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Resident Evil: Resistance has “connections to the RE Universe” – but it’s not canon Resident Evil 3’s Resistance mode, the asymmetrical 4v1 experience, is not actually canon, it seems. Yes, we’re afraid that does also mean the delightfully named Martin Sandwich is also not officially real. RIP, Martin, we hardly knew ye. Resident Evil 3 producer Peter Fabiano confirms the news in an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine (via GamesRadar). Resistance is “a fun online experience with connections to the RE Universe”, Fabiano says. It’s “basically set in Raccoon City with scenarios that make it impossible to fit in the actual timeline”. Sandwich is a character in Resistance seemingly named after the infamous “Jill sandwich” line from the original Resident Evil. He’ll still be found in Resistance, but the mode is not, as previously thought, part of the series’ ongoing, twisting narrative. Capcom decided to bundle the mode with Resident Evil 3 because of their thematic similarities, it seems. Resident Evil 3 remake’s release date is set for April 3, 2020. It’s coming to PC, PS4, and Xbox One, bringing a fresh lick of paint and plenty more to the now 21-year-old original game. You can currently order Resident Evil 3 remake for Steam at a remarkable discount. Alternatively, check out our full list of upcoming PC games for a look at everything to expect in 2020.

An alliance of left-of-centre parties has beaten back Matteo Salvini’s far-right alliance in a key Italian regional election. Polls had been suggesting that Emilia-Romagna, a longstanding leftist stronghold, would fall to Mr Salvini’s League and its allies. But the populists were kept out of power after a vast surge in turnout – despite a big increase in the share of the vote for Mr Salvini’s party. Centre-left Democratic Party (PD) governor Stefano Bonaccini won 51.4 per cent of the vote, compared with 43.7 per cent for Lucia Borgonzoni, who is backed by Mr Salvini. “The ruling majority comes out stronger,” said PD leader Nicola Zingaretti following the result. He said Mr Salvini had failed in his attempt to “shove the government out”. “Emilia-Romagna has sent a signal. Salvini knows how to talk about problems, but he doesn’t know how to sort them out and the people have responded,” Mr Zingaretti added. Turnout hit 68 per cent in the election, up around 30 percentage points from the last comparable contest in 2014 – with the highly polarised campaign drawing voters to the polls. A defeat for progressive forces in Emilia-Romagna would have been the jewel in the far-right’s crown: the region has long been the heartland of the Italian Communist Party and its successors. But Mr Salvini’s alliance, which takes in other party’s from Italy’s right wing, has still won nine out of ten regional elections since March 2018 – including in former left-leaning area such as Umbria. The League’s allies also won in Calabria on Sunday, a smaller region in the south of Italy whose po[CENSORED]tion numbers around 2 million compared to Emilia-Romagna’s 4.5 million. The right’s 11 per cent swing in the latter also represents progress on the last contest. But the defeat in the northern region, including its capital of Bologna, is the latest setback for the populists – who were locked out of national government last year.

Haggis, neeps and tatties Prep: 20 minutes Cook: 45 minutes Serves 6 2 x 500g haggis 1.5kg King Edward potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks 100ml whole milk 60g unsalted butter 1.5kg swede, peeled and diced 50ml whisky For the gravy 1 tbsp sunflower oil 1 celery stick, roughly chopped 1 carrot, roughly chopped 1 small onion, roughly chopped 1 tbsp plain flour 1 tsp tomato puree 750ml beef stock 3 tbsp redcurrant jelly 1 splash Worcestershire sauce 1 splash Tabasco sauce Preheat the oven to 180°C, or gas mark 4, and cook the haggis according to pack instructions. Meanwhile, make the gravy. Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the vegetables for 5 minutes until just brown. Add the flour and tomato puree and cook for 2-3 minutes. Slowly add the stock, stirring until smooth. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 30 minutes, then pass through a sieve. Return the gravy to a clean pan and add the redcurrant jelly, Worcestershire and Tabasco sauces. Simmer for 5 minutes, then remove from the hob and reheat before serving, if necessary. Place the potatoes (tatties) in a pan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 12-15 minutes until tender. Drain, and allow to dry in the pan for 2-3 minutes, then mash. Warm the milk and half the butter in a pan until the butter has melted. Stir into the potato and season. Place the swede (neeps) in a pan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes until tender. Drain and return to the pan to dry out for 2-3 minutes. Mash, stir in the remaining butter and season. Reheat the gravy, neeps and tatties if necessary. Remove the haggis from the oven. Make a slit through the casing and pour in the whisky. Serve spoonfuls of haggis with the tatties, neeps and gravy.

There will be versions for hauling people and cargo. The Volkswagen Caddy is a compact commercial van that fits into Europe's A segment, and the fifth generation is on the way. Two new teaser images provide what seems like a very realistic depiction of how the little carry-all looks, unlike the previous look. The new model debuts in February and should be on sale in some markets before the end of the year. Gallery: Volkswagen Caddy Teaser: The teaser renderings show the Caddy with a wide inlet in the lower fascia and a tinier inlet above it. Similarly, the trim makes the headlights appear to stretch across the front of the vehicle. The images don't provide a good view of the back, but it's clear that the taillights rise vertically up the rear. While only barely visible here, there's a panoramic sunroof to provide more light into the cabin. The model will be available as the standard Caddy as a tiny van for carrying people or the Caddy Cargo for hauling goods. Buyers will be able to select between two wheelbase lengths. VW notes claims "no screw has been left untouched" for the new Caddy. The company intends to offer the van with new driver assistance systems. Inside, the model gains functionality to connect to the Internet. The Caddy rides on Volkswagen Group's familiar MQB platform, and this should translate to a wide variety of available powertrain options. Like with the current model, don't look for VW to sell the little van in the United States. The German brand just isn't a serious player in the country's commercial vehicle market.

Donald Trump has revealed the new logo for his space force. The only problem is that it looks an awful lot like that of Star Trek. The president boldly went where no president had gone before, to unveil on Twitter a design he said had taken a lot of work. “After consultation with our Great Military Leaders, designers, and others, I am pleased to present the new logo for the United States Space Force, the Sixth Branch of our Magnificent Military,” Mr Trump wrote. Almost immediately, people started to point out that the design for the space force, the first new military service since the air force was created in 1947, looked a lot like that of Starfleet Command, from the long running television show Star Trek. George Takei, who played Mr Sulu in the original TV series and films, tweeted in response: “Ahem. We are expecting some royalties from this. The Associated Press said the space force is intended mainly to improve protection of US satellites and other space assets, rather than to put warriors in orbit to conduct combat in outer space. He originally wanted a space force that was “separate but equal” to the army, navy and air force, but instead Congress made it part of the department of the air force. CNBC said the Pentagon did not immediately respond to queries as to why the two logos, both with blue globes, white stars, and swooshed rings around a sleek space ship, looked so similar.

The kitchen is often the first place homeowners look to change when the urge to renovate kicks in. Post Office Money’s 2019 survey about po[CENSORED]r home improvements found that kitchen refurbishments were the most common improvement carried out over the last five years. Now, Brexit property stagnation and uncertainty are causing many homeowners to stay put, and if you combine this with the recent report from The Finance & Leasing Association that showed second-charge mortgages were up 24 per cent in mid-2019, it is obvious that UK residents are choosing to renovate over relocating. With this in mind, I would suspect many of us are in the throes of kitchen refurbishments. The kitchen is set for a makeover this year. The new season kitchen trends for 2020 will see consumers opting for colour over the black cabinetry that characterised 2019, textural finishes over smooth worktops and splashbacks, a return to country working kitchens, and quirky styling touches to give such intrinsically functional spaces a design-led edge. So, here are the top trends expected to dominate the market in 2020. First up is colour, and this year, I’m not just talking about forest green. There are zesty oranges, sunflower yellows, emeralds, delightful pinks and of course, electric blues. Blue in particular will prove a po[CENSORED]r colour for your kitchen cabinetry, aga or island, as forecasted by Pantone. Its 2020 colour of the year is classic blue, which, according to the international colour institute, “[instils] calm, confidence and connection,” as well as “[highlighting] our desire for a dependable and stable foundation on which to build as we cross the threshold into a new era.” Interior designer It-couple Luke Edward Hall and Duncan Campbell’s new British Standard by Plain English kitchen is an ode to Pantone’s specific shade of cobalt, with an added hit of bubblegum pink. Plain English and British Standard’s design director, Merlin Wright, says of the colour-on-colour trend, “our feeling is that there will be continued interest in strong colours and bold combinations”. With this surge in colour also comes an influx in textural surface options like tongue and groove panelling, smoked, grainy woods and fluted glazing. Brookmans by Smallbone, a kitchen furniture brand from parent company, Smallbone of Devizes, is pioneering this glazed kitchen cabinetry trend in its K1 range, showcasing a delightful combination of bright-painted external shaker-style cabinetry with a painted carcass (the inside of your kitchen cupboards) in a contrasting colour which shimmers through fluted glass windows in the cupboard door. This glass option obscures the contents of your cupboards, providing the essence of open-shelving without the harsh reality of exposed stacks of Tupperware. The shaker-style kitchen is a trend itself and for 2020, expect to hear more and more about the “below stairs” style kitchen. The comforting heft and weight of a Georgian or Victorian working kitchen (as opposed to the show kitchen or complete lack of kitchen space in the above-stairs living quarters) is making its way upstairs. Bevelled painted wood cabinetry and simple, pared-back worktops and weathered metal handles are the style’s defining characteristics, as seen in much of Tom Howley’s bespoke kitchen offering. Authenticity of style, look and feel is crucial to fitting a below-stairs style kitchen, says Howley, the design director of the eponymous kitchen brand. He adds: “We prefer to keep things simple and traditional, and advise against fitting anything in your shaker-style kitchen that distracts from the weight and quality of the cabinetry. For example, we do not offer soft-close cabinetry as there is very little more satisfying than the light knock of wood on wood over the underscore of a sizzling saucepan. Instead, all our cabinetry features butt-hinges and magnets to keep the cabinetry closed – a method that hasn’t changed in 100 years.” Finally, 2020 will see the kitchen adopting stylistic details reserved for living rooms and bedrooms. Design-led accessories have found their way into the kitchen with the rise of wide island counters and open shelving, both of which support the addition of decorative vases and ornaments, as well as an increased use of bold lighting and artwork. Sandrine Zhang Ferron, founder of online vintage marketplace, Vinterior, says: “The kitchen is an underused room in the home for dramatic personal touches. For example, kitchen lighting doesn’t always have to be the safe option! I would always recommend a series of three industrial enamel lights over the island for maximum light with a stylish, edgy finish. Look out for models from the 1960s for authenticity. You can also accessorise with vintage crockery or cookware displayed on the stove. An antique copper teapot on your stove top will certainly give your kitchen a vintage, eclectic feel, which slots in nicely with the current trend for below stairs-style working kitchens.”

Will this finally appease FCA? Remember that story we ran about the humble little Mahindra Roxor getting into hot water with FCA and its supposed infringement on the Jeep's trade dress? The one where FCA didn't just want Mahindra to spot selling the Roxor, it wanted them to pay back any profits made on existing sales. Well, there's been a positive new development, and Mahindra have released an official statement about it in a post by Jalopnik. Gallery: Mahindra Roxor Changes Jeep-Like Face To Avoid Lawsuit: In an email sent out as an official statement, the International Traced Commission (ITC) will be reviewing the initial recommendation by the administrative law judge issued in November of 2019. Also, the ITC also said that it will be reviewing the validity of FCA's previously unclaimed U.S. rights in trade dress, and whether or not the previous year's Roxor infringes on these claims. They go on by saying; "We are optimistic that the ITC will in its review conclude that FCA did not establish previously unclaimed U.S. rights in trade dress and that there was no infringement of either trade dress or registered trademarks." That's not all, since Mahindra have decided to tweak the front face of the Roxor for 2020, dropping the vertical grille slats, and adopting a body colour surround horizontal design with a pair top and lower grilles. Mahindra has also said that it "will make additional styling changes, if so required in cooperation with the ITC". Why FCA would even throw a fit about a non-road legal vehicle that doesn't even fit in the same category, price range, or customer base as a Jeep is beyond us. In any case, this is a good indicator for Mahindra, and we hope this whole thing gets resolved as soon as possible. For those wondering, the Mahindra Roxor is equipped with a 2.5-liter turbo diesel the produces 62 horsepower and 144 pound-feet of torque with a towing capacity of about 3,520 pounds.

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There’s a moment of crushing disappointment that comes early on in Trials Rising. It sneaks up on you, insidiously, and before you know it the damage is done. One of the songs in the game’s unrelenting, high-energy soundtrack opens with a driving drumbeat that calls to mind ’80s hit ‘Take On Me’. It’s a real A-ha moment. When the rest of the band kicks in, however, you realise that it’s not actually an exciting new cover of a Norwegian synthpop classic, but rather a different song – and band – entirely. As any other right-thinking person who uses the internet would, I took this bait-and-switch as a personal attack and elected to uninstall the game there and then. I even briefly, and entirely rationally, considered boycotting all Ubisoft games going forward. But I’m pleased to say that, after a short period of self reflection, I instead calmed down and continued playing. I’m glad that I did: in the dozens of hours I’ve sunk into the game so far, the unfortunate song incident is just about the only time I haven’t been grinning wildly. That there’s so little of note to criticise in Rising comes as an enormous relief after Trials Fusion’s heart-stopping wobble on the beam. As with every main-series Trials game on PC since HD, Fusion’s core was a time-devouring cocktail of perfect physics platforming, deceptive depth, and a daunting skill ceiling. But bolted to that crux were a number of missteps, as well as some bold experiments that didn’t quite land. The lumpen ATV added dependable power and stability for beginners, but at the cost of thrills and a fragmented track selection. FMX events introduced an ostensibly intuitive trick system, but eroded the precision and control for which the series is lauded. And Fusion’s multiplayer component was woefully underdeveloped at launch. None of these problems reoccur in Rising. Instead, RedLynx has served up the most comprehensive and brilliant arrangement of the Trials formula yet. It all kicks off with a slick, dazzling dash through a stadium track, lit by pyrotechnics and the shimmering starfield created by thousands of cameras going off in the stalls. It’s a gutsy statement of intent that drops you straight into the action from the first button press, but it also immediately highlights a subtle improvement to the Trials universe: it’s now teeming with life. People are everywhere, stood next to tracks cheering, operating cameras and machinery in dangerous proximity to your path, or just getting on with life in the background. Some of them even sport hi-vis jackets, but none seem outwardly concerned with either health or safety. This influx of denizens has little effect on gameplay – unless you count the additional challenge of trying to take in all the extra detail while concentrating on your next bunny hop – but it does eliminate the eerie verisimilitude of previous Trials games’ unpo[CENSORED]ted wildernesses. Another appeal to naturalism comes from the abandonment of Fusion’s sci-fi aesthetic (and annoying robot antagonists) in favour of a return to Trials Evolution’s more ‘realistic’ tracks. It shouldn’t make such a difference, but there’s an unquestionably stronger connection to proceedings as a result – skilfully negotiating the Eiffel Tower, Chernobyl, or even a Hollywood film set just feels better than riding over sleek megascrapers and spaceships. All of Rising’s contemporary-set tracks are tied together in a new world map, on which you emerge after finishing that first stadium race. As you progress, you open various leagues from rookie to pro. Early ones are congregated around specific parts of the world, but later on you’ll take globe-trotting tours. It’s an enjoyable way to sample the dozens of courses on offer – you’ll amass more than 50 events on the map before you even touch the really tough tracks – and leaves behind the more linear progression of previous games, even if it is a little messier to navigate than a selection of skill-based lists. It all lends an underlying thematic consistency to proceedings which sits pleasantly with the unhinged, ultra-violent slapstick of the events themselves. Trials are bolstered by the presence of sponsors and contracts. The former set the latter and ask you to finish under certain conditions for additional XP and dosh – catch up with a fast rider while pulling off 15 speed-sapping backflips, for example, or wheelie for 40 metres with no faults. These twists shift your focus from maintaining good flow and taut lines in the same way Fusion’s challenges did. Pleasingly, those secret alternative objectives are also still present and correct, and they’re brilliant: I finish one course in pitch-black darkness guided only by the light from my wheels (both of which are on fire, natch) after discovering a hidden button. Rising also takes cues from Trials Frontier, presenting its sponsors as a mix of original characters and caricatures of the dev team. Thankfully, none of Frontier’s questing or characterisation comes along with them, RedLynx wisely allowing players to get on with the business of playing the game rather than clicking through dialogue. Their presence is handled with a light touch, and provides additional encouragement to revisit earlier tracks. A more divisive element inherited from Frontier is loot boxes. Some players will take pleasure in them, I’m sure, though I’m not among that demographic. They have no effect on progress, and it’s entirely your choice whether or not to spend money on accelerating the arrival of the game’s more outlandish cosmetic items, but somehow they just don’t quite sit right in the context of the rest of the package. If you’re into admin, then opening boxes of mildly interesting stickers, bike parts, and clothes before painstakingly selling off all the duplicates one by one is going to really spice up your evenings. For my palate, however, their presence adds a slightly bitter aftertaste to what is an otherwise generously spirited game. Still, I hear that loot boxes are po[CENSORED]r, so what do I know? If you prefer rolling wheels to RNGs then the University of Trials is waiting for you. This brilliant addition to the series leans on the knowledge of Professor FatShady – an Australian YouTuber who has been making in-depth Trials tutorial videos since 2013 – and represents the most comprehensive, detailed tutelage in the series so far. The 12 lessons cover everything from the basics of throttle control and maintaining flow, to clearing uphill obstacles or shifting weight to achieve consistent bunny hops. There’s instruction from FatShady himself, slow-motion footage of the techniques, a variety of meters which communicate button inputs and suspension load, and the option to watch FatShady’s own efforts as he rides along beside you. You can even ask for additional help or reminders during the lessons. It should mean that the point at which challenges appear to be insurmountable comes a little later for new players, and that can only be a good thing. Talking of helping people out, Rising’s new tandem multiplayer mode – which puts two players on a special bike and grants them half the controls each – is a work of terrifying genius. It’s nowhere near the disaster it sounds like it should be on paper, and allows for various interesting scenarios including skilled players helping newcomers to learn, and spectacular feats of cooperative bravado from the best riders tackling tracks of extreme difficulty. The more traditional competitive multiplayer mode is bolstered by vastly more interesting tracks, some of which include the brilliant environmental dynamism of the main game’s courses. You can also tinker with options such as no lean, throttle stuck on, or low gravity, and even sti[CENSORED]te forfeits such as the loser having to dance or do the dishes. Even so, at the time of writing there is sadly still no evidence of a local skill game party mode. Here’s hoping one is included in Ubisoft’s far-reaching DLC plans because it’d be a riotous pass-the-pad option. There will be no shortage of additional modes and tracks once players sink their teeth into the track editor, however, which is as dauntingly powerful as Fusion’s. All in all, Rising is a slick proposition. I’ll certainly be lost in it for the foreseeable future, painstakingly honing my times through the game’s fiendish extreme tracks and seeking out the series’ infamous hidden squirrels. Perfunctory microtransactions and occasionally messy UI aside, Rising is a magnificent effort. The only thing that could improve it for me now is if I find an A-ha track in one of those insufferable loot boxes.

Intel Comet Lake will mark the 10th Generation of Core desktop CPUs from the chipmaking behemoth. Slated for release early 2020, these iterative processors might pack a punch… with a promised 10-core/20-thread i9 10900K at 5.3GHz and HyperThreading enabled throughout the stack. The Skylake microarchitecture has taken many forms since it was first introduced. The biggest changes to the formula occurred following the launch of AMD Ryzen, which has been putting pressure on Intel to roll out greater core counts across its client i3, i5, and i7 lineup. And with AMD now knocking on its door with Zen 2 and the 7nm process node, the pressure is on Intel to deliver. Intel’s response to this growing pressure is two-fold. It first branded 14nm Intel Comet Lake (and 10nm Ice Lake) processors with the 10th Gen badge on mobile. The first slim laptops under the 10th Gen umbrella are now available for purchase, too. Following that, in the coming months, it will launch Comet Lake processors in full 10-core splendour and cheap and cheerful i3 garb. We’re suspect a little more gossip on these chips come CES 2020. Current rumours suggest 10nm will not be available en masse and in desktop form until sometime in 2020/21, which could cast a shadow over Intel’s efforts to defeat AMD’s rejuvenated CPU division. But there’s still something to be said for Intel’s raw gaming performance, a crown it has managed to keep out of AMD’s grasp (and won’t stop shouting about). In that regard, and glossing over pricing and production, it’s all still to play for. VITAL STATS: Intel Comet Lake release date The latest rumours suggest Comet Lake desktop chips will launch in Q1 2020, potentially previewing at CES 2020 in January. Recent leaks also point toward a launch come April, alongside brand new Z490 motherboards. Either way, Intel has at least started shipping Comet Lake qualification kits out – so they’re definitely on the way. Intel Comet Lake specs While details remain sparse, there’s only so much Intel can do with Skylake on its 14nm process. Intel’s EEC registrations confirm up to 10 cores will be available on the top i9 processors, and leaked slides suggest these will be imbued with a moderate clock speed bump, too. MSI has also now confirmed that the new Comet Lake CPU socket will be the LGA 1200, and will not be pin-compatible with existing 14nm platforms. Intel Comet Lake performance Single-core performance has only increased moderately with each generation since Skylake. Each one improving a wee bit on the last. Applications that favour multithreaded chops will see another significant bump to performance with the step up to a decacore chip, however. Intel Comet Lake price The Core i9 9900K currently retails at $488 (£480), making it one of the most expensive mainstream chips Intel has released in recent years. With AMD encroaching on Intel’s client sales, we’re hoping for a reprieve from Intel’s traditional pricing premium on top of that for another two processing cores. WHAT IS THE INTEL COMET LAKE RELEASE DATE?: Intel Comet Lake CPUs are suspected to launch either in Q1 2020 or April 2020 – depending on which leak you believe. The former would have Intel previewing Comet Lake around CES 2020 in January with a view to launch shortly thereafter. The company’s 7nm chips won’t head into production until Q4 2021, CEO Bob Swan has confirmed. Until all that, it’s Comet Lake or bust for Intel fans. Luckily, we’re already seeing some Comet Lake desktop processors appearing in online benchmarking databases, which we can infer means a launch sooner rather than later. A roadmap leaked to Hong Kong-based site, XFastest (from an anonymous source and not verifiable), indicates Comet Lake S will launch ever-so-slightly before the end of 2020 alongside 400-series chipsets. However, information from HKEPC suggests Z490 chipsets and Comet Lake chips won’t launch until April, 2020. Both Comet Lake chips and 400-series motherboards (Z490, B460, and H410) have since been confirmed by Intel and Gigabyte in EEC registrations in September. The former came in the form of SDP kits – complete with 10 cores and Gen9 graphics – which would suggest Intel was close to finalising the Comet Lake CPU for retail. This also aligns with previous speculation based on information hidden in plain site within patches to the Linux graphics driver. Intel’s changes to the code, posted early March, reference Comet Lake directly, and the tweaks are suspected to be a timely precursor to hardware shipping before the end of the year. The patch reads: “Comet Lake is a [sic] Intel processor containing Gen9 Intel HD Graphics. This patch adds the initial set of PCI IDs. Comet Lake comes off of Coffee Lake – adding the IDs to Coffee Lake ID list. More support and features will be in the patches that follow.” WHAT ARE THE INTEL COMET LAKE SPECS? Intel Comet Lake will bring 10 cores to the mainstream desktop CPU market, as confirmed in its EEC registrations. The chip itself will be built upon the now heavily-optimised 14nm process node. With Hyperthreading enabled on everything, from the top chip down to the Core i3 lineup, we’re certain we’ll be seeing a 20-thread CPU rule over Intel’s lineup in 2020. Why 14nm in 2020? Intel has been wrestling with its 10nm process node for many years, and after significant delays – and aborted launches – 10nm is finally shipping in a handful of mobile CPUs in 2019. But even that is a rather tepid affair, and volume desktop CPUs on the 10nm process are not expected until late 2020/early 2021. Instead, Intel is sticking to its guns: 14nm. This isn’t exactly the same process or architecture that was first introduced into the mainstream world back with Skylake. No, this has been optimised and modified into faster, more core-happy chips complete with new encoders, much needed security fixes, and feature updates. One of the biggest changes proposed with Comet Lake would be the introduction of Hyperthreading into the mainstream i5 and i3 lineups for the first time. Also on the slate with the top two chips in the 10th Gen lineup is a new boost formula, Intel Thermal Velocity Boost, which will drive clock speeds up to 5.3GHz on the i9 10900K. While unconfirmed, leaked slides reportedly from the horse’s mouth propose Intel’s entire 10th Gen Comet Lake lineup as below. Rumours of ten-core Intel Coffee Lake processors have been circulating since the dawn of time… or at least since last November when the first mention of these chips was spotted on a tech forum. But it wasn’t until 2019 that Intel’s own Linux drivers, submitted in March, exposed various tidbits of information regarding these processors. Four entries within the driver were particularly pertinent to Comet Lake: { CPUID_COMETLAKE_U_A0, “Cometlake-U A0 (6+2)” }, { CPUID_COMETLAKE_U_K0_S0, “Cometlake-U K0/S0 (6+2)/(4+2)” }, { CPUID_COMETLAKE_H_S_6_2_P0, “Cometlake-H/S P0 (6+2)” }, { CPUID_COMETLAKE_H_S_10_2_P0, “Cometlake-H/S P0 (10+2)” } The final entry is of most interest to desktop gamers. It confirms a 10+2 Comet Lake SKU, 10 processing cores and integrated Gen9, GT2 graphics. These will almost certainly retain the same ring bus interconnect of their Coffee Lake predecessors and feature an increase in L3 cache to 20MB with the top decacore chip. However, the same slides that may tell of Comet Lake’s release window also indicate a change of socket pin configuration from LGA 1151 to LGA 1200. MSI has now seemingly confirmed this, listing support for the LGA 1200 Intel socket on its new MAG Core Liquid CPU coolers. Reportedly, 400-series motherboards are in the works across Intel’s partners, and at least 26 Comet Lake motherboards are on the way from Asus. These include Z490, H470, B460, and W480 chipsets. Intel is also reportedly expanding its TDP envelope with 10th Gen. The K-series processors, such as the i9 10900K and i7 10700K, are reportedly fit with a 125W TDP. INTEL COMET LAKE PERFORMANCE: With every revision of the Skylake architecture – be that 14nm, 14nm+, 14nm++, or 14nm+++++ – Intel has managed to squeeze a little more performance out of the silicon. But while these improvements in clock speed have only been modest, the last couple of generations have also seen an increase in core count. The latest leaked slides (via HardwareLuxx) suggest the two-core bump could account for some 30% performance increase in some heavily multithreaded workloads. In single-threaded applications, namely games, that boon will not be anywhere near as pronounced. Rather, we suspect single digit improvement. We can also expect greater performance in multithreaded workloads on Core i5 and i3 processors with the addition of Hyperthreading on these mainstream and entry-level chips. But once again single-threaded performance will likely see marginal improvement over Coffee Lake. The graphics card remains the key component for us gamers, with the CPU an important, yet secondary, component in our quest for fps. Rather, the multi-core prowess of Comet Lake will come in handy if you’re an extreme multitasker or editor, such as a streamer or content creator, who is going to be utilising the CPU for more than just plain ol’ gaming at any one time. It won’t be easy for Intel, however, and Comet Lake has its work cut out for it. While the i9 9900K managed to safely trounce AMD’s Ryzen 7 2700X, albeit for a lot more cash, Comet Lake will be pit against AMD’s Ryzen 3000 processors led by the 12-core Ryzen 9 3900X and the 16-core Ryzen 9 3950X. INTEL COMET LAKE PRICE: Intel is walking a pricing tightrope in the client market, not one bit helped by its current struggle to produce the chips it requires to meet its clients’ needs. Intel is yet to deviate from its traditional pricing structure, charging upward of $480 for the eight-core i9 9900K. But that rigid structure is under fire from AMD’s Zen 2 architecture, with the Ryzen 7 3700X offering an equitable quantity of cores for $329. That puts it in a sticky situation with Comet Lake. The 10-core i9 10900K chip could necessitate a price tag of brobdingnagian proportions. Intel has shown some want to deviate from its long-standing pricing structure, however. At least in the HEDT market. Intel’s latest Core X-series processors, Cascade Lake X, saw prices slashed by nearly half to compete with AMD’s Threadripper processors. So maybe there’s a chance of a 10th Gen price drop… that is, without Intel’s ongoing CPU shortage scuttling all hope.

It’s a testament to the longevity of World of Warcraft that Battle for Azeroth, the game’s seventh expansion as it enters its 15th year, manages to be a difficult second album. Legion changed the game – some might say saved the game – and began a new era of higher expectations. Battle for Azeroth had to maintain that quality, build upon it, and, if it wasn’t too busy, tell a story to follow up the most significant victory Azeroth’s champions had ever managed. Blizzard was up to some, but not all, of those challenges. It’s extremely weird to live in a world where people – real people – care so much about the lore of World of Warcraft that it’s become worth writing about in its own right. Weirder still that anyone would be driven to begin a review by mentioning it. Whether you consider Battle for Azeroth’s narrative direction tantamount to the murder of Sylvanas’s character and the Horde’s honour, or see it more as a realistic telling of flawed people in conflict, Blizzard’s build-up to the reignition of its world war received more attention than anything the story has done since the fall of the Lich King. The team carried that into Battle for Azeroth’s two faction-specific continents with the best voice acting and in-game cinematics WoW has ever had. Whether it’s down to advances in technology or money invested in voice actors and directors, every new character or returning hero looks and sounds great – a makeover notable enough to feel like a real next-level moment for the storytelling. Tying them together are zones with interesting and unique problems, all lightly linked by the ongoing war storyline and soon-to-be major threat of yet another ancient evil. It’s that dual storyline where Battle for Azeroth first diverges. Each continent is packed with intriguing quests – the witch-blighted forest of Drustvar and gorgeous dunes of Vol’dun are home to my personal favourites – but there’s less overall cohesion than in Legion. While that expansion’s neverending tide of green sludge and underdressed six-armed demon-women became quickly fatiguing, every challenging situation in Legion was tied together by that singular antagonist – the big bad was here, and needed to be defeated. In Battle for Azeroth, the problems of Kul Tiras are broadly down to marauding pirates, witches, and squid-faced (un)holy men, not the Horde that is supposedly such a threat and in a state of open warfare. WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?: That angle is covered by the War Campaign; a series of questlines that are introduced as you adventure, taking you to the opposing faction’s zones to establish forward bases, scout, assassinate, and generally make a nuisance of yourself. They’re decent fun, and have an espionage flavour to them that WoW hasn’t featured before, but feel oddly lacking. They’re some of the only important quests in the expansion that aren’t dripping in fantastic voice acting, characterised instead by text-filled speech bubbles, which pop up and feel decidedly out of date next to the story events elsewhere. More notably, there’s no point at which your War Campaign actually intersects with the enemy’s. My targets on the Alliance side aren’t allies on the Horde side, but mostly caricatured, cackling, magic vampires. In turn, I never know anything about what the reds get up to in their War Campaign, despite the fact they apparently assaulted my new capital and desecrated some tombs. Were it not for some random wandering, I wouldn’t even know where the Horde footholds on my continent are – they simply exist, and I can do nothing about it. Hell, half my quests on the opposing continent are to take out the mutual enemies of both factions, or helping the lovable-but-decidedly-neutral race of turtle-people to reach water. It’s a surprising disconnect in a PvE-focused, casual-friendly game like World of Warcraft, which has made its central storyline one that pits the two factions of players against each other. Blizzard’s attempt to tackle that dichotomy is War Mode. Doing away with the archaic idea of PvP and PvE servers, everyone simply sets a toggle while in their capital city. Bonuses are given to those that decide to take part in the war, to make up for the additional difficulty that comes from being ganked every so often, and various other PvP incentives are in place. It’s brilliant – when it works. The bonuses are enough that the majority of players turned War Mode on for their everyday activities early on. Outside of a few aggressors, most Horde and Alliance players approach each other cautiously, trying to go about their quests without engaging, knowing that starting a fight can descend an entire area into an all-out battle for hours on end. Marking particularly murderous foes on the map, and giving big rewards for taking them down, is a masterstroke – a continuous bait for the ambitious, as well as a warning that death-averse players are probably better off avoiding certain areas. The War Campaign feels truly dangerous to embark upon in this manner, most notably when an escort mission for a neutral faction paths through a dozen enemies. We eye each other warily, painfully aware of the many skeletons of players scattered around from previous skirmishes. Blizzard knew it was creating these moments, and the paths between questing hubs and placement of objectives are designed to make them rare, but impactful. Unfortunately, the honeymoon period for the feature wears off at max level. It goes from a minor inconvenience to die, to one that holds back group activities from starting, delaying more than just yourself. I eventually turned it off simply because I couldn’t interact with allies that didn’t have it on, and every dungeon entrance was usually a killing field for one faction or the other. It simply stops being worth the effort as the rewards – currencies, rather than gear levels – become less relevant and the time wasted becomes more valuable. TO THE HEART OF IT: One problem here is how little I care about one of those currencies, the Azerite that fuels the Heart of Azeroth. A neckpiece received by every player in the opening moments of the story, it takes the place of the class-specific weapons of Legion – a second levelling system that will continue until the end of the expansion, drip-feeding new power from the Azerite that is the catch-all reward for every max-level activity. That power is tied to three pieces of Azerite armour that unlock special new traits at certain thresholds. The difference between the two is one of constant improvement versus meaningful impact over longer time periods. Legion’s artifacts gave you a point to spend at every level up, the vast majority of which went into very minor upgrades. But when my Heart of Azeroth reaches level 20, effectively nothing happens, but at level 21 it unlocks two new, noticeable traits. It parallels the still-controversial talent changes between Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria. It takes several days of normal play to get your Heart of Azeroth up a rank – a frustrating process on the occasions that no reward is forthcoming. Those thresholds and the traits they unlock also change based on which pieces of Azerite gear you happen to have, and there are massive differences in the deltas between the choices for each class and spec. Choosing between them simply isn’t as fun as striving towards completion of Legion’s artifact tree, and they certainly aren’t as impactful for general gameplay as the ludicrously overpowered legendaries, or the gameplay-defining talent trees of our characters. It’s in this way that Battle for Azeroth’s new features struggle under the weight of expectation. Blizzard’s evolution of the artifact system introduces as many problems as it solves. World quests and their ties to endgame reputation grinds are still vital to keeping players engaged, but are simply no longer a new system. Exploring the world to find chests and secret enemies – which felt so fresh when it was introduced in Warlords of Draenor – no longer seems special, and the minimal rewards match the effort you need to expend to attain them. Major gameplay changes that pruned abilities and slowed down combat were likely needed for the overall health of the game, but where it’s Blizzard’s job to be aware this sucks but is necessary, it’s mine to say it may be necessary but it sucks. The brand new Island Expeditions were given top billing in the early marketing, but are mostly pushed to the side in the final product, only appearing as a weekly quest. While undoubtedly an interesting use of procedural generation within WoW, they don’t feel particularly rewarding in play, and the much-touted random layouts and new AI for the opposing team of three often just feel samey and frustrating to fight. As a once-a-week activity they’re fine, but I don’t see myself ever choosing to do them over a dungeon, raid, or one of WoW’s other well-established uses of time. This leaves Battle for Azeroth, much like those dungeon bosses, feeling like it’s missing something. DUNGEONS PLUS: Tying all of this together is a theme of Blizzard time-gating content, either literally or behind reputation gains, or other forms of grinding. Some of this is long established – waiting three weeks for the raid, another week for its hardest difficulty, limiting dungeon rewards over that time too. That was already a fine line between allowing for a natural curve of play while introducing regular new content and feeling like the game eventually, simply, didn’t want you to play any more. With the addition of Azerite traits that require a new currency grind to unlock the potential of your armour, the progression of your artifact also being locked behind reputation gains that have a limit per day, and a number of other frustrations, it’s crossed that threshold. Nowhere is that epitomised more than in Warfronts. The system was activated soon after launch, at the same time as the raid. However, the interesting bit – the battle for Stormgarde – only became available more recently, and then only for the Horde faction, after they gathered enough resources to begin it. Alliance will need to wait their turn, after a week-long cooldown, and then their own resource gathering effort. In the end, this means ten or so days of watching bars go up and down while being given the most basic of kill-so-many-somethings quests, all to get access to a single, not particularly long event. Once we’re mid-expansion, and it’s just another piece of content that pops up every so often, that might be ok – but as the first time this system is available in a new expansion, the wait is simply too long, especially combined with everything else. Thankfully, dungeons remain a highlight of WoW, and Battle for Azeroth’s designs are as good as ever. The majority of the new dungeons are brilliant, with bosses as varied and entertaining as they’ve always been, placed in smart layouts that encourage experimentation and discovery. Legion’s infinitely scaling Mythic+ system, easily the game’s most successful new feature in years, returns in much the same form, with but a few tweaks. The ‘base’ versions of the dungeons suffer a little because of this, feeling vanilla and uncomplicated when you aren’t pushing your group’s capabilities with a particularly difficult challenge. But that was clearly a conscious choice on Blizzard’s part – to try to make the M+ system a smoother ride, limiting initial complexity so additional problems don’t complicate too much. The system itself returns in much the same form as its previous iteration, with a few minor changes. Your first keystone now adds the upgrade that was originally reserved for only the highest level keystones rather than a small, percentage-based damage and health upgrade for enemies. At that highest level there is now a long-term rotation in place, where each season – usually tied to a major patch – will have a different challenge. This is a nod to the surprisingly po[CENSORED]r esports scene that grew around M+, and a great change all around. Broadly, the different challenges still stray between fun and frustrating, but for a system that’s meant to push you until you fail, that’s acceptable and successful. The raid, too, is a triumph on every axis. Uldir is a tour de force of interesting mechanics, varied designs, and challenge. No boss or area feels underutilised, trash mobs don’t overstay their welcome (except on Zul, ho boy), and visual design varies and flows throughout. The final boss, G’huun, is a complex encounter that is proving difficult even for the best of the best. Legion’s first raid was widely regarded as far too easy, while Uldir will give something to do to every member of a group, in a way that most expansions don’t in their earliest content. This will be particularly fascinating this go-round, as Method, the defacto best guild in the world, has announced it’ll stream its attempts to be the first to defeat the raid on its hardest difficulty – the premiere of the World First Race on Twitch. AFTER HOURS: That’s the state of Battle for Azeroth currently, but it’s worth noting in this world of games as a service that many of Legion’s finest moments came in its patches: the fantastic Return to Karazhan; the surprise three-boss Trial of Valor raid; an entire single-player storyline in the Deaths of Chromie; endless fantastic cinematics. Even Allied Races, ostensibly a Battle for Azeroth feature, popped up right at the end. Blizzard has that content loop locked in tight now, and though we know far less about 8.1 than we knew about 7.1 in the same timeframe, that suggests to me a confidence in their new procedure – which they will need after an uncharacteristic raft of bugs over the first month of Battle for Azeroth. Then, of course, there’s the plot. It’s the most exciting time in ten years to care about the inhabitants of Azeroth, and though every player and all their alts know the Old Gods will be involved, exactly how Blizzard tells it – and who or what falls to corruption this time – is an exciting prospect. But it needs to be a surprise, as the Burning of Teldrassil, the attack on Argus, and the return of Illidan were before. World of Warcraft still has that first hundred hours of an expansion on lock. Learning a new land, enjoying a new story, exploring dungeons and gearing up, and finding the little secrets and changes that keep the game feeling fresh. Battle for Azeroth does that as well as ever, with best-in-class music to go alongside everything else mentioned above. But while Battle for Azeroth has less to prove – and it feels impossible at this point, thanks to the many changes made since, that the game could ever reach as low a point as Warlords of Draenor again – it has even more to live up to. Hopefully, in time, it can.