Gaming - Page 490

Every once in a while, developer live streams will reveal little tidbits about a creator's pasts. This time Doom Eternal game director Hugo Martin talks about his early comedy aspirations and how he wants to eventually teach future game directors and game developers.

Hugo Martin has had an interesting career. He's mostly known as game director on id's glorious metalhead fantasy Doom Eternal, but before that, Martin actually had a fledgling start as a standup comedian.

"I actually did standup comedy, and acting, then improv a little bit--which I was terrible at improv," Hugo Martin said in a recent Twitch stream. His set mostly consisted of dad jokes, and Hugo actually has a recording of the set...but don't expect to see it published on the internet.

A new Uncharted game has been in development since 2019, and Naughty Dog isn't the only team working on the project.

According to a new report from Bloomberg, a new Uncharted game entered development back in 2019 under two internal PlayStation studios. One of the teams from Sony Bend, the studio behind first-party game Days Gone, started work on the Uncharted project in 2019 as Naughty Dog geared up for The Last of Us Part II. This was shortly after Sony had shot down a pitch for Days Gone 2 and moved Sony Bend over to a franchise it wasn't necessarily familiar with--a move that caused worry and dropping morale among leadership.

Today, the fate of the Uncharted game remains unknown, but we do know Naughty Dog is working on The Last of Us 2's upcoming online mode. The report also mentions Sony Bend is helping out with this multiplayer gametype as well.

Sony is funding a remake of The Last Of Us for the PlayStation 5, complete with next-gen optimizations. Although Naughty Dog is mostly leading development, the project started out as a way for a fledgling startup to prove itself to Sony.

A recent Bloomberg report highlights how Sony is doubling-down on marquee hits at the cost of developer morale. The story of the new Last of Us remake highlights Sony's current business trajectory.

According to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who spoke with sources close to the matter, the Last of Us remake didn't start off as a big project. It was a sort of proving grounds for a group of developers who wanted to earn recognition form Sony. The Last of Us wasn't chosen by Sony, but by the group, who were led by Sony's Visual Arts and Services Group director Michael Mumbauer. VASG is a kind of support studio responsible for putting critical animation work into Sony's biggest games.

If you're still playing Grand Theft Auto IV then you might want to check out the latest 4K2K Allaga Graphics Mod, which provides some kick ass new high quality textures for some buildings and characters in the game.

The idea behind the mod is to replace all of the game's textures over time, but the version that we see now is damn impressive with the mod enabled. 4K2K Allaga Graphics Mod creator 'okanto' explains: "The purpose of the mod is to improve all textures in the game. At the moment I am increasing the resolution of buildings and characters and then I will replace some with better ones and improve characters and effects".

This is a very early version of the mod and the creator notes that he "doesn't have a lot of textures" but I'm sure that will change over time if this mod gains popularity. Anything to keep us going until Grand Theft Auto 6 is finally announced, and a few years from now finally released.

Sony's emphasis on best-selling games is weighing heavy on the developers that make them--and teams that want to work on other projects.

A new report from Bloomberg highlights Sony's plans for the PlayStation brand. In lieu of a business-changing service like Game Pass, which fosters creativity by virtual of organic discovery, monetization, and full game purchases, Sony is instead doubling-down on its strengths: Big marquee first-party games that sell millions of copies.

Sony's games are lauded for their high production values, stellar art and animation, and mature themes, but these awards come at a very real human cost. Games like Naughty Dog's Uncharted and The Last of Us series require grueling overtime and crunch in order to achieve lifelike reactivity and dazzling visuals. The payoff is big: In 2020, Sony made over $22.7 billion from its games division. Like Nintendo, Sony has proven that exclusives push platform and full game sales to billion-dollar heights.

Diablo 2 Resurrected is filled with all sorts of quality-of-life improvements including a shared stash, a comparison tab, auto gold pickup, and now an awesome new mercenary feature.

As seen in a recent Dbrunski125 stream, Diablo 2 Resurrected shows more stats on your mercenary sidekick. Opening up the merc tab now shows the exact level and damage of their skills and abilities, including active attacks as well as any auras they use in battle. This is great for those Act 2 mercs with their holy freeze, thorns, might, and blessed aim auras.

Previously in Lord of Destruction gamers could only see basic stats like health, experience, strength/dex and damage and defense, and resistances. Now D2R adds a neat little skill tab so you can check out your mercs abilities in real-time. It's a nice bonus if you equip +skill gear to your merc like Andariel's Visage.

Rockstar Games is still a while away from the launch of Grand Theft Auto 6, but we know the game is in development -- but is it close to the reveal? Possibly, maybe not, we don't know.

But the developer has fueled new rumors thanks to a new website that is either for Grand Theft Auto 6, or possibly new content for the phenomenally successful GTA Online. Rockstar posted a news page for Naturalist rewards in Red Dead Redemption Online and 24 hours later teased the GTA community with a webpage numbered 62005 with an error code of "e398" when you click it.

Grand Theft Auto leaker "Tez2" suggests that the mysterious webpage is for upcoming GTA Online content, but GTA fans want it -- so badly -- to be something related to GTA 6. Tez2 explains on the GTA forums: "So, Rockstar skipped an article once again. Could mean nothing or simply reserved for a 'GTA Online Job Spotlight' article etc. Heck, may not even have to do with GTA Online".

Atar VCS owners will soon be able to make their own classic old-school arcade games and share them with other players.

After decades in the shadows, Atari has big plans for its gaming future. The company is making a bunch of new games, including titles with "meaningful singleplayer campaigns." One part of this strategy takes a play from Nintendo's playbook.

Atari is working on its own Mario Maker-like tools that will let VCS owners create, share, and play their very own retro games. The idea is to let users generate organic platform-wide engagement with interesting and fun old-school mini-games. Think of it like creating your very own Atari 2600 game during the industry's golden heyday and being able to share them with friends or other random users online.

IO Interactive is still working on a brand new wholly-owned IP, company CEO Hakan Abrak re-confirms.

We've known about IO Interactive's new IP since 2017. In 2019, the developer opened a new studio in Malmo, Sweden to help work on new the franchise; since then Malmo has helped with a myriad of projects, including pre-production phases of the new IP.

Then in late 2019, IO signed a publishing deal with Warner Bros. Interactive to publish the new IP.

Deathloop, the stylish grindhouse Groundhog Day shooter from Dishonored developer Arkane, has been delayed to September.

Bethesda's new Deathloop FPS has been delayed a second time and will now be pushed back by four months. Instead of releasing in May, as previously planned, the game will now launch on September 14, 2021. Arkane doesn't want to alter their vision for the game, which is a distinct-looking psychological FPS where two assassin's try to kill one another in increasingly creative ways, but they don't want to sacrifice their team's wellbeing either.

"At Arkane we have a strong vision for Deathloop, and we don't want to compromise on that. But we also need to do everything we can to ensure the health and safety of everyone at the studio," said Deathloop Game Director Dinga Bakaba.

Yesterday Danish indie studio Blue Box Games announced a PS5 horror game called Abandoned. It didn't take long before gamers somehow associated the project with Hideo Kojima.

Abandoned isn't the next Hideo Kojima game. Blue Box Games put up a post confirming that they have nothing to do with the Japanese auteur. Yes, Kojima wants to make a new horror game, but Abandoned apparently isn't it.

So how did we get here? Why did gamers think Kojima was responsible? 2013's old P.T. demo is partly to blame. Back then, Kojima used the pseudonym 7780s Studio to publish P.T., the playable teaser demo for the cancelled Silent Hills game. People figured it out in short order and soon everyone knew P.T. was Kojima's creation. Kojima also did the same thing with The Phantom Pain. Gamers thought the same thing could be happening with Blue Box Games.

The Halo Master Chief Collection's new Season 6: Raven update (full patch notes here) adds a ton of new features and cosmetics, including the often requested mouse and keyboard support.

After many long years, Xbox gamers can finally play Halo with a mouse and keyboard. The option is included in the new Season 6 update (a mighty 50GB download) and offers secondary key binding as well. We haven't tried out the M&KB options just yet so we can't comment on how well they support high DPI mice or specific gaming-oriented keyboards.

Season 6 also makes some other fundamental gameplay tweaks including new FOV and crosshair-position options. One of the most flavorful additions is the myriad of cosmetics; 343i has added Mjolnir armor suits from Fireteam Raven (the Halo arcade game) and Halo Online, the previously Russian-only Halo shooter.

EA could use AI to automatically scale a game's difficulty based on your play habits and make it easier or harder depending on your skill.

EA has published a patent that could eliminate the need for difficulty options in its games. The concept is simple: The publisher wants to use AI-based machine learning to collect info on how users play games, and use those metrics to scale a game's difficulty. If you die multiple times on a boss, for example, the game will automatically adjust itself so you have a better chance.

The idea here is to keep users engaged with a product for longer periods of time. As EA has said in the past, long-term engagement is more important than game sales. EA makes a myriad of games with live services and microtransactions, and this technology could be used to scale games in real-time.

In the 1970s, Atari dominated the video games market. 50 years later, the company only just now surfaced from the red. Now it wants to revitalize its games division with a host of new games based on old-school franchises.

Today Atari announced it will split its business into two parts: Gaming and blockchain. The former has big implications for Atari's current background presence in the games industry. The company promises to work on new games set in classic IPs that will be resurrected for the current gaming market. Atari says these new titles will branch out to include consoles and PC across the full spectrum, complete with games with "meaningful singleplayer campaigns."

"In addition, new development will be shifted to console and PC, with an emphasis on revitalizing classic Atari intellectual property for the modern era. These new releases will share the classics' instant enjoyability, while introducing a meaningful single-player campaign, couch co-op/multiplayer, and online play," the company said in a recent press release.

Crytek just released a new next-gen Crysis Remastered upgrade on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles that boosted frame rates across the game's myriad of modes.

Crysis Remastered now targets up to 4K 60FPS on Xbox Series X in quality mode, and 1080p 60FPS in performance mode. The new FPS boost released today as a free update on PS5 and Series X/S hardware, but the ultra-demanding shooter still can't hit its designated perf targets.

According to DigitalFoundry's findings, Crysis Remastered aims at the following perf targets:

Death Stranding made over $27 million in sales revenues on PC, new earnings reports from 505 Games confirm.

According to the latest financial reports from Digital Bros, the parent company of 505 Games, the PC port of Death Stranding generated $27.8 million (23.192 million Euros) in combined sales revenues on the Epic Games Store and Steam. Remember, this is only the cash that 505 Games received as payment for publishing the game on PC, and doesn't represent the game's actual sales earnings.

The game was released in mid-year in July 2020, so the sales earnings were made across a 5-month span. The company has yet to give out exact sales numbers for the PC port.

Starbreeze is contractually bound to pay 505 Games 33% of Payday 3's future revenues, new earnings reports confirm.

While scouting the 2020 earnings reports for Digital Bros, 505 Games' parent company, I noticed something: 505 has a lot of interest and investment into Payday developer Starbreeze. The two companies go way back. 505 Games published Payday 2 way back in 2013, and three years later in 2016, it sold the Payday franchise's publishing rights back to Starbreeze.

The terms of this deal are interesting. According to the report, Starbreeze has promised to deliver 33% of Payday 3's future revenues to 505 Games as part of the transaction. Payday 3 only just recently found a publisher; Payday 3 will come out in 2023 on next-gen consoles and PC thanks to a publishing deal with Embracer Group's Koch Media label (Deep Silver).

The new Mass Effect Legendary Edition gives a big facelift to the classic trilogy. BioWare has put together a side-by-side footage reel showing these changes, including graphical upgrades and gameplay tweaks.

The upcoming Mass Effect trilogy remaster (releasing May 14) effectively upgrades the original games with high-res 4K textures, new shadow and lighting effects, and a myriad of other adjustments. Some of these enhancements are quite impressive and add a new dimension to the game, but others change the tone, ambiance, and overall presentation of specific scenes.

To illustrate how the game will look on PS4, Xbox One, and PC (and on PS5/Series X), BioWare gave IGN a bunch of comparison footage that highlights the updated performance. The results are pretty eye-opening. Apart from the obvious texture and environment boosts, the biggest change has to be loading times; the Legendary Edition loads elevator sequences 73% faster than the original.

EA is set to have a huge year this year when it comes to the next-gen Battlefield, which isn't poised to only have game-changing natural disasters -- but it could launch on Xbox Game Pass on day one.

The rumors started on the Xbox Era podcast, with notorious Battlefield leaker Tom Henderson kinda confirming it with a GIF. We don't know if Battlefield will be an Xbox Game Pass offering at launch, but given how badly previous Battlefield games have been at launch I'd be hoping EA DICE have things much more stable with Battlefield 2021 if it's going to be on Xbox Game Pass on day one.

During the podcast, leaker Shpeshal Ed said that there would be a third-party AAA FPS game that is "very highly likely" launching on Xbox Game Pass. I don't think Microsoft would open that up to the upcoming Call of Duty: Vanguard as Sony has a tighter relationship with Activision when it comes to the PlayStation -- so Microsoft could have a big win here for Xbox if they can get Battlefield 2021 aka Battlefield 6 aka BATTLEFIELD as a day one title on Xbox Game Pass.

The mighty Embracer Group has now officially acquired Gearbox Software and its subsidiaries, forming a new business unit within the company.

Embracer now owns Gearbox, and the merger deal has come to a close. Embracer paid $363 million for Gearbox with a huge $1 billion bonus clause attached to the contract provisional on game sales and performance. The studio has big plans outside of Borderlands that will help hit that bonus.

Gearbox is mostly known for Borderlands, a franchise that's sold over 60 million copies and made $1 billion in revenues. And yes, the devs are working on Borderlands 4, which will be published by 2K Games.