Monthly Archives: January 2018

PUBG Xbox One Patch Offers “Slightly” Better Frame Rate

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is receiving a new patch for its Xbox Game Preview version, offering what developer Bluehole calls "incremental" improvements, including to the frame rate.

The PUBG Development and Community Team posted the announcement along with other patch notes on the PUBG Forums.

Frame rates on both client and server sides have been increased slightly, and some VFX have received slight optimizations. A number of crash-inducing issues have also been addressed, as well as a UI issue that occurred when multiple players attempted to loot from the same object.

Continue reading…

Nintendo Switch Beats Wii U Lifetime Sales in Japan

The Nintendo Switch has now sold more units in Japan than the Wii U did in its lifetime.

As reported by Famitsu (and spotted by Twitter's Nibel), the Switch's latest sales data puts it at 3,407,158 to the Wii U's 3,301,555.

The Switch has been available for just over 10 months - the Wii U has been on sale for a little over 5 years. Japanese buyers have preferred handheld experiences in recent years, which perhaps explains Switch's sales dominance over its predecessor.

The hybrid console has already proven itself to be a move in the right direction for Nintendo, and is expected to surpass Wii U's global lifetime sales this year. In December, Nintendo said Switch had topped 10 million units worldwide - Nintendo reports that Wii U sold 13.56 million.

Continue reading…

Dragon Age Character’s Fake Novel Being Released For Real

If you're a seasoned player of Bioware's Dragon Age series, chances are you'll know the name Varric Tethras. An adventuring dwarf with a dry wit, he featured as a companion character in both Dragon Age II and Dragon Age: Inquisition, where he has some level of fame thanks to his novel, Hard in Hightown. Brilliantly, real-world publishers Dark Horse Books and Penguin Random House will be publishing the novel in its entirety for your reading pleasure.

As reported by GameInformer, the novel is written by Mark Kirby (referred to as Varric's "co-writer"), and is fully illustrated thanks to the work of artists Stefano Martino, Álvaro Sarraseca, Andres Ponce, and Ricardo German Ponce Torres, with a painted cover from E.M. Gist.

Continue reading…

Halo TV Show “Still in Very Active Development”

Executives at Showtime say the network's long in-development Halo TV show is "still in very active development".

Asked by TV Guide, Showtime CEO David Nevins confirmed the news, adding that he'd seen scripts for the show. Perhaps tellingly, "still in very active development" is exactly the same quote Nevins gave IGN back in 2015.

President of programming Gary Levine told TV Guide that the project is "still moving forward and I'm encouraged by what we've seen so far

Continue reading…

American Gods Looks to Lose Two Cast Members in Season 2

The television adaptation of hit Neil Gaiman book American Gods may lose two key cast members for its second season.

Gillian Anderson will not be returning to American Gods, according to the Los Angeles Times, and Variety reports Kristin Chenoweth is unsure if she will star in Season 2.

Gillian Anderson says she will not reprise her role as the powerful new god, Media, due to the departure of showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green, who left the series over creative differences with producer FremantleMedia.

Continue reading…

Valve Pulls Official Backing from Dota 2 Tournament

Valve is pulling official backing from a Dota 2 tournament in the Philippines due to new government regulations on drug testing.

The Dota Team made the announcement, stating that they believe the new regulations are an unreasonable infringement on the privacy of players. Full details are available on the official Dota 2 blog.

The new policies require players to be subjected to drug testing and screening in order to enter the country to participate in the tournament, according to Kotaku. Specific drugs being tested for include marijuana and crystal meth.

Continue reading…