Gaming - Page 448

Today Vicarious Visions and Blizzard outlined the final feature set for Diablo II Resurrected, confirming major restrictions for console players.

If you grew up with Diablo II then you'll want to avoid Diablo II Resurrected on consoles at launch. I'd actually say that new players should avoid it as well because the core experience has been compromised on these platforms. The ARPG's console version simply doesn't reflect the engaging, fun, and social experience that Diablo II offers--and there's even major trade offs for solo players too.

This stark assertion was made in response to the latest forum post from Blizzard. I don't envy the studio's position in trying to make a 20 year-old PC game work on consoles, and I don't think this is an easy task or that the developers are lazy. The reality is Diablo II Resurrected will be a significantly pared back experience on consoles versus PC.

Can't wait for Far Cry 6? Why not revisit the Rook Islands and catch up with your old psychotic pal.

Ubisoft is ending summer with an explosive bang by giving away a free PC copy of Far Cry 3--regarded as one of the best in the series--on the Ubisoft Store. Gamers have to make a uPlay account in order to grab the freebie and launch the game from Ubisoft's proprietary launcher. To get your free copy of Far Cry 3, click here.

Far Cry 6 is coming next month with a return to a tropical setting and all-out chaos, complete with a diabolically insane dictator antagonist, tons of crazy weapons, and one of the widest and most impressive-looking island worlds that Ubisoft has ever made. Re-playing Far Cry 3 might be the perfect way to prepare for next month's struggle for libertad.

Sony just purchased Firesprite Games, a UK-based indie studio with an 8-year collaboration track record with the PlayStation brand.

Firesprite Games is the latest studio to become part of the PlayStation Studios label, following major acquisitions like Housemarque (Returnal) and the PC port specialists at Nixxes. Firesprite is a 250-person studio located in Liverpool, England that's made up of original old-school Wipeout developers. In fact, Firesprite was founded on the ashes of Sony's former Liverpool Studio division that was closed in 2012. Sony and Firesprite have come full circle.

Firesprite is responsible for a handful of games like Playroom and Playroom VR, Run Sackboy Run!, and a first-person horror game called Persistence that's been released on PSVR, PlayStation 5, and even Steam (with mixed reviews). Now Firesprite is currently working on a "branching narrative AAA adventure game" and a "AAA-quality new action shooter IP" for PlayStation Studios.

Sledgehammer Games confirms Call of Duty Vanguard's console version will feature options usually reserved for PC players.

This year's new WW2-themed Call of Duty is built on the same new-and-improved engine as Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War, which supports ray tracing, 120FPS and other higher-end optimizations on consoles. On top of that, Vanguard's next-gen release will also feature an FOV slider up to 120 degrees, motion blur toggles, and depth of field tweaks. There's no word on whether or not PS4 or Xbox One will also support this feature.

A brief look at Vanguard's settings popped up online from design director Adam Iscove, and Sledgehammer's community strategist Sam Leichtamer confirms the snapshot is indeed from Vanguard's console version.

Sony is going to host its big PlayStation Showcase event this week, where rumors are floating out that the company could have a refreshed PlayStation 5 Pro console.

But what will Sony confirm during the PlayStation Showcase 2021 event? Tom from Moore's Law is Dead says that the next-gen God of War will receive a gameplay reveal, as well as Gran Turismo and Stray (the game where you get to play as a cat).

Not only that, but The Last of Us: Factions could be revealed, the next-gen Call of Duty: Vanguard will be shown off, and a "few surprises" are being "considered" but Tom can't confirm which ones just yet. He does note that there are a lot of "maybes" being considered for the PlayStation Showcase 2021 event.

I'm a big fan of these gorgeous die shots of intricate pieces of technology, especially the next-gen semi-custom SoC that powers the Sony PlayStation 5 console. Check it out:

The PS5 die shots are courtesy of Fritzchens Fritz, who uploaded 58 photos to his personal Flickr account in all their totally-nerd-out glory. The PlayStation 5 features a semi-custom SoC (System-on-a-Chip) which compromises of Zen 2 CPU cores and RDNA 2 GPU cores co-developed by AMD and Sony.

My favorite shot would have to be the one of the SoC sitting on top of the PS5 controller... my golly gosh does that put tingles through my body. It's such a beautiful shot with the textured thumb pad on the PS5 controller to the right and the blue LED light running through the controller... yeah, it's a great shot.

Marvell, the same company that made the world's first PCIe 5.0 memory controllers with 14GB/sec speeds, also made the PlayStation 5's custom SSD controller.

New close-up microscopic images of the PlayStation 5's chips from Fritzchens Fritz confirm Sony teamed up with Marvell to make the console's SSD flash controller. The PS5 uses a custom 12-channel memory controller that enables blistering speeds of up to 9GB/sec compressed data transfer rates (5.5GB/sec uncompressed) over PCIe 4.0 x4.

Read Also: Understanding the PS5's SSD: A deep dive into next-gen storage tech

Ubisoft appoints 23-year veteran Igor Manceau to lead the future creative vision of all of its games.

Today Ubisoft announced that Igor Manceau will now serve as its Chief Creative Officer. As CCO, Manceau will lead Ubisoft's internal editorial team, a division of higher-up creatives that essentially control the scope of all of its first-party franchises. Manceau has been with Ubisoft's creative departments for 23 years and more recently was creative director on both Rider's Republic and Steep.

The news comes during a tumultuous time for Ubisoft where sexual harassment allegations run rampant. The company has promised change and Manceau is taking over for ex-CCO Serge Hascoet, who left the company after being accused for significant instances of sexual and workplace misconduct.

Tripwire Interactive CEO John Gibson is leaving the company shortly after making extremely contentious comments about Texas' new abortion law.

Georgia-based games developer and publisher Tripwire Interactive (Chivalry 2, Killing Floor, Maneater) has been under fire for controversial views from its CEO, John Gibson. On September 4, Gibson Tweeted in support of Texas' new anti-abortion law saying that he was "proud of US Supreme Court affirming the Texas law banning abortion for babies with a heartbeat."

Gibson's Tweet was criticized by his peers and gamers alike and the studio--and Gibson himself--faced severe push back over the last few days. The views affected Tripwire's business with partners like Shipwright Games terminating contracts, and Chivalry developer Torn Banner Studios called the publisher out publicly. Now Tripwire has announced Gibson has left the studio.

It's official: Alan Wake is coming back with a fully-fledged remaster on consoles and PC.

After ratings boards leaked the news, Remedy announced that Alan Wake is coming back this Fall with a remastered re-release on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Since the game is being funded by Epic Games the Alan Wake remaster will be an Epic Games Store exclusive and won't be available on the Steam marketplace.

Remedy's Sam Lake confirms the remaster is the same exact experience as the 2011 thriller but with higher-end visuals and upgraded environments.

Nintendo's premium Switch Online subscription service is reportedly getting games from the original handheld duo that dominated the late 80s and 90s.

Nintendo Switch Online will soon expand to include Game Boy and Game Boy Color platforms, sources tell Eurogamer. While the roster of included games is unknown, it's possible we could see heavy-hitters like the original Pokemon games cross over, complete with Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow, as well as later iterations like Silver, Gold, and Crystal.

There's also talk of other old-school Nintendo platforms coming to Switch Online, including the Nintendo 64.

XCOM developer Firaxis is making a new tactical RPG with Marvel superheroes, and yes, it will be monetized.

Like a number of other Marvel games (Avengers, Strike Force, Realm of Champions), the new card-based Midnight Suns game will also have microtransactions. The game's official Twitter points out that monetization is purely cosmetic and there won't be any pay-to-win scenarios where gamers can buy extra cards, and lootboxes aren't available either.

"Hey folks, regarding our battle card system, there are no loot boxes in Marvel's Midnight Suns or related microtransactions to get more cards (i.e. Gamma Coils). We will have purely cosmetic character skins for purchase that do not affect game balance in any way," the account said.

Back in 2019, Shawn Layden left Sony and PlayStation after 32 years with the company. Now the former gaming executive reveals why.

Shawn Layden has been a figurehead of the PlayStation 4's monolithic generation and helped lead the company to success with multiple big-name exclusives like God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Marvel's Spider-Man. So why would he leave? Layden now says he wanted to depart on a good note--a strategy that many higher-level execs practice.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, Layden says his decision was two-fold: the PlayStation brand's success was an excellent punctuation mark to his 32-year career at Sony, and he wanted to initiate a changing of the guard.

Following weeks of speculation and massive disappointment, Blue Box Game Studios says its game Abandoned was announced too early.

Blue Box Game Studios released a new Abandoned FAQ confirming a new playable teaser and outright says the hugely controversial game just isn't ready for the public.

"Abandoned was announced too soon. Also, we received a bigger audience than we initially had, so we had to polish the game even more. Even now, the game isn't ready for the public eye to see. We will release all media inside the Realtime Experience app and web for actual gameplay reveals and cinematic trailers," the site reads.

Sony confirms it will no longer offer free PS4 to PS5 upgrades of of future cross-gen first-party games.

Today Sony reversed its massively unpopular next-gen pricing scheme and will now offer a free Horizon Forbidden West PS4 to PS5 upgrade. In the same announcement, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan says Horizon Forbidden West is the last free upgrade. From now on, any PS4 to PS5 upgrade of a first-party cross-gen title will cost $10.

"I also want to confirm today that moving forward, PlayStation first-party exclusive cross-gen titles (newly releasing on PS4 & PS5)-both digital and physical*-will offer a $10 USD digital upgrade option from PS4 to PS5. This will apply to any exclusive cross-gen PS4 & PS5 title published by Sony Interactive Entertainment," Ryan said.

Due to extreme pressure from fans, Sony has reversed its wildly unpopular decision with Horizon Forbidden West next-gen upgrades.

Sony confirms it will now honor its original promise to offer free next-gen upgrades for some games including Horizon Forbidden West. Anyone who buys Horizon Forbidden West on PS4 will also get a free copy of the PS5 version, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan says. This is a complete 180 from the previous plan which would have forced gamers to buy an expensive $80 version in order to get both a PS4 and PS5 copy.

"Last year we made a commitment to deliver free upgrades for our cross-gen launch titles, which included Horizon Forbidden West. While the pandemic's profound impact pushed Forbidden West out of the launch window we initially envisioned, we will stand by our offer: Players who purchase Horizon Forbidden West on PlayStation 4 will be able to upgrade to the PlayStation 5 version for free," Ryan said.

Ubisoft has teased the PC version of Far Cry 6, detailing the PC features to expect with the best version of the game -- and man, does it look good. The console version of the game looked so underwhelming, but the PC version of Far Cry 6 looks fantastic. Check it out:

The developer has worked with AMD on Far Cry 6, cramming in improved multi-thread CPU support thanks to the Ryzen CPU series packing a ton of threads. Not only that, but we also have FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) support for the best mix of performance/graphics quality, and ray tracing support for both AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards.

You'll need 60GB storage minimum, 8GB of RAM minimum, and an AMD Ryzen 3 1200 or Core i5-4460 processor at a minimum. GPU-wise, Ubisoft requires an AMD Radeon RX 460 or GeForce GTX 960 graphics card with 4GB of VRAM.

First Sony reinforced the new $69.99 price tag for next-gen games. Now it's setting another trend by eliminating free PS4 to PS5 next-gen upgrades.

Sony is the latest games-maker to start charging extra for cross-gen releases. Similar to EA and Activision, Sony is locking new first-party games like Horizon Forbidden West behind higher-priced paywalls if you want to buy both a PS4 and PS5 copy.

A new support page confirms Horizon Forbidden West on PS4 won't get a free next-gen upgrade on PS5, and Sony currently has no plans to allow PS4 buyers to pay to upgrade their game to the PS5 version. To get both versions, you have to spend at least $80 on the digital deluxe edition.

Hello Games recently released another mega update to No Man's Sky that's so big that it makes most AAA publishers look bad.

No Man's Sky's anticipated Frontiers update is here, and it's better than anyone expected. Frontiers is the 17th free update to the game, and it adds a ton of new content that further transforms No Man's Sky into a competent space sim.

The content includes procedurally-generated planetary settlements, and even the option to become mayor of a particular city and oversee its denizens and help the settlements grow into fully-fledged communities. You'll even have to defend your city against attacks in chaotic FPS combat, and the cities and towns will generate resources should you prove to be a benevolent ruler. The game has come a long way from the lonely worlds of 2016.

PlayerUnknown has left PUBG Corp and has brought an entire game development team with him.

Brendan Greene is no longer with Krafton the parent company of the billion-dollar battle royale PUBG. When Greene went independent he took an entire studio called PlayerUnknown Productions with him. Many outlets report this is a new studio, but PlayerUnknown Productions was actually established in 2019 as a subsidiary of PUBG Corp to lead development on a project called Prologue. This mysterious new game pivoted away from PUBG; Prologue isn't a shooter, it's not a BR, and it's set in a new IP.

Now Krafton has spun off PlayerUnknown Productions directly to Greene. We don't know exact terms of the deal, but Krafton does have a minority stake in the new company. Greene is leading PlayerUnknown Productions in Amsterdam with the aim of "building the biggest sandbox worlds ever attempted." Job listings confirm the team will use latent technologies like AI and even blockchain to achieve their goal. It's unknown if Prologue is still in development or not.