Gaming - Page 507

The Xbox Series X/S debut is the biggest in Xbox history, and underlines a big turnaround for Microsoft's console division.

While Microsoft cares mostly about Xbox services, software, and digital earnings, the company is still eager to tout hardware milestones. The new Xbox Series X/S generation is a defining moment for the Xbox brand, and Microsoft today confirmed the next-gen duo has outsold any previous Xbox hardware launch in history. Given the Xbox 360's massive demand at launch, this is quite the feat. Apparently the Xbox Series S was the best-seller, which isn't surprising given its $299 cost.

Sadly Microsoft didn't reveal any actual hardware sales figures. Current Xbox One lifetime sales are estimated to be around 49 million as of June 2020.

The PS5 segregates saves across generations, and supports two different banks of save files: Those made on PS5, and those made on PS4. Things get confusing when moving PS4 games over to PS5.

I've already had issues with the PS5 recognizing my PS4 saves when playing backward compatible PS4 games. I'm not alone, either. I managed to solve this by re-uploading the PS4 saves to PS Plus, and then downloading them to the PS5's internal storage. This method works for PS4 games that don't have PS5 upgrades.

But what about games like Assassin's Creed Valhalla that offer free PS4-to-PS5 upgrades? That's where things get a little dicey.

The PS5 can record and capture up to 1 hour of 4K footage...but you'll want to use it sparingly.

Like the PS4, the next-gen PS5 can record up to 1 hour of your most recent gameplay footage. The console can automatically capture in-game footage and format it as a replayable/sharable video. The PS5 has seven different length formats: 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and 60 minutes. Unlike the PS4, which caps out at 1080p, the PS5 can record footage in up to 4K resolution.

The 30m and 60m lengths should be avoided unless you're capturing in 1080p. 12 minutes of 3840 x 2160 resolution footage in Assassin's Creed Valhalla took up 3.12GB. The PS5's SSD only clocks in at 667GB so your storage space is at a premium. If you capture 4K or even 1080p footage, definitely be sure to export the video to an external USB stick or drive for use later.

Atari recently confirmed the games included in the Atari Vault, a free bundle of classic arcade titles that come with the new Atari VCS system.

Atari is baking in lots of extra nostalgic value in its new VCS console, and will include a huge library of old-school arcade classics for free. Anyone who buys the VCS can relive those old late 70s and early 80s glory days of arcade and console gaming with titles like Asteroids, Centipede, Lunar Lander, Missile Command, and Pong. Even the Sword Quest games show up.

The idea here is to capture those old memories and faithfully recreate them on a new modern console with an upgraded joystick--complete with rumble feedback, LEDs, and more.

The NiOh franchise has a history with high FPS--right from the start the game had a 1080p 60FPS priority mode on the PS4. Now Koei Tecmo is pushing this new heights for the PS5.

NiOh and NiOh 2 are getting remastered for the PS5, complete with insane high-end perf targets of 4K 120FPS. Of course you'll need a UHDTV or 4K monitor that supports 120Hz to play the slice-and-dice duo at this blistering-fast frame rate. NiOh at 60FPS was enough...but hitting 120FPS will bring a whole new dimension of excitement and chaos to gameplay.

The studio is actually re-releasing five separate versions of the NiOh franchise in February 2021:

Just like the PS4, Sony's next-gen PS5 lets you watch and listen to custom videos and music from a USB drive. Here's a quick primer on how to do it.

The PS5 can easily play back custom media saved on a USB stick. The PS5 doesn't support all file formats, but it does play back the most common ones like MP4, MP3, and MKV. It's worth noting the PS5 supports all of the same formats as the PS4 family. The PS5 supports video in max resolutions of 3840 x 2160 so don't try to watch 8K videos just yet (the PS5 doesn't support 8K video output right now).

First things first: Make sure all your videos and music are in folders. The PS5 will automatically make a playlist out of the files a specific folder, so you'll have to do some manual sorting if you want to listen to/watch tracks in a specific group.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone is one of, if not the biggest game on the PC -- but now developer Infinity Ward has shrunken the storage used by the game -- which was really getting out of control.

Infinity Ward's new update for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone weighs in at 33GB, and introduces the beta version of Private Warzone matches. But the PC version of the game now packs texture streaming that will download high-resolution textures to your PC while streaming through On-Demand Textures Streaming.

The developers did this to reduce the overall size of the game, as it removes textures that you either don't use or get closed to in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare or Warzone. In the game, if you see or use an operator or weapon that has a high-res texture, it will be streamed to your PC when required.

Update: So this is a troll post, someone blew vape smoke into the Xbox Series X -- and these videos have been circulating since. The physical hardware issues with the Xbox Series X/S aren't a surprise, but be careful as people are capitalizing on this right now.

Microsoft's next-gen Xbox Series X console is now appearing in the wild as gamers receive their units, but there are some major day one issues. This particular console caught fire inside, and sent out massive plumes of smoke out of the Xbox Series X console, check it out:

The video you're seeing there isn't just a single Xbox Series X catching fire and puffing out smoke, and a hell of a lot of it. It's like the Xbox Series X console is chain smoking the Zen 2 + RDNA 2 + PCIe 4.0 SSD all at the same time, and puffing it out of the top in what is an expensive paper weight.

Ubisoft's latest Viking-themed Assassin's Creed game is doing pretty well right now.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla has amassed 2x the day one players as AC Odyssey, cementing it as a big success at Ubisoft. We don't know how many players actually jumped into 832 A.D. Anglo Saxon England, and Ubisoft hasn't given hard figures on actual sales. "The number of active players on launch day for Assassin's Creed Valhalla doubled that of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, a trend that is expected to continue as sales of the new generation of consoles increase," reads a press release sent out by Ubisoft.

Right now we're reviewing AC Valhalla and I can honestly say it's one of the most captivating RPGs in recent memory. It's a lot like Skyrim mixed with The Witcher mixed with AC Origins and Odyssey. There's even splashes of Diablo thrown in there too with the armor sets--but more on that in our review. It's also one of the premiere next-gen games on PS5 and Xbox Series X, and while it doesn't have a next-gen port right now, it still plays pretty damn good on both systems (and of course on PC, where it shines bright with an RTX 3090).

New console games are getting more expensive. A number companies are pushing $69.99 as the new MSRP for PS5 and Xbox Series X titles, but some publishers like Bethesda aren't jumping on board just yet.

Another major games-maker has refused to raise prices on their next-gen games. Bethesda joins Capcom, Ubisoft, and Electronic Arts in maintaining a $59.99 price for new titles. Today Bethesda confirmed its first next-gen PS5 game, Deathloop, will cost the same as a current-gen game when it launches on May 21, 2021.

The 1v1 online shooter currently has two versions available for pre-order: the $59.99 standard version, which comes with a special skin, weapon, and trinket. The deluxe edition will cost $79.99 and comes with more stylish content like a PS5-exclusive Transtar weapon right out of Prey alongside two other unique weapons, two character skins, a soundtrack, and two character-buffing trinkets.

Sony recently said the PS5 doesn't have a web browser. That's not entirely true. There is a web browser...but you can't access it whenever you want.

Unlike the PS4, the PS5 doesn't have a web browser app built into the system's UI. Gamers can't start up a web app and surf the internet like they can on the PS4. The reasons for this are two-fold: Sony doesn't really think people need a web browser, but more importantly, it reduces the opportunities for hacks and exploits. The PS4's web browser led to a kernel access exploit on v1.76. Sony doesn't want to repeat the same mistake.

On the other hand, the PS5 does technically have a web browser, but it's only available when you first set up the console. The browser is restricted though and you can't actually change the URL. The browser comes up when you click on the ratings and health and safety sections on console setup.

UPDATE: Forcibly syncing data on PS Plus will also help with cross-gen games that're missing saves. For example, if you've upgraded to AC Valhalla on PS5 but your PS4 saves still aren't there, do this:

Settings -> Application Saved Data Management ->Saved Data in System Storage -> Upload to Online Storage

Settings -> Saved Data and Game/App Settings -> Saved Data (PS45) ->Sync Saved Data-> View Sync Status

Sony unleashed the next-gen PlayStation 5 console in Australia a few hours ago, selling out almost instantly, and pissing a lot of gamers Down Under.

The new PlayStation 5 console sold out virtually instantly, crashing retailer websites and then seeing scalpers grab their new PS5 consoles and throw them on eBay for immense profit. The console sells on its own for $749 AUD (around $500 take out the 10% GST in Australia) with PlayStation 5 consoles hitting eBay for as much as $1325 AUD ($900 or so).

There's even a Buy It Now listing for a PlayStation 5 console for $1500 AUD, which is a whopping $1000+.

We all know NVIDIA has an incredibly awesome and very powerful niche with its DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) technology -- but the new RDNA 2-powered consoles might have it in the future.

During a recent interview between Xbox Technical Fellow Andrew Goossen, and Digital Foundry, it was revealed that the DirectML-powered DLSS-style AI upscaler: "It's an area of very active research for us, but I don't really have anything more to say at this point".

In the picture above, we have Microsoft and its DirectML-based "super-resolution" AI upscaling technique on show. It is using Forza Horizon 3 to compare the DirectML super-resolution (on the left) versus the normal upscaling through bilinear filter (on the right). This was done back at SIGGRAPH 2018.

Nope, even on that big bad new Xbox Series X not even Assassin's Creed Valhalla can render at native 4K, hell it's not even running on the highest graphics setting that the PC can.

The Verge's Tom Warren replied to 'MonsterWe' on Twitter, who said 'Xbox Series X at native 4K 60FPS. Wonder what settings?' to which Warren replies: "it's not native 4K for a start, and I'm imagine high but not ultra graphics".

Previously, Assassin's Creed Valhalla producer Julien Laferriere told VGC in a recent interview: "There will be shorter loading times and a good frame rate that make the game a lot more comfortable to play, as well as stuff like better draw distance, dynamic 4K and so on".

The first alleged Xbox Series X console hardware defects and issues are starting to pop up, and gamers are reporting strange noises and disc drive problems shortly after launch.

The Xbox Series S and Series X consoles just released, but like any console launch, there's bound to be flawed units. Every console gen has been marred by issues, whether its the Red Ring of Death in the Xbox 360 era or the Blue Light of Death of the PS4 era. Now we're seeing alleged disc drive issues affect the new Xbox generation.

Multiple users are reporting issues with the Series X and Series S ranging from weird clicking noises to faulty disc drives that no longer read discs. The disc drive issue was actually an issue that affected Xbox One consoles, and I myself had to pop my launch model open to repair the drive manually.

EA just revealed the first next-gen images for FIFA 21, and they look photorealistic and ultra-detailed.

The new FIFA 21 images show just how far EA is pushing next-gen optimization. The screenshots highlight impressive facial animations of star footballers Joao Felix of Atheltico Madrid and Trent Alexander-Arnold of Liverpool, both of which were rendered in DICE's upgraded Frostbite engine. We can only imagine how Battlefield 6 will look when it ships in 2021.

EA also confirms FIFA 21's free next-gen upgrade will release December 4, 2020. Anyone who buys FIFA 21 on PS4 or Xbox One will also get a free copy of the next-gen version on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

Sony confirms the PS5 can only support a single external USB 3.0 hard drive at one time.

Unlike the Xbox Series X with its 1TB memory card, the PlayStation 5 is gridlocked on storage space for next-gen games. But what about legacy games? Luckily, the PS5 will support external USB 3.0 HDDs for expanded storage. You can hook up your PS4's existing external drive right to the PS5 and launch backward compatible current-gen games right from the HDD.

There's just one catch: PS5 games can't be stored on HDDs and must be put on the internal SSD--a drive that only has 667GB of available space. Sony could change this in the future, but it'll be this way at launch.

Fallout 76's big new free Steel Dawn expansion drops December 1 on all platforms, Bethesda recently announced.

The new Steel Dawn expansion is a landmark moment for Fallout 76. The game, which launched without a single human NPC, radically transformed with the Wastelanders expansion. Now things are getting kicked up a notch. The Brotherhood is back, and we're gonna be in trouble.

The expansion sees the Brotherhood of Steel crossing the huge 2,500 mile span from California to West Virginia to bring order to Appalachia. The clandestine and stoic military group will be another faction to rally behind--or to fight against--in Fallout 76, bringing more complexity to the always-online live game. The DLC adds in a new questline centered around the Brotherhood of Steel and its leader, Paladin Leila Rahmani, in their quest to collect technology and bring order to irradiated Appalachia.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla has an extremely addictive and fun dice game, and it's a lot like Magic: The Gathering.

I grew up playing Magic: The Gathering and still think it's the definitive card game. MtG has everything: Luck and chance, skill and strategy, and social elements like being able to predict movements based on body language/playstyles. In MtG you have lots of choices like racing an enemy to the finish, or taking a more slow and methodical approach to your victory.

It's these elements I instantly recognized in AC Valhalla's Orlog mini-game. Orlog is a more simplistic and rudimentary version of MtG. The goal is to kill your opponent, and you start out with 20 health. Instead of creature cards with lots of triggers and complex effects, Orlog uses dice and straightforward damage-and-defense tactics. There's life totals, direct damage, and defense.