Gaming - Page 230

Roto has just unveiled its latest invention: the Roto VR Explorer, a new gaming chair for the next level in VR gaming experiences, made in development with Meta and its Quest 3 headset. Check it out:

Roto explains "experience total VR immersion with the Roto VR Explorer, a motorized chair that turns 360 degrees with your head movements and rumbles with game audio".

There are some rather cool features with the rumbling chair from Roto made for the Meta Quest 3 and next-gen VR experiences, with the chair turning around 360 degrees as you turn your head, a powerful motor that turns at 21 revs per minute, and haptic feedback that's rumbled through your entire body.

When it comes to modding PC games, Bethesda's Skyrim is right up there as the one game players and developers keep coming back to. With the ability to create new games, expansions, and overhaul every little detail - one way to make the 2011 original look brand-new is by installing several visual mods.

Recently, we presented a video from YouTube creator Digital Dreams showcasing Skyrim running with over 3100 mods, including the fantastic Complete Ray Tracing Reshade mod. The result is stunning, especially when running on a GeForce RTX 4090. Well, Digital Dreams is back, and this time, we can see the same modded-out version of Skyrim running in 8K.

8K with ray-tracing is no small feat, even with a GeForce RTX 4090, which is why this footage uses the free Lossless Scaling app on Steam. Lossless Scaling is a version of Frame Generation that works with every game and can deliver impressive results. For the best results, you'll want to watch this on a big-screen 8K TV.

Skyblivion, a complete remake of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in the The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim engine, is on track for a 2025 release. As part of a new gameplay presentation, the Skyblivion developers have presented two quests from the original game set around the town and city of Chorrol. In the video, we see the new visuals, environments, character models, and original voices from Oblivion.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion dates back to 2006, and as a game that is almost twenty years old, the visuals are now very dated. Skyblivion looks terrific, from the environment to the buildings to the trees, grass, and character models. As someone who played Oblivion back in the day on PC - and then once more on the Xbox 360 console, it's strange to hear these familiar voices again.

In the town of Chorral, we see the Mages Guild and one of the quests, Fingers of the Mountain. This quest has the player retrieve a unique book, which they can return to the quest giver or a secondary character. It's not all that exciting, but it's a clear indicator that development on the ambitious Skyblivion remake is progressing well.

Heavy lay the crown is a great way to describe of the Call of Duty franchise, as the first-person-shooter continues to top charts in terms of popularity, but is constantly criticized.

One of the biggest griefs players have with Call of Duty is the sheer file size it requires, which has been a problem since 2022 when the decision to couple Call of Duty: Warzone with each new Call of Duty title within what is now called the Call of Duty HQ launcher. Unfortunately, with each new update, the COD HQ launch only gained more in size, getting to the point where Call of Duty was taking up the majority of space on hard drives and SSDs.

However, that is all about to change as Call of Duty has explained in a new blog post that it will be rolling out an update on August 21 as part of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's Season 5 Reloaded update that will be decoupling the download of Warzone from any Call of Duty title. Players will be able to opt-in to the Warzone download when downloading a new Call of Duty game or simply download Warzone at any point.

Bethesda Game Studios is launching a new Elder Scrolls game in September. However, it's not the highly anticipated The Elder Scrolls 6 or a remaster or Oblivion. The Elder Scrolls: Castles launches worldwide on September 10 for Apple and Android devices. The game puts players "in control of their very own castle and dynasty in The Elder Scrolls universe."

Bethesda has released a deep-dive video on what to expect. The development team describes it as a spiritual successor to the popular mobile game Fallout Shelter. The game's presentation and look are similar to Fallout Shelter, albeit with the Elder Scrolls fantasy theme.

Fallout Shelter was Bethesda's first mobile game, and it was a huge free-to-play success. The Elder Scrolls: Castles looks to be another winner, offering a similar experience.

World of Warcraft is a veritable institution that is still going strong after 20 years. The popular MMO's latest expansion, The War Within, launches on August 26, and ahead of its launch, NVIDIA has announced that World of Warcraft is now available to stream via the cloud on GeForce NOW.

NVIDIA simply hasn't added World of Warcraft to GeForce NOW; it has also partnered with CurseForge to support the top mods or Addons for the game. CurseForge Addons are popular with WoW players as they offer revamped UI layouts, combat tools, action bars, and even quest helpers. For veteran players, modding WoW is a key part of the experience, so it's great to see NVIDIA go all out and work with CurseForge to bring World of Warcraft to GeForce NOW.

How will Add-Ons work over the cloud? Just like they do on a gaming PC, you need to enable them from the game's menu and start playing. NVIDIA offers a quick guide on the feature that you can read here.

Valve is updating its User Review system to prioritize relevant reviews that "best help players make a purchase decision about the game." Valve calls it the 'Helpfulness System,' designed to push one-word reviews, reviews full of ASCII art, memes, and unrelated information to the bottom of the list.

Valve won't remove reviews deemed unhelpful, and the new helpfulness system can be toggled on or off within the user review section of each game - by default, it will be enabled.

"The primary goal of Steam User Reviews is to help potential players make informed decisions about the games they are considering purchasing by understanding the attributes of the game that other players like or don't like," Valve writes. "Historically, we've sorted reviews by the number of 'helpful' votes given to each review by other players. However, we've seen that many players use reviews for sharing jokes, memes, ASCII art and other content that might not be the most helpful for a potential purchaser."

Ubisoft is rumored to be preparing for the launch of Nintendo's next-generation console, which is presumably called the Nintendo Switch 2, given the absolute homerun success of the Nintendo Switch.

The latest rumors come from Nintendo leaker Nash Weedle, who took to X, formerly Twitter, to announce that Ubisoft is currently working on a port of Assassin's Creed Shadows that is planned for the Nintendo Switch 2. In addition to the latest Assassin's Creed game, which is scheduled to release later this year, coming over to Nintendo's next console, Ubisoft is also rumored to be working on Switch 2 ports for the following Assassin's Creed titles: Mirage, Valhalla, Odyssey, and Origins.

Notably, Weedle points out that Ubisoft is planning on bundling Odyssey and Origins together, which is presumably going to be some kind of Greek and Egyptian-themed deal. Furthermore, the leaker added in follow-up posts that the ports would be outsourced. To add some credibility to this rumor, Universo Nintendo editor-in-chief Necro Felipe responded to Weedle's claims and said, "can back up the Shadows part". It appears at the very least, Nintendo's next-gen console will feature the latest Assassin's Creed game.

Picking a gaming monitor can be quite challenging, and more often than not, a buyer will just go with a more expensive option for future-proofing their build.

In most cases, that is a great strategy, but I believe there is always room to consider how a few dollars can be saved before a big purchase is made. In the realm of gaming monitors, it comes down to what games you play, as that will determine if you want a high refresh rate display, or a high resolution display (of course considering your PC can handle both). If you play a lot of competitive titles, I would recommend lower resolution and higher refresh rate for smoother gameplay, as visual fidelity typically isn't as necessary in highly competitive titles.

If you play cinematic titles, such as slow RPG games, or titles with lots of cut scenes and overall slower gameplay, high refresh rate monitors aren't recommended as most of these titles have FPS caps that are below the total refresh rate of the monitor. But what if you flew between RPG games and competitive titles? Introducing dual-mode monitors, Alienware's 27-inch AW2725QF is the latest to join other brands, such as ASUS, in the pursuit of providing a solution for this problem.

Valve has taken to its blog to announce new rules coming to the Steam Store, with the company introducing a bunch of new rules that developers will have to abide by when filling out a store listing.

The world's biggest PC gaming client will be introducing the new rules in early September, and they will remove the ability for developers to place any links within the description boxes of their games, as Steam believes the links typically don't provide any information about the game that informs players purchasing decisions. That last point is the essence of these changes, and the ability to place links will be removed from the following four specific areas: "About The Game", "Short Description", "Special Announcement", and "Awards".

Moreovoer, the four aforementioned sections will no longer be able to host embedded imagery that minics Steam store UI or buttons, along with the any images, links, or widgets pointing to other games on Steam. It appears Valve is making it difficult for developers to use Steam Store listings as a way of advertising other products that are either on Steam or off of Steam, which speaks to the player-focussed sentiment mentioned earlier.

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it would bring some of its first-party games to PlayStation, starting with four titles: Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded. The publisher and console maker's multi-platform shift was seen as controversial by fans of Xbox consoles. Why go third-party when the Xbox Series X|S combo competes with the PlayStation 5?

In recent months, Microsoft Gaming and Xbox chief Phil Spencer stated that the publisher wasn't done bringing games to the PlayStation platform. This move makes sense, especially in light of reports showcasing Xbox games dominating the PlayStation Store sales rankings and Xbox's dwindling hardware revenue as an overall percentage of Microsoft Gaming.

According to a new report via the ResetEra Forum and known leaker Shinobi602, Microsoft and Xbox will announce at least one more "big" title coming to PlayStation 5 next week - joining Call of Duty Black Ops 6 this holiday season.

Square Enix's total net sales revenues are down year-over-year, but the company could deliver a significant boost to its games segments with a lucrative new partnership.

Square Enix recently posted its Q1'25 results, reflecting lower net sales earnings than a year ago. These revenues punctuate up-and-down sales for the last two fiscal years. It's not that the Japanese publisher is in trouble--far from it, as the cost-cutting measures have actually boosting operating profits and total net profits--but compared to FY21 and FY22, the past few years (FY23 and FY24) have been markedly lower insofar as sales.

With a lack of big new AAA games, Q1'25 saw net sales drop to $435 million, the lowest quarterly sales in the past 16 quarters, or 4 fiscal years. In lieu of no AAA games, the MMO and mobile segments are doing heavy lifting for Square Enix right now. But the publisher has a secret weapon that will combine the strengths of both of these segments together.

NVIDIA RTX is a powerful and incredible game-modding tool we've covered extensively at TweakTown. It allows modders and those interested in tinkering with classic games the ability to remaster DirectX 8 and 9 titles with full ray-tracing, DLSS 3.5, AI-generated or brand-new assets, and physically accurate materials.

Since being released into beta, NVIDIA RTX Remix has expanded its game compatibility based on what modders want to use the tool for - support for the original Deux Ex's custom engine is one - while adding new rendering features. Over 20,000 modders are using RTX Remix to mod and remaster classic games.

It's one of the most impressive community-focused game development and modding tools, and now NVIDIA has announced that it is open-sourcing the RTX Remix Toolkit.

As part of NVIDIA's weekly DLSS announcements, which cover the latest PC games and releases that will support the groundbreaking GeForce RTX technology, there was a surprising addition of a game I didn't even know could be a thing. And that is racing in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freeks is available to play right now, with the free-to-play " adrenaline-fueled combat racing" launching into Early Access with support for DLSS Super Resolution upscaling to improve performance on all GeForce RTX graphics cards. The good news is that the game is currently sitting on a 'Mostly Positive' user review score on Steam, with many praising the game for providing classic arcade-style fun.

And the game's description is perfect. "In the 41st Millennium, a kult of unhinged, speed-obsessed Orks addicted to racing has gathered to engage in raucous and breakneck races during rare lulls between open warfare."

The game director of Fallout: New Vegas recently expressed interest in returning to the franchise, and this is exciting for a few reasons. The man in question, Joshua Sawyer, still works at Obsidian Entertainment. More importantly, since Fallout: New Vegas hit the scene in 2010, the Fallout franchise, Obsidian, and Bethesda Game Studios are now all under the Xbox and Microsoft Gaming banner.

Also, it doesn't hurt that the Fallout TV Series on Prime Video is massive - and that Season 2 will see the action head to New Vegas.

As part of a recent Q&A session that Joshua Sawyer posted to his YouTube channel, the session ended with a question about whether or not he'd be interested in returning to the Fallout franchise if Microsoft or Bethesda asked him. The one-word answer? "Sure."

Sony's new first-party live service game Concord will have in-game purchases in the form of cosmetic monetization, new details on the PlayStation Blog have revealed.

Yesterday, Firewalk Studios and Sony revealed the robust post-launch content roadmap for Concord, the new first-person squad shooter that's set to launch next week. In previous messages, the studio was quick to say that Concord wouldn't have a battle pass: "You own Concord, Concord doesn't own you," gameplay animation director Mark DeRidder said at the time.

But make no mistake: Concord will indeed have microtransactions. They just won't be in the game at launch. Firewalk is instead launching the mtX storefront with Season 1, which begins in October. So gamers will theoretically have around 2 months of play without any in-game monetization.

All signs point to Final Fantasy XVI's PC version being revealed sometime next week at Gamescom 2024.

Gamescom 2024 is right around the corner (Aug 21 - Aug 24), and publishers are expected to make some interesting announcements at the event. Typically, we don't see major new game reveals from third-party publishers at the Cologne, Germany-based showcase--those are usually reserved for the summer and/or winter events--but there's often info about new ports and platforms for existing games.

That could be the case for Final Fantasy XVI, which is expected to come to PC sometime soon. Game producer Naoki Yoshida has repeatedly said he'd like to bring FF16 to PC at some point, and the move does fit with Square Enix's business model of launching mainline games onto PlayStation first and then PC months later.

Blizzard has just announced a bunch of details for Overwatch 2's upcoming Season 12, which introduces a new support hero -- Juno -- a new game mode called Clash, new maps, balances, and so much more.

Overwatch 2's new support hero is Juno, who is a new space cadet support character with a burst-fire primary weapon called the Mediblaster, which heals teammates and damages enemies, with a secondary Pulsar Torpedoes that lock onto allies and enemies, healing your teammates and damaging your enemies. Very cool.

The passive ability with Juno comes in the form of her Martial Overboots, which allow the space cadet to double jump and then hover in the air like she's kind of (but not fully) flying. The passive ability gels beautifully with Glide Boost, an ability that lets Juno glide above and around the battle horizontally.

FromSoftware's parent company Kadokawa Corp. gives early preliminary info on Shadow of the Erdtree's performance, saying that the DLC helped significantly raise its gaming earnings.

Elden Ring's new Shadow of the Erdtree expansion is apparently doing incredibly well, which isn't always the case for premium-priced DLC. According to the latest financial results from Kadokawa Corp, who owns Elden Ring developer FromSoftware, the expansion helped boost its gaming sales revenue by 80% and operating profit also shot up by 108% year-over-year.

Kadokawa notes that Shadow of the Erdtree also helped boost sales of the main game, which makes sense as the two titles were included in a lower-cost $80 bundle on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S platforms. It should be noted that Bandai Namco published both Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree, so we may get more info on direct unit sales in subsequent reports.

If you own a Windows 11 handheld, Microsoft has made a nifty move in introducing a new shrunk-down Game Bar - and ASUS ROG Ally owners have another piece of positive news on top of that today, regarding SteamOS support.

First off, the Game Bar news, and as Microsoft made clear in a blog post (noticed by VideoCardz), there's now a Compact Mode for the bar to make it more suitable for a small-screen experience such as the ROG Ally (or other Windows portables).

The catch is that it's just in testing for now, but it surely won't be too long before the new mode progresses to release. Xbox Insiders can give it a whirl by going to Settings in the Game Bar, then navigating to General, where there's a new toggle for Compact Mode.