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The 10 Best Black Friday 2023 Game and Console Deals for PlayStation 5
Sony's PlayStation 5 is the successor to the popular PlayStation 4, bringing high-end 4K gaming to the masses backed by excellent first-party franchises like The Last of Us and God of War. With a recent and more efficient 'Slim' redesign and a big list of amazing games released throughout 2023, we've compiled our list of the 10 Best PlayStation 5 Black Friday Deals.
Whether you're looking to get a PS5 in time for the holidays, snap up a second controller, or play through the epic cinematic adventure that is Star Wars Jedi: Survivor while saving up to 57% off, this is the list for you. Plus, if you want to expand your PS5's storage with an additional 2TB or 4TB of room to install games - we've got you covered.
The PlayStation 5 Slim Console heads up our Black Friday Deals for PS5, which arrives in two bundle flavors - Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare III. Available for just $499 over at Amazon, not only do you get the latest 'Slim' PS5, but your pick of one of the two biggest games released this holiday season.
Continue reading: The 10 Best Black Friday 2023 Game and Console Deals for PlayStation 5 (full post)
Black Friday Deals 2023 - The Best PC Game Deals for Gamers
The sales season is upon us, and we're currently swimming in Black Friday Deals. For PC gamers, thousands of games are currently on sale across all the various digital platforms - Steam, GOG, and Epic Games Store. And with that, we're here to bring our picks for the Best Black Friday PC Game Deals 2023.
Before we dig into each store's offerings, if you haven't picked up the critically acclaimed Alan Wake II yet, you can get 33% off the price when using the once-off Epic Games Store coupon for its Black Friday sales. This brings the price down from $49.99 to $33.49 - a sizable discount on a brand new survival horror release and game that is currently in contention for Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2023.
Our list covers everything from recent releases like Capcom's brilliant Resident Evil 4 remake, 34% off at Steam, to awesome games rarely discounted, like Valve's Half-Life: Alyx, 66% off at Steam. Games that had troubled launches but have since improved immensely are also on sale - Battlefield 2042 is 84% off, and Cyberpunk 2077 is 50% off. With GOG's massive sale and catalog of classic PC games, you can also pick up Deus Ex GOTY Edition for under $1!
Continue reading: Black Friday Deals 2023 - The Best PC Game Deals for Gamers (full post)
Binance guilty of money laundering, agrees to pay $4.3 billion fine, CEO also resigns
Binance is in a world of trouble right now, with Binance founder Changpeng Zhao pleading guilty to money laundering and agreeing to resign from the company.
Not only that, but Zhao will pay a $50 million fine and will be barred from any involvement in the Binance business. As for Binance, the company pleaded guilty, accenting the appointment of a monitor and a criminal fine of close to $1.81 billion, and a $2.51 billion order of forfeiture to settle not one but three criminal charges.
The US Justice Department charged Binance, which is the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, with conducting an unlicensed money transmitting business, a conspiracy charge, and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
NVIDIA hires ex-Valeo staffer, who gets busted with trade secrets in a video call
NVIDIA is embroiled in a lawsuit from Germany-based automotive technology company Valeo Schalter und Sensoren, after an ex-Valeo and now NVIDIA staffer screen-shared during a meeting with "ValeoDocs" in a file and even Valeo code... all shown in a video meeting by accident.
It all started with a video call that software developer Mohammad Moniruzzaman was on, with Moniruzzaman joining NVIDIA back in 2021 after leaving German-based Valeo Schalter und Sensoren. He happened to be in a meeting between 4 people at Valeo, and 4 people from NVIDIA, as well as himself.
Moniruzzaman was finishing up showing a PowerPoint to everyone on the call when the screen-sharing function he was using allowed everyone to see what was showing on Moniruzzaman's entire screen, not just PowerPoint. As he minimized the PowerPoint presentation, what the video call participants saw was shocking: he had code from Valeo and a file description that said: "ValeoDocs".
Sabrent Black Friday sales include SD card readers, docking stations, and so much more
Sabrent has some delicious Black Friday sales that don't just include their wicked-fast Rocket 4 Plus NVMe M.2 SSDs but also their docking stations, SD card readers, and more.
The new Black Friday savings from Sabrent run between November 20 at 12 AM PST through to November 26 at 11:45 PM PST, with Sabrent products like their 4-port USB 3.0 hub for just $12.49 down from its original price of $19.99, which is a decent 38% discount for Black Friday.
Do you need a new Sabrent USB 3.1 10Gbps Type-C tool-free enclosure for your M.2 SSD? Great! Sabrent has that exact external M.2 SSD enclosure for $23.39, down from $39.99, another fantastic 42% discount for Black Friday. If you need, like, a lot of USB 3.0 ports... Sabrent has their 10-port 60W USB 3.0 hub with individual power switches for $49.99, down from $69.99, with a discount of 29%.
Wow: Sam Altman fired, joins Microsoft, now OpenAI board talking about his return
First off, OpenAI ousted its co-founder and CEO, Sam Altman, out of nowhere... just days ago. He was followed by key OpenAI staff, and then Microsoft hired Altman to run a new advanced AI research division of the company... after that, 700+ of the 800 employees wrote to the OpenAI board demanding if Altman wasn't reinstated, they'd all leave to Microsoft with Altman.
And now... now the OpenAI board is reportedly talking to Altman about his return as a director on a transitional board of OpenAI.
OpenAI's vice president of global affairs, Anna Makanju, sent a memo to OpenAI staff informing them that the company had "intense discussions" with the board and that Altman and new CEO Emmett Shear would be working together inside of OpenAI. Of course, they need to promise this because they're about to lose all of their staff to Microsoft, where they'll join Altman, who the board is in talks with to return. It feels like I have the triple-check that last sentence, but it's exactly what's happened.
Top 8 Amazon Black Friday deals on high-performance M.2 gaming SSDs, all TweakTown recommended!
Buying a new SSD is one of the key upgrades you can make to a PC to make the system feel much faster. After all, it is responsible for transferring all your data from place to place. It's in charge of game-level loading time (yes, you want that vehicle before someone else!) and loading up Windows when you power on your PC.
This time of the year is a great time to consider upgrades for your PC because many parts are massively discounted thanks to the Black Friday sales. Below is a list of M.2 gaming SSDs, which are ALL recommended by our master SSD reviewer, Jon Coulter. Every SSD on the list has a rating above 90% and received a TweakTown editor's choice award when reviewed. Not only that, all of them are on special at the moment at Amazon with discounts up to a huge 65% off.
If you've been waiting to buy a new SSD, now is the time to seriously consider pulling the trigger! Here are our top 8 SSDs on sale at Amazon now, in no particular order.
Todd Howard touches on the magic of physical media
Todd Howard inadvertently explains why consumers enjoy physical media in a new interview with Wired.
A bit ago, Todd Howard sat down with Wired to talk about the history of Bethesda and the games he'd worked on. The interview is a good watch and exposes Howard's overall humility as he repeatedly acknowledges the team efforts required to ship games like Daggerfall, Morrowind, Fallout 3, and Starfield.
Perhaps the most interesting tidbit is at the end of the video. Howard looks down proudly at the game boxes and really touches upon some of the biggest reasons why physical media is still so powerful: Emotional connection.
Continue reading: Todd Howard touches on the magic of physical media (full post)
The iPhone 16 Pro could get a key iPhone 15 Pro Max camera feature next year
When Apple announced the iPhone 15 Pro Max in September of 2023 it brought with it the first tetraprism zoom lens to the iPhone, allowing for a much improved zoom lens capability than anything that had come before it. However, that improved zoom didn't make its way to the iPhone 15 Pro but that could all change with the iPhone 16 Pro according to a new report.
It was thought that the iPhone 15 Pro simply wasn't big enough to accommodate the tetraprism lens required to make the 5x optical zoom possible, which is why it was only available in the iPhone 15 Pro Max. However, according to the well-connected supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, we should expect the smaller model to get the same camera capabilities as the big one in 2024.
Ming-Chi Kuo was writing as part of a larger Medium post when he said that it's expected the 5x tetraprsim lens will also be available on the iPhone 16 Pro next year. For reference, the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro before it only have a 3x optical zoom, meaning anything beyond that has to resort to digital zoom which results in a far worse photo.
NVIDIA might scrap RTX 4080 and 4070 Ti graphics cards, but RTX 4070 isn't going anywhere
NVIDIA is supposedly set to discontinue the RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 Ti when its refreshed RTX Super graphics cards are launched, but the vanilla RTX 4070 will stay on shelves.
This is the latest in a flurry of gossip around the revamped Super models NVIDIA is seemingly planning to reveal at CES 2024, and how they might dictate the fate of the existing mid-to-upper-range Lovelace line-up.
This comes from the Board Channels forum over in China (via VideoCardz), the claim being that the RTX 4070 Super is well differentiated enough compared to the RTX 4070 so they can both be kept on sale. (The full-fat AD104 GPU expected to be used in the Super offers a lot more CUDA cores than the considerably cut-down chip in the existing 4070, over 20% more in fact).
Starfield patch brings in 'awesome' performance boosts including NVIDIA DLSS 3
Starfield has a new patch and it brings in some useful advances on the performance front, including the official incorporation of DLSS for those with NVIDIA RTX graphics cards.
Update 1.8.86 is here and full DLSS 3 support is in the mix for PC gamers, after previously being tested in a beta patch for Starfield (and having various fixes applied for ghosting and other niggling issues).
The game also supports DLAA and NVIDIA Reflex (for reducing input lag), as well as DLSS Super Resolution.
DOS_deck lets you play classic DOS games like Doom on a browser with your PC or Steam Deck
DOS_deck is a new way to play classic games released for the MS-DOS operating system on the Steam Deck or PC browser with a controller. The UI follows the look and feel of the Steam Deck interface. So far, there are several classic game demos (which used to be called Shareware) and even full games to check out - including the original Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Syndicate, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Epic Pinball, and more.
Playing classic DOS games on a modern PC or via a browser extension is not new. Still, the simple and elegant UI and integrated controller support make DOS-deck an awesome experience, even on a PC with Chrome or Edge. All controls are already mapped, and you can select games or return to the main menu with a controller.
For PC purists, default keyboard and mouse controls are also here. Getting DOS_deck working on a Windows PC doesn't require anything other than plugging in a controller, but getting it to run on a Steam Deck via Chrome or Edge requires a few steps to ensure the controller works properly.
Valve's iconic game Portal running on Nintendo 64 hardware is an incredible achievement
In 2007, Valve released the iconic first-person mind-bending puzzler Portal. Set in the clinical Aperture Science Laboratories, it introduced the 'Portal Gun' to create one of this century's most innovative and memorable gaming experiences.
Portal was/is a groundbreaking technical and design achievement and something that has sparked continued interest thanks to the recent release of the path-traced Portal RTX mod for the GeForce RTX 40 Series of graphics cards. But what if you went the other way - and tried to port or get the game running on ancient hardware like 1996's Nintendo 64?
That's exactly what N64 expert and programmer James Lambert has been doing for years, recreating and building a working version of Valve's Portal for the Nintendo 64. Right now, a dozen test chambers are playable and working with fully functioning portals and physics.
Intel Arc Graphics driver update brings a massive 2.7X increase in AI performance
This year, we've seen some impressive performance improvements and driver releases for the Intel Arc lineup of discrete graphics cards from the engineers at Intel. From sizable performance gains in modern titles like Starfield to how the GPUs handle DirectX 11 with triple-digit performance improvements in older games like Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Yakuza 0, and Guild Wars 2.
The latest update and driver release for Intel Arc A-Series graphics cards introduces another massive performance increase in the region of 2.7X on the flagship Intel Arc A770 GPU. However, this one is all about AI, with the gains coming from Intel working closely with Microsoft to bring optimizations to DirectML for Intel Arc.
To demonstrate the buff, which uses Microsoft's open-source Olive tool for AI optimization, the Olive-optimized Stable Diffusion XL text-to-image generator from Stability AI sees up to a 2.7X increase in performance on the Intel Arc A770 after you factor in additional driver improvements.
Diablo 4's boosted XP and gold week makes leveling and gaining power even quicker
Diablo IV's launch was a success, both critically and with players. Still, as a live service game as Blizzard's action RPG moved into its first Season - that praise and excitement slowly faded as many players began to tire of the repetitive and somewhat undercooked "end-game."
Season 2, or Season of Blood, which features a vampire theme, new activities, and vampire powers to wield, has seen the positive vibes and sentiment return to Sanctuary. In addition to being able to tackle and farm new bosses for specific gear, the team at Blizzard also sped up leveling so that getting up to Level 100 is now 40% faster.
And with the current Mother's Blessing week, with the massive 35% boost to both XP and Gold until November 27, there's no better time to jump into Diablo IV.
Sabrent Black Friday sales are here, grab a huge 4TB Gen4 SSD and enjoy 65% off
Black Friday sales are here, with Sabrent celebrating with some discounts on its Rocket 4 Plus SSDs and so much more. The biggest deal that I can see is the super-fast, super-big 4TB Gen4 SSD, which is under half the price of its MSRP right now.
Sabrent's super-fast 4TB Rocket 4 Plus SSD has a price of $999, but for Black Friday, we're seeing the price drop down to just $349, which is a steal if you've been waiting for the Rocket 4 Plus in the 4TB capacity to drop. For comparison, the larger 8TB Rocket 4 Plus SSD is $999 right now, down from $1099.
If you didn't need a huge 4TB or massive 8TB Gen4 SSD, Sabrent has its 2TB Rocket 4 Plus SSD for $129 (no discount for Black Friday) as well as the 1TB Rocket 4 Plus for $79, which is down 20% from its $99 MSRP.
Roblox ties Call of Duty franchise with 70 million daily active users
Roblox now ties Call of Duty in one of the most important metrics for interactive entertainment.
Roblox recently posted its Q3 earnings results, showing strong revenues of $713 million on the back of $840 million in net bookings. Outside of the earnings performance, Roblox also broke new ground on its engagement KPIs (key performance indicators), namely with the amount of people who used Roblox on a daily basis.
According to the report, Roblox had over 70 million DAUs (daily active users) throughout the 3-month period ending September 30, 2023. That puts Roblox directly up against Call of Duty, one of gaming's largest franchises.
Continue reading: Roblox ties Call of Duty franchise with 70 million daily active users (full post)
Intel Lunar Lake MX teased: 8 CPU cores, 8 Xe2 GPU cores, DisplayPort 2.1 support in 2024
Intel's upcoming low-power architecture has been made slightly clearer thanks to new leaks, where we're learning more about Lunar Lake-MX, which will arrive in laptops and hopefully handhelds in 2024.
The next-gen Intel Lunar Lake-MX was leaked by "YuuKi-AnS" who shared the slides on Twitter of course, they were removed quickly, but with the internet being the internet, nothing is ever truly deleted. The slides tease Intel's next-gen Lunar Lake CPU series that were designed for low-power systems, where power consumption will start at 8W with designs up to 30W.
Intel has co-developed the Lunar Lake architecture, according to these slides, for the power-efficient software/hardware integration side of things. Inside, Intel will be using a next-gen integrated NPU 4.0 (Neural Processing Unit) for Microsoft to brand Lunar Lake-powered systems as "AI PCs," of course.
Valve boss Gabe Newell wants fun instead of realism
Like most gamers, Valve's Gabe Newell also believes video games should emphasize fun over realism.
Half-Life just celebrated its 25th anniversary and Valve went all out for the momentous occasion with a feature-length Half-Life documentary and even making the old-school PC classic free to own for a limited time on Steam. The official Half-Life 25th anniversary documentary is filled with lore, history, and tidbits of the earliest days of Valve and of the sci-fi FPS itself.
The doc follows a lot of people who have worked at Valve, including small interviews with Valve founder Gabe Newell. These interviews are always a treat because of Newell's frank candor, and this documentary was no exception. Throughout the doc, Newell expressed his thoughts on fun vs realism, which is particularly interesting given Valve's high-precision VR physics system used in Half-Life Alyx.
Continue reading: Valve boss Gabe Newell wants fun instead of realism (full post)
OpenAI staff threaten to follow ex-CEO Sam Altman to Microsoft if the board doesn't quit
If you keep an eye on the AI market or know about, or even use, ChatGPT, then you've heard about OpenAI being a mess over the weekend. The AI leader fired its co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, whom Microsoft then hired to run a new AI team, and now most OpenAI staffers are threatening to quit if their demands aren't met.
Their demands? The OpenAI board resigns immediately.
Over 700 of the employees at OpenAI out of the roughly 770 employees there, signed a letter on Monday that addressed the OpenAI board stating that those who signed it are "unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgment and care for our mission and employees".





















