Gaming - Page 597

One of the most recognizable video game characters in history is no doubt the yellow and orange lombax and his small metal friend.

Back in 2016, Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games and Sony Interactive Entertainment released 'Ratchet & Clank', which was a re-imagining of the very first game in the series (2002). The game was met by fans with big support, gaining more than decent reviews and overall reception. Now, rumors have begun flying about a new Ratchet & Clank game being in the works, and it launching alongside the PS5 as a flagship title.

According to Podcaster and former video game reporter Colin Moriarty, who shared this rumor on his podcast called Sacred Symbols, "We're going to get a Ratchet & Clank in-between [Marvel's Spider-Man and its sequel] on PlayStation 5. I feel like that's going to be a launch game, the game that's long been in development at Insomniac." If this rumor is accurate, it would mean that Insomniac Games are secretly working on a new Ratchet & Clank game alongside the purported Marvel's Spider-Man sequel. Does that mean there's two development teams? Perhaps so.

The third installment in the coming Definitive Editions for the Age of Empires series is almost upon us, Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition will be released "soon".

According to a new Twitter post from the official Age of Empires Twitter account, the Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition beta will be arriving in the inbox's of Insiders very soon. The post reminds everyone that if you want to play Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition when it releases, then you will have to sign up for the Insiders program. A link to that can be found here.

Many Age of Empires fans have expressed their concerns over the third Definitive Edition releasing and developer support for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition going down the toilet. This won't be the case as the Twitter account has replied to a fan who voiced these exact concerns, here's what they said - "Don't worry! It's still being worked on and will continue to be updated through all of this. We have several teams working on different things all the time! :)". Divide and conquer, am I right?

A new exclusive report has surfaced online regarding Warner Bros. Montreal's new upcoming Batman game, but it might not be the news you were hoping for.

According to an exclusive report from Geeks WorldWide (GWW) found via ResetEra, sources close to GWW have told the website that WB Montreal's new Batman game is a "soft reboot" of the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham franchise. Back in late September, WB Montreal dropped some cryptic teasers for their new upcoming game, our games editor broke down those teasers and summarised that they are most likely an adopted nemesis system from the Shadow of Mordor/War games, or character wheels.

At the moment, the details on the new Batman games' plot/story are scarce, but GGW claims that there will be a playable Batfamily (most likely what the inner circles represent in the above image), the Court of Owls and additional co-op. GWW also states that this new Batman game is scheduled to release sometime this fall.

Sony could repeat 2013's big sweep by making the PlayStation 5 cheaper than the Xbox Series X.

In its recent Q3'19 earnings Q&A session, Sony had some interesting remarks on the PlayStation 5's pricing. The company isn't ready to reveal any specifics on the PS5 yet (that rumored February event probably isn't happening), and price is something that's hard to lock down for a number of reasons. One big reasons is competition.

Sony Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki hints the PS5's price tag may not be revealed until after the Xbox Series X's. Sony could wait to sweep in like it did last-gen with a $399 price tag and completely dominate next-gen all over again.

It's an end of an era at Rockstar Games: Studio co-founder Dan Houser is leaving next month, a departure that could affect Grand Theft Auto VI's development.

Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser is leaving the studio after 22 years of games development, a new Take-Two SEC filing confirms.

"After an extended break beginning in the spring of 2019, Dan Houser, Vice President, Creative at Rockstar Games, will be leaving the company. Dan Houser's last day will be March 11, 2020. We are extremely grateful for his contributions," Take-Two wrote in the release.

Google just revealed titanic earnings for its fiscal year, but there was no mention of its new game-streaming platform Stadia. How curious.

At the beginning, I called Stadia a revolutionary game-changer. It still has that potential. But Google's incredible inept handling of the service--requiring your phone to use the service, weird forking of other tied services into Stadia, having to buy each game individually, and the expensive $150 up-front cost while the free sub is MIA--has set it back a fair amount. Right now Stadia is lukewarm at best.

Interestingly enough, Google didn't discuss the service whatsoever in its recent earnings call. Google, like Microsoft, doesn't care tremendously about gaming; they're both titans who earn billions from other segments. Case in point: Google earned $4.7 billion from YouTube ads in Q4 (more than Microsoft's entire Xbox segment makes), and an insane $134.8 billion from ads in the total year. Still, though, I expected some discussion on Stadia, especially given how synergistically it was to tie into YouTube, streaming, and overall digital engagement.

Blizzard apologizes for Warcraft 3: Reforged and promises that fixes are coming. But some features may remain gone for good.

Today Blizzard did two major things: It said sorry for bungling Warcraft 3: Reforged's launch, which was plagued by missing features like custom campaigns and profiles, and outright replacing the original WC3; and then it made promises to patch the game and make it better.

"First off, we want to say we're sorry to those of you who didn't have the experience you wanted, and we'd like to share our plans for what's coming next," Blizzard community manager Kaivax said in the post.

The mysterious slot in Xbox Series X's prototype is actually a CFExpress port, not a debugging port, hinting the console will support portable memory cards for expanded memory.

The Xbox Series X may support external memory cards on the CFExpress standard, sources tell Thurrott's Brad Sams. CFExpress memory is primarily used in high-end camera memory cards, and utilizes PCIe 3.0 across NVMe for transfer speeds up to 4GB/sec. This matches up with the Xbox Series X's maximum SSD speeds. There are plans to update CFExpress to support PCIe 4.0 as well.

If the port is retained in the final hardware, console memory cards are coming back in a big way. Gamers will be able to buy CFExpress memory cards to expand storage without compromising speeds. Hooking up an older mechanical HDD or even a slower SSD to the Xbox Series X will cause speed discrepancies and possibly impact performance, but CFExpress storage will match the internal SSD quite well.

Sony's latest quarterly earnings clearly show the generation is winding down for the PlayStation 5, but the drop isn't dramatic enough to significantly disrupt the PS4's current cycle.

Throughout Sony's Q3'19 period, which runs from October - December 31, 2019, the company raked in $5.8 billion from overall Games and Network Service sales, a 20% drop from last year. Both hardware and software sales are down year-over-year too. Sony sold 6.2 million PS4s in the Holiday 2019 quarter, down 25% YoY, and a combined 81.1 million digital and physical PS4 games, down nearly 7% YoY.

These trends can be attributed to the absence of major heavy-hitting third-party games like the Q3 2018 launch of Red Dead Redemption 2, as well as the hardware market starting to peak.

Sony today launched a PS5 website portion on PlayStation.com, and also might've squashed rumors of a February reveal event.

Sony's big PS5 February reveal event might be postponed after all. On a new PlayStation 5 website, the company says it's "not quite ready to reveal the PlayStation 5," and prompts gamers to sign up for a digital newsletter for more info before and as it happens. The sign-up button isn't yet live, though.

"We've begun to share some of the incredible features you can expect from PlayStation 5, but we're not quite ready to fully unveil the next generation of PlayStation. Sign up below to be among the first to receive updates as we announce them, including news on the PS5 release date, PS5 price and the upcoming roster of PS5 launch games," the site reads.

Sony's PlayStation 4 family has now accumulated 108.6 million worldwide shipments to date since 2013, cementing its reign as the best-selling system of the current generation.

Today Sony announced its Fiscal Year Q3'19 earnings results, that while positive, show a clear decline in overall games revenues. In the Holiday 2019 quarter, Sony sold 6.1 million PlayStation 4 consoles, bringing the total sell-in (shipments) to 108.6 million. Actual sales, or sell-through to consumers, sit at 106 million.

The games-maker recorded $1.36 billion from PS4 hardware sales, down a noticable 33% year-over-year. In fact, overall hardware sales during Sony's busiest quarter were down nearly 25% from last year's console push. Digital software was also likewise down 35% from last year, driven by lower sales of third-party titles on the PlayStation Network.

Up until the catastrophe that is Warcraft 3: Reforged, I was all for a Diablo II remaster. Not any more.

With Warcraft 3: Reforged, Blizzard committed the ultimate sin: It betrayed its legacy fans. The original Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne doesn't exist any more. It's now lost to time. The only Warcraft 3 that exists now is Reforged, and all older versions must now be updated and replaced with the remaster. You can't play custom games the same way, the UI has changed, and ultimately the core old-school experience has been carved out. You can still play with the original graphics, but the game is on the new wonky Battle.net 2.0 framework that doesn't let you do basic stuff like browser chat or even check your profile stats.

I can't imagine a worse fate for a beloved yesteryear game. This method is basically a means of bringing an old classic forward by smashing a square through a circle-shaped hole. If Warcraft 3: Reforged is how Blizzard plans to remaster its fan-favorite games, then I really hope they just stop here. I hope they don't touch Diablo II.

If you are a PC gamer and don't own a PlayStation 4 but would like to enjoy some PS4 titles, you might not be out of luck. Emulators are coming.

All PS4 emulators are currently under development by their creators, and most are still in their beta phases. One of these emulators is called GPCS4, and according to its creator, it can now officially boot and run a commercial game. While that is certainly eyebrow-raising news, beware that the framerate is barely acceptable for a good gaming experience.

Another thing to note is the commercial game that it's playing is We Are Doomed, which is a twin-stick shooter that is 2D. Hardly a demanding game at all. The best PS4 emulator for the PC that I could find is PCSX4, and it shows games such as God of War being played at extremely reasonable framerates, but seems shady. If you are interested in GPCS4, a link can be found here.

Today PlatinumGames put up a new teaser site called Platinum 4, which confirms that the studio has four major games in development. The first project is The Wonderful 101 remastered on Switch, PS4, and PC, a crowd-funded project that's already smashed its goal.

PlatinumGames is evolving, and plans to deliver something fans have been asking for for a long time: The Wonderful 101 on modern systems. The developers are self-publishing The Wonderful 101 remastered on Switch, PC, and PlayStation 4, and will use Kickstarter to fund the project.

The remaster has a bunch of rewards, one of which is getting blocked by Hideki Kamiya on Twitter. What a privilege! Individual digital copies of the game run at roughly $35, whereas a physical version costs about $40.

A new job listing gives an idea of what Bungie's next IP will be like, and it sounds kind of outrageous.

Bungie's next IP might be quite different than the deep lore and serious space heroes vs evil darkness tone of Destiny. It could be a lot more like Borderlands with its slapstick humor. A new art director job listing directly mentions a new Bungie IP, and calls for fanciful humor rather than Destiny's drama or compelling story beats.

The Nintendo Switch is about to turn 3 years old, and apparently nearing the mid-point of its hardware cycle.

In a recent Q&A investor's meeting, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa says the Switch is currently in the middle of its life cycle. This means the Switch could have a total lifespan of 6-7 years, maybe more with long-term software sales. The company will use this vital maturation period to double-down on software development to continually move sales and carry the system farther into its life cycle. Nintendo says it's "aggressively investing" in games.

Note: The following translations were made in Google Translate, so they may be crude.

Nintendo isn't worried about new next-gen consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X interrupting Switch hardware or software sales.

The Switch isn't a replacement system, but a complementary one. It lives alongside consoles and PC gaming by offering exclusive access to first-party Nintendo best-sellers and the portability of a higher-end handheld. The NPD Group notes that 40% of Switch owners in the U.S. also own a PS4 and Xbox One, proving the Switch can thrive in between the major console wars.

Nintendo doesn't expect this to change when the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X release in holiday 2020. Next-gen won't take a lot of attention away from the Switch, especially now that Nintendo is doubling-down on first-party software development.

Cyberpunk 2077 will be one of the biggest games released in 2020, with developer CD Projekt RED slowly detailing more and more of the game as time goes on.

But now we're learning that the game will have some kick ass audio as well, with Head of Studio at CD Projekt RED, John Mamais, revealing in an interview with OnMSFT that Cyberpunk 2077 has great audio. He said: "The acoustic system that one of our sound programmers came up with is going to sound really realistic because of the way they're using the geometry".

He continued: "If I were a rich gamer, I'd definitely go out and buy a Dolby Atmos system to listen to this game. It's going to be very immersive, deep, and beautiful-sounding". Cyberpunk 2077 was recently delayed, and will now be released on September 17, 2020.

We now have our closest look at Sony's upcoming Dual Shock 5 controller for the next-gen PlayStation 5 console, with LetsGoDigital's in-house 3D designer Giuseppe Spinelli, aka Snoreyn making something so good I'm not going to be surprised Sony tries to hire him after this video. Just recently, I wrote about the PlayStation 5 beating the Xbox Series X console in development kit form, but this should change before release.

The video in question is from the minds of LetsGoDigital and designer Snoreyn, and not based on the PlayStation 5 development kits, patents, or anything else -- this is simply what LetsGoDigital want to see, and I'm right there with them. This video sees additional grip buttons on the back of the controller, for those all-night gaming sessions.

In the video, the guys and girls at LetsGoDigital want to see a Dual Shock 5 controller that is powered by a USB Type-C connector, a 3m anti-tangle braided cable, and a long-lasting 2500mAh battery.

Electrical engineer Allen Pan uses fitness tech to transform Death Stranding into a real-life walking simulator.

YouTuber, gadget wiz, and Mythbusters star Allen Pan has done some nifty things; first he created a real-life replica of Thor's unmovable Mjolnir hammer, a sword made of ice, a sword made of fire, and even some webshooter and lightsaber prototypes. His latest invention turns the boring chore of dreamill (I mean treadmill) exercises into a game.

Using some compelling tech science, Pan was able to rig a DualShock 4 to a treadmill and to literally control Sam, the main player character in Death Stranding, by walking. Pan hooked up the DualShock 4's potentiometers to a custom relay kit connected to the treadmill that essentially opens a circuit connection as he walks or runs on the treadmill. Walking on the treadmill simulates pressing forward on the left analog stick, whereas running simulates pressing L3 to run.