Latest News - Page 2475

The Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster launched on Steam yesterday and word is it's a mostly solid port. One key issue that remains though is the inability to use Japanese voice acting with English subtitles, an option that wasn't available in the original release and one that many fans would love to try this time around.

Fortunately, the mod scene has yet again come to the rescue: modder Topher has some downloads that will allow you to play the game this way, thanks to a bit of hex editing on his part. Head here to grab them and for installation instructions, which are pretty straightforward. Before doing anything, be sure to back up your original .EXEs.

If you'd rather wait for something a little cleaner that likely won't require you to rely on hex edits and .EXE file replacements, modder Kalaiden will have something out soon. Keep an eye on his work here.

ASUS has just unveiled its new X99 motherboards that are ready for the next-gen Intel Core i7 processors, as well as the new ROG-based Strix motherboards.

The new boards include the Signature X99-Deluxe II, X99-A II, and X99-E while the ROG Strix X99 motherboard is the latest to join the ROG motherboard roster. The new boards from ASUS include ASUS Aura, which is onboard RGB lighting and a 4-pin LED strip header to provide users with beautiful illumination effects. There's also ASUS SafeSlot, which is a strengthened PCIe slot that uses a "new insert-molding process to bind the slot to fortifying metal for superior 1.6x retention and 1.8x shearing resistance".

It wouldn't be a high-end ASUS motherboard without dual U.2 and M.2 slots that use the 32Gbps of available bandwidth over the PCIe bus, as well as 3x3 802.11ac Wi-Fi and USB 3.1 Type-A and reversible Type-C connectivity. The X99-Deluxe II motherboard uses ASUS ThunderboltEX 3 technology, which provides speeds of up to 40Gbps for those who don't want to be bottlenecked, ever.

Sony's new upgraded 4K-ready PlayStation 4 Neo will launch before October of this year, says French wholesaler Innelec Multimedia.

Innelec published the forecast in their Fiscal Year 2016 earnings call, outright declaring Sony will release the PS4 Neo (aka PS4K, PS4.5) before October 2016. Seeing as Innelec is a major French video games distributor and wholesaler, this could be factual. If true, Sony will likely unveil the PS4K at the Tokyo Game Show in September.

"The 2016/2017 current year should be marked for the video game world by the arrival, in the first half of our fiscal year, an evolution of the Sony PS4 PS4 console with the Neo 4K with new features and that the placing on the market in October 2016 virtual reality helmet Sony VR." This folds neatly with WSJ's reports that the PS4K will be announced before the PlayStation VR headset ships in October.

Lian Li is another chassis company that has released a new dual component compartment chassis, with the new PC-09 mid-tower fusing two PCs together inside, like conjoined twins.

The left side of the Lian Li PC-09 is enclosed with tempered glass, designed to show off your motherboard, CPU cooler, GPUs, RAM, and more. On the right side of the Lian Li PC-09 is the signature brushed aluminum look that Lian Li is famous for, and is used to house the storage racks and PSU. Between the two sides, we have a strip of aluminum (which comes in either red or black depending on the model you buy).

There's a power button on the strip, as well as 4 x USB 3.0 ports, and HD audio inputs. Lian Li's name is sliced into the front of the strip, which is LED backlit, as well as a controller for the included RGB LED kit at the rear. Inside, there's 3 x 120mm fans in the glass compartment, a removable pump mount and removable mesh dust filter at the bottom. On the opposite side, there's a drive cage that can take in 6 x 3.5-inch HDDs, and 2 x 2.5-inch HDDs. Lian Li says that everything is mounted onto the rubber vibration dampeners, including the PSU.

It looks like NVIDIA will be releasing a new Shield tablet in the very near future, with a new Shield passing through the FCC.

The FCC's testing report doesn't go into much detail, but the new NVIDIA Shield will feature 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi 802.11ac, and that it'll be measured at 8.6 x 4.8 x 0.3 inches. This means the new Shield will be slightly smaller than the old Shield, so we should expect it to come in with an 8-inch display. It has the same basic design as the previous Shield, and that's not a bad thing because the Shield is pretty damn sexy.

Someone on the NVIDIA forums has said that the new slate is mentioned in NVIDIA's Android TV code a few times as "Hawkeye", who says that it'll be powered by the Tegra X1. NVIDIA's Tegra X1 is pretty damn powerful, and it'll be joined by 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a resolution of 1920x1200.

ZOTAC impressed me a few hours ago with their GeForce GTX 1080 PGF for the Chinese market, but the company has also just unveiled their new Windows 10-powered stick PCs.

The new ZOTAC ZBOX PI220 and PI221 are powered by quad-core Intel Atom X5-Z8300 processor clocked at 1.44GHz (and it bursts up to 1.84GHz). There's also Intel HD Graphics with 2GB of DDR3 RAM, and 32GB of eMMC storage - which is expandable through microSD/SDHC/SDXC.

The new ZOTAC ZBOX stick PCs feature an HDMI connector, 1 x USB 3.0 port, a 10/100 Ethernet jack, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. ZOTAC will include a universal power adapter, a recovery disk, an HDMI extension cable, and a detachable external antenna. The PI221 is passively cooled, while the PI220 is a little more fancy, cooled by something ZOTAC calls a "SmartFan" system. The passively cooled ZBOX measures in at 131.38mm x 42.5mm x 17mm while the model with the fan checks in at 131.5mm x 42.2mm x 15.8mm.

Colorful has just announced one of the first GeForce GTX 1080 video cards, based on the reference (or is that now Founder's Edition) model.

Colorful's first GeForce GTX 1080 is based on the GP104 GPU with the usual 2560 CUDA cores, 1607MHz GPU clock (Boost of 1733MHz). We have 8GB of GDDR5X memory clocked at 10GHz on the 256-bit memory bus. We should expect some serious speed from it, with some great overclocking headroom. But, Colorful has teased its custom design GeForce GTX 1080 for Computex, which has me beyond excited.

Colorful's GeForce GTX 980 Ti iGame video card - beautiful!

We all know 360-degree and VR cameras are the new thing, but HumanEyes Technologies has just unveiled a flashy new camera known as Vuze.

Vuze rocks 8 x 1080p camera, two on each side with a 120-degree horizontal/180-degree vertical field of view. When it all works together, Vuze captures 360-degree video at 4K 30FPS. Better yet, you can control Vuze through the Android and iOS applications for Vuze.

The company will be providing post production software that will be capable of near real-time processing that will allow Vuze owners to process a 60-second clip in less than a minute. HumanEyes also has some footage on their YouTube page, but the video stitching isn't perfect, something the company says it's working on right now. What about price? How does $799 sound? For $799, you'll get the Vuze, a VR headset, mini tripod, and Vuze Studios. Vuze Studios is the company's VR production and editing software.

While my GeForce GTX 1080 sits on my shelf about to be installed into my Core i7-5960X system for my review (now that I'm about to download the drivers) there are now some leaked benchmark numbers, courtesy of VideoCardz. Remember these are leaked benchmarks, we're just reporting on them. But, this is about what we expect to see from our results, too.

The GTX 1080 destroys everything else, including the Titan X, GTX 980 Ti and everything AMD has to throw at it - the Radeon R9 Fury X, R9 Fury and R9 390X. The GeForce GTX 1080 had its GP104-powered GPU sitting between 1860-1886MHz, thanks to GPU Boost 3.0. That chart though, wow - AMD must be looking at every single number now.

Not too long now, guys!

Since Assassin's Creed will skip 2016, Ubisoft is betting pretty strongly on Watch Dogs 2 being a AAA success.

Ubisoft has yet to formally announce Watch Dogs 2, but the company has big plans for the upcoming open-world hackaventure. "Our biggest title in Fiscal Year 2017 will be Watch Dogs 2, which will build on the success of the first game," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said during the FY2017 investor's call. "The game will once again surprise players with a new tone, and with innovative hacking gameplay possibilities."

Guillemot's statements about a "new tone" match up with the recent leaks that Watch Dogs 2 will feature a new protagonist instead of Aiden Pearce, and be set in San Francisco. The game's principal lead was accidentally leaked by TheKingCort, the actor that portrays the character in the game.

Google is aiming to make texting much easier and more interactive with Gboard. Essentially, you hit a button inside a text conversation and can then search for things on the web and link them, all without leaving the conversation. Whether it's flight plans, restaurant locations, GIFs, emojis, or whatever else, you're covered.

Gboard actually works in any app, including email and YouTube, but the most popular application of it will likely be messaging.

Oddly, the new service is available for iPhone only, at least for now. We've put in an inquiry with Google regarding whether or not it will come to Android and will update this story should we hear back.

CD Projekt RED previews their final Witcher 3 masterpiece, Blood and Wine, in full 1080p 60FPS...and it's quite magical.

Blood and Wine will be the last bit of content for Witcher 3, and Geralt's very last adventure. As such, CD Projekt RED has gone way beyond the call of duty making the expansion. The devs completely scrapped Witcher 3 and built Blood and Wine from scratch, upgrading the graphical fidelity and adding in all-new textures and meshes. We really thought CDPR couldn't top The Witcher 3, but they have, and in a big way.

The expansion will feature 30+ hours of content with some 90 quests to participate in, and Toussaint is complete with new regions, characters, castles, flora and fauna, and terrifying new monsters. In a sense, Blood and Wine is a playground for CDPR to flex its skills and prepare for Cyberpunk 2077, and it shows.

Ubisoft is preparing to release games on Sony's PlayStation VR, and has already adapted its first-party games engines for the new platform. The publisher also confirmed it'll release new PSVR games later this year, and a "surprising" new VR game in Q3 of its Fiscal Year 2017.

"We continue to be very interested in VR. We are going to launch a few games this year, we don't expect them to do big revenue, but we have good experiences there. So we'll surprise a few people. In Q3 we'll announce a new title that's promising. Yes, VR is coming, we are active and Sony is doing a good job in presenting PlayStation VR, and we see a good momentum," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said during the company's FY16 conference call.

Guillemot affirms that Ubisoft is ready for VR and has already made a push to adapt its engines. "But we are very disciplined on VR but we won't spend too many resources on it until there's enough demand and market for VR. But we've learned a lot at the moment. We've adapted our engines so they can be ready when the market picks up."

As reported earlier this week, Universal Windows Platform (UWP) games now give you the option to disable V-Sync, thus your framerate is no longer locked to your monitor's refresh rate (60 for most of you). However, the games themselves need updates to take advantage. As promised, The Coalition has responded promptly for Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, which now lets you disable V-Sync for maximum framerates.

The developer has thrown in a few other sweet options too: a frame rate limiter (use it with V-Sync off if you see tearing but don't want to be capped to your refresh rate), anisotropic filtering, and an FPS counter. Finally, there are a couple of bug fixes, one of which fixes potential hitching, and another which makes sure post processing stays enabled.

Grab the update now through the Windows Store.

Ubisoft will release an unannounced AAA IP in 2017, according to the company's Fiscal Year 2017 forecast.

Leading games industry titan Ubisoft will expand its franchise lineup with a brand new AAA IP in 2017, complimenting its Fiscal Year 2017 lineup that includes Watch Dogs 2, South Park: Fractured but Whole, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, and For Honor. Ubisoft's FY 2017 ends on April 2017, so all of these games--including the new AAA IP--will be out before then.

Details on the unannounced IP are light, but expect it to be a completely new franchise that's not tethered to any existing series--it won't be an Assassin's Creed game. Ubisoft has yet to publish the transcripts for its FY 2017 earnings call, but we'll be sure to comb the recording to find out any snippets. We could see an unveiling at E3 2016, too.

Google is banning payday loan ads which require borrowers to pay back money within 60 days, as well as ads for loans with an annual percentage rate (APR) of 36% or more. As of July 13, they won't be seen on sites served by AdSense, or at least they'll be seen less (Google says it will monitor the effectiveness). Advertisements for mortgage loans, car loans, student loans, commercial loans, and credit lines won't be affected.

The company states such services and advertisements are predatory and can result in borrowers ending up in a worse financial situation than before they took out the loan, a sentiment echoed by others.

"This new policy addresses many of the longstanding concerns shared by the entire civil rights community about predatory payday lending," says Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. "These companies have long used slick advertising and aggressive marketing to trap consumers into outrageously high interest loans - often those least able to afford it."

EA has said that it wants to expand into the 'gigantic action' space, because you know - it's not there with its franchises like Battlefield and Titanfall.

EA Studios chief Patrick Soderlund spoke with IGN, saying: "If you look at the biggest segment in our industry, which is action, we don't have a lot. EA is not known to make gigantic action games like Assassin's Creed or Batman or GTA or those types of games that are really big. The strategic direction that we put in motion is to expand our portfolio more into that segment, to see what can we bring to gamers that maybe hasn't been done before".

If anything, EA is going to make an open-world game, with Soderlund teasing: "I'm not suggesting we're going to go after GTA and sell 50 million units. We would love to! But what I'm saying is those types of absolutely AAA, big productions is what we want to do. And I think for us to do that, we need the right people".

NVIDIA revealed its next-gen GeForce GTX 1080 video card last week, but if there's an AIB partner I'm excited to see release a custom version, it's ZOTAC. The latest leak on ZOTAC is of their GeForce GTX 1080 PGF, with PGF standing for Prime Gamer Force, and will be ZOTAC's most powerful series.

The first renders of ZOTAC's GeForce GTX 1080 PGF are here, with a huge illuminated backplate, which can be controlled through the new app. A custom PCB looks to be featured, with it being much wider than the reference design, and you can even see the OC+ module at the end of the card like the company's awesome Extreme video cards. But what can all of this additional cooling do? Well, that's where the next image comes into play.

ZOTAC is refreshing its FireStorm overclocking utility, where you can control both cards in SLI, apply 'Z-Elves' presets, and change the animations of the GTX 1080 LEDs. But, look at the overclock on the 8GB of GDDR5X - it's hitting 5650MHz (11.3GHz) with bandwidth of 361GB/sec over its 256-bit memory bus.

The next-gen iPhone 7 will reportedly have 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM, as well as a new dual-camera image processor. Apple has some impressive camera software technology on its current iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, but the new iPhone 7 will pump things up a few notches according to the latest rumors.

The iPhone 7 is expected to have a touch-sensitive Home button, as well as a waterproof chassis - finally. The dual-camera system has me excited, as it'll let people capture a video or a photo, and then you'll be able to view the transition between lenses seamlessly, by touching a spot on the photo to zoom in with the second lens - which sounds awesome.

Inside, we are to expect a next-gen A10 processor, as well as a 3100mAh battery and up to 256GB available, which will be great as an upgrade from the current flagship model featuring 128GB of storage. We should expect Apple to unveil the new iPhone later this year.

With the reveal of the GeForce GTX 1080 behind us, VideoCardz is reporting that they have images of the new GeForce GTX SLI HB bridge that was unveiled last week.

You might remember NVIDIA unveiled a new High-Bandwidth SLI bridge that has much more going on inside of it than previous SLI bridges. The new bridge "doubles the available transfer bandwidth compared to the NVIDIA Maxwell architecture. Delivering silky-smooth gameplay, it's the best way to experience surround gaming - and it's only compatible with the GeForce GTX 1080".

The tallest connector has just 4 fingers, which means it'll work with only two GTX 1080s in SLI. While an EVGA employee has confirmed that the new GeForce GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 video cards only work in 2-way SLI.