Gaming - Page 935

E3 2017 - Nintendo's high-profile E3 2017 showcase has had a strong effect on its stock, sending its shares to their highest point in years.

Shares of Japanese console-maker Nintendo have risen once again on the back of a successful games reveal stream, this time centered around its new Switch console-handheld hybrid.

Nintendo company shares are now at their highest point since 2008 thanks to the strong community buzz driven by a slew of heavy-hitters like a new mainline Pokemon RPG for the Switch, Fire Emblem Warriors, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, a new Kirby and Yoshi game, the massively anticipated Mario Odyssey, and the big surprise of Metroid Prime 4.

E3 2017 - Metro Exodus represents a new horizon of scope and depth for the landmark FPS series.

4A Games has been working on its new Metro Exodus game for three years now, and promises a staggering level of freedom and exploration for players. The next-gen FPS takes place in huge "continent-spanning" open-world environments filled with hostile life, post-apocalyptic ruins, loot, and unique interactive opportunities.

4A Games leverages new technologies like dynamic weather, a true day-to-night cycle, and a full year's of seasons from spring to winter to breathe new immersive life into post-nuclear Moscow, all with the deadly action-packed FPS survival the series is known for.

IO Interactive has officially negotiated a buyout with Square Enix and is now fully independent.

Square Enix and IO Interactive have reached an agreement with Square Enix, who recently jettisoned the developer to focus more on core IP. IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak today delivered an official message confirming the studio has gone indie, and retains full rights to the Hitman IP.

"I am proud to announce today that IOI is now officially an independent studio. We have successfully concluded our negotiations with Square Enix and have agreed to a management buyout. Crucially, we will keep all of the rights to the Hitman IP," Hakan announced in a statement.

Atari may be resurrecting the classic home console that ushered in a golden age of gaming.

Atari has recently teased the "Ataribox", which may be a re-release of the classic Atari console for the modern age. The Ataribox is an officially licensed "brand new Atari product years in the making," and if I had to guess, it's an official Atari console pre-loaded with old-school Atari games not unlike Nintendo's NES Classic Edition system.

The teaser reveal makes it pretty clear the Ataribox is a console complete with that old 80s wood paneling. The company has launched the Ataribox.com website to promote the product, but we have no clue when an official reveal will take place.

Microsoft killed it this year at E3 2017, announcing its next-gen Xbox One X console, but they were also teasing they have a bunch of first-party Xbox exclusives in the development oven, that aren't anywhere near ready to begin showing off.

During an interview at E3 2017 with VICE's Waypoint, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said: "When I started this job three years ago, hardware was a real focus for us because I thought we had more work to do there. Xbox One S shipped last year, the X is shipping this year, I love our hardware line. Xbox Live was something I wanted to focus, coming on Android, iOS, Windows PC because I really want people to play games on the place they want to go play".

Spencer continued: "Our first party is a critical part of that equation. Yesterday, I know people want to see what we're investing in new. We are investing in new things, we signed things just recently that I thought, 'Hey, from a PR standpoint it would be really easy for me to put a trailer on screen', but then I know the game is not coming for another two and half or three years, so I didn't want to do that. I understand some people would say, 'Hey, that would give me confidence in the future of Xbox'...".

E3 2017 - Ubisoft is set to pull in big revenue with its new South Park mobile game.

At its E3 2017 showcase Ubisoft announced South Park: Phone Destroyer, a new free-to-play iOS and Android smartphone game set in massively popular South Park universe. And as South Park devotees know, Freemium Isn't Free.

The very first South Park mobile game will be monetized with microtransactions, and herein lies Ubisoft's golden opportunity for a massive tail of recurring revenue.

E3 2017 - With its 6TFLOP GPU, 12GB GDDR5 RAM, and boosted CPU, Microsoft's new $499 Xbox One X is the most powerful console on the market, but developers have total free reign over how to tap the hardware. Microsoft has set no restrictions to developers or publishers despite the constant requests for a 60FPS standard from gamers. Xbox division head Phil Spencer talks about why Microsoft doesn't want to set those kinds of mandates on the Xbox One X.

Microsoft has said from day one that developers have full control over how they want to use the new 4K-ready Xbox One X (aka "Project Scorpio"). I re-iterated the point days ago by reminding everyone the Xbox One X won't play every single game in native 4K at a "rock solid" 60FPS. Every game is different, every engine is different, and every developer is trying to do different things.

Gamers, on the other hand, are frustrated with the lack of confirmed games that run at native 4K with higher frame rates, especially third-party games like Assassin's Creed: Origins and Destiny 2, which both run at upscaled 4K at 30FPS, similar to their PS4 Pro counterparts.

E3 2017 - Bungie confirms that Destiny 2 will run at 4K 30FPS and deliver the same exact experience on both PlayStation 4 Pro and Microsoft's new high-end Xbox One X.

Microsoft's new $499 Xbox One X (previously "Project Scorpio") might be a good leap ahead of Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro, with the Xbox One featuring a 6TFLOP GPU, 12GB of GDDR5 RAM at 326GB/sec, and a massively customized Jaguar CPU at 2.73GHz, but that extra horsepower won't be tapped in Destiny 2--at least not at launch.

Bungie has confirmed to WCCFtech that Destiny 2 on consoles will have performance parity on both systems, meaning the game won't run better on Xbox One X despite its beefy hardware boost.

E3 2017 - Microsoft exec Phil Spencer confirmed that the company isn't making a profit by selling the Xbox One X at $500.

Microsoft isn't making a profit on its new 4K-ready Xbox One X system, and that's okay. Console-makers typically don't make a profit on hardware, but the software and service ecosystem that powers the hardware. This has been true for Xbox for quite some time, especially after its cross-platform union with Windows 10 PCs, effectively turning Xbox into a service rather than a console platform. Microsoft's new $499 Xbox One X console is definitely the world's most powerful console to date with its 6TFLOPs GPU and native 4K gaming support, but the hardware is just the gateway to the real lucrative core of console gaming: software, live/subscription services, microtransactions, and other monetized content that spans a years-long tail.

In a recent interview with Business Insider, Xbox division head Phil Spencer confirmed that Microsoft isn't selling the $499 Xbox One X at a profit. Unless you're Sony, who's banked very hard on hardware sales with its 60 million strong PlayStation 4 userbase, software is typically more important than harwdare.

E3 2017 - Now we know why Sony refused cross-play with Microsoft's wholly-owned Minecraft game: it requires users to sign into an Xbox LIVE account.

Nintendo Switch's Minecraft cross-play hinges on one very important detail: you have to sign into an Xbox LIVE account even when playing on Nintendo's handheld Switch console hybrid. So even if you don't own an Xbox product, you'll have to make an Xbox LIVE account and sign to play online with other platforms.

As Mojang CEO Jonas Märtensson confirms, Minecraft is unified through all platforms via Xbox LIVE and requires sign-ins on all devices for cross-play--even the Nintendo Switch.

Take-Two has killed off yet another high-profile Grand Theft Auto mod, and the community has responded with an uproar.

Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive has sent a cease and desist letter to the developers of OpenIV to stop development at once. Open IV is a massively ambitious Grand Theft Auto IV mod tool that served as an editor and archive manager for PC versions of the game, allowing modders to craft game files and gamers to easily sort their mods. The OpenIV team had been developing the tool for nearly 10 years before Take-Two's random cease and desist.

In the letter issued to OpenIV developers, Take-Two claims the mod tool allows "third parties to defeat security features of its software and modify that software in violation Take-Two's rights." As such, the OpenIV modding tool has been declared as illegal. In response the team has decided to follow Take-Two's order and and stop distributing OpenIV altogether.

After two years as a Steam Early Access title, ARK: Survival Evolved will be released as a finished game on August 8, says developer Studio Wildcard.

The developer added: "The past two years have been one heck of a journey! Millions of ARK players worldwide have built gigantic bases, captured and trained armies of dinosaurs, crafted armories full of weapons and eaten billion of pounds of berries. With your help, we're now about to reach the completion of core content for ARK: Survival Evolved and release the full game to the world! That was just the beginning; now we'll be entering the next phase of our journey. Players who have been with us throughout this early access program and were excited with the launch of each update, have even more reason to be excited! ARK is going to become even more fun with surprise new content at launch and beyond, as we continue to have a massive amount of additional gameplay, creatures, and story elements in the works".

The world of ARK: Survival Evolved is already huge, but the game's first official mod is now here for Steam gamers - with Ragnarok featuring a massive 144sq kilometer map, designed to be explored in the many ways you can traverse the land. The ocean has its own ecosystem, with distinct variations of the former ARK creatures... as well as a new creature exclusive to Ragnarok.

I still remember buying the original Xbox when it came out, and spending hundreds of hours inside of the world of Halo. It was a system seller, and even games like Project Gotham Racing kept me entertained for months and months.

But now the Xbox is dead and buried, with the successor in the Xbox 360 being a phenomenal success - and then into the world of the Xbox One. Microsoft quickly released the Xbox One S with a 4K-capable Blu-ray player, and then just announced the 4K-capable Xbox One X console coming on November 7 for $499. However, Microsoft might have another trick up its sleeve in its dash for complete console domination: Xbox emulation for the PC.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer told PC Gamer: "I want people to be able to play games! [Emulation] is hard. [Xbox] 360 specifically is a PowerPC chip, emulated to x86, which is difficult. It's a little bit easier when you have a fixed spec, when you think about Xbox, Xbox One S, and Xbox One X. And you think of the variable specs of the PC space, so you're taking a fixed-spec PowerPC emulator and then moving it over to run on PC, so there's a lot of work there".

E3 2017 - Ubisoft has confirmed that its new Assassin's Creed: Origins won't have an online multiplayer component, but that doesn't mean it won't have online features.

Ubisoft Montreal's massive sprawling open sandbox set in ancient Egypt won't have an interactive online co-op multiplayer component like Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood or Assasssin's Creed: Unity.

"Assassin's Creed: Origins is primarily a singleplayer experience," Ubisoft Montreal game director Ashraf Ismail said in a recent E3 2017 Coliseum panel showcase.

E3 2017 - Ubisoft has gone all out and re-invigorates the franchise with Assassin's Creed: Origins, adding in key action RPG elements with an emphasis on freedom, immersion, dynamism and action. Players will be able to customize Bayek as they see fit with a multitude of weapons and skillsets.

Assassin's Creed: Origins has a much deeper progression system than other Assassin's Creed games, and Ubisoft Montreal has infused the game with huge RPG elements. Not only can gamers collect a wide variety of weapons and armors that all have different properties, attributes, and rarities, but they can customize Bayek's abilities via a diverse and branching hybrid "ability graph" skill tree. Ubisoft opens up on what this ability graph offers, and touches upon the weapons that will be featured in their new ancient Egypt playground.

"This is the ability graph. On one side is the seer aspect of the graph is really about manipulation, manipulating your enemies and animals to get the job done. The center is about being a warrior. On the left side is the hunter path which is really about either being an archer or being a stealthy assassin," Ashraf Ismail, Game Director at Ubisoft Montreal said during the E3 Coliseum event panel.

E3 2017 - Terry Crews' Crackdown 3 trailer cameo wasn't just for fun: you'll actually be able to play as the buff, mayhem-inducing building-smashing Crews within the game.

Sumo Digital has confirmed recent PCMR convert and all-around badass Terry Crews will be a playable character in Crackdown 3.

"Terry Crews is a playable character. I think I'm OK to tell you that. I probably shouldn't say any more," Crackdown 3 design director Garett Wilson told IGN. "He definitely is a playable character, and he's a character in the narrative, so he's in the opening cutscene and things like that."

E3 2017 - Ubisoft has released a giant fact sheet for Assassin's Creed: Origins, detailing oh-so-much info about the new action RPG.

What is Assassin's Creed Origins?

For the last four years, the team behind Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag has been crafting a new beginning for the Assassin's Creed franchise. The action takes place in Ancient Egypt, inviting players to explore the most mysterious place in history, during a crucial period that will shape the world and give rise to the Assassin's Brotherhood. Plunged into a living, systemic and majestic open world, players will discover vibrant ecosystems, made of diverse and exotic landscapes that will provide them with infinite opportunities of pure exploration, adventures and challenges.

E3 2017 - Bethesda will indeed make The Elder Scrolls VI, and the team already has an idea of what they want to do. But the technology isn't here yet, so the studio is working on three new "big and crazy projects" in total, but two of these games will come before Elder Scrolls VI.

A bit ago PC Gamer published an article that made it seem Bethesda Game Studios may not actually make The Elder Scrolls VI. I thought I'd clear things up for people and highlight what Bethesda's Pete Hines said at E3 2017 and match them up with what Todd Howard said last year.

To re-iterate, yes, Bethesda is making The Elder Scrolls VI, but the game isn't currently in active development. Bethesda Game Studios is currently making three "big and crazy projects" that will be "totally unique and totally different" than anything else the studio has done before. One of these projects is Elder Scrolls VI, but the game isn't in active development like the other two games. The projects will also be massive Skyrim-sized juggernauts that span multiple years of development and overlap with one another to make something fresh and interesting.

E3 2017 - Bethesda plans to support Microsoft's new Xbox One X by updating their core games to leverage the new console's high-end hardware.

New and existing Bethesda Softworks games will be updated with enhancements to tap Xbox One X's robust hardware upgrades, Bethesda exec Pete Hines confirmed. Expect to see all of Bethesda's new titles like Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, The Evil Within II, and Dishonored 2's new Death of the Outsider DLC get some sort of optimization upgrades including 4K with beefier frame rates and other enhancements. These upgrades will also come to Fallout 4 and Skyrim Special Edition too.

"We're looking for all of our studios to add a level of support for Xbox One X. We Tweeted out last night that we're working right now to get Skyrim SE and Fallout 4 supported on the X," Hines said in a recent interview with Geoff Keighely.

Some of the first multiplayer gameplay footage from Call of Duty: WWII is here, and boy - does it look like trash. The video is courtesy of YouTuber 'jackfrags', with the gameplay captured on the PS4 version of the game.

First off, it looks alright for a PS4 game - but nothing compared to the Frostbite-powered Battlefield 1 or deliciously beautiful Star Wars Battlefront II. Second, the gameplay looks like recycled garbage from the last few oh-so-meh Call of Duty games. There are multiple game modes in COD: WWII, with War, Domination, and TDM - and a new female character that you can play as well.

Activision needs to retire the Call of Duty franchise before it launches with a truly next-gen engine and some game changing new features, because in its current form, it's only a cash cow for the company with pre-hype in the months before launch far exceeding the online chatter for the game post-launch.