Gaming - Page 350

Sony has officially confirmed that Returnal is coming to PC soon.

Ultra-tough bullet-hell action game Returnal is coming to PC in early 2023, Sony has announced at The Game Awards. The news comes months after the game showed up on SteamDB under the codename Tower of Sispyhus, and it was not exactly a surprise.

Returnal will be the next major PS5 game to cross over to PC following a 2021 release, meaning PlayStation exclusives can now jump onto PC after just one year of exclusivity. This falls in line with Sony's previous cadence, however it's worth noting that Returnal was not exactly a commercial success and was panned by critics for lack of a save feature.

The FTC has officially sued to block Microsoft's $68.7 billion buyout of Activision-Blizzard.

BREAKING: The Federal Trade Commission has formally issued intent to block the Microsoft-Activision merger.

"Agency alleges that maker of Xbox would gain control of top video game franchises, enabling it to harm competition in high-performance gaming consoles and subscription services by denying or degrading rivals' access to its popular content," the FTC stated.

Valve's Gabe Newell has significantly helped improve Microsoft's chances in closing the Activision merger.

Microsoft is pulling out all the stops to get the Activision merger approved. Just two days ago Microsoft announced a significant 10-year deal that guarantees Call of Duty on both Nintendo and Steam, both of which are competing platforms to the Xbox brand. The tech giant is aggressively trying to debunk Sony's claims of industry foreclosure due to Call of Duty exclusivity.

Interestingly enough, Valve disregarded Microsoft's offer. Not because Valve doesn't agree with the deal, but because the PC publisher simply doesn't need the guarantee. Valve Corp. President Gabe Newell trusts Microsoft enough already and doesn't need a binding contract. Newell believes that Microsoft will keep its word, which is something that will significantly help Microsoft's chances in closing the deal.

The failed Marvel's Avengers live game may be shut down in 2023, sources have told Exputer.

Crystal Dynamics could stop supporting Marvel's Avengers as early as next year and possibly shut down the game servers. Announced in 2017 and then released in 2020, the Avengers live game has been problematic for developer Crystal Dynamics and publisher Square Enix, who reportedly lost $200 million on its multi-game partnership with Marvel.

Game site Exputer chronicles the trials that Crystal Dynamics faced while making Avengers, noting the live game was based on the studio's proprietary Foundation engine, which was never really meant for big online games. The studio has since switched to Epic's highly-optimized and flexible Unreal Engine 5 so that developers have a more even-keeled engine environment. Crystal Dynamics' debut UE5 project will be a new Tomb Raider game, the studio has confirmed.

The Uncharted series could make a come back on PlayStation 5 with new titles, sources have told The Leak.

Following the success of a the major motion picture adaptation starring Tom Holland, Sony is reportedly planning to reboot the Uncharted series with new game releases. Two sources tell gaming website The Leak that the Uncharted franchise is getting rebooted but Naughty Dog won't be developing the project.

It's possible Uncharted will be rebooted and/or adapted by way of PlayStation's new live service game focus with a heavier emphasis on multiplayer action, or that the new Uncharted titles could have some form of online co-op play mixed with singleplayer action adventure questing.

If the Activision-Blizzard buyout deal closes, then Microsoft will focus even more on distribution of games, content, and services while simultaneously running its Xbox platform in parallel.

Today Microsoft outlined a big part of its post-merger plans and how it relates to its Xbox games division. Approval of the Activision merger will see Microsoft become more focused on expanding content to as many devices as possible, as evidenced by the significant 10-year Call of Duty deal it has offered to its competitors Nintendo, Valve, and Sony. Microsoft is no longer solely focused on expanding the Xbox storefront per say, but the Xbox ecosystem, further evolving the Xbox platform into a combination of games and services.

Here at TweakTown I've been saying for years that Xbox is no longer a console, but a service that bridges multiple platforms together. The inclusion of Activision Blizzard Kind games will supercharge Xbox's evolution as a broadly accessible platform-market-ecosystem hybrid that delivers a wide variety of content across multiple access points, whether it be platform availability, or distribution model (digital, physical, or subscription).

The merger drama continues as Microsoft fires off a hail Mary pass to the end zone with a deal that can't be beat.

Last night, Microsoft's Phil Spencer delivered a big surprise in the ongoing $68.7 billion Activision merger news cycle. Spencer confirmed that Microsoft has entered in a decade-long commitment to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo and Steam, two of Microsoft's largest direct competitors. Both Nintendo and Valve will be offered 10 years of access to Call of Duty. This deal directly counters one of Sony's core arguments against the merger concerning the $31 billion franchise being locked to Xbox platforms.

Microsoft has also offered the same 10-year deal to Sony, however it appears that Sony has yet to accept the offer or negotiate other terms. Microsoft's previous offer, which would have guaranteed only 3 years of post-contractual access to Call of Duty games up until 2027, was considered grossly inadequate by Sony.

Microsoft throws a curve ball that directly counters many of Sony's anti-merger arguments.

Last night, Phil Spencer announced surprise deals that Microsoft has offered two of its major competitors. If the Activision-Blizzard merger is approved, Spencer said, then Microsoft will bring Call of Duty to both Nintendo and Steam. The tech giant has offered both Nintendo and Valve a significant 10-year licensing deal for the $31 billion shooter franchise. Call of Duty hasn't been on Nintendo since 2013 when Ghosts released on Wii U.

"Microsoft has entered into a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo following the merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard King," Spencer said in a Tweet. 

Starting in 2023, Microsoft will join the rest of the games industry and start charging $69.99 for its new games.

New first-party Xbox Series X/S games will cost $70 from next year onward, Microsoft has told IGN. This includes new games like Starfield, Redfall, new Forza Motosport titles, the upcoming next-gen Fable game, MachineGames' Indiana Jones project, Perfect Dark, Hellblade II, and many other first-party games.

"This price reflects the content, scale, and technical complexity of these titles. As with all games developed by our teams at Xbox, they will also be available with Game Pass the same day they launch."

CD Projekt RED says that the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 sequel will not enter pre-production phases of development until 2024.

CD Projekt has a lot on its plate right now. The company is currently working on five Witcher projects, including a new Witcher trilogy, and is also making Cyberpunk 2077's big new Phantom Liberty expansion. And once that's done, the teams will target Project Orion, a new sequel set in the Cyberpunk universe. It might be some time before Orion is ready, though.

In a recent investor's Q&A session, CD Projekt president Adam Kicinski confirms that Project Orion's development won't start in 2023. Instead, pre-production will not begin until 2024 at the earliest. After Phantom Liberty releases, teams will shift over to Orion and start the concepting phase which begins before pre-production. This will see various aspects of the game being planned and plotted out.

CD Projekt clarifies the planned release timings for its new upcoming Witcher projects and games.

There's a lot of new Witcher games in development right now. CD Projekt is currently working on and/or planning at least five separate Witcher projects, including the Witcher 3 next-gen update planned for release on December 14, a brand new mainline Witcher trilogy that's codenamed Polaris, a new separate game codenamed Sirius from The Molasses Flood that will have multiplayer elements, and Canis Majoris, which is the new Witcher 1 remake built from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5.

So when will these projects come out? In a recent Q&A session with investors, CD Projekt Group management confirms that the first chapter of Polaris will release before The Witcher 1 remake. The two games--Polaris part 1 and Canis Majoris--will enter parallel development and CD Projekt will work on both games at the same time. Once Polaris is released, Canis Majoris will be able to borrow assets, content, and tools from the episodic game.

Epic Games overhauls Fortnite with a big visual makeover thanks to the power of Unreal Engine 5.

Fortnite Chapter 4 is here and it's been completely reborn in Unreal Engine 5.1 with new high-end effects and visual tweaks. The game looks absolutely incredible for Fortnite, and is a kind of proof-of-concept design of what live service F2P shooters could look like utilizing the new engine toolset.

The new radical update was made possible thanks to Unreal Engine 5.1's optimized tech, including Nanite, which allows tons of extra detail thanks to its virtualized polygons, and Lumen, which adds ray-traced reflections and real-time global lighting effects to create a whole new sense of realism for the cartoony shooter.

The FTC could greenlight the $68.7 billion Microsoft-Activision merger in order to avoid a tie vote, sources tell The New York Post.

FTC Chairperson Lina Khan could give her blessing to the Microsoft-Activision merger in order to avoid potential fallout from a split vote. The FTC currently has four members of its panel that are scrutinizing the merger including three Democrats (Lena Khan, Rebecca Slaughter, and Alvaro Bedoya) and one Republican (Christine Wilson).

Sources say that Wilson and Slaughter may vote to approve the merger, with Khan and Bedoya moving to block it, leading to a split tie vote. Sources say this could undermine Lina Khan's authority over the regulator and she would instead proceed to approve the merger.

Hideo Kojima has released three new cryptic symbols to build intrigue for his next project.

Right now Hideo Kojima is working on as many as two projects, including Death Stranding 2 and a new interactive horror game for Xbox's cloud streaming platform (codenamed OVERDOSE). Kojima has continued his penchant for secretive and often bizarre game teasers with a series of mysterious promo images that previously confirmed that both Elle Fanning and Deadpool 2 actress Shiola Kutsuna will star in the project. Symbols and logos accompanied these reveals.

Kojima is back with a new symbol depicting the Automated Public Assistance Company. No one knows exactly what these symbols are referring to, but the major guess is that Kojima is teasing Death Stranding 2 and the PAC will be a faction in the game. The other logos, a strange-looking art deco gate or perhaps a bridge, and a kraken that has been stuck with multiple spears, may also indicate other factions to be featured in Death Stranding 2.

Todd Howard reveals why Bethesda RPGs went from immersive choice-driven character builds to a kind of jack-of-all-trades style where classes are no longer established.

One of the most jarring leaps from Oblivion to Skyrim was the elimination of all player stats. Endurance, Strength, Agility, Intelligence--all stat and attribute modifiers were removed. On a surface level, it appears this standardization (or casualization, if you prefer) was designed to make The Elder Scrolls more appealing to the masses by removing a lot of the customization and guesswork with specific builds from the get-go, and now Todd Howard discusses why those changes were made.

In a recent interview with Lex Fridman, the Bethesda designer confirms that newer games are built to be classless experiences in an effort to reduce friction and the need for starting a new character. Long gone are the days of Morrowind where you are simply stuck with the build you make on day 1--Bethesda wants players to be able to morph between builds in a more seamless way.

NVIDIA has just announced that its Ada Lovelace GPU-exclusive DLSS 3 upscaling technology is coming to some of December's biggest games, joining the list of 14 games that already rock DLSS 3 support.

DLSS 3 only dropped in October 2022 with the release of NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 4090 "Ada Lovelace" graphics card, with the fun continuing last month with the second-fastest Ada Lovelace release in the GeForce RTX 4080 16GB graphics card. But now... DLSS 3 is being added to five new games in December 2022.

We can expect DLSS 3 updates for Need for Speed Unbound, Warhammer 40,000 Darktide, Portal with RTX, Jurassic World Evolution 2, and Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's upcoming "Next-Gen Update". I'm sure that the release of Portal with RTX is going to be one of the most-hyped DLSS 3-powered titles.

In a few hours' time the release of The Callisto Protocol takes place, with the developer taking to Twitter to announce the "Max" and "Ultra" PC requirements for the game.

The Callisto Protocol requires 8GB of RAM and 75GB of storage at a minimum, with the developer recommending gamers use an SSD -- it's 2022, you really should be -- while you'll need Windows 10 or Windows 11 at a minimum, too.

Moving onto the CPU requirements, The Callisto Protocol developer recommends an Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 2600 processor for the minimum PC requirements, while the recommended PC requirements bump the CPU recommendation up to an Intel Core i7-8700 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 processor. The recommended PC specs for The Callisto Protocol also get bumped from 8GB of RAM, to 16GB of RAM, too.

Todd Howard says that balancing rare loot is an artform that Bethesda still has a lot to learn about.

To me, Bethesda RPGs are fueled by three things: Exploration, questing, and loot. Finding awesome gear, including epic weapons and armor, is a big motivator to keep searching specific areas. Sometimes you find a good gun or sword, other times you find the best item in the game. But finding that perfect balance is tough. Not every game can be like Morrowind and offer a smorgasbord of ultra-powerful artifacts that make you an indomitable god like the Boots of Blinding Speed, the Ebony Mail, or the Skullcrusher.

In a recent interview with Lex Fridman, Bethesda's Todd Howard talks about how the studio handles rare gear and items and praises other games that did it right including Destiny 2 (which is debatable considering 90% of the gear is just materials fodder) and Diablo III, whose outrageously crazy drop stats brought tons of fun to the dungeon-crawler.

After years of development, Digital Extremes has finally added cross-play to its blockbuster F2P hit Warframe.

A while back, I said that cross-play was one of the most important new features of modern gaming. That goes double for free-to-play, multiplayer-driven live service games and over the years we've seen many titles incorporate full-on cross-play. Now Warframe has joined the mix, offering full cross-platform action everywhere the game is available.

Starting today, Tenno will be able to join their friends and play together across all platforms including PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC, with full support for every SKU of the game regardless of how it's played--Steam, Epic Games Store, etc. Sadly cross-save/cross-progression is not currently available but the feature is coming in the future, so for now gamers will still have to remain on their main platform of choice.

The Callisto Protocol's poor reception have reportedly caused Krafton's shares to drop by nearly 9%.

Yesterday the review embargo broke for The Callisto Protocol, a new horror game made by many of the original Dead Space developers. The project was published by PUBG owner Krafton Inc., who hoped that the game could spawn a new IP and franchise that lives alongside the immensely popular battle royale game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

The Callisto Protocol apparently didn't meet expectations. The game is currently sitting at a 76 on Metacritic, which is not bad by any means, however it looks like investors may feel differently. It doesn't help that The Callisto Protocol has mostly negative reviews on Steam due to the game's poor optimization and performance on PC. Only 35% of the Steam reviews are positive and the game is suffering from bad optimization that leads to stuttering even on lagging heavily on some enthusiast-grade builds.