Valheim Is A Viral Smash Hit On PC With 2 Million Copies Sold In 13 Days

It took less than two weeks for Valheim to notch over two million sales, after releasing to Steam's Early Access program. Just as impressively, if not more so, the unfinished survival game reached a peak concurrent player count of 360,000 over the weekend. It is one of the most played games on Steam right now, behind only Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Those are some big time juggernauts to be mingling with on Steam, and in terms of peak concurrent users, it is fast approaching third place—at the time of this writing, the Steam Database portal...

Creative SBS E2900 2.1 Speakers Review: Big Sound, Small Price

by Ben Funk - Fri, Jan 29, 2021

While Creative Labs has expanded its product offerings into other arenas, the company has never waivered from its core competency: PC and home audio. The Sound Blaster maker has almost always offered speaker systems to pump out the audio from our favorite PC and console games. Today, that tradition lives on with Creative marketing a wide variety of discrete speaker systems and sound bars, at a wide variety of price points. The SBS E2900 2.1 speaker set we'll look at today sits well above the entry-level Pebble speakers, but a bit below the Sound BlasterX Katana sound bar. Creative primarily aims...

Alienware m15 R4 Review: A GeForce RTX 30 Series Invasion

by Ben Funk - Tue, Jan 26, 2021

Alienware's m15 series of notebooks has typically impressed us, thanks to the family's performance and unique good looks in a relatively svelte mobile package. Performance always hinges upon having the latest platform hardware, so perhaps it's no surprise that the laptop we're looking at today has one of NVIDIA's latest mobile Ampere GPUs on board from its new GeForce RTX 30 family. When NVIDIA pulled the lid off mobile Ampere, it made some pretty big promises. Performance across the Ampere lineup that spans from RTX 3060 to 3080 should be faster than NVIDIA's previous mobile powerhouse, the...

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop Performance: What To Expect

by Marco Chiappetta - Tue, Jan 26, 2021

NVIDIA unveiled its Ampere-based RTX 30 series mobile GPUs at a special GeForce Event during this year's virtual CES 2021 festivities. A wide range of notebook design wins were also showed off at various events, spanning a variety of form factors. With the GeForce RTX 30 series, NVIDIA is targeting high-performance gaming notebooks in form factors as thin 16mm, even with the flagship GeForce RTX 3080. Thinner, higher-performance form factors aren’t the only features NVIDIA is touting. A number of upcoming notebooks will also be sporting 1440p, ultra-high refresh rate IPS displays. In...

Cyberpunk 2077 V1.05 Post-Patch CPU And GPU Performance Explored

by Ben Funk - Wed, Dec 23, 2020

Cyberpunk 2077's launch was a little rocky, to say the least. The worst bugs and issues were with last-gen consoles, though the #PCMasterRace was somewhat less affected. While the PC port had (and still has) a little wonkiness to it, it's at least playable. Patch version 1.05 has now hit all platforms, and it brings with it some nice improvements. We've already covered the full list of enhancements in Cyberpunk version 1.05, so there's no reason to rehash that here.  The new patch's biggest affect on performance fixed support for AMD Ryzen 5 CPUs, as it enabled symmetric multi-threading...

Cyberpunk 2077 Review: Gameplay, Performance & Optimization

by Ben Funk - Wed, Dec 16, 2020

Cyberpunk 2077 has been one of the most hotly-anticipated titles in recent memory. Expectations were so high for this title that it's quite possible that CD Projekt Red could never live up to them. After numerous delays, however, Cyberpunk 2077 launched on December 10 to a mix of high praise and mild disappointment from many reviewers. The game is so massive, however, that we elected to take our time to really soak it in before tackling this review.  For those who are new to the franchise, Cyberpunk 2077 is based on the Cyberpunk tabletop role-playing game franchise. The second and fourth...

Cyberpunk 2077 Gimps AMD Ryzen Processor Multithreading But Here’s A Fix

by Nathan Ord - Sun, Dec 13, 2020

When Cyberpunk 2077 launched earlier this week we knew it would not be a lightweight game, simply by looking at the vast number of available graphics settings and impressive visuals. Moreover, with the sheer NPC and texture density of Night City, frame rates are not always the greatest unless you have the most powerful of graphics cards. However, what’s also surprising is that AMD Ryzen CPU owners may not have noticed the extra performance hit they are taking because Cyberpunk 2077 is not correctly utilizing all core resources of their CPU. Fortunately, there is an easy fix, thanks to...

Cyberpunk 2077 First Impressions, Game Settings And Performance - It's A Wild Ride

by Ben Funk - Thu, Dec 10, 2020

CD Projekt Red's latest mega-blockbuster game, Cyberpunk 2077, launched this week on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. The developer announced its oft-delayed RPG way back in 2012, but anticipation has been running particularly hot for the several months now. We got our hands on the game right as the gates opened at midnight GMT on the today, but that's not enough time to work up a full review with all of our usual performance figures. So today we'll take a quick look at how the game runs and how its game world feels, on a narrow scope, but our full deep dive review will be coming soon. ...

Xbox Series X Review: Microsoft’s Hybrid Console HTPC Rocks

by Tuan Huynh - Tue, Nov 24, 2020

It is once again time for a new console generation and Microsoft has two shiny new products ready for the holiday 2020 shopping season. Continuing its tradition of sometimes fuzzy model branding, we have the new Xbox Series X and Series S, which succeed the previous-gen Xbox One X, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and the console formerly known as Xbox. This time around, Microsoft is focused solely on the gaming and entertainment experiences – there is no Kinect accessory or multimedia hub with HDMI input. The Xbox One X is all about improving the core gaming experience and all that comes with it. The...

World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands Laptop Graphics Shootout With Variable Rate Shading

by Ben Funk - Tue, Nov 24, 2020

About two years ago, NVIDIA started talking about a shader rendering method that applied varying levels of quality to different objects in the game world. That method was called Variable Rate Shading, or VRS. When applied skillfully and artfully in different areas of a scene that are less prominent in the gamer's field of view, the resulting rendered image quality wouldn't look all that different than if the whole scene had been fully shaded, though the graphics workload savings would improve performance significantly. Fast forward a year or so, and benchmarks became available for measuring...

How To Move Animal Crossing Islands To A New Switch With The ACNH Transfer Tool

by Ben Funk - Sun, Nov 22, 2020

If you're playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch and sharing the system (and a single island) among family members, we're sure that this story will be a familiar one. There's a rivalry between siblings or across generations as parents and kids get out of bed early each morning and start shaking trees, hoarding all of the fruit for themselves. Or maybe there's a disagreement about how to decorate the island. Maybe, just maybe, there's competition for playing time for other games where the rest of the family just isn't into the island life. Rejoice, Animal Crossing fans, for...

This Copy Of Super Mario Bros 3 Just Broke A World Record As Most Expensive Game Ever Sold

by Ben Funk - Sat, Nov 21, 2020

There's something fun about looking at a physical video game collection. That's especially true with retro games for systems like the original Nintendo Entertainment System, when cartridges came in boxes and those boxes were wide enough that the spine can show off some fun concept art. For the collector, it's fun to hunt down and find a variant, where corrections have been made between print runs. Those variants can then become collectible if they're rare enough, especially if the package hasn't been opened.  That's exactly what happened with a copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES....

Destiny 2: Beyond Light Explores Good And Evil But Doesn't Descend Deep Enough With Natural Choice

by Brittany Goetting - Tue, Nov 17, 2020

Destiny 2: Beyond Light has finally arrived. The long-awaited expansion has been out a week and Guardians have been perfecting their use of the new subclass Stasis. The expansion’s storyline questions the nature of Light and Darkness, but it unfortunately does not fully hit the mark. Here is our review of the Destiny 2: Beyond Light plot and the journey we wish delved deeper. ** Warning: Major Spoilers Ahead ** Destiny 2: Beyond Light - Descending Into The Depths Of Europa The new expansion picks off right where Season of Arrivals ended. Guardians are sent to Jupiter’s moon Europa...

DJI Mini 2 Review: 4K Drone Excellence For Beginners

by Brandon Hill - Tue, Nov 10, 2020

A few months back, we took DJI's Mavic Air 2 for a test flight and came away impressed with its performance, overall photo/video capabilities, and its ability to stay aloft for a half hour or more. Today, DJI is back again with another new drone, and this one will go a lot easier on your wallet than the Mavic Air 2. We're talking of course about the Mini 2; the "Mavic" portion of its name has been dropped with this generation. The Mini 2 retains the compact, lightweight form-factor of the Mavic Mini, weighing in at just 249 grams. This allows the Mini 2 to continue to skirt Federal Aviation...

Awesome News For Mass Effect Fans, Legendary Edition Announced!

by Ben Funk - Sat, Nov 07, 2020

Happy N7 day, Mass Effect fans! November 7 has been something of an unofficial holiday for BioWare fans over the years, as news of a new game in the enormous hit sci-fi role playing series has traditionally dropped on this date. Today, BioWare announced that it has heard its fans' cries and has been working on a remaster of the original trilogy. Mass Effect Legendary Edition will come in Spring 2021 and bring Mass Effect to a new generation. Let's take a look at the official trailer, which dropped today. What makes this release so legendary is that it's not just a remaster of the...

Craft Your Way To Financial Success With These Animal Crossing DIY Recipes

by Ben Funk - Sat, Oct 31, 2020

There is no shortage of ways to make some quick bank in Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch. In fact, there are so many different ways, it starts to beg the question, "What do we do with all these bells?" The game has an incredible library of collectible items, but some of the most rare items only come around at certain times of the year, or have very rare DIY recipes to find. Getting those items may otherwise be hopeless until sometime next year, if not for the game's online capabilities.  Wheeling And Dealing At Nookazon Enterprising gamers always find a way, though....

Watch Dogs: Legion Graphics, Game Play & Performance Explored

by Ben Funk - Thu, Oct 29, 2020

The war of the Watch Dogs series has always been fought in two parts -- physically with weapons and by proxy in the online space. In the original, which took place in Chicago, hacker Aiden Pearce, aided by the DedSec crew, hacks just about any device in his vicinity on his quest to make up for the loss of his niece, Lena, and take down a mysterious software called Central Operating System (ctOS) that ran the city and spied on its citizens. Then in Watch Dogs 2, players entered the shoes of Marcus Holloway, a DedSec activist whose goal it was to overcome ctOS version 2.0 in San Francisco while simultaneously...

How To Make Serious Bank On Turnips For 1,000 Bells Each In Animal Crossing

by Ben Funk - Sun, Oct 25, 2020

Playing the Stalk Market in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is never a sure thing. Some weeks, you buy as high as 120 bells a piece from Daisy, only to sell them to the Nook Boys on Saturday afternoon for a measly 60 bells a pop. Other weeks, players can make serious bank not just by selling at high prices, but by opening up their island to visitors. However, thanks to a partnership between Nintendo and Ally Bank, that money is guaranteed to rock your ACNH world.  Ally Bank and Nintendo put together a sponsored island with a set, guaranteed price of 1,000 bells per turnip. Obviously, since...

NVIDIA Reflex Tested: Low Latency, Precision Gaming At 360Hz

by Marco Chiappetta - Tue, Oct 20, 2020

A few weeks back, we showed you NVIDIA’s Reviewer Toolkit, which gives publications like ours the ability to quantify GPU performance, power, and system latency in finer detail than we could before. One of the main components of the Reviewer Toolkit is a small device, dubbed LDAT, or the Latency Display Analysis Tool. LDAT connects to a system via USB and features an integrated photoelectric luminance sensor, along with a direct connection to the left mouse button on a modified Logitech G203 gaming mouse. When connected to a system and mounted to the proper location on a monitor, LDAT can...

Great Amazon Prime Day Deals Happening Now On Roku Streaming And Apple Devices

by Ben Funk - Sun, Oct 11, 2020

Amazon's Prime Day may not have officially started yet, but much like Black Friday sales, retailers have no reason to wait for the actual day to start grabbing eyeballs and convincing consumers to bust out the ol' credit card. The ubiquitous retailer's big shopping event spans Tuesday and Wednesday, October 13 and 14, but the deals have already commenced.  Remember that in order to take advantage of these deals, you need to be a member of Amazon's Prime program, which includes all sorts of perks including Amazon Prime Video, expedited shipping, and a bunch more. Today's pile of goodies...

Alienware m15 R3 Review: A Quieter, Powerful Gaming Laptop

by Paul Lilly - Tue, Oct 06, 2020

Thin and light gaming laptops are no longer a novelty, as practically every PC maker offers their own take on the category. Some of them don't always stand-out from the crowd, however, and can push the envelope on thermals in ever-tighter chassis designs. That is most definitely not the case with Dell's Alienware m15 R3 though, unless you want to compare it to last year's Alienware m15 R2. At a passing glance, this year's refresh looks just like last year's model. That is not a bad thing, as the new m15 R3 is a head-turning laptop with some notable improvements to this newest iteration, including...

Nintendo Reportedly Argues That Switch Joy-Con Drift Isn't A Real Problem For Gamers

by Ben Funk - Sat, Oct 03, 2020

The Nintendo Switch phenomenon known as Joy Con drift "isn’t a real problem or hasn’t caused anyone any inconvenience." Reportedly, Nintendo is making this claim in its defense of the class-action lawsuit regarding Switch controllers registering input even when not being touched. These words will no doubt be of great comfort to my UPS driver, who delivered freshly-repaired Joy Cons to my house earlier this week. That box must have been empty. According to one redditor, the law firm behind the Joy Con drift class-action suit wants to fight back.  Chimicles Schwartz Kriner &...