Gaming - Page 273

Microsoft has found a fix for the disastrous glitch that's wiping saved games in Baldur's Gate 3 on Xbox.

The Baldur's Gate 3 save bug will soon be eliminated as early as tomorrow. Apparently, the save glitch was caused by a firmware issue, and requires a firmware update in order to address.

Microsoft will release a new update for Xbox Series S and Series X consoles that users can manually download and install tomorrow, January 16. Larian further notes that this particular fix has not been verified by the studio.

Former director of the Witcher 3 reveals Dawnwalker, a new dark fantasy RPG from his recent indie studio.

In 2022, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz left CD Projekt and opened a new indie studio called Rebel Wolves. The Polish game dev's resume was impressive--he had worked on mega-hits at Cyberpunk 2077, serving as director of The Witcher 3 and co-director of Cyberpunk 2077--and he went on to recruit other former CD Projekt workers including Cyberpunk writer Jakub Szamalek.

Now Rebel Wolves have revealed their first game. It's called Dawnwalker, and if the key art is anything to go by, we could see a kind of dark Jekyll and Hyde approach with the main character. When I first saw the image, it immediately reminded me of Blade, Geralt of Rivia, and Corvo Attano wrapped into one occultish package.

Halo Infinite's rumored battle royale spin-off may have been cancelled.

Back in 2022, reports circulated that Halo Infinite would get its own special BR mode. Well, mode is a bit of a misnomer--the project, codenamed "Tatanka" and potentially referring to the Lakota word translating to bison--was said to be something bigger than just a gametype. It could potentially be something like Halo's own version of Warzone. Neither Xbox nor Halo steward 343 Industries has announced Tatanka, but reports said that long-time Halo partner Certain Affinity was working on the BR.

Reports promised that Tatanka would be a grand 100-player experience complete with bots and its own ring of fire-like shrinking map. There'd even be multi-objective missions where you'd be able to capture flags, infiltrate/exfiltrate areas, kill high-profile targets, and king of the hill to boot.

Retroware, the publisher behind the Angry Video Game Nerd games, is helping make a parody platformer based on the NES game that started it all.

Simon's Quest. It's a game that inspired the first The Angry Video Game Nerd episode, and lives on as one of the most infamous NES titles of all time. It's a cryptic, tough, and generally interesting Castlevania that helped set the stage for greats like Symphony of the Night.

Whatever you think about Konami's controversial classic, they say that imitation is the best form of flattery. Game dev Programancer has teamed up Retroware (publisher of the AVGN games) to make their own Castlevania II clone, complete with a retro style that perfectly matches the old NES era.

MSI only just revealed its Claw handheld - a Steam Deck rival, but a Windows-powered one in the vein of many others like the ASUS ROG Ally - at CES 2024, but already the firm is talking about its sequel, and indeed beyond.

IGN followed up with a question about the release pacing, and when MSI is considering producing these next incarnations of its portable gaming device. Chun replied in vague terms, as you might expect.

The MSI Claw itself won't be out until the second half of 2024, and it comes with a notable difference to the existing Windows-powered PC handhelds out there - namely that it uses one of Intel's new Meteor Lake CPUs. (There are other planned handhelds with these processors, mind, certainly from Chinese vendors, and doubtless elsewhere).

The next-generation Battlefield game is currently in development with Ripple Effect, which was previously known as DICE LA, where we're being teased that it will feature "the most realistic and exciting destruction effects in the industry".

EA hasn't spilled much at all on the new Battlefield after the disaster of Battlefield 2042. But... now we've got Tech4Gamers spotting a new job listing for a VFX Director at Ripple Effect... and we're hearing about what the next-gen Battlefield game could offer when it comes to destruction technology, something the franchise has been known for (greatly) in previous installments.

"Ripple Effect, an evolution of Battlefield's DICE LA, is a Los Angeles and Vancouver-based game studio on a mission to build community-first experiences through continuous innovation and boundary breaking technology".

OneNetbook has just announced the launch date of its new X1 "3-in-1" gaming handheld, powered by Intel's new Core Ultra 7 155H "Meteor Lake" CPU.

The new X1 features a bigger 10.95-inch 2.5K LTPS display with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, with the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor featuring 16 cores and 22 threads of Meteor Lake CPU power at up to 4.8GHz. At the same time, there's an NPU processor for AI workloads clocked at up to 1.4GHz, with LPDDR5-7500 memory ensuring high RAM takes care of everything you're doing on the X1 gaming handheld.

This new OneXPlayer X1 gaming handheld looks like it's one of the first rolling out with Intel Arc GPU graphics, with the Core Ultra 7 155H processor being the second-fastest Meteor Lake-H processor that Intel makes with 28W of power, while it's the third-fastest with the Core Ultra 9 185 CPU with 45W of power.

On the heels of multiple back-to-back hack-and-slash RPGs, Yoshi-P would like to see Square Enix conquer the action genre.

Square Enix has come a long way from its turn-based roots. Starting with Final Fantasy XV in 2016, the publisher has released multiple new modern Final Fantasy games with action-oriented combat including Final Fantasy VII Remake, Final Fantasy Origins: Stranger of Paradise, and the most recent medieval epic Final Fantasy XVI.

So...where does Square Enix go from here? If Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida, the savior of Square Enix's MMORPG cash crop, has his way, the Japanese games-maker will hone its craft on action.

Now that FFXVI has been released and that new FFXIV content like Dawntrail is on the way, it sounds like Yoshi-P may not return to help direct Final Fantasy XVII.

Unlike its misleading name, the Final Fantasy franchise shows no signs of stopping. Nor should it: the series has sold over 140 million copies, proving to be a cash crop for developer Square Enix. But there's just one question: Where does Final Fantasy go from here? FFXV fused modern tech with magic, FFXVI brought us back to grim medieval fantasy. Where will Final Fantasy XVII take us?

In a recent interview with Sony Interactive Entertainment's Shuhei Yoshida for the Game Maker's Notebook, Square Enix's Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida gives us clues on what's next for the series.

Hogwarts Legacy has become the top-selling game of 2023, beating out usual suspects like Call of Duty.

2023 was one of the best years in gaming in terms of AAA variety. Publishers flooded the market with a multitude of must-have games, but one title had a huge advantage: It leveraged the might of the multi-billion-dollar Harry Potter franchise. Potterverse fans everywhere flocked to buy Hogwarts Legacy when it came out in February of 2023, and by the end of the year, the action RPG had sold 22 million copies on all platforms.

The demand is clearly there (Harry Potter fanatics have been wanting a modern authentic interactive game for a while now) and WB Games knows what it's sitting on. IP has always been at the core of the Warner Bros. business, and gaming offers an interesting opportunity to attract new users in an interactive and monetized way.

While we were at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada, MSI showed off a new product in their product stack, a gaming handheld device dubbed the Claw.

The MSI Claw has an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor with Intel AI Boost. This processor has 6 P cores, 8 E cores, and 2 low-power cores. It runs on an FHD (1920x1080) IPS-level display measuring in at 7", which also runs at 120hz with 500 nits of brightness. Graphics are handled by an Intel Arc GPU along with LPDDR5-6400 RAM. A 53WHr battery keeps the games flowing for around 50% longer than the competition.

The ergonomic design of the Claw allows it to be comfortable in the user's hands for hours thanks to the weight and grip. MSI has thousands of samples of data collected from around the world. The Claw is ergonomically tailored for comfort and precision. Designed to fit the natural contours of your grip, it provides an intuitive gaming experience for hands of all sizes.

The Apple Arcade subscription gaming service allows people to pay a single monthly fee and gain access to a ton of games that can be played on multiple devices. Many games are available on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV or some subset of those devices, and there are titles from some big names as well as many indy developers as well. And while Apple might not be known for having its finger on the pulse of the gaming world, a new report suggests that it might be doing much better than you might think.

That report comes via research outfit MIDiA, with a lengthy report into the newer entries into the gaming market suggesting that Apple Arcade isn't alone. Netflix is another company making waves in the world of gaming, and the report suggests that it's now time to start taking them both more seriously.

To back that up the research team shared details that suggest Apple Arcade is proving popular. According to its Q4 2023 consumer research survey, 10% of US consumers use Apple Arcade weekly. To put that into perspective, only 11% of people use Steam or Nintendo Switch Online according to the figures shared

Chat-provider Discord has slashed 17% of its workforce to help buoy its margins and reduce costs.

The games industry is going through a great culling right now. Armed by years of record-breaking earnings during the Pandemic, game developers and publishers invested heavily into content production. Those games and projects were released into the market in 2023, leading to a congested release slate. Consumers had trouble keeping up with the glut of titles, content was in total free supply, and the competition was amplified as a result.

This led to some publishers like Nacon saying 2023 just had 'too many games.' Combined with rising costs driven by inflation, the competitive market has forced companies to cut costs wherever possible in order to maintain profit--or in Discord's case, to improve the path towards profit.

Amazon has slashed even more jobs at its streaming subsidiary Twitch.

After the latest round of layoffs announced by Twitch CEO Dan Clancy, the streamer will have laid off nearly 1,000 workers. Amazon is cutting costs where it can and Twitch, which apparently may not be profitable, is a prime cut.

The news was confirmed with an official announcement by Clancy shortly after a Bloomberg report about the layoffs had been published.

Too many games--that's one of the current problems that the interactive entertainment industry is facing, according to Nacon's Benoit Clerc.

2023 was one of the best years in gaming in terms of diversity, selection, and back-to-back heavy hitting releases, but it wasn't such a great year for the companies behind the games. Following record-breaking earnings during COVID lockdowns, the gaming economy has now corrected itself and led to significant reconstruction of talent pools. Publishers and parent companies around the world are slashing budgets, cutting headcount, cancelling projects, and even shutting down studios.

The congested market has squeezed consumer choice during a time when discretionary income is already low. Current inflation conditions have driven up the prices of basic needs and games themselves have likewise become more expensive--all major AAA games now sell for $69.99, a $10 increase over the previous $59.99 MSRP of video games.

Altec Lansing and GameShark's resurrected company are under fire for haphazardly mentioning the Nintendo Switch 2's release timing.

Remember GameShark? If you grew up in the PS1 era, odds are that you do. Back then there were all sorts of cheat devices and accessories you could buy, but none were as popular as GameShark. Now that classic brand is coming back with a line of AI-powered software and peripherals.

There's just one issue: This announcement was overshadowed by an entirely different product. According to a public press release from AI Shark, the new reincarnation of classic GameShark brand, the Nintendo Switch 2 will launch sometime in September 2024. This revelation seems quite random as the PR had nothing to do with Nintendo or its new rumored Switch handheld--the press release was about the partnership of audio expert Altec Lansing with AI Shark to make new AI headsets.

NVIDIA has just revealed the latest batch of games that are arriving for its GeForce Now streaming service, and there are 10 of them - plus the company has recapped its big CES 2024 news regarding the cloud gaming platform.

All this is part of the GFN Thursday revelations for this week. So, what are those 10 new games first of all? GeForce Now subscribers will be able to play this little lot:

Of course, the most notable additions here are Assassin's Creed: Valhalla and also War Hospital, the latter being a fresh take on a war-themed game where, as the name suggests, you manage a field hospital (in World War I). Going by the reviews, it seems to benefit from some interesting and in-depth game mechanics, but it still needs polishing.

If you're someone who plays their PS5 and wishes that they didn't have to charge their DualSense controller quite so often, you might be in for a very good time indeed. That's after what appears to be an updated DualSense controller leaked on the Canadian Best Buy website, a product that is yet to be officially confirmed but could be outed as part of Sony's ongoing CES 2024 announcements.

The controller is listed as a PS5 v2 DualSense Wireless Controller and appears to have the same features and functions as the controller that is already on sale and ships with existing PS5 consoles. However, things really start to differ when you look at the battery life of the new controller with its 12 hours of juice being labeled as "exceptional."

And exceptional, it really is. To put the 12-hour figure into perspective the current DualSense only lasts for six hours at best and most people are likely to have to reach for the controller after just three hours, depending on the game that they are playing and how heavily the rumble feature is used.

Forza Motorsport players have some bones to pick with the developer in terms of complaints with the game, but Turn 10 Studios is listening - and acting on this feedback.

Indeed, Turn 10 says it's committed to publishing quarterly updates on feedback and prominent issues with the game - which came out in October 2023 - starting from right now.

In a blog post, the developer touches on three major issues and how they are currently being addressed.

Hidden and parked outside, this year's CES event was one of the wildest cars you'll ever see. Razer and Lexus have teamed up to create an RGB decked-out gaming car full of gaming goodies, but is a car like this even street-legal? Possibly not.

The car is a 2024 Lexus TX that has had a massive Razer makeover tricked out in the latest Razer gear, and according to a press release from December, the added gaming features may void the warranty, negatively impact safety, and not be street legal but does that matter when it looks as cool as it does?!

The car on display was a black Lexus TX with default green Razer lighting on the exterior, maintaining a sleek appearance while also catching attention. The Razer Lexus TX includes three rows of seating, and this version of the vehicle shown has replaced the seats in the back two rows with Razer's very own gaming chairs. Each seat also includes a widescreen gaming monitor, and one of the seats even includes a desk and keyboard for PC gaming.