Gaming - Page 416

PS5 scarcity won't be alleviated any time soon. Sony has cut its PS5 shipment target due to worldwide component shortages.

Sony has cut 1 million units from its PS5 production target, sources tell Bloomberg's Takashi Mochizuki. Sony now expects to have 15 million PS5 consoles available for shipment by March 2022, and now that number has dropped to 14 million. Like Nintendo, Microsoft, and other consumer technology manufacturers, Sony is having trouble securing critical semiconductors, chips, and components required for the PS5 console.

Supply constraints may also bite into Sony's big plans for 2022, where it plans to make nearly 23 million PlayStation 5 consoles ready for shipment. This is the largest salvo of PlayStation consoles that Sony has ever prepared in the history of the brand.

Battlefield 2042 pre-loading is kicking off worldwide right now, but once you've got it downloaded and installed onto your PC or console, what time does it unlock? Let's find out.

If you've pre-ordered the Gold Edition or Ultimate Edition version of Battlefield 2042, then you'll get Early Access into the game and can enjoy it on November 12. The full release is a week later on November 19, so anyone that ordered the Gold or Ultimate Edition of the game can pre-load Battlefield 2042.

I've just finished pre-loading Battlefield 2042 Ultimate Edition on Steam, but we're still over 24 hours away from the PC Early Access launch at the time of writing. It all kicks off on November 12 @ 00:00 PST. Not only that, but there's also a 10-hour trial of Battlefield 2042 if you're an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or EA Play subscriber.

Battlefield 2042 is only days away but the game has leaked for some lucky gamers, with Reddit user 'Aaronfrogger' teasing new details from EA DICE's biggest game of 2021.

We now have a tease of what the full version of Battlefield 2042 will entail, with our first look at the menu and much more from Aaronfrogger on Reddit. The full Battlefield 2042 subreddit has more, but we do get a quick look at the menus of Battlefield 2042, as well as weapon customization, and bot matches.

The full game drops on November 12 which is mere hours away, but the early look is welcomed. We do have a list of the guns that Battlefield 2042 will have, with 3 x secondary weapons, 4 x SMGs, 4 x assault rifles, 3 x DMRs, 3 x sniper rifles, 3 x shotguns, and 2 x LMGs for a total of 22 weapons... at least at launch.

Spider-Man could help reinvigorate Square Enix's "disappointing" Avengers live game.

Crystal Dynamics and Sony have announced Spider-Man is finally coming to the new Avengers video game on November 30, 2021. Thanks to a brand marketing deal, the webslinger is exclusive to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 consoles and won't be available to PC or Xbox owners (these users are not happy about it, either).

No info on what to expect from the free Spider-Man DLC has been released. We know Spidey is part of a hero event and can be accessed right away in the Avengers Initiative mission series. We don't know anything about Spider-Man's abilities, his combat mechanics, or the variety in his suits...but expect to see a bunch of these lifted straight from multiple comic series' and sold as paid skins.

BREAKING: Valve's new Steam Deck has been delayed, and will now start initial shipments in February 2022.

Component shortages have delayed yet another consumer product, this time with Valve's new Steam Deck. The company announced that the first wave of Steam Deck shipments have been delayed by two months to February 2022 due to "material shortages" in critical component supply chains.

Valve says all reservations will shift, so if you had an early reservation you will still get your Steam Deck before someone who registered to pre-order months after you.

Rockstar Games has finally put out more GTA trilogy remaster comparison gameplay footage and the results are pretty stunning.

The new Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition looks absolutely incredible. Well, parts of the trilogy does, namely the environments, lighting effects, shadows, and all the other atmospherics that are baked into the scenes. Old-school PS2 games have been reborn with modernized upgrades befit of current- and next-gen systems.

At the same time, the new remastered trilogy upgrades do change the overall tone, look, and feel of the game. GTA III's blurry and dark sequences gave the experience a more foreboding and brooding nature, underlining the dark city streets filled with crime. There are some parts of GTA III that are just dazzling--namely the Times Square area with its mock-Flatiron Building--and Vice City is also a lot brighter than the PS2 days.

One gamer received an early copy of the new GTA trilogy and showed off the upgraded graphics in a live stream.

YouTuber okayjosh made history with the world's first gameplay of the new Vice City remaster in action. Up until today, Rockstar hadn't really show much gameplay of the new Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition (they released a comparison video that does a great job showing the upgrades though).

Now we get to see what the game looks like in the wild without any PR edits. It's just raw gameplay streamed directly from a PlayStation 4. The graphics are a significant step up from the original PS2 game, but also have a very cartoonish look and feel--even more so than what was previously shown off. Interestingly enough, Vice City has a number of graphics options that allow gamers to toggle bloom, motion blur, and depth of field.

Todd Howard pretty much confirms Creation Club will continue, and may even find its way into future games like Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI.

From the sound of it, Bethesda's unpopular "paid mods" Creation Club program won't end with the new Skyrim Anniversary Edition releasing this month. In a recent IGN Unfiltered interview, Todd Howard made the case that Bethesda is very passionate about the modding community and offering ways for creators to turn their hobby into a possible career.

"When you think about the legacy of our games...you know, one of the reasons we're sitting here 10 years later is because of our modding community and what they've done with the game," Howard said, acknowledging that Bethesda has hired a bunch of Creation Club modders.

Bethesda Softworks' head honcho and chess club enthusiast Todd Howard delivers necessary praise to the Skyrim and Elder Scrolls modding community.

Bethesda's relationship with the modding scene can best be described as estranged. The games-maker simultaneously attracted and alienated modders with the Creation Club, and has frustrated many mod-makers by breaking script extenders and forcing lots of updates for critical mods (Bethesda will do this again with the release of Skyrim Anniversary Edition).

Despite the friction, Todd Howard has lots of respect for modders and recognizes that the user-made creations help carry a game like Skyrim across a 10-year span.

Rumor has it Rockstar Games will release another big Grand Theft Auto remaster in 2023 on current-gen and next-gen consoles.

Grand Theft Auto IV remastered is rumored to release in 2023. The news comes from RalphsValve, a Twitter user who has released tons of info on Modern Warfare II that has been somewhat corroborated by other industry sources like Tom Henderson. While the total veracity of the report can't be confirmed, it could be possible that Rockstar wants to buy more time for GTA 6 with multiple remasters and GTA Online content.

If this is true, Rockstar Games could technically have a new Grand Theft Auto product released every year from 2021 to 2023, with the GTA trilogy remaster in 2021, the upcoming GTA V Enhanced & Expanded in 2022, and possibly GTA IV in 2023.

Konami delivers updated sales figures for Metal Gear Solid and confirms it is the second best-selling franchise in the company's history.

The Metal Gear franchise has sold over 57.7 million copies since September 2021, Konami confirms in its latest company profile briefing. These numbers affirm the 34 year-old series as a strong pillar in Konami's premium games lineup, with the games-maker referring to Metal Gear as a "high-profile" title series.

Although Konami is shifting more towards digital with its new free-to-play PES Soccer entry, the company isn't giving up on bigger premium experiences just yet. Sources say Konami has licensed its Metal Gear and Silent Hill franchises out to third-party studios for new games and remasters, including a new Metal Gear Solid trilogy remaster collection and a fully-fledged remake of Metal Gear Solid 3.

Nintendo has briefly mention its next-gen hardware plans but there's admittedly not much to go on.

In Nintendo's recent quarterly Q&A session with investors, company CEO Shuntaro Furukawa confirms that a single concept or design hasn't been locked in just yet.

"With regards to the next game system, we are considering many different things, but as far as the concept and launch timing are concerned, there is nothing we can share at this time," Mr. Furukawa said.

Skyrim's new fishing update will add 20 species of fish that gamers can catch, cook, eat, brew, and even save as pets for their homes.

Skyrim is about to turn 10 years old. To celebrate, Bethesda will release new free mod content, a new free next-gen upgrade on PS5 and Series X, and a new $50 Anniversary Edition version of the game. The biggest free mod is a fishing update which allows players to partake in one of gaming's fondest past times. Fishing poles and been in Elder Scrolls games but we haven't been able to actually fish until now.

The fishing update will be available for everyone who owns Skyrim Special Edition, and is also included in the new Anniversary Edition. It adds 20 new fish that can be collected in a fishing mini-game (rods and reels can also be used as weapons). There's a lot you can do with your piscine catches: You can cook and eat them, sell them (raw or cooked), use them as ingredients for portions, and even keep them in special aquariums in your Hearthstone home.

The Switch has transformed Nintendo's business since it released in March 2017 in both revenues and overall scope.

The Nintendo Switch is one of Nintendo's most successful systems yet. The Switch represents the union of decades' worth of home entertainment and portable systems, and saw Nintendo merge its console and portable business units into one. This is what Nintendo has been working towards since the NES' launch in 1983.

Out of curiosity, I took a look at just how much money Nintendo has made since the Switch's launch. The handheld-console hybrid has generated a number of milestones for Nintendo, including 92.87 million unit sales, making it the fourth best-selling console of all time, and 681 million game sales (making it the third console in software). The Switch also helped Nintendo achieve all-time profit highs and the second-largest net sales revenues since the thunderous Wii's reign in the late 2000's.

Everyone is getting in on NFTs and blockchain. Square Enix, Ubisoft, and Electronic Arts all want to embrace the new tech, and EA even says it's the future of the games industry. Sadly, it looks like EA might be right.

NFTs, crypto, and blockchain are the latest buzzwords making the rounds right now, but the reality is billion-dollar games giants have been researching this tech for years. EA has its SEED experimental R&D division, and Ubisoft has its own Innovations Lab that has literally made a game called HashCraft that rewards users with crypto the more they play. Back in 2018, I predicted this would ultimately be a new way to monetize games.

Now that looks to be the case. While we don't 100% know how the new digital economies will work, the play-to-earn schemes may revolve around token exchanges that will allow gamers to earn money from playing a game. Think of it like selling your items on Diablo 3's Real Money Auction House, only with an extra step. Your items would be converted into a special in-game crypto token, which is then exchanged for real-world crypto. Game-makers would generate revenue based on each exchange.

Nintendo is planning to spend up to 450 billion yen on games development, R&D, services and eshop expansion, and non-gaming multimedia.

Nintendo has made billions from the Switch's strong yearly sales, and now the company wants to reinvest that money into its future. Nintendo has allocated 450 billion yen (nearly $4 billion) to spend on significant expansion across transmedia, developing new first-party games for the Switch and upcoming hardware, and most interestingly, bringing the eShop platform and its associated services to new worldwide markets.

The bulk of the spending will be used on content and services expansion. This includes MyNintendo account expansion as well as launching the eShop to other areas of the globe, building up Switch Online services, new apps, and other initiatives that will carry on for multiple years. 100 billion yen will be spend on actual games development and 50 billion will be put towards merchandising and non-gaming deals like the new Mario movie from Illumination.

Call of Duty: Vanguard has finally launched and with it Activision held a big launch event, with a new cinematic teaser for Call of Duty: Warzone's big update -- so big it's being renamed -- to Warzone Pacific. Check it out:

Warzone Pacific continues the free-to-play battle royale mayhem from Warzone, with a new Pacific-themed map called Caldera. This means that Warzone's current map, Verdansk, will be replaced and players will be in for a whole new world. Activision has worked with gamers and influencers on the new map for 2 years, taking in all of their comments and influence, and crafting Caldera for Warzone Pacific from that input.

The new cinematic trailer for Warzone Pacific sets the scene for the big update to Warzone on December 2, as for Warzone Pacific, the developer teases: "The usual playlists are also home to the "original" vehicles you've driven before - ATVs, SUVs, Helicopters, and the like. While the dedicated Vanguard modes will have all new ways to get around Caldera, such as planes and AA Truck, the original vehicle set, as well as any Vehicle Skins you've unlocked for them, will still exist in these other playlists".

EA DICE have quite a beautiful graphics engine on their hands with Frostbite, and when used well it looks absolutely fantastic. But, it has never looked anywhere near as good as some of the work modders put into it, like this new look at Star Wars Battlefront (2015) with next-gen graphics, ray tracing, and running at the GPU-crushing 8K resolution. Check it out:

Giulio Guglielmi aka Massihancer has put some serious work into his new mod for Star Wars Battlefront, emailing me a link and video to his work. I watched it multiple times and I must say, it is some painstakingly good work. Massihancer explains that he used multiple dedicated graphic shaders -- some of which were created, some of which were modded.

He added in ray tracing which provides some beautiful, realistic reflections while improvements to lighting in general also help create a much more cinematic -- even photo-realistic environment. He didn't stop there, because he also added Pascal Gilcher's "RT Shader" beta that boost the ray-tracing effects, with custom shaders used on top to enhance lighting effects in both direct, and in-direct ones.

We know that God of War will be coming to the PC with NVIDIA DLSS technology upgrades, but the former Sony PlayStation console exclusive will also have AMD FSR support.

God of War was originally announced with support for NVIDIA DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) as well as its Reflex technology, but AMD is also adding FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution. This is a big deal as DLSS is only for GeForce RTX 30 series owners, while FSR opens the gate to most modern GPUs.

FSR is being added into a bunch of new games including Call of Duty: Vanguard, Farming Simulator 22, Hot Wheels Unleashed, No Man's Sky, The Elder Scrolls Online, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, and more. The inclusion of FSR tech in God of War is great for PC gamers, and we're not far away from the release on the PC with a launch of January 14, 2022.

The PlayStation 5's firmware has officially been cracked by legendary hacker TheFloW.

Today Andy Nguyen (aka The FloW) announced that he has successfully enabled Debug Mode on a retail PlayStation 5 console. This effectively means the console's firmware has been cracked and the PS5 can be jailbroken to potentially allow unlicensed .pkg files to be installed. For example, gamers can install cheat engines, mod menus, and even multiple emulators on jailbroken PS4s.

Nguyen is well-known for his work as a white-hat hacker who helps Sony identify vulnerabilities while also contributing to preservation, and is also responsible for a number of high-profile homebrew resources like the PSP emulator Adrenaline and other homebrews like Trinity and h-encore.