Gaming - Page 585

I think this is one of the strangest things I've ever seen in gaming "marketing", and I've had to put marketing in inverted commas because I can't believe what I'm seeing.

Gaming site Destructoid posted a sponsored article titled 'Sponsored - Phone sex operator plays Fortnite' in which -- yes -- a phone sex operator plays Fortnite with her breasts teased on camera. Twitch streamer 'nanerboots' makes all sorts of suggestive comments throughout the video, outright trying to sell some Fortnite gamers (of which she doesn't know their age, mind you) a Fleshlight.

Oh, you don't know what a Fleshlight is? Well, I don't really want to get into that here, so you'll need to go and Google that.

Call of Duty's new free-to-play Warzone battle royale will let you respawn early if you die, but you'll have to earn it.

Today Activision confirmed Warzone, the new F2P 150-player Call of Duty battle royale, is real. The most interesting feature is the new Prisoner of Warzone mechanic, which gives you a chance to respawn early, but only if you win a 1v1 deathmatch against another player.

When you die in Warzone, you're thrown into the Gulag prison. This the purgatory where you go after you die, kind of like a time-out zone where you're temporarily out of the game. You basically wait around until one of two options for revival presents itself: Your teammates revive you, or you can fight your way out by killing another play in a 1v1 duel to the death.

Today Activision confirmed Call of Duty's Warzone battle royale is real, and it's launching tomorrow, March 10 as a free-to-play download on all platforms.

Warzone is the biggest thing Activision has ever done. It's a battle royale mode with up to 150 players that'll be monetized with cosmetics, complete with cross-play between consoles and PC. Warzone's biggest potential is its cross-SKU support too, which lets free-to-play users play directly with premium Modern Warfare players. Warzone goes live March 10, 2020 at 8AM PST for Modern Warfare owners, and 12PM PST for everyone else.

Warzone has two versions: a separate download and a mode baked right into Modern Warfare itself. Unlike Black Ops 4's Blackout, you won't need to buy Modern Warfare to play Warzone. Warzone's free-to-play standalone version will be on PS4, Xbox One, and Battle.net as a huge 80-100GB download. Warzone is also accessible natively inside of Modern Warfare after a 18-22GB download.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is an interesting blend of Devil May Cry hack-and-slash chaos with the fine-tuned strategy of an RPG.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is kind of a weird game that breaks normal gaming sensibilities. One one hand, it's a pure action game with thrilling combat; As Cloud, you want to slice-and-dice enemies and just spam combos the whole time. But you can't. The game requires finesse and strategy, and for you to pay attention to your surroundings. The battles are dynamic like Dark Souls, so you have to block, dodge-roll, and use items in tactical ways.

That's where the RPG aspects come in. You can slow down time and buy yourself a few seconds to regroup and plan the next salvo. It's a quick-pause that lets you gain your wits when things go awry. But at the same time there's that impending pressure of having to move forward, too. You can't just spend all your time in the menus--you have to adapt on-the-fly to the situations as they unfold.

Spawn's bloody gameplay might be the best Mortal Kombat 11 guest reveal ever.

Todd McFarlane's tortured comic book hellion Spawn just unleashed damnation and chaos on MK11's roster. Spawn's debut gameplay showcased some impressive moves and fitting combos, complete with spiked chains, assault rifles, and roaring flames. There's even a crazy over-to-top sequence where spawn makes enemies into Swiss cheese with dozens of chain guns that fire out of his cloak.

The hellspawn's fatality is the best part. It skins his victim alive and utterly eviscerates them with his signature cape and green-glowing magic. The end result is one of the coolest sequences Netherealm has ever put together.

Emulators are fantastic, and PC gamers especially love it when emulators get some additional support. Now, the best PlayStation 3 emulator has been given a bit of love.

According to a new announcement on the RPCS3 Twitter page, RPCS3, which is an open-source PlayStation 3 emulator for Windows, Linux and BSD have now got support for PlayStation 3D. If you don't know what PlayStation 3D is, it's basically support for gamers to play games in 3D mode with their 3D glasses if they so choose to. The games that currently are supported for this 3D mode are DOOM 3 BFG Edition, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and Super Stardust HD.

It should be noted that at the moment, RPCS3 only supports Anaglyph 3D, but there are plans in place to implement stereo 3D in the future. Another thing to note is that RPCS3 doesn't have any virtual reality support, but according to the developers behind the emulator "In theory, it should be possible to render both layers on different frames for VR, but RPCS3 has no support for 2 GSFrames nor anything similar right now."

The official PC requirements have been revealed for DOOM Eternal, let's see what its going to take to run the latest installment into the DOOM franchise.

The launch for DOOM Eternal is closing in fast, and with fans around the world gearing up for the release its important to know what you will need to be able to run the game. The developer behind the title, id Software has released the full spread of PC specifications for DOOM Eternal, revealing what players will need a minimum and what is recommended for the best experience.

DOOM Eternal is powered by the id Tech 7 engine and will a new level of smoothness to monster slaying like you've never seen before. DOOM Eternal will run at 60FPS on all consoles, and for PC players to achieve 60FPS at 1080p low settings they will need a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (4GB), GTX 1060 (6GB), GTX 1650 (4GB) or a AMD Radeon R9 290 (4GB)/RX 470 (4GB). To bump that gaming up a graphical notch to 1440p at high quality settings, PC gamers will need a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (8GB), RTX 2060 (8GB) or AMD Radeon RX Vega56 (8GB).

Resident Evil Resistance, the free 4v1 live service add-on to Resident Evil 3 remake, may be appropriately monetized via cosmetic microtransactions.

A new gameplay video for Resident Evil Resistance shows an Umbrella Corp. lootcrate, hinting at possible microtransaction purchases (see below at 4:04). The video, which is in Chinese, reveals Resistance has a progression scheme like any other live game. Resistance will dole out in-game currency called RP for beating certain daily, weekly, or monthly objectives and winning matches, which can then be spent on extras like lootcrates.

These "decorative boxes" only contain cosmetics, which makes sense given the huge kerfluffle around lootboxes. Umbrella crate rewards include weapon skins, collectible models, emotes, special voices, and customized appearances.

Even the Xbox Series X's audio will be next-gen, complete with a special dedicated audio chip that empowers sound designers like never before.

We've known for a while the Xbox Series X would have 3D audio acceleration via a dedicated chip, but we didn't know the potential of the tech, and more importantly, what it means for developers. The Xbox SX's new hardware-accelerated audio chip means sound designers no longer have to tie up CPU resources for in-game sound effects and music. In tandem with ray traced audio, which uses bi-drectional sound paths to shift sound profiles in real-time, audio experiences will be incredibly immersive and realistic on the next-gen Xbox.

Ninja Theory in particular is enthusiastic about the chip. This is fitting given the Senua franchise's incredible sound effects and score. "It's extremely exciting. We're going to have a dedicated chip to work with audio, which means we finally won't have to fight with programmers and artists for memory and CPU power," senior sound designer Daniele Galante told Video Game Chronicle.

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem developers will spend the next three months optimizing and fixing their rather glitch-filled ARPG.

Wolcen, the new isometric action-RPG that aims at stealing some of Diablo's thunder, is a tremendous success with over 1 million copies sold in its first month. But owners aren't really happy with the multitude of bugs and exploits that riddle the game. The sales milestone is marred with tons of negative reviews on the $40 indie.

Now the studio pledges to make things better. Wolcen's devs will spend a massive three months gearing up new updates that fix game-breaking bugs. Wolcen won't actually get its new Act IV expansion content until the game is patched up.

Capcom apparently plans to release four big AAA games this fiscal year, and two of them will be Resident Evil related, unnamed sources tell Twitter's DuskGolem.

With the arrival of next-gen consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, 2020 should be a big year for games publishers. Capcom is poised to take full advantage of Holiday 2020 with a lineup of new titles, but we don't exactly know what they're cooking up.

Now sources close to the matter tell DuskGolem, a popular YouTuber with an ear to Capcom's plans, that the publisher will launch four titles in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021. Two of these games will be Resident Evil titles, the sources say.

PlayStation tech whiz Tetsuya Iida shares what it was like getting PlayStation games to run on the PlayStation 2, and underlines how finicky the emulation was.

Backwards compatibility is huge for any new console, and it was a big deal for the PS2 back in the 2000s era. Sony knew it was tremendously important and went through great lengths to establish PS1 emulation on the PS2. The backward compatibility initiative started in 1998 when the PS2's hardware was being developed--like the PlayStation 5, the PS2 was being created with past console game emulation in mind. According to ex-Sony engineer Tetsuya Iida, who was responsible for emulating the PS1's GPU on the PS2, it was tough work.

Interestingly enough, Ridge Racer was the first PS1 game to ever get emulated and run on the PS2. It wasn't perfect, and there were many problems, but it actually ran. The doorway to PS1 backwards compatibility was wide open.

The titans of terror at Frictional Games are back with Amnesia: Rebirth, a new psychological horror experience that'll warp our minds in 2020.

Amnesia Rebirth is the next title in Frictional Games' landmark horror IP, and is set to unleash psyche-altering terror in Autumn 2020. The game takes place in the same dark and twisted world as Amnesia: Dark Descent, but this time we're playing as Tasi Trianon, a mysterious survivor amidst harrowing desolation in the Algerian desert. The game will be a personal story that delves into "personal terror and pain while exploring the limits of human resilience," Frictional says.

Expect feels, bone-chilling visuals, interactive horror oozing with otherworldly atmosphere, and bizarre psychological themes and environments. There's entities and monstrosities waiting to feast on your flesh, and to survive, you must discover and piece together Tasi's broken past.

The ultra-rare Nintendo PlayStation console has sold for $360,000 at auction, roughly 1/3 of what the seller could've gotten for the system.

The bidding war for the SNES-PlayStation prototype is over. The seller, Terry Diebold, will get a substantial $360,000 for the strange slice of gaming history. But he could've gotten a whole lot more for the system: Diebold was offered a massive $1.2 million by a Swedish buyer but decided against it because the payoff wasn't right. After taxes and other payments he wouldn't have actually made any profit.

Internet dotcom maven Greg McLemore bought the prototype and intends to showcase it in a video games museum. McLemore is the founder of Pets.com, a massive website sold to Amazon in the 2000s era, and has been using his millions to buy up all kinds of unique gaming memorabilia for his ambitious gaming museum.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake only takes place in Midgar, but Square Enix has jam-packed tons of content into the city to keep us busy for a long, long time.

The upcoming Final Fantasy 7 Remake is technically only the first chapter of a multi-year remake slate. Even still, the game will be its own standalone RPG experience that offers tens of hours of play. Midgar, the game's sole location, is a big part of that. You won't be escaping Midgar in the first game, but that's okay: Square Enix has basically made Midgar into a world in itself.

We've heard Square Enix talk about how dense and opportunistic Midgar is, but until the game ships, we won't really know. The demo didn't really expose the city's massive scope. In a recent PlayStation Blog post, the devs discuss the painstaking work that went into Midgar and how it'll manifest as one of the most iconic rebirths of a nostalgic metropolis.

A former PlatinumGames dev chastises studio director Hideki Kamiya for joking about Scalebound, and admits the devs simply failed in their pursuit.

Ever since Microsoft cancelled Scalebound, the ambitious Devil May Cry-meets-dragons Xbox One exclusive, in 2017, there's been tension between PlatinumGames and Microsoft. Gamers thought Microsoft was to blame, but it turns out the project simply fell apart on a base level. The game's cancellation was a blessing for both Microsoft and PG, who was knee-deep in developing multiple projects. Now in a recent Wonderful 101 livestream celebration, Hideki Kamiya, Platinum's resident grumpy curmudgeon, made a joke about Scalebound's cancellation: "I want to make Scalebound! Email Microsoft," he said.

An ex-PlatinumGames dev doesn't find this funny. "We had our chance [to make Scalebound]. We failed. They know why we failed. Lots of great people left after we failed. Some because we failed. I'm sad that it is now a drunken meme," former PlatinumGames dev Jean Pierre Kellams said on Twitter.

Doom Eternal will hit a buttery smooth 60FPS on consoles, but id's demon-massacring shooter will rip and tear at up to 1000FPS on PC.

No matter what platform you play it on, Doom Eternal is scaled to harness every drop of hardware power. The high-octane carnage is fueled by smooth frame rates powered by the new id Tech 7 engine. Thanks to the new enhancements, id has targeted 60FPS minimum on both consoles and PCs.

id Software's lead engine programmer Billy Khan recently confirmed Doom Eternal will hit 60FPS on all consoles, including older 2013 launch PS4s and Xbox Ones. This is no small feat. These systems are quite outdated even compared to their upgraded PS4 Pro and Xbox One X siblings, the latter of which sports a big 6TFLOP GPU.

NVIDIA is continuing to bleed games and publishers from its game streaming service GeForce NOW, with 2K Games pulling its entire library of games from the service.

2K Games joins a growing list of publishers removing themselves from GeForce NOW, after Activision Blizzard and then Bethesda both pulling out of NVIDIA's recently-launched game streaming service. 2K Games is home to a huge library of fan favorites, something that includes the entire BioShock trilogy, the Borderlands series, Civilization games, NBA 2K series, and many more.

NVIDIA announced today: "Per publisher request, please be advised 2K Games titles will be removed from GeForce NOW today. We are working with 2K Games to re-enable their games in the future".

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (also known as Halo: CEA) launched on the PC not too long ago, part of the family of Halo games included in the Halo: Master Chief Collection -- but now there's a new update that fixes some issues.

343 Industries pushed out the update for PC and Xbox One gamers, and while the PC version (on both the Microsoft Store/Xbox Game Pass for PC) comes in at just 1.79GB, the Steam version is much smaller at 306MB... but holy balls, the Xbox One update for Halo: Master Chief Collection is a hefty 58.9GB.

What does patch deliver? You will get an option in the Settings menu to change between the original audio from Halo: Combat Evolved, to the new audio from Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary edition. If you're an old school Halo fan like me, you will enjoy that original audio.

AMD hosted its Financial Analyst Day yesterday, where we found out more details about its next-gen RDNA 2 architecture (which it refers to as Navi 2X and we all referred to it until yesterday as Big Navi).

Not only that, but details about its next-gen Zen 3 and Zen 4 architectures for future-generation CPUs, as well as some new information on the next-gen Microsoft Xbox Series X and Sony PlayStation 5 consoles. AMD's executive vice president of computing and graphics, Rick Bergman, said during the Financial Analyst Day presentation that both consoles were still on-track for release this year.

Some have been concerned that AMD, Microsoft, and Sony could delay the release of the next-gen Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles over the current issues surrounding coronavirus / COVID-19, but the company said that "next generation on track" for the consoles, adding "coming Holiday 2020". I guess nothing is hurting the supply chain for these companies right now, and we have nothing to be concerned about when it comes to next-gen gaming console releases later this year.