Gaming - Page 992

Half-Life remake Black Mesa has been in development for about eight years. It finally saw the light of day in 2012, albeit with the infamous Xen levels and thus the ending missing. At long last, they are nearing completion: developer Crowbar Interactive has pinned down a release window to summer 2017.

Explaining the extended timeline, Crowbar says bringing the game to Steam -- which requires porting and optimization -- has taken up a lot of resources. The rest of it is due to a strong desire to do justice to the levels as well redesign and expand them so they represent what "Valve would have done without the limitations of the time." As you can see from the map comparison above, they are much, much bigger and more complex; hopefully the new designs don't mean Xen is even more maddening than before.

Los Angeles is on fire this weekend, between comic conventions and gaming championships the city is hosting some great events. The 2016 League of Legends Worlds Finals is amongst one of those hitting up the gaming scene.

Held at the Staples Center in LA over the next few days, thousands of gamers will be attending the Riot Games official League of Legends Championship Finals. Teams of five players will take to the stage an either progress to the next round or be eliminated throughout the event as they chase the prize of 1st place along with a large sum of cash.

For those not competing only attending, video footage of the action will be spread across several screens as the two teams go head to head. Live streaming via YouTube will also be available so International spectators won't miss out!

If you haven't heard yet from social media apps: Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, let me bring you up to speed in the world of comic conventions. Starting yesterday (preview night) through till Sunday evening, Stan Lee's LA Comic Con 2016 is in town.

Like all good conventions, they will be covering a ton of exciting content this year, from games to book and even TV/movie snippets of what's coming in the near future. Fans will be happy to know that Mr Marvel himself, Stan Lee, will be making an appearance over Saturday and Sunday, along with other great artists, actors and creators making guest appearances.

The event will be held at:

Titanfall 2 is now out and inside gamers' consoles and PCs, but according to research firm Cowen & Company, sales of EA's latest and greatest mech first-person shooter are... underwhelming, to say the least.

The research firm said that Titanfall 2 sales are going to be "substantially disappointing" in their report, ahead of EA's upcoming earnings briefing. The sales of Titanfall 2 are expected to fall somewhere in the 5-6 million range, down from the much higher 9 million forecast.

Cowen & Company's report said: "We think the game got squeezed between Battlefield 1 and [Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare]. We suspect EA believed that by launching two shooters next to Call of Duty it could put a large dent in its biggest competitor, but instead EA appears to have wound up shooting its own foot off".

NVIDIA has pushed out its latest GeForce 375.70 WHQL drivers, which are ready for a slew of games that have just been released, are on their way, or improve support/performance in various games.

The new GeForce 375.70 WHQL drivers are ready for games like Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands as NVIDIA has added a temporal SLI profile. There are 3D Vision profiles for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, with NVIDIA not recommending 3D Vision for the latest COD just yet. Ubisoft's upcoming medieval game 'For Honor' is also 'not recommended' for 3D Vision.

NVIDIA's latest GeForce 375.70 WHQL drivers are ready for games like Titanfall 2, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition, Dishonored 2 - and even the new VR version of Obduction.

We all know No Man's Sky was a massive letdown, but there has been a tweet from the official Twitter account of Hello Games, the developer of the game - and it seems to have stemmed from someone within the company. Hello Games tweeted:

First off, the tweet was sent through LinkedIn - but there were also two websites that said they had sources that told them a disgruntled employee was behind the tweet. Polygon said that they received an email from Sean Murray's account, which said: "The tweet is from me, but somebody from the team took it down. We have not been coping well".

Forbes also reached out to Hello Games, with a studio rep saying that a "disgruntled employee" sent the tweet, and that the developer was "currently trying to sort out the issue". Mashable was also contacted by Murray, where he said: "The tweet came from a disgruntled employee," Murray wrote in an email. "We're currently trying to solve the issue internally".

If there's one big missing chunk from Battlefield 1, it would have to be hardcore mode... as normal mode feels like I'm shooting rubber bullets half the time, and then breathing heavily for regenerative health.

But, it looks like hardcore mode is not too far away, with DICE Producer Ali Hassoon teasing over Twitter: "stay tuned! Coming sooner than you think!". Hassoon also talked a little about BF1 hardcore mode, adding: "health is at 100%, bullet damage is set to 200%. These choices, however, aren't set in stone, as they might be changed if needed".

Hassoon also talked about the compass possibly coming back, saying: "we've discussed this feature and are looking to implement in a future patch. No dates im afraid".

Those living in the UK might want to jump on the awesome deal the Microsoft Store is currently offering. With every customer purchase of a Surface Pro 4 or Surface Book, the Microsoft UK Store is giving away free Xbox One S bundles to sweeten the deal.

The Xbox One S FIFA 17 bundle is available with select Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book models. The deal will include a 500GB console, along with a copy of the game, and one month of EA Access.

Starting from the mid-range Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book upwards will be required to access the deal. So basically anything over the 128GB range that possesses an Intel Core i5 and higher.

Borderlands: The Handsome Collection is currently on offer to gamers via the Microsoft Store, with the bundle package including more enhanced versions of Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.

The deal is only obtainable for the Xbox One and will require an Xbox Live account to download, oh and it's free!

At this point, it's not certain as to how long the offer stands, or whether the game will expire after a certain period of time. What we do know is that it's ready now, for further information visit the Microsoft website.

2014 saw the release of hit-racing game: Mario Kart 8 for Nintendo Wii U. Since that time the title has gone on to sell 8 million copies around the world.

Comparison against other Wii U games:

Whilst this is just a list of several titles compared against the 2014 game, it proves that the classic racing game is still a smash-hit amongst gamers, 2 years after its release.

A remake of the popular iOS blaster "Hyperlight" by CatfishBlues Games, will be available this coming November for the latest Nintendo 3DS XL.

The new an enhanced version of the original base game, has been developed specifically for the updated Nintendo 3DS XL system.

New game features:

Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. and Bigben Interactive have released Sherlock Holmes: Devil's Daughter, an interesting walk in the Sherlock Holmes franchise.

Benoît Clerc, Head of Software Group at Bigben Interactive had this to say: "Collaborating with Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. on the distribution of Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter in North America is a great pleasure and an amazing experience."

Officially developed by Frogwares Games, Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter provides gamers with the thrills and adventure from a single player perspective. Here gamers will solve crime mysteries and put their best detective skills to work.

League of Legends is now available as a fully programmatic tabletop game. Riot Games has taken the already popular title and created another version/genre from which players can enjoy with the same theme. The YouTube video provided showcases a quick glimpse of the official board-like game.

"Mechs vs Minions" utilizes programmatic movement from a shared draft. The 2-4 multiplayer game lets users challenge opponents and co-op together against the army of minions.

The full set contains:

Halloween has certainly captured many headlines in the past week or so, between all the extra scary-themed content available for gaming titles, it comes as no surprise. The next to be "spookified" shall we call it, is the Grand Theft Auto Online Halloween event, which commences this Friday, October 28.

The special event gives players access to the brand new motorcycle formally known as the "Sanctus" The Rockstar blog post had this to say about it:

"With its eerie skull-studded design, the Sanctus is a dread-inducing piece of machinery, guaranteed to strike fear into passersby on your next midnight ride."

Nintendo's new Switch hardware melds the worlds of handheld and console gaming in a single transforming package. But what about gameplay? There's usually a pretty big disparity between Nintendo's consoles and handhelds as far as gameplay performance...however Nintendo now affirms that the Switch will deliver console-quality performance even while taken on-the-go.

Recent reports state that the Nintendo Switch will offer better performance while docked for home console play, with the handheld portion possibly being underclocked while used out and about.

But according to Nintendo's President Tatsumi Kimishima, the Switch's handheld will deliver high-quality gameplay even while used outside the home, likely mirroring the exact same gameplay as when docked.

This month has certainly proven to be all things Halloween, with October alone racking up a good number of spooky-themed packages and game deals on various platforms.

Though Xbox fans in particular, will be pleased to know that Microsoft announced their Shocktober sale, a full week prior to Halloween. The sale gives customers great discounts on numerous horror-themed games in celebration of the scariest night of the year, for the Xbox One and Xbox 360.

The prices can be viewed via the official Microsoft Xbox website as well as the Major Nelson website. Dont miss out as the sale will only run from 25th-31st of October. Get your spook on with some great steals!

Nintendo's new Switch console and mobile handheld hybrid will be the nexus (or NeXus, if you will) of an ecosystem with a lot of software and accompanying hardware accessories. Although we saw a few of these during the Switch preview trailer, Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima says "by no means is that everything."

Photo credit: Ryan Salamanda

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima revealed that the Switch will have a "wider array" of what he refers to as "add-on hardware." He also hints that the Switch will offer more ways to play than what we were shown during the trailer, and that some software could go beyond traditional console and mobile gaming.

Since Nintendo's new Switch hardware is both a console and handheld, there's some major concerns that the Japanese console-maker will retire its ultra-popular 3DS. But that won't happen any time soon, and the 3DS will continue on.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima affirms that the Switch won't "cannibalize" the 3DS, and the 3DS handheld will continue onward alongside the Switch even after the new console's release.

"Thanks to our software, the 3DS hardware is still growing. So that business still has momentum. And certainly rather than being cannibalized by the Switch, we think the 3DS can continue in its own form," Kimishima affirmed in the interview.

Nintendo has already confirmed that it hasn't revealed everything about its new Switch console handheld hybrid, and now some of those features have apparently come to light: namely the Switch handheld's 6-inch 720p multi-touchscreen.

As millions of gamers watched the Nintendo Switch preview, a lot of us sighed in relief when no sort of touch-screen gimmick was shown. But internal sources close to the Switch have told Eurogamer that the Switch will indeed have a touchscreen, but it'll be both new and old territory for Nintendo.

Eurogamer's Tom Phillips reports that the Nintendo Switch's 6.2-inch handheld display won't be full 1080p, but 720p, and will support modernized multi-touchscreen with up to 10 points of capacitive touch, which is head over heels better than Nintendo's previous touchscreen endeavors (the Wii U and 3DS, for example, use pressure-sensitive resistive touchscreens with only one-point touch).

After a decade of waiting, Final Fantasy 15 has gone gold and is completely finished and ready to be shipped off to millions of gamers.

Final Fantasy 15 has gone from barely running at 30FPS on consoles to a competent and polished build known as the "final master version." Square Enix has proudly proclaimed the game has gone gold, meaning the main game is totally wrapped up.

But that's not it; Square Enix also revealed that the huge open-world adventure will allow four friends to team up for some online co-op. The co-op mode will be available following the game's release on November 29, and is one of the six DLC packs that are included in the $25 season pass. The co-op mode allows four players to take the roles of Noctis, Ignis, Gladiolus and Prompto and take part in in-game battle sequences.