As we enter the month of August, July still has a couple of new gaming titles to offer of which both obviously are launching on the same day. That said, August starts with a bang and brings a highly anticipated AAA title. The rest of this week's releases is as always a mix of games that will hopefully appeal to at least one of you, since the past polls suggest that the TPU readership is a picky crowd to please when it comes to games.

Baldur's Gate 3 / This week's AAA title / Thursday 3 August
Gather your party and return to the Forgotten Realms in a tale of fellowship and betrayal, sacrifice and survival, and the lure of absolute power. Mysterious abilities are awakening inside you, drawn from a mind flayer parasite planted in your brain. Resist, and turn darkness against itself. Or embrace corruption, and become ultimate evil. From the creators of Divinity: Original Sin 2 comes a next-generation RPG, set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons.

Each week, we're bringing you news of the latest DLSS and ray tracing integrations in games and apps. Last week, Forever Skies and Trepang2 launched with DLSS 2, and our Unreal Engine 5.2 DLSS 3 plugin was released, making it even easier for gamers to multiply frame rates.

This week, the highly rated Stranded: Alien Dawn is adding support for DLSS 2, and the new GeForce RTX 4060 goes on sale, giving 1080p gamers high frame rates and detail levels, and up to 100 FPS in the most demanding games courtesy of DLSS 3.

Electronic Arts and Ascendant Studios have delayed its upcoming first-person FPS Immortals of Aveum to August 22nd. As detailed by Ascendant Studios, the game will be pushed back to August 22nd, in order to further polish the game and optimize the performance on all platforms. In case you missed it earlier, Immortals of Aveum is a fantasy first-person magic shooter that will put the player into role of Jak, an Immortal capable of using all three colors of magic.

Originally scheduled to launch on July 20th, Immortals of Aveum raised a lot of interest as it will be the first Unreal Engine 5.1 game. The game also looks pretty good, despite high PC system requirements, which included either a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 12 GB or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT 16 GB graphics card to run the game at 1440p at 60 FPS, and that is with medium to high game settings.

Polish development studio, People Can Fly, announced yesterday that it has signed a production and publishing agreement with Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios. The teased future title goes under the moniker "Project Maverick," and the company press release reveals a "total production budget for the Game" of $30-50 million. The terms agreed upon include: "The development of the Game by the Company will be performed under the work for hire model, based on the intellectual property rights owned by the Publisher and will be entirely financed by the Publisher when advancing by the Company of the development works under the milestones." Industry insiders reckon there is a good chance that People Can Fly are set to work on Microsoft's Gears IP. The Coalition, an Xbox first party studio (located in Vancouver, Canada) is said to be working on the next mainline Gears title, but a diversified lineup could include more side projects. Splash Damage's Gears Tactics was a previous example of this—a turn-based title that arrived on PC in April 2020, followed by Xbox console versions later that year.

The team has prior experience of developing older Gears of War series entries on Unreal Engine 3—the PC port of the original 2007 game and 2013's spin-off GoW: Judgement (an Xbox 360 exclusive). People Can Fly has had a difficult time lately with the release and support of its online-only cooperative action role-player "Outriders" (with Square Enix), and a terminated Take-Two Interactive publishing deal. Company investor information has recently revealed that Outriders (2021) has not yet become a profitable property for the independent studio: "The Group received no royalties from the publisher (Square Enix) for the period to March 31st 2023, which means that as at the reporting date net proceeds from the sale of Outriders were insufficient to recover the costs and expenses incurred by the publisher to develop, distribute and promote the title." People Can Fly confirms elsewhere in the investment document that Gearbox Publishing holds an exclusive license for Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition (a 2019 remaster of the original 2011 base game).

We're excited to announce that Unreal Engine 5.2 is now available. With this release, we've further expanded UE5's groundbreaking toolset as it continues to deliver on the promise of making Unreal Engine the most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tool in the world. Alongside feature refinements and stability improvements, Unreal Engine 5.2 pushes the boundaries of what creators can expect out of the box, delivering innovative new functionality.

Procedural Content Generation framework
Unreal Engine 5.2 offers an early look at a Procedural Content Generation framework (PCG) that can be used directly inside Unreal Engine without relying on external packages. The framework includes both in-editor tools and a runtime component. The PCG tools enable you to define rules and parameters to populate large scenes with Unreal Engine assets of your choice, making the process of creating large worlds fast and efficient.

Experience the visually stunning world of Layers of Fear, one of the first games to utilize the power of Unreal Engine 5 and advanced technological tools. Come with us on an immersive journey as we explore how we incorporated these cutting-edge features to bring you one of the most visually striking horror games out there. With the latest engine, we expedited the development process and introduced a host of technical novelties that make this game a spectacular visual treat. The Lumen, Ray Tracing, and Niagara effects helped us create visuals and effects that are beyond words and feel lifelike.

The canvas awaits its final brushstrokes. The stage calls for its lead actor. The novel needs its final chapter. It's time to face your fears. One. Last. Time. The series, which has left a mark on narrative-driven first-person psychological horror games, returns to tell its final spine-chilling story in Layers of Fear.. The series' crowning work is the definitive way to experience the critically acclaimed franchise as it features Layers of Fear and Layers of Fear 2, as well as all DLCs (including the new 'The Final Note' DLC that will give you a new perspective on the Layers of Fear storyline) and the never-before-told story of The Writer, which will tie everything together. Built on Unreal Engine 5, Layers of Fear supports Ray Tracing, HDR and 4K resolution to make the stunning visuals, and your nightmarish experience, as immersive and realistic as possible.

Dramatic Labs answers your questions: "Where have we been? We know we've been quiet at times since we announced Star Trek: Resurgence at The Game Awards in December… 2021. You can rest assured we never stopped working on the game, but obviously we all expected it to be released by now. So why the delays? The short answer is because we are a relatively small development team, making a pretty big game, and that has been keeping us very busy! As you might know, we had initially hoped to have the game out in "Spring 2022," but it is now "Spring 2023."

What happened? Honestly, our initial target was just too aggressive. We were very excited to get Star Trek: Resurgence to everyone as fast as we could, but this is our first game as Dramatic Labs, and our first game built with the Unreal Engine. And along the way it became clear the game wouldn't be what we wanted if we kept that release window. We considered trying to hit the holiday season for 2022, but we decided that, if we were going to change the date, we should do it to make the best game we could. Not to meet some arbitrary marketing timeline. That's why we reset for a Spring 2023 release and now we're excited to finally announce a date: May 23, 2023!

Unrecord is a single-player FPS that tells the story of a tactical police officer from the perspective of his body camera. As you work to solve a complex case, you'll need to use your tactical and detective skills to succeed. Unrecord is a tactical shooter where players can expect an immersive and narrative experience. Unrecord features complex dialogues, innovative gameplay mechanics, tough moral dilemmas, and a unique shooting system. The storyline in Unrecord can be compared to a detective novel or a thriller. The player will have to investigate several criminal cases and confront a diverse cast of characters. The game's plot and presentation will be central to the gameplay experience, and players can anticipate a range of gameplay sequences as well as numerous plot twists. Wishlist Unrecord now to stay up to date on the latest news and updates! Read on for a post-reveal and response to questions and concerns from players. Yes, it's a game.

1. Scam or Real Gameplay Footage?
There have been many doubts raised about the authenticity of the gameplay. The game is developed on Unreal Engine 5, and the game footage is captured from an executable and played using a keyboard and mouse. It is not a VR game. In reality, it seems rather flattering to compare the graphics of Unrecord to reality, but fortunately, we know that a game first focuses on gameplay and universe on which we primarily concentrate. Considering the high production costs of a video game and our global reputation at stake, if Unrecord were a scam, it would be a blockbuster scam. Therefore, it is logically not one. We do not use any real videos or external rendering to Unreal Engine for the creation of Unrecord. Unrecord is (un)real.

Immortals of Aveum just got a nice gameplay "first look" trailer, showing some impressive graphics and gameplay for this fantasy first-person magic shooter from Electronic Arts and Ascendant Studios. EA has also published a new blog post detailing the technology used in the game, as well as revealing first PC system requirements.

Immortals of Aveum will be one of the first AAA games developed on Unreal Engine 5.1, featuring some impressive lighting, video, and physics effects. It uses Nanite and Lumen features of the UE 5.1, new micropolygon geometry and global illumination and reflections systems. It also makes use of World Partition, UE 5's method of loading segments of the environment, which will allow for larger play areas.

Hello everyone, today we are thrilled to announce that Steam pre-orders have started! We are also happy to share more about The Lord of the Rings: Gollum : Precious Edition, which includes some premium perks for fans of Tolkien's Middle-earth. You can join Gollum's unshakeable quest for the One Ring on May 25th, 2023.

The Precious Edition was put together with Tolkien fans in mind. Daedalic Entertainment and NACON have gone above and beyond to curate a captivating package that includes over 100 stunning art pieces, a lore compendium to deepen your Middle-earth knowledge, additional Sindarin lines for the game's Elves, which will make you feel like you are properly east of the Misty Mountains, and more! With a focus on immersing players in the world of Middle-earth, this edition is sure to delight fans and gamers alike.

The Duviri Paradox is an entirely new way to play Warframe - no matter where you are in your journey. Whether you're a seasoned Tenno or entering the Origin System for the very first time, an astonishing new experience awaits you April 26 on all platforms. The most astonishing chapter in Warframe's sprawling cinematic narrative now has an official release date. Open to all players - regardless of where they're at in their journey - The Duviri Paradox is more than just an open world, it's a brand new way to experience Warframe

Assume the role of The Drifter and explore the vast, color-shifting Planes of Duviri through a gritty new Cinematic Quest. But be careful, Tenno. Your attempts to wrest control of this new open world will not go unnoticed by the despotic Dominus Thrax, whose emotions transform the fabric of Duviri itself. Fly high atop your loyal Kaithe solo, or Squad up with fellow Tenno to take on spectacular new threats like the fearsome Orowyrm. Will you restore Duviri before the next Spiral?

Detectives, we have arrived! After much anticipation, Sherlock Holmes The Awakened has been released! Enjoy the Lovecraftian madness. We made this game during one heck of a time. We made it while our country is at war. We faced challenges such as constant power outages, irregular work schedules, air raids, evacuations, losing our homes, saying goodbyes to our loved ones (through immigration, or worse), and losing team members so that they could defend our country.

We worked from our homes, our office, and from underground bunkers or train stations. It was an enduring and unending nightmare. But with all this chaos around, working on The Awakened helped us maintain a little sense of normalcy. We truly gave it all - sweat, emotions, and spirit to the development of this game.

Today Daedalic Entertainment and NACON announced that their highly anticipated adventure game, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, will release to PC, PlayStation, and Xbox on May 25th. A version for Nintendo Switch is planned for later this year.

Based on the beloved The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien, the fantasy game takes players on an epic journey across Middle-earth, starring one of the lore's most compelling characters: Sméagol - *Gollum, Gollum*.

Hexworks and CI Games have shown off their upcoming RPG, Lords of the Fallen, as part of the State of Unreal GDC Showcase. The trailer demonstrates the team's ambitions and the use of Unreal Engine 5 has allowed them "to create the most immersive game experience possible". The game's character customization system is a cumulation of UE5 generated geometry and 3D scans taken from real life human models. The development team states that this allows players to "create unique faces and bodies by dynamically morphing between a huge range of shapes before finessing the finer details."

Unreal Engine 5's Lumen Global Illumination has been put to good use by the team - the game's complex and rich environments are lit in dramatic and atmospheric fashion, all in real time, with an added layer of technical accomplishment due to the player being able to swap between two parallel worlds. Hexworks devised its own custom toolset to enable the seamless shift from Axiom, the realm of the living, to Umbral, the realm of the dead: "This means our artists and designers can ensure these worlds feel intrinsically linked, like two sides of the same coin... even if one side is decidedly more horrific than the other."

NCSOFT, a global premier game developer and publisher, unveiled its digital human technology together with Project M's trailer at the Game Developers Conference 2023 (GDC), currently being held in San Francisco, CA.

On March 22, NCSOFT revealed the video at State of Unreal, Epic Games' opening session at GDC held to introduce new Unreal Engine tools and technologies in collaboration with its partners. Here, Songyee Yoon, chief strategy officer (CSO) at NCSOFT, was on stage to introduce the company's latest project, Project M, and its trailer.

Powerful AI technologies are making a massive impact in 3D content creation and game development. Whether creating realistic characters that show emotion or turning simple texts into imagery, AI tools are becoming fundamental to developer workflows - and this is just the start. At NVIDIA GTC and the Game Developers Conference (GDC), learn how the NVIDIA Omniverse platform for creating and operating metaverse applications is expanding with new Connectors and generative AI services for game developers.

Part of the excitement around generative AI is because of its ability to capture the creator's intent. The technology learns the underlying patterns and structures of data, and uses that to generate new content, such as images, audio, code, text, 3D models and more. Announced today, the NVIDIA AI Foundations cloud services enable users to build, refine and operate custom large language models (LLMs) and generative AI trained with their proprietary data for their domain-specific tasks. And through NVIDIA Omniverse, developers can get their first taste of using generative AI technology to enhance game creation and accelerate development pipelines with the Omniverse Audio2Face app.

Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, today announced the release of the Interhaptics universal HD haptic SDK and directional haptics at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2023 in San Francisco. This free SDK release focuses on enabling a heightened immersive gaming experience, bringing audio and visual effects to life with HD haptic feedback that can now be completely customized through the Interhaptics SDK.

With today's announcement, Interhaptics, the leading haptic technology platform, has expanded its support to include PlayStation 5*, PlayStation 4, Meta Quest 2, X-input controllers, iOS, and Android devices for game engines such as Unity and Unreal Engine. Additionally, the haptic composer software has been upgraded to include in-app testing for DualSense wireless controllers for PS5 and select Razer HyperSense headsets. Interhaptics can now deploy HD haptics on over 5 billion devices across multiple ecosystems. Developers can sign up for the waiting list for the Razer Kraken V3 HyperSense Dev Kit with programmable directional HD haptics at the Interhaptics website.

Ahead of next week's Game Developers Conference (GDC), NVIDIA announced an expanded game roster and new developer plug-ins for NVIDIA DLSS 3. The latest version of NVIDIA's AI-powered Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology is now supported in an assortment of blockbuster games and franchises, and being integrated into Unreal Engine, one of the world's most popular game engines. The company is also publicly releasing the DLSS Frame Generation plug-in to further ease developer adoption of the technology.

"Neural graphics has revolutionized gaming since its introduction with NVIDIA DLSS, and we're now taking it to new heights," said Matt Wuebbling, vice president of global GeForce marketing at NVIDIA. "PC gaming super-franchises such as Diablo and Forza Horizon and Bethesda's new Redfall are raising the bar for image quality with stunning graphics while using DLSS to keep gameplay smooth as silk." Since its launch in 2018, NVIDIA DLSS has driven a neural graphics revolution in PC gaming. Neural graphics intertwines AI and graphics to create an accelerated rendering pipeline that continuously learns and improves. Instead of natively rendering every pixel in a frame, DLSS allows the game to render 1/8th of the pixels then uses AI and GeForce RTX Tensor Cores to reconstruct the rest of the pixels, dramatically multiplying frame rates, while delivering crisp, high-quality images that rival native resolution.

NCSOFT, a global premier game developer and publisher, today debuted the first trailer for the company's new mobile and PC title, 'Project G,' on its official YouTube channel. Project G is the company's first real-time strategy (RTS) game, coming to global players. This brand-new IP is currently under development as a strategy game set in a massive-scale war. Each player will expand by accumulating limited resources and will also make use of different tactics in territory conquests between guilds.

The trailer features 100% real gameplay scenes with high-quality graphics currently under development, built on Unreal Engine. It showcases various game system details, including unique characters of different races, strategic combats executed with melee and ranged units, and tactical maneuvers of 'Dragons' and 'Strategic Arms' in objective and territory conquest wars. It also reveals in-game footage where battles between individual forces expand into massive warfare.

THE FINALS, the upcoming free-to-play first-person shooter from Embarks Studios, features both support for NVIDIA DLSS 3 and RTX Global Illumination. Surprisingly, neither NVIDIA nor Embarks Studio announced the support, although NVIDIA did briefly note that the game will have support for DLSS.

THE FINALS, described as free-to-play, combat-centered game show is a multiplayer team game that takes place in virtual arenas that can be "altered, exploited, and even destroyed", is built on Unreal Engine. The advanced destruction system in the game looks quite impressive and while there are certainly things that are indestructible, it still looks like quite a lot of fun and brings a certain twist to the game.

Although it has already been available in some games, AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.2 is now available as an Unreal Plugin over on GPUOpen. AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution 2 has been already used in some games ever since AMD released the source code for the technology, which includes the titles like Forza Horizon 5, Need For Speed Unbound, and F1 22, but implementation in various engines can take time, and now it is available as a plugin for Unreal Engine. AMD's FSR 2.2 brings several improvements including new logic that should reduce "High-Velocity Ghosting," an issue that usually plagues racing games. It also feature a new Debug API Checker, which should provide much easier debugging for developers.

Thanks to the attribution of Puget Systems, we have a preview of Intel's latest Xeon W-3400 and Xeon W-2400 workstation processors based on Sapphire Rapids core technology. Delivering up to 56 cores and 112 threads, these CPUs are paired with up to eight TeraBytes of eight-channel DDR5-4800 memory. For expansion, they offer up to 112 PCIe 5.0 lanes come with up to 350 Watt TDP; some models are unlocked for overclocking. This interesting HEDT family for workstation usage comes at a premium with an MSRP of $5,889 for the top-end SKU, and motherboard prices are also on the pricey side. However, all of this should come as no surprise given the expected performance professionals expect from these chips. Puget Systems has published test results that include: Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Unreal Engine, Cinebench R23.2, Blender, and V-Ray. Note that Puget Systems said that: "While this post has been an interesting preview of the new Xeon processors, there is still a TON of testing we want to do. The optimizations Intel is working on is of course at the top, but there are several other topics we are highly interested in." So we expect better numbers in the future.Below, you can see the comparison with AMD's competing Threadripper Pro HEDT SKUs, along with power usage using different Windows OS power profiles:

Intel released the XeSS Unreal Engine plugin, letting game developers integrate the performance enhancement technology with their Unreal Engine 4 and Unreal Engine 5 powered games, simulators, and 3D visualization applications. The plugin lets Unreal Engine take advantage of XeSS not just on Intel Arc "Alchemist" GPUs, where they benefit from the accelerated XMX code-path; but also AMD and NVIDIA GPUs, where the technology takes advantage of the slower yet functional DP4a code-path. XeSS is technically a second-generation super-resolution technology that Intel claims is on-par with AMD FSR 2.x and NVIDIA DLSS 2. Integrating it is as straightforward as adding AMD FSR support. Those interested can grab the plugin from the GitHub source link, below.

Epic Games is excited to announce that Unreal Engine 5.1 is now available. With this release, we've built upon the groundbreaking feature set introduced in UE5, making it more robust, efficient, and versatile for creators across all industries. As part of this effort, we've been stress-testing the engine against different workflows, making it applicable to more sectors. We've laid the groundwork for the Lumen dynamic global illumination and reflections system, the Nanite virtualized micropolygon geometry system, and Virtual Shadow Maps (VSM) to support games and experiences running at 60 FPS on next-gen consoles and capable PCs, enabling fast-paced competitive games and detailed simulations to run without latency.

Meanwhile, Nanite has also been updated with a Programmable Rasterizer to allow for material-driven animations and deformations via World Position Offset, as well as opacity masks. This exciting development paves the way for artists to use Nanite to program specific objects' behavior, for example Nanite-based foliage with leaves blowing in the wind. This release adds a number of features to improve efficiency for developers of games and other large-scale interactive projects, helping teams be more productive.

HaptX Inc., the leading provider of realistic haptic technology, today announced the availability of pre-orders of the company's new HaptX Gloves G1, a ground-breaking haptic device optimized for the enterprise metaverse. HaptX has engineered HaptX Gloves G1 with the features most requested by HaptX customers, including improved ergonomics, multiple glove sizes, wireless mobility, new and improved haptic functionality, and multiplayer collaboration, all priced as low as $4,500 per pair - a fraction of the cost of the award-winning HaptX Gloves DK2.

"With HaptX Gloves G1, we're making it possible for all organizations to leverage our lifelike haptics," said Jake Rubin, Founder and CEO of HaptX. "Touch is the cornerstone of the next generation of human-machine interface technologies, and the opportunities are endless." HaptX Gloves G1 leverages advances in materials science and the latest manufacturing techniques to deliver the first haptic gloves that fit like a conventional glove. The Gloves' digits, palm, and wrist are soft and flexible for uninhibited dexterity and comfort. Available in four sizes (Small, Medium, Large, and Extra Large), these Gloves offer the best fit and performance for all adult hands. Inside the Gloves are hundreds of microfluidic actuators that physically displace your skin, so when you touch and interact with virtual objects, the objects feel real.