Gaming - Page 202

With Black Friday Sales in full effect, the Steam Autumn Sale has also started and will run until December 4 at 10 a.m. There are countless game deals worth revisiting, from recent releases to award-winning titles to indies and classics.

With up to 95% off discounts, you'd be hard-pressed not to find a game worth clicking on that 'Add to Cart' button. You can also save big on the Steam Deck, with Valve currently offering a 25% discount on the Steam Deck 512GB LCD, bringing its price down from $449 to $336.75. This is a great deal because the Steam Deck is still one of the best PC gaming handhelds on the market.

With that, we've decided to go through Steam Autumn Sale deals to find the best deals under $10 and $5, from classics in franchises like The Elder Scrolls, Assassin's Creed, The Witcher, Mass Effect, Halo, and Fallout to indie hits like Valheim and Subnautica, which are getting sizeable discounts.

Elon Musk has tagged Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, pointing to a post on X where Microsoft's gaming division is actively NOT hiring "crusty white dudes" with Musk saying "this is illegal".

Ian Miles Cheong posted on X saying: "Microsoft's gaming division is excluding whites from being hired to work on their video games. ALl of their new hires are unqualified queer and black people because the company's executives have an explicit mandate again 'crust old white dudes'".

This was a reply to a post on X from Grummz, who was posting from Asmondgold's video, calling out the Art Director at Obsidian Entertainment, who posted on Bluesky something from Matt Hansen, the Art Director at Obsidian Entertainment, who said: "Reminder to Black artists out there who are looking for portfolio reviews or job advice. My DMs are open, and you will always have my priority. We got too many crusty white dudes in this field, please let me help you replace me one day - I want to go back to living in the woods".

Sony is developing a handheld gaming device that will play PlayStation 5 games, sources have told Bloomberg.

In a bid to expand its foothold on the hardware market, Sony is now experimenting with a new handheld that is capable of playing PS5 games while out and about. Sony is aiming at delivering console quality gaming while on-the-go, potentially similar to the range of handheld PCs from Valve and other major hardware-makers like Lenovo, ASUS, and MSI.

The device, sources tell Bloomberg's Takashi Mochizuki, would be a major iteration of the existing PlayStation Portal handheld with a significant power leap. The $199 PS Portal has become a hit for Sony, who has said their line of accessories is "highly profitable" for the games division.

It was only recently that Kadokawa, the parent company of renowned video game development studio FromSoftware, confirmed Sony officially expressed interest in purchasing the company, and now more details have emerged about the ongoing discussion.

In a new article by Bloomberg, Sony and Kadokawa are currently engaging in discussions about a potential merger, which would add FromSoftware and its catalog of established video game IPs, such as Elden Ring and the Dark Souls franchise, to Sony's portfolio of first-party offerings. However, the Bloomberg report states Sony is only interested in purchasing select Kadokawa IP, and the company has massive ownership over the Japanese anime and manga industry in Japan, which Sony is currently after in this deal.

The article states Kadokawa is only interested in the deal if Sony purchases the entire company and all of its assets rather than selling over select IP. Sony's reported push to acquire Kadokawa's anime and manga assets falls right in line with the company's previous acquisition of Crunchyroll in 2021 for $1.2 billion. It appears Sony is after more of the anime market, which makes perfect sense considering it is one of the fastest-growing sub-entertainment industries, with Japan's anime industry doubling over 10 years to $19.5 billion in 2022.

The big end-of-year game releases are slowing down, but a few notable PC games are still adding NVIDIA DLSS support this week - new additions to the over 600 games and apps with RTX technologies.

The first is Void Crew from developer Hutlihut Games and publisher Focus Entertainment, a 1 to 4-player co-op roguelite that has exited Early Access and is now available in version 1.0 form. It's a sci-fi game where you explore the universe alongside friends, man the turrets, perform repairs, exit the spaceship to go out on missions, and participate in epic battles amongst the stars.

Void Crew has a Very Positive rating on Steam. Many of the reviews praise its co-op gameplay, with one stating that it's "like Sea of Thieves and FTL had a baby." If you've played either of those games, that's some pretty high praise.

A new report from Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson has claimed Ubisoft is working on an Animal Crossing-style game that will also have building similar to Minecraft.

The report states Ubisoft has been developing the title codenamed "Alterra" for approximately 18 months, and that it was born out of a cancellation of another that uses voxel creation, the process of building 3D models using 3D pixels or cubes. The rumored title is described as a social simulator that allows players to live on an island on which they can build structures, gather materials, and interact with NPCs called Matterlings.

Additionally, the publication states sources have informed it that players can leave their island and visit other worlds, each of which will have different enemies, Matterlings, biomes, materials, etc. Insider Gaming writes it was able to see images of the Matterlings and said the NPCs resemble Funko Pop characters by their physical design, as they have large heads and smaller bodies.

From developer Machine Games, the studio behind the acclaimed Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a new cinematic first-person action game launching on December 8, 2024. The first-party title, developed alongside Bethesda Game Studios' Todd Howard, also releases day one into Xbox Game Pass on PC and Console.

In a new rapid-fire interview with YouTube channel MinnMax, creative director Axel Torvenius and design director Jens Andersson were asked a wide-ranging number of things related to the game, including news that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is "the biggest and longest game that Machine Games have ever done."

Although they didn't discuss how long a typical playthrough will take gamers to complete, they confirmed that the game has around 3 hours and 45 minutes of cutscenes - almost two Indy films' worth of story.

The new OneXFly F1 Pro is a premium gaming handheld with a 7-inch 1080p 144 Hz OLED display with a peak brightness of 800 nits and the first to feature the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor with RDNA 3.5 graphics. It looks fantastic, too, with a stylish design, and OneXPlayer describes it as a "gaming beast."

And with that, its cutting-edge hardware and top-tier performance don't come cheap. The AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 model with 32GB of LPDDR5X-7500 memory and 1TB of M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD storage is priced at $1,339.00 USD, which is the early bird price; the regular MSRP is $1,499.00. The cheaper AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 365 model starts at $1,009.00 USD.

The OneXFly F1 Pro is available to order now, with shipping expected to commence at the end of November. The company has also released a video showcasing Black Myth: Wukong and Cyberpunk 2077 benchmarks, comparing the OneXFly F1 Pro to the ROG Ally X from ASUS.

A large portion of PC gamers are utilizing Steam as not only a marketplace to buy and collect a library of games, but also for the data it provides on the games themselves.

While the specifics of exactly how many players are playing, have bought, or have flagged a title aren't blatantly public on the Steam listing for a game, an approximation of that data can be found on websites such as SteamDB or Steam Charts. Gamers typically use these websites to see how many players are playing a game at a specific time, to track the price of the title on Steam, and to see how the game was received by the public. All of this information is then used to make an informed decision about purchasing a title.

Despite the value these websites provide gamers by shining a light on the typically hidden performance stats of games, Ubisoft insiders have claimed the company isn't a fan. According to a post on the FandomPulse Substack, which quotes insiders at the company, Ubisoft, along with "other companies" want Valve to disable or restrict the APIs that are used by tools such as SteamDB and Steam Charts. The Ubisoft insiders said this was a direct response to the failure of Star Wars Outlaws, which Ubisoft themselves confirmed didn't reach internal expectations.

Tencent has just unveiled its new 3D One gaming handheld prototype, with a rather gigantic 11-inch display, and powered by an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V "Lunar Lake" processor. Check it out:

The standard feature of the new 3D One handheld is the 11-inch 2.5K display with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, Tencent has even baked in 3D eye-tracking technology, providing another layer of immersion in games that support it. Tencent is using Intel's new Core Ultra 7 258V "Lunar Lake" processor with 4 Lion Cove and 4 Skymont cores.

There is 32GB of LPDDR5X-8533 memory and Intel Arc 140V graphics based on the Xe2-LPG GPU architecture, something that we've seen powering new waves of Intel Lunar Lake laptops.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is going to cause a "global distraction event" when it launches, with millions taking time off of work and school to play it... but what about a beefed-up version on the PC?

We're learning about GTA 6 on "next-gen consoles" and PC from the LinkedIn profile of a Principal Engine Programmer who has been working at Rockstar since 2020, with Grand Theft Auto 6 as the only project they've worked on over the last 4 years.

The developer listed some details about working with RAGE, the in-house engine Rockstar uses for its games, with RAGE being used to power the next-generation world of GTA 6. The post teased that the developer has worked with ray tracing, ray-traced global illumination, and "procedural generation for objects and game environments".

The PlayStation 2 has sold over 160 million units worldwide, Sony has officially clarified in new sales figures.

Sony's 30 years of PlayStation promo website has revealed new information on the PS2's lifetime sales. The PlayStation 2 section of the site confirms that the early 2000's console had sold 5 million more units than what Sony has listed on its website. Granted the previous figures were from 2012.

"PS2 is one of the biggest-selling video game consoles of all time, with over 160,000,000 consoles sold worldwide since 2000," the site reads.

Elon Musk was asked at the recent SpaceX launch if he played League of Legends, to which he said if he did, it "would damage the space program".

At the recent SpaceX launch, President-elect Trump and members of his family were in attendance hanging around with the Tesla, SpaceX and now DOGE boss asking him some space-related questions, but then the questions moved to gaming as they Elon is a gamer.

The group were talking about the difficulties of getting into space and blasting off to Mars, when Elon was asked: "what's harder, this or Greater Rifts in Diablo 4". Elon laughs, but then Kai Trump asks Elon if ever played Fortnite, to which he replied "no, but I did like Quake and a bunch of other first-person shooters". He was then asked "League, did you play League (of Legends)".

CD Projekt may plan to release some sort of new content in the next two years, potentially a new game.

Today, CD Projekt announced strong Q3 earnings results driven by continued sales of Cyberpunk 2077 (just hit 30 million sales) and The Witcher franchise.

In the Q&A section of the livecast, CD Projekt management said something very interesting about short-term business strategies--apparently new content would be arriving in the next two years.

Project Polaris, aka The Witcher 4, has now entered full principal development at CD Projekt RED's studios.

CD Projekt is full steam ahead on the next Witcher game. Codenamed Polaris, the adventure will be the first chapter in an epic new trilogy of games. The company currently has 61% of its development workforce on Project Polaris, or 400 people.

"I'm pleased to announce that several weeks ago it moved to full-scale production. Of all our projects, this one is currently the most far along, and we're starting the most intensive phase of development," CD Projekt CFO Piotr Nielubowicz said in an earnings brief.

Cyberpunk 2077 is still selling strong as the franchise hits another major milestone.

Cyberpunk 2077 has now sold over 30 million copies, CD Projekt RED today announced in its Q3 financials. According to our data, this significant sales breakthrough was made possible through 5 million games purchased from October 2023 - November 2024.

"Sales of Cyberpunk 2077 have topped 30 million copies, while the Phantom Liberty expansion has sold eight million units. These are impressive figures--they reveal the true size of the fan community and the scale of interest in the Cyberpunk universe," said CD Projekt CFO Piotr Nielubowicz.

Microsoft has announced a "better way" of browsing the internet while PC gaming, with the company unveiling "Microsoft Edge Game Assist," the new way of browsing the internet while gaming.

Microsoft has taken to its Windows Blog to announce Microsoft Edge Game Assist, a new way to browse the internet in-game without having to alt-tab or pick up your phone, enabling a seamless gaming/browsing experience. Microsoft writes that "88% of PC players use a browser while gaming," and the browser is typically used for help on the game, tracking their in-game progress, or simply chatting with friends. Microsoft wants to remove the steps needed to access a browser, which if in fullscreen, requires a user to alt-tab.

The company explains that Game Assist is a "special version of Microsoft Edge" that has been optimized for PC gaming, and is able to appear "on top of your game in Game Bar". Microsoft writes it's "game aware and will suggest tips and guides for what you're playing." Additionally, the Game Assist Edge browser will share the same data as the standalone Edge browser, which means users won't need to log back into accounts.

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl launched last week, and so far, the response from critics and fans alike has been mixed - with most of the criticism surrounding the game's bugs, glitches, performance issues, and inconsistent design and presentation. However, setting aside the rough edges and STALKER 2's mix of shooting, survival, exploration, and horror captures what made the original a classic.

Developer GSC Game World has announced that sales have already exceeded 1 million copies after a few days, which doesn't include all gamers playing on Xbox Game Pass on PC and console. It has also been confirmed that the game's first patch is arriving this week.

And it will be the first of many, with players hoping that support will arrive at a steady clip. "We want to reassure you once more that we will make every effort to constantly improve your S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl experience," GSC Game World writes. "We are truly grateful for your feedback and suggestions for improvement."

As of November 2024, the latest version of Valve's Steam PC client no longer supports or runs on Windows 7 or Windows 8 systems. Per the release and patch notes for the recent Steam Client Update from November 5, users with these older Microsoft operating systems will no longer have their Steam client automatically updated.

Valve warned users about the change, announcing quite a while ago that as of January 1, 2024, Steam would stop officially supporting the Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 operating systems. Steam will likely still work on these systems, but with no more updates, Valve will be "unable to guarantee continued functionality of Steam."

The good news is that only a fraction of PC gamers are affected. According to Valve's latest Steam Hardware & Software Survey results for October 2024, 96.26% of all PC gamers on the platform are running either Windows 11 or Windows 10 - with only 0.28% running Windows 7.

Microsoft's big Windows 11 2024 Update, or Windows 11 version 24H2, is rolling out to users everywhere. With several improvements, optimizations, and new features added, the update has also caused a few compatibility issues with specific hardware and software configurations. According to Microsoft's "known issues and notifications" article for 24H2, it's also not playing nice with many Ubisoft games.

According to Microsoft, "these games might become unresponsive while starting, loading, or during active gameplay," with users getting black screens instead of loading into the games. Microsoft lists five games affected: Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Assassin's Creed Origins, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Star Wars Outlaws, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

It's a significant compatibility issue, so much so that Microsoft is now actively blocking systems with any of these games installed from updating to Windows 11 version 24H2.