Tag:

explains

Helldivers 2 Dev Explains Why The Game Takes Up So Much Space On PC

by admin October 4, 2025

Have you ever noticed that Helldivers 2 takes up a lot more room on PC than it does on either Xbox Series X|S or PlayStation 5? At 150GB, the game is roughly three times bigger on PC than on consoles. According to Arrowhead game studio deputy technical director Brendan Armstrong, the reason why is that Helldivers 2 is still catering to a small segment of PC users.

In a lengthy post on Steam, Armstrong wrote that Helldivers 2’s install footprint is so large because most of it is duplicated for the benefit of players who still use mechanical hard disk drives. It’s an antiquated process that features duplicate data grouped close together in order to reduce loading times. Armstrong notes that the duplication is not necessary for players who have long since upgraded to solid state drives, but Arrowhead has had difficulty determining how many players remain on mechanical HDDs.

“How many Helldivers 2 players are still using mechanical HDD? The truth is that we don’t currently know,” Armstrong wrote. “Even the Steam user surveys are unable to give us data on mechanical HDD use in the overall gamer population. Our best estimates put it at around 12% of all PC gamers, but the data is very unreliable and relies on a lot of extrapolations. Until we can more accurately determine the number of mechanical HDDs that Helldivers 2 is installed on, it is difficult to know how many players will be impacted by reducing the amount of data duplication. Even if that number is small, keep in mind that the load time for each player dropping into a mission is determined by the slowest member of the squad.”

Armstrong laid out some potential solutions and noted that the next update will make some progress towards shrinking the file size. However, he warns that players may not notice the difference “because the new stuff we’ve added will eat those gains.” For a medium-term solution, Arrowhead plans to bundle common assets together rather than featuring so many duplicate files. The downside is that it will make the game slightly slower for mechanical HDD users, but he hopes to keep the load times to “less than 30 seconds.”

Going forward, Arrowhead will also work to improve its engine and improve compression techniques that reduce the need for duplication. However, Armstrong added that the studio doesn’t know yet if the impact on load times will make this an infeasible solution.

Arrowhead Game Studio CEO Shams Jorjani recently stated that the team’s goal for Helldivers 2 is to keep it going forever, rather than moving on to Helldivers 3. The studio also released a patch that tackled cave crashes and audio bugs. More recently, Arrowhead acknowledged a long list of problems to address, including “issues including performance drops, stability hiccups, freezes, and the annoying audio bugs.” An update is planned for later this month, but many of those issues may take more time to fix.

Source link

October 4, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Helldivers 2 developer explains why it’s so big to install on PC, and why that won’t be changing anytime soon

by admin October 3, 2025

Helldivers 2 takes up around 150GB to install on PC (three times larger than on console), and the game’s deputy technical director has now explained why that won’t be changing anytime soon.

In a new blog post on Steam, Arrowhead’s Brendan Armstrong explained for the PC version the developers utilised data duplication to reduce loading times, something that’s primarily used to optimise games for HDDs.

As the older storage drives use a physical arm to read data, duplicating that data can make it quicker to find and thereby reduce loading times. SSDs don’t work in this way, which explains why the console versions of Helldivers 2 take up less storage space.

HELLDIVERS 2 – Into the Unjust | Launch TrailerWatch on YouTube

However, as Armstrong acknowledged, HDDs are part of the game’s minimum specs on PC but the studio doesn’t know how many players are still using them.

“Our best estimates put it at around 12 percent of all PC gamers but the data is very unreliable and relies on a lot of extrapolations,” said Armstrong. “Until we can more accurately determine the number of mechanical HDDs that Helldivers 2 is installed on, it is difficult to know how many players will be impacted by reducing the amount of data duplication. Even if that number is small, keep in mind that the load time for each player dropping into a mission is determined by the slowest member of the squad.”

Still, the studio is “actively exploring” a number of solutions for the future, although it “cannot eliminate all duplication without making loading times for mechanical HDDs 10 times slower and we do not feel that this is acceptable”.

In the short term, unused assets will be removed in the next update, though these will be replaced by new additions so won’t reduce the amount of storage space required.

A medium term solution is to bundle frequently used assets and remove duplicates, though Armstrong admitted this would increase load times for players using HDDs. In the long term, engine improvements are planned to not waste RAM loading data that isn’t needed.

A further solution would be to make the highest resolution textures an optional download. However, this isn’t natively supported in Arrowhead’s engine so would be a substantial project, Armstrong explained. As such, time on this would not be spent elsewhere on optimising performance or fixing stability issues.

“We’re taking your concerns very seriously but there are no easy solutions,” Armstrong surmised. “Until we live in a world where we know that most of our PC players are using SSD drives, sacrificing some extra hard drive space is necessary to ensure we’re all able to load into missions in a reasonable amount of time. We’ve clearly reached the limits of how much duplicated data is acceptable so smarter solutions and compromises are now required. We are very carefully weighing up the costs and tradeoffs of the options we have, and we’ll be sure to find a better balance between loading times and installation size soon.”

As a broader issue of game size, Armstrong’s reasoning explains why many modern games on PC now require an SSD, even as a minimum requirement. Arrowhead has instead aimed Helldivers 2 at a wider spectrum of PC specs, but this comes at a storage cost.

This blog post is the first of what the developer aims to be a series of posts detailing the technical challenges it’s working on.

An update for Helldivers 2 is due later this month to alleviate a number of performance issues players are currently experiencing, particularly as the game has grown in size and content since release.

Helldivers 2 also made its way to Xbox Series X/S consoles back in August, becoming the first Sony-published game on the platform and further broadening the audience.

Source link

October 3, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

Bloomberg Explains $11 Trillion Behemoth Vanguard’s Possible Crypto Pivot

by admin October 2, 2025

During a recent appearance on Bloomberg TV, reporter Isabelle Lee explained Vanguard’s possible pro-crypto pivot, clarifying that it is still unclear whether the $11 trillion financial behemoth will end up offering cryptocurrency products on its platform.

“It’s not a ‘yes’ yet, but it’s not a ‘no’ anymore,” she said while commenting on her recent reporting.

Lee recalled how former Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley claimed that the company would never add Bitcoin funds.

John Bogle, the late founder of the financial titan, previously stated that Bitcoin should be avoided “like the plague,” arguing that the cryptocurrency’s value depends entirely on the level of speculative demand.

Influence of new CEO

As reported by U.Today, Salim Ramji, Vanguard’s recently appointed CEO, helped to launch BlackRock’s highly successful iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT).

The astounding success of this product might now be too hard for BlackRock to ignore, which has prompted the recent move.

Lee believes that Ramji might have played a role in this since he has expressed openness to blockchain and Bitcoin. “He’s the first outsider ever to become the CEO of Vanguard…” she noted.

That said, the new Vanguard CEO previously rejected the idea of launching a Bitcoin ETF shortly after his appointment.

Source link

October 2, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Former Rockstar VP Talks GTA 6, Explains Why Bully 2 Never Happened

by admin September 29, 2025

In 2020, Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser left the company after over two decades as one of the driving forces behind the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption franchises. While Houser has since launched a new company, Absurd Ventures, he recently shared his thoughts on Grand Theft Auto 6 and explained why Bully 2 never materialized.

During a panel appearance at Los Angeles Comic Con (via IGN), Houser was asked about how he feels regarding GTA 6, the first Grand Theft Auto game in decades that he had no involvement with.

“I think it’s a great privilege to have worked on something that big–you know, I wrote the last 10 or 11 of them, so I think the world’s probably had enough GTA from me … There’s always a new story, so it’s not going to be a story that I wrote or a character set that I developed. I think it’s going to be exciting. The game will be great, I’m sure.”

Houser has previously voiced his desire to see a sequel to Bully, the 2006 game set at a boarding school. When he was asked about the reasons why Bully 2 didn’t come to pass, Houser cited “bandwidth issues,” before adding, “If you’ve got a small lead creative team and a a small senior leadership crew, you just can’t do all the projects you want … With certainly how we’re structuring it, [we were] trying to do two projects with a very fairly small team, and just really trying to think through that. ‘How can we do that and keep them both moving?'”

Picking a favorite game from his time at Rockstar proved to be difficult for Houser. He noted that Red Dead Redemption 2 was “the best thing that I worked on [and the] best single kind of realization of open-world storytelling thematic consistency and understanding how the games are assembled to take you on an an emotional journey.” He also cited GTA 4, GTA 5, Bully, and Red Dead Redemption as some of his best experiences at Rockstar.

Houser’s next project is a comic book miniseries called American Caper, which will be released by Dark Horse Comics on November 12. He also said that Absurd Ventures’ first video games will be a currently untitled “open-world third-person comedy,” and A Better Paradise, which he described as “a third-person dystopian tragedy.” Both games are still early in development.

Source link

September 29, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

Peter Schiff Explains Why Strategy (MSTR) Should Have Bought Gold Instead of Bitcoin

by admin September 28, 2025

Analysts mapped a slow-grind path for bitcoin and flagged $112,000 as the trigger while gold advocate Peter Schiff revived the gold-versus-bitcoin debate by challenging Michael Saylor’s BTC treasury bet for his firm.

CoinDesk Senior Analyst James van Straten said bitcoin’s market structure has shifted alongside gold’s repricing.

He expects a slow, stair-step advance supported by steady ETF inflows, with 10–20% pullbacks along the way. He compared the setup to gold in the early 2000s, when prices climbed for years but often paused for healthy corrections.

In his framing, bitcoin may sometimes lag gold and sometimes outperform it, yet he still sees bitcoin leading on total returns over a full cycle.

Read More: Bitcoin Trails Equities, Metals, and USD in Q3. Here Is a Key Level to Watch for Next Move

Michaël van de Poppe focused on near-term levels.

He called sub-$107,000 a buy zone, signaling where he thinks dip buyers are likely to step in. He also pointed to $112,000 as the ceiling to beat. A clean break and hold above $112,000 on UTC closes would, in his view, confirm strength and broaden risk appetite, the point at which flows often rotate into large altcoins. That is what he means by “altcoin mode.”

Euro Capital CEO Peter Schiff, meanwhile, challenged Michael Saylor’s strategy by contrasting Strategy’s bitcoin exposure with a hypothetical gold program.

His core claim is liquidity. He argued that tens of billions of dollars in gold could be sold with limited market impact, while trying to exit a similar bitcoin position could hit prices hard and set off copycat selling.

Supporters of bitcoin would counter that any large seller could stage exits over time and use over-the-counter channels, but Schiff’s point is that gold’s market depth offers more flexibility to very large holders.

CoinDesk Research analysis

Window: Sept. 27, 09:00 UTC to Sept. 28, 08:00 UTC.
What happened: According to CoinDesk Research’s technical analysis data model, bitcoin consolidated in about a $692 band (~1%), between $109,156.82 and $109,849.28.
Support showed up: repeated holds near ~$109,400 late on Sept. 27 (UTC).
Resistance formed: ~$109,750 capped rebounds in that same late-evening window.
Final 60 minutes: between 07:09 UTC and 08:08 UTC on Sept. 28, price popped to $109,663.84 at 08:03 UTC, then settled near ~$109,580, turning ~$109,575 into fresh, short-term support.
Read-through: Support ~$109,400–$109,575; resistance ~$109,750. A UTC close above ~$109,750 sets up $110,000–$111,000. Lose ~$109,400, and ~$109,150 is next.

Latest 24-hour and one-month chart read

24-hour context (as of Sept. 28, 14:41 UTC): price near $109,724 sits above ~$109,400/109,575 support and below ~$109,750 resistance. A break and hold above ~$109,750 (UTC) points to $110,000–$111,000, with $112,000 the broader momentum trigger many traders watch. A slip back under ~$109,400 risks a retest of ~$109,150, then ~$108,500.
One-month context: after mid-September highs near ~$117,000, bitcoin has compressed into the $109,000–$112,000 area. Reclaiming and holding $112,000 would likely reignite upside momentum. Failing that, more sideways consolidation is the base case rather than a trend break on its own.

Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.

Source link

September 28, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

How Digital Asset Treasury Firms Could Reshape Blockchain Economies, Hedge Fund Explains

by admin September 27, 2025

Crypto treasury firms that stockpile tokens could evolve from speculative wrappers into long-run economic engines for blockchains, argues Syncracy Capital co-founder Ryan Watkins.

Digital asset treasury (DAT) firms are publicly traded companies that raise capital to acquire and manage crypto on their balance sheets.

In a Sept. 23 blog post and an accompanying thread on X, Watkins said DATs already hold roughly $105 billion in assets across bitcoin, ether and other majors, a scale that few market participants have fully considered.

His core claim: a small number of these firms may mature into durable operators that help finance, govern and build within the networks whose tokens they hold.

Beyond speculation

Watkins said most attention has fixated on near-term trading dynamics — premiums to net asset value, fundraising announcements and “what’s the next token”—which misses the larger arc.

“We imagine select DATs becoming for-profit, publicly traded counterparts to crypto foundations, but with broader mandates to deploy capital, operate businesses, and participate in governance,” he wrote.

Because some DATs already control meaningful slices of token supply, their treasuries can be more than vaults; they can be policy and product levers inside ecosystems.

He pointed to crypto-native examples where scale matters: on Solana, RPC providers and proprietary market makers that stake more SOL can improve transaction landing and spread capture; on Hyperliquid, front ends that stake more HYPE can lower user fees or increase take rates without raising costs.

Access to large, permanent pools of native assets can help such businesses bootstrap and scale, he said.

Programmable money, productive balance sheets

Watkins contrasted these plays with MicroStrategy’s bitcoin-only strategy, which is largely about capital structure around a non-programmable asset.

He went on to say that by comparison, tokens on smart contract platforms — ETH, SOL, HYPE — are programmable and can be put to work on-chain.

DATs holding them can stake for fees, supply liquidity, lend, participate in governance and acquire “ecosystem primitives” such as validators, RPC nodes or indexers, turning treasuries into yield-generating balance sheets.

Structurally, he likened winning DATs to a hybrid of familiar models: the permanent capital of closed-end funds and REITs, the balance-sheet orientation of banks, and the compounding ethos of Berkshire Hathaway.

What makes them distinct, he said, is that returns accrue in crypto per share rather than via management fees, making the vehicles closer to pure plays on underlying networks than to traditional asset managers.

He argued that tools like common equity, convertibles and preferreds give DATs flexible funding to expand balance sheets, while on-chain yields can help manage that funding over time.

Winners—and risks

Watkins cautioned that “not all DATs will make it.”

He expects many first-generation vehicles—those heavy on financial engineering and light on operating substance — to fade as conditions normalize. As competition intensifies, he anticipates consolidation, experiments with more exotic financing and, at times, reckless balance-sheet moves if premiums flip to discounts and pressure builds.

In his view, the survivors will be those that pair disciplined capital allocation with operating chops, recycling cash flows into token accumulation, product building and ecosystem expansion. “Over time, the best managed ones could evolve into the Berkshire Hathaways of their blockchains,” he wrote.

Source link

September 27, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

James Gunn Explains Why That ‘Superman’ Cameo on ‘Peacemaker’ Wasn’t Who You Hoped

by admin September 27, 2025

If you watched the latest episode of the HBO Max original and DC Studios series Peacemaker, the question on every Superman fan’s mind has been answered by James Gunn. We finally know who shows up to help Rick Flag Sr. and ARGUS course-correct Peacemaker’s whole portal door to Earth X (Nazi America) ordeal, leading into the show’s finale.

However, if you haven’t watched, a spoiler warning is ahead!

When it came down to who to get help from with finding the 11th Street Kids and where they took the portal, ARGUS director Rick Flag Sr. went to the most powerful villain they have in their pocket (jail cell). And that, of course, is Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), who has a big price to use his tech to track down Peacemaker and friends.

In an interview with Variety, director and DC head James Gunn discussed the cameo that many thought would be David Corenswet as Superman and why it’s not (despite a certain Peacemaker x Supes selfie). Gunn even went as far as squashing our hopes to see an Earth X or Earth-1 Man of Steel, telling the trade, “No,” to the possibility: “In fact, David was very upset that Nick got to be on the show, and he didn’t. It just didn’t work.”

So no Nazi Superman, which in a way is a relief because we don’t want to tarnish the feel-good way Corenswet opened his era as the hero.

Gunn continued to explain why he needed Hoult back: “I needed Lex in the show to serve a specific purpose. And actually, what Lex and Rick Flag are up to affects very much what happens in an aspect of Man of Tomorrow. So all of that is connected. But this relationship between Rick Flag and Lex Luthor is a potentially negative thing for Superman and all meta-humans.”

He also discussed that it has all been in alignment with his plans for DC Studios as part of his universe reset pitch from the get-go. “I didn’t know some things about it, but I knew what the overall story of the DCU was. That was something I pitched to [Warner Bros. Discovery CEO] David Zaslav before we even took the job. I’m like, here’s the story. There’s going to be this movie, this show, this movie, this show, and those things all fit in in different ways. Some things came, like Clayface, that we didn’t expect, and other things have been a harder road to travel. But the general outline of that overall story is what we are following through Superman, Peacemaker, Man of Tomorrow, and beyond.”

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

Source link

September 27, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Earth’ Sound Designer Explains That Xenomorph Baby Talk

by admin September 26, 2025

While Alien: Earth fans nervously await FX’s confirmation that the Noah Hawley show will be returning for a second season—that cliffhanger finale made it seem pretty likely—there’s still plenty to ponder about season one. There are lots of big lingering questions around exactly how the superpowered hybrid Wendy (Sydney Chandler) was able to talk to Xenomorphs—and why these apex predators decided to obey her commands.

The people behind the show aren’t divulging any details just yet, but we do have a little more sense of how Alien: Earth approached those crucial communications.

We get a visceral demonstration of Wendy’s special connection with the Xenomorphs when we see her close encounter with something entirely new in the sci-fi franchise: a sort of toddler-age Xenomorph. We’ve seen eggs, facehuggers, chestbursters, and seven-foot monsters, but a cute li’l Xeno is unexplored territory. That’s right, we said cute—which is exactly how the show’s sound editor/designer, Lee Gilmore, also described it in a new interview with IGN.

“We wanted to make sure that when we see the baby Xeno, when he comes out for the first time and she’s talking to him, there’s almost a cute element to it,” explained Gilmore. “And it was great, because it kind of lulls the audience into… This is a cool little pet, you know. And then he totally rages out and slams himself against the window, and you realize, oh, this thing’s a killing machine.”

One of Gilmore’s biggest challenges for Alien: Earth was coming up with the language Wendy uses to talk to the aliens, no matter their size. It’s a clicking, whirring array of sounds, and the pint-sized guy got his own special adjustments. On the show, it’s totally convincing: these two are fully conversing.

“You had to find a balance between cute, chirpy things that signify that he’s still a baby, and then you slowly start integrating more aggressive sounds,” Gilmore said. “And when he’s full-grown, he has a much deeper body to him… We really were very specific in what kind of low elements we added to it. But once he’s like a full-grown adult Xeno, he’s got a lot more weight, a lot more body to him, his growls, and he’s seething.”

Read the full interview, which goes into a lot more detail about not just the Alien: Earth language but the creation of sci-fi languages in general, at IGN.

Source link

September 26, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Viral dog walker who wears massive dachshund outfit explains why he does it

by admin September 24, 2025

A man who has gone viral for watching his dachshund while he wears an inflatable sausage dog costume has explained why he does it.

Dog videos have long been one of the internet’s favorite genres, especially when it comes to dachshunds. The mischievous sausage dogs are always up to something and can be the source of big joy.

However, Rich Luchford – who is known as Undercover Daschund on social media – has taken things up a level. The Canadian, who is based in Whitby, Oshawa, has been going viral for walking his dog, Mia, while wearing an inflatable dachshund costume.

Article continues after ad

Luchford regularly posts videos from his own perspective, but is regularly snapped by passersby as well, leading to plenty of laughs.

The roofer admitted that he wasn’t expecting it to “blow up to something like this,” but is just trying to spread some joy during his dog walks.

“People kind of look at me like ‘what is this?’ and other people are smiling and I point at them and say that’s what it’s all about, that smile,” he told CTV News. “I’ve had people scream, stop, say ‘oh my gosh!’ and then drive off.”

Article continues after ad

Luchford was even recognized by the mayor of Whitby for “bringing cheer and happiness to the community.”

It’s not something he just does on special occasions, either, as his daily dog walks mean wearing the suit. He also wants to start a ‘Wiener Dog Wednesday’ event where other dachshund owners can walk with him. However, they don’t have to wear costumes as well.

Luchford’s wife and daughter have also spoken about getting a second dog. Of course, it would be a dachshund.

Article continues after ad

“If I could make some money at this and quit my job and stay home with two dachshunds, I will definitely get two dachshunds,” he added.

He also has goals of appearing at a Toronto Blue Jays game with Mia, so that she can run the bases.

Source link

September 24, 2025 0 comments

Solana’s Alpenglow upgrade vote passes with 98% approval

GameFi Guides

Solana’s stablecoin supply nears $13b: Marinade Labs exec explains why

by admin September 23, 2025

Solana’s stablecoin supply is nearing $13 billion, with the network increasingly dominating stablecoin volumes.

Summary

Solana is becoming dominant in stablecoins, with supply nearing $13 billion
The network processes nearly 50% of all USDC transfers
Nicky Scannella from Marinade Labs explains why users are choosing Solana for stablecoins

Stablecoins are quickly becoming the backbone of crypto, and Solana is capturing an ever-larger share of the pie. The network now hosts $12.8 billion in stablecoins, a figure that may soon surpass its April 2025 highs at $13 million.

Stablecoin market cap on Solana | Source: DeFiLlama

What is more, the Solana network processes almost half of all USDC transactions, with Circle recently minting an additional 250,000 USDC on the network. To explain why Solana is starting to dominate stablecoins, crypto.news reached out to Marinade Labs, a native Solana protocol with over $2.4 billion locked.

Nicky Scannella, in charge of Business Development at Marinade Labs, explained what makes Solana so attractive for stablecoin transfers.

Crypto.news: Solana now hosts over $12B in stablecoin supply — what’s driving this inflow compared to Ethereum or other L1s?

Nicky Scannella: Solana combines liquidity, security, and efficiency at scale, with the highest on-chain activity of any major chain. That makes it the best home for stablecoins. Add in momentum from SOL ETF approvals and fresh institutional interest from firms like BlackRock and Grayscale, and the inflows make sense.

CN: How do you think the changing U.S. and global regulation of stablecoins will affect protocols like Marinade?

NS: Marinade welcomes regulatory frameworks — we’re prepared, especially with Marinade Select. Clear rules build trust without sacrificing Solana’s decentralized nature. As stablecoin adoption grows, it also pushes us to expand our product line with more stablecoin-focused solutions, which is an exciting direction for us.

CN: TradFi institutions and big tech projects are increasingly eyeing launching their own stablecoins. Given that many of these firms control user on-ramps, how can DeFi compete in the stablecoin realm?

NS: These launches aren’t competition; they’re bridges between TradFi and crypto. DeFi’s edge is openness and inclusivity. Marinade helps power Solana by making it more decentralized, which creates the foundation stablecoins need to grow in a sustainable way.

CN: Marinade recently integrated with Paxos’ USDG stablecoin. What is the significance of this move, and what motivated you to pursue the partnership?

NS: We’re working with USDG because it promotes aligned incentives — the core ethos of Solana. At the same time, USDG fits perfectly with our push to build more stablecoin-based products, which is a growing need as adoption accelerates. This integration makes staking more accessible while reinforcing decentralization on Solana.

Source link

September 23, 2025 0 comments