Gaming - Page 568

The latest Crash Bandicoot won't be monetized with microtransaction purchases, game developer Toys for Bob confirms.

Contrary to popular belief, Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time won't have piecemeal in-game purchases. "We're seeing confusion about MTX in Crash Bandicoot 4 and want to be crystal clear: There are no microtransactions in Crash 4. As a bonus, the Totally Tubular skins are included in all digital versions of the game," the game's developer Toys for Bob said on Twitter.

The game's Microsoft Store listing says Crash 4 "offers in-app purchases," and considering it's an Activision game, everyone immediately thought the worst. After all, Activision added microtransactions into the Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled after it was launched. But also remember in-app purchases aren't just limited to microtransactions. This includes macrotransactions too, which are basically expansions and paid post-launch content.

Nintendo assures shareholders, consumers, and fans that upcoming Switch first-party games haven't been delayed by COVID-19 work-from-home measures.

Nintendo says its new first-party games won't be pushed back by coronavirus precautions and asserts its current Switch software lineup will release as planned.

In a recent briefing with shareholders, Shinya Takahashi, senior vice president and executive officer said delays did occur, but the more immediate slate of titles hasn't been affected.

Ever since COVID-19 hit, the Nintendo Switch has become a scarce rarity on store shelves. The console is sold out across the globe and Nintendo is scrambling to keep up. Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa says Switch production is almost finished, but warns of a lag between manufacturing and availability.

The Switch is practically sold out everywhere. Demand has far exceeded supply, and company shareholders are worried about missed sales opportunities. In an annual shareholders meeting in Japan, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa attempts to allay these fears by confirming new hardware production is almost finished and ready to be shipped out.

"We apologize for the inconvenience caused to many customers due to the shortage of Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite. In particular after the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, [supply] has continue to run short in markets all over the world. [But] hardware production has almost recovered," Shuntaro said.

The unannounced Xbox Series S shaves off a bunch of features, but it won't skimp out on CPU speeds.

The Lockhart speculation saga continues to evolve with new developments, and things are starting to heat up. New reports from The Verge's Tom Warren, who has spoken to inside sources close to Lockhart's development, allege the Xbox Series S's CPU is the same as the Xbox Series X.

We previously believed everything on the Series S (Lockhart) would be downgraded in order to save costs, but it appears Lockhart will use the exact same 8-core, 16-thread 3.8GHz Zen 2 CPU as the Series X. If accurate, the Xbox Series S would be a smidgen faster than the PlayStation 5's 3.5GHz CPU.

Deck13, the team who made big indies like The Surge, The Surge 2, and Lords of the Fallen has been 100% acquired by Focus Home Interactive.

Focus Home Interactive is mostly known for smaller-scale AA hits like Greedfall, Vampyr, and The Surge 2, so buying out Deck13 makes a lot of sense. Not only are Deck13's games commercial successes (The Surge made €5.5 million in one year), the German games company brings 60 talented employees to the table.

The publisher has fully acquired the studio, its games IPs like Lords of the Fallen and The Surge, and its lucrative independent games publishing arm that's responsible for fan-favorites like the CrossCode RPG.

Crysis Remastered is about to be detailed in a new gameplay video, but if you want an early sneak peek then you can check that out here -- while the official game is reportedly dropping on July 23, 2020.

(This is where the Crysis Remastered Official Gameplay Trailer Premiere will happen)

We know that it will feature "new graphic features, high-quality textures, and the CRYENGINE's native hardware- and API-agnostic ray tracing solution for PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and - for the very first time - Nintendo Switch". So we're looked after with new graphics features, ray tracing goodness, and what feels like an entire kitchen (not just the sink) of new tech and features from CRYENGINE inside of Crysis Remastered.

Nintendo has finally launched the next fighter to join the roster in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and as expected, the launch of the new fighter has come with a bunch of changes to the rest of the cast.

As I said back in late June, Nintendo has debuted ARMS' Min Min in the 8.0.0 update that has just been pushed out. Alongside the addition of Min Min, we have multiple changes to quite a large portion of the cast. These changes come in the form of nerfs (reduction in overall power), and buffs (increases in overall power). For those wondering what characters have been nerfed, and what characters have been buffed, some of the main ones are as follows:

Kirby, Captain Falcon, Falco, Marth, Mewtwo, Meta Knight, Pit, Dark Pit, Ike, Diddy Kong, King Dedede, Villager, Wii Fit Trainer, Little Mac, Corrin, Bayonetta, King K. Rool, Isabelle, Incineroar, and Piranha Plant. Each of the characters listed has been changed considerably, whether that be a form of a buff or a nerf. If you are interested in finding out if these are nerfs or buffs, you can check out the official change log in the entirety of this article.

Alright, the hype engines for Crysis Remastered are on overdrive right now -- with the remastered version of one of the most iconic PC games of all time to have a gameplay reveal trailer over 24 hours from now. But the internet being the internet, we have a leaked version that you can watch right now before it's removed:

As you can see through the leaked Crysis Remastered gameplay trailer, is that it was captured all on a PC. Firstly, I'd like to take a moment to actually thank Crytek for not bowing to the consoles like other developers would, showing off Crysis Remastered where it's really going to shine: PC.

Sure, the Xbox One X version runs Crysis Remastered at 4K -- but a beefy high-end gaming PC can have many more graphical bells and whistles than any console. I can't wait to see what Crysis Remastered looks like on my 8K monitor running in native 7680 x 3840 -- 400% more pixels than 4K.

We knew Crysis Remastered was coming a few weeks ago, when rumors swirled on Twitter very quickly and then became real: Crysis Remastered was coming -- and now we know when the gameplay reveal will be, while the full game releases on July 23, 2020.

But now some more details are arriving since we're getting close to the reveal of Crysis Remastered gameplay footage, as well Maximum amounts of information on the game. One of those gold nuggets is the fact that we should see Crysis Remastered running at 4K on the current-gen (but best console) Xbox One X.

Not just that, but the entire file size for Crysis Remastered could be just 7GB -- although, this could be larger with a day-one patch.

EA and Crytek are gearing up the world's first gameplay footage of Crysis Remastered, where after it was teased and later confirmed, Crysis Remastered will have its first gameplay footage revealed at July 1 at 12PM ET / 9AM PST.

You can watch it right here in the above YouTube video, from the official Crytek YouTube account titled 'Crysis Remastered - Official Gameplay Trailer Premiere'. We should expect some of the most glorious graphics we've ever seen, and what should be our first confirmation of Crysis Remastered for the next-gen Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles.

The official Crysis Remastered 'Official Trailer'.

First it was teased, then Crysis Remastered was confirmed -- and now according to the latest leaks we're to expect a gameplay reveal of Crysis Remastered on July 1, with the full game released on July 23, 2020.

First, the official Crysis Twitter account tweets: "Suit up, the wait is almost over".

But now the official Crysis YouTube account has a premiere video ready, titled 'Crysis Remastered - Official Gameplay Trailer Premiere' which will debut at July 1 at 12PM ET / 9AM PST.

It looks like Ubisoft is about to unveil a new battle royale game any second now, with a huge tease of a new game called Hyper Scape.

Hyper Scape has pretty much been confirmed by the Ubisoft Middle East Twitter account, with some concept artwork that looks pretty slick. It feels like it could be a huge blend of the various battle royale games on the market right now -- with Hyper Scape's concept art giving me some Cyberpunk 2077 feels, but Apex Legends, Fortnite, and others too.

Hyper Scape is reportedly codenamed "Prisma Dimensions" and is a new AAA multiplayer fast-paced FPS battle royale from Ubisoft Montreal. Ubisoft Montreal worked on both Rainbow 6 and Assassin's Creed games. That news comes from esports insider Rod "Slasher" Breslau.

One of the most important questions regarding CD PROJEKT RED's upcoming game Cyberpunk 2077 is: can you pet a cat in the game?

The answer is yes, yes you can. A bunch of publications got some early hands-on time with Cyberpunk 2077 where IGN confirmed that yes, you can pet a cat in the game. IGN explains: "Oh, and I pet a cat! That's very important. I didn't see any dogs for you dog people out there".

Speaking of the early hands-on with Cyberpunk 2077, a gorgeous new 25-minute gameplay video on the game has surfaced from all of the hands-on time with game journalists. You can check that out here.

CD PROJEKT RED has one of the most anticipated games of 2020, and while we've only seen snippets here and and there -- now we have a glorious 25-minute gameplay video. Check it out:

'Parris' on YouTube has uploaded 25 minutes of gameplay footage from Cyberpunk 2077, something he said was "provided by CD PROJEKT RED" and was featured in the trailer that the CDPR during the recent Night City Wire event.

The 25-minute gameplay footage of Cyberpunk 2077 is not just glorious because its 25 minutes of one of the most anticipated games of 2020, but it's in glorious 4K resolution as well.

Warzone's max players gets kicked up to 200 in quads, making it one of the most frenetic BR games on the market.

With today's big season 4 update, Infinity Ward just boosted Warzone's player count to 200 and kicked things up a notch. 50 teams of 4 will square off against each other in Warzone's quads BR mode vying for survival dominance

"With this update, Verdansk will now be able to hold up to 200 players in Battle Royale Quads," reads a recent PlayStation Blog post.

WB Games' new Harry Potter RPG is set to launch in late 2021 on PS5 and Xbox Series X, sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier.

Avalanche Software is currently making a new third-person action RPG set in the Harry Potter universe, complete with open exploration in the Wizarding World. The RPG has been known since Avalanche job listings in 2017, and then reinforced when market footage was leaked in 2018.

Reports say the game is called Magic Awakened and is a fully-fledged RPG complete with classes, character creation, and havoc-inducing spells. Sources say the game is set in a more mature and grim story arc.

The cheaper, disc-less and lower-powered next-gen Xbox Series S will be revealed in August, sources tell Eurogamer.

Following the huge next-gen first-party showcase in July, Microsoft will finally unveil the Xbox Series S at a special event in August. The news comes after a rather muted month of Xbox news in June. Microsoft had previously planned to reveal new tidbits every month for the rest of 2020, but instead of revealing anything in June, Microsoft focused on reiterating next-gen hardware info.

While Microsoft has yet to announce the Xbox Series S, we've been able to piece together info from reports stemming from 2018. The Xbox Series S (codenamed Lockhart) may release in 2020 to complement its beefier, more expensive older brother, the Xbox Series X. Microsoft is positioning Lockhart as the Xbox One S version of the next console generation.

Sony's next-gen PS5 might be the single-biggest advancement for the PlayStation console brand, at least if Epic Games can be believed.

Not a lot of devs have spoken out about the PS5's power and capabilities. But Epic Games has been quite vocal about the console's higher-end SoC, flexible architecture, and even called the PS5's ultra-fast SSD a "god-tier storage system". That praise continues with even more assurances the PS5 is truly a next-gen system.

In a recent interview with PlayStation Magazine, Epic Games VP of engineer Nick Penwarden said the console is a master-class bit of hardware. "The PlayStation 5 is a masterpiece of systems design. Not only is it driving a huge leap in computing and graphics performance, but it is also revolutionary in terms of storage and data compression technology, unlocking new kinds of games and experiences for players to enjoy."

As sexual abuse allegations roil the games industry, major players like EA are speaking out against and condemning illicit behavior.

Multiple games industry figures have been accused of sexual misconduct, including Fallout New Vegas writer Chris Avellone, and multiple Ubisoft developers and execs. Everyone's taken notice, and now EA has assured its workers that all allegations will be taken seriously and investigated closely. EA has also provided various resources for reporting abusive behavior in its online games.

"We want to be very clear on our position: these behaviors are never ok -- not in our communities or any others," EA wrote in a recent blog post.

Brutes are back in Halo: Infinite, and we could see the return of The Flood as well.

The brutes skipped Halo 5, but they're coming back in 343i's big next-gen Halo sequel. A recent Halo: Infinite teaser confirms some major story beats, including Atriox as a main villain. The audio log confirms The Banished are vying for control over Zeta Halo and want to utterly wipe out humanity, likely as payback for the events of Halo Wars 2.

"The hour approaches. Our forces occupy the ring. Within hours, it'll be under our control. Humanity will burn. Their brazen defiance will be all but a memory. No more prophets. No more lies. We stand together. Brothers to the end. We are his will, we are his legacy, we are the Banished," the teaser says.