Gaming - Page 894

With the release of Battlegrounds v1.0 right around the corner, NVIDIA is preparing GeForce owners with their new Game Ready 388.71 WHQL drivers that provide the "optimal gaming experience" for PUBG.

NVIDIA says they spent "hundreds of hours of work from over half a dozen teams across three continents" to get it done, and here we are. You'll only need a GeForce GTX 1060 to reach 70FPS average at 1080p, while at 2560x1440 you'll need the beefier GeForce GTX 1070 to hit 72FPS average. For those at 4K, the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti hits 60FPS or higher in PUBG with the new Game Ready 388.71 drivers.

If you want to run Battlegrounds on Ultra settings, you'll need the GTX 1070 for 1080p, GTX 1080 for 1440p, and an overclocked custom GTX 1080 Ti for 4K.

The Witcher 3 is absolutely one of the best games ever made, and while the game still plays best on PC, CD Projekt RED is aiming to even out the playing field a bit with the game's new Xbox One X enhanced update.

Microsoft's new Xbox One X console is quite beastly by today's console standards with its highly optimized and scaled GPU and CPU specs, but the hardware still doesn't hold a candle to today's PC gaming tech. Then again it doesn't have to; while both platforms often share the same games they're also quite different. With the arrival of the Xbox One X a number of studios and publishers have released enhancement patches that allow their games to leverage the platform, and after saying it had no plans to release such a patch, CD Projekt RED has indeed launched an update for The Witcher 3.

The Witcher 3's Xbox One X patch, which is out now, has two modes: 4K Mode and Performance Mode. In the 4K Mode the game will run in "4K resolution" (probably not native) at 30FPS and also has enhanced features like boosted shadows, ambient occlusion, texture filtering, and 4K textures.

If Denuvo Anti-Tamper's servers go down, you may not be able to play games you rightfully own that use the DRM tech.

According to recent reports, an interruption in Denuvo's DRM authentication servers cut off access to a number of games in Warner Bros. Interactive's catalog including older games like Batman: Arkham Knight and Mad Max, but also newer games like Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Apparently PC gamers were cut off from playing these titles until Denuvo's servers were brought back online, which they are at the time of writing.

PC gamers were forced to use specific means to circumvent the interruption, but the event poses an interesting question on game ownership and consumer rights in general. If Denuvo somehow goes out of business...what becomes of the games it protects?

At Fun & Serious Game Festival in Bibaio, Gamereactor caught up with Andreas Ojerfors senior game designer and Tommy Tordsson Bjork narrative designer and asked them some question about their game.

The Nintendo Switch version of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus has been confirmed by Bethesda for early 2018 and was commented on by Ojerfors, he said "That's a collaboration with a different studio that we're working together with," but later confirms that it is Panic Button that will be porting the game over "It's the same as the Doom studio" and "the same people."

Ojerfors continued and complimented the studios efforts "they're experts at the Switch an now they're experts with the [id Tech 6] engine so we work with them, and the Doom version turned out to be really kick-ass on the Switch so I think Wolfenstein will be the same,"

Bandai has released a new trailer for the upcoming Dragon Ball FighterZ, the trailer gives a long look at what is to be expected throughout the next game as well as a very good look at some new characters from the more recent release of Dragon Ball Super. Also, to go with the new trailer release is the details of a open beta the game will be featuring next month.

In the trailer we can see a selection of new characters such as a Hit, Goku Black and Beerus which will of course all be playable. In addition to new characters what else is seen in the trailer is old characters and their respective scenes with certain villains throughout the anime. An example of this is Gohan versing Cell or Goku turning Super Saiyan for the first time, these scenes will be in-game and are called Dramatic Scenes, Bandai Namco said "when certain team character combinations are chosen or specific finishing moves are performed" these scenes will trigger.

It is assumed that you will require a Xbox Gold or a PS Plus subscription to participate in the open beta and will begin on January 14th at 12 AM PT / 3 AM ET / 9 AM CET and will run until the same times on the 16th of January.

Can you believe we're this close to the v1.0 release of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds on the PC, with the smash hit game of 2017 finally breaking out of its Steam Early Access shackles.

Ahead of the v1.0 release, developer Bluehole will be resetting the Battlegrounds leaderboards - and that is happening real soon. The leaderboards on the PC will be reset on December 19 at 6PM PT/9PM ET, which works out to 3AM CET/12PM AEST on December 20.

The new season will start when the v1.0 release lands on the PC sometime on December 20, but official confirmation will be announced "soon". As for what v1.0 of PUBG will entail, we can look forward to climbing and vaulting (which makes things so much easier) with creator Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene himself saying that it "will change the game severely".

Studio Wildcard has just announced that they've enabled cross-play between the Windows 10 Store and Xbox One versions of ARK: Survival Evovled, as it's now an Xbox Play Anywhere title.

ARK has also passed 12 million sales across all platforms including PC, Xbox One, and PS4 while there is the new Aberration expansion which adds five new Biomes, 14 new creatures, and 30 new craftable Engrams. The new expansion costs $19.99, but can also be purchased as part of ARK's Season Pass which costs $44.99.

The big issue here is that the cross-play goodness is locked to the Windows 10 Store version of the game, while millions of gamers own it on Steam and are locked away from playing it with their friends on Xbox One because of it. Sigh.

Forza Horizon 3 and Crackdown 3 developer Sumo Digital is now worth 145 million pounds per the company's new IPO.

The games developer, which is currently working on Microsoft's first-party exclusive Crackdown 3 as well as Dead Island 2, didn't meet the initial IPO valuation estimate of £150 million made by The Times, falling £5 million or so short from the value that sources told the publication.

"This is a significant step forward in Sumo's journey to become a global leader in premium development and creative services to the video game and wider entertainment industries. We have had an overwhelmingly positive response to the IPO, which has been very well supported by blue chip institutional investors," Sumo Digital founder and CEO Carl Cavers said in an announcement.

It's no secret that PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds runs quite poorly on the Xbox One (not even the higher-end Xbox One X can run it very well) where it can drop to just 4FPS in some cases although it's meant to run at 30FPS on both systems. The team has heard all the feedback and now PUBG has received its first update in an effort to fix the hiccups.

While it's true PUBG on Xbox is in a game preview beta state, and that Bluehole is concentrating mostly on the fully-fledged PC release that's slated to launch quite soon, gamers didn't expect the last-man-standing shooter to run so poorly on consoles (but maybe it should be expected given PCs typically smash consoles and PUBG doesn't exactly run spectacularly on PC). The development team, which consists of both Bluehole and Microsoft's internal teams, has announced an official update that aims to shore up the rough edges a bit. By no means is this an official fix, and the game probably won't be out of the Xbox Game Preview program any time soon.

Most notably in the patch notes is the mention of "first pass visual and performance improvements," which aren't specific enough to glean any real details and may only result in a slight FPS bump or visual fidelity increase. Remember consoles have trade-offs, especially the base Xbox One which is quite...bad at times. Other improvements include "slightly improved anti-aliasing on Xbox One and Xbox One S," and the team has actually disabled keyboards.

Nintendo is currently researching and developing new ways to tap the JoyCon's potential.

One of the best things about the Nintendo Switch is that it's a portable arcade machine that can be played by two people on-the-go. Sure not every game supports local co-op/multiplayer in this way, but more than a few do, and they offer up a unique way to experience interactive gaming. This is all made possible by the handheld-console hybrid's JoyCon controllers, which can detach from the tablet screen and be used by two people (or more). But this isn't the end: Nintendo wants to find new and exciting ways to use the JoyCons in tandem with software to provide even more fun and value to the system.

"A really exciting hardware feature of the Nintendo Switch is the fact that you can separate the controllers. This makes lots of new forms of play possible, and we're currently researching a lot of different and interesting ideas," Nintendo exec Yoshiaki Koizumi told Engadget in a recent interview. "We've also seen many amazing and great ideas from our third-party development partners, as well as the Nindies community."

Blizzard is working on a brand new unrevealed FPS with a "robust games engine," and thanks to the latest job listing it appears the game should have vehicles of some sort.

Since 2016 we've known that Blizzard is making a brand new first-person shooter that uses a fresh and higher-end games engine, and little by little the dev has released more clues about the project. For example, the new game might be Overwatch-related; outside of the obvious FPS clues an older Blizzard job listing specifically called for candidates to have a "knowledge and understanding of the Overwatch universe."

Now even more clues are slowly being revealed. A recent Blizzard job listing for its Irvine studio calls for a senior software engineer of gameplay and vehicles, pretty much confirming the new game (Overwatch 2?) will have vehicles and the physics system to accompany them. The listing says candidates should have "expertise engineering highly-optimized networked vehicle physics and game systems."

EA is getting into the Christmas spirit by launching a new update to Need for Speed Payback, with the new Speedcross update adding a slew of new class of races, and much more.

Need for Speed Payback's new Speedcross races will see you driving through point-based competitions where all the cool stuff matters the most: jumps, high speeds, drifting, and destruction. NFS Payback developer Ghost Games is also throwing in new cars, steering wheel support (why didn't it launch with this?!), and multiplayer Drift Run competitions.

You'll need to own the Deluxe Edition version of the game in order to play the Speedcross races as it's paid DLC, but all of the new cars, multiplayer additions, and even steering wheel support are all free.

Following the big Battlefront II controversy which rocked the foundations of EA's monetization strategy for the game, gamers have been taking aim at lootboxes in general and have pushed local governments to regulate them as gambling.

First the ESRB stated that lootboxes aren't gambling, then the ESA shortly followed. Now on the heels of big player pushback, New Zealand's gambling commission has sided in favor of big-name publishers. Contrary to popular belief from tons of gamers worldwide, the country's officials say that lootboxes in fact do not constitute gambling under their specific laws.

"While the payment of money for a loot box with the contents of which are determined by chance may appear to be gambling, the Darpartment is of the view that loot boxes do not meet the legal definition of gambling. The Department therefore has no ability to regulate this activity under the Gambling Act of 2003," New Zealand official Trish Millward wrote in a statement.

Starbreeze Studios and Overkill are collaborating on a big The Walking Dead online co-op shooter, and now the dev has released a few new tidbits about the title.

Back in May the devs unearthed tons of new details about their Walking Dead game, highlighting key features like the character-driven story that follows the comic series and the co-op action players can expect from the FPS. In fact, from the lingo thrown around in the latest interview with ComicsBeat, the game should be an online service-based game possibly with Payday 2-style microtransactions (or a season pass maybe).

"We started on the project in 2014, exploring technologies to allow us to build our unique vision for the game," game executive producer Saul Gascon told ComicsBeat. "Since then, the game has evolved and grown into something more engaging and better than what we originally planned. It's been great for us to have the time to see the game evolve to its current state. We look forward to showing it off next year, and get people excited for its fall 2018 release."

Eidos Montreal, the team that handles Deus Ex games, is pivoting towards online-based titles rather than singleplayer-only experiences.

In a time where online service games reign supreme it's only natural that more and more dev studios and publishers embrace the lucrative business model. It appears that Square Enix may have pushed Eidos Montreal into the online service game arena in a bid to raise long-term sales and revenue. The publisher has been gearing towards online infrastructures for a while now and has experimented with games like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and the episodic Hitman game from 2016.

Within Eidos Montreal's new mission statement, the developer affirms it'll be propelling itself towards online gaming. This could fold neatly in with the reports of a new Guardians of the Galaxy game from the dev as the Deus Ex franchise is put on hold.

Maximum Games and Iron Galaxy Games upcoming game 'Extinction' is scheduled for a release in Q1 2018, and has now been confirmed by the developer to not be featuring any micro-transactions, to go with this announcement the publisher has released a video showcasing the games skills and mechanics.

From the above video we can see that players will have the option of a variety of different skills and traits each benefiting the main character in different ways overall giving the edge in battle. It is explained that the foes you are versing will sometimes require players to unlock these trains is in order for a successful kill to take place, this system of making players flee from some foes means that each combat encounter will be different and challenging.

In attempt to save humanity from these massive monsters players will not only be using their unlocked traits and abilities to their advantage they will also be using the environment around them as much as they can. Sprinting across roof tops and climbing trees will become the norm as strategy with placement of your character will be detrimental to survival.

If you have been waiting with your money in-hand for the Ataribox Indiegogo campaign, you'll be waiting a little longer as the team has explained that there is a "key element" missing that is holding them back from throwing the Ataribox up for pre-order.

Atari announced back in September that it would be launching its refreshed Ataribox console in a crowdfunding campaign in the Fall, with systems shipping in Spring 2018. Atari has issued an update that explains the delayed Indiegogo campaign that was meant to kick off on December 14, and is being placed on pause for now.

Atari's statement reads: "Because of one key element on our checklist, it is taking more time to create the platform and ecosystem the Atari community deserve. Building Ataribox is incredibly important to us and we will do whatever it takes to be sure it is worth the wait".

Battlegrounds is in the headlines for all the right reasons, it's not just one of the most-played games of 2017, it is Game of the Year to many millions of people like myself who have more than gotten their money's worth.

Valve has been long-established in the first-person shooter scene with the likes of Half-Life, Team Fortress, and Portal - but their eSports giant in CS:GO has made them the center of a lot of the eSports world from the very beginning. CS:GO is having their playerbase affected by the snowballing effect of PUBG, so it should come as no surprise to hear there could be a Battle Royale-like game mode coming to CS:GO.

The rumor of Survival Mode is coming from the Valve News Network, where they've noticed in some of the CS:GO patches dating back to even May 2016, were references to all sorts of PUBG-like content for CS:GO.

Battlegrounds is now released on the Xbox One/X consoles as of December 12, with some pretty awful performance but a huge chunk of 1 million players in the game already. But what about the upcoming v1.0 release on the PC?

PUBG's new replay feature is currently being tested in the Battlegrounds test servers ahead of the v1.0 release, an option that needs to be enabled before the startr of the match and then records everything around you in a 1km radius. After the match you can then go through the replay, and see the action from completely different angles.

Better yet, there's a list of battles in that match that helps you navigate through the round easily. It's great to see these things reaching the game before the v1.0 release, which is expected in the next two weeks. I can't wait!

With all of the news of Battlefield: Bad Company 3 coming in 2018, some of it has been squashed and boosted up rumor-wise with the news of a new Battlefield game set during WWII.

YouTuber AlmightyDaq said there isn't just Bad Company 3, but two new Battlefield games planned for the New Year, where he said: "There are two games. I'm aware that DICE Sweden's game is WWII. That's what my next video is about. The [Bad Company game] I leaked is [being made by] DICE LA".

Bad Company 3 is said to be set during the Vietnam War, with DICE LA working on Metal of Honor and Lord of the Rings games. If it ends up as a full release, it'll be interesting to see how EA will handle two Battlefield games released in the same year.