The Gig Economy Gets Fun: Deliver at All Costs

All due credit to the courier community that—by hook or by crook,or scooter, moped, or e-bike—keeps us stocked with essentials and delicious foodstuffs. But another generation had it even tougher… Well, they did in Deliver at All Costs, a new game from Gothenburg, Sweden-based studio Far Out Games . It’s 1959 and hapless delivery guy Winston Green has a tight schedule and a full load of mayhem. Dogged by a mysterious past, he lands a spot with the only company that’s hiring: ‘We Deliver, Co’. In this world, the payload always gets through—no matter what. And that’s saying something when Winston reverses into and destroys a building,  picks up a […]

Better the Devil You Know: Boss Belial and a Diablo IV Update

The Lord of Lies is back, getting into unholy mischief and challenging gamers with devilish deceptions in Diablo IV Season 8: Belial’s Return. In this latest update, redilection for chaos is in full effect. Dan Tanguay of Blizzard Entertainment—creators, as he correctly identifies, of “fantastically fun” games, including World of Warcraft, and Overwatch 2, as well as Diablo IV—stopped by Intel Gaming Access to tell us all about the Boss-heavy update that won’t cost you your soul (it’s completely free to owners of Diablo IV). “I am the design director for Diablo IV’s live service,” Tanguay tells us, and “I develop strategies for all seasons and events, and I guide […]

XeSS 2 now available in more games, get up to a 4x boost in FPS!

More performance, smoother gameplay, and faster responsiveness. This can all be made possible through software enhancements and AI capabilities unlocked with XeSS 2! Since the introduction of XeSS in 2022 alongside the launch of Intel Arc A-Series, over 200 games have been supercharged with greater performance thanks to AI-based super resolution upscaling technology (XeSS-SR). Shortly following launch, support was quickly extended to Intel® Core™ Ultra processors with built-in Intel® Arc™ GPUs, providing a better gaming experience for millions of desktop and laptop gamers around the globe. XeSS 2 boldly pushes this further with the addition of gameplay-smoothing AI-based frame generation (XeSS-FG) and reduced lag with low latency (XeLL) technologies. Intel’s […]

Performance Update for Intel® Arc™ 140V and 130V Built-in GPUs

What’s better than getting an upgrade in performance? Getting it for free! We have good news to share: As part of our continuous platform optimizations, we are rolling out a power management update that improves gaming performance for Intel® Core™ Ultra 200V systems (codenamed: Lunar Lake) with built-in Intel Arc 140V and 130V GPUs. This update is delivered through the graphics driver, and its performance benefits are observed primarily at or under the common default power level of 17W. In testing this update across 9 games on the MSI Claw 8 AI+ in the Manual 17W profile, players can expect higher average GPU frequency and improved frame pacing, which translates […]

Action RPG Empyreal Runs Deep

Fans of action RPGs are demanding. In this post-Souls universe, we want the world-building, systems, mechanics, challenge, visuals and everything else to be just right. With as many opinions as there are variables for what constitutes ‘just right’, making a one-size-fits-all ARPG is an impossible task. However, one small team with an uncompromising vision is making a convincing bid to join the elite of the genre. Empyreal from independent studio Silent Games and publisher Secret Mode is set for release on May 8th, and Intel Gaming Access went deep with studio co-founder Joseph Rogers to find out what it took to make it. If there’s one word that comes up […]

Counting Down to Your New Obsession—Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

The phrase “your number’s up” takes on new significance in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the enthralling debut game from Sandfall Interactive. In this innovative RPG, a mysterious entity known as The Paintress awakes each year, and brushes a number onto an ancient monolith—instantly everyone of that age disappears, forever. The number decreases each time; if The Paintress can’t be stopped, who will be left? Expedition 33 sets out to stop the clock. Guillaume Broche—CEO of Sandfall Interactive, and creative director for Expedition 33—and Tom Guillermin—CTO of Sandfall, and lead programmer on the game—clocked in at Intel Gaming Access to tell us about their ingenious take on the classic race against […]

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Steps into the Light

For the last 18 years, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed games have been sneaking onto the PCs and consoles of an entire generation of gamers and quietly eviscerating the competition. With many games in the series to date, the faithful fan base remains hungry for more. Step up Assassin’s Creed Shadows, heading into our hands on March 20th, and bringing with it one of the most heavily requested settings, along with much—shall we say—heated anticipation. Intel Gaming Access drew katanas with Pierre Fortin, Technology Director for Assassin’s Creed Shadows at Ubisoft Quebec, to slice things up. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is an open world, action-adventure RPG, set in feudal Japan during the late […]

FragPunk Takes Off

FragPunk, the 5v5 hero shooter with Shard Cards (powerful gameplay modifiers that break the rules) launches on Steam and Epic Games Store for free on March 6th (Pacific Time), with 150+ Shard Cards, 10+ rotating game modes, and loads of free cosmetics! Back in October 2024, we invited Bad Guitar Studio, makers of FragPunk, to Intel Gaming Access to tell us about their FPS with attitude. To give you the quick version of our chat here, FragPunk is a self-declared “punk” FPS with a card system at its core that changes the rules of engagement each round. It’s a super-stylish, lightning-fast blast of a shooter, with more than its fair […]

Rise of the Ronin slices a path to PC

Blades out, warriors. Rise of the Ronin is an open-world action RPG with solo and online co-op play, in which you take on the role of a nameless warrior slicing through Edo-period Japan. Initially released for PlayStation 5 in March 2024, the acclaimed game is heading to PC on March 10, 2025, with a bunch of sweet tune-ups. Intel Gaming Access went head-to-head with Fumihiko Yasuda, Development Producer  on Rise of the Ronin and head of Team NINJA at Koei Tecmo Games, to get the full story on the PC version. Battling enemies is a big part of the journey in Rise of the Ronin, but there’s also plenty of […]

Monster Hunter Wilds Unleashes the Force of Nature

Sharpen your weapons — Monster Hunter Wilds is out. Since the first Monster Hunter exploded onto the Japanese market in March 2004, the series has moved inexorably towards world domination. Monster Hunter Wilds is the latest action RPG in the series, where humans and monsters struggle to live in harmony in a world of duality. Intel Gaming Access took a spot by the fire with the Monster Hunter Wilds development team to talk behind the scenes. The story of Monster Hunter Wilds is rooted in a fast-changing and unpredictable world, where humans and monsters alike struggle to survive its extremes. It’s a world of two sides: one minute a harsh […]