Gaming - Page 866

Razer pushes headlong into the digital game storefront market in an effort to fortify its ecosystem of products and engagement.

The Razer Game Store opened up today, and it's not really a surprise to me: ever since I read up on the company's zVault strategy I thought a game store was the next logical step. While Razer's game store peddles the latest and greatest PC gaming hits, it isn't a GOG or Steam competitor: instead it's more like a reseller (in theory--Razer says the keys are legit) or like the Humble Store that doles out Steam and uPlay codes for cash. While you might get deep discounts on Steam, GOG, and the Humble Store, the Razer Game Store also offers extra incentives: vouchers, zSilver, and special promos.

Ideally Razer wants you to first spend money on its zGold virtual currency and use it to buy games on the storefront. The currency is used in a wide variety of software and services, making it a kind of microtransaction-esque premium currency that locks you into a specific ecosystem. All purchases on the store will net users virtual coin, but you'll get more zSilver if you buy zGold. Buying games on the store marked as "Razer Exclusive" will net you extra zSilver and other bonuses, and zSilver can then be spent to unlock extra games and promos.

The PS4's new amazing-looking Spider-Man game will eke out some extra power from the PS4 Pro's hardware boost, but don't expect 60FPS.

Although Insomniac's new Spider-Man game is one of the highest-profile PS4 exclusives of 2018 it doesn't mean the game will have a PS4 Pro performance option for 1080p users or get specific frame rate optimizations. Spider-Man's Creative Director Bryan Intihar recently confirmed the game is locked to 30FPS on both the base PS4 and the Pro, but Peter Parker's crime-crushing antics will "take advantage of the PS4 Pro, look a little better and run a little better."

So expect checkerboard 4K upscaling with 30FPS on the PS4 Pro on 4K UHDTVs, and possibly supersampled 1080p 30FPS on 1080p TVs. Regular PS4s should just hit 1080p 30FPS in the game of course.

Warner Bros Interactive has partnered with dev IO Interactive to publish future Hitman games, and release a new definitive edition of 2015's Hitman title.

Following its break-up with Square Enix, IO Interactive had been searching for a new partner to ensure the Hitman series' future could live on through publisher funding. Fast forwarding to today sees Shadow of War publisher WB Interactive stepping in to team up with IO Interactive, and the first step is to re-release an all-in-on version of the most recent Hitman game.

"We're super excited to be working with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment on HITMAN and together releasing the HITMAN: Definitive Edition to new players," said Hakan Abrak, CEO IO Interactive. "Working with a partner like WBIE means that the team at IOI can stay focused on what we're good at, making games."

IO Interactive took to their blog on their website to celebrate the 20 year life-time of the company, within this blog post it was proudly said by IO Interactive that Hitman has reached 12 million players worldwide.

Back in 2017 Hitman only had 5 million players, in just 5 months the title has grown double that and is rocking a massive player-base of 12 million.

Here is what IO Interactive had to say about the recent achievement: "Back in 2015 when we announced HITMAN, we talked about building an expanding and evolving world of assassination. These numbers prove to us that we're pulling that off and we're inspired to continue creating content that our players will want to play and experience. Obviously, that number was helped by our Spring Pack, which was available for a limited time. This download allowed anyone to play Sapienza, the beautiful Italian coastaltown and one of the most highly-praised locations from HITMAN."

Nintendo UK released a new advertisement for the Nintendo Switch yesterday and what was found in the middle of all the family fun was the Mario Tennis Aces character selection screen.

Skipping to 1:49 or looking below at the screenshot I have provided we can see a selection of characters. Of course starting with the classics, Mario, Yoshi, Peach, Bowser and Luigi are seen but most interestingly we also now have a character called Spike. Spike was first introduced in Super Mario Bros. 3 and was an enemy that, well, shockingly threw spike balls.

Also from the character selection screen we can see there is quite a lot of vacant space, perhaps there will be some un-lockables along the way, wouldn't you just love to see Captain Olimar take to the tennis court? Because I know I would.

Awhile back we heard of the Spyro series being remastered on the PS4, now a leak has surfaced through an Amazon Mexico listing titled 'Spyro Reignited Trilogy.'

Spyro Reignited Trilogy will be published by Activision and is currently being developed by Toys for Bob. The trilogy will be featuring three different Spyro titles in HD, the games included will be: Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! and Spyro: Year of the Dragon.

On the product page of the Amazon listing was the release date of the title, as this is not official yet take the release date with a grain of salt. On the Amazon listing Spyro Reignited Trilogy has a release date for September 21.

CIRCLE Entertainment has released a new trailer for their exclusive Nintendo Switch title, Shelter Generations. The trailer reveals some details about the upcoming game and lets us see what it is like to be both a mother and an infant lynx.

Those that are not familiar with Shelter Generations the game allows for players to experience what it is like to be a mother lynx and raise cubs. Activities include a range of common motherly problems, feeding the cubs, protecting them from predators and surviving from the wilderness overall.

The title will be releasing with two stories, Shelter 2 players will experience the mothers perspective, and Paws: A Shelter 2 Game will allow players to experience the perspective of the cub. Shelter Generations will be debuting to the Nintendo eShop on April 12 for $19.99, and for anyone that purchases the title within the first week a 10% discount will be granted.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands was a surprise hit for Ubisoft, with the company announcing the game boasts over 10 million players worldwide.

The company launched Ghost Recon Wildlands back in March 2017, with 13 patches since its release including the 4v4 PvP mode 'Ghost War', the Predator special event, and much more. With over 10 million players, the development team are committed to supporting the game with free content and continuous improvements along the way.

Ubisoft recently announced Year 2 content for Ghost Recon Wildlands, something that will include four major updates titled "Special Operations" with each of them featuring a unique theme. There will be updates to the PvE campaign, special free missions, special challenges, updates to the Ghost War game mode, and more.

After months off the radar, Insomniac comes in swinging with a Spider-Man release date.

The new PS4 exclusive Spider-Man game that pretty much exploded at last year's E3 will launch on September 7, 2018. Pre-orders for the game are up digitally on the PlayStation Store and multiple big-box retailers, and the studio also revealed a deluxe and collector's edition to boot. Pre-orders will include three spidey skins but only one (the spider-punk suit) has been revealed, and early buyers will also get a few extras like an in-game spider drone and some PSN avatars and themes.

"Everyone here at Insomniac Games is thrilled to announce that Marvel's Spider-Man will launch on Friday, September 7, 2018 exclusively for the PlayStation 4 system," Insomniac wrote on the PlayStation Blog. "It's been an incredible experience for us to spend the last few years working on this game. From getting to create our own unique universe and story for our favorite Super Hero, to working with our talented collaborators at PlayStation and Marvel Games, to developing relationships with the Spider-Man and Marvel fan communities (#SpideySquad represent!), it's been an amazing journey thus far."

Last year we exclusively revealed that an industry source of ours said the PlayStation 5 would feature a discrete GPU, but now more rumors are coming - but you'll need to spend $1000 just to read the article.

SemiAccurate is behind the latest report, which was summarized on Reset Era:

I can see Navi making its way into the PS5, just like 'some' of the Vega GPU architecture made it into the refreshed PS4 Pro and Xbox One X consoles. But, I wouldn't be expecting "OMG Navi is in PS5, next-gen Radeon confirmed!' just yet. The big upgrade will come from the Zen CPU architecture, where I'm hoping we see a true beast (6C/12T @ 4GHz would be nice) and a beefy discrete GPU and not some Navi-infused APU.

Blizzard have taken to their forums to announce that they will be ending support for DX9 and 32-bit systems this coming summer for Heroes of the Storm.

Blizzards Community Manager, Nate Valenta said in their announcement that "In the coming months, we're planning to end support for DirectX9 and the 32-bit version of the Heroes of the Storm client."

Valenta continued by saying: "DirectX has had several major releases since DX9, and the vast majority of players in the Heroes community are now running the 64-bit version of the game, along with DirectX11 or higher." Valenta also mentions players that are still using DirectX 10, here is what he had to say "Please also note that while the 64-bit Heroes client might still be playable on some machines using DirectX10, this may not be the case for all configurations, which is why we recommend that all our players upgrade to at least DirectX11."

The release date for Dark Souls: Remastered is next month and ahead of the launch Bandai Namco has released the gameplay changes that will be featured in the Nintendo Switch, PC and PlayStation 4 release.

Thanks to IGN, they have provided a full list of the changes that will be featured in the upcoming remaster, instead of copying the full list I have decided to pull some of the most predominant changes and compile them below.

Bandai will be increasing the "maximum number of players online has increased from 4 to 6", "healing items will not be available during PvP with the exception of Estus Flasks. To prevent long and drawn out battles, the number of Estus Flasks is halved for phantoms."

Ubisoft has released a road-map for Ghost Recon Wildlands, showcasing what players will be enjoying throughout 2018.

The road-map details 4 updates titled Special Operations that will be rolled out over the course of the year, the first update will be released on April 10 and will be featuring what is called Teammate Customization options. Teammate Customization options will allow players to change their outfits based on what items they have unlocked.

Also coming with the update is a new PvP game mode called "Sabotage", exclusive new maps, a new class, new perks and of course new weapons will be added for everyone to enjoy. It is really good to see Ubisoft supporting this title so greatly, laying out a year road-map really does make players feel more secure about what they have in-store for the rest of the year.

It has been revealed that the upcoming Spider-Man game will be a feature in the upcoming Game Informer magazine which will be released in May.

Game Informers executive editor, Andre Reiner revealed the cover story through a preview article, Reiner didn't reveal the release date for the title but he did get a chance to play the first mission.

The preview article consists of Reiner saying that throughout the first mission he ran into a "familiar foe", no other details were really given but Reiner does promise that in his full piece there will be a 14 page breakdown.

Rocket League developers have decided to give everyone a "heads up" that their tournaments update is going to be released tomorrow, the developer has detailed the region times in a Twitter post.

Psyonix took to Twitter to announce that on "Tuesday, April 3 at approximately 10am PDT (1pm EDT, 7pm CEST)" the update will be rolled out, "Deployment on all platforms may take up to 30 minutes."

For further information regarding the new update coming to Rocket League, check out the official Rocket League website or the above video.

Valve has just silenced their Steam Machine initiative, but we don't yet know if this is permanent or the Half-Life maker is preparing for a new wave of Steam Machines in the near future.

This isn't to say Steam Machines are completely gone, as some companies are selling them, it's just now Valve isn't actively promoting them which is a big deal on its own. Even when the Steam Machines were first announced, there was no big reason that would push you away from your gaming PC or from the arms of a console.

Maybe a Steam Machine exclusive, or better yet timed exclusive like Half-Life 3, Portal 3, or Team Fortress 3 could do well on a Steam Machine, but Valve would hurt PC gamers doing that. I can't see Steam Machines in our future until game developers move away from Windows, which could eventually happen... but we're years away from that being a reality.

Take-Two Interactive has been planning its big NBA 2K eSports league for quite some time, and is finally ready to launch it with the help of partners like Intel.

Intel has signed up as the official technology partner of the NBA 2K League, the company today announced. The partnership will be a multi-year endeavor and sees league players using Alienware PCs outfitted with Intel's Core i7-8700K CPUs. This is particularly interesting given the game sells far and away more copies on Xbox One and PS4 than PC, which is true for most of Take-Two's games. Intel will also help deliver "cloud to client solutions for an unmatched esports experience" to ensure spectators around the globe can stay up to date with the action.

As per the announcement, the NBA 2K League is set to launch sometime in May with 17 teams that total up to 102 of the world's best NBA 2K players. I'm curious why Take-Two doesn't have any of this news on their website, but I do know that the games publisher has been carefully piecing this esports league together with the NBA.

In an extremely predictable move, Ubisoft will continue offering a slew of free content updates to engage Ghost Recon Wildlands' strong playerbase.

Like most big name games publishers, Ubisoft is a company that's banked strongly on live services--so much so that all of its games will incorporate them in some way (for instance look at Far Cry 5's optional convenience purchases). The games-maker has a found a way to balance the controversial pay-to-win schemes with cosmetics and other mitigating factors to both please gamers and make money, which has become a tightrope walk for companies like EA. Since Ubisoft makes hundreds of millions every year from player recurring investment, aka monetized engagement, it's critical for it to continue rolling out content to keep players playing--and spending.

Although Ghost Recon Wildlands has turned a year old, Ubisoft isn't ready to stop pushing out content. Considering the game has amassed 10 million users in its first year it's not surprising they don't want to throw the potential away--so the open-world tactical shooter is getting a second year of free content expansions and updates. There are four Special Operations updates in all and will offer a bunch of content like missions, items, rewards and even tweaks that players have requested.

Back in late February Hunt: Showdown released on Steam and since then the games popularity has been substantial, players obviously still have some complaints but its mainly with titles performance, Crytek will soon be fixing that.

In a recent blog post, Crytek took to the Hunt: Showdown website and explained that they will be bringing out a performance optimization update next week that should add a nice buffer to players that are struggling to run the game.

The areas that the developers will be focus include: "CPU optimizations (Hunt was CPU bound, which was a major limiting factor in many cases)", "reducing the overall memory footprint of the game" and "addressing the stalls and stutters (during movement, ADS, and other in-game interactions)"

The already very successful Nintendo Switch has yet to feature a highly popular game genre, battle royale. Well now Nintendo Switch fans have an opportunity to join in on the action as Crazy Justice will be the first battle royale shooter coming to the handheld console.

Above we have a video of Crazy Justice running on the Nintendo Switch in handheld mode. The video only goes for two minutes but it does show a some cool features while also providing what seems like a very smooth experience.

Crazy Justice will seperate itself from other battle royale shooters such as Fortnite, by instead of building players will have a choice of 20 different heroes, each with customizable skill decks that vary from each hero.