Whistleblower

Outlast Whistleblower Prequel DLC Detailed and Dated

Oulast Whistleblower DLC

"Strap yourself in because the first batch of downloadable content for the truly terrifying Outlast will officially be available this April, developer Red Barrels announced today.

For those who’ve not had their fill of nerve-shredding terror, the Outlast: Whistleblower DLC is a prequel of sorts that drops the player in control of an anonymous tipster, who contacted the main game’s protagonist about a series of strange goings-on at Mount Massive Asylum…

Taking on the role of contract software engineer Waylon Park, the player will witness the experiments leading to the breakdown of the mental asylum, as well as events beyond the main game that will reveal the final chapter of this morbid tale.

“Whistleblower will let you play as Waylon Park, a software engineer under contract with Murkoff and the man who emailed journalists around the world - including Miles - at the beginning of Outlast," reading a blog post from Red Barrel Games. "Spending a couple of weeks at Mount Massive, during which he was unable to even talk to his wife and son in Boulder thanks to strict security protocols, Weylon developed a deep-seated distrust of the profit-motivated scientists and doctors leading dangerous and irresponsible experiments on their patients. Identifying with those poor souls fueled Waylon's anger, and set the stage for his unmasking of Mount Massive's rotten core.”

Judging from the single released screenshot and my horrific playthrough of Outlast, it’s a safe bet that the Whistleblower DLC will be ordeal that’s difficult to resist.

Whistleblower will be arriving this April for PC and Playstation 4. In the meantime be sure to check out our review of the Playstation 4 version of Outlast."

source - Game-Debate

Direct X Evolution

Microsoft is Evolving Direct X to Compete with the Mantle API

Microsoft Evolving Direct X

"Never one to be outdone, Microsoft has taken a glance over at the impressive performance seen from AMD’s close-to-the-metal Mantle API and decided it too wants a piece of the action.

At next month’s Global Developer Conference (GDC) 2014 event, Microsoft is preparing to unveil plans for providing low level access to the DirectX APIs…

Two Microsoft-hosted talks at the event will be looking at the future of Direct3D as well as evolving Microsoft’s graphics platform.

The Direct3D Futures talk will be looking at how future changes to Direct3D will enable the next generation of games to run faster than they ever have before. The GDC catalogue provides details on the session, saying that the team will discuss “future improvements in Direct3D that will allow developers an unprecedented level of hardware control and reduced CPU rendering overhead across a broad ecosystem of hardware.”

As if this wasn’t enough, the Evolving Microsoft’s Graphics Platform talk will focus on how the most popular API for game development over the last twenty years will be adapting in order to compete with the impressive Mantle API. The session description says “You asked us to bring you even closer to the metal and to do so on an unparalleled assortment of hardware. You also asked us for better tools so that you can squeeze every last drop of performance out of your PC, tablet, phone and console.” If they get any closer to the metal things could get dangerous.

This indicates that there should be a fundamental change in the way that DirectX operates. The thinking seems to be similar to Mantle in that some of the traditional overheads associated with DirectX will be cut in order to communicate more efficiently with the GPU and CPU. The performance gains seen in Battlefield 4 with the use of Mantle API have been considerable, and it appears Microsoft hasn’t been totally oblivious to the competition heating up around them. The more competition the better for us PC gamers!"

source - Game-Debate

Dying Light

Dying Light Sytem Requrements

Dying Light

"Dying Light is the survival horror set to come to next-gen consoles this year courtesy of Techland and Warner Bros. The story focuses on the mass infection of a population with a virus that turns them to an aggressive, zombie-like state and the title's open world and cyclical day mechanic (the game switches from day to night, with the "infected" becoming more dangerous after nightfall) could make it an interesting addition for fans of the zombie genre.

Techland and Warner Bros. have both repeatedly reiterated the game's next-gen potential and it's hardware-testing technology; it is the first game built around the new, powerful Chrome Engine 6. To give us an insight into these next-gen graphical shenanigans, they've unveiled their work-in-progress system requirements which, whilst not complete or extensive, give us an insight into what kind of rig we might need for this zombie title...

Minimum System Requirements

OS : Vista, 7 or 8

CPU : Intel Core2 Duo 3GHz /AMD Athlon 64 X2 3GHz, Intel Core i5 2.4GHz

RAM : 4GB

HD : 20GB available space

GPU : DirectX 10–compliant 512 MB VRAM

DX : 10.0

Recommended System Requirements

OS : Windows 7 or 8 -64 bit

CPU : Quad-core CPU 3GHz

RAM : 8GB

HD : 20GB available space

GPU : Radeon 7900 Series / GeForce GTX 670

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It's worth noting that these as of yet are just predicted requirements, so don't go panicking yet if you want this game on maximum settings but don't have the GTX 670 to cope with it. However, Techland has been pretty insistent about the next-gen potential of their game (they even released a trailer specifically showing off how pretty its light effects would be) and how they are trying to break barriers when it comes to technology. The predicted system requirements they unveiled were accompanied by blurb saying that;

"Dying Light is the first game powered by Chrome Engine 6, a cutting edge incarnation of Techland’s proprietary technology, designed from the ground up for the new console generation, DirectX 11 and other advanced solutions."

This probably explains the hefty recommended GPU requirements, although the fairly vague minimum requirements could end up being pretty manageable, depending on the game's PC optimization. All indications point to minimum DirectX 10 compliant cards, however.

What might be the real challenge for a lot of gamers on lower-spec rigs is those recommended RAM requirements. Whist most serious gamers I probably already packing the 4GB required for minimum settings, upgrading to 8GB looks like it might be necessary if you want to appreciate the full glory of all those promised new lighting technologies and realistic physics effects Dying Light apparently has up its sleeve. That 20GB of hard drive space is no mean feat either, although with games getting bigger seemingly by the hour, and with those like The Elder Scrolls Online taking up far vaster expanses of our drives in recent weeks, 20GB is beginning to seem less outlandish. Still, you might have to have a bit of a spring clean if you're pushed for space.

Techland has been pushing pretty hard on the "next-gen console" side of marketing their game; we're hoping upon hope that this doesn't translate into lousy optimization on PC."

source - Game-Debate

First time seeing the SR, I think this game is a monster. 4GB RAM for minimum requirements, 2014 will be a crazy Gaming Evolution year..