Gaming - Page 236

Mods have kept Bethesda's iconic The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim relevant for over a decade, and there are thousands out there covering gameplay, visual upgrades, new quests, new weapons and items, and ambitious projects that are complete remakes of previous Elder Scrolls game like Oblivion and Morrowind.

With that, YouTube creator Digital Dreams presented a new video showcasing Skyrim running with over 3100 mods, including Complete Ray Tracing Reshade. Now, if you've ever modded Skyrim before, you'll know that playing the game with 20, 30, or more mods requires a specific load order to avoid issues, in addition to using a carefully tuned mod manager.

So yeah, having over 3,100 mods running in Skyrim is a game-changer, but getting the game to run with that many mods is an impressive feat. Visually, it transforms the game to the point where it looks like a different - and stunning - game running on and pushing the GeForce RTX 4090 to its limit.

Microsoft's subscription-based Xbox Game Pass for consoles and PC Game Pass for Windows have been game changers in recent years. Offering a library of games to download and install, with day-one access to all first-party Xbox titles, it's one of those things where it's hard to imagine owning an Xbox console without having a Game Pass subscription to go with it.

That changed this week when Microsoft confirmed a confusing pricing increase and tier restructure for Game Pass. Console gamers are being hit the hardest as the Xbox Game Pass for Console subscription tier (which doesn't include PC Game Pass or EA Play titles) is being replaced by Xbox Game Pass Standard. This $15 USD monthly subscription will no longer include access to first-party Xbox titles on day one.

That's right, no day-one access to Age of Mythology Retold, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Avowed, or Indiana Jones and the Great Circle this year, and no day-one access to DOOM: The Dark Ages, Fable, Perfect Dark, South of Midnight, Gears of War: E-Day, and more in 2025.

AYANEO has recently released several gaming-oriented handhelds for Android and Windows. The company's latest is the AYANEO Pocket EVO, which is described as the world's first Android handheld with a 7-inch 1080p OLED 120Hz display. Handhelds with OLED displays will always grab our attention because the panel tech is incredible for making games look better.

The AYANEO Pocket EVO is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 Gaming Platform, so it won't have any issues running the most demanding Android releases in addition to being able to emulate several generations of classic handheld and console gaming hardware. AYANEO confirms that the chip's 15W mode is tuned for high-performance gaming.

There's more to the AYANEO Pocket EVO than powerful hardware and a vibrant OLED display. The sleek and ergonomic design is equally impressive, with hall-sensing joysticks, triggers, and premium components.

Earlier this year, we reported on one of the most popular and iconic games in the Need For Speed franchise getting the RTX Remix treatment, with alessandro893's impressive Need For Speed: Underground (RTX Remix) mod. As a game from 2003, it's the perfect candidate for NVIDIA's groundbreaking RTX Remix tool, making it easier to bring full ray-tracing and modern rendering tech to classic games.

RTX Remix also makes it easy to replace in-game textures and materials with PBR or Physically Based Rendered versions, allowing advanced lighting, depth, and other effects. In addition, RTX Remix includes baked-in support for DLSS upscaling, Ray Reconstruction, and Frame Generation to improve image fidelity and performance. NVIDIA Lightspeed Studios made Portal with RTX using the RTX Remix toolset, which is so impressive that it looks and feels like a build-from-the-ground-up remake.

Earlier this week, the Need For Speed: Underground (RTX Remix) mod got updated to Version 0.1, and it's shaping up nicely.

AMD has released the FidelityFX SDK 1.1 for game developers. This includes AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 3.1 or FSR 3.1, which recently debuted in high-profile PlayStation Studios titles like Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon Forbidden West on PC.

One of the big features of FSR 3.1 and the new SDK is that "Frame Generation is now separate from upscaling," which opens up Frame Generation to all GPUs (AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA) with the ability to enable it with competing upscalers like DLSS for GeForce RTX owners and Intel's XeSS.

"With FSR 3.0 Frame Generation, we required FSR upscaling to be performed earlier in the graphics pipeline," AMD's Colin Riley explained. "This was because the Frame Generation algorithm required processed motion vector and depth data that was already created as part of FSR upscaling - and so the resources were simply used from there as a performance optimization. The downside of this was that it locked our Frame Generation to only work with our upscaling."

Wuthering Waves is a free-to-play action RPG that was released earlier this year. It arrived on day one with DLSS 2 Super Resolution upscaling support. As part of this week's DLSS announcements from NVIDIA, Wuthering Waves is upgrading its Deep Learning Super Sampling support to include DLSS 3 Frame Generation and Reflex to push performance further. It will arrive alongside the Version 1.1 'Thaw of Eons' update later in the year, which you can see in the following trailer.

Although we've covered it a few times today, thanks to the Black Myth: Wukong GeForce RTX 40 Series bundle announcement and some early performance benchmarks, Black Myth: Wukong will support DLSS 3 Frame Generation on day one. The highly anticipated cinematic action game is set to launch on August 20.

Also adding DLSS 3, DLSS 2, and Reflex support in a recent update is the bright, vibrant, and fun Bears in Space - an "over-the-top bullet-hell FPS." The final game on the list this week is the very cool-sounding 3D action roguelike The Black Room.

Blizzard has just announced its new Overwatch 2 x Transformers collaboration, adding some truly gorgeous skins into the game, so if you're a fan of both Overwatch 2 and Transformers, check out the skins below:

The new Overwatch 2 x Transformers event has already kicked off, with the skins now available in the game. As for the skins that are up for grabs, we have:

Blizzard teased on the official Overwatch 2 x Transformers gameplay trailer on YouTube: "From lessons of the past, the future is forged with Overwatch 2 x TRANSFORMERS! Stand side by side with the AUTOBOTS - Reinhardt as Optimus Prime Reinhardt, Bastion as Bumblebee, and Illari as Arcee. Or you can make them pay with Ramattra as Megatron, the leader of the DECEPTICONS. Which side will you choose?"

Black Myth: Wukong is out next month, and it's not only one of the most anticipated PC games of the year but also one of the best-looking. On PC, the game features a 'Full Ray Tracing' or 'Path Tracing' mode to deliver realistic and cinematic lighting, shadows, reflections, and more.

Ray-traced Global Illumination in the game will ensure that the "lighting indoors and outdoors is pixel perfect, darkening areas where light is occluded or doesn't reach, and realistically illuminating the world by bouncing light." As we saw with Alan Wake II's and Cyberpunk 2077's path-tracing modes, you'll need a beast of the PC to run it and access DLSS 3 Frame Generation, Super Resolution, and Reflex technologies. The game will also support DLSS 3.5's Ray Reconstruction which dramatically improves visual fidelity on GeForce RTX cards.

With that, NVIDIA has shared some pre-release Black Myth: Wukong benchmarks for the game running in 1440p and 4K - and yeah, unless you've got at least a GeForce RTX 4070, running the game with max settings will bring your rig to its knees. And for 4K, you'll need at least a GeForce RTXC 4080.

The Nintendo Switch is one of the best-selling consoles of all time, with the now 7-year-old console recently closing in on the unit sales of the best-selling console in the US, the PlayStation 2.

With that immense popularity, it's quite safe to assume Nintendo is going to be keeping a similar design with its next-generation console, which has gained itself the placeholder name - Nintendo Switch 2. The question is how powerful the hardware will be within this console, and according to Moore's Law is Dead, a YouTube that has many industry insiders, Nintendo's focus for the Switch 2 will be improving docked performance while maintaining power efficiency in handheld mode.

According to the YouTuber, in handheld mode, the Switch 2 will run at 5 watts and feature a fanless cooling solution, and in docked mode, it will be bumped up to a range of 15 to 30 watts, depending on the load of the game. To compensate for this bump in wattage, Nintendo will introduce a cooling solution. As for raw performance, the rumored chip inside the Nintendo Switch 2 is designed with power efficiency in mind, and when compared to the Steam Deck, Moore's Law is Dead says its average FPS will be slightly lower.

The gaming journalism industry in Australia just took a massive hit after some of the biggest publications announced it was game over.

Vice, Gizmodo, Refiner29, Kotaku, and Lifehacker won't publish content in Australia following a jobs cut from its parent company, Pedestrian Group, which is owned by Nine. The Pedestrian Group announced its layoffs to its staff via an email from the CEO of the Pedestrian Group, Matt Rowley, who claimed license partners are facing financial troubles ahead, along with corporate instability, have been what caused the closures.

Rowley also stated he would depart from his position as company CEO and that Pedestrian is now focussing on its "wholly owned Pedestrian brands where we control the strategy, the content, the product, the sales, and the outcome - the entire business." Writers for the publications have since taken to X, formerly Twitter, to express their thoughts at this time, with some saying it's sad that their time at the publication has come to an end this way and others saying how much they loved their position.

CD Projekt RED's Cyberpunk 2077 has changed a lot in recent years, and it's now in a great place - but the single-player cinematic action RPG got off to a rocky start. So much so that the developer's big plans to launch a multiplayer GTA Online-style spin-off or expansion got scrapped as it spent all of its efforts on fixing the core experience and putting together the game's only bit of paid DLC - the excellent Phantom Liberty expansion.

The multiplayer Cyberpunk 2077 dream is alive and well, thanks to the CyberMP multiplayer mod currently in development. The single developer behind the project invited some people to check out an early version - including YouTube creator JuiceHead - and it's impressive stuff.

The mod supports up to 20 players, and based on the work carried out so far, the net code or lag is minimal. Cyberpunk 2077 deathmatches and racing in Night City are proving to be a lot of fun with snappy and responsive action.

If you own one of Valve's portable Steam Deck gaming handhelds, then the Sabrent USB Type-C 3-Port Gaming Hub is a form-fitted, easy-to-use USB hub design for both the Steam Deck and Steam Deck OLED portable gaming systems.

We've got 5Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 1x1 USB Type-C upstream support, extending the deck with its dual USB-A downstream ports, as well as a Type-C port that can be used to both power, and charge the Steam Deck through USB PD 3.0 charging.

Sabrent has been listening to gamers' feedback with the Type-C downstream port, a popular feature from the company's Steam Deck Dock (the DS-SD6P), which is included with the new USB Type-C 3-Port Gaming Hub.

Sony Interactive Entertainment will attend the annual Tokyo Game Show event for the first time since 2019.

Tokyo Game Show 2024 will kick off on September 26, and Sony will be at the event. The PlayStation brand will attend as an exhibitor on the main exhibition floor, however it's unclear what will be shown at the big affair. The official TGS website lists Sony Interactive Entertainment as an attendee in the "general exhibition area", so it's possible there could be some new products and/or games highlighted at their booth.

It's also possible the PlayStation 5 Pro will be at TGS 2024 in some capacity. The PS5 Pro is expected to enable higher-performance gameplay with more consistent frame rates and better raytracing visuals, all powered by a beefier GPU and and overclocked CPU.

Recently, modders and tinkerers discovered a hidden experimental path tracing option in Capcom's RE Engine - which could instantly alter the look and feel of games like Dragon's Dogma 2 and the Resident Evil 4 Remake. Path Tracing or Full Ray Tracing replaces all conventional lighting, reflections, and shadow rendering with ray tracing, leading to a more realistic and often impressive look.

After checking it out in Resident Evil 4 and Dragon's Dogma 2, it's time to see how it looks and runs in Resident Evil Village, the most recent mainline entry in the popular survival horror franchise. And with DLSS 3.7, using the Quality Mode preset, runs in 4K, pushing 60 FPS and higher on a GeForce RTX 4080.

The footage and images arrive courtesy of the YouTube channel MxBenchmarkPC, which tested the game and engine's experimental Path Tracing.

The ambitious Fallout: London from Team FOLON is part Fallout 4 mod, part new game set in the Fallout universe. It was initially slated to be released in April 2024. However, with the arrival of Betehsda's Fallout 4 next-gen patch for PS5, Xbox, and PC, which coincided with the release of the Prime Video TV series, Team FOLON delayed the launch to ensure that they didn't run into any compatibility issues.

The good news is that the ambitious Fallout mod is now in the final stages of QA or Quality Assurance testing. Multiple builds with GOG and Team FOLON are "waiting for the final green light" before launching Fallout: London. GOG is distributing the mod due to its size, and yes, it will arrive with its own installer that will work with all copies of the game regardless of the PC platform or storefront.

"There has been a lot of speculation regarding our upcoming release, and we wanted to open up and clear the air for our core supporters," Team FOLON wrote on X/Twitter. "The bottom line is that we've sent several builds over to GOG for QA testing and are waiting for the final green light."

Surprise: Capcom is working on a new mainline Resident Evil game, but no exact details about the project have been announced.

During the latest Capcom NEXT livestream show, the company confirmed that the next major Resident Evil game is currently in development. That's not exactly a big shocker considering Resident Evil is far and away Capcom's best-selling video game franchise of all time, with a cumulative 157 million copies sold worldwide in the past 28 years. Based off the sales performance of Capcom's most recent Resident Evil 4, which has sold 6.5 million since launch, there's clearly a hot demand for the franchise.

During the live stream, Resident Evil 7 game director Koshi Nakanishi said: "We're making a new Resident Evil. It was really difficult to figure out what to do after Resident Evil 7, but I found it, and to be honest, it feels substantial.

I can't believe it happened, but it's happened: someone has sold a PlayStation 5 Development Kit, thinly (crusted, sorry I had to) disguised as a PS5-themed oven that the seller has called the "PizzaStation 5 Development Kit" for $6500. Check it out:

A user on X called "consolevariations" reported on the PS5 Development Kit being sold as the "PizzaStation 5 Development Pizza Kit," which is a big no-no in the industry. Microsoft and Sony make development kits for developers to get used to consoles in pre-release form, with added development-focused features.

Development kits are elusive and aren't usually sold, as their release has NDAs and is very strictly controlled. Reselling a development kit is a serious no-no, but this PS5 Dev Kit was disguised as the "PizzaStation 5 Development Pizza Kit," which I'm sure got through the usual checks from Sony and sold for a very hefty $6500.

Back in 2023, Obsidian Entertainment announced it had cancelled co-op in its new RPG, Avowed. Now we know why.

Avowed was originally billed as a singleplayer-and-co-op adventure RPG that melds Obsidian's traditional choice-and-consequence gameplay with very Skyrim-esque mechanics. But the co-op mode was quickly slashed just 8 months into development. Features are usually cancelled because of costs, whether they be monetary, time-related, or manpower.

In Avowed's case, it came down to big technical and creative investments that would have taken Obsidian's focus away from the core of the game: reactive and emergent interactive storytelling.

Ex-Rockstar Game dev Joe Rubino confirms what we had suspected all along: GTA V's anticipated campaign DLC had been scrapped in favor of GTA Online content.

Grand Theft Auto Online has been so successful that it has led to the cancellation of traditional paid singleplayer content. Given how much money GTA Online has made, and still makes, this may not come at a total surprise. The live service mode has helped the GTA franchise generate a whopping $9.1 billion since Grand Theft Auto V's release in 2013, and is a substantial driver for GTA's $150 million to $200 million in quarterly revenues.

But putting together something as massive as GTA Online isn't easy. It takes a lot of work, and a lot of investment. Because of its incredible earnings potential, GTA Online has been prioritized over the traditional buy-to-play story content that used to be the singular expansion point for mainline GTA titles. In the past, this offline story DLC did not sell nearly as well as the main games.

Will PC gamers ever stop talking about porting Bloodborne over? No, they won't, is the short and simple answer to that question - not until it actually happens - but the wait for Bloodborne to be playable on PC might just be over sooner than you think.

Not thanks to a port - though we've recently had some hope stoked that this could still happen - but via an emulator, namely shadPS4.

As Wccftech noticed, a video has been uploaded to YouTube by George Moralis, a coder and one of the devs of the emulator, showing shadPS4 running Bloodborne - or at least booting it up.