Gaming - Page 558

According to a new survey from analyst firm Experience12, thousands of UK gamers are overwhelming more interested in the PS5 than the Xbox Series X.

Data firm Experience12 surveyed 3,000 gamers in the UK to see which next-gen console they're more interested in. Turns out the PS5 is at the top, which isn't surprising given the console's massive install base. 84% of respondents, or roughly 2,520 people, said they were more excited about the PS5. 16% of them, or just 480 of respondents, preferred the Xbox Series X.

To properly understand this data we need some perspective. The PlayStation 4 has a staggering lead over the Xbox One in global sales, and is handily beating Microsoft's console by over 60 million units. As Ampere Analysis shows, the PS4 is currently at 108 million sales (sell-through, not the 110.4 million sell-in Sony reports) compared to the 49 million Xbox Ones sold worldwide. The PS4 has outsold the Xbox One by 59 million units, or more than the total Xbox One sales across the globe.

Konami, ever the curious company, is joining the likes of Alienware, MSI, and Corsair with custom pre-built gaming PCs.

On the heels of making the Turbo Grafx 16 Mini, Konami has wider hardware ambitions. This time it's making gaming PCs for Japanese consumers. The new Arespear gaming desktops are made for esports and were originally announced in February 2020.

The three-SKU line features somewhat beefy specs and LED lighting, but are dramatically overpriced for the hardware. Konami has just now opened pre-orders for the PCs, which are scheduled to start shipping in September.

Duke Nukem dev 3D Realms is back on the map, and now they're teasing a brand new game.

3D Realms has made a resurgence and released their latest game, Ion Fury, on the original Duke Nukem BUILD Engine. Now they're coming back with a new all-original IP and it looks like a fantasy-based experience. We're not exactly sure what the team is cooking up--fantasy is kind of a weird focus for a FPS-driven studio--but it could feature magic-blasting instead of guns.

Apart from this new IP, 3D Realms is also working on Wrath: Aeon of Fury, a bloody FPS built in the original Quake engine that's due out on 2021. Other 3D Realms published games include Ghostrunner and Kingpin Reloaded.

Games get cancelled all the game in the industry. Some are extremely groundbreaking. Others devolve into chaos. Some, like the new RPG from Mike Laidlaw, get cancelled on a whim by people who have too much power.

Back in 2017, lots of executives left BioWare. The studio was endemic with overwork, ruthless crunch, and had a severe morale problem. Ian Frazier kicked off the exodus in 2017, followed by general manager Aaryn Flynn in July, and then Dragon Age alum Mike Laidlaw in October. Laidlaw had been with BioWare for 14 years and helped shape pivotal RPGs like Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

After leaving BioWare, Laidlaw joined up with Ubisoft on a mysterious new game. The announcement was made in December 2018, but Laidlaw had been working as a creative consultant at Ubisoft Quebec for nine months before the reveal. It was clear Ubisoft was gearing up for something big, a unique new IP to help stand apart from established numerical franchises like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Watch Dogs.

Hitman 3 is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and current-gen consoles in January 2021, and the PS5's new SSD was a big reason for the sequel's next-gen optimizations.

We've heard lots of developers praise the PlayStation 5's custom high-end 5.5GB/sec PCIe 4.0 SSD for its massive efficiency, data pipeline throughput and streaming capabilities. Coupled with the NVMe M.2 flash over PCIe 4.0 lanes, the 12-channel memory controller and hardware-based decompression block allows for high data flows (up to 8K textures) and incredible compressed data transfer rates of up to 20GB. The result is games loading faster that ever before with instantaneous open-world gaming as data rockets through the GDDR6 RAM, Zen 2 CPU, and 10.1 TFLOP Navi 2 GPU and then rendered on the screen.

This kind of performance will revolutionize console gaming, and early adopters like IO Interactive are eager to jump in. According to the developer, Hitman 3 was designed with the PlayStation 5's SSD in mind. Simply put, faster loading and data streaming means more access and play availability. IO loves this I/O potential and says it meshes perfectly with Hitman's overall goals: Wide experimentation in a sandbox.

Every part of the PlayStation 5 will take advantage of the console's new ultra-fast 5.5GB/sec PCIe 4.0 SSD, especially the UI and operating system.

Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5 will feature a new quick-launch feature that instantly launches a specific gameplay sequence, level, or event directly from the main menu. This functionality will be nestled into the PlayStation 5's new and improved Activities section. Think of it as a shortcut that quickly loads up a specific portion of a game, whether it be a specific race, a certain level (or boss fight), or maybe even a challenging platformer jump.

Developers can tailor-make instant-access events that will shave off minutes of waiting or redundant gaming to reach a certain part of the game.

Valve boss and PC gaming overlord Gabe Newell prefers the Xbox Series X over the PlayStation 5. Why? "Because it's better."

In a recent interview with New Zealand-based TV show The Project, Gabe Newell made some interesting comments on his recent life. It turns out Gabe Newell has been in Aotearoa, New Zealand since March.

Newell was actually on the show to promote a new festival he's throwing called We Love Aotearoa on August 15, which features a number of musical artists, VR demos, and will be free to everyone. It's Gabe's way of saying thank you to his local kiwis.

Although Obisdian's new RPG Avowed is shrouded in mystery, info on modding, next-gen worldbuilding, enemies, and overall scope has leaked out behind the scenes.

Just as the developer promised, Obsidian is making a huge new RPG. It's called Avowed, and it's a next-gen Xbox Series X console exclusive that's set in Eora, the mythical land of the studio's original Pillars of Eternity IP. The trailer also showed first-person Skyrim-esque exploration and combat. But that's really all that's been confirmed so far, and rightly so because the game is years away. Luckily some insiders are spilling the beans on what's next for Avowed.

According to ResetERA's Klobrille, who has inside knowledge of the goings-on of multiple studios and has rightly predicted parts of the recent Xbox stream, Avowed aims to wow gamers.

On the heels of Sony's accidental leak, Cuphead is indeed coming to PlayStation 4 today.

Cuphead, the hard-as-nails platformer/shoot-em-up that's tormented many a gamer's soul, is blasting onto PlayStation 4 today. The game is now up on the PlayStation Store for $19.99, and is compatible with Remote Play on the PS Vita or mobile phones complete with local co-op.

The news was announced in an endearing stop-motion video with clay figures befit of the old vintage 1930s era. The footage was created by the team at Stop Motion Department in Toronto and is complemented by a nice jazz track.

Square Enix president Yousuke Matsuda makes bold claims about the PlayStation 5's capabilities, and promises big things for the publisher's next-gen Project Athia game.

According to Square Enix's president, the PlayStation 5 can deliver visuals and graphics that are similar to today's PC tech. Well, not really similar, but nearly identical. Matsuda says the PS5 is capable of delivering ray-traced lighting effects that're essentially the same as those found in PC games.

In a recent interview with Toyo Keizai Plus, company president Yousuke Matsuda says the PlayStation 5 has the best console technology and discusses how his team is using the tech to build Project Athia, the publisher's only announced PS5 game.

In the middle of all of the next generation console hype between the soon-to-be-launched PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles, Blizzard has come out and confirmed that even with next-gen consoles coming, World of Warcraft is still not coming to consoles.

There have been rumors for a while and then new data miners found controller support inside of the code for World of Warcraft's new Shadowlands expansion. This led to rumors that World of Warcraft was coming to consoles, but it's just to help people with limited mobility play the game.

A Blizzard representative told Polygon: "We currently have no plans to bring World of Warcraft or Shadowlands to Xbox Series X. The platform was listed on the Brazil Ministry of Justice rating website in error, and the entry has since been updated to reflect that the game is coming only to PC".

We are expecting Activision to have a gigantic announcement for its new Call of Duty 2020 game, which we've reported on before that would eventually turn into Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

A fresh post on Twitter teasing that Dorito's is releasing out some promotional chips with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, which hasn't been announced yet. There's no details on COD: Black Ops Cold War (COD:BOCW, I guess?) other than Dorito's seemingly confirming the unannounced game.

TheGamingRevolution tweeted: "These are the two Doritos Double XP promotional images that I was DM'd earlier from an anonymous source for Call of Duty 2020 Black Ops Cold War. I was too worried about copyright issues to post them earlier but since CharlieIntel shared them I (assume?) they're safe".

The Medium is coming from Microsoft and developer Bloober Team, where we've found out some more information on the game as well as the first gameplay footage in a recently released Dual-Reality gameplay trailer. Check it out:

What we found out from this video is that developer Bloober Team said that The Medium runs at 4K 30FPS on the Xbox Series X, which is strange considering it was just earlier this month the developer said Microsoft's new Xbox Series X console had so much raw power it made them feel like mad scientists that could go "a little crazy".

Except... The Medium on that Xbox Series X that lets them go "crazy" runs at 4K 30FPS. Not 4K 60FPS which would be going a "little crazy" and would truly show the raw power inside of the Xbox Series X. 4K 30FPS is what we have with current-gen consoles, and even on mid-range graphics cards in a gaming PC.

New leaked PlayStation 5 photos show what appears to be replacable shell covers, strongly hinting the console will let consumers swap out and customize their consoles.

Despite Sony's extreme secrecy and rigorous controls, someone took a few snaps of a PlayStation 5's case from an overseas assembly line. The pictures showed up on Chinese social forum A9VG and don't show any interesting bits like the SSD, SoC, or motherboard. But there might be more evidence the PS5's shell plates can be popped off and replaced with custom ones with improved designs.

The pictures show more detail on the console's plastic side-plates, which appear to be held in by a series of fin-like hooks. They look a lot easier to remove than the PS4, for example, and this could be by design.

The PS5 is expected to sell 120 million consoles across its first five-year period, eclipsing the PS4's current sales by nearly 10 million units.

Sony has lofty ambitions for its next-gen PlayStation 5. The console is expected to sell 120 million units in 5 years' time, which beats the PlayStation 4's staggering 110.4 million sell-in figure by nearly 10 million. For perspective, it took the PS4 nearly 7 years to accrue these numbers.

Sources close to the PS5's manufacturing plans tell DigiTimes that PS5 sales estimates sit between 120 million - 170 million from now until 2025, which is monumental to say the least.

Ghost of Tsushima is the pre-eminent new PlayStation IP that's amassed tremendous sales and acclaim with its visuals and combat, and now the daring swordplay is getting fine-tuned even more.

Photo Credit: Ira Owens

Sucker Punch is rolling out a new Ghost of Tsushima update that will relent on gamers who want a break, and pour ruthless chaos down on those who want a challenge. The new Patch 1.05 update will add two different modes: The ultra-tough Lethal difficulty amps enemy damage, alertness, and aggression up to 11, aiming to test your mettle and finesse in battle with faster reaction times.

A new dynamic lighting system is to blame for Halo: Infinite's controversial graphics, but the fix may not come until sometime after the game launches in November.

Halo: Infinite was supposed to be the Xbox Series X's golden ticket to sales. The recent gameplay demo was hyped to no end, and everyone expected a next-gen spectacle. What viewers got instead was something that looked like a current-gen game, complete with unfinished-looking textures bereft of high-end detail. The reality is that the textures are indeed finished and rather high quality, but they were hidden in shadow and we couldn't really see them.

Infinite's dynamic lighting system, a new global illumination system built into the game's specially-designed Slipspace Engine, is the culprit. Dynamic lighting is great for reducing iteration time and reflecting/absorbing light in real-time, but it also creates environments where shadows can obscure models. That's what happened in the trailer, and why everything looked so wonky.

On the heels of major AAA game delays and heated misconduct controversies, Ubisoft is bouncing back by generating consistent strong revenues in Q1'21.

Ubisoft recently announced its Fiscal Year Q1'21 results for the period ending June 30, 2020, and the results are pretty stellar. The company exceeded its internal sales forecast by nearly $67 million.

The publisher comes swinging out of the gate where it counts most: Digital earnings. Digital Net Bookings generated €355.4 million ($317.32 million), up 21.5% YoY and comprising a massive 86.7% of Ubisoft's total sales revenues for the quarter.

Glumberland's new game Ooblets is one of the best releases of 2020 and will cure your coronavirus woes. But it also comes with some grinding, curiosity, and strategy. Here are a few basic tips and tricks to get you up and running.

If you love Animal Crossing, Pokemon, and Harvest Moon, then you really need to try Ooblets. It's available in early access right now on the Epic Games Store for $19.99 and I can honestly say it's worth the investment.

But Ooblets requires some basic understanding in routine-based sims, so we've put together a handy quick-start guide so you can jump in without too much trouble.

PC gamers from around the world want to see DOOM playable on as many devices as possible, and now that quest has made its way to getting DOOM running inside of games.

Thanks to Reddit user uDrunkMate, DOOM is now completely playable via a virtual PC inside of Mojang's creative title Minecraft. uDrunkMate has created a mod that allows players to order PC parts from a satellite orbiting around Minecraft; players can then build a computer and boot Windows 95 and other operating systems.

The mod takes advantage of another mod called VirtualBox, which is a free and open-source virtual machine software that is designed to run operating systems such as Windows 95. As you may have probably already imagined, there are some limitations when trying to play DOOM inside of Minecraft, and some of those limitations are frame-rate issues, as well as the fact that you have to play on a screen within a screen.