Gaming - Page 43

After years of hype following its 2024 reveal, Phantom Blade Zero is finally set to launch this year. However, the action-RPG was recently spotted on the list of games supporting NVIDIA's controversial DLSS 5 technology, which has been widely mocked for applying what many call "AI slop filters" to game characters. Seeing the backlash NVIDIA faced, Chinese developer S-Game Studio is now steering clear of the generative AI debate entirely, declaring it won't use any AI in the game.

Phantom Blade Zero Game Director Soulframe Liang posted a detailed letter on X about the studio's commitment to human artistry over AI-generated content. "We are fully aware that a profound technological revolution is unfolding around us. However, to this day, every single piece of content in our game has been crafted by the hands of real artists. We will not use AI visual tech that could alter our artists' original creative intent."

According to Soulframe, every part of the game is created from scratch by human artists. Character models use 3D scans of real actors, who performed facial capture. Voice lines were recorded by real talent in both Chinese and English, with full lip-syncing. Developers tested weapons in person and worked with over 20 martial artists, including kung fu and sword experts from Mount Emei. Environments were built from scans of real locations across China, such as ancestral halls and ancient towns.

As the games industry faces steeper costs, Amazon is making big changes to Luna, its cloud game streaming service.

Amazon's game streaming service is moving towards a subscription-only option with Luna Premium. The idea is to simplify things and reduce costs, and users can still stream a select arrangement of games via the $10/month Luna Premium. At the time of writing, Luna Premium offers 155 games, but most of them are older catalog releases with the exception of titles like FC26, Hogwarts Legacy, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

Luna is somewhat of a confusing service because of its many moving parts. Before today's update, users could buy games directly on Luna and even play games they already own from other storefronts and services, including select games purchased on GOG and via Ubisoft.

Marathon might be a $40 live service game, but the shooter carries a very AAA budget.

New reports from Forbes' Paul Tassi indicate that Bungie and Sony may have spent in excess of $200 million developing and publishing Marathon, the new extraction shooter from the studio. Sources tell Tassi that this figure excludes the new content outlined in Marathon's robust March - August roadmap. It's also believed that Marathon's budget could be closer to $250 million.

Neither Sony nor Bungie has remarked on Marathon's sales performance or reception so far, but the developer has said that they intend to support Marathon with "years of steady improvements to every aspect of the game."

Elden Ring Tarnished Edition on the Nintendo Switch 2 will apparently cost $80 at launch, and the game comes on a Game-key Card instead of shipping the full title on a ROM cartridge.

The cost of doing business for video game companies is rising higher than ever, and that means higher prices for consumers. Nintendo has tried to fight the rising costs of physical media production and distribution with Game-key Cards, which are dummy cartridge authenticators that unlock digital versions of a game. In other words, the game doesn't ship on the cartridge--Game-key Cards only hold your license to download a game, not the actual game itself.

Game-key Cards were theoretically expected to keep prices down for consumers in exchange for the trade-off of no physical ownership. Fans are bristling after Amazon lists the Switch 2 version of Elden Ring for $80, confirming that the game will ship on a Game-key Card instead of being included on a cartridge.

New estimates indicate that Sony could offer three systems as part of its next-gen lineup, including a PS6 lite model similar to the Xbox Series S, a fully-fledged base PS6 model, and a high-powered handheld capable of playing native current- and next-gen games.

New estimates from Moore's Law is Dead attempt to price out Sony's new PlayStation hardware lineup for the 10th console generation. MLID guesses that Sony could release three hardware SKUs with overlapping chips and components, leading to a cheaper and lower-powered PlayStation 6 system.

The range of products could include the PS6 Lite and a PS6 handheld, both of which might leverage the same 3nm Canis SoC from AMD in an attempt to recycle chips between systems and fully utilize all stock of components. The big kahuna of the generation would be the main PlayStation 6 console that's believed to be powered by AMD's semicustom Orion APU.

NVIDIA announced DLSS 4.5 back in January at CES, where it launched in beta with DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution, introducing an advanced, powerful new Transformer model for upscaling that offered notable improvements in image fidelity and even detail for all GeForce RTX gamers. This was followed up last week with the arrival of DLSS 4.5 Dynamic Frame Generation and DLSS 4.5 Multi Frame Generation 6X for GeForce RTX 50 Series owners.

The new Dynamic Frame Generation mode represents a big step forward in the technology as it allows users to target a specific frame rate or set it to the maximum refresh rate of their display to get the most out of the motion clarity and smoothness that Multi Frame Generation delivers, with the number of additional AI-generation frames increasing to 6X. This week, NVIDIA has confirmed that with the latest NVIDIA App update, the full DLSS 4.5 suite of technologies has officially launched and exited beta.

And with the configurable DLSS Override feature in the NVIDIA App, DLSS 4.5 technologies are now available to enable in hundreds of PC games. And with that, NVIDIA has announced that DLSS support is now available in some new games, including the action game Samson, which features ray tracing.

Borderlands Mobile pops up on the App Store as part of a limited-time test.

Borderlands is getting a new free-to-play version for mobile, but the full game isn't out yet. The game was shadow dropped on the iOS App Store today in a kind of public beta test, giving users the opportunity to try the game and share the feedback with the developers.

The project is being worked on by Take-Two Interactive's wholly-owned Zynga unit, under the group's NaturalMotion development studio. Gearbox, the original creators of the Borderlands series, is helping guide the F2P game's process with creative input.

A former Rockstar developer who worked on the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 has cast doubt on the game's extremely high graphical expectations, following the extremely impressive trailers 1 and 2.

The level of graphical detail displayed in the trailers linked above and below was nothing short of exceptional, and when it releases in November this year, it will absolutely be a contender for the most graphically impressive title available. That's if the level of graphical detail seen in the trailer is or even close to what we get in-game.

However, that isn't likely to be the case, as David O'Reilly, a former Rockstar environmental artist who worked on big-ticket titles such as GTA 5, RDR2, and GTA 6, explained in an interview with YouTuber Kiwi Talkz, that while he is excited for trailer 3, fans should know about how a trailer is designed and the thought process behind it from Rockstar's perspective. According to O'Reilly, what fans see within a trailer is a "madly polished" version of what will be in-game in the final release.

If you've got an Intel Arc graphics card and were disappointed at the lack of support for Crimson Desert, apparently this has now been fixed.

Wccftech flagged up that as of the most recent version 32.0.101.8629 of the Arc graphics driver, Crimson Desert now works.

This is based on feedback from Redditors, one of whom explained: "I just updated the driver for my B580, and now the game works. There are some glitches on the faces and terrain, but it's playable."

Microsoft introduced its Achievements and Gamescore system on the Xbox 360 console, rewarding in-game progress and becoming a game-changer for the wider industry. It led Sony to implement its Trophy system for PlayStation and Valve to add Steam Achievements to its platform. Cut to 2026, and Microsoft's Xbox team is introducing the biggest overhaul and update to its Achievements system since its debut.

Available now for select Xbox Insiders to test, Microsoft notes that these updates are all about making it "easier to celebrate your accomplishments and curate how they appear on your profile." Plus, Achievements are getting a visual refresh with updated icons and new animations for classic or rare achievements, matched to your Xbox UI color.

Perhaps the most notable update, and one that Xbox gamers have been asking to see for years, is the ability to hide games from your Achievements history. This only affects how your profile looks, so those games where you only got 5 points out of 1000 will still count toward your total Gamerscore, but are now no longer visible.

CD Projekt goes all-in on PS5 Pro support, adding a trio of new enhanced modes for Cyberpunk 2077--including one that allows up to 90FPS on Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) displays.

Cyberpunk 2077 has come a long way from 2020, where it barely functioned on base PS4 hardware. Sony and CD Projekt today announced substantial optimizations for Cyberpunk 2077 on PS5 Pro that can beef up visuals and the responsiveness of gameplay. The devs also say that the PS Plus version of Cyberpunk 2077 will also get these modes.

"We know players have different priorities while gaming, so are happy to offer three distinct PS5 Pro modes that allow everyone to unlock an experience that suits them," CD Projekt's VP of global art direction Kuba Knapik said on the PlayStation Blog.

Valve appears to be getting on the AI train, starting with technical and customer support. In the recent Steam update code, leakers have spotted references to a new "SteamGPT" feature that will use AI to automatically handle customer support tickets. Valve also plans to use the feature in Counter-Strike 2 to help tackle the game's persistent cheating problem.

This comes from content creator GabeFollower, who highlighted newly spotted strings and code snippets on X. The lines contain references to generic task creation and response tied to task queues, labeling jobs, test results, and fine-tuning data. A separate service called SteamGPTSummary appears to pull account-level details, including profile info, Steam Guard status, security history, country, VAC status, phone data, fraud flags, and playtime.

Additional snippets reference Trust_GetTrustScoreInternal, CSbot, player_evaluation, and SteamGPTRenderFarm, which suggests SteamGPT will also connect to Valve's Trust Score system. For those unfamiliar, Trust Score powers Valve's patented Trust Factor Matchmaking. It uses machine learning to analyze and score players based on their in-game behavior, then pairs them with teammates and opponents of similar trustworthiness. Think skill-based matchmaking, but with behavior factored in, something Counter-Strike 2 players will likely be familiar with.

Nintendo's latest free-to-play Pokemon game released today, complete with paid battle passes and a hefty subscription centered around the game.

Pokemon Champions just launched on Switch and Switch 2, offering free arena battles, creature collecting, and trainer customization. Nintendo refers to this game as free-to-start, which is the company's nomenclature for free-to-play, but there's also an array of paid options that significantly improve your experience, including a premium battle pass, a paid membership subscription, and even a starter pack bundle.

The new F2P Pokemon game follows a typical live service model with monetized options. The premium battle pass costs $9.99, and retroactively unlocks all premium benefits from previously unlocked tiers. The pass rewards range from Victory Points (VP) currency, tickets, cosmetics, and even Pokemon. These passes expire every season, though, and auto-renew is turned on once signed up.

Thanks to the efforts of a well-known leaker, a Korean retailer, and a Halo news reporter, it seems like the release date for Halo Campaign Evolved has been revealed.

According to the latest reports, the new Halo CE remake will release on PS5, Xbox, and PC starting on July 23. The game will have a more expensive deluxe edition that gives 5-day early access and that window begins on July 23. The base version of Halo Campaign Evolved is set to launch on July 28 for everyone else.

The news comes by way of a pre-demand survey from an unnamed Korean retailer, as per Reddit. The same info was teased by trusted Halo source grunt.api in a kind of coded message, and the dates were then confirmed to games reporter and YouTuber Rebs Gaming.

Hello Games has gone all out with No Man's Sky, adding what looks to be one of the most hugely addictive updates yet: Simulated alien pet battles, Pokemon-style.

No Man's Sky's latest free Xeno Arena update is a true testament to nerdery. The update allows gamers to find, capture, and train their own xeno alien pets and then have them duke it out in turn-based combat. It very much feels like a Pokemon in space type of experience, and Hello Games has amped up the nerd dial to 11 by replicating the Dejarik alien chess board found in Star Wars.

"Find, train, and battle your pets for the ultimate rewards! Assemble your team and discover new xeno species with rare abilities. Genetically modify your eggs, and battle with friends. Together, your bond can overcome anything."

UPDATE: As of this morning, April 8, Starfield is currently the #9 best-selling game on the US PlayStation Store.

Starfield came out today on the PlayStation 5, but Bethesda's new RPG faces strong-selling rivals on the US PlayStation Store.

Today, Bethesda's latest game Starfield came out on PS5. This is yet another marquee PS5 release for Xbox as the company continues moving away from platform-exclusive content. Current standings on the US PlayStation store show that Starfield is facing some pretty steep competition, with the game not breaking into the top 10 best-selling games on the US-based store.

State of Decay 3 was first revealed back in 2020 ahead of the Xbox Series X and S launch, with a cinematic trailer and no gameplay. The teaser showcased ambitious elements for the zombie sandbox series, with zombie deer as the highlight. But the truth is, outside the broad outlines and early prototyping, the game barely existed beyond a Word document at the time.

In an interview with Sunny Games, Undead Labs studio head Philip Holt confirmed, following the reveal of State of Decay 3's May 2026 alpha playtest, that the 2020 trailer was based entirely on a concept.

"So that trailer, there really wasn't a game or game team when we were working on that trailer, like, it was so early," he said, adding that the core team at the time consisted of just four to five people. When asked about the zombified animals featured in the trailer, Holt said, "No zombie deer!"

The fourth Call of Duty game will soon be available on the middle tier of Xbox Game Pass, indicating more parts of Microsoft's multi-faceted plan for the franchise.

Microsoft's main goal with Call of Duty is conversion. The company isn't trying to replicate Activision's success, but adapt the $35 billion+ mega-hit franchise into a more flexible ecosystem of long-term spending. By adding something like Call of Duty to a subscription like Game Pass, Microsoft has turned the property into a kind of perpetual, living entity that drives significant value for its service, with the aim of capturing recurring subscription revenues and microtransaction spending.

Given what we know about Microsoft's business model, it then seems noteworthy when a new Call of Duty game is added to Game Pass, especially when it's included in the middle-grade, $14.99/month Game Pass Premium tier. It's been revealed that Modern Warfare (2019) is being added to the Premium tier, making it the fourth AAA mainline Call of Duty game being added.

Time to go back to the past: OG YouTuber The Angry Video Game Nerd recently turned 20, and the nerd himself James Rolfe has released previously-unseen footage that was left on the cutting room floor.

AVGN just hit a milestone that feels like something out of a time-traveling episode of a sci-fi TV show: The old-school Cinemassacre YouTube channel just celebrated its 20th anniversary--feel old yet?--by releasing a never-before-seen clip of unused footage for a lost AVGN episode. The video took a closer look at the odd Miracle Piano teaching game on the NES, which came with a fully-fledged piano keyboard.

The footage itself gives a rare glimpse at behind-the-scenes AVGN footage, and since it's incomplete and not finalized, things are janky and Rolfe himself is practicing script runs with somewhat dry execution (which fits the old episodes). The jokes also don't hit as hard, but that's to be expected because no audio or visual effects were put in.

The 2013 Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is, without a doubt, one of the best games in the Assassin's Creed franchise. It was genre-defining at the time, bringing an open-world Caribbean setting, naval combat, a compelling redemption story, and world design and art direction that still hold up today. So when Ubisoft confirmed in a blog post dedicated to the series' future that a remake titled Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced was in development, you could probably guess how gamers felt.

Now a reliable insider hints that the release is closer than expected. According to this source, the remake could be announced next week in mid-April, with a release expected sometime this summer. Rumors initially pointed to a first-quarter 2026 release, but that didn't happen. With Ubisoft's recent layoffs, things were starting to look bleak for the remake, but it seems the project is very much alive.

This comes from Tom Henderson of Insider Gaming, who claims, "from what I understand, it's going to be announced in mid-April and then released in the summer." Previously, a PEGI rating suggested an earlier announcement, but with that window now closed, hopes are pinned on mid-April for official confirmation.