Evolve is a new co-op shooter from Turtle Rock Studios, the same people that brought you the post-apocalyptic hit Left 4 Dead. The February issue of Game Informer will feature a 12-page spread on the upcoming title that is described as a…

…sci-fi multiplayer-focused shooter pits a four-player crew of alien hunters against a separate player-controlled monster that grows larger and more powerful over the course of matches. Each hunter features its own unique items and abilities, and while the monster may be outnumbered, its size and an assortment of devastating attacks make it a more than formidable foe.
-Game Informer

Evolve is slated to release on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 this fall.

Well here’s some big news on one of the year’s most anticipated games. Titanfall only supports a maximum of 6 vs 6 players during online play.

Answering a fan query on Twitter, Respawn Entertainment’s Vince Zampella confirmed the news, saying that this, “turned out to be the best balance with AI for us.”

So how do you fill a map that only has twelve players in it? With AI soldiers. Zampella didn’t confirm exactly how many AI soldiers would be included, but did say it’d be “enough to make it fun,” before adding that it’s the players who are “the real threat”.

Zampella also added that every player can have a Titan with them, which he says will make firefights feel busy

“It is incredibly fun, we did a lot if testing. It is all about what we found most fun,” Zampella concluded.

Titanfall is an online only game and will therefore not include a campaign.

The game is due for release in March on PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One

AMD has officially launched its latest generation accelerated processing units (APUs) for desktops, codenamed Kaveri, opening up pre-orders for selected customers ahead of general availability.

The first of AMD’s desktop APU designs to include tweaks defined by the Heterogeneous Systems Architecture (HSA) for better interoperability between the CPU and GPU portions, the first to include Graphics Core Next (GCN) technology and promising significant boosts in instructions per cycle (IPC) thanks to the new Steamroller core, it’s fair to say Kaveri is a big deal for AMD.

The flagship of the Kaveri desktop line-up is the A10-7850K, designed to take over from the A10-6800K and compete with Intel’s Core i5-4670K.

The 28nm chip’s 95W thermal design profile (TDP) gives it the headroom required for a base clock of 3.7GHz across all four cores with Turbo Mode reaching 4GHz – both a drop from the last-generation A10-6800K clock speeds, which hit 4.1GHz stock and 4.4GHz Turbo.

Compared to its predecessor, however, the A10-7850K claims a 20 per cent boost in IPC – which should translate to improved performance despite the loss of clock speed.

The GPU portion of the chip, too, has seen a down-clock from 844MHz to 720MHz – but, as with the move to Steamroller on the CPU side, AMD is pointing to the shift to GCN and an increase to 512 shaders as more than making up for that in true performance.

Indeed, figures released by the company show the A10-7850K running the PCMark benchmark some 24 per cent faster than an Intel Core i5-4670K and the 3DMark suite 87 per cent faster, compared to boosts of 15 per cent and 37 per cent for the last-generation A10-6800K.

As before, the chip supports four threads but this time offers improved cache memory: in addition to a boost from two 64KB L1 instruction caches to two 96KB caches, both L1 and L2 caches now benefit from associative sharing – designed to help the CPU and GPU cooperate on tasks, and a major part of the promise of HSA.

The company has confirmed that OEMs are able to pre-order the part now, alongside a lower-end A10-7700K part, with the first products to appear in the coming weeks.

AMD has not, however, provided a date for retail availability.

The standalone version of DayZ was released on Steam Early Access in mid-December.

The standalone version of open-world survival game DayZ is off to a remarkable start, having sold over 800,000 copies in less than three weeks — a figure that far outpaces the amount its developer hoped to sell in the game’s first three months.

In a comment on Reddit, DayZ creator Dean Hall explained what the expectations for the game were and what this outpouring of support means for the game.

“We ([publisher Bohemia Interactive] and I) had very ambitious plans for 2014 already, however this amount of sales was completely unexpected,”

he wrote.

“Honestly, 250k within a quarter was what I would have considered a success. So to move nearly 800,000 in under a month is crazy.

“We’ll be finalizing our roadmap in mid January, but it is safe to say that this kind of result will be having a very positive effect on that roadmap.”

DayZ started out as a mod for PC shooter ArmA II and quickly became incredibly popular. Hall had aspirations of turning the mod into a standalone game from the start, with that project officially being announced in mid-2012. The game has already served as the inspiration for a number of other games — some more so than others — and last month an alpha version was released on Steam as an Early Access game.

In just 12 hours, it had already seen 88,000 downloads and was attracting new player registrations at a rate of 200 per second. Now, less than three weeks later, DayZ is well on its way to one million units sold, and all without the benefit of a Steam sale — the game was routinely among the top sellers on Steam during the Steam Holiday Sale despite not being on sale.

Hall is admirably not shy about cautioning some people away from buying the game at this stage. Games in Early Access can be at many different stages of development, some more complete and playable than others. While DayZ is playable, it’s far from finished. After explaining that buying the alpha now gets you the full version once it’s released, Hall advised one prospective buyer on Reddit,

“I would recommend a very careful and critical review of whether purchasing now is such a good idea. There are many problems which can ruin your gameplay experience. These are being actively fixed – but if you delayed your purchase by a month you would pay the same price but it would be a better experience. Something to consider.”

DayZ is now available on Steam for $29.99 / €23.99 / £19.99.

While the PS4 might be setting records for the rapid pace in which each console is being bought in the UK, over in America it appears it’s a whole ‘nother story entirely. According to research by market research firm InfoScout, which surveyed purchases of consoles in several retail outlets across USA up to and including Black Friday, Microsoft consoles are being overwhelmingly favoured by the American gamer:

According to their survey, both Xbox consoles dominated sales on Friday, jointly accounting for 61% of the console market. The PlayStation 4, meanwhile, achieves a creditable third place with exactly half the XBox One sales – 15% compared to 31% – although it should be noted that the PS4 came in much more limited supplies compared to the XBox One.

A perhaps more interesting statistic from the survey is that so far, sales of both new generation consoles are keeping pace with their predecessors, with the PS3 just outselling the PS4 by a very small margin; while the XBox One only manages a 1% margin above the older 360. Continued sales of the older consoles are to be expected early in a new console’s launch, but the closeness of the statistics suggest there are still a lot of people seeing life in the now-older generation consoles yet; and feel like giving them a chance over their younger, so far less established successors…

…Though, with 80% of the surveyed claiming that they bought the console with the intention to “gift” it, it could also be that some Americans just wanted to save cash on what should still be viewed as a powerful, exciting present for the young (or young at heart) ones.