Latest Technology Content

Elgato has just announced its new 4K60 Pro MK.2 capture card, with the now Corsair owned company unveiling the new capture card at Gamescom 2019.

The original Elgato 4K60 Pro arrived in 2017 at $400, but the new 4K60 Pro MK.2 is just $250. It is still only able to capture 4K at 60FPS (even though there are plenty of 120-144Hz panels on the market now) but it supports 1080p at up to an impressive 240Hz, as well as supporting HDR this time around.

If you're a serious streamer you can now throw multiple Elgato 4K60 Pro MK.2 cards into a system, capturing multiple 4K streams at once.

MSI recently launched its Radeon RX 5700 XT EVOKE OC graphics card (my review here), its first custom Navi card -- but the company isn't finished, it has just teased its new GAMING variant at Gamescom 2019.

The new MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT GAMING series card is a chunkier triple-slot, dual-fan graphics card with dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors. We can expect higher GPU clocks on the MSI RX 5700 XT GAMING than the MSI RX 5700 XT EVOKE OC, but the company hasn't detailed those just yet.

MSI has even got a countdown for the RX 5700 GAMING launch, which is 3 weeks away. Above and below, we have some photos of the card. They're from screengrabs from a YouTube video, so I apologize for the quality.

EA has just detailed the roadmap for content coming to Star Wars: Battlefront II, with a bunch of content dropping into the game before Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker releases this year as another money printing machine.

There will be significant changes coming to Battlefront II with one of the most exciting things being 4-player co-op mode that will come in September. In the 4-player online co-op you will "team up with three other players for a large-scale player vs. enemy adventure. You can choose to play as either the Galactic Republic or the Separatist Alliance".

EA details the exciting new co-op mode as a "PvE experience designed for squads of up to four players as they look to progress through objectives. You can choose to play as either the Galactic Republic or the Separatist Alliance and partake in massive battles on all five of our Clone Wars era planets: Kashyyyk, Kamino, Naboo, Geonosis, and Felucia".

EA is in the middle of battling its fans between "convenience microtransactions" in Need for Speed Heat, to Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment calling its user base "ass-hats" and "freeloaders" forcing its CEO and co-founder to apologize. At least it seems to be doing well with fans and Battlefront II, finally.

It almost feels like NVIDIA had a bigger Gamescom this year than it did last year, considering the company launched its new Turing GPU architecture and GeForce RTX series graphics cards at the time.

NVIDIA announced its new Gamescom Game Ready Driver, a special edition driver that celebrates the GeForce gaming community with huge software optimizations for Apex Legends, Battlefield V, Forza Horizon 4, Strange Brigade and World War Z.

is offering some pretty crazy performance improvements in games like Apex Legends, with up to 23% more performance in Respawn's currently embroiled in drama battle royale hit. Forza Horizon 4 gains as well, with GeForce RTX SUPER graphics card owners getting some nice benefits. I will be doing my own testing across the non-SUPER cards as well.

Apex Legends has the biggest performance improvements here with the new GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER receiving up to 23.4% more performance at 1080p with the new NVIDIA GeForce "Gamescom" Game Ready 436.02 WHQL drivers. You'll get around 20% more performance at 1080p and 1440p on the RTX 2080 Ti, wit 10-17% more performance on the RTX 2060 SUPER at 1080p and 1440p.

It was announced last week that Nightdive Studios was working on System Shock 2 Enhanced Edition, with the developer giving the iconic game a fresh dab of paint. In a recent interview, the developer said the team is focused on multiplayer and modding which is very exciting to hear.

Nightdive Studios CEO Stephen Kick explains: "Our priority with the Enhanced Edition is to be able to deliver an updated co-op multiplayer component. As of right now starting a co-op campaign is needlessly complicated and we're going to address that by implementing features that will enable a more modern and streamlined experience".

He continued: "Our other priority is to ensure that all existing mods and fan missions are compatible with the Enhanced Edition, but much of that will rely on the cooperation of the mod community. We have some other surprises that we'll be revealing in the future".

Sony hasn't fully unveiled its next-gen PlayStation 5 console just yet, but according to the latest news the company could use an interesting - and I think super kick ass V-shaped ventilation system. I'd want a futuristic PS5 with a V-shaped cooler if the PlayStation 5 is going to cost $1050 like rumors suggest.

The new patent was applied for in May, and was registered by Sony on August 13 as an electrical device. The patent shows a V-shaped ventilation system on something that looks like a console. We can see an optical disk drive at the bottom, with what looks to be 5 separate USB (3.0) ports and a power button above them.

If this patent turns out to the be the PS5, the V-shaped ventilation system would be a nod towards the PlayStation 5... 5 = V in roman numerals. The V-shaped ventilation system (V for ventilation) and the massively beefy hardware inside of the PS5 over previous-gen consoles will need to be cooled in a much better way.

The last we heard on the PS5 is that its Navi GPU would be clocked at a high 2GHz, delivering GeForce RTX 2080 levels of performance. It has caused quite a stir, but with 8K video playback abilities, ray tracing included, and 4K 60FPS gaming -- did you think we'd get anything less?

Disney could be in some big trouble with a Walt Disney Co. whistleblower has informed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the company had overstated its revenues for years.

Sandra Kuba used to work as a senior financial analyst for the revenue operations department of Disney, a position she held for 18 years. Kuba alleges that employees that work at Disney's parks-and-resorts business segment "systematically overstated revenue by billions of dollars by exploiting weaknesses in the company's accounting software".

What did Disney purportedly do? Well, MarketWatch has reviewed the whistleblower filings from Kuba where it is alleged that employees were boosting records in multiple ways including "recording fictitious revenue for complimentary golf rounds or for free guest promotions".

The allegations continue, getting worse with MarketWatch adding the whistleblower filings add that employees would record revenue for $500 gift cards at their face value, "even when guests paid a discounted rate of $395". Kuba even added that employees would sometimes record revenue twice for gift cards, both when the guest would buy the gift card and again when it was used at a Disney resort.

Western Digital has just launched five new external storage devices that are being aimed at gamers, with both PC and Xbox One options on offer as well as a super-fast external SSD that I need in my life.

The new WD Black range of gaming drivers comes with up to 12TB of storage, which is enough to keep every single one of the games in the Xbox Games Pass safe and sound. Western Digital made these new drivers with gamers in mind, taking into consideration that most gamers have around 20 games installed that use around 1.7TB of space.

• WD Black P10 Game Drive. It has up to 5TB (125 games) for $150. 2TB for $90 and 4TB for $130. The largest has a capacity for 125 games on a 2.5-inch drive. The 2TB drive has 140 megabytes (MB) per second transfer time, and while 4TB and 5TB versions have 130 MB/second. It has Superspeed USB of 5GB/second connectivity, with one drive and multiple platters. It ships in August.
• WD Black D10 Game Drive. It has 8TB, or up to 200 games on one drive. It has a 250MB/second transfer speed with 7200 RPM drives. This drive has active cooling technology and two 7.5-watt charging ports on its power supply so you can charge gaming accessories. It costs $200, stands vertically or horizontal. It has its own fan and ships in September.
• WD Black P50 Game Drive SSD. It has 500GB, 1TB, or 2TB. It uses the Superspeed USB at 20 gigabits per second with Type-C connector. It ships in the fourth quarter, has USB-powered LED lights. It transfers data at 1,980MB/second and it has forged aluminum for its top for passive cooling. Pricing is TBD.
• WD Black P10 Game Drive for Xbox One. It costs $110 for 3TB or $150 for 5TB. You also get two months of free subscription to Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass Ultimate - a $30 value. It has 130MB/second transfer rates and USB 3.2 Gen1 connectivity.
• WD Black D10 Game Drive for Xbox One. It has8TB for 200 games or 12TB for up to 300 games, 250MB/second transfer speed, 7200 RPM, two 7.5-watt charging ports, and external power. It can stand vertically or horizontal and comes with a three-month subscription for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. It ships in September for $300.

The Matrix 4 is happening, and both Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss are returning as Neo and Trinity.

A new Matrix film is in development at Warner Bros. Pictures, Variety today reported, confirming previous reports of a new movie. Production will begin in 2020 and Lana Wachowski is set to help write and direct Matrix 4, and titular characters Neo and Trinity will be major parts of the story, reports say. We don't know if Laurence Fishburne will return as Morpheus.

"Many of the ideas Lilly and I explored 20 years ago about our reality are even more relevant now. I'm very happy to have these characters back in my life and grateful for another chance to work with my brilliant friends," Lana Wachowski said.

Gamescom 2019 - Want to play Gears of War 5 on PC? You can skate by with an older rig.

Microsoft definitely wants its games to be played by as many people as possible, and that means flexibility. The Coalition has scaled Gears of War 5 across a myriad of PC hardware configurations, including older setups. Minimum specs sit at an Intel i3 Skylake/AMD FX-6000 series or equivalent, a GeForce GTX 760 or Radeon R9 280 with at least 2GB VRAM, and 8GB RAM. Expect 720p resolution or thereabouts at lowish settings. The game also clocks in at 80GB of hard drive space.

The recommended specs are likewise flexible. For performance around the 1080p 60FPS mark with marginal settings, Gears 5 needs an Intel Core i5 Skylake (assuming i5-6400 to i5-6600K are included), a GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon RX 570 with 4GB of VRAM, and 8GB of RAM. Again we don't know the perf The Coalition is targeting with this spec, but expect this to be 1080p optimized.