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The worldwide chip shortage has CPUs in such high demand that people are actually strapping them to their bodies in order to smuggle them over borders. What used to be the purview of drugs and illicit goods has now been passed on to high-tech electronics. We begin our journey courtesy of the Chinese-language news site HKEPC (via Kotaku) with a story about a truck driver trying to cross the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge, which connects Hong Kong with mainland China....

Since their genesis seven years ago, coinciding the launch of the Xbox 360 and Microsoft’s Xbox Live Dashboard interface, the scope of Xbox Gamerscore Achievements has extended to personal accomplishment, bragging rights, and the occasional black-market pawning of a highly decorated account. Starting this Fall, however, possibly with the release of Microsoft’s annual Fall Dashboard Update (AKA The Big One), Achievement Points will satisfy gamers in a more…tangible way through the Xbox Live Rewards Program....

With less than a week until the start of August, Microsoft has once again revealed its next month of free games planned for release as part of Games With Gold. August 2018’s Games With Gold delivers a solid line-up of major releases on both Xbox One and Xbox 360. The headlining game of the month will undoubtedly be Ubisoft’s action fighting game For Honor, but racing game fans may dispute that due to Forza Horizon 2’s inclusion....

Two months into the new year and the Xbox One is now getting its first big update of the year. After consistently receiving monthly hardware and software updates last year, the Microsoft system took a bit of a break in January, although, gamers can’t really be blamed if they didn’t notice it. At some point, a monthly update was just expected. At any rate, the Xbox One’s February Update is a bulky one compared to the last update, and may be more on par (at least, content-wise) with last year’s November update....

Microsoft has finally revealed the specs for the Xbox Series S, and they are almost as surprising as the console’s incredibly low price point. For reference, here are the full Xbox Series S specs that Microsoft posted on the Xbox blog and how they compare to the specs of the Xbox Series X: The biggest difference between these two consoles from a pure power perspective is undoubtedly their GPUs. We know you’re probably pretty tired of hearing the word “Teraflops” at this point, but the difference between 12....

Since the Xbox Series X’s release in November last year, there has been an issue with the quality of Blu-Ray media that may have bothered those trying to watch Blu-Ray movies. The Xbox Series X Blu-Ray player has encountered issues with displaying the color black correctly, which can greatly affect a movie-watching experience. Host of YouTube channel HDTVTest Vincent Teoh said he has been watching the issue closely since the Xbox Series X released....

Previously only announced for an iOS release, it’s been confirmed that XCOM 2 Collection will be hitting Android devices next year. Available on iOS November 5, XCOM 2 Collection will be a coming to Android at a much later date – some time in 2021 to be exact. Feral Interactive was asked about iOS exclusivity by a Twitter user named Mosey, to which it replied, “There will be an Android version next year, Mosey....

10 Xenoblade Dogs 9 Waluigi Chronicles 8 Why So British 7 The Ether Stream 6 Sniper Follies 5 JRPG Tropes The meme is right. Xenoblade Chronicles wouldn’t be complete without vague crucified images. That is actually more of a sting on this overall series that started with Xenogears on PS1, Xenosaga on PS2, and now this series. Religion has always been a part of these games and while it isn’t as explicit as it was in the past two iterations, there are still some things that call back to the religious iconography like this scene with Juju....

Valheim, the Viking survival game, is heavily steeped in Viking mythology. So it should probably be of little surprise to find out that Thor is in the game, although it might be a little surprising when you first see him. After you kill the dragon Moder, it’s a coin toss whether or not Thor will spawn during a thunderstorm. He’s hard to miss as he sends crackling bolts of lightning as he passes, the Viking equivalent of a laser light show....

Yu-Gi-Oh! is one of the OG anime series. It was my first exposure to anime, come to that. Those classic days of the original Yugi Moto saga defined my childhood. No evil I’ve seen in movies, TV shows, or video games matches Kaiba tearing up grandpa’s prized Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Damn you, Seto Kaiba, damn you and your gravellier-than-Solid-Snake-chewing-a-mouthful-of-gravel voice. The thing that hooked me and a lot of my generation to the series was the monsters....

Trust in the heart of your wallet when Yu-Gi-Oh’s Dark Magician Girl ships as a Nendoroid this October. The fan-favorite Dark Magician Girl is available to pre-order right now on the Good Smile Company website for $61.99, according to Siliconera. She’ll be available to purchase until May 13, 2021. Like many other Nendoroid releases, she comes with a load of accessories. She has: Two faceplates with a smiling and determined expression Her lovely magic staff A Dark Burning Magic effect part A Kuriboh, a popular furball creature within Yugi’s deck The flute of summoning Kuriboh A magic circle sheet that shows her being summoned Shipment in Japan begins this October, while western territories like the U....

What Does Instruction Register (IR) Mean? An instruction register holds a machine instruction that is currently being executed. In general, a register sits at the top of the memory hierarchy. A variety of registers serve different functions in a central processing unit (CPU) – the function of the instruction register is to hold that currently queued instruction for use. Techopedia Explains Instruction Register (IR) In a typical CPU, in addition to an accumulator, there are registers such as an address register, a data register and an index register, along with the instruction register....

Apple Pay is a contactless payment technology for Apple devices. It was designed to move consumers away from physical wallets into a world where your debit and credit cards are on your iPhone or Apple Watch, allowing you to pay using your device instead of a card. This feature is everything you need to know about Apple Pay, including how it works, how to set it up, which banks support it and where you can use it....

What Does Context Awareness Mean? In IT, context awareness describes the ability of hardware components and IT systems to respond to user requests based on information about their environment or the context of operations. This term has been specifically applied to the world of mobile applications to describe apps that use geolocational data to create context-aware user services. Techopedia Explains Context Awareness In general, context awareness just means having information about the context in which an IT system operates, and using that information in responses....

Adam Roberts is the author of 23 science fiction novels, including Purgatory Mount, about a spaceship crew investigating an alien megastructure, New Model Army, about a democratically run army, and most recently the intriguingly titled The This. He has been shortlisted for the Prometheus Award, the Kitschies, and has won the BSFA Award for Best Novel, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and now he’s launching a new course to help others improve their science fiction writing....

To the surprise of most, Sony has started to show a willingness to bring its once exclusive PlayStation titles to the PC. While the company has a very long way to go before it catches up to what Microsoft has been doing this generation with its day and date launches for first party titles on PC and Xbox One, two major PlayStation exclusives are available to purchase on Steam. Last month saw Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding make its Steam debut and as a new trailer revealed last week, Horizon: Zero Dawn is launching for PC players on August 7....

In celebration of the third anniversary of Fortnite’s battle royale mode, Epic Games is hosting an in-game event called the Birthday Bash. At the center of this event is a series of special challenges, and a couple of them can only be completed by visiting the Birthday Cakes that are now appearing on Fortnite’s map. Fortunately, there are many Birthday Cakes that players can use for these challenges, and this guide will detail their locations....

Each generation of Pokemon introduces a variety of monsters that brim with personality. In the most recent Sword and Shield games, they range from the meek Sobble to the malicious Grimmsnarl. With nearly 900 individual Pokemon in total, trainers should have no problem finding a team that best suits both their playstyle and personality. Some Pokemon fit their trainers so well, in fact, that they could very well serve as astrological twins....

Ever since Overwatch released in 2016, it has served as a model for live service games that provide a consistent stream of content over multiple years. The one aspect of Overwatch that is most frequently updated is the game’s roster of playable heroes. These characters are split up into three classes, damage, tank, and support, each of them providing unique gameplay experiences. Now that the game is coming up on its fifth anniversary, the roster of heroes has expanded significantly since launch, currently sitting at 32 in total....

SR decay was removed from Overwatch in 2019 to accommodate the casual Diamond- and Masters-ranked players, who claimed SR decay made the game too stressful. These players felt that they had earned their rank, and shouldn’t be punished for stepping away from the game for a time. “I got turned off when I hit my peak of ~3,200,” user Tealos wrote on the Overwatch forums in a discussion about removing SR decay....