Far Cry 6 With Ray Tracing And FSR Performance Review: Bring On The Eye Candy

The raid on this fort is reminiscent of infiltration missions in Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag A whole new crop of blockbuster games are lining up for a big holiday shopping season. Ubisoft didn't really intend for that to be the case for Far Cry 6, but early this year the COVID-19 pandemic had other plans. The game had been hit by some delays, but at the end of May the company set a date: October 7, 2021. Finally, the latest Far Cry title has arrived and the open-world first-person shooter is ready for players to take down its repressive government and maybe learn a little something along the...

Analysts Forecast Continued PC Gaming Growth After COVID Bump Through 2025

by Zak Killian - Fri, Oct 01, 2021

Have you heard about the death of PC gaming? It was a popular topic among certain folks for years. They haven't said much about it lately, though—probably because PC gaming is bigger than it has ever been. Year-over-year growth has been immense, with gaming monitor and gaming PC shipments in the second quarter increasing 19.3% over last year despite shipping delays and component shortages. Market analysis firm IDC itself notes that the rapid growth in the gaming market through last year and into this year was driven by the global COVID-19 pandemic, and that some analysts expect this growth...

TCL MoveAudio S600 ANC Earbuds Review: Great Sound At $99

by Dave Altavilla - Thu, Sep 23, 2021

When it comes to wireless earbuds, you might say we're fairly particular and almost snooty about them. It's not easy to reproduce decent acoustics with such tiny drivers, never mind with quality active noise cancellation (ANC) that doesn't make it sound like you're listening to music in some kind of weird anechoic chamber. Regardless, at under $100, that's what the TCL MoveAudio S600 True Wireless Earbuds try to achieve. We recently looked at OnePlus' $149 ANC wireless buds offering with the Buds Pro, and found them to be a quality set of wireless buds with a few caveats, most of which could...

Logitech Combo Touch Review: Making A Laptop Out Of An iPad?

by Ben Funk - Tue, Sep 07, 2021

Apple's 4th generation iPad Air has a lot going for it. The A14 Bionic SoC at the heart of the device offers great performance in a wide variety of apps and games, and the 10.9" Liquid Retina display looks great under many different conditions. In fact, for some use cases, the iPad Air could rival a full-fledged computer, if only it had the necessary input devices to maximize productivity. There are numerous companies attempting to address this deficiency of the iPad Air though, including industry stalwart, Logitech. Recently, Logitech introduced the Combo Touch, a form-fitting series of cases...

MSI GE76 Raider Laptop Review: Tiger Lake With RTX Gladiator

by Ben Funk - Thu, Sep 02, 2021

More powerful, more capable and feature-rich -- the current crop of gaming laptops with the most recent CPU and GPU platforms can offer a major upgrade to the enthusiast laptop experience. That's especially true these days with discrete graphics cards being hard to come by and marked up by factors of two or three above their MSRP. Suddenly dropping $3,000+ on a whole-system upgrade via portable powerhouses like these starts to make more sense financially. New desktop builds are great (if you can find components and all), but then you also have to factor in a new display, keyboard, and just about...

EVGA Z12 Gaming Keyboard, X20 And X15 Mice Review: Value-Priced Arsenal

by Nathan Ord - Tue, Aug 31, 2021

As enthusiasts, we're often most enamored by the latest and greatest graphics cards, processors, and storage technology in our endeavors to squeeze as much performance from our systems as possible. However, it is the human interface devices -- like our keyboards, mice, and monitors -- that can have the most significant impact on our user experience. A high-quality keyboard and mouse, for example, can make you more productive, reduce fatigue, and even improve your gaming chops. So, when EVGA offered up their upcoming X20 and X15 gaming mice and Z12 RGB keyboard, we were eager to take a look. After...

Here's How To Upgrade Your PlayStation 5 With A Fast SSD

by Ben Funk - Thu, Aug 26, 2021

Sony's PlayStation 5 launched in November of 2020 somewhat incomplete. While the hardware had an M.2 slot to expand the internal storage needed by PS5 games, the software didn't know what to do with it out of the box. Earlier this year though, Sony opened up a beta program with early access to firmware that can use that slot, and we managed to get in. To make the most of that, we teamed up with the folks at Sabrent, who sent along a 2 TB Rocket 4 Plus NVMe SSD and a heat sink solution to keep the drive cool. Unfortunately, the PS5's limited internal space prevented us from using the heatsink,...

Dell UltraSharp 4K Webcam Review: Up Your WFH Video Quality

by Chris Goetting - Wed, Aug 25, 2021

The humble webcam has seen a surge to prominence fueled by the rise of web conferencing and remote work, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. Only a few short years ago, a webcam could be buried away below the display of a laptop and few users would complain or even notice. With those days behind us, consumers and professionals alike have been scrambling to improve their on-screen presence to the point of creating a shortage of the now critical device. That same demand has drawn more players into the discrete webcam space, including Dell. Dell's recently released 4K-capable UltraSharp Webcam aims...

OnePlus Buds Pro Review: Terrific Features, Tunable Sound

by Dave Altavilla, Myriam Joire - Mon, Aug 23, 2021

After releasing the excellent $79 half in-ear OnePlus Buds last summer (now just $59), followed by the decent $49 full in-ear OnePlus Buds Z last fall, OnePlus just launched its most stylish and expensive TWS (true wireless stereo) earbuds to date, the $149 full in-ear OnePlus Buds Pro, which crank things up a notch by adding ANC (active noise cancellation) and wireless charging to the standard feature list. While OnePlus is clearly targeting Apple's $249 AirPods Pro (currently $179 on sale) and Samsung’s brand new $149 Galaxy Buds2, it’s also competing with more affordable, yet...

Doom Eternal Ray Tracing Tested: The Devil's In The Details

by Ben Funk - Tue, Jul 06, 2021

In the spring, Id Software and Bethesda announced that they would bring real-time ray tracing and NVIDIA DLSS 2.0 to the Vulkan-powered Doom Eternal. When we reviewed thsi latest Doom title, we found that it was already pretty stunning graphically while running really well on all kinds of different hardware. High performance and a bevy of graphics configuration settings means that Doom can run on just about any discrete graphics card from the last few years.  Now the Doom Eternal ray tracing update is here, though the tricky part about adding ray tracing effects to Doom is whether...

Alienware m17 R4 Review: The Fastest Gaming Laptop Yet

by Paul Lilly - Wed, Jun 16, 2021

Just a few months ago, we reviewed the Alienware m15 R4, a seriously powerful 15.6-inch form factor laptop that, at the time, posted the best gaming performance benchmark results we had ever seen from a notebook. Not that we were particularly surprised—armed with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 GPU based on Ampere and a 10th Generation Intel Core i7-10870H CPU (Comet Lake) CPU, it packs some serious artillery. Well, we've now tested an even faster gaming laptop, and it just so happens to be the 17-inch Alienware m17 R4. Call it sibling rivalry, if you wish, but the bigger 17.3-inch brother to...

WD_Black D50 Game Dock Review: Wicked-Fast External Storage

by Ben Funk - Mon, Jun 14, 2021

Notebooks often have limited storage capacity, despite significant advancements over the last few years. An M.2 drive is only the size of a stick of gum, but not every laptop can fit more than one or two drives at a time, and some users aren't comfortable opening up their machine to upgrade them, which ultimately limits their storage capabilities. This is particularly painful in gaming notebooks, when many games can take up dozens of gigabytes a piece. Western Digital thinks it has a solution, though. The WD Black D50 Game Dock is an all-in-one Thunderbolt 3 dock and PCI Express NVMe storage controller...

Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review: Zen 3 Laptop Invasion

by Ben Funk - Thu, May 20, 2021

Over the last eight months or so, segment by segment, AMD's various Zen 3-based processors have taken the world by storm. High performance servers, desktops, and notebooks all feature AMD's flagship silicon, thanks in no small part to its excellent perf-per-watt and strong overall value proposition. That dynamic really started in 2020, but we could sense a bit of hesitancy on the part of manufacturers with last year's Ryzen 4000 series gaming notebooks, since those topped out with midrange graphics. This year, though, the kid gloves have come off and higher-end graphics options have been made available. ...

How Many CPU Cores Do You Need For Great PC Gaming?

by Ben Funk - Wed, May 12, 2021

Back in The Day, figuring out which PC processor was better for gaming was a matter of architecture and clock speed. More megahertz on a fast CPU architecture generally also meant that the CPU would be better for a whole host of tasks, in addition to games, versus a lower clocked chip. An Intel Pentium II 450 MHz was faster than a Pentium II 366 MHz, and there wasn't much debate about that. First AMD, and later Intel, broke away from this simple equation by creating model families and tiers within those families. Multi-core CPUs were born, integrating two (or more) independent processor cores...

EVGA XR1 Review: Full-Featured High Quality Stream Capture

by Chris Goetting - Fri, May 07, 2021

HDMI capture cards, or HDMI capture devices, are extremely valuable tools with a wide variety of uses. As the description implies, these devices allow virtually any HDMI feed to be routed through them to be captured by a computer. The HDMI inputs on capture devices can be used with game consoles, video cameras, or even another computer -- just about any HDMI video source. This signal can then be encoded on the fly for a livestream, recorded for preservation, or both simultaneously. Most capture cards also allow for an HDMI output which passes a signal through the device, directly to a display with...

Destiny 2 How-To Guide: Obtaining The Heir Apparent And Its Catalyst

by Brittany Goetting - Thu, Apr 22, 2021

The Destiny 2 2021 Guardian Games have arrived. No Destiny 2 event would truly be complete without a few legendary and exotic items for Guardians to chase after or purchase. Here is how you can acquire the exotic machine gun Heir Apparent and its Catalyst. What Is Heir Apparent And Its Catalyst Heir Apparent is an exotic machine gun with two main perks. Heavy Slug Thrower requires players to spin up the weapon by clicking down on the aim button. Once fired up, the machine gun will shower your enemies with bullets. The second perk is Armor of the Colossus. It grants the user an arc shield if the...

Destiny 2 Guardian Games 2021 Guide: What To Know About This Epic Olympics-Style Event

by Brittany Goetting - Tue, Apr 20, 2021

Light the torches! It is time to find out whether Titans will once again reign supreme or if Hunters or Warlocks will rise to the challenge. Here is everything you need to know about the Destiny 2 2021 Guardian Games. What Are The Guardian Games? The Guardian Games is a free event that is available to all players, regardless of whether they own the season pass. It is essentially the Destiny 2 version of the Olympics. The event was first held in 2020 and was popular enough that it was brought back again this year. The Guardian Games will begin today, April 20th, and will last until May 11th. There...

How To Optimize Your Retro Gaming Experience With Vintage Consoles On Modern HDTVs

by Ben Funk - Thu, Apr 15, 2021

The 20-year span between 1985 and 2005 saw the release of literally hundreds of classic game titles that were -- and are still -- beloved by millions of people around the world. From Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda, to modern classics like Halo and Metal Gear Solid, most of gaming's biggest franchises spent their formative years on consoles plugged into standard-definition cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions, the warm glow and rounded geometry of which would provide countless hours of fun. If there's one problem with those consoles, however, it's that it can be difficult to get one...

Happy Birthday Animal Crossing New Horizons! Year In Review For A Hall Of Fame Classic

by Ben Funk - Sat, Mar 20, 2021

Sometimes, a work of art hits our culture at just the right time, when it can transcend its medium and become something greater. Such events are exceedingly rare in video games, but we old folks remember Pac-Man Fever and Fred Savage in The Wizard playing Super Mario Bros. 3. More recently, video games have become spectator sports in large part due to StarCraft II, DotA 2, and Overwatch and similar genre game titles. None of those moments found humanity in a time of crisis, however, until Animal Crossing: New Horizons launched on the Nintendo Switch a year ago today. Across the globe, entire...

Behold The Sweet Rock Pi X Powered Serene Screen Aquarium And How To Build One

by Colton Westrate - Thu, Mar 11, 2021

Some may think it strange to design and build an entire PC and custom enclosure dedicated to running a 20-year-old screensaver, but I can explain. Retro computing fans and well-seasoned enthusiasts may remember that the superlative Defender of the Crown first hit the Amiga in 1986. Four years old at the time, and eight years away from getting my first PC, I had no idea what I was missing. I figured it out a few years and a couple of computers later though, when I stumbled upon the Serene Screen Marine Aquarium. This classic screensaver from the late 90s was created by the legendary artist of Defender...

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

by Paul Lilly - Tue, Feb 16, 2021

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...