Gaming - Page 521

4A Games is mostly known for its excellent Metro games, but the studio has aspirations outside of the post-apocalyptic series. Now the devs are crafting a new game set in a fresh IP.

Metro developer 4A Games reconfirms it's working on a new IP project set outside of the Metro franchise. The team plans to work on this new mysterious project while it simultaneously develops a new next-gen Metro game. Now that 4A has been acquired by Embracer Group (formerly THQ Nordic) the team enjoys bigger budgets and can leverage Saber Interactive's proprietary network tech for new modes like online multiplayer. In fact, the next Metro title will have multiplayer for the first time--4A says singleplayer story content is still the primary focus.

Technically Saber Interactive owns 4A Games now, and the Metro devs are helping Saber work on 15 new projects. Two of these projects are the new IP and the new Metro title.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla can now hit 60FPS on the weaker, lower-powered Xbox Series S.

Ubisoft just rolled out a new update that lets Xbox Series S owners choose between 60FPS and 30FPS modes in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Performance mode hits 60FPS with dynamic resolution scaling, and quality mode also has dynamic resolution but targets 30FPS instead. Before the update, Valhalla only hit 30FPS on the Series S.

This is a pretty big deal considering the Series S' specs. The Xbox Series S is 61% less powerful than the Xbox Series X's 12TFLOP GPU, and targets 1440p resolution at 60FPS instead of the Series X's 4K 60FPS. There's also less RAM in the Series S, just 10GB of GDDR6 versus the Series X's 16GB GDDR6 memory.

Sony just released the second PS5 firmware patch that fixes a bunch of glitches and issues, including deleting full games off the SSD and a USB charging error.

The new PS5 firmware patch clocks in at 829MB, and updates the console to v 20.02-2.26.00.00-00.00.00.0.1. There's some pretty big fixes with the update including squashing a bug that deleted full disc-based games installed on the system's SSD. We didn't experience this glitch, but many other games reported their

games randomly disappearing.

Minecraft has crossed an incredible milestone in China, with over 400 million registered players in mainland China -- adding 100,000,000 new players this year -- the fastest growth at any point since it launched.

The news is coming from industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, who added: "Minecraft is F2P in China and is published on Mobile and PC by NetEase. The paid game has sold 200m units outside China". Why is Minecraft so massively popular in China? That would be because it's free.

Minecraft is free-to-play on both PC and mobile in China, published by NetEase. If you consider 1.4 billion people live in China, with 400 million registered players that means that around 28% of the population of China -- or around 1 in every 4 people -- play Minecraft.

It was only days ago that we were writing that Sony boss Jim Ryan said the PlayStation 5 was sold out, saying "Everything is sold. Absolutely everything sold". But what about trying to get one before April 2021... well, you might be in luck.

Sony tweeted from the offiical PlayStation Twitter account that it wanted to thank gamers for making the PS5 the "biggest console launch ever" for Sony. Sony added: "Demand for PS5 is unprecedented, so we wanted to confirm that more PS5 inventory will be coming to retailers before the end of the year - please stay in touch with your local retailers".

We all know how hard it is to buy a PlayStation 5 -- or an Xbox Series X or S console anywhere on the planet right now, but it appears Sony will have more stock before the end of the year -- and I'm sure it's going to go in a snap of your fingers.

Rockstar Games has been hard at work on Grand Theft Auto 6 since 2014, where it was teased back in April 2015 that the developer was mapping the entire of the United States for GTA 6.

Well, the latest rumor is that GTA 6 is going to be based in Virginia, USA -- and that's not really a rumor, it's more of eagle-eyed GTA fans seeing something in a recent tease from Rockstar on Twitter for a new GTA Online update. Some fans saw a set of GPS coordinates, and so began the hunt.

If you put those GPS coordinates into either Google Maps or Google Earth, you will be dropped at the Middle Mountain Trail, in Virginia, USA. Gamers think that the fan in the road is a clue to GTA 6, but as 'VI' in Roman numerals: VI being 6.

Metro Exodus is getting massive upgrades on the PS5 and Xbox Series X, including ray tracing and big performance boosts.

Today 4A Games revealed a ton of Metro info including a next-gen re-release of Metro Exodus. We don't know exact perf targets just yet, but expect Exodus on PS5 and Xbox Series X to push each console to their limits--just like Metro games do on PC.

The devs didn't give exact optimizations, but they did confirm Metro Exodus will support ray tracing, 4K resolution upgrades/native textures, higher FPS (possibly up to 120Hz on adaptive sync monitors). The good news is anyone who owns the game on PS4 and Xbox One also gets a free upgrade to the next-gen port (PlayStation 5 owners get to keep both a PS4 and PS5 copy).

CD Projekt RED management tells investors that Cyberpunk 2077 is still on for a Q4 launch. December 10 should be the final release and we shouldn't see any more delays.

In its recent earnings results briefing, CDPR directly states that Cyberpunk 2077's launch will be the biggest part of its Q4 results. This strongly indicates the sci-fi shooter will meet its December launch without any further delays. The report is aimed at investors and analysts, and it's extremely important CDPR conveys clear messaging to return shareholder investments.

"The most important event affecting the Group's earnings in the fourth quarter of 2020 and further on in 2021 will be the release of Cyberpunk 2077, scheduled for 10 December 2020, along with the corresponding peak of the game's marketing campaign," the report states.

4A Games promises that singleplayer story-driven gameplay will remain front and center in the next Metro game.

Right now 4A Games is working on a new Metro game with multiplayer. Even with the new MP focus, the devs say singleplayer quality comes first and the new project will remain as authentic to the franchise's dramatic scope as possible.

"We're committed to delivering a great story driven single player experience; this is what the Metro series is founded on," 4A Games said in an update post.

Square Enix confirms that Avengers hasn't sold enough to make up development costs of the game. This is actually pretty normal for the games industry.

In a recent earnings presentation, Square Enix President Yousuke Matsuda says Marvel's Avengers isn't selling as well as the company hoped. Avengers missed its initial sales targets at launch and hasn't yet made enough revenue to recoup dev costs. Right now, Avengers hasn't technically been profitable.

The Avenger sales miss in Q2 has led to a ~7 billion yen ($67 million) operating loss of the HD Games sub-segment of Square Enix's Digital Entertainments segment.

CD Projekt RED just dropped new Cyberpunk 2077 footage showing the game running on both PS4 and PS5...and it looks pretty good.

Cyberpunk 2077 will obviously shine brightest on PC thanks to RTX support and the full brunt of NVIDIA's new RTX 30 series GPUs. But what about consoles? While Cyberpunk 2077 won't launch with PS5 and Xbox Series X upgrades on December 10, the game is still a looker on current-gen hardware like the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X.

The new gameplay footage takes us through the Nomad character origin story and sees V. and Jackie delivering contraband through the border. The Nomad's live out in the no man's land outside the city in tight-knit clans, and cross over to the city for resources and to do some mercenary work. The themes are pretty apt and highlight the deep RPG aspects, but the gameplay seems marginally different on PS5.

Square Enix is fully embracing the world of working from home, and while COVID-19 was the driving force -- it also wants to use the WFM policy to increase efficiency and morale.

The company explains it all in a lengthy press release, with Square Enix President and Representative Director Yosuke Matsuda writes that the company will "officially offer a permanent work-from-home program to all executive officers and employees as of December 1, 2020".

Instead of other companies that need to have their core business done on-site and simply estbalish work from home routines, Square Enix is stepping right into it. The company will "establish it as a permanent and core program among the working styles it accommodates. In so doing, the Company hopes not only to create a flexible and diverse working environment, but also to further bolster productivity and help employees achieve the optimal work-life balance".

Microsoft has just pushed out an update for Flight Simulator, with the new v1.11.5.0, World Update II: US update having a full set of release notes you can read in detail here.

The developers have added detail to four US airports, and a sprawling list of US landmarks that include the White House, Mount Rushmore, Fort Knox, Hoover Dam, the Las Vegas Strip (at night), and much more. I've got the list for you down below.

We also have some performance and stability added to Flight Simulator, with optimization on photogrammetry loading, while offline air traffic are now "properly removed at a long distance. This caused a performance degradation over time".

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is an AMD Ryzen and AMD Radeon friendly game, with Ubisoft working closely with AMD on optimizing it for Ryzen and Radeon products -- and now it's time for Far Cry 6.

Far Cry 6 will benefit from ray tracing (we don't know any specifics yet), AMD FidelityFX CAS (Contrast Adaptive Sharpening) and Variable Rate Shading (VRS). Ubisoft said it has worked closely with AMD to "ensure smooth 4K visuals experience".

"This requires a lot of memory bandwidth, and the Radeon RX 6000 with Infinity Cache can easily handle this while keeping frame rates high. We've been very impressed by AMD's latest tech and joined forces to bring FidelityFX CAS, DXR Ray Tracing, and Variable Rate Shading to Far Cry 6".

Ubisoft teased that Rainbow Six Siege would be getting some next-gen upgrades for the just-released, but sold out worldwide PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles. Check out the official PS5 and Xbox Series X trailer:

Rainbow Six Siege has two visual options to choose from on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, with Resolution Mode pumping 4K @ 60FPS and then Performance Mode running dynamic 4K @ 120FPS. The slower Xbox Series S will be dumped down to 1728p @ 60FPS in Resolution Mode and 1080p @ 120FPS in Performance Mode.

Ubisoft will have full crossplay and cross-gen save support for Rainbow Six Siege, too -- making the move over much smoother for gamers. You can read the entire dive into Rainbow Six Siege on the PS5 here.

Red Dead Online is getting split from RDR2, and will soon be sold as a $20 standalone game.

With Rockstar's latest plan, gamers no longer have to buy Red Dead Redemption 2 in order to play the Red Dead Online mode. Starting December 1, players can purchase Red Dead Online as a separate download on PS4, Xbox One, Steam, The Epic Games Store, the Rockstar Launcher. The game will cost $4.99 and enjoy a 75% discount up until February 2021, and after that Red Dead Online will cost $20.

The mode will require some serious storage space. Rockstar says Red Dead Online needs at least 123GB of storage on all platforms, which is pretty rough for anyone who still has a launch PS4. RDO is currently available free for anyone who owns Red Dead Redemption 2, and is a monetized live game with tons of updates and content drops.

CD Projekt RED teases some heartbreaking moments in Cyberpunk 2077. What could they be?

Strife, remorse, regret, sadness--these are things that any good RPG has to have. It's important that games make you feel something, whether it's excitement, elation, deep existential dread, opening up new gateways to your perspective on life, or just a sense of loss. Apparent CDPR's massive new sci-fi FPS-RPG could tick all these boxes.

According to Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay designer (aka fun provider) Pawel Kapala, the game can warm up even the stoniest of hearts. "I just completed a certain quest in Cyberpunk 2077 and while I don't usually get emotional playing games, I had to pause and take a breather after this one. Our Quest Designers and Writers created an insanely good experience," Kapala said on Twitter.

Soon consumers will be able to play Xbox games in their living room without owning an Xbox console.

Xbox is no longer a console, but a service offered on consoles, PCs, mobile phones, and soon smart TVs. Microsoft's Project xCloud tech will allow direct game-to-TV game streaming possibly as soon as 2021, Xbox boss Phil Spencer says in a new interview with The Verge.

Spencer says we could see an Xbox app emerge sometime in the next 12 months, but is careful to say that the best cloud gaming experiences will require a hybrid of local and streaming tech. Latency is a big issue and Spencer says dedicated console and PC gaming isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

If you're one of the lucky ten people in your neighbourhood actually to score a PlayStation 5, you can now use your controller to play PC games through Steam. The latest Steam client update added full support for Sony's fancy new controller.

Valve just rolled out a new update for Steam, which includes further controller support in the Steam Input API. Specifically, Valve added support for Sony's new DualSense wireless controller, including features such as the LED lights, the trackpad, the rumble system, and the gyro input. Best of all, developers don't have to do anything. Valve said the controller "just works."

Sony's DualSense controller won't work will all games, but it will work with a large portion of them. Basically, any game that supports the Steam Input API will get automatic support for the new controller.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War looks like it's better on the PlayStation 5 right now -- at least in 120FPS mode, while the Xbox Series X is the superior console for ray tracing in COD: Black Ops Cold War.

Digital Foundry have dug into the game, finding that the 60FPS + ray tracing mode runs at a steady 60FPS on the Xbox Series X -- while the 60FPS + ray tracing mode dips into the 40FPS range. Meanwhile, the 120FPS performance mode sees the PS5 trailing ahead of the XSX.

Both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are rendering Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War at a dynamic 4K resolution in Performance mode with the identical assets -- so the performance gap between them could be because the PS5 rocks a variable-frequency CPU, or it could just be some weird optimization.