Alas, Meta did not show any more of it after that announcement, nor would it even say anything about the state of the game's development: When asked about it by UploadVR in 2023, for instance, Meta simply refused to comment. Now, finally, it has revealed what's happening with the game, and the news is not good.

"GTA: San Andreas is on hold indefinitely while we both focus on other projects," the official MetaQuestVR account said in response to an inquiry posted on YouTube. "We look forward to working with our friends at Rockstar in the future." Meta later confirmed that statement with IGN.

"On hold indefinitely" is not the same as being cancelled, but it's not a good place to be either. The KOTOR remake we still don't have was "delayed indefinitely" in 2022, for instance, while Life By You suffered the same fate just two weeks ahead of its planned early access release, before being axed outright not long after. In the case of San Andreas VR, Meta's statement that it looks forward to working with Rockstar "in the future"—but not necessarily on this game—does not grant added confidence.

The "not dead but sleeping" status of San Andreas VR could be seen as a reflection of the broader state of VR gaming. Adoption rates remain stubbornly low (the latest Steam Hardware and Software Survey indicates that well under 2% of Steam users are rocking VR headsets, a figure that hasn't moved meaningfully in years), there still hasn't been a killer game for VR platforms, and of course there's the whole upchuck thing that still hasn't been overcome—and even if you're not a puker, VR hardware is typically bulky, uncomfortable, and a headache to set up.

In spite of those challenges, though, VR development overall doesn't appear to be slowing down. IO Interactive announced Hitman 3 Reloaded VR earlier this year, and a new Batman: Arkham VR game is in the works too; the recent VR Games Showcase revealed numerous others in the works including VR takes on Flatout, Trombone Champ, Wrath: Aeon of Ruin, and a pile of others.

But on the Meta front specifically, the situation is not great. Its Reality Labs VR division is burning through mountains of money at an astounding rate, and there's no realistic hope of a turnaround anytime soon; earlier this month, Meta shuttered Lone Echo studio Ready at Dawn as part of its effort to meet new budgetary reductions.

Take-Two may have also lost interest in the project. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has previously expressed doubts about the VR market, and while that particular comment predates the announcement of San Andreas VR, not a whole lot has changed since then. It's also fair to say the company is probably focused right now on the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6.

Whatever the reason for the indefinite hold, it's still possible that we'll see Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on VR platforms someday, but is it likely? At this point, I'm not overly optimistic. I've reached out to Take-Two for comment and will update if I receive a reply.

MR Technologie (MRT) sued Western Digital in August 2022, claiming that it had infringed upon two patents filed by Dieter Seuss, a professor and head of the Physics of Functional Materials department at the University of Vienna—and owner of MRT (via Blocks & Files). 

The patents referred to methods that increase the signal to noise ratio in a HDD by using anisotropy magnetic effects to help bits change direction. The lawsuit alleged that several of Western Digital's hard drive products contained technology that infringed the patented techniques.

MRT's lawyers reportedly accused WD of misusing these methods, which allowed it to increase areal density on the HDDs in question from 300 Gbit/sq in to 1,000 Gbit/sq in. According to a court transcript obtained by Reuters, MRT attorney Mark Fenster of Russ August & Kabat said, during closing arguments:

"Without using these inventions, Western Digital would not be able to compete in the market."

Western Digital attorney Douglas Lumish disagreed: "MRT's lawyers have given false credit, to a fairly magnificent extent, to Dr. Suess for the work of thousands of [Western Digital] engineers over decades and across the planet."

Western Digital has said it will appeal the verdict "as soon as possible".

For a company with an estimated net worth of $20.86 billion as of August 16 this year, rustling up $262m in damages may seem like a drop in the ocean. That being said, the accusation that Western Digital violated patent rights in order to compete in the storage market will sting, and it's likely WD will do everything within its power to attempt to remove that unsightly mark from its name. Just when you thought spinning platter hard drives were boring, ey?

But beyond looking odd (it can't just be me crossing my eyes looking at a desktop mobo with no RAM sticking up from the board, can it?), there are several potential advantages to the new form factor, at least according to MSI. It live-streamed a deep dive into CAMM2, espousing the benefits of the new standard and why it might show up in your next build (via Wccftech).

Unlike traditional RAM sticks, CAMM2 modules are directly connected to the corresponding CAMM2 interface, rather than via SI (System Interface) "stubs" which limit the bus speed. This more direct connection allows both the inner and outer IMC (Integrated Memory Controller) channels to connect to a single CAMM2 module, which means you can have dual-channel operation on a single module—unlike SO-DIMMs, for example, where you'd need two separate sticks.

CAMM2 motherboards also require few (and shorter) signal traces, cutting down on costs and potentially leading to higher clocks and lower latency.

The modules have a smaller PCB overall compared to traditional RAM sticks of similar capacity, with only a single PMIC (Power Management Integrated Circuit). Not only does this lead to further reduced costs compared to a traditional DIMM, but lower power consumption and less heat.

Speaking of heat, CAMM2 is also said to improve cooling. Essentially, RAM sticking up proud from the motherboard can block airflow to the underneath of a CPU cooler, whereas mounting it flush allows air to pass over the top. Traditional RAM sticks can also get in the way of fan placement and water-cooling system tubing, whereas clever old CAMM2 tucks itself neatly to the board, leading to more cooling options.

That being said, Bitspower has already shown off a water block designed to sit on top of a CAMM2 module, which takes up a fair bit of the space that would be otherwise saved and looks like it might reduce some of those benefits for the rest of the system.

That's not to say all cooling solutions would need to be that large, however. MSI's CAMM2 heatsink features a thermal pad on the front-facing part of the module, with a corresponding thermal pad on the PCB that directs heat to a metal mounting bracket on the rear side of the mobo. Dual-channel CAMM2 DDR5 module designs feature DRAM ICs on the rear, necessitating the rear pad and bracket solution to stay chilled.

And finally, there's repairability to consider. CAMM2 connectors are said to be cross-compatible across all motherboards and aren't soldered to the board. This means that, unlike a traditional DIMM slot, if one becomes damaged then it should be a lot easier to replace. 

There's also only one way it fits into place, which should help prevent the cack-handed among us (and I'm including myself here) from forcing a square peg into a round hole.

Overall then, CAMM2 modules may well be an improvement over the current form factor, and they look pretty neat, to boot. With rear-connector motherboards cropping up left right and centre, and manufacturers like Asus experimenting with innovative cable-hiding methods, it looks like we'll be seeing some very flush-looking desktop PC internals in the next few years—although whether CAMM2 ends up becoming the new RAM standard overall, I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

MSI RTX 4080 Super | 16 GB GDDR6 | 10,240 CUDA Cores | 2,595 MHz boost | $1,029.99 $855.99 at Walmart (save $174)
With an MSRP of $999, the RTX 4080 Super is a better deal than the original RTX 4080. It's still a lot of money, though, but a deal like this one makes it a very tempting purchase.

RTX 4080 price check: Amazon $958 | Best Buy $959.99 | Newegg $959.99View Deal

When Nvidia launched the GeForce RTX 4080 Super earlier this year, we were pleased to see that its MSRP was lower than the original RTX 4080's—$999 instead of  $1,199 was a much nicer deal. But given that it was only a fraction quicker, the RTX 4080 Super still felt like it wasn't great value for money.

But this MSI deal goes a long way to counter that and has more than $140 shaved off the Super's suggested retail price.

So what exactly are you getting for your $856? As with all of the current Nvidia RTX 40-series, it's powered by the Ada Lovelace architecture, which is well regarded for being light on power consumption but heavy on the gaming chops. The RTX 4080 Super sports 10,240 CUDA cores (you can just call them shaders, if you like) and this MSI model's boost clock of 2,595 MHz means it has a peak FP32 throughput of 53.1 TFLOPS.

If you're not sure if that's a lot, only the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and RTX 4090 are higher (61.4 and 82.6 TFLOPS, respectively).

The RX 7900 XTX is a good GPU to compare the RTX 4080 Super against because this MSI model is cheaper than AMD's best GPU by a little over $50. While the Radeon card has more VRAM (24 vs 16 GB) and is a bit faster in games using standard rasterization, the RTX 4080 Super is considerably quicker when ray tracing is being used.

And then you've got the full DLSS 3.5 feature set of the RTX card. Both GPUs support upscaling and frame interpolation for boosting performance, but Nvidia's AI-powered systems are generally better especially its frame generation system. In terms of performance, there's not much to separate them, but DLSS arguably produces better-looking results.

Something else that the RTX 4080 Super is better at is managing its power consumption. On paper, there's not much to separate them, with the Nvidia card having a 320 W limit and the Radeon topping out at 355 W. However, in actual gaming, the Ada Lovelace chip generally stays around the 300 W mark, whereas the RDNA 3 processor heads north of 340 W.

That makes it a little easier for the graphics card's cooler to keep things...err...cool and more importantly, it means the RTX 4080 Super is generally the quieter of the two cards.

At $999, the GeForce RTX 4080 Super is a great but expensive graphics card, but with this deal, it's a much nicer prospect. It's still a lot of money, of course, but until the next generation of GPUs arrives from AMD, Intel, and Nvidia, it's as good as it gets right now.

Arm is said to be employing a team of up to 100 GPU engineers at its development center in Ra'anana, Israel. But what's not clear is what kind of graphics architecture they've been tasked to build, with the two obvious options being aimed at video rendering or AI training and inferencing. 

Arm already has several GPU designs on its shelves, including the Mali and Immortalis series, which are typically offered as IP that chip makers can licence. Arm itself isn't in the business of making and selling GPUs. That applies to CPUs, too, which are the mainstay of its chip-design licensing business.

However, the Mali and Immortalis series are fairly traditional graphics units that are actually intended to process, well, graphics. That's a whole different ball game from building a GPU to process AI.

Granted, Nvidia's AI and gaming GPU architectures are developed in tandem and have shared elements. But there's a whole world of difference between a $40,000 Nvida AI chip and even its priciest desktop graphics cards.

Moreover, while Arm has form when it comes to both graphics processing and selling SoCs that include hardware for that specific job, it has no track record in either AI or selling discrete GPUs.

Unfortunately, the Globes story provides few insights into to any of the details. However, it does claim that the Ra'anana facility has been working with Israeli startup NeuReality on its new SR1 hardware for accelerating AI inferencing, which is said to be 90% cheaper than doing the same job with Nvidia GPUs.

All of which means it's hard to draw any firm conclusions. With that in mind, we'd suggest that it's pretty unlikely Arm's plan involves discrete gaming graphics cards. There's far, far more money to be made in cranking out an alternative to Nvidia's all-conquering AI hardware.

On the other hand, those overlaps between graphics and AI acceleration remain. It definitely wouldn't be a complete surprise to see Arm's investments in latter spill over into benefits for gaming graphics.

What's more, with Qualcomm having launched what you might call the first really serious attempt to get an Arm CPU into the PC with the Snapdragon X series, what Arm does in graphics has the potential to be that little bit more relevant to PC gaming and especially mobile gaming.

In short, don't go expecting to buy an Arm graphics card next year. But you might just be playing PC games on an all-Arm handheld somewhere down the road.

Well, spoiler—turns out she is. However, as posted to her Twitter, Black swears up and down that she didn't know: "Tee hee. It sucks keeping secrets. Though I wasn't lying. I honestly thought they were done with my fave mage."

Which is, in all fairness, completely reasonable. Game development takes a long time. What is interesting, however, is that Veilguard—the game formerly known as Dreadwolf—was playable from "start to finish" back in October 2022, less than a month before Black made her initial tweet, implying that its story was at least in its first draft state before she knew she was going to be making a return.

This is less evidence of some grand conspiracy, and more a fun 'how the sausage gets made' moment. BioWare seemingly hammers everything into rough shape before getting its major voice actors on board or, at the very least, saves shorter roles for later on in the development cycle.

"On my life I didn't know," Black insists in a separate reply. As for what it's like to step into the shoes of Morrigan once more, she adds: "it's great to be asked back because she's such a beloved character—by us all. It also brought back memories because my actual son voiced Kieran and I was a very proud mama."

It's great to have her back, honestly. Dragon Age: Origins was a pretty formative game for me growing up—I had both Alistair and Morrigan in my party because their completely incompatible brands of snark gave me endless joy, helped tremendously by some excellently smarmy performances from both Black and Alistair's Steve Valentine.

As for Veilguard, I'm not completely sold just yet—but I'm hopeful that its most recent trailer is a sign of things to come. Besides, even if it's not my cup of tea, I'm sure Morrigan will be a highlight. She's the OG Witch of the Wilds, after all.

While Krafton wanted to "inherit the entire development team" (as per a statement from Krafton PR, shared by Stephen Totilo in both his GameFile newsletter and on Twitter) the publisher hasn't managed to get the full breadth of talent it made the "acqui-hire" for. Here's the full statement:

"KRAFTON plans to transfer approximately 50 development staff from Tango Gameworks to KRAFTON's Japan subsidiary. These transferred staff will continue to work on new projects, including the expansion of the HI-FI RUSH IP, at KRAFTON."

That's almost exactly half of the studio's previous size (via Genki_JPN on Twitter). Given Krafton's explicit statement that it wanted to get the entire team transferred, it's a reasonable assumption that most of Tango Gameworks' former staff have found new employment—or, more pessimistically, ducked out of the industry entirely, which is not an impossible prospect considering just how grim things have been.

The deal, as Totilo writes, was "effective Aug 1"—leaving a roughly three-month gap between the initial closures, which took place in May, and the certain knowledge that Tango wouldn't be closing its doors for good.

Tango Gameworks' current website has several job listings available—animators and programmers, as well as sound, environment, and UI designers, plus VFX, character, and concept artists are all wanted at the studio. That's a wide roster of talent, though whether Krafton intends to replenish its numbers back to the pre-closure times remains to be seen.

As per Krafton's initial statement earlier this week, the studio appears focused on the Hi-Fi Rush IP in particular—which tracks. While Ghostwire: Tokyo didn't do abysmally, Hi-Fi Rush captured more of the public's imagination as an exciting and vibrant new IP and, in Aaron Greenberg of Microsoft's own words: "was a break out hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations". Which, as you might imagine, makes Tango's closure all the more perplexing.

According to Microsoft, this exact issue is affecting certain installs of Outlook, Word and OneNote, and its Outlook and Office teams are currently investigating (via Neowin). In a support post, MS defines the problem as:

"After updating to [Office] Version 2407 Build 17830.20138 or higher you find that Outlook, Word, or OneNote may unexpectedly close when typing or doing other authoring tasks such as spell check."

Yep, the simple act of typing or performing a spell check can cause the applications to close, undoubtedly inspiring a choice selection of curse words from affected users. Microsoft says that you can confirm the issue by looking for Event 1000 or Event 1001 in the Windows Event Viewer Application Log and that the issue may be caused by older language packs:

"The faulting module name will vary depending on what language packs you have installed. For example, mscss7it.dll for Italian, or mscss7ge.dll, for German, and others could include: EN, ES, FR, GE, IT, NP, PB."

Currently, MS advises a workaround involving an online repair of the affected Office application, searching for and uninstalling old Office language installations, and reinstalling the Language Accessory Pack for Microsoft 365. 

Affected users are also pointed towards a thread on the Microsoft forums in which multiple users report their Outlook installations crashing from simply typing, saving drafts, and typing in different languages—both in the Windows version and the Android application. 

Many of the users in the thread report that they were typing in (or spellchecking) German when the problem occurred, although by the look of the support post MS seems to think multiple languages could cause the affected apps to close.

Chalk one up for Notepad, I guess, although it's not like you can send an email with the app I internally refer to as "Ol' Reliable". Still, it does have a surprisingly good spellcheck and multiple useful features these days, and I've yet to have it crash on me while I'm taking notes. Sometimes the classics are the best, ey?

Trombone Champ, 2022's funniest PC gaming phenomenon, is getting a snazzy VR version that aims to fully immerse you in fudging your way through Ode to Joy with the world's most inherently comical musical instrument.

Titled Trombone Champ: Unflattened, this VR version will put players on a virtual stage in front of a "live" audience, letting you slide that trombone with your own two hands as you attempt to play a variety of classic musical pieces. Judging by the announcement trailer (viewable above) the VR version will feature the original's surrealist humour and card-collecting system, letting you exchange cards for novelty trombones you can use to wow/further irritate your audience.

Unflattened isn't developed by Holy Wow Studios, creators of the magnificently daft original. Instead, design duties are being handled by Flat2VRStudios, which is also working on a VR version of destruction racer Flatout, and assisting with an upcoming VR port for retro shooter Wrath: Aeon of Ruin.

The original Trombone Champ became an overnight sensation following Chris Livingston's delightfully dreadful rendition of Beethoven's 5th, selling an estimated 265,000 copies on Steam. "If Beethoven wasn't rolling over in his grave it was only because he'd already burst out of it, staggered around shrieking, and then vomited," Chris wrote of his own performance in 2022. "In Trombone Champ, playing the trombone badly is just as much fun as playing it well, which is just one reason why I love it."

I was likewise given abdominal cramp by Trombone Champ when it released, and I can certainly see the appeal of a VR version. The trombone is arguably the ideal VR instrument, pleasingly physical yet functionally simple enough to adapt well to VR controls (unlike, say, the piano or the guitar). That said, I do wonder whether the VR version risks exhausting the joke. Part of Trombone Champ's charm is how rough and ready it is, with your tooted tunes played to garish backgrounds that often resemble a lost ytmnd page. I worry putting on a VR headset to poorly play a fake trombone in a simulated theatre is all too much effort for something so inherently throwaway.

But perhaps I'm just being a curmudgeon. The world certainly won't be lesser for the existence of Unflattened. We'll find out how well Trombone Champ adapts to three dimensions soon, as the game is due to launch on Quest and Steam this autumn.

You will if you pick up the ongoing Beamdog and Owlcat: RPG Masters Bundle over at Humble, anyway. For $35 (£27), you can pick up eight meaty RPGs and a bunch of DLC in a bundle consisting of:

• Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader
• Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (plus its season passes)
• Pathfinder: Kingmaker Enhanced Plus edition (plus its season pass)
• Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition: Complete Adventures
• Baldur's Gate 2 Enhanced Edition
• Baldur's Gate 1 Enhanced Edition
• Planescape: Torment Enhanced Edition
• Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition

For $15 (£11.60), you can get all that without Rogue Trader, which might be the move. The game has its defenders, but our own Jody Macgregor scored it 59% in his Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader review, critiquing its bugginess and messy rules. Still, it's had a fair few patches since then and currently sits at a 77% "Mostly positive" rating on Steam, so it's up to you whether to give it a chance.

Per How Long To Beat, a "Main story + extras" playthrough of those games—sans DLC—comes in at about 650 hours of your time, or 27 days. And what a 27 days it would be, folks. Three of those games—Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 plus Planescape—are bonafide, all-timer classics, and if you're one of the many, many people who have recently gotten into the series via BG3, you owe it to yourself to go back and experience the original games. 

They're different, yes, and old, but they're still some of my favourite games ever made: A single, epic RPG story spanning two games (and two expansions), where you go from a puny level 1 runt fleeing packs of gibberlings to a plane-striding titan doing battle with gods and devils.

Planescape, meanwhile, is Disco Elysium before Disco Elysium: A profoundly weird journey to the centre of the self where you play a man with no memory cursed to a life of undeath. It's a game that's often copied but rarely surpassed, and it still tells one of the best stories in the medium 25 years after its release.

The rest aren't quite pantheon-level classics, but they all have their stalwart fans. PCG's Ted Litchfield might report me to HR if I didn't mention how important Neverwinter Nights is to his own RPG-loving life journey, while I still need to get round to playing Wrath of the Righteous like I've been promising him for actual years at this point.