Archived News:
Tuesday, Jun 29, 2021
Control Multiplayer Spin-off and More Control Announced [7:08 pm ET] – Share – 8 Comments
In a
post to the Remedy Games website, Control franchise Game Director
Mikael Kasurinen announces a project codenamed Condor, a
multiplayer spin-off of Control. This is part of a publishing deal with 505
Games, But it sounds like it will be awhile before we see much of the project.
Mikael acknowledges the potential for skepticism since Remedy is primarily a
single player studio.
This announcement has all the details, saying Condor will be a four player
co-op PvE game. It also says Remedy and 505 are also planning to create a bigger
budget Control game, promising more detail in the future. Here's more:
Condor is a spin-off of the critically acclaimed Control game, which was published in 2019. Since its publishing, Control has been nominated for 11 BAFTA® Games Awards and received over 20 “Game of the Year” awards. The new game will be built on Remedy’s proprietary Northlight® engine and tools. Condor will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
“We are excited to continue and further expand our collaboration with Remedy. With over 2 million copies sold and revenue exceeding EUR 70 million, Control is an extremely successful game,” say Rami and Raffi Galante, co-CEOs of Digital Bros Group. “As a multiplayer game, Condor has the potential to engage the gaming community in the long run, contributing to 505 Games’ product revenue stream longer than traditional games.”
Respawn Combating Apex Legends Cheating [7:08 pm ET] – Share – 1 Comment
A couple of
tweets from Respawn reassure Apex Legends players that the
development team is cracking down on cheaters and DDoS attacks in the battle
royale shooter:
The Respawn team is pursuing several options to crack down on cheating in @playapex:
- Hammer and pick Hiring more people to focus on manual bans
- Wrench Developing more tools to automatically detect and stop DDOS attacks
- Stop sign Investigating ways to more quickly catch and remove cheaters from games
Playing against cheaters sucks. We'll keep you updated as we ship the above changes and pursue new ones.
Magic: Legends Closing in October [7:08 pm ET] – Share – 6 Comments
The Official
Website for Magic: Legends has the news that this action/RPG based on
Magic: The Gathering will be closing down on October 31, 2021. The game entered
open beta testing barely three months ago
, but it will not make it to an official release. It will continue to
operate, but no more cash transactions will take place, and everyone who spent
money in the game either through Arc or the Epic Games Store will receive a
complete refund. The post includes a complete FAQ, and the following explanation
from Cryptic's Steve Ricossa:
It is with heavy hearts that we announce Magic: Legends will be shutting down on October 31, 2021. All players who spent money in-game across Arc and the Epic Games Store during the Open Beta will be refunded their full purchase amounts. Servers will remain open for play until closing day, however we will be closing the Zen Shop effective immediately. Later this week, all items will instead be purchasable using Aether, our free in-game currency.Continue here to read the full story.
Our vision for Magic: Legends missed the mark, but we are proud of what we achieved. Thanks to Wizards of the Coast, we got to bring the expansive Magic: The Gathering Multiverse to a wide audience and explore new angles within the established ARPG genre. We learned several valuable lessons along the way, and we will use them to improve Cryptic’s future development efforts.
New AMD Drivers [7:08 pm ET] – Share – 1 Comment
AMD Support now offers new version
21.6.2 Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition drivers for AMD Radeon graphics cards
running under Windows. As detailed in the
Release Notes, These include enhanced support for DOOM Eternal and
Vulkan. Here's word:
Support ForContinue here to read the full story.
- DOOM Eternal™
- Vulkan® Ray Tracing
Added Vulkan® Support
- VK_EXT_custom_border_color
- This extension allows applications to specify a custom border color for when the sampler address mode VK_SAMPLER_ADDRESS_MODE_CLAMP_TO_BORDER is used.
- VK_KHR_shader_subgroup_uniform_control_flow
- This extension exposes the availability of the SPV_KHR_subgroup_uniform_control_flow SPIR-V extension for shader modules use. The SPIR-V extension provides stronger guarantees that diverged subgroups will reconverge.
- VK_EXT_color_write_enable
- This extension allows applications to selectively enable and disable writes to output color attachments via a pipeline dynamic state. This has the potential to reduce pipeline counts for increased efficiency.
Evening Interviews [7:08 pm ET] – Share – Post a Comment
- Shaquille O’Neal on esports investment: ’I just knew I had to get involved’ - The Washington Post (may require registration or subscription).
Evening Crowdfunding [7:08 pm ET] – Share – Post a Comment
- First Person Shooter- The Definitive FPS Documentary by FANDAMENTAL, a CREATORVC company — Kickstarter. "The ultimate celebration of the FPS genre. Join us as we revisit the greatest ever FPS games, guided by the developers who created them."
- Monster Master by Flatfish Games Oy — Kickstarter. "FPS - VS - RTS - Choose your side and game genre. Fps team against one RTS player. Please help us make the ultimate Horde mode!" Here's the Steam Listing and a closed alpha gameplay trailer.
Evening Consolidation [7:08 pm ET] – Share – Post a Comment
Evening Metaverse [7:08 pm ET] – Share – Post a Comment
Evening Tech Bits [7:08 pm ET] – Share – 2 Comments
- RTX 3080 Ti HOF Edition Already Cranked to 2.8GHz.
- The best OLED TVs could get even brighter – here's how. Thanks Max.
- See inside Elon Musk's tiny, rented home in Starbase, Texas. Thank A51Abductee.
- Build Your Masterpiece – CORSAIR Launches New Full-Tower 7000 Series Cases. And a CPU Cooler with a 420mm radiator.
Evening Legal Briefs [7:08 pm ET] – Share – Post a Comment
- Actually, the Antitrust Case Against Facebook Is Very Much Alive (may require registration or subscription).
etc., etc. [7:08 pm ET] – Share – Post a Comment
Into the Black [7:08 pm ET] – Share – 3 Comments
Last Link of the Day:
THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK – Official Trailer.
DOOM Eternal GeForce RTX Update [11:36 am ET] – Share – 29 Comments
NVIDIA announces the promised update is
now available to enable DLSS support in DOOM Eternal.
This video shows off what these advanced visual effects bring to id
Software's first-person shooter sequel. Here are more details:
This new RTX upgrade, available now, gives GeForce gamers a DOOM Eternal experience that is second to none, with blazing fast frame rates courtesy of NVIDIA DLSS, and gorgeous ray traced reflections that enhance the DOOM Slayer’s campaign. Visual effects and their lighting reflects, enemies and scenery are accurately reflected, and players experience a superior level of image quality that further improves DOOM Eternal’s award-winning gameplay, while engrossing them with the increased dynamism delivered by ray tracing.
GeForce Experience Exploit Patched [11:36 am ET] – Share – 3 Comments
The
NVIDIA Website features an updated version 3.23 of GeForce Experience,
NVIDIA's gaming companion software. The new version was released a week ago, and
the patch notes describe a number of enhancements and fixes. Though they
make no mention of it, the update also addresses
CVE-2021-1073, a
vulnerability recently identified by NIST (thanks
Threatpost via Ant). Those running an unpatched version of the software
probably want to update, though word is this is not an easy attack to execute:
The prerequisites for an attack, known as a spoofing attack, include an adversary with network or remote access to the vulnerable PC. According NVIDIA details, because the victim must be coaxed into clicking on a malicious link, the attack is considered complex, reducing the risk of a successful exploitation.
Old World Leaves Early Access Thursday [11:36 am ET] – Share – Post a Comment
Old World has an official release date for Windows and macOS, and it's
right around the corner. Mohawk Games' 4X strategy game is now expected to
depart Early Access
on Thursday, July 1st. Word is: "During our Early Access phase, we maintained a
cadence of weekly updates that allowed us to develop and iterate on these
systems quickly with our passionate community. We now want to expand the
audience to new players who may be ready to dive into a fresh take on the
genre." Old World marks a return to the genre for Soren Johnson, designer of
Civilization III, Civilization IV, and Offworld Trading Company.
Here's the elevator pitch:
Conquer the Old World in this historical, epic strategy game from Soren Johnson, Lead Designer of Civilization IV and Offworld Trading Company. Every year is a turn, and each leader is a mere mortal, so your lasting legacy will be the dynasty you leave behind.
Crown Demo [11:36 am ET] – Share – Post a Comment
As yesterday's birthday boy once famously said, "it's
good to be the king." Now comes your chance to test that principle, as a
playable demo for Crown is now available
on Steam. This
free-to-play strategy title from Tilting Games involves seven kingdoms battling
against a external existential threat. Sort of a game of the chair upon which
the ruler sits, for lack of a better phrase. Those who enjoy the demo may want
to support the game's
Kickstarter, which carries the elevator pitch: "XCOM meets Genshin Impact in
a PvP turn-based strategy game!" Here's an
Official
Trailer showing the game's mashup of medieval and anime influences. Here's
more:
Taste the glory in Crown, a free* turn-based strategy game, where brave warriors with powerful skills will be part of your team to fight and achieve victories in the world of Valentia.Continue here to read the full story.
Master an increasingly large and powerful group of playable characters, in a tactical game based on classic chess with great gameplay innovations that will surpass the experience gained on any other board. We welcome you to the new way of understanding and playing chess, with a modernized, free and much more complete style.
* There is no footnote corresponding to this asterisk.
New Predator Hunting Grounds DLC [11:36 am ET] – Share – Post a Comment
PlayStation.Blog has details on new DLC now available for Predator:
Hunting Grounds. The ninth add-on for the alien-infested action game adds
Isabelle as a playable character. This comes alongside a free update for the
base game that brings a new Headquarters map, called the game's "most complex,
spacious, and difficult map yet." Here's more on what Isabelle's sniper skills
bring to the game:
Help us in welcoming 2010’s Predators character Isabelle to the game. A sniper in an elite defense force, Isabelle was selected by the Predator menace as worthy prey to be hunted on an off-world game preserve. One of two survivors in a group of eight specialized killers, she managed to escape and returned to Earth. After joining the OWLF, it was determined that “Izzy” had more confirmed Predator kills than any other human…aside from Dutch.
Now you, too, can harness her immense power as one of the fiercest competitors in the jungle. She not only carries specializations that are tailored to her like sniper, rushdown, scavenger [and more], but she is a real glass cannon. Izzy is a heavy hitter but watch your health; she pairs best with a medic teammate. QA says if you feel like your team is incomplete, she is that missing piece to a well-rounded crew.
Curved Space Released [11:36 am ET] – Share – Post a Comment
Developer Only By Midnight and publisher Maximum Games throw us a curve with the
release of Curved Space for Windows and consoles. The PC edition of this
twin stick shooter is available on
GOG.com and
Steam,
and Steam also offers a playable demo. A look at gameplay can be found in the
Launch Trailer and here are more details:
Curved Space is an intense arcade-style twin-stick shooter that takes the classic formula and plunges it into the weirdest reaches of space. Battle cosmic space-invading spiders across curved landscapes where bullets hug the terrain while the horizon drops sharply out of sight.Continue here to read the full story.
Inspired by arcade classics, players will have to hunt for weapon power-ups and upgrades while dodging enemy fire, blasting interdimensional bugs, and wrangling some enormous boss monsters. Simple to learn as you fight your way through the branching story-driven campaign, but tough to master as you chase the glory of the leaderboards.
Torn Away Announced [11:36 am ET] – Share – 1 Comment
Publisher Nordcurrent and developer Perelesoq announce Torn Away, an
adventure game set during World War Two that will arrive later this year
on Steam.
This is not a guns and glory game, it puts the player in the role of a child
imprisoned in a forced labor camp. The story is set by
this emotional trailer. Here are some details:
Torn Away combines a variety of genres while exploring the poignant tale of Asya, a lost orphan who escaped from a forced labour camp and has to cross the wintry wilderness of Poland and Germany to make her way back home. You will have to persevere through the harsh elements of nature, hide from soldiers and look for shelter and food in order to survive. In a war-torn world where violence and terror reign, you have to stay strong. You have to survive without losing what makes us human.Continue here to read the full story.
Morning Consolidation [11:35 am ET] – Share – Post a Comment
- Sony Interactive Entertainment Acquires Housemarque, Developer of Recent PlayStation 5 Hit Returnal.
- Sony said it acquired Demon's Souls dev Bluepoint for a hot second.
- Famous Anime Series Kimetsu no Yaiba Game Coming to Xbox.
- Destroy All Humans! - Nintendo Switch Announcement Trailer.
- Increase your Xbox Series X|S Internet Speed (A Quick Guide).
- Curved Space Is Now Available For Xbox One And Xbox Series X-S.
- Onirike Is Now Available For Xbox One And Xbox Series X-S.
- Spirit Of The North- Enhanced Edition Is Now Available For Xbox Series X-S.
- Smart Moves 2 Is Now Available For Xbox One And Xbox Series X-S.
- Synchro Hedgehogs Is Now Available For Xbox One And Xbox Series X-S.
- Flatland Vol. 2 Is Now Available For Xbox One And Xbox Series X-S.
- Butterfly 2 Is Now Available For Xbox One And Xbox Series X-S.
- Dance the night away in Synth Riders, coming to PS VR July 27.
- This Week's Deals With Gold And Spotlight Sale.
Morning Mobilization [11:35 am ET] – Share – Post a Comment
- Galaxy Z Flip 3 Leaks Extensively, Color Variants and Design Elements Confirmed.
- Netflix Allowing Partial Downloads Viewing. Thanks Ant.
- Tropico: The People's Demo – Out now for Android (video).
- PUBG Mobile Bans Nearly 4 Million Players In One Week.
- Contra Returns is a new Contra game coming to mobile devices.
Morning Tech Bits [11:35 am ET] – Share – Post a Comment
- Intel Teases Xe-HPG DG2 Gaming GPU Announcement.
- Intel To Disable TSX By Default On More CPUs With New Microcode. Thanks Slashdot via Ant.
- Windows 11: TPMs and Digital Sovereignty. Thanks Simon.
- Microsoft acknowledges the Windows 11 PC Health Check was 'not fully prepared.' You never want to go full Illidan.
- What Windows 11 means: We'll be stuck with millions of Windows 10 zombies.
- Update on Intel Sapphire Rapids in 2022- Q1 for Production, Q2 for Ramp, H1 Launch.
- RIP Pepper robot: SoftBank 'pauses' production. Retirements by Blade Runners to follow?
- Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot challenges BTS to a boy band dance-off in latest video.
- LG updates its 2021 OLED TVs to support 120Hz Dolby Vision gaming.
Morning Legal Briefs [11:35 am ET] – Share – 1 Comment
- Square Enix Apologizes for Violation of Gacha Laws in Final Fantasy War of the Visions. An apology? That's a pretty harsh sentence.
Game Reviews [11:35 am ET] – Share – Post a Comment
Hardware Reviews [11:35 am ET] – Share – Post a Comment
- Case: Antec DF700 FLUX Mid-Tower Chassis Review - TweakTown.
- CPU Cooler: Montech Air Cooler 210 Review - TechPowerUp.
- Headset: ROCCAT Syn Pro Air Wireless 3D Audio RGB Gaming Headset - Christ Centered Gamer.
- Keyboard: HyperX Alloy Origins 60 review – linear switches or bust - PCGamesN.
- Keyboard: Jelly Key Artisan Keycaps - TechPowerUp.
- Misc: Dell Ultrasharp Webcam Review- Best Image Quality - Tom's Hardware.
- SSD: Crucial P5 2TB PCIe M.2 2280 SSD Review - Mad Shrimps.
- SSD: Sabrent XTRM-Q 16TB Portable SSD Review - Biggest & Fastest Available - TweakTown.
Out of the Blue [11:35 am ET] – Share – 34 Comments
Still getting used to Windows voice recognition, and some of its foibles. Here's
perhaps the oddest thing I've discovered so far: The software has the most
bizarre logic for choosing between homophones for "two." Its favorite choice
seems to be "too," second is "two," and third is "2." The one that it never
seems to settle on is "to," which is weird because I'm pretty sure it's the most
common of all of them. Oh well, I'm not going two think about it 2 much or I'll
give myself a headache or too.
Also, Round-up
Thanks Ant and Neutronbeam.Science
- Does Evolution Want Us to Drink? (may require registration or subscription). Thanks Slashdot.
- The Race to Put Silk in Nearly Everything (may require registration or subscription).
- Physicists confirm two cases of “elusive” black hole-neutron star mergers. Subject to FTC approval, of course.
Media
- Kid uses grandmas voice box for auto tune.
- A Golden Cat Hug. Beautiful moment of Zen. Thanks Kxmode.
- Rotoscoping kitties during the pandemic.
Follow-ups
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