Gaming - Page 188

It wasn't long ago that Microsoft hosted its Xbox Developer Direct, where it showcased a collection of new titles, and now has news on when the next Xbox event is scheduled.

According to a recent article by IGN, the publication's "IGN Fan Fest" will kick off with an Xbox Showcase on February 24, and while details about what the event will entail, we do have a list of the developers that will have their titles featured. Notably, during one of last year's Xbox Showcases, the following titles were unveiled: World Of Warcraft: The War Within, Doom: The Dark Ages, South of Midnight, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Fragpunk, and Fable.

What is confirmed for the event is developer Playstack stating its appearance the event has to do with a new collaboration announcement for the popular title Balatro. From this teaser we can anticipate the announcement will include new cards that are inspired by a range of indie and AAA games. As for what else the event will unveil, we can only speculate. It's likely, given Xbox's position to push onto other platforms, that some of the titles could have cross-platform announcements.

The actor who played the iconic role of Michael in Grand Theft Auto V has given a bold prediction as to what players will be in store for in Grand Theft Auto VI.

Ned Luke, the actor who played Michael in Grand Theft Auto V, has sat down for an interview where he was challenged to remember some of his lines from GTA 5, which was released in 2013. During the interview, Luke got onto the topic of Grand Theft Auto 6, where he said he's confident the game is going to be "fantastic" and that Rockstar Games is the studio that has that X factor, as no one really knows what to expect from them. But for this X-factor reason, people are excited to see what they are making.

More specifically, Luke says that he's been telling people to "be patient" as it's "going to be the worth the wait". Adding, "From what I've seen, it's going to be amazing. They're going to blow our [GTA V] numbers away." For those that don't know what Luke is referencing in that last statement, Grand Theft Auto 5 generated an astonishing $800 million in its first 24 hours when it released in 2013. As for Grand Theft Auto 6, Luke expects that number to be reached and exceeded, landing somewhere around $1.3 billion in its first 24 hours.

If Rockstar Games is still planning on releasing Grand Theft Auto 6 in 2025, then the team is probably squashing as many bugs as possible right now--a massive undertaking for any studio.

There's no game like a GTA game. This has been proven true by GTA V's megaton sales figures of 200 million lifetime units so far, and GTA VI is expected to be so powerful that it'll uplift the entire video games industry. Now we have some interesting commentary from someone who was involved in GTA V's development and knows how Rockstar operates behind the scenes, and he's speculating that Rockstar is currently in the rampant bug-squashing phase of a playable GTA 6 build.

Here's what former Rockstar Games animator Mike York said in a recent interview with Australian video games personality Kiwi Talkz:

EA is developing the next Battlefield game specifically around direct player feedback, and the new-and-improved destruction physics will be among the first things that players can test out.

Today, EA announced Battlefield Labs, a massive new community-driven playtesting program specifically for the Battlefield franchise. It's the largest-ever undertaking from EA in regards to closed beta testing, and everyone will have to sign an NDA. Those who are selected can try out various pieces and modes of the game, including new weapons, maps, and the explosive real-time carnage that DICE is known for.

In a big update post, Battlefield Studios says that combat and physics will be tested first. Snippets of new gameplay show some pretty impressive effects and it's an exciting time to be a Battlefield fan.

Sony's next-generation PlayStation 6 console won't be completely discless according to former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden, as Sony has a huge global market that still wants physical games.

In a new interview with KiwiTalks, Layden talked about the PS6 saying that he doesn't think the company can get away with releasing its next-gen PlayStation 6 console in discless form. He said that Microsoft has had success with Xbox and moving discless in particular countries like the United States, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, where gamers have internet connections that allow for digital games... but Sony has a huge global market that won't gel well with discless PS6 gaming.

Layden said: "actually, I don't think Sony can get away with it now. I think, you know, Xbox has had more success in pursuing that strategy, but Xbox is really most successful in their business... in a clutch of countries. US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa".

EA is connecting fans directly to game developers to ensure its next Battlefield game isn't a flop.

The live service Battlefield 2042 proved to be a big miscalculation on EA's part, but the publisher has been working on an overhaul to its billion-dollar shooter for quite some time. Announced today as Battlefield Labs, EA's new community portal will allow gamers to test out different iterations of new Battlefield content and give feedback directly to the teams that are making the games.

The new program is called Battlefield Labs (sign up here), and it's being called "the most ambitious community testing program in franchise history." Battlefield Studios was also established and there's four studios under the banner: DICE, Ripple Effect (formerly DICE LA), EA Motive, and Criterion. Vince Zampella is now Head of Battlefield.

The new SuperStation One is described as the "world's first affordable FPGA gaming console. " It's a faithful recreation of the original PlayStation console and hardware from the 1990s. FPGA, or Field-Programmable Gate Array hardware, is not emulation but technology that lets modders and designers recreate classic hardware with improved accuracy and the ability to run games natively.

Although the SuperStation One lacks a CD-ROM drive and doesn't ship with any copyrighted material, games, or software, users can load "backups" of PS1 games and ROMs via the microSD slot or USB drive. The SuperDock add-on supports traditional PlayStation discs. The new "console" is similar to the Analogue 3D hardware we reported on last year, another emulation-free FPGA device capable of playing Nintendo 64 games.

The SuperStation One supports modern displays with up to 1563p or 1440p output over HDMI and classic CRT TVs via composite, RCA, and component connection. It also has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for networking and controller support, Ethernet, three USB Type-A ports, and traditional PlayStation Memory Card and controller ports.

Intel has taken to social media to announce a new milestone achievement for its XeSS AI upscaling technology: over 150 games now include the option to turn it on. Intel Xe Super Sampling is the company's answer to NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR, taking an AI approach on Arc graphics hardware similar to DLSS for GeForce RTX.

As we saw in our review of the new Intel Arc B580 GPU, the first second-gen Battlemage desktop card to launch, XeSS was available in most games in our benchmark suite. Some recent titles that have added support for XeSS 2 include STALKER 2, F1 24, and Marvel Rivals. Intel XeSS 2, the latest version, also includes Frame Generation and Xe Low Latency for Arc owners.

XeSS isn't limited to desktop GPUs, as mobile Intel chips with integrated Arc graphics can also enable the technology to boost performance.

Elden Ring: Nightreign will incorporate some roguelike elements, but the director of the game has reassured fans the studio simply isn't "chasing a trend" -- there are reasons for the adjustments of in-game mechanics and gameplay.

In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Elden Ring: Nightreign game director Junya Ishizaki touched on how the latest game from FromSoftware will be different from the other titles the studio has produced. For those that don't know, Nightreign is a multiplayer-focussed title that players will be able to enjoy solo or in a group of three. The title will be "session-based," meaning players will hop in and do a "run" through enemy bosses, collect loot, and rinse and repeat.

At face value this sounds a lot like a roguelike experience, which is extremely popular with titles such as Hades and Deadcells. However, this isn't the case with Nightreign. According to Ishizaki, Nightreign has implemented some roguelike elements but with the goal of condensing down the RPG elements, the exploration, character building and leveling -- "We wanted that to feel like it was all coming together and culminating in a boss fight but in a more concentrated form."

The official artbook for Assassin's Creed Shadows has leaked, revealing character backstories, in-game weapons, locations, and more.

Over the weekend, Assassin's Creed Shadows was hit with a leak that contains spoilers for the upcoming game scheduled to release on March 20. The leak consisted of more than 200 images of the title's official artbook called "The Art of Assassin's Creed". The artbook was leaked onto a hentai forum, and the images definitely contain spoilers for in-game content as they reveal pivotal character backstories, weapons, locations, settings, and more. It should be noted the below images aren't spoiler free -- view with caution!

As for specifics, the concept art of the major cities such as Kyoto and Osaka have been revealed, along with character designs for Hattori Hanzo, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Momochi Sandayu. Additionally, we have looks at Portuguese Templars that are named Nuno Caro and Duarte de Melo. Furthermore, other key historical in-game figures include Kamiizumi Nobutsuna, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, Lady Nene, and Lady Oichi.

NVIDIA's cloud gaming service GeForce NOW exited Beta in February 2020, and so this month, it's celebrating its fifth anniversary as a game changer for how PC gamers access their libraries. GeForce NOW has only grown from strength to strength in recent years, with subscribers able to access their PC game library - with over 2,000 titles supported.

GeForce NOW is widely considered the best cloud gaming platform currently available. It offers up to GeForce RTX 4080 levels of performance in 4K with DLSS, ray-tracing, and even NVIDIA G-SYNC. NVIDIA notes that 17 titles will hit the service in February, with "a major game release" set to debut each week.

These major games will be the highly anticipated Kingdom Come: Deliverance II from Warhorse Studios, Avowed from Obsidian, and Sid Meier's Civilization VII from 2K. Here's the complete list of games that will be added to the GeForce NOW this month.

Never mind Doom, can Grand Theft Auto run on a smartwatch? Most certainly, as an intrepid denizen of Reddit has just proved.

This feat was pulled off with a Galaxy Watch 5, albeit the device could only host an old GTA game (well, what did you expect?) namely Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (released way back in 2002).

How was this achieved? As TechRadar spotted, by installing a PSP emulator on the smartwatch, the Redditor (ZenonDesingk) was playing GTA: Vice City and the likes of God of War, or Need for Speed: Most Wanted on the device.

The Grand Theft Auto 6 community was set alight after an online store posted a release date for the highly anticipated game, followed by it being promptly removed, adding to the mystery of whether it was credible.

The online retailer is a Spanish store called XUruguay, which listed the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 on September 17, 2025. This date coincided with Rockstar Games' official release window for the title "Fall 2025," leading fans to speculate if the date could be true. Further validity was added to the conversation when fans realized the September 17 date was the same as the release of Grand Theft Auto 5. Then, illusive mystery flavored the conversation when the store randomly removed the date.

What gave more speculatory credibility to the date was a screenshot that stated the store obtained the date directly from PlayStation, but now the store has responded with its own statement about the recent fiasco it's created. According to XUruguay, the date was simply a placeholder as the store simply Googled "GTA release date and the results was (9/17) so we said ok lets start the preorder that day." The store goes on to apologize to the gaming community for the mistake and admits it didn't receive any official information about the release date of the game.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer recently stated during an interview that he can't rule out Starfield releasing on multiple platforms.

Spencer responded to a direct question about the title in a recent interview on Save State Plus with Destin Lagarie, who asked the Microsoft gaming head if he could confirm if Starfield will remain an exclusive Xbox/PC title. Spencer replied with, "No," and went on to reiterate a sentiment that has long been held by himself and Xbox as a whole.

Spencer goes on to explain that Xbox's strategy is to allow for Xbox games to be available wherever they can be, especially if that platform is able to drive more business for the company. The Microsoft Gaming CEO does state that Game Pass will still remain an important component of the Xbox ecosystem.

With the GeForce RTX 50 Series, NVIDIA is introducing a suite of groundbreaking new RTX Neural Rendering technologies designed to enhance in-game ray-traced visuals and performance. RTX Mega Geometry is one of these new bits of technology, and it has arrived in Alan Wake 2 - boosting the game's Path Tracing and Ray Tracing performance for all GeForce RTX gamers.

RTX Mega Geometry accelerates rendering complex, highly detailed scenes with many ray tracing effects enabled. According to NVIDIA, "RTX Mega Geometry accelerates BVH building, making it possible to ray trace up to 100x more triangles than today's standard." What this means for gamers is that path tracing performance is improved with RTX Mega Geometry, and there's now no limit to how detailed and intricate environments, characters, and objects in a scene can become.

As part of Alan Wake 2's new Update 1.2.8, which adds full DLSS 4 support to the game, including the impressive new Transformer AI models for DLSS Super Resolution and DLSS Ray Reconstruction, it's also the first game to implement RTX Mega Geometry.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 hasn't even been available for 48 hours, and PC gamers are already taking to the Steam listing to post negative reviews.

The Steam listing for Sony's latest PC port of an exclusive PlayStation title is being bombarded with negative reviews citing performance issues with the title. These negative reviews have resulted in the title's Steam rating currently sitting at "Mixed," with nearly half of the approximately 2,100 user reviews reporting in-game bugs, stabilization problems, crashes, low FPS, audio desyncing, freezing, stuttering, and a myriad of other performance-related issues.

Unfortunately, it's not just negative users leaving negative reviews, as some players that left positive reviews even cautioned other players about the title's performance. With one player writing, the game crashes "every 20 minutes or so if you have turned ON the Frame Generation (which, guess what, is turned ON by default)." Additionally, this same player reported a critical bug that prevented them from being able to start a new game unless their old game save was deleted. The player managed to work around this problem by disabling Steam Cloud and then manually deleting their save.

Microsoft is using its competitors to sell games and re-invest in its burgeoning video games empire.

During the FTC v Microsoft case of 2023, Xbox's Phil Spencer said something very interesting about PlayStation's exclusivity practices, going so far as to call Sony a hostile competitor. "Every time we ship a game on PlayStation, going back to the 70-30 split, Sony captures 30% of revenue that we do on their platform. And then they use that money among other revenue to do things to try to reduce Xbox's survival on the market," Spencer had said at the time.

Microsoft, however, has a different tact: Rather than keep games off its platforms, it wants to open the floodgates and release as many of its popular games to as many platforms as possible. The rationale is simple. Xbox wants to sell more games, make more money, and further cement itself as a vital partner to its competitors. Every sale on a competitor's platform is more money that can then be reinvested into Xbox.

While gamers (and sometimes developers) lament the Xbox Series S parity clause, Microsoft sees it as a major advantage in its fight for future competition in the games industry.

The Xbox Series S is substantially weaker than the Series X, but it's also $200 cheaper. The Series S was meant to grow the Xbox userbase with a lower-cost option that's locked to the digital ecosystem, furthering Microsoft's high-value target goals. This power difference has caused headaches for some developers who are bound by a strict parity clause (all Gen 9 Xbox games have to run on both Series S and Series X in order to get released) that forces them to scale down their games to run on the much-weaker Series S.

Overall, though, this is a good move. At least that's what Microsoft thinks. The rationale is that developers could use the Series S spec profile of their games onto other lower-power devices. This is especially true with first-party games like Minecraft, which has been carefully scaled to run on both consoles and on the Nintendo Switch handheld (Minecraft is wildly popular on the Switch and makes far more money on Switch than it does on Xbox).

If everything is an Xbox, why buy an actual Xbox console? Microsoft hopes that the system's functionalities and capabilities will be the selling point.

The base Gen 9 consoles are very similar: Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X have the same chipsets and deliver similar performance. What sets them apart is their feature sets--the Xbox Series X/S, for example, has Quick Resume, whereas the PS5 has features like ultra-fast loading via its SSD technology.

This is really how Microsoft wants you to think about Xbox hardware, to judge Xbox consoles on the merit of their capabilities based on your play style. That means a more enthusiast box would be capable of targeting 4K 60FPS, a cheaper box 1440p 60FPS (and maybe even a handheld at 720p 30-60FPS), but more importantly, it means Xbox being able to set itself apart from the competition with its own features.

Multiversus is shutting down on May 30, 2025, WB Games has confirmed.

Season 5 will be the last big update for Multiversus, the failed online game that combined classic DC and Hanna-Barbera characters in a beat-em-up setting. WB had hoped to capitalize on Nintendo's popular Smash Bros. with their own free-to-play crossover game. Multiversus proved to be an expensive misfire for the games division.

With today's announcement, the studio has turned off all in-game purchases within Multiversus. That means no one can spend real money to buy in-game currency. Multiversus will still be playable offline, though, and you'll still have everything you've unlocked. Gamers also have until server shutdown on May 30 to spend any Gleamium they may have left.