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The real-life Q is quite different to the one you see on the big screen. He seems less absent-minded and eccentric, for a start. And, as far as we can tell, his pens don’t contain any explosive devices. Yet Simon Lane, in his role as head of Aston Martin’s Q bespoke division, is in charge of developing cars as creative, bold and deceiving as anything MI6’s Quartermaster might produce. Having long offered a customisation service through the Works Tailored arm run from its Newport Pagnell plant, Aston launched the expanded Q division at its Gaydon base in 2012 with a licence to produce highly modified and bespoke models as demanded by its most loyal customers. Most premium car makers have similar operations, but what Lane believes sets Q apart is a more fun approach, as its name hints. “I like to think we push the boundaries more than our competitors in terms of what’s possible,” he says. “And that goes right up to building bespoke one-off cars.” Q has three main offerings. Q Collection offers special parts and options for standard Aston models. Q Commission gives customers more freedom in terms of customising their cars, with a focus on colour and trim. The pinnacle, and you suspect the service that James Bond would head straight for, is Q Advanced Operations. Lane says this is for customers “who don’t want anything on the menu and want to do something completely different”. That can range from non-standard powertrains and bodywork to fully customised cars. To demonstrate what Q is capable of, we staged a top-secret mission to bring together five of its finest creations and asked Lane to showcase their highlights. Vantage V600 A tribute to the 1999 Aston Vantage V600 (one of world’s most powerful production cars at the time), this 2018 special edition based on the previous-generation Vantage was the result of a commission from a single customer. “He wanted a machine based on the V600,” says Lane. “We have to put every part So is the darkened grille, while the heavily reworked interior features a carbonfibre centre console and lightweight seats. Lane admits that the V600 was “an expensive exercise because we had to do a lot of the testing we originally did on the car again”. He adds: “It would be very difficult to do that for a single bespoke car, but doing it on a run of cars meant we could do it for the customer at a sensible price point and find some other customers as well.” Vantage 007 Edition One of two special cars developed as a tie-in with the much-delayed No Time to Die, the Vantage 007 Edition is a homage to the Vantage V8 that appears in the film, having first been seen in 1987’s The Living Daylights. While based on the Vantage, the 007 Edition is packed with subtle details that reference the original car, starting with the matching Cumberland Grey paint. The most notable detail is the new mesh grille, which required a lot of engineering. “It’s a direct nod to the original, with the same laser-cut square grille effect,” says Lane. “Just that part alone required substantial engineering, because the airflow that goes through the Vantage grille is close to the limits of what’s needed, and we had to calculate it all in litres per second to make sure there was enough air reaching the engine.”Hazard stripes on the diffuser echo the rockets on the film car, while inside there’s 007 branding on the centre console, including a gadget switch panel that matches the original (but sadly doesn’t work). The seats gain trim that references the original Vantage V8 and there are carbonfibre rear seats as well. on a bespoke car through the same testing we would any part on a series-production model, which can be expensive. He said he would underwrite the development and help find other buyers, which means we could split the development, testing and engineering costs across seven coupés and seven convertibles.” The result was also a run-out special, with the 14 examples the final cars to use the VH platform – which also made them the final Vantages to have a naturally aspirated V12. And the body was extensively reworked in the style of the 1999 V600, which Lane describes as “a bruiser”. Lane says: “The customer wanted a bespoke exterior using carbonfibre; the only surviving panels are the doors and roof. There are clear design links and some really nice details. We kept the original side sill shape, so it has a real Coke-bottle shape, and the bonnet bulge is a very clear nod to the original V600.”

More than 15 million people in the UK have now had their first coronavirus vaccine, in what Boris Johnson described as a "significant milestone". The PM hailed the "extraordinary feat", reached just over two months after the first jab was given on 8 December. It comes as the government is expected to announce on Monday it has met its pledge to offer a jab to everyone in the top four priority groups in the UK. The rollout is now being expanded to over-65s and the clinically vulnerable. In a video, Mr Johnson praised a "truly national, UK-wide effort", adding that in England the jab had been offered to all those in the top four priority groups. Wales has also met the target. But "no-one is resting on their laurels," Mr Johnson said. "We've still got a long way to go to. And there will undoubtedly be bumps in the road. But after all we've achieved, I know we can go forward with great confidence."Sunday's daily coronavirus figures show 15,062,189 people have now received an initial vaccine dose - after 505,362 first jabs were given out on Saturday. A further 258 people in the UK have died within 28 days of a positive Covid test, taking the death toll by that measure to 117,166. Fewer deaths tend to be reported on Sundays, due to a reporting lag over the weekend. There were 10,972 new cases reported, bringing the total number of recorded infections to 4,038,078. 'Route to freedom' NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said the 15 million milestone was a "remarkable shared achievement" - reached 10 weeks after the first vaccine was administered in the UK. "The NHS vaccination programme is the biggest and fastest in Europe - and in the health service's history - and that is down to the skill, care, and downright hard work of our fantastic staff, supported by local communities, volunteers and the armed forces," he said. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it meant one in every four adults was now "starting to receive protection from this dreadful disease". But he cautioned: "There is so much more to do and I urge anyone eligible to step forward and take up their appointment. The vaccine is our route to freedom - we will beat this virus jab by jab." So far the vaccination programme has been aimed at the top four priority groups, including NHS frontline staff, care home residents and workers, over-70s, and people deemed clinically extremely vulnerable. These groups have accounted for 88% of the UK's Covid-19 deaths so far, according to the Department of Health and Social Care and are estimated by the JCVI to be some 15 million people. A small number of the 15 million to receive a jab will have been outside these priority groups. Ruth Rankine, director of the NHS Confederation's PCN Network of GP practices, paid tribute to the "incredible accomplishment" but added that "until everyone is protected, no one is protected". "There is still work to do to administer first doses to all the remaining people from the first four cohorts, as well as moving down the cohorts until everyone has at least been offered a jab, not to mention beginning the work of administering second doses," she said. Labour's shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, said ministers needed to "lock in the gains of vaccination" and introduce further measures to reduce the spread of the disease. This included increased financial support for those who have to self-isolate, updated guidance on masks and help to make workplaces Covid secure.

The promise of slowing numbers of COVID-19 cases and the development of vaccines are offering hope that workers exiled at home can get back to work again. While no one expects a rapid return to the workplace, one thing seems clear: How we work has likely changed forever.Pre-pandemic, only 3 percent of employees worked from home. Last year, thanks to COVID-19, remote work has soared to 40 percent of the workforce. The almost overnight overhaul of the way workplaces have operated for years is forcing companies to rethink how they manage and communicate with employees. Microsoft claims more than 115 million users rely on its suites of software and cloud-based office productivity apps, and its officials understand their services will need to accommodate the broad sweep of change in the coming post-pandemic months and years. With such change in mind, Microsoft on Thursday introduced Viva, a suite of tools referred to as "an employee experience platform" that integrates with Microsoft 365 and Teams. It connects employees to the company by providing work, research and educational resources in an intranet setting. Viva includes several modules: Connections provides employees with company news and policies; Learning offers educational resources; Topics manages the company database and has been called "a Wikipedia for the organization" by Jared Spataro, who heads Microsoft 365; and Insights will generate data for managers and leaders to monitor work patterns and trends. "We need to stop thinking about work as a place, and start thinking about how to maintain culture, connect employees, and harness human ingenuity in a hybrid world," Spataro said. "As the world of work changes, the next horizon of innovation will come from a focus on creativity, engagement and well-being so organizations can build cultures of resilience and ingenuity." Microsoft hopes to juggle all aspects of an individual's workday—scheduling, meetings, phone calls, video chats, text messaging, research—into a common framework that will help employees navigate a new work world that accommodates changing hours and possible shifts between working from home and working at the office. All the while, the system would foster a sense of community."We have participated in the largest at-scale remote work experiment the world has seen and it has had a dramatic impact on the employee experience," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said. "As the world recovers, there is no going back. Flexibility in when, where and how we work will be key."The Learning module, which will be made available to all later this year, collects educational resources for new employees navigating their way through their first days and for established employees seeking to broaden heir knowledge. It includes content not only from the company but from LinkedIn Learning, Skillsoft, Coursera, EdX and others. Similarly, Topics coordinates helpful data from experts throughout the company, using AI to scan an employee's database, for instance, and match it up to appropriate resources for analysis. Insights in effect is the company therapist. Keeping tabs on an employee's workflow and habits, it can be utilized to gently suggest break times and encourage relationships with fellow workers. Also, according to a Microsoft blog post, Insights "allows organizations to combine employee feedback from LinkedIn's Glint with collaboration data from Viva Insights, enabling leaders to more accurately identify where teams may be struggling, proactively adjust work norms, and then quantify the impact of those changes over time." While Microsoft said personal privacy will be protected, this module is eerily similar to last year's introduction of a "productivity score" feature in Microsoft 365 that drew criticism from privacy experts. The feature allowed managers to track employee activity at work or at home, and produced scores based on factors such as workflow, participation in discussions and number of emails. Swift criticism of the feature followed. "The word dystopian is not nearly strong enough to describe the fresh hellhole Microsoft just opened up," said David Heinemeier Hansson, co-founder of the office productivity suite Basecamp, referring to productivity scores. "Just as the reputation of a new and better company was being built, they detonate it with the most invasive workplace surveillance scheme yet to hit mainstream. Being under constant surveillance in the workplace is psychological abuse," he said. Microsoft eventually removed the ability to identify individual users, stating that the score "is a measure of organizational adoption of technology—and not individual user behavior." Microsoft said this week that Insights data are "aggregated and de-identified by default to maintain personal privacy." The Topics module is now available for Microsoft 365 customers, and Insights and Learning are available for preview for all beginning this week.

RTX 3060 graphics cards might be more expensive than expected. Nvidia set the MSRP at $329 when it announced the cards in January and reiterated yesterday that some cards would show up at that pricing on launch, but VideoCardz today reported that some European retailers have listed certain models up to 75% above that price, even though the cards won’t make their official debut until later this month. The report said that ProShop has some RTX 3060s listed at 499 EUR or 2799 PLN “minimum,“ which are 52 and 75% higher than the MSRP of 329 EUR or 1599 PLN. VideoCardz said that another seller, PCDiga, raised the RTX 3060s to 100 EUR within the last week. It’s not hard to imagine further increases after launch.Nvidia’s claim that RTX 3060 graphics cards would sell for MSRP always seemed unlikely. When the cards were revealed, we noted that GPU shortages, the cryptocurrency boom, and other factors would lead the latest 30-series graphics cards to sell out quickly, even if they aren’t as powerful as existing offerings.It also doesn’t help that Ethereum mining has once again increased demand for practically anything with a GPU powerful enough to earn some cryptocurrency. Miners, people looking to build an affordable gaming PC, and folks who are sick of waiting for more powerful 30-series cards will all be scrambling for limited supply. Oh, and RTX 3060 prices will probably also be affected by U.S. tariffs on goods imported from China, too. That should be separate from these increases at European retailers, but it also means things are unlikely to be much better across the pond. Managing to snag an RTX 3060 for its MSRP seems like a matter of luck.

One of the biggest changes in the video game industry over the last 10 years has been the polarization of budgets. In recent times, there’s been a real lack of anything that isn’t either a AAA game or an indie title. A game either has a huge budget and is expected to conquer the world, or it’s an indie title that is funded by its handful of developers who risk everything to complete their passion project. The few titles that fill this void tend to be either a side project by one of the major publishers, or from a smaller studio with big ambitions. There are options cropping up, but so far, this is still par for the course. It appears that this split of the video game industry is now spreading to the publishers themselves with smaller companies getting bought up or squeezed out. The times, they aren’t a-changin’ In some ways, the video game development landscape is now like it was in the early days. Back at the start of the industry, most games were from either a handful of publishers or from home developers. The home developers are now indie studios; the handful of publishers is now the likes of Electronic Arts, Activision, Ubisoft, THQ Nordic, and Take-Two Interactive. In between these two time periods, there were smaller publishers and a whole host of unaffiliated game studios. A lot of these studios came and went as so much depended on whether a single game succeeded. On the plus side, though, there was a lot more creativity as they developed what they were passionate about. This recent disappearance of studios has come from either closure or being swallowed up by the big publishers. Electronic Arts has bought up so many great studios. Some have been able to keep their identities within the group, such as DICE and BioWare. Other studios have been dissolved or just closed, such as Bullfrog Productions, Visceral Games, and Pandemic Studios — the list goes on. It’s completely understandable that independent studios relish the financial stability that joining a big publisher provides. The concern is when that takeover leads to studios compromising their vision and sensibilities. And the fear that their time is limited.All we hear is Radio Gaga One industry that has seen this kind of big company consolidation is radio. Back in the ’90s, there were loads of little, independent radio stations. This allowed a wide variety of music to be played. Smaller stations could focus on different subgenres, while staying constantly on the lookout for interesting new music to bring to their listeners before anyone else. Towards the end of the decade, the laws regarding ownership of stations changed. This led to the majority of these stations being gobbled up by the larger players in the industry. Nowadays there are just a handful of truly different stations. In other words, there are a smaller number of playlists, leading to a far more homogenized music industry. The same kind of thing is happening with video games. Take Ubisoft and the way that nearly all its games are open-world titles. Another example is the way that Electronic Arts was trying to get all of its studios to use the same game engine. It’s not all bad for small studios when they join major publishers. Aside from the financial stability, they can also get a cash injection to help them grow. Take a studio like Ninja Theory. While it did a brilliant job with Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, its deal to join Xbox Game Studios means that not only can it throw the kitchen sink at the sequel, but it’s now got a full second development team as well. When two become one Some publishers are also being snapped up by the big players in the industry. In the past, we have seen serious players such as Blizzard and Rockstar Games become subsidiaries of bigger publishers. Last year we got the news that Microsoft is in the final stages of purchasing ZeniMax Media. This will lead to The Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda joining Xbox Game Studios. It’s not just Bethesda, though. The deal also includes such heavy hitters as id Software, Arkane Games, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, and more. It has also been suggested that Microsoft is looking to make a similar-size acquisition this year as well. Could this be the year that the much-rumored takeover of Sega happens? It’s not just Microsoft splashing the cash at the moment. Electronic Arts is in the process of purchasing Codemasters. The racing game specialists was in talks with Take-Two before it was snatched up by EA. These purchases highlight a shrinking of the middle ground between indie publishers and the giants of the industry. There are still some players in this middle ground. THQ Nordic is one such mid-size publisher. Founded in 2011, the Austrian publisher has made a business for itself by buying-up loads of IPs and trying to reinvigorate them. Even its name is something it acquired, as there are no direct ties between the remnants of THQ and Nordic Games (as it was named until 2016). Another mid-sized publisher is Focus Home Interactive. The French publisher is the outlet for many European developers. Its releases include A Plague Tale: Innocence from Asobo Studio, and Greedfall from Spiders. It also owns Deck13, the studio behind The Surge franchise. It’s all about the Benjamins These publishers and a couple of others show that there is a way to succeed as a mid-level publisher. However, if one of the big players came knocking, could it really hold out and not be subsumed by the larger company? Focus Home Interactive has assets worth just over $60 million USD, which makes it a decently sized company in most eyes. On the other hand, Activision Blizzard has assets worth nearly $20 billion USD. That is a huge mismatch in financial power. At the end of the day, a lot of it comes down to whether the company is owned by creatives or just financial backers. If it’s the latter, a hugely rewarding offer from a bigger player is always going to win the day. As gamers, most of us only care about what products we can get our hands on rather than the companies behind them. The thing is, it is the companies that control what products we get in our hands. We have talked before about how we enjoy Ubisoft’s open-world games. That doesn’t mean that we want every game from Ubisoft to have an open world, though. Similarly, a 10-hour AA game can be just what you’re after sometimes, rather than a 120-hour AAA experience. This shrinking of this middle ground for publishers may bring us a few more amazing AAA games. However, it could also lead to further decimation of the AA game space. Filling the void While these smaller publishers do a valiant job of trying to fill a hole in the market, they’re never going to be able to consistently plug the gap. This area of the video game market may have shrunk, but it does leave some potential space for others. With the way that the indie market has grown, an array of these games have become particularly ambitious. Some of these titles could even be seen as AA games. Games such as The Medium and Second Extinction definitely blur these lines. These games may well be self-published but are far more ambitious, accessible, and visually impressive than a lot of what is seen as an indie game. Sometimes they even gain some development funding from the big boys. Titles that agree to some sort of exclusivity can gain funding to help with the final stages of the development of a project. This could be through a limited period of exclusivity on something like the Epic Games Store or agreeing to be on Xbox Game Pass on day one. There are also some indie publishers that now go beyond just publishing games when they’re ready to go. The most well-known of these larger indie publishers is Devolver Digital. The Texas-based company not only publishes games, but provides funding to some projects as well. While none of these routes provide the financial backing that a AAA publisher would provide, they can offer some much-needed resources on the back end of a project. Games without frontiers Whether this polarization is down to the purchasing choices of us as gamers or just down to capitalism, we can’t say. What we do know is that publishers notice trends in the market. What they do with these trends, again we don’t really know. If a mega-publisher sees a smaller publisher succeeding with a AA game, what will it do with that information? Will it see that as something it should invest in and produce its own AA games? Alternatively, will it just pay up to avoid those development costs and acquire the smaller publisher? We’ll just have to wait and see. Could the AA space disappear completely and be taken over by more ambitious indie titles? Again, time will tell. We just pray that in the future we will continue to get an array of great creative games.

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i'll vote to DH2, i liked it more than DH1

We've seen some cool Raspberry Pi desktop rigs, but this one stands out and swivels! Created by a maker known as Sleepless_Engineer, this project uses an old swivel hinge recycled from a Lenovo ThinkPad to create an adjustable screen. Sleepless_Engineer's system stores a Raspberry Pi 4 and screen inside a custom, 3D-printed shell. To fit everything inside, the USB and Ethernet ports had to be resoldered from the Raspberry Pi. This allowed additional space to store the battery and keyboard.according to Sleepless_Engineer, the Pi 4 was ideal due to its Micro-HDMI support. This cable was apparently easy to route through the ThinkPad hinge, taken from an X201 model. The project also uses a Blackberry trackball breakout module.

Indie games are great because they usually offer experiences you won’t find in a triple-A game. However, the experience players can expect in Militsioner, a new indie title from developer Tallboys, seems to be distinguishing itself even in indie circles. A reveal trailer for Militsioner debuted today, revealing the game’s main antagonist, a Russian cop scaled up to the size of Galactus. From the start of its trailer, Militsioner sets itself apart. The game uses voice recognition that lets players actually talk to characters in the game world. It doesn’t seem like players have to choose any dialogue besides what they want to say. Speaking to characters will likely be a huge part of the game, as it’s the only way to communicate with its giant antagonist. Over the course of the entire trailer, a massive cop is sat down right outside of the city. He’s so large and far away that he appears slightly hazy, and his voice booms, likely shaking the ground and windows. Of course, he’s still a cop (assumedly with a salary), so players can swear at him as much as they want and he can’t do a thing. Outrunning the cops is harder when they’re 50-miles tall The reveal trailer for Militsioner, while trippy, showed that it’s a game about escape. The player character can’t leave the town they’re in for some mysterious reason. It’s up to players to guide them safely away from the ever-watching eye of this literally big brother.It won’t be easy though, as the massive cop has a ton of options for thwarting players. Naturally, he can just pluck you right out from the town, hopefully not crushing you in the process. He also has a flashlight, meaning escaping at night isn’t any advantage. And this is all while he’s sitting down, so if he has to chase you, there’s no competition. So far, Militsioner doesn’t have a release date. However, the game is available to pre-order on Steam here.

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A new business service plan is coming to Microsoft Teams in mid-March, according to reports. Teams Pro will add webinar and meeting intelligence functionality to the Teams platform, giving Microsoft the opportunity to target a sizeable new market. Microsoft Teams has already captured a large portion of the work from home market since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, becoming as essential to remote work as a good monitor or desk. However, competition is fierce between online collaboration platforms and Microsoft knows that it must continually reinvent Teams to fight off the challenge posed by the likes of Zoom and Google Meet. As a result, the coming Teams Pro plan will be welcomed by users frustrated by the online meeting options currently offered by the platform. Although details are scarce, it is thought that Teams Pro could include features like dynamic views in addition to webinar functionality.The pro plan There is currently no word on whether Teams Pro will be free or launch as a paid add-on. The Microsoft Office Message Center notes that Teams Pro will be made available to all users “with M365/O365 E3, E5, A3, A5, Business Standard, and Business Basic licenses” but aside from that, there isn’t much to go on.Teams Pro will also come with Meeting Insights integration, the solution that commercial users of Microsoft 365 and Office 365 in Outlook will already be familiar with. It will supply meeting participants with content before meetings begin and let them review content afterward, such as meeting notes. Although Teams has seen its user figures surge as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, it is likely to be overlooked for larger presentations in favor of bespoke webinar software. The addition of the Teams Pro service plan will hope to change that.

A Chinese tweaker has almost managed to break records on the notebook 3DMark scoreboard by modifying an RTX 3080 equipped ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 to run at 155W instead of the GPU's default TDP of 130W. The mod was made by transferring the VBIOS from another RTX 3080 equipped laptop, the MSI GE76 to the Zephyrus Duo 15. Since the GE76's RTX 3080 comes with a 155W power limit, this change will get transferred to the Zephyrus Duo 15 when you swap VBIOSes. The Chinese overclocker managed a 3DMark TimeSpy graphics score of 13,691 points and an overall score of 13,174. Compared to the desktop sector, this modified RTX 3080 managed to beat the best RTX 3060 Ti TimeSpy Graphics score by roughly 100 points. But it loses in the overall score by around 700 points due to the CPU differences. Overall, this means the RTX 3080 mobile is 1% faster than the desktop RTX 3060 Ti.Compared to other RTX 3080 laptops, the modified Zephyrus Duo 15 is in 2nd place at the time of this writing, and has an average graphics lead of 200-300 points over other 3080 mobile chips. Most RTX 3080 laptops score an average of 13,200 points with some hitting the 13,400 mark. This means the modified RTX 3080 mobile is 1.2% faster than other RTX 3080s. Unfortunately, we don't know if the modified RTX 3080 was overclocked or not. The author mentions nothing in terms of a core or memory overclock, so we believe his score was from the increased power limit alone. If true, the modified RTX 3080 has more potential headroom for an even higher score through conventional overclocking. While the performance results from this mod are quite impressive, keep in mind that doing this yourself is very risky. Increasing the power limit on your GPU will put more strain on your cooling system and, more seriously, your power delivery system (which can destroy your laptop if overloaded). So make sure you know the risks if you want to attempt the same mod on your notebook. However, it is cool to see what a mobile RTX 3080 can do with some extra power headroom. Who knows, maybe one day we'll see laptops with these crazy high power limits in the future.

We’ve got a trio of free games on the Epic Games Store to talk about. Though, before you get too excited, just bear in mind that only one of them is available this week. That would be Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander, which is free until February 18 at 11 AM ET. However, people are going to be particularly excited to learn that the AAA title Rage 2 from publisher Bethesda will be free next week along with indie drifter Absolute Drift. There’s a lot to talk about, so let’s get into it. Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander is a turn-based tactical RPG developed by Massive Damage Games that released back in 2016. It tends to evoke some XCOM and FTL vibes, plus a healthy dose of humor along the way. As you will quickly note, this game features a retro art style as well, so that may hit you with just enough nostalgia to convince you to jump in. If not, we still recommend giving Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander a try, as it is free after all. You get to build bases to expand your capabilities, explore the stars, fight aliens and other strange creatures, and enjoy a fully developed narrative. Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander has a lot of depth to it as well. The user reviews indicate a mostly positive experience, so don’t forget to claim it. Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander is also light on your PC, so you won’t need much to run it. In fact, that leads us into the next game.Two epic games coming free next week Absolute Drift is another 2016 title which will arrive free on the Epic Games Store alongside Rage 2 on February 18 at 11 AM ET. As the name implies, this is a game about the art of street drifting. It’s quite simple in principle, but you will need to master the art of precision driving to do well. Just like the previously mentioned game, this won’t melt your PC either, though the art style looks quite satisfying. We’ll cover this one in more detail next week.Rage 2 is clearly the star of the lineup, as it is a 2019 AAA game from id Software and Avalanche Studios. It’s modeled after themes from the Mad Max franchise with a healthy dose of Borderlands-style action and Fallout-esque monsters. The game was a bit of a gamble for Bethesda, and even though the reviews were decent, it never quite took off with a larger audience. Rage 2 is arguably a solid game though, so this free chance to get it should not be missed. It even has some free DLC you’ll be able to nab along with the base game. Did we mention how stunning it looks? We’ll remind you next week when the latest batch of free games hit the Epic Games Store. Until then, enjoy some time with Halcyon 6 or anything else you’ve managed to pick up for free over the years. My backlog is getting ridiculous.

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★Nickname: Devil^ ★CSBD username: @DeViL^. ★Rank: Pre Manager ★Nickname: Error ★CSBD username: @ErrorGame ★Rank: Pre Manager

An early access Microsoft Edge build showcases a small but handy upgrade Microsoft is trialling a new feature that will allow users of its flagship web browser Edge to search through their browsing history more efficiently. Already available via the Edge Canary early access channel, which is updated daily with the most experimental features, the upgrade allows users to search an open history tab by simply typing the name of a website or URL. Users of the latest public build are currently required to navigate through to another search menu within the history tab, so the upgrade will serve to eliminate this unnecessary additional step. Whether the new feature finds its way into a full Microsoft Edge release will depend on its reception among members of the early access program, but there is no reason to think it won’t prove po[CENSORED]r. Microsoft Edge updates This tiny but useful upgrade is the latest in a series of Microsoft Edge updates designed to deliver small optimizations to the user experience. Recent additions include a secure password generator, in-built price comparison tool, screenshot capture facility, scrolling tab bar and more. With Microsoft Edge 88, the first iteration of which arrived late last month, users also gain access to a range of quality of life upgrades, such as vertically-oriented tabs, launch process optimization and sleeping tabs.Although Edge is still a minor player in comparison to market leader Google Chrome, which holds a 63.5% share, Microsoft will be buoyed by its recent performance and confident of further gains in 2021. On its current trajectory, according to Statcounter data, the Edge user base will grow larger than that of established rival Firefox within the next few months.

Intel has been teasing us about a new brand of discrete gaming GPUs for a while, namely: Intel Xe. It's coming in several configurations and, at the top end of the stack, Xe-HPG is set to arrive as a high-performance, gaming optimised GPU. And maybe, with the sort of tech Intel's been dropping into its server GPUs, it'll be ready to take on current market leaders AMD and Nvidia. We've seen a little of what the lower end of the line-up can do, with the wee Xe chip appearing in the latest Tiger Lake laptops, and Intel's chief GPU architect Raja Koduri has been drip feeding us high-end server graphics teasers for months. But now we've got a screenshot of the gaming-centric Intel Xe-HPG actually running on an as yet unreleased 3DMark test.Koduri popped up on twitter today, flaunting what appears to be the Intel XE DG2 model, based on Xe-HPG architecture. It's running on UL's upcoming 3DMark Mesh Shader feature test. Like Variable Rate Shading (VRS), Mesh Shaders are part of the DirectX12 Ultimate API, and will be operative in the phasing out of current, fixed-function hardware approaches. Input Assembler (IA), Vertex Shader (VS), Hull Shader (HS), Geometry Shader (GS) and Domain Shader (DS) are all on the way out. Where previously fixed-function hardware approaches were rife, Mesh Shaders are more of a generic solution to testing, a flexible all-rounder. So, with the new gaming chip being benched right now, it might not be long before we see some actual numbers arising from the blue corner. And although we're unlikely to get these new high-end discrete GPUs for desktop PCs any time soon, it is possible portable variants will hit the market in the semi-near future. You might soon spot gaming laptops baring Intel Xe stickers, potentially paired with 11th Gen Core Tiger Lake-H, perhaps even later this year.Thus far, we've had very little info on what these new GPUs are capable of. We know the older DG1 prototype (based on Iris Xe architecture) was able to run Destiny 2, and the desktop GPU is going to be dropped into retail machines too. Though with less actual graphics silicon inside it the DG1 in your desktop PC isn't really prepped for gaming. When packed into a Tiger Lake laptop, however, the Iris Xe GPU outperforms AMD's integrated graphics, but is still shy of getting close to the sort of gaming performance we'd expect from discrete AMD and Nvidia graphics cards.

PUBG is still thriving in the battle royale genre even after Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty: Warzone have come along. It’s fair to say that the game has gone through its ups and downs, but most players will agree that it has a lot to offer these days. Update 10.3 continues to improve things, with notable changes that are sure to put more smiles on PUBG players’ faces. If you’re strictly into the competitive scene, you’re well aware of the situation going on with spatial audio. Players were rightfully complaining about how gun shots sounded misleading and resulted in frustrating deaths. Not being able to discern the direction of enemy gun fire is more than enough to make the game unplayable. That’s why update 10.3 is a huge deal to many PUBG players. It introduces “remastered” audio for the M249, M416, Kar98k, and SKS weapons. Simply select your preference from the Settings Menu, under the Audio tab to make use of these. Sounds good, looks good Additionally, there are lighting changes coming to the Karakin map which the developers hope will give different areas their own unique feel and tone. From what we can tell, the interior spaces appear a bit brighter now, which should please competitive players on the lookout for campers. Another topic covered in the update pertains to the improved user experience across the various UIs like the in-game store. There’s also the usual list of bug fixes. It’s not too long of a list this time, so you shouldn’t have much to worry about as far as odd occurrences during gameplay. You can also look forward to some performance enhancements… for your hardware. As in, your game will run better. Calm down. On the social side of things, the reputation system has been tweaked again and clearly for the better. In normal matches, you can quit prior to boarding the plane without fear of a reputation hit. In ranked, you can now quit without losing reputation during the first five minutes of a match if your teammates quit or the game fails to provide allies. Digital get down All in all, these changes should give you plenty of reason to celebrate. PUBG has you covered in that department as well. Team emotes are now a thing, so you can turn into the dance group of your dreams and live life in the spotlight after the world pays notice of your latest chicken dinner. Go, go, bust a move! Of course, you can find more details on all of these topics in the full patch notes of update 10.3 for PUBG. It’s not too long of a read, so you might as well give the notes a scan.

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