Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2023 promised to usher in a new era of harmony between PC and console. As such, Activision's marquee title, Call of Duty, has been slowly making its way over to Xbox and PC Game Pass. Now backed by an unfaltering tech giant, Call of Duty has maintained the servers for their older live-service games despite the franchise's annual release cadence. One of these games is Call of Duty: WWII, released in 2017 and still going strong in 2025... up until it was hacked to oblivion over the weekend.

COD: WW2 landed on Game Pass a few days ago, enabling millions to try the game for the first time, and while everything was going smooth over on the console side, mayhem ensued across the PC sector. According to various reports online, hackers have apparently taken over the game with the help of RCE exploits, leading to some relentless trolling.

For context, RCE stands for remote code execution and is a way of running malicious code on a computer without actually needing to be there in person. The bad actor gets access to your computer through loopholes in the security system, then injects a payload containing said malicious code that can wreak havoc on your computer. So far, there have been no reports of any serious harm done to COD: WWII players, but this is a dangerous tactic, nonetheless.

It's important to note that such exploits can only really work on PC since consoles do not provide the level of code execution freedom a conventional computer does, in order to pursue these shenanigans. Obviously, consoles do get hacked, but this particular issue is exclusive to PC and, unfortunately, has been a common occurrence with older COD titles for a long time.

Comment from r/pcmasterrace

Activision introduced its "Ricochet" anti-cheat system in 2019—with COD: Modern Warfare—to combat things like this. Since then, the publisher has iterated on the tech with Ricochet 2, making its anti-cheat harder and harder to crack. Therefore, without the level of protection needed against malicious operators, COD: WWII, which came out two years prior to Ricochet's introduction, is apparently fair game for hacking.

Moreover, COD: WWII still relies on P2P matchmaking, an archaic way of connecting two players (and their computers) together in order to enable multiplayer. This method has been succeeded with a dedicated server model in which all players connect to the server, which receives their input and sends it back and forth in real-time. As you could probably guess, directly connecting two players to each other leaves a lot of vulnerability on the table, which hackers exploited in the case of COD: WWII.

In response to this, Activision has since taken the game offline from the Microsoft Store, for some reason, despite the game still being available on Steam and PC Game Pass. It doesn't matter where you get the game from, the entirety of the PC platform is affected by this, so please avoid playing Call of Duty: WWII until this matter is resolved.

The damage, however, has already been done with several users being hacked over the weekend. In one video uploaded to X, a streamer got hacked while they were live and their desktop wallpaper was quickly changed to show an Activision lawyer. More interestingly, though, @LasagneManne revealed what looks like the exact tool these hackers are using to pull off their exploits. It includes standard options like kicking players off the server or enabling things like "God Mode," alongside the RCE button. Let's hope Activision has a patch ready to address this unfettered access soon enough.

After months of extensive global regulatory obstacles, Microsoft closed the monumental acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, valued at $69 billion, on Friday. The colossal deal propels Microsoft to a new pinnacle in the gaming industry, raising its global standing to third, just behind industry giants Tencent Holdings and Sony Group. The software giant from Redmond, Washington, is also becoming a significant player in the mobile gaming industry.

"By combining Xbox with Activision-Blizzard's skill, knowledge, and amazing legacy of games, we will bring the joy and community of gaming to even more players around the world," wrote Phil Spencer, chief executive of Microsoft Gaming, in an email to the company's employees. "We are eager to learn from their creativity, exchange insights and best practices, and empower our new colleagues to bring their visions to the widest possible audience. And today, we officially start the work of bringing more groundbreaking games to more players than ever before and across new platforms from mobile to cloud streaming."

No. 3 Game Publisher

The fusion of Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard is set to be a remarkable event in the gaming industry that brings together the technological prowess of Microsoft with the creativity of Activision-Blizzard. The gaming portfolio that emerges as a cardinal strength of the merge includes Microsoft titles like Flight Simulator, Halo, Forza, and Minecraft. Activision-Blizzard's powerhouse franchises include Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush. This extensive repertoire promises to captivate a broader spectrum of gamers, augmenting the entity's market presence and appeal. 

While $69 billion is a massive chunk of money, Activision-Blizzard brings lucrative franchises such as Call of Duty, which alone has generated over $30 billion in revenue. At the same time, Microsoft's Xbox has robust services like the Xbox Game Pass subscription, contributing significantly to its revenue stream. This union is expected to bolster the merged company's market position, driving substantial revenue through a rich portfolio of games and services. 

The new entity also promises a lot of potential in emerging domains like cloud gaming, where Tencent and Sony are in the early stages of development. Meanwhile, the acquisition enables Microsoft to enter a new gaming frontier — the mobile gaming arena — with Activision's established mobile gaming footprint.

Cultural revitalization is another anticipated strength as Microsoft's influence is poised to foster an organizational transformation within Activision-Blizzard aimed at cultivating a more inclusive, equitable, and innovative workplace environment, something that the game publisher has been criticized for. 

It's Not Over Yet

The combined Microsoft Activision-Blizzard entity will benefit from an expanded global reach, a vibrant user community, and enhanced revenue streams, collectively bolstering its market position, strategic alliances, and overall industry influence.  

A critical turning point in the completion of the acquisition was the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decision to greenlight the deal. Initially hesitant, the CMA required Microsoft to make significant concessions to prevent monopolistic dominance in the rapidly evolving cloud gaming sector. An agreement was reached when Microsoft decided to offload some of Activision Blizzard's gaming rights to Ubisoft Entertainment, assuaging concerns of stifled competition and paving the way for the deal's finalization.

In the regulatory arena, while the CMA gave its nod, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) remains a formidable opponent, continuing to challenge the legality of the acquisition. Despite the FTC's persistent resistance, the transaction's closing marks a significant milestone, albeit with the potential for future legal confrontations that could necessitate the revisiting and possible unwinding of the merger.

Microsoft is still working to receive the required regulatory approvals for its planned Activision-Blizzard acquisition. Despite the fact that other regulators have already approved of Microsoft's proposed $68.7 billion deal, the United Kingdom's CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) has definitively rejected that proposal. In a bid to save its buyout attempt, however, Microsoft has submitted a revised acquisition plan to the CMA. According to the CMA, this new plan is "substantially different" from the one that came before it - in that now, Microsoft is willing to do away with cloud streaming exclusivity of Activision-Blizzard franchises by offloading the rights to competitor Ubisoft.

“To address the concerns about the impact of the proposed acquisition on cloud game streaming raised by the UK Competition and Markets Authority, we are restructuring the transaction to acquire a narrower set of rights,” said Microsoft president Brad Smith. “This includes executing an agreement effective at the closing of our merger that transfers the cloud streaming rights for all current and new Activision Blizzard PC and console games released over the next 15 years to Ubisoft Entertainment SA, a leading global game publisher. The rights will be in perpetuity.”

The CMA's denial stance on the proposed Microsoft acquisition was mostly justified by its belief that Microsoft would be in a too strong of a position within the cloud streaming market were it to be the only platform where gamers could access Activision-Blizzard's catalog. Microsoft's update to the deal, aims to go straight to the heart of the CMA's concerns - there's no grounds for potential cloud gaming dominance being built around exclusivity when you're selling that exclusivity to other parties. Ubisoft (through its Ubisoft Plus subscription service) will control the streaming rights to Activision Blizzard games outside of the EU; Microsoft will be the one to have to go and license titles developed under its own IP from Ubisoft so that they can then be included in Xbox Cloud Gaming.

The CMA further notes that “Ubisoft will also be able, for a fee, to require Microsoft to adapt Activision’s titles to operating systems other than Windows, such as Linux, if it decides to use or license out the cloud streaming rights to Activision’s titles to a cloud gaming service that runs a non-Windows operating system.”

To be fair, streaming Xbox Cloud games through non-Windows operating systems is already possible, with Linux, Steam Deck, and even iOS platforms being able to stream and play Microsoft's X Cloud games catalogue. At the same time, it's strange that the European Union found Microsoft's cloud gaming assurances (which already included multiple cloud streaming licensing deals) sufficient, but not the CMA. In this case, Microsoft will be saddled with both IP development and distribution costs for content developed under Activision-Blizzard's franchises, besides having to lease-back to itself the right to offer those same games through its own streaming service.

The CMA has announced it will be assessing the revised deal over the coming weeks, having settled on October 18th as its deadline - the same deadline that Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard's deal has to either forcibly follow through or fall flat in its face (with the already-taken expenses being written-off).

“This is not a green light. We will carefully and objectively assess the details of the restructured deal and its impact on competition, including in light of third-party comments,” said Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA. “Our goal has not changed – any future decision on this new deal will ensure that the growing cloud gaming market continues to benefit from open and effective competition driving innovation and choice.”

Call of Duty players returning to the 2009-launched Modern Warfare II are being targeted by hackers in a massive malware push that's able to self-replicate and spread through the game's multiplayer lobbies. Data collected on the incident seems to point to June 26 as its starting point, as that was when it was first publicly reported directly on Steam's forums. The malware infection has seemingly been enough for Activision to bring the game offline, even if the company's acknowledgement of the issue is as opaque as could be.

Some more knowledgeable players within the Steam community then attempted to dissect the malware, which was found to have a match in Virus Total's database. According to the findings, the rogue malware appears to be a worm, which exploits security vulnerabilities in applications' code. That ability allows it to circumvent usual protections against code injection, and once the malware infects a lobby, it's able to run localized code on machines of the users accessing that session.

For now, malware infections have only been reported for this specific Call of Duty game, but considering that different Call of Duty entries launched around the 2009 time-frame are likely using most of the same multiplayer code, it's possible that other games in the series may be vulnerable to the exploit.

The issue is made especially relevant due to the recent uptick in gamers logging into older Call of Duty titles following a server-side fix that brought the games back to the limelight through Xbox backwards compatibility. It doesn't appear that the game is being exploited on console installations, so it seems like you can rest easy if you're not on PC. But it's certain that following media reports on the resurgent player base, other users too will find reasons to return to the games in their platforms of choice. If that platform happens to be PC and you logged into the games' servers from June 26 through Activision's server closure to solve "an issue", you'd better act on the "safer, not sorry" mentality and run your antivirus solution of choice.

Microsoft has announced a new 10-year partnership with Nvidia that will see PC games made by Bethesda and Xbox Game Studios make their way to Nvidia's GeForce Now cloud gaming service. The first GeForce Now releases will include Gears 5, which is already available to play on the streaming service, as well as Deathloop, Grounded, and Pentiment, which will debut May 25.

Microsoft said it wanted to expand its gaming capabilities and "empower" users with the ability to play games on whatever device they want, whenever they want. This is a major departure from what we've seen with other large publishers, including Activision Blizzard, which removed its games from the platform due to alleged licensing and/or content distribution concerns.

Ironically, this means the current exile of Activision Blizzard games from the GeForce Now platform will be cut short, as Microsoft is keen on adding all of the previously removed games once the company finishes acquiring Activision Blizzard for $69 billion.

This new partnership with Nvidia will be an awesome deal for GeForce Now subscribers. The platform as a whole has struggled to attract many popular games from various publishers due to the aforementioned content distribution issues. The platform has acquired a relatively large sum of over 1,600 games, but it's still missing popular titles such as Jedi: Survivor, Hogwarts Legacy, Uncharted, Spider-Man: Remastered (and its sequel), Call of Duty, and more.

The new partnership, combined with Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, will inject an abundance of games, old and new, onto the GeForce Now platform. These will include games such as Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2| Warzone 2.0, World of Warcraft, Diablo IV, StarCraft, Overwatch 2, Halo, and Forza Horizon. We'll also see Bethesda games, such as Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Redfall added, as well as Starfield (when it releases later this year). 

Microsoft said it won't add its entire suite of games in one go; instead, they'll be added gradually as GeForce Now developers need time to optimize games to run on Nvidia's cloud servers. Microsoft also reported that initial versions of newly-added titles will only be supported on Steam and the Epic Game Store until Microsoft and Nvidia add support for the Microsoft store in the coming months.

Microsoft said this is just the first in a series of partnerships to get its games supported on a variety of cloud streaming services. In the future, Microsoft hopes to have its games supported on multiple streaming platforms, including Boosteriod, Ubitus, EE, and Nward.

Two weeks ago, we learned that Microsoft is facing heat from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over its proposed deal to acquire Activision Blizzard for nearly $69 billion. Now it appears that the FTC isn’t the only group looking to throw cold water on this blockbuster deal; a private consumer lawsuit filed in a California federal court also targets Microsoft.

The lawsuit was filed by ten gamers from California, New Jersey, and New Mexico, who allege “the video game industry may lose substantial competition, and Microsoft may have far-outsized market power, with the ability to foreclose rivals, limit output, reduce consumer choice, raise prices, and further inhibit competition.” The lawsuit goes on to decry that lack of competition in the video game industry and states that the Activision Blizzard acquisition is just the latest in a long line of Microsoft takeovers during the past eight years that have been anti-consumer.

The lawsuit points out Microsoft's past acquisitions of Mojang Studios, Playground Games, Obsidian Entertainment, ZeniMax Media, and Rare Ltd. “The proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft is part of a dramatic wave of consolidation and stands to further lessen competition and harm consumers,” the plaintiffs allege. It’s also assumed that software developers in the video game industry might also be negatively affected with “substantially less choice among employers, and Microsoft may have outsized market power in hiring and retaining employees in the video gaming field, which requires specialized talent.”

If these complaints sound familiar, it’s because they basically mirror comments from the FTC. For example, the FTC also lamented that Activision Blizzard remains one of the few independent video game developers worldwide and has a vast and loyal following of gamers. It contends that Microsoft would inevitably erode the quality of games, cut off access to competitors like Sony and Nintendo, raise prices and alter terms regarding access to Activision content.

“Microsoft has already shown that it can and will withhold content from its gaming rivals,” said Holly Vedova, FTC Bureau of Competition Director, on Dec. 8. “Today we seek to stop Microsoft from gaining control over a leading independent game studio and using it to harm competition in multiple dynamic and fast-growing gaming markets.”

For its part, Microsoft says that many concerns about its proposal to acquire Activision Blizzard are unfounded and that it has taken steps to address concerns regarding competition in the video game space. 

“We continue to believe that our deal to acquire Activision Blizzard will expand competition and create more opportunities for gamers and game developers,” said Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft. 

Activision Blizzard’s portfolio is huge and includes some of the most popular IP in the video game industry, including Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, StarCraft and World of Warcraft.

The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday filed a complaint seeking to block Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard over concerns that it would harm competitors by withholding their access to popular titles, such as Call of Duty. The agency claims that Microsoft has a history of denying competitors access to content it acquired. Microsoft argues that the proposed bid will expand competition.

“Microsoft has already shown that it can and will withhold content from its gaming rivals,” said Holly Vedova, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “Today we seek to stop Microsoft from gaining control over a leading independent game studio and using it to harm competition in multiple dynamic and fast-growing gaming markets.”

The FTC reminds us that when Microsoft took over ZeniMax (the owner of Bethesda Softworks), it assured European antitrust agencies that it would not withhold games from competing console platforms. Yet, sometime after the deal was completed, Starfield and Redfall games were made Microsoft exclusives.

Being a leading independent game publisher, Activision Blizzard currently offers its titles on all platforms, including Microsoft’s Xbox and Windows, Sony’s PlayStation, and Nintendo’s Switch, to name a few. In addition, Activision has some of the world’s most-played titles — including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch — in its stable, so should Microsoft decide to harm its rivals by blocking their access to these games, it will affect hundreds of millions of gamers worldwide.

The FTC is by far not the first agency or organization aiming to block Microsoft’s proposal to take over Activision in a record $68.7 billion deal, which may become the biggest gaming industry transaction ever and one of the largest deals in the history of the high-tech industry. Numerous antitrust authorities are reviewing the proposed bid in-depth. Many companies, including Microsoft’s rival Sony, asserted that Microsoft would make popular titles from Activision Blizzard exclusive to its consoles and cloud gaming platform.

Microsoft itself denies any plans of wrongdoing and argues that the deal will expand competition and create more opportunities for gamers and developers.

“We continue to believe that our deal to acquire Activision Blizzard will expand competition and create more opportunities for gamers and game developers,” said Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft. “We have been committed since Day One to addressing competition concerns, including by offering earlier this week proposed concessions to the FTC. While we believe in giving peace a chance, we have complete confidence in our case and welcome the opportunity to present it in court.”

It is not the first time the FTC has sued to block a large takeover deal. In December 2021, the FTC filed a complaint to block the Nvidia-Arm merger, citing concerns that once Nvidia gains control over Arm, it would withhold certain technologies from rivals to gain an advantage over them. Nvidia called off the proposal in February 2022, citing significant regulatory challenges.

Nvidia has released another driver for users of its GeForce series consumer graphics cards. This latest update, the GeForce Game Ready 526.86 WHQL driver, is headlined as delivering support for smash hit game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. However, there's more to it than that, with a variety of bug fixes for other games and apps also delivered.

The new GeForce driver is claimed to offer a trio of worthwhile improvements for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II players. Once updated, gamers should experience better performance in the game, as well as improved stability and fixes for some image corruption issues that have been highlighted by gamers since the game released.

As well as the welcome finesse and optimizations, Modern Warfare II players can also now enjoy the support of two leading technologies from the green team - Nvidia DLSS and Nvidia Reflex. With regard to the former, Nvidia says that the newly implemented upscaling tech will enable gamers to "max out Modern Warfare II’s graphics at the highest resolutions, while maintaining smooth frame rate." Those familiar with Nvidia Reflex, won't be surprised to hear that touted benefits in CoD: MWII include reduced latency, to make the game feel more responsive and more enjoyable in general.

There is a modest list of specific bug fixed delivered with the GeForce Game Ready 526.86 WHQL driver, too. Keeping on theme with the CoD universe, some flashing screen corruption has been vanquished from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. In Call of Duty: Vanguard, Nvidia claims to have fixed some random crashes that became more likely the longer the gaming session.

Other fixes mentioned in the release notes cover; YouTube crashing to black screen, GPU getting stuck in a P0 state when exiting games, Anvil Engine games with flickering graphics, GeForce RTX 4090 8K60 decoding performance drops, and rainbow artifacts have been eliminated from Forza Horizon 5.

As with any driver release, a list of known issues remain, but the developer knowing about them and listing them gives hope that they are next on the hit list. Some of the most serious sounding bugs remaining involve HDR toggling crashing, and replicable crashes in creative apps like Cinema4D and Daz Studio.

If you own a GeForce RTX 700 series or newer graphics card, and are running Windows 10 64-bit or newer, head on over here for the download. Alternatively, for those not in a hurry for any of the optimizations or fixes mentioned above, you can wait until the GeForce Experience app prompts you to download this driver.

Four U.S. senators have torpedoed Microsoft’s $69 billion deal for Activision. They believe that the consolidation of the high-tech industry and corporate culture of gender misconduct at Activision could expand by the transaction. Democrat senators think that the planned takeover could undermine employees’ calls for accountability over alleged gender and sexual harassment at the game developer.

Senators Elizabeth Warren (D), Bernie Sanders (I), Cory Booker (D), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D) are distraught with the fact that Robert Kotick, chief exec of Activision, will remain at the helm of the game company until closing in 2023. With the same head, the culture of misconduct will not go away, they assume. Another point they are concerned about is the consolidation of the high-tech industry in general and its impact on the workforce. Given their concerns, they wrote a letter to the Federal Trade Commission in an attempt to block the deal.

“We are deeply concerned about consolidation in the tech industry and its impact on workers,” the letter obtained by the Wall Street Journal reads. “This lack of accountability, despite shareholders, employees, and the public calling for Kotick to be held responsible for the culture he created, would be an unacceptable result of the proposed Microsoft acquisition.”

In their letter to the FTC, the legislators also point out that if completed, the transaction will allow Kotick to continue his work and get a hefty severance package, possibly, everything. At the same time, some 1,800 employees of Activision signed a letter demanding Kotick’s resignation. Microsoft denies that Kotick is en route for a golden parachute.

The senators demand that FTC oppose the deal if it finds that it can worsen the negotiating position between workers and companies (in this case, Microsoft represents both entities).

Microsoft commented on the letter saying that the deal compels both stakeholders and employees but never commented on gender and sexual misconduct.

“This is a compelling transaction for all stakeholders, including employees,” Lisa Tanzi, corporate vice president and general counsel at Microsoft, told the WSJ. “We believe Activision Blizzard will continue making progress [in the misconduct situation], and we are committed to further progress after the deal closes.”

Activision owns popular franchises like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush, available on a wide variety of platforms. Given Microsoft’s global strategy of being multiplatform, relying on the cloud, and selling first-party games for Windows PCs and Xbox consoles, it is not surprising that it wants to get Activision with all of its franchises. The question is whether Microsoft is ready to include Activision’s culture.

Do you hear the sound of a thousand screams over at Sony HQ? If you do, it's because Microsoft just announced that it would buy game publishing powerhouse Activision Blizzard for a staggering $68.7 billion ($95/share). To put the acquisition in perspective, Microsoft's largest acquisition to date was LinkedIn, which the company purchased for around $26 billion back in 2016.

With this latest power move in the gaming space, Microsoft will have blockbuster franchises like Call of Duty, Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft, Overwatch and countless others under its umbrella. The game studios that will come as part of the deal include Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment, Beenox, Demonware, Digital Legends, High Moon Studios, Infinity Ward, King, Major League Gaming, Radical Entertainment, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, Toys for Bob and Treyarch. 

And as you might expect, with this flood of new games coming into the Microsoft fold, they will end up on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass. According to Microsoft, Activision Blizzard's back catalog, along with new games, will make their way to the respective subscription games services.

"Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. "We're investing deeply in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible to all."

"Players everywhere love Activision Blizzard games, and we believe the creative teams have their best work in front of them," added Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming. "Together we will build a future where people can play the games they want, virtually anywhere they want."

News of Microsoft's latest big move comes after Activision Blizzard has been embroiled in a rash of sexual harassment allegations from employees. CEO Bobby Kotick has been on shaky ground with employees and investors following the sexual misconduct allegations at the company, but he is sticking around in his current position following Microsoft's acquisition. 

"For more than 30 years our incredibly talented teams have created some of the most successful games," said Kotick. "The combination of Activision Blizzard's world-class talent and extraordinary franchises with Microsoft's technology, distribution, access to talent, ambitious vision and shared commitment to gaming and inclusion will help ensure our continued success in an increasingly competitive industry."

Microsoft is really stacking the deck when it comes to game studios with its Activision Blizzard move, and this comes on the heels of its $7.5 billion acquisition of Zenimax Media and Bethesda Softworks in 2020. The company has already made it clear that it has no qualms about making future Bethesda IP exclusive to its Xbox console platforms. We feel that the same will hold true for its forthcoming Activision Blizzard titles.

Nvidia officially launched its GeForce Now game streaming platform earlier this month. The company promptly had to remove titles published by Activision Blizzard from the service, but it seems like at least some of those games might return to GeForce Now after what Nvidia called a "misunderstanding" between the companies.

Here's what the company told Bloomberg last week:

"Activision Blizzard has been a fantastic partner during the GeForce Now beta, which we took to include the free trial period for our Founders membership. Recognizing the misunderstanding, we removed their games from our service, with hope we can work with them to re-enable these, and more, in the future.”

That statement doesn't exactly inspire confidence in GeForce Now's launch. It would be one thing if Nvidia included access to an indie game during the service's beta. This mixup concerned one of the world's largest video game publishers--Activision Blizzard publishes Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and many other titles--at launch.

Activision Blizzard wasn't the only publisher to pull its titles from GeForce Now after its official debut, either. Companies such as Electronic Arts, Capcom, Rockstar and Square Enix also pulled their games from the service right after it launched. Its game library was one of GeForce Now's selling points; now it's a cause for concern.

But at least it seems like Nvidia's hopeful that it will convince Activision Blizzard (and presumably other publishers) to return to GeForce Now after its launch mixup. We suspect that Nvidia's just hoping it won't end up like Google waiting around for companies to make their games available on its game streaming platform.

Just last week, Nvidia took its GeForce Now game streaming service out of beta, but sadly it doesn't look like it's all fun and games. Multiple parties have slowly been pulling their games from the service. The latest of these parties is Activision Blizzard, whose entire library is being removed from GeForce Now. 

"Per their request, please be advised Activision Blizzard games will be removed from the service," an Nvidia staff member said on the GeForce Now Forum. "While unfortunate, we hope to work together with Activision Blizzard to reenable these games and more in the future."

Activision Blizzard isn't the first to pull its support. Games from Capcom, EA, Konami, Remedy, Rockstar and Square Enix that were available with the beta were not available when the public version launched last week. 

"As we take GeForce Now to the next step in its evolution, we’ve worked with publishers to onboard a robust catalog of your PC games," the Nvidia staff member said. "This means continually adding new games, and on occasion, having to remove games – similar to other digital service providers." 

That basically means that as with any streaming service, like Netflix, content is continuously added but also sometimes removed. 

But unlike other streaming services, you don't pay a big monthly fee for GeForce Now in order access its entire catalog of games. Rather, you take your existing library and play it on GeForce Now by paying a small monthly fee. Essentially, you're only renting the computer power and not the licensing for the game.

Consequently, publishers removing their libraries from GeForce Now support is a particularly sour event for people who may have purchased games with the intent of running them on GeForce Now, since their system doesn't have the gaming capabilities. Such customers now own copies of games that they're unable to play. 

At the time of writing, there is no clear information as to why so many developers have opted out GeForce Now. One would think that by participating, devs have access to a larger group of people, but it appears that something is pushing them away. Reasons could include a problem with user agreements, or some games simply not being ready to properly run on the service yet. 

Regardless, if GeForce Now becomes a service known for having inconsistent game support, there could be dire consequences. Who wants to buy a game if there's a chance that a month from now you won't be able to play it anymore?  For now, we'll hope that Nvidia sorts things out with game studios so that these launch woes don't turn into long-term characteristics.

It turns out that not every Call of Duty player wants to shoot their way through endless waves of zombies to unravel the mysteries of a game mode. Activision celebrated this basic truth by this week releasing a version of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 on PC that doesn't include the Zombies game mode. That way, people who aren't interested in the undead wave shooter can save $30 and retain access to the other game modes.

Activision's decision to charge $60 for Black Ops 4 was already contentious. It's the first Call of Duty game not to feature a single-player campaign, and even though it compensated with the addition of the Blackout battle royale mode, that omittance was bound to rub folks the wrong way. It also didn't help that players were encouraged to spend $50 on the Black Ops Pass in exchange for access to new multiplayer maps and characters.

Now, the company's effectively halving the price of Black Ops 4 less than two months after its debut. Sure, that requires giving up the Zombies part of the game, but many people were more intrigued by the Blackout game mode than anything else. (Though of course many were also keen to experience Call of Duty's signature multiplayer as well.) It's seems likely that the price could drop even further if this edition doesn't sell well.

The news is the latest example of publishers drastically reducing a title's price shortly after its debut. Rise of the Tomb Raider held a week-long sale of 34-47 percent off just a month after its release, and Electronic Arts gave Battlefield "veterans" a 50 percent discount on Battlefield V weeks after launch. It's not like PC gamers haven't known for years that buying a game at launch is bound to be more expensive than waiting a while so the price can drop. But it seems like the time between a game's debut and its trip to the discount bin has shortened.

Activision said this version of Black Ops 4, dubbed the Battle Edition, is available exclusively through the Battle.net client on PC. It costs $30 until January 6; then, its price will jump to $40. So if you're looking to save a bundle on the latest Call of Duty, now seems like the time to act. Unless, perhaps, two months later Activision decides to sell Blackout mode separately or cut the game's price across the board...seems likely, right?

There was a time when every Call of Duty release was a cultural phenomenon. Countless people played hooky from school, called in sick to work and put off other obligations to play the latest release as soon as it reached their doorsteps (or, later, finished downloading.) Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is the first entry in the franchise since the original Black Ops to give me that middle school feeling of genuine excitement.

Too often I've watched the reveal trailer for another Call of Duty game only to roll my eyes and go back to games like Overwatch and Fortnite. The games had grown stale, and I had started to prefer team-based shooters and battle royales over Call of Duty's run-and-gun multiplayer. Black Ops 4 changed that by introducing a battle royale mode, Blackout, as well as incorporating the usual multiplayer and Zombies game modes.

Activision hosted a public beta of Blackout in September. I came away bullish on Treyarch's take on the battle royale genre--it was fun, polished and something between the military-sim-like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) and the fast-paced Fortnite. The beta was good enough to convince me to pick up Black Ops 4 at launch, and over the weekend, I sunk more hours than I ever would've expected into the latest Call of Duty.

Blackout Is a Knockout

I suspect many people bought Black Ops 4, especially on PC, specifically for Blackout. The game mode is the biggest addition to Call of Duty in years, and it's a big part of the reason why the game managed to unseat Fortnite on Twitch over launch weekend. Blackout is also the reason I got Black Ops 4 myself, and though I've spent a surprising amount of time with the game's other modes, it's also the one I'll revisit most often.

Blackout is battle royale done mostly right. Its setting is made from various Call of Duty maps forced into one cohesive whole, its guns are largely the same as the ones available in the multiplayer game modes and its performance is much improved from the beta. The first two factors make Blackout immediately seem familiar to long-time fans of the series; the last one gives the mode a clear advantage over PUBG.

Treyarch also fixed some of the problems that were present in the beta. Level 3 armor that makes its wearer less a man and more a bullet sponge is now much rarer, which leads to gunfights feeling a lot more fair than before. Everything also feels more fluid, whether it's vaulting through a window or looting equipmen. Upping the frame rate (it was 90 frames per second (fps) in beta and 120fps at launch) also helps.

That isn't to say Blackout is perfect. The use of armor, mines and other equipment also encourages people to bunker down in a safe location instead of roaming. It's frustrating to get in a few gunfights, win them at the expense of your armor and then get one-tapped by someone camping the corner of a house with a shotgun and full armor. The new ballistics system also makes it hard to tell if a kill was earned or lucky.

Still, this is what many people have been asking for in a battle royale. Blackout runs well, looks better than some of its contemporaries and features more customization than the likes of Fortnite. Queue times are a bit longer than Epic Games' wunderkind but nowhere near as long as PUBG's, though we'll have to see what happens when the post-launch hype dies and the mode has to rely on substance over novelty.

Call of Duty Multiplayer

I didn't expect to play more than a few games of the non-Blackout modes in Black Ops 4. Saying "you aren't playing Call of Duty" has become something of a pejorative among players of other games, with the implication being that you can't just run-and-gun until you win. After playing through some of the available modes, however, I found myself enjoying Black Ops 4's multiplayer mode far more than I'd thought I would.

Multiplayer mode features 14 maps--with a remastered Nuketown coming in November--and marks the return of many familiar game modes. Free-For-All and Team Deathmatch let you focus on fragging out. Control tasks you with defending or taking over a designated area. Heist, like Search and Destroy, limits players to one life as they pursue objectives, like stealing money or infiltrating a site. The list goes on.

But the mode does have some elements that are new to me that make it more attractive to someone who's largely abandoned the run-and-gun model popularized by Call of Duty. Healing is now a limited resource that must be manually activated instead of something that happens whenever you duck behind cover. Specialists also offer unique gadgets, like Battery's cluster grenade and War Machine, like in hero-based shooters.

The combination of Specialists with the create-a-class system from earlier Call of Duty games is a fine mix. Yet it also contributes to the mode's "win harder" problem: guns are unlocked as you level up, and attachments are unlocked as you use guns. Someone who's been playing a while will have better weapons than newcomers, removing the level playing field afforded by shooters like Overwatch and Rainbow Six Siege.

Yet, that's not as bad as the score streaks that call in explosive remote-controlled cars, Hellfire missiles and attack helicopters to obliterate the enemy team. Using these rewards to survive long enough is rewarding, but it's no fun being on the receiving end of Hellfire missile after Hellfire missile. By that point, the game is almost certainly already lost; playing it out means being a knowing participant in the enemy's power fantasy.

I'll probably continue to play Black Ops 4's multiplayer, especially when Treyarch introduces a ranked mode that doesn't force people with vastly disparate skills into the same lobby, but it's still not as appealing as other games have become to me. I don't think "you aren't playing Call of Duty" should continue to be an insult--there's a surprising amount of depth here--but most of the time I just won't be playing Call of Duty.

Shambling Zombies

Both times I tried to play Zombies, a mode that I used to play mostly because my brothers did, I was disconnected from the servers. I'm sure the mode will appeal to longtime Zombies fans, but I'm not going to work through 12 rounds of horde-based shooting only to be disconnected.

Electronics Arts and Activision haven't been quiet about the fact that their upcoming first-person shooters, Battlefield V and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, respectively, will offer battle royale modes, similar to games like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite. The companies have been less vocal about how exactly their battle royale modes will play, but each shared more information this week as their new titles approach release.

We got our first real glimpses of what Battlefield V and Black Ops 4 have planned in August. EA released a trailer for Battlefield V showing a war-torn town slowly being engulfed by a ring of fire, and Activision tweeted a teaser confirming that Black Ops 4's battle royale mode will offer solo, duo and squad modes.

Battlefield V Battle Royale Mode: Firestorm

EA offered more details in yet a new trailer for Battlefield V this week. The new video reveals that the game's battle royale mode is called Firestorm--which makes sense given the ring of fire in the previous trailer--and that it will pit 16 squads of four players each against each other. This latest trailer also said that Firestorm will feature "destructible buildings, weaponry and vehicles" in "the largest Battlefield map ever."

Another interesting detail from the new trailer is the fact that EA singled Firestorm out from other multiplayer game modes. That could just be to draw attention to a mode unique to Battlefield V, rather than modes that debuted earlier in the series, but it could also mean Firestorm is separate from Battlefield V proper (cue fan speculation that Firestorm will be free-to-play so it can better compete with the likes of Fortnite).

We'll find out more as Battlefield V gets closer to release. EA and DICE recently delayed the game from October to November so the developers could better react to feedback garnered during the game's open beta, which starts on September 6. Note that the open beta won't support the ray tracing features debuting with Nvidia's Turing-based GPUs, but it's supposed to be added in a day-zero patch for the full release.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Battle Royale Mode: Blackout

Not wanting to be left out, Black Ops 4 developer Treyarch also shared more information about its game's Blackout battle royale mode with Game Informer. The developer revealed that Blackout will feature AI-controlled zombies, much like the ones from the wave-shooter-like Zombies mode, to introduce another hazard that must be managed by anyone who wants to outlive their opponents to secure that sweet victory.

The introduction of a new dangerous element to Blackout could drastically change the battle royale formula. Players often gravitate to hotbeds of activity, so if someone has to clear out a bunch of zombies, there's a good chance they'll be low on resources when someone comes to investigate. Assuming the mode also features the ever-shrinking safe zones of other battle royale titles, things could quickly get pretty hectic.

Treyarch also said that Blackout matches will feature 80 players during the beta, and potentially when it officially debuts, because it wants to optimize performance over hitting the somewhat arbitrary number of 100 players in a lobby. That's a lot of people to manage, especially if many of them survive to late-game, and games like PUBG and Fortnite often struggle to maintain performance when a lot of players converge.

Blackout could end up with a higher player count after the beta--maybe Treyarch will find a solution that lets it up the count to at least 100 players without sacrificing performance--but right now it seems like the developer is emphasizing the right aspect of the game. Part of the reason people are so curious about Firestorm and Blackout is their desire to see a battle royale from a AAA studio; that means it needs to be rock steady.

We'll get to feel the effects of these decisions ourselves as the Blackout public beta kicks off later this month. PlayStation 4 players have an early invite to the party--they'll get in on September 10. Gamers on Xbox One and PC, meanwhile, can experience Call of Duty's first stab at a battle royale mode starting September 14, or September 15 for PC gamers without early access privileges from pre-ordering the game.

Electronic Arts (EA) and Activision want a slice of the battle royale pie. The companies responsible for some of the largest first-person shooter franchises around (Battlefield and Call of Duty, respectively) no longer seem content to let other developers gobble up a burgeoning genre's audience. Neither is ready to introduce their own takes on the battle royale yet, but they have teased gamers with sneak peeks of how they plan on hopping on the bandwagon.

Today, EA debuted a Gamescom trailer for Battlefield V (below) that includes information about a battle royale mode. All the top battle royale games today have some kind of ever-shrinking circle of death--PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has toxic gas, Fortnite and Realm Royale have storms, et cetera. The new trailer makes it clear that Battlefield V's hazard of choice is an oddly circular ring of fire closing in on a forest town.

Meanwhile this week, Activision released a teaser for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's battle royale mode, Blackout, which centered on the announcement of a private beta for PlayStation 4 players starting on September 10 (below). The brief video also confirmed that Blackout will feature the same modes as many other battle royale titles: solo, duos and quads (apparently every developer thinks a trio option would be too weird).

Despite the dearth of information, it's clear that EA and Activision don't want anyone to forget that the next installment of their long-running franchises will feature the battle royale modes so many people are clamoring to play. AAA developers are finally starting to fire up their ovens and give the likes of Epic Games, PUBG Corp. and the many other developers working on battle royale titles a little bit more competition.

Late as they might seem, the introduction of these modes to established franchises could be coming at just the right time. While there are many valid criticisms to be made of both companies, as well as the development studios behind specific entries in the series, there's no denying that Battlefield and Call of Duty became so immensely popular because many people like the fundamental aspects of their gameplay.

Remember that PUBG rose to prominence when it was pretty much the only battle royale-specific game on the market. After competitors debuted, the game's popularity fell, and its players have been so vocal about their problems with the game that its parent company announced the Fix PUBG campaign earlier this month to address concerns. PUBG only led the battle royale genre when it was the solo real option.

Not that all of its competitors have been much better. Realm Royale, for instance, has received so much backlash since its debut that its player base on Steam reportedly fell 93% over the course of two months. It's now being managed by an independent studio, Heroic Leap Games, within original developer Hi-Rez Studios in a bid to establish the game's identity and convince people it was more than just a flash in the pan.

Fortnite is now the leader in the battle royale genre. The game is more kid-friendly than PUBG, it runs well and Epic releases substantial updates more often than its competitor. Kid-friendliness aside, EA and Activision could bring similar advantages to their own titles. Both are massive companies used to spending a lot of money to convince people to buy annual releases of very similar games.

The two also have the advantages of familiarity and variety. Battle royale gameplay is merely part of Battlefield V and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Both games still bear many of the modes fans of the series expect--Black Ops 4's lack of a single-player campaign aside--so they can keep players around even when they don't feel like playing a battle royale. It's like baking a popular new flavor into a pie a lot of people already like.

Of course, the games still have to contend with Fortnite's promise of free-to-play goodness, but it's not like Battlefield and Call of Duty haven't faced stiff competition before. Like we said, these series have been around for a long time. While a lot of people won't bother with them because they've already decided they don't like the series, many will buy the games sight unseen simply because they're loyal to the franchise.

EA and Activision have the potential to prove not only that they still know how to make good Battlefield and Call of Duty games, but also that they can apply their experience to the battle royale genre to improve it, not just to say they're capable of making the flavor of the week. We'll know more when both games debut this fall. 

The Game, Graphics Engine & Settings

The first Destiny, released in 2014, was a console-only title, much to the chagrin of PC gamers. With Destiny 2, Activision and Bungie correct this faux-pas by offering a multi-platform experience for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Windows PCs.

PC gamers enjoy the benefit of native 4K support and uncapped frame rates (almost, that is; in reality, there's a 200 FPS ceiling), while consoles are limited to only 30 FPS.

Bungie uses, as it did for the first Destiny, a home-grown graphics engine derived from the technology found in Halo: Reach. Consequently, it's only DirectX 11-compatible. But enough rambling. Let's see how Destiny 2 runs on our test hardware...

Minimum & Recommended System Requirements

Bungie's website gives us an idea of what the minimum and recommended configurations are for a good gaming experience in Destiny 2. On paper, the game is not very resource-intensive. Its host processing, graphics, and memory demands appear fairly light. The minimum configuration shows that even several-year-old systems should be able to achieve playable frame rates. The recommended configuration also seems quite reasonable.

Graphics Options

There are a number of graphics options available for Destiny 2 (anti-aliasing, texture and shadow quality, ambient occlusion, detail distance for the environment, characters, and foliage). Without going into excessive detail, the game can be configured as you see fit. It is also possible to choose one of four presets: Low, Medium, High, and Highest.

Field of view is adjustable, as are v-sync and lighting quality. There is also an HDR option, for those with monitors that support this feature.

Low/Highest

Rendering differences between the lowest and highest quality preset stand out: leaves are more detailed (especially at a distance), shadows look better, and the anti-aliasing is readily apparent. Surprisingly, the vegetation and textures still sport acceptable quality at close distances when we select the Low setting.

As far as we can tell, the output from GeForce and Radeon cards is identical. That's something we always like to see.

MORE: DiRT 4 Performance Review

MORE: Prey Performance Review

MORE: Mass Effect Andromeda Performance Review

MORE: Ghost Recon Wildlands Performance Review

How We Tested Destiny 2

Test Configuration

We recently updated our test configuration to better reflect mid-range gaming in 2017. This time around, we picked an AMD Ryzen-based platform, honing in specifically on the 1600X as a great option for enthusiasts looking to save some money.

Steam's survey of hardware and software configurations offers us a view of the most prevalent components and settings (the data comes from October 2017):

• Windows 10 64-bit represents a little less than half of the market (45%).
• 8GB of RAM is the most popular capacity; that's what 44% of surveyed gamers have installed (our system has 16GB, which we wanted in order to measure peak RAM utilization).
• Full HD resolution is used by 57% of gamers, while 17% are still at 1366x768. QHD is used by less than 2% of gamers, and 4K remains anecdotal. We will start with tests at 1920x1080, and then use QHD for cards that run well at 1080p.
• Quad-core CPUs are installed in close to half of the surveyed systems (58%, to be exact). In anticipation of the coming months, we're using a mid-range six-core processor.

Graphics Card Selection

Today's benchmarks are an exception in that we're in the middle of transitioning to a new test platform. Part of this process is switching to a fresh set of graphics cards. Until they're all here, though, we'll simply combine the old cards and what we have of our new ones. Here are the 12 boards we're comparing:

Test Procedure

All performance data is collected using the PresentMon tool and our own custom front-end.

In order to represent performance accurately, each graphics card is warmed up to a stable temperature before measurements are collected. Most newer GPUs employ mechanisms to optimize clock rates based on variables like power and temperature. So, tests run during the warm-up period would convey better performance than you'd see in the real world. We therefore execute the benchmark sequence once before gathering official data. For graphics options, we tested at 1920x1080 with maxed-out graphics options and then repeated our benchmark at 2560x1440.

MORE: DiRT 4 Performance Review

MORE: Prey Performance Review

MORE: Mass Effect Andromeda Performance Review

MORE: Ghost Recon Wildlands Performance Review

Benchmarks: FPS, Frame Time & Smoothness

Benchmark Sequence

Destiny 2 does not have an integrated benchmark, so we had to create a test that represents what you'll see across various maps. Rather than using the opening scene, we collected data from The Farm. It's a controllable location with indoor and outdoor environments offering a large field of vision, and numerous reflection, shadow, and lighting effects. Though different from most of the other benchmarks out there, this sequence passes through several demanding areas that perfectly represent what you can expect from real-world gameplay.

Performance at 1080p

Given that Destiny 2 is supposed to be playable on modest configurations, our first results were run at 1920x1080 with quality set to Highest.

With these settings, the Radeon RX 460 2GB and GeForce GTX 1050 2GB can't maintain a minimum frame rate of 30 FPS. Moreover, you'll need a GeForce GTX 1060 6GB to reach 60 FPS.

On the Radeon side of things, RX 470, 570, 480, and R9 390 offer more or less similar performance, and they all trail Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1060 3GB. One last surprising finding: Radeon RX Vega 64 flirts with a 99 FPS average, but drops as low as 47 FPS, particularly in scenes with considerable depth of field. We suspect, however, that there is a driver bug causing these frame time spikes.

After we finished our benchmarks on RX Vega 64, AMD released its Radeon 17.10.3 drivers. Therefore, we redid our tests to see if the results would change. Sadly, they did not.

Performance at 1440p

We retained the same Highest quality preset for our 2560x1440 benchmarks.

Not surprisingly, Radeon RX 460 2GB and GeForce GTX 1050 2GB forfeit this round, with both cards running mostly below a 25 FPS average. On the other hand, Radeon RX Vega 64 makes a surprise comeback by surpassing the GeForce GTX 1080 FE!

In general, all of the Radeons, from RX 470 to the RX 480 (and including R9 390/RX 570), pass the GTX 1060 3GB and 6GB, whereas they trailed the Nvidia cards at 1920x1080. Without a doubt, AMD still has work to do on its drivers in order to improve performance at 1080p.

Day vs. Night

Destiny 2 offers a complete day/night cycle, and with different lighting effects at night, we wanted to know how performance would be affected at both test resolutions. Our quality settings remain unchanged.

Radeon RX Vega 64 pulls ahead of GeForce GTX 1080 FE at 1080p. Might this help shed some light on our daytime results at the same resolution? One thing is certain: some setting that was causing AMD issues during the day (shadows or ambient occlusion, perhaps?) is no longer an issue at night.

On the other hand, Radeon RX 470, RX 570, and RX 480 continue to trail both GTX 1060s.

At night and at 1440p, the rankings are nearly the same as during the day.

MORE: DiRT 4 Performance Review

MORE: Prey Performance Review

MORE: Mass Effect Andromeda Performance Review

MORE: Ghost Recon Wildlands Performance Review

CPU, RAM & VRAM Resources

Processor Utilization

Whether we're running a Radeon or GeForce at 1080p or 1440p, the Ryzen 5's six cores idly twiddle their thumbs!

Overall CPU usage never rises above 50%, and spends most of its time below 40%. The Radeon appears to utilize fewer host processing resources than the GeForce card, though the delta narrows somewhat at 2560x1440.

System Memory Utilization

Two observations become apparent here: GeForce cards require more system memory than the Radeons, and a higher resolution translates to a slight increase in RAM utilization.

Video Memory Utilization

When it comes to graphics memory, on the other hand, the opposite is true. AMD's Radeon cards use a little extra GDDR5 than the GeForce cards at identical quality settings. We're still a long way from the 8GB and 6GB found on our test subjects, though.

Of course, it is no surprise that the transition from 1080p to 1440p leads to an increase in the amount of VRAM used.

MORE: DiRT 4 Performance Review

MORE: Prey Performance Review

MORE: Mass Effect Andromeda Performance Review

MORE: Ghost Recon Wildlands Performance Review

Conclusion

Bungie promises an optimal gaming experience in Destiny 2, and it requires relatively modest hardware resources. The game is still playable at 1080p and 1440p, even at maxed-out detail settings, with a mainstream Radeon RX 470 or GeForce GTX 1060 3GB. Remember: if you're stuck around 30 FPS, you're seeing the limit imposed on consoles. To that end, a GeForce GTX 1050 or Radeon RX 460 won't get you there. Try relaxing your quality preset for higher frame rates.

To reach a floor of 60 FPS at all times, plan on purchasing a higher-end graphics card like Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1060 6GB/GTX 980 Ti (for 1920x1080) or a Radeon RX Vega 64/GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (for 2560x1440). Again, your other option is to dial back quality for smoother performance. Just try to avoid sacrificing shadow quality too much.

As for the CPU, a good quad-core model, or even a dual-core chip with Hyper-Threading, should be sufficient to keep mid-range graphics cards busy.

MORE: DiRT 4 Performance Review

MORE: Prey Performance Review

MORE: Mass Effect Andromeda Performance Review

MORE: Ghost Recon Wildlands Performance Review

At Gamescom 2017, Nvidia announced a collaboration with Bungie and Activision to add high dynamic range lighting (HDR) and SLI multi-GPU support to the PC version of Destiny 2.

The addition of HDR means that your graphics card can provide a higher level of contrast between light and dark images on the screen, in turn creating a much more realistic image. Even though Nvidia has claimed a single GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is capable of running Destiny 2 at a solid 60 FPS at 4k, gamers with multi-GPU setups will certainly appreciate the addition of SLI support for even greater performance. 

Nvidia has also announced that for a limited time, gamers purchasing a qualifying Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti or 1080 GPU, or desktops and laptop PCs equipped with the aforementioned GPUs, will receive a free copy of Destiny 2. This offer runs from August 21-September 5. This bundle includes special in-game items, including the Coldhart Exotic Rifle, Kill Tracker Ghost, and the Salute emote.

Finally, Nvidia will be giving away codes for 24 hour Early Access to the Destiny 2 PC Beta to members of the GeForce Experience community. No purchase is required.  

Activision's Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare--Jackal Assault VR debuted as a free download for PSVR owners. The game (henceforth referred to as Jackal Assault VR) is a companion experience to the next title in the Call of Duty series, the futuristic Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, which also launched today.

Jackal Assault VR tasks players with piloting the Jackal fighter jet in a 5-minute experience designed to complement Infinite Warfare. It's the first Call of Duty game to branch out into VR, and it's currently available from the PlayStation Store as a free download to anyone with a PlayStation 4. The title does require PSVR, naturally, which means anyone interested in playing it also has to have a PlayStation Camera hooked up to their console.

This is how Activision describes Jackal Assault VR:

For a completely immersive adventure, the Jackal Assault VR Experience puts you in the cockpit of your very own Jackal and provides an action-packed bonus experience to Infinite Warfare. This mission takes combat to a whole new level and a whole new realm, and provides a stunning virtual reality experience for the first time in Call of Duty history.

Activision originally made Jackal Assault VR as a standalone experience for the Call of Duty XP event held in September. Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward and VR company Paper Crane Games made the game with assets ripped straight from Infinity Warfare. The experience was well-received by the people who attended the event, though, so Activision turned it into the bonus content that was made available to the public on November 4.

Jackal Assault VR is a short taste of space warfare in VR. You start inside the cockpit of a Jackal, awaiting your turn to launch into space. After you shoot out of the launch tube, your flight starts as routine training, but it quickly escalates into a heated space battle. The experience is reminiscent of the Valkyrie demo that CCP Games showed at events before launching EVE: Valkyrie. It's a fun experience, but if you've spent time playing EVE: Valkyrie already, then Jackal Assault VR will leave you wanting more.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the PC. Activision previously announced that Infinite Warfare, Modern Warfare Remastered, and Black Ops 3 would all support the souped-up PlayStation 4 Pro with richer textures, 4K graphics, and other improvements when it launches on November 10.

1971: Star Trek: A Text Adventure

The first Star Trek game was created in the early 1970s as a text-based space simulator. Although the game was fairly simple, it marked the entry of Star Trek into the video game world. Over the years, Star Trek has grown into one of the most successful franchises in the world, spawning dozens of games, several movies and hundreds of TV shows. We're taking a look at the games created inside the Star Trek universe as they evolved over time.

Because of the extremely high volume of Star Trek games in existence, we focused on games created for computers. These include games created for Windows, Apple, DOS, Amiga and similar systems. We've dug up as many of these games as possible, although because some Star Trek games created prior to the year 2000 have fallen into obscurity due to their age, there may be some about which we were unable to learn sufficient details to mention here.

MORE: Best Deals

MORE: Hot Bargains @PurchDeals

MORE: All Gaming Content

1984: Begin

The next entry into the Star Trek gaming world was called Begin. This game marked the transition from the text-based game to one that actually required you to use buttons to control your vessel.

1985: Star Trek: The Kobayashi Alternative

Star Trek: The Kobayashi Alternative is the first in a series of text adventures from game publisher Simon & Schuster Interactive. These games focused on the cast of the original Star Trek series as they dealt with a series of challenges.

In this game, you take control of Captain Kirk as you attempt to repair your ship and complete other objectives.

1986: Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy

The second Star Trek game by publisher Simon & Schuster Interactive was Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy.

The Promethean Prophecy is centered around the Promethean solar system, which the Enterprise arrives at as part of its ongoing mission of exploration. The ship is then attacked by the Romulans and sustains considerable damage. During the game, players attempt to complete a series of tasks to help the crew survive, deal with the Romulan threat, and explore the Promethean system.

1987: Star Trek: The Rebel Universe

The third Star Trek game by publisher Simon & Schuster Interactive was Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy.

In this game, you take control of various members of the original cast as the Enterprise makes its way to a mysterious part of space. All Federation ships previously sent to this area have rebelled against the Federation, and it's your mission to discover why.

1988: Star Trek: First Contact

The last Star Trek text-based adventure from publisher Simon & Schuster Interactive that we are able to find information about is titled Star Trek: First Contact. It focuses on first contact with a new alien race.

1992: Star Trek 25th Anniversary

On the 25th anniversary of the Star Trek franchise, Interplay produced a game titled Star Trek: 25th Anniversary. This game, like all prior Star Trek games, followed the original cast through a variety of missions. The game has two primary modes of play: Most of the game is played from the bridge of the enterprise, but at times, members of the crew will leave on away missions.

During the away missions, the game behaves more like a click adventure to gather items and investigate the world. The game was originally released on floppy disk, but later it was ported to CD-ROM. The CD-ROM port featured a few improvements over the original, including voice acting from the original Star Trek cast.

1993: Star Trek: Judgment Rites

The 25th anniversary game was followed up by a direct sequel titled Star Trek: Judgment Rites that was released in 1993. The overall game play is similar to Star Trek: The 25th Anniversary, and the missions are set up to take place directly following the previous game. Like its predecessor, Star Trek: Judgment Rites used voice acting performed by the original Star Trek cast.

1995: Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Final Unity

In 1995, the Star Trek game franchise transitioned to the cast of the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series, which had recently finished its final season. The game uses a click-adventure style interface reminiscent of the previous two Star Trek games. The overall game play has been extended, however, with the addition of new parts of the ship to explore (outside of the bridge) and new ship systems to use. At times, the player would also transport off of the Enterprise D to go on away missions.

1996: Star Trek: Klingon

In 1996, publisher Simon & Schuster made a return to the Star Trek game franchise with Star Trek: Klingon. This game could almost be construed as an educational tool for learning Klingon culture much as a game. The entire game is technically played inside of a holodeck simulation created by Gowron, the Klingon High Chancellor. The purpose of the simulation is to teach the player about Klingon culture and language by navigating a series of social situations.

The player must act correctly in each situation to progress the story. This sometimes requires the player to understand the Klingon language and recognize Klingon cuisine such as Gagh.

1996: Star Trek: Borg

Star Trek: Borg represented an attempt by publisher Simon & Schuster to build on the success of Star Trek: Klingon. The game uses a relatively similar style of gameplay, but with a completely different story. Players take control of a man named Qaylan Furlong. Qaylan is greeted by an unexpected visit by Q, who gives Qaylan a chance to travel back in time and save his father from dying in battle with the Borg at the Battle of Wolf 359.

Throughout the game, the players must explore the ship to learn about the events unfolding, answer questions from Q, and solve puzzles. This game proved to be overall less successful than its predecessor.

MORE: Best Deals

MORE: Hot Bargains @PurchDeals

MORE: All Gaming Content

1996: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Harbinger

In this game, the player arrive at Deep Space Nine to find the space station has been almost completely abandoned. The station is then attacked by a strange new alien race, and an important ambassador is murdered. With the station poorly manned, it is up to you and and a handful of others to fight off the aliens and discover who killed the ambassador.

1997: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy gave gamers the chance to live the life of a Starfleet cadet. The idea behind the game is to teach players about the Federation and undergo a series of ship command simulations. If successful, the game ends with the player being promoted to Captain of a star ship.

1997: Star Trek: Generations

In 1997, Star Trek: Generations was created based off of the 1994 Star Trek: Generations movie. The game follows the same story as the movie, and involves a variety of game play scenarios. Some parts of the game focus on commanding the Enterprise in battles, whereas at other times players control a single-character on away-missions.

1998: Star Trek TNG: Klingon Honor Guard

Klingon Honor Guard is the first Star Trek game that was straight first-person shooter. Although some prior Star Trek games contained FPS elements, this game differed by focusing entirely on first-person shooter gameplay. Players control a Klingon that has joined the Honor Guard of Gowron, the Klingon High Chancellor. The goal of the game is to use a variety of weapons to fight enemies and keep the Chancellor safe.

1998: Star Trek: Starship Creator

This game allows players to design their own starship based on the ones seen in the Star Trek universe. After designing the ship, players can then pick crew members and send it out on missions to test its effectiveness. This is helpful, as players can see where the ship has problems during the mission and later improve upon the design.

1999: Star Trek: Birth Of The Federation

Birth Of The Federation is a real-time strategy game set around The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine TV series. Players can pick between five different factions: the Federation, the Cardassian Union, the Ferengi Alliance, the Klingon Empire or the Romulan Empire. At the beginning of the game, players control a single planet with limited resources. The goal is to grow your control of the galaxy to dominate the other forces through a mixture of diplomatic, economic and military forces.

1999: Star Trek: Starfleet Command

Star Trek: Starfleet Command puts players in command of various Federation star ships. This is the second Star Trek game published by Interplay and can be viewed as an indirect sequel to Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. The game consists of several levels that often begin as diplomatic or exploration missions, which will require players to talk to NPCs and scan objects. The missions typically turn violent, however, and most of the game focuses on ship-to-ship combat.

1999: Star Trek: Hidden Evil

Star Trek: Hidden Evil takes place immediately after the Star Trek: Insurrection movie, on the Ba'ku's home world. Following the events of the movie, the Ba'ku and another alien race known as the Son'a now live in peace on this planet, which has unique rejuvenating properties.

During the game, a powerful ancient artifact is discovered, and the player is sent along with Captain Picard and Lt. Commander Data to investigate. Actors Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner perform voice acting for the game. The game play sets the player in a third-person perspective. Characters in the game are 3D models and move in front of a 2D background. The player uses a variety of items to explore the area during the investigation. There are also a few weapons available in order to fight off enemies.

2000: Star Trek: Armada

Similar to Star Trek: Hidden Evil, Star Trek: Armada takes place after the Star Trek: Insurrection movie and attempts to build on it. The game does not focus quite as heavily on the Ba'ku home world, however, as the game also incorporates the characters and story line of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Also unlike Star Trek: Hidden Evil, Star trek: Armada is a real-time strategy game that place entirely in space. Using a series of star bases, players build ships in order to combat enemies and win battles.

2000: Star Trek: DS9 The Fallen

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Fallen became one of the most successful Star Trek games of all time. The Fallen was published by Simon & Schuster, but it marks a sharp change in game play from the company's last Star Trek game. Instead of the FMV interactive-video model developed for Star Trek: Klingon and Star Trek: Borg, The Fallen uses 3D animated characters that the player controls from a third-person overhead perspective.

Players have the option to play as one of three characters: Captain Benjamin Sisko (played by Kevin Michael Richardson), Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) or Lt. Commander Warf (Michael Dorn). In the beginning, the three characters are onboard the U.S.S. Defiant orbiting Bajor, but Major Kira soon transports to the surface. After Major Kira leaves the ship, both the Defiant and the planet are attacked by an unknown alien race.

Each character goes through a different series of missions that are indirectly linked to each other by the alien attack. Major Kira battles the aliens on the surface, Captain Sisko transports to the alien ship and attempts to stop them there, and Lt. Commander Warf fights the aliens that have boarded the Defiant. The only way to get the full story is to complete the game with all three characters.

Players use a variety of weapons  and tools while fighting the aliens, including the basic phaser and tricorder. At times, it is necessary to use the tricorder to scan for enemies and supplies, and it's also used to find the frequency of force fields in order to shoot through them with the phaser.

MORE: Best Deals

MORE: Hot Bargains @PurchDeals

MORE: All Gaming Content

2000: Star Trek: ConQuest Online

This game was an early attempt by Activation to take the Star Trek game franchise into an MMO format. Players acted as members of the Q Continuum and collected pieces in the form of spaceships, aliens, people and other objects in the Star Trek universe. These pieces were then used to combat other players for control of the universe.

2000: Star Trek: Klingon Academy

Star Trek: Klingon Academy is the direct sequel to Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, but from the point of view of the Klingon Empire. Thanks to the Klingon's fondness for battle, this game focused more on combat than its predecessor. There are also a few covert missions that require the player to use the cloaking device on the Klingon vessels to escape dangerous situations or to ambush the enemy.

2000: Star Trek: New Worlds

Star Trek: New Worlds was a real-time strategy game that focused on land battles instead of ship-to-ship combat. Players can choose to play as the Federation, Klingon Empire or Romulan Empire. There are a total of 14 missions that are identical for all factions. These missions focus on building a base to colonize a new world. Considering that the other factions also want these worlds, players will also need to destroy the enemy base in order to gain control of the world.

2000: Star Trek: Starship Creator Warp II

Starship Creator Warp II is similar to its predecessor from 1998, but with upgraded graphics and an extended list of building options. Ships designed in the original game could also be ported into Starship Creator Warp II. A unique aspect about it, however, is that ships designed with this program could be ported into the 2001 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Dominion Wars.

2000: Star Trek: Voyager: Elite Force

Star Trek: Voyager: Elite Force launched alongside the sixth seasons of the Star Trek: Voyager TV show. In a sense, Elite Force can be viewed as an unofficial episode in the sixth season, as it attempts to line up with the story presented in the TV episodes.

During the game, Voyager is trapped inside of a mysterious starship graveyard inhabited by hostile aliens. In order to gather parts and deal with the alien threat, the Voyager crew relies on a new group known as "Elite Force" to explore the other ships in the region. Elite Force is a special team assembled to handle extremely hazardous situations. During the game, players control Ensign Munro, the leader of the Elite Force.

2001: Star Trek: DS9: Dominion Wars

Dominion Wars focuses on the large war fought between the allied forces of the Federation and Klingon Empire against the Dominion and Cardassian Union. Players can choose to play as any of these races. Depending on which race you choose, you'll go through one of two story lines. The Federation and Klingons share a story line, as does the Dominion and Cardassian Union. Although the story lines are different, the ultimate goal of both sides is the same: complete control of a large portion of the alpha quadrant and the wormhole that connects the alpha and gamma quadrants. The game play is best described as a space simulator, but with the option of controlling multiple ships at a time.

2001: Star Trek: Armada II

In 2001, Activision published a sequel to Star Trek: Armada. The new version maintained the same general type of gameplay, but extended it with more building options. It also added new races from Star Trek: Voyager such as Species 8472.

The story line takes place during the same timeframe as season seven of Star Trek: Voyager. It builds upon the story of Star Trek: DS9, Star Trek Voyager and Star Trek: Armada. Each faction sends the player through completely different missions, and the complete story is revealed only after the player has completed the game with every race.

2001: Star Trek: Away Team

Star Trek: Away Team takes place at the end of the DS9 TV series and is centered on seventeen new characters on board the U.S.S. Incursion. This ship and crew are sent by Starfleet to carry out special assignments that range from espionage to combat missions. Players control between four and six of these seventeen characters in each mission. Each character has different equipment and special abilities, which gives players multiple ways to complete each mission.

2001: Star Trek: Starfleet Command II Empire At War

Star Trek: Starfleet Command II: Empire At War closely follows its predecessor with the same general type of RTS gameplay. The game's primary story line is centered around the return of an alien race known as the "Organians," who then try to conquer all other races in the game. Players take control of one of several existing races and attempt to fight against the Organian conquest.

2001: Star Trek: Starfleet Command Orion Pirates

Star Trek: Starfleet Command: Orion Pirates was a standalone expansion pack to Star Trek: Starfleet Command II: Empires At War. The game introduces eight new pirate factions. The primary goal of the game is to play as a non-pirate faction and eliminate the pirates. Alternatively, you can also play as one of the pirate factions and wipe out the non-pirates.

MORE: Best Deals

MORE: Hot Bargains @PurchDeals

MORE: All Gaming Content

2002: Star Trek: Starfleet Command III

In 2002, the game developers behind Starfleet Command switched publishers, from Interplay to Activision. Starfleet Command III in many ways resembles its predecessors in terms of gameplay, but the overall experience has been polished from years of development. To keep the game play fresh, the game developers mixed in some RPG-like aspects. Six key individuals are identified on each ship, and each crew member is responsible for controlling a key ship system. Over time, these crew members can be leveled up, which in turn improves the ship system they are affiliated with.

2002: Star Trek: Bridge Commander

Star Trek: Bridge Commander is fairly similar to the Starfleet Command series in terms of game play, but it was created by a completely different developer, and the two are not directly related.

The game involves two primary modes of game play: bridge mode and combat mode. While on the bridge, players interact with crew members to perform essentially any non-combat-related task. This includes scanning, warping to new locations and contacting alien races. The game switches to combat mode only during combat scenarios, and the player then flies the ship directly and fights the enemy.

2003: Star Trek: Elite Force II

Star Trek: Elite Force II marks the return of Ensign Munro and Voyager's special hazard team. The team doesn't remain on Voyager long, however, as the story picks up at the end of Star Trek: Voyager's final season. The hazard team is called upon to board a Borg ship and help Voyager escape to the alpha quadrant. Afterwards, the team is disbanded.

Captain Picard, however, hears of the hazard team's exploits and transfers Ensign Munro to his ship. The rest of the game is spent rebuilding the hazard team and fighting enemies with a variety of weapons. Like its predecessor, Star Trek: Elite Force II is a FPS.

2006: Star Trek: Legacy

Star Trek: Legacy was created to commemorate Star Trek's 40th Anniversary. It is probably the most extensive Star Trek game ever created, as the story runs through all of the Star Trek TV series and movies, including the then-new Star Trek: Enterprise.

Game play is focused on ship-to-ship combat, with the player controlling 1-4 spaceships. The battles take place in real time, and the ships cannot be controlled simultaneously. As a result, players must switch frequently from one ship to another. Although the game primarily focuses on the Federation, players can also control ships that belong to various other races including the Klingons, Romulans and Borg.

2009: Star Trek: DAC

Star Trek: DAC diverges from other Star Trek games in that there is no story of any kind in the game. DAC actually stands for "Deathmatch, Assault and Conquest," which defines the three types of battle scenarios in the game. The game focuses on online multiplayer ship-to-ship combat. As the game progresses, players complete missions in order to win upgrades for their ship, which gives them an advantage against other players.

2010: Star Trek: Online

Star Trek: Online takes place several years after the last Star Trek movie. Players take command of a star ship belonging to the Federation, Klingon Empire or Romulan Empire. Most of the game is spent controlling the ship to battle NPCs and other players. At times, however, the character can also transport to other ships or planets. When this happens, players will control just a single character armed with a variety of equipment to complete objectives.

2013: Star Trek

This game is based on the Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek: Into Darkness movies. Player take control of either Captain Kirk or Spock to complete a series of missions. Although the missions are the same for both characters, Kirk and Spock separate for most of missions, and each character takes a separate path. This helps to increase replay value. The game also features a co-op mode that allows two players to play the same level together, with each player assuming the role of either Kirk or Spock.

MORE: Best Deals

MORE: Hot Bargains @PurchDeals

MORE: All Gaming Content

Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

In one of the most expensive purchases to date, King Digital Entertainment has a new owner in Activision Blizzard, which bought the shares of King at $18 per share in cash. All in all, that puts the final purchase price at $5.9 billion (no, that's not a typo — billion).

The new acquisition puts Activision in a prime spot to continue to expand on the mobile platform. The company has some experience with games on mobile, most notably the popular Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft card game, but there's a potential scenario where some of the company's well-known franchises on consoles and PC could have some presence on your smartphone, be it as a short spin-off game, or a companion app to increase the main experience.

On the other side, the purchase elevates King's reputation, as well. The company is well-known for Candy Crush Saga and the many variations of Saga games spawned from the simple mobile game. Under Activision, the company's portfolio of titles should be a bit more diverse, not to mention that the number of staff will increase as well in the near future.

Despite the purchase, Activision still considers King as an "independent operating unit," so the company will still be able create its own projects with Activision providing extra resources. King will still keep its same leadership triumvirate of CEO Riccardo Zacconi, CCO Sebastian Knutsson, and COO Stephane Kurgan.

______________________________________________________________________

Rexly Peñaflorida II is a Contributor at Tom’s Hardware. He writes news on tech and hardware, but mostly focuses on gaming news. As a Chicagoan, he believes that deep dish pizza is real pizza and ketchup should never be on hot dogs. Ever. Also, Portillo’s is amazing.

Follow Rexly Peñaflorida II @Heirdeux. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube .

It's no secret that the Call of Duty franchise is one of the most popular games in the industry, thanks in part to the game's multiplayer aspect. As a result, the game is getting the eSports treatment, with various professional teams playing tournaments and winning money. However, Activision, the game's publisher, believes that the best is yet to come, and so a new league for Call of Duty eSports will start next year: the Call of Duty World League.

The new league will incorporate two divisions: Pro and Challenge. Pro contains the full-time, professional teams, which will compete throughout the regular season for cash prizes in regional matches in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

However, the company also wants to give the amateur player a shot for the top spot as well, and the Challenge division is the best place to make a winning run. If you're not a part of one of the top professional teams, this will be the only way to have a chance at making a name for yourself in the Call of Duty competitive scene. Instead of regional matches, however, the Challenge division is played out through official LAN events.

The Pro division season starts in January 2016. There is no official start date yet for those on the Challenge side, but seeing as the league starts on the launch day of Call of Duty: Black Ops III, the start date isn't too far away.

The winner of each side will then meet in the fall of 2016 to compete in the Call of Duty Championship. The event used to occur every spring, but it was moved to the fall to give players more time to brush up on their skills before the big tournament. All in all, the total prize money from the championship, regional events and LAN matches adds up to more than $3 million.

The prize money is lucrative enough, but Activision might be onto something with a unified eSports league. With games like Dota 2, League of Legends, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gaining eSports popularity on the PC, Call of Duty has the potential to draw in big crowds like the aforementioned titles due to its popularity on the console platform. By providing more exposure to its competitive side, as well as allowing amateurs and not just professional teams a shot at a big title, the company can attract more players to the eSports scene, as well as sponsors and broadcasters, which should give the league a much-needed financial boost in the future.

Follow Rexly Peñaflorida II @Heirdeux. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

In addition to revealing its new team-based first person shooter, Overwatch, Activision Blizzard also unveiled the third installment in the StarCraft II series, Legacy of the Void, on Friday during BlizzCon 2014. Unfortunately, the company did not reveal when this expansion is expected to ship.

According to Blizzard, the new expansion's story picks up where Heart of the Swarm ended, bringing the overall StarCraft II story to its conclusion. The story began back in July 2010 with the launch of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, and fans no doubt are eager to find out what happens in this final chapter.

"Protoss legends Artanis and Zeratul attempt to unite their race in an intergalactic fight for survival against an ancient evil from the Void that threatens the universe," Blizzard explains. "The fates of Terran hero Jim Raynor and Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, also hang in the balance."

In addition to the overall storyline, Blizzard is introducing a new multiplayer game mode called Archon. This mode pits two players against another two players, with each pair taking control of a base and its units.

The company is also introducing an Allied Commanders game mode. This is an objective-based, co-op mode where players assume the role of a commander and battle through a number of scenarios. Each commander has a set of traits that will boost their armies.

Blizzard revealed on Friday that the Lurker will be added to the Zerg roster, a beast that was last seen in the original StarCraft. The Protoss will get their hands on a new weapon called the Disruptor, and the Terrans will have new technology such as Tactical Jump, which will teleport Battlecruisers to any destination on the map.

StarCraft II fans interested in getting into the beta program can head here to sign up. Legacy of the Void is currently in development for both Windows PC and Macintosh. Never played StarCraft II? Check out the Starter Edition (demo) right here.

Follow Kevin Parrish @exfileme. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

The Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare listing on Steam was updated by Activision to show what PC gamers will need to run the upcoming shooter. Advanced Warfare is slated to arrive on November 3, 2014 for Windows PC, the two Xbox consoles and the two PlayStation consoles. The game will be launched internationally on November 4.

PC gamers will need a 64-bit version of Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1. They will also need an Intel Core i3-530 clocked at 2.93 GHz, an AMD Phenom II X4 810 clocked at 2.80 GHz, or something better. Gamers will also need an Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 with 1 GB of VRAM, an AMD Radeon HD 5870 with 1 GB of VRAM, or better.

In addition to those requirements, PC gamers will also need 6 GB of RAM, DirectX 11 installed, a broadband Internet connection, and a DirectX-compatible audio component. Also needed will be 55 GB of available hard drive space, which is nearly the same amount PC gamers need for EA’s competing multiplayer shooter, Titanfall.

“We’ve made several key decisions with an eye towards creative excellence on Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. We’ve really approached this game differently,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. “This is our first three-year development cycle. It’s our first time with Sledgehammer Games at the creative helm. And we’re shaking up the formula in several ways.”

The game takes place in 2054 when a global attack on the planet’s military and infrastructure has left them in ruins. A private military corporation emerges to rescue humanity from a “devastated” world that’s fighting to rebuild. Players take on the role of an advanced soldier who has a “cutting-edge” exoskeleton that provides him/her with unique abilities.

Customers who pre-purchase the Day Zero version will have access to the game one day earlier than everyone else. The company is also offering the Digital Pro Edition, the Atlas Limited Edition and the Atlas Pro Edition. Additional information about the pre-purchase packages can be found here.

Follow Kevin Parrish @exfileme. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

What's hard to believe is that Diablo III is already two years old. Seemingly just yesterday, we were reporting on the latest insider mumbo jumbo, believing what they said even though the info may have been half right. Now we're two years into the life of a game that's only gotten better with age. We're also several months into the game's first expansion pack, Reaper of Souls. Oh my, how time flies.

"On May 15, 2012, the gates of the Burning Hells opened and Diablo III was unleashed onto the world," writes Blizzard. "Since then, millions of heroes have been created, billions of hours have been spent in games, and trillions of demons have been slaughtered without mercy."

So what does Blizzard plan to do on Diablo III’s second birthday? Have cake and ice cream? Possibly so, although we'll never receive a slice. But Diablo III players will get a goodie bag in the form of a buff. Starting Thursday, May 15, and ending Thursday, May 22, Diablo III gamers who log in during that time will receive double Rift Fragments, and a +100 percent boost to their chance to find Legendary items.

"The buff is only available on PC and Mac, but it will apply to all characters and stack with similar bonuses," Blizzard adds.

Earlier this week, Blizzard announced the upcoming launch of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls – Ultimate Evil Edition for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, and the Xbox One and Xbox 360 consoles. All four versions will feature four-player same-screen multiplayer and online multiplayer.

"The Ultimate Evil Edition introduces even more ways for players to share their adventures," stated Blizzard's PR. "A new Apprentice mode boosts low-level players' power while adventuring with high-level friends, making it easier than ever to play together. Players will also be able to share treasures with other players on their friends lists via an in-game mail system, including mysterious Player Gifts containing rare loot for the adventurer whose name they bear."

Console players can purchase Diablo III: Reaper of Souls – Ultimate Evil Edition beginning August 19. The game will cost $59.99 for the two new consoles, and $39.99 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Those who pre-purchase the game will receive the exclusive in-game Infernal Pauldrons "transmogrifiable" shoulder plates as a bonus.

Virtual reality firm Oculus VR said on Wednesday that former senior vice president and head of development at Activision Blizzard Laird M. Malamed has signed on as the firm's new chief operating officer.

Malamed joins the team after spending years overseeing blockbuster properties such as Guitar Hero, Call of Duty and Skylanders. He also earned a reputation for successfully delivering high-quality consumer gaming hardware and AAA software into the hands of gamers, Oculus VR said on Wednesday.

"The opportunity to join Oculus and build the future of virtual reality gaming was too exciting to pass up," said Laird Malamed, COO of Oculus. "I look forward to being part of the team, creating a completely new medium for the video game industry and its many potential applications for the future."

Who could blame him for not passing up an opportunity to join Oculus VR? The firm's Oculus Rift headset stands to change not only the gaming industry, but possibly the way we compute. Imagine a three-dimensional desktop that could store files away in virtual cabinets rather than a flat desktop folder. Even more, imagine being so immersed in a game, you forget all about the controller in your hands.

According to Malamed's updated resume (pdf), he will be in charge of the "operational aspect of virtual reality gaming start up company, Oculus VR. Overseeing legal, finance, IT, logistics, hardware and HR functions for 20 person Kickstarted company that creates the most affordable, comfortable and realistic VR headsets."

Malamed's tenure at Activision spanned from 1995 to 2011. He started as an associate producer but was promoted as technical director for Zork Nemesis for the PC in his first year. After that, he moved on to be Creative Director for Zork Grand Inquisitor, then Global Brand Manager for all Star Trek projects. He then helped create the Call of Duty franchise as Sr. Executive Producer in 2000 to 2003. He eventually became Senior Vice President and Head of Development in 2011.

"With 18 years in the video game industry, Laird brings a wealth of expertise in producing some of the industry’s biggest and most successful brands and shipping them to market. Laird’s insights will be instrumental in helping Oculus through its accelerated growth as we approach the launch of the Oculus Rift. We are thrilled to have him," said Brendan Iribe, CEO of Oculus.

"It was a good combination of passionate people, products that looked really good, and people who had successfully taken smart ideas and turned them into real ventures," Malamed explained to GamesIndustry on Wednesday. "What the team here at Oculus VR is doing is incredible, solving fantasies that many of us fans of science fiction and computer gaming have had since the earliest experiences of virtual reality in television shows or books or comics. The first and foremost thing that really attracted me to the opportunity here is they've really figured it out."

Indeed they have. Get ready.

_{Contact Us for News Tips, Corrections and Feedback}

If you've played any of Activision's Call of Duty games online, you've probably already tried out one of the many popular zombie modes available in the series. Naturally, it was expected Activision would release another for its upcoming Black Ops 2. Now the company has finally unveiled the highly-anticipated mode with new details and a bloody new trailer.

The new trailer shows off one of the game's three new modes, Tranzit mode. This mode allows players to freely roam an open environment either by foot or by bus. While roaming, players will be able to salvage items from the environment to create weapons, fortifications and tools that will help them on their journey through the post-apocalyptic zombie world. Like its predecessors, Tranzit mode is playable by up to four players.

The second mode detailed in the reveal is Survival mode, which is basically what we've seen before in the previous Call of Duty Zombie games. In survival mode, you and up to three other players will be confined to one of the areas found in Tranzit and will have to survive as long as possible against hordes of the undead.

The final mode is Grief mode, which uses the same areas as Survival but supports up to eight players in two four-man teams. The goal is for your team to survive longer than the other. While you won't be able to kill the opposing team, you can strategically use the environment to help feed the opposing team to the zombies.

Unlike the previous Zombie modes, the Black Ops 2 Zombies mode will utilize the game's multiplayer engine, meaning you'll have access to things like improved matchmaking, stat tracking, leaderboards and customizable games. You can expect to hear more details surrounding the Zombie mode as the Black Ops 2 November 13th release date approaches.

Activision sent over a list of features customers will enjoy when purchasing the exclusive special editions of Call of Duty: Black Ops II. While PC gamers aren't forgotten, they'll get the short end of the stick, offered with only a "Digital Deluxe Edition" while Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gamers will have exclusive "Care Package" and "Hardened Edition" options.

So let's start with the PC gaming version first: the Digital Deluxe Edition costing $79.99 USD when the game goes live later this year. Here's what the package will contain:

* Call of Duty: Black Ops II
* Nuketown Zombies Bonus Map - Battle hordes of Zombies in this beloved 1960s nuclear neighborhood.
* Nuketown 2025 Bonus Map - Relive the close quarters chaos of this classic fan-favorite map re-imagined in a 1960s visionary depiction of the "model home of the future."
* Weapon Camo - Rank-up in style with an exclusive multiplayer weapon skin.
* (2) Player Card Backgrounds - Liven up any killcam with two exclusive player card backgrounds, inspired by Nuketown 2025 and Zombies.
* Official Call of Duty: Black Ops II Soundtrack - A digital copy of composer Jack Wall's epic in-game score with Theme by Trent Reznor.
* Call of Duty: World at War Game Download Token - A digital download of Treyarch's classic title, traversing WWII storylines from the Pacific to European theaters of war.

Not too shabby, but the next two bundles may leave PC gamers a little bitter at their console comrades. First up is the mega-huge $179.99 Care Package for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation which also tossed in a few platform exclusives too:

* Call of Duty: Black Ops II
* Remote Controlled MQ-27 Dragonfire Drone - Command cutting-edge technology, exclusively for this once-in-a-lifetime combat collection.
* Nuketown Zombies Bonus Map - Battle hordes of Zombies in this beloved 1960s nuclear neighborhood.
* Nuketown 2025 Bonus Map - Relive the close quarters chaos of this classic fan-favorite map re-imagined in a 1960s visionary depiction of the "model home of the future."
* Collectible 2-Sided SteelBook - Limited edition game case featuring exclusive artwork.
* (2) Challenge Coins - Limited edition challenge coins that serve as your key to exclusive digital content.
* Weapon Camo - Rank-up in style with an exclusive multiplayer weapon skin.
* (2) Player Card Backgrounds - Liven up any killcam with two exclusive player card backgrounds, inspired by Nuketown 2025 and Zombies.
* Official Call of Duty: Black Ops II Soundtrack - A digital copy of composer Jack Wall's epic in-game score with Theme by Trent Reznor.
** Xbox LIVE CLAW Avatar Prop - An exclusive avatar prop, deployable to a dashboard near you.
** Xbox LIVE Zombies Avatar Costume - Show off your pride with an avatar costume built exclusively for fans of the Call of Duty undead.
** PlayStation 3 version - a dynamic multiplayer theme of the Turbine map as well as a dynamic Zombies theme that shows off Call of Duty: Black Ops II Zombies

Now here's the cheaper Hardened Edition costing $79.99 and also featuring several platform exclusives:

* Call of Duty: Black Ops II
* Nuketown Zombies Bonus Map - Battle hordes of Zombies in this beloved 1960s nuclear neighborhood.
* Nuketown 2025 Bonus Map - Relive the close quarters chaos of this classic fan-favorite map re-imagined in a 1960s visionary depiction of the "model home of the future."
* Collectible 2-Sided SteelBook - Limited edition game case featuring exclusive artwork.
* (2) Challenge Coins - Limited edition challenge coins that serve as your key to exclusive digital content.
* Weapon Camo - Rank-up in style with an exclusive multiplayer weapon skin.
* (2) Player Card Backgrounds - Liven up any killcam with two exclusive player card backgrounds, inspired by Nuketown 2025 and Zombies.
* Official Call of Duty: Black Ops II Soundtrack - A digital copy of composer Jack Wall's epic in-game score with Theme by Trent Reznor.
** Xbox LIVE CLAW Avatar Prop - An exclusive avatar prop, deployable to a dashboard near you.
** Xbox LIVE Zombies Avatar Costume - Show off your pride with an avatar costume built exclusively for fans of the Call of Duty undead.
** PlayStation 3 version - a dynamic multiplayer theme of the Turbine map as well as a dynamic Zombies theme that shows off Call of Duty: Black Ops II Zombies

Developed by Treyarch and published by Activision (Square Enix in Japan), Call of Duty: Black Ops II is slated for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii U and Windows PC on November 13. 2012.

_{Contact Us for News Tips, Corrections and Feedback}

Honestly, given the popularity of other zombified first-person shooters on the market, it should come as no surprise that someone is developing an FPS based on the Walking Dead franchise. That someone is Terminal Reality, the developer behind BloodRayne, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, Aeon Flux, and even oldie but goodie Monster Truck Madness from the mid 1990s.

The story revolves around crossbow-toting redneck Daryl Dixon and his bitterly racist brother Merle as they make their way to Atlanta, Georgia. Players will take the role of Daryl and fight their way across the rolling southern countryside by either fighting the zombie hordes with weapons, or by using stealth to avoid detection altogether. According to Activision, "no place is truly safe."

Although we haven't seen anything official from Activision, IGN reports that Daryl will encounter "a slew of other characters" along that way that will either help him, or try to hurt him, depending on choices the player makes. Whether these characters can tag along during the journey is also completely up to the player, and "represents just some of the major decisions that will constantly be made while fighting to survive."

In addition to fighting zombies and taking on companions, players will have to deal with managing food, ammunition and supplies as they make their journey. Even more, the post-apocalyptic zombies use sight, smell and sound to track your every moment -- sounds like a good case for smearing zombie innards all over Daryl's clothes.

So far the shooter is slated for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC in 2013. For additional information, the official website is now live and features a teaser trailer.