Gaming

Elden Ring has been given a Mature 17+ rating by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). Some teasers for the game have been offered up in the rating summary, with mention of coarse words and a partially clothed monster being present in the eagerly awaited RPG. Elden Ring should be released on February 25, 2022.

The Legion Y90 will be Lenovo's freshly-renamed Android gaming flagship for 2022. Now, the OEM has hyped this device again, this time with a shot of its rear panel. It hints at an even bigger RGB logo than that of its predecessor, inviting speculation that it may move away from that phone's fragile build.

A potential graphics card customer has been confronted by a provocative comment from a cashier that has summed up the year perfectly for gamers who have tried desperately to get hold of a high-end Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series card at anything remotely close to launch price. The person was checking out RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3090 boards at the time.

Asus' ROG Global Twitter account has just released a CES 2022 teaser for what looks very like the long-awaited Flow Z13. This new device is touted to put a gaming twist on the convertible tablet form-factor. Judging by the design newly teased in its launch announcement, it seems this is very much the case for the first-gen device.

Lenovo has posted a few real-life images of its upcoming Legion Y700 gaming tablet, with the device looking striking in each picture. Speculation over the specs and price for the Lenovo Legion Y700 has already started and there is even suggestion there may be a higher-specced Y900 variant.

The Realme GT2 Pro is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered flagship phone set to launch early in January 2022. However, the OEM seems not to have been able to wait until this date to announce that the device has attained an A+ rating from DisplayMate. It has also disclosed some of the specs that have helped win this accolade.

The latest official leaks indicate that Lenovo will debut its next-gen Android gaming flagship smartphone as the Legion Y90. Despite this, it seems it will launch with the exact same display specs as its predecessor. Nevertheless, it is allegedly as capable of smart refresh-rate switching as a cutting-edge display with the newest LTPO tech.

Company president Shuntaro Furukawa has stated that the Nintendo Switch could be short in supply in 2022. He added that the looming semiconductor crisis could affect the production of the handheld console, prompting Nintendo to cut down on its sales forecast for the year.

Videocardz has heard from its sources that the laptop GeForce RTX 3080 Ti will have a max TGP of 175W and run 16GB of VRAM clocked at 16Gbps. Nvidia is expected to unveil the graphics card alongside the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti mobile at CES 2022.

Lenovo is currently hyping its Legion Yxxxx for the Chinese market via Weibo. The latest posters from this campaign teases one of these laptops - also likely to re-brand for international markets - in terms of its design. It suggests that the Y7000P will be a particularly light and thin 2022 gaming laptop - although the look might come at a price.

The alleged free games coming to PlayStation Plus (PS+) subscribers in January 2022 have been leaked. The shortlist of three titles is headed by Persona 5 Strikers, which was first released in Japan by publisher Sega in 2020. A racing game and a first-person shooter join Persona 5 Strikers as free games coming to PS4 and PS5 owners.

Lenovo's contenders in the Android gaming flagships have been known as the Legion Phones or Legion Phone Duel devices, depending on their market. Now, however, the company has hinted that it is arranging a new name for the next installment in this series. It may continue to uphold its series' reputation for innovative cooling solutions and speed-focused display tech.

The Steam Deck handheld console has turned up in an unboxing, setup, and gameplay video posted on YouTube. In addition, more game-makers have been sharing clips and images of their Steam Deck dev kits, which includes a size comparison photo with a MacBook Air. Valve’s handheld gaming computer should be released in February 2022.

Lenovo has announced that it has a new Legion Y9000P in the works for 2022. It is now touted to have a QHD display with a 165Hz refresh rate and HDR400. The OEM has yet to mention further specs for this upcoing gaming machine, although it is possible that a 16-inch form factor and Ryzen 5000 silicon is in the offing here.

First official details of the upcoming Lenovo Legion Y700 gaming tablet have been shared on Chinese social media. The 8.8-inch tablet could be an ideal Android alternative to the iPad Mini in a form factor that makes it easy to wield during intense gaming sessions. The Legion Y700 tablet may sport a Snapdragon 8 series SoC.

Asus has issued its invitations to its upcoming CES showcase, to start from January 4, 2022. It starts with the "Rise of Gamers" livestream direct from Las Vegas to introduce the new ROG line-up, and goes on with the productivity-focused presentation the following day.

AYA has started teasing its next device, currently referred to as the AYA NEO NEXT. The AYA NEO NEXT will arrive on December 28 with a newer AMD Ryzen APU than the current AYA NEO family of devices.

In addition to ensuring "the best gaming experience in GTFO and Horizon Zero Dawn," the NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready Driver 497.29 also comes with support for 10 new GeForce Experience Optimal Playable Settings profiles. The list includes popular titles such as Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, EVE Online, and more.

The Ryzen 9 5900HS CPU and GeForce RTX 3060 GPU is a combination you're not going to find on 99 percent of other 14-inch laptops out there. The competing Razer Blade 14 costs several hundred dollars more with the same CPU and GPU options.

Russian outlet Gecid.com recently ran 2021 gaming benchmarks on an overclocked Core i7-2600K. They aimed to see how the legendary Sandy Bridge chip holds up when paired with the Radeon RX 6900XT. Despite being 10 generations older than Alder Lake parts, the i5-2600K seemingly had no problem handing in 60 FPS or more in punishing titles like Assassin's Creed: Valhalla.

The LG Ultragear 17G90Q gaming laptop packs some serious firepower, such as an 11th-generation Intel Tiger Lake processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, and a 17.1-inch 300Hz screen. It will tell us more about its price and availability at CES 2022.

One-netbook has finally announced the ONEXPLAYER mini, a smaller alternative to the ONEXPLAYER. The ONEXPLAYER mini has a 1200p and 7-inch display powered by an Intel Core i7-1195G7 processor, 16 GB of RAM and up to 2 TB of storage.

A crypto mining farm has seen an untimely end thanks to a fire in a town in northern Thailand. A report claims that “72 servers” were destroyed, although images issued by local emergency services make it difficult to work out whether the burned-out bitcoin farm was utilizing much-wanted GPUs or ASIC miners.

The seemingly never ending shortage of game consoles looks to have hit Microsoft too. The company has had to resort to using Xbox Series X dev kits to power its first Halo Championship Series for Halo Infinite, its subsidiary 343 Industries has revealed.

Names of upcoming Intel Arc Alchemist GPUs seem to have been confirmed in system files from a test Intel driver. The driver lists names such as Arc A380, Arc A350, Arc A370M, Arc A350M, and Xe A200M, which are likely to be low-end parts. We are also getting to hear that the upcoming DG3 Elasti Battlemage lineup will transition to a multi-GPU architecture in 2023 similar to AMD's RDNA 3.

Nvidia surprised everyone by announcing the GeForce RTX 2050 via a press release. Its specifications are quite puzzling, especially for a graphics card that will hit shelves in early 2022, making it Nvidia's most questionable launch so far

Eurocom has launched another superlaptop onto the market in the form of the Nightsky ARX315. For US$2,099, buyers can expect a laptop with a powerful AMD Ryzen 7 5800X CPU, RTX 3070 GPU, and 16 GB RAM. However, it’s possible to configure the Eurocom Nightsky ARX315 to become a +US$15,000 powerhouse.

CD Projekt recently announced that it was settling a class-action lawsuit over Cyberpunk 2077's disastrous launch out of court. However, the paltry US$1.85 million settlement raises questions considering how the game has earned CD Projekt over US$500 million since 2020.

Some of the trends that could define 2022 in terms of blockchain tech include NFT 2.0 along with music NFTs, the expansion of the crypto gaming metaverse, Ethereum 2.0 and its layer 2 zk rollups, DAOs and the evolution of DeFi, Web 3.0 and the decentralization of the very infrastructure of the Internet.

Nvidia has officially announced the GeForce RTX 2050, MX550 and MX570 mobile graphics cards. The RTX 2050 will feature 4GB of VRAM and a 45W TDP. Nvidia has not divulged the MX550 and MX570's specifications and stated that all three cards will be available for purchase in early 2022.

Crypto fans among gamers who like the STALKER franchise might be disappointed to hear that the developer studio behind the upcoming STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl edition has ditched the plans to introduce an NFT-driven "STALKER metaverse." Citing a backlash against the environmental impact of the blockchain technology, and accusations of profiteering from a fad, the Game World studio said it is abandoning the NFT plans, even though they considered them just a way for an independent game shop to stay afloat.

MSI recently announced the Optix MAG281URF, a 4K high-refresh monitor with HDR400, GSync, and a low response time. The Optix MAG281URF is targeted towards eSports players who are looking for a viable 4K option without sacrificing input lag or framerate.

Dying Light 2 developer Techland recently outed specs for the upcoming survival horror game. While min specs call for a palatable hardware spec, the high ray-tracing preset demands the GeForce RTX 3080, even for a 1080p/60 FPS experience.

Apart from two "Elasti" dGPU models that may be released in 2023, the NUC driver also mentions iGPU models for quite a few Alder Lake successors, including Raptor Lake-S, Meteor Lake, Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake. Rumor has it that the "Elasti" family will feature high-end GPUs that could match AMD's RDNA3 and even RDNA4 models.

Twitter stalwart @kopite7kimi has just revealed that the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti will feature a GA106-150 GPU with 2560 CUDA cores and 8GB of VRAM, while the RTX 3050 will use a GA106-140 GPU with 2304 CUDA cores and 4GB of VRAM. Nvidia is expected to unveil both graphics cards at CES 2022.

Lenovo is now believed to release an Android tablet under the Legion gaming brand for the first time soon. Now, this device is said to have emerged again in a hands-on photo. The leak may give an idea of its build, as well as some audio-related co-branding that it will bear.

Nvidia is collaborating with Digital Storm, NZXT and Staszek "Tips" Wiertelak to give away three Matrix Resurrections-themed gaming PCs to three lucky users. Five others will get a custom GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card.

MSI is now selling the Creator P50, a mini-PC that starts at US$1,799. The Creator P50 is available with 32 GB or 64 GB of RAM and up to an Intel Core i7-11700 that MSI has paired with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 GPU.

This model is now expected to launch in late January 2022 with 384-bit memory bus, 912 GB/s memory bandwidth, 8690 CUDA cores and a TGP of around 350 W. The performance bump over the 10 GB version is supposed to boost Ethereum hash rates by 20%.

According to reports, NVIDIA has shelved the RTX 3070 Ti 16 GB and the RTX 3080 12 GB, tipped to arrive on December 17. The pair may now arrive after CES 2022, where NVIDIA is expected to reveal the RTX 3050 and RTX 3090 Ti.

Introduced yesterday, War Thunder 2.13 "Winged Lions" is a major update that brings a wide range of Israeli aircraft (in Closed Beta stage for now, unfortunately) into the game, alongside quite a few new tanks, ships, locations, missions, improved graphics effects (air movement now has an impact on particle effects such as fire and smoke), and more.

BenQ recently launched a new gaming monitor, the Mobiuz EX3210U. The new Mobiuz model is targeted at competitive gamers, with a snappy, 1ms response time and a 144 Hz refresh rate.

Microsoft declared the new name for the Xbox Game Pass for PC subscription service to be PC Game Pass. The company rebranded the service to avoid confusion and to appeal to PC gamers. The Game Pass service has come a long way since its initial launch on PC in 2019 with a slew of high-profile releases.

ASUS has confirmed how much the RTX 2060 (12 GB) should cost, a week after its supposed on-shelf date. The rehashed graphics card has between a €494 and €499 list price depending on the model, making it barely any cheaper than the RTX 3070. The high prices make the RTX 2060 (12 GB) more expensive than the RTX 3060 Ti, too.

Leaked benchmarks for the upcoming Alder Lake Core i5-12400F, uploaded on BiliBili, show Intel's budget Alder Lake part dominating the Ryzen 5 5600X across the board, while also besting the flagship Rocket Lake Core i7-11700K in gaming workloads.

Price-conscious gamers beware: The Medion Erazer Deputy P25 MD64015 has been available for purchase in Germany at Aldi for 1,249 Euros (~$1,410) since December 9. For those of yon in the UK, you can also find it on Amazon for £1,035.97 (~$1,369). We already had the chance to get an in-depth look at the 15-inch device.