With NHL 20‘s September 13 release date right around the corner, EA Sports has now released the list of the Top 50 players based on ratings. The list contains few surprises.

Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid is the overall No. 1, with a 94 OVR. He’s even higher than that in some categories, as his speed rating is a blistering 96.

Sidney Crosby (93 OVR), Nikita Kucherov (92 OVR), Alex Ovechkin (92 OVR), and Nathan Mackinnon (92 OVR) round out the top five. NHL 20 cover star Auston Matthews, meanwhile, comes in at No. 15 with a 90 OVR. You can see the full Top 50 list below.

NHL 20 launches on September 13 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game brings back the pond hockey mode from NHL 19, while it also has its own unique spin on battle royale. In addition, NHL 20 makes a major change for the commentary and broadcast package.

NHL 20 Player Ratings Top 50

1. Connor McDavid — 94 OVR
2. Sidney Crosby — 93 OVR
3. Nikita Kucherov — 92 OVR
4. Alex Ovechkin — 92 OVR
5. Nathan Mackinnon — 92 OVR
6. Patrick Kane — 91 OVR
7. Victor Hedman — 91 OVR
8. Drew Doughty — 91 OVR
9. Andrei Vasilevskiy — 91 OVR
10. Carey Price — 91 OVR
11. Evgeni Malkin — 90 OVR
12. Steven Stamkos — 90 OVR
13. Patrice Bergeron — 90 OVR
14. Aleksander Barkov — 90 OVR
15. Auston Matthews — 90 OVR
16. John Gibson — 90 OVR
17. Brad Marchand — 90 OVR
18. John Tavares — 90 OVR
19. Mikko Rantanen — 90 OVR
20. Johnny Gaudreau — 90 OVR
21. Erik Karlsson — 90 OVR
22. Tuuka Rask — 90 OVR
23. Sergei Bobrovsky — 90 OVR
24. Brent Burns — 90 OVR
25. David Pastrnak — 90 OVR
26. Tyler Seguin — 89 OVR
27. Taylor Hall — 89 OVR
28. Vladimir Tarasenko — 89 OVR
29. Ryan O’Reilly — 89 OVR
30. Anze Kopitar — 89 OVR
31. Mark Giordano — 89 OVR
32. Claude Giroux — 89 OVR
33. Mark Scheifele — 89 OVR
34. Blake Wheeler — 89 OVR
35. Leon Draisaitl — 89 OVR
36. Artemi Panarin — 89 OVR
37. Mitchell Marner — 89 OVR
38. Braden Holtby – 89 OVR
39. John Carlson — 89 OVR
40. Alex Pietrangelo — 89 OVR
41. Brayden Point — 89 OVR
42. Jonathan Toews — 88 OVR
43. Phil Kessel — 88 OVR
44. Jack Eichel — 88 OVR
45. Morgan Rielly — 88 OVR
46. Jonathan Huberdeau — 88 OVR
47. Sebastian Aho — 88 OVR
48. P.K. Subban — 88 OVR
49. Frederik Andersen — 88 OVR
50. Dylan Larkin — 88 OVR

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nhl-20s-best-50-players-revealed/1100-6469559/

European video game age-rating organisation, PEGI, has responded to complaints filed by some after watching the NBA 2K20 MyTeam trailer released last week. The video is largely focused on the various mini-games players have access to as a means of winning in-game rewards, featuring standard casino games such as slot machines and prize wheels. NBA 2K20 is rated E for Everyone in the US and PEGI-3 in Europe.

The fact it can be legally bought by children led Reddit user Anime-NoireChan to e-mail PEGI directly. They shared the board’s reply, which Eurogamer has since verified.

The full PEGI statement says, “We have seen the announcement trailer of NBA 2K20 and noticed the controversy it has caused. We feel it is important to carefully explain when certain content is triggering the gambling descriptor in the PEGI system, but also to show when it does not at this moment.

“A video game gets the gambling content descriptor if it contains moving images that encourage and/or teach the use of games of chance that are played/carried out as a traditional means of gambling.

“We use a help text to clarify this in more detail: This refers to types of betting or gambling for money that is normally played/carried out in casinos, gambling halls, racetracks. This does not cover games where betting or gambling is simply part of the general storyline. The game must actually teach the player how to gamble or bet and/or encourage the player to want to gamble or bet for money in real life.

“For example, this will include games that teach the player how to play card games that are usually played for money or how to play the odds in horse racing.

“It is important to stress that the controversial imagery played a central role in the trailer, but it may not necessarily do so in the game, which has not yet been released.

“At this point in time, PEGI can only comment on the trailer that has been made publicly available.

“The trailer includes imagery that is generally known from casinos (wheel of fortune, slot machines). Using this sort of mechanic to select an item, or character, or action by chance is not the same as teaching how to gamble for money in a casino. These differences currently prevent us from applying the gambling descriptor. But we are very aware that it may get too close for comfort for some people, and that is part of an internal discussion that PEGI is having for the moment. The games industry is evolving constantly (and rapidly in recent years). As a rating organisation, we need to ensure that these developments are reflected in our classification criteria. We do not base our decisions on the content of a single trailer, but we will properly assess how the rating system (and the video games industry in general) should address these concerns.”

Although PEGI isn’t applying the gambling rating to NBA 2K20 just yet, the statement suggests it may do so after seeing the final game. If it does apply the descriptor, NBA 2K20 would lose its PEGI-3 rating in Europe. It would be interesting to see if the ESRB follows suit in the US.

NBA 2K20 launches on September 6 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. Check out our NBA 2K20 pre-order guide for all the info on pre-order bonuses and what’s included in the Digital Deluxe and Legend editions. You can also download a free demo for NBA 2K20 right now.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ratings-board-responds-to-nba-2k20s-myteam-trailer/1100-6469557/

Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red is so committed to first-person in its upcoming role-playing game, that even cutscenes will be locked to the perspective (and yes, that includes sex scenes as well). It marks a notable change for the studio after its work on the third-person Witcher series.

CD Projekt Red already explained the importance of Cyberpunk 2077’s first-person viewpoint at E3 2018, and has clearly stuck to its guns despite some early backlash. Marcin Momot, the global community lead at CD Projekt Red, recently reiterated the studio’s choice. “Achieving full immersion in a [first-person perspective] game is extremely important,” he said in a tweet. “The decision made by the team to go 100% first person in Cyberpunk 2077 is something that will benefit it greatly from gameplay and story-telling perspectives.” He adds that players will still see their created character in the inventory screen, during driving sequences, in mirrors and, very occasionally, in some of the cutscenes. While the official Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter account replied to a direct message confirming that the game’s sex scenes will also be locked into first-person.

Over on the official Cyberpunk 2077 forums, user Shavod translated an interview with senior level designer Miles Tost from the German site Night City Life. Tost offered some insight into Cyberpunk 2077’s level design, comparing the differences between designing for a first-person game as opposed to a third-person game like The Witcher 3. In the latter, Geralt would always enter a house first, with the camera following behind. Because of this, the designers would always have to leave an extra bit of free space by the entrance to any building to avoid Geralt colliding with objects. In Cyberpunk 2077, the first-person perspective means they don’t have to worry about this anymore, allowing rooms to be designed with more authenticity. It’s not something you might ever notice, but it’s an interesting detail about one of the lesser-known aspects of level design.

Tost also notes how convenient the open spaces in The Witcher 3 were for allowing him to expand locations however and whenever he needed to. This isn’t possible in Cyberpunk 2077 with the way the city is designed, but the limitations forced him to be more creative in how he packs a lot into limited horizontal spaces. Despite this, Tost says protagonist V’s greater mobility allows for the level design to be more expansive, offering lots of hidden and alternate paths that V can reach using double jumps and charged jumps. He also mentions that V is capable of climbing the exteriors of tall buildings to reach a lot of dizzying heights.

CD Projekt Red recently showed another 15 minutes of gameplay from Cyberpunk 2077, focusing on combat, customisation, different play styles, and the Night City district of Pacifica.

The upcoming action-RPG has also dropped binary male/female options in favor of inclusivity. “You know, we really want to make a video game that’s really inclusive,” senior concept artist Marthe Jonkers told Metro. “Of course, if you tackle certain subjects then you will expect people to have an opinion about it and we respect that. And it’s good that people give us feedback.”

Cyberpunk 2077 is expected to launch on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on April 16, 2020. The game is also scheduled to release for Google Stadia in 2020.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/cyberpunk-2077-will-be-locked-into-first-person-du/1100-6469553/

Remedy has outlined its plans for future Control updates, detailing what fixes it’s working on, what isn’t coming to the game, and when we can expect to hear about new content for the surreal action title. Improving console performance is among the top items on the list.

Control has received critical acclaim since its release last week, but if there’s one dark cloud hanging over the game it’s the unfortunate performance issues on base Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles. A Digital Foundry report delved into console performance last week, revealing how badly the frame rate is affected in hectic action sequences. Control targets 30fps on consoles, but the report says it can drop into the 10s on base Xbox One and PS4, sometimes lingering around these low numbers for an extended period of time. Performance is better on Xbox One X and PS4 Pro, but even these upgraded consoles aren’t exempt from frame rate issues. Digital Foundry suggests waiting for a patch if you can only play Control on base consoles.

Fortunately, an update is on the way. In a new blog post, the studio says it’s working to improve console optimization, but “these things do take time and don’t happen at the press of a button (as much as we wish they did).” However, Remedy does say Control’s next update (tentatively due out mid to late September) will be adding an on/off toggle for motion blur and film grain on all platforms. It also plans to improve how the in-game map loads to ensure that all of the relevant information is displayed immediately and correctly, because it’s not working as intended right now.

HDR support will not be coming to the game, though. “This is a decision based on the fact that development resources are limited, and we need to allocate what we have in a certain way,” the blog post explains. “Moving into post-launch, we prefer to use the resources we have to focus on future free content for Control like the Photo Mode. We realize this may disappoint some players, but we hope the additions we plan to bring to Control more than make up for the absence of HDR.”

As far as new content is concerned, Remedy wants to make it clear this is just the beginning for Control. “Next week, we hope to provide our players with an update on future content plans, something we know many of you are very keen on. Stay tuned for more information on that!”

If you haven’t purchased Control yet, Peter Brown recommends it in GameSpot’s review. “It’s not often that a game invades my thoughts the way Control has,” his review concludes. “I’m at the point where I want to consume every last thing it has to offer. And if I’m honest, it also makes me want to go back and replay Remedy’s past games, too. Sure, it’s a faulty metroidvania in some respects, but there are so many exceptional qualities afoot that Control handily deflects any momentary ire. I can’t wait to take part in discussions about the game, to see what others have figured out, and to better understand where it all fits into Jesse’s story.”

You can currently pick up Control on sale for $10 off on PS4 and Xbox One. GameSpot also has you covered with a guide to solving one of its trickiest puzzles, and information on how long it takes to beat. There’s an unexpected cameo worth seeing, too, and you can see where Remedy’s latest placed in the UK’s physical games chart.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/controls-console-performance-issues-may-be-fixed-i/1100-6469551/