Intel has released its latest Arc GPU graphics drivers, version 101.9033 beta, which brings day-one support for the new game CONTROL Resonant. We conducted an in-depth review of the game's performance on both traditional discrete GPUs and handheld devices with integrated graphics, including Intel's. In addition to adding support for this game, the GPU driver still contains a range of issues from previous releases that have not been fixed in this beta version. While the beta release focuses on game support, issues like Mafia: The Old Country crashing on "Panther Lake" and Arena Breakout Infinite potentially crashing on Arc "Battlemage" and Arc "Alchemist" remain. Check out the full list of known issues that persist in this driver, but expect a fix in the upcoming WHQL driver update.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.9033 Beta

Intel today released its latest Arc GPU graphics drivers with the version 101.8724 WHQL bringing support for new hardware and new games. Yesterday, the company launched its Core Series 3 "Wildcat Lake" processors with up to six CPU cores and two Xe3 GPU cores. Expected to land in over 70 different laptop designs, Intel today enabled full gaming support with the Arc GPU driver update. In addition to new hardware, the new driver release adds game-ready support for Pragmata and fixes a lot of the old issues that persisted with the previous releases. These include fixes for flickering in Crimson Desert running DirectX 12, No Man's Sky experiencing corruptions on certain terrains, and importantly issues with Adobe Premier Pro crashing when exporting media based on HEVC codec has been fixed. For a complete picture of fixes and remaining issues, we have posted the changelog below.DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc Graphics Driver 101.8724 WHQL

Just three months after launch, Mafia: The Old Country is receiving a massive free content update, according to a recent 2K news post. The Free Ride update is confirmed to launch on November 20 and will introduce new game modes, weapons, car and horse racing, and new cosmetics. Along with the new vehicles and racing, you will also be able to drive in first-person with the update. It also adds challenges, which include assassination missions, combat challenges, and new secrets to uncover. At launch, there will be a total of nine combat challenges—five standoffs and four assassinations—each with their own rewards. There is also a new photo mode, and the Free Ride update will also add Classic difficulty for hardcore fans of the franchise. Classic difficulty will make enemies tougher and make it more difficult for players to recover after battle, and in Classic difficulty, when you reload, unused bullets are lost.

The titular new game mode, Free Ride, drops players into the game's version of 1900s Sicily and tasks them with exploring and taking on challenges as you explore. These challenges will be unlocked as you play the game's main campaign, and players will be able to switch between the campaign and Free Ride mode from the pause menu. There are also a number of secrets to uncover throughout the game's world in the Free Ride mode, and following the clues may lead you down a rabbit hole to a reward. Aside from the new game modes and content, Free Ride also adds 16 new outfits, three new hats, four new knives, three guns, three charms, and two new cars, all of which will be available both in the campaign and Free Ride mode.

We're committed to meeting players wherever they are, bringing the joy of gaming into even more places and experiences. That's why we're excited to announce our latest expansion for Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta). Through our collaboration with LG Electronics, we are working to integrate the Xbox experience into select internet-connected vehicles, introducing a new way to bring more of what players love about Xbox into more places.

Gaming On the Move: Entertainment for Every Journey
With the Xbox built into LG's webOS Automotive Content Platform (ACP), passengers in internet-connected vehicles will be able to stream and play games directly from the Xbox app. Game Pass Ultimate members will soon have instant access to hundreds of games including popular titles like Gears of War: Reloaded, Forza Horizon 5, and upcoming releases like Obsidian Entertainment's The Outer Worlds 2 (an automotive data plan is required to access streaming services. All services operate in compliance with driving safety regulations).

Today, 2K and Hangar 13 announced that Mafia: The Old Country, the highly anticipated latest installment in the acclaimed Mafia franchise, is now available worldwide for PlayStation 5 (PS5), Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. The story will take players back in time to 1900s Sicily, which has been painstakingly created with the utmost authenticity and detail.

"The team has passionately crafted this new chapter in the Mafia franchise, designed to captivate both long-time fans and new players," said Nick Baynes, President of Hangar 13. "Mafia: The Old Country is a premium experience in the vein of earlier Mafia entries, rooted in rich narrative, memorable characters and a beautiful environment, delivering what we feel is an unforgettable story at incredible value."

This GFN Thursday brings an offer members can't refuse - 2K's highly anticipated Mafia: The Old Country is launching in the cloud today. The prequel to the award-winning action-adventure Mafia series leads five games joining the cloud this week, including the long-awaited launch of Stormgate 1.0 and early access for THQ Nordic's Titan Quest II. And don't miss out on the newest season of Marvel Rivals, available for members to stream without having to wait for downloads or patches.

The Don Says Play
Return to the heart of the Mafia saga and journey into the brutal underworld of 1900s Sicily with Mafia: The Old Country. Hustle and scheme through savage streets and sun-baked villages in a gripping, linear narrative. Experience a world where every choice cuts deep, every vendetta matters and loyalty is a dangerous game. Step into the scuffed shoes of Enzo Favara - a man with nothing to lose and even less to trust - and earn a seat at Don Torrisi's table. Whether it's settling vendettas with a stiletto blade or dueling with a lupara shotgun, every fight is life or death, and every bullet counts. Players can expect gritty stealth, messy brawls and nerve-wracking shootouts - fueled by loyalty, betrayal and the need to prove more value to the Torrisi family alive than dead.

Intel has released the latest 101.6987 WHQL version of its Arc GPU Graphics Drivers, bringing several new improvements and bringing Game On support for Battlefield 6 Open Beta and Mafia: The Old Country, as well as adding a performance boost to Doom: The Dark Ages running on Vulkan API and Arc B-series GPUs. Intel also added support for Shared GPU Memory Override control in Intel Graphics Software for built-in Intel Arc GPUs in Core Ultra (series 1 and 2) CPUs running on Windows 10 and 11, as well as added power management optimization for Intel Core Ultra 200V series (Arrow Lake H) CPUs, which should improve performance and frame pacing in low-power modes.

The latest 101.6987 Arc GPU Graphics Drivers fix a single issue where the Naraka Bladepoint game could freeze with Graphics Enhancements set to XeSS on Arc B-series GPUs. There are several known issues, including ones with Fortnite, PEAK, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0, Mafia: The Old Country, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and other games and apps, but hopefully, Intel should fix those with the next driver release.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.6987 WHQL

Welcome to the first week of August where this week's major release takes us to Sicily, and it might involve suits and guns. The rest of this week's releases kicks off with some gun-fu, followed by some demon slaying, space exploration, a cozy bookshop, ending with a bit of subterranean horror.

Mafia: The Old Country / This week's major release / Thursday 7 August
Uncover the origins of organized crime in Mafia: The Old Country, a gritty mob story set in the brutal underworld of 1900s Sicily. Fight to survive as Enzo Favara and prove your worth to the Family in this immersive third-person action-adventure set during a dangerous, unforgiving era. Enzo will do anything for a better life. After a brutal childhood of forced labor, he's ready to risk everything to become a man of honor in the Torrisi crime family. Steam link

2K Games and Hangar 13 have detailed the full PC features and graphics settings, as well as official system requirements for the upcoming Mafia: The Old Country game that will launch on August 8th. It is interesting to see that the game will support AMD's FSR 4, NVIDIA's DLSS 4, and Intel's XeSS 2 with Frame Generation FSR, DLSS, and XeSS on supported hardware, but there is no ray tracing. It will also support Unreal Temporal Super Resolution (TSR), have uncapped frame rate during gameplay, ultrawide monitor and HDR support.

The list includes minimum, recommended and epic preset requirements, and all are using Unreal TSR set to either Balanced or Quality mode. The minimum requirements target 1080p resolution with graphics settings set at Medium and Unreal TSR set at Balanced. You will need at least an AMD Ryzen 7 2700X or Intel Core i7-9700K CPU, 16 GB of RAM, and either an AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT or NVIDIA RTX 2070 graphics card. The recommended requirements target 1440p resolution with graphics quality preset set to High and Unreal TSR set to Quality. These settings require an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X or Intel Core i7-12700K CPU, 32 GB of RAM, and either an AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT or an NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti graphics card.

NVIDIA has released the newest version of its GeForce graphics driver, the GeForce 580.88 WHQL, which comes with Game Ready optimizations for Mafia: The Old Country, which includes DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation, DLSS Frame Generation, DLSS Super Resolution, and NVIDIA Reflex support. The new driver also adds DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation support for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. NVIDIA also added support for 62 new G-SYNC Compatible gaming displays. The new driver also fixes some gaming and general bugs.

According to the release notes, the NVIDIA GeForce 580.88 WHQL driver fixes issues in Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, World of Warcraft, Starcraft Remastered and several other games, including issues with Battlefield 2042, which experienced random squares and flickering artifacts and micro-stutter issues when VSYNC is enabled in Cyberpunk 2077. It also fixes issues in Blender and Cloudflare WARP, issues with GPU video memory after enabling NVIDIA Smooth Motion, and an issue where the GPU scaling option is missing from NVIDIA Control Panel/NVIDIA App when a DSC monitor is connected. The driver also fixes flickering issues during window resize with the Samsung 57-inch Odyssey Neo G9 and blank screen issues in DisplayPort 2.1 mode with HDR on the LGE 27GX790A-B. NVIDIA also announced it will continue supporting Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta GPUs with Game Ready drivers until October 2025, after which these will get quarterly security updates for the next three years. NVIDIA is also extending Windows 10 Game Ready Driver support for all GeForce RTX GPUs to October 2026

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 580.88 WHQL