Gaming

What just happened? With the upcoming launch of Valve's Steam Deck firmly in everyone's mind, companies like Razer and Qualcomm are taking note of growing consumer interest in powerful but portable PC gaming devices. That's why the two companies have partnered to develop an all-new handheld gaming machine. Or rather, a dev kit for one. The device will run the first generation of Qualcomm's freshly-announced Snapdragon G3x silicon. The device doesn't have a slick codename right now, so Qualcomm is just calling it the first "Snapdragon G3x Handheld Gaming Developer Kit," which doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. But that's fine. Neither Razer nor Qualcomm is trying to sell this to the average user, so a flashy product name isn't necessary. The announcement leaked a couple days ago , and we've just been waiting for the official reveal since. So, if this gadget isn't for ordinary gamers, what is its purpose? As with any dev kit, it's intended to help game and hardware … [Read more...] about Qualcomm partners with Razer to launch a Snapdragon-powered handheld gaming dev kit

In a nutshell: The 2021 Game Awards take place on Thursday, December 9, and will be hosted by Keighley from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. The show returns as an in-person event this year after going virtual last year due to the pandemic, but Activision Blizzard won't have a role outside of its previously announced awards nominations. Activision Blizzard’s terrible , horrible , no good , very bad 2021 continues as The Game Awards producer and host Geoff Keighley has confirmed that the embattled video game company will not have a presence at this year’s awards ceremony outside of its nominations. In follow-up tweets, Keighley said The Game Awards are a time of celebration for the industry, adding that there is no place for abuse, harassment or predatory practices in any company or any community. Beyond its nominations, I can confirm that Activision|Blizzard will not be a part of this year’s #TheGameAwards — Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) December 4, 2021 … [Read more...] about Activision Blizzard won’t have a role at the 2021 Game Awards outside of its nominations

What just happened? Bethesda has released the second major update for the remaster of classic first-person shooter Quake. It adds an entirely new mode and campaign scenario, along with some minor bug fixes and improvements. Update 2 for the Quake remaster is now available for all platforms. The first major addition is an all-new PvE horde mode from MachineGames that can be played solo, with up to four others, or with a combination of real gamers and bots in co-op. The mode supports all difficulty levels and plays out across four new maps. Quake horde mode has nine mandatory waves in which killing enemies yields points, and killing them in rapid succession activates a point multiplier. Every third wave features a boss that will drop a key to unlock more weapons and items when defeated. Normal enemies can also drop power-ups. After finishing the ninth wave, players can either exit or keep fighting endless waves. Progress resets if all players die. The free add-on is the … [Read more...] about Quake remaster’s second update adds horde mode and new maps

As with so many little disasters, this was all my fault. I left my MacBook Air perched on the armrest of the sofa. I turned to my right to grab a drink. I turned back to my left. Down went the MacBook Air. It landed on the base of a standing lamp. I picked it up. I carried on working. Hey, it was Thanksgiving Day; what was I supposed to do? Later that day, I was done. With something approaching ceremony, I shut my MacBook Air. It refused. Well, it half-refused. The right side shut just fine. The left side hung in the air like a Floridian chad . I tried to close it with a little force. The left side came straight back up. I tried cursing it. It was unmoved. What was I supposed to do? The next day was Black Friday . Did I really think there'd be an Apple Genius available to help? Black Friday? The best day for a fix. I swiftly learned something about Black Friday. No one wants to get their gadgets fixed that day. I looked for a Genius Bar appointment at the Apple … [Read more...] about My Apple MacBook Air wouldn’t close anymore. Then I got one surprise too many

What just happened? The fallout from Battlefield 2042’s rocky launch continues as Electronic Arts is making sweeping changes that’ll affect the latest entry and the future of the franchise. For starters, DICE general manager Oskar Gabrielson is exiting after nearly a decade with the company. On Twitter, he said the decision to leave was one of the hardest in his life but promised that there was plenty for gamers to look forward to on the Battlefield. Gabrielson will be replaced by Rebecka Coutaz, the former studio director of Ubisoft Annecy. Respawn CEO Vince Zampella will lead the Battlefield team moving forward, and newly hired Marcus Lehto of Halo fame will erect a new Seattle-based development team to help add more storytelling to the Battlefield universe. EA told GameSpot that in the immediate future, DICE and Lehto’s new studio will work with developer Ripple Effect to improve Battlefield 2042 . Ripple was responsible for the Portal game mode in Battlefield 2042. … [Read more...] about Battlefield 2042’s rocky start leads to major reorganization at DICE and EA

What just happened? Valve has revealed what buyers of the Steam Deck will find wrapped around their handheld gaming device when it finally arrives. In what is the antithesis of Apple’s elaborate packaging, the company has opted for a generic brown box. Valve writes that it recently completed its DV (Design Validation) manufacturing build of the Steam Deck, which it will be using for additional testing and developer kits. DV is the final prototype build, meaning the finished consumer unit will come with only minor changes. Valve also gave us a sneak peek at the Steam Deck’s packaging. It’s not much more than a brown cardboard box, but looking closely reveals some icons on the side reference the company’s beloved Portal games. The inside of the box is equally understated. However, it does contain a list of locations in various languages where the Steam Deck can be enjoyed. These include “on the toilet,” which, let’s be honest, is where most people will use the miniature … [Read more...] about Valve reveals the Steam Deck’s packaging, complete with Portal references and suggestions where to play

One of the studios responsible for Call of Duty ’s success is laying off QA testers that are reportedly earning $17 an hour for their work on the franchise Activision Blizzard said brought in $3 billion dollars in 2020. Raven Software, known for its work on Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and CoD: Warzone has now laid off a third of its contract QA testers, according to reports by Kotaku and The Washington Post . Raven’s Associate Community Manager Austin O’Brien said that team members were being called into individual meetings to be told whether or not they would still have a job come January 28th. So far, the company has reportedly laid off about a third of its QA testers, or around a dozen people, but it’s possible more could follow . The Post quotes an anonymous Raven contractor who said that “everyone was told, ‘you did nothing wrong,’ after being given the bad news.” A Better ABK, an employee advocacy group, says many of the employees moved to Wisconsin … [Read more...] about Call of Duty made billions recently, so of course Activision Blizzard is laying off QA

Update (11/21/2021) : This post is out of date and will not be updated. You can now find all our favorite early Black Friday deals here . Update (11/6/21 9:00 am EDT) : For this weekend's Dealmaster roundup, we've updated our list of the best offers we can find from the various "early Black Friday" sales going on at Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and other retailers this week. We've ensured that the prices of our curated picks are all up to date, and we've added a few new offers, marked below by the " NEW " tag. Further Reading Ars Technica’s best games of 2020 Our additions include a joint-lowest price on Amazon's latest Fire HD 10 tablet , which we recommend for those on a budget who want a large-screen tablet for casual media consumption. It's down to $100 . Meanwhile, the PS5 and PS4 versions of Hades , our 2020 game of the year , are available for a new low of $20 . A couple of HyperX gaming headsets we like, the Cloud Alpha and budget-friendly … [Read more...] about Here are the best “early Black Friday” deals we’re seeing this weekend [Updated]

We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more . Home / News / Wearables Not renders Leaked marketing images reveal a smartwatch with no physical bezel. Jay Bonggolto 5 Dec 2021 0 Source: Jon Prosser What you need to know Official marketing images of the rumored Google Pixel Watch have cropped up. Google's first smartwatch will likely run Wear OS 3 at launch. The wearable is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2022. Google has been skipping developing its own Wear OS smartwatch for many years, despite having the resources to do so, let alone its long-standing Android wearable platform. However, renders of the Google Pixel Watch surfaced earlier this year , courtesy of Jon Prosser, raising hopes that Google's first smartwatch would be released soon. While the long-awaited Pixel Watch did not make an appearance alongside the Google Pixel 6 series in October, a new report … [Read more...] about This could be our first look at official Google Pixel Watch images

We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more . Home / News / Apps Making Messages more useful The app will soon remind you to respond to important messages automatically. Babu Mohan 1 Dec 2021 1 Source: Jeramy Johnson / Android Central Update, Dec 1 (3.45 p.m. ET) : Rolling out for some users What you need to know Google is working on a new "nudges" feature for its Messages app. The feature will remind you to respond to important texts. It will likely begin rolling out to users sometime later this year. The Google Messages app could soon offer a useful new feature similar to "nudges" in Gmail, according to an APK teardown of the Google Messages app version 9.5 beta by the folks at XDA Developers . Gmail's nudges feature, which was introduced in 2018, reminds users to follow up on emails that it thinks may be important. New strings found in the latest beta update for the … [Read more...] about Google Messages starts rolling out Gmail-like ‘Nudges’ feature