Articles about Gaming

Today is the day -- the new season of Fortnite has arrived! With the arrival of Fortnite Season 6: Darkness Rises and the V6.00 patch, Epic Games put its servers into maintenance mode in preparation.

There's a lot to look forward to in Battle Royale and in the new Battle Pass -- new locations, pets, the power of invisibility and more. 950 V-Bucks gives you access to 100 levels and over 100 new rewards, new Shadows Stones consumables and an updated map.

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Counter-Strike: Global Offensive -- better known as CS:GO -- is one of the most popular multiplayer first-person shooters of all time. What makes the game so great is its meager system requirements -- it can run on many computers. In other words, it isn't very taxing, meaning you don't need super-expensive hardware to enjoy it. Are the graphics dated? Slightly, but lets be honest -- fun is the truly important thing.

Today, popular gaming accessory-maker SteelSeries launches a special CS:GO mouse and mousepad, both of which feature a design based on the M4A4 Howl gun skin. The "Howl Edition" Rival 310 gaming mouse and QcK+ mousepad are sure to be wildly popular with CS:GO gamers.

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Sony's original PlayStation is an iconic console, right up there with Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Sega Genesis. The CD-based gaming system was wildly popular, thanks to a fantastic game library and impressive graphics (for the time). Tragically, I never owned one, as I instead opted for the Sega Saturn. Thankfully, I was able to play Sony's console when visiting friends and family, but I digress.

Following the success of Nintendo's mini NES and SNES consoles, Sony is looking to capitalize on the trend with the all-new PlayStation Classic. Just as with Nintendo's offerings, Sony has shrunken the PlayStation to a diminutive state and embedded several games -- you are limited to the included titles.

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Mechanical keyboards are a dime a dozen these days. In fact, Amazon is littered with countless inexpensive models from no-name companies. You know what, though? They are not created equally. Quite often, the build quality on these cheap offerings is downright terrible. When it comes to typing, a defective or non-functioning key can be absolutely maddening. That's why I always suggest sticking with a reputable brand, such as Logitech or HyperX -- you'll be glad you did.

Speaking of the latter, the company has a new mechanical gaming keyboard that looks quite intriguing. The "Alloy FPS RGB," as it is called, features Kailh Silver switches. Don't be scared off by the switches being made by a company other than Cherry -- Kailh is a respected brand. The silver switches found here are short and designed for speed. And yes, as the product name implies, this HyperX keyboard features RGB lighting!

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Nowadays, to get a quality wireless router, you do not need to spend a lot of money. There are several models from brands such as TP-Link which offer great specs and features for under $100. If money isn't an issue, however, there are certainly superior routers on the market for much higher prices. NETGEAR, for instance, sells some drool-worthy models under its Nighthawk branding that can be expensive.

Speaking of NETGEAR, that company has a new gaming-focused router which is sure to excite some consumers. The "XR700 Nighthawk Pro," as it is called, is tuned for gaming and features some top specs such as 802.11ad and a 10G Ethernet port. Overkill for most consumers? Totally, but gamers utilizing a wireless connection may be willing to pay the higher price for a potential edge.

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The CEO of Epic Games has slammed Google's "irresponsible" disclosure of a security bug in its hit game Fortnite. Tim Sweeney accused Google of trying to "score cheap PR points" by revealing a vulnerability in the game's installer.

Epic chose to bypass Google Play when it released Fortnite for Android leading to concerns about security. On Friday, Google revealed details of a security flaw that could be exploited to secretly install malware onto people's phones.

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While your computer's onboard sound might be "good enough," if you are serious about audio quality, it would be wise to invest in a sound card. USB variants in particular are a great way to easily update your desktop or laptop's sound. This won't just benefit listening to movies and music, but in some cases, gaming too.

Creative has long manufactured superior PC sound hardware -- its "Sound Blaster" products are legendary. Today, the company announces its latest such offering. Called "Sound BlasterX G6," the USB DAC offers an insane 130dB dynamic range. Best of all, it is compatible with PC (Windows and macOS), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It will probably work with Linux-based operating systems -- such as Ubuntu and Fedora -- too.

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Three people have been killed and several injured in a shooting at a video game tournament in Jacksonville, Florida. A gunman shot two participants dead before killing himself at the event which was livestreamed on Twitch.

Police say that in addition to the three fatalities, eleven people were injured in the shooting. The shooter has been named as David Katz from Baltimore; he is said to have become angry after losing the tournament and pulled out a handgun.

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It seems that the concerns about Fortnite's security were well-founded -- although not necessarily for the reasons some people might have expected. Epic Games has been criticized for its decision not to make Fortnite available through Google Play, leading Google to show warnings to anyone conducting searches for the game.

Now a Google engineer just revealed that the first version of Epic's installer had a serious security vulnerability, placing Android users at risk. A post on Google's Issue Tracker shows that the installer could be abused to secretly download and install any app with any level of permissions -- a Man-in-the-Disk exploit.

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Security is a serious business (including for Fortnite-maker Epic Games), but it's not something most people take seriously enough -- as the number of weak and reused passwords out there shows. Epic, however, has just given players of its hit game an incentive to enable two-factor authentication on their account.

By enabling 2FA in Fortnite, players can unlock a hidden extra -- the Boogiedown emote. While this is undoubtedly a form of bribery, it is no bad thing. There are just a few simple steps you need to follow to access the new emote.

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In the world of non-console gaming, the Windows platform reigns supreme. That's not to say that Mac and Linux users aren't gamers, but their computer-based gaming choices are rather more limited thanks to developers' tendency to offer Windows support over anything else.

Now Valve is looking to change things with its Steam platform. The latest version of Steam Play makes it possible to play some Windows games on Linux, greatly increasing the size of the gaming catalog available to Linux-based gamers.

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When building a desktop gaming PC, there are many brands of RAM from which to choose. If you think "RAM is RAM" and the company producing it doesn't matter, think again. Cheap RAM can lead to some serious headaches -- for system builders, nothing is worse than an unstable computer that experiences random crashes. In other words, the cost savings by going with a no-name brand of memory simply isn't worth the aggravation.

There are a some specific brands of RAM by which I swear, such as G.SKILL and HyperX. Speaking of the latter, today, the Kingston gaming brand announces that its Predator DDR4 and DDR4 RGB RAM kits are getting both increased frequencies and storage capacities.

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The arrival of Fortnite on Android has not only been eagerly awaited, but also steeped in controversy. In addition to making the game a Samsung exclusive (for a few days, anyway), Epic Games decided to bypass Google Play and host APK downloads on its own servers.

But this isn't going to stop people looking for Fortnite in the Play Store. Google is well aware of this, and that there is the potential for fake, scam apps to appear, tricking users into downloading something malicious. As such, the company is taking action, and is showing a warning to anyone who searches for Fortnite in Google Play.

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We know that the gaming sensation Fortnite is making its way to Android. We know that the game will not be appearing in Google Play. There have been rumors for some time that Fortnite will be exclusive to Samsung devices for a short time after initial release, and a leaked APK for the game seems to confirm this.

Analysis of the APK shows that Fortnite may not only be exclusive to the Samsung Galaxy Note9, but also the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4. Owners of these devices could retain exclusive access to the game for 30 days.

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Fortnite for Android is one of the most eagerly-anticipated game launches of recent times, but the impending release could turn out to be something of a security nightmare. Following on from recent rumors, Epic Games has confirmed that Fortnite will not be made available through the Google Play Store.

Instead users will have to download the game directly from Fortnite.com -- something which means they will have to lower the security settings for their phone by allowing the installation of apps from unknown sources. Despite the security risks involved in this, Epic is eager to avoid paying a 30 percent cut to Google for Play Store distribution; but how long before the plan backfires?

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