Gaming - Page 578

Even though Mario and Sonic games have been pulled, there's still tons of amazing creations on Media Molecule's Dreams. Like this immersive forestcape demo, for example.

Now that we're all stuck indoors thanks to COVID-19, now's the perfect time to escape with video games--especially games like the PS4 exclusive Dreams. The game is basically a giant mods warehouse where everyone creates their own games and content and shares them online. Some content, like this peaceful hike through what looks to be a Northwestern forest, is absolutely mindblowing for the platform. There's realistic lighting effects, fog, flowing water, the works.

The demo isn't on par with something like an Unreal Engine tech demo, but it's still massively impressive for something created with Dreams. The game is mostly known for its recreations of other popular franchises like Fallout, Final Fantasy, Sonic, and of course Mario, but those projects have been scrubbed due to copyright issues. Now Dreams hosts truly original content from users who push the platform to its limits and redefine its possibilities.

NieR Replicant, the Japanese exclusive PS3 classic released in 2010, is coming to the West as a new remaster on all platforms.

The roots of Square Enix's sprawling action-RPG epic are coming back in a big way. NieR Replicant, the prequel to the mega-hit NieR Automata, is getting remastered for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, complete with enhanced graphics, new remastered re-recorded audio and score and new characters. In 2010, Square Enix released two NieR games: Gestalt in the West, and the Japan-only Replicant. Now for the first time ever fans will be able to play Replicant with full translations and enhanced graphics. No info on a release date was shared, however.

In other news, Square Enix has sold 4.5 million copies of NieR Automata worldwide, making it a tremendous success that keeps on giving well after release. The sci-fantasy series has attracted millions of fans worldwide with its dark, otherworldly charms and fans are eagerly anticipating Replicant's remastered re-release.

Half-Life: Alyx is a completely VR-exclusive game in its original form, with Valve making it to be what I think after finishing it last night, a system seller for virtual reality. But, what about mouse and keyboard gamers?

The game is already playable with a traditional mouse and keyboard, with modders cracking Half-Life: Alyx and getting working without VR controllers. There are some issues right now and things aren't perfect, as the mod in question uses the models for weapons from Half-Life 2, and jumping doesn't work right now.

If you want to play Half-Life: Alyx without a mouse and keyboard then check out the mod right here. I would personally suggest not doing this, and playing it in VR if you have a VR headset -- or a friend with one, and can loan it. It is absolutely, hands down worth it -- every gamer, and especially Half-Life fans need to play Half-Life: Alyx the way it was made to be played: in VR.

Half-Life: Alyx is easily my best game of 2020 and one of the most enthralling, immersive, amazing, truly game-changing experiences I've ever had. So it comes as no surprise to see it dominating Metacritic.

According to the aggregated scores of critical reviews of games on the PC for 2020, Valve has a home run with Half-Life: Alyx and an average score of 93 from 39 critic reviews. Compared to the kick ass DOOM Eternal with 'only' a score of 90, from 45 critic reviews -- we can see Half-Life: Alyx is a masterpiece.

The year is only just beginning as we're not even at the end of Q1 2020 and still have some gignatic releases like Cyberpunk 2077 from CD PROJEKT RED later this year -- and who can forget Microsoft with its next-gen Xbox Series X and Sony with its PlayStation 5 consoles. We shoujld expect a bunch of new games announced and released throughout the year, but can any of them topple what Valve crafted with Half-Life: Alyx? I really don't think so.

I've now just finished Half-Life: Alyx and while I need it all to sink in before I write it over the next few days, an interesting development has happened in the form of an ARG.

What is an ARG you ask? An ARG is an Alternate Reality Game, where some gamers have begun to pick up clues of an ARG hidden within Half-Life: Alyx. The ARG itself begins at the start of Half-Life: Alyx where you will be faced with a radio, if you tune the dial clockwise you will access a radio station playing fuzzy music.

But, if you pull the antenna out and slowly turn the dial with your other hand, you will access a "numbers station". Over on the /r/GameDetectives subreddit, gaming sleuths have begun digging through Half-Life: Alyx and seeing what the hell this ARG is all about -- which is something I want to see completely ripped apart and detailed now.

Seriously, some of the creations in Minecraft are astounding -- but we have a new record. YouTuber 'PippenFTS' says he has made a gigantic 1:1 scale version of the Earth in Minecraft, a world-first. Check it out:

PippenFTS says he used two mods to make his 1:1 scale of Earth in Minecraft, as there are height limits that have to be worked around -- with a 255m height limit, mods are required to pass it. He used Terra 1-to-1 and Cubic Chunks, with the latter changing "the shape of Minecraft chunks to 16x16x16 cube, giving you infinite build depth in both vertical directions".

He added: "With the Cubic Chunks mod breaking Minecraft's vertical limitations, we can now experience the Earth in Minecraft, just as it is, with no downscaling of any kind".

One of the PlayStation 5's biggest goals is not to waste player's time, and the console's ultra-fast SSD and OS are the keys to making this happen.

Sony isn't just targeting speed with the PS5. It's also targeting access through control. Users will have more control than ever before to plot out their gameplay sessions on-the-fly rather than having to reserve a whole weekend to a specific game. The PS5 will be transparent about how long specific levels, activities, and more take to complete. The console's OS will apparently have on-screen interfaces that calculate average play times for certain in-game levels based on real-time data from players connected online. The idea is to let consumers jump into a game instantly, play a few levels, and then save their sessions without any headache.

This feature was outlined in a recent Sony patent, which effectively revolutionizes save states with a new instant access feature. This feature also includes on-screen estimates on playtime require for completing activities.

Doom Eternal has a built-in photo mode that lets you capture your ultra-grisly mayhem in a nice little scrapbook for later viewing.

Every game should have a photo mode, and damn are we glad Doom Eternal has one. I honestly didn't mess around with the photo mode too much before our review went live, but there's a big reason for that. You can't actually use the photo mode on a level until you've beaten it all the way through. This is pretty frustrating but I guess it's understandable. id probably wants your attention focused squarely on the business at hand--the brutal, bloody, and ultra-violent business of ripping apart demons.

The photo mode lets you change Doom Slayer's pose, his cosmetic skins, lets you adjust FOV and roll the camera while pulling out in a third-person view (you can actually force the game to run in third-person natively with console commands, but more on that later) and doing various zooms. You can access the photo mode by pressing the Right ALT button, but remember, you have to beat the level first before you can use it.

Classic console commands return in Doom Eternal, but they're not unlocked right away. We take a closer look at noclip to explore the glitchy otherworld of textures, lighting effects, and developer tricks found in Doom Eternal.

Like every Doom game, Doom Eternal lets gamers access a console prompt on PC. The difference is that most of Doom Eternal's commands are locked and require a workaround to access. We'll have a tutorial on that soon, but for now, let's take a look at one of best commands of all time: Noclip.

In our video we took a look at seven of the game's campaign levels including Nekravol, Urdak, Teras Nabad, Sentinel Prime, Doom Hunter Base, Super Gore Nest, and Icon of Sin. We stuck mostly to the beginning parts of the levels so there's a lot left out, but it's still a fascinating look at how games are held together. There's flat two-dimensional textures posted up in the far distance to simulate hulking statues, global illumination effects that shift as you roam through different cells, lots of half-loaded textures and visuals, and generally glitchy areas.

As stores, malls, stadiums, and pretty much everything else closes down across the globe to curb coronavirus spread, so too are Nintendo's hardware repair centers.

If your Switch gets broken during quarantine, then it'll stay broken unless you fix it yourself (don't try this unless you're really sure what you're doing). Nintendo announces that it's temporarily shut down its repair facilities in North America to protect its workers from the dire COVID-19 health crisis.

So what if you've already sent your Switch or JoyCons in to get repaired? Nintendo outlines one of two options. Either you'll get your hardware sent back to you, or Nintendo will store it in their warehouse facilities for safe keeping until the quarantine blows over. No one knows when that'll be, so you could be out of a Switch for a while.

AFL Evolution 2 is coming sooner than expected, and will now arrive a week early on April 16 on PS4 and Xbox One, Developer Wicked Witch confirms.

The Australian Football League needs a win right now. Like other sports leagues around the world, the AFL has suspended seasons amid the coronavirus outbreak. But we have some good news: Aussies will soon be able to make their own leagues when AFL Evolution 2 launches in April.

"As you know, the current COVID-19 pandemic has had a big impact on everyone and we all have to play a part in helping containment. We have been listening to your pleas for an earlier release for AFL Evolution 2 to help fill the current sporting void and have worked hard to try and make that happen," the developer said in a statement.

Fallout 76's massively ambitious new NPC-adding Wastelanders expansion won't release on April 7, and has been pushed back a week to April 14. This is the second time Wastelanders has been delayed.

Fallout 76's much-needed game-changing facelift is coming later than expected. Wastelanders, a free mega-expansion that adds human NPCs, factions, and singleplayer-like instanced areas, has been delayed seven days due to coronavirus disruption. The Steam release has also been delayed to April 14, too.

The issue is devs have to work from home and don't have direct access to each other, or certain tech in the offices. The health crisis has made it harder for Bethesda to not only develop the expansion, but also to test it out before it goes live. As we've seen from Fallout 76's rather drab launch in 2018, the game always needs as much testing as it can get.

Remember Segata Sanshiro? If you don't check this out. We'll wait. Back with us? The legendary ass-kicker is back to heckle you into playing SEGA 24/7. Well, kind of. In spirit anyway. Segata Sanshiro's real-life son is taking over the gi and is now SEGA Japan's new mascot.

There was nothing like Segata Sanshiro, and there's been nothing like him since. He was a total byproduct of the times, an extreme 90s mascot that'd just as soon Judo throw your 12 year old kid for not playing SEGA all day long. But Hiroshi Fujioka, the Kamen Rider actor who played Segata, is getting old these days. That's why his son, Maito Fujioka, is taking the lead.

SEGA revealed the new Segata Sanshiro successor as part of its huge 60th anniversary celebration. Maito Fujioka is a lot more...tame than his father and there's a lot of awkward weirdness in the reveal footage. But hey, it's Japan, and it's SEGA, so things are bound to get weird.

Remedy is working on something big for next-gen PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles, as well as PC.

Control, our favorite game of 2019, was just the beginning. Remedy has just signed a huge multi-year deal with Epic Games to publish two new multiplatform titles on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC: a smaller-scale game that's like related to its new live service Vanguard team, and a substantially ambitious new AAA game set in a fresh IP. The studio now owns both publishing and IP rights for the Alan Wake franchise (hint hint).

"We're working on something exciting, something big. With Epic Games as our publisher, we have incredible resources and full creative freedom. Thrilled about this opportunity. That said, for now that's all I can tell you," Remedy's Sam Lake said.

Nintendo has just closed out its Nintendo Direct Mini, and throughout the presentation, it was revealed that Nintendo Switch users would be getting some classic 2K franchises to enjoy.

Nintendo has confirmed that they will be bringing three massive franchises from 2K games over to the Nintendo Switch. Those franchises are none other than all three of the remastered BioShock games; BioShock Remastered, BioShock 2 Remastered all apart of BioShock Infinite: The Complete Edition. This marks the first time BioShock has been playable on the handheld console, and it is no doubt a welcomed surprise for Nintendo Switch users.

2K and Nintendo have also confirmed that XCOM 2 Collection, which contains XCOM 2, four DLC packs, and the War of the Chosen expansion, will also be arriving on the Nintendo Switch. The final franchise might be the one everyone is excited for - Borderlands Legendary Collection. Yep, that's right. Borderlands is heading over to the Nintendo Switch. The Legendary Collection contains the following titles; Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition, Borderlands 2, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. All three 2K franchises will be arriving on the Nintendo Switch on May 29th.

Not content with challenging Steam's reign, Epic Games is now taking on titans like EA and Take-Two with its own games publishing division.

Epic Games today made a megaton announcement: The Fortnite giant will start publishing games from indie studios. And no, they won't be exclusive to the Epic Store on PC--they'll be multi-platform games.

The initiative begins with new projects from Remedy Entertainment, Playdead, and Gen Design. These new games will be 100% funded by Epic's Fortnite billions, and the company isn't making devs surrender rights to their IPs. Epic wants to shake-up the industry and disrupt the status quo on games publishing, and has a radical idea of giving developers 50% of the earnings. For contrast, Remedy only earns 45% of every copy of Control sold.

Valve unleashed Half-Life: Alyx on March 23 and it quickly became the best gaming experience I've ever had, it also became the #1 most-played game on VR on its launch day.

But now Valve has pushed out the first update to Half-Life: Alyx with v1.1, which fixes a bunch of stuff in the game and adds a new "Continuous Turn" option. The new Continuous Turn option is closer to how Boneworks reacts to turning, which is what some people prefer over Half-Life: Alyx and its 3 options of movement in VR.

Valve has now renamed Quick Turn to Snap Turn, which the developer says "to make its functionality clearer". There are some other fixes that Valve has done to Half-Life: Alyx with its v1.1 patch, which I've got listed below:

Ndemic Creations has been enjoying the explosive popularity of its disease outbreak management simulation Plague Inc., where you design a disease and try to infect, and kill, as many people on the planet as possible.

Yeah well, that's not going down so well right now with the current coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak and its worldwide hysteria. So, the developer has pushed out an update that adds a new mode that lets you do the opposite: save the world. Ndemic Creations is working hand-in-hand (from a safe social distance I hope) with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, and other groups on creating an "informative experience".

The developer is also donating $250,000 towards fighting the coronavirus outbreak, where the money will be split between the Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the World Health Organization's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

There are more gamers sitting at home right now than ever before in the history of gaming, and NVIDIA is noticing that trend -- and benefiting from it now, and will do so even more in the future.

But now Bloomberg's Tai Kim has written a new article titled 'NVIDIA's Biggest Pleasant Surprise May Be Yet to Come', where he goes into the fact that NVIDIA is kinda flourishing over the coronavirus outbreak. In positive news about coronavirus, more gamers are at home, and more games are being played right now than pretty much ever before in the history of gaming.

NVIDIA's gaming segment (GeForce graphics cards) represents close to half of its revenue, so with more gamers playing games at home that is only a good thing for NVIDIA. Kim writes that NVIDIA management said they've seen a 50% surge in "total gaming hours from its installed base as many students and workers were staying-at-home".

I've taken a short break from Half-Life: Alyx to interact with the real-world again, as I have two kids staying home from school right now, and a job to do -- and that job, is to write more news about Valve stuff. Check out my Half-Life: Alyx Buyers Guide right here.

Now that Half-Life: Alyx is in the wild, Valve is returning to talking to the media in a big way, where Chris Remo and Robin Walker from Valve sat down with IGN. They talked about all things Half-Life: Alyx, Portal VR, Left 4 Dead 3, and more. Left 4 Dead is another game close to my heart, as it was just pure 4-player mayhem in an amazing setting when it was released.

Fun fact: Left 4 Dead was the first game I played with NVIDIA's 3D Vision glasses at the time, and utterly loved it. This was in the days before VR, and it was one of the driving forces of making me believe VR would take off eventually -- and now it has, with Half-Life: Alyx.