Latest News - Page 22

MONTECH launched its new TG3 chassis, an ATX case that delivers premium aesthetics like panoramic views and lighting, but at an affordable entry-level price point. This makes it a potentially great option for those looking to build an efficient PC gaming rig that doesn't break the bank, while still leaving room to grow.

Impressively, the MONTECH TG3 case, available in Black or White, features a tiered, dual-chamber layout that minimizes cable clutter and highlights your components. It also comes pre-installed with a unibody MONTECH GF360 U REV side intake fan and a GF120 U rear exhaust fan for powerful, ready-to-go cooling right out of the box. The single frame design of the GF360 U REV also simplifies cable management with a single connection point.

Naturally, the fans are ARGB-ready, but one of the cooler, subtler touches in the design is the LED strip running along the PSU shroud, which keeps the power supply out of view of the transparent front and side panels. There's also support for additional cooling, with enough room for 9 fans, including mounting a 360mm radiator on top.

Earlier today, AMD released AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 26.6.2 for Radeon GPUs, which added FSR 4.1 Upscaling support to the RDNA 3-powered Radeon RX 7000 Series graphics cards. This earlier-than-expected release of FSR 4.1 for RDNA 3 is definitely welcome, as it will help breathe new life into previous-gen GPUs like the mid-range Radeon RX 7800 XT and flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX.

To make FSR 4.1 compatible with RDNA 3, AMD had to develop a new version of the technology that uses the INT8 format, since the RDNA 4 version was built specifically for the new architectures' advanced AI hardware and the FP8 format. The good news is that FSR 4.1 for RDNA 3 delivers no quality loss compared to running on RDNA 4 GPUs. However, as per the Adrenalin Edition 26.6.2 release notes and word from AMD, this new version is limited to RDNA 3 desktop GPUs. At least, officially.

Turns out the new FSR 4.1 DLL leaked a little early, via Valve and the Proton Experimental channel for SteamOS/Linux, of all places. And, like the previous version, when paired with the OptiScaler tool to force it, it can run on systems and configurations that aren't desktop RDNA 3 GPUs. In fact, according to this thread over on Reddit, some users are getting it to run just fine on RDNA 3.5 GPUs.

With the Steam Machine finally here and the wider gaming community still wrestling with the higher-than-expected $1,049 price for the base 512GB model without a Steam Controller, there is some good news for the compact rig built for mainstream PC gaming that runs on SteamOS. As the Steam Machine features an RDNA 3-powered GPU that is equivalent to the Radeon RX 7600 XT, Valve has confirmed that AMD's new FSR 4.1 support for RDNA 3 and, by extension, the Steam Machine is coming soon.

Speaking with PC Gamer, Valve has confirmed that it has been "working with AMD on FSR 4 support for Steam Machine" and that it will be "coming soon." This probably means that, since the Steam Machine is currently available to order, FSR 4 support will become available shortly after the first units ship to gamers. Of course, with AMD officially launching FSR 4 for the RDNA 3-powered Radeon RX 7000 Series desktop graphics cards today, Valve might have the FSR 4 update already ready to go.

FSR 4.1 for RDNA 3 brings AMD's AI-powered Super Resolution upscaling technology to more gamers, delivering massive improvements in image fidelity while still boosting performance. For a relatively low-power device like the Steam Machine, compared to current-gen desktop GPUs, FSR 4.1 would immediately improve the gaming experience by delivering noticeable visual upgrades.

Microsoft has quite a few TV shows and films in the works, adding more value to the Xbox brand through indirect monetization and exposure to millions of viewers.

The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly delves into Xbox's 25th anniversary, highlighting upcoming games and multimedia projects that are on the way--and there's a lot of them. It's been revealed to EW that Xbox and Microsoft currently have over a dozen transmedia productions in development across film and TV shows. That's a sizable array of adaptations for a gaming-first organization, and if done correctly, it could help change Microsoft's fortunes on the entertainment battlefield.

The news also comes at an interesting time when Xbox needs as much help as it can get. The group owns a bevy of billion-dollar IPs, including treasured gems like Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, Halo, Doom, Gears of War, and Fallout--most of which either had or are getting adaptations.

The use of AI in video games has been a hotly debated topic this year. Everyone seems to have a strong opinion on the matter, and the video game industry seems to be trudging forward without any care. Michał Nowakowski, joint CEO of CD Projekt Red, said this week that fully AI-generated games are coming, and he knows it for a fact because he's already been in the room with the people building them.

Speaking to Edge's Knowledge newsletter, Nowakowski recalled a conversation with the founder of a primarily AI-based studio:

Valve finally dropped the Steam Machine price today, and it's a tough pill to swallow. The base 512GB model starts at $1,049, with the 2TB version hitting $1,349 and a 2TB bundle with the Steam Controller reaching $1,428. Preorders open June 25 via a lottery system, with the device officially launching June 30.

Despite the price being deemed ridiculous by many, Valve never wanted it to cost this much. Engineer Yazan Aldehayyat told Eurogamer the final price is "significantly more" than the company had originally planned. So what was the plan? IGN's Jacqueline Thomas sat down with Valve engineers Pierre-Loup Griffais and Yazan Aldehayyat and asked exactly that.

Neither gave a hard number, but they said the price hike the Steam Machine experienced was "probably similar" to what the Steam Deck went through. The math is pretty clear from there. The Steam Deck 512GB recently jumped about 40% from $549 to $789, while the 1TB model went from $649 to $949.

Monitor maker iiyama has entered the OLED gaming market with its first-ever OLED gaming monitor, the G-Master GOB2701QSC-B1 Titan Falcon. The 27-inch flat panel offers a 2560x1440 resolution at 280Hz with a 0.03ms pixel response time, powered by LG Display's fourth-generation WOLED technology, also known as META 3.0 or Primary RGB Tandem OLED.

The fourth-gen WOLED panel uses a four-stack emitter architecture for better brightness and efficiency. Peak brightness reaches 1,500 nits in HDR with a full-screen SDR brightness of 335 nits, alongside DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification. Color coverage is rated at 99.5% DCI-P3, 95% Adobe RGB, and 150% sRGB, making it a strong option for color-accurate work alongside gaming. iiyama has also applied an anti-glare coating that reduces reflections without the grainy look of a traditional matte finish.

Variable refresh rate is covered on both sides, with NVIDIA G-Sync compatibility from 48 to 280Hz over DisplayPort and AMD FreeSync Premium certification. The connectivity package is generous, including two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 with Display Stream Compression, a USB-C port with 65W power delivery, a USB 3.2 hub, a 3.5mm audio jack, two 5W speakers, and a KVM switch. All display inputs support the full 280Hz refresh rate.

You probably know Midjourney for generating AI artwork from text prompts. Now, the company is making a move so unexpected that it describes it as "a little weird and a little crazy." Through a new division called Midjourney Medical, it is developing a full-body ultrasound scanner that it claims can map the inside of your body in under 60 seconds.

The Midjourney Scanner works by submerging users in water at about 2 inches per second, using a ring of ultrasonic sensors. The current prototype uses 40 imaging modules, each containing 358,000 ultrasonic elements, that transmit sound waves through the body and record the returning echoes.

Since sound travels differently through fat, muscle, bone, and organs, the system reconstructs those differences into detailed 3D images. Midjourney describes the experience as being surrounded by half a million tiny dolphins using echolocation.

Last week, reports suggested that Intel will reintroduce its Core "Raptor Lake" client microarchitecture as "Raptor Lake Next" under a new Core (non-Ultra) naming scheme. Now, a new leak suggests that the platform will not be exclusive to desktop but will also extend to mobile.

According to leaker Jaykihn on X, Intel is also preparing HX mobile variants of Raptor Lake Next, bringing the refreshed architecture to high-performance gaming laptops with up to 24 CPU cores.

The lineup will be HX-only, meaning Intel currently has no plans for lower-power H, P, or U series variants. The flagship will be a Core 9 chip with an 8P+16E core configuration. This matches the layout of the existing Core i9-14900HX and delivers 24 cores and 32 threads with HyperThreading. Below that, two Core 7 variants are planned: one with an 8P+12E configuration for 20 cores, and another with a 6P+8E arrangement for 14 cores, a configuration that previously appeared in Core 5 territory.

AMD has officially pushed FSR 4.1 support out the door ahead of schedule to previous-generation RX 7000 series GPU owners through a new driver update. Adrenalin version 26.6.2 has been released with FSR 4.1 support for RDNA 3 GPUs, along with game support for Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, Doom: The Dark Ages | Revelations, and two bug fixes.

Adrenalin 26.6.2 marks the halfway point in AMD's endeavor to get FSR 4.1 working on older RX 7000 and RX 6000 series GPUs (RDNA 2 support is coming in 2027). Last month, AMD made the announcement to officially support FSR 4.1 on the aforementioned hardware, but confirmed a deadline of July for RX 7000 support, making AMD's latest Adrenalin driver arrival at least eight days early. AMD gamers won't have to worry about quality compromises compared to FSR 4.1 on RDNA 3 GPUs; AMD confirmed that FSR 4.1 on RDNA 3 will feature the same image quality as on RDNA 4 GPUs. The only caveat with AMD's current FSR 4.1 adaptation for RDNA 3 is that only the upscaling portion was ported over, leaving FSR 4.1 frame generation as an RDNA 4 exclusive feature.

Pressure to push FSR 4 to older hardware began almost a year ago when AMD accidentally leaked its own FSR4 source code featuring two versions of the upscaler: the out-of-the-box version with FP8 support and a second build using INT8 instructions. The second version with FP8 support was what grabbed everyone's attention, as it enabled FSR 4 functionality on non-RDNA 4 hardware. Afterward, modders were able to grab the INT8 version (before AMD took down the source code), and implement it in apps such as Optiscaler, enabling users to upgrade supported games from FSR 3 to FSR 4 with the INT8 build.

Ori and the Blind Forest developer Thomas Mahler shares strong criticisms about Xbox Game Pass, saying that the subscription is essentially a factory that belts out 'mediocre' games.

Game Pass has received lots of scrutiny lately and is often blamed for a portion of Xbox's current plight. The main issues with the service are cyclical and took years to develop, but the main gist is that Microsoft simply spent too much funding games for a risky business model--if subscribers ever leave, it'll be disastrous for Xbox, and that's partly what happened.

Developers have shared their views on Game Pass, with Arkane founder Raphael Colantonio saying Game Pass "damages the industry," and Journey to the Savage Planet developer Alex Hutchinson has also said that the service may harm indies in the long run. Others like Moon Studios' Thomas Mahler have harsher words about Game Pass; Mahler worked closely with Microsoft on two Ori games, both of which launched into Game Pass on day one, so he has a unique inside perspective.

The Steam Machine will start at over $1,000 for the 512GB system, Valve today announced.

Valve has opened sign-ups for Steam Machine purchases while confirming a shocking $1,000+ price tag for the system. There will be two versions offered; the 512GB option for $1,049, and a 2TB version for a whopping $1,349, with two separate bundles that include a Steam Controller. The prices reflect the ongoing RAM crisis that's driving up hardware costs, Valve says.

"The overall effect is that our original goal for the price of Steam Machine is no longer viable. So the prices we're sharing today reflect the state of the world for manufacturing; or, more accurately, it reflects the price of the components as we've secured them over the past 6 months."

Claude Guillemot, one of the original five brothers who founded French games publisher Ubisoft, has died in a tragic plane crash in France, overseas publication Ouest-France reports.

Ubisoft has lost one of its original pioneers. It's been revealed that Claude Guillemot was killed in a plane crash, leaving the four remaining Guillemot brothers to help lead Ubisoft and other companies into the future. Guillemot was one of the two passengers aboard the Cessna 421 Golden Eagle craft who died in the collision.

The publisher delivered a statement: "Ubisoft was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Claude Guillemot, co-founder of the group and chairman of Guillemot Corp, in an accident. Our thoughts are with his family ⁠and loved ones during this difficult time. No further statements will be made at this time."

First released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is widely considered to be one of the greatest games of all time. It's also a game that has been a staple in the modding and fan development scene for years, with one of the more notable projects being from a developer named CryZENx. It was an ambitious fan project that aimed to recreate and remake The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in Unreal Engine 5.

This is a project we've been following for a few years now, with several playable demos showcasing various locations, dungeons, and even characters from the iconic game. Unfortunately, CryZENx has announced that they've officially stopped working on it. Now, if you're thinking that development is ceasing because Nintendo caught wind of the project and issued a cease-and-desist, that's not the case.

The reason for the cancellation is simple, and it has everything to do with Nintendo announcing that it's working on a The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake of its own for the Nintendo Switch 2, and that it's on track for a 2026 release.

Valve's Steam is the number one platform for PC gaming; that much is true. Even though it's the place to play popular multiplayer titles like Fortnite and Rocket League, and a place that has been handing out high-profile free games for years now, the Epic Games Store is not only a distant second when it comes to reach, but in overall features and performance. The good news is that Epic is looking to overhaul everything about the Epic Games Store and the Epic Games Launcher over the next 12 months.

This arrives via the Epic Games PC subreddit, where 'ImAnthlon' shared images from a presentation outlining what's in store. First up, the Epic Games Launcher, the app created to rival Steam, is getting rebuilt from the ground up. And with that, Epic Games notes that it will load up to 5X faster from a cold start, on average, and get you to your library 6.5X faster, on average, when restoring the app from its system tray icon.

The Epic Games Store and its storefront are also being redesigned with new features, and the company added that user reviews a la Steam are coming at some point. Now, a lot of this stuff is already there on Steam, like a personalized home page with recommendations based on interests and playstyles, but 'feature parity' makes sense if the Epic Games Store is to compete.

Anthropic's CEO, Dario Amodei, has sat down with Bloomberg for a lengthy conversation about AI and related topics.

One of the topics touched on during the conversation was Anthropic's decision to sever China's access to its Claude models, which it announced in February 2026. Amodei stated during the interview that Anthropic's decision to limit the use of its models in China cost hundreds of millions of dollars, which at the time represented a significant portion of the company's revenue.

As for what Anthropic has officially stated about the matter, in its February 26 statement titled "Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War," Amodei explains that it stopped several firms linked to the Chinese Communist Party from using Claude.

Although the Xbox brand has felt like it's been in a constant state of evolution, change, and turmoil in recent years, the current definition of Xbox is fairly straightforward, and that is Xbox is the all-encompassing games and hardware platform that includes Xbox Series X|S consoles, Xbox on PC/Windows, and Xbox Game Pass which includes Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Basically, every device is an Xbox, even though the current Xbox leaders are downplaying that reality by shifting focus back toward consoles. And with the rise of PC gaming handhelds in recent years, last year saw the release of the ROG Xbox Ally X, a Windows-based device that introduced the full-screen Xbox Mode for PC. And with that, it looks like Microsoft plans to continue supporting handhelds, with a new Xbox Handheld category and logo joining its list of 'ways to play.'

As spotted by memoryman3 on the NeoGAF forums (via NotebookCheck), the product page for Gears of War: E-Day, which is Xbox's big holiday 2026 first-party release, showcases the new Xbox Handheld logo, joining Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox on PC.

In April, 2026, the Indonesian Game Rating System (IGRS) confirmed Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred was coming to the Nintendo Switch, which at the time was only confirmed for PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One.

The IGRS website listed "Nintendo Switch" under the new DLC, but didn't specify which one. It was presumed the listing referred to the Nintendo Switch 2, given the new hardware capabilities and the general intent to support Nintendo's latest platform. Now, another ratings board, the Taiwan Entertainment Software Rating Information, has rated Diablo IV for the Switch 2, specifically the Lord of Hatred expansion.

So, now we have two separate game rating authorities rating Diablo IV for the "Nintendo Switch," which will more than likely be the Switch 2. Two independent sources, particularly in this instance being official game rating authorities, is enough to soft confirm that Diablo IV is arriving on the Switch 2, and now it's just a matter of time before Blizzard Entertainment or Nintendo makes the official announcement. However, nothing is set in stone, and it may be some time before that announcement comes.

Rockstar confirmed that pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto 6 will open on Thursday, June 25, via the PlayStation and Xbox digital storefronts, as well as select physical retailers.

Following that announcement, rumors have begun to fly about the price of GTA 6, as Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive, the publisher of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, have yet to unveil it.

The price for GTA 6 is likely the most talked-about thing in gaming currently, as endless threads of price speculation populate both Reddit, X, and other various forums and channels. For quite some time, GTA 6 has received various pricing predictions, with some conflating the hype surrounding the title as justification for Take-Two/Rockstar to charge $100 for the standard edition, marking a significant jump from $69.99, the current standard for a AAA title.

NVIDIA has unveiled a framework that enables AI coding agents to train robots to perform high-precision physical tasks without human supervision. Developed alongside Carnegie Mellon University and UC Berkeley at NVIDIA's Generalist Embodied Agent Research lab, the system, called ENPIRE, closes the loop between writing robot training code, testing it on real hardware, and refining it until it learns the desired behavior.

The demo that caught everyone's attention shows a robot arm selecting a graphics card, passing it to a second arm, and carefully seating it into a PCIe slot on a motherboard. The test included a few other tasks, such as sorting metal pins into a box, cutting zip ties with real cutters, and the classic Push-T benchmark.

Across these contact-heavy tasks, the system achieved a 99% success rate under a pass@8 metric, which allows up to eight attempts per subtask with each retry informed by the previous failure.