Latest News - Page 513

In a recent interview with IGN, Amazon Games boss Christoph Hartmann gave an update on the elusive Lord of the Rings MMO currently in development at Amazon Games.

Since the deal went through in May 2023 for Amazon and Embracer Group to produce a new MMO game based in the world of Middle-Earth there hasn't really been any details revealed about the game. Hartmann was asked to provide an update, to which he said there isn't really much of an update to give. However, within Hartmann's downplaying of any expectations of a massive reveal the Amazon Games boss did reveal some important information.

The Lord of the Rings MMO appears to still be in its conceptual phase, as Hartmann says Amazon Games is "still trying to find the hook, find that idea of what it is because we don't just want to go and do the same thing over." Hartmann appears to be referring to all of the other MMO games out there, possibly also MMORPG titles as well, as the Amazon Games boss says, "You've got to find a fresh twist, and we're still, I think, in that period where we really want to find out what could be the hook, what could be the thing which is different to all the other games out there. So it's a little bit early."

Apple is quietly preparing for the big release of iOS 18 alongside its line-up of new iPhone's, and ahead of the launch the company has rolled out a change to the terms of conditions of Apple Cash, which also applies to its upcoming Tap to Cash feature expected to debut in coming OS update.

Apple sent out an email to Apple Cash users that informs them as of October 4 users will have to verify their identity when sending more than $500 total per week via Apple Cash. The email states the $500 a week limit also applies to any support payment card in Wallet, and that once the change has rolled out "prior P2P (peer-to-peer) transactions will count toward this limit".

Furthermore, these transfer limit changes also applies to any money users receive. Prior to this change Apple required users to provide some personal details for specific Apple Cash functions. This update to Apple Cash also affects the upcoming Tap to Cash feature that was unveiled at Apple's WWDC event in June. This new feature enables iPhones and Apple Watches to become payment terminals, which means users can simply pay each other by softly touching their devices together.

World of Warcraft is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Blizzard's celebrated massively multiplayer RPG is still going strong, with the game set to get its tenth expansion, World of Warcraft: The War Within, next week. It kicks off the new Worldsoul Saga trilogy, with the story being led by veteran Warcraft and Blizzard writer and designer Chris Metzen.

To help celebrate, MSI has partnered with Blizzard to create a custom GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12G GAMING SLIM World of Warcraft Edition graphics card with removable 'puzzle-style' magnetic backplates that feature artwork from 20 years of WoW expansions. If you're a World of Warcraft fan, this might be the ultimate GPU.

The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the current mid-range GPU champ, delivering excellent 1440p gaming performance with access to NVIDIA's cutting-edge RTX technologies like DLSS. MSI's GAMING SLIM design is also one of our favorites, and it looks great in gold and blue.

According to a new report from Moore's Law is Dead, citing sources directly within AMD, the company could be releasing its flagship RDNA 4 gaming GPU before the end of the year. Tentatively called the Radeon RX 8800 XT, there's a chance it could be revealed or teased this weekend at Gamescom.

Not only that, but performance-wise, it could be an absolute game changer that shakes up the GeForce RTX-dominated PC gaming market - dramatically improved raytracing performance thanks to an increase in RT hardware per Compute Unit, plus 'rasterization' performance (non-RT or upscaled) that will 'trade blows' with the GeForce RTX 4080.

Of course, we are chalking this up as rumor for now, so take this all with a grain of salt. The flagship Navi 48 GPU (AMD won't be competing on the high-end with its upcoming RDNA 4 generation of graphics cards) is set to feature 64 CUs or Compute Units with Boost Clock frequencies that could hit up to 3.2 GHz.

ASUS's Republic of Gamers, or ROG, has a reputation for being one of the most sought-after 'premium' gaming hardware brands. At Gamescom this year, the company unveiled a new range of peripherals coming soon, including a pair of great-looking keyboards, a portable mini gaming mouse, and a new wireless headset with a familiar design.

First up is the ROG Falchion Ace HFX gaming keyboard, which, at a glance, looks like a wired (and black) version of the ROG Falchion RX Low Profile Keyboard we reviewed a few months ago. However, this isn't a low-profile keyboard; the adjustable ROG HFX Magnetic Switches (with an 8000 Hz polling rate) and Rapid Trigger feature make it a similarly compact keyboard - with a 65% layout in a 60% keyboard frame - for PC gaming.

The following keyboard will interest those who might not be fans of the TKL or 'tenkeyless' trend in recent years. The ROG Strix Scope II 96 RX Wireless includes the company's ROG RX optical switches with near-zero debounce delay and a numpad in a slightly more compact 96% layout.

Google has many apps, and many of which users install right away when they fire up a new PC. Unfortunately, there isn't one place you can go to find all of these apps and easily install them. Until now.

Google has announced the "Essentials" app, a new way for users to quickly setup their new PC with all of their most-used Google applications. Google explained in a new announcement that Essentials is designed to make it easy to "discover and install many of" the company's best Google services on Windows.

The new app comes in two sections; the first being a collection of shortcuts to its productivity apps such as Google Docs, Sheets, Drive, etc, and the second being a collection of gaming-related apps such as Google Play Games.

Gamescom 2024 has officially kicked off and Samsung are hot out of the gate with fresh gaming monitor announcements.

Gamescom is taking place between August 21 and August 25, and throughout that time you can expect a slew of new game announcement, developer updates, gaming hardware unveilings, and much more game-related showcases. Samsung has joined the other gaming monitor brands in unveiling its upcoming line-up of gaming monitors, highlighting the Odyssey 3D, a 4K display that features Samsung's Light Field Display (LFD) technology, which creates "lifelike 3D images from 2D content by using a lenticular lens1 on the front panel."

The new technology has been combined with Eye Tracking and View Mapping technology that enables a user to experience 3D images "without the need for separate 3D glasses". Eye Tracking does what it says on the tin, tracks a users eye movement across the screen, while View Mapping technology continuously adjusts the image to provide the highest quality possible. Additionally, if the thought of gaming in 3D doesn't perk your interest you can switch the Odyssey 3D to 2D mode.

The official trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim has been released on the Warner Bros YouTube channel, giving us our first look at Peter Jackson's ground-breaking return to J.R.R Tolkien's Middle-Earth.

The War of the Rohirrim will focus on the story of Helm Hammerhand, a king of Rohan, and the character that Helm's Deep was named after. For those who don't remember, Helm's Deep is where Theodon, the King of Rohan in Jackson's films, and his people retreat to in The Two Towers, which is then eventually attacked by Saruman's forces.

The trailer starts off with showing footage from Peter Jackson's Two Towers, such as shots of Edoras, Gandalf, the iconic Middle-Earth map, and Helm's Deep, which is where the trailer cuts from live-action into anime. The events of The War of the Rohirrim occur 183 years before the events of the original trilogy of movies. Fans should expect a pretty self-contained story that only sparingly references characters from the original trilogy of movies or even the Hobbit movies.

South Korean telecommunications giant SK Telecom has announced its partnering with US-based GPU cloud startup Lambda on a new GPU farm using NVIDIA H100 AI GPUs.

The GPU farm filled with NVIDIA H100 AI GPUs will be owned by Lambda, and installed into the SK Broadband data center in Gasan-dong, Guro-gu, Seoul, by December this year. The new partnership on the GPU farm in South Korea is part of SKT's broader plan to expand its AI data center business reports Business Korea.

SKT plans to scale the number of AI GPUs to thousands in the next 3 years, with SK Broadband being a subsidiary of SKT, and will play a "crucial role" in this venture by providing optimized equipment management services to ensure the stable operation of the GPU servers.

Ford has announced it scaling back its EV operations in the US, after it claimed that customers are becoming more price-conscious and range-anxious, so Ford has made some huge adjustments to its future EV roadmap.

The company announced this week that it has adjusted its roadmap for its US vehicles, which will include a wider range of electrification options, and longer ranges. Ford is throwing away its next line of all-electric SUVs, they're gone now, replaced with hybrid models (that have shorter range, but longer overall range when combined with the gas engine).

This move will save the company at least $400 million reports CNN, because Ford will need to write down the manufacturing equipment that it had to install to build the EV SUVs... that it is no longer building. Ford said that the change in plans could cost the company upwards of $1.5 billion.

MSI has just unveiled its monster MPG 491CQPX gaming monitor, with a gigantic super-ultrawide 49-inch QD-OLED panel with a native 5120 x 1440 resolution, and super-smooth 240Hz refresh rate.

The new MSI MPG 491CQPX QD-OLED gaming monitor features a native 5120 x 1440 resolution, which is the same as having 2 x 1440p (2560 x 1440, so 2560 x 2 = 5120) displays side-by-side, without any bezel. A gigantic 49-inch QD-OLED panel at 240Hz, ready for those next-level experiences in games like Flight Simulator, or a multitude of space and driving games.

MSI has a response time of just 0.03ms GtG on the MPG 491CQPX QD-OLED gaming monitor, so when mixed with the 5120 x 1440 resolution and 240Hz refresh rate, you're in for one hell of a (great-looking) and ultra-smooth gaming experience.

Intel says that it is ready to 'take our second crack' at the discrete GPU market with Battlemage, its new Xe2 GPU architecture that will debut inside of Lunar Lake-based laptops later this year.

In the latest episode of Intel's in-house "Talking Tech" series, Tom Peterson (or TAP as we call him in the industry) talked about what we can expect from Intel's next-gen Xe2 GPU architecture. The new Xe2 "Battlemage" GPU will feature a 50% performance upgrade, a bunch of architectural change, and the lessons learned from Xe "Alchemist".

TAP talked about the basis of Xe2 for Intel graphics is Lunar Lake, which is an mobile processor coming later this year, but the Xe2 Tile will be used for Battlemage: the company's next-generation Arc series discrete graphics cards.

At Gamescom this year, NVIDIA showcased a range of new and upcoming PC games set to go full RTX On with ray-tracing, DLSS, and Reflex technologies. These include the 'game of the moment,' Black Myth: Wukong (check out our video covering the first 20 minutes of the game here), and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle from Machine Games and Xbox.

The latter is out in December and, on PC, will feature 'Full Ray Tracing' and DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction running on the latest id Tech engine. To celebrate both titles, NVIDIA is giving away a pair of custom GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition graphics cards across its social channels - a Black Myth: Wukong and an Indiana Jones and the Great Circle edition.

These are both one of a kind, with the Black Myth: Wukong variant sporting custom wrap art that looks hand-painted, adding a dose of silver and brushed metal with the game's protagonist seemingly hand-drawn onto the faceplate. It looks fantastic, and one lucky PC gamer will get it.

MSI has just showed off its new MPG X870E Carbon Wi-Fi motherboard at Gamescom 2024, ready for AMD's new Zen 5 processors, packs dual USB4 ports, and more. Check it out:

The new MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wi-Fi motherboard has been designed as a high-end board ready for overclocking, with the usual beautifully-designed aesthetics that MSI is known for. We have RGB lighting on the MPG logo covering the PCH, and the MSI Dragon logo on the I/O plate.

Inside, MSI's new MPG X870E Carbon Wi-Fi motherboard has a 20-phase VRM solution, coming in an 18+2+1 phase design with 110A power stages. MSI includes support for up to 192GB of DDR5-8000+ memory, with dual 8-pin EPS power connectors feeding the motherboard and CPU.

GIGABYTE has just teased its new X870E AORUS MASTER motherboard, ready for AMD's new Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 series CPUs.

Inside, the new X870E chipset doesn't offer anything new over the X670E chipset apart from more USB4 ports and more I/O connectivity in general, but that doesn't stop motherboard manufacturers like GIGABYTE from putting in the work on a new mobo like the X870E AORUS MASTER.

GIGABYTE's new X870E AORUS MASTER motherboard features an 8-layer PCB design with 16+2+2 Twin Digital VRM. Each of the power stages is rated to support up to 110A to ensure stability during overclocking, while power to the CPU is delivered through 2 x 8-pin EPS power connectors at the top of the X870E AORUS MASTER.

NVIDIA's upcoming earnings report is ruffling some feathers already, one analyst saying Blackwell AI GPUs design flaws are seeing the B100 AI GPU "effectively canceled".

The design flaws plaguing NVIDIA's new Blackwell AI GPUs hit headlines a couple of weeks ago, where we began hearing about design flaws that analyst firm KeyBanc says NVIDIA will need to "respin" the Blackwell tile that will cause a 3-month delay on shipments.

KeyBanc explained: "Given the Blackwell delay, we believe NVIDIA will prioritize the ramp of B200 for hyperscalers and has effectively canceled B100, which will be replaced with a lower cost/performance GPU (B200A) targeted at enterprise customers".

Fallout 76's creative director Jonathan Rush teases the game's new Gleaming Depths raid that's coming in December.

Bethesda is cooking up big updates for Fallout 76 fans for the latter half of the year. In just a few weeks, Fallout 76's new Milepost Zero update will launch, bringing with it a big new overhaul to legendary crafting (and the discontinuation of legendary cores along the way). But there's something fearsome waiting for die-hard players during the holidays.

Sometime in December, Bethesda will release Fallout 76's new Gleaming Depths raid that promises fearsome tough-as-nails boss battles set inside of a glowing, irradiated cave system. One of these bosses--a towering mutated cobra monstrosity--was shown during this year's QuakeCon 2024 event in Dallas, Texas.

Bethesda highlights Fallout 76's new-and-improved crafting system that will be introduced with September 3's Milepost Zero update.

Fallout 76's free Milepost Zero update is right around the corner, bringing some big changes with it. Bethesda has announced that legendary cores will be discontinued when Milepost Zero launches, and will instead be converted into Legendary Scrip on September 3. Until then, Bethesda has extended the Legendary Scrip surplus bonus so that gamers can accumulate Scrip and prepare for the new crafting system.

Today in a quick development preview video, the studio outlined some of the key changes that are coming to legendary crafting, namely the chance to secure legendary prefix recipes from scrapped items. Apparently the chances of this happening are quite slim, but it's still possible.

AMD's Ryzen 9000X3D processors won't be with us until early 2025, with a reveal planned for the next-gen 3D V-Cache CPUs at CES 2025 - or that's the latest rumor.

The news comes from HXL, a regular leaker on X, who offers up a very short and simple post as you can see above. The tweet was spotted by Wccftech, which backs up the notion of a CES 2025 launch for Ryzen 9000X3D in the thread on X, and shares in a separate report that AMD has told its motherboard partners that the release timeframe has indeed been pushed back.

Previously, those motherboard vendors had been informed by AMD that Ryzen 9000X3D chips were going to launch later in 2024 (as ASUS recently leaked, in fact), but apparently that isn't the case any longer.

The Control Panel is being replaced by the Settings app, according to recent update by Microsoft on its support blog that outlines all of the tools in-built with Windows.

The Windows Control Panel was first added to Windows 1.0 throughout the mid-80s and quickly became the hub to access everything that regarded system customization. However, Microsoft added an update to its support page that states the Control Panel is being "deprecated in favor of the Settings app" as the Settings app offers users a much more modern and streamlined experience.

Notably, Microsoft states the old-school Windows tool is still included in modern Windows versions for compatibility reasons as not all settings are present within the Settings app. But Microsoft plans on migrating all of the settings within the Control Panel over to the Settings, after which I expect will usher in the end of Control Panel as it will be rendered obsolete.