Author: Trafficblast

Razer loves to go big at CES. In years past, the company has shown off everything from a triple-monitor gaming laptop to a fully immersive racing simulator. This year, Razer is showing off two concept projects: an immersive gaming chair and a high-tech face mask outfitted with, in true Razer fashion, RGB lighting.

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Project Hazel is Razer’s take on a “smart” mask. It would use a detachable, rechargeable active-ventilation system to regulate airflow, with N95 medical-grade respirator protection to filter at least 95% of airborne particles. The design also features a transparent front panel so that people can see your facial expressions, or, when communicating with people who are deaf or hard of hearing, read your lips. The mask would also use a “VoiceAmp” technology featuring a built-in microphone and amplifier to prevent the mask from muffling your voice. And to top it of, of course, it features Razer Chroma RGB lighting.

Of course, to be clear, Project Hazel is only a concept project, and is extremely unlikely to come to market in its current form, if at all. That said, cheesy sci-fi aesthetics aside, it’s nice to see companies thinking about ways to take on some of the common complaints about masks, given they have become an essential part of everyday life.

Razer’s other concept this year is Project Brooklyn, an all-in-one immersive gaming chair. The idea is an ergonomic chair with built-in haptic feedback and a retractable, wraparound curved screen. Visuals would be delivered by a 60-inch rollable OLED display that retracts and folds into the chair when not in use. Similarly, the armrests adjust and retract as needed depending on if you’re playing on PC with mouse and keyboard or console with a controller. Again, this is just a concept product that likely will never exist as a real product, at least in its current form.

As for real products, at CES Razer also showed off new versions of its Blade 15 and 17 gaming laptops, most notably featuring a new 1440p screen option.

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Bo Moore is IGN’s Executive Editor of Tech. Follow him on Twitter @usebomswisely.

During Razer’s livestream presentation at CES, the company announced that Baldur’s Gate 3 will get Razer Chroma functionality with its line of Chroma-enabled products. A brief trailer showed off the functionality working with a Razer keyboard and mouse.

Razer Chroma changes the coloring across the full RGB lighting spectrum in certain lit areas of its peripherals, like underneath the keys and on the letter caps of a keyboard. In the video we saw this used to set the mood with red lighting during a particularly demonic moment, highlighting the number keys during a decision moment, and even using the keys to approximate the shape of a D20. The announcement promised the functionality is coming soon, but did not give a date.

Also during its presentation, Razer announced a new line of gaming laptops, a smart mask with lighting and safety features, a gaming chair with an OLED screen, and a partnership with Hello Kitty.

Baldur’s Gate 3 released in early access last year, and a release date for the final version is still unannounced. In GameSpot’s Baldur’s Gate 3 early access review, David Wildgoose wrote that it “shows a good deal of promise, yet there are plenty of warning signs it may not fulfill its potential.”

Fans of Motion Twin’s roguelite metroidvania Dead Cells will be stoked to know that Motion Twin and Evil Empire have announced the game’s second paid DLC: Fatal Falls. It will be arriving for both consoles and PC on January 26, and will cost $5/€5.

Fatal Falls is bringing two brand-new biomes for players to explore and fight their way through: The Fractured Shrines and The Undying Shores. These are parallels to the Stilt Village, Clock Tower, and Time Keeper areas in the base game, and were designed to serve as alternate paths to spice up your mid-game runs. The DLC will also be adding a “new” boss, The Scarecrow, that current fans may recognize as the Royal Gardener, now infected with Malaise.

On your way to take the Scarecrow down, you will encounter eight new “slightly psychotic” enemy types including the Myopic Crow, Clumsy Swordsman, and Compulsive Gravedigger. But don’t worry, you’ll be getting some new weapons to take them on with. Seven, to be exact:

• Lightning Rods
• Ferryman’s Lantern
• Scarecrow’s Sickles
• Iron Staff
• Snake Fangs
• Serenade
• Cocoon.

Each of these will be useful in different areas of the two new biomes. And to make sure you look as cool as you feel while taking these goons down with your new toys, the DLC will also come with 10 new outfits.

To celebrate Fatal Falls’ release, Motion Twin and Evil Genius have also announced several sales and bundles for Dead Cells. Starting on January 26, prices for the standard game will be slashed across all platforms, though the dates of sales will depend on the platform, so plan accordingly and keep an eye on your preferred platform’s storefront.

Switch players can now preorder the Fatal Seed Bundle at a 33% discount. The bundle includes all of the game’s previous free updates and both paid DLCs, Fatal Falls and The Bad Seed, for $20/€20. This bundle will be available across all platforms at a 33% discount starting on January 26. The base version of Dead Cells will also be available for 50% off ($12.50/€12.50) during the celebratory sale period, in case you want to give it a try before committing to the full bundle experience.

GameSpot’s review said that “Dead Cells is a phenomenal effort to blend together some very disparate genres into a tight, cohesive whole. It’s one of the better examples of how to remix ideas without losing their individual strengths.” If you’ve been thinking about grabbing it, there’s never been a better time.

While we have to wait until Fall 2021 to actually play Halo Infinite, the merchandise around the game is already kicking into gear, and this now includes a very comfy-looking branded bathrobe.

Toynk is now selling an officially licensed Halo Infinite-themed bathrobe. Available in one adult size, the $60 USD bathrobe is “authentically designed” to look like Master Chief’s iconic green armor. The 100% polyester fleece robe features the number 117 on the chest, two front pockets, an adjustable belt, and embroidered shoulder pauldrons. The hood becomes Master Chief’s helmet when you drape it over your face, which is a nice touch.

You can check out more photos of the Halo Infinite robe below.

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Halo Infinite was originally slated to release as a launch title for the Xbox Series X|S in November, but Microsoft elected to push the game to 2021 due in part to complications related to COVID-19 and working from home. Recently, 343 boss Bonnie Ross said the wait will be worth it.

The game is shaking things up for the franchise, as it runs on a completely new engine and the multiplayer element of Halo Infinite will be free-to-play with microtransactions.

When Halo Infinite is released, it will be free for Xbox Game Pass subscribers and available on Xbox One, PC, and Xbox Series X|S.

Cyberpunk 2077’s multiplayer component isn’t coming out anytime soon, but we may have just received a hint about what it could include. Dataminers have reportedly found information surrounding two game modes within the game’s files, according to DSOGaming.

The first is a standard deathmatch game mode that you’d see in most multiplayer shooters, but the second mode is something different. The files indicate that there will be some sort of “heist” mode that has players complete missions that are similar to the ones found in the single-player campaign. We don’t have any details yet, but some of the files hint at the game mode playing similarly to the heists in Grand Theft Auto Online.

The game reportedly includes files with names like “MP.Heist.MessagePlayerReady” and “MP.Heist.SetPlayerCharacterClass” among others that seemingly reference new players spawning and players having to gather in a specific area in order for the heist to begin. These are just files within Cyberpunk 2077, so nothing is confirmed. The final product could be very different from what we’re seeing here.

Cyberpunk 2077’s multiplayer will be a separate game from the single-player product. The Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer game is connected to the single-player game, but CD Projekt Red sees it as an “independent production” with a team working on it that’s separate from the team building the single-player game.

CD Projekt Red executive Adam Kicinski said that the studio would share more news on the standalone multiplayer game in the first quarter of 2021.

Cyberpunk 2077 didn’t launch nearly as well as CD Projekt Red had hoped, and the blowback has only grown worse for the studio. Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection has begun investigating CD Projekt Red. The studio could receive a fine that amounts to 10% of the income for its most recent financial year if it can’t provide a substantial explanation for the games shortcomings.

AMD has announces its latest batch of Ryzen 5000 series mobile processors for laptops and gaming laptops.

Bringing the Zen 3 core to mobile, AMD announced a trio of Ryzen 5000 Processors including the Ryzen 7 5800U, Ryzen 9 5900HX, and Ryzen 9 5980HX.

Starting off with AMD’s flagship Ryzen 7 5800U, it’s an 8 core and 16 thread processor with a 4.4GHz maximum boost clock. According to AMD, the Ryzen 7 5800U far outpaces Intel’s latest 11th Gen Core i7-1185G7 by 44% in Adobe Premier video encoding and 39% in Blender 3D Ray Tracing.

What’s more AMD has announced a new line of even higher-end HX-Series mobile CPUs unlocked for overclocking to bring desktop-like performance to mobile. The first HX-Series processors we’ll see include the Ryzen 9 5900HX, and Ryzen 9 5980HX.

The Ryzen 9 5900HX is an 8 core, 16 thread processor with a 4.6Ghz boost clock and 20MB of cache. The Ryzen 9 5980HX meanwhile features 8 cores and 16 threads, a 4.8GHz Boost Clock and 20MB of cache.

Additionally all of the Ryzen 5000 Series mobile processors are getting an injection of RDNA 2 that’s found in AMD’s latest graphics cards as well as the chips powering the Xbox Series X and PS5. To prove how much more powerful its integrated graphics is, AMD showed off how it can run Horizon Zero Dawn at 1080p and over 100fps.

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Kevin Lee is IGN’s Hardware and Roundups Editor. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam

Nintendo had a lot of Mario news to share alongside its latest Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury trailer. In addition to announcing a new special edition Mario Switch console, Nintendo detailed its next event in Super Mario Bros. 35, and this one gives you a chance to win My Nintendo points.

The online Mario game’s first World Count Challenge runs from January 18-25. While the event still pits you against other players, there’s an overarching objective that everyone will be working toward. If players can cumulatively defeat 3.5 million Bowsers during the event period, everyone who participated and defeated at least one Bowser will take home 350 My Nintendo Platinum points. These points can be redeemed for rewards on the My Nintendo website.

The World Count Challenge kicks off at 11 PM PT on January 18 and runs until the same time on January 25. Nintendo plans to hold two more World Count Challenge events in February and March, but no further details on those have been announced yet. You can read more about the event on Nintendo’s website.

Much like Tetris 99, Super Mario Bros. 35 is a battle-royale style game that’s free to download and play for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. You’ll need an active membership to participate in the World Count Challenge event. Subscriptions cost $4 for one month, $8 for three months, and $20 for one year, while an annual Family Plan costs $35.

Mario 35th Anniversary Wave 2 Pin Set

That wasn’t the end of the Mario announcements. Nintendo also revealed a second commemorative Mario anniversary pin set. Like the previous set, you need to complete enough Mario-themed missions on Nintendo’s website before you can claim it. These missions range from participating in events, such as this weekend’s Mario Splatfest in Splatoon 2, to purchasing select Mario games.

This set contains pins based on the following Mario games:

• Super Mario Sunshine
• Super Mario Galaxy
• New Super Mario Bros. U
• Super Mario 3D World
• Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, meanwhile, launches for Nintendo Switch on February 12. You can learn more about the game in our Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury preorder guide.