A year after its developer’s acquisition by Epic Games, the popular online obstacle course game Fall Guys is free-to-play. The game also launches on Xbox consoles and Nintendo Switch for the first time today, adding crossplay between those platforms, PlayStation, and PC. Although Epic and Mediatonic Games delisted the PC version from Steam, future updates will keep supporting current Steam players. Fall Guys initially launched in August 2020 on Steam and PlayStation consoles, quickly reaching over 10 million downloads and ultimately gaining five BAFTA nominations....

The game was created by a group of community developers known as Harbour Masters and built on two years of work to reverse engineer the original and rebuild it in C code. The group even put out a Nintendo Direct-style presentation announcing the game’s completion. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was recently announced as a finalist for entry into the 2022 World Video Game Hall of Fame alongside other memorable games including Resident Evil, NBA Jam and Ms....

Fandom describes itself as “the world’s largest fan platform,” a network made up of 250,000 Wiki communities, 300 million monthly active users (MAU) and 40 million pages of contents spread throughout the entertainment spectrum. You have likely found one of their wikis via Google search more than once. The new acquisitions will add 46 million monthly users thanks to widely recognized brands in gaming, movie and TV related content. The deal with Red Ventures, who own and will continue to operate other popular websites like CNET and Lonely Planet, will let Fandom expand its global platform for entertainment and gaming fans – and of course for advertising partners as well....

Gamers playing at 1080p should have little trouble maxing out the visuals as last season’s R9 380 and GTX 960 both delivered playable performance in our tests, while the RX 470, GTX 970 and R9 390 all delivered a satisfying experience as well. Those last three cards were also rather capable at 1440p, though for a truly smooth experience you will want something like the Fury X, 980 Ti or GTX 1070....

This week, Kaspersky researchers revealed a new firmware rootkit dubbed “CosmicStrand,” which is believed to be the work of an unknown group of Chinese malicious actors. Researchers explain that the rootkit was discovered in firmware images of several Asus and Gigabyte motherboards equipped with an Intel H81 chipset, one of the longest-living Haswell-era chipsets that was finally discontinued in 2020. Since UEFI firmware is the first piece of code that runs when you turn a computer on, this makes CosmicStrand particularly hard to remove compared to other types of malware....

According to Politico, which cites three people with knowledge of the matter, an FTC lawsuit is not guaranteed. The publication adds that the FTC’s four commissioners have yet to vote out a complaint or meet with lawyers for the companies. But with FTC staff reviewing the deal reportedly skeptical of the two tech giants’ arguments, a lawsuit looks to be the most likely outcome. Most of the FTC’s investigation has now been completed, with Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella and Activision head Bobby Kotick having already been deposed, according to people familiar with the matter....

The other reason is that we received our sample late and did not want to rush the review, especially having seen the preliminary results. After all, the factory overclocked Gainward GeForce GT240 1024MB GDDR5 Golden Sample was bettered by the old GeForce 9600 GT in quite a few of the games tested. It was also outclassed in every test by the GeForce 9800 GT, which despite targeting a higher end segment at launch, is really nothing more than a rebadged 8800 GT – now a 2 year old product....

Each pre-configured desktop, laptop, or media center media center system offered by Maingear has several available name-brand hardware options to choose from. During the configuration process, you can get advice from Maingear reps on which component will best suit your needs as an enthusiast or gamer. The F131 system from Maingear represents their original mid-tower offering and is available in four different pre-configured base models: Quickship, Mainstream, Performance and Enthusiast....

The R9 Fury X Crossfire system consumed up to 700 watts in Metro: Redux whereas the GTX 980 Ti SLI system consumed 17% less at 580 watts and around 10% less once overclocked. The R9 Fury X Crossfire system only consumed around 600 watts in Tomb Raider which was the same amount as the overclocked GTX 980 Ti SLI system. This time the R9 Fury X Crossfire system guzzled around 730 watts of power, 20% more than the GTX 980 Ti SLI system and still 11% more than the overclocked GTX 980 Ti SLI cards....

Keyboard shortcuts can be found in virtually every modern operating system, app and service. They may only shave off a second or two at a time but trust me, the savings can quickly add up when used on a regular basis. Such is the case with Gmail, one of the world’s most popular e-mail clients. Core Navigation Shortcuts First things first - make sure you have keyboard shortcuts enabled. To check, simply click the gear icon in the top-right corner of Gmail and select Settings....

When testing MoH Warfighter at 2560x1600, the GTX 780 Ti averaged 61.6fps for a 25% boost over the GTX 780, 12% over the R9 290X and 22% over the R9 290. Gigabyte’s GTX 780 Ti OC was faster still, offering 66.2fps for performance that was 35% faster than the GTX 780, 21% faster than the R9 290X and 31% faster than the R9 290. Meanwhile, the GTX 780 GHz Edition delivered 58....

The R9 290X OC delivered 77.5fps in Max Payne 3, just 6% slower than the GTX 780 Ti JetStream’s 82.1fps, and the R9 290 OC wasn’t far behind at 76.5fps, 20% faster than a standard GTX 780. Those playing Sleeping Dogs on max at 2560x1600 will want to make every frame count and this is where the Palit GTX 780 Ti JetStream proves particularly useful over the R9 290X OC, which was 14% slower....

We find similar results when testing with Adobe Photoshop CS5. However, when using these programs, it is apparent that the Core i7 2600K has a massive performance advantage over the Phenom II X6 1100T – though that’s hardly a secret. When testing WinRAR compression performance, we found that all three LGA1155 motherboards delivered exactly the same results, taking 96 seconds to compress a 700MB 720p HD file.

Mandiant was founded in 2004 by Kevin Mandia and has been instrumental in the investigation of several major cybersecurity incidents over the years. In 2013, The New York Times hired the firm to look into an attack it believed originated from China. HBO enlisted Mandiant’s help in 2017 after hackers stole 1.5TB of data, as did Equifax following its devastating security breach. Robinhood and Arby’s are also former Mandiant clients....

The hardware used here is typical of many modern smartphones. There’s a 12.2-megapixel sensor on the back, which includes 1.4 micron pixels, paired with an f/1.8 lens and optical image stabilization. OIS is new to the Pixel camera setup, which provides even greater scope for low light imagery, though the rest of the hardware is also set up for poor conditions thanks to large pixels and a wide open lens....

Google isn’t resting on its laurels. In celebration of its accomplishments, the search giant announced a new camera system packing the power, resolution and processing capabilities of its traditional Street View car camera in a portable package that’s about as large as a house cat. The new camera system weighs less than 15 pounds and can be shipped virtually anywhere in the world. Google said the camera is small enough to be mounted on any vehicle with a roof rack, and can be operated remotely from a mobile device....

Follow up: Stock Update November 2021, December 2021, January 2022, February 2022, March 2022, April 2022, May 2022, June 2022 One of the major happenings this month was the launch of the AMD Radeon RX 6600, a fairly average product that’s both bad value and good value at the same time. Bad value from the sense that it performs quite closely to the last-generation RX 5600 XT despite costing 20% more, but good value from the sense that in the current market, actual retail prices make it one of the better GPUs going around if you look at cost per frame....

Follow up: June 2022, July 2022, August 2022, September 2022, October 2022, November 2022, December 2022 The RTX 3090 Ti launched at $2,000 and since launch it’s been easy to get and priced as the MSRP would suggest. Of course, that MSRP is a bit ridiculous given the performance increase over the original RTX 3090 and the age of Ampere GPUs, but at least makers are no longer launching products at a supposed price point only to see that drastically increase straight away....

Having found a winning formula, Rockstar followed up with two more crime simulators: Vice City arrived a year later and then San Andreas two years after that, both of which were powered by Criterion’s RenderWare engine (like GTA III) while 2008’s GTA IV is more of a true successor with larger gameplay changes and graphics based on Rockstar’s own engine (RAGE). Rockstar has made many improvements to the PC version, including increased resolution and graphical detail, denser traffic, greater draw distances, upgraded AI, new wildlife, and advanced weather and damage effects....

Attorneys general from eight states, including Massachusetts, California, Florida, and Kentucky, are investigating TikTok to find out if its design and the way it is promoted can have a negative effect on the wellbeing of children, teens, and young adults. “As children and teens already grapple with issues of anxiety, social pressure and depression, we cannot allow social media to further harm their physical health and mental well-being,” Maura Healey, the attorney general of Massachusetts, said in a statement....