Gaming - Page 525

3D Realms reveals a brand new FPSS (first-person sorcery shooter) during its Realms Deep 2020 event, and it's a homage to the old-school classic Hexen.

Introducing Graven, a new shooter based on the little-known PC cult classic Hexen. The game is a brutal delve into a dark fantasy world inspired by Hexen, complete with over-the-top spellcasting action, nasty monsters, puzzles, and retro-style visuals and textures.

Danish studio Slipgate Ironworks, who worked on other 3D Realms publisher games like Kingpin Reloaded, Ghostrunner, and Wrath: Aeon of Ruin, is developing Graven.

Doom and Doom II have just received official 16:9 widescreen support, which is incredible considering the original Doom was released 27 years ago in 1993. The two original Doom games received 60FPS updates earlier this year.

Bethesda took to its official website to explain it all, saying: "For the first time in an official port, the original DOOM renderer has been modified to natively render 16:9 without any letterboxing".

They continued: "The FOV has been increased to reveal more image on the side instead of chopping off the top and bottom. All new 16:9 versions of the titlescreen, intermission, and ending screens have been added. Many of our Add-Ons have also had widescreen support added, so download the latest version from the Add-Ons listing to check it out!"

If you've been wondering what kind of nuclear reactor you need to run Crysis Remastered, you won't need one -- it seems it'll run on even modest gaming PCs.

Crytek is requiring at a minimum, an Intel Core i5-3450 or AMD Ryzen 3 series CPU and 8GB of system RAM. You'll need 20GB of storage space minimum, with GPU minimum requirements at an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 470.

The recommended PC requirements for Crysis Remastered are a little higher -- system RAM goes to 12GB from 8GB, and the CPU requirements go up to the Core i5-7600K or higher, or the Ryzen 5 series family of CPUs or higher.

CD Projekt Group's six-month earnings for the 2020 calendar year sees high triple-digit spikes in operating and net profits, driven by strong sales of GOG titles, Witcher 3 on consoles, PC, and Nintendo Switch, and merchandise.

CD Projekt just announced its 1H'20 results to strong fanfare. As with most games companies, CD Projekt saw a sharp uptick in net sales and overall revenues during COVID-19.. The company made $38.15 million in net profits (+183%) on the back of $94.6 million in net sales (+70%). Six-month net sales are at their highest point since Witcher 3's release in 2015. Operating profit was up 160% from last 1H'19 to $40.58 million.

The Witcher 3, which has been re-released three times now (once in 2015, again in 2016 as the complete edition, and once more on Switch), was the biggest contributor to earnings.

Hello Games is gearing up for a big new ambitious game that could rival No Man's Sky's massive cosmic scope...but it won't be No Man's Sky 2.

Hello Games has re-confirmed its next project will be a colossal endeavor. Across the last 4 years the game has expanded with 7 free DLC packs and transformed into one of the most popular space sims on the market. The new game could be even bigger.

Speaking with Polygon, Sean Murray says the next project is "a huge, ambitious game like No Man's Sky."

The Witcher 3 is coming to next-gen consoles in 2021, complete with high-end optimizations like boosted resolution, ray tracing, tighter frame rates, and ultra-fast loading via PCIe 4.0 SSD storage--all of which is a free upgrade on PC.

The Witcher 3 and all of its DLC and expansions are getting re-released on PS5 and Xbox Series X as a next-gen version that will "take advantage of the most powerful gaming hardware,"CD Projekt RED announces. The optimizations are coming to all platforms--PC, Xbox Series X, and PS5--as a free upgrade for existing owners. Both GOTY Complete Edition and base editions are getting the upgrades.

CDPR is enhancing Witcher 3 for both enthusiast PC and console hardware, complete with massive visual overhauls and upgrades not possible on today's consoles. Expect frame rate boosts from 30FPS to 60FPS minimum, incredible new lighting and global illumination effects including dynamic weather visuals, next-gen shadows, and of course ray traced visuals to make everything pop even more. The biggest development comes from the SSD tech, which will allow the game to load high-res textures faster than ever and basically eliminate loading times.

We're all waiting to see what the price of Microsoft's next generation Xbox Series X console, with a new leak from Pringles -- yeah, once you pop you can't stop -- the leaks on the Xbox Series X pricing, that is.

A new marketing partnership between South African influencers, Pringles, and Xbox -- has gamers taking home a next-gen Xbox Series X console and Game Pass subscription. Not a bad price, first of all -- but with 46 consoles to be given out to lucky gamers, the price of the Xbox Series X can be mathed out.

The contest post on FB says that the total cost of the Pringles x Xbox Series X promotion costs R621,000 -- which divided by the 46 consoles up on offer, breaks down to R13,500. Now, R13,500 converted to USD at the time of writing is pretty much $900 on the line.

Like any hardware with an ultra-fast PCIe 4.0 SSD and an SoC capable of hitting 4K 60FPS gaming, the PlayStation 5 should generate some serious heat. But a new mock-up design guesses that the console could feature two centrifugal fans to keep it cool under heavy loads.

The mock-up, was made by artist Adrian Mann and is featured in How It Works magazine, isn't an official design from Sony. We've yet to see the PS5 teardown that Mark Cerny promised in March. This design actually seems to make sense insofar as the console's dual-vent array and angled chassis, which is shaped to direct airflow during operation. The heat will flow from left to right when the console is on its side, and bottom to top when it's standing upright.

Sony has gone through great lengths to keep the PS5 quiet and cool. The console and its custom AMD SoC were designed from the ground up with heat in mind. Sony worked with AMD to redesign the SoC's power draw; instead of a varying power consumption that often led to fans revving up due to high heat, the PS5 has a constant power flow and its the GPU and CPU speeds that vary.

CD Projekt RED has spent over $120 million on Cyberpunk 2077's development and other unannounced projects, the company confirms in a new corporate report.

Cyberpunk 2077 is an expensive project. CDPR has delayed the game twice now, and has spent tens of millions on the creation of next-gen technologies that allow huge living cities and real-time AI. That kind of dedication requires a big budget, and Cyberpunk 2077 could be the biggest yet.

According to CDPR's latest corporate report, the company has spent 448.513 million PLN ($121.09 million) on in-development projects as of June 30, 2020.

Witcher 3's May 2015 launch generated tons of revenue for CD Projekt RED, and Cyberpunk 2077 is poised to do the same.

While scanning CD Projekt's latest H1'20 corporate report I found something interesting. A graph in the report highlights how much earnings spike every 4-5 years when a new game is released. The graph clearly shows Witcher 3 managed to break over 462.5 million Polish zloty in Q2'2015, which means the game generated over roughly $120 million in revenue in two month's time (CDPR's Q2 periods end on June 30).

To date the Witcher trilogy has sold over 50 million copies across all platforms.

COVID-19 has disrupted the world, but the video games market has seen massive gains as consumers stay at home and spend on gaming. Nintendo isn't banking on this trend continuing throughout 2020 and is laying out security measures to protect against uncertainties.

Today Nintendo announced its new Super Mario 3D All-Stars remaster collection will only be sold for six months. After that period it'll be discontinued both on retail shelves and on digital storefronts. This is a targeted business decision from Nintendo and speaks volumes about their conservatism for the FY2021 period. Nintendo is trying to have some sort of insurance to help buffer any kind of major disruption in hardware or software due to COVID-19.

To really understand why they're doing this, we have to take a look at Nintendo's current FY2021 performance.

Flight Simulator has propelled Game Pass subscriptions and is now the most-played game on the PC version.

Flight Simulator is a huge success for Microsoft's Game Pass subscription service. The game has had over 1 million Game Pass players on PC since launch, meaning 1/10th of total Game Pass subscribers played the game. We're not sure how many new subscriptions the game helped spark.

Game Pass remains a huge driver for the Xbox business and Microsoft's gaming revenues have grown 25% in the four years since the service launched. The service now has 10 million subscribers but there's no info on how many of these are PC players.

UPDATE:Nintendo clarifies to Polygon that JoyCons are only required for Super Mario Galaxy's pointer mode in TV and Tabletop Mode. That means if you put a Switch Lite down and use it as a screen, you'll need to have a separate set of JoyCons or a Switch Pro controller in order to play.

According to Nintendo's website, Switch Lite owners may be required to buy a whole new set of JoyCon controllers in order to play the new Super Mario Galaxy remaster.

No one's happy about the new Super Mario 3D All-Stars remaster collection for one big reason: It'll be discontinued after six months. Even the digital version.

Today Nintendo announced Super Mario 3D All-Stars, a new multi-game collection that packs remastered versions of Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy. There's just one big problem: You have from September to March 2021 to buy the collection. After then both the retail and digital versions will be pulled from the market.

"Super Mario 3D All-Stars will be available as a limited-run retail edition and a digital edition that is available for a limited time until the end of March 2021," Nintendo's website reads.

Ubisoft's new Ubi Forward event kicks off on September 10 and will showcase Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, Far Cry 6, Watch Dogs Legion, Rainbow Six Quarantine, and their new renamed Gods and Monsters IP.

The next Ubi Forward event will go live on September 10 at 12PM PST / 3PM EST, Ubisoft recently announced. The event will be streamed on Ubisoft's mainsite.

The show will feature gameplay highlights, new feature reveals for Far Cry 6 (like that weird jetpack thing we spotted), and likely some next-gen optimization info. Remember that all of Ubisoft's new games are coming to next-gen consoles with free upgrades and we could get some teases on what those enhancements will bring, from ray tracing and ultra-fast loading times to 4K 60FPS gaming.

Activision's website seems to hint the PlayStation 5 version of Black Ops Cold War's next-gen optimizations will release before the Xbox Series X.

Black Ops Cold War is getting next-gen SKUs and cross-gen upgrades, and will be fully optimized with ray-traced visuals, higher frame rates, ultra-fast loading times, and higher-end performance not on PS4 or Xbox One. But these features might come first to PlayStation 5 owners. This is particularly interesting given the Xbox Series X may release on November 5, whereas the PS5 is expected to launch later.

While nothing has been confirmed, and it's possible Black Ops could launch on both PS5 and Xbox Series X at the same time, the Call of Duty website seems to hint the PS5 version could come first. "The PlayStation 5 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is scheduled for release Holiday 2020 in the U.S. and Canada, and in late 2020 for the rest of the world. The title is also scheduled for release later this year on the Xbox Series X," reads the website.

Microsoft marketing still doesn't have launch answers for gamers interested in the Xbox Series X.

The Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 still don't have launch date info or pricing, and Microsoft says it'll reveal full info "when we're ready." Sony and Microsoft are locked in a price war and no one wants to go first, especially given both next-gen systems should be pretty expensive compared to previous generations due to the enthusiast-grade hardware that's packed inside.

This time, Microsoft not blink first. They did that at E3 2013 with a huge $499 Xbox One price tag and it cost them lots of hardware sales. On Twitter, Xbox UK marketing exec Samuel Bateman told gamers that news will come...but no one knows when. "I understand everyone is excited to know and people want to plan purchases etc. We'll let you all know when we're ready," Bateman said.

DirectStorage, the API that supercharges data processing in Microsoft's Xbox Series X, is coming to Windows to optimize high-speed PCIe 4.0 SSD speeds.

Today Microsoft re-confirmed DirectStorage is also coming to Windows 10 PCs. The news was confirmed a bit ago, but has been reiterated thanks to yesterday's big new RTX IO announcement, new NVIDIA tech that allows SSDs to stream data directly to GPUs. DirectStorage is responsible for the underlying fabric of the Xbox Series X's Velocity Architecture and essentially makes next-gen gaming possible on the Xbox Series X.

DirectStorage API is part of the DirectX 12 Ultimate tech that powers both Xbox Series X and Windows 10 gaming. It's optimized specifically to unlock the potential of high-speed NVMe SSDs by matching the real-time IO data processing of games with the high bandwidth of Gen4 SSD storage. Up until now, APIs simply couldn't match up fast SSD perf with the massive amount of IO that modern games demand--a limitation that created bottlenecks and hampered in-game performance.

NVIDIA showed off two of the biggest releases of 2020 with its beautiful RTX graphics enabled, with Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War teased with RTX -- and now Cyberpunk 2077, both of them on the new Ampere-based GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards.

CD PROJEKT RED's upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 will be offering up RTX-enabled ray tracing-enhanced lighting, shadows, reflections, ambient occlusion, and more. It looks absolutely gorgeous when running, but I need to know what hardware can run it at 4K 120FPS with all of the RTX features enabled.

Cyberpunk 2077 with max RTX graphics will surely be the new Crysis, so I wonder if it'll crush that ferocious GeForce RTX 3090 that NVIDIA is pricing at $1499, packing an insane 24GB of super-fast GDDR6X memory. I'm sure we'll see 1440p or 4K 60FPS with the new flagship GeForce RTX 3080, which has 10GB of GDDR6X memory and a price of $699 -- it offers double the performance over the RTX 2080 -- all for $500 less than the RTX 2080 Ti, which it now easily beats.

NVIDIA unveiled its new GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards less than 12 hours ago now, debuting a new trailer and unveiling that Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War has RTX tech attached onto it. Check out the trailer:

The trailer doesn't show us that much at all, other than some fancy real-time ray tracing graphical goodness. I mean, it looks incredible, the lighting effects, shadows, are all on-point here with Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War with RTX on.

Reflections off of glasses, or a clock, or a gun? It looks almost real. But virtually no real-world gameplay shown, other than some Michael Bay-inspired quick cuts. Still, it looks impressive and has me wanting more -- especially as a big fan of Call of Duty: Warzone.