Month: September 2020

Crysis Remastered is coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC on September 18, and Crysis will, once again, push limits. If you’re playing on PS4 Pro or Xbox One X, you’ll be able to play the game with ray tracing enabled, making this the first game to feature ray tracing–a rendering technique that is generally used for superior lighting and reflections–on current-gen hardware.

You can check it out in the video below. It shows off how ray tracing is used in the remaster on consoles to produce higher quality reflections. The footage doesn’t show much actual gameplay, but you get to see ray tracing in effect during a brief firefight.

It’s not quite on par with some of the results we’re seeing on PC (check out this Cyberpunk 2077 footage with ray tracing, for instance). But this is the first time this rendering technique has been used at all on the hardware. Crysis Remastered will presumably feature ray tracing on PC, too; here’s what the new version of the game looks like on PC with the settings maxed out.

The game has already launched on Nintendo Switch; ray tracing is not available on Nintendo’s portable machine, though.

Ray tracing is a much-touted feature of the PS5 and Xbox Series X, too, and many games will make use of it on next-gen systems. Xbox Series X and PS5 versions of Crysis Remastered have not been announced, though.

Among the many new and exciting features coming to Halo: The Master Chief Collection in the future is a custom game browser that will let players take part in various custom games.

In a new blog post, developer 343 Industries showed off some mockup images of the custom game browser and discussed how it will work. The custom game browser is tentatively slated to come to Halo: MCC with the launch or after Halo 4’s release on PC later this year. You can see the mockup images below, but note that it is subject to change. The custom game browser is not yet working in the game, but the teams are working on it.

“One of our key goals for the CGB, is to allow players to locate games you want to play quickly and easily so you can get into game fast without a headache of too many options and menus,” 343 said. “To accomplish this, we are going to keep the tool simple.”

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Charles Barkley has never been in an NBA 2K game, including this year’s NBA 2K21, and now we know why. In a video that has been circulating online, Barkley explains that he does not feature in the games because he’s disappointed at how little they pay some of the legacy players who feature–not because he needs the money himself, but because it could be a good revenue source for older players with less money.

The video seems to be from a recorded online fan Q&A that Barkley took part in, with the relevant question coming from a young boy named Nick, who has uploaded the video to his own YouTube. It’s pretty charming. This actually happened back in July, but went largely unnoticed until the YouTube recommendation algorithm started bringing it to people’s attention over the weekend.

Asked why he’s not in 2K, Barkley responds “That’s a great question. I’m asked that question a lot.”

Continue Reading at GameSpot

After announcing its next series of graphics cards, Nvidia has made another bombshell announcement. The company is buying the British semiconductor company Arm for $40 million. Nvidia acquired Arm from SoftBank, which paid $31 billion for it back in 2016.

In a statement, Nvidia said buying Arm will help the company become the “premier computing company for the age of artificial intelligence, accelerating innovation while expanding into large, high-growth markets.”

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Polybius is one of the greatest urban legends in video games, and it has persisted for decades despite no evidence of the arcade cabinet ever existing … aside from an homage bearing the same name. As the story goes, a machine from a company called Sinneslöschen was placed in a single arcade in Portland, Oregon in the early ’80s, but it was quickly removed after putting players into a hypnotic trance. Despite the game not being real, Numskull Designs took it upon itself to create a quarter-scale Polybius arcade cabinet to honor the mythos.

Created by the same company behind other quarter-scale arcade cabinets such as Galaga, Pac-Man, and Space Invaders, the Polybius cabinet’s design is based on internet images and rumors that have been swirling for years. The bubble-like lettering can be seen in “leaked” images, and its simple and imposing design seems like something a government agency would create when looking to brainwash people into becoming sleeper agents or whatever else conspiracy theorists have dreamed up.

Numskull Designs didn’t create a game from scratch for the Polybius cabinet. Instead, it displays a startup screen bearing the Sinneslöschen name and then plays a series of mesmerizing images and sounds. It also sports 10 USB ports on the back so that you can use it to power any other quarter-arcade machines you have in your collection.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

As Mario celebrates his 35th birthday with the release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars, we chart the evolution of Nintendo’s classic franchise from Super Mario Bros. through to Super Mario Maker 2!