Hey, Splitfam. We're doing an Open Alpha preview of the work we've done on Splitgate 2, available to everyone for four days from Feb. 27 to March 2. Come play with us! This is your first chance to check out our new Multi-Team Portal Warfare, 8v8v8 battles of colossal proportions set on a massive map. Plus, we've got new arena maps, new weapons, new gear, and hundreds of improvements based on community feedback. Anyone with a Steam account, a PS5, or an Xbox Series X|S can register and play—for free, as always. Read on for more details about what will be included in the Open Alpha.

Portals Change Everything
Portal into the action as an elite Ace in Splitgate 2, the only free-to-play shooter where you can teleport across the map to outsmart your opponents. Team up, customize weapons, and master portaling skills as you compete for glory in epic showdowns. This is the future of Splitgate, bringing fast-paced portal gunplay with objective-based game modes, distinctive new maps, and a wild collection of weapons. Dominate the competition with the ultimate tool: a portal gun. Flank your foes and turn the tide of combat by portaling across the map, or defy gravity to launch yourself for jaw-dropping aerial kills. Recruit your friends and compete for the respect of the entire galaxy. Take control of the Hotzone while your friends hold off enemies portaling in from all sides. Stand together and steamroll your opponents to win the match and claim victory.

Hello, Engineers! The day has come—Space Engineers 2 Alpha has officially launched on Steam Early Access! After months of anticipation and hard work, we're excited to take this first step together. The thrilling journey of Space Engineers 2 starts now, and we invite you all to be part of it. The release of the Alpha and Vertical Slice1: Creative Mode is just the beginning—there's so much more ahead!

We're taking a unique approach to developing Space Engineers 2 with our Vertical Slice strategy. A Vertical Slice is a fully playable portion of the game that showcases specific core features and improvements implemented at production quality. It serves as a milestone in the game's development, allowing us to focus on delivering polished gameplay in stages while more features are added in subsequent slices.

The Xbox Insider program has outlined a major upcoming feature upgrade for their home console lineup—Tuesday's Alpha Skip-Ahead Ring (2502.250120-2200) release notes reveal newly implemented support for larger capacity external hard drives. Naturally, inside program members get to play around with this early build—we presume that support will eventually trickle down to public level in the near future. The major announcement stated: "we are enabling support for external USB drives larger than 16 TB, so you can be sure your favorite games are always ready to play! Newly formatted drives that are larger than 16 TB will be formatted with multiple partitions to utilize all available space for games and apps. These will appear as multiple devices in the storage devices list."

Xbox-licensed external storage devices are only available with a maximum capacity of 12 TB—Western Digital's WD_BLACK D10 model wears the crown here. Console gaming enthusiasts—with a penchant for storing a huge library of titles on hard disk drives (HDD)—are best served by not selecting official Xbox-branded storage devices. Manufacturers do offer products with 18 TB to 28 TB capacities, but potential buyers will be greeted by hefty asking prices. There are a couple of caveats—for owners of 16+ TB drives—as noted in the Alpha Skip-Ahead Ring notes: "drives greater than 16 TB that have already been formatted will be unaffected by this change and would need to be reformatted to take advantage of the updated support for larger drives. Please be aware that we have identified an issue with formatting drives larger than 16 TB, and we're working on a fix." Interestingly, the notes do not disclose information regarding a new upper limit for compatible storage devices.

During our CES 2025 Alphacool booth visit, Alphacool has showcased its newest update in the Eiswolf AIO watercooling lineup, tailored specifically for NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 50 series "Blackwell" GPUs. The updated design features a GPU waterblock with an integrated pump and a radiator connected via quick-disconnect links, simplifying installation and maintenance. Alphacool continues its use of TPV hoses from the Enterprise Solution series, known for their durability and heat resistance, thanks to their EPDM/PP construction. These hoses, commonly used in servers and workstations, are free of plasticizers and paired with connectors from the same series to ensure robust performance. The GPU waterblock also includes an LED matrix display, demonstrated at the booth showing "RTX 5090," which reflects the GPU it cools. Designed with aesthetics in mind, the block incorporates an acrylic body with a top coat, illuminated by RGB lighting to suit various setups.

Alphacool has unveiled new waterblocks for NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5090 and 5080 graphics cards at CES 2025. The company has redesigned its Core GPU waterblock series with updated component spacing and flow characteristics, developed through fluid dynamics simulations and practical testing. A change from previous water blocks for RTX 40 series includes the switch to chrome-plated copper cooling surfaces instead of nickel plating, which offers improved durability and surface finish. The waterblocks retain brass fittings and feature a Core emblem above the jetplate. The waterblocks will support cards from major manufacturers including ASUS, MSI, Palit, Gainward, and Inno3D. Specifically, compatibility extends to ASUS ROG Strix and TUF Gaming models, as well as MSI Suprim and Gaming variants. Both RTX 5090 and 5080 Core waterblocks are priced at €199.98.

2XKO is an upcoming team-based fighter game from League of Legends studio, Riot Games, and it looks to be getting a 2025 release. While 2XKO had an alpha playtest since August of this year, the development team recently hinted in a post on X that something is coming in March next year—potentially an expanded beta playtest or even the full launch of the game: "brb for a bit - locking in. you'll see what we've been up to in march, but we'll drop an update in february. in the meantime, support your locals."

The alpha version of the game Riot playtested in August was seemingly quite feature-complete, although a slew of changes is coming to the game based on that feedback, suggesting that what's to come in early 2025 is likely a wider playtest, rather than a full launch. Riot has previously confirmed that 2XKO will be launching sometime in 2025, but there is likely more testing necessary before the game is ready for prime time. That said, Riot Games is no stranger to short beta periods—League of Legends launched into open beta a mere week before its full launch. If 2XKO's previous development updates and the last playtest are anything to go by, the February update Riot teased will probably preview what to expect in the next playtest, with March either being the playtest itself or a showcase of an upcoming alpha or beta test.

To bring cutting-edge artificial intelligence capabilities to its flagship product, Apple is said to be finalizing a deal with OpenAI to integrate the ChatGPT technology into the upcoming iOS 18 for iPhones. According to Bloomberg, multiple sources report that after months of negotiations, the two tech giants are putting the finishing touches on a partnership that would be an important moment for consumer AI. However, OpenAI may not be Apple's only AI ally. The company has also reportedly been in talks with Google over licensing the Gemini chatbot, though no known agreement has been reached yet. The rare team-up between the fiercely competitive firms underscores the intense focus on AI integration across the industry.

Apple's strategic moves are a clear indication of its recognition of the transformative potential of advanced AI capabilities for the iPhone experience. The integration of OpenAI's language model could empower Siri to understand and respond to complex voice queries with deep contextual awareness. This could revolutionize the way Apple's customers interact with devices, offering hope for a more intuitive and advanced iPhone experience. Potential Gemini integration opens up another realm of possibilities around Google's image and multimodal AI capabilities. Future iPhones may be able to analyze and describe visual scenes, annotate images, generate custom imagery from natural language prompts, and even synthesize audio using AI vocals - all within a conversational interface. As the AI arms race intensifies, Apple wants to position itself at the forefront through these partnerships.

Built by Rocksteady Games...here are your PC System Requirements (see below) for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. From the creators of Batman: Arkham, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a genre-defying third-person action shooter where the ultimate band of misfits must do the impossible: Kill the Justice League. Join the newly "recruited" members of Amanda Waller's infamous Task Force X (aka the Suicide Squad), Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang and King Shark, as they set out on an impossible mission to Kill the Justice League. Drop into an expansive and dynamic open-world Metropolis ravaged by Brainiac's invasion and terrorized by the heroes who once protected it.

Good news for our Closed Alpha participants!
Back in November, we held a Closed Alpha Test for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League where players agreed to a Non-Disclosure Agreement and got a chance to check out an early section of the game. Now that there is more news out on the game and players are asking, we're no longer enforcing a portion of the NDA and we're allowing players to talk about their experience from the Closed Alpha Test. We've heard the community requests and want to give players an opportunity to discuss what it's like to explore Metropolis as Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark.

Alphawave Semi (LSE: AWE), a global leader in high-speed connectivity for the world's technology infrastructure, today announced successful collaboration with Keysight Technologies, a market-leading design, emulation, and test solutions provider, demonstrating interoperability between Alphawave Semi's PCIe 6.0 64 GT/s Subsystem (PHY and Controller) Device and Keysight PCIe 6.0 64 GT/s Protocol Exerciser, negotiating a link to the maximum PCIe 6.0 data rate. Alphawave Semi, already on the PCI-SIG 5.0 Integrators list, is accelerating next-generation PCIe 6.0 Compliance Testing through this collaboration.

Alphawave Semi's leading-edge silicon implementation of the new PCIe 6.0 64 GT/s Flow Control Unit (FLIT)-based protocol enables higher data rates for hyperscale and data infrastructure applications. Keysight and Alphawave Semi achieved another milestone by successfully establishing a CXL 2.0 link setting the stage for future cache coherency in the datacenter.

We, Envision Entertainment, are thrilled to announce that Pioneers of Pagonia will launch into Steam Early Access for PC December 13, 2023 and our first Closed Alpha will take place in September! You can soon get your hands on the game by signing up for the newsletter for a chance to participate in the first closed alpha test due next month. The first public demo will release in early October shortly before Steam Next Fest. Wishlist the game on Steam to get notified! We are super excited to hear what you think and hope you will love Pagonia as much as we do!

About Pioneers of Pagonia
In a world of countless islands populated with scattered villages, you travel and lead your people as a visionary to forge alliances with the inhabitants, after helping each other and gaining their trust. Send out your pioneers to discover untouched soil, find hidden resources and explore secret places. Enjoy the fantastical and inviting world of Pagonia, where your carefully considered decisions cause thousands of bustling inhabitants to satisfy your orders. Every transport of goods, manufacturing process and discovery your people make is comprehensible and presented with lovely animations in this ultimate game world simulation.

Dears Twinsunians, we [2.21] are thrilled to announce the opening of our pre-alpha of Twinsen's Little Big Adventure Remastered! The aim of this playtest is to gather your valuable insights and feedback on the game, helping us to fine-tune it and create a gaming experience that truly resonates with our player community. This is your chance to contribute directly to the game's development process and to help shape its future.

To participate, click on "Request access" on the Steam page and you will be granted access automatically. Once in, you'll be able to explore our game in its early stages, discover new features, and contribute to its improvement.

Two months ago French developer - 2:21 - announced plans for complete remasters of the quirky mid-to-late Nineties-era Little Big Adventure or Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure/Odyssey (titles were confusingly region dependent back then) games series. The team has paused work on a third entry/reboot, and development of spruced-up versions of the original games has since become the priority - both LBA Remasters are being rebuilt on the Unreal Engine 5 platform, and key members from the old Adeline Software outfit are involved in the remake process.

Ben Limare, the CEO at 2:21, has provided a small update this week - he mentions that a new teaser trailer was debuted at AG French Direct, and now the pre-alpha gameplay footage has been uploaded to YouTube and the company's social media accounts. The introduction states: "Discover the first video and images of the upcoming demo for Twinsen's Little Big Adventure Remastered! Built from the ground up, enjoy new breathtaking visuals, enhanced music and improved, deeper gameplay as Twinsen's Little Big Adventure - Remastered reignites the original TLBA game using the latest next-generation technology." The team reconfirms that a demo version of Twinsen's Little Big Adventure 1 Remastered will be playable in June.

Powerful coolers for large processors on Intel Socket LGA 4677! With the new Enterprise Solution Jet and Stream CPU coolers, Alphacool presents progressive solutions for CPU cooling in server and workstation systems.

The Alphacool ES Jet CPU Cooler is equipped with a new complex 4-nozzle technology. For the first time, it distributes water evenly over the cooler base via four nozzles incorporated into the cooler. Thereby, all cores of the high-performance processor are optimally supplied and thus effectively and precisely cooled. The organic water flow ensures a disturbance-free water flow and thus increases the cooling performance. This method makes it possible to optimally dissipate waste heat of up to 800 watts. The chrome-plated cooler base is made of copper and is ideally suited for server and workstation systems with its extremely high thermal conductivity.

With the new Aurora Vertical GPU Mount, Alphacool now offers the possibility to install the graphics card vertically inside compatible PC cases, whether they're air or liquid cooled. In addition, the mount features 11 digitally addressable 5V RGB LEDs that create a unique, very classy looking illumination. The digital aRGB LED lighting can be controlled either with a digital RGB controller or a digital RGB capable motherboard.

There is more new blood within the Ice Block range! In the future, Zotac RTX 3070Ti AMP Holo, Trinity and Trinity OC can also be water-cooled with Alphacool's Eisblock Aurora Acryl GPX custom cooler.

Alphacool introduces four new extremely large radiators. The first two radiators are for 180 or 200 mm fans and are a thickness of 86 mm. The 200 and 400 mm NexXxoS Monsta radiators offer a huge cooling surface. Both radiators have 7x standard G1/4" ports. 6 of the ports are for inlet/outlet and the 7th port is located at the end chamber and can only be used for filling, draining, or bleeding the radiator. The fin density has been reduced from 16 to 12 FPI to allow the use of lower static pressure fans and lower RPMs.

The new Nova 1080 UT60 radiator is a thicker version of the Nova 1080 XT45 radiator. The enormous cooling surface is comparable to three 360 mm UT60 radiators. This makes it easy to cool more than 1000 W of excess heat with extremely quiet to silent spinning fans. This is equivalent to a 64 core AMD Threadripper of the latest generation and at least two GeForce RTX 3090 graphics cards.

As digital games are quickly emerging as one of the world's favorite pastimes, gaming laptop giant MSI continues to produce innovative laptops to meet the diverse demands of gamers. MSI's all-AMD laptops, Alpha 15 and 17, are making a strong comeback with more powerful specifications, offering the latest 7 nm-powered AMD mobile processor and graphics technology.

Designed for gamers looking for the most advanced technology, MSI's all-AMD Alpha 15 and 17 gaming laptops combine the cutting-edge hardware of up to AMD Ryzen 7 4800H mobile processor and AMD Radeon RX 5600M graphics, which together offer desktop-class performance as an appealing and affordable option for mainstream gamers. As the chart indicates, the 7 nm combination significantly expedites the speed and performance for multitasking, heavy workloads, or playing popular games like "Grand Theft Auto V", "Shadow of the Tomb Raider" and "Borderlands 3".

Blizzard Entertainment is set to bring a significant upgrade to World of Warcraft's graphics just in time for the next expansion. A new Ray Traced Shadow option was discovered by Jaydaa over at the Wowhead forums on the Shadowlands Alpha, the ray tracing settings can be viewed on the alpha but can't be enabled yet. When Blizzard enables Ray Tracing support, players with NVIDIA RTX graphics cards will be able to take advantage of more realistic shadows and lighting within the game. The screenshots show the option for three levels of ray tracing fidelity from fair to good and up to high which will each offer higher resolution and more detailed lighting.

HyperX, the gaming division of Kingston Technology, Inc., today announced new HyperX Aqua mechanical switches at Gamescom for the HyperX Alloy Origins mechanical gaming keyboard. At the show, HyperX also revealed Cloud Alpha S, the new addition to HyperX's gaming headset lineup, as well as a suite of Qi certified wireless charging products including the HyperX Cloud Flight S wireless gaming headset, HyperX Pulsefire Dart wireless gaming mouse and HyperX ChargePlay Base Qi wireless charger.

"The wireless charging ecosystem is maturing and HyperX is excited to be launching products with Qi certified wireless charging capabilities," said HyperX. "HyperX recognises the growing trend for wireless technology and wants to offer users the ultimate in gaming freedom, convenience and customization for immersive and engaging gaming experiences."

With many games being released in Beta over the years (in no small part thanks to Steam's Greenlight initiative), and some others having made full releases in a close to Alpha state, Crytek seems to be taking the long and arduous road of getting a new multiplayer-focused game out in the open via an initial feedback-gathering closed Alpha. The company's Hunt: Showdown has gone through a hellish development cycle, seeing some concept changes, name changes, and more than a handful of problems going on at developer Crytek. However, with it being the most high-profile currently being developed at Crytek, it's really the company's poster child initiative (unless you count suing Cloud Imperium Games in that place.)

Hunt: Showdown is a free-to-play, 4-player co-op, FPS title that sees players battling in a Van Helsing-esque setting, Civil War-era and steampunk-inspired weapons. Taking a break from the asymmetric gameplay that was being touted by many games some time ago (Fable Legends, Evolve, and the shelved Bioware-developed Shadow Realms), the two player teams compete between themselves to track down an AI-controlled monster in an open-world map. How the teams choose to play is up to them: it's fair game to ally, use, or mercilessly hunt each other. I guess some of the more interesting gameplay videos will cover some manner of Lovecraftian monster barging in uninvited and relatively unannounced into a pitched, two-way firefight.