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Riley Reid has officially launched a new platform where users can engage with AI chatbots that are trained on the likeness of adult film stars, such as Riley Reid herself.

The new platform is called Clona.AI and is designed to transform the adult film industry by enabling actors and actresses to create AI avatars trained on their likeness. Models within the adult film industry that decide to create an AI avatar are able to choose what their chatbot can and can't say to users. Currently, Riley Reid has her own AI companion, along with Lena the Plug.

For $30 a month, users can engage in "intimate conversions" with digital versions of their favorite adult stars, which can be in audio or text. There is also a free option for users that limits conversions with digital versions of adult stars to five messages a month. For those wondering how this works, Clona.AI is using Meta's Llama 2 large language model to power these avatars, and adult stars are required to feed it a bunch of critical information that is then converted into a chatbot with a "personality".

Konami announced that it was remaking the classic 2004 title Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and now we have got our first look at the Unreal Engine 5 recreation.

The new in-engine look was posted to the official Konami YouTube channel, and we are immediately introduced to Snake making his way through a jungle, trudging through a river while avoiding contact with a crocodile. For those that don't know, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is the first game in the Metal Gear series, and judging from the above video, it's now confirmed that Snake can move while crouched in the remake - something that wasn't possible in the original 2004 title.

Konami originally announced the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater back in May, and many die-hard fans of the series were quick to warn Konami to take their time with the re-release and to not change any of the in-game fundamentals that they fell in love with all those years ago. Those same warning sentiments are echoed in the comment section of the above trailer, with thousands of people pushing for Konami to simply take their time and make sure they get the remake right.

NASA's Orion spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Earth sometime in 2024 to be launched on a long journey around the Moon, carrying four astronauts on a harrowing mission.

The space agency has taken to its website to issue an update on the development of the Orion spacecraft, with NASA explaining that Orion is actually modular, with each part being engineered by a different company. For example, the part of the spacecraft that provides electricity, propulsion, air, and water is constructed by Airbus Defence and Space and is provided by the European Space Agency (ESA), while Lockheed Martin develops the adapter and crew module that will house all four astronauts.

With these two modules now stacked on top of each other, the Orion spacecraft is now ready to undergo a series of tests designed to prepare it for its long journey around the Moon. NASA writes that for the first time, teams will be able to power up the service and crew module, which will be the very first test the space agency will conduct. The next test will be altitude chamber testing, which will attempt to replicate the vacuum of space.

Soon X users will be able to call each other, or at least that's what seems to be happening as select users are reporting a new feature popping up in their account settings.

Reports indicate that X users will now be able to enable audio and video calling by heading to their settings and locating the new toggle feature. Personally, my account hasn't received the push notification "Audio and video calls are here!" informing me that calls are now enabled on my account, but some members of The Verge reported they did, along with thousands of other users. It seems this new feature is being rolled out slowly to users, likely by region.

Notably, the new feature allows users to choose who can call their account, with options such as "people in your address book, People you follow, and Verified users". As you can probably imagine, users can make a call by heading to their Direct Messages, selecting the account they wish to message and then the call button located in the right-hand corner of the screen.

Microsoft has just pushed out Copilot to Windows 11 testers who are in the Canary channel, those using the earliest test version of the OS.

If you recall, there was some displeasure when the Copilot AI first began testing and was present in Dev, but not the Canary channel.

At any rate, the AI is now finally in Canary, but don't get too excited if you're involved in this branch of testing - the rollout is only just beginning at the moment. As that part of the intro in the blog post for build 25982 is bolded, we can guess that initially Copilot is probably going to see pretty limited availability.

A team of researchers used data acquired by NASA's Curiosity rover to determine that Mars once was one too many more river systems than researchers previously guessed, even going as far as to describe the Martian world as once being "a planet of rivers".

A new study published in the Geophysical Research Letters details an analysis that was conducted on data gathered by NASA's Curiosity rover, currently stationed in the Gale Crater, a prime location for looking for past river systems. The team specifically looked at erosion across the planet and applied numerical models to simulate erosion across millions of years. The team concluded that crater formations called bench-and-nose landforms are likely from remnants of ancient riverbeds.

The team combined satellite data, Curiosity's data, and 3D scans of the stratigraphy - or layers of rock, called strata, deposited over millions of years - beneath the Gulf of Mexico seafloor. All of the aforementioned data was used to train a computer model that revealed Mars could have once had far more rivers and riverbeds than previous research has indicated.

NASA has taken to its social channels to share an incredible image of a "face" captured by its Juno spacecraft during a fly-by of the planet on September 7, 2023.

The space agency has taken to its website along with its social channels to share an "eerie" photograph of a "face" that was captured by the Juno spacecraft on its 54th fly-by. NASA explains that while the image certainly resembles a "face," it's merely Jupiter's turbulent clouds located on the planet's far northern region. NASA writes in its blog post that the image shows what is called a "terminator," which is the dividing line between the day and night side of the planet.

At the time of the image being snapped, NASA's Juno spacecraft was approximately 4,800 miles above Jupiter's top clouds, at a latitude of 69 degrees. These photographs are analyzed by researchers who look for patterns in Jupiter's cloud formations, identifying any storms, abundantly turbulent areas, calm regions, etc - all of which to develop a deeper understanding of the atmosphere of the largest planet in our solar system.

NASA has taken to its official X account for its Mars rover named Perseverance to share images and video of its latest Martian sample.

The Perseverance rover X account, which is run from the perspective of the rover, posted a collection of images on October 26 showcasing that its drill bit was "filled to the brim" with its latest sample. The rover explains in its X post that its "abrasion patch" revealed "interesting textures in this bedrock". Notably, the space agency explains that these images are snapshots of the ancient environment that Perseverance is currently exploring.

The Mars rover is located within the Jezero Crater, a location specifically selected by NASA for its high potential of once having running rivers and delta. NASA's educated guess was quickly proven true by Perseverance once it became operational after landing in the crater in February 2021. The rover imaged the surrounding area and provided evidence that Jezero Crater once had flowing water that carved deltas into the landscape. There was also evidence through erosion lines.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the world's most powerful space telescope, has detected an extremely rare explosion caused by the merger of two stars.

Webb wasn't the only telescope involved in these observations as researchers used data acquired by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Telescope, and NASA's Gehrels Swift Observatory in addition to the data provided by Webb. The instruments detected an incredibly bright gamma-ray burst, now called GRB 230307A, which was caused by an explosion as a result of two neutron stars merging. Webb's instruments specifically assisted researchers in identifying the chemical element tellurium, which was produced shortly after the explosion took place.

Scientists call the explosion caused by the merger of two neutron stars, or a neutron star and a black hole - a kilonova. NASA writes in its blog post found on its website that observations such as the detection of the heavy element tellurium help researchers in piecing together how life on Earth eventually came into existence. The space agency writes, "Other elements near tellurium on the periodic table - like iodine, which is needed for much of life on Earth - are also likely to be present among the kilonova's ejected material."

As the spiritual successor to the iconic Sim City franchise, many gamers have highly anticipated the launch of Cities: Skylines II. Before the game's launch, developer Colossal Order and publisher Paradox Interactive warned players that the game would feature major performance issues.

A definite red flag, and with the game's launch seeing the concurrent player count hit over 100,000 on Steam; the current user review rating is sitting on 'Mixed' with most of the negative feedback surrounding the game's notably bad performance and optimization.

The developer and publisher (most likely the latter) thought that simply stating "performance is bad" was enough to lessen the community outrage. Cities: Skylines II is running at 20 FPS for many players, so the game is a mess regarding performance. To make the situation worse, as part of a new "Post-Release Plans & Goals" post, the developer states that "performance is not a dealbreaker" when launching a game on PC.

Diablo IV's Season of Blood is currently underway, and so far, the reception from players, both casual and hardcore, has been positive. Even if it's being review-bombed on Steam. With several quality-of-life updates, new vampiric powers, and many new endgame systems and loot overhauls, the game is currently in a much better state than it was at launch. And it's only going to get better.

It's no secret that Diablo IV will continue to get post-launch support, with Blizzard noting that they have teams working on seasonal content and multiple major expansions. Blizzard's head of Diablo, Rod Fergusson, has even hinted that the cadence could get to a point where we see annual expansions. Very cool.

Based on the latest bit of data mining on a new internal 2.0 build of the game (via Wccftech), we've now got info on the first expansion, it's setting, the game's first new class addition, and one of the coolest single-player features from Diablo II making a return.

Alan Wake 2 is so close I can feel it... and so can the SSD inside of my PC. Now that Remedy Entertainment has started the pre-loading push for Alan Wake 2, we know the file sizes of the game and what SSD space you'll need to have to install it on your PC.

Epic Games Store will be the exclusive storefront where you'll buy Alan Wake 2 on the PC; with Epic Games funding the development with Remedy Entertainment for Alan Wake 2, we should expect it to stay away from the likes of Steam. Anyway, on the PC, you're going to need 86GB of SSD storage space to get Alan Wake 2 installed, while the PlayStation 5 version of the game weighs in at 85GB, and the Xbox Series X/S version at 82GB.

The launch trailer for Alan Wake 2 was recently revealed... oozing with atmosphere, inviting players to come and enjoy the very best of what Remedy has crafted with its revolutionary Northlight engine. Alan Wake 2 will squeeze every last transistor out of your GPU to showcase the best in visual technology in 2023, with NVIDIA's new DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction technology on offer, as well as ray tracing, path tracing, and some incredible graphics and environments to explore.

There have been rumors about a possible SUPER refresh for some of the GeForce RTX 40 Series line-up. It's a name we haven't seen since the GeForce RTX 20 Series, and if you're a little confused as to how the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER and GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER fit into the product stack - don't worry, we're about to break it down.

The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti was the only GPU from the Turing generation to sport the 'Ti' branding - with NVIDIA introducing more powerful SUPER versions of the GeForce RTX 2060, RTX 2070, and RTX 2080 in the back half of the generation's life cycle. The SUPER branding didn't appear during the Ampere-based GeForce RTX 30 Series (instead, we got a bunch of 'Ti' models). Still, several rumors indicate its return with the latest Ada Lovelace generation.

There's a lot of info out there regarding the new SUPER line-up. However, some recent comments and info from known industry insider and leaker @kopite7kimi clearly show what to expect. And that is similar to what we saw with the GeForce RTX 20 Series and its SUPER lineup.

If you haven't heard of THE FINALS, it should definitely be on your radar: it's a new team-based multiplayer first-person shooter that takes place inside of a virtual game show -- and it's made by ex-DICE developers who worked on the Battlefield franchise.

Well, THE FINALS will now enjoy a huge cross-platform Open Beta that kicks off tomorrow (October 26) and runs through until November 5 on the PC (through Steam) and the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles. Embark Studios has already run some closed betas of THE FINALS, which were held earlier this year. Still, the new open beta will see the introduction of a new map -- Skyway Stadium -- a new playground for THE FINALS players.

Embark has included a new "Bank-It" game mode that will see four teams of three duke it out for coins in a "casual-friendly" combat-focused mode. Whatever team reaches the maximum limit first, or the team with the most cash banked at the end of the round, will win the Bank-It game mode.

SteamVR 2.0 is a big overhaul to Valve's VR platform, bringing most of the current features of Steam and the Steam Deck to SteamVR. From integrated Steam Chat and Voice Chat to an improved store layout, the overhaul will allow Valve to "add new Steam features in the future much faster and more frequently."

SteamVR 2.0 started in beta on September 25, 2023, so it's only been a month of testing before hitting its full release. The updated interface and full integration of Steam's robust chat system with dual-cursor typing, new languages, emojis, and themes are very welcome. Like the recently updated desktop client, it's a cleaner UI that retains that classic Steam look and feel.

Even though VR gaming has taken a back-seat for most in the PC space, with the recent release of the Meta Quest 3 (fully supported on PC and in Steam), the overall state of PC VR is in a good place. However, one has to wonder - with an overhaul to SteamVR like this, is Valve planning to launch a follow-up to its critically acclaimed Valve Index VR headset from 2019?

GEEKOM wants all TweakTown readers to know about its latest Mini PC sale. They are offering up its Mini IT11 small form factor mini PC powered by Intel's 11th Gen Core i7 CPU, 1TB SSD, 32GB of RAM (expandable to 64GB) for $499, and Microsoft Windows 11 Pro comes installed.

When not on sale, this highly capable little system sells for $849, but right now, you can save a huge $350 when buying it from GEEKOM. That works out to be a massive 41% or so discount. Just enter coupon code tweaktownit11 at checkout to remove $50 from the price.

GEEKOM's Mini IT11 is a tiny PC weighing just 565 grams and measuring 117 x 112 x 45.6mm - it's small enough to almost fit in your pants pocket. It is powered by Intel's 11th Gen Core i7-11390H processor (4 Cores, 8 Threads, 12MB Smart Cache, and up to 5GHz Max Turbo Frequency) with a TDP of just 35 watts and Intel Iris Xe graphics. It comes installed with 32GB DDR4 SO-DIMM memory modules in dual-channel mode, with upgradability up to 64GB if required. Also included is a 1TB 2280 M.2 PCIe/SATA SSD, which is upgradable to a 2TB drive in a system which costs $50 more for the larger storage option.

ASUS has just teased its first entry from its TUF Gaming family of graphics cards that's white, within the newer NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series GPU family. We've seen ASUS unleash Radeon RX 7800 and Radeon RX 7700 XT models in white, but this is a first for the RTX 40 series from the company. Check it out:

The company already has a regular black-themed TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti graphics card, so there are no physical changes to the appearance of the White OC Edition. The shroud, fans, and backplate have all been changed to white, obviously, with no modifications done to the I/O bracket or even the PCB -- the PCB is still black -- so it's the same card, pretty much dipped in white paint.

NVIDIA's in-house GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Founders Edition is different to the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti OC Edition in a few ways: there's a regular 8-pin PCIe power connector here, but the biggest change is something I loved during my reviews of the ASUS GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs... ASUS includes an additional HDMI 2.1 connector on their cards, which is quite useful in some scenarios.

Microsoft will combine Activision Blizzard King and Xbox revenues together starting in Q2, which corresponds to the market's busiest season.

Xbox recently closed its $68.7 billion merger with Activision and a new high watermark will soon be established for Xbox's earnings. Microsoft has confirmed that it will recognize Activision's revenues as part of its Q2 FY24 period, which runs from October - December 2023.

Microsoft has published Xbox earnings forecasts for holiday 2023, and based on the figures, Xbox could brush very close against PlayStation's quarterly results. In a recent earnings call, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said that gaming is expected to rise by 45-49% year-over-year. Of this amount, Activision is expected to impact about 35% of earnings.

October 27 is just hours away at this point, with Remedy Entertainment unleashing the official Alan Wake 2 launch trailer... check it out:

The launch trailer for Alan Wake 2 oozes with atmosphere, inviting players to come and enjoy the very best of what Remedy has crafted with its revolutionary Northlight engine. Alan Wake 2 is filled with the very best of what GPU technology offers in 2023, with NVIDIA's new DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction technology on offer, as well as ray tracing, path tracing, and some incredible graphics and environments to explore.

In some recent benchmarks, NVIDIA used its flagship GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card, which was capable of pushing 130FPS+ at 4K with DLSS 3.5 (Frame Generation, Ray Reconstruction, and Super Resolution), with full ray tracing enabled on max settings. That's some good stuff right there.

ARK: Survival Evolved was one of the biggest surprise hits of the last few years, and now Studio Wildcards' is cooking up something very, very exciting with its sequel... ARK: Survival Ascended, which has a new gameplay trailer to check out:

The new trailer was released during the Xbox Partner Preview showcase, with the Unreal Engine 5-powered ARK: Survival Ascended looking mighty fine in the graphics department because of it. We have massively upgraded environments, creatures that have an enormous amount of detail, destruction, and so much more. It's all in-engine, and it looks in-sane.

ARK: Survival Ascended is using Unreal Engine 5 to great effect, with many its technologies baked inside of the game, including Lumen, Nanite, Instance-Based Rendering, fluid and foilage animation technologies, and more. There are also modding abilities in ARK: Survival Ascended, with the new modding tools letting you access Unreal Engine 5 directly. Not only that, but console gamers playing ARK: Survival Ascended will be able to get in on the modding fun, too.