Gaming - Page 112

NVIDIA has announced it is expanding the number of devices that can access its intuitive, locally run AI, Project G-Assist, with the company now lowering the barrier of entry through a new AI model.

NVIDIA is kicking off Gamescom 2025 by announcing a new AI model for Project G-Assist, which uses 40% less VRAM. As a result, RTX GPUs with 6GB or more VRAM, including laptops, can now access the virtual assistant. In addition to lowering the barrier of entry for Project G-Assist, NVIDIA has laptop commands that users can take advantage of.

With G-Assist now available in a broader range of RTX PCs, including laptops, NVIDIA has informed us that, despite requiring 40% less VRAM, G-Assist will maintain its accuracy in responses. Furthermore, G-Assist has received its biggest update yet, as users are now able to access the G-Assist Plug-In Hub, as NVIDIA has partnered with mod.io.

NVIDIA has upgraded its GeForce NOW cloud gaming service in a big way, not only by upgrading to GeForce RTX 5080 SuperPods with full support for DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation, but also with the addition of new 'Cinematic-Quality Streaming' technologies, and the new ability to install Steam games and play them right away.

Throw in VRR support via G-Sync, and low-latency technology that can support competitive titles running at 300 FPS with only 30ms of total latency, it's no secret that GeForce NOW's cloud gaming tech is a step or two ahead of the competition. As part of its Gamescom 2025 announcements, NVIDIA also confirmed that the GeForce NOW app on Steam will be updated to support full 90 FPS gameplay on the Steam Deck and 120 FPS on the Lenovo Legion Go S, maxing out the display capabilities of these PC gaming handhelds.

As part of a pre-briefing with media ahead of the show, once we began to see all of the impressive new tech and features coming to the service, as soon as NVIDIA got to the handheld updates, we couldn't help but think about the only modern gaming handheld running on NVIDIA hardware that would benefit from GeForce NOW support - the Nintendo Switch 2.

NVIDIA's GeForce NOW has quickly become the gold standard for cloud gaming, not only in terms of visual fidelity and latency, but also in how it approaches its free and subscription-tier service. Instead of providing a curated list of games you can play, GeForce NOW offers users the ability to play games on Steam, Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Connect, and more. There's even support for PC Game Pass titles available on the Xbox app.

The only constraint is that the game you want to play needs to be included in the over 2,300 titles supported and included in the greater GeForce NOW library. The cloud gaming service passed this impressive milestone at the beginning of August. Still, as Gamescom 2025 is currently taking place in Cologne, Germany, NVIDIA has announced a new and exciting GeForce NOW feature - Install-to-Play.

Install-to-Play is precisely what we want to see in a cloud gaming and streaming service like GeForce NOW: the ability to install the game that you own on a server in the cloud, and start playing. With the Install-to-Play feature, GeForce NOW's library expands from over 2,300 to over 4,500, with a wide range of developers and publishers already opting into the service. And best of all, the Install-to-Play is scalable and designed to support Steam's full game library.

Borderlands 4 is right around the corner, and with Gearbox preparing the long-awaited next installment in the series, PC gamers are going to want to know how to squeeze as much performance as they possibly can out of their rigs when the game becomes available.

NVIDIA has kicked off Gamescom 2025 by announcing that now more than 175 games now support DLSS 4, the upscaling technology that leverages advanced AI to provide gamers with free performance at the cost of just turning on a setting in-game. NVIDIA has informed us that Borderlands 4 will be launching with DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation, which is exclusive to all GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards.

NVIDIA showcased a pre-release image of Borderlands 4 and claimed that with DLSS 4, it was able to achieve 6x the in-game performance compared to DLSS 4 being turned off, or native resolution/rendering.

It's taken a couple of years (and a couple of GPU generations), but ray-tracing is slowly becoming a mainstay or feature in primarily single-player titles. Although the technology is still associated with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX hardware, thanks to its more advanced ray-tracing capabilities and RTX technologies like DLSS, ray-tracing is a big part of Sony's PlayStation 5 Pro console and a big part of AMD's new Radeon RX 9000 Series.

As part of its Gamescom 2025 presentation that touched on all things gaming, from GeForce NOW's big RTX Blackwell overhaul through to RTX Remix updates and the first AI-driven game built using NVIDIA ACE technologies, NVIDIA has also confirmed that 10 high-profile games at the show will be launching with ray-tracing and DLSS 4 support.

Ray-tracing and DLSS go hand-in-hand. The technology was initially developed to leverage AI to boost the performance of the then brand-new real-time ray-tracing on the GeForce RTX 20 Series back in 2018. DLSS, like ray-tracing, has come a long way, so expect the following titles to look fantastic when they make their PC debut.

NVIDIA has introduced the Blackwell architecture to its GeForce NOW platform, and while streaming games to PCs is great, what is even better is when you can stream them to a mobile device.

NVIDIA has informed us that Blackwell coming to GeForce NOW is the biggest update to the platform yet, and that with it members will gain access to RTX 5080-class GPUs and all of their accompanying features. But what about mobile gaming? NVIDIA aims to empower mobile gamers by enabling them to bring an RTX gaming rig on the go. As part of this effort, NVIDIA is enhancing the native GeForce NOW Steam Deck app, which was introduced earlier this year.

According to the company, GeForce NOW on the Steam Deck now supports 90FPS, the native refresh rate of the Steam Deck display. Support has also been announced for Lenovo's Legion GO S, with GeForce NOW being capable of streaming 120FPS, the full refresh rate of that handheld's display. Additionally, NVIDIA says owners of Lenovo Legion GO S will be able to connect their device to a TV and stream 4K at 120FPS.

DLSS 4 was announced and introduced alongside the latest RTX Blackwell-powered GeForce RTX 50 Series at the start of the year, and with Gamescom 2025 kicking off this week, NVIDIA has announced a new milestone. DLSS 4 is now available in over 175 games and applications.

DLSS 4 includes the latest evolution of DLSS Super Resolution and Ray Reconstruction, powered by a more complex Transformer model that delivers fantastic image quality, detail, and motion clarity in ray-tracing and non-ray-tracing games alike. And even though DLSS 4 arrived alongside the new RTX 50 Series, these DLSS 4 technologies are available to all GeForce RTX gamers. That's not the case for DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation, which is currently exclusive to the new GeForce RTX 50 Series, as it leverages advanced AI hardware and software to generate three frames for every traditional or DLSS Super Resolution rendered frame.

DLSS 4's rapid adoption has been impressive to see, where, in addition to native support in games, NVIDIA's DLSS Override feature in the NVIDIA App allows GeForce RTX owners to enable the latest and greatest version of DLSS in a wide range of titles. And as we're now at the point where a game launching without DLSS support would stand out, here's a quick look at some of the PC games coming soon that will launch with DLSS 4 support on day one.

NVIDIA has unveiled a selection of upgrades to its cloud gaming platform GeForce NOW, with the company announcing an overhaul to its network that significantly reduces the difference between playing a game locally and streaming it.

NVIDIA is bringing its Blackwell architecture to the GeForce NOW platform in the form of what the company is calling the GeForce RTX 5080 SuperPod Network. This new RTX 5080-powered platform will enable members to access the power of an RTX 5080 and all of its extra features. One of the newly announced features is Cinematic Quality Streaming (CQS), which NVIDIA informs us is the fix to what many GeForce NOW community members were requesting - improved image quality.

NVIDIA explained that GeForce Now Ultimate is up to 2.8x faster with the newly integrated RTX 5080 SuperPod, and with the extra performance headroom, the company is able to roll out CQS, which provides next-generation image quality that NVIDIA says "rivals local PC gaming". NVIDIA explained that engineers have implemented several new technologies into the streaming pipeline, such as support for YUV 4:4:4 Chroma, for sharper text and no color bleeding.

Capcom's Resident Evil Requiem, or Resident Evil 9, is on track for a February 2026 release on PC and console, and it's safe to say that outside of GTA 6, it's one of the most anticipated games on the horizon. The latest installment in the iconic survival horror series will see players return to the aftermath of Raccoon City, 30 years after the city was destroyed in a missile strike, in the role of FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft.

With the ability to play in first and third-person modes, and Capcom confirming that the game will offer a mix of exploration, puzzle solving, and survival horror action, it's also going to be the most technically advanced game in the franchise to date. And if you plan on playing this one on PC with a powerful GeForce RTX graphics card, Resident Evil Requiem's visuals are going to be taken to the next level as NVIDIA has confirmed that it's the latest cinematic release to support path tracing.

With Gamescom 2025 underway this week, NVIDIA has also confirmed that in addition to supporting real-time path-tracing for the most realistic and cinematic lighting ever seen in a Resident Evil game, Resident Evil Requiem is also set to launch with DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation support, including support for DLSS Ray Reconstruction to improve the quality and detail in the game's ray-tracing effects, as well as NVIDIA Reflex to reduce latency.

NVIDIA has kicked off Gamescom 2025 by announcing that its latest Blackwell GPU architecture is coming to GeForce NOW, and the upgrade is nothing short of incredible.

NVIDIA has informed us that this upgrade to GeForce NOW is the biggest upgrade since the platform launched, and will usher in a new level of performance unlike any other game-streaming platform. The company informed us in a briefing that it is introducing the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080-class GPU to its expansive cloud network under the moniker, the GeForce RTX 5080 SuperPod Network. Users who opt in to this level of GeForce NOW will get access to NVIDIA's DLSS 4 Multi-Frame Generation technology, and streaming of up to 5K resolution at 120FPS.

In addition to 5K resolution and 120FPS support, members will have access to 360FPS at 1920 x 1080 (FHD) / 1440p at 240FPS, which also comes with additional NVIDIA features such as NVIDIA Reflex. Besides the support for high resolutions and frame rates, the most impressive aspect of this GeForce NOW upgrade is the network latency being reduced to as low as 30ms, making competitive titles such as Counter-Strike, Overwatch 2, and League of Legends easily playable.

If you've been scrolling through TikTok recently and have come across an ad for Nexon's free-to-play looter-shooter The First Descendant, which has just received another content update, you might have noticed something a little strange. The streamers or influencers advertising the game's latest content look and sound weird because they're AI-generated digital clones, with some modeled after real-world creators.

From the mouth movements to weird pronunciation of words to fake excitement over The First Descendant's updated combat and new zone to explore, this is one of those examples of AI-generated content that looks immediately off because it aims to create realistically looking humans that can believably emote.

And yes, as soon as people started spotting these ads (check out the cringe-inducing compilation above for a taste), the community backlash has made its way to the The First Descendant subreddit. "Embarrassing" and "it looks like a scam" are just the beginning.

Grand Theft Auto 6 will only have one real competitor when it launches in May 2026: Its predecessor.

GTA 6's launch is expected to be so big that it will uplift the collective console market. Rockstar Games might be hailed as the savior of the modern games industry as a result. That might sound a little dramatic, but the analyst takes we've seen all point to GTA 6 being the largest video games launch in history: Some analysts think GTA 6 could sell 38 million copies and make $2.7 billion in the first year, and one venture capitalist firm lays outlandish predictions of GTA 6 earning $7.6 billion.

No publisher wants to go against GTA 6 due to the incredible drag effect of Rockstar's new Florida-based magnum opus. Even still, it's hard to see any game really competing with something as big as GTA 6. Well, except for maybe the other video game that has sold more copies than Xbox has consoles: GTA 5.

Sony hasn't actually canceled Haven's live service game Fairgames--at least not that we're aware of.

In the latest episode of his Q&A show Pachter Factor, securities analyst and longtime gaming figure Michael Pachter mentioned that Sony had scrapped another live service game. This time it was Fairgames, the new game from Haven Studios, that had purportedly been canceled. This made headlines because just months ago, Haven Studios founder Jade Raymond left the group, prompting discussions on Fairgames' cancellation.

Now it's been revealed that Pachter was speaking off the cuff, which is typical for his webshow. Pachter delivered a statement to YouTuber and former IGN journalist Destin Legarie, admitting that he doesn't have inside knowledge on Fairgames: "I misspoke, I said Jade was let go, and assumed it was cancelled. I have no info on the game at all. [...] I truly don't know."

The gameplay reveal for Call of Duty Black Ops 7 is scheduled to take place at Gamescom 2025, which is only a few days away, but ahead of the unveiling, the playable characters in the four-player co-op campaign have been leaked.

The leak comes from prominent Call of Duty leaker TheGhostofHope, who took to their X account to share the names and images of the four characters. According to the leaker, players will be able to select from the following characters: David "Section" Mason, Mike Harper, Eric Samuels, and Chloe "Karma" Lynch. As for what is confirmed, the official Call of Duty X account recently shared the below post, which stated it will be revealing Black Ops 7 on stage at Gamescom 2025 on August 19.

The reveal for Black Ops 7 begins at 11 AM PT and will be on Gamescom's official YouTube and Twitch channels. Considering the last reveal for Black Ops 7 was a cinematic trailer, we can expect the upcoming worldwide reveal to feature gameplay.

A video posted to X by creator ottr has showcased the difference in gun recoil between controllers and mouse & keyboard in Battlefield 6.

With the second open beta coming to a close, some players may have felt like they have been absolutely obliterated by enemies when it comes to aim, and while in most cases this is most certainly a skill issue, a previously undiscovered factor may also be at play. Ottr showcases the difference in recoil between firing a weapon with a mouse and firing it with a controller. Ottr uses the same weapon and revealed that firing weapons with a controller has less recoil than with a mouse.

The footage shows a smaller spread of bullet holes when the weapon is fired using a controller, while also having less recoil in general. Now, is this aim assist? No, technically not, as aim assist only kicks in when a player is aiming at an enemy target. So, imagine this recoil combined with the natural assist that controllers give players.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is scheduled to be unveiled at Gamescom 2025, and ahead of the deep dive, we are expected to get the price for both of the upcoming editions for the title have been leaked.

According to reliable leaker billbil-kun, Call of Duty Black Ops 7 standard edition will be priced at $69.99, while the Vault Edition will be priced at $99.99. These prices are hardly surprising as it's what we have come to expect from the Call of Duty franchise. It would actually be more surprising if Activision decided to price the game below the standard $70 premium game price tag.

It was only recently that it was leaked there will be no Nintendo Switch 2 version of Call of Duty Black Ops 7 at launch, which was also news leaked by billbil-kun. Now, that doesn't rule out the possibility of a Nintendo Switch 2 version being released sometime after the initial launch. As for the launch date, the leaker also revealed that Activision would be releasing Call of Duty Black Ops 7 on November 14, 2025.

EA eventually wants to morph Battlefield into an annualized franchise similar to Call of Duty, or at least that's what securities analyst Michael Pachter was told.

The Call of Duty franchise is unique because no other series on the planet is able to make as much money per year and sell as many copies as Call of Duty. The series has made over $35 billion in lifetime earnings and has sold over 425 million copies (Modern Warfare 2019, for example, sold 41 million copies). COD is a juggernaut, but EA wants to strike back with their big Battlefield renaissance.

According to analyst Michael Pachter, EA aspires to make Battlefield more like Call of Duty and release new games every year. This transition is going to take some time, though. In the latest episode of the Pachter Factor show, the analyst says he was told by EA's Byron Beedle (second in command under Respawn's Vince Zampella) that Battlefield could become an annual series in 5-6 years.

The second open beta weekend for Battlefield 6 is almost over, but before the mayhem comes to a close, datamining has resulted in two new maps being discovered. While they aren't playable, it gives us a look at what is on the horizon.

The datamined images were posted to the /r/Battlefield subreddit by Reddit user "Happysufigeee" who wrote the maps were discovered in an early build of Battlefield 6 and show 3D views of the landscape. The images, which can be seen above and below, are also available to download in the full 23K resolution as they are reportedly from the Blender viewport. For those who don't know, a Blender viewport is the 3D workspace where a developer is interacting with their models.

The Eastwood map and Mirak are reportedly standard all-out warfare maps that are separate from the upcoming Battle Royale mode. Additionally, Eastwood is rumored to be a season 1 map that will be launching alongside another LA based map called Badlands. As for what is confirmed, a Battlefield 6 developer recently confirmed that larger maps would be introduced "soon," presumably after the last open beta weekend and at launch.

Seasoned games writer John Dombrow has joined Bethesda Game Studios to design quests, possibly for a new Starfield expansion or The Elder Scrolls VI.

Bethesda is busily crafting The Elder Scrolls VI, and no Bethesda game is complete without memorable quests. That's why Bethesda hired John Dombrow as a senior quest designer to help on new projects--whether that's the rumored Starfield expansion or the next big-budget Elder Scrolls, we can't say for certain.

Dombrow is credited as a writer on 16 games, many of which are RPG-based and have strongly impactful storylines. He's mostly well-known for his work on Mass Effect 3 for the gut-wrenching Priority Tuchanka mission, and his writing in Dragon Age Veilguard, where he crafted Davrin's (excellent) storyline, as well as the dramatic and action-packed Siege of Weisshaupt sequence.

Securities analyst Michael Pachter criticizes Sony's move towards live services and blames Jim Ryan for a lot of PlayStation's problems, especially Concord's historic failure.

Since 2019, I noticed a big trend in PlayStation's earnings: add-on content made more money than anything else. Free-to-play games were (and still are) making billions of dollars a year. Sony knew this, and decided to use its COVID-19 earnings overage surplus to fund its own first-party live service games. Sony initially wanted to release a whopping 12 live games by March 2026. When Concord failed and was yanked off the market, Sony scrapped the plan and significantly reduced the lineup due to improper execution, the worldwide economic market, industry trends, etc.

Analyst Michael Pachter says this dismal failure is key evidence that Sony are "bad managers" for live games, and that they "don't know what they're doing." Sony bought Bungie for $3.6 billion to help lead their live service initiative, but Concord passed Bungie's "rigorous" vetting process and Bungie themselves had to recently delay their own live game Marathon due to quality concerns.