In 2024, we are looking forward to playing a ton of great PC titles, some of which were supposed to be released last year. Our list includes quite a few strategy titles in many different styles, a genre that has proven itself highly successful on the PC platform.

We will mention that all of our games on the Xbox 2024 list are planned for a PC release as well. We didn't want to duplicate our Xbox list for our most anticipated PC games, so we picked some more upcoming titles, many of which will be released either exclusively for PC or will likely be the prime platform for that game.

Update: March 24—We have added three more games to this list: Age of Mythology: Retold, Phantom Fury, and No Rest for the Wicked. We have also removed some games released in 2024 and changed the release date for Homeworld 3.

No Rest for the Wicked - April 18, 2024 (Early Access)

• Developer: Moon Studios
• Publisher: Private Division
• What's it about: A supernatural plague called the Pestilence is infecting the land and everyone else where it spreads. You are a holy warrior known as a Cerim, and it's your job to defeat this evil force.
• Why we want to play it: Moon Studios is the team behind the acclaimed fantasy side-scrollers Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisp. No Rest for the Wicked is a very different-looking and playing game in the action RPG genre, but it looks like it will also be very entertaining.

Phantom Fury - April 23

• Developer: Slipgate Ironworks
• Publisher: 3D Realms
• What's it about: In the near future, Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison has to go on a cross-county quest to get something called the Demon Core before it falls into the wrong hands.
• Why we want to play it: This game will hopefully delight both current gamers as well as ones who love the older first-person shooters of the late 1990s and early 2000s. We should also get some interesting interactive elements.

Homeworld 3 - May 13, 2024

• Developer: Blackbird Interactive
• Publisher: Gearbox Publishing
• What's it about: The Hyperspace Gateway Network is falling apart, and you and your fleet must find out what's causing it while also fighting off enemies
• Why we want to play it: The long-awaited third game in the space-based 3D RTS series is finally just a few months away from release. In addition to its single-player campaign, there will also be a rogue-like War Games co-op mode, a skirmish mode, and support for mods out of the box.

Pre-order Homeworld 3 Collector's Edition at Amazon

Life By You - June 4, 2024 (Early Access)

• Developer: Paradox Teutonic
• Publisher: Paradox Interactive
• What's it about: You are in charge of this game world, as you create humans and put them in homes and settings that you build and see how they interact.
• Why we want to play it: Life By You is Paradox's attempt at a game that seems similar to Elecoonic Arts' The Sims but with perhaps even more control for gamers via mods. Will it be enough to make Sims players switch sides?

Ara: History Untold - TBD 2024

• Developer: Oxide Games
• Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
• What's it about: You control your "civilization" from the beginning until the present, unlocking new tech, new challenges, and more.
• Why we want to play it: Oxide Games has a number of people who worked on the Civilization strategy games, and they want to expand that 4x gameplay in new directions, including support for crafting and more.

Stormgate - TBD 2024 (Early Access)

• Developer: Frost Giant Studios
• Publisher: Frost Giant Studios
• What's it about: Earth has to fight demonic-like alien threats with big units like mechs and even robot dogs.
• Why we want to play it: Former Starcraft developers at Blizzard form Frost Giant Studios to make a three-faction RTS game that looks an awful lot like what we would imagine StarCraft III might be like. You can check out Stormgate's Kickstarter campaign now so you can play in the early beta tests.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024- TBD 2024

• Developer: Asobo Studio
• Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
• What's it about: It's time to get on board your plane and fly around the world, but this time you can participate in different aviation jobs.
• Why we want to play it: In addition to updated graphics and aviation physics, this update to the 2020 revival of Microsoft Flight Simulator will let you assume different roles, like air rescue, private charter flight, and much more.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 - TBD 2024

• Developer: The Chinese Room
• Publisher: Paradox Interactive
• What's it about: Vampires are out and about in modern-day Seattle, and you have to deal with the various clans of the Kindred.
• Why we want to play it: Here's another game that's been a long time coming, but with the new developer The Chinese Room, this game looks like it's finally coming together to become the sequel to the Vampire: The Masquerade RPG title.

MechWarrior 5: Clans - TBD 2024

• Developer: Piranha Games
• Publisher: Piranha Games
• What's it about: The Smoke Jaguar clan is ready to go to war against the tyrants of the Inner Sphere with their big, big mechs to handle the job.
• Why we want to play it: After releasing MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries several years ago, Piranha Games will launch a more linear single-player game with some updated Unreal Engine 5 graphics.

Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred - TBD 2024

• Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
• Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
• What's it about: Mephisto has some evil, demonic plans for Sanctuary, and it's up to you to stop them. It will require you to visit a previously unseen region called Nahantu.
• Why we want to play it: Blizzard had a big hit on its hands with Diablo IV in 2023, and it looks like it will continue to give players even more monsters to slay in the first expansion pack for the game in 2024.

Age of Mythology: Retold - TBD 2024

• Developer: World's Edge
• Publisher: Microsoft
• What's it about: You will go on a truly epic quest to battle enemies and monsters from several different mythological pantheons in this remake of Ensemble Studio's spin-off of the Age of Empires series.
• Why we want to play it: The enhanced editions of the three previous Age of Empires series have been very successful, and it looks like this new version of Age of Mythology, with revamped graphics and new single and multiplayer features, could be even better.

That's our list of our most anticipated PC games of 2024. Again, we will be updating this list every so often as more games are announced and other games get release dates.

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

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At the start of this month, the specs for the GDDR7 VRAM memory chips were officially announced by JEDEC. JEDEC, also known as Joint Electron Device Engineering Council, looks after the specifications of all the various industry devices.

The current-generation of graphics cards use a version of GDDR6 to power their memory. While AMD uses normal GDDR6, Nvidia uses modified GDDR6X in its more expensive versions.

While GDDR6 came with base speeds of 16Gbps, GDDR7 specs double that to 32Gbps. But those are just base speeds.

Initially, all graphics cards with the GDDR6 memory came just 14Gbps, rather than the base 16Gbps. Though the later versions have allowed much faster speeds, even faster than the official specs.

Reports suggest that initially, graphics cards based on GDDR7 could come with just 28Gbps memory chips, rather than the officially stated 32Gbps. Graphics cards with 32Gbps could come in later versions.

Now it seems that the GDDR7 speeds could reach way higher than the official specs too.

GDDR7 To Reach Up To 40Gbps

Hardwareluxx reports, via KitGuru and VideoCardz, that SK hynix has showcased next-gen GDDR7 VRAM memory chips. In that showcase, SK hynix has stated that it’s intending to make GDDR7 chips which can reach massive 40Gbps in speeds.

If that is not enough, it’s also going to release these chips in both 16Gb (2GB) and even 24Gb (3GB) capacities later. Till now, graphics cards have come with just 2GB VRAM memory chips. But with 3GB chips coming, expect future graphics cards to come with even bigger memory capacities.

While AMD Radeon RX 8000 graphics card are unlikely to use GDDR7, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5000 graphics cards may come with GDDR7. But those GDDR7 VRAM memory is expected to be capped at 28Gbps and come in just 2GB capacities.

It’s only when Nvidia releases RTX 5000 refresh or RTX 6000 graphics cards is when one will see full powered GDDR7 chips. Same for AMD Radeon graphics cards, which may make use of them only in RX 9000 series.

Samsung Too Making Faster GDDR7

In January this year, TechRadar reported, via VideoCardz, that Samsung was going to showcase GDDR7 memory chips reaching 37Gbps speeds in February. However, we are not aware how much was discussed back then.

What we do know now is that as per Hardwareluxx, Samsung says that their GDDR7 chips will start from 32Gbps speeds. However, due to efficiency reasons, it will initially come with a cap of 28Gbps.

Samsung claims that their chips will run at 1.1v, that is lower than the official 1.2v specs. All these improvements allows 20% better power efficiency.

Conclusion

Faster VRAM memory chips are always welcome. Especially those reaching 37-40Gbps.

The only major memory chipmaker missing from the speeds announcements is Micron. Which had announced a year ago that their GDDR7 offerings were going to release in the first half of this year.

How much will these faster GDDR7 VRAM memory chips actually help in real world usage, that we can only confirm when graphics cards using them when they are officially released.

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Well, it looks like the final PC version of the $69.99 game, which launched on March 21, is getting slammed on Steam in part because of performance problems. The game's Steam page currently has a "Mostly Negative" label from the over 14,000 player reviews.

Many of those negative reviews have come from players who are not happy with the microtransactions for in-game content. In a post on Steam, developer and publisher Capcom points out that extra in-game content can also be claimed by just playing the game itself.

However, more troubling are the reports of frame rate and performance issues with the PC version of Dragon's Dogma 2. Capcom has posted this note on those issues:

A large amount of CPU usage is allocated to each character and calculating the impact of their physical presence in various areas. In certain situations where numerous characters appear simultaneously, the CPU usage can be very high and may affect the frame rate. We are aware that in such situations, settings that reduce GPU load may currently have a limited effect; however, we are looking into ways to improve performance in the future.

Capcom added it is also looking into reports of other bugs and of the game crashing for some players, adding that the team will address these problems "starting from those with the highest priority in patches in the near future."

Finally, Capcom announced it plans to add a way for PC gamers who have already started playing Dragon's Dogma 2 to restart the game. Right now, there's no word on when these patches and updates will be released.

Of course, we have seen a number of PC ports of multiplatform games sold at high prices encounter a number of post-launch performance problems and bugs, including Cyberpunk 2077, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, The Last of Us Part I, and others. It seems that this trend continues with Dragon's Dogma 2.

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One day I will own griffons in such spectacular fashion. But I'm currently carrying a too-heavy backpack and clipped through a hut wall.

 

With all due respect to the Capcom team, which poured itself into Dragon’s Dogma 2 and deserves praise, raises, and time off, let me get right to it: I love this game for how dumb it is.

Game details

Developer: Capcom
Platform: Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: March 22, 2024
ESRB Rating: Mature (M)
Price: $70
Link: Steam | PlayStation | Xbox

 

I mean "dumb" in the way most heavy metal lyrics are dumb, but you find yourself rocking out nonetheless. Dumb like when you laugh uncontrollably at the sight of someone getting conked in the head and falling over backward. Dumb as in the silliest bits of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, just nowhere near as self-aware (unless, due to translation issues, this game actually is self-aware, then I apologize).

 

Dragon’s Dogma 2 (DD2) reminds me of playing another huge, dumb, enjoyable game: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Not the first time you play through it, though. I’m talking about the second or third run-through (or that 100-plus-hour save in which you refuse to finish the game), and your admiration of this huge, rich world gives way to utter ridiculousness. You one-shot dragons with your broken stealth-archer build, you put buckets on the heads of NPCs to rob them, and you marvel at how the most effective fast travel is horse tilting. You lunge into possibilities, choose chaos, and appreciate all the ways you can do so.

DD2 gives me those multifaceted Skyrim thrills and chuckles (and a friend confirmed Morrowind works here, too). One time, I had to reload the game because my character—the “Arisen,” savior of the continent, heralded throughout the land—got stuck between a stone hut and an angled hill behind it. Someday, he will challenge the world-conquering dragon, but today, he can’t turn sideways or climb three feet.

 

Another time, a band of nearby goblins launched an attack against my squad and a band of nearby knights. The knights’ leader, midway through a lengthy, high-falutin dialogue dirge, just kept talking. Even when a goblin set one of his soldiers on fire less than two feet to his right, he kept yapping.

 

DD2 has a huge, rich, and varied world, full of systems that just barely fit together, regularly bashing into one another in ways that delight, annoy, and astound. But there is a solid, if quirky, game at its core that rewards exploration and experimentation. The plot, while overwrought with nobility and rebirth and destinies, is intriguing in its broad strokes but let down by the aforementioned dialogue.

 

The game has made me say, “This is so ridiculous” and “This is amazing” to myself in roughly equal amounts, and that feels like an achievement.

 

The medieval fantasy gig economy

If you’ve never played the original 2012 Dragon’s Dogma, well, neither have I. Here’s the setup: You are the Chosen One. Every so often, an omnipresent dragon kills a dude, eats his heart like a grape off a cheese platter, and then the spirit of that hero, The Arisen, is reborn in somebody else. Your job is to challenge the dragon again and again and again. It’s like the Architect scene near the end of The Matrix: Reloaded, but with a dragon fight instead of an Existentialism 499 lecture.

 

Being He of the Excavated Chest comes with some neat benefits. The big one is Pawns, who are fighters that exist between planes, helping the Arisen with magic, archery, sword-fighting, trickery, or the like. You, The Arisen, get one Pawn that stays with you, leveling up as you go. You buy equipment for this “Main Pawn,” hand it gear when your pack gets too heavy, and it can’t really permanently die.

 

That's not the case for the other two pawns you can have. In a system that evokes FromSoftware’s cleverly limited online aspects, you can choose bog-standard generated pawns or pick from characters other Dogma players have built out, each with different battle traits and unique skills. These are medieval fantasy gig workers, almost too literally. They don’t level up with you, so when you grow past them, you give them a gift from your inventory, rate them, and send them back into the ether.

 

If the game didn’t feel somewhat off-kilter before, the Pawn system is where it can really earn its bizarro bona fides. I grew fond of one rogue-ish knife fighter in my early game party, RickyBobby. While accompanying some soldiers, my party had to fight some harpies. As we were walking away from that fight, the game popped up some tutorial text on my screen, explaining how anybody who falls into deep water will be consumed by “The Brine” and cannot be revived.

 

A moment later, I realized why I received that lesson: RickyBobby had been picked up by a harpy, dropped into a deep canyon, and thereby released from this plane of existence. In most RPGs, the death of a party member is a shocking aberration. In DD2, it’s a text box that has you press “A” to continue.

 

Rest in power, RickyBobby. You were definitely a guy who knifed some goblins.

Many levels later, I’m holding onto my party’s mage, Barry Harko (that’s right), way too long. I know it’s just random NPC AI, but ol’ Barry really embodies the game’s blunder-into-disaster spirit. He will cast a healing orb spell directly under the knees of a giant cyclops that has already killed him four times. He’s always the last to catch up when I’ve jumped across some ledge or climbed a ladder. I can make fun of my big stupid mage, but you keep Barry’s name out of your mouth. He’s trying his best.

 

You won't miss all of your Pawns. They talk a lot, and after a few hours of play, you've heard pretty much every variation of what they can say. Constant remarks about how there are ingredients nearby, and did you know that you can use ingredients, to make items? They'll either pass you by, or you'll turn the volume slider on your pawns way down. Or maybe take just a minute longer to revive them when they fall, enjoying the silence.

 

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Getting absolutely owned and loving it

Like almost every other part of this game, combat is hectic and mildly unhinged, but this part seems intentional. It’s different from class to class, whether you’re an up-close fighter, a back-line archer, a tactical mage or sorcerer, or one of the more niche classes. Conveniently, your hero can swap “vocations” at any town, so no one playthrough is limited to seeing just one kind of fight.

 

Every encounter is interesting in its own way, but the really big monsters are the game’s specialty. You’ve got a “Grab” command that you and your teammates can use to pin or drag down a tall monster. Or you can climb directly onto certain huge foes while they’re distracted. I’m happy to report that, as an archer, you can do the sensible thing and jam one of your explosive arrows into the giant with your hands, then let go and scamper away.

 

Also, you can sometimes pick up smaller enemies and throw them at other enemies or off ledges. You’re not the only one left to suffer the cruelty of chaos.

 

Enemy encounters happen wherever you run into them. Sometimes, you get the jump on a pack of lizardmen and can quietly put an arrow in the leader’s head. Sometimes, you’re talking to the traveling merchant, and your Pawns have to fend off a three-story beast that stomped too close to town while you were negotiating. There’s a bit of close-quarters cave fighting, too, and some solo challenges. But mostly, you’re just getting jumped and figuring out your positioning and strategies on the fly.

 

The random violence makes all your decisions more interesting. I’m playing an archer and have to pick the four skills I can equip based on assisting the Pawns who are doing the real damage. What’s more effective, a horizontal spread of arrows, rapid auto-aimed shots at the nearest baddie, or making explosive arrows that I can plug into a big dude’s back? Do I spend money on my armor because I’m a low-HP Legolas-aping creampuff or a better sword for my main Pawn? Who needs to hold onto more healing potions or one-shot damage spells?

 

These kinds of questions matter in DD2 more than in other games due to scarcity. I’m nowhere near the endgame, but in the first 10 hours, you are not flush with anything. You can only fast-travel to a few spots on the map, and doing so requires a very rare and expensive item. You’re always strapped for cash, but you’ve also got a real weight limit, so you’re regularly handing off, selling, and value-sorting. When you take tough hits, you lose maximum hit points, and you can only restore them by staying at an inn or using a camping kit. Inns are expensive, there aren’t many campsites, and your kits are wasted if enemies attack during the night. If you’re heading in straight from Baldur’s Gate 3, it’s a real low-fantasy shock.

 

More than worth the jank (and patches)

DD2 is a long, long game, from what I can tell. You’re going to walk just about everywhere, which means surprises, encounters, and drudgery. There is one save file (for now), and the game lightly punishes you for save-scumming it. Some side quests have to be done in a timely fashion, so you can’t do all of them. Quests sometimes have maddeningly vague objectives and are marked on your map in a broad area, not a single point. A power fantasy, this game is not.

 

And yet, I found myself sticking with it. Like Elden Ring, the game plays with the balance between punishing and rewarding exploration. Faced with an unbeatable foe or an uncertain path forward, you can often instead wander a bit, hire some new Pawns, swap out your vocation and skills, or use the game’s loose physics and enemy AI to cheese your way through. If a harpy can kill RickyBobby instantly, I think you’re free to do whatever it takes to get by.

 

Lots of sites and users are reporting CPU-bound frame-rate stutters and sluggish performance on PC and consoles in this first week after release, especially in busy town scenes. I’ve seen some of that on PC (with an RTX 3070). Every so often, the frame rate will shoot down to cheap webcam levels. I locked the refresh rate to 60 fps, and I'm in no danger at all of hitting that. And I've been frustrated that the game lacks graphics presets besides “Low,” “High,” and setting every single variable yourself.

 

For its part, Capcom is aware and is "looking into ways to improve performance in the future." Capcom and performance reviewers have suggested the issue lies with NPC behavior bogging down the CPU, which likely causes stutter and dropped frames. This might get better with patches and feedback, but waiting to hear that it definitely improved might be a smart move. Also, please do not try to run this game natively on Steam Deck—not now and probably never in the future.

 

Capcom also did itself zero favors by releasing a page of micro-transaction-like DLC for its $70 PC game. As such, the game is hovering around "Mixed" reviews today. Nearly all of the in-game items I see are things you can get through in-game play (and Capcom has said so), and there are limits to how many you can buy of most items. But for something like the teleporting Portcrystal, which takes a long time to obtain early in the game, seeing it as a $3 purchase is sure to irk some players.

 

Dragon's Dogma 2 doesn't always feel like a modern, polished open-world game, but it has all the weight of one. If, like me, you're okay with some bugs, some goofs, and some randomly punishing difficulty in service of a big, impressive adventure, I think it's worth the pain. Destiny calls you toward the dragon, but the real victories are the goblins we toss along the way.

 

Listing image by Capcom

 

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Reddit set the price for its IPO on Wednesday at $34 a share which was on the high side of expectations. That allowed the company and its shareholders to raise $750 million, with Reddit itself keeping $519 million.

CNBC reports that when trading for Reddit began until the ticker name RDDT, the share price instantly went up to $47 a share. The price was as high as $57.80 at one point, but at the end of the NYSE trading day, the price settled down to $50.44 a share. That means Reddit currently has a market cap worth $9.5 billion.

One of Reddit's biggest shareholders is Sam Altman, the co-founder and CEO of OpenAI. CNBC says that on paper, Altman became $200 million richer today thanks to Reddit's IPO. The shares he now owns in the company are now worth over $613 million. Altman, and all other shareholders of Reddit, can't start selling their stock for another six months.

Over the last month, Reddit has revealed more of its financial and user numbers prior to today's IPO launch. It stated in February it had 267.5 million active weekly users, along with about 73 million daily users. Reddit said the site itself has 1 billion posts.

It also said that in 2023, Reddit had revenues of $804 million, but ran at a loss of $90.8 million last year. The huge majority of its revenue came from advertising, but the company said it plans to broaden out where it can get money, including monetizing its data and from its commerce division.

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Just when you thought it couldn't get any more popular, Denuvo developer Irdeto has announced the anti-cheat software's newest feature, TraceMark for Games, a tool that will let developers add a unique identifier to game footage. The technology will in theory allow developers and publishers to identify players that are leaking game footage before release, and can be set to be visible or invisible to the user so you'll have no idea if the game's using it or not.

Lest it need introduction, Denuvo is DRM software found in many big-budget PC releases. It's popular with publishers like Capcom for the obvious reasons, and generally unpopular with players, some of whom believe it negatively affects performance (which Denuvo of course denies) and resent its online check-in requirement.

Irdeto says the new tool "leverages the core invisible watermark technology trusted by Hollywood studios" and others, and "uniquely addresses the challenge of content leakage, especially during the sensitive pre-release phase of game development." It claims it will act as a deterrent to leakers, who can now be traced and will "think twice", apparently. Hey, don't we all care about "the overall integrity of the content distribution process"?

The tech will apparently work regardless of any attempts to distort the source, and Iredto reckons it will be especially useful for pre-release activities like playtests and closed betas. And, oh no, they're coming for the journalists!

Specifically "the unique security concerns associated with press events and the distribution of review copies." So that's us taken care of.

"With the launch of TraceMark for Gaming, we are setting a new standard in anti-piracy for the gaming industry," said Irdeto SVP Niels Haverkorn. "This innovative solution not only marks a significant milestone for Irdeto but also represents a leap forward in protecting the creative and financial investments of game developers worldwide. At Irdeto, we understand the unique challenges faced by the gaming community, and TraceMark is our commitment to ensuring that these valuable assets are safeguarded throughout their lifecycle.” 

Love to see valuable assets safeguarded through their lifecycle. TraceMark can be combined with Denuvo's usual anti-tamper software, and expect not to see it in a game near you soon.

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Microsoft is placing all its bets on AI, especially after plunging a multi-billion dollar investment into OpenAI. And it seems to be paying off. Microsoft recently subdued Apple as the world's most valuable company after hitting $3 trillion in market capitalization, with market analysts attributing this success to its early investment and adoption of generative AI across its products and services.

Genesis: OpenAI's weekend-long fiasco

(Image credit: Bullfrag)

While everything might seem great on paper, Microsoft insiders recently complained about the complicated relationship the tech giant shares with OpenAI. Some indicated it's an overnight "glorified IT department for the hot startup." It comes on top of last year's OpenAI fiasco that led to CEO Sam Altman's firing and rehiring by the board of directors within a fortnight.

The insiders added that the multi-billion dollar partnership has negatively impacted Microsoft's AI department, which specializes in AI advances and development. Microsoft is reportedly more focused on its projects with OpenAI, which, according to a top executive who left the company because of the same issue, has contributed to the addition of more tombstones to the "Microsoft Graveyard," including Azure Cognitive Search, Azure AI Bot Service, and Kinect DK.

Since the bizzare events that led to Altman's firing and rehiring, it's like OpenAI opened a Pandora's box and can't seem to steer clear of problems that have been riddling it in the recent past. During the whole fiasco, Microsoft was relatively quiet, but rumors looming the air at the time suggested that the tech giant was ready to absorb any OpenAI staffers leaving the startup due to the issue.

In a letter drafted to the board of directors, the staffers gave an ultimatum requesting for Altman's immediate reinstatement as CEO, further stating that "OpenAI is nothing without its people." Failure to adhere to this request would have led to hundreds of employees walking out of OpenAI's doors. 

At the time, Microsoft had already set up an AI department at its LinkedIn office in San Fransico to absorb the OpenAI staffers. Sam Altman and Greg Brockman were to sit at the helm and run the operations for the entire unit. But Microsoft recently announced an internal reorg placing products like Microsoft Edge, Bing, and Microsoft Copilot and a new Microsoft AI division which will be ran by Deep Mind co-founder, Mustafa Suleyman.

OpenAI under fire for abandoning its founding agreement and mission

(Image credit: Daniel Rubino)

When OpenAI was founded, its mission and vision were to ensure that generative AI advances and developments were easily accessible to everyone for free. In 2015, OpenAI reached out to Elon Musk with the same idea, but the tech startup has seemingly veered off this mission. This has consequently led Musk to file a lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman for "stark betrayal of the founding agreement" and opting to go the for-profit way.

He further criticized Microsoft and OpenAI's relationship, indicating:

"In reality, however, OpenAI, Inc. has been transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology company in the world: Microsoft. Under its new board, it is not just developing but is actually refining an AGI to maximize profits for Microsoft, rather than for the benefit of humanity."

Musk hopes the court will rule in favor and compel OpenAI to revert to its original mission and vision. But where would this leave Microsoft, which holds a 49% stake in the earnings of OpenAI's for-profit arm?

(Image credit: Image Creator from Designer | Kevin Okemwa)

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shared the sentiments highlighted above last year after being blindsided by Sam Altman's firing. This presents a form of assurance and dominance in the AI landscape. It also potentially asserts Microsoft's continued investment in the technology even if it's forced to sever ties with OpenAI. 

Admittedly, Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT have equally experienced several issues over the past few months, including inaccuracy, with some users blatantly indicating the chatbots have gotten dumber, and some don't even find these tools useful. While these are major concerns, Elon Musk says we're on the verge of the biggest technology revolution with AI, but there won't be enough power by 2025. 

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The figure, when split into the two categories, includes 11 million broadband customers and 36 million mobile customers being hit by price rises. Uswitch said that annual broadband bills could rise by £27.19 and annual mobile bills by £24.23.

As a switching website, Uswitch has provided some tips on how to put off the price hikes for another year. It said that the majority who are in contract will be unable to avoid the price rises without paying a penalty fee, but for others, it provides the following tips:

• Sky Broadband, Direct Save Telecom, Virgin Media and Giganet all allow customers to leave penalty free if they wish within the 30-day window of the price rise announcement - although this does not apply to Sky TV customers.
• Vodafone and Community Fibre are freezing prices until 2025 for those switching now ahead of the April increases.
• Smaller regional alternative networks, such as Trooli, Zen Internet, Hyperoptic, Hull Fibre, Link Broadband, Open Fibre, Squirrel Internet, Infinics and Yayzi offer full fibre deals and have committed to not hiking their costs for consumers throughout their current contract agreements.
• Mobile providers Giffgaff, Talkmobile, Lebara, SMARTY, iD Mobile, Lyca, Asda Mobile, VOXI, Honest Mobile and Sky Mobile are committed to not increasing their prices mid-contract.

Despite Uswitch’s comments about penalty fees for leaving a contract early, it did mention that it’s worth checking the small print of your agreement, as some providers do let you quit the contract without a fee. It said that Sky Broadband, Direct Save Telecom, Virgin Media, and Giganet are examples of companies that will let you exit the contract penalty-free within 30 days of a price rise announcement.

Source: Uswitch

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The new page titled "Documentation," which was previously spotted by Mac Okatara, contains related documents and available downloads for a variety of new and old Apple products. The following Apple products are visible on the Documentation page as of now:

• Mac
• iPad
• iPhone
• Apple Watch
• Vision Pro
• AirPods
• Apple TV
• HomePod
• iPad
• Displays
• Accessories (AirTag, AirPort, cables, and more)
• Software (iMovie, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and more)

You can find technical specifications for new Apple products on the landing page, as well as the ones whose release dates back to more than a decade ago. There is a search bar that you can use to pull up support pages for a particular device or desired keyword from Apple's database instead of browsing through the device cateogries.

Each device category is divided into sub-categories based on the device type and other factors. For instance, when you open the Mac category, you can find separate tabs for laptops, desktops, and macOS. Similarly, the iPhone category includes tabs for various iPhone models released over the years, iOS versions, and iPhone accessories.

For a particular hardware or software, its respective support may include information such as the year in which it was introduced. Individual device category pages also tell you how to identified your device model using serial numbers and model numbers.

You can download not just user manuals but also old or discontinued Apple software such as iPhoto and iDVD. However, you can't download all the older software mentioned on the landing page. For some, only limited resources are available on the Documentation page.

Source

According to a message on the official website, Epic Games will pull the plug on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and 32-bit Windows 10 in June 2024. The end of support means the affected platforms will no longer receive any updates, including security patches. However, customers who are unwilling or unable to update to a newer Windows version can continue using the Epic Games Store after the specified date. At some point, though, the app may stop working partially or altogether.

After June 2024, the Epic Games Store will be officially supported on 64-bit Windows 10 and Windows 11, which is 64-bit only. As for macOS, you need macOS 10.13 or higher to continue receiving updates and support.

Today we’re giving a heads-up that the Epic Games Launcher will no longer support Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10 (32-bit) starting June 2024. After this date, existing installations on these operating systems will no longer receive updates of any kind. The Epic Games Launcher will continue supporting Windows 10 (64-bit), Windows 11, and macOS 10.13 or higher.

 

After June 2024, players will still be able to use the Epic Games Launcher on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10 (32-bit), just not in an officially supported manner. Epic will be unable to provide technical support for users of these operating systems, and Launcher features on these operating systems may degrade or stop working over time.

Microsoft has ended the Extended Security Updates program for Windows 7 in January 2023. Multiple developers dropped support for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1. Those include mainstream browsers, productivity apps, and games. Valve, for example, ended Steam support on pre-Windows 10 versions on January 1, 2024.

Still, some developers do not rush to drop Windows 7 users. Since the operating system still has a fair share of customers, Mozilla continues issuing security updates for Firefox 115 ESR. As of right now, it is the only mainstream browser getting updates on unsupported Windows versions.

Source

What you need to know

• In December, several users received a notification indicating Microsoft might be killing its Xbox Rewards app.
• Multiple users received a similar notification but now features a new date.
• Microsoft will no longer publish offers on the platform after April 15, 2024, ultimately ending the beloved weekly streaks. 
• Critical changes to the Microsoft Rewards program in the past few months include introducing a cooldown period and adjusting the points awarded for certain activities.

Microsoft Rewards is a great program that lets users earn points for using services like Bing, Microsoft Edge, and more. The reward points can be redeemed for shopping. However, the program has undergone "critical changes" in the past few months, with Microsoft indicating that it regularly fine-tunes the methods for redeeming points as one of the avenues for promoting the growth and expansion of the program.

While Microsoft confirmed that it had no plans to discontinue the program, the same can't be said about the Xbox Rewards app if the reports hitting social media are anything to go by. In December, multiple users posted images on social media platforms featuring a notification indicating that the Xbox Rewards app was being discontinued in favor of the simplified and unified new Rewards hub.

Things have been relatively quiet since then, until recently when users in Brazil started receiving the same message on their Xbox Rewards app. However, the message now features a new date — April 15, 2024.

Here's the full message:

What does this mean?

(Image credit: Xbox)

Per the notification, users have approximately three weeks to continue earning points for their weekly streaks via the Xbox Rewards app. Microsoft will no longer use the platform to publish offers after April 15, 2024.

Microsoft has made significant adjustments to how it awards points for various activities, but it's not yet clear if this will affect the unified and simplified new Rewards hub, too. However, the reward points for Xbox Game Pass Quests have also been reduced significantly. 

Source

Source

While the tech industry went gaga for generative artificial intelligence, one giant has held back: Apple. The company has yet to introduce so much as an AI-generated emoji, and according to a New York Times report today and earlier reporting from Bloomberg, it is in preliminary talks with Google about adding the search company’s Gemini AI model to iPhones.

Yet a research paper quietly posted online last Friday by Apple engineers suggests that the company is making significant new investments into AI that are already bearing fruit. It details the development of a new generative AI model called MM1 capable of working with text and images. The researchers show it answering questions about photos and displaying the kind of general knowledge skills shown by chatbots like ChatGPT. The model’s name is not explained but could stand for MultiModal 1.

MM1 appears to be similar in design and sophistication to a variety of recent AI models from other tech giants, including Meta’s open source Llama 2 and Google’s Gemini. Work by Apple’s rivals and academics shows that models of this type can be used to power capable chatbots or build “agents” that can solve tasks by writing code and taking actions such as using computer interfaces or websites. That suggests MM1 could yet find its way into Apple’s products.

“The fact that they’re doing this, it shows they have the ability to understand how to train and how to build these models,” says Ruslan Salakhutdinov, a professor at Carnegie Mellon who led AI research at Apple several years ago. “It requires a certain amount of expertise.”

MM1 is a multimodal large language model, or MLLM, meaning it is trained on images as well as text. This allows the model to respond to text prompts and also answer complex questions about particular images.

One example in the Apple research paper shows what happened when MM1 was provided with a photo of a sun-dappled restaurant table with a couple of beer bottles and also an image of the menu. When asked how much someone would expect to pay for “all the beer on the table,” the model correctly reads off the correct price and tallies up the cost.

When ChatGPT launched in November 2022, it could only ingest and generate text, but more recently its creator OpenAI and others have worked to expand the underlying large language model technology to work with other kinds of data. When Google launched Gemini (the model that now powers its answer to ChatGPT) last December, the company touted its multimodal nature as beginning an important new direction in AI. “After the rise of LLMs, MLLMs are emerging as the next frontier in foundation models,” Apple’s paper says.

MM1 is a relatively small model as measured by its number of “parameters,” or the internal variables that get adjusted as a model is trained. Kate Saenko, a professor at Boston University who specializes in computer vision and machine learning, says this could make it easier for Apple’s engineers to experiment with different training methods and refinements before scaling up when they hit on something promising.

Saenko says the MM1 paper provides a surprising amount of detail on how the model was trained for a corporate publication. For instance, the engineers behind MM1 describe tricks for improving the performance of the model including increasing the resolution of images and mixing text and image data. Apple is famed for its secrecy, but it has previously shown unusual openness about AI research as it has sought to lure the talent needed to compete in the crucial technology.

Saenko says it’s hard to draw too many conclusions about Apple’s plans from the research paper. Multimodal models have proven adaptable to many different use cases. But she suggests that MM1 could perhaps be a step toward building “some type of multimodal assistant that can describe photos, documents, or charts and answer questions about them.”

Apple’s flagship product, the iPhone, already has an AI assistant—Siri. The rise of ChatGPT and its rivals has quickly made the once revolutionary helper look increasingly limited and out-dated. Amazon and Google have said they are integrating LLM technology into their own assistants, Alexa and Google Assistant. Google allows users of Android phones to replace the Assistant with Gemini.

Reports from The New York Times and Bloomberg that Apple may add Google’s Gemini to iPhones suggest Apple is considering expanding the strategy it has used for search on mobile devices to generative AI. Rather than develop web search technology in-house, the iPhone maker leans on Google, which reportedly pays more than $18 billion to make its search engine the iPhone default. Apple has also shown it can build its own alternatives to outside services, even when it starts from behind. Google Maps used to be the default on iPhones but in 2012 Apple replaced it with its own maps app.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has promised investors that the company will reveal more of its generative AI plans this year. The company faces pressure to keep up with rival smartphone makers, including Samsung and Google, that have introduced a raft of generative AI tools for their devices.

Apple could end up tapping both Google and its own, in-house AI, perhaps by introducing Gemini as a replacement for conventional Google Search while also building new generative AI tools on top of MM1 and other homegrown models. Last September, several of the researchers behind MM1 published details of MGIE, a tool that uses generative AI to manipulate images based on a text prompt.

Salakhutdinov believes his former employer may focus on developing LLMs that can be installed and run securely on Apple devices. That would fit with the company’s past emphasis on using “on-device” algorithms to safeguard sensitive data and avoid sharing it with other companies. A number of recent AI research papers from Apple concern machine-learning methods designed to preserve user privacy. “I think that's probably what Apple is going to do,” he says.

When it comes to tailoring generative AI to devices, Salakhutdinov says, Apple may yet turn out to have a distinct advantage because of its control over the entire software-hardware stack. The company has included a custom “neural engine” in the chips that power its mobile devices since 2017, with the debut of the iPhone X. “Apple is definitely working in that space, and I think at some point they will be in the front, because they have phones, the distribution.”

In a thread on X, Apple researcher Brandon McKinzie, lead author of the MM1 paper wrote: “This is just the beginning. The team is already hard at work on the next generation of models.”

Source

Aside from the almost 500 bugfixes (499!) included in this update, Bethesda is shipping some new features and changes too.

One of these is a major change to how Digipicks work, the lockpicking mechanic of the sci-fi RPG. After the update, there won't be a Digipick cost when undoing a move, which is a massive change, and should save quite a few tools in the mini-game. Photo mode also now lets players use expressions and poses on the player character and companions.

There are also UI upgrades, like being able to hold a button (RB or Alt) inside the Starmap to show all names of the star systems on display. A popular glitch players used to gain space suits from tiny gaps in displays has unfortunately been fixed too.

Here are all the features and bug fixes included in this update:

FEATURES

• PHOTOMODE: Added the ability to set Expressions and Poses on player and companions in Photomode.
• SCANNER: You can now open doors and harvest with the scanner opened.
• Setting course on an inactive quest will now make it the active quest.
• Added support for adjusting FOV when using 3rd Person Ship view.
• Added an Anisotropic filtering quality slider (PC).
• Removed the digipick cost for using Undo during the Security mini-game.
• Added an autosave when fast travelling from a planet's surface to orbit.
• Updated the Ship UI to perform more smoothly at higher framerates.

FIXES

ART

 

• Fixed an area that allowed the player access to the New Atlantis Ship Technician’s vendor chest.
• Fixed the gap that allows players to access Spacesuits without picking locks of one of the Spacesuit display cases.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the Fishworker Mask to not be visible when equipped.
• Fixed a spot where the player could get out of the world on The Siren of the Stars.
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause the player to remain stuck under an elevator.
• Fixed a spot where the player could become stuck outside Hopetech.
• Fixed flickering floors in the aquarium of a Research Station on Altair II.
• Fixed the text on a sign from being cut off on The Key.
• Corrected a sign found on The Key.
• Adjusted the position of a floating speaker at the Nasa Launch Facility.
• Fixed badly placed objects in the Paridiso Hotel.
• Fixed a spot players can get stuck in the Lair of the Mantis.
• Fixed a spot players can get stuck on top of a bookcase in Marco's room.
• Fixed a generator intersecting a railing on New Homestead.
• Fixed disappearing objects on Starstation RE-939.
• Fixed balloons that were stuck inside each other on the Siren of the Stars.
• Fixed a spot where players could get stuck on a staircase in New Homestead.
• Fixed flickering textures in the Vanguard Test Chamber.
• Adjusted the position of some office objects on a desk in the Abandoned Hangar.
• Fixed a spot where players could go through the wall in New Homestead.
• Fixed a chair placement inside of Hopetech.
• Fixed a spot where players could get stuck in Infinity LTD.
• Fixed a chair stuck in the wall on the roof of Sonny Di Falco's Island.
• Fixed a spot where players could fall out of the world in the Autonomous Staryard.
• Settled some floating items in the Argos Office of New Atlantis.
• Fixed some decal placements in an Abandoned Hangar.
• Fixed a spot where players could see outside the world in Red Devil Headquarters.
• Fixed a spot where players could get stuck in Londinion.
• Fixed a stool that couldn't be sat on in the Red Mile.
• Fixed a spot where players could get out of the world in the Red Devil Mines.
• Fixed flickering mats in Neon.
• Rotated a monitor to face the intended direction in the Deimos Staryard.
• Fixed placement of some items in the Autonomous Dogstar Factory on Vega II-d.
• Fixed a sign placement on Tau Gourmet.
• Fixed a spot where players could get stuck near the Bayu Plaza of Neon.
• Fixed a spot where player could get stuck underneath metal girders in Neon.
• Rotated and electrical panel in a starstation.
• Fixed disappearing decals on a wall in Research Outpost U3-09.
• Fixed a chair placement that caused an intersection with a computer in a Mining Complex.
• Fixed missing walls of the UC Syracuse.
• Fixed floating whiteboard text inside Nishina Research Facility.
• Fixed a disappearing paper on the wall of the Starstation RE-939.
• Fixed a gap on the tarmac of Cydonia.
• Fixed a spot where players could fall out of the world behind Chunks in New Atlantis.
• Fixed storage bins intersecting at the Lair of the Mantis.
• Fixed fire extinguishers stuck inside the wall of the Siren of the Stars.
• Fixed flickering textures found on Mars Mech Factory.
• Adjusted position of objects on shelves found in Gagarin.
• Adjusted position of objects in the Akila City Barracks.
• Settled a floating vent panel in the Infinity LTD HQ.
• Adjusted position of objects on the Fortuna Spaceship.
• Fixed a spot where players could get stuck on The Scow.
• Fixed a spot where players could get stuck in the Vault of the Siren of the Stars.
• Fixed a flickering sign found in Gagarin.
• Fixed a disappearing note on a whiteboard found in a Fracking Station on Procyon V-B.
• Fixed a disappearing painting found in The Lodge.
• Fixed a spot where players could get stuck in the Bindi Mining Outpost.
• Adjusted the position of shelves in The Emporium of Neon.
• Fixed a flickering wall panel in the Deimos Staryard.
• Fixed weapons placed incorrectly on a display case found in a Civilian Outpost.
• Fixed object placement on shelves in Akila's Stone root Inn.
• Fixed decal issues on whiteboards placed in The Warlock ship.
• Fixed shelves and objects placement in The Corvus.
• Fixed items stuck inside shelves in Gagarin.
• Fixed flickering textures found in New Homestead.
• Fixed a texture on the tarmac of the Waggoner Farm.
• Fixed a spot where players could get outside the world at the Bindi Mining Outpost.
• Adjusted physics on objects found near Alex Shadid's desk in Akila City.
• Replaced a missing wall in Gagarin.
• Fixed physics on some objects placed in New Homestead.
• Fixed a spot where players could fall out of the world in a Science Outpost location.
• Fixed an object stuck inside a shelf in MAST.
• Fixed flickering posters found in The Vigilance.
• Fixed item physics in cabinets found in Hopetech.
• Fixed a spot where players could get stuck in The Lock.
• Fixed a gap underneath the airlock door of a Science outpost on Magnar.
• Fixed physics on the skull in the Coe Heritage Museum.
• Fixed a decal texture on a table in The Lock.
• Fixed a spot where players could see out of the World in The Lock.
• Fixed physics on objects placed in The Emporium.
• Fixed cabinets intersecting on Gagarin.
• Fixed physics on the cabinets found at one of the United Colonies Garrison locations.
• Fixed a gap in the ceiling of The Lock.
• Fixed collision on the roof of the Pioneer Tower.
• Fixed flickering windows at Terrabrew in New Atlantis.
• Fixed collision on the floor in a Warehouse of Neon.
• Fixed flickering posters in the Military Wing of MAST.
• Smoothed out the collision near Madame Sauvage in Neon.
• Fixed a spot in the Mercury Tower where players could fall outside the world.
• Fixed disappearing decals outside the Astral Lounge.
• Fixed disappearing vent frames in Neon.
• Fixed a Fan position near the Xenofresh sign in Neon.
• Fixed a shelf intersecting the wall near the UC Distribution.
• Fixed a spot where players could get out of the world near the door of the Va'ruun Embassy.
• Settled a floating rope near the Neon Landing Pad.
• Fixed the collision on a wall in the Ryujin Industries Head Quarters.
• Fixed spots where players could see outside the world near the pool of the Commercial District.
• Fixed spots where players could see outside the world on the roofs of the Residential District in New Atlantis.
• Fixed a spot where players could see outside the world under the MAST bridge in New Atlantis.
• Rotated a monitor in the Stroud-Eklund Showroom.
• Fixed a spot where players could fall out of the world near the Fishmonger in Neon.
• Fixed a gap in the sidewalk and grass in New Atlantis.
• Fixed multiple spots where players could see outside of the world on the roof of the Pioneer Tower.
• Fixed a missing wall near the Pioneer Tower.
• Fixed an issue where characters would suddenly disappear in the Neon elevator.
• Fixed several spots where players could see out of the world in Neon.
• Fixed the flickering computer monitors found in Apex Electronics.
• Fixed a spot where players could see out of the world near the Pioneer tower in New Atlantis.
• Fixed the netting from disappearing inside Neon at certain viewing angles.
• Fixed flickering crates in Cydonia's mine.
• Fixed flickering textures in the corner of Bayu's Penthouse bedroom.
• Fixed gaps in the wall inside Galbank of New Atlantis.
• Fixed a spot where players could see out of the world in the Trade Authority.
• Fixed an area that a player could get out of the world in the Generdyne Industries.
• Corrected a missing wall inside the Mercury Tower Lobby.
• Fixed a backwards polygon floating outside a Warehouse in Neon.
• Dropped a floating tree outside the entrance to the Lair of the Mantis.
• Made it so a mineral resource can be properly harvested near Gagarin.
• Settled a floating tree found near Remote Industrial Site locations.
• Settled a floating rock arch near Industrial Mines.
• Settled a floating tree to the ground at an Abandoned Farm location.
• Fixed a spot where the player could get out of the world in a cave on Procyon I.
• Improved LOD for Juniper trees.
• Improved LOD for Fringe trees.
• Improved LOD for Swamp Pods.
• Improved LOD for Hickory trees.
• Fixed a spot where the player could get outside of the world in a cave on Altair II.
• Fixed a floating tree near the Lair of the Mantis.
• Fixed an area that caused the player to see out of the world in the Mining Complex.
• Fixed flickering bushes seen during Sam Coe's Matter of the Hart quest scenes.
• Settled a floating resource stone near Akila city.
• Settled a floating stone near Gagarin's Landing Pad.
• Fixed an area that caused the player to fall out of the world near Gagarin.
• Fixed floating fungus found on Procyon.
• Settled floating stone arches near Gagarin.
• Fixed a texture blend around one of the Wetland biomes.
• Fixed textures on the leaves of the Sapling Trees.
• Settled a floating rock near the Landing site on Toliman II-a.
• Addressed texturing issues on various cave sections.
• Fixed a few areas that caused the player to fall out of the world.
• Fixed a spot where players could get stuck outside a mining complex.
• Dropped a floating tree to the ground near Gagarin.
• Fixed a spot where players could get stuck outside Cydonia.
• Settled floating rocks to the ground around Eren's Camp.
• Fixed a spot in New Atlantis Spaceport where players could get stuck.
• Fixed gaps in the caves that allowed visibility outside the playable space in underground caves.
• Fixed texture issue on the landing pad of the Ranshaw Research Facility.
• Settled a floating tree to the ground around the Dauntless Crash Site.
• Fixed a flicker on the Quarantine Isolator.
• Addressed flickering textures on the faucets in the Lock.
• Adjusted Briggs pose when holding a weapon (The Showdown).
• Adjusted assets for the “Living Outside Earth” airlock display (Revelation quest, NASA).
• Fixed an issue that could cause the player to remain stuck when traversing the collapsed C Block hall near the Armory in The Lock.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the player to become stuck between rocks near New Atlantis on Jemison.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the player to become stuck inside the stairs that lead down to the Red Mile.
• Fixed blast shield occasionally disappearing from landing pad near Nishina research station.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the player to become stuck after falling down a tube in an Industrial Outpost.
• Fixed a few landing areas (like Valerie's Cache) that were too small for some ships.

 

GAMEPLAY

 

• Fixed an issue with ship power allocations decreasing unintentionally due to crew member bonuses.
• Crew bonuses for ship weapon recharge times should now be applied as intended while in targeting mode.
• Fixed an issue that could turn the player’s head to the left when sprinting in 3rd person.
• Addressed an issue that could cause artifacts to become inaccessible if the player left their location for a long time without retrieving them.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the player housing decoration to be lost when there is a state change in New Atlantis.
• Resolved an issue where Sarah could appear non-interactable if she was assigned to a ship or outpost during a conversation with Walter in the Lodge.
• Resolved an issue where the player could be affected by weather while inside.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent the player from getting 100% completion for Niira’s planet survey.
• Fixed an issue on Heinlein V-A's moon, which could cause Chlorine gas vent deposits to be extremely rare.
• Fixed an issue that could cause weather to occur on planets with no atmosphere.
• Addressed an issue where EM damage wasn't being applied as intended to robot enemies.
• Resolved a rare issue where robots might not power down after using the “Disable Robot Workforce” option in a terminal.
• Minibots should no longer appear to influence the Stealth Meter.
• Boarding encounters should now have a better difficulty distribution.
• Fixed an issue that prevented commandeering a smuggler Freestar Rambler after killing all of its crew.
• Alien Reanimation now works on Aquatic and Flying creatures.
• Resolved an issue that could sometimes prevent the player from turning invisible when using Void Form in 1st person.
• Resolved a time scaling issue that could occur if Phased Time was used before waiting/resting.
• Parallel Self clone should now have the ability to follow the player through load doors.
• Sunless Space should now be able to deal critical damage.
• Fixed an issue that could cause allied ships to become hostile when using Anti-grav field inside your ship.
• Addressed an issue where using a power on a Terromorph in the Red Devil HQ could potentially free it.
• Resolved an issue with Alien Reanimation which caused it to last longer than intended when used by another character.
• Fixed an issue with the Scavenging Skill challenge not incrementing when weapon cases were looted.
• Resolved an issue that could cause Missile Weapon Systems Rank 4 to not recharge as intended.
• Fixed an issue with Rejuvenation FX remaining active.
• Fixed an issue where the EM Weapon Systems skill challenge wasn’t tracking EM damage as intended.
• Fixed an issue where Starborn ship weapons were not being improved by ship skills.
• Fixed an issue with using the Boostpack in Zero-G Environments counting towards Weight Lifting skill challenge.
• Fixed an issue where the Wellness skill did not apply actively when leveling up.
• Fixed a rare issue where Neurostrikes could count a crowd character as a stunned enemy.
• Fixed an issue with the Neurostrikes challenge progress causing it to be more difficult than intended after the first Rank.
• Fixed a Rank 4 Concealment issue that briefly made the player undetectable.
• Contraband is now removed when rejecting a previously accepted smuggling mission.
• Addressed an issue that allowed attacking the assigned home ship to progresses ship weapon systems skills.
• Fixed an issue where Mom and Dad could participate in different conversations with each other at the same time.
• Fixed an issue that could allow unusable ammo to be placed in the world.
• Fixed an issue where the boostpack could be incorrectly hidden when using boostpack skills.
• Fixed an issue with damage scaling for critical damage after going through the Unity.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the Coe Estate to be inaccessible for Sam’s Commitment after going through the Unity.
• Water in wetlands biomes should now correctly spawn creatures for scanning.
• Fixed an issue that could occasionally cause swimming creatures to fly above water or appear on land.
• Fixed an issue where flying creatures could sometimes appear to fall slowly after being killed.
• Addressed an issue where occasionally a character could clip through the ground when knocked down.
• Fixed an issue that could cause unstable ragdolls on some mercenaries.
• Resolved an issue that could cause a technician’s body to turn invisible if a manipulated character was instructed to inspect the corpse.
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause a character to spin when exiting a seated position.
• Fixed an issue that could cause dead characters on the Red Mile to be standing upright.
• Characters should no longer share the same chair at the same time in The Rock.
• Fixed issue that could cause characters to shift out of the world after entering certain poses.
• Fixed various character head tracking issue that could make some scenes look inconsistent.
• Reduced the frequency of stun attacks from the Elder Terrormorph during Hostile Intelligence.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Terrormorphs to not properly ambush during some encounters.
• Turrets in The Mantis Lair should no longer be invisible after leaving and returning after a long period of time.
• Boarding Encounter objectives should now be cleared when fast traveling off the boarded ship via the Starmap.
• Resolved an issue that could cause crosshairs to turn red during combat when not pointing at an enemy character.
• Fixed Kodama weapon recoil inconsistency between 1st and 3rd person.
• Resolved an issue where releasing aim while turning in 3rd person could automatically cause aiming to begin again.
• Aiming through a scoped weapon while attempting to enter dialogue should no longer cause the weapon to become invisible.
• Fixed an issue that could sometimes cause initial melee attacks to fail after immediately drawing the weapon.
• Resolved an issue where the player could lose a large amount of Oxygen when using a Power Attack and blocking.
• Resolved an issue with scopes appearing too low if used in 3rd person directly after landing on a new planet.
• The Rattler should now use the correct reload animation in zero-g environments.
• Resolved an issue with the Frenzy Special Effect on the Keelhauler effecting allies.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the Autorivet to fire in a wider cone when a laser sight was added.
• Fixed an issue where the Drumbeat Burst fire attachment causing it to fire 3 shots instead of 4.
• Special Weapon Effects with a damage increase should now function with EM weapons.
• Fixed an issue with Anti-Ballistic that caused it to not reduce physical damage taken from Particle Beam Weapons.
• Fixed an issue where EM weapons dealt health damage instead when used by a companion.
• Added Special Effects to the Old Earth armor set reward.
• Addressed an issue that could soft lock the player if they interacted with a stun mine in a specific way.
• Fixed an issue where the player could avoid criminal repercussions by stowing their weapon at a very specific time.
• Addressed an issue where companions would not be dressed correctly if a stolen outfit was removed due to an arrest.
• Quest specific companions (such as Emma Wilcox or Walter Stroud) are now prevented from taking weapons from locked chests when they are out of ammo.
• Fixed crash that could occur when the player holds a corpse in front of a miner.
• Characters should no longer reaction to older bodies as if they were new corpses.
• Fixed an issue where Sam Coe could still tell Cora she could try out her joke on a dead character. Tough crowd.
• Fixed an issue where the player could talk about Adoring Fan's fandom even though he had never joined the crew.
• Addressed an issue that could cause the camera to appear detached when immediately boostpacking after entering a Temple.
• Resolved an issue where using a boostpack while entering zero-g could disable boosting.
• Ammo packs near Sergeant Yumi during Eyewitness should now provide more ammo.
• Docking at a station with a stolen ship should now set it as your home ship.
• Added reward for completing the injured guard activity at the Trade Authority Warehouse.
• Added loot to a weapon rack hidden behind a Master locked door at the Ship Disassembly Platform.
• Fixed an issue where a skill magazine could not be acquired in the abandoned farm.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Havershaw to be tucked away from his desired position in Stroud-Eklund’s Staryard.
• Removed an invisible collision that partially blocked movement through the plastic flaps at the entrance of The Clinic.
• Fixed an issue where sometimes a supply shelf would not appear correctly in the Freestar Ranger station in Hopetown.
• Fixed a texture issue that could occur when the tables in Jake's bar were shot.
• VFX and SFX will now occur when player discovers a scanner anomaly even while not directly facing it.
• Fixed an issue with all guards on The Scow sharing a similar appearance.
• Resolved an issue that could cause a quest for a legendary ship to not appear during a space encounter.
• Fixed an issue where helping a Settler by using the Medicine skill in dialogue would incorrectly consume a medpack.
• Adjusted ownership of Maurice Lyon's journal so it can be taken without "stealing" in New Homestead.
• Fixed an issue with the ramp of the Razorleaf that could cause characters pathing difficulty.
• Fixed an issue could cause enemies in combat to slide between cover spots.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Vasco to appear incorrectly in the player's ship.
• Fixed an issue that could stall character patrols if they spoke immediately before reaching a idle location.
• Followers should no longer continue their conversations if the player exits a ship while they are speaking.
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause Homesteaders to attack without provocation.
• Improved crowd fleeing behavior.
• Fixed an issue that could cause enemies to spawn on the roof areas of ships.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a character using a melee attack to get stuck in a floating state.
• Fixed an issue where Vasco may not path back to the ship through Cydonia when dismissed.
• Fixed an issue that could leave Followers in zero-g animations if the ship is exited when gravity is being disabled.
• Fixed an issue with companions jumping that could cause them to become stuck in a floating state.
• Addressed an issue that allowed players to get into a state where they could wait while standing up.
• Addressed an issue that could sometimes cause allied ships to not retaliate when being attacked by the player.
• Fixed the player sometimes being stuck with a pending grav jump.
• Fixed an issue that could cause spaceships to land slightly above the ground on various planets.
• Addressed an issue that could temporarily alter the view of the ship in 3rd person after the FOV in Photo Mode was used.
• Ship weapons should now target the nearest module on an enemy ship instead of the center of mass.
• Fixed an issue that could sometimes prevent the player from gaining repair parts after helping an allied ship during a space encounter.
• Addressed an issue that could cause Heller to briefly flicker during the boring machine countdown.
• Fixed an issue that could sometimes cause characters to double blink during dialogue.
• Improved an issue that could appear as an odd emotion transition on faces during dialogues.
• Fixed an issue where characters could reopen their eyes after being killed.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a character to say a generic greeting instead of a custom greeting.
• Various fixes for planetary bodies with erroneous orbits.
• Various stability improvements.

 

GRAPHICS

 

• Improved lighting on particles at night when using the flashlight (PC medium / High / Ultra and Xbox Series X).
• Fixed rare Depth Of Field visual issues.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the sun's lens flare to disappear when partially occluded by an object.
• Fixed an issue causing the sun's lens flare to have the wrong size when modifying the FOV.
• Fixed an issue that could occasionally display the sun's lens flare through opaque objects around the edge of the screen.
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause shadows or lighting to flicker during sunset and dawn.
• Fixed an issue in Neon Spaceport that could cause the atmosphere to be overly bright.
• Fixed occasionally flickering bloom effect that could occur when the sun started appearing behind a planet in space.
• Fixed occasional screen flickering that could occur when using medium graphics preset with vsync disabled (PC).
• Fixed an issue that could cause the player view to have a momentary blur after waiting on a chair.
• Fixed an issue that could display black squares around a planet when other planets rings were visible in the background of the Starmap.
• Fixed an issue that could occasionally make lightning bolts appear to have missing sections.
• Fixed occasionally missing lightning effect when the player was inside the ship during a storm.
• Improved the look of beards and mustaches in the distance.
• Fixed rare pixelated shadows that could occur on character outfits under certain exterior lighting conditions.
• Fixed an issue with shadows occasionally appearing inconsistently on asteroids in space.
• Fixed rare issue that could occasionally display outline on objects when seen through smoke.
• Fixed rare issue that could lead to displaying wrong colors on smoke effects in Va'ruun Embassy.
• Fixed fog abruptly appearing and disappearing in the The Lock's shuttle bay during Echoes Of The Past.
• Fixed popping smoke emitted from the crashed ship the player approaches during Back To Vectera.
• Fixed white flickering dots that could occasionally appear on wet surfaces.
• Fixed an issue that could occasionally make glass objects flicker in the distance.
• Fixed rare flickering on characters when DLSS was enabled (PC).
• Fixed flickering lines on the floor when seen through glass in Ryujin (Xbox Series S).
• Fixed rare cases of flickering with FSR 2 (PC).
• Fixed subtle flickering that could occasionally occur on the Equinox.
• Fixed occasional flickering on the Magpulse.
• Fixed flickering on the Navigator Pack.
• Fixed an issue where the player's hair could occasionally clip through the Chunks Cap in third person.
• Fixed an issue where characters hair could have holes when wearing a cap.
• Fixed an issue where the player's facial hair partially disappears when wearing the 'Fishworker Mask' while the helmet is hidden.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a parent planet's axis to instantly shift at a certain time of day when seen from the surface of its moon.
• Addressed an issue with electrical shock VFX that could happen at Argos Extractors.
• Fixed an issue that could appear with Ship trails emitted from damaged ship engines at high speed.
• Fixed missing VFX on canisters that could occur with certain weapons in the Akila City Prison.
• Fixed an issue causing exploding tanks to occasionally miss an explosion VFX outside the Kreet Research Lab.
• Various texture adjustments to fix occasional moiré, flickering and z-fighting issues.
• Various decals and geometry fixes.
• Various shadow quality improvements and bugfixes.
• Various minor performance improvements

 

OUTPOSTS

 

• Resolved an issue that could make a workbench appear to be obstructed.
• Fixed an issue with outposts where the player could see an infinite loading spinner while using the fly camera.
• Resolved an issue with displaying Survey Data on data slate display stands in Outposts.
• Fixed an issue that could cause items placed on mannequins to be displayed incorrectly.
• Fixed an issue that could cause objects placed near a connected hallway to disappear if the containing hab module was moved.
• Tweaked the snap distance for storage containers.
• Improved visible line for moving around objects for link.
• Fixed objects stacked onto auto-foundations not moving correctly if the foundation is moved.
• Resolved an issue where building near a landing zone was prevented if the beacon is placed outside of it.
• Resolved an issue with moving a Power Management Robot at an Outpost after it was built.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a wall to disappear when an Industrial Wall Light is placed and then deleted.
• Fixed an issue that could cause generators to not increase power production after building the Power Management Robot.

QUESTS (NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS WITHIN. PROCEED WITH CAUTION!)

 

• A Break at Dawn: Fixed an issue that could get the objective stuck on 'Find Hugo Fournier at Athena Tower' if persuasion failed and all dialogue options were exhausted with Hugo.
• Absolute Power: Fixed an issue where the companion would not go inside the ventilation shaft with the player in Generdyne Industries.
• All That Money Can Buy: Fixed an issue that could prevent this from starting if all of Ryujin Industries questline was previously completed.
• All That Money Can Buy: Fixed an issue that could cause the ship and its technician to disappear after getting the ship back from impound.
• Back to the Grind: Resolved an issue where trying to sit during the "Take a Seat" objective sometimes caused a control-lock.
• Back to Vectera: Addressed an issue where the player could later become control-locked on the ramp if they missed Lin’s initial greeting and assigned her inside the ship.
• Back to the Grind: If the TerraBrew Employee is killed while the player is in combat with Tomo, the quest will now properly handle the quest target.
• Back to Vectera: Fixed an issue where the player could be unable to speak to Lin & Heller and be prevented from recruiting them as Crew.
• Background Checks: Resolved an issue leaving the area of Ularu's computer could cause a confusing quest marker.
• Bare Metal: Fixed an issue at Neon Tactical where Styx still had graffiti despite the player having a dialogue option indicating otherwise.
• Bare Metal: Fixed dialogue inconsistencies with Frank when talking about Styx.
• Bone Dry: Fixed an issue where hailing the stranded ship after finishing the initial dialogue could restart the dialogue from the beginning.
• Breach of Contract: Fixed an issue where Ellie Yankton would not talk to the player if they sat in Barrett’s chair.
• Breach of Contract: Fixed various dialogue and camera inconsistencies that could occur if the player talked to Ellie before Barrett could enter the room.
• Breach of Contract: Fixed an issue where canceling the dialogue with Keala could cause the objective to update earlier than intended.
• Breach of Contract: Fixed an issue that could cause various issues with the objectives when hacking the Security terminal before talking to the community members to find Helgi.
• Breach of Contract: Fixed a rare issue where Barrett's quest did not appear in the quest tracker.
• Breach of Contract: Addressed an issue with the camera panning to Barrett during his dialogue.
• Castillo's Revenge: Fixed an issue where canceling out of dialogue did not make Mathis hostile to the player.
• Commitment with Barrett: Fixed an issue that could cause Ellie Yankton to remain in her apartment after agreeing to have her officiate the ceremony.
• Deep Cover: Addressed a possible control lock when boarding UC Vigilance after loading a previous save where the player is an enemy of UC SysDef.
• Delivering Devils: Addressed an issue with an objective not disappearing when speaking to Cambridge after already paying the debt.
• Delivering Devils: Fixed an issue that could prevent companions from following the player to Percival at the end of the mine.
• Divided Loyalties: Fixed an issue that could cause zealot ships to not appear during the encounter with Jaeda Huang.
• Echoes Of The Past: Resolved an issue where failing to pickpocket a Rook inside the Lock could cause Delgado to become inaccessible.
• Entangled: Fixed an issue that could rarely cause a control lock when Raphael greets the player.
• Eye of the Storm: Addressed a rare issue that could prevent docking with the Legacy.
• Eye of the Storm: Fixed a location where the player could get stuck on a section of wires while escaping from the UC Vigilance.
• Eye Witness: Fixed an issue that could cause members of the Fireteam to run out of ammo.
• Eye Witness: Addressed an issue that could cause some confusion with incapacitating the Thralls.
• Eye Witness: Added a message to address possible confusion about why the Lodge is inaccessible.
• Eye Witness: Resolved a possible progression issue related how Thralls were incapacitated by the player.
• Eye Witness: Addressed a rare issue that could prevent Yumi from being present at the quest target location.
• Final Thoughts: Addressed an issue that allowed the player to drop the "For Claire Maensah New Atlantis" dataslate.
• Find the Missing… : Mission Objective should now complete when the targeted Quest Character is found and healed.
• Friends Like These: Fixed a turret in the Va'ruun embassy that was always hostile and could not be turned off or turned friendly.
• Friends Like These: The door inside the Va'ruun Embassy will now be correctly opened if the player left the Embassy and returned later.
• Friends Like These: The door inside the Freestar Embassy will now be correctly opened if the player left the Embassy and returned later.
• Fueling Greatness: Purchasing any velocity color from Madame Sauvage should now update the objective.
• Grunt Work: Addressed an issue that could prevent Hadrian from moving to the microscope if she was downed before the sample was collected.
• Grunt Work: Fixed an issue that could cause the Terrormorph to idle instead of stalking the player.
• Grunt Work: Fixed an issue where the objective would repeat to Restore Power to Kill lanes.
• Grunt Work: Removed an empty dialogue response that could occur after the player knows about Tau Ceti II.
• Guilty Parties: Fixed an issue that could occur with getting into the Hideout if the player didn’t talk to Dalton.
• Hard Luck: Clover MacKenna will be downed instead of killed before the quest is completed.
• Hostile Intelligence: Resolved an issue where Hadrian may not follow the player out of the Steam Tunnels.
• Hostile Intelligence: Fixed an issue that could cause Toliman II guard ships to repeat the scene after the player had already checked in with Hatoum.
• In Memoriam: Resolved a rare issue with dialogue near the waterfall that could prevent romance with Sarah Morgan.
• In Memoriam: Addressed an issue that could prevent progression if the player left Sarah while she was at the Colony War Memorial.
• Incoming Storm: Fixed an issue that would grant the player double the intended reward.
• Juno's Gambit: Added a marker back to Juno if the player chooses to leave before completing the quest.
• Keeping the Peace: Fixed an issue where attempting to speak to Yumi while ‘Eye Witness' was active wouldn’t work as intended.
• Leader of the Pack: Resolved an issue that could occur if Davis died just before the Alpha Ashta.
• Legacy's End: Crimson Fleet bounty is now removed if the player sides with UC SysDef since the Crimson Fleet will always be hostile.
• Legacy's End: The security door inside the Key will now be opened if the player left the station and returned later.
• Legacy's End: Fixed dialogue inconsistencies with Commander Ikande and Lt. Toft.
• Legacy's End: Addressed a rare issue that could cause Naeva to remain in the elevator longer than intended.
• Legacy's End: Credit cost now appears correctly in dialogue with Lt. Toft after completing the quest.
• Legacy's End: Fixed an issue with Bog’s dialogue that could allow it to occur before intended.
• Lost and Found: Made it easier for the player to find Dirk during the 'Speak To Dirk' activity.
• Mantis Shakedown: Addressed an exploit that allowed access to more credits than intended.
• Matters of the Hart: Addressed an issue that could occur if progressing 'Missed Beyond Measure' simultaneously.
• Matters of the Hart: Fixed an issue which allowed Neon Security to interrupt Cora's lockpicking scene.
• Matters of the Hart: Fixed an issue that could cause the player to arrive in the middle of the Victor compound.
• Miner Inconvenience: Fixed an issue that could make finding the creatures more difficult than intended.
• Missed Beyond Measure: Addressed a few issues that impacted other overlapping quests.
• Missed Connections: Fixed an inconsistency with progressing the quest in a different order than anticipated.
• New Driver: Fixed an issue where markers would occasionally not appear inside the ship.
• One Giant Leap: Addressed an issue that could appear to prevent grav jumping when artifacts are split between the ship and an outpost.
• One Giant Leap: Fixed an issue where companions still wanted to talk about less relevant information after Revelation is completed.
• One Giant Leap: Addressed an issue that could cause a control lock when attempting to jump to the Unity while in Targeting mode.
• One Small Step: Fixed an issue that could cause an odd dialogue camera when Walter speaks.
• Operation Starseed: Fixed an issue where a door would be inaccessible if a crime was committed at Crucible and the player returned much later.
• Operation Starseed: The door to the restricted wing should now be correctly opened if the player leaves the facility and returns later.
• Operation Starseed: Resolved a rare issue where the door leading to Franklin Roosevelt was inaccessible on Charybdis III.
• Operation Starseed: Fixed an issue where the player could be unable to talk to Genghis Khan after the civil war on Charybdis III.
• Power From Beyond: Fixed an issue that could cause the Temple to not to appear where intended.
• Power from Beyond: It should now be easier to talk to Vladimir.
• Prank Caller: Fixed an issue where the joke ship did not grav jump away after finishing the dialogue.
• Red Tape Reclamation: Addressed an issue that could cause Hank to be away from his desired position.
• Red Tape Runaround: Fixed an issue with the pirate leader unintentionally changing poses in dialogue.
• Research Outpost: Addressed an inconsistency that could occur when boarding Dr. Sohla’s ship.
• Research Outpost: Added the ability to transfer items to Dr. Sohla from the ship cargo.
• Party Cruise: Addressed some inconsistencies that could occur depending docking and boarding interactions.
• Revelation: Fixed a rare issue that could cause the quest to not successfully complete.
• Revelation: Fixed an issue where a guidance path would not appear in the Hand Scanner.
• Revelation: Resolved an issue where "Activities" would be automatically set to Active after completing Unearthed.
• Revelation: Fixed a rare issue where the Hunter/Emissary could appear in an unreachable section of the Astral Lounge.
• Robot Survey Team: Addressed an issue that could lead to inconsistent robot behavior.
• Rook Meets King: Fixed a rare issue that could cause Naeva to stall during the tour of The Key.
• Rook Meets King: Fixed an issue where the player could unintentionally get better gear from Dmitri Moldavski.
• Rook Meets King: The Captain can no longer be Instigated preventing a few inconsistencies.
• Rook Meets King: Addressed an issue that could prevent travel after dealing with the Ragana in a specific way.
• Rook Meets King: Addressed an issue with accepting the Ragana’s hail if the system was left and returned to later.
• Rook Meets King: Addressed an issue with accepting the Astraea’s hail if the system was left and returned to later.
• Rook Meets King: Fix a dialogue inconsistency that could occur when loading a save onboard the Ragana.
• Sabotage: Fixed an exploit that allowed the player could avoid arrest after stealing.
• Sabotage: Addressed an issue that could occur if the player was arrested after using manipulation on Demarcus at Ryujin HQ.
• Sabotage: Resolved an issue that could occur if combat was started before trying to sit on the Neurosurgery Operating Table.
• Sabotage: Fixed an issue that could make David Barron difficult to find.
• Sensible Ship: The "Collect your new ship" objective should now clear if the player destroys the ship first.
• Supply Missions: Fixed a rare issue that could list unobtainable items as the target.
• Supra et Ultra: The Quest Marker should now point to intended elevator floors.
• Supra Et Ultra: Addressed a rare issue that could interrupt Tuala from reaching his mark under the stars.
• Supra Et Ultra: Fixed an issue with power distribution changing while using targeting mode during the simulation.
• Supra et Ultra: Fixed a rare issue that could cause John Tuala to not appear at his intended location.
• Surgical Strike: Ben Armistead should now more quickly head toward Ari Miller.
• Surgical Strike: Fixed an issue that allowed players to become trapped under the mine elevator in the Bonner Eklund Excavation Site.
• Survey Says: Fixed an issue that prevented the objective from clearing if the ship was destroyed.
• The Audition: Addressed an issue with later passing a door if the area was left while Andrea escorted the player.
• The Best There Is: Resolved an issue that allowed fast travel after the Jade Swan docked.
• The Best There Is: Fixed an issue that could occur if Jasmine was downed during the dialogue with Naeva.
• The Best There Is: Added the ability to progress the quest if any ship docked at the Key.
• The Devils You Know: The door to the cockpit of The Warlock should now be open if the ship is left and returned to later.
• The Empty Nest: Addressed a rare issue where Sam Coe would sometimes not appear at the Akila Spaceport.
• The Old Neighborhood: Addressed a rare issue that could cause Sarah Morgan not to speak when traveling to Venus.
• The Unusual Outpost: Fixed incorrect quest log text.
• Unearthed: Addressed an issue that could cause the door leading to the Artifact to remain locked if the area is left.
• Runaway: Should now be visible on the Misc Mission Tab when active.
• War Relics: Fixed an inconsistency that can occur by trying to find Kaiser before his position is known.
• War Relics: Addressed a issue with the quest starting if Demeter was dead.
• Worlds Apart: The door to the Hephaestus Mine H-363 location will now be correctly accessible if the player left the planet and returned later.
• Fixed various lore issues occurring during the dialogue with Amanda Oxendine.

 

SAVE AND LOAD

 

• Resolved an issue that could cause bonus skins to appear to be removed from stored items after loading a save.
• Fixed an issue where loading a save prior to repairing Nia Kalu's ship could prevent the player from activating the switches.
• Addressed a rare issue that could cause locations to be positioned incorrectly after loading a save.
• Fixed an rare issue that could cause the player to appear to be in a falling state, unable to interact with characters or rotate the camera as intended.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a crash or create a corrupted save file when attempting to sync with 0 local storage available (Steam).
• Fixed an issue that caused the flashlight to stay on when reloading a save with no helmet equipped.
• Resolved an issue that could cause characters to try to path through ships after loading a save.
• Resolved an issue where loading a save could cause characters to shift in the furniture they were using.
• Fixed an issue where scars and tattoos could appear removed when loading a save made in the Unity.
• Various fixes for issues when loading saves.
• SHIPS
• Fixed a rare issue where New Atlantis would appear to follow the player ship.
• Fixed a rare issue where the player could end up in a bad state if task swapping while fast traveling in space (PC).
• Fixed an issue that could cause furniture to be doubled.
• Fixed floating items found aboard some ships.
• Fixed an issue that could result in missing items in ship after a module modification.
• Addressed clutter items blocking pathways and ladders in ships.

 

TEXT AND LOCALIZATION

 

• Special descriptors in weapon names now appear properly when playing in localized languages.
• Updated ship persuasion minigame text for localized languages.
• Fixed various typos and translation errors.
• Fixed various text display issues.

 

UI

 

• Added ability to invert the X-axis on a controller in the Settings menu.
• Holding RB or Alt on the Starmap will now show the names of all star systems.
• Fixed an issue that could rarely cause the wrong ship to appear on a landing pad after editing ships.
• When using a keyboard, the player can now control their ship’s power allocation when pressing the Left Alt key and keys 2, 4, 6, and 8 on the number pad (PC).
• Addressed some inconsistencies with Character Creation sliders where sometimes switching back and forth would not produce expected results.
• Fixed an issue where body/face apparel would not be hidden when visiting Enhance.
• Fixed an issue where the player's skin tone could appear to change when rapidly scrolling through Apparel.
• Fixed an issue where pressing certain buttons at the same time could cause the mission objective to remain on screen while the Scanner is closed.
• Fixed an issue where the calibration image could disappear while adjusting Brightness in Display Settings.
• Resolved an issue that caused the Incoming Hail prompt to disappear when Photo Mode was entered.
• Fixed Enable VRS setting not resetting correctly when all Display settings were reset to default.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent landing after binding “Activate” to “X” while using a controller (PC).
• Fixed an issue that could cause the player to flicker when equipping apparel in the Inventory menu.
• Fixed special characters from not appearing in Precognition responses in English.
• Fixed an issue where pressing certain buttons while using a controller could prevent using the Ship Builder (PC).
• Fuel and distance should now calculate as intended for long grav jumps.
• Particle Beam weapon kills should now increment Laser Kills in Combat Stats.
• Fixed an issue where the compass would not properly indicate the player is in combat.
• Ship Builder Upgrade Mode now highlights both positive and negative stat changes.
• Fixed an issue with the item card sometimes not appearing after inspecting an item.
• Fixed an issue that caused tracked resources to not appear correctly on unvisited planets in the same solar system.
• Fixed text display issues with various scopes.
• Fixed an issue that could make the player character disappear when Show Character was switched to “On” in Photomode.
• Adjusted the name of The London Landmark on the planet map.
• Fixed various icon inconsistencies on the planet map for Landmark locations.
• Various fixes for Large Menu Fonts.

With another major patch out of the way, going by Bethesda's previously announced schedule, the next Starfield update should land in about six weeks. Don't forget that the game's first expansion, Shattered Space, is slated to land sometime this year too.

Source

Mustafa Suleyman will work as the EVP and CEO of Microsoft AI and he will report directly to Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO. Karen Simonyan, another co-founder of Inflection, is joining the team as Chief Scientist, reporting to Mustafa. According to a post on the official Microsoft website, Mustafa and Karen "have designed, led, launched, and co-authored many of the most important contributions in advancing AI over the last five years."

As part of the transition, Mikhail Parakhin and his entire team, which includes Microsoft Edge, Copilot, and Bing, will move to the new division along with Misha Bilenko and the GenAI team. Both will report directly to Mustafa Suleyman.

Kevin Scott will remain CTO and EVP of AI, "responsible for all-up AI strategy." Also, Rajesh Jha is still EVP of Experience and Devices and will continue building Copilot for Microsoft 365 in partnership with Mustafa Suleyman.

Curiously, there is not a single word about the Windows division, which recently received a new head following Panos Panay's departure from Microsoft. Windows is scheduled to get a big AI boost this year, so it will be interesting to see its relation to the new Microsoft AI division. Although the blog post has not mentioned Windows 11, it is obvious that the company will only increase its investments in AI-powered experiences, and that will affect all of its consumer and commercial products.

Satya Nadella closed the announcement with the following:

We have a real shot to build technology that was once thought impossible and that lives up to our mission to ensure the benefits of AI reach every person and organization on the planet, safely and responsibly. I’m looking forward to doing so with you.

You can read Satya's full message here.

Source

Source

Available on Game Pass from day one: Start your interstellar farm in this peaceful open-world farming adventure! Build your sustainable exo-farm, grow alien crops, customize your mech and explore a new world full of secrets with up to three friends!

MLB The Show 24 (Cloud and Console)

Available on Game Pass from day one: Swing your baseball bat, experience game-changing moments, become a legend and realize your baseball dreams in MLB The Show 24.

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2024/03/19/xbox-game-pass-new-march-2024-wave-2/

Nvidia’s must-have H100 AI chip made it a multitrillion-dollar company, one that may be worth more than Alphabet and Amazon, and competitors have been fighting to catch up. But perhaps Nvidia is about to extend its lead — with the new Blackwell B200 GPU and GB200 “superchip.”

 

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang holds up his new GPU on the left, next to an H100 on the right, from the GTC livestream.

Image: Nvidia

 

Nvidia says the new B200 GPU offers up to 20 petaflops of FP4 horsepower from its 208 billion transistors. Also, it says, a GB200 that combines two of those GPUs with a single Grace CPU can offer 30 times the performance for LLM inference workloads while also potentially being substantially more efficient. It “reduces cost and energy consumption by up to 25x” over an H100, says Nvidia.

 

Training a 1.8 trillion parameter model would have previously taken 8,000 Hopper GPUs and 15 megawatts of power, Nvidia claims. Today, Nvidia’s CEO says 2,000 Blackwell GPUs can do it while consuming just four megawatts.

 

On a GPT-3 LLM benchmark with 175 billion parameters, Nvidia says the GB200 has a somewhat more modest seven times the performance of an H100, and Nvidia says it offers four times the training speed.

 

Here’s what one GB200 looks like. Two GPUs, one CPU, one board.

Image: Nvidia

 

Nvidia told journalists one of the key improvements is a second-gen transformer engine that doubles the compute, bandwidth, and model size by using four bits for each neuron instead of eight (thus, the 20 petaflops of FP4 I mentioned earlier). A second key difference only comes when you link up huge numbers of these GPUs: a next-gen NVLink switch that lets 576 GPUs talk to each other, with 1.8 terabytes per second of bidirectional bandwidth.

 

That required Nvidia to build an entire new network switch chip, one with 50 billion transistors and some of its own onboard compute: 3.6 teraflops of FP8, says Nvidia.

 

Nvidia says it’s adding both FP4 and FP6 with Blackwell.

Image: Nvidia

 

Previously, Nvidia says, a cluster of just 16 GPUs would spend 60 percent of their time communicating with one another and only 40 percent actually computing.

 

Nvidia is counting on companies to buy large quantities of these GPUs, of course, and is packaging them in larger designs, like the GB200 NVL72, which plugs 36 CPUs and 72 GPUs into a single liquid-cooled rack for a total of 720 petaflops of AI training performance or 1,440 petaflops (aka 1.4 exaflops) of inference. It has nearly two miles of cables inside, with 5,000 individual cables.

 

The GB200 NVL72.

Image: Nvidia

 

Each tray in the rack contains either two GB200 chips or two NVLink switches, with 18 of the former and nine of the latter per rack. In total, Nvidia says one of these racks can support a 27-trillion parameter model. GPT-4 is rumored to be around a 1.7-trillion parameter model.

 

The company says Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle are all already planning to offer the NVL72 racks in their cloud service offerings, though it’s not clear how many they’re buying.

 

And of course, Nvidia is happy to offer companies the rest of the solution, too. Here’s the DGX Superpod for DGX GB200, which combines eight systems in one for a total of 288 CPUs, 576 GPUs, 240TB of memory, and 11.5 exaflops of FP4 computing.

 

Image: Nvidia

 

Nvidia says its systems can scale to tens of thousands of the GB200 superchips, connected together with 800Gbps networking with its new Quantum-X800 InfiniBand (for up to 144 connections) or Spectrum-X800 ethernet (for up to 64 connections).

 

We don’t expect to hear anything about new gaming GPUs today, as this news is coming out of Nvidia’s GPU Technology Conference, which is usually almost entirely focused on GPU computing and AI, not gaming. But the Blackwell GPU architecture will likely also power a future RTX 50-series lineup of desktop graphics cards.

 

Source

The new tool is labeled as "Altered content" within the Creator Studio. It simply asks YouTube video makers to say "Yes" or 'No" if their video has one or more of the following bullet points:

• Makes a real person appear to say or do something they didn't say or do
• Alters footage of a real event or place
• Generates a realistic-looking scene that didn't actually occur

The blog post states that YouTube creators don't have to label content made by generative AI tools that do not look realistic. One example was "someone riding a unicorn through a fantastical world." The same applies to the use of AI tools that simply make color or lighting changes to videos, along with effects like background blur and beauty video filters.

These new AI-based description labels will appear first on YouTube's phone apps, and will later expand to the desktop and TV apps. YouTube plans to use "enforcement measures" if a YouTube creator makes a habit of not correctly labeling their realistic AI videos but does not state what they will be like (video removal, demonetization, or suspending an entire account). YouTube also reserves the right to put that label on videos themselves if they have "the potential to confuse or mislead people."

Google is also working on a process for YouTube views to send anonymous alerts to YouTube if a video is using realistic-looking AI-made content.

Source

However, things might be changing for the better for Amazon Luna fans. In a blog post today, the DRM-free PC digital game store GoG.com announced that its library of games will soon be accessible via Amazon Luna on multiple devices.

The blog post stated:

On Luna you’ll be able to play every game that you already own on GOG (and that is also available on Luna). There’s absolutely no requirement to purchase anything twice – you bought it once on our platform so it’s always yours, as always.

People can also purchase GoG.com games via Luna, and they will then also become available on their GOG Galaxy PC client as well for offline play. Features like cloud saves and achievements will also be available via Luna for any GoG.com-purchased game

Some GoG.com games are already available to play on the Nvidia GeForce NOW cloud gaming service. However, this announcement for support for Amazon Luna sounds like a much bigger expansion into cloud gaming for GoG.com. The blog post did not offer any info on when this new support for Luna will begin.

Amazon Luna is available for residents in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. Luna apps are available on Amazon Fire TV-based smart televisions, along with some Samsung and LG smart TVs. It is also available for Amazon Fire tables, and it can be accessed via web browsers for PC, Mac, iOS, Android, and Chromebook devices. While some games on the service are available to play for free, an Amazon Plus subscription costs $9.99 a month so you can play more titles.

Source

Another prediction that Canalys has made is that in 2028, there could be 205 million AI-capable PCs shipped. This would represent a “staggering” compound annual growth rate of 44% between 2024 and 2028.

When talking about AI-capable PCs, Canalys is referring to computers with dedicated AI accelerators like Neural Processing Units (NPUs), which are capable of performing AI workloads on-device instead of relying on the cloud.

Providing comment, Ishan Dutt, Principal Analyst at Canalys, said:

“The wider availability of AI-accelerating silicon in personal computing will be transformative, leading to over 150 million AI-capable PCs shipping through to the end of 2025. PCs with dedicated on-device AI capabilities will enable new and improved user experiences, driving productivity gains and personalizing devices at scale while offering better power efficiency, stronger security and reduced costs associated with running AI workloads. This emerging PC category opens new frontiers for both software developers and hardware vendors to innovate and deliver compelling use cases to customers across consumer, commercial and education scenarios.”

These AI-capable PCs are expected to include a 10-15% price premium. By the end of 2025, more than half of PCs priced at $800 or more will ship with these AI features. This share will increase to more than 80% by 2028.

It’s still early days for on-board AI functionality but we can imagine that these chips could be leveraged to summarize documents, recognize text on screenshots, help generate images, and more. Having AI capabilities could be something that customers look out for next to other considerations such as RAM and disk space.

Source: Canalys

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