Monthly Archives: September 2016

PS4 Pro Will Be the Last PS4 for “Substantial Period of Time”

Sony appears to have no plans to introduce a further upgrade to its PS4 hardware in the near future, according to new comments from the company.

Speaking to The Guardian, head of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Andrew House said: “We think that for a really substantial period of time

the PlayStation 4 lineup. We’re very comfortable with that.”

Some have questioned whether Sony and Microsoft - which will release the Xbox One upgrade, Project Scorpio next year - are moving towards something akin to an "Apple model" of regular upgrades to a base design.

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Xbox Live Faster and More Reliable Than PSN, Says Report

Microsoft has shared the results of a report from analytics firm IHS Markit which says its Xbox Live service is "the fastest, most reliable gaming network."

The full report tested speed and reliability across a variety of metrics, and Microsoft's service came out on top in the majority of categories.

In terms of reliability, Xbox Live had a better score for login time to network, login time to game servers, and uninterrupted play, while there is no noticeable difference when it comes to matchmaking.

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PlayStation 4 HDR Patches Could Cost Money

PlayStation 4 will be bringing high dynamic range support to existing games, but it could end up costing you to get the patches.

Earlier this week, Sony confirmed that an upcoming update will make all existing PS4s HDR-compatible, and the general assumption was that HDR patches for games would subsequently arrive for free.

However, Game Impress Watch (as translated by Kotaku) spoke to Sony's Masayasu Ito about whether patches will be paid for by users, and the answers are so far fairly vague.

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IGN UK Podcast #348: What Does All This New Technology Really Mean?

A mid-console cycle upgrade? The headphone jack being laid to rest? There's been a few unusual technology announcements this week.

Are they worth our interest or ire? Is the lack of a headphone jack really something worth getting wound-up about? To help you navigate the peaty quagmire of technological advancement this week are Rory, Chris, and Krupa. Trust them, they know the feeling of built-in obsolescence better than anyone.

IGN UK Podcast #348: What Does All This New Technology Really Mean?

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Does Star Trek’s Message of Inclusion Extend to Religion?

Star Trek’s 50th anniversary celebration continued at last weekend’s Mission New York convention, where Star Trek: Discovery writer-producers Nicholas Meyer and Kirsten Beyer were on hand on behalf of showrunner Bryan Fuller to promote the highly anticipated series. During their panel, however, a question -- and Meyer and Beyer’s reaction to that question -- may have given away a very interesting tidbit about Discovery: It sounds as though the series could feature a Muslim character in its cast.

Now, to emphasize, this was not confirmed during the panel, but still it does raise an intriguing question that has long surrounded creator Gene Roddenberry’s series regarding its sometimes uncomfortable relationship with depicting human religion of the future. Or the lack thereof, as the case may be.

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Mafia 3 Is More than a Crime Spree

If you haven’t played a Mafia game - don’t worry, I hadn't either. On the outside, they look pretty familiar. An open world. A big city. Cars to drive. Cars to steal. Guns to shoot. And people to kill.

But Mafia 3 isn’t just an open-world game where you can drive and shoot and steal and do whatever you want in a crime-infested city. After spending around six hours playing a hefty chunk of the opening, it became pretty clear Mafia 3 is something more than that.

Here are the basics: Mafia 3 takes place in New Bordeaux - Hanger 13’s version of New Orleans. It’s set in 1968 in the deep south, and is seeped in all the tension and blatant racism that comes with that.

The story follows Lincoln Clay, a mixed-race orphan who finds a new family in the Black Mob before he’s shipped overseas to fight in the Vietnam War. He comes back and wants to go legitimate, but suffers a betrayal that pulls him back into a life a crime and sets off Mafia 3's chain of events.

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A Retro Emulator May Be Coming to Xbox One

A retro emulator may be on its way to Xbox One.

According to the nesbox Twitter account, the free-to-download emulator – which lets users play ROMs and create their own games – has passed certification and is due to appear in the Windows Store for Xbox One “soon.”

As well as USB support for loading ROMs, nesbox plans to add OneDrive cloud functionality in the future for anyone looking to store their ROMs online. The emulator itself features support for the NES, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, GameBoy Color, and GameBoy Advance.

For anyone getting excited at the prospect of playing Super Mario Bros. on Xbox One, there are a few caveats to consider. First off, there’s a fairly large possibility when Nintendo sees this, a DMCA will be filed and the emulator will only see the light of day in the Windows Store. The other thing to remember: Downloading ROMs you don’t own a copy of is illegal in most countries. So proceed with caution, yeah?

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Join the IGN UK Team at the Sorcery! Part 4 Launch Party

Inkle's Sorcery! series has been a firm fixture on IGN UK phones and computers for a few years now and, with the fourth and final installment arriving this month, we're delighted to say we'll be helping send it off at the game's launch party in London.

We'll be hosting a live IGN UK Podcast at the show, where we'll be joined by members of the developer's own Inklecast for a live playthrough of the opening section of Sorcery! 4. But there's a twist - you get to make all the Choose Your Own Adventure-y decisions for us. This is definitely not a terrible idea.

Attendance is free, there'll be Sorcery!-themed cocktails available for those of an over-18 nature, and the first 200 cocktails come with a free copy of the new game, so it would be borderline ludicrous not to attend.

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