Level up GeForce NOW experiences this summer with 40% off Performance Day Passes. Enjoy 24 hours of premium cloud gaming with RTX ON, delivering low latency and shorter wait times. The hot deal comes just in time for the cloud’s highly anticipated launch of Dune: Awakening — a multiplayer survival game on a massive scale set on the unforgiving sands of Arrakis. It’s perfect to pair with the nine games available this week, including the Frosthaven demo announced at Steam Next Fest. Try Before You Buy One day, all in. Level up to the cloud, no commitment required. For a limited time, grab a Performance Day Pass at a price that’s less than an ice cream sundae and experience premium GeForce NOW gaming for 24 hours. With RTX ON, enjoy shorter wait times and lower latency for supported games, all powered by the cloud. Dive into popular games with upgraded visuals and smoother gameplay over free users, whether exploring vast open worlds or battling in fast-paced arenas. Take the experience even further by applying the value of the Day Pass toward a six-month Performance membership during the limited-time summer sale. It’s the perfect way to try out premium cloud gaming before jumping into a longer-term membership. Survive and Thrive Join the fight for Arrakis. Dune: Awakening, a multiplayer survival game on a massive scale from Funcom, is set on an ever-changing desert planet called Arrakis. Whether braving colossal sandworms, battling for spice or forging alliances, gamers can experience the spectacle of Arrakis with all the benefits of GeForce NOW. Manage hydration, temperature and exposure while contending with deadly sandworms, sandstorms and rival factions. Blend skills-based third-person action combat — featuring ranged and melee weapons, gadgets and abilities — with deep crafting, base building and resource management. Explore and engage in large-scale player vs. player and player vs. environment battles while vying for control over territory and the precious spice. The spice is flowing — and so is the power of the cloud. Stream it on GeForce NOW without waiting for lengthy downloads or worrying about hardware requirements. Dune: Awakening is available for members to stream from anywhere with the power of NVIDIA RTX for ultra-smooth gameplay and stunning visuals, even on low-powered devices. Chill Out Time to bundle up. Experience the highly anticipated Frosthaven demo in the cloud during Steam Next Fest with GeForce NOW. For a limited time, dive into a preview of the game directly from the cloud — no high-end PC required. Frosthaven — a dark fantasy tactical role-playing game from Snapshot Games and X-COM creator Julian Gollop — brings to life the board game of the same name. It features deep, turn-based combat, unique character classes, and single-player and online co-op modes. Play the Frosthaven demo on virtually any device with GeForce NOW and experience the magic of gathering around a board game — now in the cloud. Enter the frozen north of Frosthaven, strategize with friends and dive into epic battles without the hassle of setup or cleanup. With GeForce NOW, game night is just a click away, wherever members are playing from. Seize New Games A new era of “Rainbow Six Siege” has begun. Rainbow Six Siege X, the biggest evolution in the game’s history, is now available with free access for new players. It introduces a new 6v6 “Dual Front” game mode, where teams attack and defend simultaneously with respawns and new strategic objectives. R6 Siege X also brings new and improved gameplay features — such as modernized maps with enhanced visuals and lighting, new destructible environmental elements, advanced rappel, smoother movement, an audio overhaul and a communication wheel for precise strategic plays, as well as weapon inspections to showcase gamers’ favorite cosmetics. Look for the following games available to stream in the cloud this week: Frosthaven Demo (New release on Steam, June 9) Dune: Awakening (New release on Steam, June 10) MindsEye (New release on Steam, June 10) Kingdom Two Crowns (New release on Xbox, available on PC Game Pass, June 11) The Alters (New release on Steam and Xbox, available on PC Game Pass, June 13) Lost in Random: The Eternal Die (New release on Steam and Xbox, June 13, available on PC Game Pass, June 17) Firefighting Simulator – The Squad (Xbox, available on PC Game Pass) JDM: Japanese Drift Master (Steam) Hellslave (Steam) What are you planning to play this weekend? Let us know on X or in the comments below.

The concept of Gaming Factory’s JDM: Japanese Drift Master is enough to get the blood pumping. A drift-focused racing game with a large open world based in Japan with manga-style story-telling? The spirit of legendary properties like Initial D is right there, waiting to be channeled as one dives into the country’s racing culture. The results are a different story entirely. Japanese Drift Master has a pretty impressive-looking world yet struggles to do anything notable with it. Mission design is full of contradictory goals and annoying AI. Progression is less about maximizing rewards and more about grinding out reputation and leveling up a car. The drifting intrigues with its fundamentals yet frustrates in their utilization. Then there are the collisions, which defy logic and real-world physics. The story begins with Thomas, later nicknamed Toma, mourning his father’s passing. Things seem dire after he loses his license and can’t race in Europe for a year until he converses with Hideo and learns about a garage his father left for him in Japan. "To make things worse, you can’t overlook the story either because it feeds into the mission-based gameplay loop. JDM begins with only main missions to complete and driving school available to hone your skills." As you might expect, he quickly becomes involved in street races, gains a heated rival in Hasashi “Scorpion” Hatori, meets a mysterious masked individual, and is embroiled in an unresolved case. All in less than two chapters, naturally, but the actual missions make the narrative feel less exciting than it actually is. At times, they tie in well enough – show up for your showdown with Hasashi. At others, less so, bordering on the bizarre, like matching Hasashi’s drift and sticking close throughout an entire race, as specified, only for him to laugh you off afterwards like nothing even happened. The actual writing isn’t anything special and has its fair share of grammatical errors, but the art is solid. Character details and expressions could be improved in some places, but the line work is clean, and the cars are impressively depicted. Unfortunately, some speech bubbles have way more text crammed in than others, resulting in a much smaller font, and there’s no option to zoom in. Also, the manga is the only fundamental means of story-telling. Aside from appearing in cars or via in-game menus, the characters may as well not exist. To make things worse, you can’t overlook the story either because it feeds into the mission-based gameplay loop. JDM begins with only main missions to complete and driving school available to hone your skills. As you progress, the world opens up with new mission types like underground races and additional delivery tasks. The former is straightforward enough – earn a specific amount of money and reach the end to make bank. Higher amounts mean less time, adding an element of risk vs. reward. The delivery missions, on the other hand, are awful. I’m not against a “Get to this destination and deliver a package within the allotted time” objective, especially if it’s in fun ways (see Crazy Taxi). JDM wants you to avoid hitting solid obstacles or cars lest you damage the deliverable. Oh, and make sure you’re drifting about to build up that style score, i.e. the exact opposite of driving carefully and avoiding traffic. The two requirements are so antithetical to each other that it’s mind-boggling, surpassed only by the fact that one solid collision can take off 35 percent of the item’s “durability” bar. Is the package attached to the hood? Slamming into breakable objects is perfectly fine, by the way. "Amid all my complaining, I admit that drifting can feel good under the right conditions. When you hit a corner just right and balance the angle meter just right to chain a long drift, the Initial D rush kicks in." You can also partake in challenges for Drifting, Grip, and more on specific tracks to earn money (which you then spend on more cars and parts). However, this doesn’t change the fact that most of the world feels relatively unused, which is a shame because there are some aesthetically pleasing locales, like flower gardens and castles, to admire. I’m not expecting Forza Horizon levels of open-world design, but it feels like such wasted potential when it’s not wasting my time to get to a mission. Starting Chapter 2, my next mission involved meeting Tiger, the aforementioned masked driver, south in the prefecture. No garage to fast travel to. Thus began the long, arduous slog without any distractions along the way to liven things up and annoying bouts of traffic to prevent me from drifting around. One does become available later, but then I discovered that delivery and underground racing missions change locations upon completion, and they won’t always be close enough to a fast travel point, further adding to the tedium. Gaming Factory recently addressed the frustrations that traffic can cause by letting you turn it off at any time. It doesn’t outright excuse the delivery mission design, but it does help. However, it also removes the last vestige of life from the open world, making me question its existence all the more. Amid all my complaining, I admit that drifting can feel good under the right conditions. When you hit a corner just right and balance the angle meter just right to chain a long drift, the Initial D rush kicks in. It feels all the more enjoyable when going up against tougher opponents, especially since you’re stuck with an Alpha Moriyamo clunker for the entirety of the first chapter. And while more variety is desperately needed – I counted 27 cars in total – at least brands like Honda, Mazda, Nissan, and Subaru are all here. I also like how weather and track conditions can severely impact your driving, forcing you to accelerate more carefully. The problem is that drifting, especially when you must rack up enough points, is easily gamed by simply wiggling back and forth. Early drifting competitions against the AI were a pain, especially since it makes almost no mistakes (when it’s not willfully slamming into you during races). Then I implemented this approach, sometimes going off track in the process and racking up an extensive amount of points just for maintaining a long drift. The handling also felt off at times, with too much understeer at points, and improving acceleration and top speed resulted in my drifts consistently turning into spin-outs. Probably working as intended, but considering the game wants me to be faster and execute those drifts, it feels like a clash of styles. The collisions are also utterly baffling at times. Veering off-angle during a drift can reduce the multiplier to 1.0 and grant significantly fewer points. Hitting obstacles sometimes has the same effect, and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes, my car would begin wall-riding like it’s Mario Kart World. Even on Arcade Mode, it’s immensely far-fetched. The collisions are also strange, unpredictable and often frustratingly weighed against you. Then again, colliding into a car in the open world so hard that it changed directions, and proceeded to drive back the way it came, was unintentionally hilarious. "There’s still much work needed on world design, AI, collisions, and progression, not to mention adding more content, before it can truly be called a master of anything, much less my time." Also, whether it’s a Moriyamo or a 2013 Subaru BRZ, be prepared to grind for the parts you want. Reputation must be leveled by either drifting through the world or completing missions and only then can you purchase specific parts, even if you have the cash on hand. Even more frustrating is that cosmetic parts directly tie into a car’s level. If you want to embrace a core aspect of street racing (at least, that’s what JDM tells me) and customize its looks, you better get ready to grind. Then there’s the performance, which is a mixed bag at worst and competent at best. Despite my CPU being below the recommended requirements, I had a relatively consistent 60 FPS on High settings at 1440p with DLSS set to Quality. An attempt to play at Ultra was made, resulting in the frame rate tanking heavily during a thunderstorm. At least the flashes of lightning and rain droplets looked nice, accentuated by the city skyline at night, though the overall fidelity is above average. There are some decently catchy tunes, especially when tuning into the rock and Eurobeat stations, though some of the lighter tracks can work wonders during drifts. They’re not particularly memorable, but at least they add some atmosphere. Why can I only cycle forward through stations and not back? Why does a particularly nice song cut off during a loading screen? Questions for another time, apparently. I’m left dazed, confused, and a little annoyed at JDM: Japanese Drift Master. The concept felt ripe for a solid racer with a distinct style and mood, but the execution felt awkward and unfulfilling. It could shore up the driving and fine-tune objectives to deliver a better drifting experience. However, there’s still much work needed on world design, AI, collisions, and progression, not to mention adding more content, before it can truly be called a master of anything, much less my time. This game was reviewed on PC.

News US FTC Officially Drops Antitrust Complaints Against Microsoft’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard Microsoft president Brad Smith took to social media to celebrate the fact that the FTC has dropped its appeals against Microsoft. Posted By Joelle Daniels | On 26th, May. 2025 The US Federal Trade Commission has officially dropped its appeals for an antitrust case against Microsoft for its acquisition of Activision Blizzard entirely. The FTC released a statement, saying that at this point, public interest is “best served by dismissing the administrative litigation in this case.” “Accordingly, it is hereby ordered that the complaint in this matter be, and it hereby is, dismissed,” said the FTC in an order announcing the dismissal of the governing body’s complaint. Microsoft president Brad Smith took to social media platform X to praise the decision. “Today’s decision is a victory for players across the country and for common sense in Washington, D.C.,” wrote Smith. “We are grateful to the FTC for today’s announcement.” The FTC complaint being dropped comes a few weeks after its appeal for a denied injunction from 2023 also getting denied by the 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals. The court stated that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard was not violating US antitrust laws, with Judge Daniel P. Collins writing that the FTC hadn’t shown the “likelihood of success on the merits as to any of its theories,” with regards to the case. Back when the FTC had first set out to fight Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, one of its core arguments was that the company would use its position in the industry to dominate the console market by releasing games exclusively on its own platforms. This led to Microsoft inking deals with both Sony and Nintendo to ensure that major franchises like Call of Duty wouldn’t be withheld from other consoles. Collins also pointed out that, despite being industry practice to have exclusive games in order to push console hardware sales, Microsoft is currently in the weakest spot behind Sony and Nintendo when it comes to having exclusives of its own. “All major manufacturers have engaged in this practice,” Collins wrote, continuing that competitors like Sony and Nintendo have “both have significantly higher number of exclusive games on their platform than [Microsoft] does.” Back in 2023, the original injunction was denied at the time because the Judge at the time noted that Microsoft’s push into cloud gaming on various platforms dispelled the idea that Activision Blizzard games being “exclusive” to Xbox in some way would harm competitors in the gaming market. This now-dropped case by the FTC was the last thing plaguing Microsoft when it came to potential antitrust issues with regards to its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The deal has otherwise been considered complete since October 2023, however, with Microsoft Gaming boss Phil Spencer welcoming the new studios under the Xbox Game Studios banner. Tagged With: Elden Ring: Nightreign Publisher:Bandai Namco Developer:FromSoftware Platforms:PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One, PCView More Borderlands 4 Publisher:2K Developer:Gearbox Entertainment Platforms:PS5, Xbox Series X, PCView More Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Publisher:Sony Developer:Kojima Productions Platforms:PS5View More Amazing Articles You Might Want To Check Out! US FTC Officially Drops Antitrust Complaints Against Microsoft’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard Microsoft president Brad Smith took to social media to celebrate the fact that the FTC has dropped its appeals... PS5 Pro’s PSSR Was So Good, F1 25 Used Double Resolution Ray-Traced Reflections F1 25 producer Si Lumb has revealed the studio's love for Sony's PSSR, and how it allowed the studio to push t... F1 25 PS5 Pro Enhancements Include Quality, Performance, and 8K Resolution Modes Resolution Mode runs in 8K and 60 Hz while offering ray traced dynamic diffuse global illumination while racin... Tekken 8 Adds Armor King in Season 2 This Fall As a series regular, debuting in 1994, the legendary luchadore returns for another round as the third DLC char... F1 25 Interview – Path Tracing, LiDAR Scanning, My Team Mode, and More Leading up to the upcoming launch of F1 racing game F1 25, Codemasters was kind enough to answer a few of our ... JDM: Japanese Drift Master Review – Toothless Roads The thrill of drifting to a faux-Initial D soundtrack is ultimately let down by iffy mission design and a bori... View More