Gaming - Page 193

Nintendo has finally announced its next-gen Switch 2 handheld, with its first confirmed game being Mario Kart 9... which looks to sport far more than the 12-player limit from the franchise, with a possible 24-player (or even more) on the way.

In the official Nintendo Switch 2 trailer posted to YouTube, the company shows off next-gen Mario Kart 9 gameplay with what appears to be 24 starting positions on the track. In previous Mario Kart games there have been just 12 starting tracks, leading us to believe Nintendo is pumping up to 24 players in Mario Kart 9.

Not only that, but the karts appear to be smaller and the track is rather wide... with rumors swirling that we could expect Mario Kart 9 to have monster battles with 24 players, it has Mario Kart fans very, very excited. The actual footage of Mario Kart 9 on the Nintendo Switch 2 isn't promising, where it appears there's no anti-aliasing being used... with rumors that we'd get NVIDIA DLSS upscaling, this is disappointing to say the least.

Nintendo has officially announced its new Switch 2 console...and the leaks had basically spoiled the surprise weeks before the reveal.

The Switch 2 is no longer a badly-kept secret. The cat is finally out of the bag as Nintendo today revealed a first look at the Switch 2 hardware. At first glance, the new handheld is a lot like the older model with a few obvious upgrades including a larger screen, bigger controllers, and other features such as a secondary USB-C charging port at the top.

Leaked renders had previously shown these designs quite some time before Nintendo's announcement, including the new snap-on magnetic JoyCon controllers and the peek-over design of the Switch 2's dock.

Windows 11 24H2 has been causing an unfortunate number of problems for PC gamers since it was pushed out, including crashing certain Ubisoft games - but a fix has now been implemented for some of the affected Assassin's Creed titles.

If you recall, the games in the franchise which were hit by the bug in Windows 11 24H2 - which caused them to either freeze up, or suffer a black screen crash, during gameplay, or sometimes loading - were Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Origins, and Odyssey.

Thankfully, as flagged up by IGN, Ubisoft has announced that both Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Origins are now cured of this rather nasty problem - but Odyssey still remains beset by the bug.

With a full 6 years having passed since the Elder Scrolls 6 announcement trailer, fans of the famous fantasy RPG series are currently teething to get their hands on any new entrant to the franchise.

These prayers may have been answered, given that rumors of an Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remake have officially reached a fever pitch. As reported by MP1st, details on the unannounced project stem from a 'mistake' made by a former Virtuos employee. For those unfamiliar, Virtuous is a game development studio-for-hire headquartered in Singapore, which has assisted with delivering titles including Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.

The details provided ranged from the transition to a new engine, the scope of the remake, and the planned reworks of different gameplay systems. A reputable leaker, "Nate the Hate", has also stated on his latest podcast that the release is expected to come in June of this year.

With leaks about the Switch 2 circulating non-stop, it's about time we received official information about a Nintendo product launch. We've got something straight from the horse's mouth: but it's, well... a little alarming?

Alarmo is a tiny motion-tracking, interactive alarm clock designed to allow you to wake up to game-inspired themes. It's equipped with a 2.8-inch LCD screen and a 24GHz mmWave presence sensor - providing Alarmo with the capability of detecting movement as you sleep and wake up. In addition, you'll find 35 pre-installed alarms inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Splatoon, Pikmin, and your favorite Italian plumber.

The Sound Clock: Alarmo is slated for a March release and will retail at $99 USD from all your favorite retailers. Many will be asking themselves: why? Evidently, Nintendo's answer to this is, why not? If you know anyone who lives and breathes Nintendo fanfare, undoubtedly, this is the perfect gift to pick up. The clock is admittedly cute. It also doesn't require the use of a Nintendo Online subscription, the absence of which is now... a selling point in 2025?

DLSS has come a long way since NVIDIA introduced the technology alongside the GeForce RTX 20 Series in 2018. Powered by AI, DLSS Super Resolution was designed primarily to boost the performance of the brand-new real-time ray-tracing without impacting visual fidelity. After some growing pains for both DLSS and RT, DLSS Super Resolution technology quickly advanced to the point where it became a go-to tool for boosting performance when gaming in high resolutions.

Fast-forward to today, DLSS has evolved to include a suite of technologies, including Ray Reconstruction, which dramatically improves ray-tracing image quality compared to native or traditional rasterized rendering. As it's exclusive to the GeForce RTX line-up, DLSS has seen the rise of competing tools and offerings - from AMD's FSR to Intel XeSS and even Sony's AI-powered PSSR technology for the PlayStation 5 Pro.

It's safe to say that upscaling and Super Resolution are here to stay and that NVIDIA DLSS is still the clear leader regarding image quality. As part of its deep dive into the GeForce RTX 50 Series and new Blackwell architecture, which significantly increases GeForce's AI capabilities, the company confirmed that most GeForce RTX gamers play with DLSS enabled.

With the Steam Deck, ROG Ally, Legion Go, and several other PC gaming handhelds looking to turn PC gaming into a portable experience, the new ATARI Gamestation Go is different. With a price point of $149.99 USD and a Q3 2025c release window, this relatively affordable gaming handheld provides an authentic and retro gaming experience that covers Atari's console and arcade history.

The ATARI Gamestation Go emulates consoles like the iconic Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, and several classic Atari arcade machines. The unit includes a range of controls you won't find on PC gaming handhelds. In addition to the usual analog stick, D-pad, shoulder, and face button setup, there's also a little trackpad and even a Numpad.

Yes, certain games used a numpad and trackball to control the on-screen action back in the day, so it's very cool to see the ATARI Gamestation Go remain faithful to the brand's decades-long gaming history.

The Nintendo Switch 2's physical design was revealed through dummy units being leaked online by Chinese accessory manufacturers, and through the multiple leaks it was quickly noticed the upcoming console has an additional button on the right Joy-Con controller under the Home button.

As with everything about Nintendo's unannounced new console, speculation began flying about what this mysterious "C" button could do, and now we might know as data miners have discovered in the latest version of the Nintendo Switch OS, along with System Developer Kit (SDK) leaks, the new button will introduce a feature called "Campus". According to reports Campus will enable users to engage in group and voice chat with support of up to twelve Nintendo Switch Online users simultaneously.

If true, the Campus feature would require a paid subscription to the Nintendo Switch Online service, and according to the data miners there will also be support for screen sharing. For those wondering if Campus will be similar to Miiverse, it won't be, and for those wondering about Miiverse, it was Nintendo's short-lived attempt at creating a social media network that occurred between the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.

The new Lenovo Legion Go S PC gaming handheld is set to ship in two flavors - one in black running Valve's SteamOS and one in white running Windows 11. The SteamOS-powered variant turned a few heads at CES 2025, as it's the first PC gaming handheld outside of the Steam Deck to ship with Valve's SteamOS.

What makes this exciting is that with SteamOS, the Steam Deck feels more like a gaming console than a PC. Windows 11-based gaming handhelds like the original Legion Go, ROG Ally, and others ship with custom interfaces and features because Windows 11 is not optimized for gaming handhelds. On the other hand, the Steam Deck offers intuitive access to Steam and all the various handheld features and settings thanks to SteamOS optimizations.

The Lenovo Legion Go S features an 8-inch 1920×1200 LCD with a 120Hz refresh rate and VRR support, a custom Ryzen Z2 Go processor from AMD with integrated Radeon graphics, and 16GB of memory and 512GB of M.2 SSD storage in the baseline model. The SteamOS model is set to retail for $499.99 USD, and the Windows 11 model is set to retail for $599.99 USD.

At CES 2025, Razer announced and launched a new game streaming service called Razer Remote Play into beta. This isn't a cloud service; it's a way to stream games running on your PC or gaming laptop (like the new Razer Blade 18) to a mobile device or portable PC gaming handheld like the ROG Ally or Steam Deck.

Razer demonstrated the technology at the show by streaming to a mobile device with the company's Kishi Ultra controller. The results were impressive - with better image quality and latency than Valve's Steam Link. Razer Remote Play is enabled via the Razer Cortex app for Windows, and it works with Steam, Epic, PC Game Pass, and more. It's also compatible with iOS and Android devices.

One of Remote Play's best features is that it automatically adjusts the resolution and frame rate for the device you're streaming to, so there is no need to tinker or change visual settings when streaming to a portable device. As for latency and image quality, it's already super impressive because it's based on the popular open-source Moonlight client.

With the GeForce RTX 50 Series set to launch later this month with the new flagship GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080, one of the significant features for PC gamers coming with the new Blackwell generation is DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation. Compared to the DLSS 3 Frame Generation, the new DLSS 4 version, exclusive to the RTX 50 Series, introduces an updated AI model and hardware that can generate up to three frames instead of one.

With the new Blackwell 'Flip Metering' technology, DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation can generate more frames with consistent frame pacing and virtually no additional latency. During a live demonstration of the technology at NVIDIA's Editor's Day at CES 2025, running on a preview build of Cyberpunk 2077, each additional generated frame only added 1-2ms of latency. The latency is essentially the same when stacked against the original DLSS Frame Generation.

This is how the GeForce RTX 5090 can achieve 240+ FPS in games with full Path Tracing, which is a remarkable result because it's roughly an 8X increase over native rendering. However, the AI-generated frames are imperfect because there are 'blink and you'll miss it' artifacts, so those who love tinkering with settings can choose how many AI-generated frames are rendered.

Nintendo Switch 2 isn't far away at all now, with fresh leaks suggesting the Switch 2 "is so much weaker than everyone was expecting".

The latest rumors have the Switch 2 performance with the GPU clocked at 1.0GHz in docked mode, and down to just 561MHz in handheld mode (in order to improve battery life). Inside, the Switch 2 will be powered by a custom NVIDIA Tegra SoC, with the Ampere-based GPU clocked at 1.0GHz delivering around 3.1 TFLOPs, and at 561MHz the Switch 2 will pump 1.71 TFLOPs.

We heard about the Tegra T239 SoC in leaks from February 2024, made on the Samsung 8nm process node and featuring 16GB of LPDDR5 memory. Nintendo's new Switch 2 and is purported 3.1 TFLOPs of performance will see it best the Valve Steam Deck (with its GPU reaching around 1.6 TFLOPs according to Valve).

Half-Life 2 RTX Remix is the gaming equivalent of a magic trick in that it's a mod that takes one of the greatest PC games of all time and gives it a visual makeover that looks better than any built-from-the-ground-up remake we've seen. It utilizes NVIDIA's groundbreaking RTX Remix tools to transform Valve's iconic shooter into a fully path-traced visual spectacle.

Half-Life 2 RTX Remix is a project that we've been following for a while, and it has the full support of NVIDIA and the GeForce RTX team. With the arrival of the GeForce RTX 50 Series of Blackwell-powered GPUs and the flagship GeForce RTX 5090, the modders at Orbifold Studios have already begun implementing cutting-edge RTX Neural Shaders into the game.

For NVIDIA, Neural Shaders are viewed as the next significant leap forward for real-time rendering, the first since real-time Ray Tracing was added to DirectX in 2018. From Neural Textures to Neural Materials to RTX Skin and RTX Mega Geometry, at CES 2025, we saw some of these effects in action in a live Half-Life 2 RTX Remix demonstration. And it was mind-blowing.

When you think about ray tracing and gaming, whether on a PC with the popular GeForce RTX 4070 GPU or a modern console like the PlayStation 5 Pro, you're probably picturing realistic reflections and other lighting effects. Cyberpunk 2077, Marvel's Spider-Man, Alan Wake 2. From simple implementations to full Path Tracing, the key is that you're picturing graphics and not gameplay.

Well, id Software's upcoming DOOM: The Dark Ages is going to change that. This game will use ray tracing to enhance the gameplay, not just the visuals. It will support DLSS 4 for the GeForce RTX 50 Series, including the new Multi Frame Generation, and its Path Tracing mode is set to bring full ray-traced visuals and lighting to all aspects of the game.

It will look incredible running on a GeForce RTX 5090 or RTX 5070, but id Software also uses ray-tracing to improve DOOM's gameplay.

id Software's Doom (1993) helped birth the first-person shooter, and the original Quake (1996) introduced fast-paced movement and action in a fully 3D world. Since its inception, developer id Software has been creating its own tech to help push the genre forward, and with DOOM: The Dark Ages (2025) on the horizon, its next game will take full advantage of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 50 Series hardware and advanced AI capabilities.

During NVIDIA's announcement of the GeForce RTX 50 Series at CES 2025, led by the new flagship GeForce RTX 5090 and the brand-new AI-powered DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation, we learned that the next DOOM is set to ship with Path Tracing and support for DLSS 4 on day one.

During a subsequent NVIDIA Editor's Day event, Bethesda and id Software presented a closer look at the game. The presentation opened with a statement on the two companies' close relationship, where id said that NVIDIA's vision of leveraging AI to push visual fidelity and performance "closely aligns" with its own and that in recent years, NVIDIA and id Software's collaboration on technology and graphics has only increased.

NVIDIA's Project G-Assist was announced last year, and we went hands-on with a preview version at Computex 2024. The AI-powered assistant for GeForce RTX gaming rigs is designed to offer real-time performance analysis and optimization and Wiki-style assistance for gameplay, optimizing builds, or finding out more about what's on screen and what you're playing. It's fascinating tech, and it's going to be released in Beta form very soon.

With the GeForce RTX 50 Series getting its formal reveal at CES 2025 and the flagship GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 set to launch at the end of January, NVIDIA has confirmed that the new G-Assist System Assistant feature is launching into beta sometime in February 2025.

It's set to become available as an add-on within the NVIDIA App, and its features will be accessible via a chat or voice interface within the app's overlay. G-Assist System Assistant runs on a relatively small Llama-based Instruct model with 3 billion parameters so that it can run natively with minimal latency on a range of GeForce RTX hardware, not just the new GeForce RTX 50 Series.

Amid controversy and plummeting share value, Ubisoft now outlines the progress of its current and future plans to concerned investors.

Ubisoft is in a tough spot right now. Two of its latest games--Star Wars Outlaws and xDefiant, the latter of which was shut down--have missed earnings projections. Ubisoft's shares suffered a substantial hit when Assassin's Creed Shadows was delayed, with the announcement coming in a kind of three-pronged series of bad news jabs with the aforementioned games.

The publisher's shares dropped so low that hostile buyout concerns were raised, but reports indicate that Ubisoft potentially tabled the idea of partnering with Tencent for a full company buyout. The idea would be to keep Ubisoft's Guillemot family at the helm while Tencent would have certain controls befit its stake.

Nintendo will reveal the Switch 2 sometime this week, sources tell games publication VGC and insider Nate the Hate.

The rumor mill continues to spin as Nintendo's new Switch 2 console looms on the horizon. While Nintendo has yet to announce a firm reveal date for the Switch successor, new info says the system will be formally unveiled in a video showcase later this week.

"I have been told that the Switch 2 will be revealed on Thursday, January 16," YouTuber and trusted insider Nate the Hate said in a recent video. The reports, including the timing of the Switch 2 reveal, have since been corroborated by Video Game Chronicle's Andy Robinson.

Nintendo has delivered a predictable response to the recent Switch 2 leaks that have taken over the internet.

The Switch 2 might be the worst kept secret in gaming. Renders of what are believed to be the next-gen device have been making the rounds, and some peripheral makers have been brazen enough to 3D print the mockups and outright exhibit their products over recreations of the unofficial, technically non-existent hardware.

Genki, who makes add-ons like controllers and chargers for the Switch, did just that. The company had created a shell mock-up that it said was based on a real retail version of the Switch 2. This pressured Nintendo to come out and clarify that no, Genki did not in fact have access to a Switch 2 console, and that what everyone is seeing isn't actually official Nintendo designs.

The Switch 2's new storage spec could vastly outpace the speeds of the current model, offering faster data transfer speeds with blazing-fast SSD-like performance.

Even more evidence has surfaced to suggest that the Switch 2 will use the newer micro SD Express format for its external storage support. Leaked Gamestop database info, which may or may not be real, reportedly show three separate SKUs for Switch 2 micro SD Express cards.

The current Switch only supports micro SD card speeds of up to UHS-I, which delivers around ~100MB/sec. The newer SD Express spec, on the other hand, can support speeds of up to 983 MB/sec. SD Express has a speed boost of +880% over the current-gen Switch's storage support.