Xbox Series X|S: Celebs Rumors

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‘Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’ has been revealed – and it’s launching this year

Warhorse Studios has revealed Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, with a new trailer revealing everything fans can expect from the medieval role-playing game (RPG).A direct sequel to 2018’s Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is set to launch in 2024 and will continue the story of peasant-turned-knight Henry in 15th century Bohemia.Speaking to press, Warhorse Studios confirmed that the “majority” of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 will take place in the Bohemian city of Kuttenberg, and its full world will be two times bigger than the first game.Additionally, Henry’s story will be much grander in scope. He’ll now be dealing with the “problems of kings” on a quest to avenge his destroyed village, and the first trailer teases that with scenes of large-scale sieges and urban warfare.
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All news where Xbox Series X|S is mentioned

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‘Elden Ring’ DLC probably won’t be ready for The Game Awards 2023
Elden Ring, Shadows of the Erdtree, likely won’t be previewed next week at the The Game Awards 2023.Speaking to Japanese publication Game Watch (with a translation provided by PCGamesN) at the PlayStation Partners Awards, producer Yasuhiro Kitao was asked whether the long-anticipated Elden Ring DLC will be unveiled at next week’s annual industry bash.Kitao replied, stating “It’ll be a little while yet, but progress is going well.” He then went on to specify that the DLC is “like Bloodborne” and that it has “new battles and new characters.”Kitao also spoke a little on FromSoftware’s development process, stating that its “long-standing stance has been to work diligently to create something interesting and valuable.”Elden Ring: Shadows of the Erdtree was officially announced in February of this year, with no real details available other than that the DLC is in development. Fans were hoping to see details from the expansion at The Game Awards 2023, as it was also a Geoff Keighley-hosted show, Summer Game Fest 2021, in which we saw a lengthy look at the base game, but that’s looking increasingly less likely as the event approaches.NME‘s review of Elden Ring stated that the game “exceeds every expectation”, with writer Andy Brown noting that:“A refined open-world format adds unimagined wonder to the game, whilst legacy dungeons will likely go down as some of FromSoftware’s best level design.
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‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ slowdown issues caused by crime admits developer
Baldur’s Gate 3 will receive Patch 5 later this week, with developer Larian Studios confirming that performance issues have been caused by crime.Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 4 was released at the start of the month to a mixed response, with several people on the Baldur’s Gate 3 Reddit complaining about performance issues. One user noted that Act 3 was a “buggy mess” and was absolutely “unplayable”, with companions refusing to follow the player around, and conversations also lagging.Larian offered a statement to IGN explaining the reason that performance issues had been cropping up, stating that a fix in Patch 4 which would “prevent the Scrying Eyes in Moonrise Towers from immediately calling the guards on you” was behind the issue.According to the statement, the fix that the developer made caused the game to essentially always think about the crimes that you’ve committed “without ever moving on or verbalising them”, with players who are more prone to committing crimes in front of Scrying Eyes adding a massive amount of data to the behind the scenes of the game, which caused slowdown issues in Act 3.As Larian put it: “Essentially, the dungeon master becomes unable to operate.”In a five-star review by NME, Andy Brown called Baldur’s Gate 3 a “must-play fantasy”, with our writer stating that “the scope of Baldur’s Gate 3 should be impossible – but time and time again, it proves there’s no such thing.”The game launched in August to near-universal critical acclaim on PC, before launching on PS5 a month later.
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‘Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2’ will “borrow” from ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ choice and consequence system
The Chinese Room‘s Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 will “borrow” elements from Baldur’s Gate 3 to ensure that players feel like their choices have weighty consequences.In an interview with PC Gamer, narrative designer Arone Le Bray shared that recent successful releases have been an inspiration for the anticipated role-playing game.“Sarah (one of our writers) is a huge fan of Baldur’s Gate 3… we’re looking at how we can borrow aspects [from it], or how we can make sure we’re not taking giant steps backwards in terms of stories,” he said.NME‘s review of Baldur’s Gate 3 paid praise to the “whirlwind” journey that it offers to players and the “real brilliance” in the level of freedom that the adventurers are granted to tread their own path.“I absolutely classify narrative as an aspect of gameplay,” continued Le Bray about how the title will take from Larian Studios’ tour de force.“How can we make the player feel like they’ve owned their outcomes? How can we make the player feel like they have the agency we want them to?”The Chinese Room recently revealed the playable protagonist of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, Phyre.They’re an Elder vampire whose gender, clothing, and clan can be customised by the player, and these choices can affect how characters react to Phyre and what powers they’ll be able to wield.That being said, Phyre’s story is defined to a degree.
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‘Starfield’ to roll out a much-anticipated feature in Steam beta next week
Starfield will introduce Nvidia DLSS (deep learning super sampling) support in an undated update, as well as “other optimisations and improvements”.AMD and Bethesda entered an agreement for the PC port of Starfield and as such, only AMD’s FSR 2 (FidelityFX Super Resolution) is supported in the game.Due to the ubiquity of Nvidia video cards, this omission was irksome for PC players, and a number of mods that added Nvidia DLSS support popped up shortly following Starfield‘s launch.We've been hard at work on @StarfieldGame updates and will be putting our next one into Steam Beta next week.This update will feature Nvidia DLSS support with frame generation, display and HDR controls for supported systems, and other optimizations and improvements. You'll be…— Bethesda Game Studios (@BethesdaStudios) November 1, 2023The forthcoming update, as announced on X, will officially integrate Nvidia DLSS support to Starfield with Bethesda stating that the feature will arrive in beta next week.This will be available for PC players playing on Steam with the appropriate video card – this won’t work for those using an AMD card.Furthermore, the Nvidia DLSS support will allow for “frame generation, display and HDR controls for supported systems, and other optimisations and improvements”.Once the beta is over, the feature will roll out for PC and Xbox Series X|S more widely.
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‘The Finals’ developer says AI allows for “new ways to work together” with voice actors
The Finals has responded to the criticism from fans and actors over the use of artificial intelligence to create voices for its characters.After a few voice actors noticed an affectation to the callouts from the commentators, a podcast episode featuring two of The Finals audio designers affirmed that these voices were the result of text-to-speech (TTS) software.“Trying to imagine how an audio professional could possibly think this sounds good,” said an actor of a compilation of the commentators’ callouts.Now, Embark Studios has supplied a statement to IGN justifying the inclusion of artificial intelligence at this point in The Finals‘ development.“We use a combination of recorded voice audio and audio generated via TTS tools in our games, depending on the context,” said a spokesperson.“Sometimes, recording real scenes where actors get together – allowing character chemistry and conflict to shape the outcome – is something that adds depth to our game worlds that technology can’t emulate.“Other times, especially when it relates to contextual in-game action call-outs, TTS allows us to have tailored voice over where we otherwise wouldn’t, for example due to speed of implementation.”In the open beta, those voices are the product of a “mix of professional voice actors and temporary voices from Embark employees” put through TTS software.“Making games without actors isn’t an end goal for Embark and TTS technology has introduced new ways for us to work together.”The Finals is in development for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
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‘Alan Wake 2’ expansion sounds like another crossover with ‘Control’
Remedy Entertainment has shed a little light on the upcoming Alan Wake 2 expansions, and one seems to suggest that the game will cross over with Control once again.The developer confirmed that there are two paid expansions in the works for Alan Wake 2 in an updated frequently asked questions page on the game’s official website.These are Night Springs and The Lake House. Players who purchased the Deluxe edition of Alan Wake 2 will receive both of these additions as part of the game’s expansion pass, however, their individual pricing or launch dates have not been shared at the moment.Night Springs involves “[playing] as several familiar characters from the world of Alan Wake and experience the unexplainable in multiple self-contained episodes of Night Springs“, a fictional television show set inside the game’s world.On the other hand, The Lake House is the name of a facility that is the headquarters of “an independent government organisation to conduct secret research”.Protagonists Alan Wake and Saga Anderson will contend with the crisis emanating from The Lake House on “two separate adventures”.The mention of the “independent government organisation” is very likely to be the Federal Bureau Of Control, introduced in Control, Remedy Entertainment’s paranormal action title released in 2019.Control had an expansion which integrated the events of Alan Wake into its own timeline, thereby cementing the Remedy Connected Universe as a core concept of both games.It isn’t totally surprising that Alan Wake 2 might return to Control, but it is pleasing news for fans who have missed the brutalist setting of The Oldest House and the weirdness of its research and records.Alan Wake 2 is out now for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.In other
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‘Phasmophobia’ PS5 and Xbox Series launch delayed due to “unforeseen challenges”
Phasmophobia for consoles for the second time as a result of “unforeseen challenges”.Posting to the game’s Steam page, Kinect Games shared how the fire from the summer has changed the way that the team work together on Phasmophobia.“As we still try to adapt to our new remote working life after the fire incident and to establish a new office, we’ve encountered unforeseen challenges in adapting the game for consoles,” it said, ascribing these “combined factors” to the extended development time for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.Additionally, the entirety of the Maple Lodge Campsite map has been reworked in the interest of optimisation for the PlayStation VR2.It now has a “new reception building, more hiding spots, new decorative assets and better performance across the board”, with the developer offering a brief look at the revised layout in screenshots.Last but not least, Phasmophobia‘s Halloween event – scheduled for on or around October 26 – will task players with the crafting of a potion in Maple Lodge Campsite’s new cauldron. Recipe cards will be scattered in the rest of the maps with instructions on how to brew the potion.“While we had hoped to present you with a special launch alongside the Halloween event, the complexity of our current challenges means we need more time,” continued Kinect Games.“We will keep you updated on our progress and provide a revised release date as soon as we have more information to share.
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‘Call Of Duty’ will drop PlayStation-exclusive bonuses
Microsoft‘s Phil Spencer has shared that special Call Of Duty content or events on Xbox would exclude the rest of the “Call Of Duty nation”, and therefore is not a part of the company’s plans for the series.On October 13, the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft was finalised, passing on properties like Crash Bandicoot, Diablo, Overwatch and World Of Warcraft as well as the immensely popular shooter series to the corporation.In spite of repeated insistences from Microsoft that it would not exclude players on other platforms from the future of Call Of Duty, there were still some concerns from fans.Spencer addressed these in the latest episode of the official Xbox podcast, reiterating that exclusive content for Xbox is not in Microsoft’s vision for the series (via Video Games Chronicle).“For Call of Duty players on PlayStation, and in the future Nintendo, I want you to feel 100 per cent a part of the community,” said the CEO.“I don’t want you to feel like there’s content you’re missing out, skins you’re missing out, there’s timing that you’re missing out on… that’s not the goal.”Historically, the series has prioritised those on PlayStation – Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 offered players exclusive monthly double experience point events, weapon bonuses when playing in parties with other PlayStation players, and additional loadout slots, to name a few features.This will not be replicated in future entries on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
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‘Cities: Skylines 2’ will not use Steam Workshop for mods
Paradox Interactive has revealed that Cities: Skylines 2 will not use Steam Workshop to support its mods.Instead, Paradox Mods will be the one-stop shop for creative side of Cities: Skylines 2. This will create a cohesive experience for both PC and console players, without those playing on the latter feeling left out by the features available on the former.“One of the core reasons for this is its inclusivity; modding capabilities will be extended to players across platforms – both PC and console – aligning with our commitment to provide as many as possible with the opportunity to modify and enjoy the game,” explained the publisher in a post to its forums.The route to the total integration of Asset Mods across all three versions of Cities: Skylines 2 might lead to teething issues with players, acknowledged the publisher.“As with all major updates, we are fully aware of the learning curve it might present, but we’re committed to providing resources to ensure a smooth transition to Paradox Mods,” it affirmed.Moreover, the in-game editor will be “basic” at launch, but will continue to “expand and enhance” to allow players to let their imagination run rampant with their cities.Cities: Skylines 2 launches for PC and PC Game Pass on October 24, however, the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions were delayed to spring 2024.“We have come to realise that we need more time to reach the quality targets we have set,” said Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive back in September.
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