Developers at SteamVR have announced a new feature called Motion Smoothing that will enable "more players on more PCs to play high-fidelity VR games and experiences". This technique works in a similar way to what it does on flat screen TVs. In this case, Motion Smoothing interpolates between two existing frames and creates a new in-between frame that smooths the experience and increases framerate. That adds latency, which is not a good idea in VR experiences, and that's precisely what's different at SteamVR implementation.

With that feature enable, SteamVR detects when an application is going to drop frames. If that happens, "it looks at the last two delivered frames, estimates motion and animation, and extrapolates a new frame. Synthesizing new frames keeps the current application at full framerate, advances motion forward, and avoids judder". This allows the user to enjoy full framerate while the performance requirements decrease. That way, even users with graphics card not specially powerful can still enjoy VR experiences without problems.

In a continued effort to support the PC platform, BANDAI NAMCO previously announced they would be releasing Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown on PC. At the time, there was no mention of what the game's system requirements would be. However, thanks to an NVIDIA blog post, we now know not only the game's system requirements but an estimate on system performance as well- at least with their own graphics solutions.

Overall, the minimum and recommended requirements appear to be quite reasonable. BANDAI NAMCO even went so far as to make note that the recommended requirements are representative of what is needed to run the game at the 1920x1080 resolution with max settings. NVIDIA's own testing backs up those claims with the GeForce GTX 1060 offering a comfortable 100 FPS at 1920x1080, and 60 FPS at 2560x1440 resolutions. Meanwhile, those wanting to push the game at 4K will need a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti or better which should offer a steady 60+ FPS.

If you're looking for a new game to pave your way through some dead hours of your days, and like space marines, the Humble store has you covered. They're offering up copies of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine to anyone and everyone that goes into their store page, adds the game to their cart, and checks-out. You can redeem the offered code on your Steam account for a limited time - et voilá. Simple and easy. If you have the time, peruse their other options as well. Any piece of code you purchase from their store helps different charities, so if you can prioritize your purchases through them, there's always also that warm fuzzy feeling of maybe having done something right.

Keen-eyed Linux and Valve uses have noticed what could seemingly be a big reveal and shake-up to games' compatibility with the Linux platform. If you're a die-hard Linux fan, or even if you're just a curious dabbler in that operating system, you know that there aren't many concerted efforts of bringing game experiences to that operating system. A good port requires many more hours than game developers are willing to put into it - let alone compiling a native implementation of their game for that OS.

However, Valve, being the most important digital games distributor through their Steam platform, know there's an untapped source of income in that part of the market. And if developers won't do it themselves, then Valve seem to be willing to take the matter into their own hands. This speculation arises from Steam's GUI files, which when looked at with SteamDB's Steam Tracker, include a hidden section with unused text related to an (as of yet) unannounced Steam Play system, which "(...) will automatically install compatibility tools that allow you to play games from your library that were built for other operating systems."

Monster Hunter: World has cemented itself as this year's biggest Steam launch (at least hitherto). The popular game which has been one of the most popular console launches of this generation has again done it on the PC platform, where it achieved an astounding 239,779 concurrent players a few hours after launch, more than any Japanese game ever achieved - and this comes at a time that's after the Dark Souls phenomenon. This year's previous biggest launch was Kingdom Come: Deliverance, which pulled in nearly 96,000 players - a far cry from Monster Hunter: World's achievement.

Here's our performance analysis and port impressions article.

Discord is currently (maybe not so arguably as that) the most popular social gaming platform there is, and counts with millions upon millions of players (it counts some 150 million users) using its services daily. Of course, after a userbase has been defined and taken a hold of, new opportunities and ways of increasing the bottom line - while simultaneously, if possible, adding more value to that same userbase - becomes paramount to growth.

Discord thus has decided to dip its toes in the games delivery service. On the one hand, it's yet another platform for game splintering across multiple accounts and services, thus vying for app attention in our systems. On the other, it's another competitor to the juggernaut that is Steam, but comes loaded with already-implemented social features which the latter will take a long time - if at all - to correctly implement. Discord is choosing to take this time at first, with just 50,000 users enrolling in their store interface, and offering a drum-roll selection of games - which they aim to be more of a curated service than a "rolling snowstorm of titles" affair. Besides directly selling games, they'll be adding free games accessible to subscribers of Discord's Nitro service.

Bethesda has taken it to Steam's platform to throw around a sale party that looks to whet appetites for their legendary Quakecon. They're doing this sale on a platform which, by the way, won't be the home for Fallout 76 and possibly other, future titles from the company. But that is neither here nor there; this here is for users to be able to snag an awesome deal on what are definitely some of the better games in the industry.

The discounts range from 25% (for the recently released Prey Mooncrash DLC, for example) all the way to 75% (for games such as Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel and the original Fallout), but most games are seeing a 50% mark-down from their current pricing. If you have any extra money you weren't counting on and some Bethesda games on your wishlist, now might be the best time to get the ball rolling.

The ease of digital distribution means companies can always try to maximize their profits by cutting the man in the middle - saving in on any distribution fees that third party would demand for its services. Of course, this is easier said than done, and most small companies wouldn't be able to set up their own digital distribution service - Steam as a platform is a great alternative for these, since it couples simplicity with a grand user base, and Steam's own in-house publicity and user data allows these companies to achieve a much wider audience than they likely would should they try to use their own distribution platform.

Of course, Bethesda isn't a small company, to say the least; that's why it has the resources to pour into its own digital platform, and part of the reason why Fallout 76 won't make it to the PC's leading distribution platform, Steam. In the game F.A.Q., Bethesda has made it clear that Fallout 76 will only be available via Bethesda.net, meaning that users will be left in the cold with some of Steam's exclusive features. Of course, one might argue that those are all peanuts compared to the actual game.

It's been two years since Valve decided to take away the excitement of their flash sales out of the equation. The thought-process was that by having sales go uninterrupted from the beginning through to the end of each sale period would maximize chances of users being able to find it in their budgets - and in their time - more chances to purchase said games. However, one thing is for sure: that means that for users who see the sale in the first day, they've really seen it all.

Valve News Network's Tyler McVicker says the flash sales are returning in a different way now. This time, developers will be able to choose how long they want each game's flash sale to last: 6, 8, 10, or 12 hours, meaning Steam's front page will likely be updated every hour. This is both good and bad, as we've seen; however, it seems that Valve is erring towards the side of excitement and daily viewing of flash sales as being quantifiably better than the alternative. For one, I can see that users that see a flash sale are much more likely to do some impulse buys than if they know a sale will last for a long time. It's basic psychology here.

Publisher THQ has just announced that the sequel to the well-received This is the Police, This is the Police 2, has now been released - for early parole! The previous August 2nd release date has been superseded by a sudden influx of criminality in Sharpwood - and gamers will now have the privilege of partaking in the crime-fighting brigade and become the new Sheriff in town.

This is the Police 2 improves on its 2016 predecessor in every which way, and it seems it's off to a good start, as reviews have already come out praisingly. A mixture of adventure and management, This is the Police II puts you in the boots of a Sheriff in Sharpwood, and you'll have to manage your retinue of police enforcers, their personal needs, their weakneses and their strenghts... much like in the real world. This editor enjoyed the easy-going nature of the first game, but it hits a little too close to home. The revamped This is the Police 2 now is saddled with much better code, deeper mechanics, and difficult moral choices as in the first game, and is now available on Steam, with Autumn availability for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One family of devices including Xbox One X. Head on after the break for the game trailer.

PUBG is still a juggernaut of a game and Battle Royale experience, no matter how much Fortnite has been making increasingly larger waves on PUBG's pond of success. To prove that is the fact that released reports for PUBG sales during the month of June point towards a grand total of 4.7 million copies sold during that month alone. That's the second-highest amount of copies in a single month the game has ever sold - only surpassed by October 2017 - and brings the games' total sales up to some 53 million copies. The reduced, sale-level price point of $19.99 (down from the usual $29.99) helped drive sales maybe even more than the games' popularity.

Following Valve's decision to disable trading in the Netherlands due to that country's legal statutes regarding gambling, the company is now taking other steps to comply with the country's Dutch Gaming Authority. Players in the Netherlands and Belgium "will be restricted from opening containers" following this week's patch, according to the patch notes. This will prevent players in those countries from even opening the lootboxes. As the "Miscellaneous" section of the patch notes reads:

• Updated Steam and CS:GO account restrictions for users in Netherlands and Belgium:
• Steam Trading and Steam Market features are now re-enabled for Steam accounts in Netherlands.
• Customers in Netherlands and Belgium will be restricted from opening containers.

(UPDATE: And It's On!)

This years' Steam Summer Sale is kicking off today, as per the one-month-old leak - and warning - we gave our users. I hope you either finished your spending plans; are finalizing them as we speak; or are fortunate enough not to have to plan your spending in these trying, tempting times. Either way, be ready for increased lists of waiting games starting at 5 pm UTC, 10 am PDT (and 6 pm on my own little corner of Europe, Portugal).

Not long ago, the Netherlands ruled that loot boxes in games are gambling, and have been designed to get people addicted, in order to spend more money. Gaming companies had until June 20 (yesterday) to either change their game mechanics accordingly or to apply for a gambling license.

This has now caused Valve to disable trading of items on CS:GO and Dota 2, as the current interpretation of the law has a little loophole that considers loot boxes as gambling only, when the in-game goods are transferable between players.

Have you ever wondered how much money you've invested into your entire Steam collection? Well, now you can! Valve has recently added a nifty feature called 'External Funds Used' that allows Steam users to see the total amount of money spent at the Steam store. All users have to do is sign into their Steam account at this link. Do note that the tool doesn't take into account key activations. So, games that have been purchased through third-party stores like GOG, Green Man Gaming, Humble Bundle, G2A, and etc. will not contribute to the grand total. The "OldSpend" field equals to the amount of money that was spent before the Limited User Account policy was implemented in 2015. The "PWSpend" is related to purchases made on games operated by Perfect World Entertainment. a Chinese company that runs CS:GO and DOTA 2 in China. So, how much have you spent? Let us know in the comments below.

PUBG Corp. just announced that they have reached the incredible number of 50 million units sold on the platforms PC and Xbox One. When including PUBG Mobile, they have over 400 million registered players world-wide, with over 87 million of them playing PUBG every single day.

To celebrate this epic milestone, they have decided to have the first ever sale of PUBG, at a price of $17.99, until July 5th. Could be that sales are going down, possibly driven by Epic's Fortnite, which has a bigger player base now, and is available for more platforms.

Chromebooks are all the rage right now. As a matter of fact, Acer recently released the first convertible Chromebook and a couple of other premium models aimed at business users. Google isn't staying behind either. A device under the codename "Kidd" was recently discovered in a Chromium OS code commit. Kidd is allegedly supposed to be a Chromebook, and the first to come with a quad-core Kaby Lake G processor with AMD Radeon Vega graphics inside. The Kaby Lake G family is comprised of the Intel Core i5-8305G, i7-8705G, i7-8706G, i7-8709G, and i7-8809G. That's a total of five processors for Google to choose from. But, at the moment, it's unclear whether Kidd will employ a 65 watt model or opt for a more powerful 100 watt variant.

The latest Chrome OS update brought support for Linux applications. Therefore, users can now install Steam on their Chromebooks. While GPU acceleration isn't quite there yet, it's on the roadmap. Support for GPU acceleration should arrive later this year. Once that happens, users will finally be able to game on the Chrome OS. So, expect to see a lot more Chromebooks with Raven Ridge and Kaby Lake G processors very soon.

Apple approved the Steam Link app for release. On Weds, May 9th, Valve released news of the app. The following morning, Apple revoked its approval citing business conflicts with app guidelines that had allegedly not been realized by the original review team. Valve appealed, explaining the Steam Link app simply functions as a LAN-based remote desktop similar to numerous remote desktop applications already available on the App Store.

Ultimately, that appeal was denied leaving the Steam Link app for iOS blocked from release. The team here spent many hours on this project and the approval process, so we're clearly disappointed. But we hope Apple will reconsider in the future.

Codemasters and Koch Media today announced that F1 2018, the official videogame of the 2018 FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, will immerse players into the world of Formula 1 more than ever before. F1 2018 will release onto PlayStation 4 computer entertainment system, the Xbox One family of devices including the Xbox One X and Windows PC (DVD and via Steam) worldwide on Friday 24th August 2018, the weekend of the FORMULA 1 2018 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX at the iconic Spa-Francorchamps Circuit.

"We were delighted by the reception that the highly-acclaimed F1 2017 game received, and are extremely excited to be able to further build on such a strong starting point with F1 2018" said Paul Jeal, F1 Franchise Director at Codemasters. "Over the past few years we have engaged heavily with our fan-base to understand what is important to them and we cannot wait to unveil more details on features we know our fans will love. Career mode has been further expanded to immerse players even deeper into the world of F1 than before, with the return of a highly requested feature back into the franchise. We are also adding more classic cars, again listening to our fans as to which of the historical F1 cars they would most like to virtually drive next. Outside of those headline additions there are many other great enhancements to be revealed before the game launches."

Steam's annual sale extraordinnaire event's date has been set. The day where users will start changing winks and seduction efforts with their bank accounts will come on June 21st, the first day of the 2018 Steam Summer sale. If a leak from Steam DB is correct (and they've been right before), the Steam 2018 Summer Sale starts at 9:55AM Pacific Time on June 21, 2018, lasting for 13 lucky days until 10:05AM Pacific time on July 5, 2018.

Of course, stretching the old euro (or dollar, or appropriate currency, it's a wide world out there) can only go so far. Since we're more than a month away from the purported beginning of the next Steam Summer sale, users are encouraged to look through their backlog of games; look through their wishlist; and plan, furiously and strategically, where to allocate their gaming funds. Though we all know what will happen: we always need. All. The Games.

Do you remember AMD's TrueAudio Next technology? If not, you'd be forgiven; it's not gained as much traction as it could (should?) have, considering its open nature. As a quick reminder, this is AMD's GPU-accelerated audio pipeline, which adds "audio raytracing" capabilities to audio by delivering true spatial positioning and object interactions in a given scene - at much higher performance than the usual CPU-based solutions.

The 1.2 version is being hailed as a "coming of age" for True Audio Next, which includes "a number of notable performance and feature improvements, and it reflects the enhancements built into the version of TAN supported in Steam Audio." Efficiency has also been improved, with minimized "memory, buffer transfer and synchronization overhead". The remainder of the blog post by AMD's Fellow Design Engineer Carl Wakeland follows.

Valve today announced the upcoming release of two additional apps that will further the way users can interact with - and more importantly, game on - their Steam platform. The two apps, dubbed Steam Link and Steam video, will bring users new functionality that aims to extend their freedom to game and consume content in new ways, particularly geared for mobile, on-the-go interaction.

The Steam Link app, slated to launch on the week of May 21st, allows gamers to experience their Steam library of games on their Android (phone, tablet, TV) and iOS-based (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV) devices while connected via 5Ghz network or wired Ethernet to a host system (Mac or PC). Android access will be initially offered in beta. The Steam Link App will feature support for the Steam Controller, MFI controllers, and more across both platforms. The Steam Video app will take a little while longer to perfect, though, and should be available on the start of summer, just in time for those long hours when users just want to enjoy the thousands of movies and shows available on Steam directly via their Android and iOS devices over Wi-Fi or LTE - in both offline and streaming modes.

Vampyr, the upcoming action-RPG from DONTNOD Entertainment, explores tortured protagonist Dr. Jonathan Reid's growth in power through savage combat gameplay in today's Becoming a Monster gameplay trailer. By sacrificing the very citizens Reid swore to protect, players will learn and evolve powerful vampire abilities in their struggle to defeat London's deadly foes. Vampyr releases June 5 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, with preorders now available.

In Vampyr, the greatest source of XP to learn and enhance abilities comes from the blood of London's citizens, who Dr. Jonathan Reid has set out to save from the epidemic sweeping through the city. The question is less "Do I kill?" than "Who do I kill?" Investigating citizens' lives will allow Reid to decide who is more 'deserving' of sacrifice - or he can simply give in to his hunger and treat the mortals as blood bags. Either way, killing certain citizens will have a greater impact on the local ecosystem than others, while simply killing too many may cause an entire district to collapse.

It's a big day for us. Today, we are looking back on 20 years as Futuremark and looking forward to our first day as UL, a name we now share with our parent company. To mark the beginning of this new chapter in our story, I'm happy to announce that we are running a week-long sale on Steam. From now until next Monday, you can save 75% on our 3DMark, VRMark, and PCMark 10 benchmarks. Or save even more when you buy them together in our benchmark bundle.

Croteam today released a teaser trailer and screenshot for Serious Sam 4: Planet Badass. As the name implies, Serious Sam 4: Planet Badass is the fourth installment in the Serious Sam franchise and will supposedly reignite the series with high-adrenaline action, enormous hordes of enemies to kill, and a plethora of new weapons to choose from. A full reveal of the game will take place at the Devolver Digital E3 conference this coming June. For those who are interested, the Steam page for Serious Sam 4: Planet Badass is live if you want to add the game to your wishlist. Unfortunately, Croteam didn't announce the official launch date, so we'll have to wait until E3 to get more information.