Gaming - Page 1611

GDC 2017 - Gearbox's Randy Pitchford has confirmed that Borderlands 3 will leverage the power of Unreal Engine 4 to bring high fidelity advanced effects, dynamic shadows, lighting and much more to the next-gen Borderlands sequel.

Gearbox is doing some very, very interesting things with Unreal Engine 4. The studio has been developing Borderlands 3 for a while now, and at GDC 2017 Randy Pitchford showed off the game's first ever technical demonstration to highlight some of the more advanced effects the devs are using to make the game. "We're going to show you some technology that we're building within UE4 that will power the next Borderlands game," Pitchford said before the demo.

The demo shows just how far Borderlands has come, and how truly next-gen Borderlands 3 will be when it ships. The team has created some impressive experimental effects and features that absolutely breathe new life into the franchise and I fully expect Borderlands 3 to push the bar to new heights.

Nintendo has created a Witcher 3-level masterpiece swan song with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and shortly after the review embargo broke, multiple perfect scores propelled the game to Metacritic's best games of all time list.

At the time of writing, Breath of the Wild is sitting comfortably as Metacritic's fourth best game of all time. The top spot goes to Ocarina of Time on N64, but I do think Breath of the Wild could even unseat the legendary classic to cement itself as a must-have system-seller that Nintendo needs for its new Switch system.

Metacritic plays a vital role to any game developer's success, and high scores on the review aggregate site can determine whether or not devs get bonus pay. If Breath of the Wild does one thing, it proves that the old adage "they don't make 'em like they used to" might be outdated: Nintendo is back in action and better than ever.

Now that Nintendo Switch's day-one update is rolled out we can finally see the exact way to add friends onto the system...but you're not going to like it. Yes, it uses friend codes.

Press Start has confirmed that the Nintendo Switch uses the outmoded--and often confusing--Friend Code system to add different players to your friends list. It was originally believed that the FC system would be scrapped in favor of being able to add users via their Nintendo Account User IDs, however this wouldn't work because anyone can change their User IDs at any time. So hence the necessity of the Friend Code system.

However it's worth noting that this is just one way to add friends to your list on the Switch. Users can search for gamers they recently played with and add them that way, or even add anyone you're playing LAN games with with multiple Switches.

GDC 2017 - Microsoft has announced that its "monster" 4K-ready Project Scorpio console will support both AR and VR headsets in 2018, facilitating a more unified Mixed Reality approach.

We've known for a while that Project Scorpio would support "high-fidelity VR experiences," but now Redmond has confirmed what we suspected at the start: those Windows 10 headsets being made by companies like Dell, Lenovo, Acer, and ASUS will bring VR and AR experiences to the total Windows Mixed Reality platform--which will soon include Xbox One consoles and Project Scorpio.

"We're also excited to share that Windows Mixed Reality experiences will light up on other devices over time, beyond desktop and Microsoft Hololens. Our plan is to bring mixed reality content to the Xbox One family of devices, including Project Scorpio, in 2018," Microsoft announced in a recent update post.

Nintendo's new Switch Pro controller can actually be used to natively play PC games--but only via Bluetooth.

A PC will actually recognize a Switch Pro controller when hooked up via USB Type-C, however you can't actually play any games over the protocol. But if you pair the Switch Pro controller to your PC via Bluetooth, you can play games on PC or Mac. It even works on Android devices.

But there is one caveat: the Switch Pro is DirectInput not XInput, meaning it may not work in some games that were made for XInput controller mapping, such as The Witcher III: Wild Hunt.

Microsoft today announced Xbox Game Pass, a new paid subscription service that offers 100+ Xbox One and Xbox 360 backward compatible games on a month-by-month basis.

Xbox Game Pass will cost $10 a month, and Xbox LIVE Gold isn't required for the sub, however you will need Gold to play multiplayer in Xbox Game Pass games. The service is exclusively for Xbox One and not Xbox 360 or Windows 10, however if a Play Anywhere game such as Resident Evil 7 is included, users can play them on Windows 10 PCs as well as Xbox One consoles. Just don't expect non-Play Anywhere games like Halo 5: Guardians to be playable on PC.

Microsoft is borrowing lots of ideas out of other sub service playbooks, including Netflix, EA Access, and even PS Now. Unlike Sony's disastrous PlayStation Now service, Xbox Game Pass will allow users to download full games to their consoles. The games lineup will rotate every month just like Netflix, and once a game is rotated out you can't play it any more. This is similar to Nintendo's game plan with the Switch's online service.

During AMD's Capsaicin & Cream event today, the company had lots to talk about - teasing Radeon RX Vega, but they also announced a huge partnership with gaming giant Bethesda.

AMD's new long-term strategic partnership with Bethesda is an interesting one, as Bethesda will better optimize their games for AMD's new Ryzen CPUs and upcoming Radeon RX Vega graphics cards. This means we'll get better PC ports of Bethesda's upcoming games, and since they're the publisher of games like DOOM, Fallout, and the Elder Scrolls series - it means that AMD are now positioned incredibly well heading into the future.

The companies will be pushing to develop and accelerate the adoption of APIs like Vulkan, which means we'll see the full power unleashed from Ryzen and Vega in upcoming Bethesda-made games.

UPDATE: Sony has fixed this issue and the $59.99 version of Horizon: Zero Dawn can now be added to your cart on the PlayStation Store. Glad it was fixed so soon!

Original story is as follows.

Sony is apparently playing some dirty tricks to get users to buy the $70 deluxe version of Horizon: Zero Dawn.

Shortly following the leak, Warner Bros. Games today announced Shadow of War, the sequel to Shadow of Mordor, will be optimized for Microsoft's "monster" 4K-ready Project Scorpio console when the system releases this holiday.

Microsoft has made a deal with Warner Bros. Interactive to make Shadow of War a cross-buy Play Anywhere title on Windows 10 PCs and Xbox consoles, but the agreement apparently doesn't end there: the game will almost certainly leverage the full brunt of Project Scorpios 6TFLOPs of raw GPU compute power to enable native 4K gaming.

As written on the Xbox Wire mainsite, Shadow of War "will also be available for Project Scorpio following the console's launch this holiday season." Since Project Scorpio is backwards compatible will all existing Xbox One games, why would Microsoft explicitly call this one out? This tells me one thing: Shadow of War will be specifically enhanced to tap Project Scorpio's full high-end 4K console hardware.

Although the Switch is billed as a "home console first and foremost," the system will have ports of smartphone mobile games that can only be played on-the-go.

The Nintendo Switch's namesake is derived from its ability to seamlessly switch between dual form factors; two JoyCon controllers attach to the sides of the table to transform it into a handheld in Mobile Mode, and then the tablet can be docked and transformed into a console in TV Mode. It was originally believed that any Switch game would have to support both modes, however that was wrong: the Switch will have games exclusive to Mobile Mode.

The first mobile-only Switch game is VOEZ, a rhythm-based iOS and Android game that uses touchscreen controls. The Switch port of VOEZ will be the same and utilize the console's 10-point capacitive touchscreen.