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One of the suspects responsible for the recent hack on Rockstar Games' servers has been arrested by Netherlands police, and evidence also implicates the suspect in potential murder-for-hire charges.

A member of the ShinyHunters hacking collective has been arrested by Amsterdam police and is being held in custody, a press release from the National Police Corps confirms. Investigators also found evidence that allegedly connects the suspect to two orders for contract killings.

"On Tuesday, September 15, the police arrested a 24-year-old man from Amsterdam who is suspected of playing a role within the hacker group ShinyHunters. The man is also suspected of attempted incitement to commit two murders. Various data carriers have been seized and are being investigated further. Further arrests are not ruled out."

Good customer service stories are so rare in PC hardware these days that when one shows up, we can't just skip it. Double-South8863 posted to r/pcmasterrace on September 26, saying that one stick in his G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB 64GB DDR5-6000 kit died at the beginning of the month. He purchased the kit open-box on eBay back in May 2025 for $150. After confirming the fault across two different systems, he ran it on a single 32GB stick for a few days before finally sending the kit in for an RMA. Approximately two weeks later, G.Skill shipped him a full replacement.

Surprisingly, the same 64GB kit is currently listed on Amazon for $1,199. G.Skill's own warranty terms would've allowed the company to refund the original $150 purchase price instead, something that satisfies most warranty obligations, and I'll admit, if I were in G.Skill's shoes watching DDR5 prices skyrocket this year, a refund would've been the cheap way out.

Rather, they sent a working kit worth eight times the original price. "I will never buy any RAM other than G.Skill for as long as I live," Double-South wrote, meaning G.Skill got a lifelong customer.

Video game mods have given us everything from DLC-sized expansions to multiplayer support, but this might be something nobody saw coming. When we hear "merging video games," we usually picture Master Chief swapped in for Lara Croft or similar character model mods. Putting one entire game inside another wouldn't even cross our mind, but that's exactly what's happening here.

The latest example comes from mod creator Tobyn Jacobs, who showed Minecraft running inside the Elden Ring. The clips show Steve swinging a sword at Lands Between enemies while Minecraft's hotbar, hunger and armor bars sit on screen. Jacobs says all 1,600 items, working redstone and Creative Mode made the trip too, and he claims it runs on a Mac. There's no download link or release date yet.

It isn't just Minecraft and Elden Ring either. Others have been showing off similar projects over on X, including Escape from Tarkov mechanics in Skyrim, Minecraft movement in GTA V, Call of Duty: World at War Zombies mixed with Mario Kart, and Mario firing bullets at Master Chief. Weapons, movement, enemies and inventories from completely different worlds are being brought together, and almost any combination now looks possible.

Ubisoft has completed the formation of its Creative House 2 unit with an official name--Massive Entertainment.

French games publisher Ubisoft has revealed Massive Entertainment will be the new creative unit handling key Tom Clancy franchises. Games set in the Ghost Recon, The Division, and Splinter Cell universes will now be overseen by Massive as part of the company's restructuring plan; earlier this year, Ubisoft split its business into "creative houses," with each handling fiscal and creative responsibilities for specific IPs.

The Massive Entertainment umbrella also includes the creation of new original IP, as well as Ubisoft's recently-purchased March of Giants series. Four international groups will team up across North America, France, and Sweden to make new games and content. A big distinction is that Ubisoft will still publish and distribute games from Massive, which is to be expected--the two groups aren't separate and Ubisoft still owns Massive.

Monster Hunter Wilds launched with some pretty significant expectations but also with a rough performance record, with high-end PCs and consoles alike struggling to hit smooth frame rates. Things have improved considerably since then, but the question now is how Capcom plans to get a game that taxed premium hardware onto the Nintendo Switch 2.

In an interview with Kotaku, Capcom producer Genki Sunano offered some insight into how the team approached the challenge. And spoiler alert, it was a "painstakingly endless" process. "We didn't want it to feel like a simple port, where the graphics or performance had merely been scaled down to make the game run on Nintendo Switch 2," Sunano said. "Instead, our goal was to bring the Wilds experience to Nintendo Switch 2 without compromising the experience of Monster Hunter Wilds."

Delivering on that goal required rebuilding the game from the ground up in many different ways. Certain assets and shaders were rebuilt from scratch for the Switch 2 version, with the team designing more efficient implementations while preserving the original look as closely as possible. When visual-effect assets were modified, the team ensured the new versions still aligned with existing hitboxes and collision detection, keeping the gameplay feel intact.

AMD's next-gen Ryzen Z3 handheld chips have popped up in a new leak, and it looks like AMD may be swapping CPU cores for more graphics. Leaker Gotou_3rd on X says the Ryzen Z3 shares its IP with Zen 6-based Medusa Point, but in a semi-custom design.

The configuration is a 4+2 CPU layout (four standard cores and two low-power cores) paired with 12 RDNA 4m compute units. The leaker added that the core configuration may still change, so I'd treat that part with caution. The chips are also said to use a 25 x 25 mm FF6 package.

The standard Medusa Point has been linked to a 10-core layout with four Zen 6 cores, four Zen 6c cores, and two low-power cores, alongside 8 compute units. If the Z3 leak pans out, AMD would drop the four dense cores and spend that budget on a bigger GPU. RDNA 4m is described as a derivative of RDNA 3.5 that adds RDNA 4-class matrix hardware, which should give it native FSR 4 support.

NVIDIA has released a new security update for older GeForce graphics cards, bringing driver version 582.78 to GPUs based on the Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta architectures.

The driver is intended for systems that no longer receive NVIDIA's regular Game Ready drivers. As a security-only update, it doesn't include game optimizations, new features, or performance improvements.

The supported hardware spans a wide range of older desktop GPUs. Maxwell coverage includes the GTX 750, GTX 750 Ti, GTX 950, GTX 960, GTX 970, GTX 980, and GTX 980 Ti, while Pascal coverage runs from the GTX 1050 through the GTX 1080 Ti. The list also includes the GT 1010, GT 1030, TITAN Xp, and TITAN V, alongside numerous older notebook GPUs.

Sony's base PlayStation 5 is getting its own AI upscaling tech called Quick Spectral Super Resolution (QSSR), which is an offshoot of the PS5 Pro's PSSR.

The PS5 Pro pushes console gaming to the next level while also laying the groundwork for the PS6's new neural AI-assisted tech. Now Sony is bringing these advancements to the beginning of Gen 9 with QSSR, a new AI upscaler that improves raytraced visuals on base PlayStation 5 consoles. Two games will support QSSR with patches released today: Ghost of Yotei and Insomniac's new Wolverine game.

"We are bringing the benefits of AI-guided upscaling to PS5. While PSSR remains the gold standard on PS5 Pro, QSSR provides some notable improvements to both image detail and image stability on PS5," Sony said in the announcement.

Halo CE has been successfully reverse-engineered and is now playable on practically every device, including phones and even browsers. Now players have tested out the first 64-man battle at the infamous Blood Gulch.

Modders have been doing interesting things with Halo for years, but now the original Bungie-era OG shooter has essentially been rebuilt by talented programmers. This new recompiled version basically unshackles Halo from its confines and allows it to cross over to other devices like mobiles, and now players have successfully tested out Blood Gulch multiplayer with 64 players. Predictably, chaos ensues--the GOAT of CTF maps was created to support 16 players max.

The only other time I remember seeing something like this is when modded original Xbox consoles were in vogue; back then, the modded consoles would support larger multiplayer lobbies, even if the maps didn't support them, complete with extra vehicles and the like.

Former Halo art director Glenn Israel has accused Pierre Hintze of committing a criminal offense and alleged that Microsoft's employee relations personnel intentionally concealed it.

In a LinkedIn post, Israel wrote that he "witnessed and documented in real time a criminal offense in Washington state committed by Pierre Hintze." He also named Chris Matthews and Damon Conn as allegedly facilitating the incident. For those who don't know, Pierre Hintze is the VP Head of Studio at Microsoft, while Chris Matthews is Halo Studios' art director, and Damon Conn is an executive producer at Halo Studios.

Israel accused members of Microsoft's Global Employee Relations team of burying the matter. It should be noted the post does not specify the offense allegedly committed by Hintze, publish the documentation he says he collected, or provide a police report or court finding. So, for now, his account remains an allegation, not an established criminal finding.

Naughty Dog is reportedly developing a new Uncharted game, with Nathan Drake expected to appear in some capacity as the studio prepares another adventure in its franchise.

The information comes from an exclusive MP1st report that cites "unnamed sources familiar with the project," which should be taken with a grain of salt until an official confirmation is released from either Naughty Dog or Sony. With the disclaimer out of the way, these sources informed MP1st that Shaun Escayg, the creative director of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, is reportedly leading development, and that Nathan Drake will be returning in some capacity. Exactly what that capacity is remains a mystery, as the sources didn't reveal if Drake will return as the protagonist, a supporting character, or a small cameo.

MP1st claims the game is planned to follow Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, with The Last of Us Part III arriving afterward. Escayg has experience with Naughty Dog's franchises. The studio credits him as lead cinematic animator on The Last of Us and Uncharted 4, before becoming The Lost Legacy's creative director. He also served as creative director on The Last of Us Part I. Naughty Dog's next announced game will still be Intergalactic, which, for those who don't know, is a PS5 adventure starring bounty hunter Jordan A. Mun.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has responded to recent reports that Microsoft hasn't ruled out the possibility of selling its entire gaming business following its ongoing restructuring.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Sharma said, "Xbox is not for sale," while explaining that the company is prepared to make changes to improve the division's performance. She said Xbox would do "whatever it takes" to succeed, including exploring partnerships and finding an appropriate operating model. Sharma also emphasized a long-term approach to the business within Microsoft.

Sharma's reassurance about the longevity of Xbox under the Microsoft banner comes after reports from Reuters and The Information surfaced that claimed Microsoft was considering separating Xbox or changing its corporate structure in such a way that would make Xbox independently owned, but still a close partner with Microsoft. The reports claimed this change would be beneficial to Microsoft's balance sheet.

A released PlayStation 5 jailbreak has expanded support to firmware 13.60, bringing much more recent system software within reach of the console's homebrew community.

For those wondering what a jailbreak actually is, essentially developers have found a way to circumvent Sony's restrictive operating system guardrails, which unlocks the PS5 hardware to run additional software such as homebrew applications, emulators, and other unofficially supported software. While that sounds fantastic on the surface, there are some trade-offs.

Jailbreaking typically only works on specific firmware versions of the target hardware, and updating that firmware usually means removing jailbreak access. So, don't update it right? Well, by not updating your hardware you are running the risk of the older firmware not supporting newly released games, or general PlayStation features.

As anticipation for Grand Theft Auto 6 hits fever pitch, Rockstar has thrown some more fuel on the fire by releasing a bunch of new details about GTA 6 in the latest edition of the Game Informer magazine.

The latest edition of the long-time running gaming-focussed magazine contains some quite big confirmations from the developer, such as GTA 6 featuring more than 170 animal species across its land, skies, and waterways. By comparison, Rockstar wrote in 2018 that Red Dead Redemption 2 is home to around 200 species of animals. Keeping to the animals, GTA 6's animal kingdom will be home to flamingos, manatees, pelicans, and alligators, alongside invasive species such as green iguanas, cane toads, and rhesus macaque monkeys. Rockstar is improving fur, feathers, and other animal surfaces, building on its work with Red Dead Redemption.

Players will be able to track certain animals classified as Rare, Discoverable, and Legendary, although Rockstar is keeping their identities under wraps. Separate from wildlife, the magazine revealed players will be able to participate in activities such as kayaking, mini golf, billiards, scuba diving, base jumping, jet skiing, and street and off-road racing. Some of these were showcased in the Extended Look and official trailers. Furthermore, Gyms and zoos also appear in IGN's roundup, giving players more destinations to explore between missions.

Popular budget CPU cooler manufacturer Thermalright has launched another version of its Peerless Assassin 120mm dual-tower air cooler, featuring 2,400 RPM fans. The new cooler, dubbed the Peerless Assassin 120H-A, features a fully blacked-out paint job with two TL-N12-R9 V2 fans that spin up to the aforementioned RPM.

The cooler itself hasn't changed from the outgoing Peerless Assassin 120 and 120 Black versions, featuring six 6mm direct-contact copper heatpipes that are connected to two fin-stacks designed to hold two 120mm fans. All of the changes with this cooler surround the fans, which have been upgraded to TL-N12-R9 V2 fans that operate at up to 2,400 RPM, rather than 1,550 RPM on the outgoing models. The new fans are rated at up to 85.35 CFM, 2.95mm of H2O pressure, and a noise level of up to 33.3 dBA. Compared to the original model's 1,550 RPM fans, the new TL-N12-R9 V2s generate 29% more airflow and 7.7 dBA more.

The significantly higher performance of these fans should give the Peerless Assassin cooler design noticeably more performance. The Peerless Assassin has received a reputation for being one of the best air coolers on the market from a price-to-performance perspective, featuring performance that approaches Noctua's original NH-D15 and older 240mm/360mm AIO liquid coolers for under $50. Pricing and availability have not been disclosed yet for the new 120H-A model, but the outgoing 120 Black and 120 versions sell for around $35 to $45, so we could see pricing for the new model possibly fall around the $50 mark.

Thanks to advances in hardware, network speeds, and software capabilities, browser-based gaming has come a long way. Case in point: thanks to developer Mitchell Hynes, you can jump into and play the 2001 original Xbox version of Halo: Combat Evolved in seconds by visiting this link. According to the developers, average performance so far is 94 FPS, which is impressive. That said, performance suffers on iOS or Android, so PC is recommended.

Either way, it's an impressive achievement, with controller and keyboard-and-mouse controls, split-screen co-op, and multiplayer supporting up to 128 players. Mitchell Hynes adds that the 128-player multiplayer feature hasn't been fully tested; however, with reportedly almost 20,000 people playing the browser-based Halo: Combat Evolved in its first few hours of release, the multiplayer side is definitely getting a workout.

As we're talking about the original Xbox version of the game, Halo: Combat Evolved doesn't feature an actual online multiplayer mode, but instead split-screen and system link capabilities. This means the online multiplayer emulates multiple connected Xbox consoles, and the process is fairly seamless: you can create a multiplayer lobby or join one with a simple link.

Microsoft is now rolling out Windows 11 26H2 to eligible users, describing it as a "lightweight" and "predictable and low-disruption update" as it shares the same codebase as previous 25H2 and 24H2 updates. Because it includes features already present on up-to-date Windows 11 devices, the installation process is faster than previous major releases, and Microsoft compares it to a regular monthly update that requires a small download and a quick restart.

With Microsoft's focus on optimizing and improving performance for existing Windows 11 features, Windows 11 26H2 mainly brings together the enhancements made over the past year into a single package. This includes updates to the Start menu and taskbar, offering more customization options for size and placement, as well as an improved Windows Search optimized for speed and clearer results. It also includes the "smarter" File Explorer that includes new AI-powered summary features for OneDrive and SharePoint documents.

The update also includes accessibility updates across voice, magnification and zoom, and the Narrator experience. It also brings some welcome quality-of-life updates, like the ability for multiple apps to now access your camera at the same time, simplified global camera controls, and the ability to share audio across multiple devices with Bluetooth.

Logitech has announced a new headset for productivity and business: the Zone Vibe Pro. From its features to its design, the Zone Vibe Pro doubles as a stylish over-ear headset with built-in ANC for on-the-go users and a work tool, thanks to a premium boomless microphone certified for Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet. And with AI-powered voice isolation, it reportedly cuts out up to 93% of background noise.

The physical design offers a more minimal, lifestyle take on Logitech's premium wireless gaming headsets, with a soft headstrap and ear cups designed for all-day comfort, and it focuses on Bluetooth 6.0 rather than low-latency 2.4GHz wireless via a dongle.

Weighing 290 grams, the Zone Vibe Pro is also fairly lightweight for a headset, with Logitech noting that the construction includes 100% recycled cobalt for the 30-hour battery (18 hours of call time with ANC) and 100% post-consumer recycled rare earth metal for the magnets in the drivers.

GTA 6 publisher Take-Two has signed a new agreement that gives Take-Two the right to make and sell new "Xbox-compatible games on all Xbox devices," further indicating that Project Helix will be a range of hardware. This also may indicate that Gen9 consoles could last a bit longer.

Microsoft is gearing up its next-gen hardware platform, which will apparently be an ecosystem of products and not just a singular console. Back in August, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma did mention that the team was hard at work on a "great next generation and a great family of devices for Helix." Offering multiple systems is typical for Xbox; the past two console generations have had multiple iterations with varying degrees of power.

Now thanks to a new SEC filing from Take-Two Interactive gamers have even more clues on what to expect from the next Xbox generation. Take-Two has signed a long-term contract to publish new games on Xbox hardware. Materially, the new contract is almost identical to the previous 'Xbox Next Gen' deal signed in 2020, with the exception that Xbox platforms aren't named. Instead, Take-Two simply refers to the target hardware as "Xbox devices."

Thermal pads and thermal paste have been the go-to methods of cooling GDDR memory on graphics cards over the past 20 years, with thermal paste serving mainly as an alternative solution where thermal pads might not work. However, a YouTuber, Blighted Agent, tested thermal paste with thermal pads on an RTX 3080 and found that using both together dropped the GPU's GDDR6X memory temperatures by up to 15C.

The YouTuber did all of their testing on an EVGA RTX 3080 graphics card that needed maintenance on the thermal paste and thermal pads. First, they repasted only the GPU core, leaving alone the thermal pads on the GDDR6X memory modules. In Furmark with the power limit maxed and the GPU pulling 450 watts, the GPU ran at almost 70C with VRAM temperatures climbing above 95C.

The second test involved adding thermal paste to the GDDR6X modules while keeping the thermal pads on the GPU cooler, making it so the thermal paste was sandwiched between the G6X modules and the thermal pads. Temperatures dropped significantly in FurMark running the memory in this way, with temperatures spiking up to 80C on the hottest modules.