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Asus heard you like screens, so it put a curved ‘3D effect’ OLED screen on your CPU water cooler

by admin August 20, 2025

ROG Ryuo IV Series ASUS InfoHub Control Guide – YouTube

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We’ve seen CPU coolers with screens before. We’ve seen CPU coolers with OLED screens before. We’ve seen CPU coolers with curved OLED screens before. We’ve even seen CPU coolers with curved, motorised OLED screens before. But have we seen a CPU cooler with a curved, movable 3D-effect OLED screen before? No, sir, we have not. Until today.

Give it up for the ROG Ryuo IV 360 ARGB water cooler, the ultimate checkbox exercise in CPU cooling, announced today at Gamescom. Its finely triangulated USP is a movable curved 6.67-inch AMOLED display that supports “3D-effect videos or customized system information”.

Asus says, “a powerful pump delivers robust cooling performance, higher flow, and lower impedance, while the pre-mounted, daisy-chained ARGB fans provide high airflow and static pressure. Its fans have a low-noise design and feature front and side lighting.”

The cooler supports LGA 1851, 1700, AMD AM5, and AM4 CPU sockets, and features 400mm tubing for better chassis compatibility. There’s also software with support for hardware monitoring and screen content management. Oh, and there’s a white version, too, that’s otherwise identical.

Getting back to that “3D effect” thing, our understanding is that is doesn’t mean some kind of lenticular 3D, as per the Acer Predator SpatialLabs View 27 we recently reviewed. Instead, we’re talking 3D effect as in those videos that use borders and lines to frame movement, plus extreme perspective and a bit of blur. Like this demo video.

Asus doesn’t provide a specific resolution for the display, only describing it at “2K”. But that probably means 1,920 by 1,080, or something very close to that. By default, it can either display one of a number of preloaded 3D effect visuals or a user-configurable suite of hard info, such as CPU temps, fan speeds, voltages, clockspeeds and all that good stuff.

You can also splitscreen the display, so that part of it is showing hardware info, the other trick visuals. And as you can see above, the “3Dness” does actually kinda work.

As for the “movable” bit, the OLED screen is on a slider. So now you know. For the record, the radiator measures 394 by 140 by 32 mm and sports three front-and-side lit 120 mm fans. That setup delivers a rated airflow of 71.44 CFM at a noise level of 39.6 dB(A). The cooler module has a six year warranty, while the screen is covered for two years.

Finally and on the sordid matter of money, this was never gonna be cheap. US pricing hasn’t emerged, but it’s available in the UK for £322, which implies something in the region of $350. Ouch. But then if you want screens on everything, it’s going to cost you.

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August 20, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

‘To put it bluntly, it was copying others’: Former Dragon Quest producer says he left Square Enix because the developer was too focused on making ‘safe’ games

by admin August 20, 2025

Former Dragon Quest producer Ryutaro Ichimura says he left Square Enix because the developer and publisher was too focused on making “safe” games.

In a recent episode of ReHacQ (translated by Automaton), Ichimura says he had always planned to go independent eventually, but Square Enix’s way of handling things sped that process up significantly. According to him, the publisher has been pretty focused on “safe” projects over the last several years, which he wasn’t too keen about.

He says that in comparison to current-day Square Enix, the early days of Dragon Quest were all about innovation. “In Dragon Quest 2, you had a three-person party. In Dragon Quest 3, you could change jobs. In Dragon Quest 4, party members could fight using AI,” he said. “Each entry pushed the series forward, both through the evolution of game mechanics and by leveraging the latest hardware at the time.”

It seems as though Ichimura wasn’t fond of Dragon Quest spin-offs like Builders—a more narrative-driven Minecraft—and the Pokémon Go-inspired Dragon Quest Walk. He says Square Enix pivoted to hitting its own version of popular games to try and nail some guaranteed winners, especially as Dragon Quest’s popularity outside of Japan wasn’t as stellar as it hoped. “To put it bluntly, it was copying others,” Ichimura said.

(Image credit: Square Enix)

Automaton notes that Ichimura calls the Dragon Quest spin-offs “pakuri kikaku,” meaning copycat projects. I do feel like that’s a little harsh in the case of Dragon Quest Builders, which feels like it does enough differently from Minecraft to shake off too many comparisons.

I also feel like if anyone is taking risks with strange games right now, it’s Square Enix. Does it put any effort into marketing any of them? Hell no, but it has at least tried to push out some weirder stuff like Foamstars (which, to be fair, was very Splatoon-coded), Harvestella, and The DioField Chronicle. And lest we forget Forspoken, a game that very much had the potential to be rad if it wasn’t, well, a bit boring.

I do agree with his sentiment at large, though: bigger games are getting safer, and we’re all suffering for it. Why reinvent the wheel when there’s a perfectly good one to slap another coat of paint on and roll out to the masses?

Games are getting more expensive to make and people are increasingly less willing to risk spending the dough on potential duds that get banished to a decades-long backlog. It’s a tough situation to be in on all sides, and while I don’t entirely agree with Ichimura’s sentiment, his frustrations are certainly valid.

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August 20, 2025 0 comments

A child stands on top of a dinosaur exhibit, hugging the nose of a dinosaur skull.

Product Reviews

Two Point Museum’s latest update adds memorial exhibits for staff who vanish on expeditions, which you can put on display or sell for cold, hard profit

by admin June 14, 2025

It may not have caught the same attention as Clair Obscur or Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, but Two Point Museum is quietly one of the best games released this year. Two Point Studio’s latest management sim is comfortably its best yet, and a game that nudges the genre forward in small but meaningful ways. A big part of that is down to its expedition system, where you dispatch different brands of boffins on adventures to retrieve ancient, exotic artifacts for display.

This feature also happens to be at the heart of Two Point Museum’s summer update, which targets the adventurers who fail to return from your relic hunting missions. Now, when one of your experts goes missing, you’ll be granted a memorial exhibit that you can place inside your museum to commemorate the loss.

While hardly the sunniest new feature Two Point Studios could have added given the season, it is neat. Memorials vary depending on the MIA staff’s rank, role and gender, ranging from simple plaques for low-ranking staff, to glittering statues for your most intrepid explorers. You can display these like any other exhibit, but if you don’t want to recognise the deeds of your MIA experts, you can also just sell them so you can expand your gift shop filled with tat.

In any case, it’s a clever way of ensuring you never come away from an expedition empty-handed. Memorials aside, the update also overhauls the underlying expedition system, aiming to reduce randomisation so players don’t have to repeat the same expedition ad nauseum to retrieve every available artifact. Two Point Studios says it’s using a “phased approach” to adding this feature in, starting with eight specific expedition locations on the map.

Two Point Museum: Update 3.0 Trailer | OUT NOW ON STEAM! – YouTube

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Elsewhere, the update adds 30 new posters to decorate your cafeterias and gift shops with, while also making several tweaks to the security simulation. Thieves who manage to nab one of your exhibits will now lug it around in a backpack, making it easier to tell the difference between infiltrating and exfiltrating robbers. In addition, burglars who have been revealed but haven’t nicked anything yet will play “more suspicious animations”.

All of this comes with the usual array of balance tweaks and bug fixes. You can now expect your robot staff to get their perks installed properly, while subtitles for the in-game radio show should now pause with the rest of the game. My favourite fix simply reads “added improvements to the Ransom Message”. Nothing like adding an air of mystery to your changelog.

If you’ve yet to check out Two Point Museum among 2025’s deluge of games, I thoroughly recommend that you do. Mollie was similarly enchanted by it in her Two Point Museum review, calling it ” one of the neatest, most approachable management sims in recent memory”.

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June 14, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

This year’s Oblivion remasters got you desperate for a more modern Morrowind? Then come Nerevar, Skywind’s just put out a fresh gameplay showcase

by admin May 27, 2025

Sure, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered and Skyblivion either already have dropped this year or are set to arrive before 2025 is done. But the people crave more revamps of classic TES games, and the modders behind Skywind – a remake of Morrowind in Skyrim’s engine – have just dropped a fresh gameplay showcase.

Yep, in case you forgot, a group of folks have been dilligently working away on their own modernised interpretation of the game about taking a long walk to a mountain so the most charismatic being ever to rock a loincloth/mask combo can chat you up because you’re a reincarnation of his dead mate.

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This latest look at Skywind is a 20-minute long run through of the Imperial Legion quest to rescue Joncis Dalomax, a knight errant who’s ended up stuck in the Daedric Shrine of Ashurnibibi.

After picking up the mission from Imsin the Dreamer, whose revamped templar knight armour looks damn cool here, at the Buckmoth Legion Fort south of Ald’ruhn, the devs’ Dunmer adventurer makes their way to the shrine, running into a bandit shakdown on the way. They score bonus TES points for emplying the age-old tactic of giving up some cash, then immediately murder-deathing the robber to get it back.

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While there are plenty of cool details – I like the slightly Morrowindy visual flair that’s been added to the ver SkyUI-ish interface all of these Skyrim engine conversions have to use – the aspect of this gameplay showcase I found the most interesting is the architecture of Ashurnibibi. Sure, the exterior of the ruin looks quite Skyrim fort-ish, but once the player’s inside, you can see how much work’s gone into re-creating Morrowind’s otherworldly and jagged Daedric architecture. There are funky patterns on the walls, those weird doors, and murals of death providing the background for skirmishes with the likes of Daedroth and Dremora.

Naturally, this latest bit of gameplay concludes with an update from the Skywind team on their progress, and while the mod’s still without a concrete release date right now, it souns like things are coming along nicely.

“The team has been hard at work this past year and we are excited to share that all 2D art and writing for the base game has now been completed,” the vid’s narrator says, “Other recent advancements include major progress towards creature models and animations, as well as an extensive overhaul of weather, water, and lighting. Additionally, almost all 3000 NPCs have now been cast and voiced.”

Then then go through exactly how each aspect of the mod is progressing, with the bit that caught my attention being that someone’s still needed to play the most important voice acting role – Dagoth Ur. Vivec and Yagrum Bagarn are also still in need of voicebox providers.

Aside from that, the mod team’s looking for volunteers to help develop Skywind, with anyone who has experience “creating 3D clothing models, mixing and mastering voice acting, and implementing assets via the Creation Kit”. Voice file editors, navmeshers, and localisers are also in demand – if any of those fit you, you can head to the mod’s site to apply.

If you want to keep reading about modding that involves revamped versions of old Elder Scrolls games, make sure to check out our series of interviews with Oblivion Remastered modders who’ve been doing cool things – the latest is with ColdTyrant, who’s added a bunch of new faction quests (one of which includes a gacha reward system run by a beloved Morrowind character).

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May 27, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Put All Your Spoilery ‘Last of Us’ Finale Thoughts Here

by admin May 26, 2025

And the long wait for season three begins. Sunday, HBO aired the season two finale of The Last of Us, and it was a lot. Lots to digest for people who are watching this show on their own, and probably even more for people who are watching as fans of the game. Before our larger recap on Monday, we wanted to give you a chance to talk about your feelings, and we even got showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann involved. Spoilers follow.

Season two of The Last of Us ended very much like the midway (ish) point of The Last of Us Part II. After finding and killing two more of Abby’s friends—Mel and Owen—Ellie’s Seattle journey feels like it might be coming to an end. Especially because Mel was pregnant. That was not Ellie’s intention. And so she, Tommy, Dina, and Jesse regroup and decide it’s time to head back to Jackson, even though Abby is still out there.

Just then, Abby arrives. She kills Jesse and threatens to kill the rest. It’s a tense moment that we don’t see the end of. That’s because the show cuts to black and flashes back two days. Abby wakes up at a major WLF base and we know that, next season, we’re going to see what she has been doing all this time.

So, how did that make you feel? Did you like the decision? Did you even get it? At a press conference last week, showrunner Craig Mazin chimed in about how he hopes the audience feels as season two comes to a close.

“What I want the audience to feel thematically at the end of the season is that [the characters] aren’t where they were, but they’re not yet where they are going to go,” Mazin said. “That there has always been a story that we’ve been telling about the good and bad of love, but we switch which side is good and bad sometimes. Because sometimes we do need somebody to punish someone for us. Sometimes we do need somebody to protect us. Sometimes violence must be done to save the innocent. These are difficult moments. But of course, then there are times where sacrifice is called for. Where putting other people first is called for. Where creation does more than destruction.”

“And we are, especially with the porch scene prior to the last episode, and the way we now understand that there is this idea that maybe you could do a little bit better than me, we understand that both Ellie and Abby are moving forward in trouble,” Mazin continues. “They are in moral trouble because their certainty is beginning to fail them. And we can see it here with Ellie, for sure, because faced with the consequences of the thing she’s done and people that didn’t deserve to die dying, she’s starting to feel maybe a swing of the pendulum. And we don’t know where these two are going to end. But what I would hope the audience feels is that they are not done. They’re not done growing or they are not done falling. We’ll have to wait and see which it is.”

“The question that we’re asking and the thing we’re interrogating in this story is: when you’ve committed such horrible things, depending on your circumstance, can you ever come back from that?” Neil Druckmann added. “And we see in that porch scene, Joel is trying to come back from what he’s done even though he doesn’t regret it. And now we have these two characters that are on this downward spiral, trying to do justice for the people that they love and we’ll see how far that goes.”

Do you agree with Mazin and Druckmann here? Talk about that, or whatever else you want to talk about, below. Then check back Monday for not just our final breakdown/recap, but more from the showrunners on the ending of the season.

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.

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May 26, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Embracer Group says it’ll put out 76 different games in the coming year, as it ditches friends for a fellowship and spins off Goat Sim publisher Coffee Stain

by admin May 24, 2025

Damn, the nice little friendship thing Embracer Group had decided to morph into after earning the ire of lots of folks by going hard on the layoffs, closures and sales is no more.

The company’s decided to ditch the “and friends” tag it had given to different bits of its business, and form a fellowship, as it does yet more corporate shuffling around. It does also plan to actually release some more games.

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As announced by Embracer, the bit of previously dubbed Middle-Earth and Friends will now be known as Fellowship Entertainment. As you might have guessed, that’s the part that looks after The Lord of the Rings, as well as housing the studios behind likes of Kingdom Come Deliverance, Tomb Raider, the Metro series, and Dead Island.

With Asmodee, the second of the three bits Embracer divided itself into last year, having spun off from the company as of February this year, it’s the turn of the third bit formerly known as Coffee Stain & Friends to do the same. Now named Coffee Stain Group, the subsidiary that includes the dev teams behind the likes of Deep Rock Galactic, Valheim and Goat Simulator is being released into the economic wild as a separately stock market-listed company.

“The games industry is more competitive than ever, but also more rewarding if you do things right, and we believe this move gives us the clarity and control to navigate the landscape better on our own terms,” Coffee Stain Group CEO Anton Westbergh said, “We can now focus even more on what we do best—supporting our developers, staying close to our communities, and building an even brighter future for Coffee Stain.”

Right, that’s enough on the corporate shuffling of people’s livelihoods. In the financial results it’s published alongside this spin-off announcement, Embracer says that it’s got “76 different games” it plans to release in the coming financial year. There’ll be “a mix of new IPs, sequels, and remasters”, including Killing Floor 3 and the recently delayed Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, with Embracer expecting the latter to “drive notable revenues but to have lower margins due to shared economics with several other partners”.

Another as of yet unannounced AAA game that Embracer things will have “financial dynamics more similar to Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2” is also in the works, but the company reckons it’ll have to be pushed back to the 2026/27 financial year to allow for more “polish”

The rest of the lineup for the upcoming is being filled by the likes of Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core, Metal Eden, and “the next SpongeBob SquarePants game”. Spongebob Squarepants tries to get to the Bikini Bottom of where Embracer’s friends have gone, maybe?

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May 24, 2025 0 comments