Close to the Metal Episode 54: ‘Destiny 2’ on PC, VR headsets, and IFA news

By Matthew S. Smith Published September 5, 2017

This is an exciting week for fans of Destiny. While we played the PC beta just last week, the console version is releasing tomorrow, September 6th. That means it’s time to decide which platform you’ll play Destiny 2 on. Of course, our vote on Close to the Metal is the PC version — which means we’ll have to wait until October 24.

Recommended Videos

Yet there’s far more happening that just Destiny 2’s launch. IFA, the biggest consumer electronics show in Europe, is coming to a close. As expected, a number of Windows Mixed Reality headsets were shown, alongside quad-core laptops using Intel’s new 8th-Gen Core hardware, which promises to push multi-core performance into slimmer, lighter footprints.

Close to the Metal is a podcast from Digital Trends that takes a deep dive into computing and PC gaming topics. Each show, we’ll focus in on one topic, and leave no stone unturned as we show off the latest in hardware and software. Whether it’s the latest GPU, supercomputers, or which 2-in-1 you should buy, we break down the complicated jargon and talk about how user experience is affected in the real world.

Please subscribe, share, and send your questions to podcast@digitaltrends.com. We broadcast the show live on YouTube and Facebook at 10 a.m. Pacific / 1 p.m. Eastern, every Tuesday.

Matthew S. Smith

Former Senior Editor, Reviews

Matthew S. Smith is the former Lead Editor, Reviews at Digital Trends. He previously guided the Products Team, which dives…

Topics

Computing

Google’s SynthID Detector just launched globally to help you spot AI-generated media

Google is opening SynthID Detector to everyone as AI images, videos, and voices get harder to spot

Google DeepMind SynthID detector

There was a time when spotting AI-generated content was almost embarrassingly easy. Six fingers, melted backgrounds, dead-looking eyes, and robotic voices usually gave the game away. Generative AI has moved past many of those mistakes, and our eyes and ears are having a much harder time keeping up.

To be fair, plenty of AI-generated content is harmless fun. A ridiculous clip of a cat dancing or some impossible meme is hardly a crisis. The problem starts when the same tools are used to fake disasters, impersonate people, or manufacture convincing audio and video. Google has a new tool that could help.

Computing

SSD prices have skyrocketed, but I found 6 Prime Day storage deals worth grabbing

I found options for everything from everyday backups and iPhone video recording to gaming and heavy-duty desktop upgrades.

prime day ssd feature

SSD prices have skyrocketed as AI data centers gobble up most of the world's storage supply, so any decent discount is worth grabbing. If you've been planning an upgrade, now is the time. I picked three portable SSDs for files on the go and three internal drives to speed up your desktop PCs and laptops.

SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD 1TB – $209.99 (30% off)

Computing

Google’s AI-powered Playground can turn your game idea into something playable with simple prompts

Playground lets you build, test, and share games without writing code.

Google Playground AI generated game

Every gamer has probably had an idea for a game they would love to make. The problem usually starts when you look at what building one actually involves. Learning a game engine, understanding game logic and physics, and getting everything to work together is enough to stop plenty of ideas before they ever become playable.

Google wants to remove much of that friction with Playground, a new experimental platform that lets you create games by simply describing what you want. You can start with an idea, turn it into something playable, and keep changing the rules, characters, physics, and environments through natural-language prompts without writing code. Playground is launching today in the U.S. for users aged 18 and older. Creation access will roll out in tiers depending on your Google One membership.