Department News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

NVIDIA has released its latest GeForce Game Ready driver which adds support for Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition, further enhancing RTX & DLSS capabilities.

US Commerce Secretary believes they need to adopt "more strict" implementations to thwart AI chips sales & semiconductor development in China.

Ready to return to the world of Halo? The second season of Paramount Plus’ live-action adaptation just released a first look at CCXP alongside a February 8 release date.

In recent years, the prices of flagship-class smartphones have soared, reaching a point where spending over Rs. 70000 on the latest iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, or Google Pixel models is not uncommon. However, for those with a more modest budget, the good news is that you can still enjoy nearly identical performance, features, and style for less than half the price. The sub-Rs. 40000 category is brimming with options, and some of the recently released models in this price range even boast features that are yet to be seen in more expensive flagships.

The PS5 Slim shaves off a few centimeters from Sony’s usually chunky console, but that leaner version wasn’t lean enough for one modder, who subsequently shrunk the console down even further to create the Tiny PS5. 

India's space agency ISRO is exploring joint collaborations with Boeing Co., Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin LLC and Voyager Space Holdings Inc., as an official visit by the head of NASA highlights the growing level of cooperation between the US and India in outer space. 

Given how December is starting shortly, you can expect a lot of information on the Galaxy S24 series in the coming month. The phones are scheduled to be released in January 2024, and this means that all sorts of information is going to come your way. Now, all three phones in the family have gone through their FCC certification, which means that they are ever so close to the official launch.

Back in October, the US Department of Commerce introduced a number ofexport restrictions for a variety of Nvidia's products to countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam. It was mostly the AI monster chips that took the brunt of the ban but the GeForce RTX 4090 was also included, which invariably resulted in RTX 4090 price increases and hoarding of the top Ada graphics card. However, it now looks like Nvidia will be releasing an RTX 4090 D, specifically for China, that will be exempt from the restriction.

One area that Samsung continues to compromise on is the available RAM for its flagship Galaxy smartphones. The company’s peak moment was with the Galaxy S20 Ultra when the Korean giant introduced a 16GB RAM option. Unfortunately, its successors have all been limited to 12GB RAM for one reason or another, and for the upcoming Galaxy S24 family, which is scheduled to launch early next year, one tipster claims that history will repeat itself.

Apple announced the iOS 17 update for all eligible iPhones in September. The new iPhone update was introduced with several new features including the NameDrop feature, which allowed users to share their contacts with each other just by bringing their devices close together. However, in Pennsylvania, the feature created chaos and sparked security concerns forcing the police department to warn users about this iOS 17 feature. Know if the iPhone NameDrop feature is really worrisome.

Sony has announced the Essential lineup of PlayStation Plus games for December 2023, providing a fresh new selection of games for subscribers to access in the near future. The PS Plus service offers general access to online multiplayer features on the PS4 and PS5, but the library of games that the service makes available might be an even bigger draw for some users. Every month brings a new rotation of Essential games that can be added to an account to keep as long as a subscription is active, so there's no rush to actually play the titles before they depart.

In 2002, Infernal Affairs paired Hong Kong stars Tony Leung and Andy Lau for a critically acclaimed seedy cop thriller about two moles trying to find each other out. In 2006, Martin Scorsese remade the film as The Departed, winning the director his first (and thus far, only) Academy Award, and beginning a never-ending debate over which movie was better. (Both rule.)

It was previously reported that Apple is working on its custom 5G chips to reduce dependency on Qualcomm. The company is in pursuit of relying on its in-house components, following the same approach as Apple Silicon. However, Apple appears to be far from achieving its goals as it has decided to discontinue developing in-house 5G modems, according to a new report. The reports are not confirmed at this stage, but multiple sources have reported similar scenarios.

The actor behind Baldur's Gate 3's Lae'zel has properly leaned into her character by raiding the growth in the name of Minthara.

Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser left the studio in 2020 and founded a new operation in 2021 called Absurd Ventures. It turns out that he's brought some heavyweight former Rockstars with him to the new gig: As noted by French site Begeek (via Stephen Totilo), Rockstar's former vice-president of writing Michael Unsworth joined in October as Absurd Ventures' head of story and creative management, and former writer and producer Lazlow Jones is onboard as executive producer.

Rockstar veterans Lazlow Jones and Michael Unsworth are working alongside Dan Houser at Absurd Ventures, it’s been revealed.

The first time I played Lethal Company, I had barely walked 50 feet from our spaceship when I sank into some quicksand and died. The next time, I was obliterated by an automated turret, not because I walked in its way, but because one of my colleagues bashed it with a stop sign in a failed attempt to break it. In another mission, I was unceremoniously dragged away from our group by something before any of them knew what was happening.

It appears that AT&T and the U.S. government are both involved in a government surveillance program; based on the information revealed via leaked police documents, a White House Memo, as well as a letter by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden to the Department of Justice, all of these things combined, confirm that millions of Americans are being spied on.

ByteDance’s gaming ambition has been an expensive, short-lived pursuit.

Black Friday is over! Or is it? Was Black Friday ever truly just a day? Was it a weekend? Or is it even perhaps a state of mind. No, it's definitely that first one. The good news is that even though the darkest of retail days has come to pass, there are still plenty of deals available throughout the weekend and on into Cyber Monday. In fact, most of our favorite deals haven't budged an inch. 

Actor Ned Luke, who plays Michael De Santa in Grand Theft Auto 5, shoots down rumours that Rockstar is to blame for his being doxxed. This comes after the actor was swatted while livesteaming GTA Online, prompting some fans to pin the blame on insecurities in the game, potentially leaking his IP address.

Rockstar has started sending emails around about Grand Theft Auto VI.

In the wake of Chandrayaan-3's triumph, ISRO is already gearing up for its next lunar odyssey with the ambitious Chandrayaan-4 mission. While hopes for Chandrayaan-3's return to Earth dwindle due to potential communication challenges, ISRO remains undeterred, emphasizing that the mission has already yielded vital data. Chandrayaan-4 mission, a beacon of progress in space exploration, is poised to elevate India's cosmic endeavors. Departing from its predecessors, the mission promises to not only touch the moon's surface but also bring lunar samples back to Earth.

Not all Black Friday deals are built equally - and we often get a hint that some might be worse than others months in advance. Back in October Amazon held its Big Deal Days event, marking the second Prime-exclusive sale of the year. As always, it sparked loads of other retailers to join in the fun and do a dress rehearsal for Black Friday, and while scouring the shelves, I noticed that Xbox gamers weren't getting the best value for money they could.

Bayonetta series director Hideki Kamiya wanted to make nine entries in the franchise, and has suggested he probably shouldn't work with other famed Japanese game developers.

Here's a question few of us will ever have to answer. Would you rather have $23 billion living in the United Arab Emirates with no US extradition treaty, or sacrifice a chunk of your wealth and perhaps spend 18 months behind bars to resolve all your issues with the US Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission?

Thanksgiving in the United States comes with a number of traditional televised events, but maybe none as seamless and low-key entertaining as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

MSI unveils another addition to its "broad " portfolio of ultrawide gaming monitors, the MSI MAG401QR, featuring a UWQHD panel.

Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, and has been under investigation by US authorities for years over allegations of offshore money laundering. Now it has announced that CEO and founder Changpeng Zao is to step down from his role and plead guilty to violating US money-laundering regulations (via BBC), alongside Binance itself pleading guilty and reaching a settlement with regulators that will come to an eye-watering $4.3 billion.

The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume, Binance, came under regulatory scrutiny earlier this year when the US Department of Justice (DOJ), along with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) cracked down on the company's lack of regulatory and legal mechanisms to prevent transactions made to fund terrorism, drug deals, and other illegal activities, as per the agencies. On Tuesday, the CEO of the company, Changpeng Zhao, pleaded guilty and agreed on a settlement worth 4.3 billion dollars.

Changpeng Zhao had long cultivated the image of the rugged pugilist of the cryptocurrencies world. 

In a historic move in the cryptocurrency space, Binance cofounder Changpeng Zhao has agreed to step down from the position of the company CEO and has pleaded guilty to violating US anti-money laundering charges brought down by the US Department of Justice. The settlement of the case comes at an unprecedented 4.3 billion dollars to resolve a long-running investigation into the world's largest cryptocurrency by trade volume. But who is Zhao, who created this massive empire and brought it to a fall, conceding a personal payment of 50 million dollars as a penalty to the US government? Let us take a closer look.

We've datamined some new cutscenes for this week's Tyr Story quest. Spoilers ahead! If you'd like to catch up on where the story left off in the previous patch, check out A Dislocated Disc Tyr Questline in Patch 10.1.7 (Story Spoilers).

Apple launched the iPhone 15 Pro Max with one of the most significant camera upgrades compared to prior releases. The latest flagship features improved camera hardware and software optimizations that reflect improved photo and video quality. The iPhone 15 Pro Max features 5x optical zoom capabilities that can jump up to 25x with the help of digital zoom. Now, Apple plans to further improve the cameras on the iPhone 16 Pro models with a tetraprism telephoto lens.

Over the weekend, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was suddenly ousted from his position and has since jumped over to Microsoft. His abrupt leave from the generative AI company was the start to a tumultuous series of events that throws the future of OpenAI into question. 

Long-time Housemarque employee Harry Krueger is leaving the studio.

Following the success of Returnal, many people are hotly anticipating whatever comes next from Finnish PlayStation Studios developer Housemarque, but unfortunately, the main mind behind Returnal won’t be contributing. Today it was announced that Returnal director Harry Krueger will be leaving Housemarque after 14 years with the company. Here’s what Krueger had to say about the move…

Returnal and Nex Machina game director Harry Krueger is departing Housemarque after 14 years.

The most damning evidence in the US antitrust trial against Alphabet Inc.'s Google that concluded in Washington this week came not from the parade of witnesses from Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and other companies, but from internal documents.

In a groundbreaking venture, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is gearing up for its inaugural attempt to collect soil or rock samples from the Moon and transport them to Earth. Termed the Lunar Sample Return Mission (LSRM), this ambitious project signals a significant leap for India's space exploration endeavours.

OpenAI's biggest investors are pressing the company to reinstate Sam Altman as chief executive officer after the board's stunning decision to fire him on Friday, according to people with knowledge of the matter. 

OpenAI's firing of Sam Altman followed wide-ranging disagreements between the chief executive officer and his board — in particular Ilya Sutskever, an OpenAI co-founder and the company's chief scientist — according to a person familiar with the matter. 

In a shocking turn of events, Sam Altman has been fired from his position as the chief executive officer (CEO) of OpenAI, as per an announcement by the company today, November 18. The reason behind laying him off was given as not being “consistently candid in his communications with the board”. As per the announcement, the decision was taken after a deliberative review process, however, the board found that it had lost confidence in him to lead the company. After the news of Altman being let go surfaced, president and cofounder of the company Greg Brockman has also resigned from his position. Altman was one of the earliest backers of the company when it launched in 2015.

 A federal judge reprimanded Alphabet Inc.'s chief legal officer over allegations that Google intentionally destroyed sensitive internal communications relevant to two ongoing antitrust lawsuits despite court orders to preserve evidence.

A shocking event transpired a few moments ago, with a blog post from OpenAI announcing that Sam Altman, the CEO of the firm that founded ChatGPT, is no longer the Chief Executive and has been relinquished of his duties immediately. While there might have been several reasons for removing him from this illustrious position, the announcement claims that the company’s board no longer felt confident in Altman’s capabilities.

The lawsuit against Niantic continues, as the anonymous women bringing legal action against the studio claim they were retaliated against when they took their issues to HR. They say that Niantic tried to "silence" them when they complained that the workplace felt like a "boys club" and a "hostile work environment for women".

Sonic and Persona publisher Sega has been accused of threatening some of its unionised workers with layoffs, and is now facing an unfair labour practice complaint filed by the Communications Workers of America.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 | Nvidia GTX 1650 | AMD Ryzen 7 5800HS | 14-inch | 1080p | 60Hz | 16GB DDR4 | 512GB NVMe SSD | $1149.99$950.99 at Best Buy (save $199)This ROG Zephyrus might look like a good deal at first, but a closer look at the specs reveals this previous-gen model is very much wanting in some key departments. An underpowered GPU, disappointing screen, and small SSD means that for this sort of money you can do a lot better.

Back in August of this year, it was announced that Sega of America employees would be forming a union—the Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega (AEGIS-CWA)—alongside the Campaign to Organise Digital Employees (CODE-CWA). 

Embracer has revealed that they have laid off a total of 900 employees in the second quarter of this financial year.

In a paradigm-shifting move, Rocket Lab, a private aerospace company, is breaking new ground in planetary exploration. Departing from traditional government-led endeavours through NASA and other agencies, Rocket Lab is set to launch the first private mission to study Venus in search of microbial life, challenging the notion that interplanetary exploration requires astronomical budgets and government backing.

The video game industry’s string of layoffs continues: Digital Bros. Entertainment and Kongregate have both announced job cuts.

The first benchmarks of Intel's upcoming Meteor Lake "Arc" integrated GPU have been leaked and it shows performance on par with Radeon 780M.

In one of this month's more unexpected reveals, The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt will be getting its own fully-fledged modding tools. They'll arrive sometime in 2024, according to the game's official Twitter account. 

In 1972, early into his tenure at Sesame Street, Norman Stiles thought up a pun. The former Merv Griffin comedy writer had spent his first year penning scripts around the kids program’s strict curriculum, but he was always encouraged to craft new ideas for characters. After conceiving The Amazing Mumford with a couple of colleagues, he received another jolt of inspiration: What if Count Dracula taught… counting?

Alphabet Inc. Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai immediately faced aggressive questioning when he took the witness stand at an antitrust trial over the Google Play app store. A lawyer for Epic Games Inc. grilled Pichai in San Francisco federal court Tuesday over accusations that he has encouraged internal communications to be hidden from enforcers scrutinizing the company for antitrust violations. 

Amazon Games today joins the list of gaming companies hit by layoffs. According to a memo circulated within the company, 180 employees will be affected by Amazon’s new cutbacks, which will include the entire Gaming Growth department and the Crown channel on Twitch. The company apparently plans to refocus its Gaming attention on its Prime Gaming offering.

The AMD Instinct MI300X & MI300A are some of the most anticipated accelerators in the AI segment which will launch next month. There's a lot of anticipation surrounding AMD's first full-fledged AI masterpiece and today we thought about giving you a roundup of what to expect from this technical marvel.

Two new titles her set to hit the Android platform very soon via Netflix. As part of the streaming service’s Geeked Week, Death’s Door and Katana ZERO marked down as coming soon.

The latest benchmarks of Intel's Core i9-14900HX Raptor Lake Refresh CPU have leaked out and it's easily one of the fastest chips for laptops.

Don't let insecure boys on the internet or mean people on dating apps tell you different: it's not that big of a gap between 5'11" and 6'1". However, actor Elias Toufexis recently revealed that it may as well have been a yawning chasm during the making 2011's Deus Ex: Human Revolution. 

The Overwatch League is no more. Activision Blizzard is moving away from the esports league to take its competitive Overwatch 2 scene elsewhere, the company announced this week.

Google — under fire in court for allegedly resting on its laurels thanks to its 90% market dominance — only made an effort to beef up the quality of its search engine in the European Union after being hit by a record antitrust fine, according to internal documents revealed in the US Justice Department's monopolization case against the tech giant.

Apple Inc. agreed to pay $25 million to settle a Department of Justice case alleging that the iPhone maker illegally discriminated against US citizens in hiring. 

 Alphabet Inc. Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai is set to face a jury next week to defend Google Play app store policies that are at the heart of a high-stakes antitrust fight with Epic Games Inc.

 Google — under fire in court for allegedly resting on its laurels thanks to its 90% market dominance — only made an effort to beef up the quality of its search engine in the European Union after being hit by a record antitrust fine, according to internal documents revealed in the US Justice Department's monopolization case against the tech giant.

Game Developer Deep Dives are an ongoing series with the goal of shedding light on specific design, art, or technical features within a video game in order to show how seemingly simple, fundamental design decisions aren’t really that simple at all.

PreviewLabs has built a business helping game companies and other startups build their prototypes quickly.

Ryan Reynolds has seemingly confirmed Deadpool 3’s new release window with the weirdest Deadpool variant ever: Dogpool.

The low Earth orbits are becoming a dangerous playing field due to the accumulation of space debris. This is the term used to describe defunct human-made objects present in the orbit of the Earth. These include defunct satellites, various launch vehicle stages, fragments of rockets, and other man-made waste. Also known as space junk, it has become a big challenge for space agencies that plan to launch their spacecraft, and organizations that aim to place important satellites in these orbits. But what some look at as a problem, others look at as an opportunity. A space tech startup, Kall Morris Inc. (KMI), is among those who are working to remove this space debris. And recently, it has raised a big amount in contracts and investment money.

On the stage of BlizzCon 2023's opening ceremony, Blizzard President Mike Ybarra had the chance to welcome his former boss Phil Spencer, who made a surprise appearance.

French publishing giant Ubisoft is making cuts to its Canadian offices.

Today, Ubisoft will lay off 124 employees as part of a cost cutting strategy. These departures are happening across several of its departments, including many at its Canadian offices.

The Glory Society posted an announcement on Twitter today stating that they have decided to “suspend operations” and that “this is the end of the development of Revenant Hill.”

Sony has started notifying users that it will be turning integration with the social media site X — formally known as Twitter — next week.

Embracer Group COO Egil Strunke has departed the Swedish conglomerate to kickstart his own company.

Egil Strunke has confirmed that he’s left Embracer Group as chief operating officer, announcing that he’s ready to “embark on a new mission” after he “reached a checkpoint”. 

The chief operating officer of Embracer Group, Egil Strunke, has left the company.

The Discount Dealer is one of RoboCop: Rogue City’s early side quests, and as with most of RoboCop’s adventures, you can unlock a much different ending by finding the clues in Maurice’s apartment.