Gaming News - Page 1777

Elite: Dangerous launched in December last year, but it'll be many more years before the entire galaxy has been mapped. The game takes place in a one-to-one recreation of our Milky Way galaxy, something that will take lifetimes to explore.

There are over 400 billion star systems to explore, but with part of the leveling mechanic in the game incentivising exploration of unknown star systems, Elite: Dangerous is being mapped quickly. At the current rate of exploration, Elite: Dangerous' playerbase is visiting 17,585 new star systems each day. This breaks down into 732 per hour, or 12 per minute.

If this rate continues and there isn't an influx of players in the short term, it would take a gigantic 150,895 years to map the entire galaxy. The developer behind the game is running a content for the first player to reach Elite status in exploration, giving away a $1500 prize. The first player to reach Elite in all three statuses will receive $15,000.

Let's start the week off with some big news for Electronic Arts, which is charging real money for in-game gas in Need for Speed: No Limits. Yes, you will need to buy gas through in-app purchases, or you could wait for your tank to fill back up. This isn't something you want to wait for when you feel the need, the need for speed.

Need for Speed: No Limits is currently an iPhone exclusive, but will be reaching Android in the near future. In the game, each race requires a certain amount of gas, so some gamers will choose to front up real money to pay for gas, so that they can play at their own pace. There are varying levels of currency in the game, with the real-world currency applying to 'gold'.

What do you think of EA charging for gas in a game? What will we be paying for next? Oxygen?

Microsoft reportedly shipped 6.6 million Xbox game consoles to retailers, including both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, during its most recent quarter that ended on December 31, 2014, it confirmed today. Even though it saw a "strong holiday season performance" for its Xbox 360 and Xbox One, Microsoft didn't provide a shipment breakdown for each individual console.

The shipment figures were a noticeable drop from 7.4 million Xbox One and Xbox 360 units shipped to retailers during the same time frame in 2013 - as the aging Xbox 360 is shown the door in favor of its next-generation counterpart.

Despite the Xbox One outselling the PlayStation 4 last November and December, Microsoft will have a lot of work cut out for itself in 2015.

NVIDIA's 900 series has proven to be a big hit, but a recent issue with the GTX 970 has many users complaining. The problem with the 970 occurs when the GPU memory on the card is fully utilized. Once the 970's GPU memory is filled past 3.2 GiB the bandwidth drops below 20% of expected performance. The precipitous drop leads to speeds as low as 22 GBytes/s, which is much less than the 150 GBytes/s average.

This problem seems to be confined to the GTX 970; the 980 still performs within expectations when GPU memory is full. The net result is severe stuttering during gaming, and many users have taken to the NVIDIA forums to complain about the issue. NVIDIA has issued a statement that they are exploring the problem and will provide an update soon.

GPU memory architecture is somewhat similar to the overall design of all computer systems. The memory bus is a linearly scalable bus, which means all RAM components connected have to respond with the same latency and bandwidth, regardless of how much RAM is present. GPU's are also designed with the same approach, so the results are definitely not expected. The problem is most likely a firmware bug, in light of the fact that these memory subsystems are almost identical on the GTX 970 and GTX 980.

Ubisoft has taken the questionable action of banning gamers without warning over the last several weeks. The issue stems from Ubisoft's distaste for several services that sell game licenses at steep discounts.

The affected users have had their licenses for popular games, such as Far Cry 4 and AC: Unity, revoked without warning. The issue stems from the fact that these gamers purchased their keys from services such as G2A.com and Kinguin. G2A.com and Kinguin provide steep discounts for game licenses by purchasing license keys in countries with reduced prices, then making them available to anyone globally.

It's disconcerting to see Ubisoft targeting end users, instead of the companies undertaking the questionable buying/selling policies. It is certainly possible that many who purchase the games are simply unaware that these sites are redistributing game keys to disparate regions, or that there is an issue with the practice.

We only just reported on the first rumor of Call of Duty: World at War II, but it looks like this could be wrong. Instead, Activision will reportedly announce Call of Duty: Black Ops III. Whichever one gets announced, we know a new COD is on the way.

When the news first broke, we were teased that Activision would reveal a new Call of Duty title on May 4. Soon after this happened, Xbox Canada's Community Manager, Ray Patel, tweeted a teaser image which had a hidden message inside. When translated, it matched up with what the leaked poster had to say about the May 4 reveal. Industry insider "shinobi602" has now chimed in, tweeting: "This should be real entertaining since it's not happening," adding "More info regarding Call of Duty: World at War 2 coming soon".

This is where it gets confusing, as shinobi602 replied to a fans tweet, where he said: "Bookmark this reply. Come May, and watch when World at War 2 doesn't happen". After that, he replied to a tweet that asked which era the new Call of Duty would be based in, to which he replied "Just remember what Treyarch's big games are". Something that could hint toward Black Ops III. It's all a big whirlwind of mess right now, but I'm sure the picture will become much clearer in the coming months.

The images of the purported PS4 Slim are coming from Italian site Multiplayer.it, but they didn't state who was behind the original image. What we are seeing are press images for the PS4 Slim, which is going under the codename of "Monolith". The PS4 Slim looks to be around half the size of the current PlayStation 4, with a slight change to its shape, too.

We should hopefully see Sony showing off the new smaller, thinner PS4 Slim at either E3 or Gamescom later in the year. As for when we should expect it, we should expect it in 2016-2017 going by previous Slim iterations of the PlayStation consoles. Let's hope its sooner, rather than later.

Battlefield Hardline is much closer to its release on March 17, with Electronic Arts teasing what maps and modes to expect from the new entry into the Battlefield franchise.

The maps that will be included with Hardline are as follows: Downtown, Bank Job, The Block, Dust Bowl, Hollywood Heights, Derailed, Riptide, Everglades and the 420 friendly map Growhouse. As for the modes, we have Conquest, Team Deathmatch, two capture the flag variants with Heist and Blood Money; Rescue, where gamers playing as cops have to handle a hostage situation; Crosshair which sees a VIP being protected; and finally Hotwire, where the bad guys try to steal cars while the cops try to stop them from taking the cars - usually resulting in a big shootout.

The upcoming new beta of Battlefield Hardline will include both Dust Bowl and Downtown, but we don't know when the new beta of Hardline will be arriving.

It looks like Activision is preparing for the unveiling of the next entry into the Call of Duty franchise with Call of Duty: World at War II. The publisher will reportedly unveil the new game on May 4 according to an alleged promotional poster for the gmae.

While Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare took gamers into the future with some next-gen weapons, exosuits and more, World at War II will bring things back to reality, and history. Anonymous Protection leaked out the reveal date, which is May 4 at 10AM PDT/1PM EDT. It makes sense, as Activision unveiled the first look at Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare on May 1 last year.

Treyarch will likely be the studio behind the development of the game, handing off the yearly Call of Duty game torch from Sledgehammer.

Gamers have a lot to look forward to in 2015, and Microsoft hopes to blend its upcoming Windows 10 operating system with the Xbox One, so gamers don't have to be tied to a specific platform. Xbox chief Phil Spencer understands there may be some bumps in the road along the way, but feels gamers will benefit from the expected "symbiotic" relationship between the Xbox One and Windows 10.

" So I look at the opportunity to make Windows gaming and Xbox gaming kind of symbiotic with one another," Spencer said during a recent press conference. "And try to grow the number of people that are connected and the amount of content that's available on both platforms - [I feel is] a huge opportunity. I don't feel that there's some kind of financial motivation for me to keep things off of PC."

Microsoft wants to generate Xbox One sales, and hopes integrating Windows 10 into the overall gaming experience could help.