HTC has discovered the buzzword of the year, and decided to make a smartphone around it with their upcoming Exodus handset announcement during the Consensus 2018 blockchain conference in New York, where we recently saw a crypto-powered beer vending machine unveiled.

HTC is making a new blockchain smartphone that the company explains on the Exodus landing page: "Our vision is to expand the blockchain ecosystem by creating the world's first phone dedicated to decentralized applications and security. With the release of the HTC Exodus we can now make this a reality".

The new Exodus smartphone will support both Bitcoin and Ethereum as well as other cryptocurrencies with its universal wallet, secure hardware, and decentralized apps. HTC has plans to make a native blockchain network where cryptocurrency can be traded with other Exodus smartphone owners. You will be able to buy Exodus using cryptocurrency as well, but no pricing or ETA has been released just yet.

It feels like forever since the original STALKER was released by developer GSC Game World, but now the developer has finally announced STALKER 2, without much fan fare which is very, very strange.

Rewinding the clock 11 years back 2007 and we have the original STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl released, pitting gamers into a first-person shooter set in the Soviet-era nuclear power plant of Chernobyl. STALKER gave birth two a few follow-up games in STALKER: Clear Sky in 2008, and then STALKER: Call of Pripyat in 2010.

But in 2011, studio founder Sergiy Grygorovych shut GSC down. Four years later GSC was back, announcing a new RTS game called Cossacks 3, and ever since the studio has been silent. But now, Sergey Galyonkin who is an employee of Epic Games, and the creator of the Steam Spy service, tweeted out that GSC seems to have licensed Unreal Engine 4 to create STALKER 2.

Activision is starting to make good use of their insane $5.9 billion acquisition of mobile developer King back in 2015, with the Candy Crush developer working on an "exciting new project", which just so happens to be a new Call of Duty game, for mobile.

The developer recently posted a job ad looking for a level designer for their studio in Stockholm, Sweden. The job ad reads: "The aim is to create a Call of Duty experience on mobile, while also breaking new ground for mobile and redefining the genre. The approach and ambition is to be fresh, social, and highly accessible, while providing a very authentic game experience".

Activision is currently preparing the hype train for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, but with PUBG and Fortnite doing so much damage not just on the usual platforms: PC and consoles, but the mobile market... Activision (and King) have some catching up to do in this market.

Microsoft has just announced its new Surface Hub 2, something that will launch next year for companies, educational users, and board meeting use.

The new Surface Hub 2 has secret insides for now, with the previous-gen unit packing an Intel Core i7 in the huge 84-inch version, while the 55-inch Surface Hub was powered by a Core i5 processor. The new Surface Hub 2 only comes in a 50.5-inch variant, with an unknown processor at this point.

Microsoft is keeping the 3840 x 2160 native resolution, with its camera also shooting 4K as well. The big selling point here is that the new Surface Hub 2 rocks an awesome hinge that will let people move it into landscape or portrait, depending on their needs. As for pricing, Microsoft has decided to keep Surface Hub 2 real cheap with it selling for $5000 or so, down from the holy-crap price of $22,000 for the original Surface Hub.

ASUS has just unveiled their new ZenBook Pro 15 notebook that comes in a few different varieties, with them all rocking Intel's latest Coffee Lake CPUs.

The new ZenBook Pro 15 starts off with the Core i5-8300H which is a 4C/8T chip, the Core i7-8750H which is a 6C/12T processor, or the flagship Core i9-8950HK that has 12MB off cache and boosts up to 4.5GHz. All of the machines rock an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 with 4GB of GDDR5.

The base models have 8GB of DDR4 RAM, while the higher-end models rock 16GB and as for storage, you'll have 512GB or 1TB SATA or PCIe SSDs. ASUS is using a 15.6-inch display with a native 1920 x 1080 resolution, but there is an optional 4K touchscreen that ASUS offers, something that uses 100% of the Adobe RGB color space.

According to a report from Shacknews Gearbox won't be showing off Borderlands 3 at E3 2018 next month...but no official confirmations have been announced.

We've known Gearbox is making Borderlands 3 for a long time now, and that the game will be powered by Unreal Engine 4. Borderlands 3 likely has its new writer by now and development is in full swing--at least that's what Gearbox head Randy Pitchford strongly hinted on Twitter.

And 2K Games' parent company Take-Two Interactive has repeatedly hinted that Borderlands 3 will launch before the fiscal year's end on March 2019. Take-Two didn't explicitly say Borderlands 3, of course. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said "Looking ahead to Fiscal Year 2019, we expect to deliver both record net sales and operating income led by the launches of Rockstar Games' Read Dead Redemption 2, and a highly anticipated new title from one of 2K's biggest franchises."

Bethesda's excellent-looking new shooter RAGE 2 is primed for the long haul, and should have many a DLC, cosmetic, and/or player-created mod storefront to offer.

When I first saw the teasers for RAGE 2, I thought about the current landscape of gaming (microtransactions, long-term revenues via live services, etc) as well as Bethesda's past trajectory (Fallout/Skyrim Creation Club). While RAGE 2 by itself may not instantly bring to mind big online gaming, the title's sandbox has been called quite huge and everything looks pretty dynamic insofar as interactive vehicles and enemies. This alone is a nice little stage for an online service game. Throw in some online co-operative and competitive play and we have all the trimmings for a live service game.

I recently made the prediction RAGE 2 would have online elements of some sort that are possibly monetized, and now id Software creative director Tim Willits confirms that first part. In a recent interview with GameStar, Willits says RAGE 2 will embrace the Games-as-a-Service model to ensure a longer lifespan for gamers. "We want people to play Rage 2 longer, and we think we can bring some fun stuff that makes it possible, but we'll talk about it in more detail as we move closer to the release of Rage 2," he said.

Following yesterday's confirmation announcement, Bethesda made good on its promise to show off RAGE 2 gameplay...and it looks pretty great.

In a very real sense RAGE 2 looks like a mashup of so many different great things that play into the dev teams' existing strengths: there's dystopian themes and visuals from Fallout and Mad Max (and of course the first RAGE game), a huge fleet of drive-able vehicles straight out of Avalanche's excellent Mad Max game, and the smooth, blistering-fast shooter mechanics that id infused into Doom 2016. RAGE 2 is a huge open-world game that's filled with chaos and mayhem, and has a very Destiny-like feel with its powers...plus there's a possibility my online co-op prediction was right on the money.

Apart from its style and visceral, speed-filled FPS action, RAGE 2 seems to have a very Fallout-esque story. In the game you play as Walker, the last Ranger, on his quest to topple an evil regime. On your quest you'll leave a bloody trail across the badlands, gunning and running down all the teeming hordes of enemies in your wake. One other really interesting thing about RAGE 2 is its vehicle selection: according to the company's press release, if you see it you can drive it (and consequently use it as an implement of total havoc).

Red Barrel, the developers behind the critically acclaimed horror series Outlast have spoken out about the titles sales as well as the companys revenue from the series.

The first Outlast came to Steam at a price point of just $19.99, while the title only cost the developers $1.4 million CAD to build and distribute. The second Outlast was a bit more pricey, costing $7 million CAD to build and was set a price point of $29.99.

According to an interview with Red Barrel CEO, Philippe Morin combining both of these titles unit sales has brought the total of the series to a massive 15 million units sold. This has resulted in the developer making $45 million CAD after expenses have been taken out. Here is what Morin had to say about the developer moving onto new IP's "We're prototyping, and the way I want to approach this is to get a prototype that we're really happy about, and then figure out the best way to get it done. Are we going to need the same kind of budget? Can it be lower? Right now, I don't know."

Team Cherry has sat down with Nintendolife at the Bitsummit indie games event in Kyoto Japan, the developers revealed that Hollow Knight for the Switch is "at the finish line" of development.

Nintendolife asked quite a few questions to Team Cherry developers William Pellen and Ari Gibson, some of which included when the game is going to be finished and also if it was hard porting the title from PC to the hand-held console.

When Pellen and Gibson was asked when the game would be released on the Nintendo Switch the answer that they gave was "Soon... All we can say it that it's very soon... And we know that we have made people wait but we do think the quality of the product is worth it. The time that we've put into it has made the Switch version the perfect version of Hollow Knight and it really was worth the time we have taken." They both did reveal that the developers "are at the finish line but can't say anything conclusive regarding timing, so until things are rock solid, we have to wait but we know exactly what's going to happen."

Cliff Bleszinski, the creator behind the very popular Gears of War series has taken to Twitter to announce that his studio Boss Key Production is now officially closed, effective immediately.

Boss Key Productions was the developers behind the failure of a title LawBreakers, CliffyB addresses that "LawBreakers was a great game that unfortunately failed to gain traction" as the title was squashed throughout the raw popularity of the Battle Royale genre. In hopes of stringing something together CliffyB says that him and his team "scrambled to do our take on the huge battle royale genre with Radical Heights, which was well received. However, it was too little, too late."

Its good to see a developer coming out and admitting that one of their titles was a desperate attempt to keep their studio afloat, here is what CliffyB finished up on saying. "To those of you who have supported myself and the studio these last four years, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Please note, that the servers for Radical Heights will remain up for the near future."

Yesterday we saw the new Italian map titled 'Villa' that is coming with the Rainbow Six Siege: Operation Para Bellum, today Ubisoft North America has released a short video teasing the first Italian operator Alibi.

Just days before the official reveal of the new expansion coming to Rainbow Six Siege, a short teaser trailer for one of the three upcoming operators has been released by Ubisoft. The trailer showcases an operator named Alibi, and from the video we can see that Alibi is a Defender and will be using illusions and misdirection to infiltrate and secure areas.

According to the description on the official Rainbow Six Siege website post for Alibi, the new operator was "Inspired by undercover infiltration specialists in the Italian Raggruppamento Operativo Speciale unit. She is a cunning woman with a gift for infiltrating dense networks of organized crime." For further backstory on the coming operator visit the official Ubisoft website post here. Operation Para Bellum will be revealed during the Pro League Finals on May 19-20th, anyone interested can join in on the reveal via the Rainbow Six Siege Twitch stream.

NVIDIA's effects from the now-dead GPP are in full play here with MSI announcing their new MECH series of graphics cards, which won't be using the newer Vega GPU architecture but the older Polaris GPU architecture.

MSI's new MECH 2 series cards are split into two SKUs for now: Radeon RX 570 and RX 580. The MSI Radeon RX 580 MECH 2 8G OC is the flagship MECH 2 card in the RX 500 series range, with MSI's own TORX Fan 2.0 providing 22% more air pressure for improved cooling performance and lowered noise.

MSI expects its new RX 580/570 MECH 2 graphics cards to be in stores in July, and I'm sure a detailed unveiling at Computex 2018 which kicks off in a couple of weeks, and samples/reviews that will take place very shortly after.

Ahead of the upcoming State of Decay 2 launch, Microsoft has released 17 minutes of gameplay footage through IGN.

For those that are not aware, State of Decay 2 is a multiplayer zombie survival title that plans to create a long lasting community that players can enjoy either with a group of friends or solo. The titles story is quite unique, as each of the choices players make will be recorded by the world, which then further influence the choices that will have to be made later in the game.

Not to long ago, we saw the official State of Decay 2 PC requirements and also the size of the title when it is fully released. State of Decay 2 will be releasing on the Microsoft Store on May 22nd and will be set at a price point of only $30.

In a world dominated by Apple and Samsung, how can you be any different? That's what Lenovo is hoping to do, especially after its $2.9 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google.

Lenovo VP Chang Cheng teased the new Z5 on China's Weibo social network, showing off slick screen-to-body ratio of 95%, further teasing the Z5 features four technological breakthroughs that include the use of 18 patented technologies. We have no idea what these technologies are, but the hype is definitely building.

How will Lenovo handle the front-facing camera with a screen-to-body ratio of 95% is a big question. Can we expect the 'notch' that Apple made infamous with its courageous iPhone X? Bezel-less smartphones aren't super-new, but with in-display fingerprint sensors now here, Lenovo teasing four technological breakthroughs and 18 patented technologies definitely has my attention.

It looks like I'll need to move to South Korea for some blistering fast internet access, with SK Broadband announcing its new 2.5Gbps high-speed internet service recently, teasing future 5Gbps and 10Gbps connectivity.

SK Broadband is owned by South Korea's largest wireless carrier, SK Telecom, which use their Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) to hit 2.5/5/10Gbps. GPON technology uses something called a "point-to-multipoint architecture" that sees a single optical fiber line with multiple unpowered fiber splitters.

The carrier says that it developed GPON technology as an alternative to ethernet cables, with a single SK GPON reaching 52.5Gbps, which is absolute insanity. SK Broadband is expecting to be able to provide 5Gbps and 10Gbps internet services in 2H 2018, all powered with their GPON technology.

Milla Jovovich the actress from the very popular Resident Evil film series has been announced to be featured as the main star of the upcoming Monster Hunter movie.

The movie is being produced and distributed by Contantin Film, the same company that worked on all six of the Resident Evil movies. Jovovich's husband Paul W. S. Anderson, wrote all six of the Resident Evil movies and is also working on the Monster Hunter adaptation.

This isn't the first piece of news for the Monster Hunter movie. Back in 2012, Anderson mentioned that he was taking the reins on the movie and also explained that the adaptation would be concentrating on a single person being immersed in a parallel world riddled with monsters that eventually begins to invade our world. Here is what Anderson had to say "Then eventually the parallel world ends up coming to our world. So you have the creatures from the Monster Hunter world invading our world."

Not to long ago we saw that Avengers: Infinity War took the number 1 spot in movie history for making the fastest $1 billion, now the newest release from Marvel has taken the 5th spot in highest grossing movie of all time.

At the start of May, Box Office Pro projected that Avengers: Infinity War would set a new box office record, and now that the movie has been released in China and international markets, it has made $281.3 million more just over the weekend. This has brought Infinity War to a global total of $1.6 billion and counting.

Avengers: Infinity War is now in the 5th spot of the all time biggest grossing movies, with only the following movies ahead of it Jurassic World at $1.67 billion Star Wars: The Force Awakens at $2.06 billion, Titanic $2.18 billion and finally Avatar at $2.78 billion. It will be interesting to see if the comic book phenomenon can reach Avatar to secure yet another box office record.

Ubisoft has released a quick teaser trailer for the new map Villa that is apart of the Year Three Season Two: Operation Para Bellum expansion. The trailer showcases the beautiful upcoming Italian countryside.

The trailer shows the new map via camera pans that both show the outdoor setting as well as the interior design. It appears that this map is more close quarters then widespread, at the same time though there is plenty of spots for players to strategically place themselves depending on the objective at hand.

The new map Villa will be bundled up with the Operation Para Bellum expansion, the expansion will be fully revealed on May 19th and 20th at the Pro League Finals in Atlantic City. Players that are interested in watching the reveal can join in on the action on the official Rainbow Six Siege Twitch stream.

A new character highlight trailer has been released by Nintendo, it showcases some new characters for the upcoming Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition that is debuting to the Nintendo Switch.

The above video showcases Ghirahim and Fi from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Ravio from A Link Between Worlds, Yuga from Ocarina of Time and the one and only demon king Ganondorf.

For those that are interested in the other character highlight trailers there is already a trailer for Toon Link, Tetra, Medli, King Daphnes, Link, Zelda, Impa, Linkle, Lana, Cia and Volga. Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition will be releasing on the Nintendo Switch on May 18, the title can already be pre-loaded via the Nintendo eShop.