Destiny 2 PC open and early access beta dated – here’s the PC requirements for the beta

The Destiny 2 beta may be over on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but another beta will be held for the PC crowd soon.

Bungie announced the dates for the Destiny 2 PC beta today along with recommended and minimum specs for the beta.

Millions played the console beta, according to the studio, making it the “biggest Bungie Beta ever” and it is taking a look at how it can improve the launch of Destiny 2 on consoles.

In the meantime, there’s the PC beta to look forward to, and here’s when you can dive in:

Destiny 2 PC Beta

• Early Access (pre-orders): August 28
• Open Beta: August 29
• Beta Ends: August 31

While those dates may seem a bit off, considering it doesn’t take place over a weekend, remember: folks tend to play more on the weekends. It’s likely Bungie didn’t want to destroy the servers, which is one reason the studio opted to release the game a few days early. We’re just guessing though. We’re not privy to the goings on, after all.

Now, let’s take a look at what your PC needs inside in order to run the Destiny 2 beta.

Recommended Specs

• CPU: Intel – Core i5-2400, AMD – Ryzen R5 1600X
• GPU: Nvidia – GeForce GTX 970, AMD – Radeon R9 390
• RAM: 8GB

Minimum Specs

• CPU: Intel – Core i3-3250, AMD – FX-4350
• GPU: Nvidia – GeForce GTX 660 2GB, AMD – Radeon HD 7850 2GB
• RAM: 6GB

Bungie said if you plan on upgrading sometime before the game releases, here’s some recommendations:

Recommended

• CPU – Intel Core i5-7400
• GPU – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB

Minimum

• CPU – Intel Pentium G4560
• GPU – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2GB

Here is what Bungie used during its PC event, in case you were curious:

• CPU – Intel i7-7700k
• GPU – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080Ti 11GB

Again, these are just the specs for the beta, so expect the list to be finalized at a later date. Specs could change before launch on October 24 after all is said and done.

More information on the PC version, along with word on when you can pre-load the Destiny 2 beta and the exact time it kicks off will be announced at a later date.

Since Destiny 2 will make use of Blizzard’s infrastructure, you will need a Blizzard account to participate. If you haven’t signed up for one yet, go do it.

The PC version will feature an uncapped frame rate, a field of view slider, and many other adjustments have been made compared to the console version. More on that will be revealed later, obviously.

Destiny 2 will release for consoles on September 6 and on PC October 24.

Destiny 2 PC open and early access beta dated – here’s the PC requirements for the beta posted first on http://ift.tt/2k0LiGW

Battlefield 1’s player base just keeps growing – it hit 21 million by the end of June

Battlefield 1 continues to be popular with players, and it has gained another 2 million since March 2017.

EA announced today there are 21 million unique players diving into Battlefield 1. This figure is up from the 19 million reported for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017.

In a call to investors following the financials release, EA dropped a little tease regarding Battlefield 1’s gamescom 2017 showing, saying it will show off “a new way to play Battlefield I built for competition and designed with direct input from our Battlefield community”.

Later, the publisher said it would show “a new offering that will bring the richest Battlefield 1 experience yet, including the all-out warfare, epic multiplayer battles and War Stories campaign that have defined the game plus new maps, deeper progression and additional fan-favorite game modes, all in a single package”.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson said the publisher has “a dozen new titles” in the works, all built on Frostbite. He also mentioned EA is researching “areas like neural networks derived from our data sets, cloud infrastructure to deliver streaming experiences, virtual humans and AI”.

While financial numbers can be rather boring, we’ve posted some figures below pertaining to FIFA, digital and packaged goods.

FIFA 17 continued to do well, fared well too as FIFA Ultimate Team unique player population was up by 11% year-over-year (yoy) compared to Q1 of fiscal year 16/17. And the FIFA Mobile unique player base also stands at 95 million per end of quarter’s end on June 30, 2017.

Digital sales for the quarter came in at $681 million, up from $568 million yoy. Revenue from packaged goods were down yoy to $570 million compared to $582 million during Q1 FY 16/17.

Breaking digital sales down by platform, console sales brought in $368 million, up 25% yoy, while PC and other brought in $163 million, up from $133 million yoy. Mobile contributed to digital revenue with $150 million added to the Q1 pot.

Broken down by sales type, full game download sales contributed $111 million to net digital sales, Live Services which houses DLC, $420 million and mobile $150 million.

For the full quarter, net revenues were up by 14% to $1.45 billion yoy, and 60% came from digital sales.

Battlefield 1’s player base just keeps growing – it hit 21 million by the end of June posted first on http://ift.tt/2k0LiGW

Metroid: Samus Returns amiibo exclusive content includes hard mode and other goodies, costs as much as the game

Metroid: Samus Returns does something Nintendon’t, or at least Nintendidn’t used to.

Metroid: Samus Returns will feature amiibo-exclusive content only legitimately available to those who shell out for Nintendo’s NFC-enabled figurines.

The news first broke last week thanks to the Metroid: Samus Returns description on a Nintendo website, but we held off because Nintendo uses the words “exclusive” pretty loosely when it comes to amiibo extras. Sine then, though, the news has been confirmed with Eurogamer by a Nintendo representative.

“This unlockable content is only unlocked using amiibo,” Nintendo said, which seems pretty final.

In order to unlock all the extra goodies in Metroid: Samus Returns, you’ll need four amiibo – the new Samus Aran and Metroid amiibo releasing alongside the 3DS remake, and the two Metroid Super Smash Bros. amiibo (Samus and Zero Suit Samus).

Bought new at RRP, the four compatible amiibo will run you around $52/£44 depending on retailer and region, whereas Metroid: Samus Returns itself is going for about $40/£40. So if you don’t already own the two Smash Bros. amiibo, you could be looking at paying twice as much as the cart itself costs to get everything.

The content the four amiibo provide is divided between bonuses for use in-game and extras you can unlock after beating Metroid: Samus Returns normally once. Here’s the breakdown:

• Samus Aran amiibo
  • extra energy tank (in-game bonus)
  • Metroid 2 art gallery (game completion bonus)
• Metroid amiibo
  • reveal every Metroid on map (in-game bonus)
  • Fusion difficulty mode (game completion bonus)
  • Metroid Fusion skin (game completion bonus)
• Super Smash Bros. Samus amiibo
  • extra missile tank (in-game bonus)
  • Samus Returns concept art gallery (game completion bonus)
• Super Smash Bros. Zero Suit Samus amiibo
  • extra missile tank (in-game bonus)
  • Samus Returns BGM jukebox mode (game completion bonus)

None of this stuff is really essential, thankfully, but the hard mode is a bit of a sore point. What really seems to be sticking in throats is the fact that these bonuses would surely only be priced at a few bucks at most if sold as DLC for Metroid: Samus Returns.

I guess one way to look at is that this stuff is just a nice extra for Metroid fans who would probably have bought all the amiibo anyway, but if you’re not interested in owning plastic figures you’re looking at a serious financial outlay to get the whole package.

A remake of the 1991 Game Boy classic Metroid 2: Samus Returns for 3DS, Metroid: Samus Returns releases in September, and there’s a very fancy special edition on the cards if you’re the sort to be throwing money around on Metroid extras.

The two new amiibo, while will be sold in a double pack and in bundles with the game as well as individually, were announced alongside Metroid 4 and Metroid: Samus Returns during E3 2017.

Speaking of which, Nintendo showed off 14 a whopping new amiibo during E3 2017, so whatever recent NPD reports may suggest about the staying power of the toys-to-life category, Nintendo clearly believes the NFC figures are here to stay.

Perhaps your local furniture store is having a sale on shelves?

Metroid: Samus Returns amiibo exclusive content includes hard mode and other goodies, costs as much as the game posted first on http://ift.tt/2k0LiGW

The legendary @RickFox is streaming some League on Twitch, go show the big man some love http://ift.tt/2vdQiBi

The legendary @RickFox is streaming some League on Twitch, go show the big man some love http://ift.tt/2tPMD9h;

The legendary @RickFox is streaming some League on Twitch, go show the big man some love http://ift.tt/2vdQiBi posted first on http://ift.tt/2k0LiGW

Grand Theft Auto 5 mod goes to space, fights aliens, looks amazing in new trailer

Grand Theft Space is a thing that clearly had to happen.

There just aren’t enough games about jacking spaceships; all the sandboxes and sims currently out there are too law abiding; we want more to do than hauling minerals back and forth. Something like GTA 5, but … in space.

Enter Grand Theft Space. The product of a team of modders led by sollaholla, the mod promises to go the whole hog on taking GTA 5 to space, since somehow nobody’s managed to do that yet. Here’s the official synopsis:

“The Earth has been alone in this galaxy since the very moment it was formed, but far far away in another galaxy, there was intelligent life peering at the people of earth for a millennium. This life was not the friendly life we would like to believe. The NASA research team have found remnants of alien spaceship parts scattered around the state of San Andreas. We never thought that these intelligent life-forms would ever reach our planet; but they’re coming and they’re not on our side. It’s your mission to take out these alien scum before they reach earth.”

Also, it’s going to include shuttle and lunar vehicles. Intrigued? Check out the first trailer for the Grand Theft Space mod:

You can learn more about the Grand Theft Space mod on the GTA 5 Mods forums if you want to follow along.

We might now be asking ourselves why Rockstar has never taken its blockbuster franchise into science fiction territory if not for the whole Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare disaster last year. Apparently the juggernaut masses aren’t too hot on space – but then again, nobody’s ever done it the way Rockstar might.

Grand Theft Auto 5 mod goes to space, fights aliens, looks amazing in new trailer posted first on http://ift.tt/2k0LiGW

Supers will charge faster in Destiny 2 than they did during the beta

Destiny 2 won’t be as painfully light on space magic as the recent beta.

The Destiny 2 beta gave us all a chance to see how the new shooter is shaping up, and while we’re coming around to some of the changes, the long waits between supers were pretty hard to take. The good news is that Bungie got the message loud and clear on that one.

“In the wake of the beta, we’ve made a few changes that will increase super regeneration across the game,” game director Luke Smith told IGN.

Smith was answering a question about Destiny 2 beta feedback, and reiterated that Bungie had already tweaked some of the things players disliked about the Destiny 2 beta, such as low ammo drops and weak grenades, in more recent internal builds.

Knowing that hasn’t totally quashed worries about Destiny 2’s balance, especially as PvE players are worried they’ll be ignored in favour of a new focus on PvP. Smith commented on this matter, saying that while elements like outgoing weapon, ability and melee damage are balanced separately for the PvE and PvP sandboxes, Bungie is not aiming to make the two major elements of the shooter feel different

“In Destiny you build a character with a bunch of powers, abilities, and we hope, a combat rhythm that is consistent across the game,” he said.

In other words, wave goodbye to any fond thoughts you’ve been harbouring about having PvE play just like the original Destiny and the new weapons and armour systems only applying to PvP in Destiny 2. It was never going to happen. Stop making threads.

Elsewhere in the article, Smith confirmed the player character will be silent throughout Destiny 2, and project lead Mark Noseworthy said Bungie hopes to patch in HDR support sometime after release. There are another couple of bits and pieces of note too, so hit the source link above for the whole Q&A session.

Destiny 2 releases in early September for PS4 and Xbox One, with PC to follow in October. There’ll be a Destiny 2 PC beta in late August, if you fancy it.

Good news on supers there, isn’t it? It would have been painful trying to talk blueberries into chaining orbs on strikes, and playing solo would have been really grim without regular space magic. That said, we’re expecting Destiny 2 to eat our lives even if Bungie removes supers altogether, so…

Supers will charge faster in Destiny 2 than they did during the beta posted first on http://ift.tt/2k0LiGW

New games releasing this week: July 31 – August 6

A new game from the team responsible for Gone Home, a long-awaited survival sandbox, and Pata-pata-pata-pon. Someone got our wishlist.

This week’s crop of new releases is light on triple-A explosions but heavy on more subtle delights.

Top billing must go to Tacoma, a science-fiction adventure from Fullbright. This is the team that delivered Gone Home, which we loved, and we’re excited to see its second release even though the team has warned it won’t be more of the same.

Another indie deserves the spotlight this week. The Long Dark is a a wintry, post-apocalyptic survival sim with a formidable pedigree. It’s been available in early access for ages now, but there it comes in full on Steam and for consoles as well, with a full story campaign and more.

There are some other things worth looking at including new digital releases for Switch (and even one for Wii U), as well as a couple of new PSVR games. Unfortunately we’re too busy pre-ordering Patapon Remastered to pay attention. We’ll have to see how the portable-friendly rhythm action tactical RPG thing transitions to the couch.

New video game releases for July 31 through August 6

• Tuesday, August 1

• The Long Dark (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
• Patapon Remastered (PS4)
• Aven Colony (PS4, Xbox One)
• CastleStorm VR Edition (PSVR)
• Demetrios – The Big Cynical Adventure (PS4)
• Dino Frontier (PS VR)
• Drawfighters (PS4)
• Frisky Business (PS4)
• Redeemer (PC)
• Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (PS4, Xbox One)

• Wednesday, August 2

• Tacoma (PC, Xbox One)
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (PC)

• Thursday, August 3

• Slime-san (Switch)
• Retro City Rampage DX (Switch)
• Flight of Light (Wii U)

Looking further ahead? Check out our full list of 2017 video game release dates.

As always, PlayStation Store release dates may vary depending on region.

New games releasing this week: July 31 – August 6 posted first on http://ift.tt/2k0LiGW