Gaming - Page 588

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is now available on Google's Stadia streaming platform, and is free for Stadia Pro members.

Today Google confirmed it's not playing around with Stadia. The service is getting some of the biggest games on the market today, and Google secured billion-dollar titans like EA's FIFA, Madden, and Star Wars, along with the massive battle royale sensation PUBG.

Right now PUBG is available for free as a bundle for all Stadia Pro members, which is good news if you haven't signed up. Google is offering a free two-month Stadia Pro trial for all new members, but you have to use a credit card to sign up. If you forget to cancel, Google will charge you $10 a month.

Battlefront is being retired into maintenance mode and won't receive any new updates after Scarif, DICE today confirmed.

DICE is about to sunset two of its live games: First Battlefield V retires this summer, and then Battlefront II will be retired starting tomorrow.

"This means that we're moving away from delivering regular content updates. As the game lives on with the players and our community, we're looking forward to hearing your stories for years to come," DICE said in a blog post. The studio plans to go full steam ahead on Battlefield 6 for next-gen consoles.

Google isn't messing around with Stadia. Google just secured some of the industry's biggest billion-dollar earners for its fledgling game-streaming service.

Stadia might blow up big time, and in the best way possible. Today Google announced a huge partnership with EA to bring some of the industry's most popular and lucrative games like FIFA, Madden, and Star Wars over to Stadia. This move has tremendous implications for Stadia's long-term earnings and adoption.

EA plans to release five games across its titanic franchises to Stadia. The singleplayer-only Jedi: Fallen Order will arrive in 2020, and both FIFA and Madden will arrive by winter 2020. Whether or not the newer FIFA 21 and Madden 21 will release on Stadia wasn't confirmed. More games will launch in 2021, EA says.

How many chapters will gamers need to buy until they own the full Final Fantasy 7 Remake? Square Enix doesn't know just yet.

April's launch of Final Fantasy 7 Remake wasn't the full package, but only the first chapter in a multi-volume roadmap of games. Square Enix plans to release multiple full-sized volumes that are sold as standalone, full-priced games. We originally assumed the series would be a trilogy with 90 hours of content--one full game release for each of FF7's original 3 discs--but now Square Enix says the game could have more than three parts.

Topics covered here:

Bethesda doesn't just want to give back by providing hours of safe at-home gaming. It's also giving out $1 million to coronavirus relief funds across the world.

Bethesda and its parent company ZeniMax, the companies behind Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, and Doom, today announced a $1 million donation program to aid global coronavirus charities. The company will carve up its donation pool to a number of different efforts, including global, community-level, and national relief groups.

The games-maker is also launching a new program called Bethesda At Home, which will connect gamers to developers via live streams and other events. Viewers will have the opportunity to chip in and help coronavirus relief causes during these live streams and we could also get tidbits and hints on upcoming expansions and updates for Bethesda's biggest games, including Fallout 76, Doom Eternal, and The Elder Scrolls Online.

CD Projekt RED is bringing its anarchist sci-fi shooter to IGN's Summer of Gaming event this June, and we could get a look at finalized gameplay.

Right now Cyberpunk 2077 is entering its final phases of development, but we haven't seen gameplay since E3 2019. That could change in a few months, though. CDPR just announced it's joining IGN's E3 2020 replacement Summer of Gaming event this June, and the venue could be CDPR's last big opportunity showcase polished footage before the game's September release. Also remember Xbox has a promo deal with Cyberpunk 2077, so we could see gameplay shift over to Microsoft's upcoming big new Xbox Series X event instead.

CD Projekt RED promises this is their best game yet, and that Cyberpunk 2077 will one-up The Witcher 3 in every way possible. We've been writing about this game for years now and chronicling its development progress: From the early 2017 reports of flying cars, real-time AI, and a living, breathing city, to our predictions about online multiplayer and the demos of incredibly dynamic FPS-RPG mashup content that continually evolves and shifts based on your decisions.

What would Skyrim look like as a next-gen PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X game? Something like this.

Modding is absolutely incredible. Nothing extends the lifetime of a game more than mods (they will even fix your game after launch). Case in point: 9 years on, Skyrim is looking better than ever thanks to amazing user-created content. YouTuber Toxic Gaming put together a tantalizing glimpse at what Skyrim could look like on next-gen platforms like PS5 and Xbox SX, but of course the game is already next-gen on PC.

With a laundry list of over 200 mods, Skyrim Legendary Edition is transformed into something both familiar and completely unique. The textures are immaculate, complete with shield reflections and high-res 4K upgrades of ships, castles, armors--you name it. The world feels more enchanting and has that mystical Oblivion look, but with massive improvements like incredible ambient weather effects, lighting overhauls, beautiful water reflections, and realistic fog. And all of this is without ray tracing, so imagine that extra layer of depth on next-gen systems.

Sucker Punch's stylish samurai epic has been delayed a few weeks as Sony adjusts its first-party release slate.

Ghost of Tsushima is now launching July 17, three weeks after its original June 26 launch date, Sony today announced. The move comes as part of PlayStation's new first-party salvo that sees two heavy-hitters launching back-to-back: First with The Last of Us 2 in June, then Ghost of Tsushima in July. Sony accelerated TLOU2's release date to help combat the game's recent devastating story spoilers.

Today's news was surprising to say the least and many expected Sucker Punch's samurai slasher to be delayed indefinitely thanks to COVID-19 work-from-home orders.

The Nintendo Switch is practically sold out across the globe. So if you can't buy a handheld, why not make one instead?

Custom handhelds are pretty amazing. They often carve up old-school consoles like the Wii and jam them into small form factors like an Altoids tin (yes, really). And now you can make your own...but there's some assembly required.

Renowned modder G-man is selling a unique DIY kit for his G-Boy handheld, which packs in a Wii console into a custom 3D-printed Gameboy chassis. The kit costs $325, and comes with a 3.5-inch LCD screen, custom-designed chips, screws, triggers, and PCBs, including one that fully emulates the functionality of a GameCube controller. But there's some big catches: You have to solder everything together and dremel your own Wii PCB to exact specs. The kit doesn't come with a pre-cut Wii motherboard (Nintendo would NOT be happy if it did).

I don't know how the developers and staffers at Naughty Dog feel right now, but it wouldn't be good -- news is breaking over the weekend that the entire story for The Last of Us Part 2 have leaked online.

A video was posted up on YouTube which Sony must've orders its lawyers to have removed, but then the internet did what it does best -- spread The Last of Us Part 2's entire story. If you do not want any spoilers to The Last of Us Part 2 then I would suggest not continuing to read this news.

I'm not going to write about or quote the leaks to The Last of Us Part 2 so that I'm not responsible for spoiling what should've been one of the best games ever made.

There are many reasons why I love the internet and Reddit, but gamers in particular -- like 'Ninjakilla_X' on Reddit, who chopped the additional game footage from CD Projekt RED's Q&A video on Cyberpunk 2077, are the real heroes. Check it out here.

The video shows much more of the Cyberpunk 2077 world which is dripping in atmosphere, and it isn't centered around shooting and killing -- it is walking around and experiencing the world, interacting with characters towards the end. I think I prefer some of this world-exploring side of Cyberpunk 2077 as much as the action, the world feels so... cyberpunk.

Hell, the top comment on the video from 'Cloudless_Sky' says: "I'm gonna be spending so much time just walking around and looking at things". Cloudless_Sky, whoever you are -- I totally agree. Walking around in this game is going to be absolutely epic in its own right. I want to set up my entire gaming setup for Cyberpunk 2077 when it comes out and just go in for a few weeks or months and experience it in all its glory.

Epic Games has broken yet another record in Fortnite, with its recent in-game Travis Scott event seeing a gigantic 12.3 million concurrent players joining in for the insanely huge event.

The developer took to Twitter (above) to boast about the 12.3 million concurrent players in the Travis Scott event, which was an insane event in its own right. You can read more about that here. There were crazy lightning storms, dancers on fire, gravity flips, and a journey through space. Yeah, all in Fortnite, and all for a Travis Scott in-game concert. Awesome stuff.

The last time Epic Games reached a huge record was with 10.7 million players tuning into Marshmello's in-game concert. That was back in early 2019, but now Travis Scott appears and breaks the record in April 2020 with 12.3 million concurrent users -- no stadium in the world can host 12.3 million people at once so this is pretty damn insane when you sit down and think about it.

Epic Games has announced its huge new FNCS Invitational for Fortnite, throwing a huge $2 million of prize money into the mix.

The new FNCS Invitational will happen across 3 weekends starting on Saturday, May 9 -- with Epic inviting "the best of the best" in each region. This includes:

Epic Games will be kicking off the Open Qualifier for Champion ranked players on May 2, with 100 players in each region capable of earning an invite to the huge FNCS Invitational. This will give you the chance to play against "some of the biggest names in Competitive Fortnite" and more excitedly, possibly win a share in the $2 million prize pool.

If the reality of our world with COVID-19 coronavirus wrecking havoc left, right and center wasn't bad enough -- GTA Online is now art imitating life with its new missions.

A new update for GTA Online adds a bunch of new missions with one of them focusing on Gerald, a character that has received a myriad of missions over the years -- but his latest one involves him preparing for a recession. As the player, you will need to prepare for a recession which Gerald fears will destroy the criminal ecosystem.

Gerald needs to prepare for the worst, so you'll need to line up a bunch of drug deals and make a bunch of green with your green, before things go into the red. Rockstar Games most likely made these missions months ago, so there are (unfortunately) no jokes about toilet paper, cleaning stuff, or COVID-19 coronavirus.

One of the best-looking games on the horizon would have to be Microsoft's upcoming Flight Simulator, which has been shown off in some utterly gorgeous new screenshots. Check them out:

Microsoft is really showing the world what Flight Simulator can do when it can flex its graphical muscles, with some beautiful bokeh depth of field effects, gorgeous volumetric clouds and huge (real) worlds on display and running in real-time.

Seriously, how good does this game look?

If you missed the epic Travis Scott concert in Fortnite, check it out in its game-changing glory below. If you didn't know about it, well you should read on.

Epic Games isn't a stranger to having in-game concerts in Fortnite, but yesterday there 100s of thousands of people attending a virtual in-game Travis Scott concert in Fortnite. The one-time event was played inside of Fortnite, with Travis Scott's awesome 'Astronomical' concert available to gamers in Unreal Engine.

Scott dropped a brand new track as well as playing some of his biggest hits, with a bunch of insane explosions and shenanigans taking place during his Astronomical concert. Epic only had a few times that the Astronomical concert with Travis Scott actually take place, so if you missed out you'll have to keep an eye out for the next one if you want some of that exclusive loot.

Hello Games teases more sizable No Man's Sky expansions for 2020, and might be working on another game set in the signature IP.

No Man's Sky has evolved tremendously since 2016. It now has VR support, active online multiplayer, freighters, an actual campaign with objectives, base building, and even exosuits. So what's next? No one knows for sure, but Hello Games is far from done with its sci-fi universe. Big things are coming in 2020, possibly even a brand new major expansion like Beyond or NEXT.

"In addition to these content updates, we are working up some more ambitious additions to the universe, and have so much more planned for 2020 for us to feel excited about," Hello Games' Sean Murray said in a recent blog post.

Zenimax recruits seasoned game dev Colin Cambpell (Mass Effect, Jedi: Fallen Order) to help with its big new AAA game.

The Elder Scrolls Online developers at Zenimax Online are making a brand new AAA IP, and based on an old job listing from October 2018, it's likely an MMORPG. Official details are scarce and Zenimax has mostly been tight-lipped on its new game plans, but we can glean the scope of the project based around the talent involved.

Case in point: the games-maker just recruited Colin Campbell as a level designer for its new AAA team. Campbell has quite the CV, and has a ton of projects under his belt. He worked as producer on Jedi: Fallen Order at Respawn, was the lead narrative designer of Battlefront II's singleplayer campaign, and served four years at BioWare designing levels for the Mass Effect series. Now he's working on Zenimax's unannounced game.

The huge Nintendo account hacking spree is much worse than we thought: Nintendo now confirms up to 160,000 users accounts may have been compromised.

Earlier this month, Nintendo confirmed user accounts were getting hacked left and right, leading to credit card fraud and access to sensitive data. Now the games-maker says as many as 160,000 users could've been hijacked across the globe. Hackers were able to glean sensitive data from users like name, date of birth, gender, country / region, and email address.

Nintendo has turned off legacy Nintendo Network ID sign-ins to help curb the infiltrations, and also manually reset passwords. The company advises consumers to use two-factor authentication to protect their data.

What would Ocarina of Time look like completely remade in a modern games engine? Skilled developer CryZENx and his team delivers an answer with their eye-opening project.

Ocarina of Time has been reborn in Unreal Engine 4 as an enchanting high-FPS experience. There's higher-end PC effects that mesh perfectly with the old-school polygonal style; Link is rendered in perfect detail, grass sways in the wind, real-time weather effects illuminate the world, light catches in the fog, mist rises from crashing waterfalls, etc. But some of the inside environments have that old-school look and feel. The result is a perfect blend of nostalgia and modern gaming that makes you hope Nintendo is paying attention and remaking OoT.

The fan project was made by CryZENx in tandem with a 10-person team of devs, programmers, and 3D artists of incredible talent. The footage above is from the sixth major update to the project, and the remake is still in development and isn't 100% finished...but it looks damn good for something that might have a ways to go. There's even a little nod to Etika at the 49 minute mark.