Microsoft reveals more specs and features of Xbox Series X including Quick Resume for multiple games

Posted on February 24, 2020 by John Scalzo

Microsoft continued their slow rollout of the Xbox Series X today on Xbox Wire with an in-depth informational post about some of the console’s technical specifications and new features.

While the Xbox Series X will obviously sport advanced video processing capabilities, the most exciting new feature might be the revelation that it’ll give players the option to pause the action in multiple games and pick them up later with Quick Resume. But don’t worry, if you’re more interested in the Xbox Series X’s internal hardware, Microsoft is ready to discuss GPU performance, Variable Rate Shading, and DirectX Raytracing:

Next Generation Custom Processor: Xbox Series X is our most powerful console ever powered by our custom designed processor leveraging AMD’s latest Zen 2 and RDNA 2 architectures. Delivering four times the processing power of an Xbox One and enabling developers to leverage 12 TFLOPS of GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) performance – twice that of an Xbox One X and more than eight times the original Xbox One. Xbox Series X delivers a true generational leap in processing and graphics power with cutting edge techniques resulting in higher framerates, larger, more sophisticated game worlds, and an immersive experience unlike anything seen in console gaming.

Variable Rate Shading (VRS): Our patented form of VRS empowers developers to more efficiently utilize the full power of the Xbox Series X. Rather than spending GPU cycles uniformly to every single pixel on the screen, they can prioritize individual effects on specific game characters or important environmental objects. This technique results in more stable frame rates and higher resolution, with no impact on the final image quality.

Hardware-Accelerated DirectX Raytracing: You can expect more dynamic and realistic environments powered by hardware-accelerated DirectX Raytracing – a first for console gaming. This means true-to-life lighting, accurate reflections and realistic acoustics in real time as you explore the game world.

The consolemaker is also heavily focusing on the new Xbox ecosystem that’ll debut alongside the Xbox Series X, which includes backwards compatibility for games for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, and the original Xbox. Xbox One accessories, such as controllers and other peripherals, will also be compatible with the Xbox Series X. Microsoft is even embracing Cross-Buy with their next console (though they call it Smart Delivery), promising that players can “buy a game once” to be sure they’re getting “the best available version for whichever Xbox console they choose to play on”:

Four Generations of Gaming: Our commitment to compatibility means existing Xbox One games, including backward-compatible Xbox 360 and original Xbox games, look and play better than ever before. Your favorite games, including titles in Xbox Game Pass, benefit from steadier framerates, faster load times and improved resolution and visual fidelity – all with no developer work required. Your Xbox One gaming accessories also come forward with you.

Smart Delivery: This technology empowers you to buy a game once and know that – whether you are playing it on Xbox One or Xbox Series X – you are getting the right version of that game on whatever Xbox you’re playing on. We’re making the commitment to use Smart Delivery on all our exclusive Xbox Game Studios titles, including Halo Infinite, ensuring you only have to purchase a title once in order to play the best available version for whichever Xbox console they choose to play on. This technology is available for all developers and publishers, and they can choose to use it for titles that will be release on Xbox One first and come to the Xbox Series X later.

Xbox Game Pass: In addition to games from across four generations of consoles, our leading game subscription service, Xbox Game Pass, will continue to have our first party games, like Halo Infinite, included at their launch. We look forward to millions of you experiencing the Xbox Game Pass portfolio and immersing yourselves in a deep library of high-quality games, playing those you love now and also discovering your next great adventure.

Microsoft will launch the Xbox Series X sometime this Fall, and they’ve promised to unveil more details about the console between now and this year’s E3 Expo in June.

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Control leads the way with seven nominations at the 2020 SXSW Gaming Awards

Posted on February 18, 2020 by John Scalzo

The SXSW Gaming Awards will once again play a big role in the annual Austin arts festival, and this year’s nominees were announced earlier this week.

Remedy’s Control and Kojima Productions’s Death Stranding lead the way with seven nominations apiece, but Kojima’s latest mindbender won’t be competing for “Video Game of the Year.” Instead, Control will do battle with Capcom’s Devil May Cry 5, ZA/UM’s Disco Elysium, From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for the coveted award.

Winners at the 2020 SXSW Gaming Awards will be determined by a split vote between the festival’s advisory board and a public poll, which is now open at SXSW.com through Sunday, February 23.

This year’s ceremony will be held on on Sunday, March 15, and it’ll be hosted by Wil Wheaton and Star Wars: Battlefront II‘s Janina Gavankar. All SXSW registrants will be able to attend the ceremony as part of their festival ticket, and the rest of us will be able to tune in to the festivities via SXSW’s Twitch channel.

You can find a complete list of this year’s nominees in all categories after the break.

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Half-Life: Alyx will be released on March 23

Posted on February 14, 2020 by John Scalzo

Valve will make their first foray back into the Half-Life universe this March with the release of Half-Life: Aylx. The VR-powered adventure will star resistance fighter Alyx Vance, and it’ll take place between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2 (so don’t expect to get a cameo from Gordon Freeman).

After first teasing the game back in November, it looks like Valve is finally ready to announce a official release date for Half-Life: Alyx, which they did this morning on Twitter:

So there you have it. Now go get your VR headset ready, because Half-Life: Alyx will be released for the PC on March 23.

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Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is the best-selling game of January 2020

Posted on February 14, 2020 by John Scalzo

We’re less than 12 months away from the launch of next-generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft, and consumers have started to react accordingly. According to The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella (via Twitter), consumers spent $678 million on video games, consoles, and accessories in January 2020, about a 26% drop versus January 2019.

But there were still a few big moneymakers in the first month of the year, starting with Bandai Namco’s Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, which was the best-selling game of the month. It was followed by some of 2019’s most popular titles, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (#2), Madden NFL 20 (#3), and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (#4).

While none of these games are available for the Switch, Nintendo’s newest console held on as the best-selling console platform during the month, besting the aging PS4 and Xbox One.

Another highlight for Nintendo from the January 2020 sales report was Ring Fit Adventure, which broke into the Top 10 for the first time (at #9). That’s impressive, but it’ll be a very long time before it catches Grand Theft Auto V, which continued to sell well in its 196th month of availability (it appeared on the list at #5).

You can find the full list of best-selling games from January 2020 after the break.

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House House’s Untitled Goose Game wins “Game of the Year” at 2020 DICE Awards

Posted on February 14, 2020 by John Scalzo

I guess The Goose can cross “Win a Few Major Awards” off of its To-Do List. And that’s because House House’s Untitled Goose Game won “Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game,” “Outstanding Achievement in Character,” and “Game of the Year” at this year’s DICE Awards.

While the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences’s voting body (which is comprised of more than 30,000 members) loves The Goose, it was Remedy’s Control that took home the most statuettes last night. Predictably, the outstanding action game won “Action Game of the Year,” as well as “Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction,” “Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition,” and “Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction.” Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding was the only other game to win multiple awards, with the AIAS honoring it with “Outstanding Technical Achievement” and “Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design.”

A nice array of other games were also big winners at the 2020 DICE Awards, including Sayonara Wild Hearts (“Portable Game of the Year”), Apex Legends (“Online Game of the Year”), Super Mario Maker 2 (“Family Game of the Year”), Mortal Kombat 11 (“Fighting Game of the Year”), Baba Is You (“Outstanding Achievement in Game Design”), and more.

The complete list of winners and nominees for the 2020 DICE Awards can be found after the break.

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Batterystaple Games will release 30XX in 2021

Posted on February 13, 2020 by John Scalzo

Batterystaple Games’s 20XX launched to rave reviews when it was released in 2017, filling a gap in the roguelike platformer genre (“Mega Man but with procedurally-generated levels”) that most fans didn’t even realize was there.

But rather than rest on their laurels, the developer is travelling 1,000 years into the future to bring a sequel, 30XX, to the PC and consoles in 2021. Once again employing a procedurally-generated structure, 30XX will feature a new “hi-bit art style” from Art Director Glauber Kotaki, as well as eight new worlds to explore:

20XX heroes Nina and Ace return with a myriad of new abilities. No longer merely wielding different primary weapons, in 30XX the powerful pair possess entirely distinct move sets allowing greater freedom of expression for both exploring levels and beating back the machines holding Earth prisoner.

Nina’s new Power Fusion system allows her to meld together abilities earned from vanquishing bosses and tailor them to the situation at hand with 64 separate attacks. Meanwhile, the blade-brandishing Ace boasts a versatile set of Techniques, which can be chained together with standard attacks to unleash fierce combos, adapt to any situation, and reach new heights.

Batterystaple Games will be hitting the road with 30XX very soon. The developer plans to showcase the game at this year’s PAX East expo (February 27 – March 1 in Boston) as part of the Indie Megabooth. In the meantime, an Announcement Trailer for the game has been embedded above.

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The only known Nintendo PlayStation prototype is up for auction now through March 6

Posted on February 13, 2020 by John Scalzo

The failed collaboration between Nintendo and Sony to produce a CD-ROM add-on for the Super NES has become the stuff of legend. The details of the falling out have been documented pretty extensively over the years, and war stories from all the major players have appeared in both David Sheff’s Game Over and Blake Harris’s Console Wars.

While we all know the story, what became of the small batch of prototype consoles produced by the two companies has always been a mystery. More than 200 Nintendo PlayStations were reportedly produced, and it’s assumed that most were destroyed, but one managed to escape the trash heap by hiding out in “a box of junk” previously owned by former Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Olaf Olafsson.

After his stint at Sony, Olafsson would take a job with Advanta Corporation, and this “box of junk” went with him, but when the financial company went bankrupt in 2009, the Nintendo PlayStation was left behind. It was found by Terry Diebold, who worked in Advanta’s maintenance department, and eventually made its way into the hands of his son, Dan.

Now, after game historians have examined and repaired the one-of-a-kind artifact, it’s going up for auction. The Diebolds are selling the prototype through Heritage Auctions, and as of this writing, the current bid is sitting at $145,000. And it’s unlikely to stop there, as proxy bids will continue to be taken until the start of the live auction on March 6.

So what will you get for your money? According to Heritage, the console features a fully-functioning Super Famicom cartridge slot:

We at Heritage can attest the prototype is working, as we’ve played a couple of rounds of Mortal Kombat on it using a Super Famicom cartridge.

The CD drive is also functional, but as no software was produced for the Nintendo PlayStation, all it can do is play music CDs:

Though the CD-ROM drive was not currently working when it was found in 2009, it has since been repaired by Benjamin Heckendorn, a YouTube personality known for his console repair videos. It now has the ability to play music CDs like the commercially produced PlayStation, but there is no proprietary software that’s known to have been made during the prototype’s development.

Heritage refers to the Nintendo PlayStation as “one of the most notorious, mysterious, and controversial artifacts of the video game industry” and it’s hard to argue with that.

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Darksburg is now available for PC in Early Access through Steam

Posted on February 12, 2020 by John Scalzo

Darksburg is a colorful “co-op zombie survival action game” from Shiro Games that is giving off some serious Diablo vibes in its latest trailer. The short video clip was also used to announce that the game is now available to download for the PC (via Steam) as an Early Access title.

Up to four players can team up to trample the undead menace ravaging the titular town in Co-Op Mode, or they can switch sides and take control of an undead Revenant and hunt down the heroes in PvP Mode. Rounding this early version of the game is a wave-based Last Stand mode:

A cooperative action game set in a medieval town overrun by hordes of shambling corpses, Darksburg tasks up to four players to band together, complete objectives across atmospheric maps, and push back against the zombie assault. Choose from one of four Survivors, including Sister Abigail, a holy nun hell-bent on saving her home, and Varag, a wolfman whose ferocity is matched only by his taste for undead flesh.

Coordinate with player or computer-controlled allies, unleashing devastating special skills and unlockable abilities to cut through Darksburg’s zombie invaders while completing objectives in co-op. Alternatively, players can take up arms as Revenants, powerful undead champions dedicated to hunting down the Survivors in a dedicated PvP mode. Then test your skills and see how long you can hold out battling endless waves of monstrosities in Last Stand mode.

Players who take the plunge on Darksburg during its first week of release will receive a 10% discount on the purchase price. According to the developer, they plan to use this Early Access to give the game time to “grow exponentially,” while also “adding content, updating features, iterating, and developing the game in order to align with community expectations throughout the whole process.”

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