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Wonder Woman 1984 will debut on HBO Max on Christmas Day

Anthony Garreffa | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Nov 18, 2020 7:22 PM CST

I wrote an article just under a week ago, saying Wonder Woman 1984 debuting on HBO Max could be just what we need -- and it seems I was right.

Wonder Woman 1984 will debut on HBO Max on Christmas Day

Warner Bros. Pictures have just announced that Wonder Woman 1984, after many delays related to COVID-19, we have a new release date: Christmas Day, or December 25, 2020. Overseas, Wonder Woman 1984 will debut in cinemas on December 16 in markets where HBO Max isn't available.

Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins explains: "The time has come. At some point you have to choose to share any love and joy you have to give, over everything else. We love our move as we love our fans, so we truly hope that our film brings a little bit of joy and reprieve to all of you this holiday season".

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Continue reading: Wonder Woman 1984 will debut on HBO Max on Christmas Day (full post)

THQ Nordic (The Embracer Group) now owns 214 game IPs and franchises

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Nov 18, 2020 6:32 PM CST

Following a huge acquisition buyout of 11 new game studios, THQ Nordic (aka The Embracer Group) now owns a staggering 214 game IPs and franchises.

THQ Nordic (The Embracer Group) now owns 214 game IPs and franchises

Last night THQ Nordic grew quite a bit. The publisher purchased 11 independent studios ranging from mobile games-makers like A Thinking Ape to noteworthy teams like Shadow Warrior's Flying Wild Hog. Following the buyout, the company's IP library grew by 40 franchises.

At the time of writing, THQ Nordic has 214 game IPs as its disposal. The publisher has 114 total development teams, of which 58 are internal and 56 are external. There's also 4,367 current game developers across both segments.

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Continue reading: THQ Nordic (The Embracer Group) now owns 214 game IPs and franchises (full post)

Microsoft not ready to commit to $69.99 priced first-party games

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Nov 18, 2020 5:37 PM CST

Microsoft could raise the price of its first-party Series S/X exclusives to $69.99, but for now they're staying at $59.99.

Microsoft not ready to commit to $69.99 priced first-party games

While publishers like Activision, Take-Two, and even Sony are charging a $69.99 premium for next-gen titles, Microsoft still maintains the normal $59.99 MSRP. As it stands, Microsoft isn't ready to announce details. After all, there's no Xbox Series X/S exclusives on the market right now--next-gen Xbox exclusives won't happen until 2022 or thereabouts. Other publishers like EA, Capcom, and Ubisoft have all avoided the price jump. But how long will this last?

At the recent Jefferies Interactive Entertainment conference earlier this month, Microsoft CFO Tim Stuart says it's "about time" for a price increase, but also avoids confirming a $69.99 MSRP for new games. Stuart also says Game Pass is an extra layer of monetization that could help offset a new premium cost.

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Continue reading: Microsoft not ready to commit to $69.99 priced first-party games (full post)

Can't find a PS5? Try this tiny Philadelphia cheesecake PS5 instead

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Nov 18, 2020 4:40 PM CST

Kraft pokes fun at Sony and Microsoft with the Philly Series 5, a new cheesecake kit that comes in the shape of a PS5.

Can't find a PS5? Try this tiny Philadelphia cheesecake PS5 instead

Ever wanted to eat the PS5? Sony won't let you, but Philadelphia cream cheese has you covered with the Philly Series 5. It's a $4.99 cheesecake kit that comes with white chocolate and cream cheese that you mix in a special mold and cover with cookie crumbles. Once it's finished, slap on the curved pans for some stylish next-gen cheese action.

This model is right up there with the KFConsole, which can hit 4K 120FPS while it cooks your chicken at the same time.

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Continue reading: Can't find a PS5? Try this tiny Philadelphia cheesecake PS5 instead (full post)

Xbox Series X/S sold 155,000 consoles during launch week in UK

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Nov 18, 2020 3:46 PM CST

The new Xbox Series X/S duo has smashed current sales records and is now the best-selling launch in Xbox history. Now we have some figures to accompany this milestone.

Xbox Series X/S sold 155,000 consoles during launch week in UK

A bit ago, Microsoft hailed the Series X/S launch as the best-ever for Xbox hardware. Now reports say the next-gen Xbox duo has sold 155,000 units in the United Kingdom, which pushes it past the Xbox One. According to figures provided by Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, the Series X/S had the fourth best UK launch out of the last 3 generations of hardware.

Sadly we won't ever get official numbers from Microsoft. Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently confirmed that sales figures won't be shared again. For Microsoft, services are far more important than hardware purchases. Oddly enough, MS did confirm the Series S is leading over Series X purchases. With the Series S' more affordable $299 price tag, this makes sense.

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Continue reading: Xbox Series X/S sold 155,000 consoles during launch week in UK (full post)

PS5 doesn't play PS4 game demos--that's why P.T. isn't supported

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Nov 18, 2020 10:32 AM CST

P.T. isn't playable on the PlayStation 5, but now we actually know why.

PS5 doesn't play PS4 game demos--that's why P.T. isn't supported

I noticed something interesting when checking out my PSN games library on my PS5: PS4 game demos aren't backwards compatible. It's not just P.T. that's unplayable. None of the game demos I had previously downloaded on my account were playable or even downloadable on the PS5, including Resident Evil 7, NieR Automata, FIFA 14, NBA Live 14, Titanfall 2, Doom, Battlefront, NiOh 2, or even Medieval.

This would explain why P.T. isn't compatible on the PlayStation 5. We're not 100% sure why the demos aren't playable or what's stepping in the way of backward compatibility.

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Continue reading: PS5 doesn't play PS4 game demos--that's why P.T. isn't supported (full post)

NVIDIA's new DGX Station A100: 4 x GPUs with 320GB of HBM2e total

Anthony Garreffa | Graphics Cards | Nov 18, 2020 1:22 AM CST

NVIDIA has just announced its new second-gen DGX Station A100 server, which is powered by the new Ampere A100 Tensor Core GPUs. Check out the awesome video on it below:

NVIDIA's new DGX Station A100: 4 x GPUs with 320GB of HBM2e total

The newly-upgraded NVIDIA DGX Station A100 is for those working with AI, machine learning and data science workloads. It is the fastest server in a box dedicated to AI research. Inside, were looking at up to 4 x A100 Tensor Core GPUs with 80GB of HBM2e each -- so 320GB of HBM2e memory in total.

We also have a 64-core, 128-thread AMD EPYC CPU, up to 512GB of system memory, up to 7.68TB of NVMe M.2 SSDs for storage. You'll also have 3rd-gen NVLink, 200GB/sec bi-directional bandwidth between any GPU pair, and a kick ass new maintenance-free refrigerant cooling system.

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Continue reading: NVIDIA's new DGX Station A100: 4 x GPUs with 320GB of HBM2e total (full post)

Intel Core i9-11900K teased: 8C/16T at up to 4.8GHz all-core CPU boost

Anthony Garreffa | Processors | Nov 17, 2020 9:00 PM CST

Intel teased its next-gen Rocket Lake-S processor family back in early-October, trying to get ahead of AMD's stomping with Zen 3 -- and now we're hearing some early specs on the new Core i9-11900K processor.

Intel Core i9-11900K teased: 8C/16T at up to 4.8GHz all-core CPU boost

A new tweet on Twitter has teased the 11th Gen Core family of CPUs, that Intel will reportedly release as the Core i5-1140, Core i5-11600K, Core i7-11700K, and the flagship Core i9-11900K. They'll all have varying clock speeds and cache amounts, obviously.

But it's the flagship Core i9-11900K that we are looking at here, which is a drop down on the current Core i9-10900K in pure core count -- 8C/16T on the Core i9-11900K versus 10C/20T on the Core i9-10900K. What we do have here is 100MHz on top of the single-core CPU boost (5.3GHz versus 5.2GHz) and 20MB of L3 cache versus 16MB of L3 cache.

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Continue reading: Intel Core i9-11900K teased: 8C/16T at up to 4.8GHz all-core CPU boost (full post)

NVIDIA DLSS in COD: Black Ops Cold War boosts 4K perf by insane 85%

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Nov 17, 2020 8:31 PM CST

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is now here, but unlike Call of Duty: Modern Warfare -- the new COD features NVIDIA's DLSS technology -- or Deep Learning Super Sampling. It has some major performance boosts, as NVIDIA shows here:

NVIDIA DLSS in COD: Black Ops Cold War boosts 4K perf by insane 85%

Yeah, you can see that the GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card -- a card that costs $1499 by the way, can run Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War at 4K and over 120FPS with DLSS "performance mode" enabled. The lower-end and now previous-gen GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER goes from just 39FPS to 76FPS with DLSS enabled.

Now remember this is even with ray tracing enabled which is impressive -- with the new GeForce RTX 3070 going from 46FPS to 85FPS, the RTX 2080 Ti from 50FPS to 98FPS (!!!) and the RTX 3080 from 60FPS to 114FPS (!!!). Impressive gains across the board in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War with DLSS enabled.

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Continue reading: NVIDIA DLSS in COD: Black Ops Cold War boosts 4K perf by insane 85% (full post)

Don't have a PlayStation 5? Try it out in this new PS5 Simulator game

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Nov 17, 2020 8:00 PM CST

Oh, you don't have a PlayStation 5? Well, thankfully you're in luck -- there's a PS5 Simulator game that lets you unbox it, and try it out! Check it out:

Don't have a PlayStation 5? Try it out in this new PS5 Simulator game

PS5 Simulator sees your PlayStation 5 delivered to your door where you'll need to grab the package, and unbox it. Once the PlayStation 5 is out of the box, you'll need to plug it into the TV -- with your HDMI cable included, you'll need to plug that in to receive signal from your PS5.

You will get to use, or throw around the PS5 Dual Sense controller, and plug it in to charge remember -- they don't ship with a full battery.

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Continue reading: Don't have a PlayStation 5? Try it out in this new PS5 Simulator game (full post)

You may not be able to buy an Xbox Series X until at least April 2021

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Nov 17, 2020 7:30 PM CST

If you haven't already received your pre-ordered Xbox Series X, or aren't on a new pre-order list -- then you will be waiting at least 6 more months to buy Microsoft's latest and greatest console.

You may not be able to buy an Xbox Series X until at least April 2021

In a new interview with Xbox CFO Tim Stuart at the recent Jefferies Interactive Entertainment Virtual Conference, who said: "I think we'll continue to see supply shortages as we head into the post-holiday quarter, so Microsoft's Q3, calendar Q1. We're gonna have more demand than we do supply, and I'll apologize in advance to people for that. I think we're gonna live in that world for a few months that we're going to have a lot more demand than we do supply"

"When we get to Q4, all of our supply chain [is] continuing to go full speed heading into kind of the pre-summer months. And that's where I start to - I expect to see a little bit of the demand - the supply profile, meeting the demand profile".

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Continue reading: You may not be able to buy an Xbox Series X until at least April 2021 (full post)

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the best-selling AC game in history

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Nov 17, 2020 4:21 PM CST

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the best-selling game in the franchise so far, beating first week sales of Origins, Odyssey, and all prior titles.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the best-selling AC game in history

Ubisoft's new Viking-themed Assasssin's Creed is absolutely killing it right now. The publisher announced that Valhalla had the best release sales out of any other game in the series, and was the biggest PC release of all time. Valhalla's PC launch wasn't just better than other AC games--it was better than every other Ubisoft game.

Ubisoft didn't confirm sales, but the game's cross-gen availability had a lot to do with its success. Valhalla is a must-have launch game on both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, especially when playing in 4K 60FPS. The ultra-fast loading, amazing graphics, fluid gameplay, and dazzling 9th century historical recreations make it a picturesque proof-of-concept next-gen title.

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Cyberpunk 2077 is a two disc game on PS4, clocks in at 70GB

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Nov 17, 2020 2:15 PM CST

Cyberpunk 2077 is the biggest game CD Projekt RED has ever made. Luckily its storage footprint doesn't make the game's scope.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a two disc game on PS4, clocks in at 70GB

According to new leaked images, Cyberpunk 2077 will ship on two Blu-ray discs on PS4. The back of the box says a minimum 70GB install for both discs, but the game is expected to get bigger with day one updates (and post-launch DLC).

All things considered this install size isn't so bad. Games like Final Fantasy XV (79GB), Final Fantasy VII Remake (85GB), and Red Dead Redemption II (105GB) all command huge space requirements. Cyberpunk 2077 is monumental in features and overall size, and has a huge dynamic GTA-style city with reactive NPCs, lots of gunplay, and branching questlines.

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Continue reading: Cyberpunk 2077 is a two disc game on PS4, clocks in at 70GB (full post)

Cyberpunk 2077: No loading on Xbox Series X, has GTA-style reactivity

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Nov 17, 2020 12:37 PM CST

CD Projekt RED just released new gameplay footage showing what Cyberpunk 2077 will look like on Xbox Series X. The results are pretty fantastic.

Cyberpunk 2077: No loading on Xbox Series X, has GTA-style reactivity

Cyberpunk 2077 is the biggest, most grandiose project CDPR has ever made. It has dynamic, living breathing cities full of robust NPCs and locales, high-end graphics and effects, and what looks to be frenetic FPS action. Now we get a taste of what to expect from Cyberpunk on next-gen.

The new footage really makes two points clear: Cyberpunk 2077 is a huge game that consistently reacts to your choices on an NPC and global environmental level. The places and the people in those places consistently change based around how you play the game. A quip in a dialog sequence can lead to all-out mayhem. Siding with the corpos for a specific quest can make other factions shun you.

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Continue reading: Cyberpunk 2077: No loading on Xbox Series X, has GTA-style reactivity (full post)

New PS5 firmware update didn't fix Black Ops Cold War download glitch

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Nov 17, 2020 11:32 AM CST

Today Sony released a new firmware patch for the PlayStation 5. Sadly, it didn't fix the download bug for the season's hottest shooter.

New PS5 firmware update didn't fix Black Ops Cold War download glitch

The PS5 has been updated to system software v20.02-2.25.00.02-00.00.00.0.1 (what a name, right?). This is the first firmware patch released since the PS5's launch on November 12, and it clocks in at roughly 868MB. Sadly, one of the PS5's biggest issues has yet to be fixed. The Black Ops bug still runs rampant.

Right now there's a glitch that prevents PS5 owners from downloading the next-gen PS5 version of Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War. Without a system factory reset, gamers can only download, install, and play the PS4 version of Cold War, which hasn't been optimized for high-end PS5 performance.

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Continue reading: New PS5 firmware update didn't fix Black Ops Cold War download glitch (full post)

Sony boss: $69.99 is a fair price for next-gen PS5 games

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Nov 17, 2020 10:32 AM CST

Activision, Take-Two, and Sony are all pushing a new $69.99 standard price for PS5 games. Now Sony's Jim Ryan says this $10 hike is a justified trade off for the hours of play offered by the higher-end experiences.

Sony boss: $69.99 is a fair price for next-gen PS5 games

Game prices are rising for the first time in over a decade. PS5 and Xbox Series X games are jumping to $69.99, a sizable 17% premium over the last few generations. Publicly, companies have had two reasons behind the hike: rising development costs, and amazing interactive content. Sony believes the latter is enough to uphold the price hike. Fans seem to disagree.

In a recent interview with The Telegraph, Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Jim Ryan not only defends but seems to assert $69.99 is the new norm for the bigger AAA PS5 exclusives. When asked if Ryan thought the price hike was fair, he said:

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Continue reading: Sony boss: $69.99 is a fair price for next-gen PS5 games (full post)

Halo Infinite no-show at VGAs in 2020, 'high level' hype restart soon

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Nov 17, 2020 12:08 AM CST

Microsoft's next-gen Xbox Series X is in the hands of gamers now, and on pre-order lists for many months depending on the country -- while Halo: Infinite is nowhere to be seen.

Halo Infinite no-show at VGAs in 2020, 'high level' hype restart soon

But don't worry, the hype engines are about to be turned back on.

In a recent Halo Weekly Discussion Thread on Reddit, a 343 Industries representative said that Halo: Infinite would not be shown off at the Video Game Awards, or VGAs. But the 343i rep did say there would be a "high level" update on Halo: Infinite in early 2021.

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Continue reading: Halo Infinite no-show at VGAs in 2020, 'high level' hype restart soon (full post)

AMD Instinct MI100 announced: fastest HPC GPU in the world

Anthony Garreffa | Graphics Cards | Nov 16, 2020 11:25 PM CST

AMD has just announced its next-gen CDNA GPU-based Instinct MI100 accelerator, which packs 7680 stream processors, and 32GB of HBM2 with an ultra-fast 1.23TB/sec of memory bandwidth. Check it out:

AMD Instinct MI100 announced: fastest HPC GPU in the world

Inside, the new Instinct MI100 accelerator is a 7nm CDNA GPU with 120 Compute Units, or 7680 stream processors. We've heard of this GPU before as it is codenamed Arcturus, powering the new Instinct MI100 accerlator. The GPU itself is clocked at around 1500MHz with 11.5 TFLOPs of FP64 performance, 23.1 TFLOPs of FP32 performance, and a huge 185 TFLOPs of FP16 performance.

AMD has used 32GB of HBM2 memory, where systems with 4 or 8 GPUs will use the new Infinity Fabric X16 interconnect with bandwidth of 276GB/sec. The HBM2 memory is capable of hitting up to 1.23TB/sec of memory bandwidth which is huge -- it doesn't quite compete with the 1.53TB/sec pumping away from NVIDIA's new A100 which uses HBM2e memory.

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Continue reading: AMD Instinct MI100 announced: fastest HPC GPU in the world (full post)

Google's Expeditions VR education platform shutting down next summer

Kevin Carbotte | Extended Reality (XR) | Nov 16, 2020 10:58 PM CST

Google is moving away from it's Google Carboard-based Expeditions education platform. The company announced that it would migrate much of the Expeditions content to Google Arts & Culture.

 Google's Expeditions VR education platform shutting down next summer

Google Expeditions was an ambitious education initiative that leveraged the power of the Google Cardboard VR platform. Google Expeditions enabled teachers to take their students on virtual field trips through 360 tours. The program included tablets for teachers and smartphones with Google Cardboard for students.

Last year, Google discontinued the Cardboard VR platform, but it left it open for developers to continue to use it. The company also continued support for the Expeditions platform, although it began migrating away from the VR experiences and more into AR experiences for smartphones.

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Continue reading: Google's Expeditions VR education platform shutting down next summer (full post)

EKWB's new total water cooling kit for AMD Zen 3 + RDNA 2 unboxed

Anthony Garreffa | Graphics Cards | Nov 16, 2020 10:29 PM CST

AMD allowed reviewers and YouTubers with their new RDNA 2-based Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6000 samples to write, or film unboxing articles and videos. Paul's Hardware had something exclusive to show off, with EK Water Blocks' new EKWB Radeon 6000 Water Cooling Kit unboxed on video. Check it out:

EKWB's new total water cooling kit for AMD Zen 3 + RDNA 2 unboxed

Paul unboxes the huge package that EKWB sent over, with the EKWB Radeon 6000 Water Cooling Kit for what AMD calls (and once you see benchmarks, you'll understand) the "Ultimate Gaming Platform". This is when you join forces between a Radeon RX 6000 series and Ryzen 5000 series GPU and CPU together.

In the kit, you'll get a waterblock that will fit onto the Radeon RX 6800 XT or Radeon RX 6800 graphics card with a backplate, too -- joining that is a custom waterblock for an AM4-based Ryzen 5000 series CPU. You'll also get an EK D5 pump attached to a reservoir with an acrylic plate with an AMD logo.

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Continue reading: EKWB's new total water cooling kit for AMD Zen 3 + RDNA 2 unboxed (full post)

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