A new Zenless Zone Zero leak has revealed an event with a platformer-like game mode for Version 1.5. Zenless Zone Zero's next update is expected to launch in late January with the introduction of characters Astra Yao and Evelyn and more content. View the full article
Cast your mind back to the late 2000s and early 2010s. The humble Warcraft 3 mod Dota has surged in popularity, and the likes of Valve, Riot Games, and Blizzard are in a MOBA arms race to capitalize on it and create a big commercial hit. What emerged were games like, Dota 2, League of Legends, and Heroes of the Storm, and they are looked back upon as the biggest names in that fight. But there was another impressive contender in that battle that often gets overshadowed - Heroes of Newerth. In 2022, the game's servers were sadly shut down for good, but since the turn of the year, activity has returned to its once dormant social channels, suggesting that some kind of revival is on the cards. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: One of the original MOBAs, Heroes of Newerth, has shut down Heroes of Newerth's latest major patch will be its last Heroes of Newerth has a new motherflipping announcer. It's motherflipping Samuel L motherflipping Jackson, motherflipper View the full article
In a recent video on his YouTube channel, veteran RPG developer and project lead on the original Fallout, Tim Cain, offered a look at his collection of photos from the game's development between 1994 and 1997. The photos are not only a fun time capsule of mid to late '90s game development, but also show off how small the team behind one of the most influential CRPGs ever really was... Read more.View the full article
When playing against other players on ****** Ops 6 and Warzone, the matchmaking will be based on a skill rating but you can’t see what is your Skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) rating in-game or anywhere else, or so we thought. There is a way to see several game stats including your skill rating. Table of contentsHow to request your skill rating in ****** Ops 6 and WarzoneHow to open and see your ****** Ops 6 and Warzone skill rating dataCoD ****** Ops 6 and Warzone skill rating, explained How to request your skill rating in ****** Ops 6 and Warzone A matter of privacy. Screenshot by Dot Esports Check the necessary boxes. Screenshot by Dot Esports Now to submit an actual request. Screenshot by Dot Esports …and make sure you’re not a robot. Screenshot by Dot Esports YouTuber TheXclusiveAce brought to light a way to see not only your skill rating from the last match, but the skill ratings from all the matches you played since BO6 launched plus several other statistics you can only see when you request your personal information from Activison’s Privacy and Data Protection center. View the full article
Xbox is ringing in the new year by taking yet another step toward its promise of making everything an Xbox: by announcing it will add the Xbox app to LG TVs later this year. In an Xbox Wire post today, Xbox announced it's partnering with LG Electronics to bring the Xbox app to LG smart TVs in 2025. What this means is that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will be able to play games on supported LG TVs without needing a console, using cloud gaming tech. And yes, that includes Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6. Xbox already implemented this feature on Samsung Smart TVs back in 2022, and added Amazon Fire TV devices to the mix last year. With the expansion to LG TVs, Xbox expands its TV presence even further amid an ongoing ad campaign focused on showcasing the ability to play Xbox on any device. This campaign, using the slogan "This is an Xbox", positions TVs, laptops, phones, consoles, and other devices as Xboxes thanks to the combined powers of the Xbox app and Game Pass. LG makes several of the best TVs for gaming, including our overall favorite, the LG G4. Despite numerous moves in recent years to spread its wings from consoles to other devices, Xbox leadership has repeatedly stated it's committed to consoles as well. Just last year, it announced a mid-gen refresh for the Xbox Series X and S, including an all-digital Series X, and confirmed it's "full speed ahead" on a next-gen console. Meanwhile, rumors continue to pop up every few months of a dedicated Xbox handheld, though Xbox head Phil Spencer recently suggested it's still a few years away. Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected]. View the full article
busy mod community quickly sprung up around popular multiplayer shooter Marvel Rivals—there are over 500 mods already and it's only been out for a month—but with mods, as always, comes drama. The current squall kicked up around the Nexus Mods' removal of a couple of mods for Marvel Rivals: one which replaces Captain America's head with Donald Trump's, and another that replaces it with the head of US President Joe Biden... Read more.View the full article
Starfield lead quest designer Will Shen says "a growing section of the audience is becoming fatigued" with huge games that require dozens or hundreds of hours to properly play through, and—tongue in cheek—that he's sorry for the role he played in helping popularize that trend... Read more.View the full article
Call of Duty’s triumphant launch of ****** Ops 6 has admittedly sputtered since the end of October, but season two of the game is looking to turn things around. Interest in BO6 has waned over the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025, as evidenced by player numbers on Steam and social media sentiment. But with season two coming soon, CoD can be so back just as easily as players have dipped their toes into other titles over recent weeks. View the full article
Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6 uses hidden data to determine which game lobby players belong in. However, there is a way players can find out their rating. ****** Ops 6, Warzone, and previous installments of the Call of Duty franchise use what’s called skill-based matchmaking (SBMM). Each player is given an SBMM rating based on multiple aspects of their in-game performance, which then determines who they play against. In theory, this keeps multiplayer games more balanced than if matchmaking was done completely at random. View the full article
Assassin's Creed Valhalla fans have started a petition in an attempt to convince Ubisoft to add a New Game Plus mode to the 2020 release. Largely considered a return to form for the Assassin's Creed franchise, Valhalla visits a new region and ******* of history for the first time ever in the series: Western Europe in the time of the Vikings. It features an expansive map containing parts of Norway and England (and, with DLC, Ireland, France, and Asgard as well), 150+ hours of quests and exploration, and the mix of stealth and action gameplay now typical of the series. View the full article
Two weeks before Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth launches on PC, Square Enix shared an updated list of the full specifications to run the game at minimum, recommended, and ultra settings. Square Enix also recommended that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth players use a high-end graphics card with 12GB to 16GB of video memory to play the game using a 4K monitor. View the full article
Overwatch 2 is finally returning to China on February 19, with a technical test opening up for fans on January 8. After over two years, Overwatch 2 players in China will finally get to catch up on all the heroes, game modes, and other features from the 12 seasons they missed while their servers were unavailable. View the full article
Microsoft is introducing significant changes to Game Pass, including new ways for players to earn points and the addition of Quests for PC Game Pass. These changes are aimed at fostering “age-appropriate gaming experiences,” which means Game Pass Rewards will be available only to players 18 years and older. View the full article
Image: Acer Acer is announcing two new Nitro Blaze gaming handhelds at CES 2025, and one of them, the Nitro Blaze 11, is truly giant with a massive 10.95-inch screen. Seriously, it’s huge — just look at this photo of a person holding it! It’s absurd! Image: Acer [/url] In addition to that enormous screen — which is a 144 Hz WQXGA touch display that can top out at 500 nits of brightness — the Nitro Blaze 11 is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 8040HS processor, 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and up to 2TB of storage, according to a press release. The Nitro Blaze 11 also has detachable controllers, a built-in kickstand, Hall Effect joysticks, and two back buttons. (The original Blaze, announced last year with a 7-inch screen, lacked back buttons.) Image: Acer The Nitro Blaze 11 with its controllers removed. Acer’s other new handheld PC, the Nitro Blaze 8, is mercifully smaller, with an 8.8-inch screen. It has many of the same specs as the Nitro Blaze 11, though it lacks the detachable controllers and built-in stand. Both new Blazes will be available in Q2 2025, Acer says. The Nitro Blaze 11 will start at $1,099.99, while the Nitro Blaze 8 will start at $899.99. View the full article
Image: AMD AMD is unveiling its latest flagship desktop CPU, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, today at CES. After the 9800X3D wowed us with its gaming performance, we’ve been waiting to see what AMD’s second generation of 3D V-Cache technology could do with more cores and higher boost frequencies. AMD is now claiming the 9950X3D will be “the world’s best processor for gamers and creators.” The 9950X3D includes 16 Zen 5 CPU cores (32 threads), a max boost frequency of 5.7GHz, and 144MB of total cache. It has a higher TDP over the 9800X3D at 170 watts instead of 120 watts, but this extra power appears to translate to big improvements in creator benchmarks and gaming. Image: AMD AMD’s benchmarks against Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K. AMD says the 9950X3D should be around 8 percent faster on average than the previous 7950X3D, based on benchmarks run on 40 games at 1080p. The gaming performance should be similar to the 9800X3D, with AMD claiming it’s within 1 percent. AMD even claims the 9950X3D is 20 percent faster than Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K in those same games, but Intel is about to deliver a performance update for the 285K that could close that gap. In content creation tasks, the 9950X3D should be around 6 percent faster than the 7950X3D in Premiere Pro tasks and around 13 percent faster in Photoshop. On average, AMD says the 9950X3D will be 13 percent faster for creator tasks than the 7950X3D, based on 20 apps tested. The big claim from AMD is that the 9950X3D will be 10 percent faster than Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K, something that could make the 9950X3D an easy pick for anyone wanting great desktop and gaming performance in a single CPU. AMD is also launching a Ryzen 9 9900X3D processor with 12 cores (24 threads), a 5.5GHz max boost, 140MB of cache, and a 120-watt TDP. Much like the 9800X3D, both of these new X3D chips use the second generation of AMD’s 3D V-Cache technology that sees the cache now sit below the processor cores. This change allows the processor cores to have better access to cooling, and the cache is now less sensitive to high temperatures, allowing the CPU to boost to higher frequencies and deliver better performance in both gaming and creator tasks. AMD says both the 9950X3D and 9900X3D will be available at some point in March, but it’s not detailing pricing just yet. AMD is also announcing new “Fire Range” mobile CPUs today, which are the latest X3D-series laptop parts. You can read more about the flagship 9955HX3D laptop chip and other mobile-focused AMD announcements right here. View the full article
Image: AMD AMD is previewing its next generation of GPUs at CES today, based on its latest RDNA 4 architecture that includes AI-powered FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4) upscaling. The Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070 will both be available in Q1 from a variety of video card manufacturers, but AMD isn’t detailing specifications, pricing, or exact release dates just yet. The announcement is light on concrete information. AMD says it has built this architecture from the ground up and that the GPUs built on RDNA 4 will include “a significant boost in AI.” AMD has optimized the compute units in RNDA 4, improved its ray-tracing engine and performance, and upgraded its media encoding quality. Built on a 4nm process, the RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 cards will include AMD’s second-generation AI accelerators, third-generation ray-tracing accelerators, and second-generation radiance display engine. Image: AMD AMD is only providing small details about its RDNA 4 architecture. This RDNA 4 architecture will also enable AMD to launch FSR 4 with these 9000-series GPUs. FSR 4 is a machine learning-powered update to AMD’s upscaling and frame-generation technology that’s been developed specifically for RDNA 4 and its dedicated AI accelerator hardware. That means you’ll only be able to get FSR 4 with a Radeon RX 9070-series graphics card right now, and it will be supported in games with FSR 3.1 already integrated. Matt Booty, president of game content and studios at Microsoft, appeared on stage at AMD’s CES keynote earlier today to confirm FSR 4 will be available in Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6 later this year. AMD hasn’t hinted at how FSR 4 will compare to Nvidia’s DLSS technology or what type of performance uplift or image quality improvement we should expect to see with this next generation of FSR. It’s also not clear exactly what performance the RX 9070 series of GPUs will deliver against the competition, but in a branding slide for RDNA 4, AMD appears to suggest the 9070 series will offer similar performance to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and RTX 4070 Super. Nvidia is expected to announce its RTX 50-series GPUs later today. Image: AMD FSR 4 will use dedicated AI accelerators on next-gen GPUs to upscale games. AMD is also adding new AI-powered features to its Adrenalin software. These include the ability to generate images with AI models, summarize local documents, and ask an AMD chatbot questions about graphics settings and more. If you’re wondering why AMD has jumped from the Radeon 7000 series straight to 9000-series GPUs, the company says it will use the 8000-series branding for RDNA 3.5 mobile GPUs. AMD is only previewing FSR 4 at CES and promises to provide more details on the upscaling technology and its latest RDNA 4 GPUs ahead of the Q1 launch. View the full article
Image: Dell Dell has made its latest UltraSharp 4K monitors more attractive to PC gamers by doubling the previous generation’s 60Hz refresh rate. The 27-inch and 32-inch 4K UltraSharp Thunderbolt displays announced at CES have been updated with new IPS panels that provide 120Hz refresh rates alongside features designed to enhance visual comfort. The UltraSharp line is a popular choice for working professionals who need a no-frills 4K monitor that supports Windows, macOS, and multi-monitor setups — the 27-inch model in particular tops a lot of lists for best 4K monitor. 120Hz refresh rates are usually targeted toward gamers who can benefit from higher frame rates and smoother, more responsive gameplay, which now makes the 27-inch UltraSharp 4K in particular a decent solution for people who want a single display that’s suitable for both work and play. The improvements come at a cost though: the 27-inch UltraSharp 4K is increasing to $699.99 (up from $639.99 for the 60Hz model), and the larger 32-inch UltraSharp 4K now costs $949.99 (up from $919.99). Both will be available to buy globally starting February 25th, according to Dell. Image: Dell Here’s a look at what the new 32-inch Dell UltraSharp 4K monitor looks like from the front. Dell introduced several 120Hz monitors to the UltraSharp lineup in 2023 and 2024, but this is the first time that the popular 27-inch 4K model has seen a similar refresh rate boost. Other improvements for the new UltraSharp 4K models include up to 140W power delivery via USB-C (up from 90W), and a 3,000:1 contrast ratio, thanks to its use of “enhanced IPS ****** technology” that provides 47 percent deeper ******* compared to conventional IPS panels, according to Dell. The prior version of IPS ****** offered a 2,000:1 contrast ratio. A comparison showing improvements in contrast ratio can be seen in this YouTube video. Image: Dell Besides some changes to the port selection and a new ventilation grill, the new UltraSharp 4K monitors look visually similar to the previous models. Dell says the monitors include an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts brightness and color temperature to help reduce eye fatigue. Otherwise, the 27-inch and 32-inch 4K UltraSharp share near-identical designs with their predecessors. The new models include VESA DisplayHDR 600 and ports for USB-A, USB-C, Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, and DisplayPort, with ventilation grills now surrounding the ports located on the back of the monitors. View the full article
Strix Halo is here. | Image: AMD AMD promised eventual “mobile gaming dominance” back in 2022, and it feels like we’re getting closer every day. Today, the company is announcing not one, not two, but three different families of chips designed to take it there, including final confirmation of the long-rumored “Strix Halo” and “Fire Range” laptop chips. The former is now known as the Ryzen AI Max and Ryzen AI Max Plus, boasting the most powerful graphics AMD’s ever put in a chip, with up to 40 RDNA 3.5 compute units, 16 Zen 5 CPU cores, and a new memory interface with 256GB per second of bandwidth. AMD claims the highest-end AI Max Plus 395 has over 1.4x the graphics performance and 2.6x the 3D rendering performance of Intel’s highest-end Lunar Lake chip, the Intel Core 9 288V — and enough power to frequently beat Apple’s M4 Pro MacBook Pro. As you can see in the chart above, not all AI Max parts are equal — but they all consume up to a monstrous 120W of power, making them most suitable for machines that’ll be plugged in and / or docked. HP will offer a Z2 Mini G1a desktop and a ZBook Ultra G1a laptop, while Asus will offer the ROG Flow Z13 gaming tablet with the new parts. Fire Range, meanwhile, is AMD’s codename for its new HX- and X3D-series laptop parts, which don’t come with their own groundbreaking integrated GPUs but are designed to be paired with discrete ones. They do, however, contain the new version of its flagship gaming laptop chip with the 3D V-Cache that’s been so popular for boosting frame rate in AMD’s desktop chips. Previously only available in the 7945HX3D, the new 9955HX3D has the same incredible 144MB of cache, though there are a couple of lower-end parts, too: AMD is also announcing two new X3D desktop chips today, declaring that it now has a CPU that’s “the world’s best processor for gamers and creators.” You can read more about the new Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D here. Last and possibly least are AMD’s Z2 Extreme chips for handheld gaming PC competitors to the Steam Deck, which, strangely, raise the low-end TDP up to 15W from just 9W with previous-gen parts and each contain a different generation of GPU: RDNA 3.5 on the Z2 Extreme, RDNA 3 on the Z2, and RDNA 2 on the Z2 Go. Image: AMD AMD hasn’t yet offered any concrete idea of performance from its Fire Range or Z2 chips, or of battery life from any of these chips in its prerecorded briefing for journalists, though it did promise the Z2 will offer “more performance and capabilities than prior generations” and with “hours and hours of battery life.” View the full article
A prominent Marvel Rivals leaker has shared new details about The Invisible Woman's ability kit in the popular hero shooter. The Invisible Woman, otherwise known as Sue Storm, is one of four new characters coming to Marvel Rivals in Season 1: Eternal Night Fall. She will be joined by the rest of The Fantastic Four, which includes Mister Fantastic, Human Torch, and The Thing. View the full article
Dell has just unveiled two new business-oriented UltraSharp displays that use LG's latest version of its IPS LCD panel technology called IPS ******. Thanks to this panel tech, the Dell UltraSharp U2725QE and U3225QE boast native contrast ratios of 3,000:1, which is triple what a typical IPS panel provides and 50% higher than previous generation IPS ****** panels. This brings a new level of depth and richness to their image that means even though they're not really meant as such, these could be tempting Dell gaming monitor options for some buyers. With the explosion in popularity of OLED gaming monitors, it's no surprise that when we asked Dell at the unveiling of its new UltraSharp displays whether the new IPS ****** panels were intended for gaming, they said they weren't as such. However, while OLED is clearly the best gaming monitor choice for purely gaming, there are still several reasons why many buyers might want to stick with an LCD screen, and given these new displays can hit 120Hz while delivering their stunning 3,000:1 contrast, these could be the ideal choice for some. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Run an RTX 5090 gaming GPU on nearly any laptop or handheld thanks to Asus Lenovo Legion Go 2 is official and it's using the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme Acer's newest Steam Deck rival is enormous with Nintendo Switch like controllers View the full article
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The AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme is official. AMD has taken the wraps off its highly anticipated handheld gaming CPU that is potentially set to power future versions of the Asus ROG Ally, and Lenovo Legion Go, and it looks set to bring big gains in gaming performance and battery life. However, despite the Steam Deck appearing in a slide to announce the new chip, a Valve developer has said the Z2 won't be used in a future Steam Deck. The new CPU is a follow-up to the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme, which is already used to power the Asus ROG Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go, and it looks as though future handhelds are now about to become a whole lot more powerful. While it looks as though the new chip won't be used in the Steam Deck 2, though, there's nothing to stop other companies making SteamOS handhelds using the Z2. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT gaming GPU is finally here to take on the RTX 5070 AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D gaming CPU unveiled, 20% faster than Intel Core Ultra 285K AMD Ryzen AI Max Strix Halo announced as PS5-beating gaming laptop CPU View the full article
The days of Dell Inspiron, Latitude, Optiplex, XPS, and more are over as Dell has ditched the lot in favor of a vastly simplified new naming scheme. From now on, all its products will fall under just three main categories: Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max. As a maker of some of the best gaming PCs and best gaming laptops around, Dell is one of the biggest names in PCs. However, its products have long had a confusing mass of product names. Its this legacy that the company is looking to shed, but while the new naming convention seems pleasingly simple and straightforward at first, the company has actually made this rather confusing in some ways, at least based on the reaction from media and other attendees of the company's announcement. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme announced as future Steam Deck processor Alienware debuts stunning new 27-inch, QD-OLED, 4K gaming monitor The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT gaming GPU is finally here to take on the RTX 5070 View the full article
AMD presented their CES 2025 Keynote today to announce multiple new processors with a few bits of exciting news there. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article
Freedom Wars Remastered showcased its gameplay and new additions in a trailer recently released by Bandai Namco. In addition to its enhanced visuals, the action RPG has modified the game's balance, added a new difficulty level, and updated various other features. Freedom Wars Remastered launches on January 10 for PS4, PS5, Switch, and PC. View the full article
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Cast your mind back to the late 2000s and early 2010s. The humble Warcraft 3 mod Dota has surged in popularity, and the likes of Valve, Riot Games, and Blizzard are in a MOBA arms race to capitalize on it and create a big commercial hit. What emerged were games like, Dota 2, League of Legends, and Heroes of the Storm, and they are looked back upon as the biggest names in that fight. But there was another impressive contender in that battle that often gets overshadowed - Heroes of Newerth. In 2022, the game's servers were sadly shut down for good, but since the turn of the year, activity has returned to its once dormant social channels, suggesting that some kind of revival is on the cards. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: One of the original MOBAs, Heroes of Newerth, has shut down Heroes of Newerth's latest major patch will be its last Heroes of Newerth has a new motherflipping announcer. It's motherflipping Samuel L motherflipping Jackson, motherflipper View the full article