Cyberpunk 2077 has multiple starting points indicates quest designer Pawel Sasko. He first implied this feature during an interview with VG24/7 but his wording wasn’t clear enough. One of the fans reached out to Sasko for clarification on Twitter. According to Pawel, he is going to stand by what he said but can’t further comment on it. Pawel Sasko wishes to ignore spoilers but it is pretty clear he can’t speak outside of that interview.
I stand for what I have said but would prefer not to confirm too much here as it’s strongly tied to the story and spoiling it is like a crime to me. I feel you will like it, let’s keep it at that.
Based on what he said in the interview, Cyberpunk 2077 will have different starting points. These starting points depend on the life path you choose at the beginning of the game.
You can be one of the nomads as a player and you can start there, being part of a family of the Nomads. You could call them a tribe that is living in cars and they’re just driving over Badlands. They’re doing various jobs for fixers, and for people in the city, and doing various deals – I don’t want to disclose too much because not to spoil the story.
His statement suggests that players can choose to be part of various groups, tribes, gangs. The feature opens up the room for many playthroughs as part of different groups. New quest lines, dialogues, endings, the possibilities are endless. Cyberpunk 2077 publisher and developer CD Projekt RED creating a deep branching narrative. It seems Cyberpunk 2077 publisher is taking things a few steps forward from The Witcher 3.
There are three primary backgrounds you can choose and each will affect your interactions. For example, if you choose “Street Kid” you will have better luck speaking with gangs as opposed to “Nomad” and “Corporate.”
Street Kid — Someone who grew up on the streets
Nomad — Ex-Corporate employee fired and blacklisted
Corporate — Corporate employee working to secure their interest
Cyberpunk 2077 is releasing on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on April 16, 2020.
According to the new Newzoo report, more PC browser gamers will shift to mobile. Newzoo believes PC gamers shifting to mobile devices will result in a 15% revenue drop for PC browser gaming.
But the gaming industry, in general, will see significant growth in 2019. Revenues should be up 9.6% compared to 2019. Global Games Market revenue report predicts $152.1 Billion in revenue for gaming in 2019. Revenue will go up from $135 Billion in 2018.
23% of worldwide gaming revenue will come from the PC gaming market, PC gamers will contribute $35.7Bn. Meanwhile, mobile games will contribute $68.5Bn or 45% of worldwide gaming revenue. Console revenue will see a slight dip by the end of 2019 which will last till 2021.
The mobile gaming market has seen exponential growth over the past few years. It is the primary cause of big-name publisher focusing more on mobile platforms. While gamers may not appreciate their favorite IPs reduced to a bare bone experience, there is no stopping mobile games.
Global Gaming Industry Revenue Report 2019
PC games developers Activision and EA have already shown their commitment to mobile games. Diablo Immortal, Call of Duty, Command, and Conquer are some of the titles coming to mobile.
Mobile gaming (smartphone and tablet), meanwhile, remains the largest segment in 2019, growing +10.2% year on year to $68.5 billion—45% of the global games market. Of this, $54.9 billion will come from smartphone games. PC gaming will be both the smallest and slowest-growing segment, increasing +4.0% year on year to $35.7 billion. Despite the segment being smaller in size, PC’s status as the bedrock of innovation in the games market remains evident to this day.
These IPs were once exclusive to consoles and PC. Bethesda’s Fallout Shelter and The Elder Scrolls Blades are also contributing to the mobile cause. Although most of these mobile projects are frowned upon by PC gamers, they still managed to make millions.
As mobile devices become more powerful, we will see bigger and better games.
Speaking of better games, video game streaming on mobile is a great way to experience AAA games. Microsoft’s Project xCloud and Google’s Stadia will allow players to stream AAA titles. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Doom Eternal are some of the games coming. PC and console games can now be played on mobile devices via streaming platforms.
With the rise of streaming services, PC browser games market is expected to see a significant drop in the next few years. But PC gaming, in general, is expected to see 4% growth year on year.
When you think of the biggest gaming companies in the world, Apple isn’t the first company to come up. The company is popular for its iOS devices but its iOS gaming scene is low key.
It’s surprising to know that Apple has become the fourth biggest gaming company in the world. It’s ranked fourth biggest gaming company beating Nintendo and EA. Apple edged out Call of Duty creator Activision thanks to iOS games.
Apple made billions from its iPhone and iPad games in 2018. According to the latest Newzoo report, the tech giant made $9.4 billion last year from iOS mobile games.
Mobile games revenue from iPhone and iPad games is 32% up year-over-year. Won’t be surprising to see Apple’s iOS mobile games revenue go up to 45% this year.
Companies that outperformed Apple are Sony, Microsoft, and the Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent. Tencent is the biggest video games company in the world. The Chinese corporation has its finger dipped in many companies involved in the video games industry.
Tencent has shares in Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard, Riot Games, Take-Two Interactive, and more. Google is 6th, Netease is 7th, EA is 8th, Nintendo and Bandai Namco shared the 10th spot. Others including Ubisoft, Take-Two, Warner Bros., and Konami fail to hit top 10.
Mobile gaming makes up for the majority of worldwide revenue of the gaming industry. The video games industry revenue expected to reach $152.1 billion this year, 9.6% up from 2018.
$68.5 Billion is the estimated revenue for the mobile gaming industry in 2019. It’s a safe bet that Apple will see significant revenue growth this year from its iOS games.
An interesting prediction in the Newzoo report is about the PC gaming market. More PC gamers will switch to iOS Android mobile gaming in 2019, triggering a 15% fall in revenue. Meanwhile, Nintendo Mini will cause a boost in revenue for Nintendo, Newzoo predicts.
Marvel’s Avengers game might be the worst E3 2019 showing. Fans weren’t happy with character designs, the trailer itself was very underwhelming and the only gameplay showcased for the game was behind closed doors. Turns out there is a reason for that and Marvel’s Avengers might be another Anthem.
One of the people who got to see the behind the closed doors demo for Marvel’s Avengers was “Luke Stephens”. According to the Youtuber, Square Enix was very strict about the no phone and camera policy and watching the demo it was clear why.
He added that Marvel’s Avengers didn’t look polish at all and seemed like the developers need more than a year to polish the game. He noted that it looked like a video game from 2010 and demo itself was strictly linear.
Furthermore, the demo didn’t even have any narrative reason to justify the switch between the heroes. You can checkout the video below to see what the Youtuber has to say about the game and it isn’t pretty.
Considering that Marvel’s Avengers game is scheduled for May 2020 release, the developers have less than a year to finish the game. Either the game will be delayed or it will be another blunder mirroring the launch of Bioware’s Anthem.
The reason why the game isn’t in any condition to launch even two years after its announcement could be that Crystal Dynamics spent most of the time developing tools for the game engine. Without proper tools it would be impossible to develop such a game. I do hope Marvel Avengers game will be the game they promised us at launch.
This might also explain why the single-player campaign is solo only and can’t be played in co-op multiplayer. Maybe the developers don’t have much time to develop a campaign that can be played in multiplayer and they decided to go single-player only route.
Until Square Enix itself confirms it or the game launches, we won’t know for sure if that’ true. Until then, we can only wait and watch but, I do hope the game is everything they have promised us.
Crystal Dynamics is developing Marvel’s Avengers game and it’s scheduled to launch on May 15, 2020, for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
God Of War 2018 is considered to be one of the best games of this console generation. It is a console seller that has won multiple awards over the years. Given the success of the original game, fans have been wondering whether God Of War 2 will be made.
Santa Monica Studio, director Cory Barlog has not commented on the matter yet. But the official website of Santa Monica Studios has some job listings that hint towards God Of War 2 aka God of War 5 being in development.
The job listings are for level designers, combat designers, and cinematic artists amongst others. While it is not unusual for studios to hire talent, interestingly these job posts mention that candidates should know about God Of War 2018. This could hint that God of War 2 is in fact early in development. You can check out the job posting below:
This obviously is not concrete proof that a sequel is in development. We have heard numerous rumors about it and it is highly unlikely that Sony would not cash in on this opportunity. Keeping in mind how well the original game did.
You should wait for official confirmation from Sony or Santa Monica Studios before taking this to heart. I would take this with a grain of salt if I were you. What we can tell you is that Sony has teased “Ragnarok is Coming” in a recent PS4 theme. This could be another hint towards a sequel to God of War in the works.
You should not expect the new God of War game to be announced any time soon. It is possible that the upcoming God Of War will be released for the next generation PS5. Sony already has plenty of exclusives lined up such as Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima, and The Last of Us Part 2. God of War 5 will push Sony first party-line for PS5 to new heights.
Blade Runner is a 1997 video game developed by Westwood Studios. However, you can’t play the game because it runs too fast on modern machines and the devs lost the original code when they shifted offices. But dedicated fans have managed to make Blade Runner Immortal playable on modern machines and it took them just 8 years.
Thomas Fach-Pedersen along with his small team managed to run Blade Runner using the ScummVM. However, you need to own the original game and even then the game requires additional fixes to make it playable.
The original game is technically playable, but needs some fixes to get it working. But not everything works properly. Some parts of the game are written in such a way that they simply run too fast on modern computers.
The reason why Thomas Fach-Pedersen and team are spending so much time to make the game playable is that they find the game technically fascinating. If you want to play Blade Runner Immortal then you can check the detailed instructions on how to do it.
it’s an interesting game, technically, because it’s basically constantly playing video loops start until it ends. Even the settings menu is basically looping background with some text on top.
One of the ‘fun’ things specifically about Blade Runner is that a lot of the engine has to work before you can progress past just the first room. I’ve seen the intro and that damn hover car descend in front of Runciter’s animal store and listened to McCoy’s intro thousands of times.
For those who don’t know, Blade Runner is a movie directed by the legendary “Ridley Scott”. The movie didn’t do well financially when it launched in the 80s. But over time, the movie acquired a large cult following which led to a sequel “Blade Runner 2049” which expands upon the original.
The game itself is set parallel to original Blade Runner and introduces its own spin on the story. Just so you know, the movie itself is based on the book “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”
Given we won’t be getting another game, at least to my knowledge, you can scratch your Cyberpunk itch with next year’s Cyberpunk 2077. To some extent, Cyberpunk 2077 is inspired by Blade Runner. The developers themselves noted that they had to watch Blade Runner before starting production on Cyberpunk 2077.
Let us know what you think about Blade Runner Immortal.
How long has it been since we saw a Half-Life game from Valve? Yet despite overwhelming demand from the community Valve refused to work on it for over a decade. The good news is that the Half-Life community is still alive and thriving. Members of the community started a new Half-Life project under the codename “Borealis.” Fan made Half-Life 2 Episode 3 Project Borealis uses a highly modified Unreal Engine 4. Unlike the traditional Half-Life engine (Source Engine), Unreal Engine 4 is a well-rounded tool.
Project Borealis has been in development for a while but finally, we have gameplay. And let me tell you, Valve needs to take a look at this and higher these guys to develop an official game.
Team Borealis released a five-minute gameplay video from a work-in-progress section. In the level we see Gordon infiltrate a Combine facility. Most of the elements we see in the Half-Life 2 Episode 3 demo are placeholders. What the final product looks like remains unclear. But if it is anywhere close to the demo we don’t mind at all. Of course, we expect improvements instead of a downgrade from this version.
Team Projekt Borealis is currently working to expand the physics system and features such as the Gravity Gun. Anything near the Gravity Gun will see some effects when you fire.
The progress is great, isn’t it? You can actually contribute to the development of Borealis. There are many job openings including Level Design Team Lead Project Manager, Texture Artist, and more.
What Led to the Creation of Fan-Made Half-Life 3?
After over a decade of silence from Valve, something happened. In 2017 a plot synopsis was published on a blog by Half-Life Writer Mark Laidlaw. His plot explained adventures of Gertie Fermont and Alex Vaunt. The plot is widely believed to be an overview of the intended Half-Life 3 story.
Following the post, Half-Life fans demanded Half-Life 2 Episode 3. Valve didn’t listen but Team Borealis did. The team consists of hardcore Half-Life fans who are funding this project out of pocket. Project Borealis has 80 developers on-board since 2017. There is no final release date for the time being.
EA adds shady loot boxes in its games that are often predatory. The company got into a lot of trouble for its gambling mechanics. Gambling commissions cracked down on loot boxes after how EA handled Battlefront 2. The game featured aggressive and predatory microtransactions. Riddled with Loot Boxes, Battlefront 2 sparked worldwide outrage and debate. Various Governments had to intervene to investigate the gaming industry.
This is why EA is now standing in front of the UK Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committee. In a recent statement, EA talked about loot boxes and referred to them as “ethical” which is surprising keeping in mind how many commissions see this gambling.
Kerry Hopkins, EA’s VP of legal and government affairs claimed that these aren’t loot boxes. According to EA’s new definition, these are “surprise mechanics.” It seems like a tactic to counter the negativity surrounding the term “loot boxes.”The new definition came to light when Hopkins spoke to the UK Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committee. This happened during an evidentiary hearing to investigate gambling mechanics in video games.
EA compared loot boxes to surprise toys like “FIFA packs” are something that you got free with a Mcdonalds Happy Meal. Here is what Hopkins had to say in response to one of the questions asked by Scottish National Party MP, Brendan O’Hara:
We do think the way that we have implemented these kinds of mechanics – and FIFA, of course, is our big one, our FIFA Ultimate Team and our packs – is actually quite ethical and quite fun, quite enjoyable to people.
Netherlands and Belgium already have a “no loot box” law to protect its consumers from the likes to EA. But EA disagrees with their regulations. According to EA, these loot boxes aren’t gambling nor do they can cause gambling issues. EA’s stance is backed by Australian gambling commission which doesn’t consider loot boxes a gambling mechanic similar to slot machines.
Here is what Hopkins had to say regarding the matter:
We do agree with the UK gambling commission, the Australian gambling commission, and many other gambling commissions that they aren’t gambling, and we also disagree that there’s evidence that shows it leads to gambling. Instead, we think it’s like many other products that people enjoy in a healthy way, and like the element of surprise.
In certain regions of the world, loot boxes have been banned in games such as Overwatch. This is a problem that needs to be taken seriously and it seems that EA is ready to find back. The immediate step from EA revolves around re-naming and rebranding loot boxes. We may see new buzz words thrown around.
EA is not fooling anyone and I think that anyone that has a bit of common sense can see that EA is trying to rebrand loot boxes. I am sure that the UK Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committee will see that as well.
Mark Cerny has confirmed that PS5 will use an SSD but he also mentioned that it is not just some regular SSD. It is a special SSD that is not available to PC users as of right now. AMD just announced the X570 motherboards that support PCIe 4.0 SSDs and it is possible that the PS5 uses the same storage solution.
We know that both the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett are powered by AMD hardware. Both use AMD Zen 2 CPUs and AMD Navi graphics. Adding the PCIe 4.0 interface to the PS5 or Xbox Scarlett would not be hard keeping in mind that the new AMD Ryzen 3000 series CPUs already support it.
PS5 And Xbox Scarlett Feature A Custom PCIe 4.0 SSD
These CPUs and motherboards are not available right now so Mark Cerny’s statement would still be valid. This hardware has been announced recently and consumers have yet to get their hands on the AMD Ryzen 3000 series CPU or the X570 motherboards.
Sony recently showed off the loading speeds of Spider-man running on the PS5 compared to the PS4 Pro. The PS5 was much faster when it came to loading the game and took less than a second. It would also load assets much faster and hence the gameplay was much smoother. This can only be done if the SSD used is next-generation, and the only SSSD that’s able to achieve this is PCIe 4.0.
Sony’s official video comparing performance of PS4 Pro vs next-gen PlayStation pic.twitter.com/2eUROxKFLq
The demo shows that the PS4 Pro takes 15 seconds to load the new area in Spider-man while the PS5 only takes 0.8 seconds. That is a drastic increase in performance only possible with PCIe 4.0. Soon after, companies like Corsair and Gigabyte announced their PCIe 4.0 based storage solutions that offer a much higher bandwidth when compared to PCIe 3.0 and can deliver faster data transfer speeds.
Mark Cerny has mentioned that the unprocessed bandwidth of the SSD inside the PS5 is much higher than that of any SSD for PC right now. He also went on to mention the following:
Raw read speed is important but so are the details of the I / O mechanisms and the software stack we put on them. I got a PlayStation 4 Pro and then I put an SSD that cost as much as the PlayStation 4 Pro, it could be a third faster.
Why Is PCIe 4.0 Such A Big Deal?
PCIe 4.0 offers double the bandwidth compared to PCIe 3.0. PCIe 3.0 is capped at 16GB/s but the new PCIe 4.0 standard can go up to 32 gigabytes per second. This is one of the reasons why we believe the PS5 will feature a PCIe 4.0 based SSD. If you heard about a max speed of 64 GB/s, then that is true as well but both directions of data have been taken into consideration in that case.
Interestingly PCIe 5.0 will be ready before we get this technology in the mainstream. So even though PCIe 5.0 SSD in the PS5 would be a bit of a stretch but there is a really minor chance that it could happen. I would take that with a grain of salt if I were you. Yet it is enirely possble that PS5 and Xbox Scarlett use PCIe 4.0 SSDs. Either the standard PCIe 4.0 or something that is based on 4.0 but tweaked specifically to Xbox Scarlett and PlayStation 5.
The Corsair MP600 is one of the newly announced SSDs that use the PCIe 4.0 interface and you can see the difference in performance compared to the older model that uses PCIe 3.0 in the table below:
Model
Corsair MP600
Corsair MP510
Form Factor
double-sided M.2 2280
double-sided M.2 2280
Interface
NVMe, PCIe 4.0 x4
NVMe, PCIe 3.0 x4
Controller
Phison PS5016-E16
Phison PS5012-E12
NAND Flash
Toshiba 64-layer 3D TLC
Capacities
240GB–1920GB
Sequential Read
up to 4950 MB/s
up to 3480 MB/s
Sequential Write
up to 4250 MB/s
up to 3000 MB/s
Random Read
up to 610k IOPS
Xbox Scarlett Has One Too?
We are still not sure about the kind of storage Sony is using to get such high speeds out of the PS5. This could be PCIe 4.0 or could be something else entirely. We need to wait for the official specifications in order to be sure. But based on our own experience and where the technology currently stands it is safe to say PCIe 4.0 is in use. Moreover, if the PS5 is using this SSD storage solution then the upcoming Xbox Scarlett is most likely going with it. Both console manufacturers are supplied by AMD, both consoles use the same CPU and Navi based GPU. Why not the same SSD? Platinum Games Head Producer Atsushi Inaba recently pointed out that both the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett are very similar. He mentioned that they are so much alike that it is hard to get excited about either one. The following is what he had to say in this regard:
It’s OK, and by that I mean, I’m sure that things will move faster, graphics will be better and maybe it will be easier with fewer wait times, that’s good for the consumer. But it’s more of the same, quite frankly, compared to previous generations. It’s nothing that’s disruptive or super innovative if you ask me.
Now for the price, Microsoft has confirmed that the Xbox Scarlett will be reasonably priced. Xbox Corporate Vice President Mike Ybarra even claimed that the console will set a new bar for console gaming. All this is very interesting but only time will tell. PlayStation 5 on the other hands is reportedly $499.
Nutaku has added renowned porn star and bestselling author, Asa Akira to their its game Booty Calls. The game has proper voice over and personality quirks. Now you can play Booty Calls and have an idea of what it feels like to date the anal queen. Sporting a curvaceous appearance, the animated Asa is well captured by the game’s digital artists to the minutest detail. If you thought that Keanu Reeves was a major highlight for Cyberpunk 2077 then Asa Akira is surely a major update for Booty Calls.
Asa Akira answered a few questions regarding her role in the game and the following is what she had to say in this regard:
How do you feel after recording for Booty Calls?
It was really fun! I got to be involved in the dialogue choices, so it was written in a way that it sounds naturally like me. It just felt like we went right through it because everything is in my voice anyway. Also, I was really surprised at how many phrases there are because I guess you have to choose your own adventure.
Would people get a feel of what it is like to date Asa Akira by playing this game?
For sure, because everything is said in my language. It’s funny because I am a really inquisitive person, people always ask me to slow down with the 21 questions. That’s how I am in the game too. I am also surprised at how many sex noises I can make because a good third of it is during sex.
Would you date your character?
I don’t know yet if I am drawn to a character like myself, or a personality like myself. But I’m excited to give it a try for the first time and see what it’s like. It’s the first time I’ve ever had the opportunity to actually date myself, I’m sure it’s going to be hot.
What is it like seeing yourself in a videogame?
It’s really cool, I really like the way the character looks. She is the hottest version of me, so I am very into her. I have always loved how in videogames or in animations, the curves are so exaggerated, which is definitely the kind of body that I wish I had, but totally unattainable in real life. She is such an hourglass. Moreover, her outfit is literally something that I own.
In the game, players get to meet and interact with Asa during an interview for a gig in an adult movie. With multiple choice dialogue system, players can impress Asa, steering the story as they wish, and figuring out what it takes to score a date. A customizable character, players can select their choice of wardrobe and props that they deem suitable for a perfect romantic encounter with Asa. If you are interested in playing the game then you can download it from the official store.
While we are talking about games with adult themes, be sure to check out the new concept art the CDPR has released for Cyberpunk 2077. The game has a lot of sex and nudity. It is worth checking out if you are interested in all that fun stuff.
Let us know what you think about Asa Akira being added to Booty Calls and whether or not you have played the game so far.
