Latest News - Page 1448

Elon Musk will be hosting Saturday Night Live on May 8 and with it is a storm of controversy brewing just off the coast, with Musk's appearance on SNL triggering some cast members.

SNL cast members won't be forced to appear alongside Musk on May 8 when he hosts the show, which Musk has teased that he wanted to see "just how live Saturday Night Live really is". I guess this has broken the programming of the SNL cast members brains, with a source telling Page Six: "Speaking historically, if a cast member has been that unhappy, they don't have to do it. ['SNL' boss Lorne Michaels] won't ever make them do anything they don't want to do".

Musk followed him his tweet announcing he'd be hosting SNL with another tweet on April 28 which simply read "The Dogefather SNL May 8" which sent the price of Dogecoin pumping upwards.

Facebook today announced that it acquired Downpour Interactive, the independent game studio that created the popular VR war simulator Onward. Facebook said this move would give Downpour the resources to improve the game even further.

Onward is one of the most popular VR games. Downpour Interactive originally released the game on PC VR platforms, where it saw great success on both the Oculus and SteamVR ecosystems. Recently, the developer ported the game over to the Oculus Quest platform, which exposed a much wider audience to the game.

Facebook recognized the Downpour Interactive is one of the pioneers behind social VR experiences. Under the Oculus Studios umbrella, Downpour will have the resources to take Onward to greater heights. Facebook also said the move would give Downpour the ability to pursue future projects.

Crytek has just pushed out its new PC Update 2.1.2 for Crysis Remastered, which adds in a new "experimental Ray Tracing Boost" mode into the game.

The developer took to Reddit to detail the new Crysis Remastered patch, with the new experimental Ray Tracing Boost mode enabling RT reflections on "nearly all surfaces in game" with "Ray randomization has enabled for proper support of rough surfaces" and "about 5% of specular reflectance has been added by default to all surfaces".

Crytek explains: "During the development of Crysis Remastered, the team came up with the concept of adding a boost to RayTracing. This boost mode is more of a fun/experimental feature that we wanted to bring to all the RayTracing enthusiasts out there, to give more effects with minimal impact on performance. This option has been added to the in-game Graphic settings menu and can only be activated when Global Raytracing option is enabled".

Intel's next-gen Sapphire Rapids Xeon CPU has been spotted with an MCM (multi-chip module) design packing an insane 80 cores in a new shot of an engineering sample of the CPU.

The new photo turned up on Bilibili with the 4th Gen Sapphire Rapids Xeon CPU featuring an MCM design with 5x4 configuration -- which works out that each die has up to 80 cores, but we probably won't see the full 80-core silicon ever being released due to the mesh layout.

Wccftech reports that theoretically, the new Intel Sapphire Rapids-SP Xeon CPUs "could feature" a maximum of 72 cores and 144 threads, but we could see them tap out at 56 cores and 112 threads. Another leak pointed to the fact of an engineering sample with 60 cores (15 cores per die, with a 5x3 layout) while the CPU itself had just 56 cores and 112 threads enabled (14 cores per die).

NVIDIA is less than 3 weeks away from the unleashing of its new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card, with MSI's new flagship GeForce RTX 3080 Ti SUPRIM X spotted a little early. Check it out:

We have already seen MSI's custom GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Ventus 3X OC listed online, but this is the flagship big daddy SUPRIM X version of the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. VideoCardz had the image sent to them by a source, who said that the photo is from a distribution center.

MSI's flagship SUPRIM X range are the company's new flagship line above the GAMING X TRIO family of custom cards, with super-premium styling and a polished finish from MSI that is a step above the rest. The new MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Ti SUPRIM X should be one of the best custom GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards that you will (hopefully) be able to buy.

Intel Inside has been a marketing term for what feels like forever, but now Intel is Inside of NASA's Perseverance rover that is rolling around on Mars -- not only is Intel inside, but so is SSD controller giant Phison.

Inside of the Perseverance rover is a credit-card-sized computing module that stores, and sends the photos we've been seeing from the Red Planet back to our Pale Blue Dot. The module itself is running Linux, and is powered by an Intel Atom (BayTrail) processor -- the module was made by Israel-based CompuLab in the form of the COMEX-IE38.

There are 2 x COMEX-IE38 modules inside of the NASA Perseverance rover, an off-the-shelf product that you could buy from CompuLab for around $150. There are 23 cameras on the Perseverance rover, with the data from each individual camera being fed in raw format to the DSU (data storage units) through an Ethernet link, compressed by the COMEX-IE38 module, and then stored on a 480GB SSD (thanks to Phison and its PSS4A111-8G) and then blasted back to NASA engineers back on Earth.

The Zelda franchise turns 35 this year (feel old yet?) and Nintendo should release a bunch of games to celebrate.

The Twilight Princess and Wind Waker remasters may not be the only Zelda games coming to Switch this year. There's speculation that Nintendo will also drop N64 hits Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask in 2021 as well. It's possible these games will launch as straight re-releases on the Nintendo eShop and won't get the remaster treatment and instead just launch as Virtual Console titles.

The tidbit comes from YouTuber NateDrake, but this seems like a no-brainer from Nintendo.

Halo Infinite will shine bright on PC as Microsoft and 343 Industries double-down on high-end optimizations for today's top enthusiast hardware.

343i is taking the PC version of Halo Infinite very seriously. The game will support a myriad of options and high-end optimizations on the platform, with tons of graphics settings, uncapped FPS, 4K resolution support with native UHD textures, and even support for 21:9 and 32:9 aspect ratios. There's 120 FOV options, dynamic resolution scaling, anti-aliasing and refresh rate toggles, etc.

The studio says Infinite will run on a range of PC hardware, from lower-end rigs with older GPUs and CPUs to today's high-end hardware including NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 30 series and AMD's RX 6000 series graphics cards.

Xbox is breaking down platform barriers and Halo Infinite will have extensive cross-support on consoles and PC.

343 Industries is going all out with Halo Infinite. There's plans to optimize the shooter on two Xbox console gens and PC, complete with ultra (and super) wide monitor support, uncapped FPS, and high-end 4K textures. Apart from the performance, the game will have extensive cross-platform features to make multiplayer more accessible than ever.

Microsoft recently confirmed Halo Infinite will have cross-play between consoles and PC, as well as cross-gen saves and cross-progression regardless of which system you play on. The latter make sense considering all Xbox games save to the cloud network and all stats and unlockables are account-based and stored on online servers.

Microtransactions find their way into Doom Eternal a year after release, despite id's assurance no paid cosmetics would be in the game.

Shortly before Doom Eternal's release, game director Hugo Martin said there would be no store or paid skins. Now a year after launch, Bethesda has apparently changed its mind because Doom Eternal just got paid skin packs. There's two microtransaction packs available: the Doomicorn cosmetic pack for $4.99, and the Series One Pack for $8.99 that unlocks a ton of skins.

These skins, cosmetics, and customizables are unlocked by earning XP from challenges and secrets in the game itself. Before gamers had to spend time to unlock these items, but now they can pay money for a quick shortcut. The timing is quite interesting, especially now that Microsoft owns Bethesda Softworks. Microsoft is known for monetizing its games and baking in live service elements that line up with Game Pass.

UPDATE: Another SEC filing confirms Activision CEO Bobby Kotick's base salary is now $875,000 a year.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is among the highest-paid CEOs in the games industry. That's about to change.

A new 8K Form filed by Activision outlines the big changes coming to its CEO's payout. According to the SEC filing, both company CEO Bobby Kotick and the internal compensation committee have agreed to reduce Kotick's base salary by 50%. Kotick's yearly performance-based annual bonuses will also be cut by 50% , and Activision estimates this could slice as much as $3.25 million from Kotick's bonus.

The new v1.21 update for Assassin's Creed Valhalla fixes a ton of bugs, adds in a bunch of fish, and allows gamers to transmog Altair's armor.

A bit ago Ubisoft gave out Altair's armor for free in AC Valhalla. The armor looks rad, but the stats are pretty bad and it's not worth using. Now gamers can look like the OG assassin without sacrificing defense and other stats. As part of Valhalla's new 1.21 update, Altair's armor has been added as a template game's appearance transmogrification system, so now you can make any of your high-end upgraded armors look like Altair's cloak-and-hood combo.

The update also adds three new skills to the constellation tree that expand Eivor's combat prowess--two of which have uninterruptable attacks--and a metric ton of bugfixes for quests, textures, and other glitches/issues. Another gigantic change is the addition of all the game's missing fish.

Valheim publisher Coffee Stain has one clear goal with its games: Don't monetize players and dilute the core experience.

Valheim is gaming's most recent breakout indie sensation. The game has sold a staggering 6 million copies in little over two months (more than some mainline games sell in their entire lifetimes) thanks to viral community-driven success. It's to the point where the five-person team at Iron Gate Studios can barely keep up with the bug reports and quests.

The game's staggering sales has taught Valheim's publishing label Coffee Stain an important lesson about monetization--or more specifically, the lack thereof. Microtransactions are great for EA and Take-Two, but gamers respect indies that don't use them. According to CEO Albert Safstrom, this stance on mTX will continue with all future Coffee Stain games.

The Call of Duty franchise has sold 400 million copies to date, making it the third best-selling franchise of all time, Activision has confirmed.

Over the last 18 years, Call of Duty has grown into gaming's premiere shooter franchise. The powerhouse FPS generates billions every year for Activision from sales and microtransactions (it made $3 billion last year), and recently hit two major milestones: 100 million players in Warzone and a whopping 400 million lifetime sales.

These numbers solidify Call of Duty as the third best-selling franchise of all time. CoD sits at #3 out of gaming's 10 top-selling IPs, beating out other mega-hits like Pokemon (368 million), FIFA (325 million) and Grand Theft Auto (320 million). Activision has released 23 Call of Duty games to date and will continue its annual cadence for the foreseeable future with Sledgehammer's new Call of Duty Vanguard release for 2021.

What if Resident Evil Village was a public access puppet show from the early 90s? Capcom answers this obscure question.

Capcom just put out a video that opens up a strange doorway to an alternate universe, a place where Saturday morning kids shows converge with gothic horror. Introducing the Resident Evil Village puppet show, a hilarious and bewildering spectacle with singing, colorful puppets, and a cute Lady Dimitrescu that paints with a bucket of blood, drinks it, and goes into a murderous rage. At one point the Van Helsing look-a-like chainsaws the Igor-monster's butt, which then sprays blood everywhere.

There's even a technical difficulties cutaway sign from those old days of puppet shows.

If you are a Coinbase user, you will now be glad to know that you can make purchases of cryptocurrency with PayPal.

Coinbase has recently announced that it will be allowing its customers that are based in the United States to make purchases of cryptocurrency by using debit cards and bank accounts that are linked to their PayPal accounts. Coinbase has said that being able to purchase cryptocurrency via PayPal adds a new way of purchasing crypto on the platform that dodges the traditional wire transfer method.

Coinbase users will reportedly be able to "buy crypto instantly" without having to link any bank account information or credit card information to exchange. Purchasing crypto via the PayPal method has a daily cap of $25,000. Coinbase has only made this feature available to users in the US. However, the exchange platform plans on releasing this feature to more countries "in the coming months". For more information on this story, check out this link here.

Millions of Americans are currently struggling financially because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and while there have previously been stimulus payments rolled out, a fourth one may not be entirely out of the question.

The Biden administration is currently piecing together a new stimulus package that may include another round of relief payments directed at Americans that the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the hardest. Back on March 31st, nearly two dozen Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to President Biden requesting implementing recurring payments in the next stimulus package.

Democratic lawmakers are requesting recurring direct payments to Americans because evidence shows that direct payments played a pivotal role in keeping millions of Americans out of poverty. A new report from CNET has speculated the different ways a fourth stimulus check could be rolled out to Americans. The four possibilities are as follows; recurring stimulus payments, minimum wage hike, make the child tax credit raise permanent, or renew federal unemployment payments beyond September.

At some point, everything will come to an end, and Earth won't exist anymore, but where is that ending, and how will it be caused?

A new article published in the journal Frontiers in Conservation Science by Corey Bradshaw, a scientist working in the ecology field at Flinders University and has published over 260 peer-reviewed scientific articles, has said that humanity is causing a rapid loss of biodiversity.

Through this human-induced rapid loss of biodiversity, Bradshaw says that Earth is losing its ability to support complex life. "But the mainstream is having difficulty grasping the magnitude of this loss, despite the steady erosion of the fabric of human civilization", said Bradshaw. Additionally, the article mentions that the world's economic and political systems are currently focusing on short-term solutions to problems that present themselves, which causes long-term problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecological destruction to go unnoticed.

Adam Sandler has left an IHOP after a worker asked him to kindly wait for a table as the restaurant was too busy.

The moments were captured in a now-viral TikTok video that shows the IHOP worker, Dayanna Rodas, showing off the security footage of her unknowingly turning away Sandler. Rodas said that she told Sandler that he would have to wait 30 minutes to get a table, which resulted in him walking out with a young woman believed to be his daughter.

The TikTok has since been viewed more than 8 million times since this last Monday, and many people in the comments have praised Rodas for not giving Sandler special treatment for being a Hollywood movie star. Sandler also received praise from people in the comments for not droppings his celebrity status to skip the queue and for the relaxed attire, he chose to wear. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

A new recall has appeared on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) website, and this time it's for numerous products from Velvet Ice Cream.

The voluntary recall has been issued for dozens of Velvet Ice Cream's products, and it ranges across multiple different flavors. The reason for the recall is that the products are potentially contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, which is an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, according to the FDA.

Listeria infections can also be fatal for the elderly and anyone else that has a weakened immune system. So far, no illness has been linked to the recalled products that were sold in the following states; Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia. The recalled products come in a variety of different sizes and containers, but all of the recalled products were "distributed and sold in supermarkets from on or after March 24, 2021." The following product codes have been recalled.