Gaming - Page 849

Some images have been unveiled by NVIDIA and PUBG Corp that show off a new map that is currently in development.

The new map features a 4 x 4 km area which will see shorter and faster paced games. The team over at PUBG Corp currently has plans to bring this new map to the test servers next month, they hope that bringing the map to players early will result in enough time to add the correct balancing fixes it will need for the live servers.

Check out the images below for a better look at the coming map. A side not when looking at the images is to keep in mind that the map is currently a work-in-progress, meaning that on release it will look much better than what is showcased here.

If you thought that the 650,000 concurrent viewers at its peak in the Fortnite livestream between Ninja and Drake was huge, that is nothing compared to the 1 million+ that a Fortnite stream on YouTube achieved.

elrubiusOMG is a popular Spanish YouTuber that has over 28 million subscribers and is riding the huge Fortnite hype hosting a Fortnite event on March 25 that had another 99 YouTubers that smashed over 1 million viewers.

YouTube's eSports content partnership team member Alex Rubens was even watching, tweeting it out to his followers as the livestream hit 1.08 million concurrent viewers.

Atari has released a bunch of new-ish info about the Atari VCS all-in-one connected gaming system set top box, confirming a lot of details we already knew--and unveiling some fresh clues.

As we already predicted, the Atari VCS (formerly codenamed the Ataribox) is a sort of nexus for different activities. It's really meant to be a set-top box for the living room in the same way as Microsoft's original Xbox One, combining a bunch of different functionalities into a single device. But unlike the Xbox One, which is a games console, Atari touts that the Atari VCS is a fully-functional Linux-based computer that will basically do everything consumers want it to, from streaming music and video, gaming, and even running social media apps. As we also predicted the Atari VCS will connect to an official Atari storefront UI that will sell games and other content for consumers to download. Content on the store will include more classic Atari games (in addition to the old-school retro games already pre-loaded on the device) along with third-party and indie titles. Which third-party AAA or AA games will be available on the storefront, however, have yet to be announced.

While Atari still hasn't revealed exact specifications for the device (the company notes exact hardware specs and capabilities are in development flux) the company has said the Atari VCS will run on a customized x86 AMD Radeon processor. Tom's Hardware hinted that the box's gaming power may be closer to a Switch than an Xbox One or PS4, but Atari COO of Connected Devices Michael Arzt now says the system-that's-not-a-console's performance is "comparable to a higher-end PC laptop."

The latest update to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is coming, with the developers recently opening up about concerns over ping in matchmaking which would see a future PUBG update include server region locks.

PUBG Corp said in an announcement today: "One of the solutions we are considering is operating servers so that only those players who reside in that region can connect and play. These servers will be made invisible to players residing in other regions. But, at the same time, if a player in an exclusive server region forms a team with a player from another region, they can connect to and play on any of the servers available to either of them".

The developer continued: "Through this new approach we are aiming to provide a better gameplay experience as it will improve network issues and help with linguistic barriers. We are going to run a limited test of this approach as more detailed research and analysis should come before global application".

Before it made Warframe, Digital Extremes made some awesome games such as The Darkness II, and if you haven't experienced it yet you can grab it online for free.

Continuing its tradition of awesomeness, the Humble Bundle Store is giving away free copies of 2K Games' brutal shooter The Darkness II...but be sure to act fast as copies are apparently limited on a first come first served basis. And what's more the game will only be free for the next 48 hours so jump on it ASAP.

I've yet to try the game myself but I've heard nothing but good things about the sequel and the series as a whole...so you better believe I grabbed my copy already.

With the release of Far Cry 5 right around the corner, AMD has released their new Radeon Software 18.3.4 drivers that include support for the game, and a few fixes for other games.

AMD is even offering Far Cry 5 for free when you buy a Radeon RX 580 or Radeon RX Vega graphics card, that is, if you can find cards in this dimension because miners have purchased them all. That's for another article, but just something to scratch the chin over.

AMD has also fixes issues in Final Fantasy XV, as well as "some blockchain workloads" seeing reduced performance in the last drivers. You can download the new Radeon Software 18.3.4 drivers right here.

Bethesda's Skyrim Special Edition has recently received a slew of goregous 4K textures from Modder 'MystiriousDawn Pfuscher.'

The below images detail a selection of terrain landscapes that have replaced the vanilla textures with is titled as "HD Ground Textures - 4K."

MystiriousDawn Pfuscher is offering different variants of the mod, options include a low quality resolution of 1K, a high quality one at 2K and the ultra high quality at 4K.

The comedic value from Ubisofts upcoming Far Cry 5 release is honestly outstanding, there has been very few trailers that have made be laugh as much as this one, and its all due to the sheer amount of fun that bleeds the scenarios and lyrics seen in front of me.

The new trailer has been titled "Far Cry 5: Singalong - My Country 'Tis Of Thee" and the title really does mean what it says, starting the trailer in a subtle kind of fashion and then eventuating in to pure Far Cry chaos.

Far Cry 5 will release on PS4, Xbox One and PC on March 27th, will be downloading and providing benchmarks for this game as soon as its released, so stay tuned for some performance numbers.

Big publishers like EA and Ubisoft are exploring how new technologies like blockchain and AI will arm developers with new tools for game dev, and the French games-maker is confident this will be a boon to its worldwide studios.

Making video games is pretty much an overwhelming endeavor that takes countless hours of rote coding, animation, tweaking, fixing, and most importantly iteration. But what if devs could use, say, an advanced AI like IBM's Watson to cut development time while giving creators more control over the more vivid and interesting aspects of their games? That's Ubisoft's hope, and one of the many reasons why they're experimenting with new technology in their new Strategic Innovation Lab.

Ubisoft is looking at ways that AI can handle specific tasks such as monotonous animating and testing. According to Yves Jacquier, who heads Ubisoft's studio production services branch, using AI in this way will give developers much more time to innovative, iterate, and generally be creative and bring new ideas and content to the table. But the issue here is what's known as "feature creep," so giving every developer too much creative freedom could end up bloating the scope and pipeline of the game itself.

Last month Nightdive Studios put the ambitious System Shock reboot on hiatus, but just how long will it take the devs to ship the game? Two years give or take.

While developing the massively anticipated System Shock remake Nightdive Studios ran into an all-too-common problem in game dev: "feature creep". Essentially what happens is that as more and more people become attached to the project, everyone injects their ideas into the scope of the game, which eventually becomes so wide it barely resembles the project that gamers actually backed on Kickstarter. This is a natural issue in game dev and is likely responsible for the cancellation or outright recycling of many, many games (maybe Visceral suffered the same with their project Ragtag Star Wars game?).

As a result Nightdive says the game may not be ready to actually play until 2020 (remember games take a while to make).

Following the season 11 finale of The X-Files, showrunner Chris Carter lets slip that FOX is making a new X-Files game to keep the property going.

As a huge fan of The X-Files, I have mixed feelings about the new seasons. But whatever your opinions may be about Scully and Mulder's return to TV it appears that they'll also make another splash in the video game world. After three games--the last of which was a more interactive experience--Carter says the powers that be are ready to try again.

SPOILER WARNING: Huge spoilers for season 11 in the source article!

EA's Vancouver-based studio is hiring for an "open world Star Wars game," and it's probably Visceral's killed project. But a new job listing strongly suggests the game will have online-based elements, which points towards live services, engagement, and monetization strategies that EA is well known for.

One of the most disappointing things that EA has done recently was a two-fer: killing off Visceral Games, and then cancelling its ambitious-sounding Star Wars game only to have another studio recycle it. Everything I reported about the Visceral game made it sound pretty good, but EA wasn't convinced: the linear singleplayer action game just didn't mesh well with player feedback (and of course it probably didn't have a live services element that'd make the publisher tons of recurring cashflow).

EA's Patrick Soderlund explained the situation but let potential development issues off the table "Throughout the development process, we have been testing the game concept with players, listening to the feedback about what and how they want to play, and closely tracking fundamental shifts in the marketplace. It has become clear that to deliver an experience that players will want to come back to and enjoy for a long time to come, we needed to pivot the design."

The team at CD Projekt RED has described Cyberpunk 2077 as the "biggest project we've ever made," and rightly so: the game is a massive investment in technology, manpower, and pretty much every facet of games development. But development seems to be going smoothly and the game should be out in at least three years time.

Back in 2016 we reported that CD Projekt RED plans to launch Cyberpunk 2077 and a new unannounced AAA RPG by 2021 as part of its five-year roadmap strategy. Now in its fiscal year 2017 results the company reaffirms this plan, which reinforces the assertions that Cyberpunk 2077's huge world-building is on schedule. In fact CDPR President and CEO Adam Kicinski said the sci-fi RPG hit a major milestone in the FY2017 report: "The development of our next flagship product - Cyberpunk 2077 - is on schedule, and has reached a major production milestone in late 2017."

Read Also: Cyberpunk 2077 should have online elements

The Witcher 3 is by far the most popular game in the White Wolf's fantasy trilogy, generating tons of revenue for CD Projekt RED over its three years of release.

During its 10th anniversary year the Witcher series sold a mighty 33 million cumulative copies across three games, but one of those games was a leading driver in sales revenues. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt not only represented a massive investment for developer CD Projekt RED in terms of technology and manpower, but is a critical milestone in the studio's current reputation as the masters of their craft. In terms of sales revenue, though, The Witcher 3 earned a whopping 15 times as much as The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings in three-year cash generation.

CD Projekt RED's fiscal year 2017 results show just how important The Witcher 3 has been/is to the games-maker, and the title's game of the year re-release along with PS4 Pro and Xbox One X enhancements have ensured longer-term interest. "With regard to sales, The Witcher 3 again provided the largest contribution to sales revenues," said CD Projekt RED's Chief Financial Officer Piotr Nielubowicz during the FY2017 report.

The remastered rendition of the classic ARPG Titan Quest is now available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

In an age where action RPGs like Grim Dawn, Path of Exile, and Diablo III typically rule the market, it's great that companies like THQ Nordic reminding gamers about old-school hack-and-slashers that helped define the genre. While that mantle will pretty much be defined by the original Diablo game, Titan Quest was a big mover that provided a unique ancient setting infused with Greek mythology. And now modern gamers can experience what PC players in the 90s know quite well.

Titan Quest is now available on PS4 and Xbox One with newly enhanced graphics and online multiplayer action, but couch co-op isn't in just yet. The Nintendo Switch port is also on the way but hasn't been finalized just yet--it may even be the first real ARPG on the console unless Diablo III is actually coming to the system soon.

Nintendo's hybrid-handheld Switch console enjoys immense popularity through its first year of sales, especially in the United States.

Despite component shortages that limited hardware allocation throughout most of 2017, the Nintendo Switch has sold 14.86 million units as of December and overshot the company's internal 14 million sales target for the entire year. This consistent popularity has been driven by strong first-party and third-party software support along with the system's transforming on-the-go and home console hardware duality--and it's not something that should change any time soon.

It's no surprise the Switch is selling like gangbusters, but the NPD Group's latest findings put the console's success into perspective. According to NPD Group analyst Mat Piscatella, the Switch has raked up the highest hardware install base in U.S. history within a one-year period.

PUBG players will soon be gifted with a very special mode from PUBG Corp, titled 'Event Mode' will bring to life a slew of different game modes and types for players in a rotative fashion.

At the moment 'Event Mode' is available on the test servers and has been described by PUBG Corp as "periodically changing preset Custom Game where we will be trying new things and experimenting with different game parameters."

Currently, players can be apart of the test server fun, joining as a eight-player squad that will be dropping into Erangel with double the drop rates for rifles. PUBG Corp has said that this is just the beginning for 'Event Mode', here is what they had to say "We know it's not a huge change from the public matches, this is just to get things rolling, the future of the Event Mode holds exciting things!"

Nintendo has decided to gift their Nintendo Switch owners with a eShop sales in both Europe and North America. The sales range from games that are well known on the Switch to amazing indie titles.

If you are interested in adding some new titles to your Nintendo Switch, you will be glad to know if you check the Nintendo eShop this week you will be bombarded with sales across the board.

A special thanks to Resetera user "Captain of Outer Space" for providing a full list of the titles that are on sale for not only the Nintendo Switch, but all other Nintendo eShop sale compatible products as well. Examples of some well known titles on sale are Rocket League, Steamworld Dig and Brawlout, check out the full list here.

If are not good at Sea of Thieves and notice that you are being resurrected quite a lot then sadly I have some bad news for you, Rare will soon be implementing a gold-fee charge for players to re-spawn.

Rare has addressed this new mechanic in their recent release notes which can be found here. The new change will usher in the Captain of the Ferry of the Damned asking players for a "small gold fee" once they perish.

Rare discusses that the "rates are dependent on the cause of death, so the more avoidable the death, the less patience the Captain will have when we enable this feature!" Many players are expressing concern about this update, saying that spawn camping could happen or even that this could be a incentive for players to purchase more gold through future microtransactions.

Electronic Arts have created a brand new AI that has the capabilities to self-teach, the AI has already taught itself how to play Battlefield and gets smarter and smarter with every game it plays.

Electronic Arts has a separate division called SEED, 'Search for Extraordinary Experiences Division' and the teams technical director Magnus Nordin has created a "self-learning-agent" that has the capabilities to teach itself Battlefield gameplay.

Nordin took to this blog post to explain what has exactly happened here, he begun by asking himself "how much effort it would take to have a self-learning agent learn to play a modern and more complex first person AAA game like Battlefield"