Items tagged with Gaming
By most accounts, NVIDIA nailed the concept of game streaming with GeForce NOW, which recently exited beta and launched to the public at large. Some feel it is the service Google Stadia could and should have been. They're somewhat different animals, but interestingly enough, it appears publishers are having a tough time figuring out where they stand in the cloud gaming movement. That's putting it nicely. While we don't know for sure, it seems like publishers are trying to figure out how best to grab their piece of the cloud gaming pie. GeForce NOW is a interesting concept because it's not anything like Netflix. That's to say, it's not serving up a bunch of games for a monthly subscription rate....
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We are still learning details about the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, Microsoft's and Sony's respective next-generation game consoles, both of which are slated to ship towards the end of the year. For example, we know both consoles will feature custom AMD silicon based on its Zen 2 CPU and Navi GPU architectures, with a speedy solid state drive giving console storage a much needed kick in the pants. What about the audio, though? Microsoft and Sony have not been super forthcoming about finer grain details. That said, the inclusion of dedicated audio hardware acceleration is all but certain on the Xbox Series X. Microsoft has not announced the feature (yet), but a description of a GDC presentation...
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It's all fun and games until a nasty bit of malware infiltrates your PC and wreaks havoc, right? To quote the late, great Bill Paxton, at that point it's "Game over man! Game over!" Fortunately, common sense computing habits are highly effective. Malware writers can be a clever, however, and security researchers are warning of a particular strain posing as a popular games launcher. The malware in question is called LokiBot. If infected, it can swipe personal data from your PC, including passwords and cryptocurrency information (in case you're still into mining or collecting cryptocurrencies). LokiBot is not new—it's shown up through various means in the past, including a variant that used...
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Epic Games has been teasing fans about Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 2 set to kick off this week on February 20. Ahead of the official launch, many fans are wondering what exactly the new season will bring. Rumors have suggested that the theme for Season 2 will have something to do with gold and possibly King Midas, who turned everything he touched to gold. The new advertisements feed into that speculation. The advertisements have turned up on large outdoor displays in Brazil, Japan, and France and play a short animation. Some ads have a phone number attached; but what they all have in common is a gold handprint and gold bars that redact some of the text in the ads. Naturally, fans of Fortnite called...
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Remember how difficult it was to get your hands on a Switch console when Nintendo initially released the system three years ago? The rabid demand prompted Nintendo to issue a statement saying the shortage was "definitely not intentional." That's all in the rear view mirror now, though the Coronavirus outbreak could result in another shortage of the popular console. If so, the timing would be particularly unfortunate, considering how well it is still selling—cumulative sales of the Switch recently surpassed that of the legendary Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), with 52.48 million units sold to date, including 10.81 million Switch unit sales during the last quarter. The Switch...
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Perhaps in a parallel universe, StarCraft: Ghost (not to be confused with StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty) released as originally planned, and spawned a series of sequels over the past decade and a half. In this universe, however, StarCraft: Ghost became vaporware, and then outright cancelled. Gone but not forgotten, screenshots and gameplay footage of StarCraft Ghost have emerged. Originally, StarCraft: Ghost was to be developed by Nihilistic Software and published by Blizzard for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube. After two years in development, Nihilistic Software handed the reins over to Singin' Ape Studios. Not long after, Blizzard acquired the development studio and cancelled the release...
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We all know that NVIDIA will be launching new graphics cards this year, with its next-generation Ampere GPU on the horizon. Before Ampere hits the scene, however, NVIDIA may have a limited edition Turing card waiting in the wings, one that might coincide with the launch of CD Projekt RED's highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 video game later this year. Or perhaps that too will be an Ampere part. Barring another delay, Cyberpunk 2077 is scheduled to launch in September 2020. There's been chatter of Ampere possibly being introduced at NVIDIA's Graphics Technology Conference (GTC) in March, and who knows when actual cards based on the next-gen GPU will land at retail. Either way, NVIDIA is teasing...
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Borderlands has a new in-game event going on that will allow players to win special loot for Broken Hearts Day. During the event that runs through February 20, gamers can help Maurice in Sanctuary III to complete challenges and earn rewards. What players will need to do is shoot down floating hearts around enemies across the galaxy as players go about their vault business. The hearts that players are shooting will take different forms and break in different ways. Some of them will fall to the ground in a fiery explosion while others may drop loot. Other floating hearts might briefly turn enemies into allies. Maurice will keep track of the hearts that players destroy and send players rewards that...
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This will come as little consolation to early GeForce NOW adopters, but that whole messy situation with Activision-Blizzard abruptly pulling its titles from the game streaming service right after its public launch? Well aw shucks, folks, it was just a simple "misunderstanding." In short, NVIDIA thought the agreement it had with Activision during the GeForce NOW beta period extended into the public launch. NVIDIA was wrong. So, what does this mean for gamers? Nothing has really changed—GeForce NOW is still devoid of Activision games, and there is absolutely no clarity on when or even if they will return to the service at a later date. "Activision Blizzard has been a fantastic partner during...
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Kids these days are enamored with LeBron James, but he's not the greatest ever—sorry, not sorry. If you want to debate the G.O.A.T. in basketball, I'll accept several other candidates, including Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, and of course his Airness, Michael Jordan. Microsoft and Nike chose the latter to don a custom themed Xbox One X game console, and it is up for grabs. The themed console is part of a giveaway on Twitter. Entering is simple—all you have to do follow @xbox (so you can be notified via DM if you win) and retweet the designated Twitter post with the hashtag #Xboxsweepstakes. There are no other hoops to jump through, just a simple retweet puts you...
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Samsung and Microsoft have been expanding their partnership together over the last few years, and the two companies now appear ready to tackle gaming. Samsung and Microsoft recently announced at Samsung Unpacked that they will be working more closely together on gaming streaming services and game availability. Samsung and Microsoft’s first step will be to offer Forza Street in the Galaxy Store. Forza Street is a racing game that was released for PC and Xbox last April. This will be the first time that the game will be available on a mobile device. It is possible that other Microsoft games will be available on mobile exclusively through the Galaxy Store. The two companies have provided less...
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Back in November, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said had "some issues with VR," and also claimed "nobody's asking for VR." His comments were in justification of skipping the feature on the next Xbox console, which we now know is the Xbox Series X, due out at the end of this year. Spencer has not changed his position since then, though he did recently clarify his position in response to the backlash. At this point, we can assume that VR functionality is definitely not headed to the Xbox Series X. Spencer has not wavered on this. Not when he made the initial comments in November, not when he expanded on his comments later that same month (in the wake of Half-Life: Alyx, a VR-only title, being announced),...
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BioWare got a lot of gamers excited when it first announced Anthem. Unfortunately for both the developer and players, Anthem wasn't what everyone hoped it would be. BioWare says it has been working hard to improve stability, performance, and the general quality of life in the game. It worked on all those improvements while it was aiming to deliver three seasons of new content and features. BioWare now says it will back off seasonal content to improve the overall game experience for the future. BioWare says that it has heard players and their feedback stating that the game needs a more satisfying loot experience, better long-term progression, and more a fulfilling end game. The developer admits...
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It has been somewhat of a wild week for Steam. A week ago Sunday, Valve's digital distribution platform broke a concurrent user record that had stood for over two years, with 18,801,944 users. The previous record was 18.5 million users. Then this past Sunday, Steam saw 19,107,803 people hop onto the service, setting the record for the second time in a week. The new record came at 14:10 GMT. Out of those users, just over 6 million people were playing in a game, as opposed to simply being signed into the service. That's a lot of gamers, and it raises the question, why is Steam suddenly setting concurrent user records? Source: SteamDB.info Part of the reason is players flocking to Counter-Strike:...
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