Gaming - Page 182

Avowed was released on February 18, and since then, the game has peaked at just shy of 20,000 concurrent players on Steam and, at the time of reporting, has approximately 11,000 players.

The latest release from Obsidian Entertainment has had a mixed response from gamers, with the Steam listing for the title landing on 78%, earning it the label "Mostly Positive," but a much lower percentage of 64% on the Xbox Store listing (3.2/5). Looking at Metacritic the game has received a lower score than past Obisidian Game releases with an 80 from critics and a 6.6/10 user score.

Notably, Metacritic doesn't require a user to have purchased the game to leave a rating, which may somewhat skew the ratings, especially when considering Avowed has been at the center of the gaming industry's recent controversy for the inclusion of "woke" aspects within the gameplay.

As reported by @CharlieIntel, Activision has confirmed that Call of Duty games include AI-generated content after a content disclosure recently appeared on the game's Steam page. The disclosure broadly outlines that the team uses generative AI tools to develop in-game assets.

Call of Duty has been the subject of accusations in the past for using AI to generate assets like skins, loading screens, and calling cards without disclosing it to the public. Fingers in AI-generated artwork are often a giveaway for AI use, and examples like the 6-fingered zombie in Black Ops 6 demonstrate this case in point.

Back in April 2024, it was also discovered through Treyarch job listings that the team was seeking 2D artists specifically "skilled with generative AI tools." Given the team's public openness to using the technology, it's no surprise that this disclaimer was coming eventually. Steam, in particular, has strict AI transparency requirements, and Comicbook.com speculates that Valve may have stepped in to enforce the policy.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is scheduled to release on March 20, but some gameplay has leaked showcasing various aspects of the title, and Ubisoft has responded with a statement.

Early copies of Assassin's Creed Shadows are being streamed online,e revealing spoilers for the game in social media posts that are quickly being taken down. Above and below are some GIFs of the gameplay, so view them with caution if you are attempting to dodge spoilers. Ubisoft has officially recognized the gameplay leaks in a recent post on X, where the company wrote, "We are aware players have accessed Assassin's Creed Shadows ahead of its official release," and that any footage seen online isn't representative of the final launch experience players will get on March 20.

With that out of the way, what do leaks show? Unfortunately for Ubisoft, quite a lot. Players have leaked the inventory of the game showcasing a range of items, gear, and weapons. Other leaks show consumables, tools, and character stats for both Naoe and Yasuke, the game's two protagonists. Moreover, one video has revealed the size of the map, the different regions, and many points of interest, with another video showing off some skill trees for various abilities. Lastly, one video showcases some combat, with Noae taking out several enemies with combos and fatalities.

NetEase is cutting ties with risky investments as its realigns its business strategies, leading to some surprising layoffs and closures. Not all of NetEase's investments will be affected by the move, however.

Blood of Dawnwalker, a new dark fantasy game from former Witcher 3 devs, hasn't been jeopardized by NetEase's cuts. It turns out that NetEase is only a minority shareholder in Rebel Wolves, the team that's making Blood of Dawnwalker.

In a recent LinkedIn post, studio co-owner Tomasz Tinc clarifies that Blood of Dawnwalker's production budget has already been paid for.

Microsoft's new generative AI tech could be compatible with user-generated content and pave the way to a new kind of customized gaming experience.

A bit ago, Microsoft made waves by announcing Muse, a generative AI gaming world model that essentially creates procedural gameplay from user inputs. Microsoft also said that it will start using its first-party games to train Muse, but devs can opt out if they choose.

There's still a lot of unknowns about Muse's practical applications, at least in the sense how a gamer could utilize it. In a recent interview with Dwarkesh Patel, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella suggests that content created with Muse could mesh well with user-created mods, and as someone who grew up playing Bethesda games on PC, this immediately piqued my interest.

Lost Soul Aside has had its PC system requirements released, where you'll need an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti graphics card to run the game on its Ultra Ray Tracing graphics preset.

In the PC system requirements now on Steam, Lost Soul Aside will need 16GB and 80GB of SSD at a bare minimum with the CPU requirement for the Minimum preset falling into the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel Core i5-10400 processors. On the GPU side, you'll need at a minimum, the GeForce GTX 1060 or Radeon RX 5500 XT.

The recommended PC system requirements require the same CPU at a minimum, but the GPU requirements increase up to the GeForce RTX 2060 or Radeon RX 5700 XT, while the High preset ups the CPU requirements to the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 X or Intel Core i7-11700, while the GPU requirements are far higher: GeForce RTX 3070 or Radeon RX 6800 XT.

Ubisoft has officially confirmed that the Assassin's Creed Shadows leaks are indeed happening, and warns players to avoid any footage or details about the game.

French games-maker Ubisoft just can't catch a break. Assassin's Creed Shadows has been mired in controversy and suffered a delay outside of the critical holiday season. Now copies of the game have apparently gone out ahead of its March release and a bunch of key info and details have been leaked.

Ubisoft has responded on social channels with a statement that essentially says any footage isn't finalized--meaning the actual game won't exactly look or play like the gameplay shown in any leaks.

Grand Theft Auto 6 drops later this year, with a store in Malaysia is up for pre-order at a store in Malaysia.

Rockstar Games haven't unleashed pre-orders for GTA 6 just yet, but Gamers Hideout in Malaysia has a pre-order option for Grand Theft Auto 6 on their website, as well as gamers having the ability of walking into their stores and putting down a deposit on what will eventually be the biggest game of all time.

We even have some gamers noticing that the store has fake boxes of GTA 6 on their shelves, with gamers pre-ordering the game with a deposit of RM14.90 (which works out to around $3 USD or so). If you live in Malaysia and want to be one of the first in the country to secure a copy of GTA 6... well, now you know where to go.

A former Nintendo of America sales worker guesses that the Switch 2 could be out sometime in June.

The Switch 2 console is coming in 2025, but Nintendo has yet to announce a release date for the system. One former Nintendo employee has an idea that the Switch successor could release mid-June.

The logic is that Nintendo could capture the excitement of an entire summer season and rack up sales when school is out. Retailers could also add pack-in accessories to drive up sales throughout the months leading to the holidays.

Insider Jeff Grubb has predicted a God of War remaster will be announced next month in celebration of the series anniversary.

This isn't the first time we have heard rumblings of a God of War remaster, as it was only recently Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson responded to previous rumors by saying he was hearing the new God of War game takes Kratos back to Greece, and not to Egypt, which is what previous rumors were indicating. Henderson said this information wasn't concrete and that he wasn't sure if the setting of Greece would imply a remaster of an earlier God of War title, or a franchise reboot.

Now, Grubb has hinted that the God of War remaster announcement will be close to the 20th anniversary of the God of War franchise, which is March 22. The 20th anniversary marks the release of the first game back in 2005, and considering the importance the God of War franchise is to Sony, it's certainly possible we will see some form of celebration in one way or another.

The latest issue of EDGE Magazine included a feature on DOOM: The Dark Ages. Featuring discussions with ID Software's studio director, Marty Stratton, and Creative Director Hugo Martin, the piece provided some detailed new insights into the gameplay & inspiration behind the highly anticipated title.

The column explored how the gameplay is "quite literally, more grounded."The Doomslayer will no longer sport a double jump, and instead, the prequel opts for a bulkier, tank-like approach to its main character. The developers also reference Batman Year One and The Dark Knight comics as influences for their approach to the Doomslayer this time around, with gameplay catered more closely toward brute-like power.

The shield-saw, in Captain America-like fashion, will complement this playstyle - allowing players to launch it sharply and swiftly with a squeeze of the left bumper. It'll also react differently in combat depending on whether it hits flesh, armor, or energy-based surfaces. Similar to Kratos's Leviathan axe in the recent God of War games, the shield will also provide ways to interact with the environment-for example, dislodging chains to discover hidden areas or jamming the shield into machinery to activate openings.

Evidence of a new Xbox controller has resurfaced, with leaker eXtas1s analyzing new entries found in Xbox Cloud Gaming files. While the controller was first detailed in Microsoft's 2023 court leaks, the latest findings suggest it is still in development.

The leak was first uncovered by dataminer BetX Cloud, who uncovered new codenames in the XCloud source code. These findings were then reported by eXtas1s, who posted the details on X and later provided a full breakdown in a YouTube video. The codenames include Sebile, a controller that was first referenced in the 2023 Activision-Blizzard trial, and Actium, a codename that has previously been linked to a next-generation controller - possibly an Elite model or a modular split controller.

In his long-form video explainer, eXtas1s highlights that the controllers represent an entirely new system of controllers. While he clarifies that no release date is confirmed, he speculates that they could be compatible with the next-generation Xbox and might even launch before the new console generation.

If you miss the days of pure co-op experiences, mark your calendars for the release of Split Fiction, the new title by EA and Hazelight Studios.

For those who don't know, Hazelight Studios are the developers of successful titles such as It Takes Two and A Way Out, two titles that are pure co-op experiences. During PlayStation's recent State of Play, we got a look at the newest title from Hazelight Studios, Split Fiction, which will take players on a journey about friendship through Mio and Zoe as they encounter strange gravity-defying situations. Split Fiction will be launching on March 6 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on Steam, Epic Games Store, and the EA App for $49.99.

Since Split Fiction is co-op focussed, it will be arriving with the Friend's Pass, which means anyone who owns a copy of Split Fiction can invite a friend to play the entire game with them for free, even if they don't own a copy. Here's how it works. One person needs to own a copy of Split Fiction, and the friend needs to install Friend's Pass on their chosen platform (cross-platform play is enabled). The owner of the game then sends the friend an invite to play Split Fiction and bam, both players are enjoying the co-op adventure.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was released late last year - a first-person adventure that wowed fans and critics alike with its fantastic take on the iconic cinematic hero. The first-party Xbox Game Studios title from Machine Games and Bethesda was built using a custom version of id Software's id Tech engine called Motor. On PC, the game shipped with a stunning Full Ray Tracing or Path Tracing mode - making it one of the best-looking PC games currently available.

Late last week, the game received its highly anticipated Update 3, which not only fixes a long list of outstanding bugs and minor issues but also adds full DLSS 4 support. This includes the new transformer-based AI model for Super Resolution and Ray Reconstruction, dramatically improving the game's image quality when running Full Ray Tracing. It also adds Multi Frame Generation support for GeForce RTX 50 Series owners.

There's great news for AMD Radeon and Intel Arc GPU owners, too. Update 3 also adds FSR 3.1 Super Resolution and Frame Generation and Intel XeSS 1.4 upscaling support. Interestingly, Intel XeSS 2 with Frame Generation isn't included.

Physical copies of Assassin's Creed Shadows have surfaced early, with users sharing screenshots and gameplay footage online. Multiple listings for the game - set to release on March 20 - have appeared on Facebook Marketplace, though the source of the leaked copies remains unknown.

X user @DannyStevens was among the first to share images of the unreleased title, posting photos of the box art and PS5 installation screen. Ubisoft has been quick to issue copyright strikes against leaked footage, but once it's out there, the risk of widespread spoilers and early gameplay circulation remains.

The users claim to have acquired the copies on Facebook Marketplace. Listings have also appeared on Mercari, where copies were sold for $100 USD. While such listings included photos of installation screens and packaging, it's important to note that there's a significant risk of scams associated with fake copies. We advise users to report any suspicious listings to the respective platform.

As reported in an exclusive by The Direct, Insomniac Games' voice actor Yuri Lowenthal attended MultiCon, an LA wildlife recovery benefit. During his interview with Russ Milheim, he touched on Peter Parker's role in Spider-Man 3, confirming that despite stepping into temporary retirement at the end of Spider-Man 2, Peter will still play a very active role in the next game.

Lowenthal's comments are one of the first real details we've received regarding Spider-Man 3. The ending of the second game left Peter's future somewhat ambiguous, with the character stepping away from his Spider-Man duties to attend to his personal life and focus on the Emily-May Foundation. With Miles Morales taking the mantle as the sole protector of New York, the ending raised questions as to how the protagonist's duties will be handled in the next entry.

It's speculated that Spider-Man 3 will split playable roles between 3 main characters. The post-credits scene of Spider-Man 2 introduced Cindy Moon, another spider-hero known as 'Silk' in the comics. Regardless of whether she's playable, the tease points towards a prominent role for the character in Spider-Man 3, and it marks one of the first appearances of Silk in mainstream Marvel media. The ending to Spider-Man 2 also points to the Green Goblin playing a pivotal role as the villain of Spider-Man 3. However, beyond the comments from Lowenthal, very little confirmed info is available for the highly anticipated title.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is going to be far more than just a video game, with developer Rockstar working on Project ROME (Rockstar Online Modding Engine) that will see GTA 6 turned into the next big metaverse.

In a post on X by "GTA 6 Countdown" that links to multiple reports from the last couple of months, former FiveM staffers claim that Project ROME has been internally in development before the company acquired Cfx in 2023, replacing FiveM inside of GTA 5. Not just that, but Rockstar is reportedly in contact with some of the biggest Roblox and Fortnite content creators about creating custom experiences inside of GTA 6.

The post adds articles that cover some of the topics, with a question about FiveM being dead, and "long live ROME" to which the post explains: "Last year, GTA Focal spoke with ex-FiveM staffers who claimed a FiveM killer was being made internally at Rockstar before the company bought Cfx.re. Since then, the project has reportedly been brought back from the dead and is called ROME (Rockstar Online Modding Engine). In the summer of 2024, Rockstar had put a new public_mission_creator file inside of a GTA Online update".

Released as part of the season 2 update for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the single-lane' Bullet' map is one of the new additions that's grabbing attention. Featuring 6v6 battles packed into a fast-moving bullet train, the map has quickly made a name for its distinctive design and the chaotic battles spawning from its absurd layout.

From a level design perspective, the map has garnered feedback ranging from it being the best thing ever, to being called 'one of the worst designed maps' players have ever seen. After all, having 12-player gameplay across a single corridor is certainly bound to lead to some interesting gameplay outcomes.

However, a fun aspect of the map is its parallels to famous train sequences from Hollywood films. With battles from within first-class cabins to the fast-moving exterior, the experience is very much like something out of an action movie. Some fans have drawn comparisons to Bond films, while others cited the train scene from The Wolverine (2013) as one of the immediate examples. But perhaps the most fitting comparison is Bullet Train (2022), starring Brad Pitt.

In a recent developer livestream, the team behind the ambitious Skyblivion project shared some promising updates regarding the mod's completion.

For those unfamiliar with the project, Skyblivion is a fan-made remake of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion built within Skyrim's engine. It has been in development for over 11 years, and aims to modernize the classic RPG with improved visuals, mechanics, and world design while staying faithful to the original experience.

Throughout the stream, the developers confirmed that Skyblivion is still on track for a 2025 release. While unable to commit to a specific date, they were able to share that several major cities, including Cheydinhal, are fully completed with expanded environments to boot. Bug fixes, optimization, and balancing take on key priority, along with additional tasks such as finalizing enemy scaling, quest testing, and completing the remaining cities.

BioWare veteran Mark Darrah has called out gamers for being "cruel" if they are excited about layoffs at development studios, which has sparked quite a rebuttal by some members of the community.

Darrah, a BioWare veteran and consultant on the recent Dragon Age: Veilguard, which was renowned as an industry flop, posted the video "Your $70 Doesn't Buy You Cruelty," where he explains that gamers should have some more empathy for the humans working at development studios as gamers aren't aware of the logistics behind the choices made that result in aspects of the game the gamers don't enjoy.

Moreover, Darrah says that gamers shouldn't be directing their complaints to any studio employee who isn't top leadership, as top leadership is paid to bear the responsibility of being a lightning rod for community feedback. The BioWare veteran is now facing immense pushback from gamers who pointed out Darrah doesn't specify or define "cruelty," with one of the only examples being given by Darrah being a gamer getting angry at a voice actor because they didn't like the way an in-game character delivered a line.