Gaming - Page 463

The Witcher 3 looks great on its own but it really stands out on its own with some mods placed on top of it, but with a bunch of mods and running at 8K -- 7680 x 4320 -- it looks out of this world. Check it out:

Digital Dreams has shared a new video running The Witcher 3 loaded with mods including the ray tracing reshade mod, Vanilla Lighting 2.0, and at 8K. You'll need the most powerful hardware you can buy, so I wouldn't be trying this without NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card.

The PC running The Witcher 3 with the ray tracing reshade + Vanilla Lighting 2.0 and all at 8K is the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X processor, 32GB of DDR4, and an ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card.

Fallout 76's new legendary crafting system is now live, but it hasn't changed all that much from the unpopular PTS build.

Fallout 76 players can now craft the perfect legendary item, but the odds of that happening are extremely small. The new legendary crafting system lets players re-roll powerful weapons and armor for the chance of unlocking the best of the best gear. There's just one issue: The odds are very much against you.

Gamers have a few issues with the system. It requires a hefty investment in materials gathering with no guaranteed payoff. The argument is that it shouldn't be easy to get perfect gear, but players still want more control in the items they do get.

In what feels like it's ripped right out of an episode of Black Mirror, Tencent has announced that it will be using facial recognition technology to stop minors in China from playing games into the night -- and past China's strict curfews.

China passed a law in 2019 that stopped minors "from indulging in video games" making it seem like gaming is like heroin or some other super addictive narcotic, with the Chinese Communist Party stamping down a ban on minors gaming between the hours of 10PM and 8AM -- and that's on top of limiting their gaming time to just 90 minutes per day.

The restrictions don't end there: minors are only able to spend between $28 and $57 per month on microtransactions, and no matter your age -- if you're gaming in China then you'll need to use your real identity to register for games, and gamers in China are restricted from playing games with "sexual explicitness, goriness, violence, and gambling"... sorry GTA, and like most popular games.

Rockstar Games is about to unleash some performance-enhancing goodness in its new Blood Money update, with NVIDIA's kick ass DLSS technology entering Red Dead Redemption 2.

The Blood Money trailer above gives you an idea of what to expect with the big Red Dead Redemption 2 update, with GeForce RTX gamers tapping some performance upgrades with DLSS. If you're gaming at higher resolutions and want some free performance, DLSS will drop on July 13 and give you better performance and image quality.

Rockstar notes right at the bottom like it's some last-minute addition that "as part of the July 13th update" that both Red Dead Redemption 2 and Read Dead Online on PC will have NVIDIA DLSS support for "all Windows users with eligible NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics cards". Rockstar teases that DLSS will boost FPS and "generates beautiful sharp images".

Fallout 76's new Steel Reign update makes big changes to the game's economy and fans are pretty happy.

Bethesda just released a hefty new update for Fallout 76 that increases resource caps across the board. Players can now hold 40,000 caps (up from 30,000), gold bullion caps have been doubled to 10,000 units, daily scrip earnouts have doubled to 300 scrip, and the max scrip a player can hold has been boosted by 500% to a whopping 5,000. The developers at Bethesda Game Studios Austin are clearly listening to feedback.

The most important resource boost is the scrip limits. Like all Fallout games, Fallout 76's mid-to-endgame loop is driven by the hunt for legendary items. Seasoned players want to collect perfect legendary gear for themselves and their groups, and are prepared to do some serious grinding to get them. Fallout 76's randomized system can deliver lots of junk legendaries across 1-, 2-, or 3-star variants. Gamers scrap the items they don't want to get scrip, which is then spent on randomized legendary lootboxes from Purveyor Murmrgh. These boxes have the chance to drop some serious high-powered gear, but if they don't, players scrap them for even more scrip.

Assassin's Creed Origins, Odyssey Valhalla...these games were all experiments leading up to an infinite Assassin's Creed platform.

Ubisoft's new Assassin's Creed Infinity isn't a game. It's a platform. Ubisoft has a bold vision for a cross-platform hub that will serve up future Assassin's Creed games and content. The idea is to create an online platform that offers expanding content with different historical settings, not unlike a subscription service.

Think of Infinity as a kind of Halo Waypoint for Assassin's Creed that sells games, content, and microtransactions. Infinity is basically it's own digital distribution platform/storefront in a games wrapper, and kind of like an MMO launcher with sequels as well as expansions.

EA has filed a patent for a unique battle pass scheme that covers a lot of permutations, including tiers/hierarchies as well as nonlinear unlocks.

Note: This patent may not ever be used in an actual game. This article is not confirmation that such a battle pass system will show up in an existing or future EA game.

EA latest patent would theoretically let gamers choose their own way across a winding battle pass with different branching paths. The idea is to give players much more variety in how seasonal rewards are unlocked, including both free nodes as well as premium paid unlocks. It's kind of like if a battle pass acted like a skill tree in an RPG. This could be a part of EA's emphasis on new engagement models, which is a big part of the company's new three-part business model.

What if Skyrim was a 2021 game built with Unreal Engine 5? It would look absolutely incredible.

Artist Chris G. has a penchant for recreating older Bethesda RPGs using newer Unreal Engine software. Two months ago he created Fallout New Vegas in Unreal Engine 4, and now Skyrim gets the treatment in the next-gen Unreal Engine 5 toolset. The results are just stunning.

UE5 has been praised as one of the most flexible and powerful games engines of the modern era. Artists and level designers are most impressed with Unreal Engine 5's new Nanite tech, which is a game-changer for next-generation game design. Devs can now pop in cinematic-quality assets right into scenes without any adjustments. Nanite was used extensively in the Skyrim watchtower demo.

Sony's new State of Play is set for Thursday, July 8 at 5PM EST, but don't expect to see any first-party games at the event.

The rumors were right: Sony is holding a State of Play on July 8 that will be entirely focused on third-party games. Sony's Sid Shuman says we won't get any Horizon Forbidden West or God Of War 2 info at the show. Instead, the 30-minute stream will mainly show off an extended 9-minute gameplay sequence of Deathloop, Bethesda's upcoming PlayStation 5 exclusive, leaving 21 minutes for other games.

Sony also says there are a number of "exciting" indies and third-party titles to be shown. We could see a better glimpse of Grand Theft Auto V on PlayStation 5, new games like Final Fantasy 16 or Forspoken, and maybe even a Call of Duty tease. However it's more likely that each of these games would have their own separate event--Rockstar, in particular, could hold a specific stream that highlights the major improvements in Grand Theft Auto V.

Nintendo recently announced specs for its new Switch OLED console...and they're practically the same as existing Switches.

The new $349 Switch OLED isn't what everyone expected. It's not a 4K-ready console that uses a new fancy Orin Tegra chip with Tensor cores for DLSS upscaling. There's no mention of 4K gaming. In fact, the Switch OLED's internal components are the same as the current Switch models--game CPU, RAM, battery, etc. Nintendo has confirmed the Switch OLED doesn't have internal hardware upgrades.

So why buy the Switch OLED? This is a more premium console that's aimed at creature comforts and higher immersion rather than performance. It features an OLED panel with a wider bezel to give you 6.9 inches of visible game display, complete with crisper colors and more vibrant visuals. There's a new enhanced stereo speaker system include as well as a fancy support for Tabletop Mode; if the Switch had a kickstand, this one has a entire spine to lean on.

Nintendo announced a new Switch model today, but it's not the fancy high-end 4K Switch that gamers expected.

The new Switch OLED isn't a next-gen system that pushes Nintendo into a new era of 4K gaming. Instead, it's a quality-of-life upgrade to the existing Switch models and doesn't have any internal hardware upgrades.

Nintendo confirms that the Switch OLED doesn't feature a new upgraded Tegra SoC for 4K gaming. There's no Xavier chip with gen-1 Tensor cores or the outrageously overpowered Orin SoC + Ada Lovelace GPU combo complete with DLSS support. The new Switch has the exact same 1GHz Cortex-A57 CPU and 4GB of LPDDR4-1600 RAM as the base models.

The rumors were way off the mark. Nintendo has announced a new Switch model with a 7-inch OLED panel and a few upgrades, but there's no mention of 4K output whatsoever.

It's official: Nintendo is releasing a new Switch OLED model on October 8, 2021 for $349. The new Switch mostly has quality-of-life improvements like a 6.9-inch 720p OLED panel with more vibrant colors, better sound quality, a wider kickstand for tabletop use, double the internal storage memory, and a new dock with a dedicated ethernet port. The main selling point isn't 4K gaming, and apparently there's no DLSS-enabled NVIDIA Tegra chip. It's highly likely the Switch OLED uses the same 16nm Tegra X1 refresh as the Switch Lite and the 2019 base model.

Switch OLED's official specs chart confirms the new model will hit up to 1920 x 1080 output at 60FPS, which is the same performance target as the base 2017 and 2019 models. Remember that the Switch's GPU is halved to 302MHz while in handheld mode and can only be fully unlocked when it's connected to a TV via docked play.

The original System Shock and more so its successor System Shock 2, are two of my favorite games of all time -- with a 7-minute gameplay video from the remake of System Shock.

Nightdive Studios is behind the System Shock remake and have released a new "Research Teaser Trailer" that is a glorious 7 minutes long, showing off exploration, the UI, combat, the graphics, and more. It is shaping up beautifully right now, making me beg for Shodan to insult me before my untimely death.

System Shock will drop on the PC later this summer on Steam, the Epic Games Store, and GoG -- but those who pre-order will get themselves a free copy of System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition. Not a bad deal, and if you haven't played the System Shock games then I suggest you do... they are the inspiration for many of the games from today.

Activision-Blizzard has acquired a 11.6% stake in Play Studios shortly before the company went public.

Games titan Activision-Blizzard has purchased 12,677,398 shares of Play Studios, a game developer mostly known for casino-based F2P social smartphone titles. The acquisition was made after Play Studios merged with the SPAC Acies Acquisition Corp. in order to start publicly trading on NASDAQ. Activision-Blizzard's share buyout represents a 11.6% portion of Play Studios.

Neither Activision nor Play Studios have publicly announced the share purchases on their press release pages, and the deal was found via SEC filings. Play Studios currently has over 4 million monthly active users and its share value sits at $7.84 per share with 106 million shares outstanding.

Microsoft's most important gaming buyout depended a lot on one man.

Microsoft has built its Xbox Game Studios label around collaboration, synergy, and empowerment. The company doesn't want to disrupt studios, but empower them with resources, tools, and funding. None of this is possible if management doesn't agree with acquisitions and fights back the entire way

According to Phil Spencer, Microsoft's huge $7.5 billion Bethesda acquisition wouldn't have happened if Todd Howard didn't want to join. Microsoft wouldn't have forced a hostile takeover against Howard's wishes.

Atari is restructuring its games business to focus on premium games for console and PC.

Today Atari announced it's investing heavily into its games division, more specifically into bigger titles for current platforms including its own new Atari VCS system.

"Atari intends to shift its video game portfolio to premium games for consoles and PC," Atari said in a press release. The company is cancelling and selling five free-to-play titles that have underperformed.

Final Fantasy VII Remake isn't just a celebration of the beloved old-school RPG, but also the expanded canon that branched out from the series.

Final Fantasy games are now like franchises within a franchise. Final Fantasy VII, for instance, spawned a myriad of content like PS2 and PSP spin-offs, CGI and animated films, and finally a fully-fledged remake with expanded combat. This is by design, and Square Enix says it wants to make the new FFVII Remake episodes into the ultimate convergence for the series--hence the new Intergrade expansion that helps fill out Yuffie's backstory more.

"The world of Final Fantasy VII was vastly expanded through multiple works that followed after the original game. We do want to make it a culmination of all the 'Final Fantasy VII'-related works created up to this point. There are characters that, I too, do not know, but that is the same with Cloud and company as well," Final Fantasy VII Remake co-director Motomu Toriyama told The Washington Post.

BioWare releases new concept art for Dragon Age 4 to help tide fans over in their long wait...and it shows a surprising character.

Dragon Age 4 won't be at EA Play live later this month, and the game is a long ways off, but that hasn't stopped BioWare from fanning the flames of speculation through artwork. A bit of new concept art clearly shows the Antivan Crows, a deadly band of graceful assassins from the east. One fan points out the femme fatale in the art could be Andarateia Cantori, the Seventh Talon of the Crows who was featured in the Dragon Age Tevinter Nights anthology book.

While Dragon Age 4 is firmly set in the Tevinter Imperium, we may even go to the bordering region of Antiva at some point, which is renown for its trade ports, ships, coastal climes and thievery. This is the second time we've seen an Antivan Crow in Dragon Age 4 concept art, and it actually might be the second time we've seen Teia, too. The first image was shown back in 2020:

Sony's new push to $69.99 next-gen PlayStation 5 games has already caught hold in the industry, but now the games-maker could set a new precedent: Charging extra for next-gen releases of current-gen titles.

Ghost of Tsushima is coming to PlayStation 5 not as a free upgrade for users who bought the PS4 version, but as a new $69.99 SKU. Sony is re-releasing Ghost of Tsushima on PS4 ($59.99) and PS5 ($69.99) in a GOTY-style Director's Cut SKU, which comes with all DLC, extra content, a new Iki Island expansion, and next-gen upgrades. The extra content ensures Sony isn't charging PS5 owners $10 extra just for next-gen optimizations and serves as extra justification for the price jump.

What if you already bought Ghost of Tsushima for $59.99 on PS4 when it came out, and now own a PS5? You have two options: Upgrade to the Director's Cut PS4 version for $20 extra and play the game in backward compatibility mode on the PS5, or you can buy the next-gen upgrade for $30 that unlocks faster load times, haptic feedback, and enhanced visuals. Yes, Sony is partly paygating next-gen features in an older PS4 game. Gamers aren't too happy about this.

UPDATE:These projects were on Bloober Team's website all along.

The European Commission has revealed Bloober Team's upcoming game plans, and one of them could be the new Silent Hill game.

Layers of Fear developer Bloober Team recently signed a deal with Konami to work on a new game, corroborating past reports that the Polish dev will make a Silent Hill title. New findings on the European Commission's Creative Europe page may shed light on what Bloober Team is working on.