Superman is at home in COVID-19 lockdown, painting Warhammer figurines

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Apr 13, 2020 10:35 PM CDT

Zack Snyder's Justice League star Henry Cavill and Superman himself, is like us right now -- stuck inside of their homes on COVID-19 coronavirus lockdown.

Superman is at home in COVID-19 lockdown, painting Warhammer figurines

But the Superman star is a gamer (and a PC gamer at that) as well as a huge nerd, so during his lockdown Cavill showed off on his personal Instagram that he is a huge fan of Total War and Warhammer. Cavill posted a picture of himself painting an Adeptus Custodes helmet, and said: "One of my almost life long hobbies, that I've been following but not actively doing, is this. A company called Games Workshop... or plastic crack as 'we' call it".

Kal-El continued: "Genuinely can't get enough of the lore they have built over the decades. They have been some of my most enthused reads! If you were in denial about me being a geek before, you can't hide from it now".

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Chinese tech giant Huawei is about to reveal its first-ever GPU

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Apr 13, 2020 9:42 PM CDT

Huawei is reportedly about to announce that it has been working on a new discrete GPU for the server and HPC market, according to a new report from a South Korean publication.

Chinese tech giant Huawei is about to reveal its first-ever GPU

The Chinese giant has opened a new division in China called the Cloud and AI Business Group, where Huawei will begin its battle against NVIDIA and AMD -- and once Xe launches it will have Intel join the fight, for the GPU server and HPC businesses. Huawei is reportedly looking at a late 2020 release for its first-gen GPU, but it could have a gaming-focused GPU in the works and released in the next few years.

Huawei is pushing its new GPU-focused business with a home base in South Korea, with the Chinese giant acquiring local talent as well as acquiring a number of ex-NVIDIA engineers.

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Stay up-to-date with COVID-19 in the US with this new dashboard

If you want to stay up-to-date with COVID-19 in the United States, then you'll want to check out John Hopkins University's recently updated COVID-19 dashboard.

Stay up-to-date with COVID-19 in the US with this new dashboard

The new COVID-19 dashboard focuses on the United States, and packs huge amounts of data including county-level data and infographics that you can't see in the global version. You can click into county-specific infographics that provide huge amounts of details like deaths, fatality rates, and more that are provided next to state-level data on testing, cases, deaths, and fatality rates of COVID-19.

John Hopkins University also includes information on county-level healthcare resources, with details like staffed hospital beds and ICU beds, as well as mitigation policies for COVID-19. There is an easy-to-read bar graph that shows the health insurance status of Americans by age group, with basic data for the local population and its size, race, and ethnicity breakdowns -- hell, there's even poverty status, and the number of Americans aged over 65.

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You can buy 500,000 Zoom accounts for less than 1c on the dark web

Anthony Garreffa | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Apr 13, 2020 8:22 PM CDT

With all of the current shelter-in-place, quarantines, and global lockdowns -- services like Zoom have seen a gigantic surge in popularity and use by companies and people around the world.

You can buy 500,000 Zoom accounts for less than 1c on the dark web

Well, did you know that over 500,000 Zoom accounts are being sold on the dark web and hacker forums for as low as 1c each, and in some cases, they're even free? Yeah, so new reports show that Zoom login details are happening through credential stuffing attacks, where hackers will login to Zoom accounts using leaked data from previous breaches.

If the login in successful, that Zoom account login goes into a list and is then sold to other hackers. Some of the Zoom accounts are offered up on a platter on the cheap, or for free -- where other hackers will use them for "zoom-bombing pranks" and "other malicious activities", reports BleepingComputer.

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Razer's Pikachu wireless earbuds get stored in an awesome Poke ball

Anthony Garreffa | Audio, Sound & Speakers | Apr 13, 2020 7:48 PM CDT

If you're a die hard Pokemon fan then you might want to check out the new Pikachu True Wireless Earbuds from Razer, a special edition version of their kick ass Hammerhead True Wireless Earbuds.

Razer's Pikachu wireless earbuds get stored in an awesome Poke ball

Razer made some changes to the charging case for the Pikachu True Wireless Earbuds, where the small fits-in-your-hand black case gets morphed into an awesome Poke ball. The front button lights up to indicate the charging level of your earbuds, while the wrist strap lets you carry it around on your... uh, wrist.

Just like the normal Razer Hammerhead earbuds, the new Pikachu True Wireless Earbuds have 13mm drivers, IPX4 water resistance, and Bluetooth 5.0 tech. If you want to get your gaming on, the Pikachu True Wireless Earbuds have low latency mode that reduces latency to 60ms. Razer goes more custom on the Pikachu True Wireless Earbuds, where the voice prompts are replaced by Pikachu's voice, which is actually really cool.

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PlayStation 5 gets a spoiler in new mock-up fan renders

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Apr 13, 2020 6:55 PM CDT

New PlayStation 5 renders are a mix of PS4 Slim, the V-style devkit, and a stylish spoiler because...why not? The PS5's gotta go fast.

PlayStation 5 gets a spoiler in new mock-up fan renders

After Sony revealed its new DualSense controller, we've seen some nice mock-ups try to recreate the style and guess what the PS5 will look like. Now Redditor robo3687 just made a batch of new PS5 renders using the DualSense as a template.

The mock-up accounts for sizing and cooling specifics too. robo3687 says their mock-up clocks in at 11.8 inches wide x 11 inches deep x 2.6 inches high, which is akin to the PlayStation 4 Pro's sizing. It can fit a 50mm fan and has special curvatures on the sides for airflow. "Yes it has a spoiler," the artist said.

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No, Microsoft isn't buying SEGA, and SEGA has no reason to sell

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Apr 13, 2020 6:16 PM CDT

There's apparently a rumor going around that Microsoft could acquire SEGA. That's not going to happen. At the most, we'll see a collaboration.

No, Microsoft isn't buying SEGA, and SEGA has no reason to sell

We shouldn't really have to write this article, and to a lot of you, the rumors of Microsoft buying SEGA are ridiculous. But we thought it prudent to illustrate why this won't happen. The reasons are pretty clear: Microsoft has no real reason to buy SEGA, and SEGA has no reason to sell. It's the same situation as the Sony buying Metal Gear Solid rumors, or the more preposterous Microsoft acquiring CD Projekt RED rumors.

First lets take a look at SEGA. Right now, SEGA is doing pretty good. The Japanese games-maker is an interesting company with a variety of revenue streams that stem from gaming to resort businesses. The latter will probably be hit hard thanks to COVID-19, but SEGA is nowhere near the red. That's usually when companies start eyeing buyouts or even selling off its IPs. SEGA is still making $1 billion+ in quarterly revenues; in Q3'19 during the holiday period, SEGA made $1.7 billion in revenues, and its profits were up a massive 52% YoY to $148 million. To put that into perspective, that's roughly 1/3 of what Xbox makes every quarter.

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Games with random lootboxes are now marked by ESRB labels

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Apr 13, 2020 12:34 PM CDT

The ESRB has updated its new in-game purchases label warning with even more transparency and will now disclose a game's randomized elements.

Games with random lootboxes are now marked by ESRB labels

The new label would specifically mark games with random microtransactions, namely lootboxes. This has huge implications for the live games market, which is thrived under blind awareness for years now. This is a particularly interesting move from the ESRB, especially since it said lootboxes aren't gambling back in 2017. Publishers have tried to circumvent the label warnings by delaying microtransaction roll outs until after a game box is printed and released in stores, and this has actually worked in the past.

"This new Interactive Element, In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items), will be assigned to any game that contains in-game offers to purchase digital goods or premiums with real-world currency (or with virtual coins or other forms of in-game currency that can be purchased with real-world currency) for which the player doesn't know prior to purchase the specific digital goods or premiums they will be receiving (e.g., loot boxes, item packs, mystery awards).

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Crysis remastered could be announced soon on new CryEngine tech

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Apr 13, 2020 11:24 AM CDT

Crytek once again teases Crysis remastered with a new two-word Tweet that speaks volumes. This is the first time the Crysis Twitter has been active since 2016.

Crysis remastered could be announced soon on new CryEngine tech

Crytek hasn't been too subtle about teasing Crysis remastered. It's left more than a few clues in its latest CryEngine tech demos, and all the signs point to a re-release on current- and next-gen consoles and PC. We're talking high-end optimizations like 4K 60FPS+ and ray tracing, all wrapped in the beastly new CryEngine 5.6.

Throw in special attention to next-gen console SSD tech, and Crysis will be blistering fast, buttery smooth, and push the on-board APU's Zen 2 CPU and Navi 2X GPU to their limits. In short, Crysis could be back to utterly melt our hardware again.

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Resident Evil 3 Remake is a success with 2 million sales in five days

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Apr 13, 2020 9:28 AM CDT

Resident Evil 3 might have divided the fan base a little bit, but Capcom's latest remake is a big success on the market with 2 million units shipped worldwide in five days.

Resident Evil 3 Remake is a success with 2 million sales in five days

Capcom today announced some pretty beefy figures for its new Resident Evil 3 Remake. The action-based game has sold-in (shipped, not sold-through or actual sales) over 2 million copies globally in its first five days of availability. This figure includes both physical copies shipped around the world as well as digital purchases on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Capcom also confirmed 50% of RE3 Remake's sales were from digital, which is quite substantial but not necessarily surprising given the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Those are big numbers for any AAA game, but Resident Evil 2 Remake's 3 million copies sold in 3 days still conquers the sequel. At the time of writing, Resident Evil 2 Remake is now beating Street Fighter II with a whopping whopping 6.5 million copies sold on all platforms. RE2 Remake is now Capcom's fifth best-selling game of all time.

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