Gaming - Page 465

DICE LA will reveal Battlefield 2042's mysterious third game mode at the show, PR has reiterated.

Today we received a PR email re-confirming Battlefield 2042's new multiplayer mode will be shown at EA Play Live:

"DICE LA will reveal the next major experience coming to Battlefield 2042 at EA PLAY Live on July 22. This new experience is a brand-new game type, made as a love letter to Battlefield fans, and one that long-time players will feel right at home with,"the message reads.

Sony is spending more than it ever has on R&D, particularly for PlayStation gaming.

Gaming is a big part of Sony's yearly revenues. The company earned over $25 billion from PlayStation last year in FY20, roughly 30% of Sony's annual revenues and more than any other platform-holder in the history of the games industry. That kind of revenue influx also demands significant spending on R&D to maintain cutting-edge games, hardware, and services.

While taking a look at Sony's recent 20-F annual SEC filing, I noticed something interesting. The company says its Games & Network Services are at the top of its R&D spend, alongside its Images Sensors and Services division.

Sony just bought Housemarque, and it looks like Bluepoint is their next big acquisition.

Sony has accidentally revealed its intentions to buy Bluepoint, the gurus behind fantastic PlayStation remasters like the Nathan Drake Collection. Gravity Rush, and Shadow of the Colossus. More recent games include Demon's Souls, a PlayStation 5 launch exclusive of the original PS game. The news was spotted on a quickly-deleted Tweet from PlayStation Japan which welcomed Bluepoint to the PlayStation Studios team. Sony meant to upload the image welcoming Housemarque to the team, not Bluepoint, but the cat was out of the bag and spread across the internet.

The announcement has yet to be confirmed but we should expect official news in the coming days. PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst recently said that Sony only buys studios it knows very well:

As previous reports indicated, Konami has plans to license out key IPs instead of spending millions on games development. The first partnership is with Layers of Fear developer Bloober Team.

Today Konami announced a strategic partnership with Polish games developer Bloober Team to make new projects. Bloober Team, mostly known for unsettling horror games like Layers of Fear, Observer, Layers of Fear 2, Blair Witch, and 2021's The Medium, will work on a new Silent Hill game, sources tell VideoGameChronicle. It's unknown whether or not the Silent Hill game will be a big-budget experience or a smaller game.

Konami didn't 100% confirm Bloober was working on a new Silent Hill game and said "we will announce information about contents once details are decided". But it's pretty clear what it'll be. You don't conscript an independent horror game dev to work on something that's not horror-related.

One dataminer finds mysterious assets for Slipstream, which is listed alongside other Call of Duty games. Could it be for 2021's new WW2-themed Vanguard?

References to something called Slipstream have been found on Battle.net's code by Twitter user @Helba_The_AI, and it's possible it refers to Call of Duty Vanguard. While the name is confusing, it's likely the assets are to throw off dataminers with decoys, the same way Epic Games changed its internal references to FF7 Remake and Alan Wake to strange names like PineappleQA and Heron Staging on its storefront.

The Slipstream asset could refer to something in the actual game, but it's most likely a banner placeholder that uses a decoy word instead of the game's Vanguard name. The font and style of the actual game could be exactly the same as the asset found on Battle.net.

DOOM Eternal's new update is live for both the PC and next-gen consoles, where on the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 next-gen consoles it'll add ray tracing -- while the PC side of things gets some awesome NVIDIA DLSS 2.0 lovin' that injects major performance into the game.

We're looking at up to 50% more performance with DLSS enabled and turned to Performance mode, but from my very quick testing there is no Ultra Performance preset for 8K which means the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti doesn't have the VRAM allocation ready for 8K gaming with DOOM Eternal at 8K. I'll have to play around with that more, and test the GeForce RTX 3090 exclusively thanks to the 24GB of GDDR6X memory on-board.

DOOM Eternal also has ray tracing on both consoles and the PC, with ray traced reflections inside of the campaign for DOOM Eternal -- increasing the graphics fidelity to another level. Enabling ray tracing will reduce performance, but that's why NVIDIA has its dark magik DLSS 2.0 technology, boosting performance by up to 50% at 4K in DOOM Eternal.

EA and DICE have a lot to say about Battlefield 2042 today, with hardware partners announced: EA DICE have teamed with Xbox to make Microsoft's next-gen console the "official console" of Battlefield 2042.

We don't exactly know what that means, but if you cut through the BS then it means Microsoft paid a considerable sum to EA and gets to have their consoles be the "official console" of what should be one of the biggest games of the year. In a press release, EA says that they teamed with Xbox to "ensure that the next entry in the Battlefield franchise is the best one yet".

This doesn't mean that Battlefield 2042 is exclusive to the Xbox, as it is coming to PlayStation 5 and PC -- and EA DICE were super light on details. We should know more at EA Play Live on July 22, where EA will be showing off some more details of Battlefield 2042 as well as an entirely new game mode.

EA and DICE have come out today announcing their official partners for Battlefield 2042, with the likes of Xbox, NVIDIA, Logitech, car maker Polaris, and WD_BLACK on supporting Battlefield 2042.

NVIDIA will be providing its amazing DLSS technology, which will provide better image quality and even more performance squeezed out of your GeForce RTX graphics card. Not only that, but you'll also have access to NVIDIA's in-house Reflex low latency technology.

Battlefield 2042 supporting NVIDIA DLSS is absolutely fantastic, as it brings it up to line with Call of Duty: Warzone which has DLSS 2.0 support and is the only thing that allows NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card to hit 4K 120FPS. Battlefield 2042 should now reach the realms of 4K 120FPS thanks to the newly-announced support for NVIDIA DLSS technology.

Doom Eternal's free next-gen Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 optimization patch is now live, adding higher FPS and ray-traced visuals to the game.

Doom Eternal gets three new graphics modes on next-gen consoles, including a 60FPS ray-tracing mode at 1800p and Performance Mode with 120FPS (1584p on PS5, 1800p on Series X. There's also the new Balanced Mode that hits 4K 60FPS on UHD displays. The Series X/S optimizations also utilize Variable Rate Shading, a new feature that allows the console to maintain higher frame rates at the cost of faraway texture resolution. The results see a moderate impact on FPS.

id confirms that dynamic resolution scaling is used in order to hit the frame rate targets.

Sony has purchased Returnal developer Housemarque and will fold the Helsinki-based studio into its PlayStation Studios banner.

Housemarque is now part of PlayStation Studios and bumps Sony's first-party development talent to 13 teams. The exact purchase price or terms aren't known and Sony didn't reveal exactly how much it paid for Housemarque.

"The day-to-day operations will continue to be run by Housemarque's current management team in conjunction with PlayStation Studios External Development team. Terms of this transaction including the acquisition cost are not disclosed due to contractual commitments."

After a record year of earnings, Sony investors want the company's board of directors to stay exactly the same.

Shareholders recently voted to keep Sony's CEO, CFO and board of directors in power, with Sony Corp. CEO Kenichiro Yoshida receiving 9.8 million votes (98% of voting rights) in favor of him staying on to lead the company.

The motivations are quite clear. Sony set a new high earnings watermark with FY2020's performance, which delivered over $11 billion profits on $84.82 billion revenues. PlayStation revenues hit the highest point in games industry history with $25 billion generated from hardware, software, and network sales. Shareholders also enjoyed a higher EPS of $8.96 per share as of FY20's end.

Doom Eternal could be coming to raze hell on VR headsets, and it might be a big announcement for Quakecon 2021.

The Australian ratings board just classified a mysterious id Software game with the curious designation 2021B. The same ratings authority listed Doom VFR as 2021A, so speculation insists the game could be Doom Eternal VR. The game is listed as a multi-platform experience and isn't explicitly listed as VR, however.

Nothing's been confirmed at this point. The new project might be more Doom DLC or perhaps a new game. id says they've had plans for more Doom content for a while now.

Microsoft has fully upgraded its Project xCloud game streaming server blades with custom Xbox Series X hardware.

Project xCloud's servers are now powered by custom Xbox Series X boards with Navi GPUs and Zen 2 CPUs. Microsoft also announced that all Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can use the new Xbox streaming service and access a multitude of Game Pass titles across multiple devices. xCloud is using the powerful Azure cloud as its delivery system.

This server upgrade will theoretically allow Microsoft to stream Xbox Series X-level game performance to devices like Windows 10 PCs, Android phones and tablets via the Xbox app, and Apple devices through the browser. Right now the streaming performance is capped at 1080p 60FPS, but the service is still in early phases so expected upgrades. Project xCloud console streaming is coming sometime later in 2021, and when that happens, Xbox One owners will be able to play next-gen Xbox Series X/S exclusives.

Forza Horizon 5 brings a lot of fresh new player-requested content to the series while also flexing the Xbox Series X/S's capabilities.

In a recent Forza stream, Playground Games has great news for die-hard fans: FH5 will let users paint their brake calipers. It seems like a small thing, but it's something that fans have been asking about for a long while. The devs had recently pushed back this customization option due to the sheer amount of work involved (they had to re-model each individual car). But Forza Horizon 5 is the culmination of lots of work across the board including huge new dynamic localized weather systems, new advanced physics optimizations, and a new global illumination shadow system complete with crazy high-res 12k resolution renders.

Playground confirmed the following customization options in the stream:

Battlefield 2042 will have AI bots to ensure '24/7 Battlefield mayhem,' but how many bots will fill the matches? Up to half, EA says.

EA recently confirmed that Battlefield 2042 would use AI bots to help fill out its massive 128-player multiplayer matches. Now the company tells The Verge that up to 64 bots could be included in Conquest and Breakthrough gametypes.

DICE and EA are both prioritizing actual human players, but in the event of lower populations, bots will jump in and fill the open slots. The developers want to ensure that every 128-player match actually has 128 players, whether it be all humans or a mix with AI.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is still many years away, so expect headlines and stories for many years to come -- with Battlefield 2042 leaker Tom Henderson providing more details on the next-gen GTA 6.

In his latest video, Henderson talked about the very latest he's heard on GTA 6 and that it won't be released for a few years yet -- 2024-2025 at the earliest. The reason? Grand Theft Auto V and GTA: Online are so damn huge, and especially GTA: Online makes Rockstar Games so much damn money, they would be silly to not keep GTA 6 in the oven for a couple more years.

GTA 6 would be released on next-gen consoles and PC only, with previous-gen consoles missing out and I'm sure that'll have to do with the next-gen graphics the game will have, and the sheer size of the game world itself. GTA 6 will reportedly be a modern GTA title, and the main driving reason behind that is GTA: Online.

Fallout 4 lead designer Joel Burgess shares a heartwarming story about River, the German Shepard that played and inspired the game's beloved doggo companion.

Like most games, Fallout 4 used motion captures of animals for their game, especially for Dogmeat. Sadly, the German Shepard who portrayed Dogmeat has passed away. Her name was River, and in a rare peek behind the curtain of the games industry, Bethesda's Joel Burgess talks about what it was like to have River at the offices, how her lovable personality helped shape Dogmeat's character, and why she was chosen for the role.

"The Dogmeat team was just a handful of us early on - as River stole hearts around the studio, however, more and more folks found ways to pitch in and help bring her personality into the game," Burgess said.

CD Projekt RED calls Cyberpunk 2077's stability performance 'satisfactory,' but Microsoft and Sony might think otherwise.

After seven months of being delisted, Cyberpunk 2077 is back onto the PlayStation Store. Sony has put up a warning message telling PS4 users to expect performance issues, and Microsoft has also done the same for the Xbox One version.

CD Projekt RED President Adam Kicinski says the game is currently in an acceptable state. It's certainly acceptable enough for it to get back on the PS Store, but not without the warning notice.

Ubisoft Massive is going all out with its new Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora game and plans to flex its new next-gen Snowdrop engine to its limit.

Driven by new optimizations in its powerful Snowdrop engine, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will be a spectacle for next-gen consoles. The team at Ubisoft has hyped up the new Avatar game, promising crazy next-gen graphics, lighting effects, and an immersive/reactive world. To make the Avatar game, Ubisoft Massive worked directly with Lightstorm Entertainment, the production company responsible for the high-end visuals of the first Avatar, gathering feedback directly from the creators of Pandora and using it to create an in-game world.

In a recent blog post, creative director Magnus Jansen talks about the amount of effort that's been put into the project.

Forza Horizon 5 will be a next-gen spectacle on Xbox Series X/S with 4K graphics, and the in-game weather effects will make every part of Mexico look and feel unique.

Playground Games is making something special with Forza Horizon 5. The game will be a flagship experience on Xbox Series X with 4K HDR (although only at 30FPS) complete with ray-traced visuals in the ForzaVista mode, but the immersion will come from all angles. The environments are ultra-realistic and make a Mexican playground for sports racing; the devs are using high-end 12k resolution sky captures to make Forza Horizon 5 look better than ever, complete with new engine optimizations for global illumination, shadows, and dynamic weather.

The weather effects in particular will go a long way with immersion. Playground says the weather is localized, meaning different areas of the map will have different weather; there could be a dust storm to the south and a torrential rainstorm by the coast. The devs are also modeling weather patterns after real-life seasons, so expect to see the world change based on what time of year it is.