Items tagged with Gaming
Final Fantasy X recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, and players spent some time reminiscing over the game that was first released in 2001. However, one player took this to the extreme by recreating the game in Unreal Engine in 4K with ray tracing, and it is quite awesome. Posted on YouTube by creator Toby Saunders, a 3:35m video shows off a recreated Final Fantasy X in 4K. In the description of the video, Saunders explained that he was inspired to do this as he "played this game on my older brother's PlayStation when I was six," and found the world captivating even today. Thus, he undertook the task of learning Unreal Engine to create a Final Fantasy X game trailer with all the modern trappings...
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EA Play Live has come and gone, and there have been some pretty cool announcements throughout. From Battlefield to Apex Legends, and even Dead Space, there is a lot to cover, so let’s dive in. Battlefield 2042 It seems the big thing on everyone’s mind is Battlefield 2042 and the rumored “BATTLEHUB,” which we should now call the Battlefield Portal. The Battlefield Portal is “a community-driven platform within Battlefield™ 2042 that will let you create and find fantastic experiences made by the series’ creative and passionate community.” Players will be able to build their own custom Battlefield experience through a web browser, tweaking team rations,...
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The recently introduced Ferrari 296 GTB is a plug-in Italian hell raiser that will likely set prospective buyers back somewhere north of $300,000. That means my chances of ever owning one are next to zero. If you're in the same boat, fret not—you can at least virtually experience 819 horses pulling the sexy red wagon in Fortnite, where the Ferrari 296 GTB has cruised onto the scene as the game's first licensed vehicle. Sure, plenty of other vehicles have found their way to Fortnite, including taxis, pickup trucks, and even grocery carts. But none up to this point have been real-life, licensed vehicles. That changes right now, with the Ferrari 296 GTB having just been unlocked, provided...
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Amazon's game development team is now planning to issue a patch for the New World MMORPG that has made headlines this week for all the wrong reasons. Well, one wrong reason specifically—reports that it is somehow killing expensive GeForce RTX 3090 graphics cards, possibly by cooking the memory chips (as one of the theories goes). Reports of issues with NVIDIA's top-tier graphics card surfaced after New World's closed beta went live on Tuesday morning. In multiple threads (on Reddit and New World's forums), users claimed the game was frying their GeForce RTX 3090 hardware, to the point where the cards were no longer functioning, necessitating a warranty replacement. That is never a pleasant...
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In a letter to shareholders, Netflix confirmed it is indeed in the "early stages of further expanding into games," and discussed a little bit what that will entail. The company did not go into great detail, but it did say that games added to the mix will be available at no extra cost to subscribers, likening the effort to adding new programming genres. "We view gaming as another new content category for us, similar to our expansion into original films, animation and unscripted TV. Games will be included in members’ Netflix subscription at no additional cost similar to films and series," Netflix stated. That is great news, if not a bit surprising when you consider that gaming is huge industry...
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Well, this is not good. There are multiple complaints from GeForce RTX 3090 owners who say their GPUs have gone belly-up after spending some time playing the closed beta for Amazon's New World MMORPG. Most of the reports are coming from people who say they own EVGA's GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra card, though not exclusively. The closed beta went live yesterday morning (or afternoon, depending on your time zone), with servers available in North America, Europe, Australia, and Brazil. It is set to launch to the public at large next month on August 31, after being delayed from its original May 2020 launch time frame. New World is one of three games Amazon Game Studios announced in 2016, the only...
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Keeping a secret about Battlefield 2042 is like sailing in a boat with a screen-door bottom: it is not super effective, but it is most certainly exciting. However, we are only two days from EA Play Live, where we should find out more about the upcoming Battlefield title, and there is a lot to look forward to... The BATTLEHUB What has been dubbed the “love letter” to core Battlefield fans, the rumored “BATTLEHUB” is quite interesting, from what we have heard. According to past rumors, the “BATTLEHUB” will reportedly bring multiple generations of Battlefields into one epic sandbox experience. With this, maps, weapons, vehicles, and more are being ported to the...
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Could you imagine finally getting your hands on one of the hottest selling consoles that is incredibly difficult to find in stock, only for the manufacturer to release a revised version shortly after? That would stink for sure. It also just happened, with a revised version of the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition popping up online. Good news though—if you already purchased a PS5, there's no need to have buyer's remorse. It looks like there are only minor changes to the new CFI-1100B01 model. For one, Sony managed to make it lighter by around 300 grams (~0.66 pounds). Given how difficult it is to procure a PlayStation 5 of any kind, it is conceivable that some lucky owners might lug it around...
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The design team behind Valve's upcoming Steam Deck is confident that controller drift will not be an issue on the handheld gaming PC. We will have to wait and see if that is truly the case, but we are crossing our fingers that drifting will not rear its ugly head, as it can be a major point of frustration among gamers. We have already seen this with Nintendo's Joy-Con controllers for its Switch consoles. Joy-Con drift issues have led to class-action lawsuit against Nintendo, an apology from the company, and various hacks and mods aimed at solving the problem. More recently, a modder discovered that a fix could be as simply as sliding a piece of paper or cardboard around 1mm thick inside the Joy-Cons....
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Earlier this year, rumors of a Valve hardware console started to float around, but there were concerns about the ongoing chip shortage. Despite this, it seems Valve is plowing forward with its plans as the Bellevue, Washington-based company has announced the Steam Deck starting at $399, with reservations opening on July 16th at 1 PM EST. The Steam Deck is powered by a custom 4-core/8-thread 3.4GHz AMD Zen 2 CPU with RDNA 2 GPU alongside 16GB of RAM and up to 512GB of PCIe SSD storage. It also features a 7” 60Hz 1280x800 LCD, Bluetooth 5.0, Dual-band WiFi, and stereo speakers, along with the illustrious headphone jack that seems to be missing from most mobile consoles or devices. Another...
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Don't look now (er, do look, actually), but Netflix apparently has aspirations of being the Netflix of games! That is to say, it is reported the company wants to expand into video games (as previously rumored) and has brought on some key talent to help lead the effort. Should Netflix pull this off, it could be a major disrupting force, just as it was (and still is) for streaming movies and TV shows. I have to say, Netflix's ability to pivot and evolve with the times is impressive (save for that short-lived Qwikster spin-off a decade ago). Navigating the online landscape is not easy, yet Netflix took its popular DVD-by-mail subscription service and adeptly expanded into streaming movies and TV...
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If there is a knock to be had against the Nintendo Switch, it is that reports of drift issues affecting the Joy-Con controllers have been a persistent problem. We have even experienced this ourselves, prompting us to send them off for replacement. The web is home to multiple remedies you can try if you are having drift issues as well, one of which includes an incredibly simple mod. Like, really, really simple. This has been a bit of a sensitive and frustrating issue for those affected. Back in 2019, a report surfaced suggesting Nintendo had sent a memo to customer service agents instructing them to fix any Joy-Con controllers with drift issues, free of charge. Part of the memo is said to have...
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Although the situation is improving, it is still extremely difficult to score some of the latest graphics cards at prices even approaching their MSRPs. With that in mind, we’ve held off on covering some of the hottest GPUs to come through the lab for a while, because the coverage was inevitably (and understandably) met with groans and frustration by some of you. We get it, but the beat goes on, and GPUs are some of our favorite things to cover around here, especially models like the Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6800 XT we’ll be showing you today. We’re going to go ahead and spoil this review right out of the gate and say the Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6800 XT is one of the best...
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It would be an understatement to say that it has been a rough nine months for gamers looking to purchase new gaming hardware. While the availability of high-end, current-generation processors has, for the most part, stabilized, graphics cards are still hard to find in stock at MSRP. And it's not just current NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 and AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards that are MIA; previous-generation examples are just as hard to find due to cryptocurrency mining. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, according to Jon Peddie Research (JPR). The firm indicates that just-in-time inventory systems were shown to be highly susceptible to supply chain interruptions during the initial...
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Fornite was already weird before Chapter 2, Season 7 came along, focusing on an alien invasion of the island. Now, things are going one step further with the introduction of the Inflate-A-Bull, a bizarre object that lets players roll, bounce, and withstand fire while looking like a cow, alongside cow-themed quests. What exactly is going on here? The Inflate-A-Bull is a new inflatable cow suit that bestows users with “cow-like properties,” including being able to roll downhill, jump (or fall) off cliffs without damage, and withstand fire. While the suit could be popped by other players when shot, it could be an over-powered tool in the right circumstances. However, we are unsure what...
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Crime never pays unless you are playing Red Dead Redemption 2 with the new Blood Money update, allowing players to “venture into the criminal underworld of the west.” There is a lot to cover in this update, so let’s giddy up! The Blood Money update brings a host of new criminal possibilities for all players, including with Guido Martelli, right-hand man to mob boss Angelo Bronte, and his crime ring. You can take on new Crimes in exchange for Capitale, “a system of exchange designed for the Bronte family’s more sensitive business dealings,” sort of the Bitcoin of the old West, it seems. The Capitale can then be traded in for access to Opportunities, the first...
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When an extremely copy of The Legend of Zelda fetched a whopping $870,000 at auction last week, it set a record for the highest price every paid for a video game. This led us to wonder what would eventually dethrone it, and we did not have to wait long for an answer—a near-immaculate copy of Super Mario 64 just sold at auction for $1.56 million. For any old school basketball fans out there, we're reminded of the time Kevin McHale set a scoring record for the Boston Celtics when he dropped 56 points in a game against the Detroit Pistons, way back in 1985. Not to be outdone, Larry Bird reclaimed the record just nine days later, when he went on a scoring barrage against the Atlanta Hawks,...
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In just under three months from now, the upgraded Nintendo Switch OLED will release to retail for $349, and though some people have been disappointed that it is not a bigger hardware refresh, we have little doubt it will be one of the hottest tech items around when it arrives. Your best chance at grabbing one is to secure a preorder. If that is your plan, you might be able to place one as early as this week in the US. Here's the thing—Nintendo so far has only said the Switch OLED will release on October 8, 2021, but did not say when preorders will actually go live. There were reports that some retailers in the UK had opened up preorders for the upcoming game console, but as of this writing,...
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The winning bid for what is believed to be the earliest sealed copy of The Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) checked in at $870,000. Not too shabby for a cartridge that sold for $39.99 back in 1987. Even if accounting for inflation ($39.99 in 1987 is equivalent to around $95 today), that's a massive haul. It is also the biggest haul ever for a video game, a distinction that previously belonged to a sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. that fetched $660,000 at auction just a few months ago. What is it exactly that makes these games of yesteryear so valuable today? It is a combination of factors, like still being sealed and in mint condition. What truly sets them apart, however,...
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Without a doubt, this has been one of the worst years for gamers, in terms of being able to buy hardware. It doesn't matter if you're a PC gamer or a console gamer, the hardware for your platform of choice has been affected by a silicon shortage, scalpers, and other factors. As it pertains to the console side, the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 have been tremendously difficult to find in stock, and now the same is true of last-gen systems. Don't believe it? Head over to Best Buy and search for an Xbox One, Xbox One S, Xbox One X, PlayStation 4, or PlayStation 4 Pro. Here is a sample of what you will see... Once you have struck out, head over to Walmart and look up the same consoles. You will...
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A modder has managed to unofficially leverage AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) technology over to SteamVR titles, and while we have not tested it ourselves (not yet, anyway), the early impressions from those who have tried it out generally say it works pretty well. This follows in the footsteps of the Grand Theft Auto V mod, to demonstrate how potentially easy it is to implement AMD's open source upscaling wizardry. To quickly recap, FSR has the same objective as NVIDIA's proprietary Deep Learning Super Sample (DLSS) technology, in that the goal is to render a game at a lower resolution and then upscale it. The upshot of this approach is faster frame rates—your GPU does not have...
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As time goes on, the Assassin’s Creed paradigm shifts with every decision the Ubisoft team makes, such as those with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Now the team is beginning to look to the future and has realized that “the decisions [they]’re making for the franchise now will impact its future for years to come.” As a part of this, it has been announced that Ubisoft Montreal and Quebec will be working together on the upcoming project codenamed Assassin’s Creed Infinity. Announced today, Ubisoft reports the “new cross-studio, collaborative structure will be led by Marc-Alexis Côté, who will serve as executive producer of the Assassin’s Creed...
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