Items tagged with games
In the spring, Id Software and Bethesda announced that they would bring real-time ray tracing and NVIDIA DLSS 2.0 to the Vulkan-powered Doom Eternal. When we reviewed thsi latest Doom title, we found that it was already pretty stunning graphically while running really well on all kinds of different hardware. High performance and a bevy of graphics configuration settings means that Doom can run on just about any discrete graphics card from the last few years. Now the Doom Eternal ray tracing update is here, though the tricky part about adding ray tracing effects to Doom is whether players would have time to notice them, since the game moves at such an incredibly fast pace. If we're...
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Summer is here, and for many people, that means vacations, beaches, grilling, and whatever else you may associate with warm weather activities. For the nerds among us, however, summer also means a seasonal Steam sale to stock up on games you may not otherwise get an opportunity to play, due to budget constraints. That is right, the Steam Summer sale has finally come back around, and it is time to line your library with some new titles on sale… As with all the Steam Sales, the Steam Summer ’21 Sale has a theme that is focused on “forg[ing] your fate.” Throughout the sale, which runs from June 24th through July 8th, players can browse game categories and follow a choose...
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Games are one of the best testbeds for AI as they require problem-solving, forward-thinking, and other skills that normally only humans possess. So far, AI has gotten a handle on games like Go and up to 57 different Atari 2600 titles, but those are not terribly difficult. What if AI was pitted against one of the most notoriously hard games of all time? As it turns out, that is exactly what Facebook wants to do to bring down NetHack. NetHack is an 80s text-based single-player dungeon exploration game with a focus on “discovering the detail of the dungeon and not simply killing everything in sight,” as the NetHack website explains. If you decide to kill everything in sight, or at least...
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We have seen major OEMs tinker with drivers and system settings for workarounds and various fixes in games and other apps before. And now that AMD is firmly back in the mainstream desktop processor race, the company is occasionally under the microscope with power users and developers that stumble onto similar patch type efforts. In that regard, it appears Ryzen systems may pose a potential cause for concern. A researcher has found a seemingly disguised AMD driver toggling certain system behaviors when it detects a list of games, which could open the door to security vulnerabilities and other issues. This past Saturday, security researcher and Windows Internals expert Alex Ionescu was working...
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Sometimes, a work of art hits our culture at just the right time, when it can transcend its medium and become something greater. Such events are exceedingly rare in video games, but we old folks remember Pac-Man Fever and Fred Savage in The Wizard playing Super Mario Bros. 3. More recently, video games have become spectator sports in large part due to StarCraft II, DotA 2, and Overwatch and similar genre game titles. None of those moments found humanity in a time of crisis, however, until Animal Crossing: New Horizons launched on the Nintendo Switch a year ago today. Across the globe, entire countries were in lock-down mode and nobody was quite sure what to do. Tom Nook hit the scene with...
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Over the years, several studies have linked violent video games to violent behaviors in real life. However, those studies have been a pain in the side of ordinary people who understand the studies are a bunch of hogwash. A new ten-year-long study has come out, explaining that violent video games do not cause kids to become violent adults. Boom, headshot! Since 2011 and perhaps even earlier, Sarah M. Coyne and Laura Stockdale studied the effects of violent video games on adolescents. Their research has now been published in the Journal of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. The journal article explains that the researchers used a “person-centered approach” to the research,...
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Game development is complex, and launching a successful game even more so. Sometimes, anything that goes into development and the gamer experience can change on a dime or entirely fall apart. We can see this with the launch of Cyberpunk 2077, which could be easily described as something of a train wreck. Bugs on all platforms cropped up and the social sphere exploded with complaints. To be clear, the game is still enjoyable if you can play it aside from the current issues. No matter what, though, Cyberpunk 2077's launch was plagued with issues, developer crunch, alongside excessive hype, which was all likely driven by shareholder and consumer pushback to get the game out. The whole spectacle...
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Cyberpunk 2077 has been one of the most hotly-anticipated titles in recent memory. Expectations were so high for this title that it's quite possible that CD Projekt Red could never live up to them. After numerous delays, however, Cyberpunk 2077 launched on December 10 to a mix of high praise and mild disappointment from many reviewers. The game is so massive, however, that we elected to take our time to really soak it in before tackling this review. For those who are new to the franchise, Cyberpunk 2077 is based on the Cyberpunk tabletop role-playing game franchise. The second and fourth editions of Cyberpunk, known as Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk Red, are probably the most popular variants...
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Destiny 2: Beyond Light has finally arrived. The long-awaited expansion has been out a week and Guardians have been perfecting their use of the new subclass Stasis. The expansion’s storyline questions the nature of Light and Darkness, but it unfortunately does not fully hit the mark. Here is our review of the Destiny 2: Beyond Light plot and the journey we wish delved deeper. ** Warning: Major Spoilers Ahead ** Destiny 2: Beyond Light - Descending Into The Depths Of Europa The new expansion picks off right where Season of Arrivals ended. Guardians are sent to Jupiter’s moon Europa to determine how far the Darkness has spread in the solar system. The Guardian’s Ghost detects...
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Happy N7 day, Mass Effect fans! November 7 has been something of an unofficial holiday for BioWare fans over the years, as news of a new game in the enormous hit sci-fi role playing series has traditionally dropped on this date. Today, BioWare announced that it has heard its fans' cries and has been working on a remaster of the original trilogy. Mass Effect Legendary Edition will come in Spring 2021 and bring Mass Effect to a new generation. Let's take a look at the official trailer, which dropped today. What makes this release so legendary is that it's not just a remaster of the original game. Mass Effect Legendary Edition includes all the base content and downloadable content...
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The release of Destiny 2: Beyond Light is just around the corner. The expansion will usher in a wide variety of changes, from a new destination to a new subclass. Some of the new updates are not nearly as thrilling as a new moon to explore, but they will still impact gameplay. Destiny 2 developers Bungie recently released an update particularly focused on the future of Exotic weapons and abandoned quests. Bungie has finally provided an answer on how players will acquire Exotic weapons that are connected to destinations that will be “vaulted” next season or retired quest lines. They have been tossing around various ideas on how both new and old players could acquire these Exotic...
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Cyberpunk 2077 went gold earlier this month in preparation for its November 19th launch, and we’re quite certain that plenty of gamers have already placed their preorders. However, if you haven’t already preordered the game, Amazon currently has the game available with a $10 discount. Given how highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 is, and how much acclaim that it has already garnered from hands-on previews, we were a bit surprised to see this low pricing. With that being said, the $10 discount applies to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC versions of the game, which you can purchase using the links below: Cyberpunk 2077 for PlayStation 4 $49.94 @ Amazon Cyberpunk 2077...
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An update to Red Dead Online has seemingly led to a whole host of issues for online outlaws around the world. This update has been anticipated for a while, with the promise of a new Frontier Pursuit mode, community content suggestions, and purported bug fixes. However, it seems the new content and bug fixes have opened a whole new can of worms for developer Rockstar Games. On July 28th, Rockstar Games released the “naturalist” inspired update with new content, bug fixes, and a battle-pass aspect of the game. With any new update, one could expect some bugs and glitches here and there, and that is what Rockstar looked to address with this latest patch. It seems, however, that they went...
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Backpacking across the country "Once...there was an explosion." So opens the oft-memed narrative of Kojima Productions' first post-Konami title, Death Stranding. If you've not been paying attention to the game, which launched in November as a PlayStation 4 exclusive, this title is about to make its jump to the PC. On July 14, non-PS4 gamers will get their first look at a post-apocalyptic world where, if one person dies, entire cities could be close behind. We got early access to the game, and today we can tell you about our experience, which is probably best summed up as "wild." Of Bridges And Bridges In a near-future version of the world, a mostly-unexplained event called the Death Stranding...
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The battle royale genre is hot right now with games like Fortnite, PUBG, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty: Warzone ruling the roost. But there's a new entry into the segment that is about to be revealed by Ubisoft, and it's reportedly called Hyper Scape. Hyper Scape will be a free-to-play, first-person shooter (FPS) style game developed by Ubisoft Montreal. For those keeping score, this is the same studio that developed the Rainbow Six games along with the Assassin's Creed series. The game is reportedly set well into the future, and will offer fast-paced gameplay. Ubisoft is aiming for a heavy streamer influence to take the game viral, and is reportedly fostering a deep relationship with Twitch...
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Animal Crossing: New Horizons for Nintendo Switch came along at just the right time for our family. Just as seemingly the entire country began shelter in place plans, we could get away from it all on a remote deserted island and build a bustling village - a pandemic-free world of our own with new ways to profit. We've shopped, we've crafted, and we've planted dozens of fruit trees to get that sweet 500 bells a piece for fruit that wasn't native to our islands. In the real world, many states are opening back up slowly, but in my household, we're still paying off our multi-million Bell loans, expanding our houses and shopping at Nook's Cranny, Able Sisters, and the various vendors that come...
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In an announcement that came completely out of left field for us today, one of the most storied game publishers that had been previously left for dead has been resurrected. We're talking about MicroProse, of course, whose last game was 2002's Grand Prix 4 (released under the Infogrames umbrella). MicroProse first got its start nearly four decades ago (1982 to be exact), and published many popular games over the years including the XCOM and Civilization franchises. One of my personal favorites, being a big aviation buff and an unabashed fan of the General Dynamics/Lockheed-Martin F-16, was Falcon 4.0. Task Force Admiral The company is now being led by CEO David Lagettie, while Bill Stealey, who...
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For many people around the world, the last six weeks have been spent mostly stuck at home reading, trying to work, watching streaming series, and playing video games. At this point, odds are many people out there have watched everything Netflix has to offer and are looking for something else to pass the time with. Ubisoft is offering up some free game downloads that are full versions of the titles, and they're great games to boot. All games will require players to install the Uplay PC application, and all are free to keep if downloaded by May 5. One of the games is the classic Assassin's Creed II Deluxe Edition. The game is set in Renaissance-era Italy, with players playing as a hero called Ezio...
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Halo 2: Anniversary PC fans who've been counting the days until the beta takes flight should be checking for invites right now. The official Halo Support Twitter page has announced that the PC limited public beta for Halo 2: Anniversary has officially taken flight and is telling people to begin checking email for invitations and instructions on the new processes for invites. The Twitter page also advises people to bookmark the HaloSupportInsider page to get updates on known issues, submit tickets, and more. Gamers wanting to get in on the limited public beta of Halo 2: Anniversary for PC need to have registered for the Halo Insider Program. Late last month, the developers behind the game reminded...
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Many of us are spending more time indoors than usual this season and some are taking the opportunity to revisit a few favorite video games. While it is fun to be able to replay or delve deeper into the video games that you already own, sometimes you simply crave some new content. If you find that you are a little bored with your current line-up, this is the article for you. Here are some of the video games that HotHardware's staff recommends for killing time during the COVID-19 Quarantine. Games that offer an immersive adventure Doom 2016 (2016): Doom 2016 is a first-person shooter video game that is set in the future on Mars. Players are pitted against demons from Hell that have been set free...
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Doom Eternal is here, and the early consensus around the HotHardware email thread is that the game is absolutely stunning. The 2016 Doom reboot ran great on relatively pedestrian hardware thanks to obsessive fine tuning by id Software and its id Tech 6 engine. The new Doom is harder, faster, and louder, but still unmistakably Doom, and it's a graphical tour de force. Since folks are diving into the game this weekend (no small part in thanks to multiple state orders to "shelter in place" because of COVID-19), we're here to share the quickest way to optimize performance. Tune-Up Those Drivers For Doom Eternal, Especially Graphics To start with, if you have a Radeon RX 5700 or GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER...
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Certainly, the big news all around the world right now is coronavirus/COVID-19, which is sweeping the globe and forcing many businesses to shut down and send employees home to work. For many people around the world, there is no option to work at home, so they are stuck indoors with little to do. Anyone interested in playing games on their computer will be happy to hear that GOG has a bunch of free video titles that you can play on Windows, macOS, and Linux computers. Most of these games are of the independent sort, and some aren't available on all platforms. In all, the front page of the catalog lists 27 different free games. Some of the titles were released this year or within the last few years,...
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