Gaming - Page 659

Epic Games' major competitor Blizzard Entertainment is embroiled in a PR nightmare right now, and Epic is keen on capitalizing on it.

Unlike Blizzard, who banned a Chinese player for empathizing with the Hong Kong protests, Epic Games says it won't censor players' political views. "Epic supports everyone's right to speak freely. Chinese players of Fortnite are free to criticize the US or criticize Epic just as equally as all others," Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said on Twitter.

"Epic doesn't engage in politics or take a position on any political dispute. We've simply said we're a neutral game operator and don't seek to limit what players say. This neutrality applies equally to players on all sides of any disagreement."

Google makes some bold promises about Stadia, assuring the service will stream all launch games at up to 4K 60FPS.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is coming to PC on November 5, and to Google's new game-streaming Stadia platform as a launch game. But what kind of performance will it hit? Playing any game at 4K 60FPS requires some serious CPU and GPU horsepower, often needing an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 2080 Ti.

According to Google exec Phil Harrison, all Stadia launch games will run at 4K 60FPS (providing your internet is up to par). And since Red Dead Redemption 2 is a launch game, Rockstar's Wild West magnum opus could likewise hit this spec.

Sony is leaning out its workforce to streamline PlayStation 5 hardware and services development.

On the same day it revealed new PS5 info, Sony reportedly fired dozens of PlayStation Europe staff. It appears the power dynamic is shifting more towards Sony's American-based PlayStation branch, likely due to big first-party hits to come out of the region.

Sony is also likely culling its workforce so it can invest more money into hardware and services for its next-gen PlayStation 5. The console should be pretty expensive to buy thanks to its PCIe 4.0 SSD, Zen 2 CPU, and Navi GPU, let alone manufacture (especially with the U.S.-China trade war), and Sony wants to sell every PS5 at a profit. So it's likely doing what Activision-Blizzard did in 2018: Firing extraneous workers so it has more money for the PS5.

Xbox corporate VP Mike Ybarra is leaving the company to take on new paths in the gaming sphere.

Mike Ybarra's been with Microsoft for two decades and helped Phil Spencer transform the Xbox One into a competent product with a rich ecosystem. Now as the company ramps up for a huge 2020, Ybarra is jumping ship to take on something new.

"After 20 years at Microsoft, it's time for my next adventure," Ybarra said on Twitter. "It's been a great ride at Xbox and the future is bright. Thanks to everyone at Team Xbox, I'm incredibly proud of what we've accomplished and I wish you the best. More soon on what's next for me (super excited)!"

According to an ex-3D animator, Rockstar has been developing multiple new projects simultaneously since 2017.

For six months from July to December 2017, Angith Jayarajan made 3D animations for Rockstar India's technicolor branch. In that time he worked on Red Dead Redemption 2 and other mystery games, which assuredly include Grand Theft Auto 6 and possibly even Bully 2.

As Jayarajan says in on an Instagram post from September: "I did a course in 3D animation, did a masters in animation and made two animated short films. After that I worked at Rockstar Games. I worked on Red Dead Redemption 2 and a couple of games I can't name yet."

What better way to show your dominance in a Call of Duty game than topping the leader-board in a free-for-all match? Call of Duty: Mobile players should prepare their thumbs.

According to a new in-game message, Call of Duty: Mobile players can expect the new free-for-all game mode to arrive this Friday, October 11th. Unfortunately it isn't here to stay though as the message also reads that it will only be available until Thursday, October 17th.

At the moment Call of Duty: Mobile features predominately team-based modes, so when free-for-all launches it will be a nice mix-up mode for players. Its strange that Activision has decided to not keep the mode available on the game forever, perhaps they are thinking that removing modes and adding new ones will keep the game fresh and stop it from becoming stagnate. Call of Duty: Mobile is currently available on iOS and Android.

Epic Games Store is back with yet another free game to enjoy over the weekend, this time round gamers can test their luck on Mars.

This game is of course Paradox Entertainments city-builder Surviving Mars, and while the title might be a bit self-explanatory lets jump into what players can do. Just like most city-builder titles, players will be required to survive the environment they are placed in, but this time round they are on the baron wasteland planet Mars.

Players will need to develop strategies to supply oxygen, food, technology, infrastructure, mineral research and everything else in-between to keep their colonists alive. There is numerous problems that players will have to deal with as well, an example of a quite humorous one is if your lead scientists manages to create alcohol and develops alcoholism after too many hard days in the lab. If you are a city-builder type gamer or enjoy the likes of building your own colony on Mars, head over to the Epic Games Store and download the game for free. A link can be found here.

If you are close to marrying your partner in Stardew Valley, perhaps you have noticed that there isn't that much to do after that. Update 1.4 fixes this issue and adds content for post-marriage.

According to Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone, update 1.4 adds some more depth to post-marriage life for Stardew Valley players and according to his statement he knows there will always be more than be done. Barone spoke to USG and said "The new 1.4 update does add some depth to post-marriage life... some additions that I'm proud of and I hope are very heartwarming for players... but I know there will always be more that can be done."

He continued and said "I've been unofficially calling 1.4 the 'everything' update because it touches pretty much every aspect of the game in some way or another. One of my major goals was to add in a lot of quality of life features that make the game more convenient and effortless to play." Barone also mentioned that Patch 1.3 which is targetted at bringing multiplayer to consoles is on the verge of being ready.

The notoriously difficult FromSoftware titles no doubt fill a special spot in hearts of many gamers, but which is your favorite? and do you agree with the games director?

Each of FromSoftware's titles pack their own great features respectively, but if I was to ask you which is your favorite, if you only had to select one, what would you choose? 2009's Demon Souls? Or how about 2011's Dark Souls, or perhaps 2015's sequel, Dark Souls 2? Or are you more of a modern souls gamer and prefer 2016's Dark Souls 3? Bloodborne is also in the mix and then there is also the recently released Seikro: Shadows Die Twice, which gives a different taste than the other previously mentioned titles.

While this question might be extremely hard to answer for a FromSoftware fan, I would imagine it would be even harder for FromSoftware game director Hidetaka Miyazaki. In a recent interview with GameSpot Brasil, Miyazaki did choose a title and the title of Miyazaki's favorite game-child has been awarded to Bloodborne. Is this what you chose?

Twitch is predominately a streaming platform where you will find gamers sharing their experience in video games. Well, now you can also find President Trump as he now has his own Twitch account.

President Trump has recently jumped onto Twitch and created his own account, and at the time of writing this he currently has 17,000 followers. While you might originally think that you are going to be catching Trump sitting down and playing some rounds of Fortnite or Apex Legends, the channel is actually dedicated to promoting his rallies in different locations.

At the moment Trump is streaming his rally in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and if you happen to miss it you can watch the full video on his channel just like every other streamer. The Twitch channel also is promoting his campaign for the 2020 election by asking supporters to donate to his cause. If you want to check out his Twitch channel, a link can be found here.

I don't know what is worse... the beyond-horrible CGI in the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie, or this new Halloween mask that is pure nightmare fuel.

The creepy Sonic mask was first noticed by ShaneWatch on Twitter, with GameSpot picking it up and once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. You can grab the "novelty sonic hedgehog mask for adult" for $49 on Amazon, and if you're an Amazon Prime member you can get it with free one-day shipping.

The only way to get it faster would be for Sonic himself to deliver it! You can buy the mask right now and wear it to the new release date on the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, which is February 14, 2020. So tell your significant other and knuckle down to the cinemas with your Sonic mask, but don't blame us when/if you're arrested for freaking people out.

I've been a big fan of the radical design change in LetsGoDigital's 3D renders of Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5 console, with its unique V-shaped design. But now, the site has put its work into a video and it looks even better. Check it out:

The video is identical to the latest 3D renders by LetsGoDigital, which feature the latest information in the form of what buttons will be on front -- for now, we have a stand-by button, reset/record button, and an eject button. The eject button will let you eject those gigantic 100GB Blu-ray BDXL discs that will house PlayStation 5 games.

Sony's PlayStation 5 -- at least in its current 3D rendered state, will have a slick V-shaped design (V for 5, thus PS5) and should help with cooling the system down. AMD will be powering the innards of the PS5 with a Zen 2-based 8C/16T processor and Radeon RDNA-powered Navi-based GPU... both on 7nm

EA has announces that there are now over 10 million people playing FIFA 20, with it on the PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch.

FIFA 20 launched on September 27 for all four platforms, and while EA says the game has 10 million players that does not mean the game has sold 10 million copies. FIFA 20 is available through EA Access and Origin Access, giving certain subscribers access to the game, meaning they didn't purchase it.

The 10 million FIFA 20 players have duked it out in over 450 million matches, and kicked 1.2 billion goals so far. One of the new features introduced with FIFA 20 is the new Volta mode which is a street soccer version of the game, shifting away from the stadium-based game we've come to know and love since its debut back in 1993.

Fortnite's star burns a little less bright today, with a new analysis from Edison Trends showing that Fortnite sales have dropped from Q2 2018 to now by a whopping 52%.

Edison Trends refers to its sample of "anonymized and aggregated e-receipts from millions of consumers in the United States" for its data, comparing Fortnite's big 52% sales drop against PUBG which has only dropped by just 2% in comparison, while Apex Legends remains calm, for now.

Another set of data from Edison Trends shows what percentage of players who made a purchase in Apex Legends, Fortnite, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and PUBG in June 2019, did so again in July 2019. These numbers show that Apex Legends is by far the most popular with 62% of gamers continuing to spend real money on the game, while 49% of Fortnite players and just 38% of PUBG players did.

Some of Ubisoft's most violent games are being turned into kid-friendly animated shows, with The Hollywood Reporter and its exclusive story that Ubisoft's film and TV division is using existing IP and turning them into animated shows.

The first of which will be a Mars-based Rabbids Invasion special, while a Rayman-based show is in the works, and a new show based on the mobile game Hungry Shark. But some of the more violent games including Watch Dogs and Far Cry: Blood Dragon will also receive their own kid-friendly animated TV shows, in a surprise move by Ubisoft.

Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Vibe is, yep... you guessed it, inspired by Far Cry: Blood Dragon. I think this could be kinda cool for kids, with Captain Laserhawk being produced by Adi Shankar, who is helmed the successful Castlevania series for Netflix, as well as the upcoming Devil May Cry series.

It seems like modding and reselling PlayStation 3 consoles is serious business in Japan, with one man from Kagawa, Japan arrested for modding PS3 consoles and reselling them.

NHK reports that Tadaaki Abe, a 44-year-old man from Kagawa, Japan was arrested and charged after he modded a PlayStation 3 console, and sold it to someone in Tokyo. It wasn't his first one, as authorities found 40 modded PS3 consoles in his home, and are currently investigating to see if they were also modded (which I'm sure they were, what else would you need 40 PlayStation 3 consoles for).

Abe was modding PlayStation 3 consoles so that they could play games from the HDD without needing the disc, which according to Japanese trademark law, is illegal. This move also violates Japan's Unfair Competition Prevention Act (UCPA) which protects a company (in this case, Sony) and their rights to sell its products.

The release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is right around the corner and while it will require an insane 175GB of HDD space, the game has even loftier requirements if you want to turn on those gorgeous ray tracing effects.

NVIDIA has detailed the PC requirements to enable ray tracing in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, with 1080p 60FPS (no ray tracing enabled) requiring a GeForce GTX 970 or GeForce GTX 1660, while ray tracing at 1080p 60FPS is going to need a GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER at a bare minimum.

If you want to bump things up to 120-144FPS on those high refresh rate gaming displays, NVIDIA recommends a GeForce GTX 1080 or newer GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER -- but if you want to step into the Big Boys Club and enabled 4K 60FPS with ray tracing enabled, NVIDIA recommends its new GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER graphics card.

IO Interactive finds a publisher and distributor for its new unannounced franchise.

Warner Bros. has teamed up with IO Interactive to publish a new console and PC game, the company today announced. The duo previously worked together to publish Hitman 2 on all platforms so this move is a no-brainer. No details were revealed on the new AAA game, but based on the studios involved and IO's past development structure, we're betting its a new IP and not another Hitman game.

The Hitman dev has actually been working on a new IP for a while now. It's new studio in Malmo, Sweden was opened specifically to help its Denmark branch develop the fresh IP.

A new listing has been spotted on a gaming retailer website that indicates that Metro Redux is coming to the Nintendo Switch.

For those that don't know, Metro Redux is a definitive edition collection of two Metro titles and was originally released back in 2014 for the PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The two Metro titles are Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light, the collection also came with all the attached DLC content as well as some graphical improvements.

The website that has listed the title is GamingReplay, and according to their listing Metro Redux will be coming to the Nintendo Switch for 44.99 pounds, or $55. There has been no official announcement for Metro coming over to the handheld console, but the listing contains the box art for the title which suggests that it could certainly happen.

A character from all the back from 1991 will be making his way to Nintendo's legendary representative fighter, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Originally launched for the Neo Geo System back in 1991, Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury will be making his way to the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster as a paid DLC fighter. Nintendo confirmed that Terry Bogard would be coming to Ultimate through their last Nintendo Direct presentation.

The official Nintendo Versus Twitter account has posted a tweet to remind fans his release is on-track for November. Once Terry Bogard is released, this will be the fourth DLC fighter to come to the Fighters Pass, meaning there is still one more character to follow to complete the set. Nintendo also teased that after the set is complete that they will continue to add an undisclosed amount of characters.