Latest News - Page 2201

Just a day before the official Galaxy Note8 launch, a new rumor has appeared claiming that the device with 6GB/64GB configuration would carry a CNY 6,288 price tag which translates to around $944. Have in mind that this is the price for the Asian market so that it could be higher in Europe and the US.

There will also be two other models - 6GB/128GB which should cost $1,065 and the rumored Emperor Edition priced at $1,200.

The Galaxy Note8 will be unveiled tomorrow when we will finally have all the details about the phone.

Ubisoft drops two new CGI trailers for Assassin's Creed: Origins that show ancient Egypt riven by war, chaos, and amazing open-world visuals.

As a longtime history buff, I've always wanted to see ancient Egypt depicted in painstakingly detail and given life in an open-world game. For obvious reasons, Ubisoft's new Assassin's Creed: Origins is one of my most anticipated games of the year, and the publisher's new set of trailers only heighten my excitement. The new CGI footage is impressive in its own right, but for someone like me who's dreamed what ancient Egypt looked like across its long and storied history, these trailers are downright awe-inspiring.

A while back I wrote about the wealth of possibilities that AC: Origins presented, and posited that Bayek, the game's principal protagonist, would be able to cross the Mediterranean to explore regions like Alexandria in the golden age of Ptolemy's reign. I dreamed about seeing the Pharos of Alexandria, the world's first great lighthouse, within the game...and lo and behold the new Gamescom trailer showed that massive beacon in the sky in all of its glory. That's the real pull for Assassin's Creed: Origins: how Ubisoft has essentially unearthed a window in time to one of the most dynamic and incredible periods in all of ancient history...and we get to jump in and explore it. From the Great Pyramids of Giza to the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak, players will see oh-so-much. I can only imagine what L. Sprauge de Camp would say if he were still alive.

By releasing its landmark action RPG onto as many devices as possible, Square Enix takes a page out of Bethesda's playbook.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim needs no introduction. The game, which was originally launched in 2012, has enjoyed a long lifespan: five years after its release Bethesda continues breathing new life into the RPG and re-releasing it out into the wild for a cool $59.99. Skyrim has become the butt of many jokes and stands as an elder dragon that's yet to be slain. Final Fantasy XV is following in Skyrim's footsteps, but Square Enix is taking a different tact: instead of simply re-releasing the game like Bethesda did/continues to do, the Japanese publisher has made it the center of a universe. This "Final Fantasy XV Universe" sees trans-media cross-platform interactive content orbiting the core sun that is the Final Fantasy XV world, essentially making a franchise within a franchise. But it's not just about games: the orbiting celestial bodies include an anime series and a feature-length CGI film.

This "Final Fantasy XV Universe" sees trans-media cross-platform interactive content orbiting the core sun that is the Final Fantasy XV world, essentially making a franchise within a franchise. But it's not just about games: the orbiting celestial bodies include an anime series and a feature-length CGI film.

It looks like Battlefield 1 might be the next game to receive HDR abilities, according to Reddit user 'Ballzif' who snapped a shot of the new Battlefield 1 Xbox One CTE version, which shows HDR calibration in the menus.

DICE hasn't confirmed that HDR support is coming to Battlefield 1, but there is a planned update coming today where we should see something about HDR... hopefully. As for the new BF1 update, here's what to expect:

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Gamescom 2017 is well and truly under way, with EA and DICE showing off some incredibly gorgeous new footage from Star Wars Battlefront II in its Starfighter Assault mode. Check it out:

Above, you'll find Starfighter Assault gameplay directly from Gamescom 2017, while below we have the official Starfighter Assault gameplay trailer from EA DICE.

EA also talked about Battlefront II's new play mode, maps, and more at Gamescom 2017: "Teams will face off in a swirling dogfight in the Fondor: Imperial Shipyard map, weaving around an Imperial Star Destroyer complete with speedy fighters, thundering bombers, distinct hero ships, and more. Will the brave pilots of the Rebel Alliance triumph against the Imperial Navy, or will the intrepid aces of the Galactic Empire foil the insurgents' plans?"

It seems like HDR and SLI support for games were the big deal at Gamescom this year, with NVIDIA also announcing it has been working closely with Monolith and their upcoming game Middle-earth: Shadow of War.

The collaboration was announced by Monolith VP, Michael de Plater, during NVIDIA's own Gamescom 2017 conference. We now know that Monolith and NVIDIA have worked on PC specific features for Shadow of War, including SLI and HDR support as well as NVIDIA's Ansel.

NVIDIA's own blog post states: "Our full arsenal of development resources - including visual effects libraries, developer tools, research papers, source code samples and more - is at Monolith's disposal. Our team, made up of more than 300 visual effects engineers, is lending its expertise in game development to the project and helping Monolith add the latest in graphics technologies to the game".

ASUS has just come to the rescue of all cryptocurrency miners with their new B250 Mining Expert motherboard, the world's first mining motherboard with freakin' 19 PCIe slots.

The new ASUS B250 Mining Expert motherboard rocks 19 x PCIe slots, and takes 3 x 24-pin ATX power connectors which is simply insane.

It will support Intel's 6th and 7th generation CPUs, and up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM in dual-channel mode.

Bungie is beginning to get into the full marketing hype of Destiny 2, with NVIDIA partnering with the developer on the PC version of Destiny 2 offering 4K resolutions, 21:9 support for UltraWide monitors, uncapped framerates, and a "full suit of adjustable graphics settings".

Not only that, but now we know that Destiny 2 will have full support for SLI rigs and HDR monitors, with HDR support being baked into the upcoming PC beta of Destiny 2. NVIDIA will have a new Game Ready driver that will rolled out on August 24, four days ahead of the early access beta of Destiny 2.

As for the full release, Destiny 2 will drop on September 6 for consoles, while PC gamers have to wait all the way through to October 26 unfortunately.

Xiaomi has launched another smartphone, the Redmi Note 5A. The phone, as most of Xiaomi's phones, offers good price and decent specs.

The phone is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 435 chipset with octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU and comes in multiple configurations. The base model comes with 2GB of RAM and costs mere $105. There's also a 3GB/32GB version which will cost you $135, and the top version with 4GB/64GB will carry a $180 price tag.

The Redmi Note 5A features a 5.5-inch LCD. The phone has a 16MP front facing camera, and a 13MP rear cam. Other features include a fingerprint sensor and a decent 3,080 mAh battery.

UPDATE: Square Enix has provided us with an official statement that specialization requirements for Final Fantasy XV's incoming Windows Edition on PC were published in error. "The recommended specs text that accompanied the Windows Edition trailer were posted in error and have since been removed," a Square Enix representative told us. "The specs listed were not final as the game is still in development. We will officially publish both minimum and recommended specs for the game once we finish development, so that they are fully accurate."

Final Fantasy XV will chew through today's high-end video cards just as Game Director Hajime Tabata promised.

Square Enix today confirmed Final Fantasy XV is coming to PC in 2018, just as we predicted, but everyday PC gamers may be out of luck: the game will put NVIDIA's top-tier GeForce GTX 1080 Ti through its paces. Square Enix has confirmed that Final Fantasy XV's Windows Edition will run at native 4K with HDR 10 support on PC, but you'll need some serious hardware to pull that off. The devs have made FFXV from the ground-up for PC and is optimized specifically for NVIDIA video cards.

Rise of the Tomb Raider will see the best console experience on Microsoft's new high-end Xbox One X console, Square Enix today announced.

While Microsoft has revealed 100 games will get Xbox One X enhancements to hit various performance milestones like native 4K, improved frame rates, impressive visuals and lighting, and more, developers have full freedom to use the console's beefy 6TFLOP Polaris-grade GPU as they see fit. This means the games are optimized on a per-game basis, and publishers/devs will do different things. Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix have set the bar for optimizations on the console with Rise of the Tomb Raider's different modes.

Rise of the Tomb Raider will have three different modes on the Xbox One X: native 4K resolution, visual enhancements, and a mode that puts frame rates above all else. Gamers would love to see more developers follow this model, but Microsoft says they won't set hard 1080p 60FPS mandates for any games. These updates will be free, of course, and will be available when the system launches in November.

Age of Empires IV is happening!

Microsoft today confirmed that Age of Empires IV, the next chapter in the landmark strategy series, is currently in development. The game is being made by Relic Entertainment, the studio behind classics like Dawn of War and Company of Heroes, and will launch on Windows 10 PCs sometime in the future.

Official details are very light right now, but it's great to know the series will continue onward with a new chapter. You can sign up on the official website to receive updates when new info is announced.

Back in May, Qualcomm has accidentally revealed the name of its upcoming platform, the Snapdragon 845. We already heard that Samsung and Qualcomm are in talks to determine the details of their cooperation.

This year, the Galaxy S8 and S8+ were the first major flagships on the market to be powered by Snapdragon 835, and it appears that we will see the same scenario next year.

According to a new report, Samsung will once again grab the first batch of the new Snapdragon chips, and the S9 will be the first device on the market powered by next year's flagship processor.

Sony is teasing "something new" that looks suspiciously like a PlayStation console.

Sony's PlayStation Europe and UK channels have released a curious Twitter tease that may indicate the company may reveal a new PlayStation console soon. However it's much more likely that the new product will simply be a PlayStation 4 special edition bundle rather than a fully-fledged successor to the PlayStation 4 Pro. We've reported that Sony may launch a new PlayStation console in 2018, and that the Japanese games-maker is currently working on its next big hardware iteration, but the timing isn't right for a new console.

Sony's financial reports don't indicate that a new console is to be revealed, and Sony Corp President Kazuo Hirai is set to reveal the company's new mid-year plan when this current fiscal year ends in March 2018. It's highly unlikely that Sony would announce a new console before the company has outlined its next mid-year plan for investors.

Just as we predicted, Square Enix's big Gamescom 2017 teaser is that Final Fantasy XV is coming to PC.

Square Enix today announced that their landmark action RPG Final Fantasy XV will come to PC in early 2018. The game, which already pushes today's consoles to their limit, will leverage NVIDIA's high-end Gameworks graphics technologies and physics systems to deliver impeccable high-fidelity graphics and seamlessly blended action. We originally wrote that Final Fantasy XV was obviously held back by the limited power of the Xbox One and PS4 when it released in 2016, and now Square Enix will tap the full brunt of NVIDIA's most powerful video cards for the ultimate FFXV experience.

"With the help of NVIDIA, we are creating a stunning visual experience in FINAL FANTASY XV WINDOWS EDITION, one worthy of this beloved franchise," said Hajime Tabata, Director of FINAL FANTASY XV. "NVIDIA pushes the pace of innovation in our industry, and that benefits gamers and developers alike." However don't expect to get away with lower-end cards: In 2016 Mr. Tabata said that Final Fantasy XV would require a GPU powerhouse.

The Galaxy Note8 will be unveiled in just a few days, and we know pretty much everything about the upcoming phone. The last piece of the puzzle has now been revealed by Evan Blass.

According to his report, the pre-orders for the Note8 will start on August 24th, just a day after the official launch. Blass also states that the phone will come with a 256GB microSD card and a choice of a convertible wireless charger or a 360 camera.

Official sales, according to Blass, will start on September 15th.

Oculus cut the price of the Oculus Rift + Touch combo not too long ago now, but now HTC has followed through with a price cut of its own: $200 off the HTC Vive headset, bringing it down to just $599.

HTC said that the new $599 price on Vive isn't about getting rid of its first-gen headsets, but it's a competitive move against Oculus and its cut throat pricing. Oculus Rift + Touch is still $449, but at $150 cheaper is Oculus offering a better deal? Well, considering you get the controllers in the package - with HTC and Valve building the Vive with the Lighthouse controllers in mind - while Oculus sliced their developers in half offering an Xbox 360 controller in the box and then releasing Touch separately.

Now that the HTC Vive is $599. will you be stepping into the world of VR?

Forza Motorsport 7 is racing towards its release, with developer Turn 10 Studios detailing the minimum and recommended PC requirements for the game during Gamescom 2017.

We now know that you'll need a Core i5-750/FX-6300 with a NVIDIA GT 740/GTX 650 or R7 250X graphics card with 2GB of VRAM to run 720p 30FPS. For those wanting 1080p 60FPS you'll need a faster Core i5-4460/FX-8350 processor and GeForce GTX 670/GTX 1050 Ti or Radeon RX 560 graphics card with 4GB of VRAM. Both 720p and 1080p will require 8GB of RAM.

For those wanting to push 4K 60FPS, Turn 10 revealed you'll need an Intel Core i7-6700K or a Ryzen 7 processor, with a GTX 1080 or RX Vega 64 graphics card with 8GB of RAM, and 16GB of system RAM as well. For notebook gamers to run Forza Motorsport 7 at 720 30FPS you'll need a Core i5-6200U (no AMD mobile processor recommended) with Intel HD 520 integrated graphics minimum, alongside 8GB of system RAM.

ASUS has officially revealed its next-gen ROG Strix Radeon RX Vega series of graphics card, led by the flagship ROG Strix RX Vega 64 O8G, making it one of the first custom Radeon RX Vega 64 cards announced.

ASUS has used a custom design PCB, using their new DirectCU III cooling solution that the company used on their flagship ROG Strix GTX 1080 Ti graphics card. We have a heat pipe with a direct contact base, with the heat pipes passing through two aluminum fin stacks on either end, which are then cooled by 3 x 100mm fans. These fans will not spin until the card hits a certain load.

The new card will use 8+8-pin PCIe power connectors, with ASUS using a 13-phase VRM, and overclocked GPU speeds that are close to the speeds on the Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid Cooled Edition. ASUS will also have a "non-O8G" version of the card, which will be closer to the reference clocks, seeing GPU boost speeds of somewhere between 1495-1510MHz.

Project CARS 2 will be one of the best-looking games of the year, and now we have some new screenshots to share from Gamescom 2017, released by publisher Bandai Namco.

Seriously, you could mistaken this for real life.

My favorite shot from Gamescom 2017 is from within the cabin of the car... look at the rain effects and the car outside - it's photo realistic.