Season 2 of The Finals launches on March 14, and strange things are happening in the arena. The game show has been compromised by the rogue hacking collective CNS, and showrunners are scrambling to decipher their cryptic messages—but one thing is clear: the show must go on! Throughout the jam-packed season of this free-to-play game, contestants can experience new weapons for each class, the hacked new map SYS$HORIZON, the all-new 5v5 game mode Power Shift, a new skill-based League System, rewarded weekly career progression, private matches—for now in a feature-limited beta version—and the new Hacker Playstyle, which adds several ways for contestants to alter the arena to their favor.

THE Finals' new Hacker Playstyle lets players step into the shoes of CNS, with a set of new gadgets and a new specialization that can be mixed and matched with players' existing toolset. Remove walls, defy gravity, tunnel across the arena, and transform items—become the glitch in the system, the ultimate cyber tactician, and bring a new dimension to the game.

LaminiAI appeared to be one of the first customers to receive an initial shipment of AMD's Instinct MI300X accelerators, as disclosed by their CEO posting about functioning hardware on social media late last week. A recent Taiwan Economic Daily article states that the "MI300X is rumored to have begun supply"—we are not sure about why they have adopted a semi-secretive tone in their news piece, but a couple of anonymous sources are cited. A person familiar with supply chains in Taiwan divulged that: "(they have) been receiving AMD MI300X chips one after another...due to the huge shortage of NVIDIA AI chips, the arrival of new AMD products is really a timely rainfall." Favorable industry analysis (from earlier this month) has placed Team Red in a position of strength, due to growing interest in their very performant flagship AI accelerator.

The secrecy seems to lie in Team Red's negotiation strategies in Taiwan—the news piece alleges that big manufacturers in the region have been courted. AMD has been aggressive in a push to: "cooperate and seize AI business opportunities, with GIGABYTE taking the lead and attracting the most attention. Not only was GIGABYTE the first to obtain a partnership with AMD's MI300A chip, which had previously been mass-produced, but GIGABYTE was also one of the few Taiwanese manufacturers included in AMD's first batch of MI300X partners." GIGABYTE is expected to release two new "G593" product lines of server hardware later this year, based on combinations of AMD's Instinct MI300X accelerator and EPYC 9004 series processors.

Today marks a very special launch at Glorious. We are thrilled to release four tournament-grade mice, crafted for gaming enthusiasts in need of high performance gear. Introducing the Model O 2 PRO and the Model O 2 PRO 4K/8KHz Edition, as well as the Model D 2 PRO and the Model D 2 PRO 4K/8KHz Edition. In this article, we'll break down how we came to develop these gaming mice, and dive into each of the features for all four devices.

A HIGH-PERFORMANCE GAMING MOUSE, YEARS IN THE MAKING
When we first released the original Model O back in 2019, it took the gaming community by storm. We designed it with direct feedback from gamers worldwide, and we were thrilled with the overwhelmingly positive response it received. Fast-forward a few years later, we hosted a limited edition group buy, featuring an enhanced version of this device: Model O PRO Forge Edition. It was a stripped down version of the original mouse, sporting only the necessary cutting-edge tech for optimal performance at the lightest weight possible. Though we will no longer be hosting group buys, we decided to take this optimized mouse, turbocharge it with next-generation technology (more on this later), and make it one of our mainline products.

Hello XDefiant Fans! I've got an update for you and it's a big one! We want to explain further why we haven't given a specific date yet for our launch. And sometimes full transparency is like drinking from a firehose so hope you all are thirsty! First things first. Here is a detailed description of how the submission process goes: Submission is the part of development where we give the game to the 1st parties (Sony, Xbox, etc.) to check that the game works correctly in their environments. To get to that we have to self-test with internal QA/Compliance teams to try and find any issues that might get flagged in the submission process. Once we have fixed or completed all of the tasks that we want/think we need for submission we then spend about 2-3 weeks prepping and validating a CM (Candidate Master) that we think is the final version of the game for submission.

It then goes through 1 week of heavy QA & Compliance testing by several Ubisoft teams. If it passes, then it goes to the 1st parties to be certified for release. 1st parties take a week to get their final report on the submission and give us a Pass or Not Pass with a list of must fixes for the next submission. Also, to be clear during this submission process, the QC team at Ubisoft are putting the build through the ringer looking for functionality bugs and another team at Ubisoft, divided up into PC, Sony and Xbox groups are looking for compliance bugs.

Here's how Forza Motorsport makes you fall in love with cars and build community through competition and skill. We're about to be at the starting line for a new era of Forza Motorsport, and today we're excited to tell you more about our vision behind the game. We also shared the first hour of gameplay with media and creators over the past few weeks, so keep an eye out for impressions of what they thought of the experience. And for those of you who can't wait, we shared a video on Forza Monthly featuring some of the gameplay from the first hour of the game.

BUILDING SKILL THROUGH COMPETITION
The Forza franchise has always been about falling in love with cars and building a community of car lovers and gamers. Forza Motorsport does this through competition and skill. In the new Forza Motorsport, we have completely rethought what it means to play Motorsport. This is a massive game with over 500 cars and 20 tracks, all featuring 24-hour dynamic time-of-day with weather. These cars were handpicked by our team, curated to deliver the absolute best experience across both Builders Cup and Featured Multiplayer for clean, thrilling and competitive racing.

There appears to be a faction of hardcore PC gamers within the Microsoft Windows software engineering team—as evidenced in a developer blog post from late May. The section relating to "Reduced game stutter with high report rate mice" provided an early preview for improvements recently rolled out in a Windows 11 update (KB5028185 issued on July 11th). This week's fix "improves your computer's performance when you use a mouse that has a high report rate for gaming." Gamers running PCs on Windows 10 (or earlier) are—unfortunately—missing out on this latest and greatest feature.

Microsoft's blog stated: We know gamers hate stutter, and we're fixing issues throughout Windows so that an untimely frame-freeze won't take gamers out of their immersive experiences. Gamers love to push their systems to the limit in search of the best experiences in-game. Many also use sensitive, high DPI, high report rate mice to shave milliseconds off their response times and increase precision. At the same time, the world of gaming is more connected than ever with gamers relying on an increasing number of background apps while playing, like voice chat, streaming, apps for configuring your keyboard, mouse, or graphics card, and more. The Windows input stack was being pushed to its limits with high report rate mice and their input being delivered to not just the game, but also multiple background processes. In turn, that caused a significant amount of time processing input rather than providing as many cycles as possible for rendering the game experience."

XDefiant will launch later this summer, but players won't have to wait that long to play a few more rounds of the free-to-play PVP shooter. Announced at Ubisoft Forward, XDefiant will be running an Open Session for all players on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S from June 21-23; sign up by going to PlayXDefiant.com. Anyone who participated in the Closed Beta in April can log in a day early to participate in a special Early Access phase of the Open Session starting on June 20. Over one million players played in the Closed Beta, which was integral in helping the team test myriad aspects of the game and gather feedback.

"We received a lot of great feedback from our players after the end of our Closed Beta," says creative director Safy Saada, "and for the Open Session, we'll likely see some new faction balancing (particularly for Libertad) based on player feedback, as well as weapon balancing based on data we've collected from the Closed Beta."

Gamesense has announced that its new glass mouse pad is available to purchase: "The Sonar is in-stock and ready to ship! Comes in all black or the limited edition Minhwa of Pearl. We expect the Minhwa of Pearl to be sold out very quickly." The standard black edition is currently on offer at $75 (normally $90), and the "Minhwa of Pearl" Limited Launch Edition is priced at $100, but only a small number of these special units remain in stock.

The Sonar pad is generously sized with measurements of 500 x 400 mm - its glass construction has a 4.7 mm material thickness. Competitive multiplayer gamers will enjoy the Sonar's surface properties - its incredible smoothness offers an unrivalled level of movement speed as well as precision. The rounded beveled edges provide maximum comfort and prevent any catching of clothing or skin. The Sonar pad is designed to stay firmly in place thanks to an array of anti-slip rubber feet attached to its base.

The Call of Duty RICOCHET Anti-Cheat team announced earlier this month that their newly updated system was capable of detecting "third-party hardware devices that alter the Call of Duty gameplay experience" - this makes reference to a plethora of gaming input modification devices including the Cronus Zen/Max, XIM Apex and FPS Boost Strike Pack. All readily available from direct stores, Amazon and various e-tailers. These hardware modules are hooked up to a gamepad or mouse plus keyboard combination, and allow the user to bypass the legitimate control input detection on the host hardware, be it a games console or PC. Stock scripts and macros can be utilized - for example - to boost in-game aim assist to unprecedented levels, mitigate weapon recoil, and add support for mouse and keyboard in otherwise non-compatible games. Anti-cheat software suites have been unable to detect the extra layer of code, since it runs on an external device - until now.

CoD's security team elaborates on their cheat spotter: "Since our previous progress report, TeamRICOCHET has developed and tested a detection for third-party hardware devices that alter the Call of Duty gameplay experience. These devices act as a passthrough for controllers on PC and console and, when used improperly or maliciously, can provide a player with the ability to gain an unfair gameplay advantage, such as reducing or eliminating recoil. Testing is complete: This detection is deployed globally on all platforms. Users across PC or console who are detected to be using third-party hardware devices to impact the Modern Warfare II or Warzone 2.0 gameplay experience will first see a warning about the improper use of these devices..."

SUPER BOMBERMAN R 2 release date confirmed! SBR2 physical launch on SEPT. 12, digital launch on SEPT. 13, 2023! SBR2 is the perfect way to mark the Bomberman series' 40th anniversary this year. Pre-orders are open NOW! The latest title of the party battle games series SUPER BOMBERMAN R! With new adventures and game modes, it has the largest content volume in the series' history! The game features not only offline battles that can be played with family and friends, but also online battles that connect players from all over the world, as well as a single player mode.

In addition to the well-known "Standard", "Grand Prix" and "Battle 64" a new battle mode called "Castle" in which players are divided into Attack side and Castle side to battle for the treasure! A "Stage Editor" function has also been added, allowing players to create their own stages for "Castle" and share them online with players around the globe.

Grab a friend and prepare to battle against another Duo when Gunfight returns in Season 03 of Call of Duty : Modern Warfare II, launching on April 12. In this round-based match, players must use randomly assigned Loadouts to overcome the opposition and secure the round win. And with just one life per round, every move counts. Whether you need to brush up on the returning mode or this is your first 2v2 duel, read on for the rules of engagement and tips for achieving victory. The world of Call of Duty : Modern Warfare II is in chaos with a global power struggle playing out in plain sight.

Gunfight 101
In Gunfight, two teams of two compete in a round-based match. There are no respawns and no health regeneration, and all players are assigned the same randomized Loadout at the start of each round. The assigned Loadout changes every two rounds, and you never know what you're going to get; you may be trading shots from afar with Sniper Rifles one round, then rushing in with Shotguns the next. Each Loadout includes a lethal and tactical equipment.

Overwatch 2 Season 4 launches April 11! Blossom onto the battlefield with our newest Support Hero Lifeweaver, progress through the Battle Pass to earn rewards including Mythic Galactic Emperor Sigma, and fight for your faction when The Watchers and The Infinite Empire clash in the Starwatch event! Explore Talantis, the first-ever map made in collaboration with the community. Enjoy major quality-of-life updates with a revamped Competitive experience.

Watch the trailer to see what to expect with this upcoming season, which brings the new Support Hero Lifeweaver, a new Battle Pass, the community-made map called Talantis, and more. Progress through the Battle Pass to earn rewards including Mythic Galactic Emperor Sigma, and fight for your faction when The Watchers and The Infinite Empire clash in the Starwatch event.

Hello Sandstorm community! Welcome to Operation: Accolade, the update where we are privileged to bring you content inspired by the fantastic submissions we received to our mapping and cosmetic community contests! We want to acknowledge the work everyone put in by bringing their ideas to life in Insurgency: Sandstorm!! KUDOS to you! You all really brought in the thunder!

Also, we are reminiscing on Sandstorm's 4th birthday we recently celebrated on stream. 4 years is a big achievement, and we feel lucky to still be going strong after all these years. Of course, we can't forget about Insurgency's 9 year anniversary that happened back in January, too! We were joined on stream by some of the OG devs at New World who gave us the inside scoop on what development was like in those days. Without further ado, get ready to dive in and read what we have in store for Operation: Accolade!

THE NEXT ERA OF COUNTER-STRIKE BEGINS THIS SUMMER

Counter-Strike 2 is the largest technical leap forward in Counter-Strike's history, ensuring new features and updates for years to come. All of the game's new features will be revealed when it officially launches this summer, but the road to Counter-Strike 2 begins today as a Limited Test for select CS:GO players. During this testing period, we'll be evaluating a subset of features to shake out any issues before the worldwide release.

Counter-Strike 2 arrives this summer as a free upgrade to CS:GO. So build your loadout, hone your skills, and prepare yourself for what's next! Read on to learn more about some of the features of the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test.

AMD is always in development mode and just when they launch a new product, the company is always gearing up for the next-generation of devices. Just a few months ago, back in November, AMD has launched its Zen 3 core, and today we get to hear about the next steps that the company is taking to stay competitive and grow its product portfolio. In the AnandTech interview with Dr. Lisa Su, and The Street interview with Rick Bergman, the EVP of AMD's Computing and Graphics Business Group, we have gathered information about AMD's plans for Zen 4 core development and RDNA 3 performance target.

Starting with Zen 4, AMD plans to migrate to the AM5 platform, bringing the new DDR5 and USB 4.0 protocols. The current aim of Zen 4 is to be extremely competitive among competing products and to bring many IPC improvements. Just like Zen 3 used many small advances in cache structures, branch prediction, and pipelines, Zen 4 is aiming to achieve a similar thing with its debut. The state of x86 architecture offers little room for improvement, however, when the advancement is done in many places it adds up quite well, as we could see with 19% IPC improvement of Zen 3 over the previous generation Zen 2 core. As the new core will use TSMC's advanced 5 nm process, there is a possibility to have even more cores found inside CCX/CCD complexes. We are expecting to see Zen 4 sometime close to the end of 2021.

The world could always use more heroes-and starting October 15, Nintendo Switch players will be able to join more than 40 million players from around the globe in the fight for the future with the arrival of Overwatch Legendary Edition.

Overwatch Legendary Edition puts the definitive version of Blizzard Entertainment's acclaimed team shooter in Nintendo Switch owners' hands, complete with the latest content and gameplay updates. Players will select from a roster of 31 vibrant heroes as they face off in a variety of casual and competitive multiplayer modes and battle over map objectives in 28 different locations around the earth (and on the moon).

Late January it was reported that Intel is looking to buy out Israeli networking hardware maker Mellanox Technology, in what looked like a cakewalk USD $6 billion deal at the time, which was a 35 percent premium over the valuation of Mellanox. Turns out, Intel hasn't closed the deal, and there are other big tech players in the foray for Mellanox, the most notable being NVIDIA. The GPU giant has reportedly offered Mellanox a competitive bid of $7 billion.

NVIDIA eyes a slice of the data-center networking hardware pie since the company has invested heavily in GPU-based AI accelerators and its own high-bandwidth interconnect dubbed NVLink, and now needs to complete its hardware ecosystem with NICs and switches under its own brand. Founded in 1999 in Yoqneam, Israel, Mellanox designs high performance network processors and fully-built NICs in a wide range of data-center relevant interconnects. Intel is by far the biggest tech company operating in Israel, with not just R&D centers, but also manufacturing sites, in stark contrast to NVIDIA, which opened its first R&D office in 2017 with a few hundred employees.

Update: NVIDIA's bid for Mellanox stands at $7 billion.

Game Boosting refers to the practice of gamers to pay other, more skilled players to "boost them up" to higher ranks, mainly in competitive multiplayer games. The practice sometimes takes the form of paid partnership with a team of skilled players (where the player that's receiving the boost is of much lower skill, but gets pulled along with the remaining members of the team's efforts) or by actually giving a player access to your account, to play as if he/her was you, and cashing in on his/her better "skillz". This practice, it goes without saying, goes against the competitive nature of certain games, and if you know your South Koreans, you know they take competitive gaming very, very (really, very) seriously.

This is why the country is seemingly looking to put an "illegal" tag on game boosting, as in, illegal enough to warrant prosecution and an actual sentence to jail (a maximum prison sentence of two years and a fine of 20 million won ($18,000). This isn't something that has been cooked up overnight: an amendment to the "Law on Game Business Development" bill was first proposed earlier this summer, and has now passed the National Assembly Legislation Review Committee, bringing it one step closer to becoming law.