Marvel has released a new video for its next big TV show, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The 30-second spot shows off Anthony Mackie as Falcon and Sebastian Stan as The Winter Soldier as the two of them team up to fight off bad guys in what looks to be an action-packed series.
Mackie’s Falcon says in a voiceover, “A good friend of mine once said, ‘The price of freedom is high. It always will be.’ It’s time–where do we start.”
That “price of freedom” line was originally spoken by Captain America. As the video alludes to, the shield has a new owner.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier premieres on Disney+ on March 19, which is just about a week after WandaVision Season 1 comes to a close (and hopefully gives us some answers about what the heck is going on!).
A six-episode mini-series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier tells the story of Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson post-Endgame. According to the official synopsis, the pair “team up on a global adventure that tests their abilities–and their patience.” In addition to main stars Anthony Mackie as Wilson and Sebastian Stan as Barnes, the series also stars Daniel Brühl as Zemo, Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter, and Wyatt Russell as John Walker.
MSI has been on a run with its Gaming X Trio line-up. I’ve looked at every version so far, from the behemoth RTX 3090 to the more mainstream RTX 3070, and today the even more accessible RTX 3060 Ti. Coming to market at $499, does it continue the trend of improving upon the Founders Edition to earn its higher MSRP?
MSI RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio – Design and Features
Visually, the Gaming X Trio line-up has a specific look and the RTX 3060 Ti version falls right in line with what we’ve seen before. The graphics card features the same triple-fan design (hence the “Trio” branding) and 2.5 slot cooler. Likewise, it features the same prominent RGB lighting: three strips crossing the center fan, as well as a backlit logo and bright diffuser strip along the side. The diffuser strip shows some hotspots, but otherwise looks good if you’re a fan of RGB. The lighting effects can also be customized within the Dragon Center software, which is great for matching it to the rest of your PC, or turned off if you find the extra lights distracting.
Since the RTX 3060 Gaming X Trio uses the same Tri Frozr 2 cooling system we’ve seen across each entry in its line-up. The system is topped with its three Torx 4.0 fans which use MSI’s novel combined blade system that increases static pressure and forces more air between the fins. The heatsink underneath is long and wide at a 2.5 slot thickness and is composed of specially waved fins to disrupt airflow and dissipate more heat. The surfaces making contact with heat-generating components have also been custom-made to increase contact area for better thermal transfer. It’s a multi-part system that works just as well here as in prior cards in this line-up.
In my testing, the Tri Frozr 2 system proved to be a solid upgrade from Nvidia’s own dual-axial cooler found on the Founders Edition. Across my testing, I recorded a peak temperature of 68C in my Lian Li LanCool II mid-tower PC case. Under the same testing circumstances, the Founders Edition peaked at 75C. That extra cooling capacity doesn’t come at the expense of extra noise either. Using a decibel meter, the Gaming X Trio didn’t raise the noise floor at all from the Founders. It didn’t improve it either, but given the extra fan and lower temps, I consider that an impressive result.
Like all RTX 30-Series cards, the RTX 3060 Ti is built on the latest generation of Nvidia’s Ampere architecture. Since this is a topic I’ve covered extensively in previous reviews, I won’t rehash everything here and will refer you to my review of the RTX 3080 for a more thorough breakdown. Buying into Nvidia’s latest series of cards gets you a number of benefits, however. Dedicated cores for ray tracing and AI open the door to real time ray tracing in games, as well as other features like Nvidia Broadcast which leverages those cores for background noise and environment removal.
Likewise, RTX GPUs can utilize Deep Learning Super Sampling to intelligently upscale games to higher resolutions. This is shaping up to be one of the defining features of this generation as it allows gamers to play at higher resolutions than they otherwise would be able to with only minor performance and visual drawbacks. With DLSS, it’s entirely possible to play ray traced games at ultra settings at 1440p with this card when a similarly priced AMD GPU would require you to step down to 1080p to achieve the same frame rate.
The Gaming X Trio is identical to the Founders Edition RTX 3060 Ti in overall specs but benefits from a fast factory overclock. Like the FE, it features 4864 cores, which is more than double last generations RTX 2060 Super. It also comes equipped with 8GB of GDDR6 video memory, which is more than enough to play games maxed out at its intended resolutions. It steps things up when it comes to clock speed, however, with a factory Boost Clock of 1830 MHz.
That’s +165 MHz over reference, but also means the starting point for manual overclocks can begin and, with luck, end at higher overall speeds. I also found that the Gaming X Trio clocked itself higher than the Founders Edition with GPU Boost, too, which is Nvidia’s automatic overclocking tool. In my playtesting, the FE peaked at ~1875 MHz; the Gaming X Trio stopped just short of 2 GHz.
Finally, when it comes to video outputs, the card features three DisplayPort 1.4a connections and a single HDMI 2.1. It can support up to four simultaneous displays with a maximum resolution of 7680×4320 (or 8K).
MSI RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio – Performance
To test graphics cards, I run each through a series of synthetic and real-world gaming benchmarks. This allows me to gauge each card’s relative performance against one another and to determine actual frame rates you can expect in an array of representative games. Since this generation has focused heavily on hardware-based ray tracing, each card is also tested in a mix of ray traced games and synthetics. All games are tested at Ultra settings (or the highest preset) unless otherwise noted. DLSS is enabled wherever possible and set to the Quality preset.
Note that due to a recent performance anomaly sub-4K, Wolfenstein: Youngbloods has been removed from these results. I have reached out to Nvidia for support and will re-test each card once a solution has been found to include that title in future benchmark round-ups.
MSI RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio – Synthetic Benchmarks
Kicking things off, I ran the card through 3DMark’s Fire Strike Ultra and Unigine’s Heaven benchmark. The Gaming X Trio performed very well, outperforming the RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition in both tests. Both versions fall significantly below AMD’s RX 6000 series, however, which is to be expected given the different performance category and positioning of those cards.
Moving onto ray tracing, I used a trio of tests to gauge performance. The first, 3DMark’s Port Royal renders a score similar to the previous two tests. Again, the MSI tops out the FE and falls behind the AMD Radeon RX 6800. Things begin to switch in the FPS tests, however. Since Surgical Scalpels’ Boundary benchmark supports DLSS, the Gaming X Trio comes close to doubling the frame rate of even the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT in Rage Mode. In 3DMark’s Ray Tracing Test, which navigates a still image without DLSS, the MSI RTX 3060 Ti outperforms the RX 6800 and falls less than half a frame behind the RX 6800 XT.
With synthetic tests out of the way, I turned my attention toward real world gaming benchmarks. Even though the card targets 1440p, I was curious how it would compare across all three major resolutions. For readability, I limited my expanded testing to the most relevant cards for comparison given that this is a third-party version purporting to improve upon the OG 3060 Ti.
Beginning with 1080p, the Gaming X Trio performs extremely close to the Founders Edition with frame rates ranging from 2% slower to 4% faster, leading to an overall average difference that is less than half a percent. In real world terms, I couldn’t notice much difference at all when playing at this resolution.
At 1440p, things widen a little bit with ranges from 0% to 6% faster, leading to an average improvement of 3% over the RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition. Thanks to DLSS, it comes in a full 20% faster than the RX 6800 but when limited to rasterized games that flips entirely and it comes in 18% slower. Compared against the 2080 Super, as Nvidia did in its marketing of this GPU, it comes in a full 8% faster.
Finally, at 4K the Gaming X Trio delivers its most impressive leads over the Founders Edition yet, running an average of 4% faster overall. Compared against the Nvidia RTX 2080 Super, it ran 7% faster. Across all games, RTX and DLSS included, it outperformed the RX 6800 by a whopping 43%, highlighting the impact of DLSS. In sheer raster, it lagged the RX 6800 by 18%.
But is it playable at 4K? When it comes to actual FPS, the Gaming X Trio outperformed the Founders Edition but still struggled to hit 60 FPS in the majority of games at Ultra settings. Minecraft RTX and Doom Eternal were each able to exceed this marker, but the remaining nine games fell short. That said, each was able to play at 30 FPS or above with all of the bells and whistles enabled, which is equivalent to many current gen console games in Quality mode, while simultaneously offering improved graphics.
EA has patented technology that seeks to let players stream and play full games before they’ve been downloaded.
As spotted by GameRant, the patent can be found on the United States Patent and Trademark Office here, where you can see a diagram of the system in action. The plan involves the creation of a “dynamic video game client” that provides a stream of the game to players from a remote simulation engine, upon request.
“The dynamic video game client can utilize a state stream game engine in combination with a game application streaming service to provide users with the ability to begin playing games quickly on a huge range of devices,” the patent reads. What this means is that you could request to play a video game you own without it being downloaded on your local system, propped up by a remote online stream akin to Google Stadia or other cloud-based services. It’s not quite clear whether you will be downloading the game in the background during this process, but it is implied that this is the problem EA is trying to solve.
The patent copy can be found here, where it explains how this technology seeks to solve the “time consuming” installation process, sidestepping the wait to let players jump into the action. EA’s patent observes the growing issue of games getting larger and taking longer to install. “Due to the large size of games, it can take a significant amount of time of a user to begin playing a game after it has been purchased,” the patent reads. “This download process can be quite frustrating if a user is interested in playing a new game with friends or has a limited amount of time to play the game.”
Players will likely still need to have a decent internet connection in order to manage the simulated game stream, but it means that players could jump into a game as soon as they buy it, rather than waiting for it to install or download first.
In other EA news, the company recently completed a $1.2 billion acquisition of Codemasters, which it will be treating as an “independent group,” going forward. During an earnings call, it was revealed that the company had made $3 Billion from its Star Wars games and that it has no plans to slow down future development efforts with the licence.
Fall Guys developer Mediatonic has announced a partnership with Studio MDHR to bring Cuphead skins to the colorful battle royale game.
The skins are very nice-looking, and they come in two parts: top and bottom. You can unlock the top and bottom pieces by accumulating five crowns, or you can buy them with real money. A Cuphead-inspired emote is also available for five crowns. The new skin will be available this Wednesday, February 24, while the Mugman skin will come on Saturday, February 27.
In collab with @StudioMDHR we’re pleased to announce that Cuphead is the featured costume on Wednesday!
5x 👑 Top 5x 👑 Bottom
There’s also an emote for 5x 👑!
…and of course, Mugman will arrive on Saturday! 5x 👑 Top 5x 👑 Bottom
Cuphead is just the latest popular brand to come to Fall Guys through DLC skins. The Fall Guys Season 3.5 update added Godzilla, Sonic, and Goose Game costumes, while previous updates introduced skins for franchises like Doom, Team Fortress, Portal, and Half-Life.
It’s a good time to get into Fall Guys, as the base game is a lot of fun and lots more content is planned for the future.
Dave Bailey, the co-founder and CEO of Mediatonic, said the team has only “just scratched the surface” of what’s possible for the battle royale title. The original pitch for the game was to create the “greatest game show on Earth,” and Mediatonic plans to deliver on that ambition.
“When you think about it in that way, there’s a million different ways we can take this and I hope people will see that come through in future,” Bailey said.
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Google, Id Software, and Bungie are the subject of a class action lawsuit that claims the companies misled customers by saying Stadia games could be played at a 4K resolution.
Reported by ClassAction.org, the lawsuit was filed last year in Queens County Superior Court, but has now been transferred to a New York federal court. The lawsuit, brought by plaintiff Jacqueline Shepherd, centres around claims by Google ahead of Stadia’s release that the streaming platform would be “more powerful than both Xbox One X and Playstation 4 Pro combined”, particularly in its ability to stream games at 4K resolution.
However, upon launch, it became clear that many Stadia games weren’t pushing a true 4K image, but upscaling from lower resolutions. By allowing pre-orders before launch, and not offering full information about the platform’s ability to push 4K, the plaintiff alleges that, “Google made false and misleading claims concerning the streaming quality of Stadia’s service in order to generate increased revenue for the Google Stadia division.”
The plaintif includes Id Software and Bungie in the suit because of their advertising for Doom Eternal and Destiny 2 on Stadia, which included mentions of 4K resolutions – but neither game ran at true 4K upon release. The plaintiff alleges that Id, in particular, “wrongfully generated millions of dollars in revenue as a result” of those claims. Id has denied any liability or wrongdoing.
The plaintiff is seeking financial compensation for a number of different factors, as well as an order that forces Google to display the true resolution and frame rate of every game sold on Stadia.
The class action seeks to cover any person in the US who, from June 6, 2019 onwards, bought a Stadia Founder’s Edition, Stadia Premier Edition, or Stadia Pro subscription because of information that Stadia was more powerful than other consoles, or would run all games at 4K. It’s unclear how far the lawsuit will progress, but we;ll update yo uas we learn more.
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].
The February 21 episode of The Simpsons was a special one, as it brought back the late Marcia Wallace to voice Edna Krabappel once more to give the character a proper goodbye. To do this, the producers used two lines that Wallace gave for a previous episode, and these were cleared by Wallace’s estate, which was also compensated, according to Variety.
In the episode, “Diary Queen,” Bart finds Mrs. Krabappel’s diary and, upon reading it, learns how she actually felt about him. He reads about how Mrs. Krabappel actually believed in Bart and wanted him to succeed, and this inspires Bart to be better.
“Remember, if you can teach one kid one thing, then today will be a success,” Wallace as Mrs. Krabappel says in the voiceover.
Producer Al Jean told Variety that it was decided to bring back Mrs. Krabappel and use old voice lines to pay homage to Wallace and give the character a proper send-off.
“I didn’t know she was that ill until very close to when it happened,” Jean said of Wallace. “So we never got the chance to give sort of a proper goodbye to her in the show, and this is a small attempt to do that. And, you know, she was so beloved by everybody that worked on The Simpsons, that we just sort of wanted to give her one last moment on the show in her memory. It’s just that, it’s nothing more, but, we thought she was the best.”
Jean said this will be Mrs. Krabappel’s final appearance on the show, and there are no plans to reveal how the character died. “We just wanted to sort of send the character off properly, in a way that I think isn’t trying to be exploitive,” Jean said.
Mrs. Krabappel’s final on-screen appearance on The Simpsons came in the March 2014 episode, “The Man Who Grew Too Much.” At this point in the storyline, Krabappel and Ned Flanders were married, so Flanders became a widower once again following the death of his first wife, Maude. Jean reflected on the relationship between Krabappel and Flanders and said it was never the plan to Flanders become a character surrounded by death.
“When we made them a couple, to me it was an interesting opposites attract move, which people often find confusing in television but it happens forever in real life,” Jean said. “People like Krabappel and Flanders really do become couples. It was not the intention to make Flanders such a tragic character. However, since that’s the case, I think it’s kind of deepened his character unintentionally–where he’s somebody who’s had his faith really tested, who has been a really good person and some very difficult things have happened to him. So within the limits of fiction we’ve been trying to explore that with his character on the show.”
Wallace died at the age of 70 in 2013. She won an Emmy for her performance on The Simpsons in 1992. In addition to her role on The Simpsons, Wallace had recurring parts in The Bob Newhart Show, Full House, and The Brady Bunch.
If you’re worried that you missed out on your chance to try out Guilty Gear Strive‘s open beta before its full release this April, fret not as Arc System Works has extended the deadline until February 23. The upcoming fighting game’s limited-time preview was meant to end on February 21, but due to a few server issues impacting the open beta, the developer extended it instead.
You’ll have until February 23 at 7 PM PT / 10 PM ET to try out the game. So far the beta has proven to be a hefty experience, with 13 of the Guilty Gear Strive’s 15 characters available to play with in Versus, Tutorial, Training, and Network modes. You can even experience some of the single-player content of Guilty Gear Strive, where you face off against AI-controlled opponents.
Guilty Gear Strive was originally due for release in late 2020 on PC, PS4, and PS5, but like many other games being developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, its release date was pushed to April 6.
This past weekend also saw one of Guilty Gear’s most popular characters, the time-traveling witch I-No, confirmed as the final character in the game’s current roster. Able to shred through opponents with her powerful guitar riffs, I-No’s equally at home delivering brutal kicks up close or hurling energy attacks at players from a distance.
Guilty Gear Strive’s roster will increase in time, as Arc System Works revealed during a special fighting game developer roundtable that it will collaborate with SNK’s Samurai Shodown and add a guest character from that fighting game series to its own cast of heavy metal brawlers.
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If you’re experiencing the Monday morning blues, a little retail therapy may help alleviate some of the post-weekend sadness. After all, a new week brings a fresh assortment of great deals. We’ve rounded up the best deals of the day, including steep discounts on games such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Gears Tactics. As part of Pokemon’s 25th anniversary celebration, Pokemon fans can also save on one of the Nintendo Switch’s best Pokemon games as well as a batch of collectibles. Check out today’s highlights from various sales across the internet:
Best Buy’s Deal of the Day drops Cyberpunk 2077 to $30 for Xbox and PlayStation platforms, which matches the game’s lowest price since release. It also comes with a bonus steelbook case, so this is essentially the best deal we’ve seen. Of course, it must be noted that Cyberpunk 2077 for consoles is in rough shape, especially if you’re playing on PS4 or Xbox One. That said, Cyberpunk 2077 will continue to receive updates throughout the year, and if you’re interested in checking out the open-world adventure from CD Projekt Red, this is definitely a solid deal.
Gears Tactics released on Xbox during the holidays and has been discounted fairly regularly, but we can’t recall seeing it for more than 50% off. Best Buy’s current deal drops the price of the superb strategy game to only $25. Gears Tactics takes the atmosphere of one of Microsoft’s flagship franchises and adapts it into a thrilling and rich tactical experience filled with clever scenarios and larger-than-life boss battles. It earned an 8/10 in our Gears Tactics review and is playable on both Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
Counterplay Games’ Godfall released alongside the PS5 last November and is one of the platform’s few console exclusives. The action-RPG is held together by its great combat, and its high-fantasy world is gorgeous thanks to the power of the PS5. While Godfall is certainly repetitive, for those itching for a true next-gen game to play on PS5, it may be worth the plunge at Amazon right now. The retailer has Godfall for $40 right now, down from its normal $70.
Team17’s Overcooked series is an excellent choice for those looking for some family-friendly co-op games. Right now, Amazon has Overcooked: All You Can Eat for $35 on PS5. The bundle contains both remastered Overcooked games as well as all of the DLC released for each. In Overcooked, you have to race to prepare meals for hungry customers across a variety of zany levels. Overcooked demands constant communication between you and your fellow chefs, so it’s ideal for local co-op. To be clear, Overcooked can get quite stressful, but it has a lighthearted tone and colorful cartoon graphics that help make it a hilarious treat.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX was quietly one of the best exclusives released on Nintendo Switch last year. The remake of the first two entries in the Mystery Dungeon series received a wonderful makeover. Along with a sublime art style, Rescue Team DX significantly improves the combat and exploration from the original 2006 release. The story, which puts the Pokemon front and center, is well-written and arguably one of the best in any Pokemon game. You can pick up Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX for $45 at Best Buy right now.
For those with large hands, playing the Nintendo Switch in handheld mode can be a pain. The Hori Split Pad Pro replaces the Joy-Con, giving the console or more traditional feel. There are other benefits to the Split Pad Pro, too. The joysticks are longer and more closely resemble conventional gamepad sticks. Also, the Split Pad Pro adds a conventional D-pad. You can only use the Split Pad Pro in handheld mode, and it does tend the drain the console’s battery a tad quicker than normal. Amazon currently has the black model on sale for $40.49.
To celebrate Pokemon’s 25th anniversary, GameStop is offering select toys and collectibles for 20% off. The promotion largely focuses on Funko Pops and plushies featuring popular characters such as Pikachu, Eevee, Charmander, and Mew.
Amazon has John Wick: Chapters 1-3 on 4K Blu-ray discounted to a stellar price right now. Normally $45, you can snag the box set for just $25.60. It comes with all three John Wick movies, which are some of the best modern action films.
Due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19, the organizers of the Game Developers Conference have announced major changes to how the event will take place this year.
GM Katie Stern said in a blog post that there continue to be “many unknowns” in the world as it relates to the virus, but the group is intent on pushing forward to hold GDC this year.
“Our goals are largely the same: providing resources and great content as well as networking and discussion platforms to connect the industry. But the new constraints around in-person gatherings and travel also brought creativity, and we have been able to develop new formats, and new ways to offer content and community support throughout the year,” Stern said.
With that in mind, this year’s event–which is the 35th anniversary of the show–will be spread across a “family” of GDC events.
These will each “deliver high-quality, curated content in more flexible and accessible ways online, as well as designing events that play to the strengths of virtual conferences, including more fluid networking and matchmaking opportunities.”
Attendees can expect a lot of what they were already getting from the in-persons hows, including “deep dives for specialized areas” of the gaming industry and “unique showcases” that will explore “timely topics” across themes. There will also be a “curated conference program,” while the event’s awards shows are still going ahead.
“We are very excited to bring the game development community this thoughtful set of experiences, content and services that we hope will enhance our industry, help share learnings, create connections, and inspire great games,” Stern said.
The GDC 2021 schedule will be as follows:
GDC Masterclass (March 4-5) — This will consist of one- and two-day virtual workshops that will “deliver in-depth, hands-on training around some of the most important challenges facing game developers today.” According to Stern, GDC has recruited “some of the sharpest minds” in gaming for these classes.
GDC Showcase (March 15-19) — This is a free, all-digital event that will include spotlight lectures, AMAs, and interactive panels with developers.
GDC 2021 (July 19-23) — This is the traditional GDC experience, running for a week, but it will be virtual this year instead of taking place at its normal home in San Francisco. “We did consider an in-person component this year, [but] we have decided that it’s more important that our speakers, attendees, and sponsors be able to plan ahead, to continue to be as safe as possible, and to spend our attention on delivering the best possible GDC,” Stern said.
Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards (July 21) — This is the annual awards show that celebrates the games of the past year. It will be streamed via the official GDC Twitch channel.
More — Stern said the team is planning more GDC-branded events for the second half of 2021, and these will be announced later.
GDC is not the only big gaming show to change plans for 2021 due to the virus. The organizers of E3 have also confirmed that this year’s show will be “transformed,” but we’re still waiting to find out exactly what that means.
