Gaming - Page 409

PC used to be exempt from the new $69.99 price tag. Not any more.

Square Enix is the first publisher to charge $69.99 for base versions of its next-gen PC games, and more publishers are likely to follow. The new $69.99 MSRP was introduced for next-gen PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S games, but now publishers are pushing the price hike on PC as well.

The Japanese publisher is charging $69.99 for PC versions of two of its upcoming PS5 and Xbox Series X games: Luminous Productions' new fantasy game Forspoken is $69.99 on Steam. Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is also $69.99 on the Epic Games Store (and it's also exclusive to EGS). Both of these titles are are only coming to Gen 9 consoles, skipping Gen 8 consoles, and these are baseline prices for the standard PC ports--not deluxe or premium SKUs.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is finally coming to PC, but gamers are going to pay a premium.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake and its INTERmission DLC are coming to PC as an upgraded bundle on December 16. The game will cost a premium $69.99 and is exclusive to the Epic Games Store (at least for now). It will not be available on Steam. This is the first time a mainline publisher has released a high-profile PC port with the new $69.99 PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S price tag.

While PC gamers are pushing back against the move, Square Enix asserts that FF7R Intergrade will be optimized for PC hardware and offer high-end performance targets like 4K 120FPS. The PC spec requirements are pretty lenient and you can play FF7R on an i5-3300 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a GTX 780 on minimum settings.

Gun Interactive is working their multiplayer magic on one of the most terrifying horror films ever made.

A new Texas Chain Saw Massacre game is in development from Gun Interactive and Sumo Digital, and will offer similar asymmetrical multiplayer carnage similar to Friday the 13th: The Game. It's been 38 years since the last Texas Chain Saw Massacre video game released on the Atari 2600 back in 1983, and the developers promise an "authentic gaming experience" based on Tobe Hooper's disturbing 1974 classic.

There's no word on a release date but the new Texas Chain Saw Massacre game will be exclusively released on next-gen consoles and PC, and will not be coming to PlayStation 4 or Xbox One platforms.

Sony has acquired another video games studio, and this time it's support team Valkyrie Entertainment.

Seattle-based Vakyrie Entertainment has joined the PlayStation brand, Sony Interactive Entertainment's Hermen Hulst has announced. Valkyrie was previously an indie work-for-hire team founded in 2002 that helped make a multitude of games including Valorant, Halo Infinite, and Shadow of War, as well as first-party Sony games like God of War. Valkyrie has been helping with God of War Ragnarok's development from the get-go and Sony decided to put a ring on it to make things official.

Hulst says Valkyrie will deliver "invaluable contributions" to other PlayStation brands and the team themselves say they have two projects of their own in development: "Currently, we are working on several AAA Co-Development projects and two unannounced in-house titles," Valkyrie's website reads.

PUBG, the OG BR, is going free-to-play on January 12, 2022 and will fracture the playerbase between premium and free users.

After five years on the market and billions earned from microtransactions, PUBG Battlegrounds will soon be free-to-play on all platforms. The free version comes with some caveats: F2P gamers won't be able to play ranked matches or even set up custom games matches.

PUBG Corp will sell a new Battlegrounds Plus account upgrade for $12.99 that unlocks all modes. Anyone who has purchased PUBG before January 12 will receive a free upgrade to Battlegrounds Plus alongside a special commemorative pack that includes:

Hellblade II's first-ever gameplay footage keeps things super weird and visually enticing.

Ninja Theory debuted Hellblade II Senua's Saga gameplay at The Game Awards, and as you might expect, the game looks absolutely incredible. The first game was a metaphorical and psychological foray into a fractured mind, and Hellblade II ramps things up a notch with more twisted memories. The gameplay shows Senua and her Norse raiders attacking a hulking giant that's been cut in half, who also predictably eats enemies like snacks.

The new trailer shows just how far Ninja Theory has come, complete with impressive graphics, high-res textures, immaculate lighting effects, and of course some of the best motion capture in the games industry. Interactive gameplay seamlessly flows in and out of cinematic sequences to portray an engaging cinematic experience.

The rumors were true: Quantic Dream's next game is set in the Star Wars universe.

At The Game Awards, Quantic Dream announced Star Wars Eclipse, a brand new action-adventure game set in the High Republic era (more specifically in the Outer Rim). The trailer was a CGI graphics powerhouse that flexes the power of next-gen hardware but it was all in-engine and not actual gameplay.

Star Wars Eclipse promises the unique and divergent branching storylines that Quantic Dream is known for alongside a cast of all-original characters. This is a major part of Lucasfilm's decision to use video games to expand the franchise.

Alan Wake 2 is officially in development, and it's now a horror-survival game similar to Silent Hill.

Remedy announced Alan Wake 2 at The Game Awards, confirming a 2023 release date for the sequel. Details are slim, but we know it's a horror survival action game with dark, psychological overtones.

"We've been iterating on the concept, we've been a bit protective. We knew it was a pretty scary experience and we're convinced everyone is ready," Sam Lake said at the show. "We're definitely breaking new ground, it's our first ever survival-horror game. It's our take on the genre."

STALKER 2 is still months away but developer GSC Game World has teased 5 new screenshots from the game.

In the latest issue of PC Gamer magazine, we get some juicy new STALKER 2 screenshots, with the Unreal Engine 5-powered game looking mighty fine in the new stills. STALKER 2 isn't the first to use Unreal Engine 5, with Epic Games' own Fortnite recently receiving its UE5-based update.

The new screenshots show us that the world GSC Game World is building in STALKER 2 is much more colorful and full of nature, versus the barren wasteland of the original STALKER. We do get to see an anomaly to see, with a tunnel that gives me those eerie STALKER / Metro vibes.

Activision-Blizzard workers are close to forming the first-ever union for games developers in the United States.

The $128 billion games industry is at a crossroads. Workers are now collectively banding together in an effort to unionize against unfair practices and toxic workplace culture. The developers behind one of gaming's top-earners, Activision-Blizzard, are currently on a company-wide strike in protest of the allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment, and discrimination surrounding the company, and have expressed interest in unionization.

Reports from The Washington Post indicates that Activision-Blizzard worker unions could happen soon. Employee collective group A Better ABK is working with labor union Communication Workers of America (CWA) to disburse union authorization cards to developers in an effort to spark widespread interest and discussions. This could lead to a formal vote of unionization.

Microsoft's new Halo: The Endless trademark should also include a novel tie-in.

Halo: The Endless should be the name of a new Halo Infinite campaign DLC. Microsoft filed the trademark in June, and it's specifically classified as gaming software:

Starfield's PC version will be available on at least three platforms: Steam, the Microsoft Store, and the Bethesda.net launcher.

Starfield's Steam page just went live today confirming that, yes, the game will be sold on the platform. This is great news for gamers who plan to mod and alter Starfield, considering modding games isn't too easy on Game Pass PC titles. The storefront page doesn't reveal any new information about the upcoming singleplayer space RPG, but it does further solidify the game's November 11, 2022 release date.

This really isn't much of a surprise. Microsoft has regularly released its first-party games on Steam in an effort to maximize sales and Bethesda's huge new RPG should be no different. Starfield is the biggest game Bethesda Game Studios has ever made, and merges science with techno-fantasy complete with interstellar exploration and new game mechanics.

Here's a guaranteed fix for the annoying gaming services glitch for Halo Infinite on Game Pass PC.

Having trouble booting up Halo Infinite via Game Pass on PC? Is the installer telling you to download Gaming Services but not actually giving you an option to do so? This step-by-step fix will get you back into that challenge grind in no time.

To get around the Gaming Services issue you simply need to reset the Halo Infinite app:

What if Nintendo recreated Zelda Ocarina of Time on the next-gen Switch Pro (Super Switch, Switch 4K)? It might look something like this.

Nintendo is working on a new higher-powered Switch capable of 4K performance gaming, but what kinds of upgrades can we expect? As more developers move to Unreal Engine 5 and harness the power of its new transformative Nanite geometry technology we might see some surprising higher-end games running on NVIDIA's Tegra SoCs.

YouTuber and Unreal Engine animator RwanLink gives us an idea of what could be possible for the Zelda franchise. The creator put together an amazing-looking The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time demo running on Unreal Engine that shows what a new OoT remake could look like from Nintendo.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla owners will soon have to re-download the entire game with a new content update.

Valhalla is getting a bunch of new expansions in 2022, and Ubisoft is taking measures to prevent the game from getting too big. Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which is already 95GB+ on PlayStation 5, is receiving a new data restructuring update that will reduce the file size on all platforms. The catch is that you have to re-download the entire game again.

"In order to continue supporting Assassin's Creed Valhalla with future content and game updates, Title Update 1.4.1 will require players to re-download the entire game as part of a data restructuring," Ubisoft said.

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick thinks NFTs can A) provide more value to in-game goods, and B) opening up a trade platform in games. But Zelnick is only interested if NFTs are "regulated and honest".

Right now gaming is at a crossroads. We're at yet another new frontier where publishers are jumping into crypto, the metaverse, and even NFTs. It's a Wild West situation and everyone's trying to establish something--Ubisoft, for example, has woven cosmetic armor/weapon skins into NFTs in its new Quartz platform and plans to sell NFTs and make money from NFT trades on third-party marketplaces. The NFT market is another microtransaction market and everyone wants a slice--EA, SEGA, Square Enix, and Ubisoft want in.

It looks like Take-Two Interactive could be on that list soon. We could see NFTs come to GTA Online and other big-name Rockstar titles, as well as NBA 2K, a series that has made billions from randomized in-game microtransaction packs. If, and only if, the market is well-regulated, fair, and non-speculative.

Third-party PlayStation 5 controllers are now coming to the market...but they're very expensive.

SCUF Gaming is the first company to bring third-party PlayStation 5 DualSense controllers to the gaming world, but there's just one catch: Their minimum retail price is nearly half of a PS5's $499 retail MSRP. SCUF has three PS5 controllers available that range in price, form, and function. The models include:

Each of the controllers features SCUF's patented four-paddle design for custom programming, and the most expensive controller, the Reflex FPS, actually replaces Sony's tactile triggers with their own Instant Trigger design, which is much more lightweight and provides "instant mouse-click" precision.

If you've been loving Assetto Corsa Competizione, then you will have been loving it so much more since its recent Update 1.8 patch. The Steam update notes are pretty hefty if you want to give them a read.

Assetto Corsa Competizione's recent Update 1.8 patch includes a bucket load of improvements and fixes, but it also adds support for both NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR technologies. NVIDIA DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) will work on GeForce RTX 20 series GPUs and newer, while AMD FSR (FidelityFX Super Sampling) will work on all graphics cards.

NVIDIA DLSS 2.0 is featured in Assetto Corsa Competizione, so while it might be the very latest DLSS 2.2 or the upcoming DLSS 2.3 update, but DLSS 2.0 is fantastic on its own and far superior to any version of FSR right now. There's also massive changes to the game's physics, user interface, multiplayer mode, controls, and gameplay.

Halo Infinite might have gamers' attention right now but YouTuber "Digital Dreams" has my attention with their latest work: Halo 3 running at the glorious 8K resolution with the Beyond All Limits ReShade ray tracing mod... and man, are the results freaking impressive. Check it out:

Halo 3 wasn't the best-looking game of its generation, but running at 8K (7680 x 4320) which is 4x the pixels of 4K and 16x the pixels of 1080p... it looks glorious. Halo 3 is part of the Halo: The Master Chief Collection on the PC and can be run at the 8K resolution if you've got the GPU grunt to handle it.

Digital Dreams used the "Beyond All Limits" ReShade ray tracing preset for Halo 3, which makes major improvements to the Global Illumination and Ambient Occlusion in the game. With these improvements, Halo 3 looks fantastic at 8K on the right PC... not too bad for a game released in 2007, hey? It actually makes me want to go back and play through the entire Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

If you've been waiting to play all of the Uncharted games and wanted to enjoy them with the best graphics and performance? Well, that's what the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection on the PlayStation 5 will deliver. Check out the pre-order trailer:

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection will include Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and The Lost Legacy, both releasing on January 28, 2021, on the PlayStation 5. The PS5 version of the game includes some next-gen features including multiple display modes (Fidelity, Performance, and Performance+ Mode), near-instant load times, DualSense controller support, and more.

Already own Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, or Uncharted 4: A Thief's End & Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Digital Bundle? That's fine... you can upgrade to the new Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection for only $10. This bundle isn't valid for anyone who has claimed Uncharted 4: A Thief's End through PlayStation Plus.