The Finals—a free-to-play online first-person shooter—has pulled in a large population of gamers across Windows PCs and current-gen gaming consoles since its surprise launch last month, but players on Linux Desktop + Intel Arc hardware were missing out on this experience...until very recently. Phoronix reports that Embark Studio's Unreal Engine 5-powered title has started to work in a Linux environment "thanks to Valve's Steam Play (Proton + VKD3D-Proton). With the latest Mesa driver activity, Intel Arc Graphics on Linux with their open-source driver can now handle this popular game." GamingOnLinux owner, Liam Dawe, created a post about this development, although he noticed a multitude of stability problems and glitches in-game, but was largely up and running with an AMD Radeon 6800 XT GPU on Mesa 23.3.3.

Phoronix's Michael Larabel noted some (Intel Arc-specific) feedback on GitLab: "when launching The Finals on Linux with Intel Arc Graphics using the default DirectX 12 renderer, it was reported that the game is stuck at a black screen for Intel Arc Graphics and then simply closes... Well, it's an easy fix and one that has come up before." He has witnessed similar problems with other games—notably Diablo IV and Cyberpunk 2077: "due to The Finals using Intel's XeSS upscaling tech but that not behaving well on Linux. The Windows game sees Intel Graphics being utilized and by default tries to leverage XeSS...Intel Arc Graphics on Linux can run The Finals when concealing the fact that it's Intel Graphics inside."

Titan Forge Games and Hi-Rez Studios have made the biggest announcement in SMITE history—SMITE 2! Become a god and wage war in SMITE 2, the Unreal Engine 5-powered sequel to the legendary third-person action MOBA. If you love rewarding teamwork, challenging competition, intense action, ability-driven third-person combat, or godly mythology, you'll see why 40+ million players love SMITE.

SMITE, EVOLVED
More than 40 million players have enjoyed SMITE. Now the next generation of action MOBA begins, with immersive next-gen visuals powered by UE5, more impactful combat, and new creative gameplay options to shape the game in your own way.

CD Projekt Red released the final chunks of post-launch content for their blockbuster action role-player last autumn—Cyberpunk 2077 was handsomely padded-out with a significant Update 2.0 as well as the well received Phantom Liberty campaign expansion. Company leadership confirmed in October that CDPR development departments would be focusing on a full-blown sequel, rather than produce further DLC add-ons for the first entry in the series. Igor Sarzyńsk, the sequel's narrative director, announced earlier this week that he had arrived at CD Projekt Red's recently established office in Boston, Massachusetts. This new outfit appears to be separate from CD Projekt's other East Coast studio: The Molasses Flood.

Sarzyńsk's tweet establishes that CDPR's new-ish North American team is working on Cyberpunk 2077 Part Deux: "First day in the Boston office! So good to meet old friends and officially kickstart our Orion journey. I couldn't be more excited for this project and I'm sure we can make it something special. 2077 was just a warm-up 🔥." Gaming news outlets have focused a lot of attention on Sarzyńsk's (slightly premature) implication that the CP2077 sequel is going to be greater in scope. The original game had a troubled development cycle, so it will be interesting to see how a combination of studio veterans and new staff get a handle on the successor—especially with a switch over to Epic's Unreal Engine 5. Cyberpunk 2077 was the final game to utilize the company's proprietary REDengine.

As we enter the second to last week of the year, we're entering one of the slowest periods of the year when it comes to new game releases. This week's major release is an Unreal Engine 5 first person shooter, of sorts. As for what else is coming out this month, there's a truly eclectic mix of games, ranging from being an engineer to building a penguin empire (yes, you read that correctly). Then we have yet another zombie survival game, a game where you get to play dictator and finally you have the chance to dive down the abyss old school style.

Railbreak / This week's major release / Friday 22 December
How do our heroes detox after a stressful week of surviving a zombie apocalypse? The stars of Dead Drop Studios' upcoming Outbreak: Shades of Horror, Lydia and Hank, enjoy an entertaining night out to test a hot new arcade game! What's better than slaughtering zombies day in and day out? Laying waste to bright pink ones with heavy artillery, of course!

AMD on Thursday announced the first release of FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 (FSR 3) source code through the company's GPUOpen initiative. The company just set up an FSR 3 source code repo on GitHub that game devs everywhere can take advantage of. This includes the complete source for DirectX 12, and the source of an FSR 3 Unreal Engine 5 plugin. With it, the company also released extensive documentation that helps developers understand the inner workings of FSR 3, so they could better integrate the tech with their games and applications. With this announcement, AMD also unveiled FSR 3 support for even more new and upcoming games, which include "Black Myth: Wukong," the three latest titles from the "Warhammer" franchise, including "Darktide," "Space Marine II," and "Realms of Ruin;" "Starfield," "Pax Dei," and "Crimson Desert."

"Black Myth: Wukong" is an adaptation of the 16th century Chinese fantasy novel "Journey to the West," which had gain cult popularity in recent times. The action RPG has been brought to life by studio Game Science, and with the gifted hands of artist Yang Qi. The game is powered by Unreal Engine 5, and is coming to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, on August 20, 2024, after what will be close to five years of development and refining. Months ahead of its release, though, the studio teamed up with NVIDIA to demonstrate what's in store for those with the latest GeForce RTX graphics, in its jaw-dropping new trailer. NVIDIA announced that the game will support DLSS 3 Frame Generation at launch, which is scheduled for Aug 20, 2024.Don't miss the trailer!

NVIDIA announces that as many as eight new games get support for their DLSS performance enhancement this week, as the company celebrates RTX 500, the milestone of having over 500 games and software being part of its RTX ecosystem. This week, NVIDIA is announcing that DLSS 3 Frame Generation is coming to the hotly anticipated e-sports title, "The Finals," and "SCUM," a prison riot survival and escape title that somewhat resembles PUBG; and the fantasy MMORPG, "Throne and Liberty." While "The Finals" is based on Unreal Engine 5, the latter two use UE 4. The company also announces that DLSS 2 (super resolution) is coming to "Fortnite Chapter 5," "Sands of Aura," "Silent Rain," "Soulslinger: Envoy of Death," and "The Devourer: Hunted Souls."

In addition, NVIDIA announced a few updates to its existing DLSS support base. "Call of Duty: Warzone Season 1" comes with DLSS 3 Frame Generation, DLAA, and Reflex. For "The Finals," besides DLSS 3, NVIDIA is announcing support for Reflex, which reduces whole-system latency by up to 57%. "Soulslinger: Envoy of Death" supports DLAA in addition to DLSS 2. NVIDIA late Tuesday released the GeForce 546.33 WHQL Game Ready drivers, be sure to grab them to enable DLSS and Reflex on the above games.

Paradox Interactive and The Chinese Room have announced that the Banu Haqim are a playable clan in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. Focusing on stalking, assassination, and outmaneuvering enemies, the Banu Haqim specialize in combat from the shadows with unseen maneuvers and silent takedowns. Known for keeping their bloodlust in check, the Banu Haqim are fiercely devoted to upholding a moral code, dealing with threats, and handing out consequences. They lurk in the shadows, using their vampiric Disciplines to hunt and remain hidden, dealing swift and precise strikes to enforce their sense of justice.

"Making Phyre a Banu Haqim changes how players approach combat, offering a unique perspective to the game's world," said Alex Skidmore, Project Creative Director at The Chinese Room. "Players must approach encounters carefully to make the most of this clan's gifts, timing their strikes with finesse and precision to achieve their goals. These Kindred are patient and careful, making them ideal for players looking for a strategic experience."

Each week, we bring you news of the latest DLSS and ray tracing integrations in games and apps. This week, Gangs of Sherwood and Last Train Home are launching with day-one support for NVIDIA DLSS 2, and the super popular factory builder, Satisfactory, has recently introduced support alongside an Unreal Engine 5 upgrade.

Satisfactory Updates To Unreal Engine 5, Adds DLSS 2 & DLAA
The Overwhelmingly Positive-rated Satisfactory from Coffee Stain Studios is an Early Access first-person, open-world factory building game with a dash of exploration and combat, purchased by hundreds of thousands of gamers since its initial release in 2020.In a recent update, Satisfactory upgraded to Unreal Engine 5, dramatically improving performance, image quality, and features, enabling the construction of even bigger and better mega factories. Zone visuals have been overhauled, Nanite adds high fidelity geometry, Lumen introduces improved Global Illumination lighting, Chaos revamps vehicle physics, and engine enhancements make super large factories run significantly faster.

Greetings Lampbearers. Today sees the launch of our biggest and most ambitious game ever, Lords of the Fallen! It's been an incredible journey for us across the company, especially for our fantastic developers at HEXWORKS, who have worked tirelessly for nearly four years to develop an incredible addition to the action-RPG genre, as well as all for our partners and everyone across CI Games who have supported driving Lords of the Fallen globally over the past few years.

Lords of the Fallen harnesses the cutting-edge power of Unreal Engine 5 - the first action-RPG to do so - to deliver what IGN describes as "An awesome soulslike with a fantastic dual-realities premise" that allows players to seamlessly transition from Axiom, the brutal and unforgiving world of the living, to Umbral, the nightmarish world of the dead.

Greetings Lampbearers. We're a little over two weeks away from the launch of Lords of the Fallen. Soon, the great adventure across the brutal realm of Axiom and its nightmarish counterpart Umbral will be upon us all. We know anticipation continues to rise, so as we await the impending return of Adyr, here's an epic and in-depth overview of what you can expect on 13th October (see below). In it, we cover the game's unique dual realms mechanic, its extensive character customization, seamless co-op multiplayer, and a whole lot more. We can't wait to see you in Mournstead in a couple of weeks.

Hexworks, a CI Games studio, invites players to embark on an epic journey across a vast and treacherous world when the highly anticipated, dark-fantasy action-RPG, Lords of the Fallen, releases worldwide on Friday 13th October, 2023. A spiritual successor to the original 2014 title, the upcoming game acts as a full reboot for the franchise, and is available to pre-order on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Hi everyone. Croteam is very happy today to announce The Talos Principle 2 is launching on November 2. This is a very special project for us. For one, it allowed us to continue the story of The Talos Principle, a game that shaped us just as much as Serious Sam did. But also, The Talos Principle 2 started a new chapter for us, as we transitioned from developing our own technology to Unreal Engine, which allowed us to put 100% of our focus on creating the best gaming experience we can.

We cannot wait for everyone to hop in The Talos Principle 2 on November 2nd, and experience this new adventure with us. You can pre-purchase The Talos Principle 2 now at 10% off, and if you own the original you can secure an additional discount. Thanks for all your support! The new game is a thought-provoking first-person puzzle experience that greatly expands on the first game's philosophical themes and stunning environments with increasingly mind-bending challenges.

Heya Realmwalkers, Inflexion Games here. We have a new Developer Update for you all that covers Nightingale's August playtest details & challenges, what we're working on post-playtest, Quality of Life (QoL) feature updates, what Early Access means to us and much more. Watch it below. Set out on a journey of survival and adventure, into the mysterious and dangerous Fae Realms of Nightingale! Become an intrepid Realmwalker, and venture forth alone or with friends - as you explore, craft, build and fight across a visually stunning Gaslamp Fantasy world.

Nightingale is a PVE open-world survival crafting game played solo or cooperatively with friends. Build, craft, fight and explore as you venture through mystical portals into a variety of amazing and fantastical realms. You are stranded beyond our world, cut off by the collapse of the arcane portal network. This catastrophe has left you fighting to survive in a labyrinth of beautiful and dangerous Fae realms. Your goal: become a skilled Realmwalker, and navigate the web of transdimensional portals. Only then can you discover your way to the magical city of Nightingale, the last known bastion of humanity.

Inside sources have claimed that Bungie is working on a third project—codename: Gummy Bears—alongside Destiny 2 (their bread and butter IP) and the still mysterious Marathon reboot. Several media outlets keep close tabs on activity at the Sony Interactive Entertainment-owned studio—"Gummy Bears" is believed to be a "light-hearted" and "colorful" alternative to the other multiplayer experiences in Bungie's stable. Paul Tassi (writing for Forbes) believes that Bungie's "Matter" concept is synonymous with "Gummy Bears"—past job adverts have outlined a "team-based action game" that takes: "inspiration from fighting games, platformers, MOBAs, life sims, and frog-type games, wrapped up in a lighthearted, comedic world."

TheGamePost has chosen to follow up on their previously leaked summertime information with another major claim—multiple sources have alleged that Epic's Unreal Engine forms the technical foundation of "Gummy Bears," a team-based combat title with isometric gameplay. Switching to an outside toolset would be quite an unusual move for Bungie—the veteran development house has relied on its (extremely mature) Tiger Engine for more than a decade. One insider placed emphasis on the new IP being built in Unreal Engine 5 for current-gen platforms. PlayStation-specialist site Insider Gaming has contacted Sony for comment on the situation, and conducted a quick investigation: "As far as the accuracy of this report, Insider Game has yet to verify it with its independent sources. However, a quick look at Bungie's career page shows a job listing for an "Unannounced Project" where the required skills include the ability to code in C++. This is the programming language used for Unreal Engine."

Long presumed dead, Anton Sabbados, a veteran returns from a 10-year-long Ottoman slavery. His Carpathian homeland is feebly reigned by the demented prophet-king, its lands ruined by raiders and cursed with a hellish plague. Everything he loved and cherished is either gone or has changed beyond recognition. All he has left is his soldiers' loyalty - and a holy quest to end the plague. Facing hordes of enemies as well as his inner demons, you must help him see it through no matter the cost!

BEAST is a dynamic and brutal gridless tactical turn-based RPG where moral choices during battle influence the gameplay. In a grimdark medieval world, torn by plague and military conflicts, you decide if you should exercise or exorcise your inner beast with dire consequences for you and your allies!

In the weeks leading up to Gamescom 2023 all sorts of Nintendo-related rumors started to spew forth—the boldest being a public unveiling of their much anticipated Switch successor during the conference segment. This did not transpire—of course—with Nintendo choosing to showcase existing games and hardware on the trade fair floor in Germany. Post-event murmurs proposed another highly unlikely circumstance—claims posted to social media and on forums pointed to a top secret demo session of "Switch 2" hardware occurring "behind closed doors" at Gamescom, with an elite set of development teams in attendance. These rumblings were largely dismissed due to unsubstantiated information coming from less than reliable sources.

Eurogamer and Video Games Chronicles (VGC) reached out to their cadre of industry insiders to find out more—newly published articles seem to align with recent leaks. The former understands that: "Developer presentations for Switch 2 took place behind closed doors, with partners shown tech demos of how well the system is designed to run. One Switch 2 demo is a souped up version of Switch launch title Zelda: Breath of the Wild, designed to hit the Switch 2's beefier target specs. (To be clear, though - this is just a tech demo. There's no suggestion the game will be re-released." An insider familiar with the games industry in Spain alleged, a few months ago, that Switch 2 development kits had been delivered to a notable local development partner.

Hello heisters, we hope you're having a wonderful week - and if you're not, we have some cool news for you to dig into when it comes to Payday 3! This is the much anticipated sequel to one of the most popular co-op shooters ever. Since its release, Payday-players have been reveling in the thrill of a perfectly planned and executed heist. That's what makes Payday a high-octane, co-op FPS experience without equal.

Post Launch Plans
We're nearing the launch date on September 21 (Early Access on September 18), but today we wanted to give you a glimpse of what's to come for Year One of Payday 3 and its future content. Besides 4 DLCs, with names yet to be fully determined, we'll also look at seasonal events, playable characters, new enemy, weapons, Unreal Engine 5 upgrade, cosmetics, quality of life improvements, new features and much more. Let us know in the comments which part you're the most excited for!

We're excited to announce that Unreal Engine 5.3 is now available. This release brings numerous wide-ranging improvements as we continue to expand UE5's functionality and potential for game developers and creators across industries. As well as enhancements to core rendering, developer iteration, and virtual production toolsets, we're introducing Experimental new rendering, animation, and simulation features to give you the opportunity to test extended creative workflows inside UE5—reducing the need to round-trip with external applications.

Refinements to core UE5 rendering features
With this release, we've continued to refine all core UE5 rendering features to address our ongoing goal of making it easier for developers to leverage them at higher quality in games running at 60 FPS on next-gen consoles; the improvements also offer higher-quality results and enhanced performance for linear content creators. Specifically, Nanite has faster performance for masked materials, including foliage, and can represent a greater range of surfaces due to the new Explicit Tangents option, while Lumen with Hardware Ray Tracing has expanded capabilities that include multiple reflection bounces, and delivers faster performance on consoles. Other areas with notable advancements include Virtual Shadow Maps (VSM)—which is now Production-Ready—Temporal Super Resolution (TSR), Hair Grooms, Path Tracing, and Substrate.

Hey, all! We hope you're enjoying the game since it launched last week! We wanted to thank you all for the support, feedback and bug reports. Our second patch update that goes live today across PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S brings a lot of key fixes, so please be sure to read over the release notes below.
As always, be sure to follow our social channels for the latest on Immortals of Aveum, including any future updates for the game, as we're going to continue making it better and adding more options and features that you've been requesting.

Immortals of Aveum is a single-player, first-person magic shooter powered by the groundbreaking Unreal Engine 5.1 technology and set in an original fantasy universe. Developed by a new independent AAA studio made up of award-winning industry veterans and published under the EA Originals label, Immortals of Aveum puts players in a visceral and cinematic fantasy universe that combines modern characters and a story-driven campaign with intense magic-based action, world exploration and puzzle-solving. Summon your power, stop the Everwar, and save the realms starting now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via the EA app, Steam and Epic Games Store worldwide.

At PAX West, Paradox Interactive revealed that The Chinese Room (a subsidiary of Sumo Digital) has taken over development of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. The publisher's key note announcement stated that the British studio: "brings their award-winning storytelling to Bloodlines 2, creating a high-quality Vampire: The Masquerade action RPG by talented developers with triple-A experience. Fans eager to sink their teeth into Bloodlines 2 can look forward to the gameplay reveal in January 2024 and its launch in Fall 2024." The original team at Hardsuit Labs was relieved of all development duties back in early 2021, following a year of key staff dismissals. Worried fans were offered the chanced to receive pre-order refunds a few months ago, with Paradox uploading a small batch of alpha screenshots, but not yet unveiling the new dev team.

Industry watchers have noticed that The Chinese Room has undertaken a large recruitment drive lately, so the ambition seems to be there to get into AAA game development leagues, despite a track history of producing critically acclaimed indie hits such as Dear Esther and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. Ed Daly, Studio Director stated: "Vampire: The Masquerade holds a special place in our hearts. The story world's dark setting filled with intricate narratives built on top of modern society perfectly fits our studio's catalog...Bloodlines 2 is our most ambitious project to date. Fans of the franchise have been eagerly awaiting this game, and we are up to the challenge. We are bringing more than 15 years of award-winning (BAFTA & TIGA) experience to the project, creating a game that honors the legacy of its predecessor while bringing its gameplay to the modern era."

Each week, we bring you news of the latest DLSS and ray tracing integrations in games and apps. Last week, we unveiled NVIDIA DLSS 3.5, which will make your games even more beautiful, immersive and realistic with the introduction of Ray Reconstruction, a new AI-powered technique that further improves the quality of ray tracing. Alan Wake 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Portal with RTX, Chaos Vantage, D5 Render, and NVIDIA Omniverse will all launch with or be updated to DLSS 3.5 this fall. Additionally, we announced that NVIDIA DLSS 3's AI-powered performance multiplication is coming to this fall's biggest games, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, PAYDAY 3, and Fortnite.

This week, we're celebrating the release of Fort Solis with DLSS 3, and announcing that Delta Force: Hawk Ops and Project Mugen will launch with DLSS 3. Also, Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle, F1 Manager 2023, and SPRAWL are available now with DLSS 2. And there are new trailers from DLSS 3 titles, including Black Myth: Wukong, The First Descendant and Warhaven to watch.

GSC Game World has been busy showing of a preview build of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl at this week's Gamescom trade fair, and non-attendees have been treated to a new trailer—Bolts & Bullets—but the Ukrainian development (now primarily operating out of Prague, Czech Republic) has quietly shifted the release of their highly anticipated survival shooter from December 2023 to some point within the first quarter of next year. This was spotted by a couple of news outlets when perusing the latest press kit—this small detail is buried right at the bottom of the document (under "distribution"). The game's official website has also been revised with a Q1 2024 launch window.

The development team touts the sequel's: "unique combination of first-person shooter, immersive sim, and horror is back. Immerse yourself in the intricately detailed open world, accompanied by next-gen graphics (courtesy of the Unreal 5 engine) and a rich narrative, all enveloped within the intense atmosphere of a deadly adventure." The game seems to be getting a positive reception at Gamescom, although players were limited to only 15-minute long hands-on sessions with the demo. A few folks were already familiar with aspects of this preview version—a hacker group acquired an older build of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 earlier this year, and leaked it onto the internet.

Today, Electronic Arts Inc. and Ascendant Studios launched Immortals of Aveum, a single-player, first-person magic shooter powered by the groundbreaking Unreal Engine 5.1 technology and set in an original fantasy universe. Developed by a new independent AAA studio made up of award-winning industry veterans and published under the EA Originals label, Immortals of Aveum puts players in a visceral and cinematic fantasy universe that combines modern characters and a story-driven campaign with intense magic-based action, world exploration and puzzle-solving. Summon your power, stop the Everwar, and save the realms starting now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via the EA app, Steam and Epic Games Store worldwide.

Immortals of Aveum tells the story of Jak (Darren Barnet), who discovers that he is a magically-imbued 'Unforeseen' and finds himself reluctantly caught in the middle of the raging Everwar. Recruited under the tutelage of the powerful General Kirkan (Gina Torres) and an elite order of battlemages called the Immortals, Jak must master all three colors of magic - blue, green, and red. With powerful magic-wielders and legions of soldiers on both sides of the Everwar, Jak and the Immortals must uncover the mysteries of Aveum's troubled past, if there's any hope for turning the tides of the Everwar and defeating Sandrakk, the powerful warlord of Rasharn and his mysterious lieutenant, simply known as The Hand.

The day is almost here. The release of Immortals of Aveum is just around the corner, and we here at Ascendant Studios are so incredibly excited for players to get to experience what we've been building all this time. As we inch closer to August 22nd, we wanted to take a moment to talk a bit more about the technology that's powering our game, and what that means for PC players in particular.

Earlier this year, we talked about some of the amazing tools we've had at our disposal as one of the first studios to release a AAA game using Unreal Engine 5.1. There's Nanite, for example, which automatically adjusts the details the player sees based on distance, letting us build huge, detailed 3D objects that look every bit as good up close as they do from virtual miles away. The additional surface detail of our objects provide significantly more places for lighting to bounce off of.

NVIDIA DLSS 3 is available now in 40 games, and is coming to more games this year. Today, The First Descendant joins that ever-expanding list of upcoming DLSS 3 games, ensuring GeForce RTX gamers receive the definitive experience the second it launches.

This week, Gord and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre launch with DLSS 2, accelerating frame rates for all GeForce RTX gamers, and Achilles: Legends Untold is available now.