Gaming - Page 959

Although Microsoft's 'monster' new Project Scorpio console is specifically made for 4K HDR gaming, regular 1080p HDTV owners will still benefit from the system's beefy graphics horsepower.

Windows Central has confirmed what we've thought for a while now: Project Scorpio will supersample in-game graphics to make Xbox One titles look better on 1080p HDTVs. Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro also supersamples games played on non-4K displays to improve visual fidelity at the cost of frame rates. Thanks to its raw 6TFLOPs of compute power that may harness AMD's new Polaris RX 580 GPU, however, Project Scorpio likely won't suffer the FPS hit like the PS4 Pro.

But there's just one trade-off about Project Scorpio's supersampling: it'll be exclusive to games with True 4K assets. This is because Project Scorpio will likely down-sample the 4K assets to fit on a 1080p display. How Microsoft handles this down-sampling is absolutely critical to maintain proper performance and ensure the Xbox One and/or Xbox One S consoles don't enjoy better 1080p frame rate performance than Project Scoprio. For example, the older 2013 PS4 launch model will actually maintain higher FPS in 1080p in games like Watch Dogs 2 which are supersampled on the PS4 Pro at the cost of frame rates.

NVIDIA has recently released a more refined PC spec requirements list for Mass Effect: Andromeda, revealing that minimum spec PCs with a GeForce GTX 660 may be stuck at 720p, and EA predicts rigs with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1060 will only hit 1080p 30FPS at High preset settings.

Mass Effect: Andromeda looks to be quite the demanding PC game, and it looks like BioWare and EA have teamed up with NVIDIA to get the most out of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 10 series GPUs. For example, the minimum GTX 660 GPU spec will only play the game in 1280 x 720p at Low settings, and a GTX 1060 may not even be enough to hit 1080p 60FPS in Ultra presets.

NVIDIA recently published Mass Effect: Andromeda's PC spec requirements and graphics options, which you can find below. These specs only mentioned the graphical presets and the resolution, not the estimated FPS. However, EA published an interesting graph outlining the estimated FPS for the minimum and recommended system requirements.

Up until now, Twitch streamers and viewers can only communicate via the Twitch chat or other external platforms like Facebook or Twitter. However, Twitch has found a solution to keep their folks in one place. Introducing Pulse, Twitch very own Twitter-like platform.

Twitch describe Pulse as a "place where streamers can post and engage with all of their followers and the greater Twitch community right from the Twitch front page" where you can "share clips, stream highlights, schedules, photos, and more so followers are more informed, engaged, and connected." Essentially, you're getting Twitter but tuned for Twitch users.

Pulse will also be available on the Twitch mobile app for the busy on-the-go streamers

Project CARS was one of the best looking car racing sims ever created, but its sequel is taking things to the next level: Project CARS will include '12K' support - which is really 3 x 4K monitors (11,520 x 2160) and VR support at launch.

Bandai Namco describes Project CARS 2 as "the next evolution in the award-winning racing series, featuring the most iconic cars under the most thrilling of conditions to deliver the "Ultimate Driver Journey" experience. Created by gamers, tested by world-class racing drivers, and the definitive choice of e-Sports pros - Project CARS 2 brings together the essence of motorsports racing in the most beautiful, authentically crafted, and technically advanced racing game on the planet".

Project CARS 2 should have over 170+ cars and 60+ tracks, with mud, gravel, dirt, ice, and of course tarmac to drive over at ridiculous speeds. LiveTrack 3.0 will provide dynamic time of day and weather affects, so that "organic evolution" can occur as you play.

If there was a single game that I pumped thousands of hours into in the 90s, it would be Quake - and Quake II, and of course - Quake III Arena. Now we're getting closer to the release of Quake Champions, with developer id Software throwing up the closed beta.

Bethesda released a new trailer for one of the new champions in Quake Champions, an assassin known as Nyx. Quake Champions is going down an ability-focused, character-based direction that id Software and its partner in Saber Interactive, think will be great. Nyx has the powers of "Ghost Walk", letting her disappear in front of enemies - without being detected, or taking damage - but Nyx can reappear and consume the same space as an enemy, killing them instantly - nice.

But don't worry, rocket jumps and the usual fast-paced Quake is all there in Quake Champions - but an eSports future can be seen in the game, which is exciting me quite a lot.

Microsoft has teased it is getting up close and personal with Middle-earth: Shadow of War, which will benefit from the beefier hardware found inside of Project Scorpio.

We've already seen Shadow of War gameplay footage, but now Microsoft is talking about the game and its upcoming Xbox Scorpio console. Matt Allen, director of technical art at Monolith said: "So far, we really like it. I don't know how much they've revealed the specs, but it is an upgrade. It's not just sort-of, 'We're going to upgrade some stuff.' There's things you can do with it. So, we're pretty excited to be working with them specifically".

Allen also talked about Project Scorpio running Shadow of War in 4K with HDR enabled, adding: "Until you've seen the game at 4K and HDR, it's different ... you can watch it [in HDR] for a while, and after seeing it for a couple of months, you normalize it. Then you go back to not looking at it [HDR], and it actually is really different". He continued: "I don't know how much consumer uptick is going to be of 4K HDR TVs, but we've got a couple, and the game looks fantastic. For me, I'm really excited about showing it off at some point. Hopefully, in the near future, we can show that off".

Indies on the Nintendo Switch may end up consistently costing more than their PS4, Xbox One and PC ports, especially if the games in question release on a physical cart for the Switch. We discuss some of the reasons this is happening in an effort to put things into perspective.

As a Nintendo Switch owner I'm not too happy about paying a premium for games that are cheaper on other platforms. Take Rime, for example: the indie will be $30 on PS4, Xbox One and PC, and $40 on the Switch. This is presumably because Rime is getting a cartridge release on the Switch, but it's also getting a disc release on PS4 and Xbox One. We can only posit the cartridge is more expensive to make then a Blu-ray disc, but it'll also be up on the eShop too for the same price. I think the pricing decision goes deeper than this, though.

As Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime confirms, third-party indie developers set the prices for their games on the Switch. "We don't make that pricing decision. When you see those differences in prices, call up that third-party publisher and ask them."

Zelda: Breath of the Wild feels alive in no small part thanks to its array of humorous, lovable, and extremely cute NPCs.

Breath of the Wild isn't just a beautiful game filled with enchanting majesty and fantasy: it's also filled with whimsy, charm, and heart-warming characters. As the first true open-world game in the series, I thought perhaps the whimsical elements would be put on the back burner. Boy was I wrong: the NPCs are absolutely amazing and go massive lengths to make the world of Hyrule feel alive. Everyone you meet in the game leaves an impression and adds a very real sense of agency to the world itself.

I'll be the first to admit I've barely scratched the surface of the game, but I wanted to share some of the quirky NPCs and how they've made me smile throughout my journeys.

Microsoft's new "monster" 4K-ready Project Scorpio now has an official Microsoft Store listing, strongly hinting at a reveal in the near future.

Xbox division head Phil Spencer has said he wants to reveal Microsoft's high-end Project Scorpio console before E3 2017 in June, and now we have the first storefront listing opening up on the MS Store. This means we could see a special Xbox event being held sometime in April or May ahead of E3, with Microsoft focusing solely on Project Scorpio and Xbox games during the June showcase. Of course there's no price tag on the Project Scorpio pre-order listing, but it does indicate a reveal is on the way.

Microsoft has confirmed that Project Scorpio's 6TFLOPs GPU will enable native 4K gaming, which will make it the world's most powerful games console.

The Nintendo Switch isn't perfect, and like any other system, it can corrupt saved games data. Since the Switch doesn't have any means to backup or migrate saved games (yet), if your data gets corrupted you could lose all your Zelda: Breath of the Wild saves. Fortunately for us, this didn't happen. Here is our experience with corrupted saved data on the Switch.

First of let me say that we were apparently quite lucky with our experience with corrupted saved data. We didn't lose any of our saved games for any of our games--even the game that was affected by the corrupted data. Here's what happened.

When I fired up Specter of Torment yesterday afternoon, I got an error message and the game crashed. The console told me my saved data could be corrupted. After spending quite a lot of time on Breath of the Wild the possibility of losing everything was extremely daunting.

The Nintendo Switch handheld-console hybrid is meant to be a dedicated games device, not facilitate media apps and other forms of entertainment. But at the same time, ancillary features would be nice, and if it's truly a "home console first and foremost," the Switch would do well to have certain concessions like Hulu and Netflix video streaming. And it will--in time.

Nintendo America President Reggie Fils-Aime recently confirmed that Nintendo is negotiating with other companies like Neftlix, Hulu, and Amazon to bring their respective media-streaming apps to the Switch. But those apps will come in "due time," and app support isn't a priority for Nintendo. Games absolutely come first.

"We built the Nintendo Switch to be a world-class gaming device, meaning we want you first and foremost to play games on the system and have an incredibly fun experience," Fils-Aime said in a recent interview with The Washington Post.

NVIDIA is ramping up the marketing engine for Mass Effect Andromeda, with the full details on the PC graphics options revealed.

Mass Effect Andromeda will have 16 different graphics knobs to tweak, with a few of them including multiple detail levels: Ambient Occlusion, Anti-Aliasing, Chromatic Aberration, Effects Quality, Film Grain, Lighting Quality, Mesh Quality, Post-Process Effect Quality, Resolution Scaling, Shader Quality, Shadow Quality, Terrain Quality, Texture Filtering Quality, Texture Quality, and Vegetation Quality.

NVIDIA also revealed the PC requirements for playing the game smoothly at 720p and 1080p:

With tomorrow's firmware update, Sony's new 4K-ready PlayStation 4 Pro will see tighter frame rates across the board in select PS4 games.

Sony today announced that System Firmware Update 4.50 will release tomorrow, bringing the PS4 Pro's coveted Boost Mode. Sony is careful to explain that Boost Mode won't affect all legacy PS4 games that haven't been patched with PS4 Pro Forward Compatibility updates, and only a select few will be compatible with the enhanced mode.

Boost Mode will affect PS4 games with variable frame rates the most by affording higher frame rates, and games with specific locks will maintain a more fluid and consistent frame rate cap. For example, Bloodborne won't magically be patched to run at 1080p 60FPS on the PS4 Pro, but the game will maintain 30FPS more solidly with Boost Mode activated.

Last month Square Enix showed off some new screenshots for Final Fantasy VII: Remake that led some to believe the battle system would have an command mode of sorts; however, game director Tetsuya Nomura has stepped in to clear things up.

As we previously reported, Nomura affirms that Final Fantasy VII: Remake's combat will be entirely action-based--likely similar to Final Fantasy Type-O and Final Fantasy XV--and not follow the same turn-based mechanics of the immortal RPG classic.

The confusion started when a screenshot showed Cloud ducking behind cover which led some gamers to believe certain instances of battle sequences would be command-based or scripted QTE-style events rather than freeform seamless action. This isn't so: Nomura confirms that things like taking cover will be optional, and only be available in certain environments.

Warner Bros Games and Monolith Productions just dropped the first-ever gameplay footage for Middle-earth Shadow of War, and have a strong feeling tactical gamers are going to love it.

Shadow of War is a direct sequel to Middle-earth Shadow of Mordor, and this time around players will actually get to make their own orc army while wielding enhanced new powers.

The gameplay footage is showcased on an Xbox One console, and highlights all the different combinations of powers and clever experimentation needed to strategically annihilate your foes. In a way it reminds me of Lord of the Rings chess--only in a massively dynamic open-scale third-person environment.

Nintendo has changed. With its new Switch handheld-console hybrid, the Japanese console-maker of yore has done away with clandestine business models and embraced the future. Nintendo is actively courting game developers of all kinds to ensure the Switch has a massively growing and steadily flowing games library, and indie devs are a big part of that push.

The way Nintendo sees indies is similar to how Sony strategically uses them as bite-sized snacks via PS Plus to tide gamers over in between big releases. Nintendo will do the same, but it's planning to actually match Sony's indie commitment, and eclipse Microsoft's ID@Xbox altogether. In fact, Nintendo's head of publisher and developer relations Damon Baker, if an indie game is on Steam, it should be coming to the Switch too. But Nintendo doesn't want to lock exclusivity like Microsoft--the Switch is a complimentary system.

"The way we're looking at Switch is this is a complementary platform. If it's on Steam, then there's no reason why it shouldn't be on Nintendo Switch as well," Baker told Games Industry.biz in a recent interview. "If you want to take that experience on the go, if you want to have a baked in multiplayer experience, this is the system to do it. It's got those points of differentiation, but we're not trying to go head-to-head against any of the other platforms. We just think that if the content makes sense to be over on our platform then it should be on our platform."

Square Enix's latest Dragon Quest Heroes II game is having trouble maintaining a solid 30FPS on Nintendo's new Switch handheld-console hybrid, with frame rates dipping down to the low 20's.

Being a "Musou" game, Dragon Quest Heroes is heavily based on action-filled combat, so frame rates are actually quite important. Sadly the game delivers underwhelming performance on the Nintendo Switch, possibly indicating a badly optimized port, or a more daunting answer: the Switch's custom NVIDIA Tegra SoC might not be powerful enough for specific games.

Eurogamer's Digital Foundry recently compared Dragon Quest Heroes II's frame rates on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation Vita and PS4 versions to see the major differences. As you'd expect, the PS4 maintained a solid 60FPS throughout, with the Switch and PS Vita versions hitting 30FPS while exploring. Combat is a different story, however: the Switch's in-game combat FPS while docked is the same as Sony's yesteryear PlayStation Vita handheld. Frame rates instantly dip down to low 20 FPS when any sort of combat is initiated.

Lots of Nintendo Switch gamers are still having issues with their left JoyCons disconnecting mid-game. If this is happening to you, try re-calibrating and/or manually disconnecting and re-syncing your controller. Here's how to do it.

We haven't had any trouble with our Nintendo Switch JoyCons: in fact, we were able to get about 37 feet away from the system while docked or in handheld mode before the JoyCons disconnected. But lots of gamers aren't so lucky, and they feel spurned by Nintendo--and rightly so. After all if one JoyCon doesn't work, you can't play any games unless you replace it for $50 or buy a Switch Pro controller for $70. Not exactly too fun, is it?

Alas, there may be a solution! Gamers are told to keep their left and right JoyCons attached to the Nintendo Switch during the day one update, but some JoyCons still don't work after that. Next up you'll want to try a hard reset to reset the Bluetooth connections from the device and the controllers. But that still may not be enough. You may want to try re-calibrating the controllers themselves, or manually disconnecting and re-pairing them.

The Nintendo Switch dock only outputs a portion of its supplied input power to the Switch console via USB Type-C, and not the full 39W as we originally thought.

Earlier today I reported that Nintendo is still selling standalone docks for the Switch, and on a whim, I flipped over my dock to see if I could find a product number. I found something quite interesting regarding how much power the dock passes to the Switch console: the dock is supplied an input energy rate of 15V at 2.6A (39 watts) from the AC adapter, but the dock's output rate is only 15V at 1.2A (18 watts).

This means the Nintendo Switch receives 18W of power from the dock, not the whole 39W of power that's pushed from the AC adapter.

Nintendo's new Switch handheld-console hybrid system has smashed sales records, and has even outsold Nintendo's coveted Wii at launch.

Nintendo's gambit has paid off in dividends: the Switch's first two-day launch sales in the Americas (North America and South America) exceeded any other console in Nintendo's history, including the company's superstar Wii. That's according to New York Times reporter Nick Wingfield, who talked shop with Nintendo America President Reggie Fils-Aime in an unpublished interview.

While Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime didn't provide exact numbers, sold out retailers all across the world echo the console's success. The extreme demand and well reception from critics triggered a meteoric rise of Nintendo shares, and the company has been enjoying a consistent upward climb since the system's launch on March 3. The Switch's main system-seller, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, now holds the mantle as the top-selling standalone launch title: in fact, Breath of the Wild even outsold Super Mario 64 at launch.