Latest News - Page 1176

Old-school fake GameCube portable console mock-up becomes a reality, complete with folding screen.

Electronics whiz and hardware modder GingerOfOz has created a real working version of an old outrageous GameCube portable render from 2006. The original concept was a tiny GameCube the size of 4 Altoids tins with a disc drive and folding clamshell screen. It was basically a render of a DS GameCube.

For amusement, YouTuber GingerOfOz actually made a real-life version of the concept. Using a 480p display, a ton of 3D-printed parts, an ultra-trimmed Wii SoC, two 2,000mAh batteries, a custom-designed PCB, and a bunch of totally custom resin buttons made from 3D printed molds.

The worldwide chip shortage may become even worse as Russia's war with Ukraine rages on.

The Russia-Ukraine war may significantly impact the ongoing chip shortage. Reuters reports that two of the world's largest producers of neon have shut down due to the destructive and lethal invasion.

Manufacturers Ingas and Cryoin, both located in Ukraine, produce up to 54% of the world's neon used in semiconductor fabrication. Analyst firm Techet estimates that Ukraine supplies more than 90% of the neon used for chips in the United States. Neon gas is a critical component of chip-making; it powers the lasers used the lithography process of chip creation.

Warzone, the biggest thing Activision has ever done, is officially coming to mobile devices.

Activision adds to the Call of Duty workload by bringing Warzone to smartphones and tablets. The mobile port will join two other Warzone games: The current Warzone for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and the upcoming Warzone 2 that's coming alongside Modern Warfare 2.

Six game studios are working on Warzone mobile including Digital Legends, Beenox, Activision Shanghai, Activision's Central Tech studio, demonware, and the newly acquired mobile experts at Solid State Studios. Outside of an official confirmation Activision has not announced any details on the port but it may be similar to Apex Legends mobile and offer completely separate progression systems from the existing console port and its upcoming sequel.

In a recent Facebook post, Ukrainian officials have claimed that Russia is currently planning a "terrorist attack" on the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

The Facebook post comes from Ukraine's Ministry of Defense that claims Russia is currently "stockpiling" dead Ukrainian soldiers to use in a "false flag" attack. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense goes on to allege that Russia is planning on presenting the corpses of Ukrainian soldiers as "killed saboteurs", and that Russia is planning a "man-made catastrophe". These warnings from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense come as the White House recently warned that Russia may use a "false flag" attack to deploy chemical and biological weapons.

Read more: UN officials drop warnings for Chernobyl and this nuclear power plant

A report from VICE claims that a group of TikTok influencers is being paid to push out content that is pro-Kremlin narratives.

According to the report, VICE has uncovered what is described as a "coordinated campaign to pay Russian TikTok influencers" to create and post content that fits certain guidelines and narratives. VICE reports that it discussed a Telegram channel that included prominent Russian TikTok influencers. This Telegram channel was run by an anonymous user who told VICE he was a journalist. He also explained that his job was to tell influencers the date and time the video needs to be posted and how to get around TikTok's banning of new uploads from within Russia.

The anonymous administrator posted a campaign to gather TikTok users to push content that called for national unity and used an "audio track featuring Putin calling for all ethnic groups in Russia to unite at this time of conflict," per VICE. Additionally, the administrator would instruct influencers on what text to add to the videos, what audio tracks, and even what emojis are to be used.

YouTube has announced it will be targeting a selection of channels on its platform and remove them while also purging specific content.

The announcement was made via Twitter and states that YouTube is now blocking access to channels that are funded by the Russian government, which includes state-run media outlets such as RT and Sputnik. YouTube explains that it will also be blocking access to channels associated with Russian state-funded media globally.

Additionally, YouTube writes that its community guidelines prohibits "content denying, minimizing or trivializing well-documented violent events" and that it will be removing content that violates this policy. The video platform wrote that these changes will be "effective immediately" and then followed up with a series of tweets explaining that it has removed more than 1,000 channels and more than 15,000 videos that violated policies for hate speech, misinformation, and graphic content.

Gamers are known for pushing the envelope on how to game, from speedrunning to insane challenges such as completing a game with a dance pad.

A streamer that goes by SuperLouis64 has decided to take a strange but extremely interesting approach to Elden Ring, instead of going with a traditional controller setup SuperLouis has opted for eleven bananas hooked up to a makeshift circuit board. Each of the bananas is mapped to individual inputs, so when SuperLouis wants a certain input to occur, he presses the button on the corresponding banana. Additionally, the streamer was able to get the banana setup to work with a PS4 controller.

The streamer is no stranger to modified controller setups and has previously beaten Halo 3 on Legendary difficulty with a Guitar Hero controller and beaten Dark Souls with the controls of Ring Fit Adventure. In the above video, SuperLouis beats Godrick the Grafted, the ruler of Stormveil Castle and the final boss within the area. If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

The Russian government has announced it will soon be ending Instagram throughout Russia in a move that bans the social media service of all Russians.

Russia's communications agency Roskomnadzor claimed in its announcement that Instagram moderators have allowed for content that encourages violence towards Russian soldiers depending on where they originated from. The announcement from the Russian government comes only a week after it announced Facebook was banned, citing "discrimination against Russian media".

Adam Mosseri, a former executive at Facebook and current head of Instagram, tweeted out about the announcement, writing that 80 million Russians won't be able to communicate with each other once the ban has taken place, going on to describe the decision as "wrong". According to a report from Russian state-owned media Novosti, the ban will take effect on March 14 and won't apply with Meta's encrypted messaging app "What's App".

If you've held off on playing Grand Theft Auto IV, it might be time to depart the Lands Between and delve into Liberty City.

GTA IV Complete Edition is on sale for just $5.99 on Steam right now as part of the Rockstar Games sale. The bundle includes the base game and Episodes From Liberty City, both of which have been re-released without SecuRom and the ancient Games for Windows LIVE integration.

Sadly there's a few major issues with the game's virtual RAM usage that is preventing Liberty City from actually loading with GPUs that more than 4GB of VRAM. Be aware of this issue before you buy...however it has an easy fix.

The reports were right: The new Dead Space remake is coming in early 2023 after all.

EA has officially confirmed that Motive's upcoming Dead Space remake will launch sometime in early 2023 on consoles and PC. It's likely to launch before the company's fiscal year ends on March 31 to help pad out Q4 sales and kickstart Q1'24 revenues.

The remake has been built from the ground up specifically for next-gen consoles using DICE's advanced Frostbite engine. EA Motive is optimizing the full might of the PS5 and Xbox Series X to deliver higher-end features like ray-traced shadows and lighting, 4K resolution, and totally seamless gameplay with no loading screens.

Valve has released drivers to get Windows 10 up and running on the Steam Deck...but it's not perfect.

Steam Deck owners can now install Windows on the handheld thanks to the latest driver package issued out by Valve. The necessary Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPU drivers have been released and users can not only get Windows 10 running but Game Pass as well...with some stability caveats (plus not every game is supported).

It's also worth mentioning that there's no dual OS boot option so you will have to completely reformat and wipe the Steam Deck's storage to get Windows running. Plus audio drivers are not available yet so neither the Steam Deck's headphone jack nor built-in speakers will work while gaming on Windows. Fortunately you can hook up a headset via Bluetooth.

New job listings indicate that Bungie could have as many as 4 new projects in the works.

Bungie is currently ramping up its work force for multiple projects. While nothing's been officially announced, sometimes we can glean info based on job listings. An examination of Bungie's current job openings may set the stage for what's to come. This is by no means official confirmation and there's a chance we're wrong about the number.

Right now the Destiny developer has a massive 113 open positions available across all disciplines, from programming, art, audio, accounting, and brand management. A cursory glance shows Bungie is developing new IP, possible new Destiny 2 content, and unannounced games--all of which may be in development separately and/or in tandem with one another.

The United States has fired back at Russia after the Kremlin alleged that the US was conducting military biological activities within Ukraine.

Russia recently made the allegations against the US, which has been adamantly denied by the Biden administration and now Olivia Dalton, spokesperson for the US Mission to the United Nations who said, "This is exactly the kind of false flag effort we have warned Russia might initiate to justify a biological or chemical weapons attack." Adding, "We're not going to let Russia gaslight the world or use the UN Security Council as a venue for promoting their disinformation."

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the United States, without showing evidence, of supporting biological labs run by Ukraine. In response to these allegations, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, labeled the statements as "disinformation", describing them as "preposterous," and warned that Russia is attempting to create a false narrative and may use chemical weapons themselves.

Russia continues its advance into Ukraine, and as Russian troops move deeper into the country, they are encountering Ukrainian forces in places they wouldn't expect.

Recently, Maxar Technologies, a US Observation Company that operates satellites, published images of Russia's military convoy that stretched some 40 miles. Included in that convoy were Russian tanks and various other vehicles that were/are traveling towards Kyiv. SkyNews has verified footage captured by a drone that shows an "ambush" of a Russian military convoy of tanks moving towards Kyiv, Ukraine's capital.

The footage shows around twenty vehicles, most of which are tanks and one personnel carrier parked stationary on the road in a village close to Kyiv. The drone observing the stationary convoy then captures a projectile being shot at a personnel carrier, followed by more fire from Ukrainians in the surrounding buildings. The Russian convoy retreats while still under fire back down the road in the direction they came from.

The US and UK governments are jointly concerned about the possibility of Russia deploying chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine.

Recently the US took aim at Russia and China over spreading false "conspiracy theories" about the United States operating biological and chemical weapons laboratories near the border of Ukraine and Russia. According to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, these claims are "preposterous" and categorized as a part of a "disinformation operation" by the Kremlin.

SpaceX has thrown a verbal jab out at Russia during its recent Starlink launch that was conducted on Wednesday.

During the SpaceX livestream of the Starlink launch, the launch director can be heard saying at 14 minutes into the video "Time to let the American broomstick fly and hear the sounds of freedom", and while that may not make any sense on its own, with context its a big middle finger to Russia. Last week the head of Russia's space agency, Dmitry Rogozin, announced that Russia would stop supplying the United States with rocket engines due to the sanctions imposed on Russia by President Joe Biden.

Rogozin took to state-run TV to announce, "In a situation like this, we can't supply the United States with our world's best rocket engines". Rogozin added, "Let them fly on something else, their broomsticks, I don't know what." The sly comment from the unnamed launch director for the Starlink launch was clearly referencing the comments from Rogozin.

Research aboard the International Space Station (ISS) has potentially been thrown into jeopardy as the world watches Russia invade Ukraine.

Following the invasion, Russia was slapped with numerous sanctions designed to cripple its economy, and while this was certainly achieved, those sanctions have also increased tensions between NASA and Roscosmos, Russia's space agency. The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, has been very aggressive towards the ISS space program by threatening to stop cooperation and even crash the floating laboratory into the United States.

In response to these stances, NASA astronauts have taken aim at the head of Russia's space agency, with decorated NASA astronaut Scott Kelly writing to Rogozin, "your space program won't be worth a damn. Maybe you can find a job at McDonald's if McDonald's still exists in Russia." Now, Russian state media company RIA Novosti posted a video online that shows the Russian segment of the ISS detaching from the station, with Russian officials clapping and applauding.

NASA is currently tracking an asteroid that is approximately the size of a football stadium as it makes a close approach with Earth.

The asteroid is dubbed "Asteroid 2015 DR215," and according to NASA's Asteroid Watch database, the asteroid will make a safe fly-by Earth at a distance of 4,160,000 miles. It should be noted that while 2015 DR215 is classified as a "Potentially Hazardous Object," it doesn't mean that it could collide with Earth. NASA classifies any space rock that comes within 4.6 million miles of Earth, or 19.5 times the distance to the moon, as a potentially hazardous object.

Read more: NASA spots bus-sized asteroid fast-approaching Earth

If you've ever wanted to know what space "tastes" like, then you will get your chance with Coke Starlight... Coca-Cola's new flavor of Coke.

Coca-Cola Starlight is a new limited edition sparkling beverage, which the company says you'll get a "subtle cooling sensation" when you drink it. The "space-flavored" drink is the first of Coca-Cola Creations -- the company's new "hub platform" -- aiming at the Gen Z age group through "packaging designs, culturally relevant expressions and creative collaborations", says Coke.

The new Coca-Cola Starlight is launching in the US later this month as a limited-edition offering, with the company detailing Coca-Cola Starlight that "fuses signature Coca‑Cola taste with unexpected touches, including a reddish hue and cooling taste sensation evoking the feeling of a journey to space".

Microsoft is so far ahead that "PlayStation is doomed," Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter dramatically said in a recent Xbox podcast.

According to the analyst, Microsoft has an "insurmountable lead" in services, infrastructure, and overall ecosystem that has future-proofed Xbox for the next 10 years. Sony, on the other hand, doesn't have that kind of lasting power--at least that's what Pachter believes.

"I think PlayStation's doomed, and I think they're going to cease to exist as we know them in about 10 years. They can't compete. They have no chance," Pachter said during an RDX stream.