Latest News - Page 1555

Project CARS 3 is nearly here, with the pedal being pushed firmly into the metal on September 28 -- but between now and then we're finding out about the changes inside of the new MADNESS graphics engine, and more.

In a recent interview with Wccftech, Joseph Barron, Marketing & esports Manager at Slightly Mad Studios talked about the technology side of Project CARS 3. You can read the entire interview here, but there are some great tidbits to take away from it.

The team have put some enhancements into the MADNESS engine for Project CARS 3, with Barron explaining: "The first big thing on the engine side is CFR (Clustered Forward Rendered) lightning. This is a different lightning technology compared to what he had in the previous Project CARS titles, and it allows us to have a greater number of active light sources in a specific given area thereby significantly increasing the quantity of lights that our systems can handle without any negative impact on performance".

Eurocom has just unveiled what seems to be the most crazy-specced laptop I've seen so far, packing Intel's latest-and-greatest Core i9-10900K processor and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (Non Max-Q) graphics card. Introducing the Eurocom Sky Z7 Mobile Supercomputer.

You can option all the way up to the flagship Core i9-10900K + RTX 2080 SUPER, with up to 128GB of fast DDR4 memory, and an insane 13TB of SSD storage. This can come from 3 x M.2 NVMe drives (4TB each) and then 1TB of M.2 SATA (13TB total).

Better yet, if you need the super-fast CPU and 128GB of RAM, and needed that huge 13TB of super-fast NVMe storage -- they're easily accessible ports for users to quickly upgrade (or even plug-and-play) super-fast NVMe SSDs into Eurocom Sky Z7 Mobile Supercomputer.

Cerebras has just unveiled the world's largest chip, which packs a mind boggling 2.6 trillion transistors and 850,000 cores.

The new Wafer Scale Engine (WSE) was unveiled at Hot Chips 2020, with Cerebras using TSMC's new 7nm process to cram the 850,000 cores onto the 2.6 trillion transistors. The previous-gen WSE had 1.2 trillion transistors, 400,000 cores, 18GB of on-chip memory, 9PB/sec memory banwidth, and 100Pb/s of total fabric bandwidth that consumed a total of 15kW of power.

How does this work? The Wafer Scale Engine magic is because instead of making the chip into a traditional monolithic processor die, Cerebras instead stitches the processor dies together with a communication fabric -- letting the many, many chips act as one unit.

If you were about to pull the trigger on a new upgrade, I would suggest waiting just a little while longer. Not only do we have NVIDIA's next-gen Ampere-based GeForce RTX 3000 series cards, but AMD's new RDNA 2-based Radeon cards, too.

In the middle of that, SSD and RAM prices are plummeting and will continue to do so well into 2021. According to a new report, the prices are tumbling because of an oversupply of both DRAM and NAND-based products.

DRAMeXhange explains: "Despite the traditional peak season for electronics sales and the release of Apple's new iPhones in 3Q20, the quarterly decline in NAND flash ASP [average selling price] will likely reach 10 percent, due to the client end's excess inventory under the impact of the pandemic".

Dirt 5 is launching in October, so now Codemasters is preparing PC gamers with some system requirements for the game.

At a bare minimum, you're going to need 8GB of RAM and 60GB of HDD space -- although the recommended specs are 16GB and I would definitely recommend most gamers have 16GB of RAM minimum. The CPU requirements aren't too harsh with an AMD FX-4300 or Intel Core i3-2130 at a minimum.

The recommended specs are much, much higher -- pushing for an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel Core i5-9600K, 16GB of RAM, and a higher-end AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT or GeForce GTX 1070 Ti graphics card.

Microsoft has officially started the engines of Flight Simulator which is now taking off, with a bit of turbulence in the fact that you only download around 500MB of the game from Steam.

Once you've got Flight Simulator 'installed' with that 500MB download and installation, the game opens up and begins downloading. This means that time is ticking over for the many hours, and especially depending on your PC -- many, many hours it will take to download -- the Steam refund window closes.

So if you don't like the game for whatever reason (it's fantastic) and wanted a refund (I get it), you can't -- because you've played the game for more than 2 hours. Steam's internal timer begins once the launcher opens, so even on a high-end PC with a 500Mbps internet connection, it took me around 3 hours to get it fully installed.

Right on time, WB Montreal today opened up the second code entry for its cryptic Batman game teaser site, confirms Two-Face is in the game.

WB Montreal's big new Batman Gotham Knights game will be reveled on August 22, but we're getting four days' worth of teasers up until the reveal. Today was day two--yesterday's teaser confirmed the Court of Owls is in Gotham Knights--and skilled Twitter users had to de-scramble an icon to get a new code (941) and enter it on the r3dak3d website.

Once de-scrambled, the icon appears to reveal another enemy faction to be featured in Gotham Knights. No one's exactly sure what the image pertains to, but it could be talons from the Court of Owls or another faction altogether, possibly related to Two-Face.

Like all simulator games--especially airplane ones--Microsoft's new Flight Simulator carves up key portions of content and sells it for extra money. Microsoft is locking higher-detailed airports behind the more expensive $90 and $120 deluxe editions.

The standard $59.99 version of Flight Simulator doesn't include many of the extras in the $90 and $120 deluxe editions--and rightly so, given the extra cost. The more premium versions come with more airports and more airplanes, but base game owners can buy them from an in-game microtransaction storefront. This is nothing new for the simulator genre. Aerofly FS 2, for example, has 21 DLC packs that cost $520 total, including $30 airplanes.

One key difference between the standard version and the Deluxe/Premium Deluxe editions is the quality of airport detail. The expensive versions come with handcrafted airports, meaning they have more detailed areas and are extremely realistic like-for-like renditions of their real-life counterparts. The standard edition comes with these airports, but they're basic renditions and lack the care and attention found in the meticulous hand-crafted ones.

It's finally happening: Activision will reveal Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War later this month.

Black Ops Cold War is the next Call of Duty game, and Activision will reveal it on August 26, 2020. The game obviously takes place during the Cold War, which actually lasted up until the Vietnam conflict, but recent leaked gameplay clearly outlines a 1980s setting for the game.

The new teaser trailer outlines a basic premise for the game's storyline: a Soviet spy codenamed Perseus who covertly infiltrates the U.S. to gather intelligence for the communist arms race. The game won't be completely grounded in historical events, but based around them, and calls for gamers to "know their history."

EA is taking an interesting approach to pivot away from the lootbox-based monetization that makes the company billions every year.

While scouting the new EA Play webpage, I noticed something interesting: EA Play Pro (formerly Origin Access Premiere) subscribers will get exclusive cosmetics in Star Wars Squadrons. I don't mean a little reward or just a single skin, but an entire series of unlockables that aren't available for normal players. This could be a new trend for EA to move away from in-game microtransactions.

Remember that Star Wars Squadrons doesn't have in-game purchases. It's an odd move because the game is prime territory for mTX; it has online-based play with replayable missions, it has tons of unlockables and cosmetics, and, well, it's Star Wars. The game is also $40. EA CFO Blake Jorgensen explains why the game doesn't have mTX (an anomaly for EA): "Our games are on different scales. We designed Squadrons to really focus on Star Wars dogfighting fantasy. It doesn't have the breadth of some of our games and we wanted to make it more widely available (cross-platform, cross-play, VR)."

After the massive over-performance of Persona 4 Golden, SEGA now wants to release its biggest games day-and-date on PC.

SEGA has always had high ambitions for PC re-releases, and in the past has pledged to bring more of its games to storefronts like Steam. SEGA's games typically come to PC after they've released on consoles, which is due to the higher proportion of console game sales and bigger worldwide install base of those systems. But now it wants to target PC from the get-go.

In a recent Q&A session, SEGA corporate says they want to start planning games development with PC in mind. The multi-platform approach should include consoles, PC, and other platforms, SEGA says, but it'll be on a per-title basis. SEGA could also try and make a splash in the game-streaming market via Google Stadia.

Ghost of Tsushima is getting a new free co-op multiplayer mode that allows four players to team up. But unlike most games, this mode won't be monetized.

The new Legends mode for Ghost of Tsushima is prime territory for microtransactions. It has action-based play, online interactions, multiple classes, and is a kind of separate add-on mode. But unlike most gametypes of this nature, Legends won't have any microtransactions. This is a sharp contrast to the multiplayer found in games like Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age Inquisition, and even Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us' Factions MP.

"There are no microtransactions in Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, and we have absolutely no plans to add them. All of the content is unlocked through play," Sucker Punch tells IGN.

When Oculus was bought by Facebook, many worried the social media platform would be forced onto HMD owners. Now it's finally happening.

Today Oculus managed to agitate most of its playerbase by confirming that Facebook accounts will be required to log in to use the HMDs. Oculus is merging its internal Oculus accounts with Facebook. All new Oculus owners will have to sign in with their Facebook accounts to set the hardware up, but existing owners won't be forced to use Facebook to sign in...yet.

Oculus says that current VR headset owners have 2 years before their Oculus accounts are no longer supported. On January 1, 2023, all Oculus account sign-ins will be discontinued and users will have to sign in with their Facebook accounts. Current owners have the option to merge their Oculus and Facebook accounts together to avoid any issues later down the road.

Starbreeze still hasn't secured a publishing deal for Payday 3, and it's running out of revenues. So now it's opened up a second offering for shareholders to raise more capital.

Payday game developer Starbreeze Studios is still in trouble. The company just reported its second-half 2020 earnings and while net sales are positive at 53 million SEK and overall EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation & amortization) was up to 25.9 million SEK, financial expenses amounted to 111 million SEK and loss before profits was -105.6 million SEK. These expenses were incurred by paying interest on and extending the convertible bond, which delays the bond maturity and also delays when Starbreeze has to pay out to investors.

The new share issue, also known as a second offering, is a way for Starbreeze to raise money without having to secure a loan. The second offering gives existing shareholders the option to buy shares at a discounted "subscription rate," effectively giving them more shares for less money. Companies then use this money to pay down debt or fund operating activities.

NASA has announced that an SUV-sized asteroid just made the closest-known approach to Earth, but it didn't collide with the surface.

According to a NASA blog post found on its website, an SUV-sized asteroid just fly by Earth, and as NASA states, this fly-by has marked the closest Near-Earth Asteroid. The asteroid is named Asteroid 2020 QG, and measures in at roughly 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6 meters) across, which is very small by asteroid standards.

Asteroid 2020 QG passed Earth at just 1,830 miles (2,950 kilometers), and if it happened to be on the trajectory with Earth, it would have become a fireball and broken up in Earth's atmosphere. Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said, "It's really cool to see a small asteroid come by this close, because we can see the Earth's gravity dramatically bend its trajectory. Our calculations show that this asteroid got turned by 45 degrees or so as it swung by our planet."

It's not every day that you hear environmental officials telling the public to kill life, but sometimes that is the best course of action to defend against an invading creature.

Wildlife authorities across the Eastern United States are now telling residents to be on the constant lookout for the bug seen in the above image. This species of bug is called a spotted lanternfly, and they are native to Asia, but unfortunately, they spreading in select areas across the United States. Wildlife authorities have warned that the spotted lanternfly can severely impact many native US plant species, including grapevines, apple trees, and hops.

According to the New York State Departments of Agriculture and Markets, Environmental Conservation, and Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, the spotted lanternfly is a big threat to over 70 plant species found in America. So, what is the correct course of action? Well, anyone who sees one of these bugs should file a report as officials want to keep track of the spread. Additionally, if you spot one of these bugs, you can always introduce it to the bottom of your shoe.

The Matrix 4 has resumed filming after production halted for the COVID-19 pandemic, but now Laurence Fishburne -- who played Morpheus in the original Matrix Trilogy, has said he's not coming back for The Matrix 4.

During an interview with SyFy Wire, Fishburne explained: "No. I have not been invited. Maybe that will make me write another play. I wish them well. I hope it's great". Although, Fishburne did have something to add when it came to his iconic role as Morpheus.

Fishburne explained: "It is probably the role that I'll be best remembered for, which is great; it's not the only thing I'll be remembered for, which is better. What I get with him is I've got Darth Vader in this hand, and I've got Obi-Wan in that hand. I've got Bruce Lee, I've got Muhammad Ali shuffled in there, and I've got kung fu".

Tesla Motors continues to go from strength to strength, with the Elon Musk run company now looking to expand its Full Self Driving technology.

The company is reporting teaming with Broadcom to make a new 7nm processor, something known as HW 4.0 -- which will power its next-gen Full Self Driving (FSD) computer. The new 7nm HPC chip will be made on TSMC's 7nm node and will be made later this year -- and put into cars in 2022 and beyond.

Mass production on the new Tesla Motors FSD chip will begin in late 2021, which is mostly because TSMC is absolutely flooded with orders for its 7nm node. AMD is building its entire Ryzen CPU and Radeon GPU families of products on the 7nm node by TSMC, the next-gen Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles and their semi-custom APUs are being made by TSMC, and so much more on 7nm.

I've been a PC gamer since I was a young kid -- 5-6 years of age, and now I'm 37. Over 30 years of being a PC gamer, but I've had every console, VR headset, and portable in between.

PC gaming is something that shaped my entire life (my online nickname is 'anthony256', after the GeForce 256 and before that it was 'Voodoo' after the infamous 3Dfx graphics cards), crafting my career in IT sales for 10 years before -- a now 10 years here working for TweakTown.

So to hear that there are over 1.5 billion PC gamers, at least according to DFC Intelligence and its new report, warms my heart. The report says there are over 3.1 billion gamers worldwide, with 48% of them being PC gamers -- over 1,500,000,000 people worldwide are PC gamers.

Intel is entering the GPU space in 2021 in a big way, with a detailed post on that here -- with Intel surprise announcing its new Xe-HPG, a new gaming-focused enthusiast graphics card arriving in 2021.

It seems TSMC -- or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, have secured the contract to make Intel's next-gen Xe-HPG graphics card on its 6nm process node. Intel's other Xe-based designs in the Xe-LP and Xe-HP will be made in-house by Intel, on their just-announced 10nm SuperFin process node.

Intel's new Xe-HPG graphic card is exciting, as the company teased it will have hardware ray tracing technology as well as super-fast GDDR6 memory. This instantly puts Intel's new Xe-HPG right at the (at least technologically) same level as NVIDIA and AMD's current, and soon-to-be-released next-gen GPUs.