To be precise, 4A Games confirmed via its official Twitter account (@MetroVideoGame) that Steam users who pre-ordered the game back before it switched platforms to Epic Games Store will be able to pre-load the game. With more announcements related to the game to follow. Pre-loading games prior to their official launch is not a new concept. The practice is widely and universally accepted by gamers alike, as the feature basically allows those with slower connections and internet speeds to download massive game files....

“Following a conversation between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and President Donald Trump, Microsoft is prepared to continue discussions to explore a purchase of TikTok in the United States,” wrote the company in the statement. “Microsoft fully appreciates the importance of addressing the President’s concerns. It is committed to acquiring TikTok subject to a complete security review and providing proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury....

Xbox says that this very limited edition Series S console was made with the help of Chinese cartoon artist Bu2ma (Bu-er-ma). And since it’s the year of the Tiger that’s coming up, the console and its accompanying controller has the animal featured in the art that’s on the devices. Follow and RT with #LunarNewYearXboxSweepstakes for a chance to win a Lunar New Year Xbox Series S bundle. Age 18+. Ends 2/3/22....

In this space, which combines both virtual and augmented reality instances, users are able to participate through Microsoft’s own HoloLens 2 headset, VR gear, computers and even mobile devices. Mesh is powered by the company’s renown Azure cloud computing platform in order to ensure a swift and seamless experience, especially for generating multiple and varying 3D resources as well as user avatars during a session in real-time. Speaking of avatars, Mesh enables users to be represented by customisable 3D characters created from Microsoft’s AltSpaceVR social network, at least for now....

First up is its display and design. While at first glance it may seem that the Surface Duo 2 looks no different than last year’s model, it is actually larger (albeit slightly) and comes with a new edge display along its hinge that shows notifications when in folded form. Speaking of displays, the smartphone comes with two 5.8-inch PixelSense AMOLED screens with a variable refresh rate of up to 90Hz and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection....

The order affects all Microsoft’s retail stores located around the world; Only four locations – located within New York, London, Sydney, and Redmond – will be “reimagined” as experience centres, but neither of these stores will be fitted to sell any products. Instead, the company responsible for giving us the Windows 10 OS will be shifting its retails effort into the digital ecosystem, moving forward. Microsoft says that by moving its retail operations in this way will enable Microsoft....

Whether you’re completely healthy, currently infected with the virus, or have recovered from it, the team is asking you to submit your cough sample for the development of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) that can detect COVID-19 and other infectious diseases from just the sound. It is being conducted by the Ministry of Health and the Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak, with a target of at least 2,400 participants for each type of disease....

PCGamesN reports that Monster Hunter World: Iceborne will arrive on PCs in January of next year. It’s a little unfortunate though that Capcom has not announced a specific date for the release. That said, chances are the publisher will announce the exact date closer to the launch month. The base game, Monster Hunter: World, was announced for consoles, in January 2018, alongside a special edition PS4. The PC version of the game only came eight months later, in August....

The CNET team recently conducted a folding test on the Motorola Razr by using their specially made Square Trade FoldBot machine, which would continuously folds and unfolds the phone. A digital counter records the total number of folds done during the test, which allows the team to indicate the Razr’s eventual breaking point. Testing ended after a total of 27,218 folds when the phone could no longer close up properly....

Starting with the Gaming X Trio, the card follows the brand’s iconic Gaming X aesthetics, along with some updates over the last generation. Features on the card include its Tri Frozr 2 cooling solution, complemented by 4th generation TORX Fans that sit on top of the card’s massive heatsink. In addition, the card is reinforced with a Graphene backplate. Down the line is the Ventus 3X variant of the RTX 3080....

As many of you know, the latest MSI gaming and creative laptops are expected to ship out from February onwards, with all of them running on Intel’s latest 12th generation Alder Lake mobile CPUs for laptops, as well as NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 30 Series. Like its desktop counterparts, the new CPU is based on the Intel 7 process, which is just a fancy name for the 10nm Enhanced SuperFIN die lithography....

[UPDATED ARTICLE] Those using the MyDebit Cash Out feature for cash withdrawals should take note of an important change that will be implemented in the coming month. As first reported by website Rnggt.com, several banks including Alliance, CIMB, HSBC, Bank Islam, OCBC and Standard Chartered have issued notices informing their users that all cash outs made through the service will be imposed with a fee starting 1 July 2022. According to the notices, withdrawals done via MyDebit Cash Out will be charged RM 0....

MySejahtera’s recognition by the EU arrives not long after Malaysia’s transition to the endemic phase last week on 1 April which, at the same time, saw the country opening its borders for both local and foreign travellers. Additionally, this would also explain why Apple now recognises the QR code for the MySejahtera digital certificate via its Apple Health and Apple Wallet apps after the recent iOS 15.4 update. “Malaysia shall be connected to the EU Digital COVID Certificate trust framework established by Regulation (EU) 2021/953,” read a graphic attached to Rokas’ tweet....

In an interview with THR, Erika North, Netflix’s director of international original programming talked about Netflix’s holistic perspective towards content creation and curation. As a Netflix subscriber myself, it’s easy to see that North isn’t just giving a PR friendly answer. Over the past few years, Netflix has placed a lot of emphasis on Asian content. I would argue that one of the best original content on Netflix right now is an Indian crime drama titled Sacred Games....

CNBC quotes data obtained via Apptopia that less than one percent of its subscribers are actively playing Netflix games. Of its 221 million subscribers, only 1.7 million of them are registered as daily users of its games. Download numbers are a little higher at 23.3 million downloads, but that’s a dubious metric in most scenarios. As mentioned, Netflix had been steadily adding mobile games to its library. On top of being freebies to subscribers, there are some genuinely interesting entries to the list....

First discovered by SteamDB member Pavel Djundik, the recently published patent by Valve was originally filed for in March last year. It detailed a new system, which the document referred to as “instant play”, that enables Steam to track read operations performed by the executable (or exe) file of a given game, in order to draw a map of what and how often data is being accessed. Using this information, the platform is able to prioritise downloading certain files that are required to launch the game, without having to wait for the entire process to be completed....

The bundle was first spotted by German tech news outlet WinFuture, the PS5 consoles in these bundles will be in their latest – and lightest – iterations. Indicating this is the new model numbers, which are CFI-1216A and CFI-1216B for the physical and Digital Editions, respectively. Taking regional differences into account, this mirrors the new models that have made their way here, which are labeled CFI-1218A and CFI-1218B. While the bundles look to be the real deal, there’s no word on their official prices yet....

One of those improvements is the density of DDR5; compared to DDR4, the new memory standard will have four times the density of DDR4, enabling memory makers to fabricated up to 64Gb per die, compared to the current 16Gb per die. If these numbers hold, the increase in die size also means that the maximum RAM capacities can also increase exponentially from the standard 16GB or 32GB to a whopping 2TB....

The topic was brought up by Bloomberg’s Takashi Mochizuki during a private Q&A session that followed Nintendo’s financial results briefing. The journalist says that the company has no plans to announce a new Switch model at this time, but did not directly deny its existence. Hint: Nintendo chief last year said not planning to release new model in 2020. Today’s was just “not anytime soon.” So, that means…?https://t.co/MQkwskXYrn — Takashi Mochizuki (@6d6f636869) February 1, 2021 However, there’s also the possibility that Nintendo may be referring to limited editions of the console instead of a new variant....

Based on the YouTube announcement video, there looks to be at least three LEGO sets for Luigi’s Mansion. The largest, and probably priciest, set of them all is called Haunt-and-Seek, followed by Entryway, and then Lab and Poltergeist. Each has its own exclusive piece, which are King Boo, Polterpup and the Poltergust 3000 vacuum, respectively. Despite the Halloween-themed announcement, the Luigi’s Mansion sets themselves will only be available starting 1 January 2022....