Gaming - Page 183

Avowed has been released, and while the single-player semi-open-world game has received mixed opinions, the game we see today wasn't the original intention of the developers.

It was revealed by Carrie Patel, the game director for Avowed, in a recent interview with Bloomberg that Avowed actually endured a reboot in 2021 that pivoted the title away from its original concept of being a cross between Destiny and Skyrim where players could adventure together in a massive fantasy world. However, that same year, Microsoft purchased the developers of Avowed, Obsidian Entertainment, and it was decided the game's multiplayer component would be cut from the project.

Additionally, the leadership team was replaced, and Patel was tasked with bringing up to speed a new team and a complete reevaluation of the creative direction. More pivotal decisions were mad,e such as the switch from an open-world model to a "zone-based" model, which was a take on 2019's The Outer Worlds. The reason behind this change was to enable the development team to create distinct and dense regions over the Skyrim model where players could walk for hours and hours in an open-world environment.

It appears Tony Hawk Pro Skater fans are finally going to be getting the remaster they have been waiting for - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4.

Over the last few days, we have had some small tidbits of news that indicate a new remaster is about to be released, with the hype beginning after professional skater Tyshawn Jones revealed during an interview that he was going to be in a new Tony Hawk remaster that was "about to be released". This teaser was followed by fans discovering a mysterious date within the Black Ops 6 map Grind that indicated an announcement was scheduled for March 3, 2025.

Now, Activision has added a countdown timer to the Tony Hawk website, which coincides with the date that was discovered within Black Ops 6. So, what could this mean? Given the comments from Jones, it appears Activision has been secretly working on a new remaster of a Tony Hawk game, presumably Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4.

Assassin's Creed Shadows has already received its own parody game that will launch alongside Ubisoft's latest installment in the Assassin's Creed franchise on March 20.

Introducing Yasuke Simulator, a clear parody title of the upcoming Assassin's Creed Shadows, where players will assume the role of Yasuke, an African samurai in the year 1579 who has traveled to Japan alongside a Jesuit missionary. The Steam listing for the title states the game has been made using AI, and it appears the entire creation of the game is designed to be a jab at Ubisoft, as the name for the developer/publisher is "HistoryAccurateDevelopers".

As you are already probably imagining, Yasuke Simulator won't be a very good game at all, it has purely been made as a joke at the expense of Ubisoft, who previously stated that Assassin's Creed Shadows was "historically accurate." However, it was later discovered that wasn't the case at all, and the part of history the game focuses on is at most debatable among historians.

A former Sony boss has revealed an insight into the company's perspective on bringing PlayStation-exclusive titles over to PC, and it essentially confirms what every PC gamer has been thinking this whole time.

Up until just a few years ago, if someone suggested that Sony would bring PlayStation-exclusive titles over to PC, that person would have been called stupid. However, that has now become the norm, with titles such as the God of War franchise, Spider-Man, Horizon series, and more heading over to PC after timed exclusivity on PlayStation. So, what has changed? The market as a whole has shifted away from gatekeeping titles to specific platforms, and while there's a myriad of reasons contributing to the general shift, one of the main reasons is simply... money (I can picture the shock on your face).

Former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida discussed in a recent interview with Sacred Symbols+ Sony releasing first-party titles on PC and how it benefits PlayStation as a whole. Yoshida said, "Releasing on PC does many things: it reaches a new audience who do not own consoles--especially in regions where consoles are not as popular." Adding, "The idea is that those people may become fans of a particular franchise, and when a new game in that series comes out, they may be convinced to purchase a PlayStation."

It was only a few days ago that a professional skater who has been previously featured in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater remasters teased that he's in a new project "that's about to come out". Now a mysterious date has surfaced.

The date for what appears to be a new Tony Hawk-related game was discovered within the Call of Duty map Grind that has returned in Black Ops 6 Season 2 Reloaded. Players noticed a new addition to the map that first appeared in 2012's Black Ops 2 when they entered the shop area. On a large sign located on the back wall there's the numbers "03.04.25" written in the Tony Hawk font. The dead giveaway is the numbers are featured alongside the iconic Tony Hawk logo from Pro Skater.

This teaser comes only days after professional skater Tyshawn Jones let slip during an interview on The Breakfast Club that he was going to be in a new Tony Hawk game that's "about to come out". Jones also stated this new Tony Hawk game was a "remaster," which has led fans to believe Activision has been quietly working on the remaster of Pro Skater 3 and 4, which would be titled Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 - if it follows the same naming scheme as the previously remastered titles 2 + 3.

New details have been leaked for the upcoming single-player Black Panther game in development by Cliffhanger Games, and according to the details, players will be able to choose the next protector of Wakanda.

The new details are leaked, which means you should definitely take them with a healthy amount of skepticism, as nothing has been officially confirmed by the developer. With that being said, let's get into it. The new details come from TheGhostofHope, and according to the leaker, Cliffhanger Games will let players pick the Black Panther, with multiple characters such as T'Challa, M'Baku, Azari, Shuri, and even Killmonger being payable. Additionally, each of the characters will have a unique playstyle, weapons, armor, and gadgets, with the idea that they will feel distinct from each other.

The leaker says the developers have selected an over-the-shoulder camera perspective for the title, and the combat will be a mixture of traditional African martial arts with superhuman abilities and Wakandan tech. Moreover, the world is supposedly expansive, taking on an open-world setting where players can explore large cities, savannas, and regions. Notably, the game is also meant to feature a range of cultures, and the single-player story will react to player decisions that will lead to unique experiences.

Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls VI in 2018, and since then, details about the title have been scarce, but now an insider has revealed some new information.

Before we get into the details, it should be noted that Bethesda has confirmed none of the following, and it should definitely be taken with a healthy amount of skepticism. With that being said, let's get into it. Known insider Extas1s has posted a new video where he details several aspects of The Elder Scrolls 6, saying the game will be much more immersive than previous Elder Scrolls titles and will take place in the region of Tamriel known as Hammerfall.

This isn't the first time Hammerfell has been predicted as the location for The Elder Scrolls 6, as I reported back in July 2024 that a Bethesda employee-owned Pinterest account was saving images that appeared to be inspiration for Hammerfell. Extas1s says the game will be taking place in Hammerfell and also High Rock, and there will be the inclusion of naval battles and shipbuilding. The building of the ships will be inspired by Starfield, and players will have explorable islands off the coast of the main location with marine life/underwater exploration.

Skating fans will be glad to know there is another Tony Hawk's Pro Skater remaster currently in the works, according to professional skateboarder Tyshawn Jones, who recently teased the existence of the remaster during an interview on The Breakfast Club.

Notably, Activision hasn't confirmed anything regarding a new Tony Hawk remaster, but 2020's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 was a commercial success, selling millions of copies. Vicarious, the development team behind the remaster of the first two Pro Skater games, was praised for their efforts with 1 + 2, but on January 22, 2021, the team was merged with Blizzard Entertainment. Activision then went to look for a new studio to handle the remasters of Pro Skater 3 and 4, but, unfortunately, found no one that was as skilled as the Vicarious team, and as a result the remasters were dropped.

But that doesn't seem to be the case, or at least according to Tyshawn Jones, who appeared to let slip the news about a new "remaster" he is featured in. "I'm in a Tony Hawk coming out so that's cool," he said. "They got a new one they remastering so that's about to come out. I was in the last one." Adding more credence to more Tony Hawk games being released was Tony Hawk himself, who said in September 2024, "I wish I could tell you more. But I can tell you that I've been talking to Activision again which is insanely exciting. We're working on something."

Microsoft hopes to use its new AI technology to preserve older games, potentially future-proofing backwards compatibility.

Microsoft is all-in on artificial intelligence, and Xbox has briefly discussed its AI plans. First, Xbox signed a multi-year deal with Inworld to use its generative AI for narrative/quest design in games. Now, Microsoft has announced Muse, its own tech that is able to generate gameplay sequences. Muse was trained using real-world inputs from players in Ninja Theory's Bleeding Edge game.

The implications for Muse are unclear, and Microsoft tells developers they don't have to use generative AI for their games (Ninja Theory has already opted out, for instance). The announcement page, blog post, and accompanying YouTube video with Phil Spencer only go so far. What can we expect Muse to be used for?

Microsoft's new generative AI toolset, Muse, was trained using real-world player inputs from an Xbox game, the company today announced.

Remember when Xbox announced its generative AI plans? These strategies had been nebulous for some time, but the mystery has been lifted with a research update that gives a better idea of what Microsoft is up to. At the time, Xbox president Sarah Bond said that gaming AI would be focused on three areas:

Xbox's AI tech is called Muse, and it was actually trained using data from Ninja Theory's failed live game Bleeding Edge. Microsoft Research supplied the AI team with key player data. According to Nature, Microsoft used anonymized captures from 500,000 play sesssions.

Following heavy layoffs in the games industry, including its own video games division, Microsoft today made a bunch of announcements regarding its generative AI technology that will be used for games development.

Today Microsoft revealed Muse, its new generative AI tech, and talked more about its plans for AI in games. The company is going full steam ahead on a "real-time playable AI model trained on other first-party games," and its experimental Muse technology is able to create generated instances of gameplay at low-level resolution.

Using AI poses a potential ethical dilemma in the creative space, especially with so many fellow developers having been laid off. In a blog post, Microsoft says that first-party devs won't be made to use AI tech.

NVIDIA's RTX 50 series has officially dropped support for 32-bit CUDA applications, including 32-bit PhysX. As a result, older games like Batman: Arkham Asylum, Borderlands 2, and Assassin's Creed: Black Flag - which relied on GPU-accelerated PhysX - will now shift physics calculations to the CPU, leading to significant performance drops on RTX 5000 series GPUs.

The issues were first reported by users on the NVIDIA forums, who highlighted issues with enabling PhysX in Borderlands 2. NVIDIA support responded by stating:

With NVIDIA's PhysX officially dead, owners of the RTX 5000 series can expect to see significant slowdowns in games that rely on GPU-accelerated PhysX. A Reddit user reported performance as low as 60fps in Borderlands 2, with a 9800X3D and RTX 5090. Some of the most popular titles that are affected by this change include:

Spider-Man 2 for PC launched roughly three weeks ago to mixed reviews from fans due to its performance issues. However, one of the new title's saving graces is mod support, and the community has been quick to implement its own string of fixes, features, and reworks.

Aside from the required mod manager, the most downloaded mod on the Spider-Man 2 Nexus is 'Reworked MJ's Face'. The mod does exactly what you'd expect - it changes Mary Jane's face model in-game. A common complaint during the game's PS5 launch was that MJ looked older, and just different from the original game's appearance. While many liked the new look, others weren't a fan of the change - a preference that's clearly echoed from the download figures for the PC version's mods.

Speaking of original face models, you can also download a mod that adds back the original Peter Parker face, which John Bubniak modeled for the 2017 release before it was updated in Spider-Man: Remastered (2022). You'll also find improved versions of the fan-favorite Raimi suits, and a more refined version of Andrew Garfield's suit from The Amazing Spiderman: 2. Among various gameplay tweaks, quality-of-life changes, and graphics improvements.

PlayStation 6 coming out in 2028 sounds about right, former Sony Computer Entertainment worldwide studios president Shuhei Yoshida reckons.

The current console generation is entering its fifth year amid a games industry bloodbath. The market is laying off thousands of workers in droves, and cost-cutting has forced yet another unprecedented era for the interactive entertainment industry. Current events could disrupt the status quo, including the pivotal point where Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft release new refreshed hardware.

Despite what's going on in the world, Sony could deliver the PlayStation 6 sometime in 2028. At least that's the thought of Shuhei Yoshida, who led PlayStation's worldwide studios division for 11 years during the mega-popular PS4 gen.

My Nintendo Gold Points is being discontinued, Nintendo today announced.

Nintendo is shutting down its popular rewards program ahead of the Switch 2's launch. Nintendo will stop offering My Nintendo Gold Points starting March 24, 2025, and after this time, users will no longer earn Gold Points for digital and physical game purchases. All Gold Points that had been previously earned will still be available and redeemable for 12 months after they were issues, Nintendo promises.

Pre-orders made before the cutoff date will also net Gold Points: "Gold Points will be awarded if you place another pre-order by 9:30PM PDT on March 24, 2025. However, Gold Points will not be awarded if the new pre-order is placed after that." Nintendo's Platinum Points aren't going anywhere, though. These points are used for freebies like physical items and extras for Switch Online users. "Yes. You will still be able to earn Platinum Points, even after March 24, 2025."

Former Xbox VP Mike Ybarra publicly comments about Microsoft's current multi-platform gaming strategy, and the possibility of the company exiting the hardware market.

Trends indicate that the current Xbox hardware market is saturated. HW sales aren't growing--console and accessories revenue was down to its second holiday in the Xbox Series generation. Microsoft is breaking exclusivity on its games to grow laterally, and the general consensus is that this is the early stages of hardware being phased out over at Microsoft.

Whatever the case may be--we don't have access to Xbox's accounting data--Xbox management has confirmed another console is on the way. But these hypothetical situations about Microsoft dropping hardware have caught the attention of former key execs in the games industry, namely Mike Ybarra, who was VP of Xbox for a time and spent multiple years with the Xbox division.

UPDATE:Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, who tracks the Chinese games market, explained that the Marvel Rivals situation is a result of a re-evaluation of NetEase's core business.

NetEase, who makes billions of dollars from live service games every year, has laid off the developers of the popular new shooter Marvel Rivals.

From all accounts, the new Overwatch contender Marvel Rivals is a mega hit. The game has seen high playercounts on all platforms (10 million players in 72 hours), routinely hitting among the top-earning games on various storefronts. Rivals was so successful that it reportedly made over $130 million in its first month of availability. To put that into perspective, the entire Grand Theft Auto franchise made $175 million in 3 months.

Sony announced the Days Gone remaster, and while already taking some flack for its seemingly lackluster graphical improvements, players have now realized only some players will be able to upgrade for $10, while others will have to pay $49.99.

The new problem with Days Gone Remastered was spotted by fans and posted on the r/PlayStationPlus subreddit, where it states within the Days Gone Remastered's fine print that "Game redemptions via PlayStation Plus are not eligible for upgrade," meaning PlayStation Plus players will have to pay the full $49.99 for access to Days Gone Remastered at it's discounted price, compared to digital or disc copy owners that only have to pay $10.

It appears that the general sentiment in the subreddit, or at least on that post, is that many players would be happy to pay $10 for the remastered version of the game but won't pay the full $49.99 if the game is already sitting in their library thanks to PS Plus. Bend Studios, the developer of Days Gone Remastered, announced the remastered version of the game will be released on April 25, 2025, and that the new version has been built for PS5 and supports Tempest 3D Audio, VRR, DualSense's haptic feed, and adaptive triggers. The remaster comes with improved framerate and graphics, with the latter currently up for debate.

Bethesda has taken to its social channels to share an exclusive opportunity with Elder Scrolls fans who wish to become immortalized in the upcoming Elder Scrolls 6.

Bethesda has partnered with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to hold a silent auction where the winning bidder will work with the Bethesda Game Studios development team to create a character that will appear as an NPC within The Elder Scrolls VI. The auction listing reads, "This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity allows you to immortalize yourself in one of the most highly anticipated video games of all time, The Elder Scrolls VI."

The auction is being held on the Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic website, and at the time of writing, the minimum bid is $10,450. For those who don't know, The Elder Scrolls 6 was initially announced at E3 2018 where a brief teaser for the highly anticipated sequel was displayed. Since then, there's hardly been any information regarding the game besides brief mentions of it, and Bethesda game director Todd Howard, stating that The Elder Scrolls 6 will be Bethesda's next release.

Rockstar is reportedly in talks with top Fortnite, Roblox and GTA creators about turning the next online mode for GTA into a creator platform.

The news comes from Digiday, which reports that Rockstar is talking to creators about developing a platform for custom experiences within the GTA 6. At the moment, it's unknown if the next online mode for GTA will be called GTA 6 Online or simply GTA Online and if the current online experience will be rebranded to a legacy moniker such as GTA V Online or GTA Online Legacy.

Regardless of the name change, Rockstar is seemingly preparing to make the next online experience customizable by players through FiveM, a popular game modification that enables players to host and join multiplayer servers where hundreds of users can play simultaneously. The information comes from three industry insiders with knowledge of the Rockstar meetings that required anonymity to protect business relationships.