Gaming

Halo Infinite is one of the key Xbox Series X launch titles and it’s launch trailer left many long-time fans raising their eyebrows at its design aesthetic. Although meant to be something of a tribute to the original Halo title, it may have erred a little too much on the side of nostalgia at the expense of a proper next-generation console look and feel. Apparently, 343 Industries agrees and is working to improve things.

Hisense has revealed its new Hardcore Gaming Monitor series at a trade show in China. The external monitor comes with a gaming-friendly 240 Hz refresh rate and features a curved display for increased immersion during intense gaming sessions. The Hisense Hardcore Gaming Monitor’s price hasn’t been announced yet.

The Cryo-Tech cooling changes under the hood are exactly what the Alienware laptops needed. We can't imagine an Alienware laptop without vapor chamber cooling anymore based on what we're seeing on the latest Alienware m15 R3.

Xiaomi could be offering a new GPU Turbo app in the upcoming Mi 10 Pro Plus that offers more fine-grained control over several aspects of the GPU including adjusting anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering levels among others. The Mi 10 Pro Plus powered by the Snapdragon 865 Plus is an incremental upgrade to the Mi 10 Pro, but it is not clear whether these GPU features would make to the entire Mi 10 lineup.

Statistics from the first 10 days of Ghost of Tsushima’s release have been revealed by PlayStation and there’s no doubt the PS4 title has become a massive hit with gamers. In terms of action, there were 156.4 million standoffs and 57.5 million duels, while players also engaged in a lot of fox petting, haiku writing, flute playing, and shrine visiting.

The new Black Shark gaming phone has been released. The Black Shark 3S succeeds the Black Shark 3, and offers improvements in fast-charging and display technologies, while starting under US$600. Sadly, it retains the Snapdragon 865 instead of the new Snapdragon 865 Plus.

A newly published patent has hinted at the possibility of a PS5 Pro console, or similar, eventually being revealed by Sony. A “high end” system mentioned in the patent summary could feature multiple SoCs. Coincidentally, it appears the Xbox Series X has been demoted from being “the most powerful console ever”.

The Analogue Pocket will be available to pre-order from next week for US$199.99. The luxury Game Boy supports original cartridges from consoles like the Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance. The device has a 615 PPI display too and can be outputted to TVs or external monitors.

The Zephyr Gaming Mouse resembles many other gaming mice with its RGB lighting and over the top design. However, it also includes a built-in fan that Zephyr Gaming claims can cool your hand. We have been using a prototype for over a week now, but is it worth its US$89 early bird price?

A new survey has revealed that 4/5 of people plan to purchase the PS5 over the Xbox Series X, with almost 2/5 hoping to purchase a next-generation console "at launch". Cyberpunk 2077 is the most-anticipated next-generation game too, despite its release on current-gen consoles.

An Irish retailer listed 120 Hz gameplay and a free-to-play multiplayer component as two key features of the upcoming Halo Infinite on Xbox Series X. After a gameplay reveal that showcased sub-par graphics, the addition of a free-to-play element and a high frame rate option (which implies graphical cutbacks at 4K), could further stoke the fire.

A noted PS5 commentator has dropped an interesting hint at when Sony’s August State of Play event could happen. Also, a recent AMD earnings call should allay any fears gamers may have that the PlayStation 5 might miss its scheduled launch window of holiday 2020.

Nubia announced the new RedMagic 5S gaming smartphone at the ChinaJoy event earlier this week. The RedMagic 5S sports identical hardware as the RedMagic 5G but comes with a few enhancements such as a slightly higher sampling rate for the shoulder triggers and a dedication optional Ice Dock accessory. The phone will be available in China from August 1 with a global launch planned sometime in September.

Razer's latest gaming headset is the BlackShark V2. Its 50 millimeter (mm) drivers feature the OEM's TriForce Titanium coating, as well as its SpeedFlex cable. It features THX Spatial Audio for an immersive experience and a removable cardioid mic with a USB sound card.

NVIDIA is expected to bring some healthy performance increases to the table later this year with its Ampere architecture. Rumour has it that the RTX 3090 could offer up to a 50% performance increase over the RTX 2080 Ti and may get close to 10,000 points in 3DMark Time Spy Extreme.

Sources indicate that NVIDIA will begin sampling GeForce RTX “Ampere” cards by the end of August, potentially in less than a month. This strongly indicates hard launch availability of cards like the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti as early as late September or October. We still don’t know about the timeframe for AMD’s competing RDNA2 Big Navi part, however.

Sony has announced that a number of its premium TVs are "Ready for PlayStation 5", ahead of the console's release later this year. The list includes the XH90, XH92 and ZH8, which will all support 4K and 120 FPS gaming.

With its powerful hardware, the Zephyrus Duo manages to display the latest games smoothly on its matte 4K screen (IPS, Pantone-validated, 100% AdobeRGB, G-Sync). There are other great features as well: 2x NVMe SSD (RAID 0), 32 GB of RAM (in dual-channel mode), Thunderbolt 3. Additionally, the package includes many accessories.

Sony already has something similar to Nvidia's DLSS with the checkerboard renderer implemented in the PS4 console, but the results are not really on par because of the limited hardware. An improved version integrated with the PS5 could benefit from the more powerful AMD hardware, ensuring that 4K games at least run @60 fps properly.

Rocket Lake could be Intel’s comeback, its victory run and its redemption. All Intel has to do is win the core count game in the mainstream space.

A couple of alleged PS5 State of Play leaks have appeared on a notorious imageboard. While both posts agree that the upcoming PlayStation event will feature Silent Hill and some more information about Spider-Man: Miles Morales, they differ on the date. One also claims that PlayStation 5 backwards compatibility details will also be shared.

The ability to jump straight from the PlayStation 5’s UI into instant gameplay has apparently been given a name: Activities. The function, which was previously mentioned by Mark Cerny in an interview with Wired last year, was described in further detail in a presentation for the future PS5 game WRC 9.

Honor, Huawei's subsidiary, is planning to release a brand of gaming laptops. Called Honor Hunter, the series will be built around AMD processors and dedicated GPUs.

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) has announced that there will be a Consumer Electronics Show (CES) scheduled for January 2021. However, it will not be held in Las Vegas as usual: instead, an "all-digital" experience is planned to replace the usual physical event. However, the Association is still confident it will be worthwhile for exhibitors and e-attendees alike.

Eve Devices touts its new Spectrum product as a gaming monitor with a crowd-source, and thus potentially idealized, design. Now, it is looking for more consumer input on the accessories that might be sold alongside this upcoming release. They include USB type C hubs, RGB lighting kits and VESA mounts.

The updated slides show that among the lineups to receive a performance boost are the Zen 4 EPYC "Genoa" server-grade CPUs, the CDNA 2 compute GPUs and the RDNA 3 gaming GPUs. Curiously enough, AMD did not update the desktop CPU roadmap past the Zen 3 Vermeer CPUs launching this year, but there are solid chances for 5 nm desktop variants to be launched by the end of 2021.

The PS5 game Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales might come with a remaster of the PS4 Spider-Man smash hit. Optimistic commentator offers up a price tag of US$299 for the Digital Edition console as Sony potentially takes big losses. At least 120 million PlayStation 5 units are expected to be shipped in a five-year life cycle.

Intel’s latest Comet Lake S desktop chip is official after a few weeks of intensive leaks. As expected, the new 10-core Core i9-10850K has a base clock 100 Hz slower than the flagship Core i9-10900K and comes in a little cheaper as a result.

Following the Sharkoon Light² 200, the German hardware manufacturer Sharkoon is now bringing the more affordable Sharkoon Light² 100 to the market. While the 200-model still attracted attention with a honeycomb mouse body, the Light² 100 has a normal housing. Nevertheless, it is also light as a feather and weighs only 78 grams without cables.

Rumors surfaced a few days ago claiming Sony would release the much-anticipated God of War sequel for the PlayStation 5 in 2021. Those rumors have turned out to be completely false, though, after being soundly debunked by the man behind God of War himself, Cory Barlog.

Three PS5 shell images have apparently been leaked onto a Chinese gaming forum. The pictures show the white plates, or wings, of the next-gen console in a workshop environment. The design of the PlayStation 5 plates implies that they are removable, and it appears the device may be even larger than was already expected.

A white version of the Xbox Series X controller has been posted online, and it does not appear to have been faked. Supposedly paired to a "squarish" console, could this be the first reference to the rumoured Xbox Series S?

Both of these competing systems can be configured with up to the same Core i7-10980HK CPU, GeForce RTX 2070 Super GPU, and 300 Hz 1080p display. If you're in the market for a high-end gaming laptop, which one would be the better option?

Xiaomi has confirmed that it's set to launch a new gaming phone on July 31. The new phone, the Black Shark 3S, will succeed the Black Shark 3, and is expected to feature a Snapdragon 865 Plus as well as a competitive AMOLED display.

The Indian Government is looking at banning even more Chinese-origin apps. Over 200 apps are on the list, with the most prominent one being PUBG Mobile. Games like Call of Duty: Mobile, Clash of Clans, and Clash Royale are likely on the list as well, due to their deep-rooted affiliation with Tencent.

The laptop is barely a few months old and now Best Buy is trying to get rid of it. Originally an absurd $1700 USD at launch, the system is now down by $400 for a much more reasonable final price.

The smartphone OEM Nubia has announced a new launch event for devices to be sold under its 'gaming' brand Red Magic. They include the rumored overclockable phone the 5S. However, they also apparently include less typical debuts for a Wi-Fi 6 router and a portable fan with inbuilt retro gaming.

Who needs GeForce Super when a regular Max-Q can run just as fast? The GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q in the latest Razer Blade Pro 17 runs over 20 percent faster than the average laptop equipped with the exact same GPU.

The OctaneBench results posted by OTOY CEO Jules Urbach show that the A100 GPU is ~40% faster than the RTX 2080 Ti. However, the GA100 (and all of its versions featured in the RTX 3000 GPUs) is a cut-down version of the A100, so performance gains for the RTX 3080 Ti may only be around 30%. Urbach notes that results were recorded without RTX on, so there could be some minor gains when the ray tracing cores are activated.

Some new PS5 price target predictions have been posted online, with the source positing that the Blu-ray version of the console could cost as little as US$399, although this could still be much more than the Xbox Series S. However, gamers shouldn’t expect backwards compatibility with the PS3 too soon nor an appearance of a PlayStation 5 Pro in the near future.

There has been speculation that the PS5 console could receive a specifications bump before its release in holiday 2020. The source of the rumor reveals several “bombshells” that include another mention of RDNA 3, the potential for a change in memory speed, and even a compute unite (CU) recount for the PlayStation 5.

It has been rumored that there will be a God of War sequel available for the PS5 by the second half of 2021. Considering the success of 2018’s PS4 exclusive God of War this is hardly a surprise, although fans can expect a graphical treat. Video game designer Mark Cerny is allegedly working on a franchise revival for the PlayStation 5.

Halo: Infinite's campaign gameplay demo was actually shown off not on the Xbox Series X but on a similarly specced PC. Microsoft has responded to some of the criticism regarding the gameplay preview and assured that the graphics was in a very early preview stage and fans can expect even better quality at launch. Microsoft will treat Halo: Infinite as a platform and no sequels are likely for the foreseeable future.

The reliable tipster Digital Chat Station claims that Nubia has a refresh of its Red Magic gaming phone flagship in the works. Called the 5S, it will apparently be capable of GPU overclocking. This means that, even though it is slated to run on the Snapdragon 865, the user can make its Adreno 650 exceed standard clock speeds by an appreciable margin.

Razer has refreshed its Cynosa series RGB gaming keyboard. Built for those on a budget, the Cynosa V2 has individually backlit keys, supports macros and has media controls.