Latest Tech News

Find yourself hit with intense feelings of gay yearning? We've gathered up eight new and upcoming PC games that feature queer characters and narratives to help you round out your game library or annoy your friends with as you gush about them. 

For PC Gaming Week 2020, we've found everything from classic visual novels and dating sims to interactive fiction, dungeon crawlers, and cyberpunk adventures. So, if you're a cottagecore lesbian looking for a cute game to pass the time with, a sword gay who dreams of romancing your favorite weapon, or a non-binary person who is longing for the day you can finally have the hot robot body you deserve, there's a game out there for you to look forward to. 

Upcoming queer games at a glance:

1. Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp
2. Boyfriend Dungeon
3. Goodbye Volcano High
4. Lore Finder
5. Read Only Memories: Neurodiver
6. Souls Unguarded
7. Best Friend Forever
8. We Should Talk

(Image credit: Beautiful Glitch)

1. Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp

Best dating sim

Developer: Beautiful Glitch | Publisher: Beautiful Glitch | Release Date: Q4 2020 | Platform: PC

View at Steam

Developer and publisher, Beautiful Glitch, raised over €535,000 (about $610,000, £485,000, AU$872,000) through Kickstarter to create a sequel to their hit dating sim, Monster Prom. In the sequel, Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp, there are many of the same mechanics as the first game: a time limit to find a date, different areas to visit, and multiplayer. Beautiful Glitch has added six new romanceable characters as well as new minigames to keep gameplay fresh and fun. You'll build campfires and mix cocktails on your quest to impress your crush, and Beautiful Glitch has promised a few surprises as well.

(Image credit: Kitfox Games)

2. Boyfriend Dungeon

Best RPG

Developer: Kitfox Games | Publisher: Kitfox Games | Release Date: Late 2020 | Platform: PC, Nintendo Switch

View at Steam

Do you think swords are sexy? Boyfriend Dungeon takes that concept to new levels by letting you date your weapons. There are nine different bladed weapons, each able to transform into a very beautiful person with their own personalities, likes, and dislikes. Players will make their way through various dungeons to earn cash and find treasure so you can take your sword on dates. 

There are male, female, and non-binary romanceable characters, so players can choose a partner that matches their real-life preferences. Each blade not only is a different hottie, they also have their own fighting styles. The glaive and scythe are slow, heavy hitters, while the laser sword and dagger let you quickly stab and slash before dodging incoming attacks. There's also a set of brass knuckles that turn into a cat, so we're already sold.  

(Image credit: KO_OP)

3. Goodbye Volcano High

Best narrative adventure

Developer: KO_OP | Publisher: KO_OP | Release Date: 2021 | Platform: PC, PS4, PS5

View at Steam

Ko_op announced Goodbye Volcano High during the Sony "Future of Gaming" online event on June 11, 2020. The game follows members of a high school garage band of anthropomorphic dinosaurs: the non-binary Fang, their BFF Trish, Naomi the student council president, and Fang's brother Naser. The narrative centers on the typical emotional highs and lows of high school and how difficult it can be to navigate social circles and romantic interests. Branching narrative paths give you plenty of dialogue options with far-reaching consequences, and minigames break up the visual novel elements. 

(Image credit: Kitsune Games)

4. Lore Finder

Best horror

Developer: Kitsune Games | Publisher: Kitsune Games | Release Date: Late 2020 | Platform: PC

View at Steam

Lore Finder's Steam page describes the game as "a modern queer reimagining of the cosmic horror genre." Players will assume the role of K.C Morgan, a non-binary person and paranormal investigator, as they accumulate eldritch powers and face unfathomable horrors while they try to uncover a family's dark pask and terrible secrets. The gameplay will be non-linear, allowing you to take on quests in any order. There is also a Speedrun Mode for time trials, and a mode that will allow you to play as K.C's girlfriend once you beat the game, gaining new powers and story elements. 

(Image credit: MidBoss, LLC.)

5. Read Only Memories: Neurodiver

Best cyberpunk mystery

Developer: MidBoss | Publisher: MidBoss | Release Date: 2021 | Platform: PC

View at Steam

MidBoss follows up their hit game, 2064: Read Only Memories with a direct sequel: Read Only Memories: Neurodiver. The story follows ES88, a powerful telepath, tasked with taking down a fellow psychic, Golden Butterfly. ES88 gets help from a genetically engineered psionic creature known as the Neurodiver to access the memories of others, including familiar faces like TOMCAT and Lexi Rivers. Neurodiver features an updated, more dynamic art style and a retro-inspired soundtrack to create a more lush, cyberpunk atmosphere. 

(Image credit: Heart's Choice)

6. Souls Unguarded

Best interactive fiction

Developer: Heart's Choice | Publisher: Heart's Choice | Release Date: October 22, 2020 | Platform: PC

View at Steam

Souls Unguarded is a text-based piece of interactive fiction with dark romance themes. You'll play as a gay or bisexual man who has visions of ghosts and spirits as well as dreams of a the shining cliffside city of Glorymount. Through dialogue trees and narrative choices, you'll be able to shape the narrative and your budding romance while also dismantling a corrupt theocracy or tracking down a bloodthirsty killer. You'll also be able to bring comfort and peace to the ghosts and spirits that visit you during the day, or use them as a means to an end to reach your own goals. 

(Image credit: Alliance)

7. Best Friend Forever

Best hybrid sim

Developer: Starcolt | Publisher: Alliance | Release Date: Late 2020 | Platform: PC, Nintendo Switch

View at Steam

Do you love dogs? Do you love dating cuties? How would you like to raise a cute dog and date a hottie at the same time? Best Friend Forever is half dog training simulator and half dating sim and 100 percent adorable. There are many different breeds of dogs to choose from and train over the course of 15 weeks. You'll teach your pup basic commands, advanced tricks, and care for them. They'll also interact with you based on how the narrative unfolds, and with the furry companions of your potential dates. And everyone knows that the most important thing in any relationship is whether or not your dog likes your date. There's also an endless sandbox mode that lets you just play with the dogs if you don't feel like romancing anyone.

(Image credit: Whitethorn Digital)

8. We Should Talk

Best experimental game

Developer: Insatiable Cycle | Publisher: Whitethorn Digital | Release Date: July 16, 2020 | Platform: PC

View at Steam

We Should Talk is a narrative driven game that has you carefully choose words and construct sentences to connect with, or distance yourself from, your friends and lover. You'll spend your night in a local bar, talking with friends and acquaintances and texting your partner. How you construct your sentences and conversations will have profound effects on how your friends view your partner and how your partner feels about you and your relationship. There are nine possible endings, so you'll have to see if you can make your relationships last the night or if they'll end up in flames. 

TechRadar’s PC Gaming Week 2020 is celebrating the most powerful gaming platform on Earth with articles, interviews and essential buying guides that showcase how diverse, imaginative, and remarkable PC games – and gamers – can be. Visit our PC Gaming Week 2020 page to see all our coverage in one place. 

from TechRadar - All the latest technology news https://ift.tt/2EZusss

Latest Tech News

With the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070, Nvidia may be shifting what the mid-range PC gaming scene looks like. Coming in at $499 (£469, around AU$680) while delivering performance that Nvidia claims is better than the $1,199 (£1,099, AU$1,899) RTX 2080 Ti – though that remains to be seen.

This graphics card is going to hit the street sometime in October, so obviously we haven't been able to test it for ourselves. We're not going to tell you to jump on the pre-order yet, but if everything Nvidia claims is true, whether it's about the raw graphics performance or the advances in IO performance, it will be a better buy than the PS5 and Xbox Series X, especially if you already have a decent gaming PC on hand. 

The price-to-performance conversation obviously changes a bit if you have to build a new PC, but even then, PC gaming always carries a higher up-front cost. 

👀👀👀👀 (Image credit: Nvidia)

Let's talk about raw power

For all the pomp and circumstance that was the Nvidia GeForce Special Event earlier today, Nvidia has pretty quietly launched the full specs of the three cards announced today. And, well, beyond the fact that the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 is limited to just 8GB of VRAM, the thing is packing 5,888 CUDA cores with a Boost Clock of 1.73GHz. According to my napkin math, that's about 20.3 TFLOPs of graphics performance, which tops the 12TFLOPs of the Xbox Series X, the 10.28TFLOPs of the PS5 and even the 13TFLOPs of the previous-generation RTX 2080 Ti. 

Now, again, I haven't had a chance to test this out in actual benchmarks, so I can't speak to how it will look in real-world gaming workloads, but it's definitely not going to be slower than the RTX 2080 Ti, and at less than half the price, Nvidia has some impressive price-to-performance benefits now. 

The RTX 3070, then, is going to be way more capable at delivering 4K gaming performance with none of the sacrifices that consoles will make – like checkerboard rendering, low detail settings and the loss of anti-aliasing – and if you already have a rig and you're looking to upgrade, it's going to be about the same price. Right now the rumors are all pointing to the PS5 being in the realm of $499 (£449, AU$749), which is exactly what the RTX 3070 is going to cost, only you're going to get it earlier, and it's going to be even better at 4K gaming with RTX On. 

I still can't believe he was hiding this behind the spatulas (Image credit: Nvidia)

IO just got so much better

One of the announcements that will probably go overlooked is RTX IO. On PC, traditional storage APIs made it to where the CPU had to deliver data from your storage to your graphics card. Nvidia RTX IO essentially cuts out the middle man. 

This new Nvidia storage API will work alongside the new DirectStorage API from Microsoft to boost graphics I/O performance by up to 100x – though we haven't had a chance to test that theory, either. This is remarkably similar to the groundbreaking storage tech on display in the PS5, and means that PC gamers won't have to worry about being behind the curve when it comes to storage technology. 

According to Nvidia, "GeForce RTX GPUs are capable of decompression performance beyond the limits of even Gen4 SSDs, offloading dozens of CPU cores' worth of work to deliver maximum overall system performance for next generation games."

Though it should be noted that if you really want to take advantage of this to its fullest potential, you're likely going to need a PCIe 4.0 SSD, just so you can be sure you're eliminating as many bottlenecks as you can. 

See this? On PC now (Image credit: Guerilla Games/@SirAlphamale)

What even are exclusives anymore?

And, of course, when we're talking about what platform people should (or shouldn't) spend their hard-earned money on, the topic of exclusives is going to inevitably come up. But I still think the RTX 3070 would be a better investment – hear me out. 

Everyone already knows that for Xbox exclusives, Microsoft is releasing everything on both Xbox Series X and PC at the same time, as part of the same Game Pass subscription service, which automatically makes the PC platform, powered by an RTX 3070, a better value. 

But what tips that scale even more now is that Sony is planning to release even more games to the PC, thanks in no small part to the massive success of Death Stranding and Horizon Zero Dawn – even if the latter was a a nightmare of a port. 

Both Xbox and PlayStation games are going to be living on PC, which basically only leaves Nintendo games as inaccessible on PC. And if I can run all of these games better on the platform that I just honestly enjoy more than any game console – there's more to PC gaming than just mere horsepower – why would I ever play a game on a console ever again?

Though I'll probably still cave and buy a PS5 for Ratchet & Clank, let's be real (Image credit: Insominac Games)

I'll probably be skipping this console generation

There were two things that were drawing me to the PS5 later this year: the groundbreaking SSD technology and the exclusive Sony games that I have a definite soft spot for. 

With Nvidia RTX IO, combined with the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X, I'm going to have access to SSD performance that will likely be, if not faster, equivalent to that which is found on the PS5. This is definitely something I will be testing myself, but right now it looks like I can get the performance I want on the platform I'm comfortable on. 

Plus with pretty much every game eventually making its way to PC anyway, I'm not exactly going to be thirsty for new games to play, with the exception of Nintendo Switch games. But even for my precious Pokemon and Zelda games, I already have a Switch, and Nintendo consoles in general offer an experience I just can't get on PC. The PS5 and Xbox Series X are just going to be miniature locked-down PCs that I can't upgrade. 

So, basically, with the RTX 3070 staying at the same price as the mid-range RTX 2070, it doesn't make much sense to jump onto one of the next-generation consoles, especially if you already have a halfway-decent gaming rig. 

• Here's everything you need to know about the RTX 3090

from TechRadar - All the latest technology news https://ift.tt/3bfmzeo

Full breakdown of Nvidia's new RTX 3000 series (3070, 3080, 3090) video - CNET

Nvidia has debuted its second-generation line of RTX GPU cards, the 30-series, now operating on architecture it's calling Ampere. The flagship GPU, the RTX 3080, will be available September 17 for $699.

from CNET https://ift.tt/31MBQAg

The 15 best TV shows to binge on Amazon Prime Video - CNET

Looking for a great show to watch tonight? Let's round up Amazon's best gems.

from CNET https://ift.tt/31OHaTB

Get these AirPods Pro alternatives for only $42 - CNET

Tribit's new FlyBuds NC active noise-canceling earbuds normally cost $60, but they're on sale for their lowest price ever.

from CNET https://ift.tt/2GkDeBT

Twitter hack: Another teenager may have played a 'significant role,' report says - CNET

In July, hackers hijacked the Twitter accounts of high-profile celebrities, tech executives and politicians to spread a Bitcoin scam.

from CNET https://ift.tt/3jC7o1E

Watch Survivor, The Amazing Race and more for free on Pluto - CNET

Not to be outdone by Pluto's eight new channels, Netlfix has free content now. And you can watch all four Hunger Games movies for free as well.

from CNET https://ift.tt/3lz46Oy

Latest Tech News

Poco X3 will be unveiled globally on September 7. The launch date was confirmed by Poco Global Twitter handle right after the announcement of the new Snapdragon 732G mid-range chipset. 

The Poco X3 Global launch is set for September 7 at 8PM(GMT+8). The launch event will be streamed on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and also MIUI community. The Poco X3 will be the successor to the Poco X2 which was launched in India back in February. The device will be called “Poco X3 NFC” and of course, it will pack in NFC. 

• Upcoming smartphones in India for September
• Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon 732G; will debut on a Poco smartphone

(Image credit: MIUI Turkiye)

Qualcomm confirmed that the 732G will debut on an upcoming smartphone from Poco. The name of the smartphone wasn’t disclosed, but it is expected to be on the Poco X3 which was recently leaked. Since Poco India’s spokesperson spoke at the announcement, we could be hopeful for the device to launch in India later.

Poco X3 specs

The Poco X3 is confirmed to come with a high refresh rate display and a 64MP camera. However, before things could go official, a fan site ruined Poco’s party by leaking the specs of the upcoming Poco X3. 

According to the leaked specifications, the Poco X3 will have a 6.67-inch LCD panel with a refresh rate of 120Hz and a touch sampling rate of 240Hz. It is said to come with a side-mounted fingerprint scanner embedded within the power button.

It also appears to have a redesigned camera module. It is said to be a 64MP quad-camera array on the back and a 20MP selfie shooter on the front. The battery will be rated at 5,160mAH battery and will support 33W fast charging. On the inside, the device is expected to pack in the new Snapdragon 732G SoC which promises 15% faster GPU performance with slightly overclocked CPU compared to the Snapdragon 730G.

• Upcoming Poco X3 gets leaked in detail by a Xiaomi fansite
• A new Poco phone with a massive battery gets certified in India

from TechRadar - All the latest technology news https://ift.tt/32LrXlp

Latest Tech News

Social media giant Facebook has come out against proposed Australian media laws, issuing a statement today via its newsroom threatening to remove all instances of news appearing on its social media platforms in Australia if the country passes the recently drafted legislation.

The proposed News Media Bargaining Code aims to make Facebook and Google pay for the news content that they benefit from by distributing, in an attempt to share the revenue more evenly between the tech giants and the Australian media if the latter's content is shared on their platforms.

Google has recently taken a similar stance against the draft law, targeting Australian internet users with warnings about claimed 'dangers' to Google services if the legislation is passed. Those alerts have appeared on the main Google search homepage, as well as across YouTube. The company also published a dedicated blog post on the matter.

• Google, Facebook undersea web cable will no longer connect US and Hong Kong
• Google and Facebook ad revenue to top TV spend for first time
• Facebook adds new Shop feature to its app

Following Google's lead, Facebook has now made its own case, saying that the new regulation “misunderstands the dynamics of the internet” and that “assuming the draft code becomes law, [it] will reluctantly stop allowing publishers and people in Australia from sharing local and international news on Facebook and Instagram”.

Facebook’s threat here is a fairly large deal for Australian citizens and potentially has wider reaching implications for the world, particularly in a climate where social media platforms are trying to portray themselves as a balanced source of current affairs.

A large part of the argument from both Facebook and Google is that they claim the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) – the consumer watchdog behind the proposed code –  has misunderstood the relationship that news media has with social media, particularly that the former is helped by the latter, rather than the other way around.

This means that both tech companies are against the notion of needing to arbitrate the balance of the financial benefits received by both news media and social media.

Other changes proposed in the draft would include forcing both Google and Facebook to provide details about changes in their algorithms to news publishers, a point which both tech titans claim will provide unfair advantages to certain news outlets and therefore upset the country’s balance within the media landscape.

In both Google and Facebook’s posts, the companies do concede that they support the notion behind the draft law – to help support struggling news outlets – but the tech giants are unhappy with how the drafted code proposes to do so.

• How to delete your Facebook account

from TechRadar - All the latest technology news https://ift.tt/3jtEz7J

Latest Tech News

ProMagix HD360A workstation - $31,900 direct
(roughly £23,000/AU$43,500)
This monstrous Epyc-based workstation from Velocity Micro is capable of rivalling Apple's top-end Mac Pro in all departments, at a much lower price point.
View Deal

The Apple Mac Pro got heads turning for a number of different reasons; it sports a design like no other, it's immensely powerful and even came with its own set of super expensive wheels.

At $51,399, it has 28 cores (courtesy of an Intel Xeon W-3275M CPU) and can accommodate up to 1.5TB DDR4 ECC memory, two Radeon Pro Vega II Duo (that’s four GPU and 128GB HBM2 memory) and an 8TB SSD.

However, there are machines out there capable of reaching the same heights at a much lower price point. So we asked Velocity Micro, one of the many niche workstation vendors on the market, to come up with an AMD Epyc-based workstation to match Apple’s finest.

• Check out our list of the best business computers around
• Here's our list of the best mobile workstations on the market
• We've built a list of the best business laptops out there

The first issue we stumbled upon was the fact that the Radeon Pro Vega II Duo seems to be a Mac Pro exclusive. Then there’s the fact that Velocity Micro systems have a much longer lead time (four weeks) compared to Apple’s (as little as five business days).

But other than that, the ProMagix HD360A obliterates Apple’s top dog. Although it can go up to 128 cores, we configured our SKU with 32 (EPYC 7282), paired it with 1.5TB DDR4 ECC RAM and a pair of Geforce TITAN RTX (each with 24GB of memory).

Add in a Sabrent Rocket Q PCIe SSD, a pair of 10Gbps Ethernet network adaptors, a 850W EVGA PSU, a Supermicro H11DSi - all securely hosted in a VM flagship chassis - and you have a very capable machine that costs under $31,900. That's almost $20,000 less than the most expensive version of the Apple Mac Pro.

Bear in mind, though, that the cheapest Mac Pro SKU can be had for “only” $5,999.

• Here's our list of the best PCs for video editing out there

Bear in mind

• If this product is not available in your region, you may need to use a specialist parcel forwarding service to take advantage of the deal.
• If you've managed to get hold of a cheaper product with equivalent specifications, in stock and brand new, let us know and we'll tip our hat to you.

from TechRadar - All the latest technology news https://ift.tt/34RVTir

Latest Tech News

The Nokia 5.3 is now available for purchase in India. The smartphone was launched recently in India alongside the three other phones by HMD Global.

The Nokia 5.3 is the company’s latest mid-range that will take on Realme 6i, Redmi Note 9, and the recently launched Moto G9. The device is now available on Amazon. It comes in two configurations 4GB of RAM with 64GB of internal storage and 6GB of RAM with 64GB internal storage. It is priced at Rs 13,999 Rs 15,499 respectively. 

Check out the Nokia 5.3 on Amazon

• Nokia Media Streamer now available for Rs 3,499
• Xiaomi has another device in the Redmi 9 series coming this week

(Image credit: Future)

Nokia 5.3 specs

The Nokia 5.3 comes with a 6.55-inch HD+ display with 20:9 aspect ratio and TÜV Rheinland’s low blue light certification to protect your eyes. On the inside, the device is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 665 CPU and is Adreno 610 GPU. It is paired with up to 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. You also get micro SD card support up to 512GB.

On the camera front, the Nokia 5.3 comes with a rear-mounted quad-camera setup and the primary sensor is a 13MP shooter, a 5MP ultra-wide snapper offering a 118-degrees field of view, a 2MP  macro lens and a 2MP depth sensor. For selfies, the Nokia 5.3 comes with an 8MP shooter.

Powering the devices is a 4,000mAh battery with 10W charging speeds via USB Type-C port. On the software front, the device runs on Android 10 and is also part of the Android One program. So, at least a couple of years of Android update is guaranteed along with regular security updates. 

Other features of the device include a rear fingerprint scanner, dual nano-SIM, 4G VoLTE, Google Assistant Button, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS/AGPS, 3.5 mm headphone jack, and FM radio.

Check out Nokia 5.3 on Amazon

• Xiaomi could launch two wearables in India during September
• Best phone deals on Flipkart

from TechRadar - All the latest technology news https://ift.tt/3gP4Tau

Latest Tech News

The Samsung Galaxy M51 will be unveiled in India next week. The Amazon teaser has confirmed the launch date of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy mid-range device. 

The Samsung Galaxy M51 will be unveiled in India on September 10. The launch will be an online-only event and will start at 12 noon on September 10. This is one of the most anticipated Samsung mid-range devices. The device was recently unveiled in Germany which in turn revealed all the specification and features of the handset. 

• Samsung Galaxy M51: Leaks, specs, launch date and price in India
• Samsung Galaxy M51 could pack a ridiculously large battery

Samsung Galaxy M51 specs

(Image credit: Samsung(Germany))

It comes with a glossy back and is available in two colour options Black and White. The Samsung Galaxy M51 packs in a 6.67-inch display. It is a Super AMOLED screen with Infinity-O panel which means there is a centred punch-hole cutout for the selfie camera. It is most likely a Full HD+ screen with 2,340 by 1,080 pixels. Further, the device is said to come with 8.5mm thickness and weight of around 213 grams.

Although the German site didn’t confirm the chipset, the Amazon teaser has confirmed the Qualcomm chipset on the Galaxy M51. It could be Snapdragon 730/730G chipset, going by the previous leaks. In Germany, the Galaxy M51 is available in one configuration, 6GB of RAM with 128GB of internal memory and a microSD card slot for additional storage. However, in addition to this variant, in India, we can expect the device to come with 8GB RAM. There is also the Samsung Knox security feature that's built-in to the handset. 

The Galaxy M51 comes with a quad-camera set-up with a 64MP primary camera with f/1.8 aperture. The primary camera is followed by a 12MP wide-angle lens with f/2.2 aperture, a 5MP depth sensor and a 5MP macro lens. For selfies, the phone is said to feature a 32MP shooter. The camera specs are pretty much similar to the Galaxy M31s here. 

The Galaxy M51 features a massive 7,000mAh battery. This is a jump for M series standard 6,000mAh capacity. On the charging front, the device comes with support for 25W fast charging technology via Type-C interface. 

In Germany, the device is available for pre-order at € 360 which is around Rs 31,400. The Samsung Galaxy M51 will be available on Amazon, just like the other M series devices. The teaser for the same is already live on Amazon.in.

• Upcoming smartphones in India: specs, launch date, and expected price
• Best foldable phones: the top folding handsets

from TechRadar - All the latest technology news https://ift.tt/32FMloh

Stimulus check money: A $1,200 payment may still be sent in 2020 - CNET

Here's how much stimulus money you could receive if Congress approves another round of direct payments.

from CNET https://ift.tt/3gLIcUL

Facebook threatens to remove news from its platform in Australia - CNET

Users could be blocked from sharing news, Facebook claims, if new draft regulations are put in place.

from CNET https://ift.tt/31PL5zP

No, Microsoft has not made 825,000 carbon-neutral Xbox Series X consoles - CNET

A Microsoft sustainability campaign creates confusion.

from CNET https://ift.tt/32CSjpS