Today, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Ubisoft announced a new installment of the Assassin's Creed franchise, Assassin's Creed Odyssey. The game will be released worldwide on October 5, 2018, on the Xbox One family of devices including the Xbox One X, PlayStation 4 computer entertainment system and Windows PC. In addition, Assassin's Creed Odyssey has been enhanced with additional features for Xbox One X and PS4 Pro systems.

For the last three years, the team at Ubisoft Quebec has been creating an exciting new chapter for the Assassin's Creed franchise. In Assassin's Creed Odyssey, the action takes place in Ancient Greece, a world rich with myths and legend, in fifth century BC during the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens. Playing as Alexios or Kassandra, a mercenary of Spartan blood sentenced to death by their family, players will embark on an epic journey from a young outcast to a legendary hero and uncover the truth about their mysterious First Civilization lineage.

Assassin's Creed has been one of the staples in gaming ever since the original's debut way back in 2007. Since then, there's been a steady stream of new main entry Assassin's Creed games every year, except in the year leading up to 2018's Origins: the first time the series took a hiatus for some much needed time to reinvent itself. Whether or not it succeeded, though, is another matter entirely.

That said, a new entry in the series was always to be expected, and a 5-second teaser has already been released, leading up to an almost certain full E3 reveal. The games' title, Odyssey, alongside the iconography of a Spartan helmet, likely places the game in the 6th to 4th century BCE, in Greece. A parallelism has been made - and really must be - between the games' title and Homer's titular "The Odyssey", an epic recounting the events following king Odysseus' return to Ithaca following the fall of Troy.

Ubisoft's Discovery Tour by Assassin's Creed: Ancient Egypt is a new educational and entertainment tool, which lets anyone explore the entire interactive 3D recreation of Ancient Egypt in Assassin's Creed Origins, free of conflict, time pressure or gameplay constraints. The Discovery Tour by Assassin's Creed: Ancient Egypt releases on February 20th, 2018 on PS4, Xbox and PC, at no cost for all owners of the Assassin's Creed Origins game, and it will also be available independently from the game on PC via the Uplay and Steam platforms for £15.99.

From Alexandria to Memphis, the Nile Delta to the Sand Sea, the Giza plateau to the Faiyum Oasis, the Discovery Tour by Assassin's Creed: Ancient Egypt lets visitors either explore the rich world of Ancient Egypt at their will or follow the 75 themed tours devised by Ubisoft's creative teams in collaboration with History experts and Egyptologists.

It was no coincidence that Assassin's Creed Origins was one of the most difficult Ubisoft titles to crack. The company learned from their past mistakes and was one step ahead of the pirates this time. Instead of just implementing the usual Denuvo and Uplay protections like in previous occasions, Ubisoft slapped VMProtect on top of both for good measure. The added security proved to be a great solution as the game remained intact for a little over three months which is a crucial time for sales. However, Ubisoft's triple-threat protection started to crumble when CPY discovered a way to bypass Denuvo 4.8 two weeks ago. The latest news from the Italian scene group confirmed that they've now bypassed Assassin's Creed Origins' last line of defense as well.

Assassin's Creed Origins has been widely criticized for being a CPU hog. Ubisoft claims that VMProtect has little to no perceptible effect on the game's performance. However, many still believe it to be the culprit. Now that the keys to the kingdom are out there, there's little to no point for Ubisoft to keep VMProtect in the game. This would be the perfect opportunity to prove the doubters otherwise. That is, unless they have something to hide.

Today, Ubisoft announced that The Hidden Ones, the first downloadable content (DLC) for Assassin's Creed Origins, will launch on January 23rd, 2018, on all platforms. Ubisoft also revealed release dates for upcoming Assassin's Creed Origins post-launch content, including season pass content and free add-on content, available to all players. Players can continue their journey through Ancient Egypt with a wide variety of content, including several hours of new storyline expansions and quests, timed events and customization items.

DLC 1 - The Hidden Ones: This story-driven expansion builds upon the growth of the Brotherhood, taking players four years after the events of Assassin's Creed Origins, as they clash with an occupying Roman force in a new region of the world, the Sinai. This expansion will increase the level cap to 45, allowing players to continue to upgrade and customize their character. Players will have access to four new Legendary weapons, a new outfit, two new mounts and multiple new weapons, as well as two new levels for all crafted gear. The Hidden Ones DLC is available for all season pass owners or can be purchased separately on January 23, 2018.

Steam has revealed the top selling/highest grossing games on its platform for the year 2017, and with come some surprises, and some non-surprises as well. The distinction between top selling and highest grossing is a needed one, if you look at the top Platinum tier. There are two free-to-play games on it, which really isn't much when you consider that the category itself contains 12 titles. Still, it does go to show how correct monetization of free-to-play games leads to impressive earnings for companies. Joining those two titles are the usual multiplayer galore of titles. The hit phenomenon Player Unknown's Battlegrounds stars in 4th place, behind H1Z1, Grand Theft Auto V, and Rocket League. When it comes to single-player games, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt holds its own on 6th place in the Platinum list, a remarkable feat if one considers the game was originally released in May 2015, and hasn't seen added content for a year now.

Holidays are the perfect occasion to spend time with friends, family and have fun playing games! Just in time for the festive season, Ubisoft is giving two digital PC games away for FREE as part of its Happy Playdays! Players will have the opportunity to polish their strategy with World in Conflict and experience the Golden Age of Pirates with Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag. In addition to celebrate the festive season, Ubisoft is marking the 10th anniversary of both World in Conflict's launch and the creation of the Assassin's Creed's universe.

Ubisoft Massive released World in Conflict in September 2007, an innovative RTS game in a Cold War setting. A single-player expansion called Soviet Assault followed in 2009. The game features both a strong and captivating single-player campaign and an intense multiplayer section that supports up to 16 players. With many other features, including Voice Over IP, amazing graphics and completely destructible battlefields, World in Conflict is an intense strategy experience unlike anything you've ever seen before. Released to high critical acclaim, it has been called one of the best strategy games ever made.

Metacritic has been invaded by a veritable flood of what appear to be semi-sentient robots, spamming the website with favorable Assassin's Creed Origins reviews. This isn't a common occurrence, but isn't unheard of either - there have been a number of scandals regarding fake reviews on Metacritic and other review score aggregators, with some publishers having even been brought to the center of the discussion.

The semi-sentient part derives from the fact that usernames are obviously a mashing-up of keyboard keys, and no amount of effort has been put towards hiding the fact that these are fake scores. The wording is practically the same, as sometimes even the English in these is of dubious quality. This type of actions usually hurt more a games' reception than help it, if done badly, as these reviews are. So if the idea is to improves Assassin's Creed Origins in the eyes of potential buyers, certainly the fact that these are clearly fake reviews will affect perception negatively. This reminds this editor of those Chinese review farms that were reported some time ago, where entire companies were created that devoted employees towards simply posting positive reviews for apps and programs, while being paid to do so.

It's been extensively reported that Denuvo has failed as an effective DRM solution for games, as some of the newer releases such as "Assassin's Creed: Origins," were cracked by pirates less than 48 hours into the market release. For those who bought the game, Denuvo adds its own CPU and memory footprint. In an effort to stem further piracy of "Assassin's Creed: Origins" (because hey, there are limited stocks of pirated copies on the Internet), Ubisoft added an additional DRM layer on top of Denuvo, made by VMProtect. The implementation is so shoddy, that paying customers who didn't spend a fortune on their PC builds (most PC gamers) complain of abnormally high CPU usage, which is in some cases, even reducing performance to unplayable levels.

Ubisoft deployed VMProtect as a concentric DRM layer to Denuvo. Genuine user authentication has to now be performed by two separate pieces of software with their own PIDs, CPU-, and memory-footprints, not to mention user data falling into more hands. Gamers such as this one took to Steam Forums to complain about abnormally high CPU usage, which is traced back to VMProtect. Gamers complain that the game now hits 100% CPU usage, resulting in frame-drops, stuttering, and even unplayable frame-rates. As gaming prophet Gabe Newell once said, the only way to beat piracy is to offer a better service than the pirates. Right now the pirates offer better frame-rates, at an introductory price of $0, while stocks last.

ASUS rolled out a special variant of its Republic of Gamers (ROG) Strix GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card commemorating "Assassin's Creed: Origins." The card features a special cooler shroud with bronze-gold die-cast color forming the top half, and a groovy hieroglyph print with ROG and Assassin's Creed logos, on the back-plate, again in bronze-gold. The SKU includes a coupon to the standard edition of "Assassin's Creed: Origins," redeemable on UPlay.

The card is otherwise identical to the ROG Strix GTX 1080 Ti OC, including its out of the box clock speeds of 1569/1683 MHz (core/boost), and an untouched 11 GHz (GDDR5X-effective) memory. It also retains the RGB LED lighting along inserts on the cooler shroud, and the ROG logo on the back-plate. This card could be priced at a slight premium over the ROG Strix GTX 1080 Ti OC.

AMD released the latest version of its Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition drivers. Version 17.10.2 beta fixes a number of bugs, while building on the feature set of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update-exclusive driver update the company put out last week. To begin with, the drivers come with optimization for "Destiny 2," "Assassin's Creed: Origins," and "Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus." One can expect performance improvements of a massive 43-50 percent on "Destiny 2," a significant 13-16 percent on "Assassin's Creed: Origins," and 4-8 percent on "Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus."

The drivers also introduce an interesting new feature called "GPU Workload," found in Radeon Settings, which lets you instantly switch between two GPU optimization modes: "gaming" and "compute." The drivers can now simultaneously run up to 12 AMD Radeon GPUs on a single machine, making it economical for crypto-coin miners to install more GPUs into fewer machines, saving power and platform costs. The drivers also fix display corruption bugs related to "Player Unknown's Battlegrounds," and a rare game crash with "Hearts of Iron IV." Grab the drivers from the link below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.10.2

The change-log follows.

NVIDIA today released the GeForce 388.00 WHQL software suite. These drivers are "game-ready" for the week's hottest two game releases, "Destiny 2," and "Assassin's Creed: Origins." This includes optimization, and GeForce Experience optimal settings. The drivers also address stuttering issues with G-Sync on certain displays plugged into gaming notebooks, while running "The Witcher 3," "Doom" or "CS: GO." Grab the drivers from the links below.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 388.00 WHQL

Even though the NDA still isn't up on AMD's second volley of Ryzen-based CPUs, some lucky buyers are already running some of the upcoming Ryzen 5 processors after some sellers jumped the gun. Now, a YouTube video by user "Santiago Santiago." is making the rounds in which he compares gaming performance between the Ryzen 5 1400 (4-core, 8-thread part @ 3.2 GHz base, 3.4 GHz boost), Intel's i5 7400 (4-cores @ 3.0 GHz base, 3.5 GHz boost), and the Pentium G4560, a Kaby Lake dual-core CPU with Hyper Threading @ 3.5 GHz base clocks. The user even snapped a picture proving he has his hands on this chip.

AMD released its latest Catalyst software update. Version 15.9 Beta brings you game optimizations for Star Wars Battlefront Beta, and Fable Legends. It also resolves an issue where DirectX 12 (feature level 12_0) support was not being reported by DXDIAG on supported Radeon graphics cards; a Dragon Age: Inquisition related bug in Mantle API mode; and frame-stutter in Assassin's Creed Unity, in CrossFire mode. Some issues related to BenQ's 144 Hz FreeSync monitors were also fixed.DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 15.9 Beta for Windows 10/8.1/7 32-bit | Windows 10/8.1/7 64-bit

In what is NVIDIA's third Game Ready driver release in the past three months, the new GeForce 344.65 WHQL is launched specifically for the week's hottest game release, Assassin's Creed Unity. The driver comes with optimizations for the game, its SLI profile, and optimal settings for GeForce Experience. The driver also tags along improvements to the optimizations of the past two "Game Ready" releases, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, and Civilization: Beyond Earth.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 344.65 WHQL Game Ready Driver

AMD rolled out the latest version of its Catalyst software suite. Much like two of NVIDIA's recent "Game Ready" driver releases, the new Catalyst 14.11.1 beta is launched specifically for two of the hottest game releases of the season, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, and Assassin's Creed Unity. Since neither title supports less than 4 GB of system memory, or even Windows XP, AMD's release is highly specific, and only covers 64-bit Windows 8.1 Update 1, Windows 7, and Windows Vista. Grab it from the link below.DOWNLOAD AMD Catalyst 14.11.1 beta

Ubisoft and NVIDIA today announced the next chapter in their strategic partnership bringing amazing PC gaming experiences to life in Ubisoft's highly anticipated upcoming titles including Assassin's Creed Unity, Far Cry 4, The Crew and Tom Clancy's The Division.

NVIDIA's GameWorks Team is working closely with Ubisoft's development studios to incorporate cutting edge graphics technology and gaming innovations to create game worlds that deliver unprecedented realism and immersion. NVIDIA's GameWorks technology includes TXAA antialiasing, which provides Hollywood-levels of smooth animation, soft shadows, HBAO+ (horizon-based ambient occlusion), advanced DX11 tessellation, and NVIDIA PhysX technology.

Havok, a leading provider of game development technology, announced today that its Havok Physics is powering a number of next-gen Ubisoft titles, including Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag. Making use of Havok Physics, the Ubisoft Montreal development team was able to bring an unprecedented level of immersion to the massive world of Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag.

Havok's technology is also being used in a variety of future Ubisoft games, including action titles such as Watch Dogs and Tom Clancy's The Division, both slated for release on next-gen hardware platforms. The publisher is leveraging Havok technology across platforms to ensure a consistent experience on PlayStation4 computer entertainment system and on Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, as well as across PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360 games and entertainment system from Microsoft, the Wii U system from Nintendo and Windows PC.

In addition to launching the GeForce GTX 780 Ti, NVIDIA could adjust prices of two of its key high-end SKUs to make them competitive with AMD's lineup. Prices of the GeForce GTX 780, which is currently priced at $649.99, and retails for as low as $620, could be slashed down to $499.99. The $399 GeForce GTX 770, which is losing ground to the Radeon R9 280X, which is $100 cheaper than it, could see its price slashed down to $329.99. The GeForce GTX 780 Ti could become NVIDIA's fastest single-GPU product, faster than even the GTX TITAN, and could occupy a $699.99 price-point. We're not sure if NVIDIA will continue to manufacture GTX TITAN. In addition, buyers of GTX 780 and GTX 770 will receive two things, a game bundle and a discount coupon for NVIDIA Shield. The bundle includes Batman: Arkham Origins, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, and Splinter Cell: Blacklist. The discount coupon for NVIDIA Shield will shave a cool $100 off its $299.99 price.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced that in partnership with Ubisoft it will bundle Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag with the Rampage IV Black Edition motherboard and selected gaming PCs including Tytan G30 and the G750 gaming laptop.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is the newest instalment of the stealthy adventure title and its release has been awaited eagerly by gamers worldwide - and ASUS ROG will be Ubisoft's recommended hardware brand partner for the PC launch.

For those interested in taking Crysis 3 Open Beta (multiplayer) for a spin, NVIDIA released the new GeForce 313.95 Beta drivers, which addresses known issues, and is features optimizations for the game. NVIDIA expects performance increments as high as 35 percent. The driver also packs performance enhancements for other AAA titles, such as SLI and single-GPU performance gains of up to 27 percent with Assassin's Creed III, up to 19 percent for Civilization V, up to 14 percent in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, up to 14 percent in DiRT 3, up to 11 percent in Just Cause 2, and up to 10 percent each in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, F1 2012, and Far Cry 3.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 313.95 Beta

NVIDIA closed its Sunday launch extravaganza by posting a new version of its GeForce software suite, a combination of drivers and software for its GeForce graphics processors. The new GeForce 310.90 introduces a much-needed security update for its driver service manager that patches a recently-discovered vulnerability. In addition, it brings improved stability and performance for the dual-GPU GeForce GTX 690, in 3D production applications. SLI profiles are added or updated for several games.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 310.90 WHQL for Windows 8/7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 8/7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit

The change-log specific to this release follows.

ASUS extended its Assassin's Creed III game bundle to include GeForce GTX 670 DirectCu II 4 GB (model: GTX670-DC2G-4GD5) and GeForce GTX 660 DirectCu II 2GB (model: GTX660-DC2TG-2GD5). The two dual-slot DirectCu II cooler-equipped graphics cards ship with coupons for the game that can be redeemed on Steam. The GTX670-DC2G-4GD5 packs 4 GB of memory, 915/980/6008 MHz clock speeds (core/boost/memory), while the GTX660-DC2TG-2GD5 ships with 2 GB of memory, and factory-overclocked 1072/1137/6108 MHz clock speeds.

Club 3D offers a wide range of graphic cards. But which one will you choose ? Perhaps the games which you will get when purchasing your graphic card will help you decide. This page summarizes the games that are available with Club 3D's graphic card line. The page is divided into three sections. The first section,"The games", will lead you through the available games, and will point to the graphic cards that have this game included in the bundle. The second section, "the graphic cards and the bundles", starts with the graphic cards and will point out which game or even multiple games that are included, and the third section identifies the software that is included with which graphic cards.

Samsung Electronics America, Inc., a market leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, announced today that its 840 family of SSDs is available for purchase. The new family of drives includes the 840 Pro SSD, a high-performance drive for professionals and tech enthusiasts that want the best possible computing performance, and the 840 SSD, for mainstream users that want an affordable upgrade solution for their PC.

For a limited time, the 840 Pro SSDs will also include a code for a downloadable full version of the highly anticipated video game "Assassin's Creed III," with purchase of the 128 GB, 256 GB or 512 GB models.