Latest News - Page 2097

CES 2018 - ASRock's commitment to the small form factor PC is unwavering, and at CECS 2018 they showed off two new Micro-ATX motherboards. The X299 chipset mainly serves Intel's X-Series of processors while the X399 chipset serves AMD's Thread Ripper CPUs. As such, they are high-end desktop chipsets loaded with features and more importantly, traces. Putting either on a micro-ATX motherboard is no easy feat, but ASRock is up to the task.

The X299M Extreme 4 offers four DIMMs for quad channel memory and support for up to 4200MHz+ DIMMs. It uses an XXL Aluminum Alloy heat sink that cools down its insane VRM. You do get SLI and CrossFireX support along with six SATA6G/s ports, two Ultra M.2 slots, two USB 3.1 ports, six USB 3.0 ports, Intel Gbit LAN, and 7.1 HD audio. ASRock also includes RGB LED capabilities.

Thread Ripper's CPU is huge, so it is quite shocking to see a micro-ATX X399 motherboard. The new motherboard supports quad channel memory support, three Ultra M.2 slots, eight SATA6Gb/s slots, a U.2 port, three x16 PCI-E 3.0 slots, 10 USB 3.0 ports, two USB 3.1 ports, dual Gbit LAN, WIFI, and 7.1 HD audio. It also uses a giant aluminum heat sink to cool down a powerful VRM, so you can overclock your stealth compact ThreadRipper rig.

Nintendo released a sneak-peak video this morning of what they are calling 'Nintendo Direct Mini', with the short video we got to see that the company is concentrating on bringing back some older Nintendo titles, as well as giving some more content to current Switch games. What we also did see is Mario Tennis Aces, the one new announcement from Nintendo.

Nintendo hasn't released some measly old tennis game, this is Mario Tennis Aces, it may not seem like the Nintendo game that fans were waiting for but regardless its quite exciting as Mario Tennis Aces will feature a full story mode.

This isn't the first installment into the Mario Tennis series as there has been previous games released on the 3DS and also the Wii U. The previous games could arguably be deemed as tedious or bland, but what we have seen from Mario Tennis Aces could revive the series with a storyline that hasn't been seen in Mario Tennis games for over 10 years.

Dark Souls fans will be more than happy with the recent news of Dark Souls not only being brought to the Nintendo Switch, but also being remastered on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

Bandai Namco revealed some details surrounding the anticipated re-launch of Dark Souls, which will be running at 1080p 60FPS for the first time ever on PS4 and Xbox One. PS4 Pro and Xbox One X owners will be happy to hear their beefed-up consoles will upscale Dark Souls up to 4K and at a super-smooth 60FPS.

Of course the PC version of the game will be able to do everything listed above, but more importantly Dark Souls will be running in native 4K so players of the classically hard game can watch themselves die over and over as they progress through a much more beautiful world.

The recent teasing of a 2018 line-up of games from a Nintendo executive lived up to its hype, with Nintendo releasing a short Nintendo Direct Mini video showcasing what is to be expected for 2018.

Nintendo has released what they are calling 'Direct Mini' which has given Nintendo fans many games to look forward to in 2018. The company seemed to have hit fans of almost all genres with this Direct Mini, promising new content to their favorite games, as well as Nintendo catered to players that enjoy a nostalgia re-hash of some Nintendo classics.

The Direct Mini covered 16 games that Nintendo will roll the plans out for throughout the year, with some of the games and their updates featured included: New abilities for Kirby Star Allies, Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition, Mario Tennis: Aces and the balloon update for Super Mario Odyssey.

Rainway is an upcoming app that can provide a service that will allow gamers to stream games on-the-fly from their PC to their Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and of course smartphones and tablets.

Rainway confirmed that they are bringing the streaming service on January 20th, they announced it by releasing a brand new trailer which we've embedded above. The video confirmed that Rainway would be granting gamers a completely free of charge streaming service that will allow them to play their PC games on a virtually anything, regardless of brand.

Rainway has claimed that the streaming service will not slow down the connection speed with Rainway being "tuned to avoid impacting the performance of your game. Enjoy 60FPS streams with super low-latency gameplay." To achieve this 'no latency connection,' the developer has recommended a 12Mbps of upload, as it can be assumed that if gamers do not have a substantial internet connection the game will lag, rendering the whole streaming experience pointless.

Not to long ago we had the PC requirements for Arc System Works upcoming release, Dragon Ball FighterZ. The game is spilling its fighting library of characters into the new Dragon Ball Super series, which has caused a new character trailer to be revealed, the assassin Hit takes the stage.

Taken straight from the hit series Dragon Ball Super, Hit appears completely identical in appearance as well as his move-set. The purple shades of color design, matched with a stunning jazz soundtrack has not only got Hit fans pumped for his release but also general FighterZ fans as well.

Judging from his trailer and what can be assumed as the sheer power taken from the TV show, Hit will most likely not be a easy character to learn. With a frame perfect counter, mixed with his ability to dodge and damage at the same time, it can be assumed he will slide into a higher learning tier character. Just like most hard to learn characters, once players have passed the beginners learning curve a sense of reward will be received for talented players that will be able to pull off his combos.

Bandai Namco Entertainment has revealed the PC requirements for their upcoming fighter, giving gamers the heads up on specification requirements before the games open beta release on January 13th.

Dragon Ball FighterZ has been developed by Arc System Works which is known for similar fighting games like Guilty Gear Xrd and Chrono Phantasma. Unlike the developers' previous titles, Dragon Ball FighterZ will require a little more power, having a minimum requirement of Windows 10 64-bit and 4GB of RAM.

When it comes to graphics cards the minimum requirements for the game are a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti or a AMD Radeon HD 6870. Both the recommended and minimum requirements aren't that challenging when compared to some of the more higher demanding games, but now you know what PC grunt you'll need for the newest installment in the Dragon Ball universe.

Darkest Dungeon is coming to the Nintendo Switch, with developer Red Hook announcing a January 18 release on the Switch eShop.

On Red Hook's website they have confirmed that the gothic RPG is on its way to the Nintendo eShop on Jan 18, they also revealed that it will be arriving with two DLC packs. The Crimson Court and The Shieldbreaker DLC packs will be available on day one, priced at $10 and $4, respectively.

Both expansions serve up a substantial increase in content with The Crimson Court adding an entirely new storyline and new bosses, while The Shieldbreaker added the eponymous hero class and other content.

A soon to be released World War II first-person shooter is about to be published by Square Enix, it's titled Battalion 1944 and is a completely crowd-funded title that gamers will be able to purchase beginning Feb 1st.

Battalion 1944 begun as a successfully crowd funded idea that sprung from the depths of Kickstarter in 2016, the game raised over $450,000 from 10,000 backers exceeding the target of only $142,000. Bulkhead Interactive, the developer of Battalion 1944 has said that with the extra funding, Battalion 1944 will "challenge the biggest AAA shooters in the industry."

Unlike some early release games that prohibit gamers from recording and uploading gameplay footage, Bulkhead are letting Battalion 1944 players to freely capture and upload gameplay to social media and video sharing sites. I would imagine the community wouldn't be too fond of Square Enix Collective if their crowd funded game was slapped with the 'no recording sticker' when they were the ones that funded the project.

Nintendo is rumored to host their new Nintendo Direct event sometime very soon, and with the huge success of their Switch console and the mix of Nintendo Russia telling gamers to 'Follow the news' and that something new is expected 'soon'.

Nintendo Russia hinted to 'watching the news' on the Russian carbon copy of Facebook VK, the company answered a question that was a fan asking about the rumored January Direct event, Nintendo Russia replied with "good afternoon! Follow the news - soon expected!"

This is a small amount to go on to be completely fair, but still doesn't mean that the possibility of Nintendo coming forward with an announcement in the coming days is impossible. The best guess we have got is to just watch the news in the coming days, maybe an announcement will happen after CES or maybe the company will just hold off a few more weeks.

Last December PUBG was released on Xbox One and it was no surprise that the battle royale shooter was going to take off in terms of game sales. Xbox has revealed today that PUBG has reached 3 million players before the end of last year.

Battlegrounds on Xbox One was released on December 12, and shortly after we reported that the game ran like a pile of crap on the Xbox One/X, where it took the game just 19 days to rack up 3 million players. These numbers are quite an incredible feat to say the least, as most publishers would be more than happy to get 3 million sales in total across all platforms their game is released on.

When compared to the PC version of the game, SteamSpy has estimated there to be about 28 million people who own a copy of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. In repercussion to this number, the game has achieved over 3.1 million concurrent players, which equates to the total amount of Xbox One players.

A recent patch hit PUBG not too many days ago and now PUBG Corp has come forward and apologized over the game's reward system not working correctly. In addition to the apology, the company has given its players a chance to redeem any lost BP.

On a Steam Community forum post the developer has directed attention towards the recent 1.0 launch, according to forum post a issue had occured within the games reward system which resulted in players not receiving the fully owed amount of battle points. This problem seemed to of stretched out from the PC 1.0 launch until December 27th, when the developer was performing scheduled maintenance on PUBG, in order to compensate players for this issue the company is offering a restoration of missed BP.

Players will be able to receive their missing BP by simply logging into the game and clicking a pop up that will inform you of a BP loss. According to the forum post, battle points will be restored until Feb 9th UTC, so it is advised to go and collect your battle points you have lost before it is too late.

CES 2018 - General Motors has just unveiled ambitious plans to mass product a self-driving car that would truly change the way we drive, as GM's autonomous car would ship without a steering wheel or pedals.

GM is one of the Big Three automakers in the US, with this news surely sending shockwaves throughout the automotive market ahead of the annual Detroit Auto Show that begins next week, following CES 2018. GM's new car will be a fourth-gen car in its driverless, all-electric Chevy Bolts, which are being tested in San Francisco and Phoenix streets as we speak.

GM President Dan Ammann told The Verge: "It's a pretty exciting moment in the history of the path to wide scale [autonomous vehicle] deployment and having the first production car with no driver controls. And it's an interesting thing to share with everybody".

CES 2018 - Facebook wants to be in your house with microphones and cameras in more ways than one, and instead of just being installed on your smartphone or tablet, the social networking giant is working on a new voice-enabled video chat product called Portal.

Facebook's purported Portal video device would compete against the likes of Amazon Echo and Google Home, but Facebook will be aiming Portal at family and friends that want to stay in touch, always. Facebook will reportedly launch Portal in May 2018, which should see the device unveiled at their annual F8 developer conference.

Portal would sport a screen that can be used to video chat Facebook friends, and it'll double as a streaming music/video device as well. Facebook will use its partnerships with app makers like Spotify and Netflix, versus Amazon using their in-house ecosystem that includes Prime Video and Music.

GUNNAR Optiks has just announced it has partnered with eSports giant Unikrn, where GUNNAR customers can purchase their gaming eyewear using UnikoinGold, or UKG.

Not only that, but Unikrn platform users will be able to win GUNNAR gaming eyewear in jackpots that will be held on the site. GUNNAR customers will receive UKG kickbacks on every purchase when they open up a Unikrn Wallet to hold UKG, and a Connekt account. The jackpot itself doesn't cost gamers a thing, but you'll need to be a Connekt user where you can earn UKG crypto for playing games.

Earning UKG is tied to some of the largest eSports games in the world, including CS:GO, League of Legends and Dota 2.

In what started out with Intel being at the middle of the biggest security hole found in consumer CPUs ever, Meltdown and Spectre are now causing a world of hurt for AMD, which had previously said there was a "near zero risk to AMD processors at this time". Yeah, well... about that. We also have a list of Intel CPUs affected by Meltdown and Spectre.

Microsoft's own support forums have seen a flood of PC owners with AMD processors complaining that their PCs won't boot after Spectre/Meltdown security patches were downloaded and installed.

"Microsoft has reports of customers with some AMD devices getting into an unbootable state after installing recent Windows operating system security updates", a Microsoft spokesperson explained. They continued: "After investigating, Microsoft has determined that some AMD chipsets do not conform to the documentation previously provided to Microsoft to develop the Windows operating system mitigations to protect against the chipset vulnerabilities known as Spectre and Meltdown".

Samsung has just announced its latest and greatest advancements in HBM2 technology at CES, something the company is calling "Aquabolt". This new HBM2 is much faster than the first spins of HBM2, where we're looking at bandwidth of an insane 2.4Gbps and in 8-Hi height (8GB) stacks which should see up to 32GB on next-gen graphics cards.

The 8-Hi stacks might sounds weird, but when there's 4 of them on a graphics card we're looking at 32GB of HBM2. As for bandwidth, we're looking at around 300MBps per pin, which on a 1024-bit memory bus should provide around 307GB/sec per package, times 4 bringing us to a crazy 1.2TB/sec of memory bandwidth.

Jaesoo Han, executive vice president, Memory Sales & Marketing team at Samsung Electronics explains: "With our production of the first 2.4Gbps 8GB HBM2, we are further strengthening our technology leadership and market competitiveness. We will continue to reinforce our command of the DRAM market by assuring a stable supply of HBM2 worldwide, in accordance with the timing of anticipated next-generation system launches by our customers".

Sony has approved a number of official controllers across vendors like HORI and even Razer in an attempt to offer PS4 players a range of options, and now the games-maker continues this trend with the Onyx.

HORI's new Onyx controller is shaped very much like an Xbox One controller, meaning it should be pretty good for shooters. The standard DualShock 4 can be funky at times, especially with its floating triggers (those things are a nightmare to fix if you lose the little spring), so major vendors and peripheral-makers have stepped in with their own respective solutions.

Outside of its looks and ergonomic feel, all in all the Onyx seems to act just like a regular DualShock 4: it sports wireless connectivity, has all of the buttons in the same place (well maybe except for the floating triggers), and rocks the touchpad that can often be wonky to use in-game.

Square Enix is bringing its Zodiac Age remaster to Steam next month, offering a host of features not included in the console version.

Having played Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age on PS4, I can say the game looks and plays great, but it should really shine on PC. Apparently the publisher agrees and that's why the remastered port will run at 60FPS on PC, as well as include support for up to three 21:9 ultra-wide monitors at once, and also full controller support on Steam.

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is slated to launch on February 2, 2018 on Steam for $49.99.

Boeing has revealed a giant drone that is capable of changing the way that transportation of cargo is done from small destination of point A to B. The giant drone is capable of lifting 500 pounds of weight and will serve a staple example of what future autonomous flying aircrafts can achieve.

Amazingly the massive drone came from a concept drawing on a piece of paper and only took Boeing engineers three months to bring to life, titling the creation"unmanned electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) cargo air vehicle (CAV) prototype." The company has said that the drone has passed all testing done at Boeing research labs in Missouri, and that the drone represents "another major step in our Boeing eVTOL strategy."

Greg Hyslop, Boeing chief technology officer said that the company has an "opportunity to really change air travel and transport, and we'll look back on this day as a major step in that journey."