AMD Ryzen 5000 CPU Series With Zen 3 Architecture Revealed, Out on November 5th
AMD has taken the hood off of its Ryzen 5000 desktop CPU series with the new Zen 3 architecture. Launching on November 5th, the series consists of the Ryzen 9 5950X ($799), Ryzen 9 5900X ($549), Ryzen 7 5800X ($449) and Ryzen 5 5600X ($299). The company touts the Ryzen 9 5900X as the "world's best gaming CPU" with 12 cores, 32 threads and a max boost speed of 4.8 GHz.
Meanwhile, the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X model boasts 16 cores with 32 threads and 4.9 GHz max boost speed. The Ryzen 7 5800X has eight cores and 16 threads with a max boost speed of 4.7GHz. The Ryzen 5 5600X rounds out the line-up with six cores, 12 threads and 4.6 GHz max boost speed.
Obviously, more than just the number of cores and threads, it's the Zen 3 architecture that's worth noting. The chip offers a 19 percent increase in instructions per cycle. Even better is that the Zen 3 CPUs can work with older motherboards (following a firmware update) and will offer a 26 percent improvement overall.
AMD still has more announcements in store, namely the Radeon RX 6000 "Big Navi" GPU series with RDNA 2, on October 28th. With Intel announcing its new Rocket Lake CPUs for release in Q1 2021 and Nvidia unveiling its affordable Nvidia RTX 30 GPU series, it's going to be a very interesting period for PC gaming. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout Season 2 is Now Live
Mediatonic's Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is going back to the Dark Ages with Season 2 now being live. The theme for this season is medieval times so that means cosmetics and levels based on knights, vikings and paladins. Check out the launch trailer below to see it in action.
The new season introduces four new medieval rounds – Hoopsie Legend, Egg Siege, Wall Guys and Knight Fever – into the current rotation but more are coming "soon." There's also a new Season Pass with emotes, costumes and other cosmetics to earn. The Featured store schedule has also been refreshed and will be available for the entire season.
One of the cooler new features is Show Selector, which features a "carefully selected roster of shots." These essentially offer playlists of specific rounds geared more towards rounds like Gauntlet, Survival Showdown and so on. If that weren't enough, rounds present in the current game has also been touched up. Stay tuned for more details on Fall Guys Season 2 in the coming weeks as more updates are released.
Outriders Delayed to February 2021; Cross-Play Confirmed
People Can Fly's looter-shooter Outriders had been primed for a Holiday 2020 launch since it was pushed back from its original Summer 2020 window, but it seems the game has been delayed once again. Square Enix have confirmed with a new release date announcement trailer that Outriders will be launching on February 2, 2021- just as a recent premature Steam listing had suggested.
In a blog update, Outriders community manager Toby Palm says that COVID-19 has, like many other studios and games, affected People Can Fly's development pipeline as well. While the core of the content is "larely" complete, Palm says game testing was hit much harder due to the work-from-home requirements than other aspects of development.
"It had been our full intention to deliver Outriders to you within the Holiday 2020 season," Palm wrote. "COVID-19 has certainly affected our operations over the past months, but the teams have all worked extremely hard to adapt to changing circumstances. While the core game is now in a largely complete state, our testing operations were unfortunately among the most affected by the work-process-restructuring caused by the novel coronavirus. To that end, we need a bit more time to get it right and ensure that the Outriders experience will be as smooth and issue-free as it possibly can be when we launch. It is our utmost priority to give you the best and most complete Outriders experience possible, at all costs."
That said, some other notable new announcements have also been made. For starters, it's been confirmed that Outriders will support full cross-platform multiplayer across every platform it's releasing on (and it's releasing on quite a few). Additional, free next-gen upgrades have also been confirmed for both Xbox and PlayStation.
When Outriders launches in February, it will be available on PS5, Xbox Series X / S, PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Has an FoV Slider on Consoles as Well
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is out in a little over a month from now, and ahead of that, players will be going hands-on with the game in its beta period over the next couple of weeks. Recently, in an update talking about the beta, developers Treyarch also revealed some other new features that are coming to Black Ops Cold War that should please quite a few.
For starters, they've confirmed that the upcoming shooter will have a field of view (or FoV) slider on consoles as well, not just on PC, which makes it a first for the series. Performance might buckle with wider FoVs, but it can be tried out in the beta as well.
Meanwhile, Treyarch have also detailed some new HUD customization options that will be in the game and in the beta. Players can toggle visuals for the compass, enemy and ally health bars, hit markers, crosshairs, player names, and button hints.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's multiplayer beta is live for pre-order holders on PS4 today. It will also allow players to play a new 40-player mode.
Recently, details and gameplay on the Zombies mode were also shared. If you're more concerned about the single player though, you can check out a chunk of footage from the campaign through here.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War launches for PS5, Xbox Series X / S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC on November 13.
Bugsnax Out on November 12th, Voice Cast Revealed
Young Horses has announced that its colorful adventure (and secret horror) title Bugsnax will be coming on November 12th. It will be available for $24.99 on PS5, PS4 and PC via the Epic Games Store. A new trailer has also been released, detailing the voice cast. Check it out below.
There's quite the array of talent on-board with Yuri Lowenthal of Marvel's Spider-Man fame and Fryda Wolff (who plays Loba in Apex Legends). Other talent includes Roger Craig Smith aka the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog and Cassandra Lee Morris who plays Morgana in Persona 5. Even the various Bugsnax creatures have recognizable voices like Courtenay Taylor and Cristina Vee.
Bugsnax will cost $24.99 at launch but pre-ordering via the Epic Games Store will net a 15 percent discount. Along with the voice cast trailer, a number of other videos have been released by various publications like GameSpot and IGN that showcase more gameplay. Check them out below for additional details.
Star Wars: Squadrons – No DLC Planned at This Time
EA have been surprisingly willing to drop their monetization and live service models for certain games these last couple of years. They did it in 2019 with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and now once again with Star Wars: Squadrons. Developers Motive Studios have stressed time and again that they're not treating this as a live service release, and what you're paying for with your $40 is the full experience right out the gate.
So does this mean that there will be no DLC for the game whatsoever? Given its multiplayer-centric nature, Squadrons is a game that would thrive on an ongoing multiplayer component, with things such as additional ships, locations, modes, and cosmetics being added into the game over time.
However, it seems like that isn't part of the plan as far as the developers are concerned. Speaking in a recent interview with Upload VR, Star Wars: Squadrons creative director Ian Frazier said that there are no plans to add more content to the game.
"Never say never, so to speak, but as far as our philosophy goes we're not trying to treat the game as a live service," Frazier said when asked about DLC. "We don't want to say, 'It's almost done!' and then dribble out more of it over time, which to be honest is how most games work these days. So we've tried to treat it in kind of an old-school approach saying, 'You've paid the $40, this is the game and it's entirely self-contained. We're not planning to add more content, this is the game, and we hope you understand the value proposition."
As I mentioned earlier, last year's Jedi: Fallen Order was also a one-and-done release, though that was a single player-only game. A recent report suggested that Fallen Order might be receiving DLC soon- read more on that through here.
Star Wars: Squadrons is available now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. In our review, we called it "an excellent spiritual successor to the X-wing series that captures the look and feel of Star Wars." You can read our full review through here.
Cyberpunk 2077 – Night City Wire Episode 4 Announced for October 15th
A new episode of Night City Wire for Cyberpunk 2077 is inbound. CD Projekt RED announced on Twitter that it would stream on October 15th at 9 AM PT/12 PM ET. Vehicles will be receiving more details, from their overall look and sounds to specifications (with a new GIF teasing what's in store).
There will also be new gameplay footage along with other announcements. The developer did note that its post-launch plans would be announced "fairly soon" so perhaps next week's Night City Wire will have more information on that. At this point, we know that the open world FPS/RPG has free updates and paid expansions in the works along with multiplayer (which will have microtransactions of some sort)
Cyberpunk 2077 is currently slated to release on November 19th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC with compatibility for Xbox Series X and PS5 also available (with full next-gen versions are coming in 2021). The game recently went gold so it seems to be on track for release. Stay tuned for more details in the coming week.
The 4th episode of Night City Wire is coming next Thursday, October 15 at 6PM CEST! This time, we'll go into details about the looks, sounds, and specs of #Cyberpunk2077 vehicles. As usual, you can expect new gameplay footage, announcements, and more!
https://t.co/y8iUIM0gBv pic.twitter.com/CbENAuOCEj
— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) October 8, 2020
Final Fantasy 16 Basic Development and Scenario Production is Completed
Square Enix's Final Fantasy 16 may have series' fans skeptical about its release, especially when Final Fantasy 15 took almost a decade to finally arrive. This is even with Naoki Yoshida and Hiroshi Takai of Final Fantasy 14 fame on the project. However, it seems development is going very well. A page on the publisher's Careers site (translated by Gematsu) indicates that basic development and scenario production have already been completed.
"We have already completed basic development and scenario production, and are continuing to create large-scale resources and build boss battles while expanding our various development tools." While this may seem surprising overall, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reported the RPG to have been in development for 4 years already. This seems to lend even further credence to that.
The post also notes that most of the staff are "carrying out their work remotely." The publishing is looking to hire more staff to work on character actions, large-scale cutscenes, and so on. Following the reveal at Sony's recent PS5 showcase, Yoshida promised the next information reveal to be in 2021. He then confirmed that a teaser website would be available sometime this month.
Final Fantasy 16 is currently slated to release for PS5. It could come to PC and other consoles at some point though.
Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate and Kombat Pack 2 Announced, Coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S
NetherRealm Studios has revealed Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, an updated version of last year's fighting game that will release digitally for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Google Stadia, Nintendo Switch and PC on November 17th. Along with the base game, Kombat Pack 1 and Aftermath, it also includes Kombat Pack 2 with three new DLC characters. These are Rain, Mileena and, of all people, Rambo. Check 'em out below.
Free upgrades for Mortal Kombat 11 and Ultimate players from PS4 and Xbox One to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S respectively will be available. Furthermore, the next-gen versions will have visual improvements, faster load times and dynamic 4K resolution. Cross-play and cross-generational multiplayer has also been confirmed.
Those who pre-order the Ultimate version on October 15th for $59.99 can access Mortal Kombat 11 and its previous DLC content immediately. Players who already own the base game can upgrade to Kombat Pack 2 for $14.99. Pre-orders for either the Ultimate version of Kombat Pack 2 will also net three new characters skins for Noob Saibot, Liu Kang and Skarlet.
The Medium Highlights Its Polish-Japanese Soundtrack Collaboration In Behind The Scenes Video
Bloober Team's The Medium was one of the first next generation exclusive titles that we saw and showed a very unique split world gameplay mechanic that's sure to be interesting to navigate. But like all horror stories, a lot will come down to the music, and for The Medium, that's got quite the team-up.
The Medium takes some obvious influences from the legendary Silent Hill series, something the developer has been pretty open about. They are wearing that influence on their sleeve in the best possible way as Akira Yamaoka, who was the main composer on that series, is contributing to the soundtrack here. He teamed up with Layers of Fear composer, Arkadiusz Reikowski, to help give The Medium its sound. Bloober released a video showing how the two came together for the soundtrack and what their process of creation was. You can check it out below.
The Medium is set to release for the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC. As of now there is no specific date, but it has been said to be within the launch window of the Xbox Series consoles, which will release on November 10th.