Gaming - Page 1110

It doesn't matter if you're a PC gamer or console owner, this looks like a fantastic time to be playing video games. Microsoft Xbox product manager Patrick Perkins recently described it as the strongest gaming period in almost 10 years, with plenty of high-profile titles that have either launched - or will launch in the next several quarters.

"Before we even launched the Xbox One, we knew that this was the year," Perkins recently said while speaking on the GameStop Expo livestream. "You just look at the development cycles and when everything's going to come together."

While speaking on the livestream, Perkins compared the upcoming 2015 holiday and early 2016 gaming season to that of 2007 holiday and early 2008 - when games such as Assassin's Creed, Halo 3, BioShock, Rock Band, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Mass Effect launched. Of course, games such as The Witcher, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Crysis, and Super Mario Galaxy also were released in that same time frame.

Square Enix recently revealed the official release date for sci-fi wonder Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, but the celebration was dampened with a strange pre-order scheme that could have a huge impact on the future of the games industry.

The studio's neo-noir augmented dystopian sci-fantasy Deus Ex: Mankind Divided looks to be one of the best games in recent memory, and it now has a release date of February 23, 2016. Unless enough people pre-order the game--then it'll release four days earlier on February 19, 2016. To get the game early a good portion of gamers will have to pay up front and everyone gets the game early...this time.

In the future might be different. What if there are actually two release dates for games: the early pre-orderers who acted like early adopters in a weird sort of Early Access for AAA games, and the regular joes who get access to the game later. If this kind of disparity is created it'll likely eschew an exodus towards pre-buying as the mainstream public will probably want to get their game as soon as possible--it's the same price, right, so what's the big deal?

Ever wondered what Ocarina of Time would look like as a modern day game? Talented 3D artist Michael Eurek answers this query with a truly stunning vision of the Nintendo 64 classic rendered in Unreal Engine 4.

Eurek's enchanting overhaul takes us on a tour of the flowing oasis of Zora's Domain, fully realizing the original island vibes with torch-fire licking the rough-hewn rock walls, beautiful waterfalls, lush flora, and a color scheme that truly immerses you in another world. When I played the game as a kid, this area was one of my personal favorite areas in the game because of the tropical atmosphere, and it's amazing to see Zora's refuge given such a high-detail overhaul.

King Zora XVI sits atop his throne, features muted and frozen in stone. The water churns and endlessly flows while the exotic jungle plants sway in the gentle breeze. Everything is rendered in such pristine hyper-realistic fidelity that it really brings a new dimension to the franchise, offering a testament to the new generation of game-building engines that developers have at their fingertips.

To celebrate the launch of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Konami has released an official debriefing that shows Hideo Kojima is truly one of the most heartfelt developers in the industry.

Hideo Kojima cares about his audience and really connects with the people who play his games. During the MGSV debriefing, the grandmaster of tactical stealth espionage personally visited the home of Sean Gillespie, a fan who had recently tragically died of cancer. Before his death in February, Sean's love and enthusiasm for Metal Gear Solid directly touched and inspired Kojima and his dev team.

"I'm visiting Sean's home after he passed because my energy comes from the players," Hideo Kojima said in the video, his voice seeming to hitch with emotion. "When I announced a release date for MGSV I swore to follow through, and not to disappoint them. The players are everything. Without them, nothing I do would matter."

Today Battlefront fans got a big shock when EA revealed that the new Star Wars shooter won't have server browsers, and instead will be based entirely on a new matchmaking system.

"Star Wars Battlefront will not offer a server browser, but will utilize a new skill-based matchmaking system," EA's community manager Sledgehammer70 said in a Reddit post. Essentially it looks as if even PC gamers won't be able to create and join custom maps and gametypes on a server, instead being stuck in a matchmaking playlist.

EA says that gamers will still be able to join and create party lobbies with their friends, but the studio still hasn't revealed any concrete details on their new system. Reddit users accuse EA and DICE of "console-izing" PC gaming with this move, and one user says that regional gamers might get the short end with matchmaking: "Australian MatchMaking has never worked properly here we get so many out of region players that just ruin the server."

Fallout 4 is a pretty complex and dynamic game, and lots of gamers are stumped when it comes to the new perk system. Below we make an educated guess based off of data and speculation on how Fallout 4's perk and leveling system might work.

A recent OXM interview with a Bethesda rep has prompted a dizzying level of confusion in the Fallout community, leading to rampant speculation and millions of gamers scratching their heads. "You'll still level up via XP, and each level increase will still give you a point to spend on a perk, but now those perks have varying XP levels of their own," says the Bethesda employee. "It's perk-ception, essentially, and means that, should you theoretically play long enough to max out every tier of every single one gaining untold buffs and no doubt all kinds of horrendous real-world illnesses in the process - you'll top off with a total of 275."

Perk-ception? Perk level ups? How does that work exactly? Also does this mean there actually is a level cap after all? I believe the concept is pretty hard to explain in just words, and the rep was put on the spot and wasn't prepared to adequately explain the system. Which makes sense, as Todd Howard says Bethsoft won't spoil Fallout 4, and this could ruin some surprises.

DICE is planning on conducting an expansive beta test for Star Wars: Battlefront that will let players test out the iconic 40-player Walker Assault mode.

According to EA's new devblog update, the Star Wars: Battlefront beta will roll out "early October" across PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

The beta will let gamers will clash in the epic Battle of Hoth in the prestigious 20 vs. 20 Walker Assault mode, which pits the Galactic Empire against the Rebel Alliance for some old-fashioned iconic wide-scale chaos: snowspeeders tripping down AT-AT's, groundforces gunning down snowtroopers and the skies will be alight with lasers as the two sides dogfight in the clouds. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader will join the battlefield as hero characters, wreaking havoc in the name of the Light and Dark sides of the Force.

With the Final Fantasy 7 Remake on the way, legendary Square Enix alum Tetsuya Nomura takes us back to the late 90's to discuss how one of the most iconic juggernauts in video game history was made.

Final Fantasy 7 was a pivotal moment in history for Square Enix and gaming as a whole: the game rode the mighty wave set forth by the original PlayStation, ushering in a new era of 3D visuals that breathed true life into the game via cinematics, polygons, and characters with real heart (you teared up during Aerith's infamous scene, admit it).

"The original game was the first time in Final Fantasy that all of the creation of characters and environments was rendered in 3D," Nomura said in an interview with PlayStation Magazine. "It was a time of big changes when we went from sprites to something more lifelike and in 3D, and it was just such an iconic moment. And we just packed so much playable content for players to experience, I feel that maybe that's one of the great reasons that that game had such an impact on fans. We were able to create a new game-playing experience. And on top of that, the characters. Not only the transition of 2D to 3D polygons, just that their personalities were more drawn out, they were more human and you can attach emotionally to those characters."

Final Fantasy XV will be released sometime in 2016, it has been confirmed, though an exact launch date hasn't been revealed just yet. Square Enix also shared new concept art and gameplay video for gamers to take a look at:

"We're proud of our technical capabilities and the work we've done to help shape the open-world genre," said Christofer Sundberg, co-founder and chief creative officer at Avalanche Studios. "We hold the FINAL FANTASY franchise, and the team working on it, in such high regard and are excited to be a part of the next chapter."

Earlier this month, it was confirmed Final Fantasy XV would receive a simultaneous game launch across the world.

It looks like Konami is quite impressed by the PC performance of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, with a company executive recently noting that gameplay is "stunning."

"The PC version is stunning," said Jon Edwards, marketing executive at Konami, in a statement to MCV. "We are so pleased to be able to release it alongside the console games, and that Kojima Productions has worked so hard to make it such a strong version."

Edwards also had this to add: "Like Ground Zeroes, the graphics are stunning in the new 4K mode, while the scale and online elements within the game are a perfect fit for the format. Metal Gear Solid V is such an entertaining game, we always wanted it to play strengths of its host format, and the PC edition certainly does that. It is a stunning conversion."

Microsoft has just unveiled a new upgraded Xbox One model that comes with a roomy 1TB hybrid hard drive and the modular Elite controller.

The new Xbox One Elite SKU is priced at $499 and features a 1TB hybrid solid-state hard disk that blends speed and storage. Microsoft boasts that the SSDHD improves initial boot up speeds by 20% from power-saver mode, and "adapts to your gaming preferences by storing frequently accessed files" on the SSD partition.

One of the main selling points of the bundle is the Xbox One's high-grade Elite controller, which features custom button mapping, modular, swappable parts, trigger locks and an enhanced D-pad to boot. The Elite controller retails for $150 and accounts for the price bump.

The new raid for Destiny's The Taken King expansion, King's Fall, won't be available when the content goes live on September 15.

Enthusiast site Planet Destiny spotted the news during IGN's PAX 2015 coverage, where Bungie's Luke Smith revealed that The Taken King raid won't be up on launch day.

"The [King's Fall] raid is not going to be available on day one," Smith affirmed during the show. "We definitely have a plan for when it's going to be available. I'm not going to announce the plan for it here, but I promise that people who are excited about the raid that they will know when it's time to take time off of work. We'll give them a heads up."

In Destiny's new The Taken King expansion, Xur will have an impressive new buff that will significantly boost exotic item drop rates--but you'll have to gamble to get it.

During IGN's PAX 2015 panel, Bungie dev Luke Smith revealed that Destiny's interstellar merchant, Xur, will have a new consumable that could make it rain exotics: "What Xur has on him is an item that lets you basically gamble the chance to find an exotic on the next boss you kill."

"Xur's still going to show up every week, he's still going to sell some amount of exotics," Luke Smith iterated when asked how the infamous Agent of the Nine might change in the new expansion. "But now he's got a new mechanic that we're not talking too much about yet, but it's a new way for you to sort of gamble and get exotics out in the world. We're pretty excited about this."

If you have a previous generation console, you won't be playing Mortal Kombat X. Warner Bros. has cancelled development of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Mortal Kombat X, saying that both versions would not meet the quality "expected of a Mortal Kombat game".

There's no more details on what exactly transpired, but I would dare say that the previous generation consoles couldn't hit 60FPS. The Xbox One and PS4 versions are pumping out the fatalities and blood spattering at 60FPS, but the previous-gen consoles are not up to scratch. Good on Warner Bros. to not just throw it out at 30FPS and expect everyone to just put up with it.

'Synce' has used CryEngine 3 for a super impressive interior technology demo that uses Crytek's new Global Illumination technology known as SVOTI (Sparse Voxel Octree Total Illumination). The results are amazing, as you can see below.

Synce notes that the demo was created to showcase the capabilities of SVOTI, where he said: "SVOTI means Sparse Voxel Octree Total Illumination. This system can achieve high quality global illumination in real time. In this demo you can change the time of day, and look how the light reacts".

If you want to try out the demo on your system, download it here.

Official Xbox boss Phil Spencer has shut down the rumors that the Xbox One console will be getting a slimmer SKU this October.

Rumor has it that Microsoft is set to announce the Xbox One's new hardware refresh, the Xbox One Mini, alongside the Surface Pro 4 and Lumia 940/940 XL in October. But according to Xbox's own Phil Spencer the speculation is all for naught; in a recent Twitter exchange, Spencer confirmed the news is "not real".

The reports claim that the Xbox One Mini will be 1/3 the size of the current VCR-sized behemoth, with the extra space allocated thanks to the carved out Blu-ray disc drive. This would effectively make the slim console a digital-only system, and the SKU would be marketed at a lower price point.

Gearbox Software's landmark post-apocalyptic shooter series Borderlands will be getting its own movie adaptation, with Marvel Studios founder Avi Arad being a major influence.

With the rousing success of George Miller's new Mad Max film, it's no surprise that other studios want to get in on the post-apocalyptic cash crop. Variety reports that Lionsgate studios has acquired the rights to a Borderlands film, and plans to bring the franchise's distinct chaotic humor and explosive action to the big screen.

"Lionsgate has emerged as a major creative force in the global marketplace with an incredible portfolio of brands; our partners at Gearbox have pioneered and cultivated an iconic property; and Avi and Ari Arad are two of the most successful producers of action franchises," Take-Two Interactive boss Strauss Zelnick said. "This alliance is ideally positioned to create a bold, provocative, no-holds-barred motion picture phenomenon that will delight Borderlands' current legions of fans and captivate moviegoers around the world."

Today 2K Games has announced that the RTS sequel the XCOM: Enemy Unknown, XCOM 2, will release in 2016 instead of its original scheduled launch this year.

Firaxis notes that the team just needs more time to make XCOM 2 a worthy successor and an extension will ensure they can make the "best possible game". "We want to give you an update on the release date for XCOM 2," Firaxis Games said in a new update. "We've set a high bar for the sequel and the entire team has been working hard to make sure we deliver a great follow-up to Enemy Unknown. We just need a little more time to make it the best possible game."

"With XCOM 2, we want to have more depth, more replayability, and more investment in your soldiers and this extension will give us the time we need to deliver on our promise to you."

If you're a Microsoft Xbox One gamer looking for a possible Star Wars Battlefront bundle, you're out of luck. It looks like the custom bundle is only available for the Sony PlayStation 4, which will launch on November 19.

In a Q&A on the EA website, news regarding a possible Star Wars Xbox One bundle was shot down: "The exclusive console for Star Wars Battlefront is limited to PlayStation 4." Pre-orders for the bundles will be announced soon. Pricing information also hasn't been released just yet.

Star Wars Battlefront is scheduled for release on November 17, and will be available for PC, Xbox One, and PS4.

As confirmed by Valve and ESL, the recently completed ESL One Cologne event saw teams gather a massive $4.2 million dollars in total - split between prize money, stickers and signature sales.

Coupled with a total viewership of 27 million people and a peak concurrent number sitting around 1.3 million, HLTV reported that this event saw a massive 180% increase in crowd-funded dollars over ESL One Katowice, which involved $1.5 million in community support given away.

This method of funding means that teams and players must market themselves well, hoping to sell in-game stickers and signatures to adoring fans to represent them whilst playing in public servers. This is slightly different to the Dota 2 model, which sees funding go directly into the prize pool, whereas ESL One sits at a static $250,000 no matter how much is raised.