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SpaceX has confirmed it has sent its next-generation rocket engine, codenamed Raptor, in for testing at a facility in Texas.

The new Raptor engine could be up to 3x as powerful as the current Merlin engines that power SpaceX's Falcon 9 and upcoming Falcon Heavy rockets, but details on the next-gen Raptor engine are thin right now. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell made the announcement of the testing of Raptor at the Small Satellite Conference in Utah.

SpaceX founder and real life Tony Stark, Elon Musk, has said that Raptor could have a thrust of around 500,000 pounds, which puts it in the same category as the main engine on a space shuttle. But unlike the shuttle, which uses three main engines and two booster rockets, the future Mars Colonial Transporter would be powered by nine Raptor engines, giving it plenty of power.

Spotify has just made a move that might have gamers subscribing to its music service in droves, with a new gaming portal that makes it incredibly easy to find the soundtracks to your favorite games.

There are soundtracks from games like Max Payne and Mega Man, and big hits like The Last of Us and Uncharted 4. The company has been creating and hosting its own curated playlists, as well as getting in gaming celebrities like Day[9], a super popular StarCraft personality - that I only just found out in the last two days of hanging out with Luke from LinusTechTips is a StarCraft megastar.

Spotify has even tapped guest lists from people working at Engadget and Polygon, which is another nice touch. But which gaming soundtracks do you like the best? Let us know in the comments.

NVIDIA has been absolutely dominating the high-end graphics card market for a while now, and even more so with the release of the Pascal architecture and the GeForce GTX 1080, GTX 1070 - and then the monster that is the new Titan X.

Well, according to the latest rumors from Baidu user USH Ishimura, NVIDIA's next generation Volta architecture is going to be an absolute powerhouse. The user said that the successor to the GP104 (which is the GPU that powers the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070) will offer "really strong" performance.

The rumor continues, adding that there will be three high-end gaming graphics cards unveiled with the next-gen Volta architecture. Right now under the Pascal architecture, we have the GP102 which powers the Titan X, GP104 which powers the GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, while the GP106 powers the mid-range GTX 1060.

Android might be installed on over 1 billion devices, but that doesn't mean Google isn't working on other operating systems - like the new, mysterious OS called "Fuchsia".

Fuchsia, according to Google's own description simply means "Pink + Purple == Fuchsia (a new Operating System). There's nothing more than that, but Android Police reports that the Magenta kernel is based on the 'LittleKernel' project, and just like Linux and Android, the Magenta kernel is what powers the larger Fuchsia operating system.

Android Police says that Magenta is "being designed as a competitor to commercial embedded OSes, such as FreeRTOS or ThreadX." Magenta is designed to scale better, which will see it work on embedded devices, smartphones, and even desktop PCs. In order for this to happen, Magenta improves on the foundations of LittleKernel by adding first class user-mode support, as well as a capability-based security model.

A fresh Titanfall 2 gameplay trailer has dropped, and it's pretty smooth, suave, and clicks all the right FPS buttons.

Respawn has promised that Titanfall 2's singleplayer campaign will be "grounded, dirty and human," but this bit of footage shows us some good old-fashioned fun. Players get some nifty tools like active camo to confuse foes, and employ the parkour wall-running skills in tandem with the new grappling hook for some ultra-slick locomotion. The actual gameplay is buttery smooth in 60FPS, matching perfectly with the rythmic player movements and satisfying gunplay.

We also get a glimpse at some campaign guns like a powerful high-tech sniper rifle that can shoot two bullets a time, a lightning gun that apparently manipulates nearby electronics like door locks etc in the tech-filled environments, mines that make you invisible, and neat little drones that act like walking grenades to destabilize your enemies.

Remedy Entertainment has announced it has a new CEO, Tero Virtala, who was the CEO of Trials developer RedLynx.

Virtala replaces Remedy co-founder Markus Mäki, who took the role of CEO during the final year of development on Quantum Break - which turned out to be a complete mess, and is now headed to Steam. Remedy says Mäki will return to overseeing studio productions, reports Polygon.

In a statement from Remedy Entertainment called "New Remedy boss unlocked", Virtala talks about Remedy, where he said: "At the core of Remedy are truly talented and passionate people, and their proven ability to create unique, world-class gaming experiences. As the company moves towards multiple simultaneous game projects, it will offer more opportunities for the gamers, our people, partners and us as a company".

Intel is now set to compete against NVIDIA in the deep learning and AI arena, acquiring AI startup Nervana. Nervana specializes in processor-based "deep learning as a service" through technology like its upcoming Nervana Engine, a dedicated AI hardware accelerator due out in early 2017.

Intel wants to utilize Nervana's expertise to help its AI performance on its Xeon and Xeon Phi processors, as it sees AI as a big future for the company. NVIDIA is already knee deep in deep learning, with self-driving cars, AI, and more.

NVIDIA could face serious competition in the deep learning and AI space if Nervana can help Intel tune its processors for machine learning tasks. Whatever happens, it's an exciting time to be alive! To my future Skynet overlords: please make Half-Life 3 a reality with your AI brains.

PC port connoisseur Total Biscuit has gone off on a bit of a Twitter tirade, criticizing the fresh PC release of No Man's Sky for some serious performance issues. He cites major hitching and framerate drops, which he says are echoed by other Twitch streamers and Steam forum goers.

Given the issues, it's not hard to see why the game was delayed three days on our favourite platform.

While the company doesn't specifically cite performance in a Steam thread addressing user complaints, it does say it's hired a QA team today that's bigger than the developer itself. The purpose of the added bodies, they say, is to respond to the problems cropping up that are in part due to the higher than anticipated player numbers. Presumably, this will mean a better gameplay experience performance-wise, although when is tough to estimate.

Quake Champions is sitting right up in the top 5 games I want, and with everything I hear, I want it more. DOOM and Quake Champions game director Marty Stratton has detailed Quake Champions a little more, teasing that it will not be running on the id Tech 6 engine.

Stratton told Finder during an interview: "We had such success with Vulkan and Doom that Robert Duffy, our chief technology officer, was like, "alright guys, this worked out well for us. So we need to do it [with Quake]." But we still have to look at it, because Quake Champions' technology is part id tech, but also part Saber tech. It is not on Id Tech 6 [game engine]. If it was, it would be all good with Vulkan and we would be happy".

Tim Willits, Creative Director on Quake Champions, said that id Software is crafting the game to run fast on a variety of PCs. Willits said: "Because we had such success with pairing Vulkan and Doom, it is definitely something we are looking at, but I can't confirm it at this point. Hopefully you will not have to upgrade your machine too much, but we're all about speed with Quake Champions".

Originally planned to be exclusively supported by Windows 10, Microsoft has reverted its policy and decided Skylake will be supported by Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 as well.

"Enterprise customers are moving to Windows 10 faster than any version of Windows. At the same time, we recognize that, in some instances, customers have a few systems that require longer deployment timeframes," explains Shad Larsen, Director of Windows Business Planning. "We listened to this feedback and today are sharing an update to our 6th Gen Intel Core (Skylake) support policy. We have extended the support period from July 17, 2018 to the end of support dates for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1; and we will provide all applicable security updates."

The change means Windows 7 support until 2020 and 8.1 until 2023. It does not apply to Kaby Lake and future Intel processors which will not be supported by Windows versions older than Windows 10.

Quantum Break is coming to Steam, but what does that mean for the Windows 10 version of the game that is sold through the Windows Store?

According to Remedy's Head of Communications, Thomas Puha, Quantum Break will be stuck in time on the UWP version of the game. In a reply tweet to someone who said: "unless you consider a stuttering, constant-hitching, barely 30 always sub 60, lowest settings on a 780 "improvement", Puha said: "sorry to hear you are having problems. Its unlikely we release another Win10 patch".

This means Remedy will put its soul into the Win32 version of Quantum Break, meaning we won't see DX11 for the Windows 10 version of the game. But, it means the Steam version of Quantum Break could be better, with Puha tweeting: "We have worked on this release for a while. We got a lot more experience in shipping DX11 titles".

During the Game Developers Conference earlier this year, engine god and CTO for Oculus, John Carmack said that the biggest game for VR this year would be Minecraft. While I might have grinded away a layer of my teeth when he said that, Minecraft is reporting headed to the Oculus Rift sooner than anticipated.

Lead Developer of Minecraft Pocket Edition and Minecraft Windows 10 Edition, Tommasco Checchi, said in a tweet: "PSA: unsurprisingly, promised dates change :) We said that Rift support would be in 0.15.6, but it will be out next week instead!".

A few days ago Checchi tweeted: "I'm back in the office and I just played a lot of Minecraft for the Oculus Rift... it's definitely ready for release :)". Minecraft on the Oculus Rift will be a good win for the company, which is currently struggling against the HTC Vive and its dominant sales and room scale VR greatness.

NVIDIA released its Shield Tablet in the second half of 2014, and then the refreshed version in late 2015 with a cheaper price, but there was a tease of the Shield Tablet K1 refresh for 2016 - and now, it's cancelled.

The purported Shield Tablet K1 was codenamed "Hawkeye" and featured NVIDIA's Tegra X1 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and a 1920x1200 native resolution. According to a dismissal request letter submitted by NVIDIA to the FCC, the Shield Tablet K1 has been cancelled.

NVIDIA's Compliance Engineering Manager said that the dismissal request and cancellation of the product is for "business reasons". The company has probably seen the decline in tablet sales, and instead decided to focus their efforts on markets where they know they have a larger chance of continuous wins, like the consumer graphics card market - just to name one.

NVIDIA will surely be popping open bottles of champagne after it has posted record results for Q2 2016, exceeding revenue guidance and seeing strong demand for its new products, reports The Wall Street Journal. We also just found out that NVIDIA's next-gen GPUs will be made on the 14nm process, with Samsung securing the manufacturing contract.

NVIDIA projects revenue of $1.68 billion (plus or minus 2%), for its Q3 results, with the company pushing into new sectors that it will dominate in the future, such as VR and self-driving cars. NVIDIA boss Jen-Hsun Huang said: "Strong demand for our new Pascal-generation GPUs and surging interest in deep learning drove record results".

The company saw revenue increase 24% to $1.43 billion, while its gaming platform made $781 million in revenue, up 18%. NVIDIA's professional visualization revenue was up 22%, hitting $214 million while the automotive revenue from infotainment modules and product development contracts rose 68% to $119 million.

NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 10 series graphics cards are made on the 16nm FinFET process, with NVIDIA contracting long term partner TSMC to manufacture the Pascal-based GPUs.

According to South Korean newspaper Chosun Biz, Samsung has secured a contract manufacturing order to make NVIDIA's next-gen GPUs. Chosun Biz said that Samsung will make the next-gen GPUs using its 14nm process before the end of the year, based on the Pascal architecture.

This is interesting news for a few different reasons; firstly, NVIDIA shifting to the 14nm node is an interesting move since it seems to have nailed the 16nm node with its GeForce GTX 1080, GTX 1070 and GTX 1060 graphics cards. Secondly, does this mean Volta has been delayed and we're going to see a 14nm-based Pascal refresh in early/mid-2017?

Lucasfilm have just dropped a second trailer for this year's much anticipated 'Star Wars' anthology feature 'Rogue One', and it's pretty damn impressive.

Set just before the events of 'A New Hope', 'Rogue One' is set to follow the band of courageous Rebel troops who stole the plans for the first Death Star, which allowed the alliance to pinpoint its weakness. Starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn and Donnie Yen, the film will serve as the first film outside of the numbered episodes which make up the Skywalker saga. Recent behind the scenes chatter has suggested that not all was right with the project, with lengthy re-shoots and final cut rumors casting doubts, but hopefully that will all be forgotten when the final film wows audiences. Hopefully.

'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' hits 2D, 3D and IMAX screens worldwide on December 16th.

While the third 'Tron' film was unfortunately cancelled by Disney just before it was about to become reality, it looks like there could be some very faint signs of life in the project just yet.

Speaking to ScreenRant, 'Tron Legacy' producer and former Disney development executive Brigham Taylor says she's hopeful for a third 'Tron' feature saying, "I'm always hope for that. I just had a wonderful visit to Shanghai, where they have an amazing attraction based on Tron Legacy. The designers just did such an amazing job creating the feeling of stepping onto The Grid, and that indelible visual world that Lisberger created and Kosinski explored... and I think there's a real stickiness to that that I hope can grow into a film or whatever else. So I don't know what I'd "hint" at other than that I hope for that, and that there's obviously been conversations."

While it took Disney 28 years to bring a 'Tron' sequel to the screen, I'd like to think the next one will be sooner rather than later... please?

The latest gameplay series video for Battlefield 1 focuses on the vehicles of the game, but the more interesting part is the incidental reveal of a new desert map. It's not much of a reveal as the footage is based on watching someone play the game in real life as opposed to direct gameplay footage, but it's something.

In the screenshots (taken from 0:42 and 1:02 in the video), you can see the map appears to be quite open as you'd expect from a desert region, with a small section featuring buildings, barricades, and the like. You can also observe mountains, and of course the inclusion of tanks and planes.

YouTuber Westie also managed to grab a sneak peak of the map earlier this week which he says will be featured at Gamescom. In the screenshot, you can notice a light vehicle and some ruins in the background, and you get a broader perspective on what the map looks like. Whether we'll see a centralized design seen in the unpopular Silk Road map in Battlefield 4 or something more diverse is tough to say, but here's hoping for the latter.

Square Enix has revealed the PC specs for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and they're about what you'd expect.

The impressive-looking new Deus Ex game launches in just a few weeks on August 23, and Square Enix has dropped the PC specs to give you time to tweak your rig. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided requires at least 8GB of RAM and at least a AMD Radeon HXD 7870 with 2GB of VRAM, and it takes up 55GB of HDD space with the base game and DLC. Recommended specs aren't too heavy: the devs want you to have a Radeon RX 480 or a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 GPU for 1080p play, 16GB of RAM, and an Intel Core i3-4770K CPU.

Pre-loading on Steam begins on Friday, August 19 at 9PM PST (12AM EST), and PS4 gamers will have to wait two days before the game releases to pre-load their version, which starts on Sunday, August 21 at midnight local time. Xbox One pre-loads are already available. Check the full PC spec requirements below.

No Man's Sky limited edition boxes have stickers covering online play icons, but Sony says it was just a simple mixup.

Does No Man's Sky have multiplayer? Hello Games' Sean Murray has said outright that it's possible for two players to meet and see each other, but it's not very likely. But recent events say otherwise: on launch day two players did the impossible by meeting each other, but they couldn't see each other. The devs haven't given any clear explanations on why the players couldn't see each other, and if that will be addressed.

Now it's been revealed that Sony has put stickers covering up online play icons on the back of No Man's Sky limited edition boxes. Sony says that this was just a simple mixup, but fans are thinking Sony and/or the devs yanked the light multiplayer interactions before launch because of difficulties: