I shouldn’t be this excited by the words “dirt accumulation is more realistic” but here I am, positively thrilled about the idea of my car in Forza Motorsport becoming a mucky pup over the course of a race.
In Xbox and Bethesda’s Developer Direct, Forza Motorsport creator Turn 10 went into the finer detail of its upcoming Xbox Series X racer. The team threw out big numbers, like how you will have 500 cars to play with at launch, that there are more than 800 upgrades you can fit into your vehicles, and that there will be 20 environments to race through.
But what really caught my attention were the smaller things.
(Image credit: Microsoft)
Forza Motorsport’s sound director showed how, as you install those 800 upgrades to your vehicles, you will create different sound profiles for your car, reflecting the parts you’ve fitted.
Another developer explained how much time the team has spent to recreate dirt accumulation accurately. So, as you race around the track, lap after lap, your car won’t just pick up dirt, but the areas where the dirt builds up and how it appears on your car will be influenced by how you’ve driven. Struggle to stick to the tarmac and drive over the verge, and you’ll see more powdery dirt pick up around the wheels; stick closer to opposing cars and the tarmac grit their wheels pick up will leave scratches on your paintwork.
Speaking of paintwork, the ray-tracing in Forza Motorsport sounds like it will be a treat. Multiple photogrammetry models were used to capture the different ways light interacts with different paint styles, so your car will look more realistic as you race through different environments and lighting.
Yes, a lot of this stuff can sound like it’s extra detail layered on top of a game, and how Forza plays will come down to more than whether its ray-traced paint picks up dirt nicely, but I do love it in a game where my character, my avatar, reflects the journey it as made through the world. And it sounds like, between the sound profiles, the dirt modeling, and all the upgrades I can make to my vehicles, that in Forza Motorsport it will do just that. It’s the sort of thing that could make it one of the best racing games, if not one of the best Xbox Series X games, or at least compete with Gran Turismo 7.
Unfortunately, Microsoft didn’t announce a release date for Forza Motorsport, saying only that it would be out in 2023.
A substantial redesign for File Explorer on Windows 11 is reportedly underway in an effort to make it more user-friendly and integrate it further with Microsoft 365.
The report comes from Windows Central (opens in new tab), which managed to get its hands on exclusive information and even some internal mock-up images of what the new File Explorer may look like. Do take everything mentioned in the reporting with a grain of salt, however. The final product may look radically different as things are still in the conceptual stage. Nothing has been officially revealed yet.
If the mock-ups are to be believed, aspects of the toolbar are being changed to more closely follow Windows 11’s style. Both the address and search bar will have a more rounded look as File Explorer tabs continue to sit on top.
Common actions like “New”, “Copy”, and “Paste” will now sit below the header in the File/Folder view. Even the left-side navigation menu will sport a rounder look. At a glance, the redesign may have File Explorer resembling modern web browsers than a traditional file manager.
Other new features
The other major aspect of the redesign is the Microsoft 365 integration (opens in new tab) within the Home tab, which is now split into three different sections. The top portion will be a feed of “recommended files” from other 365 users on the cloud, complete with large thumbnails so you know what’s being suggested. Below that in the details pane, the new File Explorer will display email threads and recent comments made in shared files “across multiple colleagues or attached via email.” And like the thumbnails, the tidbits of info are “visible at a glance”.
Microsoft is also reportedly “toying” with the idea of bringing tags to File Explorer, allowing users to organize files according to keywords and colors in a similar fashion to the Finder app on macOS. Additionally, work is being done to provide “a more rich photo viewing experience via a new Gallery area”. Not much is known about this final photo feature other than it would allow users to gander at large previews of images by hovering their cursor over files.
Pending release date
A release date for this overhaul – assuming nothing gets changed or scrapped – is unknown. According to the report, Microsoft aims to launch the new File Explorer by the end of 2023 with two likely time periods for the rollout.
The redesign could be either this summer as part of a Moment update or with the release of version 23H2 for Windows 11. It’s too early to tell with total certainty. However, as Windows Central points out, if the redesign does come out in its entirety, it will be the “most significant update to File Explorer since Windows 8″.
It would be great if the redesign actually came to fruition. File Explorer has hardly changed over the years – just a few tweaks here and there such as new tabs but nothing major.
If you’re interested in getting more out of your file manager, be sure to check out TechRadar’s list of the best file managers for 2023.
While Arkane’s games, as the Dishonored developer is fast to admit, are hard to define, made up as they are of a blend of genres and an overlapping mass of systems, its co-op vampire hunting game Redfall is at last coming into focus. It even has a release date: May 2, 2023.
In previous live streams about Redfall, Arkane has focused on the moment-to-moment gameplay, how the guns work, some of the skills you can unlock, and how you can collaborate with other players to combine abilities against your vampire enemies. But in this most recent live stream, the Xbox & Bethesda Developer Direct, Arkane took a step back to talk about your overarching aim in the Xbox Series X game.
Your mission is simple: clear the town of Redfall of all the bloodsuckers and their buddies.
That may seem like a straightforward goal, but in practice, there’s a little more to it. For a start, the town of Redfall doesn’t just have a vampire problem. Human cultists have taken up residence in the community, capturing survivors and feeding them to the bloodsuckers. It’s a kind of hero worship for the cultists, trying to get on the good side of the pointy-teethed menaces and gain favor with the vampire gods.
To rid the town of vampires and cultists, you’ll need to go neighborhood by neighborhood, eliminating vampire nests and cultist operations. Eventually, when you’ve caused enough of a ruckus, you’ll need to kill a vampire underboss. These are souped-up vampires armed with special abilities you’ll only encounter in those boss fights.
In each neighborhood, you’ll find a safehouse in which you can set up shop. Arkane didn’t go into much detail about what you could do at these locales, though hopefully, they’re more than good fast travel and respawn spots.
When you kill an underboss, you will claim their skull, which acts as a kind of key. Collect enough skulls and you unlock a fight with one of the vampire gods, and I don’t know how to put this other than saying they’re a heckin’ big bloodsucker. They’re the kind of big that makes me think I may have to play Redfall in co-op, after all, even though you can complete the whole game in single-player.
I’ll make the call on whether I want to go it alone against the vamps nearer the time, but at least I can schedule in the decision now, because the Redfall release date isn’t far off. I only have to wait until May 2. And, of course, as it will be out on Game Pass on day one, I don’t even need to convince my friends to pick up a copy. We can just boot it up on a whim.
More than seven months after it was unveiled, the world’s first 1.5TB microSD card, Micron’s MTSD1T5ANC8MS-1WT, has landed, well almost. A handful of tech wholesalers have listed the card otherwise known as the i400 on their website and depending on how many you need and which territory you are buying from, customers may have to wait for at least four months. Mouser, Arrow and Avnet (plus its subsidiaries Farnell (opens in new tab), Newark (opens in new tab), Element14) have already listed it with Newark being the cheapest at Newark, only $420.53, a price that includes free delivery.
Buy at least 12,000 of them to see the price drop to $381 (with a total cost of more than $4.5m), not a bad price for 18PB (yes, that’s Petabytes) of solid state storage that should weigh, no more than 4Kg (without the packaging of course). In case you were wondering, this microSD card costs about the same as its weight in 0.125 carat diamond ($1.1m per Kg).
Equally important is the data on these cards so bear in mind that a microSD is smaller than a fingernail. We recommend that you backup your data using a cloud storage solution (although you won’t find any free cloud storage that can do 1.5TB).
What comes next?
Micron was the first out of the with a 1TB card. The C200 is almost four years old and it’s only in the past few months that the average price – and relative availability of – 1TB MicroSD cards has improved. But how long will 1.5TB capacity remain the king of the hill remains anyone’s guess; Kioxia unveiled a 2TB Exceria Plus prototype back in September 2022 but while a tentative 2023 launch has been muttered, it is likely to depend on market conditions (i.e. if there’s enough demand for it).
For those interested in purchasing it though, just bear in mind that it has a formatted capacity of 1,430,511 Megabytes. Samsung and Kingston, two of the largest solid state storage vendors, have yet to release any microSD cards with a 1TB or higher capacity.
At the time of writing, the cheapest 1TB microSD card is a Silicon Power model at $87.99 (opens in new tab), about a third of the price per TB of Micron’s i40. Amazon has a lot of other fake 1TB microSD cards on its marketplace and this endemic problem hasn’t been resolved yet. Should you buy a microSD card, make sure it’s one of these 14 brands: Samsung, Kingston, SP/Silicon Power, Teamgroup, Sandisk, WD, PNY, Lexar, Inland, Gigastone, Patriot, Transcend, Amazon Basics and MicroCenter. We wouldn’t trust any others.
South Korean RAM gianty SK hynix has unveiled “the world’s fastest mobile DRAM”, samples of which it has already delivered to prospective customers.
It’s dubbed LPDDR5T (Low Power Double Data Rate 5 Turbo), and is a follow-up to the LPDDR5X (Low Power Double Data Rate 5X) chip it unveiled late last year rather than a brand-new generation, which it will call LPDDR6.
This latest Turbo model promises to be quicker and more efficient than ever as the company hopes to see it use in more mobile applications.
SK hynix LPDDR5T
The 5T is designed to operate at a data rate of 9.6 Gbps, which is 13% quicker than the 5X model unveiled in November – a development that inspired the company to add the Turbo suffix.
It’s also compliant with JEDEC requirements in that it operated within an ultra-low 1.01-1.12V range, allowing it to deliver fast performance while using as little power as possible.
SK hynix has dished out 16GB multi-chip package samples to customers, which can process 77GB of data per second (the equivalent of 15 Full HD movies per second).
It hopes to bring the 5T chip into production later this year using a 10nm process (which it calls 1anm), as well as its HKMG (High-K Metal Gate) process designed to prevent current leakage.
This is a move that prepares SK hynix for the continued rollout and adoption of 5G technology, as it sees its chips being used in all sorts of applications from smartphones to AI, machine learning, and AR/VR.
Sungsoo Ryu, Head of DRAM Product Planning, said that the company: “will continue to work on the technology development to lead the next-generation semiconductor market and become the game changer to the IT world.”
If you’re considering picking up one of the newly-released MacBook Pro M2 models, watch out: it looks like Apple has cut some corners (presumably in the name of keeping manufacturing costs down) when it comes to the SSD found in the entry-level iterations of the new laptop.
As spotted by @ZONEofTECH on Twitter, the 512GB drive found in the base configuration of the 2023 MacBook Pro is significantly slower than the SSD used in the previous M1-powered model. It’s a fairly major drop; over 400MB/s slower writes and almost 1,400MB/s slower reads.
This Tweet was later corroborated by 9To5Mac, who ran their own tests and received similar results. Unlike @ZONEofTECH, though, 9To5Mac went one step beyond and cracked open their M2 MacBook Pro to take a closer look at the storage on the motherboard itself.
BREAKING: We’ve just discovered that the base 14” M2 Pro MacBook Pro (512GB) is considerably slower than the previous 14” M1 Pro model. Apple is likely using single SSD modules again (like the base 256GB M2 Air and M2 MacBook Pro). More testing to come. pic.twitter.com/3kMiHVDxaFJanuary 24, 2023
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What they found confirmed @ZONEofTECH’s suspicions: the 512GB M2 MacBook Pro uses fewer NAND modules than its predecessor, resulting in slower performance. Modern integrated SSDs commonly utilize multiple NAND chips for storage; the 512GB of storage in the M1 MacBook Pro was distributed across four 128GB chips (previously confirmed in a teardown by hardware repair site iFixit), while it looks like the new model only has two NAND chips – presumably 256GB each.
Analysis: How serious a problem is this, really?
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this isn’t actually the disaster some commentators have claimed it to be. Sure, the SSD speed drop is disappointing, but it’s not a difference that the average user will notice. The dual-NAND 512GB SSD is still pretty speedy, to the point where your internet speed is more likely to be a bottleneck for downloads anyway.
If you’re looking for a MacBook Pro deal, I can confirm that the 1TB and above configurations don’t seem to share the same problem. I should certainly hope not, too; it’s $200/£200 to upgrade from the base 512GB drive, a hefty fee considering that you can easily snag a perfectly good half-terabyte of PC storage for under fifty bucks via our SSD deals page.
A great SSD shouldn’t cost so much, and considering that this is a ‘Pro’ product with an already-high price tag starting at $1,999 (and already carries the infamous Apple Tax), it’s particularly offputting. This isn’t a first offense, either; as Tom’s Hardware pointed out last year, Apple pulled the same stunt with the entry-level M2 MacBook Pro 13-inch.
Intriguingly, it looks like the entry-level 256GB M2 Mac mini has the exact same issue, apparently using a single NAND module instead of the two chips found in the older M1 version. I’m actually willing to let this one slide, though – the 2023 Mac mini is $599/£629, a generational price drop that likely wouldn’t have been possible without this SSD downgrade and marks the new model out as perhaps the best-value compact computer on the market right now.
Ultimately, this shouldn’t be a huge factor for most users – although I’d personally contend that in the modern era, 1TB of storage should be the minimum – since the real-world impact will be relatively minor. If massive file transfers are a frequent part of your laptop routine, though, you should definitely consider springing for the upgraded model.
The default file system for Windows 11 may soon be changing to a new offering designed with high-end servers in mind, but there’s still a long way to go yet.
For more than three decades, Windows machines have used NTFS for all things storage, including internal drives as well as external drives such as USB sticks.
However release notes for the latest build of Windows 11 (version 25276), detail support for the Resilient File System (ReFS).
Windows ReFS vs NTFS
ReFS was first introduced with Windows Server 2012, and it’s clearly designed with large amounts of data in mind. Windows Latest (opens in new tab) notes that NTFS is limited to 256 terabytes (which frankly is more than enough for you or I), but there are some instances where businesses and data centers may need more than this. ReFS raises the limit to 35 petabytes (over 35,000 terabytes).
The Resilient FS promises to be more resilient in that it can detect and repair corruptions while remaining online, and it’s also designed with scalability in mind.
“ReFS is designed to support extremely large data sets – millions of terabytes – without negatively impacting performance, achieving greater scale than prior file systems,” Microsoft (opens in new tab) noted.
There are some drawbacks, though, especially when it comes to using ReFS for the computers that consumers may end up using. For now, at least, it’s unable to support system compression, encryption, and removable media.
While it could be years before ReFS comes to our home (if at all), its support in Windows 11 may indicated it trickling down into some high-end business machines as it expands outside the realms of servers, but right now, NTFS has nothing to worry about.
Redfall, the upcoming co-op FPS from the studio that brought us Prey and Dishonored, is on track to release this year – so have your garlic at the ready.
Arkane Austin’s new IP sees you battling vampires in an open-world post-apocalyptic town setting that has been delightfully doused in a retro horror aesthetic. But you don’t have to take on these vamps alone (unless you want to), as Redfall will allow you to squad up with up to three other players as you aim to unravel exactly why these toothy creatures are there in the first place.
You’ll be able to pick from four heroes, each with their own unique abilities that complement each other in a variety of ways, and will have access to a range of vampire-hunting weaponry that would put Buffy to shame.
Ready to sink your teeth into Arkane’s co-op shooter? Read on for everything we know about Redfall so far.
Redfall: cut to the chase
What is it? A co-op first-person shooter from Arkane Studios
It’ll also be available on Xbox Game Pass on day one. While it’ll skip the last-gen Xbox One, anyone who’s yet to upgrade to Microsoft’s latest console can access it through Xbox Cloud Gaming too (providing you have an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, that is).
Arkane’s co-op shooter was initially scheduled to release in “Summer 2022” but Bethesda announced (opens in new tab) in May 2022 that the co-op shooter was delayed until the “first half of 2023”. The announcement also revealed that Starfield has been delayed. According to Bethesda, these delays were because the teams at Arkane Austin and Bethesda Game Studios have “incredible ambitions for their games, and we want to ensure that you receive the best, most polished versions of them”.
Redfall trailers
Latest trailer
The latest trailer for Redfall, titled ‘Into the Night’, was released back in October 2022 – just in time for Halloween. This trailer highlights some of the blood-sucking vamps we’ll be facing off against in Arkane’s co-op shooter, including “the devious Angler to the ever-vigilant Watcher”. Check it out below.
More trailers
We’ve included some key Redfall trailers throughout this article but you can find all the Redfall trailers that have been released to date on Bethesda’s official YouTube channel (opens in new tab).
Redfall story and setting
Redfall’s website gives us a brief synopsis of the game’s story, setting, and the larger-than-life characters that inhabit the world.
The vampiric enemies of the game are actually science experiments gone wickedly wrong. These creatures have cut off the town of Redfall from the rest of the world by blocking out the sun.
The vampires are joined by a human faction that worships them, as was seen in the debut trailer. As such, it looks like firefights will often have us dealing with both enemy types – and perhaps a few more – at once.
Redfall gameplay
Redfall is a story-driven, open-world first-person shooter that sees you picking from four playable heroes, each boasting their own unique personalities and abilities, to take on blood-sucking vamps. These abilities are able to be upgraded as you progress and you’ll be able to experiment with different playstyles and loadouts, too. Here are the four characters you’ll be able to pick from – and their descriptions according to Bethesda:
Layla Ellison: A biomedical engineering student who interned at a research facility, where something went very wrong, leaving her with intense telekinetic abilities.
Jacob Boyer: An ex-military sharpshooter turned private contractor. Strange happenings on Redfall have left Jacob with a mysterious vampiric eye and a spectral raven that’s never far from his side.
Remi de la Rosa: A brilliant combat engineer who has spent her life on the frontlines. With the help of her robot cohort, Bribón, she’s determined to help rescue Redfall’s survivors.
Devinder Crousley: A cryptozoologist and aspiring inventor. Armed with weapons of his own creation, he’s on a mission to prove himself.
According to the official website (opens in new tab), Redfall will blend “single and multiplayer options seamlessly, allowing the player to venture into the darkness alone or squad up with up to three friends for four-player co-op”.
The use of the word “seamlessly” implies that a drop-in co-op system could be implemented in Redfall, which would allow players to join someone else’s game without needing to back out to the main menu. Arkane has confirmed that, when playing co-op, players will be able to play as any character, regardless of whether a teammate has already selected them. That means you can all play as Layla, for example, if you want to. For players who prefer solo play, the official website states you can build your characters around playing alone, catering to both.
According to Bethesda, the types of vampires you’ll be facing in Redfall include “sneaky vampires that grab you and separate you from your team”, “hulking vampires capable of tearing you and your team to pieces” and “Godlike vampires powerful enough to eclipse the sun”.
It’s not just vampires you’ll need to worry about, though. These vamps have developed a small army of cultists, which the Redfall website describes as “well-armed and ready to die for the vampires.” Having set up bases and patrol routes across this island, you’ll need to be careful.
Redfall’s website also states that the game’s open world will be “ever-changing,” and will be a “setting that reacts to your choices and actions.” Between cultist bases and “twisted psychic spaces” called Nests, there’s plenty to take care of before the island becomes safe once again.
Redfall news and rumors
(Image credit: Bethesda)
How similar is Redfall to other Arkane games? During the Xbox Games Extended showcase in 2022, Bethesda’s Pete Hines explained Redfall’s similarities and differences to developer Arkane’s previous work. In particular, Hines explained that, while Redfall has co-op elements, there’s still an enjoyable single-player experience to be had.
“On the surface, it’s a first-person shooter that you can play solo or with up to four players and so, you know, immediately you might say it’s not a single-player game so it must be wildly different,” Hines said. “And, don’t get me wrong, there are absolutely ways in which it is different but when folks play the game, and even when they see more of the game, I’ll think they’ll start to see all of those things about an Arkane game that they love and appreciate.”
“If you want to play a game by yourself and get a great Arkane story then you can absolutely do that in Redfall but you can also do things that you haven’t been able to do in an Arkane game, like experience it with friends and find out how the whole can become more than the sum of the parts, like playing it off of each character’s ability,” Hines continued. “I think the more that people appreciate that, you almost are going to want to try and play Redfall a couple of ways. You might want to play it by yourself a little bit, play it with others, and it’s a game that allows you to do either or both of those things, however, you see fit.”
Comparisons to Left 4 Dead During the Xbox Games Extended showcase, Bethesda’s Pete Hines also addressed comparisons between Redfall and co-op shooters like Left 4 Dead.
“If you watch, just like, combat footage, you might look at Left 4 Dead or Back 4 Blood or any of these things and go ‘oh, I see multiple characters facing a bunch of enemies and so it’s the same game’,” Hines said. “But I think that would be doing a disservice, that it’s all of the things that take place between the combat as well as the combat itself, combining different skills and abilities in the way that you do…those are the kind of things that Arkane does that really bring that extra special element that makes their games so compelling.”
Sony has sent PlayStation employees a custom PlayStation 5 DualSense controller as a gift to mark the end of 2022 – and I can’t help but be jealous
Insomniac Games’ senior manager, Aaron Jason Espinoza, tweeted (opens in new tab) pictures of the redesigned DualSense controller, explaining that it was a “holiday gift” from Sony to “celebrate a fantastic 2022”.
This stunning ‘Play Has No Limits’ controller has PlayStation’s iconic button shapes, with faint, geometric gray lines connecting them, across its touchpad and grips, while the back is stamped with “Play Has No Limits 2022”. It even comes with a black stand that says “2022” on it.
Arrived in the mail yesterday: the @PlayStation Holiday Gift! It’s a specially made DualSense Controller for employees to celebrate a fantastic 2022. 🎉Here’s to an even bigger 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣3️⃣! pic.twitter.com/aBJ5quUwv4January 19, 2023
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Gimme it
The first thing that came to my mind as soon as I saw this controller was, where can I buy one?
Unfortunately, I have been left sorely disappointed as this redesigned controller is currently unavailable to purchase – but there’s a slim possibility it could be released to consumers in the future. On the 20th anniversary of PlayStation, Sony released a special PS1 edition of the PS4. While this was originally solely for Sony’s internal employees, it later became available to purchase.
Sony hasn’t announced this will be the case with the special edition 2022 controller, however. And, given its year-specific customization, I’m not particularly hopeful that it’ll ever be available to the general public.
Virtualization giant VMware has released patches for four vulnerabilities in its vRealize Log Insight product, two of which have a “critical” severity rating.
The critical pair are CVE-2022-31703 and CVE-2022-31704. The former is a directory traversal vulnerability, while the latter is a broken access control vulnerability. Both were given a 9.8 severity score, and both allow threat actors to access resources that should otherwise be inaccessible.
“An unauthenticated, malicious actor can inject files into the operating system of an impacted appliance which can result in remote code execution,” VMware explained.
Sensitive data at risk
The other two flaws are CVE-2022-31710 and CVE-2022-31711. The former is a deserialization vulnerability that allows threat actors to tamper with data and launch denial-of-service attacks. It’s been given a 7.5 severity score. The latter is a 5.3-scored information disclosure bug that can be leveraged to steal sensitive data.
To protect against the flaws, users are advised to apply the patch immediately, and bring their endpoints (opens in new tab) to version 8.10.2. Those that cannot apply the patch right now can also apply the workaround, for which the instructions can be found here (opens in new tab).
The flaws were originally discovered by the Zero Day Initiative, the publication confirmed. The program’s members said that so far, there is no evidence of the flaws being abused in the wild.
“We’re not aware of any public exploit code or active attacks using this vulnerability,” Dustin Childs, head of threat awareness at Trend Micro’s ZDI, told The Register. “While we have no current plans to publish proof of concept for this bug, our research in VMware and other virtualization technologies continues.”
vRealize Log Insight is a log management tool. Although it’s not as popular as some of VMware’s other solutions, the company’s presence in both the public and private sectors most likely makes all of its products an attractive target for cybercriminals looking for vulnerabilities.
