Playing Immortals of Aveum, you'd be forgiven for not realizing this is a studio's debut game. Walking onto a castle balcony, seeing bizarre science-fantasy architecture peppering the horizon, the scale of the magical battle happening beneath you, and the polish of it all shows a level of scale we don't typically associate with a first game.

That feeling is very deliberate. Founder and CEO of Ascendent Studios, Bret Robbins, has worked on some very big games in the past, and he didn't want to take a step back in his new venture: "I wanted to make a big game right from the beginning," he tells me. "I'd worked on a lot of big games - I'd worked on Call of Duty for nine years before I started Ascendent, I'd worked on Dead Space, I'd worked on Lord of the Rings, and James Bond. So I was comfortable trying to do something ambitious. I knew that games had gotten so great - so big - these days that, for us to be competitive, I needed to make something big."
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(PR) EVGA Introduces SuperNOVA 1000G/850G XC PSU Series
Introducing the EVGA SuperNOVA 1000G/850G XC Series - The first ATX 3.0 compliant and PCIe Gen 5.0-ready power supply series from EVGA. With a half-bridge LLC resonant controller, DC-DC converter, and 100% Japanese capacitors, the EVGA SuperNOVA 1000G and 850G XC gives the power you need for a modern gaming system.

ATX 3.0 Compliant & PCIe 5.0 Ready
Designed to support current and future standards, the EVGA SuperNOVA XC series is fully-compliant with ATX12V V3.0 and PCIe Gen 5.0 standards. This means you can use these power supplies with your current system or the system you want to build. More to the point, these power supplies are built to respond significantly faster to transient spikes, ensuring your card and system stay safe and fully powered at all times.
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be quiet! Dark Power PSU Owner Reports Melting of 12VHPWR Connector
A member of the amusingly named and low populated r/4090Burning subreddit has reported a strange incident where the PSU side of his 12VHPWR connector had melted. Shiftyeyes67k shared his equipment's plight two days ago and included two photos with his story: "Started noticing a smell coming from my PSU (be quiet! Dark Power 13 1000 W) recently that smelled like burnt plastic. Decided to swap it out and noticed that the 12VHPWR cable was burned...From everything I've read this generally happens to the connector on the GPU side so I'm wondering if anyone has seen this yet?" His feedback shows that the relatively new connection standard has ongoing reliability issues, even though most 16-pin connector problem cases have affected beastly GPUs such as NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090.

The be quiet! Dark Power 13 1000 W PSU has native support for the 16-pin cable standard, and no type of adapter was used in Shiftyeyes67k's example. Tom's Hardware reported on this sole incident recently, and a be quiet! representative responded to the article's content (updated today): "This is a unique case and we already have reached out to the customer to learn more." The company statement continues: "As our brand is known for highest quality standards, we treat this seriously and have initiated an investigation." be quiet! recommends that any customers experiencing similar issues should contact their support team directly. Tom's Hardware has attempted to get a comment from NVIDIA about the latest problem, but "an Nvidia spokesperson said we may not hear back for a few days due to a company closure."

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(PR) Bandai Namco's Park Beyond Out Now
Go beyond the fun with PARK BEYOND available now. Bandai Namco Europe and Limbic Entertainment are proud to announce the grand opening of Park Beyond, their theme park management simulation, available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. A free two-hour trial version is also available on Xbox Series X|S, as well as PlayStation 5 for PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers. Park Beyond has something in store for all types of players. Are they visionneers looking to find the future of amusement parks?

Impossification will allow them to transform rides, shops and event staff, making the mundane, incredible. Is management in their blood? A vast array of control panels will help them follow every parameter and penny spent to make sure their park runs perfectly, and visitors are thriving. Are they creative at heart with big ideas? Modular building with its extensive library of asset will give free reigns to their left brain to create amazing scenery for visitors to wander, while the roller-coaster creator will allow them to build the ride of their dreams.
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Pair of ASRock Radeon RX 7800 XT Cards Spotted in ECC Registration
Harukaze5719 has brought attention to a curious registration of unreleased AsRock graphics cards at the Eurasian Economic Commission (ECC) regulatory office. The self-described (South) Korean PC Tech enthusiast has found out that ASRock is likely preparing for an imminent launch of custom design AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT PG 16 GB and RX 7800 XT PGW 16 GB models.

No specifications were found in the ECC registration, so it is too early to confirm whether the leaked RX 7800 XT series is based on AMD's RDNA 3 Navi 31 or Navi 32 GPU. Igor Lab's simulated a hypothetical version via the benchmarking of a workstation Radeon Pro W7800 (Navi 31) 32 GB graphics card. Model codes (registered on May 18 2023) indicate that the two AsRock Radeon RX 7800 XT models could sport the company's Phantom Gaming (PG) triple-fan cooling solution, possibly available in a standard shade or a (PGW) white option.

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EU Approves New Regulation for Smartphone Batteries - Must be User-Replaceable by 2027
The European Parliament has greenlit new rules relating to battery technologies that are likely to cause headaches for smartphone manufacturers (in particular). The organization published their summary of this environmentally conscious and sustainable strategy on June 14: "Parliament approved new rules for the design (on Wednesday), production and waste management of all types of batteries (including non-replaceable types) sold in the EU. With 587 votes in favor, nine against and 20 abstentions, MEPs endorsed a deal reached with the Council to overhaul EU rules on batteries and waste batteries. The new law takes into account technological developments and future challenges in the sector and will cover the entire battery life cycle, from design to end-of-life."

The section for portable device batteries (for smartphones, tablets and cameras) outlines new consumer rights, with a demand for easily removable and replaceable (DIY) cells. Smartphone manufacturers including market leaders Apple and Samsung will have to go back to the drawing board and figure out ways to reformat how their batteries are mounted and connected internally. Plenty of devices have their units sealed behind protective layers, requiring specialist tools and varying levels of user expertise to access and remove in a safe manner. The European Council has more work to do following their starter announcement: "(We) will now have to formally endorse the text before its publication in the EU Official Journal shortly after and its entry into force." News outlets have interpreted that these provisional rulings will go into effect by early 2027, but they also anticipate that big time players could appeal for extensions beyond that window.

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