Now here is a nice surprise. While Valve does not currently have any plans (at least officially) for a new Half-Life title, it did give its approval for the release of a fan sequel to Half-Life: Opposing Force. Which sounds awesome considering this will be the next Half-Life game we’ll be getting, even if it’s made by a single person (Richard Seabrook). Continue reading Fan Half-Life: Opposing Force Sequel Gets Approved By Valve, To Be Sold Via Steam Next Month
Category Archives: News
Fallout 4 – New Beta Patch Adds HBAO+ & Weapon Debris Effects For NVIDIA GPUs
Bethesda has released a new beta update for Fallout 4. According to its changelog, this beta patch adds weapon debris effects for NVIDIA’s GPUs, as well as support for HBAO+. In addition, the update improves performance when looking through a scope, and comes with general memory and stability improvements. This patch will be auto-downloaded and you can read its complete changelog below. Continue reading Fallout 4 – New Beta Patch Adds HBAO+ & Weapon Debris Effects For NVIDIA GPUs
Codemasters’ EGO Engine 4.0 Supports DX12 (Raster Ordered Views & Conservative Rasterization)
Following our previous story regarding Just Cause 3, another GDC 2016 session has revealed the DX12 features that have been implemented in Codemasters’ EGO Engine 4.0. According to the session, the engine powering F1 2015 already supports the new DX12 features Raster Ordered Views and Conservative Rasterization.
As its description reads:
“Codemasters present a post-mortem on their new rendering engine used for F1 2015 detailing how they balanced the apparently opposing goals optimizing for mainstream processor graphics, high end multi-core and DX12. The F1 2015 engine is Codemasters’ first to target the eighth generation of consoles and PC’s with a new engine architecture designed from scratch to distribute the games workload across many cores making it a great candidate for DX12 and utilise the processing power of high end PC’s. This session will show the enhanced the visuals created using a threaded CPU based particle system without increased the GPU demands and also cover the changes made to the engine while moving from DX11 to DX12. We will also discuss the graphics effects added using the new DX12 features Raster Ordered Views (AVSM and Decal Blending) and Conservative Rasterization (Voxel based ray tracing) adding even greater realism to the F1 world.”
What’s really interesting here is that F1 2015 does not support DX12. Whether we’ll be getting a DX12 patch or not remains a mystery. Our guess is that Codemasters has been experimenting with this API these past months and was able to implement some features to its latest version of the EGO Engine.
In other words, we expect the next game powered by the EGO Engine 4.0 to support DX12. Do note that DiRT Rally is powered by EGO Engine 3.0, so don’t expect a DX12 patch for this title.
The description of this session concludes that the takeaway is an insight “into the main architectural changes needed to move successfully to DX12 and realise a performance benefit together with an understanding of some of the new effects possible with feature level 12 capable hardware.”
Tom Clancy’s The Division – Beta Phase Begins On January 29th, Will End On January 31st
Ubisoft has announced that the beta phase for The Division will begin on January 29th on the PC, and will last until January 31st. Do note that this is not an open beta, meaning that you’ll have to pre-order the game in order to gain access to it. Continue reading Tom Clancy’s The Division – Beta Phase Begins On January 29th, Will End On January 31st
Just Cause 3 – Engine Already Capable Of Supporting DX12, PC Exclusive DX12 Features Revealed
It appears that GDC 2016’s schedule has ruined Avalanche’s surprise for PC gamers. As it is hinted, Just Cause 3’s Engine already supports DX12 and some new, PC exclusive features will be implemented thanks to it. Continue reading Just Cause 3 – Engine Already Capable Of Supporting DX12, PC Exclusive DX12 Features Revealed
Halo Online – Unofficial Version 0.5.0 Released, Adds 6 New Halo 3 Maps
The team behind ElDewrito has released a new version for it that includes 6 additional maps from Halo 3. As the team noted, this update will allow players to play on all of the new maps present in the latest official release of Halo Online: High Ground, Last Resort, Narrows, Standoff, The Pit and Sandtra. Continue reading Halo Online – Unofficial Version 0.5.0 Released, Adds 6 New Halo 3 Maps
Hitman Is Now Officially An Episodic Triple-A Title, New Details Unveiled
Io-Interactive today released further details for HITMAN which launches on March 11th for the PC. As the press release reads, a change to the release structure, sees HITMAN become a truly episodic AAA game experience, with a major live component, where players will perform contract hits on powerful, high-profile targets in exotic locations around the world. Continue reading Hitman Is Now Officially An Episodic Triple-A Title, New Details Unveiled
Arma 3 – 2016 Plans Detailed – Arma 3 Eden Update In February, Arma 3 Apex Expansion Coming Later In 2016
Bohemia Interactive today revealed some of their plans for Arma 3 in 2016. Via a new video blog, Creative Director Jay Crowe provides an overview of the ten most significant highlights of 2015, and a list of the ten most important things to look forward to in the upcoming year. Continue reading Arma 3 – 2016 Plans Detailed – Arma 3 Eden Update In February, Arma 3 Apex Expansion Coming Later In 2016
Arslan: The Warriors of Legend Is Officially Coming To Steam On February 9th
Koei Tecmo Europe revealed today that the upcoming anime-based tactical action title Arslan: the Warriors of Legend will also receive a PC release via Steam on February 9th. Continue reading Arslan: The Warriors of Legend Is Officially Coming To Steam On February 9th
Monster Hunter Online To Be Visually Enhanced With AMD’s TressFX Technology
AMD has announced that it has partnered with Tencent Games in order to visually enhance Monster Hunter Online, as well as bring a number of performance optimizations to it. As a result, Tencent Games will release a patch for Monster Hunter Online later this month that will introduce AMD’s TressFX technology to it. Continue reading Monster Hunter Online To Be Visually Enhanced With AMD’s TressFX Technology