General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Box Offers 50GB Of Free Cloud Storage To Android Users

Posted: 23 Feb 2012 10:52 AM PST

While PC geeks may be eagerly awaiting the launch of Ivy Bridge and Kepler GPUs, less hardcore tech fans have been throwing dollars at two particular niches: mobile and the cloud. Box, a cloud storage company competing for your nebulous attention, has just announced a killer new offer that brings those two elements together. The service released an update for its Android app today, and anyone who snags the app in the next 30 days gets a whopping 50GB of free cloud storage space, good for the rest of your life.

That's a lot of ones and zeros; by comparison, Microsoft's SkyDrive often draws praise for its spacious 25GB gratis offering, and Box's limited time incentive doubles that up. As if that wasn't sweet enough, Box will increase your free file size limit to 100MB (up from 25MB) if you download the Android app before March 23 at 11:59 PST. There are no strings attached, either; just download the app and sign in or create a new account to get the free storage, which is accessible from any device -- not just your Android phone.

If this is up your alley -- and hey, who doesn't like free stuff? -- saunter over to the Android Market to download the Box app.

The Game Boy: Why Games Need to Quit Wasting Time

Posted: 23 Feb 2012 10:39 AM PST

I think The Darkness II's Jackie Estacado deserves an award for being more utterly screwed in a single instance than any other videogame character in history. So here's the tale of the tape: I – playing as the main character of all first-person shooters: camera-glued-to-the-main-character's-forehead – was locked in a dark, dingy room while a horde of vaguely supernatural mob goons turned my mega-mansion (and my horde of vaguely competent regular mob goons) into a gory pile of mob goop. "Mansion under attack, lol #firstworldproblems," I could almost imagine Jackie tweeting if he hadn't also been, you know, crucified at the time. 

Then one of my none-too-subtle foes wheeled a TV inches away from my eyes so as to – both literally and figuratively – rub my face in what was to come. "It's your own personal snuff film," he proudly announced. On the screen were two of my particularly talkative underlings – beaten, bound, and on their knees, with backs mercifully turned away from the pistol pointed in their general direction. "One lives, one dies. Pick." And I should have cared. I really should have. 

But I didn't. Not in the slightest. So, what changed between the original Darkness' masterclass in characterization and this sordid tale of heartlessness and heart-eating? Simple: time. 

And I'm not referring to the intervening period between Darkness I and II's respective releases – nor, for that matter, one of the most well-known songs off Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon." Rather, I'm shining the demon-snake-disintegrating spotlight on in-game time or, in this case, lack thereof. 

See, the first Darkness is, in my opinion, among the few games that have really leveraged one of the most underused gadgets in gaming's arsenal: the lack of a predefined time limit on our experiences. There's no clock ticking things away – the hours that make up a dull day, for instance. A book's pages will eventually run out. Films have to squeeze all manner of meaningful plot and character development into the cramped confines of a couple hours – a task I imagine to be much like putting a ship into a bottle the wrong way. And, of course, all good TV shows inevitably get canceled by Fox.

Games, however, are free to paddle down the timestream at their leisure, hard drive/disc space willing. So The Darkness crafted the now-infamous sofa scene. In it, players were given the option to stow their guns, temporarily shut off the portion of their brains scientists are now calling "The Rambo Cortex," and watch a movie with Jackie's girlfriend, Jenny. For an hour-and-a-half. As I've written countless times, it was brilliant. I spent real-life quality time with a human-shaped stack of zeroes and ones, but it felt entirely authentic. There were no cars, rockets, or Kool-Aid Men crashing through walls. The screen never faded away into infinite swirling abyss of black that is the jump cut to another scene. It may not have been real in the strictest sense, but it was damn close. 

The Darkness II, meanwhile, is akin to a rollercoaster ride that abruptly and haphazardly leaps onto other rollercoasters. It barrels forward at breakneck pace, pausing only briefly between levels to let you chat with your motley crew of meticulously dressed mobsters at Jackie's mansion. Admittedly, even throwaway conversations are very well-written and acted, but when I had to choose which friendly mafio-so-and-so to execute on the spot, it felt like I was indirectly splattering the brains of a casual acquaintance – not someone I'd rather take a bullet for. And most certainly not a close friend I'd worked with and fought alongside for two years. Because, in truth, I'd been around these guys for a combined total of roughly two or three minutes.  I barely knew either of them. 

All of The Darkness II is like that. It jumps from action-packed-event-to-action-packed event, rarely bothering to take a meaningful breather. I never got a chance to settle into the world or feel like I was part of something larger because, before the game was even done setting up its pins, it was already screaming at me to knock them down. And then the credits rolled after about five hours, and I looked back and realized that I had no idea how many in-game days or weeks had passed over the course of that story. The whole experience was disjointed and choppy, dashing madly for the finish line and blatantly ignoring my desire to stop and smell the roses. 

The Darkness II is hardly the only game that deserves to do time for its crimes against time, though. Skyrim, for instance, bases its entire existence on the idea that you'll eat, sleep, and breathe it for days or even months – probably at the slowly fatal expense of eating, sleeping, and breathing. And yet, even as in-game years fly by, nothing changes. Seasons stagnate, cities neither rise nor fall, and the world's inhabitants may as well be starring in Groundhog Day. It's jarring, to say the least – less like a living world and more like the occasionally writhing corpse of one. 

And I'm only singling out Skyrim because it's a recent and relatable example. Truth be told, I can count the games that put detail into the passage of time on a single hand, and one of them's a farming simulator. And that's a damn shame, because the few who've opted to buck this industry-wide trend have given gaming some of its most memorable moments and worlds. 

Mafia II, for example, may not take home an Originality Award for its plot and characters, but its world was a brilliant slice of 1940s nostalgia. So – given that the game's sort of called Mafia – you commit some crimes, get your hands a little too dirty, and wind up behind bars. Until 1951. When you finally emerge, the world's a different place. Car models, music, fashion – nothing's the same. It reminded me a bit of Shawshank Redemption, but less horrifically depressing. More importantly, though, it filtered old-timey Chicago through a brand new lens, lending it an entirely different personality.  

Then there's Dragon Age II, which – in spite of all its flaws – did an excellent job of conveying changes in culture, race relations, and politics over the course of roughly a decade. Sure, the structure of Kirkwall  – and, in many cases, people's freaking clothes – remained largely unchanged, but DAII still deserves credit for tackling social issues in a believable manner, both by way of interesting allegories (Mages vs Chantry echoes battles for both gay rights and racial equality, for instance) and marked change over time. And while the player wasn't exactly the catalyst for a lot of that change, other games – like Microsoft's Fable franchise – have used the passage of time to demonstrate the direct consequences of your choices.

And finally, let's not forget To The Moon. It narrowed its focus down to two people but widened its net to fit an entire lifetime. It also made me cry. 

Most games, however, seem content to leave this rich vein of potential quite a bit more than six feet under. Whether it's thanks to a torrid love affair with constant Hollywood-style scene cuts or sheer, willful ignorance of time's ability to alter anything other than the little numbers on the calendar, games constantly leave time out of the equation. Unless every game developer on earth is secretly Han Solo frozen in carbonite, there's simply no excuse for this. Everyone ever in the history of history has experienced time. And the above examples barely even scratch the surface of its potent possibilities within games. So let's stop wasting time. Standing still is boring. Let's move forward.  

CERN: Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos Or Loose Cables?

Posted: 23 Feb 2012 09:58 AM PST

This just in from the "It can happen to anyone" department: scientists think they may have found an explanation for the neutrinos found travelling faster than the speed of light at CERN last year -- and it doesn't involve honest-to-goodness faster than light travel. As it turns out, the big brains at CERN would probably make lousy IT guys, because they forgot to perform a basic step of any technical troubleshooting process: checking the wires.

Just in case you don't remember, the CERN scientists unveiled their controversial finding -- in which neutrinos sent from Geneva arrived in Italy 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light -- back in September of last year. Testing in November returned the same results. But those plucky scientists didn't stop there; no, they kept poking and prodding at the setup to try to prove or disprove the results. Apparently, it took until now for them to get around to testing the physical connections.

"According to sources familiar with the experiment, the 60 nanoseconds discrepancy appears to come from a bad connection between a fiber optic cable that connects to the GPS receiver used to correct the timing of the neutrinos' flight and an electronic card in a computer," Science Insider reported yesterday. After tightening the connection, whaddaya know -- the 60 second discrepancy disappeared.

Of course, it will take more testing to prove that it was a loose wire that tricked the best minds in the world into thinking particles were breaking the laws of physics. In fact, ZDNet's reporting that CERN has found another potential equipment issue that could've been giving false readings, too -- but the second malfunction would give a slower than accurate reading, which means that the "faster than the speed of light" neutrinos could have going even faster than originally thought.  Both hypotheses will be tested over the coming days.

White House Unveils Online Privacy 'Bill of Rights' to Protect Internet Users

Posted: 23 Feb 2012 07:24 AM PST

The Obama administration on Thursday laid out its blueprint for a "Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights" as part of a larger initiative to improve online privacy protections and to give users more control over how their personal information is used on the Internet. Part of this initiative involves an agreement with advertising networks and leading Internet companies to get on board with Do Not Track technology, which is baked into most major browsers.

"American consumers can't wait any longer for clear rules of the road that ensure their personal information is safe online," said President Obama. "As the Internet evolves, consumer trust is essential for the continued growth of the digital economy. That's why an online privacy Bill of Rights is so important. For businesses to succeed online, consumers must feel secure. By following this blueprint, companies, consumer advocates and policymakers can help protect consumers and ensure the Internet remains a platform for innovation and economic growth."

The Consumer Bill Bill of Rights provides a baseline of seven fundamental protections, including:

  • Individual Control: Consumers have a right to exercise control over what personal data organizations collect from them and how they use it.
  • Transparency: Consumers have a right to easily understandable information about privacy and security practices.
  • Respect for Context: Consumers have a right to expect that organizations will collect, use, and disclose personal data in ways that are consistent with the context in which consumers provide the data.
  • Security: Consumers have a right to secure and responsible handling of personal data.
  • Access and Accuracy: Consumers have a right to access and correct personal data in usable formats, in a manner that is appropriate to the sensitivity of the data and the risk of adverse consequences to consumers if the data are inaccurate.
  • Focused Collection: Consumers have a right to reasonable limits on the personal data that companies collect and retain.
  • Accountability: Consumers have a right to have personal data handled by companies with appropriate measures in place to assure they adhere to the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.

This is just the beginning. In the coming weeks, the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration will establish specific practices and codes of conduct related to the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.

Survey: Apple Top Rated Computer Company, Lenovo and Toshiba Tied for Second Place

Posted: 23 Feb 2012 06:56 AM PST

Computer companies need to step up their game. Temkin Group set out to rate the customer experience of 206 large companies across 18 industries, and  computer companies didn't exactly impress. Collectively, they fell to the bottom of the pack, receiving the fourth-lowest average, edging ahead of health plans, Internet service providers, and TV service providers.

Temkin Group's research is based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers conducted last month. When it was all said and done, Apple emerged as the top-rated computer firm with an "Okay" rating of 65 percent and the 89th overall spot across all industries. Lenovo (62 percent), Toshiba (62 percent), and Hewlett-Packard (61 percent) also received "Okay" ratings, while all others fell into the "Poor" category, including:

  • Sony: 59 percent
  • Acer: 58 percent
  • Compaq: 58 percent
  • eMachines: 57 percent
  • Dell: 54 percent
  • Gateway: 54 percent

Even though Apple took the top spot in what turned out to be an overall weak showing by computer companies at large, Lenovo and Toshiba shouldn't beat themselves up over it. According to Temkin Group, Lenovo and Toshiba made the largest year-over-year improvements in the industry, each earning double-digit increases in their ratings.

Report: AMD Nearly Acquired Nvidia Instead of ATI

Posted: 23 Feb 2012 06:27 AM PST

Nearly six years have gone by since AMD scooped up ATI for $5.4 billion, and when it was first announced, analysts wondered if the chip maker was making the right move. AMD's multi-billion dollar gamble paid off, and until Kepler arrives, the Sunnyvale chip maker owns the fastest single-GPU graphics card in the world (Radeon HD 7970). But what if AMD had acquired Nvidia instead?

It's not a nonsensical question. According to a report in Forbes, AMD was very much interested in acquiring Nvidia and actually approached the rival GPU maker before buying ATI. According to Forbes, Nvidia was AMD's first choice, but a deal would have been conditional on Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang lording over the two combined companies.

Hector Ruiz, who at the time was the big man on AMD's campus, decided his company would be better served by going with ATI. For a short while after the acquisition, it looked like AMD made a grave mistake. Fast forward to today and AMD owns the second largest share of the total graphics chip market with 24.8 percent, behind Intel at 59.1 percent and ahead of Nvidia at 15.7 percent, according to data by Jon Peddie Research.

Domestic Sales of Nintendo's 3DS Cross 5 Million Units in Record Time

Posted: 23 Feb 2012 05:59 AM PST

Even as Sony's latest handheld, the PS Vita, continues to stumble from one dismal sales week to another in Japan, Nintendo has achieved something truly special by managing to sell over 5 million 3DS units in Japan in little less than a year -- the 3DS launched on February 26, 2011. It's quite an amazing feat considering that probably even the most die-hard Nintendo supporter would have ruled out such a possibility a few months back. Hit the jump for more.

The 3DS has now become the fastest selling Nintendo gaming device ever in Japan, having sold 5 million units in about 52 weeks. The record previously belonged to 3DS's predecessor, the Nintendo DS, which took four weeks more to sell as many units. One look at the above chart is enough to tell you that the odds were once firmly stacked against the 3DS staging such a come back.

The handheld hasn't done too badly in other parts of the world either, with worldwide sales said to be somewhere in the vicinity of 15 million units. In fact, it has sold more than 4 million units in the United States alone. This news comes a few weeks after Nintendo said that it was on track for its first full-year loss in 30 years.

Image Credit: Nintendo

Toshiba and SanDisk Trumpet World's Smallest 128Gb NAND Flash Memory Chip

Posted: 23 Feb 2012 05:55 AM PST

Teams of engineers from SanDisk and Toshiba working at SanDisk's Milpitas campus developed a NAND flash memory chip smaller than a U.S. penny, the two companies announced. The 128Gb (gigabit) memory chip, which is currently in production, is the world's smallest and can store 128 billion bits of information on a single die measuring just 170mm2, barely more than a quarter of an inch squared.

"Building a 128Gb NAND flash memory chip with this level of complexity is an incredible achievement," said Mehrdad Mofidi, vice president, Memory Design. "This innovation allows SanDisk to continue to be a leader in helping our customers deliver smaller, more powerful products capable of doing more at lower cost."

Advances like this one will lead to even smaller and more powerful mobile devices, and in particular smartphones, tablet PCs, and solid state drives (SSDs), SanDisk says. The brains at SanDisk and Toshiba developed the 128Gb NAND flash memory chip using a 19nm process technology. To put that into perspective, SanDisk says you could fit 3,000 circuit lines across the width of a human hair when you get down to 19nm.

The memory chip also boasts X3 write performance of 18MB/s courtesy of SanDisk's patented advanced all bit line (ABL) architecture.

OnLive Desktop Plus Brings IE9, Adobe Flash to iPad

Posted: 23 Feb 2012 05:37 AM PST

OnLive kick-started its hosted Virtual Desktop Infrastructure service last month with the launch of the OnLive Desktop app for iPad. While OnLive Desktop launched as a free, as-available service, the company did announce a couple of subscription plans for those interested in priority access to a cloud-based Windows 7 desktop and more. One of those subscription plans is now available.

OnLive Desktop Plus is a service plan that costs $4.99/month and provides all the features already included in the Standard version (read: free version), albeit on a priority basis. However, that's not the only advantage it has over the standard version. OnLive Desktop Plus includes a full Flash browser (Internet Explorer). The company is promising gigabit-speed accelerated browsing, which it says is "faster than any consumer browsing experience we know of."

"For you that means—whether you're on Wi-Fi or 4G (Android LTE tablets coming soon!)—you can expect even the most elaborate Flash websites to load in seconds, even if it would have taken your home computer minutes to load the same page," wrote OnLive founder and CEO Steve Perlman on the company's official blog on Wednesday. "Perlman on Animation, video and sound come through impeccably and instantly. And, large cloud storage files and Web email attachments—even 50 MB PowerPoint presentations—to upload or download in less than a second."

"What's really cool is OnLive gigabit-speed browsing doesn't come out of your local data usage; you might actually save money. OnLive Desktop Plus can dramatically reduce Web browsing data usage by as much as a factor of 10 or more, since only the top layer of the current view of a website is sent over your local Internet connection. So you get the world's fastest mobile browser, at quite possibly the world's best value."

Currently only available to U.S.-based iPad users, the company has plans to expand the service to other countries and platforms.

Report: Intel Only Delaying Dual-Core Mobile Ivy Bridge Chips

Posted: 23 Feb 2012 05:13 AM PST

Last week, a Digitimes report citing unnamed sources from notebook vendors claimed that Intel had decided to postpone mass shipments of Ivy Bridge chips, and that its partners had already been apprised of the change in shipment plans. But now a new report has come out claiming that the extent of the delay in Ivy Bridge chip shipments is not as significant as has been rumored elsewhere

Intel doesn't intend to tinker with the original release schedule of Ivy Bridge chips, according to VR-Zone, beyond holding back dual-core Ivy Bridge mobile CPUs for sometime. This delay in the shipment of dual-core mobile parts is said to be due to "too much stock of Sandy Bridge [processors] in the channel." The first dual-core mobile processors are now expected to hit the market sometime in May at the earliest.

While the article itself did not cite any sources, its author LG Nilsson did claim in the comments section that the information was straight from the horse's mouth. But if this report is correct, Intel's Ivy Bridge release plans remain largely unchanged, with no impact whatsoever on desktop chips.
Posted by Shri Krishna

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