General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

The F2P Revolution: 25 Killer Online Games You Can Play For Free

Posted: 26 Oct 2011 04:40 PM PDT

One of the biggest trends in gaming over the last half-decade has been the rise of the free to play (F2P) online business model. You might have heard it called "freemium," or the pejorative "pay to win," but whatever you call it, it's here to stay. 

You may not have heard of all the free to play games coming out recently (they don't tend to have the same marketing budget as your Battlefields and Call of Dutys) but you should probably be paying a little more attention. Sure, some of them are a little shallow, or unfair to non-paying customers, but there are F2P games in every genre, and a lot of them are top notch.

So why pay to play? Read on for our list of 25 top-notch free online games. For each game, we'll tell you what you get for free and what costs money, so you never get surprised.

 

Google Maps Now Adding Building Interiors

Posted: 26 Oct 2011 02:56 PM PDT

mapsGoogle announced last May that it intended to begin adding business interiors to Google Maps Street View. Now the first test images are rolling out. Users browsing maps will be invited into shops and offices that make use of the same 360-degree panning view that we're used to with street view. Considering the very different nature of the content, Google has changed the way they acquire these images.

If a business owner is interested in having their interior added to Google Maps, they have to fill out an application online. Google will then contact the applicant to set up a time for a Google photographer to come and capture the business for posterity. If at a later date, the owner or any subsequent owner decides that they do not want the images up, a request can be submitted.

Google says it has worked with thousands of businesses to get photos of building interiors. Some worry about potential burglers using the images to plan break-ins, but we'll just have to wait and see if that's the case. Would you make use of this feature in Google Maps?

The Nexus One Will Not Be Getting a Tasty Ice Cream Sandwich

Posted: 26 Oct 2011 02:30 PM PDT

nexusThe venerable Nexus One was launched in early 2010 and set the stage for a new breed of faster Android devices. Sales were lackluster, but a certain contingent of Android lovers embraced the Nexus One, and many still use it today. Google, however, is less smitten with this phone of yesteryear. The Big G announced today that the Nexus One will not be getting an official update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Nexus One launched with Android 2.1, and was later updated to Android 2.2. Early this year it was bumped up again to Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Google is saying that the device is just too old to properly run ICS, but did not give any specifics. The processor is rated at 1GHz, and hold up fairly well, though the GPU is sluggish by today's standards. Probably the sticking point is the small amount of internal ROM, which likely isn't enough to fit ICS.

Users of this device that have not already, will probably want to consider rooting and unlocking the bootloader. This will allow the flashing of the plethora of optimized Android 4.0 ROMs that are bound to appear after the code is open sourced. Any Nexus One owners out there that want to vent?

Future Tense: Apple Sauce

Posted: 26 Oct 2011 11:44 AM PDT

(This was written before Steve Jobs died, and it was never intended to be disrespectful, only slyly satirical.  Because of publishing schedules, it is only appearing now.  I admired Jobs and I will sincerely miss his presence in the consumer electronics industry.  His influence went far beyond his own company.  He was a human catalyst accelerating the pace of computer evolution to warp speed.)

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1984 was and still is a year forever tainted by George Orwell's novel of the same name.  Orwell, "Big Brother", and even the year itself have become shorthand terms for totalitarianism or anything that even hints of it, whether it's a security camera or a political philosophy you disagree with or Microsoft's Windows validation software.  "Orwellian" is a way of saying "like the Nazis, but without Godwin's Law". 

During the 1984 Super Bowl broadcast, Apple showed one of the most memorable commercials ever filmed.  If you've never seen it, you can probably find it on YouTube.  Directed by Blade Runner's Ridley Scott, the commercial shows a woman in a track suit running through a totalitarian environment.  She dashes past all the drone-like people sitting on benches and hurls a hammer at a huge screen that represents the Big Brother of George Orwell's novel, 1984. 

That was how Apple introduced the Macintosh computer.  They advertised that it was "the computer for the rest of us."  It was a marketing triumph.  They sold a lot of machines and established Apple Computers as an innovative, forward-thinking company.  But over here in what was once the IBM-compatible world, but was now becoming the PC world, the rest of us did not want a computer that was overpriced, underpowered, and had no place for the user to add in any board or peripheral that wasn't sold by Apple. 

Apple has continued that philosophy of the "walled garden" for more than a quarter of a century and that 1984 commercial was weirdly prophetic—only the mindless drones on the benches are Apple's customers and it should be Steve Jobs' picture up on the big screen. 

Have you ever been to one of those Apple product announcement gatherings?  All that orgasmic cheering and shouting—it's like the Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, only without "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Ticket To Ride." 

Apple has become a cult. 

As cults go, it's a pretty good one.  You don't have to abandon your family, you don't have to wear funny robes and bang a tambourine, and you don't have to eat any poisoned pudding to catch a ride on a UFO.  On the downside, you still have to spend a lot of money to join this cult and it's very hard to get out, but at least you get some really upscale, high-status hardware to advertise your membership.  The hardware is still overpriced and underpowered, but you get to pretend that you bought "a computer for the best of us."   (That whole "rest of us" thing seems to have been forgotten.  Corporate exclusivity is now the game.)  

To its credit, Apple succeeds because it isn't afraid to innovate.  The company takes big chances.  Throughout the 90's, the company invested hundreds of thousands of man-hours and millions of dollars into the development and marketing of products like the Apple III, Lisa, Newton, Pippin, Macintosh TV, Macintosh Portable, the G4 Cube, the QuickTake camera, and the ROKR phone.  Any company with that history would probably be history itself, but Apple is too mean to die.  It's the Moriarty of computer companies.  It just keeps coming back, each time smarter.  

What's true about most of Apple's failures is that they weren't also-rans or me-too or copycat products.  They were attempts to expand digital technology forward.  They represented a genuine effort to design and build a different future.  The failures weren't a failure of vision as much as they were a failure of technology.  The ideas were good, but the chips weren't powerful enough, the batteries didn't last long enough, the software didn't deliver the functionality the users wanted.  They failed because they were a reach too far—for the moment.

But one big success can pay for a dozen failures.  And it is the innovative aspect of Apple's products that has sustained its cult-like appeal in the customer-base since the first Apple ][ was built.  "New" and "different" are always exciting.  Every advertising expert knows this.  Paste "Now With Blue Crystals!" on the front of the detergent box and sales go up.   (I'm not making this up.  I'm thinking of adding blue crystals to my website.)   Twenty years ago, the detergent makers sold laundry pre-soak products "With Phosphates!"  When it turned out that phosphates put a beer-like head of suds on your drinking water, the revamped products were advertised as "Now Without Phosphates!" 

Fortunately for Apple, the company's products do not need blue crystals.  (I don't know about the phosphates though.)  In the last ten years, Apple has done a marvelous job of creating whole new product lines, and in doing so, has reinvented a large part of the consumer electronics market. 

There were music players long before the iPod—the Sony Walkman was a standard for an entire generation—but the iPod was the seed crystal that transformed portable music.  You didn't have to carry a box of cassettes or discs, everything was already in the player.  And the player was small enough to fit into a pocket.  Oh, and it was hip.  Apple's marketing is as innovative as its products. Apple doesn't just sell products, it sells style.    

But if the iPod was a game-changer, it was only a warmup for the iPhone.  Before the iPhone, the must-have cellphone was a Motorola flip phone.  You could pop it open and say, "Kirk here.  Beam me up, Scotty."  After the iPhone, those things were quaint little antiques.  The iPhone transformed an entire industry.  Cellphones disappeared, smart phones became the new standard.  And they were hip.  Another victory for Apple's marketing.    

Where the iPod and the iPhone were reinventions of existing product niches, the iPad represents the creation of a whole new kind of computer.  It changes our relationship with information by making the internet a portable experience.  People who don't want to bother schlepping a laptop seem to have no problem pulling a tablet out of a backpack or a purse.  The add-on that takes the iPad from fascinating to lustworthy is a cover that doubles as a wireless keyboard, so you can use it as a notebook as well as a tablet. 

Of course, every other computer and electronics company has been playing catch-up with Apple for ten years.  (The first iPod was released in October of 2001.)  Creative marketed a superior media player called the Zen, but they couldn't get enough traction in the marketplace to be a viable alternative.  Microsoft came out with an even better media player, the Zune, with the same result. 

The same conditions occurred in the smartphone market.  HTC, Motorola, Samsung, LG and others are all playing the game of "beat the iPhone."  The Samsung Galaxy S is superior to the iPhone (it's much lighter, it has a better screen and the Gorilla glass is damn near scratch-proof) but the iPhone continues to hold the attention of the media.  Apple is so good at marketing itself as a brand and its customer base responds like Star Wars fans, lining up at the Apple stores hours and days before a new product goes on sale.  Did I say cult?  Cults should be so popular. 

Apple is still the leader in the product niches it has created, but creating a niche doesn't guarantee permanent ownership.  PC users tend to be skeptical of fruit-flavored products because they come from a walled garden.  "Plays well with others" is not going to be on Apple's report card this year either.  The competition in the tablet market is growing ferocious and it's only going to get more so.  The primary issues are screen, chip(s), weight, interface, apps, cameras, and price.  Samsung has an attractive rival in the Galaxy tablet, but Apple is throwing multiple lawsuits in the path of Samsung and Samsung is predictably counter-suing Apple.  Both are using the courts to prevent the other from selling their tablets in key markets.   

Apple has also done something else to slow down the competition—something smart from a business perspective, but also ugly.  They have signed exclusivity deals with their suppliers so that the high-end technology that goes into an iPad cannot be sold to Apple's competitors.  (Those of you who used to complain that Microsoft was a big bully…how do you feel about this?) 

While lawsuits and exclusivity deals may slow down some of the competition in the tablet market, it won't be enough to stop the inevitable tsunami of new products.  In the long run, other suppliers will step up to sell state-of-the-art hardware to Apple's competitors.  All those other companies know they have to surpass the iPad to compete.  So manufacturers will add better cameras, higher-resolution screens, Gorilla glass and other features that the iPad doesn't have.  And a lot of suppliers would rather sell high-end hardware to many companies, not just one.  And after Windows 8 hits the streets, users could have a much more dynamic interface as an option, one that is expected to integrate easily with all their other hardware. 

Unlike the iPod and the iPhone, both of which are still market-leaders in their respective niches, the iPad may not have the same legs in the marketplace.  As cheaper and more powerful units start hitting the store shelves (like Amazon's Kindle Fire and T-Mobile's Springboard) consumers may find those tablets tastier than the iPad.  The tablet wars have only just begun. 

What do you think?

   

Apple Granted New "Slide To Unlock" Patent, Expect Lawsuits To Start Flying Soon

Posted: 26 Oct 2011 11:27 AM PDT

As if Apple's ridiculous tablet design patent didn't hold enough ominous tidings for the mobile tech industry, the US Patent and Trademark Office just awarded the company another ludicrous claim: that's right, "slide to unlock" is officially an Apple patent. That means all the non-Apple phones and tablets that use the omnipresent unlocking maneuver are possibly infringing on Apple's intellectual property – which could lead to complex legal battles that tie up competitors' products, as Apple has done with the Samsung Galaxy Tab in Australia.

Even 9to5Mac, which broke the news, admits that's it ridiculous – but it's legal until a court finds prior art against it or declares it invalid. Interestingly enough, Apple tried using an older "Slide to Unlock" patent in an injunction attempt against Samsung in the Netherlands, but the Dutch judge tossed out the claim and declared the patent invalid. According to FOSS Patents, Apple filed the original version of the European patent on December 23, 2005; a company called Neonode had released a Windows CE phone earlier that year that already had a slide to unlock feature. How's that for prior art? In the Dutch case, Samsung also cited a publication from 1992 that discussed touchscreen slide to unlock technology. Plus, CNET amusingly points out that the head-hunting Predator used a slide to unlock feature on his alien gadgets way back in 1987.

Since the European version of Apple's original slide to unlock patent, patent 7,657,849, was declared invalid, the new US version includes the following additional verbiage: In addition, there is a need for sensory feedback to the user regarding progress towards satisfaction of a user input condition that is required for the transition to occur. Presumably, Apple is banking on the fact that the Neonode phone did not have any type of sensory feedback and is trying to stop US court arguments before they begin. But does sensory feedback really make the iPhone version of slide to unlock a new, patentable invention compared to the Neonode version?

Hopefully, US patent 8,046,721 won't stay valid for long; no doubt Google, Samsung and others are already picking it over with a fine-toothed comb and preparing legal strategies to combat it.

AZiO Levetron Mech4 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard is Spill Proof, Modular

Posted: 26 Oct 2011 11:06 AM PDT

Mechanical keyboards offer an orgy of satisfying keystrokes for your fingers (how's that for a visual?), which is one of the reasons we're excited to learn about AZiO's soon-to-be-released Levetron Mech4 mechanical plank for gamers. In addition to those sweet, sweet Cherry MX (Black) mechanical keys, the Levetron sets itself apart with a modular design and by being resistant to spills.

We're told this gnarly looking plank has a switch life cycle of 50 million keystrokes. How much space it takes up on your desktop is partially up to you -- the numpad is modular, and so are a set of six dedicated macro triggers that clip onto the top of the keyboard (which are in addition to 5 macro keys on the left side with an A/B switch).

"The most accented and probably greatest notable feature of the Levetron Mech4 Gaming Keyboard is the modular configuration, specifically the detachable numeric keypad," said Wilson Tang, Marketing Vice President at Azio Corporation. "By allowing the numeric keypad to be attached to either side of the keyboard, gamers can use these keys as additional macro keys, customize them for extra functions, or simply use them as a standard numeric keypad to improve your game and win!"

Other highlights include anti-ghosting keys, three levels of adjustable height with a non-slip base, a 6-foot braided cable with gold connector, a pair of low-power USB ports, volume knob, the ability to disable the Windows Menu key, and unlimited profiles.

The Levetron Mech4 keyboard will be available starting October 30, 2011 for $110. In the meantime, check out our photo gallery below.

Image Credit: AZiO

Windows Phone 7 App of the Week: Crafting Guide

Posted: 26 Oct 2011 11:03 AM PDT

If you've ever spent any time playing an RPG or RTS of any kind, you know the biggest learning curve is figuring out what items or materials you need to build that sweet piece of gear your buddy carries around. The different combinations, tools, and techniques required by different games can also add to the confusion. The reality is learning the build tree in a particular game is the key to your survival and is the biggest obstacle between you and world domination.

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Age of Empires Online is the latest in Microsoft's long line of Real-Time Strategy games. While not the most well-received RTS in history, the game is free to play and is worth a look for gamers on a budget. To aid in the learning curve of building items in Age of Empires Online, Microsoft has released Crafting Guide for Windows Phone 7. Crafting Guide provides you a searchable and sortable database of the items you can build within the Age of Empires game, and gives you the recipe or steps needed to build or acquire the item. You also have the option of entering the materials you have access to, and Crafting Guide will provide you with a selection of items you can build from the chosen materials.

   

Crafting Guide is available as a free download from the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Thermaltake Slashes Level 10 GT's MSRP Through End Of November

Posted: 26 Oct 2011 10:27 AM PDT

If you're going to build a big, badass PC, you need a big, badass case to house that awesome 3-way SLI you're planning on installing. The Level 10 GT chassis by Thermaltake is one such monstrosity. Yeah, its compartmentalized design is, well, not for everyone, but we still liked it enough that we gave it a 9 score a few months back -- despite its hefty $280 price tag. If that sticker cost was a bit too high, we've got some good news; Thermaltake has dropped the MSRP of the case to $200 through the end of November.

Take note, though, that the $200 price is the MSRP, not the direct cost; oddly enough, you'll still pony up the original $280 if you buy the Level 10 GT directly from Thermaltake. That nifty looking Level 10 GT Snow Edition case isn't part of the deal, either. It's still sitting pretty at $280. But if you head over to Amazon, Newegg, or your online retailer of choice, you'll find the Level 10 GT already available at less than $200. Snatch it up while you can: the offer expires on November 30th.

MSI Unveils Z68MA-G43 Motherboard

Posted: 26 Oct 2011 10:23 AM PDT

In the midst of the all the spy shots of upcoming X79 motherboards that surfaced this past week, MSI today announced a board you can use right now. It's the Z68MA-G43 for socket LGA1155 processor owners, which rules out support for Sandy Bridge-E, though it does adopt the latest PCI Express Gen 3 high-speed data transfer standard, MSI says.

The board has four DIMM slots with support for up to 32GB of DDR3-2133 (OC) memory. It has two PCI-E x16 ports with CrossFireX support, a pair of PCI-E x2 ports, two SATA 6Gbps ports, four SATA 3Gbps ports, RAID 0/1/5/10 support, GbE LAN, two USB 2.0 ports on the rear, six USB 2.0 ports, VGA, HDMI, and DVI connectivity.

On the software side, the Z68MA-G43 sports a proprietary dual interface integrated UEFI BIOS, OC Genie II overclocking utility, Winki 3 pre-boot Linux environment, and a few other bells and whistles.

No word on price or availability.

Product Page

Image Credit: MSI

Graphics Card Partners Losing Sleep over 28nm Manufacturing Woes

Posted: 26 Oct 2011 10:02 AM PDT

Poor yields and other challenges associated with the 28nm manufacturing process have Nvidia's and AMD's add-in board (AIB) partners starting to voice concerns about next generation GPUs, specifically Kepler (Nvidia) and Southern Islands (AMD). Both chip designers are turning to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to produce 28nm chips, and the lingering concern is that past issues may again present themselves.

According to DigiTimes, this has AIBs feeling conservative about upcoming 28nm chips. TSMC's issues with 40nm parts led to weak yields, and it's possible the same thing could happen with 28nm. And if that weren't enough, AIBs are also concerned about weakening demand for videocards and lower than expected gross margins, DigiTimes says.

Board partners are in a tough place. Sales of high-end discrete GPUs are down, and today's CPUs with integrated graphics are slowly cutting into sales of entry-level and mid-range cards. Throw in potential manufacturing problems and it's easy to see why AIBs less than optimistic.
Posted by Shri Krishna

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