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As far as premium controllers go, the new SteelSeries Aeon Pro is certainly up there in terms of features, design, and innovation. On the latter, the SteelSeries Aeon Pro borrows a page from its premium audio solutions, like the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Omni wireless headset we recently reviewed, with its black-and-white OLED display, dock, and QuickSwitch System.

Connecting your PC and Xbox console to the dock lets you seamlessly switch between both gaming devices directly from the controller, with the integrated display making the process intuitive. And with the SteelSeries Aeon Pro's hot-swappable battery design, with two batteries included so one is always ready to go on the dock, you'll basically never run out of wireless juice while gaming.

As for the controller, SteelSeries calls it a "luxury" design, and it ticks the right boxes for a premium, pro-grade controller. It features Hall Effect thumbsticks with contactless sensors and replaceable caps for convex, concave, or standard grips. The triggers are customizable; it's got programmable back buttons, and each button uses a mechanical switch for snappy response and reliability.

Super Smash Bros. Melee for the Nintendo GameCube is one of the most seminal fighting games ever released. Created by Masahiro Sakurai, the Nintendo mascot and character brawler began on the Nintendo 64 and was last seen on the original Switch with the acclaimed Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. However, it's the GameCube's Melee that turned the series into a fighting and competitive gaming staple.

In fact, Melee is the reason why Nintendo and third parties still create GameCube controllers. For Smash Bros. fans, Melee's blend of accessible gameplay and deep mechanics has made it a go-to game that's still played today. So yeah, the idea that Super Smash Bros. Melee for the Nintendo GameCube is on track to get an unofficial PC port is pretty big news.

Although there's no timeline for when it's set to arrive, it's now on the cards because a complex six-year Super Smash Bros Melee decompilation project has finally been completed. With Super Smash Bros Melee decompiled, its code can now be converted to C to create a faithful, native PC port of the original.

Razer has announced and launched one of its most affordable and customizable mechanical gaming keyboards to date with the new Razer Reclusa X Mini 65%. Priced at $49.99 USD, it's the first keyboard in a new Reclusa lineup focused on customization, performance, and aesthetics.

The tri-tone design helps it stand out from other Razer keyboards, alongside the customization on offer. The Razer Reclusa X Mini 65% features a hot-swappable PCB compatible with 3-pin and 5-pin mechanical switches. Although it comes pre-installed with Razer Orange Tactile Mechanical Switches Gen-3, the hot-swappable design and touches like south-facing LEDs make it compatible with a wide range of switches and keycaps.

Although it sits on the affordable side for a mechanical gaming keyboard from Razer, the Razer Reclusa X Mini 65% is still tailor-made for enthusiasts. Construction-wise, it features two silicone damping layers to enhance acoustics and stability, while still supporting gaming-first features like Razer Snap Tap, Snap Flex, and Dual-Keypress Priority - stuff that you normally find on gaming keyboards with magnetic switches.

The new SRhonyra RTX 3060 Low Profile Graphics Card, available on Newegg for $495.59 USD, is a GeForce RTX 3060 12GB graphics card that isn't really built for PC gaming. It's a low-profile, single-slot design that differs from most RTX 3060 GPUs on the market, mainly because it doesn't feature a PCIe power connector. The 70-watt TDP makes this a bus-powered RTX 3060, a considerable reduction from the 170W of every other GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card.

Naturally, this makes it more of an entry-level GPU for running local LLMs, even though the product description mentions ray-tracing and DLSS for PC gaming. This custom bus-powered GeForce RTX 3060 12GB GPU design looks similar to one recently spotted on the Chinese social media platform Bilibili. There, we learned that the 70-75W power limit required a shunt mod to fool the GPU into accepting the lower power draw.

As for performance, with that model's GPU clock speeds barely crossing 900MHz, the card's 3DMark Time Spy score failed to match the GeForce GTX 1060. According to the SRhonyra RTX 3060's specs, its Boost Clock speed is listed at 1320MHz, still substantially below the 1777MHz reference spec; however, with 100W less to work with, gaming performance will undoubtedly suffer.

Nintendo finally showcased gameplay and an extended trailer for its The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake for the Nintendo Switch 2, which is out on November 5, 2026. With some gameplay changes, including a jump button for Link, the big thing is the visual overhaul, which delivers a far more cinematic and detailed presentation than the Nintendo 64 original from 1998.

With almost 30 years of technical advances, that's expected, with Nintendo opting to give the game a vibrant aesthetic with stylized characters and impressive cinematic lighting. Running on the Nintendo Switch 2 hardware, it's technically impressive, which made me wonder what the game might look like with a DLSS 5 pass using the Cinematic model preset to enhance the lighting.

Thanks to the recent release of Neural Screen, I was able to do just that: record the Ocarina of Time remake gameplay trailer with DLSS 5 enabled. Of course, with YouTube compression, even in 4K, DLSS 5 struggles to enhance background objects and some low-quality assets. However, it's still transformative - especially when it comes to character detail. Check it out.

Xbox didn't get tips from former PlayStation exec Shawn Layden on how to better run the business.

Two months after Asha Sharma took over as CEO of Xbox, she had an interesting exchange with ex-PlayStation boss Shawn Layden on LinkedIn. At the time, Layden had criticized Xbox's strategies, and Sharma had replied that she'd "love to chat." Now Layden confirms that nothing ever came from that comment, and that he never actually interacted with Sharma.

"For the record, I have not spoken or communicated with Asha over at Xbox," Layden said in a recent interview with KiwiTalkz for Insider Gaming.

Ocarina of Time's digital version is $10 cheaper than the physical version, eShop listings confirm.

Nintendo's trend of selling digital games cheaper than physical versions continues with the highly anticipated Ocarina of Time remake. The game is due out November 5 exclusively on the Switch 2, and is currently up for pre-order with the digital version at $60, and the physical cartridge option at $70.

The extra $10 is reflected in the value Nintendo offers with the physical version; the Ocarina of Time remake is a first-party game, so it will ship fully on cart without extra downloads needed (it helps that OoTR is only 27GB in size). Nintendo is also offering a special edition physical version with textured foil cover art. It's a limited run, though, and there's no option to directly pre-order that version, so it seems to be a case of first come, first served.

NVIDIA is reportedly preparing a new version of the RTX 5070 using the company's larger GB203 Blackwell die used in the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5080. According to leaker Hongxing2020 on X (spotted by VideoCardz), the new model will reportedly be supported and announced by NVIDIA through a new driver coming out today.

This is the second NVIDIA RTX 50 series GPU released so far to have a second version with an alternative die. The first 50 series GPU model to get an alternative version with a larger Blackwell die was the RTX 5060. The RTX 5060 initially came with just the GB205 die, but now also comes with the GB203 die. At least two AIB partners, ASUS and MSI, have RTX 5060 models sporting the GB205 die.

NVIDIA has been using this practice to recycle defective dies that don't have enough working components to work for their targeted GPU models, but still have enough working components for lower-end GPUs. There are no performance differences (usually) between two versions of the same GPU with different dies, other than potential differences in thermals. However, one exception was with the RTX 2060, where RTX 2060 versions with a TU104 die featured nearly 50% greater performance in Blender compared to a regular RTX 2060 with TU106 (gaming performance did not change).

The new Ocarina of Time remake launches on November 5, 2026 on the Nintendo Switch 2 with a bunch of extra features and content.

Nintendo today revealed new details about the upcoming Ocarina of Time remake on Switch 2, confirming massive graphical upgrades and enhanced gameplay features. With all the extras that Nintendo has added, including contextual jump points and item quick-swap, the company deliberately kept the loading screens in the game to preserve the nostalgic feel.

One of the biggest additions is Switch 2 microphone support. Gamers can hum the tune of one of the game's melodies into their microphone and it'll actually play in the game.

If you follow and engage in the console emulation scene, you're probably aware that the Sony PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 is one of the most impressive out there. It opens the door to smooth, accurate emulation of PS3 games across a wide range of platforms and hardware. RPCS3's latest update is a notable one because it takes aim at Sony's recent and controversial decision to end disc production and move toward a digital-only future for PlayStation.

Yes, per the headline, RPCS3 now lets you play PlayStation 3 games directly from a Blu-ray disc drive, with support for internal and external drives, Windows, Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD. "Owning your games as physical media allows you to play games released as far back as 20 years ago without relying on any servers," RPCS3's social media post on the announcement reads.

It's unclear if this new feature for the popular emulator was in development before Sony's 'no more discs' announcement, but it's a clear move to position RPCS3 as an emulator built for game preservation. Although PCs and laptops with Blu-ray drives are something of a rarity in 2026, you can still get external drives, with multiple models available on Amazon.

As we saw in our review of DLSS 5's official debut in NBA 2K27, enabling NVIDIA's new 3D-Guided Neural Rendering technology comes with a huge performance cost. At 4K on a GeForce RTX 5080 or RTX 5090, enabling it can drop FPS by 60% to deliver photorealistic lighting.

Beyond being DLSS's heaviest and most complex model to run in real time, one reason the cost is so high is that DLSS 5 Neural Rendering runs at the final stage of the rendering pipeline. This means that when it runs after DLSS Super Resolution, which upscales from 1080p when using the Performance preset in 4K, the Neural Rendering pass is run in 4K on the final rendered frame.

As DLSS 5 Neural Rendering is still in its infancy, NVIDIA has confirmed it's still optimizing performance on RTX 50 Series graphics cards before officially opening access to the RTX 40 Series and older generations. That said, with DLSS 5 leaking ahead of its launch and modders letting games run DLSS 5 in just about any game and on any GPU, they've also found a way to boost performance.

If you've been keeping up with news from the world of PC gaming and graphics technologies, then you've probably seen a story or two about DLSS 5. Although NVIDIA's groundbreaking Neural Rendering tech is only officially available in a single title, NBA 2K27, with the .dll leaking ahead of its launch, modders have been hard at work expanding DLSS 5's reach to just about any game.

With a tool like DLSS Swapper, adding DLSS 5 support to critically acclaimed, visually impressive games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 is as easy as pressing a single button. Modders have unlocked DLSS 5 support for older GeForce RTX 20, 30, and 40 Series GPUs, AMD's RDNA 4 line-up, and popular emulators, so DLSS 5 can even be applied to original PlayStation games from the 1990s.

Although all of the above is unofficial and an unintended use of DLSS 5 when enabled in a game like NBA 2K27, it's wild that in a few short weeks DLSS 5 went from a controversial "AI filter" to something genuinely fascinating and impressive. And now, with the NeuralScreen app from perseval_BLR on GitHub, you can actually enable DLSS 5 on your Windows 11 desktop.

With the Steam Hardware and Software Survey results for August 2026 here, when it comes to discrete gaming GPUs, NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5070 has become the second most popular card among PC gamers. Sitting behind the GeForce RTX 3060, the mid-range GPU is now more popular than the GeForce RTX 4060, making it the undisputed winner of the current generation.

That said, AMD's RDNA 4 generation is proving to be a success, as the flagship Radeon RX 9070 XT is now the most popular discrete AMD Radeon graphics card on the Steam Hardware and Software Survey. This is a milestone because the mainstream RDNA 2-era Radeon RX 6600 has been the top AMD GPU on Steam for a while, while RDNA 3-era cards have failed to gain real traction.

In terms of market share, the Radeon RX 9070 XT might sit below its direct competitor, the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti; it's slowly but surely moving up the ranks. In fact, as long as people are still able to purchase GPUs like the Radeon RX 9070 XT in the 'current memory' crisis climate, the Radeon RX 9070 XT could become AMD's most popular discrete PC gaming GPU in several generations by the end of the year.

Microsoft has announced Project Zenith, which is a stripped-down version of Windows 11 for AI developers. It's built for devices with at least 64GB of unified memory and 250+ GB/s memory bandwidth, with the goal, as Microsoft puts it, of delivering a "ready-to-code distraction-free Windows experience" on "developer-class" devices.

With that, AMD confirms that its Ryzen AI Halo systems (aka AMD's answer to NVIDIA's DGX Spark mini PC) will be the first to support Project Zenith out of the box, with this customized, developer-focused version of Windows pre-installed with Visual Studio Code, WSL, GitHub Copilot CLI, Python 3.14+, WSL 2+ Ubuntu, PowerShell, and more to help streamline development, testing, and iteration. Microsoft confirms that more devices from its OEM partners will support Project Zenith in the coming months.

Even for enthusiasts who aren't AI developers, some of Project Zenith's out-of-the-box features and settings sound like an improvement over vanilla Windows 11. For example, by default, File Explorer in Project Zenith shows file extensions, hidden files, full paths in the title bar, and details. Also, Start menu tips and account notifications are turned off to "reduce distractions."

At IFA 2026, Lenovo showcased a wide range of new products, but its Project AeroBlade Concept could be a game-changing breakthrough in ultra-thin, portable laptop design. It all comes down to its custom Active Flow thermal solution, developed in partnership with Frore Systems.

And sure, calling it 'Active Flow' sounds like one of the many names companies give their laptop cooling systems, but here it's more than a catchy tagline. And that's because it's the world's first ultra-thin laptop that replaces traditional fan-based cooling with solid-state active cooling. It uses Frore Systems' AirJet cooling, which replaces fans with a module that has no moving parts. Instead, it uses "ultrasonic membranes" to generate airflow.

The result for the Lenovo Project AeroBlade 14-inch design is a laptop that measures under 10mm thick and weighs under 830 grams. It manages this impressive ultra-thin form factor without sacrificing the performance you expect from a premium ultra-thin laptop. It's not the first fanless design, but it is the first for a performance-focused laptop.

Sony's decision to end game disc production for new games after January 2028 is expected to boost gaming operating profit by multiple percentage points, offering tangible growth for the PlayStation business.

From day one, PlayStation has always had discs. These were much easier and less expensive to produce in the early CD-ROM era due to the prevalence and demand for optical disc readers. That high demand doesn't exist today, and worse, companies like Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft are all facing major shortages for console parts, leading to 5x to 7x cost increases. Sony has now decided to stop producing discs to squeeze out more profit from PlayStation, but also to create a new growth point for the business at a dire time when costs are eating into everything.

Analysts are quantifying how much money that Sony could actually recognize from the disc phase-out. According to a new report from Nikkei Asia, analysts like Goldman Sachs' Minami Munakata tell investors that discontinuing discs could increase Sony's Game & Network Services operating margin by 3% in FY28. For comparison, G&NS had a 9.9% operating profit margin over the last yearly period, FY25.

SEGA president Shuji Utsumi explains the company's thinking around its Super Game strategy, and reveals why the plan was cancelled.

Years ago, SEGA revealed plans to create what they called a Super Game. The idea was confusing even back then, but the gist of it was centered around a live game that would continue belting out paid content to millions of players across an array of devices. SEGA's wildly popular Phantasy Star Online 2 would be the inspiration for a Super Game. SEGA actually wanted to have multiple Super Games out by 2030.

Over the years, and across multiple SEGA reports, I noticed that the Super Game plan simply didn't ever coalesce. SEGA became more vague on what it was actually referring to, and without a proof-of-concept ideation, the Super Game concept became more intangible before it fizzled out entirely. So what exactly is a Super Game? What was SEGA trying to do? Company president Shuji Utsumi reveals new details in an interview with Nikkei Gaming.

Square Enix could turn Final Fantasy 7 into a sub-franchise with different games, content, and possibly even transmedia.

It sounds like Final Fantasy 7 could be expanding with new games that sit outside the traditional trilogy. At a recent PAX West panel, Square Enix's Naoki Hamaguchi hosted a 54-minute presentation on the Final Fantasy 7 remake project, talking about all three chapters and their influences. One of the slides in the presentation deck explicitly mentions turning Final Fantasy 7 into an "IP with an ever-evolving future."

Specifics are unclear on what this means exactly, and Hamaguchi didn't really discuss this at length, but it's possible that Square Enix may be trying to channel its own plans for Final Fantasy 15 with this new endeavor. Years ago, the publisher established the Final Fantasy 15 Universe, which set FF15 at the heart of a solar system of games, content, and transmedia. The FF15 Universe included the base game, spin-off titles on mobile, an online-based PVE survival game, DLC/expansions, and even films.

Windows 11 looks to be getting a useful new addition to the widget panel that'll help you keep an eye on the battery life of your devices.

Zac Bowden of Windows Central spotted that there are references to a battery widget in the latest preview builds of Windows 11 - as flagged on Discord - although this functionality isn't actually live in testing yet.

We can see how the widget will work, though, and it will display the battery life of the host device if it's a laptop (of course), as well as the battery levels of any connected peripherals such as Bluetooth keyboards or headphones.

Polish dev team Rebel Wolves channel Geralt's ghost to achieve platinum sales on a brand new game set in a fresh, vampire-slaying IP.

New action RPG Blood of Dawnwalker has proven to be a big success, achieving platinum sales in just two days. That's no easy feat for an unproven new IP, and the team at Rebel Wolves were able to contrast Witcher influences with innovative and surprising game mechanics, like how hunger works in the dialog system.

The head of Rebel Wolves, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, commented on Blood of Dawnwalker hitting 1 million+ sales in 2 days. The milestone also makes the new bloodthirsty RPG one of the fastest-selling games of 2026, mirroring the sales momentum of games like How to Fish, as well as Capcom releases Pragmata and Onimusha: Way of the Sword.