Gaming - Page 111

Black Myth Zhongkui could be next game in the mega-popular Chinese mythology game series.

Chinese game developer Game Science hit it big with Black Myth Wukong, selling an astronomical 10 million copies in just 3 days. The game went on to sell over 25 million copies across the globe--a feat that some entire franchises can't pull off. So what's next? Surely this can't be it?

The Wukong dev team has confirmed plans to continue the Black Myth game series, and adapt more Chinese folklore into interactive content, but exactly how this will work remains to be seen. Now we have more clues on what's next, as Game Science re-filed a trademark for Black Myth Zhongkui, another powerful figure in Chinese legends.

Gamescom 2025 is officially underway and at the Opening Night Live event host Geoff Keighley confirmed that Team Cherry will be releasing Hollow Knight: Silksong in 2025.

Team Cherry was the first developers to be mentioned during the Opening Night Live event at Gamescom 2025, with host Geoff Keighley saying that Hollow Knight: Silksong is, "100% launching this year." Hollow Knight: Silksong is Steam's most wishlisted game, and during the Gamescom 2025 announcement there was some brief gameplay shown of the title, marking the latest look at Silksong since it was showcased in 2022.

Geoff Keighley goes on to say that a demo of Silksong will be playable at Gamecom, specifically the Xbox and Nintendo booths. Furthermore, the host teased that Team Cherry will be announcing some news on their YouTube channel on Thursday. Team Cherry has since taken to its official X account to announce "The countdown is on!" and provided a link to its YouTube channel.

2K Games and Take-Two hire known video game wrangler Rod Fergusson to make sure the next BioShock game ships.

A bit ago, Rod Fergusson left Blizzard for new pastures. Fergusson was hired to lead Diablo IV's troubled development and ensure a product actually shipped in 2023. Now that Diablo is in good hands, Fergusson is moving on to help other ailing games...like the new BioShock.

Fergusson confirmed the news on Twitter, where he announced he was the new head of the BioShock franchise. This isn't the first time he's worked on the series; Fergusson also helped Irrational Games ship BioShock Infinite in 2013.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is only minutes away from being officially unveiled at Gamescom 2025, and ahead of what will be a highly anticipated gameplay showcase, pre-orders for the title on both PlayStation and Xbox have gone live.

The pre-order pages being made available to the public confirmed the previous leaks leading up to the Gamescom 2025 unveiling, which suggested Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was going to receive two editions: a Standard and Vault Edition. With those leaks were the prices, and surprising absolutely nobody, Black Ops 7 is priced as a premium title, meaning it features that $70 price tag. As for the Vault Edition, Activision has slapped a $100 price tag on that.

Below I have listed in full what comes with the Vault Edition compared to the Standard Edition, but in short, the Vault Edition will come with BlackCell (1 Season), the Battle Pass, 20 Tier Skips, 1,100CP, Operator Collection, Operator Skins, Mastercraft Weapons, and more. The Standard Edition is just the game. Notably, pre-ordering any edition of Black Ops 7, or subscribing to Game Pass grants access to the Open Beta, which is scheduled to begin on October 2. Open Beta access will be open to the public on October 5.

Callisto Protocol and Call of Duty dev Glen Schofield shares the tough realities of spinning up a new game dev studio, including audits from the powers above.

Years ago, the owners of PUBG, Krafton, announced they were opening a new AAA video game studio called Striking Distance Studios with Glen Schofield at the helm. The idea was to create a new original horror game set loosely in the PUBG universe. It'd be a Dead Space successor called The Callisto Protocol. Unfortunately, the game didn't do nearly as well as Krafton hoped sales-wise, and years later Striking Distance was hit with layoffs.

A new interview with The Game Business reveals some of the major hurdles that Schofield faced while making The Callisto Protocol, including the incredibly high costs of having to build the studio from scratch--both establishment-wise and tech-wise. Striking Distance spent over $100 million making The Callisto Protocol, a figure that surprised even Krafton, who had audited the developer twice while they were working on the project.

After the teaser of the Halo ODST soundtrack at the end of the last Helldivers 2 trailer, Sony and Microsoft have briefly put down their swords to team up for an epic crossover event. Introducing, Helldivers 2 x Halo: ODST Legendary Warbond.

The hype for this announcementwas sparked when Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Studios briefly teased a Halo introduction to the game when a snippet of the Halo: ODST soundtrack was briefly played at the end of the "Bring the Boom" trailer released a week ago. As any Halo fan would, the soundtrack was immediately recognized and anticipation reached fever pitch as fans patiently waited for the official announcement.

Now, hours before Gamescom 2025 is about to kick off, Halo has officially crossed over with Helldivers in trailers released to both the official PlayStation and Xbox YouTube channels. It is quite strange to see Halo-themed content being released on the PlayStation YouTube channel, along with Helldivers 2 content being released on the Xbox YouTube channel. How times have changed. As for what the crossover entails, Helldivers 2 x Halo: ODST Legendary Warbond includes the following content listed below.

A newly leaked advertisement confirms new features coming to Black Ops 7.

Activision is set to pull the wraps off Black Ops 7 tomorrow at Microsoft's big Gamescom 2025 press reveal, but some of the thunder of that announcement has been stolen.

The quick 14-second ad says a lot in such a short time, confirming that Black Ops 7 will launch on November 14 while also showing off the new super jump boost pack ability both in combat and in a cinematic cutscene sequence. Users have been careful to point out that this isn't a double-jump or a jetpack, but more of a heavily-amplified boost-jump with more aerial control insofar as movement.

We're weeks away from Borderlands 4 launching on PC and console, and to celebrate, NVIDIA has partnered with developer Gearbox and publisher 2K for its latest GeForce RTX bundle. The new Borderlands 4 GeForce RTX 50 Series Bundle, if you purchase an eligible GeForce RTX 50 Series GPU or laptop system, you'll get a free copy of the game on Steam alongside the Gilded Glory Pack DLC.

This pack unlocks new skins for each of the four playable Vault Hunters, your weapons, and the ECHO-4 Drone companion - seen above. Redemption for both the game and the DLC will be available via the NVIDIA App's rewards section, with the bundle limited to GeForce RTX 5090, 5080, 5070 Ti, or 5070 desktops and graphics cards, as well as notebooks with GeForce RTX 5090, 5080, 5070 Ti, or 5070 Laptop GPUs.

Unfortunately, it looks like GeForce RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti gamers miss out, which is a shame. For the complete list of participating partners, retailers, and full details on the bundle, head to NVIDIA's dedicated Borderlands 4 GeForce RTX 50 Series Bundle page.

Described as an action role-playing game, Phantom Blade Zero comes from Chinese developer S-GAME, and it looks stunning in its latest RTX and DLSS 4-powered trailer. With fluid animation, fast-paced blade and martial-arts inspired combat, and a blend of regional myth, folklore, and history driving the unique visuals, this has every chance to become the next Black Myth: Wukong-style breakout hit when it launches.

Like Black Myth: Wukong, Phantom Blade Zero is set to launch on both PC and PlayStation 5. This new trailer showcases environments, characters, and action in the game's Pang Town region, recorded on PC with a PS5 DualSense controller. With cinematic lighting, depth of field effects, and more, the good news is that this Unreal Engine 5-powered title looks like it's already running pretty smoothly.

This trailer also showcases the game's ray-traced lighting for the first time, with ray-traced reflections, shadows, and ray-traced caustics that accurately replicate the way light distorts under water. These are similar to the ray-traced effects we saw in Black Myth: Wukong; however, the developer hasn't confirmed if the game is also set to receive a 'path tracing' or 'full ray tracing' mode.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, from developers Machine Games and Bethesda Game Studios, was a pleasant surprise when it launched late last year on PC and Xbox and then earlier this year on PlayStation 5. Its first-person take on the cinematic icon presented a mix of exploration, archeology, stealth, and puzzle-solving that felt like a breath of fresh air.

It also didn't hurt that it's one of the most visually impressive PC games out there, thanks to its ray-traced and path-traced visuals, presenting a level of detail that's only possible thanks to AI-rendering technologies like DLSS 4 Super Resolution, Ray Reconstruction, Multi Frame Generation, and NVIDIA Reflex.

With Indy's adventures set to return to Rome in the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants DLC on September 4, 2025, the game is set to receive another visual update in the form of RTX Hair - an innovative new approach to rendering realistic and detail path-traced hair using Linear-Swept Spheres (LSS).

Dying Light: The Beast and Cronos: The New Dawn are both launching next month, and if you're in the mood for moody sci-fi horror, intense action, and open-world exploration, they're both worth putting on your radar. Especially now, thanks to NVIDIA releasing new trailers for these games showcasing their stunning ray-traced visuals on PC and DLSS 4-enhanced image quality and performance.

Dying Light: The Beast is effectively Dying Light 3, and the latest installment in Techland's zombie-infested open-world series sees you take on the role of Kyle Crane, who carries both human and zombie DNA. With the action taking place around the fictional Castor Woods overrun with zombies, the game is set to debut with even more impressive ray-traced visuals than what we saw in Dying Light 2. Check out the trailer above to see some truly jaw-dropping ray-traced locales.

The game will be here soon, on September 19, with DLSS 4 support, including Super Resolution, Multi Frame Generation, NVIDIA Reflex, and DLSS 4's new Transformer model-powered Ray Reconstruction to increase the detail and quality of all ray-traced lighting effects like reflections, shadows, ambient occlusion, and global illumination.

A sizable portion of Xbox's record-breaking $23 billion revenues in FY25 were driven by Xbox Game Pass, and now Microsoft gives more interesting Xbox figures from an unlikely source.

Microsoft pulled some surprises today: First, Xbox ecosystem VP Jason Ronald confirmed new details about the upcoming next-gen Xbox, including that the console would be powered by custom NPU tech from AMD. Second, Microsoft actually revealed some Xbox numbers that we didn't know about before, which is a rare occasion.

In the recent episode of Xbox Podcast, the Xbox hardware exec seemed to take on the recent scrutiny around the subscription, including claims from ex-PlayStation boss Shawn Layden that Xbox Game Pass is unhealthy for developers, or Revenge of the Savage Planet dev asserting Game Pass may hurt indie devs in the long run.

Games and technical demonstrations with NVIDIA ACE technology are something we've gone hands-on with in the past, where AI models and tech are used to generate digital AI characters, recognize speech, and create dynamic responses based on how you interact. At Gamescom 2025, NVIDIA announced that the first NVIDIA ACE game built around speech recognition, interaction, and puzzle solving is coming later this year.

The Oversight Bureau, from developer Iconic Interactive, sees players take on the role of a prisoner called Candidate 404, who's trapped in a mysterious and dystopian underground "reconditioning facility." As seen in the announcement video above, you'll interact and engage in various tests and scenarios using natural language.

"Every day you're forced to participate in simulations as the Bureau attempts to reprogram your mind and turn you into a more compliant member of society," the game's description reads. It's the sort of setting that sounds perfect for one of the first games that relies on NVIDIA ACE technology, as it creates a sense of unease long before you start hearing your first AI-generated responses.

The handheld PC market will continue to grow throughout 2025, undoubtedly catalyzed by the incoming Xbox-branded Ally and Ally X duo.

According to new estimates from analyst firm Omdia, the PC gaming handheld market will expand by 2.3 million units this year. This multi-million range includes a bevy of products ranging from the proprietary Steam Deck to OEM PC handhelds like the MSI Claw, Lenovo Legion Go, and newcomers like the ASUS-made Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X duo.

It's not just hardware that's expected to drive adoption, though. Microsoft's efforts to bring a more streamlined, handheld-friendly version of Windows 11 and the Xbox app are expected to make a big difference in easing friction during the onboarding process.

Xbox hardware VP Jason Ronald reveals new details about Microsoft's next-gen console plans, including confirmation that Xbox will become a unified platform.

Today, the official Xbox Podcast released a hefty 33-minute episode that discussed a few interesting details about new hardware. Xbox president Sarah Bond has already confirmed that a new console is in the works via a new AI-centric partnership with AMD.

Exact details on the next-gen Xbox are still light, but hardware exec Jason Ronald did confirm that Microsoft is investing in neural rendering tech, and it's likely the new Xbox will utilize new AMD silicon with NPUs (neural processing units) built in.

Intel has just announced that it is bundling free copies of Battlefield 6 with its Core Ultra and Core CPUs as part of the "Gamer Days 2025" event.

Intel partnered with EA on optimizing Battlefield 6 for its Core Ultra + Core CPUs as well as its Arc GPUs, where Battlefield 6 will feature XeSS 2 and Low-Latency support at launch, while also supporting competing AI upscaling formats including NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR.

Battlefield 6 will feature key optimizations focused around scheduling for Intel Core Ultra + Core CPUs, with these optimizations not included in the beta of the game, so we should see some performance improvements using Core Ultra + Core CPUs when Battlefield 6 officially launches in October.

The two weeks of Battlefield 6 mayhem has officially come to a close as the servers are now offline and players are left wondering where they can continue the chaos. Well, EA has an idea of where they can go - Battlefield 2042.

To entice players with keeping up with the Battlefield action before Battlefield 6 is officially launched, EA has rolled out a massive surprise update to Battlefield 2042, which has released on all platforms. According to the press release, Update 9.2 includes new weapons, maps, vehicles, bug fixes, various gameplay changes, and a new free Battlepass.

Additionally, and this is probably the best way for EA to attract players to the previous Battlefield game, is playing the content in Update 9.2 will unlock exclusive Battlefield 6 rewards that will be available to the player once Battlefield 6 is launched.

NVIDIA is set to release an update to its RTX Remix modding platform in September that will add a particle system. That's particles as in little floating objects like embers or dust, that will be realistically lit with the same path-traced lighting found throughout a scene. This update will allow modders to add new particles to a catalogue of over 165 classic PC games, with NVIDIA noting that the majority of these titles didn't feature a particle editor.

Ahead of the announcement, NVIDIA showed us a quick preview of the new RTX Remix particle system in NVIDIA Lightspeed Studios' impressive Portal with RTX mod and DLC. In the demo, we got to watch one of those glowing orbs floating through a portal, except this time it's got tiny, ember-like particles falling off it as it moves.

And because each of these particles exists in the scene and is lit, their light affects other objects in the scene, and they're also reflected with impressive detail. What was also impressive about the particle effects was how they showcased accurate physics as they fell and interacted with each other and objects in the environment.

NVIDIA has announced at Gamescom 2025 that it is moving Smooth Motion out of beta for RTX 40-Series GPUs and officially launching it.

NVIDIA informed us via a press briefing that it's announcing the launch of Smooth Motion for RTX 40 Series GPUs, and that RTX 40 Series owners can update the NVIDIA App to start improving in-game performance of titles that don't natively support DLSS. Notably, Smooth Motion for RTX 40 Series GPUs will be available in the beta NVIDIA app on August 19, but will be publicly rolled out next week.

For those who don't know what NVIDIA Smooth Motion is, the feature was launched alongside the RTX 50 Series GPUs at the beginning of the year. Smooth Motion is an AI-based frame interpolation feature that works by inserting an extra frame between two rendered frames, which effectively doubles the perceived frame rate in games that support it.

The NVIDIA and ModDB RTX Remix Mod Contest has wrapped, and the winners have been announced at Gamescom 2025. For those that need a refresher, NVIDIA's RTX Remix is like sorcery for the PC gaming and modding community, as it opens the door to remastering classic games with updated assets, remastered textures, physically-based material, and full path-traced lighting. It's what makes Half-Life 2 RTX and NVIDIA's own Portal with RTX possible, and there are now over 350 active RTX Remix projects in development, with 100 mods released so far.

To be eligible for an award and a slice of the $50,000 prize pool, any RTX Remix Mod Contest submission needed to offer a playable slice or demo that took advantage of RTX Remix's features. The impressive Painkiller RTX Remix mod, by Binq_Adams, not only won the top Best Overall RTX Mod award, but it also earned the Best Use of RTX in a Mod and Most Complete RTX Mod awards.

Painkiller, a fast-paced first-person shooter from developer People Can Fly, was first released in 2004 on PC. With old-school Doom and Serious Sam-style gameplay that sees you taking down hordes of monsters, Painkiller has become a cult favorite among PC gamers, and this RTX Remix mod and remaster sports modern ray-traced visuals with DLSS support.