Recorded just before they headed off to Taipei for the tech oasis that is Computex 2024, this week's episode of the TT Show sees Jak and Kosta discuss the latest news in gaming, tech, and science. Kicking off with Jak's impressions of Hellblade 2 (which he calls the best-looking game he's ever seen), the duo digs into Valve's next game - Deadlock.

Although it hasn't been officially announced, the next major release from the company behind Half-Life, Portal, Left 4 Dead, and Steam is significant news - even in leaked screenshot form. The game is described as a mix between the hero shooting of Overwatch and the MOBA lane-based gameplay of DOTA 2.

In the world of GPUs, AMD Anti-Lag 2 sees Team Red's latency reduction tech finally return after it was controversially disabled last year. This time, the tech requires game-specific integration, debuting in Counter-Strike 2 in Technical Preview form. In other Radeon news, FSR 3 Frame Generation makes its PS5 and Xbox Series X, bringing triple-digit performance to consoles.

Upgrading your computer can be an excellent way to enhance its performance and take full advantage of new features and improved security. For PC users looking to upgrade their operating system, Windows 11 Pro offers several benefits that can significantly elevate productivity and security. GoDeal24 is running a Mid-Year Big Sale where you can get the latest Windows OS at an attractive price. You can get Windows 11 Professional on sale for only $13.25 (reg. $199) from today.

Windows 11 Pro was upgraded with the hybrid working world in mind. It has new productivity, AI, and security features to help you do your best work. If you're an avid gamer, you'll appreciate DirectX 12 Ultimate, which improves the graphics of games to allow for a more immersive experience and 3D spatial sound, which makes the audio in whatever you're playing sound more realistic. Upgrading to Windows 11 Pro also means your system will continue to get future updates and features from MS, which Windows 10 won't get.

You can also snag a lifetime Microsoft Office Professional 2021 license for only $27.25 (reg. $299). That means you can create, organize, calculate, communicate, and more, all from this evergreen suite of apps for life, with no monthly subscription fees as you'd have with Microsoft 365. MS Office 2019 Professional is also at the lowest price this year - only $19.99 for lifetime use, which is great for those on a low budget. With your purchase, you'll get instant download and delivery of this suite on one PC, and lifetime updates are included.

Apple isn't necessarily known for making products that are great at gaming, but with the rise of the company's own in-house chips that dream is becoming more of a reality.

At WWDC Apple showed its intentions to drive deeper into the gaming market, especially considering the popularity of the App Store and all of the games it offers. However, Apple isn't just looking at mobile, as the company explained it wants to expand the possibilities of its Mac product line to gamers that want to experience full AAA titles.

Apple stated during its keynote that its MacOS named Sequoia was going to usher in some considerable upgrades for gamers, such as the inclusion of Personalized Spatial Audio, which will arrive for games that support Game Mode. Additionally, this new audio feature will be launching on iPhone. According to Apple, Personalized Spatial Audio "significantly reduces audio latency with AirPods Pro (2nd generation).

The astronauts who were part of the first all-civilian space mission to orbit have been studied by scientists, and across three studies, it was found that they've become younger.

SpaceX was behind the Inspiration4 mission that was conducted in 2021, where four civilian astronauts were transported to orbit via a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. The team of four only spent a few days in space and, upon return, committed their bodies to science, intending to understand how the environment in space affects human physiology. Now, three studies have been conducted, and it was found that astronauts got genetically younger during their stay in space, but the effects were only shortlived.

Scientists looked at the astronauts' DNA and found aging markers called telomeres, which are caps that protect chromosomes known to shorten with age after being exposed to certain environmental factors and stress. However, during the time spent in space, the astronauts' telomeres elongated, indicating the aging of DNA decreased. Researchers believe the telomeres getting longer is a response to the higher radiation environment in space.

According to NVIDIA and its CEO Jensen Huang, the AI PC era began with GeForce RTX and the 20 Series of desktop GPUs in 2018. For PC gamers, this meant using AI to make real-time ray-tracing a possibility with the arrival of RTX hardware and AI Tensor Cores. DLSS, or Deep Learning Super Sampling, is the not-so-secret ingredient.

Fast-forward to 2024, and AI-powered DLSS upscaling and DLSS 3 Frame Generation (which uses AI to generate entire frames) have pushed PC gaming performance to new heights across a wide range of hardware. With games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Alan Wake 2, we're now at a point where full Path Traced lighting is a reality.

At Computex 2024, we saw two examples of how NVIDIA plans to empower game developers with new AI technologies. NVIDIA ACE helps create digital humans with whom you can interact. Project G-Assist uses AI and a general model trained by NVIDIA to provide in-game assistance, gameplay guidance, and even performance optimization, all through natural dialogue or text inputs.

The US government is considering further restrictions on China's access to chip technology required for AI, aiming at new hardware that's hitting the market: GAA (Gate-All-Around) technology and HBM, two key parts of AI chips.

China would have its access to Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistor technology blocked, which is used to manufacture bleeding-edge chips, as well as access to High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), which comes in many forms: HBM3 has been powering NVIDIA's current-gen Hopper H100, while ultra-fast HBM3E is inside Blackwell B200, and HBM4 is coming shortly.

GAA nanosheet technology improves density while providing power and performance improvements, but it's only used on the most cutting-edge process nodes. Samsung has been using GAA technology with its 3nm node, Intel will use GAA in its upcoming Intel 20A node, and TSMC will use GAA with its upcoming A16 process node.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard (formerly known as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf) is the long-awaited next entry in the fantasy RPG series from BioWare, and after a tasty reveal trailer during the recent Xbox Games Showcase, we now have close to 20 minutes of gameplay to chew through ahead of the game's 'Fall 2024' release for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

BioWare has been working on this for several years now, and even though what we see in the extended gameplay video is from the game's introduction, it all looks polished, promising, and authentic to the series (if a little cartoony). Like the original Dragon Age: Origins, you can choose your race (Human, Elf, Dwarf, Qunari), faction, and history (Grey Wardens!), which will play into relationships, conversations, and quests.

In the video, we see a familiar face in the form of Varric and the villain of the game - Solas, a pivotal character from Dragon Age: Inquisition. For fans of the series, there's some additional good news: you can import certain choices and decisions from Inquisition that will impact how the story begins.

Apple has recently held its WWDC event, where it unveiled what will be included in the highly anticipated iOS 18 update, and its contents have really bothered Elon Musk.

iOS 18 includes Apple's official jump into the artificial intelligence-powered race with what it's calling Apple Intelligence. The company showcased a slew of new AI-powered features without actually saying the word "AI" and also announced that ChatGPT will be integrated into iOS 18 for image generation and writing assistance. Apple made it clear users can opt out of Siri requests being sent to ChatGPT, and users are free to turn off any Intelligence features.

Despite these disclaimers, Musk took to his personal X account to deem Apple Intelligence's integration with OpenAI a "security risk," going as far as to say that user data will be sent to OpenAI, which isn't entirely the case. Apple says that for tasks that require more compute than what is available on-device, Apple will either use Private Cloud Compute, which is open to verify for privacy, or OpenAI, but will request additional confirmation by the user.

Although Microsoft Gaming chief Phil Spencer didn't outright come out and confirm that he and the Xbox team were developing an Xbox Gaming Handheld, he outlined what to expect from a potential portable Xbox device. One that we have to assume is in development.

"The future for us in hardware is pretty awesome," Spencer told IGN during a live interview following the company's big Xbox Game Showcase. "The work that the team is doing around different form factors, different ways to play, I'm incredibly excited about. Today was about the games, but we will have a time to come out and talk more about platform, and we can't wait to bring it to you."

When grilled for more information on what an Xbox "different form factor" handheld might look like, Phil Spencer stated that "being able to play games locally is really important," which means it will be more like the Steam Deck or ROG Ally than Sony's network-based PlayStation Portal.

Intel is reportedly halting plans on a new chipmaking facility in Israel, that would've come at a cost of $25 billion.

The news is coming from Israeli financial news website Calcalist, with Intel neither confirming or denying the news. Intel was asked about the report into its facility in Israel, with an Intel spokesperson saying in a statement: "Israel continues to be one of our key global manufacturing and R&D sites and we remain fully committed to the region.

"Managing large-scale projects, especially in our industry, often involves adapting to changing timelines. Our decisions are based on business conditions, market dynamics and responsible capital management".

Looking at all of the new cases at Computex this year was like visiting an aquarium, thanks to seemingly every case maker adopting the 'fishbowl' design. The new HAVN HS 420, available in black and white and with an optional VGPU kit, falls into this category - however, the new case maker's first chassis is impressive.

First up, the wraparound glass panel and panoramic view are presented via a single piece of custom glass called Unisheet Heatformed Glass, with a curved bend. It's seamless with minimal distortion and no visible seam and blends perfectly with the open design that includes fan intake on the bottom of the case with vents pulling in cold air.

With 541 x 260 x 547mm dimensions, it's not SFF; there is ample room for larger GPUs, radiators, and fans to show off your build or even add a display. HAVN is a new company built by a team with several years of experience designing cases for Fractal, NZXT, Wistron, and Corning.

NVIDIA has a fleet of next-gen Blackwell-based GeForce RTX 50 Laptop GPUs on the way, with new leaks suggesting we'll see 6 different variants, codenamed GN22.

The new leaks are coming from a hacking group that is interested in Clevo laptops, leaking out 6 x RTX 50 Laptop GPU variants codenamed X11, X9, X7, X6, X4, and X2: from fastest, to slowest. The two boards are being designed by Clevo as "GN22 Board 1" and "GN22 Board 2" which will house 3 individual SKUs of RTX 50 Laptop GPU.

According to the leaks, we can expect "GN22-X11" with 16GB of GDDR7 memory and "GN22-X9" also featuring 16GB of GDDR7 memory, while "GN22-X7" will sport 12GB of GDDR7 memory. Each of these RTX 50 series Laptop GPUs will be made onto Clevo's upcoming "GN22 Board 1".