MSI and Origin PC use NVIDIA’s desktop-grade laptop graphics
PC makers aren’t wasting any time implementing NVIDIA’s GTX 10 series laptop graphics in their lineups. Both MSI and Origin PC have revealed that their higher-end gaming portables will be among the first to pack the much faster, desktop-class graphics. At MSI, the big deal is that it’s not just big, chunky systems that are getting a refresh — even relatively slim laptops like the GS and GE series will have VR-worthy graphics thanks to the GTX 1060M. You’ll have to move up to the GT range to get the 1070M or 1080M (up to two of them in Titan SLI variants like the GT73VR above), but that’s a solid baseline.
The upgraded MSI rigs should be available now, although they won’t come cheap. The experience starts with the $1,599 GS43VR Phantom Pro and its 14-inch 1080p screen, GTX 1060M, 2.6GHz Core i7, 16GB of RAM and 1TB hard drive, and you can spend as much as $5,099 if you want an 18-inch GT83VR Titan SLI with dual GTX 1080Ms, 2.9GHz Core i7, two 512GB SSDs, a 1TB hard drive and 64GB (!) of RAM.
Origin PC, meanwhile, is focused strictly on updating its beefy EON-15 and EON-17 machines. Pricing will vary depending on your configuration, but you can get up to a GTX 1070M in the 15-inch EON15-X (below), a 1080M in the 17-inch EON-17X, and dual 1080Ms in the EON17-SLX. They can all carry up to a 4K display, 64GB of RAM, dual 1TB SSDs and a desktop-level 4GHz Core i7 processor. None of them are svelte, then. However, they might be what you’re looking for if you can’t imagine giving up any significant amount of performance when on the road.
And it’s important to stress that these aren’t the only two vendors lining up. Heavyweights like Acer, ASUS, HP, Lenovo and Razer have also committed to NVIDIA’s new laptop video tech, giving you plenty of choices.
Source: MSI, Origin PC
‘Destiny: Rise of Iron’ PS4 exclusives include a new map
Sony has landed more than a few Destiny exclusives in hopes of selling more PlayStation 4 consoles, and it’s stopping as Bungie’s shooter/MMO hybrid celebrates its second birthday. When Rise of Iron arrives on September 20th, it’ll have a handful of PS4-only extras in a bid to help undecided console buyers. There’s a special Crucible map (Languid Sea, on Mercury) for multiplayer fans, a whole quest line (“Show of Strength,” a look into the Devil Splicers) and a ship (the appropriately blue Timeless Tereshkova). These perks probably won’t tip the balance if you’re only thinking about getting Destiny as one of your new console’s first games, but they’re worth considering if you’re dead set on the title and aren’t otherwise leaning toward a particular platform.
Bungie is also keeping up a more recent tradition: all-inclusive upgrades. Destiny — The Collection will launch with absolutely everything in the Destiny universe, including Rise of Iron, and will give you a consumable to accelerate progress if you’re not willing to reach Rise of Iron Light levels the hard way. The all-in-one pack will cost you $40 if you already have The Taken King (comparable to what TTK cost last year), so it’s not too great an outlay if you’re hooked on the franchise.
Source: PlayStation Blog
‘Pokémon Go’ update warns you not to catch and drive
You probably know that it’s unwise to play Pokémon Go while you’re behind the wheel, but Niantic and The Pokémon Company aren’t taking any chances. They’re trotting out an update to the mobile game (on both Android and iOS) that tells you not to catch creatures while driving. You have to tap an “I’m a passenger” button if you want to keep playing while moving at high speed. The game can’t check to see that you’re being honest, of course, but this will at least serve as a reminder that irresponsible gameplay can have serious consequences.
That’s not the only noteworthy addition. This is the upgrade that restores the battery saver mode on iOS, helping you eke a little more exploration time out of your iPhone. It also fixes a key bug that prevented you from getting experience with good throws, adds graphics for the leaders of the three teams, and will let a handful of users test a new “nearby Pokémon” interface. Even if you’re a cautious player, then, it’s worth grabbing this new version in a timely fashion.
Source: Google Play, App Store, Pokemon Go (Facebook)
‘Harold Halibut’ brings back stop-motion video games
Remember the days when games were willing to experiment with stop motion characters and real-world backdrops, like Mortal Kombat or The Neverhood? They’re back. Slow Bros. is working on Harold Halibut, an adventure game where both the characters and the environments are honest-to-goodness physical objects. As Harold tries to keep things lively for the rest of his fellow clay-animated crew members, he’ll navigate a crash-landed spaceship made out of metal, wood and “carefully sewn textiles.” As the teaser below shows, the result brings a uniquely imperfect style and depth that you can’t quite get through all-digital animation.
The studio hasn’t said much more about the title, although it’s planning to support Macs, Windows PCs, the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One. The team tells us that it’s aiming for a release sometime in 2018, too, so don’t expect to get first-hand experience any time soon. However, the game already shows that you don’t need advanced 3D models and outsized production budgets to produce a game that stands out — low-tech craftmaking can be just as effective.
Via: Rock Paper Shotgun
Source: Harold Halibut
‘Rocket League’ update brings grappling hooks and giant boots
Psyonix still isn’t done finding ways to inject new life into Rocket League more than a year after it first hit the scene. It’s introducing a Rumble mode that adds some welcome chaos to the vehicular sport through random power-ups. You can use a giant boot to kick players out of the way, a magnet to lure the ball to your car, or a grappling hook to draw yourself to the ball. There’s even a tornado that will sweep up everything into a raging funnel cloud. Rumble will be free when it arrives in an update this fall, so it’ll be easy to try if you find that your exhibition matches are becoming a little too predictable.
Via: Rock Paper Shotgun
Source: Psyonix
‘No Man’s Sky’ day one patch changes large parts of the game
Many gamers are all too familiar with day one patches that fix bugs or add features that didn’t quite make it in time for certification or shipping. However, the first-day No Man’s Sky patch will be… more substantial. Hello Games has revealed that the 1.03 update arriving on NMS’ August 9th launch will make fundamental changes to how the game plays. Most notably, there are now three “paths” to follow in the game — choices you make early on will determine what you see later. There’s also a deeper trading system, new combat mechanics (such as a revamped on-the-ground aiming method and critical hit systems in space fights) and even new universe and planet generation criteria. If you’re one of the few to have scored a copy pre-launch, you may be in for a shock.
Notably, the upgrade also makes it easier to discover other players. You can scan other star systems players have discovered on the galactic map, increasing the chances that you’ll run into someone. Many have argued that NMS is really a single-player game given the sheer unlikelihood of two people finding the same celestial bodies (there are 18.4 quintillion unique planets), but those odds just went up.
This is merely the “first of many” free updates to the space exploration title, Hello Games adds. The next upgrade will let you build bases, own “giant space freighters” and marvel at graphical upgrades like new cloud rendering and temporal anti-aliasing. In other words, the developers see the title as a constantly evolving project. You might get a very different experience if you hop in a few months later, let alone over the long term.
Source: Hello Games
Google sneaks Olympic-themed minigames into its mobile app
The 2016 Rio Olympics officially kicks off today with the opening ceremony, and Google’s already got the fever. In addition to peppering search results with easy-access schedules, stats, highlights and other pertinent info, big G wants to indulge our competitive sides, too. The 2016 Doodle FruitGames is a collection of seven colorful tap-and-tilt titles playable within the Google app for Android and iOS until August 21st, when the Olympics draw to a close.
Hiding behind the Doodle in Google’s mobile app, the games all feature simple control schemes typical to the search giant’s previous pick-up-and-play titles. The mixture of endless scrollers, time-sensitive point maximizers and the like are the kinda games you can spend two minutes playing or dump hours into, ensuring you’ve got the best sprinting strawberry time of all your peers. And who knows… being a champion spider-riding, hurdling grape around might well be your calling.
Source: Google
Xbox One S teardown reveals a simpler, speedier design
If you’re a console gamer, you’ve probably been wondering: how did Microsoft manage to shrink the Xbox One S so much compared to its predecessor? And importantly, did it have to make any big sacrifices in the process? iFixit will be more than happy to show you. The DIY repair shop just tore down the Xbox One S, and it’s clear that nothing has been lost in the move to a smaller size… in fact, there are a couple of pleasant surprises.
It’s about as easy to take apart as the larger Xbox, with an even cleaner modular layout. A hard drive replacement remains the only real hassle, iFixit says. And importantly, the faster graphics aren’t the only upgrade. You’ll also get a slightly faster hard drive with a larger cache and an SATA III interface (at least with the 2TB model), and the newly internalized power supply should work “anywhere there’s a plug.” It’s evident that Microsoft saw the S as an opportunity to spruce up its overall Xbox One design, even in subtle ways that wouldn’t be immediately noticeable.
Source: iFixit
AMD’s sub-$200 gaming video cards launch in early August
AMD said that the Radeon RX 480 would be followed up by lower-cost models this summer, and it’s acting on that promise in a timely fashion. Both the RX 470 and RX 460 (not pictured above) are now slated to arrive on August 4th and August 8th respectively. While AMD hasn’t outlined the specific pricing, these newer boards should cost significantly less than the $199 RX 480 — the RX 460 should sit closer to the coveted $100 mark.
The imminent launch is also shedding some light on details of the cards themselves. The RX 470 may not be VR-friendly like its more advanced sibling, but it’s surprisingly close. You can expect up to 4.9 teraflops of computing power (versus 5.8 for the RX 480), and you’re still getting 4GB of RAM on a healthy 256-bit memory interface. Think of it as the “good enough” card — you can play many new games at 60 frames per second, just at 1080p instead of 1440p.
The RX 460, meanwhile, is really a budget counterpart to last year’s Radeon R9 Nano. It’s much less powerful than the other RX cards (just 2.2 teraflops) and starts with 2GB of RAM on a 128-bit interface, but it’s also far smaller and more power-efficient — it uses less than 75W. The desktop card is ostensibly aimed at eSports gamers who only need brisk frame rates in titles like Overwatch or Rocket League, but it’s also built for small form factor desktops and even laptops.
Both cards help fill out an AMD strategy that’s very different than in past years. Rather than take NVIDIA head-on in the graphics arena, it’s trying to carve out a niche by offering a lot of bang for the buck. This is partly dictated by its own limitations (NVIDIA has generally led the high end for a while), but it could pay off if it gives AMD a relatively uncontested audience. Mind you, NVIDIA’s newer graphics technology is becoming increasingly affordable — it’s entirely possible that the green team will encroach on AMD’s turf.
Via: VentureBeat
Source: AMD (1), (2)
Curt Schilling’s defunct game studio won’t face criminal charges
Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios has run into plenty of trouble since declaring bankruptcy in 2012, not the least of which is an SEC lawsuit this year. However, criminal cases won’t be contributing to its headaches. The Rhode Island State Police have determined that they won’t file charges over the failed $75 million loan for Project Copernicus, the massively multiplayer online game that was to have followed Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. There were “no provable criminal violations” in the way the developer secured its cash, the police say. The decision isn’t completely shocking (federal officials decided against charges back in 2012), but it eliminates what chances were left of staff facing prison time.
Not that 38 Studios is getting away scot-free. It already agreed to a settlement that partly compensates burned creditors, and Rhode Island law enforcement is quick to stress that this doesn’t affect any civil lawsuits like those from the SEC. The fallout from the ill-fated government-game creator partnership isn’t over — however, it is starting to settle down.
Via: WPRI, Gamasutra
Source: RI.gov
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