Month: September 2024

Netflix sure did sound excited about its BioShock movie back when it announced it in 2022, but it seems like passions have cooled. In a recent chat at San Diego Comic Con (via Variety), the film’s producer Roy Lee informed fans that Netflix’s “new regime has lowered the budgets… so we’re doing a much smaller version” than was originally planned.

That “new regime” is Dan Lin, chairman of Netflix Films as of April this year. Back in the heady days of 2022, that responsibility (under a different name) was the purview of executive Scott Stuber, who was apparently far more bullish on Netflix’s homegrown movie-making efforts. It looks like Lin’s ambitions are more modest, and BioShock is being scaled back as a result.

Lee says the film’s gonna be from “a more personal point of view” instead of a “grander, big project.” Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence is still on-board, though. 

I do wonder what’s become of the film’s first version. Two years ago, Lawrence said that Blade Runner 2049 writer Michael Green was “in the middle of writing it,” and that the crew “already have our take, outline, and all that kind of stuff, so that’s all done.” He even tipp…

We’re just a few days away from Satisfactory’s fifth anniversary, and to celebrate, the community has decided to put together a tournament. Everyone’s invited to join, including the developers. 

The tournament will include a special version of the Satlympics, which involves teams from the Netherlands, France, Germany, USA, UK, and Coffee Stain Studios. All of these teams will compete head-to-head in three games: an extreme version of parkour, solving complex puzzles to build a radar tower (and parachuting off said tower), and replicating a QR code—the first with a successful scan wins. 

Talking to NME about the event, a community member and organiser who goes by Barry reflects on how much fun it is to have some of the developers join in: “[it] really strengthens the bond between Coffee Stain and the Satisfactory community.”

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, though. While this event looks incredible, it’s taken a lot of hard work: “I am surprised I’ve not gone grey!” Barry says. It’s important that this event looks as professional as possible—after all, the fifth anniversary and 1.0 release, which will come later in the year, are si…

Noctua had expected to release its next-gen 140mm fans by the end of 2022, however, that’s come and gone. Today, the PC cooling company famed for its brown colour palette has said we’ll have to wait quite a bit longer for these next-gen units. Almost a year, in fact.

In a statement, the company noted that it had run into an “unexpected production level issue” that it had to investigate. It says due to this, it needs to rerun the accelerated lifetime tests that it usually would to make sure its products, which are known for being very high quality, remain as such. These tests can take several months.

With all that factored in, Noctua expects its next-gen 140mm fans to launch sometime in Q4, 2023.

What this means is that the products relying on this next-gen fan for their own upgraded versions, namely the new NH-D15 air cooler, will also be delayed as a result. You can scope out the updated roadmap over on Noctua’s website.

The NH D15 is one of my personal favourite air coolers in its existing design, though it is a shame to see that pushed back. That said, I’d much rather a company was upfront and honest about this stuff as Noctua has been here, and ultima…

Update: AMD has confirmed it is investigating reports of damaged Ryzen CPUs, and also that it’s working with its partners to ensure BIOS limits are in place to keep voltages within spec.

Here’s the statement in full (via Anandtech):

“We are aware of a limited number of reports online claiming that excess voltage while overclocking may have damaged the motherboard socket and pin pads. We are actively investigating the situation and are working with our ODM partners to ensure voltages applied to Ryzen 7000X3D CPUs via motherboard BIOS settings are within product specifications. Anyone whose CPU may have been impacted by this issue should contact AMD customer support.”

Original story: Following initial reports of Ryzen 7000-series processors burning out under certain conditions, we now have a little more information on what might be causing these chips’ untimely deaths. 

In a statement to Der8auer, Asus notes that it has added new thermal monitoring mechanisms to protect chips. The statement goes on to mention AMD Expo and SoC voltage, which appears to suggest these may have some connection with the issues reported …

We’ve already reported on AMD’s new 16-core mobile monster, the Ryzen 7045 Series. But it’s arguably AMD’s new laptop APU that’s more interesting. May we introduce the AMD Ryzen 7040 Series, otherwise known as the Phoenix APU, and decked out with AMD’s brand new and very intriguing “XDNA” AI engine.

AMD’s naming conventions for the new Ryzen 7000 Series mobile chips as a whole may be a bit confusing, but bear with it because there’s some exciting technology in this particular variant. The Ryzen 7040 Series is a more direct replacement for the old AMD Ryzen 6000 mobile chip, being a monolithic APU designed expressly for mobile where the Ryzen 7045 16-core monster is more of a repackaged desktop chip.

Like the old 6000 Series, the new 7040 Series tops out at eight CPU cores, but this time they’re Zen 4 spec. AMD says the Phoenix APU is built on TSMC’s 4nm node, where the 7045 Series’ desktop-derived cores are on 5nm.

TSMC 4nm is closely related to its 5nm node, but does offer some efficiency advantages, which bodes well for battery life. How well, you ask? AMD is claiming up to 30 hours.

In practice, battery life depends on an awful lot of disparate element…

Watch On

Right on schedule, the 2024 Steam Summer Sale is here, with big discounts on thousands of games and daily digital stickers to collect.

There’s a whole lot of deals to dig through, so we’ll have a proper deals roundup once we’ve had a chance to properly root through the bargain bins. In the meantime, here are a few personal favorites you might dig:

• Subnautica – $10/£8/€10 (67% off)
• Forza Horizon 4 – $12/£11/€14 (80% off, and don’t forget it’s being delisted in December)
• Left 4 Dead 2 – $1/£1/€1 (90% off)
• Deep Rock Galactic – $10/£8/€10 (67% off)
• Sea of Thieves: 2024 Edition – $20/£20/€20 (50% off)
• Manor Lords – $30/£26/€30 (25% off)

This year’s big event also features something new: A “Deep Discounts” section promising “especially great deals on some of the all-time greats.” That means 90% off games including Batman: Arkham Knight, Disco Elysium, Civilization 6, and a bunch more. 

Along with the markdowns on games, the Summer S…

Stig Asmussen, the director of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, is leaving Respawn Entertainment “to pursue other adventures”.

Originally reported by Bloomberg, Asmussen’s departure was later confirmed by EA in a statement, explaining “Stig Asmussen has decided to leave Respawn to pursue other adventures, and we wish him the best of luck.”

Asmussen joined Respawn Entertainment in 2014, where he oversaw development of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order before helming its superior sequel. Prior to that, he spent a decade at Sony America, where he worked on the first three God of War games, serving as Creative Director on God of War 3.

Asmussen’s departure from Respawn is an interesting turn of events. Earlier this year, Asmussen expressed his desire to make the Star Wars Jedi series into a trilogy, an idea that was being discussed before Jedi: Fallen Order launched in 2019. “We were already talking about the second game,” Asmussen said in an interview with IGN. “Frankly, we were talking beyond. And these are conversations that, when we’re breaking the story with Lucasfilm, it’s like: ‘Well, where are we going with the second game.”

He went on to add “I always wanted to …