Gaming - Page 1104

While Valve has started to ship its new Steam hardware out to pre-orderers across PC and Mac, the tech only actually works on one platform. When Mac owners get their hands on Valve's new streaming box and controller combo they'll be sorely disappointed to find the tech doesn't function on their platform--but Valve is on the case, and they're making it right.

Due to "temporary software issues" Valve affirms the Steam Controller and Steam Link PC game streaming set-top box aren't compatible with OS X. The digital storefront giant says that these issues will be fixed via a number of firmware updates that will roll out in the next few weeks, but until then Mac users are out of luck.

To make up for the inconvenience and disappointment, Valve is starting to gift free copies of its huge $100 Valve Complete Pack that contains every released first-party game it released. Email correspondence between a frustrated Mac owner and Valve reveals more details:

If we rewind the clock all the way back to February 2014, we'll remember that Bethesda promised that anyone who pre-ordered Wolfenstein: The New Order at the time would receive alpha access to the new Doom game.

Well, now that we're closer to the release of Doom, it's happening. Bethesda used Doom as a way of boosting the sales and marketing prowess of Wolfenstein (which didn't do too badly by the way), and now they're making good on that promise. Anyone who pre-ordered Wolfenstein back in 2014 should've received a code at the time for the Doom alpha. If you have that, you can now redeem that promise on the Doom website.

The Doom multiplayer alpha will include 6v6 team deathmatch that will take place on one map in the game. There will be one demon, where "the first player to the Demon Rune will transform you into the powerful Revenant. Use your jetpack and dual rocket launchers to hunt down the other team for a limited time to either secure your team's lead or mount a comeback", according to the official Doom website. Six weapons and two equipment items will be in the closed alpha, where they can be used in both standard and customizable load outs. Equipment wise, we have a personal teleporter and frag grenade. These weapons include:

"Axiom comes to an end" reads the latest news post on the official Axiom eSports website. Written by the founder himself, John 'Totalbiscuit' Bain, this post covers the brilliant three-year history of this well-respected team full of powerhouse StarCraft II players. While this goodbye may be initially upsetting, this news follows something much worse. Bain also confirmed through Twitter that he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, being given a life expectancy of two or three years.

Known mainly for his YouTube channel in which he called himself 'The Cynical Brit', Bain has made a name for himself in casual and competitive gaming circles alike, often dropping in to give a well-respected opinion on various topics or issues that may be arising worldwide.

With over 2,000,000 current YouTube subscribers and 466,000+ Twitter followers, well-wishes have been constantly pouring in since the announcement just 15 hours ago. Bain stated in his initial Tweet that he will be persuing chemotherapy "with the goal of pushing it (the cancer) back and keeping it there for as long as possible."

In early tests of Ashes of the Singularity, AMD's Radeon R9 Fury X smashes the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, but with the latest drivers the situation has changed in favor of NVIDIA.

In some benchmarks from Computerbase, the GTX 980 Ti with the latest GeForce 358.50 drivers beat (even if it's just by 0.4FPS) the Radeon R9 Fury X with its new Catalyst 15.10 drivers. If we compare the older 355.60 drivers to the new 358.50 drivers, the GTX 980 Ti secures itself a pretty decent 11% increase in performance. Comparing the Catalyst 15.8 and 15.10 drivers, the R9 Fury X jumps by 6%. All of the other cards from both AMD and NVIDIA see performance increases with the latest drivers installed, too.

Ashes of the Singularity reaches Steam Early Access next week, so you can be sure that we'll be downloading it and testing it at various resolutions with our slab of GPUs.

Although NVIDIA's new updated GeForce Experience utility adds in some pretty beefy additions for GeForce users, Team Green is now using the software to manage Game Ready driver updates.

Starting in December, NVIDIA will start distributing its new "point release" WHQL-certified Game Ready drivers on the GeForce Experience software, meaning you'll have to sign up and register your email to get access. While NVIDIA plans to continue hosting drivers on the GeForce website, these drivers will be released in less frequency and restricted to quarterly waves.

"In the new GeForce Experience Beta update we're adding an email registration feature so we can better support and communicate with our users; the next time you download a Game Ready driver through GeForce Experience you'll be asked for a verified email address," reads NVIDIA's official announcement. "After that you'll have instant access to drivers, will receive NVIDIA product news and announcements, and have the chance to win hardware, free game codes, early access to game betas, and other cool stuff."

Hideo Kojima's latest open-world masterpiece has been lauded by critics and fans alike, but one of the biggest roadblocks for Metal Gear games is the huge multi-million dollar budgets required for development. This was probably one of the reasons Konami shed ties with Kojima, but it looks like the publisher doesn't have to worry about sales, as Metal Gear Solid V has amassed a staggering $170 million on its launch.

According to data published by Adobe Digital Index, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain raked in a whopping $179 million globally on its first day of sale. The reports compare this figure to the $86 million that the Hollywood blockbuster Avengers: Age of Ultron earned in its opening day, showing that MGSV doubled the earnings in a comparative period. Gaming will continue to eclipse feature-length films, and research firm Newzoo says that the games industry will be worth $91.5 billion this year.

"The gaming industry is a lot bigger than most marketers realize," ADI head analyst Tamara Gaffney said in the report. "These games get more social buzz on opening day than most movies do, and the revenue for one of the top games this year outdid the highest-grossing movie start by nearly double. And I thought the movie industry was big. That's huge."

Ashes of the Singularity has been in the headlines for reasons that have had nothing to do with the gameplay itself, but for its inclusion of DX12 and Asynchronous Shader support. Well, AotS will arrive on Steam Early Access on October 22.

If you decide to pre-order Ashes of the Singularity you'll receive 20% off, priced at $39.99. The early version of the game will include intelligent AI for the single-player side of the game, while you can enjoy the multiplayer online. AotS is the first game to include DX12 support, but it's also the first RTS to be 64-bit, while the Nitrous engine that powers the game uses Object Space Rendering. OSR is a technique for realistic lighting and shading that we usually see in movies, and not games.

I'm sure that you noticed the stunning ghostly silence in the Star Wars: Battlefront beta; there was no smack-talking, GG'ing, or any kind of team-to-team communication going on. Just dead silence. Sadly that looks to be the state of the game when it ships next month, too.

EA has confirmed that Battlefront won't have any sort of built-in voice chatting across PC and consoles. That means no VOIP chatting on PC, or default always-on proximity chatting with enemies or teammates. Console players will need to fire up a party chat to communicate with their teammates, whereas PC gamers will have to use their accustomed third-party chatting apps like Ventrilo, Teamspeak or Skype.

How will this affect the game as a whole? Well to start, playing the game with random players will be chaotic. If you're the type of gamer that likes to jump right into a game without waiting for your friends to log on, then you might want to rethink your strategy. Battlefront is much more enjoyable when you have a cohesive plan of attack that's built upon communication.

CineFlix has turned its charmed 8-bit talent onto George Miller's beloved Mad Max: Fury Road to deliver some old-fashioned retro mashup nostalgia.

If you've ever wondered what Fury Road would look like rendered as an old-school NES game, CineFlix has you covered. The 8-bit Cinema presentation has gamified a number of popular Hollywood blockbusters into "80's arcade and NES inspired action", and is certainly a must-see for all Code Monkeys fans out there.

The video condenses Miller's magnum opus into three minutes of bit-style magic, and if you haven't seen the film you might want to steer clear as there are spoilers intact. The video showcases the memorable events of the post-apocalyptic flick, including the guitar flamethrower, the desert storm sequence, and the high-speed chases rendered into Contra-style firefights.

Despite saying that there are "no plans for a new Devil May Cry game", Capcom does indeed have a new DMC game in the works as well as a new title in the landmark Dead Rising franchise.

The news was spotted on Capcom's official Integrated Report for 2015, which is a huge breakdown of the company's financials, plans for the future, and Q&A sessions with key execs. The data is pretty massive and is a lot to sift through, but the chapter about Capcom's future games outright lists Devil May Cry and Dead Rising for a release across the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2016 and beyond.

Basically this means we can expect a possible Devil May Cry 5 and Dead Rising 4 sometime between 2016 and 2017 across consoles and PC. In the meantime, Capcom is already beginning to work on Resident Evil 7, and since the Resident Evil division is busily crafting a VR-ready engine for the new generation of gaming tech, we might even see RE7 release with virtual reality support across the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR.

Over the weekend, the land down under saw its biggest CS:GO tournament to date with international powerhouse teams Cloud 9 and Virtus Pro making the trip to Australia in order to play in the $55,555 Crown Casino invitational. With Australia's Renegades and Team Immunity qualifying to play against these top-tier teams, hopes weren't too high for the first draw of Immunity versus Cloud 9.

After choosing the maps and Cloud 9 goofing around on stage, the teams went to work on a digital battlefield. After a back and forward tussle, the first map went the way of Immunity on De_Cache, seeing a 16-12 victory. Next up was De_Dust 2 which saw Cloud 9 steamroll through at a 16-7 scoreline and finally a massive 16-3 win to Immunity on De_Overpass secured the series to the Aussie underdogs.

This victory not only saw them secure second place at the Crown tournament and push them into the grand finals to play against Virtus Pro, it also meant that Team Immunity cracked hltv's top 20 team rankings. Now sitting at number 19, the only other Australian team on this list is Renegades at 17th, a team which Immunity beat 2-0 in its last tournament.

Now that the open beta of Star Wars Battlefront is over, EA has announced that it was the biggest beta in its history, with over 9 million gamers participating.

Senior Producer on Star Wars Battlefront, Sigurlina Ingvarsdottir, said it was the latest beta in EA history. The development team at EA DICE will now use all of the information and feedback from the beta to "to tune and balance the game" for its big launch next month. It was only a day ago that we found out that EA will be offering a $50 season pass with the game, a week after we heard there would be no microstransactions in Star Wars Battlefront.

In an effort to give Call of Duty players more freedom, Treyarch has revealed that all levels of the game's campaign will be accessible when the game ships this November.

"[This new feature] gives players the flexibility to consume the content how they want," Jason Blundell, the director and manage of Call of Duty campaigns at Treyarch, told Eurogamer. "The unlocking level system is an archaic mentality we've had since we did bedroom development back in the day - you do this, then go on to the next one. Consumers and game players in general are far more mature these days. There are so many things vying for our interests today. It's about, how do they want to consume it? Maybe they put it down on level two, and then they're in work the next day, and some guy says, 'dude, you've got to check out level four!' And he's like, 'okay, I'll have a quick look.' That's totally fine. I think it's their choice."

This is a surprising move that seems to hint at the instant gratification culture of specific game genres. This looks like somewhat of a killing blow to the coherency of singleplayer campaigns, and Treyarch has delivered the ultimate concession to gamers who don't want to take the time to beat missions.

In the latest piece on The Division, Community Developer on the game Hamish Bode talked with lazygamer at rAge. Bode had some interesting things to talk about, saying that The Division won't just be an online game but an awesome solo experience, too.

Bode said that The Division will also have gamers being able to multitask in order to get through the game on their own, where gamers can use different ways to get through their objectives. Bode said: "For example: I could specialize in a more long-range approach and you could be more up close [if playing together]. You'd have to be a little more multitasking if you were alone, or just try what works. That's what's interesting about the beta - people are going to find all sorts of ways that work for them".

Better yet, Bode said that The Division is mostly a seamless experience between 'zones'. These zones, including the awesome-sounding Dark Zone, are completely seamless to load into. Bode said: "It is seamless. For example, the Dark Zone. You don't load into it, you just jump the wall and you're in. And sometimes [players] are going to do this accidentally. And it's not always just walls - there are different types of entries and exits [to different zones]. And some only act as entries. So if [players] aren't sure, maybe don't jump".

Now that Halo 5: Guardians has gone gold, some keen-eyed gamers have spotted it in the wild. The packaging has revealed that gamers are going to need "up to 60GB" of HDD space to play Halo 5 on their Xbox One.

It looks like these images and details arrived from retail copies, most likely leaked from retailers somewhere in the world. The new images show us that Halo 5 is rated 'T-for-Teen', and that it has a one-player limit for local play. Halo 5: Guardians is different to previous games in the series, as it doesn't have local split-screen support. Halo 5: Guardians does include online cooperative play for up to four players, and includes a new 24-player Warzone game mode.

Halo 5 launches exclusive to the Xbox One on October 27.

The Star Wars Battlefront open beta is nearly wrapped up, with DICE announcing that the first-person shooter will receive four post-release expansion packs, which is all part of the $50 season pass. Considering DICE said there would be no microtransactions, this is quite the fork in the road.

These expansions haven't been detailed, nor do we have a release window, but EA teases that they will be "filled with new content". EA is giving season pass holders a couple of reasons to plonk down $50, where Star Wars Battlefront gamers can enjoy a two-week early access to the expansion packs, and an exclusive "Shoot First" emote.

The season pass to Star Wars Battlefront is nothing new for EA, with the company really driving the post-release content home with their Battlefield franchise. This means if you buy Star Wars Battlefront Ultimate Edition, and the $50 season pass, you'll be paying a total of $119.98.

Roberts Space Industries has opened a free trial of Star Citizen's Arena Commander module, letting would-be space pilots test their mettle with intergalactic dogfighting and simulations for a full two weeks.

Now the devs originally opened up the free trial for those who watched CitizenCon 2015, but we have you covered even if you weren't able to check out the livestream. Simply enlist and sign-up here, and then enter CITCONFLIGHT2K15 in this field here.

Test pilots will have access to a slew of ships to choose from, and will get a good feel of the game's free-roaming and ship-to-ship combat. The Star Citizen trial will last up until October 25, so if you sign up now you'll get almost two weeks of free play.

343 Industries has just released the official launch trailer for Halo 5: Guardians, giving a tease at the events that made Master Chief go rogue and trigger an intergalactic manhunt.

The footage is a delicious mix of in-game action and cinematic flair, giving viewers a satisfying look at the new Spartan abilities like the devastating ground slam, as well as setting the somber tone of the campaign. The montage has it all--first-person chaos in a battlefield of Covenant baddies, vehicular insanity with explosive Scorpion tanks, new weapons being teased, and a glimpse at the high-tech Promethean overlords that look as deadly as they do stylish.

Sadly we don't get to see Blue Team in action very often in the trailer. It's most Locke's new Fireteam Osiris ripping and shredding through snowy precipices, skillfully gunning down baddies like a hot knife slides through butter. As an avid fan of the Halo books I'm more interested in sticking with the classic Spartan II's, but the trailer does allude to the exact cause of Master Chief's disappearance, hinting at a mysterious mission with the rest of Blue Team.

Roberts Space Industries has just put another notch on the belt of Squadron 42, the first-person shooter module of Star Citizen, by announcing some serious Hollywood talent for the game.

Gary Oldman of The Dark Knight Trilogy, Gillian Anderson of X-Files fame, and Mark Hamill who should need no introduction (and was featured in the Wing Commander games made by Chris Roberts) have joined Squadron 42 with their likeness and voice talent. RSI also announced that they will have John Rhys-Davis, Andy Serkis, and many more joining the cast. Oldman will be playing Admiral Ernest Bishop, but we'll have more updates on the game and hopefully its development soon.

Squadron 42 is due out in 2016.

We know that Sony is ahead of Microsoft in this generation of consoles, but to hear it directly from the boss of Xbox feels weird. During the 2015 GeekWire Summit, Xbox boss Phil Spencer had some choice words on the future of gaming, Microsoft's competition with Sony and Nintendo, and more.

When asked about whether Microsoft could beat Sony with the current generation consoles, Spencer said: "You know, I don't know. You know, the length of the generation... They [Sony] have a huge lead and they have a good product. I love the content, the games line-up that we have. One thing that probably I didn't realize as much as I should have when I started in this role was the impact that the launch had on our team here in Redmond, the Xbox team".

So what's Microsoft's goal with the Xbox One? For once, the company isn't trying to beat Sony, as they just want to reach as many consumers as possible with their platform. Spencer continued: "Every time I sit down and I do a product review, mostly every time, the team comes in with surprise and delight around the momentum that they have, more than I'm able to add. And when I see that transformation of a team that's questioning the leadership of the organisation to a team that's motivated by the customers that we have and their ability to delight them, I see a team that's making amazing progress. [Backwards compatibility] was one".