Gaming News - Page 1635

Star Wars Battlefront's next update is bringing us further into the Outer Rim and adding two new heroes, but we already knew that. A new trailer shows off even more info about what we can expect from the first official expansion.

We already know that Nien Nunb and Greedo are on the way to help out within the dark halls of Ja.bba's Palace and on the dangerous factories of Sullust, but we didn't really get to see them in action and actually in-game. The new maps are actually looking quite good and intricately laid out. And in fact it looks inspired by not only the movies, but also from the map that was part of Battlefront 2. In addition to the two new maps and heroes, there'll be new star cards (a scatter gun, dioxis grenade and an adrenaline stim) and weapons. You'll be able to equip the new Relby V10 rifle and the DT-12 blaster pistol. A new Extraction Mode is also making into the game that has the Rebels recovering resources while the Imperials defend them.

This DLC, however, isn't free and needs to purchased as part of the Season Pass. But, that also gets you more content down the road when they release it throughout the year. The Season Pass is $50 in total, or the DLC cna be purchased separately for $15.

There was one platform, for better or worse, that Sonic hadn't made an appearance quite yet. He's been running along the mobile scene for some time, but not on the Apple TV. The first Sonic the Hedgehog is available right now through the TV OS app store, while the second installment is coming on March 24th.

And they aren't stopping there. If you wanted to use your micro-console as a true gaming machine, than you'll be able to play Sonic CD on the 31st of March. Strangely, all three of the games are live on the store, but only one can be purchased. That indicates that it's a complete and finished, uploaded app. There's no word from Sega on why we have to wait to enjoy all the classic adventures of Sonic. It could simply be a business decision. Regardless of why, the miniscule console is a pretty good fit for the blue blur.

Bombshell didn't quite come out of the oven exactly like 3D Realms had planned. It was a good concept with some interesting underlying gameplay, and a neat story. It was the bugs, glitches and other infernal problems that kept people from actually enjoying it. Update 1.1 should make it a lot better, if not far more palpable to play. They've also added some free DLC to entice current users back.

The massive list of changes and fixes includes a bevy of items that they've found and changed by scouring through both the user reviews and critical reviews. 3D Realms and Interceptor Entertainment are very optimistic about what they've done underneath, so much that they're offering the game at a 33% discount, along with the addition of retro-themed Shellshock mission as free DLC.

In the changelog, they mention having new crosshairs for every weapon, adding in a more minimalist HUD for those that thought it was a bit too busy, and having NPC's actually show up on the mini-map. The most important fix that they've made is with the aiming mechanism. Now you can actually hit what you're aiming for. And they'll only shoot at you while they're on screen, which was minor, if annoying issue. There's more fixes and changes than you can shake a stick at, but if you've got the game and were disappointed, this might be enough to get you re-interested.

Total War Battles: Kingdom finally has a release date. And on March 24th you'll get the chance to play, across Steam and mobile mind you, against your friends in some delightfully light-hearted combat.

The whole massive battle aspect is all there, as well as the hexagon city-building and actually looks very close to just about any Total War game you've played on PC. The idea is to let you pick up where you left off on any device you want. Start a game on your PC, and continue planning your city and raising your army while anywhere else in the world on whatever device is at hand.

This is a definite far cry from Total War Battles: Shogun, which took on a strangely different aspect that, while good in it's own right, wasn't quite a proper Total War game. You'll be able to find this one on sale on the 24th on iOS and Android as well as through Steam.

Remember that strange patent that hinted the Nintendo NX's controllers would have an awkward ovular touchscreen in lieu of buttons? According to a "leaked" photo, that design is actually real, and will be used by Nintendo's upcoming console.

The leaked photo was originally leaked onto Reddit by user Idriss2Dev, and shows a possible proof-of-concept of the infamous Nintendo NX patent. As you can see, there's no actual buttons on the controller's ovular touchpad face, and a set of twin knobbly analog sticks that look rather odd. Notice the trigger button in the upper lefthand corner, and if you look closely, you can see a hint of a trigger on the right-hand side, too.

All in all the controller looks extremely non-ergonomic, leading many to believe it's a fake. Destructoid passed the image through a photo-checker and says it wasn't Photoshopped, so it may be genuine. Or it may be a fake prototype made to look like the patent. Assuming it is real, however, we're not sure if this controller belongs to the console or if it's the mobile on-the-go 3DS-like controller--based on its shape and form, I'd say it's the latter.

Sources say that Red Dead Redemption 2 has not only been in development for the past four years, but the highly-anticipated sequel is slated to release as soon as next year. This year's E3 will be rather exciting, eh?

Gaming outlet Fraghero supposedly was given confirmation from an anonymous source via email, who outright said that Red Dead Redemption 2: Legends of the West (yes, that's apparently the sequel's name) is in development. The tipster says that Rockstar Games will reveal the sequel at E3 2016, and the game will feature "more than one playable character" and a "much bigger open world" to explore.

Although the source claims to have received this info from an ex-Rockstar dev, be sure to take this with a big tin of Morton's salt. At the same time, though, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has said that the Red Dead Redemption is a "permanent franchise" of the publisher, and a four-year dev window fits into his plan not to oversaturate the games market.

Destiny players are suffering from content fatigue, but Bungie is ready to unload a bounty of content with a new major update coming April 12.

In the latest weekly update, Bungie has outlined what Guardians can expect from Destiny's new "April Update". The content drop will include a fresh batch of activities across the full spectrum of the game, from PVE to PVP, so no players are left out. That's a pretty important designation considering PVE gamers have long been clamoring for new stuff to do in the interstellar sandbox. Check below for a bullet breakdown.

Of course Bungie doesn't reveal too much about the nebulous April Update--they're not about to break their infamous hype-building nature and expose full transparency--but we do get an actual release date and content hints. Bungie will also be streaming the new content on its Twitch channel every Wednesday for the next three weeks, so be sure to tune in if you're interested. Sadly, I think most of Destiny's playerbase has moved on to The Division by now.

GDC 2016 - During the Game Developers Conference, Microsoft's Principal Group Program Manager, Jason Ronald, held a programming session talking about the future of game development on Windows. In this session, Ronald talked about what Microsoft is doing to push their vision on game development, on both the Xbox, and Windows.

Ronald also provided an overview of a "host of new platform innovations for games in every genre". DualShockers sat in on the session, noticing some great news on DX12, with Ronald talking about how DX12 will offer gains in both CPUs and GPUs.

Ronald mentioned that Star Wars: Battlefront will be the first DX12 title on the Xbox One, but didn't provide any release window on when this would happen. He did note that Microsoft has strong partner support in DX12 thanks to recent releases like Rise of the Tomb Raider, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Hitman and Ashes of the Singularity.

The Division has been one of the most successful new games that Ubisoft has ever released, reaching over $330 million dollars in revenue globally within the first five days after it was released. But it didn't just sell well, people are actually playing it too, with over 1.2 million players having enjoyed it concurrently over this past weekend across all platforms.

That's an impressive amount of people playing a game at any one time, despite it starting off with a few, nearly game breaking, problems. There's been an incredible amount of actual involvement by the player-base, with a generally positive attitude even with the problems and association with past Ubisoft titles. Right now there is a recorded all-time peak, just through Steam alone, of 113,887 players at any given time. That's not bad at all, and almost more than the Team Fortress 2 record of 117,917.

"The Division taking the top spot in the industry for first-week sales of a new franchise is a tremendous achievement. We are very proud of our teams, and humbled by and thankful for the millions of players who are giving us their feedback and support," Ubisoft's CEO, Yves Guillemot, said in a statement regarding the success. "The Division is the latest example yet of our unique ability to deliver immersive gaming playgrounds that keep players engaged, and that they eagerly share with their friends and community."

Gaming Evolved, or Raptr, hasn't exactly had the shining reception that AMD might have wanted when it was included with their driver set. But it's getting better with each iteration, and more useful too. The newest update vastly improves the video capture and recording features of the integrated Play.tv, beyond a lot of other free or premium platforms.

Recording, if you set it to, can begin automatically once you start a game up now. It can detect and begin without you having to remember to turn it on, capturing the entire play session and even going so far as to deleting older videos as time goes on to save storage space. They've added the ability to use a hotkey to "bookmark" a particular moment in the game, which will make a 30-second video clip when you press that hotkey. Play.tv will also record your mouse clicks, webcam, mic nearly everything so you can analyze your competitive play. And now they have a real video editor that allows you to actually edit those clips and make them viewable right from the app. It used to be quite the pain to get things ready for sharing.

Something quite revolutionary is the new integration with League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. When you play these games, the AMD Gaming Evolved client uses live match data to automatically create highlights that are completely pre-edited, ready to watch or share instantly. They plan on adding in more games that are compatible with it soon as well.