General Gaming Article

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• Ivy Bridge-E Review: Core i7-4960X
• Sony 's Vaio Flip is a New Take on Convertible Computing
• Samsung Blitzes Press Event with Galaxy Gear Smart Watch, Galaxy Note 10.1, and Galaxy Note 3
• Android Smartphone Sales Slip in U.S. Market, Still Ahead of iOS
• Nvidia's Tegra 4 Platform Will Power Microsoft's Surface 2 Tablets
• Patriot Beefs Up USB 3.0 Flash Drive Lines with 128GB Capacities
• Newegg Daily Deals: Rosewill 1000W PSU, Intel Core i7 3770, and More!
• IFA 2013: Lenovo Ups Battery Life Ante with New ThinkPads

Ivy Bridge-E Review: Core i7-4960X Posted: 04 Sep 2013 04:56 PM PDT A bridge too far: Is the big boy version of Ivy Bridge too little and too late for enthusiasts? (Ivy Bridge-E review) Ivy Bridge-E review: The release of Intel's Ivy Bridge-E series of chips is about as anti-climactic as you can get. It's a chip that's essentially based on a CPU microarchitecture already going out of style. Haswell, for the most part, has stolen its thunder.  If you've read any reviews of when Ivy Bridge processors came out 16 months ago you already know the story: 3D transistors, newer 22nm process and amazing improvements in performance! Well, amazing if you only count the graphics performance. On the x86 side, what we got was a decent, evolutionary upgrade. It instantly replaced the Sandy Bridge parts as our recommended part but it certainly wasn't the 20 percent performance or more jump people have been chasing ever since the Core 2 and Nehalem Core i7 parts were introduced. In a nutshell, Intel took the Ivy Bridge microarchitecture and integrated them into an LGA2011 package varying from four cores to six cores for consumers parts. Since LGA2011 has no ability to support integrated graphics, there's no graphics core – only the x86 cores.  Don't let all the negative waves get you down though. The new CPU is indeed faster and brings some new features that could prove to be potentially very cool. First up, every Ivy Bridge-E is now unlocked. On Sandy Bridge-E, Intel only unlocked the very top-end part. Perhaps the sleeper cool feature is the per-core overclocking. The feature will give you the ability to fine tune overclocks from within the OS in real-time. With Sandy Bridge-E OS-based overclocks required a reboot. With Ivy Bridge-E, an overclock can be chosen and the overclock immediately executed. It's possible that eventually we'll see apps that let you overclock cores based on the applications that are launched. If a game only uses two threads, you could potentially overclock two cores to far higher clock speeds because you know the other cores won't be hot. Of course you don't give a damn about anything except for the benchmark charts so click on. Ivy Bridge-E specs compared One of the issues with the Ivy Bridge E is the ancient X79 chipset and PCH it uses. The biggest disadvantage is the limitation of but two SATA 6 ports on the PCH. The others are added through third-party controllers which complicate things. There are three Ivy Bridge-E chips and for the first time from Intel, all of them are unlocked parts. Call them Ivy Bridge-E Black Editions. Don't think Ivy Bridge-E is some left over Ivy Bridge part. The new chip obviously doesn't include integrated graphics and is a native hexa-core part. The original Sandy Bridge E hexa-core was a native octo-core with two of the cores switched off. Click the next page to check out our Ivy Bridge-E benchmarks.   Ivy Bridge-E Benchmarks How we tested: We used the same SSD, same GPU, same drives all running DDR3/1866 RAM on Windows 8 for our testing. For the LGA2011 testing we used an Asus Sabertooth X79 board. For LGA1155 we used an Asus P8Z77 Premium board and for LGA1155, we used an Asus Z87 Deluxe.  Cinebench 10 Single threaded performance Since our benchmark mixes in dual, quad and hexa core parts, we wanted to gauge the performance of the new Ivy Bridge-E part so we ran the older Maxon Cinebench 10 benchmark in its single-threaded mode. Thus the differences you're seeing here are mostly the result of the microarchitecture and clock differences between the chips, not the thread or core count. What you see matches up pretty well. The new Core i7-4960X and its Ivy Bridge cores is just about the same as the Ivy Bridge-based Core i7-3770K. The Sandy Bridge-based Core i7-3930K and Core i7-3820 also offer comparable performance to each other in single-threaded tasks. For the Haswell Haters in the room, take note of the chip's performance in single-threaded tasks and maybe ask for some A1 Steak sauce to go with that crow. Cinebench 10 Multi-threaded performance Moving from single-threaded performance to multi-threaded performance using the same Maxon Cinebench 10 test of a CPU's ability to render 3D models we see the hexa-core's chirp up in performance. The Core i7-4960X IVB-E offers a pretty noticeable performance delta from the Haswell quad-core. Cinebench 10 is an older test using an older rendering engine so we're not seeing the best scaling here going from quad-cores to hexa-core but there's no doubt the Core i7-4960X adjudicates its place at the head of the class. Of course, some will question the price difference too. More on that later, but it's probably best to move on to something a little newer such as the Cinebench 11.5 rendering engine.  Cinebench 11.5 The Cinebench 11.5 results help push the philosophy we've long believed matters: If the apps you push for a living can truly push the number of threads in a hexa-core chip, it's well worth the investment for more cores. None of the quad-core parts can touch the hexa-core chips. The Ivy Bridge-E Core i7-4960X part outpaces the very fast Haswell by more than 35 percent. More interestingly is the choice for those already on the hexa-core bus. The Core i7-4960X offers a clear win over the older Core i7-3930K but probably not enough to justify an upgrade, even if it were the Core i7-4930K which ostensibly replaces the Core-i7 3930K chip. More on this later of course.  POV Ray 3.7 As a backup to the Maxon rendering engines, we also run POV Ray's render which is a ray tracer. No surprise, the Core i7-4960X is again in a slide place finish while the quad-cores duke it out with Haswell, and then Ivy Bridge (LGA1155) and finally Sandy Bridge-E taking finishing. This test also made us think that maybe we shouldn't have included the dual-core Core i3-3220 in this but it's a good point of reference for many people.  Fritz Chess Benchmark The Fritz Chess Benchmark judges how fast a CPU is using the Fritz 12 engine is at playing chess. It spits out different results one of is the CPU's performance relative to a 1GHz Pentium III CPU. The test is interesting but it's also clear it doesn't push all the cores in the hexa-core parts.  7-Zip 9.20 Benchmark The popular 7-Zip archiving app has a built-in benchmark. We threw 8-threads at our chips to see where the pieces would land and came up with a confusing result. The good news is for Ivy Bridge-E which is the clear winner with the Core i7-3930K also representing for the hexa-cores. What we didn't expect, however, was the performance of the Haswell chip which barely pulls ahead of the quad-core Ivy Bridge Core i7-3770K part. It's frankly a very confusing set of results for the Haswell chip which will have to dig into at a later time or perform a restest. PC Mark 7 Overall PC Mark 7 is a pseudo synthetic/real-world test which attempts to simulate real-world workloads. The results we're seeing indicate that it doesn't seem to stress all the cores as both Sandy Bridge-E chips, the Core i7-3930K and Core-i7-3820, are virtually the same despite differences in clock and core count. Both Ivy Bridge-based chips, the Core i7-4960X and the Core i7-3770K, also pull with the same overall score despite differences in clock speed and core count again. The big winner is Haswell which has an edge against all other CPUs here by a noticeable margin. The test itself is designed to be "real world" which we're also taking to mean not stressful apps because even the Ivy Bridge-based dual-core Core i3-3220 and its locked down clock speed of 3.2GHz gives us 80 percent the performance of the pricier chips. This shouldn't be news to anyone though. If your chores are browsing, very light video encoding and office chores, you'd be hard pressed to see the difference between a $1,000 Extreme Edition chip and a cheapo $125 chip. Of course, you can scroll also scroll up and look at the chart that calls for more threads and see how that cheapie chip does. PC Mark 7 Computation The computation work load of PC Mark 7 supposedly isolates the Computation workload of a PC but the result we're seeing doesn't exactly agree with that as there's not exactly much of a difference between any of the chips in our eyes. The Ivy's and Sandy's pretty much tie with Haswell on top, but not by much. Interestingly (or perhaps disturbingly) PCM7 seems to think a dual-core Ivy Bridge chip locked down at 3.2GHz is isn't really that much slower than entire pack. We guess this is the kick in the butt to convert over to PC Mark 8 for all of our testing finally.  Photomatix HDR HDR Soft's Photomatix is one of the most popular apps for creating high dynamic range photography. For our test, we take a set of nine NEF images shot with a Nikon D800 and crunch them using the app's batch mode.  Lower is better and the results show the new Core i7-4960X out pacing even that fast as hell Haswell part. That's some good news for those who prefer cores because the Core i7-3930K couldn't  defeat the Haswell chip—this despite HDR Soft use of multi-threading in Photomatix which should give the hexa-core chips the edge. To be honest, we're not seeing the scaling we'd like to see for the hexa-cores to pay their own way. If Photomatix HDR is your primary tool, a Haswell platform probably makes a lot more fiscal sense.  Click the next page for more benchmarks that include ProShow Producer, Stich.Efx, and more.     Proshow Producer 5 We've used Proshow Producer since the first dual-core chips hit the scene. Unfortunately, Proshow hasn't really scaled with today's hardware. It seems to top off with four-threads with quad-core chips giving the best result. Still, that doesn't invalidate the results as it is a very popularly professional application being in use today by photographers across the world. For our workload, we shot a couple of hundred images using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, create slideshow and export it to an MPEG2 file at 1080P resolution. The winner is the quad-core Core i7-4770K with the newer Core i7-4960X coming second. Overall though, the results are pretty flat and you'd be perfectly fine with an older Core i7-3820 or Core i7-2600K with this one. Stitch.Efx 2.0 Our last photo-related tasks involves the mother of all photos today: Gigapixel imaging. For those who aren't up on the giga thing that's a billion pixels.  For our workload we shot 287 images using a Canon EOS 7D on a GigaPan Epic Pro and stitched the images together to make a 1.1 gigapixel panorama using Stitch.Efx 2.0. Stitch. Efx 2.0 isn't all multi-threaded. The first third where the app aligns the images is mostly single-threaded with the final two-third exploiting more cores. Like many of the other apps we use, it's a good representation of where today's apps live. The truth is that few apps are capable of pushing an 8-core or even 6-core processor. The result? The Haswell-based Core i7-4770K still wins but the Ivy Bridge-E comes close. Very close. But again, like we've seen before, if Gigapixel imaging using Stitch.Efx 2.0 is your thing, stick with the Haswell for any new build.  Handbrake 0.9.9 This one was an easy one to forecast: Video encoding is an area where more cores still matter. Both hexa-core chips come out on top by a pretty sizeable margin. It's enough that if you're encoding a video and it takes three hours on your brand new Core i7-4770K, you can expect to lop off an hour if you had a Core i7-4960X part. That's an extra hour you could have spent playing games or surfing, for, um, NSFW material for frak's sake! TechARP X264 HD 5.01 pass 1 TechARP's X264 HD 5.01 test uses the free X264 encoder library. It's thread-heavy and we expected the hexa-core chips to win by a good margin and they do. The new Core i7-4960X smacks the Haswell Core i7-4770K across the jaw. It even gives a good showing against the hexa-core Core i7-3630K part too. Again, if you're looking at an encode taking a few hours, extra cores will put sizeable dents into those encode times. TechARP X264 HD 5.01 pass 2 Pass 2 of the X254 HD 5.01 test is usually even more sensitive to thread and core count. What can we say except that if your boss has saddled your "workstation" with dual-core Ivy Bridge Core i3 part, print up this page and show him how much more work you could be getting done if he wasn't such a cheap son of a bitch. Premiere Pro CS6 For our Adobe's Premiere Pro CS6 test, we produce a video with multiple 1080P sequences and transitions and export it to a 1080P Blu-ray ready file. It's generally pretty thread heavy and leaves dual-cores in the dust. Even quad-cores have a difficult time with this test although, Intel's Haswell has impressive performance. The winner is still the new Core i7-4960X but not by a huge margin against the other hexa-core chip here. We're actually a bit disappointed the Ivy Bridge-E didn't eat the Core i7-3930K's breakfast in this test. Sisoft Sandra Bandwidth It's hard to justify the need for a quad-channel setup as we rarely see it making a difference in the workloads we run. That doesn't mean people don't like to see these charts though so bam! Look at how much more memory bandwidth you get with the quad-channel parts! It's more than double the bandwidth of those little toy CPUs with their wussy dual-channel RAM configurations. Yes, we are crying for you too. Back in reality land though, we haven't seen that memory give the LGA2011 chips an edge although, it's possible that running dual-channel mode on the LGA2011 parts could hobble their performance. We'll have to investigate that in the future but there's really very little reason to run dual-channel mode on a quad-channel chip so it's an unrealistic configuration.  Sisoft Sandra L1 Cache performance First, the Core i7-4770K has fairly insane L1 cache performance. Second, the hexa-core chips have an interesting L1 cache performance advantage over their quad-core counterparts.  Sisoft Sandra L2 Cache performance Haswell may have insane L1 cache performance but if the cores can't find the data in the puny L1, it'll have to move onto the L2 where the Core i7-4960X has the advantage over the Haswell chip.  Sisoft Sandra L3 Cache performance Because no one was ever hurt by one too many charts, we run it all the way out to the L3 cache where the Ivy Bridge-E still has the edge over all. Trying to gauge where the cache performance of each chip will help or hurt it is probably well beyond us. For that, it's probably to go visit a real smart guy like Anand at Anandtech.com to suss it out. Yeah, we did just forward you to another tech site but it's midnight and statistics show 72.4 percent of nerds never read the stuff written under a bar chart anyway. Click the next page to check out how Ivy Bridge-E did in some graphic-intensive benchmarks.   Valve Particle Test We'll open up the gaming testing by running Valve's old particle test benchmark which was originally made to show off how we all needed quad-core CPUs. It's built using Valve's particle engine and should be an indicator of how well each platform handles particles in a Source title. We've long felt the test is memory latency sensitive and cache-size sensitive as hexa-cores have long ruled the roost here. Those chips also almost always have very large caches too.  3DMark 11  3DMark 11 is first and foremost a GPU benchmark and this, dear nerds, is how it should look on any benchmark designed to weigh GPUs. Since all of our test configurations used the same driver and the same GPUs, we should see no difference in the scores. For the most part we didn't. Only the Core i3 with its clocks stuck down in the 3.2GHz range shows a hit and that's not very much showing how 3DMark 11 isn't sensitive to clock variations either. 3DMark Physics 3DMark 11 does have a physics component that stresses core count. The chips with the most cores win and the Ivy Bridge-E Core i7-4960X wins by a good clip. Interestingly, the Haswell chip doesn't out pace the quad-core Ivy Bridge brethren at all which is a bit of a surprise.  3DMark Fire Strike Overall Since many will want to know how how the new Ivy Bridge E does in the new 3DMark we've also included it. And like 3DMark 11, we see a well balanced graphics benchmark that is slightly more sensitive to CPU clock speeds than 3DMark 11. Still, it's a solid gauge of pure graphics performance. 3DMark New Physics The physics component of the new 3DMark also favors core and thread count. Here, the Core i7-4960X easily takes the gold with the older Core i7-3930K taking the silver. In this newer version of 3DMark, the Core i7-4770K does better than in the older 3DMark and we award it the bronze. Dual core Ivy Bridge? Go sink your misery in a Big Mac. Resident Evil 6 We've recently started running the Resident Evil 6 benchmark as a gauge of "real-world" gaming performance. Unfortunately, what we can't figure out is the results we're getting. The Haswell Core i7-4770K wins. OK, we get it. It's newer, has better IPC, and is the state of the art in Intel CPUs. But why does the LGA1155-based, Ivy Bridge Core i7-3770K do so much better than the LGA2011-based, Ivy Bridge E Core i7-4960X? It frankly makes no sense as the clock speeds should be the same. We though that it might be the PCIe performance of the LGA1155 and LGA1150 but we're using a PCIe 2.0 card, not a PCIe 3.0 card for our testing. We do know that Resident Evil 6 runs perfectly fine on a dual-core since the Core i3-3220 does just fine here—the only reason it's score was lower is probably due to its lower 3.2GHz clock speed. Hitman: Absolution  We run Hitman: Absolution at a low resolution and low quality image settings to actually simulate the performance delta you'd get if you had a four-way GPU setup. That is, we run the gaming benchmark with the assumption that you have the faster GPU in the world and if something where slowing it down, it would be the CPU. In Hitman: Absolution we saw a result we didn't expect too. The Ivy Bridge E part beats the Haswell part. Why? We doubt it's the core count. It's unlikely that Hitman: Absolution will stress all four cores plus the Hyper-Threading available in the other chips. With clock differences fairly small this leaves us to give the credit to either the memory bandwidth advantage or the larger cache. We're not looking at a huge difference, but it's still surprising to us as we usually expect the quad-core CPUs to have the advantage in the vast majority of games.  Total War: Shogun 2 Our last gaming test is the CPU test built into Total War: Shogun 2. It simulates a field crammed solid with Samurai and is designed to stress the CPU performance rather than GPU performance. The Ivy Bridge E part gives up a fair showing by actually tying the Haswell part. The test itself, doesn't appear to stress all six-cores available but it definitely saw the dual-core Ivy Bridge part gasping for air. This reinforces our belief that for most gaming rigs, a quad-core is more optimal over a dual-core machine today. Click the next page to read our Ivy Bridge-E conclusion.      Ivy Bridge-E Conclusion Initially, we wanted to have an Intel Core i7-3960X here going toe-to-toe with the Core i7-4960X since both parts are priced the same. We didn't have one available though as both processors were hard at work testing other hardware so we fell back on the Core i7-3930K part to represent the Sandy Bridge E hexa-core parts. In the end, we realized it didn't really matter.  The hard truth is that if you've already put out the big money for a Core i7-3960X or Core i7-3970X, don't worry, you don't need to upgrade. The differences in performance between those two and the Core i7-4960X is so small, it wouldn't be prudent to pay $1,000 for such an upgrade. Intel will again not include a stock cooler on its Ivy Bridge E parts The real question for LGA2011 folks is whether they should upgrade their Core i7-3930K hexa-cores to the hexa-core Ivy. The answer again is no. There's no doubt that the Core i7-4960X is faster in everything we ran. We also expect the Core i7-4930K to also be faster by hit by a smidge too, but the performance margin isn't enough to justify the upgrade. But what if you have a quad-core Core i7-3820? Your patience has rewarded you my friend. Going from the quad-core Core i7-3820 part to the mid-range Core i7-4930K will yield a sizeable performance upgrade for your thread-heavy tasks. We've said it before and we'll say it again, if you compute for a living pushing pixels in 3D rendering, video encoding or other work-station level apps that will actually use the cores, it's well worth the cash outlay for a hexa-core part. Even better, the upgrade process to the new Ivy Bridge E should be fairly painless. Just make sure your board maker has released a BIOs with support for it and drop in the new part.  This has probably lead to you believe this new chip is really just Ivy Bridge Meh. We don't agree with that. Ivy Bridge-E is a solid part for what it is. It is simply the fastest consumer CPU out right now for thread-heavy tasks and gives Core i7-4770K a good run under more relaxing workloads. Reports of overclocking on Ivy Bridge-E from vendors are also fairly positive with most saying 4.5GHz should be capable by most of the chips out there.  We'll also note that we didn't have time to test the per-core overclocking ability which could be a very nice plus on the Ivy Bridge-E lineup. Per-core overclocking allows OS overclocking based on load. As the apps mature, you'll likely see the ability to set the processor to say, overclock to 4.9GHz when X game or Y app starts because you know the workload won't generate the thermals of your 3D rendering app or video encoder. While neat, this feature is also something that will appeal mostly to those coming to the platform or hexa-core parts. Existing Core i7-3930K, Core i7-3960X/70X users probably shouldn't pay just for this feature.  What should I buy? It very much depends on what you do. To help break it down, we'll give you three basic scenarios: The 90 percent gamer This person owns a PC primarily for gaming and really couldn't give two iPads about encoding or 3D rendering or other thread heavy tasks. For this person, Core i7-4770K or probably even better for those on tighter budgets, the LGA-1150 Core i5-4670K, makes a lot more sense. Sure, you'll get advice that you should "just buy" an LGA-1155 part because they overclock "better." We think that's bad advice because the LGA1155 platform is a deadman walking. LGA1150 will be the standard platform for the next two years and will receive all of the attention and updates. Still, LGA1150 and a Haswell chip is the best forward-looking platform for the 90 percent gamer who won't run more than, say, three GPUs in SLI or CrossFireX. Works for a living guy This person pushes pixels professionally and time is money. The faster a project can be rendered, encoded and sent out means more money in the bank. Sure, gaming is also important but work takes priority on this box. For this guy or gal, Core i7-4960X or Core i7-4930K is the best investment. As a plus, you'll get the most PCIe lanes for RAID adapters, multiple GPU configurations and other nifty stuff you need. Well, except for Thunderbolt. For some odd reason, there's still no ability to run Thunderbolt on an LGA2011 box without integrated graphics support. What's really confusing is that the people who would actually want to use super duper fast external I/O are actually on LGA2011 platforms running hexa-core or more CPUs.  LGA2011 is still the only consumer Intel platform that currently lets you hit 64GB which is also a plus if you truly need the RAM for your workloads. The Average Nerd The average nerd plays games and uses his or her PC for all things computing including editing video and photos including gaming. For this nerd, we're still recommending LGA1150. With it you get the six SATA 6 ports, the latest Intel chipset. Unless he or she is getting paid to do the work, a Core i7-4770K or Core i5-4670K makes more sense. How would we determine which way to break it? If encoding and 3D rendering is more important, pay for Hyper-Threading. It's well worth it. The only reason we could see for this person to go with LGA2011 is if he or she is building a box with the intention of getting a job crunching pixels all day where a hexa-core or more would make a difference. In that case, starting with a Core i7-4930K isn't a bad idea, but you need to be able to justify that you need those extra cores, more RAM or PCIe lanes. LGA2011 is also the only consumer platform that gives you the option of running 4/6/8 cores

Sony 's Vaio Flip is a New Take on Convertible Computing Posted: 04 Sep 2013 12:23 PM PDT Sony refreshes fall line of Vaio PCs Windows 8 helped sparked a generation of unique PC designs, the newest of which is Sony's Vaio Flip, one of several new Vaio units the company announced today. The Vaio Flip PC is a conventional notebook that "flips" into a tablet PC. That's been done before -- Lenovo's Yoga and Dell's XPS 12 immediately come to mind -- but the Flip also boasts a viewer mode that the others don't. Viewer mode is intended for someone sitting opposite to watch movies or videos, Sony says. Otherwise, it's similar to other convertibles in that it attempts to offer the best of both worlds. It's powered by Haswell, has optional Nvidia graphics, USB 3.0 support, and more. Sony also announced the Vaio Tap 11 billed as the world's thinnest Windows 8 tablet PC at just 0.39 inches thick, and Vaio Tap 21, a tabletop PC that can sit upright and function as a sleek and slim all-in-one. Pricing and availability of Sony's new Vaio's will be announced in early October. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Samsung Blitzes Press Event with Galaxy Gear Smart Watch, Galaxy Note 10.1, and Galaxy Note 3 Posted: 04 Sep 2013 11:36 AM PDT A Galaxy for every user Samsung's foray into phablet territory began with the release of the original Galaxy Note in 2011, a 5.3-inch device with a 1.4GHz or 1.5GHz dual-core processor (depending on territory). That journey into tweener territory continues today with the official launch of the Galaxy Note 3, the biggest and fastest Galaxy Note to date. Samsung also unveiled a new tablet (Galaxy Note 10.1) and smart watch (Galaxy Gear). Galaxy Note 3 More on the latter two in a moment. First, a look at the Galaxy Note 3, which gets a bump in screen size from 5.55 inches (Galaxy Note 2) to a 5.7-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display. Despite being bigger, it's slimmer than its predecessor at just 8.3mm, and also lighter, weighing in at 168g. Improvements in design run across the board. Not only does the Galaxy Note 3 have a bigger screen, slimmer profile, and lighter construction, it's also more powerful with a longer lasting battery to boot. It's equipped with a 2.3GHz quad-core or 1.9GHz "Octa Core" processor (depending on territory) and has a 3,200 mAh battery. Other features include 3GB of RAM, 32GB or 64GB of built-in storage, microSD slot with support for up to 64GB, 13MP rear-facing camera with autofocus and Smart Stabilization, 2MP front-facing camera (also with Smart Stabilization), 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0LE, NFC support, and various other odds and ends. It ships with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean (sorry Kit Kat fans). The Galaxy Note 3 will be available in the U.S. later this year on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and U.S. Cellular. Galaxy Note 10.1 Moving on, the Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) rocks a WQXGA Super Clear LCD display with a 2560x1600 resolution. It also wields a 1.9GHz Octa Core processor, 3GB RAM, 16/32/64GB of built-in storage, microSD slot, 8MP rear-facing camera, 2MP front-facing camera, USB 2.0 port, dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi, and more. "The new Galaxy Note 10.1 is the most progressive 10-inch tablet, delivering the best viewing and multitasking experiences. It is the most recent demonstration of Samsung Mobile's focus on constant product innovation to stay aligned with shifting consumer interests," said JK Shin, CEO and President of IT & Mobile Division at Samsung Electronics. "The Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) unites a range of features that will consistently surprise consumers as they realize how much easier and more enjoyable it makes their everyday lives." The display is the real high point here. It has four times the pixel density of the original Galaxy Note 10.1 and supports "Multi Window" mode. Look for the Galaxy Note 10.1 to launch sometime in Q3. Galaxy Gear Finally, Samsung just tossed its hat into the smart watch ring by announcing its Galaxy Gear, "a perfect companion device that further integrates the Samsung Galaxy experience into everyday life." The Galaxy Gear has a 1.63-inch Super AMOLED display with a 320x320 resolution. It also features an 800MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of internal memory, enough of a foundation to run low-level apps. There's a built-in speaker for making hands-free calls directly from the Gear, along with a built-in 1.9MP camera. The Galaxy Gear will launch with the Galaxy Note 3 on September 25. No word yet on price. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Android Smartphone Sales Slip in U.S. Market, Still Ahead of iOS Posted: 04 Sep 2013 09:30 AM PDT Android's lead over iOS is diminishing in the U.S. No matter where you pull your data from, it all points to Google's Android platform being the most popular mobile operating system on the planet, and usually by a wide margin. However, things get a little more interesting when you zone in on specific territories, including the United States where iOS appears to be quickly gaining ground on Android. The gap between the two is now less than 8 percent on smartphone devices, according to data derived from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech USA. In the three-month period ending in July, Android retained its lead in the U.S. smartphone market with a majority 51.1 share, though that's down 7.6 percent compared to the previous three-month period. Meanwhile, iOS jumped 7.8 percent to claim a 43.4 percent share of the U.S. smartphone market, effectively slashing the gap in half in a matter of months. Not a lot of movement was seen elsewhere. Microsoft's Windows Phone platform added half a percentage point to take third place with a 3.5 percent share, while BlackBerry dropped 0.7 percent for a 1.2 percent share of the market. It's also interesting to note the breakdown by carrier. On Verizon, Android and iOS are about evenly split at 49 percent and 48.5 percent, respectively, whereas iOS is more popular on AT&T at 63.5 percent versus 29.3 percent for Android. In both cases, iOS gained significant ground over the previous three-month period. Kantar Worldpanel ComTech USA Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Nvidia's Tegra 4 Platform Will Power Microsoft's Surface 2 Tablets Posted: 04 Sep 2013 08:30 AM PDT Surface returns with Tegra 4 in tow After the clusterhump surrounding Microsoft's Surface strategy that resulted in the Redmond outfit taking a $900 million charge on unsold inventory, you might not think Steve Ballmer and company would be all that eager to release a second generation slate. Not only is there strong evidence to support the notion that Surface 2 is coming, but there are even details on what hardware will be inside. First things first. Our comrades over at sister site TechRadar recently posted a roundup of Surface 2 news and rumors. The strongest hint yet that Microsoft will release another Surface can be found by looking at the company's job advertisements. There's also a leaked internal slide floating around the web that suggests a Surface 2 is in Microsoft's cards. What's more fuzzy than Microsoft's plans to release a Surface 2 are details about the form factor and hardware. However, Surface 2 just poked its head on GFXBench's results page, revealing that the RT version will be powered by an Nvidia Tegra 4 System-on-Chip (SoC). It also revealed that it will sport a 1371x771 resolution (or, more likely, 1366x768, same as the original Surface RT). One of the rumors out there is that Microsoft may shrink a version of Surface to 7 inches to battle against the Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD, and iPad mini, among other emerging contenders. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Patriot Beefs Up USB 3.0 Flash Drive Lines with 128GB Capacities Posted: 04 Sep 2013 07:52 AM PDT Little drives upgraded with big capacity This is turning out to be quite the week for fans of fast and capacious flash drives. Corsair yesterday announced a trio of high capacity USB 3.0 thumb drives, and moments ago we received an email from Patriot letting us know that it added three new 128GB USB 3.0 flash drives to its Supersonic family. These include the Supersonic Rage XT, Boost XT, and Pulse, all of which support the SuperSpeed spec. Built for performance, the Supersonic Rage XT offers up to 180MB/s read and up to 50MB/s write performance. It has a custom retractable USB housing and is coated in rubber to protect from drops, spills, and other hazards of everyday life. If 128GB is overkill, the Rage XT is also offered in 64GB and 32GB capacities. Patriot's 128GB Supersonic Boost XT offers similar performance with rated read and write speeds of up to 150MB/s and 30MB/s, respectively. The Boost XT also ships in a rubberized housing but is a bit more durable. Patriot says its Boost XT drives are water resistant and "provide the best protection from harsh elements." Other capacities include 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, and even 256GB. The last in the line to receive a 128GB makeover is the Supersonic Pulse. Billed as the most cost-effective choice among its family of USB 3.0 drives, Patriot rates the read and write speeds at up to 120MB/s and 20MB/s, respectively. Rather than rubber, the Supersonic Pulse features an all aluminum design. No word on when these drives will be available to purchase or for how much. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Newegg Daily Deals: Rosewill 1000W PSU, Intel Core i7 3770, and More! Posted: 04 Sep 2013 06:03 AM PDT Top Deal: Could you imagine Tim Allen building a PC with a puny power supply? It's just not in his DNA, and if you're a power user, it's not in yours, either. Go ahead and give a Tim Allen grunt as you check out today's top deal for a Rosewill Bronze Series 1000W PSU for $110 with free shipping (normally $130 - use coupon code COMPNTSEP17; additional $10 mail-in-rebate). It has plenty of juice for your high-end setup, is 80 Plus Bronze Certified, and sports a modular cable design. Other Deals: Intel Core i7-3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor for $275 with free shipping (normally $290 - use coupon code: [COMPNTSEP20]) Corsair 8GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM Laptop Memory Model for $52 with free shipping (normally $60 - use coupon code: [COMPNTSEP27]) Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard for $180 with free shipping (normally $190 - use coupon code: [COMPNTSEP21]) G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) Desktop Memory Model for $63 with free shipping (normally $69 - use coupon code: [COMPNTSEP25])

IFA 2013: Lenovo Ups Battery Life Ante with New ThinkPads Posted: 03 Sep 2013 10:15 PM PDT Power Bridge "hot swap" battery technology promises up to 17 hours of battery life The world's leading PC vendor today announced a quintet of new products under its ThinkPad brand at the ongoing IFA 2013 trade event in Berlin. These new X,T and S series products are all built around the latest-gen Intel Core processors, but that is not what makes them worthy of your attention. Three of the five ultrabooks announced today rely on Lenovo's Power Bridge "hot swap" battery technology to deliver up to 17 hours of battery life. The way this works is pretty simple. The ThinkPad X240, T440, and T440s each have an internal, non-removable 3-cell (23.5Wh) battery that can be supplemented with an external battery, and the best part of this whole approach is that when the external battery runs out of juice it is possible to swap it with another external battery without powering down the machine. Each of the three ultrabook ships with an external 3-cell battery, with 4-cell and 6-cell variants available separately. The T440 and T440s (pictured above) are both 14-inch ultrabooks that have a lot in common (as should be apparent from their names). According to the official press release, the two have 4th generation Intel Core processors, up to 1TB of storage, Wi-Fi and 4G WWAN. While the T440 will start at $899 and come with an HD+ display with optional touch, the T440s variant will be slightly more dearer with its $1149 starting price and offer users the option of a full HD touch-enabled display. With its 12.5-inch screen size and 20.3mm thick body, the X240 is the smallest of the lot. It will start at $1099 and feature up to 4th generation Intel Core i7 processors, up to 1TB of storage, up to 8GB of RAM, up to full HD display (touch optional), backlit keyboard and "the ability to go 'dongle free' with a complete set of ports for full connectivity." Last but not the least, the Chinese PC vendor has also announced a couple of S Series ultrabooks in the form of the 14-inch S440 and the 15-inch S540, which will start from €699 ($920) and €649 ($850), respectively. The two devices will  offer up to full HD anti-glare touch displays, discrete graphics, support for Lenovo's OneLink Dock, superfast USB 3.0, native video and Gigabit Ethernet. According to the company, the S440 will be available this month, with the rest of the lineup hitting the market in October. Follow Pulkit on Google+

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MMO Updates

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• Choose My Adventure: And the winner is...
• Dragon Eternity launches on Android, iPhone, and Facebook
• MMO Family: First impressions of Dreamworks' School of Dragons
• EQ Next's third round table response focuses on Landmark tools
• Exclusive: March of War heads for the jungle in Episode II Tropical Thunder
• Massively Speaking Episode 262: PAX Prime 2013
• The Daily Grind: Do you look down on players who game for free?
• PAX Prime 2013: Riot Games' Whalen Rhozelle on LoL Season 3
• Jukebox Heroes: World of Warcraft's Mosaic soundtrack
• Hyperspace Beacon: The final SWTOR free-to-play experiment... for now
• PAX Prime 2013: I played Smashmuck Champions and it was golden
• DCUO's Sons of Trigon DLC now available
• Diablo III launches on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• PAX Prime 2013: SMITE's graphical updates, 10v10 mode, and e-sports
• PAX Prime 2013: World of Tanks blitzes onto the 360
• Ran Online races toward European closed beta
• PAX Prime 2013: Adjusting butts in Elder Scrolls Online
• Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's living story and the Orrian menace
• Anarchy Online opens beta testing for new graphics engine

Choose My Adventure: And the winner is... Posted: 04 Sep 2013 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Polls, Game Mechanics, PvP, PvE, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Hands-On, Virtual Worlds, Choose My Adventure, Community Q&A, Sandbox Choose My Adventure is a funny column to write. At some point, you as the author know which game will likely win, but you also know that at some point everything can go wonky. I've seen games that seemed to be the sure thing get knocked off by a lone wolf or underdog. I like to poke the developers who are running the games that are in the polls in the hopes that they let their community know about the column and get the polls heating up. There's nothing like a good vote to get people excited about MMO games, and that's the way things should be. Even though I watched the poll go a few different ways, it was relatively obvious what title was going to pull it off. I started to prepare by updating the top titles and reading up on some of their systems. Choose My Adventure is not a light undertaking; it's a real adventure -- hopefully -- through an unfamiliar world. I knew I would need the community's help in deciphering the winner. And what a winner! Continue reading Choose My Adventure: And the winner is... Choose My Adventure: And the winner is... originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Sep 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Dragon Eternity launches on Android, iPhone, and Facebook Posted: 04 Sep 2013 09:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Trailers, Video, Launches, PvP, News Items, Free-to-Play, Browser, Mobile Always touted as a cross-platform MMO since its introduction at E3 2012, Dragon Eternity was initially only playable in browsers on the PC, moving to the iPad more recently. But we knew other platforms were also in development. As of today, the dragon-infused game becomes even more mobile, launching on the iPhone and Android devices as well as Facebook. Now users of a variety of different devices can jump into the world of Adan to obtain and train dragon pets and mounts, adventure, craft, and PvP. Watch the launch trailer right here after the break. Then if you want a more in-depth look at play on a mobile device, be sure to check out the hands-on in MMObility. [Source: Game Insight press release] Continue reading Dragon Eternity launches on Android, iPhone, and Facebook Dragon Eternity launches on Android, iPhone, and Facebook originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Sep 2013 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

MMO Family: First impressions of Dreamworks' School of Dragons Posted: 04 Sep 2013 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Opinion, Free-to-Play, First Impressions, Kids, MMO Family, Family Who knew that the rough, barren cliffs of Berk could be so popular? The animated film How to Train Your Dragon has blossomed into a hit TV show, two upcoming sequels, and even its very own MMO. The studio behind Jumpstart has teamed up with Dreamworks to create School of Dragons, a kid-friendly MMO that blends in viking adventure, lessons in science, and plenty of fire-breathing dragons. In this week's MMO Family, I donned my pointy viking helmet and heavy fur cloak to check things out. Read on for my first impressions of the game! Continue reading MMO Family: First impressions of Dreamworks' School of Dragons MMO Family: First impressions of Dreamworks' School of Dragons originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Sep 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

EQ Next's third round table response focuses on Landmark tools Posted: 04 Sep 2013 08:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Game Mechanics, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play, EverQuest Next, Crafting, Player-Generated Content Each week, EverQuest Next devs throw out a new question for players to weigh in on through voting and forum discussion. Then after gathering all the comments, devs put out a video to respond to the conversation. This past week's question focused on the desired complexity of EverQuest Landmark's design tools. Lead Building and UI designer Jake Sones and Senior Brand Manager Omeed Dariani got behind the camera to respond to player feedback. In a nutshell, players like powerful tools, but want them to be user-friendly. Complexity will come in the form of unlocking more advanced tools as a user becomes more skilled in using current ones. You can catch all the details in the clip after the cut. Continue reading EQ Next's third round table response focuses on Landmark tools EQ Next's third round table response focuses on Landmark tools originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Sep 2013 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Twitter

Exclusive: March of War heads for the jungle in Episode II Tropical Thunder Posted: 04 Sep 2013 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Historical, Trailers, Video, Patches, News Items, War, Miscellaneous March of War might be set in World War II, but it's an alternate version of the war that provides a different take on the conflict with six worldwide factions fighting a much more expansive battle for the globe. After the release in late July, the team behind the game has been hard at work developing the next piece of content for the game. Tomorrow, you can start playing the second episode, but today you can watch the trailer. In Tropical Thunder players head into the depths of South America to hunt down Che Guevara, leading to a large-scale conflict between both the United Republic and the Latin Junta as both factions seek the same man. And the jungle isn't exactly welcoming, with a variety of carnivorous plants and animals to complicate otherwise simple engagements. New units and new skins are available as well. Take a look at the trailer past the break for a better idea of what Guevara did and what both sides of the conflict will face in the jungle landscape. [Source: ISOTX press release] Continue reading Exclusive: March of War heads for the jungle in Episode II Tropical Thunder Exclusive: March of War heads for the jungle in Episode II Tropical Thunder originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Sep 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Massively Speaking Episode 262: PAX Prime 2013 Posted: 04 Sep 2013 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Podcasts, MMO Industry, News Items, Massively Meta, Massively Speaking, Miscellaneous The PAX Prime crew is home from another successful convention, and Justin has plenty of tales to tell Bree. Not that she's listening, of course. She's got mines to craft, and words just get in the way. Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to podcast@massively.com. We may just read your email on the air! Get the podcast: [RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. [iTunes] Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. [Stitcher] Follow the podcast on Stitcher Radio. Listen here on the page: Read below the cut for the full show notes. Continue reading Massively Speaking Episode 262: PAX Prime 2013 Massively Speaking Episode 262: PAX Prime 2013 originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Sep 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

The Daily Grind: Do you look down on players who game for free? Posted: 04 Sep 2013 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Business Models, Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous For some reason that escapes my attention, it seems like a lot of people have been talking about the pros and cons of subscription-only MMOs as of late. Maybe it's a passing fad, I don't know. But in reading the always-entertaining comments section of some random article, I noticed a distressing tendency for some pro-sub players to be slinging derogatory terms at others who don't like to pay for games, calling them "welfare gamers" and the like. I guess that means today I need to ask if these are the words of a few folks looking to discredit the opposition or if there's an actual undercurrent of dislike for F2P players who never spend a dime. Do you look down on players who game for free, and if so, why? 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: Do you look down on players who game for free? originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Sep 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

PAX Prime 2013: Riot Games' Whalen Rhozelle on LoL Season 3 Posted: 03 Sep 2013 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Events (Real-World), Interviews, MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, Events (Massively's Coverage), MOBA, League of Legends I was really excited to step into Riot's press room on Friday at PAX Prime. We had just finished the first series of matches of the day, and it was pretty exciting to talk to people about the matches yet to come. But I don't think anyone was more excited to talk about League of Legends' e-sports scene than Whalen Rhozelle, or RiotMagus as he's known on the internet. As the senior e-sports manager at Riot, he's tasked with making sure that events run smoothly, and I took the opportunity to ask him about the format for Season 3 -- especially improvements over Season 2 and the lessons Riot will be taking into Season 4. Continue reading PAX Prime 2013: Riot Games' Whalen Rhozelle on LoL Season 3 PAX Prime 2013: Riot Games' Whalen Rhozelle on LoL Season 3 originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 03 Sep 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Jukebox Heroes: World of Warcraft's Mosaic soundtrack Posted: 03 Sep 2013 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Opinion, Jukebox Heroes, Music If you were one of the lucky ducks who went to BlizzCon in 2009 and you were a soundtrack fan, then life smiled upon you. It was there and there only that Blizzard sold a now-rare World of Warcraft soundtrack called Mosaic. I guess "Mosaic" sounded better than "Leftovers," although that's really what it was: a collection of leftover tracks that hadn't been included in an official WoW soundtrack to date. The amazing thing is, Mosaic is quite good -- better, I think, than The Burning Crusade. I was pretty shocked to discover it a year or so ago, although I wasn't as shocked considering how much I've come to realize that studios just don't put out a lot of their game's music. So what we have here is a hodge-podge of 16 tracks ranging from the silly to the sublime. They might not be as famous as some of the featured tunes from the other soundtracks, but chances are that if you played WoW, you'll recognize them even so. Here are my picks for the best of the litter. Continue reading Jukebox Heroes: World of Warcraft's Mosaic soundtrack Jukebox Heroes: World of Warcraft's Mosaic soundtrack originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 03 Sep 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Hyperspace Beacon: The final SWTOR free-to-play experiment... for now Posted: 03 Sep 2013 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Business Models, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Hyperspace Beacon, MMORPG After several months of playing Star Wars: The Old Republic on a free account, I think it's time to put this experiment to a rest. Some players have been able to conquer the grind that is a brand-new free character. I am not one of those determined individuals. However, if you've been following me in this little experiment, then you know that I have met a couple of people who have been able to persist through the free-to-play version of SWTOR. For the sake of understanding, I would like to reiterate my hypothesis: A player can get what he wants out of SWTOR effectively without paying any real money but instead by using the GTN and other in-game means to buy items from the Cartel Market. But as we know with every experiment, the hypothesis gives the experimenter a goal. Right or wrong, I wanted to see the experiment to the end. As it turns out, my hypothesis was not completely right, nor was it completely wrong. I discovered that if I wanted to "win" at SWTOR's free-to-play, I could not approach it as I would a game that I bought off a store shelf and just started playing. Continue reading Hyperspace Beacon: The final SWTOR free-to-play experiment... for now Hyperspace Beacon: The final SWTOR free-to-play experiment... for now originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 03 Sep 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

PAX Prime 2013: I played Smashmuck Champions and it was golden Posted: 03 Sep 2013 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Events (Real-World), MMO Industry, New Titles, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Hands-On, Events (Massively's Coverage), MOBA There were some pretty great games at this year's PAX Prime, but if there's one new game I played that I couldn't wait to go home and install, it was Smashmuck Champions. Currently in open beta, the game features a MOBA-like control scheme combined with faster-paced arena action. The guys at the booth joked about how they hated the term MOBA, but there are few games that fit the term "multiplayer online battle arena" better than Smashmuck. Allen White, art director for the game, led me through the matches. He was a pretty big help, answering all of my questions while I stomped all over the other con-goers. Unlike the typical MOBA, Smashmuck has a low barrier of entry, a lot of game modes, and an easy learning curve, and it's just plain lots of fun. You're doing yourself a disservice by not installing the game right now. Continue reading PAX Prime 2013: I played Smashmuck Champions and it was golden PAX Prime 2013: I played Smashmuck Champions and it was golden originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 03 Sep 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

DCUO's Sons of Trigon DLC now available Posted: 03 Sep 2013 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, Trailers, Video, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Patches, PvP, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play, DC Universe Online, Dungeons It's launch day for DC Universe Online's eighth DLC pack! Sons of Trigon is out now, and it features a new power, new zones, new alerts and duos, new Legends PvP toons, and plenty of new gear. The new power set is called Celestial and it's made for healing. New zones include the Gotham Wasteland and its daily solo quests as well as the Mausoleum alert that boasts a battle royale with Trigon. Cheetah and Donna Troy are your new Legends PvP avatars, and SOE has also included a bunch of additional feats and collections. Legendary DCUO members get Sons of Trigon for free, while Premium and Free members can purchase it for $9.99 via the in-game market, the official website, or the PlayStation Network. Don't forget the launch trailer after the break! [Source: SOE press release] Continue reading DCUO's Sons of Trigon DLC now available DCUO's Sons of Trigon DLC now available originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 03 Sep 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Diablo III launches on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 Posted: 03 Sep 2013 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Launches, News Items, Consoles, Diablo III With the game's first expansion already announced, you might be looking for a chance to play Diablo III in a different way. Does sitting around a television with your friends count? Because you can do that starting today, as the console version launches today on the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. (It probably wouldn't fit well with the Wii U's catalogue anyway.) Now you can slay demons right alongside your friends in both body and spirit. Of course you can also play online, as with the PC version, or just go it alone as you rip through demon hordes. The game boasts a redesigned interface meant to take full advantage of the controller setup while still boasting all of the same content. So it might not tide you over if you've played through Diablo III multiple times, but if you'd like a refresher before the first expansion or just prefer the idea of a console experience, you can have that now. Diablo III launches on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 03 Sep 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Console version launches

PAX Prime 2013: SMITE's graphical updates, 10v10 mode, and e-sports Posted: 03 Sep 2013 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Events (Real-World), Interviews, MMO Industry, Patches, News Items, Free-to-Play, Events (Massively's Coverage), MOBA I found myself in unfamiliar waters as I waded into the Twitch booth at this year's PAX Prime. All around me were gamers -- but not just any gamers. These guys were wearing jerseys with sponsorship logos and carrying custom gaming mice and headsets. These guys were pro gamers, and they were there to play SMITE. I had a different agenda, so I tracked down Hi-Rez chief operating officer Todd Harris to talk about upcoming changes to the game. He admitted to me that his team isn't doing a lot of big changes, but that is largely due to the game's continuing success. He did have a few things to show me, though. Continue reading PAX Prime 2013: SMITE's graphical updates, 10v10 mode, and e-sports PAX Prime 2013: SMITE's graphical updates, 10v10 mode, and e-sports originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 03 Sep 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

PAX Prime 2013: World of Tanks blitzes onto the 360 Posted: 03 Sep 2013 12:30 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Historical, Events (Real-World), Interviews, MMO Industry, Free-to-Play, Hands-On, Consoles, MMOFPS, Events (Massively's Coverage), World of Tanks, World of Warplanes While there was definitely some buzz at the PAX Prime Wargaming booth about World of Warplanes, which will get its commercial launch on September 26th, World of Tanks was the main source. Not only is Wargaming planning to integrate accounts for both Tanks and Warplanes, but it also has the XBox 360 version of World of Tanks in closed beta. I sat down with some of the Wargaming guys and attempted to play the new 360 version. I struggled a bit with the console controls, but that had more to do with a lack of familiarity than anything else. As I played, we discussed how Wargaming has rebuilt WoT from the ground up for the console market. Continue reading PAX Prime 2013: World of Tanks blitzes onto the 360 PAX Prime 2013: World of Tanks blitzes onto the 360 originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 03 Sep 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Ran Online races toward European closed beta Posted: 03 Sep 2013 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Trailers, Video, MMO Industry, PvP, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play In June we learned that after an eight year run in Asia, the modern-era game Ran Online would be expanding to Europe. Now, Games-Masters.com announces that the closed beta testing for this European version will start Q3 2013. Ran Online includes PvP and PvE content, with dungeons, quests, and various PvP modes for club (guild) and school (faction) battles. The game itself will be in English at launch, but the website, payment systems, and support will be handled in several languages. Those interested in participating in the closed beta can sign up on the official site. If you missed the European trailer before, we've included it after the break. [Source: Games-Masters.com press release] Continue reading Ran Online races toward European closed beta Ran Online races toward European closed beta originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 03 Sep 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

PAX Prime 2013: Adjusting butts in Elder Scrolls Online Posted: 03 Sep 2013 11:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Business Models, Events (Real-World), Game Mechanics, Previews, PvE, Opinion, Hands-On, Events (Massively's Coverage), Subscription, MMORPG After my hands-on demo at E3, I was cautiously optimistic about sitting down for another hour of Elder Scrolls Online at this year's PAX Prime. I was ushered into the press demo area and immediately dived into character creation. There were significantly more options available here than during my last demo just a few months ago. Among the additions was a feature I'm sure you've been waiting for: the "posterior dimensions" slider. Beyond butts, the variety of the options Bethesda brought to PAX Prime was pretty impressive. I spent more time in character creation than I expected, even customizing my stomach size. After I decided on the appropriate butt girth, I loaded into the snowy, nordic area of Bleakrock Isle and immediately spent a solid 10 minutes exploring my option menus. Continue reading PAX Prime 2013: Adjusting butts in Elder Scrolls Online PAX Prime 2013: Adjusting butts in Elder Scrolls Online originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 03 Sep 2013 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's living story and the Orrian menace Posted: 03 Sep 2013 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lore, Opinion, Guild Wars 2, Flameseeker Chronicles, Buy-to-Play The cleansing of Orr has long been a popular source of speculation in the community, which is why I asked Colin Johanson about the possibility of it happening in the course of Guild Wars 2's living story when I interviewed him in July. Although I understood his reasoning, I was still disappointed by the answer: that it'd be very difficult to change Orr due to its intersection with the personal story but that in future chapters ArenaNet will do its best to make sure no areas end up locked in time. In a recent Q&A session, our own Richie Procopio asked ArenaNet president Mike O'Brien a similar question and got a somewhat different response. According to O'Brien, the studio's original intent was to steer away from content that could impact the personal story in the interest of simplicity; however, ArenaNet wants to make sure that nothing is off limits to the living story overall. I'm trying not to read too much into that, since it could just be a different way of phrasing what Johanson said, but given a little hope to cling to I'd like to discuss why it's so important that ArenaNet not establish any existing content as off-limits -- especially not Orr. Continue reading Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's living story and the Orrian menace Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's living story and the Orrian menace originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 03 Sep 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Anarchy Online opens beta testing for new graphics engine Posted: 03 Sep 2013 10:30 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, Anarchy Online, Patches, News Items, Free-to-Play A new graphical engine can make an old game feel new again. Anarchy Online has had a new engine in the works for what feels like forever now, with one delay or another pushing back implementation repeatedly. But fans of the game can rejoice, as the end is in sight -- the new graphical engine is open for beta testing, with all of the same content as the existing game and a much prettier way to look at it. The team at Funcom is starting in closed beta, with players asked to create new characters rather than copy over existing ones to test out the included new player experience. Those interested in testing will need to sign up, with invitations coming in waves until the NDA is dropped and open testing is put into place. And there are some improvements to social items and the like, but what most players are going to be focusing on is the facelift. [Thanks to zendadaist for the tip!] Anarchy Online opens beta testing for new graphics engine originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 03 Sep 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Graphics upgrade in beta testing

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