Gaming - Page 288

For those playing on Steam, Bethesda has released a Beta update for Starfield that finally adds official NVIDIA DLSS rendering support, including Frame Generation, to the game alongside a number of notable updates. This is the biggest post-launch update we've seen so far, and it also includes a quality-of-life update that will make exploration and scavenging for resources more manageable. Plus, the long overdue ability to adjust in-game Brightness, Contrast, and HDR settings.

"By popular request, we have added the ability to ingest food and drink items upon finding them in the environment," Bethesda writes. "You can enjoy those Chunks immediately or save them for later."

Munching on Chunks aside, the big addition is full NVIDIA DLSS support covering RTX technologies like DLSS Super Resolution, Deep Learning Anti-aliasing (DLAA), NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency, and DLSS Frame Generation. Although some of these features have been modded into the game on PC by the community, official support is very welcome. Interestingly, the update doesn't add support for AMD's FSR 3 tech, but Bethesda has noted that this will be added at a later date.

Remedy Entertainment has written a detailed article that showcases the Northlight engine technology that was used in Alan Wake 2 and arguably has some of the best graphics that have ever been created.

The developer said its Northlight team is super-excited to have Alan Wake 2 out in the wild, where they've created and polished off a lot of new technology just for Alan Wake 2 so that it doesn't just look amazing. It feels great to play. The article that Remedy has covering Northlight is just covering some of the pieces of technology it has perfected but teased that Northlight engineers will be "back with more in-depth topics in due course."

The Northlight team starts by talking about its new data-oriented game object framework during the development of Alan Wake 2, with a new entity component system (ECS) based model that enables memory-efficient storage and makes parallel execution efficient and safe.

Grand Theft Auto V has reached yet another sales milestone, Take-Two Interactive today announced in its Q2 FY24 earnings results.

There's a few singular games that have the staying power to not only release across multiple console generations, but to generate tens of millions of sales along the way. Grand Theft Auto V is one of those games--Take Two confirms that GTA V has now sold-in (or shipped) 190 million copies across the globe.

This also pushes total GTA franchise sales to 410 million, and shows that GTA V has sold 5 million copies per quarter for 4 consecutive quarters in a row.

Patch 1.2.2 is just out for Diablo 4 on PC and consoles, applying a whole load of polish, and upping the ante with performance to boot, which is always welcome.

In the patch notes, the developer informs us that various performance improvements have been made to the RPG, along with better stability, so we should see fewer crashes as a result. Some tweaks have been made to polish up the visuals, too.

Mind you, all these improvements are being implemented on an ongoing basis in the various patches that have been issued thus far, but it all helps to make Diablo 4 a more pleasant experience.

Rockstar Games has officially confirmed that a GTA 6 announcement trailer is coming next month.

Yesterday, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, one of the most definitive reporters in gaming, published a report about Rockstar's plans for a GTA 6 reveal.

The report indicated that Rockstar could announce Grand Theft Auto 6 sometime this week, and release a reveal trailer for GTA 6 next month to coincide with the studio's 25th anniversary (Rockstar was founded in December 1998). Now Rockstar has confirmed these reports, saying the debut trailer of the "next Grand Theft Auto" will come early in December.

BlizzCon 2023 took place last weekend, with the in-person community-focused celebration of Blizzard franchises like Warcraft and Diablo returning after a hiatus. The development studio, mired in recent years by scandal and lawsuits, now finds itself a part of the Xbox family thanks to Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition finally coming to a close.

Before Xbox head Phil Spencer appeared live on stage as part of the BlizzCon 2023 Opening Ceremony, the Microsoft executive visited the studio's main campus in Irvine, California, with a simple message - 'How can we help?'

A new report over at Bloomberg by Jason Schreier, with input from Blizzard, including comments from the studio's current president and former Xbox employee Mike Ybarra, paints a very positive outlook for the newly minted Xbox Game Studio.

Rockstar Games plans to announce Grand Theft Auto VI as early as this week, sources have told Bloomberg's Jason Schreier.

The GTA 6 reveal may be much closer than anyone had expected. Sources close to Rockstar Games tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier that an announcement could happen sometime this week, with a trailer slated to release in December, possibly during The Game Awards 2023 showcase.

The GTA 6 trailer will be timed to coincide with Rockstar's 25th anniversary, the sources say. The game will feature two protagonists, including a male and a female, set in the Miami-inspired Vice City, Bloomberg continues.

This year's N7 Day kicks off with a bang as BioWare releases cryptic footage from its new Mass Effect game.

BioWare has been silent about the next Mass Effect game for a while, but that's changed with this year's N7 Day. The studio released a new 30-second teaser trailer that has sent Mass Effect faithful buzzing about the possibilities. BioWare released three small teasers entitled Epsilon, Defiance, and Nebula, then combining all three clips into the trailer above.

"Not everything is as it seems," Mass Effect project director Mike Gamble said on Twitter. Gamble also confirmed the footage was indeed in-engine.

Nintendo is reportedly preparing its next-generation games console that could build off of the Switch's legacy, but Nintendo's corporate leadership is predictably not ready to discuss the product's existence.

Nintendo, being one of the most conservative video games companies on the planet, has no qualms about remaining quiet about its new gaming system up until the eve of its reveal. Even with reports of the Switch 2 being shown off behind the scenes at Gamescom with an impressive Matrix Awakens UE5 demo and a potential release during Holiday 2024, Nintendo's top brass has deflected all questions about the Switch 2.

In a recent shareholders Q&A held in Japan, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa was asked about the new console. Furukawa commented by saying the rumors of the Gamescom demos were untrue, further denying that Nintendo had briefed Activision CEO about the new system. During the FTC v Microsoft court case, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick testified that the company did not know the specs of Nintendo's new console.

There's a popular theory going around that Final Fantasy XVI has flopped, and Square Enix's recent 6-month performance figures are being used as proof. But the reality is that there's far more going on with Square Enix's accounts than the performance of a singular video game.

Square Enix's profits have dropped by over 57% since last year, and members of the gaming community are latching on to this drop as evidence that Final Fantasy XVI is a dud for the Japanese games-maker. It's not as simple as that; the real reason behind the drop is that last year is a tough year to compare against for a number of reasons. A closer look at Square Enix's income statement is warranted.

The first thing we have to look at is basic net sales and operating income. While net sales are up to 172 billion yen (+5.3% YoY) for the 1H'24 period (1H refers to first-half, or the first six months of the fiscal year), Square Enix's operating income is significantly lower than the year prior.

The Epic Games Store still is not profitable, but records indicate it may not actually deliver a positive cumulative cash balance across the next few years.

The Epic v Google trial is under way, and new testimony from Epic Games Store VP and General Manager Steve Allison reveals the storefront isn't yet profitable. Previous reports indicate that Epic did not expect EGS to be profitable until at least 2027, however it's possible the Store could deliver a positive gross profit before then.

Epic Games Store's non-profitability was first revealed in the Epic v Apple trial from years ago. Analysis of Epic's forecast models from 2019 laid out two potential models for the Store to follow. One was an "aggressive pursuit" model that strongly emphasized generating more revenue from games "signed" to the store. This would result in significantly higher gross revenues of up to $1.177 billion by 2024. Under this aggressive pursuit model, Epic expected to deliver a positive gross profit value by 2024 (this does not include taxes).

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is about to be released - on November 10, on both PC and consoles - and as you're likely aware, it supports NVIDIA DLSS 3.

So, the question is how much nippier will DLSS 3 make the shooter? And the answer is impressively faster, although we already knew that - but now we can see the difference in a new teaser clip uploaded to YouTube by NVIDIA.

We are reminded that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III will be up to 1.8 times faster when PC gamers turn on DLSS 3, so the frame rate boosting tech makes quite a difference.

In the category of 'largest ever' achievements, Alienware recently built a huge 16-foot (5 meter) mechanical gaming keyboard, and a giant mouse to go with it, in order to eventually play Dota 2 with these truly oversized peripherals.

Tom's Hardware spotted the feat which was posted on YouTube with some pro gamers - the high-ranked Team Liquid - taking command of the mouse and keyboard in order to play a 1v1 mid lane face-off in Dota 2.

With three players on the huge keyboard (seemingly two much of the time), and another two on the massive mouse, all trying to coordinate the on-screen action, as you might imagine, a sizeable helping of hilarity ensued.

With a massive leak of early Grand Theft Auto 6 footage and code in September 2022, confirmed by several sources, including Rockstar, it seems that there's quite a bit of info hidden in the code thanks to an "AI DEBUG" menu discovered.

Over on Reddit, a user by the name of Tobbelobben30 went through all 200 presets and settings to offer a look at 20 of the most interesting and notable ones - that could lead to some pretty game-changing advances coming in Grand Theft Auto 6.

One of them, called 'ProceduralMotion,' looks to be all about creating dynamic character animation and movement based on in-game conditions. This could be as simple as NPCs reacting to weapons and other illegal activity. Or, it will probably be much more nuanced thanks to an additional 'Emotional LocoRequests' that will dynamically help convey character emotion through animation.

PlayStation users will no longer be able to share screenshots and videos from their PS4 or PS5 consoles to X from November 13, 2023. X, formerly known as Twitter, has been a PlayStation social media staple for several years, with players able to link their accounts and quickly share game progress, little clips, or screenshots to the platform via PlayStation's simple 'Share' functionality.

Sony announced the news via a notice on its official website with the somewhat ominous title, 'Termination of X (formerly known as Twitter) integration.' The move caught many by surprise, and many gamers and critics have taken to X and other platforms to vent their frustration.

Some blame Elon Musk for Sony abandoning the platform and for X's downfall in recent months. After he acquired the platform, his stint as CEO saw Twitter lose several high-profile advertisers and a move towards monetization. This means the reason for PlayStation ditching the platform could be as simple as "money."

There's been a lot of chatter surrounding the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, and a lot of it has been focused on the game feeling more like an expansion than a full game - at least from a campaign perspective. And there's plenty of evidence pointing to it starting as an expansion, like the fact that you need to fire up Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II on PC to play it or that the PlayStation 5 game doesn't feature a Platinum Trophy.

Setting all of that aside for the moment, the reviews for the game's campaign have been pretty savage so far, with the consensus from the dozen or so critic reviews being that it's bland, boring, and short. Call of Duty campaigns aren't known for being epic experiences, but it sounds like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III's campaign can be beaten in a single sitting.

IGN scored the campaign a 4 out of 10, saying, "Modern Warfare 3's campaign commits the biggest sin possible for a globe-trotting action thriller: it's boring."

Following its $10 billion investment into OpenAI, Microsoft has been looking to artificial intelligence to optimize various parts of its business solutions, including its potent Copolit technology integrated into Microsoft 365. Now Microsoft plans to use AI for games development.

Microsoft today announced it has secured a multi-year partnership with Inworld, a company that develops generative AI solutions for games. Examples include using AI to create unscripted NPC dialog via large language models (LLMs). Right now the tech is a bit clunky, and Microsoft aims to create an AI design copilot solution for in-game dialog and quests.

Microsoft asserts that the AI design copilot tech will be used to "empower and assist" game developers with things like dynamic and responsive character dialog (including proximity-based interactions) and in-game activities ranging from quests and side missions. As per The Verge, this AI design copilot will be entirely optional and up to a studio's discretion on whether or not they want to use it.

If you feel like the Steam Deck doesn't come with enough storage, you can always beef it up, and if you're tech-savvy, a 2TB SSD can be put inside - or you could laugh at that mere capacity and hook up a 61TB drive.

As VideoCardz reports, StorageReview managed this improbable sounding feat with the Steam Deck and an external (enterprise targeted) SSD.

The 61.44TB Solidigm P5336 drive only has a piffling 55.7TB of space remaining after installation and formatting, mind, but that should still pretty much cover your gaming needs (we'd hope).

The Polish studio might not be a household name, but indie developer and publisher 11 bit studios have quietly been creating and releasing a string of impressive games over the years. Internally 11 bit has created the critically acclaimed The War of Mine and intense city builder Frostpunk while publishing games like Moonlighter, Children of Morta, and most recently, the first-person sci-fi thriller The Invincible - which is out November 6.

The Invincible looks to be the beginning of a technology partnership between 11 bit studios and AMD, where the two companies will "work together to optimize 11 bit games for performance and with open source technology" across PCs, laptops, handhelds, and consoles.

And yes, this means using AMD's FSR 3 tech to improve performance, as seen in the 8K gameplay footage of The Invincible running on a PC equipped with an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU.

Blizzard recently held its Blizzcon 2023 event, where we got some more details about what to expect in Overwatch 2's new Season 8, as well as new heroes, new maps, modes, and more for the game.

The developer teased its new tank, "Mauga," as well as a new damage hero and new support hero that is on the way, as well as a new game mode, "Clash," and a new map called "Hanaoka." As for the new tank hero, Mauga's primary and secondary weapons both deal out virtually the same power, with a 300-round ammo supply each, but they both have different mechanics that will work best when used together.

The first is the Incendiary Chaingun, which will light your enemies on fire when enough shots hit them -- you need to hit your enemies 10 times from the looks of things -- while the second is the Volatile Chaingun, which deals critical damage to burning enemies. So, you'd use the primary weapon to set them on fire and the second to deal out critical damage... that works. Standing within melee distance of Maura as he's about to unleash would be a fatal move.