The Chinese tech press is abuzz with slides allegedly from Intel's pre-launch press-deck for the Core Ultra 2-series "Arrow Lake-S." The most sensational of these are Intel's first-party performance claims for the top Core Ultra 9 285K model. There's good news and bad news. Good news first—Intel claims to have made a big leap in energy efficiency with "Arrow Lake," and the 285K should offer gaming performance comparable to the current Core i9-14900K at around 80 W lower power draw for the processor. But then there in lies the bad news—despite claimed IPC gains for the "Lion Cove" P-core, and rumored clock speeds being on par with the "Raptor Cove" P-cores on the i9-14900K, the 285K is barely any faster than its predecessor in absolute terms.

In its first party testing, when averaged across 12 game tests, which we used Google optical translation to make out the titles of, Intel used performance numbers of the i9-14900K as the mean. The 285K beats the i9-14900K in only four games—Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, Age of Mythology Retold, Civilization VI: Gathering Storm, and F1 23. It's on-par with the i9-14900K in Red Dead Redemption 2, Total War: Pharaoh, Metro Exodus, Cyberpunk 2077, Black Myth: Wukong, Rainbow Six Siege. It's slower than the i9-14900K in Far Cry 6, FF XIV, F1 24, Red Dead Redemption 2. Averaged across this bench, the Core Ultra 9 285K ends up roughly on par with the Core i9-14900K in gaming. Intel also compared the 285K to AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X, and interestingly, even the Ryzen 9 7950X3D.

Sid Meier's Civilization VI is the latest turn-based strategy in the series launching back in 2016, the game has made its way onto various platforms including Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and now Android. The game is available through the Google Play store as shareware with a 20 USD fee to play past turn 60, "Rise and Fall" and "Gathering Storm" expansions are also available for 30 USD and 40 USD respectively. There are a variety of scenario packs also available for 5-9 USD, this pricing is consistent across mobile versions.

The game has received mixed to positive reviews mainly due to compatibility issues, the game requires a modern device to run smoothly especially in the late game. The animations have been simplified or removed along with the addition of a 30fps frame rate cap to help improve performance which given the genre is fine.

2K today announced the Sid Meier's Civilization VI - New Frontier Pass, a new season pass that brings eight new civilizations, nine new leaders, six new game modes and more to the critically-acclaimed strategy game. Content will be released in six downloadable (DLC) packs delivered on a bimonthly basis starting May 21, 2020 through March 2021.

"It's been four years since we first announced Civilization VI, and the support from fans and players has been overwhelming," said Ed Beach, franchise lead designer at Firaxis Games. "After two giant expansions in Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm, four years' worth of balance updates and more, Civilization VI has grown into the flagship title for the series."

AMD today made available the latest version of their Radeon software drivers, Adrenalin Edition 19.2.2, for supported graphics solutions. This brings with it support for the recently released Radeon VII graphics card, in addition to equally new and upcoming game titles including Metro Exodus, Far Cry New Dawn, the Civ VI: Gathering Storm expansion, and Crackdown 3. More pleasing to many users no doubt will be the large list of fixed issues, including a timely Alt + Tab shortcut on a DisplayPort monitor and plenty of bug fixes related to Radeon Wattman as it pertains to the Radeon VII. The drivers are up for download at the link below, hosted directly on TechPowerUp for your convenience, and the full change log is available past the break for those interested.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 19.2.2

Sid Meier's Civilization VI will get its next expansion dubbed Gathering Storm on February 14th, 2019. This latest expansion will add nine new Civs to play as, along with new buildings, mechanics, and technologies, which are all par the course for a Civilization expansion. What is different here is the focus on mother nature's wrath, with natural disasters being a major part of the game. Catastrophic volcanic eruptions and earthquakes will become moments of crisis, destroying or damaging nearby cities. This on top of the issues carbon and pollution will inflict on the general environment to the point you can actively seek to destroy it yourself as a means to negatively impact other Civs. Meanwhile, they have options at their disposal with which to try and thwart your evil plans, including using expanded diplomacy options brought into play by the World Congress, which also makes a reappearance in this expansion.

Rather than using the environmental issues as a gimmick, Firaxis has instead tied it into the core gameplay. Players will now generate carbon as they use fossil fuels throughout the ages, for example, coal during the industrial revolution. As fossil fuels usage rises so will carbon, thus the race for renewable energy becomes more important as the issues related to climate change will start to have a far more significant impact, such as the flooding of coastal settlements and resource wars over dwindling fossil fuel reserves. It is at this point, you can opt to go to war in an effort to conquer your neighbors and take their fossil fuel reserves, or you can take on the worst polluters to save your sinking settlements and postpone the inevitable. In Civilization VI: Gathering Storm the choice is yours. You can view the announcement trailer below and first gameplay trailers at source below.