Gaming - Page 563

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.

Far Cry 6 is all about guerrilla uprisings, and that means creating your own makeshift weapons just like Dead Island. New screens tease some of these weapons, and might even show a jetpack of sorts (or maybe it's a rocket-shooting backpack?).

Ubisoft's latest Far Cry 6 announcement is teeming with chaos and an undercurrent of wackiness. On one side there's the brutally serious El Presidente Anton Castillo, a ruthless dictator played by Breaking Bad's Giancarlo Esposito who's trying to quell a fiery revolution of the Jewel of the Caribbean called Yara. Then there's the fiery guerrilla uprising, which has the main protagonist Dani Rojas leading a charge with unique thrown-together weapons and whatever's lying around. Some of these weapons are pretty striking.

Read Also: Far Cry 6 won't be sold on Steam, only on Epic Store, uPlay, Stadia

Xbox One games don't exist any more. Now they're just Xbox games.

Microsoft is changing how it labels its console games. In a bid to solidify Xbox as an ecosystem and not any particular console, Microsoft is converging of its generations together in a single banner. From now on there won't be Xbox One games. There's just Xbox games, or one game that's playable across multiple hardware gens. This new change-up is prompted by the Xbox Series X's hard pivot away from next-gen exclusives.

There won't be any first-party Xbox Series X exclusives. Games like Halo: Infinite and Hellblade II won't be locked to next-gen. Instead, Microsoft has made performance exclusive to Xbox Series X, not the game. First-party games will hit new thresholds like ray traced visuals, native 4K, up to 120FPS gaming, and all sorts of graphical wizardry and ultra-fast loading. Microsoft is also mandating all games must be playable on the current Xbox One family, PC, and next-gen Xbox Series X consoles (and possibly the rumored Xbox Series S, aka Lockhart).

The seminal BR PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has now sold over 70 million copies, cementing it as the top premium battle royale experience on the market.

PUBG has now broken 70 million copies sold on consoles and PC, and PUBG Corp celebrates the huge sales milestone by releasing a Sanhok map remaster. The new Sanhok map has been rebuilt from the ground up and original areas have been recreated alongside new locations. The Sanhok remaster will be part of Season 8, which goes live on July 22 on Steam and July 30 on consoles (and Stadia).

"The once familiar jungle destination is now an overgrown abandoned paradise that has been remastered to be leaner, meaner, and more deadly than ever before!"

Old school enthusiasts like me will remember Halo started out as an exclusive for the Mac, as Bungie was an Apple developer -- but then Microsoft acquired Bungie and turned Halo into a system seller for a new console at the time... called Xbox.

Well, it has been almost 20 years since the original Xbox launched and while Microsoft is months away from releasing the next-gen Xbox Series X console, it's time for some Apple console hype.

According to the latest rumors, Apple is reportedly working on its own ARM-based console according to MaruiQHD on Twitter. Right now Apple has its successful Apple TV 6 powered with its in-house A12X Bionic chip and its own dedicated cooling... so the company isn't too far away from having a console if it was to tap an ARM-based solution.

Google Stadia was always meant to be an interactive piece of YouTube that's monetized with subscriptions, microtransactions, and full game sales. Now the company reiterates the platform's secret sauce.

Stadia's main reason for existing is to merge game streaming, viewership, and play together in a neat interactive package. The service will do this in a number of ways, but chiefly centers around new ways for viewers to interact with streamers and broadcasters. In the latest Stadia Connect showcase, Google outlined Stadia-exclusive features coming to Dead by Daylight that illustrate this pretty well.

The features allow stream viewers to vote on specific in-game events and have a direct affect on gameplay and content. Streamers are steering the ship, but viewers control the destination. With the new Crowd Choice mechanic, viewers can vote on how streamers play, whether it be as a survivor or a killer and even choose what character they play as. Crowd Play also allows viewers to play directly with their favorite streamers. This is all huge for engagement and will tie perfectly with YouTube Gaming for maximum exposure and more importantly, ad revenues.

Epic Games wants to make it as easy as possible for developers to transition their projects between console gens and Unreal Engine 4 and Unreal Engine 5.

Next-gen consoles aren't full-on hardware, OS, architecture, or even software resets. Yes, there will be next-gen exclusives, but the PS5 and Xbox Series X are largely carry-overs from last generation in many ways. Both systems were built from the ground-up with extensive backwards compatibility in mind.

Both Sony and Microsoft know it's crucial devs can easily scale and bring over any in-development current-gen projects to next-gen hardware. The Xbox SDK allows devs to make one game that's playable on all platforms, and Sony's PS5 is the "easiest console to develop games for"--Sony's confidence is so high that they're forcing devs to also make any PS4 games submitted for certification after July to be playable on PS5.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla has all sorts of oddities and bizarre occult altars that can trigger some epic boss fights--both visually and mechanically.

Similar to Origins' desert hallucinations, Ubisoft's new Viking-themed Assassin's Creed will have its own form of bizarre illusions that're directly tied to Norse mythology. The devs have peppered all sorts of strange shrines throughout Dark Ages Anglo-Saxon England that can lead to unorthodox boss battles.

In the recent 30 minute Assassin's Creed Valhalla demo video we get to see all sorts of new additions. We've talked about many of those changes and new features here, but this time we're focusing on the delusional and trippy moments the game offers. Around the 22-minute mark we see Eivor interacting with an altar that poisons her, causing her to hallucinate not unlike Senua in her throes of psychosis (although Valhalla's visions are much more tame).

A random rumor said Sony would reveal the PS5's price tag and pre-order info yesterday...but that didn't happen. Retailers are still apparently gearing up for August's State of Play event.

Yesterday was a weird day for PlayStation fans. An rumor from Italian analyst Roberto Serrano said Sony would reveal the PS5's finalized retail price tag for both the digital and physical consoles. This is really the final piece of puzzle, and gamers have been speculating on next-gen costs for years now. Predictably, this didn't happen. But something else did.

Amazon's worldwide retailer pages have been slowly adding info sections for Sony's PlayStation 5. First there was Amazon India, then Amazon Canada, and Amazon Australia even put up a pre-order page for the system. Now the US Amazon page has also added a PS5 info section...but there's no pre-order listing.

Hideo Kojima will be releasing his masterpiece Death Stranding on the PC in the next 24 hours, with some magical NVIDIA technology helping out GeForce RTX graphics card owners.

In an interview with Digital Foundry leading up to the PC release of Death Stranding, Kojima Productions' Technical Director Akio Sakamoto explained a bunch of the going-ons under the hood of the PC version of Death Stranding. But it was the talk from Digital Foundry on DLSS 2.0 that caught my eye.

Digital Foundry has chipped a little into the larger pie that is Death Stranding on the PC so far, writing: "Resolution has by far the biggest impact on performance, and at least there are some innovative options here. AMD's contrast adaptive shading renders at 75 per cent of the native resolution in both vertical and horizontal axes, then sharpens the image based on contrast at minimal cost".

Death Stranding launches on PC today in under 24 hours, with Kojima Productions giving us some more nuggets on the game in the last hours before launch on the PC.

In a new interview with Digital Foundry, Kojima Productions' Technical Director Akio Sakamoto said that the team considered ray tracing, but ditched the idea soon after. Sakamoto said:

"We are certainly interested in the technology and have looked into it and tested it, but as we wanted to bring the PC version to PC users as soon as possible, we decided against implementing that feature this time. But we would like to consider it for our next titles".

If you tried to check out the Ubisoft Forward stream over the weekend and had issues linking your uPlay account, then you have just scored yourself a free copy of Watch Dogs 2.

Ubisoft is aware that the PC launcher of uPlay was experiencing major issues, with the official Ubisoft Support Twitter account tweeting out: "Don't worry! We'll be giving out the rewards to all of you, even if you were unable to log in successfully. Sit back and enjoy the show!"

You won't just snag yourself a free copy of Watch Dogs 2, as Ubisoft was handing out smaller in-game rewards during the Ubisoft Forward event -- so because some PC gamers missed it, the developer is giving away all of them to uPlay account holders. Not too bad at all.

Thermaltake has just released one of the largest RGB gaming mouse pads ever, with the release of its new M900 XXL RGB Mouse Pad.

The new Thermaltake M900 XXL RGB Mouse Pad is a full desk surface mouse pad, meaning that it will indeed take up your entire desk. Hell, it's so big that gamers with smaller desks will have it rolling off the edge, so you'll want to make sure your desk is big enough to fit the M900 XXL RGB Mouse Pad.

It's 1600mm long and 800mm wide so you'll need a rather large desk in the first place, while it's 4mm thick that makes sure that your arm and hand move along the M900 XXL RGB Mouse Pad with a nice glide across any surface as well.