Gaming - Page 975

If you haven't played through the Resident Evil 7 demo, you really need to - it looks awesome, and teases what could be a fresh injection of new into the franchise when it lands in less than a months time.

Capcom have patched the Resident Evil 7 demo with support for CPUs without SSE4.1 technology (AMD Phenom, and Intel Core 2 series CPUs), as well as some performance improvements with HBAO+. The new patch will also fix issues surrounding the screen size change, when switching from full screen to windowed mode - should now be fixed.

Resident Evil 7 PC Demo Patch Changelog:

Microsoft is apparently working on a new Windows 10 'game mode' that's designed to optimize the performance of PC games on a system-wide hardware and OS level.

According to Windows Central, the new Windows 10 'game mode' will "enhance the PC gaming experience by minimizing resources used by running apps to almost nothing and allocating freed up resources to the game, making it run faster, better and smoother overall."

We're not sure if Game Mode will be available across all PC games, or if it'll be an exclusive feature of Microsoft's UWP Windows Store PC games--likely the latter, as Microsoft is keen on pulling more gamers to its unified framework, and this will be a pretty hefty incentive if it's done right.

Nintendo's new Switch handheld-console hybrid has been certified by the FCC, showing some interesting new features such as a non-removable 3.7V Lithium Ion battery, 5GHz Wi-Fi, the apparent requirement of an Ethernet to USB adapter for wired internet connections, USB Type-C fast-charging while docked, and more.

Check below for a breakdown of all the info including in the Switch's FCC filing, as well as source documentation, but also remember that the FCC filing was based on a Nintendo Switch devkit. The filings ascertain that the HAC-001, aka the Nintendo Switch's model number, matches the final hardware that will ship in March 2017.

*Basic formula to convert volts to watts is Watts = Volts x Amps, so we plug in the Switch's 15V times the 2.6A to get 39W, meaning the Switch will draw a max of 39W while docked.

We've been reporting about Crytek more than ever before, with mostly bad things - but then a great spark of excitement from a nearly secured $500 million investment from the Turkish government - and now, we have confirmation on Crytek developers' unpaid wages.

According to an industry insider friend of ours, TweakTown can exclusively reveal that Crytek will pay 100% of their unpaid staff to all unpaid staff by January 13, 2017. This is just over two weeks from now, which I'm sure will coincide with Crytek's recent $500 million deal with the Turkish government. Not only that, but Crytek reportedly holds no debt - which means it should effectively be very steady with this new load of cash coming in, for what will hopefully be a very long time.

Crytek have had a turbulent year, but with the news that Turkish government will be investing a massive $500 million into the German developer, something Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım announced on December 24, without naming Crytek.

PM Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım did say that three brothers living in Germany, "who own a leading company in the gaming sector, were planning to invest in Turkey during his speech at the "Turkey's 500 Large Service Exporters" ceremony", according to reports.

The three brothers in question are Cevat, Avni, and Faruk Yerli - who founded Crytek in 1999. The company spread into Istanbul, Budapest, Kiev, Seoul, Shanghai, and Sofia, but closed 5 of them just days ago. Crytek recently said the closures were so that it could refocus on its core strengths, developing innovating games and the technology that drives them.

Resident Evil 7 is not even a month away now, with its producer, Masachika Kawata teasing that both the Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game will run at 1080p and 60FPS.

Not only that, but Resident Evil 7 includes HDR support for the Xbox One S, PS4 and PS4 Pro consoles. During his interview with Gaming Bolt, Kawata talked about the new PS4 Pro and upcoming Xbox Scorpio consoles, where he said: "When it comes to new hardware, I think that the biggest takeaway is just making sure that it's not just one party that is excited about this product".

He added: "It really has to be a mutual interest on both the manufacturer side, publisher side, [and] consumer side. And only when everyone is on board and everyone's excited for the product does it allow the opportunity to expand the game industry and the user base. Because otherwise it's just a lot of extra effort on our side".

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor has been updated on the PS4 Pro, which now runs along at up to 4K - at least most of the time, and when it doesn't it gets knocked down to 1080p.

The developer has included "Favor Quality" which clocks the PS4 Pro into 1080p mode on Shadow of Mordor, of "Favor Resolution" at 4K. Choosing the 1080p version will lock Shadow of Mordor on the PS4 Pro at 1080p with enhanced graphical quality, while selecting 4K will dynamically scale the game up to 4K.

Don't own a 4K TV? That's fine, Shadow of Mordor will run at 1080p with super sampling enabled for a better looking experience.

This is a big bombshell to drop over the holidays, but Star Citizen has just had a major technology shift, with developers Cloud Imperium Games switching from CryEngine over to Amazon's Lumberyard engine.

Oh, and Star Citizen has already rolled out with the Lumberyard-based version of the game with the recently v2.6 release. The change is odd, but not when you consider that Amazon's Lumberyard engine is pretty much just a rebranded version of CryEngine, but with direct access into the AWS infrastructure that Amazon runs.

Erin Roberts, Head of Foundry 42 - the UK-based studio of CIG, who said: "Thanks for getting in touch. As you've (correctly) surmised, any suggestions that the engine switch would have a major impact on our development couldn't be further from reality. Lumberyard is completely based on Cryengine, yet with a lot of improvements. As a consequence, we do not have to change the fundamental core engine at all which is why this change has had absolutely no effect on our development of Star Citizen".

Square Enix has revealed the release date of Final Fantasy XIV's new Stormblood expansion, showcasing a bunch of new content and details that will roll out with the new massive paid DLC including the Red Mage class, swimming, a new Primal, a new 24-man raid, and more. Check below for a quick breakdown of what to expect with Stormblood.

Final Fantasy XIV is my favorite MMORPG: it's stalwart quality shines throughout every aspect, representing one of the best online games ever made--and certainly the best MMO of our era. Square Enix has put so much effort into every facet of the game, and its expansions are games within themselves; the same is true for Stormblood, Final Fantasy XV's latest expansion, which releases on June 20, 2017 on PS4 and PC.

Square Enix revealed a ton of new info about Stormblood at the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival in Las Vegas last night, and we've broken down the details in key bullet points below:

Now that Rocksteady Studios is done with Batman's four-part Arkham series, and the most-recent Arkham VR, the developers are "hard at work" on a brand new game...but don't expect any details for quite some time.

"We're very hard at work on our next project but we won't be releasing the details for a while," Rocksteady creative direction Sefton Hill said in a recent Reddit AMA. "When we do you guys will be first to hear as we want to get the community involved heavily in what we do next."

Hill also squashed any hope of a PlayStation 4 Pro enhancement patch for Batman: Arkham Knight, so we won't see the game rock enhanced features like 1080p 60FPS with extra graphical tweaks, or 4K 30FPS.

EA has kicked off its massive Origin Holiday Winter Sale 2016, with massive savings on some of the biggest games released this year. We have:

We now know just how well the PC gaming did this year, generating a massive $35.8 billion in 2016 - which according to SuperData's analysis of the interactive entertainment world, was "driven largely by free-to-play online titles and downloadable games".

SuperData noted that games like League of Legends and even my favorite, Overwatch, "drive enthusiasm". They also noted that PC gamers recognized a "big improvement with the release of a new generation of graphics cards, offering a 40% increase in graphics power and a 20% reduction of power consumption" - thanks to AMD's release of the Radeon RX 400 series, and NVIDIA's popular GeForce GTX 10 series of graphics cards.

It we compare it to the relatively small console gaming market, where $6.6 billion was made - with SuperData noting the revenue generated through "add-on content, expansion packs, and micro-transactions", all dirty words to some gamers.

League of Legends continues to grow at exponential rates, with SuperData's latest research pointing to the fact that Riot Games' immensely popular game generated a massive $1.7 billion in revenue... in 2016 alone.

Riot Games generating $1.7 billion is a massive deal, considering DOTA 2 only made $260 million last year (just $0.26 billion, versus $1.7 billion - a big difference). SuperData's analysis points to World of Tanks making $400 million, CrossFire with $1.1 billion, and Dungeon Fighter Challenge - a game I hadn't heard of until I read this article - made $1.1 billion.

As for the revenue by region, Asia absolutely dominates with $12.5 billion in revenue from free-to-play PC games. The second largest market is Europe with $2.8 billion generated, the United States with $2.2 billion, Latin America with $900 million, and the rest of the world with only $200 million.

How much work is required for developers to upgrade their PS4 games to support 4K on the new PS4 Pro? A tiny, minuscule fraction of the work it takes to design the game itself.

Developers are spending hardly any time upgrading their PS4 games to support enhanced graphical and performance settings like 1080p 60FPS, 4K HDR at 30FPS, and native 4K on Sony's new $399 PlayStation 4 Pro console.

"I'd say that the minimum effort is probably even less [than 0.2-0.3% of the overall effort], counting the work hours involved compared to the work hours put into making the game," Patrik Lasota, Arrowheads dev (Helldivers) said in a recent interview with Gamingbolt. "We did a bit more than that and yet it took us very little time to get the game running on PS4 Pro in 4K."

I'll be looking at Google Trends data more closely going into 2017, as I started looking at Google search data not too long ago between AMD Vega and NVIDIA Volta - and thought I'd do the same with the next-gen consoles.

Looking at the Google Trends data for 'Nintendo Switch', 'PS4 Pro', and 'Xbox Scorpio' - which do you think comes out on top? Well, you can see the massive spike in Google searches on October 20 when Nintendo unveiled its next-gen Switch console officially... but Sony continued its path to victory with the PS4 Pro, where Google searches spiked on November 10, the day the PS4 Pro launched.

I thought Xbox Scorpio would follow in the #2 spot behind Nintendo Switch, but I was flat out wrong - speaking of flat, that yellow line at the bottom that is nearly invisible, represents Xbox Scorpio. Microsoft will need to ramp its hype and marketing machines for Xbox Scorpio if it wants to dominate in 2017 - with the latest rumor that it will be priced at $399 (which myself and Derek here at TT do not think will happen) - but the rumors of a delay in 2018... well, that could very well happen if Microsoft can't tweak Scorpio before Q4 2017.

Final Fantasy 15 is notorious for it's delicious photo-realistic grub--it looks so good that you'll often find yourself with a grumbling tummy after Iggy cooks up something for the boys. As it turns out, the devs made most of those dishes themselves to ensure the food was represented as authentically as possible.

It's funny to be so impressed by something small like in-game food, but Square Enix shows that even the smallest things deserve the most attention. To be fair, though, food is an integral part of the game: it brings Noctis, Gladio, Ignis and Prompto together as friends, nourishes their vitality, and gives healthy status bonuses to boot. But it's more than that--the food in FF15 has a homely quality to it, and has actually inspired many to create their own recipes.

Steam spreads holiday cheer with deep discounts on some of 2016's best games, so prepare your backlogs!

Steam's Winter Sale is here, and it has some pretty nice discounts on some pretty amazing titles. The selection is impressive and there's something here for everyone, even if you've waited until now to pick up some of this year's best games like Watch Dogs 2, Skyrim: Special Edition, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided--and almost all of Steam's Top Sellers have been discounted.

Notable sales include (but absolutely aren't limited to): DOOM at $20, the excellent Diablo-style ARPG Grim Dawn is just $14, the must-have amazingly-fun-with-mods Fallout 4 is $20, the impressive caveman FPS Far Cry: Primal is just $24.99, the janky-on-PC Dishonored 2 is $40, Adam Jensen's excellent Deus Ex: Mankind Divided sequel is just $20, Ubisoft's incredible open-world Watch Dogs 2 is a steal at $40, the remastered Skyrim: Special Edition gets slashed by $10 to just $30 (a must-have for any new PC gamers, and don't forget the mods!), and a whole smattering of indie games are just $2.99.

We've long known that Nintendo's new Switch transforming handheld hybrid would have a USB Type-C port in its dock, and now it looks like the system may leverage Display Port over USB 3.1 for all sorts of benefits including the ability to transmit data, video and power in the same port.

According to The Wall Street Journal's Takashi Mochizuki, who cites reports from Ace Research Institute analyst Hideki Yasuda, the Nintendo Switch will leverage Display Port Alternate Mode over USB Type-C for a host of additional functionality.

Display Port Alternate Mode over USB Type-C can enable 4K 60Hz with 24-bit color, 5K (5120 x 2880) display support without compression, HDR, HDCP 2.2, high-end multi-channel audio--but we're not saying that the Switch will do 4K 60FPS or even 5K for that matter, just the general benefits that this particular mode can offer, depending on the bandwidth and graphics horsepower.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter recently predicted that Microsoft's new "monster" Project Scorpio 4K console would cost $399, and ship in 2018 instead of Holiday 2017. But don't expect to pay only $400 for the hardware; Pachter's wrong, and here's all the reasons why.

"The Xbox Scorpio is priced at $399. This might not be low enough, particularly if PS4 Pro drops before holiday 2017, but Microsoft has to price competitively or fall farther behind," Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter predicted in a recent article on Games Industry Biz.

We think Pachter is quite wrong about that price, and here's why.

Gaming company Mojang are once again making headlines with their popular sandbox game Minecraft. Minecraft: Console Edition, Pocket Edition and Windows 10 Edition have been given a mash-up exclusive in celebration of the holiday season.

The festive Christmas mash-up will include:

Only bad news is that the Minecraft: Pocket Edition and Windows 10 Edition will not be a free download for users.