Gaming - Page 985

Unlike the previous Mass Effect games, Mass Effect: Andromeda will have a seamless non-interrupt feel to it thanks to current-gen PC and console hardware, meaning gamers won't have to sit through tons of loading points through their interstellar adventures.

Sitting down with GameInformer, BioWare recently confirmed that Mass Effect: Andromeda's player ship, the Tempest, would be a seamless space within the game. That means the Tempest won't have any pesky loading zones as players explore and navigate through the different layers of the ship, with even planet exploration and even spaceflight travel being re-worked to feel much more immersive.

Read Also: Mass Effect: Andromeda won't be capped at 30FPS on PC

Watch Dogs 2 is now available on PC, and Ubisoft has teamed up with NVIDIA to show off the ultimate port of the game with high-end NVIDIA Game Works features.

Watch Dogs 2 is already an amazing-looking game on consoles, breaking a new barrier when it comes to open world gaming and next-gen interactions. With NVIDIA Game Works, however, Watch Dogs 2 takes on a new dimension of depth and immersion, rocking extra PC-specific features like high-definition shadows, 4K textures, TXAA and HBAO+, and much more.

"HBAO+ ambient occlusion shading and rendering techniques add depth to a scene. Immersive lighting and details and shadows add realism to the Bay Area. With the implementation of TXAA aliasing is diminished and edges sharpened," Ubisoft's Dominic Guay affirms in the intro vid.

Sony has recently revealed that the PS2 classic Samurai Shodown VI is now available on the PS Store. The news was announced via Gematsu and the official PlayStation Blog only days ago.

The original SNK classic Samurai Shodown IV was first released on PS2 back in 2006, but will now see compatibility for the latest-gen console with improved graphics and features.

Samurai Shodown VI, like other PS2-PS4 games, is priced at $14.99 on the PlayStation Store. Visit the PlayStation Blog for more details.

Yet another online retailer lists Nintendo's Switch hybrid-handheld console for $245, this time possibly revealing the system's exact March release date.

Online UK retailer Gameseek has listed the Nintendo Switch for £198, which converts to $245 USD, coinciding with our Switch pricing reports that pinpoint the console at a starter $250 SKU and a "pro" bundle priced at $299. What's more interesting is that Gameseek has a pre-order price guarantee that locks in the listed price even if the system's actual release date price goes up, which strongly indicates that the cost could be accurate (companies don't like losing money, after all).

Read Also: Nintendo Switch handheld delivers console-quality gaming

Online sources have reported that Activision has recently announced a new Christmas themed Skylander Sensei figurine. The Jingle Bell Chompy Mage will be available to customers on November 25.

The holiday exclusive has been created just in time to celebrate this year's Christmas season, making it a perfect gift for every Skylanders Imaginator fan.

Jingle Bell Chompy Mage will also be featuring new fighting techniques that will be adaptable to other Skylanders. Visit the official Online Store for more information.

This November, Microsoft is offering its Xbox Live Gold members a new list of titles as part of the Games With Gold promotion.

Free on Xbox One:

Free on Xbox 360:

World of Warcraft, one of the most popular MMORPG games ever, was released on this day 12 years ago and has since gained millions of fans all over the world.

Those who have followed the game since the very beginning remember the moments that unfortunately newer players can't experience. Massive 40-man raids, Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, Swift Zulian Tiger, etc., are just some of the experiences that made the game so popular.

World of Warcraft initially had a much smaller community, and the gamers enjoyed being the first residents of Azeroth. The quests and raids had to be solved without the help of various guides on YouTube or WoWHead. However, over the years, Warcraft held its status as one of the most played online games in the world.

Nintendo America has recently launched a tour of "The Legend of Zelda" themed escape rooms for fans to come and experience. Designer SCRAP alongside Nintendo have created "Defenders of the Triforce", to appear in different locations around the United States in 2017.

Like previous escape rooms, the idea of solving a mystery with a group of people in order to be set free will remain the same. In a news release by Nintendo, it stated teams will consist of six participants: "interact with classic items and characters seen in The Legend of Zelda series like the Goron, Zora and Kokiri tribes, discovered items can be used to solve puzzles and move forward into other areas, just like in The Legend of Zelda games."

Tour dates/locations:

Skyrim Special Edition didn't launch on the PC without a few hiccups, but Bethesda has already pushed out Update 1.3 to Steam users through a beta release.

The update includes improved stability and performance, as well as better support for 144Hz displays. The patch is only available in its beta form on Steam right now, so you won't have your Skyrim Special Edition updating automatically.

Here's what to expect in the v1.3 update:

The horror begins before you even get into Resident Evil 7, with Capcom detailing the Resident Evil 7 Biohazard Collector's Edition, an exclusive to GameStop, and it costs a horrifying $179.99 - yeah.

What do you get for $180? Well, Capcom is including a model replica of the Baker mansion, which is 8 inches tall, 7.5 inches long, and around 8.5 inches deep. Better yet, it doubles as a "music box that plays a familiar tune with accompanying LED effects".

Resident Evil 7 biohazard Collector's Edition Includes:

We all know the PC is the most powerful, and the most versatile gaming platform out there - but the console market still gets so much love. You can't talk bad about consoles, without being branded as being anti-consoles - and while they have their place, long live PCMR and our Lord GabeN.

During PAX Australia 2016 a couple of weeks ago, Alienware boss Frank Azor talked about the current-gen consoles and their mid-cycle refresh parts in PS4 Pro and Xbox Scorpio, PC gaming, and VR. He talked with GameSpot where he said: "The console market and the PC market have converged in ways that we've never really seen before. Consoles look more like PCs, and PCs are starting to look more like consoles".

He added: "The console guys have realised they can't operate on seven year cadences anymore, because they can't keep up with the amount of innovation that's going on in the industry, with HDR, 4K, VR, and the long path we have ahead of us in VR evolution".

Microsoft is running towards the warm arms of 4K with its upcoming Xbox Scorpio console, and even with its 6 TFLOPs of power, an 8-core CPU, and over 320GB/sec of memory bandwidth - Xbox boss Phil Spencer knows it's not just about raw horsepower.

During an interview with Stevivor, Spencer said that the 6 TFLOPs of processing power in the Scorpio is just one piece of the puzzle. He said: "Well, I try not to really talk using the term. It's like a car - you wouldn't describe how fast it goes using only one characteristic. But I guess it's like a teraflop is like horsepower - you'd probably have in your head what 100 horsepower could do, or 200".

Spencer continued: "But it's much more than that - there's other things that dictate how fast the car goes. A transmission. Its weight. It's the same with Scorpio; it's not just the number of teraflops that makes it powerful".

What better way to use the Touch Bar on your expensive new MacBook Pro than by running DOOM on it... eh?

iOS engineer Adam Bell managed to get the original DOOM working on the MacBook Pro's Touch Bar, and it's an incredible achievement. Sure, no one is seriously going to play it like this... but we live in a world where anything is possible, and seeing DOOM played like this is just awesome.

Blizzard has the first-person shooter game down beautifully with Overwatch, but they're not a developer who likes to sit on their hands between franchises.

Blizzard has taken to their official website in search of a "new experienced engine engineer to work on a robust first-person engine for an unannounced project." The Lead Software Engineer would work closely with the technical director and other engineering leads to "build a technically excellent engine across multiple platforms."

Blizzard continues, saying that the candidate would need to "enjoy collaborating with art and technical art leads, understand the artistic vision of the game and identify the technology needed to achieve and extend that vision."

The highly anticipated Assassin's Creed movie just got a little bit better again. The latest movie poster unveiling, showcases more than just the main man himself.

With the launch of the second movie trailer last month, audiences were excluded from seeing some of the other characters... that's now changed!

This time the film poster positions Michael Fassbender in the middle, with Marion Cotillard, Ariane Labed, Michael K. Williams, Jeremy Irons, and Brendan Gleeson, situated around Fassbender giving us our first look as what is to be expected of character faces.

Overwatch hero Symmetra has been a lackluster hero for a long while, but it sounds like that's about to change. As game director Jeff Kaplan details in the video below, Symmetra is getting a near complete overhaul that should make her much more viable, and possibly even overpowered.

If you're not familiar with Symmetra, she's a support hero (though some might classify her as defense) who often takes the place of a tank or DPS, as two healers is usually vital. Her kit is centered around her ultimate, a teleporter that helps dead allies get back to the fight quickly. The problem, as Kaplan explains, is the teleporter is really only useful on first point defense and not in any other situation. As such, she's getting two ultimates which you can choose between whenever your meter is filled. The first is the same old teleporter (except with regenerating shields), and the second is a shield generator which, well...generates shields (powerful ones too).

Her old shields are being axed entirely (they weren't significant but buffing them would've been arguably OP, so no big loss), and she's getting a photon barrier ability. Barrier is described in very vague terms, but we do know it has a huge 50 meter radius and can be used defensively, offensively, or to protect your teleporter, generator, or turrets, and that it will reward creativity.

It's confirmed! Super Mario Run will be available for the iPhone, iPod and iPad platforms next month as long as these devices run iOS 8 software an above.

Back in Septemeber, the game was announced by Shigeru Miyamoto, during Apple's press event, but no price or date was scheduled until now.

For those unaware of the objective, the side-scrolling-runner style game will see main character, Mario, run to the side as players touch the screen to make him jump over obstacles.

Publishers today love to find coercive and rather strategic ways to push gamers towards DLC and season pass purchases. The main method is carving up the finished game into sections, and only delivering about 70% of gameplay onto the full game and reserving the rest as DLC or season passes. Ubisoft, one of the major players in the season-pass culture, has now pledged to put an end to this scheming business tactic,.

Ubisoft VP of live operations Anne Blondel-Jouin told Games Industry Biz that the company will start selling DLC as it was intended: as additional extraneous content that enhances the full game instead of piecemeal bits of the actual finished game that've been carved out to maximize returns.

"Monetization is something we have to be very careful about, and my team is in charge of that and making sure we find a right balance," Blondel-Jouin said in the interview.

Elon Musk must never sleep, as his space company SpaceX is wanting to send over 4000 satellites into space for high-speed internet available across the planet - and now we're seeing more details on the Autopilot technology from Tesla.

Tesla boss Elon Musk has teased a demonstration of a passenger sitting in the driver's seat, while the car was driving to its destination. The car went through the usual road conditions, red lights, and more before it parks itself. You get an awesome view from the car, but there's also a peak outside of the car - on the left of the Tesla, medium range, and right rear cameras.

The car sees lane lines and motion, has colored boxes for "in path objects" which includes road signs, road lights, and objects. These boxes will be how the system interprets people, other vehicles, and hazards that a human driver would ordinarily take into consideration when on the road. Tesla says that its new cars have an onboard computer with "40 times the computing power of the previous generation" when it comes to processing the vision, sonar, and radar imagery that the vehicle absorbs.

Bethesda has ambitious plans for virtual reality gaming, and it's already brought specific sections of Doom and Fallout 4 to the HTC Vive. But the publisher isn't satisfied with these small slices; it wants to do something bigger, like bringing the entire world of Fallout 4 to VR.

Right now most people see VR as a fad, even with AMD's efforts to bring VR-ready PC video cards to the mainstream market with the affordable Radeon RX lineup and PlayStation's accessible (yet underwhelming) console-powered PlayStation VR. This is largely due to the fact that VR doesn't yet have that critical "killer game" required to pull everyone in--virtual reality needs what Super Mario Bros. 3 did for the NES.

But if Bethesda has their way, that killer VR game would be Fallout 4. In a recent interview with Glixel, Bethesda's Todd Howard was asked if the studio plans to bring the entire world of Fallout in VR, which Howard answered with a very surprising "yes, we definitely are."