Latest News - Page 1046

Tales From the Borderlands is coming back, but Telltale may not be involved in the new game.

Gearbox Software and 2K Games have confirmed a new Tales From the Borderlands game will be revealed at Gamescom's Opening Night Live ceremony tomorrow, August 23 at 2PM EST. Both the publisher and developer teased a few images on Twitter, but exact details on the project (and those involved) are largely unknown.

It does appear that Telltale Games isn't developing the game, and this could mean a more action-oriented focus for the project. Telltale Games developed the first Tales From the Borderlands game and received generally favorable reviews.

aProject Cars 1 & 2 will be pulled from Steam, the PlayStation Store, and the Xbox marketplace starting next month, developer Slightly Mad Studios has confirmed.

A bit ago EA bought Codemasters for $1.2 billion, which included Slightly Mad Studios and games like F1 and Project Cars. Now the developers have confirmed licensing rights for the racing sims have ran out and some games will be pulled off the market. The removals will happen in the next few months: Project Cars 2 will be delisted from all platforms on September 21, and Project Cars will be removed on October 3.

Slightly Mad Studios was careful to say that Project Cars and Project Cars 2 will retail full functionality and features for those who already own a copy. The game simply won't be available for sale after those dates.

Saudi Arabia appears to be the first worldwide government to not object to Microsoft's $68.7 billion buyout of Activision-Blizzard.

From the FTC in the United States to CADE in Brazil, anti-competitive regulatory bodies across the world are currently scrutinizing Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. Now it looks like the first overseas agency has chosen to let the deal go through.

Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Competition (GAC) has announced that it will not object to Microsoft's deal to purchase Activision-Blizzard's outstanding shares. "General Authority for Competition issued a NO OBJECTION CERTIFICATION with respect to the completion of the economic concentration transaction between Microsoft Corporation and Activision Blizzard, Inc.,"reads a recent Tweet from the agency (here's a direct link to the GAC website, too).

Embracer Group has acquired Middle-earth Enterprises and now has free reign to make video games based on Tolkien's legendary Lord of the Rings saga.

Embracer is taking over the world of gaming and the world of Middle-earth. The decentralized giant has now purchased some of the powerful IP rights in the history of entertainment with the acquisition of Lord of the Rings content rights-holders.

Middle-earth Enterprises, a division of the Saul Zaentz company, can do a lot of things with Tolkien's universe including video game adaptations, films, board games, theme parks, merch, and even stage plays. They don't, however, own the rights to Tolkien's literary works. Embracer does not own the Lord of the Rings publishing rights--only the rights for certain adaptations.

The new augmented reality (AR) glasses are developed by startup company XRAI Glass.

The company's CEO, Dan Scarfe, conceived of the glasses after the previous year's Christmas, spending it with his family, including his 97-year-old hard-of-hearing grandfather. Scarfe noticed his grandfather struggling to engage in conversations with the rest of the family in real-time, telling Euronews Next that "it's just so difficult when there are so many people around you and you're trying to keep track of the different conversations which are going on," and that "it's got to the point now where he literally just sits in silence."

Scarfe thought to himself that his grandfather always watches TV with subtitles, planting the idea to "subtitle the world" for him and others. Six months later, his company XRAI Glass had partnered with Nreal, a manufacturer of AR glasses, to reveal the XRAI Glasses. The glasses are connected to a mobile phone that will process the required information and create the graphics to be displayed and used to create and display a speech transcription from nearby people using Amazon's Alexa transcription service.

DeLorean has released images of its latest concept vehicles, the Omega 2040 and the Alpha5 Plasmatail.

The design of the Omega 2040, featured in the above image, was inspired by vehicles used in the annual off-road Baja 1000 race in Mexico, one of the most iconic off-road races in the world. As such, it features an elevated ride height, though it also lacks side windows. For DeLorean, the Omega 2040 "represents the next generation of DeLorean's design philosophy" and is "a complete departure from traditional automotive design."

The company rolled out a physical iteration of the concept art at the Concours D'elegance event in Pebble Beach, California. However, it doesn't seem the Omega will make it to the stage of being mass produced. Although the other concept revealed at the event, the Alpha5 Plasmatail, will enter production.

On Tuesday, August 16th, 2022, an employee found a foot inside a shoe floating in the Abyss Pool at Yellowstone National Park.

The Abyss Pool is located in the West Thumb Geyser Basin in the southern region of the park, and law enforcement officers have opened an investigation into its origin. Currently, it's believed that an incident involving an individual to whom the foot belonged occurred on July 31st, 2022, and that no foul play was involved. No photos have surfaced of the incident, and no other details have yet been shared by park officials, but they are reminding park visitors to stay on designated paths and "exercise extreme caution around thermal features."

The West Thumb Geyser Basin and its parking lot were temporarily closed following the discovery but have since reopened. According to the National Park Service (NPS), "the ground in hydrothermal areas is fragile and thin, and there is scalding water just below the surface." The Abyss Pool is over 50 feet (15.24 meters) deep, making it one of the park's deepest hot springs, with a temperature of about 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 degrees Celsius).

A study on growing plants on Mars titled "Farming on Mars: Treatment of basaltic regolith soil and briny water simulants sustains plant growth" has been published in the journal PLOS One.

Researchers from Iowa State University have tested what crops are best suited for growing in Martian regolith, which mostly comprises basaltic dust (weathered pieces of volcanic rock). Volcanic regions on Earth are typically nutrient-dense, and Mars' volcanic regions share similar nutrients in the surrounding soil. However, on Mars, there is a lack of organic carbon, so the regolith doesn't hold water well, nor does it contain enough nutrients to support growing calorie-dense crops.

To make the soil on Mars more viable for crops, it will need to be sufficiently fertilized. The researchers determined this could be achieved by growing alfalfa, which requires few nutrients to grow, and which the team was able to grow in simulated Martian regolith. Furthermore, by crushing up the alfalfa into powder form and using it to fertilize the regolith directly, the researchers could support the growth of other plants like turnips, radishes, and lettuce.

Russia's Defense Minister has announced the nation has successfully fired three missiles that have displayed "outstanding qualities".

Reports from RT that cite Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, that took to Russian 1 TV over the weekend, Kremlin military have successfully fired three Kinzhal hypersonic missiles during its conflict with Ukraine. The Kinzhal (Dagger) is a Russian hypersonic air-to-surface missile that was put into service in 2017, and according to reports, the missile is capable of traveling at Mach 12, or 9,207 mph, and can even perform maneuvers during its journey.

RT states that the missile is nuclear-capable and can be launched from Russia Tu-22M3 and MiG031 bombers. Russia announced the first use of the hypersonic missile in March, when its Defense Ministry claimed it used the Kinzhal missile to destroy a Ukrainian weapons depot in western Ukraine, marking the first time a hypersonic weapon has been used in combat.

NASA astronaut Bob Hines took to Twitter to share photographs taken of Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday, August 17th.

Hines shared a collection of four photos from a larger time-lapse taken of the northern lights that will potentially be released at a later date. Also known as the aurora borealis, the lights are caused by disturbances in the planet's magnetosphere owing to solar winds. Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the Sun and other more significant solar activity enhance the appearance of the light show, and three recent CMEs directed towards Earth were predicted to result in a G3, or strong, geomagnetic storm on August 18th.

The recorded storm was only registered as G2, or moderate, geomagnetic storm. Forecasters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have indicated G1-class, or weak, geomagnetic storms could occur on August 22nd, as a small CME has been fired towards Earth from the AR3078 sunspot. However, according to Spaceweather.com, the CME is unlikely to result in a geomagnetic storm as it grazes Earth's magnetic field.

Ukrainian's have celebrated a victory by holding a parade on the same day Russians planned on holding a victory parade in the city of Kyiv.

Russia believed it was going to capture Ukraine's capital Kyiv relatively quickly but were met by an unexpectedly tough resistance. Russia initially believed it would capture the city in just three days, with Ukrainian news site "Ukrainian Pravda" reporting that Russian officials even had formal uniforms prepared for the Russian victory parade that would be done in the name of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On August 25, Ukraine's Independence Day, Ukrainian officials dragged numerous destroyed Russian war vehicles such as tanks and trucks to the main street in Kyiv, Khreshchatyk boulevard. The vehicles were all put in two long lines and on Saturday Ukrianian residents took to the streets to celebrate their independence by exploring all of the burnt out Russian vehicles.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has taken to Twitter to reveal a price hike in Tesla's Full Self-Driving beta.

According to Musk, who took to Twitter over the weekend, Tesla will be increasing the price of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature next month. The current price of Tesla's FSD is $12,000, and according to Musk, anyone that purchases FSD between now and September 5, when the price changes to the new price, will pay $12,000. The new price will be raised from $12,000 to $15,000 on September 5.

Musk didn't comment on whether the price of Tesla's subscription plan, which costs $199 per month depending on the capabilities of the Tesla vehicle. Notably, this isn't the first time that Tesla has increased its price for FSD, with the first price being $5,000 to add the software and then $7,000 post-delivery. At the beginning of 2022, Musk announced Tesla would be increasing the total from $12,000, saying that the price of the software was "ridiculously cheap."

Elon Musk has taken to his personal Twitter account to post a teaser for an upcoming progress reveal for the highly anticipated Neuralink.

Musk took to his Twitter on August 22 to reveal that there will be a progress "show and tell" on October 31, coinciding with Halloween. For those that don't know, Neuralink is another one of Musk's pioneering ventures that aims at developing a human brain and machine interface. The device, which would be implanted into an individual, is said to be capable of translating a human's thoughts into actions. An example of this would be typing, pressing buttons, or manipulating a mouse or joystick.

Reuters recently reported that Neuralink is playing catch up with development woes surrounding is brain implant device. Notably, the report also states that Musk recently approached brain chip implant developer Synchron about a potential investment following the company's announcement of creating a breakthrough platform, "an endovascular brain-computer interface that can access every corner of the brain using its natural highways, the blood vessels."

Prominent influencer Andrew Tate has decided to close his money-making affiliate marking scheme Hustlers University only a day after being banned from his main social media platforms.

The kickboxer turned internet superstar has been making content on the internet for quite some time, but recently went viral on TikTok and Instagram following a massive content push into Hustler's University. Tate's content, primarily directed at young men, was seen as controversial, with many of his ideas and beliefs being interpreted as misogynistic or offensive. Despite the controversy, Hustler's University, a Tate-run program that teaches members how to make money, gained more than 100,000 members paying $49.99 a month.

Tate's step into major fame came through Hustler's University as members were encouraged to make content of Tate to post onto social media new social media channels, with each member getting a referral cut for signing up new people to Hustler's University. Members reported that this was one of the best ways to make money inside of Hustler's University and was the main reason Tate quickly became a superstar without even having his own TikTok account.

ASUS has teased a few more members of its X670E motherboards with the introduction of the ROG Crosshair X670E Hero, the ROG Strix X670E-E Gaming Wi-Fi, and the TUF Gaming X670E-Plus Wi-Fi motherboards.

The new ASUS ROG Crosshair X670E Hero, the ROG Strix X670E-E Gaming Wi-Fi, and the TUF Gaming X670E-Plus Wi-Fi motherboards are all ready for AMD's next-gen Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" processors, and join the ranks of the ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme motherboard announced earlier this year.

ASUS says that its new ROG Crosshair X670E Hero motherboard bridges the gap between professional PC builders, and everyday gamers with the new ROG Crosshair X670E Hero motherboard "allowing everyone to construct a high-performance showcase PC". There's Polymo lighting throughout the integrated I/O shield which looks slick, with an 18+2 teamed power stages for 110A, you're ready to deliver that power into your next-gen AMD Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" CPU.

Apple "launched" its new Mac Studio earlier this year, but it seems it was just a paper launch or more of an announcement of things to come, given that 6 months later we're still waiting for it to ship to consumers.

The compounding delays from Apple to its Mac Studio is worsened for the higher-end M1 Ultra (with the higher-end 96-core GPU) versions of the system, with another 10 week delay from now... close to 9 months if you ordered the second Apple announced its new Mac Studio in March 2022.

Apple's new Mac Studio starts at $1999 with the M1 Max chip, and is still another 1-3 weeks away from shipping to consumers... and that's depending on the RAM and storage options you choose. If you opt for the flagship (and much more powerful) M1 Ultra chip, then your Mac Studio won't be shipping for another 7 weeks at the least, and that's for the standard version. If you tweak your new Apple Mac Studio with the 64-core GPU you'll be waiting up to 10 more weeks for your order.

Intel's entry-level Arc A380 graphics card is kinda out in the wild, where it's available in China and coming to PCs in the US inside of pre-made systems... but now the Arc A380 has been tested with the gold standard of PC gaming over a decade ago: Crysis.

Yes, the Intel Arc A380 graphics card can run Crysis... and not too badly I might add. We're talking about 1080p 60FPS+ with the "Very High" preset and it even had 4x MSAA enabled. GUNNIR's custom Intel Arc A380 Photon OC graphics card was tested, with a 92W TBP (75W TBP on the reference Arc A380) and higher GPU clocks: 2450MHz (up from 2250MHz on the reference Arc A380).

Crysis was one of the very best-looking games when it was released, and hell... it still is. It looked better than most flagship AAA games on either of the consoles at the time, and for many years after Crysis was released. In the new Intel Arc A380 graphics card benchmarked with Crysis, it's using the DX10 API, 1080p resolution, Very High preset and 4x MSAA enabled for 60FPS+ without an issue.

We know that AMD will be unveiling its next-gen Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" processors on August 29, but previous rumors had a launch that was just two weeks later... but then we started hearing about a new, delayed September 27 release.

VideoCardz reported that NDAs were sent out to reviewers, but AMD needed reviewers to re-sign the NDA as the launch of the Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" processors had been delayed. In a post on the Chiphell forums, we're hearing that one of the reviewers on Chiphell confirmed that they were told about the updated NDA, and Zen 4 launch being postponed.

The post continues, asking if we remember how long it took for the BIOS issues ot be solved after AMD's current-gen Zen 3 launched. AMD does have its new AM5 socket, has added DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0 technology support on its new X670E + X670 motherboards, ready for the world of Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" CPUs.

Elon Musk is back again, tweeting out a meme calling CERN's Large Hadron Collider "demonic technology" and that should totally, totally not surprise us at this point.

For those unaware of what the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is, it's the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator located underground in Geneva, Switzerland. The Large Hadron Collider was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research with over 10,000 scientists, hundreds of universities and laboratories, with the collaboration of over 100 countries.

CERN recently turned the Large Hadron Collider back in 6 weeks ago, with Elon tweeting out the meme 6 weeks and 6 hours after the LHC was turned back on. Elon's tweet had a meme that reads: "please let me use the CERN Large Hadron Collider. I am normal and can be trusted with a demonic technology unlike anything the world has ever seen".

Slowly but surely the world finds out the mess that the Intel Arc GPU situation is, with enthusiasts and readers of TweakTown and any other tech press (written or video) should know by now... but now Intel is thanking Gamers Nexus for exposing 43 separate issues within the Arc GPU software.

In a new blog post on the official Intel website, Intel's Vice President of the Visual Computing Group, Lisa Pearce, explains some of the recent happenings within the Intel Arc graphics software development department. There's not much new here, but there are some interesting things like saying the reviews of their Arc A380 graphics card by Gamers Nexus (who said it wasn't a review) helped them file 43 issues with their engineering team.

One of the questions that Lisa answers is "Question #3: I've read reviews that say Intel's driver is not ready yet. What's the status?" to which she answers: "We appreciate the feedback we are getting in early reviews of our Arc software stack. And it has been bumpy. We have received frank feedback from press during recent reviews, and we have taken it to heart. For example, we filed 43 issues with our engineering team from a review of the A380 by Gamers Nexus".