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LUNAR Remastered Collection Lined Up for April 18 Launch

LUNAR fans, mark your calendars! The epic adventure to save the world from the forces of evil with old friends Alex, Hiro, and more, begins April 18, 2025. Wishlist it on Steam right now! Dive into the enchanting worlds of LUNAR: Silver Star Story Complete and LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue Complete, two beloved JRPGs that have captured the hearts of gamers for generations. LUNAR: Silver Star Story introduces Alex, an aspiring Dragonmaster who bands together with his friends to combat the perilous emergence of the Magic Emperor and stop him from taking over the world.

LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue picks up a thousand years later, and follows Hiro and his friends as they set out in search of the Goddess Althena alongside an enigmatic girl named Lucia. On this grand quest, fend off enemies like Borgan and White Knight Leo, who hunt down the group to eradicate what they deem to be the "Destroyer of Lunar." This definitive remastered edition features enhanced graphics, audio, and quality-of-life improvements that will satiate that hunger for 90s nostalgia--better than you remember! Embark on these two adventures with updated language support, now available in English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, French, and German.

Marvelous Announces "Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma" Release Date: May 30

Marvelous Games has announced Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma. This new entry in the series will launch globally on the Nintendo Switch system and Windows PC via Steam on May 30, 2025. A new gameplay video showcasing Guardians of Azuma's action combat, relationship system, and seasonal village life is also now available to watch below. The latest entry in the popular action-RPG and life-simulation series introduces the Eastern territory of Azuma, a land of Japanese-inspired visuals and unique twists on familiar gameplay elements from the Rune Factory franchise.

Pre-orders for the Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma Limited Edition are now available at participating retailers here for an RRP of €99.99. This stunning collection comes in a custom outer box and includes a physical copy of the game, an original soundtrack CD, an art book, an Azuma-inspired folding fan, the "Seasons of Love" DLC bundle, additional DLC costumes for your protagonists and their divine sidekick Woolby, and a plush Woolby keychain. The standard edition of the game is also available to pre-order for an RRP of €59.99. Details on digital editions will be announced later.

Bandai Namco Explores "SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada" Story Missions, Early Access Available Now

SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada, the mecha-based PvPvE extraction shooter from Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc., is available beginning today for consoles and PC. In the game, players take on the role of Drifters, pilots of nimble mecha called CRADLECOFFINS exploring and battling through the ruins of Amasia, a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by poisonous rain. They must rely on their AI companions, called Magus, to help them wage combat in an environment plagued by twisted mutant creatures and other players with unpredictable loyalties to retrieve valuable resources for their own survival.

SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada is now available via Early Access to those players who pre-ordered the Deluxe or Ultimate editions of the game on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with PC via Steam. The game will launch in all editions on January 23. Find out more about the game and Early Access on the official website.

GEEKOM Announces Cost-Effective Mini PC GEEKOM A6 With AMD Ryzen 7 6800H

GEEKOM, the Green Mini PC Global Leader, is going to release a new model named the A6 on January 17th, 2025. This mini PC is already available for pre-order on GEEKOM's official website. Priced at $449, it may just be the new best mini PC under $500.

According to the official information, the GEEKOM A6 mini PC employs a well-ventilated aluminium chassis which measures only 0.47 liter, but it packs enormous power under the hood, thanks to the perfect combination of a beefy processor, high-bandwidth DDR5 RAM, and a fast PCIe Gen 4 SSD.

Drop Unveils "The Lord of the Rings" Themed CSTM Keyboards

"Muster the Rohirrim. Assemble the army at Dunharrow. As many men as can be found. You have two days." CTSM the Rohirrim...and we have two new keyboards. At the core of these Rohan forces are Rohan CSTM Decorative Cases, made from regal green polycarbonate and adorned with iconography from Calenardhon. Hoisting the banners of Rohan all the way to the top is our officially licensed DCD Rohan Keycap Set-rallied in here in the green Aldburg variant to match our new cases.

CSTM Construction for any Formation
Alongside our exclusive Rohan accessories is a whole cavalry's worth of enthusiast components—including Gateron switches, customizable gasket mounting, case foam, case weights, and more.

PlayStation Introduces Midnight Black PS5 Accessories Collection

The latest PS5 accessories get a new look with the Midnight Black Collection - bringing the galaxy-inspired Midnight Black colorway to the PlayStation Portal remote player, DualSense Edge wireless controller, Pulse Elite wireless headset, and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds. These accessories perfectly complement the Midnight Black PS5 accessories already available, including the DualSense wireless controller and PS5 console covers.

Each Midnight Black accessory features a unique, rich shade of black, with sleek detailing on various buttons and accents such as the PlayStation logo. The Midnight Black design extends to the included charging case for Pulse Explore earbuds, charging hanger for Pulse Elite headset, and carrying case for DualSense Edge controller. The Pulse Elite wireless headset and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds will also include a felt gray carrying case.

Pimax Announces the World's Smallest Full-Feature 8K Resolution VR Headset

Pimax, a manufacturer of leading VR hardware, released in an online keynote presentation the design and specs of an upcoming headset, the Pimax Dream Air. The small and light headset packs 27 million pixels, head, hand and eye-tracking, integrated spatial audio, a DisplayPort connection, and a self-adjusting backstrap.

The Dream Air is a PCVR headset, and borrows a lot of components from the previously announced Crystal Super, including the micro-OLED panels and pancake lenses—but packs this into a small form factor headset, to satisfy different use cases. It breaks with previous Pimax headsets, with a new design language, signalling the small form factor era for Pimax.

8BitDo Launches Transparent Xbox Edition Retro Mechanical Keyboard and Retro R8 Gaming Mouse

8BitDo is known for making retro gaming-themed peripherals, and it's now expanded that line-up with two more products in a transparent green color way reminiscent of the original Microsoft Xbox gaming console. The 8BitDo Retro 87 Mechanical Keyboard has received a refresh in classic transparent Xbox colors, and 8BitDo has launched its first gaming mouse, the Retro R8 Mouse in the same color way. The new colorway incorporates the expected transparent green plastic enclosures for the mouse and keyboard and also features bright red, yellow, blue, and green accent colors that, following the traditional ABXY button colors. Both the new Retro 87 Mechanical Keyboard ($199.99) and Retro R8 Mouse ($59.99) are available for pre-order on Amazon, although it looks like the initial batches on the mouse have sold out for now.

While 8BitDo has opted for Kailh Jellyfish X switches, likely for their transparent appearance, the hardware changes to the Retro 87 Mechanical Keyboard are mostly limited to the transparent green case, keycaps, and extra macro buttons. The mouse, on the other hand, bears further inspection, since it's a new product category for 8BitDo. On a surface level, the 8BitDo Retro R8 Mouse looks like a typical ambidextrous gaming mouse, with a claimed eight programmable buttons, USB-C, 2.4 GHz, and Bluetooth LE connectivity, and up to 26,000 DPI resolution. While it's not advertised as a lightweight mouse, it's certainly not heavy for a wireless mouse, coming in at 77 g. The Retro R8 Mouse also comes with a matching charging dock, which 8BitDo says will charge the mouse to 100% in 2.5 hours and acts as a signal extender. 8BitDo claims that the mouse can achieve between 26 and 105 hours of use from its 450 mAh Li-ion battery in wireless mode, depending on the polling rate and connectivity mode.

AOOSTAR Unveils XG76 and XG76 XT eGPUs with OCuLink, USB4 and Relatively Affordable Pricing

The prominent Chinese brand AOOSTAR has unveiled its XG lineup of RDNA 3-based eGPUs. Consisting of the XG76 and the XG76 XT, the eGPUs are powered by the AMD Radeon RX 7600M with 28 CUs and the desktop-class RX 7600 XT with 32 CUs respectively, both with a 150 W TDP. These GPUs are plenty performant, and are likely to offer respectable 1080p gaming performance.

Similar to offerings from competitors such as GPD and Ayaneo, the XG lineup features dock functionality as well. Both the variants sport USB4 connectivity with up to 100 W of power delivery. Display output is taken care of by the dual DisplayPort 2.0 ports, and a single HDMI 2.1 port. The system also rocks OCuLink support, allowing for a significantly lower performance hit when compared to Thunderbolt 4 or USB4.

Bethesda to Launch $29.99 Starfield: Shattered Space Expansion Without Early Reviews

Starfield's next DLC will be called Shattered Space, and it is set to launch on 30 September 2024 at $29.99 on PC, and Xbox. However, if you're a gamer that wants to know more about what you're getting into before you spend your money, you will seemingly need to wait, since gaming media won't have access to the expansion ahead of its launch.

The news was revealed by IGN journalist Dan Stapleton in a post on Bluesky that reads: "Aw dang, I'm told no Starfield: Shattered Space review copies are going out ahead of launch. We'll have something up on it ASAP but I imagine that's gonna be a few days at least." Stapleton doesn't seem to have been told why Bethesda won't be sending out review samples, but he does note that it will make reviewing the expansion while it is relevant more challenging.

iBUYPOWER and HYTE Unveil New Product Line Themed After HoYoverse's Honkai: Star Rail

iBUYPOWER, a leading manufacturer of high-performance prebuilt gaming PCs and its lifestyle PC peripherals brand HYTE are joining forces in a new partnership with HoYoverse for a product line-up inspired by HONKAI: STAR RAIL's Silver Wolf, a gamer, genius hacker, and member of the Stellaron Hunters who can tamper with reality's data with the art of "aether editing". Fans can get a first look at this lineup during Anime Expo 2024, where a Silver Wolf-themed prebuilt PC, limited edition keycaps, and products from our Official HYTE Y70 Silver Wolf "Stellaron Hunters Upgrade" which includes Silver Wolf-themed attire from the Asian-American streetwear brand M.RAGE, will be on display from July 4-7 at Booth E-40 and E-45 in the Entertainment Hall.

HYTE's collaboration aims to highlight Silver Wolf's in-game style, as the Official HYTE Y70 Silver Wolf Limited Edition Case has the character emblazoned on the front and side tempered glass panels, with iconography, signature marks, and lavender accents adorned all over the case. Her distinct flair extends to the rest of the chassis with matching trim based on her color scheme. The back-ventilation panel also shows custom 'Bubble Gum chibi' character artwork next to the 'WANTED' Silver Wolf Bounty Badge above the Y70's drive bay slot, which starts at 5100000001 and is an easter egg to HONKAI: STAR RAIL's in-game lore.

Slovenian Retailer Puts AMD's Ryzen 9000-series up for Pre-order

As we're getting close to the launch of AMD's 9000-series Ryzen processors, local retailers have already started to put the new CPUs up for pre-order and this gives us a first glimpse into the pricing we can expect. The first company to do so in Europe is Slovenian retailer Funtech, which has put up all four SKUs on its site. For those not familiar with European pricing, Slovenia has a VAT or sales tax rate of 22 percent, which obviously makes the pricing higher than in the US and some other countries. As Funtech also sells AMD's current CPUs, we can also get an idea of how much more the new CPUs will cost, at least compared to what the online retailer sells the equivalent 7000-series models for.

Starting from the bottom, the Ryzen 5 9600X goes for €310 (US$332) and the shop has the Ryzen 7 7600X up for sale at €212. The Ryzen 7 9700X goes for €400 (US$429), whereas the Ryzen 7 7700X is sold for €305. The Ryzen 9 9900X is listed at €500 (US$536) with the Ryzen 9 7900X at €392. Finally the Ryzen 9 9950X is listed at €660 (US$707), compared to €510 for the Ryzen 9 7950X. This is in line with earlier leaked pricing from the Philippines and with the VAT removed, we end up close to proposed MSRP pricing by various leakers over the past couple of months, or even somewhat lower. If anything, it doesn't look like AMD is going to increase the MSRP over the 7000-series of Ryzen processors.

Tiny Corp. Prepping Separate AMD & NVIDIA GPU-based AI Compute Systems

George Hotz and his startup operation (Tiny Corporation) appeared ready to completely abandon AMD Radeon GPUs last week, after experiencing a period of firmware-related headaches. The original plan involved the development of a pre-orderable $15,000 TinyBox AI compute cluster that housed six XFX Speedster MERC310 RX 7900 XTX graphics cards, but software/driver issues prompted experimentation via alternative hardware routes. A lot of media coverage has focused on the unusual adoption of consumer-grade GPUs—Tiny Corp.'s struggles with RDNA 3 (rather than CDNA 3) were maneuvered further into public view, after top AMD brass pitched in.

The startup's social media feed is very transparent about showcasing everyday tasks, problem-solving and important decision-making. Several Acer Predator BiFrost Arc A770 OC cards were purchased and promptly integrated into a colorfully-lit TinyBox prototype, but Hotz & Co. swiftly moved onto Team Green pastures. Tiny Corp. has begrudgingly adopted NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs. Earlier today, it was announced that work on the AMD-based system has resumed—although customers were forewarned about anticipated teething problems. The surprising message arrived in the early hours: "a hard to find 'umr' repo has turned around the feasibility of the AMD TinyBox. It will be a journey, but it gives us an ability to debug. We're going to sell both, red for $15,000 and green for $25,000. When you realize your pre-order you'll choose your color. Website has been updated. If you like to tinker and feel pain, buy red. The driver still crashes the GPU and hangs sometimes, but we can work together to improve it."

"Tales of Kenzera: ZAU" Devs Discuss the Game's Main Character

Our favorite thing about Zau might surprise you. Or, it might be the first thing you noticed. In a recent Discord Q+A (viewable below), ZAU Creative Director Abubakar Salim throws the deceptively simple question to Lead Artist Ackeem Durrant and Lead Designer Zi Peters: what's your favorite thing about our main character? Since our reveal in December, we've been completely floored by how many of you took the leap to pre-order ZAU. We worked hard to give the game a fair price—and a 10% discount to everyone who buys before launch day - plus carefully crafted in-game content that feels special while not detracting from our central vision for the game. We're incredibly grateful for your support. Thank you.

Wield the dance of the shaman. Reclaim your father's spirit
A grieving boy begins to read a Bantu tale written by his late father. Adventure into the beautiful and treacherous lands of Kenzera as Zau, a young shaman who bargains with the God of death to bring his Baba back from darkness. With your cosmic powers and untried courage, you advance into unknown mythological lands. Once bursting with life, Kenzera is now rife with lost ancestral spirits. As Zau advances toward his goal, 3 mighty beings lie in wait, fearsome in their strength yet somehow strangely familiar. Will you embrace the dance of the shaman?

Xikii Shows Off Unofficial ASUS "ProArt" GPU Compatible Compact Chassis

Chinese custom chassis specialist, Xikii, has opened pre-orders for a new FF04 model—this classy ¥3599 (~$500) box has been designed to match the aesthetic theme of ASUS ProArt graphics cards. 3DCenter.org was impressed with the company's premium-priced work, following a discovery by Western readers (on Reddit). The site's social media account expressed some appreciation—the Xikii FF04 chassis set is a "9.8 liter case built around a single GPU; ASUS ProArt RTX 4070 Ti. Even the contour of the case matches the curve of the GPU shroud."

Xikii's product page includes a bunch of slick marketing shots and a promo video—all showing off a sample unit. Redditors noticed that the first batch of FF04 cases has already sold out—the company anticipates a shipping out date somewhere within an April 15 to 30 window. VideoCardz has eyeballed all available data, and surmised that several "RTX 40 ProArt models (4080, 4070 and 4060 series)" are suitably proportioned to fit in Xikii's purpose-built chassis—these: "have the same dimensions of 300x120x50 mm. This may explain why this design made any sense, you can certainly fit more than one model into this case, just keep in mind that a suitable power supply is needed for higher-end models." Xikii will offer an "external split water-cooling adapter module" as an optional item in the near future—they predict a price of 180 yuan (~$25).

Apple Could Unveil iPad Pro OLED Models Around Late March

ITHome has highlighted several third-party protective cases listings for 12.9-inch iPad Air and Pro 2024 models—the Amazon product pages state that these accessories "will be on the shelves on March 26." The publication believes that this date could align with an official Apple unveiling—Mark Gurman, a Bloomberg reporter, predicted a planned announcement "around the end of March or April" in a recent "Power On" newsletter. MacRumors has tracked relevant activity on Weibo—based on claims made by Instant Digital (a well known Chinese leaker) they reckon that a possible March 26 presentation could be used to introduce: "pre-order availability, with shipping dates to follow."

We last heard about the rumored 2024 lineup of iPad Pro and Air models sporting some "revised physical dimensions." It was speculated that an upgrade to OLED panels has granted slimmer profiles—these possess fewer layers when compared to custom mini-LED parts on current generation premium tablets. LG is reported to be contracted for mass manufacturing of upcoming 13-inch iPad OLED tech, while Samsung (allegedly) takes care of 11-inch panels. With the launch of their M3 chipset-equipped MacBook Air 2024 range out of the way, Apple can concentrate on its next wave of new generation portable products.

Bandai Namco Introduces "Sand Land" Playable Demo

Bandai Namco Entertainment has announced the release of a playable demo on consoles and PC for Sand Land, the upcoming action RPG based on Akira Toriyama's original work (Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump). Sand Land is coming to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam on April 26, 2024. For more information visit Sand Land's official site; pre-orders for Standard, Deluxe and Collector's Edition of the title are available now.

Beelzebub, Rao, and Thief are just about to hit the road. Fancy tagging along?
This explosive new demo invites players to experience a slice of the exciting vehicle and melee combat and exploration in Sand Land. Step into the roles of the Fiend Prince Beelzebub, his chaperone Thief, and the fearless Sheriff Rao as the band of heroic misfits journeys across this colorful world via Battle Tanks, Battle Armors, and Motorcycles. Fans who play the demo will receive 30 B-grade steel and 30 B-grade bolts in the final game after launch, which can be used to enhance vehicles in Spino.

Capcom Bringing "Monster Hunter Stories" to PC & Consoles, Hatches on June 14

The original Monster Hunter Stories game is back and coming to Nintendo Switch, PC, and PlayStation 4! Become a Monster Rider and hatch, raise, and battle with your favorite monsties in this epic RPG adventure. Become a Monster Rider who raises monsters and forges lifelong bonds with them in this epic adventure set in a vast, vibrant world. Befriend monsters to transform them into your Monsties! Transfer genes between monsters to raise Monsties with their own unique attributes and skills! Utilize your Monstie's Riding Actions out in the field to discover everything the locales have to offer!

Guess your opponent's attack patterns and experience the excitement of mainline Monster Hunter titles while engaging in thrilling, turn-based battles with monsters.
In addition to featuring Japanese and English voice overs, this remastered version also includes a "Museum" mode where you can view concept art and listen to the game's music! Monster Hunter Stories launches on Nintendo Switch, PC, and PS4 on June 14 with refined graphics, a new Museum mode, and content previously released only in Japan. Ride on!

Crucial DDR5 SODIMM with 12 GB Capacity Appears on Amazon UK

A Crucial "CT12G56C46S5" Non-ECC Small Outline Dual In-line Memory Module (SODIMM) is available to pre-order from Amazon UK—the 12 GB capacity product was spotted by everyone's favorite PC hardware sleuth;—momomo_us. March 31 appears to be the official shipping out date—current pricing is £44.99 ($57.50). Additionally, customers have the option to reserve a related 24 GB Kit (2x 12 GB) kit (CT2K12G56C46S5), priced at £87.99 (~$112.36). According to product descriptions, Crucial's upcoming laptop 5600 MHz RAM "can downclock if system specification only supports 5200 MHz or 4800 MHz."

"Non-binary modules" DDR5 modules hit retail last year—we have witnessed a slow trickle out of 24 GB and 48 GB capacity sticks, granting unusual memory configurations on compatible AMD and Intel platforms. The CT12G56C46S5 and CT2K12G56C46S5 are supported by "Core 13th Gen and Ryzen 6000 Series laptop CPUs and above." Crucial's latest DDR5 SODIMM could be the first 12 GB capacity model to reach retail, unless a rival manufacturer sneaks out an equivalent item prior to March 31.

Pimoroni Intros "NVMe Base Duo" Extension Board for Raspberry Pi 5

Add two super fast NVMe SSDs to your Raspberry Pi 5. Ideal if you need redundancy or just a load more storage on your RPi. NVMe Base Duo is a PCIe Gen 2 extension board for Raspberry Pi 5. Simply populate it with one or two M-key NVMe SSDs (2230 to 2280 sizes supported) and mount it under (or over) your Pi for a compact and fast storage solution. It even comes with rubber feet!

It's the perfect solution for turning your Raspberry Pi 5 into a file server, media center, reverse proxy, etc.—really any task that benefits from large amounts of fast storage, redundancy, or just to make use of a couple of spare disk—especially with random high operations per second (IOPS) workloads. In short, it's a game changer! NVMe Base Duo is now available for pre-order with the first batch of units shipping in mid-April. For a lot more detail about NVMe Base Duo and to reserve your unit click here.

Retailers Begin Offering Core i9-14900KS Pre-orders, March 14 Launch Likely

As of two days ago, the NVX System Integrators store (via Carousell Singapore) has allowed customers to pre-order the oft-leaked Intel Core i9-14900KS CPU—a S$1059 (~$794 USD) spend secures a "BX8071514900KS" Special Edition retail package for in-store pick only. Another pre-release discovery arrives courtesy of the ever vigilant tech watcher; momomo_usSE Computer, a store located in the bustling streets of Kowloon, Hong Kong, has listed the incoming flagship Raptor Lake Refresh part with a price of HK$5500 (~$709.70 USD). An accompanying image appears to be a placeholder, since warehouse leaks have displayed "Special Edition" text on Intel's signature blue retail boxes.

Privileged members of the overclocking community are already playing around with Intel's selectively-binned 14th Gen Core processor—but mere mortals will have to wait patiently for an official retail rollout. VideoCardz has spent part of their weekend doing detective work—several early store listings point to a possible March 14 commencement. The graphics card news specialist has scoured online entities across Asia, France and Canada for price comparison purposes: "it appears that the KS 'Special Edition' variant is set to cost 19 to 30% more than the K variant. Pricing varies depending on the size of the retailer, where the offer was placed, and the region it is being sold." They thoroughly recommend that potential customers avoid pre-ordering the Intel Core i9-14900KS—asking prices could stabilize post-launch, and e-tailers rarely sell through the first batch of niche "KS" CPUs.

Tiny Corp. CEO Expresses "70% Confidence" in AMD Open-Sourcing Certain GPU Firmware

Lately Tiny Corp. CEO—George Hotz—has used his company's social media account to publicly criticize AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU firmware. The creator of Tinybox, a pre-orderable $15,000 AI compute cluster, has not selected "traditional" hardware for his systems—it is possible that AMD's Instinct MI300X accelerator is quite difficult to acquire, especially for a young startup operation. The decision to utilize gaming-oriented XFX-branded RDNA 3.0 GPUs instead of purpose-built CDNA 3.0 platforms—for local model training and AI inference—is certainly a peculiar one. Hotz and his colleagues have encountered roadblocks in the development of their Tinybox system—recently, public attention was drawn to an "LLVM spilling bug." AMD President/CEO/Chair, Dr. Lisa Su, swiftly stepped in and promised a "good solution." Earlier in the week, Tiny Corp. reported satisfaction with a delivery of fixes—courtesy of Team Red's software engineering department. They also disclosed that they would be discussing matters with AMD directly, regarding the possibility of open-sourcing Radeon GPU MES firmware.

Subsequently, Hotz documented his interactions with Team Red representatives—he expressed 70% confidence in AMD approving open-sourcing certain bits of firmware in a week's time: "Call went pretty well. We are gating the commitment to 6x Radeon RX 7900 XTX on a public release of a roadmap to get the firmware open source. (and obviously the MLPerf training bug being fixed). We aren't open source purists, it doesn't matter to us if the HDCP stuff is open for example. But we need the scheduler and the memory hierarchy management to be open. This is what it takes to push the performance of neural networks. The Groq 500 T/s mixtral demo should be possible on a tinybox, but it requires god tier software and deep integration with the scheduler. We also advised that the build process for amdgpu-dkms should be more open. While the driver itself is open, we haven't found it easy to rebuild and install. Easy REPL cycle is a key driver for community open source. We want the firmware to be easy to rebuild and install also." Prior to this week's co-operations, Tiny Corp. hinted that it could move on from utilizing Radeon RX 7900 XTX, in favor of Intel Alchemist graphics hardware—if AMD's decision making does not favor them, Hotz & Co. could pivot to builds including Acer Predator BiFrost Arc A770 16 GB OC cards.

MSI Claw A1M Lands at Retail in USA

MSI's official North American online store has started to sell their brand-new Claw A1M handheld portable gaming PC—earlier in the week media outlets spotted a premature Newegg store listing, perhaps foreshadowing a widespread US launch on March 8 (today). MSI appears to be staggering the Claw's rollout across the global markets—late last month, German customers were treated to "early" pre-order access thanks to de-store.msi.com listing the basic model (Handheld CLAW A1M-036), with units declared as being "in stock." US customers are similarly limited to the entry level "052US" SKU—the region's MSI store official launch day price sits at $699.00. This model sports an Intel Core 5 135H "Meteor Lake" processor, and 512 GB of internal storage.

Newegg has relisted the three MSI Claw A1M variants, albeit with a revised release date of March 15—interested parties can pre-order the Core Ultra 7 + 1 TB SSD version for $799, or MSI's middle-of-the-pack Core Ultra 7 + 512 GB model for $749. Newegg's product page for the basic Core Ultra 5 + 512 GB SSD configuration bears the same $699 price tag as seen on MSI's official store listing. We are not entirely sure whether Western embargoes have been lifted to coincide with today's North American launch—a trickle out of English language evaluations could occur next week. Chinese review outlets have been experimenting with press samples since mid-February.

Frostpunk 2 Release Date Revealed: July 25

Hello Citizens, the day has finally come—we are ready to announce the release date of Frostpunk 2! Watch the latest trailer below. Frostpunk 2 is the sequel to the highly acclaimed, BAFTA-nominated society survival game that blended city building, strategy, and management gameplay. Taking place 30 years after the apocalyptic blizzard, Earth is still overwhelmed by the never-ending frost and harsh, icy climate. You play as the leader of a resource-hungry metropolis where expansion and the search for new sources of power is an unavoidable reality.

Frostpunk 2 is coming to PC and through PC Games Pass on July 25, 2024. Pre-orders available now! Get the Digital Deluxe Edition with a 10% discount, which is also available for pre-order starting today and access a seven-day long beta in April that consists of part of the game's sandbox mode, among other things.

German Customers Get First Dibs on MSI Claw

MSI could be staggering the launch of its Intel Core Ultra-powered Claw gaming handheld, depending on regional availability—VideoCardz has observed contradictory release date data through UK retail channels. A confusing scenario is presented with some listings mentioning March 20, although others outline various dates going into April. MSI's German e-store appears to be the first outlet to have Claw units "in stock," although the active listing indicates that orders will start shipping on March 5. The pre-orderable "Handheld CLAW A1M-036" seems to be the most basic out of MSI's three launch SKUs—€849 (~$921) bags you a model that sports Intel's Core Ultra 5 135H APU and 512 GB of storage.

Preview samples are out in the wild—YouTube reviewers and influencers have started to show off their pre-release units, but Western embargoes are still in effect at the time of writing. Fairly comprehensive comparison videos emerged just over two weeks ago—courtesy of the "Please, Xiao Fengfeng" Bilibili video channel. The MSI Claw (Ultra 7-155H version) was compared to a close handheld rival; an ASUS ROG Ally (Ryzen Z1 Extreme). Overall, the AMD APU-based Ally seemed to outperform MSI's plucky new entrant—it is possible that the latter was disadvantaged with immature chipset drivers. Intel and its hardware partners are attempting to catch up with Team Red's more widespread release of portable-oriented APU packages—another Meteor Lake-based handheld gaming system, Tulpar, was demoed at a recent Intel Extreme Masters event.
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