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Hideo Kojima talks new Death Stranding details
Hideo Kojima's latest game Death Stranding started out quite cryptic and strange, but with time (and a few new trailers and quotes from Kojima himself), the bizarre has been broken down into consumable little tidbits.
"I'm trying to make something different. How to show that, how to have people see that, that's something I'm trying to figure out," Kojima said in a recent interview with IGN. Based on the latest trailer for the game shown off at The Game Awards 2017, we'd say the gaming guru has achieved this feat (and then some).
But what about specifics? Well for one, death isn't the end in Death Stranding. When you die in the game you just open a doorway to another place, a kind of purgatory of sorts or a temporary way station. You can always return to the real-world (or the world you were just in) after you die. "One of the themes of this game is life and death. So I want people to realize that when they die in the game, that isn't the end."
Continue reading: Hideo Kojima talks new Death Stranding details (full post)
Bungie keeps Destiny 1 era rotating content lockout
After considerable fan push-back (and the wake of the big Battlefront II controversy), Bungie admits they messed up by using the Curse of Osiris expansion to lock gamers out of Destiny 2 content they previously had access to. Some things are getting "fixed," but mostly Bungie is reverting to the old original Destiny 1 temporary lock-out model.
I still remember when Bungie did this in the original Destiny: when the first expansion hit, daily and weekly activities were often locked behind expansion-only maps or areas. So if you didn't buy the latest expansion there would always be a chance that key activities were simply not available to you. As I predicted, Bungie did the same thing with Destiny 2. But now they're doing something different: fixing some of the issues while doing more of the same.
Over the past few months Destiny 2 players have felt quite jaded. The game's progression system isn't so rewarding, and the Eververse is frustrating people. Many are questioning why they still play. The game's latest Curse of Osiris expansion, which Activision affirms will be the first of many content/expansion updates, was a big deal to many and seen as a way to add more value to the game. But alas Bungie actually ended up taking away from non-expansion owners (again), this time the Prestige-level Raids and Nightfalls, as well as the Trials of the Nine game mode.
Continue reading: Bungie keeps Destiny 1 era rotating content lockout (full post)
Rumor: Battlefield Bad Company 3 in development
The next Battlefield game will be a new chapter in the fan-favorite Bad Company series, according to rumors posted by a known gamer with insider information.
YouTuber AlmightyDaq, who accurately described Battlefield 1 to a tee months before it was officially revealed, is back with another hot bit of info about the next Battlefield game. Daq has reportedly received more info from inside sources close to development who say Battlefront Bad Company 3 is in the works, and that it'll be set during the Vietnam and Cold War era.
EA has confirmed a new Battlefield game is in currently in development and slated for release during the publisher's Fiscal Year 2019 timeline, which extends from April 1, 2018 through March 31, 2019. The new Battlefield game is set to launch during the same year as BioWare's massive online-based mech shooter Anthem, however EA hasn't confirmed exact details on the DICE-made first-person shooter just yet.
Continue reading: Rumor: Battlefield Bad Company 3 in development (full post)
Analyst: Battlefront II in-game spend could break $100m
In the wake of controversy, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Justin Post has reduced EA's predicted share price and Battlefront II sales...however the game could still make over $100 million from in-game microtransaction purchases.
The hoopla over Battlefront II's in-game purchases has apparently had a strong affect on sales as gamers avoid the title in an effort to send EA a message. The publisher has responded by temporarily removing microtransactions, but according to Post, this is just a temporary measure. Even still the analyst firm feels Battlefront II will miss its original 14 million sales target by more than 2 million units, and has reduced the company's earnings per share price as a result.
"EA has had a challenging Calendar 4Q, beginning with the shutdown of Visceral Games and now Battlefront 2 (BF2) controversy," Post wrote to clients on Monday. But there's a silver lining for EA: Battlefront II's poor reception sets the company's fiscal 2019 timeline up for a big upswing, especially with games like Anthem and the next Battlefield game on the way.
Continue reading: Analyst: Battlefront II in-game spend could break $100m (full post)
Google informs us which Android Wear watches will get Oreo
Last week we reported on Oreo coming to Android Wear watches but what we didn't know was which devices are set to be updated. So far we know that the LG Watch Sport is being updated to 8.0 but now thanks to a post by Google we can all see a full list.
Google seems to have put their main focus on the expensive fashion brands such as Fossil and Loui Vuitton leaving out older Android devices such as the LG Watch R and the original Huawei Watch. Oreo will give users the option of choosing vibration strength, touch lock and battery-saving upgrades. From the updates listed we can assume that the older model watches weren't compatible with this update which is why they have either been postponed for release or left out entirely.
The full list of which watches are set to receive Oreo has been provided below, while also Google answers the question of if your watch is not listed "For the exact timing of the update or if your device isn't on the above lists, please contact the device manufacturer."
Continue reading: Google informs us which Android Wear watches will get Oreo (full post)
Keylogger found planted on over 460 HP laptops
Security researcher ZwClose has found that HP have pre-installed a keylogger into different models of their laptops, with over 460 different models affected.
This keylogger installed by HP allows for hackers to record every key stroke made on your laptops keyboard, essentially giving the open opportunity for passwords, credit card details and any personal account information to be stolen.
Courtesy of ZwClose we now know that the file is embedded in the SynTP.sys which is apart of the Synaptics touchpad driver which ships with standard HP notebook computers.
Continue reading: Keylogger found planted on over 460 HP laptops (full post)
Epic Games poach Boss Key co-founder for 'secret project'
Boss Key Productions co-founder Arjan Brussee has left his studio to join Epic Games to collaborate on a new "Secret Project." This was confirmed in a tweet by the other co-founder at Boss Key, Cliff Bleszinski, who said that Brussee is "not only a brilliant person but also a dear friend and I wish him well in his future endeavors. Onward and upward--still makin' games here!"
Earlier in his career Brussee actually worked for Epic Games then left the company to make Guerrilla Games and establish titles such as the Killzone series and the game of the year nominee Horizon: Zero Dawn.
It is unclear whether the departure of Brussee has anything to do with the current player-base of LawBreakers, since the release back in July the game might not of been as big as the studio would of liked which then in turn would of influenced Brussee to move onto something with larger potential - the "secret project" Epic Games is working on.
Continue reading: Epic Games poach Boss Key co-founder for 'secret project' (full post)
Secretlab temporarily slash $191 off TITAN Temp gaming chair
Secretlab make some of the best gaming chairs in the world, with it culminating in their latest OMEGA gaming chair that I personally reviewed and rated the best gaming chair yet.
Well, if you want to get some massive discount on their flagship TITAN Tempo gaming chair, Secretlab are celebrating with their 12.12 sale that sees a 24-hour period where $191 discount is applied to the TITAN Tempo bringing the price down to just $329 down from $520.
The deal requires the code of '1212TEMPO' and will work December 12-13, so get in now!
Continue reading: Secretlab temporarily slash $191 off TITAN Temp gaming chair (full post)
Ready Player One's first full trailer is here
Ready Player One is one of the most-anticipated movies of 2018, with Steven Spielberg dipping the movie in so much 1980s pop culture that fans of the book are going to have their minds blown.
The first full trailer to Ready Player One has been revealed, showing off more of the world and the CGI-fest that it looks like it'll be (how else would they show off OASIS, the virtual world inside of RPO).
For eagle-eyed gamers, they'll notice that there's a quick flash of an Overwatch character (seriously, it's less than a second or so). The new trailer really shows off much more of the movie, hopefully without giving too much of it away. I'm expecting some bigger surprises in the full movie, so I'm holding off from here on out.
Continue reading: Ready Player One's first full trailer is here (full post)
Netflix: 1 billion hours streamed content PER WEEK in 2017
We all know how addictive Netflix is and how much everyone binge watches everything, but I didn't know there was a huge 1 billion hours of content streamed per week in 2017... a huge, huge milestone for the streaming giant.
Netflix announced that as of Q3 2017 they had over 109 million subscribers, with just under half of those in the US. Each and everyday Netflix is seeing over 140 million hours of content streamed, pushing the 1 billion hours per week number into the stratosphere.
If we consider that Netflix users were streaming 42.5 billion hours of content in 2015 from their 74.7 million users, Netflix has ballooned out in the last two years. This means that with over 1 billion hours per week of content being streamed, every single account is watching an average of 570 hours of Netflix content every year. Crazy.
Continue reading: Netflix: 1 billion hours streamed content PER WEEK in 2017 (full post)
Galaxy S9 could be the fastest-charging smartphone EVER
Qualcomm unveiled their super-fast Quick Charge 4+ technology alongside their announcement of the Snapdragon 845 in Hawaii last week as part of their annual Snapdragon Technology Summit, and it looks like Samsung's next-gen Galaxy S9 could be the first out of the game with the super-fast charging technology.
Snapdragon 845 will support Quick Charge 4+ which will see Samsung's new Galaxy S9, or at least the Snapdragon 845-powered versions, with super-fast charging. Samsung will also make in-house Exynos-powered Galaxy S9 smartphones, which will not support Quick Charge 4+ technology.
Quick Charge 4 will charge smartphones up to 15% faster, while being 30% more efficient and keeping the Snapdragon 845-powered smartphones up to 3C cooler at the same time.
Continue reading: Galaxy S9 could be the fastest-charging smartphone EVER (full post)
Female characters in PUBG have a camel toe... will be edited
Now that the new test server for Battlegrounds is live, gamers are seeing just what the developer has been working on apart from the new map, weapons, performance improvements and more.
The developers have been working closely on the detail of the female character in the new PUBG test servers, with one gamer noticing that the female characters have been animated with a camel toe. You can see the difference between the normal servers and the test server, above. Interesting.
PUBG's new female characters and their enhanced lady bits were noticed by character artist Liz Edwards, who is responsible for the comparison above. PUBG's community went into overdrive, seeing PlayerUnknown himself - Brendan Greene, replying on Twitter. Greene said:
Continue reading: Female characters in PUBG have a camel toe... will be edited (full post)
NiceHash will reimburse ALL users from $60 million BTC hack
One of our biggest stories of the month was the recent hack of NiceHash, where over $60 million in Bitcoin was stolen in a huge cryptocurrency heist (just without the masks and guns).
NiceHash has officially responded to WikiTribune, which broke the story last week. NiceHash CEO Marko Kobal had a lot to say, but the main takeaway from this is that NiceHash will be refunding each and every customer of their stolen BTC. Kobal said: "we are working on a solution to ensure all users are reimbursed. That is clearly a key concern for our users, and we understand this, we are not running away from our responsibilities. As soon as we have a plan in place we will update all users on our intended solution, and we're sorry for any inconvenience which has been caused".
WikiTribune also asked "What's the likelihood of the company covering more than $60m in losses? Are you able to compensate users?" to which Kobal replied: "We fully intend to make this right. It's a matter of deep concern to us and we're working hard to rectify the matter in the coming days. We're working on a solution to ensure that all users are reimbursed. These things are delicate matters, and take time, so we would ask our community to be patient while we get this fixed and fully investigated. As soon as we have a full plan in place we will communicate it to our users and all those affected".
Continue reading: NiceHash will reimburse ALL users from $60 million BTC hack (full post)
NVIDIA TITAN V: twice as fast as RX Vega at Ethereum mining
NVIDIA announced its monstrous new $2999 graphics card a few days ago, with the new TITAN V being the first consumer-grade Volta-based graphics card released... but I've been itching to know how it mines cryptocurrency.
Thanks to BitsBeTripping, we now know just how good the new TITAN V is at mining cryptocurrency and its truly a beast. They put the new TITAN V through its paces, with a huge 77MH/s mining Ethereum when overclocked and just 213W of power consumed. Considering AMD's newish Radeon RX Vega 64 can be pushed up to around 43MH/s and with much more power consumption, the TITAN V is a freaking compute beast.
You would never, ever buy this card for cryptocurrency mining... but it doesn't hurt to see how much better the TITAN V is against its competitors. It's a nice benchmark to see, and 77MH/s is absolutely incredible for a single card. You'd need two Radeon RX Vega 64 graphics cards to get close to it (they do around 40MH/s with some overclocking and 43-44MH/s absolutely maxed out).
Continue reading: NVIDIA TITAN V: twice as fast as RX Vega at Ethereum mining (full post)
AMD confirms next-gen Ryzen CPUs for Q1 2018
There has been a stream of fake news regarding AMD's next-gen Ryzen and new Ryzen 10 processors, but something that has been confirmed is that AMD is planning to launch their second-gen Ryzen CPUs in Q1 2018.
According to the latest roadmap from AMD we should expect Raven Ridge (Ryzen 3 mobile APU) in Q1 2018, a new chip that will be unveiled at an event before CES 2018 in the first week of January. AMD will also release their business-oriented Ryzen PRO mobile APUs in early 2018, while we'll see the second-gen Ryzen CPUs released somewhere in the March timeframe.
AMD can't name their new Ryzen processors 'Ryzen 2' as it would be beyond confusing with the current nomenclature of Ryzen 3/5/7, so we should expect the Ryzen 2000 series. This would allow AMD to push the Ryzen 7 2800X for example, something that would succeed the Ryzen 7 1800X that is currently the flagship Ryzen 7 processor.
Continue reading: AMD confirms next-gen Ryzen CPUs for Q1 2018 (full post)
Uber settles lawsuit with Indian rape victim
Uber is currently under fire with investigations and lawsuits, the transportation company can now check one of their problems off their long list with a settlement being made with the Indian rape victim that was taking Uber to court on claims of improperly obtaining her medical records.
A court filing revealed the progress of the case and also the reason that Uber obtained the womans records was due to the company doubting accusations. Uber believed that the women was conspiring with Indian rival Ola to attack their business, in return Uber violated the womens privacy in order to discredit her case and claims.
Unfortunately with the data breach as well as these lawsuits Uber's reputation as a company is plummeting, new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is on a mission to mend this and re-route the company back onto a stable path.
Continue reading: Uber settles lawsuit with Indian rape victim (full post)
Outlast games coming to the Nintendo Switch in Q1 2018
Outlast developer Red Barrel will be brining their franchise to the Nintendo Switch, promising a release window of Q1 2018. This was discovered on the Outlast Facebook page by a post that was made by The Red Barrel team, explaining that a DLC for Outlast 2 will not be released despite the many requests, on a positive note though, confirmation for the production of Outlast 3 has been made.
Red Barrel explain in their post that Outlast 2 was specifically designed to make players feel like "a rat in a maze, without any knowledge of what's outside the maze" meaning that there will not be DLC for Outlast 2 but instead Red Barrel "at some point, make an Outlast 3."
In the meantime of waiting for Outlast 3 Red Barrel gave a teaser to a new project the studio is working on, saying that they are "Currently we're working on something a lot of you have been asking for... It won't be a sequel to Outlast or Outlast 2, but it will be a distinct experience set in the Outlast universe. We can't say more right now, we first need to make sure we can make it work. Like I mentioned, we strive to be risk-takers and this one is a pretty big challenge. If all goes well, we'll soon be able to reveal more."
Continue reading: Outlast games coming to the Nintendo Switch in Q1 2018 (full post)
Anheuser-Busch places order for 40 Tesla Semi trucks
Since Elon Musk's unveiled the design of his Semi electric trucks many companies have already placed orders since reservations were opened on November 17. Walmart and J.B Hunt were among some of the first companies to place orders and now another company has joined, placing a fleet order of 40 trucks.
Anheuser-Busch, a brewing company based in St. Louis Missouri, has placed an order for 40 Semi trucks, with this large scale order aiming at a reduction of the companies carbon footprint by 30% by 2025.
The $150,000 trucks may not be the only transportation used to move Anheuser-Busch's products, reports of futuristic truck companies such as Otto and Nikola have been mentioned, as well as Otto's self-driving truck having already shipped 2,000 cases of Budweiser.
Continue reading: Anheuser-Busch places order for 40 Tesla Semi trucks (full post)
Celebrities will answer your Google search questions
Celebrity information is quite abundant on the Internet but it's about to get a whole lot easier, Google will be adding a feature to mobile searches in the US that will allow celebrities to answer questions based off Google users searches. These questions will be answered in a selfie-style video and already have stars such as Will Ferrell, Seth MacFarlane and James Franco on board.
Priyanka Chopra, Nick Jonas, Tracee Ellis Ross, Mark Wahlberg, Dominique Ansel and Jonathan Yeo are also going to answering questions on launch, this may not be a lot of celebrities now but Google says that there will be more to come "in the next few months."
Having celebrities answering the most popular questions of them from Google Search means that anyone that specifically follows an actor/actress will now be swayed into using Google rather than Bing or FireFox. Effectively by doing this Google has brought the gap between everyday people and celebrities just that little bit more closer together, allowing for people to connect with their favorite celebrity across a convenient platform.
Continue reading: Celebrities will answer your Google search questions (full post)
Justin Roiland introduces Squanch Games and teases new title
Justin Roiland, the creator of the hit series Rick and Morty has re-branded his VR studio name after a recent discovery that it was very similar to another studios name. Previously Squanchtendo, has now been changed to the convenient Squanch Games, this announcement was done through a classically amusing comic posted on the studios website.
Not only was the name change explained throughout the comic so was the founders of the studio, Tanya Watson co-founder of Squanch Games was a former Epic Games producer and has worked on large successful projects such as the Gears of War franchise and the popular Battle Royale shooter Fortnite. What was also found out through the comic was that Squanch Games has got announcements coming up and more specifically at this weeks Games Awards, which hints towards a very exciting new title.
Taken from the Squanch Games website is also information regarding the name change, which is of course as Justin Roiland loves sarcastic with a hint of creative wit.
Continue reading: Justin Roiland introduces Squanch Games and teases new title (full post)






















