Gaming - Page 1041

The reboot of Need for Speed has been pretty good, with developer Ghost Games confirming a sequel for Need for Speed for 2017. The developer hasn't said much, but it said it will be building on the foundation it built with Need for Speed, in order to make the sequel.

Ghost Games said: "We are now building upon the foundations that have been laid with Need for Speed and delivering our next game in 2017". The developer added: "That's not to say that we're going quiet between now and then... far from it. We'll be working with our community and there will be multiple opportunities to bring many of you into the studio in the coming months to get your feedback on where we're headed".

Will you be picking up the new Need for Speed in 2017? What did you think of the reboot?

Mass Effect: Andromeda is now confirmed to release "early 2017" by BioWare general manager Aaron Flynn, and will be shown off at E3 2016.

BioWare has just dropped a lengthy update post on Mass Effect: Andromeda, divulging new details and promising an E3 2016. Check below for the update, or click here to see leaked Mass Effect: Andromeda gameplay footage.

"With Mass Effect: Andromeda, our team at BioWare is exploring how far they can take this beloved franchise. Yes, we're building the best of what we all love about Mass Effect - amazing stories, characters and fun third-person shooter combat - and bringing them along with us on the expedition to Andromeda. But we're also excited to be introducing new features and ways you can enjoy a Mass Effect game."

Despite recent successes with the 'Disney Infinity' brand, it's been a tough few years for Disney Interactive to carve out a niche in the console business, and now the studio is calling it a day.

In a surprise announcement, Disney Infinity Senior VP and General Manager John Blackburn confirmed that the studio will cancel 'Disney Infinity' after the release of two expansion packs which are currently in production. Further, the company announced their intention to cease self publishing in their earnings call, necessitating a $147 million writedown.

It's understood that the studio will focus on licensing out the studios in future.

Tremendous as Battlefield 1 looked in its debut trailer, there was a worry in the back of PC gamer's minds that all the goodness could be ruined by a lack of a server browser. Normally this is assumed for Battlefield games on PC, but DICE's recent Star Wars: Battlefront did not feature one, and well, PC gamers have been blindsided by moves like this enough times to be wary until given a specific reason not to.

Worry no more, as the official Battlefield Twitter account has confirmed a server browser will indeed be included with the game (presumably for consoles as well). Whether or not this means Battlelog support, we can't yet say, however.

If you're new to PC or PC shooters, server browsers allow for a customized gameplay experience and the ability to easily play with specific people and communities, among other major benefits. So you can understand when one Twitter user aptly says in response to the news, "Thank baby Jesus."

While Microsoft has done a great job overall of bringing its recent Xbox One titles to PC under the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), they've seriously hampered those with powerful machines and displays by locking framerate and not supporting FreeSync and G-Sync. The feedback was loud and clear, though, and so they've responded with a Windows 10 update today that changes all of that.

The update will slowly roll out to everyone, but if you aren't seeing it in Windows Update and want it immediately, you can download it here.

Unfortunately, this won't automatically affect all UWP games: developers will have to update their games appropriately. Microsoft says Gears of War: Ultimate Edition and Forza Motorsport 6: Apex to be first in line with patches in the "very near future"; Rise of the Tomb Raider and Quantum Break should follow. Meanwhile, Killer Instinct seems unlikely as fighting games tend to have gameplay and framerate tied to each other, so an unlocked framerate would put gameplay in turbo mode.

The rumors were true: Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster is coming to Steam. Even better: you won't have long to wait, as it launches in just two days (May 12).

Apart from improved audio and visuals, the remaster includes International Edition content: new Sphere Grids, bosses, behind the scenes development features, and more for X, and new dresspheres, Garment Grids, a bonus ending, and a Pokemon-like Creature Creator/Monster Arena mode for X-2. Both feature optional Japanese voice acting, auto saving, and five game boosters that offer high speed and no encounter modes.

In other words, if your last experience with either or both games was the original PS2 release, there are plenty of good reasons to pick this version up and play through it again. And if it's your first time, there's all the more content for you to experience. Win win!

Nintendo's new NX console hinges on the support of third-party industry giants, but EA says they'll only jump in "if it makes sense".

EA Studios vice president Patrick Soderlund says that the devs are in "constant communication" with Nintendo, but the publisher isn't ready to rush in with third-party support until the NX has been formally unveiled. "We're in constant communication with them and when they come to market something - and if it makes sense for us - we'll be there," Soderlund said in an interview with the BBC. "I personally and the company are huge fans of Nintendo, they're the reason why I started making games."

After Nintendo's failure with the Wii U, EA seems to be hesitant to repeat history with the NX. EA is one of the many third-party studios that stopped porting their games onto the Wii U, citing underwhelming specifications and complications as a major issue.

When DICE unveiled their new powerhouse WW1 shooter Battlefield 1, everyone was under the impression the game represented an alternate history. Now the devs have come in to set the record straight.

Battlefield 1 is based on authentic World War I history and doesn't feature any alternate history elements, according to DICE lead game designer Daniel Berlin. "Battlefield 1 is definitely rooted in history. There's no alternate mix of anything else. All the stuff you see is equipment that was available. All the vehicles you see were available at this time. This is our depiction through a modern lens, looking at World War One, the Great War," Berlin said in an interview with GamesBeat.

DICE has gone great lengths to showcase the cultures and technics of the time, promising that the 64-player multiplayer battles will be more chaotic than ever before. Both the multiplayer and campaign will be littered with accurate depictions of WW1, including new-world tech like biplanes, zeppelins, battleships, and tanks against old-war themes like horseback cavalry and sword combat. It even has biological weapons and trench warfare, along with accurate WW1 weaponry.

Battlefield 1's campaign will celebrate the lesser-known underdogs of World War 1, keeping with the "old vs new" and "dawn of modern warfare focus" by highlighting unfamiliar forces like the Harlem Hellfighters or Bedouin Arab forces on hoseback.

We already know that Battlefield 1's campaign won't have a central perspective, instead shifting to tell stories of varying world powers during World War I. "Our single-player will focus on different stories and different personalities across the world," said DICE lead designer Daniel Berlin.

DICE affirms that the campaign will shed light on obscure WW1 forces to tell a dynamic story: "When we set out on this game, we wanted to depict not just the common view of what the war was like. We wanted to challenge some preconceptions. We want to delve into some of the unknowns of World War One. Maybe people don't know that this person fought or that person fought, that this army was involved. We're stretching out and bringing all those stories into the game."

Amazon's listing for World War I shooter Battlefield 1 indicates PC players will not have the option to grab a disc version of the game or a Collector's Edition.

Listings on the site note read "Battlefield 1 - PC [NO DISC]", with no other option to choose from, and no PC Collector's Edition is listed anywhere. A PC Deluxe Edition is also not listed. However, this can be had through EA's Origin client.

The lack of disc is not surprising: RPG developer and publisher Larian Studios stated in 2014 that just 10% of its Divinity: Original Sin sales came from retail (and while Battlefield 1 won't necessarily see the same figure, it's reasonably to expect a similar result). Given the intense costs and effort associated with putting a product on shelves across the globe and many different retailers, it's not surprising Electronic Arts appears to be ditching the option and focusing entirely on digital instead.

PS4 exclusive Horizon: Zero Dawn might not be delayed to 2017 after all.

Copies of Uncharted 4 in France apparently come with a leaflet that clearly lists Horizon: Zero Dawn is "available in 2016".

The game was originally planned to launch this year, but industry insider Shinobi602 reported the PS4 exclusive would be pushed back to 2017 with a launch on Sony's new 4K-upscaled PlayStation 4 Neo.

The insanely popular Five Nights at Freddy's series will soon be accessible on the console realm, bringing the animatronic terror to a whole new audience.

Five Nights at Freddy's creator Scott Cawthon recently revealed that he plans on bringing the franchise to consoles. "Actually, yes! It will happen. I'm talking with a few companies who are interested in doing console remakes of the original games :)," Cawthon said on Steam.

The developer goes on to say that the console versions will be "full remakes, not ports", citing that the Clickteam engine used to make the Five Nights at Freddy's game is currently underpowered. As such, Cawthon has to work with third-party development studios to remake the games for consoles.

From Software's macabre Victorian Souls successor Bloodborne gets an amazing recreation in UE4.

Bloodborne's games engine is hard to match, but DICE environment artist Simon Barle does a stunning job in recreating the game's gothic overtones in Unreal Engine 4. We don't get to see the whole game in UE4, just the Hunter's Dream hub, but it's still an incredible look at UE4's versatility. The footage is rendered in 60 frames-per-second too, adding an extra layer of immersive realism to the environment.

Be sure to check below for a ton of screen captures from the footage, and I have to wonder what Hidetaki Miyazaki and the rest of From Software think of this homage.

Naughty Dog's final Uncharted game has been praised left and right for its amazing visual quality, and Digital Foundry's new Uncharted 4 tech analysis dissects the game's textures, character animations, volumetric lighting and more. Spoiler Warning: Location spoilers included in the trailer below!

There are few games that have been able to fully tap the full potential of current-gen consoles, but Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is now the reigning king of Sony's PlayStation 4. Naughty Dog's new engine tech makes use of a ton of nifty enhancements like "physically-based rendering, pre-computed global illumination and comprehensive physics simulation" to deliver insane image quality, interactive environments, volumetric lighting, amazing water simulations and character rendering/AI.

"Naughty Dog has developed a temporal anti-aliasing technique that delivers results that sometimes manage to approach the quality of a super-sampled image. Thin edges are remarkably clean, shader aliasing is almost non-existent, and shimmering is all but eliminated. Large, complex fields of detailed foliage remain razor sharp even at a distance while finer details on Nate's weapons remain clearly visible."

Battlefield 1 has pretty much redefined expectations from the franchise, and DICE has been busy talking the new WW1 up...but it looks like the campaign will be really short this time around.

According to leaks sourced by Twitter user txt231, Battlefield 1's World War I-themed campaign will only be six missions long. The leak was further solidified by the game's apparent achievement list, which lists half a dozen missions. Battlefield 1's campaign will shift perspectives across different world powers in WW1, from Arabs charging into battle on horseback to Germans flying high ontop of zeppelins. Below is the supposed list of the missions and their names:

I had such high hopes for Battlefield 1's campaign, especially since the game will focus on more than one protagonist team at a time. I hope that there's more than just six missions in the singleplayer campaign, or maybe each chapter has multiple parts/sequences to complete. Condensing the massive world-breaking struggle that is WW1 into six missions would be insanely difficult, and I don't think it'd be enough space to tell a proper story.

The Witcher 3's last Blood and Wine expansion launches later this month, according to a new leaks.

Blood and Wine may release on May 30, 2016, if a recently leaked Steam listing is accurate. CD Projekt RED has yet to confirm The Witcher 3's final DLC, but the studio did release a few new screenshots and is expected to reveal the DLC's release date later this month.

The DLC takes place in Toussaint, a huge new realm that's full of vibrant environments that contrast's the games dark overtones. As Blood and Wine is Geralt's last adventure, CDPR promises that the DLC will top the main game in almost every regard: "Blood and Wine is an independent history, not tied in particularly closely with the main plot of the Wild Hunt. With our experience and feedback received since the game is on sale, we believe we have achieved something even better than the main game," CDPR dev Jakub Szamalek said in a recent interview.

If you're familiar with my personal opinion on consoles, you'll know that I think they've had a negative impact on PC gaming and technology in general - so to hear EA's Chief Competition Officer, Peter Moore, ringing in the death of consoles. Hell. Yes.

Moore told The Daily Orange: "I'm not sure there will be consoles, as we know them anymore. Games will be accessed by streaming technology, so we don't need hardware intermediaries in between the two. If you and I want to play Battlefield 12 against each other, we'll just jump into a game via whatever monitor we happen to have in our homes. It'll be on a chip, rather than in a box".

Moore added that the PS4 and Xbox One are "well set up to advance as technologies does", simply blowing my mind. I don't know how they can advance, when they can barely handle 720p at 30FPS, but hey - what do I know. I think we'll see consoles begin to disappear, as games can be streamed online or from your smartphone - especially if we begin thinking, 5-10-20 years from now.

Can you believe that Star Citizen has reached $113 million in funding, just five months after the game hit $100 million back in December 2015.

Cloud Imperium Games now has over 1.3 million people signed up keeping an eye on the development progress of the game, with the pace of production on Star Citizen picking up in the last few months. The developer has said that it will "build on the foundation" of Alpha 2.4 of the game, as well as pushing the development of the game into the fast lane.

A representative for CIG said: "In our four studios around the world and our partner studios in Canada and elsewhere, people work tirelessly to fulfill the promise of this unprecedented project. Whether they're artists, programmers, designers, engineers, writers, directors, producers, and more, they're all gamers who want to share this experience with everyone reading these each and every month".

Now that DICE's new WW1-based shooter Battlefield 1 is unveiled, its time to take a look at more multiplayer specifics including classes, starting weapons, vehicles and more.

Battlefield 1 will have four main multiplayer classes with different starting weapons: Soldier/Assault (SMGs), Medic (semi-auto rifles), Support (LMGs) and Scout (sniper rifle). Vehicles are tied to dedicated vehicle classes, so players will have to stick with the vehicle they designate--if you pick the tank class, you have to use tanks, ditto for biplanes. There will also be different kinds of tanks, and every vehicle is balanced to have its own specific weaknesses. Keeping with the World War I themes, the game doesn't have any auto-aim or lock-ons, meaning players will have to use skills and tactics to conquer enemies.

Battlefield 1's multiplayer has tons of artillery explosions with placement guns for infantry and anti-air. Massive-scale 64-player combat will take place on maps all across the world, from London to France and even the Arabian deserts. Multiplayer will be ultra-chaotic thanks to Bad Company 2 levels of destruction. Mustard gas, trench warfare, tanks (multiple types), biplanes, battleships, horseback cavalry and more has been shown off.

Battlefield fanatics with a lot of money to blow: EA has your back. The Battlefield 1 Collector's Edition is priced at a whopping $219.99 but gives you a lot for your money, most notably a 14'' statue, steel book, cloth poster, playing cards, and a messenger pigeon tube (?) with exclusive DLC. Below is the full list, courtesy of Amazon.

As with the regular Amazon pre-order, if you reserve this, you'll also receive the Hellfighter Pack DLC, and early access to a DLC map.

Amazon lists the Collector's Edition release date for December 30 -- a little over a month after the standard October 21 launch. Whether that's a mistake or not we can't be sure, but we'll keep you posted.