A week ago, Helldivers 2 was beloved by PC and console gamers alike and on track to become Game of the Year by many. Then Sony and developer Arrowhead announced that PC players would need to team up with a PlayStation Network account to continue playing the game in the months ahead.

The news did not go down well, with many citing Sony's spotty track record regarding privacy and user accounts getting hacked. Also, with the PlayStation Network being unavailable in a long list of countries, lots of current Helldivers 2 players are set to lose access to the game. According to the studio, the game was always meant to have this requirement, with the PSN component only being optional at launch.

With hundreds of thousands of negative reviews on Steam, Helldivers II has gone from being one of the most beloved games on the platform to now sitting on a 'Mixed' user review score, with the most recent reviews being 'Overwhelmingly Negative.' With damage control in full effect, the CEO of Arrowhead, Johan Pilestedt, has taken to social media to state that the decision is out of their hands and was mandated by PlayStation.

The next Tomb Raider game in development is rumored to be an open world game according to the latest rumors, and it will be published by Amazon.

The new rumors are coming from movie insider V Scooper, which said that the next Tomb Raider game will be an open world game will see Lara exploring huge areas on her motorbike and parachute, and that it will be released in the next 12 months if there's no hiccups in between.

Tomb Raider will be shifting to northern India according to V Scooper, who explained the setting of this purported open world Tomb Raider game: "A natural disaster strikes northern India, revealing ancient emperor Ashoka's ruins and artifacts. Lara strategically races against a Society of Raiders and other rivals for these powerful relics. The Society of Raiders are inspired by Lara yet unaffiliated and might have some opposite agendas. This also relates to a new feature based on recruiting teams and allies to strategically aid you in missions and defeating rivals There's emphasis on a new non-lethal combat option".

Star Wars Day happened this past weekend, #Maythe4thBeWithYou, and all that. To celebrate, NVIDIA is giving away one of the coolest custom GeForce RTX 4080 Founder Edition graphics cards we've seen. And that's because it features art depicting everyone's favorite (if he's not, then you might need to rewatch the original trilogy) Rebellion leader - Admiral Ackbar.

The iconic Mon Calamari general who most famously yelled out, "It's a trap!" during the climactic space battle of Star Wars Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi. The good news is that this competition is open to most countries (check out the full terms and conditions here), with the grand prize featuring some impressive artwork from artist Ryan Brown's Star Wars: The Rebellion comic book cover.

The downside is that you only have until the end of today, May 6th, 2024, to enter. To enter, all you need to do is comment on the post (like this one on X) with your favorite Star Wars memory (gaming or otherwise) and put the old #RTXON stamp on the end.

Intel has its next-generation Arrow Lake CPUs in the oven right now, with some details leaked regarding the new flagship Z890 chipset.

In a new information dump on Intel's new Core Ultra 200 "Arrow Lake" CPUs from Golden Pig Upgrade, we get details on the SKUs to expect, integrated GPU configurations, and the new flagship Z890 chipset. Intel's new flagship CPU this year will be the Core Ultra 9 285K "Arrow Lake-S" processor, which will launch alongside the Core Ultra 7 265K, and Core Ultra 5 245K processors.

Golden Pig Upgrade explains that new Z890 motherboards should all feature native Thunderbolt 4 as standard. The integrated GPU on Intel's new Core Ultra 200 series "Arrow Lake" CPUs will have up to 4 Xe-Cores based on the Alchemist Xe-LPG graphics architecture, half of what the laptop-focused Core Ultra 100 series "Meteor Lake" processors have with 8 Xe-Cores.

NVIDIA's rise to fame has been decades in the making, but it's absolutely undeniable that the company has had this much success and influence on the planet and its inhabitants.

In a recent interview with venture capitalist Navin Chaddha, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said that the "secret sauce" of the company is ordinary people with huge visions, as well as "persistence, resilience, and belief," added Jensen.

Jensen had a lot to say:

AMD has announced that Nscale is the world's first AMD technology-focused cloud provider, using the company's new Instinct MI300X AI accelerators.

Nscale is a vertically integrated GPU cloud company spun out of Arkon Energy, with a 300MW data center and hosting business in the United States. Nscale is based in Northern Norway, with its N1 Glomfjord site featuring some of the cheapest renewable energy on the planet, making the N1 Glomfjord site one of the most cost-effective LLM and AI training hubs in the world.

Some of the key benefits and features of the Nscale cloud:

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has pointed its extremely sensitive instruments at an exoplanet located 280 light-years away from Earth.

Researchers used the telescope's mid-infrared light spectrometer to map the weather patterns of an exoplanet known as WASP-43 b, a gas giant that is located in the Sextans constellation. The team published their findings in the journal Nature Astronomy where they explain that one side of the exoplanet is covered in thick cloud coverage, and the other side has clear skies. Additionally, the team found that WASP-43 b has equatorial winds that can reach speeds of up to 5,000 mph.

So, why is WASP-43 b so different from Earth? It's mostly due to its position relative to its host star. WASP-43 b orbits its host star at a distance of just 1.3 million miles, which results in the exoplanet becoming tidally locked with the star. When an astronomical object is tidally locked, there is continuous daytime and nighttime on specific sides of the object. An example of this would be the dark side of the moon.

The fiasco with Helldivers 2 and the requirement to connect a PlayStation network account to a Steam account to access the game has spilled over to other Sony titles. The latest in the scope of gamers is the Ghost of Tsushima PC port expected to release on May 16 on Steam.

The uproar of the Helldivers 2 community in response to the recent changes by Sony Interactive Entertainment has resulted in more than 100,000 negative reviews submitted to the title's Steam listing, bringing the overall review to "Overwhelmingly Negative." The fallout of this decision by Sony has raised the question to if the publisher will require other PlayStation games on Steam to be linked to PSN account.

Ghost of Tsushima Directors Cut will release on Steam on May 16, and the developer of the title Sucker Punch wants players to know the game will not require a linked PSN account for it to be playable. The developer took to its X account and explained a PSN account will be required for "Legends online multiplayer mode and to use PlayStation overlay," but it won't be required to "play the singleplayer game."

For quite some time we have been hearing how iOS 18 is expected to be Apple's biggest update ever to iOS, with reports even stating that internally Apple is referring to iOS 18 as "biggest update ever".

The main reason iOS 18 is so monumental is because it will be the time Apple implements artificial intelligence into its operating system. Rumors of this have been circulating for months and well documented by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who has reported Apple will be introducing a suite of new AI features that will include a revamped version of Siri, heavy AI integration into Apple's apps such as Apple Music, iWork apps like Keynote and Pages, and more overall customization.

Now, AppleInsider has learned more details about the AI implementation, with "people familiar with the software" telling the publication about the generative AI capabilities of the Ajax Large Language Model (LLM), Apple's generative AI model. The insiders said Ajax will power a feature that enables text summarization, which covers anything from webpages to messages. The feature will quickly read the on-screen text and provide summarized key points on the analyzed text.

Intel hasn't had the best time with its Arc GPUs, and now with fresh rumors that its next-gen Battlemage Xe2 and Celestial Xe3 GPUs could be delayed or outright cancelled... ugh.

In a new post by leaker Golden Pig Upgrade, he said: "There is no trace of Battlemage at all, there will be no DG3 next year". Intel was expected to debut its new Arc Battlemage Xe2 GPU inside of its next-generation Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" CPUs, but maybe not.

Intel's future-gen Xe3 Celestial (DG3) was meant to make an appearance with the future-gen Panther Lake CPUs as an integrated Xe3-LPG GPU, but Golden Pig Upgrade says there will be no DG3 next year. Panther Lake is coming in 2025, and will need an integrated GPU... so if Battlemage and Celestial are off the table, what does Intel have left? Alchemist?

Sony is officially fumbling the bag with one of its hottest games ever released, as a seemingly simple announcement has led to more than 100,000 new negative reviews and thousands of gamers enraged.

Quick backstory: Sony Interactive Entertainment announced on the Helldivers 2 Steam blog that the grace period for it being optional to link a player's Steam account to a PlayStation Network account is coming to an end, and after May 6, all new Helldivers 2 players will be required to connect their Steam account to a PSN account, while current Steam players will begin to see a mandatory login from May 30 and will be required to have linked a Steam and PlayStation Network account by June 4.

Despite the news of accounts having to be connected being announced back in January, players only began reacting recently with a wave of negative reviews. Some of these reviews pointed out important factors such as some countries don't have access to the PlayStation network, meaning the player won't be able to make an account and would be locked out of Helldivers 2. A game that they purchased.

Unreal Engine 5.4 is out in the wild with people playing around with the Industrial Factory tech demo, which looks out of this world, but brings NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4080 to its knees at 4K. Check it out in all its glory:

MXBenchmarkPC shared a new video running the Unreal Engine 5.4-powered Industrial Factory tech demo, running on his RTX 4080 at 1440p (2560 x 1440) managed 80-90FPS, but the RTX 4080 couldn't handle 4K at 60FPS in native form at least.

But, the demo itself looks truly amazing. It was created by Scans Factory, and you can download it and run it on your PC. MXBenchmarkPC ran an Intel Core i7-10700F processor and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 at 4K, 1440p, and 1080p with Nanite, Lumen, and Epic graphics settings enabled on the Unreal Engine 5.4-powered Industrial Factory tech demo.

Scientists have been scratching their heads at the expansion of the universe since it was discovered nearly a century ago, particularly applying fundamental theories such as Einstein's Theory of Relativity at a cosmic scale.

A new paper published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics by a team of researchers from the University of Waterloo and the University of British Columbia in Canada details a new approach to applying the theory of gravity at the grandest scale possible. The team argues that Einstein's theory isn't enough to explain the accelerating expansion of the universe, as it applies traditional theories of gravity at a cosmic scale - astronomical objects such as galaxy clusters and beyond - the theory has inconsistencies.

The team called these inconsistencies with gravity a "cosmic glitch" and decided to make some alterations to Einstein's theory to accommodate the glitch. More specifically, the study's lead author and Waterloo mathematical physics graduate Robin Wen explained that at a cosmic scale, gravity becomes "around one percent weaker" and that the newly devised model that patches this cosmic glitch may be the first step in solving the cosmic puzzle of spacetime and its relationship at various scales.

Nintendo has continued its crusade to remove any content that's being profiteered from that contains the company's copyrighted materials.

The latest in Nintendo's efforts to expunge this content from the internet is a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice for 8,535 GitHub repositories, which are the most basic element on GitHub and is a place where developers are able to store code, files and more. The DMCA notice alleges these repositories containing Nintendo IP, particularly hosting code from the Yuzu Switch emulator that Nintendo said enabled "piracy at a colossal scale".

The issuing of the DMCA notice came after Nintendo settled a lawsuit with Yuzu's creators for $2.4 million. More specifically, Nintendo claims that these repositories contain Yuzu source code that "illegally circumvents Nintendo's technological protection measures and runs illegal copies of Switch games." GitHub has responded to the takedown notice and explained developers will have time to make changes to their content before its removed.

Microsoft has revealed its discovered a serious security vulnerability that impacts countless Android applications, leading the possibility of valuable user data being stolen.

Microsoft has dubbed the security vulnerability "Dirty Stream" and explains the flaw can be traced back to a critical system that is responsible for the secure data exchange between different applications on a device. This system is also responsible for conducting handshake authorizations through safeguards such as the isolation of sensitive data, hiding any permissions that are attached to specific Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs), and preventing any unauthorized access through validating file pathways.

Unfortunately, Microsoft has discovered a critical exploitation within the system, exposed by the incorrect use of "custom intents" which is a messaging system that Android apps use to communicate with different aspects of the app - essentially the messaging system used for all of the app components to talk to each other. The exploitation led to researchers discovering the sensitive areas of an app and a possible route for an attacker to seize total control of an app and harvest sensitive user data.

Ninja Theory is preparing for the launch of Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, the sequel to the critically acclaimed Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.

One of the best-looking games of 2024 is about to be released, and the developers behind the title have now released what you will need to run the game on PC. Ninja Theory has taken to its official X account to share an image showing what PC gamers will need to boot up Hellblade II, and the requirements to even hit recommended are quite hefty.

This isn't really that surprising, considering how graphically intense the Hellblade 2 is. Taking one look at the above trailer, you can quickly realize Hellblade 2 is much more graphically intense than Hellblade 1, with Ninja Theory pioneering aspects such as motion capture, facial rendering, and cinematic storytelling. The minimum requirements on PC to hit 1080p on Low are an Intel i5-8400 or an AMD Ryzen 5 2600, a GTX 1070, an AMD RX 5700, or an Intel Arc A580.

A new type of memory has been tested running at a blistering 600C for over 60 hours by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania.

The researchers have used non-volatile ferroelectric diode (ferrodiode) memory that has absolutely astonishing heat resistance and other properties that allow cutting-edge data and extreme environment computing to breathe a little, pun intended.

Ferrodiode memory devices use a 45nm thin layer of a synthesized AIScN (I0.68Sc0.32N) because of its ability to retain electric states "after an external electric field is removed".

Intel's next-gen Core Ultra 9 285K "Arrow Lake" CPU has a rumored 5.5GHz boost clock, compared to up to 6.2GHz on the current-gen flagship Core i9-14900KS processor.

The news on the Core Ultra 9 285K processor is coming from some posts by MebiuW on Weibo, where the big architectural changes that Intel will be bringing with Arrow Lake -- as well as the new Core Ultra 200 series branding -- will see a hefty CPU frequency reduction.

Intel's current-gen Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs can boost at up to 6.2GHz out of the box with the Core i9-14900KS, while even the Raptor Lake CPUs before it with the Core i9-13900KS we saw 6.0GHz. The new Arrow Lake CPUs however, seem to be topping out at 5.5GHz, but will feature a new tile-based design with an integrated NPU for AI workloads... something desktop Core CPUs didn't have until Meteor Lake hit laptops late last year.

Like the orbital arrays that drop bombs on alien infestations, gamers have dropped heavy artillery on Helldivers 2's review score.

Once the darling of PC gamers, Helldivers 2 is now getting review bombed on Steam due to a controversial decision from Sony. Helldivers 2 will now require a PlayStation Network account to keep playing. Users have until June 4 to make their PSN accounts and sign in.

Predictably, PC gamers weren't happy with the situation, especially those who live in the dozens of countries where PSN is not supported. It's especially frustrating to gamers in the UK who have to provide a form of ID in order to make a PSN account. The news caught some by surprise, especially since Helldivers 2 didn't require you to make a PSN account to play before. This was temporary, and the game was always designed to require a PSN sign-in at the behest of Sony Interactive Entertainment.

A major tactical FPS competitor has risen from the ashes of the Escape from Tarkov drama.

New early access survival shooter Gray Zone Warfare is doing incredibly well right now on Steam. The early access game is currently the #1 top-seller in terms of revenue on Steam, and is #2 globally. Even the $65 support edition upgrade is currently on the top 10 global best-sellers list. As of yesterday

So...how did this meteoric rise to success happen? The sales blitz might've been a result of a schism in one of gaming's most dedicated groups. It's likely that a significant portion of Gray Zone's players are actually taken from the Escape from Tarkov community following some massively controversial decisions.