GeForce NOW is blooming further with an array of 14 new titles in March. A garden of gaming delights will have members marching straight into action and adventure this spring, with Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Shadows, Tripwire Interactive's Killing Floor 3 and Hazelight Studio's Split Fiction coming to the cloud next week at launch. Start off with six games coming to the cloud this week, including Halo: The Master Chief Collection. And don't miss out on the latest update for miHoYo's hit game Honkai: Star Rail. GeForce NOW one-month and six-month Performance and Ultimate memberships are available for new members to purchase again in the US, Canada and Europe, as well as the free tier. Stay tuned for updates as more membership options become available.

Split Adventure
Hazelight Studios, creators of the acclaimed It Takes Two, are returning with a new and imaginative co-op game: Split Fiction. The narrative-driven adventure follows Mio, a writer of science fiction, and Zoe, a fantasy author, who find themselves trapped in a simulation stealing their stories. Adventure across wildly shifting worlds, ranging from the dazzling, neon-drenched landscapes of futuristic cyberpunk cities to the enchanted, dragon-populated depths of ancient forests.

Well, the wait is over and early reviews for AMD's Strix Halo APUs have finally dropped. For those who kept up with the leaks and rumors, the high-end RDNA 3.5 Radeon 8060S iGPU was repeatedly rumored to features up to 40 CUs, allowing for raw performance that keeps up with several discrete-class mobile GPUs. Now that we have concrete information, it appears that the Strix Halo iGPU does indeed trade blows with mid-range mobile GPUs, which is an undeniably impressive feat for an integrated unit. Some of the fastest x86 iGPUs - the Arc 140 V, Radeon 890M, are all left in the dust, although Apple's highest-end offerings are unsurprisingly well ahead.

Starting off with 3D Mark Time Spy, the 40-CU Radeon 8060S, housed in the 13-inch ROG Flow Z13, managed an impressive score of 10,200 points according to Notebookcheck. This puts the iGPU in close proximity to other RTX 4070-powered 14-inch gaming laptops, such as the Zephyrus G14 which managed to rake in around 10,300 points. Compared to the previous iteration of the ROG Flow Z13, which boasts a 65-watt RTX 4070, the Radeon 8060S-powered Z13 pulls ahead by around 5%. Laptops with more substantial power envelopes do race ahead significantly, such as the 140-watt RTX 4070 Laptop-powered Razer Blade 14 which managed over 13,000 points. In the Steel Nomad benchmark, however, the Radeon 8060S appears less impressive, trailing behind not only the RTX 4070 Laptop, but also systems with the RTX 4060 Laptop GPU (110 W).

Today we are announcing Midnight Society will be closing its doors after three incredible years, with an amazing team of over 55 developers contributing to our new IP DEADROP. We are actively seeking other game studios that would be interested in offering employment opportunities to our talented team members. If you know anyone who's hiring please forward this message to them or DM us for direct intros. We express our sincere gratitude to each and every one of our community members and deeply sorry we were unable to reach our ultimate goal.

Midnight Society was founded on the core principles of transparency and open development. From as early as the creation of the very first weapon, environment, and gameplay systems, we shipped playable builds of our games to our massive community of players. With the leadership of three industry veterans, the studio grew to over fifty AAA developers from the largest franchises in the world (Call of Duty, Halo and Fortnite), alongside hundreds of thousands of community members who signed up to play in-development Snapshots of our first game and provide crucial feedback for the team.

The upcoming Strix Point Halo processors from AMD now have a new name - Ryzen AI Max - and come with big promises of impressive power. This rumor, first reported by VideoCardz and originating from Weibo leaker Golden Pig Upgrade, reveals key details about the first three processors in this lineup, along with their specifications.

The leaker claims AMD might roll out a new naming system for these processors branding them as part of the Ryzen AI Max series. These chips will run on the anticipated Strix Halo APU. This series includes three models, with the top-end version boasting up to 16 Zen 5 cores and 40 Compute Units (CUs) for graphics. This setup is expected for the best model contrary to earlier rumors that AMD would drop such a variant. In fact, word has it that at least two of the models in this lineup will come with 40 RDNA 3.5 Compute Units. The leaker also hints that Strix Halo will handle up to 96 GB of video memory suggesting AMD aims to make this processor work with its ROCm (Open Compute Platform) system.

Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, today announces the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro. This wireless esports controller, officially licensed by Xbox, combines innovative performance features and cutting-edge technology to redefine competitive gaming on both Xbox and PC.

"The Razer Wolverine V3 Pro represents our commitment to providing the highest level of performance for esports athletes," said Nick Bourne, Head of Console Gaming at Razer. "With insights from top competitive players, we have crafted a controller that meets the demands of professional gaming with exceptional precision and versatility. " Crafted in collaboration with feedback and extensive play-testing from Eric "Snip3down" Wrona, 2-time X Games Medalist and 24-time Halo Champion, the Wolverine V3 Pro delivers performance that can transform competitive gaming.

According to the leaked listing posted on X by user @Orlak29_, reports suggest that Pro versions of the AMD Ryzen 7 AI and Ryzen 9 AI are in the pipeline, with a potential game-changer in the form of the high-end "Strix Halo" model. The standout feature of the Strix Halo is its rumored support for up to 128 GB of RAM, a significant leap from AMD's current offerings. This massive memory capacity could prove valuable for AI workloads and data-intensive applications, potentially positioning AMD better against offerings from Intel and Qualcomm. Leaked diagrams hint at a unique design for the Strix Halo, featuring a chiplet layout reminiscent of a graphics card. The processor is reportedly surrounded by memory on three sides, enabling the massive 128 GB capacity.

While this top-tier model is expected to carry a premium price, it could find a ready market among professionals and enthusiasts demanding both raw processing power and extensive memory resources. On the performance front, rumors suggest the Strix Halo will boast up to 16 Zen 5 cores and a GPU with 40 Compute Units based on RDNA 3.5 architecture. This combination might rival the performance of high-end mobile GPUs like the RTX 4060 or even the RTX 4070 for laptops.
As with previous generations, AMD is expected to release Pro versions of these processors with additional features like ECC memory support.

A recent episode of XboxEra's podcast aired some interesting insider information about "Project Tatanka"—games industry spies believe that developer, Certain Affinity, initiated development of a Halo Battle Royale project at some point in 2020. The studio is best known for its ancillary work on many Call of Duty and Halo sequels—the most recent entry on their CV is Halo Infinite, a co-production with Microsoft's 343 Industries. The rumor mill proposes that work on "Project Tatanka" has ended prematurely, although early 2023 insights allege that Certain Affinity was instructed to take the shooter in a different direction. Many news sites have cited XboxEra Podcast episode no. 194 and its hosts as the origin of fresh cancellation claims. Jon "Sikamikanico" Clarke, co-founder and Editor in Chief of XboxEra, was not amused by these allegations.

Clarke's response stated: "What's hilarious to me, and certainly a big surprise to Nick (Shpeshal_Nick), is that this was a simple conversation, on the show, where we talking about someone else's (YouTuber ColtEastwood) discussion on a podcast...What's even more amusing is I even make a joke about overreactions to a rumored game..."we don't know—it's just the scuttlebutt out there. What's really depressing in all of this is that we're discussing someone else's discussion, and all the headlines at the other end are effectively 'Nick Baker reports Tatanka cancelled.' This is factually wrong. If we had corroborated, verifiable evidence and detail on this, I think it's pretty likely we'd do a report ourselves. We don't, so we haven't. There's a reason it's just a discussion on the podcast."

Based on details posted on Twitter/X by a pair of well known leakers, AMD appears to be working on a pair of different Ryzen 8000-series mobile processors. The previously known Strix Point is said to get up to four Zen 5 cores and eight Zen 5c cores, whereas the Strix Halo is said to get 16 Zen 5 cores, according to @Olrak29_. This is something that was posted by Moore's Law is Dead back in April as well, who claimed the chip will launch sometime at the end of 2024. MLID also suggested that the Strix Halo will feature a 40 CU GPU and a 256-bit LPDDR5X memory interface, making it a very different proposition from your average APU from AMD.

@kopite7kimi chimes in on Twitter to point out that "Strix Halo looks like a desktop Zen 5 with a different IOD." This is definitely something that would be possible for AMD to do and if we look at the MLID information, the Strix Halo processor appears to have something called a Mall Cache, which seems to be something of a catch all cache for the various components inside the chip, such as the AI Engine and the GPU. Time will tell if AMD delivers on Strix Halo or not, but this might be the first notebook processor that can handle gaming at a decent resolution without needing a discrete GPU. Then again, with a rumoured peak TDP of 120 W, this chip is also going to run hotter and draw more power than most mobile processors to date.

Over the years, the Cooler Master Hyper 212 series has established itself as a leading choice for aftermarket CPU cooling, earning a reputation as one of the most popular custom CPU coolers available. The company has continuously modernized the series by integrating advanced heatsink and fan technologies. With the introduction of the Hyper 212 Halo, Cooler Master has implemented a significant design and technology overhaul, taking the series to new heights.

The Hyper 212 Halo Series boasts the innovative Halo² fan, a refined version of its predecessor. The hardware is adorned with color accents, available in black or white options. The 4 heat pipe tower now sports a matching color treatment and a coordinating top cover showcasing the signature logo, creating a cohesive and stylish design.

The latest patch for Halo Infinite has introduced an undesired side effect for a select portion of its PC platform playerbase. Changes to minimum system specification requirements were not clarified by 343 Industries in their patch notes, but it appears that the game now refuses to launch for owners of older GPU hardware. A limit of 4 GB of VRAM has been listed as the bare minimum since Halo Infinite's launch in late 2021, with the AMD Radeon RX 570 and Nvidia GTX GeForce 1050 Ti cards representing the entry level GPU tier, basic versions of both were fitted with 4 GB of VRAM as standard.

Apparently users running the GTX 1060 3 GB model were able to launch and play the game just fine prior to the latest patch, due to it being more powerful than the entry level cards, but now it seems that the advertised hard VRAM limit has finally gone into full effect. The weaker RX 570 and GTX 1050 Ti cards are still capable of running Halo Infinite after the introduction of season 3 content, but a technically superior piece of hardware cannot, which is unfortunate for owners of the GTX 1060 3 GB model who want to play Halo Infinite in its current state.

AMD has released its latest Adrenalin drivers for Radeon graphics cards. With support dating back to RX 400, the latest Adrenalin 23.3.1 WHQL drivers bring a lot of improvements to the table, as well as support for Halo Infinite Ray Tracing Update and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty game. Most importantly, the new driver has a series of fixes, including intermittent driver timeout, system freeze, or BSOD, with the latest Radeon RX 7000 series. Problems in games such as Premium Gold Packs in EA SPORTS FIFA 23 and Dying Light 2 lighting effects corruption have been fixed. As far as Radeon RX 6000 series goes, this driver release manages to fix corruption in certain scenes with ray tracing enabled observed in the Returnal game. Check the list below for the entire set of changes.Download: AMD Radeon Graphics Drivers 23.3.1 WHQL here.

We believe games have limitless potential, and that to do anything worthwhile in entertainment, we must bet big on our vision, on our studio, and on our incredible team of trusted creators who build unforgettable worlds that truly matter to people.

In SIE, we have found a partner who unconditionally supports us in all we are and who wants to accelerate our vision to create generation-spanning entertainment, all while preserving the creative independence that beats in Bungie's heart. Like us, SIE believes that game worlds are only the beginning of what our IPs can become. Together, we share a dream of creating and fostering iconic franchises that unite friends around the world, families across generations, and fans across multiple platforms and entertainment mediums.

On behalf of the entire Halo Infinite team, and in celebration of Halo's 20th anniversary, I am very happy to announce that your Spartan journey begins… today! Sincerest thanks to the entire Halo community for your support, passion, and feedback. This day belongs to all of you. Whether you've been part of the community from the beginning or are joining with us today, welcome!

Why is this release a beta? Our previous Multiplayer Technical Previews went a long way to battle-testing our services and infrastructure. But as we prepare for a significant increase in the number of players jumping into Halo Infinite on launch day, December 8th, we want to ensure all our systems are good-to-go. While you may experience some bumps and bugs during this beta period, it does mark the official start of Halo Infinite Season 1, with all day-one maps and modes enabled as well as the full Season 1 Battle Pass. This means all the Battle Pass and customization items you earn or purchase during the beta will stay with you after December 8th.

Here it is: Microsoft and AMD have collaborated in a special, limited-edition Halo-themed graphics card. Putting the Halo in a halo product, the new release features a collaborative design between AMD and Microsoft, and deepens the link between both companies. The design takes its cues specifically from Halo's most recognizable character, The Master Chief - Spartan John-117. The custom card features a triple-fan cooling solution, customized with the military green and faceplate gold from the iconic Halo character. The backplate too screams the connections to Halo, with a 117 embossing and a LED-illuminated blue AI logo.

Microsoft also used the limited edition RX 6900 XT graphics card announcement to indicate that it is working closely with AMD to bring ray tracing to Halo infinite, saying that "Ray tracing is one our top development priorities post-launch and look forward to sharing more soon." Smartly, and perhaps learning from what happened with the retail release of the Halo infinite custom Xbox Series X console (which fell to scalpers in a matter of minutes), the new, limited edition graphics card won't be available for sale; instead, " AMD, Halo, and other partners will be offering players multiple opportunities over the coming weeks to get their hands on one." Look after the break for the teaser video of the product.

Microsoft and 343 Industries, developers of the popular Halo franchise, recently announced at Gamescom 2021 both the release date for Halo Infinite and limited edition products to accompany the launch - and the anniversary for 20 years of Halo. The game drops on December 8th for the Xbox family of devices and PC, but users who want to play immersed in lore can attempt to get themselves the Limited Edition Xbox Series X console, which comes with a custom skin (representing both details of a Spartan's armor as well as the starry skies above Zeta Halo. The green LED behind the top fan has also been changed to Cortana blue, and there are golden details across both the console (the golden Xbox badge is a nice touch) and the custom, skinned controller that comes with the console. For the price of $549,99 including a digital download version of the game, the choice between this one or a regular Xbox Series X console is clear.

343 Industries, a game developer and maker of the Halo game series, has today released 4K screenshots of their upcoming PC title called Halo Infinite game. The company has been providing players with regular updates regarding the game development and showing a bit of how the whole process is looking like. What the developers have in their heads when developing something like this, and what are their goals to achieve. For someone interested in that, these monthly updates are very valuable reads. Today, however, we are in for a surprise. Halo Infinite PC screenshots have been revealed and we get a hint of what is to come.

Showcasing Zeta Halo, one of the seven rings in the Halo Array, located in the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way galaxy, we get to see the beautiful open world the developers are creating. The main spotlight of the graphics is centered around the day-nigh changes, which are supposed to feature raytracing technology and use the latest advancements in graphics. Below, you can take a look at the world of rings and see some game scenes for yourself. For a full 4K images, please head over to the Halo Infinite blog post update.More pictures follow.

Teaming with 343 Industries, Seagate today announced the latest addition to its popular line of storage for gamers - Game Drive for Xbox Halo: Master Chief Limited Edition. Celebrating the legendary Master Chief from the Halo video game franchise, this limited edition Game Drive features a one-of-a-kind sleek case design that celebrates the Master Chief John-117. A limited Master Chief vinyl die-cut sticker set also comes in the box for fans to collect. The new drive is available in 2 TB and 5 TB capacities so gamers can install more games and downloadable game content by balancing their gaming workload between console and external HDD.

Gamers can easily begin their Halo journey as the Game Drive is compatible with and automatically recognized by the full family of Xbox One devices, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S consoles, and easily installed in under two minutes through Xbox OS. It is USB 3.2 Gen 1 bus powered and does not need a separate power cord to play so fans can unite in their mission from anywhere. Users can play legacy games and archive next generation games on the Game Drive which can store more than 502 downloaded games.

343 Industries have recently announced that Halo Infinite will be delayed from a November 2020 launch to a as of yet unknown 2021 launch date. This comes as a major blow to the Xbox Series X which was planned to have Halo Infinite as a headliner launch title. The team explained how COVID-19 had introduced new development challenges and that the extra time will allow them to complete critical work on the game. Hopefully this delay will bring a better, more polished Halo title.

Chris Lee 343 Industries Studio HeadThe decision to shift our release is the result of multiple factors that have contributed to development challenges, including the ongoing COVID-related impacts affecting us all this year. I want to acknowledge the hard work from our team at 343 Industries, who have remained committed to making a great game and finding solutions to development challenges. However, it is not sustainable for the well-being of our team or the overall success of the game to ship it this holiday.

After Sony has showcased Unreal Engine 5 capabilities on the new PlayStation 5 console, there was a counterpart event missing from Microsoft. However, Microsoft has announced today that the company will host a live stream event on July 23rd. That is the date when Microsoft will host the event on YouTube and Twitch. Starting at 9 am PT time, the company will showcase the capabilities of the new Xbox Series X console. Possibly, Microsoft will show ray tracing and all the latest technology advancements with AMD's RDNA2 graphics card found inside the new console. What we can expect in terms of games is Halo Infinite and maybe new Forza and Gears of War games. Either way, we have to wait and find out on July 23rd.

Another installment in the Halo: The Master Chief Collection for PC is gearing up for release. 343 Industries via its Halo Twitter account has just posted an announcement of the coming release on the second numbered installment on the Halo series. The remastered Halo 2 Anniversary was released as part of the Master Chief Collection's original release for the Xbox One way back in 2014, remastering a 2004 video game.

During Microsoft's Q3 2020FY Earnings call, it was confirmed that Xbox Live was seeing record levels of engagement with over 90 million monthly users. On top of this, Microsoft announced that Xbox Game Pass had surpassed 10 million subscribers for the video game subscription service. Xbox Game Pass is available for Xbox One and PC giving users access to a library with hundreds of games including many large recent games such as Gears Tactics, Halo Master Chief Collection, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. This makes Xbox Game Pass the largest game subscription service far outnumbering EA Access and Origin Access. Microsoft also noted that interest in Project xCloud the experimental game streaming service was high with "hundreds of thousands" of active users.

NVIDIA's GeForce Now game streaming service has been a bit of a hit and miss lately, with some of the bigger publishers like Activision-Blizzard, Bethesda, and 2K games revoking availability of their digital game libraries on NVIDIA's service. Possible reasons for those events were unknown and the platform did suffer from it. Some speculations were that the publishers were going to switch their preferred online streaming service platform or build their own. So far it is still a mystery. However, it seems like there is no end to the pain, as some very big publishers decided to revoke their digital libraries as well.

Big names like Microsoft Xbox Game Studios, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Codemasters, and Klei Entertainment have all decided to stop offering their games on the GeForce Now game streaming platform. This is very much a major disappointment and another big setback to the platform, as now you can not play any of the titles from these publishers. Titles from the games series like Halo, Gears of War, Forza, Dirt Rally, Batman and many more, are now not available. It remains to be seen if these publishers announce a move to another streaming service, so we have to wait.

Halo: Reach for PC is going live today, as per confirmations from game developer 343 Industries. The game is supposed to go live tonight at 10 AM PST / 1 PM EST when it will be released on PC and Xbox One. The PC port is going to be available for purchase on three platforms: Game Pass, Steam, and the Windows Store. The PC port currently contains some bugs, however, 343 Industries is working to iron them out before the game launches. Features like uncapped FPS will be mostly unstable during the launch period and might cause the game to crash, so it's better to turn it off for now. Latency issues could also be present in the beginning but 343i is working hard to remove it before the game drops tonight. For all Steam users, you can pre-purchase the game here.

Tech Journalist Brad Sams, who first reported on Halo: The Master Chief Collection coming to the PC platform before its official announcement, has spilled the beans on another juicy detail regarding the Halo universe: that Microsoft will use this E3 2019 to showcase the first gameplay for the game. This isn't news, really - after last year's tease, it was expected that gameplay would be available this year to whet gamers' appetites. However, the fact that Halo Infinite will be running in the PC platform is newsworthy, since this is quite the departure from previously-known Microsoft, which seemed to relegate its PC gaming ambitions to other developers.

Now, with Microsoft vouching to treat the PC platform as the gaming juggernaut it is, and the already-known information that 343 Industries' (the current Halo developers) Slipspace engine would treat PC gamers with the latest technology in terms of graphics presentation, PC has become the defacto platform of choice to showcase Halo's next-gen visuals (whilst using an Xbox One controller, by the way). This likely only happens because Microsoft isn't ready to completely pull the wraps on the next-generation Xbox; or it could serve as a show of good faith from the company when it comes to PC gaming. Whatever the reason for Microsoft's decision, this seems like a great time to be a PC - and Halo - fan.

Microsoft today via a devblog announced their push to make Variable Rate Shading an industry-wide adoption in the search of increased performance that can support the number of pixels and quality of those pixels in future games. The post starts with what is likely the foremost question on the mind of any discerning user that hears of a technique to improve performance: "does it degrade image quality?". And the answer, it seems, is a no: no discernible image quality differences between the Variable Rate Shading part of the image, and the fully rendered one. I'll give you the option to speak on your own perception, though: analyze the image below and cast your vote on the poll.

As resolution increases, so does the amount of work that any given GPU has to process to generate a single frame - and compare that to the amount of additional work that goes from rendering a 30 FPS, 1080p game to a 60 FPS, 4K one, and... It stands to reason that ways of squeezing the highest amount of performance from a given process are at a premium. Particularly in the console space, where cost concerns require the usage of more mainstream-equivalent hardware, which requires creative ways of bridging the desired image quality and the available rendering time for each frame.