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When you think of the genius directors of cinematic history, you'd rightly think of the greats like Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock , Quentin Tarantino or James Cameron. 'Pearl Harbor' director Michael Bay. probably falls somewhere down the list Well, not unless you're Sir Anthony Hopkins.

Speaking to Yahoo! Movies, Anthony Hopkins has lauded 'Transformers' director Michael Bay as a "a genius", going on to say that "He's the same ilk as Oliver Stone and Spielberg and Scorsese. Brilliance. Savants, really, they are. He's a savant." While many will disagree, the 'Westworld' actor stars in the upcoming 'Transformers: The Last Knight', which Bay has promised will be his last. Although, he has said that before.

'Transformers: The Last Knight' is set to hit 2D, 3D and IMAX theatres from June 23, 2017.

The death late last year of 'Star Wars' star Carrie Fisher devastated fans around the world, and put a spanner in the works for the finale of the franchise which is due to start filming mid this year, for release in 2019. But according to the late star's brother, an agreement has been reached with Disney which will see Princess Leia reprise her role one last time.

According to the NY Daily News, the late actor's brother Todd Fisher confirmed that

both he and Carrie Fisher's daughter Billie Lourd had granted the studio the right to use her likeness for the final 'Star Wars' saga film. "Both of us were like, 'Yes, how do you take her out of it?' And the answer is you don't. She's as much a part of it as anything and I think her presence now is even more powerful than it was, like Obi Wan - when the saber cuts him down he becomes more powerful. I feel like that's what's happened with Carrie. I think the legacy should continue." The current plan is to edit in footage shot for the newest 'Star Wars' films and probably also use some light CG to have her as part of the narrative.

Ubisoft has lost one of the transformative forces responsible for guiding Far Cry 4's and Assassin's Creed III's development.

After seven years at Ubisoft, ex-creative director Alex Hutchinson has left the company to found his own independent studio. During his tenure at Ubisoft, Hutchinson helped bring major triple-A games like Far Cry 4 (which I liked a fair deal--Pagan Min is pretty awesome) and Assassin's Creed III to the market.

Hutchinson left the publisher to co-found his own indie development studio called Typhoon Studios and "build something new." The dev's departure brings to mind a very interesting question: is Far Cry 5 finished?

Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan reiterates that Overwatch on the Nintendo Switch probably won't happen.

"Getting Overwatch on the Switch is very challenging for us. But we're always open minded about exploring possible platforms," Kaplan said during a Reddit AmA last month.

Now in a recent follow-up with Express Online, Kaplan basically says the Switch isn't powerful enough to support Overwatch's minimum spec.

Now that Microsoft has confirmed it's new 4K-ready Project Scorpio console can indeed hit native 4K 60FPS at Ultra preset, there's been lots of speculation on how much the system will cost. Leading game analysts toss out their predictions, and we weigh each price point to see what makes sense.

First we have the outlandish $700 price prediction from IDC's Lewis Ward, who predicts Scorpio must ship at $700 for Microsoft to make any money.

"I estimate the basic hardware will cost around $650, so if Microsoft wants any kind of margin at all, Scorpio will have to retail for $700 or more," Lewis told Games Industry.biz. The analyst justifies his prediction by pointing at Alienware's VR-ready Aurora PC, which sports an RX 480 GPU and Intel i5-7400, which somehow equates Project Scorpio's specs. "If you look at the Alienware Aurora, which is a solid VR-ready PC, that currently costs about $1,000. I think Scorpio will come in below that, but how much below is unknowable at this point."

AMD launched its new Ryzen offensive into the high-end/enthusiast markets with the Ryzen 7 family, led by the flagship Ryzen 7 1800X processor - but the fight for the mid-range is going to be huge when Ryzen 5 launches next week.

AMD is launching 4 new Ryzen 5 processors, ranging from the Ryzen 5 1400 for $169 (offering 4C/8T @ 3.4GHz) up to the Ryzen 5 1600X for $249 (6C/12T @ 4GHz).

But now there's news from HardOCP that they've clocked their Ryzen 5 1600 processor up to 4GHz, or 3.975GHz to be exact, at 1.45V and LLC 5. They added that "Once you get past 3.8GHz on these processors, the voltage usage and heat emitted just gets exponential with them. So they get very hot, very quickly".

BioWare is slowly fixing Mass Effect: Andromeda and patching it to a state that somewhat resembles what it should've been at launch. The game released with tons of bugs, glaring issues, and horrible facial animations, proving it should've been delayed. But why delay the game when you can release it, soak up tens of millions of dollars, and then just "fix" it with patches later?

To BioWare's credit, they have made some pretty distinct changes to the faces in the latest Patch 1.05 update. And like any developer who wants to quickly sweep their mess under the rug, BioWare is keen on you downloading the patch and erasing those wacky faces from the public's mind--so keen that the game's update triggers twice on PS4.

A little bit of explanation here: I'm recording unpatched footage of facial animations to do some non-patch vs patched comparisons, so I don't want to update Mass Effect: Andromeda. Even with Automatic Downloads turned off on PS4, my console auto downloads any updates for any games I start, including ME: Andromeda. So I have to go and manually stop them (yes, I have all automatic downloads turned off on PS4 system settings). When I fire up the game itself, BioWare informs me there's an update and auto-triggers the patch download. So that's twice I had to cancel the update.

Earlier we reported that Microsoft's 4K-ready Project Scorpio console features a customized hard drive with 50% more throughput in order to speedily load native 4K textures and assets. Thinking on this a bit I came to an interesting question: if Scorpio's hard drive is so customized, can we swap the stock HDD out with bigger 2.5-inch hard drives?

Games are getting bigger and bigger, and 1TB might be enough for 1080p titles, but is that enough for Project Scorpio's native 4K textures? Now bear in mind we don't know how massive Project Scorpio's 4K asset and texture packs are for specific games--Xbox One games will need to download 4K asset patches and updates in order to play in native 4K on Project Scorpio--and depending on the type of compression used for these assets, the console's 1TB drive could fill up fast.

So this brings us to a simple question: can you swap out Project Scorpio's customized hard drive in favor of another laptop HDD? Let's take a look at the evidence.

Everything about Microsoft's new 4K-ready Project Scorpio console has been customized to a tee, and the internal components are meant to synergize with one another to fulfill native 4K gaming, faster load times, etc. We've already covered the system's 6TFLOP Polaris-derived GPU and 2.73GHz extremely customized Jaguar CPU in length, but now we should talk about one of the most important improvements: the hard drive.

Project Scorpio is all about pushing native 4K resolution. We've already seen the console is capable of hitting native 4K 60FPS at Ultra settings--a feat that certainly shouldn't be possible, but Microsoft has indeed done it.

Every component has to work together in order to hit that kind of performance, including the system's hard drive. Microsoft has tweaked Project Scorpio's 2.5-inch 1TB hard drive with 50% more throughput to ensure it can speedily load up 4K assets. Remember that Xbox One games will need to download 4K assets and textures via patches to run games in native 4K. Being able to easily load 4K textures--which can be pretty huge--at acceptable speeds is absolutely critical for Project Scorpio, or else gameplay is considerably interrupted.

LeEco is set to unveil the Le Max 3 on April 11th, and the company has posted a photo teasing the upcoming phone.

The image shows a robot with the tagline AI atop, suggesting that the Le Max 3 will come with its own AI assistant. This move would make Le Max 3 LeEco's first smartphone to come with full AI support.

LeEco's personal assistant should be able to understand voice commands and carry out functions like making a call or setting up a calendar appointment.

We know that Samsung is working on the Galaxy Note8. This has been confirmed earlier this year by DJ Koh, Samsung's Mobile Chief.

The Note 8 will likely debut this fall, but the alleged first images of the device have already leaked. The authenticity of the photo hasn't been confirmed, and as with every rumor, take this one with a grain of salt.

The aforementioned image shows what the source claims to be a Note8 with its display on. The design of the phone shows a striking resemblance with recently announced Galaxy S8 and S8+, which does make sense in a way.

Apple is expected to roll out a truly next-gen iPhone in a few months, something that is currently being teased as iPhone X - and now the latest report says that Apple will have a 'Smart Connection' on the iPhone X that will be capable of wireless charging, and it'll work with an AR/VR headset.

The Verifier reports: "Today we can share with you that the next iPhone (iPhone 8, iPhone X, iPhone Pro or 7S) will include the same "3 points" of the same iPhone. The smart connection at the bottom will enable wireless charging without the need for a dedicated cover. In addition, the same connection will be used by the new iPhone users in the VR / AR experience which Apple has been working on lately. It is not yet known what will be the way to transfer that experience (VR glasses? AR glasses like Google Glass?) But Apple is looking for creative ways to differentiate itself from its competitor".

We should expect Apple's new iPhone X to feature wireless charging at the least, but a few industry experts are saying Apple will have some form of AR/VR headset unveiled at the same time, and it'll work in conjunction with the new iPhone - just like Samsung's latest Galaxy S8 will work with the latest GearVR headset.

The names of GIGABYTE's graphics cards continue to confuse, with their upcoming GIGABYTE Radeon RX 580 AORUS XTR 8G spotted - with this model being one of three that GIGABYTE will have in the AORUS-branded Radeon RX 580 series alone.

GIGABYTE's first card in the AORUS series is the Radeon RX 580 AORUS XTR 8G, with a dual-fan setup - with what looks like a 2.5-slot design. If it is, I really don't know why GIGABYTE went with a 2.5-slot card.

The next card is the GIGABYTE Radeon RX 580 AORUS 8G, which features a lower-end version of the WindForce cooler - and it should have slower clocks than the XTR variant.

NVIDIA surprised us all with the launch of the new, new TITAN Xp - and the new $1200 graphics card has already been picked up by a Reddit user, and benchmarked.

The new TITAN Xp is fast - super-fast, with 3DMark Fire Strike (the 1080p run) providing a score of 31,956 - up from the 28,000 or so that MSI's overclocked GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X 11G graphics card. The new TITAN Xp is around 11% faster than the GTX 1080 Ti, which costs $699 - so you're paying $500 more for 11%, which doesn't seem worth it at all.

I don't really know why NVIDIA released the new TITAN Xp, as the GTX 1080 Ti and TITAN X were already good enough - if it was using HBM2 and had ridiculous 4K and beyond numbers, then that would be a different story. But 10% gain over GTX 1080 Ti, for $500 more? What.

We've seen Project Scorpio push games like Forza 6 to native 4K 60FPS at only 66% GPU power, but Forza is Xbox's cream of the crop. What about other games? Not surprisingly, Xbox One games that use DirectX 12 have the potential to perform amazingly well on the Project Scorpio Engine.

Microsoft has ingeniously baked in DirectX 12 into the Project Scorpio's GPU's command processor to significantly reduce instruction sets and thus dramatically improve the instruction command processing sent by the highly customized 2.73GHz Jaguar evolved CPU. Essentially Project Scorpio's direct hardware-based DX12 integration should substantially improve game-to-GPU communication and actively reduce CPU overhead. This streamlined efficiency is half of the magic that makes Scorpio tick, and sees the console's components in a kind of uniform synergy.

"We essentially moved Direct3D 12. We built that into the command processor of the GPU and what that means is that, for all the high frequency API invocations that the games do, they'll all natively implemented in the logic of the command processor-and what this means is that our communication from the game to the GPU is super-efficient," Microsoft told Digital Foundry.

After revealing Project Scorpio's specs and confirming the console can rock native 4K 60FPS to the world, it's only natural for Microsoft to toot their own horn a bit. After reporting on the subject for so long, I have to say it's pretty amazing that the company actually hit the performance they promised, and the Xbox team is stoked.

The entire Xbox team is excited about Project Scorpio, but exec Albert Penello declared what Xbox fans around the world must be thinking: the console actually lives up to the hype. "There is so much more to Project Scorpio than just the numbers. It's a huge leap ahead of any other console," Penello said on Twitter.

After digging through reams of Digital Foundry's technical data, I can earnestly say I agree. Project Scorpio is more than its parts, more than its 6 TFLOPs Polaris-derived GPU, more than its highly customized Jaguar evolved CPU, more than its 12GB of unified GDDR5 memory at 326GB/sec: it's about how those parts come together in a truly next-generation harmony that eclipses anything we've seen from the console market thus far, it's about the union to highly efficient hardware and intelligent software to make a "beast" of a system.

Gearbox messes up quite a bit. Between terrible games like Duke Nukem: Forever and abominations like Aliens: Colonial Marines, the studio just can't catch a break--it's really it's own worst enemy. Now the latest screw up has turned into a PR nightmare, and Gearbox is desperate for a way out.

Gearbox Software recently signed a deal with extremely controversial games merchant key reseller G2A.com to release a collector's edition for Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition, aka the massively overpriced remaster that no one asked for. YouTuber Total Biscuit caught wind of this deal, and announced a boycott of all Gearbox games from his coverage if the studio didn't dissolve the deal with G2A. Gamers everywhere spread the news, and with every share Gearbox's rep tanked--tanked further, that is.

So Gearbox did the logical thing and worked on an exit strategy. And it found a strategy that pretty much ensured it would have a justified means of escape from a situation it had dug itself into, and by escape, I mean Total Biscuit would continue covering their games and gamers would approve of the move. The studio-turned-indie-game-publisher told G2A that it would have to basically re-organize its business structure within 30 days or else Gearbox would pull its deal and back out of the agreement.

Since Project Scorpio can hit 4K 60FPS in games like Forza 6 and even 4K 60FPS Ultra with DirectX 12 optimizations, the console clearly shares little with its Xbox One S sibling in terms of raw power. But Project Scorpio may actually share something else in common with its svelte predecessor: size.

We've exhaustively covered Project Scorpio's internals and capabilities, so let's talk about its shape and form for a bit. Now Microsoft's officially released hardware diagram shows that Project Scorpio's components fit together like a glove. The power supply, 4K UHD Blu-ray disc drive, and vapor chamber cooling assembly all snugly conform to the motherboard that houses the system's extremely intelligent 16nm Scorpio Engine SoC silicon. The components themselves are arranged in a kind aesthetic harmony, not unlike the way the console's flexible software pipeline brain is synergized to its brawny 6TLOP GPU muscle.

More and more phone manufacturers choose to feature dual cameras on their phones, usually on the back of the phone with some exceptions. However, Alcatel decided to manufacture a phone with a dual camera on both front and the back.

The Alcatel Flash has two 13MP cameras on the back that allow users to capture 4K video. On the front of the phone, there is one 8MP camera and another 5MP camera sensor, with autofocus and dual-tone flash.

The 5.5-inch display phone is powered by a deca-core Mediatek MT6797 Helio X20 and comes with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage expandable with a microSD card.

In an effort to make Project Scorpio games as mind-blowing as possible, Microsoft is giving developers even more access to the console's built-in hardware. Devs can harness the raw power of Project Scorpio's 6TFLOPs of compute power and 1172MHz of Polaris-derived GPU clock speeds, the custom 8-core x86 "Jaguar evolved" CPU, and 67% of the system's beefy 12GB of unified GDDR5 RAM to help optimize their games in a variety of different ways.

According to Digital Foundry's Richard Leadbetter, developers will have access to 67% of Project Scorpio's total unified RAM system memory, or 8GBs of Project Scorpio's total 12GB of GDDR5 RAM. For comparison's sake, devs only have access to 5GB of Xbox One's RAM, and the same amount on PS4 Pro. This extra 3GB of accessible memory is a tremendous advantage that can facilitate boosts across the board for a multitude of optimizations, including resolution enhancements, tighter frame rates, and dramatically faster loading times by treating the extra RAM as an IO cache.

Project Scorpio's system memory isn't just brawny, at 12GB of GDDR5 RAM, but also has the bandwidth to back it up. Scorpio's 12GB of GDDR5 RAM--made up of 12x 6.8GHz modules--is clocked at a respectable 326 GB/sec bandwidth speeds over a 384-bit bus. Remember Scorpio's memory is unified, not dedicated, so both video and system RAM are running through the bandwidth pipeline.