Gaming - Page 1137

NVIDIA's 900 series has proven to be a big hit, but a recent issue with the GTX 970 has many users complaining. The problem with the 970 occurs when the GPU memory on the card is fully utilized. Once the 970's GPU memory is filled past 3.2 GiB the bandwidth drops below 20% of expected performance. The precipitous drop leads to speeds as low as 22 GBytes/s, which is much less than the 150 GBytes/s average.

This problem seems to be confined to the GTX 970; the 980 still performs within expectations when GPU memory is full. The net result is severe stuttering during gaming, and many users have taken to the NVIDIA forums to complain about the issue. NVIDIA has issued a statement that they are exploring the problem and will provide an update soon.

GPU memory architecture is somewhat similar to the overall design of all computer systems. The memory bus is a linearly scalable bus, which means all RAM components connected have to respond with the same latency and bandwidth, regardless of how much RAM is present. GPU's are also designed with the same approach, so the results are definitely not expected. The problem is most likely a firmware bug, in light of the fact that these memory subsystems are almost identical on the GTX 970 and GTX 980.

Ubisoft has taken the questionable action of banning gamers without warning over the last several weeks. The issue stems from Ubisoft's distaste for several services that sell game licenses at steep discounts.

The affected users have had their licenses for popular games, such as Far Cry 4 and AC: Unity, revoked without warning. The issue stems from the fact that these gamers purchased their keys from services such as G2A.com and Kinguin. G2A.com and Kinguin provide steep discounts for game licenses by purchasing license keys in countries with reduced prices, then making them available to anyone globally.

It's disconcerting to see Ubisoft targeting end users, instead of the companies undertaking the questionable buying/selling policies. It is certainly possible that many who purchase the games are simply unaware that these sites are redistributing game keys to disparate regions, or that there is an issue with the practice.

We only just reported on the first rumor of Call of Duty: World at War II, but it looks like this could be wrong. Instead, Activision will reportedly announce Call of Duty: Black Ops III. Whichever one gets announced, we know a new COD is on the way.

When the news first broke, we were teased that Activision would reveal a new Call of Duty title on May 4. Soon after this happened, Xbox Canada's Community Manager, Ray Patel, tweeted a teaser image which had a hidden message inside. When translated, it matched up with what the leaked poster had to say about the May 4 reveal. Industry insider "shinobi602" has now chimed in, tweeting: "This should be real entertaining since it's not happening," adding "More info regarding Call of Duty: World at War 2 coming soon".

This is where it gets confusing, as shinobi602 replied to a fans tweet, where he said: "Bookmark this reply. Come May, and watch when World at War 2 doesn't happen". After that, he replied to a tweet that asked which era the new Call of Duty would be based in, to which he replied "Just remember what Treyarch's big games are". Something that could hint toward Black Ops III. It's all a big whirlwind of mess right now, but I'm sure the picture will become much clearer in the coming months.

The images of the purported PS4 Slim are coming from Italian site Multiplayer.it, but they didn't state who was behind the original image. What we are seeing are press images for the PS4 Slim, which is going under the codename of "Monolith". The PS4 Slim looks to be around half the size of the current PlayStation 4, with a slight change to its shape, too.

We should hopefully see Sony showing off the new smaller, thinner PS4 Slim at either E3 or Gamescom later in the year. As for when we should expect it, we should expect it in 2016-2017 going by previous Slim iterations of the PlayStation consoles. Let's hope its sooner, rather than later.

Battlefield Hardline is much closer to its release on March 17, with Electronic Arts teasing what maps and modes to expect from the new entry into the Battlefield franchise.

The maps that will be included with Hardline are as follows: Downtown, Bank Job, The Block, Dust Bowl, Hollywood Heights, Derailed, Riptide, Everglades and the 420 friendly map Growhouse. As for the modes, we have Conquest, Team Deathmatch, two capture the flag variants with Heist and Blood Money; Rescue, where gamers playing as cops have to handle a hostage situation; Crosshair which sees a VIP being protected; and finally Hotwire, where the bad guys try to steal cars while the cops try to stop them from taking the cars - usually resulting in a big shootout.

The upcoming new beta of Battlefield Hardline will include both Dust Bowl and Downtown, but we don't know when the new beta of Hardline will be arriving.

It looks like Activision is preparing for the unveiling of the next entry into the Call of Duty franchise with Call of Duty: World at War II. The publisher will reportedly unveil the new game on May 4 according to an alleged promotional poster for the gmae.

While Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare took gamers into the future with some next-gen weapons, exosuits and more, World at War II will bring things back to reality, and history. Anonymous Protection leaked out the reveal date, which is May 4 at 10AM PDT/1PM EDT. It makes sense, as Activision unveiled the first look at Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare on May 1 last year.

Treyarch will likely be the studio behind the development of the game, handing off the yearly Call of Duty game torch from Sledgehammer.

Gamers have a lot to look forward to in 2015, and Microsoft hopes to blend its upcoming Windows 10 operating system with the Xbox One, so gamers don't have to be tied to a specific platform. Xbox chief Phil Spencer understands there may be some bumps in the road along the way, but feels gamers will benefit from the expected "symbiotic" relationship between the Xbox One and Windows 10.

" So I look at the opportunity to make Windows gaming and Xbox gaming kind of symbiotic with one another," Spencer said during a recent press conference. "And try to grow the number of people that are connected and the amount of content that's available on both platforms - [I feel is] a huge opportunity. I don't feel that there's some kind of financial motivation for me to keep things off of PC."

Microsoft wants to generate Xbox One sales, and hopes integrating Windows 10 into the overall gaming experience could help.

After news reports revealed a 32-year-old Taiwanese man died after an epic three-day gaming session, many people said he was foolish and should have known better. However, experts are speaking out to discuss the topic, due to increased headlines and more people suffering from these types of incidents. Prolonged gaming sessions can lead to health and psychological problems, including repetitive strain injuries all the way to visual hallucinations.

"For me, addiction boils down to constant reinforcement, or put more simply, being constantly rewarded while playing the game," said Mark Griffiths, chartered psychologist and director of the International Gaming Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University, in an editorial posted on CNN.

He also explained the rewards that gamers can receive from continuous gaming.

Fans of the Game of Thrones game from Telltale Games should get excited, as the second episode of the six-part adventure game series is coming to Android devices on February 5.

The second episode is dubbed "The Lost Lords" with Telltale teasing fans of the series with a brand new trailer. The summary of the storyline for The Lost Lords should also have fans pumped: "House Forrester is in disarray. Their liege lord and his heir are dead, and Ironrath is occupied by Whitehill soldiers. The survival of the family depends upon those who are left. Placed at King's Landing, the epicenter of intrigue, Mira Forrester must weigh her loyalty to Margaery Tyrell against the needs of her family, while choosing how to play the political games of Tyrion Lannister. One misstep could spell doom for Mira and her entire family".

The summary continues: "To the far north, Gared Tuttle finds that the wall and its crows hold little love for a squire from the Wolfswood, but finds kinship in the bastard son of Ned Stark. Gared must prove worthy of becoming a ranger in order to carry out the mission given him; one that is vital to the future of those he serves. To the east, Asher Forrester, the exiled son, is called back to Westeros to aid his family, but how can one man help when the Boltons rule the north with an iron fist? Meanwhile, an unexpected source of hope returns to the Forresters, but Ironrath is no place for the weak".

While The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt might not be coming out for a little while yet, CD Projekt Red and Fuero Games are working together for a MOBA title being released this week on Android and iOS.

The Witcher Battle Arena is a new mobile MOBA title, which is set within the universe of The Witcher. In the free-to-play MOBA game, gamers will battle it over a 3-on-3 game, but you can also play the singleplayer side of things which is available, too. Heroes within The Witcher Battle Arena will feature their own special, distinct abilities and skills that will allow players to find the characters that work best for their play style.

The developers have said that The Witcher Battle Arena is not a "pay-to-win" experience, as it is a fully free-to-play title. Gamers can unlock any of the purchasable in-game content through playing the game. The developer explains: "Everything in the game is unlockable for free, just by playing the game. Our system is honest, well balanced and doesn't keep you playing for ages to unlock something. If you want to get something unlocked faster, you can purchase it for a reasonable price. It's that simple".

During its Windows 10 event, Microsoft teased so much that we've had to cover it in multiple stories, but one of the more PC centric talks was about DirectX 12.

DirectX 12 will ship with Windows 10 later this year, and will provide developers with more power and control over their games, which will provide them with the ability to give gamers more complex, and better performing games. Microsoft's Phil Spencer teased that DX12 will reduce the power consumption of DX11 by 50%, which will allow many more mid-range mobile devices to run "high-end" mobile games.

Spencer also announced that Unity has adopted DirectX 12, which is big news in itself. This will allow games like Fable Legends to use DX12 to work between Windows 10 and Xbox One owners, and even cross-platform play, which is super exciting.

eSports are on the rise worldwide, and competitive leagues are beginning to see problems that plagued traditional sports in the past. A recent Counter Strike: Global Offensive match organized by the CEVO gaming league was rigged, with the losing team placing over $10,000 dollars in bets that paid off if they lost.

The fixed match was apparent as it unfolded, members of the iBuyPower team were laughing as they were blown up by the other team and went for knife kills in an unusual fashion. The team chalked the loss up to jet lag and being unfamiliar with the map, but two pro members on the team spilled the beans on the match fixing.

Gambling on the matches is quite popular, and the betting site CS:GO Lounge did some digging to see if they could ferret out evidence of the thrown match. They confirmed that all nine accounts, which each placed the maximum bet, were all from a single user or people on his Steam friends list. Every one of the bets won $1,200, for a total of $10,800.

Xbox One owners will get a four-day head start on Battlefield Hardline thanks to the preview program EA access offers, which should have owners of Microsoft's now current-gen console very happy.

The previews themselves are limited to just six hours of gameplay over the four days, but any of the save games and other files generated over that time will transfer over to the full release on March 17. The preview is free, but EA Access costs $5 per month, or $30 for the year.

Battlefield Hardline will launch on the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC on March 17. But before the full launch, we are to expect another open beta, which there are no specific dates for just yet.

Remember the pang of regret and depression you felt deep in your chest when typing /played into your pre-Burning Crusade World of Warcraft account? Experience this wonderful feeling yet again when you see how long it would take you to complete every game in your Steam library from start to finish.

SteamLeft will tell you exactly how long it's going to take to finish every game that you currently own, letting you know that continuous Seam sale binging probably wasn't the best idea - but who cares, right?

We've seen a few users hit the 1,000 hour mark - please submit yours below and let us know how many hours you need to slog it out for.

Sony will be debuting its PlayStation-exclusive original series Powers on March 10, with the first season taking part over 10 episodes. The first episode will be teased to all PSN owners for free, after which you'll need to be a PlayStation Plus subscriber to watch the rest.

The show itself is based on the ongoing Image Comics series from writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Michael Avon, with the world of Powers set in a police show based in Chicago where two homicide detectives investigate cases that citizens with superhuman abilities, or, well, powers. Better yet, the show stars Sharlto Copley, who was in District 9 and Elysium, who plays Christian Walker.

Walker is a former superhero who becomes a detective after he loses his powers, while his partner Deena Pilgrim, who is played by The Following's Susan Heyward. Eddie Izzard also stars, playing as the villain 'Wolfe'.

Microsoft had to grind its way to the top of the sales chart, with the Xbox One outselling the PlayStation 4 game console in November and December last year.

"Most important thing was Xbox fans sticking with us, they kept believing," said Phil Spencer, Microsoft's top Xbox overlord, in a statement on Twitter. "More work to do but it was a good holiday."

Spencer also responded to a fan via Twitter pointing out the PS4 still outsold the Xbox One: "PS4 is also doing very well. Console and game sales are strong, which is a good thing for the industry."

Steam for Linux has a nasty bug, one that can wipe entire drives of all information in a matter of moments. The problem stems from users that have moved their installation directory from the default location. Steam for Linux features a command, 'rm -rf "$STEAMROOT/" that is used to refresh the Steam directory, which is usually required if there are installation problems with a game.

Unfortunately, many users move their game directories to SSDs, or to other locations on the computer. This removes the part of the code that specifies the correct directory, instead issuing a 'rm -rf "/"' command. Users opening the app trigger a deletion of the entire contents of their drives, including external devices. Valve has confirmed the issue affected a "handful of users". Valve also states they are unable to replicate the issue internally, and are still attempting to do so.

Steam for Linux users are best to stay with the default Steam installation directory until Valve has either ruled out the bug, or corrected it.

BioWare has taken to a new blog post, stating that the third patch for the PC version of Dragon Age: Inquisition is nearly ready, and that it is "close" to release. Mark Darrah, an Executive Producer with BioWare spread the news on Twitter over the weekend.

The upcoming patch will fix up some of the issues with the multiplayer problems, balance issues, and adds fan-requested features like key binding that will allow walking on PC, armor upgrade menus and a new push-to-talk option in the multiplayer end-of-match summary. BioWare wrote on its blog post: "Based on feedback from our players, we tweaked the banter system to be less random in order to prevent extra-long periods of silence".

The studio continued: "We fixed quest blockers in the personal quests of Dorian and Sera as well as a spawning issue in Solas's personal quest (I won't elaborate to avoid light spoilers). [...] We continue to listen to feedback from our players, and we thank everyone for working with us to create an even better Dragon Age experience".

Project CARS isn't too far away from its March release window, so the developer has just unveiled a delicious new trailer for their upcoming highly detailed racing title.

As you can see, Slightly Mad Studios has been doing some great things to the game, showing off some damn impressive technology. The game looks incredibly detailed, with some truly detailed vehicles, slow motion drifting and much more. Slightly Mad Studios is teasing that Project Cars is "the most technically-advanced, beautiful, intense and authentic racing game on the planet that's been tested, guided, and approved every step of the way by both gamers and real-life pro drivers alike".

Project Cars slides onto the Xbox One, PS4, and PC on March 20. The Nintendo Wii U will also see a release, but no firm date has been announced Will you be picking this up in March? I know I will.

Destiny has been super successful for Activision and Bungie, with the former company investing some $500 million into it before things even kicked off. Well, gamers across the world are addicted, but I think we just found one that takes the cake.

'yavin427' has constructed himself a "servomechanism" that make meleeing automated, while the character in Destiny stands in one place. This leaves Yavin with the ability to open up an early Ocean of Storms level on the moon, and just let the 'robot' have at it. Enemies will rush the character, while the bot either performs a melee attack, or shoots until it dies. Once it has died, it will reload the level to that checkpoint, and let the character do it all over again.

This leaves Yavin to sleep and level up, and once he wakes up he enjoys the higher level, and all of the glorious weapon drops and experience rewards, all while he rests. Yavin took to Reddit, where he wrote: "Woke up this morning to a brand new 20! Had about 3600 kills, and 900 deaths (lol), and like 50 green engrams. I started at level 16.5 yesterday afternoon, and reached 20 sometime while I was asleep. With the armor I had waiting for him he is now a 26. Seems to be getting anywhere from 15 to 215 exp per run, depending on timing".