Gaming - Page 814

Man, I can remember pumping in some serious time into the original Half-Life - it absorbed my life before, during, and after school at the time (I was 13 when it was released). Seeing it in the beyond-gorgeous Unreal Engine 4 is a real treat, and now Project Lambda is available to download.

Project Lambda is a fan project that uses Epic Games' awesome Unreal Engine 4 and has seen the small development team recreate the intro/train section of the first Half-Life game. This isn't a full recreation of the game in UE4 (that would take ages, and a team magnitudes larger) but it's a great tease nonetheless. The team have shared work-in-progress images of the remake over the months, but now we get our first real-world glimpse.

The fan project will expand from here with the team hard at work on the second part of this demo, something the developers are hoping will expand if the reception of the intro to Project Lambda is lvoed by gamers. This small snippet of the remake took months and months to make, so check it out and let us know what you think in the comments below.

Square Enix has updated The Last Remnant with enhanced graphics for modern day systems, planning a re-release for Holiday 2018.

A bit ago Square Enix removed The Last Remnant from all digital marketplaces and no one knew why. Now that move makes a lot more sense: it was to pave the way for The Last Remnant Remastered and ensure the updated game wasn't redundant. The new-and-improved version has been polished and overhauled thanks to the Unreal Engine 4, which boosts visual fidelity as well as improves in-game performance like frame rates.

The release is timed to celebrate the game's 10th anniversary and will launch on December 6, 2018 on PS4. The Last Remnant Remastered is priced at $20 and Square Enix currently has no plans for a physical in-store release.

Respawn's new third-person action Star Wars game Jedi: Fallen Order will have similarities with The Force Unleashed, sources have told the Making Star Wars Podcast.

We've known about Respawn's new Jedi: Fallen Order game for a while before it was announced at E3 2018. It'll be a narrative-driven experience that focuses strongly on characters and story, but it'll also have "larger-than-life action" and "groundbreaking mechanics" built into it as well. Jedi: Fallen Order takes place between Episodes III and IV when the Jedi were being hunted down, during a dark time in galactic history. On top of the 2019 release date, that's pretty much all we know about the game. Until now.

In the latest Making Star Wars podcast (about 19:01) a contributor says Jedi: Fallen Order will have ties to The Force Unleashed in more than a few ways. Anonymous sources at Respawn apparently divulged key info to the podcaster, including that we play as a young padawan who grows up during Order 66, and the game will be closer to The Force Unleashed without any crazy or ridiculous Force moments.

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey will let you freely explore the game without telling you what to do or exactly where to go, similar to one of my all-time favorite RPGs.

RPGs today aren't like they were. Even Bethesda's RPGs aren't like they used to be. Take Skyrim, for example: the game tells you where to go with convenience checkpoints and quest markers, making it more about time-sinking than having to think or really explore. But RPGs didn't used to be this...casualized. Morrowind, which stands as the best Elder Scrolls in existence, required gamers to actually pay attention and follow directions in a handy journal. You were given landmarks and told where to go and how to get there, but no on-screen indicators guided you. Your path was yours to make and you could take any shortcut you wanted. This kind of freedom will be somewhat channeled in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey.

Ubisoft has made a big to-do about Odyssey's freedom. The game sports a new dialog system that actually opens up questlines and affects NPC outlooks based on your answers, and the combat systems are more tailor-made. But Odyssey also sports a new Exploration Mode which essentially lets you fly blind into the wonders of 5th Century ancient Greece, removing quest indicators and other icons from your map (thank god because they're everywhere in Ubisoft games).

For the first time ever Ubisoft is including dialog mechanics that can actually change the course of your Assassin's Creed story.

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey already looks absolutely amazing thanks to its ancient Greece timeframe and Origins-based combat, but Ubisoft is keen on morphing the series into a RPG. Unlike previous games, Odyssey will give players tons of freedoms and choice both in how they tackle quests and explore, but also how they interact with NPCs. These dialog interactions will shape and mold your personal odyssey throughout the myth-infused Aegean, and your choices will ultimately unlock new pathways or block them off.

In a recent interview with VG247, Odyssey senior producer Marc-Alexis Cote says dialog options can determine what quests are available to you. And it's not always straightforward or black and white--you won't immediately know how your choices affect questlines or characters. This reminds me of a radiant quest system found in a lot of today's popular RPGs and will add more depth to specific decisions.

Since Microsoft won't greenlight Alan Wake 2, Remedy will bring Alan Wake to our televisions.

I've long thought Alan Wake would make a fantastic TV show--especially its excellent Night Springs anthology shorts--and today's announcement gives me incredible hope: the writer's spooky adventures will indeed be adapted into a live-action television series. The Alan Wake TV series will be penned by Legion writer Peter Calloway, Variety reports, and Remedy's Sam Lake, who came up with the Alan Wake concept, will be intimately involved with the project as executive producer. Contradiction Films will produce the show.

According to Contradiction Films' Tomas Harlan the show will follow the eerie Xbox 360 game's structure, but some things will be different. "I think it's important to embrace those characters and to bring Alan Wake to where he was [in the video game]. We can't start the show off where he is fully functioning, running through the forest, taking down lumberjacks."

Red Dead Redemption 2 will be a dramatic tale about the fall of outlaws displaced by a rapidly changing age of progress.

When I first saw Red Dead Redemption 2's story trailer I got a deep sense of what Rockstar was trying to do: paint a bloody picture of how the Wild West was tamed in an intimate way, showing how impending doom impacted outlaws personally and what they'd do to survive. At one point the Dutch Van Der Linde Gang harried and robbed their way across the West, but things have changed: instead of predators they've now become prey, hunted down by the long arm of the law and forced into a corner. Up against the wall, the outlaws are forced to make a decision: go out with guns blazing and ultimately die, or change. Its this choice players will face as Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2: redeem yourself and move forward, or die as you lived, wreaking bloody wanton mayhem across a once-lawless land with your brothers and sisters in arms. Where do Arthur's loyalties lie?

A recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter really drives this point home:

The full Halo 5 experience isn't coming to Windows 10 PCs any time soon, Microsoft reconfirms.

Although Microsoft has said multiple times that Halo 5 won't come to PC, gamers speculated that a recent box art change could hint at a PC port. This isn't happening; the awkward story campaign and rather good multiplayer will stay at home on the Xbox One. And honestly this makes a lot of sense.

"As we've shared previously, we do not have plans to launch Halo 5: Guardians on Windows 10 PC," a Microsoft rep told CNET.

Nintendo's premium Switch Online service will launch on September 18, 2018, the company today announced.

After various delays, Nintendo finally plans to roll out its $20 a year Switch Online subscription service in less than a week. The service will essentially mimic competitor's PlayStation Plus or Xbox LIVE by charging Switch owners to play online in specific games and doling out freebies every month. But Switch Online is more low-key, and more importantly, lower cost: the service costs $4 a month, $7.99 for 3 months, or $19.99 for 12 months. Users have been able to pre-order service cards and plans for a while now.

There's still a bit we don't know about Switch Online service, but Nintendo says it will reveal all in tomorrow's Nintendo Direct showcase. The subscription will offer 20 free NES games with online connectivity for co-op play, Nintendo says, but only 10 of these games have been announced so far. A free 7-day trial will be offered to all Switch owners via the eShop.

THQ Nordic might own the Kingdoms of Amalur IP now, but EA still holds the missing half for a Reckoning remaster.

As EA still owns the publishing rights to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, THQ Nordic must get a greenlight from the company in order to roll out a re-release or remaster of the 2012 fantasy game. Based on a press release we received earlier, THQ seems keen on opening up talks with EA about this very prospect, but exact details remain scarce and discussions could fall apart.

A THQ Nordic rep confirmed the news to Eurogamer: "EA still has the publishing rights to Reckoning. About any other details about the relationship between EA and 38 Studios we can't comment."

Recent rumors have surfaced and have hinted towards Nintendo re-scheduling their once planned Nintendo Direct for this coming Thursday.

For those that missed the news surrounding last weeks scheduled Nintendo Direct, unfortunately Nintendo had to delay their broadcast due to an earthquake striking Hokkaido, Japan. The earthquake caused massive destruction, it destroyed structures, buildings and also causing nearly 3 million civilians to loose power to their homes.

Rumors sourcing from NintendoLife have suggested that Nintendo will be re-scheduling their Direct for 3pm PDT this coming Thursday, exactly a week from their last scheduled broadcast. There is no official confirmation from Nintendo, the company actually hasn't said a single word after their delay announcement last week. Since there has been no official announcement, do take these "rumors" with a pinch of salt, there still could be some time to wait for the Direct.

Spider-Man, the PS4 exclusive from Insomniac Games has been released for less than a week and fans are already asking for a new game+ mode, so Insomniac Games is going to deliver just that.

Spider-Man has already broken records for both Marvel and Sony, the web headed PS4 exclusive has been deemed the fastest-selling game of 2018 in the UK, and has taken the crown for the fastest-selling Marvel-branded game in history. Most users that bought the title would either be a considerable way into the games' story or just about to finish it, assuming they picked it up on the release day. There are some players though that have already completed the story and are after something that is a bit more of a challenge, this is where New Game+ comes into play.

A post-release New Game+ addition is not irregular, Sony Santa Monica Studios decided to do just that with their highly successful God of War, the fans response was more than appreciated. Insomniac Games are currently in the works of doing the very same thing, according to a Twitter post, a player asked if Spider-Man would feature a "NG+" mode, Insomniac Games replied to this Tweet and said "yes working on it now and polishing it up!"

AMD has had a stellar year with their Zen CPU architecture which powers the new Ryzen 2000 series of processors, the new Ryzen Threadripper 2000 series of processors, and the workstation/server market with the EPYC family of CPUs.

But... we all want to know what the company is working on next, and while we don't have any firm details about the next generation Radeon GPU, we know AMD is working on new semi-custom designs for the next-gen consoles from Sony and Microsoft.

During an interview with Jim Cramer on CNBC, AMD CEO Lisa Su had some things to say about the new consoles. Su said: "both (Microsoft and Sony) have their specific secret sauce that they're (AMD) helping them do". Secret sauce is code for next-gen semi-custom designs, and working with Sony and Microsoft means it's a continued relationship and not past tense.

Microsoft has revealed on their store that Forza Horizon 4 will be getting a demo later today, according to the listing players will be able to enjoy dynamic seasons and numerous other features.

Forza Horizon 4 is developed by PlayGround Games and is published by Microsoft Studios and will feature a very impressive dynamic season cycle, all within a massive open world. Players will be able to choose between solo or team play with a toggle feature that has been provided, users can dance between both of these options seamlessly, interacting with drivers when they choose and also taking to the streets in their own little world.

From the Microsoft listing, we can see that the approximate size of the demo comes in at 27.83GB and will be released sometime today for both the Xbox One and PC. If you missed the 1 hour of gameplay footage that was released back in late July, check out that story here. Forza Horizon 4 will be released next month on October 2nd for the Xbox One and PC. For further details about the title, visit the official Forza website here.

The Australian game development studio has taken to their website blog to announce the official release date for Hollow Knight debuting to both consoles.

According to Team Cherrys blog post as well as their Twitter post, Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition will be arriving on both the Xbox One and PS4 on September 25th. Future players of Hollow Knight that have never heard of the game should know that the title is an action-platformer that has won several awards for its content and is also been rated quite highly from many game review sites such as Game Informer (9/10), Destructoid (10/10) and PC Gamer (92/100).

Here is what will be released in the Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition:

Epic Games has rolled out the most recent update to come to Fortnite, patch v5.40 has removed the video capture mode from Nintendo Switch users.

According to the patch notes which can be found on the official Epic Games website, patch v5.40 has removed the video video capture option from Nintendo Switch users. The patch notes say that this has been done due to "performance and stability reasons."

Looking towards the Nintendo Switch subreddit now, an Epic Games employee has commented on the above image which was posted by "FairyTrainerLaura." The employee named "MrPopoTFS" linked to the recent patch notes that have been released but more interestingly said that Epic Games are considering "the possibility of making this feature optional in the future for those players who don't mind taking a performance hit." Judging from the communities response in the comments below, not only do I but also many other people believe this is the absolute best option that Epic Games can choose. The more toggle options for gamers the better.

Battlefield V has been embroiled in so much controversy, EA DICE's ears must be on fire 24/7 at this point.

The game has been delayed by a month, has experienced huge backlash over insane customization (characters with hooks for arms, etc) and just recently the developer has been exposed to banning certain words and phrases in the in-game chat.

Battlefield V Producer Andrew Gulotta along with Community Manager Dan Mitre hit up a DICE 'deep dive' livestream on Battlefield V, where they addressed some of these issues. Gulotta said during the stream (around 28 minutes in):

With the release of Shadow of the Tomb Raider right around the corner, MSI has announced it will be bundling Lara's latest and greatest adventure with some of their gaming monitors.

MSI's new promotion runs from September 7-30, or until they've run out of Shadow of the Tomb Raider keys, of which you'll receive a Steam key if you purchase an eligible monitor. You'll also get a season pass of the game, with limited quantities of passes to be issued by MSI, when you purchase specific Optix MAG and MPG series gaming displays.

The list of MSI's eligible gaming displays for the SotTR promotion:

Activision and ASUS have teamed up for the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 on the PC, with the Republic of Gamers brand under the ASUS umbrella to be the first digital PC game bundle provider that kicks off on September 10 and runs through October 12.

In order to secure a copy of COD: Black Ops 4, you'll need to buy an eligible ASUS ROG product which will be made "during the limited production period" in order to receive the Digital Standard Edition of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.

Ander Nickell, Director of Partnerships at Activision said: "We are beyond thrilled to be partnering with ASUS Republic of Gamers in an unprecedented way for Black Ops 4. Our development teams are hard at work making this the best PC Call of Duty game yet. ASUS ROG shares that commitment to the community, so it was a natural fit to bring our brands together to deliver something special to fans".

A while back Bethesda's Todd Howard confirmed the studio is working on some "big and crazy projects," which we now know are the online-only Fallout 76, its new space odyssey IP Starfield, and the mysterious Elder Scrolls VI. But the latter is so far off it's not actually in full development just yet.

It's been confirmed multiple times that The Elder Scrolls VI won't release any time soon. Bethesda Games Studios has been careful to say that two other games will come out before the next RPG installment, making the slate order look like this: Fallout 76 first, Starfield next, and then The Elder Scrolls VI last. Considering Starfield is just now in the production and development phase and is somewhat playable, the next Elder Scrolls game is a far ways off (likely beyond 2020).

Now that we're all caught up, Bethesda's Pete Hines re-affirms the studio's development order. "Elder Scrolls 6 we didn't really dance around. We said, 'yes we're going to do it but there are two games to come first,'" Hines said in a recent interview with The Telegraph.