Your Tech Story

gaming

Asus ROG Academy Programme

Asus to recruit six gaming candidates in India for ROG Academy Program.

Leave a Comment / Gaming, News, Tech News / By

Who would have thought a decade earlier that gaming would become a profession in our country? There are many gaming enthusiasts out there who are working hard to make their passion turn into professions. And, gamers are certainly one of them. To help the potential professional gamers of India, Asus has publicly announced the recruitment of six gamers in India to join the ROG Academy Programme.

Asus through their ROG Academy Programme will train these gamers at a professional level so that they can represent the brand both locally and globally. This program will help the best gamers in India to showcase their talent and pursue gaming as e-sports players professionally. Asus will arrange this program with the support from AFK Gaming to provide adequate and proper tutelage to these budding gamers of India.

Asus ROG Academy Program

ROG Academy Programme is a one-year long program divided into four quarterly sessions. This program focuses on the game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, one of the most popular games in esports. Registration for this program will go on from 1st February to 10th February 2021. After rigorous selection procedures, six final candidates will be selected. These final candidates will get Rs 1,00,000 after completing three-month training and a monthly stipend of Rs 15,000 with a bonus during these three months.

Asus ROG Academy Program
Image Source: asus.in/ROG-academy

Gadgets 360 spoke to Arnold Su, Asus India’s Business Head, and Siddharth Nayyar, Co-founder, and Director of AFK Gaming to get detailed insight about this initiative in India and about the selection process. Based on the questions Gadgets 360 asked them, here is more information about the ROG Academy Programme and the future of esports in India.

Growth potential in terms of the overall gaming market in India

According to Arnold Su (AS), computer gaming can be divided into two sections, hardware, and software. In India, PC gaming has been booming since 2016 increasing the sale of PC gaming units to almost 9 folds in 2020. And, when it comes to e-sports, there are around 17 million active spectators in our country. ROG is mainly focussing on investing in the youths of India. The gaming culture has improved as the data plans have become affordable but still, infrastructure for e-sports has huge rooms for improvements.

Siddharth Nayyar (SN) says that the gaming market, in general, is growing a lot and that people are switching from mobiles to PC gaming for a better experience. More engagement can be expected in the competitive gaming space as companies like Riot and Valve are investing in the e-sports space.

What does the program plan on achieving?

Asus has been conducting ROG tournaments in India since 2017 so there is a scope to find more talents. During the pandemic, the ROG Showdown tournaments attracted a lot of gamers. Due to limitations to choices of entertainment during the pandemic, many people switched to mobile gaming and the mobile gamers witched to PC. The gaming industry boomed during the lockdown which is expected to continue even after the end of the pandemic. This is the reason Asus decided to launch this academy program to train more games and make them skillful. This is a unique program in the e-sports space first started by Asus.

Asus ROG Academy Program
Image Source: asus.in/ROG-academy

The selection process for the program

Applicants from 16-years old and above can enroll through participants between 16-18 years need parent’s consent to participate. 50 candidates will be selected in the first phase after an online assessment based on the knowledge of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. In the second phase, the selected candidates will play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in teams which will be hosted by a server called SoStronk. 20 candidates will be shortlisted for the third phase from where six top candidates will be selected for the program. The applicants will need a basic gaming setup for participation. Currently, the program is only focusing on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and other games will be added later. The gaming perspective is slowly changing for parents as well. E-sports will be added in the Olympics of 2024 which will motivate more and more gamers to pursue it as a professional training sport.

E-sports challenges in India

Though the overall e-gaming scenario is improving in India, infrastructure and broadband are the two major challenges. The company is trying to reach out to tier-3 and tier-2 markets in India for broadening the gaming base. Siddharth Nayyar also mentioned that gaming culture will skyrocket in India if these markets are exposed to ASUS gaming laptops and good internet.

MSI

MSI is All Set to Introduce its Business Summit, Prestige, and Modern Laptops in India

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By

MSI the Taiwanese multinational tech giant is all set to target the Indian laptop market with its newly announced high-end laptops. Reportedly the company has upgraded its business laptop series, i.e., the Summit, Prestige, and Modern laptop series. MSI will be introducing these high-tech laptops to its Indian customers very by the end of January 2021. The three category laptops have got a total of nine laptops, i.e., Summit E15 and Summit B15 (Summit series), Prestige 14, Prestige 15 and Prestige 14 EVO (Prestige series), and Modern 15 and Modern 14 (the Modern series, a total of four variants).

According to a statement from the company, all the laptops will be equipped with the latest 11th generation Intel Core processors. MSI is a company known for its gaming laptops, but with this new launch, it has come up with non-gaming business laptops.

MSI Summit

All the new MSI laptops are thin and lightweight. Both the Summit laptops, E15, and B15 boast a thin bezel 15.6-inch 4K display and have got support for 100% Adobe RGB color gamut. The laptops are around 16.9 millimeters thick and weigh about 1.79 kilograms.

MSI Summit Series
Image Source: digit.in

These new business laptops from MSI support enterprise-grade security and include a 4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650Ti graphic card. Along with the SSD storage, the memory is extendable up to 64GB. The Summit laptops come with two DDR4 slots. These high-end laptops have got high-end technologies like a TPM 2.0 module, a fingerprint reader, and an IR scanner camera. 

MSI Prestige

For the Prestige laptops, the display is different for all. The MSI Prestige 15 has got up to a 15.6-inch display, whereas the MSI Prestige 14 and 14 EVO laptops feature up to 14-inch display. The MSI Prestige 15 and 14 laptops have the 4K UHD display, while the 14 EVO has a full HD display. The Prestige 15 is around 16.9 millimeters thick and weighs 1.65 kilograms. On the other hand, both Prestige 14 and 14 EVO are 15.9 millimeters in thickness and weighs almost 1.29 kilograms.

Equipped with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q GPU graphics, the Prestige laptops include two DDR4 slots along with the two SSD storage slots. The RAM size for the Prestige laptops i.e., 15, 14, and 14 EVO are up to 64GB, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to 16GB of RAM, respectively. All three laptops support M.2 SSD storage. Instant wake, quicker login, and faster Wi-Fi connection are the main highlights of these laptops.

MSI Modern

Lastly, the Modern laptops feature full HD displays, the Modern 15 having a 15.6-inch and the Modern 14 having a 14-inch display. These laptops are integrated with Nvidia GeForce MX450 GPU and come with up to 32GB DDR4 of RAM. Modern 15 has got two SSD slots, whereas the Modern 14 consists of a single NVMe SSD slot.

Price Range

Since the laptops are high-end business laptops, the price range for these laptops goes really high. The company has announced the price for its laptop for the Indian market. The price of MSI Summit E15 A11SCST starts at Rs. 1,79,990, whereas the MSI Summit B15 A11M will be available for a price range of Rs. 1,23,990. The MSI Prestige 15 A11SCX costs around Rs. 1,34,990, MSI Prestige 14 A11SCX at Rs. 1,28,990, and MSI Prestige 14 Evo will be available for Rs. 95,990. Lastly, the price of Modern 15 A11SB is set to be Rs. 95,990, MSI Modern 15 A11M will cost Rs. 70,990, and MSI Modern 14 B11SB costs Rs. 89,990. The MSI Modern 14 B11M starts at Rs. 55,990, making it the cheapest laptop among them all.

The company has partnered with Flipkart for the marketing and sale of the laptop in India, and the Summit E15 and Prestige 15 laptop models are the ones that will arrive in the Indian market first. These laptops will be available in India from January 24. The company hasn’t mentioned any dates for the launch of the rest of its laptops in India. But according to the reports, all of them will be available by the first quarter of the year. 

Cyberpunk 2077

Reasons Behind the ‘Buggy’-ride of the Most-hyped Cyberpunk 2077

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By

After a wait of years, Cyberpunk 2077, was finally released in December 2020. But despite the long development process, the game did not have a smooth start and was filled with bugs. But then, people still settled knowing how huge the project was, and how long it took for the developers to meet the expectations of people. But now again, the newly launched game is under the limelight because of ransomware related to the game.

What is Cyberpunk 2077?

Cyberpunk 2077 is a role-playing action video game, released in December 2020 by the Polish video game developer CD Projekt S.A. The game is a follow-up to the company’s previous release The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015), and a team of more than 500 people has worked on it. This number is more than the number of people involved in the development process of The Witcher 3.

Cyberpunk 2020 is developed using the RED engine 4 and was made available for PlayStation 4, Stadia, Windows, and Xbox One. The company had also announced that it is going to release the game for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in the middle of 2021 or later. Within one week of its release, the game started to show some issues regarding its performance, like the animation of the characters, issues with the objects in the game hanging at one place, etc. Only after a week of the title release, on 17 December 2020 Sony removed the game from PlayStation.

Cyberpunk 2077 is basically a combat and action game, offering many options to customize the background of the environment and the clothing, hairstyle, face as well as the voice of the lead, i.e. ‘V’, a mercenary. V is fighting and battling in an open world, set to be in Night City, California.

The Buggy Game

Cyberpunk 2077
Image Source: earlygame.com

As soon as the game got released, the users started to face many issues with the game and reported many bugs. Though several were settled with the fact that the game was a big project, many asked questions like ‘why the company rushed to release the game, when it wasn’t ready?” After more than a month of the release of the game, here we are with some of the answers.

The Reasons behind the Bugs

The foremost reason for all the bugs and issues in the game is the hype. Cyberpunk 2077 has been an ambitious project for CD Projekt. The company had announced the game in 2012, along with the futuristic features it would be adding to the game. But even after four years of the announcement of the game, there was no sign of starting its design and development. The conceptualization and the development of the game only started in 2016, intending to release the game in 2020. The company had just finished its work on The Witcher 3 and started working on Cyberpunk 2077, and according to reports, the company had made big changes to its basic structure. It also started building a new engine for the game to run on.

Also, with new changes and a lot of burdens, many of the main developers left the project. The goals of the company suddenly changed, and it was looking forward to building a massive game with a lesser number of people in their team. In fact, if we believe the reports, the demo of Cyberpunk presented in the E3 2018 did not include any real information regarding the game.

And then happens the pandemic, the reason for most of the disasters in the world in 2020. In the case of Cyberpunk 2077 too, the developers were not able to pull out the desire results sitting away from each other. If we see some of the latest interviews of the current and the former developers of Cyberpunk 2077, the game was not ready for a release so soon and needed a lot of work done on it. Now since there has been a lot of a complaint against the game, companies like Sony are offering a refund to its customers. Also, the CD Projekt developers are constantly working on the game to make it bug-free.

The Ransomware

After the numerous complaints due to the bugs, there has been another issue with the game. Some suspicious people have created a similar site as the Play Store, where they are offering downloads for the mobile version of Cyberpunk 2077. This download includes nothing but malware. And upon the download, the hackers get access to the information that is stored on the phone. This leads the hackers to ask for money from the owner in return for the release of the information.

But here we must tell you that CD Projekt never released a mobile version of the game. But, even if you have got your information hacked, you should not worry, because this ransomware, dubbed Coder Ware, uses a hardcoded key, such that you can recover your information using a decryptor, without paying any money. So always be careful with your downloads on the internet.

FAU-G

FAU-G – India’s Very Own Shooter-Game Up for Pre-Registration on Google Play Store.

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By

FAU-G, which is a mobile game that Indians have been looking on with a lot of excitement, has finally come up live on the Google Play Store. While the game is not ready for download yet, gamers can now pre-register for the game, which will be out soon. The Indian public has been waiting patiently for what they believe to be India’s most high-profile made-in-India shooter game. Indians believe that FAU-G will rival PUBG in popularity, and see it as an Indian-made alternative to the viral Chinese shooting game. Let us now take a closer look at the game’s launch on the Google Play Store and what this means for Indian gamers.

FAU-G Up for Pre-Registration

FAU-G had to battle through multiple changes in its launching date and delays to appear on the Google Play Store finally. However, the developers have plans to launch only an Android version initially, and later expand to newer markets. Additionally, the listing on the Play Store helps in expanding on the storyline more than what the teaser initially did. The plans for such a game came out two days after India banned over 118 Chinese apps way back in September. However, the game has been marketed as more than just a replacement for PUBG Mobile India. Most Indians acknowledge that the game is a patriotic one as its developers will contribute a share of their earnings to the armed forces. 

FAU-G
Image Source: i.gadgets360cdn.com

FAU-G Gameplay

FAU-G stands for Fearless and United Guards, and users who sign up for the pre-registration will receive a notification when the game drops on the Play Store. Also, all eligible devices which have signed up will automatically download and install the game. However, the developers have not revealed details regarding the game’s size and other technical details. The listing does give a brief outline of the basic gameplay that FAU-G will follow and the storyline it will stick to, which follows closely what gamers saw in the teaser. As expected, the game will in some ways emulate the clashes that occurred in the Galwan Valley between the Indian and Chinese armed forces. The scenario described on Google Play Store emphasizes that the game will focus on Indian soldiers posted on India’s northern borders. The characters will go by the name FAU-G commandos, which will serve as an elite Indian wing of soldiers who patrol the most dangerous territories.

FAU-G Development

Bangalore-based gaming company nCore Games have been developing FAU-G. The company has been partnering with Bollywood actor and celebrity Akshay Kumar, and the first trailer for the game went live on October 25th. While the game was to drop by the end of October, the team ran into delays and pushed the launch into November. However, this puts the game on a collision course with the launch of PUBG Mobile India. PUBG Mobile India is an alternate version of the trendy shooter game that is tailored for the Indian market. Both have announced that launches in November but ran into delays and now seem to be competing on who will hit the market first. On a troubling note for nCore, the number of followers that PUBG India boasts far outweighs the support that FAU-G enjoys on Tap Tap. However, things might pan out quite differently once the games drop, as FAU-G has a patriotic angle.

PUBG Corporation Hassles

The PUBG Corporation has been trying very hard to minimize the effect of the border tensions between Indian and China in the last few months. The company has had to do this so that they receive the approvals required to make a comeback into the Indian market. Meanwhile, FAU-G has been using the heightened nationalism and anti-China sentiment that arose as a result of the skirmish for their gains. Their teaser emulated the Valley skirmish along the LOC and used brawler mechanics to depict the clash realistically. The game is also using the Atma Nirbhar Bharat sentiment to inspire more Indians to use its made-in-India services. Additionally, the developers will donate 20% of their revenue to Bharat Ke Veer. This is a trust that the government established to help the families of soldiers who died in the line of duty. 

AMD

AMD Announces New Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 Processor Much to the Delight of Gamers

Leave a Comment / News, Product, Tech News / By

AMD has taken the gaming world by storm by recently announcing a new line of next-gen processors for CPUs. The series, named Ryzen 5000 Series will work on a Zen 3 architecture framework.  This new series might just give rise to the world’s best gaming CPUs as per reports by experts. The processors offer a whopping 26% increase with regards to gaming performance. They also promise a 16% improvement in instruction cycles, when compared to AMD’s flagship Ryzen 3000XT. Here’s a quick look at everything you need to know about the new release, and why it will have an impact on the way we game.

AMD, The Future of Gaming!

AMD
Image Source: wccftech.com

AMD states that the new series will offer better single-core and multi-core performance. Furthermore, the Ryzen 5000 Series will provide drop-in compatibility with currently used 500-series motherboards once they undergo a BIOS update. As of now, the company has announced four new CPU models, which are as follows;

  • Ryzen 5 5600X
  • Ryzen 7 5800X
  • Ryzen 9 5900X
  • Ryzen 9 5950X

Top-End Model

Out of these, the Ryzen 9 5950X will be a top-end model that features 32 threads and 16 cores. This processor can handle base and boost speeds up to 3.4GHz and 4.9GHz while also having 72MB worth of cache memory. However, due to its immensely high-end specs, owning this model will set gamers back by a whopping $799 (Rs. 58,760 without taxes). AMD claims that this model features the best single-threaded performance of any gaming processor, making this chip every gamer’s dream come true. Since it also has more cores, it offers better multi-core performance as well, when compared to other desktop CPUs.

Other Models

  1. The Ryzen 9 5900X has 24-threads and 12-cores and runs at speeds between 3.7GHz and 4.8GHz. It too offers 70MB worth of cache memory and will cost owners $549 (Rs. 40,370). 
  • The Ryzen 7 5800X works on an 8-core, 16-thread system and offers cache storage worth 3MB. The processor boasts of base and boost speeds in the range of 3.8GHz and 4.7GHz respectively. This model will go on sale for $449 (Rs. 33,020). 
  • Lastly, the Ryzen 5 5600X features 12 threads and six cores, offering base and boost speeds of 3.7GHz and 4.6GHz. It houses a total cache memory worth 35MB and costs $299 (Rs. 21,990). 

Other Details

While all three of the Ryzen 9, and 7 models feature 105W TDPs, they will have a stock cooler. In contrast, the Ryzen 5 5600X offers a 65W rating and comes with the company’s signature Wraith Stealth cooler. AMD has always bundled their high-end models with their coolers. However, since a majority of gamers like fixing up higher-end heatsinks with their CPUs, this move might help the company. Most gamers rely on an expensive external heatsink or liquid-cooled thermal solution to prevent overheating while playing. 

Introduction of New Architecture

The new Zen 3 architecture allows the implementation of a unified 8-core CCX design. Not only does this reduce latency due to its direct access to L3 cache, but it also improves branch prediction. Furthermore, it allows for broader floating-point and integer engines and doubles the L3 cache per each core. The company also boasts of almost 2.8 times better battery efficiency when compared to Intel’s Core i9. However, in keeping with tradition, these new CPUs do not have interspersed graphics capacities.

While presenting the new models, Mark Papermaster, who serves as AMD’s CTO reinstated that the Zen 3 architecture is a revelation. He also claimed it was the most significant change or overhaul for CPU architecture since 2017’s Z architecture implementation. Furthermore, he stated that a new Zen 4 model was in development and will use a 5-nanometer processor.

Hitting the Market

AMD decided to forego few numbers and jumped directly from the 3000 series to the 5000. Doing this will help the company unify or standardize its naming scheme with regards to its desktop and mobile lines. As a result, their processor names across all markets will reflect its architectural generation. AMD announced that all four CPUs would hit the market on November 5th. Furthermore, people who purchase the following models between October 20th and December 31st will receive a copy of Far Cry 6 (Standard);

  1. Ryzen 7 model
  2. Ryzen 9 model 
  3. Ryzen 9 3950X
  4. Ryzen 9 3900XT 
  5. Ryzen 7 3800XT 

The presentation ended with Dr. Lisa Su, AMD’s CEO showcasing a preview of the RX 6000 GPU, which launches on October 28th. The GPU runs on a Ryzen 5900X CPU and could handle 61fps in Borderlands 3 on the Badass preset at 4K. The CPUs look to be top-end, and gamers will have a field day once it releases judging by the excitement the news of the release has caused. Intel, not wanting to be left behind teased information regarding its 11th Gen CPUs a day before AMD released its details. Intel’s next-gen CPUs will mostly hit the market early on in 2021, making this an excellent time to be a gamer!

Epic Games

Epic Games – Journey of Timothy Sweeney’s gaming firm that left the bigger footprint in the gaming industry

Leave a Comment / Founder, Story, Tech Story / By

Gaming is the ultimate entertainment for persons of all ages. Today youth is crazy for high tech mobile games. However, the kids of the 90s were crazy about video games. Like mobile or pc games, in fact, video games have a broad category. For any occasion and every mood, video games are available. Video games like Mario made a huge impact on the 90s generation. As well, one more video game ZZT released in 1991 made gamers crazy at that time. It was the simple text-based puzzle game introduced by Epic games.

But this video game achieved huge popularity and love from players. In less time frame, Epic’s video games became the pinnacle of entertainment for gamers. From relaxing games to intense one to the competitive games, Epic Games has released a number of games till now. With huge success and popularity, Epic Games made a name in the gaming industry.

About Epic Games

It is a North Carolina based video game company specifically known for video games like ZZT, The Gears of Wars, and many more such games. Because of simple yet addictive games, the firm enjoyed huge success in the 90s century. That time, it’s video game franchise known as The Gears of War set a record to sold gazillions of copies. As well, its Unreal Engine powers blockbuster titles like BioShock.

Well, it’s Unreal Engine technology is credited for bringing interactive experience and hi-fi technology to console, PC, and mobile. Due to this, the gaming industry and gamers had to notice Epic games. Started as a small game developing firm by Tim Sweeney has left the bigger gaming footprint that many people are unaware of. Let’s explore the journey of Epic Games creation and the masterminds behind the success of Epic games.

Timothy Dean Sweeney

He is the founder and mastermind behind the creation of most of these successful games listed Above. As well, he is a well-established programmer and businessman in America. Sweeney is also credited for creating a game development platform called Unreal Engine. Timmy is a game developer who made the childhood of 90s kid enjoyable through the release of many games under Epic Games.

Epic Games Founder
Image Source: businessinsider.in

Personal life

He was born in 1970 and raised in Potomac. Since his childhood, Sweeney liked to play with electrical and mechanical devices. That time, he built a go-kart on his own. One will amaze to know that a person who developed a series of video games had not played many video games in his life. Perhaps, he was interested to play arcade games in his teenage.

The back story of founding Epic Games

It all begins during his education. He was a student of Mechanical engineering. As said earlier, he was interested in electric and mechanical devices since childhood. This fascination continued and Sweeney finds interest in computers. During these days, he got the personal computer allowing him to turn his interest into a business.

How he set up Epic Games?

During college days, one idea sparked in Sweeney’s mind. That is creating games and selling them out; and the work begins. He spent day and night to learn to program required to develop the game. But he came to know that he required to create a Pascal-based text editor. So that he can write a code for the game. This turn out into the creation of ZZT. Prior to game development, he had established a consulting business called Potomac Computer Systems. Later on, he used it for selling ZZT. Soon, he sold few copies raising over 100 dollars per day. Thus, he decided to work in this field and started Epic Games officially.

Epic Games’ Video game Franchise

The firm is a developer of popular games like Gears of War, Fortnite, Unreal, Infinity Blade, Shadow Complex, and many more. However, ZZT was in the list of initial video game releases of Epic games. Epic game is also known for releasing a series of games. Moreover, the firm has created several shareware games that are hit in the international gaming market. Some of these are Jazz, Jill of the Jungle, Jackrabbit, Epic Pinball, etc.

Mark A. Rein

He is a Canadian entrepreneur as well as the  Epic Games’ Vice president. Apart from that,  Rein shared the ownership of NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes. Mark has dedicated his time and knowledge to the evolution of Epic Games.

Later success

The firm continued to deliver games that many gamers love. As well, it focused on additional projects like Unreal Tournament. As well, it released Shadow complex’s remastered version for newer consoles and released series of several video games. Epic Games enters into virtual reality with the game Robo Recall. With a much successful game franchise, Epic Games left the bigger gaming footprint in the Gaming industry.