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pro give him a chance

game information: Developers:Iguana Entertainment Publishers:Electro Source, Acclaim Entertainment Release Date:February 28, 1997 Platforms:Nintendo 64, PC David Dienstbier, the originator of the Turok: Dinosaur Hunter project and a fanatic about video games, is a total perfectionist. In fact, he's a little crazy, but that's OK by us because he's funneled the disorder into what is one of the coolest games on N64, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. Turok stands on the shoulders of all previous Doom games, an example of Dienstbier and co.'s desire to take the best elements from their predecessors, and make them better. Way better. Almost everything about Turok is airtight, gameplay, graphics, level design, enemies, weapons, effects -- you name it, the game does it well. Gameplay is based on the first-person perspective, made famous by Id Software's Doom, but the level of free 3D movement -- jumping, swimming, climbing, crawling, and running -- coupled with clever level design that makes use of the character's abilities, take Turok to places Doom's never been. Movement and Control Distinguishing itself from other Doom clones, Turok breaks from the genre's confines by layering platform-style gaming onto standard run-and-shoot tactics. His environment is generally open jungle, freeing him from the restrictions of narrow, dark corridors and dungeons. Turok moves smoothly, climbs realistically, and is able to jump great distances, especially after you learn his awkward diagonal jump. And he swims gorgeously -- the underwater motion physics are immersive and believable. The designers may have erred on allowing Turok to hold his breath for too long underwater, but it benefits gameplayers because this ability promotes exploration, and the subtle crevices Turok can swim into, or the depths he can swim down to, are awesome. For some, the analog configuration is a little suspect. The joystick controls weapon movement (along three axes), the four C buttons control player movement, the Z trigger shoots, and the right shoulder button is for jumping; this also can re-configured for left-handed players. Many people may not initially like this set-up, but like anything, it works naturally once you're accustomed to it. Actual movement is very precise -- strafing is excellent -- and even on narrow mesas or slim log paths, it's generally easy to know where your standing, especially if you look down. Many gamers' biggest complaint, however, is that Turok has no feet, especially annoying when jumping. Still, there's a learning curve to this skill, and most people learn Turok's control quickly. Level Design Puzzles and mazes are abundant and intelligent, never impossible; they work into the design of the game and follow an inherent logic, either built into the regular courses, or by way of aqua transports or hovering blue portals. Many require the use of the map, styled after LucasArts's Dark Forces, which overlaps onto the screen while you're playing (accessed by pressing the left shoulder button). As one example of the game's elegant design, on level four, Turok must find his way out of a deep multi-room cavern (which holds a piece of the Chronoscepter) and finds a free-standing column of water, full of spirit power-ups. By using the map, he can jump out of the water onto a ledge (which couldn't be seen or accessed before) that leads to the level's exit. There are too many more examples of design ingenuity to mention them all. Graphics What's most refreshing about Turok is that while the gameplay is firmly based on Doom-style movement and play, the luscious and tropical detail of the jungle textures and clean polygonal environments create an entirely different mood and headset than any other first-person shoot-'em-up. The transparency effects of many elements, especially water, are exquisite. Transparency (used to mask higher or lower sections of a level)), fogging and straight darkness are used throughout to keep polygons at a controllable level, and they are generally built into the design to a noticeable degree without being a nuisance. One exception, however, is when you need to look into the distance, and you're unable to, you must resort to the map as a default. Creatures and humanoid opponents move fluidly, each following a recognizable movement pattern, and are highly detailed texture-mapped, polygonal creations. Everywhere you go there is detail, seemingly random plants, trees, rivers, totem poles, ancient halls; it's this visual stuff that keeps immersing you fully into the Lost Land of Turok. Extras The game is full of little touches. In some areas, Purlins break through stones walls (not shown on the maps) to attack; unmapped secret tunnels lead to weapon power-ups; boulders randomly fall onto cliff trails; treetops occasionally hold power-ups; caverns, lakes and rivers are full of fish, Leapers, and secret passages; well-placed antelopes and boars, harmless to Turok, can be shot for extra life points when he's in a jam (I'm surprised Nintendo didn't censor this, having stripped Cruis'n's roadkill out?); and in another nice touch, gamers can accumulate 100 Spiritual points -- distinct from Health points -- to achieve an extra life. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire's missions pale in comparison to the level of detail and complexity found in Turok. Enemies and Weapons There are loads of enemies in Turok. They range from poachers and gunman to tribal dart blowers, tribal high priests, demons, and more. Enemies found later in the game require bigger or more particular weapons, and are much more interesting. The dinosaurs, like raptors, dimetrodons, or enemy-mounted triceratops, or the killer plants, Subterraneans, or the giant robots are far more fun to watch and kill. Occasionally, when they are more than, say, three Leapers in the room, or when you fire off too many grenades, the screen hits slowdown, but it's so rare that it's a minor quibble. And the weapons are simply over the top. It's as if a military professional was hired to have himself a big wet dream, and this is what he came up with (no pun intended). The Quad Rocket Launcher and Fusion Cannon are radical, the grenade launcher and Alien Infantry weapon are sheer pleasure, and surprisingly, the Tek Arrows are dangerous and effective. The Chronoscepter is cool, too, but it's actually not our favorite. Verdict In the end, Turok is a fully envisioned game, a serious contender with the best of the Doom genre on any platform. Turok surprises, challenges and pleases, and is full of deep, long-lasting gameplay. A multiplayer mode would have greatly enhanced the game and sometimes extensive fogging can be annoying, but overall, a terrific first-person shooter. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: MINIMUM: OS: Windows 7 32-bit Processor: Dual-core from Intel or AMD at 2.0 GHz Memory: 1 GB RAM Graphics: Intel 787 Express or equivalent supporting OpenGL 2.1 Core Storage: 800 MB available space RECOMMENDED: OS: Windows 7/8/10 Processor: Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz/AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz or equivalent Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 7800/7900/8600 series, ATI/AMD Radeon HD 2600/3600 or X1800/X1900 series supporting OpenGL 2.1 Core Storage: 800 MB available space

A new proof-of-concept exploit known as DoubleAgent can not only hijack third-party Windows antivirus software, but use said software to deliver further attacks. While there’s no evidence that the exploit has made its way into the wild yet, most antivirus programs are still completely susceptible to it. The entire point of antivirus software is to prevent malicious programs from compromising your system. But what happens when the malicious program in question can compromise your antivirus? For now, only AVG , Malwarebytes and Trend Micro have patches available on coming soon. You could also just use a Linux or macOS instead of Windows, although they’re not entirely invulnerable, either. Or you could disable your existing third-party antivirus software and rely on Windows Defender, although it doesn't hold up well against zero-day malware. MORE: Best Antivirus Software and Apps This research into DoubleAgent comes from Cybellum, an Israeli cybersecurity company that specializes in zero-day exploits. Although DoubleAgent is an artificially constructed bit of malware, the flaw it preys upon is very much a zero-day vulnerability. Windows uses a tool called Microsoft Application Verifier that helps software developers check for bugs in Windows-based programs. Every Windows program is subject to the Verifier’s scrutiny, including antivirus software. By crafting a phony registry key and a predatory DLL file for the Verifier to read, Cybellum was able to take full control over the Norton Security antivirus program. (A dynamic link library, or DLL, is a code repository that can used by more than one application. This attack uses the old "DLL hijack" technique to get an application to mistakenly load code from a malicious DLL.) Cybellum even added a cheerful little skull graphic and the helpful message “You Have Been Hacked!” to Norton Security’s startup screen. Real hackers will probably not be so courteous. Cybellum theorizes five possible attack vectors for cybercriminals using DoubleAgent. The first, and most obvious, scenario would be to turn the AV program itself into malware. A second, more subtle, method would be to leave the antivirus mostly alone, save for telling it to whitelist malware that malicious hackers want to spread. Similarly, a third method would tell the antivirus to ignore malicious remote activity, such as data-mining and decryption. The other two methods are much less subtle, but just as devastating to the end-user. Antivirus programs often have top-level privileges, which would allow them to encrypt files or format a hard drive without the user’s permission. As such, antivirus software could be used as ransomware. Finally, an attacker could make antivirus software flag and block any other application, causing a denial-of-service condition for just about any program on Windows, from an internet browser to a productivity tool. It’s not hard to see how an attack like this could cripple computers in a corporate setting, even if only for a day or two. Remember, too, that DoubleAgent can compromise almost any program on Windows, not only antivirus software. Antivirus software, with its high system privileges, is just a quick and easy way to exploit this newly disclosed flaw. “Since the DoubleAgent technique uses legitimate operating system mechanism to inject its code, it can’t be patched and this injection technique will live forever. So there is no notion of a patch,” the Cybellum blog noted. Compromising a user’s antivirus program could theoretically be only the first step in a much more intricate attack. Microsoft does have a framework called Protected Processes that lets antivirus developers "sign" code to prevent such attacks -- but until very recently, only Microsoft's own Windows Defender program used it. Cybellum shared its research with a number of antivirus companies. Vulnerable AV programs include those from Avast, AVG, Avira, Bitdefender, Trend Micro, Comodo, ESET, F-Secure, Kaspersky Lab, Malwarebytes, McAfee, Panda, Quick Heal and Norton. Bleeping Computer reports that Malwarebytes, AVG and Trend Micro have either been patched, or will have a patch in the immediate future. Other companies are hopefully working on fixes, but there’s no guarantee that they’ll keep you safe. As usual, keeping your antivirus software patched and up-to-date is your best defense against DoubleAgent. Even if your AV provider isn’t one of the three with a fix (almost) ready, it will probably get an update sooner rather than later. Since DoubleAgent isn’t out in the wild just yet, you probably have a little time before the attacks begin in earnest — if they ever do.

A more accessible set of wireless cans The SteelSeries Arctis 1 Wireless is a very meat-and-potatoes gaming headset. It has everything you need out of the box to enjoy reliable wireless audio with PC titles, (plus PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Android). This ease of use coupled with its simple design go a long way toward making it one of the more compelling choices in its price range. Currently selling for $80 as of writing (we’ve seen it for as much as $100), it’s on the more affordable side of the fence as far as wireless gaming headsets go. However, some comfort and microphone flaws prevent this from being the best gaming headset to grace our lab. Steelseries Arctis 1 Wireless Specifications Design and Comfort SteelSeries keeps things simple with the Arctis 1 Wireless. This headset is decidedly no frills and sports an elegant, understated design that speaks for itself. The Arctis 1 Wireless has a matte black finish for a stealthy look, with the Steelseries logo appearing in silver on both earcups. In this age of RGB everything, the Arctis 1 Wireless is free of blingy gimmicks and would be equally at home at the gaming desk or the office cubicle. Volume and microphone on/off controls are conveniently located on the left earcup and the power button is located on the right. The power button also doubles as a multimedia control, allowing you to answer and end calls with a single press and pause, play, skip and reverse with a single, double and triple press, respectively. The steel-reinforced headband has a comfortably tight fit, so it didn’t slide around my head easily. Additionally, there is very little noticeable flex in the headband. The Arctis 1 Wireless also features solid padding in the earcups. But the earcups themselves are a tad on the shallow side, which led to discomfort over long periods of use. Your experience may differ, but my ears were frequently jammed against the speakers. The headset itself is remarkably light, weighing in at only 0.55 pounds, making it easy to wear for extended periods of time without fatigue. For comparison, the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero, another set of wireless cans, is 1.8 pounds. For further comfort, the earcups swivel and allow the headset to rest on the neck when not in use. The Arctis 1 Wireless offers a wealth of connectivity options. You get a 3.5mm cable and a USB Type-C 2.4 GHz wireless dongle with a USB Type-A adapter for PCs without a USB-C port and the PS4. Charging, meanwhile, occurs through the MicroUSB-to-USB-Type-A charging cable. With this plethora of options, I used the Arctis 1 Wireless with my PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Android phone with no fuss. It simply worked out of the box with no secret handshakes required. iPhone users are left out in the cold, however. Audio Performance The Arctis 1 Wireless offers excellent audio performance for gaming, music and movies, and sounded great during my time with it. For those worried about the wireless connection, audio over the 2.4 GHz dongle connection proved lossless and crystal clear. There was also no noticeable lag or sound degradation. SteelSeries claims a signal range of approximately 30 feet, and my testing confirmed this. I was able to walk from the front of my building to the back before the headset lost connection, though audio did start to cut in and out a few paces before that. The frequency range of the Arctis 1 Wireless is well balanced, lacking the over-emphasized bass response of many gaming headsets today. The default EQ setting for the Arctis 1 is flat, and that aptly demonstrates just how well tuned these cans are. Listening to GZA’s “Liquid Swords” rewarded me with punchy bass, clean mids and crisp highs. Likewise, battle scenes in “The Two Towers” sounded thunderous, without drowning out dialogue. The Arctis 1 Wireless is no slouch in gaming audio, either. The eerie atmosphere of Dark Souls fared particularly well in these cans, and the balanced frequency response ensured that audio cues in frantic FPS titles, like Doom Eternal, weren’t lost. One thing I did find myself missing in games, however, was the feeling of directional audio. I found myself getting ambushed in competitive titles like CS:Go more often than I would have liked. That’s because I didn’t have the same aural situational awareness I’ve grown accustomed to with headsets that do this better. A lot of headsets we’ve reviewed recently accomplish this with virtual 7.1 surround sound. Not all succeed in providing a noticeable surround sound effect, but the expensive HyperX Cloud Orbit S excels on that front. If you’re a hardcore FPS player who wants to listen for important sound cues, like footsteps, this is something to keep in mind. Advertisement The Arctis 1 Wireless is quite loud when pushed, making it ideal for a noisy commute (the wireless form factor helps here too) or office. The headset does a very good job of blocking intrusive sounds of the outside world and does not suffer from noticeable audio distortion when cranked to the max. For chatting, the Arctis 1 Wireless’s mic proved very clear, with a balanced frequency response and no high-frequency hiss. But the mic isn’t the best at noise cancellation. On the battlefield, my teammates reported that they could hear the Cherry MX Blue switches from my best gaming keyboard over my voice. They could also hear other ambient room noise, such as my fan. On occasion, there was overbearing pop when I hit a hard consonant, which made me really wish SteelSeries included a pop filter with the mic. Features and Software The Arctis 1 Wireless’s audio can be tweaked using the optional SteelSeries Engine 3 software. While it is certainly not necessary to install Steelseries Engine 3 to enjoy the Arctis 1 Wireless, the additional audio configuration options are a nice touch. The software features a six-band graphic EQ ranging from 64 Hz to 11 KHz. There are six EQ presets to choose from: Flat, Performance, Immersion, Entertainment, Music and Voice. While it is fun to experiment with the different presets, the default flat setting sounded the best for the widest variety of use cases. As it should be. There is also an option to engage dynamic range compression, which sounds best at its “low” setting. It’s not recommended to use dynamic range compression at high, as the setting causes the overall frequency mix to sound thin and unpleasantly sibilant. The Engine app also lets you monitor the headset’s battery life. Battery Life SteelSeries claims that the Arctis 1 Wireless Headset has a battery life of 20 hours per charge. Repeated tests during my time with the product bore this out as accurate, give or take a few hours, depending on the volume levels I was using. Charging via the included Micro USB to USB-A cable typically topped off the headset within the 90 minute range. While this is perfectly acceptable, fast charging via USB-C would have been a nice addition. Bottom Line SteelSeries has another winner on its hands with the Arctis 1 Wireless. The headset carries the high quality standards of the Arctis line to wireless form factor that’s more affordable than the SteelSeries Arctis 7 or SteelSeries Arctis Pro + GameDAC.The unit is lightweight, comfortable, has a bevy of connectivity options and boasts strong audio performance that make it a strong choice for gamers. That being said, the headset isn't ideal for high-level competitive play. There is a notable absence of surround audio that can often get you killed in a high stakes firefight. Finally, the earcups can be uncomfortable after a while. If you can spend more, the $150 (as of writing) Arctis 7 wireless cans improve on comfort, and the $120 Cooler Master MH670 offers effective virtual 7.1 surround sound that aided in FPS games. Alternatively, the $150 Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero has a stellar mic. With those caveats in mind, the Arctis 1 Wireless hits the sweet spot of build quality, audio performance and device compatibility. Great for PC and console gamers alike, this is fitting for those seeking a premium feeling headset without extra bells and whistles.

game information: Developers:Neopica Publishers:Nacon Release Date:June 25, 2020 Platforms:Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, Nintendo Switch It seems like a lifetime ago now, but there was a time when I woke up before dawn, geared up in blaze-orange attire, and took to the woods of Maine in pursuit of the elusive whitetail deer. I was a freshman in high school and desperately wanted to fit in at our new school where hunting, not "playing Nintendo," was the preferred hobby of my peers. It turns out I much preferred staying indoors and playing video games to standing outside in the frigid Maine autumn while nothing happened for hours at a time. Thankfully, Hunting Simulator 2 combines a hobby I didn't enjoy too much as a teen with one I still love to this day. While I don't go hunting anymore, almost everyone I know is obsessed with it (I still live in Maine), and I have been known to stalk whitetail with a camera rather than a loaded rifle. Hunting Simulator 2 scratches the primordial hunter-itch I didn't know I still had, while allowing me to stalk prey from the comfort of my home office. Plus there are zero bloodstains to contend with, which is another bonus. As a simulation, it does a great job, and as a game, it also succeeds. It sacrifices some realism for the sake of quality of life, sure, and it lacks any kind of concrete goals, but at the end of the day, I found Hunting Simulator 2 a fun and oddly relaxing way to spend some time. Yes, You Can Pet the Dog(s) I'll just get this one out of the way immediately: you can pet the dog. In fact, it helps build your bond with the canine companions that venture out into the wilderness with you. You start off with a beagle, adept at sniffing out tracks and putting you on the path to a trophy, but you can add more dogs to your kennel as you progress. Each dog breed is specialized for a task: pointers will "point" in the direction of a hidden animal, while retrievers do exactly what their name implies. There are zero bloodstains to contend with, which is a bonus. I found out the importance of bringing along a retriever (I named him Puppers and he's a good boy) when I went duck hunting and discovered I couldn't swim out to get my trophies. No respectable outdoorsman would leave carcasses like that, and I was appropriately fined when I returned to my hunting lodge. I really like how Hunting Simulator 2 requires you to bring along the right dog for the job. You can choose to hunt without any companions, but they're super useful for small prey, and if you're going to hit your bag limit, they'll expedite the process by retrieving, pointing, and following scent trails. There's more than just dogs to add to your hunting lodge: you can purchase gear, new guns, and even bows to spice things up a bit. The selection of hunting guns is huge, and Hunting Simulator 2 has officially-licensed firearms from companies like Winchester, as well as officially-licensed outdoor gear from outfitters like Browning. The licensed apparel and firearms make for a more realistic setting, with names instantly recognizable to anyone who hunts as a hobby. On top of guns and apparel, there are binoculars and range finders, as well as consumables like scent lures, scent-covers, and wind-direction indication sprays. They're easy to use: pushing a button brings up your item wheel and it's a simple matter of hitting the action button to use them. They're all really useful, particularly the wind indicators. Initially I didn't think the wind direction made a difference, but after my virtual-scent alerted my presence to a trophy elk, I made sure my item list for the next hunt included a bottle. Gameified Game After you're fully outfitted with your guns and gear (and dog, of course), you select from one of six different locations, grouped into three geographical areas. There are two Colorado locations, two in Texas, and two European hunting grounds. Each location has its own different geography and animals, although there is some crossover between them, as is the case in real life (for example, real whitetail deer are damn near everywhere in the US now). I found it relaxing, especially with the ambient sounds of the wind and birds chirping in the distance. Aside from the different animals to hunt, and different scenery and terrain, maps are tied together with campsites, a cabin, and different towers and blinds to discover. Campsites are fast-travel locations, only unlocked after discovery, and they're spread out pretty well over the massive maps. My instinct was to run around the maps like a madman, but you actually get penalized for doing so: animals are much more likely to hear you running than walking, and you actually see fewer. Walking feels incredibly slow, almost to the point of frustration, but once I learned to zero in my patience, I was rewarded by finding more animals, and even finding more evidence of animals like tracks and droppings. It's truly a walking simulator, but once I adjusted, I found it relaxing rather than annoying, especially with the ambient sounds of the wind and birds chirping in the distance. Since this is a simulator and not a "game," the hunting is pretty realistic insomuch as it takes a lot of walking and waiting before you see anything worth aiming at. Hunting Simulator 2 also doesn't allow you to just blast away at every animal no matter what the caliber rifle or gauge of shotgun you have. A .30-06, ideal for large game like deer, elk, and bison, would completely obliterate a bobcat or wild boar. If you aim at one with the wrong gun, Hunting Simulator 2 warns you you're using the wrong caliber. If you fire anyway, you ruin your trophy and the prospect of collecting the credits needed to buy more gear and licenses. As fun as it is walking around the maps, I wish Hunting Simulator 2 had some kind of mission structure. There are achievements, sure, but what ended up happening is I'd grab two guns (one high-powered, one smaller-caliber), pack up my gear and wander the countryside shooting as many of God's creatures as I could before I reached my license limit or ran out of ammo. A mode asking me to, say, bring home my bag-limit of mallards or hunt only whitetail deer would have narrowed down the focus of what's currently a pretty open-ended experience. Waiting until just the right moment to fire off that perfect shot holds a lot of the appeal of the real thing. The license system works to prevent you from bringing home a Noah's-ark's worth of trophies, but you need to make sure you have the right licenses before you head out into the field. Each geographic location requires a license to hunt, with separate licenses for the different kinds of animals. For example, you can hunt whitetail with a Texas whitetail license, but you need to get a Colorado whitetail license to hunt them in Colorado. I learned that the hard way when I spent 20 minutes wandering the Texas backcountry only for Hunting Simulator 2 to warn me I was unlicensed when I finally aimed at a pronghorn in the distance. The actual act of hunting is thrilling. Stalking an animal through the wilderness and waiting until just the right moment to fire off that perfect shot holds a lot of the appeal of the real thing. Thankfully, Hunting Simulator 2 pumps the brakes a bit after you down your prey: you're not required to gut it out or drag it out of the woods to your cabin. Just approach it, push a button, and it's magically delivered there. I appreciate the quality of life touches, because hauling a deer out of the woods is, quite literally, a drag. Verdict I like Hunting Simulator 2 a lot more than I expected I would. Its relaxing pace is punctuated by moments of excitement when you see or hear the animal you're after, just like in real life. The realism is further built up by the licensed gear and firearms available for purchase. I definitely appreciate that Hunting Simulator 2 sticking to the fun parts while leaving out the post-kill process. My one wish is it had some kind of mission structure, or at least a challenge mode. But those are minor complaints, as I found myself drawn into it in a way I hadn't initially anticipated. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows7/10 x64 Processor: AMD Athlon II x3 450 or Intel Pentium Dual-Core G3220 Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: Radeon HD 7770 or GeforceGTX 560Ti Storage: 17 GB available space Sound Card: Integrated or dedicated DirectX 9 compatible soundcard RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10 x64 Processor: AMD Ryzen 31300x or Intel Core i36100 Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or Radeon RX 590 Storage: 17 GB available space Sound Card: Integrated or dedicated DirectX 9 compatible soundcard

LAS VEGAS — Nahimic needs no introduction to PC gamers, who've enjoyed its audio software on laptops built by MSI, Asus, and others. The same probably can't be said for Mac users, but Nahimic is looking to change that with a simple software download. The company used this week's CES show to spotlight its new audio spatialization software for the Mac. Download it to your MacBook, Nahimic says, and it's like adding 3D audio to your laptop with sounds seeming appearing all-around you, even if you're listening from the laptop's built-in speakers. Does it work? Crowded trade shows aren't ideal situations for testing audio, but Nahimic set up a booth that did its best to block out the ambient sounds of CES so the demo could showcase the audio streaming out of a MacBook Pro. Watching a trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, I could hear the movie's dialogue, music and sound effects swirling around me. Audiophiles may balk at calming it a true 3D audio experience, but it certainly seemed to enhance the sound coming out of the MacBook during my time with Nahimic's software. Nahimic bills its Mac offering as ideal for both Netflix binge sessions and blasting music out of your laptop. To that end, the software lets you adjust settings to indicate whether you're listening to music or movies. If the latter, you can further opt to emphasize dialogue or produce a more balanced sound. If you're listening through headphones, Nahimic's software lets you calibrate audio there, too.

Desktop Renoir is almost here. The hard and long wait for the Ryzen 4000-series (Renoir) APUs could finally be over. Dutch retailer Centralpoint has put up various processors for order with an expected inventory date of July 17, but it's important to note that retailers have listed specifications and pricing with placeholder values in the past, meaning these listings could differ from what we see when the chips launch. The Renoir rumor mill has been running nonstop for a few months now. There is hardly anything that we don't know about the forthcoming 7nm desktop APUs. Motherboard vendor Biostar even briefly confirmed some of the specifications for us beforing removing the listings. In case you need a recap, Renoir brings the Zen 2 CPU and Vega GPU microarchitectures into a monolithic die. The Ryzen 4000-series chips continue to inhabit the existing AM4 socket. Logically, they will be compatible with AMD's latest 500-series chipsets, but there has been no mumblings about backward compatibility. Thermally, the Ryzen 4000-series resemble their predecessors as they seemingly drop with a 65W TDP (thermal design power). Centralpoint listed the Ryzen 7 Pro 4750G, Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G and Ryzen 3 Pro 4350G. The aforementioned parts are obviously Pro versions of the mainstream models and bring their own list of enterprise-oriented features. But specification-wise, the Pro models have similar attributes are the non-Pro chips. The Ryzen 7 Pro 4750G and Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G are octa-core and hexa-core APUs, respectively, while the Ryzen 3 Pro 4350G adheres to a quad-core design. On this generation of APUs, AMD has enabled simultaneous multi-threading (SMT) on all the APUs, even on the entry-level Ryzen 3 model. The specifications from Centralpoint's product pages fall in line with the previously leaked information. The octa-core, hexa-core and quad-core models reportedly have boost clock speeds up to 4.4 GHz, 4.3 GHz and 4.1 GHz. The Dutch retailer advertises the processors' total cache. The octa-core processor has a 4MB L2 cache and 8MB L3 cache, while the hexa-core chip has 1MB less L2 cache but the same amount of L3 cache. Lastly, the quad-core APU packs 2MB of L2 cache and 4MB of L3 cache. The pricing for the Ryzen 7 Pro 4750G, Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G and Ryzen 3 Pro 4350G come down to $370, $252 and $177, excluding value-added tax (VAT). The prices look very steep, but it's important to highlight that computer hardware is often more expensive outside the U.S. Additionally, we can't be for certain if Centralpoint's prices are just placeholders. Take them with a pinch of salt for now.

game information: Developed by:KonamiK CET Published by:Konami Genre(s):Adventure.Survival.3DAction Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Xbox Release date Sep 7, 2004 Silent Hill is a town where pure evil permeates the air and the soil and eventually consumes the people. It's a soothing vacation spot that masks demon-worshipping cults and dark purpose. Each of the previous titles in the Silent Hill series of horror games has either outright taken place in the titular small town or has gradually been pulled there through some terrible inertia. Silent Hill 4: The Room breaks this trend, because it takes place in the neighboring city of South Ashfield and centers mainly on an ill-fated apartment building, a cursed apartment, and the man who lives in it. That's not the only series tenet the game breaks. Silent Hill 4 pairs third-person and new first-person gameplay with an emphasis on combat and item management. The resultant hybrid has some flaws, but The Room retains the dark, disturbing soul that is the unsettling center of the Silent Hill experience. The unfortunate hero of Silent Hill 4 is Henry Townshend, a man living what used to be a content life in the city of South Ashfield. One night, Henry begins to experience intense, recurring nightmares and terrible headaches concurrent with his apartment apparently becoming cursed. His phone is dead, his neighbors can't hear him when he calls, his windows are sealed shut by a mysterious force, and his door is blocked as well, albeit by a not-so-mysterious force. Thick chains thoroughly web the only exit, with an important additional detail: They're bolted to the inside of his apartment. Scrawled in red on the door's interior is a note that only says, "Don't go out!! Walter." While exploring the confines of his single-bedroom apartment to fuel his confusion and despair, he discovers a ragged, man-sized hole in his bathroom wall. Faced with a dearth of other options, Henry gathers his courage and crawls through the strange portal, hoping to find an escape route. What he finds instead will lead him on a convoluted journey that will reveal the sordid past of his apartment--Room 302--as well as the identity of Walter, the man responsible for sealing Henry's room. As mentioned previously, Silent Hill 4 encompasses two gameplay modes: a first-person mode that you'll use to guide Henry around his apartment and a third-person mode that you'll use to explore the alternate worlds Henry will visit by entering portals. While in Room 302 and in first-person, you can look around wherever you'd like. When you position Henry's view over an area of note or over an item that he can interact with, a small eyeball icon will appear in a corner of the screen. You can press a button to investigate further. Sometimes you need to be careful about what area you're viewing, because certain parts of the room will have multiple focal points. For example, you can either test a window to try to open it, or you can peek out the window to check out the lovely South Ashfield skyline and the windows of apartments opposite you. At the chained door, you can test the doorknob, check the area at the base for notes slipped underneath, or look through the peephole to keep an eye on what might be going on outside. You can miss certain perspectives if you're not careful, so you'll need to experiment with views at various levels to make sure you're seeing everything, which can get tiresome when you're trying to use the peephole and instead keep reading the message on your door. The apartment itself gradually changes over time, making repeated peeks at various objects in your room worthwhile. In fact, Room 302's degradation as the game progresses is an integral part of Silent Hill 4's experience, since new information slowly comes to light, and things become decidedly more sinister. The more traditional, third-person action sections of Silent Hill 4 take place in various dreamlike, alternate worlds that you'll reach by squeezing through one of Room 302's portals. You'll explore the environs of a subway, a forest cult compound, a hospital, and more as you move on, picking up a number of different weapons, healing items, keys, and other useful knickknacks. Something you'll notice very quickly is that you've got a limit to the number of items you can carry at one time. The game attempts to justify this with a vague statement about not becoming overburdened in this alternate universe, but the outcome is that you're going to spend a lot of time picking things up and then finding a return portal to your room (which contains the only storage solution in the game) so that you can re-sort and then go back. Furthermore, items don't stack. Want to carry two healing drinks of the same type? They each take up a space. Want to bring along 20 additional rounds for your pistol? That's one space for the pistol, and two spaces for the two 10-bullet reloads. As the game wears on--and you've got to carry various keys, puzzle items, a weapon, and a healing item to and fro--this starts to become a chore. You can't discard items, either, so it's not even an option to drop something that's perhaps expendable to pick up something you might need. And when your room becomes a more dangerous place later in the game, having to revisit it often can be a hazard. At least you can try to insure yourself when you go back--Room 302 also has the only save spot in the entire game. All this exploration isn't smooth sailing. Silent Hill 4 sports some creepy-looking baddies that attempt to foil you at every turn. Unlike previous Silent Hill games, in which fighting ultimately could be said to take a backseat, Silent Hill 4 throws enemies at you in sometimes great numbers, forcing you to engage in lots of combat. While avoiding enemies remains an option, it's an increasingly difficult feat to pull off, because you've got what are oftentimes narrow spaces, multiple foes, and an aggressive artificial intelligence that can make blitzing through enemy-ridden areas more health-costly than just squaring up with your steel pipe or pistol and clearing your way. In the later parts of the game, you'll be escorting someone through all this danger, and you'll want to keep her from being attacked too much, so you're painted into a bit of a corner. If you run, you can end up leaving her behind--and she'll get gnawed on. Your fighting abilities are rudimentary. You can choose from a selection of melee weapons (an obscene number of which are golf clubs) or a very small number of firearms. You'll press the right trigger to get into a battle stance, and then you'll press a button to whack or shoot away. Henry will aim automatically at whatever happens to be closest at the time, and you can execute a jump-dodge move to try to avoid incoming attacks. When you manage to get an enemy down, you'll have to stomp on it to ensure that it's dead, which ends up making combat seem like a bug-crushing simulation after you've stepped on your 20th foe. Some of the enemies in the game are actually spirits, which happen to be unsettled ghosts that float around and don't even have to attack you to cause damage. When a ghost appears, you'll hear a high-pitched static whine (roughly equivalent to the radio static you'd hear in other Silent Hill games), and your screen will start to turn red and become grainy. If you just stand around doing nothing, Henry will clutch at his temples, and his health will begin to drain. Additionally, ghosts cannot be killed permanently without a special item to actually impale them to the floor, so you'll be trying to avoid most of them anyway. Like the vast majority of console games that make it to the PC, Silent Hill 4 is meant to be played with a gamepad (more specifically, in this case, it's meant to be played with a dual analog gamepad similar to the ones found on console systems). The default keyboard and mouse controls just don't fare that well in an environment of constantly shifting perspective views that can make navigation frustrating. With all the nasty, demonic critters running around, the ability to maneuver and strike them with as much precision as possible is of utmost importance, as is the ability to quickly change weapons or use items. The default control scheme is simply not sharp enough for effective combat, though it's perfectly adequate for roaming around your apartment. For all the mobs of enemies and constant item-ferrying, the game takes about 10 hours to complete on normal difficulty. You will receive one from a possible four endings that are based on a combination of what condition your apartment is in by the end of the game and how the character you had to escort about has fared. Finishing the game once allows you to get an additional weapon and alternate character outfits, though there are not many of these extras. Most people who go through the game again will likely be trying to get the best ending possible rather than shooting for a nurse outfit, anyway. Survival horror games often indulge themselves in graphical detail, and Silent Hill 4 is no exception. The game looks its best in corroded, bloody, gritty environments, like the damp, steel halls of the water prison or the subterranean subway layers that, at one point in the game, are walled in living, moving flesh. There are only a couple of areas in the game that employ any of the notorious Silent Hill fog, and those seem to do so as an homage to previous titles by accenting a long, spiraling climb or blocking your progress when you're carrying a cursed item. The characters in the game are often very well detailed facially, though their movements seem somewhat stilted, and the animation is not quite as smooth as it could be. The room itself sees some great effects, from the warping of a small section of paint in the shape of a face, to a cluster of wailing demon children plastered to a wall, to a spirit crawling out of a dark, dripping portal. There's certainly no lack of unsettling imagery, which stays true to the Silent Hill formula. The game has been optimized well for the PC, and aside from the odd wall or floor texture that doesn't look so good up close, the visuals in Silent Hill 4 are great. This version, in particular, is the best for counting all that stubble on Henry's bemused, world-weary countenance. It's worth noting that all this detail comes only on a DVD disc, so if you want to check out the Silent Hill experience, you'll need a DVD-ROM drive on your PC. The ambient and creature sound effects are often very important to horror games as well, and the sound in Silent Hill 4 is great, for the most part. Creatures all have their own distinct calls, footfalls, and death rattles, and the environments are peppered with nice ambients like dripping water and gusting wind--or even something as simple as an object clattering to the ground. The voice work in the game is uninspired but solid, with the exception of Henry himself, who has an incredibly milquetoast delivery and seems to never get emotional about anything, despite the fact that his apartment is horribly cursed. The haunting main theme is one of the only pieces of music you'll ever hear in the game, and the times that it plays are few and far between. That's fitting, though, for a horror game that seeks to create mood through subtle sounds in the environment rather than through music. Silent Hill 4: The Room is an interesting sequel; it attempts to branch out in several areas of gameplay and setting, while remaining true to the psychological thriller style that's always set the Silent Hill series apart from more action-oriented scares. While not all of the changes made necessarily serve to enhance the series, the dark, gripping storytelling is what allows this game its Silent Hill credentials. If you're an existing horror fan or a Silent Hill fan, Silent Hill 4: The Room is certainly worth looking at. Just make sure you bring along your dual analog gamepad to ensure that all your terror is generated from the cursed setting--and not from the controls. Leave Blank System Requirements: (Minimum) CPU: Pentium III or Athlon equivalent CPU SPEED: 1 GHz RAM: 256 MB OS: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP (NT & 95 not supported) VIDEO CARD: 32 MB 3D video card (NVIDIA GeForce 3 Ti/ATI Radeon 8500 or better) TOTAL VIDEO RAM: 32 MB 3D: Yes HARDWARE T&L: Yes PIXEL SHADER: 1.1 DIRECTX VERSION: 8.1 SOUND CARD: Yes FREE DISK SPACE: 3 GB DVD-ROM: 2X DVD-ROM Recommended Requirements: CPU: Pentium 4 or Athlon XP CPU SPEED: 2 GHz RAM: 512 MB OS: Windows 2000/XP VIDEO CARD: 64 MB 3D compatible video card (NVIDIA GeForce 4 Ti/ATI Radeon 8500 or better) TOTAL VIDEO RAM: 64 MB 3D: Yes HARDWARE T&L: Yes PIXEL SHADER: 1.3 VERTEX SHADER: 1.0 DIRECTX VERSION: 8.1 SOUND CARD: Yes FREE DISK SPACE: 3.7 GB DVD-ROM: 4X DVD-ROM

waving your hands in front of a webcam. But what if you don't have use of your hands? Smyle, an upcoming Windows application from startup LAS VEGAS -- Over the past several years, we've seen all kinds of gesture-control software that lets you navigate around a computer desktop by Perceptive Devices, lets users control the mouse pointer and click, drag or even right-click items with simple facial movements. Due out later in Q1 for an undisclosed price, Smyle is designed not only for disabled users, but for professional users such as surgeons or food preparers who might need to operate a computer while using their hands for another task. Here at CES 2016, Perceptive Devices' Uday Parshionikar demonstrated how Smyle can take simple facial movements, like a quick smile, and turn them into mouse clicks. As we watched, Parshionikar calibrated the software to his face by grinning. After a few seconds of setup, he smiled briefly to activate navigation mode, then rotated his head to move the mouse pointer around the screen. He was able to click on objects such as icons by doing a very quick smile. We were particularly impressed by his ability to play Angry Birds using Smyle's facial controls. With head and face movements alone, he was able to not only launch the game and navigate through its menus, but accurately pull back on a slingshot and hit some pigs. The software we saw was very much still in beta. When he tried to calibrate it to work with my face, it detected my mouth, but failed when I tried to navigate around the screen. Parshionikar performed the entire demo on a 2nd-generation Microsoft Surface Pro, which has an older Core i5 processor and a standard 720p webcam. He told us that when Smyle ships, it will run on any reasonably-powered modern Windows 7, 8 or 10 PC, and that it doesn't even require an HD webcam. Though the Smyle application is designed for Windows PCs, Parshionikar has much larger ambitions for his technology. He said the company also wants to license its technology to smart-glasses vendors who can use sensors, rather than a camera, to detect users' facial movements and help them navigate around wearable UIs. Imagine using Google Glass or Microsoft Hololens without having to lift a finger or say a word.

Easy on the eyes, but it needs more storage space. Today's best Razer Blade Pro 17 Gaming Laptop 2020 and deals The Razer Blade Pro has long been one of the more mature-looking gaming laptops on the market, eschewing heavy RGB and space-age decoration for a minimal look that would be as at home in an office as it would in a basement. 2020’s refresh of the Razer Blade Pro 17 ($2,599 to start, $3,199 as tested) continues the Blade line’s trend of offering sleek visual appeal and a thin form factor, this time adding new CPU and GPU options to the laptop’s specs. Its Intel Core i7-10875H processor and optional Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q graphics card give it respectable gaming performance for its small footprint, though it only offers a middling amount of storage unless you pay up for a 4K display. This time around, there are a few new tricks, including the 300 Hz screen we’ve started to see on some of the best gaming laptops, as well as a redesigned keyboard with a more sensible layout. However, unless you buy the top-of-the-line model, you're stuck with only 512GB of storage (unless you upgrade). Razer Blade Pro 17 (2020) Specs Design of Razer Blade Pro 17 The Razer Blade Pro 17 maintains the sleek, professional look of the Blade line of laptops, with the only features visually distinguishing it from most thin and lights being the green detailing on the USB ports and the green triple snake logo on the back. Aside from these features, the Blade Pro comes encased in an otherwise blank matte black metal case that feels sturdy to the touch. The laptop’s fans are relegated entirely to its underside. Opening the Razer Blade Pro 17 preserves its minimal aesthetic. There’s little decoration to speak of here, with the stereo speakers and full per-key RGB keyboard being the only deviations from an otherwise obelisk-like appearance. To keep up this aesthetic, the computer’s power button is even hidden among the right speaker grills. This year’s Blade Pro 17 does feature a redesigned hinge with vents pumping out air just beneath the screen, but even this doesn’t intrude on the design, as the vents aren’t in view when using the laptop. The Razer Blade Pro 17's ports are spread evenly across the laptop’s left and right sides. The left side has two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type C port, RJ-45 Ethernet and a 3.5mm combination headphone and microphone jack. It also plays home to the charging connection. The right side, then, houses an additional USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A port, Thunderbolt 3, one HDMI 2.0B port and a UHS-III SD card reader. It’s also got a slot for a Kensington laptop lock. Razer advertises the Blade Pro 17 as an ultraportable, thanks to its 15.6 x 10.2 x 0.8 inch dimensions. That makes it much smaller than other powerful gaming machines like the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 G732, which comes in at a thicker 15.7 x 11.05 x 1 inches, and the Alienware m17 R3, which is 15.7 x 11.6 x 0.9 inches. Still, it has strong competition from other thin laptops like the MSI GS66 Stealth, which has an even smaller 14.2 x 9.7 x 0.7 inch footprint, though that’s a 15-inch laptop. Gaming Performance of Razer Blade Pro 17 The Razer Blade Pro 17 unit we reviewed makes a few compromises to its power to earn its thin size, but still comes in strong enough to compete with other dedicated premium gaming laptops. That’s thanks to its Intel core i7-10875H processor (which is the same across all configurations, see below) and its Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q GPU. It’s also got 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a single 512GB M.2 SSD, which seems paltry given the price. An RTX GPU means ray tracing support, so I started my testing on the Blade Pro by playing Control on high settings at 1080p for about a half hour. Without ray tracing on, I maintained a pretty steady 80 fps regardless of the level of activity on screen. Turning the high ray tracing preset on lowered this to a range of 40 - 50 fps depending on how many effects were present on screen. Moving on to benchmarks, the Razer Blade Pro 17 generally landed around the middle of the pack when put up against other gaming machines. This meant its performance stats were usually lower than the thicker Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 G732 and Alienware M17 R3 gaming laptops, both of which pack a Core i9-10980HK processor, a full-size RTX 2080 Super GPU and 32GB of DDR4 memory. Still, the Pro did tend to beat MSI GS66 Stealth, another slim computer that uses a Core i7-10750H CPU, an RTX 2080 Super Max-Q GPU and 32GB of DDR4 RAM.

game information: Developers:Konami TYO Publishers:Ingram Entertainment, Konami Release Date:August 5, 2003 Platforms:PlayStation 2, PC First thing about this game...and be warned, it's a four-letter word: "Port." Go on, desensitize yourself now: Port, port, port. As with Silent Hill 2 before it, Silent Hill 3 for the PC is an essentially straight port of the console version, mechanical issues and all -- but it's no less creepy for all that, and that's what you're here for, after all. In this wonderfully loose, versatile language of ours, "port" can have a number of meanings. In addition to covering the translation of a gaming experience from one platform to another, it can also mean, among others things, A) a place of safe haven, or B) a form of alcoholic beverage. Both good things to have on hand after a few hours in the Silent Hill universe. The Silent Hill series has been pretty nasty from the outset -- that old PS1 game (that now looks so comparatively crunchy) still has some baaaaad moments, even in the first few minutes of gameplay (the first time I came across that wheelchair in the alley, my girlfriend pointed at the screen and muttered "That's not good," a phrase which thenceforth became my personal mantra for anything I didn't like the look of in Silent Hill games). In this third game, the story revolves around a fundamentally everyday main character; still no elite, paramilitary cops here, thank you kindly. This time, however, our protagonist is an unwilling participant who could hardly be less like her two game-hero predecessors: Instead of being a male (and somewhat bland) thirtysomething entering the haunted town of Silent Hill of his own free will to address a real or perceived wrong, our 'hero' is instead a moody girl named Heather who A) doesn't live anywhere near Silent Hill, B) only begins to suspect something is out of whack when a middle-aged stranger in a trenchcoat accosts her in the corridor to a public restroom, and C) only wants to hang out at the local shopping mall, like any other by-God American teenager. By-God." Yes, that's a recurring problem here... particularly when the mall in question goes suddenly and inexplicably straight to Hell, taking Heather--and the player--with it. While Silent Hill 2 took a while to get rolling, Silent Hill 3 immediately finds Heather in an "amusement park" that gives the whole notion a bad name. The mall, too, soon 'goes bad,' its clean, capitalist confines suddenly becoming ruined, hellish doppelgangers of themselves -- dark, rusty, bloody, unpleasant in all major respects. Before long, Heather's entire world is crawling with monsters. Much has remained mechanically true to the series (the menus, the difficulty levels, the viewpoint), but Silent Hill 3 boasts improvements across the board. At least Silent Hill 3 is a little more generous with the weapons: In addition to pipes and a less-than-ideal knife, Heather has relatively quick access to more serious weapons, including a pistol, an Uzi, a shotgun, and a stun-gun. Heather can strafe left and right as she confronts the monstrosities of Silent Hill, and if she bookends her attacks with well-timed, single-button blocks, the katana is surprisingly-effective weapon once you get the hang of it, even on tougher enemies. Monsters are everywhere, their proximity announced by the shrieking static of Silent Hill's now-famous malfunctioning pocket radio. Some players may find the radio annoying and turn it off, while others will find that it adds a level of aural tension. Silent Hill 3 benefits greatly from its new PC platform, offering 1920x1440 screen rez, even greater texture rez, and various toggleable lighting/dynamic-shadow options; if your rig has the guts, it looks quite a bit better than the PS2 version (no graphical slouch to begin with), and has some top-notch character modeling. Things are somewhat less hopeful on the control front: There's the 2D keyboard control scheme as an option, and the default 3D control... but neither is ideal, so expect to do a little remapping. Better still, consider the option of a gamepad. In any case, Heather still maneuvers like a lithe, mini-skirted barge, and will still be more vulnerable and less-maneuverable than she ought to be, especially when some wrong-looking thing is shambling down a dimly-lit corridor in her direction, but that's become a survival-horror staple by now; some would even consider it a dramatic tension bonus. All of this is well and good, but a horror game does and should come down to one main question: Is it scary, or at least continually disturbing? Oh yes, on a number of levels. Firstly, Silent Hill 3 very obviously and deliberately goes back to its gaming roots in terms of sheer gore and nastiness -- rooms and other chambers are streaked with blood, hideous, limping things that can no longer be called 'nurses' wobble through dark corridors, and the high-end visuals allow the very walls to throb and bleed. Secondly, the game is rather more directly occultic than its previous incarnation (which, while also great, opted for a more internalized horror-story), and there's a lot of dark religious imagery floating around that just adds another disturbing dimension (it certainly feels a lot like the first game in this regard, with many oblique and direct visual references to classic horror movies, Jacob's Ladder chief among them). Thirdly, Silent Hill 3 isn't afraid to just shut the hell up and use silence, the most of ominous of warnings. Lastly -- like any good horror-flick -- Silent Hill 3 knows when to occasionally drop the brooding, high-minded artsy stuff... and go for the good, solid, reliable cheap-jack scare; Designers Ito Masahiro and Yamaoka Akira are geniuses, but they aren't too proud for that. And if you're playing the game the right way -- alone, in the dark, with a good sound system and/or headphones -- you'll jump for it like a good little chump, like you were wired for electro stimulus, every time. I'm not even worried about warning you, because it doesn't matter one bit. Enjoy. One final note: The difference between the easy and hard settings is as day to night, both in terms of dexterity and mentality. Hope you're up on your mythology, symbolism and classic literature. Seriously. Verdict Yes, the nigh-eternal foibles of cinematic horror games are still here, scattered about, but the product as a whole is still one of the best things going in horror gaming. Really superstitious and/or ADD-afflicted types might want to steer clear for their own special reasons. Everybody else with a reasonably high-end gaming rig, the residents of Silent Hill welcome you. They're just dying to have you. System Requirements Minimum OS: Win 98 Processor: Intel Pentium III 1133MHz / AMD Athlon MP Graphics: AMD Radeon 8500 Series 64MB or NVIDIA GeForce 3 Ti 200 System Memory: 256 MB RAM Storage: 5 GB Hard drive space DirectX 8 Compatible Graphics Card Recommended Requirements Processor: Intel Pentium 4 1.4GHz / AMD Athlon XP 1700+ Graphics: AMD Radeon 8500 Series 64MB or NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX 440 System Memory: 1 GB RAM Storage: 6 GB Hard drive spac

As anyone who's used Apple's Mac App Store can tell you, it's not that great for finding apps. Its search engine is hard to use, there's tons of junk in it and some apps cost a lot of money. Enter Setapp, an alternative to Apple's own store that offers a curated library of premium-quality apps for a monthly fee of $9.99, making it the Netflix of apps for your Mac. I've tested Setapp, currently out in an invite-only beta program, and find it an elegant solution to an annoying problem. More importantly, Setapp provides users with a set of 49 high-quality third-party apps (such as the $45 writing app Ulysses, the $20 duplicate deleter Gemini and the $49 research management tool Findings), taking the work of finding and vetting programs away from the user, so you're free to actually use them. MORE: Best Mac Apps Setapp comes from the Mac App developer MacPaw, and while the company includes its own apps (such as Gemini 2 and the $40 CleanMyMac) it's also got apps from other developers. Setapp's also appealing to those looking for premium-grade experiences, as its well-designed programs don't bog you down with ads or in-app-purchases that limit functionality. How does it work? Setting up Setapp couldn't be easier, as I just downloaded it, installed it and signed in. After that, a folder of its 49 apps appeared in my menu bar, dock and applications folder, as if I'd installed all of them. Programs won't install on your system automatically, you need to double-click an icon and click Open in the app's description window to actually download the program. Figuring out what the Setapp programs do is pretty easy, as their well-designed icons do a good job of suggesting what they do. The to-do-list app TaskPaper's icon is a sheet of paper with a T and a check-mark, Archiver's backpack icon suggests it's going to pack and unpack files and bill-management app Chronicle's got a paid-stamp icon. App description pages look a lot like the average product page on an app store, but cleaner. Each preview window shows the name, description, features and developer of an app, as well as screenshots so you're familiar with the program. It's enough to help you decide whether or not the app will suit you, without giving you too much information to digest. Once Setapp's on your system, its apps are easy to find, as you can even search by what the program does, such as when typing in "productivity" brings up Be Focused, a timer-based app. From there, managing your apps is carefree and easy. Minor updates install automatically, and Setapp will give users free access to major updates as well. Should you get Setapp? After spending some time with Setapp, I've realized the company isn't kidding about its selection of high-quality apps. From the system monitoring iStat Menus to Paste, an excellent clipboard manager, Setapp does the work of finding useful apps for you and these selections offer clean interfaces that aren't cluttered with ads and other nonsense. Personally, as someone who has stared at the $45 Ulysses text editor in the Mac App Store like Mike Myers staring at the guitar in the window in Wayne's World, this was a no-brainer. When I spoke to Yaroslav Stepanenko, the product marketing manager at Mac Paw, the indie developer behind Setapp, he explained to me that the company "intends to grow the store as user demands for new apps rise up." This way, Setapp will continue to replenish itself with the latest and greatest titles. MORE: Best Touch Bar Apps for Your New MacBook Pro Growing the selection makes sense, because if Setapp only offers you $100 worth of apps you want, you might feel better off buying those outright instead of springing for years of monthly payments. Setapp will also include upgrades to new release versions that you'd normally have to pay for, something I run into as a user of the TweetBot twitter client, which relies on users paying for its major updates, such as when it went from version 3 to 4 last October. Setapp is free during its invite-only beta testing and will offer a 1-month trial for all programs once it goes live, so it's a great way to try out software to see if it's worth buying.

Big capacity in a small drive Today's best Sabrent Rocket Q 8TB deals Sabrent's new Rocket Q series offers a great mix of value and performance, but it also offers a big first: The first 8TB SSD for us normal folks in the M.2 form factor. That massive capacity will slot right into a notebook for those on the go, or you can just slap one into your desktop PC and never worry about the size of your game folder again. Well, you won't have to worry for at least a few years. That massive slab of storage capacity comes with a big price tag, though, with the 8TB Sabrent Rocket Q weighing in at a hefty $1,500. You get some of the best performance we've seen from a QLC SSD in exchange, so splurging on Sabrent's 8TB SSD is worth it if you're after the highest capacity possible. Sabrent also serves up high-performance and high-capacity SSDs for enthusiasts with any need, too, so we also have the 2TB Rocket Q model in for review today. Up until recently, your only option to go beyond 2TB was to get a 2.5” SATA SSD, like the Samsung 860 series or WD Blue 3D, but those drives are limited to about 4TB and are slower than NVMe SSDs. QLC SSDs bring higher capacities at a lower price-per-GB than TLC SSDs, but manufacturers haven’t put much effort into bringing higher-capacity M.2 NVMe drives to the consumer market. This is tied into the choice of matching lower-performing, lower-endurance QLC flash with inexpensive four-channel NVMe controllers. Until now, no company tried pushing the performance boundaries with QLC NAND by pairing it with an 8-channel NVMe controller, so we didn't have an option for both high-performance and high-capacity QLC M.2 NVMe SSDs. With a high-performance Phison E12S NVMe controller and Micron’s Latest 96L QLC NAND flash, not only does Sabrent’s Rocket Q come in capacities that double and even quadruple the Intel, Samsung, WD, and Crucial drives, it has the performance to keep up with the best of them, too. Specifications Features Sabrent’s Rocket Q comes in capacities as low as 500GB and span up to a massive 8TB. The pricing on most capacities is affordable compared to many TLC and DRAMless SSDs, although the larger capacities are a bit pricey. The sample we're reviewing today comes in at a moderate 2TB capacity and features one of the lowest price-per-GB ratios at its $239.99 price point. Sabrent’s Rocket Q’s performance places it well above its QLC SSD competition. Sabrent rates the Rocket Q at up to 3.2/3.0 GBps of sequential read/write throughput, but write performance is dependent on its dynamic write cache. About one-quarter of available capacity is set aside as cache space, but beyond that, write performance will degrade to much slower levels. We'll measure that impact on the next page. When taxed with random workloads, the Rocket Q is rated to deliver up to 550,000 / 680,000 read/write IOPS. The device supports Trim, secure erase, and S.M.A.R.T. data reporting like most SSDs. It also has multiple power states to help save power in mobile devices. Although the Rocket Q uses Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) ECC to help ensure data integrity over time, its endurance ratings are low compared to TLC SSDs. In general, it offers about one-half to one-third of the endurance per capacity point. If you opt for the big bad 8TB model, you can still get very good endurance coverage during the five-year warranty, though. But that's only if you register for it: Sabrent’s Rocket Q comes with a one-year warranty that only transitions to a five-year warranty if you register your device within 90 days. Software and Accessories The SSD comes bare of any accessories, but the company includes plenty of software support. Downloads include Sabrent’s Sector Size Converter (SSC) in case you need to change between 4Kn and 512e sector formats, a Control Panel app to monitor the device and update the firmware, and a free-to-use copy of Acronis True Image OEM for drive cloning and backup. Sabrent's Rocket Q is a PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD that comes in an M.2 2280 single-sided form factor, which is especially impressive for a 2TB drive. While we typically dislike the blue PCBs some SSDs have, such as the Rocket Q, not many companies try to tie the color into the aesthetic like Sabrent's design does. Sabrent even left the ugly barcode and compliance stickers on the backside of the device. Kudos to Sabrent for the attention to detail. Like the Sabrent Rocket NVMe 4.0, the Rocket Q has a copper label on top of the components to aid with cooling. The SSD uses a Phison E12S NVMe controller, which is the latest variant of the po[CENSORED]r Phison E12. It packs a lot of performance while taking up a smaller footprint on the PCB, enabling the single-sided form factor at this capacity. The newer controller is built on a 12nm manufacturing process node, which helps to tame power and temperatures. The dual Cortex R5 CPUs and dual co-processors (CoXProcessor 2.0 technology) operate at the same 666MHz frequency. For the 2TB model, four NAND packages with four high-density 1Tb Micron 96L QLC NAND flash dies interface with the controller over eight flash channels at 666 MT/s. The SSD has 16 dies total, thus po[CENSORED]ting about half of E12S's chip enables. The 8TB drive features 64 1Tb dies, which is two dies per chip enable. This NAND's operating speed is a nice little bump up compared to the Phison E12 and lower density BiCS3 64L TLC NAND based SSDs we have reviewed in the past that operate at 533 MT/s. About 9% of the Rocket Q's raw space is used as overprovisioned space for garbage collection and other background activities, too. The 2TB SSD has a 512MB NANYA DDR3L 1600MHz DRAM chip for FTL table buffering. The typical DRAM:NAND ratio is 1MB:1GB, so the company must use FTL table compression and/or prioritize hot and cold metadata.

game inforamtion: Developers:Traveller's Tales, TT Games Publishers:Warner Bros. Interactive FranchisesLEGO Release Date:June 1, 2015 Platforms:PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch In concept, LEGO Worlds seems like a total home run: You explore Minecraft-like, procedurally-generated worlds made entirely of LEGO bricks with total freedom to build, paint, copy, paste, reshape, and destroy anything you see. Actually getting my hands on it, though, I found that for almost every really cool moment of accomplishment or discovery, there was another moment of frustration, confusion, or bugginess to clip the wings of my inner child’s imagination. From its blocky foundations, LEGO Worlds is two games with two different goals that don’t always harmonize. One is a journey of exploration and adventure across a potentially infinite number of randomly generated worlds that can be traveled between at will by means of a snazzy spaceship. The central goal is to collect golden bricks by finding hidden chests and completing quests for NPCs - from building a treehouse to giving a fire station a fresh coat of paint to fighting off zombies. Enough golden bricks will allow you to level up and gain more character abilities or world generation options, which serves as the only real motivator to continue pursuing these increasingly repetitive activities when you’d rather be building a skyscraper. The other half is respectably versatile editor that lets you build just about anything you can think of, either brick-by-brick, using a 3D copy/paste tool to grab things you see in the generated worlds (like, say, a wizard’s tower) to save them for later, or by placing prefabricated structures that can be earned by completing quests and exploring. What’s truly impressive is that there’s no trickery going on here: everything in the world, including dirt, rocks, clouds, clock towers, and even lava, is made entirely out of LEGOs and can be built, disassembled, or copied one brick at a time. There's nothing stopping me from deleting walls to get around hazards. Where the two halves really clash are in scripted areas where it’s apparent you’re meant to complete a task in the manner of an adventure game, but the unlimited use of the creative tools makes any challenge easy to circumvent. On a medieval-themed world I came across a handcrafted dungeon, complete with monsters, fire traps, dead ends, and a reward of a rare weapon at the end. It seemed like I was meant to progress through this area like a swashbuckling adventurer… but there was never anything stopping me from deleting the walls to get around any potential hazards. Another time, I found a giant beanstalk in a fairy tale area that could be climbed to reach a castle full of treasure in the clouds… except that I’d already unlocked a helicopter that could be spawned anywhere, so I just used that instead. When I saw a hidden treasure chest on my minimap, it became standard procedure to simply delete the ground under me until I reached it rather than looking for a cave entrance and traversing the depths to uncover its reward. The variety of biomes and imaginative LEGO creations to discover is truly admirable. On the other hand, the variety of biomes and imaginative LEGO creations to discover is truly admirable. Just when I thought I’d seen it all, I’d wind up on a world with several city blocks’ worth of a modern-looking town, complete with a bank, a laundromat, furnished houses, and empty lots for adding my own new homes and businesses. On the outskirts of that town was a spooky forest full of witches and zombies, terminating at a span of sea that held sunken temples beneath its surface. Spotting land on the far side of the strait, I found myself coming ashore in a dry, windy gulch straight out of the Old West, with cowpokes and rustlers to match. Across the dozens of hours I’ve played so far, I’m still finding new things and feel I may only have scratched the surface of what’s out there, which is genuinely exciting. It’s just hard to get away from the feeling at the back of my mind that I have godlike cheat code-level powers available at a whim that can trivialize the sense of place these scenes might otherwise provide. Interacting with the array of LEGO worlds isn’t as simple or intuitive as snapping blocks together, either. The mouse and keyboard controls on the PC, especially in the menus, are fiddly and take a lot of getting used to. Building brick-by-brick is straightforward and intuitive enough, but becomes tedious for larger projects. Sooner or later, you’ll have to learn to use tools like copy/paste, which aren’t always forgiving if you hit a wrong key or don’t know exactly what you’re doing. Similar problems crop up while adventuring. Combat, though diverse and offering everything from swords to six-shooters to bows with explosive arrows, is one of the few systems I’d call outright bad. There’s no precise aiming for any of the weapon types, so you pretty much have to point your character in the right direction, click furiously, and hope you hit the thing you were trying to hit. Sub-par controls across the board are definitely the primary reason I didn’t have more fun with LEGO Worlds than I did. I also experienced some significant performance drops on my system (Intel Core i7-4770K, GeForce GTX 1070, 16GB RAM) consistently in two scenarios. First was any time I was deforming a lot of terrain at once, either with the included terrain tool or just trying to blast my way through a mountainside with a bazooka. The other was when moving quickly across a world, especially in any kind of aircraft, which would lead to significant visual lag and lots of cases of world chunks not loading in until I was more or less right on top of them. Verdict LEGO Worlds is commendable for its environmental diversity and the power of its creative tools to build anything you can dream of or mani[CENSORED]te every castle, hillside, and forest in sight. Unfortunately, fiddly menus, a pretty terrible combat system, and at times clunky and unfriendly construction controls weigh down on the wonder of finding and creating. Despite all this, I still find myself drawn back into it to discover what more the designers have hidden in the world-generation code, as coming across a massive ruined castle or an active volcano for the first time is always a treat - and an inspiration for what I want to build next. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS MINIMUM: OS: Windows 7 Processor: Intel Dual Core 2GHz Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: 512MB GPU with Shaders 3.0 DirectX: Version 9.0 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 10 GB available space RECOMMENDED: OS: Windows 7 Processor: AMD or Intel Quad Core running at 2.6GHz Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 or ATI Radeon HD 5850 or better DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 10 GB available space

Dozen different vulnerabilities could let hackers hijack your PC If you have an Nvidia graphics card in your PC -- as we do -- it's time to update the driver and the GeForce Experience (GFE) GPU-management application. No less than 12 different security vulnerabilities exist in older versions of the driver and the GFE software, says Nvidia in two advisories posted yesterday (Nov. 6). Attackers could use the flaws to steal information, run malicious code, take over the system or stop GPUs from functioning properly. The saving grace is that most of the attacks would require "local system access," i.e. access to the machine itself or perhaps to a locally networked one. To make sure your Nvidia GeForce GPU driver is up to date, go to the Nvidia driver download page and either plug in your graphics card's specs or have the page detect the graphics card. You'll be taken to the appropriate page, from which you can download the updated driver, which should have version number 441.12 or later. To update your GeForce Experience software, go to the GeForce download page and download the patch. It should update your GFE software to version 3.20.1 or later. Driver patches for Nvidia's professional (Quadro), enterprise (NVS and vGPU) and supercomputer (Tesla) graphics cards and virtualization software aren't all quite ready yet, but should be available the week of Nov. 18.

Zalman’s new cooler offers stiff competition for the air cooling giants, with caveats. The Zalman CNPS20X is currently priced higher than other premium, big air cooling solutions at $100, although by comparison, it does offer excellent thermal performance with polarizing aesthetics. The massive, dual-140mm fan cooler features 3-pin, 5v aRGB lighting accents and challenges other top-tier air cooling towers in both sheer size and cooling performance. The CNPS20X is a solid alternative for those with a few more dollars in their pockets seeking a large air cooler with aggressive aesthetics. Zalman CNPS20X Specifications Features of the Zalman CNPS20X Zalman ships its flagship heatpipe cooler with the common assortment of nickel-plated mounting studs, bolts, a universal backplate and crossbar hardware to cover the majority of common AMD and Intel CPU sockets. Thermal compound and a pair (each) of PWM and aRGB extension splitters round out the included accessories for the CNPS20X. Missing is a standalone aRGB controller, so you’ll need to use your motherboard’s 3-pin (5v) aRGB header or another compatible lighting solution. Zalman covers the CNPS20X with a 1 year warranty, although details were difficult to find from included documentation and on the product website. Zalman advertises the unique heatsink fin pattern and design as a “4D Stereoscopic Corrugated Fin” layout, which appears to consist of alternating protrusions and slightly opened and angular air channels, rather than parallel fin stacks. Aluminum cooling fins are stacked above and below copper fins, creating an appealing contrast between metals on the pair of cooling towers. Six heatpipes rise up through the cooling fin stacks, one side parallel to the other, collecting at the base of the cooler. The fin layout and angular structure provides larger channels for airflow to move through the cooling tower. The base of the CNPS20X features a milled baseplate, which acts as the absorption surface for the CPU IHS. The mounting collar wraps across the top of the heatpipes and is secured to the baseplate with a set of machine screws, creating an integrated base unit for thermal conductivity and installation of the cooler. The pair of 140mm aRGB fans are shipped with the primary support frame not mounted to the fan’s cross frames. Once the support frames are secured to the fans with screws, the pivoting metal clips which secure the fans to the cooling fins can be attached on their hinges. While these steps are very simple, they seem unnecessary and make us question why Zalman doesn’t just ship the fans fully assembled. Using a steel straightedge, we see the milling of the CPU baseplate contact surface is uniform across the entire face. A view of the contact patch shows consistent distribution of thermal compound, with the thinnest and most uniform coverage in the center of the CPU, which represents the typical location for the CPU cores. Having the tension screws built into the mounting plate would have been the ideal approach, making installation of the CNPS20X much easier, but that’s not the case here. Mounting and securing large air coolers shouldn’t be a balancing act and alignment exercise requiring more than one set of hands. In order to tighten the tension screws, the CNPS20X must be correctly centered on the CPU and aligned with each threaded hole in the cross brace mounts below. Then you need to carefully lower the screws into place while applying enough pressure to start the threads while also not allowing the base to move, which could cause cross threading of the machine screws. Once the tension screws are secured, the 140mm fans can be clipped into place and the aRGB (3-pin, 5v) connector can be plugged into your compatible motherboard header or aRGB controller. Since the fans can be clipped into place at any interval up the height of the cooling fins, adjustment for memory DIMMs is possible for those with taller heat spreaders on their RAM.

game information: Release Date: February 25, 2020 Platform: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch Man oh (mega) man do I love this collection. Its six excellent Mega Man spin-off games bring with them exactly the kind of gameplay and story my body craves and I’m thrilled at how well they hold up and stand on their own. But it’s the extras, including a new competitive mode with online leaderboards, that really seals the deal. Mega Man and Mega Man X are some of my favorite series in all of gaming, but I slept on the Mega Man Zero series when it came to Game Boy Advance starting in 2002 and first realized what I was missing when the Zero Collection came out on DS in 2010. The Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection for Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and Steam is even better, because it brings all four of the original Mega Man Zero GBA games and both DS games into one convenient package. They're wonderful. If you're not familiar with the plot of the Mega Man Zero series, here's a quick rundown: 100 years after the events of the Mega Man X series, legendary warrior Zero is reactivated to help fight in the war between humans and Reploids, a race of human-like robots based on the original Mega Man X. Mega Man ZX and Advent are set even further in the future, in the year 25XX, when humans and Reploids exist in harmony... until the revival of the Mavericks. Throughout the entire series there's a lot of talk of cyber-elves and Neo Arcadia, Bio-Metals, Reploids, E-Crystals, sacrifice, and betrayal… in other words, it rules pretty hard. It's exactly the kind of corny, jargon-heavy anime storyline I love in my video games. Unfortunately dialogue is largely unskippable, which can be real annoying when you're trying to beat a boss. There's a lot of talk of cyber-elves and Neo Arcadia, Bio-Metals, Reploids, E-Crystals, sacrifice, and betrayal… in other words, it rules pretty hard. The gameplay itself follows the Mega Man Zero formula, and on Switch it feels great in both handheld mode and on my TV. Holding down the R-button to fire the alternate weapon on the Joy-Con doesn't feel the best, but the Pro Controller is a much better fit. You can remap the controls to fit your preferred playstyle, which is a welcome option. None of these old-school platformers are easy, but to help remedy any of the frustration Capcom has added two new options to ease the sting of repeated failure. Save-Assist drops save locations at key points in the levels, meaning you can lose to a boss and start right back up again from the nearest save point instead of starting the whole level over like back in the day. These aren't save states, though, so they still require a certain amount of raw skill if you want to make it through the levels. There's also a “casual mode” which removes the threat of instant-death from spikes and pits and beefs up your character and weapons. Casual mode has to be set at the beginning of a game, so you need to be committed to your choice: you can't switch back and forth between normal and casual modes. I have no problem admitting I played with the Save-Assist mode turned on, but only tried out Casual Mode for the purposes of this review. I have my pride. On modern displays, the Zero/ZX series' pixel art graphics are absolutely beautiful. There are three different filters to choose from: a "soft" filter blurring the pixels a bit, "no filter," showing off every pixel in its full, razor-sharp crispness, and a filter that makes the graphics look like they're on a GBA or DS screen. That last one puts a very subtle, but noticeable, static effect on the screen, giving it just a hint of old-school grittiness inherent in earlier handheld displays. It's far and away my preferred way to play. The Zero/ZX series' pixel art graphics are absolutely beautiful. Apart from the filters, there are different screen layouts you can choose from, the number of which differs whether you're playing Mega Man Zero or ZX games. The ZX games, originally released on DS, have several layout options for the DS' second screen, but there's no portrait mode for use on the Switch, which is a massive bummer. The two DS games would benefit enormously from compatibility with something like the Flip Grip, a $12 plastic device that allows you to hold the Switch sideways. Tons of other retro games on Switch support the vertical orientation, including individual games on collections like the SNK 40th Anniversary and SEGA Ages. Capcom, if you're reading this, please patch in a vertical orientation for ZX and ZX Advent in handheld mode! There are also loads of wallpapers to choose from, and I didn't find a bad one in the bunch, to be honest. The Zero/ZX art style is a personal favorite, so I found myself swapping out wallpapers fairly regularly just to enjoy a change of scenery. When a collection has games as strong as these, it lives or dies by the quality of its extra content, and I'm happy to say Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection does... a decent job. My one gripe is it plays it pretty safe: it has exactly the kind of bonus content you've come to expect at this point, and only scratches the surface of the series' history. I would love to see more in-depth bonus features delving into the series' development. There is a massive gallery of art for all six games, with high-resolution images available to scroll through and enjoy. There are also bonus cards you unlock through playing, and you can activate them to unlock extras in the games themselves. For example, turning on some of the earlier bonus cards adds plants, paintings, and other touches to the Resistance Base in Mega Man Zero 3. It's a cool cosmetic touch I didn't expect, and with 100 unlockable cards there are many more secrets I haven't unlocked. There is a massive gallery of art for all six games, with high-resolution images available to scroll through and enjoy. On top of the bonus art, the soundtracks for every single game are accessible from the main menu right from the start, so you can cycle through your favorites (my absolute favorite is Departure from Mega Man Zero 2, followed by Green Grass Gradation from Mega Man ZX). The new Z-Chaser mode is a competitive speed-running mode with online leaderboards. It's really well done, with the ability to choose your "ghost" from a selection of other, actual players who've set records and compete against them for glory. If you'd rather compete locally, Z-Chaser has a head-to-head mode, too. Even though I'm not into competitive speedrunning at all, I did find myself enjoying running Mega Man Zero levels against the ghost of an online stranger. Verdict The Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy collection is great thanks to the quality of its six included games. Capcom's addition of new modes to help people play these classics at whatever difficulty they feel comfortable with is a great way for anyone to enjoy the wild sci-fi stories of these Mega Man X spin-offs without making it a walk in the park. The bonus features are great, but aren't anything more than what you'd expect to find in a retro gaming collection, although the Z-Chaser adds a new level of competitiveness to the games. Playing handheld games on a 55" screen is fun enough on its own, but these games in particular look and play amazingly well. System Requirements: (Minimum) CPU: Intel Core i3 550 3.2GHz or AMD equivalent or better CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 2 GB OS: Windows 7 (64bit) VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 or ATI Radeon HD 7850 PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0 FREE DISK SPACE: 7 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 1024 MB

Putting new Nvidia drivers to the test Nvidia just released its latest 451.48 drivers for Windows PCs. These are the first fully-certified DirectX 12 Ultimate drivers, but they also add support for WDDM 2.7—that's Windows Display Driver Model 2.7. New to Windows 10 with the May 2020 update, and now supported with Nvidia's drivers, is hardware scheduling. This new feature shows up in the Windows display settings, at the bottom under the Graphics Settings, provided you have a Pascal or later generation Nvidia GPU. Could this help the best graphics cards perform even better and maybe shake up the GPU hierarchy? Probably not, but we decided to find out with empirical testing. First, it's important to note that this is not a new hardware feature but rather a new API feature. GPUs, at least as far as we understand things, have been able to support GPU hardware scheduling for some time. The description from Microsoft is vague as well. Enabling the feature is simple. In the Windows Settings section, under Display, you can click "Graphics settings" to find the toggle. It says, "Reduce latency and improve performance. You'll need to restart your PC to have your changes take effect." Information circulating on the web suggests GPU hardware scheduling could be quite useful, but we decided to investigate further. We selected five games out of our current GPU test suite, then ran benchmarks with and without hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling enabled on a few test configurations. We used an RTX 2080 Ti as the main test GPU, and ran the benchmarks with both Core i9-9900K and Ryzen 9 3900X. Thinking perhaps a low-end GPU might benefit more, we also went to the other extreme and tested a GTX 1050 card with the 9900K. Obviously there are a ton of potential combinations, but this should be enough to at least get us started. We also tested with every possible API on each game, just for good measure. All testing was conducted at 1920x1080 with ultra settings, except for Red Dead Redemption 2 on the GTX 1050—it had to use 'medium' settings to run on the 2GB card. We ran each test multiple times, discarding the first run and then selecting the best result of the remaining two runs (after confirming performance was similar, and it was). Spoiler alert: the results of GPU hardware scheduling are mixed and mostly much ado about nothing, at least in our tests. Here are the results, with charts, because we all love pretty graphs. Borderlands 3 showed a modest increase in minimum fps on the RTX 2080 Ti using the DirectX 12 (DX12) API, while performance under DX11 was basically unchanged. The Ryzen 9 3900X showed improved performance with both APIs, of around 2%—measurable, but not really noticeable. The GTX 1050 meanwhile performed worse with hardware scheduling (HWS) enabled, regardless of API. The lack of a clear pattern is going to be the only 'pattern' it The Division 2 basically flips things around from Borderlands 3. Hardware scheduling resulted in reduced performance for both the 9900K and 3900X under DX12, and made little to no difference with DX11. Meanwhile, the GTX 1050 shows a very slight improvement with hardware scheduling, but not enough to really matter—it's about 3% faster, but at sub-30 fps. Initial Thoughts on Hardware Scheduling Advertisement What to make of all of this, then? Nvidia now supports a feature that can potentially improve its performance in some games. Except, it seems just as likely to hurt performance as well. This is a new API and driver feature, however, so perhaps it will prove more beneficial over time. Or perhaps I should have dug out a slower CPU or disabled some cores and threads. I'll leave that testing for someone else for now. At present, across five tested games using multiple APIs, on average (looking at all nine or ten tests), the change in performance is basically nothing. The 9900K with RTX 2080 Ti performance is 0.03% slower, and the GTX 1050 with the 9900K performed 0.73% slower. The 3900X with RTX 2080 Ti did benefit, but only to the tune of 0.06%. In other words, the one or two cases where performance did improve are cancelled out by performance losses in other games. If you're serious about squeezing out every last bit of performance possible, maybe for a benchmark record, you can try enabling or disabling the feature to see which performs best for the specific test(s) you're running. For most people, however, it appears to be a wash. Your time will be better spent playing games than trying to figure out when you should enable or disable hardware scheduling—and rebooting your PC between changes.

game information: Developers:Avalanche Studios (SE), KMM Games Publishers:Warner Bros. Interactive, Feral Interactive Release Date:September 1, 2015 Platforms:PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Android, Macintosh, Linux At its core, Mad Max is a game about the death of hope. It’s about learning to find something to cling to in a pointless existence of murder and regret, and then watching it turn to ash in your hands. But that kernel of anguish is buried deep down in an adventure that demands to be explored through sheepish smiles and wide-eyed amazement as each combustive, sickening, and awesome moment of Max’s warpath consumes every foot of wasteland. But for Max, the reluctant hero, the wasteland is something to escape. He’s lost his car and nearly his life at the hands of Scabrous Scrotus, the resident Warlord of the refinery-city Gas Town. Fortunately, the deformed, sun-soaked blackfinger, Chumbucket, sees Max as the ordained prophet of his car-based religion, sent from the Angel of Combustion to help build and drive the Magnum Opus - the greatest vehicle the wasteland will ever know Wasteland Wares For all this engaging premise, most of the traditional storytelling disappears until the near-end, when it ultimately, surprisingly succeeds. By the closing credits, I had a genuine reaction to Avalanche’s tale of Max, but I wish more of it had been peppered throughout my 30-40 hours of play time. Yet in the space between the premise and climax, Max is about your progression and domination of a world full of striking, ugly beauty, and incredible atmosphere. Nearly everything and everyone you’ll meet fits the purpose and lore of the wasteland; it’s alive with personality and indifference. And it may be the true star of Mad Max, despite the unsteady frame rate, texture popping, and physics quirkiness. If not the wasteland, then the excellent layers of systems that drive Mad Max’s gameplay are the real draw. Its progression mechanisms urge you to complete an exhaustive list of challenges to increase your Legend, which you cash in with Griffa – a sort of wasteland therapist – to increase base attributes. But you’ll also collect Scrap – the wasteland’s currency – to upgrade individual pieces of armor, weapons, tools, combat moves, and even Max’s look. And that’s all just Max. The same attention is offered to the Magnum Opus - where you’ll literally build the car from scrap and purchase things like nitro boosters, a harpoon, explosive javelins, spikes, armor, tires, and even side-mounted flame cannons. You are always earning something that directly changes your experience, and it’s incredibly rewarding. And fortunately, for us, the players who visit this violent husk of a world, leaving our treadmarks on its scorched earth and igniting all we touch, there are many, many things to do. In the lengthy process of wrestling control of the wasteland from its brutal, established warlords, you’ll destroy their refineries, kill their Top Dogs, burn their fuel depots, and topple their gruesome intimidation totems. All of these activities are great, and engaging in their own right, but they begin to suffer from diminishing returns as their rinse/repeat nature sinks in down the stretch. The Road Warrior But Mad Max’s combat is the great promise at each of these destinations. Both behind the wheel and on foot, there’s an exciting flourish to the familiar feel that comes with murdering the roaming war parties of the Roadkill, Buzzard, and Scrotus’ War Boy factions. Melee combat is an instantly recognizable, absolutely brutal dance of attacks and timed-counters, though some added depth can be found in the addition of weapons, executions, chain attacks, and Fury Mode – Max’s bloodlust that turns him into a one-man wrecking crew. Vehicle combat is a high-speed gnashing of metal and the best part of Mad Max’s overflowing action. Ramming and sideswiping, using your harpoon to pull armor, wheels, and even drivers from enemy vehicles, or detonating exposed fuel drums with your gun blast - there’s simply no shortage of creative ways to annihilate on the road. And that’s necessary, as random patrols strike quickly, and the hulking convoys of wasteland machines that snake through dirt roads are challenging, but well worth the effort to take down. Even after the credits rolled, there was so much left for me to see and discover. Collecting dozens of other wasteland vehicles, building supercar variants of the Magnum Opus, competing in unique death run races, competing online against other players’ vehicles, and even collecting historical artifacts from the world before, it all reinforces the fact Mad Max is a sandbox crafted with the tone of the material in mind. And its gorgeous, striking, and often bitter visual moods can be captured in a cinematic mode, that let’s you pull the camera through time and space to snap the perfect picture or video of the destruction on screen. Despite so much time spent in the dirty, blood-stained boots of Mad Max, I know I’m nowhere near done in The Great White. Verdict Mad Max is a juxtaposition of exciting, thrilling fun set in a world of disgusting, primal depravity – like a singing telegram informing you of a death in the family, or an ice-cream cake with your terminal test results written in frosting. It’s a conflicting place of despair, a personal playground of explosive action and compulsive, unending progression that I can’t wait to get back to, and one hell of a ride. System Requirements: (Minimum) CPU: Intel Core i5-650, 3.2 GHz or AMD Phenom II X4 965, 3.4 Ghz CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 6 GB OS: 64-bit Windows Vista, 7, or 8 VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660ti (2 GB Memory or higher) or AMD Radeon HD 7870 (2 GB Memory or higher) PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0 FREE DISK SPACE: 32 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 2 GB

A large keyboard with RGB you can control by talking to Alexa Some gaming keyboards take the less is more approach, with slimmed down or low-profile designs that occupy up less desk space. The Thermaltake Level 20 isn’t one of those keyboards. Instead, this hefty clacker is extreme in all ways, from its size and weight to its RGB lighting and feature set. RGB is par for the course with the best gaming keyboards, but Thermaltake’s Level 20 (starts at $ 120 as of writing) takes things to the next level with and RGB lights running around three sides of the board and a light bar dividing the keys. Then Amazon Alexa steps in, allowing you to change RGB settings by speaking to an Amazon speaker, making this keyboard even more extra. Thermaltake Level 20 Keyboard Specs The Level 20 almost looks like the classic IBM Model M keyboard's wild cousin. Like the cult classic, Thermaltake’s keyboard is chunky with a vast amount of empty space above the FN row and a meticulously stamped logo. But unlike the Model M, which was obviously fit for the office with its muted color scheme, the Level 20 is loud, with more RGB than even a typical gaming keyboard. To start, there’s a streak of LEDs running down the board, creating a glowstick-like barrier between the main keys and the nav and num keys. The bar consists of 5 individually controlled RGB zones, allowing for a multi-color effect. But at maximum brightness, all that flash can be distracting as it shines in your peripheral vision. South of the RGB bar is a stark cutout in the Level 20’s frame, which holds another RGB zone that’s a discrete treat for your eyes. Contrastingly, I could almost never see the bottom RGB deck from my typical sitting position. The lights run through three sides of the keyboard but, ironically, barely go into the side of the board that faces you. Sometimes I could see a peek of RGB in the corners, and if you’re gaming in the dark, the side lights will create a rave-ready glow on your desk. But otherwise the RGB here is virtually useless, which is saying something for RGB. I’d rather a hefty wrist rest to match the hefty keyboard than RGB zones that are respectively too distracting and too covert. Another (small) complaint is the appearance of the RGB in the light bar, deck and Thermaltake logo. These LEDs are shining through white plastic, which diffuses the colors slightly. For example, red looked like light red, and green appeared more playful and teal. This could interfere with your style. The Thermaltake Level 20 keyboard also makes its presence known through its size, measuring 19 x 7.3 x 1.7 inches and weighing 3.3 pounds. That’s heavier and more voluminous than your typical full-sized keyboard with media keys. For example, the Roccat Vulcan 122 Aimo is 18.2 x 9.3 x 1.3 inches and 2.5 pounds, and even the Corsair K95 RGB Platinum XT (18.3 x 6.7 x 1.4 inches, 2.9 pounds) will take up less space, despite it having a dedicated column of programmable “G” keys. The Level 20 has feet with two levels of adjustments on its textured plastic base and rubber nubs, but you needn’t worry about this juggernaut of a keyboard sliding. You get all the media keys you need, including a rubbery and subtly clicky volume wheel and stiff buttons. But the Level 20’s bulk also comes from the aluminum top plate, which is 2mm thick and feels cool to the touch. Unlike the aluminum top plate on the Vulcan 122 Aimo, there’s no brushed finish on the Level 20, so it might not immediately look expensive. Instead, its dark, matte finish is a nice compliment to aggressive RGB engulfing the keyboard. For even more pizzazz, you can swap out 11 keycaps on the left side for the red, shimmery keycaps included in the box. Light bleeds through the red caps more, though. The key layout offers many FN features, including the ability to tweak RGB’s effects, color and speed without launching software (or calling Alexa). You can easily launch up to 6 profiles with the help of the FN key and do macro recording, although there are no dedicated macro keys. There’s a rare amount of USB passthrough with the Thermaltake Level 20 keyboard. Not only does it have a USB Type-A passthrough port, there’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack on the front edge of the keyboard. If you need your best gaming headset but your PC’s jack is hard to reach, this is great. The tradeoff is a hefty braided cable with a bulky three-way connector. If you want to use the keyboard and both of its passthrough ports simultaneously you’ll need a PC that has two Type-A ports and a headphone jack in decent proximity to each other (i.e. not on opposite sides of a laptop). Alexa, Change My RGB Alexa, why are you here? I admit that I never got aboard the voice assistant train. I don’t like the idea of placing internet-connected microphones around my home, and I’d much rather push buttons to control tech than speak commands (hello, I write keyboard reviews). But in a world of unreliable peripheral software and excessive RGB zones, some might appreciate the ease of changing their keyboard’s lighting by speaking to their Amazon Echo. Bringing Alexa control to the Level 20 seems easy enough. You enable “Alexa Skills TT RGB Plus” in your Amazon account, then log into Thermaltake's iTake software. Afterwards, you can say “Alexa, tell Thermaltake” and then one of the supported phrases (see this PDF) to alter RGB colors, effects and speeds. You can do this through software and function controls too, but this gives you a way to bark commands at your keyboard. I don’t have any Alexa-powered devices in my house, and our New York lab is still locked down, so unfortunately I wasn’t able to see how well the Level 20 responds to Alexa commands. This feature may be more appealing if you own more products from Thermaltake’s TT RGB Plus line, which are all controllable via Alexa. With this feature available in water coolers, power supplies, RAM and more, you should be able to change the lighting throughout your system with a single voice command. Typing Experience on Thermaltake Level 20 Keyboard Our review sample of the Thermaltake Level 20 came with Razer Green mechanical switches, but the keyboard’s also available with Cherry MX Blue or Cherry MX Speed switches. The Razer Green switch makes a clicky noise and has a tactile bump that you can feel as you travel down its 4.0mm total travel. It actuates at 1.9mm with 50 grams of force. Despite its name and color, the Razer Green is most similar to the Cherry MX Blue, which has the same amount of total travel but actuates at a further 2.2mm and with a much heavier 61 grams of force. The result was that they felt a little lighter on my fingers compared to Cherry MX Blues, and in a side-by-side comparison the Razer Green switches ’bump felt less prominent. The keycaps on the keyboard are your typical plastic, smooth without much in the way of texture besides the feeling of the font. Fans of Razer Green, Cherry MX Blue and other clicky mechanical switch types flourish in a chorus of clicks. But on the Level 20, the clicks are more like background singers for the louder and very slightly elevated keycaps. The keycaps make a hollow noise against the aluminum top plate, especially with the backspace button and space bar or when typing aggressively. The spacebar is also a bit shakier than I’d like, and the backspace key comes close to meeting that description too. Your experience may vary, particularly if you type very lightly. On the 10fastfingers.com test, I averaged 123 words per minute (wpm) with a 97.5% error rate. That’s speedier than my typical 110 wpm with a negligible dip in accuracy (I’m usually at 98%). The speed gain is likely due to the Razer Green switches requiring a lighter amount of force to actuate than Cherry MX Blues. Gaming Experience on Thermaltake Level 20 Keyboard Your experience gaming with the Thermaltake Level 20 will depend on your switch choice. With our Razer Green switch-powered review unit, I certainly wasn’t fit for streaming or chatting unless I wanted to hear complaints about my loud clicks and keycaps. Otherwise, the Razer Green requires slightly less travel to actuate (1.9mm versus 2.2mm) compared to the similar Cherry MX Blue switches. More noticeable to me, however, is how light the switches felt compared to MX Blues, which helped me bounce from key to key when gaming. In Battlefield V, the Level 20 kept up with my soldier well, offering reliable input and the ability to quickly move on to the next action. However, the wobbliness of the shift key sometimes distracted me when I was holding it down to run. When I used the Level 20 with Overwatch, I experienced the same lighter sensation, and the keycaps were less of a distraction as I pressed different keys rapidly. However, those seeking a faster and more linear feel (where the keys go straight down without any bump along the way) should consider getting the Level 20 with Cherry MX Speed Silver switches, although that currently costs $ 20 more than our review unit. The Level 20 is supposed to have 100% anti-ghosting with full n-key rollover. It’s hard to press every key at once, but I did an informal test with an online tool and recorded 48 simultaneous inputs. Gamers will also appreciate on-the-fly macro recording, 6 onboard profiles and the thoughtful ability to switch the W, A, S, D for arrow keys, which is handy for the lefties. Another nice touch: FN and Scroll Lock activate Light Mode, which turnS on RGB for controls often used in games through 5 different configurations. Features and Software on Thermaltake Level 20 Keyboard Amazon Alexa lets you control the Level 20’s RGB, but for much more customization you’ll need TT iTake software. It gives you the expected functionality, like lighting control and macro programming. Annoyingly, TT iTake is wonky and often crashed multiple times before I finished my adjustments. Once it crashed, I usually had to restart my computer to get it to properly launch again. Opening the software (or having it automatically launch at start) seems to deactivate the ability to control RGB on the keyboard, making customization frustrating. Because it has 4MB of onboard memory, you can create up to 6 different profiles that are launchable via 6 navigation keys and also importable. If you can get through the app's frequent crashing, you can use iTake to program every key, (except the media ones) to a macro function, media key, function key or launch software. There are also pre-made gaming profiles with commonly used functions suggested for 10 games, including CS: GO, League of Legends and Overwatch. There’s pey-key lighting, but Thermaltake starts you off with 11 RGB effects for the keyboard, and 12 for the RGB deck. There are two effects that take over both the keys and the deck. Music Mode reacts to music, and Temp Mode uses color coding to tell you your system’s temperature (one of six measurements) in Fahrenheit or Celsius. The Level 20 also also works with Razer Synapse, which is a more reliable program and lets you sync the keyboard’s lighting with other RGB products that support Razer Chroma. Thermaltake Level 20 Keyboard Versions If you like the Thermaltake Level 20 keyboard but don’t love it’s look, note that there are other versions available. For about $ 140, there’s a version of this keyboard with a gray-colored top plate that makes it more apparent that it’s aluminum. You can find it with Cherry MX Blue or Cherry MX Speed Silver. Sorry, no Razer Greens here. If you don't need Alexa control or the RGB lightbar and sidelights, the Thermaltake Level 20 GT comes with Cherry MX Blue, Cherry MX Speed Silver or Razer Green switches, but as of writing we're only seeing it readily available with Razer Green switches ($ 120). Bottom Line Thermaltake Level 20 (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) The Thermaltake Level 20 has features no one really needs from their keyboard. We’re looking at you, Alexa. The RGB side lights and bars are a unique touch, but one of them you’ll hardly ever see and the other can be distracting when gaming or working. With options for linear or clicky Razer or Cherry switches, you can find your preferred feel for gaming, and the Level 20 is clearly made for gamers, with features like macro recording and onboard profiles. If you’re overwhelmed by the RGB, consider the Thermaltake Level 20 GT, which is slightly cheaper, but as of writing we’re only seeing it with the Cherry MX Silver Speed switches. Another option is the Patriot Viper V765, which also has side RGB lights and is cheaper at $ 100. But if you’re looking for a fearless design and perhaps live in an Alexa-friendly home, the Level 20 is ready to listen to your voice commands as you battle and / or type.

game information: Developers:Creative Assembly Publishers:SEGA Release Date:March 22, 2012 Platforms:PC In the mid-19th Century, when the American Admiral Perry appeared with his black warships and forced Japan to re-open its trading ports to Western powers, Japan was still essentially a medieval society: closed off from the outside world, with a feudal government , an economy based primarily on subsistence rice farming, and warfare still conducted with swords and bows. In less than fifty years from the day Perry arrived, Japan became the first non-Western country in history to defeat a European country, Russia, in an open war - leveraging on modern weaponry, techniques, naval warships, and a completely revamped and revitalized economy. That transformation, and the success Japan built upon it, represents an achievement that must surely astound posterity forever. Total War: Shogun 2's new standalone expansion, The Fall of the Samurai, attempts to give us a glimpse of how Japan's transformation actually took place - and a chance to rewrite history while we're at it. While the core game is unsurprisingly the same, it's really amazing just how much is changed apart from that basic game engine. It still takes place on a map of Japan, but all of the fiefdoms have changed to reflect the 200-year time period that has passed since the original Shogun 2 campaign. In Fall of the Samurai, you choose to align yourself with one of two the pro-Shogun side or the pro-Emperor side, which more or less equates to the north of Japan versus the south, respectively. And that north vs. south dynamic is an interesting coincidence, as much of Fall of the Samurai's strategic and tactical gameplay mirrors games that are set in the American Civil War. The game's main campaign is set in the Boshin War, a relatively short and bloodless conflict in reality that will be anything but once you get your hands on the reins. The Boshin War was contemporaneous with the American Civil War, and weaponry, troop types, tactics, economic options, and the constant fight to keep foreign powers out of the war all hearken back to the war between the states - although the game never loses its uniquely Japanese flavor. There are some differences, strategically, as well, since warships play a predictably greater role in the affairs of an island nation than they would in the U.S., and railroads and other logistical infrastructure are less widespread. The introduction of gun-based warfare completely changes the tactics from the original Shogun 2, as well: artillery (including naval support) is now a genuine force to be reckoned with, and cavalry become much more a mobile infantry force (as you'll often ride them somewhere and then dismount them to fight) than a cadre of mounted knights. Heck, you can even take control of a fort (or ship) 's guns manually and aim them a la Toy Soldiers, although how practical this is while you're controlling your entire army on a battlefield is a question of how good your reflexes (and aim) are. All of these little things build up to a significantly different, but still highly enjoyable, wargaming experience. The jewel in the crown of land battles in the original Shogun 2 campaign (and multiplayer) was fortress assault and defense, but, as most walls can now be blown to smithereens in short order, battles concern themselves more with open-field maneuvers rather than battening down the hatches. Indeed, Fall of the Samurai emphasizes extra-military actions even more than its predecessors, with new units like the Ishin Shishi and Shinsengumi (sort of a Japanese feudal FBI) being used to influence rivals and effectuate diplomatic or economic, rather than military, outcomes . Relations with foreign powers are also important, as you need to keep them from directly interfering in the war (at least on your opponents' side), but also need to keep them happy so they'll sell you technology, materiel, and even send advisors and troops to fight for you. It's a really cool new dynamic that adds a layer of complexity to the insular (literally) world of Japanese warfare. The abundance of new features might seem intimidating for newcomers, or those who have gotten set in their ways playing the original Shogun 2, but Fall of the Samurai is absolutely chock full of helpful tool tips, advisors, and even interactive tutorial videos on how to do everything. The GUI hasn't changed, and that's a good thing - Fall of the Samurai remains easy to control and get around in, even for people unfamiliar with Total War games. And, like the original Shogun 2, plenty of the gameplay involves improving logistics, building up towns, researching technology, and many other standard strategy, rather than wargaming elements. This means that even if you're not a hardcore wargamer, there's still plenty for you to love in Fall of the Samurai. Honestly, as a conversion to a new time period, Fall of the Samurai really has only one weakness. It suffers from its predecessor's trouble with AI, and perhaps even to a larger degree. While this is far from the ruination of your gaming experience, it is frustrating when the AI marches off and leaves perfectly serviceable artillery completely open to being overrun by a cavalry charge, or when it sallies forth from cover for no reason only to be cut down by your riflemen when it should've waited for you to pursue. Again, it won't kill your game experience, but it is the only major weakness in an otherwise fantastic strategic experience. Literally everything else is absolutely top-drawer. Verdict Yes, Fall of the Samurai is an expansion, but like any good expansion - even standalone expansion - it doesn't just add things to the original, it changes them. You'll get an experience much more like a Civil War-era wargame with Fall of the Samurai, as opposed to a medieval wargame with the original Shogun 2, and that, in itself, is worth the cost of admission, let alone all the new units, locations, abilities, factions, and bells / whistles. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: MINIMUM: OS: Windows 7 / Vista / XP Processor: 2 GHz Intel Dual Core processor / 2.6 GHz Intel Single Core processor, or AMD equivalent (with SSE2) Memory: 1GB RAM (XP), 2GB RAM (Vista / Windows7) Graphics: 256 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible card (shader model 3) DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c Hard Drive: 32GB free hard disk space Screen Resolution: 1024x768 minimum