Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

Assassin's Creed Odyssey Review
ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2080 OC Video Card Review
ASUS ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming Review
Building a custom Xbox Adaptive Controller peripheral, part one
EK-Velocity CPU Water Block Review
Forza Horizon 4 Benchmarked
Forza Horizon 4 Review
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming OC 11 GB Graphics Card Review
Intel Core i9 9900K New Wacky Packaging Pictured
Intel May Soon Fork HEDT Lineup Into Z399 and X599
iPhone XS and XS Max Review
Logitech G Pro Gaming Headset Review
Logitech G512 Lightsync RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review
Mega Man 11 Review
Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR500 Router Review
Patriot Scorch 256GB M.2 NVME SSD Review
Sahara P75 White Gaming Case Review
SteelSeries Stratus XL Bluetooth gamepad Review

Assassin's Creed Odyssey Review

Following the monumental success of Assassins Creed Origins how could Ubisoft even attempt to make something as good, or better? Is it even possible? That is the question that has been echoed across the internet since Odyssey was first announced mid-May this year. We are honored to be able to charge head first into answering this question with our Assassin's Creed Odyssey review.

Read full article @ MMORPG

ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2080 OC Video Card Review

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition is a great graphics card, but NVIDIA's board partners are looking to differentiate themselves by offering something better. NVIDIA is making that tough for this generation as they moved away from the blower-style fan and are shipping the FE cards with an out-of-the box overclock for the first time ever. As tough as NVIDIA is making it for their own partners to compete, we think the AIB's are going to be okay. One look at the ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 2080 and you know this card isn't going to go down without a fight...

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

ASUS ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming Review

The ASUS ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming sits in the middle of its Z370 product stack, intending to deliver users a full assortment of features. The all black board supports both Crossfire and SLI, has USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) ports, two M.2 slots, SupremeFX S1220A audio, and a large heatsink on the power delivery area to help keep it cool. Performance isnt half bad either.

The ROG Strix Gaming set of motherboards has several members varying from the inexpensive Z370-H at ~$150 to the Z370-F at ~$200. All the boards are jet black in color and use brushed aluminum heatsinks to cover the power delivery bits. RGB LEDs make an appearance on all the ROG Strix boards, and the Z370-F has the rear IO cover light up as well. Other features include a heatsink for the primary M.2 slot, PCIe reinforcement on two full-length slots, Intel-based networking, as well as the latest in connectivity with USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) ports on the back. Overall the ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming looks to have what it takes to be a good foundation for a Z370 based build.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Building a custom Xbox Adaptive Controller peripheral, part one

A few weeks ago I unboxed and started experimenting with the brand new Xbox Adaptive Controller and its auxiliary 3.5mm headphone jack inputs. Ultimately, my goal is to build a peripheral that my daughter Ellie can use to have an interactive experience on a PC. Ellie has some fairly significant physical and mental limitations, courtesy of her syndrome. But make no mistake, she's plenty feisty, and curious enough that I'm confident we'll be able to figure out something that will at least be a source of amusement for her.

For this project, the name of the game is accessibility. I don't want to do anything overly complicated or that anyone would have a difficult time replicating if they were so inclined. I won't be hitting up my friends with 3D printers to produce parts for me and I won't be spending a lot of money either. Improvisation, creativity, and flexibility are the most important things. I'm adapting a controller to suit Ellie's abilities, not the other way around. It's innovation by way of restriction.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

EK-Velocity CPU Water Block Review

EK Water Blocks has released their newest CPU block four years after the EK-Supremacy EVO came out. The new EK-Velocity attempts to not only bridge the gap of these past years, but also work for the next few by streamlining the cooling engine for higher flow, adding more customization options, including two different RGB lighting effects, and retaining popular features.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

Forza Horizon 4 Benchmarked

Racing title Forza Horizon 4 is arriving to digital store shelves this week worldwide (October 2) and to work out what kind of GPU power you'll need to enjoy it we've tested about 50 graphics cards, so we have a big GPU benchmark incoming.

Read full article @ TechSpot

Forza Horizon 4 Review

Two years ago I reviewed Forza Horizon 3 and said that I found it to be a surprise due to the path other racing titles were going. It was a game that just offered a great, fun, time behind the wheels of some fantastic cars in a beautiful representation of Australia. The more I played it after the review, the more Australia got a little stale, though still stunning to behold. It was a bit flat and became a little monotonous. To remedy those concerns Forza Horizon 4 comes to my, and Playground Games’ homeland of good old Blighty, a place where beauty is just around the corner.

Read full article @ Wccftech

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming OC 11 GB Graphics Card Review

Last week, NVIDIA finally released their GeForce RTX 20 series graphics cards. Taking a complete departure from traditional GPU design and creating a hybrid architecture that includes a range of new technologies to power the next-generation immersive gaming experiences. The key highlight of the GeForce RTX 20 series was the enablement of real-time raytracing which is the holy grail of graphics and something NVIDIA spent 10 years to perfect. In addition to raytracing, NVIDIA also aims to place bets on AI which will play a key role in powering features such as DLSS or Deep Learning Super Sampling, a unique way of offering the same quality as the more taxing MSAA AA techniques at twice the performance.

We looked at the performance in detail of the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and GeForce RTX 2080 FE cards and thought them to be a good gain over their predecessors, the GTX 1080 Ti and GTX 1080. When it comes to pricing, the GeForce RTX 20 series are some of the most costly graphics cards NVIDIA has offered to consumers. The reference variants are great with their new cooling design and good looking shrouds but AIBs have also prepped their own custom models which would rival the FE (reference) cards.

Read full article @ Wccftech

Intel Core i9 9900K New Wacky Packaging Pictured

Over the many years, Intel has stuck to a similar packaging design with their rectangles and cubes. For the upcoming new Coffee Lake Refresh launch, it looks like the coming is trying something really new. For the new Core i9 9900K flagship, we now have what appears to be a wacky polyhedron shaped almost like a football. The new packaging for the top mainstream Intel CPU features a total of 12 sides, making it a dodecahedron.

The latest reports indicate that instead of using paper, the new design is acrylic. The box will make a nice ball on top of delivering the CPU safety and being a nice display. On the outside, we have an emblazoned Core i9 logo as well as other marketing material. The inside should contain the new Core i9 9900K. That is an 8 core, 16 thread processor using the Coffee Lake Refresh microarhciture and 14nm++ process.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Intel May Soon Fork HEDT Lineup Into Z399 and X599

Due to the arrival of the AMD’s Zen architecture, the Intel lineup has been thrown into disarray. As a result of improved AMD core performance, Intel has to compete on core counts again. Due to platform limitations, the blue team may soon find itself with 2 HEDT platforms. Due to the need to compete with AMD’s Threadripper 2, the HEDT lineup for Chipzilla may soon feature both the Z399 and X599.

Right now, Intel relies on the X299 HEDT platform which peaks at 22 cores. This is quite a bit short of what AMD offers, with 32 cores from Sunnyvale. As a result of this shortfall, the company is reportedly considering the X599, a consumer version of the C629 and LGA 3647. This will allow Chipzilla to release 28 cores CPUs for consumers. At the same time, the company will refresh X299 into the new Z399 and the current LGA 2066 lineup.

Read full article @ eTeknix

iPhone XS and XS Max Review

The second generation is always better. With last year's iPhone X, Apple introduced the most significant redesign to the iPhone since the iPhone 4. All three of the phones Apple announced this fall—the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR—are modeled after that blueprint.

That means near-edge-to-edge displays. It also means they have the TrueDepth sensor array, which powers Face ID, the facial recognition feature that replaces the Touch ID fingerprint authentication method used on iPhones since the iPhone 5S in 2013. There's no home button either, which had been part of the iPhone since the very first one back in 2007.

Read full article @ ArsTechnica

Logitech G Pro Gaming Headset Review

Developed in cooperation with professional eSports teams, the Logitech G Pro Gaming Headset is here to give you a competitive edge in your favorite multiplayer games. You're getting a great headset, with good microphone for well under $100. Comfort is also excellent, letting you game for several hours without any issues.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

Logitech G512 Lightsync RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

When Logitech kindly decided to send us one of their keyboards for a review, I got designated with the task of doing so as apparently due to taking over 6 months to decide on a keyboard for my own personal use made me the ideal person to do so. I’ve written a few keyboard reviews in the past, so how hard could it be? To my surprise, when the courier arrived at my doorstep, I was suspicious of how large the box was, and on opening the box I discovered at had been sent not one, but three Logitech G512 keyboards……oh boy.

Logitech, along with Microsoft, is a brand name synonymous with keyboards and mice going all the back to the 80s.

Read full article @ FunkyKit

Mega Man 11 Review

The Blue Bomber is back! Capcom sidelined Mega Man when series producer and co-creator Keiji Inafune left the company in late 2010, but it seems the passage of time, and success of recent in-house-developed titles like Resident Evil 7 and Monster Hunter: World, has prompted a change of heart. Capcom missed the franchise’s 30th anniversary last year, but they’re making up for it this year with Mega Man 11.

Mega Man 11 would appear to be exactly what fans have been begging for – a continuation of the original series that began on the NES, featuring traditional run-and-gun gameplay and eight themed stages you can tackle in any order, as well as a handful of additions, like the new Double Gear system. Of course, sometimes first impressions can be deceiving. Is this the comeback Mega Man truly deserves, or will it leave fans feeling blue?

Read full article @ Wccftech

Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR500 Router Review

What makes a gaming router, anyway? That's the question we're setting out to answer today in our review of the NETGEAR Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR500 Router. We?ve also paired it with the Nighthawk Tri-Band WiFi Range Extender to deliver high bandwidth gaming to every corner of our test home. Can a router really be made for gaming or is it all looks and marketing? Join us as we find out in our full review.

Read full article @ MMORPG

Patriot Scorch 256GB M.2 NVME SSD Review

The speed jump from HDD to SSD load times is already remarkable, but M.2 drives have taken the next leap by skipping the SATA bottleneck to patch directly into PCI lanes. While the buy-in has historically been costly, new options like Patriot's Scorch M.2 Solid State Drive exist temper costs while opening access to this storage solution.

Read full article @ MMORPG

Sahara P75 White Gaming Case Review

The Sahara P75 is a very large case that only claims ATX compatibility. We put all that extra volume to good use with a custom loop while taking the chassis for a test drive in our review.

Today I have the Sahara P75 in white, which is a very large case that only claims ATX compatibility which seems odd considering the size. Let’s take a look at the specifications which I have had to pilfer from various reports around the web due to a lack of official site for this thing, as a result there may be some inconsistencies. Use the specs below as a suggestion of what to expect rather than a promise as I didn’t get chance to do all the measurements personally.

Read full article @ Play3r

SteelSeries Stratus XL Bluetooth gamepad Review

Regular readers of my reviews will no doubt be well aware that I'm real picky about my input devices. After all, that's why I do these reviews. It's not just mice and keyboards that I'm particularly persnickety about, though; I'm picky about my pads, too. Today, the test subject under the lights is SteelSeries' Stratus XL wireless controller.

The Stratus XL is a Bluetooth gamepad with 11 buttons, two triggers, a directional pad, and two analog sticks. Savvy readers will note that this is the exact same configuration as a standard Xbox or PlayStation controller from the last few generations of consoles. In fact, the layout of the controller takes cues from both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 controllers. The sticks are in the center, PlayStation-style, while the face buttons are more Xbox-ian in their arrangement.

Read full article @ The Tech Report