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EA Sports FC 25 is now out in the world and doing a thing even though it doesn't fully release until September 27, with folks already taking in the various additions and tweaks it makes to the established formula of person kick ball in net. In fact, the game's first title update just dropped today, September 25. Read more View the full article

Fallout 3 is not, in fact, the third Fallout game. That would be Fallout Tactics, a squad-based Brotherhood of Steel tactical RPG developed by Micro Forté, which appeared a few years after Fallout 2, in 2001. Despite being pretty well-liked by critics at the time, the way it deviated from its predecessor meant that it caught a lot of flak from the fans... Read more.View the full article

The report attributes the stronger-than-anticipated performance to several key factors during the April to June quarter. Inventory restocking, particularly on the consumer side, provided an initial boost as vendors looked to refill pipelines. Vendors also moved to pull in orders earlier than normal in anticipation of panel cost increases that... Read Entire Article View the full article

It’s a great time to be a baseball fan with the fall classic right around the corner. No, not THAT fall classic. The classic Backyard Baseball game returning to Steam in just a few weeks. Backyard Baseball ’97 is the original game in the franchise that launched for PC all the way back in 1997, now on Steam and “updated for modern systems.” That means Pablo Sanchez, Pete Wheeler, Achmed Khan, Angela Delvecchio, and the entire Backyard squad is back. View the full article

Welcome back to Waifu Wednesday, Niche Gamer’s column where we talk about characters, their appeal, and a little on their history. Today’s Waifu is Tsubaki from Blue Archive! Tsubaki is the president of the Inner-Discipline Club (or Etiquette Training Society in *********), though she spends most of her time sleeping. However, despite being lazy during the […] Source View the full article

fter threatening to do so back in July, SAG-AFTRA, a union that represents over 160,000 professionals across acting and performance disciplines, went ahead with a strike. The strike in question targets AI-generated voice work which, the union claims, requires "fair, reasonable AI protections" to avert a future of talent exploitation, where voice actors aren't cajoled into signing off on allowing companies to use their voice in perpetuity... Read more.View the full article

Capcom has released the Monster Hunter Wilds PC system requirements after revealing the game's release date at the PlayStation Showcase last night. An update to the game's website revealed the specs, confirming both the minimum and recommended requirements. It also revealed Monster Hunter Wilds will require 140GB of SSD storage to run. To run the game at minimum settings, meaning at an upscaled 1080p resolution and 30 frames per second, players will need an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super or AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT graphics card. As for the processor, players need an Intel Core i5-10600, Intel Corei3-12100F, or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 alongside 16GB of RAM (6GB of VRAM). Running Monster Hunter Wilds at a full 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second (with Frame Generation enabled) requires a little bit more. Players will need an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, or AMD Radeon RX 6700XT graphics card; an Intel Core i5-11600K, Intel Core i5-12400, AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, or AMD Ryzen 5 5500 processor, and 16GB of RAM (8GB of VRAM). Players can boot Monster Hunter Wilds up on February 28, 2024 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC, and enjoy cross-play for the first time in a Monster Hunter game. In another series first, Capcom is finally removing gendered armor in this entry. In our latest preview of the game, IGN said it's "shaping up to be pretty much what [we] hoped for: A Monster Hunter that embraces the parts of Rise that made it so much more inviting, but also doesn’t shy away from the larger scale and spectacle that helped make World the more enduring entry." Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day. View the full article

The PlayStation 5 Pro has officially been revealed, and developers will be releasing new-and-improved modes for their games that will take advantage of all that new horsepower. But what will it mean, really? At a recent PlayStation 5 Pro preview event, we spoke with the technical leads of some of PlayStation’s biggest games, including Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, The Last of Us Part 2, and others, to discuss what improvements we can expect to see now that there’s a more powerful PlayStation 5 on the market. There are three key features of the PS5 Pro as explained by lead architect Mark Cerny during the announcement presentation. The upgraded GPU will allow for 45% faster rendering for gameplay, advanced ray tracing will create better lighting effects, and the AI upscaler, PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, or PSSR, will help further improve graphics. All of which you’ll see in action in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 according to Mike Fitzgerald, Director of Core Technology at Insomniac Games. “The first big improvement in the PlayStation 5 Pro is PSSR, which is PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, that lets us improve our old upscaling mode. We can render at a lower resolution, bring it up to a full 4K and get tons of extra detail out of the picture,” Fitzgerald says. “The second big thing is there’s new ray-tracing hardware in the PS5 Pro. We have really nice ray-traced reflections all across Spider-Man 2 and getting to run those faster and do more ray-tracing is a big deal.” “And the third big thing altogether is these combined to make a new Performance Pro mode as we’re calling it on the PS5 Pro. You get the image quality and visuals of Fidelity Mode at the framerate of Performance Mode.” Top of mind for several technical leads, including the folks at Naughty Dog, was how on the base PS5, players would often have to choose between Fidelity Mode, which offered better resolution at lower framerates, typically 30 fps, or Performance Mode which raised the frame rate to 60 at the expense of better graphical textures and ray-tracing. That choice is no longer necessary on the PS5 Pro, which can run games combining better resolution with higher frame-rates. "Now we can focus on cool graphics stuff that we’re doing as opposed to just increasing pixel count." “Well the number one thing is gonna be the ability to play at 60fps in 4K, so that has been a huge deal,” Travis McIntosh, Naughty Dog’s head of technology says. “It makes it so we don’t have to compromise, so you don’t have to pick between high fidelity and good performance.” The Last of Us Part 2 is one of the games that will be enhanced on the PS5 Pro, with the option to play the game with better visuals while still running it in 60 fps through a new Pro Mode. But McIntosh says that both the Fidelity and Performance Modes will also be improved on the PS5 Pro. “There’s more than that, there’s also the fact that the high fidelity mode on the base PS5 actually looks even better when you’re on Pro. And there are some minor performance issues in performance mode on the PS5 base model that are also much better. Very solid 60 [fps], a lot less frame drops when you get to the pro.” But McIntosh also says he’s personally excited for PSSR, which uses AI to upscale graphics. “I would say I’m just really excited about the ability to use AI upscaling. Going forward as a developer, as a tech geek we spend a lot of time worrying about pixel throughput. It’s actually really tough to hit the targets of getting this many pixels through the game, and now we can focus on cool graphics stuff that we’re doing as opposed to just increasing pixel count. So that’s been a big benefit.” McIntosh goes in-depth on the PSSR technology and how it upscales 1440p resolution to 4K, telling IGN that it, “produces just a way better result than previous upscalers because it can be trained not only on our game but on lots and lots of other games, and it learns and it improves at each iteration can improve and fix graphical errors, fix artifacting, and it learns how to make things look good. Foliage for instance is one example in our game that looks really good after the upscaler because the neural network is trained to do foliage really well.” For Guerrilla Games World Lighting lead Roderick van der Steen, the biggest changes to Horizon Forbidden West all have to do with resolution and how improved they’ll be on the PS5 Pro, from better lighting to textures on characters. “A big improvement that we could make by using the PS5 Pro is we could increase the resolution, increase stability of the image which is something we really focused on for this patch. And various other aspects like better filtering, better shadowing, and better volumetrics.” Van der Steen says these improvements will be seen particularly in complicated models. “So *****, holograms, but also the skin rendering and the hair rendering where we could increase the shadow filtering to give a much more smooth and stable image.” Lastly, ray tracing has been around for a few years now, but has often been sacrificed on consoles for anyone who prefers performance mode, which according to PlayStation is a majority of players. But the PS5 Pro is now able to add better ray tracing while maintaining a higher framerate. Just ask Jose Villeta, technical director at Avalanche Software, the developers of Hogwarts Legacy. “So one of the few things we were able to improve on in our game thanks to the PS5 Pro is we focused on three areas,” Villeta reveals. “First we integrated PSSR – that gives a better upscaled image technology. And second we focused on ray-tracing, we tried to enable not only the best ray-tracing capabilities but improve the ray-tracing we had before. We were able to bring ray-tracing shadows, we were able to increase the percentage of ray-tracing reflections so they look sharper and have more content and detail.” The improvements are a result of the better GPU which Villeta credits for giving Hogwarts extra heft. “The extra power we can actually make sure that all our visual modes, we have Fidelity, Fidelity with ray-tracing, and Performance mode, are all running at better framerate.” Spider-Man 2, The Last of Us Part 2, Horizon Forbidden West, and Hogwarts Legacy are just four of the many games confirmed for improvements on the PS5 Pro, and we can expect to see even more Pro-enhanced games as we get closer to the new console’s launch on November 7. For more on the PS5 Pro, check out our full hands-on preview, as well our interview on what more you can expect from the PS5 Pro. Matt Kim is IGN's Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

The first Piece of Heart you encounter in Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom in Beach ***** instantly tests your puzzle-solving abilities. But for a lot of players, it’s hard to put the pieces together. When you enter Beach ***** for the first time, after escaping the castle and getting your first few Echos, you are greeted by a few enemies you need to defeat before coming across a weird wall with rocks sticking out and three perfectly placed boxes standing between you and a Piece of Heart container. View the full article

After the SAG-AFTRA union called a strike against League of Legends, Riot Games has issued a statement that aims to dissociate the developer from the allegations being cited as the reason behind said strike. Read more View the full article

Nvidia's current flagship GPU, the GeForce RTX 4090, is already infamous for its issues with power supplies. A new product lineup from MSI suggests that its successor, likely arriving next year, could invite further PSU controversy. Read Entire Article View the full article

The PS5 Pro, next to the original. Probably the best way to play Sony’s games — here’s why, plus some caveats. Continue reading… View the full article

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is planning to combine its Xbox Game Pass and Xbox mobile apps into a single application soon. The software maker is testing a new version of the Xbox app for iOS and Android this week that includes features from the separate Xbox Game Pass app. You’ll soon be able to explore the full Game Pass library and manage memberships within the Xbox mobile app. Game Pass Ultimate members will also be able to claim perks within this updated Xbox app. “These updates will be available for Xbox beta members on mobile and will be coming to everyone soon,” says Microsoft in a blog post. “As part of these changes, we will no longer support new downloads of the Xbox Game Pass app, starting in November.” The new Xbox app will now include the... Continue reading… View the full article

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is the game that keeps on giving as developer **** Shark drops the latest free content patch early. The Unlocked and Loaded Update introduces a wealth of new features for the co-op shooter, including the long-awaited overhaul of the game's itemization system, an original mission type designed for more cinematic sessions, and a new social system that should help players who lack a dedicated group. The changes and additions are extensive, particularly in terms of the game's equipment, so interested users are encouraged to browse the patch notes thoroughly. View the full article

As of the time of this writing, the only new Xbox Game Pass game for October 2024 that subscribers know about is Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6. A fresh batch of games comes to Xbox Game Pass every month, and typically, more games are added to the service than get the boot. Unfortunately, that can't be said for the Xbox Game Pass September 2024 lineup. View the full article

Five Nights at Freddy‘s recently celebrated its 10th anniversary with an 8-day spree of releases, including collaborations, intentional script leaks for the 2023 movie’s sequel, and a whole new adventure stealth game, which we had the pleasure to check out. Developed by Mega Cat Studios, Five Night’s at Freddy’s: Into the Pit is a celebration […] Source View the full article

In some ways, I'm surprised it took this long, but that doesn't reduce the excitement: Mörk Borg - easily the most original, impactful, and simply rad tabletop roleplaying game released in the last five years - is being made into a "grimdark, apocalyptic action RPG", set to release on Steam in late 2025. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Best tabletop roleplaying games 2024 Two months in, Cy_Borg RPG open license has 100+ fan creations Your chance to win Cy_Borg and a stack of Free League RPGs View the full article

Colossal Swords have always been a powerful option in Elden Ring and with the recent update to equipment in Patch 1.14, they have become even stronger. With their incredible range and surprising speed, Colossal Swords have found a place in the top of the meta once again, which hasn't been seen since the initial release of Elden Ring. With the 16 different Colossal Swords in the game, players have a variety of options to play around with in PVP. View the full article

The creator of the high-profile **** of War Ragnarok PSN-bypass mod has reportedly pulled it offline without explanation. Just days after the PlayStation game **** of War Ragnarok launched on PC to a ‘mixed’ Steam user review rating over its forced PlayStation Network account linking, a mod was released that bypassed the requirement entirely. Sony had made it clear on the **** of War Ragnarok Steam page that a PlayStation Network account would be required to play Sony Santa Monica’s purely single-player adventure, but that ******* to prevent a number of negative reviews singling out the policy. One modder going by the name iArtorias took matters into their own hands by stripping out the PSN requirement. iArtorias’ NoPSSDK mod, which had been downloaded thousands of times from Nexus Mods before its removal, “fully strips the PlayStation PC SDK runtime requirement for **** of War Ragnarok.” But because the mod removed the PSN overlay from the game and mimicked an offline mode in the process, it was being used to bypass the PSN / Steam account linking requirement. IGN verified the mod worked before its removal. Posting earlier this week on Nexus Mods, iArtorias vowed to maintain their mod even if Sony updates **** of War Ragnarok to combat it. “I will try to maintain the tool even if something changes, but hopefully nothing crucial happens,” they said. But today, September 26, the mod is no longer available from Nexus Mods or Github. In a tweet, Nexus Mods insisted NoPSSDK had been removed from its site “by the author” and was trying to find out why. It seems likely Sony took a dim view of iArtorias’ mod, but it’s unclear at this point if the company got in touch to request its removal or whether iArtorias took it upon themselves to do so. IGN has attempted to contact iArtorias via Nexus Mods, and has asked Sony for comment. Before the removal of the mod, iArtorias had received requests to release a similar mod for Sony’s other recently released PC games, such as Ghost of Tsushima. Ghost of Tsushima requires a PSN account for the Legends online multiplayer mode and to use PlayStation overlay, but it is not required to play the single-player game. Sony’s PSN account requirement for its PC games was thrust into the limelight with the release of Arrowhead’s explosive PC and PS5 co-op shooter Helldivers 2 earlier this year. Helldivers 2 suffered a review ***** campaign on Steam after Sony made PSN accounts mandatory for PC gamers on Valve’s platform (Arrowhead subsequently decided to turn the Steam user review history graph into a cape, which is ready for launch but has yet to release). Sony eventually backed down and reversed Helldivers 2’s PSN account requirement, but the game ******** unavailable in the many countries that lack PSN. And indeed all Sony’s games on PC now suffer from this problem, which means **** of War Ragnarök is unavailable on PC in over 100 countries. Wesley is the *** News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld. View the full article

It’s always a good idea to give yourself some recognition when you’ve worked hard and done something great. Another way of putting this concept is to “Toot one’s own *****,” which is a clue you must solve for today’s NYT Mini Crossword. Whether you’re unsure what this phrase means or you know it but can’t come up with a word that’s related to it, we’ve got you covered. Here are some hints and the official answer to help you complete the “Toot one’s own *****” clue on the Sept. 25 NYT Mini Crossword. View the full article

Inti Creates has announced a new 2D Metroidvania Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark. The game is the latest in the company’s new Gal Guardians franchise, which kicked off with Gal Guardians: ****** Purge. You can check out the trailer below. "Your Evilness, it's time for revenge." Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark is now in development! Play alone […] Source View the full article

My first steps in Treviso, the Antivan port city, leave me in awe. Shimmering canals wind through Mediterranean-style streets. Merchants peddle everything from colorful fruit and vegetables to bulky gear for the modern adventurer. I've been waiting for years to see Antiva, and it doesn't disappoint. But, like every OG Dragon Age player, I had a vision of it in my mind, as I do with the likes of Rivain. While Treviso matched my high expectations, I ask Dragon Age: The Veilguard's art director Matt Rhodes and level design director Francois Chaput about the pressure of creating cityscapes that we've been dreaming of for decades. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Dragon Age The Veilguard trades goofy blood for "convincing" gore The Veilguard drops Dragon Age Keep to "focus on choices that matter" After playing for seven hours, Dragon Age The Veilguard just isn't it View the full article

In July, SAG-AFTRA performers who work on video games began striking after 18 months of negotiations with game publishers over the use of generative AI for their voices and likeness broke down. Read Entire Article View the full article

If you’re trying to complete the Problem Child Challenge in BitLife, you’ll need to get your character expelled from secondary school. If you’re only getting suspended, you may be insulting the wrong people or you just need patience. How to get expelled from secondary school in BitLife The Headmaster had enough of you. Screenshot by Dot Esports You’ll begin secondary school at age 15 in BitLife. If you have already been suspended in primary school, you know all you need to do is keep insulting and messing with your classmates until one of them snitches to the headmaster at least two times. The fastest way to getting expelled is by insulting the Headmaster. View the full article

“Headshot enemies from the above” is one of Fortnite’s new weekly quests, and it can be quite challenging to wrap it up quickly. Fortnite comes with multiple weekly challenges, some of which are tricky to complete. While headshots are a natural part of the battle royale, where you’d simply ****** at the head, finding them from the above requires some strategy and the right items to pull it off flawlessly and complete the quest in one go. View the full article