Gaming - Page 530

Project CARS 3 is nearly here, with the pedal being pushed firmly into the metal on September 28 -- but between now and then we're finding out about the changes inside of the new MADNESS graphics engine, and more.

In a recent interview with Wccftech, Joseph Barron, Marketing & esports Manager at Slightly Mad Studios talked about the technology side of Project CARS 3. You can read the entire interview here, but there are some great tidbits to take away from it.

The team have put some enhancements into the MADNESS engine for Project CARS 3, with Barron explaining: "The first big thing on the engine side is CFR (Clustered Forward Rendered) lightning. This is a different lightning technology compared to what he had in the previous Project CARS titles, and it allows us to have a greater number of active light sources in a specific given area thereby significantly increasing the quantity of lights that our systems can handle without any negative impact on performance".

Dirt 5 is launching in October, so now Codemasters is preparing PC gamers with some system requirements for the game.

At a bare minimum, you're going to need 8GB of RAM and 60GB of HDD space -- although the recommended specs are 16GB and I would definitely recommend most gamers have 16GB of RAM minimum. The CPU requirements aren't too harsh with an AMD FX-4300 or Intel Core i3-2130 at a minimum.

The recommended specs are much, much higher -- pushing for an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel Core i5-9600K, 16GB of RAM, and a higher-end AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT or GeForce GTX 1070 Ti graphics card.

Microsoft has officially started the engines of Flight Simulator which is now taking off, with a bit of turbulence in the fact that you only download around 500MB of the game from Steam.

Once you've got Flight Simulator 'installed' with that 500MB download and installation, the game opens up and begins downloading. This means that time is ticking over for the many hours, and especially depending on your PC -- many, many hours it will take to download -- the Steam refund window closes.

So if you don't like the game for whatever reason (it's fantastic) and wanted a refund (I get it), you can't -- because you've played the game for more than 2 hours. Steam's internal timer begins once the launcher opens, so even on a high-end PC with a 500Mbps internet connection, it took me around 3 hours to get it fully installed.

Right on time, WB Montreal today opened up the second code entry for its cryptic Batman game teaser site, confirms Two-Face is in the game.

WB Montreal's big new Batman Gotham Knights game will be reveled on August 22, but we're getting four days' worth of teasers up until the reveal. Today was day two--yesterday's teaser confirmed the Court of Owls is in Gotham Knights--and skilled Twitter users had to de-scramble an icon to get a new code (941) and enter it on the r3dak3d website.

Once de-scrambled, the icon appears to reveal another enemy faction to be featured in Gotham Knights. No one's exactly sure what the image pertains to, but it could be talons from the Court of Owls or another faction altogether, possibly related to Two-Face.

Like all simulator games--especially airplane ones--Microsoft's new Flight Simulator carves up key portions of content and sells it for extra money. Microsoft is locking higher-detailed airports behind the more expensive $90 and $120 deluxe editions.

The standard $59.99 version of Flight Simulator doesn't include many of the extras in the $90 and $120 deluxe editions--and rightly so, given the extra cost. The more premium versions come with more airports and more airplanes, but base game owners can buy them from an in-game microtransaction storefront. This is nothing new for the simulator genre. Aerofly FS 2, for example, has 21 DLC packs that cost $520 total, including $30 airplanes.

One key difference between the standard version and the Deluxe/Premium Deluxe editions is the quality of airport detail. The expensive versions come with handcrafted airports, meaning they have more detailed areas and are extremely realistic like-for-like renditions of their real-life counterparts. The standard edition comes with these airports, but they're basic renditions and lack the care and attention found in the meticulous hand-crafted ones.

It's finally happening: Activision will reveal Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War later this month.

Black Ops Cold War is the next Call of Duty game, and Activision will reveal it on August 26, 2020. The game obviously takes place during the Cold War, which actually lasted up until the Vietnam conflict, but recent leaked gameplay clearly outlines a 1980s setting for the game.

The new teaser trailer outlines a basic premise for the game's storyline: a Soviet spy codenamed Perseus who covertly infiltrates the U.S. to gather intelligence for the communist arms race. The game won't be completely grounded in historical events, but based around them, and calls for gamers to "know their history."

EA is taking an interesting approach to pivot away from the lootbox-based monetization that makes the company billions every year.

While scouting the new EA Play webpage, I noticed something interesting: EA Play Pro (formerly Origin Access Premiere) subscribers will get exclusive cosmetics in Star Wars Squadrons. I don't mean a little reward or just a single skin, but an entire series of unlockables that aren't available for normal players. This could be a new trend for EA to move away from in-game microtransactions.

Remember that Star Wars Squadrons doesn't have in-game purchases. It's an odd move because the game is prime territory for mTX; it has online-based play with replayable missions, it has tons of unlockables and cosmetics, and, well, it's Star Wars. The game is also $40. EA CFO Blake Jorgensen explains why the game doesn't have mTX (an anomaly for EA): "Our games are on different scales. We designed Squadrons to really focus on Star Wars dogfighting fantasy. It doesn't have the breadth of some of our games and we wanted to make it more widely available (cross-platform, cross-play, VR)."

After the massive over-performance of Persona 4 Golden, SEGA now wants to release its biggest games day-and-date on PC.

SEGA has always had high ambitions for PC re-releases, and in the past has pledged to bring more of its games to storefronts like Steam. SEGA's games typically come to PC after they've released on consoles, which is due to the higher proportion of console game sales and bigger worldwide install base of those systems. But now it wants to target PC from the get-go.

In a recent Q&A session, SEGA corporate says they want to start planning games development with PC in mind. The multi-platform approach should include consoles, PC, and other platforms, SEGA says, but it'll be on a per-title basis. SEGA could also try and make a splash in the game-streaming market via Google Stadia.

Ghost of Tsushima is getting a new free co-op multiplayer mode that allows four players to team up. But unlike most games, this mode won't be monetized.

The new Legends mode for Ghost of Tsushima is prime territory for microtransactions. It has action-based play, online interactions, multiple classes, and is a kind of separate add-on mode. But unlike most gametypes of this nature, Legends won't have any microtransactions. This is a sharp contrast to the multiplayer found in games like Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age Inquisition, and even Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us' Factions MP.

"There are no microtransactions in Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, and we have absolutely no plans to add them. All of the content is unlocked through play," Sucker Punch tells IGN.

Starbreeze still hasn't secured a publishing deal for Payday 3, and it's running out of revenues. So now it's opened up a second offering for shareholders to raise more capital.

Payday game developer Starbreeze Studios is still in trouble. The company just reported its second-half 2020 earnings and while net sales are positive at 53 million SEK and overall EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation & amortization) was up to 25.9 million SEK, financial expenses amounted to 111 million SEK and loss before profits was -105.6 million SEK. These expenses were incurred by paying interest on and extending the convertible bond, which delays the bond maturity and also delays when Starbreeze has to pay out to investors.

The new share issue, also known as a second offering, is a way for Starbreeze to raise money without having to secure a loan. The second offering gives existing shareholders the option to buy shares at a discounted "subscription rate," effectively giving them more shares for less money. Companies then use this money to pay down debt or fund operating activities.

I've been a PC gamer since I was a young kid -- 5-6 years of age, and now I'm 37. Over 30 years of being a PC gamer, but I've had every console, VR headset, and portable in between.

PC gaming is something that shaped my entire life (my online nickname is 'anthony256', after the GeForce 256 and before that it was 'Voodoo' after the infamous 3Dfx graphics cards), crafting my career in IT sales for 10 years before -- a now 10 years here working for TweakTown.

So to hear that there are over 1.5 billion PC gamers, at least according to DFC Intelligence and its new report, warms my heart. The report says there are over 3.1 billion gamers worldwide, with 48% of them being PC gamers -- over 1,500,000,000 people worldwide are PC gamers.

NVIDIA has just released its new GeForce Game Ready 452.06 WHQL drivers, which have day one optimizations and enhancements for the just-released Microsoft Flight Simulator, and more.

Not only do we have the best performance possible right now in Flight Simulator, but NVIDIA has also added support for ray traced shadows in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands beta -- as well as adding 8 new G-SYNC compatible gaming monitors to the list of growing G-SYNC compatible monitors.

These monitors include: Acer XB273U GX, VG272 LV, XV272 LV, CP5271U V, X34 GS models along with the ASUS PG329, IO Data GC252UXm, and Lenovo Y25-25.

Microsoft just launched Flight Simulator on the PC after months and months of teasing, with the game quickly impressing reviewers and gamers and becoming the highest rated PC game of 2020.

The feat took less than 24 hours, with Flight Simulator taking off with a Metacritic score of 93 -- where the only game close to that reception is Valve's VR exclusive Half-Life: Alyx. The new Flight Simulator has also quickly become the highest rated game in the series, too.

Flight Simulator didn't have the best launch on PC in the last 24 hours, with a turbulent start -- but things stabilized, and the drinks started flowing and snacks to gorge on. The game is breathtakingly beautiful, having just taken a quick flight across the Hudson River in New York -- from my hometown here in Gawler, South Australia.

The honkin' boys are back in town: Untitled Goose Game is getting two-player local co-op with a new update.

Two honks are better than one--at least that's what indie dev House House seems to think. Untitled Goose Game is getting multiplayer with a new update, which will roll out in September alongside the new physical releases and subsequent Steam release.

The update brings a second goose--a Chinese goose with its big yellow knobby-beak--to enact hijinks and to completely terrorize poor hapless townsfolk. The two goofy ducks run amok (bonus points if you get that reference) in the full campaign mode, and the update will be available on all platforms including PC (Epic, Itch.io, and Steam), Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch.

New reports say Microsoft's cheaper next-gen Xbox Series S console will feature a 61% reduction in compute units to power a ~4TFLOP GPU.

The Xbox Series S will have a Navi GPU with 20 Compute Units and a 1.550GHz clock speed, The Verge's Tom Warren reports. This is a 61% reducing in CUs and will translate to lower perf targets, aligning with past reports that the Series S is targeting 1440p 60FPS gaming. There's also a 275MHz difference between the Series X (1.825GHz) and Series S (1.550GHz) GPUs.

The news comes in response to our Series X vs Series S table, and up until now, we haven't really had much info on the weaker system's compute unit count. Reports have only mentioned the GPU TFLOP perf target, which is about 4TFLOPs, or 66% weaker than the Xbox Series X's monstrous 12TFLOP of power.

The Embracer Group (formerly THQ Nordic) recently posted record Q2'20 net sales games earnings of $174 million, up a strong 153% year-over-year, setting a new all-time quarterly high.

Like most games companies, Embracer rode the coronavirus wave to record quarterly games revenues. Embracer notes a sharp 71% uptick in profits to $9.76 million on the back of $222.03 million in net sales revenues, This surge was thanks to over-performance in the games segment across Deep Silver, THQ Nordic, and the newly-acquired Saber Interactive.

Embracer attributes stronger sales revenues due to COVID-19 lockdowns, and favorable adoption of new games like SnowRunner, Spongebob Battle of Bikini Bottom Rehydrated, and Deep Rock Galactic, as well as digital sales of back catalog games in the Metro franchise.

Microsoft is getting closer to revealing its next-gen Xbox Series X console in all its glory, with the new console being spotted at the Xperion E-Arena by Saturn in Germany.

The images were posted on Twitter by @KeemaMr, who took the shots himself at the Xperion E-Arena by Saturn in Germany. Microsoft didn't have a final Xbox Series X unit, as you can see a clear 'PROTOTYPE - NOT FOR SALE' on the back of the unit.

These new images just give us a look at the Xbox Series X in the flesh, and damn does it look good. I love the design choice Microsoft went with for this generation of Xbox, and can't wait to see if the smaller Xbox Series S console is truly super-small or not.

With its new free multiplayer mode, Ghost of Tsushima just became Ghosts of Tsushima.

July's best-selling game in the U.S. is getting a free online co-op multiplayer mode called Legends so you can samurai slash with friends. It turns out that multiplayer was always planned for Ghost of Tsushima from the start, and Sucker Punch's new online mode is a spin-off akin to The Last of Us' Factions mode, or even the ill-fated Comrades mode from Final Fantasy XV.

Legends is entirely separate from the core game, and you won't play as Jin. Instead you'll pick a samurai and go slashing with up to 3 other players and build up different legends. There's four character classes that all behave differently in battle: Samurai, Hunter, Ronin, and Assassin.

The Xbox Series X represents a natural evolution in console hardware and planning, and its built-in SSD was planned as far back as 2007.

In 2007, just years after the Xbox 360 was release, Microsoft planned to switch to SSD flash memory to help reduce rising DRAM costs and supercharge data pipelines. In a recent Hot Chips presentation slide, Microsoft highlighted how the Xbox Series X's proprietary PCIe 4.0 SSD CFExpress flash memory is fruition of seeds sown 13 years ago.

The idea is that Microsoft wanted to use high-bandwidth NVMe flash memory as a backup, or a buffer/cache to hold high-resolution assets and data, to help offset a smaller DRAM footprint. This allows Microsoft to spend less on DRAM (which is 33x more expensive as flash) without losing performance.

The Xbox Series X will have an expensive price tag due to higher-cost chip production, Microsoft today confirmed in a presentation.

Today Microsoft released a bunch of new slides from its upcoming Hot Chips presentation. The Xbox Series X console's innards were laid bare, including GPU blocks, variable rate shading capabilities, discussions on the velocity architecture, and more. But one slide in particular caught my eye: Discussions on production costs.

The Xbox Series X's 7nm+ SoC costs more to make. Wafer prices are higher because of the newer 7nm enhanced process, which is optimized for higher transistor density in a smaller die. The Series X's SoC has 15.4 billion transistors on a 7nm chip, a 133% increase from those in the Xbox Series X's 16nm FinFet SoC.