Latest News - Page 2463

Broadwell-E's release is just around the corner, or so we'd like to think. And in preparation for the day that they release, ASRock has issued out new BIOSs for their entire line of X99 motherbaords so you can upgrade without issue when they do hit the streets.

The new BIOS files add support for the entire line of consumer Broadwell-E chips, from the impressive, deca-core, 6950X, the 6900K, 6850K and the 6800K. There's no need to buy a new motherboard, so while they aren't quite out in the wild just yet, you can at least rest assured that your motherboard is good to go. Just head on over to here to find your specific board to download the new BIOS. Happy updating!

It's easy to neglect putting in a proper skill or talent system in a game. It's also easy to fall into the trap of making your games system of competence uninspired or copy the more successful models outright. Escape From Tarkov has taken the hard road with a very unique approach. Not so much learning them, but in retaining them. And of course there's a massive list of skills you can learn, all useful to the progression of the game.

In the model that Battle State Games is using, learning skills is done through a repetition system. The things you do make you better at them, and you can upgrade skills once you've done them a distinct number of times, letting you then do the same thing to the upgraded skill and so forth. That's great, it's been done to great success before, and so long as you don't have to grind too much for skills, it should work well here, too.

The real fun part comes in how you retain those skills. Everything you learn can be unlearned if you don't use it often enough. Thankfully there's a predefined minimum that skills are rolled back to so you don't completely forget them outright. They've even modeled a bit of muscle memory in how you can retrain forgotten skills more easily and quickly too. We've got the full list of skills as they are now just below after the break. The great thing is that they're inclined to add more as development progresses, so this isn't complete at all, but just a start.

Quantum Break is so bad that Remedy almost wishes that it could go back in time - just like the time stopping/manipulation abilities it provides you in the game. Well, damage control mode has been enabled.

Remedy's PR boss Thomas Puha took to Twitter, fielding questions like: "I have to say, that's disappointing because it's extremely distracting. But, nothing can be done then". Puha replied: "The film grain as well, that's a stylistic choice as we want to make a cinematic looking game". Ugh, like we haven't heard this "cinematic" line before, guys.

Another person asked: "How much of these visuals artefacts, ghosting, soft textures, screen-tearing and pop-ins can be fixed in a patch?" and the answer, is disappointing. Puha said: "Ghosting is just a result of the temporal reconstruction. Just the way we render things".

Most people think VR is just for gaming, but it's going to find its way into all fields - medicine, education, science - the list truly goes on. Well, one of the first exciting things to see VR move into is medicine.

Medical Realities will be hosting the first live VR stream of surgery on April 14, thanks to a 360-degree camera placed on the operating table. What do you need to tune in? You'll need their app, and Google Cardboard (or a viable alternatives, as Engadget reports).

The company sees both VR and AR technologies as useful educational tools for aspiring doctors, with this new VR stream just a stepping stone into the future.

While we have to wait a few more years for super-fast 5G wireless networks, certain regions of Singapore will be receiving some huge speeds in the coming year or so.

Singapore wireless provider StarHub is teaming up with Chinese giant Huawei on a new project that will see small cell networks sprawled out through Singapore's central business district, blasting out what CNET is calling 4.5G. This new 4.5G internet will provide speeds of around 1Gbps... yeah, pretty damn good - eh?

The service will initially be offered in Singapore, and thanks to the small cell network technology, 1Gbps-class speeds will only be capable indoors, or in office buildings and shopping malls. None of today's smartphones will be capable of being used on the new network, with compatible devices to arrive closer to the network rolling out in Q2 2017 or so.

NVIDIA blew us all away with its reveal of the Tesla P100 during GTC 2016, but there was no word on the consumer side of things. I heard whispers during the show, but nothing concrete - what we do know, however, is that both NVIDIA and AMD will reveal their new video cards before Computex (which kicks off in the last few days of May). We chatted with Hardware Canucks during GTC 2016 about all things GPUs, something you can watch below.

It was only a few days ago that we reported that the next-gen NVIDIA GeForce video cards would feature GDDR5, but it looks like NVIDIA could tap the faster GDDR5X on its upcoming GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 (but I'm still adamant that they won't be called that).

There will be two GP104-based video cards, with the GTX 1080 featuring 8GB of GDDR5X on a 384-bit memory bus with 320GB of bandwidth. The GTX 1070 will use the same GP104 GPU, but drop down to GDDR5 with a 256-bit memory bus and 256GB/sec bandwidth. We should note that the current GM200-based GTX 980 Ti has 6GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit memory bus with 334GB/sec - so the new GTX 1080 would have similar memory bandwidth, but with the new Pascal architecture, on the 16nm FinFET process.

While the 'Harry Potter' film franchise proper wrapped up with 2011's 'The Deathly Hallows: Part 2', Warner Bros. have desperately been seeking to keep the multi-billion franchise going and investigating different possibilities from the rather extensive universe. Despite it's scant 42 pages of content, author J.K. Rowling and Warner settled on adapting the spin-off novel 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' into a fully fledged trilogy of films - which has now released a brand new trailer.

Following wizarding writer Newt Scamander, mentioned in passing as the author on one of Harry Potter's textbooks approximately 70 years before the events of the 'Harry Potter' series, the trilogy is set to feature Eddie Redmayne in the lead, Directed by 'Potter' veteran David Yates.

The first part; 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' hits cinemas in 2D, 3D and IMAX on November 18.

PAX East is turning out to have a lot of things going for it and a lot of new games slated for 2016 release dates that you'll get to dabble with. Square Enix is bringing their A game, and all of their AAA games along for the ride. Though the lines might end up being slightly long, you'll get a chance to play with nearly everything they have coming out.

In their lineup, they'll even have a version of HITMAN GO that uses GearVR and the Oculus Rift. That means you'll get to control your cloned avatar and interact with the 3D isometric world right in front of your eyes. I'm a little curious how they'll have you interacting with Agent 47, but the prospect of a VR Hitman game are rather exciting nonetheless.

If you happen to be attending, you're invited to booth #4044 to go hands-on with nearly their entire current catalog, with Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness, Hitman, I Am Setsuna, HITMAN GO: VR Edition, Hitman Sniper - Death Valley Challenge Mode, Kingdom Hearts Unchained χ (pronounced "key"), Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward, Final Fantasy XV, Sébastien Loeb Rally EVO, MXGP 2 and Just Cause 3: Sky Fortress on hand for you. That's a whole lot of game to try if you have time.

We already saw at BUILD 2016 that Microsoft has big plans for the future of Windows 10. Preview builds are already gaining the ability to play with Bash and Visual Studio 2016 is looking mighty fine. A new public roadmap points towards some new previously unannounced features that look very interesting.

The majority of these new features are business focused and also look to bolster cross-platform connectivity, but it also speaks to a more fluid user experience of the type that Apple has been pioneering. Except here it's a bit more productivity focused and not geared strictly towards consumption of media. It isn't a sign of more mobile devices taking over Windows, but instead of the recognition that we're inherently more mobile in how we interact with technology and this allows us to switch in a way that makes sense. Or potentially it eventually will. Have to start somewhere.

Virtual reality is all about immersion, and VR is at its best when its actively engaging players. Thanks to the HTC Vive's Lighthouse sensors, Vive owners can step into the games and get in on the action. Sony's PS4-powered PlayStation VR, however, is still largely a couch-based experience--and Sony says it'll stay that way for a while.

As noted by Popular Science, Sony's PlayStation VR is actually capable of tracking users' steps in VR games like Headmaster. The only problem is that it's extremely limited, and the hardware will only register a few steps here and there--nothing like the Vive's room-scale VR tracking. Although Sony agrees that the PSVR can indeed track your body movements, the Japanese console-maker admits the PSVR is mainly a seated experience.

"We have some tech demos that allowed users to play while standing up, however all the PS VR titles we plan to release in the future will recommend that users remain seated. We will announce further details of guidelines or regulations when ready," Sony told the publication in an official statement.

Total War: Warhammer is coming even closer to release, and for the what feels like the first time ever (but isn't really), it'll be playable at PAX East for all those fans that are itching to try their hand at the game. The complex Total War controls combined with massive on screen battles could elicit quite the response from fans and non-fans alike.

The game will be playable at booth #8109, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10AM - 6PM. The booth will also be outfitted with key team members from Creative Assembly aiding you in trying to wander around through the interfaces and combat. As part of the show, they will also be giving presentations showing exclusive new campaign and battle content, along with daily live contests offering fans the chance to play live on stage and win some fantastic prizes.

This version of Warhammer is said to provide the definitive tabletop experience in a digital form. It's precisely the kind of thing that should appeal to the traditional player, except that you don't have to clean up after playing. Well, in the traditional sense at least. The Total War motif should help to make it interesting even if you don't like the underlying lore, letting you engage in massive battles that defy reality, in a good way. Regardless, if you're at PAX East, you should let us know how it plays and if you like it.

In its mission to make self-driving vehicles superior to human driving in every way, Ford has been testing night driving developments in the Arizona desert. The results have been great, enough so that it can proudly say its technology is in fact better, even at night.

During the day, the tech relies on a camera, while at night, it operates on Lidar (effectively light-based radar), illuminating and scanning the ground near it for what to expect, from which it determines where to go. As you can see in the video above, it's quite effective.

Ford has tested its cars on snow-covered roads and in other poor conditions; its night test is yet another step toward a potential fully self-driving society.

Admit it--you've always wanted to fly around on the Green Goblin's hoverboard, recklessly zooming across the skies at ridiculous speeds. Soon you'll be able to.

Frank Zapata of Zapata Racing has created the Flyboard Air, a real-life hoverboard that'd make Norman Osborn green with envy (sorry, I had to). The Flyboard Air can reach staggering heights of up to 10,000 feet and hits a max speed of 93 miles-per-hour. Zapata also created the original Flyboard, a water-powered jetpack that shoots riders up in the air for some hydraulic fun.

As you can see from the video above, the Flyboard Air is still in its testing phases. The craft looks insanely dangerous (and insanely fun), and Zapata hasn't revealed how the device actually works. As if scouring the heavens at ridiculous speeds wasn't death-defying enough, the tecchies at Gizmodo think that users will need to strap a backpack full of fuel to power the craft's turbine engine. So not only could you end up a pile of broken bones, but you could explode like a ball of screaming fire in the skies.

Wordpress isn't taking any chances and will be automatically enabling HTTPS for all custom domain names that are associated with its website in addition to the subdomains that are already protected by the umbrella of the main domain, which they've been doing since 2014.

The project is a large and very complex matter, not to mention the usual cost of obtaining the appropriate amount of certificates needed for all the separate sites that happen to exist. Automattic, the owner and operator of Wordpress, have elicited the help of Let's Encrypt, a certificate authority that is providing them with free certificates for each domain, as well as managing the installation and any post-installation issues that might crop up. They're doing this in response to the EFF's Encrypt the Web initiative. Barry Abrahamson, a systems engineer at Automattic praised Let's Encrypt and their involvement, saying that "The Let's Encrypt project gave us an efficient and automated way to provide SSL certificates for a large number of domains."

HTTPS is beneficial for keeping the Internet safe as well as adding in a slight bit of weight to SEO scores for websites looking to increase their visibility. It's also nice for visitors to know that at the very least they can authenticate the site they're visiting and ensure that any moderate attempts at surveillance or session hijacking can be foiled. HTTPS should indeed be the standard, not the exception. This is a move that makes it more accessible to more website owners, which it should be.

No Man's Sky creator and developer Sean Murray sits down with IGN to play 21 minutes of his landmark space sim, giving a yet another fresh perspective on the game.

The latest gameplay footage for No Man's Sky aims to answer a simple question: what do you actually do in the game? Sure we know all of the things you can do, but a list of features isn't the same as a natural, organic playthrough. Now Hello Games wants to shed light on an everyday session of No Man's Sky. "The thing I wanted to show people is the kinds of things you do in No Man's Sky. You explore, you fight, you try to survive, and you trade as well in the game," Murray said.

Apart from answering that fundamental question, this session is chocked-full of new info that we didn't know before. We've already compiled a giant list of everything we know about No Man's Sky so far, but Murray reveals even more. Take relics, for example; these megaliths are left by mysterious ancient alien races (think Forerunners), and when you discover them they'll unlock different things, such as new alien words. The relics can also improve your standing with certain alien races.

SteelSeries is not to be outdone by their competitors with their new eSports focused minimalist keyboard; the Apex M500. They want to bring the cost of entry into the mechanical world down so that anyone can enjoy the stability and typing superiority that comes from real mechanical switches.

Don't be fooled by the lower price, however, because this exudes all the quality you'd expect from a SteelSeries keyboard. The comfortable, durable injection-molded keys in an attractive yet understated casing. The branding is also very low-key, simply the logo on the top right. Being a bit more minimalist and low-cost, it only comes in Cherry MX Red flavors with blue LED backlighting. You can still customize the lighting to light up on specific zones with the SteelSeries Engine. Nonetheless, a good quality keyboard with great switches at what might be seen as a bargain price for what it is. These things are expensive, costs more to make those switches, so anything approaching below $99 is fantastical. It's good to see SteelSeries taking up that segment, driving things down where possible without compromising quality.

"The APEX M500 is my new keyboard of choice. It's a tank and lives up to the quality of the 6Gv2, the mechanical keyboard that I've been using for a year now," says Kurtis "Aui_2000" Ling, Carry for Evil Geniuses Dota 2. "This keyboard is everything I think a majority of players look for when it comes to quality and feel, it's going to be a product that will be used at the pro level for a long, long time."

Today is a special day in the PC gaming community: we're on the cusp of delving into Hidetaka Miyazaki's final Souls game.

Although Dark Souls 3 has been out for weeks in Japan, millions of North American PC gamers are eagerly waiting for their chance to die, die, and die again in the hallowed medieval realms. Today they'll finally get their wish. Dark Souls 3 is slated to launch simultaneously on Steam as early as 3:00 pm PST, so you'll definitely want to start pre-loading to prepare for the release.

While it's true Dark Souls 3 has had some frame rate troubles on other platforms, From Software has confirmed that it will run up to 60FPS on PC. Here's when you can start playing Dark Souls 3 on Steam:

After struggling in recent years against the dominant Google, Mozilla has decided to give in somewhat and dedicate a six-person team to develop a radically different browser. The shocking part: Tofino, as it's called, is using an outside project Electron, which in turn is built on the Chromium foundation (which powers Chrome). With this move, Mozilla joins a long list of companies that have adopted Chromium, most recognizably Samsung and Opera.

Mark Mayo, senior vice president of the Firefox project says internal resistance to the shift has been vehement, to the point he's surprised the project got off the ground at all. No doubt it helps that the long-term plan is to adapt the company's proprietary Gecko technology and so replace Electron and Chromium, according to Mozilla engineer Kyle Huey.

Chrome accounts for 47 percent of browser usage; Safari sits at 13 percent, and Firefox at 9 percent, according to StatCounter.

EA has just released the first teaser trailer for Titanfall 2, giving would-be pilots a small glimpse at the action-packed sequel.

Since we know that Titanfall 2 will be released by 2017, it's no surprise that EA has started teasing the sequel. The footage is actually pretty interesting, showing a titan wielding a blade that closely resembles Cloud's Buster Sword.

Respawn and EA plan to officially showcase a Titanfall 2 worldwide reveal ahead of E3 2016 on June 12, and we'll be sure to keep you updated with the latest coverage. Unlike its predecessor, Titanfall 2 will have a "grounded, gritty, human and real" singleplayer campaign, and it'll release on all platforms--PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Respawn also recently boosted its dev team by 30% to prepare for the game.

With Mass Effect: Andromeda's huge E3 2016 showcase just around the corner, BioWare devs continue to release little hints and teases across social media. The newest batch of teases highlight a new character progression system, titanic boss battles, and sexy romance interactions.

BioWare is busily tweaking Mass Effect: Andromeda in preparations for its 2017 launch, and as we all know, it's hard for devs to stay completely tight-lipped about their creations. Ian Frazier, the lead designer on Mass Effect: Andromeda, recently took to Twitter to tease some brand new info on the game.

Accord to Frazier, we can expect "very, very large new foes" to fight in ME: Andromeda, probably in the context of a boss battle. What if gamers have to fight huge titanic monstrosities out in space? What if we actually get a huge fleet battle sequence? That'd be quite epic. You'll also be pleased to know that romance scenes are still in (of course they are!), and senior cinematic animator Tal Peleg says the cutscenes will be rather hot and heavy.