PUBG Mobile probably isn’t the first game you’d expect to have an electric vehicle tie-in, but it’s here all the same. Krafton and Tencent Games have rolled out a 1.5 update for the phone-focused shooter that includes a raft of not-so-subtle plugs for Tesla and its cars. Most notably, you can find a Model Y on Erangel that can drive itself when you activate an autopilot mode on the highway —not that far off from the real Autopilot mode.
You’ll also find a Gigafactory on Erangel where you can build the Model Y by activating switches, and self-driving Semi trucks roam around the map dropping supply crates when you damage the vehicles. No, despite the imagery, you can’t drive a Cybertruck or Roadster (not yet, at least).
The additions are part of a larger “technological transformation” for Erangel that includes an overhaul of the buildings and new equipment, including an anti-gravity motorcycle.
As is often the case, you shouldn’t expect these updates in regular PUBG — the battle royale brawler for consoles and PCs has a more realistic atmosphere. The PUBG Mobile update is really a not-so-subtle way for Tesla to advertise its EVs in countries where it doesn’t already have strong word-of-mouth working in its favor.i
A new Call of Duty battle royale game is arriving tomorrow to compete with PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Fortnite, and Apex Legends. Call of Duty: Warzone is a new free-to-play battle royale that will be available to play on March 10th with some unique twists. There have been many Warzone leaks in recent weeks, but the game is officially arriving tomorrow, and you won’t even need Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to download and play since it’s free for everyone.
Much like Apex Legends, players will be able to form squads of three across PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Warzone will also include cross-progression and cross-play so friends on any system can play together.
Vehicles in Call of Duty: Warzone.
There are two modes: traditional Battle Royale and a Plunder mode. Up to 150 players will duke it out in the Battle Royale mode, with gas chasing them for the closing circle. In Plunder, players will need to collect the most cash from looting items across the map, stealing enemies’ cash, or completing in-game Contracts.
Warzone is set in a giant city dubbed Verdansk, with more than 300 points of interest and landmarks for looting. You’ll also be able to use vehicles to transport around the map, including an ATV, rover, SUV, cargo truck, and even a helicopter.
One of the most unique parts of Warzone is a 1-vs-1 respawn mechanic. Dubbed Gulag, it allows players who have died to respawn if they win a 1-vs-1 battle. If your teammates are also part of the Gulag queue, they can spectate the fight from a balcony and even assist by throwing rocks at opponents to stun them. Players will be able to enter the Gulag if their teammates have completed enough Contracts or earned enough in-game cash to redeploy them.
1-vs-1 in the Goulag
A variety of Contracts will exist in Warzone, including simple scavenger missions to open supply boxes or ones to secure locations against enemies. Some Contracts even reward unique perks in the game like the ability to see the next circle collapse location before the ring starts to close. Cash can also be used to purchase items at specific buy stations on the map, and you can purchase killstreaks, redeploy tokens for teammates, self-revive kits, and more.
Call of Duty: Warzonewill be available across PS4, Xbox One, and PC tomorrow starting at 10AM PT / 1PM ET for Modern Warfare owners and 12PM PT / 3PM ET for everyone else. If you already own Modern Warfare and you have it installed, the download for Warzone will be between 18GB and 22GB. For everyone else, the game will be an 83GB to 101GB download.
Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox is officially called Xbox Series X. Microsoft revealed the name and console design on stage at the Game Awards today. The console itself looks far more like a PC than we’ve seen from previous Xbox consoles, and Microsoft’s trailer provides a brief glimpse at the new design.
The console itself is designed to be used in both vertical and horizontal orientations, and Microsoft’s Xbox chief, Phil Spencer, promises that it will “deliver four times the processing power of Xbox One X in the most quiet and efficient way.”
Microsoft used the Xbox Series X to showcase Hellblade 2, a new game from Ninja Theory that is being developed for its next Xbox console. While Microsoft has revealed the design here, the company isn’t revealing exact specs beyond what has been discussed previously.
The Xbox Series X will include a custom-designed CPU based on AMD’s Zen 2 and Radeon RDNA architecture. Microsoft is also using an NVMe SSD on Xbox Series X, which promises to boost load times. Xbox Series X will also support 8K gaming, frame rates of up to 120 fps in games, ray tracing, and variable refresh rate support.
Microsoft isn’t talking GPU performance specifics just yet, but Spencer has dropped some hints in an interview with GameSpot, and the graphics you see in the Hellblade 2 trailer were supposedly captured in a game engine, running on the console, in real-time. “We wanted to have a dramatic upgrade from the Xbox One base console,” says Spencer. “So when we do the math, we’re over eight times the GPU power of the Xbox One, and two times what an Xbox One X is.” The Xbox One X is 6 teraflops of GPU performance, so the Xbox Series X could be capable of 12 teraflops.
GameSpot also saysthe console is roughly as wide as Xbox One controller and roughly three times as tall.
Speaking of controllers, Microsoft also revealed a new Xbox Wireless Controller today. “Its size and shape have been refined to accommodate an even wider range of people, and it also features a new Share button to make capturing screenshots and game clips simple,” explains Spencer. It’s slightly smaller, but will retain the rumble triggers according to GameSpot. The updated controller will work with existing Xbox One consoles and Windows 10 PCs, and will ship with every Xbox Series X.
Microsoft’s Xbox Series X console will also include Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and Dynamic Latency Input (DLI) that will “make Xbox Series X the most responsive console ever.” Spencer says the Series X is “designed for a future in the cloud,” and it will combine hardware and software to “make it as easy as possible to bring great games to both console and elsewhere.”
Microsoft hasn’t addressed reports of the company’s plans for two next-gen consoles, but the Xbox “Series” X naming does suggest there won’t be just a single console. We understand Microsoft is planning two new consoles for Series X, with a second lower priced and less powerful console planned alongside the more powerful main console.
We’ll have to wait and see which console comes out on top, though. Sony has not yet revealed the design of its PlayStation 5, but that hasn’t stopped Microsoft from surprising everyone with this naming and hardware reveal.
For a long time now, Microsoft has been going out of its way to downplay the “box” part of “Xbox.” Whether it’s pledging to bring all of its first-party titles to PC, releasing some of them to platforms like Steam and the Nintendo Switch, launching its Game Pass service for Windows, or pushing xCloud streaming, the message has been clear: you don’t have to buy an Xbox to play Xbox games.
But obviously, Microsoft still plans to make Xboxes. The question, then, is this: why would anyone buy one? What is the relevance of dedicated Xbox hardware when Microsoft wants the Xbox platform to be everywhere?
With last night’s surprise reveal of the Xbox Series X, Microsoft answered that question in emphatic fashion. It is a console that looks unlike anything that has ever been released. Except, well, a gaming PC. And that’s very encouraging.
Gadgets get described as “monolithic” all the time, but I can’t think of a better application of the word than the Series X. It’s a vertically oriented, virtually featureless black slab. While it shares design language with the Xbox One X, that only serves to highlight the difference between the two. The One X was designed to be as small as possible, but the Series X screams power.
With its chunky prismatic frame, the Series X feels like it won’t be constrained in any physical dimension. It’s reminiscent of compact gaming PCs like the Corsair One. That has its drawbacks — even in horizontal orientation, it definitely won’t fit in my TV cabinet. But the advantage is that Microsoft now has a lot more thermal headroom to play with than ever before.
Size doesn’t guarantee performance, of course. Microsoft started out this generation with the largest, least powerful console, and now has the smallest, most powerful machine around. From what we’ve heard about the Series X, though, it’s shaping up to be a potent machine even by gaming PC standards. That wasn’t the case with the Xbox One and PS4, both of which were built around low-power AMD CPUs. But Microsoft says that the Series X will target 4K/60fps performance with Zen 2 and RDNA architecture from AMD, leveraging hardware-accelerated ray tracing, GDDR6 memory, and NVMe solid-state storage.TERAFLOPS DON’T MEAN EVERYTHING
Spencer tells GameSpot that the Series X will offer around four times more CPU performance than the Xbox One and twice as much GPU power as the Xbox One X. That should put the Series X at around 12 teraflops of graphical performance, which is up there with some of the fastest PC GPUs available today. The Series X is a bulky box, but I don’t expect there to be much wasted space inside.
Teraflops don’t mean everything, though, and it’s clear that the CPU and SSD will be the more transformative leaps for the platform. The name “Series X” all but confirms the existence of more next-generation hardware from Microsoft, one example of which The Verge has reported on extensively. A model codenamed “Lockhart” is expected to target lower resolutions with around 4 teraflops of graphical power, which is actually less than the Xbox One X.
Most of the One X’s GPU budget went toward pushing 4K resolution, however, while it only offered a minor CPU upgrade. If Lockhart’s CPU and other hardware features are similar to the Series X, it could run the same cutting-edge games at lower resolutions, whereas the Xbox One X’s CPU wouldn’t be able to keep up with the next-gen software. On the other hand, developers are likely to produce separate Xbox One/PS4 and Series X/PS5 versions of games for the foreseeable future. Halo Infinite is confirmed to be one such example.
In any case, it’s clear what Microsoft has done with the Series X: it’s built a simple, easy-to-use gaming PC for the living room. The current Xbox One UI is not what I would describe as intuitive, but it beats dealing with Windows with a mouse and keyboard from the couch, and now the Series X should be able to compete on pure power as well.
Unless you have the highest of high-end gaming PCs, I would expect the Series X to offer the best experience with most Xbox games at launch. That’s not the case with the Xbox One X, which can’t compete with gaming PCs on performance right now. PC gamers have had it easy over the past few years — the Xbox One and PS4 had such weak CPUs that, a couple of examples notwithstanding, it’s generally been very easy to run console games at much higher graphical settings and frame rates on fairly modest hardware. PC performance will obviously get better over time, but next-gen consoles are going to raise that bar considerably next year.“OUR GOAL HAS ALWAYS BEEN TO BUILD THE MOST POWERFUL CONSOLE WE CAN.”
That’s not to say the Series X will be an automatic purchase for many. From what Sony’s saying, the PS5 has been designed around similar principles, and the company’s first-party software advantage is significant. The PS4’s huge success also means that a lot of people will be unwilling to part with the digital libraries they’ve built up over the past seven years.
But if there’s a way to fight that head start, it’s probably Microsoft’s Xbox-everywhere strategy, where a subscription gets you instant access to a huge gaming ecosystem that can be played across various screens. With the Series X, Microsoft is simply aiming to power the best Xbox experience possible on one screen in particular. And Spencer is bullish on the competition. “Our goal has always been to build the most powerful console we can, and I think we’re there,” he tells GameSpot. “We like leading in power and performance and I feel like we’re going to be there again.”
The biggest questions around Microsoft’s new console are now price and the PS5. After seeing the Series X, I’m no longer wondering why anyone would buy an Xbox.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19779613/AGB_WZ_0309_Vehicles.jpg?w=980&ssl=1)
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19779611/Goulag_Inside.jpg?w=980&ssl=1)
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19526235/xboxseriesx.jpg?w=980&ssl=1)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19526232/xbox_series_x_1.gif?w=980&ssl=1)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19526625/xbox_series_x_1.5.gif?w=980&ssl=1)