Gaming - Page 544

Crytek's marketing and launch of Crysis Remastered on the PC and consoles has been an utter mess, but it seems all of the stars have aligned for the Nintendo Switch version of Crysis Remastered.

The above video is a Nintendo Switch technology trailer, showing off what Crytek and Saber Interactive were able to achieve with the modest NVIDIA Tegra SoC powering the Nintendo Switch. We have 1280 x 720 (720p) as the rendering resolution, while the frame rate is stuck at 30FPS.

That's not great for PCs in 2020, but hell it used to run at about 720p 30FPS on even good/high-end hardware back when the original Crysis was released. So the teams between Crytek and Saber have something quite magical with Crysis Remastered on the Nintendo Switch.

Anyone who works from home or has the ability to work from home, has most likely been busier than ever before. Personally, I'm busier than I've ever been and I'm a hard worker that has put 70-80 hours a week, every week, into TweakTown, for over 8 years.

Well, it's not just me -- but plenty of game developers are working harder than ever before during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Game Developers Conference recently polled around 2500 game developers, to see how the impact of COVID-19 has had on the gaming industry.

What they found was that less than 10% of developers said they were laid off or furloughed because of COVID-19. Around a third of game developers polled saw business increase, while another third of game developers saw business decrease.

In the most important gaming news today, developer Blizzard have changed their stance on charging gamers that wanted to change the gender of their character in World of Warcraft.

Those dark days are over, with Blizzard now making it free to change the gender of your character in World of Warcraft. The developer said after 11 years of charging to change the gender of your character that only now, is it "not the right message" to charge people to change the gender of a character in a fictional game.

Blizzard said during an interview with Eurogamer that in the next World of Warcraft expansion, the cost of changing the gender of your character would be removed. Once Shadowlands launches, the cost to change gender will be gone -- while you will see some new skin tones and ethnicities of the human characters in World of Warcraft.

Both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X have been billed as 8K capable, and Sony has confirmed the PS5 can support 8K gaming. But devs have been quiet on the topic. Until now, that is.

In a recent interview with Gaming Bolt, The Initiative gameplay engineer Franciso Aisa Garcia asserts both next-gen consoles can handle 8K gaming with trade-offs. Similar to how the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X handled 4K gaming, next-gen console will also have to compromise other performance targets to maintain any semblance of 8K. The new AMD SoCs might be powerful but native 8K gaming is far out of their scope.

"My specialty lies on gameplay and AI, not graphics, so I couldn't tell you for a fact, but I do know these consoles are capable."

No Man's Sky's new Desolation update is basically Dead Space 4 re-created in the space sim.

With the latest Desolation update, Hello Games just basically made Dead Space 4 with a nifty twist. The Desolation expansion is 100% free and adds haunted houses in space, complete with ultra-creepy interiors and freaky monsters. Gamers can explore derelict freighters strewn across the cosmos that're filled with atmospheric horrors and dark lit-environments straight out of Dead Space. Jump into first-person mode to channel Alien: Isolation's unsettling sci-fi visuals and Halo CE's old-school Flood vibes.

The best part about Desolation is that each freighter is procedurally-generated. Like the countless planets and star systems in No Man's Sky, every freighter's interior is randomized to deliver a unique experience each time. Search the derelict for secrets and loot to bolster your journeys through the stars. The stories are also randomized, making every single hallowed ship a completely new experience.

Sony teases new first-party exclusives coming to the PlayStation 4 in the years to come.

Sony re-confirms the PS4 won't be retired after the PlayStation 5 releases this holiday, and that new first-party games are still coming to the platform.

"PlayStation 4 is a big part of everything we do, and will continue to be a big part of everything we do. There's a lot more to come on PlayStation 4," Sony marketing exec Eric Lempel said in a recent Summer Game Fest stream.

Why does Sony believe in console generations whereas Microsoft doesn't? It's simple: Next-gen experiences require next-gen hardware.

In a recent interview with Geoff Keighley on a Summer Game Fest stream, Sony marketing exec Eric Lempel explained why the company believes in hard generational shifts. The answer is the kinds of games, experiences, and content that Sony wants to deliver just simply aren't possible on the PS4 Pro's lower-end 14nm Jaguar SoC. Sony's vision with the PS5 is ambitious and so is the tech that powers it. The kind of seamless, ultra-interactive, and dazzling experiences on the PS5 require higher-end hardware like the 7nm AMD SoC with its 10.3 TFLOP Navi RDNA 2 CPU, 8-core 3.5GHz CPU, 16GB of GDDR6 and ultra-fast PCIe 4.0 SSD capable of 5.5GB/sec speeds.

In the interview, Lempel says the PS5's generational leap is all about empowering developers. The PS5's new DualSense controller is a big part of that. The controller features programmable triggers that deliver tensile and dynamic haptic feedback, a new kind of rumble, and even sensors that measure air pressure so you can blow into it. The built-in speaker is also higher-end and there's a mic for communication, too.

In today's Summer Game Fest stream, Geoff Keighley confirmed the PS5's new DualSense controller has a built-in mic that measures sound fluctuations to translate to in-game interactions.

You can blow into Sony's new PS5 DualSense controller and it'll have an actual affect on in-game events. The functionality was shown in the new Astro's Playroom game that comes pre-installed on the PlayStation 5, which is a kind of multi-hour tech demo that really shows off the DualSense's capabilities. In one section, Geoff had to blow into the device to spin a fan to beat the level.

It's a pretty surprising new feature that wasn't actually announced during Sony's DualSense reveal and could breathe new life (pun intended) into games interactivity. This could be used in all manner of games in creative new ways, possibly even in Horizon Forbidden West when Aloy is swimming deep beneath the ocean waters.

Microsoft Flight Simulator takes flight on August 18, with the game requiring a gigantic 150GB of storage on your PC -- imagine it in physical form.

Yeah well, Microsoft is offering the physical edition of Flight Simulator in Europe on DVDs where it comes on an absolutely insane 10 discs. As soon as I saw this news it gave me a flashback to the 90s, where I remember Phantasmagoria hitting headlines then (before the internet, really) that it came on 7 CDs... but 10 DVDs? Wow.

Microsoft partnered with Aerosoft for the physical release of Flight Simulator, which is probably going to take a really, really long time to install from 10 physical DVDs. The digital version of Flight Simulator launches on August 18, while the physical version of Flight Simulator will drop on August 21 in Europe.

The Coalition is aiming pretty high for Gears 5 on the next-gen Xbox Series X console, with the big open doors of 120FPS multiplayer on the table.

In the recent Inside Unreal livestream, the team at The Coalition talked about some of the visual features coming to the upgraded Xbox Series X version of Gears 5. This will include a heap of the features the PC version packs in the Ultra specs, which includes:

The Coalition is working on Screen Space Global Illumination, higher particle counts and 120FPS multiplayer. Xbox One X cinematics were displayed in 4K 30FPS, but the upgraded Xbox Series X version of Gears 5 will render real-time cinematics at the much more glorious 4K 60FPS.

I wrote about Crysis Enhanced Edition back in early June 2020, but in those nearly two months, the mod is finally here -- and it looks way better than Crytek's own Crysis Remastered.

Crysis Enhanced Edition was made by the Remaster Studio modding team, and features HD grass, maximum immersion textures, upscaled vanilla textures and Rygel's textures modification. If you want those super-insane custom-created 8K/4K and 2K textures then you'll need to back their Patreon.

The team explains: "For this public release of our mod, we made the decision to use a mix of various textures packs found on the web, from Rygels textures mod, HD Grass, Maximum Immersion Textures, and upscaled (4x) Vanilla textures".

Firstly: It's funny, everyone knows me as a huge fanboy of Henry Cavill -- so I had 10+ notifications across Facebook, messages on Messenger, Twitter, a mate of mine from NVIDIA emailing me, and even another mate on LinkedIn telling me about this news... how could I not see it?! Thanks everyone who messaged me about this, haha.

If you didn't know it already, Henry Cavill is a total nerd. During the COVID-19 lockdown, the Man of Steel and Witcher actor was painting his Warhammer figurines -- and now, he's built a new gaming PC.

Microsoft re-affirms its new Xbox showcase on July 23 will be 100% games. Don't expect to see Xbox Series X pricing or Xbox Series S reveals.

July 23 is a big day for Xbox. It's the first time we'll actually see extended gameplay footage on Xbox Series X and for next-gen, seeing is believing. It's also the first time we'll see campaign gameplay footage for Halo: Infinite, a game that's been closely-guarded outside of in-engine cutscenes. The show will last almost an hour and will be streamed in 1080p 60FPS on YouTube.

"We'll be giving you a closer look at the future of gaming with the Xbox Games Showcase, including world premieres and updated looks at some of the games we've already revealed," Microsoft says.

Destiny 2's new Beyond Light expansion has been delayed from September 22 to November 10, 2020, Bungie today announced.

Remote work complications have convinced Bungie to delay Destiny 2's ambitious new Beyond Light expansion to November. Bungie's development team are now working from home, making communication more difficult, and they simply need more time to make the expansion. Beyond Light includes a new area in Jupiter's icy moon of Europa and the ability to wield the Darkness for the first time ever.

"While we're sad to keep the secrets of Europa under wraps for a few extra weeks, our dev team is putting in the work to deliver an adventure that is worthy of your bravery. Doing that work from our homes finds us very far away from our usual ideal of working together in a studio - currently still quarantined. So we're taking the time we need to do it right under the most challenging of conditions," Bungie said.

Microsoft has discontinued all of its Xbox One hardware line except for the Xbox One S in order to make way for its next-gen Xbox Series family of consoles, which could include the beefy Xbox Series X and the more affordable Xbox Series S.

Today Microsoft confirmed it will be halting production of the Xbox One X and Xbox One S All-Digital Edition. The only current-gen system that will continue production is the Xbox One S with a disc drive. "As we ramp into the future with Xbox Series X, we're taking the natural step of stopping production on Xbox One X and Xbox One S All-Digital Edition. Xbox One S will continue to be manufactured and sold globally," a Microsoft rep told The Verge.

The news underlines years' worth of reports of a dual next-gen console lineup. Microsoft will replace the Xbox One X with its beefier 12TFLOP Xbox Series X, and the discontinuation of the Xbox One S digital edition signifies the rumored Xbox Series X (aka Lockhart) will replace the disc-less console. Reports say Lockhart will be an all-digital system that serves as the lower-cost, and lower-powered Xbox One S version of the next-gen lineup.

The PS5's new DualSense controller is pretty sizable compared to the PS4's DualShock 4, and we'll get to see an up-close-and-personal demo of the controller this Friday.

Today Geoff Keighley announced a new PlayStation 5 DualSense showcase that goes live tomorrow at 9AM PST/12PM EST.

The event should highlight all of the DualSense's main features and new functionalities including the adaptive triggers, which provide higher-end actuating for more haptic feedback, the built-in microphone, and the new Create button. This should just be a DualSense show so don't really expect PS5 news like pricing, pre-order info, or launch date. Sony should save those things for the State of Play event this August.

Microsoft might've just delivered the killing blow to Google Stadia by bundling its new game streaming service with an existing sub at no extra cost.

Today Microsoft confirmed that its new Project xCloud game streaming platform will be included free in its all-in-one Game Pass Ultimate subscription bundle. Starting in September, the $14.99 a month Game Pass Ultimate will now include Game Pass, Xbox LIVE, and Project xCloud in a neat and affordable package.

"Finally, today we're announcing that this September, in supported countries, we're bringing Xbox Game Pass and Project xCloud together at no additional cost for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members. With cloud gaming in Game Pass Ultimate, you will be able to play over 100 Xbox Game Pass titles on your phone or tablet.

Activision might be disguising this year's Cold War-themed Call of Duty Black Ops 5 game inside of a dummy game on the PlayStation Network and Microsoft Store.

A listing for a mysterious Activision game called The Red Door has just popped up on the Microsoft Store. There's evidence this "game" is actually an alpha test for Call of Duty 2020.

The Red Door has actually been on the PlayStation Network since June. The SerialStation listing clearly states the Red Door is for a CoD 2020 alpha test: the extracted serial string reads UP0002-CUSA20046_00-COD2020INTALPHA1. The alpha also clocks in at a monstrous 81GB on Xbox One.

UPDATE:Dr. Disrespect released the following video teasing his big return to streaming:

Guy Beahm aka Dr. Disrespect finally opens up about the Twitch ban with his first public interview with the press.

In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Dr. Disrespect discussed his controversial Twitch ban and what's next for the celebrity streamer. The doc says he still doesn't know why Twitch banned him, and the platform has broken off all communication. Twitch didn't even warn the doc of inappropriate behavior and there were no actual warnings or reprimands filed, according to his publicist. Beahm says he is currently considering legal action against Twitch.

If you didn't already know, Death Stranding has just hit the PC on both Steam and the Epic Games Store -- but now fellow developer CD PROJEKT RED -- the creators of The Witcher, and the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 -- have just honored Kojima. Check this out:

The team at CD PROJEKT RED congratulated Hideo Kojima and his team at Kojima Productions on their recent release of Death Stranding on the PC. The developer posted a render of Kojima sitting on a radical-style futuristic bike that I'm hoping we see inside of Cyberpunk 2077 when it launches later this year.

This tweet from CD PROJEKT RED doesn't mean we're going to see Hideo Kojima in Cyberpunk 2077, but with Matrix and John Wick franchise star Keanu Reeves featured in the game -- it would be undeniably freaking awesome to have Hideo Kojima play a role of some sort in Cyberpunk 2077.