General Gaming Article

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• Cooler Master Teases HAF Stacker Computer Case
• Is Your Next PC a Tablet?
• Arctic Cooling Accelero Hybrid GTX 680 Review
• Teens Growing More Aware of Mobile App Privacy Issues
• SteelSeries Siberia Elite Headset Debuts After Three Years in the Making
• Newegg Daily Deals: Belkin Wi-Fi Gigabit AC+ Router, Cooler Master Cosmos II Case, and More!
• No More Funny Faces: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Retire Within a Year, Seeks Successor

Cooler Master Teases HAF Stacker Computer Case Posted: 23 Aug 2013 08:04 PM PDT Offspring of HAF and Stacker computer cases will be unveiled later this month PC peripheral maker Cooler Master wants you to ignore the spasmodic (and greatly exaggerated) reports of the PC's impending demise and instead concentrate on the upcoming launch of its all new HAF Stacker computer case series. The company recently launched a dedicated micro site for the upcoming case, which it says will be the world's very first "mod-tower" case. However, the site is currently in teaser mode and has nothing other than a jigsaw puzzle (a new image every day) and a countdown timer, based on which we know that the HAF Stacker case will make its retail debut in a little over 51 days from now. Does the name HAF Stacker sound familiar to you? It's because HAF (High Air Flow) and Stacker are names of two previously popular computer case products from Cooler Master's stable. According to the company, HAF Stacker is a "revolutionary", new product range that has elements of both. But don't worry you won't have to spend the next couple of months speculating about the HAF and Stacker series' offspring, for the case will be unveiled on August 30, 2013. Until then, feel free to speculate in the comments section below. Follow Pulkit on Google+

Is Your Next PC a Tablet? Posted: 23 Aug 2013 03:40 PM PDT We test Microsoft's Surface Pro workhorse tablet in several common desktop-use cases to see how it stacks up to a traditional PC For the last three years, there have been questions about what the spectacular rise of the iPad and other tablet computers means for the traditional desktop PC. Are tablet sales cannibalizing PC sales (the "post-PC" worldview), or is this simply a new category that people are buying alongside traditional computers? Will the tablet remain a third device, between a smartphone and a PC, or will it gradually take over the role that's currently played by laptop and desktop computers? With the release of the Surface Pro, Microsoft isn't making these questions any easier to answer. The Surface Pro looks like a tablet, but using one feels suspiciously like using a laptop computer. Up until now, tablets have been characterized by their inability to run powerful desktop software like Photoshop and Microsoft Office, but that distinction is gone on the Surface Pro—a tablet that can run any Windows software. A tablet but also a general-purpose computer, the Surface Pro is blurring all the lines. Are devices like the Surface Pro eventually going to render the PC obsolete? We decided to find out, by using one to do every kind of computing task we could think of—from surfing the web to designing a website. We broke our findings down by the different kinds of PC users that are out there, so find the page that describes you, and discover if your next PC could be a tablet. Casual User Just the basics First off, we're going to look at what we consider the baseline for a casual PC user. These are the functions that any tablet, laptop, or desktop computer needs to be able to perform, and flawlessly. Because of this, we're going to be a little stricter with these programs in the screen and input categories—if we have to plug in a mouse to check our email, something's gone woefully wrong. Web Browsing Fortunately, the Surface Pro starts out our casual test on the right note—browsing the web on the Surface is a great experience. Internet Explorer 10 on the Modern UI comes with a sharp custom interface that makes it easy to surf, search, and switch tabs using only the Surface's touchscreen. When the Type Cover isn't plugged in, the virtual keyboard pops up whenever you need it, and when you're not using the address bar or tab switcher, they slide out of the way, letting the site take up all of the Surface's screen space. Surfing in desktop mode is less thrilling. Even with the default 150 percent magnification, interface elements are a little difficult to hit reliably using the touchscreen, and to get the virtual keyboard on screen you have to hit a small icon in the system tray, then you have to manually close it (again, with a too-small button) to get it out of your way when you're done. All this makes trying to use the desktop version of IE with touch a huge pain—we recommend sticking with the Modern version. There's just one problem with that, though. While the latest version of Internet Explorer is actually very fast and quite nice to use, we still prefer Chrome a bit more. Unfortunately, if you set any browser other than Internet Explorer to be your default browser in the desktop mode, you cannot use the tablet-optimized version of IE, crippling the Surface's ability to surf the web on the go. Pretty scummy. The tablet version of IE10 is much more touch-friendly than the desktop version. Microsoft's email app looks nice, but has a small fraction of the power of Outlook. Email & Messaging The state of messaging on the Surface Pro is a little more disappointing. The built-in email app looks nice, but feels a little half-baked. Threaded message navigation is a bit difficult, and there's no way to search through messages that haven't been loaded onto your device. It does the job fine, but you'll probably find that you like using a Gmail or Hotmail account in the tablet-optimized browser better. If you're using a non-webmail account, and want greater-than-webmail functionality, your only choice is good-ol' Outlook, which works just fine, and is even reasonably touch-friendly on the Surface. If you're still on the IM bandwagon, you'll be pleased to know that the Surface Pro has a great messaging client in the form of IM+, available in free and paid ($5) versions on the Microsoft Store. The desktop Digsby and Pidgin apps work, as well, though once again you might find yourself struggling to use their interfaces with the touchscreen. Media As a platform for consuming media, the Surface Pro is as good as it gets. The built-in Xbox media apps are pretty bogus, but you are of course free to download iTunes or VLC or any other media players or managers that run on Windows. Video content looks absolutely gorgeous on the 1080p screen, and unlike with the iPad's crazy "Retina" display, you can actually find plenty of content that takes full advantage of it. What's the Verdict? The Surface Pro's got more than enough power for any casual computing need, and as long as you stick to tablet-optimized apps, the experience is excellent. Still, if this is all you're doing, a cheaper, lighter tablet might be better suited for you.   Office User You never have to leave the office behind Now, we'll start to get into what sets the Surface Pro apart from other tablets. Though others offer some minor-league productivity software, none of them give you access to the full ecosystem of Windows office applications. This is where we expect the Surface to shine. Microsoft Office We'll start, of course, with the cornerstone of the Windows productivity world—Microsoft Office. Although it's not fully integrated with the tablet interface, Microsoft has clearly spent some effort getting the programs ready for tablet use, with a number of touch-centric features. The redesigned ribbon, with its flat aesthetic, is well-suited for touch use. The menu buttons are spaced far enough apart, and the programs can tell when you press one with your finger rather than a mouse. When you do, a separate version of the ribbon is displayed, which is slightly larger and spaces the buttons farther apart for easier touch. The applications also allow you to swipe to pan around your documents, and feature pinch-to-zoom. All the gesture recognition is highly responsive and smooth. Additionally, all the software works with the stylus. Simply bring the stylus anywhere near the screen and a previously hidden Pen menu appears, which allows you draw or highlight anywhere on your document. This feature works essentially identically across Word, Excel, and PowerPoint—your scribblings occupy a layer of their own, unrelated to whatever document is beneath them, but it's pretty handy for making quick notes on a shared document. OneNote has always been a black sheep in the Office family, but the note-taking application really comes into its own on the Surface Pro. The stylus is great for drawing quick diagrams or taking handwritten notes, and the program's infinitely scrolling notepad conceit is greatly enhanced by the ability to pan and zoom with your fingers. Though Evernote has long been our note-taking application of choice, OneNote really seems like the better pick on the Surface Pro. Neither the tablet version of Evernote (pictured) nor the desktop version is a perfect fit for the Surface Pro. OneNote's never been as useful as it is on the Surface. The Office UIs look perfectly crisp under the standard 150 percent magnification, and respond well when the screen changes orientations. A lot of programs end up improperly maximized when you switch from landscape to portrait mode and back, but Office works great—handy when you want to type a document using the Type Cover, then detach it and do some quick editing with the stylus. Performance-wise, Office gets a pass. We opened large documents in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint at the same time, without putting a dent in the Surface Pro's performance. Other Applications File-syncing apps are no problem, of course—the Surface Pro comes with some free SkyDrive space, but we didn't have any issues using Dropbox, SugarSync, and Google Drive. The Pro's limited hard drive space (just under 90GB is usable on the 128GB model) means packrats will have to think twice about syncing their whole Dropbox. There are two ways to use Evernote on the Surface Pro. There's a tablet version of the program in the Microsoft Store, which is pretty watered-down, features-wise but has a nice interface, and there's the normal desktop client. The desktop client's interface is a little hard to use without a mouse or the stylus, but the "Ink Notes" feature works very well for pressure-sensitive sketching. What's the Verdict? If you're looking for a tablet that can give you access to high-quality productivity tools, the Surface Pro is probably the best choice for you. Other tablets like the iPad offer some decent document-creating power, but they can't compete with the feature set of the real-deal Office suite.   Developer Coders have a lot to love in the Surface Pro One of Microsoft's most loyal contingencies has always been developers. That hasn't stopped them from writing programs for other platforms (see the underpopulated Windows Store for evidence of that), but Windows has always been the platform with the best tools for software creation. We decided to try out Visual Studio on the Surface Pro, along with the popular game design engine Unity 3D. Visual Studio Microsoft's Visual Studio is an incredibly sophisticated development environment, with a robust feature set. If any IDE is going to give the Surface performance trouble, it would be Visual Studio. In our testing, the Surface Pro is more than up to the challenge. Admittedly, that wasn't a huge surprise for us—plenty of people code on laptops with worse specs than the Surface Pro. The real question is whether the form factor works well for development. Only a masochist would try and write code with an onscreen keyboard, so the Type Cover is a must for would-be Surface developers. Even then, the Surface Pro isn't quite ideal; the touch keyboard's trackpad occasionally picks up your thumbs when you don't want it to, and deposits the cursor at some arbitrary point in your code. With a Bluetooth keyboard, we had no problems with the Surface Pro, and had a great time coding with it at a nearby Starbucks. Unity 3D The Unity game engine has contributed to the recent boom in indie game development, with a capable, efficient development environment and a college-student-friendly pricing structure. Does it play nice with the Surface Pro? Game development on a tablet is more than possible with Unity 3D and the Surface Pro. Sure it does! We had no difficulty opening and editing large game projects, installing editor add-ons, or test-running games on the Surface Pro. The only drawback we found is that Unity is not yet able to handle the Windows 8 touch events, meaning you cannot code and test a game on the same machine—yet. The Unity team has promised support for Windows 8 touch in an upcoming version of the engine. What's the Verdict? The Surface Pro is an excellent machine for developers, but think about picking up a Bluetooth or USB keyboard. Artist Putting the stylus to the test Stylus input is hardly a new concept in computing, but since the iPhone, it's been out of favor in mobile devices. And although multitouch is great for basic navigation, for art, you might as well be finger painting. We decided to find out if the Surface lives up to its potential. Photo Editing Photoshop is the flagship of Adobe's sprawling Creative Suite, and probably the most widely used professional creative software in the world. It's also not exactly lightweight, as far as far as system requirements, so we were excited to see how well it runs on the Surface Pro. Photoshop's miniscule buttons are hard to hit, even with the stylus. Quite well, as it turns out. Like most Adobe software, Photoshop doesn't rely heavily on the GPU, and the Surface Pro's Core i5 CPU provides enough horsepower to handle whatever Photoshop threw at it. Even when opening huge raw files and applying all the most intensive filters in CS6, we couldn't get the Surface Pro to so much as stutter. The system's 4GB of memory isn't puny, exactly, but it would be very possible to use it up opening a bunch of large files at once. Sketchbook Pro's interface features radial menus and can be quickly navigated with stylus swipes. So for photographers, the Surface Pro could be an invaluable piece of gear. No matter where you are, you can plug your camera into the Surface Pro's USB port, transfer over some photos, tweak and edit them, and upload or save them until you get home. Plugged into an external monitor (at the tablet's native 1920x1080 resolution), you could even use the Surface Pro as a capable desktop workstation. Digital Graphics For digital painters and other graphic artists, it's a little more of a mixed bag. Photoshop performance is still fairly good, but brush lag started to show up with brush sizes larger than 25 pixels or so. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, most high-end digital painting software, including Photoshop and Corel Painter, doesn't support the Surface Pro's pressure-sensitive stylus driver. You can still use the stylus as a mouse-surrogate, but the eraser doesn't work, and pressure sensitivity—an important feature for natural-looking drawing—doesn't register. Additionally, we encountered some persistent issues with line smoothness across multiple art programs. The problem wasn't present when we plugged a Wacom Intuos 5 into the Surface, leading us to believe that it, too, is related to the driver problems. For its part, a Surface representative told us, "Microsoft is working with the necessary partners to make advanced features of the Surface pen available across a number of applications in the near future." One of the main problems with running Photoshop on the Surface Pro (and this holds true for almost every program in this section) is that you lose access to time-saving keyboard shortcuts. Combined with too-small interfaces, your workflow can really be slowed down. Fortunately, enterprising users have ported a popular Autohotkey script called Artdock to the Surface Pro (available at http://bit.ly/YCrgo0), which adds a context-sensitive tray of touch-size icons that make it easy to access common hotkeys in any popular art software. Sketchbook Pro Though the software doesn't have the expansive feature set of more expensive art programs like Corel Painter, Autodesk's Sketchbook Pro takes much better advantage of the Surface Pro's hardware. It works perfectly with the Surface's pressure-sensitive stylus, and all interface elements are designed to be accessible through nested radial menus, so you can quickly control the program without ever setting down the stylus. Our only beef with the program is that, unlike the simpler, app store Sketchbook, the Pro version doesn't respond to multitouch gestures, making it unnecessarily difficult to pan and zoom. What's the Verdict? For photographers, the Surface has a lot to offer. It's the only way you'll get good portable Photoshop performance in such a small form factor, and the stylus lets you do some basic photo editing without so much as a desk or a chair. For digital artists, a Surface loaded with Sketchbook Pro is a fun way to do some digital sketching wherever you are. However, for professional-quality work, you won't want to sell your Wacom just yet—at least not until Microsoft sorts out the stylus driver issues currently hindering the Surface Pro. What Makes Software Tablet-Friendly? While testing a whole heap of software on the Surface Pro, we've discovered a few common threads among programs that piss us off. Here are the three main things we look for when evaluating whether a program is Surface-friendly or not: Performance Of course, we're going to answer the most obvious question—will it run? Now, remember that the Surface Pro's hardware is equivalent to that of a decent Ultrabook, not your average tablet. We expect programs to run and run well. Resolution and Screen Size One thing that sets the Surface apart from your standard laptop is its screen. The Surface Pro has a high-resolution (1920x1080), 10-inch display with a narrow 19:9 aspect ratio. With so many pixels across a small expanse, normal Windows applications tend to look teeny-tiny, and text can be incredibly difficult to read. To compensate, Microsoft has set the Surface Pro desktop mode to default to a magnification of 150 percent. This solves the readability problem, but screws up some applications. Worse still, in order to change between 150 percent and normal magnification, you have to go into a settings menu and make a change that logs you out of Windows, closing all your programs. If the program isn't functional and readable on the Surface's small screen, or requires that we turn off screen magnification, that's a fail. Input The final major consideration is how software handles the Surface Pro's unique set of input hardware. If software works well with the touchscreen, that's a big plus. If the pressure-sensitive stylus is useful, that's also a plus. If you can at least use the program efficiently with only the Type Cover—well, we'll take that. But if the software requires a separate mouse and keyboard, that's a fail.   Design Put away those MacBooks You might tend to associate the trendy graphic and web design crowd with Mac computers, but they have a lot to gain with the Surface Pro. Like art applications, design software works best with a stylus, but absolute, pixel-perfect fidelity isn't quite as crucial, and elements can be easily adjusted after they're first placed. Here are our impressions after trying a large variety of design software on the Surface Pro. Illustrator and Flash Using Adobe's vector-drawing application Illustrator on the Surface Pro is, in a lot of ways, similar to using Photoshop. The two programs have similarly laid-out interfaces, with tightly packed trays of small buttons. With the stylus it's not too hard to select the tools you need, but the stylus's accuracy drops off as you near the edges and corners of the screen, making it quite hard to hit the menu bar at the top of the program. Flash's interface is even more packed, with the important timeline requiring some extra-precise stylus work to use. We'd recommend a separate mouse for anyone doing animation work on the Surface Pro. Like all the Adobe products, neither Illustrator nor Flash currently offers pressure sensitivity with the Surface Pro's stylus. Fortunately, for creative work, pen pressure is a lot less critical in vector-based programs than in Photoshop, as most linework is done with the control-point-driven Pen tool, rather than freehand. We opened several very large Illustrator and Flash files, and neither ever showed any signs of slowing. Sketchup 3D modeling is the sort of high-precision, involved work that isn't likely to migrate off the workstation and onto a tablet anytime soon. But Sketchup (formally owned by Google, now Trimble) offers a more design-centric take on 3D, letting you build up low-poly 3D models with minimal mousework—an excellent candidate for the Surface Pro. Sketchup is a blast to use on the tablet, even if the stylus slows you down. Adobe illustrator's pen tool makes it easy to draw without pressure sensitivity. The program runs perfectly smoothly, and building 3D objects by extruding and morphing basic shapes using the touchscreen is very satisfying. For any sort of precision, you'll need the stylus, which is a natural fit for drawing lines and shapes on the screen, then extruding those into 3D. The major drawback is that the stylus lacks scroll-wheel and center-click functionality, which makes zooming and rotating the scene a chore. Dreamweaver Dreamweaver suffers from some of the same interface issues as the other Adobe software, but on the whole there's very little drawback to using it on the tablet. The stylus is enough precision for most tasks in Dreamweaver, and the Type Cover is convenient when you need to quickly drop into HTML view. The only thing we'd like to see in a future version of the Surface Pro is 3G, for mobile publishing. What's the Verdict? The Surface Pro is an excellent platform for designers who can pry themselves away from the Mac ecosystem. Full-featured design programs like Illustrator work like a charm on the Surface Pro, and the stylus issues that gave us grief in art programs are much less of an issue here. If you're looking for a way to do high-quality design work during boring meetings or while sitting on the couch, you won't do better than the Surface Pro. Musician Don't sell your workstations yet If you're a digital musician looking for a capable, portable tool for music creation, you've probably given a lot of thought to the iPad, which offers a number of excellent—if limited—digital instruments and music apps. As a competitor, the Surface Pro is a mixed bag. To start with, the app support just isn't there yet. The Microsoft Store is a little barren, and its minimal design and low number of user reviews makes it difficult to find the best picks. On the positive side, many apps in the store offer a trial option before you buy, which can be a big help in choosing the music tools that are right for your purposes. Additionally, we found the Surface's widescreen aspect ratio better suited than the iPad's for simulating keyboards and a variety of virtual instruments. Digital Audio Workstations The Surface's real advantage comes from its ability to use the full desktop version of your favorite Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) on the go. We tried out Cakewalk Sonar X-2 and FL Studio on the Surface Pro, to see how it fared for mobile music production. On one hand, it's sort of unbelievable to have the sort of powerful production tools like Sonar in your lap on a small(ish) tablet. On the other hand, the Surface's hardware just isn't quite right for the software—DAWs are notorious for having cluttered, tightly packed interfaces, and we found it very hard to use them without a mouse. Even with the stylus, which normally serves as a decent mouse-replacement, navigating both programs' interfaces was hard on the wrist and eyes. Digital audio workstation FL Studio is just a little too dense for the small Surface Pro screen. Of course, you could plug a mouse and external monitor into the Surface, but at that point you'd be better off with a workstation, or at least a laptop. The Surface Pro's 4GB of RAM will start to hold you back in these programs, too, especially if you're working on a project with multiple sampled instruments. What's the Verdict? Using big-boy music production software on a tablet is novel, but it's just not a great fit. Video Editing Up to the task, if you are Going into our testing, the area where we most expected the Surface Pro to run into performance problems was in video editing. Rendering and encoding HD video are two of the most hardware-intensive computing tasks normal users do, and the Surface Pro's hardware is good, but hardly cutting-edge. We were surprised to find that the Surface holds its own quite well in Premiere Pro. HD video rendering wasn't lightning-fast, but it was well within what we'd consider the acceptable range for home use. In our x264 encoding tests, the Surface Pro clocked in at around 6 frames per second—a decent score that we'd expect from a low-powered desktop PC. The only real issue we had with video rendering or encoding was that the Surface Pro—which has a tendency to run hot and loud—runs at its absolute hottest and loudest while performing these demanding tasks. It's not a deal breaker, but the Surface gets hot enough that it's uncomfortable to hold for extended periods of time, or hold directly on your lap. In addition, we saw battery life drop precipitously while working with video. Premier Pro running on a tablet? We never thought we'd see the day. The Premiere Pro interface is hardly touch-friendly, of course, and the software's interface is a little too dense. On the plus side, HD video looks so good on the Surface Pro's top-notch screen that you might not miss your larger monitor. What's the Verdict? The Surface is a surprisingly capable video editor, and is a valid choice for putting together vacation video in a hotel room, or other low-level jobs. For professional or hardcore hobbyists, the Surface Pro's limited hardware will send you scrambling for your workstation.   The Final Frontier: Gaming Does Microsoft have a mobile gaming platform in the Surface Pro? One of the best-kept secrets about the Surface Pro is that it's actually a surprisingly capable gaming platform. No, you're not going to be able to play the latest Crysis or Far Cry, but you're also not stuck playing the same kind of watered-down games you get on other tablets. As long as you know which games work best on the Surface Pro, you can play the kind of deep, engaging, and original games that you just can't play on any other handheld device. Here are a few of our favorites. Civilization V As the only triple-A PC game that currently offers touchscreen-optimized play, Civ 5 is the perfect game to show off the Surface Pro's gaming prowess. Performance isn't flawless (with default settings, frame rate sometimes drops into the low double digits), but the turn-based nature of the game makes it a lot more forgiving of lag. The gesture-based controls make it easy to control even a sprawling empire with the touchscreen, and you'll never find yourself reaching for the Type Cover. XCOM: Enemy Unknown XCOM is a great Surface Pro game for basically the same reasons as Civilization V is—it's a high-quality, deep title that doesn't demand split-second reaction times of players. It doesn't feature touch-optimized gesture controls, but the touchscreen works well enough for any game that can be played entirely with the mouse. If you find yourself wanting a little more precision, try playing with the stylus. TOME Tales of Maj'Eyal (TOME, to most) is a roguelike—the genre of punishingly difficult dungeon crawlers that practically defines the sort of game you can only find on the PC. The low system requirements of roguelikes makes them great for playing on the Surface Pro, but the best are graphical games that can be controlled with the mouse, like TOME. Many of the ASCII games are very keyboard-centric (e.g., Dwarf Fortress), making them a poor choice for play if you don't have the Type Cover or a USB or Bluetooth keyboard. Everything Else Finally, we'll point out that there are a ton of amazing games, like Diablo III, Portal 2, World of Warcraft, and Minecraft, that the Surface Pro is capable of playing. We hesitate to call these tablet-friendly games, though, because they still require mouse-and-keyboard input. The Type Cover's WASD keys work well enough, but the arrow keys are oddly arranged, and God help anyone who tries to use the Type Cover's trackpad for mouselook. So, though it's great that you can play a wide variety of games on the Surface, the need for a mouse and keyboard will put some limits on your mobility. What about Steam? One of the weakest links in the Surface Pro gaming ecosystem is Steam, which is resolutely un-touch-friendly. Many games don't work when the Surface Pro's magnification is turned on, but without it Steam's tiny scroll bars and menus are incredibly difficult to hit. Big Picture mode seems like it would be better for tablet use, with enlarged interface elements, but the controller-centric design is even harder to navigate with the touchscreen alone. You're better off pinning each game you regularly play to the Windows 8 Start screen. What's the Verdict? The Surface Pro isn't likely to take over as your primary gaming machine, but it's more of a contender than you might think. For fans of strategy games and independent releases, the Surface Pro could be the perfect portable gaming platform. For action-oriented gamers, you're better off with an Ultrabook or dedicated gaming laptop.

Arctic Cooling Accelero Hybrid GTX 680 Review Posted: 23 Aug 2013 01:38 PM PDT A sweet DIY project for hardcore cooling freaks Back in the olden days of, like, three years ago, GPUs were quite loud and didn't cool very well, so aftermarket coolers were not necessarily required but were a good idea, and absolutely necessary if you wanted to heavily overclock the card. We installed the Accelero Hybrid cooler on our GTX 680 card in just over an hour with minimal profanity. Even if you didn't want to overclock but were a hardcore builder, installing liquid coolers made for a fun weekend project. Those days have mostly ended, now that Nvidia has gotten its act together with regards to quiet, well-designed coolers (AMD is getting closer, but isn't quite there yet for the high-end cards), and modern GPUs overclock quite nicely even with a stock cooler. But that hasn't stopped Arctic Cooling from developing exotic aftermarket coolers for all of today's high-end GPUs (Nvidia 600 and AMD 7000 series), so this month we strapped its Hybrid water-and-air cooler to a GTX 680 to see what the fuss was all about. Even though the cooler worked wonderfully, this is not a project for the faint-of-heart, as it would be tough to undo, but the gains it achieved in noise and heat dissipation were quite impressive. The kit includes three separate pieces that must all be joined together: the water block and radiator, the cooling shroud with built-in fan, and the fan for the radiator. First, you must remove the stock cooler from your GPU, then whip out the Accelero Hybrid's Ikea-like step-by-step instructions, and start assembling the cooler. To do so, you glue some heatsinks to your board's VRMs, then attach the water block to the shroud, then attach the shroud to the card, then connect power for the fan and the pump. Finally, you connect the included fan to the radiator and then attach the radiator to your case's exhaust port above the PCIe slots. Installation took us roughly one hour, though that doesn't count leaving the card overnight for the thermal glue holding the heatsinks to dry. Overall, the instructions were easy to follow, and we had zero issues in testing, too, so we feel that means the instructions did their job, letting us install the cooler without breaking the card. Once we had it up and running, we were astonished by the card's noise level, or better yet, the lack of noise. It's so quiet that you could play Crysis 3 in a library, with your case door off. Even when putting your ear next to the card under 100 percent load, you still don't hear much except for the occasional gurgle of water moving through the tubes, and we had the card overclocked to 1,100MHz from 1,006MHz. The temperatures were also superb, hitting only 60 C under full load overclocked, compared to 85 C with the stock cooler at stock clocks. We can definitely say this cooler works as advertised, runs silent and cool, and didn't break our GPU, nor was it difficult to assemble. Now, should you buy it? Well, the performance gains we saw from overclocking the card were modest, as they always are. Also, this cooler cost $110 on Newegg as we went to press, which is a pretty penny to pay for an extra four frames per second in Crysis 3, for example. It is quiet, though, and it certainly runs cool, so if you're having heat and/or noise issues, this is one cooling solution we can wholeheartedly recommend. It definitely kicks ass. $110 (street), www.arctic.ac

Teens Growing More Aware of Mobile App Privacy Issues Posted: 23 Aug 2013 09:42 AM PDT Adults aren't the only demographic concerned about privacy Trying to imagine a teenager without a cell phone or tablet is like envisioning a PETA supporter wearing a Michael Vick jersey. We're sure they both exist, they're just extremely rare specimens that are easily the exception to the norm. Teens love their mobile gadgets, though despite their rabid infatuation with texting, Snapchatting, and other mobile activities, they're surprisingly cognizant of privacy issues. According to a recent Pew study on Teens and Mobile Apps Privacy (PDF), 58 percent of American teens have downloaded an app to a cell phone or tablet, and more than half have avoided certain apps due to privacy concerns. In other words, teens aren't downloading apps to their mobile devices willy-nilly, the majority are checking the privacy settings before making a determination to snag it or skip it. More than a quarter of all teens have uninstalled an app after becoming aware it was collecting personal information they didn't want to share. Furthermore, 46 percent of teens have turned off location tracking features on their cell phone or a specific app because they were worried about the privacy of their information (as opposed to being tracked by those pesky parents). Interestingly, girls are more likely to turn off location tracking features than boys (59 percent versus 37 percent). Image Credit: Flickr (Joris_Louwes) Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

SteelSeries Siberia Elite Headset Debuts After Three Years in the Making Posted: 23 Aug 2013 09:03 AM PDT A treat for the ears and eyes SteelSeries, one of the players in the gaming peripherals market, introduced its new Sibera Elite Gaming Headset at GamesCom in Colgone, Germany this week. The company tells Maximum PC that this headset is three years in the making. That was enough time for SteelSeries to develop next-generation drivers with "new layers of sound and power that we've yet to have in a pair of cans," as well as implement 7.1 virtual surround sound via Dolby Pro Logic IIx. "First introduced in 2004, SteelSeries' Siberia headset brought together amazing audio quality with first-ever features like a self-adjusting suspension design and circumaural earcups to the market. The headset quickly became popular amongst gamers with its outstanding quality and performance as well as caught the attention of DJ's and musicians, appearing in popular videos and in places that expanded even beyond our core gaming audience," said Bruce Hawver, SteelSeries CEO. "Siberia is recognized today as one of the fastest growing and highly rated line of headsets by consumers from around the globe. Expanding upon this legacy, today we introduce the next level of Siberia audio combining the acclaimed features, which makes the Siberia brand successful, with the newest and highest-quality audio technology and software that can truly be categorized as Elite." Marketing hype aside, the Siberia Elite feature a self-adjusting suspension system connected to a sandblasted steel arc. The headset illuminates with a choice of 16.8 million color options. It also has extra large memory foam ear cushions with dials to power the headset's audio microphone mute controls. SteelSeries also introduced its Engine 3 software suite. Built from the ground-up, SteelSeries Engine 3 allows you to create unlimited game-specific audio profiles with equalizer presets for gaming genres, adjust illumination settings, and more. The SteelSeries Siberia Elite runs $200 MSRP and will be available to pre-order in September. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Newegg Daily Deals: Belkin Wi-Fi Gigabit AC+ Router, Cooler Master Cosmos II Case, and More! Posted: 23 Aug 2013 07:50 AM PDT Top Deal: Getting slower Internet speeds than what you're paying for? Crummy network performance have you feeling down? Perhaps a new router is in the cards. If so, check out today's top deal for a Belkin Wi-Fi Dual-Band AC+ Gigabyte Router for $50 with free shipping (normally $100 - use coupon code BKBTSAUG125). It offers simultaneous 300Mbps (2.4GHz) and 650Mbps (5Ghz) speeds to multiple devices, has four 10/100/1000 LAN ports, parental controls, and more. Other Deals: Dell UltraSharp U2412M IPS Panel 24" 8ms LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor for $279 with shipping for $3 (normally $310 - use coupon code: [DYMMONTEN]) Microsoft Black USB Wired Desktop 600 for $24 with free shipping (normally $28 - use coupon code: [MS820]) Cooler Master Cosmos II Black Steel ATX Super Tower Computer Case for $280 with shipping for $16 (normally $350 - use coupon code: [CMCW20A2013]) Xtrac Pads Ripper XL Optical Mouse Pad for $13 with free shipping (normally $16 - use coupon code: [LMPA22])

No More Funny Faces: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Retire Within a Year, Seeks Successor Posted: 23 Aug 2013 06:48 AM PDT Failed Surface strategy is his swan song After more than a decade at the helm of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer announced that he is stepping down from his role as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) within the next 12 months, and possibly sooner depending on how quickly he and a special committee appointed by the board can find a successor. Until then, he will continue to serve in his position as Microsoft transforms into a devices and services company, the Redmond outfit announced today. "There is never a perfect time for this type of transition, but now is the right time," Ballmer said. "We have embarked on a new strategy with a new organization and we have an amazing Senior Leadership Team. My original thoughts on timing would have had my retirement happen in the middle of our company's transformation to a devices and services company. We need a CEO who will be here longer term for this new direction." On the contrary, some would argue that the "perfect time" Ballmer speaks of would have been prior to Windows 8, and certainly prior to Surface. Microsoft's vision was to present customers with a unified Windows experience across multiple devices, but in doing so, the company alienated a portion of its desktop userbase and failed to establish its Surface products as viable alternatives in the mobile space, a double whammy. As the PC market trends towards mobile devices, a new leader might be the best thing for Microsoft, given Ballmer's recent track record. More than just a stain on Ballmer's resume, Surface has been a financial failure for Microsoft, which recently took a $900 million charge on unsold tablets. It's a shame that he'll be remembered for Microsoft's recent performance. To be fair, Ballmer has done a lot of good at Microsoft as well. Under his leadership, Microsoft's revenue jumped from $25 billion to $70 billion, and its net income jumped 215 percent to $23 billion. He also oversaw the creation of a data centers division. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

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MMO Updates

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• Age of Wushu merging servers next week
• Scott Hartsman on leading Trion Worlds out of the woods
• Black Gold Online changes business model for NA
• Tamriel Infinium: The one where we talk about the Elder Scrolls Online's payment model
• Storyboard: That was a poor decision
• The Daily Grind: How would you define 'massive'?
• Gamescom 2013: Watch Blizzard's Diablo III presentation
• The Think Tank: How did you get into MMO blogging?
• The Summoner's Guidebook: Advice on buying League of Legends champions
• ArenaNet offering GW2 Heroic Edition
• Champions Online Cybermind alert is now live
• DUST 514 1.4 update to bring usability changes, taxes
• Celebrate Fury of the Feywild's launch with a trailer full of lore
• Gamescom 2013: Roberts demos Star Citizen's hangar module
• Gamescom 2013: New dev video discusses Destiny's world, weapons, and characters
• The Mog Log Extra: Starting an Arcanist in Final Fantasy XIV
• Gamescom 2013: Firor says ESO's sub will ensure players get '100% of the game' (except for the parts in the cash shop) [Updated]
• World of Warcraft could 'end up being free-to-play'
• Ask Massively: Grand conspiracies

Age of Wushu merging servers next week Posted: 23 Aug 2013 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, News Items, Free-to-Play, Age of Wushu If you reside on the White Tiger or Black Tortoise servers in Age of Wushu, you'll see a change in your world next week. When the servers come back up after the scheduled weekly maintenance on August 28th, only one of those two servers will remain; in order to improve the player experience, everyone from Black Tortoise will be merged onto a freshly reset White Tiger. To answer questions and help prepare players for the merge, Snail Games has created a FAQ post, which includes such tidbits as all school positions and guild territories will be reset. To help prepare the servers, there will be an hour-long special maintenance for those two servers only on Monday, August 26th starting at 1:01 a.m. EDT. The merge will then take place on Wednesday when maintenance begins at 4:00 a.m. EDT. Age of Wushu merging servers next week originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Aug 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Server merge announcement

Scott Hartsman on leading Trion Worlds out of the woods Posted: 23 Aug 2013 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Business Models, Interviews, MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, RIFT, Miscellaneous, ArcheAge, MOBA, Defiance, Buy-to-Play It's been a rocky return for Scott Hartsman, who has rejoined the Trion Worlds fold as CEO. With End of Nations going through development hell in its final stretch, studios being shuttered left and right, employees being laid off, and a mess of unknown questions, Trion's been put through the ringer this past year and come out looking bruised. But that's the moment in the movie when the crafty manager inspires his boxer to get back in there and fight for the win -- and there are few devs more inspirational and passionate than Hartsman. The way he sees it, Trion is due for a rally. We spoke to Hartsman as he was in the second week of a two-month period of evaluation, meetings, and decision-making. Instead of sounding tired or stressed, Hartsman came across as upbeat, enthusiastic, and brimming with good things to say about his team and the studio's future. So why did Hartsman return to the Trion fold now, and what does it portend for the studio and its many titles? The full story is more interesting than you might think. Continue reading Scott Hartsman on leading Trion Worlds out of the woods Scott Hartsman on leading Trion Worlds out of the woods originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Aug 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Black Gold Online changes business model for NA Posted: 23 Aug 2013 08:30 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Business Models, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play, Black Gold When Black Gold Online's monetization model was introduced, you could say that it caused a bit of a stir. A very big stir of unhappy once-potential players. Now, Snail Games has attempted to quell the dissatisfaction by clarifying a few points, first and foremost by announcing that the previous model was geared only for China and revealing a different plan for North America. Producer Kee Zhang stated, "We're refining this new system and our top priority is [to] develop a transparent and accepted F2P model for the North American audience." The studio insists that Black Gold's time save system is a completely optional bonus to supplement game progression; players can still acquire all equipment and materials from normal in-game means of questing, drops, and auctions. This system will not affect PvP or PvE rankings. The system appears to work this way: The game will auto-save the player's loot index (which is based on your actions during that saved time) every hour, and players can claim that loot index -- through either the free saves or purchased ones -- in the form of a vial of time that can be traded for credits or opened for the random loot within. Black Gold Online changes business model for NA originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Aug 2013 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: NA monetization announcement

Tamriel Infinium: The one where we talk about the Elder Scrolls Online's payment model Posted: 23 Aug 2013 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Business Models, MMO Industry, New Titles, Opinion, Consoles, Mac, The Elder Scrolls Online, Subscription, MMORPG, Tamriel Infinium It's difficult to watch another beloved game developer make the same mistakes a previous beloved game developer did. I cannot express the depth of my sincere disappointment in the subscription payment model announcement coming from ZeniMax this week. I'm interested in seeing games succeed, but I'm especially interested in seeing The Elder Scrolls Online succeed, not just because I'm doing a column on the game but because the franchise is wonderful and the fans deserve an amazing online experience in the world of Tamriel. But I was floored when the ESO team announced it will be a subscription-based game. Continue reading Tamriel Infinium: The one where we talk about the Elder Scrolls Online's payment model Tamriel Infinium: The one where we talk about the Elder Scrolls Online's payment model originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Aug 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Storyboard: That was a poor decision Posted: 23 Aug 2013 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Roleplaying, Storyboard, Miscellaneous Having a new kitten in the house is sort of like watching a slideshow of poor choices. My kitten knows, for example, that the older cat of the house doesn't want to wrestle all the time because she's made this clear in the past. And he knows that right now she's not happy to see him, as evidenced by the fact that she moved somewhere else when he entered the room. Despite all of that information, he still runs right up to her and pounces on her, then acts completely shocked when she smacks him to the ground and hisses with anger -- as if this outcome was not only unexpected but somehow cruel. I've talked before about the importance of making bad decisions with a character, but it's hard to gain the necessary immersion in a character's mind to make decisions that are meant to be believable while still missing the forest for the trees. So instead of offering positive advice, I want to give advice on how to make dumb and short-sighted choices that will later explode in your character's face due to poor reasoning. Think of them as reverse life-hacks. Continue reading Storyboard: That was a poor decision Storyboard: That was a poor decision originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Aug 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: How would you define 'massive'? Posted: 23 Aug 2013 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, MMO Industry, Opinion, Massively Meta, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous, MMORPG In our editorial Soapbox this week, a Massively writer suggested that MMO players have a difficult time agreeing on what constitutes an MMO at least in part because of fundamental confusion over the term "massive." I've always thought the word too relative to be useful; I like the idea of playing alongside thousands of fellow geeks, but very few of the MMOs and MMORPGs I've played since the dawn of the genre ever actually put more than a few dozen people on my screen at a time, and those that tried anyway usually lacked the tech to pull it off without extreme lag. Most MMOs, even single-shard EVE Online, are divided in some way, be it over shards or server boundaries or layered zone instancing or dungeon instances or phasing or even lobbies, and it just doesn't make much difference unless the economy is tanked as a result. A game that isn't massive but feels massive is more an MMO to me than one that's technically massive but plays like a single-player title -- "massive" seems a happy illusion at best and a double-standardish proxy for "old-school" at worst. But many gamers are convinced they know exactly where the line in the sand must be drawn between the massives and the nots. So today, let's assume you, the readers, get to decide for the genre what "massive" means. How many people does it entail -- and how and where and in what numbers precisely must they interact -- for a game to be "massive" enough to merit the term MMO? And how many old school MMORPGs would fit that definition? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind! The Daily Grind: How would you define 'massive'? originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Aug 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Thanks to Sharvis for the Guild Wars 1 One Shots image

Gamescom 2013: Watch Blizzard's Diablo III presentation Posted: 22 Aug 2013 09:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Events (Real-World), Expansions, MMO Industry, News Items, Diablo III, Buy-to-Play Looking for Diablo III news from this week's Gamescom convention in Cologne? WoW Insider's got it, including a video of Blizzard's presentation and a break-down of the free features the company is giving gamers in its upcoming pre-expansion patch. And speaking of the Reaper of Souls expansion set, there are some fresh screenshots from the update on the Diablo III Facebook page. Head past the cut for the Gamescom video. Continue reading Gamescom 2013: Watch Blizzard's Diablo III presentation Gamescom 2013: Watch Blizzard's Diablo III presentation originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: WoW Insider

The Think Tank: How did you get into MMO blogging? Posted: 22 Aug 2013 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Opinion, Massively Meta, Miscellaneous, The Think Tank Contrary to popular belief, we at Massively didn't drop down from the heavens as the best MMO bloggers in the universe. We started small, on our own blogs, before making the leap to the neon lights and gold-plated yachts of Professional MMO Blogging. But where exactly did we get our starts? This week I asked the team members to share a bit about their individual origins in the MMO blogging world. Continue reading The Think Tank: How did you get into MMO blogging? The Think Tank: How did you get into MMO blogging? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Summoner's Guidebook: Advice on buying League of Legends champions Posted: 22 Aug 2013 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Opinion, Free-to-Play, Guides, MOBA, League of Legends, The Summoner's Guidebook One thing that really bothered me about all the various League of Legends guides available is that none of them covers which champions to pick up. A few role guides (mostly jungle guides) tackle character choices, but most are not geared toward new players. If I'm a new player on a tight budget, which characters would be the right ones? This week, we'll look at some of my favorite bargain bin picks and which roles they are good for. I'll also be talking about Dominion roles since there are some picks that work very well for that mode. Continue reading The Summoner's Guidebook: Advice on buying League of Legends champions The Summoner's Guidebook: Advice on buying League of Legends champions originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

ArenaNet offering GW2 Heroic Edition Posted: 22 Aug 2013 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Business Models, MMO Industry, News Items, Guild Wars 2, Buy-to-Play You already know about Guild Wars 2's free trial that starts tomorrow. Did you know about the game's new Heroic Edition, though? The bundle includes the base game as well as "a number of digital items ideal for new players," according to an ArenaNet press release. These items include legacy armor, 10 XP boosters, and an 18-slot mithril box. The Heroic Edition will set you back $49.99. Guild Wars 2's free trial runs from August 23rd through August 25th. [Source: ArenaNet press release] ArenaNet offering GW2 Heroic Edition originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Champions Online Cybermind alert is now live Posted: 22 Aug 2013 03:30 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, Events (In-Game), Patches, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play, Champions Online, MMORPG Cryptic and Perfect World must be busy today, launching both the Neverwinter expansion Fury of the Feywild and the final chapter in Champions Online's Fatal Err0r stoy arc at exactly the same time. Champions Online players can now enter the cyber lord's digital lair with four friends, facing off with Cybermind himself in a battle that demands the use of color-coded software and other trickery. The content is tuned for level 40 heroes. Those who are triumphant will earn rewards in the form of resources, costume pieces, and in-game collectible action figures. Also new in Champions today are laser swords, which can be used by freeform characters and are most definitely nothing like lightsabers. The laser sword and its use are discussed in depth on the official Champions Online blog, or you can grab yourself a freeform character slot and learn the intricacies of this elegant weapon by slashing bad guys in the face. Your call. Champions Online Cybermind alert is now live originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Champions Online News Post

DUST 514 1.4 update to bring usability changes, taxes Posted: 22 Aug 2013 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Patches, PvP, News Items, Free-to-Play, MMOFPS, DUST 514, Sandbox, MMORPG On September 3rd, CCP will deliver its biggest update yet to EVE Online-linked, PS3-exclusive shooter DUST 514. Among the changes are performance tweaks, bug fixes, and controller/mouse control improvements, along with the introduction of a hub for collecting player data. And because this is CCP we're talking about, DUST 514 players can also look forward to the addition of corporation taxes. Simply put, player corporations can set their tax rates to whatever they please, and members of those corporations will see the proper amount of ISK deducted from end-of-battle rewards. As in EVE, corporations are free to spend tax revenue in whatever manner they see fit; corps that exist in both DUST and EVE will have one tax rate for both games. It's worth noting that tax rates will be publicly available to players searching for a corp, only rewards greater than 100,000 ISK will be subject to taxation, and NPC corps will have 0% tax rates. DUST 514 1.4 update to bring usability changes, taxes originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Polygon, Dev Blog

Celebrate Fury of the Feywild's launch with a trailer full of lore Posted: 22 Aug 2013 02:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Trailers, Video, Expansions, New Titles, Patches, PvP, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play, Neverwinter, MMORPG Neverwinter's first big content expansion, Fury of the Feywild, is officially live, bringing a new campaign system, new professions to learn, the call to arms system, and dozens of gameplay tweaks and balance changes. Also included is the 20v20 PvE/PvP event Gauntlgrym, along with a new zone to explore and piles of new items. Cryptic and Perfect World have marked the launch by releasing an all-new trailer detailing the lore of Fury of the Feywild; you can see it yourself just after the break. Continue reading Celebrate Fury of the Feywild's launch with a trailer full of lore Celebrate Fury of the Feywild's launch with a trailer full of lore originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Gamescom 2013: Roberts demos Star Citizen's hangar module Posted: 22 Aug 2013 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Video, Events (Real-World), Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Sandbox, Star Citizen, Buy-to-Play Star Citizen's hangar module will be available to backers a week from today, but if you can't stand the wait, have a look at some footage of Chris Roberts' Gamescom demo. The presentation runs for about 10 minutes, and it offers a preliminary glance at the game's ship interiors, avatars, and associated functionality. Cloud Imperium is rolling out bits of Star Citizen in a modular fashion reminiscent of Minecraft's staggered release. Roberts and company are reminding everyone that next week's hangar bay represents a tiny portion of the game in a pre-alpha state, but the firm is nonetheless excited to offer its crowdfunding backers a hands-on progress report. Star Citizen's hangar module will initially be available in basic, business, and deluxe versions depending on customer ship pledges. Roberts says that eventually CI will add additional types including pirate hangars. For the first release, SC pledgers will be able to walk around and inside each of their ships. In other Star Citizen news, Roberts recently told Eurogamer that he no longer needs traditional investor money to make the game. "I'm actually not taking money from investors now. The budget for what we're delivering is about $20 million, and we're almost there [via crowdfunding] -- we'll probably be there before the end of the year," he said. Don't forget to click past the cut to view the video! Continue reading Gamescom 2013: Roberts demos Star Citizen's hangar module Gamescom 2013: Roberts demos Star Citizen's hangar module originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: PCGames.de

Gamescom 2013: New dev video discusses Destiny's world, weapons, and characters Posted: 22 Aug 2013 01:30 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Video, Events (Real-World), New Titles, News Items, MMOFPS, Events (Massively's Coverage), Destiny Bungie has just pushed live an all-new Destiny video that offers a deeper look into the game's universe, characters, and weapon selection, along with developer commentary on key features such as public events, competitive multiplayer, and Destiny's wide open world. The video includes a fair bit of previously unseeen game footage and is worth a look if you're excited or curious about Destiny. Check it out after the break. Continue reading Gamescom 2013: New dev video discusses Destiny's world, weapons, and characters Gamescom 2013: New dev video discusses Destiny's world, weapons, and characters originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Mog Log Extra: Starting an Arcanist in Final Fantasy XIV Posted: 22 Aug 2013 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Launches, Opinion, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV, The Mog Log, Guides My initial plan for last Saturday's edition of The Mog Log was foiled by the simple fact that getting to Limsa Lominsa was much more difficult than it needed to be. There was no way to get to Limsa, unlock Arcanist, level Arcanist, write a column of a thousand words or more, have it proofed, and have it readable by the time that you fine people expect to read something. My apologies are deep and heartfelt. Despite that fact, once I finally did get to Limsa, I poured myself into playing Arcansit as if it was my job. Which it sort of was. And I found that to my pleasant surprise, despite the fact that the class is everything I usually dislike in a class, I was having an absolute blast. I wouldn't say it's my favorite class in Final Fantasy XIV, but it's up there. But you don't care too much about that, do you? You want to know how to play one. Luckily, I can tell you that, too. Continue reading The Mog Log Extra: Starting an Arcanist in Final Fantasy XIV The Mog Log Extra: Starting an Arcanist in Final Fantasy XIV originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Gamescom 2013: Firor says ESO's sub will ensure players get '100% of the game' (except for the parts in the cash shop) [Updated] Posted: 22 Aug 2013 12:30 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Events (Real-World), MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Events (Massively's Coverage), The Elder Scrolls Online, Subscription, MMORPG ZeniMax Online's (or Bethesda's) decision to make The Elder Scrolls Online a subscription-based game certainly drew the ire of a few Elder Scrolls and MMO fans, but game director Matt Firor believes a sub-based payment model ensures the best possible experience for all players. Speaking with Eurogamer, Firor walked through ZeniMax's reasoning in choosing subscriptions as TESO's primary method of generating revenue. He listed two primary motivators: one, to ensure monetization did not interfere with the traditional Elder Scrolls experience, and two, to keep money flowing for future content. When you're in an Elder Scrolls game, you're in a world. We don't want players to hit monetization fees when they're in the world. It's like, I go into a dungeon, if I don't have access to the dungeon it pops up a window: you don't have access to this, go buy 50 credits. We didn't want that experience. That's not an Elder Scrolls experience. Instead, Firor believes charging a monthly subscription ensures players have "100% of the game" and never run into payment walls. He also explained that the forecastable revenue stream created by subs helps the team better plan for content updates. ZeniMax is aiming for new content releases "every month or six weeks, for as long as people want to play the game." Firor mentioned the addition of the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood quest lines as examples of content players can expect, saying, "And those are 15 hours of content a piece. We're talking major new stuff, which is going to be coming out constantly." Make of that what you will. In the meantime, check out new screenshots from Gamescom in our TESO gallery: Gallery: The Elder Scrolls Online [Update: Reader Pavel points out a German-language interview from Gamescom that claims Firor indicated there will be a cash shop selling at least "fun items and character services like character renames" in the game. Here's the exact sentence untranslated: "Laut Matt Firor wird es in The Elder Scrolls Online einen Itemshop geben, wo ihr Spaß-Items und Charakterservices wie eine Umbenennung des Charakters kaufen könnt."] Gamescom 2013: Firor says ESO's sub will ensure players get '100% of the game' (except for the parts in the cash shop) [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Eurogamer

World of Warcraft could 'end up being free-to-play' Posted: 22 Aug 2013 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, The Elder Scrolls Online, MMORPG, Buy-to-Play Despite the caterwauling of a few internet trolls, World of Warcraft has yet to go free-to-play and remains the dominant subscription-based MMO in the world of gaming. But current success doesn't guarantee future success, and game director Tom Chilton is well aware of the shifting tides when it comes to new and existing MMOs. In an interview with NowGamer, Chilton talked a bit about whether the subscription model is dead (it isn't) and whether or not World of Warcraft will go free-to-play (it might). I definitely think that free-to-play MMOs will be around for a very long time. At some point it's possible that World of Warcraft could end up being free-to-play, but I do think there's always room for there to be subscription games. Chilton continued by expressing that he believes subscription MMOs can still work as long as devs keep content coming to players on a regular basis and make it worth that monthly credit card charge. I do think that as time goes on subscription MMOs might evolve toward becoming a little bit more dynamic and making sure that within a month time span it feels like new events and new episodes happen to keep it fresh. Quite a few new-ish MMOs have launched with subscriptions only to turn free-to-play within a few months; we'll get a chance to see how the sub model fares again when The Elder Scrolls Online hits the market in 2014. World of Warcraft could 'end up being free-to-play' originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: NowGamer Via: WoW Insider

Ask Massively: Grand conspiracies Posted: 22 Aug 2013 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: MMO Industry, Opinion, Massively Meta, MMOFPS, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous, MOBA, MMORPG Earlier this week, Massively's Mike Foster penned a Soapbox editorial that argued against obsessing over the definition of MMO to the exclusion of debating good game design. If you liked it, awesome. If you hated it, then take heart; next week, Brendan Drain will be arguing the flip-side of Mike's article. That's what our Soapbox is all about: writers talking about game-related things they're interested in or passionate about. It's a soapbox mounted by a different author every week, not a notarized declaration of the site's purpose and intent. We've intentionally collected a team with diverse opinions, and we rarely all agree on every opinion published on the site, especially the Soapbox, and that's the whole point. If we all agreed, we'd be boring. Plus I'd never get to waste an afternoon debating video games with Eliot in chat, which is tremendous fun, incidentally, and I highly recommend it. This week in Ask Massively, I want to address the conspiracy theory proposed in the wake of that Soapbox as well as a few other bits and bobs from our comments. Continue reading Ask Massively: Grand conspiracies Ask Massively: Grand conspiracies originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

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