The trading halt on Wall Street’s three main stock indexes was the third such pause in six days.
Xbox Series X: See Quick Resume And Faster Loading In Action
With a custom internal SSD that Microsoft has designed specifically for speed, the Xbox Series X will be able to load games faster and suspend multiple games at a time for quick resume. Both of these features have been spoken about in the past, but two new demos show exactly how they will work.
Faster load times is easy to understand, but seeing it compared to the Xbox One is revelatory. The demo uses State of Decay 2 as an example, which takes notoriously long to first load into your procedurally populated world. On the Xbox Series X this initial load takes around 10 seconds, while the Xbox One takes five times long at 50 seconds.
Quick Resume expands on functionality in the Xbox One, with the Series X capable of suspending up to three Series X titles at once (Digital Foundry notes in their report that the console could suspend more backwards compatible games at a time). The demo shows this in action, with the player jumping between State of Decay 2, Ori and the Blind Forest, Forza Motorsport 7, and more all while suspending them safely in the background.
Gears 5 Is Coming to Xbox Series X With Improvements, Possible 120 FPS Support
Gears 5 is a very impressive game on the Xbox One and Xbox One X as is, but the game is getting a makeover for Xbox Series X that comes with higher framerate and resolution.
Announced by Microsoft on March 16, Gears 5 on Xbox Series X will make use of the Smart Delivery system, meaning players who already own the Xbox One version will get it on the new console for free. The Xbox Series X will automatically know to download the improved version, while any Xbox One consoles will still download the old one.
Improvements on Xbox Series X include better textures and volumetric fog, higher particle count, and 60 frames per second during cutscenes for a smoother transition to gameplay. Shadows and lighting have also been improved, and the game is currently running at 100 frames per second with potential to hit 120 frames per second in multiplayer.
Xbox Live Usage Spikes As People Stay Home During Coronavirus Outbreak
Microsoft’s online gaming network, Xbox Live, is experiencing increased demand as people stay home from work and school amid concerns around the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus).
Xbox boss Phil Spencer confirmed this in a tweet, saying Xbox Live “usage is up on almost everything.” He went on to thank his operations and IT teams, and those working for “all the companies” that supply online services at this time.
Given how many workplaces and schools are closed due to the virus outbreak, it makes sense that internet usage overall would increase, and this includes gaming.
Coronavirus: Germany latest country to close borders
Only goods and workers can pass, with France also warning its situation is “deteriorating fast”.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Devs Reveal How The Game Relates To Its Predecessors
Developers working on the highly anticipated RPG Baldur’s Gate 3 have taken to Reddit to answer some burning questions about the upcoming game. Many of these regard the game’s take on DnD 5th Edition, while other curious fans have sought clarity on how much Baldur’s Gate 1 and Baldur’s Gate 2 will impact the story.
Creative director Swen Vincke has addressed fans’ concerns that Baldur’s Gate 3 would have little to do with the first two games, which were both developed by BioWare. “We really don’t want to spoil anything but we wouldn’t call it Baldur’s Gate 3 if there wouldn’t be a link,” Vincke said. “Let me just say that we touch upon the story of BG 1 & 2 in meaningful ways, there are returning characters and what happened in BG 1/2/[Throne of Bhaal] leads to what happens into BG3. You won’t necessarily see that at the start of the adventure but you will quickly understand once you get further into the game.”
Both Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2 were based on the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition, while Baldur’s Gate 3 will be based on 5th Edition: a more accessible ruleset that has led to a huge boost in DnD’s popularity.
CDC Suggests Ban On Groups Of 50 People Or More As U.S. Moves Closer To Shutdown
Call Of Duty: Warzone Reaches Another Big Player Milestone
Call of Duty: Warzone, the free battle royale game, has reached a new player milestone. Activision has confirmed that the game passed 15 million players on March 14, so it’s surely climbed higher since.
The battle royale game reached 6 million players in its first 24 hours following release on March 11, so it’s clearly growing at a solid clip.
For comparison, EA’s Apex Legends, had 2.5 million players in its first 24 hours and 25 million players during its first week, so it’ll be interesting to see how Warzone compares after its first week.
Celeste Dev Explains How They Made Their Game Feel So Good
Celeste is one of the most critically beloved indie games of this console generation, thanks to its smart mechanics, beautiful soundtrack, and challenging-but-fair gameplay and level design. It’s the sort of small, polished experience that a lot of obvious thought and care went into–and now, thanks to a Twitter thread from one of the game’s designers, we have some more insight into how it all works.
Matt/Maddy Thorson, one of the game’s designers, has posted a thread of “game-feel things” that they built into Celeste, explaining the allowances the game makes for players and how they made the game more enjoyable to play. As Thorson admits in the first tweet, these aren’t necessarily new concepts or ideas they invented–just mechanics that fit into Celeste well.
A short thread on a few Celeste game-feel things 🙂 I don’t think we invented any of these.
1- Coyote time. You can still jump for a short time after leaving a ledge. pic.twitter.com/nMK9ZLYbhM— Matt / Maddy Thorson 🍂 (@MattThorson) March 13, 2020
In their thread, Thorson shared a total of 10 examples of “game-feel” from Celeste. In the first example below, “coyote time,” players can still make their jump for a moment after leaving the ledge–just like Wile E. Coyote.
Sonic Passes Detective Pikachu, Is Now Highest-Grossing Video Game Movie Ever In The US
Sonic the Hedgehog has surpassed Detective Pikachu to become the highest-grossing video game movie of all time in the United States. After this latest weekend (which was the worst since 1998), Sonic has now made $145.8 million in the US, edging out Detective Pikachu’s $144.1 million.
On a global scale, it’s a very different story. Sonic has made $306.5 million worldwide, which is more than $100 million less than the $433 million that Detective Pikachu made during its run. A big piece of this story is that Sonic was delayed in China due to COVID-19, so it’s missing out a lot of money that Detective Pikachu had from the market. Detective Pikachu made $93.7 million from China alone.
Neither of those movies are the biggest video game movies, either, as Warcraft holds the record with $439 million worldwide. Warcraft had a very bad run in US theatres, making only $47.4 million, but it pulled in $391.7 million from international markets.