Gaming - Page 275

MSI's new gaming handheld is called the Claw, and it will be powered by Intel's beefy Meteor Lake processors.

The PC gaming handheld market will continue to grow in 2024 with leading hardware-maker MSI throwing their hat into the ring. MSI's particular PC-handheld hybrid delivers both a primal name and savage specs.

New leaks show that the MSI Claw handheld will feature a 16-core, 22-thread Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU at 3.8GHz outfitted with an Intel Arc GPU with 8 Xe cores at 2.25GHz, complete with a whopping 32GB of RAM memory. It's likely that this is the highest-end configuration of the Claw, and that MSI could offer multiple SKUs with different price points for the device.

Microsoft just released a new preview of Windows 11 for the earliest testing channel, and acknowledged that gaming bugs affecting preview builds have recently got worse.

The bad news comes with the release of preview build 26020 for the Canary channel, with Microsoft admitting that existing issues with bugs hitting PC games have got worse.

These bugs affecting PC gamers have been hanging around for months now, so it's disheartening to see that they're getting worse, rather than better.

Grinding in video games is something only a specific type of gamer likes to do, and how much you enjoy that grinding for gear ranges on a spectrum from "I don't mind grinding a little bit" to "I enjoy farming for the absolute best gear even if it means hours, days, or possibly months of my life".

Some gamers are simply built differently, and most that fit this category love the idea of an ultimate goal despite the time it would take to achieve. Diablo IV is filled with these types of loot-hunter gamers, and one such player took to the Diablo IV subreddit to share their spoils while also announcing their retirement. The player revealed they collected all seven Ancestral Unique items after 800 runs and a "month worth of grinding".

For those that don't know Diablo IV items but can appreciate drop rates, the Ancestral items are the rarest items in Diablo IV, and the runs that the player is referring to are extreme end-game content, likely Helltide Events or Nightmare Dungeons. Gamesradar reports that if the player acquired all seven of the Ancestral items in 800 runs, it would mean the player had a drop rate of just 0.00875% per run.

Star Citizen is a sprawling and impressive everything sci-fi game that has been in development for over a decade, and even though there doesn't seem to be an end in sight - over that time, the game has managed to raise hundreds of millions in funding via the cloud. One method is to sell in-game ships to players so they can cruise through the stars in style one day (or in the current Alpha).

The in-game ships aren't cheap, with some costing several hundreds of dollars. The latest digital space pack for Star Citizen from Roberts Space Industries has to be the most expensive DLC we've ever witnessed for a high-profile game. The LEGATUS 2953 package is described as the "perfect collection," featuring "over 175 vessels from every manufacturer of note."

The price? $48,000 USD.

GeForce NOW, NVIDIA's cloud gaming service that gives users a full GeForce RTX 4080-powered gaming experience without shelling out for expensive PC hardware, closed out 2023 in style.

From GeForce NOW Ultimate membership, which now includes three months of PC Game Pass, over 100 Xbox Game Pass titles hitting the service, and November and December 2023, seeing a whopping 150 new games arrive, NVIDIA is looking to continue that momentum in 2024.

One of the most impressive shooters in recent items, Embark Studios' free-to-play The Finals is now available to play on GeForce NOW. With a whole suite of RTX technologies. DLSS 3, DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex, and real-time ray tracing, it's a visually stunning and highly competitive game. It's joined this week by Redmatch 2 (Steam), Scorn (Xbox, available for PC Game Pass), and Sniper Elite 5.

The illegal ransomware hack on Insomniac Games has delivered tons of leaks about Wolverine, new Spider-Man games, and potentially even Sony's upcoming PS5 Pro.

Reports indicate that Sony will release an upgraded PS5 Pro sometime in 2024. Like the original PS4 Pro, the Gen9 PS5 Pro may also prioritize graphics upscaling technology thanks to a special new chip. Sony is said to be working on some sort of proprietary raytracing acceleration tech that's akin to DLSS, potentially via new dedicated AI hardware.

The recent Insomniac Games hack appears to reinforce this theory. The hack saw hundreds of thousands of confidential files and materials leaked onto the internet, including new info about Insomniac's upcoming Wolverine game set for 2025. One slide specifically mentions complex game features like AI upscaling via machine learning, fluid dynamics, and deformable surfaces.

If you've always wanted an Xbox toaster, the accessory of your console gaming dreams has arrived courtesy of Walmart.

The Xbox Series S Toaster - yes, this is a real product, listed at Walmart - is a two-slice toaster (with a wide slot, you'll doubtless be pleased to hear) that jazzes up your toast by imprinting it with the Xbox logo.

It has a digital timer, six different levels of toast browning - the darker the shade, the more pronounced that Xbox logo will be - and settings for bagels, and for defrosting bread.

2023's Game of the Year, Baldur's Gate 3, has been out on Xbox for just shy of a month and seems to be landing some players in hot water after Xbox's default setting automatically shares content containing nudity recorded by a player.

An Xbox player experiencing a bit of naughty gameplay containing some nude character models while playing Baldur's Gate 3 decided to record a clip from the game. Unfortunately for them, due to the console's default settings, all recorded content is automatically uploaded to the Xbox public feed, resulting in a breach of Xbox's Terms of Service and a hefty consequence for the sharing player.

As Reddit user Daddy-Vegas tells it, one clip entitled "naked camp time fun" has landed him a ban lasting until the end of the year, of which we are less than a week into *Gasp. In an interview with DualShockers, Vegas explained he did not intend to share the footage and that his clips were automatically shared to the public feed due to the default settings.

Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a side-scrolling action-adventure launching on January 18 for PC and console, and ahead of its launch, the publisher has outlined the PC hardware you'll need for the best performance. It's more of an assurance that most PC gamers will have no problem playing this game in 4K at 60 frames per second.

According to the PC specs for the Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, to achieve 4K 60fps, all you need is an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB) or AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (8GB) graphics card. The CPU requirements for 4K60 are modest, too: an Intel Core i7-6700 or an AMD Ryzen 5 1600. Yeah, that's a mid-range first-gen Ryzen.

With such modest specs, you might think it doesn't look all that impressive, but that's not the case. With an evocative art style, detailed worlds, and fast-paced action, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown looks great. With its old-school side-scrolling presentation, it could become a sleeper hit and a great boost for the dormant Prince of Persia franchise.

A 13-year-old gamer has officially become the first known person to beat Tetris, according to reports citing confirmation from The Tetris Company, the developers of the iconic game that was first released in 1988 in the US.

Tetris beaten by 13-year-old Willis Gibson

The first known person to beat the iconic game is 13-year-old Willis Gibson, or Blue Scuti online, who reached level 157 with a score of 999999 while playing from home in Oklahoma. The gamer was livestreaming the attempt that later went to the "kill screen," which is when the game simply freezes up and crashes due to the blocks falling too fast. This screen has only previously been reached by AI-powered bots.

Rumors surrounding Nintendo's next-generation console have been swirling for quite some time now, and now to add even more fuel to fire a gaming industry insider has thrown out a price prediction and an approximate announcement window.

That industry insider is Kantan Games CEO and gaming industry analyst Dr. Serkan Toto, who spoke to GamingIndustry.biz about Nintendo's upcoming console and what it could entail. The Kantan Games CEO told the publication that he expects Nintendo will likely be an iteration of the current Nintendo Switch and won't be a complete overhaul of its design. The next-generation console will feature additional "bells and whistles," but overall will be similar to the Nintendo Switch, per Toto.

Furthermore, Toto explains that since Nintendo has the juggernaut title Pokemon under its belt and how closely associated that game is with portability, there is "no way" Nintendo will choose to "drop the portability feature for their next big thing." Given these comments, Toto expects that the new Nintendo console will feature the same hybrid design as the Nintendo Switch but will come with noticeable performance upgrades and additional features.

With over 1,000 planets to explore, one of the big criticisms levied at Bethesda Game Studios' epic new space RPG Starfield is that all planetary exploration is done on foot. Sure, you've got a jetpack, but many players expected a customizable land speeder or vehicle to get to the various points of interest quicker.

Well, modders are coming to the rescue again, with the latest being one of the most exciting to date - mechs you can pilot, ala the iconic MechWarrior series. Starfield's universe includes tonnes of lore about mechs being used during wars, and you can even see one up close in an in-game museum.

Like Power Armor in the Fallout series, modder Jared Kohr is working on adding mechs that you can pilot in Starfield. With the mod a work-in-progress, he's uploaded a video showcasing the work so far (watch it above), and it's impressive. Yep, you can fire weapons!

Nintendo's new Switch 2 console may be more like a pro model than a fully-fledged next-gen system, one analyst predicts.

Like most of the internet, Japan-based video games analyst Dr. Serkan Toto believes that Nintendo will release a new console in 2024. Rumor has it that the new Switch model--dubbed the Switch 4K, Switch Pro, Super Switch, or Switch 2, depending on who you ask--will feature a new enhanced NVIDIA chip capable of 4K resolution upscaling. Having already completed the trifecta of Switch hardware, Nintendo's new hardware will apparently aim at a more modern audience now that 4K UHDTVs are so widespread.

Dr. Toto lays out his predictions in a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, where he says that the new Switch could be more iterative than it is next-gen. This indicates that the Switch 2 could be somewhere in the middle between a Switch Pro and entirely new gaming platform, or even potentially sit in the same Switch family as the fourth, most-powerful system. This is supported by the fact that the Switch 2 is likely to use the same 4K-ready dock as the Switch OLED model.

3D Realms and Slipgate Ironworks have both reportedly been hit with new layoffs.

2023 was a stellar year for game releases, but inflation and risk aversion led to mass layoffs in the gaming sector. While Newzoo estimates the interactive entertainment industry generated over $184 billion in 2023, about 6,000 people lost their jobs. Layoffs affected the industry across all dimensions: large publishers like EA and Ubisoft made cuts alongside smaller subsidiaries like 3D Realms.

Just last month, reports indicated that Embracer and Saber Interactive made job cuts at 3D Realms. Now Apogee's Scott Miller says that this layoff spree has continued at the Danish publisher. Miller created 3D Realms back in the 90s and still has close ties with the group, so his information is assuredly solid.

Breakout indie hit Dave the Diver found big success in 2023, selling more copies during the year than some AAA games.

In terms of game selection, 2023 was one of the best years in gaming history. The wide spectrum of games yielded big selection variety for gamers, and despite the congested slate of franchised games, consumers were ready and willing to buy cheaper indie games. Since 2020 or thereabouts, we've seen millions of gamers gravitate towards indies through social word-of-mouth, likely driven by streamers and influencers. Dave the Diver is one of these games.

According to a new update from the developers at Mintrocket, Dave the Diver has sold 3 million copies since launching in June 2023. That's no small feat for a AAA game (3 million sales in 7 months is considered a win at most publishers), let alone a smaller-scale game like Dave the Diver.

The 2023 Steam Awards winners have been announced, with the outcome across all 11 categories determined by community votes. And it's no surprise that the Game of the Year Award has been handed to Baldur's Gate 3, beating out finalists Resident Evil 4, Lethal Company, EA Sports FC 24, and Hogwarts Legacy. It's one of the most played, celebrated, talked about, and groundbreaking RPG releases in years - it's a well-deserved nod.

It was somewhat predictable as Alan Wake II was exclusive to the Epic Games Store, while the critically acclaimed The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Bros. Wonder are, you know, Nintendo games. However, a couple of the other award winners are a little surprising.

Starfield, currently sitting on a 'Mixed' community review rating on Steam, with recent reviews being 'Mostly Negative,' won the Most Innovative Gameplay Award. Starfield has been a divisive release from Bethesda Game Studios and the team behind Skyrim and Fallout 4 - the main criticisms levied at the game center around its archaic and lackluster design when it comes to exploration, travel, and having to sit through half a dozen loading screens just to get anywhere.

After more than 7 years of development, the Daggerfall remake in the Unity engine is now complete.

Playing old-school PC games on new-age systems can be a pain. Games are often incompatible, or some like The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall are so archaic that they need some updates before they're ready for mass consumption by today's gamers. Thanks to the efforts of the modding team at Daggerfall Workshop, modern gamers can now experience Daggerfall in all of its massive, dungeon-crawling glory.

Daggerfall Unity, an open source remake that's hailed as the best way to play the original TES sequel, is now finished. Bethesda RPG fans now have a unique experience to try out while waiting for The Elder Scrolls VI to drop.

Square Enix, the Japanese firm responsible for the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series, pledges to use AI to help streamline its game development and publishing divisions.

AI is taking the world by storm, and the creative arts could be shaken up with innovative new tools and methodologies for asset creation. While the exact details are slim, video game developers may soon be armed with more efficient pipelines thanks to AI. Despite lofty promises from companies like Microsoft, who acquired new AI tools to help speed along the game dev process, the spectre of layoffs broods behind the scenes.

Game devs are worried that these new automation tools could eliminate even more jobs at a time when workers are being squeezed by a merciless cost-cutting market. The video games industry laid off over 6,000 workers throughout 2023.

Over the Christmas break, the full source code for Grand Theft Auto V was leaked. This big pile of data comes from the same hacker behind the damaging GTA 6 leaks, Arion Kurtaj - an 18-year-old with autism who was able to hack into developer Rockstar's systems with a simple mobile device in a hotel room.

Having all of GTA V's source code available is a huge concern for Rockstar, especially with its continued popularity and Grand Theft Auto Online being a juggernaut. Accessing the game's source code could lead to more sophisticated cheats and other exploits.

That said, the arrival of GTA V's source code also means we've now got some confirmation that Rockstar was planning on releasing no less than eight separate single-player DLC packs and expansions for the game.

New job listings could give more clues about Sony's upcoming live service game that's based in the Horizon franchise.

Multiple reports indicate that Sony and Guerrilla Games have teamed up with Lineage developer NCSoft to make a new live service set in the best-selling Horizon series. The game is said to be an online-based MMORPG with games-as-a-service components. NCSoft is believed to have started work on the game under Project H, and then renaming it to Project Skyline. If this last part is accurate, we can glean some interesting details about the new Horizon live game.

A combination of NCSoft and Guerrilla Games job listings highlight important tidbits about Project Skyline and/or some sort of social-driven online game. NCSoft's Korean division confirms it is working on a "famous overseas IP," which two separate sources have said is the Horizon IP (links here and here).