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I've been playing the Battlefield 1 open beta for the last few days, with some truly great 'only in Battlefield' moments that had me screaming with either glee or pure anger.

DICE has really amped up the feeling of presence in Battlefield 1, something that is crucial to VR gaming, but I felt it in BF1. There are so many things that are happening around you, that the improved graphics lend an even more lending hand to making you feel like you're right there in the middle of the desert, or in a room, or laying down in a ditch shooting and dodging fire from all sides.

Battlefield 1 is definitely some of the most fun that I've had in a Battlefield game so far, but also some instant classic gaming moments that most refer to the "Battlefield Moments", of which there are plenty in Battlefield 1. Do you know how many times I've been killed or hurt by a horse in BF1 so far? More times than I'd like to admit.

Games played on Sony's new PS4 Neo and Microsoft's "monster" Project Scorpio consoles will just be ordinary games remastered in higher 4K resolution.

Although both Sony and Microsoft have been explicitly clear that their new 4K-ready consoles won't have exclusive games, instead upscaling regular Xbox One and PlayStation 4 games to 4K UHD 3840 x 2160 resolution, some people have had trouble conceptualizing what this actually means. Thanks to Gamingbolt's recent interview with Ride 2 developer Matteo Pezzotti, we have an easy way to loosely explain how the new consoles will play games.

Basically think of Project Scorpio and PlayStation 4 Neo as "remaster machines." The consoles are just remastering normal PS4 and Xbox One titles to achieve higher resolution and improved frame rates--the same way our current-gen systems remastered tons of Xbox 360 and PS3 games. So just think of the new consoles as the next evolution of console remasters: same exact game, just with better performance, ie improved frame rates, resolution, visuals, graphical settings, etc. thanks to new internal hardware.

A new exciting console is coming to store shelves this Fall! The highly anticipated Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Edition, or as it's been nicknamed, the 'NES Mini' will be available for purchase, November 11, 2016.

The newly developed miniature NES console will include 30 classic pre-loaded games, along with a single NES controller. Some of the games include Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong, plus more!

Nintendo has now revealed that the emulator running the NES Mini is a brand new creation, developed differently from the emulator used for console games on the standard Wii and Wii U. This now means the NES Mini will provide different modes of display, from regular, to upscaled and even a "pixel perfect" mode, giving the old school vibe amongst gamers on their TVs.

Studio Wildcard has just set a new sleazy precedent for the gaming world: paid DLC expansions for early access games.

Ark: Survival Evolved isn't officially released yet and it's already getting a paid DLC pack. No, really; amid all the fruits that modern gaming has delivered, gamers have to toil through exploitative paygates galore, with microtransactions, season passes, freemium schemes, ridiculously shallow DLC packs eroding the very spirit of the industry.

Now Studio Wildcard has taken that a step further by releasing a $20 paid DLC for their unfinished early access online survival sim Ark: Survival Evolved, which is priced at $34.99 on the Xbox Store. So that's $54.99 total for an early access game. Let that sink in for a minute.

Netflix has just released a bunch of new trailers for their upcoming shows, with trailers for Easy, Chef's Table: France, and even a time travel movie called ARQ - as well as teasing a new clip for Narcos: Season 2. As for details on the new shows, here's what we're looking at:

Most gamers are pumping in some serious hours into the Battlefield 1 open beta, and I'm sure Blizzard are seeing a dip in Overwatch players - so the second season of Competitive Play begins early, for PC and Xbox One gamers at least.

Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan confirmed that Competitive Mode's second season has started early, where he said: "Yes. Season 2 is now live on PC", after it was meant to start on September 6. There's a new skill rating system, the removal of Sudden Death, and the return of tier-based rankings, reports Polygon.

The PS4 version of Overwatch will have the new season of Competitive Play start on September 6.

If you've seen a movie in the 70mm format at IMAX, with movies like Interstellar looking absolutely incredible, then you'll be excited to hear that IMAX is preparing some of its theaters for virtual reality.

IMAX will be using Acer's new StarVR headset in their LA-based IMAX VR Center, with the first shipment of Acer's new StarVR headsets to be rolled out in a larger phase as more stock is released to the company. Acer will his mass production of StarVR headsets in 2017, with IMAX receiving the first batch in the coming weeks.

StarVR features a resolution of 5120x1440, or 2560x1440 per eye and mixed with the huge 210-degree field of view, we are talking about a Oculus Rift and HTC Vive killer here. The Rift and Vive run a native resolution of 2160x1200 (1080x1200 per eye), and a massive increase over the 110-degree FOV, with StarVR rocking a 210-degree field of view.

Apple has all but confirmed its new iPhone for next week, with the September 7 press event locked in, and Apple ready to announce the new iPhone, and surely a slew of other products and announcements.

One of them is here early, with Apple has announced a change to its iCloud pricing, with a new 2TB option. With rumors that Apple will unveil a larger 256GB model iPhone 7, the supersized iCloud tier will surely be welcomed next week, and for Apple-heavy users.

The new iCloud pricing is as follows, with all prices in USD:

India's richest man Mukesh Ambani is about to launch Reliance Jio's mobile services, meaning 4G LTE internet for Earth's second most populous nation as well as free voice calls forever, and a ridiculously cheap data plan.

It's claimed the network is the largest anywhere in the world, and has the cheapest data rates anywhere in the world (1GB of data for 75 cents). Long-term, the plan is to upgrade to 5G and 6G network technology (support is already baked in), and to expand to 90 percent of India's citizens (at launch, 18,000 cities and 200,000 remote areas will be covered).

If you're thinking the deal is too good to be true, you're likely right. The expectation is upon crushing competition and acquiring a massive subscriber base, Reliance will worsen the deal some would describe as unsustainable so as to achieve profitability (a somewhat common business plan). The crushing part has already begun: competitor Airtel (which relies on voice calls for most of its revenue) saw its stock drop 9% today following Reliance's announcement.

Acer unveiled a new line of ultrathin notebooks at IFA 2016, with the Swift brand launching with Intel's next generation Kaby Lake architecture.

Acer's new Swift line has four models in tow; the Swift 1, Swift 3, Swift 5, and Swift 7 - the higher the number, the more premium the product. Acer's flagship Swift 7 model is just 9.98mm and only 1.1kg (2.48lbs), featuring a 13.3-inch 1920x1080 IPS-based display that is found in a beautiful all-aluminum unibody and thin bezel.

Inside of the Swift 7 you'll find an Intel Core i5-7300U processor, based on Intel's new Kaby Lake architecture on the 14nm process. It'll also sport a 256GB SSD, up to 8GB of RAM, 2 x USB 3.1 Type-C ports, and 2T2R 802.11ac with MU-MIMO for connectivity.

When the world of VR was first being teased, I knew it would be like opening up Pandora's Box, but I didn't think we'd see VR girlfriend services this quickly... did you?

AliceX is a new service that wants to offer people companionshipo through the form of their "virtual girlfriend experience", with real models and actors standing in for your "girlfriend", either on your PC or smartphone. Engadget explains that AliceX is a "mixture of customized porn and cam sites, except it seems as though it'd be a whole lot more intimate than simply watching from afar as you would with regular pay-to-view porn operations. Of course, the women are available for straight up companionship as well most likely, even if the official implication of the VR service is for fulfilling sexual fantasies".

The screenshots that the AliceX PR team sent out show low-quality 3D backgrounds, but the mix of real-time, accessible porn and the Matrix-like world of having a girlfriend, there will be some seriously interesting stories from this service.

AMD has its full desktop Radeon RX 470 graphics card powering Alienware's latest gaming laptops, the Alienware 15 and 17.

The new Alienware 15 gaming laptop features a 15.6-inch 1080p display, with a chassis that's 25% thinner than its predecessor, Alienware has managed to improve cooling with larger fans. The 17.3-inch model includes the same specs, but it also boasts Tobii eye tracking technology, alongside AlienFX lighting that you can customize to your own liking.

The big ticket here is that the new Alienware 15 and 17 feature the full desktop AMD Radeon RX 470, which is capable of 1080p 60FPS gaming. This means the Alienware 15 and 17 gaming laptops are perfect for DX12 gaming, and ready for the latest titles like Battlefield 1 and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

With Google preparing to launch the purported next-gen Nexus smartphones rumored as being named Nexus M1 and Nexus S1 (M = Marlin and S = Sailfish), we were hit with a rumor in the last 24 hours that Google would drop the Nexus branding from its upcoming smartphones.

Now we have Android Police with an exclusive report from "two independent sources" that Google's upcoming Marlin and Starfish codenamed smartphones will be called Pixel and Pixel XL. Google's purported Pixel will be a 5-inch "Sailfish" smartphone, while the Pixel XL will be the 5.5-inch "Marlin" smartphone - both rocking Android 7.0 Nougat.

The report continues, that Google will market the upcoming Pixel and Pixel XL as the first smartphones built by Google, even though HTC will be manufacturing Marlin and Sailfish. Google will take care of the industrial design, while HTC builds it - an interesting twist on the Nexus branding, with Google wanting its marketing power thrown into the mix.

IFA 2016 - Huawei surprised everyone today at their press event at IFA by not announcing the new Mate 9 phone, as expected. Instead, they had something old, something new and something blue.

We'll start with the new part, as the Chinese giant introduced two new Android phones - the nova and nova plus. Both devices come with a Snapdragon 625 processor, 3GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage, expandable with microSD card. Users can choose between three colors - Prestige Gold, Mystic Silver and Titanium Grey.

The nova has 5-inch display, a 12 MP rear camera and a 3020 mAh battery. The nova plus is a bit bigger, with 5.5-inch display, a 16 MP main camera and 3340 mAh battery.

Here I am reporting that the next-gen Nexus smartphones from Google and HTC were just that, Nexus-branded smartphones in the form of the purported Nexus M1 and Nexus S1 - but new reports are hinting that Google might drop the Nexus branding altogether.

Google is poised to remove the Nexus branding from its upcoming smartphones and replace it with a "G" logo, but then the news gets even more interesting. Google will reportedly load special version of Android 7.0 onto the new "G" smartphones, or whatever the hell Google ends up calling them, instead of a vanilla ROM of Android 7.0 that we all expected.

What's going on: Google has differentiated its hardware and software products with the Nexus branding, as the hardware side of Google was in the form of Nexus smartphones and tablets. Google kept the Google branding for its own software services, so the change - if it turns out to be real - will be an interesting one.

GoPro has an instant threat in Garmin, with Garmin announcing its new Virb Ultra 30 action camera, which features everything the GoPro does, and more.

Garmin's new Yirb Ultra 30 shoots 4K video at 30FPS, has a built-in LCD touchscreen, and incredible 3-axis stabilization. The list doesn't end, with the Yirb Ultra 30 capable of livestreaming to YouTube, as well as voice commands where you can start recording by saying "Okay Garmin, start recording". There's GPS capabilities, as well as other sensors that will display how fast, far, and high your movements are - right into the video if you want.

Wired has a review on Garmin's new Virb Ultra 30, saying that "Video quality is on par with GoPro's top-of-the-line Hero4 Black. Dynamic range is good, colors are pretty accurate, and the image is sharp, maybe even a hair sharper than GoPro's. It has nearly all the same options for framerates, resolutions, and shooting modes as GoPro, too. It even has an "Expansive Mode" which is analogous to GoPro's SuperView. Basically, it takes a 4:3 image and then squishes it into 16:9 so you see more at the top and bottom of your frame. It's the mode you want to use whenever the action is close to the camera (surfing, mountain biking, snowboarding, gratuitous selfies)".

Samsung could issue a global recall of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone after reports surface that less than 0.1% of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones are affected with the possibility of a battery-related issue.

An official representative of Samsung has reportedly talked with Yonhap on the issue, with the Samsung rep saying it was the battery inside of that small 0.1% of Galaxy Note 7 shipments that were affected. Android Police points out that with "several millions sold, even this small a percentage can be a hazardous risk and one Samsung is not ready to gamble with. Since the Note7 doesn't have a removable battery, the official says that the company is about to issue a recall of all its new Galaxy Note7 devices sold at home and abroad".

Android Police says that the global recall announcement on the Galaxy Note 7 should happen within a week, with Samsung reportedly ironing out issues with US telcos like Verizon.

IFA - At IFA 2016 Qualcomm made two major announcements around their wearables efforts.

The first announcement was a partnership with Fossil where the company will be powering two of Fossil's latest smartwatches. The two watches, the Q Marshall and Q Wander are both updated versions of Fossil's original smartwatch design with more refined technology. That technology includes an upgrade to Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor which has increased power efficiency and reduced size.

In addition to the two beautiful watches from renowned watch maker Fossil, Qualcomm also announced their VR820 reference design for VR headsets. The VR820 itself is a VR headset, but is intended to be a reference design for OEMs like LG, Samsung and Sony to build upon. Ultimately Qualcomm's goal is to sell more Snapdragon 820 SoCs and the more mobile manufacturers use the VR820 they more the Snapdragon 820 sells.

Acer unveiled a slew of new products at IFA 2016, with an expansion of their Predator range of gaming monitors, including a new 24.5-inch model that has a huge 240Hz refresh rate.

The new Predator XB251HQT is a 24.5-inch TN-based monitor with a native 1080p resolution and a maximum refresh rate of 240Hz. Until now, we've only had 165Hz as our ceiling right now on the ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q, which had a higher 2560x1440 panel.

Acer has been a long time G-Sync supporter, with the Predator XB251HQT featuring NVIDIA's G-Sync technology, which scales all the way up to the crazy heights of 240Hz. Acer is using something it calls ZeroFrame, with the ultra-thin bezel being perfect for multi-monitor setups. Imagine the GPU horsepower you're going to need to render 5760x1080 at 240FPS!

Lenovo has unveiled their new Yoga 910 laptop which features Intel's next-gen Kaby Lake CPU, packing all of that power into its beautiful body that is just 14.3mm thick.

The new Yoga 910 features Lenovo's signature watchband hinge that lets the 13.9-inch display rotate 360 degrees, turning the Ultrabook into a 13.9-inch tablet. You can configure the 13.9-inch display with a native 4K resolution, but if you want to keep the costs down, and the battery life high, you can opt for the 1080p display.

We have around 15.5 hours of battery life with the 1080p display, versus just 10.5 hours on the 4K model. You can configure Lenovo's new Yoga 910 with up to 16GB of RAM, 1TB of PCIe-based SSD storage, a fingerprint reader, 2 x USB Type-C ports (1 x USB 3.0, and 1 x USB 2.0 with charging support).