Video game music fan? Spotify has your back

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Aug 13, 2016 1:12 PM CDT

Spotify has just made a move that might have gamers subscribing to its music service in droves, with a new gaming portal that makes it incredibly easy to find the soundtracks to your favorite games.

There are soundtracks from games like Max Payne and Mega Man, and big hits like The Last of Us and Uncharted 4. The company has been creating and hosting its own curated playlists, as well as getting in gaming celebrities like Day[9], a super popular StarCraft personality - that I only just found out in the last two days of hanging out with Luke from LinusTechTips is a StarCraft megastar.

Spotify has even tapped guest lists from people working at Engadget and Polygon, which is another nice touch. But which gaming soundtracks do you like the best? Let us know in the comments.

Continue reading: Video game music fan? Spotify has your back (full post)

NVIDIA's next-gen Volta GPUs teased, 3 high-end models

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Aug 13, 2016 11:34 AM CDT

NVIDIA has been absolutely dominating the high-end graphics card market for a while now, and even more so with the release of the Pascal architecture and the GeForce GTX 1080, GTX 1070 - and then the monster that is the new Titan X.

Well, according to the latest rumors from Baidu user USH Ishimura, NVIDIA's next generation Volta architecture is going to be an absolute powerhouse. The user said that the successor to the GP104 (which is the GPU that powers the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070) will offer "really strong" performance.

The rumor continues, adding that there will be three high-end gaming graphics cards unveiled with the next-gen Volta architecture. Right now under the Pascal architecture, we have the GP102 which powers the Titan X, GP104 which powers the GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, while the GP106 powers the mid-range GTX 1060.

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Google's mysterious Fuchsia OS runs on everything

Anthony Garreffa | Software & Apps | Aug 13, 2016 10:16 AM CDT

Android might be installed on over 1 billion devices, but that doesn't mean Google isn't working on other operating systems - like the new, mysterious OS called "Fuchsia".

Fuchsia, according to Google's own description simply means "Pink + Purple == Fuchsia (a new Operating System). There's nothing more than that, but Android Police reports that the Magenta kernel is based on the 'LittleKernel' project, and just like Linux and Android, the Magenta kernel is what powers the larger Fuchsia operating system.

Android Police says that Magenta is "being designed as a competitor to commercial embedded OSes, such as FreeRTOS or ThreadX." Magenta is designed to scale better, which will see it work on embedded devices, smartphones, and even desktop PCs. In order for this to happen, Magenta improves on the foundations of LittleKernel by adding first class user-mode support, as well as a capability-based security model.

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Five minutes of new Titanfall 2 singleplayer gameplay

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Aug 13, 2016 7:14 AM CDT

A fresh Titanfall 2 gameplay trailer has dropped, and it's pretty smooth, suave, and clicks all the right FPS buttons.

Five minutes of new Titanfall 2 singleplayer gameplay

Respawn has promised that Titanfall 2's singleplayer campaign will be "grounded, dirty and human," but this bit of footage shows us some good old-fashioned fun. Players get some nifty tools like active camo to confuse foes, and employ the parkour wall-running skills in tandem with the new grappling hook for some ultra-slick locomotion. The actual gameplay is buttery smooth in 60FPS, matching perfectly with the rythmic player movements and satisfying gunplay.

We also get a glimpse at some campaign guns like a powerful high-tech sniper rifle that can shoot two bullets a time, a lightning gun that apparently manipulates nearby electronics like door locks etc in the tech-filled environments, mines that make you invisible, and neat little drones that act like walking grenades to destabilize your enemies.

Continue reading: Five minutes of new Titanfall 2 singleplayer gameplay (full post)

Quantum Break developer Remedy has a new CEO

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Aug 12, 2016 5:31 PM CDT

Remedy Entertainment has announced it has a new CEO, Tero Virtala, who was the CEO of Trials developer RedLynx.

Virtala replaces Remedy co-founder Markus Mäki, who took the role of CEO during the final year of development on Quantum Break - which turned out to be a complete mess, and is now headed to Steam. Remedy says Mäki will return to overseeing studio productions, reports Polygon.

In a statement from Remedy Entertainment called "New Remedy boss unlocked", Virtala talks about Remedy, where he said: "At the core of Remedy are truly talented and passionate people, and their proven ability to create unique, world-class gaming experiences. As the company moves towards multiple simultaneous game projects, it will offer more opportunities for the gamers, our people, partners and us as a company".

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Intel acquires AI startup Nervana, competes with NVIDIA

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Aug 12, 2016 3:28 PM CDT

Intel is now set to compete against NVIDIA in the deep learning and AI arena, acquiring AI startup Nervana. Nervana specializes in processor-based "deep learning as a service" through technology like its upcoming Nervana Engine, a dedicated AI hardware accelerator due out in early 2017.

Intel wants to utilize Nervana's expertise to help its AI performance on its Xeon and Xeon Phi processors, as it sees AI as a big future for the company. NVIDIA is already knee deep in deep learning, with self-driving cars, AI, and more.

NVIDIA could face serious competition in the deep learning and AI space if Nervana can help Intel tune its processors for machine learning tasks. Whatever happens, it's an exciting time to be alive! To my future Skynet overlords: please make Half-Life 3 a reality with your AI brains.

Continue reading: Intel acquires AI startup Nervana, competes with NVIDIA (full post)

No Man's Sky has major performance issues on PC

Sean Ridgeley | Gaming | Aug 12, 2016 2:24 PM CDT

PC port connoisseur Total Biscuit has gone off on a bit of a Twitter tirade, criticizing the fresh PC release of No Man's Sky for some serious performance issues. He cites major hitching and framerate drops, which he says are echoed by other Twitch streamers and Steam forum goers.

Given the issues, it's not hard to see why the game was delayed three days on our favourite platform.

While the company doesn't specifically cite performance in a Steam thread addressing user complaints, it does say it's hired a QA team today that's bigger than the developer itself. The purpose of the added bodies, they say, is to respond to the problems cropping up that are in part due to the higher than anticipated player numbers. Presumably, this will mean a better gameplay experience performance-wise, although when is tough to estimate.

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Quake Champions is not running on id Tech 6 engine

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Aug 12, 2016 1:30 PM CDT

Quake Champions is sitting right up in the top 5 games I want, and with everything I hear, I want it more. DOOM and Quake Champions game director Marty Stratton has detailed Quake Champions a little more, teasing that it will not be running on the id Tech 6 engine.

Stratton told Finder during an interview: "We had such success with Vulkan and Doom that Robert Duffy, our chief technology officer, was like, "alright guys, this worked out well for us. So we need to do it [with Quake]." But we still have to look at it, because Quake Champions' technology is part id tech, but also part Saber tech. It is not on Id Tech 6 [game engine]. If it was, it would be all good with Vulkan and we would be happy".

Tim Willits, Creative Director on Quake Champions, said that id Software is crafting the game to run fast on a variety of PCs. Willits said: "Because we had such success with pairing Vulkan and Doom, it is definitely something we are looking at, but I can't confirm it at this point. Hopefully you will not have to upgrade your machine too much, but we're all about speed with Quake Champions".

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Windows 7, 8.1 will support Skylake after all

Sean Ridgeley | CPU, APU & Chipsets | Aug 12, 2016 12:52 PM CDT

Originally planned to be exclusively supported by Windows 10, Microsoft has reverted its policy and decided Skylake will be supported by Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 as well.

"Enterprise customers are moving to Windows 10 faster than any version of Windows. At the same time, we recognize that, in some instances, customers have a few systems that require longer deployment timeframes," explains Shad Larsen, Director of Windows Business Planning. "We listened to this feedback and today are sharing an update to our 6th Gen Intel Core (Skylake) support policy. We have extended the support period from July 17, 2018 to the end of support dates for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1; and we will provide all applicable security updates."

The change means Windows 7 support until 2020 and 8.1 until 2023. It does not apply to Kaby Lake and future Intel processors which will not be supported by Windows versions older than Windows 10.

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Quantum Break on Windows 10 won't receive another patch

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Aug 12, 2016 11:32 AM CDT

Quantum Break is coming to Steam, but what does that mean for the Windows 10 version of the game that is sold through the Windows Store?

According to Remedy's Head of Communications, Thomas Puha, Quantum Break will be stuck in time on the UWP version of the game. In a reply tweet to someone who said: "unless you consider a stuttering, constant-hitching, barely 30 always sub 60, lowest settings on a 780 "improvement", Puha said: "sorry to hear you are having problems. Its unlikely we release another Win10 patch".

This means Remedy will put its soul into the Win32 version of Quantum Break, meaning we won't see DX11 for the Windows 10 version of the game. But, it means the Steam version of Quantum Break could be better, with Puha tweeting: "We have worked on this release for a while. We got a lot more experience in shipping DX11 titles".

Continue reading: Quantum Break on Windows 10 won't receive another patch (full post)