Gaming - Page 204

Half-Life 2 is officially 20 years old, and developer Valve is using the milestone as an opportunity to celebrate the millions of players in the HL2 community who have been playing it (or discovering it, or even re-discovering Half-Life 2) since its launch on November 16, 2004.

Valve has gone as far as creating a website detailing all of the improvements the update to Half-Life 2 brings, with both Episode One and Episode Two included, an awesome developers commentary with some of the original Half-Life 2 developers coming back for a huge 3.5-hour new behind-the-scenes commentary on Half-Life 2.

Oh, and did we mention that Half-Life 2 is FREE until November 18 at 1PM ET, after which it will cost $9.99. Here's the rundown of what to expect from the Half-Life 2 update, while Valve's dedicated website goes into a huge (and fantastic) deep dive (of one of my favorite games of all time).

The CEO of Take-Two Interactive, the publisher of some of the biggest gaming franchises on the market, such as Grand Theft Auto and Borderlands, has given his two cents on how AI will be implemented across the company's developers.

According to a recent interview with CNBC, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick revealed that he isn't too convinced about how revolutionary AI is for the gaming industry. Zelnick says that he doesn't believe artificial intelligence will suddenly make development cheaper, quicker, better, or even improve the chances of hit games being released. Zelnick told the publication that Take-Two will remain realistic about how it will implement AI into its development pipeline.

Despite the sobering stance of believing AI is a tool and not the thing that is going to suddenly replace all developers, Zelnick does recognize its potential in freeing up a developer's time as the AI will be able to perform mundane tasks the developer otherwise would have had to do. Zelnick says AI will enable Take-Two's creative people to have less mundane tasks on their plate, allowing them more time to do what they do best - be creative.

For veteran PC gamers, the word 'Unreal' means a lot more than that engine every modern game developer seems to be using. Unreal (1998) and the multiplayer-focused Unreal Tournament (1999) are iconic first-person shooters that helped establish the genre as the gaming world transitioned to full-3D environments, characters, and animation.

And now, both games are freely accessible and available to download via the Internet Archive, with Epic Games' blessing. In a statement provided to PC Game, the company wrote, "We can confirm that Unreal 1 and Unreal Tournament are available on Archive.org, and people are free to independently link to and play these versions."

In 1999 and 2000, the biggest PC shooters were undoubtedly Quake and Unreal, with Unreal Tournament in particular helping usher in the age of readily accessible, fast-paced online multiplayer shooters. Both titles were visual showcases for in-game visuals, running on the first version of the 'Unreal Engine.'

The satirical news outlet The Onion has officially announced it's purchased the conspiracy theory website InfoWars, now formerly run by Alex Jones.

Jones confirmed the news via a video posted to X where he said his lawyers informed him that he's being shut down "even without a court order," and "the Connecticut democrats with The Onion newspaper bought us". The Onion made its own announcement, with the satirical news outlet sharing a press release stating it acquired InfoWars' assets with the support of the families in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, who filed lawsuits against Alex Jones for spreading misinformation about the tragic event that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The lawsuits resulted in Jones being ordered to pay more than a $1 billion in damages, causing the media mogul to declare bankruptcy. The Onion acquired InfoWars at a bankruptcy auction, and wrote in its press release that its goal with the acquisition is to "end InfoWars' relentless barrage of disinformation for the sake of selling supplements and replace it with The Onion's relentless barrage of humor for good".

Some fans and critics have criticized Microsoft's Xbox brand in recent years due to its unclear and somewhat confusing approach to first-party game releases. Ultimately, this boils down to a policy that has shifted from a policy where certain games will remain exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem on console and PC to one where everything is up in the air to the point where the next Halo game could be getting a day-one PlayStation release.

And with Xbox Game Pass on console becoming more expensive with the arrival of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (which is only available on the Ultimate subscription tier), Xbox Series X|S owners are increasingly feeling like an afterthought when it comes to the Xbox brand.

For die-hard Xbox fans, Microsoft's latest 'This is an Xbox' campaign will probably only confuse things even further. According to the slogan, everything from a TV to a smartphone to an Oculus Quest VR headset is "an Xbox."

Microsoft gaming boss Phil Spencer has had some potshots at Sony and its new PlayStation 5 Pro console, saying that "we're not going to grow the console with $1000 consoles".

In a new interview with Bloomberg, Spencer talked about acquisitions in world after the historic Activision-Blizzard deal, and that Microsoft is still looking at acquisitions and how to compete and partner in markets for handheld gaming devices and mobile stores.

Deals that would add "geography diversity" to Microsoft, including Asia, could be worthwhile Spencer told Bloomberg. He added: "We definitely want to be in the market, and when we can find teams and technology and capability that add to what we're trying to do in gaming at Microsoft, absolutely we will keep our heads up".

Orbifold Studios has unleashed a new trailer for Half-Life 2 RTX to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2, check it out:

In the video, we hear from Project Lead Wormslayer, who said that "Half-Life 2 is my favorite game. It's something I've been playing for over 20 years now. It was unlike any other game I've played before". Personally, I echo those comments... Valve's release of Half-Life 2 was incredible at the time, being one of the best games ever released, and still holds that title even to this day.

In full, Project Lead Wormslayer said: "Half-Life 2 is my favorite game. It's something I've been playing for over 20 years now. It was unlike any other game I'd played before. the whole game is packed with memorable experiences: stepping off the train for the first time and walking up that platform and seeing Dr Breen appear on the giant screen above you. The gameplay and the storytelling still stand up incredibly well, but we just wanted to recapture that sense of awe that we all had 20 years ago playing it for the first time. RTX remix is the core of our remastering process. The original engine has very hard limits".

The experts from Digital Foundry have discussed the performance uplift for Sony's PlayStation 5 Pro and how it comes to the base model and Sony's marketing for the new console.

According to the experts who discussed the newly released console on their weekly podcast, Sony's PlayStation 5 Pro is delivering anywhere between 30% and 35% performance gains compared to the base model, which falls short of Sony's touted 45% gains found scattered among PS5 Pro marketing. Notably, the experts point to memory bandwidth limitations as being the likely culprit for lacking performance gains at higher resolutions. For those that don't know, raw GPU horsepower doesn't necessarily equal more performance in games, as memory bandwidth also plays a big role, especially at higher resolutions such as 4K.

From the testing that was conducted by Digital Foundry the experts found the lackluster performance gains at higher resolutions, which leads them to suspect the PS5 Pro's 28% increase in memory bandwidth versus the standard model may be the limitation as to what is holding back the console from reaching Sony's touted 45%. However, this is just a working theory at the moment, as Digital Foundry said more testing needs to be done to determine the cause.

NVIDIA's latest GeForce Game Ready Drivers, version 566.14, includes the newest iteration of DLSS - version 3.8.10. PC gamers don't need to be aware of every DLSS update, as games that ship with DLSS support include the relevant files. However, this latest iteration is notable because it's over 50% smaller than the previous version.

It turns out NVIDIA has removed many of the DLSS presets contained within the DLSS DLL, only keeping the latest two - Preset E and Preset F. These presets handle the various image scaling settings and other aspects of DLSS upscaling, and newer versions deliver better image quality and other benefits.

For those who like to experiment, tinker, and replace DLSS DLL files with newer versions for older titles, these incremental updates can often improve things like image stability, ghosting, and artifacts in some games.

Warcraft is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and as part of the Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct stream, Blizzard announced and launched remasters of the games that started it all. Last week, we reported on the rumor that we would probably see a Warcraft II: Remastered announcement - we got three.

First, Warcraft I: Remastered reimagines the 1994 RTS classic Warcraft: Orcs & Humans with new HD assets, widescreen support, modern controls (right-click move), and UI improvements. Next, Warcraft II: Remastered does the same for the game that turned the franchise into a mega-hit with PC gamers, updating the visuals, controls, and presentation for 2024.

As we saw with StarCraft: Remastered, the previous low-resolution 2D visuals are transformed when jumping to HD. For the first two Warcraft games, the bright, vibrant visuals give these remasters the look of a cartoon. It's impressive, and thankfully, the old-school sound effects, classic voices, and music remain untouched.

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl developer GSC Game World has released the final specs and PC system requirements for the game ahead of its highly anticipated November 20, 2024 launch. And if you're rocking older PC hardware, you might want to take note, as the game will require some serious juice to push 1440p and higher visuals.

The good news is that the game is set to launch with support for both NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR upscaling and Frame Generation technologies so that you can boost and enhance performance beyond the requirements. However, you'll still need at least 160GB of SSD space to install the game, with GSC also recommending that you play on a system with 32GB of Dual Channel memory.

GSC's recommended specs for the game, which is to play at 1440p 60 FPS, will require a GeForce RTX 4070 or Radeon RX 6800 XT GPU. The medium or 1080p 60 FPS specs require at least a GeForce RTX 4060 or equivalent GPU.

NVIDIA has tested STALKER 2 ahead of its launch on November 20, running the game at maxed-out settings at 4K with DLSS 3 enabled and a super-smooth 120FPS+ on the GeForce RTX 4090.

STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl will have DLSS 3 with Frame Generation and Super Resolution at launch, with NVIDIA noting that at 4K with "every setting maxed" that DLSS 3 with Frame Generation and Super Resolution multiplied frame rates on GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards by an average of 2.4x.

GeForce RTX 4070 gamers leap from 30 FPS to 70 FPS, greatly increasing smoothness, game clarity, and animation fluidity, and as we go up the GPU stack the numbers only get higher. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER runs at 87 FPS, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER hits 100 FPS, the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER reaches 112 FPS, and the world's fastest consumer gaming GPU, the GeForce RTX 4090, surpasses 120 FPS.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has given some new details about an Xbox gaming handheld during an interview with Bloomberg.

According to the Xbox head, Microsoft is currently developing an Xbox gaming handheld device, with Spencer confirming internally the company is "working on prototypes". Spencer said Xbox and Microsoft, by extension, are also investigating the market sentiment regarding handheld devices in an attempt to find the right vision for hardware that could be on the horizon. Spencer was enthusiastic about Xbox building a handheld device, which is something Spencer has expressed love for in the past.

Bloomberg writes that any Xbox handheld device would still be a "few years out" and that much of the concentration of the Xbox engineers is taken up by making improvements to the Xbox app. Notably, Microsoft has been openly discussing its plans to create an Xbox handheld device for quite some time, but nothing seems to have come of it besides rumors and teasers. Keeping to hardware, Spencer finished off the interview by throwing a slight dig at Sony for its decision to launch the PlayStation 5 Pro at the $700 price point.

Phil Spencer, the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, has sat down for an interview with Bloomberg, where he commented on bringing more Xbox games over to PlayStation.

The Xbox head said during the interview that it was too early to rule anything out, but he doesn't see any "red lines in our portfolio," and that even goes for the next Halo game. According to Spencer, it's too early to make a decision on whether the new Halo will launch on the PS5. These comments from Spencer leave the sentiment that anything is the table when it comes to making cross-platform launches -- even Halo, the franchise that made the Xbox what it is today.

As for what is known about the next Halo, Microsoft announced in September that multiple new games are in development, and they will be using Epic Games' Unreal Engine 5. Unfortunately, that is most of the details, as none of these titles have been officially announced or unveiled. Microsoft has already tested the waters by bringing Xbox games over to PlayStation with the release of Sea of Thieves, Grounded, and others.

Project Borealis is a fan-made Half-Life 3 currently in development by a global team of developers, based on the plot synopsis of the game outlined by Half-Life writer Marc Laidlaw. As PC fans of the franchise know, Valve's iconic FPS series abruptly ended after the release of Half-Life: Episode Two in 2007.

Of course, we got the excellent Half-Life: Alyx in 2020. However, that was a VR-only release that felt more like a spin-off than a true Half-Life 3. Interestingly, Project Borealis is being developed using Unreal Engine 5, not the Source Engine (Valve's internal engine that has powered every game in the Half-Life, Portal, and Left 4 Dead series) - with the team aiming to faithfully recreate the "iconic Half-Life 2 movement and gameplay mechanics."

On the plus side, Unreal Engine 5 gives developers access to powerful visuals, and Project Borealis: Prologue is now available to play (for free) on Steam. You can now fire up what is a fan-made version of Half-Life 3.

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition is a 2021 compilation that includes the franchise's first three iconic open-world games: Grand Theft Auto III (2001), Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002), and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004).

However, these highly anticipated remasters were not received well at the time and felt like the opposite of 'Definitive' thanks to bugs, poor AI-generated textures, and visuals that felt like a massive departure from the original games.

Two main criticisms echoed by fans and critics alike were the dramatic shift from stylized lighting and the complete removal of all fog effects. With no fog and an increased draw distance, the previously massive open world of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas felt small. On top of that, the yellow and orange look of the GTA's West Coast was missing.

Two gamers are accusing Ubisoft of "duping consumers" into purchasing The Crew without informing buyers the game's servers would be shut down, thus making the online game unplayable.

Ubisoft announced in December last year that servers to The Crew would be shut down, and those who "recently" purchased the game would receive refunds. Due to the age of the title, many gamers were unable to receive refunds. The lawsuit claims Ubisoft deceived players in two different ways, and because of the deception, the company has violated California's consumer protection laws.

The first is Ubisoft allegedly duped players into thinking they were purchasing the game when they were merely licensing it, despite them physically owning the disk. Second is the accusation that Ubisoft "falsely represented" that game files for The Crew were freely accessible on the physical disk and not "a key" for the game. The two players have submitted the lawsuit in a California Court.

Running games at the highest end graphics can be even demanding for some of the most expensive graphics cards on the market.

One of, if not the best-looking engine on the market right now is Epic's Unreal Engine 5.4, and that has been used to create Project Borealis - A Prologue to Half-Life 3. The fan-made project was created using the latest version of Unreal Engine (5.4), and it was run on an NVIDIA RTX 4080 at 4K, 1440p at Very High settings with DLSS 3.7 and Frame Generation on and off. The results were quite interesting, as the RTX 4080 could not provide 60 frames per second at native 4K.

However, with DLSS Ultra Quality and Frame Generation, the experience improved significantly, pushing the fan-made project above the 60 FPS mark. The video demonstrates the power of NVIDIA technologies such as DLSS and Frame Generation with heavier graphical engines such as Unreal Engine 5, and the necessity of having these performance-improving tools available to developers so graphically intensive titles can run on the widest variety of hardware possible.

Sony has officially launched the PlayStation 5 Pro, and while the announcement of the console was met with criticism from fans regarding its price and touted graphical improvement, Sony has already said it is exceeding sales expectations and even beating the pace of the PlayStation 4 Pro during the same period.

Unfortunately, Sony didn't convey the graphical / performance improvements of the PS5 Pro compared to the standard model very well during its announcement, which was in part due to the explanations Sony gave and also the limitation of viewers looking at the showcase through devices with low-resolution displays. Regardless of where you may think the fault lies, the PS5 Pro has made it into customers' hands, and now we are starting to get independent graphical comparisons between the new console and the old one.

A new video by Cycu1 showcases The Matrix Awakens Unreal Engine 5 demo running on the PS5 Pro much better than the standard model. Additionally, the PS5 Pro version doesn't have a dedicated patch, which means there is even more performance to be gained here once one is released, as the beefier components within the PS5 Pro will be fully utilized.

Alright, this is kinda cool to see from Pizza Hut Canada: introducing the PIZZAWARMR, a new 3D-printed download for your PlayStation 5 console that sits ON TOP of the console and keeps your pizza warm using the heat generated from the PS5. You can grab your own PIZZAWARMR here.

Pizza Hut Canada announced its new PIZZAWARMR that will fit on your PS5 and take "several slices" of pizza, with some inspiration pulled from Pizza Hut's iconic red roof.

Pizza Hut Canada explains its new PIZZAWARMR: "Upgrade your console with the hottest pizza warming technology. Using the warmth from your gaming system to keep your slices warm while you play. Pulling inspiration from Pizza Hut's red roof, the lid seamlessly opens like a laptop for easy pizza access".