Latest News - Page 1340

Well, if you didn't already know that Snopes co-founder David Mikkelson was a piece of sh*t, you should now -- BuzzFeed has discovered that the Snopes co-founder has committed mass plagiarism that has reached reputable websites like The Guardian, and the LA Times.

First off, years ago the trusted "fact-checking" service saw its co-founder allegedly embezzling close to $100,000 and then left his wife for an actual prostitute. Snopes had major financial problems in 2017, where Mikkelson begged his readers to help him and raised over $500,000 in 24 hours.

Here's where I'd like to say that the Snopes co-founder is "back to his old tricks" but it seems those old tricks aren't old, they never stopped -- BuzzFeed has uncovered that his mass plagiarism has spread far and wide. BuzzFeed writes that Mikkelson "wrote and published 54 articles with plagiarized material".

Uh, so there are GIGABYTE power supplies that are exploding... and now the company has released a statement about the situation.

The two PSUs that are exploding are GIGABYTE's GP-P750GM & GP-P850GM, which were sold in Newegg bundles earlier this year with particular GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards. Gamers Nexus are all over it as usual and have been testing these power supplies for months now.

Gamers Nexus has been buying up the two GIGABYTE PSUs in bulk for months, exposing this insanity. GN discovered that the P850 is pretty bad, but the P750 is just... there are no words. 50% of the GIGABYTE GP-P750GM PSUs that Gamers Nexus purchased were completely dead... right out of the box... or they exploded when they were testing them.

Microsoft's second-most-powerful next-gen Xbox has been thrown under the teardown microscope, with the Xbox Series S looking mighty sharp for its small footprint. Check it out:

The folks over at Digital Foundry have pulled apart the Xbox Series S console, after it stopped working -- to see what it looked like inside. The design of the Xbox Series S is impressive, given how small it is: measuring in at 27.5 x 15.1 x 6.5cm and weighing in at 1.93kg (4.25lbs).

Microsoft is using a chunky heat sink to cool that semi-custom SoC designed by AMD, with the CPU side of things packing 8 cores based on the Zen 2 microarchitecture... while on the GPU side of things, we have 20 Compute Units based on the RDNA 2 graphics architecture with 10GB of GDDR6 memory.

I thought it was just me, but when Jensen Huang hosted NVIDIA's all-virtual GTC 2021 keynote, I thought his kitchen looked a little... I don't know, underwhelming for a billionaire. Well, maybe it was because the entire NVIDIA GTC 2021 keynote was digital. Yeah, they "faked" seconds of it with CGI -- from 1:02:41 to 1:02:55 and nobody... absolutely freaking nobody noticed.

This is an Iron Man-like moment for NVIDIA... providing that they can fake an actual CEO with next-gen deep fake-style technology. It's actually absolutely mind-blowing, but as what pop culture would refer to me as a "conspiracy theorist" it isn't so surprising.

Rather, it shows that you literally can't believe what your eyes see -- so while this is a very cool party trick, it is a tease of a haunting future. If the world doesn't go back to normal, and it probably won't -- then all virtual events right up to "appearances" of President Biden could be faked.

Diablo 2 Resurrected won't have realm ladders at launch, franchise lead Rod Fergusson confirms.

In an odd move, the new Diablo 2 remaster won't have ladder rankings at launch. The ladders are seasonal events where everything is reset and players get a fresh start to scramble for the top spot. I always loved ladder resets because the in-game economy had a chance to shift--in one season, a high rune equaled 2 ist and um, and another season ist was a high rune. This was an exciting part of the changing trade meta that kept the game fresh without diverting too much from the core experience.

Sadly, ladders won't be in Diablo 2 Resurrected at launch. This means any characters you create or items you find will not carry over to the seasonal ladders once they go live. This is something to bear in mind before you start playing. It's also worth mentioning that direct TCP/IP online multiplayer isn't supported either. The only way to play D2R online is through the new Battle.net framework which is more secure than Bnet 1.0. Realm ladders brought more security because they are exclusively run by Blizzard, but now basic online multiplayer is secured by default.

Remedy's next big-budget Control game won't release any time soon, CEO Tero Virtala confirms.

Remedy is working on two new Control games: A four-player PVE multiplayer spin-off game called Condor, and a fully-fledged Control sequel. The bigger-budget sequel is still in very early stages--in fact, Remedy CEO Tero Virtala says the new Control is in pre-production conceptual phases. This means it's still in planning and actual development hasn't proceeded.

"We are still working on Control, we are expanding the world of Control, and we also announced there is a bigger, new Control game in very early phases of conception," Virtala said in a recent earnings call.

The reports were true: Quake is coming back with a new release, and the reveal will be at QuakeCon 2021.

Bethesda has accidentally spoiled a big QuakeCon surprise by confirming that a new Quake game is in development. The info was spotted on a now-altered QuakeCon 2021 schedule that mentions a "revitalized edition" of Quake is coming from MachineGames and id Software. This news follows recent reports of a Quake reboot with a female protagonist, but it's possible this new game is just a remaster of the original that'll be re-released on consoles and PC.

"Quake is back, in this special stream John Linneman from Digital Foundry talks to Jerk Gustafsson of Machine Games about the title's iconic legacy and what it meant to both of them. The pair will also discuss the additional content Machine Games have contributed to this revitalized edition," the original schedule reads.

You don't actually have to pre-order Diablo 2 Resurrected to get into the early access beta.

Instead of paying with money, Blizzard will also let you spend time in order to try out Diablo 2 Resurrected. The closed early access beta begins today, but you can get in even if you didn't pre-order. All you have to do is watch 2.5 hours of a drop-enabled Diablo 2 Resurrected stream on Twitch. Click here to see which streams are currently drop-enabled. So far we haven't seen any D2R streams.

The offer is exclusive to PC via Battle.net and won't be available on PlayStation or Xbox. A D2R open beta test is set for August 20 to August 23, and remember this is multiplayer-only and no singleplayer will be available. There's five classes to choose from--Barb, Paladin, Amazon, Sorceress, and Druid (everyone but the Necro and Assassin are playable) and the test only runs up to Act II.

Rockstar Games is planning to release remasters of Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas on consoles in 2021, sources tell Kotaku.

Take-Two's three unannounced re-releases/remasters are reportedly all GTA games. Reports say Rockstar Dundee is developing remasters of the PS2-era GTA mega-hits for a digital-only bundle on PS4, Xbox One, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PC, Mobile, and even Stadia.

Sources say the games are all being remastered in Unreal Engine with updated UI, but the fate of each game's original soundtracks remain dubious. The PC and mobile versions may not release until next year.

While Blizzard has seemingly yet to pinpoint major gameplay features, Activision promises that Diablo 4 will have content for "multiple years."

In a recent earnings call, Activision-Blizzard president Daniel Alegre says the company is investing big in Diablo 4's post-launch roadmap. Blizzard meanwhile is still experimenting with various in-game features. In short, the game isn't finished yet and the developers are looking to the future, which is par for the course for any live game.

"Blizzard continues to make strong progress on Diablo IV," Activision-Blizzard president Daniel Alegre said in a Q2'21 earnings call. "The game is shaping up incredibly well, and the team is allocating substantial resources to creating exciting content to drive engagement over multiple years."

Pokemon Go is popular in many parts of the world. Unfortunately, some countries have blocked players from downloading it or accessing some features. Some networks prevent access to Pokemon Go on corporate campuses and schools and you might need a tool to unblock it on such areas. Still, some users may download Pokemon Go, but spoofing their location in the game is important. A Pokemon Go spoofing tool will help you play the game in any place. All you need to do that is iMyFone AnyTo.

iMyFone AnyTo is considered the safest iOS and Android location changer currently in the market. The app can transport you to any location with one click.

All you have to do is connect your iPhone or Android device to your computer and search for a new location or choose it from a map. It also allows sharing of the fake address with your family and friends.

Two of Diablo 4's key creative forces have left Blizzard, the publisher officially confirms to Kotaku.

Activision-Blizzard is currently behind the crosshair of two major legal battles: The billion-dollar company is being sued for sexual harassment and discrimination by California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and law firms have also filed a class-action securities fraud lawsuit against the games giant.

The ongoing controversy is affecting development of key Blizzard games, including Diablo 4. Talent is leaving the studio and seeking other opportunities, including Diablo 4's game director Luis Barriga and lead designer Jesse McCree.

Sony is reportedly planning on introducing a new PlayStation Plus premium tier that bundles in video streaming offerings like Crunchyroll.

Sony will use its media arsenal to merge its billion-dollar gaming and video streaming services into one package. Sources tell Eurogamer that Sony will add a new higher-priced PS Premium subscription that bundles in other services like Crunchyroll at a reduced monthly/annual rate.

It's likely this will be part of PlayStation Plus Video Pass, an initiative that was accidentally leaked by Sony's Polish division back in April. Sony has yet to confirm details of PS Plus Video Pass, but the leaked materials included movies and TV shows from Sony Pictures Entertainment combined with the PlayStation Plus. It's possible Crunchyroll, which Sony recently acquired for $1.175 billion, will also be part of the offering.

Unity is buying Parsec, the company behind a popular remote desktop streaming service, for $320 million.

With the ongoing pandemic raging worldwide, game developers have been (and still are) forced to work from home and don't always have access to critical high-end office PCs. This has led to a multitude of game delays. That's where Parsec comes in.

Some of gaming's biggest companies including EA, Activision-Blizzard, and Square Enix have ised Parsec, a remote desktop streaming service, to connect employees to their valuable work computers. The game dev landscape has now changed and Unity is adapting in a big way by acquiring Parsec for $320 million in cash.

An individual has claimed that he is a "real-life time traveler from 2714" and that aliens will soon be arriving to begin an intergalactic war.

As you have probably already guessed, the time traveler claims have been posted on TikTok and has gone viral despite its obvious lack of scientific evidence to back up the claims. The time traveler claims that invasion will come with a meteor shower, as "one of the meteors" will look different than the others - this will be a "spaceship landing on Earth starting preparations for the Nozic War".

The time traveler claims that the meteor shower will begin on August 11, 2021, and will continue for two weeks. This isn't the first time the TikTok account has claimed to be a time traveler, only a few weeks ago the user claimed that humans would get superpowers in 2021. These videos going as viral as they do show that even baseless claims without any scientific evidence to back them up can still get traction online. Whether that traction is deserved is another question entirely.

A family did something most families wouldn't. They liquidated all of their assets and put it all on Bitcoin when it was priced at $900.

While that bet certainly paid off considering the price of the cryptocurrency now, but putting everything on the coin in 2017 is certainly a massive roll of the dice. The Dutch family says it put everything on Bitcoin when it was trading for around $900, and now the coins that were purchased are locked in secret vaults that are located on four separate continents.

According to Taihuttu of the so-called Bitcoin Family, "I have hidden the hardware wallets across several countries so that I never have to fly very far if I need to access my cold wallet, in order to jump out of the market." The coins are held in cold storage on hardware wallets that are hidden in a variety of different ways. According to what the family told CNBC, some hardware wallets are in rental apartments, some are at friends' houses, and some are in self-storage sites.

Billionaires such as Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos are paying millions for certain metals, but why?

One word, electric vehicles. A mineral company that is financially backed by billionaires such as Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates has agreed in a joint venture with mining firm Bluejay. The mineral mining company KoBold Metals will be spending $15 million to search for nickel, copper, cobalt, and platinum at the Disko-Nuussuaq project in Central West Greenland.

Blujay said in a statement that in return for spending the $15 million, KoBold Metals will have a 51% stake in the project. For those that don't know, KoBold Metals is a privately-owned company that has been "recognized in 2021 as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and as one of the 100 most promising private artificial intelligence companies in the world by CB Insights." Additionally, KoBold Metals is the only mining company using artificial intelligence.

Diamonds are renowned as some of the hardest gems people can get their hands-on, but what if glass could be harder than a diamond?

Researchers from Yanshan University have created that glass, and according to test results, the glass is actually twice as hard as a diamond. The team of Chinese researchers only recently published a study in the National Science Review that states the new material is made entirely out of carbon and is a yellow-colored glass called AM-III.

With the material, the team of researchers tested it with the Vickers hardness test, which scores diamonds between 50 and 70 gigapascals. As for the researcher's material, the yellow-tinted glass scored 113 gigapascals, making its strength "comparable in strength to diamond and superior to the other known strongest materials", noted led author Professor Tian Yongjun of Yanshan University in the study.

A new study published in the scientific journal Icarus has found that one of the asteroids that are likely to hit Earth has a higher chance than previously thought.

According to researchers who used data from NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, the asteroid named Bennu was found to have a 1-in-750 chance of hitting Earth within the next 300 years. The team of researchers, led by Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory that has successfully been able to pinpoint the distance between Bennu and Earth within about seven feet, which proves his estimations for trajectory are ultraprecise.

Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx's principal investigator, and the study's senior author, said, "Bennu is by far the best characterized asteroid in the solar system. We know where it's going to be over 100 years into the future, within meters. No other object in the solar system has that level of fidelity to its orbital solution-even Earth!"

Researchers have been watching an asteroid orbit the some for quite some time, but now new research has pinpointed the date for when that asteroid has the highest chance of colliding with Earth.

According to a new study published in the journal Icarus, researchers used data acquired by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to measure the trajectory of the mile-wide asteroid named Bennu. Bennu has been orbiting the Sun for hundreds of millions of years, but according to researchers' highly accurate estimations, Bennu has a chance of colliding with Earth in the somewhat relative future.

The researchers calculated Bennu's trajectory and found that there is a 1-in-750 chance that the asteroid will collide with Earth over the next 300 years, which was a much higher probability than researchers previously estimated. The scientists also found that all of the closest encounters with Bennu will happen during the late 2200s and the early 2300s. Additionally, the researchers managed to boil the data down to a single date - September 24, 2182. During the afternoon on that day is the single likeliest time for impact as Bennu has a 1-in-2,700 chance of hitting Earth.