Gaming - Page 437

NVIDIA doesn't stop work on expanding game support for its DLSS technology, with Baldur's Gate 3 receiving a DLSS update and some very impressive performance improvements.

Baldur's Gate 3 can run at an impressive 4K 60FPS on the more mid-range GeForce RTX 3060 Ti graphics card, and an even more impressive 110FPS+ average on the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. Without DLSS, we're looking at 4K 34FPS average on the RTX 3060 Ti, and just 54FPS average on the RTX 3080 Ti.

This isn't the only new game to get DLSS support, with NVIDIA pushing DLSS into Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Rise of the Tomb Raider as well as DEATHLOOP, Alan Wake: Remasterted, the Crysis Remastered Trilogy, and more. DLSS not only improves performance but for older games where pushing 120FPS+ is easy, you can switch to Quality Mode on DLSS and enjoy a better-looking game and more performance.

DEATHLOOP has been updated with the PC and PlayStation 5 versions of the game both receiving updates, with the PC version of the game receiving NVIDIA DLSS support and more.

The new DEATHLOOP Game Update 1 also fixes issues with dropped frames and hitches in camera movement, support for NVIDIA's game-changing DLSS technology, and support for Sony DualSense controller audio. There are many more improvements across the board, with performance and stability improved with the developer noting "especially with ray tracing" enabled in DEATHLOOP.

There's now a poor connection quality indicator in DEATHLOOP, up in the right-hand corner of your screen, and improved audio mix quality. The developer has tweaked a bunch of different parts of the game ranging from mines, turrets, and fireworks through to achievements, and more in this new update. The full list is below:

Infinity Ward is ramping up its development teams across the board to work in 2022's new Modern Warfare sequel.

Infinity Ward recently expanding its reach with a new studio based in Austin, Texas. The team is already on a hiring spree with 53 job positions available, ranging from IT specialists to programmers, engineers, rendering artists, AI experts, narrative leads that command the story, and even a chief technology officer that will "build and lead an engineering team to create the next generation of technology for the world's premiere FPS franchise."

Following 2019's Modern Warfare, reports say Infinity Ward is developing a direct sequel that will serve as 2022's annual Call of Duty game.

Rockstar's new Grand Theft Auto trilogy remaster is likely coming to Steam sometime after it launches first on the Rockstar Launcher.

It looks like the GTA trilogy remaster is also releasing on Steam, which makes sense as the original trilogy has been pulled from the platform. As spotted by GTA Forums' Tez2, SteamIDs for all three games were found in files from the Rockstar Launcher, and the SteamDB database has updated listings to reflect the changes.

Here's the links from SteamDB:

Blue Box Game Studios says it is facing extreme harassments and even death threats following its failed marketing stunt for Abandoned.

Abandoned developer Blue Box Game Studios says it has been dealing with multiple death threats over the past few months.

"We have been dealing with death threats the past few months and the last few days we have been dealing with it again, especially physically. This not only affects us as a team but everyone within our environment," Blue Box said on Twitter.

Rocksteady just released a new Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League trailer that could give out major story clues.

The plotline for the new Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League game seems pretty clear. Something (or someone...could it be Brainiac?) is corrupting the world's greatest heroes. Superman has gone crazy, the Flash is a total maniac, and the world is in chaos. Task Force X--Harley Quinn, King Shark, Captain Boomerang, and Deadshot--have been conscripted to take down these legendary paragons.

The new trailer shows some interesting tidbits, including a non-corrupt Wonder Woman fighting Superman (who then becomes corrupt later), confirmation of John Stewart as Green Lantern (who is also corrupt), and an evil version of The Flash shows up.

Sony's legal team has sent a letter to Dbrand that orders custom PlayStation 5 faceplates to be removed from sale.

Dbrand, a company that makes custom skins, wraps, and color schemes for consumer electronics, has removed its custom PS5 faceplates from the market at the behest of Sony's legal counsel. As per Dbrandh's website, Sony has sent a letter alleges Dbrand's custom Darkplates--the all-black PS5 faceplates--are in violation of copyright and trademark law.

Sony is not taking dbrand to court because the latter is complying with the former's demands. This is after dbrand brazenly goaded legal action with a rather provocative "go ahead, sue us" tagline on its website.

DC Fandome gives gamers a new look at the upcoming Gotham Knights multiplayer action RPG with the shadowy Court of Owls enemy faction.

The Court of Owls is among the most macabre and fearsome enemies the Bat Family has ever faced. Run by a cabal of Gotham super-elite, the mask-wearing archvillains use their influence to rule the city from the shadows. The Court of Owls is centuries-old and their terrible whims are carried out by a force of assassins called Talons.

The new Gotham Knights game from WB Montreal will shed light on this mysterious group, borrowing source material directly from comics while telling their own unique story. Most of the footage is snippets of cinematic sequences to set a grim tone but we do get some clues on gameplay, like the hulking mace-and-shield toting Talon that's most assuredly a boss-type of enemy.

Sony's new API rendering engineer job listing may hint at early development of the rumored PlayStation 5 Pro.

Sony is currently hiring a Senior Software Engineer for its Advanced Technology Group (ATG) that specifically focuses on the PlayStation 5's Rendering API. The goal is for engineers to help redefine what's possible with the next-generation platform by fortifying all the tools responsible for the PS5's high-end performance.

Applicants will directly contribute to the graphics API used to power PlayStation 5 games, including GPU software stack optimization tools used to deliver true high-end experiences (native 4K, ray tracing, etc). The listing also mentions the engineer will help craft "the architecture of multiple generations of PlayStation consoles."

Fortnite could've become a lot more like Roblox with user-generated content sold in a specific in-game storefront.

In 2019, Fortnite earnings dropped by 32% as per court documents. At the time, Epic was searching for ideas on how to reverse the dip and spark earnings growth. One idea saw Fortnite becoming more like Roblox, a billion-dollar competitor that servers up mini-games to users.

According to a recent countersuit in the Epic vs Google trial, Epic Games was exploring ideas to allow users to create monetized in-game content to sell in Fortnite's storefront. "Internally, Epic also hoped to revive and reinvigorate Fortnite by pivoting its business whereby player-developers could create new content and Epic could share a majority of profit with those creators."

Elden Ring gameplay footage has leaked out ahead of the game's presumable premiere at The Game Awards 2021.

The new leaked Elden Ring gameplay footage is brief and simple, showing players a small glimpse of the mythical cursed realm of The Lands Between. There's no actual fighting or exploration in the 27-second snippet. Instead the footage sets more of a somber, hallowed, and mystical tone to the in-game world--which is rightly so given the Lands Between are riven by corrupt magics, curses, and horrible abominations.

The gameplay footage itself wasn't all that graphically impressive and may be from an early build, possibly running on a PlayStation 4 devkit rather than a PS5, Xbox Series X, or PC. Let's not forget that Elden Ring's world is seamless without any loading zones so that may be the cause of the lower resolution/visual fidelity.

The Epic vs Apple trial may be over, but the Epic vs Google anti-trust suit is just getting started. Google has now filed a counterclaim against Epic Games with multiple accusations, including pre-meditated breach of contract.

Epic Games mostly lost its trial against Apple--the games-maker didn't get the rights to A) bring Fortnite back to the App Store, B) insert its own internal payment processing store within the game's app--and based on current documents filed from Google, it may also summarily mostly lose its anti-trust case against Google.

The Epic vs Google court case is in full swing and could go to trial. A new counterclaim from Google lays out its case against Epic Games, and the billion-dollar company makes compelling points.

Steam just banned all games dealing with cryptocurrency, blockchain, or NFTs. These games could find a new home on Epic's digital storefront.

Ever the contrarian to Valve's business models, Epic Games says it won't issue a wide-sweeping ban on blockchain games. These types of video games have been controversial due to their cryptocurrency and NFT payouts to players. These rewards have tangible real-world value that violate Valve's core developer guidelines and also have somewhat-messy legal and financial implications for storeholders.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney isn't ready to shut the door on blockchain games, however. The company tells The Verge that it's interested in helping mature this fledgling landscape and potentially explore new opportunities for growth (and disruption). Rules and regulations will need to be established and strictly enforced so there could be a messy period of adaptation and learning for games-makers and store operators like Epic.

Diablo 2 Resurrected's servers still aren't fixed and may not be for some time.

Diablo 2 Resurrected's online infrastructure is getting hammered right now. Too many people are playing the game and the old server databases simply can't handle it. This has led to seven days of continued instability during peak play times (which is, oddly enough, during the morning-noon EST periods). As a result Blizzard has had to perform emergency maintenance many times, leading to rollbacks and character progression losses.

Now the saga continues. Blizzard is currently making D2R players wait in an online queue in order to connect to servers and join/make games. This digital wait-in-line plan was put into place to help funnel gamers into a more controlled environment versus the free-for-all frenzy that has crashed the databases many times.

Activision-Blizzard, a company facing multiple lawsuits and investigations into employee rights violations, says it wants all employees to return to offices by January 2022.

COVID-19 has interrupted the games industry. Games are being delayed as publishers and dev teams adapt to the new normal: work-from-home and remote work instead of office-based jobs. Some companies like Eidos-Montreal are moving to four-day workweeks. Activision employees have also shifted from commute-based office jobs in expensive cities to remote work, but it might not last.

Activision-Blizzard, the industry's second-biggest billion-dollar earner, eventually wants employees back in offices...and soon. Bloomberg's Jason Schreier confirms the publisher plans to have workers "fully return to our offices by January 3, 2022."

Microsoft is making it easy to Xbox and chill with its new Series X Mini Fridge.

It's official: The Xbox Mini Fridge is being produced and consumers will be able to buy one this holiday season. The fridge, which started out as a meme, will cost $99 and pre-orders open up in just 3 days across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. There's no word on availability or how many units will be made so if you want one it's best to jump in ASAP.

Target will be the exclusive retailer offering the Series X Mini Fridge, and according to the website there's some restrictions: "Only available with contactless Drive Up or Order Pickup. Quantities limited. Limit 1 per guest."

A new Rockstar Games job listing may hint at features included in Grand Theft Auto 6, including advanced next-gen destruction and fluid physics.

Rockstar Games is hiring en masse to build up its dev teams for GTA 6. The next-gen Grand Theft Auto, which may not release before 2025, will apparently have next-level realism that goes beyond any other GTA game.

According to a VFX Artist job listing at Rockstar New England, GTA 6 could feature real-time skyscraper destruction (possibly from hurricane-force winds or tornadoes) and high-end fluid motion physics dealing with rainwater and building interactions.

Disney and Lucasfilm plan to reveal a new Star Wars game shortly before Christmas. Could it be something big?

Lucasfilm just announced a new Bring Home the Bounty campaign, and it's kind of like an advent calendar with a different product reveals planned every week. Most of the reveals are shop items--new action figures, apparel, bundles, etc--but one of them is a games reveal. This is pretty interesting because there's a lot of Star Wars games in development right now.

While it's likely the game reveal won't be something huge, there is a possibility that Lucasfilm could surprise announce a AAA product. Right now a number of studios are working on Star Wars games; Aspyr is tackling a remake of Knights of the Old Republic, EA is working on multiple Star Wars titles, Respawn is developing Jedi: Fallen Order 2, and Ubisoft is even making their own story-driven action-adventure game.

The new Nintendo Switch Online tier will cost $49.99 a year, a hefty 150% increase over the current subscription.

Soon Nintendo Switch will have two subscription tiers: the lower-cost $20 a year Switch Online service that includes NES, SNES games, and online play, and the more premium Switch Online + Expansion Pack, which will offer Nintendo 64, Genesis games, and even DLC content for Animal Crossing New Horizons.

The recent Animal Crossing Direct confirmed the higher Switch Online tier would cost $49.99 a year for a base subscription and a whopping $79.99 a year for family memberships. That's compared to the $19.99 base and $34.99 family costs of the existing Switch Online membership.

Valve has banned all video games that deal with NFTs, cryptocurrency, or blockchain from Steam, game dev behind Age of Rust confirms.

A new Steam rules and guidelines list says that all blockchain games will be removed from the storefront platform. This includes titles like Age of Rust and Dragon's Divide, which rewards players with NFTs via blockchain.

On the list of things that developers shouldn't publish is: "Applications built on blockchain technology that issue or allow exchange of cryptocurrencies or NFTs."