Gaming - Page 787

EA and DICE were the first to the gaming market with a real-time ray tracing added to Battlefield V and playable (with low FPS) on GeForce RTX graphics cards, and now Chinese MMO 'Justice' is joining the RTX-capable gaming family with a new update on the way.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang announced the news during China GTC 2018, with a new RTX on/off video above and some screenshots taken in-engine with RTX on and off. The trailer shows Justice with RTX on and off and does a good job and making the visuals look great, but the frame rate suffers. WHile the graphics are good, they aren't mind blowing with RTX on or off, so this feels like a very cherry-picked title to display RTX.

NVIDIA has said Justice will be the first game with "real-time ray-traced caustic effects", where light rays are re-focused or scattered once they shine on reflective or refractive surfaces. Once this happens in Justice with RTX on, the rays then "create a new light source" that is capable of casting its own shadows, and lighting up things near it. Impressive from a technical standpoint, but it won't add anything to the game.

Razer has just announced its new RazerCare Essesntial protection plans for gamers in the US, where it will bump the normal 1-year warranty on its gaming laptops to a larger 3-year warranty as well as 24/7 help, repair from authorized dealers, and free shipping for any repairs required.

The costs of RazerCare Essential protections plans break into these prices:

The full benefits:

DICE has now officially launched Battlefield V and while the world's first real-time ray traced game has beautiful RTX abilities on NVIDIA's latest GeForce RTX graphics cards, it's not perfect yet - far from it.

During an interview with Eurogamer, Software Engineer, Rendering at EA, Yasin Uludag, talked about upcoming optimizations that DICE and NVIDIA are working on for Battlefield V. He said: "People can expect us to keep improving our ray tracing as time goes, as both we at DICE and NVIDIA have a bunch of optimisations coming in from the engine side and driver side and we are far from done. We have specialists from NVIDIA and DICE working on our issues as we speak. From now on, it's only going to get better, and we have more data now too since the game released. By the time people read this, many of the improvements mentioned will already have been completed".

But it was the next thing that he said that got my attention more, as he mentions the original Quake and Crysis games on the PC by saying: "As you mention Quake and Crysis - Working on ray tracing and being the first out with it in this way is a privilege. We feel super-lucky to be part of this transition in the industry and we will do everything we can to deliver the best experience possible. Rest assured, our passion for ray tracing is burning hot!"

Psyonix has announced a huge new update for Rocket League in December with enhanced Xbox One X support that sees console owners enjoying the game at native 4K and 60FPS.

If you're an Xbox One X owner and don't have a 4K TV yet, Rocket League will render at 1080p and use super sampling to drive up the image quality with the new update. Psyonix hasn't detailed whether the PS4 Pro will benefit from the new update, but the Xbox One X is considerably better than the PlayStation 4 when it comes to high-res high refresh rate gaming.

The new Rocket League update drops on December 3 at 10AM PST, 1PM ET, and 6PM in the UK and will add:

Ole Ben Kenobi (well not old-old Ben, the young one) is coming to Battlefront II in a new content update.

In lieu of the cancelled Star Wars RPG from Visceral Games, EA and DICE have continually added to Battlefront II's updates to fill galactic gap between releases. This has culminated in a variety of new characters including General Grievous, and more recently, Obi-Wan Kenobi from the prequels timeline. DICE says Obi-Wan's countenance from Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith will be available on November 28, 2018 on all platforms.

Obi-Wan comes with three major abilities that highlight his prowess with the Force:

Thanks to iterative consoles like the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, console hardware lifecycle trends are a lot harder to map out.

NPD analyst Mat Piscatella recently brought up a good point about iterative consoles: they're disrupting the historical tracking guidelines for sales and overall cycle longevity. Traditional console cycles typically last up to eight years and have a distinct sales curve (ie up at launch and down at retirement), but the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X have extended the current hardware lifecycle by turning it into an ecosystem-driven family of systems. The usual next-gen cycle has been broken and hardware-makers no longer seem keen on restarting from scratch and possibly invalidating whole libraries of games. So now Sony and Microsoft have disrupted tracking trends by effectively selling new hardware that plays old games.

Here's what Mr. Piscatella said: "Hardware cycles as we knew them are over. So, the decay curve for hardware sales used to look like a normalized curve. Very predictable changes from year to year. All you really needed was year 1 sales of a new console, and you could predict, using history, what the 5-7 year curve would look like, pretty closely."

Microsoft just opened a new division in Asia to help court overseas game developers and secure big partnership deals with Japanese, Chinese, and Korean games-makers.

In a bid to fortify its currently shaky relationship with Asian developers, Microsoft has now added an Asian team to its Global Gaming Partnership and Development (GDDP) division. This team will aim to win over key overseas developers and publishers (Capcom, SEGA, and Square Enix to name a few) with deals to help fill out the Xbox ecosystem's flagging exclusive games roster.

But it's not just about games. Xbox isn't just game-centric any more and is an ecosystem that's powered by lucrative services including Xbox LIVE, Game Pass, Mixer and of course the Xbox Store. As a recent GDDP Asia job listing states, the team will focus on Microsoft's bigger picture gaming and engagement strategy rather than just grabbing game rights. Essentially Microsoft wants to adapt their existing services for other territories and make them more appealing for, say, Japanese consumers.

Blizzard is hellbent on reversing Diablo III's cartoon-ish style and return the series to its dark and malevolent roots.

Diablo was always sourced from the macabre; the first game took us through grim catacombs, bloody fanes to unholy gods, and to the very depths of hell itself. Diablo II did the same but only better, adding a trans-dimensional feel to the demon-infested world of Sanctuary. But Diablo III took the series on a more accessible road that didn't alienate everyday consumers so much, transforming the hallowed brutality into something more commercial and safe.

With Diablo IV, the team at Blizzard wants to reverse this path. Anonymous Blizzard devs tell Kotaku's Jason Schreier that Diablo IV aims to skip Diablo III's style and return to the chaotic hellscapes of Diablo II. While Diablo IV has gone through two major iterations so far, the latest one, project Fenris, is molding itself around the horror style, themes, and scope of Diablo II.

Diablo III was supposed to keep expanding past Reaper of Souls with a second major DLC that never saw light of day.

Reaper of Souls saved Diablo III and was essentially Blizzard's way of redeeming itself for the game's launch woes. But there were originally more plans to flesh out the ARPG with a second big expansion akin to Reaper of Souls, and thus extend the 2014 game outside of its live service bent. Gamers almost got the content they've been asking for for four years...but the project died out.

In a recent chronicling of Diablo's history, key sources close to Blizzard tell Kotaku's Jason Schreier that Diablo III's roadmap once didn't end with Reaper of Souls. There was to be another expansive content drop, and the Diablo team was working on it alongside RoS when Blizzard decided to cancel it.

Firaxis Games has announced that they will be bringing a brand new DLC to Civilization VI and it will be the "largest expansion ever created for a Civilization game."

The update titled 'Gathering Storm' will be adding a number of brand new content that will change the dynamic of the game completely. Gathering Storm will add environmental effects in the form of Volanco's, storms, blizzards, sand storms, tornados, hurricanes, floods, climate change and even droughts.

Other content that is mentioned in the patch notes is the addition of nine new leaders from eight new civilizations. New scenarios will also be added, examples include; 'The Black Death' which will pout your Civilization to the test as your population struggles to survive and all hope seems lost. World Congress has also been added as well as 21st Century Technologies and Civics. For more information regarding the biggest content update to ever come to a Civilization game, visit the official patch summary in the entirety of this post, or visit the official Civilization wesbite patch notes here. Civilization VI: Gathering Storm will be rleeased on February 14th, 2019.

Marvel's Spider-Man has been gifted with the second part of the three part DLC series titled The City That Never Sleeps. This time round Spidy will be going up against crime boss Hammerhead in the DLC titled 'Turf Wars.'

In the above trailer you will listen to J. Jonah Jamerson do exactly what he does best, go on long rants about what is happening in the city and giving Spider-Man absolutely no credit for anything that he is doing to help. Throughout the trailer we can see three band new suits that will be making their way to the game, we have Spider-Armor MKI, Spider-Clan and Iron Spider Armor.

Content wise, 'Turf Wars' will be adding new enemy strongholds that will feature stronger enemies and different enemy types. The last chapter in The City That Never Sleeps is called Silver Lining and will be released sometime throughout December. For those that don't have any of the Spider-Man DLC's, you can purchase the Season Pass for $25 or purchase each individual chapter for $10 each. Marvel's Spider-Man is exclusively available on the PlayStation 4.

Amazon Japan is not slowing down in terms of offering Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players the 'Ultimate' package. In celebration of Cyber Monday, Amazon Japan has brought together a massive 63 Amiibo fighter bundle set available to purchase.

The above image shows that the bundle will contain a very large range of fighters and will also come with limited edition hanging scroll of the Super Smash Bros. battlefield stage. All of the fighters will be arriving in a limited edition Smash Ultimate storage box.

This Amiibo set is so limited edition that there is only 50 sets available before it is sold out. Unfortunately, the Western regions haven't got a similar kind of deal going on, but if we were to estimate how much this set would cost in the west we would say it would be upwards of $650+. With the average Amiibo coming in at about $13 each and there being 63 of them, $650 may even be low balling the price due to the lack of shipping additions etc. If you want to check out the listing on Amazon Japan for yourself, a link can be found here.

Digital Extreme's massively popular free-to-play title Warframe has made its way over to the Nintendo Switch and is now completely available to play.

The above launch trailer has been released in celebration of the game being available to the public. Players can already jump onto the Nintendo eShop and download Warframe, between today and December 4th at 11:59 p.m. ET any player that does choose to download Warframe will receive "a free starter pack of in-game items via your in-game Inbox."

Included within this pack is 50,000 credits, a 3-Day Affinity Booster that will allow for the players' armor to be ranked up much more quickly, Orokin Reactor which doubles mod capacity and Forma upgrade choices. Warframe has been ported over to the Nintendo Switch by Panic Button, more on that story here. It should also be noted that Warframe just passed 38 million registered players, if you want to read more up on that, check that story out here.

Nintendo has given us a lengthy overview trailer for the coming Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The trailer gives us a quick run-down of each of the best parts about Smash Ultimate and why players should pick up the title for their hand-held console.

The trailer is directed by The Announcer as he takes us through each of the different aspects of Smash Ultimate, starting with how damage works, recovering from falls and fighting each-other in general. The trailer continues and we are reminded that we will be able to play Ultimate in TV mode or hand-held mode and that the roster is going to consist of 74 unique fighters. The Announcer also covers items, stages, stage morph and assist trophies.

The Announcer also gives a quick run-down of each of the different game modes as well as the Adventure Mode: World of Light and Spirits. There is much more covered within the overview trailer but it isn't anything we don't know already, for more information regarding Super Smash Bros. Ultimate visit the official Smash website here. If you are considering picking up Smash Ultimate for your Nintendo Switch, here is everything you will need to have the 'Ultimate' experience.

Epic Games put aside a rather hefty $100 million towards esports tournaments for Fortnite earlier this year, with the developer announcing the new Winter Royale tournament with $1 million of prizes up for grabs.

Fortnite players will have to be either in the US or Europe in order to qualify, with event sessions taking place during qualifying days on November 24 and 25. If you get through the qualifying matches, you'll have to play in the US or European finals on November 30 for Europe, and December 11 in the US.

The popularity of this event will only grow the competitive scene in Fortnite as it'll bring massive media attention with $1 million up for grabs in a game with over 8.3 million concurrent players per day right now. Epic Games has a $100 million kitty for Fortnite and that was before the new injection of $1.25 billion in funding that Epic Games received in late October, just weeks ago.

NVIDIA's shining star game of its GeForce RTX launch was Battlefield V with its amazingly gorgeous real-time ray tracing support highlighting the flagship GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card.

Well, now the company has announced it's giving away free copies of Battlefield V to anyone who purchases a GeForce RTX 2070/2080/2080 Ti graphics card either on its own, or in a system. Battlefield V is the world's first game with ray tracing, so it's the perfect showcase of real-time ray tracing that is exclusive to GeForce RTX series graphics cards.

The problem is that anyone who purchased a GeForce RTX card between its launch and now, doesn't get a free copy of Battlefield V. Early adopters are screwed in this scenario, but it makes the RTX purchase a little sweeter with a game like Battlefield V being bundled. If you already own Battlefield V through Origin and purchase a new GeForce RTX graphics card you won't be gifted a second copy.

October 2018 was a gigantic month in the world of gaming with the releases of huge titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Red Dead Redemption 2, and joined by others released either in October or close to it with Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Spider-Man, and many other gigantic releases in October.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has completely dominated the charts that NPD group is reporting, with the company only tracking physical sales from retailers and not digital versions of the games, or the PC version of Black Ops 4. This means that Black Ops 4 is far out and beyond the sales of Red Dead Redemption 2 because if it's beating it in physical sales, I can dare say it's destroying it in digital sales - on top of that, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is on the PC and RDR 2 is not.

The NPD Group talked about COD: Black Ops 4 sales for October, where NPD analyst Mat Piscatella explained: "Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is the best-selling game of October. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 launch month dollar sales represent the eigth highest in Video Game history since The NPD Group began tracking in 1995. Black Ops 4 instantly becomes the best-selling game of the year, and the seconnd best-selling game across the past twelve month period, trailing only Call of Duty: WWII".

The rumors of the next-gen PlayStation 5 have blown up the internet this week, with the same Reddit member 'RuthenticCookie' also teasing that BioWare's new game 'Anthem' will be delayed.

Anthem has a release date of February 22, 2019 from BioWare and its publisher EA, but Cookie said: "Anthem is a mess on this-gen consoles. It's going to get delayed again". But the rumor has already been smashed down by Anthem's own Lead Producer, Ben Irving, who explained on Anthem's official Discord server that the rumors were not true.

Irving said: "Are you talking about Anthem being delayed? That's not a thing".

Valve's failed attempt to marry PC gaming with console-like living room play may not get resurrected any time soon...well at least in the current iteration.

Valve is discontinuing production of its Steam Link hardware, the company today announced.Once the mini-box is sold out, it'll be gone for good, and stock is already depleted in Europe and fast fading in the U.S. too. If you've ever been interested in the Steam couch gaming ecosystem you should act fast.

"The supply of physical Steam Link hardware devices is almost sold out. Moving forward, Valve intends to continue supporting the existing Steam Link hardware as well as distribution of the software versions of Steam Link, available for many leading smartphones, tablets and televisions. Click here to find out more about the Steam Link App," the company said.

After nearly 12 years of development, Square Enix has finished up development on Kingdom Hearts III.

Tetsuya Nomura today confirmed what fans have been waiting for years to hear: Kingdom Hearts III is now complete. All the programming, designing, directing and every other insurmountably compounded task on the RPG has been wrapped up. "I'm proud to unveil an extended version of the trailer that's been playing in NA cinemas. And guess what? We've wrapped up development of Kingdom Hearts III!" game director Tetsuya Nomura said on Twitter (the trailer is found above). "If you haven't had the chance yet, now would be a good time to prep by playing 1.5+2.5 & 2.8. See you next month!"

This news is undoubtedly a milestone for the studio and gamers alike. Everyone's been waiting over a decade for Sora's next chapter and to jump back in the mix with beloved Disney characters. This update also means Kingdom Hearts III won't be delayed--that would hurt Square Enix quite a bit--and we should see a "gone gold" confirmation soon.