Like the first part, Chernobylite 2 is a story of people who try to accomplish an impossible mission and survive in the sinister Chornobyl Zone. Chernobylite 2 will be released on Steam in Early Access on March 6th, similar to the first part in 2019, which was awarded the Top Early Access Platinum Graduate on Steam. Cole Grey, a former military and security guard, lives in a reality where the economy and industry are based entirely on a substance called Chernobylite. With its help, people have made a real leap in civilization. However, the construction of the utopia has been paid for by massive unemployment, pushing people like Cole to the margins of society. Due to severe financial problems, he joins the mysterious "Planewalker" initiative to provide for his family.

It quickly becomes apparent that there is a shortage of Chernobylite in Cole's universe, and the solution is the morally questionable initiative that involves traveling to parallel worlds in search of the mineral and obtaining it by any means possible. In addition, the Planewalker service requires appropriate genetic modifications. Cole must, therefore, physically absorb the essence of chernobylite and, to increase his physical and intellectual capabilities, lose a part of his humanity. However, seeing no other options for himself, he agrees to the bloody and dangerous service, which results in him ending up trapped in the most sinister place in the world: the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. There, he meets a Black Stalker, the Zone's dark guide and silent ruler.

Hey hunters, how's it going? February is here, which means we are officially in the launch month of Monster Hunter Wilds! On February 28, your journey into the Forbidden Lands begins. Now, to help ensure you have a satisfying, fun experience come launch, we're pleased to share that the Monster Hunter Wilds Benchmark we'd previously mentioned we were looking into, is real, it's ready, and it's live from right now for you to try!

With the Monster Hunter Wilds Benchmark, we want to help our PC players feel more confident about how their PC will run Monster Hunter Wilds. In the next section, we're going to explain what the Monster Hunter Wilds Benchmark is, how it works, as well as some important information and differences you'll see between this and the Open Beta Test 1 and 2 experiences, so please take a moment to check it out.

Intel has released its latest version of the Arc GPU Graphics Drivers, version 101.6557 Beta. The latest update brings Game On Driver support for a couple of new games as well as improves performance in F1 24 and Sid Meier's Civilization VII games. The new driver update also fixes a single issue where the Intel Graphics Software may incorrectly report number of Xe Cores on certain Intel Arc B-series graphics cards.

According to Intel's release notes, the new driver update adds Game On driver support on Intel Arc B-series and A-series GPUs, and Intel Core Ultra CPUs with integrated Intel Arc GPUs, for Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and Sid Meier's Civilization VII games. It also improves performance on Intel Arc B-series GPUs in F1 24 game (DX12) at High Settings by up to 15.1 percent at 1080p and by up to 12.1 percent at 1440p resolution. The performance uplift also comes to Intel Core Ultra Series 2 CPUs with integrated Intel Arc GPUs in F1 24 (DX12), by up to 12.3 percent at 1080p with Medium Settings, and in Sid Meier's Civilization VII (DX12) by up to 7.7 percent at 1080p with Medium Settings.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.6557 Beta

SNK CORPORATION has announced an Open Beta test for FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves. The beta for SNK's highly anticipated fighting game will be available from February 20 to February 24 (PST) on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam. Participation in the beta test does NOT require an active PlayStation Plus or Xbox Game Pass Core/Ultimate subscription. FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves is set to release on April 24, 2025.

Rev Up for Open Beta
From February 20, 2025 (12 AM PST) through February 24, 2025 (11:59 PM PST), PC and console players can choose from eight total characters and throw down with friends in three online modes: Ranked Match, Casual Match, or Room Match. Those eager to hone their skills and learn dynamic combo routes can practice in the offline Training mode. FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves introduces a stunning, comic-inspired art style that's a visual treat for series fans, combined with fights fueled by the cutting-edge REV System to deliver dynamic matches. The open beta offers the public their first opportunity to experience the modernized action of City of the Wolves at home, featuring two distinct control schemes tailored to engage both newcomers and seasoned pros.

Join the Battleground of the Gods: SMITE 2 is Now Free-to-Play! Step into the all-new SMITE 2 Open Beta and experience the next evolution of third-person action MOBA combat—now powered by Unreal Engine 5. If you crave challenging competition, intense gameplay, ability-driven team fights, and godly mythological themes, it's time to see why over 40 million players are hooked on SMITE. Become a God today!

THE Third-Person Action MOBA
No other game offers combat that feels like your favorite hero shooter, crossed with the deep strategy you can only find in a 5 vs. 5 MOBA. Feel the impact of every shot, sneak up on enemies, and combo abilities with teammates to take down the enemy Titan in Conquest mode, or defeat waves of minions and enemy Gods to secure victory in Arena mode.

Intel has released the latest version of its Arc GPU Graphics Drivers, the version 101.6319 Beta. Surprisingly, the product compatibility list still does not include support for the new Arc Battlemage B500 series graphics cards, so we expect yet another driver release when they become officially available. It also does not fix any bugs, and the known issues list is the same as with the previous WHQL drivers release. On the other hand, the Arc GPU Graphics Drivers version 101.6319 Beta adds Game On Drivers support for Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, Marvel Rivals, and Path of Exile 2 on Intel Arc A-series GPUs and Intel Core Ultra with built-in Intel Arc GPUs.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.6319 Beta

Intel today released the latest version of its Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.6299 Beta comes with Game On optimization for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, and STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl. The company did not put out what kind of performance improvements to expect. This release doesn't include any game- or application-specific fixes, either. The company did take the opportunity to acknowledge identification of new issues with this release, which are listed below. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.6299 BetaThe change-log follows.

Capcom today gave gamers a sneak peek at Monster Hunter Wilds, the sequel to the wildly popular Monster Hunter Rise and Worlds, showing off some in-game footage and divulging details about the new ARPG. Monster Hunter Wilds is slated to launch on February 28, 2025, but eager gamers can try out the latest installment in the Monster Hunter franchise a whole three months early thanks to an open beta starting at the end of October. The open beta will be available to PS5, PC via Steam, and Xbox Series S/X, although the PS5 open beta will be available to PlayStation Plus subscribers from October 29, while everyone else will have to wait until November 1 at 3:00 AM (GMT) to participate. The open beta ends on November 4 at 2:59 AM (GMT).

The Monster Hunter Wilds showcase introduces players to another new playable area, called the Oilwell Basin, and a new base, called Azuz, the Everforge, and it looks like the new environment will be mostly in underground caves, shrouded in darkness and the occasional lava vein. Along with the new environment, of course, Wilds will also introduce new monsters, which complement their cavernous surroundings. The showcase also gave us some more information on some of the monsters we can expect to see in the Oilwell Basin, like the oil-silt-lurking Rompopolo, the highly mobile Ajarakan, and what appears to be the area's main monster, called the Black Flame, which will seemingly have a significant role to play in the game's story quest. Of course, the Oilwell Basin is only one new area in Monster Hunter Wilds, and previous promotional images from the new game have shown off plenty of wide-open spaces and grassy plains with rock outcroppings, meaning there will be a degree of diversity for players to explore in the game when it eventually launches.

Intel has released the latest version of its Arc GPU Graphics drivers, the version 101.6127/6044 Beta. The new driver update brings Game On support on Intel Arc A-series GPUs and Intel Core Ultra CPUs with Intel Arc GPUs for No More Room in Hell 2 game. It also improves game performance on Intel Arc A-series GPUs in Core Keeper and Metaphor: ReFantazio games under DirectX 11. Intel also improved performance on Intel Core Ultra Series 2 CPUs with built-in Intel Arc GPUs in Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered and Assassin's Creed Mirage games under DirectX 12.

Intel also fixed a couple of issues on Intel Core Ultra Series 1 and Series 2 CPUs with built-in Intel Arc GPUs, including a fix for issue when enabling or disabling Endurance Gaming preset, issue with visual corruption in Chaos Enscape Benchmark 4.1, issue with lower performance in 3DMark Wildlife Extreme benchmark, and fix for issue with corruption during gameplay in Final Fantasy XVI.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.6127/6044 Beta

Intel has released the latest version of its Arc GPU Graphics drivers, the version 101.6083 Beta. The new driver update brings Game On support on Intel Arc A-series GPUs and Intel Core Ultra CPUs with Intel Arc GPUs for Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred Expansion, DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO, and Silent Hill 2 games, increases performance in games like God of War Ragnarök, as well as fixes an issue seen in FC25, where Arc A-series GPUs may exhibit intermittent green corruption in the game menu and during gameplay.

According to Intel's release notes, the new driver update improves performance in God of War Ragnarök game by up to 9 percent average at 1080p resolution with Ultra settings and up to 34 percent average at 1440p resolution with Ultra settings. There are still several known issues which will hopefully be fixed with the next WHQL driver update.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.6083 Beta

Today Intel released its latest Arc GPU graphics drivers, with version 101.6077 beta hitting our servers. This latest version brings game-ready support for titles like Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, Final Fantasy XVI, Frostpunk 2, and God of War Ragnarok. Besides adding support for latest titles, the 101.6077 beta drivers also fixed issues like corruption on certain reflective surfaces during gameplay of The Last of Us Part I (DX12), and corrupted lines on certain textures during gameplay of Age of Empires IV (DX12). Interestingly, few issues persist like Diablo IV (DX12) intermittently crashing while toggling Ray Tracing settings during gameplay, and Doom Eternal (VK) exhibiting intermittent flickering corruption in the game menu and during gameplay. Few more notes are included in the changelog and known issues, which can be seen below.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.6077 Beta.

Intel over the weekend released the latest version of Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.5989 Beta comes with Game-On optimization for "Arena Breakout: Infinite," "Deadlock," "NBA 2K25," "Test Drive: Unlimited Solar Crown," and "Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2." The drivers should prove especially important for "Deadlock," where Intel claims performance improvements of up to 17% at 1080p, and up to 13% at 1440p. In "Test Drive: Unlimited Solar Crown," you can expect up to 19% performance improvements in both the 1080p and 1440p resolutions. "Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2" players can expect up to 7% performance improvements at 1080p, and up to 8% improvements at 1440p. Intel hasn't included any fixes with this release, but identified a handful new issues. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.5989 Beta

According to The Verge, Valve confirmed its intention to extend support for its Linux-based SteamOS to rival gaming handhelds, including the ASUS ROG Ally. This move marks a significant step towards realizing Valve's decade-old vision of a widespread "Steam Machine" ecosystem. Lawrence Yang, a designer at Valve, confirmed to The Verge that the company is actively working on adding support for additional handhelds to SteamOS. This revelation came after eagle-eyed observers spotted a curious line in Valve's latest SteamOS 3.6.9 Beta release notes mentioning the addition of "support for extra ROG Ally keys." While the development is still in progress, Yang emphasized that SteamOS isn't quite ready for out-of-the-box use on rival devices. However, he assured that the team is making "steady progress" towards this goal.

This initiative doesn't necessarily mean that manufacturers like ASUS will officially endorse Valve's installer or ship their devices with SteamOS preinstalled. Many companies, including ASUS, have cited various reasons for sticking with Windows, including Microsoft's dedicated validation teams that ensure compatibility across diverse hardware configurations. Other devices, such as Lenovo Legion Go, AYANEO, and GPD Pocket 4, ship with Windows, but it could be interesting to see with SteamOS. Alongside support for third-party handhelds, Valve is also working on a general release of SteamOS 3 for non-handheld PCs. Finally, Valve hasn't forgotten about its promise to enable dual-booting on Steam Deck devices. While there's no specific timeline, Mr. Yang confirmed that it remains a priority for the company. We remain to see how this will materialize, and with added bells and whistles to SteamOS, the adoption of Linux-based gaming could be pushed even further.

Today we've launched Steam Game Recording into Beta, a new built-in system for creating and sharing your gameplay footage, that works on any game on Steam. From capturing highlights to documenting entire campaigns, there are many ways to use this all-new set of features.

The Steam Game Recording Beta can record, replay, clip, and share all your favorite gameplay. You can set it to record automatically in the background every time you start playing or record on demand. Although still in Beta phase, there are plenty of features with promise of more to come.

Amazon Games and NCSOFT announced today that THRONE AND LIBERTY, a free-to-play MMORPG featuring massive-scale combat in a dynamic world, will launch in North and South America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan on Tuesday, September 17, 2024. The game will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, with cross-platform play enabled.

"On behalf of Amazon Games and NCSOFT, I'm proud to announce that THRONE AND LIBERTY will launch on September 17, 2024. We all know fans around the world have been eagerly waiting for news on when they can jump into the game," said Merv Lee Kwai, Head of Third-Party Publishing at Amazon Games. "We can't wait to show you what we've been working on, and invite you to experience it all for yourself when the game launches this September."

Intel released the Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.5534 Beta, the latest version of its graphics drivers for Arc graphics cards and integrated graphics. This release brings optimization for F1 24 and MultiVersus, which should improve performance across the line. The company didn't specify its performance improvement numbers. Besides these, the drivers lack the usual load of bug fixes for games or applications, but Intel took the opportunity to list out several issues it identified since the last driver release, so you know the company is working on them. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.5534 Beta

Intel today released the latest version of the Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.5518 beta comes with optimization for "Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut" and "Homeworld 3." The drivers also fix a couple of issues with this release. To begin with, lower than expected performance with "Dragon's Dogma 2" has been fixed on Arc A-series discrete GPUs. A bug that caused "Dead Space" to experience lower than expected performance on Core Ultra processors with Arc Graphics has been fixed. Grab the latest version of Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.5518 Beta

Hey Xbox Insiders! We have a new Xbox Update Preview releasing to the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring today. It's important we note that some updates made to these preview OS builds include background improvements that ensure a quality and stable build for Xbox consoles. We will continue to post these release notes, even when the noticeable changes to the UI are minimal or behind the scenes, so you're aware when updates are coming to your device. Details can be found below!

New Features and Experiences
We have exciting news! Alpha Skip-Ahead users can expect something new coming to their Xbox Update Preview.

Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta)
Xbox Insiders can preview Mouse and Keyboard support while playing via cloud gaming on supported browsers (Edge and Chrome) and the Xbox App on Windows PCs for users enrolled in the PC Gaming Preview. Note: Users on browser will need to enable Preview features on their browser to gain access to the feature. This is done by clicking on your profile picture at xbox.com/play and then select Settings and then enable "Preview features."

With Mods (short for modifications), you can tailor your gaming experience to your unique preferences. Uploaded by creators all over the world, you can pick between anything to create the city of your dreams. Along with Beach Properties, the first wave of Cities: Skylines II Modding will be available. The Beta release of Modding will initially support Map and Code mods. With the Map Editor, you can make maps with the Terraforming Tools you're used to, import hightmaps to create highly accurate depictions of your hometown, and upload your creations to Paradox Mods.

With the Code Tools, you can show off your coding skills and create Code Mods to meet your heart's desire! Future updates will improve on these tools and come to include support for Asset Mods. As we've talked about before, there will be updates to these tools that we are currently working on, and we will see some updates before the 1.0 release. We will be taking your opinion into consideration when we continue to work on the editor and are looking forward to seeing the feedback that you might have. If you're curious on what the process of Modding will look like you can already check it out on the Cities: Skylines II Wiki here.

Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. is inviting potential CRADLECOFFIN Drifters to participate in the upcoming SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada closed beta test, with registrations now open. The extraction shooter, set in a dystopian futuristic world where humans and AI must cooperate to survive, will have limited slots available for players to be among the first to venture into the ruins of Amasia to fight both environmental threats and human enemies, reap rewards, and escape with all the AO Crystals they can carry.

As a CRADLECOFFIN mech pilot, players will be able to bring their choice of Magus into battle—an AI companion that provides useful combat information including radar locations, resource tracking, combat assistance, and more. They can also select from a wide variety of chassis, arms, and legs, with two weapons as well to optimize their loadout for each sortie. The CBT for SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada will run March 28 through April 1 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.

Bethesda has released what appears to be the biggest beta update yet for the Starfield game, bringing new features and an extensive list of bug fixes for quests, graphics, gameplay, and more. The new Beta update, which is now available in Steam Beta, and should roll out as an official update at a later date, brings several new features, including a whole new photomode, scanner, FOV adjustments when using 3rd person ship view, anisotropic filtering quality slider, new autosave, updated ship UI, and more.

The most important inclusions, graphics-wise, include fixes for NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR, various flickering issues, various shadow quality and other performance improvements, as well as some gameplay and quest fixes that were previously noticed in the game.

Hello Citizens, the day has finally come—we are ready to announce the release date of Frostpunk 2! Watch the latest trailer below. Frostpunk 2 is the sequel to the highly acclaimed, BAFTA-nominated society survival game that blended city building, strategy, and management gameplay. Taking place 30 years after the apocalyptic blizzard, Earth is still overwhelmed by the never-ending frost and harsh, icy climate. You play as the leader of a resource-hungry metropolis where expansion and the search for new sources of power is an unavoidable reality.

Frostpunk 2 is coming to PC and through PC Games Pass on July 25, 2024. Pre-orders available now! Get the Digital Deluxe Edition with a 10% discount, which is also available for pre-order starting today and access a seven-day long beta in April that consists of part of the game's sandbox mode, among other things.

HWiNFO v7.73-5370 Beta was released yesterday—the newly updated version includes a fully integrated On-Screen Display (OSD) feature. In the past, users have had to rely on external tools—for example; RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS)—to get vital information displayed on their monitor(s) of choice. Martin, HWiNFO's main author, revealed that this new addition is based on a Team Blue toolset—his February 13 official forum post stated: "(this) feature is based on Intel PresentMon and allows showing any value as a text or graph (with multiple values). Position, text font, size, weight and colors can be individually defined. It should work with any engine like DirectX 11, 12, OpenGL, Vulkan. The OSD is automatically placed over the most graphics intensive application currently running but it can also be manually targeted." Five days later he followed up with further information—HWInfo64's new OSD is "available in HWiNFO64 only," therefore making it incompatible with Windows XP. Similarly, MSI's Afterburner 4.6.6 Beta landed a week and a bit ago, without support for Microsoft's 2001-vintage operating system.

Martin reckons that the change could affect Windows Vista users: "Use legacy HWiNFO32 on these systems. We don't anticipate that these systems will benefit from 64-bit applications, nor require support of latest HWiNFO64 versions. So the impact of this (sad) limitation should be minimal. In case there will be a reasonable demand for new versions of HWiNFO64 on XP64 it's still possible to build such versions (without OSD support), but currently we don't expect to make such extra effort." Additionally, the popular monitoring application's latest upgrade brings enhanced sensor monitoring for ASUS NUC systems, improved health monitoring on a selection of NVMe drives (connected via Intel RST), and enhanced sensor monitoring on the ASUS TUF GAMING Z790-PRO WIFI motherboard model.

We're thrilled to unveil Gigantic: Rampage Edition, the definitive release of the beloved MOBA hero shooter, Gigantic, created by Motiga. Developed by Abstraction Games, this premium edition promises both veteran players and newcomers an exhilarating journey into the world of team-based multiplayer gaming. Set to launch on April 9, 2024, across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms for $19.99, Gigantic: Rampage Edition amplifies the original game's thrills with dynamic gameplay, a diverse hero roster, and exciting new features. With zero microtransactions, players can unlock all content through gameplay or in-game currency.

Closed Beta Testing
Get a taste of Gigantic: Rampage Edition's Rush Mode in a Closed Beta Test on Steam, starting February 22 at 12:00pm PST / 9pm CET. Sign up on the game's Steam page for a chance to join the action-packed playtest. Gear up for Gigantic: Rampage Edition - the ultimate MOBA hero shooter adventure awaits! Stay tuned for more updates and announcements and join the discussion on our Gigantic Discord!

The MSI Afterburner 4.6.6 Beta update was released three days ago—available to download through Guru3D's distribution section—its patch notes tease the exciting addition of "some future NVIDIA GPU PCI DeviceIDs to (our) hardware database." The forward facing nature of this software upgrade brings some unfortunate news for Windows XP operating system users—Beta version 4.6.6's top bullet point provides some reasoning: "Ported to VC++ 2022 compiler. Please take a note that due to this change MSI Afterburner will no longer be able to start under Windows XP. Please stay on the previous versions of the product if you need this OS support." Unwinder's software engineering team has traditionally stuck with the 2008 Visual C++ compiler, hence Afterburner's long history of supporting Windows XP.

The adoption of a more modern compiler has signaled the end for MSI's overclocking and hardware monitoring program on a legacy operating system. Developers largely moved on from XP-supporting endeavors around the mid-2010s—as pointed out by Tom's Hardware: "To get an idea on how late Afterburner is on dropping Windows XP, the last time we reported on any app ending support for the OS was in 2019, when Steam ended support on New Year's Day." Returning to the modern day—4.6.6 Beta's best-of-list mentions that RivaTuner Statistics Server is host to "more than 90 compatibility enhancements and changes"—v7.3.5 rolls out with NVIDIA Reflex and PresentMon integration, as well as programmable conditional layers support. The other headlining feature addition within Afterburner's latest pre-release guise is voltage control for AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT GPUs.