The history of Microsoft-backed Xbox One games coming to the PC isn't exactly stellar. When Remedy's Quantum Breakreached Windows, it was saddled with limitations that were partly dictated by the Universal Windows Platform's own limits, such as frame rate issues and an overall lack of features. You shouldn't run into those problems when Gears of War 4 rolls around, though. As part of a Eurogamer interview, The Coalition hasrevealed that the cover-based shooter will have ample PC-specific features. You'll get much deeper video settings that include dynamic resolutions, so your ultra-wide display won't go to waste. It'll also take advantage of many-core PC processors, higher-resolution textures and UWP's recentlyunlocked frame rates, offering a distinct visual advantage to playing on a brawny computer.
Other perks? There's a benchmarking mode to make you feel good about your hardware upgrades, and you have full control over the keyboard and mouse input. In short, this should feel like a PC-native game even though it's likely to be the definitive Xbox One title for 2016. That's still not going to make everyone happy (developers have railed against UWP's closed ecosystem for years), but it beats having to deal with console-like limitations just to play some big Xbox hits on your Windows gaming rig.
Our computers have rapidly shrunk from room-size behemoths to hulking desktops to the svelte laptops that now dominate modern offices. What haven't changed much are the tables and chairs that the computers (and we) sit on. A new integrated workspace from the Altwork company, appropriately named the Station, has been designed to replace both pieces of furniture while giving you more flexibility in how you interact with your computer. I was recently able to get a butts-on demo of the Station, and the only contortion I had to perform was wrapping my mind around its massive price tag.
At first glance, the Station resembles a fancy dentist's chair with a pivotable tabletop attached to the front. Its leg rest coils under the seat like an inverted scorpion's tail when not in use but will nearly straighten when fully extended. The entire thing rides on casters and weighs only 210 pounds (without a monitor), so it is relatively easy to move around and reposition. That's not something one could easily do on an old-timey rolltop. Additionally, the tabletop, monitor stand and optional upper laptop mount are all adjustable for maximum ergonomic efficiency. This allows you to "fit" the Station to your specific needs, and once you do, these settings can be saved in one of four user-programmable presets.
The Station can transform between four basic functional positions. It can serve as both a conventional seated desk and a standing desk. If you swing out the monitor and tabletop, it becomes a collaborative workstation. And if you get serious about your workflow, the Station's "focus" position will put you flat on your back with the monitor and tabletop (not to mention your keyboard and mouse) suspended above you. When I was seated like this during a recent demo, it was quite comfortable, though I didn't feel more productive so much as just really silly and self-conscious. The fact that I was splayed out on this thing like a portly harbor seal in the middle of a crowded We Works probably didn't help either.
The focus position carries other pitfalls as well. Like, where am I supposed to put my coffee cup? Oh, it goes on the $650 side table that Altworks is hawking as an accessory item? Yeah, OK. What's more, you'll need to affix magnets (you know how they work) to the bottoms of your keyboard and mouse to prevent them from sliding off. And great googly moogly, does this thing take forever to fully recline -- 30-plus seconds by my count -- so if you want to work in focus mode, you'd better block out a couple of minutes to get situated and pray that you don't have to get up from there until you're done.
Then there's the price. You're going to need a second job to afford one of these things. The standard model, which comes in either of two frame colors (gray and a slightly darker gray), will retail for a whopping $5,900. That doesn't include the $650 side table, it doesn't include the $175 upper laptop mount and it sure as heck doesn't include a computer monitor; that's just the workstation itself. Now, if you want to get fancy with upholstery, seat-back and frame color options, you're going to want the "Signature" model. It's $6,900. Yeah, nearly seven grand for a device that transforms into both a standing desk and impromptu medical exam table. Sure, you get a $2,000 discount if you pre-order one before Saturday, July 30th, but that's still a sizable investment just to replace your current office furniture.
Donald Trump has, whether knowingly or not, tapped into some deep-seated bigotry still lurking just beneath the surface of this country. I do not know if Trump agrees with the openly racist people he retweets or if he's merely aping the language and memes of the alt-right for political gain. As many have discovered, though, Trump's most vocal supporters on Twitter are often unabashedly anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist and racist. The question for me as I prepared for the 2016 Republican National Convention was, would these newly invigorated hate groups suddenly feel as safe expressing themselves face-to-face as they do online?
I'm happy to report the answer is no -- mostly, anyway. The 2016 RNCcertainly wasn't without incident or ugliness, but by and large the crowds were peaceful and respectful, and the hate groups did not find the Republican Party waiting for them with open arms in Cleveland.
Gallery: The 2016 Republican National Convention in pictures | 34 Photos
Using a tool called Hyp3r, Engadget collected every tweet and Instagram that was geotagged from the official convention venues. We scoured the data looking for slurs, overtly racist language and echoes (more on those below) and came up empty. Hyp3r pulls in tweets from only users with the location enabled on their devices, so it's not a comprehensive collection of 140-character missives, but our data suggest that Trump's white-supremacist contingent didn't make it to the convention floor. Or, at the least were very discreet about their more radical beliefs.
On Twitter, white supremacists can hide behind the anonymity of their screen name and use an obscure marker called an echo -- literally just a series of parenthesis ((()) -- to target people for an army of trolls. Sometimes those attacks are just insults and memes, but they sometimes turn violent. Countless people have received death threats, especially Jewish journalists. I'm not even Jewish and even I have even been on the receiving end of threats and harassment after tweeting unflattering things about Donald Trump. Multiple times I've been told I would soon find myself in an oven.
In person, though, such overt racism is considered deeply taboo. Indeed, expressions of these sentiments at the convention, both in person and on social media, appeared to be few and far between. And they were often quickly snuffed out. Republican Congressman Steve King of Iowa found himself on the receiving end of criticism from both sides of the aisle after he suggested on MSNBC that nonwhites had contributed little to civilization. And Illinois delegate Lori Gayne had her credentials stripped after she posted a photo of a police sharpshooter with the caption "Our brave snipers just waiting for some N**** to try something. Love them" on Facebook.
Supporters watch Donald Trump speak on a giant screen outside the Quicken Loans Arena.
Some delegates I spoke to expressed concerns that this might violate Gayne's right to free speech, but all of them condemned the language. That includes Illinois Republican Party Chairman Tim Schneider, who told the Chicago Sun-Times that the GOP, "has zero tolerance for racism of any kind and threats of violence against anyone."
A group of Cruz delegates from Washington I interviewed also suggested the tone on the floor did not reflect that of Trump's most virulent supporters online. While they did accuse Trump delegates of bullying and said they had heard at least one threaten violence against a delegate from another state, they had not overheard anything overtly racist or anti-Semitic on the floor. This came as a relief because many of the Washington delegates were part of the "Never Trump" movement. They were in part motivated by what delegate Selena Coppa called Trump's sounding of a "dog whistle" for white supremacists.
So does that mean the bigots all stayed home?
Not quite. There was a small collection of openly hostile hate groups in Cleveland this week; they were confined to the streets outside the convention center. But even there they were merely a very vocal minority. A small group of protesters had set up in Public Square most of the week declaring that Allah was Satan and that "all true Muslims were jihadists." One man paraded up and down 4th, right outside the convention center, with a sign declaring that "Jews DO run the media." I witnessed a man offer a Hitler salute and chant "Sieg Heil!" though I suspect he was simply trolling, and there were several members of the anti-immigrant groupSoldiers of Odin on the ground and well as a handful of high-profilewhite supremacists.
But I watched a Trump supporter talk down the man screaming "Sieg Heil." And it's not as if the Soldiers of Odin were greeted with cheers when they arrived at Public Square.
Could it simply be that everyone was on their best behavior because they were out in public and the eyes of the nation were focused on them? Perhaps. But I'm choosing to believe that tone at the convention truly reflected the beliefs and attitudes of the rank-and-file party members.
The rhetoric from the stage during the RNC was predictably ugly and chances are, next week's Democratic National Convention won't be much better. But that sort of partisan red meat is mostly for show. The people in the streets and on the convention floor were polite and friendly. The air was celebratory, not hostile.
A Trump supporter and Black Lives Matter protester jam outside the Quicken Loans Arena.
I'm not going to pretend to agree with the politics of Donald Trump or the Republican party, but months of watching the campaign play out mostly through the lens of social media had left me despondent. A week in Cleveland has me feeling a little more hopeful. Most of the vitriol online didn't spill over into the streets at the RNC. Face-to-face it seems we're able to still realize that, even if we disagree about how to get there, we all share common goals as Americans.
KickassTorrents has been seized by US authorities and its owner arrested for criminal copyright infringement and money laundering. The site is one of the world’s largest torrent tracking sites in the world; at times dwarfing the traffic seen from the infamous Pirate Bay.
Artem Vaulin, a 30 year old Ukrainian, was arrested in Poland for running the site and is currently awaiting extradition to the US. Vaulin is to be charged with conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and two counts of criminal copyright infringement.
The complaint filed in the US District court shows that investigators had posed as an advertiser to make contact with Vaulin and revealed a bank account associated with the site. It was Apple that revealed Vaulin’s identity and personal information to investigators when his IP address was cross referenced when he used it to perform an iTunes transaction.
KickassTorrents is currently down, but it looks like several proxies are still operational. We wouldn’t be surprised if it keeps operating, even if Vaulin ends up behind bars in the US. After all, years of criminal proceedings failed to shut down the Pirate Bay.
I’ve always wanted to play the Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm series. The last Naruto game I played was the Japanese version ofNaruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 for the PlayStation 2, which was released wayyyback in 2005. That’s 11 years ago, imagine that.
So when I was offered the chance to review (what is likely to be) the last instalment of the game series, I jumped at the opportunity. As a long time fan of the manga and anime, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 was a delight to play.
What Is It?
As mentioned, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 is basically the last instalment in the series, seeing how the manga – and anime – has reached its conclusion. Then again, there is a chance the new Boruto manga will be turned into a video game as well, although this still remains to be seen – the manga hasn’t even been released yet, after all.
This game is the first of the series to be made for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One; it is also available on PC, just like the previous instalment of the game. For this particular review, it was done with the PS4 version.
Is It Any Good?
Absolutely. The Story Mode, for one, is basically a retelling of the Naruto series from the middle of the Fourth Great Ninja War – with some flashbacks here and there. The graphics and animations are gorgeous, and most of all, the sheer number of characters available to players is nothing short of amazing; practically every major character in the Naruto series is playable.
To me, this game truly shines in the Story Mode. The quick time events were fun to do, and the animations that follow are a joy to watch. Simply put, I’m very impressed with the storytelling of the Story Mode, despite the fact that I already know what was going to happen: the game stayed faithful to the original storyline.
As for the combat system itself, I really didn’t like the 3D battle system, which can result in some really awkward camera angles. Once I’m used to it, however, it’s actually quite enjoyable. There are plenty of cinematic camera angles if you manage to pull off certain moves, and the “Ultimate Jutsus” are very well done. Did I mention the voice acting is really impressive as well? At least, the Japanese voice-over; I’m not a fan of the English voice acting.
The Bad Stuff, Tell Me.
While the Story Mode is my favourite aspect of the game, there are certain scenes that can be quite…draggy. There were a few times I wish the storytelling would progress faster, as it was getting pretty long-winded. However, once the story picks up, I find myself really enjoying the depth and length of the story, but I’m not sure if many gamers – especially if you’re not fond of the series – can be as patient. Thankfully, cutscenes can be skipped if the player wishes to do so.
Other than that, the online multiplayer – on the PS4 version, of course – is a mixed bag. In certain matchups, there was minimal input lag, which makes for an enjoyable experience. However, most online matches are basically unplayable from the massive input lag and stuttering. Finding opponents online is quite a task in itself as well.
Should I Buy It?
If you’re a fan of the Naruto series, most definitely. The Story Mode is very engaging (though a tad long-winded at times), and the graphics are gorgeous. The online gameplay could’ve been better, but I imagine this game will be a blast to play with a friend in local multiplayer. While Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 isn’t the best fighting game out there, it’s definitely a fun one.
This comes as a bit of a surprise, doesn’t it? Unlike the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 as well as the AMD Radeon RX 480 which have been leaked numerous amounts of times before making their official debut, theGeForce GTX 1060 seems to appear out of nowhere.
Today, 13 days after the card was officially revealed to the world, the GTX 1060 is ready to meet eager consumers throughout the world. Hence, it is time to learn more about the capability of NVIDIA’s new graphics card for the mainstream market.
SPECIFICATIONS AND CARD DESIGN
Housed within a die cast aluminum body, the heart of the GTX 1060 Founders Edition is the new GP106 chip. Since it is a 16nm Pascal-based GPU, the GP106 is able to utilize plenty of graphical technologies that the previous GP104 chip in the higher end GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 cards already support, such as Simultaneous Multi-Projection, NVIDIA VRWorks, and Ansel.
As the GTX 1060 is designed for the mainstream market particularly for those who usually play their games at full HD resolution, the amount of firepower within the card is significantly scaled down compared to the GTX 1070 and GTX 1080:
Specs Comparison: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 vs GTX 1070 vs GTX 1080.Our NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Founders Edition specifications, according to GPU-Z.
For this review, all tests were done on the GTX 1060 Founders Edition card which we deem as the reference point for the GTX 1060 series. Unlike the GTX 1070 and GTX 1080, do note that the card is only available directly from NVIDIA which means that the Malaysian market will be mainly served by NVIDIA’s Add-In-Board (AIB) partners with their custom boards.
While the GTX 1060 Founders Edition might look like a usual full-length graphics card, the card’s PCB is actually shorter than the thermal solution that NVIDIA has equipped on it. The solution consists of a radial fan together with two copper heat pipes on the base of the heatsink which is made from aluminum, and is apparently 50% larger than the heatsink on the GTX 960.
There is no backplate on this card though, as opposed to the Founders Edition cards for the GTX 1070 and GTX 1080. Instead, the back area on the card is fully exposed – but this is nothing to be worried about.
The GTX 1060 has no problem achieving excellent results in 1080p test conditions such as Unigine Valley’s Extreme and Extreme HD preset as well as 3DMark’s Fire Strike. The card started to struggle in 1440p tests but is still able to hold itself to a certain extent, unlike in the intensive Fire Strike Ultra test which runs at 4K resolution.
Gaming
The GTX 1060 generally performs quite well in our DirectX 11 game tests at 1080p and 1440p alongside the SteamVR Performance Test. That being said, the results also depends on the game’s anti-aliasing settings especially on 1440p and 4K resolutions. The same can be said for DirectX 12-based games too, as shown below:
OVERCLOCKING
Before we move on, we’d like to touch a little bit on the clock speed of the GTX 1060’s GPU. While the figures above were taken directly from GPU-Z reading, the Boost clock speed actually goes much higher when the card is in operation. At stock, we noticed that the GPU runs between 1,8745 MHz and 1,898 MHz – while it goes between 2,038 MHz to 2,126 MHz when overclocked.
Since we only performed a simple GPU and memory overclock using EVGA PrecisionX OC software without tweaking the card’s default fan, voltage, and thermal setting, this showed the huge amount of overhead available on the GTX 1060. With that, it seems possible to push the card even further with deeper tweaks and higher performance thermal solutions.
In terms of real life results, the overclock settings helps our card achieve more than 10% of performance increase in most of our tests. It also increased the system’s SteamVR rating from 8.3 to 9.5 which is quite impressive.
POWER DRAW, TEMPERATURE, AND NOISE
Powered by a single 6-pin connector, the GTX 1060’s power consumption is indeed as good as NVIDIA claims. At the same time, the thermal solution of the card is equally impressive as well since it managed to keep the card well below the GTX 1060’s thermal limit regardless whether it is at stock or overclocked condition.
Subsequently, the card is also quite quiet when it is in operation. Even when in overclocked state, the faint buzz can be noticed only if one tries to listen closely.
COMPETITION
Let’s just be straight forward here: everyone knows that the GTX 1060’s main competitor would be the AMD Radeon RX 480. When compared to test results from our RX 480 review, the GTX 1060 managed to edge AMD’s offering in almost all tests that we threw at it with varying degrees.
With the exception of Hitman, it is interesting to note that the GTX 1060 outdid the RX 480 while being at stock condition. The same goes for power draw and card temperature: the GTX 1060 simply performs better than the RX 480.
This might be expected from a GTX 1060 Founders Edition, since it is priced at $299 (about RM1,212) which is $60 (about RM243) more than a reference Radeon RX 480 8GB (RRP: $239, about RM968) in the United States market. However, the scenario in Malaysia is rather different.
First of all, the GTX 1060 Founders Edition is not available in Malaysia (at least directly) which means that its position will be filled by custom boards from NVIDIA’s AIB partners. From what we have gathered within local distribution channels, these custom boards might have a starting price of RM 1,399 which is just RM 100 more than the existing average price (RM 1,299) of RX 480 reference cards in Malaysia.
Not to forget, these custom GTX 1060 boards are usually factory overclocked which means it might have better performance than the GTX 1060 Founders Edition. Hence, the pricing scenario in Malaysia for both the GTX 1060 and RX 480 has changed their values in our market – and with such a narrow price difference, the GTX 1060 seems to offer more value for money.
However, those who plan to utilize multiple graphics cards as part of their setup will have to look elsewhere, since the GTX 1060 does not come with SLI capability – which is quite a bummer. This is where the RX 480 might become more attractive to users, although getting a pair of this card would cost more than a single GTX 1070 due to the AMD card’s pricing in Malaysia.
CONCLUSION
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB might be designed to deliver a high level of graphics performances at 1080p resolution but our experience with it showed that the card still has enough firepower to achieve comfortable frame rates in most games at 1440p. It also scored rather well in SteamVR test which means that users can now look forward to having a lower cost NVIDIA-based virtual reality system.
With a little bit of tweaking, some games can even be played at 4K resolution although playing at this resolution clearly pushes the GTX 1060 to its limit and requires gamers to sacrifice graphics quality to achieve playable frame rates. Still, the card managed to remain cool and silent even when it is being cranked so hard.
While the GTX 1060 might cost more than its closest competitor at the moment, the AMD Radeon RX 480, NVIDIA is rather fortunate that the pricing scenario in Malaysia has given the GTX 1060 an advantage over the RX 480 in terms of value for money. Still, it is painful for us to say that these cards do cost way higher in Malaysia than the RRP announced by their respective creators.
The Nvidia GTX 1060 has certainly set a new benchmark for mainstream graphics cards even though a lack of SLI support slightly taints its final score. That being said, cost-conscious users would still prefer single-card setups anyway, and they will definitely not be disappointed with what the GTX 1060 has to offer for them.
Pros:
– Performs very well in 1080p resolution.
– Acceptable performance at 1440p resolution.
– Capable card for VR
– Silent thermal solution
– Overclocking friendly.
– It has better value for money in our market, given the graphics card’s pricing in Malaysia.
Cons:
– Doesn’t support SLI.
– Need to tweak graphics setting to achieve playable rate at 4K resolution.
– Priced higher than its competitor.
– Founders Edition model is not available in Malaysia.
