Remedy Entertainment, the creators of Max Payne, are pleased to announce that they will remake the iconic Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne video games in a new development agreement with Rockstar Games. The relationship between Remedy and Rockstar Games dates back to the original release of the critically acclaimed Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne games, developed by Remedy and published by Rockstar Games. Both games left an indelible mark in popular culture, lauded for their neo-noir atmosphere, groundbreaking storytelling and "bullet-time" gunplay.

"We were thrilled when our long-time friends at Remedy approached us about remaking the original Max Payne games," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games "We are massive fans of the work the Remedy team has created over the years, and we can't wait to play these new versions." "Max Payne has always held a special place in the hearts of everyone at Remedy, and we know the millions of fans worldwide feel the same," said Remedy CEO, Tero Virtala. "We're hugely excited to be working with our partners at Rockstar Games once again for the chance to bring the story, action and atmosphere of the original Max Payne games back to players in new ways."

CD PROJEKT RED today revealed that the next installment in The Witcher series of video games is currently in development with Unreal Engine 5, kicking off a new saga for the franchise and a new technology partnership with Epic Games.

Today's announcement marks the first official confirmation of a new game in The Witcher series since the release of CD PROJEKT RED's previous single-player, AAA RPG in the franchise—The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt—which won a total of 250 Game of the Year awards and was later expanded upon with the Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine add-ons.

The Radeon 680M integrated graphics powering the AMD Ryzen 6000-series mobile processors is proving to be an entry-level discrete-GPU killer. TechEpiphany posted a video presentation showing the iGPU's real-world gameplay performance with the AAA title "Cyberpunk 2077" at Full HD (1080p), with a little help from FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR). TechEpiphany used an ASUS TUF GAMING F17 notebook powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H "Rembrandt" processor that has the full Radeon 680M iGPU unlocked, with all its 12 RDNA2 compute units (768 stream processors), 12 Ray Accelerators, 16 ROPs, and 48 TMUs, enabled. The notebook also features a GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU, but for this testing, it was disabled.

The first part of the video shows the game running at 1080p and Medium-High settings, with FSR set at Ultra Quality. Here, the iGPU is managing 30-40 FPS. Real-time ray tracing is disabled. In the second part, they enabled ray tracing and FidelityFX Super Resolution, but this is where the iGPU runs out of steam. Frame-rates drop to unplayable levels, but there still aren't any noticeable visual artifacts or rendering errors typically associated with iGPUs made to render games above their pay-grade. It's still impressive to see that AMD following through on its promise of bringing 1080p gaming across a broader range of titles. The TechEpiphany video presentation can be watched in the source link below.

If you thought that your 144 Hz monitor sounds rather fancy, you would have to think again after seeing this. Beijing Oriental Electronics Group Co., Ltd or BOE shortly, has announced that the company has managed to design and manufacture a 27-inch full HD display with a refresh rate of 500 Hz. No, this is not a typo, and the company made a display with such a high refresh rate. This technology marvel features an 8-lane eDP connection paired with a 1 ms response time and an actual 8-bit color gamut. While this refresh rate may not suit every AAA game title, players of CS: GO, and DOTA 2 are likely targets. Along with this 500 Hz monitor, BOE also announced a 110-inch 8K 120 Hz panel. You can read more about it from the company statement below..

BOE (Machine Translation from Chinese)With years of technology accumulation, BOE has made important breakthroughs in the field of oxide semiconductor display technology, overcoming industry problems such as copper (Cu) easy to diffuse, easy to oxidize, and easy to drill and engrave, and is the first in the industry to achieve mass production of copper interconnect stack structures., and the integration of high refresh rate, high resolution, low power consumption oxide display technology, breaking the foreign monopoly, and continue to launch low power consumption, ultra-narrow bezel, 500Hz+ gaming display, super-sized 8K Oxide 120Hz, A series of high-end technologies and products such as frequency conversion refresh rate display. At the same time, great breakthroughs have been made in the research and development of high mobility 30+ cm 2 / Vsoxide technology, which has laid a technical foundation for the subsequent performance improvement of high-end products.

BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices, today introduced the new BIOSTAR AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT graphics card. The new BIOSTAR Radeon RX 6500 XT graphics card is built on the breakthrough AMD RDNA2 gaming architecture, engineered to deliver incredible gaming performance with remarkable efficiency.

The BIOSTAR Radeon RX 6500 XT graphics card is designed to make incredible 1080p gaming experiences for popular AAA and esports titles accessible to more gamers. It offers high-bandwidth, low-latency AMD Infinity Cache and high-speed 4 GB GDDR6 memory, as well as support for AMD Smart Access Memory technology, AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution upscaling technology, Variable Rate Shading (VRS) and other advanced features that provide visually stunning, high-refresh rate gaming experiences.

Stephanie Brenham, Team Lead Programmer for Ubisoft's upcoming AAA Far Cry 6, recently spoke to WCCFTech on the upcoming Far Cry installment. Stephanie went into some detail regarding the graphics and performance options, and an interesting fact that surfaced was that neither Sony's PS5 nor Microsoft's Xbox Series consoles will feature ray tracing enabled on their respective versions of the game. Apparently, ray tracing will be a PC-exclusive feature, as console versions of the game are targeting higher render resolution and more fluid framerates over expensive graphics options such as ray tracing. And even on PC, it'll be a hybrid form of it, and not a full implementation: ray tracing is supported for both shadows and reflections, but Ubisoft opted for a hybrid approach here, marrying traditional rendering with ray tracing so as to improve performance in mainstream PC hardware.

"Ray tracing is a PC-only feature," Stephanie Brenham said. "On console, our objective has been to take advantage of new hardware capabilities, optimizing performance targeting 4K and achieving 60 FPS." This does somewhat fall in the face of performance expectations set by both Sony and Microsoft; both companies made (and still make) extensive use of ray tracing support on the marketing campaigns for their consoles. However, as we've seen in the past, enabling ray tracing comes with severe performance penalties in even the latest and greatest PC hardware (sometimes not to best effect, even), which still outclasses even the latest consoles' powerful innards (compared to their predecessors, of course).

Some time ago, NVIDIA launched its Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology to deliver AI-enhanced upscaling images to your favorite AAA titles. It uses proprietary algorithms developed by NVIDIA and relies on the computational power of Tensor cores found in GeForce graphics cards. In the early days of DLSS, NVIDIA talked about an additional technology called DLSS2X, which was supposed to be based on the same underlying techniques as DLSS, however, just to do image sharpening and not any upscaling. That technology got its official name today: Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing or DLAA shortly.

DLAA uses technology similar to DLSS, and it aims to bring NVIDIA's image-sharpening tech to video games. It aims to use the Tensor cores found in GeForce graphics cards, and provide much better visual quality, without sacrificing the performance, as it runs on dedicated cores. It is said that the technology will be offered alongside DLSS and other additional anti-aliasing technologies in in-game settings. The first game to support it is The Elder Scrolls Online, which now has it in the public beta test server, and will be available to the general public later on.

Rockstar Games, the developer behind plenty of AAA titles, including Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2), is preparing an interesting update for all the RDR2 players. Called the "Blood Money" update, it brings new player activities to the Red Dead Online community. As Rockstar describes it, you will "Step into the criminal underworld of Red Dead Online: Blood Money on July 13, and prove you are willing to get your hands dirty in service to notorious and well-connected members of Saint-Denis society." While the update brings interesting content, it also integrates new technologies for visual/graphics improvements. NVIDIA's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) is also landing on July 13, allowing you to play the game with better performance and image quality if you have a GeForce RTX graphics card.Check out the Red Dead Online: Blood Money trailer below.

The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced an intent to form the Open 3D Foundation to accelerate developer collaboration on 3D game and simulation technology. The Open 3D Foundation will support open source projects that advance capabilities related to 3D graphics, rendering, authoring, and development. As the first project governed by the new foundation, Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is contributing an updated version of the Amazon Lumberyard game engine as the Open 3D Engine (O3DE), under the permissive Apache 2.0 license. The Open 3D Engine enables developers and content creators to build 3D experiences unencumbered by commercial terms and will provide the support and infrastructure of an open source community through forums, code repositories, and developer events. A developer preview of O3DE is available on GitHub today. For more information and/or to contribute, please visit: https://o3de.org

3D engines are used to create a range of virtual experiences, including games and simulations, by providing capabilities such as 3D rendering, content authoring tools, animation, physics systems, and asset processing. Many developers are seeking ways to build their intellectual property on top of an open source engine where the roadmap is highly visible, openly governed, and collaborative to the community as a whole. More developers look to be able to create or augment their current technological foundations with highly collaborative solutions that can be used in any development environment. O3DE introduces a new ecosystem for developers and content creators to innovate, build, share, and distribute immersive 3D worlds that will inspire their users with rich experiences that bring the imaginations of their creators to life.

Cyberpunk 2077, one of the most hyped AAA game releases in 2020, has been out for a while now. However, not too long ago, Sony, the maker of PlayStation, has pulled the game from its PlayStation Store amidst negative reviews and criticism that the game received. This has resulted in significantly lower sales of the game, as millions of potential buyers were left without an option to purchase it. But not everything is too dark. In the announcement made by CD Projekt RED, the game developer behind Cyberpunk 2077, things are looking bright for the game as Cyberpunk 2077 is returning to the PlayStation store on June 21st. You can see the quote from CDPR below.

CD Projekt REDIn relation to Current Report no. 66/2020 of 18 December 2020, the Management Board of CD PROJEKT S.A. with a registered office in Warsaw hereby publicly discloses the decision by Sony Interactive Entertainment to reinstate the availability of the digital edition of Cyberpunk 2077 on PlayStation Store, effective on 21 June 2021.

Microsoft's console and gaming division, Xbox, has been working closely with game studios and game developers for years now, and in return for supporting the creation of games, the company gets its platform exclusivity, where the game is only available on Xbox series of consoles. Today, Xbox has decided to unveil a hefty list composing out of AAA titles exclusive to the Xbox Series X|S consoles. Starting off, we have the Forza Horizon 5 game, which delivers the experience of the open world of Mexico, while allowing you to drive the world's greatest cars. The game is set to become available on November 9 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox Game Pass, PC via Steam on Windows, and Cloud Gaming service, which is in Beta.

Next up is a collaboration with 343 Industries game studio, which has unveiled its next-generation Halo shooter gameplay. Dubbed Halo Infinite, the game is a massive experience set in the world of Halo, which also includes a free-to-play multiplayer element aiming to bring millions of people together across Xbox consoles, cloud, and PC to join the fight. When it comes to new franchises, we have seen the announcement of Redfall, a co-op first-person shooter that sets you in a small island town of Redfall, which has now fallen to the pandemic of vampires, and your goal is to put it to the end. Coming from Arkane Austin, the developers of Prey and Dishonored, the game is sure to be a quality one.

Every now and then, the Epic Games store gets a major discount on popular games. If you have been following the free game deals on the store, you may have seen that sometimes even the AAA-class of games get a free offer and you can purchase them without spending a dime. Today is one of those days where Epic Games store is offering the Control game for free. The offer expires on June 17th, when it again becomes paid offer. If you haven't heard of Control, you can read the the game information below. You can check out the deal here.

After a secretive agency in New York is invaded by an otherworldly threat, you become the new Director struggling to regain Control.
From developer Remedy Entertainment, this supernatural 3rd person action-adventure will challenge you to master the combination of supernatural abilities, modifiable loadouts and reactive environments while fighting through a deep and unpredictable world.
Control is Jesse Faden's story and her personal search for answers as she grows into the role of the Director. The world of Control has its own story, as do the allies Jesse meets along the way. Jesse works with other Bureau agents and discovers strange experiments and secrets.

As security and innovation collide, Denuvo by Irdeto today announces it has joined the exclusive PlayStation 5 Tools and Middleware program. Denuvo, the leader in video games protection, offers its Anti-Cheat solution through this program to publishers and developers whose games are available on PlayStation 5.

Denuvo is at the forefront of games security with over 2 billion unique game installs protected across all platforms, and over 1,000 games secured. Joining the PlayStation 5 Tools and Middleware program therefore fosters Denuvo's continued commitment to excellence and innovation in game security. It also supports Denuvo's goal of protecting the developers' investment, where approximately 70% of their revenue is earned in the first two weeks after the launch of a game.

ASUS unveiled a special variant of its 2020 VivoBook Flip 14 convertible notebook, which features the "First Intel Discrete Graphics," expected to be the Iris Xe DG1 discrete GPU based on the Xe LP architecture. Intel appears to be promoting the combination of the Iris Xe dGPU with its 11th Gen Core "Tiger Lake" mobile processors, as a potent ultra portable computing solution with rich graphics and mobile gaming. This eats into the markets of entry-level dGPUs by NVIDIA and AMD. Intel is also developing an iGPU+dGPU Multi-Adapter technology that could leverage asymmetric explicit multi-GPU to accelerate gaming performance. The VivoBook Flip 14 TP470EZ features a 14-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) display, and so the combination of the "Tiger Lake" Xe LP iGPU and dGPU could take a swing at Full HD AAA and e-sports gaming.

Cloud gaming is the next step in mobile gaming, with services like Microsoft project xCloud aiming to bring AAA titles right to your mobile phone. Microsoft has already been testing its xCloud application on Android and iOS devices for some time, and the application was supposed to launch sometime in September. However, it seems like Microsoft is only going to serve the customers on Android, as Apple says that these types of applications violate App Store guidelines. This doesn't only apply to xCloud, but also Google's Stadia gaming platform. When developer uploads application to App Store for iOS, the application goes through a review by Apple, for security reason and for Apple to check if it meets its guidelines.

Being that xCloud and Stadia are types of applications which offer a way to access many more applications (games in this case), this is against Apple's policy as they can't control the applications these services offer.

Intel is expected to reveal technical details of its upcoming Xe graphics architecture on August 13, according to a tweet by Intel Graphics that has since been deleted. Tom's Hardware believes the reveal is still on the cards. "You've waited. You've wondered. We'll deliver. In 20 days, expect more details on Xe graphics," the tweet read. Senior Fellow and Director of Graphics Architecture at Intel, David Blythe is expected to present a technical brief on the Xe graphics architecture at a Hot Chips 2020 virtual event on August 17.

These technical reveals are closely timed with the launch of "Tiger Lake," Intel's first commercial debut of Xe as an iGPU solution the chipmaker refers to as "Gen12" for consistency with older generations of integrated graphics. Xe is far from designed for just iGPU or small dGPUs, with the architecture being scalable all the way up to large scalar compute processors the size of beer mug coasters. Even as an iGPU, Xe is formidable, as it was recently shown playing AAA games by itself. Recent commentary from Intel at its Q2 2020 financial results provided strong hints of Xe dGPUs being de-coupled from Intel's foundry woes, and possibly headed for third-party foundries such as Samsung or TSMC.

Far Cry 6, the sequel to Ubisoft's popular franchise of Far Cry games, is supposedly launching on July 12th. Thanks to the report from Gamereactor.dk, they have obtained information that Ubisoft will unveil the latest game sequel at the Ubisoft Forward event. In translation, the website said: "The last [Ubisoft] game scheduled to be released before April (unless Ubisoft decides it's this game that should be postponed due to COVID-19 or that there are too many AAA releases in a fairly short window) is set to be a Far Cry. I don't want to ruin Ubisoft's plans by giving you all the information, but I can say with certainty that those of you who didn't like Far Cry 5's North American setting are likely to find this game more interesting when it's officially unveiled during Ubisoft Forward on July 12."

The game is said to be available sometime in 2021, however, that information could very well be not true, as the game launch is happening much earlier than that. It could be that Ubisoft is preparing to launch this with the wave of next-generation consoles, so we have to wait and see how it plays out.

In response to the ongoing digitization of events that has been put on an accelerated course due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Summer Game Fest aims to keep the gaming scene fresh with announcements and developer deep-dives. The aim is to bring the world up to speed in game announcements and development amidst cancelled floor-like shows such as GAMESCOM and E3, and the event lasts from May through September. One of the recent announcements in the lineup for the Summer Game Fest is none other than the most awaited game of 2020 (and probably the last decade) in the form of Cyberpunk 2077.. Developer CD Projekt Red has announced a special Cyberpunk 2077 continued revel event which it's calling "Night City Wire", which will take place in a TBD hour on June 11th. Expect new trailers for the game, likely a played mission showcasing the games' systems, and a developer dive into the creation of Night City.

That same day, EA will be running their "EA Play Live 2020" event, which aims to bring new game announcements and extended information on already-announced games. According to the company, "EA Play Live 2020 is about connecting players around the world and bringing them closer to the game franchises they love. During this year's digital event, we'll showcase our games through a live broadcast, community content, and more." The EA Play show runs on June 11th as well, from 4pm PST on June 11. It surely won't coincide with CD Projekt Red's deep dive into Cyberpunk 2077.

Ubisoft has some of the most lucrative gaming franchises in the world right now, and the company is apparently planning to cache out on most of the through the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021. According to Twitter user Shinobi602, Ubisoft will be launching three AAA games - Watch Dogs Legion, Gods and Monsters and Rainbow Six Quarantine - between October and December 2020. Kotaku's own Jason Schreier then pilled on, adding that the two remaining games for the beginning of 2021 would be an Assassin's Creed and a new Far Cry game.

This means that Ubisoft's other franchises, such as Splinter Cell and the much-awaited-yet-somehow-forgotten Beyond Good & Evil 2, will not be releasing any time soon - at least not before March 2021. It remains to be seen, but it's likely all of these three games will see multi-generational releases between current and next-gen consoles.