At Tech4Gamers, I hold the role of a News Reporter, where I merge my passion for gaming with my knack for storytelling. This unique blend allows me to bring you the latest updates, reviews, previews, and features from the gaming world.
Story Highlight
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activation Blizzard has led to various benefits for the company.
Microsoft is now reportedly creating a smaller team to develop AA games using Blizzard employees.
This team will focus on projects that utilize the existing fame of Activision Blizzard IPs.
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision has been beneficial in various ways, such as enabling Call of Duty’s arrival on day one on Game Pass.Meanwhile, the company’s revenues also increased because Activision titles like Call of Duty and Candy Crush Saga generated incredible amounts of revenue.
However, it seems Microsoft is now starting a new project using the publisher. Both companies are joining forces to focus on AA projects.
Why it matters: AA projects are needed in the gaming industry today since they require less time and budget to produce.
Palworld shows why AA games are needed today.
As reported by Windows Central, a new small team has been formed under the umbrella of Microsoft and Activision to make games based on existing IPs like Overwatch, Starcraft, and Warcraft.
The team will comprise Blizzard, Activision, and Microsoft employees, and it aims to make smaller AA games. This news comes after Xbox stated that it needs more smaller games to expand its portfolio.
As stated earlier, AA games bring a major benefit to the table. Xbox has already had huge AA hits like Hi-Fi Rush in the past, so more games on a smaller scale from Activision could prove to be similarly successful.
This should also be a breath of fresh air for Activision Blizzard employees who have been tied to major franchises for several years. They can now experiment with different ideas while using big IPs to play it safe in the industry.
Activision Has Been Under Xbox For Nearly A Full Year
Previously, the likes of Palworld and Helldivers 2 showed why AA games are so important. Perhaps, this initiative can even open up opportunities for potential revivals based on older IPs from the publisher, including Prototype, Blur, and more.
Xbox will also continue to maintain a huge presence in AAA gaming as it works toward the goal of creating AA titles. This will allow it to use the Activision Blizzard studios to gain a major advantage in the industry.
At Tech4Gamers, he is recognized for his insightful features and opinion pieces, where he blends his passion for gaming with a keen understanding of technological trends. His work, marked by depth and accessibility, makes him a respected voice in the tech and gaming community.
Story Highlights
Viewing the game from the eye of a bodycam with a distorted and blurry lens makes for unique gameplay.
The realistic audio cues with wind sounds when moving the camera, and gargles after a person dies – make the game all the more immersive.
With delayed movements and heavy and uncontrolled gun recoil, the game seems like VR and resembles real-life shooting.
The latest release of the Bodycam game has taken the world by storm. This is one of the most realistic games you can play and it’s a must-play for every gamer.
Exceptionally Realistic
One thing that you’ll find everyone saying is that the game is very realistic. It is not only realistic in a way that it has amazing graphics and seamless movements that resemble real life, but realistic in a way that it doesn’t feel like a game sometimes.
The concept of viewing the game from the perspective of a body cam goes a long way, especially considering the HDR effect and the fish-eye view of the camera. The game is exceptionally accurate in blurring the lines of real life and virtual reality.
There’s even the date, time, and name of the person written beneath each person’s body-cam footage, which is similar to the text written beneath the body-cam footage of cops in real life.
VR Without VR
The feel of the game appears to resemble the same feel captured in VR games. The mouse movements are delayed, the way you aim isn’t accurate, and there is no proper crosshair for you to aim. It is one of the few games that seems like it was meant for VR but it is not.
Perfect Imperfections
Unlike other first-person shooter games, this game doesn’t guarantee that you’ll have perfect aim in this game as well just because you’re good at other FPS games. Instead, you’re bound to practice shooting just like you would in real life.
The combat is highly realistic, which also means that gunshots won’t be accurate. This means that you’ll only get kills if you have a good view of the enemy. Being in cover helps a lot, again resembling the importance of cover in real life.
Moreover, the recoil is extremely realistic as well. Where the recoil increases as you climb up the ladder of weapons such as pistols, SMGs, Rifles, and Assault Rifles. Due to the haphazard recoil system, you’re forced to stop and aim precisely instead of spamming.
For weapons with lower recoils, shooting many bullets gets the job done. Again, this resembles real-life body-cam moments where we can see that cops usually shoot a lot of bullets to ensure that some of them connect and that their enemy collapses.
Small Yet Immersive Details
The vision is blurry, even for the folks who have high-end PCs. This game requires a heavy system to run but the vision is distorted for everyone equally. This is added to make the body-cam footage hazy and blurry as it is in real life. Hence, it is harder to aim and peak.
The game has a weather and a weapon system, where the weather and the weapons change for everyone with each round. Due to this, the game also utilizes darkness, enabling players to have stealth action.
When it’s dark, players can hide in the dark spots and other players can spot them either by shining their flashlights towards them or by listening to their footsteps. Lighting a flashlight also means that you’re giving away your location, which could allow for cross-fire.
Realistic Audio Design
With everything aiming to be realistic, the developers couldn’t stop this game from having realistic sound effects as well. This is why the guns are extremely loud and people complain that they’ll go deaf if they don’t lower the sound settings.
Audio Settings (Tech4Gamers)
The developers have even mentioned it in their audio settings, where you can toggle off the loud noises. But that does take away one realistic aspect of the game. Similarly, it also contains realistic footsteps as well, where you can hear them even if you’re walking while crouching.
When moving your cam, you can hear the sound of the wind coming in contact with the camera. Even after dying, you can hear the gargles and painful noises that are similar to the sounds people make in real life when they die of gunshots.
Concept Of Drones
After dying, you can control a drone and roam around the whole map. You have the ability to enable night vision so you can spot enemies hiding in the dark and you can flash your flashlight to them to inform your teammates about your enemies.
At Tech4Gamers, I mainly cover new gaming news, leaks, and rumours. Aside from that, I love to write features about my favourite games while inserting my opinion about their different aspects.
Story Highlight
It has become common for publishers to end support for games after a certain period.
European citizens have taken a stance to stop this trend with a new petition that has reached 60K signatures.
They aim to collect 1 million signatures and support from 7 countries to meet the minimum threshold needed to make a difference.
The gaming industry is in a grim situation due to the many recent layoffs. Even giants like Xbox and PlayStation were affected, but fans are currently concerned about the preservation of games.
European citizens have started a petition to stop the industry behemoths from destroying video games. The citizens demand long-term support at a time when publishers cut support for titles at a moment’s notice.
Why it matters: Publishers often stop supporting old releases once they shift focus to the newer titles.
The Petition Has Reached Nearly 60k Signatures Already
European citizens have initiated a campaign to stop the destruction of video games. The petition has reached nearly 60K signatures, but it needs at least a million to make a point. You can sign the petition until 31 July 2025, so there is a complete year.
Other than that, it must involve a minimum of seven countries. This is the minimum threshold set for the citizens to make a difference. The petition was created due to the common practice of publishers cutting support for older releases.
Recent examples include Ubisoft’s The Crew, which was permanently taken offline. The petition argues that publishers should sell their games in a working state once support is ended.
This is because publishers often profit from games that are sold in a poor state. It also states that the game shouldn’t require connections with the publisher after support ends and that business practices shouldn’t be interfered with when a game is still being supported.
These European citizens aim to prevent the publishers from being able to disable the games they operate remotely. This would ensure that classic titles are in a completely playable state when the support ends, which would, of course, benefit the consumers.
We think this is a valid point from European citizens, and fans should support this stance. This would ultimately benefit gamers, so more players should help them meet the minimum threshold requirements.
Such petitions have also been made in the past, and fans have made it clear that they are all for long-term preservation. Recently, Microsoft shut down the Xbox 360 marketplace, leading to hundreds of games being lost forever. These moves highlight why such petitions are so important, even if they don’t always succeed.
At Tech4Gamers, I hold the role of a News Reporter, where I merge my passion for gaming with my knack for storytelling. This unique blend allows me to bring you the latest updates, reviews, previews, and features from the gaming world.
Story Highlight
Following years of build-up, Hellblade 2 was pitched as the biggest Xbox first-party release in the first half of 2024, but the game disappointed.
Two months later, player counts are down into the double digits, with the game failing to reach even 100 players.
On Xbox, Hellblade 2 is nowhere to be found in the top 50 most-played games.
While various big Xbox exclusives have yet to be released, Hellblade 2 has been the biggest first-party release in 2024 so far. However, following a surprisingly quiet release, nobody seems to be talking about this major single-player release anymore.
Even on Steam, the title has fallen below the most-played releases. The player count is down to just 51 concurrent players, marking an astonishing low for such a huge title.
Why it matters: Hellblade 2 launched to solid reviews and a generally positive reception. However, its gameplay was always criticized, which may have been the major reason for these disappointing figures.
Hellblade 2 was released on May 21, and Xbox considered it one of the company’s most important exclusives this year. The game was expected to do well on all platforms, whether Steam or Game Pass; however, the results seem to be the opposite.
The current statistics on Steam show that the game has 23 active players at the time of writing. While single-player releases are expected to see a drop in player counts over time, the drops are rarely as drastic.
Previously, the game peaked at around 4K players, meaning it lost 99% of its players. The situation isn’t much better on Xbox, with Hellblade 2 nowhere to be found in the top 50 most-played titles.
Perhaps this should have been expected after Hellblade 2 failed to reach the top 10 best-sellers on Xbox during its release month.
This failure also illustrates that Ninja Theory’s emphasis on visuals rather than gameplay was a misstep. Perhaps this feedback can help the team shape what is reported to be the next entry in the series.
Fortunately for Xbox, big titles like Indiana Jones and Black Ops 6 are still coming later this year. These will almost certainly be a much bigger deal, even if they cannot entirely compensate for Ninja Theory’s disappointment.
At Tech4Gamers I test and write about different hardware configurations to show other PC users what they can expect from their build. My end goal is to educate the masses to make the right decision when they are looking for new PC parts to buy
Story Highlight
The ASTRO A40 TR HEADSET + MIXAMP PRO TR is designed by Astro for Professional gamers and Esports players.
The headset delivers you a premium sound experience.
The Pro AMP gives you a lot of sound customization options that enhance your audio experience.
Once, I was visiting a friend and I saw him using the ASTRO A40 TR HEADSET + MIXAMP PRO TR headphones. Being the tech geek I am, I was naturally inclined towards trying them on. I was hooked the moment I put them on and heard the sound quality.
This happened a few years ago when these headphones had just launched in the market. I thought to myself:
I got to get one of those!
Yeah, I am a fan of Nolan’s Batman!
I did just that! I got myself the ASTRO A40 TR HEADSET + MIXAMP PRO TR. The TR stands for Tournament Ready and it was designed with Esports players in mind.
Headphones Packaging
Astro Gaming A40 TR + MixAmp Pro TR (Image By Tech4Gamers)
The headphones come with plastic and metal accents that combine the earcups with the frame. The padding on the earcups is quite soft and made of memory cloth. The same memory cloth is used in the headband as well, to provide comfort and flexibility when wearing the headphones.
The headphones weigh somewhere around 370g, making them quite bulky, but I have found them to be comfortable even when I use them for prolonged periods. I do tend to lose track of time when gaming, but then again, don’t we all?
The headphones come with a voice-isolating mic that captures your voice and delivers it to your teammates without delivering environmental noise, although when I am using it I use the Nvidia Broadcast for noise cancellation, so just my voice goes through to my teammates.
Amp Controls
ASTRO MixAmp Pro TR (Image By Tech4Gamers)
The ASTRO MixAmp Pro TR comes with multiple controls. The biggest and most prominent one is the volume knob. The other is the knob that lets you give control whether you want to focus more on your game audio or team chat.
The Amp also comes with the Dolby Digital Surround processing that you can turn on and off. The headphones and the Amp are connected by a 3.5mm audio jack cable. You can use the cable to bypass, the AMP and directly connect your headphones to your PC/Console/ Mobile device.
Sound Quality And Experience
After using the headphones for quite a while, I am pretty much satisfied with the native sound of the Headphones. The Astro Command Center software gives me further control over the Headphone sound presets: Astro, Balanced, Natural Bass, and Tournament.
Astro Command Center Custom Equalizer (Image By Tech4Gamers)
I have customized the Astro equalizer to give me pinpoint accurate sound while in the game. Many a time I have been saved in valorant due to the accurate enemy footsteps that the headphones provided.
I discovered a hack along the way in my pursuit of getting a better sound from this headset. Before this I owned a Razer Barracuda X headset and for $30 I was able to utilize the THX Spatial Sound, a Virtual 7.1 surround system software, that Razer offers with its gaming headsets.
I have tweaked the THX Spatial Sound to work with my ASTRO A40 TR HEADSET. While it doesn’t fully work, it works enough for me to test the limits of my headset. Whether, it’s gaming, or consuming media, the software has me covered.
THX Spatial Sound Equalizer (Image By Tech4Gamers)
My Thoughts
At this point, I have tried various headphones ranging from generic 2.0 headphones to full-fledged 7.1 Virtual Surround headphones. I can say with utter confidence that these headphones are a complete package and they come with premium sound quality, design, and controls.
Many have found these headphones as overkill, and to some degree, I agree with them. However, I am a fan of headphones that can provide sound clarity so I can enjoy differentiating different sounds.
The headphones have been tailored towards providing footsteps with pinpoint accuracy in games that fall in the FPS category. Having dedicated a few thousand hours to Riot Games’ Valorant, the headphones fulfill my requirements as well as my wants.
These headphones are everything I asked for and more. I enjoy these headphones whether, I am gaming, or consuming digital media. The only downside I have found so far is it’s a little on the expensive side, but then again all high-end tech is.
If you’re looking for a high-end headset that gives you an overall great performance, then this is the headset for you. If you want to spend a bit less, you can invest in a similar model the Astro Gaming A10 that offers similar performance. Whichever is your choice, you won’t be disappointed. I know I wasn’t!
I’ve been the Journalist & Editorial Writer at Tech4Gamers since July 2022. I spearhead our hardware coverage, including overclocking GPUs, benchmarking CPUs, reviewing peripherals, and fine-tuning custom PC builds for every budget. Daily, I report on breaking gaming news, from major launches and studio updates to the latest industry trends, ensuring our community stays informed. Beyond news briefs, I write in-depth feature articles on gaming culture and emerging technologies. And by collaborating closely with the editorial team on content planning, SEO strategy, and our publishing calendar, I help us consistently hit our traffic and engagement targets.
Story Highlight
The Logitech G Pro X Superlight has become the go-to mouse for most competitive gamers.
The mouse provides top-notch specifications, along with a simple shape, which accommodates a lot of grip types, allowing it to appeal to a wider audience.
The Superlight has no obvious flaws in its performance or design, making it reliable in all aspects.
Given the heavy adoption of the Superlight within the competitive scene, most gamers are naturally inclined to purchase it over the competition.
Still, it doesn’t surprise me all that much, especially considering the insane popularity of the lineup. Having said that, what is it that actually makes the Logitech G Pro X Superlight such a viable option among pros and casual users alike?
A Simple, Yet Effect Shape
Logitech G Pro X Superlight (Image By Tech4Gamers)
Let’s get the most obvious fact out of the way first. Logitech has picked one of the safest shapes with the Logitech G Pro X Superlight, and that naturally allows it to accommodate a wide range of grip types. The mouse lacks any aggressive curves, or a pronounced hump so it isn’t necessarily limited to a certain audience.
Even if it isn’t the most comfortable mouse for someone, chances are, they are going to find it good enough for long use. Build quality also has no issues, so the mouse is essentially guaranteed to last a long time, making it worth the higher overall price tag.
No Obvious Flaws
Logitech G Pro X Superlight (Image By Tech4Gamers)
Whatever disadvantages the G Pro X Superlight initially had have all now been addressed with the Superlight 2. Logitech has introduced the much-needed type-C port for charging, and they have also kept up with the competition thanks to the increased polling rate, improved sensor, and better switches. That makes it hard to point out a flaw in the mouse.
Sure, it still costs a lot, and the Superlight 2 didn’t add a lot to the already well-received original, but that doesn’t take away from its impeccable feature set. Not to mention that Logitech has reduced the weight to 60 grams, which is still fairly competitive.
Now, Logitech’s Superlight 2 might not have the same 8K Hz polling rate as Razer’s Viper V3 series; however, the truth is, that higher polling rates aren’t really that important. If I’m being honest, the Superlight’s 4K Hz polling rate is more than what you would require out of a gaming mouse anyway.
Don’t get me wrong, it is nice to have a higher polling rate for mice as expensive as these ones, but, they aren’t going to be game-changers by any stretch of the imagination.
Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 (Image Via Logitech)
Despite all of that, I wouldn’t say that the Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 is perfect. There are a few things that I am not a fan of, including the side buttons, and the glides; however, most people don’t seem too concerned with that. Of course, that is also personal preference, and there are a lot of competitors offering alternatives that fix those problems.
Back when the Logitech G Pro X Superlight initially came out, a lot of pros were quick to switch to it for its lighter weight, and incredible performance. The same can also be said for the Superlight 2. And since most pros already had a good feel for the shape of the Superlight, it was obvious that they would choose the Superlight 2 as their next mouse choice.
As I mentioned previously, it is usually also the most used mouse in major Valorant and CS2 Tournaments. This Dominance in the Esports scene means more people will naturally be inclined to purchase the Superlight simply because their favorite Esports professional also uses it. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, it sure has a huge impact on the popularity of the mouse.
Incredibly Popular, For Good Reason
Given the popularity of the Logitech G Pro X Superlight, it is clear that most people looking for a high-end mouse look for capable sensors, reliable buttons, and a shape that isn’t too aggressive. Among other competitors, the Superlight simply does a great job at that, which explains its popularity.
As Tech4Gamers’ Founder and Editor-in-Chief, I bring over 13 years of PC Hardware Reviewing and 8+ years of IT Project Management experience. Certified in Google IT Support , my focus is on providing honest product reviews and analysis and fostering a strong gaming community with 130k+ members in PPG.
Story Highlight
Live service games are usually shunned by the community because of their lackluster quality.
Relying on continuous revenue through microtransactions and subscriptions can lead publishers to prioritize profit over quality.
Live service games can evolve like No Man’s Sky did, but it takes a lot for that to happen.
Video games are art created by businesses. Sometimes, artists have freedom, but corporate greed can interfere. Many feel this way about live service games. Can a greed-driven live service game ever be good? Stick around to find out!
What Even Is Live Service?
It feels like the buzzword of live service in the gaming industry is rather new, so a lot of people don’t have a clear understanding of what it means.
Some Of The Best Recieved Live Service Games
Live service games try to engage players for as long as possible through PvE or PvP gameplay, emphasizing leveling your character and/or getting better loot. Live service games are also notorious for having lots of microtransactions and subscriptions, which is where they generate most of their revenue.
After that explanation, I’m sure many games have popped into your mind, but I can’t be sure if the sentiment around them was good. Live-service games have a bad reputation in the community, with very few of them actually being good games.
What Makes Them So Bad
Now that we’ve gotten introductions out of the way, the following sections will focus on unpleasant aspects that live service games frequently adopt.
Microtransactions
Live service games need continuous management, content, and maintenance, making it hard to get the revenue required to keep the game up and running from just an initial price tag, especially if not many people buy it.
To counteract this, many live service games contain microtransactions that can give users a season pass, in-game money, cosmetics, or, in the worst scenarios, means to continue the story. This is often combined with an initial price tag.
Games Like Fortnite Get A Pass Because The Things You Can Buy Are Purely Cosmetic (Image By Tech4Gamers)
Though this model is somewhat necessary to operate the mechanics that allow the people to play the game, publishers have gone way too far with maximizing their profit, which has proved time and time again to be something that only drives people away and hurts your business in the long run.
Unfinished
If you’re trying to have an experience that should, ideally, last as long as possible, it’s gonna get better if the developers have any idea about what they’re doing. Naturally, this can cause the games to feel rushed or unfinished at the start.
No Amount Of Graphics Could Have Saved Anthem (Image By Tech4Gamers)
This, along with the crunch usually integral to these profit-first games, often results in a half-baked game. No amount of day-one patches can revert a gameplay mechanic that was wrongfully added 5 months into the development of the game.
A game requires time to experiment, test, and craft an experience that feels special, which is sadly lost when talking about live service games.
It’s Going To End
Live service games are only playable when they’re profitable. When the game stops raking in money, the companies surrounding it abandon its maintenance and close down the servers to stop for extra losses.
This should theoretically happen to every live service game, whether Fortnite or World Of Warcraft. If you have invested in these games, they can be gone instantly when the games go out of fashion.
This Moment Will Always Be Able To Be Experienced (Image By Tech4Gamers)
It’s also weird thinking about how the hard work of so many developers and their legacy can be wiped out. If you want to play Uncharted 50 years in the future, it should still be possible, but the same cannot be said about something like Anthem.
There Is Still Hope
Though I and many other gamers believe that live service games should not exist, there are some examples of the format actually working great, at least in the long run.
No Man’s Sky went from a bad game at launch to a great one due to patches and the live service model. Helldivers 2 recently gained a lot of popularity because of its fun co-op features. Fortnite has been a huge behemoth for years now.
But with everything in perspective, it is hard to say that live service is not ultimately detrimental for players and developers. This leads me to think that we could do without live service games, even though some have been truly special.
At Tech4Gamers, he is recognized for his insightful features and opinion pieces, where he blends his passion for gaming with a keen understanding of technological trends. His work, marked by depth and accessibility, makes him a respected voice in the tech and gaming community.
Story Highlights
Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain is the most unique wrestling game ever.
It has a perfect mix of arcade and simulation-style gameplay.
The game’s environmental freedom, such as roaming and fighting backstage, riding vehicles, and performing moves off of helicopters, made it memorable.
The season mode with freedom of decision also adds much to the game.
Wrestling games have been around for over two decades. During this time, we saw some great games that wrestling and non-wrestling fans enjoyed playing. Some games declined towards realism, while others focused on the fun element.
While other wrestling companies like TNA and WCW occasionally tried to deliver some playworthy wrestling video games, WWE had the most dominance in this niche—their games from Smackdown Vs. Raw, WWF Smackdown, and the early WWE 2K series gave fans some of the most memorable games.
Of all the great work WWE did in the gaming world, Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain! has been one of their best.
Various Match Types
The game was released in the early 2000s and took the gaming world by storm. It had everything a wrestling game should have, including many match types, lumberjack matches, slobber knockers, elimination chambers, etc.
Different Special Match Types In HCTP (Image By ColdSpider)
These many match types had never been seen before in a wrestling video game, and how they were designed also made each match type feel unique. My favorite is the three stages of hell, as you can play three different types of matches in a best-of-three contest. You can choose each of the three match types to suit your playing style.
Smooth And Fun Gameplay
The gameplay itself was one of a kind. Each move felt special when executing, making you feel like you just killed your opponent. The animations were done well and would mimic real-life wrestling moves correctly. The moves would simultaneously feel arcadey and yet realistic as the animation had the correct mixture.
The freedom in this game was also over the top. There are so many crazy things you could do in this game, even for wrestling fans. In the arena, you could pick and throw weapons at your opponents, climb on announce tables and jump from there, break them by performing moves on top of them, set your opponent on wooden and diving tables, and more.
When you leave the arena, you have several backstage locations in the stadium where you can roam and use the environmental objects to cause destruction. You could perform moves on your opponents on top of cars, which causes them to break.
Vehicles like forklifts and motorcycles can also be driven, and you can crash your opponent with those. When on the bike, you could even grab and choke your opponent by the neck and drag them around.
There’s also a shopping cart in a backstage area where you could throw your opponent and crash them onto a wall or piles of boxes. And the craziest of all, outside on the streets, you could climb a helicopter, fly up to a certain height, and perform a dive on your opponent.
Even the sky isn’t the limit in this game. They went nuts with it and included all kinds of crazy stuff that the technology of that time would allow them to do. This out-of-this-world gameplay made Here Comes The Pain what it is today.
Replayable Season Mode
The game also had a season mode where you could choose your favorite superstar and play a career simulation. This season mode gives you the freedom of choice, allowing you to make career decisions like going for a championship, forming alliances, or switching brands.
This freedom of choice gives the players a different experience whenever they play the season mode again. Season mode also features cutscenes and a choice of dialogues that add twists and turns in your career, introducing story elements to the journey.
While playing the season mode, you could earn cash and unlock stuff in the game, like loading screens, clothing parts, and even more superstars, which you could use in the exhibition mode. You can also use the unlockable stars to start a career with them.
Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain! is one of the most well-aged and renowned wrestling games on PS2 and rightfully deserves the attention it gets from fans today. Other wrestling games have come closer to it, but it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain! is above all.
At T4G, my task is to cover the latest news around the gaming globe ASAP and with the utmost precision. I adore all the games and respect all the devs behind the amazing games that we get all year. So, whether it’s a PC or a Console game, I got it all covered.
Story Highlights
Mobiles offer on-the-go entertainment and everyone has them in today’s age.
With a wide range of genres and gameplay styles, mobile gaming offers variety to all kinds of players.
Mobiles are easily accessible and very convenient to use on the go.
As technology advances mobile gaming is becoming a new trend.
For many gamers, gaming needs to be easily accessible and their devices portable. You’ll never see a person carrying around their PC because it’s not practical. Instead, you may see players carrying laptops, Nintendo Switch, tablets, etc. One such form of easily accessible on-the-go entertainment is mobile gaming.
With the fast technological progress of the current age mobile gaming has become a cultural phenomenon. The industry makes around 100 million USD in annual revenues. Today, parents ease their children by handing them their smartphones to play games on. From casual players to hardcore ones those of all ages can enjoy gaming using smartphones.
A Global Revolution
In the past gaming was limited to specific locations such as arcades or living rooms. People gathered around consoles or computers to enjoy the pleasures of gaming. However, with technological advancements phones and tablets gaming has become portable and always available to players. Now gamers can access a large number of games anywhere at any time simply by pulling out their mobile devices.
Mine craft On Mobile – Image Credits (Tech4Gamers)
This shift has turned boring activities such as waiting in lines and general boredom into opportunities to play games. There exist many different titles that players can choose from. From puzzle games to all-out adventure games, you name it. The industry is constantly on the rise with over 2.6 billion players until recently.
Breaking Boundaries of Gaming
The appeal of mobile gaming lies in its accessibility and its versatility. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro gamer mobile gaming can be your go-to when bored. There are diverse genres and titles that gamers can choose from so there is a little something for everyone. Xbox is soon to launch its very own mobile gaming store to accommodate players worldwide. Also, two recent listings have made it clear that Sony plans to expand into the mobile gaming market.
Similar to Traditional gaming mobile gaming also transcends geographical boundaries. It connects players from all around the globe in shared virtual places. Through multiplayer modes and online communities, gamers can collaborate, compete, and make friends.
Action Mobile Games – Image Credits (Pinterest)
Innovation and Evolution of Mobile Gaming
Fueled by technological innovation and progress, mobile gaming continues to push the possibility of what is possible on compact handheld devices. Having a smartphone nowadays is literally like carrying a PC in your pocket. You can easily get a smartphone that can accommodate any mobile game with a few hundred dollars.
Unlike PCs, mobile phones are not as upgradeable, so you may need to change your device if you want an upgrade. A similar phenomenon to mobile gaming was the PSP, which the Nintendo Switch and other such devices have now replaced. Mobile gaming now has it all from cutting-edge graphics to amazing touch controls. Other than this there are now customizable accessories for mobile gaming.
asphalt 8 – Image Credits (Tech4Gamers)
The rise of cloud gaming and 5G connectivity promises to heighten the impact of mobile gaming. By the next few years, we will be able to play high-quality games on our mobile devices without the need for bulky hardware.
Cultural Impact of Mobile Gaming
Beyond entertainment, mobile gaming also has a significant cultural and social impact. Gamification is being used in mobile apps to educate, inform, and encourage positive behavioral changes in fields like health, education, and environmental consciousness. Mobile gaming has allowed for information to be consumed in a whole new way.
Minecraft Mobile Gameplay – Image Credits (Tech4Gamers)
Apps like Duolingo though to help people learn are portrayed as fun games. Similarly, chess and other games help create higher intellect and strategy-building skills. All of this can be accessed anywhere anytime simply by your smartphone.
The possibilities of mobile gaming are endless. In our hands lies a world of gaming waiting to be explored. It’s not far-fetched to say that mobile gaming is at the forefront of on-the-go entertainment. As smartphones become more and more common among people and a basic necessity mobile gaming increases. Through mobile gaming people can easily kill some time and enjoy.
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Story Highlights
Phoveus was unpopular because of his limited usefulness.
Other factors such as uncertain itemization and slow animation times also added to his unpopularity.
His revamp solved some of the issues but took away his identity as an anti-dash hero.
Mobile Legends has no shortage of heroes with unique and engaging mechanics. From selfish one-shot carries that can snowball early to marksmen that need to be babied for clutches late game, everyone has their pick.
However, there exists a class of heroes that are only played in certain matchups: counter heroes. Even among these rarely-picked heroes, there exists an outlier who’s so forgettable people don’t pick him even when he’s the perfect counter.
With all that said, here’s how Moonton revamped Phoveus to be even worse than before!
What Are Counter Heroes?
Counter heroes are a subclass of heroes that work best against certain kinds of team compositions. Belerick is a tank that deals damage back to enemies when hit, increasing the frequency if an enemy hits multiple times, while Baxia has a passive that reduces the heal and shield effects of enemies hit by skills.
Other examples like Khufra and Minsittihar also exist, but the point should be clear by now; counter heroes are perfectly viable. Even if you don’t directly counter the enemy team, however, these heroes can still hold their own.
Phoveus, The Shadow Of Dread
Honestly one of Moonton’s best designs (Captured by Tech4Gamers)
Phoveus came to the Land of Dawn in 2021 with the 515 party event. His design immediately caught the eye of many, being different from all heroes released prior. He looked more like a Greek God than a Mobile Legends hero. The Shadow of Dread was a title that made people very hyped.
As for his kit, the passive reduced his skill cooldowns when an enemy dashed or was displaced near him. The first skill dealt damage and gave him a shield. His second skill was a CC that pulled in enemies.
Ingame splash art (Captured by Tech4Gamers)
The core of his kit, his ultimate, could only be activated on enemies that have dashed or been displaced. You could then cast your ultimate to teleport to the marked enemy to deal damage. You’re immune while teleporting, and you gain a fat shield at the end.
The cool thing about this was that he could spam the ultimate again and again, so long as an enemy kept dashing, such as a Wanwan.
The Problem With Phoveus
The kit doesn’t sound too bad on paper. He has clear strengths and weaknesses. He has a cool design, and his skills don’t seem boring. However, for one reason or another, he got forgotten very quickly. Here are some of the reasons people stopped using Phoveus.
Useless except as a counter: Heroes like Minsittihar and Khufra, while the most effective when countering specific enemies, still worked against other teams. Phoveus’s entire kit was based around the enemies dashing, so he was completely useless against any team that didn’t have a hero with dashes.
Confusing build paths: Phoveus’s shields and in-your-face playstyle made him out to be a frontline fighter who needed survivability. However, his scalings weren’t so good that you could have a hybrid build. He also dealt magic damage, and most damage items that provided survivability were physical.
Kinda useless even as a counter: Even if an enemy had a lot of dashes, you could simply time your dashes to escape before Phoveus’s long animation finished and dealt damage. You could even temporarily retreat to your team, making the Phoveus either teleport to 1v5 you and your team, or waste his ultimate.
The Shadow Of The Dreaded Revamp
Phoveus – Old vs. New (Captured by Tech4Gamers)
The first thing you notice is the complete shift in design philosophy. The former Greek God is now emo and seems like a completely different character. Putting aside the design, the kit is changed as well.
He’s shifted from magic to physical, solving one of the problems I mentioned earlier. The removal of a cooldown on his ultimate solved another. However, that’s where the good things end.
Phoveus no longer counters high-mobility heroes. His ultimate, the core of his kit, can no longer work on dashing heroes. It can only be activated on heroes that are displaced by your skills. They did give him better CC capabilities to make up for it, but this just erases the biggest aspect of what Phoveus as a hero was.
His immune and shield on the ultimate were removed as well, which makes it a lot riskier for him to jump into the enemy team. Honestly, he’ll just be a worse Arlott.
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Story Highlight
Lossless Scaling works with any graphics card, whether old or new, without a problem and costs around $3.5 on Steam.
The software works with any game, regardless of whether it has support for upscaling tech or not.
While lossless scaling does produce some artifacts, but they’re not that noticeable when in action.
There was no way of boosting frames in your game without scaling down the graphics settings or upgrading your hardware. However, it can now be done via upscaling tech, like AMD FSR, Nvidia DLSS, or Intel XESS. But those upscaling tech works at the game level and aren’t supported by every game.
This is where this 3rd party upscaling tool comes into play and doesn’t disappoint for the most part.
How It Works
The center of my attention is called Lossless Scaling and is up for sale on Steam for a mere $3.5, previously it was being sold for $7. So that’s a decent bit of discount right off the bat. Anyway, it works at the display level unlike AMD’s FSR, Nvidia’s DLSS, or even Intel’s XESS.
Moreover, it offers both upscaling and frame generation support at the display level, which helps me big time as I don’t have top-of-the-line hardware. That said, it sacrifices a little on the quality side but makes up for it with frame generation and upscaling tech support. More importantly, it also doesn’t care which game you’re playing, whether multiplayer or single-player. It works with everything.
Besides that, Lossless Scaling has two versions of frame generation, the first one is called LSFG 1.1, and then came the second named LSFG 2.0, which significantly improved the quality and performance. Despite that, there are some challenges to it, it’s not as straightforward as the other upscaling techniques.
Requires Set-up
To get the most out of it, I had to set it up, as it works best when you configure it right along with a frame rate cap in-game. The ideal cap is 60, so if the fps on screen is 60 or nearly around 60, you should be good to go to double or even triple, those numbers. Also, that’s exactly what I did.
Apart from that, I also had to set up this cap for each game separately, otherwise, it wouldn’t work properly, and it’s also one of the downsides of this 3rd party software. Soon after that, I was able to capitalize on the additional frames in my favor instead of subpar performance. Not to forget, it also offers several upscaling techniques, from FSR 1 to FSR 3 & DLSS 3.
As in your case, when you’re done with the desired settings, click on the scale button up top or use a hotkey while you’re in the game. Do note, though, that it works best when you’re playing the game in borderless mode. I know it sounds odd, but that’s just how I got it working flawlessly on my end. Using it with a hotkey would be the best way to engage with the software, which I’m using myself because it takes away the need to switch back from app to game or game to app.
Furthermore, there’s also a performance mode in LGFG 2.0, that works excellently and provides a decent uplift in performance. It is well suited for weaker GPUs, where sacrificing visual quality for additional performance that can make the game playable seems worth it.
Lacks in Some Areas
While it’s giving me a decent performance uplift, it isn’t all glittery either, it has its fair share of issues, like the artifacts in games, especially first-person shooters. You can notice ghosting on the screen around in-game stuff while in motion. It’s not too noticeable while you’re busy focusing on the mission, but this is one of the places where it shows its limitations. You can see the ghosting around trees in the video below by Jacob Roach for a better understanding of the issue.
Other than that, the Lossless Scaling doesn’t have any severe issues that could ruin the gaming experience. The artifacts aren’t everywhere on the screen, so that’s relieving, otherwise, the game would not look presentable at all.
A Worthy Small Purchase
Considering, that the tool only costs $3.5 on Steam and doesn’t require any specialized hardware or game. It seems worth it to me as it does exactly what it promises, which is providing ample performance boost in exchange for a small bit of visual quality.
Not to mention, it should be an ideal choice for handheld devices like ROG Ally or Steam Deck. Those portable machines will work best when paired with Lossless Scaling for games that don’t have these fancy upscaling and frame generation tech.
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Story Highlights
Bungie gave Naughty Dog valuable feedback that helped it avoid the live service genre.
The cancellation of The Last of Us Multiplayer resulted from that feedback.
Naughty Dog games have had multiplayer elements before, but going all out could’ve been risky.
Naughty Dog is one of the finest studios in the industry, with games like The Last of Us and Uncharted under its belts. While the studio has had its fair share of multiplayer offerings in the past, Bungie warned it not to delve too much into the live service genre.
Why it matters: Naughty Dog was previously developing The Last of Us Multiplayer, which was later shelved. It seems it dodged a bullet with the move, considering the market is becoming saturated and less profitable.
Bungie was the reason behind the cancellation of The Last of Us Multiplayer.
According to Jason Schreier, Bungie gave Naughty Dog some feedback that turned out to be great, such as not going all in at a live service game. It seems that that feedback resulted in the cancellation of The Last of Us Multiplayer.
While most fans were sad that the game was cancelled, it seems to have been for the best. Naughty Dog does have multiplayer experience, but the market today is quite different, and single-player studios haven’t had the best live service games in recent years.
Some recent examples include Suicide Squad by Rocksteady, Marvel’s Avengers by Crystal Dynamics, and Redfall by Arkane Austin. However, making multiplayer a part of future games rather than an entirely separate release might not hurt.
Naughty Dog hoped to break into live-service gaming.
While multiplayer modes were never the standout parts of past Uncharted games, they were still enjoyable. The original Factions also had a small but dedicated community.
The major problem seems to be that Naughty Dog would have had to dedicate too many resources to the live service project, so Bungie advised against this push. Bungie itself has been struggling recently.
This week, the studio faced major job cuts, and various team members were absorbed into PlayStation studios. As Bungie is a live service studio with plenty of experience from Destinty, its feedback might have been a blessing in disguise.
