AMD Radeon Anti-Lag+ is making a comeback with the game that caused it go away in the first instance—Counter Strike 2. The technology is undergoing a rebranding as Anti-Lag 2, to reflect the several under-the-hood changes made by AMD. AMD Radeon Anti-Lag+ was supposed to be AMD's answer to NVIDIA Reflex, a whole-system latency reduction technology that wouldn't just benefit competitive online games such as Counter Strike 2; but also form an essential component of FSR 3 Frame Generation. The technology briefly launched last year before gamers started noticing that the tech would trigger anti-cheat mechanisms in online games, such as the VAC that polices CS 2, forcing AMD to withdraw the technology, and for Valve to manually detect and restore thousands of gamer accounts.

It seems AMD has fixed the way Anti-Lag+ works with the new Anti-Lag 2 technology. The company in particular is testing its stability with Counter Strike 2, so you don't get banned again by VAC. The company worked with Valve to release an update to the game so it supports the tech, and released a special AMD Software Adrenalin Anti-Lag 2 Preview driver based on the recent 24.5.1 version. You'll need the latest patch to CS 2, and this driver to experience the "technical preview" of Anti-Lag 2. The company also released a technology brief of Anti-Lag 2. The most important change with Anti-Lag 2 that sets it apart from the failed Anti-Lag+, is that it is not a driver-based solution, but rather a game engine-based one. This is why you'll need the latest update to CS 2, because it contains the Anti Lag 2 code.

Steam has announced the full list of Best of Steam games for this year across several categories. The list does not include a lot of big surprises but it is nice to see that some indie games also made it to the list. Categories include Top Sellers, New Releases, Most Played, Early Access, Steam Deck, Controller, and VR.

The Top Seller list include Baldur's Gate 3 from Larian Studios, which is also the Game of the Year winner, Hogwarts Legacy, which was a big game this year, DOTA 2 and Counter Strike 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Starfield, Lost Ark, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, Apex Legends, PUBG Battlegrounds, Destiny 2, and Sons of the Forest. Some of the Top New Releases category, which is measured by gross revenue, include Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, Cities: Skylines II, Resident Evil 4, Payday 3, Remnant II, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, FC 24, as well as a few titles that are also top sellers like Starfield, Baldur's Gate 3, Hogwarts Legacy. and Sons of the Forest.

AMD has released the latest version of the Adrenalin software, version 23.11.1 WHQL. The new AMD Software Adrenalin Edition 23.11.1 WHQL drivers add support for upcoming games, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, The Invincible, and JX3 Ultimate, and add Radeon Boost support for Alan Wake 2. The new drivers also add improvements and optimizations for Stable Diffusion, Adobe Lightroom, DaVinci Resolve, UL Procyon AI workloads on Radeon RX 600M, 700M, 6000, and 7000 series graphics cards.

In addition to new games support and optimizations, it also fixes several issues, including a fix for Performance Metrics Overlay FPS reporting in various games, performance issues with Radeon RX 7600 in Counter Strike 2, flickering issues in Total War: Pharaoh and Alan Wake, issues with rebuilding shader cache in Baldur Gate 3 on Vulkan API and Forza Motorsport, fix for driver crash in Forza Motorsport, and a fix for an intermittent black screen or code 31 error on some graphics cards, including the Radeon RX 6700 XT.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 23.11.1 WHQL

Rush to the cloud - stream Counter Strike 2 on GeForce NOW for the highest frame rates. Members can play through the newest chapter of Valve's elite, competitive, first-person shooter from the cloud. It's all part of an action-packed GFN Thursday, with 22 more games joining the cloud gaming platform's library, including Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 - Turbocharged.

Counter Strike 2 is the long-awaited upgrade to one of the most recognizable competitive first-person shooters in the world. Building on the legacy of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the latest iteration brings the action to Valve's long-anticipated Source 2 video game engine, promising enhanced graphical fidelity with a physically based rendering system for more realistic textures and materials, dynamic lighting, reflections and more. Smoke grenades are now dynamic volumetric objects that can interact with their surroundings by reacting to lighting and other environmental effects. And smoke particles work with the unified lighting system, allowing for more realistic light and color. Even better: GeForce NOW Ultimate members can take full advantage of NVIDIA Reflex for ultra-low-latency gameplay streaming from the cloud. Rush the objective with the squad on Counter Strike 2's remastered maps at up to 240 frames per second - a first for cloud gaming. Upgrade today for the Ultimate Counter-Strike experience.

With the release of AMD Software Adrenalin drivers version 23.10.1 WHQL, AMD has added Anti-Lag+ support for Counter Strike 2, but it appears that this will only result in a VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) ban. Apparently, the Anti-Lag+ feature is implemented by detouring engine dll functions, and any tampering with CS code will result in a VAC ban.

Valve was keen to note that once AMD ships an update, it will work on identifying affected users and reversing the ban. Luckily, the Anti-Lag+ technology only works on Radeon RX 7000 series RDNA 3 graphics cards, so it could be a limited number of Counter Strike 2 players. The issue comes as a surprise considering that Anti-Lag+ has already been implemented in various games, including competitive ones like Apex Legends, PUBG: Battlegrounds, Fortnite, and others, and only has issues with Counter Strike 2 and its VAC system. Hopefully, AMD will fix the issue pretty soon and we will keep an eye out for an update.

Intel Graphics today released the latest version of Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.4499 beta adds optimization for F1 23, Aliens: Dark Descent, Forever Skies, and Counter Strike 2. There are major performance uplifts to be had. Counter Strike 2 sees up to 8% uplift at 1440p with high settings, and up to 10% at 1080p with Very High settings. F1 23 players can expect up to 33% uplift at 1080p with Ultra High settings and RT on, and an 18% uplift with RT off; and a 27% uplift at 1440p with high settings. Intel also updated its Destiny 2 optimization, with a neat 11% uplift to be had at 1080p with the highest settings. An error or black screen seen on applications embedding WebView2 frames, has been fixed.

DOWNLOAD: Intel GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4499 Beta

NVIDIA has released the latest iteration of its GeForce Game Ready drivers - Version 531.68 WHQL. This latest update provides optimizations for the upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - an action adventure title, and Dead Island 2 (out this Friday) - a gory first person action RPG zombie shooter - ensuring the best possible in-game performance. Version 531.68 WHQL also implements a fix for Immortals Fenyx Rising, where crashes to desktop were reported following a previous driver update (531.41). A conflict between ShadowPlay and the EA Play application has been resolved, and another fix addresses a performance issue linked to the enabling of Reflex within Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test's graphics settings.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 531.68 WHQL

What appears to be an official NVIDIA slide showing off NVIDIA Reflex in Counter Strike 2, has actually officially confirmed the GeForce RTX 4070 by accident. While we are still a week away from the rumored official launch, set for April 13th, the new RTX 4070 graphics card is used for testing NVIDIA Reflex in Counter Strike 2.

Spotted by The Verge, the NVIDIA official slide shows the benefits of NVIDIA Reflex in Counter Strike 2, with an improved latency on RTX 4070, RTX 3060, and the GTX 1060. It reduces latency down from 10 ms to 8 ms on the GeForce RTX 4070. As noted by The Verge, this means that 9 out of the top 10 most popular competitive shooters will have Nvidia Reflex support, including Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0, Destiny 2, Escape from Tarkov, Fortnite, Overwatch 2, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, Valorant, and Counter Strike 2. Previous rumors for the GeForce RTX 4070 confirmed the AD104 GPU with 5888 CUDA cores, 12 GB of GDDR6X memory, 200 W TDP, and a $599 price tag.