Latest News - Page 965

YESTON has just unveiled its new Radeon RX 7900 series SAKURA graphics cards, with a truly interesting -- and rather, very, very unique -- design. Check it out:

The new YESTON Radeon RX 7900 series SAKURA graphics cards feature an interestingly-styled "SUGAR" cooling system, with Chinese media reporting that YESTON is using the latest manufacturing techniques for the new graphics cards, which makes the durability of the design higher than other designs on the market.

YESTON is using a combination of injection molding, hot stamping, and laser etching... with some rather wicked results. The company is moving forward with a triple-fan thermal design, with each of the fans rocking a separate color -- purple, blue/green, and pink by looks of things -- with YESTON donning this the "SUGAR" heat dissipation technology.

MSI is preparing a monster new gaming laptop, according to the folks at Notebookcheck, with the next-gen TITAN GT77 gaming laptop rocking a delicious Mini-LED display and monster next-gen Ada Lovelace GPU.

The next-gen MSI TITAN GT77 gaming laptop will reportedly feature a huge 17.3-inch Mini-LED display with a native 3840 x 2160 resolution (4K) and a gloriously smooth 144Hz refresh rate. We're looking at MSI's new TITAN GT77 gaming laptop having DisplayHDR 1000 certification with up to 1000 nits of peak brightness, 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, and factory color calibration out of the box.

MSI's next-gen TITAN GT77 gaming laptop specs (source: MSI)

Sony could release a new PlayStation 5 model in 2023, but it may not be a PS5 Pro with improved performance and power.

In a recent interview with Japanese gaming site Famitsu, Sony Interactive Entertainment Vice President Hideaki Nishino may have teased a new PS5 model that could be announced and/or released in 2023.

Famitsu mentioned that the PS5 was entering its third year, and that the PS4 Pro released in the PS4's third year--would a new revamped PS5 come in 2023 to continue this mid-cycle trend? Nishino responded by Sony's current plans and thoughts about next year:

Beloved creative director Chris Metzen is returning to Blizzard to help lead the studio during a big transitional period.

Blizzard is changing. On a cultural level, the studio has struggled with sexual harassment allegations, leading to multiple lawsuits and shocking testimony of worker treatment and abuse. Blizzard has also struggled with production: Before Diablo 2 Resurrected's launch in 2021, Blizzard had not released a new product for many years. Now Blizzard management is trying to solve both issues and has recruited studio vets to help make it happen.

According to a new report from Bloomberg, former Blizzard creative Chris Metzen is returning to the studio to help kickstart these new initiatives. Management hopes that Metzen's return will embolden morale and lead to better culture while offering inspiration to workers who are developing new games and content. Metzen could help get Blizzard back on track with culture and production.

Square Enix is bundling all six classic Final Fantasy games from the NES and SNES eras in one collectible package.

It's official: The Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Collection is coming to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in a physical and collectible format. The all-in-one bundle includes Final Fantasy I - VI but the asking price is a bit steep at $75, which is the same price as the full collection on Steam. The physical editions are exclusive to the Square Enix Store so you'll want to pre-order ASAP to get a copy.

The games are due to ship in May 2023, which is really close to the planned June release date for Final Fantasy 16.

Microsoft could introduce a lower-cost Xbox Game Pass subscription tier that requires users to watch advertisements before they play.

An Xbox user survey may hint at a new cheaper Xbox Game Pass subscription plan in exchange for ads, not unlike the cheaper ad-supported plans that Netflix, Disney, and Paramount+ currently offer. The survey, which is in Spanish and was uploaded to ResetEra, gives an interesting look at what Microsoft could be planning.

According to the questionnaire, Microsoft could offer a tremendously low-cost Game Pass tier for just 3 Euros a month with lots of restrictions. Right now Xbox Game Pass is the most value-oriented video games subscription on the market, and Microsoft could improve subscriber counts by cutting up this value and offering separately-priced pieces.

Microsoft executive Brad Smith makes the case that Xbox needs more first-party content in order to stay competitive, but that isn't exactly true--Microsoft just needs more games.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg Technology, Microsoft President Brad Smith laid out more reasons why the company should be able to buy Activision for $68.7 billion. Smith argues that Xbox needs more first-party IPs so that they can adequately compete against Sony's PlayStation brand,

"We're the small entrant. They have 286 exclusive titles. We have 59. We need some more first-party games in order to be a healthier and stronger competitor, and we need to do it in course in a way that doesn't impede competition along the way," Smith said.

Valve confirms it is concepting new SteamOS hardware for all kinds of spaces, including couch gaming in the living room.

Valve has had a push and pull relationship with hardware. Its Steam Machines initiative, which created low-cost (and low-powered) PC "consoles" from multiple OEMs largely failed to gain traction. The VR and handheld gaming fronts are very different stories. The Steam Deck is incredibly popular, and Valve's Index VR is largely seen as the best way to experience dedicated, PC-powered virtual reality.

The PC game store operator has no plans of stopping its hardware ambitions any time soon. Valve is currently focusing heavily on its Steam Deck platform, including new model revisions, as well as VR...but it still isn't giving up on some sort of console-like system for the living room.

Spider-Man 2, one of the most anticipated new PS5 games, just got a targeted release window.

Sony and Insomniac Games today announced Spider-Man 2 is planned for a Fall 2023 launch exclusively on PS5. The sequel features both Miles Morales and Peter Parker, hinting that gamers will be able to switch between the heroes, and Venom also shows up. Maybe Miles and Peter team up against Venom, or all three join to fight some bigger threat like Carnage?

"What a year it's been for PlayStation Studios; here at Insomniac Games we've been in absolute awe of the work of our peers.

Russia's defense ministry released a video of a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile being loaded into a launch silo in Kozelsk, a town in western Russia.

The video was published on Telegram on Thursday by Russia's Defense Ministry, and according to Russia's Defense Ministry, the missile is being loaded into the intercontinental ballistic missile silo, and this procedure takes several hours. The missile is called "Yars" by Russia, a capable nuclear warhead that the nation fired back in October to display its nuclear capabilities.

Notably, Russia has recently threatened to use nuclear weapons in the past, but President Vladimir Putin has recently said that the nation would not be the very first country to use them. This video comes just days after reports emerged that the US is preparing to send an advanced Patriot air defense system to Ukraine. The news about the potential deployment of the Patriot missile system to Ukraine has prompted a strong response from Russia.

NASA has taken to its blog to showcase a new image of one of the largest Jupiter moons called Io. The Juno spacecraft has imaged the moon in infrared.

NASA's Juno mission is a space exploration project that aims to study the planet Jupiter and its atmosphere in an attempt to learn more about its evolution. The spacecraft was launched in August 2011 and entered Jupiter's orbit in July 2016. Since then, it has been collecting data and sending it back to Earth for analysis, and recently the Juno spacecraft captured an infrared image of the innermost and third-largest of the four Galilean Moons, Io.

So far, the Juno mission has already yielded impressive results as it has made the discovery of water in Jupiter's atmosphere and evidence of auroras on the planet. The Juno mission is expected to continue until July 2021, when the spacecraft will be deliberately de-orbited and will burn up in Jupiter's atmosphere, but before that happens, researchers hope to learn more about our solar system's largest planet. NASA writes in its blog post that Io is the most volcanic place in the solar system, with the moon harboring hundreds of volcanoes.

The former FTX CEO and founder of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency, Sam Bankman-Fried, was arrested a few days and slapped with charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The FTX founder, commonly called SBF, was arrested by Bahamian law enforcement at the request of the US government. Law enforcement has transferred SBF to Fox Hill correctional center in Nassau until February, according to reports that state a judge denied the FTX cryptocurrency exchange creator bail and ordered him to remain in law enforcement custody until he is extradited to the United States. Notably, SBF has been charged with multiple counts of charges of wire and securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, and money laundering.

Now, sources have spoken to Bloomberg and said that SBF isn't very happy with the prison conditions in the Bahamas, which Insider reports are notorious for its harsh conditions. According to these sources, SBF isn't meeting his dietary requirements, and his family members are reportedly calling the prison to request the former FTX CEO is given a vegan diet. Furthermore, SBF lawyers attempted to use the lack of vegan food as well as specific medication being given to SBF as a reason for him to be released on bail, which was priced at $250,000. The bail was denied.

Elon Musk has announced that Twitter will be banning any account that is posting the real-time location of individuals as its a physical safety violation.

The SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter CEO took to his personal Twitter account to make the announcement, writing that any account "doxxing real-time location info" of anyone will now be suspended from the platform. Musk added that accounts will be suspended if they post links to sites with real-time location information and that accounts posting locations of where someone traveled on a delayed basis isn't a violation as that individual is safe.

The Tesla CEO continued to explain his reasoning behind the change, with Musk writing that on December 14, a car that was carrying his son "lil X" was followed by a "crazy stalker (thinking it was me)". This stalker eventually blocked the car from moving and then climbed onto the roof. Musk managed to get a video of the stalker and asked the public if anyone recognized "the person or car?"

KIOXIA has proudly announced that its CM6 and CD6 series of PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs as well as its PM6 series of 24G SAS SSDs have secured themselves Microsoft Windows Server 2022 Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) certification.

This allows the aforementioned KIOXIA SSDs to be used with Windows Server 2022 SDDC solutions that utilize Storage Spaces Direct, with certification of KIOXIA's SSDs conducted by Microsoft to ensure the compatibility and performance KIOXIA's CM6, CD6, and PM6 series SSDs.

As for Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct, it's a feature built into Windows Server that creates a software-defined software solution, which combines SSDs on clustered servers, allowing them to share the storage resources in converted and hyperconverged IT infrastructures. This means users can scale out storage capacity by simply adding in more drives or more servers into their cluster, with Storage Spaces Direct automatically onboarding the new drives, and rebalancing the storage pool.

Blizzard and Vicarious Visions are celebrating the holiday season in hell with some nifty Diablo II Resurrected events.

Thanks to Blizzard's efforts, Hell freezes this Christmas with a special D2 event. The limited-time holiday event is called 22 Nights of Terror, and will feature a new modifier or in-game changes every day for the next 20 days. Blizzard officially promises "powerful loot, a dash of terror, and a new surprise"...however the first two days have been predictable enough.

Day 1 saw the Cow Level (aka an non-existent level) being corrupted as a Terror Zone for the entire day. Areas that are corrupted deliver more XP and have a chance of dropping the new Sunder Charms. Day 2's buff is called Sanity Clause, and sees Terror Zones changing every 15 minutes.

Old-school Unreal Tournament shooters will be taken offline in January 2023, Epic Games has announced.

The end of a classic PC gaming era is upon us. Epic Games is removing all Unreal Tournament games from storefronts and plans to turn off online multiplayer servers for games including Unreal Gold, Unreal II: The Awakening, Unreal Tournament (2003), Unreal Tournament (2004), Unreal Tournament III, and the Unreal Tournament Game of the Year Edition. All versions of these games have already been de-listed from Steam and can no longer be found on the Epic Games Store.

Epic says that it is now shifting towards its more unified and cohesive Epic Online Services framework, which requires deprecating older builds of specific titles. Luckily, Epic says it plans to revive Unreal Tournament 3 to utilize its new services network.

Sony's new $119 a year PlayStation Plus Premium subscription just isn't worth it right now.

Sony recently announced all the new games coming to PlayStation Plus Extra and PlayStation Plus Premium. The offered games continue one big trend about Sony's new 3-tier PS Plus service: The more expensive Premium tier really isn't worth the price, at least right.

PS Plus Premium isn't much more expensive than PS Plus Extra. The Premium tier costs $119 per year, whereas Extra costs $99 a year. The main selling point for PS Plus Premium is access to a growing number of classic games across all PlayStation console generations, including PS1, PS2, PS3, and even PSP and Vita, access to Ubisoft+ titles, as well as being able to stream games to console and PC.

The Witcher 3's new upgrade on PC is a big mess right now and we recommend you hold off on the update until CD Projekt RED addresses the issues.

Today CD Projekt released The Witcher 3's massively anticipated next-gen version on consoles and PC. The game runs smoothly on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, but the PC version is having big issues with big FPS drops and other game-breaking glitches including not being able to heal toxicity levels.

Frame rates are the biggest problems on PC right now. Gamers are reporting 45FPS with an RTX 3080 at 1440p with DLSS at RT Ultra with about 50% GPU utilization. Some 3090 owners are also reporting 45FPS perf. It looks like RTX is the issue, and turning raytracing off immediately gives a huge FPS boost in the 100+ FPS range. Other gamers are reporting instant crashes after they load a save that had raytracing turned on.

NASA recently announced its Orion spacecraft made a safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on December 11 after being launched on a round-trip to the Moon on November 16.

The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket launched the Orion spacecraft onto its journey to the Moon on November 16, with the small but very fast spacecraft entering into lunar orbit on November 25 and finally departing lunar orbit on December 1 for its return journey back to Earth when it landed in the Pacific Ocean on December 11. NASA announced that Orion performed better than expected, achieving all of its primary mission goals and even completing bonus objectives given to it throughout its journey back to Earth.

Now, reports are coming out that Orion reached Naval Base San Diego on December 13 while aboard the USS Portland, a US Navy recovery ship that grabbed Orion shortly after it made splashdown. Orion will undergo full analysis from engineers interested in how the hardware on the inside and outside of the capsule held up throughout the long journey through space, around the Moon, and back through Earth's atmosphere. Notably, engineers will be checking the quality of Orion's heat shield, which is designed to protect the spacecraft from burning up while traveling through Earth's atmosphere.

The announcement was made on Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Energy, which took to its website to share the achievement that was conducted at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The achievement is being described as a "major scientific breakthrough" that has been "decades in the making". The experiment was held on December 5 when scientists used 2.05 megajoules to create a fusion reaction that generated more energy than was used to create it, giving researchers the new categorization of a net positive reaction. This achievement is a crucial step toward creating a sustained fusion reaction that will be able to provide clean energy to the country, and perhaps the world.

For those that don't know, fusion reactions are the process by which atomic nuclei merge to form a heavier nucleus, releasing a large amount of energy in the process. This is the same process that powers the sun and other stars, and scientists have been trying to replicate it on Earth for many years.