Latest News - Page 1354

Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais confirms the Steam Deck will have options built right into the OS to help optimize performance and battery life.

Valve's new Steam Deck is a full PC built into a handheld, complete with mod support, multiple OS support and your entire Steam library. Playing PC games on-the-go is pretty demanding on battery life, though, even when targeting 800p 30FPS. That's why Valve is adding options like a frame rate limiter to help keep thermals and battery usage down.

"The 30 FPS target refers to the floor of what we consider playable in our performance testing; games we've tested and shown have consistently met and exceeded that bar so far. There will also be an optional built-in FPS limiter to fine-tune perf vs. battery life," Valve's Griffais says.

Like the rest of the game, Battlefield 2042's hugely ambitious new Portal gametype won't stay static after release.

Battlefield 2042 is an online-only game so it's critical EA and DICE continually release new content over time. DICE says they plan to have four seasons for BF2042 that add in new maps, weapons, and specialists to fundamentally change up the meta--that's on top of regular tweaks and adjustments.

The devs want to make Battlefield 2042's new content available in Portal too. There's no word on simultaneous parity or when exactly Portal will get the new BF2042 DLC content

Back in 2007, game dev studio Factor 5 was working on a Superman game for PlayStation 3. The economic recession killed the game, but a lead designer on the project gives us a look at early prototypes and what could've been.

The cancelled Superman game was codenamed Blue Steel, and was a huge nostalgic throwback to the early days of Superman. It took place in the 1940s with a Metropolis filled with art deco and Packards and Chryslers all over the streets.

Blue Steel was a third-person action game where you ran (or flew) around GTA-style and beat up bad guys. There was also Superman 64-style flying mechanics (though Blue Steel looks infinitely better than that horrible childhood catastrophe) complete with a staggering level of verticality. Kal-el could of course soar, float, and even grab enemies and smash them through destructible buildings. It also looks like General Zod would've been a playable character.

NASA has announced that a relatively large asteroid will be making a "close" fly-by with Earth over the weekend.

NASA has said that the asteroid is around the same size as the Great Pyramid of Giza tall and that it will pass by Earth safely on Sunday. NASA named the asteroid 2008 GO20, and it will fly 2.8 million miles from Earth at the speed of 18,000 mph. Reports are indicating that the asteroid could be anywhere between 318 and 720 feet in diameter.

For reference, the Great Pyramid of Giza is 450 feet tall, and if a space object that is larger than 490 feet in diameter comes within 4.6 million miles of Earth, it's labeled as a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA). As LiveScience reports, NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies monitors all known PHAs and to put the distance of how far away 4.6 million miles, its 19.6 times the distance between Earth and the moon. If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

Las Vegas strip clubs are stepping up into the world of cryptocurrencies, with Crazy Horse 3 becoming the first major entertainment venue in a US city to accept Bitcoin.

Crazy Horse 3 has tapped the Lightning Network to handle its acceptance of Bitcoin, where customers can use Bitcoin to pay for VIP bottle packages, food, drinks, retail, admission, and even "dance dollars" for strippers and lap dances. You'll eventually be able to give strippers tips "in the near future".

Crazy Horse 3 publicist Lindsay Feldman of BrandBomb Marketing explained that Crazy Horse 3 is "committed to innovating the modern-day guest experience and as leaders of the Las Vegas entertainment industry. We are embracing the opportunity to accept Bitcoin as a way to deliver convenience, first-class hospitality, and an added level of anonymity for our guests".

We've all heard about swatting over the years, where someone online swats someone -- the process of faking an emergency call to the police, who descend on the victim's house thinking they're about to, or have just killed someone.

It's happened again, where this time a 60-year-old grandfather was killed in Bethpage, Tennesse -- all for his @tennessee Twitter handle. A bunch of minors in the US and UK used Discord to mobilize, swatting Mark Herring who died in April 2020, collapsing to the ground having a heart attack when the police showed up at his door.

The minors simply wanted his @tennessee handle on Twitter, a "rare username worth thousands of dollars". Herring's granddaughter Corinna Fitch, explained that then-minor Shane Sonderman was part of a criminal campaign to force Herring to provide his username, and then Sonderman posted his full address and personal details onto Discord.

Inside of Starlink's user terminals is a quad-core CPU powered by ARM's Cortex-A53 cores, thanks to a new teardown by researchers working at Belgium's KU Leven University.

It's not the first teardown of a Starlink terminal, but this teardown is different as we have greater detail on the firmware and software inside of the SpaceX tech. Inside, SpaceX is using a processor that packs 4GB of embedded MultiMediaCard (eMMC) memory that loads up the firmware after bootup.

The researchers accessed the eMMC independently from the processor, finding a chip called a "secure element" that is also inside of the Apple iPhone, and part of the security infrastructure for the iPhone that has code required for secure biometric validation.

AMD is gearing up into the release of its mid-range Radeon RX 6600 XT graphics card, with AIB partner PowerColor having its new Radeon RX 6600 XT graphics cards listed with a New Zealand retailer for $868... yeah.

PowerColor seems to have a few different variants of the RDNA 2-powered Radeon RX 6600 XT, with the Radeon RX 6600 XT 8GB Fighter, Radeon RX 6600 XT 8GB Hellhound, and the Radeon RX 6600 XT 8GB Red Devil. They're all listed with New Zealand retailers, with the same flat price of around $1250 NZD -- or around $868.

I don't think we'll be paying that price, they're most likely placeholder pricing for NZ retailers -- because as VideoCardz points out the higher-end Radeon RX 6700 XT is the same price. We're expecting AMD's new Radeon RX 6600 XT graphics card to launch on August 11, with no reference board on offer -- AIB partners will be offering all Radeon RX 6600 XT graphics cards.

I still remember writing about Chinese chipmaker Loongson all the way back in 2012, that they were working on a new custom CPU design ready to take on Intel, AMD, and others in the tech industry... well, here it is.

Loongson's new 3A5000 CPUs are based on the Chinese chipmaker's own in-house proprietary microarchitecture, offering a quad-core design with CPU clocks between 2.3GHz and 2.5GHz with up to 50% more performance and lower power consumption over their previous-gen designs.

The CPU cores are superscalar, with each packing 4 general-purpose ALUs and 2 x 256-bit vector operation units, with the cores based on the LoongArch GS464V instruction set architecture. LoongArch supports binary conversion extension instructions (LBT), vector processing extension instructions (LSX), advanced vector processing extension instructions (LASX), and virtualization extension instructions.

What a way to experience the weekend -- super juicy GPU rumors of NVIDIA and AMD's next-gen Ada Lovelace, Hopper, and RDNA 3 architectures. We have some more news on NVIDIA... big news...

According to leaker Kopite7kimi, NVIDIA can't reach a point with its monolithic design on Ada Lovelace to beat AMD's next-gen RDNA 3 architecture then the company will deploy the Hopper GPU architecture. We could see the flagship GH202-based GPU powering the next-gen GeForce RTX 4080, RTX 4080 Ti, or RTX 4090.

This would be above the AD102 GPU, which is the Ada Lovelace architecture -- expected to power the GeForce RTX 40 series. NVIDIA's next-gen Ada Lovelace GPU architecture was recently rumored to be powering Nintendo's next-gen Super Switch console, but we'll have to wait and see for that in the coming months and more so into 2022.

It was only yesterday that we heard NVIDIA's next-gen Ada Lovelace GPU architecture could be used for Nintendo's next-gen Super Switch portable, but now we're back to regular programming -- regular leaks -- that say the next-gen Lovelace GPU architecture will power the new GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs.

Not only that, but NVIDIA's new Ada Lovelace GPU architecture would be made on TSMC 5nm -- and that the Ada Lovelace GPU architecture design is finalized. The news is coming from new leaker on the scene Greymon55, which said that NVIDIA is finished with the entire Ada Lovelace GPU project -- with no more changes planned, with the tape out of Lovelace happening soon.

NVIDIA is reportedly using TSMC 5nm but the leaker isn't sure if it's regular N5 or the newer N5P, but with previous reports that Apple has over 50% of TSMC's production of 5nm in 2021... 2022 could be the year of 5nm for consumer GPUs. We are currently on 7nm (AMD Radeon + Ryzen CPUs made with TSMC 7nm) and on 8nm (NVIDIA GeForce RTX made with Samsung 8nm).

Respawn's next game will apparently be another singleplayer adventure title, and it may be separate from Jedi: Fallen Order 2.

Respawn put up a few new job listings for its incubation team that confirms a new singleplayer adventure game is in the works. So what exactly is Respawn working on? We don't know for sure, but it could be a new IP. Here's what we know.

Studio creative director Mohammed Alavi shared a few incubation job pages on Twitter that confirmed the game is in early pre-production phases. Respawn describes its incubation team as a small and compact group of specialists that have a lot more freedom to shape a new game--in other words this project isn't coming out any time soon.

2K Games releases screenshots of NBA 2K22's next-gen visuals on PlayStation 5, showing high-end realism and effects.

Take-Two and 2K Games have promised big things from this year's NBA 2K game, including a bunch of new modes and impressive in-game performance. NBA 2K22 will be best on next-gen consoles thanks to new optimizations like ultra-fast loading, 4K visuals and textures and lighting systems, and exclusive game modes.

In a recent update post 2K Games outlines what to expect from NBA 2K22 while also showing what all-stars like Candace Parker, Luka Doncic, Dirk Nowitzki and the Washington Wizards' Rui Hachimura look like in-game.

Eight years after launch, GTA Online continues breaking records and shows no signs of slowing down.

GTA Online's new Los Santos Tuners is the latest record-breaking update. Rockstar confirms Los Santos Tuners has added more players than any other update, even the recent Cayo Perico Heist. This shows the massive power of GTA Online's player onboarding, retention, and return rate, all thanks to the massive 140 million game sales install base. Rockstar has proven time and time again that gamers will show up for all GTA Online content updates.

Los Santos Tuners added "more players joined GTA Online for the launch of Los Santos Tuners than any update ever!"Rockstar said on Twitter. The devs are adding 250,000 GTA cash to everyone's accounts as a thank you.

After nearly three years on the market, Fallout 76 is finally getting some semblance of mod support.

Fallout just isn't Fallout without mods. In fact, Bethesda Game Studios RPGs simply aren't the same without mods. In tandem with the creation kit and console commands, you can do anything in Fallout. That's really why I think Fallout 76 failed; it restricted player freedom by removing all mod support and tried to monetize the things that were previously free, like new skins, custom base designs, etc. Now Bethesda is injecting some of the basic principles that mods offered into Fallout 76--freedom, customization, and fun.

Fallout 76's new Fallout Worlds feature is basically Fallout 76 custom games. It's sort of like mods without the total control previous BGS games offer. Essentially Bethesda lets you create or access game instances with custom parameters--infinite ammo, infinite AP, extra loot, etc.

DICE is only getting a one-month headstart on Battlefield 2042's open beta playtesting.

At the recent EA Play Live showcase, DICE and EA confirm that Battlefield 2042's open beta testing will start sometime in September. Anyone who pre-orders any edition of the game will get early access alongside EA Play subscribers, but an official date hasn't been revealed. The beta will be held on PC, next-gen consoles, and PS4 and Xbox One systems.

DICE hasn't discussed its beta plans in detail just yet. The devs will hold a closed technical preview throughout the end of July to help pave the way for the beta. Expect a plethora of modes and features from the final game to be missing and we expect this to be a significant undertaking given the game's huge 128-player warfare. It's unknown if Conquest or even the new Battlefield Portal custom games mode will be available during the beta.

NASA's Europa Clipper mission objective is to find sources of life on a distant moon within our solar system, and SpaceX will be the one to launch it.

On Friday, NASA announced that it has confirmed the launch date for its upcoming Europa Clipper mission and that SpaceX has been awarded the $178 million launch contract. NASA's objective is to fly past a Jupiter moon named Europa 45 times, and with each pass, observe it for any signs of alien life. NASA will get as far down as 16 miles from the moon's surface as NASA researchers believe that the moon could have a global ocean that may host alien life.

NASA has awarded SpaceX a $178 million launch contract, and in October 2024, Europa Clipper will be carried off Earth aboard SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket. NASA plans to capture high-resolution images of the surface of the moon in hopes of being able to figure out the composition of its thick icy crust. Europa Clipper's objective is to gather data on the oceans so researchers can find out how salty it is and its depth. If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

The 2021 Olympics have officially begun, with the opening ceremony kicking off with an incredible display of drones flying in the night sky.

The video has been posted to Reddit and shows a collection of small drones, all creating what appeared to be a flat disk in the night sky. The drones then expand the circle and move to their respective positions to form a sphere. After that, the drones initiate the next phase and position themselves accordingly to create the shape of all of the continents on Earth.

The opening ceremony also featured an incredible fireworks show to start the games off with a bang, with each of the athletes representing their countries parading into an almost empty stadium. In other drone news, a Florida man recently shot a drone out of the sky that was "harassed" him, check out more on that story here.

Nintendo revealed its upgraded Switch OLED without any upgrades to the CPU, GPU, or RAM -- and while for some that's surprising, it didn't surprise me and many of those with their own independent sources throughout the tech industry.

We heard rumors of the next-gen Nintendo Super Switch for a while, but then Nintendo dropped the Switch OLED without any upgrades into gamers' laps -- if you thought Nintendo was finished with that, you were very wrong. Why would Nintendo which is in the middle of its most successful run of all time, just release a half-baked, no-upgrades Nintendo Switch OLED?

A few months ago we heard rumors that NVIDIA's next-gen Ada Lovelace GPU architecture would be inside of the next-gen Nintendo Super Switch... and now according to Tom from Moore's Law is Dead in his latest video, it seems that could be the case.

Halo Infinite's beta test is rolling out in a series of technical previews and "flights," and the first one could start as soon as next weekend.

343 Industries reveals more details about Halo Infinite's anticipated testing phases, confirming the first technical preview might kick off next weekend if everything goes well. That being said, the first testing phase is focused on AI, bots, and the new Academy mode, which focuses on drills and training. PVP won't be part of the first test. You'll be playing against AI-controlled bots instead.

"That said, we've been given the okay to say our first Bot-focused technical preview could happen as soon as next weekend. Prior to the flight starting, we're planning a live stream where we'll dive into the actual build and walk through nearly every facet of the technical preview,"343i said in a new Halo Waypoint post.