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Elite: Dangerous is an Oculus Rift launch title, coming March 28th

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Mar 11, 2016 8:03 AM CST

Oculus has announced that one of their launch titles is going to be the very fine Internet spaceship simulation game, Elite: Dangerous. That means the game will support the latest Oculus SDK when the headset releases at the end of the month.

Elite: Dangerous is a game that had a VR experience at the heart of it from the very beginning. It's a natural fit for a simulator to be able to move your head around and, at least, track targets, and even interact with menus that'll light up when you look at where they'll be. It's a natural fit, and it already had Oculus support when the DK 1 was released what seems so long ago. This means it'll have underlying support for the latest SDK.

This'll be a natural fit for the release of the Oculus Rift which is happening on March 28th. The $600 price tag for the consumer version of the Rift might seem prohibitive, but it compares to the cost of a good gaming monitor that might be bought instead, though offering a far different and potentially better experience. Just make sure you have a PC that's up to snuff to play Elite: Dangerous in VR, with it's more intense processing requirements.

Continue reading: Elite: Dangerous is an Oculus Rift launch title, coming March 28th (full post)

Lian Li teases new SFF Q-series chassis with brushed aluminum

Chris Smith | Cases, Cooling & PSU | Mar 11, 2016 7:31 AM CST

With companies now publishing teaser news while leading up to CeBIT 2016, Lian Li has announced the pending release and showcase of some new cases. This article will be mainly looking at the newly-announced Q series PC-Q34 SFF chassis to hit the shelves, while this case manufacturer has also announced that its O Series PC-O9 and J Series PC-J60 cases will also be on offer.

The Small Form Factor PC-Q34 comes with "Lian Li's hallmark brushed aluminum" external design, showcasing a minimalistic feel. While the specifications announced to the public so far are extremely limited, I can tell you that this chassis is designed to suit Mini-ITX motherboards, will contain the ability to "accommodate large components and CPU coolers" and is based on Lian Li's PC-V33 chassis of old. Seemingly packing USB 3.0 ports on the front of the side panel, this chassis will also feature a hinge-opening front panel to allow for full builder access.

Set for showcase on March 14 to 18th at CeBIT, Lian Li will be found at Hall 17, Booth H24/1.

Continue reading: Lian Li teases new SFF Q-series chassis with brushed aluminum (full post)

ZOTAC announces beast mini PC with GTX 980, Skylake, USB 3.1 Type-C

Chris Smith | Computer Systems | Mar 11, 2016 6:29 AM CST

With a plethora of companies announcing additions of complete pre-built and chassis-only small form factor products recently, ZOTAC has joined the charge with its MAGNUS EN980, featuring 6th Generation Intel processors, an NVIDIA GTX 980 video card and more.

The Skylake processor and GTX 980 are met with equally powerful and useful USB 3.1 Type-C ports, dual gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and factory-installed water cooling. Further options include support for four displays thanks to HDMI and DisplayPort options. While ZOTAC did make sure to mention that the included water cooling will feature a 'minimalistic design', there was no word as to who will OEM this product, nor any word on what motherboard, storage or RAM options we can expect in this model.

This Small Form Factor PC will be shown off by ZOTAC at the upcoming Cebit 2016 and GDC 2016 events. Without any pricing currently released, I can't help but think it's going to be costly.

Continue reading: ZOTAC announces beast mini PC with GTX 980, Skylake, USB 3.1 Type-C (full post)

GALAX unveils its new GTX 980 Ti HOF GOC video card

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Mar 11, 2016 4:59 AM CST

GALAX has just announced their latest member of the Hall of Fame lineup, with the new GeForce GTX 980 Ti HOF GOC. The new GTX 980 Ti HOF GOC competes against the likes of EVGA's GTX 980 Ti Kingpin which has 14+3 phase power, and against MSI's GTX 980 Ti Lightning with a 12+3+1 power design.

GALAX has provided 3 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors, which can consume a total of 525W of power - for the serious enthusiasts and overclockers out there. The card features a dual-slot design, with two fans to keep it cool. It features a beautiful white theme, with the card being longer than usual cards - so it can handle the two large 10cm fans that keep the GM200 core and VRMs nice and cool.

The heat sink contains five heat pipes that keep the card cool, which are hidden under a new HOF-branded cooler shroud. The GALAX GeForce GTX 980 Ti HOF GOC has a GPU clock of 1203MHz, with a Boost Clock of 1304MHz, with the 6GB of GDDR5 RAM not overclocked at all.

Continue reading: GALAX unveils its new GTX 980 Ti HOF GOC video card (full post)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 rumored to have 8GB of GDDR5X, not HBM2

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Mar 11, 2016 4:20 AM CST

When the rumors first started flying about NVIDIA's next-gen video cards, I was one of the first to say that the mid-range cards would not be using the super-fast HBM2 VRAM, but they would use GDDR5 (and it was later revealed, GDDR5X was on its way). Well now we're here again, with rumors on NVIDIA's purported GeForce GTX 1080.

The GeForce GTX 1080 will be built from the GP104 GPU that NVIDIA should unveil at its GPU Technology Conference in April, where it should rock 8GB of GDDR5X. The new GDDR5X standard is capable of 14Gbps of bandwidth, compared to just 10Gbps from the current GDDR5 technology. We should expect the GeForce GTX 1080 to be unveiled next month, with a shipping date of somewhere in May/June.

Continue reading: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 rumored to have 8GB of GDDR5X, not HBM2 (full post)

The new Captain America: Civil War trailer debuts the new Spider-Man

Anthony Garreffa | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Mar 11, 2016 3:06 AM CST

Marvel has dropped the latest official trailer for Captain America: Civil War, which is filled with so much goodness, that any Marvel or comic book geek is going to require a change of pants.

The new Captain America: Civil War trailer debuts the new Spider-Man

The new trailer gives us a better look at the conflict between The Avengers, with Iron Man and Captain America getting up in each other's faces. We have a much better, but not-so-long look at Black Panther, and we get a better glimpse of Ant-Man. But the best bit is in the last few seconds, where we see Spider-Man join in on the fun... saying "hey everyone".

Spider-Man sports an all-new suit, with moving eyes - just like Deadpool (something Deadpool took from Spider-Man in the comics). Spider-Man can now show emotions through his suit, which is a great evolution over the previous Spider-Man movies (both of the Spider-Man franchises from Sony, the original Spider-Man movies, and The Amazing Spider-Man reboot).

Continue reading: The new Captain America: Civil War trailer debuts the new Spider-Man (full post)

Crytek's VR demo 'Back to Dinosaur Island' stomps onto Steam

Crytek's impressive VR demo 'Back to Dinosaur Island' is now available on Steam, with the Oculus Rift DK2 exclusive VR demo requiring the Oculus Rift DK2 (with SDK v0.8) in order to run.

Not only that, but you'll need an Xbox 360 or Xbox One controller in order to play it, as the mouse and keyboard are not supported (what the hell, Crytek?). Crytek explains Back to Dinosaur Island as: "Mysterious landmarks on the horizon and stunning vistas on every side combine to immerse gamers in an entirely new reality". You can grab Back to Dinosaur Island here, while the minimum system requirements are as follows:

Continue reading: Crytek's VR demo 'Back to Dinosaur Island' stomps onto Steam (full post)

ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti STRIX Gaming Ice is watercooled, with RGB LEDs

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Mar 11, 2016 12:45 AM CST

ASUS has just unveiled their new GeForce GTX 980 Ti STRIX Gaming Ice video card, something that is water cooled courtesy of a huge water block from Bitspower.

The new GeForce GTX 980 Ti STRIX Gaming Ice from ASUS features the usual GM200 GPU with 2816 CUDA cores, 176 TMUs and 96 ROPs - the GPU is clocked at 1216MHz with a Boost Clock of 1317MHz. There are two profiles on the card, with the gaming profile clocking the GTX 980 TI STRIX Gaming Ice at 1190MHz with the Boost hitting 1291MHz.

When the ASUS GeForce GTX 980 TI STRIX Gaming Ice is in its gaming mode, it will use slightly less power, but in OC mode it will suck down everything it can from the huge 14-phase PWM design. The power consumed by the card is courtesy of 2 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors, which will let the card consume as much power as it requires in OC mode. We have the usual 6GB of GDDR5 RAM which is clocked at 7.2GHz compared to the stock 7Ghz on most other brands. This provides the card with 345.6GB/sec of memory bandwidth.

Continue reading: ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti STRIX Gaming Ice is watercooled, with RGB LEDs (full post)

Mirror's Edge Catalyst developer diary details Faith's new adventure

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Mar 10, 2016 10:37 PM CST

Mirror's Edge Catalyst is shaping up nicely, with EA sharing a new developer diary on the game recently, detailing the reasoning behind Catalyst featuring no weapons, and how gameplay connects with the music dynamically, as well as how the movement in the game has changed from Mirror's Edge.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst developer diary details Faith's new adventure

The developer diary video also tackles the combat in Mirror's Edge Catalyst, as well as the free roaming side of City of Glass. The fluid movement in Catalyst, mixed with the first-person combat create an experience that's different to traditional games - something that will be amplified by the dynamic audio. During the DICE art panel at the National Museum in Stockholm, Mirror's Edge Catalyst's concept artist, Per Haagensen explained that the team wanted to show off "her skill, confidence and attitude in a dynamic manner, without her looking like a martial artist or super hero".

He continued: "When I set out to sculpt her for the Key Art, aside from the realistic aspects of her appearance, more than anything it was to convey the pose with enough action, tension, and interest to make the audience curious about who this person is". Haagensen continued, saying that DICE wanted Faith to look "more mature" than she did in the first game. He finished off by saying: "She also needs to appear more mature than in the first game, so there was some work on getting a focused look on her face, maybe even some concern about the situation she is in".

Continue reading: Mirror's Edge Catalyst developer diary details Faith's new adventure (full post)

Cyberpunk 2077 is 'bigger, better, more revolutionary' than Witcher 3

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Mar 10, 2016 6:05 PM CST

CD Projekt RED promises that Cyberpunk 2077 is going to eclipse The Witcher 3 in every possible way--a feat we didn't know was possible.

Cyberpunk 2077 is 'bigger, better, more revolutionary' than Witcher 3

Cyberpunk 2077 is the most ambitious project that the Polish devs have ever taken on, and CDPR has taken many opportunities to open up about the game's depth. At a recent earnings meeting, company president Adam Kicinski and studio head Adam Badowski said that Cyberpunk 2077 will be "even better, even bigger, even more revolutionary" than The Witcher 3.

All of that effort will take time, however, and Badowski says that the studio still has "a lot of work to do", and Cyberpunk 2077 is "still a long ways away from the premiere". CDPR is taking their time to make the game as amazing as possible, stating that the darkly futuristic game will be absolutely huge and push the bar even higher.

Continue reading: Cyberpunk 2077 is 'bigger, better, more revolutionary' than Witcher 3 (full post)

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