The US Air Force has gone next-gen in defensive technology and have demonstrated with a ground-based laser that they can shoot missiles out of the air.

The above image is what is called Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator, or SHiELD for short. SHiELD is located at the White Sands Missile Range and a recent demonstration has proved that the new technology can still perform when intense scenarios are occurring. The laser is intended as a defensive technology, with the end goal being it shrinking down and becoming portable by it being applied to jets.

While this is some pretty darn cool technology don't expect that it will be going live anytime soon. The first airborne tests are expected to be conducted sometime in 2021, so its a fair way off before it is implemented. When that time arrives and SHiELD is fully developed air combat could be changed forever as the ultimate defensive weapons has been created.

The developers of the extremely popular and very successful Pokemon GO app have assisted communities around the world in support of the global Earth Day movement.

Niantic, the developer of Pokemon GO has ran a in-game event to encourage people to support Earth Day. The event rewarded players with an increase spawn rate for ground type Pokemon, the more people joined the bonuses were gained. Each of the reward levels were as follows; 2,000 players increased ground type spawn rates, 5,000 people shiny Diglettes would appear within 48 hours of the goal being reached. Lastly, 7,000 players joining made Groudon spawn in raids and stardust and candy would double.

Niantic has reported that a total number of 41,000 hours were put into the event and that 41 countries participated and cleaned up 145 tons of trash. 17,000 Pokemon GO players united across the globe, Niantic's responded to the success of the event by saying "We're astounded with how much everyone involved has achieved - an effort like this highlights how much impact people can have when they work together. Players worked in groups of 1 to 2,500, alongside government agencies, volunteer organizations, and fellow community members, creating incredible impact."

When the first Turing GPUs were being made NVIDIA split the silicon into two camps: higher-quality Turing A-dies for higher-end custom overclocked GeForce RTX 2080 and RTX 2070 cards, while non-overclocked more stock cards had the non-A die silicon.

Tom's Hardware Germany boss Igor Wallossek reports that NVIDIA will stop making the non-A die silicon, and from here on out only produce A-dies of the Turing TU104-410 (RTX 2080) and TU106-410 (RTX 2070). This means that from here on out NVIDIA will only supply AIBs with the higher-quality A-die silicon meaning we could see a new wave of RTX 2070 and RTX 2080s with higher OC ceilings.

We should at least see an across the board increase in base and boost GPU clock speeds on the next wave of RTX 2070 and RTX 2080s that could lead the higher-end custom cards to have access to higher GPU clocks with a few tweaks to the voltage limits NVIDIA has in place. If they untightened those a bit NVID IA could have higher-end RTX 2070 and 2080s that better compete with what AMD has coming around the corner with rumored Radeon RX 3080 XT rumored for $339, a far cry from the starting price of $599 for the GeForce RTX 2070.

Well holy sh*t, the Avengers: Endgame has reached level 3000 or rather has become the second-highest-grossing movie of all time. It has just beaten Titanic (1997) which grossed $2.187 billion (when adjusted for inflation) and now has Avatar set in its sights.

Avengers: Endgame has now made $2.189 billion and we're barely two weeks into its run in theaters, with the next movie in its sights is the highest-grossing movie of all time, Avatar. Avatar had a huge haul (well at least it did until now) of $2.8 billion globally, and it seems at this rate Avengers: Endgame will beat that by next week.

James Cameron directed both Titanic and Avatar and since the 2009 release of Avatar he hasn't had any major tent pole movies released, with Avatar 2 now set to release on 17 December 2020. Until Avatar 2 it looks like Disney and Marvel Studios will have the #1 grossing movie of all time with Avengers: Endgame.

AMD was originally expected to unveil next-gen Ryzen Threadripper 3000 series CPUs in the coming months based on the new Zen 2 architecture and the new 7nm process node. But in AMD's own 2019 client line up the new third-gen Ryzen Threadrippers are missing.

In the last 2019 roadmap image AMD had detailed the third-gen Ryzen Threadripper CPUs in its 'non-stop product momentum' which has hit a stop, and dropped momentum with the latest roadmap. The new high-core count CPUs have mysteriously been omitted by AMD, and in its place the company will most likely deploy the next-gen Zen 2-based Ryzen desktop CPUs on the new 500-series motherboards on the cheaper, simpler AM4 socket.

What does this mean for the future of Ryzen Threadripper? Well, we'll have to wait and see what AMD says and if there's an update (and yet another change) to the 2019 roadmap at AMD's upcoming press conference at Computex 2019.

Hot on the heels of the purported Radeon RX 3090 XT flagship Navi graphics card rumors, were some specs on the Navi 10-based graphics cards that we WILL see launched at E3 2019.

AMD is reportedly getting the Radeon RX 3080 XT ready for E3 2019 with its Navi 10 GPU on the 7nm node, with what should be 8GB of GDDR6 memory. The Navi 10 GPU will, according to the new leaks, feature 56 compute units from the Navi 10 GPU on a 190W TDP and provide performance close to NVIDIA's Turing-based GeForce RTX 2070. All of this will reportedly launch for $330 which would be a game changer.

NVIDIA sells its GeForce RTX 2070 graphics card for $599 which would mean if the rumors are true and the purported Radeon RX 3080 XT does indeed sell for $330 and has the performance of the RTX 2070, NVIDIA wouldn't be in trouble but it will have to react with massive price drops.

The latest rumor on AMD's next-gen Navi GPU architecture comes in the form of some purported specs and card names, as well as performance numbers and preliminary pricing. Everything from here should be taken with a large handful, not just a pinch, of salt.

According to my exclusive sources AMD will be detailing the new Navi-based Radeon graphics cards at E3 2019 which takes place just over a week after Computex 2019 where AMD will also unveil its new Zen 2-based Ryzen 3000 series CPUs. The new rumor on Navi is the aforementioned specs, pricing, performance and TDP of some of the cards.

We will reportedly be looking at a flagship Radeon RX 3090 XT signifying that AMD will continue its 3000-series products from its upcoming Ryzen 3000 series into Radeon RX 3000 series cards. AMD's purported Radeon RX 3090 XT will be based on the Navi 20 GPU and won't be here until 2020, meaning it will be fighting an uphill battle against what NVIDIA already has on the market in the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti that will still beat it let alone the 7nm refresh and new Ampere GPU architecture that are both around the corner.

Remedy's new singleplayer-driven sci-thriller shooter Control promises to blend a number of big trends and genres.

Control looks to be a lot of Quantum Break, a little bit of Metroid, and a pinch of Dark Souls thrown in for good measure. At least that's the picture I get from this latest gameplay feature. The game has a lot of Quantum Break's shooter-and-powers mechanics, but also takes things to another level with more physics chaos and verticality. Like Metroid, Control won't be a linear game; there will be all kinds of avenues you can't actually get to unless you unlock certain powers, abilities, or solve puzzles. But unlike Metroid, the game takes place in an ever-shifting environment.

"What might be surprising is the game structure is very much in the vein of Metroivania," said Remedy's communication director Thomas Puha. "So the game takes place in the Oldest House, which is a massive location that you get to explore. You might find somewhere early on where you can't get to, and later on in the game when you unlock something like the levitation ability you can get there."

One of the biggest names in gaming suffers a rare monetization slip, but it's reinvesting strongly into more engagement-driven business models.

Activision-Blizzard may be hitting a monetization ceiling in its biggest games. Every quarter, the company makes hundreds of millions from Games-as-a-Service style tactics like microtransactions, DLC, and subscriptions. These revenues typically pull in a huge portion of digital earnings. But this latest quarter showed a rare drop both in total live earnings and the proportion of game sales to service-generated revenue.

The company's Q1 2019 earnings weren't particularly impressive. Total revenues, digital revenues, operating income and even net income were all down from last year. Given Activision-Blizzard's emphasis on live gaming, dgital is the most interesting of these dips. Digital comprised 76% of total net revenues, or $1.38 billion, down roughly 4.6% from 2018's first quarter. Digital includes microtransactions, subscriptions, DLC, and digital game purchases. The company says it pulled in $800 million from in-game purchases like skins and lootboxes, which means for the first time in a long time live service earnings were down. Microtransactions only made 58% of digital revenues this quarter, compared to the 68% split in Q1'18.

Borderlands 3 has all the major pillars of a service game: near-infinite replayability via a huge RPG-and-item grind, co-op online multiplayer, and a sprawling story arc that spreads across multiple locales. Gearbox is going all out on that last front and claims the sequel's campaign will last well over 30 hours.

Gearbox has been working on Borderlands 3 for a long time now, and has one major goal for the sequel: to go bigger, better, and farther than ever before. That includes 1 billion guns, new baddies, fresh characters with new skills and build opportunities, offworld exploration across multiple planets, and a substantial campaign mode. All of this new content will be pretty expansive and makes for a rather long-winded storyline.

According to the devs, Borderlands 3 will last 30 hours if you rush through the quests and missions. For comparison's sake, Borderlands 2's campaign took around 32 hours to beat if you took your time. "If you beeline it through, and I mean beelining it through, it might take you 30 hours to complete the main story," Borderlands 3 creative director Paul Sage told PC Gamer.