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Update: The oddness of this is now explained, as the video has been yoinked. Apparently the quoted email was fake. Original story: Another new video from VNN
sets some more emails from Valve boss Gabe Newell to video. It seems odd that he
would break radio silence on the future of Half-Life in a personal email, but
presuming he's not trolling us, this seems to be exactly what he has done. When asked
about the future of the series by someone wanting to know if he would be able to
play a new chapter in Half-Life before his own life ends,
Gabe replies:
"Just don't die in the next five years, or so, okay?" Continue here to read the full story.
NVIDIA announces plans to introduce DirectX Raytracing to GeForce GTX CPUS
next month, starting with the GTX 1060 and up. Here's word: From engine
updates to exciting games to developer tools, NVIDIA and its partners are making
a
number of ray tracing announcements at GDC 2019 to drive the ecosystem
forward around this exciting new technology.
For decades, NVIDIA has been working towards the dream of real-time videogame
ray tracing. It required millions of hours of research and development, focusing
on everything from GPU hardware and software, to updated APIs and game engines,
to development tools and denoisers. In 2018, all that hard work came to fruition
with the launch of
GeForce RTX GPUs, the world’s first consumer graphics cards with dedicated
RT Core ray tracing hardware, enabling realistic ray-traced effects to run in
real-time in high-fidelity and at high resolutions.
In the time since, our software and developer teams have kept working, allowing
us to optimize our ray tracing technology, make new software advancements, and
help developers further accelerate ray tracing performance in games. Because of
this work, we have dramatically sped up ray tracing performance for GeForce RTX
GPUs, and can now enable DirectX Raytracing ( DXR ) on GeForce GTX 1060 6GB and
higher graphics cards via a Game Ready Driver update, expected in April.
The much larger install base of RT-capable GPUs will fuel developer adoption of
ray tracing technology, bringing more games for both GeForce RTX and GeForce GTX
users to experience. GeForce GTX gamers will have an opportunity to use ray
tracing at lower RT quality settings and resolutions, while GeForce RTX users
will experience up to 2-3x faster performance thanks to the dedicated RT Cores
on their GPUs, enabling the use of higher-quality settings and resolutions at
higher framerates.
The Stray Bombay Website is online as
home to a new developer formed by Chet Faliszek, formerly of Valve, and Kimberly
Voll who previously worked at Riot Games. The main post on the site is from both
of them. Here's the intro from Chet on their inspiration: I love co-op
games and have had the chance to work on some amazing ones (Left 4 Dead 1 & 2,
Portal 2). After the release of Left 4 Dead (L4D), I received an email that
changed forever how I think about making games. It was from a soldier stationed
in Iraq who said L4D had saved his marriage. It was simple—he and his wife
missed each other and talking on the phone just made them realize this more and
feel even more miserable. But jumping into a game of L4D let them forget that
and just exist in the moment. They could spend time in each other’s company as
if they were sitting next to each other on the couch at home.
That is powerful and something only the shared experience of games can bring.
Players are smart, they are social. But games often don’t reflect that and we
think that can change. So we’re forming a new studio in Seattle that is itself
co-operative. There is an old adage that you should never be scared to hire
someone smarter than yourself...for me that’s a pretty easy task. Choosing my
co-founder was even easier—I just asked the smartest person I know to join me,
Dr. Kimberly Voll. Kim's an expert in AI and human-centric design. She's worked
on products that have touched millions and is equally excited about the power of
games and the future of playing together.
As Kim and I talked over the years about the kind of games we want to make, we
realized we want to create games that give players a place to breathe and live
in the moment. Games that tell stories knowing you are going to come back again
and again, that change each time you play them without feeling completely
random, and that help you feel like a real team that supports each other...not a
bunch of folks in each other’s way. And where AI drives not just the enemies but
helps drive the entire experience.
EA announces Season 1 gets underway tomorrow for Apex Legends, at
which time the first battle pass for the battle royale game will go on sale.
Here's all you need to know: The hunt (for sweet loot) is on.
Season 1 – Wild
Frontier arrives tomorrow, and you can score tons of seasonal swag with the
Wild Frontier Battle
Pass. Every level you gain during Season 1 unlocks a Battle Pass reward, and
there are over 100 that you can score throughout the season.
Weapon skins, banner frames, XP boosts, and more are yours for the taking, and
you have all of Season 1 to earn them. Plus, you’ll score three Wild
Frontier-themed Legend skins immediately when you purchase the pass.
Starting March 19, you can get the Battle Pass from the in-game shop for 950
Apex Coins. To level up your Battle Pass even faster, you can grab the Battle
Pass Bundle, which unlocks your next 25 Battle Pass levels (and their respective
rewards) automatically after purchase.
Ready for more? Find
out how to grab your Battle Pass and get ready for a wild ride.
A tweet
from Battlefield announces Firestorm will launch on March 25th, offering the
promised battle royale mode for Battlefield V, the military shooter. They
offer screenshots of Halvøy, the new map this will play out on, and link to a
post on the Battlefield V website with big information dump on the mode.
Here's a bit: Developed by Criterion Games in partnership with DICE,
Firestorm elevates battle royale by bringing in the best of what Battlefield is
known for. Mix a shrinking playing field with trademark Battlefield elements
such as team play, powerful vehicles, and destruction, and you get battle royale
so intense it’ll make your lips curl.
Expect even more details on Firestorm to come as we head closer to launch, but
here’s a quick primer:
- Wage war in a ring of fire that slowly shrinks the
battlefield – don’t get trapped
- Fight to be the last infantry squad standing of 64
players in 16 squads
- The game-changing addition of Battlefield vehicles
lets you wipe out unsuspecting squads with a tank or drive to survive with
transport vehicles
- Work together as a squad to secure objectives that
grant better and rare gear
- Clash on the biggest Battlefield map to date
- Transform the map with Destruction
- Feel battle royale brought to life with stunning
Battlefield graphics and audio
- Matches are tied to your Company and Battlefield V
progression
Battle Royale is a Burning Thing, and it Makes a Fiery Ring
From the moment you fall, down, down, down, from the sky, to when your boots hit
the ground on the largest Battlefield map ever created – the encircling ring of
fire presses in on you and your squad in an all-out war for survival among 16
squads of up to four players.
Steam now offers Two Point Hospital: Pebberley Island, a new DLC pack for
Two Point Hospital,
which allows you to play doctor on the Windows, macOS, and Linux. They celebrate
the news with a music
video they describe thusly: "Chap-hop artist Professor Elemental's music
video celebrates Wiggy Silverbottom's expedition in search of the mythical
spring of immortality in Two Point Hospital's new DLC." Here's word on the DLC
as well as the chance to pick up the original game on sale: Sunglasses? Check. Map and compass? Check. Stethoscope? Check. We're ready
for an expedition to Pebberley Island, as Two Point Hospital's second DLC is out
now on Steam for $8.99! To celebrate, famous part-time explorer and germaphobe
Wiggy Silverbottom enlisted the help of chap-hop artist Professor Elemental in
his new music video: https://youtu.be/h-OChHpQ-bw
The new region of Two Point Hospital, Pebberley Island, adds three new
hospitals: the seemingly-idyllic atoll of Pebberley Reef with its extreme
weather; Overgrowth where you will build your hospital amidst the trees in the
sentient jungle; and the stunning plateau of Topless Mountain, in which you will
have to clear hordes of sick tourists. All this as you cure 10 new visual and 24
non-visual illnesses including Wanderust, Blank Look and Screwball.
Two Point Hospital is currently 33% off on Steam until 21 March, and
available from SEGA approved digital retailers. For all things Two Point
Hospital, sign up for our Hospital Pass at
www.twopointhospital.com, and receive
the new legendary Golden Bathroom Suite in-game signup bonus, including the
Golden Toilet, Golden Sink and Golden Hand-dryer so your patients can feel like
royalty.
Continue here to read the full story.
With Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice due for release on Friday, BANDAI NAMCO
Entertainment offers a new
trailer to offer a gameplay overview of FromSoftware's next action game.
Here's what they have to say about this: "Intense sword combat, surprise
attacks, resurrection, enemy deception and more await! Get a glimpse of the
impeccable gameplay mechanics that await your discovery in this game walkthrough
video." Continue here to read the full story.
A new release trailer
from Generation Zero is now online to pave the way for next week's
release of this open-world action game from Avalanche Studios. It's safe to say
that if time machines were real, the most popular destination would be 1980s
Sweden, but since they aren't, we'll have to rely on this game to make that
dream come true. Here's word: Experience an explosive game of cat and
mouse set in a vast open world. In this reimagining of 1980s Sweden, hostile
machines have invaded the serene countryside, and you need to fight back while
unravelling the mystery of what is really going on. By utilizing battle tested
guerrilla tactics, you’ll be able to lure, cripple, or destroy enemies in
intense, creative sandbox skirmishes.
Go it alone, or team-up with up to three of your friends in seamless co-op
multiplayer. Collaborate and combine your unique skills to take down enemies,
support downed friends by reviving them, and share the loot after an enemy is
defeated.
All enemies are persistently simulated in the world and roam the landscape with
intent and purpose. When you manage to destroy a specific enemy component, be it
armour, weapons or sensory equipment, the damage is permanent. Enemies will bear
those scars until you face them again, whether that is minutes, hours or weeks
later.
Explore a vast open world, rendered with the award-winning Apex engine,
featuring a full day/night cycle with unpredictable weather, complex AI
behaviour, simulated ballistics, highly realistic acoustics and a dynamic 1980’s
soundtrack. In Generation Zero, living is winning.
Continue here to read the full story.
Players caught cheating at Apex Legends are now receiving permanent
hardware bans, reports
Daily Esports, who say this is a hot topic on the wretched hives of scum and
villainy where cheats are shared (thanks
Game Rant). Some
players attempt to cheat in most every online game, and bans are a common way to
combat this, but this can be frustrating in free-to-play games like Apex Legends
where banned players can simply register for new accounts. By taking the more
drastic measure of banning the hardware used by cheaters, Respawn is sending a
clear message of genuine zero tolerance for such behavior. Word is that any
account made on flagged hardware is banned within 30 minutes. The report offers
an example from Reddit of a cheater who posted that their ban persisted even
after they changed HWID, vol id, and Mac address, and after formatting
their PC, performing a factory reset, changing their dynamic IP, partitioning
their hard drives, and even installing an older GPU. If that all isn't enough to
make your day, the schadenfreude actually gets better: While there are
some ways (difficult as they may be) around Respawn’s hardware ban, most
cheaters are still furious. Their anger isn’t just directed at Respawn, but at
the websites or companies that sold them the cheats. A good majority of these
cheats cost anywhere from $60 to $150, depending on the program. That is a lot
of money to pay to have your account banned a day later. However, the websites
that sell these cheats are promising the buyers undetectable and unbannable
hacks. While some of these do get through the Anti-Cheat software, many are
being flagged and leaving the buyers unable to play Apex on the same PC
again.
343 Industries invites players to join the
Halo Insider
Program for the chance to participate in early access play sessions for
in-development Halo games (thanks
[H]ardOCP. This will include the chance to influence the Halo: The Master
Chief Collection, which was
recently
confirmed for Windows. The
Halo Insider FAQ has the details, including word that this replaces the
previous MCC Insider Program, so previous insiders need to re-register to be
part of the new program. Here's more: BECOME A HALO INSIDER
The Halo Insider Program is the new way Halo fans and community members can
partner with 343 Industries to improve our games, products, and services. As a
Halo Insider, you’ll have the opportunity to regularly provide feedback and
insights that help shape and inform current franchise initiatives and the future
of Halo. You will also be given exclusive opportunities to participate in public
flights of in-progress Halo game releases and provide feedback to the
development teams.
PUBLIC FLIGHTING
Halo Insiders who choose to opt in to console or PC flighting will be considered
for early access play sessions with in-development Halo games. Every improvement
to Halo: The Master Chief Collection over the past year was the direct result of
Insiders participating in flights and sharing feedback to the development team.
Each public flight has specific goals, meaning not all Insiders will be selected
for every flight. To increase your chances for selection, make sure your Halo
Insider settings are complete and accurate. And remember, you can always come
back to update your settings or opt out of the program.
DSOGaming notes a series of
posts on Reddit
from Tim Sweeney have more from the Epic Games CEO on what's going on in the
Epic Games Store, where Epic's discounted take is adding a little disruption to
the online games market. One post
on Reddit Sweeney defends the practice of signing games to exclusive
distribution deals, saying that this is a "PROCOMPETITIVE issue and the PC
remains an open platform." Here's a bit: Yes, and the PC remains open,
and there is more robust competition among PC stores than ever before. There's
Steam offering Valve games, Origin offering EA games, Battle.net offering
Activision and Bungie games, Epic Games offering games from many publishers.
I get that you guys don't like store-exclusive games, but that's a completely
separate, and PROCOMPETITIVE issue, compared to closing down platforms like
Windows to monopolize distribution, as iOS does, and as Microsoft was trying to
do with UWP and locked-down versions of Windows -- which failed, and whose
proponents are now gone and replaced with great leaders like Satya Nadella and
Phil Spencer who are driving Windows forward as an open platform!
GOG.com announces that preorders are underway for Crimson Curse, a new
expansion coming to GWENT: The Witcher Card Game. The post also mentions a new
trailer without offering a link, but never fear, we've
got you covered.
Here's word on preorders: We’ve awaited this far too long… hunted by
those who live in comfort and opulence.
No more.
You can now purchase a
Crimson Curse Pre-order Pack! It includes the legendary Blood Armor leader
skin for Unseen Elder, Crimson Curse-themed animated cardback, as well as 40
Crimson Curse Kegs at a special price (each keg contains 5 cards exclusively
from the expansion).
This offer is available until March 28th.
Contents of the Pre-order Pack will be immediately added to your inventory, but
you will be able to open the Kegs and use the vanity items only after the
expansion releases on March 28th.
The Blood Armor Unseen Elder skin and Crimson Curse cardback are currently only
available as part of the Crimson Curse Pre-order Pack, however, slightly
different versions of these items may eventually be available for purchase in
the in-game shop.
Continue here to read the full story.
The annual Game Developers Conference gets underway today in San Francisco, so
if the past is prologue and recent teasing is to be trusted, some new
announcements should be rolling in. This is something we should get used to, as
this more-or-less kicks off the spring/summer game convention season, and the
dust from GDC will barely settle before next week's kickoff of PAX East. Time to
call your bookie and make sure you've properly placed all your bets.
R.I.P.:
Dick Dale, surf guitar pioneer, dies at 81.
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