It's been a year of ups and downs for Baldur's Gate 3. First revealed during E3 last year, Larian was originally expecting to release the game in early access in August. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic complicated matters, but development still moved along at a decent pace for the folks at Larian - just not fast enough to meet that original August window.
There are some big changes shipping for Rocket League today. Not only does today mark a rather massive shift to a free-to-play model for Rocket League, but it's also the end of an era for the game. With this free-to-play launch, Rocket League has officially left Steam - from here on out, the only place to get the game on PC is through the Epic Games Store.
If there was some question if the 2020 Game Awards would take place because of the COVID-19 pandemic, let it now be answered. Geoff Keighley has confirmed that The Game Awards will indeed be returning for 2020, only in a different format than what we're used to. For starters, there obviously won't be an in-person audience and the entire event will be livestreamed remotely, but that isn't the only change Keighley and his team have in store for this year's show.
Blizzard co-founder and former president Mike Morhaime today announced that he's opening up a new game company with his wife, Amy Morhaime, and a number of former Blizzard employees. That new game company will be called Dreamhaven, and from the start, it'll serve as parent company to two game studios named Moonshot Games and Secret Door. There's a lot we don't know about these companies here at this early stage, but given that they'll now be home to a number of former Blizzard staff, there certainly seems to be reason for players to get excited.
Last week, Hello Games revealed that a new update was on the way for No Man's Sky. Dubbed Origins, Hello Games teased that this update would be "the beginning of something new" for No Man's Sky, at the same time indicating that it wouldn't be as big as some previous updates. Today is apparently the big day, as Hello Games published patch notes for No Man's Sky: Origins just a few minutes ago.
The COVID-19 pandemic delayed or outright cancelled a lot of events over the summer, with one of the most notable delays being that of Amazon's Prime Day. Prime Day usually happens summer with a lot of fanfare behind it, but this year, Amazon opted to delay the event, noting that it still had plans to host Prime Day at some point later that its typical mid-July timing. As it turns out, Prime Day might be quickly approaching, with Amazon apparently planning to hold it in October.
It's a big day for the folks over at HMD Global. Not only is the company launching the Nokia 8.3 5G, but that new phone will be joined by two entry-level budget options: the Nokia 3.4 and the Nokia 2.4. On top of that, HMD Global also announced a number of new accessories for these phones, including the arrival of the Nokia Power Earbuds in the US.
Qualcomm today announced the Snapdragon 750G, which appears to be the successor to the 730G with a major upgrade: 5G support. The 750G will take its place alongside Qualcomm's other 5G-capable 700-series SoCs, and given the numbering, it'll probably be a little less powerful than other chips in the series. Still, Qualcomm is touting some fairly big improvements over the 730G, so the 750G should be a pretty capable SoC.
AMD today announced a collection of Zen-based mobile processors destined for Chromebooks. The new batch of processors includes three Ryzen CPUs and two Athlon CPUs that seem to cover the mid and high-range pretty well. AMD promises some big improvements over previous generation AMD-based Chromebooks, and we should start seeing Chromebooks featuring these new processors launching by the end of the year.
Jabra today announced the Elite 85t earbuds. A follow up to the 75t, the Elite 85t use Jabra's advanced active noise cancelling, which is pitched as a step up from standard noise cancelling as it apparently allows for ANC that's more flexible. Speaking of the Elite 75t, those are getting some love today as well, as Jabra has announced an OTA update for those earbuds that will enable standard ANC.
If you're a Gmail user on iOS, then today is an exciting day. Google has pushed an update to the iOS version of Gmail with some exciting patch notes: Gmail can now be set as your default email app. It seems strange that it's taken until iOS 14 for this feature to roll out, but as the saying goes: better late than never.
On the heels of the announcements of new smartwatches like the Apple Watch Series 6 and the Garmin Forerunner 745, Amazfit has its own wearable reveal to make. Today the company announced the Amazfit Band 5, a new smart band that has a number of fitness tracking features. It's no Apple Watch, but that's true of both its feature set and its price.