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Something that has always stuck with me far beyond my youth is a quote my grandfather never ceased repeating, which was hence reiterated by my mother years later: “Nothing is ever free in this world, as like fish to bait there’s always a catch.” This was the very first thing that cropped into my mind upon the announcement of a potentially non-existent Xbox Live Gold subscription. The question then remains, is Microsoft pushing online multiplayer into a new, far freer territory, and, more importantly, will it work in the company’s favor?...

As the platform holder of both the Xbox One and Windows PC, games created by Microsoft-owned studios are typically released on both of these systems. Offering exclusive first-party releases that players can’t get anywhere else encourages people to buy Windows PCs and Xbox One consoles. This has been the company’s strategy in years gone by; however, new comments from the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, seem to suggest that exclusives could come to rival platforms....

The annual Xbox Spring Sale starts later today, April 11, bringing with it deals on dozens of games and special pricing for Game Pass. This year’s Spring Sale is much like those previous, focusing near entirely on a robust of selection of discounts on major games including Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, FIFA 19, Red Dead Redemption 2, The Division 2, and more. The Xbox Spring Sale is expected to last for some time, just like previous years, though the exact end date is not yet announced....

Yes, you dirty scoundrel, there is a kind of Animal Crossing black market where you can buy and sell animals. But be prepared to fork out a pretty penny (bell) to get your virtual hands on the animal villagers you seek. Here we were all going about our business thinking that Nintendo’s latest Animal Crossing installment New Horizons was a totally innocuous epitome of innocence and calmness. You spend your time collecting damn seashells and making friends with adorable animals, for goodness’ sake....

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 recently released to amazing success, illustrating the series’ continued popularity two decades after the original game’s release. And, with its wide audience, some may be tempted to compare it to EA’s Skate series. However, they would be utterly wrong to do so. On the face of it, the Pro Skater series and Skate share multiple things in common. The games, of course, are centered around skating, but they also involve pulling off stunning tricks for numerous rewards....

Cyberpunk 2077 arrives on December 10, or December 9 in the evening if you’re lucky enough to live in North America. The game is available for preload on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, and we’re already discovering that Cyberpunk will have a certain sense of humor about it. For example, if you try to load into the game now before release day, you’ll be greeted by Johnny Silverhand telling you to go back to sleep and wait for December 10....

Fans of Rebellion’s Zombie Army 4 will be happy to learn that the developer is set to provide two more seasons of DLC for the co-op zombie shooter. In a new development video posted on YouTube, some rough plans for a Season Two and Three are outlined that show intentions to keep the game going for a little while longer. Currently, the estimate for Season Two is a late 2020 release with the third season to launch sometime in 2021....

What Does Maintenance Window Mean? A maintenance window is a scheduled outage of services over a digital platform for the sake of planned changes, upgrades and/or repairs. Maintenance windows can be scheduled on an automated basis. Techopedia Explains Maintenance Window Maintenance windows are usually strategically planned such that they cause as little inconvenience as possible for users. They usually occur with significant warning, however may need to happen on short notice....

What Does Automatic Machine Learning (AutoML) Mean? Automatic machine learning (AutoML) is a general discipline that involves automating repetitive tasks in the machine learning (ML) process. Techopedia Explains Automatic Machine Learning (AutoML) Some automatic machine learning techniques and tools are geared toward expediting and automating data preparation – the aggregation of overall data from various sources. Other parts of this process are aimed at feature engineering – feature selection and feature extraction are a big part of how machine learning algorithms work....

What Does Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) Mean? Compute Unified Device Architecture is a parallel computing architecture useful for the support of applications that require significant amounts of parallel processing. It’s often attributed to the Nvidia company and abbreviated CUDA. Techopedia Explains Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) In a Compute Unified Device Architecture model, the execution of compute kernels relies on parallel processing and a virtual instruction set delivered by a multi-core processor, often a GPU....

Following the week of upsets, week 6 of LCS brings some interesting roster changes. After losing four games in a row, Evil Geniuses decides to start Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon and Greyson “Goldenglue” Gilmer. TSM decides to start Erik “Treatz” Wessén, sending Vincent “Biofrost” Wang to the bench. Both teams started strong and are hoping to recover after disappointing weeks. TSM is starting support Treatz from academy. The Swedish support has seen plenty of success in academy and many analysts have been praising his aggressive play....

This What We Do in the Shadows review contains spoilers. What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Episode 10 What We Do in the Shadows’ season 3 finale is a perfect example of how seasons should end. Every character is caught in their own personal cliffhanger. Each one is about to be scattered to uncertain futures and new beginnings, but with old habits that die hard. Everything dies hard when you’re a vampire who lives forever....

Some ideas are too good to be constrained to merely one medium. Such is the case with Walter Tevis’s 1983 novel The Queen’s Gambit. After starting its life on the page, the story of chess prodigy Beth Harmon moved to television with a seven-episode Netflix adaptation starring the ethereal Anya Taylor-Joy. Now that Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit is racking up awards (with a presumable Emmy sweep still to come) it’s time for the story to enter into yet another medium....

Gyms in Pokemon are somehow both my favourite thing about the series and my most hated thing about it. They’re my favourite thing because the gym leaders usually have big personalities and a sense of style, and when done right a gym can be Pokemon architectural and interior design at its best. But I hate them because they force every game into the same dull rhythm, they’re too predictable, and they rarely live up to my expectations....

Resident Evil Village is set to release on May 7, 2021, and while the game’s release date is still a few months away, it has already managed to take the online community by storm. Of course, given that Resident Evil remains one of the biggest video game franchises of all time, it is not surprising that it is making headlines with every move it makes. However, one interesting fact about Resident Evil Village’s popularity is not because of its continuation of Resident Evil 7’s first-person horror formula, or returning characters Chris Redfield and Ethan Winters....

Antoine Fuqua’s new Netflix thriller The Guilty is essentially a one-man show for lead actor Jake Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal stars as Joe Bradley, a police officer awaiting a manslaughter trial and who’s been forced to work in a Los Angeles emergency call center until he is either cleared of wrongdoing or found guilty. It’s a great role for Gyllenhaal, who gets to react to numerous callers with his ever-expressive face and high-strung energy....

Microsoft did an incredible job crafting the Xbox Series S. It’s a beautiful little console that, despite its diminutive size, is able to run ridiculously demanding games. Last night I plopped down on the couch to knock out a few hours of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – and was immediately taken by surprise. My Series S wasn’t making any noise. And yet, Assassin’s Creed was running without a hitch on my screen....

Capcom finally unveiled Resident Evil 8: Village at the PS5, proving that much of the rumors over the last few months appear to be spot-on in truth. Previous Resident Evil 8 rumors made many claims about the game, the most prominent among them claiming Resident Evil 8 would take place in a remote village with werewolves. That all appears to be confirmed, based on what is shown in the new Resident Evil 8 trailer....

The following article contains spoilers for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, on sale now. World of Warcraft: Shadowlands introduces never before scene planes of existence filled with characters and cultures that have thus far been completely unknown to players. Among them is a vampire-like king named Sire Denathrius who rules over a gothic realm that is fueled by the suffering of the damned and is totally not evil at all, we swear....

The Xbox Series X could be much more affordable than fans expect because of the Xbox All Access subscription, Xbox has suggested. The Xbox All Access program was launched in 2018 and allows subscribers to get Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Live Gold, and an Xbox One console by paying a monthly fee. Speaking to IGN, Xbox Phil Spencer confirmed that the team plans to “go big” with Xbox All Access for the Xbox Series X....