After the huge release of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord early access recently, the developers have been working hard to fix some of the issues that have arisen post launch. Since the early access launch, the developers have released three patches, with bug fixes as the main focus of each one.
Players have been reporting losing their save files and encountering various bugs in the game since launch, but the developers are confident that they will be able to work their way through each thread and find a solution for these problems.
Mount & Blade II is a realistic medieval RPG, where players lead a small army of soldiers to complete quests and fight against other small armies, growing renown with each fight until they eventually become a lord or even king. Bannerlord takes place 210 years after the events of Warband, the DLC pack from 2008, with the focus shifting to the historical Migration Period, a period of time that place not long after the fall of the Roman Empire.
Asus has revealed its latest ultra-powerful gaming laptop, but this one is a little more interesting than just a folding PC with a beefy graphics card in it. The ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 is a dual-screen laptop, designed to give both gamers and creators more screen real estate in a portable package.
The Zephyrus Duo 15’s approach to dual screen is a neat party trick; as you lift the laptop’s lid, a slim second screen rises up above the keyboard, with its final resting spot sitting at a shallow angle above the top row of keys and below the ‘chin’ of the main display.
This non-glare 14.09” screen – dubbed the ROG ScreenPad+ – is UHD resolution (3840×1100) at 60hz, with touch and stylus support. It’s not as tall as the main monitor panel, and so sort of works as a miniature ultrawide. The narrowness of the screen means this second panel is best suited to tools such as the Photoshop colour wheel or OBS, rather than playing games on.
While Windows recognises the ScreenPad+ as a second monitor and you can drag items to it as you’d expect, the touch panel also has its own software. This allows you to assign various apps or windows to it and create presets, with up to three windows open across the width of it. During a hands-on session I played the Quake RTX demo while also having Steam and a browser displaying IGN open on the second screen. This is a simple way of showing its base capabilities, but it’s easy to imagine playing Escape from Tarkov and having an all-important map open in one panel of the second screen, and Discord in another.
Aside from its obvious uses for creatives reliant on Adobe software – Asus is partnering with Adobe and other companies to create specific content for the ScreenPad – the laptop could be useful for streamers on the go. Being able to broadcast from a laptop that offers a dedicated screen to monitor chat and provide touch-pad streaming tools seems quite useful.
The main display is a 15.6” panel available in two variants; a UHD 60Hz Adobe, Pantone Color Calibrated option, or a 1080p version that runs at 300Hz with 3ms response time. The former is suited to creative work, while the speed of the latter is designed for game performance.
Talking of performance, the Zephyrus Duo 15 is powered by an Intel 10th generation CPU – either an i7 or an i9 – and Nvidia’s RTX series of graphics cards, with a choice of the 2070 Super or the 2080 Super. As for memory and storage, you can opt for up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of NVMe SSD storage in RAID 0.
Additionally, the laptop comes with a 90Wh battery that can be powered through the Thunderbolt port, and a liquid metal thermal compound on the CPU allows for an apparently 10% performance increase. The lifting action of the second screen also opens up an additional air intake to aid in further cooling of the components.
All of this does, naturally, come at a hefty price tag. Asus is pricing the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 from $2,999/£2,999 for the entry model, with the beefier version sporting the 2080 Super coming in at $3,999/£3,999. It goes on sale in July this year.
If this isn’t the desktop replacement for you, check our our suggestions of the best gaming laptops.
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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter.
In a rare double header, both Intel and Nvidia today introduced new components for gaming laptops. For Intel, that’s 10th Generation H-Series processors, while Nvidia announced Max-Q versions of its RTX Super line.
We’ll start with the latter announcement of the brand new Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q and 2070 Super Max-Q for gaming laptops. Going from the RTX 2080 Max-Q to its new Super variant, Nvidia has bumped up the CUDA core count from 2,944 to 3,072 while also increasing the boost clock speed from 1,230MHz to 1,560MHz.
It’s almost the same story for the RTX 2070 Super Max-Q, which has seen the addition of 220 more CUDA cores, but interestingly a reduction in maximum frequency by 75MHz.
Aside differences in CUDA core counts and boost clock speeds, there’s not much different on the surface specs of these two new laptop GPUs. However, there have been plenty of under the hood improvements including low-voltage DDR6 memory and a next-generation regulator to reduce power usage.
Yes, this is a dual-screen gaming laptop
To the Max
These two new parts also bring a boat load of new Max-Q features. Most importantly these second generation mobile Max-Q graphics chips have been granted Advanced Optimus Technology, which finally allows gaming laptops to switch between integrated and discrete graphics while also supporting G-Sync at the same time. Previously, any gaming laptop outfitted with G-Sync support could not switch back to integrated graphics in order to improve battery life, as its display was essentially hard wired to Nvida’s GPU.
Aside from being able to save on battery life thanks to the graphics switching software, G-Sync itself has also seen an upgrade to support 4K 120Hz displays—though there has yet to be a single gaming laptop that features both of these screen specs.
The other important Max-Q technology here is Dynamic Boost, which basically shifts power between the CPU and GPU. This isn’t a simple boost to both processing power and graphical horsepower, rather the software will reduce power going to the CPU to GPU to squeeze a little more FPS while playing graphically demanding games like Doom Eternal.
Nvidia says that all these new features, including the low-voltage DDR6 memory and next-generation regulator, will come to all new Max-Q GPUs across the company’s entire range of RTX and GTX chips. However, the company doesn’t have any plans to clearly mark which laptops will feature all these new Max-Q chips, so we’re hoping the individual manufacturers will place a box sticker or other clear indication on its products.
At the very least we can expect the price of Nvidia-powered gaming laptops to decrease soon. The company confirmed that this April we’ll start seeing GTX 1650-equipped machines starting at $699 while gaming laptops with an RTX 2060 will start at $999.
Octa-core power
On the Intel side of things, the Santa Clara-based company has introduced 10th Generation H-series processors. Before you get too excited about the notion of gaming-grade Ice Lake processors, we’re sad to inform you that this is yet another lineup of 14nm chips.
The good news is this new line of CPUs finally brings eight-core, 16-thread processors to gaming laptops at long last. What’s more, all of these new Intel Core i7 and i9 processors are able to hit a maximum (single-core) clock speed of 5.0GHz or higher. Core i5 processors aren’t far behind either with the lowest Turbo frequency sitting around 4.5GHz.
Intel has also added the Intel Speed Optimizer as a feature inside the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility for simple one-click overclocking. This new automated feature will scan your system for its available power and thermal overhead and set an appropriate multi-core overclock on your gaming laptop.
Otherwise, these new processors bring integrated Intel Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) and boost DDR4 memory speeds up to 2,933MHz—though we’ve seen a few Asus machines up the ante to 3,200MHz.
This is one of the biggest component refreshes we’ve seen in gaming laptops for some time and as such manufacturers are already pulling all the stops with new models. Below in our slideshow we’ve featured just a few of the latest models including the insane dual-screen laptop we teased earlier so click on.
MSI has revealed its upcoming slate of gaming laptops, which all come equipped with 10th-gen Intel Core processors and Nvidia RTX Super graphics cards. The new laptops include the GS66 Stealth, GE66 Raider, and Creator 17. The company states that these laptops were made with gamers and content creators in mind, with specs that can easily handle tasks like gaming and rendering high-quality video.
The GS66 Stealth is available now for pre-order, while the GE66 Raider and Creator 17 laptops will launch online on April 15. Each laptop comes with a TN display with the option to switch out for an IPS-level panel, which provides brighter and better colours.
Former Xbox console marketing director Albert Penello has shared his thoughts on the hot topic of AA batteries versus internal recharegable cells for controllers. His comments came in the wake of the news that the Xbox Series X will continue to use AA batteries.
Writing on Twitter, Penello–who now works at Amazon–said the tradeoff between AA batteries and internal cells is “more complex than people think.”
“It’s a debate that’s raged for years, and there are good points on both sides. The toughest part is that it’s a binary decision–choosing one alienates the other,” he said.
Like the March 31 patch, the April 1 patch for Bannerlord addresses a bunch of bugs that have been causing the game to crash. The patch doesn’t focus on any one quest though–instead it addresses several problems associated with both Bannerlord’s single-player campaign and multiplayer modes. The full patch notes are listed below.
“We know that many of you are experiencing issues that are preventing you from enjoying the game right now, for which we are very sorry,” TaleWorld wrote in a blog post. “With the help of you, our community, we are finding and fixing these issues and pushing updates out as soon as we can. Unfortunately, as was the case with [the March 31] patch, this [April 1 patch] may result in previous save files becoming unplayable for some people. We will always try to ensure that your save game remains compatible with each update, however, sometimes this will not be possible.”
Doom and Doom II, which were launched on PS4, Switch, and Xbox One last year (alongside Doom 3), have received another substantial update. The new update adds the No End In Sight expansion to both games, which provides another 30 levels for your Doom Marine to shoot, rip, and tear their way through.
This update is coming to the mobile and PC versions of the game, too. Doom I and II’s relaunch came with invasive DRM originally, but it has since been removed, and the games have received several free expansions. No End In Sight is generally well-regarded as a challenging, deep expansion on Doom, so players who feel like they have mastered these classics will be able to truly prove themselves by beating it.
The 1.0.6 update, announced by Bethesda, adds various other fixes and changes to the game. Here’s the full list of everything in the update.
Audio Updates
The Audio has been overhauled, and positional audio should now work in all cases.
Sound distance falloff is now accurately using the same volume ranges from the original DOS release.
Objects that make consecutive sounds (such as the Chaingunner’s gun firing) will now correctly interrupt each other.
Add-On Specific Updates
Chainsaw firing in Add-ons has been fixed to its original optimal buzz.
Sounds at 22khz (such as the Double Barrel Shotgun) now play correctly in Add-ons.
In the Add-on “No Rest for the Living”, Hell levels now use the correct hell sky texture.
Add-ons that are made up of multiple episodes can now be selected correctly.
Fixes
Fixed stalls that may occur when quick loading the game several times in a row when Add-ons are active.
Changes
Quick Load and Save can now be bound from Customize Controls and will work without pausing the game.
Automap colors have been changed. It will now clearly mark doors, and keyed doors using red, yellow, blue, or white lines, making it quicker to find parts of the map that are unexplored.
Automap is drawn with pixel doubling to increase visibility and fix issues with lines disappearing.
Kills, items, and secrets are now shown on the automap during gameplay.
Performance Optimization
Quick Load now loads quicker by skipping the screen wipe animation when loading a game.
Minor rendering optimizations.
The latest Doom game, Doom Eternal, is available now for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Stadia. A Nintendo Switch version is being worked on.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer has commented broadly and non-specifically about the price of the Xbox Series X. Speaking to IGN, Spencer said he feels confident about the price point, adding that he believes Microsoft has a “winning plan” for the next-generation console as it competes with the PlayStation 5.
“I feel good about the price we’re going to be able to get to,” Spencer said. “I feel good about the price and the performance capabilities that we have for Series X. I feel incredibly strong about the overall package.”
The Xbox Series X price isn’t set yet, it seems. Spencer said he is “eyes wide open” in regards to the final price of the console, adding that Microsoft will be looking at what Sony does in terms of pricing for the PlayStation 5. No matter what, however, Spencer said Microsoft believes it has a “winning plan” for the console.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer has commented extensively for the first time on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the planned launch of Xbox Series X later this year and more. Speaking to IGN, Spencer said he wants people to know that first and foremost, the safety and security of its teams is what is most important to him during this time of crisis.
“The thing I’m going to put front and center is the safety and security of the team,” Spencer said. “There is no decision that I will make, or frankly anybody at Microsoft would even ask me to make, that would compromise the safety and security of the teams for a near-term financial or product gain. The teams are the most important thing.”
Pragmatically, Spencer said he has observed that the supply chains in China have “started to come back,” which would enable the parts to be assembled for Xbox Series X for launch this holiday.
