Gaming - Page 1071

The Division will hopefully be one of the best-looking games of 2016, thanks to its impressive in-house Snowdrop engine. Ubisoft Massive has spent years on the engine, with it paying off for The Division.

During the "Tom Clancy's The Division" session at this year's GDC, Nikolay Stefanov, Technical Lead at Ubisoft Massive will detail more about the Global Illumination effects in the game. We already know that there is the great physically-based rendering pipeline for The Division, too.

The briefing teases some details on the GI effects in The Division: "Our implementation is based on radiance transfer probes and allows real-time bounce lighting from completely dynamic light sources, both on consoles and PC. During production, the system gives our lighting artists instant feedback and makes quick iterations possible".

Razer has a new controller coming out, the Wildcat, and it's a pretty ferocious new controller, with it's anti-slip grips and homage to the Xbox One design. They're bringing everything they learned from the Sabertooth with this one, so the quality and precision should be on point.

We were able to demo the controller in action while playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which isn't easy when you're used to playing FPS's with a keyboard and mouse. But it was easy to get into a groove due to the similarity with the stock Xbox One controller. I have to admit that a controller isn't exactly my first choice when playing CS:GO, and I'm not good by any means even with a mouse and keyboard. But that aside, the joysticks had a good feel to them, with just the right amount of resistance.

It's comfortable in the hand due to it being designed around the already comfortable and easy to handle stock Xbox One controller, so that shouldn't be an issue for anyone. The cool thing is that they're following the design language of the Xbox One Elite controller with extra inputs on the bottom, but instead of paddles, you'll find a trigger which felt like the top and bottom were separate buttons. It was much less confusing to use buttons as opposed to the paddle system on the more expensive Elite controller.

CES 2016 - I'm a huge fan of LinusTechTips, watching virtually all of their videos as soon as they're released, but their latest project is something truly glorious.

The guys at LTT built an insane $30,000 gaming PC that is capable of driving 7 different PCs, each with their own 3440x1440 UltraWide monitor, keyboard, and mouse. The 7 systems run as separate virtual machines, each rocking an Acer Predator X34 monitor (Linus and I have impeccable taste when it comes to 21:9 displays) with the beasty system featuring AMD Radeon R9 Nano cards.

The system itself is powered by two Intel Xeon E5-2697 processors, each with 12 cores (24 if we take into consideration Hyper-Threading), which provides the equivalent of a quad-core CPU per user. The motherboard of choice was an ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS, with an insane 256GB of DDR4 RAM (8 x 32GB sticks) and 8 x 1TB SSDs. An EVGA T2 1600W PSU was used, with the entire PC housed inside of a CaseLabs Mercury S8.

The age-old battle against pirates and publishers has raged for decades now, but it looks like the publishers may have just won the war with a new major advancement in DRM tech.

Denuvo's new-ish Anti-Tamper technology has slowed the once-steady flow of pirated games, allowing many key AAA hits to remain uncracked a full month after their release. The Anti-Tamper system, which protects DRM solutions, has ensured that most PC games that use it wont be cracked upon their release. Just Cause 3 and FIFA 16, which a both protected by Anti-Tamper, still remain uncracked.

Due to the advancements in DRM protection, the leader of notorious Chinese hacking group 3DM says that publishers may win the war in two years time. "Recently, many people have asked about cracks for 'Just Cause 3′, so here is a centralized answer to this question. The last stage is too difficult and Jun [cracking guy] nearly gave up. According to current trends in the development of encryption technology, in two years time I'm afraid there will be no free games to play in the world," the 3DM leader said in a forum post.

In our tweak guide for Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide, we uncovered an issue with the Skin Shading graphics option where turning it on or off would also turn Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) on or off. Fatshark graphics programmer Axel Kinner has confirmed to us this is the case while also noting Skin Shading is still controlled by this setting -- it's just a very subtle effect.

Kinner says "a fix for this will hopefully be in the next patch". One would think that because both SSAO and Skin Shading are enabled as is, disabling them would net an even bigger FPS increase than normal, but this is not the case right now. As such, when the patch hits, it's unclear what effect disabling Skin Shading will have on performance, but we do know the visual impact will be minimal at best.

Marc Laidlaw, the man responsible for writing Valve's magnum opus Half-Life series, has officially left the company after 18 years of work.

Valve has just lost one of its key talent juggernauts. Marc Laidlaw not only penned the legendary shooter that changed PC gaming forever (Half-Life) all by himself, but helped shape the continuation of the series by writing Half-Life 2 and its duo of episode expansions.

The news was confirmed by a string of emails between Laidlaw and a fan, wherein the Half-Life writer expressed a need to move out of the game's mighty shadow.

Ubisoft has confirmed that the upcoming open-world caveman action game Far Cry Primal won't feature co-op or multiplayer, and will instead be entirely focused on story-driven gameplay.

"We are focusing entirely on creating the best possible Far Cry experience for our fans. Bringing the Stone Age to life and providing players with a strong gameplay experience based off of the Far Cry legacy meant we had to reinvent our core gameplay loop. This was definitely not a small undertaking. Our focus was on delivering this fantasy which required clear priorities for the team. Therefore, in the early stages of the project, we made the difficult choice of focusing our efforts on the single player experience," an Ubisoft developer wrote on Steam.

Personally, I'm torn by this news. When Far Cry Primal was unveiled, I had a clear image of hunting a mighty mastodon with a team of online friends in order to feed the rest of the tribe. Other scenarios whirled in my mind--taking on a streak of vicious sabertooth tigers, or even going dino-hunting just like ARK: Survival Evolved. Sadly these fantasies won't manifest.

It had been rumored for some time that the release date for Rise of the Tomb Raider on PC was imminent, but we finally have word from Square Enix that we'll see Lara Croft return to the PC on January 28th 2016.

What's new for the PC version of this former timed-exclusive? Updated graphics that'll support resolutions up to 4K and the inclusion of "many" different new features. The hope is that the updated TressFX used by Square Enix (an offshoot of TressFX modified by an internal Square Enix team) is included for even more flowing hair effects.

You'll be able to find Rise of the Tomb Raider on Steam, Amazon or through the Square Enix e-store or your favorite retailer. A Collector's Edition, which includes the Digital Deluxe version of the game, a 12-inch Lara Croft statue, replicas of Lara's journal and jade necklace, and a steel case, will also be available from the Square Enix e-store for $149.99.

The voice actress behind Lin, a character from Xenoblade Chronicles X that has decidedly different outfits in the Japanese version of the game compared to the western version, has given her thoughts about the changes that have been made to her character. She speaks out in favor of them and refers to them as localisations as opposed to outright censorship.

The actress, Cassandra Lee Morris, enjoyed her time that she spent recording the lines for the western release. There was a lot of secrecy surrounding the project due to how large it was. She also thinks that Lin is a great role-model for teenage girls due to the strength of character she displays and her wide swathe of abilities. But of course there's that elephant in the room that seems to spark a little controversy.

Morris doesn't see it as censoring anything, just localizing the content for different markets. There's definitely a cultural difference between Japan and the west that make certain things appropriate in one area, and not in another. Does that mean that the west is less open-minded and we need to have things censored? That's perhaps a question of semantics, but the differences in comfort levels do exist.

The rumor mill has pushed out yet another report; this time focused on Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed franchise. According to the rumor, the next AC game is codenamed "Empire, it will skip 2016 and instead release in 2017, and it'll take place in Egypt.

According to the reports, a dev who's working closely with the project recently posted some interesting tidbits on 4Chan:

"[It'll take place in] Egypt. There won't be an AC in 2016. You may screencap this and refer to it when nothing is shown in E3 2016. You'll have to wait until 2017 for it. The reason: It will be a complete revamp of the series. The game is going for a Witcher feel, with player progression, freeform combat system. Horse is back, and boats too. It's made by the Black Flag team. You play as a slave or ex-slave. He looks a lot like Altair, but with a darker skin. He is not edgy, from my understanding. He's a nobody that barely speaks. The biggest difference about this one is how colorful it looks. Like holy fuck, blue skies, lush vegetations and desert sequences where you get mirage and shit. Also, you have a pet eagle you can control."

A new rumor suggests that Ubisoft will release a sequel to 2014's bullshot disappointment, Watchdogs, later this year.

According to reports from Kotaku, Ubisoft's annual Assassin's Creed franchise will skip 2016 with a new release in 2017 instead, leaving room for another game to come in and pick up the slack.

If rumors can be believed, that game will be Watch Dogs 2, which will reportedly take place in San Francisco and release in Fall 2016. Watch Dogs 2 will likely see a cross-platform release across PS4, Xbox One and PC, but let's hope Ubisoft has learned its lesson and won't deliver any bullshots at E3 2016.

Something rather exciting might be happening with the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise this year. A new game could be in development, if certain now deleted Facebook posts are to be believed.

A band that has worked closely with Sonic the Hedgehog and have provided music for some of the later games, Crush 40, posted on Facebook that "We are planning a few performances to commemorate the anniversary of Sonic," but that wasn't the exciting part. They continued "We might participate in writing new songs for the anniversary game...stay tuned." indicating the existence of a new anniversary game. The post was promptly deleted, though not before we were able to see it. Even better is the graphic released by Sega commemorating the occasion, shown above.

It doesn't necessarily mean an entirely new game is being commissioned, but it might point towards something else. Whether that be a web-based game, a new mobile game or something on an even smaller scale. The formula for a successful Sonic the Hedgehog game seems to be directly tied to the older games. The newer more free-roaming and 3D titles were never quite as accepted, though they didn't do that poorly either. Our bet is on a remake of the original, given the logo that's come out.

The first DLC for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, as part season one or Operation Black Ice, has been delayed for season pass holders until February 2nd, a slight delay if anything.

Originally the new content, which includes new operators from the Canadian Joint Task Force 2 Counter-Terrorism unit, a new map and some new weapon skins, was originally planned for release on January 26th for those that have purchased a season pass.

Ubisoft confirmed the slight delay on Twitter while answering a question from a fan, and they reiterated that season pass holders merely have early access to the new content, and everything will be available for free for all players of the game. If you're a PC gamer, we highly recommend downloading the Ultra HD texture pack while waiting for the DLC to arrive.

A blind gamer has done something rather remarkable, proving that no disability can stand in the way of enjoying the world of gaming. He was able to complete The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time after five years, no easy feat.

Terry Garrett's journey started nearly five years ago in 2011 when he started a YouTube channel to show that being blind doesn't stop a person from playing video games, regardless of how open-world they might be. And since that time he's been making steady progress by using sound as a means to navigate and know where things are in the world.

Garrett plays an emulated version of The Ocarina of Time so that he can take advantage his emulators ability to save game states for quick trial and error in particularly troubling spots. To navigate the world he places his speakers directly in front of himself so that he can more easily hear the auditory cues from the in-game world. This way he can locate enemies, Links fairy friend Navi and can even find his way by listening for his weapon striking a nearby wall.

Far Cry Primal is going to feature a language you've probably never heard of in the game, but the best part is that it's going to be based off a real proto-European language dating back to around the Stone Age.

The developers actually went and sought out linguists who specialize in languages from around the stone-age, or proto-European languages. But oddly, what was initially presented to them was seen as too "modern" for the setting they were going for, even though the language likely actually represented spoken words from the time-period they're portraying.

The creative director, Jean-Christophe Guyot, went back to the linguistic experts and asked them to attempt to devolve the language in a logical manner so that it could more easily align with with the overall creative vision they wanted to share with Far Cry Primal. To them, they wanted something even more primitive than the languages spoken during that time-period portrayed.

Platinum Games's heart is heavy with the news that they're going to delay the release of Scalebound until 2017. They want to get it right, and with a game of this size and scale, that means they need more development time.

A statement on the Platinum Games website from the Scalebound team reads that "In order to deliver on our ambitious vision and ensure that Scalebound lives up to expectations, we will be launching the game in 2017." it goes on saying that "This will give us the time needed to bring to life all the innovative features and thrilling gameplay experiences that we have planned." It certainly can't be an easy decision to make, but with so many games from 2015 having had the appearance of being unfinished, Scalebound and the amount of ingenuity they want to bring to gaming will have to wait until it's done right. Though we are always skeptical, more time to perfect things from good companies generally results in awesome things.

They also say that there will be plenty more to share in the upcoming year, so that we won't be completely in the dark during these longer days of development. We're particularly excited to see more specifics with the way you interact with your friend and companion, not to mention seeing more gameplay mechanics throughout the year.

Even more records are being broken now. Garry's Mod, the highly addictive physics sandbox has sold over 10 million copies since it debuted as a standalone game in November of 2006, breaking that mark just over the New Year holiday.

And who would have thought that such a modification could have become what has today? What was once a simple free mod that let you play with the assets in Half-Life has turned into a massively entertaining game in it's own right. According to Garry Newman, the creator of this fine addition, 4 million copies were sold just last year alone.

And it's likely not going to stop there as more and more fans are created due to the weird and wacky creations that you can find all over YouTube. What the future holds for Garry Newman and if he has plans to expand his masterpiece into more franchises would be delightful, but unknown. I'm sure there's plenty of nostalgia from gamers of all ages with his mod. Anyone have any creations they'd like to share?

Rumors about Nintendo's NX have been floating around though nothing truly concrete has made its way from Nintendo themselves. Until now.

Speaking to Sankei West, Kimishima Tatsumi talked a little, though not too specifically, about the future of the NX console. Apparently they're well into development and they're already planning how to best break into the market again by bringing over their best franchises.

It was also mentioned that the aim of the NX is to provide a different, and new, experience when compared to the Wii U and the 3DS. Tatsumi said (with a very rough translation from Google Translate) "With the aim of what can be a new experience different from the current WiiU and 3DS, it is recommended a steadily developing." What this'll mean is anyones guess. But it wouldn't be too far off to think that Nintendo wants to innovate in similar ways that they have with 3D, touch and with motion controls. It wouldn't necessarily be a stretch if they planned on making a first party VR experience even unlike the upcoming PSVR.

What happens when a massive flock of 1,000 deathclaws take on 10 hulking robotic behemoths? Chaos, of course!

The Brotherhood of Steel's massive Liberty Prime robots are pretty much like titanic suits of power armor, and as such they're regarded as the most destructive force in the Fallout universe. Well, besides maybe the fearsome monstrosities known as deathclaws. But who would win in a square go? YouTuber EZPlays aims to answer that question in his newest video, pitting 1,000 rancorous deathclaws against 10 Liberty Primes in a destructive battle scene that reminds us how great PC console commands really are.

If you'd like to set up your own Fallout 4 battles, we've put together a great step-by-step tutorial that will show you how to create epic monster showdowns with the game's console commands.

The devs at Guerrilla Games have recently explained why Horizon Zero Dawn just doesn't have room for multiplayer, as it's a story-driven RPG akin to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

In a recent interview with IGN Latino America, Horizon Zero Dawn's executive producer Mark Norris iterated that the game wants to build a strong connection to players, and multiplayer will just get in the way. "There are questions as to why a multiplayer will not do. The reality is that we are putting together a new IP. We are making a new franchise for the first time in 10 years and what we really want to do is improve the experience for the player. When you get to face these machines as Eloy, with this great character, who is the real star of the story and everything that happens, have this connection with her. But what happens when you take the elements of multiplayer? You play as a supporting character? How does that work?."

In the current age of gaming, it feels like multiplayer components are thrown in on a whim as a means to keep gamers buying new DLC and season pass content. Mega publishers always want to tap the rich vein that is paid add-ons, and often a game's base singleplayer game type suffers as a result.