Gaming - Page 221

It was back in June that Nintendo announced its next installment in the main line The Legend of Zelda series, with the company unveiling The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, marking the 21st title in the series and the first time Zelda is the main character.

For those that don't know, in every Legend of Zelda game, players control Link, who sets out to save the kingdom of Hyrule and ultimately rescue Princess Zelda. However, Nintendo has decided to change things up and make Zelda the protagonist in Echoes of Wisdom, as Link has disappeared after he loses in battle to Ganondorf.

In Echoes of Wisdom, Zelda embarks on a quest to save the world from total destruction, and the gameplay players can expect will be different from every other Zelda game Nintendo has released as Zelda won't carry a sword and shield, but instead, a magic wand called the Tri Rod that will be used to summon objects, ally monsters, and interact with the world in different ways.

Thousands of gamers have called out Ubisoft for allegedly purchasing bots to comment on and like the Assassin's Creed Shadows: World trailer.

Gamers are flocking to the Assassin's Creed Shadows World trailer to call out Ubisoft for allegedly purchasing bots to write positive comments about the upcoming game. The allegations began flying on September 14 when gamers started noticing accounts with similar naming structures (first name, last name, followed by four numbers) gaining a similar number of likes on their positive comments.

Additionally, large portions of these accounts were allegedly created relatively recently, and the likes on their comments all averaged between 3,400 and 5,100. Furthermore, all of these popular positive comments were posted approximately within four hours of each other. What is also pointed out is that each of these comments brought into question are unique comments, meaning a human wrote them and then used bots to drive the number of likes up on that comment.

Blizzard has just announced its upcoming Overwatch 2 x World of Warcraft collaboration, launching on September 17 and will include 4 new unique skins themed after WoW for heroes Reinhardt, Widowmaker, Torbjorn, and Zenyatta. Check out the trailer below:

We've had previous collaborations with Overwatch 2, most recently is the Transformers collaboration but the World of Warcraft collab keeps it in the Blizzard IP family. The trailer is pretty cool, taking you through a first-person view of a rollercoaster in Blizzard World as Reinhardt, Widowmaker, Torbjorn, and Zenyatta all show off their new WoW skins in Overwatch 2.

Blizzard explains on the official Overwatch 2 x World of Warcraft collaboration: "Experience the magic of Azeroth with Overwatch 2 x World of Warcraft. Check out the Overwatch 2 x World of Warcraft for a peek at what's coming in this crossover event that unites the realms of Overwatch 2 and World of Warcraft! In the Overwatch 2 x World of Warcraft event, choose to represent the Horde or the Alliance as the mighty heroes of Overwatch honor the iconic characters from the world of Azeroth. Overwatch 2 x World of Warcraft arrives on September 17, 2024".

Nintendo is rumored to announce its next-generation Switch 2 -- which I would personally love to see called the Nintendo Super Switch -- "early next month" according to a PS5 Pro leaker.

In the post on X, the leaker teased that the Nintendo Switch 2 "gets announced early next month" and that he's hearing about a base MSRP of $400. The new Nintendo Switch 2 will come in 2 different SKUs, but he hasn't received clarification and the specification differences between the two SKUs just yet, they could just be simple colors (one SKU is red, another is blue).

Nintendo debuted the original Switch back in 2017 launching at $299, but that works out to around $380 in today's money. So, a base price on the Nintendo Switch 2 of $400 will be fantastic, at close to half the price of Sony's just-revealed PS5 Pro, and will force the price of the original Switch and Switch OLED handhelds down, too.

Now that Sony's new PlayStation 5 Pro console is official, new leaks are here teasing that the PS5 Pro has been benchmarked... and we get a look at how it ticks inside with the upgraded semi-custom SoC from AMD.

In a new video from leaker Moore's Law is Dead, who has a developer source who reportedly has access to the new PS5 Pro and has compared it against the standard PS5. The unknown developer was consulted on previous leaks sent to MLID about the PS5 Pro in early testing footage of one of their games that compared the PS5 Pro vs PS5.

In this footage, the game uses a 1080p to 1600p dynamic resolution range with a mix of Medium and High graphics settings and hits around 45-60FPS average on the standard PS5. However, the new PS5 Pro pumps out 1600p to 2160p (up to 4K) without Sony's new PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, AI upscaling on PS5 Pro) at a locked 60FPS without any drops. This developer is also considering supporting 4K 120FPS on the PS5 Pro in the future, which is SUPER exciting to hear for console gamers.

OpenAI has released two new AI models designed to improve the reasoning capabilities of artificial intelligence-powered systems. These models indicate a step up in sophistication compared to the company's previous AI models, such as GPT-4o.

The Microsoft-backed company explained in its blog post that it will be launching two new AI models, o1 and o1-mini. The o1 will be available in ChatGPT and its API beginning on Thursday, and the o1-mini will come to ChatGPT Free users. However, it will be a much smaller model, meaning it will be less powerful and, therefore, more affordable than the o1 model. o1-mini is expected to go to ChatGPT Free users at an unknown date.

OpenAI explained in its blog post the o1 model scored 83% on the qualifying exam for the International Mathematics Olympiad, which is a stark jump compared to the 13% scored by its previous model, GPT-4o. This new-found "reasoning" capability was made possible by implementing a technique called "chain of thought," which involves the AI being taught to break down a user's prompt into more logical steps that are then carried out individually rather than addressing the prompt in its entirety.

Sony has officially showcased the highly anticipated PlayStation 5 Pro, but, unfortunately, the reveal was met with heavy criticism over the company's decision to sell the console without a disk drive and a vertical stand, all for the price of $699, or $200 more than the standard retail price for the PlayStation 5.

The three aforementioned reasons, along with Sony showcasing the admittedly impressive performance jump compared to the PS5 on old games, are among the main gripes fans have with the new console. The lack of an optical drive forces buyers to purchase the drive separately for $79.99, which would enable them access to their collection of physical media. This would increase the total price for the console to $778.99.

As you can probably imagine, pre-orders for the separately sold disk drive have skyrocketed since they became available, with reports stating Walmart has already sold more than 1,000 PS5 Disc Drives in just 24 hours, and other online retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy, and Target have already sold out. Unsurprisingly, PS5 Pro disk drives are popping up on eBay and other second-hand marketplaces, but with a significant markup on their price compared to what they are retailing for.

Patch 2.13 for Cyberpunk 2077 and the Phantom Liberty expansion is available today, with developer CD Projekt Red finally adding official support for AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 with Frame Generation. FSR 3 has been 'coming soon' to Cyberpunk 2077 for a while, and now that it's finally here, it's excellent news for all PC gamers.

AMD's FSR 3 upscaling and Frame Generation works on all modern GPUs, from the GeForce RTX 20 Series and up on the NVIDIA side to the Radeon RX 6000 Series and up on the AMD side. It even works on Intel's Arc GPU line-up. Like NVIDIA's DLSS 3, AMD's Frame Generation boosts performance by generating frames and inserting them between natively rendered or upscaled frames.

GeForce RTX 20 Series and 30 Series gamers will want to try it out. NVIDIA's impressive AI-powered DLSS 3 Frame Generation is exclusive to the GeForce RTX 40 Series because it uses new specialized AI hardware.

The next installment in the Assassin's Creed franchise will be released on November 15, and ahead of the launch Ubisoft has released a new trailer for the title on the official PlayStation YouTube channel.

The new "World" trailer states at the beginning that any footage seen in the video has either been captured on a PS5 or PC. Shadows will take players to Feudal Japan, where they will get to experience an open world similar in scope to previous Assassin's Creed titles, Valhalla and Odyssey, but through two main characters. The new trailer release has been met with heavy criticism as, at the time of writing, it has received 5800 Dislikes versus 3000 Likes of its 54,0000 views.

Many of the criticisms point to choppy and seemingly unfinished animations, with a particularly egregious example being at 0.33 seconds into the video, where the horse appears to be ice skating across the ground. Other criticisms point to Ubisoft's failure to showcase any gameplay of Shadows ahead of its release while still leaving pre-orders open. "Release in two months. Still little to no gameplay showed. Says a lot," read one YouTube comment

Elgato has just introduced its new Stream Deck Studio, a revamped version of its creative control piece of technology that is aimed at professional broadcasters at a cost of $999. Check it out:

Elgato has teamed with broadcast software specialist Bitfocus for its new Stream Deck Studio, where it can run the Companion software that works on other Stream Deck models, but also supports the company's new Buttons software. The Buttons app allows for additional interface customization designed specifically for the new Stream Deck Studio.

Julian Fest, General Manager of Elgato, said: "Stream Deck has been a home run for Elgato with its intuitive, customizable interface. Our growing relationship with Bitfocus was key in developing Stream Deck Studio solution, which we expect to receive a very strong market reception as we continue to expand our addressable market with an accessible, groundbreaking, solution for the ever-demanding professional broadcast environment".

Despite the new GPU upgrades and AI upscaling, demanding games like GTA 6 are unlikely to hit 4K 60FPS on Sony's PlayStation 5 Pro.

Sony's new PS5 Pro looks to be a substantial upgrade that's capable of delivering 4K 60FPS gaming in specific titles, but it lacks the chops to deliver this kind of performance on a universal level. It may not be until the PS6 generation that games hit a more standardized 4K 60FPS target, even with AI upscaling.

Although the PS5 Pro features a beefier RDNA 4 GPU outfitted with 67% more compute units and a supercharged unified RAM combo that can deliver +45% faster rendering, the system still has a big downfall: The CPU. Sony's mid-gen upgrade still features a similar 8-core Zen 2 CPU as the base PlayStation 5 console (the Pro's CPU has been slightly overclocked by +10%). This effectively means that CPU-bound games will deliver similar FPS performance on the Pro as they would on the PS5. And based on what's been revealed so far, GTA 6 is likely to be one such CPU-bound game.

Apple is continuing to lean into having more games on its platform with the company announcing a significant performance boost coming to its latest generation of iPhone scheduled to release on September 20.

The Cupertino company only recently wrapped up its Glowtime event where it announced the new iPhone 16 models, along with its next-generation Apple Watch, and AirPods. While Apple Intelligence and camera capabilities are certainly a focus for the iPhone 16s, Apple also pointed out during its presentation that all iPhone 16s will come with 30% higher sustained performance compared to the iPhone 15s. Paired with that announcement was a list of new AAA games headed over to Apple's platform.

Apple attributes these performance hikes to the new logic board layout and the new A18 chip that has paved the way for improvements to the GPU, thermal regulations, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and overall better performance. Apple specifically pointed out War Thunder Mobile as an example of a title taking advantage of hardware-acelerated ray-tracing. This feature enabled developers to "more accurately represent the reflection of the Sun on the water," thus improving overall graphics.

It has barely been over 24 hours since Sony announced its beefed-up Xbox-killing PlayStation 5 Pro console, and now news has leaked that Microsoft is firing another 650 staff from its Xbox gaming division.

In an email memo sent by Xbox boss Phil Spencer and "obtained" by IGN, Spencer explained: "For the past year, our goal has been to minimize disruption while welcoming new teams and enabling them to do their best work. As part of aligning our post-acquisition team structure and managing our business, we have made the decision to eliminate approximately 650 roles across Microsoft Gaming - mostly corporate and supporting functions - to organize our business for long term success".

The cull isn't as drastic as the 1900+ workers that Xbox laid off across Activision, Bethesda, and Xbox Games Studios earlier this year, but it's another 650+ people from a division that can't compete with the PS5 Pro, and in the months leading into the holiday season.

Sony has pulled the curtain off the highly anticipated PlayStation 5 Pro, and the announcement has been somewhat of a mixed bag for Sony, with many fans criticizing the company for making concessions in places it shouldn't have, along with a price hike of $200 compared to the standard PlayStation 5.

Now that the dust has settled from the announcement, I wanted to give my overall impressions and where I believe Sony dropped the ball, ultimately leading to the public opinion of the PS5 Pro being controversial, as anecdotally represented by the Like to Dislike ratio on the announcement video (94,000 Likes vs 176,000 Dislikes at the time of writing). Firstly, all of the leaked specifications for the PS5 Pro were pretty much on the money, which meant that anyone who caught that news wouldn't have been surprised by any of the performance improvements.

Keeping to performance improvements, I believe this is where Sony totally missed the mark. The presentation showcased the PS5 Pro's impressive performance capabilities, which include an approximate boost of 45% compared to the PS5 and 2-3x faster RayTracing performance. However, Sony decided to showcase this performance jump on games that the majority of originally launched on the PS4. Even with the PS5 titles showcasing this performance increase, Sony touted background graphical improvements that weren't visually representative of a performance boost, or at the very least didn't warrant the $200 jump from the standard PS5.

After a beta testing period, Valve's new Steam Families is now available to all users. It allows households of up to five people or family members to share their game libraries. The new system includes the ability to pool multiple copies of games together so more than one person can play a title if there's more than one copy in the greater Steam Families library.

Expanded parental controls, including the ability to allocate 'Child' and 'Adult' roles, are also available. Adults can limit what games can be accessed, set playtime limits, and restrict access to Steam features like the Store, Community, and Friends Chat. More in-depth and robust parental controls are a big part of the new Steam Families system.

Another significant parental feature of Steam Families is a dedicated purchase request system for Child accounts. This system streamlines the process of approving and buying games for kids without using Steam's current 'gifting' system at checkout.

Sony has over 50+ million PS4 Pro owners globally, with users looking for a reason to upgrade says an analyst, up to the new beefed-up PS5 Pro console that Sony just announced for $699, debuting on November 7, 2024.

In a chat with Rhys Elliott, a Games Industry Analyst with MIDia Research, said he expects the new PS5 Pro to "sell well" to the existing 50,000,000+ strong PS4 Pro audience. Sony did debut the PS4 Pro with a killer feature at the time: 4K HDR, but the new PS5 Pro has 45% faster performance, 2-3x more performance in RT, and AI-powered upscaling through PSSR.

Elliott said that Sony would be silly to not market the console as "the best way to play Grand Theft Auto 6" ahead of GTA 6's game-changing launch in 2025. We've already heard rumors that Sony has "locked down the marketing rights" to GTA 6 for its PS5 Pro and PS5 consoles, with GTA 6 providing a big inticement to PS4 Pro gamers wanting a reason to upgrade to the new PS5 Pro.

Sony's new PlayStation 5 Pro console will cost $699 and it has split gamers: some hate it, and we all know millions will buy it, no matter what the PS5 Pro costs... especially for Grand Theft Auto 6. But, what about a PS5 Pro + GTA 6 bundle? That would surely be the biggest system seller in history.

I still remember in the late when Halo was first announced for the Apple Mac (yes, not the PC or Xbox) adn then Microsoft purchased developer Bungie, and made Halo an Xbox exclusive. It was a system seller, and started the life of the Xbox family of consoles. The same goes for games like Goldeneye 007 back on the Nintendo 64, or Mario Kart 64, and Half-Life for the PC. These games sold systems, millions of them... but what about GTA 6?

Sony has reportedly locked down the marketing rights to GTA 6 for its standard PS5 and newly-revealed PS5 Pro consoles, and now that we have the official PS5 Pro announcement -- 45% faster, 2-3x faster in RT, PSSR upscaling -- I wonder (and have since the PS5 Pro rumors began) how a PS5 Pro + GTA 6 bundle would sell.

Sony unveiled its new PlayStation 5 Pro console a few days ago, with its $699 price seeing many gamers in mixed reaction, but an analyst said that the $699 PS5 Pro console is for "Superfans" and that we could expect 13-15 million PS5 Pro consoles sold.

Rhys Elliott, a Games Industry Analyst at MIDiA Research talked with our friends at Wccftech, where he said that the PS5 Pro is for "Superfans" and that we could expect 13-15 million PS5 Pro consoles sold. The analyst said:

After revealing that 75% of PS5 owners prefer to play their games in 60FPS Performance Modes, Sony console architect Mark Cerny infers that 30FPS gaming is sub-par.

It sounds like Sony is starting to recognize that 30FPS console gaming isn't up to the standards that gamers expect--or at least the standards that they prefer--hence the PS5 Pro, which was created to deliver more consistent 4K 60FPS gameplay in current-gen titles.

The new $700 mid-gen PS5 Pro was created as a way to bridge the compromise between graphics and frame rates, which has plagued console gaming from the get-go (the PS4 Pro was also likewise made to deliver new graphics and FPS options, giving gamers more choice while trying up-sell 4K UHDTVs).

PS5 architect Mark Cerny reveals an interesting tidbit about player preferences regarding the age old graphics vs frame rate trade off.

While most game developers offer two distinct modes for their PS5 games--Fidelity or Performance--Sony has long known that players prioritize in-game frame rates over higher-end graphics. That's according to Sony Interactive Entertainment console architect Mark Cerny, who says that around 75% of all PS5 users prefer to choose performance modes for better and more responsive gameplay.

"When asked to decide on a mode, players typically choose performance mode about three-quarters of the time," Cerny said in the PS5 Pro reveal video.