Part of what makes the Nintendo Switch cool is that you can play on a TV or on the go--wherever that may be. Now, College Humor has posted what it calls a "realistic" commercial for the console that shows a man taking a break from playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild on his TV and moving to the bathroom to continue his session.
The rest, as you can imagine, is pretty gross and silly. Here's the video:
Whether you've been hesitant to pick it up or have never tried a game in the series before, Civilization VI now has a demo to give everyone a taste of what it has in store.
The newly released demo is out now on Steam and allows you to play as China with Qin Shi Huang as its leader. Given how long a full match can last, you're only getting a fraction of the full experience--you're limited to playing the first 60 turns. Once you're through, you can either start over again for another 60 turns or purchase the full game.
Those that are new to Civilization can take part in the full game's tutorial to make the experience less daunting. Additionally, Firaxis has published a new list of beginner's tips that may prove handy.
Coinciding with the demo's release, Civilization VI will be part of a broader 2K sale on Steam going live soon. You'll be able to pick up the base game for $48, down from the usual $60.
The CEO of noted episodic game developer Telltale Games has left the company. A representative for the Walking Dead and Minecraft: Story Mode studio confirmed to GameSpot that Kevin Bruner has left the company, with former chief executive Dan Connors taking over.
Connors was Telltale's CEO until January 2015, at which time Bruner took over. Telltale said the new transition from Bruner to Connors should be smooth.
"Kevin has led Telltale over the past couple of years after he stepped into the CEO role for co-founder Dan Connors in 2015. With Kevin departing, Telltale is fortunate to have Dan here to step back seamlessly into the CEO role," a representative for Telltale said in a statement to GameSpot.
Kotaku broke the story, reporting that Bruner informed employees of his departure in a memo this week.
"We've grown aggressively since Telltale's inception, and now Telltale is bigger than I ever dreamed it would be," Bruner said in his memo. "There are many possible futures for Telltale, and all of them are exciting and uniquely challenging. The time has come to pass the reins to someone that can better drive Telltale to the next level and realize all the potential that is here."
Bruner will remain on Telltale's board of directors during the transition, though his long-term status at the company is unclear.
It's the most wonderful time of the year for college basketball. As of 12:15 PM ET today, March Madness is underway. A whopping 32 games will be played over the next two days, and there will surely be down-to-the-wire contests, crazy upsets, and storylines no one could have predicted.
If you have a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, you can watch the competition on your console without a cable subscription. On PlayStation 4, you can do this through Sony's PlayStation Vue streaming service. Just recently, the app was updated to support multi-channel viewing, which sounds perfect for March Madness, as you can watch as many as three channels at once.
March Madness games are broadcast on CBS, TBS, TNT, and TruTV, all of which are available on PlayStation Vue through its cheapest package, Access, which costs $40 month. One thing to be aware of is that CBS (which is GameSpot's parent company) may not necessarily be available where you live. You can visit the PlayStation Vue website to find out if it's offered in your market.
On Xbox One, you can watch March Madness with Sling TV. The most basic package, Sling Orange ($20), does not include every March Madness channel, so you'll need at least Sling Orange ($25) to see the games on TBS, TNT, and TruTV. Additionally, Sling TV does not offer any CBS programming. However, you can watch games broadcast on CBS through the CBS Sports app on Xbox One or on CBSSports.com.
Whereas a lot of game developer turns to Kickstarter to help their projects become a reality, Borealys Games is hoping that crowdfunding can help its game reach the finish line in better shape than it otherwise would.
Borealys is at work on Mages of Mystralia, which I recently got to play at PAX East and walked away very impressed with. Think of it as a Zelda-style game in which the core mechanic is a spell-crafting system with a huge range of possibilities. (You can see some of the wild spells you can create in the video above.) It also boasts a story from Ed Greenwood, who created the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms world, and a soundtrack by Shota Nakama, who worked on Final Fantasy XV's score.
Mystralia is nearing its completion and is due out the second quarter (which runs from April through June). Today, Borealys launched a Kickstarter campaign for a fairly modest amount: $25,000 CAD, or $18,787 in the US. One of its goals is to facilitate a beta that will be used to improve the game and iron out any lingering issues. As business manager Dan Adelman told GameSpot at PAX East, the type of game-breaking spells Borealys wants to stomp out are those that prevent the game from being played, not those that allow you to one-hit kill a boss.
"If someone can come up with a spell that can do that--like, they think it through and they figured out how to do that, then more power to them," Adelman explained. "But that's why we're doing a lot of beta testing. Since there are potentially millions of spells you can make, we want to see if there is something that's really game-breaking. Being able to one-shot kill a boss isn't really game-breaking if they thought it through. That's kind of the game: can I outsmart the game? But if by doing a spell, you can bypass an entire area [where] you needed this thing and you didn't realize that, that wouldn't be fun."
The Kickstarter campaign will also feature stretch goals to add new features to the game, though the first of these won't be revealed until tomorrow, March 17. The studio said it has new game modes it intends to implement post-launch but that the Kickstarter could help to get them released more quickly.
"Recently, there have been several Kickstarter campaigns that have raised an amount of funding to prove that the concept is viable, but then seek publisher or outside investor support for what they really need," Borealys explained in the Kickstarter. "We are taking the opposite approach. We built our proof-of-concept, got investment, and made our game. It is fully playable beginning to end, and many would consider it complete.
"But as we've observed our playtesters and gotten feedback, we've generated a ton of ideas that would not take too long to implement but have the power to take this game to the next level. Adding all of those little tweaks and extra polish will only add a couple months to our schedule, so for a relatively modest sum, we can have a huge impact."
Borealys isn't the first developer to take this approach with Kickstarter--Subset Games did something similar with FTL toward the end of its development.
The low-end for Kickstarter tiers comes in at about $19, which gets you beta access and a copy of the game for PC, PS4, or Xbox One. However, the beta--which launches immediately after the campaign wraps up--will be PC-only.
After launching earlier today, the Kickstarter has raised just over $4,000 USD of its goal as of this writing. It runs for the next month, ending on April 15.
If you already own these games for Xbox 360, they should show up automatically in your Xbox One game library. If not, you can buy them on your console or through the links below.
[Updated March 16 with four more games: Street Fighter IV, Luxor 2, Poker Smash, and Madball in Babo: Invasion]
The Xbox One's backwards compatibility feature, introduced in November 2015, lets you play Xbox 360 games on the new console. But what games are available? We've now rounded them all up--and we'll continue to update this post as new games are made available.
Switch owners looking for something new to play will soon have a few new options following the next update to the system's eShop.
Following its delay, The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ arrives tomorrow, March 17, for $40. This includes the base game and everything up through the Afterbirth+ expansion, which added a ton of new items, a new boss, a new chapter, and a lot more.
Also launching are Switch ports of several classic indie games. Human Resource Machine, Little Inferno, and World of Goo are all now available on the system for $10 each. These are listed on Nintendo's website as debuting today, March 16, although they don't appear to be live on the eShop just yet.
None of these may be especially recent--with the exception of Afterbirth+, which only debuted at the beginning of the year--but they are all solid games worth a look if you've missed them before.
With Game of Thrones set to return for its seventh season this summer, new information about the penultimate set of episodes continues to emerge. Today, we learned more about its dragons.
SPOILERS FOR GAME OF THRONES FOLLOW BELOW
In Season 7, Daenerys is trekking to Westeros with her three dragons--and they are bigger than ever. Director Matt Shankman told Entertainment Weekly that the dragons are the size of Boeing 747 airplanes. Drogon continues to be the biggest and fiercest.
"The dragons this year are the size of 747s," Shankman told the site. "Drogon is the biggest of the bunch--his flame is 30-feet in diameter!"
Shankman is one of four directors for Game of Thrones Season 7 episodes. Game of Thrones veterans Alan Taylor, Jeremy Podeswa, and Mark Mylod are also directing episodes in the upcoming season.
Game of Thrones Season 7 premieres on Sunday, July 16. There are seven episodes in all, with Season 8--which is expected to be the show's last--containing just six.
Horizon Zero Dawn, Sony's newest big-time PlayStation 4 exclusive, sold 2.6 million units worldwide during its first two weeks, Sony announced today. This figure includes physical copies sold to consumers and digital units sold through the PlayStation Store.
It's the best-selling new IP from Sony for PS4 ever and marks developer Guerrilla Games' "biggest debut" in its history, Sony said. Guerrilla created the Killzone series, so Horizon Zero Dawn debuted bigger than any game in that shooter series, it seems.
"We knew Horizon Zero Dawn was going to be something special, so to see the incredible critical reaction to a brand new game world translate into this level of sales is really gratifying," Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios boss Shawn Layden said in a statement. "Guerrilla has created a game that is nothing short of exceptional, and the reaction we have seen from fans--from hours and hours of gameplay streaming to endless photo sharing--shows just how impactful it has been."
Guerrilla's managing director, Hermen Hulst, said in his own statement: "We're thrilled that Horizon Zero Dawn has been embraced by critics and players alike. Developing the game was a labor of love, so it's extremely satisfying to see that it elicits the same passion and enthusiasm from the gaming public that we felt during its development."
Hulst also confirmed that Guerrilla is already working on a story expansion for Horizon Zero Dawn, though no other details about this were disclosed.
With so many graphics cards out on the market from both AMD and Nvidia, figuring out which GPU best suits your needs can be difficult. We're here to help steer you in the right direction. We've rounded up our reviews of all the modern graphics card below and have ordered them by performance.
We tested reference cards from AMD and Nvidia whenever possible, and included GPU specification charts below.
Nvidia GeForce GTX Spec Chart
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050
CUDA Cores/Stream Processors
3584
2560
1920
1280
768
640
Texture Units
224
160
120
80
48
40
ROPs
88
64
64
48
32
32
Core Clock
1480MHz
1607MHz
1506MHz
1506MHz
1430MHz
1405MHz
Boost Clock
1582MHz
1733MHz
1683MHz
1708MHz
1544MHz
1519MHz
Memory Clock
11Gbps GDDR5X
10Gbps GDDR5X
8Gbps GDDR5
8Gbps GDDR5
7Gbps
7Gbps
Memory Bus Width
352-bit
256-bit
256-bit
192-bit
128-bit
128-bit
VRAM
11GB
8GB
8GB
6GB
4GB GDDR5
2GB GDDR5
Transistor Count
12B
7.2B
7.2B
4.4B
3.3B
3.3B
Teraflops
11.34
8.9
6.5
3.8
2.1
1.8
TDP
250W
180W
150W
120W
75W
75W
Manufacturing Process
16nm FinFET
16nm FinFET
16nm FinFET
16nm FinFET
14nm
14nm
Architecture
Pascal
Pascal
Pascal
Pascal
Pascal
Pascal
GPU
GP102
GP104
GP104
GP106
GP107
GP107
Launch Date
3/10/2017
5/27/2016
6/10/2016
7/19/2016
10/2016
10/2016
Launch Price
$699
$599/$699
$379/$449
$249/$299
$149.99
$109.99
AMD Radeon RX Spec Chart
AMD Radeon RX 480
AMD Radeon RX 470
AMD Radeon RX 460
CUDA Cores/Stream Processors
2304
2048
896
Texture Units
144
128
56
ROPs
32
32
16
Core Clock
1120MHz
926MHz
1090MHz
Boost Clock
1266 MHz
1256MHz
1220MHz
Memory Clock
7/8Gbps GDDR5
7Gbps
7Gbps
Memory Bus Width
256-bit
256-bit
128-bit
VRAM
4/8 GB
4GB GDDR5
4GB GDDR5
Transistor Count
5.7B
5.7B
3B
Teraflops
5.8
3.7
2.2
TDP
150W
120W
75W
Manufacturing Process
14nm FinFet
14nm
14nm
Architecture
GCN 2.0
GCN 2.0
GCN 2.0
GPU
Polaris 10
Polaris
Polaris
Launch Date
06/29/16
8/16
8/16
Launch Price
$200/$240
$199.99
$139.99
While these charts will provide you with a ton of detail on every video card, if you don't understand GPU jargon, we explain what each graphics card is capable of in laymen's terms below.
What it's good for: The GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is currently the best gaming graphics card that money can buy. The GPU is geared for 4K (3840x2160p) and should be able to max out the most graphically-demanding games at that resolution with playable frame rates. You may want to lower some graphical settings like anti-aliasing if you want to hit 60FPS and above for the most taxing games at 4K, however.
From our GeForce GTX 1080 Ti review: "The GTX 1080 Ti shattered nearly every benchmark I threw at it while being a very quiet card. At $699, it isn't cheap, but it's still a great value given the performance.
If you told me last year that we'd get a card this fast by now, I would have called you crazy. As I noted in my GTX 1080 review in 2016, I thought it wouldn't be until Nvidia's Volta GPU micro-architecture that we'd get a card that could truly handle 4K this well. The GTX 1080 Ti proved me wrong. It's that good."
Price: $699.99
GeForce GTX 1080
What it's good for: The GeForce GTX 1080 is a high-end GPU that serves as a good entry point for 4K gaming. It will be able to handle most games at 3840x2160p, but may struggle to max out the most taxing titles with smooth, consistent frame rates. Alternatively, it's also a viable GPU for maxing out graphically demanding games at 1440p with high refresh rate panels.
From our GeForce GTX 1080 review: "It easily gives the $1,000 Maxwell-based Titan X a run for its money. At 4K, where it's really able to flex its muscles, it can be 70 percent faster than its predecessor, which is insane when you consider that the GTX 980 is still a fantastic GPU."
Price: $499
GeForce GTX 1070
What it's good for: The GeForce GTX 1070 is an upper mid-range GPU that can handle moderately taxing games at 4K, but it really excels more as a fantastic card for maxing out games at 1440p on high refresh rate panels. It's also slightly faster than 2015's $1,000 Titan X graphics card.
From our GeForce GTX 1070 review: "If you were tallying the wins between the GTX 1070 and the Titan X in my suite of benchmarks, then you'll know that the 1070 beat the Titan X in all of the benchmarks with the exception of one test, where it was just one percent behind. Not only is this within the statistical margin of error, but it was a test done at 1080p with both cards averaging over 140 FPS. Like the Titan X and GTX 1080 before it, the GTX 1070 is overkill for 1080p gaming, unless you're running a really high refresh rate monitor. Also like the GTX 1080, it will be able to max out all 1440p games with playable framerates as well, though it won't achieve above 60 average FPS for the most taxing games. It's also a viable card if you want to dip your feet into 4K, but, again, it won't be able to max out the most graphically demanding games there.
...Sure, the GTX 1070 makes some concessions against the GTX 1080, but, for the most part, it performs admirably where it counts."
Price: $399
GeForce GTX 1060
What it's good for: The GeForce GTX 1080 is a highly recommended mid-range card for those who game with a high refresh rate 1080p monitor, which is the most popular gaming resolution. It can also handle many moderately-taxing games at 1440p with playable frame rates and is also a VR-capable card.
From our GeForce GTX 1060 review: "While Nvidia is marketing the GeForce GTX 1060 as a capable graphics card to run 1080p games maxed out, it can also handle many 1440p games well. According to my numbers, the $300 graphics card runs 1.6 percent faster than the GTX 980--which is a card that you'll still find online for roughly $100 more. While it isn't always faster than the GTX 980, my tests do validate Nvidia's assertions that the two cards are generally comparable."
Price: $299
AMD Radeon RX 480
What it's good for: While the GeForce GTX 1060 and AMD Radeon RX 480 are both great mid-range graphics cards for maxing out 1080p gaming, the RX 480 is a little slower in our tests. Fortunately, AMD's GPU is also cheaper. It's slightly faster than Nvidia's older, popular GeForce GTX 970 and is also a good entry GPU to get you into VR.
You can get the card with either four or eight gigabytes of video RAM. Given that the RX 480 isn't meant for 4K gaming, we'd largely recommend the cheaper 4GB variant, as 8GB seems overkill given the rest of the card's more modest specs.
From our AMD Radeon RX 480 review: "The RX 480 is an awesome card for 1080p that will be able to max out just about every game you throw at it. It will also let you go waist deep into the 1440p pool as well. Perhaps more important, however, is that it does a good job of bringing VR affordability to the masses. Its performance may not blow you away, but neither will its price tag."
Price: $200 (4GB model)/$240 (8GB model)
AMD Radeon RX 470
What it's good for: At sub $200, the RX 470 dips into budget-GPU territory and should be able to max out most games at 1080p, though you'll most likely want to lower some settings to attain higher frame rates.
From our XFX Radeon RX 470 review: "XFX's RX 470 is in a slightly higher tier than the GTX 1050 Ti."
Price: $190
GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
What it's good for: The GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is a budget card that's geared for playing the most popular games at 1080p with high-to-very high settings.
From our EVGA GTX 1050 Ti Review: "EVGA's GTX 1050 Ti offers a great value"
Price: $149.99
GeForce GTX 1050
What it's good for: The GeForce GTX 1050 is a slightly slower version of the GTX 1050 Ti. The card is geared for running popular titles like Rocket League and Overwatch at 1080p, though it can run graphically demanding games like The Witcher 3 if you're willing to turn down some settings. It's a super cheap, good bang-for-the-buck 1080p option.
From our MSI GTX 1050 review: The card is capable of handling most games at 1080p with respectable settings and frame rates."
Price: $109.99
AMD Radeon RX 460
What it's good for: The RX 460 is a budget GPU that's designed to run less graphically demanding, but popular games like Rocket League, Dota 2, and CS:GO. It's noticeably slower than the GeForce GTX 1050 and currently retails for roughly the same price. We wouldn't recommend the card unless you can find it for substantially cheaper than the GTX 1050.
From our XFX RX 460 review: "The card that we can't recommend right now is XFX's RX 460. Currently, it cost a little more than the GTX 1050 but performs worse. Until its price drops significantly, it's not worth your consideration."
It's a closed beta, so you'll need a code to get in. Everyone who participated in the alpha is automatically in the closed beta, while those who signed up for the alpha but didn't get in will have a "much higher chance" of getting into the beta, developer Boss Key said in a post on its website.
Newcomers can register for the closed beta here on the LawBreakers website. If you get in, you'll be notified via email. If you don't get in, your registration will keep you in the running for a future closed beta. Additionally, an open beta is planned, so everyone will get to try the game...eventually.
There is no non-disclosure agreement on the closed beta, so participants can talk about the content and show it off as much as they want.
The retro-futuristic world of the classic anime film Ghost in the Shell is hugely distinctive, and the upcoming live-action adaptation looks equally impressive. A new featurette reveals the work that went on behind-the-scenes to create the movie's eye-popping visual style. Check it out below:
In a recent interview with Indiewire, star Scarlett Johansson discussed the movie's visual design. "Rupert [Sanders, director] described the film to me as cities built on cities and the abundance of waste," she said. "It's a kind of collage of cultures and it's sort of identity-less. [There's] a whole melange of different kinds of textures and colors--it's really rich. The depth of this movie is amazing. I find that the sets are so incredibly detailed."
Ghost in the Shell was one of the key anime films to break through to a western audience in the '90s. It was based on Masamune Shirow's manga, and was followed by three more movies, plus a number of video games.
The movie also stars Pilou Asbæk, Takeshi Kitano, Juliette Binoche, and Michael Pitt. It hits theaters on March 30.
A new cinematic trailer for Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 has arrived. Titled "Brothers," the video shows off the relationship between brothers Jon and Robert North--they have seen better days. You can watch the trailer in the video embed above.
Jon and Robert enlisted in the military service, with Jon becoming a Marine and Robert a US Navy soldier. And there's a lot more to the story, leading up to Robert's capture. Here is the game's official synopsis:
"While Jon has been shaped into a resolutely "follow the book" type of Marine, Robert quickly rose through the ranks of the US Navy–despite sometimes using unorthodox methods–and became more rebellious and skeptical of authority along the way. Robert deeply loves his older brother, but also believes that an old-school way of thinking in warfare will inevitably leave Jon behind.
"The question that remains is who captured Jon's brother, Robert, and did he want to be captured?"
You play as Jon and the story involves finding Robert and unraveling the mystery of his capture. The new cinematic trailer also shows off some of the game's brutal-looking headshots and melee combat.
Mass Effect: Andromeda will let players stay connected to the game while they're out and about through a companion app for the game's multiplayer mode.
Called Apex HQ, the app tracks your progression in the mode, displaying information like which characters you've unlocked and what items and rewards you've collected. All the widgets on the home screen can be customized, so you can choose which ones show up and the order that they appear.
You can also use the Apex HQ app to choose a loadout that will appear in the game the next time you log in. Additionally, you can see how you stand compared to friends and the community at large through leaderboards, while there is a store where you can buy cosmetic packs for multiplayer.
Importantly, in order for your stats to be tracked, you need to log into Apex HQ with the same EA Account that is linked to the platform you're playing on.
The app launches on March 20 for iOS and Android devices. Go to the Apex HQ website to learn more.
GameSpot will have a lot more on Andromeda in the coming days. The first part of our new video series, The Story of Mass Effect: Andromeda, airs this Saturday, March 18. You can watch a trailer for that here.
Bethesda has released a new trailer for its upcoming first-person sci-fi game Prey.
The video highlights various alien species, which also act as some of the game's enemies. Most prominent is the Mimic, which can disguise itself as inanimate objects such as chairs and boxes before attacking you without notice. We also get a glimpse of the Weaver, Phantom, and Telepath--take a look for yourself above.
Additionally, the video's endslate shows off what bonus DLC preorder customers will receive. Called the Cosmonaut Shotgun Pack, the add-on includes bonus materials like extra medkits, as well as a special gold-plated shotgun.
Prey is being developed by Dishonored developer Arkane's Austin studio. It is a re-imagining of the 2006 original, and a replacement for the canceled sequel to that game that was in development at Human Head Studios.
Ahead of its release later this year, some concept art for Naughty Dog's last Uncharted game, The Lost Legacy, has emerged. Posted by Game Informer, the gallery of images show off some of the places main characters Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross will travel to on their journey to find the Tusk of Ganesh.
The images, which you can see here at Game Informer, include depictions of the Western Ghats mountain range in India where the game is set. As you can see, this is a beautiful, sprawling place, with lots of places to explore and secrets to uncover, presumably.
As the story unfolds, Chloe, the playable character, will talk about the stories about India that her archaeologist father told her over the years. "It gets a little more personal with Chloe than we've ever gone, tying the culture and stories of the Hindu gods, even the story of the Hoysala Empire and the kings that ruled there," creative director Shaun Escayg told the magazine.
Art director Tate Mosesian added: "It's a challenge--a big challenge--because of the projects and art directors [at Naughty Dog] that came before. Living up to that level of excellence is definitely a challenge. At the same time, it's super rewarding to be put in that position and help guide the team through another one."
"I feel like this is really as much of an Uncharted game as any of the others, and that's how we're treating it."
The Lost Legacy is a standalone DLC game that comes with access to Uncharted 4's multiplayer and Survival modes. The Lost Legacy will be available to buy physically and digitally, though pricing has not been announced. People who bought the Uncharted 4 Digital Deluxe Edition or the Explorer's Pack by December 13 will get The Lost Legacy for free.
This is a favorable video for Firestorm, as he wrecks every challenger that comes his way. As you can see in the video embedded above, Firestorm can be devastating up-close and he can also hurt you with ranged attacks.
Additionally, the next Injustice 2 character will be announced next week. Injustice 2's roster already features a lot of famous DC heroes and villains, including Batman, Superman, Catwoman, The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Poison Ivy. You can see all of the game's confirmed characters here.
Injustice 2 launches for PS4 and Xbox One on May 16. In other news, an Injustice 2 mobile game has been announced. Additionally, NetherRealm recently discussed the game's gear system--read GameSpot's interview feature below to learn more about it.
A new "pilot feature" is now available on Xbox One and Windows 10, but only for one game. Halo Wars 2 on both platforms has added a feature called Game Chat Transcription. As its name suggests, this is a speech-to-text service that also supports text-to-speech. Microsoft says in a blog post that it is a "way to communicate that creates a more accessible and inclusive gaming experience for everyone."
Using the feature, you can covert voice communications in the game chat into text, with this text popping up on screen in real time. You can also have your written out text spoken aloud to other players in a match.
Game Chat Transcription is only available in Halo Wars 2 right now, though Microsoft says it wants to bring it to more games down the road.
If you've played a game on Xbox Live with voice chat enabled, you're well aware of how gross and unsavory some people can be. We can only imagine what some of those comments may sound like coming through Microsoft's new text-to-speech feature. Microsoft notes that there are multiple voice options.
Here are instructions for how to turn on the Game Chat Transcription feature, as written by Microsoft:
Go to Settings > All settings > Ease of Access > Game Chat Transcription.
To transcribe other players' voices into text, select Speech-to-text.
To have your chat text read aloud to other players, select Text-to-speech.
To choose the voice that other players will hear when your chat text is read aloud, select one of the available voices in the Text-to-speech voice menu.
For more on Halo Wars 2, which is available as an Xbox Play Anywhere title for Xbox One and PC, read GameSpot's review here.
The long-awaited live-action adaptation of the classic anime movie Ghost in the Shell hits theaters at the end of the month. A new featurette has been released that takes a look at Section 9, the film's heavily armed anti-terrorism taskforce. Check it out below:
In a recent interview with Den of Geek, director Rupert Sanders spoke about the approach that he and star Scarlett Johansson took to Ghost in the Shell. "Scarlett and I were very categorical that we wanted to do something different," he said. "We wanted to exist beyond the Marvel universe, beyond the DC universe. We wanted to be the rogue, I guess.
"I think we've succeeded in that. It's a really emotional and hopefully thought-provoking film, but it also delivers what you want to see in a film for that kind of audience. You want to see a big, action packed film, but at the same time, as you're moving along, you're into the action because you care about the action because you care about what they're going through."
Ghost in the Shell was one of the key anime films to break through to a western audience in the '90s. It was based on Masamune Shirow's manga, and was followed by three more movies, plus a number of video games.
The movie also stars Pilou Asbæk, Takeshi Kitano, Juliette Binoche, and Michael Pitt. It hits theaters on March 30.
The next movie from the Oscar winning Wallace and Gromit animation studio Aardman, Early Man, has gotten its first trailer. The movie follows a "plucky caveman" named Dug (voiced by Eddie Redmayne), who journeys through a prehistoric world alongside his trusty creature-friend Hognob.
As you can see, things do not go exactly to plan for Dug, who gets into trouble when trying to find his dinner one day. Take a look:
Early Man is directed by Nick Park, and represents his first time back in the director's chair since winning an Academy Award for Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
The movie also features the voices of Tom Hiddleston (Kong: Skull Island), Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones), and Timothy Spall (Harry Potter series).
Ever since Capcom announced Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite last year, the developer stressed that it will be an "accessible" game. That thread continues with new comments from Capcom Europe COO Stuart Turner, who said in an interview that Infinite is "far more simplistic" than Capcom's previous fighting games.
Speaking to GI.biz, Turner said Infinite is a "great introduction to the [fighting] genre as a whole." In addition to being more "simplistic," the game will be "technically easier to pick up and play." Turner added that Infinite will have a good chance of appealing to a wide audience because it will feature well-known characters from the Marvel universe such as Iron Man and Captain America.
Turner said the fighting genre's fanbase typically skews older than other categories of games. The challenge then becomes bringing younger players into the fold, which Capcom is eager to do for Infinite.
Turner also said that Capcom is a market-leader in the fighting game space, and the company needs to continue pushing forward to help the genre overall.
"Fighting as a genre is an interesting one,"he said. "It's an area that we as a company excel in, but it's always one that we need to take more of a lead on for the success and health of the whole genre."
Also in the interview, Turner said the rise in popularity of competitive gaming should help bolster the appeal of fighting games in the coming years.
"I still believe the service game model is absolutely the thing for Street Fighter," Turner said. "It was always going to be a huge challenge to take a well-loved brand from a traditional boxed product to a service game business model. The way a game like that is produced, developed, tested, and marketed are all hugely different to a traditional boxed game.
"I don't think it would be wrong to say that we didn't get much right with Street Fighter V at launch; we've learnt and put things in place that will avoid such issues ever arising in the future. Getting an offering that's right for consumers first should be always be our priority."
A new clip from Power Rangers has arrived. The big screen reboot of the much-loved '90s TV show hits theaters later this month, and this new clip sees Zack take the giant Mastodon Zord out for a test drive. Check it out below:
In a recent interview, Power Rangers director Dean Israelite spoke about the decision to give the Mastodon Zord eight legs, as opposed to four as in the TV show.
"The idea is the Zords are machines that take on the form of the most powerful organisms of the planet they're on," he told Collider. "When these Zords came to Earth, dinosaurs reigned supreme and so they took on the image and the spirit of these dinosaurs--that's the mythology that we've put into the movie. But in the concept that we've created they're meant to be inspired by those animals--not an actual, literal, version of it, and so we decided we wanted to take certain liberties, too.
"The other component of it is almost more of a practical component. We look at these renderings and we create a 3D space and we look at how they should move, and you learn a lot from that. And the Mastodon is so big that we realized that with added legs it would just move better in a CG environment, and we'd be able to make it a more nimble machine. So it felt kind of like practical; if you were an alien creating this machine, you would want those added limbs."
Power Rangers opens on March 24. It stars Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Becky G, and Ludi Lin as the Rangers. Bryan Cranston portrays the Rangers' mentor, Zordon, while Elizabeth Banks plays villainous Rita Repulsa.
Update: When asked for comment, a representative for Telltale reiterated to GameSpot that "Guardians of the Galaxy is slated to premiere digitally in 2017 on consoles, PC, and mobile devices," but did not comment on the possibility of Telltale's Batman game coming to Nintendo Switch.
Original story follows.
Nintendo Switch versions of Telltale's Batman and Guardians of the Galaxy series have potentially been leaked. Multiple retailers have listed Switch versions of the two episodic games, despite no official announcement from Telltale.
Telltale is currently working on its Guardians of the Galaxy series and a third season of The Walking Dead. Episodes 1 and 2 have been great so far, and Episode 3 is due to launch at some point this month. Read our reviews below to find out more.
In the market for a new Xbox One and like Battlefield 1 ? Newegg has rolled out a new deal you may want to consider. The store's eBay page is offering the 1 TB Xbox One S Battlefield 1 bundle, which comes with a green console and a copy of the game, for only $240 right now.
The price shows up at checkout and shipping is free (via Slickdeals).
This is a very solid deal, as the console normally goes for $350. In addition to the green console, it comes with a matching controller and a one-month subscription to EA Access. You're getting the Early Enlister edition of Battlefield 1, which comes with the Hellfighter Pack, the Red Baron Pack, and the Lawrence of Arabia Pack, which include weapon camos and more.
Though They Shall Not Pass is only available for some players right now, everyone's Battlefield 1 experience changed this week as part of a free update. This patch made a number of balance changes and fixed bugs, while it also added a Spectator Mode. You can see the full patch notes here.
Mass Effect: Andromeda's official release date isn't until March 21 in North America, but some Xbox One and PC owners can play a portion of the game starting today.
EA/Origin Access subscribers can play a 10-hour trial for the spacefaring RPG today. As announced previously, the trial lets you check out the campaign and multiplayer. The single-player is limited, though you can play as much multiplayer as you want within the 10 hours.
With very few exceptions, all major EA-published games are available for EA/Origin Access subscribers to play five days before their public release. Other benefits of the $5/month or $30/year subscription program include discounts on digital content and unlimited access to an expanding library of games. No version of EA Access is available on PlayStation 4.
GameSpot will have a lot more on Andromeda in the coming days. The first part of our new video series, The Story of Mass Effect: Andromeda, airs this Saturday, March 18. You can watch a trailer for that above.
Xbox Live Gold members can now pick up more free games.
As part of the Games With Gold program, the 4v1 monster-hunting game Evolve is now free on Xbox One, with the shoot-em-up Heavy Weapon dropping to the low, low price of free on Xbox 360. Bear in mind that Heavy Weapon plays on Xbox One through backwards compatibility.
Additionally, the horror game Layers of Fear is free on Xbox One all month long. These new games replace Project Cars and Borderlands 2, which were free through March 15.
April 2017's Games With Gold lineup has not yet been announced.
In other news, Microsoft has rolled out the latest weekly deals on Xbox Live, featuring discounts on a lot of Ubisoft games. You can see a roundup of the deals here.
The Marvel sci-fi sequel Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 hits theaters in May, and now director James Gunn has confirmed that a third movie will follow.
Speaking to Complex, Gunn stated that although a third movie was being planned, he wouldn't definitely direct it. "There will be a Guardians 3, that's for sure," he said. "We're trying to figure it out. I'm trying to figure out what I want to do really, that's all it is. I got to figure out where I want to be, what I want to spend the next three years of my life doing.
"I'm going to make another big movie; is it the Guardians or something else? I'm just going to figure it out over the next couple of weeks."
This follows comments made by Marvel boss Kevin Feige last year, who stated that Guardians 3 would form part of the studio's slate of future films. "We're only working on what's been announced through the end of 2019," he told io9. "And it is still a big chess board for 2020 and beyond, but certainly I would say Guardians 3 is one film that's up there. I don't know what exactly the order will be."
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, and Kurt Russell. It hits theaters on May 5, 2017.
[UPDATE]Kotaku Australia has obtained information regarding the offending scenes that informed the Classification Board's decision to deny classification to Outlast 2.
The Board's report noted that the game would potentially be considered for an R18+ rating "without the depiction of implied sexual violence."
Upcoming horror game Outlast 2 has been refused classification in Australia, meaning it will not be released in the region.
In a ruling issued on March 15 2017, the Australian government's Classification Board stated that Outlast 2 has been identified to "depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified."
Kotaku noted that the demo for Outlast 2, released in September 2016, received an R18+ rating which acknowledged the game's high impact violence, blood and gore, strong themes, moderate language, and mild nudity.
Outlast 2 will not see a release in Australia unless developer Red Barrels decides to resubmit the game for classification with changes that would help their work meet Australia's rating guidelines in a manner that appeases the Classification Board.
GameSpot has contacted Red Barrels for a statement.
Until 2013, Australia's highest classification rating for games was MA15+, meaning games that had themes unsuitable for those above fifteen years of age would be refused classification. In July of 2011, after years of contentious lobbying, all Australian state governments finally agreed to begin the process of introducing the R18+ rating for video games in the same manner that has existed for films since 1970.
Because of the historically narrow scope of Australia's video game classification system, many significant games have been banned in the country. Fallout 3 was initially banned in 2008 for portraying morphine to have a positive effect on the player, which encouraged Bethesda to rename the drug "Med-X" in all versions of the game. Since the instatement of the R18+ rating for video games, titles that have been refused classification include Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, Hatred, and South Park: The Stick of Truth, although South Park's offending content was eventually humorously edited for the region.
[Correction: This article mistakenly mentioned the i5-7600K as a four-core eight-thread CPU, but is a four-core four-thread CPU. It has since been changed.]
With the higher-end Ryzen 7 series of CPUs that released earlier this month, AMD returned to competing with Intel in the consumer processor market. However, details on the mid-range Ryzen 5 series were not announced until today, which will consist of four SKUs: the 1600X, 1600, 1500X, and 1400, which will be available worldwide on April 11.
Both the Ryzen 5 1600X and 1600 are six-core 12-thread processors based on AMD's new Zen architecture. The 1600X is the flagship chip and will have a base clock speed of 3.6GHz and boost clock speed of 4.0GHz at the price of $249. The 1600 sports 3.2GHz base clock and 3.6GHz boost clock speeds, but costs $219.
The four-core, eight-thread variants of the Zen-based CPUs are known as the Ryzen 5 1500X ($189) and 1400 ($169). The 1500X will run at 3.5GHz base clock and a 3.7GHz boost clock, while the 1400 will be clocked at 3.2GHz base and 3.4GHz boost. Boost clock margins are another notable change in these two CPUs, only allowing for an extra 200MHz.
As with the Ryzen 7 line, all CPUs come with unlocked multipliers, which will allow for unhindered manual overclocking, given that the AM4 motherboard is equipped with the proper chipset: the X370, B350, or X300. Lower-end A320 and A300 chipsets will not allow manual overclocking.
Pricing, specs, and release date for the Ryzen 5 CPUs.
The only benchmark numbers given by AMD's press briefing was from a Cinebench nT test between the Ryzen 5 1600X and Intel's Core i5-7600K, in which the AMD CPU outperformed Intel's by 69 percent. Keep in mind that the i5-7600K is a four-core four-thread processor. As we saw with Ryzen 7 benchmarks, the Zen-based CPUs do particularly well in benchmarks that utilize multiple cores and threads, such as video production simulations like Cinebench, but gaming performance left more to be desired.
Stay tuned as GameSpot will evaluate the performance of the new Ryzen 5 CPUs as we closer approach the April 11 release date.
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