Latest News - Page 1186

Valve wants to create new upgraded Steam Deck models in the future that offer better performance and value.

The PC gaming hardware market evolves at a blistering pace and every year NVIDIA and AMD seem to release new-and-improved GPU and CPU tech. Valve wants its Steam Deck to keep up with these fast iteration cycles by designing and releasing beefier models. This is just the beginning for the new PC-handheld frontier.

When asked in a recent IGN interview (transcribed by TweakTown) if new Steam Deck models could happen, Valve boss Gabe Newell said:

Valve has no plans to raise the base price of the Steam Deck, Gabe Newell confirms.

Like the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, the Steam Deck is selling gangbusters. Demand is soaring for the innovative PC-handheld hybrid but Valve doesn't want to take advantage of the market with a price hike.

In a recent interview with IGN (transcribed by TweakTown), Valve boss Gabe Newell says the Steam Deck's current $399 entry price was "painful" given the overwhelming chip demand. It's expensive to create a supply chain, negotiate pricing, and manufacture and ship a device to millions of consumers. Despite this costly process, Valve won't raise the Steam Deck's price.

Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjogren gives an update on Payday 3's development, says progress is going smoothly.

Payday 3 is in full production and is still on track for its planned 2023 release. Parent company Starbreeze says the game's developer, Overkill, is currently making good progress with Payday 3. The sequel features a mix of modern-day trends like cryptocurrencies and hacking alongside mainstays like gunpoint robberies and original heisters (Dallas, Hoxton, Chains and Wolf) making a comeback.

"The development of PAYDAY 3 is proceeding according to plan and it's wonderful to see the game, now in full production, developing week by week," Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjogren said in a Q4 earnings report.

Fill out Elden Ring's map as soon as possible with this handy guide.

One of the first things you should do when playing Elden Ring is unlock the map. Information is crucial in Elden Ring. You need to know where things are, and more importantly, where enemies are...and that's hard to do if you can't get do good scouting.

Unlocking the Limgrave map early on will help your adventures through the perilous region and (hopefully) reduce any unnecessary deaths along the way. You'll need to find two fragments to have full access to Limgrave's map.

Elden Ring is a big game, so you'll need a quick way to get around. Here's how to get the in-game mount and speed across the Lands Between in no time.

Elden Ring's horse mount can be found pretty early on in the game. FromSoftware is actually pretty generous with the basics this time around. To unlock Torrent, your faithful steed, you simply have to activate sites of Grace, which are Elden Ring's bonfires. Unlocking enough sites will trigger a cutscene where a maiden gives you the Spectral Steed Whistle item.

The quickest way to unlock these sites is to simply follow the road north. I visited five grace sites before I got the whistle.

Valve may end up being Nintendo's greatest competitor in the retro gaming market.

According to PC Gamer, Valve's new Steam Deck is an emulation dream machine. The Steam Deck has one-click access to all of the latest emulators, including Dolphin, DuckStation, PCSX2, BSNES, and even Yuzu, the Nintendo Switch emulator. Gamers can access this list of emulators by switching to the system's desktop mode by holding down the power button--there's no need to enter command lines.

This easy access, setup, and execution of emulators could eat Nintendo's retro gaming lunch. Nintendo is removing all Virtual Console games from sale, and by next year in 2023, the Nintendo Switch Online subscription will be the only way to buy and play old-school retro games on Nintendo platforms. Before now there hasn't been an easy way to play older games on handhelds without the use of configuring, jailbreaking and obtaining software downloads/patches, etc.

D2R's new ladder reset could happen as soon as April 2022, which is roughly six weeks away.

Today Blizzard dropped a new D2R roadmap update that outlines PTR timings and what to expect from the new patch. PTR 2.4 will pave the way for D2R's first-ever ranked ladder and will test a multitude of things including season rolls and item rollover. The devs haven't revealed exactly when the ladder will reset but hint at a possible April 2022 reset.

According to info from the roadmap update, Diablo streamer MrLlamaSC estimates that D2R ranked ladder reset could coincide with an early or mid-April timeframe.

The Ukrainian government has announced it will give rewards to anyone who can provide information on Russian politicians' cryptocurrency wallets.

The announcement comes from the Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov, who took to Twitter to say that the Ukrainian cryptocurrency community is ready to provide a "generous reward for any information about crypto-wallets of Russian and Belarusian politicians and their surroundings." Fedorov goes on to add that "War crimes must be pursued and punished!".

This isn't the first time the Ukrainian government has been involved in cryptocurrency, as it recently requested and received millions in donations to provide aid in its effort against the Russian invasion. According to Artem Afian, a Ukrainian lawyer that is managing the effort of locating cryptocurrency wallets held by politicians, the rewards will come from private donations and will be given in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and some other cryptocurrencies.

A map created by a historian of science that focuses on the history of nuclear weapons can estimate how much damage a nuclear bomb would create if it was dropped on a city of your choice.

A historian of science at the Stevens Institute of Technology, Alex Wellerstein, created an interactive map that uses declassified nuclear weapons effects data to estimate the damage caused by a variety of different nuclear weapons on populations around the world.

The map was originally released in February 2012, but since the ever-growing concerns regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the recent reminders from Russia's President Vladimir Putin of the nation being the leading nation when it comes to nuclear weaponry, the map is a stark reminder of the power of nuclear weapons.

A recently published assessment of Russia's nuclear stockpile has revealed updated estimates for the nation's nuclear capabilities.

The Wall Street Journal has recently published a report stating that Russia's President Vladimir Putin has ordered a selection of Russia's nuclear arsenal to be put on high alert, following the growing tensions between multiple countries after Russia's invasion into Ukraine. The nuclear weapon assessment has been published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and was written by Hans M. Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project with the Federation of American Scientists, and Matt Korda, a senior research associate with the project.

According to the assessment, Russia's nuclear arsenal includes a stockpile of approximately 4,477 warheads, and of these, around 1,588 are strategic warheads that are currently deployed on a variety of missiles located in numerous heavy bomber bases. Additionally, the report states that approximately 977 strategic warheads, with a further 1,912 nonstrategic warheads, are currently held in reserves across Russia. The report also provides a table outlining the names of each of the offensive weapons, the total number of warheads, and more.

The leader of Russia's equivalent to NASA has taken to Twitter to remind NASA that Russia could let the International Space Station (ISS) crash into Earth.

Dmitry Rogozin recently took to Twitter to voice his opinion of the recent sanctions imposed on Russia by the US in response to the nation's invasion of Ukraine. Rogozin voiced his disdain for the newly implemented sanctions that US President Joe Biden said were designed to "degrade their aerospace industry, including their space program," as they put restraints on Russian high-tech exports.

Rogozin asked NASA on Twitter if it was attempting to "destroy cooperation on the ISS?", while also reminding the space agency that a docked Russian cargo spacecraft is used to keep the ISS at a safe altitude.

The Pixelmon NFT project recently revealed art work of the NFTs it has been working on, and now the community is an in uproar with some individuals claiming the creators are scammers.

The Pixelmon NFT project was a highly anticipated project within the emerging space as the creators claimed they are building a game where players can train, trade, fight and evolve their Pixelmon NFT. The Pixelmon Twitter account has amassed more than 211,000 followers and many of the community members were very excited to see the reveal of the first generation of Pixelmon NFTs called "Pixelmon - Generation 1". Each of the Generation 1 NFTs was at a mint price of 3 Ethereum.

The above video showcases gameplay the Pixelmon creators posted to their Twitter account on February 8, which is now being compared to the recent artwork reveal that has sparked this backlash. A large Twitter thread showcased screenshots of conversations between the creators about using purchased Unity Engine assets and transactions with the developers' team wallet that revealed an individual going on a large NFT spending spree after receiving millions of dollars in funding.

Apple will launch its new iPhone 14 family of smartphones in a few month's time, but the next-gen iPhone 15 family of handsets is now being teased -- without a foldable iPhone teased -- for 2023.

The new Apple iPhone 15 range of smartphones will have a dual hole punch design on the iPhone Pro models on "all 4 models in 2023" according to DSCC CEO Ross Young. Young added that he hopes "the holes will get smaller..." meaning the notch will disappear from the iPhone.

Apple will most likely unveil under-display FaceID technology with the iPhone 15, putting the camera behind the screen like some of its competitors -- Samsung for example, and their Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy S21/22 series smartphones -- and leaving the world of the notch + iPhone forever, hopefully.

BIOSTAR announces its new iMiner A588X8D2 pre-built mining system, packed with 8 x AMD Radeon RX 580 graphics cards with 8GB of VRAM each.

Inside, the BIOSTAR iMiner A588X8D2 pre-built mining system features an Intel G4900 processor, 8GB of DDR4 RAM, and the 8 x AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB graphics cards. You can use Windows, Linux, or HiveOS and pull a total ETH hash rate of 232MH/s.

BIOSTAR explains: "Designed and pre-assembled by BIOSTAR, the new iMiner A588X8D2 system brings plug and play mining capability to the next level. Packed with blockchain-grade high-end hardware, the iMiner A588X8D2 comes with 8 AMD RX580 graphic cards that dish out an ETH hash rate of 232 MH/s (±5%). Powered by Intel's G4900 processor and an 8Gb DDR4 RAM, the system can run Windows, Linux, or HiveOS".

Samsung's next-gen Galaxy Book 2 Pro will be fully unveiled this week during Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain... but now we have some early rumors to report on.

The new Galaxy Book 2 Pro will be made available in two different sizes: 13.3-inch and 15.6-inch, with the larger model featuring an Intel Arc Alchemist discrete GPU. Samsung's new Galaxy Book 2 Pro laptops are part of Intel's latest EVO platform, packing a 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPU with built-in Iris Xe graphics.

But the larger 15.6-inch model has higher-end graphics thanks to the Intel Arc Alchemist discrete GPU, which adds another 600g to the overall weight -- 1.11kg to 1.17kg -- which would be for the beefier thermal solution for the discrete GPU. As for the Samsung Galaxy Book 2 it offers up to 21 hours of battery life, packs 5G and Wi-Fi 6E connectivity, runs Windows 11, and it's all delivered over a 65W USB Type-C power connector.

Some of Valve's hardware projects have gone the way of the dinosaurs, but the Steam Deck is different.

The Steam Deck isn't just an experimental product for Valve: It's a new gateway for its hardware business. The Steam Deck's vale proposition is attractive--play all your Steam games on-the-go with PC-level performance. But the work isn't done. The Steam Deck is a stepping stone, and Valve says it's far from finished with its new hybridized PC platform.

In a recent interview with Axios, Valve's Greg Coomer says the company is invested in the Steam Deck for the long haul. "The Steam Deck is the beginning of a new category that we will be developing and iterating on for a long time to come."

Today Game Freak announced Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the new mainline duo set to launch in late 2022 on the Nintendo Switch. Here's a closer look at the starter Pokemon for the new games.

No Pokemon game is complete without a trio of new starters, a tradition that stretches back 26 years. Scarlet and Violet have an...interesting new lineup of Pocket Monsters that will steal your heart including a fire crocodile, a grass cat, and a water duck (his name is Quaxly, and he's pretty awesome).

Game Freak has released a bunch of stats, info, and close-up shots for the new starters including personality types, move sets, and other tidbits.

Following Pokemon Arceus, the newly announced Pokemon Scarlet and Violet will help push Nintendo's 2022 earnings.

Today Game Freak announced Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, a new mainline dual-pack coming to the Switch in late 2022. The game promises to deliver realistic seamlessness between town/hub areas and the wilderness areas, creating a new level of immersion for the open-world RPG.

The timing is pretty important for Nintendo, who plans to lean hardware on software sales to make up for reductions in Switch sales from the ongoing chip shortage. Pokemon is almost like Nintendo's Call of Duty, and the most recent duo, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, sold 13.97 million units and accounted for over 16% of the Switch's entire Q3 game sales. Another Q3 release would bolster Nintendo's holiday 2022 period and possibly push software revenues to new heights.

The official Twitter account for Ukraine, has tweeted out in appreciation of SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk, and his next-gen SpaceX Starlink satellite internet connectivity.

In the last 24 hours, Ukraine Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov took to Twitter to ask Musk to supply Ukraine with his Starlink internet service through SpaceX. Within a few hours Musk was on it, tweeting back to Fedorov and having SpaceX blast off some Starlink satellites above the country.

Ukraine Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said: "while you try to colonize Mars - Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space - Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand".

I think most of the world knows about the conflict in Ukraine right now, but the assistance of SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk has been called upon by Ukraine Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

Fedorov took to Twitter, and tweeted to Musk for help, saying: "while you try to colonize Mars - Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space - Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand".

Russian invasion of Ukraine has affected internet connectivity, but with SpaceX satellites above the people of Ukraine, those with SpaceX Starlink satellite internet will have connectivity. This is one of the beauties of Starlink internet, as you just need a power point and you're good to go -- especially if you've got Musk personally helping you out as the Vice PM of Ukraine -- nothing can take that down.