Released in 2016, the Switch is Nintendo’s best-selling console to date, having sold 85+ million units as of 2021, and has outsold the Nintendo 3DS, Game Boy Advance, and Sony’s PlayStation Portable. Powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra X1 Mariko GPU, the Switch can handle most AAA titles on the go, which makes it even more impressive considering the fact that the Tegra X1 launched in 2014.
Nintendo Released a budget-friendly variant of the Switch called Switch Lite which was priced at $200. The console is shipped with built-in buttons and joysticks instead of detachable JoyCons and cannot be docked. It launched with 3 color variants – Grey, Turquoise, and Yellow, while 2 more colors, Coral and Blue, were introduced in the later years.
An enhanced version of the Switch was recently announced and is officially called the Nintendo Switch OLED which features a slightly larger, 7-inch screen, increased storage, and an improved adjustable stand along with more new features and improvements. But are these changes enough to justify ‘upgrading’ to one?
Nintendo Switch vs Nintendo Switch OLED: Specs, Price and more
Both versions are almost identical due to their similar weight and dimensions, however, the biggest change here is the inclusion of a 7-inch OLED screen as opposed to the Switch’s 6.2 inch LCD display and has smaller bezels. OLED screens tend to have better colors, black levels, and contrast levels in general. Both consoles are capable of rendering games at 720p in handheld mode and 1080p in docked mode.
Switch OLED boasts 64GB of internal storage, unlike the base model Switch’s 32GB storage so you can store more games on your device. The rear stand on the Switch OLED is now wider and sturdier as compared to the small stand on the previous Switch. Nintendo has also revised the Switch Dock, which now includes an Ethernet port for better internet connectivity, though the dock no longer has a USB Type-A port. The dock can be purchased separately from Nintendo’s online store and is compatible with the old Switch.
The revised Switch also comes with improved ‘onboard’ speakers, though Nintendo has yet to elaborate further, we can assume that the speakers are simply louder than before. Both consoles feature the same chipset and RAM, and as a result, the OLED Switch is just the same as the old Switch under the hood.
Switch OLED sounds like a perfect option for first-time buyers, but not for current owners of the Switch, unless you own a Switch Lite. Nintendo Switch OLED model is priced at $349.99 and is set to release on October 8.
Vitality, the all french representation at IEM Cologne 2021 have found themselves out of the tournament before the playoffs, thanks to their European rivals, FaZe.
FaZe Clan beat Vitality 2-0 in the lower brackets where the latter did show some hopes of evening up the scorelines. FaZe beat Vitality 16-11 in Mirage and just a marginal distant of 16-14 in Dust2.
Velocity Gaming is making yet another big move to strengthen their presence in Indian Valorant circuit by acquiring Debanjan ‘DeathMaker’ Das in a planned buyout for an undisclosed amount. Multiple sources close to TalkEsport have confirmed that this buyout is already set in motion and the amount is paid by VLT to GodLike Esports.
DeathMaker currently plays for GodLike Esports and has proved to be a valuable asset for the team. He transitioned from CS:GO to Valorant when the new FPS title started to rise in popularity in the country. The addition of DeathMaker will make him seventh player on the VLT roster.
Velocity Gaming underwent some massive changes in the past few months. One of their key assets, Karan ‘Excali’ Mhaswadkar, joined Samurai Esports and his gap was quickly filled by the addition of Agneya ‘Marzil’ Koushik to the roster.
Sabyasachi ‘Antidote’ Bose also left the roster very soon to join GodLike Esports and VLT made a surprising addition to their team by bringing Mohit ‘mw1’ Wakle onboard before the start of Valorant Conquerors Championship 2021.
The new roster of Velocity Gaming looks formidable and the inclusion of Deathmaker on this powerful team will make them unstoppable. As mentioned earlier, the buyout is already set in motion and an announcement is expected to follow very soon.
As Velocity Gaming will become a seven-man roster, it will be interesting to see how these players are shuffled in the upcoming tournaments. DeathMaker will certainly increase the raw firepower of this roster with his versatile gameplay.
Following the horrific defeat of McGregor at the hands of Dustin Poirier, Jake Paul mocks the former by launching a chain worth $100,000.
Boxing among YouTubers has ventured out to real fights against MMA/Boxing professionals with Jake Paul is among the group who enjoy it the most. His recent back and forth with McGregor hinted at an imminent fight between the pair in the future, but for now, the latter’s loss means that Jake Paul getting the last laugh.
Jake Paul has stepped on the claims of him being an “attention seeker” and has called out the Irish fighter on multiple occasions only to get ignored in several instances. Following his loss today, the former Viner revealed that a commissioned custom watch chain is on his way.
The fight between Poirier and McGregor was one of the biggest, if not the biggest fight of the year, and Jake Paul poking in it looks like a classic move to skim some publicity off it. Had the fight gone the other way, the chains would have gone to waste.
The “Sleepy McGregor Chain” is a major dig at the Irishman and if ever the pair meet within a ring, we can only imagine how the former UFC champion would react to something like this.
The infamous Code 100 error has been haunting Apex Legends players for a while now, and many of the players facing this problem often resort to the internet to find solutions on how to fix it. If you’re finding yourself to be the victim of the same problem, we have you covered. Here’s what you need to know about the Apex Legends code 100 error, and how you can fix it.
Apex Legends Code 100 Error Fix
While there’s no permanent solution to this error until the devs take note of it themselves, players have found out ways to temporarily fix this issue. These temporary fixes can be applied to any platform. Here’s how you can fix the code 100 error in Apex Legends:
Xbox One & Series X/S
Xbox players can go into their network settings and follow these steps for a temporary remedy to this issue:
Go to Settings – Network, Advanced Settings, DNS Settings
Change DNS settings to these:
Primary DNS: 8.8.8.8
Secondary DNS: 8.8.4.4
Save the settings
Restart Apex Legends
PS4 & PS5
The fix for PlayStation players is nearly the same as that of Xbox but with a few added steps. Here’s what you have to do:
Go to Settings > Network > Set Up Internet Connection
Select your connection type
Select ‘custom’ and change your settings to these:
IP Address Settings: Automatic
DHCP Host Name: Do Not Specify
DNS Settings: Manual
Primary DNS: 8.8.8.8
Secondary DNS: 8.8.4.4
MTU Settings: Automatic
Proxy Server: Do Not Use
Save the settings
Restart Apex Legends
PC
Here’s what PC players can so to fix this problem:
Hit Win + R keys together
Type in ncpa.cpl in the box
Inside Network Connections, right-click on your internet connection
Select Properties
Find your Internet Protocol version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and select Properties which is located in the lower right side
Click on “Use the following DNS server addresses” and input these:
Preferred DNS server: 8.8.8.8
Alternate DNS server: 8.8.4.4
If you follow the steps correctly, your Apex Legends code 100 error should be fixed on each platform.
Microsoft’s upcoming OS — Windows 11 is due for release later this year. In its showcase, Microsoft revealed details about the various optimization they did on the kernel level and feature that Windows 11 includes to make it the “best PC gaming experience yet.”
Windows 11 will have features such as Direct Storage, Auto HDR, and improved “Game Mode” settings. With Windows 11, gamers can expect better performance over Windows 10.
Let’s have a look at what are the new Gaming related features in Windows 11.
Auto HDR
Arguably the biggest addition to Windows 11 is Auto HDR. Auto HDR was first introduced in the Xbox Series X. Basically Auto HDR is a tech that will automatically boost the color of SDR content to HDR without any user input or developers implementation. Windows 11 will automatically detect an HDR-supported display whenever connected and notify the user about the Auto HDR feature.
While Microsoft didn’t reveal how the feature can be accessed, the showcase on the launch event was enough to show the difference Auto HDR made to colors in Skyrim — a decade-old game. Right now this feature is exclusive to Xbox Series Consoles and Windows 11.
Direct Storage
Another Windows 11 exclusive feature that will make loading games much faster. DirectStorage is a new DX12 Ultimate API that will allow GPU to directly access from SSD cutting CPU dependency. While it sounds trivial on the surface, the real-world difference of this approach is huge. Cutting the CPU from the traditional cycle will allow GPU to access game files faster and also free up Lil-bit CPU usage.
The feature will remain exclusive to Xbox Series consoles and Windows 11, plus this feature is only available for M.2 NVMe as the interface is directly connected to the motherboard/CPU through PCIe lanes.
Xbox Game Pass & xCloud integration with Xbox App
Without a doubt, the Xbox App on Windows 10 can be described in two words “it sucks”. The Xbox experience and Xbox app in Windows 10 are messy, buggy, and embarrassingly slow to navigate. The Xbox App is so bad that even with the exceptional value of the Xbox Game Pass the app experience puts off so many gamers from playing games in the game pass library.
With Windows 11. Microsoft has reworked the Xbox App from the ground up. The new app will have Xbox Game Pass and xCloud directly integrated meaning you can access all the features from a single app. While the new app looks visually similar to the current Xbox App, the underlying file management system is revamped and several optimizations have been made to make App faster.
New and Improved Game Mode
The new settings app in Windows 11 will now have a dedicated Gaming tab which will feature a toggle for “Game Mode” and a shortcut to graphics settings which will open the per-app GPU selection menu.
First introduced in Windows 10, the Game Mode feature when enabled reduces background app usage across windows to free up CPU for games. The setting worked alright in some cases, but in most cases, it hardly provided any boost in performance. With Windows 11, Microsoft has made some tweaks to Game Mode that will now allow the setting to further limit background app activity and dedicate more resources to games. The game mode can be enabled by switching ON the toggle in the gaming tab of the new settings app.
Windows 11 will be released as a free upgrade for Windows 10 owners with rollout beginning by the end of 2021 and will be available at retail for stand-alone purchases starting early 2022.
There are reports on the web about a new Cyberpunk 2077 update that will be the “greatest update” yet with free DLC soon. Some players spotted a marketing campaign in Poland that mentions “the biggest update so far” and an announcement about future plans related to Cyberpunk 2077.
The news about the marketing campaign spread like a wildfire among the players and soon many media outlets also picked up on the advertisement. Many people speculated that the developers at CDPR will reveal details about the promised Free DLCs and drop more information about the state of the game. While the advertisement looked great and promised many new things, CDPR soon released an official statement in which they denied any such advertisements and called the reports “untrue”.
CD Projekt Red confirmed that this marketing campaign doesn’t actually refer to a new, upcoming update with brand new content or changes to Cyberpunk 2077. They explained that the advertisement was part of their marketing campaign for “Update 1.2” which went live on PCs and consoles in March. CDPR said that any news about upcoming updates will be revealed first via its official channels and not through marketing campaigns.
Currently, Cyberpunk 2077 is on patch 1.23 that majorly overhauled the game and fixed numerous bugs. The game is finally in a stable state months after its launch and has also been re-listed on the PlayStation Store. While the future update roadmap included free DLCs as well as a free next-gen console update before 2022, it might be a while before any news is revealed.
With the E3 2021 wrapped up last month, we saw some great games scheduled for release this summer. Starting off with July, this month we will see some of the biggest releases of the year from Nintendo and Capcom.
From the remastered release of the hit game “The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword” in HD for Nintendo Switch to Capcom’s very popular Monster Hunter series sequel “Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin”, the month of July is action-packed and today we are going to look over these games.
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin (July 9th)
Monster Hunter Stories 2 is a sequel to the 2016 released Monster Hunter Stories game. The story begins with the mass disappearance of Rathalos around the world. The protagonist (player character) is a descendant of the legendary Rider named Red. Taking a cue from Pokemon Go, players will find monster eggs throughout their playthrough. Each monster egg can then be hatched into a monster that can be named, join battles, and used as a mount to travel around the game world.
The game is set to release worldwide on the Nintendo Switch and PC on July 9, 2021. A set of three Amiibo figures will launch on the same day. To commemorate the release, Nintendo has also added a collectible Spirit to the Super Smash Bros Ultimate game.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD (July 16th)
Join Link in his high-flying quest to save Zelda, a childhood friend who must confront her destiny. Soar between floating islands and descend to the treacherous surface world in the earliest story of the Legend of Zelda series.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is a remastered release of the older Wii game with the same name first released in 2011. Dive into the adventures of Link in this newly remastered version of the game with improved graphics and refined controls. The game features many improvements over the Wii version and is worth checking out for its interesting story and concept. The will release worldwide exclusively on Nintendo Switch on July 16th.
Cris Tales (July 20th)
Cris Tales is a new take on the old turn-based RPG genre. Developed by Colombian indie game studios Dreams Uncorporated and Syck, and published by Modus Games, Cris Tales is a story about Crisbell an orphan girl who lives in the Narim orphanage. While in the orphanage she meets a talking frog, Matias, who asks Crisbell to accompany him to visit his friend Willhelm, a time mage, who can help Crisbell to unleash her hidden powers. Playing as the Crisbell, we must use her time-bending powers to fight and stop the Empress of the Ages from destroying the Crystallis Kingdom.
The game has very interesting game mechanics working around Cris’s time-bending abilities. Cris can use her powers to move forward and backward in time. She can also see the environment around her in its present state or use her powers to see the past or future state of the same place. The game has been in development for a long time and is finally releasing worldwide on July 20th across all modern platforms including PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Chernobylite (July 28th)
Chernobylite is a new RPG survival horror about humankind’s biggest nuclear disaster. Chernobylite places you in the shoes of one of the Chernobyl Power Plant’s ex-employee physicists. You return to the place after 30years to study and find the cause of the disaster that resulted in the mysterious disappearance of your beloved. Chernobylite is an RPG game where your companions are the key to survival and going through the story. Build a team of trusted companions and take care of them by providing them with food, medicine, weapons, and intel. If done right, they’ll support you on your way throughout the story.
Players are free to make their choices with each choice affecting the environment and story along the way. You are free to explore the disturbing world of Chernobyl but remember there are a variety of terrifying dangers waiting to jump on any chance to take you down.
You can play the game right now on Steam as part of Early Acess. Although the game will be leaving the early access very soon and release on 28th July. The game will be available across many platforms including Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC.
The official confirmation of Valorant coming to the mobile platform sparked flares of joy within the mobile gaming community and fans are eagerly waiting for new updates regarding Valorant Mobile. Recently, a website claiming to be the official registration site for Valorant Mobile Beta went live and we take a look at it to see if it is legitimate or not.
Valorant was a new addition by Riot Games to enter into the genre of FPS games with a small twist. The game initially looked like a blend of Overwatch and CSGO but quickly stood out to give a completely different experience. Gamers welcomed Valorant with open arms and it became a huge hit within a very small time. The esports scene allied with this title grew as well and the developers are trying to build a sustainable ecosystem to support Valorant Esports in the long run.
Riot Games already achieved a large success by venturing into the mobile gaming market. They entered a new platform with their flagship title League of Legends and created a portable version of this game, called League of Legends: Wild Rift. The new mobile MOBA title is a big hit and Riot seems to be capitalizing on this opportunity by taking yet another game to the mobile platform.
Valorant Mobile was rumored to be announced from a long time and after a report confirmed the existence of its development, the fans are hyped to see how the game will turn out. It is quite difficult to introduce the abilities as float buttons on the screen and hence, Riot will have to come up with an innovative way to make this game quite easy to play but still have all the mechanisms from its PC counterpart.
Valorant Mobile Beta Website
This announcement quickly gave way to various sources claiming to be the official websites or social media handles of this upcoming title. A website called Valorant Mobile Beta recently went live on the internet, claiming that players can download the closed beta on Android as well as iOS devices. They need to register in order to play the game but apparently, players from almost any region can enroll in this “closed beta”.
The design of this website is quite convincing to make it look as if it is legitimate and it certainly offers applications that could be downloaded. When we tested the Android version of this game, the loading screen was quite quirky with an animation of Riot Games. The game then went on to the loading screen where the exact replica of the loading screen from the PC version could be seen.
The game then asks users to register their device but the registration process was unconvincing as players are required to download multiple apps in order to “complete the human verification process” and we did not confirm if the game actually works or not.
Riot Games has not made any official announcement regarding the launch of this new website. The announcement of Valorant Mobile being under development is awaited for now and hence, we could not verify the authenticity of this website. Readers can try to register or play at their own risk but we urge you to wait for an official confirmation before making any move.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is no longer the only king of the jungle. With Valorant entering the picture as a handsome rival, the game’s player count has finally started to dwindle. Is CSGO dying in 2021?
The online era of esports has impeded the progress of many titles. With LAN podiums shutting down to contain the deadly disease, the player count was expected to decline. However, the global virus outbreak was particularly more harsh on CSGO. While the game initially managed to take the hits with minimum damage, it seems that negative repercussions are finally showing.
Looking at the dwindling player count, the infamous “CSGO is dying” conversation has resumed in 2021. According to steamcharts‘ stats for June, CSGO has lost a massive chunk of its player base in the past five months. The drop was triggered in February 2021, and since then, the game has lost around 16% of its players consistently in the first quarter.
The average player count for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive dropped almost 17% in June, the highest drop-off in players since April 2018 and the third-highest fall in a single month since the official release in 2012. June hit CSGO like a wrecking ball, shedding 110K of its players in just one month. While it’s standard for any game’s player base to fluctuate due to various reasons, the numbers displayed on steam charts are too massive to be considered normal.
It’s also worth noting that this is the first time CSGO has consistently lost players for five months. The drop began at 2K players but continued to get worst with each month. Currently, CSGO has only 527K average players, the lowest since February 2020.
CSGO at the lowest in 2021 despite hitting 1 million mark last year
On paper, online format was generally expected to boost the player base of video games since more people reactivate their accounts, looking for entertainment indoors. LANs and professional scenes contribute tons to the overall spirit of the game. Therefore, a decline in CSGO’s player count was expected due to the cancellation of large-scale esports events on an incredible scale. One of the biggest events of 2020 ESL One Rio 2020 CS:GO Major was also shelved, and it really dampened the spirits of esports enthusiasts.
💔 #ESLOne Rio 2020 @CSGO Major is canceled 💪 Plan to return to LAN with @IEM Global Challenge 📅 The full event calendar for the rest of 2020
However, CSGO always pulls through the mess, and this is precisely what happened in 2020. The wave of self-isolation worldwide sparked by COVID-19 didn’t harm CSGO as much. The game managed to boast more numbers in 2020 than ever before, hitting the 1 million mark. With its loyal followers, counter-strike became the most popular game on Steam by some distance. Dota 2 took second place with a peak of 685,879 players. Battle royale PUBG came in third with 525,462 players.
This was a massive milestone as most esports titles were suffering amid the Global Pandemic, and CSGO created a new record. Most importantly, it wasn’t a mere boost of home-stuck new players, the game managed to retain the expanding player base for an entire year, which warranted a successful year ahead. But, recent stats bear bad news.
Is Valorant to blame for CSGO’s decline in 2021?
While the release of CSGO’s modern competitor Valorant failed to have much impact initially, it’s starting to break down a chunk of its player count in 2021. The vivid and futuristic Valorant universe had trouble written all over it. Coupled with the online format of esports, Valorant has certainly become a massive threat to CSGO’s player base.
Global Pandemic didn’t falter what Valve had created. Valorant’s thriving 2021 made even glamorous with a top-notch LAN event hasn’t only roped in professional players like Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt, but it’s also eyeing CSGO’s player base. While Valorant undoubtedly contributed significantly to CSGO decline, it isn’t entirely responsible for the slow slump.
As mentioned earlier, people were still actively playing CSGO when Valorant was at its peak. Thus, it’s unfair to dump all blame on Riot’s shooter. A number as massive as 110K is likely generated due to Valve’s recent competitive paywall update.
The hacker wipe-out is part of the reason why CSGO lost such a massive chunk within 30 days.
The competitive paywall came as a blessing for loyal CSGO players who are sick of getting no-scoped mid-air. The matchmaking was senselessly infected with cheaters who employed third-party software to exploit VAC. By reverting CSGO’s free-to-play status to some extent, Valve created a glass wall that had a massive no-entry sign plastered all over it. A large chunk of hackers chose to quit the game instead of paying to cheat.
Today we're making adjustments to non-Prime accounts. We're also introducing Unranked matchmaking. Information about these changes can be found in today's Blog Post: https://t.co/W6m42EUTAH
The June 3 dev blog clarified that “bad actors” have no place in ranked, and they may want to take their lucrative endeavors to a new unranked mode.
“Along with all the gameplay that we made available for free, new players had access to drops, Ranks, Skill Groups, and a free path to Prime matchmaking. Unfortunately, over time, those benefits have become an incentive for bad actors to hurt the experience of both new and existing players,” The blog read.
Soon after this update, the player count started dropping drastically, proving that COVID-19 and Valorant may not have a lot to do with the CSGO decline. However, it’s not all dark, no stars. LAN events have returned with a bang in IEM Cologne 2021, helping CSGO’s viewership boast high numbers.
For now, the players should keep their fingers crossed and hope that CSGO makes it out unscathed out of this challenging phase as it has done many times in the past.
