Gigabyte has announced a pair of pre-built desktop gaming PCs, the Aorus Model X and Aorus Model S, both featuring top-of-the-range Intel and AMD CPUs alongside Nvidia RTX GPUs. What’s more, while the Model X is a standard-looking PC tower, the Model S comes in a 14L low-profile case that bears a distinct resemblance to Microsoft’s Xbox Series X.
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Across the board specs are high, with the Intel models sporting Rocket Lake i9 CPUs with eight cores and 16 threads, that turbo up to 5.3 GHz. AMD fans get the 12-core/24-thread Ryzen 9-5900X, which boosts up to 4.8 GHz and has 64MB of L3 cache, compared to 16MB on the Intel chip. RAM is also fast, with the Model X fitted with 16GB of 4400 MHz DDR4 (3600 MHz on the AMD model), while the Model S gets 32GB of 4000 MHz chips (again 3600 MHz if you choose AMD). To back all this up, the GPUs in both models are RTX 3080s.
Built on the Intel Z590 and AMD X570 / B550 chipsets, there’s also plenty of networking and I/O available, with Wi-Fi 6 available on all models. The Ethernet ports are both fast models – with 10bE LAN on the Intel Model X (plus a secondary 2.5GbE port), 2.5GbE on the AMD Model X (with a secondary 1GbE port) and 2.5GbE on both flavours of Model S. USB ports are plentiful – especially on the 58L Model X, which supports the Thunderbolt 4 standard in its Intel incarnation – and SSDs are fast, with each tower featuring a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 model and a 2TB PCIe 3.0 drive.
And while the X is cooled by a 360mm AIO liquid cooler putting out 40 decibels (dB), the Model S features an Xbox Series X-like cooling system that draws air in at the bottom of the tower and vents it from the top across a thermal fin. This system is so quiet it claims to put out less than 37 dB while gaming. That’s equivalent to, according to the American Academy of Audiology, something between a whisper and a quiet library.
At the time of writing, neither system seemed to be available for purchase.
It’s not an HDMI standard with much publicity right now, but HDMI QFT should be one you’re keeping an eye on if gaming is a priority. It may be one of the lesser talked about HDMI 2.1 features but this low latency technology has the potential to make your on-screen action more responsive and give your overall reaction time a head-start over the competition. So, what is HDMI QFT?
What is HDMI QFT?
(Image credit: LG / Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Sony)
The QFT in HDMI QFT stands for Quick Frame Transport and, like its name suggests, it’s a technology that speeds up the transmission of each frame on its journey from source to screen. It decreases the latency between the moment when the visual data is available in the graphics processor of your gaming device and the time when that data is then rendered on the screen as a frame. The shorter that gap, the closer your gameplay can be to the live version of the action.
This is very different to something like ALLM which simply optimises an ALLM-compatible TV to gaming. While ALLM will automatically shut down your TV’s extraneous picture processing in order to reduce what’s known as ‘input lag’, HDMI QFT actively speeds up the transport of the game data itself.
It’s so effective that it can theoretically reduce that time and lower latency by multiples of milliseconds. In the world of fast-action online gaming, with input lag for TVs already down to a matter of 20ms, those extra few milliseconds could make a very big difference.
How does HDMI QFT work?
The path of gaming data from source to screen is a lot longer than an HDMI cable. Display latency is defined as the time it takes to get a frame from the source GPU, at the moment that its ready, all the way until its painted on your TV screen.
That’s the time it takes to get through the source’s output circuits, the transfer across the cable, the processing of the video data by the TV’s chips and then finally the rendering of those frames on-screen. In real terms, that can affect things such as the delay between pressing a button on your games controller and actually seeing that action take place on the screen.
HDMI QFT can’t speed up all of that but it can accelerate things from source HDMI port to sink HDMI port, so long as both devices support the HDMI QFT standard. QFT transports each frame through the pipeline at a higher rate than normal.
HDMI QFT is an HDMI 2.1 feature, which means that it could be possible to enable it at some point on any device with an HDMI 2.1-certified port.
Which devices are HDMI QFT-certified?
At present you’ll struggle to find HDMI QFT support on any TV or games console. For the time being, neither the Xbox Series X and Series S, nor the PlayStation 5 can make use of HDMI QFT technology, and it’s unclear whether or not it can be added as a firmware update.
A clue may come from the world of AV receivers, which are often way ahead of the curve when it comes to new audio-visual technologies. All of the current Denon X Series AVRs (from the X2700H upwards) with an 8K input, and all the current Marantz AV receivers with an 8K input, support QFT. They’re also able to passthrough a QFT signal on their non-8K HDMI ports.
While older AVRs with HDMI2.0b sockets were able to add ALLM, HDMI 2.1 features such as VRR, QFT and QMS require hardware upgrades for compatibility. It seems likely that it would only take software tweaks to add QFT to any device already stocked with at least one HDMI 2.1-certified port, but we await confirmation from the manufacturers.
So, there’s a good chance that, while neither PS5 nor Xbox Series X users can benefit from the low latency gaming potential of HDMI QFT right now, that doesn’t mean they won’t be able to at some point soon. More crucial might be to have a relatively modern TV, which is likely to benefit from its own HDMI QFT update eventually at some point.
For the present, Samsung does not support HDMI QFT with its TV range nor has it any immediate plans to add it. However, with little source support and a claimed input lag of under 10ms at 60Hz and under 6ms at 120Hz on its recent QN95A TV, it doesn’t feel a pressing need.
That said, there is one manufacturer on the gaming side that is QFT-ready. Nvidia’s Ampere 30-series GPUs fully support HDMI 2.1 including HDMI QFT. So, if you’re looking to take your PC gaming to the big screen, then you’re only a TV away. We’ll keep you posted and add to this list as soon as we hear of any available.
Until then, happy, if slightly less responsive, gaming.
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Microsoft is enabling its Xbox FPS Boost mode on 74 more games today, bringing the total up to 97 games. Titles getting an FPS Boost include Assassin’s Creed Unity, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Wasteland 3, and Far Cry 5 all moving to 60fps. You can find the full list at Microsoft’s site.
The FPS Boost feature for Xbox Series X and Series S consoles is designed to make existing games run better. Microsoft has improved frame rates with some backward-compatible games, but the FPS Boost feature improves older games without developers having to make changes.
The updates come just weeks after Microsoft also added FPS Boost mode to 13 EA games, with 12 of them adding support for up to 120fps. Microsoft also added FPS Boost to a number of Bethesda games back in March. Both of these previous additions bumped the total of number to 23 games in total with FPS Boost, but Microsoft’s updates today brings that all the way up to 97.
At some point during my time with Disco Elysium: The Final Cut, after I read yet another minutes-long dialogue sequence to try and learn more information about the game’s murder mystery, I realized I felt like I was slowly working my way through a long novel — one that went just a little bit over my head.
In The Final Cut, an enhanced version of the 2019 cult hit role-playing game that made its console debut on PlayStation in March, you play as a cop with amnesia investigating a murder case about a hanged man. You’ll explore a fictional place called Revachol and talk to a huge cast of characters to piece together clues about the hanged man’s killer.
Almost every conversation or interaction has an extensive dialogue tree, allowing you to respond to or direct a conversation in ways that can influence other moments in the game down the line. One time, I convinced somebody to give me the jacket off their back, which I could then wear. With another person, I refused money so that my character wouldn’t feel indebted to him.
A conversation in Disco Elysium.
Occasionally, these interactions can drag on, feeling a bit like a book chapter that just won’t end. But the game’s writing is sharp and often quite funny, which usually made all of the reading worth it.
Disco Elysium takes place in what I imagine as a parallel universe to ours. Characters frequently reference countries, races, and historical figures that don’t exist in our world but who are core to the societal and ideological makeup. While Disco Elysium’s incredible depth of historical detail made Revachol feel like a real place, at times I struggled to keep facts and information straight.
You won’t just be talking to other people, though: any one of 24 different parts of your personality, like your sense of logic, composure, or authority, can butt into conversations to discuss and debate what’s going on, sometimes even with each other. It’s kind of like Pixar’s Inside Out, if it was a murder mystery.
But like the historical details packed into the game, these traits can also have their own inscrutability. During my playthrough, one attribute sometimes relayed short stories about other police officers. Another, as far as I could tell, was something like a sixth sense about Revachol itself. As each one of your personalities jumps in, you’ll have more text to read. Usually, they add useful context, but other times, I wish they wouldn’t have said anything at all so that I could get to the next part of the game sooner.
Your personalities in Disco Elysium.Image: Studio ZA/UM
You can also level up each of them as “skills” to give you advantages during the game. I put a lot of points into my empathy skill, for example, which meant that Empathy (the character) would often chime in with advice about how to respond empathetically in a situation.
Putting points into skills also helps with “checks,” where the game rolls a virtual dice to determine if you succeed at an important action. (Saying the right thing in a conversation can help with the potential success of a check, too.) You can retry most failed checks by leveling up a specific skill.
Some checks can only be attempted once, though, and I liked those the best — I always held my breath while I waited to see if I had succeeded or failed. They also felt like they had the most impact on the story itself, particularly near the end, where a dice roll can mean the difference between someone living or dying.
A check in Disco Elysium. Image: Studio ZA/UM
Overall, the game’s systems make for a fun twist on typical role-playing mechanics. Instead of leveling up external skills like magic power or speed, it really feels like you’re building your character’s personality.
Developer Studio ZA/UM added some new features to the original game, which was first released in October 2019, for The Final Cut. Every line is now fully voiced, and the acting is consistently excellent. There are some new quests that let you explore your character’s political ideologies. And The Final Cut marks the game’s first appearance on consoles, hitting PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. (It’s coming to Xbox consoles and Nintendo Switch later this year.) The game was a bit buggy for me on PS5, especially at launch, but Studio ZA/UM has released several patches that have fixed the majority of issues I ran into.
Bugs weren’t the only thing that detracted from my experience, though. The game punts you to a short loading screen every time you transition to a new area, which got annoying over the course of the 24 hours I spent with it. Getting to the quests menu takes three button presses. And the text is very small, even on the largest setting.
But if you’re willing to immerse yourself into the world of Revachol and put up with some small annoyances along the way, Disco Elysium tells a satisfying story that I really enjoyed. Like a huge, epic novel, the game can at times be enigmatic, opaque, and a little too long. But as is often the case for those kinds of stories, it’s well worth slogging through the boring stuff to see the game all the way to its fantastic end. I’m glad I read this one all the way through.
Disco Elysium: The Final Cut is available now on PS4, PS5, PC, Mac, and Stadia. It’s set to release on Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, and Nintendo Switch later this year.
With quality programmes, vast platform support and a great interface, iPlayer is the best video-on-demand catch-up TV service out there
For
Superb content
Intuitive and slick interface
Extensive platform support
Against
Still no permanent 4K offering
It’s free (although you need a TV licence). It’s the home of superb TV shows. There are no ads. And you can download programmes for offline watching. Put simply, BBC iPlayer is the UK’s best catch-up TV service.
Even without considering all the live broadcast TV and radio the corporation provides across many channels, iPlayer is almost worth the licence fee on its own.
Missed the last episode of Line of Duty, need another Pointless fix or want to see what all the Killing Eve or Fleabag fuss is about? BBC iPlayer is your answer. It was already a great desktop service when first introduced in 2007 and, well over a decade on, it’s even more excellent in its incarnation as an app for your TV, smartphone and tablet.
Features
(Image credit: BBC)
Unlike Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, iPlayer is free to use – so long as you pay the BBC’s annual licence fee (currently £159), which has been in place, in some form or another, for almost a century.
The on-demand service is the home of BBC shows that have recently aired, offering a (typically 30-day) window to catch them before they are free to whizz off to the BBC and ITV’s relatively new, £5.99-per-month BritBox streaming service, which is where you’ll find the biggest collection of British TV content ever, combining current and classic boxsets for on-demand viewing.
BBC iPlayer does host some of its most popular TV shows for longer durations, however – Killing Eve (which became the first British-made show to be named the best comedy series at the Emmy Awards last year), Line of Duty (multipleBAFTA Television Awards nominee), Luther (multiple Golden Globe nominee) and Doctor Foster (two-time National Television Awards winner) are, at the time of writing, available to binge in their entirety on iPlayer, for example.
In a bid to boost the nation’s spirits during lockdown, the BBC helpfully added a slew of new long-term boxsets to iPlayer. The ‘from the archive’ tab in ‘categories’ is where you’ll find full series’ of classic fare such as Absolutely Fabulous, Black Adder and The Vicar of Dibley as well as pretty much every Michael Palin documentary ever made.
It would be difficult to guess how many hours of content iPlayer offers at any one time, but there always seems to be at least one show on iPlayer that everyone is talking about – and that’s a credit to the broadcaster’s consistency for quality programming.
As with many streaming services these days, BBC iPlayer lets you download shows onto your smart device for offline watching for up to 30 days. This is great for long train journeys, if you’re travelling out of the country (iPlayer is only available in the UK) or can’t get any internet or data signal.
You can choose whether to restrict downloading to when you’re connected to a wi-fi network or allow downloading over your mobile network data in the app’s settings.
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(Image credit: BBC)
BBC iPlayer’s familiar grid layout is neat and stylish, with its home screen logically presenting you with ‘Featured’, ‘Recommended for You’, ‘Continue Watching’ and ‘Most Popular’ suggestions. The service dynamically highlights programmes, too, mixing documentaries and comedy panel shows so that there’s something for everyone.
You can also browse programmes by channels (BBC One, BBC Two or CBeebies, for example), categories (Arts, Food and Documentaries, say) or TV guide schedules. Or you can simply search for them. You can add shows to your ‘My Programmes’ list, too, so new episodes are easy to access.
Essentially, each update to iPlayer over the years has made it fresher and more intuitive to use. Scrolling through the service is a swift and smooth process, regardless of what platform you’re using.
This is probably a good time to mention that the iPlayer app is everywhere: on pretty much every smart TV and media streamer, available to download across iOS and Android devices, even on Xbox Series X/S. iPlayer’s not currently on the PS5, but it’s still one of the most prevalent apps across smart devices in the UK.
Just be aware that you need to create a BBC ID account to watch any iPlayer content, although it is free to sign up and stays logged in at all times, keeping your favourites list and watching history synced across all devices.
29 BBC iPlayer tips, tricks and features
Picture
(Image credit: BBC)
With increasingly high-quality screen resolutions on smartphones and tablets, both standard and high-definition shows on iPlayer look as good as you’d reasonably expect them to.
Naturally, we would urge you to play HD whenever you can. Most programmes are available in HD, so long as they’ve first been broadcast on a BBC HD channel.
Then there’s the BBC’s next-level 4K Ultra HD content, which offers a huge step up in picture quality – namely in resolution and detail. While the BBC still doesn’t yet have a regular, permanent 4K offering, it has run several 4K trials on iPlayer since 2016, including Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II on-demand viewing and, even more excitingly, live broadcasts of the 2018 FIFA World Cup football and Wimbledon tennis.
After temporarily removing 4K content during 2020 to help ease the strain on broadband networks, iPlayer has made UHD programming available again. The current ‘trial’ has nine shows available to stream, including His Dark Materials and Black Narcissus. We can’t help but feel it really is about time for 4K to become a permanent fixture of the service.
Despite broadcasting some HD programmes, such as The Proms, in 5.1 surround sound, all content on iPlayer is only available in stereo. This is a bit disappointing, especially when streaming modern films or the flagship 4K documentary Seven Worlds, One Planet, which we know has a lush Dolby Atmos soundtrack on its Blu Ray release. Although some paid-for streaming platforms do have tiers that support multi-channel sound, we understand that the BBC doesn’t have any plans to add that functionality to iPlayer in the short term.
The BBC does provide excellent accessibility features for the visually impaired and hard of hearing. Many programmes will have icons that tell you whether audio description (AD) or sign language (SL) options are available.
Here’s what’s next for 4K HDR streaming content on the BBC
Verdict
BBC iPlayer isn’t entirely free, of course. But when the license fee amounts to less than 45p per day, and you look at the incredible range and accessibility of programming available from the BBC, not to mention the cutting-edge picture technologies it strives to offer in the hopefully near future, we’d happily carry on paying so that we can see more of the broadcaster’s David Attenborough-narrated nature documentaries.
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We’re just a week out from the release of Resident Evil Village, and as part of the game’s promotional campaign, Capcom has uploaded an absolute treat to the YouTube channel for Biohazard (which is the name of the Resident Evil series in Japan): an official puppet show starring characters from the game. Yes, everyone’s favorite tall vampire lady, Lady Dimitrescu, is one of the puppets.
The three-minute video is simultaneously adorable and terrifying. The show is entirely in Japanese, so I don’t have any idea what the actual story is — I think all of the puppets are meeting up to paint together, using blood as the ink? But it’s worth watching for some seriously silly puppet antics, like puppet-Lady Dimitrescu gleefully gulping down a bucket of blood. And the video’s title suggests this is just the first episode, according to Kotaku, so it appears there’s more to come.
Resident Evil Village will launch on May 7th for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, PC, and Stadia. The game’s final demo will unlock in North America tomorrow, May 1st, at 8PM ET, and Capcom recently extended its availability so you can play it through May 9th at 8PM ET. Once you start the demo, though, you only have 60 minutes to play it.
Home/Software & Gaming/Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is getting upgraded for Xbox Series X/S and PS5
Matthew Wilson 15 hours ago Software & Gaming
Back in 2019, EA finally broke its Star Wars curse with the release of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, an excellent single-player adventure set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Now later this year, the game will be upgraded to take advantage of Xbox Series X/S and PS5 hardware.
Over on the official Star Wars website, we are starting to see announcements ahead of May 4th, otherwise known as Star Wars Day. One of the announcements is an early tease of Jedi Fallen Order heading to next gen consoles.
“Coming this summer, we’re excited to announce the next-gen release of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, bringing a number of technical improvements to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S console versions of the game. This will be a free cross-generation upgrade to current owners.”
We’ll have to wait a little bit longer for specific details on these technical improvements, but higher resolutions and 60 frames per second gameplay seem like natural upgrades for these new consoles. In fact, the game can already run at 60 frames per second on next-gen hardware in backwards compatibility mode, but this new update should improve graphical fidelity at this performance level to further optimise the experience.
KitGuru Says: I’ve been wanting to give this one a replay recently, so I’ll be looking forward to the next-gen upgrade. Are any of you going to be jumping back in to Jedi Fallen Order when the Xbox Series X/S and PS5 version launches?
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Matthew Wilson 2 days ago Console, Featured Tech News
Microsoft revealed its quarterly earnings results last night, giving us a good idea as to how well Xbox is doing right now to start off the new console generation. Microsoft unfortunately doesn’t reveal specific sales numbers, but everything appears to be on the up, with the gaming division generating $15 billion in revenue over the last year.
Gaming revenue for Microsoft has risen by 50 percent year-on-year, thanks in part to the new Xbox Series X/S consoles, as well as growth from services like Game Pass. In the last quarter alone (January 2021 to March 2021), Xbox brought in $3.53 billion for Microsoft. For the entire fiscal year, gaming revenue rose to $15 billion, which is up from $10.3 billion in the previous year.
As reported by industry analyst, Daniel Ahmad, Xbox content and services revenue rose by 34 percent year-on-year, which was driven by strong third-party releases on Xbox, the growth of Xbox Game Pass and first-party game sales. Those first-party game sales now include Bethesda’s entire catalogue, as Microsoft closed its acquisition of Zenimax Media in early March.
Finally, Xbox hardware sales rose by 232 percent year-on-year due to the Xbox Series X/S launch. Specific sales numbers were not revealed, but Microsoft will have sold several million units at this point. Unfortunately, due to supply constraints, Microsoft is expecting to see a slight decline in Xbox revenues in the third quarter.
Of course, Microsoft has many divisions bringing in revenue and doesn’t rely on Xbox all that much. As a whole, Microsoft brought in $41.7 billion in revenue, with a profit of $15.5 billion.
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KitGuru Says: Microsoft’s gaming strategy is clearly paying off and we’ll likely see another big jump in late 2021, thanks to first-party game releases like Halo Infinite.
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I wish I’d had this to test with Samsung’s Odyssey G9
Microsoft has something of a history of neglecting PC gaming, but it’s trying to change that in a big way — by promising its flagship HaloInfinite will feel like a native PC game when it arrives later this year. We’ve known for many months that it wouldn’t be the Xbox Series X’s killer app, but Microsoft’s trying to make PC gamers feel like first-class citizens too, with features as forward-looking as support for 32:9 super-ultrawide monitors like the Samsung Odyssey G9 I reviewed late last year.
This morning, we learned the game would support ultrawide monitors, in addition to triple-keybinds, advanced graphics options, and both crossplay and cross-progression between Xbox and Windows PCs. But this evening, the Halo Waypoint blog went way deeper, revealing what Infinite will look like at 32:9 and an array of other PC-gamer-friendly details like being able to adjust your field of view up to 120 degrees — and the ability to host your own LAN multiplayer server!
In my Samsung Odyssey G9 review, I bemoaned how even the games that do support 32:9 typically look abnormally, wildly stretched out on each side, providing over a dozen examples of how they don’t properly adjust the shape and curvature of the window they’re opening into the 3D game world. But Halo Infinite PC development lead Mike Romero says the game’s designed to support arbitrary window sizes, and can fit its HUD, menus, and even in-game cutscenes into the wider aspect ratios.
“There’s dozens of people across the studio that have had to put dedicated effort into supporting something like ultrawide throughout the entirety of the game, and I’m very excited to say I think we’ll have some of the best ultrawide support I’ve ever seen in a game,” boasts Romero.
Looking at these Halo Infinite images at 32:9, it’s not immediately clear to me that Microsoft has solved the 32:9 issue — looking at the hill on the right of this image below, for instance, it seems like the game world still might appear a little bit skewed and warped.
But it is clear that you’ll see a lot more of the game world at once this way, if you’re one of the few who’ve ascended to an ultrawide monitor — and have a PC powerful enough to drive it, of course.
Here’s a short list of all the PC-esque perks Microsoft is promising:
LAN play, hosting a local multiplayer server on PC that you can join from both PC and Xbox
Crossplay, restricting ranked matches to input type rather than console vs. PC, with server-side anti-cheat
Adjustable FOV (up to 120 degrees) on both PC and console
Mouse and keyboard support on both PC and console
Triple keyboard and mouse bindings
Visual quality settings up to ultra presets on PC, with individual settings for texture quality, depth of field, anti-aliasing etc.
High refresh rate options
21:9, 32:9 “and beyond” ultrawide monitor support on PC
Minimum and maximum framerate settings on PC
Fixed and dynamic resolution scaling options on PC
Optional borderless fullscreen on PC
FPS and ping overlay on PC
Out-of-game multiplayer invites let you join games through Xbox Live, Discord and Steam
As my colleague Tom Warren notes, there’s still more to learn, like whether the game will support GPU-dependent features on PC like Nvidia’s framerate-enhancing DLSS, ray tracing, and more.
Earlier today, Microsoft released a blog post sharing the company’s thoughts on the gaming industry and its focus for gaming in 2021 and beyond. Microsoft’s goal has changed for the Xbox team and its gaming initiatives from focusing more on a specific platform (i.e the Xbox consoles) to being focused on multiple platforms, specifically the PC.
Microsoft’s end goal is to be a ‘player first’ company, focusing more on the game rather than the platform it’s on. This means that we’ll be seeing more and more features being focused on the PC platform, and not just the Xbox consoles alone.
This is good news for PC gamers is that Microsoft is now focusing more than ever before on the PC gaming ecosystem, which hopefully means more and more gaming optimizations for the PC and more cross-play potential, which is what Microsoft also highlighted in its blog post.
For example, Microsoft shares more details on Halo Infinite which is getting a significant amount of PC development time and will fully support features such as ultrawide (21:9) and super ultrawide (32:9) screens, triple keybinds, and higher fidelity graphics which will be PC exclusive.
Plus, Halo infinite will also have cross-play capabilities with PC and the latest Xbox Series X/S consoles.
Microsoft is also expanding its cloud gaming services to allow any device to stream over 100 console games to your PC. A few days ago, Microsoft announced the beta for its cloud gaming service, and it will work with both Windows 10 devices and Apple iOS devices through web browsers such as Edge, Chrome, and Safari.
As for developers, Microsoft is adding more features to give developers an easier time making games for PCs. Currently, there’s a new DirectX12 feature called the Agility SDK, allowing developers to push the latest DirectX 12 features and updates to their games without the end user (player) requiring an operating system update.
Microsoft is also working on other features like Auto HDR technology and continuing to work on DirectStorage technology, which was an Xbox exclusive feature but is now being developed for the PC.
These are just some of the features Microsoft addressed in its blog post, but overall it’s great to see Microsoft focusing on the PC player experience just as much as on the Xbox consoles.
Microsoft is announcing today that Halo Infinite will support crossplay and cross-progression when it launches later this year. This will allow PC and Xbox players to match together and play the Halo Infinite campaign, and the support also extends to multiplayer. Any multiplayer customization and progress will sync across both PC and Xbox.
Halo Infinite’s multiplayer mode will also be free to play when it launches later this year, with support for up to 120fps in the arena mode on Xbox Series X. Microsoft is also ensuring all of the customizations PC players expect are available inside Halo Infinite. This includes support for ultrawide monitors, triple keybinds, advanced graphics options, and other customizations.
We’re now waiting to hear more about Halo Infinite and when the beta will be available across PC and Xbox ahead of the game’s debut this fall. Developer 343 Industries is still working on improving the visuals in Halo Infinite, after the game was delayed following criticisms over a gameplay demo last summer. Halo Infinite certainly looks a lot better in recent 4K PC screenshots released by Microsoft, but we haven’t seen any updated gameplay in almost a year.
Halo Infinite is a “spiritual reboot” of the original Halo,making it easy for new players to immediately jump into the story. It includes an open-world environment that’s very similar to Halo: Combat Evolved,with the original Warthog vehicle and the Banished enemies. 343 Industries has also added new mechanics like Master Chief’s new grappling hook and a “Drop Wall” cover.
We’re nearly six months into the life of the current generation of game consoles, but there are still vanishingly few high-profile exclusives that show off what the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X can do. After getting through the initial wave of launch titles, I’ve spent most of 2021 using my PS5 to play Fortnite. But this week sees the launch of Returnal, a PS5 exclusive that comes with some caveats. It’s challenging and complex, making it the kind of game you’ll die in repeatedly. But it also might be the best showcase for Sony’s new console yet
Returnal puts you in the spaceboots of an astronaut experiencing the worst case of deja vu imaginable. After crash landing on a mysterious alien planet, she soon realizes she’s stuck in a loop; every time she dies, she heads back to the crash site to start all over again. Each time you explore, you learn just a little bit more about the planet and the astronaut, as well as the rules of the game. With more information and practice, you’ll (hopefully) be able to progress slightly farther each loop.
The game plays out as a third person shooter, but it’s also a mish-mash of many different inspirations and genres. Despite the perspective, Returnal often feels like a bullet hell shooter, with alien creatures spitting countless energy orbs for you to avoid. You even get bonuses for avoiding getting hit. (This aspect of the game shouldn’t be too surprising, as Returnal was developed by Housemarque, a studio best-known for games like Super Stardust and Resogun.)
The loop structure also means that the game plays out like a roguelike (think games like Hades). Each “run” is different; the planet remixes itself each time you play, and you’ll pick up different weapons and fight different enemies along the way. There are also elements of Metroid, where you’ll come across roadblocks that you can’t get around until you unlock the right item or ability. Early on, for instance, there are electrified webs that block your way, and you can’t cut them down until you get a massive laser sword.
It should also be noted that Returnal is extremely hard, combining two notoriously challenging genres — roguelikes and bullet hell shooters — into a game that does little to make itself accessible. In fact, there aren’t even any difficulty options, aside from the ability to turn up the aim assist. The result is an experience where you’ll have to get used to death and failure, and learn from your mistakes.
It can be frustrating, but it’s worth pushing through for a few reasons. For one, the action feels incredible; zipping around while shooting octopus birds and slicing at evil tree-creatures with a huge sword is a blast. But Returnal is also a game that’s just dripping with atmosphere — and it’s only enhanced by some of the PS5’s unique features.
The dark world you’ll explore feels ripped out of an Alien movie, complete with towering, crumbling ancient ruins, and lots of disturbing bio-engineered technology. This is all rendered in incredible detail, and Returnal particularly shines when it comes to special effects; there are all kinds of hypnotically beautiful explosions of light and color, and I especially love the fast travel effect, which sees your character melt away into nothingness.
But there are lots of great-looking PS5 games already. Even last-gen titles look good on the new hardware. What makes Returnal stand out in particular is its use of sound and the DualSense controller. I’ve spent most of my time with the game so far wearing Sony’s Pulse 3D headphones, and it’s the first game where I’ve really noticed the 3D audio that the company has touted so much. I could pinpoint monsters by the sounds of their screams and growls, which was extremely helpful, as there’s often so much happening on screen that it can be hard to follow. The sound design also makes the game that much creepier; the alien monsters make unsettling noises as they approach, and it always made me wary when stepping into a new, unknown space.
Meanwhile, I’d go so far as to say it’s the best DualSense game since Astro’s Playroom, which comes bundled with the console in order to show off the gamepad’s unique capabilities. The subtle vibrations mean you can feel the patter of raindrops in your palms, and the burst of each weapon has its own distinct sensation. There are also some really creepy noises that come out of the speaker (though you may miss them with headphones on). My favorite feature, though, is the way Returnal utilizes the controller’s adaptive triggers. The left trigger has two phases: push halfway and you can zoom in to aim your main weapon, but click it all the way down and you’ll unleash a special attack. It basically gives the controller an extra button in a way that feels very natural.
Returnal is definitely an acquired taste. Its looping structure and unforgiving nature means many players will end up frustrated as they struggle through nearly identical scenarios repeatedly. Death isn’t always fun. But it also blends together so many cool things, from the vibe of Alien to the thrill of a great arcade shooter, in a way that’s seamless and deliberate. And if you’re someone who actually managed to pick up a PS5, it’s the kind of game you’ll want to take out to show off what the console can do.
The PS5 will be available to buy in China on May 15th, a little over six months after its original release in the US last year, Sony announced today. The disc version of the console will retail for 3,899 yuan (around $600), while the cheaper disc-free model will cost 3,099 yuan (around $479). Preorders open today. The launch means Sony’s next-gen console will beat Microsoft’s to release in the country, although CBNC notes that Microsoft received safety approvals to release the Xbox Series X and Series S there at the end of last year.
Relative to its size and population, China isn’t considered a huge market for console gaming. Game consoles were technically illegal in the country until 2014, which meant PC and mobile gaming has become dominant. Even now, strict laws make it hard to release consoles in China simultaneously with other countries. The PS4, Xbox One, and Switch have all released in China, with Nintendo’s console reportedly being the most successful.
The PS5’s Chinese launch comes as the console faces stock issues around the world. A combination of unexpectedly high demand as well as supply chain issues including a global chip shortage, have been blamed for the problems. However, Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan recently said he expects the stock situation to improve in the second half of the year.
There a numerous causes that have led into the ongoing computer component shortage, one of which is the lack of availability of materials called ABF substrates. The Good news is that companies like AMD and Intel are taking the problem seriously and are investing in packaging facilities and production of substrates.
A wide variety of chips from inexpensive entry-level processors for client PCs to complex high-end CPUs for servers use laminated packaging. Usually, chips that use laminated packaging also use IC substrates featuring insulating Ajinomoto build-up films (ABF), which are made by just one company, Ajinomoto Fine-Techno Co.
While there are dozens of companies that package chips and use ABF substrates, there is only one ABF supplier that has to serve them all. But as it transpired this year, the Japanese company is not the bottleneck here, but OSAT (outsourced assembly and test) houses like ASE Technology are.
Earlier this year, numerous top packaging houses vowed to increase their production capacities. But for large companies, a tangible capacity increase is complicated, as equipment vendors can’t simply increase their output overnight. But now even second-tier OSAT players have announced plans to expand their capacity already. For example, Kinsus plans to raise its ABF substate capacity by 30% this year, DigiTimes reports. But chip packaging houses are not the only companies that can address issues with chip packaging.
“I would say overall, the demand if we look at coming into this year, the demand has been sort of higher than our expectations,” said Lisa Su, chief executive of AMD, at this week’s conference call, reports SeekingAlpha. “There are sort of industry-wide types of things that are going on. We work very closely with our supply chain partners. So, whether it’s wafers or back-end assembly test, capacity or substrate capacity, we work it on a product line by product line level.”
AMD used to own assembly, test, mark and pack facilities, but sold them in 2016 when it was in dire need of money. Apparently, AMD wants to address its chip shortages by investing in OSAT and substrate partners to gain capacity that is dedicated to AMD.
“We continue — on the substrate side in particular, I think, there has been underinvestment in the industry,” said Su. “So, we have taken the opportunity to invest in some substrate capacity dedicated to AMD, and that’ll be something that we continue to do going forward.”
Intel has its own chip production as well as test and assembly facilities in multiple countries. But apparently the in-house packaging capacities are not enough for Intel, which significantly increased its chip output capacities in the recent year following shortages it faced in 2018 – 2019. In a bid to meet demand for its products, Intel is working with its third-party substrate partners.
“By partnering closely with our suppliers, we are creatively utilizing our internal assembly factory network to remove a major constraint in our substrate supply,” said Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel, during a recent call. “Coming online in Q2, this capability will increase the availability of millions of units in 2021. It is a great example where the IDM model gives us flexibility to address the dynamic market.”
AMD is perhaps among the companies that suffered the most from chip production crisis. In the second half of 2020 the company had to supply its partners from Microsoft and Sony over 10 million of SoCs for the the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PlayStation 5 that were launched last November. Around the same time AMD introduced its Ryzen 5000-series CPUs based on the Zen 3 microarchitecture as well as the Radeon RX 6000-series GPUs running the RDNA2 architecture.
Eventually AMD admitted that it could not meet demand for its products because it could not procure enough chips from its manufacturing partners and because its OSAT partners did not have enough capacity to test and pack its chips too.
Microsoft posted the third quarter of its 2021 financial results today, reporting revenue of $41.7 billion and a net income of $15.5 billion. Revenue is up 19 percent, and net income has increased by 44 percent. Once again, Microsoft has seen strong growth for Surface, Xbox, and cloud-related services.
The PC market isn’t slowing down, despite a global chip shortage, and Microsoft is benefiting from this once again. Windows OEM revenue has grown by 10 percent, reflecting the strong consumer PC demand. Windows non-pro OEM revenue also grew 44 percent, and only Windows OEM Pro revenue declined by 2 percent.
Surface Laptop 4.Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge
Surface hit a $2 billion business milestone in the previous quarter, and Microsoft has recorded $1.5 billion of revenue in Q3. That may look like a dip, but it’s actually up 12 percent year over year during what’s usually a more quiet quarter for Surface sales.
While Microsoft just unveiled its new Surface Laptop 4 and accessories earlier this month, the Surface Pro 7 Plus also debuted for businesses and schools during this recent quarter. The Surface Pro is Microsoft’s most popular Surface device, and this latest model includes a bigger battery, Intel’s 11th Gen processors, a removable SSD, and LTE.
Xbox Series X.
Microsoft is also home to Xbox hardware and games, and once again revenue has grown across gaming. This is the second quarter of sales of Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S consoles, and hardware revenue has grown by a massive 232 percent thanks to these next-gen consoles.
Xbox content and services revenue has also increased by 34 percent compared to the same quarter last year. Gaming became a key hobby for many during 2020, and that trend has remained throughout 2021. Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue is up 50 percent, after reaching $5 billion for the first quarter ever last quarter.
Developing…
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