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Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition rumored to launch mid-2020
Microsoft has just debuted the second definitive edition for the Age of Empires series, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. So when are we going to get the third definitive edition?
The release of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition just happened, and if you are an Age fan then I highly recommend you picking up the game as its fantastic. I've personally been pumping hours into the title, and I can't express how much I've been enjoying reliving my childhood in HD graphics.
So now that we have Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, when are we going to get the third game? According to a recent rumor by FairyEmpire, who reportedly had a conversation with some Microsoft developers at XO19, Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition is planned for launch sometime through mid-2020. If this rumor is true, it will line up with the other rumor of Age of Empires IV being launched the following year.
Continue reading: Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition rumored to launch mid-2020 (full post)
Age of Empires IV has been in development for 3yrs, 2021 release date?
Back at XO19, Microsoft revealed Age of Empires IV to fans, and now that the hype train has officially left the station, when should we expect the final stop?
Since the official reveal, fans have been teased with some facts about the game. We have got the confirmation that Age of Empires IV will feature next-gen AI and that the title is specifically designed for 4K on the PC. There is also the recent announcement that Age 4 won't have any microtransactions and instead follow a traditional DLC path for extra content.
Now the rumors are starting to fly. According to ResetEra user FairyEmpire, who reportedly managed to speak to some developers at XO19 and found out that Age of Empires IV has been in development for just three years. If that is true, a further two years sounds like an appropriate amount of time for the title to be completed and then released. Which means that we are looking at (most likely) a release date somewhere throughout 2021.
Continue reading: Age of Empires IV has been in development for 3yrs, 2021 release date? (full post)
Qualcomm aims to ship over 750 million 5G smartphones in 2022
Qualcomm has been at the forefront of 5G for years now, with the Snapdragon giant set to unleash 5G onto the world in a big way over the coming years -- with plans of seeing over 750 million 5G-capable smartphones in the wild by 2022.
The company recently made the prediction during its recent Analyst Day 2019, providing an idea of what to expect over the next few years when it comes to 5G. Qualcomm talked about 5G growth during the event, where it said it expects to see 175-225 million 5G handsets deployed in 2020, over 450 million by 2021, and a huge 750 million by 2022.
Qualcomm notes that 5G adoption will be faster than 4G due to the "timing of China commercialization and availability of chipsets across tiers". The company will have three different tiers of its Snapdragon processors with 5G capabilities in 2020, with the Snapdragon 600 and 700 series to both pack 5G while its flagship Snapdragon 800 series will continue on with its 5G powers.
Continue reading: Qualcomm aims to ship over 750 million 5G smartphones in 2022 (full post)
PowerColor RX 5700 XT Liquid Devil: liquid cooled Navi costs $599
PowerColor has just unveiled what appears to be the best custom Navi graphics card yet, with the new Radeon RX 5700 XT Liquid Devil coming in with liquid cooling and its Navi GPU clocked at up to 2070MHz -- the fastest clocks on a Navi 10 out of the box yet.
The new PowerColor RX 5700 XT Liquid Devil features an EK Water Blocks made full-cover water block, with PowerColor tweaking it with their own logos and design traits. EK's water block on the Radeon RX 5700 XT Liquid Devil covers the entire PCB which means the Navi 10 GPU is liquid cooled, the 8GB of GDDR6 memory is liquid cooled, and the VRMs and MOSFETs are also cooled by liquid.
EKWB uses a nickel-plated copper base that takes heat away from the 7nm Navi 10 GPU, 8GB of GDDR6 memory and other heat-generating parts of the card. It does all of this while looking great too, with PowerColor throwing in some RGB lighting that isn't too over the top -- and if anything, really makes the card pop.
Continue reading: PowerColor RX 5700 XT Liquid Devil: liquid cooled Navi costs $599 (full post)
AMD Radeon Pro W5700: workstation Navi, 8GB GDDR6, 9 TFLOPs for $799
AMD has announced its first Navi-based workstation graphics card with the new Radeon Pro W5700, featuring the Navi 10 GPU based on the RDNA architecture on 7nm -- the world's first 7nm workstation graphics card.
The new Radeon Pro W5700 packs 36 compute units which translates into 2304 stream processors and 64 ROPs, meaning it's not the full Navi 10 chip used on the flagship Radeon RX 5700 gaming card. We do have the Navi 10 GPU clocked at up to 1930MHz, resulting in total compute power of 8.89 TFLOPs.
AMD has chosen to use 8GB of GDDR6 on the same 256-bit memory bus as the Radeon RX 5700 XT, with the GDDR6 clocked at 14Gbps we have memory bandwidth of up to 448GB/sec. The one thing lacking from the new Navi-based Radeon Pro W5700 workstation graphics card is the use of ECC memory, something that the Vega-based Radeon Pro cards did offer.
Continue reading: AMD Radeon Pro W5700: workstation Navi, 8GB GDDR6, 9 TFLOPs for $799 (full post)
Tesla battery output/storage in South Australia to expand by 50%
Just over 200km north of me here in South Australia is the huge Tesla battery storage array in Hornsdale, with the Hornsdale Power Reserve currently having battery output of 100 megawatts -- and that's to soon increase by 50%.
Tesla, the South Australian government and federal government, as well as French renewable energy company Neoen will be expanding the Hornsdale Power Reserve from 100 megawatts, to 150 megawatts. The upgrades will also include battery storage capacity boosts, which will see it expand up to 193.5 megawatt hours -- enough juice to keep it operating at 100% for over an hour.
The deal comes at the perfect time, with weather here in South Australia for November 20 set to be the hottest November on record with temperatures hitting 40C (104F) at just 10AM. I'm writing this news with all air conditioning on right now and I'm just surviving, but the electrical grid will be taking a big strain today.
Continue reading: Tesla battery output/storage in South Australia to expand by 50% (full post)
Halo 1 PC beta tests will start in 2020
Halo: Reach is coming to PC in just a few weeks, but 343i will take a break before it starts testing out its next Halo PC project.
Once Reach ships on December 3, the next up for a PC launch is Halo: Combat Evolved. But don't expect to try out Master Chief's original FPS adventure on PC before 2020 (unless of course you play the old-school version).
"Once Reach comes out next month, after the holiday we will start to reset and we'll start to flight Halo CE. We're just going to keep going down the road until we fill out the rest of the collection," 343i's Brian Jarrard told PCGamesN.
Continue reading: Halo 1 PC beta tests will start in 2020 (full post)
What it's like to play Stadia with terrible latency
Stadia's biggest drawback (or streaming in general) is latency and lag. They can interrupt gameplay tremendously in action games where reaction times are critical, which includes nearly the entire Stadia launch lineup.
Latency was always one of the biggest concerns about Stadia, Google's new game streaming service. But how bad can it get? Pretty bad. The Washington Post recently illustrated Stadia's potential latency issues in a few GIFs, and they're not too pretty.
Since your internet speeds are always in flux, there's no guarantee you'll have a constantly-stable session unless your connection doesn't dip below a certain threshold. Admittedly enough, though, we haven't actually played Stadia and are going off of second-hand reports. I did try Project Stream last year, though, and found it to be an amazing experience.
Continue reading: What it's like to play Stadia with terrible latency (full post)
PlayStation game demos are coming back with Sony's ambitious new plan
A recent Sony patent shows how the PlayStation Network could get much, much more socially interactive, complete with save state sharing and user-created game demos.
Sony is currently ramping up its services to prepare for its next-gen PlayStation 5 console, and PS Now is a big part of that acceleration. But how can PlayStation Now actually evolve? It already allows offline downloads, and just got a cheaper $10 a month price tag. Now all it needs is more innovative and interactive social features that allow subscribers to spread the word organically, and to do that, Sony is taking plays out of Google Stadia's playbook while making some interesting moves of its own.
According to a new Sony patent, PlayStation Now's game streaming service may eventually let users share their saves with other gamers. The idea is to create a save point in a specific game, then beam it to a friend via social media or even email, who can then click on the link and take over. This isn't exclusive to PS Now, either, and should work with any game sold on the PlayStation Store.
Continue reading: PlayStation game demos are coming back with Sony's ambitious new plan (full post)
Dragon Quest Builders 2 is releasing on PC at the end of the year
A new announcement from Square Enix says that PC gamers will be getting Dragon Quest Builders 2 by the end of the year.
Dragon Quest Builders 2, the block-building RPG title, will let PC players explore a brand new fantasy land that is under threat by an evil cult. Players will be jumping into a title that allows them to build structures, slay creatures, collect materials, improve upon skills, and be a fearsome warrior. Not only will players be able to play a single-player campaign, but they will also be able to enjoy a creative online open sandbox world with up to 4 other players.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 will be arriving on Steam, and it will include all the Season Pass content that was previously released on the console version. What is the Season Pass content? Packs included are Hotto Stuff Pack, Modernist Pack, Aquarium Pack, Designer's Sunglasses, Legendary Builder Outfit, Dragonlord's Throne, and more. Dragon Quest Builders 2 will be coming to PC on December 10th. For more information about the title, check out the official Steam Store listing here.
Continue reading: Dragon Quest Builders 2 is releasing on PC at the end of the year (full post)
NASA select SpaceX, Blue Origin and more to design Artemis Moon lander
NASA has introduced five more companies into the Artemis lunar program, and these companies will be designing what they think is the best moon lander for an astronaut return trip.
NASA has selected the following companies to join its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program (CLPS): SpaceX, Blue Origin, Sierra Nevada Corp., Ceres Robotics and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc. The basis of this program is that private companies will be able to compete for contracts to deliver NASA science to the surface of the moon. This means that the previously listed companies will all be designing their lunar lander, along with nine other NASA selected companies.
According to NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, "American aerospace companies of all sizes are joining the Artemis program. Expanding the group of companies who are eligible to bid on sending payloads to the moon's surface drives innovation and reduces costs to NASA and American taxpayers. We anticipate opportunities to deliver a wide range of science and technology payloads to help make our vision for lunar exploration a reality and advance our goal of sending humans to explore Mars."
Continue reading: NASA select SpaceX, Blue Origin and more to design Artemis Moon lander (full post)
Amazon injects free music streaming into Android, iOS & Fire TV
Amazon has decided to expand its music sector by releasing the free service on to more devices. Amazon Music is now on Android, iOS, and Fire TV.
Originally the free music streaming service was just available on Alexa devices, but now that has changed for users in the US, UK, and Germany. At the moment, the service limits free users with listening to playlists and stations that are from specific artists, genres, and songs.
The whole idea of the limitation is to give users a tease of what the service has to offer, and then hopefully either annoy the user into purchasing the whole service, or convince the user to upgrade their Prime package in some fashion. If you are in need of a music streaming service, you can check out Amazon Prime here.
Continue reading: Amazon injects free music streaming into Android, iOS & Fire TV (full post)
Aquaman & Spiderman star Willem Dafoe: superhero movies are 'too long'
If you don't know who Willem Dafoe is, you'd probably recognize him from two movie roles, Spider-Man's Green Goblin and the recent blockbuster Aquaman.
Despite his acting career taking him to movies that are comic book-based and his performances being amazing, Dafoe has given his opinion on the future of 'superhero' movies. Dafoe has joined Martin Scorsese in criticising superhero movies by saying that he finds them "too long and too noisy". This isn't all that Dafoe had to say, and he did admit that he doesn't want to "bite the hand that feeds me", but said that shooting Aquaman wasn't the same as shooting 2002's Spider-Man.
"Spider-Man was great fun because Sam Raimi made that like it was a little independent film. And also that was before a lot of the technology was in place, and comic book movies were fairly new, so it was exciting. There was nothing by the numbers, they didn't roll in the experts. Now it's become, the industry outgrew itself", said Dafoe. Comparing Spider-Man's shooting to Aquaman, he said "You have fun with some of the things that you get to do, because there's lots of hardware and there's lots of crazy crane shots and those kind of things."
Continue reading: Aquaman & Spiderman star Willem Dafoe: superhero movies are 'too long' (full post)
Saturn's big moon 'Titan' mapped, now one of the best places for life
The entire surface of Saturn's largest moon has been successfully mapped by astronomers for the first time ever.
Astronomers have taken data from NASA's Cassini mission to successfully map the entire surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The Cassini spacecraft orbited Saturn and its moons for more than a decade (2004 to 2017) collecting a plethora amount of data for astronomers. With this data astronomers were able to piece together a diverse terrain containing mounts, plains, valleys, craters and lakes.
According to Rosaly Lopes, a planetary scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, "Titan has an atmosphere like Earth. It has wind, it has rain, it has mountains. It's a really very interesting world, and one of the best places in the Solar System to look for life". Lopes and her team are responsible for the successful combination of images and measurements taken by Cassini to create the first global map of Titan (seen above).
Continue reading: Saturn's big moon 'Titan' mapped, now one of the best places for life (full post)
Apex Legends recent data mine points to a new SMG being released soon
Who doesn't love a bit of data mining, am i right? Well, I for sure do as we can see ahead of time what could be coming to a game.
According to That1MiningGuy, who recently data mined Apex Legends, a new SMG is on the brink of being released into the live game. At the moment, there are only three SMGs available to players: R-99, Alternator, and the Prowler. The data mine suggests that Respawn is currently testing the 'kick-back' of a new SMG, but what could this new be and where is it from?
Since Apex Legends is based in the Titanfall universe, this new SMG could be a weapon from the Titanfall games. GamesRadar says that it's possible that this new SMG could either be a CAR or the VOLT. The CAR is a fully automatic SMG that comes with decent accuracy, and the VOLT is an energy SMG that fires blue traces with its bullets. If I were to guess at which weapon they are going to add, I'd say the VOLT since the last new gun to come to Apex was the Charge Rifle with energy rounds.
Continue reading: Apex Legends recent data mine points to a new SMG being released soon (full post)
Wikipedia co-founder's new social media platform is for the people
A new social media platform has just launched called WT:Social and its premise to combat Facebook on the front of showing new content first instead of sponsored.
The new platform comes from Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales who has promised that any user signing up to the platform won't have their user data sold. WT:Social also won't be running advertisements or have algorithms like Facebook's, which prioritize content that is sponsored or receiving a lot of engagement. WT:Social will instead show users on the platform whatever content is newest.
According to Wale's Twitter account, the new platform has already gained 160,000 members, and "isn't slowing down yet". Wales also commented on how WT:Social will be different from other big platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, he said "I've come to the conclusion that the biggest problem driving low-quality media is that it has been purely advertising-supported, and that the social networks which provide so much distribution are also purely advertising supported."
Continue reading: Wikipedia co-founder's new social media platform is for the people (full post)
Self-driving cars are 25% better at predicting an idiot driver's move
One of the main problems with self-driving cars is that artificial intelligence inside the vehicle assumes all humans drive and act in the same way. This just simply isn't the case.
Luckily, researchers from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have taken that issue and begun examining it for potential solutions. Through their examination of this issue, they began predicting the behavior of other drivers on the road using social psychology techniques. They then fed these techniques to the artificial intelligence to help classify drivers into two basic categories "collaborative or competitive".
Through these classification techniques, the system was able to predict drivers' movements better when it came to lane mergers, faster turning, and more. The paper says that after these techniques were implemented, the artificial intelligence's accuracy increased by 25%. Wilko Schwarting, the lead author on the new paper, said, "Working with and around humans means figuring out their intentions to better understand their behavior. People's tendencies to be collaborative or competitive often spills over into how they behave as drivers."
Continue reading: Self-driving cars are 25% better at predicting an idiot driver's move (full post)
This Rick and Morty Season 4 video explains what 'shy pooping' is
Ever wondered what it's like to be a shy pooper? Rick does, and in season 4 of Rick and Morty, we get to see what lengths he will go to keep his privacy.
Disclaimer - This is a season 4 spoiler, so if you haven't seen episode 2 yet, this will certainly ruin a part of it. The above video has been released onto the official Rick and Morty YouTube Channel, and it shows Rick tracking down the alien who used his private toilet on a remote planet. The alien then expresses that he missed his dead wife and that life has been "hollow" since he has passed. He also says that he is a shy pooper.
All of what the alien says Rick sees in himself as insecurities, eventually not killing Tony but instead abuses him and leaves a really strange bomb on the table. The bomb then turns into a bunch of butts, these butts then fart and then a middle finger raises from the center, flipping off Tony. Tony then returns back to Rick's planet to take another dump, and then things get really philosophically deep. Check out the above video to know what happens.
Continue reading: This Rick and Morty Season 4 video explains what 'shy pooping' is (full post)
PS5 controller: Built-in mic, USB-C, no lightbar, ergonomic design
Sony's latest PS5 patent reveals key features of the DualShock 5, including a built-in microphone, USB Type-C charging, and no lightbars for improved battery life.
A new controller patent from Sony gives us an idea of what to expect from the next-gen PlayStation controller. Overall not much has changed, but there are a few noticable differences. There's a built-in microphone fastened to a metallic strip on the bottom that's likely used for the PS5's new voice-activated AI assistant feature, complete with two(?) auxiliary headphone ports, and USB Type-C charging for quick and easy battery top-offs.
The lightbar has apparently been nixed to ensure longer controller battery life (thank god), too.
Continue reading: PS5 controller: Built-in mic, USB-C, no lightbar, ergonomic design (full post)
Intel recalls Xeon E-2274G because they included a crappy fan
Intel Xeon CPUs are not usually known for their crappy stock heat sink and fans, but it seems Intel is stumbling a bit lately with Chipzilla recently recalling their Xeon E-2274G over the not-so-great stock CPU cooler.
Intel includes a basic fan in the box for the Xeon E-2274G, a fan made by Foxconn and is boxed up with much lower-end CPUs like Intel's own Pentium Gold and Core i3 lines of processors. The stock HSF we're talking about is normally handling heat loads of up to 65W, but the Xeon E-2274G is a workstation/SMB destined chip with an 88W TDP.
People buying an Intel Pentium Gold or Intel Core i3 CPU will not be maxing out their CPU at 100% all day long, but most people buying a Xeon processor would be doing just that. So the stock HSF should be really, really good... right?! Well, you'd think so -- but not in this case.
Continue reading: Intel recalls Xeon E-2274G because they included a crappy fan (full post)






















