Gaming News - Page 1733

Ever wondered what Ocarina of Time would look like as a modern day game? Talented 3D artist Michael Eurek answers this query with a truly stunning vision of the Nintendo 64 classic rendered in Unreal Engine 4.

Eurek's enchanting overhaul takes us on a tour of the flowing oasis of Zora's Domain, fully realizing the original island vibes with torch-fire licking the rough-hewn rock walls, beautiful waterfalls, lush flora, and a color scheme that truly immerses you in another world. When I played the game as a kid, this area was one of my personal favorite areas in the game because of the tropical atmosphere, and it's amazing to see Zora's refuge given such a high-detail overhaul.

King Zora XVI sits atop his throne, features muted and frozen in stone. The water churns and endlessly flows while the exotic jungle plants sway in the gentle breeze. Everything is rendered in such pristine hyper-realistic fidelity that it really brings a new dimension to the franchise, offering a testament to the new generation of game-building engines that developers have at their fingertips.

To celebrate the launch of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Konami has released an official debriefing that shows Hideo Kojima is truly one of the most heartfelt developers in the industry.

Hideo Kojima cares about his audience and really connects with the people who play his games. During the MGSV debriefing, the grandmaster of tactical stealth espionage personally visited the home of Sean Gillespie, a fan who had recently tragically died of cancer. Before his death in February, Sean's love and enthusiasm for Metal Gear Solid directly touched and inspired Kojima and his dev team.

"I'm visiting Sean's home after he passed because my energy comes from the players," Hideo Kojima said in the video, his voice seeming to hitch with emotion. "When I announced a release date for MGSV I swore to follow through, and not to disappoint them. The players are everything. Without them, nothing I do would matter."

Today Battlefront fans got a big shock when EA revealed that the new Star Wars shooter won't have server browsers, and instead will be based entirely on a new matchmaking system.

"Star Wars Battlefront will not offer a server browser, but will utilize a new skill-based matchmaking system," EA's community manager Sledgehammer70 said in a Reddit post. Essentially it looks as if even PC gamers won't be able to create and join custom maps and gametypes on a server, instead being stuck in a matchmaking playlist.

EA says that gamers will still be able to join and create party lobbies with their friends, but the studio still hasn't revealed any concrete details on their new system. Reddit users accuse EA and DICE of "console-izing" PC gaming with this move, and one user says that regional gamers might get the short end with matchmaking: "Australian MatchMaking has never worked properly here we get so many out of region players that just ruin the server."

Fallout 4 is a pretty complex and dynamic game, and lots of gamers are stumped when it comes to the new perk system. Below we make an educated guess based off of data and speculation on how Fallout 4's perk and leveling system might work.

A recent OXM interview with a Bethesda rep has prompted a dizzying level of confusion in the Fallout community, leading to rampant speculation and millions of gamers scratching their heads. "You'll still level up via XP, and each level increase will still give you a point to spend on a perk, but now those perks have varying XP levels of their own," says the Bethesda employee. "It's perk-ception, essentially, and means that, should you theoretically play long enough to max out every tier of every single one gaining untold buffs and no doubt all kinds of horrendous real-world illnesses in the process - you'll top off with a total of 275."

Perk-ception? Perk level ups? How does that work exactly? Also does this mean there actually is a level cap after all? I believe the concept is pretty hard to explain in just words, and the rep was put on the spot and wasn't prepared to adequately explain the system. Which makes sense, as Todd Howard says Bethsoft won't spoil Fallout 4, and this could ruin some surprises.

DICE is planning on conducting an expansive beta test for Star Wars: Battlefront that will let players test out the iconic 40-player Walker Assault mode.

According to EA's new devblog update, the Star Wars: Battlefront beta will roll out "early October" across PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

The beta will let gamers will clash in the epic Battle of Hoth in the prestigious 20 vs. 20 Walker Assault mode, which pits the Galactic Empire against the Rebel Alliance for some old-fashioned iconic wide-scale chaos: snowspeeders tripping down AT-AT's, groundforces gunning down snowtroopers and the skies will be alight with lasers as the two sides dogfight in the clouds. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader will join the battlefield as hero characters, wreaking havoc in the name of the Light and Dark sides of the Force.

With the Final Fantasy 7 Remake on the way, legendary Square Enix alum Tetsuya Nomura takes us back to the late 90's to discuss how one of the most iconic juggernauts in video game history was made.

Final Fantasy 7 was a pivotal moment in history for Square Enix and gaming as a whole: the game rode the mighty wave set forth by the original PlayStation, ushering in a new era of 3D visuals that breathed true life into the game via cinematics, polygons, and characters with real heart (you teared up during Aerith's infamous scene, admit it).

"The original game was the first time in Final Fantasy that all of the creation of characters and environments was rendered in 3D," Nomura said in an interview with PlayStation Magazine. "It was a time of big changes when we went from sprites to something more lifelike and in 3D, and it was just such an iconic moment. And we just packed so much playable content for players to experience, I feel that maybe that's one of the great reasons that that game had such an impact on fans. We were able to create a new game-playing experience. And on top of that, the characters. Not only the transition of 2D to 3D polygons, just that their personalities were more drawn out, they were more human and you can attach emotionally to those characters."

Final Fantasy XV will be released sometime in 2016, it has been confirmed, though an exact launch date hasn't been revealed just yet. Square Enix also shared new concept art and gameplay video for gamers to take a look at:

"We're proud of our technical capabilities and the work we've done to help shape the open-world genre," said Christofer Sundberg, co-founder and chief creative officer at Avalanche Studios. "We hold the FINAL FANTASY franchise, and the team working on it, in such high regard and are excited to be a part of the next chapter."

Earlier this month, it was confirmed Final Fantasy XV would receive a simultaneous game launch across the world.

It looks like Konami is quite impressed by the PC performance of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, with a company executive recently noting that gameplay is "stunning."

"The PC version is stunning," said Jon Edwards, marketing executive at Konami, in a statement to MCV. "We are so pleased to be able to release it alongside the console games, and that Kojima Productions has worked so hard to make it such a strong version."

Edwards also had this to add: "Like Ground Zeroes, the graphics are stunning in the new 4K mode, while the scale and online elements within the game are a perfect fit for the format. Metal Gear Solid V is such an entertaining game, we always wanted it to play strengths of its host format, and the PC edition certainly does that. It is a stunning conversion."

Microsoft has just unveiled a new upgraded Xbox One model that comes with a roomy 1TB hybrid hard drive and the modular Elite controller.

The new Xbox One Elite SKU is priced at $499 and features a 1TB hybrid solid-state hard disk that blends speed and storage. Microsoft boasts that the SSDHD improves initial boot up speeds by 20% from power-saver mode, and "adapts to your gaming preferences by storing frequently accessed files" on the SSD partition.

One of the main selling points of the bundle is the Xbox One's high-grade Elite controller, which features custom button mapping, modular, swappable parts, trigger locks and an enhanced D-pad to boot. The Elite controller retails for $150 and accounts for the price bump.

The new raid for Destiny's The Taken King expansion, King's Fall, won't be available when the content goes live on September 15.

Enthusiast site Planet Destiny spotted the news during IGN's PAX 2015 coverage, where Bungie's Luke Smith revealed that The Taken King raid won't be up on launch day.

"The [King's Fall] raid is not going to be available on day one," Smith affirmed during the show. "We definitely have a plan for when it's going to be available. I'm not going to announce the plan for it here, but I promise that people who are excited about the raid that they will know when it's time to take time off of work. We'll give them a heads up."