Latest News - Page 1631

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is now available on Google's Stadia streaming platform, and is free for Stadia Pro members.

Today Google confirmed it's not playing around with Stadia. The service is getting some of the biggest games on the market today, and Google secured billion-dollar titans like EA's FIFA, Madden, and Star Wars, along with the massive battle royale sensation PUBG.

Right now PUBG is available for free as a bundle for all Stadia Pro members, which is good news if you haven't signed up. Google is offering a free two-month Stadia Pro trial for all new members, but you have to use a credit card to sign up. If you forget to cancel, Google will charge you $10 a month.

Microsoft has announced that it has issued a patch for a severe flaw in Microsoft Teams that could have allowed a user's account to be taken over simply by viewing a GIF. The security issue stemmed from the way that Teams handles images and could allow data theft and account hijacking. The security flaw was discovered by a security firm called CyberArk over a month ago.

CyberArk worked with Microsoft Security Research Center using the Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure to fix the flaw. Repairing such a sensitive flaw was a priority with the massively increased number of users who are utilizing Teams for education, work, and healthcare during the coronavirus pandemic. CyberArk was able to show Microsoft how it was possible to use a compromise subdomain to host images and steal security tokens by merely getting the user to view an image.

One of the most serious aspects of this particular attack was that it was invisible to the user. CyberArk said that it found that two Microsoft subdomains were vulnerable to takeover, including aadsync-test.teams.microsoft.com and data-dev.teams.microsoft.com.

Battlefront is being retired into maintenance mode and won't receive any new updates after Scarif, DICE today confirmed.

DICE is about to sunset two of its live games: First Battlefield V retires this summer, and then Battlefront II will be retired starting tomorrow.

"This means that we're moving away from delivering regular content updates. As the game lives on with the players and our community, we're looking forward to hearing your stories for years to come," DICE said in a blog post. The studio plans to go full steam ahead on Battlefield 6 for next-gen consoles.

Google isn't messing around with Stadia. Google just secured some of the industry's biggest billion-dollar earners for its fledgling game-streaming service.

Stadia might blow up big time, and in the best way possible. Today Google announced a huge partnership with EA to bring some of the industry's most popular and lucrative games like FIFA, Madden, and Star Wars over to Stadia. This move has tremendous implications for Stadia's long-term earnings and adoption.

EA plans to release five games across its titanic franchises to Stadia. The singleplayer-only Jedi: Fallen Order will arrive in 2020, and both FIFA and Madden will arrive by winter 2020. Whether or not the newer FIFA 21 and Madden 21 will release on Stadia wasn't confirmed. More games will launch in 2021, EA says.

A lot of people out there looking forward to the launch of a new streaming service from HBO called HBO Max. New details on the service and a deal that WarnerMedia has going with Apple have surfaced that some subscribers to HBO Now will appreciate. WarnerMedia has announced that it's teaming up with Apple to launch the HBO Max service and to specifically ensure a seamless experience for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV users.

HBO Max will be available through the Apple TV app at launch on May 27. The best part is that customers who are currently paying for HBO Now through the Apple App Store or Apple TV Channels will be upgraded to HBO Max at no additional charge. Those needing to sign-up will pay $14.99 per month for HBO Max via Apple platforms or other services.

The announcement also confirms that customers who own a second or third-generation Apple TV will be able to stream HBO Max content from their iPhone or iPad directly to their TV via AirPlay. The fourth-generation Apple TV and iPhone and iPad devices will also get an HBO Max application. The older Apple TV devices will need to stream using AirPlay.

How many chapters will gamers need to buy until they own the full Final Fantasy 7 Remake? Square Enix doesn't know just yet.

April's launch of Final Fantasy 7 Remake wasn't the full package, but only the first chapter in a multi-volume roadmap of games. Square Enix plans to release multiple full-sized volumes that are sold as standalone, full-priced games. We originally assumed the series would be a trilogy with 90 hours of content--one full game release for each of FF7's original 3 discs--but now Square Enix says the game could have more than three parts.

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LG has confirmed the specifications for its new flagship smartphone call the LG Velvet. The device set to launch next week, and now fans know what to expect. The smartphone has a 6.8-inch 20.5:9 aspect ratio OLED display and both the screen and the back cover will have curved sides.

Velvet will be 74.1 mm wide with LG promising the width makes the device easy for consumers to handle. Stereo speakers will balance sound with artificial intelligence software designed to control the volume and optimize sound. On its back, Velvet will have a 48-megapixel main primary lens along with an eight-megapixel ultra-wide lens, and a five-megapixel depth sensor.

The front selfie camera will be a 16-megapixel unit. LG says that the cameras will support ASMR recording to improve sound quality on recorded videos. Under the hood will be a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765 5G SoC. Power will come from a 4300 mAh internal battery. The smartphone will have a headphone jack, which is something that many people appreciate.

WhatsApp has announced a new update for its service meant to cater to people trying to work from home and keep in touch with friends and family during the coronavirus pandemic. WhatsApp says that since the pandemic started to hit the world, it has seen people globally turn to voice and video calling on WhatsApp more than ever before. The service says that group calling has been particularly useful, and users have asked to connect with more people at once.

WhatsApp says that starting today, it is doubling the number of participants that a user can have a WhatsApp video or voice call with from four people to eight people at a time. While talking about doubling the number of people who can participate in a voice or video call, WhatsApp also says that over the last month, people have, on average, spend more than 15 billion minutes talking each day on WhatsApp calls. The company says that number of minutes is "well above a typical day before the pandemic."

WhatsApp points out that just like its written messages, all voice and video calls are protected with end-to-end encryption. The new group calling feature is also built in a way to make it available to as many users as possible, including people using lower-end devices and hose on slow networks. WhatsApp says that it's also available on Portal, and users have said that is a great way to share the living room family during the quarantine.

A new rumor making the rounds that suggests the next-generation Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone, thought to be called the Galaxy Note 20, will receive an updated chipset. The new chipset would be a change from the Exynos 990 chipset that Samsung is using right now. Some Samsung devices use the Exynos 990 chipset, but the Snapdragon 865 is used in the Galaxy S20 series of smartphones in South Korea.

According to the rumor, the chipset used in the Galaxy Note 20 will be the Exynos 992. That chip is expected to bring improved performance and improved power efficiency compared to the current generation Exynos 990. This change would also reportedly see Samsung switch back to Exynos processors in South Korea.

Samsung's new chipset is expected to be based on the Samsung 6nm fabrication process. Chips using that fabrication process are scheduled to go into mass production in the second half of 2020. The current-generation Exynos 990 processor uses the Samsung 7nm EUV process that has been widely criticized for being unable to compare in performance to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865.

Like virtually all retail locations around the United States, Apple's retail stores have been closed down due to the coronavirus pandemic for over a month. Apple's retail chief recently told employees in a video briefing that Apple expects that the company will reopen many retail locations in May. Apple's retail stores have been closed outside of China since March.

Word of the store openings in May came from Deirdre O'Brien, vice president of retail and people for Apple. Word of her comments surfaced from unnamed retail employees who viewed the video. According to the employees, in the video, she said that "we are continuing to analyze his health situation in every location, and I do expect we will reopen up many stores in May." She failed to announce any specific stores or regions that would be reopening in May.

O'Brien had previously told Apple employees that some locations in the United States would resume operations in early May. Many states around the country are getting back to work as stay-at-home orders are being lifted around the nation. In some states, such as Georgia, some businesses have already reopened.

For one of the biggest reveals in decades, the Pentagon has just released not one, but three different videos of UFOs -- yeah, unidentified flying objects. The truth really is out there.

I should correct myself: they're not called UFOs, because that's so 1999 -- the US Defense Department refers to them as unidentified aerial phenomena. This isn't new and it's something that I covered in 2019, with the previously released footage coming out in "unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017".

In a statement, the US Department of Defense said: "The US Navy previously acknowledged that these videos circulating in the public domain were indeed Navy videos. After a thorough review, the department has determined that the authorised release of these unclassified videos does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems, and does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena".

GALAX has just announced an interesting new custom GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER graphics card, with a white and pink design in the new EX Pink Edition.

The new GALAX GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER EX Pink Edition continues the tradition behind the normal EX model, with an identical cooler and PCB design -- but dips them in girl-gamer-worthy white and pink.

The new EX Pink Edition graphics card has RGB fans that glow pink, while the entire backplate of the card is also pink -- I kinda dig it, and I don't know why.

AMD will have next-gen CPUs and motherboards supporting the new DDR5 memory standard by 2022, but it will be Intel that is first-to-market with DDR5.

The upcoming Zen 4 micro architecture that AMD is aiming for a 2021 announcement and 2022 release, will pack support for both DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 support. AMD will be taking a big leap with Zen 4 as it will be using the 5nm node from TSMC, and then on top of that supporting both DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 stnadards.

PCIe 5.0 won't be so much for gamers as we're not really pushing the boundaries of things now with PCIe 4.0 (and most gamers are still on PCIe 3.0 -- it's only X570 chipsets from AMD and Radeon RX 5000 series cards that support PCIe 4.0). But servers, datacenters, and supercomputers will embrace PCIe 5.0 bandwidth with their arms wide, wide open.

There are millions of people stuck at home with the stay-at-home coronavirus quarantine lockdowns right now, with Ashley Madison -- an online website dedicated to those seeking something outside of their marriage or relationship, reporting huge spikes in online affairs.

Ashley Madison's new report says that they've been adding 17,000 new members per day during the coronavirus lockdown, which is compared to 15,500 new members per day in 2019. A spike of 1500 new people per day is pretty big, which makes up 45,000 people per month looking for something outside of their marriage -- while stuck inside with their spouse.

Paul Keable, chief strategy officer for Ashley Madison, explained: "We've spoken to members, and they're saying they're using the site as a release valve for the tension that's built up at home during the pandemic. They're looking to have needs met that aren't being met at home".

Origin has just built the world's "fastest" custom gaming PC into a driveable Tesla, would you like to take your gaming PC on the go?

Above we have a video released onto the Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) YouTube Channel, and as you can see from the video, Origin PC has taken custom gaming PC building to a whole new level. Origin PC has created a custom gaming PC that is inspired by MKBHD's Tesla Model S. The car is actually a toy for kids and built by Radio Flyer. Origin PC noticed that under the hood of the Tesla was an empty space (just like the normal Tesla), and thought - "why don't we throw a gaming PC in there?".

Origin PC didn't just throw any gaming PC in there; they decided to go very high-end. Under the hood we have an AMD Ryzen 3900X CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition GPU, ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 motherboard, 32GB (2x16GB) CORSAIR Dominator Platinum RGB 3200MHz RAM, 2TB Force Series Gen.4 PCIe MP600 NVMe M.2 SSD, 2TB Seagate BarraCuda HDD, and a CORSAIR SF Series SF750 - 750 Watt PSU. Woah.

Bethesda doesn't just want to give back by providing hours of safe at-home gaming. It's also giving out $1 million to coronavirus relief funds across the world.

Bethesda and its parent company ZeniMax, the companies behind Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, and Doom, today announced a $1 million donation program to aid global coronavirus charities. The company will carve up its donation pool to a number of different efforts, including global, community-level, and national relief groups.

The games-maker is also launching a new program called Bethesda At Home, which will connect gamers to developers via live streams and other events. Viewers will have the opportunity to chip in and help coronavirus relief causes during these live streams and we could also get tidbits and hints on upcoming expansions and updates for Bethesda's biggest games, including Fallout 76, Doom Eternal, and The Elder Scrolls Online.

CD Projekt RED is bringing its anarchist sci-fi shooter to IGN's Summer of Gaming event this June, and we could get a look at finalized gameplay.

Right now Cyberpunk 2077 is entering its final phases of development, but we haven't seen gameplay since E3 2019. That could change in a few months, though. CDPR just announced it's joining IGN's E3 2020 replacement Summer of Gaming event this June, and the venue could be CDPR's last big opportunity showcase polished footage before the game's September release. Also remember Xbox has a promo deal with Cyberpunk 2077, so we could see gameplay shift over to Microsoft's upcoming big new Xbox Series X event instead.

CD Projekt RED promises this is their best game yet, and that Cyberpunk 2077 will one-up The Witcher 3 in every way possible. We've been writing about this game for years now and chronicling its development progress: From the early 2017 reports of flying cars, real-time AI, and a living, breathing city, to our predictions about online multiplayer and the demos of incredibly dynamic FPS-RPG mashup content that continually evolves and shifts based on your decisions.

What would Skyrim look like as a next-gen PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X game? Something like this.

Modding is absolutely incredible. Nothing extends the lifetime of a game more than mods (they will even fix your game after launch). Case in point: 9 years on, Skyrim is looking better than ever thanks to amazing user-created content. YouTuber Toxic Gaming put together a tantalizing glimpse at what Skyrim could look like on next-gen platforms like PS5 and Xbox SX, but of course the game is already next-gen on PC.

With a laundry list of over 200 mods, Skyrim Legendary Edition is transformed into something both familiar and completely unique. The textures are immaculate, complete with shield reflections and high-res 4K upgrades of ships, castles, armors--you name it. The world feels more enchanting and has that mystical Oblivion look, but with massive improvements like incredible ambient weather effects, lighting overhauls, beautiful water reflections, and realistic fog. And all of this is without ray tracing, so imagine that extra layer of depth on next-gen systems.

ASUS has launched a pair of new high-end notebooks aimed at professional users with workflows in the creative industry. The new machines include the StudioBook 15 (H500) and the StudioBook 17 (H700). The StudioBook 15 is aimed at artists, photographers, and designers who need a Pantone Validated display with 100% Adobe RGB color space and Delta E < 1.5 color accuracy. The screen also supports 4K UHD resolution and has color calibration technology too.

The StudioBook 17 has a 17-inch, 16:10 aspect-ratio panel fitted inside of a 15-inch laptop body. To get the big screen into the smaller chassis, the machine uses very thin 5.3 mm bezels on each side. The panel offers 97% DCI-P3 color gamut, and the screen is Pantone Validated. The 17-inch machine also supports wide 178-degree viewing angles. The screen also uses a 180-degree hinge to allow for a wider range of positions for the display, including laying flat on a table.

The machines will feature similar, if not the same hardware other than the screen size, but the specifications ASUS gives are for the 15.6-inch unit. The CPU is an Intel Core i7 9750H with an NVIDIA Quadro RTX5000 GPU. The machine can have up to 48 GB of RAM onboard and up to 2 TB of SSD storage. The keyboard is an illuminated chiclet-style unit, and the machine has an integrated speaker.

Google fans around the world have been waiting in anticipation for the all-new Google Pixel Buds to launch after their unveil in October. The updated version of the Google Pixel Buds app has turned up on the Play store. The new version of the app has support for the new earbuds and some interesting features.

The Google Pixel Buds app can be installed on any device running Android 6.0 or higher. The earbuds will use standard Bluetooth protocols, meaning they should operate using normal Bluetooth connectivity on any device, possibly missing features required from the app. Reports indicate that some Pixel 4 test devices have presumed the app to be pre-installed by the Play store. On those devices, rather than showing a link for installation, it prompts you to update the app.

However, on other Android devices, the app is available to install but reportedly doesn't run without being paired to a set of Pixel Buds. Tidbits have been gleaned from the app include controls for in-ear detection, adaptive sound, touch controls, Google Assistant settings, and the ability to locate them using the "Find my device" feature.