Gaming - Page 91

Battlefield 6 is off to a roaring start with millions of players flocking to the military shooter to cause absolute mayhem in whatever way they possibly can. But what if you could cause that mayhem in more game modes? Well, that just might be the case as datamining has revealed what may be on the horizon.

A new report from Insider Gaming has cited several lines of code that suggest Battlefield 6 could be getting six new game modes. Yes, six. Not one, or two, but six. Currently, Battlefield 6 has the following game modes: Conquest, Breakthrough, Rush, and Domination. But if this datamining proves to be accurate, we could also see the addition of Raid, Payload, Sabotage, SquadShootout, Strikepoint, and TankHunt.

The publication discovered these lines of code within the files of Battlefield 6, leading to speculation that developers are currently working on them and that they will be released at a later date. For those who don't know, the codename for Battlefield 6 within its files is "Glacier," and "MP" refers to multiplayer. Notably, Insider Gaming also discovered evidence that naval combat is being worked on by the developers, which is something that has been officially recognized by Battlefield Studios as a community request.

The US government has raised concerns with the $55 billion buyout of Electronic Arts (EA) by a consortium that is made up of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners investment firm.

In a letter penned by senators Richard Blumenthal and Elizabeth Warren to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the senators express concern about the buyout's potential to result in foreign influence campaigns and general national security risks. The senators point to PIF and its "reputation" as a strategic arm of the Saudi government, and how Saudi Arabia is making its way into different facets of cultural institutions, such as sports and video games.

Additionally, the letter states that Saudi Arabia's attempt at buying influence can be seen through the acquisition of EA, as the company was purchased at more than $10 billion above EA's trading value, which is strange considering EA's stock has largely remained stagnant for half a decade. The senators also point to the involvement of Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump.

A few days ago, Valve's Steam broke its CCU (concurrent user) record with 41.6 million PC gamers (or 41,666,455 to be exact). This impressive figure represents a staggering 10 million more users than the concurrent user records from 2022 and 2023, serving as a reminder that the global PC gaming market continues to grow and expand, with Steam leading the charge.

This figure isn't a surge or anomaly, as tens of millions of PC gamers log into Steam every day or keep their PCs on. However, with this new CCU milestone recorded on October 12, many are attributing it to the recent string of popular PC game releases: namely, Battlefield 6 and Hollow Knight: Silksong. That, along with the latest Steam Next Fest, which offers gamers a bunch of demos of unreleased titles to play.

That said, free-to-play titles like Counter-Strike 2, DOTA 2, and PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS continue to be the most played games on the platform. As of writing, Battlefield 6 is sitting in third place as the most played game on Steam, with games Banan, Bongo Cat, Delta Force, Marvel Rivals, and Warframe rounding out the top ten.

Netflix will use generative AI to make new games and interactive experiences for its subscribers, and is hiring a high-salaried director to lead the initiative.

Netflix has been making a big splash into gaming over the last few years. The streamer acquired multiple studios and brokered deals to secure some of the most popular mobile game ports, including Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto trilogy remaster. Netflix's tactics have been anything but ordinary, and that trend will continue as the company tries to find new ways to bring value to its IP catalog.

Generative AI is one of the biggest experimental technologies that Netflix is willing to try, at least for its gaming ambitions. Everyone seems to be using generative AI for different things--Xbox is using it to remove developers from the equation altogether with its MUSE gen AI, and EA created their own ChatGPT chat bot that uses prompts to change in-game worlds on-the-fly. Netflix isn't quite sure what they want to use their gen AI for when it comes to games, but they did just bring games natively right into the TV app with mobile phones as controllers. So things are clearly ramping up.

Helldivers 2 will soon get more optimization and performance-oriented patches, but it'll come at the cost of content.

The latest Helldivers 2 update, Into the Unjust, brought a ton of new features...and a bunch of new bugs. Gamers took notice and were quick to let Arrowhead know about the issues, and instead of doubling-down on a roadmap that churns out new cosmetics to buy, the devs are slowing everything down to make important fixes.

In a new 17-minute developer update video, Helldivers 2 game director Mikael Eriksson talked more about what's happening and why. Arrowhead will delay upcoming updates, content drops, and game changes to prioritize in-game performance.

GTA 6 review access isn't going to be easy, with reports that Rockstar will get reviewers to visit a specific location -- most likely their HQ -- for a "select number of days" to review the biggest game of all time.

In a new post on X from @DetectiveSeeds, who leaked out that GTA 6 would be running at 60FPS on the beefed up PS5 Pro console earlier this year, said: "GTA 6 review access may require reviewers, such as media and select content creators, to come to a designated location for a select number of days in order to review the game. This will be interesting, especially if video reviews are allowed due to editors, video file locations, etc. I believe we will have a better idea of how this is going to be done in the near future".

He said that he heard this information from an employee with the publisher through a "mutual connection on LinkedIn under the agreement that I do not put out their name or title".

The price of Grand Theft Auto 6 might be the most frequently asked question within the gaming community, aside from when the next-generation consoles will be released, as many gamers are bracing for Rockstar to impose a price tag above the $70 standard for a AAA title.

Rockstar has officially said nothing regarding the price of GTA 6, which means currently the game is priced at $70, and while gamers will certainly want the most anticipated game of all time at the cheapest it possibly can be, some are expecting Rockstar to increase the price considering the amount of hype around the title and the general direction of the gaming community (consoles recently experienced price increases).

In all honesty, if there is one game that will break the $70 standard for AAA titles and make the leap to $100, it's GTA 6, and while gamers will certainly complain endlessly about the increase, Rockstar will still make hand over fist. But should the standard edition for a game even be $100?

RSI explains more of how updated fabricator crafting will work in Star Citizen when the new system is introduced in "the next few months," introduces new craftable weapons and armor.

CitizenCon 2025 offers new details about Star Citizen's upcoming crafting system, revealing new resource hierarchies, UI changes, and the opportunity for massive levels of customization.

Details include how the team at CIG is rolling out the system in phases over time, starting first with weapons and armor. The team wants players to become familiar with the tools, especially the new inventory upgrades that'll help with managing so many new resources.

Battlefield 6 developers hinted at the inclusion of naval warfare not too long ago, and now dataminers have discovered evidence that suggests it's already being worked on.

The discovery comes from Insider Gaming, which has penned a new report highlighting code that has been discovered within Battlefield 6. According to the publication, several different vehicles are currently in development, such as Jet Skis and Rigid-Hulled Inflatable Boats (RHIBs). The report goes on to outline that "Glacier" is the codeword for Battlefield 6 and "MP" is the abbreviation for multiplayer. Below you will find the strings of code that were discovered by Insider Gaming dataminers.

As for what is official about Battlefield 6 naval warfare, the developers officially recognized the community outcry for the inclusion of it within the title, with the developers writing that requests from the community "have not gone unnoticed." Other than that brief statement, Battlefield Studios, nor EA has said anything about naval warfare or when it may be added to the game, but we can speculate based on what has already been announced as future updates for Battlefield 6.

Battlefield 6 is proving to be a huge success as the game sits as the #1 best-seller on Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms.

DICE has done it: Battlefield is back, and the newest shooter has all the telltale signs of a big seller. According to the current charts, Battlefield 6 is the top #1 best-seller on all major platform storefronts, including Steam, the PS Store, and the Xbox Store.

The data comes shortly after sales estimates were released by analysts--games tracking firm Alinea Analytics believes Battlefield 6 sold as many as 6.5 million copies worldwide since launch, generating over $350 million in sales revenue alone.

Battlefield 6 has been released, and with the game in the hands of millions of players, nearly one million just on Steam, players are combining different mechanics and discovering exploits that the developers never found.

Exploits usually come with a negative connotation and the assumption that they are game-breaking by giving the user a massive advantage over their opponents. While that does occur in gaming quite regularly, this isn't one of those occasions, as this exploit is more humorous than it is useful, albeit it does result in kills.

Players have discovered that if you stand on top of a drone and repeatedly swing the sledgehammer at the drone while the drone is ascending, you will remain atop the drone, gaining a massive height advantage that can be utilized with a sniper rifle.

With there being so many games to play, and simply not enough time to enjoy them all, it's smart to bookmark the release dates for the ones you really want to try out, especially if they are free. I have one that I will definitely be marking the calendar for, and that is Rules of Engagement: The Grey State

The title is developed by Grey State Studio, which falls under China-publisher, Tencent's banner, and has recently been unveiled with a new cinematic and gameplay trailer. The Grey State: Rules of Engagement is a PvPvE tactical shooter based in a "Horrorverse," where players will be pitted against a variety of ghoulish and Lovecraftian monsters. The goal is to secure an artifact called "The Vertex," while dealing with the monsters and other players that are also searching for the artifact.

The above cinematic trailer does a fantastic job at setting the vibe for the game, as players will be experiencing suspenseful horror coupled with action-packed gameplay against players and monsters. As for the gameplay trailer, what we can see here is pre-alpha footage that is currently a work in progress. However, what is showcased is still quite impressive as we are introduced to three classes with extensive talent trees, and unique abilities, along with a variety of different settings and environments.

With ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X having now launched, many of those who pre-ordered the handheld PC are now picking up their shiny new gaming machine. However, there is something owners of the base ROG Ally should know: Microsoft and ASUS have configured the console's display to be 720p out of the box, despite the display being capable of 1920 x 1080p.

This interesting factoid was pointed out by The Verge's Tom Warren, who shared a helpful video of how to change the display resolution on his personal X account. Warren speculates that ASUS and Microsoft decided to make 1280 x 720p the default resolution for the display to force games that are launched to also run at that resolution.

However, even if the display is set to 1920 x 1080p, or the native resolution of the display, gamers can simply go into the settings of the game and change the resolution down to 1280 x 720p if they so choose.

The principal game designer for Battlefield 6 has recognized the bullet registration problem highlighted by several players, where bullets seemingly hit the target, and blood splatters can be seen, but the target doesn't take damage.

The developers took to the Battlefield Comms X account to confirm they are aware of "rare cases" where bullets can be seen hitting targets, but no damage is registered, and according to the team, the problem has to do with specific weapon attachment combinations. The developers have stated that a hotfix has been rolled out across all platforms and that they will continue to monitor performance as the days proceed.

Additionally, Florian Le Bihan, Battlefield 6's principal game designer, has stated in a separate X post that this issue happened intermittently, and echoed the same statement from Battlefield Comms, the problem was related to certain weapons and attachments. Furthermore, Le Bihan said that in some instances, hit registration problems can be caused by poor internet or game server performance, but in these instances, players will be presented with icons in the top left-hand corner of their screen.

Yesterday, we posted a story on one of the investigations into AMD's unintentional leak of an INT8 version of its FSR 4 upscaling solution powered by AI. As the official FSR 4 release uses an FP8, or 8-bit floating-point format, for its AI model, it's currently exclusive to the desktop lineup of Radeon RX 9000 Series GPUs because RDNA 4 is the only Radeon hardware that can support this more complex AI solution.

The INT8 version of FSR 4 is both official and unofficial, and with some clever tinkering, it works on RDNA 2 and RDNA 3 GPUs like the Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 7800 XT. Image quality falls short of the full FP8 version of FSR 4, but it's a notable improvement over FSR 3.1 and still provides a small to decent double-digit boost to performance. Although it's a performance loss compared to FSR 3.1, many see it as a better solution for 1080p and 1440p gaming because it offers image quality much closer to DLSS than FSR 2 or 3.

A new deep dive into this INT8 version of FSR 4 from the tech gurus over at Digital Foundry builds on what we've seen so far, with better image quality at the cost of performance compared to FSR 3. Testing on RDNA 2 graphics cards shows that it works, which means that this version of FSR 4 could technically be ported over to the Xbox Series X|S generation of consoles.

Battlefield 6 is a huge success with over 6.5 million copies sold since launch, analyst firm Alinea Analytics predicts.

While the official verdict on Battlefield 6's numbers is still out, some analysts are making predictions and estimates on how well DICE's new shooter has done. EA hasn't shared any metrics about Battlefield 6's sales performance just yet.

Alinea Analytics has Battlefield 6 sales exceeding 6.5 million, with the majority of sales on PC. Battlefield 6 also raked in over $350 million in revenue, and raw math puts the game closer to the half a billion dollars mark, which, while staggering, is beaten by Call of Duty (Modern Warfare 2 holds the record with $1 billion in full game sales at launch).

The man responsible for the creative vision of the Assassin's Creed franchise has left Ubisoft.

Big changes are happening at Ubisoft. The company took a $1 billion investment from Tencent to stave off hostile takeovers and pay back debt. To make the deal happen, Ubisoft carved out its three biggest franchises and placed them in a separate subsidiary, Vantage Studios. Tencent has a 25% stake in Vantage Studios in exchange for its investment.

Ubisoft has formed the executive leadership structure for Vantage Studios, and by extension, the future of Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. Vantage Studios will be led by Charlie Guillemot and Christophe Derennes, respectively the son and cousin of Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. This change-over is happening, and it's since been revealed that Assassin's Creed creative Marc-Alexis Cote won't be coming over to Vantage Studios to lead the billion-dollar franchise.

The best Aliens shooter ever made may be getting a sequel, but exact details haven't been revealed just yet.

Aliens Fireteam Elite 2 has been spotted on the ESRB website, where it had been rated M for Mature for blood, gore, and violence. The listing has since been taken offline or made private, yet archived versions remain. According to the info, Daybreak Games will publish Aliens Fireteam Elite 2 on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC. Focus Home had published the first game on PC, whereas Cold Iron Studios published the console versions.

Cold Iron had teased a new project in a studio update, saying that they were working on a fresh game for "fans to sink their teeth into," possibly a nod to the xenomorph's lethal bite.

The team behind Ghost of Tsushima and Ghost of Yotei will continue taking their time and focus deliberately on one game project at a time.

As studios like Naughty Dog ramp up to work on multiple games at once, some PlayStation studios like Sucker Punch Productions are keeping things lean. The team's samurai slasher Ghost franchise has helped Sony continue its penchant for cinematic-quality productions, so it has a critical place within the PlayStation ecosystem.

Now in a recent interview with VideoGameChronicle, studio founder Brian Fleming says that Sucker Punch will continue its single-release cadence. That's partly because Fleming only wants to select the single best idea that the studio has for a new game. The other part is because developers want as much time to make their game look and play as best as possible, and having multiple projects can crowd the workcycle.

NVIDIA has announced it has released new GeForce Game Ready Drivers for a selection of upcoming titles, providing new features and optimizations.

The latest GeForce Game Ready Drivers are available to download and include support for ARC Raiders, Pax Dei, The Outer Worlds 2, and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, along with a bunch of other titles that now have DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation. NVIDIA took to its blog to share details on each of the titles, explaining that by downloading the drivers, players will get a more optimized in-game experience, and have the latest NVIDIA technologies at their disposal to increase performance.

It's highly recommended that if you intend to play any of the titles listed below, you update your drivers via the NVIDIA App or download the specific driver manually, as performance will be significantly improved if you have the up-to-date driver installed. Moreover, suppose you are a GeForce RTX 40/50-series owner. In that case, you will be able to take advantage of NVIDIA's upscaling technologies, such as DLSS, and RTX 50-series owners will be able to utilize DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation for significant performance gains.