The conversation surrounding video game developer crunch continues, this week with Treyarch in the spotlight. According to current and former studio workers bringing their concerns to the public, year-long crunch at Treyarch was sustained during the development of Black Ops 4 and QA testers are treated particularly poorly. As usual, …
Read More »Steam will ‘likely be able to continue’ to officially support Ubuntu
Earlier this week, Valve raised concerns around Ubuntu and Canonical’s plan to remove 32-bit software support. Valve said that it would need to drop support for the popular Linux distro if this happened and would need to begin recommending something else for users. Since then, Canonical has said that it …
Read More »Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo band together to warn US gov against increased China tariffs
Many major tech companies have been contacting the US government regarding its proposed tariffs on products manufactured in China. Up to this point, we have mostly been hearing from PC hardware and OEMs like Apple, Intel etc. Today, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo released a joint letter regarding these tariffs, strongly …
Read More »Microsoft is also interested in reviving Age of Mythology
Over the last few years, Microsoft has been increasing its efforts on the PC gaming side and is now in a very exciting spot, with all future Xbox exclusives also planned for PC. Aside from us getting franchises like Halo, Gears of War and Forza on PC, Microsoft is also …
Read More »Black Mesa’s Xen beta is now live, full release ‘won’t be long’
Earlier this week we learned that Black Mesa, a remake of Half-Life 1, was going to be getting a public beta for the Xen section of the game very soon. That time arrived even sooner than we could have hoped as the Black Mesa Xen beta went live last night …
Read More »Nintendo Switch Mini potentially leaked by accessory maker
Update (26.06.19): Following on from last week's Nintendo Switch mini leaks stemming from a China-based console accessory manufacturer, more images of what this new console could look like are surfacing. The folks over at Lets Go Digital have taken elements from the HonSon leak and rendered a new look at the …
Read More »Intel rumoured to be planning 8th Gen and 9th Gen price cuts to combat Ryzen 3000
The launch of the Zen architecture back in 2017 brought some much needed competition back to the CPU market and AMD is about to hit a new milestone with the launch of Zen 2 next week, which will make the jump to 7nm technology. According to a report, the impending …
Read More »Half-Life remake ‘Black Mesa’ set to get Xen chapters very soon
The Crowbar Collective has been working on Black Mesa for years now. Originally a free mod, the Half-Life 1 remake has now been available on Steam for quite some time, although it has remained in an early access state. Now, we are closer than ever to a full launch, with …
Read More »Apple officially responds to Spotify’s EU antitrust complaint, defending iOS platform cut
Earlier this year, Spotify filed an antitrust complaint against Apple with the European Union, spurring an investigation into the platform cut Apple takes on purchases and subscriptions made through the iOS App Store. Apple has already explained its case in a public letter but now an official response has been …
Read More »Valve is looking for a new Linux distro to support as Ubuntu plans to drop 32-bit
For a long time now, Valve has been a bastion for PC gaming on Linux. While news on SteamOS seems to have slowed down to a crawl, in the last year Valve has released Proton, a compatibility tool that allows thousands of games to run on Linux without official support …
Read More »Apple urges US government not to expand China trade tariffs
Last week we learned that Apple was looking to move as much as 30 percent of its production out of China and into Southeast Asia in an effort to minimise the financial impact of the US government's new trade tariffs. Now, Apple has officially addressed the current situation between the …
Read More »Microsoft rumoured to be launching a foldable Surface tablet hybrid in early 2020
Microsoft has been rumoured to be working on a foldable Surface device for quite some time. Initially, this was believed to be a Surface Phone, something that Microsoft has explored the idea of in the past. Now, it looks like the project has taken on a new form and will …
Read More »Epic Games is giving Fortnite devs a fortnight off following reports of endless crunch
Back in April there was a well sourced report claiming that Fortnite's success had pushed Epic Games developers into a state of ‘endless crunch'. The studio was constantly working on and planning new updates to keep players interested in the game, leading to a gruelling work schedule. Now, Epic is …
Read More »Corsair One i140 and i160 (2019) Review (3440×1440 120hz Gaming)
Fancy something different? - we check out the i140 and i160 with a high refresh 1440p monitor.
Read More »Ubisoft launches custom quest creator for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Ubisoft isn’t exactly known for adding mod support to its games but that might start to change. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is continuing to get free updates and the latest is a ‘Story Creator’, allowing players to create their own custom quests in-game, set their own conditions/rewards and share them with …
Read More »Halo MCC should get its first public test on PC next week
If you were fortunate enough to attend E3 last week, then you will have already had the chance to try out Halo Reach running on PC. For the rest of us, we are still waiting on the first Halo Insider tests to go live, which should finally happen next week …
Read More »SEGA still owns Alpha Protocol IP but music rights expired
Yesterday we learned that Sega had pulled Obsidian’s cult classic espionage RPG, Alpha Protocol, from sale on Steam. This was a surprise move that came without warning. At the time, a Sega spokesperson said that this was due to the company’s publishing rights expiring but it turns out that they …
Read More »Apple issues recall for 15-inch MacBook Pros due to fire risk
Apple has been running into its share of issues with MacBook Pro units recently. We’ve had keyboard failures, display issues and now, Apple is having to recall a number of 15-inch MacBook Pro units sold between 2015 and 2017 due to fire risks. Older generation 15-inch MacBook Pro units sold …
Read More »CD Projekt Red is planning Witcher 3-style expansions for Cyberpunk 2077
As incredible as The Witcher 3 was at launch, some of the best content for the game came later in the form of two highly praised expansions that added a ton of extra content to the game. This strategy paid off handsomely for CD Projekt Red at the time and …
Read More »ASUS ROG Swift PG35VQ finally arrives with 200Hz refresh rate and HDR
It has been a long two years but the ASUS ROG Swift PG35VQ is finally ready to launch. The 35-inch ultrawide 200Hz monitor was first unveiled back in 2017 and has been brought back to several trade shows since with no word on the retail launch. Now, the monitor is …
Read More »The spec for PCIe 6.0 has already been announced
We are only just on the horizon of PCIe 4.0 equipped motherboards coming to market but the folks behind the standard are already two steps ahead. PCI-SIC, the group behind the PCI Express standard, has announced the specification for PCIe 6.0, which will deliver up to 64GT/s of bandwidth. PCI-Express …
Read More »EA says loot boxes are ‘surprise mechanics’ and are as ethical as Kinder Eggs
Loot box controversy has been going on for years now but publishers are starting to get worried as governments around the world are starting to pay attention and are investigating how predatory these microtransactions can be in certain games. EA has of course found itself right at the centre of …
Read More »Sega has pulled Obsidian’s Alpha Protocol from Steam
Alpha Protocol isn’t brought up nearly as often as some of Obsidian’s other RPGs but the game has gone on to become something of a cult classic in the years following its 2010 release. Unfortunately, it looks like digital availability of the game is in flux right now, as SEGA …
Read More »Intel releases its own one-click overclocking tool with support for 9th Gen CPUs
One-click overclocking has been a popular tool used within the BIOS of many gaming-oriented motherboards for years now. Some people don't necessarily want to poke around in the BIOS though in fear of screwing something up. With that in mind, Intel has released its own one-click CPU overclocking tool known …
Read More »Samsung tipped to launch Galaxy Note 10 in first week of August
While Samsung is still seemingly struggling to bring the Galaxy Fold to market, the company does have one other major smartphone launch planned for 2019 that should pose fewer issues. The Galaxy Note 10 is on the way and it looks like we can expect a launch within the first …
Read More »InXile, Obsidian and Larian Studios were all in the running for Baldur’s Gate 3
It has been almost two weeks since Larian Studios officially announced that it is indeed working on Baldur's Gate 3, almost twenty years after Baldur's Gate 2 released. Larian wasn't the only studio trying to get their hands on the IP though, it turns out that both Obsidian and InXile …
Read More »Apple reportedly looking to move up to 30 percent of production out of China
Discussion around the strained relationship between the US and China is continuing this week. Some of tech's biggest companies are concerned about the Huawei ban, meanwhile others are starting to look at moving production out of China to avoid tariffs. Last week we talked about Nintendo Switch production moving out …
Read More »Valve celebrates 20 years of Counter-Strike by adding classic Dust 2 to CS:GO
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Counter-Strike. What started off as a multiplayer Half-Life mod has gone on to become one of the biggest shooter franchises in gaming and is still going strong two decades later. To celebrate the occasion, Valve has released an update for CS:GO, which puts …
Read More »The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is getting a sequel because DLC wasn’t enough
During E3 last week, one of Nintendo’s biggest surprise announcements was that a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is now in development. Then teaser gave us a rough idea of where things are heading this time around but now series producer, Eiji Aonuma, has spoken …
Read More »Modder shows off Android running on Switch with Nvidia Shield features
Ever since the Nintendo Switch first launched, the modding scene for the console has been alive and well. Folks have already figured out how to run homebrew software and other projects are making good progress. One Switch modder has recently managed to get a version of Google Android running on …
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