Gaming - Page 386

Final Fantasy turns 35 years old this year and Square Enix is celebrating with a bunch of updates on upcoming games.

Square Enix just put up a special website to commemorate Final Fantasy's 35th anniversary. Throughout the year the publisher plans to roll out updates, teasers, and celebratory content highlighting both new and old releases, and has teased some big updates on some of the most anticipated titles in development including the new medieval action-based Final Fantasy XVI, and the ultra-hyped sequel to 2019's Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

Right now the FF35 website only includes updates on recently-announced games like Chocobo GP and Final Fantasy Origin: Stranger of Paradise, but the site also tease "more news" on future games too.

Master Chief's real-life Mjolnir armor is pretty heavy...no wonder Pablo Schreiber had to beef up to wear it.

Halo is a difficult franchise to adapt into movies and TV shows. Apart from the storyline that's focused on deep-future interstellar war, the series' iconic Mjolnir armor--special high-tech suits worn by supersoldiers as humanity's last stand against an unbeatable alien foe--is awkward, unwieldy, and very bulky (just ask any cosplayer).

The real-life armor built specifically for the Halo TV show is now different. According to Master Chief star Pablo Schreiber, the suits are "50 lbs of plastic":

Old-school fake GameCube portable console mock-up becomes a reality, complete with folding screen.

Electronics whiz and hardware modder GingerOfOz has created a real working version of an old outrageous GameCube portable render from 2006. The original concept was a tiny GameCube the size of 4 Altoids tins with a disc drive and folding clamshell screen. It was basically a render of a DS GameCube.

For amusement, YouTuber GingerOfOz actually made a real-life version of the concept. Using a 480p display, a ton of 3D-printed parts, an ultra-trimmed Wii SoC, two 2,000mAh batteries, a custom-designed PCB, and a bunch of totally custom resin buttons made from 3D printed molds.

The worldwide chip shortage may become even worse as Russia's war with Ukraine rages on.

The Russia-Ukraine war may significantly impact the ongoing chip shortage. Reuters reports that two of the world's largest producers of neon have shut down due to the destructive and lethal invasion.

Manufacturers Ingas and Cryoin, both located in Ukraine, produce up to 54% of the world's neon used in semiconductor fabrication. Analyst firm Techet estimates that Ukraine supplies more than 90% of the neon used for chips in the United States. Neon gas is a critical component of chip-making; it powers the lasers used the lithography process of chip creation.

Warzone, the biggest thing Activision has ever done, is officially coming to mobile devices.

Activision adds to the Call of Duty workload by bringing Warzone to smartphones and tablets. The mobile port will join two other Warzone games: The current Warzone for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and the upcoming Warzone 2 that's coming alongside Modern Warfare 2.

Six game studios are working on Warzone mobile including Digital Legends, Beenox, Activision Shanghai, Activision's Central Tech studio, demonware, and the newly acquired mobile experts at Solid State Studios. Outside of an official confirmation Activision has not announced any details on the port but it may be similar to Apex Legends mobile and offer completely separate progression systems from the existing console port and its upcoming sequel.

Gamers are known for pushing the envelope on how to game, from speedrunning to insane challenges such as completing a game with a dance pad.

A streamer that goes by SuperLouis64 has decided to take a strange but extremely interesting approach to Elden Ring, instead of going with a traditional controller setup SuperLouis has opted for eleven bananas hooked up to a makeshift circuit board. Each of the bananas is mapped to individual inputs, so when SuperLouis wants a certain input to occur, he presses the button on the corresponding banana. Additionally, the streamer was able to get the banana setup to work with a PS4 controller.

The streamer is no stranger to modified controller setups and has previously beaten Halo 3 on Legendary difficulty with a Guitar Hero controller and beaten Dark Souls with the controls of Ring Fit Adventure. In the above video, SuperLouis beats Godrick the Grafted, the ruler of Stormveil Castle and the final boss within the area. If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

If you've held off on playing Grand Theft Auto IV, it might be time to depart the Lands Between and delve into Liberty City.

GTA IV Complete Edition is on sale for just $5.99 on Steam right now as part of the Rockstar Games sale. The bundle includes the base game and Episodes From Liberty City, both of which have been re-released without SecuRom and the ancient Games for Windows LIVE integration.

Sadly there's a few major issues with the game's virtual RAM usage that is preventing Liberty City from actually loading with GPUs that more than 4GB of VRAM. Be aware of this issue before you buy...however it has an easy fix.

The reports were right: The new Dead Space remake is coming in early 2023 after all.

EA has officially confirmed that Motive's upcoming Dead Space remake will launch sometime in early 2023 on consoles and PC. It's likely to launch before the company's fiscal year ends on March 31 to help pad out Q4 sales and kickstart Q1'24 revenues.

The remake has been built from the ground up specifically for next-gen consoles using DICE's advanced Frostbite engine. EA Motive is optimizing the full might of the PS5 and Xbox Series X to deliver higher-end features like ray-traced shadows and lighting, 4K resolution, and totally seamless gameplay with no loading screens.

Valve has released drivers to get Windows 10 up and running on the Steam Deck...but it's not perfect.

Steam Deck owners can now install Windows on the handheld thanks to the latest driver package issued out by Valve. The necessary Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPU drivers have been released and users can not only get Windows 10 running but Game Pass as well...with some stability caveats (plus not every game is supported).

It's also worth mentioning that there's no dual OS boot option so you will have to completely reformat and wipe the Steam Deck's storage to get Windows running. Plus audio drivers are not available yet so neither the Steam Deck's headphone jack nor built-in speakers will work while gaming on Windows. Fortunately you can hook up a headset via Bluetooth.

New job listings indicate that Bungie could have as many as 4 new projects in the works.

Bungie is currently ramping up its work force for multiple projects. While nothing's been officially announced, sometimes we can glean info based on job listings. An examination of Bungie's current job openings may set the stage for what's to come. This is by no means official confirmation and there's a chance we're wrong about the number.

Right now the Destiny developer has a massive 113 open positions available across all disciplines, from programming, art, audio, accounting, and brand management. A cursory glance shows Bungie is developing new IP, possible new Destiny 2 content, and unannounced games--all of which may be in development separately and/or in tandem with one another.

Microsoft is so far ahead that "PlayStation is doomed," Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter dramatically said in a recent Xbox podcast.

According to the analyst, Microsoft has an "insurmountable lead" in services, infrastructure, and overall ecosystem that has future-proofed Xbox for the next 10 years. Sony, on the other hand, doesn't have that kind of lasting power--at least that's what Pachter believes.

"I think PlayStation's doomed, and I think they're going to cease to exist as we know them in about 10 years. They can't compete. They have no chance," Pachter said during an RDX stream.

An indie game mega bundle has raised more money for Ukraine relief than any other video games company.

The Bundle for Ukraine packs nearly 1,000 games and has raised an incredible $3.59 million for humanitarian relief in Ukraine. The collection includes some pretty choice games including popular titles like Celeste, Superhot, Jotun, and two Towerfall games, but it also has other media like tabletop RPGs comics, ebooks, and even some tools. Over 700 developers and creators have joined forces to make the bundle a reality.

"The people of Ukraine are under attack. As game developers we want to create new worlds, not to destroy the one we have. That's why we've banded together to present this charity bundle to help Ukrainians survive this ordeal and thrive after the war ends."

Halo and Destiny game developer Bungie stands with Ukraine and has removed Destiny 2 content and expansions from sale in Russia and Belarus.

"Bungie stands with the people of Ukraine and everyone impacted by the ongoing war," the developer wrote in an update post.

"Starting today, we will be working with our partners to suspend all Destiny 2 sales and commerce in Russia and Belarus."

Yesterday's State of Play showcase was a flop...all save for one big announcement.

The major consensus among gamers is that Sony's most recent State of Play was pretty bad. Enthusiasts were expecting major updates on games like Final Fantasy XVI and maybe even Resident Evil 4 Remake. Instead, Sony's third-party partners delivered mostly niche products.

However there's one thing that everyone pretty much loved about the stream: The new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collection.

Sony has announced it will stop selling PlayStation software, hardware, and services to Russia due to the ongoing Ukraine invasion.

Sony has joined Microsoft in holding a temporary product sales ban in Russia. The company has cancelled all hardware shipments to Russia, and is closing off access to the PlayStation Store in the country. Online-driven games can no longer be played. Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe, who previously served Russian gamers with content and services, helped the company make $16 billion from European markets in 2021.

"Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) joins the global community in calling for peace in Ukraine," Sony said in a statement.

Rockstar Games may be working on as many as five games including GTA 6, one analyst says.

Grand Theft Auto 6 may not be the other game that Rockstar is working on (but it's certainly the most important right now).

"Guess what, Rockstar has five games in development. They do. They may never come out, but they have them," Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said in a recent RDX podcast.

Gotham Knights, the new Batman game where Bruce Wayne is actually dead, will release this October.

After years of waiting, gamers finally have a release date for its gritty and visceral open-world action RPG Gotham Knights. The two-player co-op game will release on October 25, 2022 across PS4, Xbox One, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

Gotham Knights features four different playable knights including Red Hood, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Robin, each with their own special abilities, gear, and character roles. The game features distinct RPG elements with elemental affinities, health bars, stamina, adds, and huge boss fights against iconic villains like Mr. Freeze and Talons directly adapted from the Court of Owls comics.

Koch Media, entertainment parent company of games labels like Deep Silver, Prime Matter, has donated more money to Ukranian relief than Activision-Blizzard has.

Video games companies are donating funds en masse to help embattled Ukraine during the current Russian invasion. Many of the top games-makers including The Pokemon Company, SEGA, Remedy Entertainment, Activision-Blizzard, and Koch Media have donated tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars to worldwide humanitarian efforts.

One interesting thing about these donations is the overall values. Some companies give what they can--Remedy, for example, made 44.7 million euros in 2021 and donated 50,000 euros to Ukrainian relief. Koch Media, a multimedia company who made roughly $244 million in 2021, has donated $500,000 to Ukrainian relief and is prepared to donate another $500,000 through matched employee donations.

Valve's PC gaming platform Steam had more monthly active users throughout 2021 than the PlayStation Network, new data indicates.

PC gaming is on the rise and big-name publishers like Capcom, SEGA, Microsoft, and even Sony are bringing their games the market. Steam is firmly at the top of the PC platform hierarchy (nearly every publisher has released their own proprietary games launcher, but some, like Bethesda.net, are closing shop) and outside of multi-million Epic Games Store exclusivity deals, everyone wants their games on Steam for one big reason: That's where most of the players are.

New data from Valve shows that Steam had a whopping 132 million monthly active users (MAUs) throughout 2021.

Microsoft has only sold 2.3 million Xbox consoles in Japan over the last 20 years, data from Weekly Famitsu indicates.

Xbox isn't popular in Japan. The platform and its associated services pales in comparison to the mighty PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, which are leagues more popular in the region. While official console sales data is scarce (Microsoft doesn't report specifics any more), new estimations from Japanese gaming magazine Weekly Famitsu paints a rather desolate picture for Xbox in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Across a two-decade span, only one Xbox console has sold over 1 million units. The Xbox 360 sold over 1.6 million units in Japan through its lifetime. The original Xbox from 2001 is next in line with 472,000 units, and the Xbox One has moved little over 114,000 units. The Xbox Series X/S duo is already beating Xbox One's total lifetime sales with a whopping 142,000 units to date, which is 6% of the market's total 20-year console sales.