Latest News - Page 300

GeForce Game Ready Driver 576.80 is here, adding day one support for Remedy's new co-op shooter set in the Control universe, FBC: Firebreak. It also adds support for DOOM: The Dark Ages' path tracing or full ray-tracing update, which is set to launch tomorrow on PC, June 18.

Remedy's FBC: Firebreak uses the same technology that powered Alan Wake 2. It's launching with full path tracing on day one with support for DLSS 4, including DLSS Ray Reconstruction and Multi Frame Generation. With path tracing enabled, the game delivers stunning cinematic reflections, shadows, ambient occlusion, and more, adding a new level of immersion and detail to the game's Federal Bureau of Control setting.

With the 'High' Full 'Ray Tracing setting enabled in FBC: Firebreak, NVIDIA's benchmarks show that you'll want a GeForce RTX 5070 Ti or higher to experience 200+ FPS performance with DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation. Entry-level path tracing on mainstream GeForce RTX 5060 is available at 1080p.

ASUS has just announced its new ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5080 Dhahab CORE OC Edition graphics card, ready to rizz up your rig... if you live in the Middle East, or buy it at some utterly ridiculous price on eBay. Check it out:

The new ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5080 Dhahab CORE OC Edition graphics card includes a factory overclock on its GPU, with speeds of up to 2760MHz (and I'm sure a little more through manual overclocking) as well as the usual 16GB GDDR7 memory found on the RTX 5080.

ASUS really does go all-out with its Dhahab Edition graphics cards, with the ROG Astral RTX 5080 Dhahab CORE OC Edition evoking the image of a gold brick, with the card radiating premium, premium, premium on every edge and crevace of the card. It looks like a stunner, with skyscraper imagry that emphasizes the ROG Astral RTX 5080 Dhahab CORE OC Edition "towering innovation".

Launching games into subscriptions like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus may negatively impact long-term sales for indie game developers--and this path may become "very damaging" to studios, a Revenge of the Savage Planet developer says.

Xbox Game Pass is another tool for developers and publishers, and it can be a boon or a bane depending on how everything shakes out. The FTC v Microsoft trial from 2023 highlighted the "cannibalism" effect of Game Pass wherein players will just subscribe instead of buying games they want--lower-cost, but potentially longer-term subscriptions "replace" game sales in this case. While big-name publishers like EA and Ubisoft can afford to hedge these bets, smaller-scale studios may not be able to take on the risk.

On the flip side, some of these games may not even get made without the help of subscriptions. It's true that launching games into PS Plus or Xbox Game Pass can secure lucrative multi-year deals to fund game projects, but what happens after all that's over? It's hard to say exactly--the deals are secretive and widely vary--and we do know about a bonus fee structure for active players, but if your indie game is on Game Pass for multiple years, does that impact sales?

Square Enix has clarified what the new Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles remaster does and does not include.

Final Fantasy Tactics is coming back with a big new re-release, complete with upgraded visuals, full voice acting, and major quality of life improvements. Unfortunately, the updates will begin and end with the base game, and will not include anything outside of the 1997 original. That means no extra jobs, characters, or features like co-op multiplayer that were introduced in the enhanced PSP version, The War of the Lions.

This was to be expected--overhauling the full range of Final Fantasy Tactics would be more expensive, plus War of the Lions is a PSP game, so there's potentially some hang-ups with PlayStation on that front. War of the Lions added some nifty mechanics and even had playable versions of Cloud Strife and Final Fantasy XII's Balthier. The PSP version also added new classes like the Dark Knight and a bunch of new battles and quests.

Microsoft is making good on its promise to bring more Activision Blizzard games to Xbox Game Pass.

Xbox Game Pass subscribers are getting some pretty big drops this month, especially if you're an RTS fan. Microsoft reveals that all three Warcraft games are coming to Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate this month, but predictably these games will be PC-only and have not been adapted for consoles (yet?). It's the remastered trilogy, though, and not the original games that are coming to Game Pass; Warcraft I & II Remastered and the unpopular-at-launch Warcraft III: Reforged. All three games will be available on June 26.

On the Activision front, another major Call of Duty game is crossing over, this time with Sledgehammer's 2017 shooter Call of Duty: WWII. That one will drop June 30, and will include both the console and PC version of WWII.

Marathon has been delayed to an unspecified period so that Bungie can make big changes.

Today, Bungie announced that Marathon has been pushed back and will no longer release on September 23.

The studio is taking this extra time to make some major adjustments to the extraction shooter, including the addition of proximity chat, more emphasis on survival gameplay, dynamic environmental storytelling, and what sounds like a new visual overhaul that will add a darker tone with grittier themes straight out of the original Marathon trilogy.

NVIDIA has announced that the Path Tracing Patch for DOOM: The Dark Ages will be released on June 18, and once downloaded, DOOM players can make their blood even bloodier.

For those who don't know, path tracing is the best form of ray-traced lighting in games, and is considerably better than standard ray-tracing, but with that bump in graphical quality comes a performance hit.

According to the tech experts at Digital Foundry, who have posted the above video comparing standard ray tracing and path tracing, turning on path tracing on a Ryzen 7 9800X3D with an RTX 5090 at 4K with DLSS set to Performance and the graphics setting set to Ultra Nightmare, turning on path tracing reduces the average in-game FPS by about 39%.

Nexux Mods is easily the most popular modding website for PC gamers, and has been for the better part of two decades. The founder of that website, known as Dark0ne has announced he has hung his hat up, and sold the website to new owners.

In a new announcement posted to the website's blog page, Dark0ne explained that the burden of the gigantic website he created was taking a toll on his mental health due to stress-related issues. This made him realize he had been burning himself out, and it was beginning to impact his staff and Nexus Mods as a whole.

The founder further explained that one of the reasons he took so long to sell Nexus Mods to new owners is that he never found anyone who "really 'gets' the modding community the way I do," and that finding a buyer was difficult as they would need to understand not only the way Nexus Mods works as a business, but also the wider modding community.

Some of the claims Microsoft has put forward regarding Copilot have come under fire from an industry watchdog, which has advised that the company should withdraw (or at least modify) them.

The organization in question is the BBB National Programs' National Advertising Division (NAD), and much of the flak aimed at Microsoft pertains to the case Microsoft has built for Copilot regarding marketing related to productivity.

Specifically, these are figures that were shared in the past via an 'AI Data Drop' post from Microsoft (and elsewhere) whereby the firm asserts that, based on a "consumer perception study," Copilot users report that: "Over the course of 6, 10, and more than 10 weeks, 67%, 70%, and 75% of users say they are more productive."

Nintendo has officially announced when its next Direct will take place and what the company will be focusing on throughout the duration of the livestream.

The company took to its official X account to share that the next Nintendo Direct will be held on June 18 and focus on Donkey Kong Bananza. For those hoping this would be a deep dive into the upcoming game, or if Nintendo was going to discuss more titles after covering the new Donkey Kong game, you will be saddened to know this Direct will only last 15 minutes. The duration of the Direct suggests this will be a quick look at what players can expect out of Bananza, and no other title will be mentioned.

Notably, Donkey Kong Bananza will be released on July 17 as the second Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive title, and the first major Nintendo title to release on the Switch 2 following its launch. For those who don't know, Donkey Kong won't be alone in Bananza, as he will have a companion purple rock that tags along for his adventure after he rescues it from being buried in the ground on Ingot Island.

BREAKING: Xbox gaming president Sarah Bond confirms Microsoft is working closely with AMD to co-engineer new Ryzen AI chips specifically for gaming.

Microsoft today confirmed a big multi-year deal with AMD to create new AI-enabled chips for the next wave of Xbox devices. These new chips are centered around AI, similar to the Ryzen AI chips in the new Xbox Ally X handheld, and Xbox president Sarah Bond announced that the next-gen Xbox will "unlock a deeper quality of visual fidelity and immersive gameplay experiences" through the power of artificial intelligence.

Microsoft also wants this so-called new Xbox platform to deliver games and content across multiple devices in an Xbox experience that's "not locked to a single store," potentially indicating that the rumors are correct and these new-gen Xbox consoles may also run Windows.

Grand Theft Auto 6's story was reportedly rejected three times, causing its development to be prolonged longer than intended.

According to Fravilys and a penned Medium article, there were three different versions of the GTA 6 script that were rejected by GTA publisher Take-Two Interactive, with the first pitch being a "detective story, worthy of a thriller, and centered around three protagonists." This script was in development at Rockstar until 2016, when Take-Two vetoed the idea and said it was "Too dark and did not meet their expectations." Story two featured two protagonists, a policewoman and a "Drug smuggler's underling, a crazy Trevor from GTA V."

This idea was in development at the studio for approximately 18 months before it was also canceled by Take-Two. The third pitch was a fork off the second idea, with the grieving policewoman being replaced by an African-American man, a former soldier, released from prison, and falling into the criminal underworld. This idea was canned in March 2019, and was promptly followed by Dan Houser, co-founder of Rockstar Games, stepping down from his position as Vice President of Creative and relinquishing his duties from the studio.

GTA Online's first update of 2025 is out now, bringing a new storyline focused on legitimizing dirty money.

Grand Theft Auto Online's new Money Fronts expansion is out now on all platforms, giving players the chance to channel their inner mafia boss and add money laundering to their growing criminal enterprises. In the update, players can buy their own car wash to scrub their money clean, just like the infamous Heisenberg with his A1A Car Wash.

It's all uphill from there; after acquiring the Hands On car wash, would-be criminal overlords can buy a helicopter tour business and use it to smuggle drugs and cargo while also spying on rival operations--break up these competitors to get extra cash and grow your empire. You can even buy your own cannabis dispensary, Smoke on the Water, to boost income and launder more money. Don't spark up too fast--the more ill-gotten gains you grab, the more heat and attention you'll bring on your schemes.

In what seems to be one of the most artistic moves a video game creator, or any creator for that matter, can make, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach was changed during development because too many people liked it.

The inside information comes from a new interview with Yoann Lemoine (Woodkid), who composed the music for Death Stranding 2: One the Beach. During the interview, Lemoine discussed his time making music for the upcoming game, slated to launch on June 26, and working with creative director Hideo Kojima.

According to Lemoine, there was a moment about halfway through the development of Death Stranding 2 when Kojima approached Lemoine and said, "We have a problem. Then he said, 'I'm going to be very honest, we have been testing the game with players and the results are too good."

After saying "real fans" would find a way to pay $80 for Borderlands 4 if it was its price, and then backtracking with an apology post explaining the context around his statement, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has announced Borderlands 4 standard edition won't be priced at $80.

The CEO of Gearbox recently took to X to share a link to the Borderlands 4 pre-order page and state that Borderlands 4 wasn't going to get the The Outer Worlds 2 treatment of a price increase to $80, and instead it will retain the typical $69.99 price tag for the standard edition. It appears Gearbox, Pitchford, and 2K Games have taken the route of trying to attract some goodwill back from gamers after the comments made by Pitchford, which created a storm of negative press and discussion around Borderlands 4.

Notably, this is still a price increase when compared to the previous game in the series, as Borderlands 3 standard edition was released at $59.99, Deluxe Edition $79.99, Super Deluxe Edition $99.99, and the Ultimate Loot Chest Collector's Edition at a staggering $299.95. While that may still not sit well with some fans, it should be noted that the same $60 in 2019 is the equivalent of $75.44 when adjusting for inflation, according to usinflationcalculator. So, I suppose it's a good deal?

If you're switching your Switch - by which we mean migrating from the Nintendo Switch to the Switch 2 - and you're a Pokémon player, there's a potentially huge disaster awaiting your saved data. And it's one that's easily avoided (though it will cost you a little bit of money to do so).

IGN picked up on the story of ThatOtaku26 on Reddit (in a now removed post) where they explain that they were changing over to the Switch 2 when they lost their Scarlet save (with their most treasured creatures).

That save held over two decades of said Pokémon and 1,000 hours of gameplay, so as you can imagine, that came as a bit of a blow to say the least.

The Trump Organization announced on Monday a new push into telecommunications with the unveiling of Trump Mobile, and its "made in the USA T1 Phone".

In a new press release on the Trump.com website, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and the team at Trump Mobile have unveiled T1 Mobile, a new cellular service intended to provide high-performance connectivity at "unbeatable value" for the US. Additionally, Trump Mobile is also going to release the T1 Phone in August, which will be a sleek, gold smartphone engineered for performance and "designed and built in the United States." The Trump Organization said it would retail the T1 Phone for $499.

As for the cellular service, the press release states it will offer a 5G service through all three major cellular carriers, with the flagship plan being called "The 47 Plan," a reference to President Trump being the 47th President of the United States. The 47 Plan will be available for $47.45 per month, and subscribers will receive the benefits listed below. A particular point of query that the Trump Organization has yet to shed some light on is the components within the T1 Phone.

TSMC's next-gen 2nm yields have reportedly reached over 60% hitting mass production levels, leaving semiconductor competitor Samsung Foundry in its dust with just 40% production yields, making it harder for the South Korean firm to secure new clients.

In a new post from UDN, we're hearing that TSMC's production yields have hit 60% or so, with its early 2nm clients including Apple, NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm, and MediaTek. Samsung on the other hand, will have its first 2nm product with its new in-house Exynos 2600 processor later this year for its new Galaxy S26 smartphones.

TSMC's new 2nm process node (N2) will use gate-all-around (GAA) architecture technology to make its 2nm chips, with performance expected to increase over 3nm by 10-15%, energy consumption will be reduced by between 25% and 30%, with transistor density increasing by around 15% compared to the current 3nm process node.

BOE of China is the world's largest panel maker in the world, teasing its new 31.5-inch LCD monitor rocking a native 8K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. Check it out:

The new BOE 31.5-inch 8K 120Hz monitor wasn't the only thing shown off at the SID Display Week (DW 2025) with Bob Raikes writing for the 8K Association, reporting that there were a bunch of TVs, other 8K products, and more at the event. The BOE 8K 120Hz monitor was just one of them, and it definitely isn't the first... I reported on Sharp teasing a 31.5-inch 8K 120Hz HDR monitor and 8K AIO PC back in April 2019... years later, and we're getting closer to that 8K 120Hz reality.

At last year's event, the CEO of TCL/CSOT (the panel-making division of the TCL TV company) talked about their plans of developing inkjet printing (IJP) of OLEDs, as well as their own research, the company got the technology when it acquired JOLED, a Japanese company that had been developing some inkjet-printed OLED displays. At the event, TCL showed off a 65-inch TV with an 8K resolution, created with IJP.

The war between Nintendo and gamers wanting to pirate content has officially kicked off on the Nintendo Switch 2 battlefield, with some users now reporting Nintendo has banned their Switch 2 console from online services.

The device that is causing the new consoles to be banned is called the MIG Switch, which is a blank flash cartridge that users can load with games, either obtained from legally purchased copies or illegally pirated copies. Notably, Nintendo began suing retailers selling MIG Switch cartridges last year, and specifically designed the Switch 2 so the MIG carts would be unusable on the new console.

However, the creators of the MIG Switch released a new firmware update that enables the device to load Switch 1 games on the Switch 2. This update was the firing of the first strike, and Nintendo has since responded. Reddit user SquareSphere explained in a recent post that his Nintendo Switch 2 was banned after he tried his MIG Switch in the new console and attempted to download an update. Nintendo has now banned the Nintendo Switch 2 console from online services.