After a couple of slow weeks of new game releases, we're finally back on track with a wealth of new game releases this week. We even have a AAA title, although some of you might disagree with it being such, mainly due to the blue aliens and there being four different editions of the game. When it comes to the rest of this week's releases, we have a city builder with sacrifices, a medieval inspired MMO, a very sandy game that has nothing to do with giant worms, a Viking inspired online co-op game, a DLC for a very popular RPG game and a dystopian city builder.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora coming to Steam / This week's AAA release / Monday 17 June
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a first-person, action-adventure game set in the Western Frontier. Abducted by the RDA, you, a Na'vi, were molded to serve their purpose. Fifteen years later, you are free, but find yourself a stranger in your birthplace. Reconnect with your lost heritage and discover what it truly means to be Na'vi as you join other clans to protect Pandora. Steam link

AMD just announced the "This is why we Game" Q2-2024 game bundle. With a qualifying AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT or RX 7700 XT graphics card from a participating retailer, you can choose any two free games from the following: Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Starfield, Lies of P, and Company of Heroes 3. The bundle campaign period is from today (June 11), till July 20, 2024. You'll need to purchase a qualifying graphics card within this campaign period to be eligible. Once you've selected your two free games, you can redeem them (add them to your DRM platform account) before August 17, 2024. The Bundle is open in all countries except a handful mentioned in the terms & conditions page. Customers in Japan can only redeem one among the four games.

NVIDIA announced today that leading AI application developers across a wide range of industries are using NVIDIA digital human technologies to create lifelike avatars for commercial applications and dynamic game characters. The results are on display at GTC, the global AI conference held this week in San Jose, Calif., and can be seen in technology demonstrations from Hippocratic AI, Inworld AI, UneeQ and more.

NVIDIA Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE) for speech and animation, NVIDIA NeMo for language, and NVIDIA RTX for ray-traced rendering are the building blocks that enable developers to create digital humans capable of AI-powered natural language interactions, making conversations more realistic and engaging.

A new patch for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora deployed on March 1, bringing more than 150 fixes and adjustments to the game. Title Update 3 includes technical, UI, balancing, main quest, and side quest improvements, plus additional bug fixes. To provide players with an improved experience, the development team, led by Massive Entertainment, listened to feedback from the community while working on Title Update 3.

An additional patch, Title Update 3.1, was deployed on March 7, adding additional fixes to the game. Check out the full list of improvements included in Title Update 3 & 3.1 here, and read on for the most notable improvements now available in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

Update Mar 14th: TPU has received alerts regarding player feedback—Massive Entertainment's "Title Update 3" has reportedly broken their implementation of FSR 3 in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. We will keep an eye on official Ubisoft channels—so far they have not addressed these FSR-related problems.

Intel today released the latest version of Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.5074 Beta adds optimization for "Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora," with an up to 8% performance uplift seen at 1080p with Ultra settings, as measured with an Arc A770 GPU. The drivers fix a handful of game-specific issues. Total War: Pharaoh exhibits display corruption upon changing game resolution on certain displays; which has been fixed. Application crashes with the original "Alan Wake" (DirectX 9) has been fixed. A colorful pixed corruption with "Cyberpunk 2077" has been fixed. Flickering pixels during gameplay with 4x MSAA enabled for "Counter Strike 2" has been fixed. A sporadic application crash with "Gostrunner 2" has been fixed. An application crash with "Far Cry 3" has been fixed.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.5074 Beta

It's a fortuitous GFN Thursday with 17 new games joining the GeForce NOW library, including The Day Before, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and the 100th PC Game Pass title to join the cloud - Ori and the Will of the Wisps. This week also marks a milestone: over 500 games and applications now support RTX ON. GeForce NOW Ultimate and Priority members can experience cinematic ray tracing on nearly any device thanks to NVIDIA RTX-powered gaming rigs in the cloud. Check out the RTX ON game row in the GeForce NOW app to play even more titles featuring this stunning graphics technology.

Stayin' Alive
The Day Before, Fntastic's new open-world horror massively multiplayer online game, is a uniquely reimagined journey of survival set on the east coast of the present-day U.S. after the world has been overrun by zombies. Priority and Ultimate members can stream the game on nearly any device with support for RTX ON. Explore the beautifully detailed New Fortune City, filled with skyscrapers, massive malls and grand stadiums, with a variety of vehicles. Fight against other players and those infected by a deadly virus. Survive by collecting loot, completing quests and building houses - all on a day-and-night cycle. Help rebuild society from the comfort of the couch and across devices, streaming from the cloud. Priority members can build and survive at up to 1080p and 60 frames per second. Ultimate members can take advantage of longer session lengths, gain support for ultrawide resolutions and stream at up to 4K 120 FPS. Both memberships offer support for real-time ray tracing, bringing cinematic lighting to every zombie encounter.

MSI, a leading gaming hardware brand, is thrilled to announce the partnership with Ubisoft, a renowned game publisher. Excitement abounds as MSI and Ubisoft collaborate once again to present gamers with an unmatched experience in the highly anticipated game - Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora - Immerse Yourself in a World of Wonders and Dangers
Unfold the epic wonders of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, a first-person action-adventure game that will allow you to journey through beautiful yet unpredictable open world regions, where lowering your guard can lead to deadly mistakes.

As we enter the last month of the year, the first week of December starts with a movie based AAA title that is likely to be popular with some and loathed by others. The rest of this coming week's releases aren't quite as impressive, with one exception it seems. However, you can look forward to a mix of underworld dreams, some 4X space action, eggs, another post-apocalyptic MMO and a horror game.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora / This week's AAA title / Thursday 7 December
Abducted by the human militaristic corporation known as the RDA, you, a Na'vi, were trained and molded to serve their purpose. Fifteen years later, you are free, but find yourself a stranger in your birthplace. Reconnect with your lost heritage, discover what it truly means to be Na'vi, and join other clans to protect Pandora from the RDA.

AMD is bundling "Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora," the hotly anticipated RPG based on the popular movie franchise, with its processors, graphics cards, and pre-builts that combine the two. The list of eligible product spans the higher end of the Ryzen 7000 series desktop processors, the entire Radeon RX 7000 series graphics cards (in the retail channel); and notebooks that combine select Ryzen 7000 series mobile processors and Radeon RX 6000M or 7000M series discrete graphics solutions.

The list of eligible desktop processors include Ryzen 9 7950X3D, 7950X, 7900X3D, 7900X, and 7900, and Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Eligible desktop graphics cards include Radeon RX 7900 XTX, RX 7900 XT, RX 7900 GRE, RX 7800 XT, RX 7700 XT, and RX 7600. For gaming notebooks, there must be a combination of the following processors and discrete graphics solutions: Ryzen 9 7945HX, 7845HX, 7940HS, Ryzen 7 7840HS, and 7735HS; and Radeon RX 7900M, RX 7700S, RX 7600S, RX 7600M XT, and RX 6550M. The promotion is open now, and runs until December 30, 2023; while the code redemption period closes January 27, 2024. The game itself releases on December 7.

In Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, you play as a Na'vi learning to reconnect with your own homeland while reckoning with the human militaristic corporation known as the RDA. Ahead of launch, check out the recently unveiled PC specs, and catch up on some of the PC-specific features you can expect when Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora drops on December 7.

Ray tracing and Extended Graphic Settings
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will include raytraced reflections and shadows for more immersive environmental exploration, and extended graphic settings that allow for granular tweaks to a multitude of visuals such as environment reflection quality, and distant shadows.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on December 7. A new trailer for the game reveals further story details about the hero's journey and the clans they will meet as they explore the Western Frontier of Pandora to reconnect with their lost heritage. In Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, you will play as a Na'vi who was abducted as an infant by the RDA and trained in The Ambassador Program (TAP) to serve human interests on Pandora. When the RDA evacuated Pandora during the Battle of the Hallelujah Mountains (as seen in the first Avatar movie), you were put into emergency cryosleep. You wake up 15 years later, finally free from the RDA, but lost and unfamiliar with your home world.

You set out on a journey to discover the world that was kept from you, meeting other Na'vi clans and learning about Na'vi culture. You discover that you are a member of the respected Sarentu clan, believed to have disappeared years before. As you journey across the Western Frontier, you will meet the Aranahe, a clan of artisans known for their weaving skills; the Zeswa, a proud nomadic clan that lives in symbiosis with gigantic beasts called Zakru; and the Kame'tire, a reclusive, enigmatic clan skilled in healing and potion-making.

AMD and Ubisoft have officially announced the PC features players will be able to enjoy in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. A trailer that debuted at Gamescom showed off exactly what you can expect; check out the details below.

Ray Tracing and Extended Graphic Settings
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will include ray traced reflections and shadows for more immersive environmental exploration, and extended graphic settings that allow for granular tweaks to a multitude of visuals such as environment reflection quality, and distant shadows.

AMD partnered with Ubisoft to release a limited edition graphics card themed after "Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora," which releases on December 7, 2023. Based on the reference AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, the card features a special color-scheme from the game, but the star attraction here is the card's thermally-reactive paint. At idle temperatures, certain parts of the card appear dark, but come to life as the card heats up when gaming. Besides this, the card has its own set of RGB LED illumination that you can control from AMD Software Adrenalin. We'll find out closer to December if this limited edition card includes a copy of the game.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will launch on December 7 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Amazon Luna and PC through Ubisoft Connect, it was announced at Ubisoft Forward today. Developed by Massive Entertainment - a Ubisoft Studio in collaboration with James Cameron's production company Lightstorm Entertainment and Disney, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora lets you play as a Na'vi who awakens on Pandora years after being abducted as a child and raised by the human militaristic corporation known as the RDA. Now a stranger in your own birthplace, you must reckon with the return of the RDA and the threat they pose to Pandora while reclaiming your ancestral heritage and learning what it means to be Na'vi.

A stand-alone adventure set within the Avatar universe, you will explore and protect a never-before-seen continent of Pandora: the Western Frontier in first-person. Your Na'vi character is customizable with options including different body types, voices and body paint, and like you, your character will learn how to be a Na'vi, including how to harness your formidable strength and agility while traversing through the stunning and dangerous open world. Add to that your knowledge of humans, their weapons and technology from years of RDA training, and you are uniquely equipped to combat the RDA and protect Pandora.

Ubisoft has recently announced during their quarterly earnings report that four games had been canceled including Splinter Cell VR & Ghost Recon Frontline while Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will be delayed until late 2023. Ubisoft's Red Storm studio and Meta had been jointly developing Splinter Cell VR before the game was canceled due to the "uncertain economic environment". The free-to-play battle royale Ghost Recon Frontline title that was being made at Ubisoft Bucharest was also scrapped after a previous delay and significant fan backlash. The open-world Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora game has been delayed until FY2023 with indications that the launch could occur towards the end of the year.

Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), announced today that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 crossed the $1 billion mark in sales since its launch on November 8, 2011, according to Charttrack and retail customer sell-through information. Highlighting the trend of interactive entertainment gaining a greater hold of audiences worldwide, the game achieved this milestone in just 16 days, eclipsing the record set in 2009 by the feature film "Avatar," which reached the $1 billion milestone in 17 days.

While 2011 box office revenue is on the decline - down 4 percent this year at $9.4 billion, compared with $9.8 billion in 2010 -- the number of people purchasing and participating in gaming is on the rise, with no sign of slowing.(1) With more than 30 million gamers, the Call of Duty community now exceeds the combined populations of the cities of New York, London, Tokyo, Paris and Madrid.

Gaming has evolved into a leading growth industry and dynamic motivator for the technology sector, as CeBIT 2010 further illustrates. It's a massively popular pastime drawing people, all united through thrilling entertainment. ASUS shares the passion, maintaining a tradition of ingenuity aimed at meeting the needs of gamers both with the hardcore Republic of Gamers brand (ROG) and powerful mainstream solutions. It seeks to innovate and introduce new exciting ways to enjoy gaming, believing it should be natural to take up rather than complicated.

NZXT, a company built on realizing the dreams of gamers worldwide, is proud to announce the Avatar high performance gaming mouse. As with all of NZXT's PC accessories, Avatar is designed to provide gamers with the ultimate crafted gaming armor to emerge victorious in the gaming arena of choice. Avatar provides extreme enhancements to gameplay with the following breakthrough features…
(Editors note: Check out our review of the mouse.)