Gaming - Page 1061

Warner Bros. won't be finishing development on the Mac or Linux versions of Batman: Arkham Knight. If you happened to pre-order on the pretense that those would eventually be released, they're asking that you apply for a refund through Steam, which will be granted.

When it finally released, after much anticipation, Batman: Arkham Knight suffered from performance issues that rendered it near unplayable on a variety of hardware. The game was removed from Steam after receiving more than 1000 negative reviews at launch and sales were suspended in retail stores until they could find and fix the issues. It was assumed that the inclusion of GameWorks might have been related to the issues at hand, though it was only a correlation.

Rocksteady was able to fix the majority of the issues with the help of NVIDIA, though the damage had already been done. Performance with NVIDIA's GameWorks turned off did eventually become acceptable, however it was perhaps too late in the eye of the consumer.

EA is giving away the 2012 version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted as part of their On the House program. That means you can enjoy it completely free and for as long as you have an EA Origin account.

The 2012 reboot of Most Wanted was an enjoyable game on it's own, though it wasn't exactly the most fast-paced for ground breaking title to ever come from Criterion Games' collaboration with Ghost Games. Free is a good price, and if you were ever curious, head on over and download the 6.25GB game (remember when games were that small?).

EA's On the House program has been an interesting success for EA, with them having given away Sim City 2000, Plants vs Zombies, Peggle, Command & Conquer Red Alert 2, Dead Space, Wing Commander 3 and Battlefield 3 in the past. Games are rotated frequently enough as well. Free is always the best price.

Winning the best demo of the year award from MEGA64's famous and over the top yearly game awards was one of Electronic Arts' biggest 2015 releases, Star Wars Battlefront.

"Yo, they gave you 90% of the game in the demo!" Proclaimed the enthusiastic hosts, explaining that this title was their favorite demo (or beta) throughout the entirety of 2015. Also making the list was a shout out to the best mini game, poking fun at The Order 1866 and its short storyline.

Other comedic inputs included the worst 'story mode' being Minecraft (there is no story) and plenty of other over the top gaming references. Without spoiling any other award-winning titles for you, check out the full video above if you're interested in dry gaming humor. There are some possibly-NSFW things happening throughout the show, so you might want to wait until you're home to witness the action.

Square Enix is preparing for the launch of Hitman, which is now in episodic form, with a new 'World of Assassination' trailer - check it out, below.

The trailer says "we live in a world of assassination, and once you know... there's no going back". It does a great job of pulling you into the Hitman world without playing the game, and I felt better after watching the 1-minute 50-second video than I did watching the absymal Hitman movie late last year.

The PS4 version of Hitman will also be receiving exclusive content, as we reported on yesterday.

Blizzard will be re-opening the closed beta of Overwatch on February 9, after it was taken offline in December, and pushed into February 2016 release from its original January 2016 re-release into the beta world.

Once the Overwatch beta is back and kicking again, it'll feature two new maps, a new game mode, a new progression system, and new updates to both the private games, and character balancing. Blizzard has said that these are the areas it would work on the most when it took the beta down in December.

You can sign up for the Overwatch beta, but those who were involved in the original beta will get in without a problem. Overwatch officially launches later in the spring, for the PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Rainbow Six: Siege has received its first major update, with Operation Black Ice now available for the PC. The update provides gamers with the new Yacht map, two new JTF2 operators, new weapon skins, a spectator camera, and a bunch of fixes.

The new patch includes operator shouts being muted for the enemy team, which allows for stealthy approaches. Ranked and custom games see defenders being able to vote for the objection location they want to defend. Rainbow Six: Siege's latest update also reduces bull train intensity, increased the flashbang's range of effect, reduces noise levels of multiple Defender gadgets, adds map and mode name display during loading and planning phase screens, alters matchmaking timer display, and introduces individual spawn location selection for each Attacker.

Here's a full list of what the update includes:

Crytek's free-to-play first-person shooter Warface is getting a fresh dab of paint, with the developer announcing a new cooperative "Earth Shaker" challenge on its way. Crytek released a trailer, which we've got below for your viewing pleasure:

As for Earth Shaker, Crytek explains: "Operation Earth Shaker invites players to join forces and ascend through an enemy base constructed inside a cavernous volcano. As they progress, Warface operatives will face new trials at every turn, including a hailstorm of incoming fire from the advanced gun turrets that guard the facility".

The developer continues: "Each of the five turret types poses a unique strategic threat that can only be neutralized with tactical teamwork. Alongside the turrets, enemy personnel wielding heavy duty weapons add another explosive element to contend with - ensuring players have to be at the top of their game to clear one secured area and move on to the next. Those who survive to see the base's uppermost level will soon discover that they've stepped out of the frying pan and into the fire as they encounter a deadly new boss. This final layer of high-tech security proves Blackwood will stop at nothing to protect - and eventually detonate - the giant Seismic Activity Generator housed within the volcano".

Ever since Silent Hills was cancelled by Konami, the entire industry has been looking forward to the next collaboration between MGS creator Hideo Kojima and beloved director Guillermo Del Toro. Now it looks like we might get a few clues, as the dynamic duo is meeting up to host a keynote session at DICE Summit 2016.

The session is called "A Conversation with Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro", and will be centered around the duo's "creative vision and the driving forces behind their artistic pursuits". The keynote will be held on Thursday afternoon, and will also be moderated by Geoff Keighley, so we may see a few zinger questions and curveballs in there about future games and projects.

The renowned creators have remained friends well after Silent Hills' cancellation, and have expressed interest in another collaborative effort.

For the most part, gamers are pretty disappointed with Destiny's current setup. The game remains in a kind of stagnant stasis months after its stellar The Taken King expansion, and many publications have taken turns trying to rile the titans out of their slumber. Meanwhile, Bungie remains quiet and vigilant, as always.

As if the constant reminders, queues and prods from Reddit and its own forums weren't enough, Bungie has sent out a new e-mail survey asking Destiny players to rate their fun factor in the game. It's actually a very small message, and is only sent out to users who have signed up with Bungie's User Research platform.

In it's entirety, the e-mail simply asks players how much fun their having: 5 for "very fun", or 1 for "not fun". At this point in time, I think most gamers would answer "N/A" and write in "you need to communicate better with your audience." Oddly enough, it appears that the survey was only sent to a very limited number of players, and most research program users are reporting they didn't get any emails.

Cities: Skylines' new update will let you freeze our your citizens and snow them in, causing mass chaos. And that expansion, Snowfall, is now set to arrive on February 18th.

The new expansion is a winter themed affair that adds in snow themed maps and all of the accessories and equipment that a new city would need to maintain itself during the frozen months of winter. That means you'll be budgeting and sending out the plows and snow trucks to maintain order and happiness.

Just think about what happened in the Eastern US recently with that blasted snow storm, can you do better? Now's your chance! The expansion will arrive for only $13. This is already one of the best city building games around, and this will just add more options and variety to an already endless game.

Dust 514 isn't an old game by MMO standards. It's been able to survive the waves of popularity and the release of new consoles, being popular among the hardcore EVE Online fans. But now the project is shutting down, because the development team is hard at work on a PC FPS instead.

The team from CCP that was working on Dust 514 has now switched gears to start on a new project using Unreal Engine 4 for the PC that's set in the same EVE universe of New Eden. So while it's being shutdown, it's really being rebooted to something far better. The PC is a natural platform for an MMO type FPS, for the better controls if anything.

CCP Games will have some more information about their new adventure in PC gaming come April at the EVE Fanfest. It seems that with the imminent release of EVE: Valkyrie and their experience making a visceral PC experience with UE4, they're consolidating development to one platform and with one engine. Dust 514 was build using Unreal Engine 3, however.

Like Halo 5 and Wolfestein: The New Order, Ubisoft's latest open-world shooter The Division uses dynamic resolution scaling on the Xbox One in order to keep gameplay running smoothly.

According to an in-depth performance analysis from Digital Foundry, The Division's resolution isn't locked on the Xbox One, and instead shifts and scales down to maintain a solid frame rate. During The Division's beta test, many Xbox One users noticed less-defined visuals during heavy action sequences compared to PS4.

To maintain a solid 30 frames-per-second, The Division will downscale resolution on-the-fly during graphics-heavy areas and sequences. The drop isn't readily apparent and is noted to trick the eye, but close observation will reveal blurry signs, motion blur, and lowered sharpness and definition. "Wherever you see heavy volumetric effects and lots of geometry on-screen, there's a strong possibility that The Division's frame buffer is switching to a lower pixel count on Xbox One," Digital Foundry said in their analysis.

The PlayStation 4 will be getting some exclusive content for Hitman when it launches on March 11th. That means missions and contracts that won't be available anywhere else. Everyone, not just those who pre-order, will get to enjoy the fun.

If you plan on buying this titular title for the PlayStation 4, then you'll have access to a six-part side mission that they've named "The Sarajevo Six". In this mission, Agent 47 is tasked with hunting down six key members of a private military group that's called CICADA. These missions will be added to the game in increments, as the various maps that'll be needed are added into the game.

The first mission in that series will be made available when the game launches, right on March 11th, and that first mission is called "The Director. Scott Sarno, the director of European Operations for CICADA is your target, and it's doubtful that the mission will at all be easy.

With Microsoft pushing Windows 10 so hard onto consumers, it's no surprise that more and more users have jumped to the new OS. While most PC gamers prefer Windows 7 as their OS of choice, Windows 10 adoption is catching up fast and will likely outpace its predecessor on Steam.

According to Valve's latest hardware and software survey, 32.77% of Steam gamers are running Windows 10 64-bit (up by 1.26%) as of January 2016. Windows 7 64-bit is still ahead with ~34% user installations, but not by much. We'll probably see Windows 10 dominate as the preferred OS on Steam by mid-year, especially since the free update expires on July 29.

Microsoft has also set Windows 10 as a "recommended update", meaning it'll download automatically if you have the auto update setting turned on. According to recent surveys, Windows 10 is installed in 1 of every 10 PCs--a number that will grow exponentially throughout the year.

There's a distinct possibility that Final Fantasy XV is going to be coming to the PC, at least if the HTML of the game site is to be believed.

An astute observer from NeoGAF, KupoNut, decided to check out the underlying HTML of the official Final Fantasy XV site. You know, just for fun. And while he was doing that he noticed some distinct references to each platform that it's going to be released on.

And in that code there are lines that specifically reference Windows 10 and Steam. Does that mean that we're going to be seeing this on PC as well? There's been no actual information as to whether or not it'll make that debut, but it's always a possibility, especially with Square Enix having recently released quite a few Final Fantasy titles on Steam recently.

What if the PlayStation 4 had an early access program? That's exactly what Studio Wildcard wants so it can bring the mega-popular dino-sim ARK: Survival Evolved to all platforms.

"We're pretty excited about PS4. We wish Sony had an early access program, and a lot of people have been asking us for it," ARK co-founder and creative director Jesse Rapczak told Gamespot.

Sony actually does have its own unofficial early access system for the PS4, but Rapczak says it calls for games to be pretty much finished beforehand. Sony also makes sure that the games are guaranteed to be completed, whereas Steam and Xbox EA games may never be released. "We just kind of got to say, 'Well you know, it's not really up to us. It's the way Sony runs things, the game pretty much has to be finished'," Rapczak said. "There are a few exceptions that we're not quite sure why they made an exception for one game or the other, but Ark is in the state where at present time unless it's finished, it's not coming out on PS4 until they have some other program that allows us to do that. That being said we are really excited about it."

Microsoft and Ubisoft have concocted one of the strangest game bundle that's ever come to the industry. When you buy the Xbox One that comes with Far Cry Primal, then you'll get a free game, though it's not from the Far Cry franchise (that would be too easy, right?).

Instead of something that might make logical sense, Ubisoft has decided to give you Valiant Hearts, the World War 1 2D adventure game. It's developed and published by Ubisoft, so at least they're choosing from within the family. It's also a fantastically done game that's garnered plenty of positive reviews.

But to get the free game, you'll have to pre-order the bundle now and then you'll be able to download Valiant Hearts by April 14th. The code will be applied to your account, so you'd just need to search for it in the Xbox store and download it. Far Cry Primal is coming out at the end of the month on February 23rd for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. PC gamers will have to wait until March 1st before they can enjoy it.

Deep Silver is adding seven games from their past PlayStation 3 catalog to the PlayStation Now library of games, so that everyone with a proper device can continue to still enjoy playing them.

The games they're adding are some of their very best releases and even include their most recent Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell, which was only released just last January, and is also natively on the PlayStation 4.

Cloud gaming had some very rocky beginnings with services such as OnLive shuttering their doors due to being bought by Sony themselves. Sony and NVIDIA are pushing their game streaming services as a way to enjoy the full gaming experience without having to have the best hardware available. For Sony, only a compatible device is necessary, which includes some Samsung and Sony TV's.

Logitech has signed on as an official ESL partner throughout the whole of 2016, according to the latter company in a recent press release. Known as the largest gaming company in the world, a sign on with ESL is no small feat, showing that Logitech has decided to go all in on eSports throughout this year.

This partnership means that Logitech will be providing demonstrations and product sales at numerous ESL events throughout 2016, including the ESL CS:GO Pro League, ESL One Manila, ESL One Frankfurt, ESL One Cologne and an additional unannounced ESL One event.

Thanks to these types of sponsorship, ESL has increased its ESL Pro League prize pool by 50%, with Nik Adams from ESL stating that these "two industry leaders are joining forces to bring esports to the next level." Backed by Ujesh Desai from Logitech, he added that "This is a great opportunity for Logitech G to be the exclusive gaming gear for ESL, one of the world's most successful eSports organizations."

Nintendo is entering the smarphone gaming arena with Miitomo, which will be more of a general entertainment platform with a small focus on the social side of things. And during a shareholder meeting, they announced that it'll be released around the middle of March, though initially in Japan.

Miitomo, as the name suggests, focuses on the Mii avatars that can be created on Nintendo's consoles. You'll be able to "engage friends in a lighthearted, playful and welcoming social setting," Nintendo announced regarding their inaugural mobile game.

And inside there'll be other micro-apps that allow for expanded functionality, such as Miifoto, a photo-sharing app that'll probably allow for limited editing as well. The upcoming game seems to be very conceptually similar to Tomodachi Life that was released in 2013, allowing you to physically take care of your Mii characters.