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Go 'Rogue' for our 'Star Wars' Blu-ray giveaway
To celebrate this week's release of 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' on Blu-ray 3D, 2D DVD and digital, we have five Blu-ray prize packs to give away thanks to our friends at Walt Disney Home Entertainment.
A rebellion built on hope. From Lucasfilm comes the first of the Star Wars standalone films, 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story', an all-new epic adventure. In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire's ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves.
To go into the running to win a copy of the film on Blu-ray and a Darth Vader POP! Vinyl, simply correctly answer the following question:
Continue reading: Go 'Rogue' for our 'Star Wars' Blu-ray giveaway (full post)
Mass Effect: Andromeda faces comparison
It's no secret that Mass Effect: Andromeda's faces are pretty bad. The internet has mocked it for weeks now, and for good reason: the faces are quite bizarre, inhuman and genuinely creepy at times. In an effort to gauge just how bad the faces are, we compare the game's faces to three other juggernaut titles. The results aren't too pretty.
We selected three games with dialog-heavy animations to test against Mass Effect: Andromeda: Horizon: Zero Dawn (yes, this one was a bit unfair, but we had to judge Andromeda against a high-caliber game just to see what would happen), Dragon Age: Inquisition (runs on the same Frostbite 3 engine as Mass Effect: Andromeda, but wasn't developed by BioWare: Montreal) and the original Mass Effect (the game has aged particularly well even on consoles).
The results just confirm what we already knew: Mass Effect: Andromeda should've been delayed. We'll have a video review up on our channel shortly that digs into the frustrations and truly bizarre decisions BioWare made with this new Mass Effect game.
Continue reading: Mass Effect: Andromeda faces comparison (full post)
Project Scorpio full specs to be revealed soon
Microsoft will unveil its "monster" 4K-ready Project Scorpio console sometime next week, according to reports, and we won't get vague PR speak like I expected. Microsoft is gearing up to drop tons of info on its mighty new system and trigger a "deluge" of coverage.
Microsoft usually has a problem conveying key information about its products, and wiggles around in vague PR-speak terms like "True 4K." But Project Scorpio should be different, and rightly so: considering it's the world's first enthusiast-grade games console gamers need in-depth specs.
According to Windows Centrals' Jez Corden, Microsoft will deliver actual specifications and showcase the system's raw 4K power with first-party games like Forza Horizon 7.
Continue reading: Project Scorpio full specs to be revealed soon (full post)
ASUS teases its new ROG Poseidon GTX 1080 Ti
ASUS has just unveiled its new top-of-the-line ROG Poseidon GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, which features a hybrid cooler that can run on its own with its dual-fan cooler, but you can plug it into your existing water loop and run it under water.
ASUS says that the new ROG Poseidon GeForce GTX 1080 Ti will run hotter than the GTX 1080 Ti Strix, but once it's under water, the temperatures will come down considerably.
We should expect 75C or so with the dual-fan cooler, which is around 5-10C hotter than current custom GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards.
Continue reading: ASUS teases its new ROG Poseidon GTX 1080 Ti (full post)
GTX 1080 Ti powered gaming laptops are coming soon
NVIDIA's super-fast GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is ripping up gaming desktops, but what about gaming laptops? It looks like NVIDIA is working on bringing its GTX 1080 Ti to laptops, something the company never usually does.
According to a post on NotebookReview's forums teases that NVIDIA is working on a new SKU based on the MXM form factor, which is much faster than the GTX 1080. The screenshot shows that this purported GTX 1080 Ti rocks 11GB of GDDR5X memory on the 352-bit memory bus, and since there's only the GP102 that rocks 11GB of RAM, it looks like this is the GTX 1080 Ti.
The GPU-Z screenshot shows that it is the full GTX 1080 Ti, with 3584 CUDA cores - but the GPU-Z screenshot is displaying the wrong TMU and ROP numbers.
Continue reading: GTX 1080 Ti powered gaming laptops are coming soon (full post)
New Metroid: Dark Star FPS coming to Nintendo Switch
Update: Nintendo actually IS making a new Metroid game for Nintendo Switch! It's called Metroid Prime 4 (working title), and it's a first-person adventure game.
Breaking:Nintendo today announced Metroid: Dark Star, a new first-person shooter in the vein of Metroid Prime that will release exclusively on the Nintendo Switch.
Metroid: Dark Star will be a full high-def 3D FPS built using Unreal Engine 4 and will feature a "dynamic, immersive and action-packed sci-fi story" for solo play.
Continue reading: New Metroid: Dark Star FPS coming to Nintendo Switch (full post)
Project Scorpio 4K gaming: what you need to know
With buzzwords like "True 4K", promises of native 4K gaming, and reports of 4K 60FPS thrown around, Microsoft's new "monster" Project Scorpio can be a bit confusing. But in reality it's not that much different than the PS4 Pro in terms of functionality...just a lot more powerful.
Project Scorpio is Microsoft's way of blurring the line between consoles and PCs by making the world's first real enthusiast-grade system. While Project Scorpio's specs are impressive, with the box housing a custom AMD SoC with a 6 TFLOP GPU and an 8-core CPU likely built on its new 14nm Polaris/Vega GPU and Zen CPU architectures, the software side is just as important. Thanks to Windows 10's Universal Windows Platform and the beefy specs, Microsoft has an substantial edge in both halves.
Project Scorpio is an iterative console that will play all existing Xbox One games. But just like the PS4 Pro, older Xbox One games will play better on Project Scorpio thanks to dynamic frame rate and resolution upscaling. And even though Project Scorpio is designed for 4K gaming, regular 1080p HDTV owners will still benefit thanks to super-sampled resolution. Here's how it works.
Continue reading: Project Scorpio 4K gaming: what you need to know (full post)
Project Scorpio to demo Battlefront 2 and RDR2 in 4K
The reveal of Microsoft's "monster" 4K-ready Project Scorpio is fast approaching, and as we said a long time ago, the world's most powerful console doesn't mean anything unless you have games that leverage the hardware to its full extent. Microsoft fully knows this and has selected a lineup games to showcase Project Scorpio's 4K gaming prowess--and two of them are hugely anticipated sequels.
Microsoft will use games like Xbox exclusive Forza 7, Rockstar's upcoming Red Dead Redemption 2, and EA's latest Battlefront 2 to demonstrate Project Scorpio's "True 4K" gaming performance, according to reports from Windows Central.
Monolith's new impressive-looking Shadow of War is also poised to fully tap the console's high-end 6 TFLOP console GPU and 8-core CPU.
Continue reading: Project Scorpio to demo Battlefront 2 and RDR2 in 4K (full post)
AMD Radeon RX Vega teased, thrashes GTX 1080 Ti
NVIDIA had the crown for a couple of weeks with its impressively fast GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, but it looks like AMD is coming out of thin air with a monster graphics card in their new Radeon RX Vega - thanks to newly leaked docs.
AMD will be offering Radeon RX Vega in three forms: 4GB HBM2, 8GB HBM2, and 16GB of HBM2 - with AMD promising that 4GB of HBM2 will outperform 11GB of GDDR5X - the VRAM found on the GTX 1080 Ti.
Vega has a brain and a soul - with 2x the performance per clock, and 4x the performance per watt of its previous-gen GPU architecture.
Continue reading: AMD Radeon RX Vega teased, thrashes GTX 1080 Ti (full post)
AMD's huge update for motherboard partners coming soon
AMD is already offering performance improvements on its new Ryzen 7 1800X processor for games like Ashes of the Singularity and DOTA 2 - but there are some big surprises coming soon with a new AMD Generic Encapsulated Software Architecture (AGESA) point release 1.0.0.4 to motherboard partners.
The new AGESA-powered BIOS pushed out in April will offer some great improvements, including:
Better yet, that super cool guy Robert Hallock from AMD teased that this is just the beginning of Ryzen improvements - as there'll be an update in May that will push for better overclocking of DDR4 RAM on Ryzen motherboards.
Continue reading: AMD's huge update for motherboard partners coming soon (full post)
AMD tweaks Ryzen with 30% improvement on Ashes benchmark
AMD have been working around the clock on their new Ryzen platform, and have been working with developer Oxide Games on better optimizing Ashes of the Singularity - and now AMD has something worth talking about.
AMD has been optimizing as many games as it could, working with Stardock and Oxide Games to improve Ryzen performance on Ashes of the Singularity - by a pretty decent amount. We have up to 30% more performance on the flagship Ryzen 7 1800X processor with the new update, and then there's more performance improvements promised for the upcoming v2.20.x major update.
DOTA 2 improvements are also found on Ryzen 7 1800X, with the pre-March 20 patch seeing performance sitting at 79FPS - while the new update boosts Ryzen 7 1800X performance up to 91FPS - a damn good update, for free.
Continue reading: AMD tweaks Ryzen with 30% improvement on Ashes benchmark (full post)
BioWare plans to 'fix' Mass Effect: Andromeda
It's no secret that Mass Effect: Andromeda is having some problems. Well...that's putting it lightly: the game is being ridiculed left and right, and for good reason, as it simply was released too soon. BioWare has heard the complaints and promises to roll out some fixes as part of its ongoing long-term support, but will it matter?
You only get one first impression when it comes to big triple-A games, and gamers don't forget. So when you release something that should've obviously been delayed (like the latest Mass Effect game) it becomes a known constant in the universe, not unlike a kind of math equation--maybe something like hype + terrible faces = memes for days.
Mass Effect: Andromeda's final release barely resembles the awesome next-gen action-packed space opera we were promised. The faces are pretty bad, and the game is fairly soaked with bugs as well as a weird casualized feel that just doesn't belong in a Mass Effect game. But BioWare says they're taking all of our complaints into consideration and will use the feedback to roll out a course of action to help fix the game.
Continue reading: BioWare plans to 'fix' Mass Effect: Andromeda (full post)
BlackBerry KEYone with physical keyboard is delayed
BlackBerry announced the KEYone at MWC in Barcelona where they said that the device would be globally available in April.
However, BlackBerry CEO John Chen now says that the smartphone will be delayed. Speaking at the company's earnings call, Chen said:
Continue reading: BlackBerry KEYone with physical keyboard is delayed (full post)
CD Projekt RED 'thinking about' Witcher 4
Although Geralt of Rivia's story has been concluded, CD Projekt RED is open to more Witcher games--they exclusively own the rights to the franchise after all.
CD Projekt RED is currently working on three projects: its monetized free-to-play multi-platform card game Gwent, its insanely ambitious high-tech masterpiece Cyberpunk 2077, and a mysterious new unannounced triple-AAA RPG. What if the latter is another Witcher game?
At CDPR's 2016 yearly earnings conference, Adam Kicinski answered a question about The Witcher 4. Is it possible? Is the series dead?
Continue reading: CD Projekt RED 'thinking about' Witcher 4 (full post)
Enjoy the incredible photos of SpaceX's historic launch
SpaceX made history by successfully launching and landing already used Falcon 9 rocket. This is the first time in history that an already used rocket has been launched again.
The Falcon 9 in question was first used in April last year when it launched the Dragon towards the International Space Station. It was the second rocket that SpaceX successfully landed, and the first one that they landed on an ocean platform.
SpaceX has been landing rockets for little over two years now. Up until then, rockets were only disposable, destroyed after the launch. The company has now shown that the rockets can be re-used, which will lower the cost of space missions and space flights.
Continue reading: Enjoy the incredible photos of SpaceX's historic launch (full post)
New Zelda update boosts frame rates
Zelda: Breath of the Wild's latest update patch tightens up frame rates and reduces FPS drops on Wii U and Nintendo Switch.
While Nintendo's latest Legend of Zelda game is absolutely one of the best games I've ever played, it does have a few hiccups here and there including frame rate drops. I personally am not perturbed or bothered by the small FPS hitches, but I play the game on Nintendo's newest Switch console. Wii U owners have reported rather noticeable FPS drops in certain areas like Kakariko Village.
The game's latest update patch reportedly smooths out frame rate stutters across the board and improves FPS consistency on all platforms. This is welcome news to gamers who are playing on Nintendo's beleaguered--and now retired--Wii U system.
Continue reading: New Zelda update boosts frame rates (full post)
Samsung DeX is open for pre-orders at a price of $149
With the reveal of the Galaxy S8 and S8+, Samsung has introduced a new hardware and software solution named DeX.
DeX is the company's desktop transformation tool for turning a Galaxy S8 or S8+ into a desktop computer.
DeX allows you to hook up a keyboard, mouse, monitor and other USB peripherals to the $149 hub and then dock your phone to it. You can also pay an extra $10 to get rapid charging capability. Also, it has a fan to keep your phone cool while you're using it for heavy productivity tasks.
Continue reading: Samsung DeX is open for pre-orders at a price of $149 (full post)
Cyberpunk 2077 to leverage insane next-gen tech
With Cyberpunk 2077 CD Projekt RED will smash barriers with their amazing talents and next-generation technologies, and the company teases some of the game's features and content.
We've known for a while that Cyberpunk 2077 will have an incredibly immersive "living breathing world," but CDPR isn't going to stop there: everything about the game will push the bar and redefine the standards in which games are judged--the same way The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt did for fantasy RPGS. CDPR currently has several hundred people working intensively on the game
CD Projekt RED was recently awarded a grant for 22.2 PLN or (5.6 million USD) of R&D funding under the GameINN program. The devs will use these funds to build new in-game engines and development tech that will not only power Cyberpunk 2077, but all of CDPR's future games (maybe even Witcher 4!).
Continue reading: Cyberpunk 2077 to leverage insane next-gen tech (full post)
Destiny 2 collector's edition costs the same as a PS4
Destiny 2 doesn't even have gameplay footage yet, but that hasn't stopped Activision from opening up pre-orders for five versions of the game--one of which costs as much as an actual console. Yes, really.
Destiny 2's collector's edition is definitely one of the most disappointing "premium" bundles I've seen in a long time. Not just because it costs the same as a PlayStation 4 Slim system (although that certainly has a lot to do with it), but because it's just so...frivolous. Most $200+ collector's editions come with something unique like a statue or a bust, or even a little remote controlled Nomad RC car. Not this one: all you'll get is a bag and a bunch of...junk.
Buying Destiny 2's collector's edition will set you back $250, and GameStop is apparently already sold out. For $250 you can get an entire PS4 console bundled with Uncharted 4, or even upgrde your video card to an AMD Radeon RX 480 with 8GB of VRAM.
Continue reading: Destiny 2 collector's edition costs the same as a PS4 (full post)
Nintendo Switch sells faster than PS4 in Japan
Nintendo's new handheld-console Switch hybrid is selling like hotcakes in its native land.
Japanese gamers absolutely love mobile and handheld gaming, so it's no surprise Nintendo's new Switch system is enjoying explosive sales momentum in the Land of the Rising Sun. Since the Nintendo Switch combines a trifecta of today's most popular platforms into one device--handheld, console and even mobile gaming with its 10-point capacitive touchscreen--the device has amazing potential to tap the industry's most lucrative sectors.
As we reported months before the Switch's release, the console-handheld hybrid appeals to Japan's juggernaut gaming presence: smartphone gaming.
Continue reading: Nintendo Switch sells faster than PS4 in Japan (full post)






















