Gaming - Page 2032

"Entertainment is not a one-size-fits-all world!" That is the opening line to Steams second big announcement this week. Today valve announced "Steam Hardware", something we were all expecting in some form or another. The company says that it wants customers go to choose the hardware that makes sense for them, and that they are working with multiple partners to bring a variety of Steam game machines to the market in 2014.

All of the machines will run SteamOS, and will be tailored to fit an individual's personal needs, such as powerful hardware, or a quiet gaming experience. Valve did not say who its hardware partners were, but did say that there will be several devices launched in 2014. The biggest announcement however is about will be building its own prototype in which it will give to 300 lucky Steam users free of charge for testing.

I wanted to say "here we go again" but I've already used that line up in a previous GTA V on PC story, but the rumors persist, and we're here yet again. But, this time, we have more details on the technical side of GTA V.

The latest talk of Grand Theft Auto V on the PC leads us to believe that we should expect GTA V on the PC to feature DirectX 11 support, 64-bit support, 2K textures and Advanced Effects> These advanced effects would arrive as Bloom, which should make the world of GTA V more lush when you look at the horizon. The 64-bit support will see support for more than 4GB of RAM, which is definitely something we're going to need with a world as big as GTA V.

The code that the evidence is coming from is below:

Battlefield 4 is a day closer to being played on our PCs or consoles, and now there's a new post on the official Battlefield 4 website that details the second-screen application for BF4, Battlelog.

Battlelog will allow gamers to use a PC, smartphone or tablet for maps, leaderboards and much, much more. The service for BF4 will allow gamers to track how many of their friends are online, and just how many active missions are accessible. Gamers will be able to create emblems, which will be displayed on soldiers and guns in the multiplayer portion of Battlefield 4.

When gamers are away from their PCs or consoles, Battlelog on their smartphones for example can let them view status, access forums and leaderboards, customize their loadout and more. Battlelog is also capable of giving players the chance of remotely joining new servers quickly. The update on the BF4 website says:

Earlier this week, I reported that Grand Theft Auto V had become the fastest selling game of all time, and was well on its way to reaching $1 billion faster than any other game by weeks. Today, Take-Two Interactive announced that in just three days' time, GTA V has surpassed the $1 billion in sales milestone.

"We believe this marks the fastest that any entertainment property, including video games and feature films, has reached this significant milestone," the company said in a statement.

"Grand Theft Auto is a cultural phenomenon and Rockstar Games continues to redefine what can be achieved in interactive entertainment," said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two. "We are incredibly proud of the extraordinary critical and commercial response to Grand Theft Auto V."

AMD is the company that has hardware in both next-gen consoles, with x86-based APUs in the Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One. We know to expect benefits as PC gamers from next-gen consoles thanks to the x86 architecture, which means better, and much more polished 'ports', if you can even call them that with this generation of consoles.

AMD's Matt Skynner has had some interesting things to say during an interview with Forbes, where he said that not only is PC gaming alive and well, but that it's actually growing. Skynner said that the architectures in the next-gen consoles are similar to that of the PC, which makes it much cheaper and most of all, easier for developers to create games for both the consoles, and PC.

Skynner actually said that next-gen games will actually run better on AMD hardware because the games have been built from the ground up on AMD-powered consoles. This is going to be quite interesting considering NVIDIA is still by far in the game, so it'll be interesting to see what kind of benefit AMD will have with these next-gen titles. You can be sure we'll be covering this when the next-gen consoles, and games launch in November.

The man responsible for giving us the voice behind Uncharted's Nathan Drake, Nolan North, spoke with Gamerhub at the GameStop Expo in LA about the upcoming PlayStation 4 from Sony.He seemed to be in love with the tech inside of the next-gen console, stating that he has seem some work and just couldn't believe it was real. He said:

North then teased gamers by saying: "I've seen some stuff... gameplay... that they're testing for... I don't remember what game it was but they were doing some testing on the PS4 and I couldn't believe it was gameplay. I mean, it's extraordinary technology."

Blizzard just announced that it would be shutting down Diablo III's most hated feature. That's right, boys and girls, the much loathed auction houses from Diablo III will be going away effective March 18, 2014. Blizzard said that both real money and in-game gold auction houses will be shut down as they feel it detracts from what the game is all about: "killing monsters and scoring cool loot."

Today, Rockstar games released to the long-awaited and highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto V on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. Sony says that the game is also available for digital download from the PlayStation Network.

"Grand Theft Auto V was a massive undertaking for us, I'm so proud of what the team created," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. "We cannot wait for people to finally play it."

Costing over $260 million to develop, GTA V is said to be the most comprehensive and full-featured open world games ever created. The game takes us back to Los Santos as well as the open countryside of Blaine County to once again commit crimes, cause mayhem, and explore one of the most massive open world maps ever created.

Today, a demo video that showcases some of the special effects that NVIDIA's PhysX API powers in the upcoming Batman: Arkham Origins video game popped up online. The video covers the PhysX used to animate Batman's cape, but honestly the soft shadows and particle-based weather are much more interesting to me.

Unfortunately, the video features pretty poor quality even when set to 720p resolution and does little to show the minute effects that NVIDIA's PhysX will bring to the game. Honestly, this video actually makes me feel little let down as I was looking forward to some killer graphics and a massive new level of real-time rendering. The textures appear to lack detail and I really cannot tell that much difference in the hand-to-hand combat between Arkham Origins and Arkham Asylum.

Today, Rockstar Games released a new companion app for Grand Theft Auto 5 ahead of tomorrow's launch. The aptly named Grand Theft Auto: iFruit app is an apparent jab at Apple's iDevices, but it does actually serve a purpose within GTA V.

The new iFruit app allows users to create and customize vehicles that can be used in game, with the ability to make changes to almost every aspect of the vehicles in the game. Vehicle appearance as well as performance is upgradable via the app and users can even customize license plates that can be used in the online portion of the game.

"The Los Santos Customs app offers players the freedom to create their ultimate vehicle in Grand Theft Auto V from anywhere. At the bar, on the beach, on the toilet. This is the future, we're almost sure of it." Said Rockstar. "Depth of content, high production values, defecation. It's the app that has it all. Because who doesn't love tending to a virtual pet? Chop is Franklin's canine sidekick in Grand Theft Auto V. Look after him well in the "Chop the Dog" app and you will reap the benefits when playing as Franklin in Grand Theft Auto V. Pet him, feed and water him, play fetch and tug-of-war, teach him tricks."