Latest News - Page 1778

In a recent bout of leaked benchmarks which we reported on both here and here, Intel's upcoming Cascade Lake-X HEDT chip has been shown getting pounded by AMD's Ryzen 3000 mainstream lineup.

The beating continues as new leaked benchmarks have surfaced of the announced but not yet available Ryzen 9 3950X and the soon to release Intel Core i9-10980XE.

Credit to Twitter user @momomo_us for keeping the data coming. The field of battle this time is Geekbench, and unfortunately for Intel, the beatings have continued.

Take-Two Interactive reiterates that it has tons of new games in the works, including big sequels from its blockbuster franchises.

Take-Two is doing really well right now: Its Q2'2020 earnings are up 74% YoY to $857.8 million, but the best is yet to come. The company is investing heavily into new projects, sequels, and IPs across the board, teasing the possible return of titanic heavy-hitters like BioShock and of course the billion-dollar Grand Theft Auto.

In a recent earnings call, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick once again teased a robust lineup of new games, as well as new business models like game streaming.

AT&T is giving customers some bonus data to enjoy, but what kind of 'bonus' would this be if a company didn't make you pay for it?

Yes, I know that sentence is a strange one to read, but its factually correct. AT&T has recently decided to offer Mobile Share plan customers a 'bonus' 15GB of data, which applies to all Share Value plans. Examples of this are the $130 plan that originally gave 30GB of data, now give 45GB and the $225 a month plan that gave 60GB of data, now gives 75GB.

The catch? Well, AT&T is not giving these 'bonuses' out for free. Instead, they will be adding an additional $10 to customers' monthly bills. It should also be noted that these 'bonuses' are not optional and are completely intentional by AT&T. "Starting with your October 2019 bill, you'll get an additional 15GB of data on your Mobile Share plan. This bonus data comes with a $10 price increase." said AT&T in an article.

Just this past Tuesday, NASA opened up some lunar samples that were brought back from the Apollo 17 mission. One of those samples was an untouched Moon rock.

NASA has said that the purpose of opening up tests into Apollo 17's samples is to gain insight into the correct techniques to practice for samples that will be returned from the Artemis mission. Francis McCubbin, NASA's astromaterials curator, said that "Opening these samples now will enable new scientific discoveries about the Moon and will allow a new generation of scientists to refine their techniques to better study future samples returned by Artemis astronauts."

CNN reports that most of the samples that were brought back from the Apollo 17 mission have already been under study by scientists at NASA, but a separate group of samples was set aside and stored for testing with more advanced technology. Dr. Sarah Noble, an ANGSA program scientist, said: "We are able to make measurements today that were just not possible during the years of the Apollo program."

When I say handheld camera the most likely cameras to come to mind are probably GoPro, Dji Osmo Pocket or even the Insta360, but what about KanDao?

KanDao have announced a new 360 camera, the QooCam 8K. This camera comes in with the highest video recording resolution in its class of pocket cameras, with the capabilities of shooting in 8K at 30FPS. It can also shoot at 4K in 60 or 30FPS, and if you want to capture something in slow motion you can hit the slow motion mode and shoot in 4K at 120FPS.

The QooCam 8K can fit in your pocket but it still isn't that small, I feel as if it were in my pocket it would be uncomfortable due to its bulkiness. Regardless of that though, its a small price to pay for such a powerful portable camera. The camera sports a large 1/1.7-inch 20-megapixel sensor on both sides, a 2.4-inch OLED touchscreen, a 3,600mAh battery with USB PD 2.0 fast charging support, 64GB of onboard storage plus a microSD slot for extra. Pre-orders are currently available, and the asking price for the QooCam 8K is $589, more information can be found here.

Microsoft and Forgotten Empires will be releasing the definitive edition for Age of Empires II in just a few days, and ahead of the launch, we have the full list of its achievements.

On November 14th, Microsoft and Forgotten Empires will be releasing the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition which is a complete overhaul of 1999's Age of Empires II. The overhaul will include three brand new civilizations, 4K textures, three new campaigns, revamped building destruction, adjustable zoom controls, and much more.

It should also be noted that gamers who own a copy of Age of Empires II: HD will receive a 25% discount when purchasing Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. Ahead of the launch, we have the full list of 100 achievements that can be earned for the Windows 10 version of the game. In the entirety of this article, I have provided every achievement, how to earn it, and the amount of points that will be scored for completing the said achievement.

If you have been following Age of Empires news recently you would know that Microsoft are about to release Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. But what about the incredible counterpart Age of Mythology? Will that get some love?

In a recent Twitter post from the official Age of Empires Twitter account, it's mentioned that this week there will be some news regarding Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. This news will be arriving via weekly streaming event, a link can be found here and here for both Twitch and Mixer respectively.

The Twitter post also happens to mention that there will be Age of Mythology news, could this possibly mean the spin-off from Age of Empires is also getting its own Definitive Edition? Or perhaps is Microsoft thinking about taking the series in a brand new direction such as a whole new sequel, Age of Mythology II?

Who doesn't love a good asteroid story, right? We know NASA does, and so should everyone else that is on Earth, as we can still sit in peace and watch another potentially dangerous one fly on by.

This 2,000 foot wide asteroid has been given the name 481394 (2006 SF6), and in just a couple weeks, it will have a close call with our blue planet. NASA scientists believe that the asteroid will come within 0.029 astronomical units of Earth on November 20th. While that sounds like an extremely small amount of space between the asteroid and Earth, it's still actually quite far away.

An astronomical unit (AU) is the average measured distance between Earth and the Sun, which comes in at 93 million miles. This means that the asteroid still manages to be around 2.7 million miles away from Earth, or to put it into a better perspective, more than ten times farther away than the distance between Earth and our Moon. It should also be noted that after the space rock passes Earth, it won't be a threat again for several hundred years as its orbit takes it off course.

The Chinese government is taking online gaming addiction exceptionally seriously, and to battle its problems, they have introduced a bunch of new rules.

According to the announced new rules, young Chinese gamers will now be restricted from playing online games specifically between the times of 10pm and 8am. This is basically a curfew for minors, and if you under 18, you will also be restricted to 90 minutes of online gaming during the week. Weekend and public holiday play for gamers under 18 will be restricted to just 3 hours.

If you thought that was bad, China has also put spending restrictions in place as well. Gamers between the age of 14 and 18 years old can only spend 400 yuan per month, which is equivalent to $57. Gamers that are younger than 14 are only allowed to spend 200 yuan, or $29 a month. To go alongside these new rules, the Chinese government will also require players to provide "valid identity information" to ensure ages haven't been faked.

Imagine if ships could be made unsinkable, it seems like a pipe dream of some sort because everyone knows that metal sinks quite quickly once submerged.

Scientists from the University of Rochester have been working on a solution to this problem, and from the above video, it seems they have come up with quite a great idea. The researchers have created a metal that repels against water by having pockets of air under it keeping it afloat. The researchers have done this by etching into the surface of the metal special patterns which were inspired by the natural world.

The team explains that some spiders and fire ants are hydrophobic, meaning that they repel against water. So, the researchers took this insight and created an etching technique called "superhydrophobic" and applied it to modern-day metals. The results could be revolutionary as described in the paper, "The key insight is that multifaceted superhydrophobic (SH) surfaces can trap a large air volume, which points towards the possibility of using SH surfaces to create buoyant devices."

Dr Disrespect has gone on a tirade againsdt Fortnite in a recent stream, with the popular streamer saying that anyone over 13 years old that plays Fortnite has major issues.

The streamer deleted Fortnite from his PC and blasted gamers saying that anyone over 13 playing Fortnite has a "psychological problem". He said: "Get me the f*ck off this stupid f*cking game. Get it off my computer, I don't want phoneyness".

Dr Disrespect continued, saying: "If you play Fortnite and you're over the age of 13 years old, you've got a psychological problem, there's something wrong with you, wake up!"

I didn't think I'd ever be typing this, but when I read the news I was so interested and blown away by what science can do today that I was compelled to write it.

In what would've been a grueling 14-hour operation, surgeons transplanted a penis, scrotum, and lower abdominal wall to an injured veteran. Post-surgery, the patient reports that he has normal sensation and function -- including "near-normal" erections and even orgasms.

The patient, according to his medical team at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, can urinate standing up with what they call a "strong stream". The anonymous patient was the first to have this complex of a genital transplant, and only the third in the world with a successful penis transplant.

The world of deepfake video technology is getting better and better, but that doesn't mean the results of these deepfake videos is perfect. Case in point is this perfect nightmare fuel in a new Rick and Morty deepfake video... check it out:

Ben Marriott is behind the video, walking you though how he did it and his influences as he's going -- with the major influence of Morty being Willem Dafoe from the original Spider-Man movie with Tobey Maguire. This isn't a perfect "deepfake" as Marriott notes in his video that he uses a "style-transfer software that doesn't technically use artificial intelligence".

This result more or less copies the effects of a regular deepfake, but this is combining the worlds of real video with animation which makes it a mash up of nightmare fuel. It's kinda sickening and laughable, and something Rick and Morty fans really need to check out as Rick and Morty Season 4 is about to debut.

What's better than Hideo Kojima making Death Stranding and being a part of virtually every single part of the game from its inception, to design, to marketing? Hideo Kojima presenting Death Stranding starring Hideo Kojima as Hideo Kojima... that's what. Check out this video:

Someone has very cleverly cut the Death Stranding trailer into a wild deepfake video featuring Hideo Kojima as... well... every damn person in the game no matter their gender. Hideo Kojima plays everyone in this trailer, and while it is (most obviously) not real, it is definitely a fun watch.

Wait until the end of the trailer for the smallest Hideo Kojima ever, too. Remember that Hideo Kojima wants to make movies, but will he write, direct, star, and produce? Using deepfake technology, he could.

Now that AMD's new third-gen Ryzen Threadripper CPUs are official, motherboards makers are unveiling their boards -- one of the first is ASRock and two new TRX40-based motherboards in the Creator and Taichi families.

ASRock's new TRX40 Creator motherboard is made for content creators that want a super-smooth, and ridiculously fast third-gen Ryzen Threadripper system. ASRock is positioning the new TRX40 Creator motherboard at creators who want to throw in crazy-fast NVIDIA Quadro RTX graphics cards and super-fast PCIe 4.0-based storage.

Included in ASRock's new TRX40 Creator motherboard is 10GbE networking courtesy of AQUANTIA's AQtion 10Gbps BASE-T Ethernet controller, which will offer incredibly fast network transfers. Pair this board up with a crazy-core-count third-gen Ryzen Threadripper CPU, some Quadro RTX graphics cards, PCIe 4.0 storage and 10GbE networking and you have quite the content powerhouse.

Years after release, GTA V and its online mode are still making serious cash for Take-Two Interactive.

Today Take-Two Interactive announced its Fiscal Q2'20 earnings, and once again GTA V continued to outperform expectations. Rockstar's mega-hit has now sold more than 115 million units worldwide (which is larger than the PS4's entire installed base) and continues generating consistent microtransaction revenues for the company.

We didn't get exact figures on GTA Online's revenues, but total recurrent consumer spending (microtransactions, DLC, season passes, etc) in Q2'20 made up 37% of total GAAP net revenues of $857.8 million, which means Take-Two pulled in $318.38 million from recurrent consumer spending. In order, the biggest contributors to this value were Borderlands 3, NBA 2K20 and NBA 2K19, and GTA Online and GTA V, meaning Rockstar's colossus made less than the newer sports and shooter-looter titles insofar as microtransactions.

Today is N7 Day, a celebration of everything Mass Effect. Naturally BioWare took the opportunity to give hope for the franchise's future--even if it is a long, long ways away.

Mass Effect isn't dead, and BioWare has lots of interesting scenarios in mind for future games. That's what BioWare General Manager Casey Hudson said today to millions of sci-fi fans worldwide. "We have so many ideas for things we want to do in Mass Effect, so much concept art that hasn't yet been brought to life, and so many stories yet to tell," Hudson said on Twitter.

After the dismal release of Mass Effect: Andromeda, the franchise is currently in cryo sleep. It'll be a while before it wakes up. BioWare is currently developing Dragon Age 4, which is only in pre-production phases and may not release until 2022 or even 2023. But that hasn't stopped the team from planning and dreaming.

Guerrilla Games' studio director Hermen Hulst will now manage PlayStation's global studios branch.

Today Sony announced Hermen Hulst, who directed Guerrilla Games through decades of Killzone games, has been appointed to Head of Worldwide Studios at Sony Interactive Entertainment.

In this position Hulst will lead coordinate with all of Sony's big developers to streamline first-party games development, from Insomniac Games in California to Guerrilla Games in the Netherlands. Hulst hasn't technically replaced Shawn Layden's departure as Chairman of SIE Worldwide Studios, but Hulst will fulfill a lot of the same duties.

Sony has solved the PS5's biggest issue: Making it easy to develop games on.

The PlayStation 5 is a revolutionary console with serious high-end horsepower for developers to use. Outfitted with a next-gen AMD Zen 2 CPU and Navi GPU SoC, the console will push 4K gaming with high refresh rates, eliminate loading zones with a super-fast PCIe 4.0 SSD, and enable real-time ray tracing for enhanced visuals.

It's a beastly system that's already being pushed to its limits via crazy-looking devkits.

Nintendo announced during their 45 minute Super Smash Bros. Ultimate livestream that version 6.0 would be arriving with a massive amount of changes.

Right off the bat, Nintendo will be adding some quality of life features to the Online mode of Smash Bros. Ultimate. These changes will be coming to the Battle Arena mode, and after 6.0 is downloaded, players will be able to add the arena type "Elite Only". Players will now also be able to simply join friends arenas by going Join Arena - Friends' Arenas. Nintendo has also added an option for "Random Battlefield and omega Form" and a message button for players inside an arena.

Moving onto 'General,' Nintendo has added support for the upcoming Simon and Incineroar amiibos. Just like every update, Nintendo have made some balance changes to some fighters. This time around, we have changes for Donkey Kong, Kirby, King K. Rool, Jigglypuff, Robin, Incineroar, and Hero. To top of this version 6.0, Nintendo has added the next DLC fighter, Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is exclusively available on the Nintendo Switch.