Nike's second-gen self-lacing shoes drop February 16 for $400

Anthony Garreffa | Wearable Computing & Fashion | Jan 22, 2020 10:43 PM CST

Nike's original self-lacing shoes gave Back to the Future fans as close to what they wanted: self-lacing shoes that Marty McFly had in 2015, with the original Adapt BB shoes dropping in January 2019.

Nike's second-gen self-lacing shoes drop February 16 for $400

But now Nike is preparing the next-gen self-lacing Adapt BB 2.0 shoes, designed by Ben Nethongkome. The new shoes feature fore-foot Zoom, compared to the Cushion used in the original Adapt BB shoes. The midsole stack height has been re-jigged for improved heel-to-toe movement, too.

You can see from the above photos that the design of the Nike Adapt BB 2.0 shoes is been improved, and they look awesome. The shoe is also even easier to put on, with early adopters of the original Adapt BB shoes saying that while they were awesome (come on, self-lacing shoes) they were annoying to put on.

Continue reading: Nike's second-gen self-lacing shoes drop February 16 for $400 (full post)

Valve confirms Half-Life: Alyx is 'done' and is now being polished

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jan 22, 2020 10:09 PM CST

Valve hosted a Reddit AMA highlighting a bunch of new details on Half-Life: Alyx for us to goss over, with the team saying that the game is completely finished.

Valve confirms Half-Life: Alyx is 'done' and is now being polished

Valve said: "With the exception of some tweaks to the absolute final scene, the game is done. Lots of us at Valve, as well as playtesters, have played through the entire game multiple times. Right now we're primarily polishing and fixing bugs, which is where we'd hope to be at this point in the development cycle. We're confident we'll hit our intended release. (We let the Valve Time happen before we announced Half-Life Alyx)".

This is great to see, as it means Half-Life: Alyx should be one of the only AAA games of the last few years that hasn't been delayed. It's right around the corner, with the developer making all Half-Life games free-to-play ahead of Half-Life: Alyx's launch.

Continue reading: Valve confirms Half-Life: Alyx is 'done' and is now being polished (full post)

MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT GAMING Z has 14Gbps memory out of the box

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Jan 22, 2020 9:41 PM CST

If you haven't read about how much of a mess AMD's launch of the Radeon RX 5600 XT was, well... I have an entire article dedicated to the issues here. But now, MSI is leading the pack by teasing its new Radeon RX 5600 XT GAMING Z graphics card.

MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT GAMING Z has 14Gbps memory out of the box

MSI's new Radeon RX 5600 XT GAMING Z graphics card has been announced, something that will have higher GPU clocks and its 6GB of GDDR6 memory clocked at the higher 14Gbps by default. The original Radeon RX 5600 XT graphics card, pre-NVIDIA-double-jebait and the VBIOS debacle we'll all remember and laugh about for years to come, was meant to have its GDDR6 clocked at 12Gbps.

MSI is now effectively saying "yeah, we know that the card now has 14Gbps so how about we just throw everything up to 11 and make it the GAMING Z variant'. That is cool with me, and it'll be a hell of a lot easier on consumers, as they'll just get what should amount to the fastest custom Radeon RX 5600 XT graphics card on the market.

Continue reading: MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT GAMING Z has 14Gbps memory out of the box (full post)

Half-Life: Alyx team: 80 people, single-largest team EVER at Valve

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jan 22, 2020 9:11 PM CST

Valve has just completed a Reddit AMA session for Half-Life: Alyx, where the world has found out a bunch of new details on what should be the best VR game ever released. To bring you up to speed, check out the Half-Life: Alyx announcement trailer below:

Half-Life: Alyx team: 80 people, single-largest team EVER at Valve

One of the most concerning things about Half-Life: Alyx is whether it will be delayed from its March 2020 release, and the answer to that is: no. Valve confirmed the news during its Reddit AMA, saying: "With the exception of some tweaks to the absolute final scene, the game is done. Lots of us at Valve, as well as playtesters, have played through the entire game multiple times".

The developer continued: "Right now we're primarily polishing and fixing bugs, which is where we'd hope to be at this point in the development cycle. We're confident we'll hit our intended release. (We let the Valve Time happen before we announced Half-Life Alyx)".

Continue reading: Half-Life: Alyx team: 80 people, single-largest team EVER at Valve (full post)

Hugo Weaving not returning as Agent Smith in The Matrix 4

Anthony Garreffa | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Jan 22, 2020 8:43 PM CST

The Matrix 4 and John Wick 4 are both due out on the same day on May 21, 2021 -- which should be the biggest day in cinema history, especially for actor and franchise leader of both these movies: Keanu Reeves.

Hugo Weaving not returning as Agent Smith in The Matrix 4

Keanu Reeves will return to his role as Neo while Carrie-Anne Moss is making a return, which should see her playing Trinity again -- but Agent Smith will not be appearing in The Matrix 4. Agent Smith actor Hugo Wearing confirmed he will not be appearing in The Matrix 4, telling Time Out: "I'm not, no...".

Weaving added: "It's unfortunate but actually I had this offer [for upcoming movie The Visit] and then the offer came from The Matrix, so I knew it was happening but I didn't have dates. I thought [I] could do both and it took eight weeks to work out that the dates would work - I held off on accepting [a role in The Visit]".

Continue reading: Hugo Weaving not returning as Agent Smith in The Matrix 4 (full post)

AMD Big Navi GPU: RTX 2080 Ti killer, but will lose to RTX 3080

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Jan 22, 2020 8:08 PM CST

The last few days have been pretty big for graphics cards, with leaked specs on the purported Ampere-based NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3070 graphics cards but now there's some juicy leaks on AMD's upcoming Big Navi GPU.

AMD Big Navi GPU: RTX 2080 Ti killer, but will lose to RTX 3080

We should expect to see AMD's new 'Big Navi' arrive as the flagship Radeon RX 5950 XT, with rumors stating it'll rock 80 compute units, 5120 stream processors, and up to 17.5 TFLOPs of compute performance. The new RDNA2 architecture will also provide AMD with the ability of hardware-based real-time ray tracing technology, just like NVIDIA's Turing (and future Ampere/Hopper GPU architectures).

But what about performance? 80 compute units is double the 40 compute units found in the Radeon RX 5700 XT, but would that translate to double the performance? Probably not. The Radeon RX 5700 XT has a TDP of 225W, so AMD would have to be careful with GPU clocks and most-likely reduce GPU clock speeds down to somewhere around 1500-1700MHz to keep the card from chewing through too much power.

Continue reading: AMD Big Navi GPU: RTX 2080 Ti killer, but will lose to RTX 3080 (full post)

Ninja Theory's Project Mara is a cerebral nightmare into a broken mind

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jan 22, 2020 7:00 PM CST

Even with Hellblade II: Senua's Saga on the way, Ninja Theory just announced a new experimental thrillride set deep in the heart of a fractured mind.

Ninja Theory's Project Mara is a cerebral nightmare into a broken mind

Ninja Theory just revealed Project Mara, a nebulous and cerebral horror game that really crawls under your skin. The entire purpose for the game is to exhibit mental illness as a kind of interactive experience that forces everyday users into the dark, inky depths of a tortured psyche. It looks a bit like a modern-day Senua without the mystical lore and Nordic mythology, and only features one character in a single location.

"The game only features one character and one location. It's an experimental project and a showcase of what can become a new immersive storytelling medium," Ninja Theory co-founder Tameem Antoniades said in a development diary video.

Continue reading: Ninja Theory's Project Mara is a cerebral nightmare into a broken mind (full post)

Funcom welcomes Tencent takeover, will use funds on new Dune games

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jan 22, 2020 6:35 PM CST

Tencent wants to buy Conan Exiles developer Funcom, and the developers wholeheartedly agree with this proposition.

Funcom welcomes Tencent takeover, will use funds on new Dune games

Tencent wants to wholly-own Funcom, and it just put in an offer to buy every share from Funcom's current investors. Funcom is excited about the opportunity and has urged investors to sell their stock. Tencent is currently offering roughly 326.04 million Norwegian Krone ($36 million) to complete the buyout, which is over 27% of the current share closing price.

If bought it, Funcom will retain full independence and no staff re-organizations will happen, similar to the seamless operations of Riot Games and Path of Exile developer Grinding Gear Games.

Continue reading: Funcom welcomes Tencent takeover, will use funds on new Dune games (full post)

Rumor: Cyberpunk 2077 isn't running well on Xbox One consoles

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jan 22, 2020 6:08 PM CST

Rumor has it CD Projekt RED delayed Cyberpunk 2077 because they're having trouble optimizing the game on current-gen systems, namely the Xbox One.

Rumor: Cyberpunk 2077 isn't running well on Xbox One consoles

Older systems like the rather weak 2013 Xbox One launch model might be the culprit behind Cyberpunk 2077's five-month delay. The report comes from Polish film director Borys Niespielak, who may have knowledge about the goings-on at CD Projekt RED. On a recent podcast, Niespielak says Cyberpunk 2077's performance is "extremely unsatisfactory" on original Xbox One systems due to the limited hardware.

This is interesting because Cyberpunk 2077 was built from the ground up for current-gen systems. CD Projekt RED says Cyberpunk 2077 will be their "crowning jewel of the current generation," and the big delay could indeed be used to pare things back for weaker console hardware. Based on everything we know, it's easy to see why Cyberpunk 2077 could be overwhelming for lower-end systems.

Continue reading: Rumor: Cyberpunk 2077 isn't running well on Xbox One consoles (full post)

New Switch Pro console may not support 4K gaming

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jan 22, 2020 12:38 PM CST

Nintendo is reportedly working on a new Switch revision with a custom processor, but it may not actually deliver higher-end 4K gaming.

New Switch Pro console may not support 4K gaming

Nintendo's rumored Switch Pro may not be a huge leap over the current Switch hardware. A new report suggests the new souped-up Switch may be a softer revision in terms of capabilities and will instead move to a new customized Volta-based SoC from NVIDIA, possibly based on the 12nm Xavier chip. The info seems shaky at best and basically reinforces things we've already speculated about, but it does make an interesting point: Nintendo may not release a beefier Switch as to not fragment its userbase.

Instead this new Switch Pro revision could be the start of something bigger, perhaps a soft iterative upgrade similar to the Xbox One S over the original Xbox One, instead of going all-in with a powerful Xbox One X-esque model. Nintendo has already revised its base Switch to use a new 16nm Tegra X1+ SoC to fix a hardware vulnerability (the Switch Lite also uses this chip) without actually changing any raw perf specs. Only battery life and thermals changed--GPU and CPU clock speeds remained the same.

Continue reading: New Switch Pro console may not support 4K gaming (full post)