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Red Dead Online Update Adds Fishing Challenge And More
The latest update for the ongoing Red Dead Online beta has arrived, and it adds a new free roam event. The event is a “Fishing Challenge,” that, as its name suggests, challenges players to compete against others to catch as many fish as possible.
As part of the challenge, players are tasked with racking up the most total weight for fish; and this has variations for water types: Lakes, Rivers, and Swamps.
In addition to the new fishing challenge, Rockstar has introduced a number of new items to grab from the store, including the Gator Hat, Ortega Vest, Pelt Half Chaps, and Woodland Gloves. They are available for a limited time from Wheeler, Rawson, and Co.
Finally, Rockstar is offering a 30 percent XP boost for hunting all animals, while players can also get a Fishing Care Package that comes with 5x Live Crickets, 1x River Lure, 1x Lake Lure and 1x Swamp Lure. The package is available from the Post office or loxkbox at camp.
Red Dead Online is the multiplayer component of Red Dead Redemption 2 that is available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It is still in beta.
from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/red-dead-online-update-adds-fishing-challenge-and-/1100-6465699/
Halo: The Master Chief Collection: Dev Talks Mods, Dedicated Servers, Frame Rate, And Much More For PC Release
Halo developer 343 Industries held a Reddit AMA today where it answered a series of fans’ burning questions about Halo: The Master Chief Collection‘s PC release and more. The studio talked about mod support on PC, dedicated servers, how you’ll be able to buy each game on PC within the package, the possibility of bringing Halo 5 to The Master Chief Collection, and a lot more.
You can read the full Reddit AMA here, while we’ve rounded up some of the more interesting subjects and answers in this post.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection comes to PC through Steam and the Windows Store later . this year. As announced previously, games within the package will be released individually, beginning with Halo: Reach (which is also coming to Xbox One). The game was recently revealed to not be an Xbox Play Anywhere title.
On The Master Chief Collection’s PC Release Plans
“Players can purchase each title one-by-one along the way or wait until the collection is complete at the end. We don’t have any plans for a ‘season pass’ model.” [Full quote]
On The Specific Release Timing Of Each Game
“Right now the priority is getting Halo: Reach ready for public flighting and work is underway almost in parallel for Halo: CE, which will be the second game. Ultimately we want to get these games into player’s hands as soon as possible.”
“We’re hesitant to commit to a firm time frame because the truth is they’re ready when they’re ready. Flighting will be critical to help us get these titles to a great place and depending on how that goes, it could lengthen or extend the release cadence. We’ll definitely share more details as we start ramping up flighting.” [Full quote]
On Frame Rates, Controls, And 144hz
“Current plan is to support ‘uncapped FPS’ in each title. But, as we move deeper into development on each title, we’ll have to determine what’s feasible within each game.”
“Delivering great KB+M controls is one of our top priorities. We are exploring different ways to make a balanced, fun experience for PC and will share more details in the future.” [Full quote]
“The goal is to support 144hz+ for all of the games in MCC, though as with things like FOV sliders and framerates, it could vary slightly by title.” [Quote 2]
On The Possibility Of Split-Screen On PC
“This one is tricky and the team is still looking at what can be supported.” [Full quote]
On Mod Support For The Master Chief Collection On PC
“We are working closely with the members of the modding community (including some friends on the ElDewrito team) to explore our options for ‘official’ mod support, but we won’t have this at launch. Our #1 priority for launch is ensuring we get each of these core games ‘right’ for PC and security/anti-cheat is a big focus. As we’ve stated, this entire offering will grow and evolve over time.” [Full quote]
On Halo 5 Joining The Master Chief Collection
“Our focus is bringing MCC and Reach to PC, there are no current plans to bring over Halo 5” [Full quote]
On Dedicated Servers And Custom Game Browser
“This is a topic of discussion here but currently this isn’t something we’re able to commit to in terms of actual community-hosted dedicated servers. A custom games browser is of course very important to us and something we’re looking forward to bringing to MCC on PC and Xbox One.” [Full quote]
On PC Specs
“Ultimately, flighting and the results of those tests will help finalize the min specs but we want to support the widest range of hardware possible. We’ll definitely share spec details soon.” [Full quote]
Your Progress Moves Between Xbox One And PC Versions Of The Master Chief Collection
“Within MCC, yes, your progress and progression will carry-over between the console and PC versions. All stats, achievements, Forged maps, and game variants will be shared between all of the games within MCC. Mid mission saves will be unique to each platform and cannot be shared.”
“Your Halo: Reach unlocks and progression from the original game on Xbox 360 will NOT carry over to MCC. And as a reminder, MCC on Steam will require a free Microsoft Account, but not Xbox Live Gold.” [Full quote]
Windows 8 May Not Be Supported
“Currently our focus is on Win10 and Win7. Win8 is still being investigated.” [Full quote]
Forge And Theatre Won’t Be Available When Reach Launches On PC
“Forge and Theater for Reach won’t be ready at the same time as the MP/Campaign/Firefight experiences on PC. From a development perspective, it makes more sense for the team to tackle Reach’s Forge/Theater a little later in the roadmap at the same time as Halo 3 and Halo 4 work.” [Full quote]
ODST Firefight Not Planned For Release On PC
“We know this is a longstanding request from players and is something the team will continue to evaluate for the future. For now, our focus is on bringing ODST’s Campaign to MCC on PC. (and we’ll of course have Reach Firefight coming to MCC!)” [Full quote]
from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/halo-the-master-chief-collection-dev-talks-mods-de/1100-6465697/
Google Stadia Hands-on Impressions From GDC 2019
Google made a big splash at GDC 2019 with its announcement of Stadia, the cloud-based platform that streams games from a remote data center to nearly any device–laptops, phones, tablets, PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, and TVs with Chromecast. All graphics processing is relegated to off-site hardware, meaning there’s little stress on your local hardware; all you need is a strong internet connection. It’s a technologically impressive concept that has come to fruition, and we were one of the first to experience what it’s like to play games on Stadia. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Doom (2016) were playable on the GDC show floor, and while they ran and looked great, I couldn’t help but notice one significant shortcoming.
Keep in mind, my hands-on time was at the Google stations on the GDC show floor, so your mileage may vary. There are a lot variables at play in addition to the internet connection, and these are early playable builds under unknown conditions. Display response time is another factor that we couldn’t account for during the hands-on demo, and it’s an important spec to consider, especially for a PC-like experience–these were not gaming-grade monitors at the demo stations.
Input lag was the worst offender during my time with Doom; this was readily apparent when swiping the mouse around to aim. The aiming reticule would trail behind my mouse movements ever so slightly, and for a game like Doom–a hyper-fast first-person shooter that relies on precision aiming–it can be a deal-breaker. Playing on a controller mitigated the emphasis on speed and precision and made input lag a little less of a factor, but it doesn’t negate the issue altogether. Another thing to note is that Google staff told me the Doom demo in particular was running in a low-latency mode available on Stadia itself. From a fidelity standpoint, the game ran at a consistent frame-rate using medium-high settings with adequate overall image quality; artifacting (or compression) didn’t affect the experience. However, it’s a bit disappointing that input lag could hold this back from being the ideal way to play a game as fast as Doom.
I also got to revisit Assassin’s Creed Odyssey with Stadia and it felt very similar to Google’s early cloud-gaming beta that called Project Stream. Of course, Odyssey doesn’t have the same emphasis on speed and accuracy as Doom, so naturally the experience translated better to the cloud-based platform. When peeking at some of the settings, the demo was running at 1080p, 60 FPS, with a 20 Mbps bit rate. The game had decent visual quality with some discernible artifacting, but we were playing up-close on large TVs which isn’t a typical setup
At launch, it’ll be capable of delivering up to 4K resolution and 60 FPS thanks to a brand-new AMD GPU rated at 10.7 TFLOPs that powers the data center hardware–remember, the Xbox One X, currently the most powerful console to date, has 6.0 TFLOPs. Stadia will come with a whole roster of features in addition to the convenience of playing games over a powerful cloud-based platform.
Google will also offer its own controller for Stadia which has integrated Google Assistant, its voice-controlled AI technology–developers will be able to incorporate this capability into their games. Additionally, Stadia will have seamless streaming to YouTube with plenty of features change how people will able to jump into multiplayer games (Crowd Play), and share specific gameplay moments for other players to jump into (State Share).
Google isn’t the only one staking a claim in cloud-based gaming, however. Microsoft’s Project xCloud, which also streams games from hardware at a data center to devices via an internet connection, will be having test runs later this year as well. For more on the game streaming landscape, be sure to read our quick rundown of all the gaming companies investing in cloud gaming and what they’re offering.
If Google can improve key aspects, namely the apparent issues with input lag, Stadia would be a serious competitor in the gaming landscape. Otherwise, there may be limitations as to which games would work best on this new platform. Regardless, the accessibility that Google will offer is unprecedented. While cloud gaming itself is not new, the combination of accessibility and convenience could help this service to establish a foothold. We’ll all be able to see for ourselves when Stadia launches sometime in 2019.
from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/google-stadia-hands-on-impressions-from-gdc-2019/1100-6465694/
