Gaming - Page 908

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds single map isn't boring thanks to its gigantic 8x8km size, but with a new map on the way we can't help but wonder how much stronger the addiction to PUBG is going to get.

Erangel, the map in PUBG, is very different to the new desert map. The new desert map is a "sprawling battle arena crowded with desert trees, cacti, and a surprising number of buildings", according to PC Gamer, which recently visited the offices of PUBG Corp in South Korea. PC Gamer continued, saying that the new map features "hills, rises, and ditches in the landscape, which should create lots of opportunities for cover from sniper fire, or alternatively, convenient places to stage an ambush".

Does the new map make a difference? I'd say so, with PC Gamer adding that the new map will feature improved vehicle handling. Depending on what surface you're on: roads, dirt, or very rough terrain. This is going to change those car chase battles that are already intense enough on Erangel, but the new desert map with improved car physics could really change things.

Cuphead, that charming hard-as-nails indie with wonderful 1930's artwork, has smashed 1 million sales and counting.

While making Cuphead, Studio MDHR toiled for years to ensure their game was as enchanting and fun to play as possible. This meant years of painstakingly animating hand-drawn artwork, years of tweaking and inking, and years of transforming their vision into something gamers haven't ever experience. Now all of that sacrifice and tireless effort has paid off: just two weeks after release the game has gone platinum with over 1 million sales across the globe. The indie team had done it--Cuphead was a success, and has gone down in history alongside indie greats like Stardew Valley and Shovel Knight.

"We have worked tirelessly over the past few years to deliver a game that remained true to our vision and we are both humbled and excited that so many people from around the world are playing Cuphead - it truly makes it all worth it," Studio MDHR founders Chad and Jared Moldenhauer said in a joint statement.

EA and DICE remind gamers that Battlefront II's beta is just that--a beta, and nothing is permanent or set in stone, including microtransactions and lootbox mechanics.

One of the best things about online service-based games like Destiny, Rainbow Six: Siege, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and now the new Star Wars: Battlefront II is that the game evolves considerably over time. Armed with feedback and a core vision, developers can continually tweak, shape, and overhaul their creations to ensure the games not only expand, but are fun to play and please their audience. The principal point of funding for service games, however, are the dreaded microtransactions--randomized loot boxes in particular are great sources of revenue for these business models. But at the same time these games typically don't change too much from their point of origin (unless they're disastrously unsuccessful), especially when the games have extremely engaging and addictive layers of gameplay like Battlefront II does.

In a recent update, EA and DICE affirm players that Battlefront II will not ever be frozen in stasis, and will change to the whims of the playerbase (within reason, of course: EA isn't about to kill off its main point of recurring revenue streams just because gamers hate lootboxes). The company also clarified a few things to players, who have been bombarded with half-truths and somewhat incomplete information.

The release of Destiny 2 is right around the corner, with Activision and Bungie releasing the PC requirements for the game. PC gamers won't need to be rushing out to upgrade just yet, as you only need an AMD FX-4350 as a minimum, but you will need 6GB of RAM, a 64-bit version of Windows, and 68GB of HDD space.

Bungie suggests PC gamers have an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 2GB or GTX 1050 2GB, or AMD's Radeon HD 7850 2GB as minimum. Recommend PC graphics cards dial up to the GeForce GTX 970 4GB or GTX 1060 6GB, or AMD's Radeon R9 390 8GB. 8GB of RAM is also a recommended PC spec for Destiny 2, while the CPUs drive up to the Core i5-2400/Core i5-7400 or the AMD Ryzen 5 1600X.

Destiny 2 will feature a full spread of great PC features and technologies when it launches, with an uncapped frame rate, 4K support, 21:9 UltraWide monitor support, mouse and keyboard with custom key mapping, text chat, adjustable field of view, FPS counter, FPS target option, detailed PC settings, and more. Bungie have really gone the full nine yards to make sure PC gamers are looked after with Destiny 2.

LawBreakers was one of the most hyped games of the year, coming from Cliff 'CliffyB' Bleszinski after he had finished up with Gears of War. It was hyped and hyped, but it more than fell flat on its face at release.

Even at its launch, LawBreakers only saw 3000 concurrent gamers, which doesn't even register as a nano-sized blip on Battlegrounds' radar. Even when LawBreakers was in the middle of its free weekend, its peak only topped 1000 players, but then immediately dropped back to its sub-200 levels. Now, there are just a handful of people playing the game, with peaks that are normalizing in at 100 players.

Just now, LawBreakers reached a new low of 10 concurrent players, so it's safe to say the game is on life support right now.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is based on a singular narrative concept: catharsis.

Back when Bethesda teased Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus at E3 2016, I predicted it'd take place in Nazi occupied America (the New Colossus is the name of Emma Lazarus' poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty). That name alone gave me an idea of what the game would be about, as did my prediction--and that was no mistake. According to Machine Games creative director Jens Matthies, the Nazi-blasting sequel is focused on catharsis.

"We always have a theme for each game in terms of the narrative," Matthies said in a recent interview with Stevivor. "In The New Order, the theme was dogma and what it means; the dogmatic sort of philosophy of life, and the consequences of that. And that theme reads through all of the characters and all of the character arcs in the game and the story as a whole."

The founders of billion-dollar titan Riot Games have shrugged off managerial duties to focus on their passion: making great games.

After years of handling the business of running a colossal video games company like Riot Games, Marc 'Tryndamere' Merrill and Brandon 'Ryze' Beck are happy to be back in the trenches of games development. In a recent announcement post the founders happily proclaimed they are switching things up: instead of tackling the numbers side of things, the duo will be more intimately involved with League of Legends on the ground level, going back to their roots and focusing on the magic that makes the game tick.

The Rioters note that the company has grown to 2,500 employees across 20 offices across the globe, and this growth acts as a cushion for widespread support not only for League of Legends, but Riot's other projects as well. "But this growth also meant that the majority of our time is allocated to "managing" the company rather than focusing on creating incredible experiences for players, which is what we really love to do," the founders said in the joint statement. "In our new roles we're going back to focusing on what is ultimately the most important thing we do: making great games."

Epic Games are serious about cheating, so much so that they're suing two individual for developing software and distributing it to cheating services that enables people to purchase cheating software for their game Fortnite. Epic Games are suing individuals Brandon Broom and Charles Vraspir for copyright infringement that carries a penalty of up to $150,000 each.

Broom and Vraspir are said to be associated with subscription-based cheating service, AdditedCheats.net. This lawsuit has a unique nature to it as Epic Games aren't suing the cheating-service, but rather the individuals themselves. This is similar to the lawsuit that Blizzard Entertainment sued cheating service 'Bossland GMBH' based on the premises of copyright infringement. For the record, Blizzard were successful and the court ordered Bossland GMBH to pay a total of $8.6 million in damages.

Epic Games lawsuit claims that Vraspir has been banned at least nine times for cheating in Fortnight and is developing software that is sold via AddictedCheats.net, this software allows others to cheat. Court documents stat that Broom has modified AddictedCheats.net software "so that it is specifically designed to circumvent Epic's technological measures and instructed subscribers to the cheat provider website to do the same."

Hunt: Showdown is the upcoming multiplayer survival horror game from Crytek that appears to finally see the light of day, despite it's slow and uncertain development process. Set to enter Steam's Early Access program, no official date has been released.

"You want to create an experience that goes from the game into the player. These guys are really into your world and they're having fun right? And that's what I want, too," creative director Magnus Larbrant told IGN. "I think Early Access for our game is the best thing that could ever happen."

For those unfamiliar with Hunt: Showdown's history, the game was originally announced in 2014 under the title 'Hunt: Horrors of the Golden Age' and was slated as the spiritual successor to Darksiders. But due to Crytek's financial difficulties and closure of Crytek USA, the game remained dormant despite Crytek claiming it will enter beta testing in late 2014. Clearly this never happened until Crytek recently announced that the game was back, with a new direction and title- Hunt: Showdown, a multiplayer horror in which teams compete to hunt down monsters in the gloomy and scary swamps of Louisiana.

BioWare has lost another big source of talent at the studio, this time with Dragon Age creative director Mike Laidlaw departing the studio.

Mike Laidlaw, one of the main creative forces behind the Dragon Age series of games, has left BioWare after 14 years. His departure follows ex-studio head Aaryn Flynn leaving BioWare in July. While Laidlaw didn't reveal exactly why he departed, citing that "after 14 years and working on Jade Empire, Mass Effect and Dragon age, it's time for me to move on," his departure is interesting given BioWare is currently making a new Dragon Age project.

As for the future of Dragon Age, and the next project, Laidlaw says he's confident the series is in great hands with BioWare veteran Mark Darrah overseeing the team.

PEGI, the Pan European Game Information board that assigns video games with age restrictions, says it can't actually formally designate lootboxes as gambling because it doesn't have the authority.

Much to the dismay of gamers, the ESRB yesterday declared that lootboxes aren't gambling because users are always guaranteed to receive something for their money and there's no actual monetary loss. Now the European ratings board PEGI delivers an answer on the contested topic, saying that even if it wanted to classify lootboxes as gambling they wouldn't be able to.

"In short, our approach is similar to that of ESRB (I think all rating boards do, USK in Germany as well). The main reason for this is that we cannot define what constitutes gambling," PEGI Operations Director Dirk Bosmans told WCCFTech. "That is the responsibility of a national gambling commission. Our gambling content descriptor is given to games that simulate or teach gambling as it's done in real life in casinos, racetracks, etc. If a gambling commission would state that loot boxes are a form of gambling, then we would have to adjust our criteria to that."

343 Industries today announced it's using a special $10 Halo 5 REQ pack to raise funds for humanitarian relief, giving gamers the opportunity to make an impact on those affected by Hurricane Maria and the recent wildfires.

I've been quite critical of Halo 5's REQ packs in the past, but I think it's absolutely amazing that 343 Industries and Microsoft are using these lootboxes to help real people. The special Relief and Recovery REQ Pack costs $10, and 343i will donate 100% of the proceeds to disaster relief organization GlobalGiving.

"For every purchase of the "Relief and Recovery REQ pack" from Halo 5: Guardians between Oct. 12, 2017 to Oct. 23, 2017, Microsoft will donate all proceeds of the Relief and Recovery REQ pack to GlobalGiving (www.globalgiving.org)," reads the official listing. "The Relief and Recovery REQ Pack unlocks five permanent REQs selected from the most popular visual customizations in Halo 5: Guardians - all of them Ultra Rare or better rarity (if available), plus ten boost cards of Rare or better rarity."

As I predicted weeks before official confirmation, Star Wars: Battlefront II will be monetized with its own premium currency that's sold for real money that allows players to buy in-game loot boxes.

Battlefront II's monetization scheme has been heavily criticized for being "pay to win", but the writing was on the wall way before DICE and EA officially confirmed mTX was in. We've covered how EA makes billions from its online-based service games, especially from games like FIFA, and typically any time they discuss non season-pass approaches to service games that means heavy lootbox-style pay-to-win monetization. Futhermore, all post-release DLC and content for Battlefront II will be free, which is another huge clue of loot box mTX monetization. Now thanks to a recent Amazon leak, we know how much gamers will pay for Battlefront II's premium currency.

The game's premium currency is called "crystals", and if you played the beta you likely saw the icon in the upper right between credits and crafting parts. Crystals will be sold at tiers ranging from $5 for 500 crystals to $100 for 12,000 crystals. The exact crystals-to-lootbox exchange rate remains unknown at this time, and we probably won't see that until the game drops in November. Expect to spend crystals on everything from lootboxes to crafting parts.

To celebrate Nissan's 20th year involvement with Gran Turismo and the upcoming release of Gran Turismo Sport, Nissan modified a Nissan GT-R to be compatible with a DualShock 4 controller. That's right, this GT-R was fitting out with robots and a micro-computer and was driven around Silverstone's National Circuit using an unmodified DualShock 4 controller and nobody behind the wheel!

Professional racer Jann Mardenborough was chosen to drive the Nissan GT-R, or GT-R/C as it's officially known as, around the race track. The Nissan GT-R/C is fitted with four robots that controls the race car- Steering wheel, transmission, brakes and throttle. A micro-computer receives the inputs from the DualShock 4 controller and then processors the data for the robots to control the car.

So this begs the question, who is faster? The man, or the controller? Jann was hoisted above the race track in a helicopter to provide the perfect viewing point. His fasted lap around the circuit was 1 minute and 17.47 seconds, reaching a top speed of 131 MPH and average speed of 76 MPH.

No one can deny Japan's passion and loyalty for the Nintendo brand, it should then come as no surprise that Nintendo's latest retro mini-console, the SNES Mini (Mini Super Famicom in Japan) is selling extremely well.

Nintendo have sold 368,913 units in Japan since the SNES Mini has been on sale, that's only 4 days! In comparison, the NES mini sold 262,000 units over the same period. Both are impressive statistics considering the SNES mini is essentially a 16 year old miniature console. No figures have been released regarding the rest of the world's sales figures, but due to a stock shortage you can bet the SNES Mini is selling well across the globe.

The NES Mini sold 2.3 million units during its 6 months before it was discontinued, you can expect the SNES Mini to surpass that figure and open the door for the N64 Mini to be produced.

WWII shooters have dominated the FPS market recently with big AAA titles such as Battlefield 1 and the upcoming Call of Duty: WWII. One of my personal favorites and very underrated game Day of Infamy is receiving a free weekend from October 12 through to October 16.

To help entice new and experienced campaigners back to DOI, developer New World Interactive is offering double XP points to help unlock the 30 playable units featured in DOI. If that's not enough, a recent update included a new map called 'Brittany'. Set in the French region of Brittany, players will fight through the map's rail-yards, bombed-out buildings and fortified bunkers.

This weekend is the perfect chance to try out Day of Infamy, a hardcore WWII FPS that emphasizes teamwork oriented objectives and lethal gunplay featuring nine specialized classes.

CS:GO gamers are set for a treat, Valve have announced that the iconic map 'Dust2' has received a make-over to 'honor its pure form while buffing away the jagged edges'. The new release of the popular map features quadruple the texture resolution and significant lighting improvements.

Valves intentions for the new version of Dust2 were to:

It's not only the map that has received love, player models have also been overhauled with the infamous Leet Krew receving a visual update to match their updated environment. Other noticeable changes include Bombsite A with the broken down cars reduced to one car, this should allow for increased player movement in that area and removal of drain pipes so players can peek around corners more effectively. Bombsite B also receives some changes, as the busted cars have been moved further away to again allow more player movement around that area.

Fortnite: Battle Royale has reached 10 million gamers since its release two weeks ago, after releasing in Early Access earlier this year - without its Battle Royale game mode.

Epic Games has said that an estimated 3.7 million gamers were playing Fortnite: Battle Royale on Sunday, with a concurrent base of 525,000 gamers. This doesn't compare to the near 2 million concurrent players in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, but it's damn good for Epic.

Epic Games released a bunch of details on Fortnite: Battle Royale in an infographic, with 44 million hours played, 58 million traps found, and a huge 292 million people jumping from the Battle Bus. There are lots of other random details included, with 6.9 million umbrellas earned and 797 million walls/stairs/floors/ceilings built. Impressive.

Now that the Star Wars Battlefront II beta is about to close, DICE have been able to see how their latest first-person shooter will run on gamers' consoles and PCs. As usual, Digital Foundry have put some massive effort into a performance analysis and graphics comparison between various versions of the game.

The PS4 version of Battlefront II will render at 972p but have dynamic resolution scaling up to 1080p, while the slower Xbox One can only render at 900p and upscale to 1000p. Sony's improved PS4 Pro is capable of rendering Star Wars Battlefront II at 1296p with dynamic res scaling bumping it up to 1400p, with Digital Foundry reporting that all versions of the game dip below 60FPS.

The site said: "Just like many of you, we've been playing the Star Wars Battlefront 2 beta over the last few days. We've already gone in-depth on PS4 Pro, but here's how PS4, Xbox One and Pro stack up in terms of resolution, performance and visual feature set".

It hasn't taken as long as I thought, but PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has officially hit a huge peak of 2 million concurrent players on Steam.

At the time of writing, PUBG's new peak was 2,016,498 players while its closest competitor being Valve's Dota 2 with 622,839 peak players and Valve's other smash hit CS:GO with 568,207 peak players. Remember that this is Bluehole's first massive success with 15 million copies sold and $450 million in sales.

PUBG hasn't even hit consoles yet either, with an Xbox One version on the way and a possible release on the PS4 coming as well.