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Final Fantasy 15 isn't just pure open-world; it offers a healthy mix of open and linear-based environments to ensure gamers experience both something new and something familiar.

In a recent interview with Famitsu Final Fantasy 15 game director Hajime Tabata revealed that the game's main campaign consists of 15 chapters, and that half of them will be set in the open environments whereas the other half is linear-based.

"The entire game structure for Final Fantasy XV consists of both open-world and linear parts. The first half keeps going as an open-world, but the story in the second half's is led by a linear path. That way, you won't get bored of an open-world as the rest of the game tightens, so we made it in a way that you'll also get to advance through it as you have in conventional Final Fantasy games," Tabata confirmed.

Nintendo promises that it's learned from its past mistakes, mainly the improper communication surrounding the Wii U. The Japanese console giant says it absolutely has to change its ways and make sure consumers know exactly what its new NX console actually is (even if Nintendo still hasn't revealed it just yet).

One of the main reasons the Wii U failed was the simple fact that most consumers thought it was an add on for the Wii, not an entirely new console. Nintendo America president Reggie Fils-Aime says the company won't make that mistake with its new NX system, which is believed to be a unique handheld/console hybrid that combines the three facets of mainstream gaming into one device: mobile, handheld, and console gaming.

"One of the things that we have to do better when we launch the NX-we have to do a better job communicating the positioning for the product. We have to do a better job helping people to understand its uniqueness and what that means for the game playing experience," Fils-Aime said in a recent interview with A-List Daily.

Researchers at Princeton University have created an open-source 25-core processor that can be scaled in an array to create "a single system containing millions of cores."

Princeton's new computer chip is called Piton, and it's a many-core open-source research processor aimed at revolutionizing data-center and enterprise-grade cloud-based solutions that power the internet--from email to Facebook and Twitter--with a cheap yet extremely efficient new scalable CPU architecture.

The Princeton Piton Processor is a 25-core customized CPU designed by Professor David Wentzlaff and his team, featuring 25 modified OpenSPARC T1 cores that operate at a 1GHz per-core clock frequency. Piton is also outfitted with 460 million transistors, and was taped-out in IBM's 32m SOI process. Piton's main advantage is that it's scalable, meaning an array of some thousand Piton chips could be combined in an array to "enable thousands of cores on a single chip."

UPDATE 2: Apparently not everyone will receive a refund from Steam, and your mileage may vary and there's not an automatic 100% success rate. But a good portion of gamers are reporting successful refunds if they cite certain reasons, ie technical problems and misleading advertisements.

UPDATE: Some PS4 users are reportedly getting refunds for digital No Man's Sky purchases on PSN, despite Sony's staunch zero refund policy.

Due to false advertising, Steam is reportedly now accepting No Man's Sky refunds regardless of playtime--albeit in a case-by-case basis.

Microsoft is finally bringing Halo 5 to the PC with the release of Halo 5 Forge and as we get closer to the release on September 8, we're receiving more details on the game. Now we have the system requirements, and boy do you require quite the beast to run Halo 5 Forge on the PC at 4K 60FPS.

You'll need at least 12GB of RAM, and a graphics card with at least 4GB of VRAM for gaming at 1080p 60FPS, but that gets bumped up to a huge 16GB of RAM and 6GB of VRAM for gaming at 4K and 60FPS. You'll need a GeForce GTX 970 for 1080p 60FPS and a GTX 980 Ti for 4K 60FPS. Microsoft is including some nice touches to the PC side with Halo 5 Forge, with higher resolutions than the Xbox versions of Halo, and you can build maps with Forge, too.

As for the system requirements, here's the full rundown of what you'll need to play Halo 5 Forge when it launches on September 8.

Samsung has just teased its upcoming 34-inch monitor, with the CF791 featuring a 3440x1440 native resolution and a refresh rate of up to 100Hz. Samsung's upcoming CF791 display will also have support for AMD's FreeSync technology.

Samsung says that the VA panel in its new display offers better contrast, and reduced light leakage when compared to IPS panels, especially when it comes to curved displays. The upcoming CF791 is "the most curved in the world" according to Samsung, with a curve of 1500R. Samsung is using quantum-dot technology, with Samsung explaining that the shift to quantum-dot allows them to reproduce 125% of the sRGB gamut.,

Radeon owners will want to enjoy AMD's FreeSync technology on the Samsung CF791, since it will offer 3440x1440 at 100Hz with FreeSync on top, offering a super-smooth UltraWide gaming experience. Another nice touch is that Samsung has made the monitor "bezel-less" on three sides, with the CF791 looking mighty sharp with its looks.

An e-mail from developer DICE's PR outfit sent out to press confirms the Battlefield 1 open beta will run from August 31 through September 8, for a total of eight days. If you've signed up to Battlefield Insider, you can get in one day early, as recently confirmed (again) by @Battlefield.

As previously reported, the beta will feature both Conquest and Rush modes on the Sinai desert map. Rush won't be the usual fare, with 24 players supported and the inclusion of "telegraph posts" that can be destroyed by attackers or used by defenders to call in artillery strikes.

Ubisoft had expected to push out The Division's upcoming 'Last Stand' DLC later this year, but the company has had a change of heart - and a change of plan, by delaying Last Stand until "early 2017", while it fixes on "improving the core gameplay experience". Is this a new Ubisoft? What the hell is happening?!

In a post on The Division's official website, the team said that the upcoming v1.4 patch arriving in October would be filled with bug fixes, game balancing adjustments, and other improvements. Ubisoft was also expected to release The Division's next expansion dubbed Survival with the v1.4 patch, but the company has decided against that and will instead release them separately.

The Division's third expansion 'Last Stand' has been pushed back from late 2016 to early 2017, with Ubisoft explaining: "With Update 1.4 in the works, it has become clear with your feedback and our own observations that our priority should now be on improving the core gameplay experience. This new schedule will not only enable us to strengthen the core experience before adding new content, but also continuously improve it by allowing for more production time to ensure the quality of future updates as well".

IFA 2016 - Huawei, the third biggest mobile phone manufacturer, launched a new phone today in Stockholm, Sweden. Honor 8 is the top of the line Honor series phone, tho we can't say it's a flagship cause that title still belongs to Huawei P9.

However, with the dual camera system, the Honor 8 is quite similar to P9. Our source from Huawei tells us they wanted to make a cheaper phone with all of the P9 characteristics and one difference - they fixed all the problems the P9 has. This is where Honor 8 comes in. At first glance, the Honor 8 looks and feels like a premium phone. Its glass back gives it a fancier look and you get to choose between four colors - white, black, gold and dark blue.

The Honor 8 has a 5.2-inch full HD display and two 12-megapixel rear-facing cameras, but you won't see the Leica logo which is the case with the P9. Inside, we have Huawei's own Kirin 950 octo-core processor, 4GB of RAM and a 3,000 mAh battery. For comparison, the P9 has the same battery capacity, 3GB of RAM and a faster Kirin 955 processor.

Despite disappointing critics across the world, 'Suicide Squad' has been an unmitigated box office success, passing a $500 million haul mark in just 13 days, and well on the way to $600 million. And at the end of the day - that's all that matters.

Speaking out against the bad press, Suicide Squad comic creator John Ostrander said "First of all, I want to say I am not disparaging any of the critics. I do have problems - whether it's the Squad or not - when a critic comes in with an agenda already. They are not looking at the movie for what it is. I have read several of the reviews that were just fine, even not that keen on it. As long as they were looking at it honestly, that's fine. When somebody comes in with an attitude, "I'm sick of superhero movies," "I am not going to give them a break," "it has to be a masterpiece to get a good word out of me," I don't think that's right or fair. There were plenty of fans who did not like it, and well that's fine and they are right to their opinion even if they are wrong. I know the box office isn't an arbiter of what's good or bad, but you have to take a look at how much money Squad has made so far. I think it has done really well."

Warner has two major DC Comics films set for release in 2017, including 'Wonder Woman' and 'Justice League'.

WhatsApp gets cozier with parent company Facebook today as it updates its privacy policy as part of a long-term plan. At some point in the months ahead, the company will begin sharing its user data with the social media giant for monetization and feature purposes. If you'd like to (mostly) opt out, follow these instructions.

Feature-wise, agreeing to the new terms will mean notifications from other services you use, like your bank when a fraudulent transaction comes up, or your airline when a flight is delayed. It also means better friend suggestions and more relevant advertising.

Domino's Pizza is about to begin testing drone delivery, starting in New Zealand, where aviation laws passed this month allow for such a service. Parterning with drone company Flirtey, the plan is to launch the service to the public later this year, marking the first commercial drone delivery service worldwide.

"With the increased number of deliveries we make each year, we were faced with the challenge of ensuring our delivery times continue to decrease and that we strive to offer our customers new and progressive ways of ordering from us," says Domino's Group chief executive and managing director, Don Meij. "Research into different delivery methods led us to Flirtey. Their success within the airborne delivery space has been impressive and it's something we have wanted to offer our customers."

Meanwhile, New Zealand Transport Minister Simon Bridges says he's in full support of the service.

A good portion of THQ Nordic's unannounced games will be based on renowned THQ IPs--anyone want Darksiders 3 or a new Titan Quest?

Ever since Nordic Games bought up key properties from THQ and became THQ Nordic, games across the globe were elated to know some of their favorite THQ series--like Titan Quest, Darksiders and Destroy All Humans--would live on despite the publisher's untimely demise. Now company CEO Lars Wingefors teases that "quite a few" of THQ Nordic's upcoming games are based on classic THQ IPs.

"Since we acquired the THQ brand, we have come to realize just how big that name actually is," Wingefors said in a recent interview with MCV.

On September 7, Sony is expected to unveil a new thinner and cheaper PS4 model alongside the 4K-ready upgraded PS4 Neo. Now we have our first look at the new so-called "PS4 Slim" model.

Since Sony's new PlayStation 4 Slim model and its accompanying DualShock 4 model have been confirmed as real, we can now start treating the leaked info from console owners as facts. Twitter user Shortman84 has a leaked PlayStation 4 Slim console and the new DualShock 4 controller (model CUH-ZCT2), and has revealed key information about the system and what to expect from the new PS4 hardware revision.

The owner reveals that the PS4 Slim features everything we'd expect in a new revision: it's thinner, runs cooler and quieter, and has a few features shaved off to lower the price despite retaining the basic functionality of current PS4 models. The new DualShock 4 controller has some nice surprises too, including more efficient battery life and a new mode that boosts response times. Check below for a full list of the info we've gleaned so far.

Steam gamers are ejecting escape pods from No Man's Sky crashing ship, likely due the game's notorious over-hyped and underwhelming content.

When it launched just weeks ago, No Man's Sky peaked at an incredible 212,620 simultaneous users, making it the biggest Steam release of 2016 in concurrent players. Since then the game has been bleeding players left and right.

According to SteamSpy and SteamDB, just two weeks later after its launch, No Man's Sky's concurrent Steam playerbase has dropped by 90% to just 19,336 players. Just four days ago we reported on a 78% drop in No Man's Sky Steam gamers, and it will be interesting to see how many more players jump ship in the coming weeks.

The launch of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided hasn't been too good on the PC, with a slew of issues including the usual crashes, poor optimization, and bad mouse acceleration that can't be disabled in the menu. Nixxes is usually on point when it comes to porting games to the PC, but it seems Mankind Divided isn't one of those.

Thankfully, developer Eidos Montreal is on the ball, pushing out a patch for the game bringing it to v1.0 built 534.7, which fixes the following:

Performance wise, Eidos Montreal adds that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is pretty demanding on your hardware, and that you begin the game on High detail preset with MSAA disabled. Remember there's a DX12 patch on the way that will improve the PC side of things, but we'll have to wait and test that soon. I'm currently benchmarking a bunch of my graphics cards right now, so we'll have some performance numbers to share with you soon.

No Man's Sky sales might be tanking in both the US and in the UK, but there are mods out that improve some of the weaker aspects of the game. LowFlight can be downloaded here.

LowFlight is a free mod for No Man's Sky that provides a few new and improved features, such as the ability to travel underwater, and it provides a greater range of movement within your starship. LowFlight developer Hytek says there are three parts of the mod: "It lets starships get low to the ground and go underwater, as well as allowing pilots to look in any direction while in the cockpit. These are all much unlike the base No Man's Sky, where the starship is forced to land when it drops below a certain altitude; flying underwater is completely out of bounds too," reports Polygon.

Ships will continue to take damage if you crash into the terrain, so don't think that the LowFlight mod will save you, but there are gamers who are saying that LowFlight is a major game-changer for No Man's Sky, which is saying a lot considering how broken and unfulfilling the game is to most people. To see our take on the procedural space sim, check out our official No Man's Sky review.

On the heels of the release of Samsung's awesome new Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi have just unveiled their new Galaxy Note competitor, the Redmi Note 4.

Xiaomi's new Redmi Note 4 smartphone is the first to run MIUI 8 out of the box, and has a 5.5-inch 1080p display, with a metal unibody design and 2.5D glass on the front. Inside, we have a 10-core processor from MediaTek with the Helio X20 SoC. Redmi Note 4 includes dual SIM slots with a microSD card slot, a 13-megapixel f/2.0 rear-facing camera, and a huge 4100mAh battery.

Comparing it against the Galaxy Note 7 which has similar specs, and a smaller 3500mAh battery - the Redmi Note 4 is a formidable competitor. Where Xiaomi kills it though, is with the price - costing just $135 for the 16GB model, and $180 for 64GB of storage.

I reported on HBM3 a few days ago, but all of the details weren't clear - until the Hot Chips conference in Cupertino this week, where Samsung and SK Hynix shared some more details on the next leap in HBM technology.

HBM3 will offer improvements over HBM1 and HBM2 in nearly all areas, with HBM3 offering more RAM stacks. HBM3 will feature 8 or more stacks connected via through-silicon vias (TSVs), which is up from the 2/4/8 stacks on HBM2. The upgraded HBM3 tech will see individual memory dies of up to 16Gb, up from the 8Gb on HBM2, meaning 64GB of VRAM on next-gen graphics cards will become a reality.

Lower core voltage and twice the peak bandwidth will be offered on HBM3, which is another great thing to see, but HBM3 won't be arriving until sometime in 2019-2020.

Battlefield 1 looks to have some of the most immersive dynamic weather in a game yet, but from all of the gameplay footage we've seen so far, it's from just two maps in the game. The reason it feels like we've seen more, is that the setting and time of the day are making a big difference, splashed with the improved dynamic weather technology.

DICE used the dynamic weather effects in maps like Paracel Storm or Gulf of Oman in Battlefield 4, but the weather effects have been amplified to every multiplayer map in Battlefield 1. The developer has said that the dynamic weather feature will change the way a map feels and plays, using something that is outside of the players control. Imagine running through a map in Battlefield 1 with dense fog, which would affect the long term vision of a sniper - alternatively, low visibility also makes it harder for gun battles, leaving BF1 gamers turning to melee attacks.

Other dynamic weather effects like rain forcing pilots to get closer to the ground to spot their enemies, will making the on-foot troops vision blurred from the rain and graphical effects. Birds will fly away when the wind swirls up, and rain will drop onto weapons, armor and more. DICE wrote in their developer blog: "The western front has more heavy rain, and we make sure the fog in the trench wars has more density, and feels close to the ground. Up in the Alps in the Italian campaign, there's a sense of low fog in the valley, and if you move up to the mountain tops you get rid of the fog. You can even see the fog below you".