Game Tech News

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...re-640x353.jpg

Over the last few months, Microsoft has been pushing game developers to bring titles to the Windows 10 Store with extremely mixed results. Most of the games published under the Universal Windows Platform(UWP) to-date have had significant problems, and even the handful that weren’t broken from the start have been far more limited than the version you can buy on Steam or from other digital download services. Today, Microsoft is releasing updates for Windows 10 that will remove some of these restrictions.

Starting today, Windows 10 applications will allow you to unlock the frame rate and can use both AMD’s FreeSync and Nvidia’s G-Sync technologies. The update can be downloaded here, though the blog notes that the games themselves will have to be updated to allow for them to function. “Once applications take advantage of these new features, you will be able to play your UWP games with unlocked frame rates. We expect Gears of War: UE and Forza Motorsport 6: Apex to lead the way by adding this support in the very near future.”

Microsoft’s blog post on this topic also dives into details on DirectX 12, Windows 10, and the future of the UWP initiative. One particular section on V-Sync states:

Does DirectX 12 and UWP support full screen exclusive mode?
Full screen exclusive mode was created back in the original release of DirectDraw to provide games with enhanced performance when using the entire screen. The downside of full screen exclusive mode is that it makes the experience for gamers who wish to do other things on their system, such as alt-tab to another application or run the Windows GameDVR, more clunky with excessive flicker and transition time.
We thought it would be cool if gamers could have the versatility of gaming in a window with the performance of full screen exclusive.
So, with Windows 10, DirectX 12 games which take up the entire screen perform just as well as the old full screen exclusive mode without any of the full screen exclusive mode disadvantages. This is true for both Win32 and UWP games which use DirectX 12. All of these games can seamlessly alt-tab, run GameDVR, and exhibit normal functionality of a window without any perf degradation vs full screen exclusive.

The lack of a fullscreen exclusive mode in UWP is part of why there’s been a push to adopt other frame presentation methods and why some performance monitoring software doesn’t always give feedback that matches what users see on-screen when playing DX12 titles. The FAQ notes that hybrid laptop users won’t see benefits from the new capabilities yet; Microsoft is working with vendors to create a solution to this problem.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...er-640x353.jpg


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...re-640x353.jpg

Friday night’s big GTX 1080 unveil was the talk of the tech community, but it’s not the only project that Nvidia unveiled this past weekend. The company also showcased a pair of software projects it’s working on to showcase both its efforts in VR and its ability to beautify game screenshots.

Nvidia’s Ansel (named after Ansel Adams, the famous American environmentalist and photographer) is a new tool designed to allow users to create screenshots and even 360-degree “bubble” images. The ability to take screenshots in games is nothing new, of course, but Ansel allows you to step “outside” your character and manipulate the camera position before settling on a shot.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...el-640x353.jpg

One of the frustrating things about trying to create “perfect” screenshots in gaming is that how easy it is to do so largely depends on whether the camera is a flexible, powerful, and intuitive tool or something kludged together by three chimpanzees and a rat after six years of perpetual crunch time. Ansel aims to reduce this type of problem by giving gamers powerful tools to pose and create screenshots — provided that developers support the feature, at least.

Ansel allows you to freeze time inside a game and adjust the camera position to anything you like — even in games that don’t allow a completely free camera already. It then scales up the resolution of the final screenshot to as high as 32x native resolution (4.5 gigapixels). These truly enormous image files — because seriously, that’s going to be one hell of a file size — can then be downsampled for an incredibly high-resolution focus on one specific area.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...r3-640x360.png

Other features include the ability to apply specific filters (Instagram for games, we suppose), capture and export in OpenEXR, and the option to capture 360-degree “bubbles” for viewing in VR. Nvidia announced at the same event that it has released an Nvidia VR Viewer for the Google Cardboard app (sadly only Android is supported as of this writing). You’ll be able to adjust the yaw, pitch, and roll of the camera, change the brightness or color, and create 360-degree shots (a gallery of these is available on Nvidia’s website). It’ll be supported on all Nvidia GPUs from the 600 family forwards, which means Kepler and Maxwell users will still have access to this tool.


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...re-640x353.png

Firaxis came out of nowhere today to announce that Civilization VI — the next iteration in the classic Civilization franchise that’s probably responsible for enough cumulative productivity drops to match the GDP of a small island nation — will be released on October 16, 2016.
For those who don’t follow Civilization or have only done so intermittently, it’s known as a 4X game (eXpand, eXplore, eXploit, and eXterminate). These types of titles are almost always turn-based and offer gamers the ability to begin as the ruler of a small city-state at the dawn of human history. Discovering new technologies and advances unlocks everything from world wonders (expensive projects that deliver a significant advantage once completed) to alternate forms of government. Each civilization in the game (Aztecs, Americans, English, Chinese, and Zulu are some of the common civilizations) has its own strengths and weaknesses, and players can further fine-tune the game by choosing specific cultural, social, and economic philosophies. Exactly how these traits impact game play varies from title to title, but the subtle changes Firaxis makes to the Civilization formula are what set each game apart from its predecessors.

Coming to a Civilization near you!

Here are the Civ VI features Firaxis has unveiled thus far:
Cities now expand across multiple tiles on the map. In the past, each city, no matter how large, occupied just one map tile while the surrounding tiles were used to implement various improvements. A city in a mountainous area might be surrounded by mines to increase production, particularly if there was a rare resource or two in that area, while a city in grasslands and river country would emphasize food production. Firaxis claims that players can now build cities to take advantage of local terrain, but it’s not clear how this will play out in practice.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...e3-640x360.jpg

Like Civilization V, Civilization VI will keep the one-unit-per-tile rule. This was a controversial change last time around, because it made it more difficult to protect units with low defense from enemy attacks (previous Civ games allowed you to stack units on the same tile). Civilization VI is tweaking the existing formula in one important way: It’s now possible to stack certain support units with other military forces. Warriors can “embed” with settlers, while an anti-tank unit can embed with infantry. This should help prevent some of the problems with 1upt that cropped up in Civilization V without returning to the days when an essentially limitless number units could occupy exactly the same space.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...e2-640x360.jpg

Other features of the series like diplomacy, multiplayer, and the technology tree are all implemented in Civ VI, along with a comprehensive series of tutorials that will teach new players how the game works.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...e1-640x360.jpg


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...ch-640x353.jpg

Blizzard has a long history of producing high quality multiplayer games, and Overwatch isn’t going to buck that trend. Last week’s open beta gave us a representative look at how the retail version of the game will be when it launches on the 24th, and it seems to work as intended regardless of which platform you plan on using.

For the better part of a decade, Blizzard was working on developing an MMO dubbed “Titan.” It was eventually canceled in 2014, but some assets from that project still live on in Blizzard’s new first-person shooter. And it’s not just Blizzard’s legacy that Overwatch is building on. In many ways, it also takes inspiration from Valve’s Team Fortress 2. It’s a team-based shooter focusing on wildly different classes, and the lively personalities of the characters evoke very warm feelings for many of us with hundreds of hours of TF2 under our belts.

From a technical perspective, Overwatch seems to be well-built. Both the Xbox One and PS4 versions feature dynamic resolution scaling, but they’re both sitting at 1080p most of the time. Based on the comparison done by Digital Foundry, the Xbox One appears to drop below 1080p more frequently, but it’s not a widespread issue. You’ll see a slightly fuzzier image for short stretches, but that’s certainly preferable to being stuck at 720p or 900p at all times.

The game targets 60fps on consoles, and it usually delivers. The PS4 version rarely budges from 60, and when it does, it seems to happen most often when you’re watching the kill cam. Over on the Xbox One, drops are a bit more frequent when you’re actually playing. Unfortunately, you’re going to get some screen-tearing, but it’s not enough to ruin the experience.

more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...gn-640x353.jpg

Electronic Arts held its earnings call for the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2016 yesterday, and shared its own thoughts on whether or not Microsoft and Sony are prepping new console designs, as well as information on how such plans might impact its own business. Historically, transitions between console generations have always been a bit rocky for game publishers. They must manage higher R&D costs associated with new platforms and modest initial sales due to an obviously limited install base. Then they must juggle additional costs related to supporting both older and newer platforms, until the last generation of hardware finally shuffles off to the great video game cabinet in the sky.

While EA obviously can’t comment on any launch plans Sony and Microsoft might be making, CFO Blake Jorgensen did share some insight on the potential refresh from EA’s perspective.

In terms of any mid-cycle upgrades, once again I can’t predict. But what I can tell you is that what was heard I think publicly from the console makers is they’re realizing that the compatibility issue across consoles is an important consumer issue. And as Microsoft has shown, they’ve tried to do with some backward compatibility on to older titles and new titles. I think that’s going to be an important part of what a mid-cycle might look like if there is one, which removes a lot of the risk associated with what we’ve seen historically with console cycles. We don’t spend a lot of time worrying about it, because we feel like our ability to develop for whatever new technology comes, the risk of that’s been minimized because we’ve moved towards one single engine, Frostbite. And we’re able to port that to whatever platform or point that to whatever platform is evolving or is upgraded.
In addition, our business model is so much more diverse now than it has been historically, that the notion of a console cycle becomes somewhat irrelevant in our ability to generate strong earnings and cash flow. So we’ll all be interested to see where Microsoft and Sony come out if they do something at E3 or sometime in the year to come, but we’re excited about the continued growth in the business and not afraid of a cycle change if that was to occur.

In other parts of the call, EA predicted a net sale of 25 million consoles this year (compared to 55 million consoles already in-market since 2013), implying continued robust demand. AMD’s remarks at its own conference call last month also implied strong sales through the end of the year.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...-4-640x361.jpg


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...re-640x372.jpg

We didn’t expect much from the 2016 version of Doom. The last iteration of the game, which shipped in 2004, felt like a hackneyed cross between System Shock 2 and an early 1990s shooter. The new Doom (originally Doom 4) has been mired in development hell for years, and early feedback on the multiplayer wasn’t very kind.

We can’t speak for the multiplayer, since we’ve yet to venture online, but the single-player campaign is much more faithful to the spirit of the original game than Doom 3 was. While there is a story, id Software opted for a framework that’s more-or-less an excuse to hurl weapons, power-ups, and abilities at you while you chew through the demons pouring through the portal.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...rs-640x360.jpg

Why not try a holiday on Mars this year? See the lovely ruins

Doom kicks off as you wake up chained to a block of stone, snap your bonds, and smash a few zombies (called the Possessed). It quickly becomes apparent that unlike in Doom 3, where the secret research that tapped into Hell was known only to a handful of base personnel, Doom staff and researchers were fully aware of what they were doing. At one point you’re actually told, “We exploited Hell and its resources because it was in the best interests of humanity to do so.”

more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...le-640x353.jpg

At CES Asia last week, Internet giant Tencent announced a new console gaming system, dubbed the TGP (Tencent Games Platform) Box. Tencent isn’t a well-known company in the west, but it’s a behemoth in the Asia-Pacific market. The company’s market cap hit $200 billion for the first time just over a year ago and it earned roughly $16 billion in revenue in 2015. That’s still significantly smaller than Sony or Microsoft, but it’s more than large enough to throw some serious cash at the console business.

TGP owns Riot Games, which produces League of Legends, and LoL has already been confirmed as a supported title for the new platform. The company hasn’t announced many other details, but we know that the system runs Windows 10 and is compatible with Intel’s sixth-generation Core i3, i5, and i7 processors. There’s no word of any supplemental GPU, implying that the platform will rely on Intel’s integrated graphics for performance. That’s less dodgy than it used to be — Intel’s GPU performance has been improving steadily for years — but Intel’s Crystal Well chips with 64-128MB of EDRAM are the only chips that can be said to compete against AMD or Nvidia’s low-end discrete GPUs.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...TGP-Launch.jpg

According to AllChinaTech, this iteration of the TGP Box is called the Blade and is the result of a partnership between Haier, which built the hardware, Intel, which provided unspecified “sensing and smart home technology,” and Tencent, which provided both system development and game titles. A number of other titles have been confirmed for the Blade, including FIFA Online 3, NBA 2K, Monster Hunter, and Need for Speed. The company will announce additional titles later in the year.
Fighting for the Chinese console market

It hasn’t even been a year since China officially lifted the ban on game console imports. Previously, consoles were only allowed in-country if you lived within an eleven-mile trade zone surrounding Shanghai and if the console was assembled locally. Microsoft and Sony are now theoretically free to sell into China, but there are difficulties selling into that market. Content needs to be localized and Chinese gamers are much more likely to use either smartphones or PCs. Tencent’s decision to standardize on a PC-like device running Windows 10 makes sense in that context: It’s the gaming platform users are actually more familiar with.
Given China’s economic growth and millions of gamers, there’s good reason for the established manufacturers to go after the market — but Tencent’s launch demonstrates that native manufacturers have their own sights set on a piece of the metaphorical action. There’s no word on whether or not Tencent will launch its platform in the*US, but hopefully we’ll see some benchmarks and additional information as the platform moves towards launch.


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...re-640x354.jpg

Blizzard has confirmed to us that this give-away includes all of the latest expansion packs and a free month of game play, though this last applies only to new players. Current players can still score a free copy of the game to share with a friend or launch a second account if they so desire.

Blockbuster movies have leveraged tie-ins to physical toys, food, clothing, and collectible glasses ever since the first Star Wars movie demonstrated that these additional products could be formidable sources of revenue. Video games, in contrast, have tended to get the short end of the stick — the list of great video game movie adaptations isn’t a long read.

Blizzard, in contrast, has come up with a method of tying the upcoming World of Warcraft movie directly into the already-existing World of Warcraft game. First, existing players who just log into the game between May 25 and August 1 will receive new transmogrification (transmogs for short). These are visual skins that make your weapons or armor look different, but don’t actually change anything about your character’s in-game performance.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...gs-640x320.png

The bigger prize is the free copy of World of Warcraft that Blizzard is handing out to anyone who buys tickets for the movie. WoW is currently $19.99 for a version of the game that includes all previous content and expansion packs with a maximum level cap of 100 and hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of content. Put differently, Blizzard is willing to give you a $20 game if you go and see a movie for significantly less than that.

more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...rk-640x353.jpg

It’s been over two years since Microsoft’s Project Spark was launched publicly, but this free creation suite is already being shut down. We’ve already seen numerous Microsoft-owned studios shuttered earlier this year, and this latest move reiterates that Redmond isn’t interested in keeping struggling games and teams on life support.

When Project Spark launched in 2014, it was a free-to-play game that was built around micro-transactions. Different set pieces and tools could be used to make your own levels that could be shared with other Xbox One and PC gamers, but all of that changed last September. All of the existing content was made completely free, previous purchases were refunded, and plans for future updates were halted.

While that was a short-term boon for frugal enthusiasts, it spelled doom for the long-term prospects of the game. Without any way to make money, it was only a matter of time before the other shoe dropped. Last week, Microsoft removed Project Spark from the Windows Store and Xbox Marketplace. Existing users still have access to the game, but all of the online functionality is scheduled to end on August 12th.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...soft-Teams.png


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...s2-640x353.jpg

The first consumer VR headsets are just starting to ship, but choosing between the two options is an important call for early adopters. Both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift cost $600 and there’s already some exclusive software. Oculus recently added a “platform integrity check” to make sure its exclusive games could only be played on Oculus hardware, but it may have inadvertently made VR piracy infinitely easier.

Oculus released its new VR DRM on Friday, and it was cracked wide open just a day later. This is thanks to a popular user-created software package called Revive. Its goal is to make games from the Oculus store function on the HTC Vive. It does this by porting functions from the Oculus Runtime to OpenVR, an API that’s compatible with the Vive. Prior to the platform integrity check, this allowed Vive owners to use the software they paid for on the hardware of their choice. The method of bypassing the new DRM doesn’t just circumvent the integrity check, it skips the ownership check altogether. It works for pirated game just as well as ones you bought.


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...re-640x353.jpg

The original Homefront, released in 2011 by THQ, was an intriguing game with a laundry list of flaws. But in spite of its failures, a sequel was greenlit anyway. THQ then proceeded to implode, the franchise was sold, it changed hands yet again, and now Homefront: The Revolution is finally available for purchase. Was it worth five years of turmoil and heartbreak? Let’s take a look.

Since this game spent a large part of its development cycle under the care of Crytek, it’s built on the CryEngine. And as such, it’s not entirely surprising that the PS4 version has a native resolution of 1920×1080, but the Xbox One is stuck at 1600×900. Both console builds target 30fps, but neither one delivers anything close to a stable frame rate.

Digital Foundry tested the performance on the consoles, and both were found wanting. Interestingly, the Xbox One actually performs a bit better than the PS4 — likely because of the faster CPU clock speeds and the lower resolution.
Unfortunately for Xbox One owners, it doesn’t make much of a difference. The frame rate is erratic for long stretches on either console, and even when the engine can deliver 30fps, frame pacing problems make the game a bit stuttery.


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...ET-640x353.jpg

When the open beta of Overwatch launched earlier this month, the hype around Blizzard’s newest release hit a fever pitch. Gamers acquired a taste for this team-based shooter, and the weeks between the beta and the final release were nothing less than torturous if the countless posts on social media are to be believed. Thankfully, Overwatch is now officially available worldwide on the Xbox One, PS4, and PC. And from the early looks of things, it seems that everything is about a smooth as you’d expect it to be.

Critically, the game has been very warmly received. Metacritic currently has 10 reviews listed for the PC version, and it’s averaging a score of 94/100. Unfortunately, the console versions don’t have enough reviews to populate a score just yet. Over at our sister site IGN, the final review score isn’t quite ready. However, the review-in-progress is available, and it has a tentative score of 9.4/10. If the servers continue to remain steady, and there aren’t any surprise issues that pop up, it’s safe to assume that the score will hold.

A quick glance at the Overwatch forums shows that there are definitely some technical issues going around, but nothing seems particularly widespread. And if you check out the Overwatch hashtag on Twitter, it’s mostly just happy chatter from fans – not outrage. It’s a shame that there’s a small percentage of people who can’t play the game they purchased, but it’s par for the course — especially on the PC. No game will ever be completely bug-free.

more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...VR-640x353.jpg

One of the consistent claims about the rumored PS4K upgrade is that Sony has absolutely mandated backwards compatibility. Developers are supposed to target both the PS4 and PlayStation 4K / PlayStation Neo, but they aren’t allowed to introduce features or capabilities on one platform that don’t work on the other. An anonymous developer has challenged that assertion, claiming that part of why Sony put the PS4K into production is because it couldn’t get VR to run at its target frame rates.

“PSVR was going to be terrible on a [launch] PS4,” a source told Edge Magazine in an apparently deleted tweet. “It was going to be truly awful. Something a bit more powerful starts to bring VR into range.”

The anonymous source also commented on Sony’s plans to upgrade the platform, saying: “I’m not interested in marketing strategies or adoption rates or whatever. I’m not considering that. But as someone who does the technology for video games, somebody doubling my GPU and adding 30% CPU is brilliant. I’d love that every two years. I’d love it every six months, if possible. All I want is the most powerful hardware that I can get my hands on.”


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...re-640x353.jpg

An anonymous European developer has confirmed that a major European studio is working on a VR title for the Xbox One upgrade currently expected in 2017. Microsoft is expected to announce the new console at E3 this year, and the new title will likely debut there as well.

Microsoft intends to work with Oculus Rift to support VR on the Xbox One rather than building its own in-house solution, according to Ars Technica. At this stage in the game that’s probably wise; VR headsets historically take several years to develop and the new Xbox One (Xbox 1.5? Xbox Two? Xbone Xtreme?) will already be hitting markets behind PlayStation VR and the PlayStation 4K / 4.5 / Neo. Unlike Sony, which has mandated strict backwards compatibility requirements, Xbox One VR may only be available on the 2017 model due to VR’s high performance demands. This makes sense, given that the Xbox One typically lags the PlayStation in performance tests, even though its games typically run at a lower resolution.

How will Microsoft upgrade the Xbox One?

If rumors are true, Sony’s PlayStation Neo is a straightforward update with an improved GPU architecture, a faster CPU clock, and faster GDDR5 memory. Microsoft, in contrast, may have to make some tough choices about the future of its platform.


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...ne-640x353.jpg

It’s been a good year for Geralt of Rivia. The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt was released to critical acclaim and massive financial success in May of 2015, and the Hearts of Stone expansion received similar praise just five months later. Blood and Wine, The Witcher 3’s final expansion, is finally available, and it’s impressive in every way. Not only does it offer dozens of hours of high quality monster slaying adventures, but early reports say it looks and performs better than the base game itself.

Based on 29 aggregated reviews, the PC version of Blood and Wine currently has a metascore of 92/100 on Metacritic. At our sister site IGN, the PC version received a 9/10 for its rich storytelling, vibrant new scenery, and clever improvements to the combat upgrade system. Unfortunately, it seems that the console versions of the game weren’t widely available for review ahead of the official release.


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...re-640x353.jpg

When Nvidia launched the GTX 1080 earlier this month, it established its new Pascal-derived GPUs as leaders in the top of the market. Now, as expected, the GTX 1070 has dropped, piledriving both Nvidia’s previous cards and every top-end GPU AMD has to offer.

First, let’s hit the technical specifications. The GTX 1070 packs 1,920 CUDA cores, 120 texture units, and 64 ROPS. That works out to 75% the cores and texture units of the larger GTX 1080, but the pixel fill rate is theoretically the same between the two cards, since they have the same number of ROPS. Base clock is 1.5GHz with boost clocks up to 1.68GHz and 8GB of 8Gbps GDDR5 memory (the GeForce GTX 1080 uses 8GB of 10Gbps GDDR5X memory). Memory bandwidth is 256GB/s, which puts the new GTX 1070 in between the older GTX 980 (224GB/s) and the 980 Ti (336GB/s).

more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...ng-640x353.jpg

The trend in mainstream laptop design is to make it as unrealistically thin as possible, even if that means sacrificing battery life and performance. Improvements in mobile CPUs have made super-thin laptops much faster than they once were, but what if that’s not enough? For the discerning on the go gamer, Asus has announced a new version of its monstrous GX700 gaming laptop called the GX800 at Computex 2016. It has all the latest hardware with a giant liquid-cooling docking station. It takes the phrase “desktop replacement” seriously.


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...er-640x353.jpg

We’re less than two weeks away from E3 2016, and in spite of the incessant “E3 is dying” narrative, there’s a lot going on. Sure, the focus is shifting to live streams and satellite events held around the world, but we’re still going to get a deluge of exciting gaming news.

Let’s take a look at some of the largest companies in gaming, and explore what we might see out of them this month. Mind you, there are far too many indie games, side projects, and unannounced titles to cover everything in a single post, so let’s hit the highlights.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...-U-640x360.jpg

Nintendo

The Legend of Zelda is the only Nintendo game coming to E3 this year. Attendees will get hands-on time with this elusive release, and Nintendo will be hosting a live video stream demoing the game for the world, but that’s about it. A few minor announcements might slip out, or maybe even a mention of the new 3DS Pokemon games, but Zelda is what Nintendo is banking on this year.

more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...MD-640x354.jpg

After months of speculation, AMD finally revealed its own next-generation GPU at Computex 2016 this week. The new RX 480 is a midrange card that AMD claims will deliver dramatic performance improvements in VR and 3D gaming. It’s all part of AMD’s overall strategy to reduce the cost of buying into the VR ecosystem, while improving their competitive positioning against Nvidia’s midrange products.

The RX 480, which will ship on June 29, is a 14nm GPU built at GlobalFoundries. It’s a fourth-generation GCN card*based on the Polaris 10 architecture. The RX480 will pack 2,304 GCN cores, which works out to 36 compute units. Its boost clock is above 1.08GHz and it’s backed by a 256-bit memory bus and either 4GB or 8GB of GDDR5 depending on the SKU. Board power is 150W and the launch price is $199. Anandtech estimates a clock range between 1.08GHz and 1.3GHz to achieve AMD’s stated >5TFLOPS metric.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...s5-640x358.png

The R9 380X is the toughest competition AMD has at the $199 price point (most of the GPUs in this bracket are R9 380s, but PowerColor has an R9 380X priced at $199). The R9 380X is a 2048:120:32 design (cores, texture units, and ROPS respectively) backed up by 182GB/s of memory bandwidth. We don’t know how many TMUs or ROPS the RX 480 will have, but memory bandwidth should be much higher, at 256GB/s (the RX 480 has 8Gbps GDDR5 memory and a 256-bit memory bus).
https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...er-640x422.jpg
One persistent rumor we’ve heard is that AMD’s Polaris desktop GPUs would match or beat the R9 390’s performance at roughly half the TDP. That seems quite achievable based on the RX 480’s core count (2,304 versus 2,560 on the R9 390), likely higher clock speed, improved efficiency, and memory compression improvements that were introduced in GCN 1.2 and likely further improved with Polaris’ fourth-generation GCN architecture.*Overall performance will likely beat the R9 390 and approach the R9 390X, but at a much lower price (the cheapest R9 390X is currently $299 at Newegg) and vastly better power consumption.

more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...re-640x353.jpg

This article is the first of a planned two-part project. Part 1 will focus on the Razer Blade Stealth ultrabook and its built-in characteristics, while Part 2 will measure the performance of the Razer Core, the GPU add-on product for the Razer Blade Stealth.

The Razer Blade Stealth is the first ultrabook from a company that’s typically focused on building gaming laptops, but there are precious few signs that the Stealth represents a major new product area for the enthusiast-focused company. It’s significantly less expensive than the New Razer Blade, which currently starts at $1,999, or the Razer Blade Pro, which has a $2,499 base price. In contrast, the Razer Blade Stealth we’ll be reviewing today starts at $999.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...h1-640x338.jpg

The specs on the Razer Blade Stealth are nothing to sneeze at. Razer sells two versions of the laptop, but they’re more alike than they are different. Both are equipped with a Core i7-6500U, 8GB of RAM, a 12.5-inch display, and Intel HD 520 graphics (and neither version has gaming prowess on its own as a result). The differences are in screen resolution and available storage — there’s a 2560×1440 panel variant that conforms to the sRGB color standard and ships with 128-256GB of storage as well as a 4K panel variant that conforms to the Adobe RGB wider color gamut and offers either 256GB or 512GB of storage. Both versions use the Killer Networking Killer 1535 802.11ac wireless modem and offer Bluetooth 4.1 support.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...cs-640x571.jpg

Specs on the two system configurations.

We’re reviewing the 2560×1440 version of the laptop today, which comes with a 256GB SSD for $1,199. We’re not thrilled with the price you pay to upgrade your storage — while all OEMs gouge on storage and memory upgrades, charging $200 to step from 128GB to 256GB works out to $1.56 per gigabyte of additional storage. It’s been a long time since SSDs were anywhere near that expensive.

The Blade Stealth measures 12.6 x 8.1 x 0.52 inches and weighs in at 2.75 pounds. All versions of the Razer Blade Stealth have the same port configurations: one USB Type-C 3.1 port with Thunderbolt 3 (useful for the Razer Core peripheral), a pair of USB 3 ports, a headset jack, a 2 megapixel webcam, and an HDMI output. Both the 1440p and 4K versions of the laptop are touchscreens, and while I generally prefer a keyboard and mouse, a touchscreen is genuinely useful when working on an airplane or in any confined space.

External design, Razer Chroma

The Razer Blade Stealth’s all-aluminum chassis has a matte black finish that gives the ultrabook a sleek, understated look. This is somewhat spoiled by the glowing Razer logo on the top of the laptop, but the glow can be disabled if you don’t fancy it. The one downside to the laptop’s finish is that it picks up fingerprints and oils easily. This isn’t a system you want to use without washing your hands first, unless you want to spend a non-trivial amount of time polishing it to get oil off later.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...id-640x105.jpg

The bottom of the laptop is well-designed, with two “feet” that run the entire length of the chassis. This helps ensure that the system won’t overheat — and that’s not a trivial consideration given how thin modern laptops have become.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...om-640x438.jpg

The Razer Blade Stealth mounts its speakers on the actual keyboard area instead of on the bottom of the system and the sound quality from them is surprisingly good for a design*of this type, provided you don’t expect amazing subwoofer-quality bass. PC laptops are infamous for weak trackpads, but again, Razer’s is better than average.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...op-640x457.jpg


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...es-640x353.png

Steam is an incredible platform. Frequent sales, the workshop, refunds, cloud saves, and dozens of other smaller features come together to form a service that any company would be proud of. Unfortunately, there’s a downside: DRM. When you buy games on Steam, you’re locking yourself into that platform, and you have to abide by Valve’s restrictions. Thankfully, the folks at GOG.com have put together a clever solution that allows developers to offer DRM-free versions of their games for free to existing Steam users.

Dubbed “GOG Connect,” this new service scans your Steam library using the official Steam API, finds any applicable games, and allows you to import them into your GOG account. Your Steam copy remains, but you’ll now have access to the GOG version at no additional cost. As a consumer, there’s simply no downside to going through this process. Even if you continue to play the Steam version, you’ll still have a DRM-free version in your pocket if you ever change your mind.
Unsurprisingly, the service has been extraordinarily popular. That’s great news for GOG.com, but it also means that the account connection process is currently running at a snail’s pace. The service is so overwhelmed, in fact, users have been warned that it may take days before everything starts working properly.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...OG-640x155.png

Because an agreement has to be reached with the developers and/or publishers of each game on GOG Connect, not every title that’s available on both platforms will be supported. Still, 22 games are available for import right out of the gate. Beloved indie games like Braid, The Witness, VVVVVV, and FTL: Advanced Edition are a big part of this launch, but some older high-profile games like Saints Row 2, Unreal Tournament Game of the Year Edition, and The Witcher: Enhanced Edition are included as well.

more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...re-640x353.jpg

For decades, companies like AMD and Nvidia have created two sets of products for the desktop and laptop markets. While the relative performance of laptop GPUs compared to desktop cards has varied, both companies have generally recognized the need to build lower-power cards to fit into laptop chassis. Nvidia is reportedly breaking this trend with its GTX 1080 and 1070, which may come to laptops in essentially unchanged form.

This rumor is courtesy of PC Gamer, which cites insider contacts at Computex 2016 for spilling the beans on Nvidia’s plans. PCG reports that Nvidia will bring the full-fat versions of both the 1080 and 1070 to mobile systems, with clock speed tweaks to ensure the GPUs don’t draw more power than the laptop can handle. Nvidia launched a full version of the GTX 980 for laptop configurations last September, but kept the rest of the GTX 9xxM family intact. Now the company is supposedly dumping the “M” label with no plans to revive it.


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...-4-640x353.jpg

Bethesda has been pumping out Fallout 4 DLC this year at a steady clip, and the latest release is the biggest yet. The $25 Far Harbor DLC takes the player to a new location off the coast of Maine, and adds a thick layer of radioactive fog. Not only does this awful mist slowly chip away at your health bar, but it causes the frame rate on the PS4 to drop in a big way. Thankfully, Bethesda has already released a new version of the DLC that significantly improves performance.
When Far Harbor launched last month, it received a positive, if subdued, critical reaction. The PC and Xbox One version received a metascore of 79/100 while the PS4 version averaged a slightly lower 75/100. On our sister site IGN, the PC version of the DLC scored an 8.3/10. In comparison, the base game ranged from 84/100 to 88/100 on Metacritic while IGN gave it a 9.5/10 on all platforms.

If you absolutely loved Fallout 4, this add-on is undoubtedly what you’ve been waiting for since launch. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of the works of Bethesda Game Studios, but I played through the entirety of this DLC in the last few weeks. Most of the strengths and weaknesses of the core game remain, but I did find myself smiling while solving a cheeky murder mystery inside a newly discovered vault.

Sadly, that small joy didn’t last long. After spending a couple hours in the fog, the atrocious frame rate on the PS4 turned my smile into a frown accompanied by a deeply furrowed brow. My expectations were already low thanks to the choppiness of last year’s release, but the fog seems to have caused the frame rate to fall off a cliff. My gameplay experience was sub-par to say the least.

more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...e1-640x353.jpg

When HTC and Oculus launched their VR headsets, both companies ran into fulfillment problems that caused significant delays. Oculus, however, seemed to be more significantly impacted than HTC, and suffered a larger number of delays. As of today, HTC claims to be shipping out all orders within 72 hours, while simultaneously expanding its retail availability and demo locations.

According to HTC’s press release, the Vive is now on sale in 24 countries and can be purchased from select Microsoft stores, GameStop, and MicroCenter locations. Pre-orders placed through these retailers will begin shipping this week as well. The company also notes that it’s expanding its demo locations up to 100 stores across North America. Microsoft Store demos will expand to 51 showrooms, up from the current 29, GameStop will have 40 demo locations (up from 10), and MicroCenter will have 10 total, up from 5.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...rt-640x360.jpg

The HTC Vive

“Since beginning pre-orders at the end of February and shipping in early April, we’ve seen incredible interest in Vive,” said Dan O’Brien, VP of VR at HTC. “Working with our retail partners has only enhanced that momentum because more people are able to try the only truly immersive virtual reality offering on the market today.”

What about Oculus?

Oculus has made headlines recently for its decision to introduce DRM to the Oculus Store and break third-party compatibility after Palmer Luckey promised he had no interest in doing so. Palmer has a long history of making statements and then breaking or retracting them, as catalogued here. The debate over copyright and interoperability in VR, while important, has somewhat obscured the fact that Oculus does seem to be making progress in fulfilling its orders.


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...ge-640x353.jpg

At long last, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst has finally hit store shelves. After years of internal tribulations, this prequel/reboot to DICE’s 2008 stylish first-person parkour game is available for the world to play. Unfortunately, this open world interpretation is receiving a somewhat tepid response. It’s by no means an outright failure, but it seems to be disappointing for many fans of the original game.

On Metacritic, Catalyst currently has a score of 72/100 on the PS4. Both the Xbox One (73) and PC (75) version rate slightly higher, but there are less reviews to draw from. On our sister site IGN, the game received an “Okay” rating of 6.8/10 on all platforms. The fast-paced traversal continues to impress, but most of what’s built around that core gameplay idea didn’t sit well with IGN’s reviewer. The bland open world, a disappointing story, occasionally awkward combat, and muddier console versions make for a lackluster overall experience.

With all of that said, it’s worth remembering that the first game wasn’t perfect. It ranged between a 79 and an 81/100 on Metacritic, and the different platforms scores spanned a 7.3 and an 8.5/10 on IGN. The gun combat was widely panned, and there were people clamoring for bigger environments at the time. And since it targeted only 30fps last generation, it was clear from the start that there was a lot of room for improvement.

It’s been about eight years since the first game was released. When people compare Catalyst to its progenitor, it’s in the context of eight years that have been chockablock with open world games. What we wanted back then isn’t necessarily what we expect out of a game now. So while it’s safe to say that Catalyst is an improvement over the original in numerous ways, the steps forward simply aren’t big enough for some of us.

more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...10-640x353.jpg

Ever since it launched Windows 10, Microsoft has been working to integrate Xbox One and PC gaming. Multiple games are now available as cross-buy titles, meaning you buy the game once, you can play it on either an Xbox One or a PC. Xbox Owners can stream games locally from their console to a PC elsewhere in the house for portable gameplay. Xbox controllers are fully supported on PC hardware, and Microsoft has already talked about building future games that are cross-play, meaning Xbox One owners and PC gamers can play on the same network.

Now, Microsoft is considering plans that would blur the gap between Xbox One and PC gaming even more, by allowing PC gamers to stream Xbox titles, even if they didn’t actually own an Xbox, The Verge reports. There’s also talk of allowing PCs to stream titles to the Xbox One, which would be an interesting way to shift back and forth between living room and desktop gaming.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...UI-640x360.png

There are substantial potential benefits to this kind of flexibility. Microsoft could take a page from SteamOS’ Big Picture mode and offer users the option to boot straight into the Xbox One’s UI, even when the PC in question is running Windows 10. Allowing PCs to run or stream Xbox One titles as a default option would open up back catalogs of console exclusives, possibly including hits from the Xbox 360. In-home streaming between the Xbox One and a high-end PC would give living room gamers the option to run games at their highest resolutions and detail levels without moving a tower into the living room.

These options would greatly increase the flexibility of the Xbox One and create an ecosystem flexibility that Sony would be hard-pressed to match. There are still certain issues with cross-play between Xbox and PC gamers related to fundamental differences in controllers vs. mouse+keyboard gamers, but there are plenty of titles where this simply wouldn’t be an issue. For that matter, there’s also no reason Microsoft couldn’t beef up mouse+keyboard support on the Xbox One, for gamers that want to stream titles to a big screen but still play them from PC peripherals.

What Microsoft has to get right

With all that said, there are some issues Microsoft needs to address if it wants PC gamers to embrace Xbox titles or integration. To date, the Windows Store has done a generally awful job of meeting the needs of PC gamers. Multi-GPU support has been absent, titles have run terribly, modding doesn’t work, API support is limited to DX12, and games bought via the Windows Store don’t work on other platforms. A game you buy on Steam can be played on any operating system it supports. AAA Windows Store games, in contrast, are Windows 10-only. Microsoft has addressed some of these issues already and it promised to fix a few more when the Anniversary Update drops next month. Some of the others, like the DX12 API limitation and the Windows 10 requirement probably won’t get fixed.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...-1-640x361.jpg

No more Gears of War-style launch disasters, ok?

If Microsoft wants PC gamers to take a shine to Xbox One games, it needs to offer PC gamers some of the features and capabilities they’re accustomed to having. People don’t buy into PC games because they somehow missed the giant Xbox One or PS4 signs at the local Best Buy, but because they value certain specific qualities that PCs offer. Some people prefer a mouse and keyboard over controllers, some want the option to run at higher frame rates and control detail levels, some want the ability to mod the game, easily install (and benefit) from an SSD, or use multiple GPUs — and those are just off the top of my head.


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...re-640x353.jpg

When Blizzard shut down the Nostalrius third-party World of Warcraft server, it triggered a wave of protest from thousands of players who had signed on to play the classic version of WoW, before any expansions had arrived to change the experience. In the wake of the fan outcry, Blizzard promised to meet with the Nostalrius developers and discuss the situation. According to the lead developer of Nostalrius, Viper, their meeting with Blizzard about the prospect of building classic servers for the game was productive and treated seriously by Blizzard itself. The list of people attending the meeting included:

• Mike Morhaime – CEO
• J. Allen Brack – Executive Producer for WoW
• Tom Chilton – Game Director for WoW
• Ion Hazzikostas – Assistant Game Director for WoW
• Marco Koegler – Technical Director for WoW
• Saralyn Smith – Global Director of Community Development
• Kester Robison – Manager of WoW Community Development
• Vanessa Vanasin – PR Manager for WoW
• Randy Jordan – Blizzard Community Manager

The discussion itself ran to more than five hours and touched on a variety of topics, including the history of WoW emulation, whether or not a volunteer team could continue to handle Nostalrius (or a Classic project of similar scope), and a technical report on the achievements and bugs of the Nostalrius project in particular. Here are the major highlights from that meeting.

more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...LI-640x354.jpg

The writing has been on the wall for this decision ever since Nvidia announced the GTX 1080, but the company has finally made it official: Three and four-way SLI rigs won’t be supported with GTX 1080 and 1070 GPUs, save for “a select few applications.”

This news comes courtesy of PC Perspective, who spoke with Nvidia about the issue. While Nvidia isn’t requiring enthusiasts to acquire an “Enthusiast Key” to enable more than two-way SLI, it’s also dropping support from everything but, we imagine, the handful of popular applications typically used to break world performance records.

Three-and-four-way multi-GPU mostly doesn’t work

While the absolute die-hard, well-funded enthusiasts may be disappointed by this move, the fact is, it makes a great deal of sense. Multi-GPU configurations have never scaled well past two video cards, despite improved support for such configurations from Microsoft and a great deal of driver work from both AMD and Nvidia over the years. PC Perspective and PC Gamer both wrote articles on SLI scaling with the GTX 980 and 980 Ti respectively, and the story is the same with both GPUs — not only do frame times go to hell, but frame rates often increase marginally, if they increase at all.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...LI-640x339.png

Graph by PC Gamer

The problems with multi-GPU development and driver development in general were explored very well in a post to GameDev.net. The author of the post, Promit, writes:

The first lesson is: Nearly every game ships broken. We’re talking major AAA titles from vendors who are everyday names in the industry. In some cases, we’re talking about blatant violations of API rules — one D3D9 game never even called BeginFrame / EndFrame. Some are mistakes or oversights — one shipped bad shaders that heavily impacted performance on NV drivers. These things were day to day occurrences that went into a bug tracker. Then somebody would go in, find out what the game screwed up, and patch the driver to deal with it. There are lots of optional patches already in the driver that are simply toggled on or off as per-game settings, and then hacks that are more specific to games — up to and including total replacement of the shipping shaders with custom versions by the driver team. Ever wondered why nearly every major game release is accompanied by a matching driver release from AMD and/or NVIDIA? There you go…
Multi GPU (SLI/CrossfireX) is [expletive deleted] complicated. You cannot begin to conceive of the number of failure cases that are involved until you see them in person. I suspect that more than half of the total software effort within the IHVs is dedicated strictly to making multi-GPU setups work with existing games. (And I don’t even know what the hardware side looks like.) If you’ve ever tried to independently build an app that uses multi GPU — especially if, god help you, you tried to do it in OpenGL — you may have discovered this insane rabbit hole. There is ONE fast path, and it’s the narrowest path of all.

When you start adding additional complexity in the form of three or four GPUs, you start slamming into multiple system bottlenecks, some of which may or may not be alleviated by DX12. On the plus side, DX12 gives you more CPU threads to work with, which could help with dispatching work. On the minus side, however, the new multi-GPU modes require explicit developer support (which means the developer is the one doing the heavy lifting), while the legacy modes may or may not provide the same scaling capabilities. That’s before we get into technical issues, like PCI Express bandwidth limitations or the increased overhead required to spin workloads out to more than two GPUs, only to put it all back together again.

Who wrote Mantle, Vulkan, and DirectX 12?


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...pc-640x361.jpg

For months, the rumor mill has churned with predictions that Sony would launch a new, higher-end PlayStation 4 system with improved graphics, potentially larger storage, and possibly support for UltraHD (aka 4K) Blu-ray discs. Now the company has confirmed these rumors, but says it won’t show the console at E3 this year.

Andrew House, president and group CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, has confirmed that the PS4K / PS4 Neo / PS 4.5 will be more expensive than the current version of the PlayStation 4, which retails for $350. This actually makes a fair bit of sense — if Sony is hitting reset on the platform’s capabilities, we’d expect the console to come in around $400 at the least.

Sony, however, isn’t planning to phase out the PS4. “It [the PS4 Neo] is intended to sit alongside and complement the standard PS4,” House told the Financial Times. “We will be selling both [versions] through the life cycle.”
This quote suggests that the price gap between the two variants could be larger than just $50. A $350 / $400 split makes sense if Sony wants to push end-users to the newer version as quickly as possible, while $350 / $450 or $350 / $500 might allow higher overall margins while still paying for the new architecture and GPU. The new console is said to target users with 4K content who want access to higher resolutions, but the platform won’t be shown at E3 this year. According to House, that’s because “We want to ensure we have a full range of the best experiences on the new system that we can showcase in their entirety.”

House also stated that all games would be supported on both platforms and that supporting the newer PS4 would create a small amount of additional work, but nothing too difficult. Sony will require that all games continue to support the standard PS4, but expects that the vast majority will support the newer variant as well.


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...et-640x353.jpg

If there is a dark cloud over the rapid emergence of VR games and entertainment content, it is the walled-garden approach being taken by some of the leaders in the space — particularly Oculus. When you buy an app or a game from the Oculus Store, it will only run with an Oculus-powered headset, even though you typically pay just as much for it as a version that will play on any PC with any monitor (and often any headset). Gamer-focused Razer has taken the issue head on, pushing an Open Source VR platform — OSVR — and providing open hardware to power it. Today Razer demoed its HDK2 headset, that features similar specs to the Oculus Rift headset for $200 less.

more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...io-640x353.png

The rumblings were true — Microsoft is releasing a major mid-cycle update to the Xbox One. Dubbed “Project Scorpio,” this new console aims at delivering enough horsepower to support 4K gaming and virtual reality while maintaining compatibility for the entire catalog of Xbox One releases. It’s currently scheduled for a Q4 2017 release, but what will that mean for existing Xbox One users?

In big announcement on Microsoft’s E3 stage, we got teased with a few very impressive numbers. First and foremost, the 6 TFLOPS bullet point was hit hard, and with good reason. Reportedly, the original Xbox One hits about 1.32 TFLOPS, the PS4 lands at a slightly beefier 1.84 TFLOPS, and the last big leak for the PS4K claims 4.14 TFLOPS.
To be clear, measuring the floating-point operations per second isn’t the be-all, end-all of gauging the performance of a platform, but this 6 TFLOPS number is Microsoft’s way of signaling to the public that they’re taking performance very seriously this time around.


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...im-640x354.jpg

Microsoft announced two major console initiatives today at its E3 press conference. The Xbox One Scorpio, billed as the most powerful console ever, will arrive for holidays 2017, but the new Xbox One S will launch in August, with a significant number of updated features of its own. This version of the console is the typical type of update we’ve come to expect from companies like Microsoft and Sony — improved features and capabilities, but without any fundamental changes to the CPU or GPU.

The Xbox One S is 40% smaller than the Xbox One, with a starting price of $300 rather than the $500 that the original Xbox debuted at in 2013. The power supply is integrated into all versions of the Xbox One S chassis, making it the first Xbox to offer this feature. The 500GB version will sell for $300, a 1TB flavor will be $350, and a 2TB Xbox One will cost $400. Frankly, customers are better off buying the 500GB flavor and adding their own external drive. Internal drive upgrades are possible on the Xbox One, but since the platform doesn’t exactly make that easy, it’s probably simpler for most people to just use an external HDD (a 3TB external WD drive is $114).

This new version of the Xbox One will also support 4K video and Ultra HD Blu-ray, with an updated Xbox One controller with a textured back, Bluetooth support, and extended range. The system also includes an IR blaster, which allows for TV control without a Kinect unit. Both the controller and a vertical stand for the Xbox One will supposedly ship separately from the $299 unit (no word on whether updated controllers are included in the $349 or $399 platforms or not).

more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...ge-640x353.jpg

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is a five-year-old game that’s still receiving new mods, original content, and feature tweaks courtesy of its huge player base. It’s not unusual to see articles detailing the best mods and graphics updates for the game still being published today, even though the game is practically doddering. Bethesda itself is apparently getting in on the action, with a full-scale overhaul of Skyrim’s graphics and what looks like a full DX11 update.

The company released the news as part of its E3 2016 unveil; details are in the video below. We’ve also extracted some of the before and after screenshots from both the Xbox and PlayStation versions of the game, in case you can’t watch the video or don’t care to do so. The first section of the video deals with new Fallout 4 mods; skip to 3:14 to see the Skyrim section.

Let’s start things off by comparing two different screenshots from the video. The first shot is from the PlayStation 3 version of the game as compared with the PS4 flavor. In both of the screenshots, the new version of the game is on the left, while the old variant is on the right.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...ew-640x280.jpg

Ambient detail and ground clutter have both improved a great deal — trees are more detailed, the lighting model is significantly different, and the grass looks more like what you might find growing in a field and less like a Chia Pet.

The next screen shot is from the Xbox 360 as compared with the Xbox One.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...w2-640x279.jpg

Again, foliage and lighting are much improved, but this screen shot gives us a good comparison of ground textures, not just generated ground cover. As you can see, there’s virtually no difference at all. The “remastered” version of Skyrim is using the same textures as the original game.


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...re-640x353.jpg

Oculus’ policies and practices have been under fire almost since the Rift launch. The company’s decision to launch into retail stores without first filling preorders sat poorly with many of its most ardent fans, while its decision to break the Revive compatibility project by introducing DRM to the Oculus Store flew directly in the face of earlier comments by founder Palmer Luckey. Now the company is in the hot seat again over its attempts to secure paid exclusives for the Rift.


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...16-640x353.jpg

By all accounts, the E3 show floor was conspicuously quiet this year, but that didn’t stop the major publishers and platform holders from showcasing scores of big-budget AAA games on stage. Small indie devs still received a decent amount of attention and praise, but it seems that the companies with press events were focused on driving home the fact that they have some real heavy-hitters lined up for this year and next.


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...Ti-640x353.jpg

The GTX 970 has fallen to as low as $239 on NewEgg, down from a pre-Pascal price of ~$320. Zotac currently has the least expensive*GTX 970 on the market, but there are cards from Asus at nearly the same price. While AMD’s RX 480 is coming to market in the near-term future, the GTX 970 is still a formidable card at that price point — particularly if you’re already a Team Green fan, and especially if you already own one GTX 970 and are curious about using SLI. Nvidia will presumably release a Pascal-based GTX 1060, but we don’t know anything about that card’s specifications or price yet.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte.../02/PCPer1.png

The GTX 970’s frame times can spike far above the GTX 980 in certain scenarios.

If you do opt for a GTX 970, be aware that the card’s split memory pool of 3.5GB+512MB makes it a good fit for games at 1440p or below. While it’s comparatively rare for the memory pool to cause issues in shipping titles, there have been some documented cases of unusual behavior when running in SLI mode at high resolutions and detail levels.


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...e2-640x353.jpg

A few posts on TechPowerUp have highlighted issues with GTX 1080 and 1070 cards from Asus and MSI. Specifically, both vendors have been caught shipping cards to reviewers that were configured for overclocking mode out of the box, while retail cards are shipping at base clocks by default.

In this case, the clock speed differences are very small, at roughly 1.5%, which means they’re only likely to produce ~1% of difference, if that.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...gs-640x393.jpg


Asus responded to PC Perspective’s inquiry on this issue by noting that reviewers and buyers alike can adjust GPU clock speeds via its GPU Tweak II utility, and that “The press samples for the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 OC and ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1070 OC cards are set to “OC Mode” by default. To save media time and effort, OC mode is enabled by default as we are well aware our graphics cards will be reviewed primarily on maximum performance.”

The truth is, vendors have been pulling tricks like this for well over a decade. In the old days, they’d overclock CPU buses slightly, pushing a 133MHz base clock up to 136MHz. On a 2.13GHz CPU with a 16x base clock, that’s enough for a roughly 2% clock speed increase. Other scenarios have been more egregious — we’ve seen motherboards that would automatically enable optimized CPU overclocking settings when XMP memory profiles were enabled. In this particular case, that meant all CPU cores were set to run at the maximum Turbo frequency normally reserved for a single-threaded scenario. Optimizations like this can impact measured performance by significant amounts, much more than the 2% we mentioned earlier.


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...io-640x353.jpg

Virtual reality was a major topic at E3 this year, thanks to PC gaming’s renewed spotlight, Sony’s upcoming PlayStation VR, and Microsoft talking up VR capabilities as part of Project Scorpio. Nintendo of America’s CEO Reggie Fils-Aime isn’t interested in virtual reality, however — at least not yet.

“In my judgment, I think VR is a bit further out there for mainstream, mass market applications and applications that consumers can invest a lot of time in versus short snacks of entertainment,” Fils-Aime told Bloomberg.

“For us, we want to make sure that technology is mainstream,” Fils-Aime continued. “We want to make sure the technology represents strong value to the consumer… So the way we look at VR or even AR… for us the technology has to be at a point where it can be mainstream, and then it takes content creating companies like us to really make things that the consumer wants to experience, that they want to jump into the particular technology.”

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conte...me-640x347.png


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...ld-640x353.jpg

During last week’s E3 extravaganza, Nintendo finally dove deep on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The upcoming installment in the 30-year-old franchise rejects much of Nintendo’s recent history, and embraces a massive scope with complex gameplay systems. This is good news for fans who’ve fallen away from the series, but Nintendo might be asking too much from the Wii U’s limited hardware.

Nintendo streamed a significant chunk of the game last Tuesday, and E3 attendees were given the opportunity to play the game for themselves. We’ve only seen a sliver of the immense world Nintendo has promised, but the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Our sister site IGN named Zelda the game of the show, GameSpot called it one of the best games of E3 2016, and it even made our own top ten list. Nintendo has definitely dropped the ball these past few years, but they’re still capable of impressing even the most skeptical among us.

The new mechanics and the gorgeous art direction are exciting, and Nintendo deserves praise for stepping out of its comfort zone, but the E3 demo suffered from some serious performance problems. Digital Foundry analyzed the gameplay footage from Nintendo’s stream, and found that the frame rate was far from a locked 30fps. When you’re simply running around in the open world, the frame rate is reasonably stable. But the moment you start battling foes or setting fires, the game can drop into the low 20s.


more...

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...o9-640x354.png

Growing up, the Mega Man franchise were the kinds of platform titles I wanted to be good at, but mostly wasn’t. We had an 80286/10 PC rather than any kind of console, which meant my time with games like Super Mario Bros or Mega Man was limited to visits with friends and family. Since its Kickstarter launch in 2013, I’ve kept an eye on Mighty No. 9, the supposed spiritual successor to Mega Man, to see whether or not the game would be worth playing.

Over the past few years, Mighty No. 9 has been mired in controversies of various sorts, from repeated game delays and lackluster demos, to outcry over the company’s decision to launch a second Kickstarter for an entirely new property before Mighty No. 9 had been released. The final game finally dropped this week, more than a year after its original April 2015 release date. Unfortunately, it’s not reviewing well, with an average rating of 54 according to OpenCritic.


more...