Intel ARC A750 Graphics Card Shown Running Death Stranding At 1440p

A couple of weeks ago, Intel officially launched a new website, dedicated towards the latest information pertaining to all news about its ARC GPUs, and along with it, a brief glimpse of the mid-range A750. This week, the latest video revolves around the same card, this time being used to run another game, Death Stranding.

As usual, the short technical demonstration was hosted by none other than Ryan Shrout, Intel Fellow and member of the ARC Graphics Marketing team. In this new video, the A750 is being shown running the Hideo Kojima Production title, along with multiple Intel-focused features turned on as well. Chief among these features being showcased is Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) and HDR.

On a sidenote, it is worth noting that the new video doesn’t include a comparison chart between the A750 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, but the video clearly wasn’t to demonstrate the card’s prowess in other games. Rather, the new video was made to inform consumers how the graphics cards, and all other ARC cards after it, will support any monitor with VRR.

Also on another side note, Intel also gave a breakdown of the rest of the hardware that being used to run the A750 and Death Stranding. This included a 12th Gen Core i9-12900K, an ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 hero, 32GB DDR5-4800 RAM from Corsair, as well as an MP600 Pro XT 4TB NVMe Gen4 SSD from the same brand.

Oh, and the monitor Shrout was using is an Ultra-wide QHD monitor (3440 x 1440), that in turn is also an HDR-capable display.

As you would expect, the demonstration pretty showed the A750 running Death Stranding without any hiccups, thanks in no small part to the VRR feature. As for the HDR portion of the showcase, it was a little difficult to showcase how the feature worked on the camera, but Shrout and his “HDR tester” assured viewers that the feature was definitely working.

Lastly, Shrout explained that all Intel ARC GPUs, including the A750 would definitely support HDMI 2.1, including the Limited Edition cards. However, the chipmaker will be giving OEMs the free hand in integrating the Protocol Converters (PCONs), which could lead to some ARC GPUs supporting HDMI 2.1 only.

Unfortunately, the video did not contain any details regarding the A750’s specification, nor does it provide an official release date about for the card, or any other ARC GPU, for that matter.

Death Stranding Director’s Cut Comes To The PS5 On 24 September

You’ve probably seen the E3 trailer for Death Stranding Director’s Cut. Yes, the trailer with all the Metal Gear Solid references. Kojima Productions and Sony Interactive Entertainment has released a new trailer. It’s not only more grounded, but it also comes with a release date.

So what can you actually expect from Death Stranding Director’s Cut? A lot of the same things from the Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut, actually. To start things off, there are additional story missions weaved into the game. And as you’d expect from a PS5 title, you get all the magic that the DualSense controller is capable of. This ranges from haptic feedback and adaptive triggers to 3D audio. There’s also the usual choice of Performance Mode for upscaled 4K and 60fps, or Fidelity Mode for true 4K and HDR, at the cost of frames.

Then there are the other stuff like new enemies, combat mechanics, tools and weapons. There’s even a firing range for you to test the latter category of new additions. And finally, there’s the Fragile Circuit series of races, the oddest of the bunch.

Death Stranding Director’s Cut will be out on 24 September with a price of RM209. If you want the Digital Deluxe Edition, then this goes up to RM249. Upgrading from the base PS4 version will set you back RM50. Unlike Ghost of Tsushima though, there’s no PS4 version of this Director’s Cut. You’ll have to transfer your save to the new console to experience the new stuff.

Hideo Kojima Prefers Death Stranding Director’s Cut To Be Director’s Plus

Sony Interactive Entertainment and Kojima Productions announced Death Stranding Director’s Cut last week. But Hideo Kojima, the director of the game, isn’t fond of the Director’s Cut part of the name. He laments on Twitter that he wants it to be called something else.

As part of a two-tweet string, Kojima says that a director’s cut suggests an additional edit to a film to shorten it, or published reluctantly because the director did not have the right to edit it. So calling the PS5 version of the game Death Stranding Director’s Cut implies that the original had cut content.

Kojima says that this isn’t the case in the follow up tweet. Instead of what was cut, Death Stranding Director’s Cut added content. Because of that, the director says that he may have preferred if it was called Director’s Plus instead.

Which makes sense. In fact, we have a very good example of a director’s cut in very recent history. It’s just that the movie wasn’t called director’s cut, and people colloquially refer to it with the director’s name instead. In case it needs to be spelled out, I’m talking about the Snyder Cut.

But considering Hideo Kojima, with all his influence, had to settle for the Director’s Cut being added to Death Stranding, there’s little else any of us can do about it. But for what it’s worth, the game itself, with all its new content, will be available on 24 September.

Apple Digital Legacy Service Lets Users Choose Heirs For Their iCloud Data After Death

Apple is adding a Digital Legacy feature that allows users to nominate contacts as legacy contacts who will be granted access to their Apple account in the event of their demise.

For years, users and campaigners have lobbied the tech giant to implement a formalised method of accessing emails, photos, and other contents of a loved one’s iCloud account after their death.

Up until now, the company had only advised users to include access to their personal information in their will:

“We encourage customers to add an inheritance plan to their will that covers the personal information they store on their devices and in iCloud. This may simplify the process of acquiring a proper court order and reduce delay and frustration for family members during a difficult time.”

With Digital Legacy, that process is both simplified and formalised; Legacy contacts will use a “legacy contact Apple ID” to sign in. The user will have access to the iCloud data and will be able to download it using the ID and access key.  Once logged in, the legacy contact user must provide a valid copy of the primary user’s death certificate in order to gain access to the deceased person’s data.

It should be pointed out that Facebook has had a Legacy contact feature for years. In the case of the social network, its Legacy contacts feature is in charge of memorialised accounts or offers users the choice of having their account deleted after Facebook is informed of your death.

It should be noted that for Apple’s Digital Legacy service, payment information such as credit card details, subscriptions, licensed media, and Keychain password will be excluded from the accessible data.