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The Outer Worlds getting perf, resolution boosts on Xbox Series X

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Aug 1, 2020 2:37 AM CDT

Obsidian's hilarious Fallout New Vegas in space game is getting two major new expansions as well as optimizations for the next-gen Xbox Series X.

The Outer Worlds getting perf, resolution boosts on Xbox Series X

Read Also: The Outer Worlds Review: Out of this World

The devs at Obsidian just made good on their promise of new The Outer Worlds DLC. Two new expansions are planned, first Peril on Gorgon on September 9, then Murder on Eridanos in 2021. Both expansions are priced at $14.99 each but you can buy the season pass for $24.99 to bundle them together.

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Continue reading: The Outer Worlds getting perf, resolution boosts on Xbox Series X (full post)

Flight Simulator: machine learning-fueled simulator, grows over time

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jul 31, 2020 11:09 PM CDT

Microsoft has just provided two new nuggets on information from Flight Simulator, which is about to make its descent onto gamers' systems on August 18 -- now, also on Steam.

Flight Simulator: machine learning-fueled simulator, grows over time

In a new update, Microsoft explained that Flight Simulator "heralds a new era of data-driven flight simulation". In the update, Microsoft continued: "One of the exciting implications of this is that the data that makes up the world is always improving, and players can look forward to a simulator that evolves over time".

The post continued: "Thanks to our partnership with Bing, players will enjoy new, even better terrain, and an ever evolving, machine learning-fueled simulator that grows over time".

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Continue reading: Flight Simulator: machine learning-fueled simulator, grows over time (full post)

AMD Radeon Instinct MI100 Acturus teased, NVIDIA Ampere destroyer?!

Anthony Garreffa | Graphics Cards | Jul 31, 2020 10:19 PM CDT

A huge leak on AMD's purported Radeon Instinct MI100 acclerator teases that AMD could be serious about not just contending against NVIDIA in the 4K gaming market with a new Radeon to combat the new GeForce RTX cards coming -- but also in the pro market, too.

AMD Radeon Instinct MI100 Acturus teased, NVIDIA Ampere destroyer?!

AdoredTV is reporting from some leaked slides that slid into their inbox that AMD's upcoming Radeon Instinct MI100 accelerator is quite the beast. It is being teased in the slides in a dual socket AMD EPYC Rome/Milan system with 8 x MI100 PCIe-based accelerators.

In this system, we'd be looking at 256GB of HBM2 memory with 9.8TB/sec (yes, that's terabytes per second) of bandwidth and an insane 272 TFLOPs of FP32 compute performance using just 3kW of power.

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Continue reading: AMD Radeon Instinct MI100 Acturus teased, NVIDIA Ampere destroyer?! (full post)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone Season 5 kick off next week

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jul 31, 2020 9:40 PM CDT

Activision and Infinity Ward struck gold with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and the massively popular Warzone and its battle royale greatness.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone Season 5 kick off next week

There are big changes brewing in Warzone's upcoming Season 5, which could see the entire map of the fictional city of Verdansk changed -- it could be nuked, flooded, invaded by aliens (which Elon Musk just confirmed built the pyramids, and I'm not joking) or something completely new.

We have no idea, and that is exciting -- because it'll be the first map change since Warzone launched.

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Continue reading: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone Season 5 kick off next week (full post)

No, Elon Musk and Bill Gates are not having an affair

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Jul 31, 2020 9:11 PM CDT

If you follow Elon Musk on Twitter you will know that he hip fires tweets all day long, so if you did follow him you'll notice he has been tweeting out artists and songs including Nirvana and their infamous 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', something that as a follow of Musk on Twitter, made me listen to (all week, thanks Elon).

No, Elon Musk and Bill Gates are not having an affair

But then it was this tweet that kick started a conspiracy:

Musk tweeted out: "Billy G is not my lover" which I'm sure he was referencing the song "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson, but people thought it was Bill Gates. Yeah, Elon Musk and Bill Gates -- but how did it turn into some sort of conspiracy theory?

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Continue reading: No, Elon Musk and Bill Gates are not having an affair (full post)

Flight Simulator coming to Steam on August 18 with TrackIR, VR support

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jul 31, 2020 8:27 PM CDT

Microsoft has just revealed that Flight Simulator will be coming to Steam after all, releasing on August 18. Flight Simulator will be dropping on Windows 10 and Xbox Game Pass on the same day, with Steam pre-orders for the Standard, Deluxe, and Premium Deluxe now up for grabs.

Flight Simulator coming to Steam on August 18 with TrackIR, VR support

Not only that, but the developer has surprised PC gamers with support for TrackIR and VR support. The company is happy to announce it will have day one support for TrackIR while VR support will begin later this year when HP launches its Reverb G2 headset.

Microsoft details both TrackIR and the HP Reverb G2 on their website, adding:

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Continue reading: Flight Simulator coming to Steam on August 18 with TrackIR, VR support (full post)

GALAX unveils HOF OC Lab Diamond DDR4-5000 RAM for enthusiasts

Anthony Garreffa | RAM | Jul 31, 2020 7:25 PM CDT

GALAX has just unveiled two new kits of memory, aimed at high-end enthusiasts with the new Hall of Fame (HOF) OC Lab Diamond and HOF OC Lab Phantom lines of enthusiast-segment memory.

GALAX unveils HOF OC Lab Diamond DDR4-5000 RAM for enthusiasts

The first of which is the flagship DDR4-5000 memory kit with timings of 19-26-26-46 but GALAX hasn't detailed the voltages on this memory just yet. The DDR4-4800 kit has 19-22-22-46T timings that use 1.5V of power.

Here's the full list of GALAX Hall of Fame (HOF) OC Lab Diamond kits and their timings:

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Continue reading: GALAX unveils HOF OC Lab Diamond DDR4-5000 RAM for enthusiasts (full post)

Outriders dev People Can Fly is already working on a new AAA IP

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jul 31, 2020 6:52 PM CDT

Outriders isn't even out yet, and People Can Fly is already working on a new AAA IP for next-gen consoles at its newly expanded studio.

Outriders dev People Can Fly is already working on a new AAA IP

People Can Fly, the devs behind Square Enix's new interesting-looking multiplayer shoot-and-loot game Outriders, is making a brand new AAA IP for the new PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X generation of consoles. The new project will be led by People Can Fly's fresh New York-based studio, which will work with its other UK and main Polish branches.

The studio also says that its different branches will work on different games. While People Can Fly Rezszow and UK will assist in the game, the main studio in Poland will be mostly focused on Outriders.

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Continue reading: Outriders dev People Can Fly is already working on a new AAA IP (full post)

id may reveal next-gen Doom Eternal PS5, Xbox optimizations soon

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jul 31, 2020 6:15 PM CDT

id devs Marty Stratton and Hugo Martin will talk about Doom Eternal at the digital Quakecon 2020 event, and we could get some info on next-gen optimizations for the game.

id may reveal next-gen Doom Eternal PS5, Xbox optimizations soon

A bit ago, we predicted Doom Eternal could be among the first games to hit rock-solid 120FPS on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. This was predicated on the id Tech 7 engine, which runs buttery-smooth on PC and is able to even maintain 60FPS on the older (and rather weak) 2013 launch Xbox One console.

The engine should easily be scalable on the PS5's and Xbox Series X's 7nm AMD SoC tech, which sports a Zen 2 CPU and Navi RDNA 2 GPU. But nothing has been announced so far. That could change in early August at Quakecon 2020.

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Continue reading: id may reveal next-gen Doom Eternal PS5, Xbox optimizations soon (full post)

Halo 3 battle rifle coming to ODST Firefight on MCC, matchmaking too

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jul 31, 2020 5:45 PM CDT

Halo 3 ODST's Firefight is the best. Reach is good, but ODST is on a whole other level. It's a four-player co-op survival-fest with no equipment--just your wits, your weapons management skills, and silenced 2x scope pistol. Now 343 Industries reveals how it's completely revitalizing ODST's Firefight mode for MCC.

Halo 3 battle rifle coming to ODST Firefight on MCC, matchmaking too

Today 343 Industries confirmed some exciting news about Halo 3 ODST's Firefight mode on the Master Chief Collection, including new weapons, gametypes, custom games, and more. Halo 3's weapons are coming over to Firefight. This is a big, big deal that adds a new dimension of play.

343i says a lot of Halo 3's weapons are coming into ODST's Firefight that simply weren't available before. We'll see weapons like Halo 3's BR55HB cross over, and 343i teases a redacted weapon. What could it be?

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Continue reading: Halo 3 battle rifle coming to ODST Firefight on MCC, matchmaking too (full post)

Xbox rolls with the punches, embraces Halo Craig meme as new mascot

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jul 31, 2020 5:19 PM CDT

For the most part, Xbox is a good sport. Halo: Infinite, 343 Industries, and Microsoft all got a grilling over the recent Xbox game showcase stream. Halo: Infinite, a game that's supposed to sell Xbox Series X features, just didn't look very next-gen. And then Craig, the stoic goofball Brute that was at the right place at the right time, showed up and became a meme legend. Thus Halo: Infinite has become synonymous with Craig the Brute.

Xbox rolls with the punches, embraces Halo Craig meme as new mascot

While 343 Industries is 'very serious' about fixing Halo: Infinite's graphics and shadows, they're still rolling with the punches and trying not to take things too hard. In this business you really have to. When something you've worked hard on for years gets lambasted, memed, and made fun of, you kind of have to roll with the tide a little.

Xbox division head Phil Spencer is in the same boat. On Twitter, Spencer pulled a PR maneuver to embrace Craig instead of ignoring and deflecting, or promising Craig will look much better in ultra-HD resolution. Spencer says that Craig is now the official Xbox mascot. He's not, of course. The official Xbox mascot is the Game Pass logo, which is more important than Master Chief or Minecraft's Steve.

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Continue reading: Xbox rolls with the punches, embraces Halo Craig meme as new mascot (full post)

EA teases acquisitions as it eyes Warner Bros. gaming buyout

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jul 31, 2020 4:57 PM CDT

Rumor has it EA is interested in buying A&T's Warner Bros. Games division, which includes top-tier dev talent like Netherealm, Rocksteady Studios and Avalanche Software. This is exactly the kind of thing EA wants to get more of.

EA teases acquisitions as it eyes Warner Bros. gaming buyout

EA wants to make new acquisitions, but the company is more interested in buying new talent than it is new IPs. Case in point: EA didn't buy Respawn to acquire the Titanfall IP, but to secure the dev team behind the game. The same could be true for the rumored $4 billion Warner Bros. Games division sale.

So is EA buying Warner Bros. Games? No one knows for sure, but EA CFO Blake Jorgensen says they've looked at the buyout potential in a recent Fiscal Year Q1'21 earnings call.

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Continue reading: EA teases acquisitions as it eyes Warner Bros. gaming buyout (full post)

Halo Infinite multiplayer may be free-to-play, separate from campaign

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jul 31, 2020 12:35 PM CDT

UPDATE: 343i today confirmed Halo: Infinite is indeed free-to-play, and that it'll support optional 120FPS modes on Xbox Series X and PC. No graphics details were discussed.

Halo Infinite multiplayer may be free-to-play, separate from campaign

New leaks suggest Halo: Infinite's campaign and multiplayer will be separated into two parts, and multiplayer will be free-to-play for everyone.

Halo: Infinite might actually two games in one. There;s the huge open-world campaign that's basically a living sandbox combination of Spartan Ops and Firefight, complete with objectives, RPG-esque upgrades, a huge overworld map, and co-op play. This will be the paid version. Then there's multiplayer, which according to info from Retailer Smyth's Toys, will be free-to-play on PC and Xbox.

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Continue reading: Halo Infinite multiplayer may be free-to-play, separate from campaign (full post)

343i on Halo Infinite's graphics: 'We have a lot of work to do'

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jul 31, 2020 11:34 AM CDT

For a next-gen system-selling game, Halo: Infinite has been criticized for its lackluster and rather current-gen graphics. Now 343 Industries delivers an official comment on the matter, promising to take all feedback very seriously.

343i on Halo Infinite's graphics: 'We have a lot of work to do'

Mechanically, Halo: Infinite looks like a great game. But the visuals are bogged down by the new dynamic lighting system, which takes the definition out of textures and models that're in shadowy areas. Will this change before launch? Possibly.

343 Industries says they'll release a ray tracing update post-launch, which will add much-needing lighting to make the high-end textures really pop. But now the devs talk more about their plans.

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Continue reading: 343i on Halo Infinite's graphics: 'We have a lot of work to do' (full post)

As sports seasons are put on hold, fans to turn EA games for their fix

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jul 31, 2020 10:32 AM CDT

COVID-19 has closed down practically every major worldwide sporting event, delaying and cancelling leagues and seasons. Now fans are turning to big EA games like Madden and FIFA for their fix.

As sports seasons are put on hold, fans to turn EA games for their fix

EA, like other games companies, is benefiting tremendously from COVID-19. Consumers are staying at home and buying more games to play in their off time. This goes double for EA. As the world of sports is put on hiatus, gamers are recreating seasons of their own in EA's billion-dollar sports franchises.

In a Q1'21 recent earnings call, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen brought up a good point. Now that football and soccer seasons have been suspended, the only real way to continue engaging with these sports is through EA's games. This has led to a massive surge in digital revenues like game sales and microtransactions.

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Continue reading: As sports seasons are put on hold, fans to turn EA games for their fix (full post)

New Hyper Scape patch nerfs hacks across the board, guns get big buffs

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jul 31, 2020 3:32 AM CDT

If you played the Hyper Scape open beta, you probably would have noticed that there were some balancing issues with the game.

New Hyper Scape patch nerfs hacks across the board, guns get big buffs

These balancing issues ranged from hacks (abilities), to some guns feeling just a little bit too strong. Disclaimer - personally, I have been smashing Hyper Scape, and at the current time of writing this I have already maxed out the Battle Pass (Tier 30), and because of the time I have spent playing the game I believe I have a decent understanding of how the title feels and plays out.

Ubisoft says in its patch notes found on the website that this patch is directly aimed at what is "Time-to-kill (TTK)", which is exactly what it sounds like - the time it takes to kill someone once combat is engaged. Ubisoft says that the community voiced concerns about the TTK being too slow, and because of that, they have decided to buff the damage on many guns, while simultaneously nerfing most hacks across the board. Most notably, Ubisoft has nerfed the Protocol V, Mine Hack's overall power level, and the Invisibility Hack.

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Continue reading: New Hyper Scape patch nerfs hacks across the board, guns get big buffs (full post)

Elon Musk says aliens built the pyramids, 'obviously'

Anthony Garreffa | Science, Space, & Robotics | Jul 31, 2020 3:18 AM CDT

Elon Musk is a man of scienec, but he's also a man of memes. Tesla Motors stock is pumping like an all-night party and it's only 4:20AM, and now Musk tweets that aliens built the pyramids.

Elon Musk says aliens built the pyramids, 'obviously'

Musk tweeted it a few hours ago, saying: "Aliens built the pyramids obv" out of nowhere.

The billionaire entrepreneur and real-life Elon Musk isn't shy of tweeting out what some people would think is ridiculous, but "aliens built the pyramids" is a pretty big thing to say when you're the founder of companies like SpaceX and Tesla.

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Hyper Scape to leave open beta, season 1 will launch on August 11th

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jul 31, 2020 2:38 AM CDT

Ubisoft has taken to its social media to announce that its new battle royale shooter will be leaving open beta and enters its first official season.

Hyper Scape to leave open beta, season 1 will launch on August 11th

According to the Hyper Scape Twitter account, the free-to-play battle royale will be leaving open beta on PC on August 2nd. The Ubisoft website says that all progression made throughout the open beta will be crossed over to the full release of the game. Additionally, Ubisoft has also announced that Hyper Scape will be making its way over to the PS4 and Xbox One on August 11th.

Season 1 will come with a slew of new changes, some of which include a new gun, the Dragonfly, a new hack, and a Magnet. Season 1 is titled "The First Principle", and will be adding new limited-time game modes, as well as new features for Crowncast (Hyper Scape's interactive Twitch extension). Season 1 will also come with some lore insight into how the world of Hyper Scape came about. If you are after more information on the first season of Hyper Scape, check out this link here.

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Continue reading: Hyper Scape to leave open beta, season 1 will launch on August 11th (full post)

Facebook now has 2.7 billion monthly active users

Anthony Garreffa | Internet & Websites | Jul 30, 2020 11:53 PM CDT

With hundreds of millions of people across the world stuck inside thanks to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, social networking giant Facebook couldn't be happier.

Facebook now has 2.7 billion monthly active users

Facebook reported their Q2 2020 earnings, smashing analyst expectations and seeing FB shares spiking 7% in extended trading. We now know that Facebook revenue for Q2 2020 was a bold $18.69 billion for the three-month period, up 98% year-on-year.

As for the amount of people using Facebook, that has also been boosted in a big way -- with 1.79 billion daily active users (DAUs) while the monthly active users has reached a gigantic 2.7 billion monthly active users MAUs.

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GeForce NOW users can now auto-sync their Steam gaming library

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jul 30, 2020 10:31 PM CDT

NVIDIA has been slowly adding more and more games to its GeForce NOW game streaming service, but there's some new news that is exciting.

GeForce NOW users can now auto-sync their Steam gaming library

The company has now made it possible to synchronize your entire Steam game library with GeForce NOW, by turning the option on in Settings > Sync Game. Once you've got your Steam account synced with your GeForce NOW account, you can then identify all of the games that have support for GeForce NOW.

Once it has scanned the GeForce NOW compatible games, the new games will turn up in the My Library section of GeForce NOW.

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Continue reading: GeForce NOW users can now auto-sync their Steam gaming library (full post)

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