MSI Vector A18 HX review

This review is, if I can read a spreadsheet correctly, the first time this site has assessed a laptop containing the Ryzen 9 9955HX. So if you’ve ever wanted one of AMD’s thundering 16-core Zen 5 chips in your portable(ish) PC, this is your chance. It’s fast, though not 9950X3D fast. An unfair comparison considering…

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Valve warms up for the Steam Machine with a client update bristling with gamepad fixes and, oh, the betas UI is fancier now if you’re into that

We are an alarming way into 2026 already, and you know what that means: the precipitous decline of all of our institutions and the environment. Also, the soonish release of the Steam Machine, which will probably make all that other stuff go down a lot easier. The Steam Machine’s actual release date isn’t known yet,…

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Highguard requires Secure Boot and Easy Anti-Cheat to run, leaving Linux and kernel-conscious gamers out in the cold

If you happened to have caught the Game Awards trailer for it, Highguard, an upcoming free-to-play hero shooter from ex-developers of Apex Legends and Titanfall, launches next week. You will need to enable Secure Boot if you plan on playing through. As we’ve spotted on the Highguard Steam page, the game needs Secure Boot, TPM…

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‘We will f*ck up’: The publisher of Against the Storm and Manor Lords is committed to keeping generative AI out, but it’s easier said than done

Generative AI, spurred on by super-spreader CEOs, has been smeared everywhere—into our games, our music, our art, even our damn emails. And it’s not enough that it’s terrible at even the most simple tasks assigned to it, like providing basic, easily accessible information; now we’ve also got to deal with its massive environmental toll, the…

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Intel’s in no hurry to get 14A all tooled up: ‘It does not make sense to build out significant capacity there until we know that we have the customers that will accept that demand’

With the official launch of its new Core Ultra 300-series of processors going very well so far, Intel’s latest process node, 18A, appears to be a successful endeavour. We won’t know for certain until all the benchmarks come out, of course, but regardless of how good it is, Intel isn’t rushing to gear up its…

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Nvidia reportedly cancels partner incentive scheme to sell cards at MSRP, says YouTuber Der8auer, signalling hard times ahead for GPU prices

Facing a worldwide memory shortage crisis and threats of further tariffs, Nvidia has reportedly cancelled its OPP, a program intended to incentivise AIBs to sell its cards at MSRP. If true, and if such a program exists, this means pricing on Nvidia cards is expected to get much worse going forward. This is all according…

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In less than 1 week, Blizzard’s sliced WoW’s transmog costs in half after upset to ‘bring them more in line with what the prices were prior’

If there’s one thing this World of Warcraft player has learnt from this new, post-Shadowlands Blizzard, it is this: While they are a little (okay, a lot) messier, they do tend to move quickly. So quickly in fact that it’s become a bit of a cycle for WoW to have updates where something’s borked—rewards systems,…

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