Update May 19th, 2021 1:09 PM ET: GameStop is now out of stock of the PS5 Digital Edition bundle.
GameStop has released some precious stock of the PS5 consoles, both for the $499.99 disc-based version and the disc-less model that costs $100 less. However, it’s offering them in bundles, as GameStop has been wont to do since the console launched late last year. Stock is coming in and out, as usual, so stay on the page if you want to ensure the best chance that you’ll get one.
You can get the disc-based console with Returnal, MLB The Show 21, an extra DualSense controller, and a $20 GameStop gift card for $729.99.
Alternatively, the disc-less model comes in a $599.99 bundle that includes a second DualSense controller, a $20 GameStop gift card, a $50 credit for the PlayStation Store, and a one-year subscription to PS Plus for online gaming and complimentary downloads each month.
If you want some extra games and accessories for your (hopefully) new PS5, check out some suggestions below:
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Nintendo has hit a milestone with the ever-growing library of retro games included in its Nintendo Switch Online service. The next batch will take the number of available games past 100, with five new titles resulting in a total of 104.
In keeping with recent form, the latest additions are, well, not necessarily blockbuster releases. Here’s the list:
Caveman Ninja: Joe & Mac, a prehistoric action game released in arcades and ported to the SNES by Data East in 1991
Magical Drop 2, a 1996 Data East puzzle game for the SNES that was originally on the Neo Geo but never previously got a Western release
Super Baseball Simulator 1.000, a SNES baseball game released by Culture Brain in 1991
Spanky’s Quest, a 1991 SNES action game by Natsume about a monkey with a magic bubble
Ninja JaJaMaru-kun, a popular Jaleco NES action game released in 1985; it was only ever released in Japan but did come to the Wii Virtual Console around the world in 2007
So no, still no Earthbound.
Nintendo is, of course, constrained in what it can release on the service for various reasons including licensing issues, and it is cool to see some more obscure titles get spotlighted. But it’s clear that there isn’t much left in the NES and SNES pipeline, and it’d be a good time for the company to start thinking about perhaps moving on to the N64 — especially now that Super Mario 3D All-Stars (which includes Super Mario 64) has been removed from sale forever.
Until that hypothetical possibility transpires, you’ll be able to play the five new games when they’re added to the service on May 26th. Nintendo Switch Online costs $3.99 a month or $19.99 a year.
Days Gone is an open-world action adventure zombie shooter set in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. You’re Deacon, a military veteran who’s been caught in the middle of a global zombie apocalypse. The game takes place two years after the first outbreak, and the world as we know has ended. Hordes of zombie are scattered all around the lands, lurking and hunting the last survivors who have teamed up to improve their odds of survival.
Naturally, the various factions fight over whatever resources are left in the world, and as a mercenary, you’re caught in the middle of it all. As the plot progresses, the National Emergency Restoration Organization (NERO) also plays a role in uncovering more details of what happened.
Just like similar titles, Days Gone plays in the third-person perspective. The developer Bend Studio did a great job modeling the lush American wilderness, and placed hordes of zombies into it. As you make your way through the woods, you often have the choice of sneaking or using stealth to achieve your objective. Some missions are pure stealth, though, and in others you’ll encounter a zerg rush of zombies, which requires you use the environment to survive—shooting your way through is not an option.
Originally launched in April 2019 as a PlayStation 4 exclusive, Days Gone uses Unreal Engine 4 in DirectX 11 mode on PC. Compared to the console version, a lot of polish has been added, bugs fixed, and the graphics menu improved. In this article, we test performance and hardware requirements of Days Gone on 23 graphics cards in three resolutions.
Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto V nearly eight years ago. The game was impressive at the time, but it’s starting to show its age now, especially in the graphics department. Intel’s Intelligent Systems Lab (ISL) took it upon itself to improve those graphics with a new method of making synthetic images—like those used in games—appear more lifelike.
ISL shared details about its new method in the recursively titled “Enhancing Photorealism Enhancement” paper on May 10. The described method uses “a convolutional network that leverages intermediate representations produced by conventional rendering pipelines,” as it “provides strong supervision at multiple perceptual levels” because of the way it was trained.
That training—among other things outlined in the paper—is said to offer “substantial gains in stability and realism in comparison to recent image-to-image translation methods and a variety of other baselines.” But a picture is worth a thousand words, and ISL was kind enough to provide a video showing its new (ahem) enhanced enhancement at work in GTA V:
We won’t know for certain until we test it ourselves, but the results shown in the video are stunning. Even if they were cherry-picked for the purposes of demonstrating ISL’s research, it’s still remarkable how much the group was able to improve the photorealism of a game that was released two console generations ago (and which has made the jump to successive platforms with minimal improvements along the way).
ISL shared additional data and code related to the project on GitHub. Maybe someone will be intrepid enough to use the group’s findings to improve GTA V’s graphics while everyone waits for Rockstar to finally release Grand Theft Auto VI. Modders have already taken to fixing Grand Theft Auto Online’s performance—why not make the base game look better as well?
(Pocket-lint) – We couldn’t have been more excited when we heard that the original Mass Effect trilogy was to be remastered for a new collection. But must admit to feeling slightly deflated when we realised the games weren’t to be remade completely.
That means, while the graphics and gameplay have undergone extensive tweaking, they haven’t been completely reimagined for modern consoles. After experiencing what’s possible with the superb Final Fantasy VII Remake, that seemed to be a backwards step to us. Initially, at least.
However, just a couple of hours into ME1, we soon realised why the development team decided on a fresh coat of paint and refinements rather than renewal. The trio just wouldn’t be the same games otherwise – unlikely to have retained the character of the originals. Warts and all.
So, in remastering the original Mass Effect games to 4K HDR, adding all downloadable content (DLC) released over the original games’ lifespans, and slathering on some clever technical glue to match it all together, we get the original trilogy at its best. All the while retaining exactly what made them special in the first place.
Plot points
Something that didn’t need refinement is the story. BioWare has always been a master at storytelling and characterisation. Go further into its past and you can see just how well Baldur’s Gate and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic hold up today – purely thanks to their narratives and clever, interwoven scripting.
The latter game was clearly a huge influence on Mass Effect (and itself heavily rumoured for a remaster). However, free from the restraints of the Star Wars lore book, the studio managed to rebottle lightning – several times.
There are many characters you encounter in the Mass Effect games, not least Shepard him or herself – who you play as throughout – but perhaps the most impressive of all is the universe that BioWare created.
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It took a blank canvas and built its own sci-fi saga, complete with new alien species, political factions, historical mythos and much more. And there’s nary a trade dispute in sight – well, not one that any of the trilogy is hinged on. It’s so complex and involving, it has inspired comic books, fan fiction, even a whole range of cosplay enthusiasts. It will also grip you from the very start.
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That’s partly thanks to the speed at which the main story thread reveals itself – which we’ll spare you because you’ve either already played the games first time around and know it already, or want to discover for yourself and therefore avoid spoilers. But it’s mainly thanks to the superb dialogue and neatly woven nature of the games across the entire run.
Many games have adopted inter-threading plots and character development over the years, but few do it quite as well as the Mass Effect series. It enables you to take your lead character – whether created from scratch or using presets – from one game to the next after each completion, literally picking up from where you left off. In addition, actions you make in each chapter have ramifications on the next.
EA / BioWare
By the time you get to Mass Effect 3 and, specifically, the ending, you could experience several key differences to someone else’s journey. It feels organic and, for us, still represents many of the studio’s finest moments.
The same is true with character development and relationships in the game. Each main non-playable character (NPC) in the game forms bonds and relationships with your lead character, depending on your conversational and practical choices. That could end in a friendly or romantic bond, or with them keeping you at arms-length. It results in you empathising with each of your in-game team members more so than in most games – role-playing games (RPGs) or otherwise.
When those NPCs are in peril or decisions on their fate are presented you are genuinely moved or troubled. It’s what made Mass Effect so superb in the first place, and continues to resonate now.
Ch-ch-changes
Of course, that can also be said of the original trilogy releases, each of which being still available through backward compatibility (on Xbox and PC, anyway). Of perhaps more interest are the numerous changes and improvements to this collection.
EA / BioWare
As with many repackaged collections of older games, all of the original DLC from Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3 are present – bar one. Pinnacle Station from ME1 is not present, as the version available to BioWare while putting together the Legendary Edition turned out to be corrupt and it couldn’t find the original files.
Still, you get over 40 DLC packs integrated into the games (where possible). That includes promo weapons and armour.
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The games are also presented with a new launcher, with all three accessible from the same screen. On PlayStation all games are installed to be played from the off, on Xbox (the version tested here), you need to download ME2 and ME3 from the launcher itself. This allows you to save disk space when you are only playing ME1.
Once you start the games, you notice a couple of changes to the options. The first Mass Effect has perhaps the biggest alterations, in that it has the options, plus character creation and models of the subsequent titles. BioWare changed a fair bit in the three years between ME1 and ME2, so the later benefits have now been adopted.
EA / BioWare
That also includes combat. The Mass Effect series combines deep, involving dialogue-based storytelling with action combat sequences. These are third-person and generally use a duck-and-cover mechanic. The first game, however, had clunky, under-realised combat that was tricky to use. We went back to the Xbox 360 original to check for ourselves and found that aiming – especially through the sniper rifle – was a twitchy affair. It has been greatly improved now, with the lessons learned for the sequels being implemented.
The look during combat – the user interface (UI)– has also been unified across the series now. However, ME1 still has some unique foibles. There’s unlimited ammo, for starters, with cooldown times for weapons instead. That was ditched later in the series. On the whole though, it has been polished into a more playable form for sure, which is great to revisit.
Another thing that helps is higher frame rate. While the graphics have been made higher-res and new lighting effects added, to suit the 4K consoles especially, enhanced frame rates make the most difference to gameplay. It differs depending on the format, but the games are now playable in up to 60 frames-per-second on consoles thanks to a ‘favour frame-rate’ option. The Xbox Series X even gets up to 120fps.
EA / BioWare
You do have a resolution drop to get the best frame rates, but it’s very much worth it. We’ve been playing the game largely across Xbox Series S and X, which run the game in backward compatibility but somewhat optimised. We favour frame-rate on the S, which gives up to 1440p and 60fps, while we switch to ‘favour quality’ mode on the X for 4K 60fps. Both run beautifully.
If you’re a PC owner with the right spec, you can even get up to 240fps and run the game in an 21:9 aspect ratio, but we haven’t been able to test that ourselves.
Graphically speaking
In terms of the new graphics themselves, there is a marked improvement, naturally, but you will still have to put up with a lot of the shonkiness of the originals.
EA / BioWare
The artificial intelligence (AI) upscaling process used for many of the texture upgrades did a fine job of creating details that were just fuzzy before, while the manual touching-up work produces excellent character models especially.
However, don’t expect a game that looks like Returnal or Miles Morales. It must be remembered that the original games were released between 2007 and 2012 and, while highly polished, they still look dated. Animations especially are janky. But they are liveable too.
Lighting has been greatly improved through, with the first Mass Effect showing the most change. Outdoor scenes are particularly impressive, with great use of lens flare and recoloured vistas that look significantly better than before. Plus, high dynamic range (HDR) has been added for further saturation and contrast boosts.
That’s not to say it’s all good. Sometimes the picture sharpening does the game a disservice. The Normandy (your space craft) can look overlaid onto a background now, whereas its blurriness helped it blend in before.
EA / BioWare
There are also the occasional annoying bugs or glitches – some old, some new. We’ve experienced some texture pop-in when a level loads, scenery clipping, or the odd character jerking about when faced with unsteady terrain. Sometimes team members just steadfastly refuse to follow you until you save and reload. But, there’s nothing that can’t be worked around or overlooked.
In all honesty, the original games had their fair share of caveats too, but we never minded at the time.
Hit the motherload
Another of the more significant improvements that you get with the Legendary Edition is loading times. Anyone who’s had to sit through the Citadel elevator loading issues of the original Mass Effect will understand just how thrilling it is to finally run the game from an SSD (on console).
We can’t comment on loading times for Xbox One or PS4 (or even PS5, as we’ve not played that copy) – although each are meant to be greatly enhanced too – but our experience of loading on both Xbox Series consoles couldn’t have been any better.
EA / BioWare
When stepping into any of the elevators on the Citadel, it is mere seconds before you reach the next area. This used to take a minute or more. In fact, all the clever tricks BioWare added to help alleviate the loading pain – such as in-elevator conversations or tannoy announcements – are now superfluous. You can still listen to them, but a skip option is also available as they are no longer needed to paper the cracks.
The same is true with loading in other areas of each of the games. Space travel, for example, is almost instant. Even the games load superfast at the beginning, once chosen on the launcher.
There are also many other smaller, often imperceptible tweaks (like an increased number of autosave points), so we could go on and on. It’s worth stressing though, that all of these have been made to improve and existing experience, not replace it. And, as life-long game fans ourselves, there is something altogether noble in that.
Verdict
We’ve played several hours of each of the three Mass Effect games in the Legendary Edition, but haven’t yet completed them this time around (we have in the past, a couple of times). However, we think we’ve seen enough to be able to give an honest opinion.
This collection is like a masterwork or remastering of one of the great music albums. It doesn’t go completely to town, or likely far enough for some, but the subject matter has been treated with the reverence it deserves. Let’s face it, you’d be hard pushed to find better scripting or storytelling out there, even in the biggest budget, most modern games. That’s where the Mass Effect trilogy’s real heart lies – and you can slather on as much polish as you like, but that’s what will draw you back.
Newcomers might initially baulk at the in-game visuals and their many caveats, but once the story grips they’ll find themselves as enamoured as we all were first time around. As for the rest of us, this is like revisiting an old friend and regaling memorable tales – all 100 plus hours of them. Wonderful.
With the PlayStation 5, Sony opted for a less traditional color scheme, one that ditched the classic jet-black exterior found on earlier PlayStation consoles in favor of a black-and-white finish. For some, the new exterior was an acquired taste, as was the matching aesthetic found on the accompanying DualSense controller.
On Thursday, however, the company announced two new color schemes for the DualSense — at least for those lucky enough to have landed a PS5 console amid the ongoing supply shortages. Dubbed “midnight black” and “cosmic red,” both controllers offer the same features as the standard DualSense, including a built-in microphone, haptic feedback, and adaptive triggers designed to make games more immersive.
Right now, both are currently available for preorder ahead of their launch on June 18th.
Where to buy the midnight black DualSense controller
Like the standard DualSense controller, the midnight black DualSense will retail for $69.99 at launch. It’s currently available for preorder at Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, and PlayStation Direct, the latter of which will ship the controller a week ahead of other retailers on June 11th. It’s not an exact match for previous DualShock controllers — the two-tone design features multiple shades of black and subtle gray detailing — but it’s far closer than the current DualSense, which opts for a white-and-black build. If you’ve wrapped your PS5 in Dbrand’s Darkplates, well now you can have a matching controller.
Where to buy the cosmic red DualSense controller
According to Sony, the color palette found on the cosmic red DualSense controller is modeled after the various shades of red scattered throughout the cosmos. That added interstellar inspiration will cost you, however, as the cosmic red edition runs a bit pricier at $74.99. It features a two-tone design like the midnight black DualSense, and it’s currently available for preorder at Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, and PlayStation Direct.
Like the midnight black model, the red-and-black edition is also slated to ship via PlayStation Direct on June 11th, a week ahead of other retailers.
Sony has announced its first new colors for PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller: a “cosmic red” model that features a two-tone red and black design, and an all-black “midnight black” version that brings to mind the classic PS2, PS3, and PS4 controller designs.
Until now, Sony has only offered the DualSense controller in a black-and-white color scheme to match the PS5 (which features a similar contrasting theme), so the new color options are certainly welcome ones.
The midnight black option is particularly notable: the primarily white DualSense was a big departure for Sony’s designs, which have largely trended toward black and gray consoles and controllers by default for the entire life span of the PlayStation brand. The new black option (technically still a two-tone design, with two different shades of black) is closer to those other controllers, though.
Right now, Sony has only announced new colors for the controller, although the PlayStation 5 console does feature removable face plates — so it’s possible that the company could introduce matching plates for the PS5 sometime in the future. Enterprising companies like Dbrand have already started to fill that gap, though, with their own third-party options.
The two new color schemes should be available to purchase sometime next month (Sony says that dates will be dependent on individual retailers). Pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but for reference, the standard DualSense controller costs $69.99.
Of course, all that assumes that you can find a PS5 in the first place — something that Sony admits might be difficult to do until 2022 at the earliest.
Gabe Newell, the head of Valve Software, hinted to students in New Zealand that the company might expand its Steam platform, or at least some games, to the console space later this year. The comment is vague at best, but at least it shows that the owner of one of the largest game distribution platforms has not given up its living room gaming plans.
Earlier this week, Gabe Newell spoke to students at Sancta Maria College in Auckland, New Zealand, and was asked whether Steam would be “porting any games on consoles, or [would] it just stay on PC?” The response was imprecise, but we cannot really expect anyone to disclose business plans at an event like this.
“You will get a better idea of that by the end of this year… and it won’t be the answer you expect,” Newell said. “You’ll say, ‘Ah-ha! Now I get what he was talking about.'”
The whole conversation had been recorded by a student who later uploaded it to Reddit, Ars Technica first reported.
Valve’s track record with game consoles in particular and living room gaming in general has been bumpy at best. On the one hand, the company successfully ported its games to consoles from Microsoft and Sony in the past, including the very successful The Orange Box on Xbox 360 and PS3. On the other hand, Valve’s Steam Machines initiatives has failed, just like its console oriented SteamOS. Valve’s Steam Link, which allowed to stream games from a local PC to a TV, has also failed to get popular enough for the company to keep selling the product.
For gamers, getting their Steam libraries on consoles would be a thing of dreams. It’s unclear how Steam would work on those systems, though, as Nintendo, Xbox and Sony all run their own exclusive stores on their platforms. Furthermore, far from all Steam games have versions for consoles, and developing a Windows or Linux emulator for Xbox or PlayStation is one heck of a task. Streaming games to consoles might be a way into the living room for Valve, but controller options may be an obstacle there.
Newell has been living in New Zealand since March 2020, when he was stuck as the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Since he doesn’t often do big appearances in the games industry, it makes some sense that a bunch of New Zealand students were the first to hear his thoughts on upcoming announcements.
The Aorus FV43U misses a couple of things as a TV replacement, but for gaming, it has few equals. A huge and accurate color gamut coupled with high contrast, 4K resolution and 144 Hz makes it a great choice for both PC and console gamers.
For
+ Class-leading contrast
+ Huge color gamut
+ Accurate out of the box
+ Excellent HDR
+ Solid gaming performance
Against
– No 24p support
– No Dolby Vision
Features and Specifications
If you’re looking for a jumbo-sized gaming monitor, there are plenty of routes you can take. There are multiple sizes of ultrawide 21:9 screens ranging from 34 to 38 inches diagonal. Then there’s the mega-wide 32:9, 49-inch genre. Or you can stick with flat panels in the 16:9 aspect ratio and go 32 inches or larger. Many simply opt for a TV, opening up the field to extra large displays that can top 80 inches.
If you want to stick with a desktop configuration though, the 43-inch category is a good choice. It’s large but not so big that you can’t sit close. It’s possible to play from 3 or 4 feet away, see the entire screen, and fill your peripheral vision with the image. And the 16:9 aspect ratio that 43-inch monitors come in means plenty of height, something that ultrawide and mega-wide monitors don’t have.
You can typically put a 43-inch gaming monitor on your desktop for around $1,500. That’s more than many 55-inch TVs but a computer monitor delivers a few things, like DisplayPort and high refresh rates, that consumer TVs do not. The Gigabyte Aorus FV43U makes the comparison a little easier, however, as it’s going for $1,000 as of writing.
The FV43U is a 16:9 VA panel competing with the best 4K gaming monitors with a 144 Hz refresh rate, AMD FreeSync, HDR and a quantum dot backlight that’s specced to reach 1,000 nits brightness. It also delivers decent sound from its built-in speakers, thanks to multiple sound modes. Let’s take a look.
Gigabyte Aorus FV43U Specs
Panel Type / Backlight
VA / W-LED, edge array
Screen Size & Aspect Ratio
43 inches / 16:9
Max Resolution & Refresh Rate
3840×2160 @ 144 Hz
FreeSync: 48-144 Hz
Native Color Depth & Gamut
10-bit (8-bits+FRC) / DCI-P3
DisplayHDR 1000, HDR10
Response Time (GTG)
1ms
Brightness
1,000 nits
Contrast
4,000:1
Speakers
2x 12w
Video Inputs
1x DisplayPort 1.4 w/DSC
2x HDMI 2.1, 1x USB-C
Audio
2x 3.5mm headphone output
USB 3.0
1x up, 2x down
Power Consumption
54.3w, brightness @ 200 nits
Panel Dimensions
38.1 x 25.1 x 9.9 inches
WxHxD w/base
(967 x 638 x 251mm)
Panel Thickness
3.5 inches (88mm)
Bezel Width
Top/sides: 0.4 inch (10mm)
Bottom: 1 inch (25mm)
Weight
33.8 pounds (15.4kg)
Warranty
3 years
By starting with a VA panel, the FV43U is already ahead of many premium gaming monitors that rely on lower contrast IPS technology. Most IPS monitors are specced for around 1,000:1 contrast, while the FV43U boasts 4,000:1 on its sheet and topped that dramatically in our testing with SDR and extremely when it came to HDR. HDR is aided by the monitor’s 1,000-nit backlight enhanced by a quantum dot filter for greater color volume, which our testing will also confirm.
Video processing leaves nothing under the table. The FV43U is one of the few 4K displays that can run at 144 Hz. It manages this over a single DisplayPort cable using Display Stream Compression (DSC). That means it can process 10-bit color, though it uses Frame Rate Control (FRC) to achieve this. FreeSync operates from 48-144 Hz in SDR and HDR modes. G-Sync also works with the same signals as verified by our tests, even though it’s not Nvidia-certified. (You can see how by checking out our How to Run G-Sync on a FreeSync Monitor tutorial).
Peripheral features include two HDMI 2.1 ports, which support console operation, namely the PS5 and Xbox Series X, with variable refresh rates up to 120 Hz. The monitor’s USB-C port accepts Ultra HD signals up to 144 Hz. This is common among USB-C monitors as USB-C can replicate DisplayPort functions, but you’ll need a graphics card with USB-C, of course. The monitor’s USB-C port also allows for KVM switching (allowing you to control multiple PCs with a single keyboard, monitor and mouse) through additional USB 3.0 ports.
Assembly and Accessories
Two solid metal stand pieces bolt in place on the bottom if you set up on a desktop or entertainment center. Wall mounting is supported by a 200mm lug pattern in back. You’ll have to source your own bolts which should be part of any bracket kit.
Gigabyte Aorus FV43U Side (Image credit: Gigabyte)
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Gigabyte Aorus FV43U Back (Image credit: Gigabyte)
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Gigabyte Aorus FV43U Top (Image credit: Gigabyte)
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(Image credit: Gigabyte)
From the front, the FV43U looks like any modern television with a narrow bezel around the top and sides and larger bit of molded trim across the bottom. The Aorus logo and a power LED are visible in the center. The stand puts the panel a bit less than 3 inches from the table, so it’s a good height for a desktop if you plan to sit around 4 feet back. The anti-glare layer is more reflective than most smaller screens, so plan placement accordingly if you have windows in your room.
A joystick for controlling the on-screen display (OSD) menu joystick is prominently situated on the panel’s bottom center but the easiest way to control the FV43U is with its tiny remote. It only has a few keys but they’re enough to zip through the OSD, change inputs and control the gaming features.
The back is where you’ll find most of the styling elements. Two slanted shapes are rendered in shiny plastic, along with an Aorus logo in the center. The rest of the finish is matte and features some brushed textures. Angles and straight lines are the order of the day with a generous grill at the top for heat dissipation. Speakers fire from the bottom vents and deliver 12W apiece (more on that in the Hands-on section).
The input panel is on the right side which makes it easily accessible. You get two HDMI 2.1, one DisplayPort 1.4 and a USB-C, which also supports 144 Hz and Adaptive-Sync. The HDMIs are limited to 120 Hz but support Adaptive-Sync and 4K resolution, making it fit for console gaming.
OSD Features
The OSD looks just like the menu found in all Aorus monitors but you can make it larger so it can be more legible from across the room.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Gaming sub-menu has everything needed for competitive gameplay. At the top is Aim Stabilizer Sync, which is a backlight strobe for blur reduction. It’s one of the rare implementations that can work in concert with Adaptive-Sync, and it manages to do this without reducing brightness too much out of the box (of course, you can always turn the brightness up).
Black Equalizer makes shadow detail more visible; Super Resolution adds edge enhancement (not in a good way), Display Mode changes the aspect ratio and Overdrive offers four options. Balance is the best one, as it has good blur reduction, no visible ghosting and allows you to toggle Adaptive-Sync on or off.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Picture menu offers an extensive array of image modes (eight, plus three custom memories), along with color temp and gamma presets and something we normally see only on professional screens: selectable color gamuts. You can choose between Adobe RGB, DCI-P3, sRGB or Auto, but in our tests, Auto did not automatically switch the color gamut for different signal types. That means that if we wanted to watch SDR content in the sRGB it’s made in, we had to select the gamut manually.
You also get Local Dimming, which increases contrast significantly. It makes the picture very bright as well, but highlight and shadow detail remain solid, so it is perfectly usable. However, we recommend leaving it off unless your room has a lot of ambient light because you can’t reduce brightness when it’s on. If you prefer a Low Blue Light mode for reading, that feature is in the OSD too.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
A single press of the large button in the center of the remote’s nav pad brings up a quick menu. Pressing left opens the Aorus dashboard, which can display your PC component’s internal temperatures and fan speeds. You’ll need a USB connection for this, but most motherboards will transmit the information to the FV43U.
A right press brings up Game Assist, which offers timers, counters, refresh rate info and aiming points. You also get a single cross in the OSD and can create additional reticles if you download the Aorus desktop app. Additionally, the OSD offers alignment marks in case you plan to set up additional FV43Us in a multi-screen configuration. Now that would be super cool! We’re thinking ultimate desktop flight simulator.
Gigabyte Aorus FV43U Calibration Settings
The FV43U comes set to its Green (yes, that’s the term used in the OSD) picture mode. It has nothing to do with the color green but is fairly accurate out of the box – enough to make our Calibration Not Required list. But if you’re a perfectionist and want to tweak the image, choose the User Define color temp and adjust the RGB sliders. Gamma presets and color gamut options are also available. For the full native gamut, choose Auto or Adobe RGB. Either will deliver just over 100% of DCI-P3 coverage. sRGB is also very accurate, but we found it better to choose the sRGB picture mode rather than the sRGB gamut mode. Below are our recommended calibration settings for SDR on the Gigabyte Aorus FV43U.
Picture Mode
Green
Brightness 200 nits
13
Brightness 120 nits
4
Brightness 100 nits
2 (min. 89 nits)
Contrast
50
Gamma
2.2
Color Space
Auto or Adobe
Color Temp User
Red 100, Green 97, Blue 99
When HDR content is present, there are four additional picture modes available: HDR1000, HLG, Game and Movie. HDR1000 is the most accurate, but locks out all image controls. Game and Movie allow for brightness and contrast adjustments and toggling and local dimming. We’ll explain that in more detail in the HDR tests.
Gaming and Hands-on
A question that should be answered when one considers buying a 43-inch gaming monitor is, will it function as a TV? Since some FV43Us will wind up in living rooms or entertainment centers, it’s important to know whether it can play well with things like disc players or streaming boxes.
There is no internal tuner so technically, the FV43U is not a TV. But its HDMI 2.1 inputs can accept input from any cable or satellite receiver, as well as a 4K disc player or streaming box like Apple TV. We tried a Philips BDP-7501 player and an Apple TV source. SDR and HDR10 signals were supported fine with one omission, 24p. Film cadences are present on any Blu-ray and in many streamed shows and movies from streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime (in addition to 50 and 60 Hz). The FV43U converted these streams to 60 Hz, which caused a bit of stuttering here and there. It wasn’t pervasive, but we occasionally saw artifacts. Note that the FV43U, like most computer monitors, doesn’t support Dolby Vision. We’ve only seen a few pro screens that includeDolby Vision.
As a monitor for controlling Windows, the FV43U was a joy to use. With its vast area, we could clearly view four or five documents simultaneously. Sitting about 4 feet back, the pixel structure was invisible, but if we sat closer we were just able to see the dots. Color, meanwhile, was beautifully saturated, great for watching YouTube and browsing the web. If you want perfect accuracy for web browsing, the sRGB mode is available with a few clicks of the remote.
Gaming is also a blast with a screen this big. SDR games like Tomb Raider rendered in vivid hues with deep blacks, bright whites and superb contrast. The large dynamic range and accurate gamma mean that you’ll see all the detail present in the original content. That lends a realism seen on only the very best computer monitors.
HDR games, like Call of Duty: WWII, also showed tremendous depth on the FV43U. We played exclusively in the HDR1000 picture mode because of its very accurate luminance and grayscale tracking. The FV43Us large color gamut was put to good use here. It was readily apparent in skin tones and natural earth shades, like brown and green. That, coupled with nearly 39,000:1 contrast, made surfaces and textures pop with a tactility that we’ve only seen from premium screens like the Acer Predator CG437K or the Asus ROG Swift PG43UQ (both go for $1,500 as of writing). Without a full-array local dimming (FALD) backlight like that Acer Predator X27 and Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ have, the FV43U doesn’t quite make the very top tier of the best HDR monitors. But it comes awfully close to their image quality while delivering a lot more screen area.
The monitor’s two 12W speakers deliver sound that’s better than what you’ll hear from smaller monitors with much more bass and overall presence. Five audio modes help you tailor sound to your preference. If you’d rather use your best gaming headset, there’s a 3.5mm jack and an additional analog output for external systems.
We’re in a relatively quiet period for Switch releases while we wait for Skyward Sword’s remaster to release in July. Thankfully, today marks the arrival of a new $10 calculator app on Nintendo’s console, which should stop your machine from gathering too much dust over the coming months. Hell yeah. Math.
The app, which was spotted by Eurogamer, is literally just called “Calculator” and is being published by Sabec. It’s single-player, which unfortunately rules out any team-based calculating, and it works in TV and handheld modes, according to its product page. We’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that the app bears a striking resemblance to the iPhone’s old calculator app, but being charitable, it’s possible that the app is only guilty of drawing inspiration from Dieter Rams’ classic design.
Math.Image: Sabec / Nintendo
Unlike Sony’s and Microsoft’s consoles, and even Nintendo’s previous machines, the Switch doesn’t have much in the way of non-gaming apps. It doesn’t have Netflix, Spotify, or those other pieces of software that we’ve come to expect will appear on basically any piece of electronics with a screen. But now, finally, it has a calculator app. Thank god.
Microsoft is introducing a new “Console Purchase Pilot” program that will give selected Xbox Insider members the chance to register to reserve an Xbox Series X or Series S console directly from the company through their existing Xbox One consoles.
The new program is only rolling out in the US for now, and even if you are given the chance to sign up, it doesn’t mean that you’ll actually be selected to buy one of the highly in-demand consoles.
Today we’re introducing the Console Purchase Pilot, allowing US #XboxInsiders on Xbox One to register for a chance to reserve an Xbox Series X|S console. Check the Xbox Insider Hub on Xbox One for details. Limited space is available and not all who register will be selected. pic.twitter.com/MBkQmbSDWc
— Xbox Insider (@xboxinsider) May 11, 2021
Customers will also have to use the Xbox Insider Hub app on an Xbox One console to both sign up for the Console Purchase Pilot and purchase the console itself — you won’t be able to conduct the transaction on a PC, web browser, Xbox 360, or Xbox Series X / S by design.
That means that the program will be intentionally targeted to dedicated Xbox fans who already own an Xbox One console and are looking to upgrade, and it could help cut down on scalpers. Introduced in 2016, the Xbox Insider program lets dedicated Xbox fans give direct feedback to Microsoft and test future software updates and features ahead of broader public rollouts.
And with next-gen consoles expected to be hard to find for months to come — at its last update, Microsoft said to expect the new Xboxes to be tough to buy until at least June — testing out new ways to directly sell consoles to fans could be the best way to make sure that more units don’t end up on the eBay aftermarket.
The Xbox Series X / S’s handy Quick Resume feature, which suspends supported games so that they boot up more quickly when you come back to them later, is getting some nice improvements in the May Xbox update.
Once the update is installed on your console, you’ll be able to see which games are kept in Quick Resume with a new tag, and you’ll also be able to make a group of games in Quick Resume so you have access to all of them in a single spot. Microsoft is also promising that Quick Resume will have “improved reliability and faster load times,” Microsoft’s Jonathan Hildebrandt said in a blog post.
A Quick Resume group.Image: Microsoft
The new update also adds passthrough audio for media apps like Disney Plus and Apple TV, meaning that audio from those apps can be sent directly to a compatible HDMI device. There are also new parental settings that let parents unblock multiplayer mode for individual games and a new dynamic background.
The May update should be rolling out now, and it might already be available for you. While writing this story, I booted up my Series X and it installed.
Microsoft also announced that it will be sunsetting the Xbox One SmartGlass app for PC starting in June. “This means the SmartGlass app will be removed from the Windows Store and there will be no further updates for those who have the app already downloaded to their devices,” Microsoft said.
UploadVR has some exciting rumors about what Sony will be including on the next-gen VR headset it’s announced for the PS5: it’ll apparently include 4K resolution, eye-tracking, and a vibration motor in the headset for haptic feedback (to complement the controllers with haptic triggers).
According to UploadVR, the new headset should have a total resolution of 4000 x 2040, giving each eye 2000 x 2040 pixels. The original PlayStation VR had a resolution of 960 x 1080 pixels per eye, for comparison, so this would be nearly double in each direction. The Oculus Quest 2 has 1832 x 1920 pixels per eye, slightly less than Sony’s headset is rumored to have — in both cases, the high resolution can help to avoid the “screen-door effect” that can often keep VR headsets from providing a clear image.
It is worth noting, though, that unlike the Quest 2, Sony had previously announced the PlayStation headset will still be wired, using a single cable to connect to the PS5 system. It’ll be a USB-C cable, according to UploadVR, which shouldn’t come as a surprise given that Sony conspicuously placed one on the front of the PS5.
UploadVR also has interesting information about how the PlayStation VR successor will fill its additional pixels. Its sources say that the headset will track the users’ eyes so it can do foveated rendering, where the image will only be fully sharp where you’re looking, and be blurrier in your peripheral vision. This simulates how your eyes actually perceive the world and lets the computer (or in this case, console) work more efficiently by not having to fully render things at high resolution that you aren’t looking at anyhow. There are, of course, other neat things you can do with eye-tracking (including creating more lifelike player avatars), but it’s currently unclear what Sony plans to do along those lines.
UploadVR also claims that the next-gen headset will use inside-out tracking, which would certainly be an upgrade from the re-purposed PlayStation Move system of the original, which required a fixed camera that could only properly track your head and hands if you held a pair of glowing sticks in a fairly small area between you and the console. Inside-out tracking typically uses cameras mounted on the outside of the headset itself to figure out where you are inside a room.
If these rumors turn out to be true, it sounds like it could be a promising accessory for those lucky enough to get their hands on a PS5. While it’d be nice to see a cable-free Quest 2 competitor, it’s hard to blame Sony for focusing on something that will compliment its console. Personally, I’m already sold, and am starting to set aside some pennies (okay, more realistically, twenties).
Correction: the rumored resolution for the headset is 4000 x 2040, is nearly double the original in each direction. UploadVR’s original story had a typo pegging the resolution to 4000 x 2080, which has also been corrected.
(Pocket-lint) – The PlayStation 4 is an absolute beast of a console, even if the PS5 is now on the scene to take its place as the most powerful hardware Sony’s made so far. The PS4 has played host to some of the most impressive and immersive games ever made, and there are still classic new titles releasing all the time.
Top PS4 games: Best PlayStation 4 and PS4 Pro games every gamer must own
So, whether you’ve been using a PS4 for years or are about to pick one up for the first time to play through some recent hall of fame contenders, you might be on the lookout for cables that could help your experience be smoother. We’ve gathered a handy selection right here, across a bunch of different types.
Our guide to the best PlayStation 4 cables around today
CorpCo
CorpCo 6ft AC Power Cord for Sony Playstation 4
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It might not be that obvious if you’ve just bought a new console, but many of us will have had issues at one time or another finding a lost power cable for our PS4.
After all, without a power supply, you’re not going to be able to do anything at all. This replacement cable works great with the PS4 and will plug into your wall for exactly the right amount of power, letting you get on with gaming.
Amazon
Amazon Basics PlayStation 4 Controller Charging Cable
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Another common issue for many gamers is their controller running out of battery, and this great twin-pack of cables solves it easily.
With great build-quality and 6-foot long cables, they’re perfect for carrying on gaming while your pads charge, and are durable enough to take some punishment, too.
6amLifestyle
PS4 Controller Charger
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Those who’ve used a few cables in their time will know that there’s nothing quite as impressive as a braided one, though. This design is more tangle-resistant and flexible, and can look really great, too.
That makes this twin-pack a great alternative for controller cables if you’re keen for a slightly more premium feel for your cable.
PowerA
PowerA USB Charging Cable
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PowerA makes some of the best accessories for consoles of all stripes anywhere on the market, from controllers to cases and more. It’s no surprise, then, that it has a controller cable ready for your PS4.
True to form, it’s really high-quality and reliable, and while it might not be the cheapest cable on this list, it might just be the one that’s most likely to satisfy.
Koowod
PS4 Controller Charger Charging Cable
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Another pair of cables with a braided finish, these are great if you want a slightly different colour for your setup. If you have a red or white controller, in particular, these will suit them down to the ground.
Beyond that, they’re nice and long and once again should be fairly hardy, so they’re a bit of a no-brainer!
Elgato
Elgato Chat Link
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This one is a bit more of a niche option, but if you’re getting into livestreaming it could be a lifesaver. Hooking up a microphone to record your party audio for a stream can be really hit-and-miss, but this clever splitter lets you do so right from your controller.
It makes it super easy to get not just your voice but your whole party’s, making those epic momenst even more memorable and funny.
Writing by Max Freeman-Mills. Editing by Dan Grabham.
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