From May 4th through 15th, owners of Age of Empires IV on Steam will have an opportunity to dive into all the amazing content, updates and changes coming in Season Five! The Age of Empires IV Public Update Preview (PUP) presents an opportunity for our incredible players to get hands-on experience with exciting changes ahead of major updates. They also provide an opportunity to give feedback and help us prepare for upcoming major releases. PUP builds will generally contain new features, content, balance changes and bug fixes.

A New Game Mode, Team Voice Chat, Trade Updates and More!
Among the content highlighted in this PUP is Empire Wars, a new, quick-to-action game mode where players start with a burgeoning empire, ready to dive into combat or advance to the next Age! Players begin the match with a variety of pre-built buildings and villagers already tasked on resource collection. Not only that, but you'll be able to try out three news maps before they officially go live, including Golden Heights, Migration, and Volcanic Island!

Microsoft Flight Simulator has been updated with the first entry into a brand-new series of highly authentic and accurate aircraft called "Expert Series". The ATR 42-600 and ATR 72-600 are being released together in this bundle and will provide an incredible and authentic aviation experience. ATR, short for "Regional Transport Aircraft" in both French and Italian, was formed through the combined efforts of Aerospatiale (known as Airbus today) of France and Aeritalia (now known as Leonardo) of Italy specifically to create this aircraft. The ATR line has seen a wide range of uses, including commercial passenger, cargo, and military.

The ATR 42-600
The 42-600 is a twin-engine commuter airliner with a high-wing turboprop, that can seat up to 50 passengers. It took its first flight in March of 2010 and was introduced into service in late 2012. Distinctive in appearance with elegant lines and curves, it boasts thoroughbred performance in the air and can operate out of a wide variety of airfields. The 42-600 is an advanced iteration of the ATR 42, a family of regional airliners first conceived in the early 1980s. Named "42" due to the number of seats of the original version, the aircraft was designed to be a highly efficient airframe optimized for commuter lines.

The Grounded team is excited to bring Update 1.2.0 to the community this week. Rightfully titled The Super Duper update, this massive update brings with it many quality-of-life changes, more than a hundred new items to craft, a brand new Base Coziness feature, and wasps, a new terrifying creature to fight. But first, let's dive into the Super Duper… an item duplication machine!

THE SUPER DUPER UPDATE
Item Duplication - The Super Duper is a new piece of equipment installed in the Oak Lab. Players will find the Super Duper machine the next time they visit BURG.L! This machine will allow players to duplicate specific equipment and items using Raw Science. To use the Super Duper, players must locate Duper Discs throughout the yard. The first disc unlocks operation of the machine, while the other discs grant the player the ability to unlock duping of higher-tier equipment and items. It can even duplicate trinkets, unique items, and upgrade stones. Making this even more helpful for players, any item duplicated will include all of the item's Smithing upgrades, saving a lot of time for when you and your friends need to gear up quickly and get back to adventuring.

Microsoft has confirmed that the current version of Windows 10 - 22H2 - will be the final one. A company product manager revealed this information yesterday in a Windows IT Pro Blog entry posted alongside a mass of articles on Microsoft's Tech Community site. As covered on TPU almost two years ago, Microsoft had given advance notice that it was terminating support for Windows 10 on October 14th 2025 - for both Home and Pro versions of the operating system. Windows 11 was released later on in 2021, and thus became the priority OS product for the North American tech firm.

Yesterday's blog reiterates key information from the past, and details an interim update cycle (albeit small): "Windows 10 will reach end of support on October 14, 2025. The current version, 22H2, will be the final version of Windows 10, and all editions will remain in support with monthly security update releases through that date. Existing (enterprise) releases will continue to receive updates beyond that date based on their specific lifecycles." Microsoft has proceeded to update the lifecycle page entry for Windows 10 Home and Pro in line with the latest announcement. The product manager (in his blog) recommends that current Windows 10 users move to 11 as soon as possible, in order to enjoy a continued stream of feature updates.

Steam Client Beta updates do not normally attract much attention - Valve's iterative patch notes for the digital service application read in a mostly mundane way - but this week's trial system upgrade has turned heads. Valve has managed to introduce some interesting new features with this latest update - the in-game overlay system has been overhauled so users are offered the option to pin related windows over/on top of an active game session. Players are granted multiple options in the adjustment of overlay window opacity levels - so web browsers, document apps and image browsers can be customized to best suit the in-game experience. Users will also be happy to discover that they can now watch their favorite movies, TV shows or streaming platform within the same screen space as their chosen game - no need to minimize and arrange multiple app windows or shift everything across multiple monitor setups. The screenshot manager has been enhanced to a greater degree - Valve states that: "it's responsive, you can choose from large or small thumbnails, view recent screenshots rather than by game, and you can manage online screenshots as well as local screenshots".

A new Notes App has been introduced via the latest Steam Client Beta update - users can now jot down their thoughts and observations during game sessions. Valve boasts that the application offers: "rich text formatting, the ability to have multiple notes per game, and can even be used in offline mode." The blog also provides explanations of other handy features and improvements: "The new toolbar gives you access to anything you may need in the middle of a game - friends chat, achievements progress, guides, discussions, a browser, and more. We've picked a couple windows by default, and you can pick and personalize the pieces of content you'd like to see in your overlay - settings are saved between games. This toolbar can be switched between an icon view and a list view in Settings. The Game Overview is your one-stop shop to see what's going on with the game since you last played it. For example, it shows what achievements you have in progress, which friends are playing the same game, top guides, news, and more."

MSI has been in close contact with the AMD and has referred to their official technical guidance to provide users with a safer and more optimized hardware environment. To achieve this goal, MSI will release a new list of BIOS updates specifically for the AMD Ryzen 7000 series CPU.

According to AMD's design specifications, the Ryzen 7000X3D series CPU does not fully support overclocking or overvoltage adjustments, including CPU ratio and CPU Vcore voltage. However, AMD EXPO technology can be used to optimize memory performance by appropriately increasing the CPU SoC voltage to ensure system stability when operating at higher memory frequencies.

Naughty Dog and Iron Galaxy have released the new and big Title Update 1.0.4.0 for the PC version of The Last of Us Part 1, bringing CPU and GPU optimizations for the game, as well as fixing some previous bugs and crashes.

According to the release notes, the latest update optimizes CPU and GPU use throughout the game, as well as improves both texture and graphical fidelity and resolution on Low and Medium settings. There are several big fixes, including crashes that may occur when quitting to the main menu or during shader building, as well as the crash that may occur on AMD CPUs with affinity limited to X3D cores. There is also a fix for an issue where textures are rendered on AMD GPUs.

Sony Interactive Entertainment has filed a patent that is now viewable to the public - as spotted by SegmentNext today - and the newly registered device could be designed to function as part of an updated variant of the PlayStation 5 home video game console. The 2020-era patent document showcases a type of detachable optical disc drive, and industry experts reckon that this mountable media reading device is destined, following past rumors, to feature in an upcoming PlayStation 5 hardware revision.

No reference is made to Sony's popular gaming console within the patent filing, but it is highly likely that the new optical drive will factor into the refreshed console's modular makeup - its overall shape shares design aesthetics with the PS5. Sony currently offers customers two variants of the PlayStation 5 - the more advanced model is fitted with an internal 4K Blu-Ray compatible disc drive, while the other one functions as a purely digital download device. The modular revamp is expected to arrive later this year, in a more compact form factor that industry insiders have called "D chassis" - it is not known whether this variant will outright replace the older models. A more powerful PlayStation 5 "Pro" model is expected to arrive after the modular redesign, with tipsters pointing to a launch window in mid-to-late 2024.

Experience the vast regions of Oceania and the magnificence of Antarctica in Microsoft Flight Simulator's latest World update. Explore some of the most exotic regions on Earth in World Update XIII. Microsoft Flight Simulator is thrilled to add to the beauty of the simulator with fascinating new landscapes. Known as both a continent and a geographic region, and straddling the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Hemispheres, Oceania is comprised of remote coral islands, long stretches of white sand beaches, towering volcanoes, vast interior sweeps of uninhabited rainforest, and populated cities boasting modern architectural wonders. Antarctica is a dream destination for aviators with adventure, intrigue, and boundless vistas of pristine coastal and inland glaciated terrain.

Microsoft Flight Simulator's World Update XIII includes Polynesia (Hawaii and Easter Island), Melanesia (Fiji, New Caledonia, New Guinea, Indonesia's West Papua, and the Solomon Islands), the Galapagos Islands and key regions of Antarctica, notably the Antarctic Peninsula. The update provides a total of 13 countries and 28 non-sovereign territories, many with improved resolution that will allow pilots to experience stunning new vistas throughout these regions. The release is based on the latest aerial photographs, satellite imagery, and digital elevation modelling data. There is an updated height field for Hawaii and features the city of Honolulu with dozens of handmade buildings.

Each week we're bringing you the latest news on games launching with NVIDIA DLSS and advanced ray tracing. Last week, the list of supported DLSS games and apps surpassed 290, and this week we're adding even more games! Today, Returnal upgrades its DLSS integration to DLSS 3, giving GeForce RTX 40 Series players even higher frame rates in the fast-paced shooter, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum shows off its DLSS and ray tracing tech in a new trailer, and another 3 games add support for DLSS 2. Read on to learn more.

The Returnal: DLSS 3 upgrade launches today. Returnal, Sony and Housemarque's critically acclaimed third-person roguelike shooter, launched on PC in February, featuring out of the box support for DLSS 2 and ray tracing. After crash-landing on a shape-shifting world, players must guide astronaut Selene through the barren landscape of an ancient civilization for her escape. Isolated and alone, she finds herself fighting tooth and nail for survival. Again and again, she's defeated - forced to restart her journey every time she dies.

Cult of the Lamb's first major content update is OUT NOW! The Lamb must keep their Cult flourishing, their Followers faithful, and their power unchallenged as they crusade in this free content expansion, Relics of the Old Faith. It adds brand new ways to spread the gospel of the Cult of the Lamb with powerful new abilities, exciting new characters, and thrilling new challenges.

Relics of the Old Faith adds huge new content, replayability and many features. Relics of the Old Faith is an ENORMOUS free update to Cult of the Lamb. We've listened to many of your requests and have been working since launch to add everything we possibly could. There's so much that it can't fit into one News post, but we're going to try…

Sometimes Dota gameplay patches are small. Sometimes they can get pretty big. This one... is huge. It's got all the things you were probably expecting - balance changes, new items, hero reworks, UI improvements. But we also included a few changes you probably weren't expecting, like a new hero attribute type and - brace yourself - the map is now 40% bigger.

But all these new gameplay features won't matter if the match you get into isn't a good one. So we're also shipping some much-needed matchmaking improvements. Excited? Confused? Head on over to the New Frontiers update page for all the details. But don't head over just yet, read this sentence first: The Berlin major is on April 26th, and Fantasy/Player Cards are now available. Okay, now go. Here's the link again.

Thermalright has quietly updated its product page this week, and has rolled out another SSD cooler that looks quite familiar. The HR-10 2280 PRO M.2 SSD heatsink is now featured on their website, where it sits close to a similar looking model - the now standard HR-10 2280. This non-PRO version was revealed late last month as a step up from the older HR-09 SSD heatsink. The brand new HR-10 2280 PRO sports a key upgrade over its passively cooled older siblings - a 30 mm 12 V cooling PWM fan has been integrated into the middle of the fin stack's body. Thermalright's latest M.2 heatsink also fully prepared for and compatible with the next generation of SSDs - its revised design will accommodate Gen 5 solid-state drive standards.

The HR-10 Pro is consists of four 5 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heatpipes that make contact with a user appointed M.2-2280 SSD, over a mirror-finish nickel-plated copper base-plate. The heatpipes loop through a dense aluminium fin-stack with slats designed to maximize surface area for highly effective heat dissipation. A die-cast metal top-plate with company branding completes the package. The HR-10 PRO weighs in at 95 g (so 10 g more than the standard HR-10). The heatsink measures 23.7 mm x 90.3 mm x 43.8 mm (WxDxH). Thermalright has not revealed any pricing or stock availability at the time of writing.

The latest update for Kojima Productions Death Stranding Director's Cut is bringing support for the latest version of Intel XeSS, DualSense Edge support, and additional minor fixes.

Released over at Steam, the 5 GB update is not a major update and adds support for Intel XeSS 1.1, which brings new advanced XeSS upscaling model improving temporal stability, bringing faster DP4a kernels, and faster XMX kernels. The Intel XeSS 1.1 also adds optional auto-exposure. The new update adds DualSense Edge support as well, with a note that players will need to disable Steam Input and connect their controller with a USB C cable in order to use the full functionality of the DualSense Edge. The update also reduce ghosting, moire, and flickering in the game.

Striking Distance Studios introduces the latest content update for The Callisto Protocol: "We're thankful for all of the feedback our community has shared with us! Starting today, with Update 5.01, you can skip cutscenes, improving replayability and making speed-runs even faster. We're also introducing Dismemberment Mode with Update 5.01! Introducing the new Dismemberment Mode! Get ready to tear your enemies apart limb by limb and feel the excitement of seeing instant dismemberment as you fight your way through Black Iron Prison."

The Callisto Protocol, a new sci-fi survival horror game from the creator of Dead Space, is available now on PC and Consoles. Built by a team of industry veterans led by iconic game director Glen Schofield, The Callisto Protocol is a next-generation take on survival horror that fuses brutal combat with a deeply human story in a terrifying sci-fi world. Set on Jupiter's dead moon Callisto in the year 2320, The Callisto Protocol challenges players to escape the maximum security Black Iron Prison and uncover the terrifying secrets of the United Jupiter Company. Players will need to search their surroundings and adapt their tactics, using a unique blend of shooting and close-quarters combat to survive a mysterious outbreak that has thrown Callisto into chaos.

Hi everyone! We're very happy to announce that our team is releasing Patch 1.21 for Horizon Forbidden West today. Patch 1.21 sets up the game for the release of Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores. It also brings additional Accessibility Features. Patch 1.21 is exclusive to PlayStation 5 users. Do note that Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores content will be playable from April 19th onwards.

Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores launches April 19 on PS5! This expansion sees Aloy pursue a sinister threat in the untamed wilds of Los Angeles, now a treacherous volcanic archipelago. Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores takes Aloy to the ruins of Los Angeles. The past millennia has seen the metropolis wracked by tectonic and volcanic activity. The result: a dangerous archipelago populated by deadly machines. Among these islands, a large settlement of Quen fight to survive.

Ubisoft has released its latest Title Update 17.2 which brings a lot of gameplay fixes, but also improves DirectX 12 performance and stability.

There are plenty of fixes, including some serious gameplay bugs with NPCs, weapons, and more, that have been spotted in the game.

Microsoft has introduced a handy new feature within the Windows 11 File Explorer application - an update was released last week (Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23434), and it adds a Photo Gallery feature layer. It does not look too far removed from the operating system's standard photo/picture viewer, as well as the discontinued (as of 2012) Windows Photo Gallery app - although the latter offered a wide range of image organization, photo editing and photo sharing functionalities.

Microsoft's Amanda Langowski (Head of Insider Program) and Brandon LeBlanc (Senior Program Manager) go into further detail about the latest addition in an official Windows blog: "We are introducing Gallery, a new feature in File Explorer designed to make it easy to access your photo collection. The set of content shown in Gallery is the same as what you'll see in the All Photos view in the Photos app."

Free Update coming April 18th + 2023 Roadmap and Physical Release for PowerWash Simulator - The first few months of this year have been crazy. You've cleaned Croft Manor and de-mucked Midgar… wherever next?! Well, we'll take a look at what else is coming this year in a minute, but not before we've said a huge and heartfelt THANK YOU to you all for the community support so far this year. It has been incredible seeing your reaction to the new content on socials and our Discord.

What's coming this year? 2023 Roadmap - Hop in the van, we're going on a road trip! Throughout 2023, we'll be taking you to places near and far in a range of Special Packs and updates that traverse Muckingham and beyond. Behold, our 2023 roadmap! With each free expansion, we'll be revealing more of Muckingham and its stories, whereas the paid Special Packs will transport you outside of the Muckingham universe to all sorts of new and exciting places.

Bethesda tweeted out an information update directed at Xbox Series console owners - and it has caused a stir within the fanbase - Redfall will be locked to "Quality Mode" upon launch in early May. PC gaming enthusiasts will have plenty to laugh about with these newly announced graphical performance restrictions, set for the green team's pair of current generation consoles. The frame rate will be capped at a maximum of 30 frames per second on both Xbox Series X and S, under the "Quality" performance mode. The version tuned for Series X will be able to output at the 4K UHD resolution standard (3840 x 2160), and the pixel count will be reduced for Microsoft's weaker console offering, at 1440p QHD (2560 x 1440).

Bethesda states that a 60 frames per second "Performance Mode" for Xbox Series X|S will be added at a later (unspecified) date, presumably via an online patch issued through Xbox Live. No further details were provided regarding the decision to cap frame rates, all the more strange given that Redfall is due to launch very soon. Arkane Studios (the Austin, TX branch) declared last month that it was also working on a removal of the always online requirement for the game's single player element - again, no time period for release has been established for this reversal. Redfall has attracted mounds of controversy over the past two months - including Sony's attention through litigation.

The Return of Rome campaign is set for a May 16 2023 release date according to a tweet posted by the official Age of Empires account. The latest campaign expansion for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition follows several (almost) yearly DLC drops since the re-mastered strategy game's debut in late 2019 - Lords of the West (January 2021), Dawn of the Dukes (August 2021) and Dynasties of India (April 2022). Last year's India campaign added a significant amount of content, in the form of three new civilizations: the Bengalis, Dravidians, and Gurjaras. Three new campaigns were added to the base game and introduced a trio of new empires: Babur, Rajendra, and Devapala. The entire Indian civilization within the game was renamed to the Hindustanis.

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Return of Rome was first announced, albeit briefly, during a livestream on 25 October 2022, which celebrated the 25th anniversary of the real time strategy game series. Details are scarce about the actual content on offer, but the upcoming campaign is expected to feature all 16 of the original civilizations from the first entry in the franchise (AoE) according to an internal Xbox Games Studios memo.

As promised earlier, Naughty Dog has released its big patch for the PC version of The Last of Us Part 1 yesterday, fixing over 40 bugs, and even taking some time to fix some issues for the game running on the Steam Deck. According to Naughty Dog, this update addresses fixes for performance, user experience, visuals, and more. It also includes platform and hardware-specific fixes.

Most important update is the reduced overall CPU usage, with updated texture streaming, which should significantly improve the game performance. The game will still use the massive amount of VRAM, but it will at least accurately display that same VRAM usage on the user interface. It also includes a fix for the "random crash" which has been quite annoying. Unfortunately, and as expected, this update does not include a fix for camera jitters related to mouse controls, which has caused unexpected issues and had to be pushed for a later patch.

INTERCEPTOR: INTRODUCING UPDATE 4.2 - Venture to forsaken Sentinel worlds in update 4.2, INTERCEPTOR! Explore corrupted planets, fight a legion of challenging new robotic guardians, hijack their technology, steal their ships, harvest their resources, destroy their freighters, and much, much more! It's been lovely to watch our players enjoying what Fractal (our first No Man's Sky update of 2023) had to offer and it's been thrilling to watch you all cruising around in your shiny new Utopia Speeders and filling up your Wonders Catalogues with your latest discoveries.

Barely six weeks later and we are delighted to launch another major update for No Man's Sky, and it's one of our largest in recent memory. We're calling Interceptor, with a brand new class of incredibly varied Starship, a bunch of new gameplay features, new world variants and a ton of new content! The ever-present tyrants of universe enforcement, the Sentinels, have become prey to a corruption that is spreading through their factions. Only the bravest Travellers will dare venture to forsaken Sentinel worlds to investigate. Those that do, however, will find abandoned encampments to explore, intriguing crystals to harvest and, for the most persistent, the blueprints for a hitherto undiscovered Sentinel Interceptor starship which come in a huge variety of models.

As promised earlier, Naughty Dog has now released its newest but minor patch for the PC version of The Last of Us Part 1, and it is closely followed by NVIDIA's hotfix driver which should fix some of the issues on the GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards. As noted by Naughty Dog, this is a minor patch as the one coming on Friday, should be a big one that could fix more issues.

According to the release notes, the newest one improves overall stability, and while we did run into some stability issues during our testing, some of our systems ran the game without any issues. Of course, this depends on the actual system configuration, so any stability fixes will help. The rest of the fixes are meant for UI/UX and various gameplay issues, but it does include additions to the diagnostic support.

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!