Latest News - Page 2196

The Acer Predator name is iconic within the gaming enthusiast industry. This trend continues, with Acer today announcing at their IFA press conference, the Predator Orion 9000 series gaming desktop.

"The Predator Orion 9000 is the most powerful PC we've ever made," said Jeff Lee, General Manager, Stationary Computing, IT Products Business, Acer. "With 4-way graphics and 18-core processors, it is a platform that takes gamers and intense graphic users beyond their dreams."

As expected, there is PLENTY of power under the black-and-silver spacecraft-like exterior, Acer have included Intel's Core i9 Extreme Edition 18 core/36 thread processor and up to 128 GB quad-channel DDR4 memory to ensure performance is never an issue.

Today at Lenovo's Holiday Product Launch in Berlin, Lenovo have announced several new exciting products to add to their product range. Including their VR headset for Microsoft's Mixed Reality- Lenovo Explorer, Lenovo Home Assistant Pack, their flagship Yoga 920 and the Miix 520.

With Microsoft announcing they're preparing to democratize virtual reality this holiday, Lenovo have shot out of the blocks with their new immersive VR headset, the Lenovo Explorer. The Lenovo Explorer is a comfortable and lightweight design that is affordable and capable of playing the latest games in virtual reality, access Microsoft Office suite, viewing shows in a relaxing virtual home office environment and able to enhance video watching experiences via 3D, 360-degree and 4K. Aimed as a natural extension of your PC, the Explorer is the simplest PC-VR/MR setup ever thanks to no external sensor required, just plug, update and enjoy. All from $349.99, or $449.99 with Touch Controllers, this is exceptionally good value.

The Tab 4 series just got a whole lot more versatile, smarter and flexible with the announcement of the Lenovo Home Assistant Pack. The Home Assistant Pack works with Amazon Alexa, making any Tab 4 series tablet (Tab 4 8, Tab 4 10, Tab 4 8 Plus and Tab 4 10 Plus) a voice-activated assistant with a screen. Weighing only 300 grams, this portable, yet powerful 3-watt speaker boosts the sound of your Tab 4, enabling it to fill a room. Priced from only $69.99, the Lenovo Home Assistant Pack is the perfect addition to your Tab 4 series tablet.

be quiet! know a thing or two about power supplies, for 11 straight years they have been a market leader for power supplies in Germany. So when be quiet! release a new product series, you know it's going to be a winner, the SFX L Power series is no exception!

SFX L Power series does not make the SFX Power 2 series obsolete, but rather compliment be quiet!'s catalog as the highest performing alternative amongst compact form factor PSU's.

Featuring high durability, 92% peak efficiency performance with 80PLUS Gold certification and Japanese capacitors to increase longevity, the SFX L Power range was clearly designed to meet the rising demand for high efficiency and silent cooling in small form factor computers.

Cooler Master have introduced the MasterSet gaming range into the market, with their MasterSet MS 120. "We created a keyboard that mirrors the highly popular mechanical Cherry MX Blue switches and made it affordable while maintaining functionality. We successfully pulled this off with the satisfying clicky feature on our newest mem-chanical switches" says Bram Rongen, Peripheral Marketing Manager.

Featuring a RGB backlit gaming keyboard with in-house engineered 'mem-chanical' switches, this bundle is complimented with a full RGB precision mouse. Incorporating a Pixart 3050 optical sensor and DPI up to 3500, this keyboard and mouse combo is perfectly designed for 'going on a killing spree'.

"We created a keyboard that mirrors the highly popular mechanical Cherry MX Blue switches and made it affordable while maintaining functionality. We successfully pulled this off with the satisfying clicky feature on our newest mem-chanical switches" says Bram Rongen, Peripheral Marketing Manager.

Acer has just unveiled my Christmas present, with the announcement of the new Predator X35 curved 21:9 display that won't make it until Q1 2018.

Acer's new Predator X35 rocks a larger 35-inch panel with a native resolution of 3440x1440, a massive enthusiast worthy 200Hz refresh rate, and HDR abilities. NVIDIA's G-Sync technology also makes the cut, so you'll need to scope out dual GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards if you think you'll run 3440x1440 @ 200Hz without SLI... think again.

We're also going to get some great Quantum Dot technology, as well as zone-controlled LED backlighting. Inside, Acer will include their own GameView interface, which rocks 7 pre-set display modes (Graphics, Movie, Action, etc) and another slot for custom settings.

ASUS has just unveiled its new 17.3-inch gaming laptop, with the Chimera laptop rocking a GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card, and a beautifully smooth 144Hz LCD display with 7ms response time.

Inside, the ASUS Chimera rocks Intel's Core i7-7820K which hits a max CPU clock of 4.3GHz, while the GTX 1080 reaches 1974MHz. ASUS has included a built-in Xbox Wireless feature that lets you use your Xbox controller on Windows 10 without the need of the huge USB adapter.

ASUS' new Chimera gaming laptop starts at $2000, but it can be configured with up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM and super-fast PCIe-based storage as well. ASUS simply teased the new Chimera gaming laptop @ IFA 2017, with no detailed specifications on it just yet.

AMD might have a shining star in the form of the Radeon RX Vega 56 with its $399 pricing (if you can find it @ that price), but with the BIOS flashed onto the card from the faster RX Vega 64... RX Vega 56 becomes an even better option.

Someone on the Chiphell forums has flashed their Radeon RX Vega 56 with the BIOS from the RX Vega 64, receiving around 10% performance improvement at stock clocks... and another 10% more performance when overclocked. When the modded RX Vega 56 was at stock clocks, it fell just 2% short of the RX Vega 64 performance. But when the RX Vega 56 was overclocked to 1650MHz GPU core, and 2200MHz on the 8GB of HBM2, it BEAT the RX Vega 64 by a good margin.

Now I'm going to be playing with this to see if I can get my RX Vega 56 up to the performance of the RX Vega 64... damn.

Yu Suzuki, the creator of the beloved Shenmue franchise, affirms that the massively anticipated third chapter will be instantly recognizable to old longtime fans.

Playing Shenmue III will be like slipping on a familiar glove that fits like a charm--at least that's the drift of Yu Suzuki's affirmations. In a recent interview with Metro, Mr. Suzuki said the upcoming RPG, which has been delayed to 2018, will be quite similar to the original games.

"The style of game will be very similar to the original, but we will of course be adding some new features as well. The style of control from the original game is one thing that will be updated, but that is natural given modern controllers and the advance of that type of technology," Mr. Suzuki said in the interview.

Destiny 2's first expansion will release in December, three months after the game's launch on consoles, and will focus on Osiris, sources have told Kotaku's Jason Schreier.

Sources familiar with Destiny 2's plans tell Mr. Schreier that the first expansion, due out in December, will focus on Osiris, an ex-Guardian warlock who started a cult on Mercury. A new patrol zone will be added on Mercury, sources say, along with a new social space in Destiny 1's mystical Lighthouse area. The expansion will be part of Destiny 2's $30 Expansion Pass, which grants access to two different expansions and additional content. It's unclear if Destiny 2's expansions will lock non-purchasers out of original content by rotating to expansion-only content, as Activision and Bungie did in the first game.

The news comes months after Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg promised Destiny 2 would feature a steady stream of updates and new content in an attempt to engage its expected millions-strong playerbase. The publisher has conscripted many additional developers such as Vicarious Visions to work on post-release content and expansions to ensure a "robust pipeline of content" for Destiny 2 can be consumed by players.

Rare mimics Microsoft's focus on accessibility and widespread gaming with Sea of Thieves, ensuring that gamers of all walks of life and hardware persuasions can jump into the game.

Sea of Thieves will be quite accessible on lower-end PC hardware, Rare has recently revealed. In fact, the game will even support sub-HD resolutions with a 540p option for PC gamers rocking older hardware, as well as an 15FPS lock for outdated builds. While the developers are Rare have yet to reveal a full minimum and recommended spec list, the team says they want to go as low as possible to reach the widest player pool, but of course one mandate isn't optional--you'll need Windows 10 to play the game on PC.

"We've actually added a 540p mode, so you can go below HD," Sea of Thieves executive producer Joe Neat told PC Gamer. "We've also added a 15 fps framerate lock because when we were talking to the community some people were like: I'm actually happy playing 15 frames per second. We were like: that's actually really cool, we should support that. And to them go to them and say, oh, we've added that mode for you-it's below our Rare certified min spec, but if you're enjoying the game, why should we as developers knock you for that?"

Overwatch fans today were treated to a new patch update, and boy is it packed full of goodies including new game modes, new map, hero changes and previously reported changes to season 6 of competitive play.

Two new game modes have been added to the Overwatch Arcade, Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch. Deathmatch sees eight players go head-to-head until one player scores 20 points. Simple, right? Not exactly, a death will deduct a point while landing the final hit and earning a kill on an opponent will earn you a point.

Team Deathmatch is essentially the same concept, with two teams of four players face off until one team scores 30 points. There is a slight twist however, if a player selects Mercy and a resurrection occurs before the respawn, a point will be deducted from the other team's score. Making Mercy a valuable inclusion to your team.

As majority of Blizzard's game catalog all use Blizzard's Global Play region splitting, it comes as no surprise that Bungie's upcoming Destiny 2 will also utilize Global Play as it's exclusively available via Battle.net.

For those unfamiliar with this, you will still have the ability to select your desired region to play in, however you will only be able to play with other players who are in the same region. This also affects who appears in your Friend List and Clan Roster, as players cannot join games or activities from players in other regions.

"When players launch Destiny 2 from the Blizzard desktop application, they will have the option to select their region of play. If the player takes no action to change their region, it will match the default region of the player's Blizzard account." As quoted from Blizzard's help article.

Last week saw the release of Codemasters' F1 2017 for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, however there's no plans to add VR support to their 2017 edition on any platform. "We've certainly given a lot of consideration to VR," creative director Lee Mather tells GamesIndustry.biz. "As you know, Codemasters did VR for Dirt Rally and we're certainly interested in doing it for Formula One".

Mather preferred to focus on a slightly different direction, focusing on high-end consoles that are starting to populate the market. Stating that "improvements for the premium consoles will benefit the standard versions for earlier models. Obviously we've done a lot of work [this year] on the render tech for those two consoles, but that sort of filters down for the whole range," Mather explains. "This year, we've upped the resolution on Xbox One - last year, it wasn't quite 1080p and now it's full 1080p, 60 frames per second. PS4, PS4 Pro and Xbox One S will have HDR support as well".

Lee also confirmed that F1 2017 will support both the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. As for the Nintendo Switch- "Obviously we've been watching how the Switch is performing and it's selling really well," says Mather. "It probably wouldn't be suitable to have exactly the same game we have running on Xbox One and PS4, but there's certainly the possibility we'll look at doing something on Switch. We'll see what happens in future. It's certainly getting the market share to make it a valid place to be."

Crucial today have welcomed the latest addition to their SSD portfolio, the BX300. The latest addition to the BX family is 45x more energy efficiency and 300 percent faster when compared to mechanical drives. Supported by Crucial® Storage Executive software tool, this software allows for easy drive maintenance to ensure optimum performance. The support doesn't end there from Crucial, The Crucial® Advisor tool helps users determine a compatible upgrade based on their system's manufacturer, make, and model while Acronis® True Image™ HD software allows for simplified Data migration.

"We're excited to share the next evolution of the BX family with our customers. The BX300 is a simple-to-use SSD for the everyday consumer and DIYer who's looking to easily boot up and load apps faster. With its speed, efficiency, and easy install process, the decision to replace an old hard drive has never been easier," said Jonathan Weech, Crucial worldwide product manager. "As a brand of Micron, one of the largest flash storage manufacturers in the world, the new Crucial BX300 SSDs will help consumers extend the life of their older computers with best-in-class quality and innovation."

Available in 120GB, 240GB and 480GB capacities, Crucial's BX300 combines Micron® 3D NAND technology and Silicon Motion's leading-edge SM2258 controller to provide high level of performance, reliability and incredible value.

Arguably, Halo is Microsoft's top selling brand. When Microsoft release a new console, the first question asked is 'When is Halo coming out?'

Microsoft recently announced that they're working with 343 Industries to bring future Halo experiences to their Mixed Reality Headset.

Unfortunately, no more information was released, other than Alex Kipman, Microsoft's 'Technical Fellow', stating "We are not providing specifics right now, but it is going to be a lot of fun to work with them".

The whole battle royale game format isn't that new, but with the massive unstoppable success of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, it shouldn't come as that much of a surprise that GTA Online's latest update adds a new battle royale game mode.

The new "Smuggler's Run" update for GTA Online includes a new mode called "Motor War" which is a battle royale take on the game. It has the same gameplay mechanics from battle royale games, with players split into four teams that parachute out of an plane... hey, this is sounding very familiar.

From there, there's a giant box that shrinks slowly, with players needing to find weapons, explosives and vehicles to get out of the way of the box and kill other players. GTA Online + PUBG? The fight for Steam dominance and gamers' hearts has only just begun.

Intel continues to react to the increased threat in the CPU market from AMD, announcing new Xeon W processors at the IFA trade show in Berlin, Germany. Intel's new processors are a step up from the current flock of Xeon processors, using the LGA 2066 socket and rocking the Skylake-SP architecture.

Intel's new Xeon W processors come in 8/10/18-core variants, with Turbo Boost technology that drives the CPU clock speeds up to 4.5GHz. We have 48 x PCIe 3.0 lanes available, with the Xeon W processors capable of taking 512GB of DDR4-2666 ECC RAM.

The new flagship Intel Xeon W-2195 processor is the beasty 18C/36T chip @ 4.3GHz (Turbo Boost 2.0), joined by 24.75MB of L3 cache, quad-channel DDR4-2666 support, a 140W TDP, and 48 PCIe 3.0 lanes available. Pricing hasn't been stated just yet, but it should be expensive considering the Xeon W-2155 is a 10C/20T variant priced at a hefty $1440. I think we'll see the Xeon W-2195 at way over $2000, and most likely close to $3000.

Apple is expected to unveil their new 4K-capable Apple TV on September 12, with reports coming out that Apple hasn't finalized deals with movie studios for 4K content.

In order for the new Apple TV to be successful in pushing 4K content, there needs to be a decent sized library of 4K content, right? You can pay $11.99 for Netflix which lasts an entire month with unlimited playback of not just the huge library of TV shows and movies, but a continuously expanding library of 4K content as well.

Apple is reportedly looking to charge $20 per 4K movie, which is quite expensive in comparison to current digital 4K content services. Apple has secured big deals at the last minute before, where back in 2010 the company secured huge book publishers within days of launching iBooks.

We all know a future where self-driving cars deliver you pizza isn't far away, but now Domino's and Ford have an announcement that provides that future sooner, rather than later.

In a joint press release, the two companies said that they are working together on delivering fresh-from-the-oven pizzas using Ford's own self-driving Fusion test vehicles. Ann Arbor, Michigan is the first testing ground for self-driving pizza deliveries, letting customers track their hot pizza from the store to their front door using GPS and a modified version of Domino's Tracker.

Hungry customers will get a text once the self-driving car is out the front, with a unique code just for their order that will open up Domino's Heatwave Compartment, and inside of that compartment, will be their hot pizza.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds might be one of the biggest PC games ever released, and one of the hottest games being played right now, but there's a new map around the corner that we should all be excited for .

Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene, the creator behind the game, has confirmed that PUBG's new map will be 8x8 km in size. The new map had been previously pegged at being 4x4 km in size, but the news was delivered by Greene himself where he said: "For 100 players an 8x8 just makes more sense and it gives more flexibility when we move onto custom games and things like that".