Gaming News - Page 1690

After enjoying a few months as a timed exclusive on the Xbox One, Crystal Dynamics is ready to unleash Rise of the Tomb Raider on the PC. After rumors of it arriving on January 29, it has been spotted on Steam.

The Steam listing for Rise of the Tomb Raider says that it'll be available in "January 2016", with no specific date just yet. The listing does tease "Featuring epic, high-octane action moments set in the most beautiful hostile environments on earth, Rise of the Tomb Raider delivers a cinematic survival action adventure where you will join Lara Croft on her first tomb raiding expedition as she seeks to discover the secret of immortality".

It was only yesterday that we reported on rumors that NVIDIA would bundle Rise of the Tomb Raider with future GeForce cards, even though AMD has worked closely with Crystal Dynamics on the game, providing its TressFX technology for Lara Croft. We should expect a PS4 version to follow the PC release, sometime in 2016.

Roberts Space Industries has pushed out a new patch for Star Citizen, which is now available in the public test universe as Alpha Patch 2.1.0.

Developer Cloud Imperium Games said in a statement: "It is strongly recommended that players delete their USER folder for the Public client after patching, particularly if you start encountering any odd character graphical issues or crash on loading. The USER folder can be found (in default installations) at C:Program FilesCloud Imperium GamesStarCitizenText".

The developer also said that it is working "feverishly" to get Alpha 2.1.0 out the door, but there were a "couple of issues" which stopped them. First, huge frame rate drops, meaning that the developer has only pushed the update into the public test universe for now. CIG added: "The last thing we want is to jeopardize all of the fun everyone's been having with 2.0.0, and certainly not over the entire holiday period. With that in mind, we'll be keeping 2.0.0 on the Live service and opening up 2.1.0 on PTU for all players!"

While Valve deals with some serious issues with Steam, Sony is experiencing issues with its own PlayStation Network, with gamers not able to create new accounts over Christmas.

Sony took to Twitter to say "We're aware that PSN account notification emails are delayed. Thanks for your patience!" The verification emails that PSN users are waiting for are required before access to the PSN is granted, and without it, you can't access the PlayStation Store, nor can you join PlayStation Plus - which means, no online gaming.

Hopefully this is just a temporary issue with Sony being flooded with new users that received PS4s under their Christmas tree, and that by the time you read this, the issues are fixed.

It looks like Star Wars Battlefront won't be getting any DLC that touches on Episode VII. At least currently they're concentrating on bringing original trilogy content into the game first, according to a Twitter post.

So if you thought that they would include some great new maps or even characters based off of the new movie that has recently been breaking so many records, then you can think again. This response isn't the final answer, though, and it would make sense to include some sort of official filler content before Episode VIII hits. And fans would probably even be excited to see content from the prequels too. The Clone Wars were always a fun timeline to do battle in, even if Jar Jar Binks was obnoxious.

The current state of Battlefront is somewhat less than exciting, being a great game visually, but lacking the sort of content that might keep people interested long-term. It's a great game, but that excitement doesn't last as long as they likely intend.

Just in time for the holidays and almost right on schedule, EA's servers are down for the moment for unknown reasons. Earlier this month we heard that from a hacking group that threatened to take down Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. Perhaps Origin was part of their plan as well.

And as usual EA is looking into the issues to see if they can quickly fix it. But don't hold your breath, because it's been down since at least 6AM EST. It seems that servers going down over the holidays is becoming somewhat of a tradition. Last year we saw outages of both the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live just as people were unwrapping and enjoying new games.

The DDoS is an effective tool against web servers because it's difficult to defend against the massive amount of traffic that can be used against a given server. Infrastructure can only handle so many requests and so much bandwidth before becoming overwhelmed. Hopefully this is a true technical difficulty and not a DDoS and we don't see a repeat of last years attacks.

The original Super Mario Galaxy, which debuted on the original Wii in 2007, is now available on the Virtual Console for the Wii U. It's available now for $20, just in time for Christmas.

Super Mario Galaxy was perhaps the most popular game in the Mario franchise, with over 12.59 million copies sold as of September of 2015. It had some unique and engaging gameplay, intuitive and rewarding puzzles and one of the best soundtracks to come from a Mario game.

If you enjoy a good 3D platformer and have never tried this particular part of the franchise, then the OG Super Mario Galaxy might be a good place to start. It's relatively beginner friendly, but challenging enough to feel great. It's certainly a great refinement over Super Mario 64, which it will be joining on the Virtual Console.

We've just found out what to expect in the different editions and packs of The Division, and now some more details are coming to light about the open-world game from Ubisoft.

Thanks to an interview between Forbes and Massive Entertainment's Lead Environmental Artist, Sebastian Lindoff, and Technical Art Director Chad Chatterton, we've found out that you'll be able to choose both the time and weather for each mission in The Division.

As for the weather, they explained: "Totally. You can choose when to play any of the missions, night or day, with clear weather or during a snow blizzard. We only restrict some of the heaviest fog settings in some missions because it could adversely affect too much the combat balancing, but all the other weather settings can have an impact on how you approach an encounter, varying the levels of visibility for you and your enemies".

One of the first DirectX 12 titles to be released next year will be Fable Legends, with a new leak on Lionhead Studios' game pointing to just how much microtransactions will cost, and what you'll get for your money.

Fable Legends is a free-to-play title, with Lionhead recently delaying the game. The studio didn't realize how big the game was getting, and needed more time to get everything right. The studio explained that the team "working exceptionally hard and we're proud of how far the game has come. We're operating our closed beta 24/7 and have added lots more features, quests, creatures, and heroes to play. Hundreds of thousands of fans have participated in the beta so far, and we can't wait to open it up for all of you to play. To achieve our aspirations for Fable Legends, we've moved our open beta release to spring of 2016".

As for the microtransactions, Fable Legends will offer a 'ton of gold' for $59.99, where you'll receive 12,800 gold. There's also a hundredweight of gold, stone of gold, mark of gold, and finally, a pound of gold - all with varying prices. Lionhead splashes away gamers' issues with a pay-to-win formula for Fable Legends, with the studio explaining "You'll be able to play Fable Legends from beginning to end for free. That means the whole story as it stands, plus any additional quests/storylines we release after launch will all be free".

We know that EA DICE is working on the new Battlefield, but we don't know what Battlefield title we'll get. Will it be Battlefield 5, or will it be something different like Battlefield: Bad Company 3?

Well, it was only earlier this month that DICE's development director Dan Vaderlind took to Twitter saying: "Now that we've shipped Battlefront and a part of the team continues to work on it, I am moving on to another project, the next Battlefield". This was exciting news on its own, with EA CEO Andrew Wilson adding "I have no doubt that DICE LA will be building their game at some point, because it's a really, really passionate group of people".

DICE LA is actually hiring right now, looking for both a singleplayer and multiplayer level designer. The LA-based studio is also on the look out for a senior technical animator, a senior lighter, and a senior concept artist. DICE LA is looking for candidates to "push quality to the next level for an unannounced AAA title". While it doesn't specifically state that it's a new Battlefield game, we have confidence that it is.

Amazon's new sale ensures you'll have some awesome stocking stuffers for the gamier in your life.

Although Christmas is only two days away and Amazon won't be able to ship any goods out in time for the big holiday, that hasn't stopped the online retailer from kicking off a great sale on video games. Amazons new holiday sale is primarily focused on digital PC games that will make excellent stocking stuffers for the gamer in your life, with up to 70% off on great PC hits. Notable deals include XCOM: Enemy Unknown for just $7.50, Machine Game's epic shooter Wolfenstein: The New Order for just $9, the ultra-creepy Alien: Isolation for $12.50 and $BioWare's stalwart Dragon Age: Inquisition Game of the Year Edition for $30

There's also mark downs on physical PS4 and Xbox One games, but these are less pronounced, seeing anywhere from $10-15 in savings. Also be advised that Steam has just kicked off its annual Winter Sale, which has thousands of PC games discounted for the holidays. So between Amazon and Steam, PC gamers have a nice selection of sales to choose from. Never buy retail, folks!