Testing News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Blizzard has released development notes for The War Within Alpha, which include a large list of class changes! Among them are specific Warrior class changes, alongside developer comments for those changes in the class feedback thread. Note that there are no Protection Warrior specific changes this build, though some of the class changes do impact them. Arms Talent CalculatorFury Talent CalculatorProtection Talent Calculator Experiment with these changes for yourself using our updated talent calculators!

The War Within Alpha test has started, and the first wave of invites went out just a few minutes ago!

It turns out the Diablo 4 team didn't quite bring everything to bear in Season 4's Public Test Realm, as there are "a few small" extra items to come at launch.

With the Hades 2 technical test underway, we’re asking this question: How are the Greek gods of the game even hotter than in the original, Hades? Regardless of the answer, there are lots of new characters being added to the franchise’s lore, like Hephaestus, the god of the forge. Hephaestus is special because he plays a role in most other gods’ stories — he’s the one who crafted their powerful weapons, like Athena’s spear or Zeus’ lightning bolt. He’s also one of the few Greek gods who isn’t “perfect;” it’s said he was thrown from Mt. Olympus because of his appearance, and he was injured on the fall. He’s often depicted with a disability impacting his legs.

L’Abysse Project has begun its beta test, allowing players to dive into a world of espionage and thrilling card battles. You’ll collect cards to build your deck and battle through the story. The beta testers report a simple but fun battle system, so strategic gameplay shouldn’t overshadow the engaging narrative. L’Abysse Project injects some humor into the classic spy story. It is a highlight to watch your character switch between their goofy reporter cover and their cool secret agent persona.

Apple has rolled out the second public beta of its upcoming macOS Sonoma 14.5 update, inviting non-developers to try out the new software ahead of its official release. This public beta release comes just two weeks after Apple introduced the initial public beta, signalling ongoing progress in the software development cycle.

Gaming peripheral manufacturer Razer has unveiled the Razer Kishi Ultra, a brand new high-end mobile controller that's available now for $149.99 / £149.99.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

Supergiant Games’ modern classic roguelike, Hades, is getting a sequel. Following a surprise announcement at the 2022 Game Awards, Hades 2’s early access launch is getting close. The game promises to take players beyond the Underworld in the company of a new heroine, Melinoë.

The Hades 2 technical test has only been live for a day, and it already seems to have confirmed a long-running fan theory about who the Narrator is. 

Last month, a hacker wreaked havoc during an esports tournament of the popular shooter game Apex Legends, hacking two well-known streamers mid-game to make it look like they were using cheats.

Samsung is reported to stick with a dual-chipset launch strategy for its upcoming Galaxy S25 series, where some regions will offer the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, while others will sell the Exynos 2500 variants. The Exynos 2400 provided a slew of surprises as the company significantly improved its current-generation flagship SoC. Next year, Samsung is expected to kick things up a notch and is rumored to leverage its second-generation 3nm process to mass produce the Exynos 2500. This move could give the SoC power efficiency attributes that dwarf Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4.

The second closed beta test for Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link (which is the first chance for Android users to play the game) has been delayed from the end of April to the start of May.

The technical test for Hades 2 has given us a few hints about what happened to Zagreus, Hades, and Persephone in the time between the first game and the second.

A keyboard is one of the few pieces of technology you may use for hours every day. Why not make it something that brings you joy? Sure, the people who gush over these things can be intense, but the upgraded comfort, durability and customizability that comes with a good mechanical keyboard is a real thing. If you’re looking to make the switch (ahem), we tested a couple dozen mechanical keyboards over the past few months and rounded up our favorites below. We’ve also broken down what to look for when shopping for one.

Supergiant Games just treated Hades fans to an extensive look at the game's upcoming sequel. Seriously — the developer hosted a three-hour livestream that showed off Hades II's gameplay, new features and mechanics, as well as the new designs for its characters based on the gods of Greek mythology. Supergiant's Creative Director Greg Kasavin and Studio Director Amir Rao demonstrated the abilities of the game's new protagonist, Melinoë. While she's the sister of Zagreus, the first title's protagonist, and Hades II is a direct sequel to the original, Kasavin and Rao said players don't need to have prior knowledge of the first game and of Greek mythology to enjoy it. Old fans, however, will catch «delightful references» here and there.

Twitch has been testing a discovery feed for livestreams and Clips on mobile since last year, in hopes of giving users a new way to find new streamers to follow and, hence, spend more time on the platform. Now, the website has announced that it's rolling out the feature to all users later this month. The feed will first appear as a new tab in the mobile app and will allow viewers to switch between a scrollable feed for livestreams and another one for Clips. Like their names imply, the live feed will show users broadcasts from people they already follow and ongoing streams from people they don't based on their watch history. Meanwhile, the Clips feed will be filled with short snippets from live broadcasts.

In a bid to enhance user experience, WhatsApp is reportedly testing a new feature that allows users to privately mention contacts in their status updates. This upcoming feature aims to facilitate more personalised interactions within the platform.

The technical test for Hades 2has barely begun, but first-looks at the game have already set feeds on fire. Supergiant Games released a version of the game to a limited number of players on Wednesday. But instead of keeping details of those playthroughs under wraps, the developers busted the doors to its mythical underworld wide open and streamed roughly three hours of gameplay on its official YouTube channel. Now, everyone has gotten their first big look at the game and social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) have become the worshipping grounds for all of the game’s sexy Greek gods.

With our continued alpha test datamining, we've discovered legendary trinkets associated with none other than our longtime friend Brann Bronzebeard, famed explorer and designated Delve companion in Season 1 of The War Within! While we don't have a lot to go off of right now, this appears very different from most legendaries we are used to. Most interesting is the relation to Bann Bronzebeard, who we already know is the designated Delve companion for Season 1, though the fact that the trinket either summons Brann or buffs him if he's already present suggests that the trinket isn't just meant for use during Delves where he would always be present anyway. There's also a potential hint within the flavor text, in that the trinket is «Entrusted to you by Brann Bronzebeard himself.» We may be reading a little too far into it, but that sounds an awful lot like the trinket could be a reward for maxing out some kind of level, friendship, or reputation track with the explorer.

While fans wrangle how to access the Hades 2 technical test, developer Supergiant Games casually dropped a hefty gameplay reveal stream for the hotly anticipated sequel.

If you’re an Android KH fan who’s been patiently waiting for your beta application to come back while iOS users got all the love, good news. Square Enix is running yet another round of tests for the Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link Beta, This time, the testers are Android users.

One of the main features of The War Within is Delves, small scenarios that can be done with groups of 1 to 5 players. With the first build of The War Within alpha, we played through Delves to take a first look at what they have to offer!

The Warband bank is one of the features arriving with The War Within, which allows you to utilize resources account-wide and share them easily between alts. We've had a chance to play with the Warbank on Alpha and test some of its features. Warbands BlizzCon Feature Preview

Correctly, Blizzard loves to start new World of Warcraft expansions with a Big Explosion of some sort. In Legion, Khadgar teleports an entire city to float above an island chain. In Battle for Azeroth, there's a tense ship battle influenced by a demigod. In Shadowlands, basically everyone dies. Seriously. Now, with The War Within on the horizon, Blizzard has conceived of another way to kick off an expansion with some proper fireworks, by completely demolishing a beloved in-game location.

Join Game Director Ion Hazzikostas and Associate Art Director Tina Wang as they sit down with Community Manager and host Bethany Stout to take you into The War Within™.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

A highly ambitious Dragon's Dogma 2 mod is attempting to make the RPG far more challenging on New Game Plus mode.

Aggro Crab, the indie developer behind the colorful Soulslike Another Crab's Treasure, has expressed its fears that it may face sudden competition around its release thanks to Hades 2 and Hollow Knight: Silksong. 

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has triggered the resurgence of the Factory Striders — and on harder difficulties they’re dropping in packs.

Diablo 4's Global Community Development Director, Adam Fletcher has announced that the development team will be hosting a live stream to address player feedback from the recent Season 4 PTR.

Square Enix tried really hard to make Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's mako vacuuming minigame more enjoyable than the painfully tedious practice in masochism that it is by all measures. In fact, it was originally a lot worse.

It won't be long before players can get their hands on Hades II, the sequel to 2020's critically-acclaimed roguelite by Supergiant Games. In a new post on X/Twitter, Supergiant Games announced an upcoming Hades II Technical Test along with instructions on how to join.

Super fans of Hades will soon get their first chance to get their hands on an early version of the game’s sequel soon. According to the recent update from the developer Supergiant Games, the team is “close” to launchingHades 2 in early access, but before it does, the game will have its first “technical test.” The team didn’t specify how long the technical tests will run, but we know they will “begin shortly,” via X on Tuesday.

If you're looking to get beta access to Hades 2, developer Supergiant Games has just opened sign-ups for the game's technical test.

Supergiant Games has announced the Hades 2 technical test, and players can sign up now.

We first saw Hades 2 last year when it was announced, but it has yet to receive a release date. We know it will first be coming to early access, just like the first game, but the only timeframe we have is the second quarter of 2024. It appears that Supergiant might be closing in on that date, however, as you can now sign up for the first playtest and experience the game even before it comes to early access. This technical test is a said to be a major step toward early access to resolve any technical problems before a wider audience can play. Here's how you can sign up to be part of a small team selected to play the game before anyone else.

Supergiant Games has confirmed players can sign up for the Hades II technical test. To join you will need to head to the Hades II Steam Page, and click on the request access button. This will register our interest to play Hades II early. The population of the players that will be successful will small, but Supergiant will expand as time goes on.

Our next Heroes of the Storm patch has just hit the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting. As always, if you encounter any bugs during your PTR play sessions, please stop by the PTR Bug Report forum to let us know about your experiences.

Taliesin and Evitel cover the latest news in The Weekly Reset. This week they give us a 10.2.7 PTR news roundup and a look at Timerunning: WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria aka Pandamonium.

The Witcher 3 REDkit beta sign-ups have been opened today, allowing users interested in testing the game's official modding tools before release to request early access.

Qualcomm might find it difficult to tame the power consumption of the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, despite the chipset reported on multiple occasions to be mass produced on TSMC’s 3nm ‘N3E’ node. Theoretically, an improved manufacturing process should mean that the flagship SoC will be energy-efficient, but a tipster hints that smartphone makers opting to use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 in their models will add bigger batteries. Companies may compensate for the silicon’s increased power by incorporating bigger cells to deliver that record runtime.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

Ubisoft's XDefiant seemed nearly ready to launch six months ago, but the game received a last-minute delay that left many fans puzzled. At the time, Executive Producer Mark Rubin explained:

Apple has been reported on multiple occasions to bring various camera improvements to the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, which includes bringing the tetraprism upgrade to the smaller version and an entirely new Sony sensor for the primary unit. The company also intends to address the lens flare problem on its upcoming premium models, with the latest rumor stating that a special ‘Atomic Layer Deposition’ (ALD) coating will be used to alleviate that effect while improving image quality. Let us take a look at the details.

With the launch of Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road on the public test realm (PTR), Bethesda has released the full 42 pages - yes, 42 flippin' pages - of patch notes for the 5.3 GB expansion.

Cliff Bleszinski’ LawBreakers appears to be making a comeback, thanks to a group of modders who have been working hard to restore the game's online features.

After the launch of the excellent Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown at the beginning of 2024, no one was expecting a second game in the franchise so soon. And yet, The Rogue Prince of Persia was revealed during the Triple-I Initiative as a roguelike take on the genre. Coming from the developer of Dead Cells, this game was one of the highlights of the show thanks to it's slick gameplay and unique and fluid art style. There was no release date given, but the game is entering early access May 14. However, you can get your hands on it even earlier if you apply to participate in the alpha test.

Gaming saw a rise in team-based hero shooters from 2016 through 2018, with games like Overwatch, Battleborn, and LawBreakers as notable standouts. Lawbreakers is long gone, but an unofficial fan project aims to revive it, making it playable for the first time in six years.

LawBreakers was a game that might have made a bit of a splash initially but died out quickly. If you don’t recall, this FPS hero shooter came out in 2017. The game didn’t live on very long, as it was shut down just a year later. But you might have another chance to enjoy this game with players online. That’s all due to a small team working to bring this game back up through makeshift servers. 

Blizzard has announced that Beta Sign Ups for the War Within are now live! TWW Beta Sign Up

Smite 2 Founder’s Editions are now available for purchase on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC — but there’s a catch: the game won’t be playable until its first closed alpha weekend next month.

Make an early descent into World of Warcraft®: The War Within™. You'll journey through never-before-seen subterranean worlds filled with hidden wonders, earn the trust of the new Earthen allied race, and face an ancient evil lurking in the darkness when you sign up for the beta!

PSV Games dropped a new action-packed title Battle of Mighty Troopers on Android recently. It’s a dynamic pixelated 2D roguelike shooter RPG. The game studio has published other titles on Android like Ninja Sword: Fighting Game and Lifeline: A Virtual Game Life.

We are a few years into the latest generation of console platforms—specifically the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Neither of the two platforms has come out with a pro model, which typically bumps up the power. It’s not a new generation of gaming with these pro models, but they do give better performance and visual options. Today, we’re learning of a new report that suggests the PlayStation 5 Pro test kits are available for developers to order. 

Elon Musk's AI venture, xAI, has recently introduced an upgraded version of its Grok 1.5 model – the Grok 1.5 Vision. This new model integrates computer vision capabilities, allowing it to interpret visual content and respond to questions about images. This development comes shortly after OpenAI presented its GPT-4 model, which also boasts computer vision features.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

iGPUs of Intel's next-generation Arrow Lake-H Laptop & Arrow Lake-S Desktop CPUs, based on the Arc Alchemist architecture, have been tested.

Intel's LGA 4710 socket-based reference platform, Beechnut City, has been picture & is ready to support Xeon 6 Granite Rapids & Sierra Forest CPUs.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

The Diablo 4 PTR allowed players to jump straight into Sanctuary for a sneak peek at changes coming in Season 4. Everything from new bosses to new itemization was on the table, and enough information was learned to make anyone's head spin. Our Class Leads took the time to analyze some of the buffs and nerfs experienced in the Patch 1.4.0 PTR, and shared their thoughts below on the good, the bad, and the future!

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for Fallout season 1, as well as information from the Fallout games.]

In November, I reviewed the PlayStation Portal. I was mixed on Sony’s streaming handheld at the time, frustrated with a corner-cutting execution of a good idea. It seemed like a poor value compared to simply slapping a cheaper Backbone controller on a phone. As is often the case with tech reviews, though, I only had a short window to test it out where I was more focused on the more objective side of what the Portal does and doesn’t do. Would my feelings change when I was using it naturally?

Blizzard has announced that everyone's goodest boy will return to his original size likely in Patch 10.2.7.

In the Public Test Realm for Patch 1.4.0 of Diablo 4, countless items, skills, and stats were heavily altered to prepare the game for its fourth Season, as well as to pave the way for the upcoming Vessel of Hatred expansion. In addition to many of these changes, Implicit Affixes on Weapons have been adjusted as well. These are the fixed Affixes that are tied to the Weapon Type that cannot be altered, such as Vulnerable Damage on Crossbows and Critical Strike Damage on Swords. Many of these Affixes have been reduced significantly, and while it hurts to lose damage output from a change like this, it is a necessary change. Reducing these values along with other changes in Itemization will go a long way toward reducing the bloated damage values that affect the game negatively. By allowing players to deal millions upon millions of damage in a single hit, the sense of scale and player power is lost. On top of that, balancing gameplay becomes much more challenging — thus, it's only natural that Implicit Affixes receive some tweaks at the same time as the rest of the Itemization rework.

Reverse: 1999 Patch 1.8, “Goodbye, Rayashki.” Releasing on April 11th, this patch takes you to early 20th-century Russia, a unique setting for a gacha game. While the core gameplay remains the same, the story in “Goodbye, Rayashki” is fresh.

Zenless Zone Zero gets busy because April 18th is the first day of CBT3! Pack and leave for New Eridu- Zenless Zone Zero’s next closed beta test is almost here.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

Nintendo's war against emulators seems far from over, as the Discord servers of two Yuzu Nintendo Switch emulator forks were recently removed following a court-ordered injunction.

Over the past few years, the Meta platform was bashed by many concerned parents about child safety. Now, to take action and protect its teenage user base, Meta is testing a nudity protection feature for Instagram's messages which detects and blurs the nude images which are being shared by other users. This feature will keep users safe from potential scams and harmful content which appears on Instagram. This move came after serious pressure from the US and European governments. Know more about how the nudity protection feature on Instagram will work. 

Motorola recently announced a new generation of Edge smartphone with Edge 50 Pro. However, The Edge 50 series is expected to include more models with an “Ultra” model expected to launch soon. The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra was spotted in the Geekbench website listing in which some of the performance specifications of the smartphone were revealed. Therefore, the Edge 50 Ultra will soon be officially launched in India in the coming weeks. Know more about the upcoming Motorola smartphone here.

The Trinket tuning originally found on Patch 10.2.7 is now hotfixed onto live servers, nerfing popular trinkets ahead of Season 4.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

Heroes of Crown: Legends, the latest RPG from the creators of Panilla Saga, has just launched its closed beta test (CBT) and is seeking brave adventurers to join!

John Carpenter’s 1982 movie The Thing ends with its few remaining characters in a desperate spot. Faced with an alien creature that can infect, assimilate, and emulate human bodies, the survivors don’t know who among them might secretly be an alien, or whether their pyrrhic efforts have eliminated the infection. They’re stranded in the Antarctic with their research base destroyed. Their resources are gone, there’s no meaningful shelter left, they’re freezing to death, and they can’t even trust each other enough to work together.

The Nintendo Switch console could never keep up with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles, but a recent overclocking test conducted with a modded console highlights exactly what has held back the system the most.

Seekers of Skyveil recently held a new playtest, and the team is sharing some details and stats from the experience, from how many creatures everyone defeated to how successful they were at extraction in the fantasy extraction title.

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has stealth dropped new ship upgrades alongside the new Premium Warbond, Democratic Detonation.

Along with the other weapons, armor, and capes discovered on the Patch 10.2.7, we've discovered a cosmetic murloc backpack and onesie, available in two colors!

Apple News is testing a new game for iOS 17.5 called Quartiles, which requires players to organize a grid of 20 syllables into 5 four-syllable words. Spotted by Gadget Hacks, the interface for Quartiles looks a lot like the New York Times’ newest hit, Connections. Did Apple News sherlock the New York Times?