Gaming - Page 315

NVIDIA has released a new graphics driver that brings in support for a couple of games, and fixes a few bugs, including one that could drop performance levels in Counter-Strike 2 (which is currently in its 'limited test' phase before release this summer).

The freshly unleashed version 531.68 of NVIDIA's Game Ready driver is now available to download and is a recommended installation for those planning to play two big-name games due out later this month.

That would be Dead Island 2, which debuts on April 21, and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which arrives a week later on April 28.

It's official: SEGA today announced that it plans to acquire Angry Birds game developer Rovio for roughly $771 million. Here are a few reasons why SEGA is making this big buyout.

On a surface level, it's pretty obvious why anyone would buy Rovio. The Finnish devs created one of the most popular mobile games of all time and still generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue every year. Logic dictates that Rovio would help supercharge any company's mobile gaming presence.

We have to look a bit deeper to really understand why SEGA is making this purchase. The company's official press release reveals the thought process behind the acquisition, but we still need more information to get a full picture. The reality is that SEGA doesn't just want to make more mobile games--it wants to create more games for all markets.

It's official: SEGA has announced that it has made a tender offer to buy 100% of Rovio's shares in a $771 million buyout deal.

Longtime Japanese games giant SEGA plans to buy Finnish developer Rovio (Angry Birds) in a sweeping acquisition that could help spark SEGA's flagging mobile business. The news comes shortly after the deal was leaked by The Wall Street Journal's sources, who had originally said SEGA could spend close to $1 billion to acquire Rovio.

SEGA is prepared to pay a 63% premium on Rovio's shares, and SEGA management has outlined its rationale behind the deal. The combination hits two birds with one stone: SEGA wants to push more into mobile, and Rovio wants to push outside of mobile confines. We could see an interesting synergy between the two companies similar to the Zynga-Take-Two combo that promises to deliver a host of game experiences outside of the smartphone market.

User reports are pouring in: the Steam versions of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 no longer support raytracing. That is to say, you can no longer find the option in the menus to begin with, and it is not enabled in the background. One might suspect the games have defaulted to their DirectX 11 versions, but cursory testing shows this to not be the case.

The loss of raytracing at least isn't huge: its implementation in the two remade horror titles was never particularly well-liked, although many would tell you it was preferable to screen space reflections.

Additionally, 3D Audio is reported to be missing for Resident Evil 3 (though others claim 2 also); it's said only speaker and dynamic range settings audio settings are now available.

The recent set of Diablo IV betas pleased most, but not without caveats. Dungeon design was a primary complaint; the entire community seemed in agreement this key endgame system was tedious due to all the backtracking required and having to kill stragglers before you could complete your goal. Additionally, repetitive layouts were brought up by content creators and fans constantly.

With the game due to launch in just two months (June 6), the concerns were amplified as many feared developer Blizzard would not be able to address the issues in time. Fortunately, that appears to not be the case. A new blog on the official website spells it out plainly: dungeons will receive major improvements to layout and gameplay, thus minimizing the need to backtrack and increasing fun factor.

"Players previously needed to enter side rooms to interact with Structure Objectives, causing them to retread the same path," the post explains. "Now, many of our Structure Objectives have been repositioned along main dungeon pathways, making them easier for players to reach and allowing them to readily explore the dungeon after defeating the Structure."

Regarding modding PC games, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim reigns supreme as one of the most modded games in history. From ray-tracing to 4K textures to entirely new questlines with fully voiced characters, Bethesda's iconic RPG from 2011 is still going strong - and thriving.

With the launch of the new GeForce RTX40 Series of GPUs from NVIDIA, one of the most talked about bits of new RTX tech has been the arrival of DLSS 3 and Frame Generation. An AI solution that generates entirely new frames to improve a game's performance - especially if there are any CPU limitations or bottlenecks.

With the DLSS 3 plugin publicly available, it was only a matter of time before someone looked at injecting it into the world of Skyrim. After successfully modding DLSS 2 (Super Resolution) into Skyrim and Fallout 4 - both run on Bethesda's Creation Engine - modder PureDark adds DLSS 3 and Frame Generation.

When ASUS announced its new handheld, the ROG Ally, it caused quite a stir thanks to specs that positioned the Windows 11 gaming handheld as a direct competitor to Valve's Steam Deck.

Sporting a Full HD (1080p) display with a 120 Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 500 Nits, it also features a custom AMD APU built on a 4nm process with Zen 4 and RDNA 3 architecture that ASUS is calling the fastest to date in its class. With pre-order sign-ups for ROG Ally in the US live now at BestBuy, ASUS has confirmed that it will have a worldwide launch "and it may be sooner than you expect."

A potential imminent launch is exciting news, especially when something like the Steam Deck is only officially available for purchase in certain regions. For example, the only models available in Australia are imports.

Like Breath of the Wild before it, Nintendo's new Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom game will offer wacky adventuring and give players lots of opportunities to experiment with the world.

There's nothing quite like a new Zelda game. Every title brings its own unique flair, action mechanics, visual style, and a whimsical goofiness that's been retained in the series' 36 years on the market. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom pushes all of these things even farther than before with its new powers and abilities.

In a final trailer, Nintendo shows off some of Link's fancy new tricks. The most game-changing one, Ultrahand, lets players turn TotK's sandbox into a gigantic Erector set by melding various objects together to form something new. Slap a propulsion fan on practically anything in the game and you now have a vehicle, whether it's a flying platform, a boat, a hot air balloon, or a tractor. Link can even make hilarious mech-style automatons and ride them into battle.

Ubisoft+ is finally coming to Xbox consoles, but it's not a part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and the price is kind of steep.

Ubisoft recently announced that its premium Ubisoft+ subscription service is now available on Xbox consoles. There's just a few caveats: Gamers will have to pay $17.99/month for the multi-access Ubisoft+ package to play games on Xbox, and the list of included games is not as big as Ubisoft+ on PC. Sign up or learn more about the Ubisoft+ subscription here.

Xbox gamers will be able to play 65 games as part of the Ubisoft+ subscription, compared to the 164 games offered on PC. The good thing is that multi-access subscribers can play on both Xbox and PC, and all of the popular staples are available on Xbox including all Far Cry games from Far Cry 3 onward and all Assassin's Creed games a well.

Yoshi-P officially confirms that PS5 players will receive a playable Final Fantasy XVI trial demo shortly before the game launches in June.

Hailed as the first true action-based Final Fantasy (I guess Square Enix forgot about FFXV and even FF Type-O), Final Fantasy XVI makes lofty promises of explosive hack-and-slash Devil May Cry-style combat alongside unique customizations and strategic execution. We've actually seen quite a bit of FFXVI footage over the past few weeks, but there's still some questions on how the game will actually play.

Luckily, PlayStation 5 gamers will be able to try the game out before they buy. In a recent interview with Famitsu, Yoshi-P announces that FFXVI will get a playable gameplay demo trial about two weeks before the game launches. Considering FFXVI releases on June 22, we could see the demo roll out as early as June 8.

Final Fantasy XVI promises to deliver epic, larger-than-life monster battles with outrageous damage output.

There's a lot to like in the recent Final Fantasy XVI State of Play gameplay stream. Square Enix has made it clear that FFXVI will spin a tale of medieval sword-and-board fantasy complete with dazzling locales, explosive combat, and some of the most chaotic boss battles in the history of the franchise.

These battles will pit two massive fantasy beasts against one another in some of the most flashy arcade action we've seen from the series. These eikons (summons in FFVII, Guardian Forces s from Final Fantasy VIII, aeons in FFX, etc.) are hulking monstrosities that hearken back to the glory days of kaiju films--gigantic Japanese creatures that duke it out and destroy an entire city in the process.

Valve's new Steam Deck will break 3 million total unit sales throughout 2023, analyst firm Omdia has forecasted.

Following a failed attempt to break into the console market with the ill-fated Steam Machines, Valve has struck gold with its latest hardware innovation. Valve's Steam Deck has successfully merged the worlds of handheld and PC gaming, giving players enough horsepower for lighter on-the-go handheld gaming across a wide spectrum of Steam titles. The benefits to PC gamers is substantial and the Steam Deck offers a unique in-between device that can sit comfortably alongside both consoles and PC.

Valve's success has been celebrated far and wide, but there haven't been any real hard figures behind Steam Deck sales. Previous reports from October 2022 indicated the Steam Deck had sold over 1 million units, however analyst firm Omdia has some interesting Steam Deck sales estimates.

UPDATE: It appears the Halo franchise has actually generated $10 billion in revenues as of 2019 (thanks Timur222), and the $6 billion figure provided by Frank O'Connor's LinkedIn profile may be outdated.

343 Industries creative director Frank O'Connor confirms the Halo franchise has generated multiples of billions of dollars in revenues across games and other media.

Halo is big, and during the Xbox 360 era, it even rivaled Call of Duty, the best-selling FPS series of all time. The series is still popular, however nostalgic Halo fans seem to have fallen off since Bungie handed the series off to 343 Industries. Despite controversial releases and the introduction of pay-to-win microtransactions, at no point did Halo ever stop being a success.

After 19 years of Mister Chief, it appears that Frank O'Connor has left 343 Industries, Microsoft, and the Halo franchise.

If you're a longtime Halo fan, then you probably know who Frank O'Connor (aka Franklez) is. O'Connor joined Bungie shortly after Halo 2 launched in 2004, becoming one of the most recognized faces at the company as the forward-facing community manager of the Halo franchise. Throughout the years, O'Connor has showed up in various Halo vidocs and created the unofficial Mister Chief mascot that poked fun at the serious tone of the franchise. After nearly 4 years as a community manager, O'Connor spent nearly 20 years as a creative director on Halo, assisting with major mainline releases like Halo 4, Halo 5 Guardians, and Halo Infinite.

Now it looks like O'Connor has left 343 Industries and Halo altogether. O'Connor recently updated his LinkedIn profile that lists his time as a franchise creative director at Microsoft has ended. The profile now lists that O'Connor has been a "franchise creative director" in the same Greater Seattle area for 2 months. O'Connor's departure has not been confirmed and it's possible this LinkedIn update is a mistake.

After making nearly $67 billion from the Switch and achieving the third best-selling console of all time, Nintendo is now conquering the box office.

Nintendo's new Super Mario Bros. movie isn't just a success--the film is now the top best-earning video game adaptation of all time by breaking the $500 million mark, beating other popular game films like World of Warcraft ($439 million), Pokemon Detective Pikachu ($449 million), and Sonic The Hedgehog 2 ($405 million).

The Mario movie is actually the second-largest animated film of all time, with the top stop being reserved for Illumination's mega-popular Minions The Rise of Gru ($942 million). The movie's success was long predicted by analysts, especially considering Mario is one of the most-recognized pop culture icons in modern history.

UPDATE: Rovio has confirmed it is discussions with SEGA:

"Rovio confirms that it is in discussions with Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. ("Sega") regarding a possible tender offer for Rovio's shares. Rovio and Sega will release further information at an appropriate time."

SEGA has made an offer to buy Angry Birds developer Rovio, sources tell The Wall Street Journal.

Prompted by the FTC's new console market definition and accusations made at a recent U.S. trade hearing, Republican North Dakotan senator Kevin Cramer accuses Sony's PlayStation division of anti-competitive practices and asks the company to provide sensitive business documents.

U.S. Senators are starting to take a greater interest in the video games industry, especially in regards to Sony's so-called anti-competitive business practices. Senators like Kevin Cramer (R-ND) have formally issued a public request to Sony's currently acting CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida, that asks Sony to deliver unredacted copies of sensitive business documents. The public gambit seems to be that if Sony has nothing to hide, then it will willingly provide the documentation.

Sen. Cramer is asking Sony to fulfill four separate requests for information, including all exclusivity agreements that Sony has signed with third-party independent publishers. Sony is unlikely to comply with this request alone if not for a court order. Based on Sony's responses to the FTC, we know that Sony's filing system is not well-suited for this kind of mass documentation gathering, and Sony legal counsel says that this is a big reason why the company has taken such a long time to respond to Microsoft's document requests in the FTC administrative hearing discovery process. However, Sony has been ordered by the FTC to comply with all document requests, including third-party exclusivity deals, from 2019 onwards. Now politicians want to see this information as well.

NVIDIA RTX Remix is a toolset that allows modders to add path tracing and use AI to enhance older PC games. It gives them a visual makeover firmly in the "remaster" category. So far, we've seen NVIDIA's own results with the impressive Portal with RTX.

Considering that it runs on Valve's Source engine, the same tech that powers the all-time classic Half-Life 2, you can be sure that there are modders out there working on bringing path tracing to one of the best single-player first-person shooters of all time.

And that's exactly what modder Igor Zdrowowicz has been doing after going hands-on with RTX Remix, sharing some truly stunning screenshots (thanks to DSOG) showcasing Half-Life 2 Path Tracing in action.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has been delayed into early 2024, developer Rocksteady today announced.

Rocksteady's new ambitious co-op looter shooter has been pushed back again and is now expected to release on February 2, 2024 on all platforms.

Sources have told Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier that the main scope of the delay is to polish and not to change core gameplay mechanics, so things like inventory management and arcade-style beat-em-up combat are here to stay. Some gamers have criticized Suicide Squad's gameplay, presentation, and overall content loop, comparing it to the failed Avengers live service game.

Microsoft's new prototype Xbox micro-console is still on Phil Spencer's shelf...could a reveal happen soon?

Every time Phil Spencer goes on camera there's an opportunity to learn about Xbox's future plans (this is true in more ways than one). Not only does Spencer talk about Xbox when he's onscreen, but It's a tradition that Spencer offers some clues with the items on his famous shelf. Scanning the shelf is a fun little scavenger hunt that leads to lots of engagement and discussion in the Xbox community. Sometimes the innocuous items are just that--small collectibles, knick-knacks, etc. But sometimes we get a glimpse of something very interesting...like unreleased Xbox hardware prototypes.

In a short clip about Xbox Game Pass PC expanding to more regions, a strange-looking mini Xbox can be seen on Spencer's shelf. This tiny Xbox is called Keystone, and it actually evolved from 2016's experimental Project Hobart.