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Custom SNES PC spotted at QuakeCon 2019

Derek Strickland | Computer Systems | Jul 29, 2019 2:58 PM CDT

Every year thousands of fans gather to celebrate id's FPS legacy, and bring their stylish and crazy builds to the BYOC floor event.

Custom SNES PC spotted at QuakeCon 2019

Quakecon started off as the world's largest LAN party, and after 24 years, it's still going strong. This year's show celebrates 25 years of DOOM's legacy, and saw lots of creative custom PC builds including a rad SNES with an EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti SC stuck out of the top (talk about 16 bit power!).

Other builds include a Nuka Cola vending machine, a rad industrial liquid-cooled setup that looks straight out of Quake 4, a PC with a huge Spider Mastermind at the top, a BFG build, and a super-slim PC that glows lime green in a blacklight. Someone even brought their old-school Compaq from the 1990s.

Continue reading: Custom SNES PC spotted at QuakeCon 2019 (full post)

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC The Hero arrives v4.0 July 31

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jul 29, 2019 9:28 AM CDT

Nintendo recently teased that they will soon be holding a livestream with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai as he gives us a breakdown about the games next DLC character 'The Hero'

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC The Hero arrives v4.0 July 31

The Hero represents 4 characters of the Dragon Quest series and according to yesterdays announcements, Sakurai will be taking fans through in-depth look at the coming fighter. The demo presentation has been scheduled for July 30th, shortly after, according to Nintendo Europe, version 4.0.0 system update will launch and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate replays won't be compatible with the new system.

This could mean that The Hero is apart of the version 4.0.0 update and will sneak in as a fast surprise for us, right after the livestream reveal ends. This would be pretty cool and I'm sure many fans would encourage that level of surprise. I cannot confirm anything officially as of yet, but if I believe this is a safe assumption especially when considering Joker arrived with version 3.0.0. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is exclusively available on the Nintendo Switch.

Continue reading: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC The Hero arrives v4.0 July 31 (full post)

PlayStation 5 pre-orders go live in Sweden for $1050

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jul 29, 2019 8:09 AM CDT

We should expect to hear more about Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5 console in the coming months to wrap up the year, before the full hype train begins in 2020 -- but what about the most important thing... price?

PlayStation 5 pre-orders go live in Sweden for $1050

MediaMarkt Sweden has the new PlayStation 5 up for pre-order now for $1050, and is most likely a placeholder, but a high placeholder that I think is for good reason. Sony is putting its all into the PS5 and with it most likely rolling out with 4K 60FPS gaming thanks to the massively more powerful Zen 2 and Navi architectures from AMD both on 7nm.

This won't be cheap, and nor should it be cheap if we're truly talking high-end PC gaming at 4K 60FPS, a $1000 price point would be a helluva deal. Console gamers might be used to the $300-$400 sweet spot for consoles, but we're in a different age now where people are more comfortable spending $1000 on an actual great console (hardware wise) versus the potatoes they've had in the last 10 years.

Continue reading: PlayStation 5 pre-orders go live in Sweden for $1050 (full post)

NVIDIA now has a total of 27 different RTX Studio laptops

Anthony Garreffa | Laptops | Jul 29, 2019 8:00 AM CDT

SIGGRAPH 2019 - NVIDIA has just expanded its RTX Studio range of laptops and professional-grade mobile workstations by 10 new products, with the RTX Studio family now consisting of 27 different models.

NVIDIA now has a total of 27 different RTX Studio laptops

The new RTX Studio models come form NVIDIA partners including Dell, HP, Lenovo, and BOXX and launch alongside the new NVIDIA Studio Driver which is optimized for creative apps that are throughout the floors of SIGGRAPH. The new RTX Studio Driver delivers something important for creative power users, with 30-bit color support in OpenGL-based apps like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere for all GPUs.

Here are the 10 new models:

Continue reading: NVIDIA now has a total of 27 different RTX Studio laptops (full post)

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 'The Hero' info reveal on July 30

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jul 29, 2019 5:00 AM CDT

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players will gather around as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director, Masahiro Sakurai reveals information about the games coming DLC character 'The Hero'.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 'The Hero' info reveal on July 30

According to an announcement out of Nintendo Versus, Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai will be sitting down on a livestream to give an in-depth look at the upcoming DLC character 'The Hero'. Sakurai will begin the livestreaming on 30th of July, and we will be given some in-depth details and presumably some gameplay will be shown off during the presentation.

The presentation has been called a 'demo' and will last 22 mins and from the image that we see on the Twitter post we could assume that perhaps Sakurai himself will be picking up a controller to show off his skills. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is exclusively available on the Nintendo Switch.

Continue reading: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 'The Hero' info reveal on July 30 (full post)

Nuclear explosion level asteroid had close-shave with Earth

Jak Connor | Science, Space, & Robotics | Jul 29, 2019 4:00 AM CDT

Before you freak out, asteroids whizz past Earth all the time and NASA is currently tracking 90 percent of the most dangerous asteroids in space. There is no immediate global level threat at the moment, but astronomers did just miss an asteroid that could of caused a nuclear-level destruction.

Nuclear explosion level asteroid had close-shave with Earth

The asteroid was called 2019 OK and on July 25th, it flew passed Earth at a range of 45,000 miles. The asteroid ranged in size from 187-427 feet and according to Michael Brown, an associate professor in astronomy at Monash University in Australia, if the asteroid collided with Earth the destruction would devastating. "The lack of warning shows how quickly potentially dangerous asteroids can sneak up on us" said Brown.

This also isn't the first time an asteroid has appeared out of nowhere to us, back in 2013 a meteor exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk and the blast was stronger than a nuclear explosion. This meteor injured over 1,000 people and was only 66 feet in diameter which is much smaller than 2019 OK which just flew past Earth. Astronomers will still continue to monitor asteroids and better yet NASA are currently working on ways to deflect asteroids that are in route to collide with Earth.

Continue reading: Nuclear explosion level asteroid had close-shave with Earth (full post)

International Space Station begins 3D human tissue printing

Jak Connor | Science, Space, & Robotics | Jul 29, 2019 3:00 AM CDT

A couple of days ago, SpaceX launched their Dragon Capsule spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) on a cargo delivery mission. That craft has now be successfully grabbed by the ISS's robotic arm.

International Space Station begins 3D human tissue printing

On July 25th, SpaceX launched the Dragon Capsule on their Falcon 9 rocket containing more than 5,000 lbs of supplies and equipment. The craft also contains 2,500 lbs of science gear that will enable and fuel many experiments that will be conducted on the ISS by astronauts.

Flight controllers on Earth will operate the ISS's robotic space arm to port the craft on the ISS which will then enable the on-board astronauts to venture into the capsule to acquire the supplies. The supplies that will be on-board of the Dragon Capsule will enable the astronauts to conduct experiments in low-gravitational environments. Some of these experiments include the fabrication of human tissue using a 3D printer and how microgravity affects the process of human tissue healing and regeneration.

Continue reading: International Space Station begins 3D human tissue printing (full post)

Space X-ray observatory snaps gorgeous galaxy cluster images

Jak Connor | Science, Space, & Robotics | Jul 29, 2019 2:00 AM CDT

NASA's 20 year old Chandra X-Ray Observatory launched from the surface of Earth to give NASA, and their researchers a better understanding of how radiation is produced and observed in the universe.

Space X-ray observatory snaps gorgeous galaxy cluster images

The observatory launched 20 years ago and was named after the Nobel Prize winner Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who was an indian American astrophysicist and was honored for his contribution towards the now current understanding of astronomy. Chandra X-Ray Observatory launched back on July 23, 1999 and has been orbiting earth and observing the structure of huge galaxy clusters ever since.

Belinda Wilkes, Chandra X-ray Center director gave a statement on some newly released images out of Chandra, saying "Chandra remains peerless in its ability to find and study X-ray sources. Since virtually every astronomical source emits X-rays, we need a telescope like Chandra to fully view and understand our universe." Not only is Chandra observing galaxies and star clusters, the observatory is also monitoring gravitational waves (massive ripples in space-time) and black hole mergers.

Continue reading: Space X-ray observatory snaps gorgeous galaxy cluster images (full post)

YouTube and Netflix support to come to Tesla's in new update

Jak Connor | Electric Vehicles & Cars | Jul 29, 2019 1:00 AM CDT

Tesla cars already have some really cool features and now there is some more apps teed up to soon be released on the electric cars. Tesla owners will soon be able to enjoy Netflix and YouTube in their glorious surround sound.

YouTube and Netflix support to come to Tesla's in new update

The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk announced on his official Twitter account that Tesla's will soon gain the "Ability to stream YouTube & Netflix when car is stopped". It is unclear when these new video streaming services will be hit Tesla's, but Musks notes that when they do the apps will be incredibly immersive and create a "cinematic feel due to the comfy seats & surround sound audio."

Even though Musk says that YouTube and Netflix will only be available when the car is stopped, he does mention inside the Twitter thread that "When full self-driving is approved by regulators, we will enable video while moving". At first this inclusion of video streaming in a car seems like it could cause potential dangers for drives on a distraction level, especially if its being used while the driver is in motion. When used responsibly though, such as waiting to pick up a friend from a location, video streaming really could be a great way to pass the time comfortably and enjoyably.

Continue reading: YouTube and Netflix support to come to Tesla's in new update (full post)

DOOM Eternal gameplay shown in 48-minute video from QuakeCon

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jul 29, 2019 12:13 AM CDT

Now that QuakeCon 2019 is over, id Software's latest game has been detailed in a gloriously evil 48-minute gameplay video of DOOM Eternal. Check it out:

DOOM Eternal gameplay shown in 48-minute video from QuakeCon

It's shaping up beautifully, with great graphics and beyond smooth movement even compared to the first game. It feels like id Software has taken in the super-slick movement style of RAGE 2, and infused it into DOOM Eternal. We have even better, much more powerful weapons to choose from and totally new environments all detailed in the id Tech 7 engine.

Speaking of id Tech 7, the refreshed engine will be powering DOOM Eternal and its 10x higher geometry detail, as well as more texture details than any game that id Software has made, ever. DOOM Eternal will have real-time ray tracing and is being touted as the best ray tracing ever, but this will be missing from its launch with DOOM Eternal launching on November 22.

Continue reading: DOOM Eternal gameplay shown in 48-minute video from QuakeCon (full post)

16-year-old takes out Fortnite World Cup, wins $3 million

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jul 28, 2019 11:23 PM CDT

Epic Games has just finished up with its huge Fortnite World Cup which saw a $30 million prize pool, two cheaters battling it out and the crowd going so crazy they muted the audio, with 16-year old Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf taking it out winning himself $3 million.

16-year-old takes out Fortnite World Cup, wins $3 million

Bugha won the first of six games, continuing on to score himself high places and more eliminations which took him to the top. He continued playing well throughout the day and then took out the last game, taking home a gigantic $3 million. At 16 years old to win a huge $3 million in the hottest game in the world right now must've felt like a helluva moment for Kyle, good on him!

On the Saturday there was the Duos tournament where Emil "Nyhrox" Bergquist Pedersen and David "Aqua" W. from Europe took it out, taking out two of the six games, seeing them secure the most points out of the 50 teams in the Duos tournament. They also won a huge $3 million between them.

Continue reading: 16-year-old takes out Fortnite World Cup, wins $3 million (full post)

Heavy Rain, Detroit dev says ray tracing will be a BIG DEAL

Anthony Garreffa | Graphics Cards | Jul 28, 2019 10:18 PM CDT

We're currently being pushed into the arms of 8K gaming in the future with a tease of next-gen consoles being 8K-capable (video output, I don't think we'll see it in gaming) but Quantic Dream founder and CEO David Cage thinks otherwise.

Heavy Rain, Detroit dev says ray tracing will be a BIG DEAL

In a recent interview with GameSpot and Cage at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, the subject of ray tracing came up and he said that it will be a huge deal thanks to the improvements ray tracing will do to lighting. Cage said that lighting (courtesy of ray tracing) is more of a focus for Quantic Dream than polygons or textures.

Cage explained:

Continue reading: Heavy Rain, Detroit dev says ray tracing will be a BIG DEAL (full post)

Fortnite World Cup: $30M prize pool with banned cheater

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jul 28, 2019 9:37 PM CDT

Epic Games is continuing to inject Fortnite in every place it can, with the huge Fortnite World Cup kicking off at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York.

Fortnite World Cup: $30M prize pool with banned cheater

The Fortnite World Cup had its opening ceremony at 12:30PM, which was quickly followed by the Creative Finals at 1PM and then the Celebrity Pro-Am at 4PM. The Celebrity Pro-Am sounds fun, as it will have some celebrities and pro-gamers that will be fighting for a huge $3 million prize pool that will be donated to charity.

Pro Fortnite player Damion 'XXiF' Cook qualified for the Fortnite World Cup and played at the Fortnite World Cup, with fans not happy about it at all. XXiF was found guilty of cheating by Epic Games during the Fortnite World Cup qualifiers, banned from the game for 14 days, and yet qualified for Fortnite World Cup, and competed in New York.

Continue reading: Fortnite World Cup: $30M prize pool with banned cheater (full post)

Apple Insider: Apple thinks 5G is now a 'required feature'

Anthony Garreffa | Mobile Devices | Jul 28, 2019 8:12 PM CDT

The pieces of Apple's next-gen iPhone are quickly coming together, where in the last few months we've gone from Apple securing a multi-year deal on 5G with Qualcomm, to Apple acquiring Intel's modem division for $1 billion.

Apple Insider: Apple thinks 5G is now a 'required feature'

In early April it was rumored that Apple wouldn't have a 5G-capable iPhone until 2021, largely because of the Qualcomm issues (at the time) as well as the problems Intel was having with its modem and in particular, its in-development 5G modem. Fast forward to last week and rumors swirled rather quick that Apple was in "advanced talks" to acquire Intel's modem division.

Then just 3 days ago Apple confirmed it had acquired Intel's modem division in a deal worth $1 billion, a move that will see Apple getting 5G modems into its new 2020 range of iPhones faster. The new iPhone is also expected to have a super-snappy 120Hz refresh rate, bringing it up to the levels of the high-end gaming phones in the Razer Phone 2 and new ASUS ROG Phone II.

Continue reading: Apple Insider: Apple thinks 5G is now a 'required feature' (full post)

The Order 1886 sequel might be in development

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jul 28, 2019 6:24 PM CDT

When the PS4 launched it didn't have a lot of games. Some were good, some were great, and some like The Order 1886 were technical marvels with amazing graphics but short-sighted mechanics. Now Ready At Dawn could get a second chance.

The Order 1886 sequel might be in development

Ready At Dawn's ill-fated The Order series could get revived with a sequel, and it could be another PlayStation-exclusive. Assassin's Creed dev Jordan Lemos heard the iconic supernatural 19th century shooter might get a second chapter. Right now Ready At Dawn is indeed working on a new AAA console game that's yet to be announced...and it could very well be another cinematic-driven experience set in lycan-infested London.

"I think it's one of those games that got hyped up before launch, or people thought it was going to be a different kind of game than it was, so when they played it and it was four hours or something...they thought it was crap. But if you play it now, it's really good. I like it. Everyone should play The Order 1886. Especially since...I guess they're making a sequel--I don't know if it's The Order 1887--the last I heard, yeah, they were actually doing a second one," Lemos said in a recent interview with Gamer's Head Podcast.

Continue reading: The Order 1886 sequel might be in development (full post)

Doom's cheeky brutality was inspired by Evil Dead

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jul 28, 2019 5:09 PM CDT

Doom broke the mold for PC gaming as a whole, introducing the world to a demon-infested cataclysm of blood, hellish molten lava, and utter chaos. But as time went by it got more and more humorous, creating a mystique around the seemingly-immortal Doom Slayer.

Doom's cheeky brutality was inspired by Evil Dead

Today's Doom games really blend that ultra-brutality of the original series with a kind of hilarious tone that never takes itself too seriously. The games are always games first, putting entertainment above immersion and never let you forget you're playing a high-octane power fantasy. That was actually part of the design process from the start. According to Doom Eternal creative director Hugo Martin, id drew inspiration from Sam Raimi's darkly funny Evil Dead horror movies.

"We met Adrian Carmack a bit ago along with the team, and he told us that we can't take Doom too seriously. 'Evil Dead, that was a big inspiration for us,' he said," Hugo Martin said during a QuakeCon 2019 panel. "We've been studying the things they were interested in from the beginning but it's just those little elements have to be in place to make something that special that resonates with people."

Continue reading: Doom's cheeky brutality was inspired by Evil Dead (full post)

Origin showcases custom Miami Vice PC at IEM Chicago

Derek Strickland | Computer Systems | Jul 28, 2019 3:24 PM CDT

Origin brought a flamboyant customized rig that matches insane power with stylish flair to IEM Chicago.

Origin showcases custom Miami Vice PC at IEM Chicago

Origin PC is known for their crazy exotic builds--they recently jammed a PS4, Xbox One, Switch and a PC into the same water-cooled box--and the company had some nice builds to show off at IEM Chicago. The most interesting was the Origin Vice custom rig, which sported some rather ludicrous high-end hardware including two water-cooled NVIDIA RTX 2080 Tis in NVLink and the $1,000+ Intel Core i9-9980XE Extreme CPU.

The Origin Vice build had a nice stylized paintjob that brings to mind Miami's brilliant sunsets, and had fluid RGB lighting for that 80's neon vibe. Built in Origin's flexible and roomy Genesis case, the rig looked screamed enthusiast gaming at every turn.

Continue reading: Origin showcases custom Miami Vice PC at IEM Chicago (full post)

Userbenchmark adjusting CPU 'rankings', pandering to Intel?

Shannon Robb | Internet & Websites | Jul 28, 2019 2:26 PM CDT

Userbenchmark has been a quite long-standing way for novice users to find which hardware would be the best by placing a direct comparison between models in their integrated benchmark database. Some of you may not know anything about Userbenchmark, but it is wise to get to know them. This is because while many experienced users pay them no mind, Userbenchmark has made themselves a huge SEO trap for novice users who are simply seeking a quick way to tell which hardware is the best.

Userbenchmark adjusting CPU 'rankings', pandering to Intel?

Here we see the crux of the problem when sorting based on the CPU's 'speed rank'. You can see that the top 5 spots are dominated by Intel products. This in itself is not really the whole story as we have to go a bit deeper to understand what actually happened. Some good reporting from the team over at WCCFTECH shows how the rules have changed on how CPUs are represented in their speed rank calculation.

Here you see that the previous rating was split with 60% of the score being tests of quad-core level performance, while the single-core comes in at 30% and higher than quad-core labeled 'multi-core' being 10%. Now we move right and find that the scoring has been adjusted as follows. Quad-core level performance drops to 58%, single-core jumps to 40%, while the multi-core falls to a mere 2%. This would make sense several years ago when frequencies were still growing, but now that it is increasingly more difficult to increase frequencies, scaling in cores has been having over the past 3+ years. I guess you could say that since Ryzen came onto the scene it has started the shift to many more cores on consumer-level CPUs.

Continue reading: Userbenchmark adjusting CPU 'rankings', pandering to Intel? (full post)

Intel's new modular tech could revolutionize gaming

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jul 28, 2019 9:50 AM CDT

With its swappable components, Intel's new modular compute tech could change the face of gaming.

Intel's new modular tech could revolutionize gaming

Intel brought something special to last weekend's IEM Chicago event: two futuristic concept designs that may revolutionize both productivity and gaming. I saw the unique Honeycomb Glacier with its folding hinges and dual-screen design, as well as Intel's new futuristic modular compute tech. The latter has some far-reaching implications that could usher in a new era of convenience for gaming as a whole.

Intel's vision with its compute tech is simple: swapping between multiple platforms without having to buy them individually or sacrificing performance. This is made possible by Intel's unique compute platform. What if you could take the guts out of your desktop and slap them into a laptop at will? That's the idea here. Essentially Intel packed a computer in a blade-like form-factor that can be detached and slotted into multiple modular designs.

Continue reading: Intel's new modular tech could revolutionize gaming (full post)

Doom Eternal has a new Doom Slayer terminator enemy

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jul 27, 2019 6:16 PM CDT

Doom Eternal's latest new boss is an unholy fusion of machine and demon with one purpose: to annihilate the Doom Slayer.

Doom Eternal has a new Doom Slayer terminator enemy

Doom Eternal has double the demons as Doom 2016, and id makes good on its promise for maximum carnage with a new hulking sentinel boss called the Doom Hunter. Unveiled at Quakecon 2019 with some kick-ass footage, the Doom Hunter is basically a terminator created by the sentinel faction--only instead of hunting Sarah Connor, it wants to vanquish the Slayer.

The Doom Hunter somewhat resembles Sabaoth from Doom 3, and has tons of insane weaponry at his disposal including tons of back-firing rockets, a molten chainsaw arm, and a huge cannon-hand. And of course in true Doom fashion, this monstrosity zooms around on a hovercraft with two cannons in the front.

Continue reading: Doom Eternal has a new Doom Slayer terminator enemy (full post)

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