Gaming News - Page 1621

The next PlayStation 4 update is almost here, landing tomorrow, April 6th. System Software Update 3.5, codenamed Musashi, brings about some more social functions that should better allow you to play with your friends when they're online. The video below highlights some of the things you can look forward to in the newest update.

You'll now have the ability to actually appear offline even when you're perusing and doing other things, or just don't want to be bothered with play requests while going through a particularly tough part of Dark Souls III.

There's also a new notification system when friends are online, and you're able to quickly join a game with your friends when they're already in an online multiplayer session. One feature that they've added that's actually quite useful in its simplicity is being able to check on the status of the various PSN services. There's plenty more they added and you check out the whole list and descriptions of those features below. It's an incremental update, but if we're waiting on a PlayStation 4.5 that's 4K capable, then further updating will be in the works too.

Final Fantasy 15 game director Hajime Tabata spills the beans on a ton of new game info, answering burning community questions around moogles (yes, they're in!), the flying car airship, combat, summons, and much, much more.

While Square Enix's Final Fantasy Uncovered event revealed quite a bit about Final Fantasy 15, there's still much more we don't know. Thankfully Tabata-san took some time to sit down with PlayStation Access and answer a bunch of questions. Check our list below for the major tidbits.

Final Fantasy 15 is slated to release on September 30 across PS4 and Xbox One, and Square Enix promises to evaluate a PC version in the future. Final Fantasy 15 will also have its own prequel CGI movie called Kingsglaive, as well as a free anime series called Brotherhood that shows the friendship between Noctis, Gladio, Ignis and Prompto.

When the leaked Nintendo NX controllers turned out to be fake, gamers learned to keep their saltshakers handy. Now we have a new batch of NX rumors that center around the console's technical details and these claims are actually quite believable.

According to claims made by Reddit user untypedhero, who has verified dev connections, Nintendo's new NX console will support the following features:

Given what we already know about the Nintendo NX, these rumors seem right on the money. The NX will support cross-compatibility with existing Nintendo hardware like the Wii U and 3DS/N3DS, as well as smartphones. It's only natural that Nintendo ties all of its hardware to its new My Nintendo ecosystem, and patents have already revealed certain My Nintendo features on the NX. As for the x86 architecture, it's been said that the NX will need zero modification to run ports of PS4 and Xbox One games.

We know that Nintendo will reveal its mysterious next-generation NX console this year, but an analyst firm claims the NX will also launch in 2016 as well.

According to claims made by analyst firm Technavio, the Nintendo NX will release this year so Nintendo can position a tactical stride in 2017. As for an exact reveal date, insiders claim the Nintendo NX could be unveiled as soon as April 27 with a major showcase at E3 2016.

"The market is predicted to grow with the launch of various next-generation consoles. Nintendo is set to launch their next-generation gaming consoles in 2016, which will drive the growth of the market in 2017. Post 2019, Xbox and PS4 are also predicted to launch their next-generation gaming consoles over the next four years," said Soumya Mutsuddi, one of Technavio's lead research analysts for gaming.

It looks like Microsoft's next-generation Xbox console might be called "Xbox NeXt", and it could beat the capabilities of Sony's rumored PlayStation 4K.

The news was found on the LinkedIn profile of Microsoft's Visual Design Lead David Gardner, who lists the "Xbox NeXt" as a major project in his portfolio. The mysterious Xbox NeXt is listed among previous consoles like the Xbox 360, Xbox One and Smartglass, so there's reason to believe it's an actual console. As for concrete details, there aren't any, but we do have reason to believe it's the next-gen Xbox rather than an upgraded Xbox One.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently said that Microsoft doesn't want to do an "Xbox One.5", and that console upgrades should be substantial instead of minimal. Based on this, we can assume that the Xbox NeXt is not a console iteration, but a brand new generation of consoles. Spencer has also teased that the next Xbox would be modular and feature upgrade-able hardware like a PC, so we might even see the Xbox NeXt hit native 4K gaming by leveraging the power of an ecosystem of external AMD Polaris GPUs tethered to a traditional console APU system.

With the rumors that Sony will be releasing a more powerful version of its PlayStation 4 console, and our sources saying it'll happen later this year, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has now talked about a hardware upgrade for the Xbox One. But, it won't be happening.

Spencer says that Microsoft doesn't want to offer smaller, incremental upgrades to their console, but instead, they want to give gamers "substantial" upgrades. During Microsoft's Build Conference, Spencer said: "I don't know anything about any of the PS4K rumours that are out there,but I can understand other teams' motivations to do that. For us, our box is doing well. It performs, it's reliable, the servers are doing well. If we're going to go forward with anything, like I said, I want it to be a really substantial change for people - an upgrade".

Maybe we can expect a next-gen Xbox sooner, rather than later, eh?

Mozilla has been pioneering different browser related technologies just as much as other competing companies and organizations have been, too, and one their focuses is on gaming. It might seem a bit strange to associate browser gaming to anything more than just the casual adventure we might partake of on an intermittent basis, but the underlying technologies can actually give us access to more powerful and interactive Internet experiences, and Mozilla is excited about being able to bring that to life as they continue to expand and grow the WebGL extentions in FireFox as well as allowing access to even lower-levels of functionality.

There's a lot that's going on right now, and it's exciting to think that those simple web-games we used as escapes are becoming much more than that, even full blown-VR experiences. In fact, 3D games in a browser have already come a long way from where they once were. Turbulenz is a good example of a custom engine running over WebGL. Quake4 has been recreated with the engine, and it looks nearly as good as on PC. This is really only the beginning, with more advanced and better looking games and even full 3D modeling programs available in-browser. The possibilities are endless.

We got the chance to talk with Martin Best, Mozilla's Director of Platform Product Management, about what the future holds, and he's excited about what the future holds.

Even though it only had a small amount of on-screen time, HoloChess has had a long lasting effect on Star Wars fans and even those that have never heard of it. Those minuscule holographic monsters are iconic, and certainly with the advent of VR and AR coming more to bear that we might see something like this in real life. And your wish has been granted by the original creator of HoloChess.

Phil Tippett was the person that brought the concept of holographic chess to life in the original Star Wars in 1977 and he's returned to consult with a number of game designers to bring his original idea to fruition as a modern game. Even though we don't have holograms that we can share, at the moment, we do have the ability to play multiplayer with our friends while in a VR environment.

You'll be able to play against people locally or via remotely. They're also going to work in an AI so that offline play is possible. HoloGrid: Monster Battle is going to come to the PC soon, and we're hoping that it's VR/AR platform agnostic. This could potentially be the next natural evolution of chess, bringing it into parity with modern games. No more playing Chessmaster 3000. Oh, and just in case you come across a Wookie, be sure to let them win. It won't workout too well for you if you don't.

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is indeed coming to the west with a confirmed release date of June 28th, much sooner than we might think for such large localization project (in language translation alone), but we in the west definitely aren't being left out. It's also available for pre-order with both a collectors edition and a day one edition with various benefits if you buy now.

In an almost time-honored tradition, the collectors edition will actually contain quite a few interesting things to make it more valuable. Included inside the collector's edition box is a steelbook with the full game inside of that. They're also including an exclusive set of art cards that show off some of the original art that's been translated into the digital game we've seen. There's also an Art of Star Ocean book, a Pangalactic Federation ID Card as well as the original soundtrack on CD, meaning a lossless format that can potentially sound better than the normal MP3's. In-game you'll even get six different background battle themes from previous games to help motivate you not to die. Also included are some interesting, yet exclusive items to help you in-game, such as The Ring of the Valkyries, Gold Bunny Statue, Bushybrume Cincture, Wristlet of the Stars and Secret Sthalian Tome. The collectors edition is only available through the Square Enix online store for $109.99.

The Day One Edition obviously doesn't contain quite as much swag, but you will get a few things to help make it worth your while. Choose this and you'll get two extra background battle themes from Valkyrie Profile and Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria, that you can listen to as well as a download code for those unique items; The Ring of the Valkyries, Gold Bunny Statue, Bushybrume Cincture, Wristlet of the Stars and Secret Sthalian Tome. This version is available at any retailer for $59.99.

Some people think of some insanely interesting ways to play games, because why not. Rudeism is one such person who is on a quest to control games with non-natural interfaces, and potentially beat them. He's already gotten to level cap in World of Warcraft by using only his dance mat. His list of conditions that he followed make it even more of a surprise.

You can check him out dancing right here.

For his entire journey, he played only on a PvP server and didn't take up a specific profession. He also only ran through each dungeon once, and no more. With those parameters in mind, he set off on his DanceCraft to be the first person to do so. And just yesterday he met his goal, completing one of his strange controller challenges. In other words, he danced his way to 100, a feat that some can only say in relation to a character emote.