Gaming - Page 970

If there's a system seller for the Nintendo Switch, it would be The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which we're now hearing more details on.

During an interview with Eurogamer, veteran designer Eiji Aonuma - who has acted as the director, as well as the producer on each Zelda game since Ocarina of Time, and acts as a Godfather to the series, teased new details on Breath of the Wild.

The physics engine was a topic of discussion, where Aonuma said: "Another example of a challenge we faced was the physics engine. We wanted a consistent physics engine throughout the world that worked in a logical and realistic way. Actually implementing that was sometimes more complicated than it seemed. [For example], one day I picked up the latest build of the game and went to an area, and saw that all the objects that were supposed to be in that area weren't there. I was quite surprised and confused, and I realised after asking the programmer, the reason the objects weren't there was because the wind in-game had blown them all away". Amazing stuff, eh?

HDR gaming is continuing to pick up steam, with Hitman to soon join the HDR club in an upcoming patch that will be pushed out next week.

All versions of the game will receive HDR functionality, with the PC, Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game to be updated on January 31. Square Enix and IO Interactive have released a screenshot teasing some of the improvements to expect, but you really need a HDR TV or monitor to understand the difference - and it's big.

The developer teases: "As an example, think of 47 in a dark room looking out a bright window. Without HDR you would not be able make out what's outside, whereas with HDR you can simultaneously see details inside the room and outside the window. Another extreme example is the sun. Without HDR we could not render the sun brighter than a white piece of paper, so we had to 'simulate' the sun being blinding. With HDR we can draw the sun several times brighter, so that it is actually close to being blinding, just like in real life".

UPDATE: "Project Louisiana" is Pillars of Eternity 2, not Fallout: New Orleans. Obsidian has confirmed that it isn't currently developing a Fallout game, despite their desires to do so.

Original story is as follows.

Obsidian Entertainment is teasing "Project Louisiana," a new upcoming game that could very well be a new Fallout game based in New Orleans.

Nintendo has confirmed that the Switch will take about 3 hours to completely recharge while on the dock over USB Type-C.

We've just found out the Nintendo Switch's 6.2-inch "console" tablet features a non-removable 4310mAh rechargable 3.7V Lithium-ion battery, which seems pretty beefy in itself, but for a dedicated games tablet at 1280 x 720 we should have at least 5000mAh, so it's no wonder the battery life is about 3 hours with major games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Now we've gleaned from Nintendo Japan's press site that a completely depleted Switch handheld will take 3 hours to completely recharge via the dock or separately with the included Type-C AC adapter.

Nintendo has affirmed that the Switch's battery can last up to 6.5 hours in Mobile Mode, but this long life is likely prolonged via the system's Sleep Mode, which is enabled to extend the system's battery life while on-the-go.

In case you missed yesterday's Valve bombshell, company bigwig and Steamlord Gabe Newell held an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit, delivering some interesting answers. One of these very answers was that Valve hopes to make Source 2 available for all devs free of charge.

"We are continuing to use Source 2 as our primary game development environment. Aside from moving Dota 2 to the engine recently, we are are using it as the foundation of some unannounced products. We would like to have everyone working on games here at Valve to eventually be using the same engine," Newell said during the AmA.

"We also intend to continue to make the Source 2 engine work available to the broad developer community as we go, and to make it available free of charge."

Microsoft has just purchased Simplygon, the team behind an API that's employed in tons of console, PC and mobile games by virtually every triple-A publisher and developer in the industry, including EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Nintendo, Bethesda, Sony and Capcom.

Simplygon's 3D data-optimization technology has seen widespread implementation across the industry, and Microsoft's recent acquisition is no doubt part of the company's Windows 10 UWP unified framework, and will be a key part in its new focus.

In fact, I see Microsoft leveraging Simplygon to make unique dev tools to scale Xbox games across all Windows 10 platforms--Windows 10 PCs, Xbox One, Xbox One S and Project Scorpio consoles.

Grinding Gear Games today announced that Path of Exile, one of the best MMO ARPGs ever made, is coming to Xbox One. This is big news, folks!

I've long contested that Path of Exile is the true successor to the Diablo series; in many ways, it feels like the real Diablo 3. My feelings have somewhat changed since the excellent Grim Dawn ARPG came out, but Path of Exile is still an amazing game in its own right--and now it's coming to Xbox One.

Path of Exile on Xbox One will be free to play, of course, but it will have its own dedicated server and PC players won't get to mingle with Xbox players--that's a bit disappointing, but hey, it's awesome we're getting a port. The Xbox version will feature all of the PC content including the new 3.0.0 expansion that brings Act Five.

Just yesterday I predicted that Halo 6 is finished, and that it'll release as a big-budget triple-A Project Scorpio launch game in Holiday 2017. Now Xbox head Phil Spencer squashed my predictions, and says the company is going to take a risk by letting new IPs lead its 2017 Xbox lineup.

"Xbox One games shipping this year are different for us. not Halo FPS/Gears led, new experiences with different IP, will be fun year," Phil Spencer recently said on Twitter.

With 2017 and subsequently the launch of its "monster" 4K-ready Project Scorpio console, Microsoft will take a new risky direction that has unproven new IPs serving as the launch lineup for its big new console.

If you're a Tekken fan like myself who lives outside of Japan, then you're been wondering one thing above all else: when is it coming out?! The arcade fighter has been out in Japan since March 2015, and we've had to wait quite some time. Well, the answer to that question is coming soon...very soon.

"To all #Tekken fans and beyond: look forward to the release date announcement of Tekken 7 next week. Stay tuned!" Namco Bandai wrote on their official Facebook page.

Tekken 7 will see classic fighters clash with fresh new faces, and it'll be the first Tekken to officially come to PC. Tekken creator Katsuhiro Harada confirmed Tekken 7 will run at a crisp and concise 1080p 60FPS on PS4, and that the team has taken great lengths to ensure there's no fight-stick latency in the game.

Could Nintendo's new Switch handheld-hybrid rely on NVIDIA's GeForce-powered servers for higher-end gaming? Will the Switch's unique external processing box open the door to dramatically improved gameplay performance on the Switch? I think so, and here's why.

Nintendo's Switch console may have a secret weapon that allows it to tap the might of NVIDIA's GeForce Now servers and allow dramatically improved performance via cloud accelerated GPU power. This secret weapon is the Supplemental Computing Device (SCD), an external processing box that hooks up to the Switch and boosts its power, not unlike today's eGPU external GPU boxes.

Nintendo has affirmed the Switch is a "home console first and foremost," but the system doesn't deliver performance befit of a home console, even with its onboard custom NVIDIA Tegra SoC. Instead, the Switch's gameplay performance while docked leaves something to be desired a times, with heavy-hitting games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild only hitting 900p 30FPS while docked.

Steam's support service is quite lackluster, and isn't the kind of support you'd expect from a giant online marketplace. In his recent Reddit AmA session, Gabe Newell concedes that Steam support needs to be streamlined and shored up, and affirms that Valve is committed to the task.

"We are continuing to work on improving support," Newell said during the session.

Newell goes on to say that Valve has expanded Steam's support by fivefold in an attempt to reduce the frustration automatic process, and has dramatically improved the response times.

Yesterday Gabe Newell (aka GabeN), co-founder and current boss at Valve, held a Reddit Ask Me Anything session. GabeN revealed some interesting things, particularly that while Valve is indeed working on new games, the studio is quite interested in carrying its IPs and ideas across a wide spectrum of hardware that transcends traditional gaming--such as VR, machine learning, and even brain-computer interfaces. Yes, really.

When asked what the future holds for Valve, GabeN pretty much highlighted things we already know: Valve will expand its focus past the current hardware on the market and look to the horizon to build unique experiences. This of course means we'll probably see less actual first-party games from Valve until said hardware is mastered and ready for the masses.

"The big thing right now is broadening the range of options we have in creating experiences. We think investing in hardware will give us those options. The knuckles controller is being designed at the same time as we're designing our own VR games," Newell said during the AmA session.

Gabe Newell was on-hand for his Reddit AMA a few hours ago, where he was asked a slew of questions - with one of them asking what was his personal favorite Valve game/series.

Newell's response: "I think Portal 2 is our best single-player game. I play Dota 2 the most of our multiplayer games". Surely you're thinking 'but what about Half-Life', and I would agree. Newell continued: "The issue with Half-Life for me is that I was involved in a much higher percentage of the decisions about the games, so it's hard for me to look at them as anything other than a series of things I regret".

Our Lord and Savior GabeN continued: "There's no information in my response about what we'll do in the future. It's simply easier for me to be a fan of things that in which I was less directive. If you are involved in a game, everything ends up being a set of trade-offs. Anything in a game is a sacrifice of things not in the game. I just feel those more personally about Half-Life for a bunch of reasons".

Gabe Newell, resident boss, God of the PC Master Race, and our Lord and Savior - has answered the question to end all questions: where the f*** is Half-Life 3... well, kinda.

During his recent AMA on Reddit, Newell was asked: "What is the status of Half Life 3/Half Life 2 Episode 3? Is Valve still working on any fully-fledged single player games? An unidentified anonymous source at Valve has said that Half Life 3 has been cancelled. Is that source legitimate?"

Newell's cryptic, but awesome response: "The number 3 must not be said. Yes. I personally believe all unidentified anonymous sources on the Internet".

Ubisoft has released their new v1.09 update for Watch Dogs 2, which includes the usual performance tweaks, fixes and improvements.

The new v1.09 patch was made available for the Xbox One and PS4 last week, but PC gamers are now able to enjoy Watch Dogs 2 and more of its glory. The v1.09 update patch notes are available below:

In its push for PC gaming being the champion of Windows, Microsoft won't be supporting HDR in Halo Wars 2 - while Mass Effect: Andromeda will (thanks, BioWare).

343 Industries Design Director, Clay Jensen, has confirmed that Halo Wars 2 will not have HDR support on the PC, but it will support 4K - which, in 2017 - all games should. Speaking with Fenix Bazaar, Jensen said: "I wish that I could say yes. Unfortunately, we are not going to have HDR support for Halo Wars 2. We do support 4K on PC, which looks gorgeous, and you definitely need to play that because it's stunning".

Halo Wars 2 could have HDR support post-launch, but it seems it won't be happening - Jensen adds: "It's something that, certainly in future titles, we'll be looking to support it. Unfortunately, not for this launch".

In approximately six months since its release on July 2016, Pokemon GO has officially earned $950 million revenues throughout the year, analyst firm App Annie reports.

Since its launch, Pokemon GO has been a smash hit phenomenon that's taken the mobile world by storm. Although the interest has petered off, in its hey-day the game generated an incredible $200 million in its first month. In fact, Niantic's Pokemon GO broke the $800 million mark in just 110 days--a feat that overshadowed mobile mega-hits like Candy Crush Saga, Puzzle & Dragons, and Clash of Clans.

"By attracting millions of non-gamers, it reached a level of success that eludes even some of the most successful traditional video games. This was thanks to the game's beloved intellectual property, simple mechanics, real-world augmented reality gameplay, and perhaps most of all, its social nature," App Annie said in its latest reports.

The Nintendo Switch's launch lineup is rather sparse: when the system releases on March 3, 2017, it'll launch with 12 games, and half of those are Japanese games. Nintendo has officially defended the lineup by promising that the Switch will have a "steady march of content" throughout 2017.

Nintendo America President Reggie Fils-Aime echoes the points I made in my recent video about the Switch launch games. The launch is just the beginning--not the final destination--and Nintendo will have an arsenal of unique and innovative games rolling out on the handheld-console hybrid throughout 2017 and beyond. Fils-Aime's words echo the promises of Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima, who promised that the Switch would have a "full software lineup" within its life cycle.

"Launch day is not the be-all and the end-all," Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said in a recent interview with CNET. "It really is the steady pacing of content that continually reinforces for the people who bought into the platform why they made a smart choice, as well as what compels people who might be sitting on the sidelines to jump in."

Nintendo's decision to follow in Microsoft's and Sony's footsteps and charge its userbase to play online via a new subscription plan was perhaps the most disappointing announcement to come out of the system's big reveal. Now Nintendo reveals the main reason it made this controversial move: to win over and attract more third-party developers.

Lack of proper third-party support is what killed the Wii U console. Nintendo wants to completely reverse this with its new Switch handheld-console hybrid, and has taken many steps to ensure that third-party developers have the tools and incentives they need to bring their games over to the platform.

The Japanese console-maker is keen on providing an attractive environment for third-party devs and publishers in an attempt to win them over; and based on the massive third-party Switch partner listings that includes most of the major publishers and studios in the industry I'd say it's working.

We've just reported that Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be running at 900p when docked in the upcoming Nintendo Switch console, while it'll run at 720p undocked - but now we're finding out just how much space it'll take up on the new Switch console.

Nintendo has included just 32GB of internal storage, with the digital version of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild taking up 13.4GB of that - close to half of the internal storage. Remember that the Switch has expandable storage through microSDHC and microSDXC cards - which arrive in up to 512GB right now, but 1TB and 2TB SDXC cards will be supported by the Switch as well. We don't know yet if the USB port on Switch can be used as an external HDD just yet.

We also don't know how much the Switch OS and other apps and parts of the OS will take up, so we might find that Breath of the Wild will use up over half of the available storage space.