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Tag: generations

Sony Reportedly Planned to Cease PS4 Production at the End of 2021

PS5 shortages mean it'll keep going, though.

Picking up a PlayStation 5 is still rather difficult, thanks to part shortages seriously slowing down production. Because of this, Sony Interactive Entertainment made the decision to continue making PS4 consoles throughout 2022.

That's according to a new report from Bloomberg, who cite anonymous sources familiar with the situation. Apparently, Sony's initial plan was to discontinue the PS4 at the end of 2021, with PS5 taking over as the company's sole games console on the market. However, logistical and production hiccups throughout last year saw the platform holder reverse that plan, instead ensuring PS4 will continue to stock shelves.

Read the full article on pushsquare.com

Tory peer Lord Wei calls for tax breaks for green VC funds

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Growth Business

Lord Wei of Shoreditch also calls for pension funds to invest up to 5% of their assets into transformative social and environmental technology

Avrilar Sponsors Blockchain Domains for Metaverse Education Platforms Through NexBloc

The .LERN blockchain top-level domain will give access to decentralized storage and data privacy for global learners New York, New York, USA Avrilar, the immersive device...

PS5 Shortage Has Reportedly Led Sony to Make More PS4s Than Initially Planned

To deal with the ongoing global PlayStation 5 shortage, Sony has reportedly decided to produce more PlayStation 4s than it had initially planned to help "fill the supply vacuum and keep gamers within the PlayStation ecosystem."

Xbox Series X|S Now Top-Selling Microsoft’s Top-Selling Generation

The latest Xbox generation is the best-selling in Xbox history.

Bitcoin Plebs Together Are Strong — Independently

Bitcoin plebs, as individual nodes in the Bitcoin community, represent a decentralized force of sovereignty minded people.

Bureau Veritas joins the ISA Program in support of the global…

The ISASecure program is rapidly expanding its global reach through additional agreements with certification bodies around the globe who are in the accreditation process.

(PRWeb January 12, 2022)

Read the full story at https://www.prweb.com/releases/bureau_veritas_joins_the_isa_program_in_support_of_the_global_isasecure_isa_iec_62443_cybersecurity_conformance_scheme/prweb18425034.htm

Hitman 3 Sharing Year Two Content Plans This Thursday

New map! New mode! More!

IO Interactive will finally share what it has in store for the second year of post-launch content for Hitman 3 this Thursday in a pre-recorded video straight out of its Copenhagen studio. Lasting 15 minutes, the showcase will detail the Elusive Target Arcade, VR support on PC, a brand new game mode, and much more. A new map is also expected to be unveiled, which will arrive in the spring season.

The show will get underway at 6am PT / 9am ET / 2pm GMT this coming Thursday, and you can watch it either on the official IO Interactive website or the Hitman YouTube channel.

Read the full article on pushsquare.com

Xbox Series X/S outsell all previous generations despite supply issues

While you may not be able to find them in your local store, it appears that Xbox Series X/S are moving units.

The post Xbox Series X/S outsell all previous generations despite supply issues appeared first on Dot Esports.

A Stoner’s Final Salute to the Late Bob Saget

When we think of “Bob” and cannabis, we typically first go to Bob Marley, however Bob Saget has a strain of cannabis named after him called, “Bob Saget” or “The Bob”. This Sativa Dominant Hybrid boasts over 20% THC and is said to give you a real energized head high. Here’s one review from Leafly on the strain...

Best SSD for gaming in 2022

Give your gaming PC a serious speed boost with the best SSD for gaming.

What happened to Arena Shooters?

What ever happened to arena shooters? We delve into the rich history of this beloved gaming subgenre, how its survived over the years, and what arena shooters look like in 2022. First-person shooters dominated the 1990s PC gaming scene. Classics such as Wolfenstein and DOOM reached critical acclaim and defined the genre for future generations. As the internet boom rolled out, developer minds started to focus on how this could change multiplayer. Thoughts of LAN parties and two players sharing a keyboard drip in nostalgia, but the arena shooter embraced online multiplayer. Origins of Arena Shooters PC gaming in the 90s was quite limited compared to the thousands of games on various stores we see today. It focused players on some critical titles for the arena shooter sub-genre—specifically Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament, Half-Life Deathmatch and Counterstrike. Whilst Quake II revolutionised online multiplayer, its sequel and Unreal Tournament took full advantage of it. The big appeal with arena shooters were frenetic, high octane deathmatches. Starting with the same weapon and no buffs, players would pick up more advanced guns, health, defence and damage modifiers found scattered across the map. Quake III vs. Unreal Tournament This fast-paced gameplay required skill and quick reflexes, the main pulls for arena shooters. Whilst Quake III Arena focused on multiplayer-only gameplay, Unreal Tournament took the best arena shooter’s crown for its time. Still played today; Unreal Tournament featured more weapons, complete with dual fire options. For example, the now-iconic Flack Cannon fired white-hot scrap metal as a primary fire, with the secondary being a grenade launcher. It’s one of the best weapons in first-person shooter history. UT featured pin-point gameplay. An announcer was present for all matches to highlight player performance. “Dominating” and “Killing Spree” would be heard for kill streaks, backed by a synth original soundtrack. It’s a visceral delight that stood out from the crowd, also creeping into pop culture, its influence is still felt today. Arena Shooters: Reloaded The amount of content in the game was genuinely unreal; it also provided much better value for players overall compared to its competitors. It featured more maps, modes, characters and weapons than other arena shooters with a decent single-player mode to boot. Unreal Tournament also marked the birth of the Unreal Engine, a toolset that has gone on to power countless video games. However, the best thing about arena shooters like Unreal Tournament was their pick-up and play approach. With no levelling, skill trees or load-outs to think about, people could concentrate on improving their skills in a mostly even playing field. Arena shooters started to phase out as players moved to team-based experiences with more mechanics and realistic presentation. Map design also advanced quickly in the 2000s, allowing players to experience multi-platform strategies that were a far cry from the corridor/big room combos of the 90s. Gameplay Shift Games like Counter-Strike and Battlefield 1942 heralded a shift towards strategy and a more significant focus on teamwork. This transition would only escalate with the boom in esports scenes in the 2010s onwards. People wanted more from their games, and some titles did try to translate arena shooter mechanics into a more enticing format. The Halo series initially did a great job of transplanting arena shooter gameplay into a new generation. The weapon selection, vehicles and map layouts felt like a natural progression of the genre. Teamwork felt key to capturing the flag and in deathmatches, with new modes such as ‘Grifball’ and ‘king of the hill’ offering more ways to play with friends than ever before. Arena Shooter Crysis Crysis is also another excellent example of using the arena shooter formula to introduce new gameplay aspects. The title’s multiplayer flopped due to poor net code and the limited amount of people that could physically run Crysis on PC. Using powers such as increased strength and invisibility shook up deathmatches, introducing new ways for people to play. With gunplay and presentation being on point, this should have been a coming of age title for arena shooters. DOOM’s 2016 reboot was a great opportunity to revamp the sub-genre, given its shared heritage with Quake. Although it succeeded in some respects, there just wasn’t an appetite for it. It wasn’t until a few years before its release that tacked-on multiplayer modes were seen as an industry-wide plight. With DOOM’s multiplayer having been outsourced, there were concerns that Bethesda had included the mode simply to tick boxes on a checklist. That perception marred what was actually a fun and frenetic suite of online game modes. Rise of the Hero Shooter Hero shooters such as Overwatch and Paladins would carry the torch for arena shooters into the modern age. Although they have brought some pretty big deviations such as preset weapon loadouts, progression systems, and attack/defend game modes, there’s still a focus on quick, skill-based gunplay and memorising map vantage points. This sub-genre of shooter, which also includes games like Valorant and Rogue Company, has taken hold thanks to their emphasis on team gameplay, something that wasn’t core to the original arena shooter experience. However, that extra layer of strategy – especially when it comes to team compositions – make these games arguably more involving and engaging to watch. It’s no wonder why they boast such an esports following. The future of Arena Shooters With Epic still raking it in thanks to Fortnite, the chances of there being a new Unreal Tournament in the pipeline seem pretty slim. The company recently attempted to reboot the series with a focus on player-created content and assets. However, it’s very rare that we hear of any updates. What about id Software and Quake? There’s definitely scope for Bethesda to resurrect the long dormant series (again) with modernised sensibilities yet sporting that same speedy gunplay, punchy weapons, and fluid movement. This would seem like an open goal if not for the fact that Quake Champions had tried to do the same not that long ago. There’s something else, of course. With Bethesda now owned by Microsoft, could this stop Quake from making a return? If that meant drawing away focus from the company’s plans for Halo Infinite then yes, probably. Speaking of Halo Infinite, it’s one of the titles that brought arena shooters kicking and screaming into 2021. It has an unabashed classic style that, for many younger gamers, will be their first exposure to the genre. It’s facing fierce competition, however. Just when we thought traditional arena shooters were long done, along came Splitgate with its big killer twist, allowing players to create Portal-like gates during matches. Both games are currently free-to-play and have already massed millions of players between them. The stage is now set for a new generation of arena shooters and hopefully more will join them while other games look to reinvent the FPS in new and interesting ways.

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