Gaming - Page 967

If it was up to Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan, mouse and keyboard players would be banned on consoles, Kaplan said: "We have contacted both first-party console manufacturers and expressed our concern about the use of mouse and keyboard and input conversion devices".

Kaplan added: "We have lobbied and will continue to lobby for first-party console manufacturers to either disallow mouse and keyboard and input conversion devices or openly and easily support mouse and keyboard for all players. I encourage you to reach out to the hardware manufacturers and express your concerns (but please do so in a productive and respectful way)".

The reason for the comments came from a thread that had posters saying that most high-end Overwatch players on both the PS4 and Xbox One are using a mouse and keyboard, and not the traditional controller, with some gamers asking if Blizzard thinks this is cheating or not, as a mouse and keyboard has much higher accuracy and speed over the controller. Should professional Overwatch matches be allowed to use the mouse and keyboard on consoles?

Resident Evil 7 is a great looking game, but the lack of 21:9 aspect ratio support for UltraWide monitor games is disappointing - but will the game ever support UltraWide resolutions? It seems not, according to Capcom - the developer of the game said: "There are currently no plans to support wide aspect ratio monitors".

Capcom also talked about the reasoning behind the 90-degree FOV lock, as there is an artistic and technical reason behind it, with Capcom explaining: "FOV capped at 90 degrees is a game design decision". They continued: "The dev team explored potentially going wider after seeing feedback from the demo, but going wider introduces issues where certain objects, textures, etc. are then not fully rendered out for performance considerations. It will also have performance implications since going wider will introduce more objects into the scenery. Having too much peripheral vision for this type of game can also lessen the tension and atmosphere intended for the game".

From the way I'm taking this news, we won't have 21:9 aspect ratio support because of the artistic feel - which I think would be fine, but the performance reasons aren't strong enough for me. 3440x1440 is easier on your graphics card to render than 4K (3840x2160) - and even if it were 'too much', they could just warn people they would need a better graphics card.

Final Fantasy VII: Remake is still a long ways off, and there's no guarantee the game will even be shown off this year let alone shipped. What's more is the game is a multi-part series, meaning it won't be released all at once and instead launched in chapters. Given how long the Remake is taking, the episodes could end up on different console generations--provided the iterative cycle doesn't continue, of course.

Remember when Final Fantasy 15 was supposed to come to PS3 as Final Fantasy XII: Versus? Many years later the game showed up on PS4 and never shipped on PS3 due to difficulties. Could something similar affect the new Final Fantasy VII: Remake? Will each episode basically end up its own self-contained game due to inconsistent performance and quality? According to game producer Yoshinori Kitase, the final chapter of FF7: Remake could very well be much different than the first chapter, creating a kind of fractured game-within-a-game sentiment:" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new Final Fantasy VII: Remake?

Will each episode basically end up its own self-contained game due to inconsistent performance and quality?

EA expects to sell about 3 million copies of Mass Effect: Andromeda in its first week or so, and here's how that will affect the company's overall Fiscal Year 2017 earnings.

Mass Effect: Andromeda will ship on March 21, 2017 which is right at the fourth quarter end of EA's current Fiscal Year (FY17). This is not by mistake. EA slotted the new Mass Effect game in this spot specifically as a business strategy to help bolster an already-stellar year of earnings.

In its third quarter (ending Dec. 31) EA hit $1 billion of operational cashflow for the first time ever, and pulled in a net revenue of $1.149 billion.

Sony's new 4K-ready PS4 Pro might get a new feature that natively optimizes frame rate threshold in games that don't yet have PS4 Pro Forward Compatibility upgrade patches, essentially letting every PS4 game harness the power of the new console.

Right now if you want to play your favorite game in 1080p 60FPS, 4K 30FPS or native 4K on the PS4 Pro you have to wait for the publisher/developer to roll out an enhancement patch. Sometimes these patches never come. As it stands PS4 games can't natively leverage the power of the PS4 Pro's beefier Polaris-grade GPU and overclocked CPU to enable higher frame rates and resolution.

But what if you didn't have to wait? What if your entire games library could leverage some of the PS4 Pro's power by default and you weren't at the mercy of developers?

Sony today announced a long overdue feature is coming to the PlayStation 4: external hard drive support.

The new PS4 System Software Update 4.50 (aka Sasuke) will add support for external hard drives up to 8TB in capacity to all PlayStation 4 models (PS4, PS4 Slim, PS4 Pro) effectively allowing gamers to completely circumvent the most annoying feature of the current generation of consoles: too little storage for 50GB+ games.

There's one caveat, however: Sony seems to affirm that only USB 3.0 SuperSpeed hard drives will work for external storage. "With this update, you have the option to store content to an external HDD. Just plug a USB 3.0 HDD into your PS4, and voilà, you now have more space on the console," reads a post on the PlayStation Blog.

In its latest Q3 2017 financial earnings report, EA reveals that it's raked in an insane $1.115 billion in operating cash flow in a single three-month period. This is the first time EA has achieved such a feat in a single quarter, and expects strong titles and services to continue the momentum into FY2018.

"For the first time ever, we generated over $1 billion in operating cash flow in a quarter. This is a true testament to the innovation we built into Battlefield 1 and FIFA 17 and the continued strength of our digital live services," said EA Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen.

EA predicts that its financial future will be even better: the company forecasts that its Q4 2017 (ending March 31, 2017) net revenue will increase to $1.482 billion compared to Q3 2017's net revenue of $1.149 billion, likely bolstered by new content such as Mass Effect: Andromeda, Battlefield Premium purchases from Battlefield 1's They Shall Not Pass DLC, and accumulated services, content, etc.

Soon PlayStation 4 Pro owners will be able to play Final Fantasy XV in 1080p 60FPS thanks to the game's biggest performance optimization patch to date.

Square Enix's Hajime Tabata revealed even more updates coming to Final Fantasy XV, including the anticipated PS4 Pro tech tweak patch. This patch will roll out on February 21 alongside a host of other changes. Tabata was careful to say the game wouldn't run at a consistent 1080p 60FPS on PS4 Pro--the update simply raises the game's original 30FPS cap on PS4 and Xbox One consoles to 60FPS on the PlayStation 4 Pro. Considering the team had such a hard time getting the game running at just 30FPS on current-gen consoles I would be cautious about your expectations here.

It's true the PS4 Pro's GPU is much beefier than the stock PS4 console, with the Pro model sporting a Polaris grade GPU that sits just below an RX 470 in terms of raw TFLOP power.

Nintendo outlines a substantial software trajectory for the Nintendo Switch with a massive games library, ensuring the handheld-console hybrid will have a consistent offering of unique and varied games.

In a recent earnings report, Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima confirmed that over 70 developers are currently developing over 100 games for the new transforming Switch handheld-console. This number of games is almost one-seventh of the Wii U's total software library, and the last projection was given by Nintendo America's Reggie Fils-Aime who said 50 devs working on over 80 games.

"After the presentation on January 13, we have continued to receive requests from more and more software publishers who want to develop games for the system," Mr. Kimishima said in a presentation slide. "At the presentation, we announced that there were over 80 titles in development from more than 50 software publishers, but that number has now climbed to over 100 titles from more than 70 publishers. Please look forward to more announcements about the software lineup in the future."

Final Fantasy 15 director Hajime Tabata wants to unlock the game's full potential by bringing it to PC, and if it does happen, he'd love to expand the game with user-created mods.

Even on consoles, Final Fantasy 15 is a visual marvel to behold. Honestly it's the best looking PS4 game I've ever seen, besides Uncharted 4. Despite the awesome fidelity, amazing lighting, and immersive atmospheric effects, it's still quite obvious the game is being held back by underwhelming console hardware. FF15 was absolutely made for PCs.

In fact, the RPG was actually created using NVIDIA Gameworks technology, and Square Enix's high-end Luminous engine was demoed with four NVIDIA GTX Titan X GPUs back at BUILD 2015.

Obsidian Entertainment squashes the rumors and confirms it's not making a new Fallout game. That means the rumors about Fallout: New Vegas 2 and Fallout: New Orleans are absolutely false.

Yesterday FragHero perpetuated a rumor that Obsidian is currently developing a sequel to Fallout: New Vegas. I saw through this right away, but decided not to report on it without more info: how could Obsidian, a smallish dev team with 50-200 employees, be working on a massive sequel to Pillars of Eternity and a huge open-world Fallout game? The answer is simple: it can't.

"We've said plenty of times that we'd love to work on a Fallout again if Bethesda wanted us to, we just aren't at this time," Obsidian PR rep Mikey Dowling told Kotaku. "Right now we're very focused on the Fig campaign to make our first ever sequel in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. Whenever a new Fallout comes around though, whoever is doing it, we all look forward to playing it!"

EA has confirmed that Battlefront 2 will have a fully-fledged singleplayer campaign story mode along with a ton of extra content, characters, ships and game modes.

Compared to its predecessor, Battlefront 2 will be a behemoth. At least that's the signals EA sent during its recently Q3 2017 earnings call, where it talked up the sequel and promised to "deliver fans exactly what they want from a Star Wars game." In fact, Battlefront 2 is so jam-packed with extra content (including a meaty story mode) that EA had to assign three studios to work on it: DICE, Motive and Criterion.

Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima has confirmed the Nintendo Switch's paid online subscription service will be quite inexpensive.

Starting in Fall 2017 Nintendo will charge owners of its new Nintendo Switch console a subscription fee to play online. This move was quite controversial when it was announced, however, thanks to analyst Dr. Serkan Toto, we know now the fee will be extremely competitively priced at just 2-3,000 yen ($17.50 - $26.50) a year. Compared to Microsoft and Sony, who both charge $59.99 a year for their online service, this could end up being a huge boon for Nintendo.

Unlike PlayStation Plus and Xbox LIVE Gold, Nintendo's paid online service won't give subscribers access to an incremental free games library. Instead Nintendo will grant subscribers limited access to a single NES or SNES Virtual Console game for a month, and then revoke access after the month is over. The selection will rotate from month-to-month and subscribers will get a discount on that period's game should they want to buy it from the eShop.

EA today revealed information on BioWare's mysterious new IP, confirming many of our reports to be accurate: the game is action-based, and will likely have online multiplayer. In a sense, this new game could be EA's unique answer to Bungie's MMO-like shooter Destiny that uses action-adventure elements instead of FPS.

BioWare's new IP is entirely fresh, and isn't based on Dragon Age or Mass Effect. Interestingly enough, however, the new IP has been developed by BioWare's original Mass Effect Edmonton studio for the past five years (since 2012) and will release by March 2018. Based on the teasers video from E3 2014 (see above) we can surmise it's sci-fi based, which aligns with the Edmonton studio's skillset.

EA confirms the IP is a "clean sheet design with new concepts, new gameplay mechanics, and new stories set in a unique universe." EA has said that the new IP won't be an RPG, and will instead be "genre-melding" across the action and adventure genres while retaining the deep character progression and story that BioWare is known for.

At the Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary event, Square Enix revealed new DLC for Final Fantasy XV including Episode Gladiolus, Episode Prompto and another free Booster Pack download.

Final Fantasy XV will have story DLC for each of Noctis' brothers in arms, with Gladio, Prompto and Ignis all getting their own solo episodes.

The first of these DLCs, Episode Gladio, will release on March 28 and will allow players to take the perspective of Gladio to fight enemies alongside Cor Leonis. Gilgamesh will make an appearance so there's a good chance we'll be fighting an updated modern version of the age-old character.

Nintendo's beleaguered Wii U console has finally been put to rest: the Japanese console-maker has confirmed that Wii U production has ceased in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Now that Nintendo's hot new Switch hybrid handheld-console is on the way, the company is keen on erasing the Wii U from its current hardware lineup. Nintendo has confirmed that it won't be making any more Wii U consoles and once the current stock is sold the system will become another curious part of gaming history.

In many ways, the Wii U was absolutely essential for Nintendo's success. The console taught Nintendo a valuable lesson about the importance of third-party developer relations as well as clearly and concisely advertising their hardware.

Square Enix celebrates Final Fantasy VII's 20th anniversary by giving fans their first glimpse at the dreaded one-winged angel Sephiroth.

Although Final Fantasy VII: Remake might not release in 2017 to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the world's most universally acclaimed RPG, Square Enix did drop some new key art to keep us hyped up, and it absolutely achieved its targeted effect.

Taking a gander at Sephiroth in the key art, we notice that his appearance has been altered from the original Final Fantasy VII and the subsequent Advent Children film. His outfit has been changed a bit, and the metallic pauldrons seem a bit different, but his menacing and calculating gaze is ever-present.

BioWare is teasing something "interesting" for today, and it could be the reveal of its new IP.

Jonathan Warner, game director of BioWare's fresh new IP, teased the following on Twitter: "Today is going to be an interesting day ;) #BioWare." This tease almost certainly coincides with today's EA Q3 2017 earnings call, so we could see the new IP unveiled today.

What do we actually know about the mystery IP?

At the official Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary event in Tokyo, Square Enix has revealed a bevy of news from the beloved landmark franchise, including a release date for the Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age remaster.

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age will release on July 11, 2017 on PS4 in North America and Europe, and two days later in Japan.

This chapter is actually a full HD remastered port of the original Final Fantasy XII that was released on PS2, and features the exclusive Zodiac job system that was only released in the East. The Zodiac system has twelve unique job classes to use in battle, each with their own strengths and styles.

Fallout 4 is finally getting its long overdue PlayStation 4 Pro Forward Compatibility patch that will upgrade resolution to native 1440p and boost atmospheric effects.

Bethesda today announced the features of Fallout 4's upcoming PS4 Pro patch, which will upgrade the game's base resolution to 2560 x 1440, however no details were given on a 1080p 60FPS mode. We expect the 1440p mode will be capped at 30FPS like the base game.

Fallout 4's PS4 Pro patch will also improve draw distances for environments such as trees, grass, basic objects and NPCs. Gamers will also get improved godray effects for realistic and immersive lighting effects.