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Tomb Raider Dev Crystal Dynamics Cuts Staff For Second Time This Year
Developer Crystal Dynamics is laying off more members from the team, though not detailing the total number of people impacted. This is the second round of cuts at the Tomb Raider studio within the last six months--and the first since the Perfect Dark reboot was canned.
On LinkedIn, the official Crystal Dynamics account announced the layoffs. "This decision was not made lightly," the post reads. "It was necessary, however, to ensure the long-term health of our studio and core creative priorities in a continually shifting market." The language is pretty similar to what Crystal Dynamics stated after 17 people were laid off in March: "We did not make this decision lightly."
The biggest known project at Crystal Dynamics currently is the next Tomb Raider. The game starring Lara Croft will be published by Amazon Games, and Crystal Dynamics noted that "the future of Tomb Raider" is "unaffected by this decision."
Continue Reading at GameSpotResident Evil Requiem Director Explains Why He Opted For Two Camera Modes This Time Around
Ever since Resident Evil 7, the horror series' non-remake games have opted for a first-person perspective over the third-person perspective Resident Evil 4 set as the de facto choice in 3D games. Resident Evil Village was made with first-person in mind, though it did get a third-person camera mode post-launch. When Resident Evil Requiem launches next year, it'll do so with first- and third-person modes right out the gate. But according to the game's director, the latter was only added in so it wouldn't be too scary for some players.
Speaking to GamesRadar, director Koshi Nakanishi explained how he implemented Resident Evil 7's first-person perspective to make it "more immersive and more scary than ever before," noting that he thinks "media and players agreed it was an incredibly scary game, but it was possibly too scary."
He went on to say that because it felt too scary, he believes some players weren't able to finish it, or even start it in the first place. In turn, with Requiem, he wanted to make sure there was a way to let as many people play the game as possible. "If you started the game off in first-person perspective, and you're finding it's too much, then-third person is almost a way to step slightly back from that level of horror and make it slightly easier to deal with by having the character on screen as a kind of avatar of yourself," Nakanishi explained.
Continue Reading at GameSpotThe Biggest Question About Skate’s Soundtrack: Will Ska Return?
What's the most important thing that EA's new Skate game needs? Contrary to popular belief, polished gameplay and fun environments aren't at the top of the list, because that's a spot reserved for the soundtrack. If we're talking sub-genres within the playlist itself, then naturally, we have to know just how much of it is reserved for the best music to power a kickflip: ska. So just how much ska is in Skate? That's a question Skate's developers aren't quite ready to answer yet, although they are tooting their horns about the game's upcoming release on PC and console.
"I know ska is really polarising. I love Ska, I love Rocksteady (another genre of music), so I don't know how to answer this. I'm also bad at math, so I'm going to say it won't be a high percentage but I won't rule out ska being on the soundtrack," senior creative director Deran Chung said to VideoGamer. Skate head of creative Jeff Seamster added that the game definitely features "some" ska, which might be reason enough to grab your old Mighty Mighty Bosstones T-shirt out of your cupboard and dust off your Reel Big Fish CDs.
Of course, you're free to have as much ska as you want while playing, thanks to the integration of streaming services on console and PC. Pull up a playlist of Fishbone and Madness on Spotify, and you're good to go.
Continue Reading at GameSpotBattlefield 6 Labs Testing Program Kicks Off Again This Week, Here's How To Sign Up
The Battlefield 6 testing program, Battlefield Labs, is ramping back up this week following the end of the game's popular open beta earlier this month.
A leaked document reveals that the next Battlefield Labs test will begin on Friday, August 29, across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. The Labs test will include a lot of new features, including the debut of the server browser and bigger maps.
If you took part in a Labs test before the open beta, you're automatically in for future tests. Everyone else, however, has to sign up for Labs and hope to be chosen. You can sign up for Labs here.
Continue Reading at GameSpotCall Of Duty: WW2 Is Once Again Available For PC Game Pass After Reportedly Serious Security Issue
Activision has brought Call of Duty: World War II back to the Microsoft Store and Xbox PC App after it was removed more than a month ago, though the company has still not said a word about what happened.
A statement released on August 27 confirmed that the 2017 game has returned, and is once again available for PC Game Pass players. However, there was no explanation as to anything else related to the game's removal on July 4. At the time, Activision said it pulled the game to investigate "an issue."
While Activision never confirmed what happened, fans believe they worked it out. Call of Duty: WWII was reportedly overrun with Remote Code Execution attacks that had players losing control of their PCs via a security exploit. A similar attack happened to Dark Souls 3 back in 2022, which led to the entire trilogy being taken offline while the security issue was addressed.
Continue Reading at GameSpotMetal Gear Solid Delta Dev Hopes Hideo Kojima Sees How "Respectful" It Is
Earlier this summer, Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima laughed when asked if he would play the remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, before flatly replying, "No, I won't." Regardless, the creative team behind Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is hopeful that their former colleague will get a chance to see that the remake was created with great reverence and respect for the original.
"We are not sure what [Kojima] would want to do, but we want to deliver this game whilst being very respectful of all the people that we previously worked with," said MGS Delta producer Noriaki Okamura during an interview with Inverse. "We would love for [Kojima] to see it too."
Kojima parted ways with Konami in 2015 after spending decades as one of the top creative minds in the company. Since that time, Kojima has launched his own company and released two Death Stranding games. Okamura has openly shared his admiration for Kojima and expressed his desire to work with him again on MGS. However, Kojima has his own MGS-like game called Physint, which may still be a few years away. The director recently confirmed that Physint is still in a conceptual phase.
Continue Reading at GameSpotNew Peak Update Adds New Graphics Options For Low-End Hardware
While players are still enjoying Peak's brand-new Mesa biome, the game's latest patch is here to address some technical concerns--specifically making it easier to run Peak on lower-powered computers.
The latest patch, which brings the game to version 1.27.a, introduces a new Texture Quality graphics setting. The new option, which Team Peak says has been much-requested, allows players with low VRAM to lower the texture quality, reducing the incidence of low framerates, missing graphics, and potential crashes. The developer notes that the lower texture quality "doesn’t even look much worse," so it's worth checking out for anyone who's been experiencing performance issues in Peak.
The developer has also added support for DX11 graphics API, alongside existing options DX12 and Vulkan. "It might be better, it might be worse," the patch notes warn, but suggest players who have had issues with the other options give it a try anyway. "We can’t really confirm which exact configurations of graphics cards this will work better with, but if it can improve it for some of you that’s fantastic!"
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