General Gaming Article

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• Google Group Aims to ID London Rioters with Facial Recognition Tools
• Two Gaming Technologies Explained: A White Paper Round-Up
• Hitachi Tags Enterprise-Class MLC SSD with 25nm NAND from Intel
• Destroy the Universe While Saving Lives With LHC@home
• Windows 7 Soon To Become The Most Common OS (Finally)
• SATA + PCI Express = SATA Express
• Shiver Me Timbers! Over 200,000 Pirates Sued Since 2010
• Nvidia GeForce 280.26 WHQL Drivers Now Available for Download
• SandForce to Showcase Prototype SSD Using 24nm Toshiba MLC NAND Flash Memory
• Seagate Celebrates 1 Million Solid State Hybrid Drive Shipments

Google Group Aims to ID London Rioters with Facial Recognition Tools Posted: 09 Aug 2011 02:46 PM PDT As riots and looting continue to flare up in London, a group of online sleuths have gotten together on Google Groups to track down perpetrators. The group makes it clear that is it their intention to use facial recognition to identify the rioters seen in online images. A noble effort on the surface, but it comes with its own set of ethical and practical concerns. In a lot of ways, this has a distinctly vigilante vibe to it. If this group does get access to a powerful facial recognition tool, there is the possibility of misuse. The group has been discussing the issues involved, but most appear to be going ahead with the plan. One user has offered to build the necessary software suing the Face.API tool along with public images on Flickr and Facebook.  Assuming that this method was 100% accurate, which it likely would not be, there is still the chance of wrongly accusing people. A person might have been caught on film simply trying to get away from the violence, or perhaps just standing and gawking. Surely the Internet would pass the information right to police. A list of possible rioters would never end up posted for all to see. Even if it was, the Internet has a reputation for being totally reasonable... right?

Two Gaming Technologies Explained: A White Paper Round-Up Posted: 09 Aug 2011 01:00 PM PDT Gaming, as it always has been, is in a strong state of transformation at the moment. Major developers are focusing on creating 3D ready platforms, while others, like Nintendo and Microsoft, are trying to take us beyond controllers--actually developing games that require physical movement and in-game interactions.  The brave new world of gaming will be an interesting one indeed, so we decided to take a look at two of the pioneering technologies that may change games forever: Microsoft's Kinect and autostereoscopy. You can check out our previous white paper round ups here and here! Microsoft Kinect Microsoft's unique input device for the Xbox has opened up some very intriguing possibilities. But how exactly does it work? Kinect is, perhaps, the most significant product Microsoft has developed since Windows itself. It has the potential to impact not only gaming, but general computing, communications, and media, as well. It's an evolutionary platform blending sight, sound, and software that, if developed correctly into the future, could become a revolutionary UI. Sight Kinect's console includes an RGB camera—the same type found in webcams and cell phones across the globe. Currently, it's a device with a 640x480 resolution capable of capturing 30 frames per second. It's not 3D. An avatar, in this context, is simply a wireframe representation of the player that has been mapped with recognition points. These points correspond to the movement nexus that's available from the wireframe (wrists, neck, elbows, shoulders, hips, etc., in the case of human beings) and are what allow the system to emulate accurate player motion onscreen in real time. "Real," in this case, entails a reported 200ms lag—including screen response time—thanks to processing overhead and the usual screen refresh timing. It's possible to reduce this using a faster CPU, but in general, 200ms is right on the border of human perception. This is basically the same motion-capture process that's been used for the last decade or so in, among other things, sports games, to accurately record athletes' movement for reproduction during the game's playback. But these professional systems use keyframes to flow the motion, while Kinect's approach bypasses the static recording of pre-existing motion, instead reproducing the kinetic motion presented by the live player (in 20 points of motion) as the action proceeds. Perhaps more mundane but nonetheless important, the combination of infrared and RGB cameras also allows Kinect to provide facial recognition that can automatically log a player on to the Microsoft network as well as associate the player with a previously used avatar. A recent update, called Avatar Kinect, gives the console the power to recognize players' facial expressions and display them onscreen. In context, this ability can be used in several preconfigured venues (currently all thinly disguised chat room environments) to communicate with other players both verbally and through facial expressions. Apply notions of affective computing—which posits that systems will soon be capable of reacting to human facial expressions and emotions—and you can see why this is such a big deal. The entire Kinect console sits atop a pedestal, much like those of 1960s lava lamps. Unlike (most) lava lamps, the Kinect pedestal has a built-in tilt motor that lets the entire console move. The tilt range is about 27 degrees, and it's used in conjunction with the 57 degree horizontal field of view and 43 degree vertical field of the console's cameras to give the system a greater ability to track you as you move around. Sound Although you may hear a barely perceptible whir coming from the console, it's the only sound you'll hear. There are no speakers inside the Kinect. Instead, the interior sports four microphones—three on the lower-right end, and a single on the lower-left side. All four face downward. The quartet composes a spatial sound array that samples incoming audio and compares the four streams, separating background noise from speech, and different voices from each other. It's effective to about 4 meters from the console. Nestled alongside the RGB camera are an infrared emitter and an infrared camera. The former bathes the immediate area in infrared while the latter collects the radiated and reflected information for spatial analysis. The Kinect combines the 2D RGB image with the IR background fill to complete a recognizable object that exists at a distance "L" from the system and is along the X, Y, and Z (3D) axes. While noise-cancellation microphones have been around for years, Kinect faces the unique challenge of typically having TV/receiver speakers closer to the mics while the human voices are farther away. The acoustic-echo-cancellation techniques used in common speaker phones tend to work well, but the recognizable-voices-versus-background-noise scenario is the reverse of that for the Kinect. Software created by the Speech Group at Microsoft Redmond Research solved the problem. Software The Kinect console does not have a processor, which is surprising considering all that's expected of it. The console did have one when it was first announced (Project Natal in 2009) but Microsoft withdrew the internal CPU and decided to let the processing power of the Xbox handle matters. Kudo Tsunoda, the mastermind behind Kinect, insists that the add-on uses "less than one percent" of the Xbox 360's processing power. To help achieve that, Microsoft dropped the effectiveness of the camera down from the 60fps at its announcement in 2009 to 30fps at its commercial release. Still, that would put a huge burden on the software efficiency of the algorithms that run the console—except that the bulk of the overhead has been mitigated because the algorithms are located in the Xbox console as Kinect drivers. These drivers are what describe a human's position in Cartesian space, and they are what handle reverberation problems and suppress loudspeaker echoes in the stereo acoustic-echo-cancellation algorithm. They do all this and more based on comparisons to decision forests (a collection of decision trees) in conjunction with thousands of stored samples. Continuum There is no technical reason why a Kinect console could not be attached to any computing device that was loaded with the algorithms it needed to function. While that might be slightly difficult for the traditional BIOS/OS arrangement found in most contemporary computers, a UEFI environment would clear the way for the archetypal house of the future—run by voice commands and gestures with only its own facial recognition algorithms needed to provide security. By the time you read this, it's likely that Microsoft will have made some form of Kinect-related announcement at the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. Early speculation is that Microsoft's purchase of Skype might herald advanced video conferencing—such as predefined avatars with full expressions instead of true video images, to keep the CPU overhead down. And somewhere in the far-out reaches of time and space, what might a Kinect for PC/Mac be able to do with an über CPU? It's going to be an interesting future. Autostereoscopy When will we get 3d without the dorky glasses? One of the first (if not the first) 3D motion pictures was called Power of Love, released in 1922. A mere 89 years later, 3D technology continues to intrigue and yet struggle to gain widespread consumer acceptance. Three-dimensional production techniques have changed, theater screen designs have changed, and TV and home-theater video projectors have changed to incorporate 3D. In spite of all this progress, most modern 3D technology still requires viewers to don a pair of dorky glasses. A new technology saddled with the ungainly, but technically accurate, name of "autostereoscopy," promises to change all that and finally allow us to see 3D video with our naked eyes. Classic 3D Technology Power of Love was produced using an anaglyptic process. The film was produced by simultaneously shooting each scene from two different angles (about 2.5 inches apart, roughly the distance between the centers of the average person's eyeballs). The black-and-white film was then printed in two colors, red and green, and combined into a layered film on a single reel. When the film was screened, everyone in the audience was given a pair of special glasses outfitted with red and green lenses. The red lens canceled out the red version of the film and allowed the green version to pass through, while the green lens did just the opposite. The combination produced the illusion of depth of field. Unfortunately, the anaglyptic process induced headaches in some viewers; it also proved to be incompatible with color movies. Some 30 years later, with the movie studios desperate to find a means of luring people away from their television sets, the film House of Wax hit theaters in 1953 and did sensational box office. House of Wax was filmed using Edwin Land's Polaroid 3D system (it also featured the very first stereophonic soundtrack). The Polaroid 3D system used two lenses that captured light waves passing in perpendicular planes. Moviegoers wore polarized glasses that functioned like anaglyptic lenses. The 3D movie craze sparked by House of Wax petered out just a few years later, and Hollywood largely lost interest in 3D until the early 1980s. A string of schlocky "event" films—The Treasure of the Four Crowns, Jaws 3-D, and Amityville 3-D—passed through theaters, but the mania didn't last long and not even the release of 1983's science-fiction 3D classic Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn could resurrect the popularity of the genre. The 3D glasses caused a viewer to watch a movie with his or her eyes slightly crossed, giving some people headaches. Automatic Stereoscopic Imaging Despite all the known problems with 3D glasses, most modern film studios, cinemas, and TV and video-projector manufacturers still rely on either active shutter glasses (that alternate between darkening the left and right lenses in sync with the display) or passive glasses (that filter light through polarized lenses). With parallax barrier technology, slits in the barrier between the viewer and the screen present a different view to each eye. It causes the same image separation that 3D glasses would. Unfortunately, because the 3D effect is generated at the source, you can't move your head very much without spoiling the illusion. Autostereoscopy (the creation of stereoscopic images automatically at the source, obviating the need for glasses) could be the ideal solution, although it's not entirely perfect either. The three most common autostereoscopic solutions available or in development today are parallax barrier, lenticular lens, and integral image. A parallax barrier screen, such as is deployed in the Nintendo DS, is fabricated by facing a display—such as an LCD—with a layer of material with slits that partially obscure each pixel. The left eye is able to see only the pixels intended for the left eye, and the right eye is able to see only the pixels intended for the right eye. When the brain combines both fields of vision, it perceives depth. A parallax barrier screen depends on the viewer sitting in an ideal position—a sweet spot—to deliver maximum effectiveness. Another problem is that the 3D illusion will collapse if the viewer moves his or her head too much. And finally, the parallax barrier blocks much of the light emanating from the display, significantly reducing its brightness. These restrictions aren't major issues for a single-user, handheld gaming device like the Nintendo DS. TVs, on the other hand, are designed for multiple users in brightly lit rooms sitting far from the display. It's not unusual for none of the viewers to be in the sweet spot. Even the most sedentary couch potato will have difficulty sitting relatively still while watching TV. And TVs need to be as bright as possible to overcome the ambient lighting conditions. Another autostereoscopic technology is the lenticular lens display. This type of display effectively puts the 3D glasses on the TV itself, with a series of very small lenses that refract light to the left and right, so each eye sees only the pixels intended for it. As with other technologies we've discussed, the brain combines the two fields of view and perceives depth. Since lenticular lens technology doesn't place an opaque physical barrier on the display, it doesn't reduce image brightness. It can also be viewed from a wider angle without losing the 3D effect, and it's more tolerant of viewer movement. Unfortunately, lenticular lens displays remain difficult and very expensive to manufacture. Integral imaging is similar to the lenticular lens concept in that it places an array of micro-lenses—one lens for each pixel—in front of the display panel, so that each lens produces a different perspective on the image depending on the viewing angle. With this technique, the eye can see not only right and left views of an object, but top and bottom views as well. The downsides to integral imaging are that it reduces contrast, and no one has come up with a cost-effective means of manufacturing the lens array (a feat nature has already accomplished and bestowed on the eyes of house flies and honeybees). The Current State of Retail 3D If you can perceive 3D—not everyone can—and you're willing to accept its shortcomings, you can jump into the market now, confident in the knowledge that it's unlikely a major autostereoscopy breakthrough is right around the corner. That doesn't mean companies will cease their research and development efforts, but we wouldn't be surprised if another decade passes before "glasses-free" 3D becomes a retail reality. And then we'll all start waiting for the first demos of holographic TV.

Hitachi Tags Enterprise-Class MLC SSD with 25nm NAND from Intel Posted: 09 Aug 2011 12:05 PM PDT Hitachi and Intel are fast becoming best buddies in the storage space, and why not, the two apparently play very well together. The latest effort from these two tech heavyweights is Hitachi's new Ultrastar SSD400M multi-level cell (MLC) solid state drive family. Pitched as a cost-effective alternative to those pricey single-level cell (SLC) SSDs, these new drives are built using Intel's 25nm enterprise-grade MLC NAND flash memory, Hitachi says. The SSD400M series is available in 200GB and 400GB capacities. They ship in the 2.5-inch form factor and utilize a 6Gb SAS interface. Benefits to the enterprise crowd include lower costs, outstanding write endurance (Hitachi claims 7.3 petabytes of lifetime random writes, or 10 full drive writes per day for five years), and fast performance to the tune of up to 495MB/s read and 385MB/s write speeds, and up to 54,000 read and 24,000 write IOPS. In addition, these drives also boast enterprise specific features, "including comprehensive end-to-end data protection, error correction, and error handling, resulting in the high level of reliability that is critical in enterprise systems," Hitachi says. The drives are shipping now and are currently being qualified for use with select OEMs. Image Credit: Intel

Destroy the Universe While Saving Lives With LHC@home Posted: 09 Aug 2011 11:59 AM PDT If the scientists at CERN ever actually succeed at recreating the Big Bang and discovering that elusive and oh-so-tantalizing Higgs Boson particle, some folks reckon bad things might go down. Goodbye world-style bad things. That's probably not true, but if it were to occur, wouldn't you want to be able to stare down into the swirling vortex of doom and say "Hey, I helped make that!" Well, now's your chance – CERN's giving you the opportunity to donate your precious computer cycles to a virtual Large Hadron Collider with the newly launched LHC@home 2.0. What exactly are those geniuses doing with your processing power? First, the sexy part: LHC@home "simulates collisions between two beams of protons traveling at almost the speed of light in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Scientists working at CERN compare these simulations, based on their own theoretical models, with real data from the four LHC experiments," according to the program's press release. But even when CERN doesn't need your CPU for beginning-of-days simulations, your computer's being used for a good cause. "Through this virtual supercomputer, the Citizen Cyberscience Centre is providing a low cost technology for researchers in developing countries to meet challenges like providing clean water and even tackling vital humanitarian work including crisis mapping and damage assessment." Saving lives while possibly ending the world? What are you waiting for? Go check it out!

Windows 7 Soon To Become The Most Common OS (Finally) Posted: 09 Aug 2011 11:31 AM PDT Even though Windows 7 rocks the socks off the decade-old XP and the lackluster ball of consumer disappointment known as Vista, Microsoft has had a hard time convincing PC users to make the switch to their new (well, two years old) operating system. When 2011 first rolled around, less than one in ten North American PCs rocked Redmond's latest offering. Expect that number to look a whole lot different by New Year's; one leading analytical firm says Windows 7 will be the most common OS in the world by the time 2012 rears its ugly head. Chalk the gargantuan increase up to enterprise adoption, Gartner says. After two-ish years of preparing to roll out Windows 7, businesses are finally getting around to actually doing it. As a result, Gartner predicts that 94 percent of all PCs shipped this year will be equipped with Microsoft's baby, which will boost Windows 7's overall penetration to 42 percent of the market – making it king of the OS hill. The biggest boosts should come from North American and Asian businesses. Not a Windows 7 fan? Gartner says Macs have started selling briskly, or at least as briskly as Macs have sold in recent memory; expect to find Apple's OS on 4.5 percent of all computers shipped in 2011. Gartner only expects Linux to grab 2 percent of the global market in the next five years, and that number drops to one percent on consumer rigs.

SATA + PCI Express = SATA Express Posted: 09 Aug 2011 10:32 AM PDT If you're talking music, mashups are so, like, 2005. To be honest, we never really got into mixing Disturbed with the Backstreet Boys to begin with. But when you start talking data transfer specification mashups our ears start to perk up. Our sonic receptors are standing at full attention today, after the Serial ATA International Organization announced the development of a new specification that combines the SATA infrastructure with the PCIe interface to form a Voltron-like super-spec. The SATA Express specification (creative name, huh?) will offer 8Gbps and 16Gbps speeds and should be available by the end of the year. SAIO says the spec being developed targets SSDs and hybrid drives that are chafing at the edges of the 6Gbps SATA3 spec. Drives that don't need that kind of transfer speed – like flash memory-less HDDs – will continue to use the still-speedy SATA3 spec. "The specification will define new device and motherboard connectors that will support both new SATA Express and current SATA devices," the group's press release (PDF) says.

Shiver Me Timbers! Over 200,000 Pirates Sued Since 2010 Posted: 09 Aug 2011 09:57 AM PDT Netflix and its all-consuming thirst for bandwidth may get a lot of the headlines these days, but don't make the mistake of thinking illegal P2P file sharing is dead. Hop onto one of the big name torrent sites and you'll find a veritable ocean of available titles being seeded by a whole heck of a lot of people. But just because the media's forgotten about file sharers doesn't mean the lawyers have; in fact, over 200,000 pirates have found themselves slapped with a lawsuit since the beginning of 2010. The vast majority of those papers have been served thanks to the hot new trend in anti-P2P tactics: mass lawsuits. The not at all biased *cough* yet incredibly informative Torrentfreak reports that since the beginning of 2010, mass lawsuits against file sharers have been filed in several states, and predominantly against BitTorrent users. That 200k number is buoyed by the lawsuit brought against 24,583 BitTorrent users by the makers of the movie The Hurt Locker. The lawsuits are filed in order get the information of the person hiding behind the infringing IP address. Once the copyright holders get names and addresses, they inform the BitTorrent user that they're going to sue their ass – unless they agree to a settlement in the form of a sizable cash payment ranging from a few hundred bucks all the way up to a few thousand bucks. Torrentfreak reports that 145, 417 of those defendants haven't resolved their case yet. Of the 50k+ cases that have been closed, not a single one has made it to the courtroom, even though the mass lawsuits are based on the threat of a jury trial. That works out for the copyright holders, who not only don't have to spend thousands in legal fees to go after those pesky file sharers, but actually make money hand over fist as the pirates throw cash settlements at them left and right. Of course, as Torrentfreak points out, that "means that the evidence they claim to hold has not been properly tested."

Nvidia GeForce 280.26 WHQL Drivers Now Available for Download Posted: 09 Aug 2011 09:29 AM PDT Power users who like to live on the bleeding edge have been able to download Nvidia's GeForce 280.26 drivers in beta form for some time now. As for everyone else who owns an Nvidia graphics card? Your day has come. Nvidia's latest drivers, which put a heavy emphasis on 3D Vision support, are now WHQL certified and ready for mass consumption. The GeForce 280.26 drivers add support for a handful of new 3D Vision projections, including the Acer X1111, BenQ W710ST, and NEC NP-V300W, as well as ViewSonic's V3D245 3D Vision monitor. Nvidia also shoehorned over two dozen 3D Vision game profiles, and updated three others (Crysis 2, Deep Black, and Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition). In addition to plenty of love for 3D Vision, Nvidia addressed a bunch of issues, both for single GPU and multi-GPU users. You can read the full list of changes here, and grab the latest drivers for your Nvidia graphics card here.

SandForce to Showcase Prototype SSD Using 24nm Toshiba MLC NAND Flash Memory Posted: 09 Aug 2011 09:13 AM PDT SandForce has built quite a name for itself by building high-end solid state drive controllers employed in a number of enthusiast level SSDs, and the company doesn't show any signs of slowing down. After launching its second generation SF-2200 (SATA 6Gbps) and SF-2100 (SATA 3Gbps) chipsets earlier this year, SandForce says it's now prepared to demonstrate a prototype SSD built with Toshiba's 24nm multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory. The demonstration is set to take place today through August 11 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. SandForce's prototype SSD combines the company's SATA 6Gbps SF-2000 series processors paired with Toshiba's 24nm Toggle Flash memory operating at 166 meta-transfers per second (MT/s), resulting in balanced read and write speeds of up to 500MB/s and up to 60,000 IOPS. "As the principal inventor of NAND flash memory, Toshiba is constantly evolving this technology to be the highest quality and most cost effective media for SSDs by working closely with innovative companies like SandForce," said Shigeo Ohshima (PDF), Technology Executive, Memory Design and Application Engineering, Toshiba. "The SandForce SF-2000 SSD processor, combined with our new 24nm NAND flash memory provides an optimal SSD solution to enable accelerated deployment of thin-and-light notebooks as well as mainstream enterprise applications." According to Toshiba, this pairing is supposed to offer 1.9 times faster read and 1.5 times faster write speeds whem compared with current 32nm SSDs, SoftPedia reports. That would surely benefit SandForce's already strong share of the SSD market. SandForce says it has shipped "well over 2 million" chipsets in the past 18 months.

Seagate Celebrates 1 Million Solid State Hybrid Drive Shipments Posted: 09 Aug 2011 08:46 AM PDT Do you go for oodles of affordable storage in your next PC build with a mechanical hard drive, or raid your son's piggy bank and splurge on an ultra-fast solid state drive? You could go with both -- SSD for the OS, HDD for storage chores -- but that's the most expensive option of all. There's somewhat of a happy medium available in Seagate's Momentus XT solid state hybrid drive, of which Seagate said it shipped 1 million units since last year. Market research firm IDC says that's just the beginning. "Seagate's shipment of its one millionth Momentus XT drive is just the beginning of a bright future for solid state hybrid drives," said John Rydning, research director at IDC. "Fast, capacious, and economical hybrid HDD and NAND flash storage solutions like the Momentus XT drive will be found in roughly 25 percent of all new PCs shipped in 2015." Seagate's Momentus XT solid state hybrid drives try to combine the best of both worlds by pairing a 7200RPM mechanical hard drive of up to 500GB in capacity with 4GB of onboard solid state memory. Frequently accessed data is shuttled over to the fast storage area, in theory giving users the benefits of a solid state drive with the capacity of a traditional hard drive. Does it work? Find out by reading our review here.

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MMO News

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• Earth Eternal Relaunched into Open Beta
• Aethereus Set to be Unveiled at Gamescom
• New Racing MMO Simraceway Announced
• The Chosen Gameplay – First Look HD
• Golfstar
• Iris Online

Earth Eternal Relaunched into Open Beta Posted: 09 Aug 2011 02:51 PM PDT Outblaze and TurnOut Ventures announced the relaunch of open beta for Earth Eternal.  The game originally shut down in August of 2010 due to bankruptcy, however, the rights were sold. The game offers 12 unique races and four character classes.  Skills from different classes can be learned, however, offering players a unique character development experience all their own. Players who participate in the open beta will receive various in-game rewards.  Additionally, anyone that reaches level 30 during the beta will also receive an additional heroic reward.  All items will be given to the players after the beta ends. Earth Eternal Gameplay Screenshot Source: Earth Eternal Begins Open Beta Revamped free-to-play MMORPG invites players to explore a unique world San Francisco , CA – August 9, 2011: Outblaze and TurnOut Ventures announced today that the free-to-play online game Earth Eternal is now in open beta and accepting all players. The beta will run for the next few weeks to let players explore the revamped massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) while helping to identify any issues and bugs before launch. Visit www.eartheternal.com to play the beta of the revamped Earth Eternal. Earth Eternal is a Free-to-Play 3D MMORPG set in the remains of Europe thousands of years after the fall of both humankind and technology. In a future torn by war and ancient magic, several sentient peoples have arisen to rule the planet. Players choose from 12 very different races, each with its own distinct history and lore. Characters begin as one of four classes, but can be customized with a unique multi-class skill system that provides complete player control over character development. Players who participate in the Earth Eternal open beta will receive an in-game rewards package, which includes an exclusive Beta Beast banner, a Beta Beast helmet, and a boost to character experience gain. In addition, any character that reaches level 30 during open beta will also receive a surprise Heroic reward. All beta rewards will be automatically added to characters after the end of open beta. Features of the new and improved Earth Eternal: - An original 3D world based on Europe long after the fall of humankind - Unique anime-inspired and non-traditional player races - Free-to-play with full access to all content - Hundreds of hours of quest-driven gameplay including dozens of challenging group dungeons - Robust character advancement system, offering cross-class development (e.g., learn Knight abilities on your Druid) - Unique skill-based growth ensures no two characters are the same - Intense classic MMORPG gameplay and systems including guilds (Clans) - Armor Refashioning allows players to assign stats to their favorite items (including cosmetic items) - Unique lobby system allowing players to connect from and travel to anywhere in the game world - Game content streams to player's  client with no need for a large client download and installation (download of a plug-in and lightweight client is required the first time the game is launched) To play the open beta of Earth Eternal please visit www.eartheternal.com (Windows XP/Vista/7 required).

Aethereus Set to be Unveiled at Gamescom Posted: 09 Aug 2011 02:27 PM PDT ThreeGates has announced that their first MMORPG, Aethereus, will be revealed at Gamescom.  The game is set to feature four different classes, development of city-states, an arena creation system to allow players to compete in and the ability to design your own equipment and gear, among other features to be revealed. Combat in the game will be physics based, emphasizing tactics and environmental interaction to overcome challenges players will face.  The developers compare the game to Diablo, Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath. Aethereus Concept Art Source: ThreeGates Announces Aethereus, Unique Online Co-Op PC Game Aethereus Features 4-Player Infinite Replayability and Perpetual Glory GOTLAND, SWEDEN – August 9, 2011 – ThreeGates, the recently announced studio focused on the creation of online multiplayer and Co-Op Games, today announced its first title, Aethereus, as it ramps up for the public unveiling at Gamescom. "Aethereus is the first title to show what ThreeGates is looking to do with Co-Op games," said Don Geyer, CEO of ThreeGates. "With the Diablo, Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath series setting the standard, there's a lot of interest in games that enable smaller groups of players to get together and have a really compelling game experience without being in a full MMO world. While a lot of the development community is moving to social games and free-to-play games, we know we've got a game that many gamers will appreciate!" Aethereus Features Join forces in online multiplayer cooperative expeditions as the Inventor, Astrographer, Officer or Animist and venture into the uncharted wilderness of Aethereus seeking fame, glory and untold riches. Invite your friends to your own customized Nexus city-state where they can buy, trade or build unique items only available in your specific area. • Decorate your city-state with statues in the likeness of you or your friend's characters or the wild beasts of your arena. • Challenge your friends to PvP or Co-op combat in your uniquely designed town Combat Arena. • Partake in bold expeditions to capture extraordinary beasts that you can use to populate your Arena. • Design and create a variety of arena combat scenarios using your library of beasts, traps and contraptions that will dazzle your friends, amaze the crowd and make your arena one of the sought after combat meeting grounds. • Embark on a variety of procedurally generated expeditions with your friends discovering new lands and situations to overcome. • Design and build new gear, weapons and inventions to solve the many challenges that await you in the world of Aethereus. • Crafting and Materials system allows limitless customization • Expedition system creates infinite replayability • Physics-based combat system including traps, set-up weapons and interaction with environmental objects • Four unique playable classes – warrior, animist, astrographer, inventor – play online multiplayer cooperative expeditions and venture into uncharted wilderness seeking fame, glory and untold riches

New Racing MMO Simraceway Announced Posted: 09 Aug 2011 02:07 PM PDT Ignite Game Technologies has introduced Simraceway, which is the company’s first MMO.  Simraceway will offer multiplayer auto racing and uses detailed, simulation-style driving physics for player skill to match by a person’s skill level. Many top racers are helping influence the game’s development, including recent Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon.  They will be lending their skills and knowledge to offer a challenge to players.  The game is slated for release in the fall. They are currently accepting applications for beta testing. Simraceway Gameplay Screenshot Source: IGNITE GAME TECHNOLOGIES ANNOUNCES NEW ONLINE RACING GAME – SIMRACEWAY™ Indianapolis 500 Champion Dan Wheldon, Along with Other World Class Racing Drivers, Help Shape the Realistic Quality of a New Online Racing Environment and will also Compete Live Against Everyday Users SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – August 9, 2011 – Ignite Game Technologies ("Ignite"), an online gaming company focused on building a new form of auto racing game, today announced its online racing game – Simraceway™.  Focusing on live, person-to-person racing, the new game utilizes highly accurate, simulation grade driving physics, as well as proprietary middleware, for player skill quantification to match racers by skill level. Some of motor racing's top drivers, including recent Indianapolis 500 champion Dan Wheldon, are helping to shape the game and will lend their head-to-head racing skills to compete against players in online races. The game will be available this fall for gaming and race fans of all skill levels but passionate racers can sign up now at www.simraceway.com to be informed of the release date and beta access. Simraceway will leverage a client-server model similar to popular online games such as World of Warcraft™, and will contain current and historic licensed content from a variety of auto and racing brands including Bentley™, Bugatti™, Mitsubishi™ and Saleen™. The racing environment will be continually updated and contain street, fantasy and real world tracks – many of which will be laser scanned for millimeter accuracy of the racing surface. Simraceway screenshots are available here. To further enhance the realism, Simraceway is also partnering with a number of racing series, teams, car manufacturers, and professional drivers, such as Dan Wheldon, each to be announced in the coming months. "The core aim of the Simraceway online racing environment is simply to do online, live, multiplayer racing, really, really well," said Jonathan Haswell, founder of Ignite. "This racing environment will be much less about high detailed visual models and cinematic replays, like most current racing games, and much more about close, hard, door handle to door handle racing with live people who have been well matched by skill level, or against professional drivers like Dan. A critical design realization for us has been that it really doesn't matter how good, or not, you are, or actually what you're driving, if you're battling hard against other real drivers of similar skill level you're having fun and that's what we’re looking for here." Commenting from Mid-Ohio where he's testing the 2012 IndyCar, Dan Wheldon, current Indianapolis 500 Champion, said of the announcement: "I've always enjoyed my time in the simulators and since meeting Jonathan two years ago it was pretty obvious that Ignite was not looking to build just another racing game. So the opportunity to influence Simraceway’s physics directly was pretty appealing. Thus far it's been a fun project to be involved with but I'm really looking forward to getting into the meat of it later this month, when we do the physics model shakedown at Infineon. Of course the real fun will begin when I get to start racing against users live online!"

The Chosen Gameplay – First Look HD Posted: 09 Aug 2011 12:25 PM PDT To Learn More About the Game Check out our The Chosen Page. The Chosen is a 3D fantasy MMORPG published by Snail Games – the same company behind Age of Armor, ShowUP, and Heroes of Gaia. Like many other Chinese MMORPGs, The Chosen is set during the three kingdoms period in Chinese History. The game has six playable classes which are also weapons – Blade, Sword, Bow, Fan, Spell and Flute. To learn more about The Chosen check out the official MMOHut The Chosen page which includes a detailed review, tons of screenshots, and additional videos.

Golfstar Posted: 03 Oct 2010 01:01 AM PDT Golfstar is a 3D golfing MMO. Create a custom avatar using a variety of clothing and accessories and play a few holes alone or with up to 30 other players. Golftstar has anime inspired character designs and allows simultaneous play, making multiplayer games much faster paced. Publisher: Gamigo Playerbase: Medium Graphics: Medium Quality Type: MMO EXP Rate: Medium PvP: N/A Filesize: 975 MB Pros: +All players can play simultaneously in multiplayer. +Variety of clothes and accessories available. +Up to 30 players per match. +Great interface Cons: -Very Similar to other Golfing games. -Few playable characters. -Limited golf-course variety. Overview Golfstar Overview Golfstar is a Korean developed golfing MMO being published in North America and Europe by Gamigo. The game was developed by Com2uS and has anime styled characters. The golf courses and surrounding environments are well rendered. Golfstar supports multiplayer matches of up to 30 players, and allows them to all play at once. This speeds up gameplay tremendously and is an improvement over several older golfing games. Like other golfing MMOs, players can customize their avatars and explore persistent shopping areas. As players progress, they’ll be able to learn passive skills that improve their stamina and strength. Golfstar competes with games like Pangya, Shot Online, and Tiger Woods Online. Graphically speaking, Golfstar looks fantastic and is well worth checking out for those interesting in golfing games. Golfstar Screenshots Golfstar Featured Video Click here to view the embedded video. Full Review Golfstar Review Golfstar Review There are few sports that have as much international appeal as golf: the polite atmosphere, the calculated shots, and the athleticism required have inspired even video game players. In recent years, golf games have made their way into the online arena, hoping to capitalize on the multiplayer aspect of online gaming. One of these games, Golfstar, is published by gamigo. While similar to Shot Online, as well as other golf games like Pangya and Tiger Woods Online, Golfstar still has plenty to offer the online golf fanatic. Take Your Pick Golfstar’s character creation is very limited: there are two male and two female stock characters, complete with a name, age, and biography, to choose from. These characters can be customized a little: each has two hair styles and a few hair colors, plus two faces, to choose from. Still, you’ll have the look of looking like one out of every four players, with the only distinguishing feature being the clothing you equip in-game. Fashion items also offer bonuses, however, so you still may end up looking pretty similar to the player you’re putting against. Teeing Off While Golfstar aims for fair realism, the controls during play are relatively simple. Swings take place in two phases; the first has you hold down the space bar to fill your power meter and letting go when the power is to your liking, while the second phase has you tap the space bar within a small aiming reticule on the ball itself (the closer to the center of the ball, the better the shot). This mechanic works the same for both regular shots and putts, with putts showing their power meter on the green itself instead of as a swing bar. There are a few additional controls as well. Using the mouse will let you aim left or right. Camera controls are also managed by the mouse, and three views, allowing you to focus on either the hole, the projected landing area, or the golfer, can be switched between with the keyboard. Golfers can also learn skills, which can be added to an action bar and used with standard 1-0 hotkeys for easy access. While these controls are easy to master for a beginner, the mouse controls are on a reverse axis, which may slip up a player from time to time. How’s the Weather? While the graphics and controls of Golfstar are softly realistic, the challenges facing golfers on the holes are not. Like Shot Online, Golfstar impressively takes into consideration all the factors affecting a golf game, from wind and slope, to weather and humidity. Every condition you come across on the course can and will affect your shot, making it important to take a full scan of your situation on each shot – an impressive feat sometimes, as each shot is limited by a time of 30 to 90 seconds. Get a Grip Golfstar is not just a free-for-all golf game; equipment and player statistics play a major part. The game features a full set of fashion items for players to equip (purchased with both the game’s in-game currency and in the cash shop), many of which affect a player’s stats. Clubs are also a major necessity in game, as are various items that can help improve a player’s accuracy, power, stamina, or control. As you play on courses, you gain experience and money. Experience will help you gain levels, which in turn grants you a few points that you can allocate between the four stats mentioned above. This is where players can really customize their experience, putting points in the stats that they are weakest at, as well as those they feel will give them an edge on the courses. Players also get to learn skills, special abilities that can be activated while on the course to help give their shots an edge. Get on the Course Already There are only four courses available in Golfstar right now, and they all look generally similar to each other with the exception of White Cliff, which offers some beach-like obstacles and background noise. Thankfully, there are several game modes to make things more interesting. These modes are stroke (a standard golf match with the lowest score winning), match (head-to-head per hole, with one or two people per team), skins (where players bet per hole to win in-game currency), and both competition and team competition, which can feature up to 30 players golfing at the same time. Not only does Golfstar allow a large number of players on the course at once, it also makes sure that golf play goes quickly by making all players play simultaneously. While this does give a little illusion that you’re playing alone, it also significantly speeds up the golf game – a usual problem for most golf MMOs. The game also supports guilds, and hosts a regular guild day every Friday in which guilds get boosted experience and rewards as they play on the greens. Final Verdict: Good Golfstar is one of the better golf games available online; it’s realistic, it’s fast, and it supports its community through in-game lobbies and guilds, helping make it feel like a little less of a lobby and more like a golfing community. However, the game also has a very limited amount of content, and follows the same style of equipment rules that many FPS games do – permanent equipment is almost nowhere to be found (even your starter set has a thirty day limit.) While you can earn money in game to pay for clubs, you’ll have to keep a close eye on your inventory to make sure you don’t go broke and lose out on valuable stats. If you’re looking for a more realistic golf game, this might be your best bet – just watch your pocketbook. Screenshots Golfstar Screenshots 1234► Videos Golfstar Videos Golfstar Gameplay Teaser Trailer Click here to view the embedded video. Links Golfstar Links Golfstar Official Site System Requirements Golfstar Requirements Minimum Requirements: OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 2000 CPU: 1.0 GhZ Pentium 3 or Equivalent AMD processor RAM: 512 MB Memory HDD: 3 GB Free Graphics Card: GeForce 5200 / Radeon 9200 or better Recommended Specifications: OS: Windows Vista / 7 / XP / 2000 CPU: 2 GHz Pentium 4 processor RAM: 1 GB Memory HDD: 5 GB Free Graphics Card: GeForce 6600/ Radeon 9600

Iris Online Posted: 17 Aug 2010 11:21 PM PDT Iris Online is 3D fantasy MMORPG with a gypsy theme. Players can chose between three races and can explore the anime-inspired world of Arcana. Experience a unique environment centered on 22 tarot cards, including The Fool, The Chariot, and Wheel of Fortune. Publisher: gPotato Playerbase: Medium Graphics: High Quality Type: MMORPG EXP Rate: Medium PvP: Duels / Colosseum Matches Filesize: ~ 2400 mb Pros: +3 playable races, 6 starting classes. +Unique tarot card feature. +Transform into monsters using cards. +Themed instanced dungeons. Cons: -Limited inventory space. -Familiar gameplay and character progression. -Visual style may not appeal to some players. Overview Iris Online Overview Iris Online is a free-to-play MMORPZG developed by Eyasoft, the same studio behind Luna Online. Like Luna, Iris boasts a cute, anime-inspired visual style. But don’t let the graphics fool you, Iris Online is a full-feature MMORPG with a unique gypsy theme. Tarot cards effect much of the world, including the twenty-two instanced dungeons, each of which have a different theme based off one of the cards. Players can collect monster cards off almost any enemy in the game and use them to transform into those monsters. PvP battle zones pit up to fifteen players near the same level against each other. Players progress by gaining experience and skill points. The game has a variety of races and classes to choose from. Human - Easily adaptable race that possess great strength and excels at technology. Fighter - Fighters rely on brute strength and large weapons to deal heavy damage at melee range. Mage - Arcane spellcasters who fight from a distance. They can buff allies, but are fragile in combat. Hybrid - Half-human, half-animal. Hybrids have high strength and stamina, though their knowledge of magic is limited. Warrior - Equipped with heavy armor, warriors are always at the forefront of battle where they can defend their allies. Rogue - Shrewd combatants that rely on speed and cunning. Rogues exploit vulnerabilities in their opponents. Elf - Elves are the oldest race in Arcana. They have unmatched knowledge and an affinity for nature Ranger - Trackers and outdoorsmen. Rangers are masters of stealthy movement and the gun. They can also use daggers. Shaman - Masters of fire, air, earth, and water magic. Shamans can summon elementals to aid them. Iris Online Screenshots Iris Online Featured Video Click here to view the embedded video. Full Review Iris Online Review By Erhan Altay Most anime-themed fantasy MMORPGs tend to be very similar, but once in a while a game like Iris Online comes along and adds a new twist to the genre. Iris Online is developed by the Korean studio Eyasoft and published in North America on Gala-Net's gPotato portal. Eyasoft is behind a number of anime styled games including Luna Online and the recent Legend of Edda, but Iris Online is different from those titles. It has a 'Gypsy' theme, which means the world is filled with tarot cards, carnivals, and circus themed areas and instances. Behind the brightly colored visual style is an in-depth MMORPG with varied races, classes, PvP options, and other features. Races of Arcana Iris Online entered beta testing in the middle of October in 2010, and with a 2.4 gb client size, its a fairly large game. Each account has five character slots per server, which is almost enough to cover the six starting classes. There are three playable races to chose from: Human, Hybrid, and Elf. Each of these has two distinct classes available, for a grand total of six. There are a few face, hair, and hair color options, but appearance customization is very limited overall. The character models themselves look great. After character creation, the game prompts players with an option to take part in the tutorial. It's short, and explains some of the original features found later in the game. There's also a reward for completing it, so new players should run through it at least once. Sign Up for the Circus The tutorial in Iris Online takes place in a circus-themed zone where players are introduced to a new aspect of gameplay in each room. The game supports both keyboard (W,A,S,D) and point-and-click controls which will please many gamers. Better still, the keyboard controls actually feel fluid. This is one of the few Asian developed free-to-play MMORPGs where I felt more comfortable using W,A,S,D over the mouse. Players can even jump by hitting the space bar, but this propels them far into the air and is rarely practical. After learning to move, the next quest explains a bit about the game's lore. Most gamers will skip past this, but just remember that the world is called Arcana, and the races had to work together to defeat some evil force long ago. Next, players can choose between three cat mounts. Mounts come in all shapes and sizes in Iris Online including giant cats, crabs, and so on. Newbies won't be able to keep their tutorial mount, it only serves to show them how to use one. The interface in Iris Online is simple, the map is opened by hitting 'M', the quest log opens with the 'L' key, and inventory with the 'I' key. The only major complaints with the interface are the limited inventory space of twenty-five slots that new players start with, and the inability to view maps beside the one a character is currently in. Fortune Telling One major feature that distinguishes Iris Online from other free-to-play games is its Gypsy theme. Tarots cards, which are still used by fortune tellers today, have perhaps the most well known aspect of Gypsy culture. These cards, and especially the twenty-two major ones, play an important role in Iris Online. Each of the original twenty-two instanced dungeons in the game are based off one of the twenty-two major Tarot cards. Veteran gamers may have come across these cards before in other games like the Persona or Ultima series. They include cards like 'The Fool', 'Judgment', and 'The Emperor.' The order that a person draws these cards is supposed to reveal something about their fortune, but in Iris they play a role in weapon customization, crafting, and monster summoning. The tutorial explains most of these features, but its important to note that besides the twenty-two major tarot cards, there are fifty-six minor ones. On top of that, nearly every monster in the game (including raid bosses) have a chance of dropping cards. The cards monsters drop come in two forms: one type can be attached to equipment Ragnarok Online style, while the other kind is used to temporarily transform into the particular monster that dropped it. Each monster has a unique set of skills, and buffs. Cards are also used in crafting and can be combined with other items to create completely new items. Character Growth Progression in Iris Online is fairly linear. Players gain experience by hunting and completing quests, but they also gain SXP (skill experience) independently of their base experience. When the SXP bar fills, players are rewarded with a skill point which can be distributed among the multple skill trees each class has. Each starting class has access to two or more weapon/spell types, and each is represented by its own skill tree. Rogues, for example, can use rifles or dual daggers. Shamans can specialize in divine or offensive magic. Fighters can specialize in two-handed swords, dual swords, or sword & shield skills. All classes have a passive skill tree which contains permanent boosts to health, damage output, or particular stats. It is possible to spread skill points across multiple specializations, but this is not recommended. Players can a free skill reset at level 30, when they can make their first job change, but must use a cash shop item if they mess up before or after that time. Base experience is a lot simpler. Players don't receive stat points as they level, they increase automatically and can be raised further with magic equipment and buffs. Besides skills, there is one extra layer of customization in the form of an elemental 'Force.' There are four forces to chose from: Helen (fire), Nero (water), Annes (wind), Dera (ground.) Why does Nero represent water? I'm not quite sure, but there are several translation quirks throughout the game and this may just be one of them. Point A to Point B Gameplay in Iris Online is heavily quest-based, and players are usually lead from one zone to the next in a linear path. New players start in the town of Terminus, which is in perpetual night and progress to hunting grounds that are at different times of the day. The assortment of quests should be familiar to MMORPG fans; kill quests, item gathering quests, and talk to NPC X quests. To auto-move to a location, players must bring up the map and click on a certain area. There's no quest objective to quest objective auto-navigation, which is actually a good thing since too much automation can make a game boring. Combat relies on actively using a variety of skills, as they usually have cool downs of a few seconds. Luckily, every class is equipped with an assortment of skills and mana regeneration is pretty high. Interestingly, spells and skills cost a percent of total mana, not just a set amount. This makes the MP recovery rate a very important stat for every class. The constant use of skills keeps combat exciting, and monsters in Iris Online start aggroing at an early level, which makes things more challenging. Early quests reward players with dozens of HP/MP potions, but these will run out eventually. There's no death penalty until level 10, and players are free to spawn right where they died. After level 10, death carries a small exp penalty, and resurrecting where you fell causes a debuff for several minutes. Carnival Games Iris Online has many small features that help round it out as a full-feature MMORPG. These include an auction house, the ability to open personal shop stalls, and a title system. Titles are earned in a variety of ways, the most common being consuming tokens dropped by monsters. Titles effect the stats of a character when equipped, and can have both positive and negative effects. A title geared towards casters may increase magic damage and intelligence, but may decrease strength. Iris Online also has several PvP modes on top of the standard duel. Every so often, players are prompted on whether they want to participate in a capture the flag or team deathmatch event. If enough players within a certain level range agree, everyone who chose to participate is teleported to an instanced Colosseum field where two sides (each with up to eighteen players) duke it out. The game keeps track of PvP stats, including total kills, deaths, and also rewards points towards the player's currently chosen 'Force.' Besides large-scale PvP events, players can also group up to clear instanced dungeons scattered across the world. You've Come a Long Way The visuals in Iris Online are very reminiscent of earlier anime-styled games, particularly Fiesta Online, Seal Online, and perhaps a bit of Rose Online thrown in. Being a newer game, it’s not much of a surprise that the graphics in Iris are better than those previous games. It’s a high quality title, and a slightly more mature alternative to Eyasoft's more chibi-oriented titles. Final Verdict: Great Iris Online may feel familiar at first glance, but it has a lot of depth and a unique theme. With three races and a large assortment of classes, Iris Online offers varied gameplay options but with a simple to understand progression system. Instanced dungeons, instanced PvP battlegrounds, and the multi-purpose card system all add up to make Iris Online a top-notch MMORPG. It doesn't breakthe mold enough to earn the top score, but it’s still a game well worth checking out. Screenshots Iris Online Screenshots 1234567► Videos Iris Online Videos Iris Online Cinematic Trailer Click here to view the embedded video. Iris Online Gameplay Trailer Click here to view the embedded video. Iris Online Gameplay – First Look Click here to view the embedded video. Links Iris Online Links Iris Online Official Site System Requirements Iris Online Requirements Minimum Requirements: OS: Windows  XP / Vista / Windows 7 CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz RAM:  1 GB HDD: 3 GB Free Graphics Card: ATI Radeon 9500 / nVidia 5200 (128mb memory) Recommended Specification: OS: Windows Vista / 7 CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz or better RAM: 2 GB or more HDD: 4 GB Free Graphics Card: Geforce 6600 GT / 256 mb video memory or better

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