The new Operation mission is titled Obelisk. It will be sending squads to Demerium, with the scenario taking place right alongside the final events in the main campaign. At the same time, players will encounter the new Tzaangor Enlightened enemy across all Operation missions from now on, a "disk-flying, melee/ranged-hybrid unit" that can get annoying to Space Marines in groups.

Moving towards gameplay, Saber has reworked the parry and guard system to break the monotonous Parry -> Gun Strike combo and offer more options. Following the patch, players will see much higher melee damage across all weapons. Moreover, perfect blocks will build up new "Adrenaline Surge stacks" that can be used when attacking enemies, which do massive area damage and stagger everything nearby while also providing armor segments.

The studio is also adding a new "Extermination Bonus" for killing the most spawned enemies in each Operation level, incentivizing players to meet all encounters without skipping. Killing over 60% of enemies grants 110% XP, while going above 85% grants 120% XP over simply just completing the level.

On the performance side, PC players will now find AMD FSR 3 and DLSS 3 Frame Generation available in-game for smoother gameplay. PlayStation 5 Pro support has also landed, bumping up the resolution in some scenarios to 4K with the use of PSSR but still keeping the 30FPS frame rate cap.

These quality-of-life changes have landed for the title, too:

• Dodge invulnerability logic is now client sided, meaning that Dodges will be responsive and more accurate with higher ping.
• Players are now invulnerable to new instances of damage while in Knockback animation.
• Added 10 frames of invulnerability at the start of Jump Pack launch animation (Campaign and Operations only).
• Dodge and Parry sound notification clarity has been greatly improved.
• Heavy’s Barrier can be activated in more player states (e.g., during stagger animation).
• Player controls are slightly more responsive after using Vanguard’s Grapnel Launcher.
• Added spawn protection in PvP.
• Added Neo-Volkite Pistol in PvP.

The complete patch notes can be found on the Patch 5.0 launch blog post here. The update is now available across PC and consoles.

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Announced earlier today via social channels, CD Projekt's Cyberpunk franchise accounts teased that a stream is happening on December 10 with looks at brand-new features landing as a part of Update 2.2.

"Join us for a new episode of #REDstreams, where we'll dive deep into the new features Coming Soon for Cyberpunk 2077 in Update 2.2," says the surprise post. "See you tomorrow at 5 PM CET on our Twitch and, for the first time ever, simultaneously on our YouTube channel. Get ready, chooms! It's gonna be 🔥"

The studio community director Marcin Momot later clarified that this update won't include PlayStation 5 Pro support nor New Game+:

The studio recently revealed that Cyberpunk 2077 has crossed the 30 million copies sold mark since its launch in 2024. Its one and only spy-thriller expansion, Phantom Liberty, has gone on to sell eight million copies in just over a year. A Mac version of the game is incoming in 2025.

It was only two weeks ago that CD Projekt announced that its upcoming next-gen The Witcher trilogy (Polaris) currently has 400 staff attached to its development, moving the project into full production mode. Meanwhile, a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel has 64 developers, Molasses Flood-developed The Witcher spin-off has 42 staff, and 18 staff are working on a mysterious new IP for the company.

"I’m proud to confirm that several weeks ago the Polaris team wrapped up pre-production and moved on to full-scale production – the most intensive phase of development," CD Projekt RED joint CEO Michał Nowakowski said then. "We are very pleased with our progress on this project, and I wish to thank the team for its dedication."

To find out what the studio has in store for fans, make sure to tune into the Twitch or YouTube channels of CD Projekt RED at 5pm CET.

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Borderlands 4's existence was first revealed by 2K and Gearbox Software in August of this year during Gamescom Opening Night Live. The first teaser trailer only had a cryptic scene of what's happening in the alien looter shooter universe, but The Game Awards reveal should have a lot more to offer.

"Prepare yourselves," hyped up the official Borderlands profile on social media channels earlier today "We’re about to crank things up to the next fucking level at The Game Awards. Who's ready to get their first look at the most ambitious Borderlands yet?!"

Moreover, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford pitched in with a much more substantial teaser of his own, confirming that gameplay will indeed be shown off:

Compared to that, Mafia: The Old Country's teaser is much tamer. Its social media channels simply invited fans to watch The Game Awards for first-look at the prequel entry.

The game's reveal also arrived during Gamescom Opening Night Live showcase in August. It's in development at the Mafia 3 and the original Mafia's remake studio Hanger 13. The game is slated to take players into 1900s Sicily to offer a look into the "origins of organized crime with a gritty mob story."

Both Borderlands 4 and Mafia: The Old Country currently have broad 2025 launch windows attached to them, but The Game Awards may reveal a more tighter time slot for their release, probably far away as possible from 2K's biggest launch of 2025: Grand Theft Auto VI.

The Game Awards 2024 is slated to go live on Thursday, December 12, 2024, from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

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Forza Motorsport Update 15 brings Bathurst back to the series, allowing gamers to race on this public road-made track with big elevation changes, off-camber corners, and narrow surfaces. In addition to Bathurst, developers added the Nordschleife and Nürburgring – Full Circuit to featured multiplayer, plus rolling start to several series like Forza GT2, GT3, Early LMP, P1, and more.

During the Australia Tour month, Forza Motorsport will offer you to drive Australia-made V8 supercars (2017 Ford #17 Shell V-Power Racing Team Falcon FG X and 2017 Holden #22 Walkinshaw Performance VF Commodore), traditional saloons (1991 Holden HSV Commodore Group A SV), classic Australian cars like the 1973 Ford XB Falcon GT, and Super UTES, like the 2014 HSV Limited Edition GEN-F GTS Maloo or 2014 Ford FPV Limited Edition Pursuit Ute.

Completing all four series in the Australian Tour in Carrer or 10 AUS Series races in multiplayer will grant you the 2013 Holden #10 Xbox Racing Team Commodore VF.

Turn 10 Studios also made some changes to Forza Race Regulations to reduce false-positive penalty assignments. It now considers tire wear when calculating off-track penalties and no longer disqualifies players for going off-track before or after the start/finish line.

If you have a graphics card with hardware-accelerated ray-tracing capabilities, you can now enable ray-traced global illumination in Forza Motorsport for more realistic indirect lighting and occlusion and overall better visuals. You can learn more about RTGI in Forza Motorsport here.

The update also includes reworked sound for the following cars:

• 1991 BMW M3

• 1994 Ferrari F355 Berlinetta

• 2013 Ferrari La Ferrari

• 2015 Ferrari F12 TDF

• 2017 Ferrari 812 Superfast

• 2015 McLaren P1 GTR

   

Here are some of the significant fixes implemented in Update 15:

• Transitional black loading screens when switching camera types and cars on focus in both Spectate and Replay have been replaced by quick fades wherever possible, closer to the blink of an eye. Loading screens will only appear when changing streaming zones, such as jumping from one end of a long track to another. For PC players, this experience may vary based on system specs.
• We have adjusted the impact of recent races on your Safety Rating to reduce severe rating fluctuations and to more accurately reflect your overall race history.
• We have also increased the number of races used to calculate your Safety Rating. Previously, we increased the number of races from 10 to 20 and saw positive results. In this update, this number is further increasing from 20 to 50.
• Updated Forza GT Division cars in Showroom to reflect their Divisions in Featured Multiplayer (Forza GT2, Forza GT3, Forza GT4, Forza AUS, and Forza T/A).
• Fixed an issue where AI drivers were unaffected by a wet track during events with variable weather conditions.
• Updated Drivatar AI to reduce erratic/unrealistic braking behaviors around players.

You can read the complete changelog here.

Forza Motorsport Update 15 is the last one in 2024. Update 16 will arrive in January 2025 as a "celebration of all things BMW" with new cars and events.

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On Monday, Reddit announced it would test an AI-powered search feature called "Reddit Answers" that uses an AI model to create summaries from existing Reddit posts to respond to user questions, reports Reuters.

The feature generates responses by searching through Reddit's vast collection of community discussions and comments. When users ask questions, Reddit Answers provides summaries of relevant conversations and includes links to related communities and posts.

The move potentially puts Reddit in competition with traditional search engines like Google and newer AI search tools like those from OpenAI and Perplexity. But while other companies pull information from across the Internet, Reddit Answers focuses only on content within Reddit's platform.

Reddit Answers is currently in early access. Reddit will limit the initial Reddit Answers rollout to English-speaking users in the US before expanding to other languages and regions.

Reddit’s AI twists and turns

Reddit's history with generative AI has been full of twists and turns thus far. In April 2023, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman announced the company would begin charging large companies to access its API for AI training purposes, noting that the platform's 18 years of human-generated content held substantial value.

The company then went on to strike deals with major tech firms, including a $60 million agreement with Google in February 2024 and a partnership with OpenAI in May 2024 that integrated Reddit content into ChatGPT.

But Reddit users haven't been entirely happy with the deals. In October 2024, London-based Redditors began posting false restaurant recommendations to manipulate search results and keep tourists away from their favorite spots. This coordinated effort to feed incorrect information into AI systems demonstrated how user communities might intentionally "poison" AI training data over time.

The potential for trouble

While it's tempting to lean heavily into generative AI technology while it is currently trendy, the move could also represent a challenge for the company. For example, Reddit's AI-powered summaries could potentially draw from inaccurate information featured on the site and provide incorrect answers, or it may draw inaccurate conclusions from correct information.

We will keep an eye on Reddit's new AI-powered search tool to see if it resists the type of confabulation that we've seen with Google's AI Overview, an AI summary bot that has been a critical failure so far.

Advance Publications, which owns Ars Technica parent Condé Nast, is the largest shareholder of Reddit.

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With 105 qubits, Willow has achieved best-in-class performance in both quantum error correction and random circuit sampling. Google claims that its new breakthrough in Willow can reduce errors exponentially as it scales up using more qubits.

This new Willow chip was fabricated in Google's new state-of-the-art fabrication facility in Santa Barbara, built from the ground up for building quantum chips. Google optimized several aspects, including chip architecture, fabrication, gate development, calibration, and more, to achieve improved performance.

Google highlighted that Willow solved a standard benchmark test in less than 5 minutes. A leading current-generation supercomputer would require over 10^25 years to solve the same test. A quantum computer will be beneficial in several practical applications in areas like drug discovery, fusion energy, and others. To help achieve this, Google mentioned that it is optimistic that the Willow generation of chips can bring those applications to reality.

Here's how Google described its breakthrough achievement in Quantum Computing:

Today in Nature, we published results showing that the more qubits we use in Willow, the more we reduce errors, and the more quantum the system becomes. We tested ever-larger arrays of physical qubits, scaling up from a grid of 3x3 encoded qubits, to a grid of 5x5, to a grid of 7x7 — and each time, using our latest advances in quantum error correction, we were able to cut the error rate in half. In other words, we achieved an exponential reduction in the error rate.

 

This historic accomplishment is known in the field as “below threshold” — being able to drive errors down while scaling up the number of qubits. You must demonstrate being below threshold to show real progress on error correction, and this has been an outstanding challenge since quantum error correction was introduced by Peter Shor in 1995.

Willow's breakthrough performance brings us closer to realizing the full potential of quantum computing. Recently, Microsoft announced a new partnership through which it is trying to create the most powerful quantum machine ever. You can read more about it here.

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The tool includes a big box where users will type in their questions. Within a few seconds, users will be presented with relevant answers scraped from Reddit. Each answer is linked to its original Reddit post, with an arrow icon at the end, that opens the source in a sidebar when clicked.

With the Reddit Answers tool, users can ask questions in plain language and get summaries of relevant conversations and details available across the vast Reddit's extensive community-driven ecosystem. The responses will also include links to relevant posts and communities on Reddit. If you are interested in learning more and getting notified about when the feature is available in your region, you can head over here.

The answers that are offered come straight from real Redditors, giving users the option to "easily read relevant snippets and answers inline from real Redditors, jump into the full conversations, and go deeper in their search with their own or suggested follow-up questions." Reddit Answers will be initially available to a limited number of users in the US and will support only English. The company plans to expand the rollout and add support for more languages in the future.

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Raspberry Pi has made three big product announcements today, they are the Raspberry Pi 500, Raspberry Pi 500 Desktop Kit, and the Raspberry Pi Monitor. They cost from $90, $120, and $100, respectively. There are also price cuts for the Raspberry Pi 400 and related Desktop Kit to $60 and $80 respectively.

The Raspberry Pi 500 and Desktop Kit aim to make the Raspberry Pi ecosystem more accessible to more people. It's fairly easy to unbox and start using. With the new monitor, it is even easier to get started as you don't have to find a display to plug your new computer into.

Here are the full specs of the Raspberry Pi 500 which packs a Raspberry Pi computer into a high-quality keyboard for a compact desktop experience:

• 2.4GHz quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 CPU, with cryptography extensions, 512KB per-core L2 caches and a 2MB shared L3 cache
• 8GB LPDDR4X-4267 SDRAM
• Dual-band (2.4GHz and 5.0GHz) IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi®
• 32GB Class A2 microSD included
• Bluetooth 5.0, BLE
• Gigabit Ethernet
• 2 × USB 3.0 port and 1 × USB 2.0 port
• Horizontal 40-pin GPIO header
• 2 × micro HDMI® port (supports up to 4Kp60)
• H.265 (4Kp60 decode)
• OpenGL ES 3.0 graphics
• SD card support: microSD card slot for operating system and data storage
• Keyboard: 78-, 79- or 83-key compact keyboard (depending on regional variant)
• Power: 5V DC via USB connector

The full specs for the monitor are as follows:

• 15.6-inch Full HD 1080p display
• IPS LCD with anti-glare coating
• 16.2M colour depth
• 250 nits brightness (typical)
• Standard HDMI® port (1.4 compliant)
• 3.5mm stereo headphone jack
• USB-C (power in)
• 2 × 1.2W integrated speakers
• Support for 44.1kHz, 48kHz, and 96kHz sample rates
• Integrated angle-adjustable stand
• Built-in audio via two front-facing speakers
• Audio out via 3.5mm jack
• Full-size HDMI input
• VESA and screw mounting options
• Volume and brightness control buttons
• USB-C power cable
• 1.5A at 5V
• Can be powered directly from a Raspberry Pi USB port (max 60% brightness, 50% volume) or by a separate power supply (max 100% brightness, 100% volume)

You can find out more information about the Raspberry Pi 500, Desktop Kit, and Raspberry Pi Monitor on the Raspberry Pi website.

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"In just 72 hours, we’ve reached an incredible milestone of 10 million players worldwide," the studio announced via social media earlier today. "We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you. Let’s ignite the battle together!"

The huge player count has been achieved across PC and consoles, though the developer has not given any details on the player split between the platforms. Outside of some specific regional server issues, login and multiplayer servers have been relatively stable for the launch too.

The title launched with 33 playable heroes from the Marvel universe, split into three different categories, Vanguard, Duelist, and Strategist, to offer a wide variety of combos.

Moreover, the roster is set to increase with upcoming updates, with iconic teams like X-Men and Fantastic Four getting more attention. Dataminers have found files for heroes and villains such as Blade, Ultron, Emma Frost, Jean Grey, Mr. Fantastic, Captain Marvel and others so far. The game's first season is set to land in January 2025, kicking off a three-month major update cycle.

Marvel Rivals is currently available across PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 as a free-to-play experience.

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The update enables Path Tracing in the game, the hugely performance heavy rendering technique that MachineGames calls Full Ray Tracing mode. Path Tracing has only been seen a few games so far, namely Cyberpunk 2077 and Alan Wake 2. Despite the intense requirements, the tech tends to offer a massive leap in visual quality for those who can afford it.

This is also what the game's system requirements had mentioned in a separate, eye-watering section, wanting at least a GeForce RTX 4070 12GB for 1080p Path Traced gameplay with DLSS enabled.

"A minimum of 12GB VRAM is required to make use of this feature," writes MachineGames. "Please note that we’re also working to support AMD FSR in a future game update."

Below are the full patch notes for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Update 1, which also includes a huge number of bug fixes. Keep in mind there are some story spoilers in the Missions and Quests section:

General

• Fix for a rare crash that could occur while saving the game.
• Fix for an issue where you could temporarily lose Pre-Order/Deluxe outfit entitlements.
• Fix to ensure your photographs appear more quickly when inspecting them from the journal.

Gameplay

• Fix for a broken animation that could occur if you equip the rebreather immediately upon jumping into water.
• Fix for a situation where you may not be able to interact with objects temporarily if you tried to push an enemy with your revolver while stamina is exhausted.
• Fix for an issue that could prevent you from being able to block punches while looking at a nearby pickup object.
• Fix for issue where you may not be able to change your disguise after leaving the Sukhothai village via a fast-travel signpost.
• Fix for several places where the whip may detach unexpectedly when swinging.
• Fix for an issue where Indy’s legs may unexpectedly snap into place when swinging across the gap in the bridge in Nepal.
• Fix to prevent enemies from being unaware of Indy when reloading a checkpoint made very close to soldiers that are guarding the entrance to a restricted location.
• Fix for an issue that may result in Gina not appearing near your docked boat when expected.
• Fix for camera shaking unexpectedly when dying to scorpions near the end of the Gizeh level.
• Fix for an issue where first shot made from a temporary gun would be silent.
• Fix for an issue where enemies may have a delayed response after you have stolen valuables from them.
• Fix for an issue that might make you appear in a broken animation state if restarting a checkpoint after using a zipline while the game is saving.
• Fix for an issue that might result in being unable to use your whip if you were performing a whip crack while saving the game, and then reloaded that save.
• Fix for an issue where you may become stuck in the “Lucky Hat” recovery state.

UI

• Added “Reset to Default” selection in the Options menu.
• Fix for a situation where rapid cycling of the Quick Equip menu might result in the wrong item being shown in the menu.
• Added explanation of the Blue Suitcase revisit icon on maps to the in-game manual.
• Prevent map location titles from overlapping with photo opportunity names.
• Fix for intermittent text flicker during the credits.
• Ensure the player’s Adventure Book list is updated immediately after unlocking a new book.

Graphics

• Fix for bottles appearing overly blurred when moving around with an equipped bottle.
• Fix for an issue where Indy’s right arm might look pinched above the wrist when in a bare-armed costume.
• Fix for occasional stuttering that might be seen in cutscenes.
• Fix to make Indy’s whip behave more naturally when attached to his belt.

Missions and quests – Please note this section contains some small spoilers

• Ensure several photo opportunities are still available when revisiting levels or after completing sections of the game.
• Ensure several journal notes are still available to be collected when revisiting levels or after completing sections of the game.
• Ensure several Adventure Books are shown correctly on the map after purchasing map information booklets.
• Fix to prevent player from getting stuck when dropping Giuseppe’s Key, rather than stashing it, in A Savage Predicament.
• Fix to prevent rare issue where Gina may not path to the open door after the fire trap in the Chamber of Fire – Silver Trial mission in the Vatican.
• Fix to prevent rare issue where Gina may not use the levers or may get stuck when pathing to an elevator in Wat Si Sawai in Sukhothai.
• Fix for an issue where Gina may not help open the Game Room door at the Sukhothai Ziggurat.
• Fix for an issue where Gina may not enter a co-op vault or climb when she has recently been in combat.
• Fix for an issue where pieces of the Vatican fountain puzzle may keep moving slowly, that could prevent its completion if left for a very long time.
• Fix for an issue that could prevent the “Finish Forging the Gold Key” quest objective from ever being cleared in your journal in the Vatican.
• Fix for an issue where dying shortly after opening the safe in the Sukhothai HQ may result in player being unable to pick up all of the gold.
• Fix for an issue where gates may be locked inside the caves if restarting a checkpoint while sneaking into the Nazi Compound in Gizeh.
• Fix for an issue that prevent player from picking up an important book in Voss’ office inside the Nazi Compound in Gizeh.
• Fix for an issue that might result in Antonio or Ventura being stuck in a “cower” state while you are in Antonio’s office in the Vatican.

PC Specific fixes

• Improved performance on larger game levels if using an 8GB VRAM video-card.
• Fix an issue where Alt-Tabbing might prevent you from being able to open your inventory.
• Fix to make sure that the “Revert” option works correctly when you change video modes.
• Fix for torch or lighter flames flickering when playing the game at a high refresh rate.
• Fix for Sand Pouring and Torch flame effects not rendering correctly in Peru level on AMD video-cards.
• Fix for issue where enabling HDR and DLSS simultaneously might result in a moiré effect on plain white walls.
• Fix for an issue where black artifacts may appear in Indy’s eye during cutscenes inside the cave in Peru.
• Fix for issue where black squares may appear intermittently on screen if renderscale is used at certain resolutions on AMD video-cards.
• Fix to ensure that your Photos can be exported correctly from Steam cloud saves if you decide to switch to using Xbox cloud saves.
• Please note that AMD FSR support will be added in a future game update.

The standard edition of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle launches on Xbox Series X|S and PC on December 9, with an Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass arrival also happening on the same day. Premium and Collector's Edition owners can jump into the hugely well-received campaign right now without waiting.

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A closer look at the most played games on Steam over the past 24 hours reveals the titles that hold that player base. In first place is Counter-Strike 2, which alone took up more than 1 million concurrent users. Counter-Strike 2 is followed by Dota 2.

The newly-launched Path of Exile 2 burst into third place in an impressive feat for the developer Grinding Gear Games. Rounding out the newcomers, Marvel's Rivals took fourth, augmenting its successful free-to-play launch with a 24-hour peak of 450,000 players while Path of Exile 2 peaked at 539,149 concurrents on December 7.

The rest of the top performers are a mix of established juggernauts and fresh newcomers. Games like PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS, Rust, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Call of Duty still manage to pull in a sizeable crowd.

Here is a list of the most played games on Steam in order of their ranking within the last 24 hours:

 

1. Counter-Strike 2
2. Dota 2
3. Path of Exile 2
4. Marvel's Rivals
5. PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS
6. Rust
7. Grand Theft Auto 5
8. Call of Duty
9. Delta Force
10. Banana

With numerous much-anticipated PC games dropping later in the holiday season, it is very likely that the Steam active counts will continue to get even higher. With the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle still on the horizon, and the holiday season set to bring an influx of new players, we believe the platform is poised to shatter yet another record in the coming weeks.

Source: SteamDB

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Table of contents:

1. Windows 10 and 11 news
2. Windows Insider Program
3. Updates are available
4. Gaming news
5. Great deals to check

Windows 11 and 10

Here we talk about everything happening around Microsoft's latest operating system in the Stable channel and preview builds: new features, removed features, controversies, bugs, interesting findings, and more. And of course, you may find a word or two about older but still supported versions.

December is here, which means it is time to take a look at the latest stats from Statcounter and Valve. Windows 11 reportedly lost a chunk of users in November 2024, while its gaming audience increased to a new all-time high of 53%. As for browsers, Microsoft Edge dipped below the 13% mark while Chrome increased its market share.

This week, Microsoft published a blog post to detail the importance of the Trusted Platform Module 2.0 requirement in Windows 11. Besides highlighting its features and capabilities, Microsoft stressed that TPM 2.0 is a non-negotiable security standard, so do not expect the company to lower Windows 11 hardware requirements. Still, some users found that it is possible to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware "officially."

In a separate post, Microsoft detailed driver and firmware support for compatible Surface devices running Windows 11 version 24H2, which is now available for more users.

Microsoft also published several new support documents, some of which are quite interesting. For one, the company described backup options available to Windows 10 and 11, and one of those options is a 15-year-old backup tool from Windows 7, which even Microsoft does not recommend using (in other support articles). Another document describes how to fix issues with Windows 11 using Windows Update.

Although Windows 11 24H2 is now available to more customers, the operating system still has a pretty hefty list of known issues. Microsoft confirmed another one this week, warning users that Outlook might fail to start if Google Workspace Sync is installed. Fortunately, there is a workaround for the problem.

On the bright side, Microsoft lifted one upgrade block preventing gamers from updating to Windows 11 version 24H2 due to incompatibility with certain Ubisoft games.

The list of available Copilot+ PCs with ARM processors will soon expand to a new device category. GEEKOM, a popular maker of mini PC, is reportedly working on a small form factor PC with a Snapdragon X Elite processor inside.

Microsoft is also working on new Copilot+ PCs. A new report emerged detailing the company's plans for 2025 and the upcoming devices, like Intel-powered Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, a Copilot+ PC Surface Laptop Studio, and even an 11-inch Surface tablet with "premium materials" and a Snapdragon processor.

Sadly, what Microsoft is not working on is apparently the successor to the Surface Studio 2 Plus, which is now killed. The company confirmed that its largest consumer computer is no longer in production. If you want one, act fast while stock lasts.

Windows Insider Program

Microsoft returned from the Thanksgiving break with a bunch of new Windows 11 preview builds:

Some interesting findings in recent Windows 11 preview builds include the ability to change the webcam resolution in the Settings app and a redesigned battery indicator:

In addition to new builds, Microsoft released a new update for the Microsoft Store app. The latest version makes it easier to update Win32 apps that are "provided and updated" outside the store. The release joined a big list of other improvements and new features that Microsoft implemented in 2024. Check out the full recap here.

Updates are available

This section covers software, firmware, and other notable updates (released and coming soon) delivering new features, security fixes, improvements, patches, and more from Microsoft and third parties.

Copilot Vision, a feature that was announced in October 2024, is now available in a limited preview for Copilot Pro users. Microsoft describes Vision as an extra pair of eyes and an assistant that can provide you with additional information about something you are currently browsing. As of right now, Copilot VIsion is only available on a limited set of websites and for a limited set of users in the United States.

Microsoft Edge is infamous for aggressively attempting to remain the default browser on Windows, so Mozilla decided to retaliate. In the latest Firefox beta releases, developers implemented a new mechanism to make Firefox the default browser, so watch out.

As for Microsoft Edge, version 132 in the Beta Channel received a built-in AI theme generator. In the Dev Channel, version 133 landed with various improvements and fixes.

Other notable updates include the following:

• An unofficial patch for all Windows 11, 10, and Server versions is out to fix a 0-day patch.

• Microsoft 365 Enterprise users will be automatically switched to New Outlook in April 2026.

• Intel released new Graphics Software as an all-in-one replacement for Arc Control.
• WinRAR, 7-Zip, and NanaZIP received performance improvements on Windows 11.

And here are the newest drivers released this week:

• AMD 24.12.1 with support for Marvel Rivals, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, Flight Simulator 2024, and more
• Nvidia 566.36 WHQL with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle support and more
• Intel 32.0.101.6314 WHQL with fixes for Minecraft and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
• Intel 32.0.101.6319 Non-WHQL with optimizations for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

On the gaming side

Learn about upcoming game releases, Xbox rumors, new hardware, software updates, freebies, deals, discounts and more.

Playground Games released a new Forza Horizon 5 content update. "Holidays Mix-up" brought new high-performance cards, "extreme experiences" on the map, holiday props, and other content. In addition, there are several important fixes and improvements. By the way, you still have a few days to purchase the previous entry, Forza Horizon 4. The game is currently on its final sale before the delisting on December 15. Hurry up!

Forza Motorsport is also getting a new update. While its details are not revealed yet, Turn10 Studios confirmed that the update will introduce ray-traced global illumination on compatible hardware.

Mojang released Minecraft: The Garden Awakens, a fresh content drop with a new eery biome, a new hostile mob (the Creaking), and other changes. The update is now available across platforms for Minecraft: Java Edition and Minecraft Bedrock Edition.

Microsoft announced the final wave of new games for Xbox and PC Game Pass subscribers. During this month, subscribers will be able to play Hauntii, Humanity, EA Sports WRC, Road 96, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and more.

Speaking of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the biggest launch in December 2024, you can check out its PC hardware requirements ahead of the global launch on December 9 (Bethesda confirmed there would be no Denuvo DRM). Spoiler alert: they are quite hefty.

With 2024 going into the sunset, many services and companies are offering their customers yearly recaps with interesting stats and data. Xbox is also participating in this trend, giving gamers a way to recap their year of gaming with a personalized look at stats and achievements.

Deals and freebies

The Epic Games Store is giving away LEGO Star Wars Skywalker Saga and Bus Sim 2021. You can grab these games for free until the next Thursday.

If you play on Xbox, look out for the upcoming Xbox Inside Game Fest that will let you play over 35 indie games for free next week.

As usual, you can find more deals and specials in this week's Weekend PC Game Deals issue.

Other gaming stories include the following:

• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl received a new patch to fix save issues, input lag, and crashes.

• Path of Exile 2, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and more joined the list of compatible games on Nvidia GeForce NOW.

• Microsoft announced custom Squid Games controllers and more themed content.

• Warhorse Studios published PC hardware requirements for Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.

• You can now purchase Xbox Series X|S parts from iFixit.

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As with most big releases nowadays, launch day did not fare well for Grinding Gear Games, with hundreds of thousands of players being stuck on a login screen for hours as the studio battled with database issues in the backend. Things seem to be progressing well on that front, though, with almost everyone now being able to log in and jump into the dark fantasy world of Wraeclast.

On Steam, Path of Exile 2 reached its peak concurrent player count on Saturday, December 7, hitting 539,149 individual players in-game before slowly descending to bottom out at 280 thousand players. Already, the numbers are starting to rise again as players jump back into the game on Sunday.

Surprisingly, the $30 game even beat the likes of Marvel Rivals' weekend numbers on Steam, a free-to-play game with a massive fanbase and the Marvel name behind it. The shooter entry managed to get 451,018 Steam players on Saturday.

The only platform that shares live player numbers is Steam, so it's still unknown how Path of Exile 2 has fared on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 console platforms. However, it's clear that the game has easily sold multiple millions during its early access release weekend.

Other than the starting $29.99 price point, the studio also offers $59.99 and $99.99 supporter packs, which offer additional in-game currency, skins, and effects. Once out of the Early Access phase, which Grinding Gear says will take "as long as needed," the ARPG will be free-to-play, much like its predecessor.

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Paul's Hardware (1.49M subscribers)

December 8, 2024

Video length: 14m 09s

0:00 Welcome to Paul’s Tech News - Dec 8, 2024

1:32 Reminder - Awesome Hardware Charity Live Stream Dec 14 (With Kyle)

2:18 AMD Radeon RX 8800 Specs Leak, RX 8800 and RX 8600 seen in ROCm patch

4:26 Intel Arc B580 and B570 Announced, B580 Dec 13 for $250

6:02 Intel Board Decides Their CEO Pat Gelsinger Should Retire

7:28 NZXT’s Predatory Flex Rental Program Exposed by GamersNexus

TECH BRIEFS

9:43 New Nvidia Rubin GPUs to launch much earlier than expected

10:42 China Announces a Ban on Rare Minerals to the U.S.

11:39 Steam users have spent $19 billion on games they’ve never played

12:18 AMD expects Ryzen 7 9800X3D availability to improve throughout the quarter

12:51 InWin’s new luxury “Infinite” case goes on sale for over $7,100

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With a worldwide browser market share of over 67%, well ahead of its closest competitor Safari at just 18%, I plan to lay out why Google being forced to sell Chrome could be a win for users and the internet.

Google Chrome launched as a beta product in September 2008 before graduating to its 1.0 release in December of the same year. This was when Internet Explorer (a reviled web browser at the time) and Firefox dominated the desktop browser space (mobile browsers weren't that popular yet).

Both of those browsers had years of code built up in them making them a bit clunky, so when Google launched its barebones Chrome browser, which was blazing fast, it started to win over users. With the Android 4 series, Google put Chrome front-and-center in its mobile operating system as the default browser, it was then that it overtook Internet Explorer.

While it's true that Google Chrome is generally a good, easy-to-use browser that delivers seamless syncing between devices, it's also a nightmare for competition. Google controls the world's largest search engine which pushes people to get Chrome if they do not have it and, as mentioned, it comes out of the box on Android.

With Chrome's simplicity and its largely out-of-the-box availability, many people simply stick with Google's browser. This is reflected in the latest desktop browser market share data which shows that Chrome is at 66.31%, Edge is at 12.87%, Safari is at 9.13%, Firefox is at 6.45%, and Opera is at 2.81%.

What's troubling in those stats is that the top three browsers are from Google, Microsoft, and Apple which all have platforms to shove their browsers in the faces of users. Meanwhile, companies that are dedicated to making browsers like Mozilla and Opera are being squeezed out of the market, not because they're not innovative or because users don't want to use them, but because it's more of a hassle to download them.

While Microsoft and Apple also have concerning levels of power, Google stands out as the chief monopolist, as reflected in the market share data. While Microsoft does control the desktop operating system landscape, it lacks when it comes to the increasingly popular mobile space and its Bing search is way less popular so it can't use that too much to push Edge.

Similarly, with Apple, Safari is the default on Macs, iPhones, and iPads but it is also not available on Windows and Android, making it less of a concern. Google, though, has its browser on every platform, is trying to take over the desktop with Chrome OS, controls the mobile landscape in many countries, and can push Chrome in the search domain.

Google's dominant position means that it can push sub-standard features such as Chrome's Reader mode which barely works, and even when it does, only appears in a sidebar, forcing you to look at the website's ads. It has also started hobbling ad blockers with its switch to Manifest V3 - a move it can only make due to its monopolistic position in the market.

The Monopoly Problem

Due to the complexity of the legal system, actions by the government to clamp down on monopolistic actors tend to come long after the damage has been done to the competition. The biggest loser in Google's meteoric rise was Mozilla with its Firefox web browser.

Around December 2009, Firefox was doing pretty well with about 31.56% of the total browser market share, then along came Chrome which sharply dragged down Firefox's market share in the following years. Firefox tried to respond by launching several iterations of its mobile browser and doing UI revamps of its desktop browser but it continued to hemorrhage users until today where it sits a 2.59% of the market share. It's fair to say Mozilla also made missteps such as making unpopular changes.

Google was the main beneficiary of this rising from 5.38% market share in December 2009 to 67.53% in November 2024. Thanks to its dominant position, Google can clamp down on browser extensions that interfere with its ad business, it can push its search engine and vast array of other online services, and it can greatly shape web standards as seen with Manifest V3 and its attempt to kill cookies in favor of FLoC which it later rebranded as the Topics API after competitors criticized FLoC as being anti-competitive.

The two biggest enablers of Chrome's dominance have been Google's search and mobile operating system dominance. According to November 2024 Statcounter data, Google search holds a massive 89.98% of the market share. On mobile devices, Android also holds a respectable 71.77% of the global market share.

For years after its launch, going to Google Search in a non-Chrome browser would result in users seeing a prompt to install Chrome. As the owner of Google Search, it also doesn't cost the company anything to place Chrome ads above search results compared to rival browsers who have to pay for the same privilege.

With regards to Android, things get a little more direct. Ever since the Android 4 series, Chrome has been shipped as the default web browser, making users more likely to begin using and sticking with it, instead of going to the Play Store to find an alternative. On Pixel devices, Google features are even more deeply entrenched which makes switching browsers less appealing to users.

Another way in which Google has used its position to its advantage is through its online services and their compatibility with other web browsers. Several years ago, a former Mozilla executive criticized Google for continually breaking its services when accessed through Firefox. The former exec said that Google would continually apologize and say a fix is on the way but in the meantime, users would switch over to Google's browser to "fix" the issues.

By pushing out the competition, it means that Google can rest on its laurels without the need to continually stay feature competitive with other browsers. History has already shown us what happens when one company has too much power and that was Microsoft with Internet Explorer 6. That browser launched with Windows XP in 2001 and wasn't replaced until 2006 when Microsoft finally came out with Internet Explorer 7. Microsoft had stagnated for so long that people had started switching to Firefox which was innovating with features like browser tabs.

Things are a bit different in the case of Chrome which is still getting some good new features, the main concerns are the efforts Google is making to corner the browser market and its clampdown on extensions it doesn't like such as ad blockers. If Google ever did completely control the browser market, then it could go like Microsoft and scale back the development of innovative features.

One of the main considerations on mobile devices today is the amount of storage space being taken up by applications. With Chrome as the default browser in Android, it is generally not possible to uninstall it which means if you opt for another browser then you'll be taking up roughly twice the space than if you choose to stick with Chrome. This is one way that Google limits consumer choice when it comes to web browsers.

Another issue, which has now thankfully been fixed, was the matter of exporting passwords and bookmarks. For a decent length of time over recent years, it was impossible to export passwords from Chrome on Linux if you wanted to switch to Firefox or another browser. As a Linux user, I faced this issue and to get around it I had to install Windows on a virtual machine, switch browsers there, and then sync to the browser on my Linux install.

I'm technically savvy so this wasn't an issue for me but the average user could have been locked into Chrome, ultimately restricting their choices because they couldn't export their passwords. Thankfully, this issue has been resolved since Google launched the new Password Manager.

One area where Google has complete market dominance is with YouTube - sure there are platforms like TikTok but that has a different primary focus. What we've seen with YouTube over the last couple of years is a serious ramping up in advertisements. The website is now showing more unskippable ads and longer ads than ever before and users can't do anything about it, there's no alternative to go to as content creators don't put their YouTube content elsewhere.

This makes you wonder what could happen if Google ever dominated the browser market. Might we get ads baked into the browser or subscriptions for premium features? Right now, these actions aren't feasible thanks to competition but could be if the competition was eliminated.

Legal Precedents and Regulatory Actions

This case is going to be groundbreaking because if the judge does ultimately decide to make Google sell off Chrome, it would be the first time that a tech company has been forced to sell off a web browser after investing considerable sums developing it and establishing it as the dominant player in the market.

One high-profile case similar to this is when the DOJ deemed Microsoft to be engaging in anti-competitive practices a quarter of a century ago. It said the inclusion of Internet Explorer in Windows was anti-competitive and forced the company to make APIs available to other companies so they could compete effectively. Even in this case, Microsoft was not made to sell its browser.

Microsoft and Apple with their Edge and Safari browsers will surely be watching this case keenly so that they can adapt and ensure they don't get hit by the DOJ for pushing their browsers via their platforms.

As we have seen from the whole episode where Microsoft was trying to buy Blizzard, regulators in the US and Europe are upping their scrutiny over tech giants.

While Microsoft did ultimately manage to assuage the regulators, there have been cases where companies have not been so lucky such as when Adobe tried to buy Figma but had to back out when the companies couldn't see a way past UK and EU competition regulators.

In August, a document released by the District Court of Columbia stated that after weighing up the facts presented by the DOJ and Google, the decision was made that Google is a monopolist and has acted in ways to maintain its monopoly. The court said that Section 2 of the Sherman Act had been violated.

No matter what the outcome of this case against Google is, it will set a precedent for future cases.

The DOJ and several US states brought an antitrust case against Google alleging that the firm engaged in monopolistic practices related to general search services and search text advertising markets. The court, as mentioned earlier, found Google guilty of this.

In response, the DOJ set out remedies including structural and conduct-based remedies. The divestiture of Chrome, and optionally Android, are part of the structural remedies.

One of the main conduct-based remedies is that Google will be required to include choice screens on various devices with options to choose their preferred search engine. Another notable remedy would prevent Google from offering Apple anything of value if it prevented the iPhone maker from getting into the search or search advertising markets.

Other remedies suggested by the DOJ would require Google to share certain data with qualified competitors such as user-side data and ads data. The DOJ also proposed that qualified competitors should be able to use Google's search results and Search Text ads.

Of course, Google isn't happy about this in the slightest and has penned at least two blog posts here and here claiming that the remedies would be bad for everybody, but of course it would say this, wouldn't it?

The Benefits of Divestiture

By forcing Google to sell off its Chrome browser, Google wouldn't have a reason to aggressively push the browser on everyone anymore. This could give other browser makers more room to grow their market share. As competitors see more room to expand the usage of their products, they will try to make their offering the best, leading to more innovation.

With a more equal playing field, this could also make the ads market better with reduced costs for advertisers and result in better deals for publishers.

Another impact of a more equal playing field in the browser market is that we may see a move away from Google's search engine if browsers decide to use different defaults. Many would indeed stick with Google Search but without Google forcing it on people then we could see others go with Bing, Brave Search, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, or another search engine.

If Chrome's sale does lead to Edge and Safari dominating, then we could potentially see more action from the DOJ against Apple and Microsoft.

One of the most innovative browsers on the market right now with quite minuscule market share is Vivaldi. It has lots of unique features such as split screen, tab stacking, and much more but hardly anybody uses it. For this reason, if Chrome is made to operate separately from Google and other browsers gain market share, Vivaldi could become more used, and other browsers will copy the best features or work on their own to try and surpass Vivaldi.

All this could lead to a better browsing experience than we have now. In Chrome under Google, we mainly get discrete changes like tab groups and tab suspension which are pretty nice but they are only small things. Most browsers have come with a Reader mode for many years but Google has only recently added that feature.

As Google is an ad company, the Reader mode has posed a problem because the idea is that all content except the text and images are stripped out, including ads. As a compromise, Chrome has this strange sidebar reader mode that frequently doesn't provide the full text and you're still seeing distracting ads on the rest of the display outside of the sidebar.

Without Google aggressively pushing Chrome, it should make the browser market fairer for companies like Firefox, Vivaldi, and Brave who do not have other products like operating systems or search engines to further push their browsers. It's quite difficult to see how a fair playing field could be established without a sell-off of Chrome or some stringent rules being put in place around Google's practices in pushing its browser.

Potential Challenges and Counterarguments

Google has outlined several concerns about the proposed remedies set out by the DOJ. They can be summarized as follows:

1. Forcing Google to share user data, clicks, and results with qualified competitors could compromise user privacy and security.
2. Google suggests that the restrictions the DOJ is seeking will harm AI innovation and affect the US technological leadership.
3. By breaking up Chrome and Android, their development could be harmed, there could be increased costs for users, and the broader tech ecosystem could be negatively affected.
4. Changes to online advertising could harm small businesses and publishers and reduce the effectiveness of online advertising.
5. Restricting how Google promotes its search engine could cause friction for users and harm businesses that rely on Google ad revenue.

Of course, while Google raises some interesting arguments, I would argue against them in the following ways:

1. The first concern about the privacy and security of users can easily be addressed by requiring Google to share data that has been aggregated and anonymized. This would still give competitors insight into preferences allowing them to develop better products and services.
2. The concern that the remedies would hinder AI innovation is a bit bizarre. In response to the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, Google and a plethora of other companies developed large language models. Among these was a generation of new search engines like Perplexity, Dexa, and You.com. Under the DOJ's remedies, Google would simply be prevented from acquiring companies like these without permission to prevent it from eliminating nascent competitors. Google would also have to allow publishers, websites, and content creators to opt out of having their data used for AI training, it's probably not happy about this either.
3. The point about Chrome and Android development being harmed if they were snatched away from Google is a bit contentious. Whoever was to buy Chrome could either keep Chrome simple to use like it is now or go the feature-heavy route like Vivaldi has done. There are many companies out there capable of developing a browser, so I'm not sure why it would inherently get worse. As for Android, Google will probably keep hold of this as the DOJ doesn't seem to be pushing as hard for it to be sold.
4. On the point of advertising, it seems very unlikely that online advertising would be harmed as a result of the DOJs actions. If the DOJ creates a more dynamic ad market, it would lead to a more cutthroat environment where firms are not so focused on profit-making, but offering the best deals for advertisers and publishers.
5. On the final point, there should be less friction as users would have more freedom to choose their search engine. In some Android devices, for example, the Google Search bar is unremovable on the home screen and there are no options to change to another search engine. So you may use Bing in Chrome but that Google Search bar will remain on the home screen. Google would have a harder time doing this under the DOJ rules and users could use their preferred search engine on the home screen as well as in the browser. As for businesses harmed by reduced Google ad revenue, they should also have more choices as the ad market gets more dynamic.

Conclusion

As demonstrated through this editorial, Google is very reluctant to give up its web browser as part of the DOJ remedies, however, it doesn't offer up the most compelling arguments as to why it shouldn't be forced to sell off Chrome.

Google is dominating the web browser space, especially on Android where it pushes its browser as the default, and it has significant power in the ad market. By taking action, the DOJ could help boost innovation by allowing other browsers to thrive and create a better ad market that provides better deals.

While I'm largely in favor of the remedies being proposed and believe they would be quite effective, they must be implemented intelligently. Most people agree in principle that users should know about cookie tracking. In practice, having every website you visit make you accept cookies is very poor design - the DOJ remedies shouldn't lead to anything that creates this kind of disruption.

In conclusion, the remedies set out by the DOJ still need to be examined by the court and some may be rejected as going too far, but it seems as though they could lead to a more competitive browser market that gives end users more control over the browser and search engine they want to use.

Regulators also need to keep an eye, especially on Microsoft, so that it doesn't try to fill the vacuum left by Google. It already uses its position as a leader in the desktop space to aggressively push Edge and if Bing ever becomes more widely used as a result of action against Google then it could use that to push Edge even more.

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It’s been a very busy year for Surface, the first under new leadership with Pavan Davuluri at the helm. In March, Microsoft launched its first ever specialized commercial Surface PCs with the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6, featuring Intel Core Ultra processors and anti-reflective screens.

Just a few short months later, the company unveiled its first ever Copilot+ PCs with the Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7, both headlining Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X SoCs along with updated designs and accessories. It's the first time we’ve seen Microsoft ship multiple generations of hardware in such a short time span.

This year was all about AI PCs, specifically Copilot+ AI PCs. The focus was on Microsoft’s hero devices to kickstart this new category of AI-powered Windows computers. I fully expect this trend to continue as we head into 2025 as Microsoft aligns more of the Surface portfolio under the Copilot+ umbrella.

What you need to know

• Microsoft recently announced that it had joined Bluesky alongside Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter) amid unfavorable new terms and conditions.
• The Redmond giant says the platform provides a connected digital platform that bolsters innovation and promotes its inclusivity and empowerment values.
• Windows Central and many of our staff members are also on Bluesky and are available to follow as a starter pack.

Microsoft recently announced that it has hopped onto the Bluesky train. Frank X. Chaw, Microsoft's Chief Communication Officer, made the announcement via LinkedIn, indicating, "We aspire to be where our customers, partners, and even competitors gather, engaging with them in the places they call home." Microsoft claims that it views Bluesky as more than a social network, but a platform that provides a "connected digital ecosystem" that bolsters the user experience and innovation.

The tech giant added that the social media platform promotes a more inclusive environment, which is right up its alley in terms of inclusivity and empowerment. Advertisement hasn't been ruled out on Bluesky, but so far, the platform remains ad-free. Raising money from its investors, the social network plans to implement a subscription service to fuel a revenue stream and pay for its server running costs. Whether businesses and brands will have subscription tiers separate from regular users isn't yet known, but it will at least involve features "like higher quality video uploads or profile customizations like colors and avatar frames."

X's sinking ship

A Microsoft spokesperson said the following:

Customers can continue to purchase Surface Studio 2+ through retailers and partners with stock. For areas reaching out of stock, Surface Studio 2+ will no longer be available for new purchases.

The original Surface Studio was announced in October 2016, alongside the Surface Pro 4 and the original Surface Book. It featured a large 28-inch 4500 x 3000 pixels touchscreen display with a quirky hinge that allowed transforming the Surface Studio from the standard all-in-one to a drawing tablet.

Despite its quite mediocre in terms of performance hardware and a hefty price tag, the original Surface Studio was universally praised as a stunning and innovative device with a bold design. While there was never a shortage of all-in-one Windows PCs, the Surface Studio stood separately as a unique computer with nearly no competition.

Microsoft released the second-generation Surface Studio two years later. The successor received newer processors and more powerful graphics cards from Nvidia and ditched hard drives in favor of SSDs (the original Surface shipped with a small SSD and a 1TB HDD), leaving the rest of the device mostly unchanged.

Finally, four years later, in October 2022, Microsoft announced the Surface Studio 2+. The computer received a single SKU with an eye-watering $4,500 price tag and a refreshed CPU-GPU combo. Two years later, the Surface Studio 2+ is dead, with no signs of a successor.

It is sad to see the Surface Studio lineup going six feet under and joining other abandoned devices, such as the Surface Neo, Surface Duo, Surface Headphones, Surface Earbuds, Surface Book, and more.

These days, Microsoft's sole focus is on well-established device categories that involve less risk. As a result, we only saw Microsoft updating its most popular devices, such as the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop. While the shift to Snapdragon processors was a major change, the wow factor of unconventional designs and bold choices, once the signature of the Surface brand, is sadly no longer with us.

Source: Windows Central

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Back in July, a community development team launched Fallout: London, a massive DLC-sized mod for Bethesda's Fallout 4. The fan mod had been in development for over five years by Team FOLON, a group of fans consisting of hobbyists, industry professionals, and modders. Following the full release and some subsequent patches, the dev team has now announced some surprising news: DLC is coming … for the mod.

In its latest community update about the next update coming to the total conversion mod, patch v1.03, the team revealed that it had originally been a hotfix-style small update. However, its scope had grown quite a lot since the planning stage, even going on to affect save files. Because of this, the update's contents and much more are being rolled into a DLC pack, probably free just like the full mod.

"Rather than risking breaking things for a small update, we're looking to roll this into a part of our very first DLC," says Team FOLON. "This DLC will feature both new content and previously cut content that we’re working hard to restore."

More details on the cut content and new elements will be announced later, possibly getting a 2025 launch window. Check out the update's incoming fixes over here.

Team FOLON also announced that it is a registered business now, and the company wants its fans to tell them what its next direction should be. The newly published survey can be found here, which asks questions like the reception to Fallout: London, what kind of genres should the studio chase in the future, and if Early Access is an acceptable route.

Fallout: London had an immensely successful launch earlier this year, gaining over a million downloads just three months into launch. With that kind of a reception, the team's transformation into a game development company does make sense.

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Compared to a certain Bethesda game that showed off some eye-watering ray-tracing enabled GPU requirements earlier this week, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2's open-world seems to need much less horsepower.

Over here, even the game's highest specification is asking for an RTX 4080 or an RX 7900 XT, though keep in mind this is for 4K 30FPS play. It's also unclear if the requirements are listed for natively rendered gameplay or with upscaling solutions like DLSS or FSR.

Here are the complete system requirements shared by the studio today:

Warhorse Studios even provided a deep dive on what does the CPU, RAM, GPU, Storage do inside a when playing a game like Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. It even helpfully shouts out PC Part Picker and the BuildaPC subreddit as useful resources when building a new computer for gaming. Check out the complete blog post over here.

The PC version is also confirmed to not ship with any sort of DRM (including Denuvo). Catch the game's latest story trailer below:

Following the release date change, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is now releasing on February 4, 2025 across PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.

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Microsoft's Copilot is in almost everything the company develops, including its Edge web browser's sidebar, which I most frequently use. While it's primarily a run-of-the-mill AI assistant for most text queries, it also has a voice, and you can chat to Copilot with any device with a built-in or external microphone, just like with its mobile app. While it was a bit slower off the starting line than OpenAI's conversational and subscription-only ChatGPT Plus, Microsoft Copilot is (mostly) free to use on your desktop and sounds convincing enough.

I might be in the minority as someone who enjoys using Copilot, but it's better than you think. Besides, the Copilot Android widget sits on my phone's home screen, so I'm regularly talking to it.

I've found myself using it so much that when I jump into the recently improved, post-patch Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 for some time in the sky, I notice how flat and robotic the text-to-speech (TTS) dialog sounds when you're chatting with AI-controlled characters. Don't get me wrong, it's better than nothing at all, but Microsoft has access to this ultra-casual voice model, and it's not using it in a flagship simulator game that streams most of its data from the cloud since 2020.

The voice model that developers at Asobo Studio have used in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 sounds more like an accessibility solution than an attempt at virtual interaction. Most of the time, it sounds like I'm listening to a screen reader than my flight instructor. Again, I'm not expecting the same audio production as some AAA blockbusters, but the technology is on the table; Microsoft only needs to leverage it.

I'm so convinced the experience would be even more immersive than offering a fully realized 3D representation of our globe at a fraction of the install size that I tasked Microsoft's Copilot assistant with a playful role in my imaginary Flight Simulator 2024 update: "Just for fun, let's pretend that we're flying in my plane and you're my virtual copilot." Of course, this is all make-believe, but the instant transmission of an ultra-high-quality TTS line could work the same way in MSFS 2024, and now I have a wishlist for future updates.

In the scope of complaints against Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 compared to its broken launch state, this ultra-minor gripe falls into personal taste. Still, the game is improving with each patch and maintains an optimistic upward trend, and I'm confident that it'll return to its former glory in time, earning a score when I return to my MSFS 2024 review-in-progress.

Nevertheless, it's strange to see Microsoft sitting on high-quality speech tech and not offering it up to its partnered game developers when its Copilot Agents are launching elsewhere.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the future, though it's a big request to overhaul the speech tech of any game, and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 has the entire virtual Earth to contend with before its developers at Asobo Studio can think of adding new content. Still, I'd love to see Microsoft make it happen. They're not running those gigantic Azure server farms for nothing, right?

For now, check out MSFS 2024 on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for access to the Xbox and PC versions.

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What you need to know

• 11 bit studios and Digital Sun have announced Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault during today's PC Gaming Show Most Wanted.
• The game is a sequel to 2018's RPG-inspired, dungeon crawingling, shopkeeping management game, Moonlighter.
• Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault features new 3D graphics, compared to its predecessor's pixel art style, but maintains and builds upon the previous game's winning formula.

In a blink-and-you-missed-it trailer during the PC Gaming Showcase Most Wanted today, Polish publisher 11 bit studios and Spanish developers Digital Sun revealed a sequel to 2018's RPG meets shopkeeping simulator meets dungeon crawler, Moonlighter. Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is shaping up for a 2025 release on Xbox, PC, and PlayStation 5.

Moonlighter 2 returns with the previous game's protagonist, Will, who is now much more skilled in battle and haggling for the best prices. The little merchant is hungry for adventure, and treasure, and is willing to strike out on his own deep into the perilous vaults where he will collect loot. Once he returns to his shop, Moonlighter 2 cranks up the cozy as Will turns his attention to haggling for the best prices on his wares. Players can customize their shop with dazzling decorations, but they'll have to go deep into the depths of the vaults for worthwhile loot so they can afford the goods.

One notable difference between Moonlighter and its predecessor is the change in art direction. The original game featured a dazzling pixel art aesthetic with a top-down camera, but Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault has grown into a 3D arena. Despite the shift in art style, the color palette and character designs are all reminiscent of the original Moonlighter, and the new visuals still bear the same charm and atmosphere.

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(Image credit: 11 bit studios)

 

(Image credit: 11 bit studios)

 

(Image credit: 11 bit studios)

 

(Image credit: 11 bit studios)

 

(Image credit: 11 bit studios)

 

(Image credit: 11 bit studios)

 

(Image credit: 11 bit studios)

 

"The original Moonlighter was a pivotal moment for us, marking the growth of Digital Sun as a team. Five years on, Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault showcases everything we've learned along the way. We're channeling all our craftsmanship into creating a game that's not just better, but brimming with even more charm in every detail,” said Javier Gimenez, Digital Sun CEO.

 

Players can look forward to investing in the development of the game's village by supporting the local businesses, upgrading Will's gear, and unlocking new opportunities that help the village of Tresna flourish. The better off the people of Tresna are, the more they have to spend at your shop, after all! Prepare your gear, hit the vaults, and see how low you can go. The deeper you adventure, the more danger—and the better the loot. Turn that loot into hard-earned profits with Will's undeniable charm and haggling skills.

 

Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault has a planned release in 2025 on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. While the original Moonlighter was available on Xbox Game Pass, there has yet to be any confirmation that Moonlighter 2 will be available on the subscription service. The publisher, 11 bit studios, has a deal with Xbox to bring a portion of its catalog to Game Pass, and we have seen other titles like Creatures of Ava and Frostpunk 2 launch into the service on day one. However, it has not been a broad-reaching deal, as 11 bit studios' titles like The Thaumaturge and The Invincible did not join Game Pass.

 

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In early October, Microsoft announced Copilot Vision, a new feature that could harness the power of AI to help you complete various tasks by analyzing the content on the screen and providing the necessary assistance. Two months after the initial announcement, Microsoft is finally launching Copilot Vision in preview.

When enabled, Copilot Vision "sees" and understands what is happening on the screen and its context. You can ask Copilot questions about the web page, and the assistant will answer and provide additional information.

Copilot Vision is currently available in a limited preview to Copilot Pro subscribers in the United States. Also, the feature only works in the Microsoft Edge browser and only on certain websites. Microsoft says it wants to ensure Vision is a "useful and safe experience" from the get-go, but the company plans to expand the number of available websites as the testing scope broadens.

Microsoft also stresses that Copilot Vision does not collect or store any user data, nor does it use it for model training. Once the session is over, Copilot Vision will delete all the data about what you said or what information you shared. Like the recently launched Recall (also in preview for Windows Insiders with Copilot+ PCs), Copilot Vision is an opt-in feature—it will not invoke unless you launch it.

Additionally, Microsoft promises to prioritize copyright, privacy, and safety. It will not offer any information on paywalled websites, and it will not be able to take action on your behalf. The sole purpose of Copilot Vision is to "have a second set of eyes" and a helpful assistant who can tell you more about whatever you ask.

You can access Copilot Vision Copilot Labs. Getting it to work requires a Copilot Pro subscription in the United States. You can learn more about Copilot Vision in a dedicated FAQ section on the official website.

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Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of November): 5,298 news posts

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend