Gaming - Page 863

In a recent post found on the /r/NintendoSwitch subreddit photographs of a Mexican Nintendo magazine has surfaced, the images showcase Nintendo commenting on the upcoming Pokemon game for the Nintendo Switch.

The post by Kratomlol links to a Twitter post from Ahnabella, who has taken some images of the official Mexican Nintendo magazine, the images can be found below. Translating the Pokemon featured text we get this in English: "‏After a lifetime associated with portable consoles, the canonical pokemon will take the leap to a table with its eighth generation. game freak and the pokemon company are rethinking the saga to surprise with new mechanics, either in 2018 or later."

This is quite interesting as according to the magazine Nintendo's next Pokemon title for the Switch will have some new mechanics, this raises the question at what classic mechanics will be changed and what will be added in replacement. Pokemon fans on the Reddit thread seem to be debating over whether its time for the Pokemon series to debut to an open-world genre, or just stick to the same classic turn-based combat system. This decision of choosing between the two could divide the Pokemon community quite quickly, hopefully in the coming months we get some confirmation from Nintendo as the rumors are abundant right now.

Pete Hines could have just dropped a cryptic message that suggests at this years E3 we could see a DOOM II announcement.

In a recent interview with DualShockers, Hines was questioned about what Bethesda has in store for its fans for the rest of 2018, Hines said he "couldn't give you any guesses as to what we're going to announce and when those games will be out" but there is "a lot of new stuff to talk about at E3."

More importantly though and this is where the speculation of a DOOM II announcement at this years E3 stems from. In the follow up question, Hines replied with this statement "Whether or not folks realize it, this is the hell on Earth [emphasis added] time for us with E3. We are in the midst of so much planning and work for all of that content but I'm really excited."

There must be some serious mind control devices over at EA, with the publisher reintroducing microtransactions in Star Wars Battlefront II, because why the hell not.

Star Wars Battlefront II will receive a new update next week that will see Crystals return, the in-game currency that you can buy with real-world money. The upcoming Night on Endor update will include Crystals, with developer DICE introducing some big changes to microtransactions so that they can only adjust your in-game appearance, because that makes it so much better.

The developer removed microtransactions from the company after the force strike of backlash they received not so long ago. One of the more positive parts of the Battlefront II update is that you'll be able to play as Ewoks in the new limited-time Ewok Hunt game mod that throws you into a team of Ewoks against Stormtroopers in asymmetric mode.

Kotaku has reported that a new BioShock title is currently under development, there was no additional information given on the title as it is said to be highly secretive.

Jason Schreier, a reporter for Kotaku has said on his post that the next game for the BioShock series is at the moment under development in secret. The title is in-fact so secretive that and anonymous source said: "If anyone from Hangar 13 tried to strike up a conversation with them, they'd say, 'Oh, we can't really talk about it."

Officially nothing has been confirmed as of yet for a new BioShock title to be in development but for those that want to read the full post breakdown from Schreier and see what else is pieced together, check out his post here.

Epic Games has been having a few teething problems with Fortnite, with the servers going into "emergency maintenance" in the last 24 hours, and now the developer has delayed their upcoming 50 vs 50 mode until next week.

The developer announced the news in a post on Reddit, where they said that there's no problem with the mode exactly but there are other issues in Fortnite that are stopping Epic right now. The company has been experiencing many account issues, driving into the emergency maintenance last night, and so much more in the last few weeks.

Fortnite will soon enjoy its 50 vs 50 mode in the next week, if there aren't any more problems, that is.

Bethesda has announced that their classic The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Special Edition is going to be going free-to-play this weekend on Steam, currently the game is available to download and if you are one of the few gamers that haven't played Skyrim definitely give it a download.

Skyrim Special Edition comes with a graphical upgrade that includes better textures, volumetric god rays, dynamic depth of field, screen-space reflection and more. There is also mod support for the title so don't forget to check that out if you are interested in amping the Skyrim experience up.

To go with the free weekend Bethesda is also discounting the title by 50%, check out the above video if you are interested in picking up the Special Edition of Skyrim while its cheap.

Ubisoft are celebrating their title Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege reaching a massive 30 million registered players across all platforms. Ubisoft has released a short video to celebrate the new milestone.

It appears that Rainbow Six Siege is growing at an amazing rate of about 5 million players every 4 or so months, as the tactical shooter hit a milestone of 25 million players in December.

Ubisoft commented on the recent achievement, thanking the players for their support to their game. Here is what they had to say: "On behalf of the entire team, we wanted to thank every member of our diverse, global community for their support of our game. Our players are the most valuable element to our game. Over the last three years we have endeavored to create a solid community built on transparency as we grow and evolve the ever-expanding world of Rainbow Six Siege. We are so tremendously honored to achieve this milestone, and we will continue to do everything we can to earn each and every new person that decides to play."

In a recent sales data release from Famitsu, it has been reported that the Nintendo Switch sales in Japan have reached just over 4 million, marking a very significant milestone for the handheld console.

According to Famitsu, a video game hardware tracking website, the Nintendo Switch has reached the 4 million sales mark in Japan in just over a year. This number is quite impressive considering that Sony's PlayStation 4 took a massive 38 months or three years to reach this same spot.

Currently PlayStation 4 sales are just over 6 million units, at the rate that the Nintendo Switch is going we could see the handheld console surpass the PS4 by the end of the year, that isn't even counting the games staple releases. Think about the sales increase when Nintendo drops a Pokemon game for the Switch, then think about the new guaranteed Super Smash Bros. game, PlayStation 4 sales will be blown out of the water with just these two titles dropping. Currently we are seeing a massive influx of indie games on the Switch, the triple A titles are yet to start flowing in, this makes me question how far can the Nintendo Switch sales really go.

Soulcalibur VI has been getting quite the attention lately, as Geralt makes his debut to the upcoming title so does the classic Nightmare. Now, we have Nightmares other half, Siegfried, Bandai has released a reveal trailer for the disturbed character.

Players that aren't already familiar with Siegfried and how he became Nightmare will have to know that Siegfried isn't the fastest of characters, but more so relies on his brute strength. Using his massive sword to defend himself as well as cause mayham for the opponent, Siegfrieds expected appearance slots perfectly into the Soulcalibur roster.

Bandai Namco has given a short description on Siegfried, so for those do not know the tragedy of this character it is recommend that you do, here is Bandai's description: "After losing to Kilik and his comrades in the form of Nightmare, Siegfried awoke in an unfamiliar place and he is now unable to free himself from the unforgiving memories of his time spent as the cursed sword's puppet. The memory of having killed his own father is haunting him. His true nightmare has only just begun. Full of regrets, he is looking for redemption and he desperately wants to free himself from the cursed sword's grasp!"

The Division has received a new update for the Xbox One family of consoles, with Ubisoft releasing the new v1.8.1 update that includes two new Global Events on all platforms.

Blackout is the first Global Event, which will roll out towards the end of the month and then Onslaught is penciled in for the end of May. The new update will see The Division running at up to 4K on the Xbox One X, thanks to the additional horsepower inside of the refreshed console.

The new v1.8.1 patch for The Division will give the Xbox One X version the following visual changes:

We should expect Sony to release their new PS5 in the coming years, with an exclusive source of TweakTown telling us during Computex last year that the PlayStation 5 will rock a discrete GPU, and not a super-weak APU like all consoles now with very under-performing CPUs.

Speaking with Polygon during the recent GamesBeat conference, former Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Andrew House said: "I'm very bullish on longer life cycles for consoles. Consoles are so under-represented and under-penetrated in so many markets around the globe. There's so much potential. Let's not forget that China is still largely (untapped)".

Sony needs to make the PS5 a truly next-gen console, where I expect 4K 60FPS as a minimum. By then, PC gamers will be enjoying NVIDIA's surely-a-smash-hit BFGDs, which will arrive as huge 65-inch 4K 120Hz HDR gaming TVs. 4K 120FPS gaming on the PC, should hopefully mean next-gen consoles offer bare minimums of 4K 60FPS with HDR, but I'm hoping 4K 120FPS that would allow next-gen PSVR experiences, too.

SteamSpy is shutting down following Valve's recent decision to hide every users' games library by default, which cuts off key data used to deliver metrics.

Over the years SteamSpy has been an integral tool for gamers, reporters, and even developers: the site, which delivers updated metrics on game owners and players, allows users to quickly and easily gauge many different answers on a particular game. For example, if, say, Lawbreakers had about 20 people playing it, gamers would likely avoid it like the plague. Developers used it as a tool to eye sales momentum across periods of time, giving them key info on what did and didn't work based on figures alone.

But alas it's all coming to and end: SteamSpy is closing up shop thanks to Valve's new privacy rule.

Big franchises like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty reign supreme, and that's why the industry needs free-to-play experiences to level the playing field--at least that's what ex Sony Interactive Entertainment President and CEO Andrew House says.

Today's gaming landscape has changed quite dramatically over the years. While titans like GTA V (and its GTA Online component), Call of Duty WWII, and FIFA still top the charts, free-to-play games like Fortnite are making massive splashes in the console space. This is quite interesting given that most big AAA games come with live services baked in that typically follow a similar monetization model as free-to-play games, so publishers are mixing and matching key components of the traditional gaming space with F2P style tactics. But even still, the likes of Fortnite are quickly becoming major competition for publishers--at least when it comes to investment and engagement.

This, according to ex Sony exec Andrew House, could be a good thing. At the very least it would balance things out so that big AAA games don't always have total domination over the console gaming space--a space that's an extremely lucrative arm of the industry's projected $180 billion dollars to be earned in 2018.

In an effort to unify the dwindling and increasingly-frustrated Destiny 2 playerbase, Bungie is making some big restriction changes to the game's PVP crucible mode.

Starting with the May 8 release of Destiny 2's second expansion, Warmind, Bungie will no longer gate off access to new crucible maps behind DLC purchases. As it stands now (and as it stood in the original Destiny game) each $20 expansion unlocks PVP and PVE content such as crucible maps and new strikes/destinations and items. But now Bungie is lifting that paygate for PVP to try and engage its playerbase and pull lapsed players back into the fold with new crucible attractions. The only exception is for private matches: both players will need the appropriate expansions to join the games and play the maps.

"Season Three marks the beginning of a new plan for how we deliver Crucible content. For every player of Destiny 2, we'll be releasing all of the new Crucible Maps being developed for Warmind into matchmaking. The same goes for the maps we released with Curse of Osiris," Bungie wrote on the latest blog post.

Although Destiny 2's populace is bristling with frustration at Bungie's lack of updates and effort to morph the game into an enjoyable grindfest, the dev has posted up an update on the slow-moving future of the game.

Destiny 2's second expansion will drop next month and will feature new content like weapons, destinations, and missions. The next expansion is called Warmind and is very likely centered around Rasputin. Like the first expansion, Warmind will be a premium paid DLC versus the free live content updates that Bungie rolls out and will likely follow the same weird rotating weekly content schedule that locks non-DLC payers out of weeklies.

"On May 8, with the beginning of Season Three, we're also launching the second expansion to Destiny 2," Bungie wrote on its blog. Of course the dev is secretive as always: "It's called Warmind, and it will send you to new places to meet new heroes and battle new enemies. You'll earn new loot and master new activities."

In just over a month we will be receiving the re-master of Dark Souls for the Xbox One, PS4, PC and Switch, fans in the UK and Ireland can already begin pre-orders.

Dark Souls: Remastered will be coming with more features, unfortunately it won't feature cross-play but it will feature 6-player co-op and a smooth 60FPS at 1080p for PS4, Xbox One and PC. The Nintendo Switch will be running the title in 30FPS at 720p, the docked mode will be featuring an up-scaling to 1080p.

Dark Souls: Remastered will be arriving on May 25th for all platforms, if you are interested in other news for the title check out the Dark Souls: Remastered PC and Nintendo Switch comparison here.

Yacht Club Games took to Twitter yesterday to announce that their title Shovel Knight has reached a milestone of 2 million copies sold. Digging into the data that the developer supplied us with on the post it is revealed that 370,000 of those units were on the Nintendo Switch.

From the below pie graph we can see that Shovel Knight sold the most on Windows, then the Nintendo 3DS and finally the Nintendo Switch. Yacht Club Games says "What stands out at first is that Switch has emerged as Shovel Knight's 3rd best selling platform- with only a single year of sales under its belt. We've sold about 370k units on Switch! Windows has our highest unit sales, but keep in mind we also have the most discounts on that platform."

Yacht Club Games continues to give a great breakdown of their sales data, they compile together some dot point facts for those that don't have enough time to read through their entire post. Some of these facts include: Perhaps the best indicator of how our sales are progressing from year to year - our rough Windows units sold each year: 170k (2014)->140k (2015) -> 100k (2016) -> 75k (2017)." As well as "We passed 1 million units sold on Nintendo platforms alone in September 2017!", this also ties into "Outside of Nintendo platforms, our sales dipped by about 30% in 2017."

Blizzard has just released a game-changing update to Warcraft 3, with Patch 1.29 making the game feel more like a game released much more recently, with a bunch of upgrades and new 24-player support.

Warcraft 3 now supports aspect-correct, horizontally expanded widescreen that will provide gamers with an expanded field of view and cleaner UI. There are 12 new player colors and lobby support for 24 players, which is freaking awesome for 24-player FFAs.

You'll need to be playing custom maps to enjoy the madness of 24 players, with everything being expanded in this new patch including maps to support up to 30,000 objects, 2000 neural units, and 4300 player-owned units.

Not to long ago we saw Drake jump onto Fortnite with the highly popular streamer Ninja, yesterday the same thing happened and throughout the stream Drake revealed we could see some Fortnite lingo in his new album.

Drake and Ninja took to the Fortnite stage to cause some chaos, and throughout the stream Tyler "Ninja" Blevins said to Drake "Dude, you gotta put some Fortnite lingo on the album." Drake replys with "It has to happen, it's just gotta be the right way, someone's gonna do it. Someone's gonna pull it off. I say when Epic gives me the emote, when Epic gives me the Hotline Bling emote, I'll do it. Until then, I'm on strike. "

For those that don't know the reference to a 'Hotline Bling emote' is from Drakes immensely popular song 'Hotline Bling.' The song features some quite unique dances moves from the rapper which would definitely be a great addition to the Fortnite emotes. Check out the below videos to see Drake put on some good moves and also Ninja and Drake chat about his upcoming album.

Farmers all around will be pleased to know that they will be able to have a helping hand from a friend online next month, as Stardew Valley will be receiving multiplayer next month.

Eric Barone, Stardew Valley creator has taken to Twitter to announce that there has been "good progress" with implementing the multiplayer mode to the current game. Barone details that him and his team are "fixing bugs" and if everything goes well the multiplayer should debut "in about a month."

For those farmers out there that are worried that the multiplayer will cost money, fear not as the update will be arriving on all platforms completely free. Sickhead Games will be rolling out the update in a certain order, starting with the PC version of the title first, then the Nintendo Switch and finally Xbox and PS4.