To commemorate 5 million sharks seeking vengeance on Port Clovis, the team at Tripwire Interactive has released an update for Maneater. There are a number of improvements being made to the game, however, the addition of Ray Tracing to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions of Maneater is the most notable.
The news came via a Twitter post from the official Maneater account. It shows off the atomic shark evolution leaping out of the water and gobbling up "5 Million Players" in a splash of green brine.
The build itself went live on November 17, 2021, for all platforms. In addition to Ray Tracing, several issues for HDR on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X have been resolved including an issue with the background on the pause screen not blurring and the intro movies being darker than normal. Several performance enhancements and adjustments have been made for menus, gore, and animal life. Aside from that, there was a bevy of updates for miscellaneous issues. Full details can be found in the patch notes link below.
Ray Tracing is a technique for modeling how light is transported across the surface of an object within digitally generated images. It has been substantially pushed and developed by companies like NVIDIA through programs like RTX. In short, it is a way for GPUs to render the physical behavior of light and shadow. Since its inception at Gamescom 2018 with the NVIDIA Turing, Ray Tracing has been the buzz for graphics and promises to be the next leap forward in realistic graphics. Previously, Ray Tracing had only been available to PC gamers through graphics cards that specifically supported the technology. However, the latest generation of consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are now capable.
The story in Maneater follows a young bull shark on a quest for revenge after its mother is killed by a local hunter. A film crew follows the exploits of the hunters while the entire series of events is narrated by the always engaging Chris Parnell. Throughout the game, the player must consume local wildlife, take down poachers and hunters, and evolve in order to exact its revenge on the hunter who set it down this path.
Two DLC have been released since the launch of the game. The first was Tiger Shark Skin which gave players a new evolution that allowed them to collect more nutrients from prey. The second DLC was Truth Quest, a full-fledged addition with more story content, new enemies, and a new evolution. Since its release, Manhunter has gained a passionate fanbase that is hungry for more.
Maneater is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Maneater Patch Notes