Category: Games

I’ve reviewed a lot of MSI gaming laptops over the last few years. And MSI has consistently impressed with its lineup of gaming laptops that go from the ultra-thin to the ultra-big and everything in between. So I guess it’s only right that once in a while there’s a laptop that’s not truly impressive, but more does just enough to get by. 

That’s how I’d describe the MSI Katana GF66 I’ve been testing for two weeks. It does its job, but there’s nothing noteworthy about how it does it. 

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At $1,399, it’s on the lower end of the pricing spectrum for gaming laptops. It’s a shame it doesn’t do a better job of directly competing with similarly priced laptops. 

Before I get into what I did and didn’t like about the GF66, here’s a quick look at the specs of the review unit I was sent. 

Specs

Here are the specifications of the MSI Katana GF66 I’ve been testing: 

• Model: MSI Katana GF66 (11UE)
• Display: 15.6-inch FHD 144Hz (1920 x 1080)
• Processor: 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11800H (24M cache, 4.6GHz Max Turbo)
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU with 6GB GDDR6
• Memory: 16GB DDR4 3200MHz
• OS: Windows 10 Home
• Storage: 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD
• Webcam: 720p
• Ports: 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1 x USB 2.0 Type-A, 1 x HDMI, 1 x audio combo-jack, 1 x Gigabit Ethernet
• Connectivity: WiFi 6 802.11ax, Bluetooth 5.2
• Dimensions: 359 x 259 x 24.9-mm (WxDxH)
• Weight: 2.25-kilograms
• Price: $1,399.99

MSI Katana GF66 – Design

There’s an unmistakable look to the MSI Katana GF66. Maybe it’s the boring black exterior. Maybe it’s the block-like chunky design. Or maybe it’s that lack of polish I’ve grown accustomed to seeing from MSI over years of testing the company’s laptops. The GF66 looks like MSI mailed this one in, slapping some modern components in a laptop housing and calling it good enough. 

I imagine that comes off as a little harsh, but, here, look at pictures from the MSI GS65 review I wrote in 2018. Notice the finer details, like the vents along the top of the keyboard? That kind of stuff is nowhere to be found on the GF66. 

Now, I realize the GP66 Leopard I reviewed earlier this year had a similar design to the GF66 (lacking the vents, for example), but it also felt like it had a little more polish. 

Then again, the GP66 and GS65 both cost hundreds of dollars more than the GF66 I have on my desk right now, so that’s likely a big factor. 

MSI lists the GF66’s measurements as 359 x 259 x 24.9-mm, or roughly converted to 14.13 x 10.2 x 0.98-inches. As for weight, it comes in at 2.25-kilograms or 4.96-pounds. That’s neither particularly large nor heavy, but there’s something about the GF66’s design that makes it just look and feel much thicker and heavier than its measurements. 

Other than the MSI logo that’s embossed on the laptop’s lid, there’s not much else going on in terms of branding. 

Opening the lid you see the 15.6-inch 144Hz Full-HD display. The bezels surrounding the display take the same approach as the rest of the design – somewhat thick. Along the top you’ll find a 720p webcam centered over the screen. The camera will get the job done for the occasional work Zoom call, but you’re not going to want to stream on Twitch with it or anything. But that’s par for the course for nearly all laptop webcams. 

The deck of the laptop has a full-size keyboard with a single zone red backlight. There was just enough space for MSI to squeeze in a small number pad to the right of the keyboard. The touchpad is centered with the keyboard, not counting the number pad. Meaning, it’s off-center when you consider the overall width of the housing.

MSI included a handful of ports on the GF66, mixing and matching old and new tech to ensure you can connect a few accessories and peripherals. On the right side is where you’ll find the most ports. From front-to-back, there’s an audio/combo jack, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, a USB-C port, an HDMI port capable of 4K at 60Hz, and then, finally, a 1 Gigabit Ethernet port. 

On the opposite side, you’ll find two more USB Type-A ports. One standard USB 2.0 port, and the second USB 3.1 Gen 1 port. There’s also the charging port that relies on a barrel connector and charges the laptop using the 180W power adapter. 

Vents for air circulation and cooling are found on the left edge of the deck, around the back of the housing and on the bottom. 

I think I made it pretty clear I’m not a huge fan of the GF66’s design, and I stand by that. It’s a basic design and one that leaves me wanting a little more personality or color. 

MSI Katana GF66 – Performance and gaming

Tucked inside the housing of the GF66 is Intel’s 11th Generation Core i7-11800H processor, Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, 16GB of 3200Mhz memory and a 1TB SSD. That’s all powering the 1080p 144Hz display, and it does a good job of it. 

As I did with the GP66 Leopard, I took a peek at how MSI tuned the amount of power the GF66’s GPU could use. It’s tuned to 85W, whereas the GP66 Leopard and its RTX 3070 were tuned to 130W. There’s a big difference not only between those two GPUs but also between the amount of power MSI is allowing them to consume for performance. 

Here’s a look at the benchmark numbers comparing the GF66 to the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE and Asus TUF Dash F15: 

As you can see, the GF66 was outperformed by both comparisons in nearly every test, except for narrowly beating out the Predator Triton 300 SE in 3DMark’s Night Raid test. 

Real-world testing birthed a similar experience. For everyday use such as browsing the web in Edge, working in Google Docs, streaming Twitch or Spotify, and doing some shopping on Amazon. 

And truth be told, gaming on the GF66 was a solid experience. Playing games like Knockout City, Need For Speed Remastered or Battlefield V, I saw the GF66 run the gamut of performance. 

In Need for Speed, a game it should easily achieve 60 frames-per-second, it averaged closer to 52. Sometimes less, depending on how often my car crashed. 

In Knockout City, I saw an average of 104fps. At times, the frame rate was pegged to 144fps, maxing out the refresh rate of the display – which is more in line with what I expected from the GF66. 

I spent the most time in Battlefield V, testing various graphics settings and even bouncing between performance modes provided by MSI. 

With Battlefield V set to Max Fidelity, which is a mix of Medium and High settings, the GF66 averaged right at 100fps with performance mode enabled in the MSI Center app. 

With the game set to Ultra, performance dropped to 79fps. If I set the GF66’s performance setting to Balanced. The frame rate took an additional 10% hit, dropping down to 71fps. 

None of those numbers come close to the speed of the display on the GF66, but they’re also nothing to get upset about. I didn’t notice any tearing, hiccups or any other performance issues that made the GF66 a boring gaming experience. 

If I had any complaints about gaming on the GF66 it would be that when in performance mode, the fans are really loud. You’ll definitely want a pair of headphones, or you can take the FPS hit and drop it down to balanced if you want to game and hold a conversation with your partner or roommate. The fans on Balanced mode were very quiet. 

As for the display, it looks alright. Color saturation is very muted on it, and in turn, games don’t look as crisp as I know they can and should. 

The 1TB of internal storage is a welcome starting point for this laptop – it’s more than enough space to keep a few AAA titles and personal files. 

MSI Katana GF66 – Battery life

Whenever a gaming laptop lands on my desk, and it’s a true gaming laptop, not one of those super thin portable wannabes, I try to guess whether the manufacturer prioritized battery life over performance or vice-versa. With the GF66, I assumed it would be battery life. 

However, after running PCMark 10’s battery benchmark, the results reflect a mixture of both. Performance was good, but not great. And the battery followed the same approach – good, not great, with a final time of 3 hours and 12 minutes. That’s enough to watch a very long movie, however, it’s only half the amount of time that the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE lasted, and a third of the time that the TUF Dash F15 powered through. 

MSI Katana GF66 – Software

There’s not a lot of extra software installed on the GF66 out of the box. Of course, there’s this staple bloatware of Norton Security that routinely prompts you for various things. Then there’s MSI Center, an app that you can use to change the performance settings of the GF66, monitor the system and its current level of resource use, as well as contact MSI support should you run into any issues. 

MSI Center is what you’d use to change any RGB lighting if you had an MSI laptop with multiple zones or per-key lighting. Alas, the GF66 has a single zone red backlight. 

Outside of those two apps, the standard Windows 10 preinstalled apps, games and shortcuts are there. 

Spotify, Warner Bros., and DC have announced that Black Panther’s Winston Duke will be playing Bruce Wayne in the upcoming Batman Unburied scripted podcast alongside Harry Potter’s Jason Isaacs as Alfred.

Batman Unburied will have David S. Goyer, the writer/co-writer for Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Night Rises, as an executive producer, and the new story will “explore the darker aspects of Bruce Wayne’s psychology.”

“Batman Unburied is a psychological thriller that takes us on a new journey deep into the mind of Bruce Wayne introducing a slew of dark twists and turns with a number of classic Batman Super-Villains,” The official description reads. “When audiences meet Bruce Wayne, he is a forensic pathologist, working in the bowels of Gotham Hospital and tasked with examining the victims of The Harvester, a gruesome serial killer preying on Gotham’s citizens. Not only will the Super-Hero be forced to face his own mental demons, but he will also have to overcome them in order to save the citizens of Gotham as his alter-ego Batman.”

Batman Unburied will debut exclusively on Spotify, but no further details on release dates or episode counts have been detailed as of this writing.

The writers team on the series includes Supergirl’s Eric Carrasco, The Haunting of Hill House’s Rebecca Klingel, Saladin Ahmed, and Graham Westerson.

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Assuming it doesn’t make 2021, Batman Unburied will join Matt Reeves’ The Batman in making 2022 a special year for fans of the Caped Crusader.

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

If the thought of racing a smaller piece of pop culture history that can be parked in your pocket sounds appealing, then Hot Wheels Unleashed’s expanded selection of cinematic rides might appeal to you. In the latest trailer for the game, developer Milestone has revealed the inclusion of iconic vehicles such as The Party Wagon from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Batman’s Batmobile, Back to the Future’s DeLorean, Knight Rider’s K.I.T.T, and Snoopy’s Barnstormer.

The idea of more exotic vehicles from Hot Wheels ties into the history of the toy franchise, as the toy line has regularly recreated cars from across film, television, and video games. According to Milestone, cars can be upgraded using the in-game Rarity System, which allows players to collect and dismantle in-game vehicles in order to improve their performance. Some upgrades can only be discovered in unique and secret ways.

If you’d prefer a less fictional car, Hot Wheels Unleashed has a number of other scale-replica vehicles to collect in the game, ranging from classics such as the 1971 El Camino and 1956 Ford Truck to more modern hypercars like the 2020 Koenigsegg Jesko.

Hot Wheels Unleashed entertainment IP cars

• TMNT Party Wagon
• Snoopy
• K.I.T.T.
• Back to the Future Time Machine
• Batmobile

Hot Wheels Unleashed original manufacturer cars

• Audi R8 Spyder
• Audi Sport Quattro
• ’55 Chevy
• Copo Camaro
• ’71 El Camino
• ’69 Dodge Charger Daytona
• RAM 1500 Rebel
• FIAT 500
• ’32 Ford
• 1956 Ford Truck
• 2018 Ford Mustang GT
• Humvee®
• Honda S2000
• 2020 Koenigsegg Jesko
• Mini Cooper S Challenge

“So far, this is shaping up to be a solid arcade racer that understands what people love about the long-standing line of toy cars,” writer Alessandro Fillari said in our Hot Wheels Unleashed preview.

Hot Wheels Unleashed will launch on September 30, 2021, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

It’s a fun and exciting time for fans of EA’s Madden NFL series, as the publisher has teamed up with ESPN to reveal the player ratings for this year’s Madden NFL 22. We’re getting more ratings each day, and now we’ve learned which edge-rushers rank the highest for this year’s game.

With a 98 OVR rating, Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns is the highest-rated edge-rusher in Madden 22. Rounding out the top five are Khalil Mack (96 OVR), TJ Watt (94 OVR), Chandler Jones (94 OVR), and JJ Watt (94 OVR). Of note here is that the Watt brothers are two major forces on the defensive side of the ball, and the younger one gets the slight edge. What’s even more unlikely is that there is another set of brothers in the top 10 here, as Joey Bosa (92 OVR) and Nick Bosa (90 OVR) also rank as some of the highest-rated edge-rushers in Madden NFL 22.

You can see the full list of the top 10 highest-rated edge-rushers below. For more Madden 22 ratings, check out the highest-rated wide receivers and our overall roundup of all the Madden 22 ratings announced so far. More ratings will be revealed throughout the week, so keep checking back with GameSpot for more in the days ahead.

Madden NFL 22 launches on August 20 across console, PC, and Stadia, featuring Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes sharing the cover. For more, check out GameSpot’s Madden 22 preorder guide.

Madden NFL 22 Highest-Rated Edge-Rushers:

• Myles Garrett: 98 OVR
• Khalil Mack: 96 OVR
• TJ Watt: 94 OVR
• Chandler Jones: 94 OVR
• JJ Watt: 94 OVR
• Cameron Jordan: 93 OVR
• Von Miller: 93 OVR
• Joey Bosa: 92 OVR
• Nick Bosa: 90 OVR
• Za’Darius Smith: 89 OVR

Epic has released Fortnite hotfix 17.21 today, and with it comes a brand-new weapon to the game that will give loopers the firepower of a UFO without a pilot’s license via the Plasma Cannon. Alongside that marquee addition, something strange is happening in the skies above The Aftermath. Let’s dig into Fortnite hotfix 17.21.

Fortnite Plasma Cannon

The Plasma Cannon is a new tech weapon designed by the Imagined Order after weeks of espionage carried out by Slone–and you, if you’ve been completing her challenges. The IO has taken the alien technology of a UFO’s plasma cannon and fit it into a handheld firearm, giving players a powerful new tool in gunfights.

The Plasma Cannon can be found in regular chests as well as IO “henchman” chests and comes equipped with five plasma balls. The energy of the plasma balls will cause “heavy damage” and throws players back. It will even do the same to vehicles, which you may have seen before when piloting a UFO. Additionally, the new gun destroys buildings and other structures “just about instantly,” according to Epic.

You won’t be able to reload it due to its firepower, so once you’ve spent your whole ammo reserve, you’ll need to find a new Plasma Cannon if you want to fire off some energy spheres at opponents again. You can craft a Plasma Cannon by combining one Alien Nanite with one Legendary Pistol.

Mysterious Ship Appears

If the new means of Fortnite ground combat doesn’t get you excited, look to the skies. A “mysterious ship” has appeared over the center of the map. In-universe, the IO says the intent of this ship doesn’t seem to be for harm, which sounds like Epic is teasing a new social event of some kind–perhaps a long-rumored Ariana Grande concert, or the abduction of some key locations around the map. Leakers say Coral Castle, Slurpy Swamp, and Corny Complex are set to become low-gravity locales later this season after being altered by the aliens.

With a countdown timer hinting at an event of some kind, it’s likely we’ll know more about this mysterious ship soon. Until then, get caught up with what we know for sure, like all you need on the Week 8 Alien Artifacts, Week 8 challenges, and a recent Epic Games survey that mentions dozens of potential future collaborations like Dragon Ball Z and Breaking Bad.

As part of the Madden NFL 22 ratings reveal week, EA Sports is announcing the player ratings for some of the league’s most skilled players, and this includes one of the flashiest positions: wide receiver. The full list of top rookie and veteran WRs has now been released, and there are no surprises.

Starting with veterans, Davante Adams of the Green Bay Packers leads the way with his 99 rating that puts him in the elusive 99 Club. DeAndre Hopkins of the Arizona Cardinals and Tyreek Hill of the Kansas City Chiefs following with a 98 OVR rating. Hopkins has generated some amount of controversy recently over his anti-vaccination stance in response to the NFL’s new policies.

Following close behind is Stefon Diggs of the Buffalo Bills (97 OVR), Julio Jones of the Tennessee Titans (95 OVR), and Michael Thomas from the Saints (94 OVR).

As for rookies, Jaylen Waddle leads the pack with a 76 OVR for the Miami Dolphins. You can see a full rundown of the top-rated wide receivers in Madden NFL 22 below, while a more granular breakdown of the ratings can be found on EA’s website and through the tracker tool.

Remember that these are just the ratings for the game’s launch period. The ratings will go up or down during the season based on how the athletes perform on the field.

As mentioned, more Madden 22 ratings are being revealed each day this week through EA’s partnership with ESPN. Keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest. For now, you can can check out our overall Madden NFL 22 ratings hub to find out how the best NFL players stack up.

Top-Rated Veteran WRs

• Davante Adams: 99 OVR
• DeAndre Hopkins: 98 OVR
• Tyreek Hill: 98 OVR
• Stefon Diggs: 97 OVR
• Julio Jones: 95 OVR
• Michael Thomas: 94 OVR

Top-Rated Rookie WRs

• Jaylen Waddle: 76 OVR
• Ja’Marr Chase: 75 OVR
• DeVonta Smith: 75 OVR
• Elijah Moore: 73 OVR
• Kadarius Toney: 72 OVR
• Rashod Bateman: 72 OVR

Capcom announced that it is bringing one of its other properties, Okami, to Monster Hunter Rise starting on July 30. This DLC collaboration lets players receive the Palamute layered armor set “Ammy Costume”, which is themed after Amaterasu in Okami. It is earned by clearing a special event quest.

Monster Hunter Rise has already received some new content, including a previous collaboration with Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin. This one was similar to the upcoming Okami content, in which players would clear a special event quest to earn a Palico layered armor set based off of Tsukino from the aforementioned game. Those who also have save data from Monster Hunter Stories 2 are able to obtain the “Rider” layered armor set for their own player character.

There’s going to be more Capcom collaborations in the future. The roadmap shown at the end of the announcement trailer indicates that the company will drop another one in August, as well as two more during the fall. Any content planned beyond that is currently unknown.

Monster Hunter Rise is available right now on Nintendo Switch and a PC release is set for sometime in early 2022.

It’s been over 30 years since the Ghostbusters first assured us they weren’t afraid of no ghosts, and now director Jason Reitman is behind the wheel of the Ecto-1 for the franchise’s fourth film, Ghostbusters: Afterlife. A new trailer has dropped for the film, and with it more clues that point to the return of an old Ghostbusters foe.

Let’s take a closer look at the new trailer and what it could mean for the Ghostbusters universe — past and present! Read on for all the clues and Easter eggs we found regarding the Afterlife bad guy, or watch the video! You can also watch the trailer below…

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The New Ghostbusters

The trailer opens on scenic shots of Summerville, Oklahoma. The franchise has ditched the hustle of Manhattan for the bucolic bustle of a midwestern farm town. We immediately know McKenna Grace’s Phoebe is a smart kid because of her Egon-ish hair and glasses and her mom, Carrie Coon’s Callie, is having trouble connecting with her. (Egon, of course, is Egon Spengler, the Ghosbuster played by the late Harold Ramis in the first two films.)

Callie tells Paul Rudd’s seismologist Mr. Grooberson this on (what we hope) is a date, because if there are some Scott Lang/Proxima Midnight smooches in this movie, then our fan-fiction won’t feel like a waste of time. Either way, it seems Callie has moved their kids from the city out to this spooky old farm house her father left to them. In a trailer breakdown Reitman did with IGN, the director told us he wanted the film to unfold like a mystery — and this is where it starts.

Egon Spengler or Louis Tully?

Happily, cinema’s most fashionable receptionist Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts from the original films) is here to drop hints. She says that Callie’s father wasn’t the best housekeeper and tees up a wonderful shot of the Ecto-1A under a tarp in the barn.

But we don’t know what Callie’s relationship to Janine is. Is Janine her mom? If so, is Egon Callie’s father? Janine clearly had eyes for Egon in the first film but hooked up with Louis Tully (Rick Moranis’ character) in the 1989 sequel, so there’s a chance Phoebe and Finn Wolfhard’s Trevor are in fact Louis Tully’s grandkids.

With what Jason Reitman has said about his own personal journey with this film and finding his own place among the Ghostbusters in his father’s legacy, Louis Tully’s arc in Ghostbusters II — where he found the courage to pick up the proton pack — might just be Jason Reitman’s most personal connection to the franchise. If that’s the case, then continuing the story of the Tully children picking up the mantle of busting ghosts might’ve been his way into cracking this long-awaited sequel.

It is clear though, as Reitman confirmed to IGN, that Janine cared for Egon into his old age, whether she had children with him or not, and the mysterious house is not only a piece of the familial puzzle the kids are having to put together, but it’s also important to the mysterious spooks, specters or ghosts rumbling the town.

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Maybe It’s the Apocalypse

Moving into the “what was Egon doing there” side of the mystery, the trailer has a handful of clues here as well. As Reitman pointed out to us, the antenna-riddled house is meant to emulate the top of the Ecto-1, so the house was definitely kitted out with ghost-detecting and monitoring devices at some point (and likely still is).

We also get a shot of pink energy streaks moving through town that are the same iconic pink streaks that flew across Manhattan when Walter “Pencil Neck” Peck shut down the containment grid in the first film and released previously busted ghosts into the five boroughs. This seems to indicate that Egon had built a containment unit in Summerville to keep something at bay — a unit that he maintained until he died and that has since become unstable. 

That Egon would have moved to Summerville in his later years specifically to keep a lid on cult leader Ivo Shandor’s machinations regarding Gozer (the malevolent force first seen in the original film) would speak to both sides of the mystery Reitman will unfold with this film — both why the Spengler family has become fractured and didn’t know about Egon or his Ghostbusting days, and why ghosts are descending on Summerville.

So perhaps the psychokinetic energy Egon’s containment unit was keeping at bay grew to the size of an enormous twinkie, causing the earthquakes that Paul Rudd is in town to investigate before rumbling its way to freedom. If that’s the case then the question remaining is whose psychokinetic energy was Egon containing?

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Afterlife and Gozer the Gozerian

In a previous trailer, we saw the kids walking into Shandor Mines, a reference to Shandor, who was the architect of the apartment building where Sigourney Weaver’s Dana Barret lived.

The temple seen in the new trailer is full of Gozer iconography, from the pyramid to the flat top. And whatever apparently gets released in this temple has the same arm and head shape as the figures at the bottom of the shrine in the temple. This trailer makes it clear that the Goze will be putting the moves on Phoebe and Trevor’s would-be hometown.

But this trailer is full of other signs that, as with the first trailer, continue to point towards Gozer’s return. The mountain we see has a similar swirling cloud of doom feel as the one above Central Park in 1984, and the awesome practical skeleton ghost is clearly a miner that’s been released back into Summerville after being trapped in Shandor Mines for who knows how long. Oh, and how about the terror dogs that show up, including one in a spooky new spectral form? Total minions of the Destructor.

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What other clues will the kids find along the way that lead them to answer the puzzles at the heart of Ghostbusters: Afterlife? What’s up with Egon’s hand in the photo of the original Ghostbusters? Doesn’t it look a little photoshopped to you? What’s he holding? Seems like a clue! And then of course, there’s the guy with the tattoo at the end of the trailer who has to be Dan Aykroyd’s Ray Stantz. The tattoo refers to the Book of Revelation, as did Ray in the 1984 film…

Let us know what you think is going on in the new trailer for Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and be sure to check out our breakdown with co-writer and director Jason Reitman as well!

Clint Gage contributed to this report.