Author: Trafficblast

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Xbox Series X preorders are live, and if you want to pick up an extra controller, there are a number of new options to choose from. The first is a new colour for the Xbox Series X controller: Shock Blue. While the previously revealed Carbon Black and Robot White controllers have an MSRP of $60, the Shock Blue variant costs slightly more at $65.

In addition to the new controller, Microsoft has updated its PC controller bundles to include the new Xbox Series X controller. All of these controllers and bundles will be available on November 10, the same day the Xbox Series X and S launch. Some of these products are available to preorder now.

Microsoft’s PC controller bundles will now include the Carbon Black Xbox controller with either a USB-C cable for $60 or a USB wireless adapter for $80. However, you don’t need the adapter to connect to your PC wirelessly if your setup features Bluetooth connectivity.

Lastly, Microsoft has also revamped its Play & Charge kit, which features a rechargeable battery and a USB-C cable. This makes it so you can use the battery pack with one of the new Xbox Series X controllers and charge it while you play or in between sessions. The Play & Charge kit costs $25.

If you’re looking for more controller recommendations, check out our guide on the best Xbox Series X controllers. All controllers that are compatible with the Xbox One are also compatible with Xbox Series X and S, so any that you already own are ready to go with the new consoles.

Solid-state drives, or SSDs, keeping getting quicker and quicker. If you’ve recently upgraded your PC with a motherboard that supports PCIe 4.0, then you have access to some of the fastest drives out there. This includes Samsung’s new 980 Pro, which could be fast enough to be used as expandable storage for the PlayStation 5, pending Sony’s confirmation that it will fit in the next-gen console.

The NVMe M.2 drive is Samsung’s new flagship storage option, boasting sequential read/write speeds of up to 7,000MB/s and 5,000MB/s, respectively. To put that into perspective, that’s already twice as fast as the maximum capabilities of PCIe 3.0, as well as 13 times faster than the more popular SATA SSDs that have become incredibly cheaper over the last few months.

Of course, you’ll need a motherboard that supports PCIe 4.0 to really bring the best out of the 980 Pro, and Samsung is seemingly aware that most of its customers won’t have that yet. The 980 Pro is still compatible on PCIe 3.0 boards and features some impressive speeds on the more limited interface. With sequential read/write speeds of 3,500MB/s and 3,450MB/s respectively, this could be a great drive to use now and future-proof your PC for the years to com.

These types of PCIe 4.0 speeds are also in the ballpark of what PlayStation 5 architect Mark Cerny cited as a requirement for PS5 expansion. Sony will be allowing PS5 players to use consumer NVMe SSDs, but did warn that they will release a list of compatible drives in the future. This isn’t only about raw speed but also the form factor, so that you can rest assured the drive you buy fits into the console.

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Xbox Series X and S preorders went live this morning right on time, as Microsoft announced they would. At least, they did in some places. For some people. As long as you weren’t stuck in a queue, or told it was sold out when it seemingly was not. Well, at least Amazon had pictures of cute dogs to keep you company.

Predictably, Xbox preorders were a shitshow, demonstrating for the third time in a short span (after the RTX 3080 and PS5) that retailer websites just aren’t equipped to deal with this level of heavy demand. Microsoft appears to have done what it could, announcing that preorders would go live at a specified time so that people could be prepared, rather than giving bots the opportunity to scrape everything up as they went live. But everyone knowing exactly when preorders would begin also ensured the maximum amount of traffic to all of these websites, and none of them seem to have handled it particularly well.

For starters, neither Amazon nor Best Buy had their preorders available right at 8 AM PT. That may have meant you were stuck frustratingly refreshing those pages, expecting them to be live any second, when you could have been spending your time frustratingly refreshing pages on Walmart, Target, and the Xbox Store, where there were consoles to place orders on right away.

Much like with PS5 last week, it was a crapshoot: Maybe you’d get an order through, maybe you wouldn’t. Either way, you were likely faced with numerous messages claiming that systems were sold out, even as orders for other people were getting through. The lesson in these situations, clearly, is to never trust what a retailer’s website claims about the stock situation and mash the checkout and refresh buttons over and over and over until something happens. I gave up trying to preorder at Best Buy after countless failures to do so, only to have luck placing an order after I saw that someone else had managed to get one through.

As eager would-be buyers failed at one retailer or another, seemingly everyone rushed to whatever store opened its preorders next–Sam’s Club, then Amazon, then Best Buy. That further ensured that these websites would be dealing with a heavy load, continuing the trend of false “sold out” notifications, consoles being inexplicably removed from carts, and so on. Amazon was the closest thing to a smooth ride, but there was no telling when its preorders would actually start. And now, it looks as if they’re sold out at most retailers.

After GameStop’s website collapsed during PS5 preorders, this time around, visitors to the site were met with a queue and told not to reload. That seemed like a sensible solution, but as some found out, that queue didn’t function properly: People got through by opening the site in a second browser after already sitting in the queue, and the queue page itself was automatically refreshing itself.

All of this was to be expected, but it still made for a hugely frustrating experience no matter which store you turned to or whether or not you actually got one. And those who do will be spending the next few days or weeks worried that their preorder might either be canceled or not show up on launch day.

Sony’s PS5 preorder situation was worse than this because there was no advance notice or real warning regarding how it would work. Microsoft capitalized on that to cheekily highlight that people would know when Xbox preorders would start. Sony apologized for how it handled things, and while Microsoft might have positioned all of this better from the start, the end result was still a mess. Scalpers are already taking to eBay to turn a profit on their luck, further ensuring that–if you didn’t get one on your own–you walk away from the experience with a bad taste in your mouth.

Ultimately, all of this will be forgotten. Like online servers for a game crashing at launch, once things are smoothed out and working as expected, the annoyance of times like this will fade away. (Microsoft is attributing this all to strong demand, which might be even stronger after the Bethesda acquisition.) But in the meantime, many are going to walk away feeling like their time was wasted.

Developer Arkane Studios is hiring for some unannounced AAA title. This comes not long after the Dishonored and Prey creator was scooped up by Microsoft, along with other ZeniMax Media studios for $7.5 billion.

According to a Twitter thread by user MauroNL3, a number of positions are open at Arkane’s Austin, Texas and Lyon, France locations. The availabilities run the gamut from character animation engineer and engine programmer to systems designer and tools programmer. Many of the positions hint at what Arkane plans to work on next.

The graphics engineer position in Austin is looking for someone with Unreal Engine 4 familiarity, signaling a possible engine change for the studio. Most of Arkane’s games, with the exception of Prey, run on a form of id Tech, a proprietary engine developed by id Software.

Arkane’s next game could also feature some form of online multiplayer, as well as live-service elements akin to Destiny 2 or Fortnite. The senior gameplay engineer role states that someone with “expertise with network and online features” would be a plus but is not required, while the studio also wants a server engineer with “experience in a ‘Live’ environment (ongoing support of product after launch).”

Deathloop, a first-person shooter about an assassin stuck in a time loop, is Arkane Studios’ next announced game and launches next year on PC and PlayStation 5.

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We all have a lot of fun here talking about video games and movies and occasionally Lego Baby Yodas, but there’s one thing that’s no laughing matter: democracy. The United States election is coming up, and today is National Voter Registration Day. The holiday (of sorts) is a reminder to make sure you’re registered to vote in November.

“But where do I start?” you may ask. I’m so glad you did! The National Voter Registration Day site has all the information and resources you need to check your voter registration in your state or territory. If you aren’t registered, you can go straight from there to the correct registration link, or even request a mail-in ballot. Registering to vote is important, because without a proper registration you may not be able to vote in November.

But don’t just listen to me, listen to important people like these celebrities.

If the combined power of Deadpool, T-Swift, and TV’s Mariska Hargitay don’t convince you, frankly I’m not sure what will.

In all seriousness, voting is important. It’s the most direct tool citizens have to interact with and influence their government. Representative government relies on you to show up and have a voice, and registering to vote is a quick, painless first step to participating in a system that reflects your beliefs and values. Register now, vote in November.

Attack on Titan fans finally have confirmation about the upcoming fourth season. Funimation announced that the Attack on Titan final season sub and dub will be available on its streaming service later this year. The subtitled episodes will stream day and date with its Japanese broadcast in the US, Canada, the UK, and Ireland.

While no date has been announced, Funimation has released an official trailer for the upcoming season, which you can watch below.

Animation studio MAPPA replaced Attack on Titan’s original studio, WIT, for work on the final season. With the MAPPA takover, Jun Shishido and Yuichiro Hayashi replaced Tetsuro Araki and Masashi Koizuka as chief director and series director, respectively. MAPPA is the studio responsible for hit Yuri on Ice, on which Shishido was the chief director, as well as other well-known series like Hajime no Ippo and Kakegurui.

For those who want to get caught up before the new season hits Funimation, Seasons 1-3 are currently available both subbed and dubbed on the streaming service.

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