Latest Technology Content

In wake of Steam's Review system being abused by gamers due to Dota 2 being blamed for killing Half Life 3 and gamers supporting PewDiePie regarding Campo Santo's DMCA, Valve have made some changes in how Steam's game reviews work. Valve hope to prevent incidences like the two mentioned don't reoccur as those reviews don't provide a true reflection of the experience with the game.

Valve have immediately introduced a new feature called Histograms, a feature that shows a histogram of the positive to negative reviews since the game was released on a daily basis. This data reflects dramatic increases in positive or negative reviews from a certain period, indicating a time where possible outside influences (eg. No Half Life 3 or Campo Santo's DMCA) have affected reviews. You can isolate days to read particular reviews for the day, or days of your interest.

i-rocks has released their sleek, gaming orientated RGB mechanical keyboard, the K60M PLUS. Featuring dual-layer PCB and genuine Cherry MX switches, the K60M PLUS is the perfect example of engineering for reliable performance.

The K60M PLUS has implemented a thick, high-quality aluminum chassis that is covered by layers of durable protective finish to prevent corrosion. For those long gaming marathon and for extreme typists, the K60M PLUS features a wrist-rest protector as a standard accessory to prove that ergonomics is as critical as performance.

New heroes always add a new element to a game, too many new heroes too quickly can generally lead to balancing issues that can break a game. During a video withIGN's new Expert Mode, Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan discussed Overwatch's next hero, referred to only as "Hero 26".

"Hero 26 is very playable and very fun internally, and that's all I'll say. It's not coming out as soon as you think, but Hero 26 is already amazing." Kaplan then further elaborated "I don't think there's such a thing as too many heroes, but I think we also need to come out with heroes at a good pace."

Cross-platform between PlayStation 4 and Xbox One sounds like a complex dream, or perhaps it's as simple as setting a few parameters?

It was reported and later confirmed by an Epic Games representative, that cross-platform play between PlayStation 4 and Xbox One for Epic's Fortnite was enabled over the weekend due to a configuration issue.

"We had a configuration issue and it has now been corrected" the spokesperson said.

Thermaltake have revealed their latest micro-ATX case, the Versa H18 Window Micro case. This traditional style case features a wide body with a front bezel that is dominated by a mesh grill, while the side-panel features a clear-acrylic window in favor of the more common, and expensive tempered glass.

The front panel includes plenty of functionality with a USB 3.0 type-A port, two USB 2.0/1.1 ports, and HDA jacks. The Versa H18 Window Micro supports either three 120mm or two 140mm fans along the front, with either a 120/140mm on the top, and a 120mm rear exhaust fan. As for liquid cooling, there is enough room to mount a 240/280mm radiator at the front.

Weighing in at 4.5kg, this micro-ATX case is made from SECC steel and features a horizontal dual-compartment design that allows the PSU and 3.5" drives to be housed separately. With support for up to 350mm length graphics card, the Versa H18 Window Micro case presents extremely good value at $50.

GIGABYTE's upcoming X399 Designare EX motherboard is on the way, with it being the new flagship motherboard that will be perfect for AMD's super-powered Ryzen Threadripper CPUs.

There's a slick as hell silver theme, with dual GbE ports, USB 3.1 Gen 2 (Type-C and Type-A) ports, 8 x DDR4 DIMMs, 4-way CrossFire and SLI support (awww YES), and 3 x M.2 slots. All of the PCIe slots on GIGABYTE's new X399 Designare EX motherboard are protected with metal shielding, while the M.2 slots have heat sinks by GIGABYTE.

The blue LED that GIGABYTE is using on the chipset cooler looks beyond awesome, as it works beautifully with the black and silver style on the X399 Designare EX motherboard. I want one so bad.

We're still just under two months away from the release of Need for Speed: Payback, with publisher EA and developer Ghost Games releasing the PC system requirements.

Need for Speed: Payback requires a Core i3 6300 or AMD FX 8150 processor as a minimum, coupled with a GeForce GTX 750 Ti or Radeon HD 7850, which will be good for 720p @ 30FPS with low settings. If you want 1080p 60FPS at high settings, you'll need a Core i5-4690K or AMD FX 8350 along with the Radeon RX 480 or GeForce GTX 1060.

NVIDIA is celebrating Need for Speed: Payback with a new 4K gameplay video, powered by a single GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. NVIDIA explains: "Check out our exclusive Need for Speed Payback Graveyard Shift PC gameplay in 4K running at 60 FPS, captured on a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti PC. Watch as Tyler heads to the airfield and takes on the street league Graveyard Shift, race down the runway, grab some serious air, and work his way up through Silver Canyon".

It looks like AMD might have scored a seriously large contract through electric car maker Tesla Motors, with the companies collaborating on a new AI accelerator for self-driving cars.

Jim Keller, the legendary engineer in AMD's ranks is reportedly involved in the deal, along with 50 engineers at Tesla. Keller has been involved with Apple's A4 and A5 processors, the original Athlon 64 processors, and AMD's latest Zen architecture.

AMD has reportedly already sent Tesla early samples of the new semi-custom chip, with testing already underway. For Tesla, this is the firs ttime they've opted for a purpose built AI processor, which will be using both AMD and Tesla IP.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has left effects throughout the entire gaming industry, and now Epic Games is getting into the Battle Royale style games with their own Fortnite title.

Fortnite: Battle Royale will be - if you haven't already guessed it, a Battle Royale gameplay mode for Fortnite. If you don't know about Fortnite, it's a cartoonish (think Team Fortress 2) style, building-focused, zombie game.

The new Fortnite: Battle Royale will be released on September 26 for PC, Xbox One, and PS4 - and it'll be free to play, too.

Google has just announced it has acquired HTC's mobile division in a deal worth $1.1 billion, which was expected after HTC announced it would briefly halt trading on the Taiwan stock exchange ahead of "material information" that was coming today.

Google hardware boss, Rich Osterloh, said about the deal: "These future fellow Googlers are amazing folks we've already been working with closely on the Pixel smartphone line, and we're excited to see what we can do together as one team. The deal also includes a non-exclusive license for HTC intellectual property".

HTC made both the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphone for Google last year, with the Taiwanese smartphone maker being a silent contractor. Google marketed the smartphones as if they were their own, without mentioning HTC. But this new deal means Google can better compete, very directly, against Samsung, Apple, LG, Huawei, and others that are industry heavyweights.

HTC has made the upcoming Pixel 2 smartphone, but the larger Pixel XL 2 was manufactured by LG.