An engineering marvel

When Nvidia told us that it managed to shrink its desktop GTX 980 GPU to fit inside notebooks, we went through two stages of denial. The first stage was disbelief. The 980 is a huge and powerful card, we thought to ourselves. The second stage was dismissiveness. It s got to throttle tremendously. To prove us wrong and to fan the flames of hardware absurdity, Sager armed its sexily named NP9870-S gaming notebook (seriously, who names these things?) with both a desktop 980 and a high-end 6700K Skylake desktop CPU. On paper, it s an abomination of a laptop, but crazily enough, it actually friggin works! 

Of course, if you re going to squeeze desktop components into a laptop chassis, you shouldn t expect an ultra-portable package. The Sager here is of the big, bulky 17-inch variety, and it has a hefty 14-pound carry weight to match its size. If there s one criticism we could levy against Sager in the past, is that its gaming notebooks were very bland looking. There are a few aesthetic bells and whistles this time around. In addition to the nice silver Sager logo on the back, there are some pulsating LEDs, which add a little bling to the look (if you re into that). The chassis also has some sharp lines and edges, which give it a slightly futuristic look. 

Surprisingly, 980 GPU performance wasn't throttled.

More exciting is the 1080p display. While we would have preferred a 1440p screen, the monitor here uses a 75Hz IPS panel that supports G-Sync. That s a lot of cool display tech in one sentence. The rest of the design is good. The speakers by Sound Blaster are competent, the LED-backlit keyboard offers some nice travel, and the trackpad is solid and has two discrete click buttons and a fingerprint reader. The notebook also sports enough ports to warrant its desktop-replacement label, which include: two Ethernet, five USB 3.0, one USB type C, two DisplayPort, an SD card reader, and an HDMI port. 

But you probably aren t reading this review to hear about the laptop s ports. How well does it perform?!, you re probably screaming. Cool your jets, we re getting there. The 980 outfitted here has the same 256-bit memory interface width and 224GB/sec memory bandwidth as its desktop sibling. One advantage that this 980 has over Nvidia s discrete card is double the VRAM. Your reference 980 has 4GB VRAM, whereas this card rocks 8GB. Considering that the notebook is relegated to a 1080p panel, you d be hard pressed to actually use up all that VRAM (or anything near it), but it s still nice to have. Compared to our Alienware 14 ZP laptop, which is getting long in the tooth with its GTX 765M GPU, we saw a 106 234 percent performance delta in our graphics benchmarks. It s really not a fair comparison at this point, so we decided to see how it stacks up against the 3D Mark 11 Extreme numbers we ran on CyberPower s Syber Vapor system we reviewed last year. If you ll recall, the Vapor rocked a 4790K and GTX 980 desktop card in a small Mini ITX chassis, which makes it a fair comparison point for the Sager. 

The results? The Sager not only performed on par with the desktop PC, but actually ran three percent better! Older drivers on the Vapor could explain some of this delta, but still, getting anywhere near close to the desktop card in this form factor is insane. Consider us believers in this Nvidia voodoo. CPU performance was also great. We saw up to an 11 percent increase in single-threaded CPU tests compared to our ZP laptop s Core i7-4700MQ laptop proc. In multithreaded tests, we saw a huge 43 percent difference. Yes, it did get a little loud under load, but it s running top-tier desktop parts in a laptop chassis, so what do you expect? 

One performance hurdle that we ran into pertained to boot times. It took roughly 25 seconds to reach Windows, despite the notebook using a premium Samsung 850 Evo SSD. Sager tells us that this is because the gaming notebook has so many built-in peripherals for the drive to check, so it takes a little longer. That seems fair. 

At $2,850, you ll be paying a high price for this kind of performance, but at the same time, it s kind of an engineering marvel. To fit this much power out of a chassis of this size boggles the mind. You can max out pretty much any game at 75fps here. Whether you re looking for a high-end gaming system, editing rig, or VR machine on the go, the Sager NP9870-S has you covered. It might not be cheap, but it s still pretty Kick-Ass.

BENCHMARKS

Our zero-point notebook is an Alienware 14 with a 2.4GHz Intel Core i7-4700MQ, 16GB DDR3/1600, 256GB mSATA SSD, 750GB 5,400rpm HDD, a GeForce GTX 765M, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. BioShock Infinite tested at 1920x1080 at Ultra DX11 settings; Metro: Last Light tested at 1920x1080 at DX11 medium quality settings with PhysX disabled.

SPECIFICATIONS

$2,850, www.sagernotebook.com

If you've not managed to get access to The Division, or if you're just not that interested, here's another game you can get early access to for free. Star Citizen is hosting another Free Fly event this week, which grants free access to Alpha 2.1.2 for a week. It kicked off on January 29, so you've got until Friday to log-in if you're keen.

Here's what's included for free flyers:

• Star Citizen Alpha 2.1.2 Also known as Crusader or the mini-PU, this is the nucleus of the world we re building! Featuring multiple space stations and environments, scripted missions, places to explore and more, Alpha 2.1.2 is your first look at a much larger universe!
• Arena Commander Arena Commander is a game within a game that we ve used to develop our flight mechanics and ship combat balance. Take on human opponents or an AI swarm in single seat fighter.
• Social Module Interact with other players while you explore our first landing zone, ArcCorp! The Social Module is intended as a starting point for our world building.

Registration details are over here. It's worth giving a go even if you're not a fan of space sims. It's a game that has attracted over $100 million in crowdfunding, and the narrative component will star the likes of Gillian Anderson and Mark Hamill.  

Mojang's foray into a 2D plane is coming along quite nicely, judging by the above trailer. While it does feature a single-player component, it's increasingly looking as if Cobalt's main appeal will be its couch competitive mode, and the time dilation system will play a huge role. If like me, you've been confused about how it works, the video above serves to explain it, and it looks pretty cool.

Basically, when an enemy's projectile comes within your range, time will slow down to allow a quick escape. There are ways to deprive your opponent of time dilation, though: you can snipe them, or you can use certain power-ups in order to bypass it.

There's not long to wait until we can try it for ourselves: Cobalt releases February 2, which is this week. 

I am a huge fan of Towerfall Ascension, but Invisigun Heroes is one of the first games I've played that could give it a run for its money. It has a similar balance of easy to pick up controls and potential for strategic depth that's present in Towerfall. I played Invisigun at PAX South and spoke to its developer, Shadi Muklashy, about his inspirations. You can watch the full interview above and find the Kickstarter here.

The Witness is a hard nut to crack. It's arguably one of the toughest puzzle games going at the moment, and yet it's selling quite well. So says creator Jonathan Blow, who tweeted at the weekend that it's currently performing better than his landmark debut title Braid did.

"It's hard to talk about numbers without breaking NDAs, but The Witness is on track to sell more in a week than Braid sold in its first year," Blow tweeted yesterday. 

He goes on to say that, at the current rate of sales, his team may be able to develop another game with a "comparable budget", or maybe even a bigger one.

These sales include purchases on both Steam and PSN, where the game released exclusively for consoles. Blow mentions that the stats on SteamSpy are a bit off the mark at the moment (the site says 38,841 people own it at present), though that's to be expected in the early days of a game's launch.

It's good news, because aside from The Witness being a remarkable game, the sales seem to strong despite Blow's recent complaints that piracy of the game is rampant. "It seems The Witness is the #1 game on a certain popular torrent site," Blow tweeted the other day. "Unfortunately this will not help us afford to make another game!"

If you've enjoyed frolicking around The Division's dour, post-apocalyptic Manhattan this weekend, then here's good news: the beta has been extended. That means instead of wrapping up at 3 AM PST on Monday morning, it'll be open to beta players until 3AM on Tuesday, February 2 (that's about 8pm in Australia).

The reason, Ubisoft wrote in their announcement, is to allow latecomers an opportunity to get a game. "Over the last few days, we ve seen an incredible amount of excitement for the game, leading to many of you registering on the waitlist for a chance to join our Closed Beta. We ve been working very hard to let as many players as possible join, while still maintaining a smooth experience for everyone.

Earlier today, we announced that we were now inviting as many players as possible from the waitlist, in addition to those who had guaranteed pre-order access. We ve started sending invites, with priority given to those who signed up first."

If you've not managed to get access to the beta, here are our extensive impressions based on our time with a preview build. The Division releases March 8. 

  A few of my games have an option called PhysX in video settings. I know this is supposed to makes games look better, but what exactly does it do, and why do only some games have it? Charles F.

PhysX is an Nvidia-based API designed to provide a standard, GPU accelerated way of modelling realistic object dynamics in 3D environments. Why use a boutique graphics card instead of a beefy CPU? It turns out that the highly parallel structures used by GPUs are particularly efficient at processing complex physical simulations. Think Batman s cape, Geralt s hair or the musket flash and smoke in Assassin s Creed: Black Flag. Mirror's Edge was one of the first showpiece games for PhysX cloth physics.

The result is a flashy, next-generation experience that s nice to have in your games, but PhysX comes with a few drawbacks.

While the API is technically available to all, only Nvidia hardware is optimized for use with PhysX. This makes plenty of sense for Nvidia, but locks you to team green, so it s worth keeping in mind for AMD fans. Moreover, not just any Nvidia card will do. Like any other graphics card feature, you ll need to cut a healthy check if you want to turn the settings up all the way. First class seats (read: great performance, even with all the bells and whistles on) require 980-level hardware. Even in the virtual world, cool hair and slick threads don t come cheap.

Also, since PhysX is a separate API it requires explicit support from software developers written into the code. This extra effort means many programming teams don t bother so support is hit and miss. The best implementations frequently rely on Nvidia s assistance during development.

Even with support present, a lack of optimization can produce large FPS drops or uneven performance. As a result, the library of games that support PhysX weighs in at around 40, surprisingly low given how long PhyX has been around. While there are some carefully selected blockbusters in that modest number, it s just a drop in the Steam backlog bucket for most serious gamers.

That said, when properly used, the difference PhysX provides is dramatic. Smoke is richer, thicker, and more volumetric. Fabrics ripple realistically in the wind, and glowing particles crackle from flames and gunfire. It s a visual upgrade you can appreciate without freeze-frames or Photoshop analysis. Demos give an even better look, with optimized code that pushes the API s advantages to the limit, a glimpse of what universal support might have looked like.

However, with developer interest cooling in favor of newer technologies PhysX is best considered a handy plus for Nvidia aficionados rather than a current, must-have feature. If you re looking for a reason to spend a few extra hundred dollars on a rig for visual upgrades or cutting edge excitement, you ll be better served investing in a 144Hz IPS gaming monitor or nice VR headset.

Additional Resources PhysXInfo.com

Nvidia hardware page

List of PhysX games

A couple of years ago, Infamous Quests released a very old-fashioned adventure by the name of Quest for Infamy, one of two games made over a similar period based on the classic Quest for Glory. For their next trick, they appear to have looked to the venerable King's Quest for inspiration. Say howdy to The Order of the Thorne - The King's Challenge, then, which appeared on Steam and GOG a few days ago.

Set in the same world as Quest for Infamy, and featuring similarly exquisite pixel art, this first chapter of The Order of Thorne sets bard Finn on a challenge to write the greatest-ever ballad.

From the Steam page:

"Every ten years, the ruler of the Faerie Realm, King Quilhairn, offers up his latest challenge to those brave enough to undertake the quest. Their prize? One wish, any wish that is within his power to grant, and the prestige of being lauded as 'Hero of the Faerie Kingdom'.

"Do you have the will and determination to guide Finn on his quest? Play your magic lute to discover the secrets of the land and entertain its people. Meet all kinds of interesting creatures, and prove your worth in this classic point and click adventure."

Lawbreakers wasn t actually available to demo at PAX South this year, but we still managed to catch up with Cliff Bleszinski to ask him how the game is going. I also asked about some current trends we re seeing in the shooter genre, like the lack of single-player campaigns. Bleszinski said the trend away from shooter campaigns is because "campaigns cost the most money."

"They usually cost 75% of the budget," said Bleszinski. "And you burn through the campaign in a weekend, and then [players] go to multiplayer." You can watch the full interview above.

Long War Studios, not coincidentally the team behind XCOM's celebrated Long War mod, has made a bunch of day one mods for Firaxis' imminent strategy sequel. This we learned ten days ago, but until yesterday we had no idea what those mods would be exactly.

Now we do. There will be three mods available for XCOM 2 on February 5: a mod that adds submachine guns to the game, a mod that adds a set of leadership perks, and one that introduces a new enemy, the Muton Centurion. Eurogamer has gleaned a few morsels of info about these mods from the Long War team themselves—here's an image of the Muton Centurion looking fairly angry.

That submachine gun comes with its benefits and drawbacks, like most things. Units that carry them are faster and hard to detect, but the guns are weaker and carry less ammo than assault rifles, to balance that out. The Centurion, meanwhile, will appear about halfway through the campaign, acting as a sort of miniboss.

For the full lowdown on these mods, check out Eurogamer's interview with Long War Studios, below.