Bethesda has released a new Starfield Update 1.7.36, which brings the previously promised updates to the game as well as fixes general stability and performance. While the previous update resolved some issues with AMD GPUs, namely the issue that caused lens flares not to appear correctly, issues with upscaling, and more, the latest one focuses on Intel Arc GPUs.

Bethesda made quite a few update promises, including built-in mod support and top community requests, but so far, updates have focused on general performance and stability issues. The latest one is not an exception either, but it does bring the promised FOV slider as well as improved stability for Intel Arc GPUs. It also adds various additional stability and performance improvements.

After the first update/hotfix 1.7.29 that focused on Xbox Series X/S stability related to installations and brought various stability and performance improvements to reduce crashes and improve framerate, Bethesda has now released the second update, addressing some performance and stability issues as well as a few general gameplay issues. This is not the large update that Bethesda is still working on and should come in the future and bring those top community-requested features like the brightness and contrast controls, HDR calibration menu, FoV slider, NVIDIA DLSS support, ultrawide monitor support, and the "eat button for food."

The new 1.7.33 update does fix the star lens flare issue on AMD GPUs, as well as an upscaling issue that made some textures blurry and an issue that could cause photosensitivity issues when scrolling through the inventory menu. The new update also fixes various performance and stability issues that caused crashing and freezing, as well as an issue where the Hand Scanner caused hitching. It includes several other general fixes for characters, star stations, and vendors, as well as a few issues with ships in the game.

The space opera RPG everyone's been lapping up over the week, Starfield, is finally getting official support for NVIDIA DLSS, among a handful of other glaring omissions for its PC version. Bethesda Game Studios on Wednesday announced that it will release a "small hotfix patch" for the game which adds a few must-haves for the PC version. To begin with, it adds support for the 32:9 ultra-wide monitor aspect-ratio (something that should have made it to a space sim), along with an FOV slider. The display settings include brightness and contrast controls, along with an HDR calibration menu. The most important of these announcements is that the game will now receive first-party support for NVIDIA DLSS. This would be DLSS 2 (super resolution), and not the newer DLSS 3 frame generation.

First, an enormous thank you to all of you playing Starfield and your support. We are absolutely blown away by the response and all you love about the game. We're also reading all your great feedback on what you'd like to see improved or added to the game. This is a game we'll be supporting for years and years to come, so please keep all the feedback coming! Even if we don't get to your requests immediately, we'd love to do it in the future, like city maps. Our priority initially is making sure any top blocker bugs or stability issues are addressed, and adding quality-of-life features that many are asking for.

This first update is a small hotfix targeted at the few top issues were are seeing. After that, expect a regular interval of updates that have top community requested features including:

• Brightness and Contrast controls
• HDR Calibration Menu
• FOV Slider
• Nvidia DLSS Support (PC)
• 32:9 Ultrawide Monitor Support (PC)
• Eat button for food!

The Xbox Digital Broadcast will be returning to Tokyo Game Show on September 21 at 6 pm JST / 9 am UTC / 2 am PDT. Tokyo Game Show represents a special time each year where we share news and updates on games that we hope will delight Xbox fans in Japan and across Asia. Players can expect to hear progress updates from Xbox and Bethesda Softworks and see a creatively diverse collection of games from creators predominantly located in Japan and across Asia. We'll also share exciting new games coming to Xbox Game Pass, which continues to grow with great content from teams all around Asia.

This year's broadcast will be available on Tokyo Game Show's official YouTube channel, as well as on select Xbox social channels in Japanese, English, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Malay, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, French, German and Castilian Spanish. It will also be broadcast with Japanese Sign Language (JSL), Australian Sign Language (AusLan), and audio descriptions in both Japanese and English. A full list of where you can watch the broadcast will be available the week of the show.

Intel Graphics has released yet another beta version of the Intel Arc GPU Graphics drivers, version 101.4676 Beta. The new version brings a couple of fixes for Starfield game, with more fixes coming in the future updates. In general, it improves stability of the game as well as fixes some rendering issues.

The latest Intel Arc GPU Graphics driver is still a beta release and hopefully, Intel will eventually launch the full Game On drivers, as there are still plenty of known issues with the game. On the other hand, as reported by Videocardz.com, Bethesda has noted that the Arc A770 GPU does not actually meet minimum requirements for the game, as these still include the Radeon RX 5700 and GeForce GTX 1070 Ti.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4676 Beta

AMD and Bethesda's Starfield Game Bundle promotion kicked off back in mid-July, with a wide range of current and previous generation hardware qualifying for the campaign. It was very apparent, at the time, that Team Red had bolstered the list of GPUs with plenty of mid-range RX 6000-series (RDNA 2) models—in absence of heavily rumored successors. AMD's Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT graphics cards were finally introduced at Gamescom 2023, and reached retail outlets yesterday. Post-unveiling it was revealed that all Radeon RX 7000-series desktop cards would be eligible for the Starfield campaign, but the new Navi 32-based models were not mentioned in specifics.

AMD has—very recently—quietly updated its Reward and Gaming campaign pages with revised information—Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT GPUs are now present on the list of qualifying products, alongside the addition of an oddball semi-sibling—Radeon RX 7900 Golden Rabbit Edition (GRE). These graphics cards sit in an upper tier that grants customers a digital download copy of Starfield Premium Edition.

If you've ever dreamed of launching into space and exploring new worlds, a much-anticipated new video game can take you there in rich detail and immersive storytelling. With Starfield, the first new universe from Bethesda Game Studios in 25 years, your role-playing journey can lead to more than 1,000 planets. It's available day one on Xbox Game Pass on Sept. 6, and on Xbox Series X|S consoles, Windows PCs and Steam.

"We love the idea of exploring space and always wanted to turn it into a game. People love to get lost in games we build, and we do as well," says Todd Howard, game director and executive producer of Bethesda Game Studios, which Microsoft acquired through parent company ZeniMax Media in 2021. "This one is easily the most ambitious one we've built. It's something we've really poured ourselves into over a long period of time."

This coming week, one of the most hyped AAA games of the year will launch and early previews of the game suggests it might just manage to mostly live up to the hype. However, the rest of this week is rather slow, maybe because all of the other publishers know most people will be busy playing their fancy new space game and won't be interested in what else might launch this week, although some appear to be riding on the wave of said space game. That said, there are still some minor releases this week, with at least a couple that might appeal to some of you.

Starfield / This week's AAA title / Wednesday 6 September
Starfield is the first new universe in over 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. In this next generation role-playing game set amongst the stars, create any character you want and explore with unparalleled freedom as you embark on an epic journey to answer humanity's greatest mystery. In the year 2330, humanity has ventured beyond our solar system, settling new planets, and living as a spacefaring people. You will join Constellation - the last group of space explorers seeking rare artifacts throughout the galaxy - and navigate the vast expanse of space in Bethesda Game Studios' biggest and most ambitious game.

Elgato, a subsidiary of CORSAIR, is thrilled to announce a new line of custom hardware for content creators. Made in collaboration with Bethesda Game Studios, the line celebrates some of gaming's most beloved franchises. For its first release, fans can collect limited-edition gear inspired by Starfield, Bethesda Game Studios' first new universe in over 25 years. And there are more drops to come, spanning the publisher's award-winning lineup of IPs from The Elder Scrolls to Fallout.

Officially licensed by Bethesda Game Studios, the Starfield Wave:3 microphone and Stream Deck make ideal companions for any explorer. Sporting an iconic design, Wave:3 ensures creators always sound loud and clear, whether they're directing squad fire or chatting with their crew. Meanwhile, Stream Deck empowers them to control any workflow, from piloting their starship to managing a livestream. And with a bonus digital kit, gamers can download free icons to personalize their Stream Deck in Starfield style—no matter which device or model they have at home.

Starfield is the most hotly anticipated title of the season. The space-opera action RPG by Bethesda has a high degree of optimization for AMD hardware, including Ryzen 7000 processors and Radeon RX GPUs, with AMD even announcing special edition SKUs of its processors and graphics cards. The company formally launched its Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT graphics cards today, with product availability slated for September 6. You know what else is coming up on that day? Starfield! AMD announced that both RX 6000 series and RX 7000 series will include the game. Competitive pricing and performance now have a deal-sweetener.

As part of NVIDIA and Microsoft's collaboration to bring more choice to gamers, new Microsoft Store integration has been added to GeForce NOW that lets gamers stream select titles from the Xbox PC Game Pass catalog on GeForce NOW, starting today. With the Microsoft Store integration, members will see a brand-new Xbox button on supported PC games and can seamlessly launch these titles across their devices, provided they either purchased the standalone games through the Microsoft Store or have an active Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass subscription.

Hot off our recent Gamescom announcement, four blockbuster titles are coming to GeForce NOW this fall: Alan Wake 2, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty expansion, Party Animals and PAYDAY 3. Plus, head to the cloud and stream the 25 new titles joining the cloud this week, including DOOM 2016 from Bethesda.

Experience Quake II, enhanced in partnership with Nightdive Studios to bring the ground-breaking shooter to modern hardware with new content, online multiplayer, visual upgrades and more! Play the enhanced Quake II today on Game Pass, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.

As humanity's last hope, it's up to you to stop the wicked Strogg's warpath before it twists mankind into mechanical horrors. The odds are stacked against you on a hostile alien planet teeming with enemy forces, but so long as you have ammo and a pulse, it's not over! Battle hordes of cybernetic creatures in blistering FPS combat, strafing through Quake II's campaign with an iconic arsenal of bullets, rockets and shells. Enjoy Quake II's legendary gameplay, preserved and complete with the original soundtrack by Sonic Mayhem, now enhanced with widescreen support, restored content previously left on the cutting room floor, visual and performance upgrades to make every muzzle flash and gib-plosion pop on-screen and even new levels.

Rise and shine, it's time to quake up - the GeForce NOW Ultimate KovaaK's challenge kicks off at the QuakeCon gaming festival today, giving gamers everywhere the chance to play to their ultimate potential with ultra-high 240 frames per second streaming. On top of bragging rights, top scorers can win some sweet prizes - including a 240 Hz gaming monitor.

Bethesda's award-winning titles Doom Eternal, Quake, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and Wolfenstein: Youngblood heat up the cloud this week, leading 21 new games joining the GeForce NOW library. Plus, Baldur's Gate 3 has been a hit with members. Make sure to upgrade to Ultimate and Priority memberships today to skip the waiting lines over free members and get into gaming faster.

As a part of its promotional deal with Bethesda for the upcoming Starfield game, AMD has announced a limited edition release of both its Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics card and its Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU. The latter is in all fairness a bit dull as far as limited editions go, as the only thing really limited is the packaging the CPU comes in. Despite being a limited production run of only 500 units, AMD didn't bother adding any extra marking on the CPU itself, making it less of a collectors edition than it could've been.

On the other hand, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX Starfield Special Edition gets a custom white shroud with a lot of little quirky bits of text on the card and an overall different feel to it compared to AMD's reference design cards. Again, we're looking at a limited run of 500 cards here too and it's not clear if these will be numbered or not. Neither product will be available to buy though, so the only way to get your hands on one or the other, is to enter one of multiple giveaways that either AMD or its partners will host in the near future. There's a video after the break with more details.

The Ultimate upgrade is complete - GeForce NOW Ultimate performance is now streaming all throughout North America and Europe, delivering RTX 4080-class power for gamers across these regions. Celebrate this month with 41 new games, on top of the full release of Baldur's Gate 3 and the first Bethesda titles coming to the cloud as the NVIDIA and Microsoft partnership benefits gamers everywhere.

And catch GeForce NOW at QuakeCon - the popular bring-your-own-PC mega-event running Aug. 10-13 - where the in-person and digital GeForce NOW Ultimate challenge will kick off. Plus, game on with gaming peripherals and accessories company SteelSeries, which will be giving away codes for three-day GeForce NOW Ultimate and Priority memberships, along with popular GeForce NOW games and in-game goodies.

Bethesda Game Studios' upcoming RPG Starfield imagines a world where humanity inhabits the vastness of space. These stunning animated stories offer a glimpse into three of the major cities in the Settled Systems. Follow a delivery pilot in New Atlantis seeking the exciting life of the elite; a stranded orphan looking for a way out of Akila City; and two street rats struggling to survive in the underbelly of Neon.

SUPRA ET ULTRA
In the city of New Atlantis, capital of the United Colonies, Kent, a courier pilot, aspires to live in the most desirable part of the settled systems. After joining the UC Vanguard and working his way up to the Capital's elite, Kent quickly realizes the adventures waiting for him off-planet are what he truly longed for.

We're excited to announce that we're once again partnering with Computer Upgrade King to provide our attendees with the ability to rent either a monitor and or a full PC set up. As an added bonus to our Elite ticket holders, Computer Upgrade King is offering a special rental package with a 34" Ultrawide Monitor! For more information, and to secure yours today, visit beth.games/43obykp.

Need a rig? Reserve your computer at QuakeCon 2023. It's official! After three years of digital-only events, QuakeCon 2023 will mark the return of the beloved BYOC, in-person at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas from Thursday, August 10 through Sunday, August 13.

It's been a little over a month since fans around the world enjoyed the Xbox Games Showcase and Starfield Direct and we're delighted to say that, within seven days of the broadcast, we saw over 92 million views across our first ever double feature, trailers, and segments from the shows - a 38% rise in viewership over last year's show. It's become the highest rated and most-viewed show for Xbox, ever! We can't thank you enough for being a part of that, and we hope you're as excited as we are for Xbox's future.

From our own games - like Starfield, Forza Motorsport, Hellblade II: Senua's Saga, Fable, South of Midnight, Avowed, Clockwork Revolution, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Towerborne, and more - to those coming to Xbox from our partners around the world - Star Wars Outlaws, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Cities: Skylines 2, 33 Immortals, and more - our show aimed to bring something for every kind of player. Whether you're an RPG obsessive, an indie curio collector, a PC player, a console owner, or even brand-new to gaming, we like to think there was something that piqued your interest.

AMD and Bethesda have officially launched the Starfield Game Bundle today—this promotion has been leaked several times recently, with Team Red's Taiwanese operation revealing (late last week) that the campaign would be starting on July 11. That date also applies to the vast majority of global territories—company web presences are showing that the new game bundle has gone live with their offer of "Get Starfield when you buy select AMD Ryzen processors, AMD Radeon graphics cards, or a gaming system that contains both."

Bethesda's Starfield is scheduled for release on September 6—prospective AMD hardware buyers are invited to select Standard or Premium Edition tiers, depending on the choice of qualifying Ryzen or Radeon products. The entry point comprises Ryzen 5 7000 series CPUs or Radeon 6600 GPUs. Premium 5-day early access is made available to buyers of Ryzen 9 7000 CPUs or Radeon cards starting with RX 6700 models.

Last week Bethesda announced AMD as its exclusive partner for Starfield on the PC platform, although the short video presentation did not tease upcoming hardware/software bundles. Details of a Ryzen 7000-series CPUs promotional campaign emerged seven days later thanks to a mini-store page appearing on Newegg's retail site. The Starfield promo was not active at the time, but AMD Taiwan has made it official that the event will be going live on July 11 (at least in that territory).

According to the freshly published event site their offer will be running until September 30, and product serial numbers will not be redeemable after October 28. Eligible hardware includes the aforementioned Ryzen 7000 processor family, as well as Radeon GPUs. Thankfully Team Red has made sure to make a significant number of RDNA 2 models eligible for the Starfield incentive, with the entry point being RX 6600. All discrete RDNA 3 cards qualify—starting with RX 7600 and jumping up to the expensive RX 7900 XT and 7900 XTX GPUs. AMD Taiwan's info graphics show a two tier system—Standard Edition (NT$1990) applies to buyers of Ryzen 5/7 7000 series CPUs or Radeon 6600 through 7600 cards. Premium Edition (NT$2890) will grant a 5-day early access period—exclusive to buyers of Ryzen 9 7000 CPUs or Radeon cards starting at RX 6700.

American online retailer, Newegg, has perhaps jumped the gun a little by readying CPU listings for an "AMD Starfield Game Bundle Promotion." The store page was noticed by some eagle-eyed folks over the weekend, and news sites were soon tipped off to the early announcement. AMD was revealed as Starfield's exclusive partner on PC last week, but upcoming promotions/bundles were not mentioned during presentation proceedings. Newegg's mini-site only functions as a promo product container (at the time of writing) for all available Ryzen 7000-series CPUs—individual SKU pages are void of any Starfield material, and the previous Star Wars Jedi: Survivor campaign ended on June 30.

The Newegg promo page includes everything in the mainstream Zen 4 lineup—from the entry-level Ryzen 5 7600 model going all the way up to the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X3D, but internet sleuths were unable to track down anything representing an equivalent campaign for AMD's latest Radeon RX graphics cards. Team Red's Zen 4 and RDNA 3 technologies got plenty of shout-outs in last week's partnership presentation: "Making this game even more special, is the close collaboration between Bethesda and AMD to unlock the full potential of Starfield. We have worked hand-in-hand with Bethesda Game Studios to optimize Starfield for both Xbox and PC with Ryzen 7000 series processors and Radeon 7000 series graphics. The optimizations both accelerate performance and enhance the quality of your gameplay using highly multi-threaded code that both Xbox and PC players will get to take advantage of."

AMD and Bethesda have today revealed that Starfield will be best experienced on a Ryzen processor and Radeon graphics card-equipped PC. Team Red has been announced as the giant open world game's official graphics and GPU partner, but its Xbox Series hardware also gets a couple of friendly shout-outs. Todd Howard, director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios, stated in the video presentation: "We have AMD engineers in our code base working on FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) 2.0 image processing and upscaling and it looks incredible. You're going to get the benefits of that obviously on your PC but also on Xbox. We're super excited and can't wait to show everybody more."

Jack Huynh, Senior Vice President and General Manager of its Computing and Graphics Group at AMD, added: "Making this game even more special, is the close collaboration between Bethesda and AMD to unlock the full potential of Starfield. We have worked hand-in-hand with Bethesda Game Studios to optimize Starfield for both Xbox and PC with Ryzen 7000 series processors and Radeon 7000 series graphics. The optimizations both accelerate performance and enhance the quality of your gameplay using highly multi-threaded code that both Xbox and PC players will get to take advantage of."

Gematsu - a Japanese news site - has discovered that the Game Rating and Administration Committee of Korea uploaded its rating of an announced remake of Quake II (1997) on May 31—apparently "not suitable" for youths. This could repeat a pattern from 2021, where the same committee registered the original Quake's remastered version prior to an official unveiling at that year's livestreamed QuakeCon event.

QuakeCon 2023 is heading back to its roots—with a return to an in-person format "at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas from Thursday, August 10 through Sunday, August 13." It is quite possible that Quake II Remastered will get an unveiling at the late summer convention. It will be interesting to see how the upcoming remaster will sit beside the existing RTX version—the South Korean rating info mentions new online multiplayer options, 4K resolution plus widescreen support, as well as support for community modification.

Bethesda has unveiled the first gameplay trailer for Starfield during the Starfield Direct after the Xbox Games Showcase yesterday, showing some impressive graphics from this upcoming sci-fi RPG. Shortly after, we got the confirmation from the Game Director, Todd Howard, that the game will actually be locked at 30 FPS, which does not sounds surprising, especially after the full PC system requirements got revealed.

Bethesda has put a lot of effort into Starfield, and it shows it the seen trailer. The team is also claiming that this game will have "the fewest bugs of any Bethesda game ever shipped," according to an interview that the Xbox Game Studios Head, Matt Booty, gave to Giant Bomb. He also added that there are a lot of people internally playing Starfield, and Phil Spencer, head of Xbox Games Studio, told the same outfit that the game had a much earlier release date, and was delayed twice, so hopefully we'll have a solid game at launch. Unfortunately, Todd Howard, also confirmed that the game will run at full 4K on the Xbox Series X and at 1440p on the Xbox Series S, but will be locked at 30 FPS on both consoles.