Gaming

GPD has brought its XP handheld gaming device to Indiegogo. Available to back soon, the GPD XP features removable controllers, a large display and runs Android 11. The device has a 7,000 mAh battery and expandable storage, too.

The classic game from the Xbox 360 era looks significantly better in higher resolutions on modern consoles, which is why Alan Wake Remastered is a worthy title with only a few flaws according to a review by Digital Foundry.

The easy to operate and free software ScummVM celebrates its 20th anniversary with an update and can now run even more retro games on modern systems.

The L21 PRO models offer significant upgrades over the early 2021 variants, including the Intel Core i7-11800H processors, a Thunderbolt 4 port, a PCIe 4.0 X16 slot for the RTX 3070/3080 dGPUs and an M.2 PCIe 4.0 X4 slot for storage solutions, plus a MUX switch for external displays. XMG removed the microSD card reader, on the other hand.

Samsung has launched the S32AG52, a 32-inch gaming monitor that expands its Odyssey G5 series. The S32AG52 features 1 ms GtG response times, a 165 Hz refresh rate and WQHD native resolution, among other things.

It turns out that the Nintendo Switch OLED Model comes with a 4K and 60 Hz-capable dock. Available to purchase separately, the new Switch Dock also has an integrated LAN port.

ASUS has unveiled the Turbo GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, expanding its Turbo series. The GA104-based card retains the Turbo series' dual-slot design and offers a 30 MHz overclock compared to NVIDIA's reference specifications.

An Apple-focused website is claiming as an exclusive that Apple is currently working on its own portable gaming console in the vein of the hybrid Nintendo Switch. The purported console is said to be almost ready for launch with game titles that could challenge the Nintendo titles like 'Breath of the Wild' and 'Mario Odyssey'.

The sixth entry in Ubisoft's popular shooter series is unfortunately not the most polished game from a technical point of view. A new tech review video by Digital Foundry now visualizes the reasons for Far Cry 6's technical shortcomings.

The Yuzu and Ryujinx Nintendo Switch emulators on PC have made great leaps over the past few years of development. Yuzu’s at the point where newly-launched flagship titles like Metroid Dread are already running on PC at 4K/60 FPS with an entry-level i5-8400/GeForce GTX 1060 combo.

While the high-end models from Nvidia's Ampere generation (RTX 3060, RTX 3070, RTX 3080) have been on the market for a while, the mid-range segment had to wait a bit longer for new GPUs. The XMG Focus 17 shows what an RTX 3050 Ti with a high TGP is capable of.

Xiaomi's gaming phone brand Black Shark has announced that it will launch the refresh for its 2021 premium smartphone soon. Like its immediate predecessor, this upcoming 4S may be a triple rear camera device. However, it is being teased as an "evolved" version of the existing flagship.

The game Red Light, Green Light, as seen in the Netflix horror show Squid Game, is now playable in VR. This simple game lets players experience the game shown in the first episode of the TV series on Facebook Quest headsets.

In an official statement, Amazon puts all the blame on the manufacturers of graphics cards, who are supposedly responsible for manufacturing issues that caused the bricked GPUs of New World players.

AMD's Ryzen 5000 processors with the new B2 stepping may not offer any improvements in terms of performance, but they could possibly improve the availability and supply of these hard to get gaming CPUs.

XPG has announced that it is the first OEM to get its DDR5 RAM to reach a speed of over 8,000 megatransfers per second (MT/s). The company claims to have achieved this feat using memory with a default clock of 4,800MT/s. The RAM in question is to be launched later in 2021.

Today (October 8, 2021) is the day the OLED version of the Nintendo Switch goes to general release following pre-orders. However, this new display variant of the popular console is, of course, facing stock outages in many markets. Some platforms may have units for sale, but are declaring weeks-long delays before they can be delivered.

A UK retailer has leaked the price of AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 6600 graphics card. Sapphire expects to sell the Navi 23-based card for over £435, equivalent to US$475 without sales taxes. VideoCardz has leaked several other custom cards too, including an ITX model.

MSI has launched three new Optix monitors with enough differences between them to cover the needs of even the most demanding gamer. The MSI Optix MPG341QR, Optix MPG321UR-QD, and Optix MPG321QRF-QD offer high refresh rates, low screen response times, and 100 mm x 100 mm VESA mounting.

With its black design the inflatable Gigabyte AORUS gaming chair could very well originate from the Star Wars universe, in which Darth Vader or other Sith would likely enjoy this dark piece of gaming furniture.

At just 45 g, the MM730 is as light as two AA batteries while the MM731 isn't that far behind at 60 g. These ultra-light mice even come with the usual RGB LED and other customizable features commonly found on heavier gaming mice.

According to reports, NVIDIA is planning to bring the RTX 3090 Ti to market soon. Reportedly, the card will arrive with a GA102-250 GPU, 21 Gbps VRAM and a 450 W TDP. The RTX 3090 Ti may sport a new 16-pin power connector, too.

The new FastConnect chips from Qualcomm simultaneously harness two separate bands and can thus lower latency and jitter by a factor of four compared to Wi-Fi 6 solutions that only connect via a single band. This technology can benefit online gaming and live communication applications. It is currently offered on select devices from Acer and Lenovo powered by Windows 11.

Valve has disassembled the Steam Deck in a teardown video. However, the company hopes that the video will serve as a deterrent, rather than as a teardown guide. Nonetheless, replacing the machine's M.2 2230 looks relatively simple.

Corsair has introduced its first gaming monitor, the Xeneon 32QHD165. The 32-inch gaming monitor supports Quantum Dot technology, a 165 Hz refresh rate, 1 ms response times and VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification, among other things. The monitor will ship later this month in most markets.

Besides the Vapour platform, the leaked source files also reveal something called VapeWorld that is built on the Unity engine and looks like a VR chat game with 3D Twitch chat emotes. Additionally, the existence of a “metaverse” folder could suggest Amazon's plans to integrate NFT and other crypto tokens with Vapour.

After Sony has finally activated the long-awaited gaming feature via a firmware update on last year's Bravia LED TVs, the release of an according VRR update for the PS5 seems imminent.

If this new leak is accurate, we could see the RTX 30 SUPER lineup launched throughout the first quarter of 2022. Additionally, Nvidia might up the minimum VRAM capacity to at least 12 GB for all of its desktop tiers. The RTX 3070 Ti with 16 GB and RTX 2060 with 12 GB may be launched to compensate for the ongoing shortages.

Available in open and closed variants, the EPOS H6PRO acoustic gaming headset targets PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and 5, Nintendo Switch, as well as Xbox users. Both variants have similar specs, such as 42 mm drivers, 20 to 20,000 Hz frequency response, and 28 Ohm impedance, but slightly different sensitivity and THD values.

Today (October 5, 2021), ADATA has made its latest 15.6-inch XPG XENIA-series laptop official. The 15 KC upgrades to an 11th-gen Intel processor and RTX 3000 graphics. Being an XPG, it gets first-party "high-performance" DDR4 RAM and SSD storage.

ASUS and Noctua have finally revealed their collaborative graphics cards, both based on the GeForce RTX 3070. Supposedly, the pair are the quietest air-cooled graphics card in their class and should not exceed 35 dB(A) under load.

A tech blog claims to have uncovered evidence of a new portable gaming device developed by Lenovo. This putative answer to the Nintendo Switch or Sony PSP goes under the Legion brand and runs Android - or, rather, it would have, had the OEM not chosen to cancel it ahead of its launch. Should it have made it to the market in 2021, it may have worked as a cloud and streaming machine too.

Samsung has confirmed the presence of ray-tracing technology on a future Exynos GPU. Ray tracing should produce images in games that create a higher immersion factor due to lighting and shadow refinements. However, the screenshot comparison provided by Samsung for Exynos ray tracing has been met with a mixed response.

AMD has finally breached the 30% processor usage wall it had been facing on Steam’s Hardware & Software Survey. It is the strongest position AMD has held in the survey for over 16 months and seemingly reverses the trend for Intel's growth. Intel’s ambitions in this particular arena will now mostly lie on the success of Alder Lake.

Mobile app and game downloads combined declined slightly year-on-year in the third quarter of 2021 (3Q2021), as the pandemic-era boom in this area recedes. Nevertheless, the amount of money coming in on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store is still going up. The latest research indicates that TikTok is still #1 in terms of revenue.

A tech blogger has posted unofficial renders of the Intel Arc Alchemist desktop graphics card reference design. It’s claimed the images of the dGPU were not based on guesswork and accurately represent the test cards. The same source also gave some idea of when both the laptop and desktop variants of Intel Arc Alchemist could be released.

Nvidia did not do itself a favor with the strongly varying TGPs of the current Ampere generation. Even though the XMG Focus 15 races past most other laptops with the RTX 3050 Ti, the RTX 3060 is clearly the better choice for gamers.

The colorful action adventure The Touryst is making history. At least on paper, it is the first ever console game to run at a 8K resolution and 60 frames per second. A new video by Digital Foundry has now explored the technical details of this historic occasion.

The new Oryx Pro laptops are powered by the Intel Core i7-11800H processor that can be coupled with up to 64 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM and up to 4 TB of PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD storage. On the graphics side, we find the RTX 3070 and 3080 Max-Q dGPU options and there is a MUX switch to unleash the full potential in games and demanding applications. It also comes with a Thunderbolt 4 connector, but the prices are quite steep.

Konami released eFootball 2022 yesterday, its replacement for the Pro Evolution Soccer franchise. The company has already apologised for the state in which the game shipped though, with the volume of bugs present overshadowing any changes that Konami has made. eFootball 2022 will receive an update later this month across all platforms.

A patent filed by Nintendo has offered up a potential clue as to what a possible Switch successor could offer in terms of features. The patent describes an “information processing method” that would allow owners of a Switch 2 or Switch Pro to appropriately switch from one game to another like Xbox Series X users can with the Quick Resume feature.

Some Android games can now be played on any device capable of running a modern web browser. BlueStacks X, a cloud-focused variant of the popular Android emulator, can play compatible Android titles without the need for installing any software. The service runs entirely in a web browser, making it usable on PCs, Linux machines, and even iPhones and iPads.

The three older entries of Rockstar Games' iconic Grand Theft Auto series will apparently be released fairly soon for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles, since a South Korean committee has already rated a definitive edition of the trilogy.

The launch of Intel Alder Lake is imminent, according to Lenovo. The company's first Alder Lake-based gaming PC will be orderable from next month with DDR5 RAM and PCIe 5.0 support. The Legion 9000K will start shipping in early November.