Gaming - Page 253

Apple makes a pre-emptive change in its App Store policies in an effort to head off negative effects from the European Union's new Digital Markets Act (DMA) legislation.

The EU's new DMA is changing the face of the digital world as we know it. European lawmakers have used the new act to crack open Apple's ill-favored App Store policies and force some pretty big changes. The biggest shake-up is that Apple must now allow app developers to sell their apps and content on independent third-party stores on iOS, a move that allows developers to circumvent Apple's 30% commission fee.

As part of Apple's DMA-sparked changes, retro game emulators will now be unbanned on the App Store and users are free to download and use them.

Microsoft is 'full speed ahead' on its next-gen Xbox hardware, which is said to be the most technologically-advanced console ever made.

Microsoft has officially made some big decisions around the next Xbox console. FTC vs MSFT court leaks from 2023 showed that Microsoft was thinking about using ARM CPUs and potentially hybrid compute solutions (side note: new Windows Surface tablets are using ARM).

There's also mention of the new Gen10 Xbox potentially having an NPU, or a Neural Processing Unit, which is a dedicated chip used expressly for AI. The idea is that the NPU could handle specific AI-oriented tasks and free up the CPU and GPU for more important tasks like rendering and processing assets.

Microsoft isn't giving up on consoles any time soon.

Xbox's new president Sarah Bond has set up a new team to oversee what is arguably the most important thing for Xbox consoles: Backwards compatibility. The news comes by way of Windows Central's Jez Corden, who was told that the new division would focus on software compatibility between console generations.

The idea is to continue to carry forward the Xbox legacy across multiple hardware generations, where the software can be re-sold/re-packaged to consumers as standalone game sales or within subscriptions. Microsoft's commitment in this space has led to 4 generations of Xbox games being playable on the Series X/S generation, and Gen10 Xboxes could bump that up to that 5 generations of support. Also, let's not forget Microsoft wants to create a Universal Store that sells games and content across all consumer endpoints, including everything from mobile phones to PCs and consoles.

New reports may give clues on what's next for Destiny.

It sounds like a numbered Destiny sequel may be back on the table. New reports say that Bungie was (or may currently be) working on Destiny 3, which was being crafted under the codename Payback. The info comes by way of a mysterious Redditor whose prophetic words proved to be eerily accurate--they predicted Destiny 2's Prism subclass feature a month before it was revealed.

With this proven win under their belt, everyone is now taking the user seriously and looking into what else is being said about Destiny. According to the source of the leaks, Destiny 3 would essentially remove all barriers to character classes. Abilities and powers would no longer be exclusively available to certain classes--at least that's how it was described.

It's Thursday, which means it time for NVIDIA's update on what's going on with GeForce Now, and the hot news - radioactive news, even - is that a pair of Fallout games have been brought into the streaming fold.

They are Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 to be precise. Fallout 4 is a classic action RPG from the best part of a decade ago, but it's getting a next-gen update later in April (two weeks today, in fact). That'll add a bunch of goodies including ultra-widescreen monitor support on PC, and much more besides.

Fallout 76 is, of course, the later online multiplayer take on the franchise which wasn't very well-received back at the time of launch, but has improved considerably since, and actually gets some pretty favorable feedback these days.

Fallout 4's anticipated next-gen update is coming April 25, bringing some welcome optimizations across all platforms.

Fallout is back in a big way. The first season of the Fallout TV show is now streaming on Amazon Prime, and Bethesda just announced more details about Fallout 4's upgrade patch. The nearly-10-year-old post-apocalyptic nuclear war survival sim is getting a boost to 60FPS on consoles alongside some adjustments on PC.

On April 25, Bethesda will release the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S updates for Fallout 4. The console updates bring an FPS priority Performance Mode that can hit up to 60 frames-per-second. Quality Mode will apparently upscale graphics and put more emphasis on visuals. Fallout 4 is also getting tweaked on PC with new "stability improvements and fixes" alongside ultra widescreen support.

Since the release of the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer, fans have been tearing apart every frame to see if they can figure out what to expect in the game when it releases. One of the main aspects fans are looking for is who is behind the main protagonists.

The two main protagonists, Lucia and Jason, have been a topic of the GTA community since Rockstar Games released the trailer back in December, with many fans theorizing the voice behind Jason would be iconic voice actor Troy Baker, who is known for his performances in The Last of Us, Far Cry 4, BioShock Infinite, Borderlands, Uncharted 4, and many more popular titles. Baker is one of, if not the most decorated voice actor in the video game community, which means it's no surprise that GTA fans hoped he was behind one of the main protagonists in the most anticipated game of all time, GTA 6.

However, the theorizing recently came to an end when Baker confirmed he was not playing the male protagonist, leaving fans to re-dive back into the trailer to find more clues. A post on the GTA 6 subreddit showed a resume by a New York-based actor named Gregory Connors. On the resume was a credit for a "lead" role in a Rockstar game set to release in 2025. Notably, after the Reddit post, Connors removed the "lead" credit from his resume, leading fans to believe he is definitely involved in the project somehow.

Owners of certain generations of high-end CPUs are reporting an increasing frequency of game crashes, which are now being investigated by the manufacturers.

Intel has announced it's investigating recent reports of game crashes for owners of Intel's latest 13th and 14th Gen Core i9 desktop processors. The owners of these CPUs are saying that games such as The Finals, Fortnite, Tekken 8, Hogwarts Legacy, Remnant 2, Alan Wake 2, Horizon: Zero Dawn, The Last of Us Part 1, and Outpost: Infinity Siege are crashing unexpectedly. According to reports from The Verge and Ars Technica, Intel initially believed it was an "isolated issue" but now has escalated it to a potentially more widespread problem.

Additionally, CPUs such as the i9-13900KF, i9-14900KF, i9-13900KS, and i9-14900KS may fall victim to the same issues, considering they are all the same basic silicon. Furthermore, user reports indicate that the i7-13700K and i7-14700K series may also be affected.

Blizzard games like World of Warcraft and Diablo have been prominent in China for several years, thanks to a deal made with local publishing and gaming giant NetEase to bring its popular games and franchises to the country. However, the deal between the two expired in 2023, with Blizzard and NetEase pointing the finger at each other - citing the other party as the reason for the agreement not being renewed.

It got so heated that NetEase employees tore down a World of Warcraft statue at its offices, with both companies suing each other. Well, it looks like time heals all wounds - or a change in management does. With Microsoft now in charge of Activision Blizzard and its properties, a new deal has been struck to bring Blizzard Entertainment games like Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo back to China this summer.

As part of the new deal, both parties have also agreed to explore bringing NetEase titles to Microsoft Xbox and other gaming platforms in the West.

Bethesda Game Studio's post-launch support for Starfield has been slow; in seven months, the studio has only managed to release a handful of patches focused on bug fixes and a few tweaks. Granted, a few of these patches have been massive, with hundreds of fixes and updates, but it's all MIA in terms of new content, overhauls, or even official mod tools.

Enter TGs Galactic Colonies Expanse from TankGirl444 (available via Nexus Mods), a new DLC-sized mod that expands the game's building and Outpost systems. Apparently, this modder took a month or so to put together (with help from other mods), and it's the most exciting Starfield news in months.

It dramatically expands the game's Outpost mechanic, revamping how materials are gathered and adding more detailed buildings, new structures called biodomes, and even a farming system, which can then be processed to create new food and recipes and a way to earn credits.

EA and DICE have provided an update on Battlefield 2042 or an announcement confirming that the current season will be its last. Season 7, Turning Point, added a new map set in Chile, new weapons and gadgets, and continued to right the wrong that was Battlefield 2042's disastrous launch.

"It is now necessary for us to turn from the present to the future," the post writes. "What this ultimately means is that Season 7 will serve as the final season for Battlefield 2042. After Season 7 concludes, we will continue to support the game with new in-game challenges, events, modes, and, of course, ongoing maintenance, but we are moving away from delivering official seasons."

You can probably guess what this means. DICE, Criterion, and Ripple Effect are now focusing on the next multiplayer and single-player Battlefield experiences, with a new team from Motive (Dead Space Remake, Star Wars: Squadrons) joining the Battlefield team.

Fans of Nintendo consoles will be saddened to hear that the end of an era has finally come as the company has officially axed its online services for the Wii U and 3DS.

While many gamers knew the decision to end online support for the two consoles was coming it still doesn't make the news any easier to read, as iconic titles such as Mario Kart 7 and Splatoon have now become single-player experiences. If that didn't make you upset, the original Super Mario Maker is now officially redundant as as players will no longer be able to download new community created levels.

As for the consoles themselves, the 3DS had a bit of a rough start after it was released, but it eventually found its success due to the slew of popular titles that were released on the platform. The Wii U, on the other hand, never quite made it and is widely considered the moderately-sized black duckling of Nintendo's line of gaming consoles, with only 13.56 million total unit sales since its release.

Ubisoft has announced the release date for the highly anticipated Star Wars Outlaws, which will be available on August 30 for PC and consoles. Earlier today, we reported on how Ubisoft has partnered with Intel on the game for the PC release. Still, for those looking for the latest and greatest in PC graphics, you'll be pleased to learn that it's also set to support all of the best game-enhancing RTX technologies.

Ubisoft Massive leads development on Star Wars Outlaws, which will feature real-time ray-tracing, DLSS 3 Frame Generation, Super Resolution, and NVIDIA Reflex for smooth and responsive performance and controls. The game runs on the studio's impressive Snowdrop engine, which was last seen in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and, before that, The Division 2.

As an open-world planet-hopping action-adventure, Star Wars Outlaws sees you take control of "cunning scoundrel Kay Vess and her loyal companion Nix" in a story that takes place between Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.

GamerTech announced its new Magma Glove gaming gloves at PAX East 2024 last month, featuring active heating that optimizes hand performance in cold environments while gaming. Alright, now I've seen it all. Check out the new Magma Glove below:

The new Magma Glove features active thin film heating that GamerTech designed for cold gaming sessions, with the new esports gloves utilizing a reflective layer that keeps heat inside the glove, with thin layers of graphene carbon heaters in particular parts of the hand and wrist, keeping your hands at optimal temperatures. The gloves feature a timed heating cycle, which wearers can tweak with three different heat settings.

It might not seem like much, but with esports gaining more and more respect throughout the world -- especially with the International Olympics Committee agreeing that esports is a legitimate sporting activity -- competitive gamers are winning huge prize pools at tournaments and online. Just like regular sports, the temperatures of gamers have a negative effect on reaction times, with hand agility decreasing across all activities in cold temperatures... even a tiny fraction of a delay can result in a loss.

Ubisoft has just announced it has partnered with Intel as its exclusive CPU launch partner for Star Wars Outlaws, which will see optimizations for 14th Gen Core CPUs and game bundles for select 14th Gen Core CPUs and laptops. Check it out:

The partnership between Ubisoft and Intel will see performance optimizations for Intel's current-gen 14th Gen Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" CPUs that will ensure Raptor Lake-S and Raptor Lake-HX processors will have the very best experience possible when playing Star Wars Outlaws.

Star Wars Outlaws will feature optimizations that will improve CPU scheduling on Intel's 14th Gen Core CPUs and their hybrid CPU architectures, optimizing workload scheduling that will unleash the full performance headroom on these processors. Intel has two different core architectures at play with P-Core and E-Cores, with the P-Cores optimized for performance and the E-Cores optimized for efficiency.

Lenovo's Legion Go hasn't been out that long - the Steam Deck rival launched back in October 2023 - and already the PC maker is planning its successor.

This news emerged from the Lenovo Innovate 24 conference that just took place in Bangkok, Thailand, where tech journalist Chris Stead spoke to Clifford Chong, gaming category manager at Lenovo Asia Pacific.

You can watch the interview in the above YouTube clip, and Chong makes it clear that Lenovo is already mulling over a Lenovo Legion Go 2, and what features that device could run with to improve the gaming portable.

In a not so surprising revelation, Hellblade II will run at 30FPS on Xbox Series X and Series S consoles, Ninja Theory has confirmed.

Altough much more powerful than their forebears, closed hardware like the PS5 and Xbox SeriesX/S are bound by compromise. Devs have to often pick between higher frame rates or higher resolution--Gen 9 technically can make these trade offs less extreme, but some sort of balancing act is needed.

That's why we're still seeing games run at 30FPS, even with the extra horsepower of the PS5 and Series X. Running at 30FPS is especially weighty on the Series X, especially the way the system was marketed as being so powerful. So when Ninja Theory confirmed Hellblade runs at 30FPS on Xbox consoles, it wasn't exactly a surprise. Not only does Hellblade II look incredible--in new media previews, Hellblade II received glowing praise for its graphics and overall visual design--but it also has to look incredible on the Series S, too.

The game that will follow Baldur's Gate 3 from Larian won't be another entry in that franchise, sadly - and we don't know what it'll be at all, but whatever project is picked from the library of current possibilities, you'll be able to play it early doors.

Larian's head of publishing Michael Douse informed us of this fact in an interview with Game File, where Douse said that the developer's next game would be another 'early access' effort on Steam, just like Baldur's Gate 3. Or at least that this would "probably" be the case.

So, that's something good to know for those keen on seeing Larian's next step after the hit RPG (and the developer's previous highly acclaimed Divinity: Original Sin II, of course).

A new study has found that humans can see the world at a higher "frame rate" than other humans, meaning some people see the world completely differently than others.

Humans see by converting light into electrical signals through cells called photoreceptors. These cells than then transmit the signals through the optic nerve to the region of the brain responsible for image formation, known as a the visual cortex. The speed, or frequency this process occurs is called temporal resolution, or a "frame rate". According to a new study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, the frame rate humans isn't standard across all humans and can differ vastly depending on genetic makeup.

A team of researchers took 88 volunteers and placed goggles on them and put a blinking LED light in their sight. The LED light blinked at different speeds. The test enabled the researchers to boil down the speed of which the test subject was no longer able to see the flicking light, and instead they saw a solid unmoving light. The results were surprisingly as some people weren't able to see past a flicking light above 35 times a second, while others were able to see up to 60 times per second.

In a new report at Windows Central from Xbox and Microsoft reporter Jez Corden, a leaked email from Xbox President Sarah Bond outlines the company's plans for the future of Xbox. First, the company is committed to building a new next-gen Xbox console, with Sarah Bon reiterating that it will deliver "the biggest technical leap ever in a generation."

During a recent Official Xbox Podcast appearance, Sarah Bond first made these comments that outlined the company's plans to go multi-platform by bringing select first-party titles to Sony PlayStation and Nintendo Switch platforms. Talking about the next generation of Xbox consoles while hyping up performance was a way to reassure fans and Xbox players that Microsoft wasn't planning on leaving the console hardware business.

That said, "the biggest technical leap ever in a generation" is vague and could mean many things. According to the leaked email obtained by Windows Central, the answer could lie in Sarah Bond stating that the next-generation Xbox will feature something called Gaming AI.