The Left 4 Dead-inspired shooter Aliens: Fireteam pits a squad of three players against ravenous hordes of xenomorphs, androids, and other enemies from the grim, sticky Alien universe. We said in our recent preview that it "feels like a step backwards" after the brilliance of the first-person horror game Alien: Isolation: Not bad by any stretch, just "the lowest hanging fruit." I get the same impression from the 25-minute gameplay video shared today by IGN . It looks good (although I would definitely prefer it in first-person rather than third) and hits all the relevant notes, like poor lighting, leaky pipes, dripping ceilings, and a motion detector that isn't great with the Z-axis, but the addition of new xeno variants, player perks and upgrades, and level randomization doesn't change the fact that this is a very familiar formula. Still, it's hard to go entirely wrong loading up on state-of-the-badass-art weaponry and blasting the bejeezus out of hordes of charging bugs. … [Read more...] about Here’s 25 minutes of Aliens: Fireteam gameplay
Cyberpunk 2077 50 minutes gameplay
PS4 Beta Update 8.50 Lets You Turn Group Notifications Off, Removes Communities
The next big PS4 update has arrived to beta tests, and while it brings several quality-of-life improvements to the system, it also removes a feature. As reported by MP1st , the PS4 beta update 8.50 adds options to turn on or off notifications for each group that you are in. This should help keep things from getting too hectic if you're in several groups at once. When players are in a game session screen they can also use the Request to Join button that sends a notification to the session leader. When playing a game that you've hidden, other players will no longer see you play it. The PlayStation Communities app on smartphones was shut down back in March 2020, and the latest firmware looks set to kill the social feature off entirely when it arrives. No reason why was given, but with the rise of gaming social spaces such as Discord, a lack of activity in PlayStation Communities could be a likely factor. Back in October , PS4 firmware update 8.00 added enhanced two-factor … [Read more...] about PS4 Beta Update 8.50 Lets You Turn Group Notifications Off, Removes Communities
New Guilty Gear Strive Trailer Reveals Anji And I-No Gameplay
Developer Arc System Works has dropped a new Guilty Gear Strive trailer that showcases some gameplay for two of the 2D fighter's latest roster additions: Anji Mito and I-No. Both characters are iconic to the Guilty Gear franchise, with Anji first appearing in the sequel title Guilty Gear X and I-No showing up as a boss in the follow-up, 2002's Guilty Gear X2. Neither were playable in the game's recent beta, so this is the first look at them in action. The video shows both characters' movesets. There's a brief Anji montage before the video switches over to I-No, who pummels opponents with her mint-colored Yamaha-looking guitar. Guilty Gear Strive was pushed out of its April 9 release date so that Arc System Works could "polish some aspects of the game" like online lobbies and server stability following the beta's conclusion. The 2D fighter now drops on PC, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 on June 11. You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos. … [Read more...] about New Guilty Gear Strive Trailer Reveals Anji And I-No Gameplay
A look at how big budget game developers outsource crunch
When Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red promised none of its employees would have to work overtime to get the game done, did this also apply to the many developers working on parts of the game at its support studios? As far as Cyberpunk is confirmed, well, that point is now all moot . But it's an interesting question, and as pretty much every big budget game employs support studios, it's a topic well worth exploring. This month, Chris Bratt (who?) does just that in the latest video from the Patreon-funded People Make Games . In it, we hear from young developers working unpaid overtime on numerous big AAA projects, in support studios based in Malaysia and Indonesia. There are tales of 70-hour weeks and employers cutting corners when it comes to overtime pay and time off in compensation for working public holidays, and of fresh graduates putting up with poor conditions for the hope of a better gig in the future. Another interesting point is that even if one outsourcing … [Read more...] about A look at how big budget game developers outsource crunch
AMD shows the Radeon RX 6700 XT outpacing Nvidia’s RTX 3070 in selected games
AMD has officially unveiled the speeds and feeds of its latest GPU, the Radeon RX 6700 XT . It transpires that the rumours were right on this one, and there's only a single GPU on the way, not the usual XT and non-XT variants. AMD also provided a few benchmarks to get our heads around. The first slide to feature benchmarks had comparisons against the GTX 1070 Ti and the RTX 20870 Super, which had us worried about how it would fair against more recent releases, but thankfully it quickly followed this up with comparisons to the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and the RTX 3070 . That first slide does show how far we've come though, and AMD is at least definitely in the game at this stage. The fact it has a GPU that can beat the RTX 2080 Super at 1440p is nothing to be sniffed at. When it comes to the more up-to-date graphics cards, things look fairly healthy, although we'd recommend the usual pinch of sodium chloride, as AMD may have cherry-picked these games to some extent. Not … [Read more...] about AMD shows the Radeon RX 6700 XT outpacing Nvidia’s RTX 3070 in selected games