Gaming - Page 871

Agony has been delayed just 10 days ahead of its slated release date, Madmind Studio today announced.

I've been looking forward to the incredibly macabre first-person survival game Agony ever since it caught my eye in late 2016. The game has been successfully funded on Kickstarter and has the attention of quite a few gamers...but unfortunately the studio had to delay the game to ensure quality on all platforms--so that means we won't be venturing into the bloody-bizarre hallowed depths of Hell on March 30 after all.

"As you all have been curious about Agony we do have some information for you. Sadly we have to inform you that March 30th will not be the release date. We will inform you as soon as possible with the final release date of the game," the studio wrote in a new update.

We might not see a full Nintendo Switch 2.0 any time soon, but a refreshed Nintendo Switch could be on the way according to the latest findings in the firmware 5.0 release for the Switch.

Some keen-eyed hackers had a look around inside of the Switch 5.0 firmware, where they found references to a hardware refresh for the Switch. Nintendo seems to be working on a new Switch that would see the SoC upgraded from the Tegra 210 that NVIDIA supplied for the current-gen Switch, to the Tegra 214 in the purported Switch refresh.

The reason the Nintendo Switch could be refreshed is that there are hardware level security concerns, with new vulnerabilities found in Switch firmware that enabled homebrew software... leading to pirated Switch games. VG24/7 reports: "the general understanding is that the Tegra 210 chip is largely to blame for these, and a permanent software fix may not be possible, hence the upgrade".

The God of War release date is just over a month away and to get that hype train moving even faster than what it is already Santa Monica Studios has released a new TV commercial trailer showing the growth of Artreus.

We have seen a few different trailers for the upcoming God of War game, one of which was even featured on a NBA basketball court. More specifically though, the above video shows the progression of Artreus' confidence in battle, beginning with him struggling to deal the hand of death to even a basic animal.

We can see that through the short minute video, Artreus becomes quite a force of reckoning as he trains more and more with Kratos. It was a given that the son of Kratos would have somesort of abilities and we can see a quick example of that here, Artreus conjures the power of lightening.

The mobile version of PUBG has finally been released to the iOS Apple Store and Google Play Store for users in the US. The battle royale success will now compete with the recently launched Fortnite on iOS devices.

Users that are interested in competing for the chicken dinner on their phones will be glad to know they will be using a completely identical port from the PC version. The game is "An authentic port of the PC version. 100 players are dropped on an enormous 8x8 km battlefield. Players fight to survive and eliminate each other through strategy and skill. The last one standing wins! Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner!"

PUBG mobile will still be using Unreal Engine 4 and will also be able to run on any iOS device iPhone 5s and above, this also includes iPad Air or an iPad Mini.

The developers behind the upcoming God of War game have released a 15 minute gameplay video on the official PlayStation YouTube channel, from the seen gameplay the new title could be the best looking game on the PS4 Pro.

According to Digital Foundry, the team that "specialises in game technology and hardware reviews" has said that that the upcoming title from Santa Monica Studios "is shaping up to be one of the cleanest games on the platform."

Digital Foundrys analysis of the 15 minute video that was released by Sony seems to have found that God of War will be featuring "check-boarding rendering to reach a native 4K pixel count."

Atari's new retro-meets-modern video games console is now known as the "Atari VCS" and the renowned games-maker promises the system is specifically designed for today's living room needs.

Atari today announced that the Atari VCS (previously known as the Ataribox) will indeed be revealed in prototype stages at GDC 2018, and that official pre-order information will go live sometime in April. The $250 system, which is powered by Linux and AMD Radeon graphics technology, was originally supposed to go up for pre-orders last year and ship in Spring 2018 but was delayed due to specific ecosystem issues.

The Atari VCS aims to be both a throwback and "throwforward" so to speak: it can play both old-school Atari games and even has a classic joystick peripheral to emulate those golden days of gaming as well as newer games, but official details on what newer games will cross-over have been quite sparse. Atari has confirmed that indie games will cross over but it remains to be seen if the box is powerful enough to run, say, PS4 or Xbox One-level games (maybe Switch games?). The device is touted as being able to deliver the "full PC experience" to a TV, however for $250 it's a bit iffy that this is possible. Perhaps $250 is the starting version and Atari will offer a number of SKUs each with different specs...but all of this totally sounds like risky business to me.

Sony Santa Monica Studio's new God of War is shaping up to be 2018's must-have PS4 game.

Previews for the new God of War game are breaking across the internet and the results are resoundingly good: the game is being hailed as a triumphant return to the series that offers gamers tons of content to chew on it. The first three hours are described as "emotional and mature," strongly hinting we'll get hit with some serious feels at the beginning, but insofar as game length players can expect lots of activities that may even rival Horizon: Zero Dawn's huge playtime to keep them busy.

According to Geoff Keighley, who hosts the annual The Game Awards and E3 Coliseum showcases, Kratos' Nordic-centered escapades are going to be quite lengthy. "From what I was told we only played about 5% of the full game. If that's the case, this is going to be an epic on the scale of Horizon -- and with tons of weapon and skill tree upgrades, I can't wait to see how the game opens up in the other 95%," Keighley said on Twitter in regards to the three-hour preview.

Now that pre-orders are up for the $799 HTC Vive Pro, the original Vive headset has dropped by another $100.

As an owner of the 2016 Vive VR headset, I can say it's definitely worth picking up (assuming, of course, you have the pre-requisite PC hardware to power it and the proper space for full room-scale tracking). The headset itself is hilariously fun and is absolutely fantastic centerpiece for parties or friend gatherings, and now it's more affordable than ever at $499. I bought my Vive for the original sum of $799 (ugh...) so I'm quite jealous of the would-be Vive owners of today.

HTC also announced that every $499 Vive headset purchase comes with a free copy of Bethesda's full-on Fallout 4 VR port as well as a free two-month Viveport subscription (again...why didn't I wait a bit to buy my headset?!). And of course the headset comes bundled with everything you need for room-scale VR including two lighthouse sensors, two controller wands, and a plethora of cords. The $799 Vive Pro, on the other hand, just comes with an expensive new-and-improved headset--no controllers or sensors.

Microsoft continues laying the groundwork for a vast inter-connected web of devices to bring its games onto.

Rather than trying to beat Sony at its own game and push tons of Xbox hardware sales, Microsoft embraced its strengths and re-wrote the rules. Starting with unifying all Xbox One consoles with Windows 10 PCs, it transformed Xbox from a console into a cross-platform service that bridges multiple avenues. Xbox LIVE became the glue that holds the platforms together with tons of engagement and billions in monetization every year. And more recently Microsoft actually beat Sony at its own game with Game Pass, a $10 a month subscription service that includes a growing backlog of third-party games as well as every new future first-party Microsoft game (a value that absolutely smashes Sony's PlayStation Now game streaming service).

Microsoft isn't slowing down, either: it's plans are becoming more and more ambitious. At the end of 2017, the company actually started a cloud gaming division shortly before acquiring PlayFab, a "complete backend platform provider of services to build, launch and grow cloud-connected games". Before this Microsoft used Azure to accelerate games like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds on Xbox, and the upcoming Crackdown 3 to boot. Now the cloud gaming division will help foster these ideas and, eventually, likely build a games-streaming service that will beam Xbox games to all devices--from smart TVs to set-top boxes and mobile devices to boot.

Gamers have officially won the Battlefront II lootbox battle as EA makes massive changes to the game's progression and monetization strategy.

After months of tweaking, Electronic Arts has announced Battlefront II's new and improved live service purchases and player progression system. The "chance for pay-to-win" element of randomized lootbox gear has been abolished and replaced with a cosmetic-only marketplace that clearly shows what gamers will get if they purchase content.

This marketplace will run on the premium in-game currency Crystals which are purchased with real money. Star Cards can't be purchased, and anything affecting gameplay isn't buyable with real money. Crates are still in, but are only doled out for actually playing the game and cannot be bought.

Kirby Star Allies released over the weekend and to celebrate the games debut Nintendo has released quite a long launch video of the new title, the video details much of Kirbys abilities that will available to play in the new game.

The video shows Kirbys ability called Friend Hearts which can turn Kirbys enemies into his allies. Kirby can acquire up to 4 allies at a time and will have a large selection of 20+ types of friends to have.

It wouldn't be a Kirby game if Kirby couldn't inhale enemies and steal their abilities so of course Kirby Star Allies will feature the classic ability, the above video details some of copies Kirby can do.

Half-Life is one of the best games ever made, but it looks a little dated now. Valve aren't talking anything Half-Life right now, as they make hundreds of millions of dollars a year taking a 30% slice of other developers' games. But now there's a new Unreal Engine 4-powered remake of Half-Life, and it looks freaking incredible.

SilverTM is behind the new Half-Life remake, with the developer to not be recreating the entire game, but a playable version of the first chapter of Half-Life so that gamers can enjoy it. SilverTM is celebrating this announcement with a video of the Half-Life remake and a slew of new screenshots.

Check them out!

Late last year Paramount Pictures and Saber Interactive announced the official tie-in game of World War Z, with the movie side of the zombie franchise starring Brad Pitt.

At the time, the company announced World War Z as a cooperative online focused shooter that would be released on the PC, Xbox One, and PS4 - but no other details were provided, until now. During an interview with Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch and Official PlayStation Magazine UK, he said that World War Z will be a third-person shooter with an over-the-shoulder perspective.

Karch had some exciting things to say about World War Z, with the zombie hoards set to go into a massive 1000 zombies that will chase you down for blood. The zombies will also feature procedural behavior that will see each time you play completely different to the last.

Activision's major cash cow franchise will be receiving another remastered treatment, with Amazon Italy teasing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered.

A screenshot was taken before Amazon Italy could take it down, with the tease of COD: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered to hit the PS4 and Xbox One, and I'm sure the PC as well. Modern Warfare 2's remastered treatment is listed for $40, which represents a chunky 50% discount over the full release price.

This is just a rumor for now, but I'm sure it will materialize into another release for Activision, and while you and I might not like the idea of yet another Call of Duty cash grab, there are plenty of gamers that will throw $40 at Modern Warfare 2 Remastered.

War Thunder is exclusive to the PS4 and PC right now, but the game will be launching on the Xbox One family of consoles soon enough, with some Xbox One X exclusive upgrades.

During an interview with Gaijin Entertainment CEO Anton Yudinstsev, the developers will be adding a new 60FPS performance mode and graphical upgrades to the PS4 Pro in the near future, as Sony's beefier console only runs War Thunder at 1440p 30FPS right now.

The developer said that they are "thrilled to announce that we have reached an agreement with Microsoft to bring War Thunder to Xbox One and Xbox One X". Yudintsev added: "We plan to achieve 60 fps or 30 fps with higher graphical settings (as an option) on Xbox One X later this year, with one of the upcoming engine updates. At launch we will be 30 fps, I guess, uncapped".

SEGA and Creative Assembly have released their first trailer of their series that concentrates on more specific points in history, Total War Saga. The 'Thrones of Britannia' trailer shows that the Vikings are on their way.

Creative Assembly have also released a bunch of information regarding Thrones of Britannia, if players can achieve Fame, Conquest or Kingdom Victory they will face one of three foreign armies (Normans, Danes, or Norse) these armies will be out for blood. Players that defeat the foreign invaders will achieve Ultimate Victory.

The Civic Technology Tree and Military Technology Tree has also been revealed by Creative Assembly, check out the below images if you are interested in reading what is in store for the upcoming Total War Saga installment.

Believe it or not but there was once speculation of the next Overwatch hero being a cat with a jetpack, then we had confirmation that it was infact Torbjorns daughter and now we have got a release date for Brigitte Lindholm.

To celebrate the announcement of the date Brigitte will debut, lead character and concept artist Ben Zhang talks us through the design process of bringing Brigitte to the Overwatch team.

Zhang discusses that Brigitte is a squire of Reinhardt and daughter of Torbjorn, these factors have influenced the creative assembly of Brigitte's abilities/appearance, check out the above short video for a further description.

On the official Sea of Thieves YouTube channel a new launch trailer has surfaced ahead of the games launch next week on the March 20. The new launch trailer has revealed a short glimpse at the mighty Kraken.

From the above video can see that players will have a plethora of costume options, this same principle can be applied to the ships as well.

Below I have provided you with screenshots of the Kraken. It seems that the beast is certainly quite large when in comparison to the ships players will be operating, interestingly enough this raises the question how will players defend their ships. This is the first time we have seen the Kraken in action, hopefully there is a creative/amusing way to deal with the beast, maybe a option like 'pour kerosene' / 'Ignite' for tentacles that are wrapped around players ships?

Nintendo Germany has made a recent announcement today, they have said that the Nintendo Switch has hit a massive 650,000 units sold, breaking a new record.

Previously, the Nintendo Wii held the ten-year record sales but now the Nintendo Switch has broken through that record with over 650,000 units sold in just the first year of the handheld console.

The sales of the Nintendo Switch is honestly shocking, the more games that debut to Nintendo's console the more of a steady incline the console sales could have. We now know that Super Smash Bros. is coming to the Nintendo Switch, so we could possibly see a slight increase in sales whenever Nintendo decide to release the brawler.

Studio Wildcard announces that ARK: Survival Evolved will make its way onto mobiles as an expansive port.

ARK is indeed coming to Android and iOS, and War Drum Studios (the devs behind mobile ports of Bully and GTA) have been conscripted to bring the "entire ARK MMO survival experience" to smartphones and tablets. The mobile port will feature both singleplayer and multiplayer action, and follow the recent news of the series' voxel-based spin-off PixARK, which aims at engaging and enticing the Minecraft community.

"Designed and developed by War Drum, ARK: Survival Evolved mobile is free-to-play and puts the genre-defining adventure in the palm of your hand, letting you join forces with tens of thousands of other dino-hunters," reads a press release. "This on-the-go version features the full online survival experience contained in the PC and console versions of ARK, including a gigantic island to explore, 80+ dinosaurs and primeval creatures to tame and train, multiplayer tribe mechanics, and of course, crafting and building!"