PC News

The horror of Cauldron Lake continues unabated. 

Today marks the long-awaited debut of an exclusive Xbox event, where we’ll get a sneak peek into numerous upcoming games for both Xbox and Windows PC. This gathering is yet another edition of the Xbox Partner Preview, meaning we’re in store for new trailers, announcements, and even world premieres from some of Xbox’s most prominent third-party collaborators. While Microsoft has revealed certain aspects of today’s event, they’ve also left us guessing with hints about exciting secrets to be unveiled for the viewing audience.

I’m already on board the hype train for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Ever since I saw the game behind closed doors at Gamescom 2024 I wrote about how it was my favorite game of the entire event and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. There was something bugging me though, some of the voices in the scenes we were shown were eerily familiar but I couldn’t put my finger on why, and the developers remained tight-lipped about the identity of the voice actors. Yesterday however we got a brand new trailer for the game, which will arrive on Xbox Game Pass in Spring 2025. The new trailer showed us new enemies, locations, and revealed the voice cast. Now I’ve reached higher magnitudes of hype that I didn’t think possible, from Andy Serkis to our favorite Baldur’s Gate emo goth girlfriend, here’s the cast for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

On Windows 11, the Microsoft Store is undergoing a facelift to offer an “immersive experience” at the top of app and game listings. This new design, which includes trailers or hero images for apps or games, is now accessible in both light and dark modes. At the moment, this enhanced experience is only available to Insiders, but Microsoft plans to make it available to all users shortly after version 22409 of the Microsoft Store. The updated Microsoft Store pages began distributing this week, although Microsoft has not yet specified when the improvements will be made accessible to non-Insiders.

I’ve been relying on the same headphones for more than three years, which aren’t ideal for everyday use, but I can’t get enough of my Lucidsound LS50x Xbox gaming headset. I even use them outside of gaming and have replaced two pairs because I love them so much. Typically, I’m not one to spend over $250 on headphones, but when it came to buying the Sony MX4s as my son’s birthday gift, it was a hard hit on both my conscience and wallet. However, you often get what you pay for with headphones.

Delving further into the AI train’s tunnel, it’s increasingly evident that this journey comes with a substantial price tag. To put it into perspective, OpenAI shells out around $700,000 each day just to keep ChatGPT operational. This figure doesn’t account for the significant costs associated with AI model training and employee salaries. It’s plausible that these high expenses are contributing to the speculation about a potential increase in OpenAI’s subscription fee for its future-generation AI models, which could rise as high as $2000 per month.