Gaming

Things are not looking up for Google's Stadia game streaming platform. Users were already disappointed that some features would not be ready by launch, and now hardware issues are popping up, as well. Several Reddit posters are reporting that their Chromecast Ultra devices are overheating and shutting down after only a few hours of playtime.

Are you looking for your next graphics card for your small form factor PC? Well, the PNY GeForce GTX 1660 XLR8 Gaming OC could be the card for you. Setting aside its long-winded name, the XLR8 Gaming OC offers 1080p triple-A gaming at a pinch. It is not all plain sailing though, as we shall discuss in this review snippet.

PUBG 5.2 is now up and running for both PC and console players, and the most important change is the introduction of PUBG Labs, defined as "a new destination for where you can try our latest game modes and help us refine them into greatness." The Public Test Server is free for anyone who already owns a copy of the game.

It was only a couple of days ago that Microsoft’s Phil Spencer said that the company would not “be out of position on power or price” with its next-generation Xbox console. According to a plausible rumor, that could mean a starting price of just US$499 which should really spice up the battle for next-gen supremacy with Sony’s PS5 if accurate.

Rumours about NVIDIA releasing a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti SUPER are doing the rounds again, this time from a reliable leaker of upcoming NVIDIA products. While this contradicts what NVIDIA stated earlier this year, the prospect of AMD being on the cusp of releasing Navi 23 'NVIDIA killer' GPUs may have stirred the green team into action. Will it be another RTX 2070 SUPER style upgrade or something more underwhelming like the RTX 2080 SUPER?

We are still about a year out from the arrival of the PlayStation 5. However, the account behind The Last of Us 2 release date has revealed not only when Sony will first showcase its next console, but also when it will unveil the design and formally release the PlayStation 5. We have rounded-up the rumors published by the account and offered an overview of the key dates to watch for PlayStation 5 updates.

According to multiple outlets, some games on Google's Stadia streaming service are not rendered natively at 4K, like Google advertised them to be. Rather, some titles are rendered at lower resolutions and then upscaled to 4K once the data is sent to a gamer's Chromecast Ultra. This and a myriad of other complaints have left black marks on Stadia's first impression.

Users may not necessarily want to purchase Razer devices on a whim, but walk-in stores in heavy trafficked areas help to gain exposure and to create a sense of community for the brand.

A recent blog post by Diablo IV's lead systems designer, David Kim, confirms that the game will support elective mode-style skill selection and will also feature Keyed Dungeons. Kim also detailed itemization, endgame progression, power sources, and concluded by urging the members of the community to get involved by sharing their ideas.

Settlers of Catan is coming to mobile with an AR adjustment. Dubbed Catan: World Explorers, the new augmented reality game will be built using Niantic's extensive suite of AR tools. The game is still in the early stages of development, but more details should come early next year.

Even though the gaming tablet market is not that big right now, TCL is gearing up to release 10.8-inch 240 Hz tablet displays for 2020. Gamers may find the included punch-hole selfie cam a bit annoying, but tablet OEMs will surely like this feature for slim bezel models. The new displays also come with 2,560 x 1,600 resolution, 2 ms GTG response time and HDR capabilities.

In a recent interview, Microsoft executive Aaron Greenberg stated that the company is building the “world’s most powerful console”. The Xbox chief himself, Phil Spencer, has also talked about Xbox Project Scarlett’s power and how it will be carefully priced to be competitive. It seems Microsoft is ready to start stealing some limelight from Sony and the PS5.

If you happen to be looking for a simple gaming notebook with great price-performance ratio you may want to take a closer look at the 2019 iteration of Xiaomi’s Mi Gaming Laptop. For less than $1,500 you get a 15-inch gaming laptop with Core i7-9750H and GeForce RTX 2060.

Rumour has it that Valve plans to announce a new Half-Life game, and soon. Apparently based around protagonist Alyx Vance, the game may see a release as early as Q1 2020. It looks set to be sad news for those holding out for Half-Life 3 or even just Half-Life 2: Episode 3, though.

AMD is preparing to officially launch the incredible 16-core Ryzen 9 3950X and Dell has selected it for an Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R10 Gaming Desktop. Understandably, the OEM also chose a high-end GPU in the form of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2080 Ti to aid with the processing duties. The premium desktop has been destroying benchmarks apparently at the cost of heat and noise emissions.

The Razer Blade Stealth has a premium, compact design and excellent GPU performance. On the other hand, the CPU performance and especially the optional 4K screen disappoint in our review.

A huge Call of Duty: Modern Warfare leak has detailed plans for a battle royale mode for the smash-hit title. The leaked information includes an image of a map and its zones as well as thorough details of the perks, loot, missions, and game options. Modern Warfare was released on October 25 of this year and raked in US$600 million in sales in just three days.

Microsoft unveiled the first gameplay trailer for Age of Empires IV today at the X019 event. The trailer offered a snapshot of two in-game civilizations: The English and the Mongols. At only a minute long, though, it raises more questions than it answers.

The Mi Surface is a recently-released gaming-focused monitor from Xiaomi. Now, a new leak has pointed toward an additional variant of this display line. It is to measure 29 inches rather than 34 as in the original, yet retain this device's 1500R curvature and 144 hertz (Hz) refresh rate.

Dell has found a new pair of eyes to help envision the future of Alienware and the direction it's headed. A larger Alienware presence in eSports, schools, and mainstream media seems likely for more widespread recognition of the brand.

The first user reviews for Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield have started being posted on Metacritic and it’s not looking good for the latest installments in the beloved franchise. At the time of writing, the user score stood at 3.5 for Sword and 3.4 for Shield. Discontent has already been visible on Twitter thanks to the trending hashtag #GameFreakLied.

Google Stadia is launching in just a few days, but it looks like a fair number of its features will not be available at launch. Most of these features are related to multiplayer gaming and include State Share, Crowd Play, Stream Connect and Buddy Pass. Additionally, there will be limited functionality for PC, Chromecast Ultra and the wireless controller.

Current rumours are that NVIDIA has delayed the release of its Ampere GPUs, the next-generation successors of the company's current RTX 20 series product stack. Initially expected in the first half of next year, the 7 nm chips may make an appearance as early as March, but will not hit shelves until several months later.

The 15.6-inch MSI GL65 is one of the lighter gaming laptops in its size category due to its narrow bezel design and no-frills approach. Its GeForce GTX 1650 GPU can play the latest games at native 1080p and decent graphical settings without much of a hassle.

Ten of the mainline Final Fantasy games are coming to Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass subscription service. Every main Final Fantasy game since Final Fantasy VII, save for the two MMORPGs (Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV), will be released for Xbox Game Pass throughout 2020.

MediaMarkt Saturn, a European retail conglomerate, released a video showing off renders of what it thinks the retail version of the PlayStation 5 will look like. Conjectures include wireless charging, controllers with full touchscreens, and complete backwards compatibility with all PlayStation consoles. Of course, these renders are just based on rumors and are unlikely to be reflective of the final product.

Minecraft Earth, the latest augmented reality title from Mojang, is now available in the United States and a few other countries. The title is currently in Early Access. In true Minecraft style, Minecraft Earth focuses on collecting materials and building structures. However, the title uses AR to simulate the structures in real life.

Based on the same Navi 14 chip, the Radeon RX 5300M comes with the same number of compute / texture units and ROPs, but it gets lower bandwidths and VRAM capacities limited to 3 GB when compared to the 5500M model. The reduced specs may lead to a performance drop of around 20%.

The first reviews for Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield have started coming in, and it appears the latest Pokémon titles are not a disaster. After being subject to numerous massive leaks and the controversial “Dexit” storm, the 8th Gen games have been praised for being streamlined and enjoyable, but they have not been met with universal acclaim.

The Sky X4C / X7C laptops can easily replace a gaming desktop system, as they integrate desktop-grade components such as the Core i9-900KS CPU and the RTX 2080 or Quadro P5000 GPUs. Additionally, users can add up to 128 GB of DDR4 RAM and up to 20 TB of storage space through 2x NVMe slots and 2x 2.5-inch SATA bays.

Google's Stadia app is now available for iOS. However, this version of the app will not be able to play games when the service launches next week; rather, it is designed to manage a user's Stadia library. Surprisingly, the app already has a 4.6-star rating despite not being able to do anything yet.

There is a growing belief that Sony may be planning on offering expandable storage in the form of SSD cartridges for the PlayStation 5. A patent drawing originally thought to be a game cartridge is now being reconsidered as a possible straightforward external solution for supporting the PS5’s internal custom SSD when it is reaching its storage limits.

NVIDIA is offering a free copy of the latest Call of Duty PC game with every purchase of an RTX graphics card, desktop or notebook. However, this deal's window is shrinking: it is only available until November 18, 2019. The GPUs must be bought from nvidia.com or its official partners for the promotion to apply.

Back in July, a Blizzard employee unveiled most of the details presented at BlizzCon, but the Reddit post was dismissed as pure speculation. Nevertheless, the details are spot on for the most part, and there is some info on aspects that haven't been touched in the BlizzCon presentations, like the full class roster, planned classes, next gen console support and closed beta planned date.

Google's Stadia game streaming service is coming November 19. The service will initially launch with 12 games (listed below) and will eventually gain 14 more before the end of the year. Only those that purchased a Stadia Founder's Edition bundle will be able to access the service on November 19.

AMD's upcoming Renoir Zen2 APUs could feature a Vega 12 iGPU, according to information from Komachi. Since the 7nm node affords accommodation of more cores, it is also being speculated that a Vega 15 iGPU is also highly probable. We don't know much about these upcoming APUs, but a proper memory implementation could seen them further widening the gap with the Iris Plus Graphics G7 and the NVIDIA GeForce MX250.

Sony Interactive Entertainment has filed a patent application with Brazil’s Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial (INPI) that features a drawing of what looks like a game cartridge. Could the upcoming PlayStation 5 console include a game cartridge slot or has SIE got another console in the works, such as a PS Vita 2?

Asus is currently inviting those who own the ROG Phone II to join its Android 10 beta program for this device. However, this only appears to apply to the ZS660KL model, the 12GB/512GB international variant. Those who wish to get this update need to join the OEM's mobile device forum, have an Asus Member's account and be prepared to submit a lot of sensitive info about the phone in question.

HP is having something of a pre-Black Friday sales event in which US$100 or more is taken off many up-to-date PCs from the Envy, Spectre or Omen laptop series. Examples include the Omen 17t and 15T Spectre x360. This promotion also includes HP Chromebooks, Envy desktops and photo printers.

A sales guide for the AMD Radeon RX 5500 Graphics has been posted online, revealing some performance details about the upcoming graphics card. The RX 5500 is listed in numerous triple-A gaming benchmarks challenging the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 card, and unsurprisingly the AMD product thrashes the GTX 1650 in every test.

The latest apparent Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield leak has detailed which Pokémon will be exclusive to each game. Ever since Pokémon Red and Blue were released in 1996, gamers have had to carefully choose which game to buy or just purchase both titles. In the meantime, Nintendo has been wielding its legal sword as some social media sources have been suspended.

Six more games are now available for mobile devices through the Apple Arcade service. The monthly subscription service is fast approaching its goal of offering over 100 high-quality games for $5/month.

Pokémon GO remains one of the world's most popular augmented-reality (AR) mobile games. However, it has a persistent discrepancy as a title in this ecosystem, which is a lack of Pokéstops, particularly in more isolated regions. Therefore, its maker Niantic is about to launch a more global method of taking user suggestions for additional such item-sources in the future.

Acer considers the Acer Predator Helios 300 one of its entry-level gaming laptops, except that it starts at US$1,199.99. While its Intel Core i7-9750H processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GPU can handle triple-A 1080p gaming, the new Helios 300 falls short of the performance that its competitors offer. Worse still, its battery life leaves plenty to be desired.