Cyberpunk 2077 Features Full Lip Sync for 10 Languages
CD Projekt RED's Cyberpunk 2077 will have a fairly large amount of spoken lines, if details from the game's Chinese localization are anything to go by. To that end, it's impressive to note that there will be lip syncing for the English voice acting as well as for the dubbed languages. This is made possible by the use of facial animation tech by JALI Research.
In a new video, it's revealed how the developer uses the technology for realistic facial animation. The various stages of implementation are detailed, finally ending with a showcase of ten languages being lip synced. It's fairly impressive to see the game handle English lip syncing along with Polish, Japanese, French and more without any issues, especially given its size and scale.
Cyberpunk 2077 is out on November 19th for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Google with support for Xbox Series X/S and PS5 at launch. In the most recent Night City Wire, CD Projekt RED also showcased the various cars that players can drive along with different clothing styles. Stay tuned for more details leading up to launch.
Assassin's Creed Origins enjoyed excellent post-launch support, and Odyssey's was even better. The upcoming Assassin's Creed Valhalla, it seems, looks set to continue that trajectory. Ubisoft have announced the full details of what you can expect from the game's post-launch roadmap, along with a meaty trailer for the same (which you can check out below), and there's a lot to look forward to.
For starters, just like Origins and Odyssey, Valhalla will receive two paid full-fledged post-launch expansions. The first one, Wrath of the Druids, will launch in Spring 2021. It will see players heading to Ireland to explore its "haunted wilds and beautiful landscapes" while battling against a druidic cult known as the Children of Danu. Players will "conquer ring forts, master the art of smuggling, and gain the favor of Gaelic kings in a new open-world adventure."
The second expansion, called The Siege of Paris, will launch in Summer of 2021, and take players to – you guessed it – the city of Paris, in the kingdom of Francia. Here, players will fight the forces of Charles the Fat and "participate in the Vikings' most daring conquest". As you infiltrate Paris, you will "forge new alliances within its walls, and strike a blow that will shatter an empire."
Both these expansions will be available with the $39.99 Season Pass (which comes for free with the Gold and Ultimate Editions). Also included with the Season Pass is an exclusive quest called "The Legend of Beowulf", in which players will track a mysterious beast that is ravaging the English countryside. This bonus quest will be available when the game launches.
Meanwhile, there's plenty of free updates to look forward to as well. For instance, the Discovery Tour Mode – which was included in both Origins and Odyssey as well – will be added to Valhalla some time in 2021. There will be a steady stream of free post-launch content as well, released in a seasonal structure.
The first season will launch in December. It will add a replayable River Raids activity; a new area in Ravensthorpe, Eivor's settlement and the game's central hub location; a ranking system for your your Jomsviking (whom you can create in the Barracks at Ravensthorpe); new cosmetics for your raven, horse, longship, and Ravensthorpe; new skills and abilities; new gear and loot; and a Yule Festival.
The second season will launch in March 2021, and it will add new festivals, new gear, a new mode, and more. Two more seasons will follow after that, but release windows for those haven't yet been provided.
All in all, it looks like Assassin's Creed Valhalla – which is already going to be a massive game at launch – is going to keep growing for plenty of time even after release. Odyssey's post-launch support was excellent, so I'm excited to see how Valhalla fares.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla recently went gold is out on November 10 for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PC, and Stadia, and on November 12 for PS5. You can check out its full PC requirements through here.
An extensive gameplay deep dive and gameplay walkthrough for the game were also recently released- check them out through here.
PS5's Liquid Metal Cooling Was Chosen to Reduce Cooling System's Total Cost – Sony's Yasuhiro Otori
Earlier this year, reports began circulating that the PS5 would have an "unusually expensive" cooling system, and recent details that Sony have revealed about the console's hardware have certainly fallen in line with that (and early impressions have suggested that the investment will pay off).
Sony have recently talked about how wanting to cut down the costs was one of the reasons for using a single large fan in the PS5 instead of two (which is what resulted in the console's large size). Similarly, they made cost-based decisions in other areas of the cooling system as well, as Yasuhiro Otori, the head of PS5's mechanical and thermal design team, explained in a recent interview with 4Gamer.
The PS5's liquid metal cooling, for instance, was chosen for the console to reduce the overall cost of the cooling system. Even though a liquid metal thermal interface material (TIM) in isolation is costlier, it is effective enough that it allows Sony to go with cheaper components elsewhere.
"The main reason is cost," Otori said when asked about why Sony decided to use a liquid metal TIM in the PS5. "The standard for thermal design is to spend money near the heat source. As an analogy to general thermal design, let's say you have a system cooling structure that costs 10 yen for a TIM and 1000 yen for a heat sink. If you change to a TIM of 100 yen here, you can get the same cooling effect even if you use a heat sink of 500 yen. In other words, the total cost can be reduced.
"Even after overcoming the difficulty of handling and adopting it in the manufacturing process, PS5 was finally able to adopt liquid metal, which is expected to have a great effect."
Otori spoke more about the aforementioned difficulties in the manufacturing process as well. Liquid metal TIMs usually go hand-in-hand with certain issues, and according to Otori, Sony spent two years coming up with solutions to these problems.
"I've always wanted to use liquid metal," he said. "However, since liquid metal is conductive, if it leaks to the substrate side, it will be short-circuited. Above all, it is highly corrosive to aluminum used for parts such as heat sinks. In order to handle such materials, it is necessary to take measures for manufacturing equipment as well. We took more than two years to prepare well to solve these problems."
Speaking in the same interview, Otori also confirmed that Sony will continue to improve and optimize the PS5's fan after the console's launch with firmware updates. Read more on that through here.
P.T. Won't be Playable on PS5 Via Backward Compatibility, Konami Confirms
P.T. might just be a brief demo, but it's widely lauded as one of the best horror experiences in this industry in our years, which should tell you everything you need to know about just how good it is. Of course, its incredible potential and the promise of a revived Silent Hill franchise never came fruition. Not only was Silent Hills cancelled, but P.T. was nuked as well, with Konami even pulling if off the PlayStation Store.
Of course, those who downloaded the playable teaser while it was still available can still access it on their PS4s. You will not, however, be able to do the same on your PS5, even if you have it in your library. It is not supported by the console's backward compatibility.
"The content will not be available on the PS Store, so users won't be able to re-download the content through the backwards compatibility feature to the PS5," a Konami spokesperson told GamesRadar.
Of course, it's possible that players might be able to transfer the game across consoles via external storage, thus making it playable on the PS5. For now, there's no way to be sure, so let's hope we get official confirmation one way or another soon.
There have been quite a few rumours over the past few months of a Silent Hill reboot being developed by Sony following a partnership with Konami, but these rumours have failed to materialize. As it stands right now, Silent Hill remains dormant.
The PS5 and the Xbox Series X are both going to be impressive pieces of machinery, and with the former's SSD and the latter's GPU, it seems both have a leg up over the other in different areas. When it comes to the CPU, the two are far more evenly matched- though there's still a bit of a gap there. The PS5's custom Zen 2 CPU runs at a frequency of 3.5 GHz, while the Xbox Series X's runs at a frequency of 3.8 GHz (or 3.6 with SMT).
That difference, however, won't end up making too much of a difference, according to Bohemia Interactive's Petr Kolář and David Kolečkář, both of whom are project leads on the free to play online looter shooter Vigor. We recently spoke with the duo, and when asked about the minor gap between the CPUs of the two next-gen consoles, they said that while more CPU-intensive games would enjoy better frame rates on the Xbox Series X, the PS5's CPU will by no means hold back developers.
"The processor performance of both devices is in the same league," the developers said. "The Xbox will probably be able to achieve more stable FPS in CPU-intensive games, but I don't think that the lower CPU performance of the PS5 will limit developers."
Vigor is currently available on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, and free to play on both. It launches on the PS4 on November 25, while a PS5 release has also been confirmed for later in the year.
Our full interview with the developers will be live soon, so stay tuned for that.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light Trailer Focuses on Eramis and Stasis-Wielding Fallen
A major new story expansion is on the horizon for Bungie's Destiny 2 with Beyond Light. So naturally that means a new trailer highlighting the next big threat that Guardians will face – Eramis, the Kell of Darkness. What's so interesting about the trailer is how Eramis and her Fallen House harness the power of Stasis for their own means.
We also see Variks of the House of Judgment, who sent out the distress call to the Guardians, and is seemingly killed by Eramis. Overall, even if players end up defeating her without much fuss, the trailer does a good job setting up her motivation and how the Fallen can wield Stasis. We also see a brief snippet of the Exo Stranger, who makes her first in-game appearance since Destiny 1.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light is out on November 10th for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Google Stadia. The expansion will also be available for Xbox Game Pass subscribers at launch. As for the Xbox Series X/S and PS5 upgrades, they'll arrive in December and offer 4K/60 FPS gameplay along with an FOV slider. Stay tuned for more details and trailers in the meantime.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection – Xbox Series X/S Update Out on November 17th
Microsoft has confirmed on Twitter that Halo: The Master Chief Collection will receive a free update for Xbox Series X/S next month. This won't be available with the launch of both consoles though. Instead, it's out on November 17th, a week after launch.
Both platforms will benefit from 120 FPS support in the campaign and multiplayer components. Split-screen will also see some improvements but 4K resolution support is reserved for the Xbox Series X version. Considering the sheer range of Halo titles in the collection, it should be interesting to see how they all fare at a higher resolution and frame rate.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is part of Xbox Game Pass, allowing Xbox Series X/S players to jump in without any issues. It's currently available for Xbox One and PC as well with Halo 3: ODST and Firefight recently being added. Stay tuned for more details on the update in the coming weeks.
It's time to dust off the ol' Needler.
Fully Optimized on Series X|S
— Xbox (@Xbox) October 20, 2020
Yakuza: Like a Dragon Trailer Touts Next-Gen Crustacean AI, Cutting-Edge Hairstyles
Ryu ga Gotoku Studios' Yakuza: Like a Dragon is out worldwide next month, bringing the adventures of Ichiban Kasuga and his crew to English-speaking audiences. Of course, even for a Yakuza title, the insanity has been amped up considerably. Check out the latest trailer below which touts the "next generation of Yakuza" on Xbox Series X.
Along with near-instant loading times and immersive role-playing, the trailer also hypes up the next-gen crustacean AI and cutting-edge hair styles. We also get some snippets of Dragon Kart, the new Mario Kart-style minigame complete with power-ups, and turn-based combat. Overall, this is looking to be an absolutely massive RPG experience.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon is out on November 10th for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4 and PC. It releases on March 2nd 2021 for PS5. Though PS4 players will receive a free upgrade to the PS5 version, their progress won't transfer over. Stay tuned for more details en route to the game's release.
Minecraft Dungeons Dev Diary Details Apocalypse Plus Difficulty, Howling Peaks DLC
Mojang has a lot more content on the way for Minecraft Dungeons, starting with the Howling Peaks DLC. The central theme of this paid DLC is stormy winds and it will introduce new loot to grind for. But that's not all – there will also be a free update which adds a new difficulty setting. Check out the dev diary below.
The new difficulty setting is Apocalypse Plus and it adds 20 new Threat Levels for players to deal with. In terms of difficulty, there's quite a bit of tweaking to be done but it should provide some challenge for end-game players. As for the Howling Peaks DLC, it brings three new story missions in a new mountain setting to complete.
Other features coming up include a new mob and cross-platform play, the latter which is launching in November. The Howling Peaks DLC is out in December and there's even more content to come in 2021. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.
PlayStation Store Overhaul Is Now Starting To Roll Out
Sony's PS5 is almost here. In just under a month, you'll be able to get your hands on the system (in theory anyway, but good luck if you couldn't manage to get a pre-order in). With a new system comes lots of other new things, such as a revamp of the PlayStation Store.
We've known for a while that the Store was planned to be redone. As noted by the fine folks at the video game forum ResetERA, it seems the new Store is now rolling out in select regions, but it most likely will be live everywhere relatively soon. The store has a far more minimalistic look to it than what we're used to, and maybe a bit too minimalistic. Several features are said to be missing now, such as the axing of the wishlist, lack of file size information and seemingly no more screenshots on game pages. It's also glaringly white.
As of now, Sony hasn't said anything official about this yet, so it could be that the missing features will slowly be added as the store update becomes more widely available. Sony has said the PS5 will be able to access the store quickly now since it will be integrated into the system as opposed to a separate app.
