Gaming - Page 172

A recent update shared by the Skyblivion team provided some insight into the key development milestones achieved in February 2025, including an update on the cities, a new development diary, and plans for post-launch DLC.

During the last major update from the Skyblivion team, the developers stated that the cities within the project are almost entirely complete. Bravil, the poverty-stricken city in southern Cyrodiil, has since been finished - leaving only the Imperial City for finalization before the game is ready to launch. The update also reports that new music has been added to complement the Oblivion and Skyblivion tracks in-game, and that a new development diary is currently in progress.

As the release enters its later stages, the team has also begun concepting for DLC, which is expected to be a remake of Oblivion's main expansion, Shivering Isles. Previous footage has showcased remade models for the Gatekeeper - a massive, grotesque flesh golem from the DLC that guards the Gates of Madness in the Shivering Isles. The model in question took 34 hours to make, and given that it was teased back in 2018, it only highlights how much effort the team has put into making this project a reality.

Ubisoft has confirmed that the (already excellent) PS5 Pro version of Assassin's Creed Shadows will be receiving additional upgrades.

In a discussion with Digital Foundry, developers Nicolas Lopez, Pierre Fortin, and Sebastien Daigneault broke down the game's technical approach - and confirmed that both PSSR support and ray-traced reflections in balanced mode are on the way.

Assassin's Creed Shadows already offers one of the most impressive visual showings on PS5 Pro, largely thanks to its per-pixel ray-traced global illumination. Digital Foundry previously called it a "generational divide in lighting fidelity," noting how the visuals "totally transform the game."

Details for the upcoming survival MMO Dune: Awakening have been released, such as the PC requirements, roadmap for new content, and if the game will have an early access period.

The information comes from the title Creative Director Joel Bylos, who explains in a short and sweet video posted on the Funcom YouTube channel that reveals the developer's intentions with Dune: Awakening when it comes to its business model and post-launch plans.

The details have also been outlined in a blog post where it states the title will not have an early access period when it launches, it will be the full game, there won't be a subscription, which typically comes in the form of a monthly recurring payment, and how the developers plan on expanding the game through free major updates that will add more content, features, and enhancements to the experience.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is already tracking as the second-highest-selling launch title in franchise history. At the center of the game are its two leads, Naoe and Yasuke - and according to actress MASUMI, her first performance as Naoe left a noticeable impact on set.

In a video interview shared by Ubisoft, MASUMI spoke about stepping into performance capture for the first time. While she has a background in acting and music, the motion capture process - full-body performance in a studio filled with sensors and cameras - was unfamiliar territory.

The scene in question takes place early in the game and sets the tone for Naoe's arc, described as a vengeful journey. Despite the lack of a physical set or costume, MASUMI focused on grounding the emotion and treating the moment seriously.

While generally a staple in modern games, the inclusion of UI features like minimaps can often draw players away from the world around them. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 aims to address that, with the team shedding light on its minimalist approach to UI design.

In an interview with Eurogamer, the game's producer and Sandfall Interactive COO, François Meurisse, discussed how minimaps can affect the in-game experience - particularly how they can leave players staring at UI elements rather than engaging with the world itself.

Exploration is at the core of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, as players set off to stop a god-like villain in a surreal, French-inspired world. While there's no minimap, the developers have added a compass - a late addition to help guide players without overwhelming the screen.

Game of Thrones: Kingsroad will let players jump into Westeros early for $25 when it releases on March 26, 2025, on Steam. The game is set for a free launch on PC and mobile, but players must pay $25 to access it before its public release at a currently unscheduled date.

The upcoming RPG based on the hit HBO TV show Game of Thrones will put players in the boots of an heir of minor Northern lord who is tasked with restoring order to their house. Players will encounter many of the trials and tribulations of seen in the TV show such as navigating the treacherous political waters of Westeros, white walkers, giants, enemy houses, and many beast of myth and legend. Game of Thrones: Kingsroad offers three classes to choose from: Assassin, Knight, and Sellsword.

Players can take on the tumultuous world of Westeros alone or engage in a co-op dungeon mode, which will be required to earn the necessary materials and components to forge the best gear in the game. Game of Thrones: Kingsroad is developed by Netmarble and features full cross-play and cross-progression when it launches publicly. As for early access on Steam, there are three options players can choose from. The Standard edition grants early access, a northern outfit, a Jon Snow emoji pack, and 350 Iron Bank Marks (currency).

CD Projekt Red, widely recognised for its work on The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, has gradually expanded its creative output beyond gaming - most notably with Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. According to its co-CEOs, the company now aims to take that direction even further.

In an interview with Polish outlet XYZ, CD Projekt chiefs Michał Nowakowski and Adam Badowski reflected on the company's early ambitions as it worked to establish itself as a premier studio in the gaming industry.

Following the release of Cyberpunk 2077, and with The Witcher 4 in development, the company's ambitions have grown. While gaming remains central, the potential for creative projects in other mediums - like film, animation, and television - is becoming increasingly appealing.

Since Monolith Productions was folded into WB Games last month, one of the most widely recognized losses was the studio's proprietary Nemesis System - a dynamic AI framework that enabled nuanced, evolving enemy interactions in Shadow of Mordor. While praised for its impact on single-player design, its creation was driven just as much by business needs as creative ambition.

As discussed in a retrospective from former WB vice president Laura Fryer, singleplayer games like Arkham Asylum would start with a strong surge of buyers, before running into a sales drop-off as second-hand and used game markets started to emerge.

The decline in new purchases poses obvious challenges for publishers, who would rather incentivize players to hold onto their games for longer, and resell them less frequently. Which prompted the studio to explore solutions.

"How do you upgrade the look of Minecraft without messing up 15 years of design?" That's Minecraft developer Mojang introducing the game's long-awaited visual overhaul that will arrive as part of a 'Vibrant Visuals' update to the iconic game. The new "graphical set of enhancements" includes directional lighting, volumetric fog, sub-based shadows, and reflections.

Minecraft is not a game about delivering realistic or intricately detailed visuals; the primitive nature of the game's look is directly tied to its mechanics and sandbox-style survival gameplay. The good news is that even though the Vibrant Visuals update will introduce dramatically more complex graphics effects to the game, the differences don't seem to detract from what makes Minecraft look like Minecraft.

Chief Creative Officer Jens Bergensten calls it "a new look that still stays true to our creative principles. " Mojang confirms that Vibrant Visuals will be backward compatible with old worlds and will run locally so that players can play together with or without the graphical enhancements enabled. It's purely cosmetic.

Assassin's Creed Shadows sales data has been acquired by various outlets, revealing solid engagement figures for the new game.

Ubisoft has officially confirmed AC Shadows had reached 2 million players at release, beating out both Assassin's Creed Origins and Assassin's Creed Odyssey. That's not all the data Ubisoft has on Shadows, though. Any game-maker has robust tracking tools that show sales and engagement data across a plethora of platforms and networks. Some of this info has been acquired byInsider Gaming and VGC, and the tracking data leaks show that Shadows has earned a silver medal for the series.

According to the data, which was not authorized for release by Ubisoft, Assassin's Creed Shadows is second behind Valhalla in terms of players on day 1 of launch, but Shadows is ahead of Odyssey. There's also a few numbers associated with the games, too; Valhalla managed to get over 2.55 million players on day one, and Odyssey had nearly 1 million.

Bethesda has taken to its official YouTube channel to share a new trailer for Indiana Jones and then Great Circle, confirming the release date for the PS5 version of the game.

PlayStation 5 owners will be able to pick up the iconic whip and hate of Indiana Jones on April 17, or for those who pre-order the title, April 15, with developer MachineGames and Bethesda confirming the release date via a recently released trailer seen above.

The trailer features voice actors Nolan North and Troy Baker, who discuss what it means to voice iconic video game characters with a comedic undertone. For those who don't know, North was the voice behind Naughty Dog's lead character in its Uncharted series, Nathan Drake, and Baker was the voice behind Indy.

Dune: Awakening is the highly anticipated new survival game from Conan Exiles developer

Funcom will launch on PC on May 21. It will debut in full Version 1.0 form, with no Early Access period or subscription model. Pre-orders for the game will open this week, and the developer has detailed the full hardware requirements.

This is good news for those with older hardware, as the recommended GPU for playing using 'High' settings at 1440p 60 FPS is the GeForce RTX 3070. For those pushing 4K 60 FPS with 'Ultra' settings, you'll need a GeForce RTX 4070 or Radeon RX 7800 XT. The absolute minimum spec is the GeForce RTX 1060, which only covers playing using the 'Low' quality preset at 1080p 30 FPS.

At the DirectX State of the Union at GDC 2025 last week, Microsoft announced DirectX Raytracing (DXR) 1.2 alongside a suite of new technologies that will usher in the "next evolution in graphics." Partnering with AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm. DirectX Raytracing (DXR) 1.2 is set to bring a "game-changing" boost to performance in games with ray-tracing enabled.

This is excellent news as ray-tracing is one of the most cutting-edge and demanding forms of lighting and effects in games. According to Microsoft, the massive performance boost will arrive thanks to two technologies: opacity microamps (OMM) and shader execution reordering (SER).

Opacity micromaps (OMM) are set to improve performance in path-traced games by up to 2.3X thanks to enhanced efficiency and reduced "shader invocations" without compromising visual fidelity. Path tracing is the endgame for ray-tracing as it replaced all lighting, shadows, global illumination, reflections, and more with realistic ray-tracing. As seen in the recent Half-Life 2 RTX demo, Cyberpunk 2077, Alan Wake 2, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, it's a game-changer for image fidelity.

If you haven't heard about it, the Nintendo PlayStation is the stuff of videogame legend. In the early 1990s, when the CD-ROM multimedia age of gaming kicked off, Nintendo was looking to partner with Sony to create a CD add-on for the then-popular Super Nintendo console.

According to legend, around 200 units were produced, with the attachment set to boost the Super Nintendo's processing power and storage capacity in a big way.

PlayStation co-creator Ken Kutaragi, often called the father of PlayStation, was a key leader and engineer in developing the hardware and features of the original PlayStation, the PlayStation 2, and the PlayStation 3. In a recent photoshoot with Julian Domanski, Kutaragi showed off his very own Nintendo PlayStation console, tucked away in a closet - in pristine condition.

Less than 24 hours after reports began surfacing about the Australian Ratings Board (ACB) banning the sale of Silent Hill f across the country because its contents failed to meet criteria, the ACB has removed its classification.

It was only yesterday I reported the ACB classified Konami's upcoming Silent Hill f as "RC," which translates to "Refused Classification". The regulatory body of Australia that hands out ratings for media deemed the contents within Silent Hill f exceeded its guidelines, with the ACB stating on its website that any media with the RC classification "cannot be sold, hired, advertised or legally imported in Australia."

This rating of Silent Hill f banned the sale of the game across the country, and the ACB didn't provide any details as to what specifically pushed the upcoming game over the line. However, it seems that the decision has now been revoked in just the last couple of hours, as the official website listing showcasing the rating for the game has now been removed. We can see the RC classification using the Wayback machine and dialing it back to just two days ago, but when loading the webpage today, we get "You are not authorized to access this page."

Silent Hill f is banned in Australia ahead of its global release, which has an unnamed date. The upcoming title developed by NeoBards and published by Konami only recently received a haunting trailer, which can be viewed below.

Australian authorities at the Australian Classification Board (ACB), which is similar to America's Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), have classified the upcoming Silent Hill f as "RC," or "Refused Classification," meaning the game is now banned for sale within Australia. The ACB doesn't specifically state what content within the title violated its rating criteria, but according to the ACB's website, any media that receives an RC classification contains material that is "outside generally-accepted community standards and exceeds what can be included in the R 18+ and X 18+ ratings."

So, what has caused Australian authorities to ban Konami's upcoming title? The summary for Silent Hill f on the ACB website describes aspects of Silent Hill f as containing depictions of "players' character getting impaled in the neck and/or getting their faces ripped apart," a "character burned alive inside a cage", "a woman branded by a hot iron; entrails and sinew displayed on serving platters in fantastical celebration/ceremony; a character sawing off her own arm; a character slicing off portions of a character's face during a ritual."

A new free-to-play game set in the A Song of Ice and Fire universe is on the way, but you'll have to pay to get first dibs.

Early access is all the rage right now in gaming, and while it does have significant advantages (look at Baldur's Gate 3), the practice has been criticized as just another layer to the industry's money-making strategies. Free-to-play games aren't immune to paid early access either and the latest Game of Thrones Kingsroadco-op multiplayer game is yet another example.

The new Game of Thrones game will be F2P at launch, but first it'll release into a paid early access program. Kingsroad will launch into Steam early access on March 26 and you'll have to spend a minimum of $25 to get in. The packs, which include cosmetics, the in-game currency called Iron Bank Marks, and access to the game, start at $25 and go all the way up to $90. The developers say Kingsroad's early access is expected to last for 4 weeks.

Assassin's Creed Shadows has outperformed its successful predecessors, Ubisoft today proudly announced.

Despite controversy, all signs point to the latest Assassin's Creed game being a best-seller (the franchise, which sold over 200 million games by 2022, is a foundational pillar for the modern games market). Ubisoft today confirmed that AC Shadows has now broken 2 million players just 2 days after launch on all platforms.

"🔥 2 MILLION PLAYERS! 🔥 We're thrilled to celebrate this incredible milestone! Assassin's Creed Shadows has now surpassed the launches of AC Origins and Odyssey. Thank you for joining the journey in Feudal Japan!" Ubisoft wrote on its social channels.

As reported by PC Gamer, industry experts have been widely speculating about the effect on GTA 6 on the gaming markets. While it should prove to be a huge uplift for gaming as a whole - there's a chance that even a slight change of plans could run studios into the ground.

Ben Porter, an industry intelligence expert at Newzoo, commented on the potential for a GTA 6 delay. Highlighting that while companies try to steer clear of the anticipated title, there's a lot of fear surrounding launch plans.

Runways are a huge concern for gaming studios, and Porter elaborates on how, in the scenario that GTA 6 was delayed, pushing a runway any further could spell disaster for companies.

Sony's PlayStation 5 has outsold the PlayStation 4 by some margin going by fresh stats that provide a head-to-head comparison of the sales performance of both consoles.

Specifically, Mat Piscatella, who is executive director and game industry analyst at Circana, provided a tally of sales on Bluesky (see above) for the first 52 months on the shelves for both of Sony's consoles, showing the PS5 has outperformed the PS4 by 7%. (Hat tip to TechRadar for the spot here).

The opposite is true for Microsoft, mind, with the Xbox Series consoles trailing behind the Xbox One, and by a long way - some 19%. These stats are for the US market.