Selasa, 05 Desember 2017

Nintendo teams up with Nvidia to bring Wii and GameCube games to China

Nvidia is bringing the Shield to China and it’s teaming up with Nintendo to make it a platform for Wii and GameCube games in the country.

The announcement was made by Niko Partners analyst, Daniel Ahmad, who tweeted that the Shield would have a focus on games in China, and will be capable of running popular PC and Nintendo titles. 

Already, Nvidia has confirmed that The New Super Mario Bros Wii and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess are available to play on the Shield in remastered 1080p with other titles such as Super Mario Galaxy planned for the future.

New markets

Ahmad also posted footage of titles running on the Shield, adding that the device costs RMB 1499 (£169 / $226 /AU$300) while Nintendo games cost RMB 68 (around £8 / $10 / AU$13). We’re not jealous at all. 

It’s unlikely that the partnership will ever expand beyond China as it’s simply a fast and low risk way for Nintendo to enter the Chinese market and give its games a foothold. 

Given that the Shield runs on the same Tegra chip as the Nintendo Switch, it’ll be interesting to see whether Nintendo eventually allows recent Switch games to be emulated on the Shield in China if these older emulations prove to be popular.

If it did, it’s even more certain that the ports would never expand beyond the localized Chinese Shield store. Because of the similar components between the Switch an the Shield this does, however, give further precedent for a virtual console on the Switch that will play these older games.


December 05, 2017 at 05:40PM
Emma Boyle

Nintendo teams up with Nvidia to bring Wii and GameCube games to China

Nvidia is bringing the Shield to China and it’s teaming up with Nintendo to make it a platform for Wii and GameCube games in the country.

The announcement was made by Niko Partners analyst, Daniel Ahmad, who tweeted that the Shield would have a focus on games in China, and will be capable of running popular PC and Nintendo titles. 

Already, Nvidia has confirmed that The New Super Mario Bros Wii and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess are available to play on the Shield in remastered 1080p with other titles such as Super Mario Galaxy planned for the future.

New markets

Ahmad also posted footage of titles running on the Shield, adding that the device costs RMB 1499 (£169 / $226 /AU$300) while Nintendo games cost RMB 68 (around £8 / $10 / AU$13). We’re not jealous at all. 

It’s unlikely that the partnership will ever expand beyond China as it’s simply a fast and low risk way for Nintendo to enter the Chinese market and give its games a foothold. 

Given that the Shield runs on the same Tegra chip as the Nintendo Switch, it’ll be interesting to see whether Nintendo eventually allows recent Switch games to be emulated on the Shield in China if these older emulations prove to be popular.

If it did, it’s even more certain that the ports would never expand beyond the localized Chinese Shield store.


December 05, 2017 at 05:40PM
Emma Boyle

Jumat, 01 Desember 2017

Best PC gaming chair 2017: the best gaming chairs to play in comfort

Are you tired of hunching over your desk while gaming? Then it’s time to kick back and get comfy in one of the best PC gaming chairs 2017 has to offer, because when you’re sitting at your throne, you have every right to be royally comfortable. Then again, we get that it’s easier to grow complacent with your old clunker of a seat than to take the time to browse your options endlessly for an upgrade. 

For that reason, in classic TechRadar fashion, we’ve assembled buying guide for you. Being completely candid, there are a lot of gaming chairs you can choose from right now. Some are disguised as more traditional office chairs, donning all-black, ‘real leather’ designs, such is the case with our number one pick, the noblechairs Epic Real Leather. Others are intended to make you look like a race car driver, which is dope even if you’re mainly playing MOBAs.

Whatever your personal style and fashion taste, you can trust our opinions on the six best PC gaming chairs around. We don’t mean to brag, but we’ve done our fair share of sitting, and we’ve done so in all of the following gaming PC chairs at that. After hours of deep contemplation, you will find our top picks below. From the biggest names in video game-centric seatware, including Nitro and Vertagear, you won’t find anything out of place.

The king of gaming chairs, noblechairs' flagship Epic Real Leather lives up to its name, as it is both epic and is mostly made of real (rather than faux) leather. If you're looking for a no-compromises gaming throne that looks, feels and even smells expensive, this is it.

From the cross-thatched embroidery adorning the lower back position to the red logo on the seat, it's the fine details that will make you want to drag strangers walking past outside into your home just to show it off.

This fine piece of German engineering is surprisingly quick and easy to set up considering the trouble we had putting some of the other chairs on this list together, which is owed to its quality parts and solid construction from top to bottom.

Just be very careful not to put your hands anywhere near the metal seat mechanism before the back rest is attached, as one accidental press of that lever and it's capable of slicing off a finger or two. Read the instructions thoroughly, folks.

Once set up, the chair is a dream to sit on. A combination of durable leather, a sturdy metal frame and high-density cold foam upholstery all add to its comfort levels, whether you're sat bolt upright or reclining back at its full 14-degree position.

If we have any complaints, they're directed at its polyutherane arm rests which feel a little substandard considering the premium quality found everywhere else. Oh, and make sure your room is big enough to give the Epic Real Leather room to breathe – this sizeable gaming chair isn't suitable for cubicle-sized dens.

It’s a testament to noblechair’s ability to make fantastic gaming chairs that two of its products occupy the top spots in our list of the best gaming chairs. The Icon gaming chair is more affordable that the flagship Epic Real Leather, but it’s still a premium gaming chair, and easily one of the most comfortable seats we’ve tested.

The luxury materials and attention to detail makes the Icon range of gaming chairs look – and feel – superb, and the additional headrest pillow that slips over the top of the chair, adds to this comfort. The Icon gaming chair also comes with a bolster support pillow that rests against the bottom of your back. However, we actually felt the seat was more comfortable without it. Luckily, it’s easily removed, and it’s a nice extra if you do need that support.

The chair comes in separate parts, with all the nuts, bolts and tools you need to set it up. Easy to follow instructions makes building the noblechairs Icon pretty simple – though like the Epic Real Leather, keep your fingers away from the metal seat mechanism while building!

Once built, the noblechairs Icon gaming chair feels wonderful to sit on. The adjustable arms, along with the height adjustments, allow you to set the chair up to be as comfortable as possible. It’s clear that noblechairs has put a lot of thought and time into designing the Icon gaming chair, and it’s certainly paid off, as this is one of the best gaming chairs money can buy. If you have the budget, we strongly recommend you treating yourself to this luxury item.

The white and blue edition of Vertagear’s Racing Series S-Line SL4000 Gaming Chair is definitely one of the more striking chairs we’ve had the pleasure of testing. 

In fact, it’s now become a common occurrence for people walking through the office to comment on it, and to ask whether its occupant has won some sort of prize. 

During the setup of the chair, finding a screw hole within the chair’s back was something of a challenge, and lead to the whole process taking around an hour, but once the chair was together it feels sturdy and well made, and is comfortable to sit in for long periods. 

It certainly looks nice when you first get it set up as well, but you’re going to have to be prepared to clean it regularly if you want its white leather to stay white over time, since this chair is a magnet for dirt. 

But if you’re prepared to pay the price for a sleek white chair, the SL4000 from Vertagear is a great option. 

The Epic Gaming Chair from noblechairs is the best choice for the classier gamer. It features a faux leather covering inspired by car seats combining both comfort and a high-end look to make one of the best gaming chairs money can buy. It looks low-key and the black design is far more elegant than some of the other brightly colored options on this list.

While it’s a leather design, it’s 100% vegan friendly so anyone can buy this chair and use it for their gaming on a daily basis. Even those of a larger height will find the Epic Gaming chair a comfortable seat while gaming for long periods of time and the fully adjustable height and position will allow you to sit back and relax while also being ready to strike in those decisive gaming moments.

For those looking for some extra space in their seating arrangement the Vertagear Racing Series PL6000 is a must-have.

Specially designed to provide both added width and height, it’s a delight for those with larger frames with a solid base and impressive range of movement.

The wheelbase is smooth and responsive on both carpet and hard floors, while the adjustable headrest provides additional comfort for the neck. One week point to the design comes in the form of the lumbar pillow, which doesn’t have a proper way of attaching over the rear of the chair, which means it sits right at the base of your spine.

Assembly wasn’t relatively straightforward, but we’d advise that it’s a two-person job - so grab your co-op buddy for some real life two player action.

The C80 Pure Series Gaming Chair is a great-looking, comfy gaming chair that could easily double up as an office chair. It looks more expensive than it actually is - this is all because of some decent design flourishes. For instance, the look of the C80 has been inspired by a racing car seat but instead of leather it uses polyurethane.

And so as not to max the price out by using carbon, a carbon ‘look’ has been created. The chair is sturdy, though it lacks precision in the adjustments it offers. But it’s comfy and breathable too - thanks to the use of ‘moulded cold foam’ -  allowing for long hours of gaming without discomfort. A word of warning: assembly nearly had us tearing our hair out. It’s definitely a two-person job.

Or three, if you can rope another friend in to set fire to the instructions. We ended up ignoring the accompanying guide and putting it together using our own judgement. This added time but at least it meant the chair was built and not destined for the scrapheap.

It can be hard to find a gaming chair that always matches the ... uh, decor of your room. Racing stripes and loud color palettes might be perfect for some tastes, but sometimes a more subtle look may be the route to go. If your gaming area is the same location that you do your business work when you're at home, Respawn's Respawn-115 Racing Style Gaming Chair is the happy compromise. It has the basic sculpt of traditional gaming chairs including lumbar support padding, reclining back and adjustable arms, but has an exterior visage that works for offices, too.  The only small gripe we have with the chair is that the lumbar support isn't connected to the chair in any way which means you'll need to re-adjust it every time you leave your seat. Small problems aside, though, this is a fantastic-looking gaming chair for the more mature gaming audience.


December 02, 2017 at 04:20AM
Kane Fulton,Matt Hanson

The next Microsoft Surface might be powered by the Snapdragon 845

Microsoft seems to creating some kind of new Surface device powered by ARM and featuring the Snapdragon 845 chipset and LTE connectivity, judging from a new job listing spotted by WinFuture. 

The post doesn't give much information about the actual device, but there's a good chance it could be the new two-screen Courier-like device as it, too, is thought to be powered by ARM.

The job listing is specifically for a Hardware Test Engineer /Manufacturing Engineer that has experience working with Wi-Fi and other radio-style data connections. The job itself will be based in Microsoft's Redmond 85 building, which is typically associated with the Surface. The preferred candidate must be willing to travel to China frequently to work with the actual manufacturers there.

ARM-ed to the teeth

The listing is interesting because it expects the engineer to have completed manufacturing tests on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 chipset, which hasn't even been officially announced yet (although that will likely change after next week's Qualcomm Snapdragon Technology Summit rolls around). 

Rumors about the chipset have been swirling about in talks about other devices like the Samsung Galaxy S9 for months now so it wouldn't be impossible that it would make its way into a Windows device. 

The Courier-style device seems like a good guess for what's being discussed here, but of course the actual product could end up being anything from a new Surface tablet to come kind of Surface smartphone. 

Whatever it is, it'll likely be something that commands attention, considering the combination of LTE connectivity and Qualcomm's highly anticipated processor. 


December 02, 2017 at 03:53AM
Leif Johnson

2017 has been a remarkable year for processor development

 2017 has been the year of the CPU – we can’t recall a year when new product launches were so frequent. And these aren’t meaningless 100MHz bumps in performance either, as both AMD and Intel have been on a roll.

To recap, Intel kicked off 2017 with the initial Kaby Lake desktop launch in January. AMD followed with its first major architectural overhaul in more than five years, with a staggered rollout of its Ryzen 7, 5, and 3 processors, and finally the beastly Threadripper.

Intel also released its Skylake-X 6-10 core models, and Kaby Lake-X processors, and later the 12-18-core parts, topping out with the Core i9-7980XE. And wrapping things up, Intel’s Coffee Lake brings six cores/12 threads to its mainstream platform with new 300-series chipsets. That’s at least five major launches, complete with new chipsets, in 2017.

By comparison, in 2016, Intel’s Broadwell-E was the only fully new line of processors, and Intel was again the primary name in the processor space in 2015, with the launch of Skylake and LGA1151. AMD’s Godavari refresh was unfortunately still slower than the FX-series Piledriver chips it launched in 2012.

If your primary interest is PC gaming, many older CPUs remain perfectly acceptable solutions, but if you’re running CPU-intensive workloads, the deluge of new processors breathes new life into what has been a stagnating market.

Intel claims top bragging rights in the consumer CPU rankings with the i9-7980XE and the i9-7960X, but at half the price, Threadripper is impressive in its own right. In short, right now it’s a fantastic time to be a PC enthusiast.

Everyone from bargain-hunters to well-funded enthusiasts has something to consider. And if you’re already rocking a perfectly capable processor in your machine, there are still plenty of other ways in which you can upgrade your system. Let’s just hope that 2018 can keep up the pace!


December 01, 2017 at 10:18PM
Zak Storey

‘Reality is stranger than fiction’: talking Far Cry 5 with Dan Hay

The Elder Scrolls Online is running a week-long free trial

Christmas is rapidly approaching and that means cold weather, unbearably busy shops and lots of spending money. Anything free, indoors and relaxing should be seized, upon which is why we’re drawing your attention to the week-long free trial currently taking place in Elder Scrolls Online.

From now until December 6, the game will be free to download and play on PC and PlayStation 4, with 500 crowns thrown in for new players to use in the in-game store. 

If you’ve played a free trial for the game before but didn't pick up the full game afterwards, your character will still be there for you to play and any more progress you make will be carried over if you decide to purchase the full game.

10 million in Tamriel

Despite getting off to a somewhat shaky start, The Elder Scrolls Online has really come into its own after moving away from a subscription MMO model to a single purchase one. The change has benefited the game so much, in fact, that this free trial is actually to celebrate it reaching 10 million subscribers. 

To access the free trial you can download it from Steam and the official Elder Scrolls Online website, though it’s worth pointing out that the download is 80GB so it’s not likely to be an instant access situation. 

If you do decide you’d like to bring in 2018 in a Tamriel tavern, the game is currently discounted on Steam and the PlayStation Store until the end of the trial period, bringing the price down to a more reasonable $9.99 / £7.49. At the very least it might give you a high fantasy fix in the likely-to-be-long wait for The Elder Scrolls 6. 

  • Looking for some more games to play over the Christmas period? Check our picks of the best PS4 games.

December 01, 2017 at 05:05PM
Emma Boyle