Gaming - Page 1051

Rockstar Games and 2K Games are headed to E3 this year "in a big way", the CEO of 2K, Strauss Zelnick told MCV. That means newly announced IP's or a huge celebration of what we know is coming.

Probably not the announcement we'll actually see

And they already have some good titles on the way. Battleborn is an exciting new addition from 2K's own Gearbox, though they've been featuring that quite a bit lately, so it logically doesn't make sense to see that at the forefront. It was last year. So perhaps they'll have a number of other new and interesting working titles to talk about, things we may haven't seen yet, or at least in full form.

Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella has reportedly confirmed that WIndows 10 universal apps will expand to the Xbox One, further unifying the company's cross-platform ecosystem.

According to Microsoft Insider. Nadella made the confirmation at the dotNET Conference in Spain. Nadella apparently didn't reveal a timeline for Windows 10 universal app integration, but we may see the first apps show up as early as summer during the console's next major update.

Thanks to November's major New Xbox One Experience update, the console is now running on Windows 10--more specifically a customized OS kernal called OneCore.

Alan Wake's sequel has been rumored to be around for some time, though we haven't heard very much about it and we actually thought it was cancelled for good at one point. But Remedy apparently isn't done with the survival horror just yet.

A trademark application for "Alan Wake's Return" has been spotted in the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (the trademark office of the EU), having been applied for by Remedy themselves on the 23rd of February.

A trademark application can come at many points in the development cycle depending on how secretive the company wants to be. If the IP is already too big, they may apply for several potential marks before any work is done to secure the right to use the name they finally choose. Smaller projects might wait because the public nature of the system tends to expose anything in the works. In this case it might even simply be related to the "return" of Alan Wake to the scene through the backwards compatible version. Hopefully it's an actual real, bona-fide, new game though.

Things are heating up for Ubisoft leading up to the launch of The Division, with Naughty Dog using concept art for Assassin's Creed in their new trailer for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.

In the trailer, concept art from Assassin's Creed was spotted - by Assassin's Creed Head of Content, Azaïzia Aymar. Aymar posted it to Twitter, tweeting: "Woooow Uncharted 4 using one of ACIV artwork in their trailer... I get the "thief title now!". Creative Director at Ubisoft Montreal, Alex Hutchinson, tweeted: "Doing your own concept art is twice the work? ;)" - so, there's a few burns headed towards Naughty Dog. Did the Uncharted developer respond? Yes, yes they did.

Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann said in a statement: "In our eagerness to get the story trailer out we made a regrettable mistake and didn't thoroughly vet the art work used for an in-game painting.We've already updated the trailer. We hold all artistry in high regard and take full responsibility for having allowed this to happen. We want to sincerely apologize to everyone at Ubisoft, the Assassin's Creed team, the original artist, and our fans".

Valve has just raised the bar when it comes to the prize pool for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, with a 400% increase on what the CS:GO prize pool was last year. Valve has just raised its prize pool for CS:GO's championship events to $1 million.

Last year, Valve had $250,000 on offer so the increase is only going to whet the appetites of CS:GO professionals. The first CS:GO event to make benefit of the increased prize pool is Major League Gaming Columbus, which takes place in Ohio's state capital between March 29 and April 3. According to a post on the official CS blog, the increased prize pool was a required response to the "incredible rate" of CS:GO's influence on the pro-gaming scene.

In a statement, Valve said: "CS:GO tournaments are now among the largest esports events in the world, drawing global audiences of millions of viewers, filling massive venues, and garnering higher prize pools. Professional CS:GO has grown, and the CS:GO Major Championships are about to grow with it".

MSI is taking Intel's mini-STX standard and running with it, with the CUBI 2, an upgradeable PC the size of a NUC, or about two decks of cards side-by-side.

The PC world is getting turned on it's head once again after it was rumored quite awhile ago that Intel was going to do away with socketed CPU's completely. Now even miniscule 5"x5" PC's have socketed, upgradeable CPU's. Granted, you're limited by the external power-supply and should probably stick to the T-series of Skylake processors. It has more connectivity than you can shake a stick at with three USB 2.0, one USB 3.1 Type-C in the front, two USB 3.1 in the rear, a top USB 2.0 port for quick-charging, HDMI, audio-out, ethernet, DisplayPort out, and an SD card reader as well.

This is a pretty significant move, especially with the idea of being able to able to have it sitting next to, or hidden close to, your TV or another display. It can actually be powerful enough to do work with room to spare. Plus it's a way to invest in a platform that can be upgraded later if more power is needed. That alone is an idea worth visiting for those that want tiny, but not limited. Imagine a day when you can hook up a GPU via USB 3.1 Type C, then this could be the ultimate in teeny gaming PC's.

What was originally thought impossible -- 60 FPS in JRPG Tales of Symphonia -- is coming to fruition. The major obstacle to modder Kaldaien was the game's VMProtect DRM, but recently, against all odds, he has managed to circumvent it for modding purposes. Thus, the door has been opened for a higher framerate cap, à la Tales of Zestiria.

Kaldaien wrote Monday that "work is progressing on 60 FPS support" for his TSFix mod. Given the steady progress he's made to date, it wouldn't be surprising to see that support arrive this week or next.

TSFix is currently at version 0.5.3. Since we last looked at it, it's added performance improvements, fixed aspect ratio scaling, enhanced anti-aliasing and character outlines, and more. Hit the source if you want the full details on it and to download it.

The newest trailer for The Division is a spectacular showpiece designed to flaunt the high performance and graphical ability the PC is capable of. It's running at 60FPS, encoded in 60FPS and looks quite smooth.

In the video, Ubisoft goes through the different effects and options that can be turned on for the PC, from dynamic global illumination, realistic weather particles and even real-time reflections. All of those combine to make for a visceral experience that's quite nice. The beta might have been a bit sparse on content (as beta's should be, they don't want to give away the whole thing at once, right?) but it looked good and was stable.

And now they're selling you on more reasons to either upgrade your PC or just buy it on PC over consoles. Despite the seeming lack of love that the PC has had in the past from other developers, the platform is far from "dead" and is enjoying good advancements, however small they might be. An really, these technical optimizations for The Division look great. Even if they're been slightly downgraded from what we saw initially.

The new trailer for Hitman is a very interesting journey through the many exploits of Agent 47 in the previous games, which constitute the future from the point-of-view of the Hitman beta. In it, we see some of the classic hits from his "future," from the assassination of Franz Fuchs in the thermal baths of the Hotel Gallard in Budapest to some of his other iconic moments.

What the trailer is trying to show is the journey that you're about to help Agent 47 begin. It goes through the 20 year gap between the prologue mission in the beta of Hitman that eventually leads to the Paris mission at the beginning of the new game. It grabs onto that nostalgic feeling, showing you some of the finer moments from the previous games, bridging the gap between the old and the new.

The actual underlying story for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End has finally been revealed in a new trailer released by Sony. Retirement didn't quite work out so well for Nathan Drake it seems.

If you're good at your job, then you might not be able to retire at all, and in Drake's case, you could be called to action again by the very nature of your expertise. Treasure, especially the kind of haul that seems to be at stake here, is a dangerous motivator. And Drake was born for this, so why wouldn't he want to get involved?

The blurb below the video reads: "Several years after his last adventure, retired fortune hunter Nathan Drake is forced back into the world of thieves. With the stakes much more personal, Drake embarks on a globe-trotting journey in pursuit of a historical conspiracy behind a fabled pirate treasure. His greatest adventure will test his physical limits, his resolve, and ultimately what he's willing to sacrifice to save the ones he loves."

The first Hitman beta was a success all around, delighting fans with a very short sneak preview of the full game. It also helped IO-Interactive discover issues that they want to perfect before it launches. So a new beta that's exclusive to PS Plus members on the PS4 is being launched on March 4th, just before it releases.

The beta, while mostly stable and graphically quite good looking, revealed a few weaknesses and bugs that need to be addressed before being released. Backend issues could spell doom with a larger player-base, and while they've implemented fixes, it's time to put those to the test before it's game time.

"Our initial beta was an extremely helpful moment for our new HITMAN game, as it gave us great insight into how the server game mechanics function under pressure. A lot of those pressure points are currently being strengthened for release," said Hannes Seifert, Studio Head at Io-Interactive. "Now Sony have given us the opportunity to go even bigger to validate some of the initial things we saw. Therefore we are inviting everyone who is a PlayStation Plus member to try the same beta and you don't have to pre-order the game. This will allow us to really stress test our server setup, which is a crucial element for us to get just right."

Have you ever had the inclination to ride a beaver? Perhaps even tame and mount a giant beaver to help do your bidding to survive a hostile and difficult environment? Studio Wildcard thinks you do and they've added the Castoroides Feliconcisor into the now massive catalog of species in the game.

The Giant Beaver of the real-world grew up to 2.2m in length and weighed about 90Kg according to fossil records. And they've modeled it near perfectly here, complete with the snarling, pointed teeth used to carve out their dam habitats. And they'll actually go about building those in-game as well, which you can come across while hunting for the mighty giant beaver. The cuddly beaver also acts as a sort-of mobile crafting station.

Train and make the beaver your friend, and mount, so it can be used as a wood gatherer, which it's fantastic at. And if you ever happen to come across any pesky destructive humans that want to steal your beavers, that you just must take captive, you can actually do it the right way, with the new in-game handcuffs. I'm sure these will be used for more "creative" diversions, but that's what makes this game so fascinating. All the wonderful different ways in which you c an approach the game.

For the cool price of $18.00 per share for a total equity value of $5.9 billion, Activision Blizzard has completely acquired the makers of Candy Crush Saga, King.

With this takeover comes a massive influx of users, with CEO of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, stating that "We now reach over 500 million users across almost every country, making us the largest game network in the world. We see great opportunities to create new ways for audiences to experience their favorite franchises." This massive user base comes partly thanks to the relatively new addition of Battle.net and the continued long-term service of World of WarCraft.

This takeover means that King will still be lead by the original team, with a recently issued press release stating that Candy Crush and other king games will be commanded by "Chief Executive Officer Riccardo Zacconi, Chief Creative Officer Sebastian Knutsson, and Chief Operating Officer Stephane Kurgan and operate as an independent unit of Activision Blizzard."

Here we go again... Half-Life 3 is being teased by Valve, with the game showing up in their new SteamVR Performance Tool that was released just a couple of days ago. Half-Life 3 is referenced multiple times, as you can see below:

But the Half-Life 3 fun doesn't stop there, as Reddit member 'DuckyDays' took a peek inside the SteamVR Performance Tool, and found the following mentions from Half-Life 3:

After lots of teases, Bethesda has finally revealed a concrete roadmap for Fallout 4's console mod integration. According to Todd Howard, Xbox One owners will get a month's head start over PS4, and beta testing is already underway.

"Our goal [for mods] is between the first two DLCs. It'll go up at that time on PC. In April, all of that stuff will go up on PC. People are beta testing it. There'll be a lag on consoles. We want to get it up on PC and have it work. It'll probably be a good month before it hits Xbox One, and another month for PlayStation 4," Howard said in a recent interview with Game Informer.

So there you have it--Xbox One gamers may get mod support as early as May, with PlayStation 4 following up in June. Remember that both the PS4 and Xbox One will depend on PC modders, as console mods must be created on a PC.

Development on Gears of War: Ultimate Edition has been slow going, but we finally have some juicy news for you today, as the system requirements have been posted to the Windows Store.

Great as the game looks, they're likely beefier than you expected: 16GB RAM (8GB minimum); an AMD FX 8-core CPU, and a GeForce GTX 970 (Recommended) / 980 Ti ("Ideal") or Radeon R9 290X (Recommended) / 390X ("Ideal"). Likely, "Ideal" specs are for those that want to do 4K gaming.

See the full specifications below.

Bethesda's Todd Howard revealed some amazing news today for Fallout 4 PC modders: the team plans to release the official GECK modding suite sometime in April, after the first Automatron DLC launches. Soon PC players will gain access to limitless possibilities, and just about every mod on the Nexus will become ten times better.

In a recent interview with Game Informer, Bethesda game director Todd Howard talked about future plans for the GECK and console mods, all of which are being beta tested at the moment. "Our goal is between the first two DLCs. It'll go up at that time on PC. In April. All of that stuff will go up on PC. People are beta testing it. There'll be a lag on consoles. We want to get it up on PC and have it work," he said.

As we covered in the past, Fallout 4's GECK tools will be the same software that Bethesda used to build the game. Modders will have access to a huge array of options and content, opening the door to truly amazing new additions. Although Fallout 4 mods are already pretty extensive, opening the door to the GECK will unlock the whole enchilada, and everyone from PC to console gamers will benefit.

Killer Instinct was never a bad looking game, per-se, but since it was one of the launch titles of the Xbox One it was definitely looking a little long in the tooth. The newest season, three, brings not only a new competitive fighting season but also a tremendous upgrade to the graphics and lighting system.

Upgraded graphics

The developers want the living world's to feel more vivid and engrossing, as befitting a fighting game whose backgrounds are more than just a static image setting the stage. They're intimate parts of the game. A new dynamic lighting system, reflection technology and upgraded textures and models to makes things look much better, more believable and far more entertaining than it did when it originally released in 2013. Surprisingly, the underlying game engine has stayed the same.

The cyber-punk RPG, The Technomancer, from Focus Home Interactive has a new cinematic trailer that shows how harsh life can be on a terraformed Mars.

Even though we might presume that starting a colony on Mars could lead to a better life for Earth and for those on Mars, it clearly isn't the truth in The Technomancer. The dystopian trailer shows off a wild-west type atmosphere replete with downtrodden folk in saloons and gigantic alien monster creatures that don't look like pets.

Though it's only a cinematic trailer showing off the graphical prowess and giving a glimpse into the storied backdrop, it looks good thus far. If this upcoming RPG manages to check enough open-world boxes and has a narrative to match, it could be a very interesting contender. A good story and well designed RPG systems are a must, however. Thus far they purport that they'll have a dynamic dialogue system, in-depth crafting system and a progressive story that changes with each of your dialogue choices along the way.

Final Fantasy XIV's newest update 3.2, The Gears of Change, is now officially ready to be consumed by those that're romping around Hydaelyn.

The Gears of Change is a content update as much as it still continues to root out latent bugs that might plague the game, after all these years. Crucially, it adds new story quests, beast tribe quests and plenty of class adjustments to help better balance the game. There are 11 new quests in total, with 9 of them complete mysteries until you successfully complete the main scenario first. And they're adding in a lot more content than just that, too. New high-level dungeons, continued side-story quests from the Hildibrand Adventures and a new "Primal Battle" to challenge the highest levels of players.

This update also introduces options for new players to quickly acquaint themselves with the game with the Hall of the Novice. There, the novice can embark on specialized tutorial quests that ultimately help them to understand the techniques of playing in online groups. It's a way to ease non-MMO players into the particulars of the genre.