At the now-underway CES 2020, the company is showing off a keyboard that’s literally plated in gold, and we got to play with it. The keycaps and base are gold plated, but the wrist rest is not, according to Tom’s Hardware, although it’s colored to look the part. He then yoinked the Escape key off of this $10,000 keyboard. The keyboard is hideous, to put it bluntly, and exists only as a grotesque monument to the most conspicuous of consumerism. After Jarred was done dismantling the literally-gold

(Image credit: Focus Home Interative)The Surge 2 is getting an expansion next week in the form of Kraken, which transports the player to a giant decommissioned aircraft carrier which has been converted into a garish kind of suburbia. In other words, you’ll be carving limbs off robots in a setting that’s fairly unusual for the series, which is always fun. According to the description you’ll be facing off with “robot pirates, deranged security systems, and an imposing new boss”. Apparently the exp

Simplified Chinese has become the largest language demographic on Steam, according to the results of Valve’s December 2019 Steam Hardware and Software survey . That has changed as Simplified Chinese language users rocketed up to the number one spot in December 2019. The Steam Hardware survey isn’t scientific, and hasn’t always been a trustworthy source. But AMD’s Scott Herkelman contests that the Steam hardware survey isn’t indicative of actual market share because of flaws in Valve’s methodolog

Zombie Army 4: Dead War is exactly the sort of regular zombie shooter that, if you’re reading this, you probably know all too well. If you’ve played even just one of Rebellion’s shooters, you probably already know what Zombie Army 4 feels like. Thankfully, the rest of my time with Zombie Army 4 improved the further we went into the military base’s guts. Though previous Zombie Army entries had a handful of unique zombie types to confront, Dead War really throws everything and the kitchen sink at

Spoiler warning: we talk about the entire season below, including the ending and some of the plot threads set up for season two. I think episode one is a legit good hour of television. As for Jaskier, I didn’t mind him, and I like that ‘toss a coin to your Witcher’ has become a bit of a meme. I’m not sure the Witcher is there yet in season one, but I hope it builds on that in season two. Fraser: My hopes for season two include more monster slaying, that unicorn scene, maybe some witcher wang?

Developed by one person, Jacob Williams, ITTA is Cuphead meets Hyper Light Drifter in a surreal, mysterious pixel art world. You play as a young girl, the titular Itta, who is armed with her father’s revolver and accompanied by a ghostly, floating cat. “Itta explores a strange world inhabited by powerful cosmic beings in search of answers and peace,” says Williams. “As a reminder to myself I made her papercraft a prominent symbol in the game, dotted around the world. It’s a touching story, and m

Image 1 of 3 (Image credit: AMD) Image 2 of 3 (Image credit: AMD) Image 3 of 3 (Image credit: AMD)The Ryzen 7 4800H, on the other hand, is built for gaming and creator laptops with what AMD calls “desktop caliber performance.” According to AMD, the Ryzen 7 4800H has the same TDP as Intel’s Core i7-9750H, but a 39 percent increase in gaming performance. (Image credit: AMD)The announcements didn’t stop at mobile processors, though. January 21, 2020, AMD will be releasing its answer to the GTX 1660

Intel’s next CPUs are codenamed Tiger Lake, and let me be clear that these may not be for desktop systems. Intel claims Tiger Lake will double the graphics performance of its current 10th Gen processors (aka, Ice Lake)—and Ice Lake basically doubled the performance of Intel’s previous UHD Graphics 620 solutions. This was in another laptop, suggesting Intel is hoping to enter the gaming laptop market as well as the desktop graphics card market. It’s going to be an exciting year for Intel graphics

Cosmetically, its stand-out feature is the programmable LED dot matrix on the lid, or what Asus calls an AniMe Matrix. On the G14, users can also choose between three 14-inch displays: a 120Hz 1080p IPS panel, a 60Hz 1440p IPS panel, or a 60Hz 1080p IPS panel. The G15 is available with a 15.6-inch 1080p 144Hz IPS panel or a 1080p 240Hz IPS panel. Next in the line-up are four new desktops from Asus, the ROG Strix GA15/GT15 and ROG Strix GA35/GT35, the GA35/GT35 being the more souped-up version of

Intel has unveiled the next tiny PC in its NUC line. The Intel NUC 9 Extreme Kit, or Ghost Canyon NUC, was announced at CES and sounds like a significant upgrade over its predecessor. It’s a little bit larger than the router-sized NUC 8, but it’s still ridiculously small for a gaming PC. One of the biggest differences between Ghost Canyon and its predecessor is that you’re not limited by what you get in the box. Normally you need to add your own storage and RAM, so it seems likely that will also

Acer is getting ready to launch of trio of Predator gaming monitors, the smallest of which sports a 32-inch display—which also happens to be the most expensive of the bunch. More recently, Nvidia has added two additional categories of G-Sync, including G-Sync Compatible and G-Sync Ultimate. (Image credit: Acer)Acer also revealed the Predator X38 for gamers who want a bigger display with a curve. The Predator X38 is considerably less expensive than the decked out Predator X38, though it’s not che

But that’s not stopping Lenovo from trying, because the company just announced a thin and light ‘gaming’ laptop designed to be used with an external GPU. Lenovo is showing off the Legion Y740S at CES 2020, the company’s “thinnest and lightest gaming laptop yet.” However, it only offers Intel HD graphics, so I’m not quite sure it qualifies as a gaming laptop. In order to play more than just Minecraft and Fortnite, you’re going to need the Lenovo BoostStation GPU enclosure, which costs an addition

It was supposed to be just a one-off build, but Origin PC has decided to build the Big O for the masses. What’s available to buy is a little bit different than the celebratory build Origin PC showed off a few months. Part of the reason Origin PC opted for this particular chassis is because of its dual chamber design. “Play, stream, or record your console gameplay with the PC and capture card inside Big O. With the power of PC and console cross-play, you can even play with a friend locally using

(Image credit: finalscenedev)Biomass is a sidescrolling sci-fi game with a few elements borrowed from Dark Souls. But there’s a wonderfully enticing atmosphere, some beautiful pixel art, and quite a bit of game packed into this pre-release demo (the developer is aiming to release the full thing in early February). Naturally, every Soulslike worth its salt will introduce something to the formula, and Biomass allows you to restore your health using power accrued by hitting enemies. And you probabl

Nvidia and Asus have unveiled what is apparently the world’s first 360Hz G-Sync monitor, the Asus ROG 360, ahead of CES. 360Hz seems a bit like overkill, but there was also a time when people thought anything higher than 60 fps was pointless. With the upcoming monitor, Nvidia says that frames will be displayed every 2.8ms, which makes the game clearer and more responsive to superhuman reflexes. Thanks to G-Sync, esports pros won’t need to worry about screen tearing, either. Nvidia, not surprisin

McFarlane Toys has announced a set of Cyberpunk 2077 action figures to release this spring, one of the protagonist V and three of Keanu Reeves. Here’s details on the figures:7″ Johnny Silverhand has a guitar, a bottle of what is decidedly whiskey, and can throw up the horns. Variant 7″ Johnny Silverhand has a nuke in a duffel bag(?!) 12″ Johnny Silverhand, screaming, guitar. Image 1 of 7 (Image credit: McFarlane) Image 2 of 7 (Image credit: McFarlane) Image 3 of 7 (Image credit: McFarlane) Image

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has now reliably pushed past Dota 2’s peak and average player counts, making the shooter the more popular of Valve’s big online games and the top game on Steam. Dota 2’s all-time player peak was 1.2 million in January 2015, with a return to that number in January and February 2016. Dota 2’s player counts for 2019 peaked at over one million in February, but have experienced general decline, with a drop in December after the huge Outlanders update. That’s not too s

Indie developer Cardboard Computer is responsible for Kentucky Route Zero, an episodic game of magical realism, secret highways, and strange Americana. The first episode of a planned five was released on January 7, 2013, and now there’s a countdown suggesting the final episode could be out this week. To access that countdown you’ll need to be in the US and call the Kentucky Route Zero development status hotline on 1-858-WHEN-KRZ. You’ll hear the following message: “The current status of Kentucky

(Image credit: zomprd)Modder zomprd has been upscaling parts of Diablo 2 and is planning to eventually release a demo containing a playable slice of the game with sharpened graphics. These HQ textures are being generated using ESRGAN, and they sure do look a lot less blurry than the original does at its maximum resolution of 800 x 600. Now, zomprd isn’t working on a full texture pack for Diablo 2 unfortunately, but hopes that releasing a playable demo of one portion of it might inspire others wh

Have fond memories of driving past the beach while the sun sets over the Grand Theft Auto series equivalent of Miami? The Vice Cry Remastered mod is for you. It adapts the Vice City map to GTA 5 as if it were DLC, and adds a few new missions so that it’s not just about appreciating palm trees while speeding past them with the radio cranked up. Although the mod’s trailer restages a bunch of scenes from Vice City’s story complete with Tommy Vercetti, the original missions aren’t playable. You can