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Fallout 3 could be the first theme of Fallout 76's expeditions
Using a new Expeditions feature, Fallout 76 will borrow expansion plans from Elder Scrolls Online and incorporate locations and content from other Fallout games.
Fallout 76's Expeditions feature sounds pretty ambitious. Bethesda says Expeditions will "take users outside the current map" and that they're "very excited to make them." This could be similar to how ESO will eventually incorporate the whole of Tamriel's locations--on a smaller scale, of course. Expeditions may be more bite-sized instances where gamers travel to other locations from the Fallout series. If this is accurate, then Fallout 76 is here to stay for a long time.
Now we have evidence that Fallout 3's D.C. region will be one of these explorable regions. Unfinished assets of the D.C. region have been datamined from Fallout 76 by user eckserah, all but confirming that Bethesda is in early stages of prototyping Fallout 3 locales. One of the images clearly shows the Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. complete with the Washington Monument in the background, which also showed up in Fallout 3. These are test cells and not finalized content, so they might not show up in Fallout 76.
Continue reading: Fallout 3 could be the first theme of Fallout 76's expeditions (full post)
Doom Eternal director Hugo Martin once tried standup comedy
Every once in a while, developer live streams will reveal little tidbits about a creator's pasts. This time Doom Eternal game director Hugo Martin talks about his early comedy aspirations and how he wants to eventually teach future game directors and game developers.
Hugo Martin has had an interesting career. He's mostly known as game director on id's glorious metalhead fantasy Doom Eternal, but before that, Martin actually had a fledgling start as a standup comedian.
"I actually did standup comedy, and acting, then improv a little bit--which I was terrible at improv," Hugo Martin said in a recent Twitch stream. His set mostly consisted of dad jokes, and Hugo actually has a recording of the set...but don't expect to see it published on the internet.
Continue reading: Doom Eternal director Hugo Martin once tried standup comedy (full post)
New Uncharted in the works from Days Gone studio and Naughty Dog
A new Uncharted game has been in development since 2019, and Naughty Dog isn't the only team working on the project.
According to a new report from Bloomberg, a new Uncharted game entered development back in 2019 under two internal PlayStation studios. One of the teams from Sony Bend, the studio behind first-party game Days Gone, started work on the Uncharted project in 2019 as Naughty Dog geared up for The Last of Us Part II. This was shortly after Sony had shot down a pitch for Days Gone 2 and moved Sony Bend over to a franchise it wasn't necessarily familiar with--a move that caused worry and dropping morale among leadership.
Today, the fate of the Uncharted game remains unknown, but we do know Naughty Dog is working on The Last of Us 2's upcoming online mode. The report also mentions Sony Bend is helping out with this multiplayer gametype as well.
Continue reading: New Uncharted in the works from Days Gone studio and Naughty Dog (full post)
Naughty Dog wasn't originally leading new The Last of Us PS5 remake
Sony is funding a remake of The Last Of Us for the PlayStation 5, complete with next-gen optimizations. Although Naughty Dog is mostly leading development, the project started out as a way for a fledgling startup to prove itself to Sony.
A recent Bloomberg report highlights how Sony is doubling-down on marquee hits at the cost of developer morale. The story of the new Last of Us remake highlights Sony's current business trajectory.
According to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who spoke with sources close to the matter, the Last of Us remake didn't start off as a big project. It was a sort of proving grounds for a group of developers who wanted to earn recognition form Sony. The Last of Us wasn't chosen by Sony, but by the group, who were led by Sony's Visual Arts and Services Group director Michael Mumbauer. VASG is a kind of support studio responsible for putting critical animation work into Sony's biggest games.
Continue reading: Naughty Dog wasn't originally leading new The Last of Us PS5 remake (full post)
HTC just started trolling us with hints of a new headset
HTC recently launched a set of Vive-branded VR accessories, but it isn't done with the new announcements yet. It is now dropping hints that there's a new headset on the way.
HTC's marketing team had some fun on Friday. The HTC Vive Twitter account dropped a very dark image of a closeup of what appears to be an inside-out tracking camera on the edge of a headset.
The shot is cropped too tight, and the image has too much contrast to see any meaningful details. Attempts to enhance the image have been fruitless in uncovering anything else. Meanwhile, HTC also released a teaser on the Vive Blog, which cheekily confirms that a new headset is imminent.
Continue reading: HTC just started trolling us with hints of a new headset (full post)
Intel's new Sapphire Rapids CPU: PCIe 5.0 tech, 64GB of HBM2e memory
We are finding out some more information on Intel's next-gen Sapphire Rapids architecture, with the next-gen Xeon platform set to pack some juicy specs and technologies when it drops.
The new tease is from VideoCardz with an anonymous tipster sending a slide that shows the specifications of Intel's upcoming Sapphire Rapids platform. We're looking at up to 56 cores per CPU, DDR5 memory support, 64GB of HBM2e memory per socket (!!!), PCIe 5.0 support with up to 80 lanes of PCIe 5.0 goodness, and so much more.
Sapphire Rapids will scale between 1 and 8 sockets, so you will be able to cram in many of those 56-core CPUs into future supercomputers. But the most surprising things here are the 80 PCIe 5.0 lanes and 64GB of HBM2e memory on-package with up to 1TB/sec of memory bandwidth per socket. Delicious.
Continue reading: Intel's new Sapphire Rapids CPU: PCIe 5.0 tech, 64GB of HBM2e memory (full post)
AMD's new Radeon PRO with Navi 21 GPU + 16GB GDDR6 memory spotted
AMD is working on a next-gen Radeon PRO workstation graphics card, with a new leak teasing the first RDNA 2-powered workstation card. Check it out:
We are being told from the new rumors that AMD's new Radeon PRO workstation card packs 16GB of GDDR6 memory -- just like the flagship Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics cards. One of the labels on the cards teases that this model we're being shown is the "Full Secure TT GLXL" model and the "TT" definitely doesn't stand for TweakTown... or does it?!
AMD is using a blower-style cooler here with a dual-slot design, which is different to the thicker dual-fan reference Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics cards. We should expect lowered GPU clocks on the Radeon PRO versus the Radeon RX gaming graphics cards, with under 250W TBP expected.
Continue reading: AMD's new Radeon PRO with Navi 21 GPU + 16GB GDDR6 memory spotted (full post)
NVIDIA CEO will host GTC 2021 keynote from his personal kitchen
It's not the first time it has happened, and it might not be the last time it'll happen -- but NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang will be hosting the GPU Technology Conference 2021 keynote from his personal kitchen.
NVIDIA has announced: "The keynote, delivered again from the kitchen in Huang's home, will kick off a conference with more than 1,500 sessions covering just about every innovation - from quantum computing to AI - that benefits from moving faster".
GTC 2021 will kick off on April 12 @ 8:30 AM PST, where we should hopefully see NVIDIA unveil a bunch of new products, talk about their current successes, and everything in between. GTC isn't a gaming-focused event so there shouldn't be a new GeForce graphics card, but rather new workstation-focused Quadro graphics cards, new Tesla accelerators, and more.
Continue reading: NVIDIA CEO will host GTC 2021 keynote from his personal kitchen (full post)
This new Grand Theft Auto IV mod adds 4K textures to buildings, people
If you're still playing Grand Theft Auto IV then you might want to check out the latest 4K2K Allaga Graphics Mod, which provides some kick ass new high quality textures for some buildings and characters in the game.
The idea behind the mod is to replace all of the game's textures over time, but the version that we see now is damn impressive with the mod enabled. 4K2K Allaga Graphics Mod creator 'okanto' explains: "The purpose of the mod is to improve all textures in the game. At the moment I am increasing the resolution of buildings and characters and then I will replace some with better ones and improve characters and effects".
This is a very early version of the mod and the creator notes that he "doesn't have a lot of textures" but I'm sure that will change over time if this mod gains popularity. Anything to keep us going until Grand Theft Auto 6 is finally announced, and a few years from now finally released.
Continue reading: This new Grand Theft Auto IV mod adds 4K textures to buildings, people (full post)
NVIDIA has 'hidden treasure' in GTC 2021 marketing, what does it mean?
NVIDIA's upcoming GPU Technology Conference 2021 is about to kick off, with the company teasing people with a GTC 2021 Scavenger Hunt with some "hidden treasures" to be found.
The first discovery of NVIDIA's surprise "hidden treasures" for GTC 2021 were unearthed by Wccftech, confirmed by VideoCardz where there is a hidden message inside of the NVIDIA GTC 2021 marketing videos. The light bulbs on the video above are attached to a neural network pattern blink in a pattern... which is of course Morse Code.
The NVIDIA hidden treasure was worked out, and was a webpage that NVIDIA congratulates you for finding, saying "You've discovered our first hidden treasure. We love rewarding curious minds. On Monday, April 12 (8:30 a.m. Pacific), the NVIDIA GTC keynote will go live and we thought we'd have a little bit of fun by adding a few "Easter eggs." These are clues & hidden treasures for those with eagle eyes to discover".
Continue reading: NVIDIA has 'hidden treasure' in GTC 2021 marketing, what does it mean? (full post)
Lenovo's custom Radeon RX 6900 XT LEGION is gigantic, and I want one
We saw our first tease of the new custom Lenovo Radeon RX 6900 XT LEGION graphics card in February, but the card is now here and being tested in Lenovo LEGION gaming PCs. Check out the Lenovo Radeon RX 6900 XT LEGION:
Lenovo is heavily inspired by AMD's own wicked Radeon VII reference graphics card design, with a triple-fan, triple-slot card that has a full custom cooling solution and non-reference PCB. Lenovo is tapping dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors, unlike some of the custom Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics cards which require another 6 or 8-pin PCIe power connector. Not bad, Lenovo.
The company uses a different dark design with their Lenovo Radeon RX 6900 XT LEGION graphics card, compared to AMD using a silver design theme with its reference Radeon VII graphics card. Lenovo will be using this design for both the Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6900 XT LEGION graphics cards.
Continue reading: Lenovo's custom Radeon RX 6900 XT LEGION is gigantic, and I want one (full post)
Report: Sony is chasing sales at the cost of morale of its creatives
Sony's emphasis on best-selling games is weighing heavy on the developers that make them--and teams that want to work on other projects.
A new report from Bloomberg highlights Sony's plans for the PlayStation brand. In lieu of a business-changing service like Game Pass, which fosters creativity by virtual of organic discovery, monetization, and full game purchases, Sony is instead doubling-down on its strengths: Big marquee first-party games that sell millions of copies.
Sony's games are lauded for their high production values, stellar art and animation, and mature themes, but these awards come at a very real human cost. Games like Naughty Dog's Uncharted and The Last of Us series require grueling overtime and crunch in order to achieve lifelike reactivity and dazzling visuals. The payoff is big: In 2020, Sony made over $22.7 billion from its games division. Like Nintendo, Sony has proven that exclusives push platform and full game sales to billion-dollar heights.
Continue reading: Report: Sony is chasing sales at the cost of morale of its creatives (full post)
Diablo 2 Resurrected shows mercenary skill levels and damage
Diablo 2 Resurrected is filled with all sorts of quality-of-life improvements including a shared stash, a comparison tab, auto gold pickup, and now an awesome new mercenary feature.
As seen in a recent Dbrunski125 stream, Diablo 2 Resurrected shows more stats on your mercenary sidekick. Opening up the merc tab now shows the exact level and damage of their skills and abilities, including active attacks as well as any auras they use in battle. This is great for those Act 2 mercs with their holy freeze, thorns, might, and blessed aim auras.
Previously in Lord of Destruction gamers could only see basic stats like health, experience, strength/dex and damage and defense, and resistances. Now D2R adds a neat little skill tab so you can check out your mercs abilities in real-time. It's a nice bonus if you equip +skill gear to your merc like Andariel's Visage.
Continue reading: Diablo 2 Resurrected shows mercenary skill levels and damage (full post)
HP's Reverb G2 Omnicept Edition costs more than double the Reverb G2
HP this week revealed the price of its upcoming Reverb G2 Omnicept Edition. The new enterprise-focused VR headset includes various biometric sensors that are not included with the standard Reverb G2, and they come at a high cost.
HP first revealed the Omnicept Edition of its Reverb G2 VR headset in September of last year. The headset is based on the HP Reverb G2, which features dual 4K displays and Valve's over-the-ear speaker solution. The Omnicept Edition builds on that base and adds several biometric sensors to unlock advanced features for business uses.
The Omnicept Edition includes a pair of eye-tracking sensors from Tobii, which enable features like foveated rendering for improved performance. The eye-tracking sensors can also provide useful information about the user's level of focus and attention. HP also included a heartrate monitor, which in conjunction with the eye-tracker, can help determine a user's cognitive load level.
Continue reading: HP's Reverb G2 Omnicept Edition costs more than double the Reverb G2 (full post)
Alienware's new laptop packs AMD Ryzen CPU and NVIDIA GeForce GPU
Dell has just announced new Ryzen 5000 editions of their flagship Alienware M15 gaming laptops, with the regular Alienware M15 R5 gaming laptops packing an Intel CPU -- these new mobile offerings pack an AMD Ryzen 5000 series CPU.
The new Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition gaming laptop has an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor for starters, joined by 16GB of RAM (upgradable to 32GB) with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060. You can tweak the Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition gaming laptop with up to 32GB of RAM, up to the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor, and up to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 if you wanted the additional silicon grunt.
Alienware provides users with 3 different 15-inch display options, with 2 x 1080p options but with different refresh rates: 1080p @ 165Hz or 1080p @ 360Hz -- meanwhile, you can upgrade up to the 1440p resolution @ 240Hz which I think would be a much better option.
Continue reading: Alienware's new laptop packs AMD Ryzen CPU and NVIDIA GeForce GPU (full post)
ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 laptop: the first-ever 16-inch laptop from ASUS
ASUS is about to launch its first-ever 16-inch laptop with the new ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 gaming laptop, that packs Intel's soon-to-be-launched Tiger Lake-H processor, and a 16:10 aspect 144Hz refresh rate display.
The new ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 gaming laptop rocks a 16-inch 16:10 display with a huge 94% screen-to-body ratio, with ASUS offering the new gaming laptop with a 1920 x 1200 (1200p) resolution, as well as a 2560 x 1440 (1440p) resolution option -- both displays have a 144Hz refresh and Adaptive Sync technology.
Inside, ASUS offers up the Intel Core i7-11800H or Core i9-11900H Tiger Lake-H processors, with both CPUs coming with 8 cores and 16 threads. ASUS packs in 16GB of DDR4 memory, and a super-fast 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD -- as for the GPU, we're looking at options of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3050 Ti, GeForce RTX 3060, and GeForce RTX 3070 graphics cards.
Continue reading: ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 laptop: the first-ever 16-inch laptop from ASUS (full post)
Neuralink shows monkey playing pong with his MIND with brain implant
Elon Musk said 4 years ago that he wanted to end languages for human beings with brain implants with his company Neuralink, fast forward to 2020 and Musk said human trials of the brain implant were coming... and now they have a monkey playing pong with his mind. Wow. Check it out:
9-year-old monkey Pager learns how to control the computer and use the joystick to move the ball around on the screen to match up with the orange square, and gets rewarded when he does this with a "tasty banana smoothie, delivered through a straw". While Pager learns how to play the game, the Neuralink team have been pulling data from the chip in his brain.
Once Pager is familiar with the control system, Neuralink disconnected the joystick and Pager was still playing Pong -- but with just his brain. The brain-computer interface, or BCI, is doing the rest -- allowing Pager to control the computer with just his thoughts. The team at Neuralink say this is going to be perfect technology for those who have lost a limb and get a prosthetic installed, which they will eventually be able to control through a BCI.
Continue reading: Neuralink shows monkey playing pong with his MIND with brain implant (full post)
AMD launches Radeon RX 6800 XT 'Midnight Black' all-black Big Navi GPU
AMD surprise launched a new Radeon RX 6800 XT Midnight Black graphics card today, which sold out as quickly as it was announced.
The new AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Midnight Black edition is an all-black Big Navi graphics card launched on the AMD.com webstore, with super limited quantities -- we don't know if it'll come back since it sold out so quickly, but I wouldn't be holding my breath for that one.
As for the card itself, it's the same Radeon RX 6800 XT reference graphics card but dipped in the all-black "Midnight Black" theme. We still have the Navi 21 XT GPU with 4608 Stream Processors, 16GB of GDDR6 memory and 128MB of Infinity Cache, dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors using up to 300W of power, and a 2.5-sloit design with a cost of $649.
Continue reading: AMD launches Radeon RX 6800 XT 'Midnight Black' all-black Big Navi GPU (full post)
NVIDIA rumored to resurrect GeForce GTX 1080 Ti amid GPU shortages
What? Is that headline real? April Fools is over, right?!
Yes, you read that right -- NVIDIA is rumored to bring the flagship Pascal-based GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card because of the huge GPU shortages worldwide. You can't buy an Ampere GPU right now with most GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards, and the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is still a killer graphics card so it kinda makes sense... right?
The news is coming from someone who returned their EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti SC graphics card under warranty, with the returned GPU saying it was manufactured in 2021. Yeah... a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card manufactured this year. This actually could make a lot of sense given the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti still kicks so much ass today in 2021, but what about the price if it re-launched?
Continue reading: NVIDIA rumored to resurrect GeForce GTX 1080 Ti amid GPU shortages (full post)
Grand Theft Auto 6 announcement could be imminent, new website teased
Rockstar Games is still a while away from the launch of Grand Theft Auto 6, but we know the game is in development -- but is it close to the reveal? Possibly, maybe not, we don't know.
But the developer has fueled new rumors thanks to a new website that is either for Grand Theft Auto 6, or possibly new content for the phenomenally successful GTA Online. Rockstar posted a news page for Naturalist rewards in Red Dead Redemption Online and 24 hours later teased the GTA community with a webpage numbered 62005 with an error code of "e398" when you click it.
Grand Theft Auto leaker "Tez2" suggests that the mysterious webpage is for upcoming GTA Online content, but GTA fans want it -- so badly -- to be something related to GTA 6. Tez2 explains on the GTA forums: "So, Rockstar skipped an article once again. Could mean nothing or simply reserved for a 'GTA Online Job Spotlight' article etc. Heck, may not even have to do with GTA Online".
Continue reading: Grand Theft Auto 6 announcement could be imminent, new website teased (full post)






















