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Helldivers 2 has been a smashing success for developer Arrowhead so far, but in a new leaked video, we're being teased with something new: playable mechs. Check out the video of playable mechs in Helldivers 2 on Reddit here.

Arrowhead has the server issues for Helldivers 2 behind it now, racking up over 700,000+ concurrent players simultaneously. Now, it's working on new things for its uber-popular Democracy-spreading game. We knew mechs would probably be coming to Helldivers 2 as they were in the first game, and the "Report for Duty" trailer that dropped last month featured a mech, teased with "coming soon after launch."

But now, in a leaked video posted on Reddit by "fozzye18," we get to see the playable mech in Helldivers 2 in action; they said he joined a game by a player who was "showing us new things to enjoy." There's not just one mech in this video, but two, which are in the background for a matter of seconds.

Remedy Entertainment has just announced it acquired the full rights to the Control franchise from publisher 505 Games for $18 million.

This provides Remedy with the Control IP going forward, with the $18 million representing the amount of money 505 Games paid to the development of Control 2, which is codenamed Condor. 505 Games will continue to be the publisher of the original Control game through to December 31, 2024.

Remedy CEO Tera Virtala said: "Ever since we signed up with 505 Games in 2017 to develop and publish Control, we have enjoyed a good partnership in building Control into a successful game that has sold over 4 million units and generated shareable net revenue of approximately EUR 100 million to Remedy and 505 Games. As part of Remedy's long-term strategy to have more ownership over our business and the IPs we have created, we have gotten back all rights for Control and the in-development Condor and Control 2. Having complete ownership over the Control franchise gives us the freedom to decide the best path forward".

IBM just published a new blog detailing the technology inside of its AI-protected SSDs, with its fourth-generation FlashCore Module (FCM) technology and its latest FCM4 revision supporting AI.

The AI-assisted SSDs from IBM will detect and respond to cybersecurity threats in real-time, magnitudes faster than a professional, or even a team of professionals. IBM's previous-gen FCM can scan all incoming data without performance degradation, but they didn't feature AI.

FCM4 is capable of monitoring statistics for each and every I/O operation; powered by machine learning, it'll detect threats like ransomware in less than 30 seconds. IBM Storage Insights software will alert users to any issues on their system, with FCM4-powered AI-boosted SSDs taking in real-time I/O data with machine learning models that will determine threats.

ASML and Intel have reached the "First Light" milestone using ASML's latest High-NA lithography system, turning on its light source and making the light reach resist on the wafer.

The report is coming from Reuters, with this being a critical first step in the very latest manufacturing technology from ASM; the "first light" milestone means that one of the critical components of ASML's new Twinscan EXE-5000 system is operational, but not at its peak performance.

Marc Assinck, a spokesman for ASML, explained: "Technically, this 'first light' actually is 'first light on the wafer.' The light source was already working, now we have the photons 'in resist' on the wafer".

Intel will launch its next-gen Lunar Lake mobile processors for new thin and light laptops later this year, but availability will be limited in Q4 2024, with higher quantities of Lunar Lake processors in the market for 2025.

Intel launched its new Core Ultra 100 series "Meteor Lake" CPUs late last year, but the new Lunar Lake CPUs will be the successor that will power the next wave of (AI) laptops in late 2024. We're expecting new CPU, GPU cores, higher AI performance, and a unique SoC design from Intel.

The news is coming from leaker "Golden Pig Upgraed" on Weibo, who teases that, like Meteor Lake, Lunar Lake is still an "EEP project" and the "purpose is naturally the same, to rush to the market this year". The leaker added: "Of course, if everything goes well, it will definitely be much earlier than MTL's EEP. In other words, Lunar Lake products will still have to wait until 2025 to be launched in large quantities. After all, EEP still only has a few specific projects that are eligible".

Intel is just weeks away from launching its new special edition Core i9-14900KS processor, rocking 6.2GHz CPU clocks out of the box, and now it's been confirmed by another retailer.

Intel's upcoming Core i9-14900KS processor packs 24 cores and 32 threads of CPU power spread across 8 P-Cores and 16 E-Cores, matching the Core i9-14900K and Core i9-14900KF (KF variant drops the integrated GPU). Intel's upcoming Core i9-14900KS processor packs 24 cores and 32 threads of CPU power spread across 8 P-Cores and 16 E-Cores, matching the Core i9-14900K and Core i9-14900KF (KF variant drops the integrated GPU).

Retailers expect to have the new Core i9-14900KS processor in the next weeks, whereas a Canadian retailer has the new special edition CPU listed for $1004 CAD, which works out to around $970. We only have a few weeks to wait for Intel's new Core i9-14900KS processor, which will be the processor of choice for many overclockers and enthusiasts across the planet.

Intel has just teased that it will have its first next-generation 1nm process node (Intel 10A) out of the gate and into production in late 2027.

The company recently detailed its new Intel 18A process node and Intel 14A process nodes, where Microsoft became the first customer to announce a next-generation chip on Intel's new 18A process node. The previously unannounced Intel 10A (1nm) is now going into production in 2027 to fight TSMC in a big, big way.

The news is coming from the Mobile World Congress (MWC) this week in Barcelona, Spain, where Intel EVP and GM of Foundry Manufacturing and Supply, Keyvan Esfarjani, revealed Intel's latest developers, showing a roadmap of how it will all play out over the coming years.

Intel has announced it plans to use AI in all of its foundries, from production flows, capacity planning, forecasting, yield improvements, and floor-level production operations, which will be done by AI and what it's calling "Cobots" of the future.

The company is referring to this as a "10X moonshot" program, where it wants to impact each and every segment of its operations in the future. Intel plans to use AI-powered Cobots, which will be robots that can work with humans side-by-side, as well as extensive robot automation in manufacturing. It won't happen overnight, but Intel is planning this "10X moonshot" for the future of AI-powered chip production.

NVIDIA first announced its "AI factories" in 2022, teaming up with Chinese manufacturer Foxconn on the AI factories project. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said the "production of intelligence" would be the new wave of manufacturing, managed by huge AI-powered data centers filled with NVIDIA hardware, technologies, and software.

Intel has had some big announcements at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, this week: the company has just said it plans on shipping 100 million AI PCs in 2025.

That makes sense, considering we're expecting to see 40 million AI PCs shipped this year and then 60 million expected by analysts in 2025. Intel is getting behind hardware partners and software developers to make the future of AI PCs happen, with its tight relationship with Microsoft helping along the way with the integration of Copilot into Windows 11 and the next-gen Windows OS coming this year.

Intel VP David Feng told Nikkei Asia: "We are in the business of selling performance [of chips], selling the performance of CPU and GPU, and the whole package of chipsets. Now we are truly in the business of selling experiences. ... I am describing something that can only be brought to life by software, so there is an increasing need for having collaborations with application developers".

If you use a DualSense controller for wireless gaming under Windows 11 (or Windows 10 for that matter), and you have an Intel Bluetooth chip, then a new driver update from Team Blue will be of interest.

This is Intel's Wireless Bluetooth Driver 23.30.0 and as Neowin highlighted (via TechRadar), it comes with a benefit for the PS5's DualSense gamepads.

We're told that the driver offers: "Improved connectivity to a second gaming controller (Dual Sense)."

Some Windows 11 users have been reporting an annoying glitch of late which causes the taskbar to be very slow to arrive on the desktop on first booting the system - but the good news is a fix is now in testing.

BetaNews flagged up the cure appearing in the Beta channel for Windows 11 testing (build 22635), while noting that the bug actually affected their HP EliteBook laptop. In their case, the taskbar didn't show up for a few seconds, or sometimes longer.

As bugs go, this is hardly the end of the world, but it's a bit of a pain, particularly if the first thing you want to do is facilitated via the taskbar (which is not unlikely, though you may have the same icons on the desktop, too, in some cases).

A hacking group has claimed they have infiltrated Epic Games servers and stolen nearly 200GB of data from the company.

The Fortnite developer has reportedly been hacked by ransomware group Mogilevich, which WCCFTech and Cyber Daily report is a relative newcomer to the hacking scene. Regardless of its purported reputation, or lack of it, Mogilevich has claimed they have infiltrated Epic Games servers and stolen 189GB of data, which includes emails, passwords, full names of accounts, payment information, source code, and much more. Notably, the stolen data is reportedly up for sale, but there is currently no price attached, with a deadline set for March 4.

It should be noted the group has not provided any proof of their claims, which reasonably leads to the assumption of the possibility no data was actually stolen, especially considering that Epic Games hasn't confirmed nor denied the hack. While it's currently up in the air whether the hack took place or not, I would be recommended to change your Epic Games account as a precautionary measure.

CES 2024 featured an incredible unveiling of multiple new displays expected to hit the market this year, and LG Electronics was one of the leading companies in this regard with its showcase of its 2024 OLED evo TVs.

The offerings from LG were very impressive, and now we are beginning to hear about how each of these new products will be priced. According to reports, the lowest model from LG will start at $1,500, and its highest-end flagship model will be $25,000. If you saw any CES 2024 news, you likely understood that artificial intelligence-powered products were a central theme of the convention, and LG's TVs aren't an outlier in this regard.

The company has implemented its new Alpha 11 processor within its high-end G4 series TVs, and according to LG, it will boost graphics performance by 70%, improve brightness, and enable other AI features such as upscaling. LG's lower-end C4 models will get an updated Alpha 9 Gen 7 chip, and when both chips are present within a TV and paired with compatible LG soundbars, users will be able to transmit lossless Dolby Atmos audio. As for brightness levels, they are expected to hit 1,000 nits, with both the C4 and G4 line-up supporting refresh rates up to 144Hz.

NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) involved NASA sending a vending machine-sized spacecraft to a binary asteroid system in an attempt to prove the space agency has the capability to redirect potentially dangerous asteroids.

The mission was deemed an overall success as NASA's high-speed spacecraft collided with the moonlet Dimorphos, which is orbiting a larger asteroid called Didymos. The collision took place on September 26, 2023, and the DART spacecraft reduced the Dimorphos' orbit around Didymos by 33 minutes, making its total time to complete one orbit around its parent 11 hours and 23 minutes. The success of the mission demonstrated that Earth has planetary defense capabilities to redirect dangerous asteroids years in advance if one is detected.

Now, the DART impact seems to have had a permanent change on the appearance of Dimorphos, as a team of researchers led by University of Bern scientist Sabina Raducan performed high-level computer simulations that determined that Dimorphos is a loose, rubble-pile asteroid. The impact of the DART spacecraft has caused what researchers call global deformation, which is the process of interior material becoming surface material. According to the team's calculations, between 0.5% and 1% of Dimorphos' mass was ejected after DART's impact, with 8% of its mass being redistributed throughout the asteroid.

NASA's Mars rover named Perseverance has snapped a new photograph of the Mars helicopter situated on the desolate Red Planet.

The helicopter named Ingenuity landed on Mars with Perseverance in February 2021, and during its active time, the 4-pound helicopter served as a reconnaissance drone for Perseverance as it was sent ahead of the rover to collect data on the upcoming terrain and any potential scientific prospects that warranted further inspection by the rover. Ingenuity flew 72 separate times while active on the Red Planet, and on January 18, it endured catastrophic damage through a hard landing.

Following the January 18 flight, NASA confirmed that a piece of at least one of Ingenuity's rotor blades had broken off - this was confirmed by a selfie image snapped by Ingenuity. This damage forced NASA to retire Ingenuity and nickname the location where it now sits Valinor Hills, a reference to J.R.R Tolkien's Valinor, a heaven-like place in Middle-Earth where elves and some hobbits return to following the destruction of the One Ring.

A 22-year-old who discovered a sealed copy of The Legend of Zelda from 1987 nearly sold it on eBay for just $17,000 when it may be worth close to $1 million.

The sealed copy of 1987's The Legend of Zelda was discovered by the seller Kiro, who decided to use a pseudonym for privacy reasons, spoke to CNBC and said the sealed game of one of the most iconic video game franchises of all time was part of his family ever since it was purchased for just $29.87 in 1987. Kiro told the publication that they looked on eBay for copies of the vintage Zelda game and thought he was going to get anywhere between $17,000 and $20,000 "if I'm lucky".

Kiro proceeded to list the video game and immediately got responses from buyers attempting to finalize their payments. The 22-year-old said that one buyer even offered $30,000 cash to drive to his location immediately and pick it up. Upon realizing what they had was likely worth more than what it was listed for, Kiro decided to remove the listing, and that night, a collector offered to call him to discuss the game.

NASA's powerful radar system detected an asteroid zoom past Earth on February 2, and according to estimations, the asteroid named 2008 OS7 is approximately the size of a stadium.

The space rock was detected using the Goldston Solar System Radar, and according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), 2008 OS7 orbits the Sun every 2.6 years, coming extremely close to Venus at its closest point to the Sun and then eventually out past Mars' orbit when it's at its greatest distance from the Sun. NASA has categorized 2008 OS7 as "potentially hazardous" due to its size and proximity to Earth, but it's not considered a direct threat to our planet, as represented by its fly-by on February 2.

When 2008 OS7 passed by Earth, it was at a distance of 1.8 million miles, or about 7.5 times the distance between the Earth and the moon. While that may seem like an extreme distance when thinking about how far away things are on Earth, in space, that is considered to be quite close, hence the "potentially hazardous" categorization by NASA. The asteroid was first discovered in 2008, and researchers estimated it was anywhere between 650 and 1,650 feet wide.

Odysseus, the lunar lander that made history on February 22 when it touched down on the surface of the moon just 190 miles from the lunar south pole.

The landing of Odysseus marked the first time a privately built lander has ever touched down on the Moon, while also being the first US-built vehicle to do so since the Apollo 17 mission conducted in 1972. The company behind Odysseus is Houston-based Intuitive Machines, which took to its X account to share images captured by Odysseus during its descent to the lunar surface. The company posted three photos and according to Intuitive Machines they are the "closest observations of any spaceflight mission to the south pole region of the moon".

More specifically, these images were captured at just 100 feet above the lunar surface while Odysseus' main engine throttled down from a staggering 24,000 mph to almost zero. Unfortunately, the landing wasn't completely perfect as Intuitive Machines believes that Odysseus tipped over shortly after its touchdown, which is causing delays with sending/receiving data. Despite the lunar lander being tipped over its still able to carry out its scientific objectives as some of its solar panels are in the right position to gather energy, while none of NASA's instruments appear to damaged.

Helldivers 2 studio boss Johan Pilestedt has been open and vocal on social media, with the Arrowhead CEO recently responding to why the game shipped on PC without DLSS and FSR upscaling support. The answer is straightforward and simple: the team focused on core gameplay "as it's what is most important for a game to be successful."

Of course, he prefaced by saying that while DLSS is cool tech, it's "not necessary" when launching a PC game. Naturally, many people took offense to this and misread it, as DLSS won't be coming to Helldivers 2 - at all. This isn't the case, with Johan Pilestedt stating in a follow-up, "That's not what I said!" implying that upscaling tech will be coming to the game at some point.

Helldivers 2, a riff on Starship Troopers, is a co-op action game that has reportedly sold over 3 million copies across PC and PlayStation 5 - making it the most popular first-party PlayStation launch on PC to date.

It has long been rumored that Apple is working on its own electric vehicle (EV) that would be fully autonomous, and now publications have learned that the project has been axed and that hundreds of employees are likely being let go from the company.

TechCrunch and Bloomberg have reported that Apple executives announced in a short meeting with the team working on the EV project that all work will be stopped and that some remaining employees will be moved over to Apple's generative AI division, where they will begin working on various AI-powered products. As for those who won't be going to Apple's generative AI division, they will have 90 days to find another role within the company, and if they can't fit in anywhere, they will be fired.

Reports indicate that Apple's secretive EV project was being worked on by approximately 1,400 employees, according to one employee who spoke to TechCrunch under anonymity. Notably, Apple has reportedly been working on its EV since 2014, and internally, it was known as "Project Titan." while there were hardly any details about the project, the company did, at one stage, have as many as 5,000 employees working on it.