We all know that battle royale games are the new VR, which was the new 3D -- but with Apex Legends and PUBG dominating the battle royale space, there's always room for more... I guess?

Enter RAN: Lost Islands which will arrive later this year through Steam Early Access , set in medieval times making it a huge departure from trhe world of sniper rifles, charge rifles, shields, and chicken dinners. You'll have flintlock pistols, swords, ship-versus-ship combat, horses, and freaking gliders.

Jolly Roger Game Studio is behind RAN: Lost Islands, with the developer explaining: "In RAN: Lost Islands, mastery of quick action and strategy rules the day as an arsenal of period weapons from different factions, and an exhilarating mix of traditional combat controls and combo techniques add high replay value and depth".

Some of my very fondest gaming memories took place on the Nintendo 64, but now over 150 games have received AI-enhanced HD texture packs including Duke Nukem 64, Mario Kart 64, and many others.

The folks over at Gaming Revived have, well, revived some classic Nintendo 64 games using TopazGigaPixel in order to upscale the original textures of classic Nintendo 64 games. It's not perfect, with some parts of the game and textures looking worse in some cases, while other parts look much better -- including the UI in some of the games looking much better.

Most of the AI-enhanced HD texture packs for the Nintendo 64 games are around 1-2GB a pop, which isn't too bad at all. The HD texture packs work with RetroArch using Mupen64-Next "Core" and its most recent release, but they also work with Project64 as well as Mupen64plus through GlideN64 3.0 or GlideN64 4.0. Grab the AI-enhanced HD texture packs here.

Admit it -- you've always wanted to see what a Tesla vehicle would look like in a crash test environment, and now you've got your chance.

Tesla has provided an insider look at its internal Crash Lab, where it crashes its electric vehicles to find out how it can make its vehicles even safer. Before using actual Model 3 vehicles, Tesla Motors will (like any other automaker) use computer modeling to find issues with its cars before smashing them at high speeds into walls.

Tesla's latest Model 3 has specially-designed front passenger airbags that in the case of an accident, will wrap the passenger in the airbag to keep them from smashing into the interior of the Model 3. Tesla claims that its Model 3 vehicle is one of "the safest cars on the road".

I don't know how things could get worse for Activision-Blizzard, where the drama all started when the World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch developer banned Ng "Blitzchung" Wai Chung from Hearthstone, forcing him to forfeit his winnings from the Hearthstone tournament.

Blizzard slowly backed away from this and lessened his ban and gave back his prize money, while handing out 1000-year bans on its forums for anyone speaking up about Hong Kong. But then the developer cancelled the huge Overwatch for the Nintendo Switch launch event at NintendoNYC, and now... well now... they're back again by handing out 3 new suspensions to American University Hearthstone players over holding up a sign during a livestream that said "Free Hong Kong, Boycott Blizz".

Obviously the Hearthstone players knew this was going to land them in hot water, with the players quitting the team after the protest. This didn't happen overnight, but rather it took place over a week ago and only saw Blizzard bring the ban hammer down recently.

Elon Musk must never sleep -- I think that much is a given, with SpaceX filing the necessary paperwork with the International Telecommunications Union (which governs the international use of global bandwidth) for its Starlink initiative. Starlink is SpaceX's grand plans of launching the world's largest low-Earth-orbit broadband constellation.

SpaceX wants to send 30,000 satellites into orbit for its Starlink global broadband constellation, with the private space firm already approved to launch 12,000 satellites. SpaceX needs more because it wants to ensure great network speed and wants to meet demand "responsibly".

In a statement to TechCrunch, a SpaceX spokesperson explained: "As demand escalates for fast, reliable internet around the world, especially for those where connectivity is non-existent, too expensive or unreliable, SpaceX is taking steps to responsibly scale Starlink's total network capacity and data density to meet the growth in users' anticipated needs".

In a massive win for Bitcoin, authorities were able to use the bitcoin ledger to locate and apprehend an enormous child porn website operator and 337 pedophiles from several countries.

To many who are not well versed in how cryptocurrency works, it has always had a veil of shrouded secrecy or nefarious undertones. In reality, transactions via bitcoin are far more traceable than cash transactions. I'm sure this will come to a surprise for many of you, but as the story progresses, I will do my best to explain how this all works in a basic form.

The dark web child pornography site labeled "welcome to video" was operated by a Korean citizen identified as Jong Woo Son. Washington D.C.investigators just uncovered this information as they were able to trace and deanonymize Bitcoin transactions to the dark web, based website.

Riot puts the squeeze on Blizzard with a new Diablo-like ARPG set in the League of Legends universe.

Riot Games is making a ton of new League of Legends games outside of the MOBA camp. New titles include a tactical hero shooter that's like Counter-Strike meets Overwatch, a new standalone LoL MOBA game for consoles and mobiles, a fighting game with League characters codenamed Project L, the Legends of Runeterra card game, and even a point-and-click multiplayer game that borrows Diablo's isometric view.

The new Diablo-like ARPG is codenamed Project F, but Riot says it won't be ready for a long time (hey just like Diablo IV, am I right?). Next to no information was revealed on the game, and we only got one small sliver of gameplay. But it was enough to confirm an isometric view, which could mean lots of grinding for loot, taking on huge bosses, and distinct character classes that mesh with the League roster. We also saw three friends teaming up so expect it to be a three-player game.

Blizzard is under an incredible amount of pressure right now. It's being challenged on all fronts: By gamers for the China fiasco, by its own internal developers for the same, and now by Riot Games. But they have one big opportunity to turn everything around--Blizzcon 2019.

We've all heard about Blizzard's Hong Kong controversy. It caused a PR nightmare and even tanked developer morale. It doesn't help that Overwatch on Switch is a technical mess. Even as Blizzard faces turmoil on the inside, it's also being attacked on the outside by billion-dollar titans like Riot Games. Riot basically just challenged Blizzard to a duel by announcing no less than eight new League of Legends projects at the game's 10th anniversary event. Two games in particular are obvious jabs at Blizzard: a Diablo-like ARG codenamed Project F, and a tactical hero shooter called Project A.

Blizzard could turn everything around, though, and get the conversation back on track. Reports say Blizzard is planning some huge reveals at Blizzcon 2019 to distract the industry from recent controversy. Now with Riot's declaration of war, the pressure is on in full force. Blizzard needs to go bigger than it ever has before and hold nothing back.

Sony's next-gen DualShock 5 controller may connect directly to cloud servers for lower latency and PlayStation Now gaming.

The PlayStation 5 is coming in December 2020, and it'll have a brand new controller. Sony confirmed the DualShock 5 will have new-and-improved triggers with enhanced haptic and tactile feedback, making every pull feel nuanced and immersive (a far cry from the DualShock 4's floating triggers). But the controller could also have interesting connectivity options that bypass the console entirely.

According to a recent patent published in September, Sony's DualShock 5 might be like Google's Stadia controller and connect right to the internet without using the PS5 as a middle-man. This has far-reaching practical implications for the PlayStation ecosystem, and could lead to widespread PS Now availability using DualShock 5 as an entry point to a standalone streaming platform that's also a controller for PS5/PC gaming.

Sony's ultra-powerful next-gen PlayStation 5 could one-up Xbox backward compatibility and support five generations worth of PlayStation games.

PS4's lack of backward compatibility was always a sore spot for Sony. But with the PS5, they're apparently going all out. Sony already confirmed the PS5 will natively play digital PS4 games and game discs. Now we have reports it could also play PS1, PS2, and PS3 game discs too.

The latest comes from well-known PlayStation insider PSErebus, who warns gamers not to sell their older game discs, strongly hinting widespread backward compatibility is in the works. It looks like Sony is making good on bringing its ambitious backward compatibility patent to life. "Do not dispose of, trade or sell your PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 or PlayStation 4 games," Erebus wrote on Twitter.