geosoco

Our review of the ASUS ROG Ally (with Z1 Extreme) handheld gaming PC tests it primarily against the Steam Deck, including gaming performance, frametimes, thermals, acoustics, battery life and charging, noise samples, and impressions of hardware and software. This is a showcase review for us -- it's detailed, but a fun excuse for our team to throw everything at a device for an in-depth review that teaches us (and hopefully the audience) about some of the testing processes at the same time. We also tried to look at the MicroSD card 'melting' issues with the ROG Ally, only to find that our MicroSD card reader on our Ally was dead within 2 hours of gaming and prior to ever being used for a card.

Handheld gaming device specialist Ayaneo has finalized its highly anticipated RGB keyboard-packing portable device. On its Discord channel, the firm confirms the Ayaneo Slide is now in trial production.

There haven’t been many handheld PCs that pack in a slider mechanism to reveal a physical keyboard; we think the only other model comes from form factor stalwart GPD. However, this still allows Ayaneo to boast its device is the first such design with an RGB backlit keyboard. Of course, the components are thoroughly modern, too.

Previously released specifications indicate that the Ayaneo Slide will come packing an AMD Phoenix processor – no surprise. Specifically, an official teaser from July says that the Ryzen 7 7840U has been chosen.

Diablo 4, Path of Exile, and the rest of the ARPG genre has competition in the mega-ambitious Last Epoch, built by its Reddit community and heading towards 1.0.

...

Website
Steam Page
Recent YouTube Video for 0.92 Patch

Saturnalia, the acclaimed survival horror from MirrorMoon EP developer Santa Ragione, is shaking off the shackles of Epic Games Store exclusivity and coming to Steam this October - and ahead of its launch, a 40-minute demo is now available on Valve's platform.

Saturnalia - which Eurogamer contributor Simon Parkin called a "horrible nightmare in all the right ways" in his Recommended review last year - whisks players away to the ancient, ever-shifting village of Gravoi, for an adventure heavily inspired by Sardinia folklore.

YouTube Trailer
Steam Page

Donald Mustard may not be the most well-known name in gaming, but he's definitely one of the most influential. For the past seven years he's been the chief creative officer at Epic Games and "Loremaster of Fortnite"—the big hand on the wheel of one of the biggest videogame phenomena of all time. But soon that era will come to an end, as Mustard has announced that he is retiring.

Mustard's first videogame credit, according to Mobygames, is on the 2002 action game Bloodrayne. In 2005 he co-founded Chair Entertainment, the developer of the Xbox shooter Undertow, which was acquired by Epic Games in 2008. Mustard remained as creative director at the studio, helming the development of Shadow Complex and the Infinity Blade mobile games, until 2016 when he became CCO at Epic.

The mind behind all those weird RPG skits has a succulent take on Starfield.

YouTube Link - Starfield from the NPC's Perspective

Starfield players continue to push the game—and their computers–to the limit by spawning thousands of items in inappropriate places, like stuffing 20,000 potatoes in a spaceship. Watching potatoes roll out of an air lock is great, but what if you could watch 10,000 milk cartons descend onto a population zone like a lactic artillery strike?

YouTube Link

Rejoice, PC gamers, for the lord of texture mods has now announced the Starfield HD Reworked Project is underway. Modder Halk Hogan originally rose to fame for his The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project. His work turned out to be so great that CD Projekt RED decided to include a version of the texture overhaul mod in the Next-Gen edition released in late 2022. This March, he also released Cyberpunk 2077 HD Reworked Project for CD Projekt RED's latest game.

YouTube trailer of texture upgrades

Now, Halk Hogan is working on the Starfield HD Reworked Project to improve the visual quality of the textures created by Bethesda. As you can see in the preview footage below, the graphics fidelity enhancement is sometimes truly massive.

TSMC has acknowledged the immense demand from the AI sector, claiming that the shortage of NVIDIA AI GPUs could last up to 1.5 years.

Speaking at Semicon Taiwan, TSMC's chairman Mark Liu admitted that the business has seen a huge boost in orders from NVIDIA and partners, primarily due to the rise of GenAI development, which requires huge computing capabilities. TSMC reiterated that the bottleneck persists in CoWoS packaging, and the company didn't expect such a huge rise in orders going into 2023.

It is not the shortage of AI chips, it is the shortage of our CoWoS capacity. Currently, we cannot fulfill 100% of our customers' needs, but we try to support about 80%. We think this is a temporary phenomenon. After our expansion of [advanced chip packaging capacity], it should be alleviated in one and a half years
-Mark Liu via Nikkei Asia

Apple will host its highly anticipated Wonderlust event on Tuesday where it will see fit to announce the new Apple Watch models and the iPhone 15 lineup. While details on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 were scarce, a prominent analyst has now shared last-minute information on new health sensors and internals and design.

The last-minute details were shared by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, suggesting that the forthcoming Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 will come with a new heart rate monitor and upgraded sensors. The analyst highlights what he expects Apple to announce at its highly anticipated event. It was previously rumored that the Apple Watch Series 9 would feature the same design as the Series 8 but will come with a new S9 chip and a pink color option. As for the Apple Watch Ultra 2, Apple will introduce a dark gray titanium finish.

The analyst mentions that both variants of the Apple Watch will come with new sensors and numerous component upgrades. He also says Apple's focus this year for the Apple Watch is speed, accuracy, and efficiency. To fulfill its ambitions, the company will introduce a new optical heart rate sensor in the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2. The company will also upgrade existing sensors which will allow for more accurate reading of health metrics. This is the first time that we are hearing details on the new sensors for Series 9 ahead of its announcement next week.

Valve's next entrant in the VR industry is highly anticipated amongst fans, given that the Valve Index was well received. It is now being reported that a new "Valve Hardware' has been certified in South Korea, indicating that the company is indeed prepping for the next step in VR.

The VR expert Brad Lynch disclosed the RRA (Radio Research Agency) certification on Twitter, with Valve applying for certification for a new '1030' hardware. While it isn't confirmed that the certification is based on Valve's next VR device, the analysis is made based on the fact that the details mentioned in the certification match the ones of the Meta Quest 3 and HTC VIVE XR Elite; hence, it could be said that Valve is preparing to release something in that domain, especially since they said not long ago that a proper Deck 2 device wouldn't be released until the hardware improvement was significant.

Focus Entertainment and Dream Powered Games are thrilled to announce that Warstride Challenges v1.0 is now available on PC, as well as on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series! The high-octane fast-FPS in which you blast demons in satisfying one-minute massacres has left early access after over a year of continuous improvement. The small, close-knit team of passionate devs thanks the community of Warstriders wholeheartedly for its amazing involvement. Want to give it a try and test your skills? A free demo is available for both newcomers and challenge lovers on Steam.

Steam Page
YouTube Trailer