Gaming - Page 762

Tech titan Apple has begun early plans for a game streaming subscription service, sources tell Cheddar.

Like its competitors Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Verizon who are all working on cloud game streaming services, Apple is eager to bite off the new digital frontier of "Netflix for games" market. Five sources familiar with the matter say Apple started planning the service in 2018, which corresponds with the company's need to shift away from hardware to a more digital service-based approach.

There's a few ways this could manifest and dramatically change the industry. It's likely that Apple's streaming service, which will include a pool of games streamed remotely to iDevices for a monthly fee, will be a mix of all types of games. But they should be premium paid experiences--free-to-play games shouldn't show up. We're thinking AAA, AA, and indie games will show up on the service. Sources say Apple may become a publisher and partner up with key developers, which is an incredibly ambitious move. Armed with Apple's might, devs could make some pretty immersive experiences across iPhones, iPads, and Macs and maybe even tap AR/VR tech to boot. The downside is this could further spread an already-fragmented industry.

Metro Exodus will be sold exclusively on the newly launched Epic Store when it releases this February, Deep Silver today announced.

Although the Steam competitor's storefront just launched, Epic Games has wasted no time snapping up timed exclusivity deals with major games-makers. First they snapped up a deal with The Division 2 thanks to the Epic Store's attractive 88% - 12% revenue split, and now the next big Metro game makes the jump. Metro Exodus will be exclusively sold on the Epic Store on PC until 2020, and the game will be pulled from the Steam storefront later today.

Anyone who pre-orders on Steam will still be able to play it there and will still get access to Metro Exodus' upcoming expansions, bonus content, and season pass upgrades on Steam.

BioWare put a nifty little old-school throwback in their big new shooter Anthem.

Anthem's VIP Demo was marred with technical hiccups and connection issues. There was also some performance hitches on all systems including PC, which saw FPS drops interrupting play. But the demo did have a neat addition that only wizened gamers would find: a Konami Code Easter egg.

Putting in the Konami code (Up Up Left Right Left Right Down Down B A) on Anthem's startup screen essentially transformed the game's music into an NES classic. The code unlocked an altered chiptune version of the main theme song, wistfully transporting us to a time where Nintendo ruled the world (it still kind of does) and your neighborhood Blockbuster avidly said Be Kind Rewind. The music is pretty damn good by default, so the bit-style rendition adds even more splendor its strange otherworldly tones.

A talented gamer uses Far Cry 5's flexible map-making tools to recreate Tattooine's dual suns and burning deserts.

Everyone remembers Tattooine. The dual suns, the dusty barren landscape, those strange moisture farming antennae reaching to the sky like strange alien relics, and the interesting domes of Lars Homestead. Now the talented duncsmaps has captured Tattooine's most famous scene using Far Cry 5's map editor, showing some serious skills in the time-lapse video below.

The map itself was made on PS4 and took about 3 hours to craft (I'd probably spend a week or so obsessively plotting every single piece). I absolutely love when specific scenes are captured perfectly using game-making tools. Far Cry 5's map editor is a kind of canvas for your imagination and many modders, map-makers, and gamers are using it to build some pretty amazing things.

During the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour Finals, Bandai Namco showcased to fans a new coming Dragon Ball action-RPG game. The game has been titled "Draon Ball Game: Project Z".

The new Dragon Ball title revolves around the main character Goku and the numerous encounters he has with saving the people of earth. Throughout the trailer we see iconic scenes from the Saiyan and Frieza saga, but we are not shown how much of Goku's story we are going to be able to play. Will Project Z include missions from the Maijan Buu saga? Or the Dragon Ball Super series? At this time it is unknown whether or not the later foes Goku encounters during his life will be playable fights either through DLC or main story missions. All that we have to go off of is the fact that the game has been titled "Project Z" which suggests that the game is purely based around the events of Dragon Ball Z.

On the fighting note, the trailer shows no gameplay fighting at all, so we don't know what angle Bandai and developer CyberConnect2 will be taking with this title. Personally, I hope that the development studio takes notes from Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi as that was and still is my favorite Dragon Ball game. Dragon Ball: Project Z has no official release date as of yet, only a placeholder of "2019", but I will be sure to update you further once more details are released.

A recent listing for one of Ubisoft's most popular franchises has suggested that the Nintendo Switch will now be getting its first taste of the Assassin's Creed franchise.

The news comes from the European website, herni-svet.cz which a listing for "Assassin's Creed III: Liberation Collection" was found. Interestingly enough this isn't the first time a European retailer has listed a new Assassin's Creed collection for the Nintendo Switch, back in early December German retailer 'MediaMarkt' listed a Nintendo Switch Assassin's Creed. The website also claimed that this edition would be released on March 29th, 2019. It was later found that another European website going by the name of Originalky listed a Switch edition titled "Liberation Remaster", that website claimed it would release on March 29th.

The new listing suggests that that Ubisoft has selected the game that they wanted to port over to the Nintendo Switch and have settled with Assassin's Creed III, under the title "Liberation Collection". The listing suggests that this Nintendo Switch edition would be released on February 15th for 35 EURO, or $40. It should be heavily noted that Ubisoft has made no official announcement for a Nintendo Switch version of Assassin's Creed in the west, so please take both the existence of the game and the supposed release date with a healthy amount of skepticism. I would personally think that judging by the leaks from multiple sources that a Nintendo Switch version of Assassin's Creed does exist and that it would most likely release alongside the Assassin's Creed III remaster planned for March.

Capcom should be more than proud with their efforts they put into the remake of Resident Evil 2, the game has widely received by the public and now has reached a new Steam milestone.

According to Steam's own game statistics, Capcom's remake of Resident Evil 2 has pushed its way to Steam's top 10 most played games on its platform. Taking the lead at the time of writing this is DOTA 2 with 312,000 current players, followed by CS:GO with 304,000 players, PUBG with 162,000 players, Rainbow Six Siege with 69,000 players, Team Fortress 2 with 54,000 players and then finally Resident Evil 2 Remake with 44,000 players.

At the time of launch for Resident Evil 2, the game peaked out at 67,312 players making it the 6th most-played game on Steam's platform. That is quite an achievement for a game that is a remake of a title that was originally released back in 1996, in my opinion Capcom should be very proud of these numbers and the communities response to the title. Looking at the Steam reviews for the game, Resident Evil 2 comes in with the "Overwhelmingly Positive" category, with most players saying that have thoroughly enjoyed the game.

If you are a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fan and enjoy collecting Nintendo's amiibo's, then this new is will certainly make you happy. A image that has surfaced online showcases the designs for some unannounced amiibo's.

The above image was originally released onto Reddit and an amiibo discord, it showcases some unnannounced designs for Pokemon Trainer and Snake. According to the information provided, this image was sourced from a Japanese guide to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but as Smash Ultimate is very prone to photoshop hoaxes please do take this information as not confirmed as just yet.

It was confirmed throughout the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct that each of the fighters within Smash Ultimate would be receiving their very own amiibo figure. What we didn't know was the designs for each of the new and returning fighters, and we are still yet to see the designs for the placeholder names around Snake and Pokemon Trainer; Piranha Plant, Ivysaur, Chrom, Squirtle, Ridley, Dark Samus, Simon Belmont and Richter Belmont. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is currently exclusively available on the Nintendo Switch.

Dragon Ball Super's 'Jiren' has now been officially confirmed and teased by Bandai Namco, the character will be the first DLC fighter for Dragon Ball FighterZ's season two DLC.

The confirmation comes from the Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe Twitter page which states that "The Warrior from Universe 11 is joining the fight". If you have been keeping up to date with the Dragon Ball Super TV show then you would know that the "warrior from Universe 11" is clearly the very well-known fighter Jiren. Jiren is the representative fighter for Universe 11, and in the TV show pushes Goku to his absolute limits.

The Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour begins on January 26th and finishes on January 27th. The Twitter post from Bandai says that more information for Jiren will be revealed at the World Tour, so I'd assume that closer to the end of the tournament we will get a character trailer showcasing all of Jiren's moves and powers. Dragon Ball FighterZ is currently available on the Xbox One, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch.

Doom reskins are quite common, but one modder actually built the framework for Zelda NES using the GZDoom engine.

Ever wanted to play original Legend of Zelda in first-person and blast moblins in a 3D Hyrule? Modder Excodius has done just that with his Zelda total conversion mod for Doom, which essentially uses the flexible GZDoom engine to merge Zelda's colorful 8-bit graphics with Doom's FPS mechanics.

There's just one catch: the mod isn't actually finished yet. Excodius has no plans to wrap the mod up and has instead released the mod's starter version for other modders to jump in and lay the finishing touches.

The Division 2 will tap the Xbox One X's new High Refresh Rate functionality to boost FPS on specific displays.

According to The Division 2's store page, the game will support variable refresh rates on Xbox One S and Xbox One X systems, allowing users to breach the game's 30FPS cap. Both consoles technically support up to 120Hz output over HDMI, but the Xbox One X's higher-end horsepower will drive consistently higher frame rates while gaming.

Of course you'll need a TV or monitor that supports up to 120Hz over HDMI to take advantage of the mode. High Refresh Rate only works in 1080p and 1440p resolutions and the console's display settings will automatically down to 60Hz when set to 4K or 720p resolution (whereas The Division 2 hits scaled 30FPS in 4K by default).

Online-only games have many attractive benefits for publishers including potential million-dollar revenues and being able to change the game as players play. But there's also many trade-offs, the chief of which is clearly outlined with Anthem's current demo issues.

The Anthem VIP Demo is a mess right now. Many gamers who actually paid to pre-order can't even get in for myriad of reasons. Some are denied access because their digital EA account credentials aren't valid despite paying early for the game, others are caught in the infinite "connecting to servers" or loading screen loops (I'm one of them). Those who do manage to get in are often disconnected or met with various bugs that kick them out of the game. This presents a clear example of the bad side of live-based games--the side that aggravates gamers because they can't actually play.

Most games these days are shifting towards online models, but a lot of them still separate singleplayer and multiplayer. This is great and gives players a way to actually enjoy the game they bought even if the servers are knocked offline. The main issue with online-only games like Anthem or even Destiny is when there's online issues you simply can't play or engage with the product you spent money on. Sure, this is a part of all live games, not just Anthem, but it's a problem nonetheless. And it can actively push gamers away or frustrate them to the point where they quit, and as we know, avoidance can be the death of any live game.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds could take on Fortnite on its own turf with a free-to-play version.

PUBG Corp, the company made specifically to handle the battle royale titan, is currently beta testing a F2P variant of the game in Thailand. It's called PUBG Lite, and it's a scaled-down version with features shaved from the premium $30 game. Right now the beta is only open in Thailand but this trend should catch on eventually, and we could see a fully-fledged F2P flavor of PUBG launch in 2019.

"PUBG LITE is a standalone product from the core PUBG game and as such has its own dedicated dev team that will create exclusive content and quality of life features while also adding maps and content familiar to PUBG players," the devs wrote. "And best of all, the PUBG LITE client is a free product, making it easier than ever to enjoy PUBG's unmatched gunplay and heart-pounding Battle Royale experience."

An ex Cyberpunk 2077 creative director could have a hand in shaping Blizzard's new IPs.

Sebastian Stepien has jumped from Cyberpunk 2077 over to Blizzard, according to his updated LinkedIn profile, and it's very likely he's working on the studio's big new pipeline of games. Stepien was with CD Projekt RED for 12 years and commanded positions like creative director and head writer for games like The Witcher 3.

This shift is actually pretty exciting news given Blizzard's new slate of upcoming games. Stepien resumed his creative director role and is probably working on a nebulous new project in Blizzard's incubation department. The publisher is currently developing a plethora of new titles including fresh IP and sequels to big-name franchises like Diablo. While nothing's been announced so far, Blizzard executives have consistently said the pipeline is the biggest it's ever been in company history.

Anthem is ramping up into its launch with BioWare now talking with the press regarding various parts of its latest game, and one particular part of the information coming out now is that we can expect DLSS support after launch, and possible ray tracing updates in the future.

During an interview with WCCFTech, Anthem producer Scylla Costa talked about console performance including that the game might hit 60FPS on consoles in the near future. Costa said: "Yeah, in the future - that is a very good question. We need to make sure many parts of the game are running smoothly. It can be done, yes, for the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X in the future". The game runs in native 4K on the Xbox One X, and 4K checkerboard on the PS4 Pro.

As for PC gamers we can expect NVIDIA's new Deep Learning Super Sampling, or DLSS, to hit Anthem in an update "shortly after launch". As for ray tracing technology in Anthem like it was previously rumored, Costa said: "DLSS will be available shortly after launch. It's possible that ray tracing could be added later, but we don't currently have anything to announce in that space".

Valve's digital PC distribution platform faces serious competition with the Epic Store and newly launched Discord Store, and game devs aren't so sure Steam deserves its 30% cut.

As it stands now, Valve takes 30% of all game sales revenues for titles sold on Steam, leaving devs with 70%. The company hiked this split to 75-25 for devs who make $10 million in sales, and titles that make $20 million enjoy a greater 85-15 split. Basically the more your game sells on Steam, the less Valve keeps. But this doesn't help lots of smaller developers and many of them had interesting things to say.

In GDC's recent State of the Industry 2019 poll, about 32% of total respondents say Valve doesn't deserve its current rate. 27% of game devs who took the poll say that Valve probably doesn't deserve to keep all that cash. Only 6% of devs actually said that yes, Valve justifies its take-home revenue split, and 17% gave unsure answers. Valve needs to do better if it wants to keep pulling so much from every game sale, devs said.

Fortnite's blind-bag approach to lootboxes is biting the dust.

Starting with the new Save the World v7.30 update, Fortnite will expose the contents of all purchasable lootboxes to give gamers full transparency on what's inside before they buy. Epic's transition comes at an interesting time when gamers push back against potentially exploitative trends, such as randomized lootboxes with mystery rewards, and the industry pivots towards alternatives. These tactics have helped the battle royale sensation earn billions in revenue since its launch in 2017.

"Since launch, we've been refining the way you expand your item collection. We previously introduced loot drops, the ability to directly acquire any non-event item through the Collection Book, Llama dupe prevention, as well as gameplay-based event rewards, and now we're ready to take the next big step," Epic Games wrote in a recent post.

With face-melting carnage and optimized performance, Metro games are known for pushing graphics cards and processors to their utmost limit. Metro Exodus won't be any different.

Today 4A Games announced Metro Exodus' PC spec requirements, and they're pretty beefy. The game has four graphics presets: Low, High, Ultra and Extreme, and the jumps between each are pretty high. To play the open-ended shooter at 1080p 30FPS on Low settings, gamers will need to meet minimum spec requirements of an Intel Core-i5 4400, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670/NVIDIA GeForce 1050 or AMD Radeon 7870 GPU, and 8GB of RAM.

Recommended specs are a pretty decent sized jump. To play at 1080p 60FPS at High settings you'll need an Intel Core i7-4770K CPU, either an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070/NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or an AMD RX Vega 56 graphics card with 8GB of VRAM, and 8GB of system RAM.

Nintendo currently has no plans to make new Switch console models, company president Shuntaro Furukawa says.

Analysts predict Nintendo will release a handheld-only Switch Mini in 2019 at a lower, more affordable price to curb the 3DS' slow wind-down. Other reports say Nintendo will launch a revised Switch system with an improved screen, and possibly beefier internal specs like boosted RAM. But Nintendo affirms it's not thinking that far into the future yet (at least that's what it says publicly).

In a recent interview with Sankei Shimbun, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa stands by the 20 million Switch sales target while also confirming new models and MSRP drops haven't been considered yet. "[20 million sales] is a number that is fairly large and achievable. We will keep the target. The main focus of sales now is Switch, and so far we have not thought about successor models and price cuts."

Nintendo resets Metroid Prime 4's development and Retro Studios will restart the project from scratch. This of course means the sci-fi shooter will be delayed on the Switch.

Despite being "well into development," current progress on Metroid Prime 4 has been wiped out for not meeting Nintendo's high expectations. Bandai Namco's Singapore branch, who said their version would bring the "action, isolation, and exploration of the Metroid Prime universe to life," will now hand the game to Retro Studios, who handled dev of the original Metroid Prime series.

"We have determined that the current development status of the game is very challenged, and we had to make a difficult decision as a development team. We have decided to re-examine the development structure and change it," Nintendo Senior Managing Executive Officer Shinya Takahashi said.