Gaming - Page 553

Dragon Age 4 could be a next-gen console exclusive when it releases years from now, allowing BioWare to tap the PS5's and Xbox Series X's raw power.

At EA Play 2020, BioWare finally revealed the first early gameplay snippets for Dragon Age 4. But the footage was included in a segment solely devoted to next-gen console performance. The visuals were impressive and didn't look like something the PS4 and Xbox One generation could deliver, possibly with ray-traced illumination, and immensely dynamic particle and atmospheric effects.

With this kind of specialized focus and experimentation on next-gen hardware, it's likely BioWare is developing Dragon Age 4 exclusively for PS5 and Xbox Series X. The game is still in early phases of development and isn't expected to ship until 2022 or even 2023 when the next-gen console install base has matured.

Like any online game from EA, the new Star Wars: Squadrons starfighting sim has a ton of stuff to unlock to keep you engaged and playing longer.

A big part of any online game is progression. It's a critical aspect of the five-part Engagement Cycle, and EA Motive has baked in lots of grinding into its new Star Wars: Squadrons galactic battle sim. EA confirms the game will have over 50 passive loadouts and components that can drastically affect handling, weapons selection, fire modes, stealth capabilities, and shielding and defense.

These loadouts can be changed on-the-fly between battles and are likely tiered progression unlocks to incentivize continued play, rewarding those who put more investment into the game. We're not sure how the content is unlocked--whether it's randomized or in a set battle pass-style progression tier scheme--but EA does confirm microtransactions won't be included.

EA Motive's new Star Wars: Squadrons game has a ship class for every kind of player and they all play important roles in wide-scale star battles.

After many delays and lootbox controversies, EA is finally on the right track with Star Wars. EA Motive's new Squadrons game looks to be the definitive Star Wars galactic battle simulator, complete with first-person views, a singleplayer campaign, and tight controls right out of the classic Tie Fighter vs X-Wing PC game.

The ship selection goes way, way beyond simple fighters though with up to 8 ships that all afford their own strategic opportunities. There's fighters, bombers, interceptors, and support class ships that will make for frenetic and extremely tactical 5v5 online multiplayer battles and skirmishes. Star Wars: Squardons is a love letter to starfighting sims and the ships are the biggest part of EA Motive's huge dedication to the experience.

Microsoft's Project xCloud game streaming service will initially be powered by spare Xbox One S chips. But in 2021, the servers will get a big upgrade.

The new Project xCloud service is a big deal for Xbox. Gamers can wirelessly stream games to their consoles, PC, laptops, or phones without any downloads, all while keeping their entitlements, friends, and purchased content. But server power and latency is always a big concern. Luckily Microsoft has a plan to help smooth out those rough points.

According to The Verge's Tom Warren, who has a close ear to Microsoft's gaming plans, Project xCloud will get a huge upgrade in 2021. Microsoft will start putting in Xbox Series X motherboards into xCloud's server racks to belt out serious 4K gaming performance, complete with the powerful 7nm SoC with its 12TFLOP Navi RDNA 2 GPU, 8-core 3.8GHz, and 16GB of GDDR6 unified memory.

Netherealm joins the myriad of developers working on next-gen projects, and we could see a new Mortal Kombat or Injustice 3 announced for PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Mortal Kombat 11 Aftermath just released a bit ago, but Netherealm is already pushing forward into next-gen territory. WB Games is currently hiring a principal graphics engineer to help lay the visual framework for Netherealm's next-gen games. Unreal Engine 5 isn't specifically mentioned, but the future games are likely to use UE5's new high-end graphics and efficiency optimizations--both Injustice 2 and Mortal Kombat 11 are running on Unreal Engine 3.

"NetherRealm, a division of WB Games Inc., seeks a Principal Software Engineer - Graphics to drive the next generation console graphics vision for the Mortal Kombat and Injustice franchises," the listing reads.

The game no one asked for is now here, with developer Fancy + Punk releasing Coronavirus Quarantine Simulator on Steam. Fancy + Punk previously released Balconing Simulator, but now check out the trailer to Coronavirus Quarantine Simulator:

What exactly do you have to do in Coronavirus Quarantine Simulator? Well, the game is meant to "help you developer all your pandemic survival day-to-day skills" while enjoying yourself in Coronavirus Quarantine Simulator. How do you enjoy yourself in Coronavirus Quarantine Simulator exactly?

You can find Coronavirus Quarantine Simulator on the Steam store right here.

Cyberpunk 2077 is getting free next-gen upgrades on both PS5 and Xbox Series X, CD Projekt RED today confirmed.

CDPR just delayed Cyberpunk 2077 to November 19, 2020, the same month both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are expected to launch. This was a tactical delay on two fronts: First, it gives the team 3 more months to balance, polish, and overall synergize the game. Secondly, it allows CDPR to ride the huge next-gen console sales wave, which will help boost initial launch surges. This last point is quite important given how much CDPR has invested into Cyberpunk 2077.

So how exactly will this work? When Cyberpunk 2077 launches on November 19, it'll be fully backwards compatible on PS5 and Xbox Series X. The game won't launch with huge next-gen optimizations, though. It should be boosted thanks to both consoles' native performance boost modes which can raise resolution and FPS, but Cyberpunk 2077 won't fully play like a game built from the ground up for next-gen consoles at launch.

Grounded is a pleasant surprise of survival games, with the game coming from developer Obsidian -- who made The Outer Worlds and Fallout New Vegas. It's like a Pixar movie fused with the Rick Moranis 1989 classic 'Honey, I Shrunk the Kids'.

You play Grounded as a super-small teenager where you're the size of an ant, and have to survival the (literal) elements of a backyard. You will need to forge weapons, structures, hunt and gather -- as well as cook, food. You'll need to be careful to not be killed by an ant, or worse yet: a spider.

Oh, and just to add: spiders have their eyes glowing red in the dark during the day/night weather cycles, just to make it a little worse. Imagine a spider diving out at you from the grass, in the dark -- yikes.

There is a lot of discussion going on right now regarding the price of Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5 console -- will it be $399? Will it be $499? Could it cost $599?

Well, according to former Xbox executive Albert Penello, there is "no way" the PlayStation 5 will cost over $499. Penello tweeted out regarding the rumors of the PS5 being $600, where he said: "I believe in the saying "never say never". But I gotta say never. No way this console is over $499".

The latest on the price of the PlayStation 5 is from this leak, which points to a now-deleted listing on Amazon France. The listing teased a $499 price for the standard PlayStation 5, while the digital-only PS5 would be $399 -- both consoles launch November 20, 2020 according to this leak.

We kinda knew it was happening, but now it's confirmed: Apex Legends crossplay is coming -- confirmed during EA Play 2020. Respawn also announced "Lost Treasures Collection" which is the new seasonal event for Apex Legends, check it out:

The new Lost Treasures Collection seasonal event changes Apex Legends up a bit, with core design modifications in the new limited-time game mode "Armed and Dangerous Evolved". This allows players to use a resurrection tool to pick up knocked-out teammates, as well as some wicked twists on players' abilities.

As for crossplay, Respawn and EA announced Apex Legends would have crossplay across all platforms -- this means that someone using EA Origin's launcher or Steam (yes, Apex is coming to Steam) can play together with their friends across the PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and even the Nintendo Switch.

EA just showed off a slew of its next-gen games during EA Play 2020, including a sneak peak at future games from BioWare, Criteron -- and even next-gen Battlefield games.

It seems as though we just got our first looks at Dragon Age 4 and what I'm hoping will be great this time around: Battlefield 6. We are getting a tease of what next-gen consoles and next-gen games can do, with the video below teasing an entire freaking building crumbling to the ground -- one of those "only in Battlefield" gameplay moments, I'd say.

The tease doesn't say or do much for Battlefield, but Laura Miele -- the Chief Studios Officer at EA, teases: "We're creating epic battles at a scale and fidelity unlike anything you've experienced before".

Microsoft still has its Xbox Series X cooking in the oven right now, but that hasn't stopped the team from sharing the boot-up sound to the Xbox Series X. Check it out:

The company used Twitter's new "voice notes" feature, with a calm noise that is longer than the boot-up sound on the normal Xbox One console. Microsoft tweeted right after, describing the Xbox Series X boot-up sound: "It's like a choir of gaming angels singing in your ears".

What about the competing console in Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5? How does that look and sound when the PS5 is booting up. The above tweet from Bob Hanson shows what Sony kinda (maybe accidentally, but I'm sure it wasn't an accident) revealed that during their recent Future of Gaming event.

Alright, which we've reached peak gaming people. During the recent Future of Gaming event held by Sony where they unveiled more details and games for the PlayStation 5, one of those new games was a game called Stray.

Stray is being developed by Blue Twelve and published by Annapurna Interactive, and has been in development for 5 years with just two people beginning the early work on Stray in 2015. The trailer above shows that Stray sees you playing a cat -- in 4K hopefully, with beautiful future sci-fi looks and a world where humans are gone -- we've been replaced by robots and cats.

If you've wanted a cat simulator then you've got it with Stray, where you will play the "role" of a smart cat that solves mysteries in what feels like a future version of Tokyo. You'll be joined by a robot friend called B12, where together you will solve mysteries inside of the futuristic city.

A new PS5 size comparison mock-up is making the rounds, but it's pretty inaccurate. The PS5 might be a skyscraper but it's not about to put the Burj Khalifa to shame.

Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5 is a chonky beast. Early size comparisons estimate the PS5 could be taller and bigger sideways than the footlocker-shaped Xbox Series X. It's pretty big but it's not that big...at least not as big as shown in these exaggerated new renders.

The latest size-ups are pretty much inaccurate due to one noticable flaw: the sizable discrepancy between the two consoles' front-facing USB ports. Standardized ports and disc-drive slots are used as reference scales by artists to create these mock-ups. So when one of these references is bigger or smaller than the other, it throws the entire thing off.

Guerrilla's new sci-fantasy sequel Horizon Forbidden West will be the first major first-party open-world exclusive to stress the PS5's SSD.

The PS5's 12-channel PCIe 4.0 SSD is revolutionary for pretty much every game. But open-world games like Horizon Forbidden West stand to tremendously benefit from the new custom storage tech. Thanks to the ultra-fast 5.5GB/sec transfer speeds, powerful compression tech, and ultra-tight OS optimizations, Guerrilla says its new Horizon sequel will have virtually no loading sequences as you play.

This includes everything from booting up the game to reloading a checkpoint, and most importantly, fast travel. The PS5 can simply blast textures, assets, and data to the CPU, GPU, and RAM memory pool at such a rapid pace that loading is pretty much obliterated. But it's not just about speed. The SSD also removes seek times altogether, and removes the need for duplicated assets. The PS5 is also incredibly efficient thanks to the massive synergy between the SoC, storage, RAM, and OS toolsets.

Following the massive $7 million earned from the Itch.io racial equality bundle, Humble Bundle is holding their own charity fundraiser that unlocks a ton of games for just $30.

The new Racial Justice Humble Bundle packs in over $1200 worth of games and content for just $30, and all proceeds are donated to to three charities: The NAACP Defense Fund, the Bail Project, and Race Forward. So far the bundle has raised over $2.1 million and counting, and someone (Good Guy Jeff) has donated a whopping $20,000 for the bundle.

So what's all included? There's some heavy hitters in here, but you might already own them. The selection isn't absolutely amazing and the main reason to donate is to support a cause.

Insomniac's new standalone Spider-Man game is the latest to have near-instantaneous loading on Sony's next-gen PS5, and the studio plans to take full advantage of the console's new higher-end tech.

The PS5's new PCIe 4.0 SSD is something special, and all the biggest first-party games plan to squeeze out every last drop of its 5.5GB/sec speeds and 12-channel memory controller. We've already heard about Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart completely annihilating loading sequences, and how Gran Turismo 7 will be a technical marvel on the PS5. But now Insomniac confirms Spider-Man: Miles Morales will also push the next-gen console to its limits.

In a recent developer update, Insomniac confirms Miles' new game will support ray-traced visuals, a whole new dynamic city to explore complete with new higher-end assets and textures, and near-instant loading sequences that flex the PS5's raw SSD power.

Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed again, this time to coincide with the launch of next-gen PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles.

Today CD Projekt RED delayed Cyberpunk 2077 to November 19, 2020, over three months later than its original September launch. Interestingly enough, this is just a day before the PlayStation 5 could release. Recent deleted Amazon listings pinpointed a November 20 launch for the PS5.

The timing is a little suspect. Is Cyberpunk 2077 being delayed so it can be a next-gen launch game? Possibly. CDPR says the delay will allow them to ensure the massive FPS RPG is balanced properly, but the game is still 100% finished insofar as content.

Epic Games has unleashed Season 3 of Fortnite: Chapter 2, and with it delivers a bunch of new stuff including an Aquaman skin as well as the introduction of cars (that you can't drive yet).

The third season of Fortnite: Chapter 2 saw a gigantic wall of water surrouding the battle royale island this week, with the new season throwing a bunch of the island under water -- forcing battles to take place in the sea. Epic has added in sharks, water skiing, and more.

But get this -- you can water ski... while being pulled through the water by a shark. Epic Games explains: "As time goes on and water recedes, even more locations will be uncovered, and as the roadways become more open, you'll discover new ways to get around".

EA will be hosting its EA Play 2020 event in lieu of E3 2020 being cancelled over coronavirus, where we will see our first gameplay of the just-announced Star Wars: Squadrons -- but also, some news on Apex Legends.

Respawn Entertainment's massive battle royale hit Apex Legends should receive some new teases at EA Play 2020, with crossplay expected for the battle royale shooter. According to Jeff Grubb from VentureBeat: "Apex Legends is still one of EA's biggest games, and it should get some news at EA Play. Expect the battle royale shooter to get crossplay".

Grubb continues: "This will come in time to ensure that the next-gen systems have plenty of players when they launch this fall. It's also possible that developer Respawn will announce upgrades for Apex Legends for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X".