothing to worry about when it comes to one platform affecting the other in terms of balancing.

"We plan on balancing the game separately for consoles than we do for PC," he stated an an interview with YouTuber Th3Jez. "We don't want to do anything that would harm consoles because of PC tuning, and we don't want to do anything that would harm PCs because of console tuning."

Doesn't get much more definitive than that.

Star Citizen is an utterly massive game that lets you literally take on any role you could ever dream of. Well almost. But in this most recent trailer they're showing off one of their largest ship creations that isn't military or offensive at all; the MISC Starfarer.

If you've ever dreamt of being a cargo-hauler in the future, specifically ferrying fuel to and from different places, refining and selling it for the highest price possible, then this is the ship you'll need. It is a massive cargo ship that's finally ready to look at and play in inside your hanger in the latest Star Citizen 2.3 update. They've finished modeling the inside and outside of the ship which actually looks quite stunning. It's part of greater economy of the 'verse, which is actually startlingly important despite also being handled by NPC's. It could theoretically be possible to have a shipping empire akin to something you've read about in literature or experienced in real life.

Star Citizen has broken several records for crowdfunding while also coming under scrutiny for how they spend that money. Critics are concerned that the game will never materialize despite the surprisingly open communication about development successes and issues that they encounter.

Turok the Dinosaur Hunter has already been remastered for the PC this year, with upgraded graphics that follow the same visual style of the original and compatibility for modern systems. Night Dive Studios is now planning on bringing the first and second game to the Xbox One sometime later this year.

The 90's dinosaur-hunting game has had a surprisingly positive response from fans who have praised it for being a proper remaster that hasn't diluted the original game at all. The graphics might not be running on top of Unreal Engine 4, Unity 5 or even CryEngine V, but the HD remaster does let you feel the original without being frustratingly outdated. It'll be interesting to see just how the porting process works out. There's not word on precisely when Turok: Dinosaur Hunter or Turok 2: Seeds of Evil will make their return yet.

Night Dive Studio is also currently working on two other rather interesting projects remastering, and almost completely remaking, the original System Shock as well as working on the future of the series with System Shock 3.

Yet another major publication adds its voice to the PlayStation 4.5 choir, further substantiating the rumors that Sony is preparing a powerhouse VR-ready PS4 that could push into 4K gaming.

According to new reports from The Wall Street Journal, Sony's new upgraded PlayStation 4.5 console will be announced before the console-powered PlayStation VR headset. That means we could expect the PS4.5 before October of this year, ahead of the $399 PSVR's official timed launch. WSJ further claims that the PS4.5 will be sold alongside the existing PS4 model, and that it'll be VR-ready right out of the box.

The publication goes on to say that the PlayStation 4.5 will be "backwards and forwards compatible", hinting that Sony will make two different iterations of upcoming games--a PS4.5 version and a regular PS4 flavor. Key developers are rumored to be already working on porting games to the PS4.5, The WSJ cites "people familiar with the matter" as their sources, echoing statements we've heard from Kotaku.

Bethesda's Pete Hines shared on Twitter that they're coming close to being able to actually reveal more information about their own collectible card game, The Elder Scrolls Legends. But not quite yet.

The information comes to light in response to an individual who threatened to spend his money elsewhere if new information wasn't released soon. Pete Hines didn't quite give the suspected gaming terrorist the information he was looking for, though we do now know, at least, that they're closer to revealing the details and specifics than ever.

The game was announced at Bethesda's first E3 press briefing that occurred in 2015. The debut trailer was cinematic though didn't actually show any real gameplay. Despite that, the different races in The Elder Scrolls universe; the Khajit, Orcs, Elves, Nords and the Ghouls, will somehow be a part of the game, though we're unsure how they'll be integrated.

Star Ocean 5 is starting to look very good given the hardware that it's running off of. Square Enix is targeting, and it will be running at, 1080P on the PS4 when development is finished. They've been able to optimize the experience to run at that resolution because it's only natural that it do so. There's no deception here, though final framerate hasn't quite been announced yet.

In these photos we get to glimpse at all three of the villains of Kronos, a technologically advanced world in Sector K of the known galaxy, which happens to be very hostile to the Galactic Federation that you'll be a part of. The screenshots show off the level of detail that Square Enix and triAce are shooting for though the ship is admittedly less than stellar.

Those three villains are known as General Arma, one of the more ruthless commander's of Kronos' military forces, Aron who is a subordinate of Arma and captain of an airship and Torus, a director of a planetary research facility that performs experimentation on humanoid subjects.

What would you do if you had the chance to play around in a bus in a fully destructible world that had funky physics and obstacles that bounce you around like a cat on a trampoline?

Yeah, that's Omnibus, and it's a strangely built homage to all the wonderful things the mighty bus has done for us humans, letting us take up the mantle of the magnificent charabanc that's been the archetype of good in times of bad. But really, it takes some crazy physics modeling and lets you barrel through a number of levels with PS One level graphics (made with the Unity 5 engine) completing challenges, or just trying to destroy anything that rises up above the level of the road.

You get the chance to choose which type of bus you want and simply enter either the story mode, which is filled with an actual honest to goodness real story, though you'd be excused if you didn't quite get the whimsical humor that they're trying to portray. But there's real character development going on, and it's great. More than that, it's actually entertaining!

During AMD's huge Capsaicin event during the Game Developers Conference, we not only found out about the dual-GPU video card in the form of the Radeon Pro Duo, but we also found out about Watch Dogs 2.

Watch Dogs 2 has been confirmed by Ubisoft, and it should be optimized for AMD hardware, as well as its DX12 support. The original Watch Dogs was plagued with issues surrounding its release, with a huge watering down of its graphics from its original showing at E3 2013.

The sequel to Watch Dogs could be something special, especially if Ubisoft has pumped more time into the game - like it did with The Division, which has been received quite well so far.

We've been hearing about the purported PlayStation 4.5 for a couple of weeks now, but more and more sources are jumping onto the story claiming they've heard what Sony's new console would be capable of.

We've heard from our own sources, who have confirmed Sony is indeed working on the PS4.5 - but what will it be capable of? I think we'll see AMD provide their new Polaris architecture to Sony in the form of a next-gen APU capable of 4K gaming - but for the rumored $400 price, I really don't think we'll see 4K 60FPS gaming. We'll probably see 4K @ 30FPS, which is good and all - but it's not enough in my opinion.

The PS4.5 will be Sony's surprise Ultra HD Blu-ray player, which will increase physical 4K media playback consumers just like the PS3 did with Blu-ray all those years ago. I'm sure the PS4.5 will be a better console for the PlayStation VR when it's released in October, too. As for the release date, I think we'll see the PS4.5 released in October or November, right in time for the PlayStation VR launch as well as the holiday season.

Crytek recently announced its new next-generation CryEngine V graphics engine, which is optimized for DirectX 12 and VR gaming. The studio has been busily experimenting with the new engine, and now we have a nice glimpse at some of the fruits of their labor.

With CryEngine V, artists can create amazing environments with realistic effects like volumetric fog without bogging down CPU performance. Crytek lighting artist Damian Stempniewski recently showed off CryEngine V's lighting effects by applying the engine's SVOGI global illumination tech to forest scenes made in older engines. The results are pretty impressive, and Stempniewski says he built the environments only using stock CryEngine V assets.

Crytek's principal 3D/environment artist Finn Meinert Matthiesen spent just 30 minutes in CryEngine V to create the night scenes seen below. Matthiesen was playing around with various lighting and fog feature effects, showing just how versatile and powerful the CryEngine V is.

David Hayter, the immortal voice of Metal Gear Solid's legendary Snake, recently revealed what it was like to work with Hideo Kojima and Konami. And the results aren't so pretty.

Just about every MGS fan thought that David Hayter and Hideo Kojima were best buds, but Hayter revealed that Kojima actually tried to replace him on a separate occasion--way before Hayter was replaced by Keifer Sutherland. "I've got no particular love for Kojima," Hayter said, affirming he won't work with the beloved dev on his new game.

In a recent podcast interview with Game Informer, Hayter says that Hideo Kojima originally wanted Kurt Russell to voice Snake in 2004's Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Snake's original character was based on a number of heroic archetypes including Snake Plisskin, portrayed by Kurt Russell played in the iconic Escape from New York. Hayter says that he was forced to re-audition for his role as Snake, even when Russell passed on the opportunity.

William Shatner is an icon in science fiction, not the least because of his role in one of the largest franchises in Sci-Fi history. He's now lent his voice talent to the developers at Elite: Dangerous for a high-quality voice pack that'll replace the already gentle and rather marvelous voice inside the game. Now we can hear Captain Kirk himself narrate our journey, courtesy of HCS voicepacks.

Orion is more than just replacing the in-game ship voice with his commanding presence, but they've also created an in-game tour, of sorts, which is narrated by William Shatner while you go to certain waypoints throughout the galaxy. He's contributed over 1300 different phrases to replace the original voice. This voice pack is officially endorsed by Frontier Developments and a completely legal and authorized mod to put into your game. William Shatner has signed a few posters and his new book that, if you pre-order by April 8th, you'll be entered into a drawing to win. His new book Leonard is part of the prize pool and is a tribute to his co-star, colleague and friend Leonard Nimoy. Check it out, it's a fascinating voice-over that adds a new element, if not terribly exciting, that's quite unique to the game. If anything it can add something from your favorite Sci-Fi franchise to it. When Leonard Nimoy himself narrated portions of Star Trek Online it was a wonderful surprise as his voice lives on in ways that otherwise wouldn't be possible.

Street Fighter V was marred by a terrible launch, with network performance issues and a lack of available content that was a bit off-putting to even the hardcore of fans. We were promised a story-mode that didn't quite materialize into the grand adventure we were told we'd get. It didn't even have the most basic of tutorials to tell the novice how to fight in the new Unreal engined game.

The first patch coming is completely free and will drop on March 28th. This adds a new Challenge Mode, a much needed alternative way to play, and tutorials that demonstrate some of the basic, yet essential components of beating up your friends in-game. The latter will culminate in a trial that's designed to test all of your knowledge. The reward is surviving, for what it's worth. These seem like basic components that should be included from the get-go, but we're consoled by the fact that the underlying structure and graphics were solid when it was released.

That second patch is coming on the 30th and is designed to add more content. Alex, a new playable character, is being added into the mix, someone who was very well-liked back in Street Fighter III. This too will be free, though you'll have to buy the right to use the new character with the in-game currency, Zenny, or your own cash. That system isn't quite ready for primetime, however, but you can "trial" him for free in the meantime. Capcom plans on fully implementing that at a later date, though quite soon.

Yesterday, the graphics options for the PC version of Quantum Break were leaked. While the list was long and impressive, it was missing a few key items: FOV, V-Sync, and anti-aliasing. Well, now developer Remedy has officially unveiled the options, which are identical to the leaked ones except for a few appreciable additions: Graphics Preset, Lock to 30 FPS, and Anti-Aliasing.

Graphics Preset of course lets you be lazy and quickly turn down multiple settings with one toggle for better performance with minimal effort. Lock to 30 FPS means the game won't be capped at 30 FPS after all (unless you want it to be), which is great news. As for why there's no 60 FPS lock, we realize now that as this is a Windows Store game, this means the game will have V-Sync and therefore a 60 FPS lock by default. Finally, anti-aliasing is the much needed inclusion, especially as the game seems to offer only the taxing MSAA. A more performance-friendly option like SMAA or FXAA would be very welcome, but it's sure better than nothing.

While not pictured here, Remedy confirms 4K support.

If you were hoping to get into the action as soon as possible, there may be a few hurdles that prevent the fun from being, well, too much fun. Unless you can read Japanese and are okay with having to go it alone for those quests initially.

It's possible to use an exploit or "loophole", to download Dark Souls III via the Japanese Xbox Store, and it's even in English, except for the menus, but it actually works. That's not the worst problem, though the most persistent until it comes out in NA and you swap out downloads. The other issue is that the multiplayer portion hasn't quite been finished just yet, which could pose a problem for the less experienced of fighters our there.

That issue will be resolved eventually, but the prospect of being able to partner up with your friends to take on the more difficult bosses was particularly tantalizing. It's a hard game, you need your friends to survive in some cases. There'll be a day one patch that'll deliver further optimizations to the game as well as adding in the now missing multiplayer and cooperative aspect, though you'll have to wait until April 12th for that.

The more I see Doom in action, the more I realized just how much I've missed its bloody carnage. The latest footage shows off a tasty look at the kind of fast-paced mayhem you'll be able to wreak in multiplayer, and gives us a glimpse at the coveted BFG in action.

Bethsoft recently showed off all of Doom's multiplayer modes, and now we get a fresh look at the kinds of weapons and powerups we can expect to wield on the hellish arena.

The new footage teases the different kinds of playable demons available in the Evolve-esque Demon Mode like the ferocious Hell Baron or the ultra-quick Prowler. Then there's powerups--Doom wouldn't be Doom without powerups. This time around we can expect full camo and a brutal one-shot kill powerup, plus two unrevealed boosters. Last but not least is the immensely satisfying power weapons: turn enemies into slabs of sliced meat with the chainsaw, or annihilate them on an atomic level with the BFG.

Along with Mass Effect: Andromeda, BioWare is working on a secret new IP--and both of them are looking "stunning".

According to BioWare design and art dev Alistair McNally, the studio's mysterious unannounced IP is currently in a playable state, proving the devs are making significant strides in the new game. While the gaming community scratches their heads trying to figure out the new IP, McNally actually revealed it at GDC 2016--although in a subtle way that no one noticed.

So what exactly is BioWare cooking up? Thanks to a recent job listing, the new secret IP isn't so secret. BioWare is hiring a new server engineer to create a backend for a its new IP, and mentions "extensive online components". So we could be looking at a MMORPG of some sort, but since it's a new IP, it won't be set in existing Dragon Age, Mass Effect, or Star Wars universes. Check out the Secret IP thread on the BioWare forums for more tidbits.

Final Fantasy XV is a treat on the eyes, with the wildly stylized hair and well-designed backdrops. But being a graphical showcase of what Square Enix is capable of producing as the primary developer also means that it has the potential of running a bit slower. But considering the genre and the type of action on screen, the targeted framerate will be 30FPS, for that cinematic feel, and because it's probably all the consoles can manage at higher resolutions.

That's at least their objective. At the moment, the game sometimes dips below that target, but they believe that further optimizations can help keep things well within 30FPS with no trouble. It's possible, however, that they may not be able to hit that target enough of the time for it to be viable, in which they might have to do something else completely to satiate fans. The final resolution that it'll be running hasn't been revealed yet, but it's looking more likely that it won't be 1080P if they want to hit that 30FPS target.

The game engine they're using, the Luminous Studio engine, is a very capable and impressive piece of technology. It's been the underlying engine that underpinned the Witch Chapter 0 [cry] demo that was shown off at Microsoft BUILD last year, with four Titan X's rendering a scene filled with 8Kx8K textures and nearly 63 million polygons. One Titan X was only able to push it to 35.9FPS, so imagine how even a less potent version of the engine would fair on the hardware inside the Xbox One and the PS4. Even a mere 5 million polygons per frame is still impressive, and not easy to render considering the other effects that are put on top of that. It'll be interesting to see how well it runs when it's finally released. Of course we'll have a performance analysis as soon as is feasible on the PC.