The new 1Tb quad-level cell (QLC) V-NAND chips follow the 9th-gen TLC V-NAND memory that Samsung started producing in April 2024. According to Samsung, the new QLC chips will "address the needs for the AI era," especially in the enterprise SSD market. SungHoi Hur, Executive IP of Flash Product & Technology at Samsung, said the following about the launch of the company's next-gen QLC V-NAND memory chips:

Kicking off the successful mass production of QLC 9th-generation V-NAND just four months after the TLC version allows us to offer a full lineup of advanced SSD solutions that address the needs for the AI era. As the enterprise SSD market shows rapid growth with stronger demand for AI applications, we will continue to solidify our leadership in the segment through our QLC and TLC 9th-generation V-NAND.

Thanks to Samsung's Channel Hole Etching technology, 9th-generation quad-level cells feature 86% higher density than previous-gen QLC V-NAND chips. Samsung also optimized cell characteristics across layers, resulting in an approximately 20% increase in data retention performance. Finally, chips operate at about 60% faster input/output speeds thanks to the Predictive Program technology that anticipates and controls memory cell state.

As for power consumption, a crucial characteristic for mobile devices, Samsung claims read and write energy consumption decreased by 30% read and 50% write, thanks to low-power design and voltage requirement reduction.

While the initial focus is on the enterprise market, Samsung also plans to expand the application of 9th-gen QLC V-NAND memory chips to consumer products, such as high-capacity SSDs and UFS (Universal Flash Storage) for modern smartphones.

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"For the past year, our goal has been to minimize disruption while welcoming new teams and enabling them to do their best work," says Phil Spencer in the internal email acquired by The Verge. "As part of aligning our post-acquisition team structure and managing our business, we have made the decision to eliminate approximately 650 roles across Microsoft Gaming — mostly corporate and supporting functions — to organize our business for long term success."

The acquisition Spencer mentions is the almost $70 billion deal to bring Activision Blizzard and all its studios under the Xbox wing last year. In January of this year, a massive round of layoffs at Activision-Blizzard, ZeniMax, and Xbox Studios saw 1,900 employees lose their positions. This also resulted in the shutdown of Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and Alpha Dog Studios from Bethesda.

However, in the latest internal email, Spencer directly says that "no games, devices or experiences" are being canceled this time, and no Xbox game development studios are being closed.

"With these changes, our corporate and supporting teams and resources are aligned for sustainable future growth, and can better support our studio teams and business units with programs and resources that can scale to meet their needs," adds Spencer. "Separately, as part of running the business, there are some impacts to other teams as they adapt to shifting priorities and manage the lifecycle and performance of games."

The employees being let go are receiving exit packages that include "severance, extended healthcare, and outplacement services to help with their transition."

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The sources also told Reuters that the job cuts would be made by the end of 2024. At the moment, there are no specifics on how many of Samsung's employees will be affected by these layoffs.

Samsung sent a statement regarding these reports. It says that "workforce adjustments" in its operations were "routine." It added that there were no specific business targets for these "adjustments," and they would not affect any of Samsung's production team members.

Reuters' report says that at the end of 2023, Samsung had 267,800 employees, 147,000 of whom were based overseas. The sales and marketing staff numbered 25,100, according to the report, and 27,800 other employees worked in areas other than production and manufacturing.

The company most recently launched the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 and Galaxy Z Flip6 smartphones, along with the debut of its Galaxy Ring wearable fitness device and the Galaxy Watch7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra smartwatches.

Unconfirmed rumors claim Samsung is going to launch the budget-friendly Galaxy S24 FE smartphone in the near future, along with a special edition of the Galaxy Z Fold6. There are also reports that the company will launch the Galaxy Tab S10 series of tablets very soon. Of course, there are also some leaks and rumors about its Samsung Galaxy S25 series of smartphones, which could launch in early 2025, and there are still reports that the company is working on its long-awaited Samsung mixed reality headset.

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Gamers Nexus (2.27M subscribers)

September 12, 2024

Video length: 33m 05s

00:00 - Recapping the Week

01:31 - EK Debrief & New Tax Filing

09:12 - AMD Abandons High-End GPUs (for now)

14:44 - X870 Motherboard Prices Are High

16:02 - PIRG Presses FTC to Require Device Support Transparency

20:48 - AnandTech Shuts Down

26:49 - Rumor: 96-Core Zen 5 Threadripper CPU

27:30 - Rumor: RDNA4 Specs

29:08 - NVIDIA Reports Record Revenue in Q2

30:40 - AMD Z2 Handheld Chip, Acer Nitro Blaze

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What you need to know

• Intel was set to receive $8 billion in grants through the US CHIPS Act and an additional $11 billion in loans, but that is now in jeopardy.
• To receive funding through the CHIPS Act, a company must meet milestones and stand up to scrutiny.
• Intel has struggled in many areas this year, including Intel Foundry services losing money and the company sharing a disastrous earnings report in August.

Intel's rough 2024 could get worse unless the chipmaker makes some major changes. The company's year already includes laying off 15,000 employees, a class action lawsuit about failing 13th Gen and 14th Gen CPUs, losing $32 billion in market cap in a single day, and a lawsuit by shareholders accusing the company of hiding negative information about Intel Foundry services. Now, Intel may have to wait before receiving billions of dollars through the CHIPS Act.

Intel was set to receive $8.5 billion in grants and $11 billion in loans through the CHIPS Act, but that funding is dependent on Intel hitting certain milestones. Before any of that funding is shipped to Intel, the US Government needs to feel confident in a company delivering on promises. The requirements are not exclusive to Intel, though the chipmaker appears to be having a more difficult time gaining the confidence of the government than other tech giants.

The latest information on the saga comes from a report by Bloomberg, which spoke with people familiar with the situation. Reportedly, Intel is reluctant to share certain information with the US government that would illustrate the chipmaker's viability. Bloomberg was not able to receive official word from the Commerce Department, which declined to comment on the situation.

Intel shared a statement to Bloomberg: 

"We are making significant progress across our US projects in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and Oregon, and look forward to finalizing our funding agreement soon."

Intel shared a damning earning report in August that listed a net loss of $1.61 billion. Reuters reported that Intel shareholders were blindsided to discover Intel Foundry services are "floundering." In an effort to save $10 billion through 2025, Intel announced 15,000 layoffs.

"Our revenues have not grown as expected—and we've yet to fully benefit from powerful trends, like AI," said Gelsinger in a memo to Intel staff last month. "Our costs are too high, and our margins are too low. We need bolder actions to address both—particularly given our financial results and outlook for the second half of 2024, which is tougher than previously expected."

The Ultimate Edition is for people who have yet to buy Dead Island 2. It will include the main game, both of its paid story expansion packs (Haus and Sola), and a number of cosmetic weapon and skin packs.

In addition, the Ultimate Edition will also have the latest free content update for the game, which will be released on October 22 as well for people who have already bought Dead Island 2. The Patch 6 update will include a new co-op horde gameplay mode called Neighborhood Watch.

The mode puts players in the role of college students called the Bobcats, who have four days to get their fraternity house ready for a swarm of zombies. Dambuster states:

Initially, you and your friends complete a variety of missions, setting traps, and stockpiling weapons as you prepare your defenses. Then, on the fifth and final day, the zombie onslaught begins! If your defenses, skills, and teamwork are up to the task, you might just live to tell the tale. Best of all, you’ll constantly be unlocking abilities to make your next run more successful and exciting than the last.

The Patch 6 update will also add a new location, the Venice Canals, in the game, along with some new weapons. Finally, the update will add the New Game+ mode. After you finish the main game, you can play it again with your established characters and weapons, along with a new level cap and a new skill slot. However, there will be an increase in the game's difficulty and some new zombie enemies to take down.

Dead Island 2: Ultimate Edition will be released for the PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, along with the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X consoles.

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However, unlike perhaps what Sony may have anticipated, the reception of the console has not been favourable at all for the tech giant.

The top comment on our PS5 Pro official announcement news article by Neowin forum member and reporter TarasBuria is:

799 EUR for a console must be an out-of-season April's Fools joke

Another longtime Neowin forum member and subscriber MrElectrifyer expressed something similar as they wrote:

Just-as the leaks had shown...ridiculously overpriced for a locked-down system.

For those wondering, Sony has priced the new PS5 Pro at $699.99 in the US, £699.99 in the UK, €799.99 for the European Union, and ¥119,980 for Japan.

This is not just what most Neowin readers feel. It definitely looks like Sony has managed to disappoint far more people with the announcement than the other way around.

The reveal trailer of the new Sony game console (YouTube link) has over 140,000 dislikes at the time of writing. In comparison, the number of likes sits at just under 50,000 as of now, which means the ratio of likes to dislikes currently sits at nearly 1:3. This makes it the most disliked PlayStation trailer by far and seeing how it hasn't even been 24 hours, the number of dislikes are likely to reach and surpass 200,000.

One of the top comments by user Tedakin sort of sums up what fans are not happy about with the release:

700 dollars. No disc drive. No stand. Incredible.

It may be the same story with the Technical Presentation video (YouTube link) as it has over 20,000 dislikes though the number of likes is shown as 0 indicating some reporting issue with the stat.

The comment section of the PlayStation Pro official blog post is also full of fans and enthusiasts expressing their displeasure with the situation.

Let us know below what you think would be the perfect price for the PS5 Pro and what you feel you'd be willing to pay if the console was not a digital edition only and also packed a vertical stand!

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It’s also unclear how many of these players opted to jump in early as part of the game's premium edition offers, which touted four days of advanced access as one of their perks, a trend that's growing amongst many AAA releases.

Outside of just sales records, Space Marine 2 is also setting player franchise records for the entire Warhammer gaming side of things on Steam too. According to SteamDB's numbers, an all-time peak of 225,690 concurrent players was reached by the game on September 9. The Warhammer game taking the second place of having most concurrent players is Total War: WARHAMMER III, which reached a whopping 166,754 players at peak over two years ago.

Keep in mind that these numbers of Space Marine 2 could go even higher as its first weekend is still coming up.

Continuing the tale of Space Marine Demetrian Titus from the original game that released in 2011, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 puts players into massive battlefields to crush a growing Tyranid invasion across multiple planet. Developed by Saber Interactive this time, the complete experience is playable in co-op with up to three players too. In addition to the sizable cooperative action portion, the game also has a player versus player element for competitive play as Space Marines.

In Neowin's own review of Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, I highly praised the game's satisfying gunplay and melee combat, the hordes that can be made up of thousands of enemies, beautiful visuals, among other elements, to give it a 8.5/10 rating. Some criticisms included audio mixing issues and shaky performance.

Saber Interactive already has a roadmap released of what kind of content it is bringing to its hugely successful title in the future, which include new PvE and PvP maps, new enemies, a horde mode, new weapons, and more.

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In a post on the official PlayStation blog, Sony reveals the PS5 Pro is meant to give gamers better graphics while running games at 60fps. Mark Cerny, the lead hardware architect for the PlayStation division, stated in a video introducing the PS5 Pro that three-quarters of PS5 players prefer playing games in Performance Mode, with 60fps at the expense of graphical fidelity. With the PS5 Pro, the goal was to offer gamers high frame rates, but with better graphics and detail.

Sony says they have accomplished this with three major features in the PS5 Pro:

• Upgraded GPU: With PS5 Pro, we are upgrading to a GPU that has 67% more Compute Units than the current PS5 console and 28% faster memory. Overall, this enables up to 45% faster rendering for gameplay, making the experience much smoother.
• Advanced Ray Tracing: We’ve added even more powerful ray tracing that provides more dynamic reflection and refraction of light. This allows the rays to be cast at double, and at times triple, the speeds of the current PS5 console.
• AI-Driven Upscaling: We’re also introducing PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, an AI-driven upscaling that uses a machine learning-based technology to provide super sharp image clarity by adding an extraordinary amount of detail.

A number of PS5 games will be updated to get the most out of the new PS5 Pro hardware. They will be identified with a PS5 Pro Enhanced branding label. The games will include:

• Alan Wake 2
• Assassin’s Creed: Shadows
• Demon’s Souls
• Dragon’s Dogma 2
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Gran Turismo 7
• Hogwarts Legacy
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• The Crew Motorfest
• The First Descendant
• The Last of Us Part II Remastered

The console will also have PS5 Pro Game Boost, which can boost the performance of backward-compatible PS4 games. It will also have Enhanced Image Quality to increase the resolution of PS4 games. The PS5 Pro will also have Wi-Fi 7 hardware inside, along with support for Variable Refresh Rates for supported TVs, and even support for 8K gaming.

It will also have a 2TB SSD, but it will not have an onboard disk drive. People who want that will have to purchase the Disc Drive for PS5 add-on.

Pricing for other territories will be £699.99 in the UK, €799.99 for the European Union, and ¥119,980 for Japan. Preorders will begin on September 26.

Developing...

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The currently ongoing IFA Berlin 2024 is among the largest and longest consumer and electronics show in the world. No doubt some of the biggest companies are present there, including AMD.

First, in an interview to Tom’s Hardware, AMD revealed its plans for next-gen graphics cards. In that interview, Jack Huynh, AMD’s senior vice president and general manager of the Computing and Graphics Business Group, revealed how AMD wants to concentrate on the budget and mid-range graphics card segment. This means no flagship graphics cards for the RDNA 4 based AMD Radeon RX 8000 series. Something we have reported before. But so far we had no confirmation on it.

The idea behind this move is that AMD wants to capture more market share, so more and more developers support and optimize for AMD graphics cards. AMD currently is lagging behind massively in the gaming GPU market on PC, with market share, as per AMD, being around just 10%. With all developers going towards Nvidia, AMD wants to change that. Aiming to reach at least 50% GPU market share. As budget and mid-range gamers form a major part of graphics card users, the quickest way to reach there is to concentrate on them.

While AMD hasn’t replied when they will start releasing flagships again, they likely to be back with RDNA 5 graphics cards.

But that’s not the only revelation that AMD has made. It’s making major changes to its GPU architecture too.

AMD’s Gaming & Datacenter GPU Architecture To Be Merged

5 years ago, AMD had announced that it will split it’s gaming and datacenter GPU architecture. While gaming GPUs got based on the RDNA architecture, the datacenter ones got based CDNA architecture.

Today, in its interview to Tom’s Hardware again, AMD’s Jack Huynh announced that AMD is going to merge its gaming RDNA and datacenter CDNA GPU architecture again into a single architecture, named UDNA.

Jack Huynh from AMD said:

AMD also gave reasons behind their merger:

One Team & Future

When asked for clarification about whether gaming and datacenter’s will share the same architecture in the future, AMD said that doing so will allow them to have just one team working on a unified GPU architecture, rather than having two different teams working on two different ones.

AMD isn’t revealing when it’s going to release the new unified architecture though. Saying that it is a strategy for now. A strategy that AMD says is not only good for them, but also for developers. So that developers can optimize their software for just one architecture.

However, as for the timeline, it did mention UDNA 6, which is likely to be a replacement for RDNA 6. So it means that AMD already has RDNA 5, likely to be powering AMD Radeon RX 9000 series, all designed and figured out. So the new unified architecture is likely to be released only after the AMD Radeon RX 9000 graphics card series, likely with an entirely new name for the line-up.

Conclusion

The report mentions how this move is aimed at taking on Nvidia’s CUDA architecture. This is because both gaming and datacenter GPUs from Nvidia have one base, that’s the CUDA support underneath them. It mentions that while AMD has its own open source ROCm software stack to counter CUDA, it’s not a match to Nvidia.

Another problem is that while Nvidia RTX graphics cards come with Tensor Cores for AI and other tasks like DLSS, Ray Tracing and others, AMD doesn’t have any direct hardware based powerful answer to it. So when it merges it’s AI concentrating datacenter and gaming GPUs, it’s likely that AMD is likely to get a major boost in these things.

As for our views. We think only time will tell how beneficial it’s going to be. From the gamer’s perspective, it’s going to be interesting. While it means that one team working on a single architecture means cost savings and better product. But it can also mean that gaming part of the architecture could be less prioritized by the GPU designers. That’s because there’s big money in datacenter. Either way, it is to be seen how AMD manages to do it.

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It has not been a good year for the Bungie game development team. The developer laid off 220 team members and canceled plans for a Destiny spin-off game. However, the company behind the free-to-play sci-fi shooter Destiny 2 says it has a new roadmap that is hopes will revitalize the game. The new roadmap is being revealed on the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Destiny game franchise.

In a blog post, Bungie says that Destiny 2 will include two paid expansion packs for 2025. Both are being called "medium-sized" expansions compared to the big annual expansions that have been released in the past for the game. Bungie added that these expansions will be different from the "one-shot" campaigns that have been released in the past. It added:

We are excited to try new things that challenge your idea of what a Destiny experience can be. We are actively prototyping non-linear campaigns, exploration experiences similar to the Dreaming City or Metroidvanias, and even more unusual formats like roguelikes or survival shooters. Each expansion will present a new opportunity to try something different.

The first expansion, code-named Apollo, is due out in the summer of 2025, and Bungie has already said it will be a "nonlinear character-driven adventure." The second expansion pack, code-named Behemoth, is currently due out in the winter of 2025.

Bungie will also be releasing four free content updates in 2025. Two will be released alongside the new expansions, and two will be stand-alone updates. Bungie says they will include the following features.

• Activities: Strikes, Exotic missions, or entirely new modes like Onslaught
• Rewards: weapons, armor, Artifact Mods, Exotics, and more
• New weekly events
• New features
• Combat meta and balance updates

Bungie says that it will be making some changes to the core Destiny 2 experience, including improvements to its activity user interface, some changes to its Challenge Customization system, and higher Legendary gear tiers.

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Forza Motorsport Update 12 is now available for download on PC and Xbox Series X|S. The latest free feature update delivers new cars, the long-awaited Spectate Mode, Challenge Hub, and more.

Private multiplayer events in Forza Motorsport now feature Spectate Mode, which allows for easier event monitoring and broadcasting. With Update 12, Spectate Mode features a dynamic driver list, lap counter, ticker, track map, driver data, new camera options, customizable HUD, reduced switch lag, the ability to save replays, and more.

New cars include the 2023 McLaren Artura, the 2022 Lamborghini Huracan EVO Spyder, and the 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Jordan Luka 3 Motorsport Edition, which was developed in partnership with shoemaker Jordan.

Another addition to the game is Challenge Hub, which allows players to choose how they earn reward cars, either via the Featured Tour in Career as before or by completing races in Featured Multiplayer. The update also further improves Forza Race Regulations by implementing additional data for AI machine learning training. Developers say FRR now features three times more in-game information for determining penalty system accuracy.

Free Play and Private multiplayer events now support more weather types. Overall, there are 16 new weather conditions with different clouds, fog, precipitation, and more.

Here is the list of other fixes and improvements:

• Fixed an issue with visible artifacts in car tire smoke when using Performance RT render mode on Xbox Series X consoles.
• Addressed a bug that causes car focus in Photo Mode to not work correctly when NVIDIA DLSS is enabled on PC.
• We’ve made memory and system improvements for PCs that support GPU upload heaps.
• Rivals events now set the default Fuel & Tire setup to minimum fuel load to lower vehicle weight (for all cars) and automatically equip Soft tires for maximum grip if player car is currently equipped with "Race" tires. As before, fuel use and tire wear are not simulated in Rivals.
• 2019 Porsche #70 Porsche Motorsport 935 has been removed from the Forza GT3 Series and added to the Modern Factory Racecar Series.
• Improved Screen Narration while selecting options for tires, fuel, and repairs during pit stops.
• Fixed an issue where the game crashes when a photo or replay is selected to be viewed.

You can learn more about the latest Forza Motorsport update, including featured events, mid-engine focused tournaments, new spotlight cars, VIP discounts, and more, in a post on the official website and the official release notes.

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Table of contents:

1. Windows 10 and 11 news
2. Windows Insider Program
3. Updates are available
4. Reviews
5. Gaming news
6. 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.

This week's Microsoft Weekly kicks off with fresh stats from Statcounter and Valve. Since Microsoft does not provide official numbers about Windows 11's adoption, users and developers must rely on third-party stats providers. Statcounter, for one, says Windows 11's market share continues climbing while Windows 10 steadily loses customers. By September 1, 2024, Windows 11 was reported to have 31.63%. Also, Windows 11 finally managed to beat Windows 10 on Steam. Valve confirmed that over 50% of Windows systems are finally running Windows 11.

As for browsers, another part of Statcounter's data, Microsoft Edge is not going anywhere that fast. During the last month, it only increased its market share by the narrowest of margins.

We finally published our Windows 11 version 24H2 review, where you can check out what is coming to your Windows 11 computer in the next few weeks. Spoiler alert: the update is okay. It should not make things worse, and there are several quite nice feature additions, improvements, and changes. Many annoyances are still unresolved, though, which is a bummer.

Windows 11 version 24H2 is currently available in the Release Preview Channel. If waiting is not an option, get the update using our handy guide. You might regret installing a preview build, so keep this guide on hand in case you want to go back to version 23H2 or even Windows 10 (assuming you upgraded from it).

Another handy guide we published this week was about the Downloads folder in Windows 11 and its nasty bug that reverts the directory to the default view. Neowin discovered a simple workaround, so check it out here.

As it turned out, Microsoft is not going to let you uninstall Recall. The company's spokesperson confirmed in a statement that Recall showing up in the "Turn Windows features on or off UI" was nothing but a bug, and a future Windows update would remove it from there. Before you panic, remember that Recall is not even available yet, and the experience is strictly opt-in.

In other Recall-related news, at IFA 2024, Intel announced a new processor lineup, the Intel Core Ultra 200V. These chips have powerful neural processing units built in, which qualifies them for the Copilot+ PC program. Both Microsoft and Intel confirmed that computers with 200V processors will get Copilot+ PC AI capabilities sometime in November 2024.

Intel was not the only company that brought new Windows hardware to IFA. Qualcomm officially unveiled two new entry-level Snapdragon X Plus processors for more affordable Copilot+ PCs. These chips will open the door for $700-$900 ARM-powered computers with powerful AI capabilities.

While announcing the chips, Qualcomm's CEO revealed that more popular apps are getting native versions for ARM. Some of them include the Google Drive client (currently blocked on ARM even if emulated) and some VPN clients, such as Express VPN.

At IFA 2024, Microsoft announced two new Surface devices, making its Copilot+ PCs accessible to commercial customers. The Surface Laptop 7 for Business and the Surface Pro 11 for Business are now official (but they are almost completely identical to their consumer versions).

As for slightly bizarre devices (such things are no strangers to the Windows market), ASUS announced a mini-PC with Intel's latest Core Ultra Chips and a dedicated button for Copilot. Why? No one knows.

Another odd device coming from IFA 2024 is the Lenovo Auto Twist, a two-in-one laptop with a motorized hinge that rotates the display to follow you during video calls and opens/closes automatically with voice commands. Sadly, the Lenovo Auto Twist is just a wild concept, so there is no information on whether the company plans to make it a publicly available device.

Microsoft also published a few support documents that acknowledged the importance of choice regarding default apps and even provided tips on how to change defaults. Another document explained how to fix the "we could not find this app" error, and another one offered suggestions for improving slow startup performance. Besides, the company detailed WDDM 3.2 improvements, such as better AV1 decoding and fewer driver crashes in Windows 11 24H2.

Finally, Microsoft released a new Windows 11 24H2 setup update under KB5042580 and a new Recovery update under KB5041980.

Windows Insider Program

Here is what Microsoft Released this week for testing in the Windows Insider Program:

Despite the "no build" week (the only build was Server 26280), Microsoft released some interesting updates to Windows Insiders. A new version of the Photos app is now available with navigation improvements, iCloud Photo support on Windows 10, and a new entry in the context menu on Windows 11. If you do not like the latter, check out our guide that details how to remove "Edit with Photos" in Windows 11.

Microsoft updated release notes for builds 22635.4145 and 27695. The former now includes details about the improved Account Manager (the Sign-out button is no longer hidden in a menu) and a new Gamepad keyboard for controller users, and the latter contains details about the redesigned Wi-Fi sharing UI.

Speaking of the keyboard, check it out in more detail here. The new layout is rolling out to Insiders in the Beta Channel, so you may want to enable and test it yourself.

Another interesting feature of the recent Windows 11 preview builds is a new way to pin Windows 11 apps to the taskbar. In Canary builds you can drag apps from Windows Search results directly to the taskbar. Also, Microsoft confirmed that some users have problems with updating Canary builds. The company acknowledged the 0xC1900101 error and promised to release a fix.

To finish the Windows section, here are some performance reviews of Windows 11, which show that the operating system still has some performance issues with VBS/HVCI and other stuff.

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.

PowerToys finally received a big new feature update with a great productivity-boosting tool. Called "Workspaces," it allows you to launch multiple apps at once, specify CL arguments for additional configuration, and more. Besides, PowerToys 0.84 contains improvements for existing modules, so go get the update right now if you are still on version 0.83. By the way, future updates (likely version 0.85) will bring two more utilities.

The Microsoft Remote Desktop app on macOS and iPadOS/iOS will soon receive a new name, and customers are pretty rattled. Microsoft wants to change Remote Desktop to just "Windows Apps," which, according to many, makes no sense and is extremely confusing. However, some claim the new name is actually very fitting.

There were some hardware updates as well. Incase, the company that at the beginning of this year promised to relaunch Microsoft-made PC accessories under a new brand, announced that those accessories are delayed. Now, the company expects to ship them in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Finally, Microsoft announced two new events. One will take place on September 16 to discuss Microsoft 365 Copilot "Wave 2," whatever that means. The other will be held on October 8 to discuss OneDrive updates.

On the third-party side, one of the best third-party File Managers for Windows 11 received a big update. The Files app version 3.7 is now available for download, and it features improved navigation, the ability to hide the tray area icon, improved file compression, and more.

VMware released a new update update for its Workstation Pro hypervisor. Version 17.6 is now available for download with support for new host and guest operating systems, various fixes, and a bunch of deprecated features. By the way, in case you missed it, VMware Workstation Pro is now free for personal use. Commercial use still requires purchasing a license.

Mozilla released a new feature update for its browser on all supported platforms. Version 130 arrived with improved page translation, copy-paste fixes, new localization, and more. If you use Firefox, you are most likely already on version 130—you can check that by heading to Menu > Help > About Firefox.

Other notable updates include the following:

• Edge 130 arrived in the Dev Channel with several improvements and fixes.
• Microsoft is turning off ActiveX by default in Office 2024.
• Microsoft released Windows App SDK 1.6 with native AOT support and more.
• Microsoft released Visual Studio Code 1.93 with major productivity updates.
• Microsoft launched Mv3 high-memory virtual machines with improved performance.

• Microsoft announced the general availability of two new AI security features.

• Microsoft SharePoint pages can now remove the title area in favor of banners.

• Microsoft expanded Azure OpenAI service to more government organizations.

• Microsoft openly criticized Apple's 30% App Store fee, calling it uneconomical and unjustified.

• Microsoft partnered with StopNCII to remove harmful intimate images from Bing.

• Copilot for Microsoft 365 now supports Welsh and Catalan languages.

   

The latest drivers released this week include the following:

• Intel 32.0.101.5989 non-WHQL with Warhammer 40,000 Space Merine 2 support and more.
• AMD 24.10.37.10 non-WHQL with Anti-Lag 2 Vulkan support for Counter-Strike 2 and more.

Several Surface devices received new firmware updates this week:

• Surface Studio 2+ received security patches and fixes for Wi-Fi dropouts.
• Surface Pro 9 5G received fixes for BSODs and non-working USB-C ports.
• Surface Go 2 received fixes for display flickering and Wi-Fi improvements.

The update section ends this week with an odd one: someone ported Windows 7's taskbar and Start menu to Windows 10 and 11. So, you can now have a bit of a 15-year-old operating system on your Windows 11 PC because why not. Jokes aside, the project is not suitable for daily use, so try it on a spare system on a virtual machine.

Reviews are in

Here is the hardware we reviewed this week.

Steven Parker reviewed the Beelink ERQ6, an office-class mini PC with the Ryzen 9 6900HX and 24GB of RAM. While it is not a gaming PC by any means, it offers solid build quality, powerful hardware, front Type-C ports, and a decent price. As for downsides, only two displays are supported, and there are no VESA mount options.

On the gaming side

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

Sony made a surprising announcement that its ill-fated first-person shooter Concord, which spent eight years in development, would be taken offline only one month after the launch and hardly selling over 25,000 copies. Everyone who purchased the game on the PlayStation 5 console or PC will get a full refund. Better luck next time.

Halo: Infinite received a new Operations update with some old-school content, six new Forge maps based on Halo: Reach, a new 20-tier Operation Pass with cosmetic items, and more.

Forza Horizon 5 also received a new content update. "Hidden Horizons" features a brand-new game mode, exclusive cars, new character swag, fresh collectibles, and more.

Microsoft announced a new wave of games coming to Xbox and PC Game Pass. The latest additions include Star Trucker, Age of Mythology: Retold (check out our review here), Expeditions: A MudRunner Game, Riders Republic, and Train Sim World 5. You can find the exact release date in our dedicated article here.

Undead Labs is ending State of Decay 2 updates soon. The reason is simple: the studio wants to ramp up the development of State of Decay 3, which was announced earlier this year.

Nvidia announced new games that are now playable on GeForce NOW. The latest additions include Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, Age of Mythology, Final Fantasy XVI Demo, Sins of a Solar Empire II, and more.

Deals and freebies

The Epic Games Store is giving away two titles: Football Manager 2024 and Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts. Both games are available until next Thursday. More deals and specials are available in our weekly "Weekend PC Game Deals" series.

Other gaming stories include the following:

• Phil Spencer revealed that Destiny could have been an Xbox exclusive.
• Capcom fighting game collections have been finally confirmed for Xbox.
• Astroneer: Glitchwalkers expansion announced with a new planet, biomes, and a villain.
• No Man's Sky received a new update that lets you go fishing on alien planets.
• Microsoft shared more details about the Forza and Jordan collaboration.
• Cities: Skylines II fixed homeless citizens, added a new decoration menu, and more.
• Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 7 arrived on PC with new ending cinematics and more.

Microsoft Weekly image background by akirEVarga on Pixabay.

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While the original game from 2011, which finally gave us proper Space Marine action, was made by Relic Entertainment, Saber Interactive has taken up the mantle for the sequel. Fans of cooperative action games may remember Saber as the minds behind the World War Z games, and I'm happy to say the studio has taken the best parts of that and injected it straight into Warhammer.

After spending over a dozen hours inside Space Marine 2, going through its campaign, the separate Operation missions, and PVP multiplayer action, I think I'm finally ready to give my thoughts on this action-filled, brutal, and satisfying sequel.

While my points will cover the campaign and gameplay in detail, I've tried to keep this review spoiler-free to keep the storyline and all the cool moments it presents as fresh as possible for anyone jumping in for the first time. With all that out of the way, here is my review of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.

Campaign

From the moment that the Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 campaign starts, it clearly communicates to the player just what kind of action game this is going to be. Our protagonist falls out of an aircraft, proceeds to walk it off, and then saws through thousands of critters with sharp teeth and claws to accomplish an objective single-handedly, just in the prologue. This sets the tone quite nicely: Space Marines are badasses.

The story has you taking the role of Titus, a soldier who is part of the most powerful group of fighters: the Ultramarines. Even though some corporate shenanigans have him being demoted to a lieutenant, Titus is called back to repel the Tyranid escalating invasion. He is joined by two other Space Marines, which can be bots or other players, and the latter choice is obviously the way to go. Having actual people protecting your back or accidentally abandoning you while joining in on the carnage is exactly how the game is meant to be played, I think.

The war story the campaign presents takes you to multiple planets, dropping our trio to the most desperate situations as regular soldiers look up in awe, expecting you to make miracles happen. Guess what? You simply do what they expect of you. Each level offers brilliant visuals, taking us through everything from landscapes infested with poisonous spores that have transformed the worlds into swamps to gargantuan high-fantasy cities with the sky on fire with the amount of tracer fire being fired upon at the enemies filling the sky.

The levels themselves are quite linear, and objectives are simple at most times, but the fantastic level designs and some delightfully inventive twists were a blast to go through. A couple of examples include even a short sequence where the lights go out in a small room before a horde hits, with only the weapons fire and swords lighting the way, and the fantastically fun levels containing jetpacks where you're stomping everything to dust from the air.

The armor feels heavy, and I mean actually heavy. Saber's animations and camera movements have managed to make it seem like each step of a Space Marine is making the ground sorry for existing. The visceral execution animations are a joy to witness too. Seeing our protagonist grab a Tyranid by its tail and slam it down on its friends, or rip off a spiked claw from a cloaked, Predator-like Lictor and send it through its own skull, or even take out a Chaos Marine by popping the helmet like a soda bottle, all give off such metal vibes. The animations are spectacular, with each weapon offering multiple types of executions to explore with for each enemy. The bombastic gameplay of the campaign is just oozing coolness that has no issues letting you be overpowered.

Gameplay

Seeing thousands of enemies charge over the hilltops and constructing ramps out of their own bodies to climb over fortified positions gave me a strong feeling of Déjà vu. This is where we are finally seeing World War Z's amazing horde technology coming back into play. Instead of zombies like the studio’s earlier game, Tyranid swarms can literally coat the screen as they come screaming through buildings or across fields, giving you only moments to prepare before they hit like a crashing wave. Thankfully, Space Marines are equipped with some heavy weaponry.

Every weapon comes with its attack combos, and they are simple to remember and even easier to execute. You don't have to do any special movement inputs or multiple buttons for spectacular maneuvers that carve up dozens of enemies that are surrounding you. It's all done with one button. Tapping the melee button three times and holding it on the fourth will get you a 360-degree enemy-clearing stomp to get some breathing room while holding that button on the second click would have a more forceful pushback, but only in a certain direction. These are unique for every weapon, with everything from the iconic Chainsword and Powersword to my personal favorite, Thunder Hammer, being available to you for wiping out enemies from existence. Even in the thick of battle, with thousands swarming your squad and an objective in view, combos never become difficult to pull off.

Space Marines aren't complete without their trusty guns, and Saber has delivered on this front too. Multiple types of rifles, carbines, incinerators, and pistols are available to choose from, each being more suited to different kinds of jobs. When coupled with the melee weapons, you will be twirling like a heavily armored ballet dancer, popping heads in one direction and chopping heads off in another direction.

While button mashing can get you far, especially in lower difficulties, there's a certain flow to the combat that you must stick to. Tearing into a boss enemy while dozens of smaller critters poke at you from the sides, while also getting blasted by long-range attacks, can seem overwhelming at first, but that's where the counter shots, parries, and executions come in to save the day. Managing to push back enemies, do a parry, or dodge as an attack is about to hit will offer dazzling opportunities to do a quick shot with your trusty gun. These shots fill up the armor bar, which is a godsend in the middle of massive battles.

Doing significant damage to an enemy will also make them blink red. That's the game communicating that a brutal and satisfying execution can be performed with the press of a button. The best part of all this is each of these actions kick off an animation that makes you invulnerable to damage as they are active while also making nearby enemies get pushed back (sometimes even crushed in an area around you), so you get some breathing room to reorient yourself in the battlefield and go for the important targets.

The only problem I ran into was with the parry system’s notification marker. When an enemy is about to make a staggering attack on your Space Marine, the game provides a blue marker to let you know that a parry is possible. If this is a smaller enemy, it doesn’t matter when you press the parry button; you instantly kill the little beast. However, when it’s a larger and tougher enemy, it seems the parry timing also considers the attack animation, so you have to press it right as the attack is about the land, sometimes multiple times in a row. This is easier to do in calmer situations with a few enemies, but when surrounded by hordes, any blue notification can be a small critter or a big guy lunging. I feel that these could have been two separate icons, or perhaps different colors, at least to make differentiation between them an easier task in battle. Thankfully dodging away provides the same buff as a parry, so that was what I mostly utilized in fights.

To put everything into perspective. In a standard fight, I would be picking off targets with my gun as they charge from a distance, start sawing through them once they group up, parrying and taking counter shots to keep my armor filled up, dodging away from unblockable attacks, throwing grenades to clear out pockets of bad guys, make sure my teammates are doing okay, using my ultimate ability, executing smaller critters to clear some space, taking shots at far away snipers, reviving teammates, and finally progressing through the hordes, like the tank that I am, towards the objectives. It's fantastic. The combat has been tuned to almost perfection.

Operations

Alongside the campaign, Space Marine 2 offers Operations as a selection of side missions you can tackle with your friends or randoms via matchmaking, filled to the brim with even more action. This is where I think the game can expand upon in the future without having to put in entire campaign portions with high-budget cutscenes and set pieces. If you've played Vermintide or Darktide games, Operations are more akin to those experiences: linear with simple objectives but with unending action with dynamic enemy reactions. Even with all the enemy-swarming mechanics and multiple types of monsters, the title does not ship with a horde mode. Operations try to take up the slack here.

Space Marine 2 ships with six of these PvE Operations, and like those other games I mentioned previously, there's class and weapon progression, customizations, as well as multiple difficulty modes to conquer. An AI Director is also present here, which games like Left 4 Dead and World War Z have utilized in the past. To simplify the process, the Director adjusts the number and variety of enemies that are thrown at players on the fly depending on how much trouble they are having at any given moment. If the squad is breezing through the level, the Director will beef up upcoming waves and sprinkle in more heavies, while those that are getting already hammered and barely making it through will get more rest periods and heals spawned for them. This happens outside of the selected difficulty too, all to ensure replayability, and it works here.

There are six classes to choose from when jumping into missions, and each of them comes with special abilities that can be upgraded by playing. After browsing through most of them, which included a Sniper that can go invisible, a Space Marine with a grappling hook, and a shield-toting supporting class, I settled on Assault class because of its extremely versatile jetpack powers. By leveling up and gaining XP, each class can be customized in both looks and performance, with separate weapon enhancements also available. It did seem like it would take a long time to unlock anything worthwhile in this mode, though.

Moreover, from a story perspective, Operations provide an interesting twist. They take place right alongside the campaign's events, just following other squads of Space Marines. These squads communicate with Titus and other Ultramarine characters that appear in the campaign to complete missions that occur concurrently with the main campaign's events. It's a fun little explanation that adds more to the immersion. I just wish there were more of them at launch.

If you're looking for PVP multiplayer, a separate mode named Eternal War is also available. Most of the time I've spent on the campaign and co-op portions, but the few multiplayer games I did jump into gave me mixed impressions. Its gameplay has the same hectic Space Marine melee and gunplay mechanics as the other modes, but now in a six versus six format. It's simple and focused on arcade action, with TDM, Domination, and King of the Hill modes available. An issue I kept facing was the servers. I was constantly being put in high latency matches ranging from 200 to 300 ping. Surprisingly, the rounds still worked mostly okay, just with some stuttering enemies. If you are interested in the game for its campaign and co-op elements, much like I am, I don’t think the multiplayer will be a big draw. But it's still a good button-mashing shooter experience to spend some time in.

Graphics, performance, and audio

Space Marine 2 is a beautiful game. Despite being a third-person perspective entry, every level has so much detail in its environment. The mushroom-filled swamps, the underground caves, the gritty internals of extremely 40K halls, and the literal castles in the sky are breathtaking at times. Even though the game does not use any ray tracing tech, performance seems to be a slight sticking point.

I played the game at 1440p on my Lenovo Legion 5 Pro, housing an RTX 3060 Laptop GPU with 6GB VRAM, an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU, and 16GB of RAM. The is installed on the internal NVMe SSD. It required putting the settings mostly to medium to achieve 60FPS. This was not constant, however. Some levels dropped that frame rate to the 40s at times, mostly when looking towards massive environments as the screen fills with Tyranid hordes. Enabling DLSS (FSR also available) made the frame rate a little bit more consistent, though with the number of moving parts (mostly creatures) the title has at all times on screen, upscaling tech doesn’t look very nice when being used. Unfortunately, there isn’t a benchmarking option to easily compare hardware.

A friend playing the game on an ROG Ally (2023) handheld PC was also surprised by the performance. The settings were put mostly on low with dynamic upscaling enabled, and the device was plugged in for maximum performance, but Space Marine 2 managed to keep the frame rates steady in the 40s range throughout the campaign. This might not be the case with all handhelds, though. Saber has explicitly said that the title has not yet been verified on Steam Deck, and your mileage may also vary on other handhelds like the Lenovo Legion Go. The only bugs I faced in my playthrough of the campaign, Operations, and multiplayer modes were a few connection and ping issues when connecting. Though my friend in the ROG Ally did crash a few times during the intro mission, it was smooth sailing after that.

Graphics and performance aside, the audio is where the main problem of this game lies. The sound effects of weapons and guns are loud and boomy, as they are supposed to be, but looking away from other sources of sounds seems to quieten them a bit too much. Environmental sounds, enemy roars, distant explosions, and dialog from nearby NPCs all seem to get muted the moment you look away and sometimes do not come through at all. It’s unclear what is causing this, but something is certainly up with the surround sounds the title is trying to push to the player.

A Field of View slider is also something I hope the developer will implement in the future. Despite being a third-person experience, when your Space Marine is taking a large amount of space on screen, it would have been nice to expand the FOV a little more to see more of the space you’re fighting in. I’m pretty sure TotalBiscuit would have had some things to say about this omission.

Conclusion

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is one of those rare games that land delivering exactly what fans want, does its job better than anyone expected it to, and doesn’t overstay its welcome — even though I want it to. The combat is spectacular, combining the absolutely massive hordes mechanic from Saber Interactive’s previous title plus the raw power of Space Marines into an action game that holds nothing back. Aside from the parrying inconsistencies, the combat has been a joy to experience throughout the campaign and the side Expeditions. The roar of the Chainsword, the crackling of the Lightning Hammer, coupled with the massive boom of Space Marine weaponry, all give of such metal vibes, I cannot wait to jump back into the game again once I’m done writing this review. Adding cooperative multiplayer into the franchise is one of the best decisions the developer could have made. Fighting Tyranids side by side with friends is simply glorious, easily multiplying the brutality that’s on screen.

When a game's gameplay and presentation are on point, the negatives tend to disappear. Even still, I do have some annoyances regarding the audio mixing issues, optimization, confusing parry notifications, and the lack of a FOV slider. Not having an actual horde mode to enjoy when the combat is this satisfying feels like a massive missed opportunity for launch as well.

Even with its issues, Saber Interactive has managed to deliver one of the best action games that I have ever played. This is an easy recommendation for anyone wanting to have an authentic Warhammer Space Marine experience or simply a well-built action game that makes you an overpowered killing machine without any regrets.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 launches on September 9 for PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 with a $59.99 price tag. Those pre-purchasing the Gold or Ultra editions can jump into the game right now.

This review of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 on PC was conducted on a pre-release copy of the Steam version provided by Focus Entertainment.

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What you need to know

• Star Wars Outlaws, developed by Massive Games and published by Ubisoft, is a third-person action adventure with stealth mechanics set in the Star Wars universe.
• Some early gameplay segments feature punishing stealth requirements that have led to players struggling to progress.
• Star Wars Outlaws creative director, Julian Gerighty, revealed a patch for the frustratingly difficult stealth missions that would release "in about ten days", around September 17.
• The team is also considering additional missions later in the game to retool and adjust for better difficulty balance.

Star Wars Outlaws just released one week ago, and the team at Massive Games is already tooling away at a patch to rework the difficulty of some of the game's more controversial early missions. According to comments made by creative director Julian Gerighty to GamesRadar+, Ubisoft has a patch in the works that will retool the problematic missions after seeing data that indicates they are not working as intended. The patch can be expected "maybe in ten days", according to Gerighty, which would put the update's release around September 17.

Gerighty's comments claim the game's aggressively punishing stealth missions were to create tension, but are ultimately not performing as the team intended. Instead, players are struggling and finding those early missions unfair, which Gerighty agrees is an accurate take. Gerighty also stated that the difficulty spike was something that only crept in within a week or so of the game's launch. He described the difficulty of the early mission on Mirogana as incredibly punishing and a mistake that the team would continue to work on.

While the first patch targets the difficulty of Star Wars Outlaws' early missions, that doesn't mean later challenges are off the table. Additional updates and tweaks could be made to rebalance the game based on player feedback and collected gameplay data. "I think there are millions of low-hanging fruits where we can make it so much more enjoyable and understandable," Gerighty said concerning reworking the difficulty. 

Gerighty stated that the patch wouldn't necessarily remove the fail states that are proving to be a problem for players, so much as it would aim to find other ways to help those who are stuck to progress. This could be done by introducing additional context clues or otherwise changing the context in which players approach the roadblock. Game director Mathias Karlson also made a statement on the struggles players were experiencing with progression, stating that the team wanted to keep players "in that knife-edge range" of tension. However, the team takes player feedback and data into consideration when determining whether a segment needs to be retuned. 

Star Wars Outlaws has four difficulty settings available at launch: Explorer (Story), Adventurer (Easy), Outlaw (Normal), and Scoundrel (Hard). It has not yet been said how those difficulty settings will be affected by changes to the problematic missions. "The overall idea for a heist in the Star Wars galaxy is intriguing. However, Outlaws' plot wouldn't be able to stand on its own feet if it wasn't propped up in Star Wars nostalgia," said Windows Central's own Rebecca Spear in a review of Star Wars Outlaws. While the difficulty didn't seem to be an issue for Rebecca, frustration in the game's stealth mechanics could be found in other opinion paces highlighted in our Star Wars Outlaws review round-up. 

Paul's Hardware (1.48M subscribers)

September 8, 2024

Video length: 12m 35s

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

1:32 GamersNexus Drops Bombshell EK Investigative Video

TECH BRIEFS

5:02 Intel CEO will reportedly present plans to cut assets at an emergency board meeting

5:54 Intel Announces Cancellation of 20A Process, Will Use TSMC for Arrow Lake

6:22 Intel says defect density at 18A is 'healthy,' potential clients are lining up

7:02 Intel Core Ultra 200V “Lunar Lake” Launched for Laptop PCs

7:46 AMD Unveils Z2 Extreme Chipset for Handhelds, coming Early 2025

8:31 Watch Out for Fake AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPUs

9:30 7600X3D Benchmarked; Will Be Available in Germany / EU via Mindfactory

10:26 NVIDIA Actually Wasn’t Subpoena’d by the DOJ This Week

11:07 57% of this AI Discussion is Fabricated BS

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What you need to know

• Baldur's Gate 3 has added in-game mod support with Patch 7 and it's so popular more than a million mods have been installed within a day of the patch going live.
• The in-game function makes it easier than ever for players to add mods to their game without being seasoned modders or reading a bunch of instructions.
• Patch 7 also added new evil ending cinematics, new Honor Mode Legendary Actions, and a certain Bard as a one-night-only companion.

Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 7 just landed and it's a chunky 11GB update that adds mod tools — and oh boy, players are having fun with it. According to Larian founder, more than a million mods have been installed in less than 24 hours. "Modding is pretty big."

Of course, people have been using mods on PC for Baldur's Gate 3 since launch, but the integrated mod manager added with Patch 7 makes it easier than ever for people to pick and choose mods through Steam. It's a separate application downloadable for free that lets you create and install mods to your game directly from an in-game menu. So far, players have been making doing everything from making all their characters teeny weeny... to changing Astarion's in-game name to 'Twinkastarion' and Karlach to 'Mommy Karlach.' Important stuff. 

 

How to install Baldur's Gate 3 mods

(Image credit: Larian)

 

(Image credit: Larian)

 

(Image credit: Larian)

 

The mod manager itself is now in game, and once you've updated to Patch 7 it can be used straight away for installing mods. However if you want to have a go at creating mods of your own you'll need to download the Baldur's Gate 3 Tookit, which is a seperate application on the Steam Store.

 

• Go to your Steam Library
• Right-click on Baldur’s Gate 3
• Select properties, then DLC
• In the Install column, check that Toolkit Data DLC is checked
• To make sure Tools is selected as showing, use the dropdown navigation above your Library search bar

Will Baldur's Gate 3 mods come to console?

Streamer shows hair mod in action, and combines different hair pieces to give the player character Orin's hair.

(Image credit: Jay Dunna)

 

The mod manager is currently only available on PC, but it will be available on console soon, as the developers have said they were working on a "robust, cross-platform plan for mod support." Note that Baldur's Gate 3 is cross-save, but your mods in your PC save will not sync over to your console save. 

Everything else added in Patch 7

Patch 7 wasn't all about mod support; there's also been a bunch of new stuff added to Baldur's Gate 3; we've got new 'evil' endings, new Honour Mode Legendary Actions, and even a new temporary companion. Here's the top stuff from the Patch notes and you can read the full and extensive notes here:
 

13 new Evil ending cinematics

 

• "Whether you embraced absolute power, carried out your father’s will, played as an Origin character or were generally a menace to society, you’ll find Patch 7 now introduces 13 new cinematics that offer varying conclusions to your most evil playthroughs."
• The 'Show cinematic nudity' setting has now been renamed 'Show Sexual and Violent Cinematics' to more accurately describe its function. "This setting does not affect your adventure, your choices, or your access to romance options; however, it does block sexual content with nudity and particularly violent scenes with gore."
• Whether you’re starting a new game or loading an old save to relive your battle with the Netherbrain, you’ll get to see these new cinematics depending on the choices you make.

 

One night companion

 

• It was stated in Community Update #28 that if you are playing as the Dark Urge, a certain bard would now be able to join the party as a controllable character at camp if there’s an empty slot, TEMPORARILY.

 

New Honour Mode Legendary Actions

 

• If Dror Ragzlin finds himself inside the spider pit, he'll try his best to befriend the spiders residing there with a new spell called Arachnid Compulsion so they can band together to fight the real enemy - you.
• The Bulette has a new condition called Diamond Scales and a new Legendary Action called Shredding Scales.
• Malus Thorm has a new Legendary Action called Grasping Appendage.
• Added a new aura and spell for Spectators: Panicked Sentinel and Ocular Nightmare, respectively.
• Ch'r'ai Tska'an, the leader of the githyanki ambush in Act II, has a new Legendary Action called Soul Sacrifice.
• Ch'r'ai Har'rak, the githyanki leader at the Knights of the Shield Hideout, has a new Legendary Action called Tu'narath's Embrace.
• Ptaris has a new Legendary Action called Ptarian Dogma.

 

Improvements to split-screen gameplay

 

• When playing on a split screen, the two halves of the screen will now dynamically merge when player characters come close to each other in-game, and dynamically split back up when the characters move apart. 
• Fixed cinematics, which look broken on the split screen if Player 2 disconnects from local co-op via the menu.
• Fixed a split screen issue related to the Unstable Statue in the Shattered Sanctum, causing player characters to disappear.
• We fixed a bug where receiving a journal update that adds a quest marker to the map and then joining as Player 2 on the split screen wouldn't show the quest marker for Player 2 until the next save or load.
• Fixed the position of the virtual keyboard on split screen on the PS5.
• The Trade UI will no longer mute cinematics on split screen.
• Fixed the panning for items getting moved around in the Trade UI on split screen.
• Fixed a split-screen bug where if you were already on a split screen before a shared cinematic (i.e., one that takes up the whole screen) started, the subtitles showed up on just one half of the screen.

 

As mentioned, full notes are available from Larian here.

 

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Today, Bethesda Game Studios celebrated that first anniversary with a post on its X account. It thanks the "millions of players" who have played Starfield in the past year.

The post also offered some tidbits of info for what will be included in the game's first major expansion pack, Shattered Space. It will take place on a new planet in the game called Va'ruun'kai, and today's post stated that Starfield players will be able to find and explore "over 50 new locations" on that planet.

The post also says players will be able to use a new type of grenade in the expansion pack. However, it also says those grenades will have to be crafted with a new organic material that was described as being "gross".

The expansion will also have new enemies called "Redeemed and Vortex Horrors" and players will also encounter some groups from the main Starfield game such as "Zealots, Spacers, or the Crimson Fleet" while they explore Va'ruun'kai.

Starfield: Shattered Space will be released on September 30 for $29.99 for people who have already purchased the main game. Players who have already bought the Starfield Premium Edition or Constellation Edition will get the Shattered Space expansion at no additional cost. At least one more story-based expansion pack is in the works for Starfield.

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In a post on X, Durov says that the platform's goal is now to "turn moderation on Telegram from an area of criticism into one of praise." Telegram's controversial approach to content moderation has caused quite a lot of trouble for the platform recently, with France arresting Durov and South Korea launching an investigation due to the widespread number of deepfake videos on Telegram.

While 99.999% of Telegram users have nothing to do with crime, the 0.001% involved in illicit activities create a bad image for the entire platform, putting the interests of our almost billion users at risk.

 

That’s why this year we are committed to turn moderation on Telegram from an area of criticism into one of praise.

Besides promising to change how content moderation on Telegram works, Durov announced that some features are now phasing out. The "People Nearby" feature is now replaced by "Businesses Nearby," which should help users find legitimate and verified businesses in their area. Also, Telegram turned off new media uploads to Telegraph (a standalone blogging platform) since it has been "misused by anonymous actors."

Finally, Durov announced that Telegram now has over 10 million subscribers who pay Telegram Premium. For those unaware, Telegram Premium offers additional premium features, such as an ad-free experience, Telegram Stories, larger file uploads, voice message transcription, animated emojis, Telegram Business, and more.

You can learn more about Telegram's latest update in a blog post on the official website.

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The biggest change in the "Hidden Horizons" update is the Hide & Seek mode, which was announced at Gamescom 2024. In this brand-new game mode, six players play hide-and-seek in different cars. The new mode has its own progression, and leveling up will earn you 17 different badges to flex. As for achievements, Playground Games promises to add them in the next update.

Exclusive cars in the "Hidden Horizons" update include the following:

• 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Jordan Luka 3 Motorsport Edition - available September 10
• 1995 Mitsubishi Evo III - available September 12
• 2022 Subaru WRX - available September 19
• 1991 Toyota Chaser GT TT - available September 26
• 2013 Volvo C30 Polestar - available October 3

These four cars will be available for a limited time. To get them, players should complete weekly challenges, championships, multiplayer events, and more. The only exception is the 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Jordan Luka 3 Motorsport Edition, which will be available for all in the in-game message center on September 10.

Completing the "Expedition" photo challenge will earn you the Camo Race Suit:

Finally, in this update, the stadium turns into a maze where you can navigate your way alone or in a convoy, take pictures, and more.

Here are the fixes:

• 2018 Lamborghini Aventador SVJ’s exhaust pipes are now correctly painted

• Fixed an issue with the 2022 Cupra Formentor and the 2022 Cupra Tavascan where livery decals were applying to the steering wheel badge

• Fixed the 2020 Lamborghini SC20’s brake caliper location and the rev red line

• Fixed an issue with the 2021 BMW M3 with some inaccurate textures on the M Performance front, side, rear and wing carbon fiber upgrades

The next update for Forza Horizon 5 will be available on October 10, 2024. It is called "Back to the 90's," so expect some new cars from that era.

You can learn more about the "Hidden Horizons" update here. Full release notes are available here.

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As a result of its waning popularity, the 7700 XT has been dropping in price gradually. Currently, one of the models is at a great price that is absolutely worth considering if you are looking to spend around $350$ and want to play games at 1080p ultra settings or 1440p medium/high settings for a while.

The deal is available on PowerColor's Fighter variant, which comes equipped with three fans and should keep the card running cool and relatively quiet.

If you are wondering, the AMD RX 7700 XT is faster than Nvidia's RTX 4060 Ti (both 8GB and 16GB models) in terms of rasterization performance, though it is slower at ray tracing. However, with its 12 GB VRAM buffer, the AMD Radeon card has a strong case for itself, and it is far cheaper too, which means the value you get for the money you pay is quite literally unbeatable. The situation is similar to the 7800 XT vs RTX 4070 comparison we did earlier in the year.

And compared to the RTX 4060, you get similar ray tracing performance and much faster rasterization while being only around $50-60 more expensive. The 7700 XT can be run on a good quality 500-550 watt PSU, depending on the CPU you are pairing it up with.

Get the Radeon RX 7700 XT at the link below:

• PowerColor Fighter AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT 12GB GDDR6 Graphics Card (RX 7700 XT 16G-F/OC):

   

If this does not interest you, you can also browse through Amazon US, or Amazon UK to see if you find some great deals we missed. You can also go visit the Deals section of our articles to see if there's something you fancy.

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

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This week, as part of its IFA 2024 events in Berlin, Digital Trends reported that AMD confirmed it is working on its next-generation version of its handheld PC chip. Not surprisingly, the CPU has been branded as the Z2 Extreme.

The reveal of the chip and its name was made as part of a Q&A session between AMD and Microsoft. AMD says the Z2 Extreme is due to be released sometime in early 2025, or just under two years since the introduction of the Z1 and Z1 Extreme chips.

Also, not surprisingly, AMD has not offered any info on the hardware specs or performance of the Z2 Extreme chip. It did mention that it is collaborating with several different partners on the development of the CPU. That could mean we could get new and more advanced handheld gaming PCs from Asus and Lenovo next year as well.

One big question about the new chip is whether the Z2 Extreme will help extend the battery life of portable gaming PCs. That is perhaps the biggest hurdle for these kinds of devices.

During IFA this week, Acer jumped into the handheld gaming PC ring with the announcement of the Acer Nitro Blaze 7. While it will use an AMD CPU, it will not be the Z1 or Z1 Extreme, but rather a standard AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS processor that is usually put in notebooks. Acer has yet to announce a release date or a price tag for the Nitro Blaze 7 PC

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The investigators blamed Telegram for not even responding to their calls for cooperation. However, Durov says the complaints were surprising:

“Telegram has an official representative in the EU that accepts and replies to EU requests. Its email address has been publicly available for anyone in the EU who googles ‘Telegram EU address for law enforcement’.

 

“The French authorities had numerous ways to reach me to request assistance. As a French citizen, I was a frequent guest at the French consulate in Dubai. A while ago, when asked, I personally helped them establish a hotline with Telegram to deal with the threat of terrorism in France.”

Furthermore, Durov went on to complain about the fact that the charges were pressed personally against him as the CEO of the company. The Russia-born billionaire said the established practice is to start a legal action against the company. He thinks the French prosecutors took a “misguided approach” which will discourage innovators from building new tools, knowing they can be personally held responsible for their potential abuse by third parties.

Despite these claims, Telegram is well known for not cooperating with governments, law enforcement, and journalists. However, Durov disagrees with the public image of “anarchic paradise” and says Telegram sometimes just “can’t agree with a country’s regulator on the right balance between privacy and security.”

Telegram has roughly 950 million active users and Durov admits the abrupt increase in user base caused some “growing pains” that allowed the platform to be abused by criminals more easily:

“That’s why I made it my personal goal to ensure we significantly improve things in this regard. We’ve already started that process internally, and I will share more details on our progress with you very soon.”

Durov hopes the situation will result in making the social networking industry safer and stronger, his case in France is still ongoing, though. He had to pay 5 million euros to avoid prison while awaiting trial, and until then he can’t leave the country.

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Paul's Hardware (1.48M subscribers)

September 6, 2024

Video length: 13m 33s

0:00 Welcome to Probing Paul #89

0:55 Pre-Probing Notes

1:14 Is Intel running out of CPUs? (RMA Delays etc)

4:52 Is it OK to overclock Intel 13th/14th gen CPUs after updating BIOS/Microcode?

6:55 Will NVIDIA’s Blackwell yield issues cause RTX 50 series delay / higher gpu prices?

10:03 Audiophiles - have you checked your hearing?

11:17 Want to try a “pro” lighting tweak?

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2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of August): 3,792 news posts