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Assassin's Creed: Origins game director Ashraf Ismail affirms that the game's loot boxes won't be monetized and can be purchased with in-game currency, not premium currency, and that the game will have options to buy time saving packs of content from the in-game e-store.

Months ago I predicted that Assassin's Creed: Origins would be monetized--thanks to its RNG approach to gear, I thought randomized loot boxes would show up. Now it appears that the game won't be monetized in such a way--however it will have options for gamers to spend real money on in-game items. Ashraf Ismail, game director for the latest entry on ancient Egypt, told Eurogamer that the in-game Nomad's Bazaar, run by the NPC Heda, isn't a form of loot box microtransactions such as Overwatch or Shadow of War. The boxes sold by Heda in the Nomad's Bazaar are bought with in-game currency, and you can sell items to him as well for profit. Plus Heda will send you on a daily quest for the chance to earn riches and rewards.

"The reason we did that was because we saw, even two years ago, people playing the game in different ways," Ismail told Eurogamer. "There are people who like to go into a military location, infiltrate them, steal the loot and equipment and hopefully find some unique or legendary gear."

With Blizzard finalizing the teams for its inaugural Overwatch League, esports powerhouses Rogue have announced via Twitter that they will part ways with their current Overwatch roster after failing to secure a spot in the Overwatch League.

It appears that the financial buy-in for Season one of the Overwatch League wasn't an issue for Rogue, and with some impressive results in this calendar year including being crowned champions of the BEAT Invitation Season 2 and Overwatch PIT Championship, Rogue clearly had no option but to start fresh.

The 12 team Overwatch League begins January 10 2018, for more information about the OWL visit the official OWL website.

If you haven't noticed, I'm a HUGE fan of the Divinity series and I'm absolutely loving Divinity: Original Sin 2. If you're reading this, I'm assuming you're also enjoying the latest adventure in the world of Rivellon. Larian Studios have recently released their third significant patch for D:OS2, addressing a diverse range of issues and bugs while also nerfing a few ability that when combined, were clearly over-powered.

The most noteworthy changes In path 3.0.146.559 include improvements to the game's journal, "several" unspecified quests should now close out as they should instead of lingering in your active journal, Attacks of Opportunity no longer working inside of smoke, right clicking at any time will stop your characters movement, Reduced Chicken form running distance to 6 meters and plenty more.

You can view the incredibly long patch notes in detail by clicking here to read the official post by Larian Studios.

Ever since Mark Hamill tweeted, then promptly removed the tweet, proposing that viewers watch Monday Night Football on October 9 for 'no reason in particular', rumors have been circulating of when Lucasfilm would release a new trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. It appears as if Hamill was indeed correct, Lucasfilm have confirmed that the trailer will air during Monday Night Football.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi trailer will air during the halftime break during the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears game in Chicago. Kick-off is at 5:15pm PT/8:15pm ET and it is hard to tell when half time will take place, you can ensure that the trailer will surface online immediately once it airs. In case Football isn't your thing. The news keeps getting better for Star War fans, with tickets for Star Wars Episode VIII set to go on sale in the US after it immediately airs.

Bitcoin has reached the heights of $4500 once again, for the first time in a month, and right now it has no signs of stopping. Bitcoin is headed towards a hard folk, which in very simple terms is a software upgrade that "introduces a new rule to the network that isn't compatible with the older software. You can think of a hard fork as an expansion of the rules. (A new rule that allows block size to be 2MB instead of 1MB would require a hard fork)", explains CoinDesk.

At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $4576 USD, with a high today of $4626. The Bitcoin fork takes place on October 25. We could see the price of BTC rising past $5000, or higher, as owners of 'altcoins' begin selling or trading their currency for BTC, wanting to ride the high. Altcoins are also taking a hit in price already with many on Facebook groups that I follow worried about the downtrend in altcoin pricing, but the big uptick in BTC pricing.

There are a few things happening on October 25, with the Bitcoin hard fork leading us right into the arms of Bitcoin Gold (BTG). BTG is the result of the Bitcoin fork, with BTC holders to receive the same amount of BTC as you have in BTC on the day that the Bitcoin blockchain snapshot is being taken, October 25 in this case.

Remember when you'd log on to the internet with your 56k modem, wait patiently for AIM start-up and log in? There's probably some people who do (hopefully without the 56k modem). Unfortunately Verizon, owner of AOL, have announced that on December 15, the long-running instant messenger service will be shut down.

"AIM tapped into new digital technologies and ignited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with each other has profoundly changed," writes Michael Albers, communications products VP at Oath.

AIM is one of the last 90's IM services to shut down, with MSN Messenger shutting down in 2014 and Yahoo Messenger pulling the plug last year. The social landscape has changed towards social media and social apps over the past 15 years, with the introduction of Smartphones we've seen Facebook, Snapchat and Skype revolutionising the digital social scene.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds continues sprinting into unknown territory when it comes to how big this game will get, with PUBG hitting a new peak 1.96 million users on Steam over the last 24 hours.

Even at the time of writing this at 11:46PM PST (California) there were 1.07 million players, which completely eclipses Dota 2 and its 375,220 current players, and 716,717 peak players in the last 24 hours. CS:GO is being utterly thrashed by PUBG in terms of peak and current players, with 159,439 current players and a peak of 608,748 players in the last 24 hours.

But you know what? I'm about to jump into the game myself, with three other friends at my office for a LAN. This is why there's 1.96 million peak players, it's freaking addictive and I'm feeling really hungry, and for some reason I feel like chicken.

We have no idea when Magic Leap will release their headset, or what it'll end up being released as, not what it'll look like... but we know that they will have Madefire's mixed reality comics on day one.

Both companies announced the partnership during New York Comic Con, sayign that they've been working together for the past five years. Magic Leap's upcoming mixed reality headset will provide a truly next-gen content experience, with comic books that will look like they're 3D illustrations floating in mid-air, where you'll be able to pin them to your room like customizable digital wallpaper.

Madefire will have major comics from Marvel, DC, and Blizzard... with that alone being worth whatever price the admission is for Magic Leap. Madefire has also promised original titles just for the mixed reality headset, too.

EK Water Blocks continues to forge forward as the world leader in high-end liquid cooling products for the PC, with their latest release in new terminals for multiple Full-Cover GPU water blocks.

EKWB's new design is more minimalistic than previous units, with the terminal featuring an engraved EK logo... and that's it. EK has redesigned the X-series terminals in the form of connectivity, with all of the ports being flush with the body of the terminal. This means that there's no more recessed ports, so there's no need to buy more extender fittings.

The new X-series terminals do everything their predecessor did, but were redesigned with some of the quirks ironed out. The design is more streamlined with the single EK logo, with options for Parallel or Serial terminals for connecting up your EKWB Full-Cover GPU waterblock with the new Terminal X-series. EK has used X-number labeling as a way to work out which GPU waterblocks that are a certain terminal can connect. EK-FC Terminal X2 S can connect up two GPU watrerblocks, in Serieal configuration for example.

OMRON has been making a table tennis robot for a while now, with the AI-powered future table tennis champion dubbed FORPHEUS in its fourth-generation state now able to use its new companion robot arm that throws the ball up in the air so that it can serve.

This means that FORPHEUS is a great trainer and/or opponent for would-be table tennis players, with the fourth-gen robot featuring a display on both sides of the "net" that display players' status.

There's also a three-camera system that faces the human player that is built into the main body, and a bat that is driven by three arms and a 5-axis motor.

While AMD's Threadripper/X399 launched a few months ago, until now, we hadn't seen much information about new X399 motherboards. GIGABYTE teased pictures of their X399 Designare EX, which is part of their "second wave" of X399 motherboards. The motherboard arrived a few days ago from Taiwan, and I can't wait to review it and see what it has to offer over the first wave of X399 motherboards.

The X399 Designare EX looks more professional than the X399 Aorus Gaming 7, which looks more like a gaming motherboard, but that isn't where the differences end. The motherboard features an integrated IO shield, and there is also a built-in fan under the IO cover that should help to cool down the VRM heat sink, which has also been redesigned.

We also see a header labeled THB_C, which we have seen on other GIGABYTE motherboards as a GPIO header for Thunderbolt 3 add-in cards. However, there is zero mention of the header on the internal connectors list, motherboard diagram, or in the header/port descriptions section of the manual. There are a few possibilities as to why it was omitted, as the header is visible on GIGABYTE's official images of the motherboard. The main one is probably that the certification process isn't over. We have seen the same thing happen on some of GIGABYTE's Z270/Z170 motherboards, where they had the hardware but no certification, so they left any mention of the feature out of the official documentation.

Apple might get a lot of the media spotlight for the iPhone, but Google kicks Apple's ass in more ways than one when it comes to services... and especially AI assistants.

Siri was announced six years ago now, with much more competiion in the artificial intelligence assistant game now from Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and others. But now a team of researchers out of Cornell have been working on a new report that sheds some light on which company makes the best AI for smartphones.

Google's AI has an IQ of around 47.28, which is just below the average IQ of a six-year-old, while Siri has an IQ of just 23.9. The team said: "Although this work is still in progress, the results so far indicate that the artificial-intelligence systems produced by Google, Baidu, and others have significantly improved over the past two years but still have certain gaps as compared with even a six-year-old child," the researchers wrote in a paper published on ArXiv".

AMD has had an amazing couple of years, and an even better 2017 with the mega success of Ryzen and Ryzen Threadripper knocking Intel down from its uber-throne. But what about the GPU division?

AMD launched their next-gen Vega GPU architecture, the first consumer graphics cards to feature HBM2 technology. It was back in May this year where I exclusively revealed there would be less than 16,000 Vega graphics cards available in the months post-launch... and here we are, with shortages and only a single custom RX Vega graphics card in the wild. But what about Navi?

Once again I have an exclusive story that AMD will have Navi ready to go sometime in July-August 2018, with a Navi-based professional card being launched at SIGGRAPH 2018. We're still waiting for AMD to launch Radeon Pro SSG, something they unveiled during SIGGRAPH 2017 that hasn't yet materialized. In the meantime, Radeon Technologies Group boss Raja Koduri has taken a sabbatical from the company until early-2018.

I said to myself a few days ago that I wouldn't watch the final trailer to Justice League, I said to myself that I have self control... well, I was wrong. Warner Bros. has released the final trailer to Justice League, and I've got to say... I'm beyond pumped.

The trailer really covers the death of Superman and how it has affected the world, with the trailer opening in Smallville - well, at least in Lois's mind. Lois is dreaming of Clark, which is a very emotional scene. The trailer cuts to Lois waking up realizing that it was a dream, to the TV saying that crime, violence, terror, and war are all on the rise - in the post-Superman world.

Bruce tells Diana that he's been dreaming of something dark coming to Earth, and that he needs to build a team to be prepared. Bruce tells the other heroes that "divided, we are not enough". Bruce continues, saying: "the world needs Superman, and I made him a promise, which is why I've brought you together".

Tesla isn't far away from changing yet another industry, with the company now finishing off its first electric semi-truck prototype. Tesla Motors and SpaceX founder and CEO, Elon Musk confirmed the news over Twitter.

The company did plan on showing off the world's first electric semi-truck at a media event later this month, but Musk has confirmed the unveiling event has been pushed back to November 16. Musk took to Twitter to explain, where he said: "diverting resources to fix Model 3 bottlenecks and increase battery production for Puerto Rico and other affected areas".

Musk also confirmed that Tesla has been sending out updated invites to the media saying that the "first Tesla Truck prototype is completed". Musk continued his Twitter rampage, saying that the "specs are better than anything I've seen reported so far". Musk also said that the engineering and design teams have done amazing work on the electric truck, adding that their work "is aces" and that "other needs are greater right now".

Chris Avellone, the ex-Obsidian dev known for his work on Fallout and Icewind Dale, might've just teased a new Fallout project...or it could mean nothing at all.

A few days ago Chris Avellone changed his Facebook profile picture to a stick figure (presumably himself) hugging Fallout's iconic Vault Boy with the caption "I missed you so much," leading gamers to believe the developer has returned to the Fallout universe. The dev has a beloved following in the Fallout community: Avellone is responsible for key features in Fallout 2, and Fallout: New Vegas, the latter of which is regarded as the best Fallout of all time. This small update on his Facebook page has kicked off widespread hype for Avellone to "save" Fallout and inject core RPG concepts and story arcs back into the series.

No one knows for sure what this update means. It could be Avellone teasing a new DLC, or game, or maybe he's contributing to a new big Creation Club DLC (remember Avellone also lead the creation of Fallout: New Vegas' DLCs). Or it could simply be Avellone's way of celebrating Fallout's 20th anniversary. (Interesting enough Avellone changed his profile banner on September 30th to reflect the series' anniversary, adding the quote "So proud to have been a part: Fallout 2, Fallout Van Buren, Fallout: New Vegas + DLCs. Fun... fun never changes. Yaaaaay #Fallout20th").

With all of the issues going on in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, the FCC fast-tracked 60 x Project Loon internet ballons to fly over both countries for six months.

Alphabet is behind Project Loon, with Google's parent company pushing cellular data capabilities from the skies. Project Loon would return internet connectivity to countless residents. Project Loon was recently deployed in Peru after floods affected the city, with Alphabet teaming with Peruvian network Telefonica to help get the signals from the ground and allocate them into the right spectrum and services.

An Alphabet spokesperson told Wired: "Things are a little more complicated because we're starting from scratch. Loon needs be integrated with a telco partner's network-the balloons can't do it alone".

Samsung had quite a year last year with the battery-related issues surrounding the Galaxy Note 7, all of which seem to be gone on the new Galaxy Note 8, seem to be somewhat present on the new iPhone 8 Plus.

Some users are experiencing the side of the iPhone 8 Plus display separated from the phone itself, something that normally requires an incredible amount of force to do manually. Both the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus were built using water-resistant adhesive that is hard enough to remove, let alone arrive like that out of the box.

Chinese site ThePaper.cn is reporting that an iPhone owner received their new iPhone 8 Plus on October 5, noticing that the screen has been popped open. Inside, there was no sign of an explosion at all, but an Apple spokesperson has chimed in saying that the company isn't commenting on the matter but are looking into it.

With its distinctive style and beautiful art, Cuphead is a charming game...but it carries with it a beastly difficulty that requires skill to tame. This difficulty adds vivacity to the experience, and gives it life...and I think it's important the game is hard. Not only does it add value to the experience, it adds character to the game.

Cuphead is the type of game that instantly steals the show. It's the kind of game that people gravitate towards. I showed the game to a few non-gamers in my life and they all loved it, wanted to know more; it spoke to them, pulled them in and engaged them. The style and amazing hand-drawn art was very enamoring and completely broke the awkward ice that can frost up any encounter. But when I let them try it...well that was another story. Some laughed when they died, a few were determined to get through the first run and gun level. While most people I showed it to gave up with a smile, saying things like "Oh this is too hard," and "DAMN!", one of them beat the level, and the look on their face was priceless. That's the face of triumph, and it's something that can't really be explained in words--it's a raw voltage current of elation that anyone who frequently plays video games knows well.

But without this difficulty, the triumph wouldn't be there. Without its harsh, brutal and un-endingly cruel bosses and levels, Cuphead would be just another beautiful indie. If gamers weren't constantly beaten at their own game by nefarious bouncing blue blobs, mermaids with octopus hair, or killer sunflowers, that spiking current of victory wouldn't ignite the best emotion you can ever feel while playing a video game. That feeling is magic. It's the feeling you get when finally beating that Dark Souls boss, or getting your first Killtacular in a Halo: CE LAN match, or finally taking down that cutely animated boss that's killed you 30 times in a row--it's enthralling, live excitement, and it's something gamers live for.

The Witcher 3's open-ended fantasy world is beautiful, vibrant, and dynamic--constantly shifting with new things to do, with the cities bustling with life and teeming monsters roaming the wilds. To keep the world feeling alive, and to keep players interested and engaged with the world, CD Projekt RED's dev team made the "40 second rule."

When building a massive open world, it's important to keep players actively engaged and interested in the content and interactive features the world has to offer. Lots of teams focus on dynamism to pull this off, or the world's natural alive feeling where things change; mercenaries sharpen swords, city guardsman roam the streets, men and women work fields while monsters and animals roam, hunt, and die in the wilds. Even with all of that, players still have to know about the shifting world state, and more importantly, they have to feel engaged.

To tackle this problem, The Witcher 3's world-building team created the "40 second rule" which stipulated that players have to see something every 40 seconds. "We did some tests and we found the player is focused on the stuff which we produce. Every forty seconds they should see something and focus on it, like a pack of deer or some opponents, some NPCs wondering about. So we have our rule of 40 seconds," said Bartosz Von Ochman, who worked on Living World Design for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, said in the latest episode of noclip's Witcher series. If only BioWare didn't try to up the ante from Dragon Age II and followed the 40 second rule with Dragon Age: Inquisition.