Gaming - Page 500

PUBG is still one of the most-played games in the world, with KRAFTON, Inc. announcing the "next evolution of Battle Royale on mobile" with the introduction of PUBG: NEW STATE. Check out the pre-order trailer:

PUBG: NEW STATE wipes the slate clean with some of the mechanics and feels stronger after a nice hot chicken for dinner and a Red Bull to perk you up, with new "dynamic gunplay that is easy to learn, but hard to master". The developer teases that there are new features that "evolve the battle royale experience like never before".

We can expect "ultra-realistic graphics that push the limits of mobile gaming", making more sense of the continued push into gaming smartphones from the likes of ASUS and Razer. PUBG: NEW STATE has been completely built and optimized for mobile play, which is unfortunate because a large portion of PUBG players are on PC.

It's official: Final Fantasy 7 Remake is coming to the PlayStation 5, and PS4 owners get a free next-gen upgrade.

A next-gen version of Final Fantasy 7 Remake is coming June 10, 2021 for PlayStation 5, complete with high-end optimizations. The game will have two modes: a 4K mode that prioritizes graphics and visuals, and a 60FPS mode that boosts frame rates--which is a big deal for an action game like FF7R. Other tweaks include ultra-fast loading via the PS5's SSD (the game will load in just seconds), new atmospheric fog and lighting effects, and improved textures.

Square Enix is offering a free next-gen upgrade to anyone who bought the PS4 version, and your saves will transfer over. There's also a normal difficulty for classic mode and a photo mode to boot.

Dragon Age 4 has shifted development twice now, and like most games, the process hasn't been straightforward. Here's a closer look at what's happened since the game entered development in 2015.

The next Dragon Age is in full swing at BioWare, and will be the next game the developer releases. But like Anthem, Mass Effect Andromeda, and Dragon Age Inquisition before it, the game has changed and morphed over the last 6 or so years--so much that key BioWare executives have left the company after decades' long tenures.

After today's news that Dragon Age is now a singleplayer-only game, I thought it important to outline and chronicle all the major changes and updates with the game and BioWare's development environment in the last few years.

EA has relented: Dragon Age 4 will now be a fully singleplayer-only game, sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier.

The next Dragon Age game will see BioWare return to its classic singleplayer RPG roots. Reports say BioWare has received EA's blessing to make Dragon Age 4 an offline singleplayer game, which is a big departure from the publisher's previous plans.

The new Dragon Age has been rebooted twice now. The first iteration, codenamed Joplin, entered development in 2015 as a smaller-scale project focused on Tevinter spies. Then in 2017, EA pushed a reboot to a new online-driven live service game with heavy monetization. This was known as Morrison, and would've featured globally-reactive worlds with "live storytelling."

After the recent source code hack, CD Projekt RED has locked employees out of its internal network. This has caused significant delay in Cyberpunk 2077's updates, and is the main reason the big Patch 1.2 update has been pushed back to late March.

CD Projekt RED developers are no longer able to access the company's internal network, halting development on Cyberpunk 2077's anticipated patches and next-gen upgrades. Sources tell Bloomberg that most of CDPR's employees are unable to work on the updates because they've been locked out, with the majority of developers out of the office in work-from-home environments.

Worse still, personal information was compromised in the hack. The company has told workers to report identity theft, freeze their bank accounts, and change key information as soon as possible.

Anthem's anticipated reboot has been cancelled, and BioWare has moved on to Mass Effect and Dragon Age, the developer today announced.

BioWare has officially scrapped its plans for Anthem NEXT and the game will now remain as-is without any future updates, similar to Battlefront II. EA is now pushing BioWare towards less risky franchises like Dragon Age and Mass Effect, both of which have new games in development.

The news comes after months of concept development for Anthem NEXT from a small crew or designers. EA ultimately made the call to jettison the risky IP despite sinking valuable R&D costs over the last four years (not unlike how it jettisoned many Star Wars games including multiple EA Vancouver titles).

Cyberpunk 2077's second big update won't release in February, and has been delayed to the second half of March, CD Projekt RED today announced.

Right now CDPR is being hit on all sides: They're getting sued from angry investors, gamers are still upset and Cyberpunk 2077 is still off the PS Store, and the studio just suffered a recent cyber attack that saw source code being auctioned off to the highest bidder.

As a result of these stressors, Cyberpunk 2077's Patch 1.2 update has been pushed back. The update now has a targeted release date of the second half of March, but even that's not a guarantee.

Sony announced a new PS5-powered PlayStation VR headset today, and in two days it'll showcase new PS4 and PS5 games.

A new State of Play is scheduled for this Thursday, February 25 at 5PM EST, and the 30-minute show will highlight 10 games coming to PlayStation. The event will stream a mix of new reveals and already-announced games across the AAA and indie spectrum, including both PS4 and PS5 games. We could get more updates on release dates for high-profile games like Gran Turismo 7 and the new God of War--both of which are believed to be pushed back to at least 2022.

Expect to see new footage of new first-party games like Returnal, Ratchet and Clank A Rift Apart, and Horizon: Forbidden West, all of which are releasing in 2021.

Diablo 2 Resurrected is just the beginning, and Blizzard hints at plans to update the game post-launch.

It has been years since Blizzard touched D2. The game's current version, 1.14, was released nearly 5 years ago and the game has remained static since. The new Diablo II Resurrected remaster may revitalize the ARPG classic with new post-release patches, updates, and content to change the meta and scope of the game.

The updates should start with new runewords. In a recent Q&A session, Diablo II Resurrected principal designer Ryan Gallerani hinted new runewords could drop after the game's launch.

The hugely popular Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2 remaster collection is coming to next-gen consoles and Switch, complete with boosted resolution and high-end graphical effects.

Activision will re-release Tony Hawk 1+2 on PS5 and Xbox Series X on March 26, and a Nintendo Switch version is also dropping sometime in 2021. Here's what you should expect from the re-release:

God of War Ragnarok will miss its planned 2021 release date, Sony strongly hints.

Today Sony confirmed Gran Turismo 7 has been delayed from 2021 over to 2022, and it might not be the only high-profile PS5 game to get pushed back. In a recent GQ Magazine interview, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan outlined all the first-party PS5 exclusives launching in 2021; Returnal in April, Ratchet and Clank a Rift Apart in June, and Horizon: Forbidden West in 2H 2021. The hugely anticipated God of War sequel wasn't among those games.

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who has close knowledge with the games industry, also says Ragnarok won't launch in 2021. While neither Sony or God of War developer Sony Santa Monica hasn't officially confirmed a delay, the game's omission from the high-profile press interview speaks volumes.

Sony confirms first-party PS4 exclusive Days Gone will release on PC this Spring, and more games are coming in 2021.

Horizon: Zero Dawn's Steam launch was just the beginning of Sony's new PC focus. The next PS4 game dropping on PC will be Sony Bend's open-world zombie game Days Gone, Sony's Jim Ryan confirmed in a new GQ Magazine interview.

The port should release with modern PC enhancements like improved FPS, ultra-wide support, and high-resolution textures. Expect the game to be unrestricted by the PS4's and PS4 Pro's limited Jaguar-based APU, and there's a possibility we could see a PS5 optimized re-release as well. No exact information on Days Gone's PC performance has been announced just yet.

High-profile PlayStation 5 exclusive Gran Turismo 7 has been delayed to an undisclosed date in 2022, Sony has announced.

Delay season continues: Gran Turismo 7 has been pushed back from its original 2021 release date to an undetermined launch in 2022. The reason? COVID-19, of course. Polyphony Digital has transitioned to a work-from-home environment, which places new stressors on communication, iteration, and overall development.

"GT7 has been impacted by COVID-related production challenges and therefore will shift from 2021 to 2022," a Sony PR rep told GQ Magazine.

Today Sony announced a PS5-powered PSVR headset is in the works, complete with boosted resolution and a new and improved controller.

Sony officially confirms a next-gen PlayStation VR headset is coming to the PS5, but a finalized HMD hasn't been revealed just yet. The headset will connect directly to the PlayStation 5 with a single cord and circumvent the current PSVR's rat's nest of connections and break out boxes.

"We're taking what we've learned since launching PS VR on PS4 to develop a next-gen VR system that enhances everything from resolution and field of view to tracking and input. It will connect to PS5 with a single cord to simplify setup and improve ease-of-use, while enabling a high-fidelity visual experience."

It was back in May 2016 when I exclusively revealed to the world that NVIDIA secured the chip supplying contract from Nintendo for their at-the-time 'NX console' which turned out to be the phenomenally successful Nintendo Switch.

Yeah, well, what's next? The next-gen Nintendo Super Switch -- that's what I've been referring to it as -- is in the headlines where it will reportedly feature a next-gen SoC with NVIDIA DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) technology support.

ResetEra insider NateDrake explained: "Won't really talk more about the tech specs than I have. It has DLSS & it has 4K functionality. No reason to go deeper than that right now. That's enough to illustrate the device is a meaningful upgrade. First party support with span the new hardware and current Switch for at least a couple of years".

Tencent has raised over $8 billion across twelve worldwide banks, and this massive horde of cash could be used to buy new gaming studios (and publishers).

Previous reports said Tencent might be eyeing huge acquisitions like EA or even Grand Theft Auto-maker Take-Two Interactive, and now it has the money to back up a buyout of this caliber. The Chinese juggernaut recently raised a staggering $8.3 billion for "general corporate purposes," Bloomberg reports.

While Tencent could shake up the games industry with a high-profile buyout, it's more likely the company will focus on Asian developers like Nexon and NetMarble. Tencent may shy away from stake buyouts or full-on games acquisitions and put its new funds into other markets--Tencent invests its money far beyond just gaming and has put cash into e-commerce, medical, and even has its own credit score system.

The new Diablo II Resurrected remaster may look like a new game, but it's really not. The old-school classic Diablo II experience is still running underneath, complete with bugs, quirks, and frame timings. That means breakpoints are still in the game, and players can still stack faster cast rate or increased attack speed and technically break past animation limitations.

Diablo II's breakpoints can be pretty fun to manipulate. The game runs at 25 FPS, and the new Resurrected remaster will also be sourced on the 25FPS timings of the original despite running at higher frame rates on consoles and PC (it can hit uncapped FPS at 8K resolution on PC). The underpinning core logic remains the same, though, allowing breakpoint builds.

Although the game ran at 25FPS, gamers could stack boosted upgrades like IAS (increased attack speed), FBR (faster block rate), FCR (faster cast rate), and others like FHR (faster hit recovery) to "break" the animation barrier; the characters animations could technically go past their limitations. This lead to some pretty godly builds, and breakpoints are kind of a science for high-level D2 play.

Back in the day, Diablo II ran at 800x600 resolution, but the new remaster will push things up to 8K.

For D2 fans like myself, the new Diablo II Resurrected remaster is something out of a dream. The original game has basically been untouched outside of QoL improvements like a shared stash and upgraded visuals, which are driven by a brand new 3D engine. And if you happen to have a powerful PC, the Diablo II remaster can hit insane spec targets like 8K with uncapped frame rates.

"We'll be running at 4320p on PC, 2160p on next-gen consoles at 60 frames per second. On PC you can run uncapped," lead designer Rob Gallerani said in a recent Q&A stream.

Diablo 2 Resurrected preserves everything gamers knew and loved about the classic ARPG and gives it a new skin. But this also means modernized features like cross-play and same-system co-op will be left out.

Unlike Diablo III, which was designed for consoles as a co-operative experience, Diablo II won't have couch co-op. This is because Diablo II never had this kind of same-screen co-op functionality, and the developers at Vicarious Visions are trying to keep things as authentic as possible.

Sadly, cross-play won't be available either. The game supports cross-progression, meaning you can swap between PC and consoles at any time and pick up right where you left off, but you still have to buy a copy of the game for each platform. Blizzard lead designer Rob Gallerani hints cross-platform play may come at some point...but it won't be available at launch.

Backwards compatibility is the biggest advantage the Xbox has over Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5, and it's about to get a whole lot better.

The reports were right. Microsoft is using more technical sorcery to significantly boost in-game frame rates in backwards compatible games. The new feature can double (and sometimes even quadruple) FPS in select titles. Right now, only a handful of games support this new feature:

The optimizations aren't native, though, and require developers to work alongside Microsoft to roll out the new updates. That means devs have to be involved in the process and the Xbox Series X/S consoles won't just automatically boost frame rates (although the Series X can natively upgrade in-game performance without any dev input).