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Elon Musk: 'The Simulation, The Simulation, The Simulation'
A young woman wanted to know how much she needed to beg to take a selfie with him. A young man wanted to know if he could get his CyberPunk 2077 hat autographed. These are the kind of questions people were asking Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, during a panel at E3 2019. Musk, who was joined by legendary video game designer Todd Howard (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout 4), spent most of the conversation talking about how gaming has influenced his life, his vision for the industry and, of course, "The Simulation." Almost every response from him ignited cheers from the crowd at E3, who were the latest people to witness the Church of Elon Musk at a technology conference.
Watch Bethesda’s E3 2019 highlights in 15 minutes
Bethesda kicked off its E3 event yesterday, and if your head is still spinning from all of the gaming updates announced this weekend, here's your chance to catch up on Bethesda's biggest news. The company debuted Orion, a software collection meant to optimize game engines for streaming on platforms like Google's Stadia or Microsoft's xCloud. The goal is to improve the game-streaming experience for folks with slower internet speeds or those who live far from data centers. Bethesda gave us a glimpse of Doom Eternal, Fallout 76 and the new Wolfenstein: Youngblood. There's also the new supernatural action adventure Ghostwire Tokyo and a new dragon quest line in Elder Scrolls: Blades. Today we learned that Doom will stream on iOS later this year. In case you missed Bethesda's E3 presentation or need a second viewing to catch all the details, we've compiled this supercut to bring you up to speed.
'Fallout 76' is about to be a lot more like 'Fallout'
Back in February, Bethesda detailed its plan to revitalize Fallout 76 in 2019. After all, it's no secret that the developer's shared-world action RPG is in desperate need of improvement, having been plagued by a number of serious issues since it launched in November of 2018. And today, at its pre-E3 2019 event, Bethesda revealed the next major update for Fallout 76: Wastelanders, which it says will "fundamentally change the game." The biggest difference is the addition of non-player human characters, a feature that's going to make Fallout 76 feel a lot more like Fallout, thanks to a new main quest as well as choice and consequence scenes. You'll also get new weapons and gear, naturally.
Install updates now to address a vulnerability in most Intel CPUs
In January 2018, a pair of security exploits dubbed Spectre and Meltdown showed how attackers could take advantage of commonly-implemented CPU technology to access data they shouldn't have been able to. They were followed by a similar bug, Foreshadow, late last year, and now researchers have uncovered four different techniques that exploit Intel's speculative execution technology in a similar way. The website CPU.fail has collected information about each vulnerability -- they're collectively referred to as Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS) -- including Zombieload, RIDL & Fallout, and Store-to-Leak Forwarding. Example code shows how the attacks could be launched using malicious JavaScript, for example, and researchers state that it would be difficult for antivirus software to detect it, however they have not found evidence of anyone using the tech in attacks so far.
Bethesda will add a high-stakes PvP mode to 'Fallout 76'
Bethesda might have a way to keep gamers interested in Fallout 76 despite all its troubles: it's raising the stakes for its more competitive players. The company has detailed an upcoming Survival mode beta where every player outside of your event group or team is considered hostile. In other words, no one needs an invitation to start shooting. A seemingly friendly encounter could turn violent in the blink of an eye, and a sniper could take you out while you're busy fighting mutant wildlife. You'll even see leaderboards that show how well you rank compared to other players in your existing world.
'Fallout 76' players found a secret developer room
No, Fallout 76's troubles aren't over yet. Gamers have discovered that the online RPG has a developer room where you can find virtually everything in the game, including unreleased items like special power armor. It even includes the game's lone humanoid non-player character, a hapless target named Wooby. It's not hard to find the general location, although getting in reportedly requires less-than-legitimate methods.
Bethesda says sorry to 'Fallout 76' players with free games
Bethesda is continuing its apology tour of sorts for Fallout 76's rough state on launch, and this time you don't need to have spent a lot to receive compensation. The developer is promising a free copy of Fallout Classics Collection (1, 2 and Tactics) on PC for everyone who has logged into the full Fallout 76 in 2018, whether they played on a computer or console. You should have access to your freebie in early January, Bethesda said.
'Fallout 76' Power Armor Edition buyers will get their canvas bags
Among all of its other issues since launch, some of the most dedicated Fallout fans ran into a surprising issue with their $200 "Power Armor Edition" box for Fallout 76. Despite promo materials that promised a "West Tek Canvas Carrying Bag" for the included wearable T-51 helmet, what arrived was a much more cheaply-built nylon bag. Bethesda tried to apologize by granting players 500 atoms (in-game currency worth about $5) last week, but now it's going to live up to the advertisement -- even if it's a bit late. In a tweet, Bethesda announced it's "finalizing manufacturing plans for replacement canvas bags" and said Collector's Edition purchasers should fill out a ticket by the end of January. There's no ship date specified for the bags, but at this point we just want to see something delivered that is more like what gamers thought they were getting. If they're at all disappointed by the game itself that could be a more complicated fix, but another update is rolling out today with balances, fixes and expanded stash storage. In good news for console players, while it's still a larger patch than the one for PC at 3GB vs. 36MB, at least it won't mean reinstalling the entire game (this time).
47GB 'Fallout 76' patch nearly replaces the entire game on PS4 and Xbox One
Prior to release, beta testers of Bethesda's Fallout 76 ran into an issue that caused the entire game to spontaneously redownload itself on their PCs. Now a major patch has arrived on all platforms and for PS4 players at least, it's a similar experience. Patch notes indicate the update addresses many performance and stability issues, as well as tweaking the game's PVP mode. But on PlayStation (update: and Xbox One), gamers faced a 47GB download, compared to the game's initial 53GB install size (after the patch is applied it takes up roughly the same amount of space). On PC it was a more modest 15GB, but players who have bandwidth caps that are already stretched to their limit by fall releases aren't all happy, with the game requiring nearly 100GB by itself in just a couple of weeks. The developers did mention this prior to releasing the update, and said "This update will be large compared to what we expect for patches going forward." Of course, Overwatch just reinstalled itself with a new patch for at least the second time, so maybe it's time for ISPs to ease up on bandwidth restrictions because the file sizes aren't going down. Update: The size of the patch is similar between PS4 and Xbox One, leaving PC gamers with the smaller 15GB download.
'Fallout 76' gets glow-in-the-dark postage stamps in the UK and Europe
Bethesda's Fallout 76 marketing onslaught is continuing apace ahead of the game's November 14th release. Last week, it snagged Ninja, Rick and Morty, and Logic for a nerdtastic livestream -- now it's releasing limited edition postage stamps across the UK and Europe that glow in the dark. The set of five stamps feature imagery from the game, including Vault-Tec mascot Vault Boy, Power Armor, and Perk Cards. They'll be doled out via social media and community promotional campaigns and competitions.
Bethesda enlists Ninja and Rick and Morty for 'Fallout 76' livestream
To build up hype for the upcoming release of Fallout 76, Bethesda pulled the handle on the pop culture slot machine and it landed on Ninja, Logic and Rick and Morty. That motley crew of nerd stardom will play through the new online survival game on during a livestream event. The broadcast will be available on Bethesda's Twitch and Mixer channels, as well as Microsoft's Mixer. The stream will start at 9 PM ET on Thursday, November 8th.
Bizarre 'Fallout 76' bug deletes beta instead of letting players in
Tonight the Fallout 76 beta was supposed to unlock for a few hours so players on Xbox One, PS4 and PC could test it out. Unfortunately for players on PC, for some reason many people saw the 50GB beta installation suddenly begin to redownload instead of unlocking -- a serious problem since it was only scheduled for access between 7 PM and 11 PM ET. Bethesda's support accounts haven't mentioned anything about extending the test period, so hopefully none of you were impacted -- otherwise you'll have to wait until November 1st between 2 and 7 PM ET for another shot. Still, it could be worse -- this could have made it into a wide release, or just broken the game's AI for years until someone noticed. Update: Bethesda just announced that as a result of this bug, it's extending the November 1st test session to run until 11 PM ET.
'Fallout 76' won't come to the Switch because it 'wasn't doable'
Bethesda has made a habit of releasing Switch versions of high-profile games (with the help of Panic Button) despite technological limits, but it won't be pulling a rabbit out of a hat with Fallout 76. Marketing exec Pete Hines told guests at PAX Australia that it wouldn't bring the apocalyptic shared-world game to the Switch because it "wasn't doable." The developer has asked about the possibility of supporting Nintendo's system with every game it's working on, Hines said -- it just wasn't an option here.
'Fallout 76' preview: This isn't 'Fallout 5'
I really wanted to find the Mothman. Apparently he resides along the Greenbrier River, in the lush, post-apocalyptic forests of West Virginia. Pull up the map in Fallout 76 and a friendly icon proclaiming "Mothman Museum" sits along the river's east bank, just below Vault 76 and above something called The Giant Teapot. Fallout 76's world is four times larger than Fallout 4's, easily making it the biggest game in the series, and the Mothman is just one pit stop among hundreds of attractions littered across the freshly irradiated land.
'Fallout 76' beta begins October 23rd
You still have a while to wait before you can dive into Fallout 76, though Bethesda is whetting fans' appetites by releasing the game's intro video and revealing launch dates for the beta. The clip sets up the story, in which survivors of a nuclear war are leaving their bunker and stepping into the West Virginia wasteland with the aim of rebuilding America.
'Fallout 76' deals with trolls by making them part of the game
When Bethesda mentioned that Fallout 76 was an online game, you could hear alarm bells ringing in fans' heads. How were they going to deal with the inevitable trolls who come in to ruin other players' fun? Now we know: it's making them a part of the game. In a presentation at QuakeCon, game lead Todd Howard revealed that people who kill unwilling victims will get bounties on their heads, with the money coming out of their total cap balance (that is, currency) and reflecting their character level. They'll also be impossible to miss -- you'll see a red star on the map.
Steam's Summer Sale offers discounts on 'Fallout,' 'Sonic' and more
Steam holds seasonal sales throughout the year, offering decent discounts during certain dates in Autumn, Winter and Summer. It's definitely time for the most recent sale, just a day after PUBG got its first deal ever on the game distribution service. Dubbed the Intergalactic Summer Sale, which runs from June 21st through July 5th, the discounts will net you tons of games from 20 to 85 percent off their regular price, including titles from the Fallout franchise, Ni No Kuni II and Where the Water Tastes Like Wine.
'Fallout Shelter' is coming to the PS4 and Nintendo Switch
In addition to blowing the crowd's collective mind with its "Fallout 76" news, Bethesda also had some news for the franchise's more casual fans. The company announced that Fallout Shelter is now available on both the Playstation 4 and the Nintendo Switch, for free. So get building Vault Dwellers! Follow all the latest news from E3 2018 here!
'Fallout 76' is an online survival game
Fallout 76 is entirely online and it's scheduled to come out on November 14th. The game is playable solo, but it was created with a singular vision in mind: building an open-world, survival-based game where every character players encounter is a real person. It relies on small instances, pulling in dozens of other players rather than hundreds or thousands -- it is the apocalypse, after all. Think Destiny, but in a nuclear-ravaged, retro-futuristic wasteland. This is Bethesda's latest entry in the post-apocalyptic Fallout franchise and it's the biggest game yet -- four times bigger than Fallout 4, in fact. Bethesda shared the release date and fresh details during its E3 2018 media briefing.
'Fallout 76' brings the apocalypse to West Virginia
A few days ago, we got our first tease of the new Fallout game, and at today's Xbox E3 press conference, we're getting the full reveal of Fallout 76. Bethesda's Todd Howard said that the latest entry in the series will be a prequel to 2015's Fallout 4 and is four times larger than that game.
