Gaming - Page 447

Sony's new PlayStation 5 model keeps internal components substantially cooler than the launch model new findings confirm.

New data from Igor's Lab and Hardware Busters show the new PlayStation 5 model (CFI-1100B) actually keeps internal components cooler than the launch model.

According to the findings, the new PS5's RAM runs up to 14 degrees cooler than the launch PS5's RAM under heavy load.

Spine, the first working PS4 emulator, has been released publicly and is reportedly able to play hundreds of PS4 games on PC.

Linux-based PlayStation 4 emulator Spine was updated on September 1 to add in support for new titles. Although closed source, users can download the emulator and launch it via Linux--of course you'll need the games, which obviously aren't provided.

Spine's emulation isn't perfect, though. According to the compatibility list, the PS4 emu can run 346 games with actual gameplay including titles like Watch Dogs, The Talos Principle, The Surge, and the Borderlands Handsome Collection, but don't expect consistently smooth, high-end gameplay. Spine isn't finished yet and it fares better with low-demanding indies like Mega Man Legacy Collection, Undertale, and Hyper Light Drifter.

Apple's stock has fallen by over 4% after US District Courts order big sweeping changes to the App Store.

As part of the Epic vs Apple trial ruling, Apple has been court-ordered to change its App Store policies to allow developers to add third-party payment processing systems to their apps and games. This allows devs to avoid Apple's 30% commission, which was declared "excessive" and "supracompetitive" by the court. US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers aims to create competition within the App Store and ultimately help drive down Apple's high revenue split.,

The ruling has had an effect on the company's shares. Before Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers delivered the ruling on September 10, Apple's shares were at $155.34, and today shares are at $148.97, a loss of 4% over the last few days. The ruling is expected to have a substantial effect on Apple's App Store revenues, which amounted to a colossal $15 billion in 2020.

Halo Infinite's second beta test will begin this month, but you'll have to sign up in the next two days in order to get in.

343i confirms Halo Infinite's second flight kicks off on September 24 on Xbox One, Xbox Series consoles, and PC. There's just one catch: You'll need to sign up as a Halo Insider before September 13 in order to secure a guaranteed spot in the beta. The second beta will be a "larger scale flight" that includes PVP on by default with both 4v4 and 12v12 Big Team Battle chaos.

"You can definitely expect another big-scale flight like this with even more people invited. We're going to include the same concept we had this time--the bots and weapon drills--but we're also targeting a full release of 4v4 PVP and we want to go even bigger and have big team battle. Those are our targets for the next flight," live operations producer Sam Hanshaw said in a recent dev steam.

Apple's current 30% commission has been declared as supracompetitive by US courts, leading to a sweeping court order that will change the App Store forever.

The most important thing to come out of the Epic vs Apple trial is a big win for developers. Reams of evidence and testimony led US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to determine that Apple's 30% revenue split is excessive and, combined with other practices, anticompetitive. The massive 185-page ruling outlines that Apple has not properly justified its 30% commission rate, which was arbitrarily decided upon in 2009 based on other platforms like video game consoles.

Judge Rogers argues that Apple's 30% cut has led to "supracompetitive pricing" and "excessive operating margins" that far exceed Apple's actual investment into the platform (case in point: Apple made over $15 billion from the App Store in 2020). Apple simply makes too much money compared what it spends on the App Store and what it charges developers, which Judge Rogers says stifles competition and innovation.

The Epic vs Apple trial is over, and US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has effectively changed the App Store forever. But that doesn't mean Apple violated any antitrust law.

In an expansive 185-page ruling, Judge Rogers details specifics on Epic's claims and Apple's counterclaims in the industry-defining trial. The court finds that Apple isn't in violation of antitrust law and isn't a monopoly. Apple did, however, break provisions set forth in the California Unfair Competition Law, which has led to a permanent injunction forcing Apple to allow developers to redirect consumers to buy content outside of the App Store and potentially avoid its costly 30% commission.

The court says that while Apple's "conduct falls within the purview of an incipient antitrust violation with particular anticompetitive practices which have not been justified" (essentially Apple was showing early signs of antitrust by keeping consumers in the dark about its 30% commission and prohibiting third-party payment methods), that Epic Games overreached with its antitrust claims.

Insomniac has cast the perfect villain for Spider-Man 2's release on PlayStation 5.

Tony Todd, one of the scariest horror movie actors in existence, will play Venom in the new Spider-Man 2 game on PS5. Todd appeared in fright films like Candyman (which utterly tortured my youth), The Crow, and even Final Destination We couldn't think of anyone better to play the snarling, vicious hellion.

"And speaking of villains, did you catch that final line at the end of the trailer? We're so happy to announce that Tony Todd (of Candyman fame) will be voicing the symbiote-fueled Venom in Marvel's Spider-Man 2," Insomniac confirms.

A new ruling in the Epic vs Apple trial could have a substantial impact on App Store revenues moving forward.

After months of testimony, the Epic vs Apple trial has been concluded and US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has delivered a ruling. The news is both good and bad for the computer titan; Apple isn't in violation of antitrust laws and is not a monopoly, the court declares, but the company has been ordered by injunction to allow third-party payment processing methods on the App Store.

This could potentially be a big win for developers, who can now directly link to their own payment processing systems within their games and apps. This means consumers can pay developers directly for apps and in-game microtransactions and bypass Apple's 30% commission, which Judge Rogers has called "excessive" and "supracompetitive."

A modder has used a CH SN530 NVMe SSD -- the NVMe M.2 SSD used inside of Microsoft's next-gen Xbox Series X/S series consoles -- and a CFexpress to SSD M.2 NVMe adapter and expanded the storage in his Xbox Series X console.

The adapter itself is limited to 1.7GB/sec reads and 1.48GB/sec writes, and is an alternative to the only official expandable storage for the Xbox Series X/S console outside of the Seagate Xbox 1TB. This isn't that great, as you only have the single option (Seagate's Xbox 1TB storage drive) for your next-gen Xbox Series X/S expandable storage needs.

You can see the drive plugged into the CFexpress to SSD M.2 NVMe adapter, but this adapter isn't easy to find. It's reserved for content creators and mostly photographers, who work with Compact Flash (CF) cards. The modder notes that someone tries to "plug the camera card (CFexpress Type-B, PCIe 3.0 x2, 2000MB/s) into the Xbox, and an incompatible prompt popped up".

NVIDIA has just announced a rather large game is coming to its game streaming service at launch, with the company announcing Ubisoft's Far Cry 6 and Riders Republic will be on GeForce NOW at launch.

Far Cry 6 will be released on October 7, and will be available to GeForce NOW subscribers at launch. There's also the new season of Rainbow Six Siege, which is enjoying a new free-to-play weekend. If you were fan of 1080 Snowboarding on the N64 then you will probably love Riders Republic, a new game that is all about outdoor sports and high-speed action -- coming to GFN later this year.

Ther's also Life is Strange: True Colors which launched September 9 -- now on GeForce NOW, but also Bus Simulator 21, Dice Legacy, Sheltered, and many more. I've got the full list of games hitting GeForce NOW in the batch of new announcements, below:

Two more PlayStation exclusives are coming to PC next year, showing that Sony is doubling-down on multiplatform adoption.

Sony is releasing an Uncharted Legacy of Thieves two-pack bundle on PC and PlayStation 5 sometime in 2022, including Uncharted Lost Legacy and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. The PS5 version is set to launch before the PC port in early 2022, and neither Sony nor Naughty Dog have detailed the PC optimizations (but we should expect additions like uncapped FPS/60FPS, high resolution textures, ultra-wide support, FOV sliders, and more).

This marks the third instance of a first-party PlayStation exclusive to drop on PC, first with Days Gone and then with Horizon Zero Dawn. Sony actually confirmed Uncharted's arrival on PC way back in May during a special investor's meeting.

Spider-Man 2 is coming in 2023 as a PlayStation 5 exclusive and will star two of the most beloved characters in the series, Sony today announced.

Insomniac's new Spider-Man 2 sequel has some surprising cameos: Miles Morales is back, and the most nefarious and infamous Spider-Man villain of all-time makes an appearance. Venom will star as Spider-Man 2's big antagonist, presumably bringing a unique story arc centered around the extraterrestrial symbiote.

The devs plan to use Spider-Man 2 to push the PlayStation 5 to its limits and redefine what's possible on the console as they did with Miles Morales using ray-traced visuals, 4K gaming, ultra-fast loading, and new AI-powered modeling. A good portion of the original Spider-Man dev team will return for the sequel.

A new Wolverine game is in development at Insomniac Games, Sony today announced.

Insomniac is working on two big new projects: Spider-Man 2, and a new PS5-exclusive Wolverine game. The adaptation of Weapon X is currently early in development and Insomniac has been discussing a Wolverine-focused game for years.

Miles Morales leads Brian Horton and Cameron Christian are leading Wolverine's development direction but there's no release date or timeline currently planned.

GTA V E&E and its accompanying GTA Online standalone release on PlayStation 5 have been delayed to March 2022, Rockstar today announced.

Grand Theft Auto V's next-gen PS5 version was one of the delayed games mentioned in Take-Two's recent earnings call, and will miss the original November 2021 period. Instead, GTA V Expanded & Enhanced will release in March 2022 at the tail-end of the fiscal year.

The new re-release features higher-end optimizations on PS5 including beefier graphics, snappier loading times and seamless character switching, and in-game contents and effects not possible on the PS4 or PS3 versions.

Legendary Star Wars RPG Knights of the Old Republic is getting a remake, Apsyr and Sony today announced.

We knew it was happening, but we didn't know if it was a remake or a remaster. Now it's official: KOTOR is getting a fully-fledged remake for Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5 console. The KOTOR remake will release first on the PS5 as a timed exclusive.

"We're rebuilding one of the greatest RPGs of all time for a new generation with modern tech, features, visuals and more, while maintaining the integrity of the story and characters that we've come to cherish. And it's a console exclusive on PlayStation 5 at launch," Aspyr confirms in a PlayStation Blog post.

LEGO just announced a new Mario-themed LEGO set that costs almost as much as a Switch Lite handheld console.

Nintendo's new Mario 64 LEGO set commands a steep $169.99 price tag (that's just $30 short of a Switch Lite) and features some very powerful 90s nostalgia complete with various zones lifted right from the titular N64 title. The company has made a mint with its NES and SNES Classic Edition mini console re-releases, and now it's cashing in on the old-school polygonal charm of Mario 64 with its expensive new builder's set.

Like the NES LEGO set before it, the Mario 64 edition also has an innovative gimmick. This time the entire set folds out from a power-up block straight out of the beloved platformer franchise (which is admittedly really awesome).

It appears YouTuber Austin Evans was wrong--Sony's new PlayStation 5 (CFI-1100B) is actually better than the launch model in some ways.

New findings from Hardware Busters and Igor's Lab confirm Sony's new PS5 revision is actually better in some ways than the launch model.

According to the site's detailed analysis, the SoC in the new PS5 runs 11 degrees cooler than the 2020 launch model. Two PS5 models with the same fans (Nidec G12L12MS1AF-56J14) went head-to-head, and the fans ran at exactly the same speed. The new PS5 (25.9 dBA) is slightly louder than the base PS5 (24.8 dBA) due to the new heat sink, so there's more air output and thus more noise. Power output measurements between the two PlayStation 5s are basically the same as well.

EA and DICE were expected to unleash the Battlefield 2042 beta sometime between September 6 and 11, but it seems it was delayed -- with a new release date of September 22.

Battlefield 2042 leaker Tom Henderson writes in his new post on DualShockers that after "continuous hype throughout the day from the community" he had another email from a source claiming that the Battlefield 2042 beta will be on September 22 "with media and content creators recording in a behind closed doors event on the 20th".

Henderson pointed out that the "lack of communication seems to be a key indicator" to the Battlefield 2042 beta being delayed, as well as the Apple Store teasing the soundtrack of Battlefield 2042 will be released on September 22 -- so it makes sense.

Microsoft already has 2 next-generation consoles on the market with the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X consoles, but the company is reportedly working on a few refreshed consoles including a suped-up Xbox Series S console.

In his new video, Tom from Moore's Law is Dead says that Microsoft's refreshed Xbox Series S console would be released at under $350 -- pushing the current Xbox Series S console down into the $189 to $249 market. The new Xbox Series S, at least according to Tom, is "likely being prepared to undercut a PS5 Slim".

The new Xbox Series S would feature over 20 Compute Units (CUs) as the current XSS console has 20 CUs with as many as 4 disabled. Microsoft and AMD are doing this to boost yields, and have a good supply of Xbox Series S hitting the shelves. But more CUs and higher clock speeds could see the suped-up Xbox Series S being up to 50% faster, and that is a huge deal.

Stardew Valley has not sold a massive 15 million copies on all platforms since launch in 2016.

Hugely popular indie farming sim Stardew Valley has sold a whopping 15 million copies in the last 5 years, the developer's website now confirms. This is a marked increase of 5 million units since January 2020. The indie darling has beaten other major competitors like Fall Guys, Valheim, Cuphead, Shovel Knight, and Hollow Knight, and even some big-budget AAA games like Final Fantasy XV, Battlefield V, and every Resident Evil game that Capcom has released (Resident Evil 5, the top-selling RE game, sits at 10.2 million copies).

Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone is currently working on his next game.