Game Tech News

Just over five years ago, BioWare released Mass Effect 3, the final title in the original Mass Effect trilogy and the most controversial of them all due to its various endings and how player choices did — or, more accurately, didn’t — impact the endgame outcome. BioWare would later take the unprecedented step of patching the game’s ending in an attempt to placate angry fans. But while the game was controversial, it also did quite well, with over 6 million copies sold by January 2017.

It would’ve been extremely difficult to follow up the plot of Mass Effect 3 with a new sequel that took place with the original cast of characters, and BioWare opted not to try. Instead, the next ME game would focus on an entirely new galaxy with new alien species, a fresh cast of characters, and a plot arc that only tenuously connected to the original Mass Effect universe.

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Microsoft has been teasing its E3 show for the past week or so, with hints about Project Scorpio. Now, we know the company is possibly looking to emphasize VR or AR with a new trademark filing for DirectReality. The single-word trademark describes itself as applying to “Computer software; computer game software; computer software for holographic applications… Online computer software; online computer game software; online computer software for holographic applications; Software as a Service (SaaS).”

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Polish game developer CD Projekt Red has built up a rabid fan base thanks to its work on The Witcher games, most recently the widely praised The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The company has long been working on another game not connected to the Witcher universe, known as Cyberpunk 2077. According to a statement on Twitter, CD Projekt Red has been hacked and game files from Cyberpunk 2077 are in the hands of unknown people who are demanding money for their return.

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During last night’s*E3 press conference, Microsoft unveiled the finished version of its long-awaited half-step console. Dubbed “Xbox One X,” this high-powered gaming machine is designed for full-on 4K gaming and media playback. And when it ships on November 7th, it’ll cost $499 — twice that of the current Xbox One S.

The console formerly known as Scorpio is Microsoft’s answer to the PS4 Pro, and a compelling offering for gamers with deep pockets. After the somewhat disastrous original Xbox One launch, Redmond has learned its lesson about cutting corners. With a UHD Blu-ray drive, Dolby Atmos support, and blazing internals, Xbox head Phil Spencer isn’t fooling around.

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I’ve never been all that interested in wireless mice for gaming. While they work great for traveling with a laptop, I’m one of those people who frets about battery life in my devices — call it “click anxiety” instead of range anxiety. Wireless charging has been supported in a variety of devices over the last few years, but nobody apparently thought to combine the use of a wireless charging pad with the hardware that could best benefit from it — at least, not until now.

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Microsoft’s Xbox One X, née Project Scorpio, has been a major topic at E3 2017. As we’ve previously written, the updated console packs considerably more firepower than anything Sony currently has on the market, though it’ll also debut at a higher $499 price as opposed to the PS4 Pro’s $399. According to Microsoft’s Phil Spencer, that premium position is no accident. It’s a reflection of who the Xbox One X is meant to appeal to, and should signify that the console really doesn’t have any competition.

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Modding has been a huge part of the Grand Theft Auto games on PC ever since Grand Theft Auto III debuted a then-new 3D engine and a much larger world. Because Rockstar doesn’t provide any kind of formal editing tools, however, the end-user community took it upon themselves to create the necessary software.

One of the most popular editing suites used in GTA V was a program called OpenIV, which supported database manipulation and could be used to create a vast range of gameplay changes, effects, and content swaps. If you’ve ever seen videos of the popular Vehicle Cannon mod, you’ve got some idea of how zany some GTA V modders are (and to be fair, it looks hilarious).

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Originally unveiled last year, we're still waiting impatiently for this reimagining of the God of War franchise. After working his way through the Greek gods, Kratos is taking on the Norse gods as well. This series has a long history of being a hardware showcase, so we're dying to see how far Sony can push the PS4 Pro. (



The Inpatient

We're huge fans of Supermassive's B-movie horror pastiche Until Dawn, and it seems like The Inpatient is hitting many of those same notes. And not only are we in for some spooky hijinks, this is a title made specifically for the PSVR. Bring on the jump scares! (



While Insomniac Games rose to prominence as a PlayStation-focused studio, they kicked off this generation with Sunset Overdrive -- an Xbox One exclusive. After spending a few years diving into VR and working with Ratchet & Clank again, this team is heading up the PS4-exclusive Spider-Man game. They've proven that they can deliver fast, acrobatic action games in the past, and we're excited to see how the final release stacks up. (



Super Mario Odyssey

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Atari has announced its intention to re-enter the console market, 23 years after its last platform, the Atari Jaguar, launched. The company has said very little about its plans for the hardware, and hasn’t even confirmed if its working on a retro game platform or if it actually wants to compete with the likes of Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft.

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When AMD announced that it would launch its upcoming Vega GPU for professional markets before bringing it to the consumer space, would-be customers were somewhat less than thrilled. We now know that the GPU will launch for consumer products in July, with the professional Radeon Vega Frontier Edition available in June. Thanks to SabrePC, which briefly had price listings attached to the GPUs, we know the air-cooled variant will cost $1,199, while the water-cooled card will be $1,799.

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